Note: yo what up people just got off the plane now back in action posting this shit while getting ready to leave to plane. Got a lot of work to catch up on but should be going back to my 5 chapters a week schedule now. Might suck first week got a lot of work piled from leaving a week but whatever will just stay up writing late. Who knows maybe I overwork myself and get isekai'd.
Anyways enjoy.
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"What do you think?"
Now back in the original space they'd been in when they first entered Kenji's dimensional world, Dorothy stayed silent for a moment, taking it all in. Then she burst forward and hugged him, squealing and spinning in circles.
"Ahhhh, I was right! I was right, I was right, I was right! You're just like me, hehehe!"
Seeing her squealing in excitement, Kenji smiled and chuckled, gently putting her down. "Yup, it appears so, haha."
Dorothy began jumping around him happily. "So what else can you do? I mean, that was so cool! Everything turned crazy there—my head was all spiny trying to keep up! Can you make stuff? Can you do that outside too? Can you—"
"Damn, girl, breathe! You're gonna pass out if you keep going," Kenji cut her off with an amused grin.
Dorothy paused and looked at him as if demanding answers.
Seeing the look, Kenji sighed and pushed his glasses up. "I mean, I gotta keep some secrets, right? Can't go showing you all my cards this early."
A deck of cards appeared with his smiling face on the back, posed in a snapping gesture. He shuffled them skillfully before they abruptly disappeared.
Dorothy pouted. "Awww, come on! Don't act all mysterious like that—no fair! I mean, I'm obviously gonna take you under my wing. You gotta show me what you can do so I know what you're working with!"
Kenji widened his eyes in surprise. "You're what?!"
Dorothy giggled and swatted his shoulder playfully. "Oh, don't look all surprised by that! You knew this would happen all along. I mean, that's definitely why you joined my squad in the first place, mister." She gave him a knowing look, as if she had him all figured out from the start.
Kenji chuckled, running his hand through his hair sheepishly. Yes, this was exactly why he'd shown her what he could do in the first place—so he could get her help in using his powers more creatively. "Well, that's not the whole reason... I thought I could sleep in here too... and the food looked expensive..."
Dorothy laughed out loud. "Well, that too, hehe!"
Now more comfortable, Kenji continued, "And what's with that, by the way? Dragging me out of bed before the sun's even up to come meet you! I would expect this from other squads, but come on! You should know not to interfere with a man's sleep more than anyone!"
Dorothy looked away, hiding her face and turning her back to him. "Hehe, my bad. I was excited and couldn't wait... I am the captain, so it wasn't a problem, right?" Her voice was sheepish.
Kenji sighed. "Well, there's still time for me to sleep, so let's make this quick. I guess you should know what I can do right now."
Hearing him move on, Dorothy turned around excitedly and looked at him expectantly.
Kenji pulled out a coin and flicked it up.
Snap.
The coin expanded, turning into a shield. "I can manipulate objects how I want here."
Snap.
It transformed into a white sword. "Making anything from simple objects to spells—whatever I want."
Snap.
The sword turned back into a coin that he played with between his fingers. "Say, for example, a fire spell was launched in here. As long as it's not beyond my capabilities to deal with—like, I can't handle the amount of mana in the spell and it bypasses my control—I can make the fire into anything, like changing it into a gust of wind."
Dorothy nodded, absorbing the information.
Kenji continued, "I can do some other stuff, but it basically falls under the same concepts here, so I'll skip that." He paused. "I can manipulate things in 'normal reality' too, like you saw me do in the exam, and view things from an outside perspective like this."
He tossed his coin into the air. It rose at slower and slower speeds before freezing in midair.
Snap.
The coin appeared to hit invisible glass, and everything around them began to shatter with the sound of breaking glass echoing all around. The dimensional space revealed itself as completely black with a semi-formed white infinity symbol in the center. Different canvases appeared, showing things in the outside world frozen in time—Ash sleeping in his bed, Rick walking the halls, cooks making breakfast.
The screens began moving rapidly to the left. When they stopped, they showed memories from his past—the church, training with Asta and Yuno, his fight with Johnny as a beast, different images of him fighting bandits and helping townsfolk.
"I can view everything I experience from an outside perspective, like looking down on everything from a higher realm, if that makes sense. But right now it's limited to what's in my field of senses around me in the present and what I've personally experienced in the past."
Snap.
The previously shattered glass reappeared quickly, putting itself back together until they were back in the previous space.
He turned to Dorothy. "That's my limit right now. I feel a block on anything more, and I might be forgetting some stuff at the moment. But I feel like there's something blocking me from seeing more, or being able to bring my space"—he lazily gestured around at the surroundings—"to the outside world, so to say. Not sure what, though."
Dorothy pondered for a moment. Then, as if a light bulb went off, she pointed at him. "Mana Zone!"
Kenji tilted his head. "What?"
"Mana Zone! I think if you can learn to use it, those limits you said you feel will be broken."
That sounds kind of familiar... was that a thing in the anime? It's been so long I can't remember.
Dorothy nodded to herself. "Yup, yup. That must be it." She looked at him proudly at her discovery. "Though it seems a bit early for you to learn it, I guess I can tell you about it..."
She sat in her chair that was floating nearby, crossed her legs, and explained, "Mana Zone is a rare, advanced technique where a mage manipulates the natural mana in their surroundings to enhance their spells. Though not a lot of people can do it, if you can pull it off, you should be able to overcome your current limits."
Kenji nodded, understanding the concept to some extent. "So it's possible to draw on the natural mana around us to use? If that's the case, wouldn't you have infinite mana in this state?"
