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

Public Relations

Before Mana had even left to confront the small crowd of people she could feel a slight disruption in the rhythm in which the chakra signatures outside used to move. Given how minuscule the signatures were and how used she got to feeling various numbers of them just bustling about outside the Security building, Mana had reconciled with the fact that she completely missed the crowd, given how she was looking for a signature which was an entire planet, compared to the ants of these civilians. One often missed an unnatural behavior of ants when looking at the stars...

The magician left through the door, but not before giving her team of rookies a confirming glare back. Seeing the four take up on the given assignments, as lowly as they were. These guys were good people: Sora was a bit of the handsome douchebag type, Shira had seen plenty of pain in his life and held his feelings and thoughts inside too much, Burgoniya had a nasty and rebellious temper and Toiya would have betrayed the squad if that meant protecting her newly built family due to her conflict of interest but... None of them deserved what the Diamond Hand were willing to dish out to their enemies.

"You know, The Middle Finger will keep on stacking troubles on top if you don't keep moving and just stand around." Thumb objected with a whiny voice. Mana dismissed her with a gesture before walking out the door.

"So the Middle Finger is the one in charge then? Is Yokotomo Donyoku the Middle Finger?" Mana wondered.

"I feel like you know full well I can't answer that question but you asked it regardless..." the burglar objected.

"I figured maybe as long as you didn't say any names, you could answer yes and no questions. The seal on your tongue looks different to the silence seals villages use. I've seen some pictures in history books, your hieroglyph is different and the seal is weaker. It probably has some loopholes we don't know about." Mana shrugged.

"And you're just willing to risk my life to find out those loopholes? You're so cruel..." Thumb teased Mana with her playfully sarcastic whining.

The crowd outside was not even what could have been qualified as a public outrage. There were a good thirty people standing around the Security HQ, just talking and occasionally yelling out something of the demanding nature at the closed Security door. The crowd got collectively shocked when Mana and Thumb opened the door to greet them as they must not have expected any attention from the officials at all at this rate.

"My name is Nakotsumi Mana, I came out here to answer all your questions and, hopefully, ease your minds somewhat." Mana bowed to the people politely, standing on top of the staircase that lead into the Security offices. It was a good thing that she was used to performing in front of crowds hundreds of times larger than this, she may just need to lie, as bad as she was at that and as much as Mana hated that option, for the sake of maintaining the public order.

"How come we can't see the Security?"

"I heard that the Governor has run away, is that true?"

"Is our town shut down? Are we just fishes in a barrel? What if mercenaries and criminals invade us, do we have any defenses working?"

These and countless more questions flew from every corner. It was once she heard the thirty people fling well over a hundred questions in her general direction that Mana understood just what she has signed up for. Frankly, in that moment, as much as Mana loved standing in front of people and easing their worries, she'd have preferred having given this assignment to someone better spoken and wittier, like Sora, and taking up the task entrusted to him for herself.

"Yeah, okay, I guess this is not happening, how about I just tell you everything I know, while I have your most pressing concerns in mind?" Mana shouted out with a slightly raised voice to silence the crowd somewhat as sixty curious eyes penetrated her with glares willing to dissect everything she said, just waiting for her to trip up. It was not that much different than the first few times Mana performed on stage. When new performers started out it was quite common for the villagers to dissect their performances and judge the value of the money they paid for seeing them with completely different sets of eyes compared to old and established wolves of the stage.