Chapter 015

The Lady Tasting Tea ⑧ (Unabara Sorano)

Update Time: 2011-NOV-11 11:08:53

At the entrance of the Tokiwadai interior dormitory, Sorano is stopped by the housemaster.

She expected this because her heterochromatic eyes can be misunderstood, but she didn't expect the housemaster to be so strict as to check if she is wearing colored contact lenses even after explaining.

The school rules at Tokiwadai are known to be very strict, and it seems to be true.

Although it's not explicitly stated, new students at Tokiwadai usually go to their dorms to tidy up after the entrance ceremony. Sorano arrived much later than most students because she spent too much time on the registration for the student assistant position. The housemaster probably thinks she's the type who doesn't follow the rules. It's not easy to change this impression, as the housemaster seems difficult to deal with.

It's said that the housemaster of the exterior dormitory at Tokiwadai is even more difficult to deal with, making Sorano feel sorry for the students in that dormitory.[1]

However, speaking of which, when hearing Sorano's surname, the housemaster should have already known that she is the granddaughter of the chairman of Tokiwadai. Even with this premise, the housemaster still treats her equally and fairly without any leniency, which Sorano quite likes.

Speaking of Tokiwadai's dormitories, there are some topics to discuss. There are two dormitories at Tokiwadai, one inside the School Garden and the other outside. Although both have a European retro design, some parts of the decoration of the exterior dormitory were entrusted to outside companies, resulting in some misunderstanding and a nouveau riche feeling. In comparison, the interior dormitory has a stronger European style.

Another difference between the two is that each room in the interior dormitory has a different design for the room number on the door, from color to font and even various details.

Sorano's room is the eighth room on the third floor of the interior dormitory, with the number "308" on the door, made of artificial quartz in golden green and dark purple, which happens to be the same color as Sorano's eyes.[2] It's deliberately designed to look twisted and broken, like a shattered gem. Sorano doesn't know if someone played a prank, but an "=" sign is drawn in the middle of the number "0". And there are curved arrows, one clockwise with the word "Practicus" and the other counterclockwise with the word "Magister Templi", drawn along the arc of the number "0" above and below the "=" sign.[3] Maybe because it's embedded in the door pattern, it's not easy to notice unless people look closely. Sorano probably wouldn't have noticed it if the number wasn't the same color as her eyes.

Due to the extremely strict admission mechanism of Tokiwadai, the number of students has always been kept at around 200, so the dormitory rooms are always quite spacious, and some students are able to be assigned a single room.

However, Sorano has a roommate.

Having never lived alone with another girl before, Sorano is still somewhat unaccustomed. She stands in front of her room, thinking about how to interact with her roommate.

Just then, the door suddenly opens from the inside.

The girl standing behind the door is not planning to go out, but just bows to Sorano as if she had known about Sorano's arrival.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Hoshikawa Miyu. Are you my roommate? Please take care of me."

"Ah, nice to meet you too. I'm Unabara Sorano."

Sorano also bows to her.

The girl named Hoshikawa Miyu looks up, then immediately stops all movements and stares at Sorano for a long time.

"So beautiful..."

Her words are spoken softly, as if she knows something about Sorano, but has never really seen her before.

This pretty girl has slightly shoulder-length black hair and looks quite polite, fitting the impression that outsiders have of Tokiwadai students. Today, Sorano has met many types of girls, and Miyu is not a particularly distinctive type among them. But her eyes, which are too clear and bright, are very eye-catching. After the golden-haired girl with cross-star-shaped pupils that Sorano saw in the morning, Miyu is another girl whose eyes leave a deep impression on her.

"Excuse me, have we met before?"

Sorano expresses her confusion.

"No, we haven't. That's just because of my ability. My ability is..."

Miyu quickly shakes her head, and her flustered denial is unexpectedly cute.

"Wait a minute, can we talk in the room?"

"Uh, of course... Oh, sorry!"

It seems that sometimes this girl seems a bit unhinged.

Although it is normal to talk in the room, after Sorano puts down her luggage, she feels that it may have been a wrong choice.

