Episode 57: Possibility
Aisha brought a piece of paper to Kanzaki, who was anxiously wondering what he would be told next.
“This is detailed data of Mitaka Yuma’s ‘Mana Index,’ showing the differences in electromagnetic waves.”
“O-oh, and what about it?”
“Look here.”
Kanzaki peered in, and there was a graph that he couldn’t quite understand.
“What about this?”
“This data shows the composition ratio of Mana, and this white part is ‘Colorless Mana.'”
“Hnhn… and?”
“Here.”
The graph Aisha pointed to had a different color.
“This grayish part represents the Mana having a color.”
“Huh?”
“In other words, the 460,000 Mana isn’t all Colorless Mana.”
“W-wait a minute! Does that mean…”
“That’s right. Mitaka Yuma has already eaten a Magic Gem! He’s dyeing his Mana.”
“That guy can’t use magic! He doesn’t seem to be lying. Besides, if he could use magic, he’d have said so, right?!”
“I don’t know the reason. But there’s no doubt his Mana is dyed. I can’t determine what kind of magic it is, though.”
“How much is dyed… how much has turned into ‘Magical Power’?”
“Considering the overall ratio… about 100,000 has turned into Magical Power.”
“O-one hundred thousand!?”
Unbelievable. Just preparing such a Magic Gem would be extremely difficult. He didn’t even want to imagine how much it would cost.
“I don’t know where he got such a Magic Gem. Kotaro, have you noticed anything strange about Mitaka until now?”
Kanzaki fell silent when Aisha asked him. He had been watching Yuma, but other than the fact that his Mana was hard to raise, there was nothing particularly strange about him.
Was he hiding the fact that he could use powerful magic?
“He measured his own Mana Index and worried about it being zero. Are you saying that was a lie?!”
Aisha put her hand to her chin and became silent. After a while, she opened her mouth.
“No, a normal Mana Measurement Device probably wouldn’t be able to measure his Mana. In that sense, it might be true that he believed his Mana was zero.”
“Then why is it that only your device can measure it?”
Aisha smiled condescendingly at Kanzaki’s question, as if it were obvious.
“The structure is different. The one I made, that is. Normal Measurement Devices are delicate instruments that extract and measure the minute Mana within the body. But if Mana is overflowing at that time, it cannot be measured accurately. It’s the same principle as why you can’t measure an individual’s Mana inside a Dungeon.”
“That… might be true, but…”
“In contrast, the Measurement Device I made is based on a spatial Measurement Device that measures Mana within a Dungeon. It’s characterized by putting the target inside the device and measuring it whole. It doesn’t matter how much Mana is overflowing.”
Kanzaki frowned at Aisha, who was confidently showing off. But it was also true that Yuma’s Mana could be measured thanks to that device.
Aisha muttered something to herself and walked around the room.
“Even so, why did Mitaka eat a Magic Gem? If he thought his Mana Index was zero, he shouldn’t have eaten it.”
“Well, maybe he didn’t know that you can’t use Magic Gems if you don’t have Mana?”
“No, if you search on your phone now, that much information will come up. It’s impossible to think he wouldn’t know.”
Tapping her chin with her finger, Aisha closed her eyes and pondered.
It was her usual style of shutting herself off in her own world and thinking.
“Did he also think the Magic Gem had a Mana Index of zero…? But if you look it up, you should know that Magic Gems always have Mana… if that’s the case…”
Aisha, who had been pacing around, stopped abruptly.
“Could it be… Demon Ore…?”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Some Demon Ores have a Mana Index of zero. That should be public information on the internet. And Demon Ores with excessively high Mana Indexes cannot be measured with commercially available Mana Measurement Devices.”
Aisha was getting more and more excited. As a scholar specializing in researching the ‘Black Dungeon,’ she reacted sensitively to Demon Ores.
“If that’s the case, then Mitaka Yuma must have some connection to the ‘Black Dungeon’… no, he definitely does! That must be it!! I have to ask him, the person himself–”
“Wait, wait, calm down! If he’s hiding something, you won’t be able to get it out of him easily.”
“Hmm? Ah, that’s right. That’s certainly true. We have to take proper measures… because he’s the best subject… no, person, we absolutely can’t let get away. Fufufufu…”
Kanzaki became uneasy as he looked at Aisha, who was making a creepy laugh.
“Kotaro! Bring Mitaka Yuma here the day after tomorrow. I’ll talk to him.”
“The day after tomorrow? Can’t it be tomorrow?”
“I need to prepare. To make sure we can talk for sure. Well, leave it to me. Kukukuk.”
Kanzaki’s anxiety grew even more at Aisha’s confident smile.