《Refused Fusion》


 1 - Two Bodies

    Sunlight passed through the gaps between leaves, and so touched upon the closed eyelids of a person whose body laid relaxedly on the grass. ¡°Hmm.¡± He sounded, and with the persistent brightness and heat of the light, he lifted his upper body up.


    ¡°(Where?)¡± He looked straight on through, and this forest was far from being the usual sight for him. And, he could hear the birds chirping, which wasn¡¯t something he¡¯d get to so closely hear upon waking up.


    Turning around, he saw another person lying on the ground. A girl. The clothes she had on had a rather fancy sense to it. It wasn¡¯t so fitted onto her figure. Unlike what he would usually see girls wear, her clothes had more fabric, and showed no privy skin.


    ¡°Eh?¡± He felt like there was something wrong with this situation. Him, and a girl, alone. ¡°Uh...¡± He wasn¡¯t going to panic so easily, though. Still, he was confused. He took a look at what he wore. It didn¡¯t seem like he went somewhere fancy.


    ¡°(What happened?)¡± He tried recalling the most recent memories he had. At school as usual, but then, an earthquake. After that, nothing.


    ¡°(I was at school?)¡± It was even more confusing how he ended up near this girl. From her looks, it didn¡¯t seem like he had met this girl before, either. He pushed his mind to remember more of his most recent memories. ¡°(A bright light?)¡± It appeared there was nothing more he could get out of that.


    He stood up. ¡°Lady,¡± he decided, shaking her, ¡°wake up.¡±


    Her eyelids opened. But outside of expectations, a new pair of eyes were added in. Aurora, the name of the boy, could see his own self, from the perspective of the girl.


    In confusion, neither thoughts nor voice came out, as he focused on the memories of the girl as it mixed with his.


    For a given name, she had the same as his. With each second that passed, Aurora felt it become difficult to separate the two identities. They both had the same birthday, and so, the same age. And adding on to what matched, they even got the same family name.


    The male Aurora lived in a world of physical sciences. The female Aurora lived in a world of magical studies. To him, her world was of fantasy with the setting of old history. To her, his world was strange, for everyone to complete tasks by hand, or to have to rely on so many tools.


    He was born to an average family, above the poverty line, but far from qualifying as rich. They could buy what they needed, but a bit of an effort had to be put in to satisfy their wants. From such a family, he had grown to live by himself, while working a part-time job.


    She was born as the daughter to the fourth of six wives, and so had grown to be well off enough as to have some freedom, while still being given the privilege of learning from private tutors.


    ¡°This is crazy.¡± Aurora¡¯s male self reacted verbally to the experiences of the female, specifically on magic. In excitement, the female self was controlled into casting the most fundamental display of magic: a ball of fire. Above her palm, it floated as a sphere, a flame burning.


    With that, he had evidence of magic¡¯s existence. The excitement of it being so new to him, though, through the memories of the girl, was dampened with it being considered old news.


    Some questions rose on how he and she felt so concretely there being a shared consciousness, but after about a minute, Aurora had to focus on another subject.


    The first decision to come to mind was leaving the forest, and Aurora went with leaving.


    He held out his hand, and with her grip, she pulled herself up. And following that, she patted the lower half of her dress. From doing so, she then looked at her male self.


    It seemed that while she was the only one performing an action, there was the normalcy again of having only one pair of eyes. But even then, from his eyes did she still see herself when she tried to rid her clothes of what was from the soil.


    ¡°(Hmm.)¡± Aurora turned the two bodies to face away from the other, and they each slowly walked forward for a bunch of seconds. Aurora was able to concentrate on one body, while it was still for certain that Aurora had the senses of the other.


    At the thought of some more actions to try out, they sharply turned to each other in one instant. Aurora was going to have the two bodies flail their arms, but there was an immediate precognition of its silliness, and as such, Aurora did not. However, pressing on, the two bodies were made to walk in circles. And, they could simultaneously move, stop, or change what they were doing without so immediately disturbing the other.


    ¡°(What am I?)¡± This was a philosophical question that Aurora had no absolute answer after giving it a handful of time. The best Aurora could come up with was that they were as one mind, with a mysteriously small yet large sense of separation between their identities and sense of self.


    They sighed, to change what to think on. The scenery around them, and how to leave.


    The heights these trees were reaching were impressive. And while they were thick, the space between each of them provided a great amount of options for choosing whichever way to go.


    Her carriage rides did pass somewhere where she could see this kind of place, so it felt not so unfamiliar for her, though she did not exactly experience going so far into any wooded areas.


    When she had done the magic of a ball of fire, she utilized what was taught to her as an important thing to do: perceiving the presence of mana, since mana was the energy for magic, which was essentially the fuel for the creation and sustenance of the ball of fire she had shown.


    There was indeed mana around this place, and it was more evenly distributed than the view of dense spots or different concentrations she was expecting.


    And with the ability to see where mana was, another thing to do was to absorb or take into their body the mana, as it was how one would put sole authority over it.


    With her experience and knowledge as his guide, he saw how mana gathered to his hands.


    He found himself feeling the mana as though it had physical tangibility. The moment he saw it entering through his hands, his sense of touch was in agreement with his sense of sight for it.


    It told him that something was there, on and in his hand, but it was on the borders of non-existence. Like the presence of water on a submerged hand, it was there, but more was put into the sense of sight than in touch for this case.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    With mana, he gave creating the fire ball a try. The handling of magic and mana for him was easy, to the extent that he wondered why they on his world had not so easily discovered this with all the history it had. As much as one¡¯s imagination brought barely a feeling of physical stress, no effort could be felt being required in doing so.


