Okami Wa Nemuranai

Episode 48.6

"No. There's no difference."

"Humans who possess mana and humans who don't, they both exist in this world. Or rather, ordinary humans do not have mana. Those who do are the unusual ones."

"You mean people who don't have enough mana to cast magic. No mana means no life. No human exists that's lifeless. Something like that can't be called human anymore."

"That conviction, or more like assumption is likely what brought us to this amusing situation. I'm not so sure though."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"You came across humans that can't be sensed by when you first fell into this world, didn't you?"

"Yea."

"On top of that, one among them is quite strong, as in they have a strong life force."

"Yea."

"'This can't be right', thus you thought to yourself. Then you made go into full throttle when you came very close to them. After which, you became able to detect their mana, as in life forces. After that point on, your became able to detect them as well."

"What a surprise. Didn't think you'd remember."

"Of course I would. I can't possibly forget such an important clue. I even have it recorded."

"Recorded?"

"To begin with, the same colors being shared between and is weird. Those two abilities are of different types. At least by this world's rules. And yet they are treated like one and the same. That is not right."

"I wasn't born in this world."

"But you're here in this world now. Just be quiet and listen for now. Your world and this world are extremely alike. I believe the passages connecting two worlds won't open if they are too dissimilar. But no matter how similar two worlds are, they are ultimately separate worlds. How matters are structured and how phenomena come to be are not the same. Hence, a readjustment, or rather, an adaptation occurred."

"Adaptation?"

"Your abilities have been altered to follow this world's rules."

"I have no idea what you're going on about. I've been using abilities from my previous world in this world just fine."

"The first time you used in this world, it could not detect any human."

"No. It caught two. Both were mages."

"Hee, did it really. So it showed humans with mana. Yet it didn't display humans without mana. Which was something completely unthinkable to you. Because living humans will without fail be shown by . Thus you strongly willed for them to be displayed as you cast . You used in that situation because it's more accurate than ."

"That's true. is only usable within a limited area, but I can raise its accuracy way high."

"By willing for it, you're praying. Your prayer reached this world's gods."

"I did not pray to gods."

"Okay then, let's say that you urged the Root of this world's Law of Nature to do its job. Anyway, as result your abilities got adapted, altered if you may."

"My ability adapted?"

" and are abilities to display beings with mana. They don't show those without. All living beings have mana in your world. Therefore and will always show living humans. Yet, manaless humans exist in this world. This world's rules run counter with your abilities. That's when the readjustment occurred, resulting in humans without mana being shown as pale dots of light. You interpreted that as small amounts of mana. But that was never the truth. Your abilities simply adapted themselves to this world's rules."

"W...what...?"

Lecan doesn't truly comprehend everything Shira said, but a part of him clicked with it. Lecan always found it strange. succeeded in sensing Ezak only after he fully activated it right in front of Ezak, after which his and could sense all humans. But why didn't it work from the start. That mismatch always bothered him.

"This adaptation also occurs with other stuff. Like say, magic."

"Magic?"

"Magic in your world are abilities acquired from dungeon-borne magic beasts, aren't they."

"That's right."

"You've surely gone into many dungeons, defeating all kinds of magic beasts there. And yet, you told me you couldn't use magic."

"Yea. Some people can never get magic no matter how many magic beasts that tend to drop magic they beat. They've got a low aptitude on magic. This is unrelated to one's own mana pool."

"Hee, really now. Magic Aptitude in this world is more about which types of magic you can learn more easily. Being incapable of learning any magic at all despite possessing plentiful of mana just doesn't happen."

"Thanks to that, I finally managed to learn magic."

"When did you think you used your first magic in this world?"

"Back when you taught me magic. Should be spell, yeah."

"Wrong answer."