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

Involvement

The limited battlefield patching that the medical ninja did on Mana did wonders, considering the brief time that the man spent on it. Mana was usually not the toughest person in the room but her chakra size was considerable, given her specialized training. Larger chakra meant higher thresholds to which chakra augmentation could have stretched. Still, if her augmentations were ever broken and she was caught unprepared like this again, she could have died instantly.

The very first thing on Mana's mind, after scolding herself for letting Honda escape was done with, was worry over Usuzoku's condition. This way of dealing with Honda's attack was proven by fate to be ultimately the correct one. Had Mana used her illusions to attempt to escape, there was limited space for her to maneuver in so her illusionary distraction body would not have done her much good. Had she tried a protective measure, like mustering up a barrier or using her Magical Bubble technique, it would have burst even quicker than Usuzoku folded to the immense force of the monster.

She should have summoned someone, asked them how Usuzoku was... No. That would use precious chakra as well as make the rabbits involve themselves in the fight with Little Honda. At this point, Mana saw all too clearly that it was too dangerous for anyone else to get involved. The girl's bloodied hand gripped at her aching chest while tears ran down her cheeks. Trembling, the magician removed her hat and tensed up her grazed hand to let some of her wounds bleed a little.

Mana placed her palm into the hat, letting some of her blood cover the sealing glyph. After that point, she removed the hand from the hat and just observed as a slender yet fit shape jumped out in a purple blur. Usubane looked at Mana with scared eyes, they were nothing like the energetic and cheerful orbs that the young rabbit usually looked at the world around her with.

"M-Mana-san..." Usubane cried out.

"How is he? Is he alive?" Mana grumbled. Her voice sounded a little raspy and sleepy, it was the pain and the exhaustion that made her sound that way.

"Yeah. I've never seen anyone kick Usuzoku-san's ass this hard. What did we get into here? What kind of battle did that?" the rabbit wondered looking petrified in fear and the responsibility that now rested on Usubane's shoulders – to assist Mana in dealing with the undertaking she took up.

"He was pushed." Mana sighed.

"Pushed?" Usubane looked up in the sky, her eyes looked almost pleading.

"Look, I just wanted to know if Zoku was alright. I... I should not have summoned him. It was the first thing that came to mind and..." Mana dragged her trembling hands over her messy hair.

"If he was not there, you would have been the one to get pushed!" Usubane snapped back at the magician. "Whatever you got yourself into, I'm gonna kick them and punch them as hard as I can and sort the odds later."

This was what Mana feared of. Without the rabbit's own will, she was unable to force them to go back into the hat and to return to the new Rabbit Caves. Perhaps summoning Usubane was the wrong choice, Mana's mind was too hazy and she did not always have a choice of who it was that she summoned.

The magician and her rabbit made their way into the main and the more populated streets. Almost instantly the sights of everyone around turned to Mana and the rabbit beside her, luckily the signs of battle on the magician sort of freaked the people out and convinced them not to approach her. Mana loved fans of her show and she appreciated common human kindness but right now, she already had way too much on her plate.

"So where is that bastard?" Usubane asked. Her eyes still gaped wide, she was itching to fight but she was nowhere near confident and feared the very same fight she wanted. This certain feeling of being overburdened by the responsibility one took up was not entirely alien to Mana as well, the magician was a little charmed seeing this particular trait in the young rabbit she worked with.