While Yugen was teaching Marika and Arisa the absolute basics of magic, he noticed that not only Chihime and Keiichiro, but also Soichiro and his sisters were listening intently. Ryotaro and Serika, having concluded their discussions peacefully, had apparently returned to the Enjo household.
"What are you doing, Mother? Is that appropriate for the head of a prominent house of ancient magic?"
"Our Kagurazaka house incorporates magical knowledge from all times and places, just like the Kamiizumi house. I'm very interested in Yugen's magical theories."
(Kamiizumi? Huh, I feel like I've heard that somewhere...)
Arisa was pondering the word she heard in the exchange between Yugen and Chihime, but Yugen decided to continue his explanation, ignoring her. While this was primarily for modern magic, ancient magic, which shared some activation processes, also seemed to find it relevant.
"Alright, I understand. I'll tell you this upfront: what I'm about to explain will shatter even the existing common sense of magic. If, by any chance, it leaks out..."
"What will happen?"
"I'll make you prostrate yourself, cry 'I'm sorry,' and then kick you in the butt until you do."
"...We absolutely can't let it leak. Soichiro, you guys too, alright?"
Keiichiro knew that Yugen was a master-class practitioner of the Shinkage-ryu Kenjutsu martial arts and had been directly taught by Gozo. Sensing that a kick from Gozo's training, if delivered seriously, would make even multiple complex fractures "still a better outcome," Keiichiro's children vigorously nodded at his words. Marika shivered, recalling the butt-smack she received long ago for eating Yugen's ice cream without permission, and Arisa, who had witnessed the scene, also nodded energetically.
"Well then, let's start by explaining the basic activation process of magic."
First, in the case of typical modern magic, the following process occurs:
Receive an Activation Sequence from the CAD.
Add variables to the Activation Sequence and send it from the conscious domain to the unconscious domain.
(If the Activation Sequence includes variables like targeting, this step is omitted.)
Construct a Magic Sequence from the Activation Sequence and variables in the Magic Calculation Area within the unconscious domain.
(Magic Sequences are constructed automatically and unconsciously.)
The constructed Magic Sequence is sent to the uppermost layer of the unconscious domain, which is also the lowest layer (root) of the conscious domain, and then sent to the Ideosphere (information-body dimension) from the 'Gate' (the boundary between the conscious and unconscious domains).
The Magic Sequence output to the Ideosphere interferes with the Eidos (information-structure body), rewriting information and altering phenomena.
In current modern magic, while it's possible to consciously use the Magic Calculation Area, one cannot consciously perceive the contents of what's happening within it. This is because the existence of the "psyche," which governs human emotions—the part considered the unconscious domain of the mind—has not been clearly defined, and there are too many unknowns regarding the existence of Psions.
Adding variables to the Activation Sequence occurs in the conscious domain of the mind—the part of the Thought-Body that governs rational thought. It is then sent via the "Linker Core," which is often referred to as the "core" in general magic theory, to the Magic Calculation Area residing in the unconscious domain.
And regarding the mechanism by which an Activation Sequence is constructed into a Magic Sequence, the existence of Psions plays a crucial role. First, a Magic Sequence composed of Psions is constructed based on the Magic Sequence construction program embedded in the Activation Sequence. Next, the used Activation Sequence is decomposed, and the Psions, which now carry no information, are reconstructed as a Psion-based Magic Sequence. In essence, a "mirror-image Magic Sequence" is constructed.
Now, the question might arise: why do differences in magical deployment speed and phenomena interference power occur even when using the same magic? The answer is simple. While differences in magical deployment speed are partly due to the Magic Calculation Area's output tolerance, "the practitioner's own magical theory" is even more significant. This refers not just to basic magical theory—which in modern magic often involves tangible theories like mathematics and physics—but also requires the "rational theory" that the practitioner finds most convincing regarding the theory of magic.
As an example of a rational theory, let's say one wants to go from a certain location to a destination, using the "most convincing" mode of transport for themselves. If person A states, "A car is fastest," but there are multiple potential traffic jam points along the way, another person, hearing this, would likely explore other effective modes of transport without being fixated on the car. However, current modern magic is taught in a textbook-like, arithmetic-style manner, where only one answer is provided. Even if a person understands the logic, if they aren't convinced themselves, an error will arise. This error in thinking becomes an error in magical calculation, resulting in differences in deployment speed.
