Chapter 011

The Lady Tasting Tea ④ (Unabara Sorano)

Update Time: 2011-OCT-29 12:06:04

The time now flows in March. In this spring that will soon become a memory, Sorano finishes her Friday.

Starting from Monday, Sorano has not been home or contacted her family for a full five days. However, do not misunderstand her as the kind of girl who runs away from home.

In fact, the only place she has been to in the past five days is Tokiwadai Middle School. To avoid any interference, she has been living in a temporary dormitory in the School Garden, completely isolated from the outside world. She even handed her phone over to her teacher. This is because she is participating in an important entrance exam.

Today is the last day of the entrance exam. Just an hour ago, she completed the the last part of the exam.

The exam was extremely special, with only one person taking a written test alone. The subjects of the exam were ten physics and two mathematics. For a girl of her age, just participating in this type of exam would be nerve-wracking. However, Sorano has naturally passed the last day of the exam. This is not because she has exceptional mental toughness, but because she has a small secret. (From an exam perspective, it may be somewhat unfair. However, there is no way to evaluate these inexplicable things.)

Although her mentality did not affect the exam process, Sorano's mood is not very good. When she received the test paper, she found that her way of preparing for the exam was a bit problematic. Although the results have not yet been announced, she feels that the exam results did not meet her original expectations, which makes her quite dissatisfied.

While Sorano is packing her things in the dormitory, a staff member from Tokiwadai stops her. This surprises her because she heard that students should not stay in the School Garden after completing all exams until the results are announced, which is for security reasons.

"Unabara-san, please go to Tokiwadai again. There is another test to complete."

"Now?"

"Yes, we forgot to inform you earlier. There is another ability test. Although it does not have to be completed today, if you miss it, you will have to wait until at least next Monday. It's troublesome to reapply for entry and exit permits."

Sorano is a bit confused. Today is not a public testing day, so it must be a test by the school itself. The results of ability tests from prestigious schools like Tokiwadai even have authority and can be directly logged into the official library.

However, generally speaking, these types of ability tests by the school itself are conducted after the student list has been confirmed at the beginning of the school year. Even if time is not considered, she is not a Tokiwadai student yet.

Although she is full of doubts, Sorano still goes with the staff to the testing site set up on the Tokiwadai playground.

The ground of the playground is covered with special optical fibers that can display the required graphics. The sandbag with light signal indicators that her brother used during training is based on the same principle — more precisely, it is the civilian version of the technology used on this playground now. The cubes of various sizes and weights placed on the ground are obviously the core equipment of the test.

"Unabara-san, your ability is Gravity Control at Level 3, right? Can you show us the way you think best reflects this ability?"

The testing staff present are exceptionally polite, probably because they know she is the chairman's granddaughter. Sorano doesn't like this at all. Of course, she is not so nerveless as to express her feelings directly in front of many staff members present, who are even less worldly-wise than her.

The so-called Gravity Control, just by hearing the name, one can know what kind of ability it is. Sorano has already mastered this ability. However, in the process of preparing for this exam, she discovered the truth hidden behind the manifestation of her Gravity Control ability.

Sorano opens her arms as if she is going to embrace something. This action puzzles everyone present. But then, all the testing staff are stunned.

This is because Sorano has thrown herself into the boundless blue sky.

If the level of Gravity Control is high enough, it is not impossible to float oneself, but Sorano is not doing that.

She flips her body, changes direction at will, and flies freely in the sky without any constraints.

Yes, she is not floating, but flying.

"The AIM diffusion field value is increasing, changes in the gravitational field is detected, and correction is begun."

"The value correction is complete, the curvature change is confirmed, and the redshift value is measured..."

On the ground, the testing staff are busy. The instrument has clearly told them that the information they had before was not correct. At least, it was not comprehensive.

Yes, Sorano's ability is not just about controlling gravity, but rather a deeper level of dominion over gravitation. Controlling gravity is just one manifestation of her true ability.

This is the truth she accidentally discovered during a learning process. But once she carefully thought about it, it seemed to be reasonable. After all, gravity itself is a component of the gravitational force. It was just a blind spot in her thinking that prevented her from realizing this before.

Sorano really likes flying. After accidently discovering the essence of her ability, she occasionally tries to fly. At first, she didn't notice anything, but when being in the sky became a controllable norm, she found that she had been caught by the sky. Therefore, when the testing personnel asked her to show the way that best reflects her ability, she chose flying without hesitation.

Since ancient times, flying has been one of humanity's greatest dreams. Because what stands in the way of humanity's dream of flying is the earth on which we rely for survival.

Gravitation is a characteristic brought about by a planet's mass. So in some ways, isn't flying equivalent to being an enemy of this world?

Let's not consider these philosophical topics with too much weight for now. Even in Academy City, which is famous for developing superpowers, unrestricted flying ability is quite rare. This is because, fundamentally, controlling gravitation is almost impossible. Although it is possible to resist gravitation through means such as thrust and lift, the nature of gravitation as a manifestation of mass remains constant.

Therefore, when the testing staff present discover that Sorano's way of flying was actually manipulating gravitation, everyone realizes the value of this girl.

"Hey! Look over there! What's that?"

The students on the ground are shouting.

The figure freely flying in the sky naturally attracts the envy of countless students.

Not liking to be noticed in this way, Sorano begins to descend, but there are already many people gathering on the playground.

"Is this enough?"

She realizes that more and more people are gathering around, and she tries to end the test as quickly as possible. It is at this moment that the synthesized electronic sound rings.

"Comprehensive evaluation, Level 4."

