What the hell is a dantian, and why Magical Girls don't use them?

  "It's about time," Jenna suddenly said from the back.

  Time? Time for what?

  "Already? Well…I guess we did spend quite the amount of time…" Lily sighed, time for what? "Well, Good luck in your journey as a sorceress."

  "Wait, what's a dantian? And where are you going?" Elizabeth said standing up.

  "Well that is a hard to answer question…" Lily said, turning thoughtful, "In a sense, I'm not going anywhere…..But in another I am returning home."

  What? How did that make sense?

  While Elizabeth was thinking about that, Lily Thompson started shining in blue light, Elizabeth focused her senses on [The Sniper] and noticed how a coat of Mana was disappearing from the girl. She hadn't noticed it before, so how could she notice it now?

  "This is quite awkward…my mana is leaving this body so now it's leaking…" Lily said sheepishly, "So, don't hate the local version of me. She had a rough upbringing, and after that, she didn't have much of a need to speak. It should be fine now that you started your path as a sorceress."

  ….That didn't explain what is a dantian tho.

  "Thank you for calling me. I love seeing you less feral." And with those words Directed at Jenna, Lily's eyes turned from the vibrant color to the dull color from before.

  "Rude, that Jenna has a reason to be like that." Jenna said as Lily tilted her head to the side just as she had been doing before Jenna used her Skill on Lily.

  "...not...me..." Lily said mumbling the answer back.

  What?

  Why was she like tha-

  Ah...Jenna summoned an Echo so it would affect Lily? Then she had been speaking to an Echo and not to the Lily from Zaanam?

  "....no....you...spoke...to...me....influenced...by....an...Echo..." Lily answered before Elizabeth could say her findings.

  "Yeah, the only moment you spoke to the Echo was when she was about to leave and when she arrived. All the other times it was this world's Lily under the influence of the other one." Jenna answered with a sigh, "Think of it as our world's Lily using the other as a mouthpiece, it was her. But what she wanted to say was being translated by an outer worlder Lily."

  That...seemed like an overly complicated way to get someone to speak more.

  "....See...?....It...was....me....giving....the....explanation...." Lily said puffing out her chest once more.

  "So the mannerism was also from that other Lily?" Elizabeth said pointing at [The Sniper], the girl had changed once more how she behaved, before she rarely acted as if what she had done was something to be proud of.

  "Somewhat, it's more like the personality of the other girl was being used to interpret what this one wanted to say," Jenna nodded at Elizabeth's query, "So both mannerisms and way of speech depended on the other Lily."

  That was one interesting way to use Jenna's power.

  "So can't you just summon her again?" Elizabeth said turning to Jenna, "It would make this go faster."

  ".....gnu...uu...uuuu...." Lily...gnued? "...I....am....the....better....sorceress....in....the....multi....verse...."

  She was?

  "That she is," Jenna said nodding her head, "I don't like using that application of my power either, it's too risky. Besides, it's rude both to this Lily and the Lily that is summoned."

  Rude to them?

  "How so?" Elizabeth asked confused.

  "First of all, the Lily being summoned is being yanked from her world into ours. When arriving into our world first she gets hit with my Skill, most of the time this means that she is somewhat chained down." Jenna said as the Mana materialized above her hands in the form of an azure chain, "Secondly she has to fight against our Lily's will."

  Lily at the side did the obvious and nodded while hitting her chest with one of her hands.

  "Usually this means that the one being summoned is either consumed or assimilated, but since Lily's magic doesn't behave like normal magic...Both in and outside our world..." Jenna said turning to Lily and waiting for her to say something.

  "...we....come to....an....agreement....they....help....me....and....I....give...them....some.... advice...." Lily's voice somehow sounded more...profound.

  Elizabeth couldn't help it but feel as if the words seemed to hold some degree of Authority, but she couldn't detect an iota of Mana coming from the girl.

  Was this another example of self-contained Mana?

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  Looking down at herself, she noticed that her own body was giving off less Mana than before. Before she could notice an uneven mana coming out of her body, a proof of her being someone who could wield Mana.

  And to the more experienced in detecting Mana, a definitive proof of her identity as someone part of the super hero or magical society.

  But now?

  Now she barely gave off some mana, if anything she was giving out almost as much Mana as a civilian who could awaken a magical skill with some training.

  Clamping on into her own mana circuits Elizabeth inspected them till she found the reason from the leaking of Mana, combing throught the mana cables she had made before she soon enough found the reason.

