Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

The Uber-Spiritual Low-Blow

Mana blinked a pair of times in rapid succession, failing to comprehend what had just happened right in front of her own eyes. The body of a young man, not that much different from her, no ninja clan, no special background or advanced bloodline, had just fallen apart.

The magician's eyes started to water, she wriggled in Hanasaku's gentle but un releasing hold before the woman pulled Mana back and started calming her down. It looked like the medical ninja in the arena were a little bit baffled by failing to prevent this death as well. While no one's life was guaranteed in such an event, such a guarantee was simply impossible, a village that managed to host peaceful and simple Chuunin Exams would have had plenty of bragging rights and the aura of control about them.

"When you gamble with your own life, this sometimes happens. He knew the odds and the risks and he chose every element of this outcome", Hanasaku softly mumbled to Mana, trying to prevent her from doing something that'd disturb the confusion that the higher ranking ninja buzzing in the ring raised. Needless to say, Gorm's body was quickly removed. Even as the medical staff carried it away, it continued to fall apart as the youth's flesh itself appeared to be as cohesive as a lump of jelly.

"So can we continue the match? Unless someone has the world-changing resurrection jutsu hidden away, death means elimination, right"? Kres-T managed to overpower his struggle to breathe and exhaustion and his distressed face quickly changed to that of a triumphant sadist as the young man grinned at the overseer of the exam.

"Well... Let's see what his teammate has to say", the overseer rubbed his sweaty forehead before using his remote sealing technique to unseal Jean-D from the scroll. Upon the girl's shape materializing, the young woman looked around before her eyes lit up by the cruel realization, her own image of the transpiring events based solely on Gorm's disappearance and multiple massive blood pools around the arena.

"Examinee, your teammate has unfortunately passed in the middle of the match. Sadly, we can't offer you anything else but to either surrender or resume the match, treating his death as elimination", the overseer quickly ran the situation down by the girl.

"Hmph, why are you even bothering to ask, of course, I'll keep going. It's just my luck to lose the draw and get a fragile teammate", Jean-D angrily distressed before pulling her knives out and preparing to continue the match.

"What the hell"!? A loud objection echoed from the western side of the audience surrounding the arena. Gentib, the only advancing member of Gorm's team stepped forward aggressively. "You're Gorm's partner for the match. Can't you at least be bothered to acknowledge his sacrifice? He knew that he needed to eliminate his opponent to win and he did everything he could, placing his life on the line to get you both to the next stage"! The boy growled through his teeth.

"Of course he knew it, I told him that. He claimed he had a way around his opponent's bombs and that he was the safer bet for fighting him and I trusted him. If he died here, he'd have never become a Chuunin. A Chuunin understands the meaning of the words "shortens your lifespan" and knows their own limits", Jean-D calmly replied without even offering as much as an apologetic look at the grieving teammate.

"That's the spirit..." Kres-T coughed up, "They don't get it, but we do"!

"Don't get me wrong, Gentib, or whatever persona you're wearing now is called, your teammate was quite useful, he appears to have weakened his opponent enough for me to have what it takes to tip him over. And yet he still refuses to tag out, interesting", the knife fighter smiled in excitement.

"Will they at least declare Mysterious Peacock Method a kinjutsu now"? Mana muttered sadly, "Will Gorm's death at least save lives of the people who'd have used this technique in the future"?