Satsuki woke up in a room with a white ceiling, with the smell of antiseptics greeting her. Her, well, everything was aching. There was something different with her body, other than the pain, but she couldn’t put a finger on what that was; she had no bandages on her, from what she could tell. She then started coughing and vomited off the side of the bed, barely avoiding staining the sheets.
Suddenly, a nurse (?), a black-haired woman in her late thirties or so barged in and started taking her vitals, after she had finished vomiting, of course.
“How are you feeling?” The woman said, a professional smile on her face.
“Tired,” Satsuki said simply, not willing to say more.
The nurse went on and on about how that was expected, and that Satsuki surviving must have been a miracle from the gods. Satsuki didn’t feel very blessed. “Oh, there’s someone here who has been waiting for you to wake up. He’s willing to adopt you. Would you like to see him?” The nurse said, finally stopping her yapping.
“Yes!” Satsuki said, eagerly, mainly because she wanted the nurse to stop speaking.
A few minutes later, a familiar-looking man stepped inside; with a look from him, the nurse left the room and went outside. His black eyes showed fatigue, and little else.
Satsuki broke the silence first. She said, “you are the one who saved me,” having recognized the man.
The man said that he was. Then, he said, “I didn’t think you had the chance to see who I was. My name is Emiya Kiritsugu. Would you like to follow me, a near-total stranger, home? Or do you prefer the foster system?” His expression still mostly unreadable.
Satsuki remembered that she had a grandmother somewhere in Japan, but the details were somewhat hazy. Satsuki might never find the woman. So, she made her decision, saying, “I will follow you, Emiya-san.”
Kiritsugu’s lips twitched in what might have been a smile on any other person. He said, “I’m glad; I will have to take care of some paperwork -and Memory Manipulation- first, then I am taking you home.”
“What’s ‘Memory Manipulation’, Emiya-san?” Satsuki asked, a bit confused by the unfamiliar term - her vocabulary was extensive, she knew what those words meant, but they didn’t make sense together.
“Ah, you heard that?” Kiritsugu said. Then, he explained that he was a Magus, which was a bit like the wizards in fairy tales, except much less positive.
“So, magic exists? That makes sense,” Satsuki said, realizing what she did to save herself in-
Satsuki could hear buzzing in her ears, then-
Static
The flames were engulfing her, burning, except this time there was nothing left of her, she was dead, dead, DEAD. EVERYONE IS DEAD!
Satsuki came to her senses, only to realize she was shaking like a leaf. Kiritsugu had his hands on her shoulders, speaking softly.
After a few minutes, Satsuki managed to calm down and mostly stop shaking.
“What happened?” Kiritsugu asked.
“I felt like I was being burned alive, Emiya-san, but it was only a memory,” Satsuki said, shivering a bit. When she said it, though, she realized the bitter truth: it would never by ‘only a memory’; it was much more than that.
Kiritsugu nodded and said something about ‘PTSD’, whatever that might be.
Satsuki then gathered her courage and said, “please teach me how to use my magic, Emiya-san. I don’t want to be so helpless ever again.”
Kiritsugu stilled. He said, “you might not even have the talent for it - Magecraft is the proper term, by the way.”
Then, Satsuki told her future guardian of how her Elements protected her.
Kiritsugu seemed astonished. He said, “an Average One, and with strong enough Circuits to last for who knows how long, and good enough instincts to use a rudimentary form of Magecraft! Are you from a line of Magi?”
“Probably,” Satsuki said, though she didn’t remember.
“That changes things,” Kiritsugu murmured, “it might be wiser to give you back to-”
“Please don’t abandon me, Emiya-san! My parents are no longer alive; my friends must have died in the- in that incident. I’m all alone. So, please,” Satsuki said, panicking despite herself. She didn’t think she would have warmed up to the man so quickly, but just the thought of him leaving her scared her.
