Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

A Lesson In Positivity

The archive room where Joshi Senju took them for their extra test was a problematic environment to fight in. It only hit Mana it was so when she decided to start things out with a Fire Release technique and displace her opponents, throw them out of their comfort zone, and split them further apart from one another. She couldn't risk it. Everywhere around her were scrolls and posters with valuable information. Information that she'd need and so would the other recruits.

Who cared if she and Damisan passed this test if they'd fail the final exam anyway and, alongside with the rest of the recruits, got held back for six more months?

It was because of this hesitation to act that Uppity-J got the first move. He appeared to be completely unimpeded by any doubts. Not even Pairte looked excited to see this much initiative and an almost maddening devotion to bash the enemy with a ceaseless combination of attacks. The cards, floating in mid-air, danced in a hectic aerial shuffle before Uppity weaved his fingers in a hand seal.

"Ninja Style: Destiny Row!" Uppity-J chanted out like speaking a prayer as five, seemingly random cards lined out in front of him. They were all lighted up with chakra signatures, so there was not a single lingering doubt that those weren't ordinary cards. Uppity-J pressed his hand to the back of one card and it opened up.

As the card revealed itself, it displayed the Magician arcana before lighting up with a flash as intense as a beacon.

"It's a sealing glyph!" Mana warned Damisan as the card fell to the ground and disappeared in ripples as if the entire floor turned wet as a surface of a bottomless lake. As impressive as this technique appeared, being the master of illusions herself, Mana didn't waste time considering this to be an illusion.

"Magician Arcana Seal: Release!" Uppity-J proclaimed with an authoritative tone. As impressive as his technique looked, it was beyond flashy and rather clunky to execute. That might have been why Damisan found the time to raise his hand and attempt to interrupt the technique.

"Puppet Technique: Reeling Hook!" Damisan yelled out as he shot his mechanical forearm off of his right arm prosthetic, though it was not merely a rocket punch technique. The ear-raking string reeling sound filled the air as the forearm hurried toward the ninja fortune teller attached to strings of steel wire.

It was a pity that Damisan missed his target entirely. While a rather embarrassing display of combat potential, this stunned Pairte in place as she blinked twice while following Damisan's rocketing hook blitz in between the two ninja and hook onto a bookshelf.

"Don't pull it!" Mana warned her partner, wasting her own chance to think up of a counterattack before Uppity-J's attack hit them. It was just fortunate that the two of them had experience working alongside each other as Stars members. It might have been because of that experience that Damisan heard Mana out and released the clenching grip of his mechanical forearm hook, retracting his arm back and securing it in place.

The rippling floor turned black like oil. The oily surface bubbled and splashed, spouting out rainbow-gleaming, fist-sized bubbles that appeared to be soapy in consistency. With Uppity-J weaving another hand seal and releasing his technique, this network of floating bubbles took off in a pelting barrage, smashing into everything in their way. Her own puny whimper reached Mana's ears as the bubbles packed a bigger wallop than if Uppity-J would have punched them himself.

"The Water Balloon Jutsu. That is a technique of Kirigakure ninja, it's not a jutsu taught outside the village!" Pairte exclaimed, pointing her finger at Uppity-J. "How the hell do you have it in your collection!?"

"You are looking at this entirely wrong, partner," Uppity-J swiped his hand, shuffling his deck in mid-air once more before resting his deck of cards in his open palm, now–one card fewer in the deck. "I am not a collector of techniques but merely a fortune teller."