Mori Akira's POV:
I am just so bored. I Mori Akira, the greatest alchemist in the modern world. I was born and raised inside a rather large alchemy sect as the only son and successor to my father's position. As the future leader of an alchemy sect, I was naturally educated from a young age. To be honest, I don't know when my studies truly began as I was still a toddler when they started drilling the knowledge into my head.
As you might expect, from the son of a sect leader, my talents and genius were undeniable. By the age of 10 I was already qualified to reach the nascent soul, but to avoid being mistaken for a child in future I had been advised to delay my advancement until the age of 16. I then quickly became a master alchemist in under a year and proceeded to slowly progress to grand alchemist over the coming decades, becoming the youngest to do so in recorded history at the age of 37 and was crowned as my father's successor.
About 50 years later, I would come to meet the two people who changed my life forever. The first was an excentric mortal man about my age. While on my way to a meeting, I had come across a beggar camping outside the sect gates. His clothes were in tatters, his beard was dirty and unkempt, and he was bruised and beaten all over, yet the joy in his face was almost blinding.
Out of curiosity, I approached him to ask what he was so happy about.
"I suckered some disciples into letting me read their alchemy books in exchange for being their punching bag! Man, I can't wait for tomorrows beating!"
I was a bit unsettled by his words, but before I could ask for who those disciples were, so I could stop them from unjustly beating this poor fellow, I was pulled away by a disciple as I was about to be late for my appointment. I then forgot about the whole ordeal until the next day and went to take another look.
If I remember correctly, it was raining that day. I found the man lying in the muddy ground, even more bruised than the day before as the rain poured down on his bloody face. Yet plastered on that face was a wide grin, for in his broken hand was a familiar book on alchemy.
I asked him what made him go this far just for some lousy books.
"Lousy? What kind of moron are you? These books contain the secrets of the world! Only a fool would call them 'lousy'!" He replied.
I found it rather comical, as he was insulting the author of the book he was praising.
"You want to know why I go this far right? Well, isn't it obvious! Alchemy is my life's passion!"
"You know! The thing that makes life fun enough to live!"
"Huh? You don't have a passion? Your life must be so boring! Well, you have plenty of time to find one!"
"If you want my advice, just try out different things and see what riles you up, then follow it!"
"Trust me, when you find your passion, you'll know!"
"You can't not know when it's the only thing on your mind! It will be like the whole world lights up as you can't stop yourself from blindly running after it!"
"My name? I'm the great Ono Riku, an alchemy freak and proud of it!"
I did not understand his meaning at the time, but I found our talks rather enjoyable. I would go to chat with him from time to time, for reasons I now realize was caused by loneliness. He was possibly the first companion I had who would not treat me differently due to my status. Of course, that was because he was just too dense to pick up on the many hints I dropped during our discussions, as he never seemed to think about anything but his passion. His single-mindedness was probably why I found him so amusing to talk to. However, everything must come to an end someday.
At some point, he had been chased out by one of the elders for 'dirtying the gates with his presence'. I was honestly in shock at the emotions that came over me that day as I soundly beat the man to an inch of his life. This was the first real emotion I had ever truly felt. There had been times I had felt things before, but only faintly. I had been annoyed at my pill refinement failing, I had been mildly amused by that dense oaf Riku, even the death of my father was just a mild sense of loneliness, but this. This was the first real, undiluted taste of real emotions I have ever experienced. It was like the whole world changed as the only thing I could think about was taking out my anger on the man who had angered me. That was the day I came to understand Riku's wise words. My life up until now was just so boring. There was a whole world of emotions to explore, and I never knew. Hehe! The youngest grand alchemist in history, and the leader of the greatest alchemist sect, learning from a beggar who was not even a full-fledged alchemist yet. It's kind of funny how life goes sometimes.
With Riku gone to places unknown, I began looking for the passion he spoke of, and it eventually led me to him.
"What are you looking at?! Get on your knees while you still have something to kneel on!!"
He was just a child at the time, but the unbridled bloodlust that oozed off him was so overwhelming. Fear, panic, shame, hate, despair, all these emotions swirled like a hurricane inside me the moment our eyes met. It was just for a moment, but that single instance of raging emotions was the most alive I've ever felt. Just seeing how much of a monster he was as a child it made me curious about what he might turn into as a man. What intense emotions his adult-self will bring out from me I wondered, and so I followed him in search of an answer to this curiosity of mine, helping him raise his country to where it stands today. However, none of that matters anymore, for I have found something even greater.