Unlike the usual scoring methods, there are no fixed indicators for evaluating Gravitation Manipulation ability. The current testing method only evaluates the specific details of curvature changes through equivalent conversion. However, there is no right or wrong issue, and everything has detailed controllable numerical values. If specific test data and evaluation formulas are needed, they can even be requested for self-calculation.

"Congratulations, Unabara-san. Please wait a moment while we update your ID information."

"Really? Thank you," Sorano says shortly but politely.

From Level 3 to Level 4, it feels like nothing has happened. Sorano doesn't know what it's like for others when they level up, but at least she just suddenly seems to understand something.

To be honest, she is a bit puzzled about this. Although it can be explained in physics, and it is even more flawless in mathematics.

Simply swiping the ID card at the login point inputs the new data into the Bank. From this moment on, the scholarship amount will also be calculated according to the new standards.

But in fact, there is one thing that Sorano doesn't know, which is that at the same time, all information platforms in Tokiwadai have synchronized her data. And all connected teacher computers have received notifications.

This is a special function of the Tokiwadai teacher information platform. Whenever a student's ability improves, teachers will be notified in real-time so that they can modify the developing courses according to specific situations.

There is still one element that is difficult to understand, which is why Sorano appears on the student list. At least for now, she is not a student of Tokiwadai.

On the teacher platform, Tokiwadai teachers are also discussing this new message. And the Russian man typing on his computer and arguing with other teachers as part of his routine work is thinking about a question.

Actually, when he received the notification message, he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.

Not because of Sorano's ability level improvement — in his opinion, that was a matter of course — but because of the nature of the ability tested.

As someone who knows some information, not like Sorano who knows nothing about it, he doesn't think that her ability is so obvious.

The abilities of gravity type are not rare, but gravitation is a completely different matter. In fact, whether there really are espers of gravitation type in Academy City is probably a quite difficult question to explain.

As an authority on gravitation theory, he believes that a true esper of gravitation type should be able to measure two phenomena during the ability test: 1. Must be able to cause time dilation. 2. Must be able to produce a lens effect.

This is not a nitpicking requirement, but a necessary manifestation determined by the essence of gravitation. Without these two manifestations, how can it be a gravitation-related ability?

In some ways, compared with espers who operate similar to gravity, perhaps espers who move in space are closer to the essence of gravitation.

This is not surprising. Since Hermann Minkowski unified space and time into spacetime, and Albert Einstein curved spacetime into gravitation, these mentor and apprentice with a bad relationship have linked gravitation with spacetime.

Before Sorano, no esper who manipulated similar to gravitation had ever shown the phenomenon of time dilation in ability tests. Therefore, the Russian man believes that it is not really manipulating gravitation. Many times he even wonders if the gravitation described by general relativity is incompatible with the superpowers explained by quantum mechanics. After all, in some ways, general relativity and quantum field theory can also be considered as "enemies" in some sense.

However, this record is officially declared over today. In Sorano's test report, a value appears — the redshift value.

In a gravitational field, an object is affected by gravitation, causing its frequency to lengthen and its energy to decrease, which is the redshift. One of its most direct manifestations is that time slows down. In other words, gravitation causes time dilation.

Although such a situation has been envisaged, it has never been thought that it would be achieved by Sorano. It is not that there is any deep reason, but it is indeed difficult for him to imagine that there would be such a coincidence — he himself is an expert in gravitation theory, and his student's ability happens to be found to manipulate gravity, although when Sorano became his student, she had not yet shown any ability related to gravitation. What is the probability of such a coincidence?

He has a bad temper, but his mind has always been outstanding. If he had never doubted this, it would obviously be self-deception. Although he himself is unwilling to admit it, this student does indeed have too many situations that are difficult to explain with common sense, as her father (who is also his junior) said.

"However, in any case, even if there are really any secrets, they have nothing to do with her herself."

This is the only thing he can assert.

Endnote by the uploader:

About Minkowski and Einstein:

Few people know that the mathematical tools of Einstein's general relativity come from Minkowski's work. In fact, Minkowski spacetime is the fundamental basis of Einstein's general relativity. But even fewer people know that this mentor and apprentice are almost completely out of sync — even if Minkowski spacetime was inspired by Einstein's special relativity, and the mathematical tools of general relativity come from Minkowski spacetime.

As early as ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) days, Minkowski had called Einstein a "lazy dog". Einstein also mocked Minkowski after Minkowski discovered Minkowski spacetime, "Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself any more." (Arnold Sommerfeld, "To Albert Einstein's Seventieth Birthday", in Einstein, 1949, in Schilpp, 1949, pp. 99-105; p. 102.)

Minkowski also has a small story related to the four-color theorem, which you can search for. In fact, I personally doubt whether the student who openly embarrassed his teacher is our classmate Einstein — he has every motive to do so.

Endnote by the translator:

Regarding the little story mentioned by the uploader, the version I know goes like this:

Before a topology lecture, as soon as Minkowski walked into the classroom, he received a note from a student that read, "If you color countries on a map that have a common border with different colors, only four colors are needed. Can you explain the reason behind it?"

Minkowski announced to the students, "This problem is called the four-color problem. It has not yet been proved, but that is because only mathematicians of the third rank have occupied themselves with it. I believe I can prove it." He then picked up a chalk and demonstrated on the blackboard on the spot. However, he didn't finish the proof until the end of the class and continued to try to prove it in the next class.

So Minkowski hung up the blackboard for several days in a row. Until one gloomy morning, he just walked into the classroom and heard thunder, it turned out to be lightning flashing across the sky. He seriously self-deprecatingly said, "Heaven is angered at my arrogance. My proof is also defective."

However, I don't think the student who passed the note to Minkowski was Einstein, because he never came to class, which is why he was called a "lazy dog". The final proof of the four-color theorem was completed by American mathematicians Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken with the help of computers in 1976.