  The three...Dantians she had made weren't isolated properly, so extending her mana cables around them she enveloped them in the mana cables to act as isolation and a more thorough way of both condensing and taking the Mana from the dantian.

  She did the same with the middle dantian and the lower dantian afterward, and finally the same to her lower dantian.

  Doing so Elizabeth noticed how less and less Mana was leaking to the outside, till she was practically indistinct from any normal civilian, she could probably pass up as a normal civilian to anyone now even!

  "....good....I...knew...I...was....a.....good.....teach." Lily nodded her head at Elizabeth's achievements.

  Elizabeth couldn't help but narrow her eyes at the gall of this girl, she had done nothing to help her and was planning on cashing onto her sucess? That was bullshit.

  So, thinking about how to prevent this, Elizabeth couldn't help but think about the possible spell nodes she could use to achieve that.

  "Fine, I understand that you really helped me. But if you are that good of a sorceress then why do you not cast a spell to help yourself speak more fluently?" Elizabeth ribbed at Lily.

  Was it rude? Perhaps, she was unaware of why Lily spoke like she did, maybe there was some trauma? Some reason why she was like that? The other Lily did imply that this one spoke like this not because of wants, but because of a reason.

  "....can't....cast....something...I...don't....understand..." Lily answered in her slow and methodical way. "....Jenna....explain....this....while...I....prepare....next....class...."

  And like that, Lily closed her eyes and...started to do god knows what as always Elizabeth could not detect any presence of Mana leaking from the silver-haired girl, so all she had to go by was the fact that she claimed that she was preparing her next class...Whatever that would be.

  "So....roughly what Lily does is....." Jenna said stopping for a few seconds to think.

  "Tell reality to get bent and make it do whatever she wants?" Elizabeth said turning to look at Rossie, her pink-haired girlfriend seemed to be doing well enough.

  And Elizabeth was detecting the girl making more and more loops of Mana within her body.

  Unlike Elizabeth however, who had made three dantians, the girl seemed to be focusing most if not all of her extra Mana into her navel area. The pink-haired girl did also make a dantian there, but she had expanded it till it grew all the way to her skin in the form of engravings...

  Rossie did like her heart motif, didn't she?

  "That is a very crass way to put it, but it's quite concise in resuming it." Jenna said nodding her head, "How did you end up with that description anyway? I don't think Catherine or you would even think of setting it up like that."

  That was...quite understandable, Mother was many things, but while she overly gushed at cute girls. She was never crass.

  "Grandmother was the one to set it up like that, I didn't thought much about it when she said it, but now with these new...ways to think about magic..." Elizabeth said raising her hand and channeling some mana into her finger. It was quite interesting seeing how no mana leaked from her body till the Mana left her finger.

  And even at that was only between the point from where the Mana left her body and then formed a ball, from an outside point of view it looked like a normal civilian suddenly having a small blob of Mana at her finger.

  And while it was fun, Elizabeth didn't see any real reason for why she needed to know how to do this, granted it was a neat trick to escape, but why?

  "Any reason why I needed to know how to do this?" Elizabeth decided to do the smart thing and ask, more proof that she was no longer a bimbo.

  "That I don't know, I know this trick does wonders to Lily at her job....But I don't know why she wanted you to learn it. You didn't need it as you can wield magic quite well already..."Jenna's answer was in line with what Elizabeth herself thought.

  Then why?

  "....there....all....ready...." Lily said aloud and as Elizabeth turned to the side they found...a couple dossiers. "....these....are....the.....names....and.....allegiances.....of...the...Nine...."

  The what now?

  Weren't they all heroes and Magical Girls?

  "They are [The Nine Stars] aren't they merely Heroes?" Rena said aloud finally from the side. Elizabeth had almost forgotten she was there, with how quiet she had been.

  Granted that was mostly because Rena had been standing guard over them. Now that Elizabeth was free from that Rena was once more free to move and speak like usual.

  "....that is...not quite right," Jenna said with a grimace. "Here, look it for yourself."

  Elizabeth took the dossier and opened it; what she found on the first page, however, was something she had not expected to see; as soon as she read the first line of it, Elizabeth turned to stare at Jenna as if the girl had grown a second head.

  "....You are a Villain?" Elizabeth couldn't help but say and read it once again, unsure if what she had seen was accurate or not, "Or Super Villain to be precise...actually...World Threat Super Villain?"

