Part 1

“Akito is not weak!” Inoue growled as she held Shin by the collar and lifted him in the air.  Shin wriggled in the air as he tried to free himself but his efforts were wasted. No matter how hard he tried, Inoue’s grip was strong. Given her female thin physique, one would assume that this young girl would have no strength. However, appearances can be deceiving – though not to Shin. It was only natural for a demon, Vampire, to have at least enough strength to lift something as light as himself.  In fact, She showed no reaction when Inoue lifted him up into the air. He was only slightly surprised that Inoue was taking out her anger and frustrations at him.

“Put….me down….” Shin managed to get a few words across. However, Inoue showed no signs of relenting.  Her eyes were fierce as she stared at Shin.

Shin returned the stare with an aloof expression as though he had no idea what he said that turned him the object of her wrath.

“Apologize!” Inoue mumbled in a stern tone.

“Preposterous!” Shin cried out. “Maou-sama will never apologize to a lowly demon like you….”

Inoue’s grip around Shin’s collar tightened, slightly suffocating Shin. “Apologize to Akito!”

“Never!!” Shin declared – he would never let go of his pride, no matter what….

Inoue began shaking Shin in the air. It wasn’t a casual shake down, but rather a very violent tugging while her grip tightened around Shin’s collar.

It hadn’t been more than 10 seconds, when Shin cried out, “O…O…Okaay…..” Shin felt as though he had just survived an earthquake and the insides of his body felt as though they were being jolted around.  

Too human body is just too pathetic and weak! Shin wanted to cry every time he was reminded how weak he truly was. He had been reduced from the powerful Maou-sama to an ordinary weak human. Why couldn’t have reincarnated as some demon, at least I wouldn’t be so weak then.

“I apologize!!! Maou-sama apologizes!!” However Inoue didn’t stop rattling him. Her mind was preoccupied with other thoughts. She was desperately trying to think of ways to save Akito.

“I I I I apologigigized….” Shin cried out, but when he noticed that Inoue wasn’t listening, Shin offered the olive branch, “I can save your servant….”

It worked. Inoue’s frame of mind only permitted her to react to things related to Akito. Inoue immediately stopped rattling Shin in the air. “You can save him?” She asked with scepticism.  Didn’t this kid just say he never learned the cure for the poison? And now he is claiming that he can save Akito?

Shin nodded his head vigorously. Inoue gave a fierce look before releasing her grip. Shin fell to the floor, however he was absolutely delighted to be able to feel the earth beneath his feet again. Before Shin continue to rejoice, he felt a hand grab on to the back of his shirt and drag him away…

“Where are you taking me, loathsome girl!!” Shin asked as Inoue was dragging him across the room. If one of Shin’s lower servants were to see his sorry state right now, they be laughing their guts out. The great Maou-sama being reduced to such a pitiful state; where a child demon from some lowly branch sect was dragging him across the floor.

“If you are going to save him, don’t we need to go to the store?”

“Store?” This girl made no sense to Shin. If they are going save him, why would they need to go to a store?

Inoue gave a frustrated look at Shin, are all people this slow? But then again he is just a kid….no matter how Inoue looked at it Shin seemed to be an ordinary child, yet sometimes he gave the feeling that he wasn’t one ….but that was only sometimes. A vast majority of the times, he was dumber than most kids she knew. “Don’t you need instruments? Herbs? Medicine? How are you going to cure him?” Inoue spoke through her teeth as she continued dragging Shin.

“Stupid demon! Have your brains gotten all rotten? We don’t need herbs or anything like that. As long as you use your mana, it should be sufficient.” Shin shouted at her. He would not stand for his dignity being trampled upon.

Inoue stopped and raised Shin to his feet using her single arm. Her cutesy face had long been replaced with a fierce expression. She glared at Shin so strongly that Shin could swear her staring would make a hole through him. If it were anyone else she would have pounded them into the ground for calling her a stupid demon – however Shin was the only one who knew the cure for the poison. She could not afford upsetting him any further. Threats could only be used so far, if Shin truly decided not to help her then Akito would be lost. This was something she was not willing to let happen.

