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

All Fall Down

Mana moved around the cracked or totaled buildings with as much grace as someone broken and bruised could have packed. She moved slow, at a slug's pace even but that was only if compared to Mana's standard speed. The magician could feel it, Honda had stopped not too far away in the sewers. He could not have been in an ideal condition himself if he stopped moving so close to the hole he had busted through.

The fact that Honda could have deteriorated in terms of his regenerative condition was a shock to Mana who previously thought to have had the general grasp of Honda's capabilities. At least as much as someone like the genetic monstrosity could have had capabilities that were clearly defined and measurable. Mana's plan was to drive Honda's regenerative factor to a dysfunction, not a halt.

This was the worst idea ever. Mana knew it. Somehow she had managed to drive a monster hunting her in the woods away and instead of taking the second chance at life and fleeing she pursued it. She lacked the drive, the rage in her chest that would have diminished the pulsing pain all over and made Mana into a force of any fighting value. Now she was just moving to her own impending death, like begging the monster to take her life and not run away.

Mana's sandals slammed into the moist and crunchy sewer stone with a loud thud. A shock emanated through the girl's feet, all the way up to her knees making Mana wince just a tiny bit. Her shortage of chakra rendered every attempt at superhuman speed result in aftershocks, Mana was not as used as she thought she was at landing from great heights and actually suffering some consequences for it.

The pale moon moved from the cover of the clouds, providing a singular, focused beam of light that shined through Honda's hole, providing barely existing lighting on the hunched and huffing monster. Mana's feet trembled as the girl took a few steps back and covered her mouth in scare.

Honda's feet were covered with branching out lacerations that all conjoined on his back, right at the center of the spine where his flesh had split. It appeared like yet another featureless shape attempted to break out from under Honda's ribs. It had burrowed all the way through the ribs before tearing the membrane of the monster's flesh with just its bare, life-craving fingers. The featureless growth pulsed intensely as unidentified liquid flowed through it due to the fact it shared the same circulation system with Honda. The growth did not display any conscious behavior, no signs that it was suffering, it just pulsed there, its massive, misshaped head bobbled as if it was gasping for air but had no cavity or breathing system to speak of.

Honda's regeneration factor was in shambles. Mana could not understand what could have escalated such a violent reaction, one moment it had only begun displaying signs of a biological short-fuse, the next it was completely shutting down and breaking the monster's body.

"Come with me, I can help you. I know people that can try to heal you, give you as much of a normal life as it is possible." Mana pleaded with the boy in a monster's body, unaware of just how much of the boy remained in the consciousness but the boy backed up.

"I'm not a monster," Mana tried to force a smile, perhaps mimics could help her where her appearance only terrified the boy. "It's me, magic girl, remember? With the rabbits?"

It would have been naïve to expect that Honda would just stand up and surrender, go with Mana and fully subject himself to a bunch of nightmarish healing sessions, even more surgeries, experiments, and tests. But heroism and miracle both were given birth by a little naivety.

"Magic girl!?" Honda yelled out. Fear was no longer a part of his voice, it faded away as sounds came out of his mouth, in a single sentence the monster went from a terrified little boy to... Well... A monster. Mana did not have the luxury to wait until her head got popped like a grape. She sprung a device on her sleeve with two fingers and yanked on a piece of steel wire, firing a barrage of steel-tipped cards.