    Though he did have her knowledge to use, it still was enough for him to describe the procedures in doing magic as just imagining the result into being. The energy for magic certainly behaved differently from the energies within the physics his world experienced.


    After walking for quite a while, they had the time to set their eyes on what decorated the area around them. Covering the soil was shrubbery where both of them identified small berries being many.


    He wasn¡¯t so familiar with them, as he lived mostly as someone who chose not to go outside if unnecessary. When it came to the stuff he ate, he didn¡¯t even mind much about variety, and knew not a lot on fruits.


    She, on the other hand, felt more familiar with this kind of subject. For him, her decision to bite into them was based on nothing but bravery. Being critical, it could have been poisonous.


    Even though they knew themselves as being one person, there was that differing feeling with the different experiences of the bodies, because their brains weren¡¯t physically connected or weren¡¯t physically as one. In such terms, there was no quick way to find evidence of them being the same person.


    They are in that sense different people, but with their kind of mental link, as Aurora thought of using that to separate the two identities, their memories are shown in a peculiar jumble. As his inactivity continued, he was gradually compelled to also just eat.


    The vegetation wasn¡¯t so tall or abundant enough as to hinder them from seeing further out. So, it was possible to see if anything was coming their way.


    Like as depicted in the video games he knew of, in her world, there were beings that were more dangerous or powerful than in his. However, there were those that were common but easier to kill. In a timely manner, something like a rabbit materialized into existence.


    It was safe to say that this was just as much a rabbit as any other that was biologically birthed if one were to not consider why and how it came into being. It had none of the biological mechanisms in their traditional form and location. Its internals were completely filled, but not with blood. It had what was functioning as a brain, but not in the head.


    The rabbit creature¡¯s two responses to distress were fight or fight. With no other option, it chose both.


    Its leap caused the two to step to the side, and it was easily dodged.


    Though as this particular rabbit did not get much time to become developed, it was not necessary to dodge its attempt at an attack.


    It landed in a shrub, and out again it went. This time, it was intercepted by her with a wind sharpened by magic. It was sliced into two in mid-air.


    Two parts of what was once a single ball colored blue dropped to the ground. The ball was simply called a mana core, a result of when enough mana was naturally combined together, which created the rabbit that could be succinctly described as an imitation of a living species.


    The imitation of a rabbit dissipated into smoke. As the mana core, which acted both as a brain and heart, was no longer able to contain its mana. It was the same as the rabbit body, it was returning to their original composition as inactive, ambient mana.


    As part of what the mana core was, she took it in her hands, and absorbed whatever was spilling out. From her memories, she had done so because it was related to what the strong users of magic did.


    This was what they did to gain power. The absorption of mana cores increased the capacity of mana they could store within themself.


    Being one of several in the lower positions of the hierarchy in the family, she had not gotten much of an opportunity to get her hands on something like it.


    She was only taught that it was processed while whole, so she had not much in the way of knowing if there was a difference in absorbing the mana from one that was broken into two.


    After a while, there was a change in what they could look at. There was a river, and in the distance on one end of the river, the trees were shorter, but were spaced closer to each other.


    In survival tips, a river was something one could follow to find a settlement. A source of water was essential for people to live off of.


    They could choose between going where it seemed just deeper into the forest they were in, or into the direction of where a forest of different make was.


    Considering just how long it took to get this much of a change in scenery, ¡°(I should be using magic to speed us up.)¡± Aurora began thinking, and tests were to be conducted.


    Although it was natural for her to improve on what she knew, she was taught only in what to protect herself with. There was no precedent for Aurora in increasing travel speed. Both had lived mostly in one place. So, it was a learning process both brains would undergo at the same time.


    The area around him was then drained of mana. As he went on to pull more, he discovered how harder it became to do the further away they were.


    But, the energy was more than enough. Wanting to know how much he could lift with this much, his body was hoisted up. With the view on the mana, she could see its brightness within him darken. It lasted less than twenty seconds before he had to drop back to the ground.


    It was sufficient to know that mana was quite a strong kind of energy.


    He prepared himself, recovering them for a boost. A foot was set behind the other. And with a kick on the ground, he lunged forward.


    After the first few steps, he felt a loss in speed, and a look at the mana was taken. While he no longer had them within him, he was going through the ambient mana, the mana in the environment. And to keep his speed up, he just took them in, while he was still running.


    But with the mana introduced, he failed to prepare himself for how it would affect his balance. With poor timing and coordination, his legs failed to properly land, and his upper body began its fall.


    Fortunately for him, with the practically instant reaction time of the magical energy, his flop to the ground was made gentle.


    ¡°That was dangerous.¡± He smirked.


    With that, she saw how fast he moved, and Aurora felt good with it. And as for which direction he sprinted in, it was where the river lead them more into the spacious forest they were already in.


    As he was further ahead, it was her turn to try trying it. Unlike him, she moved at a slower pace.


    Her dress would add to her weight, and it was going to hinder her in where she could plant her feet, so it was trimmed with magic before she tried experimenting with boosting her running speed.


    As her legs left the ground again and again, Aurora recalled how he lifted his body, to test the strength of mana, and she started pushing herself forward only while in the air. This was done in small strides, and it was gradually built up to have bigger jumps for a faster speed.


    Her feet stepped off, and on the soil. She passed by a tree, and a few more. Each time, she was more accurate with when it was safe to be boosted.


    The time it took her to cross the wide spacing between the trees became no more than two seconds. But then, she reached a point where her legs started feeling pain.


    With those times she returned to the ground, it became evident that landing at increased speeds was the cause behind it. She was not as easily excited as him in getting to use magic, so the result of the force of impact was at the level of a warning.


    ¡°Phew.¡± She exhaled. A bit of adrenaline was circulating for her who had not many opportunities to be so physically active.


