Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Switched Allegiances

"Is this where you ask me to hand you the seal and leave nicely just because you've pushed me into a corner?" Ion's father wondered with quills of mockery sticking out in his tone.

"I can't let you do that either. We both know that your life beyond this pointless revenge quest revolves around killing people. I'm not letting that continue either," Mana shook her head as a handful of Usujitsa clones hopped up closer to her. A pair of them looked to their summoner with goofy and thoughtless expressions, but once the strictness in Mana's face washed over them, they turned away and looked down in submission.

"Interesting... That's not the answer I was expecting. Especially not from someone who's resulted in more casualties until now than the total of successful, high-profile hits I've completed. That's right, Konoha's Sorceress, I've researched your past failures. I know the name of every single person you've ever let down, anyone that's ever trusted you to save them whom you failed. Do their faces still linger with you or have you failed so many of them by now that they're just a meaningless, grey mass that means nothing to you anymore?"

This unnerved Mana. As uncomfortable as she was admitting it, it made something boil deep down. There couldn't have been any more hiding behind her illusions. Mana didn't want to zap or burn this man. She wanted to pant and wheeze that frustration out and translate it into punishment. She knew it was a trap, that her opponent was vastly more skilled at taijutsu or armed combat, that he was a master of emotionally manipulating his marks, and that by his own admission he'd studied Mana for this exact purpose. None of it mattered.

Riding the gale of her Mystical Wings Jutsu, Mana shot herself toward the beaten man in front of her as he got off the ground and lifted his sword to fight back. To duck the first diving kick, the killer had to fall down and thrust his sword into the ground for support so that he didn't fumble. His hand locked around Mana's wrist as she slashed with a steel-tipped card in her hand. Seeing him move from so close was like real magic, in the sense that Mana had absolutely no idea what was going on. He was too close for his motions to make any semblance of sense.

The assassin threw his diamond-shaped sword behind him, absorbing Usubane's dropkick. Still manipulating Mana's limb and flinging her around as he secured his armlock, the man swatted Usuzoku and Usukari aside while Usujitsa clones dived to bomb him once again. Mana activated her Mystical Wings to flip over her opponent and thrust her boots in his back. A loud snap rung in her ears, but she still had a few twitches of time before the pain of her snapping wrist set in. The assassin put up his arm, lighting his forearm up with a sealing glyph that unleashed a torrent of ninja tool projectiles, skewering Usujitsa clones and detonating them mid-flight before he returned to focus back on Mana.

With one of the magician's wrists broken, the man backflipped, sending his sharp, armored boots into the crux of Mana's chin. Everything blacked out for a blink. The rush of air all around her confused Mana for a second. She knew that every microsecond that the man's sword was out of her sight was a matter of life or death. Still, with her wrist burning up to her elbow and it being impossible to tell which side was up and which was down, the creeping terror in her chest made Mana wonder if this might have been how she'd die.

White. A crescent-shaped flash of red slashed through the haze and bled just like the blood streaming down the shallow slash on Mana's chest. "This is it, just you and me, just how it should have been, I'm glad you agree..." Ion's father swung his sword around him, covering Zokaka's entire body with crosses and slashes of crimson and sending the bellowing elephant down. Tomi screamed out in panic, jumping off the branch she perched on to after her fallen friend. Mana knew that scream, that tone of utter decimation. She didn't blame Tomi for losing her will to fight any longer.

"You should have never gotten your friends involved, but it couldn't have been helped, I suppose. They involved themselves without asking permission, and now it's too late. They're too deep in, my daughter's blood is on their hands too," the assassin flicked a marble over his head that exploded spreading a corrosive liquid around him that sizzled and spread noxious vapors upon contacting the ground but it appeared to provide a ring-shaped barrier around him that blocked off the connection of Skaven's shadow to his by surrounding the man's shadow with a ring of fuming liquid that the shadow appeared to be incapable of passing.