Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Islanded

"Hey... You're the Sorceress girl from Konoha, right?!" the old captain pulled his bubbling pipe out and leaned up closer to the magician to eye her better. While the man had both eyes, one of them stayed close for some reason, so he might have been struggling with the fidelity of his vision.

"Yes, sir..." Mana nodded while hiding her hands behind her back and weaving them together. It felt embarrassing having someone make the same scene that she'd have been over the clouds about in the past. It was like she was technically still "that Sorceress girl from Konoha" but in name only. Mana didn't feel like there was anything magical about her life left.

"I see you're taking up after me. Too bad, it ain't the type of thing you want to see happen to a young lady such as yourself..." the old man tapped his right foot, showing off a pair of iron rods that merged by a rubbery clog at the bottom and stretched out from his right knee all the way to the clog that acted like a boot for the metal rod calves.

"I wouldn't have chosen it if I had the choice..." Mana tried making light of it though her voice shook and her eyebrows waved over her eyes. She wondered why no one pestered the old captain about the ship and why they just let her talk to him alone and browse through the backpack of emotional baggage that came along with it.

"Heh, ain't that the truth? Still, the village will probably outfit you with something better than a stool's leg, so you probably will only miss it in the evenings," the old man waved it off. Gasco stood by Mana's side and waited patiently for the old man to return to him as the first thing they did when the party entered was press hands.

"These ninja need to rent a vessel to Land of Lightning," Gasco finally spoke up when the old man had enough of Mana awkwardly bowing her head and faking a smile while she was dying a little more with each word exchanged inside.

"That's too bad. What with all of those scary crustacean sea-titans roaming about the Stone Gulf, the sailors don't sail during misty nights and they've already set sails for today. They won't be back until the evening and..." the sea captain began slowly shaking his head and throwing his hands about in apology while scanning every Allied Ninja and recruit in sight.

"Let me guess, the forecast for tonight is a misty night?" Shige-H grumbled and rolled her eyes. The lips of the sea captain stretched out from one ear to the other while his eyes made an apologetic glisten. He didn't need to say anything more than that.

"Well, in that case, this may just be your lucky night, for we have taken care of your scary crustacean sea-titan problem for you guys. It's safe to sail during misty nights again," Asuka crossed her arms and pointed her nose up high, looking mighty proud of a battle that she had no role fighting in.

"Oh, really?! You've taken care of those!? That's amazing! Spectacular, really fantastic!" the sea captain nodded his head some fifty-thousand times though the voice of his response carried a hint of sarcasm in it. Then again, seamen were staunch folk that have seen pretty much everything in life sailing the high seas and working in a world routinely inhabited by ninja, samurai, and pirates and living a life where sea-titan crustaceans and aquatic Tailed Beasts were a genuine worry they had to plan around. "It's too bad that the other captains are probably not going to bet their vessels and livelihoods on your word alone, missy. No offense, I'm sure you're an honest and capable young lady!"

"She is, maybe, one of those things..." Endo grumbled, having retreated to his own cradle of grumpiness.

"What about you?" Shige-H wondered. "You're a captain, aren't you? Won't you take us up on our word that we've taken care of the rogue ninja plaguing the seas? Even when their group was active, they plagued the Stone Gulf, so they would have never roamed anywhere near the Dream Sea."