Chapter 11 - Chapter 10: Thermal Energy and Healing Magic
"Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot!!!"
Mika's scream echoed through the forest.
Mika fell backward, stumbling, and rolled over and over on the ground.
Groaning "Ah! Ghh!", he grabbed his right wrist with his left hand and thrashed about.
He rolled around like that for a while, but even after calming down, the energy to get up wouldn't come.
"Damn it! Think a little more, me!"
He cursed at himself.
It was the second day of trial and error to increase the firepower of fire magic.
He tried various things, like visualizing rocks melting or imagining the flame changing color depending on the temperature, but the results were not good.
So, what he arrived at was the question: What is heat, anyway?
It is well-known as a chemical reaction called combustion, but heat is a form of energy.
More accurately, it was a form of energy transfer.
Physics, thermodynamics, and other things learned in student days are now distant memories.
They are far in the past.
He pulled out such vague memories and thought about "heat".
Work, internal energy, state equations, etc. — "I learned those things," he felt nostalgic, but at the same time, bitter memories of struggling before exams resurfaced.
He tried writing out formulas he could remember on the ground, but looking at them didn't seem very useful.
What was needed now wasn't numbers on a desk, but how to change the state of the "Fireball" right in front of him.
What is heat, anyway?
Wasn't it the vibration and rotation of atoms and molecules?
Temperature rises because vibrations become violent, and temperature drops because vibrations settle down.
The mechanism of heating in a microwave, vibrating water molecules by irradiating them with electromagnetic waves, is something almost anyone knows.
Of course, only the theory.
Whether "vibrations become violent" means they speed up, the amplitude increases, rotation speeds up, or all of these, he didn't know.
Mika was neither a scientist nor a researcher, so he only possessed vague knowledge he had read or heard somewhere.
He had learned through repeated trials that simply thinking "Become hot" to the "Fireball" wouldn't cause any change, so he decided to try a different approach just in case.
"Telling atoms to vibrate violently is quite abstract, though...."
There was no way to form a concrete image.
He had never seen atoms, nor had he ever seen them vibrating.
All matter is composed of atoms, and if you dig deep enough into those atoms, they are composed of quarks and Higgs particles, but hearing that didn't elicit any reaction other than "Oh, I see."
But since he couldn't think of anything else, he decided to try it for now.
"Fireball!"
He turned his right palm upward and created a "Fireball".
A golf-ball-sized "Fireball" floated about ten centimeters above his right hand.
It was burning brightly, but it wasn't particularly hot.
However, the season was already summer, and having a "Fireball" right in front of him in that heat, even if not hot, was stifling.
He felt sweat slowly rising and decided to test it quickly.
(They say atomic vibration... Well, I'll just do it.)
He stared intently at the mass of flame before him, imagining the vibrations becoming violent and the temperature gradually rising.
Then, a slight change was visible.
The flame rose a bit higher, and the burning became stronger.
"Oh? Could this be effective?"
Was it his imagination?
No, the flame definitely seemed to have grown larger.
He closed his eyes and concentrated seriously, further strengthening the image.
Vibrations becoming more violent, the temperature of the flame rising.
Then, a change happened immediately.
He closed his eyes, and because the change was too sudden, he was late to notice, but the temperature of the "Fireball" had jumped several times higher.
Just above his right hand, only about ten centimeters away.
"Ouch... Ah... This is bad. I really got burned...."
Looking at his right hand, it had turned red all over, and large blisters had formed.
"Waterball!"
He created a "Waterball" the size of a basketball with his left hand and stuck his hand inside.
But it didn't cool down at all.
It was water at room temperature.
"I have to cool it down somehow."
In this world where freezers didn't exist, how did he get ice?
Speaking of which, river water was cold, wasn't it?
Thinking that might be more realistic, he came up with an idea.
"Manipulation of thermal energy...."
He looked at the "Waterball" right in front of him with his right hand stuck inside.
If he could raise the temperature, could he lower it too?
"................................................., let's try it."
He frowned, hesitated for a moment, but decided to try it anyway.
He pulled his right hand out, stared intently at the mass of water before him, and imagined the atomic vibrations stopping.
In reality, they probably wouldn't stop completely, but well, it was just an image.
His right hand throbbed with pain, but he tried not to mind it and concentrated his consciousness.
He prayed as if putting on an emergency brake to the movement of the vibrations, imagined a block of ice, and the mass of water gradually changed into a block of ice.
He was stunned by the visible freezing process.
"Oh... Ohhh? Seriously."
He muttered involuntarily, and perhaps his concentration broke, the block of ice floating in the air fell straight to the ground.
A heavy sound, "Doon," proved it was completely frozen.
He reached out to touch the block of ice that fell to the ground, but his hand stopped.
"It's just water that froze, right...?"
If it was just water that froze, there was no problem.
But what if this was something like dry ice?
He had seen water freeze right before his eyes, so he thought it was unlikely to be wrong.