    From her try in acceleration, there was more of an understanding on how it was to be properly done. Mana shouldn¡¯t push while the legs were in the moment of stopping or being on the ground.


    It was possible to recharge himself with mana while running, so this was how he would sustain what was needed for the acceleration.


    To assess the issue of possibly breaking a leg whenever stepping back down, a solution was to negate the momentum just before landing.


    However, after catapulting himself, it was found to be inefficient. Mana would be consumed at quite a rate for when it came to movement. And when Aurora slowed himself to mitigate the force of impact, slowing down was, on top of the added energy cost, opposite the purpose of wanting to be fast.


    So, one of the solutions Aurora thought of was just gliding through the air, she basically already did that, as to reduce having to slow down so much to keep their legs fine. But if gliding was possible, flight looked not so impossible a feat. Aurora wanted to achieve it. Flight without wings.


    He put himself into a steadier mindset in trying for this. Body filled with mana, he was lifted into the air.


    With its distribution throughout the forest, it would not take much to move to where they could recover the amount of mana used.


    With just taking them as they go, they could fly for as long as the path was where more mana was. ¡°(All right.)¡± Aurora was firm on the idea for moving out of the forest quick.

 2 - Flight

    He floated up into the air, and after doing so, he slowly began to move. With how mana provided intended results so casually, it did not take long for him to ease into doing all at the same time: (1) bringing the mana to his control; (2) maintaining his distance from the ground; and, (3) moving.


    After travelling a short distance, he slowed down. What Aurora had to do was to have both bodies move at the same time. Her feet parted from the ground, and so the two were up.


    When it came to balance, it felt not so much a challenge. Mana was just so quick in reacting. What Aurora had to consciously mind was mainly in managing altitude and velocity, and maintaining the mana they had.


    As they moved, hovering above the ground, she looked at him who was at the front. Having two sets of eyes was something Aurora now had. It should be disorienting, yet it was not. It felt natural.


    Seeing the other body move when casting aside shared perception was quite a sight to behold.


    And in this situation, their synchrony did not falter any bit whenever Aurora concentrated on perceiving through one over the other.


    Putting back the focus on moving, Aurora sped both of them up. Since they moved to be above the river¡¯s surface, there was the worry of falling into it. But at least if they did, it would be easier to recover from than crashing into dirt. Also, as there were no trees that grew from within the water, it was easy to just follow it, to avoid crashing into them.


    They soon enough reached the speed at which they could normally run at. Aurora felt a sense of thrill shared by both. With twice the brain, and eyes, the attention could be divided, so she focused on where they were going, while through him, Aurora could focus on the scenery.


    For as far as she could see, the river did not curve so much, so there was not a whole lot to worry about in doing agile maneuvers.


    Looking at the scenery around them, Aurora could not help but feel in awe. The feeling of moving through the wind, and feeling it so freely added in that sense of wonder.


    Looking down, the clarity of the water was surreal. Aurora admired this for a while, in serenity. Thoughts were there, but the time spent in getting them done, it was in a leisurely way.


    Weaving through the trees. Imagining that scene happening was tempting, but Aurora did not go with it.


    When it came to things that flew, Aurora thought of planes. It was a staple image for humanity¡¯s development in soaring through the skies.


    Depending on how their body was shaped, it could be the determining factor in their efficiency in flight. Aurora gave it some thought. When it came to motion, a jet could power down its engines, but still remain afloat.


    ¡°(Lift...)¡± He recalled what made it possible for planes to stay up.


    It was not necessary to have to mind horizontal velocity at all times. So, acceleration began to be done periodically, while the spending of mana would mostly be on keeping their bodies up. With such adjustments, Aurora felt it become easier to do. Slowly but surely, their speed became comparable to how fast a car could travel.


    After a while, the number of trees in their view immediately lessened. They entered into a more open space. With not much to look at, rather than sticking so closely to the ground, going higher and into the sky may be better.


    Thinking so, Aurora thought of how difficult it may be to land. ¡°(That¡¯s for later. I¡¯ll do this.)¡± Though, Aurora became resolute to approach the clouds.


    They tipped upward. The usage of mana increased as they were accelerating to rise, so they had to focus more on keeping some mana be available for use by gathering as they went.


    The clouds were still far beyond their reach, but it was good enough, they stopped climbing. Their eyes moved over to where the ground was. A not-so-confident smile formed on both their faces. As they flew, they could only look at where they would very quickly go if they just ran out of mana.


    Aurora had to think of how they would land. Since they were able to do so much already with accelerating and hovering, it should be possible to slow down as they fell, but Aurora had to feel worry while it was yet to be done.


    From way high up, they could see a city of modern architecture a way away, but in the middle of it, Aurora found it questionable.


    There was a castle that did not let itself lose in comparison to the modern buildings around it in terms of grandiosity. The castle had a few rings of walls, and behind each of those walls were structures of an ancient but familiar look. Just from the view of it, there was a hierarchical divide in the style between each wall.


    Aurora could not muster much of an opinion on it, other than to just take in the sight. In one aspect from observation, the castle or medieval settlement was relatively small when comparing it to how much ground the sprawling modern city covered.


    Upon having directly below them a good number of buildings, where they were well within the city, Aurora began deciding. Finding a landing spot was the foremost concern. Other than moving around between his school, and the place of his part-time job, he did not go outside much. He did recognize the area where some tall buildings were, though. It appeared to be the same city he had lived in.


    As for her, she lived in what was essentially a mansion with mostly agricultural land around it, so the castle was, while interesting, not a place to immediately be in.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Tracing from where his school was, he found where he would go. But, Aurora had to think of what people would think of when they saw their descent.


