Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

The Hope In Our Stars

"Okay, so... While he's going nuts, what's this guy's deal?" Skaven turned to Mana while she stretched her joints and prepared herself to resume the fight for all their lives.

"You'll only hurt him with weaponry-based attacks. He drains chakra through contact and it feels like he's always augmented by it. In other words, the more chakra he has–the faster and stronger he naturally is," Mana said, doing her best to be brief. The Stars could hear all about how they came back from their wipeout or who exactly they were facing here after this entire affair was over with.

"I can't help but notice the Moon ninja queued up there. I assume they're allied?" Shige-H found it in her to glance back while the enemy flexed and bulked up, becoming a surreal masterpiece slathered on the fabric of reality.

"Ignore them for now. They're incredibly powerful sources of chakra for the Chaser, so it's better that he drains one of us instead of them," Mana dismissed the matter.

"I guess we're lucky he was such an avid gourmet of your chakra then..." Endo gripped his separated swords tighter. He made the right call at keeping them separate. His dual-wielding style would have allowed for a greater range compared to using them as a sword-staff. Range management was key here. If they manage their range right–they may just live, if they don't–the end won't come too quickly though it'll be certain.

"Guys..." Damisan's voice came from behind the group. "I'm..." he started a sentence he just wouldn't finish.

"Yeah, yeah... We get it, man, you're happy to be here..." Skaven waved his hand in dismissal before a hand of bone, flesh, and blood and even a layer of silky skin pressed against Skaven's shoulder. The Nara's eyes soured at first, but then they snapped open with the punkish ninja jumping up startled and turning behind him.

Behind him stood a tanned young man in his mid-twenties with a mohawk and a razor-disc tattoo on the right side of his head. He wore the same cloak that Damisan used to hide his scarred body under, except now he let the cape rustle behind him more like a cape than a sheet he wrapped himself into. A tanned and well-conditioned body gleamed through from underneath the cover once in a while. Damisan's tiger-colored eyes sparkled with glee that made both ends of his limbs shake in excitement.

"Damisan?" Shige-H gasped.

"Holy shit, you ain't a freak anymore!" Endo smirked and placed one of his swords over his shoulder. Despite his ceaseless, crude teasing and generally insufferable behavior, Endo's look of satisfaction relayed how happy he was for his fellow Stars member.

"Maybe you should descend to the Sky Clan and take refuge there?" Mana wondered, wiping crystal specks from the corners of her own eye. Seikuwo didn't need to go above and beyond like that. Heck, she didn't even count on him putting the Stars back together from swarms of bugs they've turned into until after the battle, but it meant the world for her he did this.

"No way! I was a ninja before the accident too!" Damisan clenched his fist. "Don't worry about me, I'll be useful to the team, even if I can't use my prosthetics anymore."

"You heard the man," Shige-H turned to the Chaser, who still flexed his body and watched what the newly mixed cocktail of Sky Clan and Earth Clan chakra would make of him. With a completely black and shapeless upper body and wild black hair floating behind him, the chakra parasite roared out, leaning forward and toward the Stars.

"Not enough, more chakra!" he grumbled before taking off of his platform. Mana still wasn't used to how insanely fast the man had become for his considerable size and bulk. While she had drawn a mental profile of his moves, the drastic shifts in speed every time he drained or wasted chakra made it complicated to navigate around him perfectly and made perfect evasion near impossible.