Regarding magical deployment speed, Tatsuya's artificial Magic Calculation Area might be an easy example to understand. His artificial Magic Calculation Area has low output despite abundant Thought-Body reserves. This is not so much due to his [Decomposition] and [Reconstruction] Magic Calculation Areas as it is because most of his emotions were erased when the artificial Magic Calculation Area was implanted. Mayumi's measures to prevent Tatsuya's [Decomposition] and [Reconstruction] from exploding with emotion ended up meaning: "Shave" - to shave off, to reduce; here, it implies reducing or eroding the original phenomena interference power that intense emotions generate). If he were using the Yotsuba's secret art, 'Flash Cast,' it would be one thing, but the slow speed of deploying magic read from a CAD is due to the significant decrease in output accompanying the erasure of intense emotions. The Magic Calculation Area occupied by [Decomposition] and [Reconstruction] had to be compensated by the remaining emotions, and further restricted by the "seal" placed on Tatsuya. As a result, even Tatsuya, who excels in [Decomposition]-type magic, took a long time to construct the [Beta Trident] he used in the original story, and that was even in a state where his [Oath] was temporarily - meaning: "Unlock" - to release, to cancel; here, temporarily released or lifted).
Of course, Tatsuya's circumstances are omitted from this explanation.
Differences in phenomena interference power occur due to the "attenuation of Psions" that arises when the Psion Magic Sequence—expressed magically as "phenomena interference power"—is projected into the Ideosphere via the 'Root' through the 'Gate.'
When passing through the 'Gate' and being projected into the Ideosphere, it must always pass through the Thought-Body that constitutes the mind's conscious domain. If a certain amount of Psions is flowing into the Thought-Body, there is no problem, but if the pressure or flow rate falls below a certain level, the Linker Core, as a mental safety mechanism, attempts to gather surrounding Psions into the Thought-Body to maintain the balance with the psyche. Normally, one would be forcibly knocked unconscious as a safety measure of the conscious domain before this function occurs, but the misfire of the mental safety due to the inability to control excess Psions creates resistance to the Magic Sequence projection, thereby削いでいる (削いでいる - meaning: eroding or reducing) the phenomena interference power that the Magic Sequence should originally be able to exert.
"Well, that's the process of modern magic deployment up to this point, but in my case, it goes like this:"
Receive an Activation Sequence from the CAD.
Add variables to the Activation Sequence, convert the Thought-Body signal of the Activation Sequence into a special signal via the Linker Core, and send it from the conscious domain to the unconscious domain.
Construct an Elemental Magitex (Spirit Magic Sequence) from the Activation Sequence and variables in the Magic Calculation Area within the unconscious domain.
The constructed Elemental Magitex is projected into the Ideosphere via the Linker Core.
The Elemental Magitex output to the Ideosphere interferes with the Eidos, rewriting information and altering phenomena.
Step 1 is the same, but the Activation Sequence itself uses descriptions constructed based on a magical theory that Yugen rationally accepts. Step 2 is a process that utilizes the inherent functions of a magician's Linker Core, employing a special process during variable addition to perform "pseudo-property change" of Psions.
Then, Chihime, with an expression of intense curiosity, asked about the term "Elemental Magitex" that appeared in Yugen's explanation.
"Yugen, what is this Elemental Magitex? I've never heard of it in the Kagurazaka house or in magical history studies. What kind of thing is it?"
"This, you see... it's a magic construction sequence built based on the magic arrays of Ancient Civilization Magic, which were used in ancient civilizations. It's close to what's commonly called the 'Primal Magic Array.' My current magic only uses this construction sequence."
In conventional magic construction via the Magic Calculation Area, continuously using a single magic places a heavy burden on the mind, with the worst-case risk of the Magic Calculation Area overheating. While a Magic Sequence projected against the Ideosphere's restorative power can be repaired by mending the missing parts with Thought-Bodies, the phenomena interference power of magic is not so simple. If the Magic Sequence itself is a "plane," then phenomena interference power is, so to speak, a "solid." At this point, there's a difference in usage for a single magic deployment, and continuing it means constantly maintaining the "solid" that is phenomena interference power.
Some might think that vector manipulation would be a "plane," but for example, if you use 'Vector Inversion' magic to deflect a flying bullet at the same speed, you need to impart twice the bullet's flying speed as a vector to the bullet. Moreover, unless you have exceptionally good dynamic vision, you would have to deploy it in a way that covers your entire body. Before 'Torus Silver' announced gravity control magic, flight magic was considered impossible due to a similar principle: when casting multiple layers of magic, to achieve the originally required movement vector, an equivalent opposing movement vector was needed to cancel out the previous one. This resulted in a cumulative addition of phenomena interference power, leading to the continuous flight limit.