“There is no need to gather precious herbs to cure this trash poison. The heart snake swallowing poison is known as a trash poison because it can simply be expelled by the body through the use of mana. Every demon knows that, what kind of country bumpkin are you?” Shin asked her as he straightened his shirt. “As long as you channel the mana through Akito’s poisoned meridians, then you can flush  the poison out.”

Inoue stared at Shin stupidly.

“What?” Shin asked her when he noticed she wasn’t reacting at all.

“What’s mana?” Inoue asked with a big question mark floating above her head.

Shin face palmed himself – I knew she was a country bumpkin but isn’t this idiot taking stupidity to new heights?

Part 2

Mana. What is mana?

If it could be described, then a modern day person would call Aether or Quintessence.  Mana was an unseen and unfelt form of energy that pervaded throughout the universe. It was like air but yet not like air; at least air could still be felt when the wind blew.

The only physical manifestation that mana took was in the form of crystals. Mana crystals naturally absorbed the mana in the environment like a sponge. These crystals would harden and grow bigger over time unless a creature used the mana stored within the crystal.  

Mana crystals were the only known physical form of mana. However, they were not looked upon too kindly as mana stored in crystals could be considered as low grade form of mana due to their impurity. There did exist high grade crystals which had close to no impurity but such crystals were rare. It was also best to use mana in its pure natural form than rely on crystals. Only creatures with poor magical abilities like humans found mana crystals extremely beneficial. Demon’s like Maou-sama or the Vampires consider even the highest grade mana crystal as garbage.

The higher one stood one the food chain, the better was their magical abilities. Although, mana had no physical manifestation other than crystals, it did have a spiritual manifestation. Hence all creatures could sense it – not through their hands but through focusing their minds.

Just as a bird naturally knows how to fly, and fish knows how to swim, sensing mana is not something which needs to be taught. It is something everyone is born with.

Shin stared at the Inoue in disbelief.

How could she not know what mana is? To not know him, Maou-sama, was bad enough. But to not know what is mana? Shin really had to reassess his analysis – maybe she was not a demon….but then even humans can sense mana….how can you not know what is mana? Even Tomo knew what mana is!!

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“What? Why are you staring at me like that?” Inoue asked as she watched Shin’s expression of disbelief.

“You!!! Stupid demon!! Did you grow up living under a stone??” Shin irritatedly asked her.

“Huh?”

“Mana is the most fundamental of all magical energies!!! How do you think you were using your powers earlier! If that wasn’t using mana then what is?” Shin angrily asked her – he really thought that this child was pretending to be dumb. However, Inoue genuinely did not know what is mana. She had never played video games – so she could not make any reference to it. Furthermore, even the animes she watched so far didn’t talk about mana….

“You mean Ki?” Inoue asked with a question mark still above her head. Was Shin referring to Ki? Maybe in Japan , they called Ki, Mana.

“Yes Ki!” Shin excitedly replied. Thank goodness she is not stupid beyond repair! Shin also mentally noted that Ki was a synonym for mana. Next time he meets someone, he will refer to Ki – as that seems to be the popular word for mana. “Ki, Mana, call it what you like. You must simply inject your Ki into Akito’s body and flush out the poison. It is as simple as that.”

Inoue’s eyes nearly popped out of her sockets. “Inject Ki? Isn’t that dangerous? Are you from the Hans clan of China?”

“Hans who?”

“Injecting mana into the body; is a secret technique developed by the Han dynasty of China. I thought it was a combat technique - to think there was such a use of it. Maybe because of all secrecy surrounding the technique some of its other uses are not known…” Inoue suspiciously glanced at Shin, clearly he could not be a child of ordinary background if he knew things like heart swallowing snake poison and the Hans’ secret technique. But then how should she reconcile these facts with everything else the boy said? Especially about being Maou-sama in human form? That sounded like simply crazy talk.

This kid’s background must be deep…he could be a young master to a large Japanese faction…but what is he doing in a place like this?