    Since mana was being used to sustain their flight, any other type of magic seemed difficult to add. So, it was decided they would just drop down, minding the issues only for afterwards.


    As they fell, mana was used to keep their momentum manageable, and they were able to have their feet touch concrete quite safely. And, they took an attentive look around them. ¡°(Doesn¡¯t seem like anyone saw me... us.)¡± Aurora did not see any curious face peering at them.


    Being the time of day it was, most adults would most probably be at work, while most of those still young or had no jobs tend to stay more so indoors, keeping themselves occupied as per the growing presence of electronic devices.


    ¡°(There was no other choice.)¡± Aurora started thinking for some words, having become conscious of there being two bodies, especially with them being of opposite genders.


    ¡°(I mean, I could rent another apartment. But, that would probably be impossible right now. So, it¡¯ll feel a bit awkward. But...)¡± There would need to be an explanation for people. When it came to others, there was no guarantee they would easily dismiss it. Would they have to be spotted together all the time? ¡°(Us being relatives should work, I guess.)¡±


    When they arrived at the door of his apartment, he asked himself a question: ¡°(Where¡¯s the keys?)¡± He needed to unlock the door. It was possible to just cut a hole through it, but being reasonable, that idea was brushed away.


    ¡°(At school?)¡± He found it the most plausible. ¡°(My bag should be at school.)¡±


    If it was back at the forest, which he doubted but could not rule out, he would have to go back there, which was not the most pleasant choice to make.


    His keys, and more importantly his wallet were not on him. He grimaced at his situation. But firstly, he just had to go to his school to confirm.


    He could fly over there, but it was quite risky to show off the magic. ¡°(I guess I¡¯ll just walk there.)¡± He did not know if others knew of it, or if it was possible for them. Was it bad to share the knowledge? Aurora thought about it.


    It would not be a problem if Aurora knew for sure that the government would not make a test subject out of either or both of them, or some bad outcome as depicted in some stories about those with superpowers.


    ¡°Sigh.¡± He prepared himself to take a walk. Having just undergone the experience of flying, it felt a bit dull to do so, but on the positive, walking had its sense of comfort in safety over flight.


    His eyes turned toward her. Her dress had a style that felt a bit out of place. The folds and layers of cloth were extravagant. So, new clothes were necessary.


    The part of the dress below her waist was the one most attracting in being out of the ordinary.


    The bell shape it had was already misshapen, with its back side made straight from her having lied down in the forest, the frame that kept it up wasn¡¯t so strongly fixed in shape. With the aid of magic, the rest of the frame was bent, so the cover could finally fall.


    Although it didn¡¯t exactly solve so much, at least its form felt standard.


    As for where she would be at, he could not have her go with him as that would need some explaining that very likely would not work past the guard. There was a park nearby, which had some benches for sitting on, so that¡¯s where she would wait.


    Before they were to walk back down the stairway connecting floor to floor the apartments, Aurora thought of using magic to transform her clothes.


    Since he of course had no clothes for a girlish look, it felt like a good way to do it. However, it seemed a bit too complicated, requiring more precision than Aurora knew of if wanting to avoid ruining it.


    So, no changes were made before, at the park, the two separated, and she sat down on one of the many benches, and in the meantime focused her sights onto the modern city.


    In the world she was in, she was taught that if she were ever to be in a town, she had to be ready at all times. If ever she was out of mana, she had to get some. It was too much a risk being powerless in front of those who can so simply use magic.


    In this modern environment, they had no need to have to worry so much about suddenly being killed by someone else. Well, murders still took place, but the chance was low enough that most could just so calmly go outside unarmed where other people were.


    But, there was the familiar look of a castle. There was no need for her to go there now, but she recognized that it meant that in this world was a whole town of people who knew of magic.


    She had the obligation to occasionally visit large towns because of her having the blood of a noble, and from that, the appearance of the castle was more familiar for her than for him.


    Changing what she was thinking of was the appearance of something like a deformed dog. It did not have any fur as it instead had what appeared to be a tough hide.


    Even in this place, the mana had been present all throughout. They had been able to stay in flight inside the city because of that. But also because of it, a being could bring itself into existence inside the city.


    If they had not moved so fast in getting out of the forest, they would have very likely encountered more of what he would have called real-life video-game monsters there, but it seemed that even here, there was at least one.


    It had sharp teeth, and a wide mouth, and it could be thought that it was designed to at least amputate in one bite. Its bulky hind legs propelled it toward her.


    In response, she sent a torrent of mana. With the intention of slicing through, the wind could be faintly seen being affected by the mana as well.


    Her attack and the dog-like creature met, and so the energy in her attack was consumed as it moved into the target¡¯s head.


    Despite having a significant enough cut in the middle of its head, it was very much unfazed as per the nature of its creation. The cut revealed that with not having blood, it showed no semblance of a biological internal organ in there.


    On its four legs, it was less than half as tall as her, so if it were to bite, it was going to bite onto a leg. She wanted to keep the mana core whole this time, so there was that complication. As it approached, something had to be done.


    Expressing what she wanted to have happen was her hand held outward, with the fingers then closing into a fist. With the mana used in pressing it down disappearing at quite a rate, the strength of the dog-like creature was conveyed to her. But it was enough to keep it from moving for long enough.


    With the imagery akin to that of a guillotine, a sheet of mana was dropped like a blade as it struggled to get out of her magical grasp.


    As she moved over to where she could put new mana under her control, the creature eventually turned headless, and soon after, its legs also got cut off.


    With it being immobile and carrying no risk of harm, she approached it.


    When it came to the sensing of mana, it was without natural obstruction. So, she knew where what she wanted was, and placed her hand accordingly. In a circular shape, mana was moved and forced into tearing through it.


