When I saw this bit:
"Yes. It's, er, your old one. I found it in the palace, after ...
well, you know. The one Iku has is Younger Mars', of course."
about the communicator, it stirred up some thoughts... IIRC, Iku is also
using the Younger Mars henshin pen, right?
Would that have anything to do with why Iku's magical attacks don't work
quite right?
That is, they appear to work exactly correctly, just up to the point
where they would do damage to something -- the magical equivilant of a
paint ball gun; safe, harmless, but useful for training.