Because neither of them is the type to initiate conversations with others. So after Sorano arranges everything, the two of them find themselves not knowing how to talk to each other, or even what topics to start with. This somewhat awkward silence lasts for quite some time.

This scene seems unexpectedly familiar.

"Um... Miyu-san, can I call you by your given name?"

Sorting out her thoughts, Sorano finds a relatively normal way to start the conversation. She thinks that if she doesn't find a way to break this silence, both of them might sit here all day without saying anything.

"Of course... can I call you by your given name too?"

"Uh, sure," Sorano smiles gently at her. She realizes that this conversation still has the possibility of interruption, so she continues to try to continue the topic. "Miyu-san, you just said it's because of your ability. I'm curious, what does that mean? Why do you seem to know that I've arrived? Is it Clairvoyance? Ah, if you don't want to say, it's okay."

"No, it's not like that..." Miyu blushes a bit, "Actually, my ability... I don't really understand it myself. But it's definitely not Clairvoyance."

"Is it a complex concept?"

"It's not too complicated, but not easy to explain. It belongs to the perception type, and is at Level 3. But it seems different from the ability to perceive the current situation through existing information," Miyu thinks for a while, seeming to hesitate how to describe it, "Simply put, I can perceive the condition of some things or objects, and sometimes even predict how they will develop or what they will look like in the future. However, there are some difficult-to-understand restrictions. If I perceive that something is going to happen, I cannot continue to perceive what will happen after the event occurs. Similarly, if I perceive the condition of an object, I cannot expand the scope of perception, and can only be limited to that object. Any attempt to extend or expand will make me lose the information that I have already perceived. Just now, I sensed that someone was coming, but I didn't know anything else. Actually, this ability is not very useful... huh?"[4]

Explaining her ability has always been a troublesome task for Miyu. Not only is it difficult for her to describe accurately, even researchers find it hard to understand. However, to Miyu's surprise, the gentle and stunning girl in front of her, is listening to her description with a focused and thoughtful expression. She has a unique charm that is so captivating that even Miyu, who is also a girl, is amazed by her. Miyu is staring at her intently, and she doesn't even have the thought of calling out to her.

"Miyu-san, may I ask you a bold question? If you foresee something in the future, can you intentionally change it? For example, if you sense that a cup is going to be broken, can you prevent it from happening?"

Suddenly, Sorano speaks up and asks, causing Miyu to pause and start recalling as she was lost in thought.

"Yes, I can. I have done it several times."

"I see. I think I understand your ability now," Sorano nods, "Have you ever considered the projection of event dimensions in the Hilbert space?"

"What is that?"

"That's it. The projection in the multidimensional Hilbert space and the degradation of coherence. Let me show you," Sorano takes out a piece of paper and draws a multidimensional Hilbert space on it, "It's different from the real physical space, and the dimensions are not like length, width, and height in physics. It's mathematical and represents only one event, one object — for example, a particle — and doesn't include anything else. You see, if you only consider this and use sufficiently few dimensions, a projection in other dimensions can be produced. In plane geometry, if you draw two lines at random, unless it's a special case like perpendicular, there will definitely be a projection. The essence of your perceptual ability should be the perception of this type of projection of event dimensions. Ordinary people can't feel it because the degrees of freedom in the natural environment are large, and it actually plays a measuring role. But if you make more specific measurements, you have to bring in a larger system, actually introducing more dimensions, and the probability of projection will become very small due to the increase in dimensions and the increase in orthogonal probability, which is the disappearance of coherence caused by the external environment. This limitation also applies to you. When you try to perceive more, you actually cause coherence to disappear. Drawing a picture like this makes it clearer. As long as you add a few more dimensions like this, the probability of perpendicularity will increase, and perpendicularity will not produce a projection. Your ability should be essentially this, and the way to test it is mainly to measure the phenomena caused by the ability. But measurement itself brings in more interaction and introduces more dimensions, so this part is easy to be overlooked..."[5]

This topic lasts for an hour until Sorano realizes that her roommate can't keep up with her pace. She finds herself being too talkative, which is unusual since it's not common for people to explain math to a person they just met.

