[March 7th and Stelle arrived together at the Divination Commission.]
[From afar, upon seeing Fu Xuan, March 7th enthusiastically greeted her: "Master Diviner! Good morning! Is work going smoothly today?"]
[Fu Xuan could tell at a glance that they had come with a request, so she directly asked their purpose.]
[This straightforwardness actually made March 7th feel a little embarrassed at first, but Fu Xuan remained calm and unruffled: "This seat never acts based on reading people's expressions. By routine, every day before I start work after waking up, I divine a dozen or so hexagrams on everyday matters in one go, and the results are invariably accurate without fail."]
["In today's divination, I calculated that there would be some 'unexpected complications' arising. The hexagram image rose between Kan and Qian. The Matrix of Prescience Ultima output an interpretation, with the judgment stating: 'Three uninvited guests arrive; respect them, and all will end auspiciously.'"]
["Respect them, and all will end auspiciously… Wow, even the Matrix of Prescience Ultima is being this considerate. Looks like we really do have quite the affinity."]
——
A Certain Scientific Railgun.
On a park bench in Academy City, Misaka Mikoto and Kamijō Tōma sat side by side, watching Fu Xuan in the light screen describe "deducing the future" so casually—and with such precision down to the exact number of visitors. Both of them couldn't help but stare in dumbfounded silence.
"Even though I already knew the Matrix of Prescience Ultima was powerful, I still can't help but say… this is way too unfair! It's basically cheating!" Kamijō Tōma couldn't resist crushing the drink can in his hand flat.
"Just how high is the computational power of the Matrix of Prescience Ultima anyway?"
Even though she had personally witnessed the Matrix of Prescience Ultima in operation, Misaka Mikoto still found it hard to believe: "The core principle of the Matrix of Prescience Ultima is to continuously deduce based on a massive amount of existing data, exhaustively calculating every possible future outcome… This is clearly the materialization of a quantum probability cloud, but the computational power required for that…"
Even if you pooled the computing power of every computer on Earth, it would probably be impossible to exhaust all the possible futures of a single person.
"No, no, no—I actually think this has already stepped outside the realm of science and entered the domain of magic."
Kamijō Tōma scratched his head and pointed at the light screen: "Three uninvited guests arrive… even for deducing the future, how can it possibly reach this level of detail? It's like saying 'in three seconds, bird poop is going to land on Tōma's head.' Just thinking about it is ridiculous, right?"
Right after he finished speaking, a bird call suddenly came from overhead. Tōma abruptly felt something sticky land in his hair. He reached up and touched it—his fingers came away covered in white droppings.
Misaka Mikoto took a step back with a look of utter disgust.
"Pfft… You really are cursed with misfortune, huh?"
——
[After explaining March 7th's situation of lost memories, Fu Xuan rested her cheek on her hand and pondered for a moment.]
["I see. You wish to use the array to recreate the past and awaken your own memories? While the principle is feasible, I fear the Matrix of Prescience Ultima may not necessarily be capable of it."]
["Even the all-powerful Master Diviner can't do it?" Stelle immediately threw out a provocation.]
["Who—who said that?" Fu Xuan, as expected, was easily baited by Stelle. Her face flushed as she gave a light cough. "Ahem, I never said it was impossible. There is a difference of millions of light-years between 'impossible' and 'not necessarily.'"]
[Next, Fu Xuan briefly explained the principle of the Matrix of Prescience Ultima. In simple terms, the great array is an emotionless deduction machine that uses existing intelligence to deduce what has happened in the "past" and "future."]
[Since little March had already lost her memories, this first step of gathering intelligence was awkwardly stuck. But according to Fu Xuan's understanding, memory loss generally fell into one of two categories: first, the memories were dormant deep within the sea of consciousness; second, they had been directly erased by some means.]
[Which category March 7th's case belonged to would require testing with the Matrix of Prescience Ultima first.]
[But before that, some objects related to March 7th's memories prior to losing them were needed. Fortunately, this wasn't difficult—March soon returned to Fu Xuan carrying a pile of items, including not only tickets and Geomarrow from Belobog, but even a cup of Immortal's Delight tea…]
[However, none of these worked. Fu Xuan needed materials related to her before the memory loss, but this put March 7th in a difficult spot.]
["Sorry about this, Master Diviner. Sister Himeko said that when they found me, I was sealed naked inside a block of ice—just like a newborn baby—with nothing at all around me."]
["Your next sentence is definitely going to be 'Is that block of ice still around?' But unfortunately, shortly after I was fished out, that ice melted away without a trace."]
——
Jujutsu Kaisen.
"Sealed inside a block of ice… Hm, this method of sealing—I actually have a guess…" Okkotsu Yūta rested his chin thoughtfully on his hand. "Could March 7th possibly be the child of the Memory Aeon [Fuli]?"
"Hah? Yūta, that guess is way too out there, isn't it?" Kusakabe Atsuya frowned slightly. "There's very little information on Fuli right now—it only appears in the Simulated Universe. Do you have any basis for this?"
"'Memory' and 'ice'—aren't those two points alone enough?"
Okkotsu Yūta held up two fingers.
"I'm also drawing from what Kafka said about Stelle's origins. If March 7th's memory loss is the first type… it's hard to explain why she was sealed in a block of ice. If it's the second type, then whoever was capable of doing this is most likely connected to the forces of [Memory]."
"If it was an Aeon or Emanator-level being that actively stripped away her memories, then I'm more inclined to think March 7th is some kind of 'vessel' or 'test subject.'"
"Test subject… Who could bear to experiment on such a lively and cute girl?" Nitta beside him couldn't help but speak up.
"Heh heh, who knows?"
——
[If there was anything that March 7th possessed even before losing her memories, it was probably only her ability to casually condense Six-Phased Ice.]
[At this point, Fu Xuan had no other options. After having someone deliver the items to the array's foundation, she instructed March 7th to stand at the core of the Matrix of Prescience Ultima.]
[Before the deduction began, Fu Xuan explained some precautions to March 7th in advance. Although this deduction could not include Stelle, Fu Xuan would maintain constant communication with her to ensure the process of retrospection proceeded smoothly.]
[Once she confirmed March 7th was ready, Fu Xuan activated the great Matrix of Prescience Ultima. In an instant, everything before March 7th's eyes shattered like broken mirror fragments. Countless memory shards hovered and spun in the void, then began to reassemble.]
[When March opened her eyes again, she had arrived in the Alchemy Commission, where the air was thick with medicinal fragrance.]
[In the bustling medical market, familiar faces were everywhere—not only Fu Xuan, but even Jing Yuan, Stelle, and the already vanished Tingyun were all present here.]
[Fu Xuan speculated that this was the moment when they stormed into the Alchemy Commission. Yet looking at the people before her, Fu Xuan felt quite puzzled: "This is the deduction of the Matrix of Prescience Ultima. While distortion is possible… how could the interference be this severe? This is illogical."]
[As she spoke, March 7th began to approach another version of Fu Xuan standing nearby.]