Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Blank Sheet

With the single one, yet remarkably complicated question in front of her Mana continued to focus on nothing but the sheet of paper in front of her. In these kinds of tests how one started often laid the foundation for the right or wrong answer. The right start was essential as if one started to pave the ground the wrong way they'll never finish building that road they needed to build.

The problems of this test were numerous, it was capitally overcomplicated and deliberately designed to eliminate most of the genin taking it. Establishing and understanding the ground rules of the test may have been beneficial, having all the answers and cards on the table flipped up may have helped Mana think more clearly. The magician took her marker in hand and quickly counted the grotesque syringe devices that looked like they made their way there from a horror novel from one of the classic periods.

In general there were thirty six syringes to pick. Judging from what was said, two thirds of them – twenty four had terrible poison and were the most obvious wrong choices. Then, one sixth of the remaining ones had an intricate truth serum in them that will make the captured ninja useless as they will relay all there is to tell, undoubtedly that was the goal of the imaginary captor and, after such a syringe is picked, the ninja will count as good as dead. That leaves six empty and right picks.

Indeed such a task, to pick not only the right one, but also the same her teammates would pick, was troublesome. That may have been the most difficult criteria to fit. Mana wasn't sure if it was entirely reasonable. Such a requirement completely eliminated the luck factor out of the equation. One matter was to accidentally guess one of the six right syringes, to guess the same one one's teammates would pick as well was outright impossible.

Mana could recall such a test being given in the Academy, back then it seemed odd to her, even in its easier and modified version. Back then it only had four syringes, one of which had poison and one of which had the truth serum. Back then it was a fifty-fifty call but back then the test didn't even have a right answer. The passing grade was determined based on how the student picked their syringe, did their reasoning make sense, could they analyze the situation correctly and other similar factors. Here an actual right answer was expected.

Finally the circulating blackout that left only Mana and the test in an isolated personal dimension of dark oblivion faded and other genin came into view. The magician allowed her glance to waver just to see how her peers would deal with the situation. Judging from what the man said, "cheating" was not forbidden so it was not cheating in the technical meaning of the word. In fact, it was encouraged, likely because it cost precious time and made one wander in the dark woods treading the completely dark path in a random direction. Cheating was a waste of time so it was permitted.

No one was trying to contact their peers, not with the limited perception of the five senses that Mana had available to her. The magician was quite surprised that Kiyomi didn't try and contact her using the mental transmission ability that the girl had. Either she was located far past the technique's range or the walls were infused with chakra barriers that would've prevented any similar abilities from being used. If this office building was an important establishment of the village administration it likely had all sorts of similar protections.

Then Mana noticed something creepy, a wave of ants was crawling right beside her in a very blurry and thinned out line only to walk through the small space under the door, likely to look for the controller's teammate and relay some sort of message. Following the path of the insects the magician tracked them all the way back to a short but broad shouldered young man with sunglasses and a rather geeky looking bowl cut of his ginger hair. Could he have figured out the solution to the problem?