What the hell is a dantian, and why Magical Girls don't use them?

  "It's about time," Jenna suddenly said from the back.

  Time? Time for what?

  "Already? Well…I guess we did spend quite the amount of time…" Lily sighed, time for what? "Well, Good lu your journey as a sorceress."

  "Wait, what's a dantian? And where are you going?" Elizabeth said standing up.

  "Well that is a hard to answer question…" Lily said, turning thoughtful, "In a sense, I'm not going anywhere…..But in another I am returning home."

  What? How did that make sense?

  While Elizabeth was thinking about that, Lily Thompson started shining in blue light, Elizabeth focused her senses on [The Sniper] and noticed how a coat of Mana was disappearing from the girl. She hadn't noticed it before, so how could she notice it now?

  "This is quite awkward…my mana is leaving this body so now it's leaking…" Lily said sheepishly, "So, don't hate the local version of me. She had a rough upbringing, and after that, she didn't have much of a o speak. It should be fine now that you started your path as a sorceress."

  ….That didn't expin what is a dantian tho.

  "Thank you for calling me. I love seeing you less feral." And with those words Directed at Jenna, Lily's eyes turned from the vibrant color to the dull color from before.

  "Rude, that Jenna has a reason to be like that." Jenna said as Lily tilted her head to the side just as she had been doing before Jenna used her Skill on Lily.

  "...not...me..." Lily said mumbling the answer back.

  What?

  Why was she like tha-

  Ah...Jenna summoned an Echo so it would affect Lily? Then she had been speaking to an Echo and not to the Lily from Zaanam?

  "....no....you...spoke...to...me....influenced...by....an...Echo..." Lily answered before Elizabeth could say her findings.

  "Yeah, the only moment you spoke to the Echo was when she was about to leave and when she arrived. All the other times it was this world's Lily uhe influence of the other one." Jenna answered with a sigh, "Think of it as our world's Lily using the other as a mouthpiece, it was her. But what she wao say was being transted by an outer worlder Lily."

  That...seemed like an overly plicated way to get someoo speak more.

  "....See...?....It...was....me....giving....the....expnation...." Lily said puffing out her chest once more.

  "So the mannerism was also from that other Lily?" Elizabeth said pointing at [The Sniper], the girl had ged once more how she behaved, before she rarely acted as if what she had done was something to be proud of.

  "Somewhat, it's more like the personality of the irl was being used to interpret what this one wao say," Jenna Elizabeth's query, "So both mannerisms and way of speech depended oher Lily."

  That was oeresting way to use Jenna's power.

  "So 't you just summon her again?" Elizabeth said turning to Jenna, "It would make this go faster."

  ".....gnu...uu...uuuu...." Lily...gnued? "...I....am....the....better....sorceress....in....the....multi....verse...."

  She was?

  "That she is," Jenna said nodding her head, "I don't like using that application of my power either, it's too risky. Besides, it's rude both to this Lily and the Lily that is summoned."

  Rude to them?

  "How so?" Elizabeth asked fused.

  "First of all, the Lily being summoned is being yanked from her world into ours. When arriving into our world first she gets hit with my Skill, most of the time this means that she is somewhat ed down." Jenna said as the Mana materialized above her hands in the form of an azure , "Sedly she has to fight against our Lily's will."

  Lily at the side did the obvious and nodded while hitting her chest with one of her hands.

  "Usually this means that the one being summoned is either ed or assimited, but since Lily's magic doesn't behave like normal magic...Both in and outside our world..." Jenna said turning to Lily and waiting for her to say something.

  "...we....e to....an....agreement....they....help....me....and....I....give...them....some.... advice...." Lily's voiehow sounded more...profound.

  Elizabeth couldn't help it but feel as if the words seemed to hold some degree of Authority, but she couldn't dete iota of Mana ing from the girl.

  Was this another example of self-tained Mana?

  Looking down at herself, she noticed that her own body was giving off less Mana than before. Before she could noti uneven mana ing out of her body, a proof of her being someone who could wield Mana.

  And to the more experienced iing Mana, a definitive proof of her identity as someone part of the super herical society.

  But now?

  Now she barely gave off some mana, if anything she was giving out almost as much Mana as a civilian who could awaken a magical skill with some training.

  g on into her own mana circuits Elizabeth ied them till she found the reason from the leaking of Mana, bing throught the mana cables she had made before she soon enough found the reason.