Kiritsugu looked at her more carefully. Then, he said, “all right, I will take you in and even teach you Magecraft. Be warned, though: such things as Magecraft can only bring misery; nothing good will come out of it.”
“Then, I will be a magical doctor,” Satsuki said, deciding her path on the spot, “even if there is no such thing, I’ll be the first one; I’ll be someone able to treat everything! Even if it normally brings misery, I’ll make Magecraft into something good!”
Kiritsugu shook his head and gave her a lecture on why it was impossible to save everyone, and how it was a better idea to focus on the people close to her.
“How do I know it’s impossible if I don’t even try?” Satsuki said, getting a bit angry.
“Many other people, including me, HAVE tried to save everyone. Do you know how I ended up? I ended up as a monster who killed people to protect more people; killing everyone to save everyone, so to speak. And what do I get for trying to escape that? I fail and cause even more misery! Do you know how the Fire started!? I tried to destroy a cursed creature which was about to destroy the world, and it unleashed THAT. I don’t even know if I managed to eradicate it, or whether it will come back to try again!” Kiritsugu ranted, tears running down his face.
Satsuki couldn’t believe her ears. Emiya-san was a killer? He partly caused the disaster?! But even still, she knew what her reply would be. She said, “so what! That doesn’t mean I won’t at least try to save those close to me AND those who seek me out as a doctor, even if I fail sometimes. Especially if I fail sometimes.”
Kiritsugu sighed and said, “we’ll talk about this later. If you still want to come with me, of course.”
Satsuki nodded. She said, “your past is your past, Emiya-san; I won’t judge you on that.”
Satsuki couldn’t help feeling vaguely betrayed, that her savior was such a man, but she hoped she’d get over it. That would also depend on whether he changed his methods from then on, too.
-----
After they got settled in, Kiritsugu decided to cook them a meal, or at least try to.
Unfortunately, he was one of those rare individuals who could burn water and fail when using the microwave oven.
After his attempt ended up setting fire to the kitchen (which he fortunately smothered before it spread, with Satsuki being paralyzed by flashbacks), Satsuki said, “next time, I’ll cook,” putting her hands on her hips, imitating something her mother- something she had seen someone doing.
“Are you sure you’ll be fine?” Kiritsugu said, “your flashbacks are still going strong.”
“I’ll be fine, Emiya-san- I mean, Kiritsugu-san,” Satsuki said, “it’s not actual fire; I would have to do something really stupid to manage that,” looking pointedly at him.
“If you’re certain,” Kiritsugu said, his doubt and worry obvious to Satsuki, despite his poker face. Then, he said, “I’ll supervise, to make sure.”
Satsuki wanted to roll her eyes, but she knew it was a valid concern; if she froze in place every time she saw fire, she would get hurt or killed if she encountered it in uncontrolled form. Then, she said, “how do I get over it?” Hoping there was a solution.
“For now, try not to think about it. Or, rather, don’t think about it. We’ll desensitize you eventually, with help from a professional,” the man said.
“Desensitize?” Satsuki asked, not knowing what the term meant.
“In this case, it means getting you used to your fear gradually,” Kiritsugu said.
Satsuki decided to listen to her new guardian (she couldn’t bring herself to call him ‘father’, at least not yet) and avoid the topic, even in her thoughts (which was easier said than done).
The two of them got takeout for dinner, and settled into silence, which suited Satsuki just fine.
-----
Next morning, Satsuki’s attempt went much better than Kiritsugu’s - in that she didn’t nearly burn down the house. Her fried eggs were so bland-tasting, though, that she couldn’t really call it ‘food’.
Kiritsugu’s assurances that she did far better than he ever would be able to fell on hollow ears. They couldn’t keep eating takeout or her failed attempts at cooking; she would have to improve, and fast.
At night, after dinner (which was spaghetti, just as bland tasting as when she made it at lunch-time and the eggs of the morning), she broached the subject of Magecraft.