Dorothy laughed. "No, silly! There's a limit to how much mana a person's body can handle. Some people can handle more, which is why they naturally have higher reserves, but without special circumstances, you can't force more mana than you can handle into your spells. You could lose your ability to use mana itself if that happens, or worse—you could die. Even I have a limit, silly, hehe."
Kenji nodded, but inwardly thought, That doesn't apply to me though, does it? Don't I theoretically have no limit due to my trust system? I wonder.
"Can you use Mana Zone?" he asked aloud.
Dorothy laughed. "Nope! Only two people I know of can, and that's the Wizard King and Mereoleona Vermillion. If you can do it, you're considered extremely special."
Kenji widened his eyes. "That few? That's crazy... Oh well, I guess since you can't do it, we could learn it together. Wouldn't our process be kinda similar to achieve it?"
Dorothy paused for a moment, then burst out in joy. "Yes, let's do it! Ohh, this will be great! The other captains will be so jealous if I manage to pull it off, especially that Nozel—he'll lose his mind, ahaha!"
Hearing the last part, Kenji smiled mischievously. "Now we have to do it, haha."
He smirked. "Since we're gonna be learning together and I showed you mine, I think it's only fair you show me yours."
Dorothy widened her eyes and swatted his shoulder. "Bad Ken! You don't ask a lady that!"
Kenji, seeing the misunderstanding—though he'd totally meant to cause it with his choice of words—said in a deadpan voice, "Your magic..."
Dorothy giggled. "Sureeee. Well, okay, let's do it!"
She grabbed his hand, and suddenly they disappeared, returning to her dream world.
Back in Glamour World, the pink dimension stretched endlessly around them. Giant floating candies bobbed lazily through the air, beds and couches drifted past, and teddy bears the size of houses watched them with button eyes.
Dorothy hopped off her floating chair and gestured grandly. "Welcome back to my domain! Now, where should I start..." She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Oh! I know!"
Snap.
Wait, that wasn't her usual way of casting. Kenji blinked as Dorothy wiggled her fingers with a mischievous smirk, and the entire world shifted. The pink hues deepened to purple, and stars began twinkling across what might have been a sky.
"My Dream Magic lets me create, manipulate, and trap people in this world," Dorothy explained, her voice taking on a more instructional tone that Kenji hadn't heard before. "Everything here follows dream logic—or no logic at all, really. Physics? Suggestions. Time? Relative. Reality? Whatever I want it to be!"
She spun in a circle, and as she did, duplicates of herself appeared—five, ten, twenty Dorothys, all giggling in unison before merging back into one.
"I can make anything I imagine real here. Any scenario, any person, any place." Her expression grew more serious. "But the real power is trapping enemies. Once they're in my world, they're at my mercy. Their sense of reality gets all fuzzy, and they can't tell what's real anymore."
"That's... actually terrifying," Kenji admitted.
"Hehe, I know!" Dorothy looked pleased. "But it's lonely, like I said. Creating all these wonderful things with nobody to really share them with." She looked at him with those bright purple eyes. "Until now!"
She grabbed his hand again. "But here's the thing—I can control everything in here because it's my dream. My mana is everywhere, woven into the very fabric of this space. That's why you couldn't leave without my permission. The whole world is essentially... me."
"So it's like you're omnipotent in here?"
"Mmm, not quite. I still have limits. If someone has way more mana than me, they could potentially overwhelm my control. And maintaining this takes a lot of focus which is why im always sleeping hehe" She demonstrated by creating a massive castle in the distance with a casual wave. "See? Easy for me. But if I tried to do something like this in the real world, I would be shut down."
Kenji nodded, comparing her abilities to his own. "So your magic is about creating a complete alternate reality, while mine is more about... warping existing reality?"
"Exactly!" Dorothy clapped her hands. "You bend and twist what's already there, while I build something entirely new! We're like two sides of the same coin!"
"That's actually pretty cool when you think about it," Kenji mused. "So if we both learn Mana Zone..."
"We could probably do some crazy stuff together!" Dorothy finished excitedly. "Like, imagine if you could manipulate reality while I create new spaces, or if I could dream while you're bending, or what if we both bring our worlds together into the real world!—oh! Or what if—"
"Okay, okay, slow down!" Kenji laughed. "Let's learn to walk before we try to fly, yeah?"
Dorothy pouted but nodded. "Fine, fine. But you have to admit, the possibilities are amazing!"
"They are," Kenji agreed. Then he yawned despite himself. "But seriously, I need sleep soon. My brain can only handle so much reality-bending philosophy before breakfast."
Dorothy giggled. "Such a baby! Fine, fine. Let me send you back. But tomorrow, we start training for real! I'll work you so hard you'll wish you joined the Black Bulls instead!"
"Somehow, I doubt that," Kenji muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, Big Sis." he said shamelessly.
Dorothy beamed at him. "That's better! Now, off you go!"
She snapped her fingers—no, wait, she wiggled them in that peculiar way—and Kenji felt the familiar sensation of dimensional travel.
He appeared back in the office, Dorothy still sleeping peacefully behind her desk, that snot bubble forming and popping with her breathing.
Kenji stared at her for a moment, then shook his head with a small smile. "What a weird captain I've got... damn copy cat steeling my snap."
But as he left the office and headed back toward his room, he couldn't deny the excitement building in his chest. Learning Mana Zone, training with Dorothy, pushing his abilities further—it was exactly what he'd hoped for when he chose this squad.