Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Ways To Defuse The Abuse

Damisan laid in bed, unmoving. The elementary, metallic frame of his arms laid beside him on the bedside cabinet, crossed and untouched since their completion. Slowly, Shige-H approached her crushed squadmate and leaned down, placing her hand on him to show that she wanted to talk to him.

"You haven't been to lectures in a few days," Shige-H said just to open a conversation up.

"Didn't feel like it, Tongo made us more than a few points with those endless exercises anyway," Damisan replied with a sorry tone of voice.

"You don't owe him anything. The guys are itching for an opportunity to pick a fight with him and that hick gorilla of his tailing him around, but I don't see that solving anything. You need to show up to lectures, you need to show him you're not afraid," Shige-H advised while nuzzling Damisan's back in solace.

"Show him what? That I'm strong?" Damisan muttered, his voice became raspy and his tone turned defensive.

"You are strong. You've got nothing to prove to anyone. Still, it hurts all of us to see you beat like this. As your friends, we want you to move past this," Shige-H said. Damisan peeked his head, wrapped up in an excessive number of layers of bandages as his cylinder laid beside his bed and the poster he had stapled to it laid torn in the bin by his bedside cabinet.

"Oh, it's just us..." Damisan noted, looking around. "Aren't you missing lectures by wasting your time with me?"

"It's well past the last lecture, Damisan. You've spent the entire day in bed, the fourth day. What you've experienced was shocking and crude and terrible and nobody deserves this sort of abuse and it might take you more than just a couple of days to move past it but you owe it to people who hold you dear to at least try," Shige-H sat down, dragging Damisan's cylinder closer and taking her seat while she picked up his skeletal, metallic frame off the cupboard and examined them. "You and Mana make a nice team, building something like this. Still, it's incomplete."

"Yeah, it's just something to stick on my sides and pretend like I have arms," Damisan sighed. "Apparently, Mana used to listen to someone else's guidance and tinker on something for her father. She's a natural at this, but I don't want her to miss out on her training and studying. It's important that she passes, more so than for any one of us."

"If you care so much, you're not doing any favors by sulking around. It freaks her out even more seeing you like this. You know Mana, she has to help everyone, and it doesn't seem like she knows how to pick you back up," Shige-H replied.

"I guess that's why she keeps on asking if I want to work on those arms further every evening..." Damisan recalled. "Everyone's off somewhere, I'm sorry I made you guys so worried. The last thing I want is for the Stars to fall apart. This group gave me a chance to work with someone and do something meaningful. I was a jerk to overlook that."

"Don't flatter yourself," Shige-H smirked with sad eyes. "I've had about as much to do in shaking the Stars up as anyone. It's because of me that Tomi hasn't been back in her room for almost a week, and I do not know what Endo is doing either."

"Maybe I'll check up on him tomorrow after the lectures?" Damisan sat up.

Shige's face brightened up. As many excuses as she could make about Mana being the one that needed to save Damisan from this gloomy cloud hanging over his head, she needed it just as much. Knowing that Damisan would be back to the lectures and back to working his way up toward completing the prep course and finally set the Stars off to becoming a genuine Allied Ninja squad made Shige-H feel just that much more competent as a leader deep down.

Even if she had an aura of someone who was more perceptive than everybody else and someone who knew what the others didn't, she wasn't immune to gloom and beating herself over things, feeling inadequate and second-guessing herself after all.