"!?"
Having just finished talking with Finn and the others, Loki suddenly snapped her gaze toward the doorway.
What's this? Why does it feel like there's a dangerous creature over there? Loki's brows knit tight. On pure instinct, she sensed something watching her—something that could pose a real threat.
What is it? Something that can hide right under my nose? The more she thought, the grimmer her face became.
The next second, a translucent barrier bloomed in the room, and inside it appeared a snow-white rabbit.
"…A monster Tsunayoshi made?"
Loki stared, a little dumbfounded—especially when the rabbit gave a very polite bow, which only confirmed her guess.
"So it really is the rabbit Tsunayoshi just created."
She walked over and picked the rabbit up. It felt soft and fluffy in her hands; Loki actually had a soft spot for little animals like this.
"So, are you testing your ability?"
The little rabbit nodded.
"But how did your test end up in Finn's office?"
The rabbit clapped its tiny paws. A translucent barrier opened in front of them, and the portion of Finn's desk that had been sliced out and banished to another dimension reappeared. This time, the barrier didn't vanish at once, and the rabbit pointed at it.
"You're saying you tracked it through that other dimension?"
Loki's comprehension was razor-sharp. From the rabbit's motions and pantomime, she pieced together what Sawada Tsunayoshi had been testing.
So that feeling of being watched came from another dimension? Loki felt she'd stumbled onto something big. She hugged the rabbit and hurried out, calling over her shoulder without looking back:
"I'm going to confirm this with Tsunayoshi. Finn, carry on here."
Clutching the rabbit, Loki dashed down the corridor, making straight for Tsunayoshi's room as fast as she could.
She reached the door and—
Bang!
Loki flung it open, breathing hard with audible huffs.
Seeing Tsunayoshi still a bit dazed inside, Loki quickly shut the door and rushed up to him.
"Tsunayoshi, you're telling me you entered another dimension through the rabbit? Then you controlled the rabbit and ran it over to that office?"
"Mm. Yeah. I was testing the limits of my ability, like the captain of the guards suggested—seeing if I could 'fix' a monster I created."
"So you used the rabbit that can banish things to another dimension?"
"I was just very interested in the ability I'd made—the one that can exile people and objects to an extra-dimensional space. Considering we might later face beings we can't handle, I wondered if I could make that monster's ability permanent."
"Only… something unexpected happened during the test."
Tsunayoshi wasn't even sure how to articulate what he'd found.
"The other dimension really exists. Just like your rabbit can send people and things into it, you noticed that other dimension—and it's almost identical to the world."
Loki laid it out bluntly, and Tsunayoshi didn't refute her deduction.
Wait—identical to the world? Tsunayoshi seized on the key phrase.
"You didn't mishear. It's identical to the world."
"Think about it. You created the rabbit to banish Silence and Gluttony to another dimension. You accounted for not being able to beat them, and for Silence's magic-nullification. So you created a 'another dimension' that even Silence would have to fear for its own safety."
"Of course, that isn't a world. It's the extra-dimensional space you intended to make. It's just that the part of that space you wished for ended up completely identical to a part of the world."
Loki stressed the nature of that dimension.
"The major cause is probably your imagination."
She paused.
"Whether your imagination can actually create a world is another question. But your imagination has already constructed an extra-dimensional space capable of confining people. Within the limits of that space, you might be able to do more."
An extra-dimension shaped by the limits of imagination? Calming down, Tsunayoshi began to summarize Loki's analysis. Perhaps it really was his imagination that had molded such a reality-adjacent dimension.
"If that's the case…"
Controlling the rabbit to reenter the extra-dimension, Tsunayoshi guided it into another room he hadn't seen before.
Sure enough—it was a space nearly identical to his own room. He sighed inwardly and kept searching other rooms. Without exception, each was the same as his, differing only by left–right mirroring.
"Confirmed?"
"Yeah. Because, in my understanding, the room's furnishings are fixed, every room I found matched mine exactly. The only difference was whether it was a mirror image to the left or right."
"I figured as much. Your imagination's limits are why that place is only an extra-dimension and not a full world. For now, don't attempt anything so dangerous—at least not until you've fully grasped what a world is."
Loki's voice carried a touch of obviousness—and a hint of relief—but her final sentence was a clear warning. Tsunayoshi took it to heart.
A world is vast. For imagination to encompass an entire world, you must first understand that world, then paint it in meticulous detail within your mind.
That's impossible for now. Tsunayoshi firmly shelved the idea; at least in his current state, he couldn't do it.
Just as Loki warned, it was best not to attempt something so dangerous before understanding this world. Tsunayoshi also felt his blood vessels throb, as if warning him of the danger.
Even so, Tsunayoshi thought of a way he might sketch an entire world with his imagination.
"Balance Breaker"—when a Sacred Gear wielder's intense emotions or wishes overturn the flow of the world, they break through common limits and enter the Balance Breaker domain.
What can't be done under normal conditions… might be possible in Balance Breaker.
(End of Chapter)
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