Jin lay sprawled on the tatami in the living room, cooling off after his bath.
"If I close my eyes and just listen to the insects, it really sets the mood..."
The area surrounding the Mansion was home to a multitude of autumn insects, their chirping weaving together into a nocturnal symphony.
Just then, Jin caught the sound of approaching footsteps.
"Those steps... is that Elsa?"
Judging by the weight of the stride, it was too heavy to be Hanna, which left only Elsa. However, she sounded uncharacteristically frantic.
"Jin-nii!"
Her voice, too, sounded pitched higher than usual.
"Elsa? Did something happen?"
Jin opened his eyes to find Elsa standing right there, having hurried into the room. She was wearing nothing but her underwear.
"E-Elsa?! What's wrong?!"
"Jin-nii, don't you think the 'force' behind recoil cancellation magic is the same as the one we always use in Craft Magic?"
"...Huh? What was that?"
Flustered by her unexpected state of undress, Jin's brain failed to process even half of what she had said.
"...How frustrating! Fine, will you understand if I put it like this? Isn't the force we use in Craft Magic of the same nature as the force in recoil cancellation magic?"
"Oh... Uh, yeah."
"...Do you understand now?"
Hanna chose that moment to wander in. She took one look and spoke up.
"Big Sister Elsa, aren't you going to put on clothes?"
"That's why I—wait, clothes?"
Prompted by Hanna, Elsa finally realized she was standing in front of Jin in her undergarments.
"Wait, ah, u-uh... Aaaaaah!"
Her face turned beet red, and she bolted from the living room. A distant thud echoed back—Jin wondered if she had tripped, a stray thought drifting through his scrambled brain.
"Let's see... She asked if the force used in Craft Magic was the same as recoil cancellation magic?"
As his gears finally began to turn, Jin grasped the implications behind Elsa's suggestion.
"Laojun, summon the Jin Family for an emergency meeting."
＊ ＊ ＊
"...And so, Elsa has provided us with the hint we needed for a breakthrough."
The second Recoil Cancellation Magic Discussion Meeting was underway on Hourai Island. In addition to Jin and Elsa, the group included Reinhard, Saki, Toa, and Stearena.
"Elsa, go ahead and explain."
Jin nudged Elsa, whose face was still a little flushed. She began to speak in her usual halting manner.
"...First, I want you to think about the Craft Magic 'Forming.'...Rai-nii, do you know why a substance's shape changes when you use Forming?"
Reinhard, put on the spot, thought for a moment before answering.
"Why? Well, because I use the magic with the intent to change its shape. I suppose I’ve always just thought of it as that kind of magic..."
Halfway through his sentence, Reinhard seemed to catch on.
"I-I see! The force actually deforming the material is...!"
"Right. Creating wind, shooting fire, deforming matter—I realized it might all be the same fundamental force."
"Hmm, how very intriguing," Toa muttered, crossing his arms.
Stearena was the next to speak. "I think I see what you mean. After all, the basic principle for moving a crystal golem is Forming, isn't it?"
In other words, the magic known as Forming was powerful enough to serve as a golem's motive force. Everyone nodded in realization.
"If that's true, then it would be strange for recoil cancellation magic to be the only one using a unique force," Elsa concluded.
Saki smirked, jumping ahead to the conclusion of Elsa’s narrative.
"I see. But if that's the case, Elsa, you must have some idea why Jin's experiment failed last time, right?"
She was referring to the test where Jin had tried to activate recoil cancellation magic on its own without wind magic, only for nothing to happen.
However, Elsa shook her head.
"No. I don't know the answer to that yet. But I did think of another possibility."
"Another possibility?"
"Yes....The best example is the earth attribute magic, Stone Bullet. That magic shoots a stone to strike an opponent, but what is the force behind it?"
"Ah, of course..."
The group understood Elsa's point perfectly, nodding as the pieces fell into place.
