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

Anarchistic Takeover

The winter night moon spread its gleam, as bleak as the skin of a dead man, the light it lustered across the misty Shukuba streets just as cold as the blood that moved through the cadaver's veins. Every vital intake of breath required a sniff to follow it up. More and more often people chose to breathe inside the collars of their own outer layers of clothing to warm up the air they were sucking in.

A short woman of dark complexion and refined eye-lines, lush eyelashes, and overpowering make-up pressed her heels across the frozen dirt passageway of a more resolute district of Shukuba. One comprised of modern metal sarcophagi that surrounded a large lake, where much of what was not meant to be found upon inspections was dumped, when a watchful eye, less willing to compromise, came to scope about the place. There was always certain scoping about to be done there.

The woman stopped in the limelight of an ancient lantern to light up a smoke, her right hand threw her rich and wild dark hair backward as she set the end of her cigarette blazing. A dark shadow whizzed past the woman, temporarily covering up the light gleaming above her, like a shadow of a hawk swooping down to grab its prey. Loud, metallic thuds and fleshy tearing sounds accompanied the impressive flight and flip of the shade that finally stopped moving fast enough to be given shape by the human eye.

The woman in red reactively jerked to the blades that skewered her frame before collapsing on the ground. Itemi stood back up, scratching the back of his head and his neck as his impressive skydiving trick did not leave him completely unscathed. The man removed a bottle of pills from his back pocket before swallowing them down his dried out throat through vocal and rather gruesome-sounding struggle.

"I knew I'd lure you out here by taking this shape. You've covered your tracks quite nicely, not even Shukuba Security knows what you're up to, they are considering you rogue." The voice of a young girl echoed eerily through the officer's ears, the echo of her voice sounded so dreamy and mind-shattering that the man had to take a couple of stumbling steps back to preserve his balance. Helping him to deal with the mental pressure of genjutsu, Mana dispelled the illusion, letting the body of the westerner woman that Itemi had just gunned down fade like a mirage from his view as the image of Mana appeared into his view in a similar manner. A combination of the Transformation Jutsu and her own Fancy Trick genjutsu technique working in a combination helped Mana feel a bit easier about once again using a jutsu of a foreign invention.

"I'd figured it was too easy..." Itemi grumbled before pulling out his handheld kunai dispenser and firing a bunch of blades at Mana's direction.

The magician effortlessly grabbed the first blade that was approaching her out of the air, disrupting its trajectory and using it to deflect the rest, protecting herself against the entire series of high-velocity kunai projectiles fired her way. She did not expect such a violent reaction from the man, then again, he was going on a rogue rampage across the town and he did warn her multiple times to get out of his way. More so, he must have realized that such an attack would not harm Mana too much even if the magician let it all connect.

"For a man who is not a ninja or can mold his chakra, your speed is quite impressive. I'd say you are well in-tune with the physical aspect of your chakra." Mana smiled as she let go of the heated kunai she still held in her grasp once the man had emptied his dispenser in her direction.

"I told the kid to get out of my way. She may have been a monster in all ways but the ones that actually mattered but she was no master detective. There was a thought in my mind to just direct her at my enemies and watch them burn but... This was something I had to do by myself. As a depressed ex-alcoholic, disillusioned with the world, I needed it to stop the dreams and the constant voices. Which ones were mine, which ones were those I attributed to the people I've killed? I could no longer tell... I needed sleep, so did she but... Pills and smokes were all the joy that was left."