Mr. Magical Girl

Chapter 17. Is That How Your Master Teaches You? (1)

After moving the foaming and fainted Han Abin to a corner, I looked at Baek Sihyeon, who had her eyes closed, lying flat on the floor since earlier.

I thought maybe she was using some special focus technique and watched for a moment, but there was no sign of that; she continued to awkwardly bend her waist.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for the magic wand.”

If it were that easy to find just by looking, I wouldn’t be doing all this.

“If you’re going to find it, reduce your power more. Either suck out your mana completely or backtrack to the source of where the mana is generated.”

Could take about two weeks.

There are many magical girls who weaponize magic wands, but there’s also a considerable number like us three who have them inside our bodies. The ratio is roughly 6 to 4.

For those who can recognize that their magic wand exists within them, their strategies expand significantly. They can remove the limiter placed on their wand, forcibly implant unavailable magic, or even implement the wand itself as a weapon.

So, the act of searching for the wand is necessary for future training, but it doesn’t need to happen right now. Well, if she wants to find it, I should at least give her advice. I guess I don’t need to teach her for at least two weeks.

“The source of mana, waist, reduce the power…”

Baek Sihyeon’s voice murmuring my advice gradually began to calm down.

She has basic talent and her combat style isn’t bad, so starting with these little techniques…

“I found it, Master!”

What?! It hasn’t even been five minutes since I advised her, and she found it?

“You found it?”

Surprised, I immediately placed my hand on Baek Sihyeon’s waist.

“Try infusing mana into it.”

“I don’t know how!”

“Imagine the magic wand is outside like when you implement a weapon, and channel your mana there…”

Puff. Thud.

With a cute sound, a silver rod appeared in mid-air and fell to the ground.

The plain circular silver rod rolled across the training mat, moving away from us.

“Could that be the magic wand?”

“Probably? The source of mana I felt inside my body disappeared.”

Ten minutes?

She recognized, infused mana, amplified, and implemented all in ten minutes?

Most magical girls take forever to find their magic wands, potentially until retirement, and she does it in just ten minutes?

If all magical girls could do this, they’d have to rewrite the basic curriculum at the association.

As I claimed before, every magical girl should be able to recognize their wand.

At this point, I’m not sure what to say. Even geniuses aren’t this talented. Should I teach her?

“Master, look at this! It’s transforming based on my thoughts!”

Baek Sihyeon seemed joyful, holding the magic wand and transforming it nonchalantly, but the sight deepened my dilemma even more.

I really should teach her.

“The surface of your brain is protected by mana. If it’s eroded by the Otherworld’s power, you could go insane.”

“By giving up protection, you can enhance the processing speed of your brain with mana. You must have a strong will to withstand the Otherworld’s power or when the power isn’t present…”

Baek Sihyeon began talking at a tremendous speed and started bouncing around.

The fatal flaw of acceleration in processing speed; it can be solved with practice, but…

I jumped up, grabbed Baek Sihyeon’s body, and whispered in her ear,

“Imagine the mana wrapping around the surface. Your skull made of mana is very sturdy and bounces everything away.”

“Ha ^% ho %m… I stopped!”

What an outrageous learning ability.

Giving up the safety of her brain, something instinctively difficult to do, yet she manages to accomplish it in an instant.

Let me show her some more little techniques, and she quickly learned them, implementing them in her own style.

Her movements were as skilled as if she had possessed those techniques from the start. However, there was a slight problem.

“So how did you do it?”

“Just.”

“Just? That doesn’t make sense. Why can’t you do the bow?”

Could it be that she learned too fast? All important parts were omitted.

“Isn’t what can’t be done simply impossible? And teach me something else!”

“Let’s do this first.”

Although Baek Sihyeon expressed discontent while swinging the magic wand, she obediently turned it back inside her body when I glared at her.

“Let’s try again. Gradually infuse mana into the magic wand that’s inside your body so that the mana amplifies.”

“Eeeek…”

I placed my hand on Baek Sihyeon’s back, making a strange sound. Perhaps because she successfully implemented it once, I could easily locate her magic wand without much focus.

Weak mana flowed into the magic wand, and just as the wand attempted to amplify that mana…

Puff.

With another cute sound, the magic wand was implemented in mid-air again.

Thud.TapTap

The only sound echoing in the quiet training hall was the noise of the silver rod rolling on the ground.

This is ridiculous.

“Why can you implement it but fail at the amplification step?”

“I’m not sure either…”

Embarrassed, Baek Sihyeon scratched her head as she picked up the wand.

“Amplification is a perfectly usable technique even at lower levels. It can greatly amplify weak mana, and in a dire situation, it can squeeze out the last bit of mana.”

If she could amplify the last bits of mana when on the brink of death, it could change the entire game.

“Since it’s such a great technique, why doesn’t the association teach it?”

Come to think of it, she handled telekinesis well from day one. So she must have received at least a week of basic education; I thought she hadn’t.

“First, it’s difficult to learn.”

I snatched the magic wand from her hands.

“Secondly, it’s dangerous.”

Following the flow of my hand, I felt the structure of the magic wand.

Compared to my hammer, it may be rough, but it was solid enough to withstand my mana at least once.

“Watch carefully.”

Even though she had her magic wand taken away, she just smiled happily. I guess she has an immense level of trust in me.

Isn’t there a limit even for fans?

I let out a battle cry and pulled up my mana. Massive mana circulated through my body, gathered in my palm, squeezing and twisting before spilling out into the air.

