Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

The Unjust Tower Defense

"You seeing alright in that?" Skaven asked. Once in a while his eyes couldn't help but turn to his shaky friend, who began growing more and more accustomed to his situation and thirsty for punishment to the thieves that took his precious cylinder with each step.

"I don't need to see, I need justice," Damisan groaned, yanking on two pieces of bandage that had slipped off of the lousy configuration covering up his face. "This is wrong. You don't do something like this!"

"Bet you'd have liked to have repaired those hands of yours by now..." Skaven blew his lips out, realizing that if a fight truly was to break out, against everyone's best interests, he'd be stuck with a comrade with a useless set of arms in combat.

"Maybe, if I was looking for a fight. We won't be fighting. We can't do that. I will not fail everyone. Shige-H needs us to help her keep this team together, I can't even begin to imagine how lousy I'd feel if I got you kicked out because of me," Damisan shook his head, picking up a slipping ring of cloth and wrapping it over his head and tying a knot of some loose ends hanging down from his head.

"You know, I can't quite remember why it is that I came here to the Allied Ninja, right? It might have been that memory wipe thing we did with Mana, I guess my reason was related to something that she deleted. Either way, it won't really drag me down that much to break a few rules and pay the price," Skaven shrugged and turned an apathetic pair of eyes toward Damisan just to show him he meant every word he said. "So... Do you know where we're going?"

"I know where Tongo's room is. He might be at the lectures putting Hoshido into more danger for points," Damisan tried clenching his fists but his shoddy, metallic frame arms didn't clench the whole way. Only the very tips of his flimsy fingers touched each other as they hooked over to form a metallic ring on each hand.

"Right... There are lectures going on at the moment," Skaven looked up with an unapologetic look before letting curiosity weigh his face down and to the left to look at Damisan. Skaven didn't have even the smallest doubt that asking Damisan to waltz into a hall filled with recruits was the worst thing he could think of right now. The poor guy couldn't handle it, no matter how hardcore he tried acting.

"Who knows, maybe they've got your cylinder in their room?" Skaven shrugged.

"Y-Yeah... Worth a shot," Damisan nodded. They both knew that this wasn't true. There was no way that a despicable schemer like Tongo would have stolen Damisan's cylinder only to leave it unattended in his room. The two hastened their step. All things considered, Damisan was lucky that most of the recruits inhabiting these floors were occupied at the moment and they weren't bustling as they'd usually be.

One thing that neither of the duo had expected was to not only see Tongo and Hoshido sitting in their room, but a Regimental Commander accompanying them there. Hoshido sat holstering the cylinder underneath his armpit while his ugly and always disgruntled scowl just stared blankly at the door. His grumpy look didn't change for a second even when the two ninja walked through it and realized that they might have just entered the lion's den.

"Regimental Commander Harcel?" Damisan's stance became stiff and jittery in the joints. The seasoned ninja turned toward the two entrants with a light squint and strict, stiff lips. His right eyebrow arched over his eye, well above how his left one hung.

"Right on time," Tongo's lips twisted upward on the left side, making his teeth peek through the crack slightly.

"Hmm... His arms indeed look useless. Oh well, we'll find out soon enough," Regimental Commander Harcel turned his nose up, looking at Damisan with suspicious gawk.

"Those two stole my cylinder! I can't go anywhere without it, I need it!" Damisan raised his shoddy arm and pointed it, still clutching the tips of its fingers and looking more fitting to scoop trash out of a pond than combat.