  The three...Dantians she had made weren't isoted properly, so extending her mana cables around them she enveloped them in the mana cables to act as isotion and a more thh way of both densing and taking the Mana from the dantian.

  She did the same with the middle dantian and the lower dantian afterward, and finally the same to her lower dantian.

  Doing so Elizabeth noticed how less and less Mana was leaking to the outside, till she ractically indistinct from any normal civilian, she could probably pass up as a normal civilian to anyone now even!

  "....good....I...knew...I...was....a.....good.....teach." Lily nodded her head at Elizabeth's achievements.

  Elizabeth couldn't help but narrow her eyes at the gall of this girl, she had dohing to help her and nning on cashing onto her sucess? That was bullshit.

  So, thinking about how to prevent this, Elizabeth couldn't help but think about the possible spell nodes she could use to achieve that.

  "Fine, I uand that you really helped me. But if you are that good of a sorceress then why do you not cast a spell to help yourself speak more fluently?" Elizabeth ribbed at Lily.

  Was it rude? Perhaps, she was unaware of why Lily spoke like she did, maybe there was some trauma? Some reason why she was like that? The other Lily did imply that this one spoke like this not because of wants, but because of a reason.

  "....'t....cast....something...I...don't....uand..." Lily answered in her slow ahodical way. "....Jenna....expin....this....while...I....prepare........css...."

  And like that, Lily closed her eyes and...started to do god knows what as always Elizabeth could not detey presenana leaking from the silver-haired girl, so all she had to go by was the fact that she cimed that she reparing her css...Whatever that would be.

  "So....roughly what Lily does is....." Jenna said stopping for a few seds to think.

  "Tell reality to get bent and make it do whatever she wants?" Elizabeth said turning to look at Rossie, her pink-haired girlfriend seemed to be doing well enough.

  And Elizabeth was deteg the girl making more and more loops of Mana within her body.

  Unlike Elizabeth however, who had made three dantians, the girl seemed to be fog most if not all of her extra Mana into her navel area. The pink-haired girl did also make a dantian there, but she had expa till it grew all the way to her skin in the form of engravings...

  Rossie did like her heart motif, didn't she?

  "That is a very crass way to put it, but it's quite cise in resuming it." Jenna said nodding her head, "How did you end up with that description anyway? I don't think Catherine or you would even think of setting it up like that."

  That was...quite uandable, Mother was many things, but while she ushed at cute girls. She was never crass.

  "Grandmother was the oo set it up like that, I didn't thought much about it when she said it, but now with these new...ways to think about magic..." Elizabeth said raising her hand and eling some mana into her finger. It was quite iing seeing how no mana leaked from her body till the Ma her finger.

  And even at that was only between the point from where the Ma her body and then formed a ball, from an outside point of view it looked like a normal civilian suddenly having a small blob of Mana at her finger.

  And while it was fun, Elizabeth didn't see any real reason for why she o know how to do this, gra was a rick to escape, but why?

  "Any reason why I o know how to do this?" Elizabeth decided to do the smart thing and ask, more proof that she was no longer a bimbo.

  "That I don't know, I know this trick does woo Lily at her job....But I don't know why she wanted you to learn it. You didn't as you wield magic quite well already..."Jenna's answer was in lih what Elizabeth herself thought.

  Then why?

  "....there....all....ready...." Lily said aloud and as Elizabeth turo the side they found...a couple dossiers. "....these....are....the.....names....and.....allegiances.....of...the...Nine...."

  The what now?

  Weren't they all heroes and Magical Girls?

  "They are [The ars] aren't they merely Heroes?" Rena said aloud finally from the side. Elizabeth had almost fotten she was there, with how quiet she had been.

  Grahat was mostly because Rena had been standing guard over them. Now that Elizabeth was free from that Rena was once more free to move and speak like usual.

  "....that is...not quite right," Jenna said with a grimace. "Here, look it for yourself."

  Elizabeth took the dossier and ope; what she found on the first page, however, was something she had not expected to see; as soon as she read the first line of it, Elizabeth turo stare at Jenna as if the girl had grown a sed head.

  "....You are a Vilin?" Elizabeth couldn't help but say and read it once again, unsure if what she had seen was accurate or not, "Or Super Vilin to be precise...actually...World Threat Super Vilin?"