Kiritsugu’s shoulders went stiff. He said, “I had hoped you’d forget about that- never mind. I have time, so do you want to learn about the Moonlit World? That’s what Magi call the world of the supernatural.”
Satsuki said yes. She considered asking to be taught actual Magecraft, but she didn’t want to push her luck.
Kiritsugu said, “that’s good, because until you’ve got a grasp on the basics, such as the secrecy of the supernatural, I am not going to teach you even one spell,” as if he had read Satsuki’s mind. Then, he said, “no, I can’t read minds. You’re just predictable,” his tone teasing, though he still seemed unable to truly smile.
Satsuki very carefully didn’t pout and said, “just get on with it,” making Kiritsugu raise an eyebrow at her. “Please,” she begrudgingly added.
So, Kiritsugu spoke of the rules of secrecy all Magi had to follow, the consequences of breaking them, Gaia and Alaya as well as the role of the Counter Force and Counter Guardians (stressing the horrible consequences of making a deal with the world), the Mage’s Association, what a Second Owner was, the risks of Magecraft and the morality of the usual Magus.
Finally, he went over the fact that Magecraft was very dangerous again. He said, “to be a Magus is to walk with death. Opening your Circuits could kill you, using Magecraft could kill you, your experiments could kill you, any number of creatures could kill you, other Magi could kill you or do worse; it will only get worse from here on,” his tone serious and stern.
If Kiritsugu was disappointed that none of that fazed Satsuki, he didn’t show it. He proceeded to show her what he called a moderately advanced spell, but he didn’t tell her what it did. Wait… why could she hear a buzzing nearing Kiritsugu? Why did it then start sounding from within his body?
Satsuki told Kiritsugu that she could somehow hear something enter him, and he was very surprised, telling her that what she sensed was him absorbing the Mana of the environment.
After a few tests, they determined that she could ’hear’ both active spells like the Boundary Field around the Emiya Residence and independent Magical Energy, but she was far better at the latter - it took her a while to realize that the Field was there, after all. (*1)
Kiritsugu then told her that she should start meditating every night, so that she could both hone her sensing and feel her Circuits. He then told her what a trigger was, and why it was necessary for using Magecraft.
On the second day in the Emiya residence, Satsuki cooked lunch. Unfortunately, she got too ambitious and tried to make lentil soup, and ended up getting the lentils stuck on the bottom of the pot, so they had to eat food with the distinct taste of charcoal. They ended up having to order takeout, since the ‘burnt’ taste reminded Satsuki of the Fuyuki Fire.
At night, Satsuki meditated in order to feel her Circuits. She could tell something was there, but nothing more than that. Meditation also had the bonus of making her nightmares less frequent, or so she thought.
The next day, Kiritsugu broached the subject of school, blindsiding Satsuki. After a bit of thought, though, she realized it made sense.
“Will I have to start right away?” Satsuki asked, unsure if it was because she was unready for the social parts or because she wanted to learn more Magecraft.
“No,” Kiritsugu said, “the new school year starts on the sixth of April; you have a month or so. Oh, I didn’t ask: which grade were you in?”
Satsuki tried to remember, but her memories of school were hazy. She did remember her age, though. She said, “I’ll be eight on the fifteenth of August.”
“Oh,” Kiritsugu said, sheepish, “I thought you were six going on seven, and put that down as your age in official documents. Should I change it?”
Satsuki thought it over a bit, then said, “no, that’s fine. I don’t remember much of anything about my schooling, so I might have had to start the second grade over anyway. I do remember I was relatively bad at math, though,” laughing a bit.
“All right. I’ll just go ahead and change your birth date to August fifteenth, though,” Kiritsugu said.
They settled into a routine, where Satsuki was taught the theory of Magecraft and knowledge of the Moonlit World in the mornings after cooking and eating breakfast, she did some physical exercises Kiritsugu taught her in the afternoon and meditated in the evening.
