“First off, that little glow from my hand earlier—that was what they call magic in the other world. And theoretically, it’s something you all could use too.”
After that, since the sun had completely set and it didn’t make sense to hold a long conversation in the park, we decided to head back home. For one thing, I was drenched in sweat, and staying like that any longer would’ve been kind of gross.
…Wait, that’s odd. Why am I even concerned about being sweaty? Oh, right—it’s summer, and letting sweat cool on your skin can make you catch a cold. Must be a habit I picked up over there. Now that I think about it, I was always pretty health-conscious in that world. With medicine not very advanced over there, even something like the flu could turn deadly. Yeah, that must be it.
Anyway, I managed to quiet down the noisy trio—Ryou-nee and the others—by telling them we’d talk after getting home. After changing clothes and cleaning up, I finally dropped that line from earlier.
“You said everyone might be able to use magic. Why just ‘might’?”
“To explain that, I’ve got to talk about magic and touki (battle aura). First off, magic is a mysterious phenomenon that can do just about anything—summon fire, heal wounds, stir up wind, you name it.”
“Wasn’t there any kind of rule or limit to what it could do?”
“Of course there was. But I’ll skip that for now. Let’s move on to touki. Compared to magic, it’s a bit more low-key, but it lets you enhance your physical abilities.”
“How far could it enhance them?”
“Well, even with limits—like, as far as I personally saw—you could jump twenty meters straight up, get stabbed without a scratch, or stand in a fire spell without getting burned.”
“So it wasn’t just about muscle power, it worked like armor too.”
“Exactly. And here’s the kicker: magic and touki both come from the same source.”
“Ehhh!?”
“???”
Ah, there’s the split reaction. Hina, who plays games, looked shocked. Ryou-nee and Mika-nee, who don’t game, just gave me a look like what the hell is this guy saying?
For the record, I was in the first camp. I’d always assumed magic and touki had nothing to do with each other. I mean, in games, warriors and mages use totally different resources. One trains strength, the other intelligence. So when I tried to analyze how magic worked, it took forever to get anywhere—wait, no, that’s a tangent. I’ll skip that for now.
“So, about that ‘same source’ thing. I’m pretty sure it’s what kung fu calls ki. More specifically, there’s internal ki and external ki. Internal ki is the energy within your body—limited. External ki is the energy in all things—nature, the universe—basically infinite.”
Any proper martial arts master would probably be furious at how I’m explaining this, but hey—this is about as far as my understanding of ki goes. I mean, I only ever looked into it back in middle school during my chuuni phase when I got into Chinese martial arts for a bit… ugh, let’s not go there. That’s just painful to remember.
“But here’s the thing—using magic in this world is really hard. Like I said before, this world has no mana. I mentioned external ki being infinite, but that’s only true in the other world. Here, it’s not just limited—it’s practically nonexistent. And internal ki alone is way too weak to use for magic.”
I think ki only exists in living things—plants, animals. So in this world, filled with artificial stuff, there’s no external ki to draw on. Even in the other world, magic weakened in deserts and such. Still, thanks to the World Tree, even deserts over there were overflowing with more ki than here.
“So if there’s no external ki, and internal ki’s too weak, then what’s the point?”
“Hina, that’s not quite right. Yuuji, you’re trying to say, ‘Even if internal ki alone seemed useless, it wasn’t completely unusable,’ right?”
“Exactly, Ryou-nee. I think the reason I performed so well during that fitness test earlier was because I was unconsciously using internal ki as touki.”
“Yuuji, this touki—can you turn it on or off at will?”
“Probably not. It’s like learning to ride a bike without training wheels—you forget what it was like to use them once you’ve moved past them. Same deal.”
“Yu-chan, can we use this internal ki too?”
“I think everyone can. Honestly, I believe ancient kung fu masters really did use it. That’s probably why the concepts of internal and external ki even exist.”
“But Yuuji, in the real world, hardly anyone uses ‘ki.’ If people could, wouldn’t everyone be doing it by now?”
