C-Team: From Here To The Multiverse

"So… how are we getting there?" Haru asked, blinking.

"I'll show you~" Celia said with a wink, already standing. She strutted out with a playful smirk over her shoulder, motioning him forward with her fingers.

Haru shook his head, trying to blink away the faint blush on his cheeks.

And then — obediently, hopelessly — he followed.

Haru followed her to the station as they weaved through groups of people.

It seemed he wasn't the only one who'd noticed how stunning she was — she stole the gaze of every passerby.

"What a stunner."

"Definitely way too pretty to be an Arknight."

"Only a top Arknight could pull a girl like her."

Haru heard the whispers as he kept moving, pushing past people and muttering apologies while she galloped ahead.

"What's taking you so long?" she called back.

He was far behind when she turned around, marched back, and grabbed his hand — pulling him through the crowd at full speed.

Her hand was warm. Soft.

But more than anything, Haru was impressed by her strength.

She dragged him like he weighed nothing, cutting a path to the front of the platform.

Platform 1B.

Everyone was staring. Whispering. Probably wondering how a guy like him landed a girl like her.

They clearly had it all wrong.

"These trains are called the Astral Locomotive!" Celia shouted over the sounds of the busy crowd.

Cool name.

"All you do is wait for the train, step in with the intention of where you want to go — and it'll take you there. Simple as that."

Now that was efficient.

They stood together, her hand still wrapped around his like she was holding onto a child — not a teenage guy pulsing with hormones.

"Sounds nifty," he said.

She nodded.

It didn't take long before the train arrived.

The Astral Locomotive pulled in like a vision from the future — sleek and massive, shaped like an interstellar bullet.

Its smooth, greyish silver surface shimmered with thin neon-blue circuit patterns, like starlight trapped beneath glass.

Despite its size, it made no sound: just a ghostly hush as it glided into the station with supernatural grace. The air around it warped subtly, distorting the world like heat waves.

In the blink of an eye, it stopped.

Haru stood frozen in awe.

"Time to get on!" Celia shouted, pulling him by the hand.

He didn't resist.

He just let himself be dragged, trying to burn the image into his mind before they vanished inside.

The inside looked like a normal Japanese subway train.

"…What the hell," Haru muttered, blinking at the bland grey seats and fluorescent ceiling lights.

"Yep. That's the normal response," Celia said, arms crossed, leaning casually against a pole.

He turned in a slow circle, confused. How could something that looked so futuristic on the outside feel like a Monday morning commute on the Tokyo Metro?

"This doesn't make sense. How does a high-tech space train look like… this?"

"The train shapes your perception of reality," Celia explained. "What you're seeing is just what your mind's used to. Familiar. Safe. It's the same for me — we're in the same carriage, but to both of us, it looks different. Personalized interior design."

Haru blinked.

Right. Of course. Multiversal reality-warping public transport.

Just another Tuesday in the Mivtzar of Einaim.

"…Then how come it's just us in here? There were loads of people outside."

Celia gave a knowing smirk. She clearly loved this.

"Because, my dear Haru…"

Her voice practically purred with playful superiority.

He was already flustered.

"…We're the only ones going on this mission. So it generated our own private carriage."

"Huh."

Private.

With her.

For the entire ride.

And the entire mission.

Haru didn't know what was more overwhelming — the interdimensional train ride or the girl sitting across from him, legs crossed, hair glowing in the dim light, acting like she hadn't just set his nervous system on fire.

Before he could think too much, the train moved.

He didn't feel a thing.

But out the window — the world blurred. They weren't on tracks anymore. They were in the sky. No — above it.

The train was flying.

Haru pressed his face to the window like a child. The Mivtzar shrank below them — a glowing labyrinth of towers and lights, surrounded by the shimmering sea of stars.

It got smaller and smaller with every passing second as they climbed higher through the multiversal heavens.

He could only whisper one thing.

"…This is insane."

They ascended into the Multiverse, the Astral Locomotive picking up speed — no sound, no friction, just pure motion as space, time, and matter twisted around them like fabric being torn and re-stitched.

Haru stared out the window as streaks of light bled into each other, the stars themselves warping past like brushstrokes on a cosmic painting.

He was on his way to being deployed on his first ever mission.

To take down a guy named The Ant.

And stop a universe-destroying Worm.

A part of him wondered if there'd come a day when all this: The Multiverse, the chaos, the impossible.

Would someday just feel normal.

Just another day at the office.

The answer was never.