"AHA! TIS I! THE EVIL DRUGMAN!"
"MAGICAL GIRL CANNON!!!"
"SMOKE BOMB!!!"
"SAY NO TO COOL!♪"
The action, the singing, the dancing, the special effects, the dramatic poses and the costumes. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time as all of it seemed perfectly tailored to evoke some kind of emotion inside me, both good and bad. Even the unpleasant sight of that oaf's panties gave shivers down my spine. I don't know what I'm feeling, but I know it's not something I'll ever forget. Whatever this 'magical girl' thing is, I just know it is something I want to see again.
"My passion?"
"STOP MUMBLING TO YOURSELF AND HELP ME!!!"
I was currently watching the rehearsal for the show I so badly wished to see. The oaf who forgot me after leaving my gates is currently struggling with a new dance move that sage of wonders had bestowed upon him. It involved a special enchanted whip made from some type of octopus's tentacle, a blindfold, and a pirouette. Riku had tripped and ended up getting entangled in his own whip.
"*sigh* At this rate, we won't be ready until the next festival!"
"If you're so invested in this, then why don't you do it?"
"Alas, the sage of the arts hath not chosen me for this role! Hence, you sir, Magical Girl Riri, will have to take the whip of justice to smite the-!"
"DON'T CALL ME THAT AND SPEAK NORMALLY!!!"
"Killjoy! Simply put, I have my own role to play!" I said as I started untangling him.
"And what is that?"
"That my short-skirted friend, is a secret between me and that maiden!"
"While we're on the subject, what do you think about that?"
"Hm? I don't know what she is planning for the finals, but it sounded like it will be something spectacular!"
"No not that! I'm talking about that aura fire! It's so incredible, it sounds like something out of a fairytale!"
"Oh, I suppose you are right about that! Though I suppose something like that is fitting for the creator of my new passion!"
"What do you mean by that? In what way is that miracle fire, related to magical girls!"
"I suppose you wouldn't know since you only care about alchemy, so let this lord of mysteries shed some light on your ignorance! Aura is by far, one of the most diverse and ridiculous powers out there! Each aura is personalized to the individuals themselves, hence a creative person such as her would naturally possess an aura tailored towards expressing that trait!"
"So, you're saying she can circumvent all conventional alchemy, just because she wants to! Why has nobody told me about such a convenient power? Hey, how does one learn aura exactly? I want to get some of that aura for myself!"
*giggle*
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, you want to know? Fine, then I'll tell you! There are two major flaws in your plan to acquire aura! First, that sapphire flame belongs to the final stage of aura, something even most immortals can't reach within their lifetime!"
"Huh? Then how did that girl do it? I'm not even sure if she's a cultivator, let alone an immortal!"
"That, my dear friend, is a matter of life experience! Aura is made from the fire burning in our souls, lighting up the dark and dreary world we find ourselves in as we struggle through the hardships of life itself! Most immortals spend much of their time in seclusion, shutting themselves away from such experiences, making it harder for them to acquire a mastery of aura!"
"Then what is the second reason you mentioned?"
"The answer you seek is as beautiful as it is cruel! For you see, an aura's power is not chosen by the man but mirrored from the individual! Each and every aura is tailored after the individual's nature and cannot be duplicated by another! From their abilities, too their looks, they are as unique as the wielder themselves! So now, do you see? Your quest for the primordial fire is nothing but a fool's errand!" I said, practicing my dramatic poses and gestures as practice for later.
"So, if I understood your gibberish correctly, you're saying I can't have her fire because my aura will be based off my personality! Won't that just make it even better for alchemy?"
"How naïve! Do you really think your puny will can match up to the flame of creation?" I said, while shaking my head.
"Huh? Are you doubting my passion for alchemy?!" Riku said as he looked about ready to throw down.
"No, no! I know fully well how devoted you are to your passions! What I meant to say was that even for an aura ability, the flame of control is a ridiculous power!" I said, as I desperately tried to avoid another twelve-hour long alchemy quiz, before continuing to speak.
"To tell you the truth, the power itself is not too unique, as there has been many over the course of history with a power to create, but they were all limited in some way!"
"Limited?"
"Yes! To create something, means to know something! The less you know when crafting something, the more you need to make up for that difference! An example of this could be the 'phantasmal alchemist'!"
"Huh? Wasn't he just a myth?"
