Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Need for Answers: Most Wanted

Light partially seeped into Mana's eyes inviting a familiar dreadful headache she had felt so many times before. A painful reminder that one was still alive which momentarily made one wish they weren't. The magician realized that something was wrong almost instantly, she felt tight bindings around her and an almost supernatural force holding her still, pressing against her chest and emanating from a glowing paper tag placed there. While the magician wanted to remain still and keep quiet so she could carefully survey her surroundings and evaluate her situation it didn't work out. A stinging sensation in her breathing tract made her cough erratically almost within seconds of waking up.

The magician felt the taste of blood as the rough yet small shards of crystal left her throat through her mouth, bruising and cutting at every soft fleshy wall it passed. The wounds were not troublesome or deep but Mana realized then that her total chakra pool was smaller than half her total, right when her body instinctively tried to protect itself through chakra augmentation and had to be eased through it.

"Interesting, she's awake", a crude sounding and lingering masculine voice made Mana's eyes turn to meet a young man, in his middle twenties or slightly older, whom the magician couldn't shake off the feeling she had seen somewhere already. Despite her best attempts at recalling details of this blond haired, glasses wearing young man she could not quite put her finger on it.

"Oh, great, you know, we should've just brought her to the gate, that or killed her", another young man, this on looking in his teens and with much greasier and messier dark hair running past his shoulders advised coldly.

"Aw, come on, you guys, Crus said that she was supposed to be eliminated but wasn't", a rather low pitched and strong yet strangely more feminine sounding voice made Mana flip her head back to observe the third member of the team that sat around her, having placed her on the ground after the magician woke up.

"Eliminated"? Mana muttered to herself. Her memory could vaguely recall something terrifying, something covering her up, getting all into her nose, mouth and filling her lungs and on the inside. The exact details still eluded the girl's memory but the shock and the panic fear she felt at those moments returned flawlessly.

"I stand by that, her presence is a paradox. She was, by all signs, knocked out and should've been withdrawn from the competition, her team abandoned her, after all", the bright haired young man nodded, using his palm to keep his glasses in their current positioned as he gestured with his head. His face was not quite malevolent, his eyes showed no pleasure in holding Mana against her will or intent to hurt her but he did look somewhat indifferent towards it, almost like he held himself above this.

"They did"? Mana raised an eyebrow, wondering internally. She worried about Kiyomi and Meiko as something must've happened to the two as they wouldn't have just dropped Mana and went on without her, at least the magician believed so herself.

The girl moved her hands around, tied behind her, placing them closest she could to the requirements of the Academy technique ninja used to escape bindings – the aptly named Rope Escape Jutsu. Then her hands faltered, was this really a sufficiently threatening situation to warrant her breaking her own rule about generic techniques? Slowly her hands parted away as she continued to lay low and listen.

"Hmph, still... Our time would be better spent seeking our targets, I am almost ashamed to talk in front of this girl how badly we're doing at that"! The other male teammate of the team remarked.

"Aw, come on, Gunoi, if Crus says that the girl may have stumbled into a way to cheat the system, it might be useful to find the secret out. Remember how many close calls we had recently"? The young lady once again butt in. After looking at her closely, Mana remembered bits and pieces about her from before.