  "Heheheheh...You'll make me blush," Jenna said while squirming from side to side.

  "...how?" Elizabeth asked as she read the information, "[The Juggernaut] is a highly dangerous and unstable individual, has enough power to upturn buildings, and is known to pete and overthrow our currently most powerful heroes and vilins on the same tier. Only reason it doesn't hold a higher Tier is because they dos...."

  "Heheheheh...usually that description was only used with your father..." Jenna giggled like a madman at that description, then after a few minutes, she finally calmed down enough to turn and cough into her hand as if she hadn't been giggling like a high schooler who finally got what she wanted, "Ahem...Well, Elizabeth...what is a Vilin? A Super Vilin? A Hero? A Superhero?"

  What? We were going into semantiow?

  "A Vilin is someone who its crimmes, a Super Vilin is someone who does the same on a bigger scale." Elizabeth answered somewhat fused about the question, "In that way, a Hero is someone who fights against Vilins and a Super Hero is ohat fights against a Super vilin...?"

  Elizabeth was fident in her answer, she was, after all, daughter of the top hero. If anything she was fident on her papa of being a Super Hero.

  "....wrong...." Lily, however answered as thus.

  "Indeed, what do you think we are Lily and myself? Heroes or Vilins?" Jenna asked thus with a wry smile on her face.

  "....Heroes?" Elizabeth asked, she was half sure that Jenna at the very least was a good girl.

  "Wrong," Jenna shook her head, "[The Sniper], [The Tinkerer], [The Warlock], [The Mother of Shadows] and [The Juggernaut]. That is, myself. Are what you would call Super-Vilins."

  That....shouldn't be. Weren't they members of the [ars]? Wasn't Jenna previously a member of [The Twelve]?

  "How?" Elizabeth asked once more.

  "What you call a Vilin or Super Vilin is the definition of a Criminal, not of a Vilin." Jenna said scratg her head, "A Vilin is someone who does whatever they want, and a Super Vilin is someone who does so by affeg many lives."

  What? That...that shouldn't...no but... it made...sense?

  "No wait..." Elizabeth said as the gears in her brain started making es, "Then...Papa and Mother..."

  "Yes, they are bonafide examples of Super Vilins." Jenna shrugged, "And by the way, [The Beast Master], [The Traveler], [The Elementalist], [The Monk], and [The Prophet] are qualified as Heroes and Super Heroes."

  That....was not what Elizabeth thought would be on the list, if Papa and Mother qualified as Vilins...well, Super Vilins, then why did those qualify as Heroes?

  "What is the thing that decides who is a Hero then?" Elizabeth asked narrowing her eyes, "I don't think you ever did anything to deserve to be called a Viliher did Papa or Mother."

  "So stalking random cute girls isn't Vilinous behavior?" Jenna said pointing straight at the root of Mother's bad behavior, "As for your Father...while I always see him as [My Hero]...He....kind of...imposed his will oion against the opinion of the elected leaders...."

  .....Ah.

  Right....Papa did do that...

  Actually, didn't he kidnap Avalon? And sealed it away?

  Wasn't...wasn't that Super Vilin behaviour?

  But...then...

  "Yeah, your Father teically is the only super-vilin to ever get away with his pns; he quered the world, imposed his will, and decred himself and your Mother as bastions of justice." Jenna sighed, "I mean, he did do good things. Don't get me wrong, but... he also didn't ask for permision, he did what he wanted. If he wao save someone he did, if he wao kill someone he did."

  Yeah...

  That...that did not sound like a good person.

  "So... what does this meahe [ars] and [The Twelve] weren't a hero association then?" Elizabeth asked.

  "We never cimed to be that, or not at the beginning. At the beginning, [The Twelve] were a subsidiary of the army. Then when your Mother arrived and the advent of Magical Girls started we then started taking in other members in..." Jenna said as an answer, "With time we saw the o find a pediate flicts, your Father needed a way to tell people that they would get hit if they didn't behave."

  ....Oh.

  "Yeah, he took in eople would usually call Vilins and Super Vilins into the fold and brahem as Heroes, the people who followed his will to protect this p." Jenna said, spreading open the dossiers showing the image of those that had been part of [The Twelve] at some point, "That was how the current version of [The Twelve] that you knew was formed, and why this current iteration as [The ars] has been having problems surviving."

  That....made some degree of sense?