Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of What Defines Us

Live and Let Live

The party of girls in the observatory area slowly proceeded outside and through a staircase that eventually lead them to bump into all of the audience members who, similarly to the girls, have decided to leave their seats and roam around. There were plenty of vendors offering their goods and services just outside the arena and they were about to have an unexpected field day.

One thing that almost instantly captivated Kiyomi's attention, besides Mana's continuous attempt to remove her blindfold, which resulted only in painful grunts and more tears before her tightening it back, was the head of Gasco towering above the rustling crowd. That meant that the boys had also chosen to leave their observatory on the opposite side and walk off their slightly sore from standing around feet as well as refresh their heads.

Kiyomi was surprised by how quickly, and rather rudely, Erumo shoveled the other girls away to run up to her teammate and congratulate him on his victory. Frankly, the Yamanaka had forgotten that the trapster was with them in the observatory to begin with, given how silent she's been throughout the whole last match. The blonde just sighed in frustration before looking around for more familiar faces. She expected to see Meiko shrieking about how crazy the battles were or at least complaining about how she fell asleep halfway through overseer Oke's hype talks.

Mana also shared Kiyomi's healthy curiosity about where this crazy shuffling of the crowd would take them. She was clearly looking uncomfortable by all the noise and stuffy air that must have troubled even her dead nose, untainted oxygen must have been a universal need. Gently moving his teammate aside, Yushijin approached Mana and Kiyomi, something that greatly confused the two, even if Kiyomi would have appreciated Yushijin's symmetrical and angled in all the right ways facial features any day for as long as she would need to.

"So, how did I do?" He sighed, looking both at Mana and Kiyomi.

"You're asking us?" Kiyomi coughed out.

"Well, I do recall you being somewhat competent in genjutsu in the Academy, meanwhile Mana is a little short of a prodigy in the field currently", Yushijin shrugged.

"Don't look at me, I've been ditching my focus on the illusionary arts for a while. It's kind of hard to stand out in the team when Mana spends so much time and effort on it", the Yamanaka shrugged, looking at Mana, the girl still looked uneasy around the two and looked like she'd rather drill right underground like some drill-wielding mole to avoid talking to them. Although, it could have just been the crowded and uncomfortable space causing this behavior in the magician.

"You were nothing less than amazing", Mana nodded, for a moment Erumo's eyes glittered like two little proud diamonds before shifting back to their spiteful initial state.

"That's not what you told everyone while watching the match, two-face!" The trapster scoffed at the magician. "Then again, why am I getting surprised by that kind of behavior, from you of all people..."

Yushijin lifted two fingers, just an inch short from pressing them against Erumo's lips in an attempt to silence his friend. He must have seen Mana's lingering thoughts, which she chose not to express initially. Now that she was "cornered", the magician realized that she kind of had to.

"To be entirely honest, I don't think you'll get promoted. Your skill was so intricate and your work and focus on a pair of jutsu instead of an entire arsenal of techniques was so fruitful that it is quite likely there were only one or two members of the Council that successfully read your movements, even if you did your best to include the Council into your illusionary arts". Mana mumbled it all out. Kiyomi felt bad for her friend having to get cornered by people who didn't quite like her and must have just tried to validate their twisted and skewed views of her.