    A cylindrical shape became all of what remained of the creature, and afterwards, its mana core was without cover.

 3 - City

    With the knowledge that something so dangerous had been present, there was a need for him to observe what was around as he walked onward. All that he could find accompanying his presence was just the street itself, air uncontested in occupying the path he was taking.


    His eyes hopped from building to building. Behind the windows were often just furniture, the ceiling, or a wall. Eventually, he did find relief from seeing that some people were there. But for those who happened to look at him in return, their silent gazing made Aurora feel like a nail sticking out.


    ¡°(Maybe I should get to work on it.)¡± Aurora was against attracting attention with this kind of atmosphere. Both bodies moved to where they were less likely to be seen so that a kind of magic could be tried.


    ¡°(Stealth magic should be a thing.)¡± They each lifted up their arms. ¡°(How would I go invisible?)¡±


    Unlike with the natural acquaintance with muscles where mana could be treated as such, and also as she who was of the magic world knew not of this, Aurora had to process on a conceptual level first how invisibility would be achieved.


    What allowed sight was light. And, what he recalled as a representation of light¡¯s existence was a ball with a trail of helixes. There were many of them, each very small and very fast.


    ¡°(Can I just absorb it?)¡± For the first idea, mana blanketed their body entirely, to absorb the light before it could reach onto its surfaces. But consequently, both sets of eyes saw just black. In surprise, Aurora lost focus on the magic, and so as the absorption of light stopped, their vision was restored.


    A second attempt of the same idea. ¡°(Do I have to go blind?)¡± While keeping the effect going, Aurora checked for the presence of mana. Unlike the world that his eyes were made unable to get any information from, the mana was still willed into appearance, showing up as the cloud-like form and texture it had always appeared as.


    Though with the building feeling of not wanting blindness to occur, such a side effect did not last for too long. Aurora could see again as the mana around their eyes stopped, allowing some light to pass in.


    And then, they saw their hands appearing as dark as black holes, a thing that swallowed light. Looking at such a result made Aurora feel uneasy.


    Since this unusual appearance was very likely to attract attention more instead of less, another idea was decided upon and moved on to. Bouncing back light instead of absorbing it.


    The idea essentially brought their bodies into acting like a mirror. What immediately took their attention were dark circles on their hands. With her seeing a blue ring around such circles, Aurora identified what they were. Although they appeared not as floating eyeballs, floating pupils could still be unnerving to look at.


    In trying to have that part of them be invisible as well, Aurora repeatedly experienced the fading in and out of darkness. After some visual distortions resulting from the mana¡¯s movement to the tune of their minds¡¯ shifting pathways, Aurora was able to see without too much compromise.


    Mana duplicated incoming light, one for the eye to receive, and the other moved back to the world. Still, being like a self-moving mirror was not the invisibility Aurora intended.


    In the effect Aurora settled on, the angles began to revolve on their hands. What became shown to them was firstly what was behind themselves, the next was the sky, over to what was in-front, and finally to showing the ground that would have been covered by the hand.


    Reflection had turned to refraction, from sending light back by 180 degrees to moving it around with near zero displacement from its original course.


    Perfection was fairly difficult to reach. The transparency appeared with an offset of a few millimeters. And, the more Aurora¡¯s concentration on the magic took it lightly, the more the refraction as a whole became less uniform. A subtle swaying with the varying distribution of strength in the mana could be observed. But, it was effective enough for while the direction they were in was not stared at intently for too long.


    Every part of their body then moved with their legs, and the effect did not waver so much or become any bit inactive. As with the flight magic, being attentive to the presence of mana as it did what it did was a simple enough concept to grasp and enact.


    In seeing how much it consumed, this kind of effect was the least hungry for mana within what Aurora had done with mana so far.


    ¡°Okay.¡± Aurora said, to move over the subject of thought.


    From the time spent outside, Aurora had heard gunshots. All of them were not so close to either body. Because of that, there was more than enough time for Aurora to think of safety over the initial drive to be where something of interest was. Decidedly, approaching people who had guns was far from being the best idea to carry out.


    Aurora did think of it. Learning the ability to deflect or absorb bullets was something to do, to be safe when faced with such weaponry. Neither bodies owned nor had access to a functional gun, though. So, Aurora would most likely just have to try accelerating something to the speed of a bullet instead of getting one to test how they¡¯d defend against modern firearms, at a later time, when possible.


    While he was walking, before he arrived at the school gates, he had come upon only a pair of those dog-like things, and nothing else so interesting was met. For her, she had seen them coming by on three occasions. On one occasion were two of those dog-like creatures. The other two occasions were of a solo appearance.


    And, to those that were alone, Aurora took the opportunity to take their mana cores. When attacking, mana would be sent out, so it was seen how invisibility deactivated as per which volume of mana was directed to do something else. Likewise, when he decided to just leap over his school¡¯s fencing, his shoes became visible, though, not that no one was around to see that.


    To measure the growth from absorbing mana cores, Aurora had compared how much mana could be fit into the two bodies. No numerical system was available for Aurora to use for reference, but it could instead be felt. With both bodies at full capacity, the mana she had was nearly twice as much as he who had absorbed no cores.


    ¡°(And, another locked door.)¡± As there was no use for them this day, the school had locked the doors for the houses of classrooms.


    ¡°(This sure is unfortunate.)¡± He slid his fingers onto the door, and stretched them across its center, giving a good chance to the thought of just breaking it down. For a while, he stared. After some moving about of his eyes, he realized. ¡°(I can just pick the lock.)¡± And with that thought, she also went over to try picking the lock on the apartment.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    There were movies that featured the act of lockpicking, and the media suggestion algorithms had shared the existence of some related videos, so it was not so strange a concept to him. The mana had to imitate the shape of a key.


