Makima continued walking, her gaze still holding that threatening gleam, but somehow calmer, as if she was processing the earlier scene. Kael walked just behind her, feeling the dense air of the forest, the dampness of the earth, and the crushed leaves under his feet.
After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Kael broke the stillness with a direct question.
"So, how long have you been in this world? You seem pretty familiar with this stuff... If it weren't for that weird face you made just now, I'd say you feel right at home here." He gave a little chuckle, trying to lighten the tense mood, but Makima didn't seem bothered by it.
Makima glanced at him sideways but didn't respond immediately. She was trying to assess whether he truly deserved to know more about her situation. Or maybe it was because she still couldn't shake the image of her own face breaking apart, which made her a bit uncomfortable, though it wasn't something she would admit easily.
"You already seem to know about me, so there's no point in hiding it. I don't know how you know who I am, but I don't feel like fighting with you and forcing the answers out." Makima replied slowly, not breaking eye contact. "I died, at the hands of Chainsaw Man, a year ago. Then, I woke up in this world."
Kael frowned. "What? You... just woke up here after you died?"
'She was... recycled?' Kael thought.
"Well, if you put it that way, who really knows what happened? All I know is that this place isn't my world. Far from it, this place feels more like a fictional parallel world," she said, looking ahead.
Kael stayed silent, reflecting on that. It was a bizarre revelation. Unlike Makima, he knew about her origin. She was created by an author, her existence itself wasn't real... Until she was sent to this world...
'The world where stories merge…' he thought, still remembering some of the things Zero Two had said…
'She can't be the only one… There must be more characters out there…' he thought, 'Does this mean that the stories really did merge into one final world… and after their conclusion, they were sent here…'
Kael thought for a moment, still trying to process the information about Makima. The idea that she had died in her own world and woken up in that strange place messed with his mind in a way he couldn't fully understand. At the same time, a feeling began to form that he was trapped in something much bigger, something that involved more than just him and his problems.
"I get it... so it was like me..." Kael murmured and commented, "I died, I was murdered, not like you, of course. But I just died and ended up in this place... As a vampire. We're in the same boat, in the end. Right?" he said.
"Seems like it. What I know is that, somehow, I was brought here. And here, nothing makes sense. Nothing except the feeling of being in a place I don't belong, my powers are almost impossible to use, they last less than 5 seconds, and I feel exhausted," she replied.
"Do you have mana?" Kael suddenly asked. Makima, with her usual calm expression, looked at him, not seeming surprised by the question.
"Mana?" she asked, curious, "What is mana?" she spoke.
"What?" Kael asked, surprised, "How do you not know what mana is?" He questioned. "Oh crap… now I get it..." he said suddenly, and the demon turned to face him fully, crossing her arms.
"Tell me," she ordered. Even though she couldn't use her ability, she stared deeply at him.
"What do you use to activate your ability?" he asked. "Hm? I just activate it," she replied. "I have the power to control those I consider inferior to me."
"No, that's not what I want to know. What activates it? Do you use some strange energy or something like that?" Kael questioned.
"Hmmm... No," she said thoughtfully. "I'm an aspect, control... Why would control need energy to function?"
"You've definitely never seen any movies or anime when you were alive, have you?" Kael questioned, frustrated. "What's that?" she asked, looking adorably confused.
'Wait... why am I helping this woman? Isn't she literally the villain of all time? I mean, in my time, she was the most popular villain...' he thought.
"Well, considering that... let's see... considering you don't use anything to activate your ability, I have two theories..." he said, raising a finger decisively.
"The first one is simple: Your ability can't be used anymore because you're no longer connected to your universe. So, in a way, you've been using only the 'leftover energy' from your previous world, which is why you were able to use that ability earlier," he theorized.
"The second one is a bit more complex: Basically, your ability was altered to fit into this universe. Considering your strength, the god or whatever it was transformed your ability into something that can be activated with MANA."
Her words went in one ear and out the other. "Okay... but what is mana?" Makima asked, curious.
"Jesus Christ," he muttered.
Kael rubbed his face with his hands, exasperated. "You're messing with me, aren't you? How do you not know what mana is? You were, like, an absurd entity in your world! Total control, insane powers, and... you don't know what mana is?"
Makima tilted her head to the side, looking innocent, which only irritated Kael even more. "Mana... is it something important here? I never needed it before."
"Of course, you never needed it! In YOUR world, your abilities worked automatically because you were programmed to be like that! It's different here!" Kael gestured desperately, trying to organize his thoughts. "Mana is... like magical energy. It's the fuel for anything supernatural. Spells, abilities, enchantments... without mana, you can't do anything special. It's the basics of any RPG system!"
Makima looked at him for a moment, thoughtful. "Hmm... so that means, to use my powers here, I need... mana?"
"Yes! Exactly!" Kael answered, relieved that she was finally understanding. But then he remembered who he was talking to. "Wait. You're messing with me, aren't you? You know what mana is and you're just wasting my time!"
Makima smiled, that subtle, enigmatic smile that made Kael want to throw the makeshift apple at her head. "I really don't know what mana is, but I enjoy seeing how nervous you get. It's... fun."
"Great! Fun!" Kael scoffed. "Meanwhile, I'm here trying to come up with a plan for us to survive, and you're treating me like your personal entertainment."
"You're not as useless as you seem, so keep going," Makima replied calmly, as though she were evaluating an interesting toy. "Explain more about mana. How do you get it? I'll need it."
"Fuck it, figure it out yourself, you cow!" he thought, but didn't say. She was still one of the strongest villains in her universe... it would be stupid to go against her.
Kael took a deep breath, trying to contain his frustration. "Alright. Mana, in this world, is probably generated naturally by your body. The amount you have depends on some characteristic, like intelligence or magic, that's tied to the system here. So basically, you need to figure out how much you have and how to recover it. Don't ask me how, because I just got here too!" He said, trying to leave it all for her to figure out.
Makima looked at him, thoughtful. "I see. So you don't have all the answers either."
Kael sighed, exhausted. "If I did, do you think I'd be here explaining the basics to an interdimensional villain?"
"Villain is a strong word, don't you think?" Makima retorted, with an ironic smile.
"Yeah... but in your case, I think it fits well," Kael muttered. "Now let's get going. Maybe we'll find something that explains how this damn world works."
As they continued through the forest, Kael still couldn't believe he was trying to teach Makima, the villain from Chainsaw Man!, about mana. 'If I tell anyone this, no one will believe me,' he thought, with a hint of irony.