Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Return to the Seventh Circle

„Seriously"? Mother raged on after Mana explained her plan of spending the next two and a half weeks in a distant, unknown land, training with a bunch of talking, highly socially developed and intensely opinionated in many matters rabbits.

"I mean... Technically we had expected this before, dear", father shrugged, Mana may have forgotten her mother's oddly fiery temper but the man undoubtedly remembered it and tried pacifying the situation by reminding the woman that they'd expected Mana to leave somewhere unnatural to train.

"Yeah, that was before she got back to sound mind and almost turned her life around"! Mother yelled out. While her fury always kind of crept Mana out, she could understand mother's point, in more restrained and tempered words, at least... The magician had been leaving home so often that she may as well have not lived there anymore. "If you just followed your plan along you could've removed all the ryo from your account, bought yourself a mansion and settled somewhere more peaceful in weeks from now"!

The woman broke down in her own unique way – dropping on the sofa and angrily rubbing her temples and playing with her exotically unruly and dark colored hair. Most women in mother's shoes broke down in tears, Mana's mother chose to boil and simmer instead of erupting.

"I have a separate bank account"? Mana mumbled out confused before shaking the odd slip-up off since it had little to nothing to do with the situation. "Anyways, it's something I have to do. My opponent in the Chuunin Exams is fighting for a very noble cause, the only sure-way path of helping her is beating her in a very specific way, one that'd impress the council and allow her to show off all of her skills."

"That's what you always say. "Something I have to do"", father replied before sitting down by mother and keeping a watch on her so that she didn't remember her old more rampage-prone fiery ways. "You don't have to do anything, this is not one of your missions. The only objective in life is that which you set for yourself. You do realize that right? The way you've been living these past two and a half weeks – you were happy, you can't fool anyone trying to deny it".

"I was happy", Mana nodded before picking up her sizeable bag and flipping it over her shoulders. The bag could have weighed like another human being all by itself, not to mention the steel tools and supplies she has been carrying and a bunch of scrolls with training equipment. "I love magic, I love entertaining people and seeing them smile. I love making them forget the world they live in, if only just for a second. The world that can erupt with war, natural catastrophes or get destroyed if some sicko doesn't control their own power for one careless moment and no one could stop them. The world that can end at any second. A terrifying world".

It was too late to reconsider now. She had canceled all her shows in the morning, disappointing Mr. Hiro and her audience yet again. She had postponed this talk with her parents to the point where it was almost too late to leave. It was too late the moment she took Stea up on her plea and decided to help her and her village out.

"Most of all, I loved seeing you two happy. Your smiles made me happy as well. But if I don't do this, if I know for the rest of my days that I didn't do everything I could have done to save this many starving people... I'll never be happy again, that'll only result in a perpetual circle of mutual sadness for everyone", Mana didn't want to say anything more, she rushed away from home in a hurry because farewells made her tear up, always and consistently, yet somehow if she didn't say her farewells it was almost deceiving in a way. At the very least, it helped.

The sky was beginning to sink in its darkest. It tended to do that in winter. Mana looked up in the sky, feeling snowflakes grazing her cheeks and landing on them only to melt and mix into the girl's tears. A crushing pressure locked up around her, Mana could feel her body tense up in shock and automatically attempt to augment her body to compensate for her body being dragged through an interdimensional tunnel in order to instantaneously transport her to wherever she was reverse-summoned from.