She hasn't figured out what's wrong with her when she hears her roommate's timid voice.

"Um... Sorano-san, are you good at math?"

"Ah... if it's just math and physics, I'm somewhat confident..."

"Um... if it's okay, can you teach me?"

"Huh? Of course."

Did she overdo it earlier? Is it really necessary to hesitate when exchanging homework with a roommate?

Sorano smiles lightly. Her roommate is really like...

Her smile freezes.

What is it? This scene is quite familiar.

Sorano rarely engages in long conversations with others unless they are close to her. So, in the eyes of others, she is somewhat introverted. Then why is she talking so much to someone she just met?

She knows the reason. It's because Miyu's personality is somewhat similar to someone Sorano is familiar with. A friend that has already been lost contact with.

Character Card: Hoshikawa Miyu

Character Setting Draft (Incompleted)

Name: Hoshikawa Miyu[6]

Age: 14 (13 in this chapter)

Height: 149 cm[7]

Weight: 42 kg

Blood Type: O

Ability: Event Perception (The official classification is "Multidimensional Hilbert Space Projection Effect", abbreviated as "HSPE".)

Level: 4 (3 in this chapter)

School: Tokiwadai Private Middle School

Grade: 2nd year (1st year in this chapter)

Residence: Room 308 of the Tokiwadai Interior Dormitory in the 7th District (inside the School Garden)

Place of Birth: Chiba Prefecture

Introduction:

·She is the daughter of a prestigious family in the jewelry and accessories industry. She is not the heir because she has an elder brother and an elder sister, and she is the third among the four siblings. Her elder brother is already working hard to inherit the family business, and her sister is a famous jewelry designer working in their own company, so her position is relatively easy. She also has a younger brother who is in elementary school.

·She is shy and timid, and easily gets embarrassed. She doesn't like noisy sports and is passionate about quiet sports. She is an astronomy enthusiast who loves stargazing.

·She is very good at chess games, especially Go, and her Go skills are outstanding. However, she is prohibited from participating in any official chess competitions because of her ability (as no one can know if she is using her ability to cheat by predicting moves). In addition to her studies, she coaches chess and Go to accumulate social experience.

·Her ability is very rare, to the point that someone from Kirigaoka Girls' Academy comes to her in her second year to discuss high school choices.

·She is excellent in natural sciences, especially in math, ranking in the top three at Tokiwadai (with Sorano being number one). She is also good in liberal arts, but not as outstanding as in natural sciences.

[1] Comment by the translator: I feel a chill on the back of my neck! Luckily, my neck isn't broken and my head is still on my neck.

[2] Footnote by the author: Sorano thinks that this may have been deliberately arranged by one of the teachers who saw her in the morning. After all, having dealt with teachers from Tokiwadai for a long time, she has discovered that they can be quite mischievous at times.

[3] Footnote by the translator: I feel like there's a bug in this description — if the arrow at the top is clockwise and the arrow at the bottom is counterclockwise, then both arrows are from left to right.

[4] Footnote by the author: The prototype of Hoshikawa Miyu is the girl who uses her ability to read Zener cards in Episode 01 of the "A Certain Scientific Railgun" anime. By the way, that test is not a clairvoyance test, but a perception test. This test actually exists in reality and has spawned many magic performances. Liu Qian has performed almost the same magic trick before.

[5] Footnote by the author: Originally, my friend "Pesticide" explained these things directly using mathematical expressions. However, he ended up using a lot of terms such as vector projection, orthogonal systems, and linear subspaces. I stopped him and asked him to explain it in a way that others could understand as much as possible. After listening to him several times, I put together the above paragraph. Due to issues with understanding, it may not be very rigorous.

[6] Footnote by the translator: Her surname "Hoshikawa" literally means "starry river", written as "星川" in Japanese Kanji, or "ほしかわ" in Hiragana. And her given name "Miyu" literally means "not exist yet", written as "未有" in Japanese Kanji, or "みゆ" in Hiragana.

[7] Footnote by the translator: Originally 158 cm, but later set to 149 cm.