After four nights of little progress on that front, Satsuki managed to activate her Circuits. The image she used was a wooden club meeting a boulder. The next night, her meditation (which she didn’t drop) allowed her to feel her Circuits and pick which she would use to try Structural Analysis, a spell which she didn’t manage that night.
The next one, she was able to analyze a paper with Structural Analysis, receiving some basic information about it. This time, in her meditation, she observed a strange phenomenon: if she breathed in a particular way, her Od started… stirring, for lack of a better word. Most of a person’s Od came from their body and Circuits, but some would exist as is in the body.
Three days later, her meditation showed nothing new, except she could ‘stir’ her Od further. She could use Structural Analysis and activate her Circuits slightly faster, at least, though whether it was due to the meditation or her gaining more experience (or both), she couldn’t tell.
After three more days of trying, she progressed further with Structural Analysis, able to use it faster and receive more information. At that point, her guardian taught her Memory Manipulation, and had her practice it on various animals.
Again, three days was the key number. On the third night, she managed to wipe out every single memory of the pigeon she was practicing on, turning it into a ‘vegetable’. Satsuki was horrified, but was somewhat pacified by Kiritsugu’s explanation that the better she got it down now, the less damage she would do to people when she inevitably had to use it.
It took her four more days to manage to change an animal’s memories just enough to make it think there was food in a particular place, much of the time spent on steeling herself to do what she had to. She then asked Kiritsugu for more spells, but he replied that if she didn’t bother improving on what she already had, a new spell would be useless.
Spurred on by Kiritsugu’s advice, she kept on meditating and improving both her current spells. She kept on affecting her Od without using her Circuits, managed to learn some of the history of the paper she was analyzing and could now use Memory Manipulation on an animal repeatedly without an apparent difference in its intelligence level. Unfortunately, said repeated use caused her a headache.
According to Kiritsugu, he hadn’t seen such rapid progress in Mental Interference Magecraft before. Satsuki didn’t know if that was a good thing, but since she could keep people from dying due to learning about Magecraft, it was something she would try to accept.
The following ten days, she kept improving the spells. According to Kiritsugu, Structural Analysis was mostly useless, but Satsuki had decided that, since she had only two spells, she would improve them to their limit and beyond. Kiritsugu didn’t object; she even thought she saw a small smile on his face when she told him that.
Her meditation reached a new milestone: she realized that whenever she ‘stirred’ her Od, the nearby Mana was affected slightly, too, and if she synchronized her breathing with her heartbeat and made her Circuits ‘spin’ her Od a certain way, she took Mana into her body, refilling her reserve of Od; it was hard to put into words, how she did it. That did make her Circuits heat up quickly, though; it also happened really slowly.
When she told Kiritsugu, he couldn’t believe his ears. He said, “wait, you can already gather Mana? Without a spell? That’s a very advanced skill. It’s also of the Eastern tradition rather than the Western, which is the style of Magecraft I know.”
“Will that be a problem?” Satsuki asked, biting her lip.
“No, but it means that I can’t help you develop it,” Kiritsugu said.
He also told her that she shouldn’t practice her Magecraft that night, in order to get ready for school next day. That annoyed Satsuki, but she could see the reasoning behind it. On the other hand, she wanted to see if it was possible to use her Od and take in Mana without using her Circuits. What she had learned of the theory of Magecraft deemed that impossible, but she wouldn’t let that deter her.
-----
“Hello, I’m- Emiya Satsuki. Please take care of me,” Satsuki said, bowing, stuttering over the family name. She hoped she’d be well-received.
The teacher, a woman called Uzushio-sensei, told her to sit next to Mitsuzuri Ayako, who was an auburn-haired girl that seemed cheerful.
During class, Mitsuzuri whispered something to her. Satsuki tried to pay attention to class, but Mitsuzuri insisted. “Psst, Emiya,” the other girl said, “do you do martial arts?”