"I figured you might have heard of him! Yes, while magical girl Su may be special for using aura in her alchemy, she was not the first to do so! The phantasmal alchemist was one of such individuals, and say, do you know what happened to him?"
"The legends say he used over a hundred cultivators for his pill refinement which possessed his alchemy furnace and devoured him whole!"
"That is the story passed down today after being distorted over the generations! However, there are a few records remaining that tell a different story! In one of those records, they say he had manifested an alchemy furnace entirely out of aura, called the ghost furnace! It then goes on to say it allowed him to refine pills of a higher grade than his rank would permit, but it required an equivalent amount of souls to do so! His alleged end happened as a result of running out of souls to sacrifice while making a mythical pill, resulting in his own soul being taken away!"
"That ability sounds awesome!"
"…"
"I mean! What a vicious scoundrel! Stealing away the hopes and dreams of others just to further his own goals! It is immoral I say!"
*Sigh*
"If only you put that type of energy into your performance instead of trying to cover up your vile nature, my job would be a lot easier!"
"Your job is to manage the green palace, not whatever this is!" Riku said as he held up the tentacle whip.
"Come to think of it! Shouldn't you be busy with that instead of fooling around here?" Riku said, giving me a suspicious look.
"Anyways, the point is! Using aura to substitute for your own shortcomings will often come at a cost! However, the flames of control seem to only require the raw materials, and she can almost instantly create even legendary grade pills, without a single imperfection to be found! That is rather suspicious don't you think?" I said, trying to distract him before he figures out, I've been secretly making him, and the other regional managers do my job for me for the last 3 years.
"I guess? I don't really know all that much about aura, so I have no reference other than the one you just told me about! I mean, how many souls would you even need to make one with the ghost furnace?"
"That depends on various factors, like what materials you have, the value of each soul, your own skill as an alchemist! If you have all the materials, skill and knowledge the pill yourself the ghost furnace would be functionally the same as a regular alchemy furnace without the need for any souls at all!"
"That book you read must have a lot of information on the phantasmal alchemist for you to know this much about him!" He said with intrigue in his eyes.
"No, you can't borrow it!" I said, knowing what might happen should he find out.
This guy is pretty dense and blunt even to his superiors, but if its something to do with alchemy, he can be surprisingly sharp from time to time.
"Please!"
"Let's get back to the subject! The thing is, using aura to make things beyond your normal capabilities will usually come at a cost! In the case of the ghost furnace, it was souls, but another more common result can be a drop in quality!"
"So, would that mean, if I for example used aura to make a pill of the mythical grade it would be full of impurities!"
"Yes, that is a plausible example! Hence, the reason why the flames of control are so amazing for being a creation category aura, as it seems to have no drawbacks that we know of!"
"So, that little sneak is probably hiding something about her ability!"
"Indeed! It's normal for experts to conceal their weaknesses from others! It's honestly surprising she even told us what little she did, though that might have been a ruse as well!"
"You're saying she gave us an incorrect explanation in order to stop us from pursuing the truth? Come to think of it! We only assumed her limit is legendary grade pills, but we never actually confirmed that!"
"Exactly! We know neither the limits nor the drawbacks of her abilities in full! Hence, it is vital that we investigate if we are to harness that power for ourselves!"
"Harness? Didn't you just spend the last five minutes explaining how it is impossible to acquire another person's aura?"
"What I was saying was that it is impossible for two people to develop the exact same aura, but there does exist methods to harness it from others! If this power can make a mortal girl into a grand alchemist, just imagine what it could do in the hands of real alchemists!"
"If we could mass produce it, and make it a commodity, we could revolutionize the way we do alchemy! Simplify our recipes, optimize our methods, lower the difficulty, while increasing the quality! Hell, the alchemist classifications we operate on today would need to be revised as anyone with the right recipe could qualify as a grand alchemist! It could be the single greatest achievement since the first alchemy furnace!"
"That is why it is of the utmost importance for us to investigate the secrets behind her power, so we can harness it for the sake of future generations of alchemists! Do you now understand the importance of our mission!"
"What? Wait, so you are not just humiliating me for your own amusement?"
"Come now, Riku! Have some faith in your friends! Have I ever misled you before?"
"Yes, multiple times!"
"… Well, this time I'm not! You have my word!"
And so, with my fingers crossed behind my back, I successfully managed to motivate my employee to put his all into my new passion for this magical theater performance.