Chapter 17: Is That How Your Master Taught You? (1)
Chapter 17: Is That How Your Master Taught You? (1)
After moving the foaming, unconscious Han A-bin to a corner, I turned my gaze toward Baek Si-hyun. She had been lying flat on the floor with her eyes closed for a while now.
I watched her for a moment, wondering if she was practicing some special method of mental concentration, but there was no sign of that. Instead, she just kept contorting her waist in a bizarre fashion.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for my Magic Staff."
If it were something you could find just by looking, I wouldn't have gone to such lengths.
"If you want to find it, relax more. Either drain your mana to the very bottom or reverse-trace the point where the mana is being generated."
I figured it would take her about two weeks.
While many Magical Girls use a physical Magic Staff as a weapon, it's not uncommon for them to carry it inside their bodies, like the three of us. The ratio is roughly six to four.
For those who do, their strategic options expand significantly once they can perceive the Magic Staff within themselves. They can release the limiters placed on the staff, forcibly graft magic they otherwise couldn't use, or even manifest the staff itself to use as a physical weapon.
So, while searching for the staff was a necessary step for her future training, there was no need to do it right this second.
Well, if she wants to find it, I might as well give her some advice. At least this means I won't have to teach her anything else for the next two weeks.
"Source of mana... waist... relax..."
Baek Si-hyun’s voice, murmuring my advice, began to settle into a calm rhythm.
She has basic talent and her combat style isn't bad, so if we start with small techniques like this...
"I found it, Master!"
Wait, what? It hasn't even been five minutes since I gave her the tip, and she found it already?
"You found it?"
"Yes!"
Startled, I immediately placed my hand on Baek Si-hyun’s waist.
"Try pouring mana into the staff."
"I don't know how!"
"Just like when you manifest a weapon, imagine the Magic Staff is outside your body and direct your mana there..."
Pop. Clatter.
With a cute sound, a silver rod appeared in mid-air and dropped to the floor. The plain, featureless silver stick rolled across the training hall mat, moving away from us.
"Is that... actually your Magic Staff?"
"I think so? The mana source I felt inside my body is gone."
Ten minutes?
From perception to mana infusion, amplification, and manifestation—all in ten minutes?
There are plenty of Magical Girls who can't find their Magic Staff until the day they retire, no matter how many times they're told, and she did it in ten minutes?
If every Magical Girl were like this, the Management Bureau would have to rewrite their entire basic curriculum. They would have to make it mandatory for every Magical Girl to perceive their Magic Staff, just as I've always argued.
At this point, I didn't know what to say. Even a genius shouldn't be this fast. What am I even supposed to teach this girl?
"Master, look at this! It changes shape however I want!"
Baek Si-hyun looked delighted as she gripped the Magic Staff and shifted its form at will, but watching her only plunged me deeper into thought.
Seriously, what do I teach her next?
* * *
"Normally, the brain is protected by mana. That's because you'd go mad if you were eroded by Otherworldly Power."
"Yes!"
"You can choose to forgo that protection and instead use mana to accelerate the brain's processing speed. This is possible if your willpower is strong enough to withstand the Otherworld’s influence, or when there is no Otherworldly Power present..."
"M-my w&rd$! W&n't st#p$\\*$%!"
Baek Si-hyun began to dash around in every direction, speaking at an incredible speed.
"Wh&t !^& i$ $$ th& ^* i$."
She had lost control due to the sudden acceleration of her processing speed. It was an issue that would resolve itself once she got used to it, but...
I leaped forward, caught her, and whispered into her ear.
"Imagine mana wrapping around the surface of your brain. Imagine your skull is made of mana, and that it's so hard it repels everything."
"Ha ^% hu % mm... It stopped!"
Her learning ability was truly nonsensical.
Forgoing the safety of one's brain is an act that goes against every survival instinct, yet she pulled it off in an instant.
When I showed her a few more minor techniques, she mastered them immediately and implemented them in her own way. Her movements were as fluid as if she had possessed these skills from the start. However, there was one slight problem.