  "Heheheheh...You'll make me blush," Jenna said while squirming from side to side.

  "...how?" Elizabeth asked as she read the information, "[The Juggernaut] is a highly dangerous and unstable individual, has enough power to upturn buildings, and is known to compete and overthrow our currently most powerful heroes and villains on the same tier. Only reason it doesn't hold a higher Tier is because they don't exists...."

  "Heheheheh...usually that description was only used with your father..." Jenna giggled like a madman at that description, then after a few minutes, she finally calmed down enough to turn and cough into her hand as if she hadn't been giggling like a high schooler who finally got what she wanted, "Ahem...Well, Elizabeth...what is a Villain? A Super Villain? A Hero? A Superhero?"

  What? We were going into semantics now?

  "A Villain is someone who commits crimmes, a Super Villain is someone who does the same on a bigger scale." Elizabeth answered somewhat confused about the question, "In that way, a Hero is someone who fights against Villains and a Super Hero is one that fights against a Super villain...?"

  Elizabeth was confident in her answer, she was, after all, daughter of the top hero. If anything she was confident on her papa of being a Super Hero.

  "....wrong...." Lily, however answered as thus.

  "Indeed, what do you think we are Lily and myself? Heroes or Villains?" Jenna asked thus with a wry smile on her face.

  "....Heroes?" Elizabeth asked, she was half sure that Jenna at the very least was a good girl.

  "Wrong," Jenna shook her head, "[The Sniper], [The Tinkerer], [The Warlock], [The Mother of Shadows] and [The Juggernaut]. That is, myself. Are what you would call Super-Villains."

  That....shouldn't be. Weren't they members of the [Nine Stars]? Wasn't Jenna previously a member of [The Twelve]?

  "How?" Elizabeth asked once more.

  "What you call a Villain or Super Villain is the definition of a Criminal, not of a Villain." Jenna said scratching her head, "A Villain is someone who does whatever they want, and a Super Villain is someone who does so by affecting many lives."

  What? That...that shouldn't...no but... it made...sense?

  "No wait..." Elizabeth said as the gears in her brain started making connections, "Then...Papa and Mother..."

  "Yes, they are bonafide examples of Super Villains." Jenna shrugged, "And by the way, [The Beast Master], [The Traveler], [The Elementalist], [The Monk], and [The Prophet] are qualified as Heroes and Super Heroes."

  That....was not what Elizabeth thought would be on the list, if Papa and Mother qualified as Villains...well, Super Villains, then why did those qualify as Heroes?

  "What is the thing that decides who is a Hero then?" Elizabeth asked narrowing her eyes, "I don't think you ever did anything to deserve to be called a Villain, neither did Papa or Mother."

  "So stalking random cute girls isn't Villainous behavior?" Jenna said pointing straight at the root of Mother's bad behavior, "As for your Father...while I always see him as [My Hero]...He....kind of...imposed his will on the nation against the opinion of the elected leaders...."

  .....Ah.

  Right....Papa did do that...

  Actually, didn't he kidnap Avalon? And sealed it away?

  Wasn't...wasn't that Super Villain behaviour?

  But...then...

  "Yeah, your Father technically is the only super-villain to ever get away with his plans; he conquered the world, imposed his will, and declared himself and your Mother as bastions of justice." Jenna sighed, "I mean, he did do good things. Don't get me wrong, but... he also didn't ask for permision, he did what he wanted. If he wanted to save someone he did, if he wanted to kill someone he did."

  Yeah...

  That...that did not sound like a good person.

  "So... what does this mean then? The [Nine Stars] and [The Twelve] weren't a hero association then?" Elizabeth asked.

  "We never claimed to be that, or not at the beginning. At the beginning, [The Twelve] were a subsidiary of the army. Then when your Mother arrived and the advent of Magical Girls started we then started taking in other members in..." Jenna said as an answer, "With time we saw the need to find a place to mediate conflicts, your Father needed a way to tell people that they would get hit if they didn't behave."

  ....Oh.

  "Yeah, he took in what people would usually call Villains and Super Villains into the fold and branded them as Heroes, the people who followed his will to protect this planet." Jenna said, spreading open the dossiers showing the image of those that had been part of [The Twelve] at some point, "That was how the current version of [The Twelve] that you knew was formed, and why this current iteration as [The Nine Stars] has been having problems surviving."

  That....made some degree of sense?