Jin’s blood from the time his body had been composed of magiatoms—it, too, consisted of those very same atoms.
"Start by preparing about ten cc’s."
"Understood."
Jin intuitively judged that if the substance reacted similarly to nuclear fission or fusion, he should proceed with the smallest amount possible.
"First... about this much."
He took a tiny droplet of blood on the tip of a toothpick and rubbed it onto a magi-crystal.
This caution was rooted in a memory bordering on trauma. Once, a child at the orphanage had tried to make peppermint tea for him but had accidentally dumped a whole spoonful of peppermint oil into the cup, resulting in an undrinkable disaster.
When it came to peppermint oil in tea, a mere toothpick’s worth was more than enough.
"I wonder how I can get this to decay..."
"Father, what about a Mana Explosion?" Reiko suggested.
"Right, let's try that. In that case, I'll put it on a wooden board instead of a magi-crystal."
Once more, he applied a tiny smear of blood from the tip of the toothpick onto a piece of wood. He estimated the amount to be roughly 0.001 cc.
Jin and Reiko took the sample outside the laboratory. Since night had already fallen, he used the light from a Light Ball to illuminate the area. Once he had a clear view, he erected a solid barrier around the perimeter.
"Here I go... Mana Explosion!"
There was an explosion—or so it seemed—but no sound or blast wave followed. Instead, a black sphere about one centimeter in diameter manifested, only to vanish in less than a second.
"What just happened?"
"My Lord, I believe a 'hole' has opened in the fabric of space."
"A hole?"
"Yes. I believe that black sphere was a spatial hole. It did not reflect the light from the Light Ball at all, and it appeared to lack physical substance."
"Ugh... I see."
It was impossible to tell if the experiment had affected physical matter, but at a glance, nothing else seemed to have changed.
"Hmm. I can't tell if that was a success or a failure."
"My Lord, for a hole to open in space suggests that something more than just energy volume is at play."
"You're right."
Even if the entire mass had been converted to energy, Jin didn't think it would be enough to punch a hole in space. A Mana Explosion was certainly a force of unparalleled destruction because it released a massive amount of energy in an infinitesimal span of time.
"What if that energy was released over an even shorter duration?"
"If that were the case, it would mean the magiatoms didn't 'decay' so much as they were 'converted into energy,'" Laojun analyzed calmly.
"I see... That makes sense."
Since the goal had been to induce decay, this method was technically a failure. However, one thing continued to bother Jin. If high energy alone could open holes in space, the answer would likely be no. There had to be another factor.
"Was a sub-ether wave emitted during the explosion?"
"The possibility cannot be ruled out."
He might have taken a step forward—or perhaps half a step—but the results weren't practical yet. Jin didn't want to open holes in space; he was looking for a way to do the exact opposite.
"If it influenced space, does that mean a sub-ether wave was produced?"
"The probability is high."
Still, the path forward remained obscured.
"My Lord, I have noticed one more thing."
"What is it?"
"That hole did not possess any 'spirited away' elements."
"Ah, right."
It didn't seem as though anything had been sucked into it, nor had anything emerged.
"Though it's possible that was simply due to its small size."
Regardless, Jin had no intention of repeating that specific experiment.
"Another method..."
Jin racked his brain, considering every way to generate waves that he knew.
He thought of Tokyo Tower. To Jin, Tokyo Tower was far more familiar than the Sky Tree. Radio waves were transmitted from an antenna.
He thought of a pebble thrown into a pond. Ripples spreading outward.
He thought of a jump rope. Holding one end and shaking it. The rope undulated, and a wave traveled down its length.
He thought of a speaker. The coil vibrates... or something like that.
He thought of a spring. Pull it and let go, and it repeats its expansion and contraction.
"Hmm. If you apply a force and then remove it, it vibrates... maybe?"
In this case, if he applied a force that acted upon space and then removed it, wouldn't space itself vibrate?
"Ether waves work similarly to that..."
Then what about sub-ether waves? Jin asked himself. There was no doubt that their frequency was extremely high.
"But light is..."
The more he thought, the more confused he became. He wondered if ether waves and sub-ether waves were entirely different phenomena. Were they as distinct as sound waves and light waves, or were their frequencies just vastly different, like visible light and ultraviolet?
"It's just a hunch, but I feel like they're completely different things."
Jin trusted his intuition over cold logic.
"Frequency, huh... Oh, that reminds me."
Jin recalled something that might hold potential: mental catalysts.
"I have a feeling mental waves are closer to sub-ether waves than ether waves."
There was no doubt that their frequency was incredibly high.
"Mental waves... I wonder what would happen if I raised the frequency even higher."
Jin considered how to achieve that. He thought about using light-attribute or dark-attribute magi-crystals as a medium.
"If I think about how mental waves are actually generated..."
In principle, it was an image of vibrating the magi-crystal—or rather, a portion of its atoms.
"If the upper limit of the frequency is determined by the attribute of the magi-crystal..."
Jin wondered what would happen if he vibrated a crystal made of magiatoms. However, no such substance existed.
"Hmm. I wonder if there’s a suitable material..."
As Jin pondered, Reiko made an unexpected suggestion.
"Father, what about Mityanite?"
"Mityanite...!"
Also known as Elradrite. Its mineral name was Univasium. It was a material known to amplify mana.
"Let's try it."
Jin was past the point of being picky. Mityanite was said to amplify mana, but in reality, it was useless unless mana was already being supplied to it. In that regard, Jin thought of it like a transistor in an amplification circuit—though he admittedly knew very little about electronic circuits.
"I've never really looked into why it amplifies until now..."
"Indeed, My Lord. I have just been considering it. What if Mityanite's amplification occurs because magiatoms, excited by the supplied mana, provide an amplification effect when they return to their original state?"
"Oh, that’s a real possibility."
Laojun was as quick as ever. Excitation referred to the transition from a low-energy state to a high-energy state. When the atoms returned to their original state, they released the energy difference. Jin speculated that Mityanite might be effectively utilizing this principle.
"Validation can wait. Let's just try it first."
It was a race against time. Jin immediately began the next round of experiments alongside Reiko and Laojun.