A mere speck of mana trickling from my palm, touched the silver rod.

I threw 500 mana, but only 1 came out. The conversion rate is still under 1%.

Boom.

The amplified mana went out of control. The training hall shook, and the mat beneath us rippled.

“What’s happening?”

Han Abin opened her eyes, and Baek Sihyeon looked at me with sparkling eyes as if she were witnessing something incredible.

“This is why amplification is dangerous.”

“Isn’t that amazing? With that amount of mana and such conversion efficiency…”

But every power comes with a price. Amplification is no different.

“Where is your magic wand?”

“It’s inside my body.”

“So what happens if this mana explodes inside your body?”

“Of course, I’d die… Ah!”

“That’s the thing. If not done correctly, you die. Even if you don’t die, the burden on your body is immense.”

Even if you win in a battle, it could result in permanent disabilities – a double-edged sword.

“In this day and age, it’s often better to just use the mana you possess rather than learn such techniques. That’s the reasoning.”

There shouldn’t be many situations where you need to risk your life regularly. Even at the ending of a story, usually the power you have is sufficient.

There’s not much need to teach such techniques in times where one doesn’t risk their life.

“Still, you need to learn. You’ll be fighting an O-Rank.”

Swish.

I threw her magic wand towards Baek Sihyeon. She caught it and concentrated again, giving out another strange battle cry.

“What are you guys talking about?”

“Han Abin, you don’t need to learn advanced techniques yet.”

Since it’s a technique related to the magic wand, she wouldn’t be able to practice even if I taught her now.

Moreover, the last memory she has left is likely of her back breaking, right?

Without any hostility, she approached me and spoke.

Seems she’s surprisingly friendly.

“Then can I do it?”

Since she’s not prepared to restore the magic wand nor implant a new one, what she could do was…

“Go run a lap around the city.”

“It’s about 150km, so if I run for 7 hours, I should be fine. Off you go.”

Her eyes widened in shock. For some reason, unable to comprehend, she stammered and froze; I continued explaining.

“They say that when a magical girl transforms, their physical body is fixed, so it loses meaning for training, but that’s the case only when it’s not a physical type. For physical types, it’s slow, but it helps. So go.”

To be precise, things like the flow of mana are trained. Strengthening the muscles to move faster and appropriately with the movements.

“Can’t I just practice techniques here…?”

“You’re not generating mana now, so you can’t practice. Go run.”

“That can’t be true. Even so, I should have some mana…”

That shouldn’t be the case.

“It’s natural you can’t produce mana right now. Go run.”

“Understood…”

Surprisingly, Han Abin didn’t retort and left the training hall willingly.

I expected her to at least complain, but she was surprisingly compliant.

Seeing her walk away with her shoulders drooping, she appears deflated, but she doesn’t seem displeased with my words.

“If your mana runs out, you can always take a taxi back. Just get there and come back.”

Even though I didn’t receive a response, my voice reached her.

Hargle.

The training hall fell silent again, filled only with Baek Sihyeon’s strange battle cry.

The magic wand disappears, repeatedly appearing in my grasp again.

With a strangely sounding student and a deflated student who went out to run; both are surprisingly obedient and are following my words.

Maybe it’s just the first day, but those I’ve exchanged techniques with seem to be an entirely special case.

All my former companions were proud of their techniques. They wouldn’t listen to me even if they died!

When the heavenly deity taught them, they’d always flee saying they didn’t need anything.

Thinking of the heavenly deity made me have a sudden thought.

“Hey Sihyeon, don’t you have electric magic?”

“Yes! Gagagagag. How do I do this?”

“Just push in the mana and amplify it. I don’t understand why you can’t.”

Why can she implement but can’t amplify?

“I’ll give it a try by today!”

“Good luck.”

Seeing the situation, it’ll probably take her longer. Is she the type to approach instinctively, not theoretically?

Electric magic is a field I can’t assist with, so introducing her to the Thunder God would probably be best.

I wonder what he’s up to.

The last news I heard about him was that he retired.

Since then, I don’t know what he’s been doing.

Then I need to go to the association and check his residence.

It seems I have more things to do.

A few weeks ago, I had no thoughts, just lazing around at home, waiting for a hunt mission to come my way, but compared to then, life has become considerably fulfilling.

Unlike the days spent waiting for the end of the story while tapping on my phone, I now have incidents occurring daily.

Not a bad life.

“So, what are you going to do to make your opponent stronger? Just give them some casual training, no one will care.”

A voice from somewhere echoed in my heart.

I know it too; someday an end will come to this lifestyle as well.

Whether I defeat my student or I’m defeated by her, the story will end somehow, and these days will eventually come to an end.

“Still, I don’t want to have regrets.”

“What did you just say, Master?”

“Nothing.”

Who knows?

We might end up in an eternal conflict, never retiring.

But that’s only if my story doesn’t progress. I suppose that choice also needs to be considered.

If I retire…

Would it put an end to my story?

Would I live forever like me?

Baek Sihyeon can’t retire.

Or would she defeat me, who has lost their powers, to complete the story?

Countless futures rise and fall in my mind, but I send them all away.

It’s futile.

Since when have we lived as heroes looking to the future?

Let’s focus on the present.

As their master, I will nurture my students to be strong, and as the Black Marauder, I will establish justice. The kind of future that brings about is something not to be thought of right now.

“Master! I did it!”

“It’s not amplification; you just focused your mana. Do it again.”

Though impressive in its own way.

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