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

The Raid

"So what now? Isn't this kind of a dead end?" Thumb wondered. She was fostering some sort of passionate emotions deep inside and appeared to be itching to get her hands on Raitoncide. "Did he at least tell you anything before you let your fists fly?"

"I rarely, if ever throw fists. My hands are important in my other job." Mana pouted her lips having found an opportune moment to tease her companion before looking back at Thumb with a grin. "He did tell me everything we need to know though. I know where Yokotomo-san is holed up in and I am heading to end this right now."

"We can't really put anything resembling an operation in such a short time." Shira objected. He observed his colleagues placing the injured and tied up Ring into the carriage and rolling away.

"There is no need. Process and keep Raitoncide and Index detained. Let them go through the system, I'll be sending them company soon." Mana objected. She had no time to wait or for complex operations to be put together.

"With all due respect, you're repeating your mistakes, ma'am." Shira tried to oppose. "You may need us there. Middle Ring is likely to have all of his remaining men protecting him."

"That would be very convenient. All of the remaining Diamond Hand in one place..." Mana smiled before clutching her bruised ribs and dashing onto a roof of a nearby warehouse with a single leap. She was nowhere near her maximum and the encounter last evening certainly had sapped plenty of chakra all by itself, regardless, she had to have had enough to deal with a bunch of lowlife thugs.

Mana sensed a spike in a nearby chakra signature, Thumb dashed to her side.

"I'm not your ordinary Security officer. Let me assist." The burglar grinned.

"That would be preferable to nothing at all..." Shira relented at last.

With the Shukuba Security's approval, Mana and Thumb disappeared in a swift dash towards the mansion where Ring Ring said Middle Ring would be. Even if her wounds sustained in the lost battle against Index and Ring Ring still prevented Mana to travel the fastest she could or even let her move at all without any sharp backlash from her body, as aggravated by Mana's low remaining chakra, she had the willpower to go on.

*****

"Do you think Raitoncide told you the truth?" Thumb wondered as she stayed by the magician's side, managing to keep up with Mana's building-to-building dashing she had not used in a while. Such speed of movement was sure to consume even more chakra but Mana was very careful not to augment her body in any way, just emit weak pulses of chakra from her feet with each landing that would throw her body onward.

"He had no reason not to. Judging from what I've gathered of Donyoku-san, it fits his profile too. The Middle Ring is someone of sophisticated artistic tastes. He spent his entire life dealing and studying art, scamming the town with lost and found treasure and buying useless property he soon turned into historic sites after treasure was found there. That was before he acquired a specific taste for high-rolling as a criminal." Mana voiced her own thoughts on what Raitoncide had told her and why she took his word seriously.

"That's odd... You usually refer to people with more respect than they're worth, you don't seem to refer to the Rings that way though, not always..." Thumb noted.

"It does not feel right adding honorifics to made-up names. But sometimes I think these might be the only names of the Rings I will ever get. That is why I feel glad I found out Donyoku-san's name. I know exactly how to refer to him..." Mana smiled through discomfort in her injuries and slight fatigue. Letting her remaining chakra approach such drastic lows as she did last evening made Mana's sleepless nights and streaks of hunger and thirst slowly catch up to her and remind her of just how fragilely human she was.