Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

The World of Bastards

Kiyomi grunted while she took another painful step forward, she was rushing it. She felt like Mana was in trouble and felt responsible for helping her friend out. She didn't quite know the source of that responsibility, she barely even knew her friend, hell, they didn't even start off that great. Still, getting almost killed together twice in two days makes even the shakiest of friendships get hardened fast. 

Mana revealed herself and dumped her advantage back when they were fighting Hachi, Kiyomi's well-being was more important to this girl than victory, than her own life even. She'd rather risk her safety and life than have Kiyomi suffer and that notion surprised the Yamanaka.

There weren't that many people like that. This world was a world of bastards. Bastards everywhere one went, ready to place their leg in front of you to trip you over, ready to drive a stick into your wheel to make your carriage flip over. That was just the human nature, in this world the death and suffering of one meant advancement of the other's position. When one ninja died, others got their work. 

If a ninja messed up their assassination that work was not only transferred to another, the other one had to pick up their assignment and they had to do it faster, before the target successfully managed to strengthen their security and destroy the chances of mission's success. That made the mission rank higher, that made it grant the ninja who completed it great fame and higher reward. It was a sick society where loss of one was a victory for everyone else.

Mana was different, she sacrificed everything and was willing to sacrifice more, she lamented not the fact that she gave everything up for the well-being of others but because she didn't have more to give them. Every time she gave everything up so that someone else could live better she felt bad because she didn't give them enough. If a person lived because of her actions, she was sad because that person didn't live a better life or because they had to suffer in the first place.

It wasn't even that she was delusional. The strange case of Nakotsumi Mana was that she perfectly realized the nature of the world around her. She didn't have naïve illusions that everything around her was made of cotton candy like everyone thought, she knew it was sick and messed up. 

There was no surprise in the face of this magician when Hisako yelled out her tirade of how sick this world was before going into the tent of Hachi's, no, Mana was almost bored by those words, she just looked back at the woman with a confused and slightly angered look. She knew how it really was, somewhere deep inside, she did know everything. Yet she didn't change one bit of herself. She was kind and giving by choice, with full awareness that this way of life had nothing but suffering and loss for her. People like this didn't deserve to fight their friends and their enemies and die, they deserved...

What did they deserve? Did they deserve to be in charge of the whole thing? Did they deserve the whole world for being like they were? Probably not. That'd diminish the meaning of Mana's mentality. The magician was kind not because she wanted to be in charge, she wanted to be that way because she wanted everyone else to be more like that. She saw the problem and decided to change herself so drastically that the others would only take a small fraction of her mentality and that fraction would still be enough to change and solve the problem. She was a hero of overacting with the kindest of intentions. Kiyomi wasn't sure of what people like Mana deserved, all she knew for certain was that it most certainly was not death.

"Do... Do you think Mana died?" the Yamanaka asked, her voice whimpered.

"Not sure, she's a dumb brat but if she's one thing, that thing's slippy like a bloody viper. I'm not sure if she can even die, every time I think she dies it's just a stupid trick or some ploy or..." the Quack spoke, for a moment there Kiyomi saw some speck of emotion in his voice. Usually, he spoke in this incredibly indifferent and sarcastic tone but now he did have some desire to get there in time. He helped Kiyomi walk down the steps, much slower than Mana must've in her crazed rush to save everyone but they would get there in time, they had to!