Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Sobriety at Last!

After a brief moment the raging outbursts of chakra emitted from the wild and unpredictable Kusagoro's transformation settled down somewhat. The transformed shinobi did not attack or look prepared for defending himself. He just stood calmly and hunched forward with his head staring at the water surface that portrayed his transformation with uneasy murkiness to the dark waters. The full reflection was blocked off by the dark skies and only briefly illuminated once the lightning bolts lit the heavens.

"Kill..." Kusagoro mumbled to himself under his nose, the young ninja observing the insane battle from the top of the Box of Ultimate Bliss, an artefact that proved itself to be quite a reliable source of safety in this absolutely crazy battle, couldn't even hope to hear a single word.

"Huh? What wazzat?" the Pirate Lord slurred out, he would've normally had been very surprised by the Jugo's transformation, his immense degree of drunkenness currently blocked off any primal instincts of self-preservation and the drunken fool was just looking for a good fight. He was totally oblivious to the fact that he pushed a much more dangerous opponent slightly over the edge by resorting to that of his own.

"Kill... The girl... No... That's not right..." Kusagoro continued to mumble incomprehensible verbal garbage to himself feeling completely torn apart by an overflow of mad thoughts seeping through his head. The violent and sadistic urges were impossible to tell from one's own love of bunnies and sunshine. It was a fine line between madness and unrestrained power with the tipping point being as sensitive as flipping a coin.

Kouta's face looked like that of a serious gambler observing the roulette. Slowly his hands began reaching for Mana and wrapping around her. The magician didn't like it and tried to object but after looking at Kouta's face her own grip loosened and she let him press her closer to himself.

"This is bad..." he uttered to her. "I remember that feeling, I was completely unable to move when it happened to me. I won not by overpowering the enemy but by simply being insane enough... Every movement is like negotiations with billions of psychopaths inside your own mind. I had thought that father may have found an answer to that problem but... I think he used this transformation so few times that he's still working with that." he continued talking as if talking was the only thing to keep the fear away, his way of keeping himself afloat in an ocean of fear and uncertainty.

Mana looked at Kusagoro and she could feel for Kouta's worries. She then realized what she made this gentle soul she fell in love with do. The young man she was falling for was forced to cross that line, embrace his clan's cruel origins, that which the current Jugo members had locked under seven seals to never be let loose again. The transformation that caused so many deaths to happen and made Iwagakure hunt Jugo for decades like animals for their cruelty until the warrior clan found peace and adopted their love of nature.

"I'm sorry you had to do this, Kouta," she whispered in his ear but the young man acted out a smile for her. Despite the fact that those emotions of certainty were false and completely faked the magician appreciated the young man's strength, his devotion to smiling for her when his eyes trembled in fear. It was something she used to do back when she still had the power to change anything at all. Or at least thought she did. What was transpiring below was an actual battle between immensely powerful warriors, the level at which actually relevant forces that could have changed the world fought each other.

"You won't have to do this again, not for me, I promise," she added.

"Kill... I'll kill someone... The first girl I see, I'll kill..." Kusagoro jumbled out nonsensical dribble to himself as his eyes looked up and examined his opponent, for a moment the warrior looked confused by Francho's ominous movements but then they switched until they met Meiko.