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

Law and Disorder

"It's all been prepared. We're good to go." Shira reported by standing tall right past the doorframe to Mana's office. The magician nodded and jumped off her chair. After a quick check of her tools and weapons, she headed out.

Just like it was planned, there would be multiple carriages taking Muriya and his family as well as Thumb to the Tribunal building. Mana would travel with Thumb if only to keep the normally overly nervous woman a bit more talkative meanwhile Shira and Sora would be watching Muriya's carriage while Toiya and some of Shira's hired hands would be watching Muriya's family.

There were also multiple duds into the mix containing nothing but a handful of Security officers. Initially, Mana felt a bit nervous trusting one of the more sensitive targets – Muriya's family to a bunch of people she barely knew. After sensing their chakra and realizing that most of them were extensively physically trained individuals on the same level if not surpassing Shira and the other recruits she herself took in, the magician's heart calmed down a little.

"You ready?" Thumb grinned after Mana sat into the carriage even though it was painfully clear she was nervous behind that smile.

"We will soon find out." The magician replied.

Even if on paper it all seemed just great, get the procession on and going and then take Muriya and his family as far away from Shukuba as possible, if they get lucky, also subdue Index, Mana was still on the most edge she's been in a while. Everything was supposed to be planned erratically and spontaneously but solid enough, her sensory would let her see any incoming threats coming from a mile away but... Something still did not feel right.

"You don't look too well, slept alright?" Thumb addressed Mana, trying to bring up some small talk as the Shukuba sights shifted away through the windows beside them.

"I barely had any sleep. Too nervous I guess... Too many lives depend on this, too soon after I failed so miserably." The magician admitted.

"Isn't that half of the reason why you failed to begin with?" the burglar wondered.

"It cannot be helped. It's a circle of nightmares that come one after another. You know that you need to rest and that anxiety of knowing you cannot get any rest when you should only adds to the reasons why you cannot get any rest." Mana admitted with a slight smile. Sometimes when she was feeling underprepared, when the odds could not have weighed any more against her, a smile that defied all the odds came the easiest. It was like a bangle to emphasize and decorate the hopelessness in front of you.

Mana was impressed by how quickly Shira and the other officers put the procession together. She had not met any councilmen who partook in Tribunal sessions before but she did not expect them to be too happy about this and it could not have been an easy conversation to initiate. Judging by the looks of the people bustling around the Tribunal palace, the Security lightly underestimated and looked down on by the other law enforcement staff.

The looks following Mana, Thumb and the other processions of the officers were similar to those that inexperienced genin gave to teammates who were different. Be it genin that focused on power-based attacks looking down on their more supportive and intelligence-driven comrades or the other way around. It was only through long and oftentimes bloody experience that this attitude was beaten out of them. When those underestimating people finally understood that only through the cooperation of different kinds of people can anything get done right.

"Can you feel her?" Thumb turned at Mana as these sentimental thoughts and underestimating glares missed the burglar woman completely.

"No. It troubles me a little. I thought she would not miss an opportunity to kill her intended and hated targets all at once." Mana shook her head with unease. The longer she could pick up no traces of Index or any suspicious signatures in general, the more her anxiety snowballed.