"So, how did you do it?"
"I just did."
"What do you mean 'just'? Why can't you control the output?"
Perhaps because she learned too fast, she was skipping all the crucial intermediate steps.
"Maybe it's just meant to be? Anyway, teach me something else!"
"Finish this first."
Baek Si-hyun grumbled while swinging her Magic Staff, but when I glared at her, she obediently sent the staff back inside her body.
"Let's try again. Slowly flow mana into the Magic Staff inside you and try to amplify it."
"Eeeeeeeek."
I placed my hand on Baek Si-hyun’s back as she let out a strange groan. Perhaps because she had succeeded in manifesting it once, I could easily locate her Magic Staff without much concentration.
A faint trickle of mana flowed into the staff, and just as the staff was about to amplify it—
Pop.
With that cute sound again, the Magic Staff manifested in the air.
Thud. Roll, roll, roll.
The only sound in the quiet training hall was the silver rod rolling across the floor.
This is driving me crazy.
"Why can you manifest it but fail at the preceding step of amplification?"
"I'm not sure either..."
Baek Si-hyun scratched her head sheepishly and picked up the staff.
"Amplification is a very useful skill once you learn it. It allows you to greatly boost even a weak amount of mana, and it lets you squeeze out your last bit of strength in a desperate situation."
If you can amplify a single handful of mana when you're on the verge of death, it's often enough to turn the tide of battle.
"If it's such a good skill, why doesn't the Management Bureau teach it?"
Come to think of it, she had been proficient with telekinesis since the first day. That's why I assumed she hadn't received basic training, but it seemed she had attended for a week.
"First, it's difficult to learn."
I took the Magic Staff from her hand.
"Second, it's dangerous."
I felt the composition of the Magic Staff as I ran my hand along it. Compared to my hammer, it was crude, but it was tempered firmly enough to withstand my mana at least once.
"Watch closely."
"Yes!"
Even though I'd snatched her staff away, she just beamed at me, looking happy. I don't know why, but her level of trust in me was immense. Even for a fan, isn't this a bit much?
"Hup."
I focused and drew up my mana. A massive amount of mana circulated through my body and gathered in my palm, where it was squeezed and twisted until it leaked out.
Only a tiny speck of mana actually flowed from my palm and touched the silver rod. I had sent 500 units of mana, but only 1 came out. My conversion rate was still less than 1%.
Boom!
The amplified mana broke free of my control. The training hall shook, and the mats on the floor buckled and surged.
"What? What happened?"
Han A-bin woke up at the commotion, and Baek Si-hyun stared at me with sparkling eyes, as if she were witnessing something magnificent.
"This is why amplification is dangerous."
"Isn't it amazing, though? With that little mana, to get this kind of conversion efficiency..."
Every power has its price. Amplification is no different.
"Where is your Magic Staff usually?"
"Inside my body."
"Then what do you think would happen if this mana exploded inside you?"
"I'd die, obviously... Oh!"
"Exactly. One mistake and you're dead. Even if you don't die, the strain on your body is enormous."
It's a double-edged sword that might win you the battle but leave you permanently disabled.
"In this day and age, rather than learning a technique like this, it's better to just use the mana you already have efficiently. That's why they don't teach it."
In the first place, there's rarely a need to use power that puts your life at risk. Even when reaching the end of a story, the power one already possesses is usually sufficient. Since people don't have to risk their lives much these days, it's a technique that's deemed unnecessary to teach.
"But you have to learn it. You're going to be fighting O-Ranks."
Whish.
I tossed the Magic Staff back to Baek Si-hyun. She caught it and began to concentrate again, letting out another strange grunt.
"What are you guys talking about?"
"Advanced techniques you don't need to learn yet, Han A-bin."
Since it was a technique related to the Magic Staff, there was no point in teaching it to Han A-bin now; she couldn't even practice it.
Besides, her last memory of me should have been the pain of her waist nearly snapping, yet she approached me and spoke without any sign of hostility. She's surprisingly resilient.