To return to the topic, the "trouble" of assembling a Psion Magic Sequence from an Activation Sequence and then building a Thought-Body Magic Sequence from that is a bottleneck. The attenuation of Psions due to passing through the 'Gate' is one thing, but passing through the 'Gate' also means that the practitioner's mind and the outside world remain connected through the Magic Sequence during continuous magic use. Modern magic is designed to disconnect from the practitioner once the Magic Sequence is deployed, but repeated use of the same magic after a breath would mean continuous, intermittent connection to the "vast information" of the world. Information would flow backward into the Magic Calculation Area via the Magic Sequence, causing it to overheat by attempting to process not only the continuous magic but also the information flowing in through it. Yugen surmised that this, when excessive, is the cause of the Magic Calculation Area overheating phenomenon.
In the original story, the reason why Ichijou Gouki and Sakurai Mizunami suffered this phenomenon was not only the power of the strategic-class magic [Tuman Bomba] against a widely deployed barrier, but also because the sustained deployment of defensive magic itself is "continuous deployment," not conditional intermittent deployment like the Jumonji family's secret art [Phalanx]. Furthermore, given the vast area of the attack and the fact that an "explosion" involves extremely intense information fluctuation even among chemical changes, it could be explained that the vast, rapidly changing information from the wide area flowed into their Magic Calculation Areas via the barrier, causing them to overheat when attempting to process all of it.
This overheating phenomenon is also believed to be significantly related to the first paradox of modern magic—that the alteration of phenomena by magic is not supplied by physical energy, and magic is not bound by the law of conservation of energy—and the theory of extra dimensions. Indeed, during various magical experiments, there were clear energy imbalances. It is possible that when magic is used continuously or when mental interference magic is used, magical energy is pulled from another dimension to compensate for the deficit, and the ripple effect of this extraction flows into the Magic Calculation Area through the Magic Sequence and the 'Gate.'
Yugen speculated that the reason why, for about a century since modern magic was systematized, the evaluation of modern magic's power shifted towards instantaneous and explosive force rather than sustainability, was because the risks of continuous modern magic use were known from the numerous human experiments accumulated over the years that could not be made public.
From these inferences, Yugen concluded that magic passing through the 'Gate' was clearly dangerous. Therefore, he switched entirely to magic that passes through the Linker Core. He also used a feat unique to him in the world—the technique of rewriting Activation Sequences from Magic Sequences using his reincarnation privilege 'Material Index (Creation Encyclopedia)'—to seek a magic construction sequence that could maximize the alteration of phenomena through magic while passing through the Linker Core and suppressing Psion consumption. His studies in magical geometry, writing magic arrays for 1cm movement magic, constructing linked arrays of different magical systems, the 26 failed vibrational magic arrays from his assignments, and the establishment of 'Scanning Cast' and 'Linkage Cast' were all necessary to complete the Elemental Magitex.
This magic construction sequence maximizes Psion's phenomena alteration power by "imbuing" Psions with the properties of Psions, thereby exerting dozens to tens of thousands of times more power compared to conventional magic. Furthermore, by "transcribing" his own Psions onto Psions placed under control through Thought-Body control, he successfully dramatically improved the Psion-to-Psion consumption ratio, which had been the biggest bottleneck. One might ask if this was necessary given his already extraordinary unique magic [Kaleidoscope] and Tenjin magic, but he also had a feeling that modern magic theory itself was "Is this even magic?! It's just a waste of chemical reactions and physical laws!!" So, he also wanted to use magic that he could be convinced by, and considering the fear of leaving his mind wide open and exposed, it was necessary.
"The description change for this construction sequence itself isn't difficult, but the biggest bottlenecks are the control of Psions and Psions, and 'property imbuement.'"
"Specifically?"
In modern magic, the focus is mainly on Psions, and Psions tend to be de-emphasized due to too many unknown aspects. After all, the fact remains that Psions themselves are particles not bound by physical laws. No matter how much information is added to Psions, as long as Psions themselves lack the power to interfere with physical laws, it is nothing other than Psions that are altering phenomena. The clearest example is when Tatsuya and Lena were together, and Lena provoked him by attempting to unleash a sphere of Psions at Tatsuya. The fact that unleashing a Psion sphere only resulted in a "sensation like being shot by a gun" indicates the existence of the Thought-Body that connects the body and mind, while also showing that the Psion sphere itself, given the information of "convergence" to possess a certain structure, has no physical interference power.