A strange thing to ask, but Satsuki signaled that she’d tell her later.
-----
“I don’t do martial arts, but I do some exercises to be more limber and stronger every afternoon, and have started doing a run around the yard,” Satsuki said, after school let out early.
“Really!? I can’t leave you like that - without knowing that joy,” Mitsuzuri said, melodramatically.
Satsuki let the other girl manhandle her, curious where this was going, despite herself. Mitsuzuri led her to an older woman, whom she introduced as her mother, Yumi-
A gentle smile; a kiss on the brow; a burning corpse. She’s dead, dead, DEAD!
“Sorry,” Satsuki said, “I zoned out for a minute there. It’s nice to meet you, Mitsuzuri-san; I am Emiya Satsuki,” shaking herself.
“Hello there, Satsuki-chan. So, my daughter says you might be interested in martial arts…?” Mitsuzuri’s mother said.
Satsuki nodded. She said, “it sounds interesting, and is something I haven’t tried before. But, I may have to speak to my guardian first.”
“What? Really? I thought you were just going along with Ayako,” Mitsuzuri’s mother admitted, a sheepish smile on her face.
“Mom!” Mitsuzuri protested, though she sounded a bit whiny.
Her mother ignored her and said, “Ayako has gotten it in her head to find someone to learn the Naginata with her - or some form of martial arts, at least. Our dojo is still new, and there is nobody Ayako’s age there,” smiling.
“I truly am interested. Are you her sensei as well?” Satsuki said, hoping that the woman wouldn’t take offense.
The woman smiled and said yes, that she practiced naginatajutsu. Then, she said, “my husband is also teaching her some unarmed martial arts. So, what do you think?”
Thinking of a disastrous attempt to use a staff and a club that Kiritsugu had persuaded her to try, Satsuki shuddered and said, “I don’t think that weapons are my kind of thing - unarmed combat is the way to go. I will speak to my guardian to get permission.”
-----
Kiritsugu seemed to find martial arts lessons a really good idea; Satsuki wasn’t sure if he was glad that she’d be better able to defend herself, or if he thought she’d give up on Magecraft if she found something else to do, though.
He accompanied her to the Mitsuzuri dojo and watched the proceedings carefully, along with her. According to him, Mitsuzuri’s father was a true master of martial arts, showing in his breathing. Satsuki thought he must have been really impressed, to actually state it.
“That’s a keen eye you’ve got there,” the now smiling man, Mitsuzuri’s father, said. “So, have you met any experts on breathing and walking before?” He said then.
“One or two,” Kiritsugu said, face stern, as usual.
“I’m Mitsuzuri Hari,” the man said, introducing himself. If he was put off by Kiritsugu’s cold attitude, he didn’t show it.
“I can do something like that, too!” Satsuki said, eager to show off her new skill.
“Really? Let’s see that, then,” Mr. Mitsuzuri said, bending down to reach her height, smiling inu- indulgently.
Satsuki nodded and got into a meditative state; then, she did the same thing she usually did to make her Od stir and affect the Mana around her, without absorbing it.
Mr. Mitsuzuri gasped; she could just about make out the expression of total surprise on his face.
After that, Mr. Mitsuzuri was very eager to have her as his student.
Satsuki got to know Ayako (as she wanted to be called) and her parents much better over the course of the next month. According to Kiritsugu, Satsuki had sorely needed someone to get her out of her shell.
In that month, she improved Structural Analysis to the point she could learn the entire history of an object, and her meditation, with help from Mr. Mitsuzuri, allowed her to improve her breathing further, to the point her Od regenerated faster. On the other hand, she didn’t have much to spend that Od on, so she started working on a variation of Structural Analysis that analyzed multiple things at once, giving only minimal information but spending more Prana.
On the other hand, the rest of her martial arts training was progressing very slowly; she wasn’t a “kinesthetic learner”, nor especially talented.