But what if this wasn't frozen water, but rather hydrogen and oxygen solidified?
Trying to cool a burn could lead to a much more tragic situation.
"No, no, no, it looks like just ice to anyone. If it were solidified hydrogen or oxygen, it would be vaporizing and steaming everywhere. It's ridiculous."
Saying that while trembling slightly, he moved a little away from the ice and cast "Water Splash" onto the block of ice.
There was no visible sign of anything vaporizing.
He poked it with his fingertip, and his finger didn't stick.
It seemed to be really just ice.
Perhaps because he had suffered a painful experience, he had become too cautious.
He wished he could have shown that caution before getting hurt.
Crouching down, he gently placed his right hand on the ice, and he could feel the hot hand cooling down rapidly.
"Ahhh... It's cold..."
He sighed and cursed his own foolishness.
Opening a new field of manipulating thermal energy was good, but his actions were too stupid.
"You should be able to figure that out just by thinking."
Even a child knows what happens when the temperature rises that close.
He felt sorry for his own thoughtless actions.
"...Was I this stupid?"
You don't know until you actually suffer a painful experience.
Moreover, since coming to this world, he felt like he was repeating such things over and over.
He almost died from heatstroke, last time he collapsed from lack of mana, and now a burn.
Shouldn't he be a little more careful?
Something about his own actions felt strange.
His self-evaluation up until now was somewhat "conservative and cautious".
He didn't want much change; he wanted a flat and peaceful life rather than a life with ups and downs.
Of course, he would accept changes that were convenient or beneficial to himself, but even then, he would take time before accepting.
"Is this really going to be a benefit to me?"
He felt a disconnect between the way he had lived and his recent actions.
His actions since coming to this world were "too reckless" by his previous standards.
"Did I go stupid after coming to this world?"
Since he was suddenly thrown into such a world, it wasn't strange for something to change within him.
Personality is formed by experience.
It was unthinkable that such an out-of-the-ordinary experience would have no effect on a person.
But even so, the change was too big.
There was only one thing he could think of.
"...Mika Noisheim's memories."
Where was experience accumulated?
It was certain that it was stored in the brain as memories.
He, who possessed Mika Noisheim's memories, couldn't possibly be unaffected.
Although Ritsu Kuhashi was the main entity of him now, it was natural to think that he had mixed with Mika Noisheim, and drawing a clear line between them was now impossible.
What was here was neither Ritsu Kuhashi nor the original boy Mika, but Mika Noisheim as a third existence.
"Ah... It's cold."
He let go of the ice and touched the blisters with a fidgeting motion.
Large blisters had formed over a wide area.
Burns weren't just a surface problem; they penetrated inside.
Just because it was cold, stopping the cooling immediately wasn't good.
He placed his hand on the ice again.
"What should I do...?"
He muttered aimlessly.
Ritsu Kuhashi, as he knew him, was already gone.
At that fact, he felt a touch of loneliness.
"Well, it can't be helped. I am me, after all."
There was nothing he could do about it now.
Then he had no choice but to accept it.
"If so, at least I should reflect and make it a lesson for the future."
Ritsu Kuhashi was already gone.
And Mika Noisheim, who was here now, seemed to have quite a reckless personality.
Self-awareness. To be aware of oneself and to know oneself was very important.
If he understood that, then he just had to be conscious and handle things carefully from now on.
He touched the blisters with a fidgeting motion and put them back on the ice.
"What should I do with this..."
Of course, he meant the burn.
The burn itself was troublesome, but the location was the worst possible.
His dominant hand. Moreover, the palm.
If he wanted to heal the injury, not moving it was best, but with the palm of his dominant hand, he couldn't do that.
Above all, the hygiene was very poor.
Burns might heal naturally, but keeping them clean until then was extremely difficult.
Or rather, impossible.
Suppuration and infection were the set path. It was certain to happen.
Then, the options available here were not many.
Or rather, there was only one.
"I guess it has to be Radi..."
He slumped his shoulders.
If it was that "Laughing Virgin Mary", he thought she would heal him quickly.
But she would surely ask.
Why did you get such a burn?
Should he tell the truth?
Or should he deceive her?
He knew he would be scolded no matter which he chose.
If he spoke of magic, it was certain to be forbidden.
He couldn't decide which to choose and held his head in his hands.
"I want [Heal], but a magic ban is tough..."
But he didn't want to lie to Radi.
Just like Amalia and Loretta, there were too many people in this village who truly cared about Mika.
With such straight love directed at him, even a small lie felt like a huge sin.
Especially since he already had a sense of guilt for taking over Mika Noisheim.
He wanted [Heal].
But he didn't want to lie.
But he hated a magic ban.
Amidst such conflict, he suddenly heard the whisper of a demon.
Yes, a solution like a demon's.
(Wait, wait, wait. That won't do. That's a no-go.)
He immediately rejected that thought that suddenly floated up.
But even after holding his head and thinking for a while, no other method came to mind.