"Then what should I do?"
I didn't have the materials to repair her Magic Staff yet, nor did I have a replacement to graft onto her. The only thing she could do was...
"Go for a run. One lap around the city."
"Pardon?"
"It's roughly 150km. It should take you about seven hours. Get going."
"What?"
She looked visibly flustered, her eyes wide with shock. Seeing her frozen and stammering in disbelief, I added an explanation.
"They say training is pointless for Magical Girls because their bodies are fixed upon transformation, but that's only for non-physical Type S. For physical Type S, it's slow, but it helps. Now, go."
To be precise, it trains the flow of mana. It helps the mana move faster to the right places and strengthens the muscles used in specific movements.
"Can't I just... practice techniques here instead?"
"You can't even produce mana right now, so you can't practice. Go run."
"That can't be right. No matter what, at least a little mana should... Huh?"
Of course it won't come out.
"It's natural that you can't use mana right now. Just go run."
"Understood..."
Surprisingly, Han A-bin didn't argue and obediently left the training hall. I expected her to rebel or at least complain, but this was unexpected.
Looking at her slumped shoulders as she walked away, she seemed dejected, but she didn't seem resentful of my order.
"If you run out of energy, you can take a taxi back. Just go as far as you can."
I didn't get a reply, but she must have heard me.
"Ugh... guh... gyah!"
The training hall, quiet once more, was filled only with Baek Si-hyun’s strange grunts.
Pop. Pop.
The Magic Staff kept vanishing and reappearing in her hand.
One disciple letting out bizarre noises, and another who went off to run with a hollow expression. Surprisingly, neither of them tried to slack off; they both followed my instructions.
It might just be because it's the first day, but considering the people I've shared techniques with in the past, this was a special case. My old comrades all had so much pride in their own skills that they never listened to a word I said.
The Thunder God, in particular, used to run away whenever I tried to teach her something, saying she didn't need it.
Thinking of the Thunder God gave me an idea.
"Si-hyun. You have Lightning Magic too, right?"
"Yes! Agagagak. How do I do this?"
"You just push the mana in and amplify it. I don't understand why you're struggling with that."
If she could manifest it, why couldn't she amplify it?
Pop. Pop.
"I'll get it by the end of the day!"
"Right. Keep at it."
Looking at her, this might actually take a while. She seemed to be the type who approached things through intuition and instinct rather than theory.
Lightning Magic, huh?
Magic isn't really my field of expertise, so it might be better to introduce her to the Thunder God.
I wonder what she's up to these days.
The last I heard, she had retired. I haven't heard anything since, so I have no idea how she's living. I'll have to go to the Management Bureau and check her address.
My to-do list is growing.
Just a few weeks ago, I was living a mindless life, lounging at home and only going out for hunting missions. Compared to then, my life has become quite fulfilling. Unlike the days when I just tapped away at my phone, waiting for the story to end, now every day is filled with incidents.
It's not a bad life.
‘So, what are you going to do after making your Adversary stronger? Just teach her half-heartedly. No one will blame you.’
A voice echoed from somewhere deep inside me.
I knew. I knew that this life would eventually come to an end. Whether I defeat my disciple or she defeats me, the story will conclude one way or another, and these days will end.
"But I don't want to have any regrets."
"Did you say something, Master?"
"It's nothing."
Who knows? Maybe the two of us will remain in opposition forever and never retire. That would only happen if my story fails to progress, but that's also something to consider.
If I retire, how will Baek Si-hyun end her story? Will she end up living a life like mine, unable to retire forever? Or will she complete her story by eliminating me once I've lost my power?
Countless futures rose and fell in my mind, but I let them all go.
It was futile. Since when did we live as Heroes who looked toward the future?
I should focus on the present.
As their master, I will raise my disciples to be strong, and as the Black Marauder, I will uphold justice. There was no need to think about what kind of future that would bring.
"Master! I did it!"
"That's just you concentrating your mana, not amplifying it. Do it again."
Though, I have to admit, that in itself is quite impressive.