-----
“I’ve put this off for a while, hoping you would abandon Magecraft,” Kiritsugu said, his expression focused, “it’s time to teach you something new. What would you rather know, how to make potions -which is Witchcraft- or Reinforcement?”
Satsuki thought it over for a bit, but in the end, something that could be used in healing was preferable. She said, “I pick the potions.”
There was another reason she chose that: Kiritsugu put in a lot of effort to make some potions that kept her nightmares of the Fire away; she wanted to decrease the burden on him. He was getting tired more and more easily nowadays.
Kiritsugu said, “all right, let’s-”
Suddenly, the Boundary Field detected a non-hostile, then the bell rang.
“I’ll go get it,” Kiritsugu said, an expression on his face that Satsuki hadn’t seen before, palming… a gun?!
He looked through the door viewer, then sheathed the gun, opened the door and greeted someone named ‘Taiga’, more relaxed this time.
“Hi Kiritsugu-san!” The girl, around fifteen years of age, greeted Kiritsugu, oblivious to the gun hidden in the man’s clothes. Then, she said, “sorry I didn’t visit for the past few months; I wanted to give you the chance to settle in now that you’re here permanently. …Huh? Who’s this, Kiritsugu-san?” Pointing at Satsuki.
“Oh, this is my daughter, Satsuki,” Kiritsugu said, wincing a bit and covering his ears for some reason.
“Ah, I see, your daughter - that makes sense- WHAT! YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER!?” ‘Taiga’ ‘said’, making Satsuki wince too at her volume.
Satsuki nearly forgot about the gun in the commotion, but she would ask Kiritsugu later. She said, “it’s nice to meet you, Taiga-san, was it…? I am Emiya Satsuki.”
“She’s so CUUUUTE!” Taiga shouted, “so polite at your age, too!” And glomped Satsuki.
Satsuki was annoyed, but kept on being polite, even while being smothered. She let out a, “could you l-let me breathe? P-please?”
“Oh, I could just eat you up!” Taiga said, ignoring Satsuki, who was swiftly losing consciousness.
Kiritsugu said something, and Satsuki was free! She took desperate breaths, then switched to her breathing technique to recover faster.
Taiga said, “so, the kid’s a martial artist,” her gaze sharpened.
Satsuki couldn’t see Kiritsugu, but she guessed that he nodded.
“Tell me, Satsuki - do you have any talent for Kendo?” Taiga asked.
Satsuki remembered the last time she got her hands on any melee weapon, bladed or otherwise, and shivered.
“That bad, huh?” Taiga said, “oh, how stupid of me; my name is Fujimura Taiga,” a silly smile on her face.
“…Charmed,” Satsuki said, “to the point I could just… collapse,” her lips thinned.
“Sarcasm and caustic humor doesn’t suit a polite kid like you,” Taiga said, a similar expression on her face.
Satsuki didn’t speak - she simply looked at Taiga.
“…Oh, fine! I’m sorry I smothered you like that earlier,” the obviously immature teenager said, pouting. “No need to go all passive-aggressive on me, Sacchin!” Taiga said.
“Please don’t call me that ever again, Taiga-san,” Satsuki said, memories of friends long gone haunting her.
“Then call me Fujimura-nee!” Taiga said, stubbornly, “I don’t much like my given name.”
“Really?” Satsuki said, narrowing her eyes in thought, “does it have anything to do with how it sounds like Ti- uh, a certain predator?” She continued, backtracking as soon as she saw the proverbial flames shooting out of Taiga’s eyes.
“This is the only freebie you get,” Taiga said, voice menacing, “use it wisely,” a tiger-strapped shinai seemingly moving on its own on her shoulder.
Satsuki gulped and said, “understood, Fujimura-nee,” fearing for her life, with the fierce… predator menacing her.
“Great!” Taiga said, “I’m glad we understand each other, Satsuki,” all smiles again.
Satsuki hid her shudder as best she could.
