Chapter 56

Tohru and Magic is the fifty-sixth chapter of Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon.

Summary
Tohru teaches Kanna, Illulu and Kobayashi about magic.

Plot
Kobayashi asks Tohru what she is writing and Tohru explains she is writing a grimoire with magic techniques. Kobayashi recognizes the spells and asks Tohru why she is writing them down. Tohru wanted to teach them to Kanna and Illulu, and Kobayashi commends her, which makes Tohru getting flattered. Tohru begins her magic course and starts with escape detection, explaining it was created by a man named Emrys, making a thin layer of magic power with escape detection and wrap it around an object to make it invisible. Kobayashi asks what is magic power, and Tohru explains it is power taken by mana from the atmosphere, processing and storing it in your body. Because there is no mana in this world, they have to get energy form other sources, like Kanna from power sockets and Illulu eating fire. Kobayashi asks how Tohru gets her mana, so Illulu explains Tohru can produce her own mana from her body, so as long as she is around they don't worry about magic power, but it tastes gross. The only other dragon that can do that is Lucoa, which explains why Elma said her and Tohru are different. Tohru also explains that magic can be used for other things, like muscles; covering your body in magic can enhance physical abilities which consumes very little magic power which is similar to how humans exert unnatural strength, which explains why Tohru can get super strong. Tohru says the only ones who didn't use magic in the arm-wrestling contest were Takiya, who can't use magic, and Elma, who thinks its cheating. Kobayashi knows that Tohru barely won, so Illulu explains that Elma's base power is stronger than hers, as she is a power type while Tohru is more well-rounded, so Kobayashi thinks Elma is sugar-powered. Kobayashi says she can't read the grimoire, and Tohru explains they are runes and graphics as humans draw them on a large scale but if they can picture the drawing they won't need to draw them. Kanna tries to use escape detection but can only do it in certain parts, making Kobayashi think of Kanna as swiss cheese. Tohru says that Kanna didn't have a clear image and Kobayashi asks if it is a tough spell, but Illulu explains dragons don't hide from humans so those who learn the spell are seen as wimps, which makes dragons seem like jocks. Kobayashi asks if Tohru is a wimp, though with Tohru's fantasy of Kobayashi dominating her makes Kobayashi know she isn't. Illulu tries to do escape detection next, though only manages to make her clothes invisible, which traumatizes Kobayashi. Tohru asks why did Illulu hide her clothes and Illulu thinks its because she thought clothes were stupid so Tohru tells her to become friends with her clothes. Because it is hard to control the magic over their bodies, Tohru tells them to only focus on their horns. Kobayashi asks why just the horns, and Tohru explains horns are clusters of magic so it is the easiest to hide using escape detection. Horns are a source of magic and pure attack power, the symbol of their existence, which is why Tohru keeps them in her human form, though Kanna and Elma hide them so conserve magic power. The dragons continue with their lesson until they tire out, and Kobayashi guesses magic isn't easy as it looks but Tohru says it is once you get the hang of it; the only reason its hard is because of human nature as most spells were created by humans. They must've taken a lot of time, skill and creativity with minds working together, something dragons can't do, so those who say some spells are wimpy is a fool. Tohru is also grateful for the magic as allows her to live with Kobayashi so she is grateful to those who created shapeshifting and escape detection and Kobayashi is grateful for them too, though Tohru wants Kobayashi to be grateful for her. Kobayashi thinks she is too old to dream about using magic but since it exists she should try it at least once. At work, Kobayashi looks at the grimoire Tohru wrote for her and notices it looks very similar to the coding she uses at work.

Characters

 * Kobayashi
 * Tohru
 * Kanna Kamui
 * Elma
 * Quetzalcoatl
 * Ilulu