    He turned and turned his index finger which he used to have the mana stem from, and in a few tries, the door unlocked. In those tries, it felt to him like mana became an extension of his body. His sense of touch seemed to extend to where it was. It wasn¡¯t as solid a feeling, but it was there.


    After making his way there, he arrived at his classroom, which he also had to unlock. Behind the doorway was the classroom in its template emptiness. It was apparent that everyone else had vacated with their belongings, with his bag being the only sign of a student in attendance.


    Searching through his bag where he habitually placed everything into, he was relieved to find his wallet, with his phone also in there as well, with his keys. Nothing so important had ended up being left in the forest.


    The next thing for him to undertake was the trip back. He was used to just walking it while it wasn¡¯t like it was too long a journey. But then, now, magic¡¯s conveniences for travel was something he could improve on.


    Task done, bag acquired, he left, and locked again the doors.


    Looking up a wall a good number of times taller than him, about two floors at least, he crouched down. In the next moment, charged with mana, his legs straighten.


    Landing on the roof was a similar experience with landing after leaping over the school¡¯s fencing, but a bit more with the taller obstacle. He uncloaked a bit of his arm around the wrist, and his hand, and a bit above his ankles as his body fell, to have more mana on controlling velocity. ¡°(Won¡¯t know if I don¡¯t try.)¡± He looked at the next roofs to move onto.


    Upon entering his apartment, she trained her eyes on the object of utmost importance in the room. The computer. She clicked the power button, and it booted up.


    Memories of its usage were brought up so she could understand it.


    Her eyelids twitched for a moment from what tried to surface from the trash bin of his subconscious. But with success in pushing those exciting parts of the internet back to the depths, her brows were brought back to rest.


    ¡°(Anyways...)¡± After the desktop home screen had appeared, the browser application was clicked on and started. One thing to do was find and gather information.


    Her hands moved over to the keyboard. The first presses were slow, and in contrast to what his brain was used to, her head had to look down onto the keyboard. With not having so much to type, the pace was maintained.


    Riverfield City was in the search box, and the enter key was pressed.


    There was a section of the search engine for news. But, what got her interest then was maps. She recognized she was reading characters not of her language, but their link made her feel those letters being not unusual to see.


    The computer loaded the map data, and gave her a look of the world from a point of view out in space. ¡°(Our worlds mixed?)¡± He could recognize one half of a continent from his world unaffected, while she could recognize hers appearing over on the other half. Some island nations were scattered about.


    As for the country he could recognize being the one he lived in, its continent was made bigger with some protrusions of land.


    However, other than where the modern countries were, the maps weren¡¯t so up-to-date as he saw only such names. Lines for borders and names for more specific places did not appear. With not much being so quick to know from there, she moved out of looking at maps, and proceeded over to checking the news section.


    The one tab became less alone as she opened every hyperlink she found interesting. She had also clicked on the bookmarks to his social media accounts. And, Aurora began looking into them.


    ¡°The people in Riverfield were no exception from the earthquake and bright light felt and seen around the world, but what¡¯s special about them is that their city has a castle inside of it.¡±


    Along with text were images and videos. With a click, the embedded clip played. From inside a room one floor above the ground, a camera was looking onto where there was a crowd of people.


    The group of people nearest to the camera wore soft fabric, while the other group, the farthest from the camera, stood beside the opening of the wall, and had leather and metal armor on.


    When the people who wore modern cloth appeared too close for comfort, one who was standing beside the opening of the wall, a guard, stepped forward. And in the next moment, everyone unwelcome was blasted away.


    An act of magic had been observed, and recorded. The video of a scene that had gone viral ended there. Moving on, she finished reading the rest of the article.


    After reading more articles, what Aurora newly learned from such articles for the city he lived in was that armed personnel were positioned to contend with what the people of the castle and its settlement might do.


    In relevance, she read there being plenty of issues for the governments from the physical world.


    There were issues at sea. Ships somehow ended up too close to another country¡¯s land. In some cases, they departed to the sea immediately, and in others had to leave after meeting another country¡¯s fleet.


    There were fleets of wooden ships that modern ships were ordered to observe.


    Diplomatic issues on land were there. Some armed soldiers had moved into another country¡¯s settlement, and then some reports of gunfights were made.


    On trade and transportation, cargo ships were off course. A few cities were no longer coastal.


    Reports of damages in a city were made after people who knew magic fought off attempts of arrest.


    That was all she got for simplification from the articles in the news section before moving onto what those on social media sites had to say.


    In some posts and comment threads, people talked about where they had woke up, or shared where others woke up being in. What she took notice of were those who brought up concerning scenarios.


    ¡°I was driving a motorcycle.¡±


    ¡°I was driving a car.¡±


    ¡°I wonder what happened with pilots?¡±


    Despite the implications of falling unconscious in vehicles at high speed, they claimed no injuries, and were well as they were able to post on the internet.


    ¡°I was on a plane. It was flying but it was landed when I woke up. Felt I was just dreaming until everyone started talking.¡±


    With no need to scroll further down, she found a post involving the city he lived in. And, the post had several comments.


    ¡°When I saw what happened when people got pushed, magic exists!¡± The poster titled, and the poster wrote: ¡°It happened in Riverfield city. A whole bunch of people got pushed away and I mean really pushed away by those guards without even being touched. It was weird. But when I tried pulling a cup over to me, it happened. I have magic!¡±


    ¡°I can confirm. Broke my cup, though.¡±


    Meanwhile, the next comment was on the opposite end. ¡°It didn¡¯t work for me.¡±


    But firstly, Aurora focused on the replies to the comment agreeing with magic¡¯s existence.


