Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Things we Seek to Gain

The stairs beneath Kouta's feet thudded firmly and layers of old dust got picked up and whirled around and down as the two carefully and slowly made their way to the fifth floor. The woman rammed against the door, seemingly because of the effort she had to put into simply moving. Maybe it was just the fatigue as the woman was breathing heavily using the door for support. Having her condition in mind such momentary signs of weakness could've been forgiven.

Slow thumps and foot dragging noises signaled to the two that someone was coming to the door. A large man in a brown leather jacket and a torn up, hole-covered black t-shirt opened it. He didn't look like one of the Syndicate guys but he most definitely could've kicked some ass. His hair was messy black and long while his facial hair could've definitely used some trimming. The man moved aside and signaled for the two to come in after he saw Kouta's new female companion.

"Is this how it is nowadays Frankes, a minion to oversee your needs and scare old friends away?" The woman teased someone the two still had not seen as she raised her voice so it could reach the more remote rooms of the crack den looking apartment they were in.

"You know how it is Jeandette... I don't leave this place much these days," A cybernetic sounding voice reached the two followed by the large leather wearing guy. The voice came from a room several steps past the corridor the three were in, telling Kouta the way and saving him the trouble of having to stumble around a place he didn't know.

"A voicebox?" Kouta squinted questioningly at the woman who was now named by her old time friend. Before the young man didn't have a name to pin on her face because names simply didn't matter. As a medical ninja, he was used to look at the ailment, at the problems and the solutions he took to solve them. Names were bad, names identified someone, names gave them a feeling, personality and... Names made things difficult. Made tough decisions difficult.

"Don't worry, he won't know if you stare..." The woman nodded with a reply that was supposed to sound like a joke but her tone was so dull and tired that it wasn't particularly funny, it was less fun still when having in mind the subject they were discussing.

Once the three entered the room the leather wearing man positioned himself at the other end of the room and crossed his hands on his chest, carefully staring at Kouta as he was the only odd part of the equation which the man had no idea of. The man sitting on the only old and sophisticated looking piece of furniture in probably the entire block, an old armchair, was supposed to be the owner of this apartment and the man of the hour.

As a medical ninja, Kouta was used to seeing weird shit, even gritty shit but his face and body were on the different scale. The boy even couldn't help but shake a little the first moments after seeing the man. His skin was singed off to the flesh, based on his appearance it was clear that he must've been covered with third and fourth-degree burns and required extensive medical assistance. The worst part was the center split of the body, it looked like someone had lived inside the man and just decided to leave him by peeling the man open like a cheese stick from inside. His face was burnt and mangled, also his flesh opened from inside and suddenly Kouta understood why the man needed his voicebox to speak. The sounds that came out of him naturally made him slobber over himself and just came out as an unintelligible murmur and mumble.

"I've brought a friend," Jeandette spoke up first pointing at Kouta, it was just common courtesy of informing a blind man of the presence. The seated man just carelessly shook his head around trying to locate the young man but then stopped as his remaining sensory organs picked up nothing from Kouta's side.

"I don't care about who you've brought with you, I care about why you're here, Jeandette. It's been too long, neither of us is a person we've once been. Neither of us is exactly a number one hit anymore... The star of the show." The disfigured man whom Jeandette called Frankes spoke.