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

Life and Times of Nakotsumi Mana

Shibari's funeral was nothing like the funerals that Mana had attended previously. Mostly because of how personal the entire affair felt. How out of place the magician felt standing in front of the procession on a sunny day, honoring a passed colleague she never really knew that well, just heard about.

Funerals were always painful and not only because of the obvious reasons. Mana could have attended a funeral of someone she knew even less than Shibari and still felt like she had just sold her soul. Burials were always about confronting her own failure to Mana as much as they were about grieving and honoring those that have passed away.

A jounin Mana had never seen before stepped up in front of those that have gathered and began telling stories about how he once dated Shibari but found her odd, goofy outlook on life completely insufferable. It just added to the common theme that the other jounin remembered about the woman – no matter if she was facing adversity or happiness, she always sassed and joked her way through it.

A person like that sounded like someone Mana would have liked to have known better. Even if most of the people who spoke about that trait of the departed as if it was somewhat of a quirk of hers and remembered only when the surfacing of that quirk was the absolute wrong reaction, the woman still sounded like a gift to the village to Mana.

The magician came and gone feeling like a visitor at yet another monument to her failure. Usually, a confrontation with inevitable things changing which laid outside her limits would have only motivated the magician to train, now it sapped whatever motivation or will she still had for the notion.

At least this procession felt somewhat more meaningful and personal than the burials of the other victims of the incident Mana had attended throughout that week. At least Shibari was honored and remembered the way she was instead of people speaking about how terrible the incident that claimed her life was and the eternal matter of politics around it. Blaming one clan or another, others yet blamed the mysterious kidnappers behind the disappearances. There were those that blamed Lord Sixth for failing to solve the mystery too.

The memory of those that have passed managed to dive under all that talk and sink into the abyss forever.

*****

A flock of pigeons burst through the opened doors of a person-sized box where a magician had entered just moments earlier and which was now skewered with blades. Those who felt rather skeptical about the rather generic-looking trick the concept of which Mana had abused by now got a brief glimpse of the magician's skewered body dissolving into pigeons if they looked hard enough.

Good luck explaining that with smoke, mirrors or the box being segmented...

"Nice to see you back onstage." Mr. Hiro congratulated the magician in her little preparation room after the show. "Been a while but three shows in five days... That's quite impressive. I do enjoy the new edge of your shows too..."

"Really? I don't intend on keeping it. I figure people want to see something fuzzy and warmer in these times." Mana sighed. Thinking back, she was not sure how on Earth could showing off glimpses of her deceased body as a part of an illusion ever sounded like a good idea to her.

"Oh well, wherever it takes you. People can use some of your magical escapism either way. As long as you don't forget you're not a stranger in these parts." Mr. Hiro nodded his head with a smile.

"It has been a while, hasn't it?" Mana managed to smile back at the round, little man.

"It seems to have built up some anticipation. People will think you're the class act that I whip out during special occasions. Apart from the fact that I barely have a say in when you perform, they would not be entirely wrong." Mr. Hiro waved his hand, dismissing Mana's worries that she has been out of the magic game for a long time. "That's a pretty fun trick, the pigeons one. And they were all illusionary so I didn't have to work with actual animals. I have no idea what is it with animals and babies but..."