Who Da Boss Lady? 44 (Patreon)

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRai

Who Da Boss Lady?

Chapter 44

-VB-

Mari was suspicious of this old Unc in her backyard, but Serafall vouched for him, so she was going to let it slide. 

It really helped that he was helping her with her healing spells, though. 

“When you are making healing spells like you are doing,” he finally spoke after his “analysis.” “You need to remove most if not all elements and traits innate to your mana that could interfere with healing. See here? I’m not good with green magic because magic is not really a thing that shinigamis like myself perform often but I can manipulate it like injecting it into my reiatsu. If I were to do this, then anyone who has even a remote incompatibility with green magic would actually suffer damages even before the healing starts.”

“So… I can’t just boost someone’s regeneration?” 

“Ah ah ah! What is regeneration?” 

That made her stop and think. “It’s like when the body regrows itself, right?” 

“Yes but no.”

“... What do you mean?” she frowned. 

He pulled his own haori’s sleeve back to tap at his admittedly well toned and serious muscles. “If I cut off my arm, then would my natural DNA (if I was still a mortal) have the instructions to build an arm?”

“No?”

“And for shinigamis, do you think we might have that instruction?”

“I don’t know …”

“Exactly.”

“What?”

“You don’t know,” he grinned as he pointed at her while crouched in front of her with the dead tentacle-infested rabbit between them. “Just like how you didn’t know whether or not the rabbit was able to regenerate. Regeneration, thus, is not something that is innate to people but something extra that exists on top of the mortal shell or whatever existence your target has.”

“Like what?”

“Well, I’m a shinigami. Shinigamis are souls. Souls know what they look like but that doesn’t mean each part of the soul does.”

She nodded along. “So how do you heal?”

“The 4th Division - ah, that is the healing division within the Gotei 13 - uses kaido, a sort of healing spell. But it begins with restoring the internal magic or soul stuff inside the target first.”

“... Because souls know what they look like?”

“Kind of! See, kaido heals by setting up a template for the body to “regrow” into. This is done through visualization.”

“Visualization…” she frowned. “Like what the cells and muscle fibers are?” He blinked and then laughed. Loudly. She blushed. “Hey! What are you laughing for?!” 

“Sorry, sorry,” he snickered while wiping a nonexistent tear from his eyes. “Magic… magic doesn’t care about that.”

“They … don’t?” 

“No! If that was the case, then how did anyone ever perform healing magic before modern natural sciences?” he asked. “Sure, some of us knew what those things were, even if they were under different names, far before the mortals did, but even then, those were very few among many healers.”

“Then… how did you heal?”

“Visualization.”

She groaned. “Wait, so, I just have to think about what a limb is?”

“Yup! The exact mechanics differ from each pantheon and region to individual and system, but ultimately, visualization is the key to most healing spells. And some spells have a time limit.”

She boggled at that idea. “A time limit on spells?”

“Yup! Don’t complete the spells before the given time and things go wrong.” Then he glanced down at the dead rabbit. “Very wrong.”

She looked down. “Wait, but I didn’t put a time limit on my spell!” 

He shrugged. “Sometimes, time limits are built-in. It could be your own thoughts about how quick a spell should be. It could be the structure of the spell itself, being unstable from the start and needing a constant stream of adjustments and power. It could be that it was formulated that way. Regardless, some spells have innate time limitations for one reason or another. And it seems to me that your spell might have one of those on top of a lack of visualization.”

Mari grumbled. “... What should I focus on first?”

“Visualization. Remember what I said about souls remembering their own forms? Even though it can be vague even to them sometimes? That’s what healers should work with first and then focus on other things when not everything goes according to plan.”

“So… imagine that this rabbit is alive and moving?”

“Exactly! But if resurrection was that easy, then you would see it everywhere, wouldn’t you? Maybe start with healing things that are still alive.”

She frowned. “... I guess,” she mumbled and then let out a sigh. She looked at the still waving tentacle-weeds before she waved her hand over them. 

She felt the tentacles come apart as her hand passed over them in her vision and by the time her passed over completely, they were gone. 

“... what did you do there?” 

She looked up and saw Urahara-san looking a little disturbed. 

“Hmm? Oh, I just thought about ‘deleting’ them like how you delete programs on the computer.”

He laughed nervously. “I suppose that is one way to visualize things… Dangerous, though.”

“Huh? How?”

“What if you delete something you didn’t want to?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, but that’s what the Trash Can is for.”

Then she went the other way with her hand and the tentacles were back.

“... And where were they before you brought them back?”

“T-”

Pop!

“MARI, I GOT YOU A R-.”

Pause.

Mari turned to look at the direction of the pop and the blurt and saw Venalita floating to her right. 

“You’re finally back,” she growled. 

But Venalita wasn’t looking at her. 

She was looking at Urahara.

“Well… I didn’t expect to find Hat and Clogs here. It’s not enough that you have a mocha goddess by your side so you’re going after younger things?” 

Did that doll just imply that the man in front of her was a pedophile? 

“Wha-?” Mari quickly snapped out, grabbed Venalita, and shoved her down. “Ahaha… gomenasai. She’s not properly house trained on etiquette,” she apologized.

Urahara-san, however, looked at her and Venalita blankly. “... That doll is yours?”

“... Yes?”

“...”

“...”

“Okay. I’ll forgive the … error. But I want to know whatever this … is,” he said as he pointed back and forth between them.

Venalita slipped out of Mari’s grasp and came to hover her head. “I am Venalita, the mascot of Clarinette the Envious!” 

Urahara-san kept on smiling but it was strained like any other adult’s smile would when they really wanted to laugh or they didn’t want to smile anymore. Right, that’s called a stiff smile. 

Mari let out a exasperated sigh. 

Well, at least Venalita won’t be causing somewhere else anymore. 

“And as I was saying, Mari-chan, I made you a rival.”

…. Huh?