    ¡°Hit myself with a ball. I was skeptical, but it seems it¡¯s true.¡±


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we call this telekinesis?¡±


    ¡°I tried creating fire. It works. Either way, it must be magic.¡±


    ¡°Be careful not to burn your house down. Lol.¡±


    ¡°Can water be created?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not a lot.¡±


    ¡°How big could you make it?¡±


    ¡°Not a lot.¡±


    ¡°Grab a ruler and measure it.¡±


    ¡°I measured mine. It¡¯s only a third of an inch.¡±


    ¡°Tiny.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what she said.¡±


    ¡°Sad.¡±


    ¡°Just grab water from the faucet, I got mine to around two inches, but it melted or something after that point.¡±


    ¡°How are you guys doing magic?¡± For those who failed to as quickly do magic, the question was presented.


    ¡°You just imagine it.¡±


    ¡°Concentrate a bunch, and it¡¯ll happen.¡±


    The answers were rather simple. But, with the shortening amount of time since the comments and replies were posted, the likes were on an increasing trend for the comments that agreed with magic¡¯s existence. More and more of those who expressed skepticism eventually took back their statement against magic¡¯s existence.

 4 - Living

    The way magic was operated effectively demanded nothing but a person¡¯s thought. Since she herself was no exception to even one-year olds having the ability to make mana move, the things that could be done had spread through the internet at super speed.


    As she did take to heart her mother¡¯s words, she could not help but feel caution towards the residents of Riverfield City, which very likely had a population that outnumbered that of the settlement from the magic world at a ratio of at least 100 to 1.


    And from how much mana she had seen so far being around and unused, there should definitely be enough for one person to be capable of essentially throwing mana to be as if it were a knife.


    Of course, she was trained by her tutors to look for the usage of mana, and be prepared to dodge or counterattack if ever an attack was aimed at her.


    As long as the attacker wasn¡¯t so adept at subtlety, Aurora could notice it immediately.


    He smiled at the thought of training to detect killing intent. Such fantastical concepts could be brought to life.


    For her concerns, Aurora chose to be optimistic, since the majority of modern citizens were taught to have morals and be law-abiding citizens.


    Although magic was available to anyone for as long as they had the mana, there still were factors to differentiate the strength each person had in making magic happen.


    For her to improve her control over mana, she had to exercise her mind.


    In terms of any special way to conduct magic, there was not a required sort of circle to be drawn, no need to inscribe anything into the ground or some other medium, or a chant to recite to produce an effect.


    But, she was taught to make use of something like those.


    ¡°When you think of your mana, what do you see?¡±


    ¡°Can you draw it?¡±


    ¡°What do you want it to do for you?¡±


    Amidst those questions she received in the process of her education, she was taught with the belief that mana was a spirit of some kind or an all-powerful being to communicate with.


    Much of the lessons revolved on exercising the mind with the concept of developing a sense of companionship with mana, and in particular, in the form of written works or drawings.


    But in trying to literally talk with it, there was never a reply.


    When she asked someone why, the answer she got was to just think of mana like it was a silent guardian, on the basis of how magic would barely, if at all, hurt its caster unless intended.


    It was demonstrated to her with fire magic. If she didn¡¯t want to, she would not feel the heat of a fire she magically created. Against plants, the fire would not spread to them without the caster¡¯s permission.


    When the amount of energy in the fire was increased though, it was more likely to just do as its nature would tell it to rather than the caster¡¯s will.


    On the accuracy and precision of magics, literature and artistry were good for the orientation of one¡¯s mind.


    Though for her, she did reach the point where they stopped giving her improvements at a decent pace. And without the resources that only those adventurous or privileged enough were able to get, she was stuck with just routinely casting magic for improvements.


    At best, if Aurora were to be in a fight, Aurora could believe in having the advantage over the time it takes to cast magic. She had long stopped feeling significant delays to actions like creating balls of fire, rocks, and a blade of wind or an action like sharpening mana to cut something up.


    And though she had no one to reliably test her growth with magic with, she was told tales of one mage¡¯s attack being superior to another who put in the same amount of mana. Equal quantity but a different quality kind of deal, and she hoped she could be good in that regard.


    All of his classmates probably already learned that they could imitate some superpowers. Should worry be felt? Or was it something to look forward to? Aurora felt like he lost the opportunity to show off and act cool. So for now, it was disappointment.


    While she was browsing through the internet, he landed himself on another roof. Rather than getting back to his residence as soon as possible, it seemed more productive to experiment with mana while there wasn¡¯t more to be done.


    From what she had read, the military on the side of the physics world was here to contend with both the problem of wild creatures, and the question of a whole castle and town of people suddenly being in the middle of their established city.


    He stood atop a building that had at least four floors, and this appeared to be the highest of the roofs on the way to his apartment. But, the urban landscape was not so accommodating for him who wanted to see  from far away, so he gave up on the idea of checking where the military was in the distance.


    The city was a big place. If he had to walk from his apartment to the castle where some significant action was likely to take place, it would take him at least one and a half hours.


    Helicopters hovering above the castle were something he could see. With the tries on invisibility, it was relatively simple to funnel light into a smaller point to see them as if it were from up close. The helicopters were all from news organizations.


    There wasn¡¯t anything like explosions, flames, or smoke that could be attributed to a conflict between armed humans. The occasional gunshots were faint, and sounded not too powerful. So, there was not too big an issue at the moment.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    To go straight to his apartment, without doing too much, there were more than fifty roofs to go on. With them, Aurora would try to perfect the act of launching up and landing down.


    When trying with only select portions of his body being able to affect velocity, balance was a delicate thing to maintain.