(Am I stupid? Didn't I just decide to be careful?)
His mind rejected it.
Still, he knew even he was attracted to the demon's whisper.
He scratched his head with his left hand, trying to drive that thought away.
But soon he was captivated by that thought again.
"Ah, damn it! Am I really this stupid!"
Aware that his self-control was insufficient, he still couldn't stop himself.
"...I'll do it, you bastard."
He made up his mind and cursed at himself again.
But no matter what, he wanted to avoid doing it on the spur of the moment.
He would work with at least a minimum of caution and try an experiment first.
Natural healing power.
Simply put, it was the function of healing one's own illnesses and injuries.
If pathogens entered, white blood cells would attack; if injured, damaged or broken cells would be eliminated and repaired with normal cells.
Of course, it wasn't omnipotent, but to some extent, one could heal without medicine or treatment.
Could he use mana to boost this ability?
Since there was something called [Heal], it was certainly possible.
The only problem was whether it was possible for him.
He pulled a weed at his feet by its stem and tore it in half.
Then, he sent mana until the separated parts were almost touching.
Cell activation.
He strongly held the image of eliminating broken cells, promoting division into normal cells, and repairing the separated parts.
Structurally, plants had parts like tubes for water to pass through, but he would leave that to the plant's DNA.
He just had to promote cell division and imagine the separated parts connecting again.
Sending mana all at once and activating it too much might cause something unknown.
He sent mana little by little and repaired it slowly.
After sending mana slowly for about 2 to 3 minutes, the separated parts seemed to have connected.
He let go of his hand, and the torn part didn't break or fall off.
He pulled it lightly, and it didn't tear.
"............Is it really connected?"
You couldn't tell from the appearance.
It might look connected, but internally it could be a mess and wither by tomorrow.
But for now, it was connected.
It had connected.
"It might be possible... I didn't think I couldn't do it."
Just experimenting with one blade of grass and then using his own body for human experimentation was out of his mind.
But he couldn't resist the charm of acquiring healing magic.
Especially since the experiment had succeeded.
"...Did the Fly Man's doctor feel this way?"
He remembered a certain famous movie.
It was the story of a scientist who threw his own body into an experiment on matter transport.
Before the main event, he made a bitter face because he could only imagine a future of failure.
Although it was called healing magic, in reality, it was merely promoting metabolism.
Metabolism progressed at an unprecedented speed, and as a result, injuries healed quickly.
That was all.
In that sense, wasn't it far more common sense than phenomena where fire or water came out of his hands?
Well, the speed of that promotion was uncommon sense.
"Alright, let's do it."
He pushed the movie's ending out of his head and focused on what he had to do.
"Just concentrate mana in my right hand and imagine the burn healing."
Eliminate damaged cells little by little, decompose them.
At the same time, promote the division of normal cells and repair the burn from the inside.
It was a function originally equipped in the body. It wasn't anything special.
He convinced himself of this and began healing.
He pointed his blistered hand at himself and stared intently.
He gathered mana and maintained the image of being repaired slowly.
Slowly was fine, little by little was fine. Don't rush.
While telling himself that, he continued sending mana to his right hand.
A pale blue light faintly wrapped his right hand, but the [Heal] of [God's Miracle] that boy Mika had seen before should have been a feeling of faint yellow particles floating softly.
(The pale blue light is the color of mana itself. Does this mean what I'm doing now is something separate from [Heal]?)
After about 5 minutes, wrinkles began to appear on the skin that was slightly blistered.
He cut his concentration once and interrupted the healing.
Touching the blister, it was clear there was excess skin.
It seemed the exudate that had been stuffed full had decreased.
"......So the necessary substances for healing were absorbed?"
He carefully observed to see if there were any other changes.
The pain of the burn still continued.
But nothing visibly bad had happened.
In the invisible parts, and as sensations, there was nothing particularly concerning other than pain.
He took a few deep breaths and decided to concentrate on healing his right hand again.
After repeating this many times, interrupting and confirming, the pain disappeared in less than an hour.
Of course, not all sensations were gone. Sensations other than pain were still there.
It seemed the exudate had been completely absorbed, and now the skin of his hand was floating from his wrist to his fingers.
Honestly, this state was very unpleasant.
"Can I peel this skin...?"
Pressing his palm with his fingers caused no pain.
If the healing was complete, there must be new skin regenerated under this skin.
............Probably.
He tried tearing a small part of the edge.
There was no pain, and for now, there were no other concerns.
When he removed all the skin, it had returned to its original state completely.
Looking at the skin that retained the shape of his hand, it was like a snake shedding its skin.
"Haha... Seriously."
It was so amazing that a dry laugh escaped him.
Mentally, the shock of being able to heal this burn was far greater than manifesting water or fire.
"Truly incredible power."
Even though he did it himself, he was dumbfounded again.
"............Speaking of which, in that movie, the abnormalities happened after some time had passed."
Mika remembered such unnecessary things.