Out of Space 442 Mahou... Shoujo?!

Dr. Sharon peeled off the all natural face mask made out of the skin of local fruits and massaged her face as she sat before the mirror. She continued massaging her face and reached out one hand to grab a bottle of moisturiser when she accidentally knocked the bottle over.

She sighed at her clumsiness and reached under the vanity mirror table, trying to grab the bottle that had rolled under the bed. She went down on all fours and stretched out her hand, reaching hard for the bottle that had rolled just out of reach.

Just as her fingertips were about to touch the bottle, a spark burst out of her fingertips, briefly lighting up the under of the bed and surprising her so hard that she jerked away and slammed the top of her head against the side of the table.

"OWW!" She squatted on her heels and both hands rubbing the top of her head where a small bump had appeared with tears of pain at the corner of her eyes. After the pain had subsided did she got up and sat on her bed while looking at her fingers with the other hand rubbing her sore head. "W- What was that?"

Dr. Sharon had grown up in the rim colony of New Australia, a star system that was six jumps away from Earth. There, she grew up watching anime and playing video games with her brothers in the family ranch who reared prime beef and milk from the local highly nutritious meadows. Later she practised medicine in school and when the war with the Swarm came, she signed up with the local recruiters as her bid to help mankind.

One year later, after basic training and posted to Navy as a medical officer, she reached the rank of Lieutenant Commander and was posted onboard the UNS Singapore. She was supposed to complete two tours with the UNS Singapore before being posted to the frontlines either onboard a warship or a rear echelon medical ship.

Crashlanding on this planet was both frightening and exciting at the same time. Her sense of adventure and curiosity only deepened when life and even magic was discovered on this planet. Slowly her fear was replaced with a fascination with the lifeforms they encountered on the planet. She always enjoyed playing role playing games and magic was something irresistible to her as she always played a spell caster in games.

Yet she was disappointed when she found out that human biology seemed unable to handle magic, dashing away her hopes of a day where she could wield a staff in one hand and throw spells in the other.

She remained seated on the side of her bed, turning her palm over and over again as she tried to spot if there were any physical changes to her hand. Her mind literally went into overdrive as she tried to figure out what had happened just now. She clearly saw the spark that popped out of her fingers and the way it lit up the underside of her bed.

She reached her right hand out and tried to mimic her previous actions. But no matter how hard she focused or tried, it doesn't seem to work. Scratching her head, she frowned as she paced around before she paused and looked under her bed, see the bottle of moisturizer still laying there.

Deciding to give it a try, she went back down on all fours, trying to recreate the earlier scene, putting herself in almost the exact same pose. She reached out had and tried to grab the bottle again and suddenly a spark popped out again. "YES!"

Pushing her excited self up, she ran out of her room to the study to grab her notepad and she excitedly jolted everything that had happened. She even did a stretch of her pose and wrote down every detail step by step.

"Hmmm... I am very certain that spark was cast by magic!" Dr. Sharon spoke to herself as she chewed the end of her pencil. "Does spell casting requires you to do certain poses before it works?"

She tried to recall the actions done by the mages when they cast their spells. "Hmmm... I better write down the questions to ask Magister Thorn tomorrow!"

After deciding that, she went back on all fours and experimented around with different poses until the sun rose up over the horizon.

-----

United Nations, Haven, School of Science and Magic, Headmaster Office

Magister Thorn sipped a cup of milk tea as he settled in his office to work the day's work of managing the School. Forms and reports involving all kinds regarding the school's management piled up high on his IN box, all awaiting his attention.

He set down his cup and glanced at the photo of him and the Princess together during her wedding and sighed inwardly before he picked up the stack of documents and began his day's work. He had two hours to settle the paperwork before he has two classes in the morning and another class in the afternoon.

Just as he was halfway through the stack, a commotion could be heard outside his office and his door to his office suddenly burst open. He frowned and looked up at the interruption, only to see Dr. Sharon looking both haggard and excited at the same time. Dark eye circles surrounded both her glittering eyes.

Magister Thorn gestured to his secretary to leave them alone and he turned to Dr. Sharon who smacked a thick stack of papers on his desk. "Did you... get any sleep last night? Is it the voice in your head acting up again?"

"No, no, no!" Dr. Sharon started flipping through the stack of notes she brought over and gave a smile of triumphant as she found what she wanted and handed it over to Magister Thorn. "Here!"

"Now watch this!" Dr. Sharon's smile did not leave her face and she got down on all fours and stretched one hand out.

"What are you doing?" Magister Thorn blinked his eyes in confusion at the strange awkward looking pose Dr. Sharon had adopted on the floor. "Please get u-!"

A couple of sparks popped and fuzzed out from Dr. Sharon's outstretched hand to Magister Thorn's surprise. He stared dumbfounded at the eager expression on Dr. Sharon's face as she bounced up on her feet and her eyes gleamed with excitement. "W- What did you just do?"

