Part 55: 6/25/09

6/25/09

We had another crazy magic lecture today.



Mrs. Terauchi was supposed to teach today, but she’s had an emergency. I’ll be your instructor instead.
Today, we’ll learn about natural magic.
It’s similar to paganism, which we discussed before.
Natural magic is, obviously enough, magic that draws its power from nature.
The most popular form is probably herbalism.
Calender-based spells are also a form of natural magic, since they involve the seasons.
Some of you may be familiar with dowsing, which uses a pendulum or cane to find things underground.
This, too, is a form of natural magic. It was first used to detect sources of water.
That should be enough examples, I think. Let’s move on to the basic mindset of natural magic.
You must first recognize yourself as a part of nature, and accept its power.
In other words, think of human existence as a microcosm of a vast cosmology.
This mindset is based on the idea of the four classical elements.
Ancient magicians thought that different objects which shared a common element would react to one another.
They did experiment after experiment, trying to prove their hypotheses about nature.
…Are you all listening? I certainly hope so… Eeheehee.
I’ll give you a little test to make sure.
You’ll receive an ill omen if you get it wrong. Ada Ada Io Ada Dia…

I swear he always picks on me with this crazy stuff, maybe because I’m the only one who’s still awake.



Which form of natural magic was used to look for water sources?
Dowsing.
Excellent work… your answer rings true. No news is good news.
But back to the main subject… Prayer is a part of natural magic.
A characteristic of the prayers in natural magic is that many of them praise the earth goddess.
This ties into the concept of natural magic as a way of invoking nature’s blessing.
As time passed, natural magic developed into natural science…
But in the transition to natural science, a key element was lost.
That’s the problem of “time.”
Natural magic forbade the use of performing spells that went against the normal flow of time.
Its practitioners believed that magic should not defy nature, and to this day take care to follow natural laws.

Anyway I went with Fuuka to help her with cooking.



If you haven’t, then would you like to make this with me?
Look on this page… “chocolate truffles”! Don’t they look good?
> Since Fuuka has brought the ingredients for them, you decide to try making chocolate truffles.
> The recipe seems like it would be fairly easy to follow.
> …?
Um, one teaspoon of liqueur… …That doesn’t seem like enough.
Dissolve 200 grams of milk chocolate in hot water… Am I supposed to put hot water in it, or it into the water?
> Fuuka is muttering things to herself…
Do you need any help?
Oh, no, it’s okay, I should be able to do this… Thanks, though.
> Fuuka seems to be having fun…
> You made your own batch of truffles.
> They came out pretty well!
> Obtained Chocolate Truffle.
> If you give them to someone when you go out on your days off, it might make them happy…
Yes, I’m done!
This is much more fun when there’s two people here. Thanks, Aelita-chan!
> Fuuka is laughing as if she’s truly having fun..
> You feel like you’ve gotten a little closer to Fuuka…

Fuuka’s didn’t quite turn out right, though.



How does this look? It’s a little odd-shaped…
> There’s an apple-sized dark substance on the plate Fuuka handed to you.
> ……
This is big…
They say that bigger is better, so…
> …A sour smell wafts from the so-called truffle.
I thought that a teaspoon of liqueur wasn’t enough, so I used to cup of it.
Look, see?
> Fuuka is proudly holding up a bottle labeled “vinegar”…
> …Because this recipe is so obviously inedible, you decide to point this out to Fuuka…
Huh? Oh, you’re right… It says “rice vinegar”…
I didn’t notice at all…
……
…I’m hopeless, aren’t I…
…I just want to help everyone, even outside of battle…
So I thought that they might like having some homemade food or sweets when they’re tired…
…But I want to try harder so that I can get better at this.
Plus, now that you’re helping me out, I want to succeed even more…
I’ll try harder next time!
> You finished your cooking club meeting and headed back to the dorm.

It seems Maiko’s parents aren’t the only ones who aren’t happy together.



Narrator: But the divorce rate is still on the rise.
Studies show that one out of every five newlyweds will divorce within the year.
That concludes our special report. Now, back to the news.

I talked with Mutatsu for a while, his detective still hasn’t found his family but he’s hopeful he will soon.