"This goes back to a hypothesis I had before," Jin explained. "All magi are capable of producing a small amount of magical power on their own. Let's call this mental energy, or mental waves. These mental waves are the 'original' magic produced by the magi themselves. They use this to convert the surrounding free ether into mana, and then convert that mana into energy to trigger the magic. In the case of Stone Bullet, that energy is kinetic."
Heat energy for fire-attribute magic; kinetic energy for wind-attribute magic. Applying that kinetic energy to a stone results in the earth attribute magic, Stone Bullet.
"Now, the source of kinetic energy is force. This force is essentially the magi's mental waves—their mental energy—amplified into a greater magical power that can govern energy itself. We don't understand the exact mechanism yet, though."
Jin declared that they would leave the mechanism for another time and focus on analyzing this "force" today.
"I think I’ll call this force derived from amplified mental waves 'psychokinesis.' I’m not sure if the name is perfectly accurate, but since it’s a force generated according to the caster’s will, it’s probably close enough."
No one raised an objection.
"It makes sense if you think of Forming as using psychokinesis to deform matter, right? Wind magic is the same; you’re just using psychokinesis to move the air."
The group listened in silence as Jin spoke. Then, he shifted the topic.
"Now, here’s a question: Is it possible to move a human being using magic?"
Reinhard reacted instantly.
"In my opinion, it should be possible using wind-attribute magic, for example."
"Exactly. Well said, Reinhard."
Reinhard scratched his head sheepishly at the praise.
"Being told that makes me feel a bit self-conscious. After all, there was a precedent—Eckart Techles's ship."
Eckart was a wealthy merchant living in a town in the southern Celuroa Kingdom. He had built a massive ship and intended to move it by using wind magic to blow air against its sails.
"Right, that’s an excellent example. It’s the concept of using a physical phenomenon caused by magic rather than the magic itself."
However, that wasn't "magic itself" doing the moving.
"Is it impossible to move a human with psychokinesis? That is the key to our problem."
The group fell silent, contemplating the question. Stearena was the first to break the silence.
"Jin-kun, about that Stone Bullet you mentioned... would it be possible to use that to blow a golem away?"
Jin considered the question for a moment before answering.
"I think it is. Let's run an experiment....Mini-Smith!"
"Yes, Master," a squeaky voice responded.
Jin called over an ultra-small golem standing only ten centimeters tall.
"I need you to help me with an experiment."
Jin gave a brief explanation. Essentially, he wanted to see if he could propel the Mini-Smith using Stone Bullet.
"Understood."
Jin stepped outside the laboratory. To ensure the golem wasn't damaged when it landed, he instructed Reiko to catch it.
"Leave it to me."
"Alright, let's give it a try....Stone Bullet!"
Jin activated the magic stored in his bracelet. As a result, the Mini-Smith sailed through the air and was safely caught by Reiko.
"Oh!"
"Jin!"
"Look at that!"
The observers watched the scene with astonishment.
"It seems to work as long as I accurately recognize the target I want to propel. I wonder if it works on something larger?"
After the Mini-Smith, he tested a forty-centimeter-tall Little-Smith, and that was a success as well.
"Father, in that case, please try propelling me."
Finally, Jin accepted Reiko's offer and targeted her.
"Stone Bullet!"
"Whoa!?"
Reiko soared through the air, performing a perfect landing about ten meters away.
"J-Jin! This is a monumental discovery!"
An excited Reinhard rushed over to him. Saki, meanwhile, offered a more composed observation.
"I wonder why no one has used it like this before? I don't just mean for flying; you could use this to blow away an enemy's golems in a war."
"Hmm, it requires quite a bit of magical power compared to throwing a stone."
The mana consumption was proportional to the mass ratio between a stone and a golem. If a stone weighed one kilogram and a golem weighed two hundred, it would require two hundred times the magical power.
"I see. So people probably never even tried because the cost was too high for the effect."
Nevertheless, a path forward had finally opened up. The Jin Family decided to dig deeper into this new lead.