Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Games of Body and Soul

Expensive New Experiences

"So, Mana, you feel like calling it now?" Kiyomi looked at the magician, leaning over to her side.

The question pulled her out from deep inside her thoughts. That in itself took a moment for Mana to recover from. After having realized that she left her friend hanging on a thread awkwardly, Mana smiled and shrugged, her face irradiated apologetic innocence as she did.

"Sorry, maybe Hokage-sensei actually wants to take my place?" Mana glared at the team leader again, she was well aware that Hanasaku had opted to not involve herself in the game of her students, instead choosing to preside over it, but she had secretly hoped that seeing Meiko and Kiyomi in their usual antics would cheer the woman up and help her get in the mood.

"Nah, the only thing I'm up for is a visit to the Shushu-ya. You guys may be emancipated but I'm not dragging a bunch of teens into a pub to get wasted", Hanasaku chuckled, pressing her fists against her sides and spreading her arms out in an almost heroic pose. Only Chestnut Hanasaku could speak about wanting to get a drink in a heroic pose.

"You wouldn't happen to have a date with someone, sensei, would you?" Kiyomi poked Hanasaku's back with an elbow. The Yamanaka did have a point, due to its mostly adult-focused clientele, Shushu-ya was a popular dating spot, particularly for couples who were well past the first date stage.

"What are you talking about!?" Hanasaku chuckled throwing a lazy smack, aimed across Kiyomi's back. Wisely enough, the Yamanaka dodged it just in time. After spending so much time with the woman, Kiyomi was a fair judge of how unpredictable the strength of the Sannin was.

"It's Meiko's turn, in that case. I guess it's Yakiniku-Q for us", Mana sighed while looked at Meiko who was just grinning with a dumb face while watching Kiyomi and Hanasaku talk about the team mentor's secrets.

"How do you know that?" Meiko objected before pouting and blowing out her cheeks as she was deep in thought, trying to prove Mana wrong by coming up with a superior alternate place to spend her allotted time in. After a short while, the blacksmith folded her hand and breathed out a heavy cloud of dust, air and frustration, one she had held pressed inside her lungs for quite some time. "Fine... It's Yakininku-Q".

The trio that accompanied Meiko laughed out together. Mana found her eyes warmly growing fond of the time she was spending with her friends. She loved by how easily she had read Meiko, why would she not? After all, the two things that the redhead loved most of all were constructing and eating and she had not done that last one in quite a while. Most ninja could be without food for an extreme amount of time, Meiko was just of the kind that chose not to be.

Yakiniku-Q was decently crowded, as usual. Mana exhaled in frustration after remembering the smells of meat, all the exotic sauces and spices from all around the world being prepared in the widest array of ways, the aroma of flowers, cooked vegetables, and smoky cheese circulating in the air and softly caressing one's nose with a lover's touch. Now the only thing pulling on her nostrils was the nihility of stuffy air inside, a costly, yet the least so, price for her improved sensory abilities.

It was at empty moments of lowness like this that Mana enjoyed recalling the fact that she was by far nowhere near to being a food consumption aficionado, she just liked preparing it. What actually did aid her in pushing away the vile price she had paid for power was seeing Meiko drooling all over her flashy circus tuxedo and continuously tumbling over her large boots and losing her cylinder in the process while she made her way to the table.

*****

"Ewww! What's that?" Meiko shriveled when observing the sticky crawfish in Mana's plate, the poor thing looked like a zombified yet still remarkably fishy version of itself. Looking quite dead with pale and empty white eyes but retaining its dark, lake-green color while its shell appeared to behave more like a dry potato and crumble upon the first poke of one's utensil.