Interest increases.

She is calling up magical power and using it. It's not energy itself, though it can be used to manipulate energy. It's not a purely mental action - if she were denied access to her power she could think about using it but not use it, like might happen with movement if one was held paralyzed, and conversely if her brain was interfered with to keep her from using magic the power would still be there.

She does not have to visualize. Some people visualize more than others, that's just a psychological variation. It has associated qualia but she does not know how to convey them to someone without reference.

She would be very interested in such an explanation, theory, and description, if Mariko might be willing and able and have the time to in fact provide it at some point.

Magic is studied in her world as well, and she's quite well versed in the field, yes, though not as much so in explaining it.

Using magic in the moment involves - expressing/shaping/moving/holding/pushing - none of those words are quite right, this language doesn't seem to have the relevant word - power in a particular way so that that which you are attempting to do happens. Setting down a working involves using power to set down/set up/shape things so that that which you want to be the case is and remains so once you leave. (This generally involves needing some amount of understanding of what it is you want to happen.)

People use various analogies for this - making a particular and complex multi-dimensional shape, making a route for a ball so that it exits with an exact speed and direction; since computers were invented people sometimes use programming analogies though those are rather worse than many others.

Various notations for magic were invented to help people work with, express, and remember various pieces/elements that went into getting something correct. Historically they've all had advantages, disadvantages, and tradeoffs. There are more modern and scientific notations, including ones generally too complex for people to work with without computers. She can demonstrate some, if desired.

She'll write a sample equation out, point out the variables for control, capacity, and assorted elements of chakra nature, but a more thorough and in-depth explanation would probably require a separate time commitment, yeah.

Could Lee theoretically express the magic in any way possible within the system? Are there limits, both in terms of what can theoretically be done and in terms of how much power can be applied to a technique?

(Mariko gives an example from her own magic system - technically elemental bloodlines don't actually enable you to use a unique element, they allow you to sense what you're doing with that element, which isn't an ability most people have, so if you're good and incredibly stubborn you can learn how to use the combination elements, the same way it's technically possible to learn how to fire projectiles while blind. Some bloodlines, on the other hand, enable techniques that would be, while not entirely impossible, prohibitively difficult or stupid to learn otherwise, like by having bones with an unusual composition that regenerate near-instantly).

Both the equations and the examples also find significant interest.

There are generally applicable limits, but for most of them always the chance that further research will discover some way around them. What things are likely impossible and what things are simply undiscovered is a common topic of academic debate. (The exceptions are generally for instance paradoxes where it's not clear what a way around them could even entail).

There are applications of magic where more power can give greater affects - more power can lift more weight or teleport farther. She imagines there are some applications where putting much more power into them than one generally would would cause something unusual to happen, like the magical analogy to punching a wall with so much force you punch through it, but this isn't generally her area of study. For other applications that doesn't particularly sound like a meaningful action, analogously to how if you are lifting something light you are not actually going to involve the same effort as when lifting something heavy. Again, not generally her area.

Different people don't have quite identical magic (separately from amount). Some kinds of magic recur as obviously themselves and according to patterns enough that there's a name; outside of that it's mainly individual variation. This normally affects areas such as different things having somewhat different difficulty levels or power requirements.

There are things somewhat like Mariko's example, but somewhat different. An analogy here would be facial recognition. Analyzing faces relying entirely on conscious thought and computation is very hard and generally won't work very well. For most people this is not a problem, because they don't consciously have to do this. A lot of magical tasks are like that - most people can't consciously do the computations involved if you break what's happening down sufficiently far. 

In some cases, magic will basically do it for you - you don't have to handle the details any more than you have to arrange all of your muscles when moving. In some cases, people have the psychology for doing this, like humans tend to with facial recognition. In some cases people have the psychology for doing some of the breakdown but then managing the computations. People's magic and psychology can vary in these. So there are applications that different people can do with varying amounts of effort, options for how to do it, and so on, and some people can't do at all, or can't without outside assistance.

"Interesting. Most people can get techniques into their muscle memory with enough practice, but it isn't inherent. You can also learn to analyze techniques, and train your mind to do that subconsciously, but again, not inherent, though it's easier if you're a sensor."

Possibly slightly different thing, though that also has an analogue in the system she's familiar with. What she was just talking about is analogous to not having to think how to move each muscle of your finger to make a fist.

Spells in her system seem analogous to techniques with respect to what Mariko said about memory (though not body memory, quite, for her system). The first few times through a spell, most people have to consult instructions, go slower, and so on, but if they use it repeatedly they're likely to learn it. Spell complexity is generally relevant to how easily and quickly this happens. And people vary in memory.

Likewise interesting. Would material on this analysis be available anywhere?

"Yeah. Most of it's experience, the same way you learn to tell how someone's about to throw a punch or if their stance is any good, but we were starting on proper treatises before this."

She would greatly enjoy reading some, if they might be available.

"I'll compile a list of titles, see where they've ended up, how about. Is it possible to analyze someone else's magic in your system?"

Much thanks.

In what sense?

"What they're doing, how they're doing it, how to copy what they're doing, how to counter them if you don't already have a counter prepared..."

Yes, with varying levels of difficulty/work/talent/expertise which can be added to by the other person using various forms of concealing that information. 

"How is the information concealed?"

"There's magic for it. Stop people from noticing a spell, stop people from noticing you're the one doing it, obscure it..."

"Does it work directly on the information, or on the observer? If on the observer, do you have to know who is observing you?"

On the information. Or rather on the magic; information magic is a different field. It's a similar idea to hiding yourself to go unseen; here you are trying to hide the magic and/or its details.

You do not. If you've noticed someone in particular trying to observe you you can attempt to combat their attempts in particular, but that is a different sort of exercise. 

So is it different in that respect from hiding magic - can you hide yourself from everyone who might observe?

At a first pass, yes. Being invisible keeps people from seeing you when they look at you. That'll effect people in general; hiding magic doesn't since most people don't perceive it to begin with. It won't stop people looking for magic from noticing you're doing some, you'd have to conceal that additionally.

Depends on who's observing and how good at it they are. And how good at it you are. She could generally go casually unseen, but if she tried to infiltrate a Reynan government facility they would notice her. Someone who's less good at it would be caught in more situations.

"I'd like to see at some point how your hiding techniques work with our detection techniques."

That would be very interesting. "As I mentioned earlier I'm unfortunately somewhat restricted at the moment, but I do hope to resolve that before too long."

"How do your restrictions work? What causes them?"

"Some complicated personal matters at my origin. Nothing that will harm anyone here." They're also magical. They'll lessen on their own after a certain number of hours, and she's taking steps to resolve them completely. 

She nods. "We might be able to help, but it's reasonable if you'd rather handle them yourself."

"Thank you.

What would you have in mind?"

"For helping? I'd need to know more about the problem for specifics. I, personally, would try to find a seal that was applicable - possibly working off of modifying chakra suppression seals to apply to specific magics, if it's a spell on you, for instance. One of the Hyuuga might be able to manipulate your magic more directly, at least with practice. Rian might be able to do something if it's biological, or interfacing with biologic systems."

"Thank you. I'll keep the possibility in mind." She has fairly high confidence in her current plan, if everything can go in accorance, and not very high confidence in what was just described given the issue in question, but it is better for have more options for contingencies than not to. And it is always possible her Reynan keepers outthought her in some way she hadn't noted to take into account.

"Manipulate magic? And, you work with seals, then?"