    Seeing how the chosen areas would become visible whenever he had to use the mana there for movement instead, he found it possible to work around that limitation by just using the mana underneath as to not interrupt the layer of invisibility magic.


    But in the moment right after when it came to putting the idea into action, he was not feeling so confident with having so little grasp, and those select areas had to become visible while he dropped to the next roof.


    The alleyways and streets, the things separating the buildings aside from a significant height difference, was not across every building, so he travelled normally on the roofs he did not need to use mana for, and on those he did have to, he continued with testing magic.


    While persisting a surface layer to retain invisibility, he used the mana beneath to jump a gap. And, he felt uncomfortable with how he was pushed.


    The muscles and nerves were being affected from inside. He felt some irritation, that was made not so bad with the force also lifting him from under his feet, as how it should normally be.


    To avoid having that happen, the majority of the lifting became the task of just the mana outside his body, on his skin.


    The overall form of the mana acting on him as he fell and jumped became something like boots and gloves. His body was moved in that manner.


    And from how his bodily senses extended to the mana on it, he noticed how the layer of invisibility magic was lacking in its ability to source energy, and so for those areas they expanded outward to make space for the two magics.


    It was difficult to have both invisibility, and speeding or slowing effects going at the same time, but as he was on the roof, the invisibility magic just simply took less priority in the exercises.


    At his own pace, he arrived at the apartment complex.


    He could have tried going directly into the floor his apartment was on, but he decided to just drop from the roof and onto the roadside, and walked normally, with invisibility.


    There wasn¡¯t much for her to look at on the screen anymore, as she had already gathered most of the discussions and information on what had happened in the past few hours. The door opened, and she turned to that direction.


    The door closed, and the bag was placed on the floor. No longer in his grip, the bag entered her vision as the mana left it alone.


    But with looking to where he was up close in the small room, the invisibility magic had not so good a quality. How things bent to the side through the shape of an invisible body was very striking. The closer they were to someone, the less effective the invisibility magic, it seemed.


    He was returned to normal visibility.


    While she stayed seated by the computer, he walked over to sit on the bed.


    ¡°(What to do?)¡± Aurora faced the predicament of having nothing in mind.


    In his daily life in the apartment, he would normally just do whatever with the computer or phone, whenever there wasn¡¯t anything to do for school.


    With this addition in to who Aurora was, would there be anything different for them? Neither of them were the outgoing kind of person who actively sought adventure or anything in the wider world.


    Nothing chained her needs to just being in one place, so she went outside more than he. But unlike her natural surroundings, the urban environment imposed a sense of restriction on where one could be, for him at least.


    Aurora thought of the room they were in. Them living in the same place was not a bad idea. She felt this being a home as much as he did, but there was a better place to make their residence.


    She lived in a mansion, with a decent size, with as many rooms as one could ever need. But, that would mean he would have to meet her mother.


    There did not appear to be any comfortable way of introducing himself to try living in that place. Aurora did not know, if ever presented the opportunity, how much they should try to prove themselves being the same person.


    Should she return home? Aurora thought that she would have to, but while with the hope that she would not have to do so immediately. At least, she did not know where her house was. The maps can help investigate, so she¡¯ll search first.


    With the free time, Aurora looked at his options in the magics he could try out.


    Throwing things around the room with mana could cost him some possible damages.


    Fire magic was not something he could cast in this small room without risking something.


    Water magic seemed okay, so he created a ball of water.


    As it grew in size, Aurora realized that he was running out of mana very quickly, and the consumption outpaced how fast he could take the ambient mana inside the room.


    If he had a closed fist, it would be a few times bigger than that, when it was given up, and the ball of water was required by gravity to fall.


    The floor was wet, but at a rate he could see, within a minute it became dry.


    Aurora surmised that there may likely be some rules when it came to creating something with mana, from how the magically created water appeared for only so short a time.


    With the ability to create, even if only temporary, comes the question of application.


    What could he change about his day-to-day life with magic being a real thing?


    With so much mana needed to create water, without the promise that it could actually hydrate him, that it would not just disappear from his body, it seemed like he would still have to pay to drink.


    For bathing, water magic didn¡¯t seem capable of providing a steady flow of water for long enough to replace just showering the same as before.


    To wash his clothes, or rather dry his clothes, it seemed feasible. But in terms of what she had done with magic for heating, her experience was less towards gentle control than it was more towards the harmful kind.


    Thinking of the things he could speed up about his life, most of them seemed to involve just minor inconveniences. It was very possible for him to turn unhealthy by relying on magic to get things for him.


    Going near and far around the forest they were in, she found a small village that had a layout much like how she remembered her place being as. It was a place for her to go to, and he wondered if he should tag along when she goes.


    For the location of the village, it appeared to be on the opposite half in relation to the forest from where the city was. Aurora was curious of the distance, and tried to figure out how the map service could provide it. There was no such working feature, but it looked quite far away from the city.


    There wasn¡¯t much of his expenses magic could take care of. So instead, he thought of how he could get money.


    On the thoughts of how she could deliver some amount to him, currency never reached her hands. All she needed was always just granted to her, and she never asked to be the one to go and buy something. Until she arrived there, it remained just a question if he could have a share in what she had.


    From the media he knew of, it got told often that one could make money off of selling whatever dropped from magical creatures. Those mana cores could net him some profits.


    Aurora would have to visit the castle¡¯s town in the middle of Riverfield City to confirm for anything like an adventurer guild, or merchant guild willing to pay for such things.


    But for both of those methods, there was the question of if the countries of the modern physics world would even accept their currency, now or soon enough.


    Still, in terms of the mana cores, they could at least strengthen themselves with them.


    ¡°(I guess I¡¯ll start looking for them.)¡± Aurora wanted to go on a hunt.