"Magic!" Dr. Sharon laughed and clapped her hands together happily. "I managed to cast a spell!"

"What?" Magister Thorn stood up from behind his desk and he walked up before Dr. Sharon and grabbed her hand and checking it over. "How... How is that possible? You hoomans' body have no mana...?"

"Wait!" He paused and went to his desk and searched in his drawers before coming out with a small clear crystal orb, his hands shaking with excitement. "Hold this! Concentrate on the orb! Focus the orb in your mind!"

Dr. Sharon closed her eyes and held onto the small ping pong ball sized orb. She kept the image of the orb firmly in her mind and slowly she felt the orb heat up. Opening her eyes and her hand, the orb in her palm was glowing a soft rosy red inside the crystal.

" Amazing!" Magister Thorn picked up the magic testing orb from her palm. "How... How did you manage to absorb mana into your body?"

"The orb shows you can manipulate mana!" Magister Thorn placed the orb onto his table as he stared at it intently, afraid that it was not real and just his imagination as he gave an explanation. "Red is the lowest level, followed by orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet."

"Violet being the highest level, which means the one tested has the highest affinity with magic!" Magister Thorn said as he finally took his eyes off the orb when the colour started to fade. "We tested on all you hoomans... but this is the first time the orb lit up!"

"And when you tested the previous time..." Magister Thorn's eyes narrowed. "I am very certain you did not pass!"

"Yes, I know!" An excited smile remained on Dr. Sharon's face. "I only discovered I can use magic... last night!"

"How did you find out?" Magister Thorn frowned. "And why the strange... pose?"

"Oh... How I found out was when I was reaching under my bed to pick up something I dropped..." Dr. Sharon gave a laugh. "Haha... And accidentally found out I can make sparks appear from my fingers!"

"Later, I tried to make the sparks appear again, but nothing works..." Dr. Sharon explained. "Hence I tried to recreate the exact same conditions for it to happen... and strangely enough... seems like only in that pose I can only shoot some sparks out..."

Magister Thorn covered his face as he recalled the pose Dr. Sharon made and felt embarrassed for her. "Do you... need to pose that way?"

"AHEM!" Dr. Sharon gave an awkward cough as she recalled her pose. "Ah... It seems like that is the only way I could get the sparks to appear..."

"No chanting of spells?" Magister Thorn continued to question Dr. Sharon about the way the manifested her magic. "What was in your mind when the magic appear? Did you feel anything different with your body?"

"No... I did not chant anything..." Dr. Sharon thought back to her actions. "And I had in my mind was to pick up that damn thing... And I did not feel anything when it happened..."

"Chantless spell casting? AMAZING!" Magister Thorn's eyes went wide open. "Did you feel like weakness in your hands? Or fatigue after you cast the spell of sparks?"

"No... nothing of that sort..." Dr. Sharon shook her head. "I experimented the whole night away till this morning... but... I don't feel any fatigue anywhere!"

"Amazing!" Magister Thorn repeated again. "Despite your low aptitude with magic... But you can use chantless spell casting! That ability is only written in legends!"

"Really?" Dr. Sharon felt secretly happy when she heard Magister Thorn's word. "But... I can only make sparks appear..."

"Don't worry about that!" Magister Thorn's eyes seemed to be burning as he paced around in excitement while tugging his beard. "I can teach you spells!"

"But... How and why did you suddenly gain magic powers?" He paused and eyed at Dr. Sharon. "Did you do anything... that the Captain told you not to do?"

"Hahaha..." Dr. Sharon covered her mouth and laughed nervously, she shifted her eye away from Magister Thorn. "Well... anyway... I did nothing of the sort!"

"Anyway!" Dr. Sharon quickly changed the topic and tapped the piece of paper she had given to Magister Thorn earlier. "Look here..."

Magister Thorn shook his head as he suspected she must had done something behind the Captain's back. "What is this?"

"These are brain scans of humans..." Dr. Sharon gave an inward sigh as Magister Thorn did not seem to push the topic. "And these are the brain scans of elves..."

"If you compare a human's brain scan and an elf's brain scan..." She pointed to two regions on the image. "An average human has these two areas smaller compared to an elf's."

"These two parts of the brain are called the hypothalamus and thalamus respectively," She explained. "And an average elf have twice the size compared to a human!"

"And these are my brain scans!" She picked up another sheet and handed it over. "Look! My hypothalamus and thalamus have grown over the past year! And now those two parts in my brain are at least 1.5 times larger than an average human!"

"You mean... these 'hypo-tlmas' and 'tlmas' might be the cause of you having the ability to use magic?" Magister Thorn frowned deeply as he compared the images.

"Yes! I suspect that... The hypothalamus and thalamus in the brain are what makes magic possible!"

Chapter end