Nightfall

"Superconducting Wave—Thunder Cannon!"

With an excited roar from Oshi, a thumb-thick golden arc of electricity shot crookedly from her mouth, blasting sand everywhere across the beach and leaving both her and Obe looking rather dusty and disheveled.

As for Ra, before the sand and stones could touch her, they were blocked by an invisible force—an elementary external application of psychic power.

"Cough, cough. You red-haired idiot..."

"Hey, hey, hey—stop! Sister Ra said we'd already used up today's arguing time, so you can't scold me anymore! Right, Sister Ra?"

Knowing she was in the wrong, Oshi hurriedly hid her tiny body behind Ra, hugging her waist and poking out only her head.

"Tch!"

"Looks like you can already begin to control the power inside your body. Well done."

Ra gently stroked Oshi's head, brushing away the dust on it.

"Hehe, not really. It's all thanks to you, Sister Ra." Whether because Ra's head-patting felt too comfortable or for some other reason, Oshi was unusually modest for once.

Obe looked on with a little envy, but she was still too embarrassed to step forward. For her, doing something that seemed so much like acting spoiled was still rather mortifying.

"But since you have so much energy, Oshi, go into the forest and chop some thin wood, branches, and vines.

"It'll be dark soon, and we need somewhere to rest." With that, Ra lightly patted Oshi on the head, signaling for her to let go.

Oshi understood. Though somewhat reluctant, she obediently released her hold, gave Ra a proper-looking salute, and dashed toward the forest.

"Roger! Mission guaranteed!"

"Big Sister, are you going to build a tent?" Obe asked Ra as she watched Oshi's skipping figure disappear into the distance.

"That's right. I remember that Mr. Grylls on television seemed to have taught this before.

"Although our current bodies won't catch a chill and get sick, it's still better to have some shelter. You should help clear out an open patch too."

"Mr. Grylls..." It took Obe a while to realize whom Ra meant.

"Big Sister, I always feel like compared with Oshi and me, your personality and habits seem to have changed much more from before."

"Perhaps. But there's no doubt that all of our souls came from him. That will never change."

Ra did not want to delve too deeply into the matter and merely brushed it aside. "Maybe you think I'm unlike him because I inherited another side of himself that even he never knew about."

"And when the soul split into three, none of us were him anymore. What's done is done. Don't keep dwelling on an established fact."

"Sigh... all right. Sometimes I really envy that empty-headed Oshi."

Obe was left somewhat dizzy by Ra's explanation of being both him and not him, so she stopped dwelling on the matter of personalities as well.

They cleared an open area at the edge of the forest large enough for the three of them to move around in. Ra then controlled flames to carefully bake the ground dry and harden it.

"All right, now we just wait for Oshi to return."

A few seconds later, Ra withdrew the flames and pressed a hand against the ground, finding that both the dryness and firmness were just right.

Watching Ra wield flames so skillfully, Obe suddenly thought of something and asked, "Big Sister, the clothes we're wearing were woven with your divine power too, right? Then why not just use divine power to make a tent?"

"Hm? You noticed?"

Rising to her feet and dusting off hands that had not picked up any dirt, Ra turned and explained, "But unfortunately, divine power is ultimately just a special kind of energy. It can't create something out of nothing.

"The clothes you're wearing are actually a visual effect produced by the light and heat emitted by my flames. They have temperature, but no physical substance.

"If you don't believe me, try lifting your own skirt."

Obe tried, and sure enough, her hand passed through the skirt and touched her thigh directly.

"Really! I can't believe I only noticed now!"

The sensation of her own fingers on her thigh reminded her that what she wore was indeed not real clothing, making her silently reflect on her own dullness.

"No, that's not right! Big Sister, when you came back from the forest, you used your skirt to carry the food. I remember that correctly, don't I?" Obe suddenly spotted the flaw.

"That? I did use my clothes to carry the food back then. You remembered correctly~" Ra's tone was unusually playful.

"Then your clothes are..."

"The answer is energy density." Ra readily revealed the answer.

"So-called divine power is ultimately just a kind of energy particle. When compressed to a certain density, it undergoes a change in state, just as oxygen becomes liquid under 5.2 atmospheres of pressure."

As she spoke, Ra lightly lifted her skirt, and its texture, like fine silk, was unmistakably revealed as it swayed slightly.

"The reason the dress I'm wearing can hold those foods is that I use this method to turn energy into substance, then use some psychic power to shape and maintain the form I want, turning it into 'real' clothing.

"As for the clothes you two are wearing... sorry, you'll have to wait until you master this method yourselves before changing them. For now, I can only guarantee their appearance and warmth."

Ra was telling the truth. It was not that she did not want to make the two little ones clothes like hers.

But just as liquid oxygen reverted to gas after losing the pressure and temperature that maintained it, divine power separated from Ra's body would slowly return to its original state when left undisturbed.

Fortunately, Ra still retained considerable control over this divine power outside her body. Such precise control was like embroidering with flames and was not difficult for her, though it was naturally far from being as effortless as controlling it within her own body.

It was like driving a car: one method was a direct neural connection, while the other meant manually pushing, pulling, and turning the controls.

"..."

Upon hearing Ra's method, Obe was rendered speechless.

Like Oshi, she had already begun to control the power within her body, so she naturally understood the terrifying technique hidden beneath Ra's simple words.

Such godlike control over power, along with the enormous mental expenditure required to maintain it, was simply beyond imagination for her right now.

"Th-there's no need to go that far, is there?"

"Perhaps. But I have my reasons." Ra lowered her gaze, as though looking at somewhere that did not exist.

"Remember what I said before? Exploring the other worlds within the Millennium Puzzle requires vast amounts of divine power and psychic power. Consider this preparation for opening those doors in the future. After all, one of them might connect to our original world."

"I-is that so?" Hearing that reason, Obe did not know what to say.

Sure enough, Ra is different from us. Perhaps her gaze has long been fixed on the distant future.

Looks, personality, diligence, talent, intelligence, foresight—she lacks nothing. What kind of perfect superhuman is this?! Oshi, come back already! I really do feel safer when I'm with an ordinary girl like you!

And so, after being apart for barely a dozen minutes, little Obe had already begun to miss her unofficial second sister.

Those two really were close~

In the forest...

"Hm? Obe? (Not that I care.)"

Oshi, who was enthusiastically looking for trees, suddenly felt something, but after hesitating for a while, she continued searching. Perhaps she had merely imagined it.

"By the way, why are all these trees so thick~?"

Oshi searched for a long time, only to discover that even the thinnest tree here was as thick as five of her.

With no other choice, she used Thunder Cannon to blast down two bamboo stalks and carried them back.

"Sister Ra only said she wanted thin wood. She never said it had to be from trees. Bamboo is wood too~ Bamboo brothers, bamboo brothers, if you must blame someone, blame your neighbors for growing too well."

Jumping up and casually tearing a few vines from the canopy, Oshi prepared to return and report in.

The bamboo, which was actually a grass: "..."

"Oy~ I'm back, Sister Ra. By the way, this skirt you made is amazing. It didn't get snagged even once along the way."

Oshi still seemed not to have realized that the clothes on her body were little different from body paint.

"Good, you're back. Let's put up the tent. We'll be spending our first night in this world in this little tent."

"Haha~ Now that you put it that way, I'm really looking forward to it~"