“Huh?” It was now Shin’s turn to stare at Inoue in disbelief. How could something as basic as injecting mana be considered a secret technique…what really happened to the mortal realm since he had been away? Or maybe this demon was too rustic to know anything. If a branch sect had a branch which had a branch, then this girl would belong to the bottom of the ladder of that branch.  Her knowledge was just too lacking.

Shin decided to put aside these thoughts for the moment and go with the flow, there was something else that was bothering him. “Yes, the Hans technique. Now use it on your servant quickly.”

“Did you not hear me? The Hans dynasty’s secret technique of injecting mana has the word secret in it. How would I know how to use this technique?”

Shin face palmed himself.  Who are the bloody Hans?

Part 3

“Place both your palms on his stomach.” Shin instructed. “Now visualize your mana…your Ki, just like when you used your power.” Shin explained.

Inoue closed her eyes and placed both her hands on Akito’s stomach. His breathing was gradually becoming heavier as the poison rapidly spread throughout his body.

“Now gently direct the Ki, from your meridians… through your arms and into Akito. “ Shin continued to explain as he hurriedly threw a few glances at the door.

Inoue calmly focused all the ki in her body to follow the path described by Shin, however she found it very difficult to control the Ki. It was the case, where one understands the theory but fails to apply it practically. Using her Ki in her voice was something she innately knew how to use. Furthermore, she received training from her parents on how to use that power. However, controlling Ki was not that simple.  

Ki was a volatile energy which every human being possessed.  Each human being possessed varied amounts of Ki. Normal people possessed almost none. However, people from the Murim had much more. Naturally, stronger the martial artist, stronger would be their Ki control and over all Ki that they could expend.

Controlling Ki, was akin to walking on a tight rope while balancing an egg on a spoon in one hand and juggling random items with another. It required very delicate controls as using too much force could have the opposite effect and injure Akito.  However, once this hurdle had been crossed then controlling ki for that specific technique would only become easier.

Just as Inoue was about to succeed, she felt the Ki in her body go out of control and the energy dissipate before it could reach Akito.

“Try again.” Shin instructed as he watched the demon fail for the third time. He was really disturbed to see a demon struggling to control mana. If it was this difficult for her to control mana then it would be impossible for him to control. But Shin held on to the hope that Inoue was truly a country bumpkin – if that were truly the case then there was still hope for him. Nonetheless, it bothered Shin…what had really happened to the world since he had been away?

Initially, he had always thought the fault lay with him. After speaking with Inoue, he began suspecting things might not be so simple and there might be other reasons to explain his lack of magical power. Otosan said that elecktrecity is used to power all the magical devices in the castle. I will need to investigate whether this elecktrecity is something that I can harness…

“Try again.” Shin spoke as he noticed Inoue failed yet again.

“Why can’t you do it?” Inoue asked in frustration. Controlling Ki was quite a tiresome task and every time, she tried to do something unnatural like inject it in Akito, she was exhausting herself.

Shin hesitated in replying. Should he let her know that he can barely sense mana let alone control it?

“Try again.” Shin repeated. Not knowing one’s true strength was an advantage Shin did not want to lose. As long as Inoue believed Shin could use mana then she would not act aggressively. There was also his pride as Maou-sama which was on stake. How can Maou-sama not control mana?

Inoue frowned when she received no reply. She could not understand why Shin wasn’t helping her. However, she could only suspect he had his own reasons.

“Ah!” Inoue cried out in surprise, this time when she tried she actually succeeded!

The feeling could not be described in words. Inoue could feel her Ki being rapidly absorbed by Akito’s body and it being drained from her own body.  However, as time went on there seemed to be no end to the Ki being absorbed. Inoue’s face turned pale as she felt her strength being depleted.

Shin carefully watched the situation. He could tell that Inoue was exhausted, which surprised him greatly because it meant she was using mana that was within her own body rather than the environment.  This girl’s stupidity knows no boundaries. Isn’t it common sense to use mana from the environment…

Just as Inoue felt her vision blackening and eye lids growing heavier, Akito slowly opened his eyes.

“Hime-sama?” A weak voice escaped Akito’s lips.