Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

All That's Left Is To Bleed

"You came..." Mana could hear her own voice, but, whether it was because of the massive walloping that she's taken, or the profuse, trickling blood over her face and eyes, she couldn't see Shige-H over her. Despite the lack of vision and a state of semi-consciousness, the ninja magician could feel the refreshing wash of the Mystical Palm numbing the agonizing twinges on her ankle. "What about the monsters...? I... I had to... You must stop..."

"No!" Shige's voice resonated in Mana's mind with enough effect to snap the hazy magician's mind out for a second. When Mana saw a blurry silhouette of the perturbed face of the leader of the Stars staring right at her, it became clear that it wasn't entirely because of the blood gushing over her face that she could barely see anything. She's been slipping in and out for real. "You need to stand down and let us fix this mess."

"The townsfolk..." Mana muttered in a tone that sounded delirious even to her own semi-conscious state of comprehension.

"Are still safe. Right how we left them. We've dealt with the attack. Together. The enemy isn't nearly as threatening when you know they're coming and see where they're coming from. You'd know that if you bothered working together with someone for once," Shige-H bit Mana again while forcing a stronger pulse of Mystical Palm out. Mana could recognize that cooling wash. While usually Mystical Palm felt numbing and refreshing, if set to an overly intense glow, it could also feel cold and sharp. Like frostbite seeping into every pore of the affected area that was being treated.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." Mana had the common decency and the social awareness in her battered stupor to admit. She's never been drunk, but she's observed drunken people enough to make that comparison in her floating state of being.

"You will be. I've been busting my ass treating the injured peacekeepers the whole night. I don't have nearly enough chakra to make this painless for you, missy. Right now, I'm just betting on saving that leg. Shit, the bone's shattered all over... I'm surprised it's still attached..." Shige-H cursed. Her voice sounded dire. The medical kunoichi got angry from time to time but, throughout the last year they've worked together, Mana had never seen or heard Shige-H as mad as this.

Her neck felt too tired and no matter how much Mana wanted to keep it tense, her head just fell flat on the back of her skull while she laid stretched out. The pain made her burrow her fingers into the shallow layer of gravel underneath while Shige-H worked her magic.

"If you relaxed, you'll pass out," Shige-H noted the writhing uneasiness in Mana's body. "I can see your chakra network is in a fritz. Were you exhausting yourself? Your chakra resources are massive. I've never thought it to be likely to ever happen."

"That man... Selsig... He's the user of the... The mud-men technique..." Mana relayed the vital intelligence.

"Calm down," Shige-H barked out, pressing Mana's upper half to the ground with her right hand before returning to treating the grievous case of mashed leg and bone chips. "You won't be nearly as entertaining with wobbly wooden leg replacement, so let me do my best here and hope it won't come to that."

Mana coughed up, feeling trickles of blood splatter from her spit and fall over the dried layer already over her face while some ran down her neck. A little speck returned where it came from, just aggravating Mana's bloody coughing situation, which made an agonizing resonance pass through her ribs. The magician rolled over on her right shoulder and threw chestnut-colored bile out from her mouth. Shige-H backed away from it, realizing that if she kept Mana pressed down, the magician will just drown in the mash of her guts she was throwing up.

"God-fucking-dammit..." Shige-H cursed before gently directing Mana to stretch out again while she moved the leg over a backpack to get a better look at what she was putting back together. "Sorry, Mana... Your whole body's busted up. That was the bile from your stomach you tossed out. I'm going to need to switch my priorities shortly and... If I do... Your leg's gonna have to give or it'll infect the rest. I'm afraid I'll need you conscious for this. I need to observe your symptoms to see when your overall injuries are too much to ignore and when they'll force me to... Give up on your leg."