(In)convenience

When the Creator finally came to, she was greeted by an unfamiliar ceiling...

Or is it a familiar ceiling?

...

...

...eh, whatever. Cliches are overrated anyway.

"Awake, are we?" the school nurse asked, opening the privacy curtain surrounding the bed. "I couldn't find anything wrong while you were sleeping, so I would like to do one more check-up, just to be safe."

"That's fine," she lazily responded.

The nurse quickly went through an abridged version of the routine physical, only to come to the same conclusion. "I don't notice anything abnormal. This was either a one time occurrence due to some stressor or some underlying cause I'm unable to locate. Unfortunately, that means I'm not sure what specialist to recommend. You can try one of the few clinics or outpatient rooms, but I doubt they will reveal any new information."

"That's fine," she nodded along, half paying attention. "It'll probably be gone in a week anyway."

"You shouldn't treat it like the common cold..." the nurse sighed, unaware that the Creator already knew the culprit, not that she would bother to explain. "Well, feel free to stay for as long as you like. You can give me a call if you need anything, though I will have to step out for a moment for another student."

"Okay," she answered again, barely listening at this point. Her mind had already begun to wander to the moment before she passed out. She knew that Gisou had placed a restriction on her body, but she wasn't sure what that specifically meant. Did it mean she couldn't use some spells? Did it have something to do with her mana? 'Restriction' was too loose a term.

Well, no harm in trying to find out, she thought. Let's start with the basic fireball spell. The one I used in class should be easy enough.

Now, concentrate. Feel the mana flowing through my body and guide it outward. Use the inscribed formula to shape its path. No need for a physical display, my internal pathways should be wide enou--

"Gack!" she coughed, gasping for air. It felt like her entire body was being squeezed from every direction. And inside, an unnerving pressure continued to build, making the pain grow worse by the second. It was unbearable, even for her, so she quickly canceled the spell. As suddenly as they appeared, they disappeared just as quick, leaving her to catch her breath.

S-So, this is the restriction. I-I think I'll need to try something different. What about a fireball with none of the safety features? Just the base spell, nothing fancy. Y-Yeah, that should work. Though, let's do it slowly this time.

Slowly...

Slowly...

...

...it doesn't hurt. Although she could still feel some unknown force constricting her pathways, it was much less noticeable, like an itch you unconsciously scratch at. The spell itself, however, left something to be desired. The flame was barely the size that came from a lighter, barely hot enough to heat, much less catch something on fire. After trying out some other basic spells, it was the same for those as well: a cup of water, a breeze of wind, a pebble of earth -- you get the gist. Without a medium, while she could use a breadth of skills, their effectiveness was greatly diminished.

Then, what about with a medium? She tried to expand her watch display, but...

Huh? Why isn't it turning on? Oh... right. Most watches were powered using both electricity and mana -- electricity for basic processing, and mana for tool use. Unlike regular watches though, hers was packed with every random feature you could imagine, from checking the time to browsing the web, flipping a coin to a manual counter. Because of this, it required a much larger and more complicated circuit, so she ended up building her own, using her own mana for every part of the process. Normally, that wasn't a problem, since her mana pool was much too vast to notice the small trickle the watch needed. However, she could barely use her mana at the moment, making it nothing more than a fancy bracelet.

Slightly embarrassed, she had to wait for the nurse to come back and ask for a pen and paper.

Let's try this again, from the top. Like before, she first started with the formula that had choked her just a bit ago. No risk, no reward... she thought, channeling her mana through the interconnected lines.

At first, nothing happened. She didn't feel anything, nor was any spell manifesting. One minute, two minutes, and still nothing. It was only after five-ish minutes that the fireball finally appeared above the paper. The other spells? Exactly the same, with those requiring more mana taking longer to cast.

Then basically, the size of my mana pool hasn't changed, nor the spells I can use. It just takes longer to cast them through a medium. Without it, I can only use simple ones...

...

...

...that's inconvenient.

Though she thought that, she couldn't help but be excited. After all, her current idea was about understanding the edge between life and death. What better way was there than to bring the line closer?

Now all I need to do is find someplace dangerous. But how...? Tokyo was one of the safest cities in the world, and she couldn't just teleport to one of the mountains or forests, not that she knew how to, anyway. She probably shouldn't be going alone as well, unless she wanted Microwave to yell at her -- the wrong reason, but true nonetheless.

Hmm... wait a moment.

Don't they go out camping sometimes?