-----
“So, Kiritsugu-san, why did you have a gun?” Satsuki asked sweetly.
Kiritsugu explained how he often used mundane weapons to destroy supernatural threats. “I even considered blowing up the leylines of Fuyuki to keep that creature from returning, but I realized that if she failed, it wouldn’t do anything; even if it did, something like the Fuyuki Fire might happen again that way,” he said, contemplative.
Satsuki felt she had to ask; she said, “what is that creature you’ve referred to twice so far?”
Kiritsugu shook himself and said, “nothing you need to concern yourself with right now,” stern once more.
Satsuki really wanted to know; she could tell it was something important, but she wouldn’t push Kiritsugu for the time being. She said, “if you say so,” sighing quietly.
It took Satsuki a few months of study, but her potions making skill was ‘adequate’, according to Kiritsugu. She also made a lot of progress in her meditation, and could do everything faster, including the activation of her Circuits, and her new Multi-Analysis. Unfortunately, Kiritsugu disappeared from Fuyuki, leaving Satsuki in Fujimura Raiga’s care.
He also left her with instructions to seek out Doctor Jinan Sougen at Misaki, if her potions weren’t up to par for her nightmares. Though he worded it in such a way that a normal person like Raiga could read it without suspecting anything.
“Mou,” Satsuki said, “Kiritsugu-san missed my eighth birthday! What could be so urgent!” Certainly not pouting.
“I don’t know, Satsuki,” Taiga said, frowning and unusually serious, “I’ll help you get Kiritsugu-san to fess up, though. Hihihi,” though her seriousness didn’t last long.
Taiga had organized a birthday party which involved Ayako, her parents, a few classmates like Himuro Kane, Saegusa Yukika and Makidera Kaede, as well as Ayako’s younger brother Minori.
It was a smashing success - literally, since Minori, in an attempt to impress the girls by showing them a martial arts move, smashed through one of the shoji doors of the Emiya Residence.
His parents apologized profusely, but both Taiga and Satsuki waved them off. On the other hand, Ayako found the whole thing very amusing, even hilarious.
-----
Satsuki was starting to regret coming to Misaki town. She hadn’t run out of potions; she simply had a hunch when she saw the name of the town, as if she had heard of it before in her dreams, or something like that.
Unfortunately, the atmosphere of the place was very ominous. Even her meditation failed to calm her down; whatever was wrong had almost seeped out into the Mana of the town. She still made sure to absorb much of it, though; Misaki town was more Mana-rich than Fuyuki, apparently, so Satsuki made sure to take advantage of that to grow her reserves of Od. Any extra Od that she couldn’t keep was released into the air to become Mana again.
She made a breakthrough while in Misaki: she could feel the flow of Mana as it was converted to Od, but she wondered: did the location in the body matter? She tried to absorb the Mana inside the heart first, and could feel something change. Then, she tried to use the part of her Circuits that crossed the lungs.
!
Satsuki nearly collapsed, holding her chest. She felt like something was squeezing it from the inside. She could feel panic set in, but before she lost it completely, the pain stopped, and a bit of coughing was the only reminder of what happened.
The girl was breathing in and out, this time without absorbing any Mana. What had just happened?! Fortunately, the ones accompanying her, Raiga’s men and Taiga, were not close enough to see her collapse in pain. She decided to use Structural Analysis on her heart and lungs, and they seemed to be in working order.
Her only clue to what might have happened was the fact that she was breathing more easily, like an overweight woman who had lost a lot of her extra fat. Her heartbeat was slower and steadier, and her breathing was easier to control. She could also store some magical energy in her lungs, like a Magic Crest… somehow. It was only around eighty units; compared to her own initial Od reserve of twenty-eight hundred, and her current one of four thousand, it was a drop in the lake, but it could be useful.
She decided to go on a walk to clear her head. A lot had happened that day; Satsuki wondered what else might happen-