“That’s the thing—‘ki’ is super hard to sense. In the other world, mana—or let’s just say ki to keep it simple—was everywhere. I could feel it entering my body with every breath.”
Strictly speaking, that only happened because I knew the air was full of ki and consciously focused on the difference between the two worlds. Even then, it was barely perceptible. So yeah—not easy.
“Once the ki is in your body, where does it gather? The answer is the dantian (energy centers in the body). From there, the flow of ki becomes touki, but you only notice it because of the massive volume involved. With weak internal ki alone, I doubt anyone could sense the flow. I certainly couldn’t in this world. I don’t think most people could even feel it gathering in their dantian.”
Actually, the only reason I could feel it in my dantian was because I’m originally from this world. In the other world, where ki fills the air like oxygen, people born there don’t notice it flowing in unless they train specifically to sense it.
“So in other words, if we could somehow gather this ‘ki,’ we could use magic like you?”
“Exactly. I think in theory, it’s possible.”
“Alright! Then let’s start training right—”
“I’m out. No way. It’s already been proven to be impossible.”
“Come on, Ryou-nee, that’s not like you! Giving up before even trying?”
“Mika already said it: if people could use it, they would have by now. But they haven’t. Which means it’s already been proven impossible. Sure, maybe if we spent years training, we might be able to use it. But the most we could probably do is move a bit better than normal, or maybe flash a light like a weak lightbulb. It’s just not worth the effort.”
“I agree with Ryou-nee. If those ancient kung fu masters needed years of training to pull it off, there’s no way we’ll manage it easily.”
There’s no guarantee my hypothesis is even right. I do wish someone had already proven it—but in this world, talking about ki or magic just gets you branded as a delusional nutcase.
----
Unfortunately, I can’t use magic. I broke this rather un-dreamlike news to my sisters before dinner. During the meal, I also told Dad, who had been running around all day trying to help me get Japanese citizenship. He sighed and said it was a letdown, too. Thus, our peaceful dinner came to an end.
After that, I took a bath with Mika-nee, who’s very passionate about girls’ education. (She was probably curious about the results of today’s physical test—or rather, the internal ki. I told her it might be pointless, but still gave her a short lecture on touki.) Then it was off to bed. I’d moved around a lot today, so I expected to sleep well.
I thought I’d sleep well, but I woke up in the middle of the night feeling uncomfortable. Geez, what a pain.
“Oh? You’re awake?”
“Yeah. Just kinda felt like it. Did I wake you?”
“No, I was just about to go to bed.”
“Staying up late is apparently really bad for your skin.”
......
“You’re oddly calm. This is your first time, right?”
“Yeah, it is. But I figured it’d be something like this.”
“Not at all. Mika cried her first time, and Hina came to me looking completely pale.”
“What about you, Ryou-nee?”
“I was lucky enough to be able to talk to Mom. Of course I was flustered, though. That’s why your composure is so surprising.”
“You guys didn’t know when it would happen, right? But I knew it was coming soon, so I was mentally prepared. Besides, in terms of blood, I’ve already been through worse in the other world.”
“What about your underwear?”
“Still clean. Pajamas and sheets too. Yesterday—or rather, the day before, since it's past midnight—Mika-nee warned me it would definitely happen soon, so I wore the big kind to bed just in case. That saved me.”
“Are you in pain?”
“Not really. It doesn’t hurt enough to need painkillers.”
“You’ve got it so handled, I don’t even get to play the helpful big sister.”
“Actually, I do have one question. Honestly, it feels a lot lighter than I imagined. Is this normal for everyone?”
“That really depends on the person. But Mika, Hina, and I all seem to have milder symptoms than average. Of course, we have heavy days too.”
“I see. Guess I freaked out over nothing. Alright then, good night.”
“Oh, wait, Yuuji. I’m on cooking duty tomorrow. When do you want the sekihan—breakfast, lunch, or dinner?”
“I'm begging you… anything but sekihan (red bean rice, traditionally served to celebrate special occasions… like a girl's first period).”
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