Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

At the Box's Doorsteps

"Land, ho!" A scout sitting on top of the tallest seat on the ship declared. Soon all twenty-five crewmen gathered around and Read, wearing her Bonny hiding captain's coat, appeared to scope the island ahead.

"Get the girl," she ordered turning at one of her pirates who began rushing to Mana's room only to meet the girl halfway there as Mana darted onto the main deck to observe the island by herself. The pirate nodded his head and gently lead the young ex-kunoichi to his captain.

"Is this the island?" Read inquired coldly, she wore no smiles and appeared to have taken a professional almost business like attitude towards this whole event.

"It appears to be... What are the coordinates?" Mana asked before observing a number of incredibly familiar murals and mosaics on a pyramid far ahead in the distance, right in the middle of the incredibly overgrown with vegetation island. "Never mind..." she stopped the squirming little man desperately trying to write down the exact coordinates.

Meiko, Kouta, and Shimo gathered nearby Mana. They've reached island a whole day early, the four had not precisely coordinated their plan. The three young ninja kept on squinting at Mana trying to determine if the magician would proceed with her defiant plan or if this change finally made her reconsider.

"Well, I suppose we'll pay up and be on our way..." Mana smiled looking at Read. "I'd appreciate it if for pleasant goodbye's sake you'd give us lifeboats to get to the island..." The young lady asked.

"No... We're going with you. Whatever you're looking for here, for pleasant goodbyes' sake, we'll help you with that for no extra pay." Read smiled back at Mana which made the magician's eyes sink in suspicion and a little bit of fear. What kind of game was Read playing? Did she wish to find out what Mana wanted from this island and then snag the Box away from them and bring it to l'Ollonais? That most definitely fit the description of what a pirate would do, helping a bunch of kids for no pay at all, however, did not.

"That will not be necessary, I do not wish to trouble you any more than we already have," Mana attempted to politely refuse the woman's offer, "Our quest here is dangerous and might cost you men, I would feel terrible if you lost valuable crewmen in a charity job".

Read scratched her chin and nodded. "Fair enough," she waved for the small chubby grandpa like looking pirate "Long Smith, please ready lifeboats for fifteen men, me and the kids. We won't trouble the kids any longer but we can make sure they land ashore successfully at the very least..." The woman ordered. The short elder began running around and ordering the men to prepare the ordered lifeboats.

Soon enough, the young teens were placed in lifeboats and rowed to the luscious island. After setting their foot ashore everyone sized up and evaluated the island with their eyes. It was a relatively small but incredibly overgrown island with thick forests of ancient looking sky reaching trees. The jungles inside and past the thick layers of leaves appeared to contain their own hidden dimension of shade and mysterious evening glow at every point in time. It looked oh so very similar to the Forest of Death except with much more mystery and charm and a thousand times less death.

"Strange... I've never seen this island or known of its existence, did you, Long Smith?" Read finally broke the silence.

"Well... No, it doesn't appear to be on any of our maps, I assumed the kids wanted to be let go in a random patch of the ocean. I never thought for a moment that there'd be an island here. Maybe the villages have some sort of knowledge of the seas we do not have?" The old man mumbled out in a strangely dazing and sleepy jingling tone.

"Well, anyways, we'll just have to issue an order for Maximillian to nail this island on our maps. We may just get some sweet piece of land for l'Ollonais. Something like that could nail us some sweet booty, maybe we should pick up paying hitchhikers more often. That bastard Flint kept on adventuring and discovering all those new islands, serves him right to be behind at least once." Read wondered out loud speaking to herself but the entire crew ashore shared a laugh after that last sentence.