The problem is that most modern magicians are turning a blind eye to questions that naturally arise if one understands the nature of Psions—or rather, that magic education itself is teaching magic incorrectly.
"Actually, when I asked Tatsuya and the others about this, they were all surprised... When I taught the control methods, my older sisters and Nitsugu-niisan had the same reaction. Grandfather, perhaps because of that incident, is on the contrary, overly aware."
"Well, that's probably true... Everyone seems unable to hide their surprise."
"Mother is just too extraordinary."
After all, it was like constructing a new system of magical theory that directly contradicts the magical deployment theory of modern magic. Moreover, since it overcomes the risks of modern magic, if this were to leak outside, nations would clamor to learn this construction sequence. As a supplement, when continuous magic deployment was performed via the Linker Core, the calculation results showed that the risk of overheating was reduced by approximately 99.9 percent compared to passing through the 'Gate.' While it was confirmed that the Linker Core, unlike the 'Gate,' had a mental safety mechanism, such results were unexpected. When Yugen had Yugen, who specialized in Magic Calculation Area overheating research at the university, review it, she was dumbfounded. She said, "If you publish this, you'll undoubtedly leave your name in the annals of magic theory."
"However, how do you perform Psion property imbuement? I'm personally interested in knowing."
"It's not difficult for Mother. The phrase 'Truth of the Incarnation' should make sense to you."
"I see, so you use that technique."
Honestly, in Chihime's case, she perfectly controls not only Psions but also Psions, unconsciously. It was inevitable that she, Gozo's sister-in-law and successor to the Kagurazaka name, would be so. The method of imbuing Psions with Psion properties is quite simple: by reducing the restorative power of Psion particles to almost zero and flowing one's own Psion wavelength into them, they become pseudo-Psions and gain phenomena interference power. This technique itself is one of the basic techniques used in Tenjin magic, and the PFE (Psion-Free Execution) theory is a byproduct of this property imbuement.
"It was a relatively basic technique in esoteric Buddhism, Onmyodo, and Shinto-based ancient magic that emphasized Tenjin Chigi. When I taught it to Professor Kokonoe, who was interested, he was utterly taken aback... I suppose this is what they mean by 'neglect the basics and you'll suffer for it.'"
"It's truly a case of 'the darkest place is under the candlestick,' isn't it? I deeply feel my own immaturity."
"No, Mother and Grandfather are already quite abnormal as they are."
After all, just from what Grandfather Gozo told him, Chihime's greatness was seriously alarming. She could kick a polar bear flying, survive falling into a crevasse unharmed and by her own power, and was feared by the Pope and even the cardinals with the admonition, "If you make her an enemy, you won't see tomorrow's sunrise." Indeed, one cardinal who defied that warning died the very next morning. The British Royal Family awarded her the Royal Victorian Chain, the first person not of royal or imperial blood to receive it, as "a holy woman of the Orient who achieved great deeds in our nation." Moreover, although it's normally returned upon death, Chihime was allowed to retain it as an exception.
"Yugen is teasing me... Tonight, I'll teach Marika and Arisa..."
"...I'll give up trying to stop you, but please, in moderation."
Knowing his mother, he could predict she would probably teach them something tonight. However, running away here would be the lowest thing a man could do, and perhaps he had no choice but to accept it, but the other party was still 13 years old... Yugen almost felt as if her ethics were based on the Sengoku period.
Also, he wished she wouldn't talk about such things in front of the people involved. Indeed, upon hearing that, Marika's face turned red, and she looked confused, saying, "M-me and Yugen-niisan, and, t-that?" As for Arisa, her cheeks flushed, and she looked at him with an expectant gaze, saying, "My first time with Onii-chan..."
He could only think, "Should I run... no, it's too late now."
This time, the story is about magic construction. By pulling information from various parts of the original work and repeatedly experimenting to ensure no discrepancies in the construction flow, this is the result. Please consider this an original setting.
The method of construction within the Magic Calculation Area remains unknown in the original work, but I thought that without such a process, the Psions used in the Activation Sequence would remain as they are, leading to a state of pseudo-magical occupation. It made sense to me to assume that Psions not fully utilized in the Magic Sequence would be released externally as excess Thought-Bodies.
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