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

The Will of Stone

"You've given Hanshin the opening to really get going, stay out of Hanshin's way now." The special jounin grinned while addressing Kiyomi. Obviously, he would not extend the same level of courtesy toward the other Iwagakure ninja. Although it was hard to say what exactly was their most heinous crime: the fact they injured Meiko severely or just that they were in Hanshin's way.

"Black Vicious: Spirit Frequency!" Hanshin extended his palm forward. The hands covering Black Vicious tore the feminine shape of the armor apart once more, scattering the shatters all across the frozen desert of the inner Eternal Flame arena. Just like that, it appeared as if Black Vicious was never there, to begin with, however, upon further, more acute inspection one would have noticed outlines of varied colors of the specter where the general shape of Black Vicious used to be.

"Amazing, the permafrost that this misbegotten nincompoop has produced is entirely unaffected by the incalescence of this fortification." The pickaxe-user took a fumbling pair of steps back, granting his fearsome enemy some respectful distance.

"What idiot..." the third Iwagakure ninja with the ability to use Earth Release elemental ninjutsu remarked. "He removed his only protection, the time to strike is no..."

Before the ninja could finish his sentence, however, his body froze in shock of pain, twisted and cramped in every joint. Most of his muscles tensed up and his face twisted in agony. A careful inspection would have revealed the abdomen of the Iwagakure spy being bent up as if something sizeable had dug into it.

"W-What was that?" the hurt Iwagakure ninja kneeled while wiping the blood and slobber rushing from inside his body and attempting an escape through his mouth. The man's vision doubled and tripled once in a while, a testament to the great amount of damage that he had taken.

"Combat is a game of power. The strength of your chakra, of your physical chakra or spiritual chakra. Hanshin has grown sick of these rules. Hanshin has ascended his Black Vicious to a whole other realm – the realm of mysticism and spirits. Attempting to fight off Black Vicious while it is operating in Spirit Frequency is the same as attempting to combat your inevitable impending death. No amount of chakra will protect your heart from stopping, from natural death." Hanshin turned his body a full 180 before striking a cocky pose, placing his hand with fingers spread out gracefully so that only his eyes would gleam through his moderately long hair and posed finger.

"You're speaking of the afterlife, aren't you? You theological imbecile, there is no such thing!" the pickaxe-wielding Iwagakure ninja flipped out and charged straight at Hanshin. Kiyomi had every chance to butt in and stop the man with a kick to his completely open face but her body stood still. Half of her did not burn with particular passion to aid the man that has neglected to help Meiko despite being so near her when she was hurt, another half was outright curious to see what would happen next.

The large man from Iwagakure grunted in pain, his face leaned back as if he had just hit an impenetrable, invisible barrier but only on the upper side, his lower body still moved out of instinct causing this uncomfortable looking bend of his back. This harrowing position could only be sustained for so long, so the man collapsed in a handful of moments, emitting a pitiful sound that reminded a squeak of a dying rat more than a sound of pain a human would have made.

"What you don't know can still hurt you, it seems... Why would things you don't believe in be any different?" Hanshin taunted his downed opponent. The Iwagakure miner redneck sat up and screamed out in pain as if something had hit his abdomen with enough sheer force to bend both sides of his body. The miner squirmed in pain, showing off his chipped and less than well-looked-after teeth before collapsing in apparent complete lifelessness.

Something about Hanshin's technique still baffled Kiyomi. She was no sensor but she felt absolutely nothing coming off of these hits. It was like the special jounin was attacking his enemies on an entirely different plane, just like he claimed to be. If his attack would have merely been stronger than any defense his enemies could have mustered – the force of such an impact would have raised some noise. Now, the entirety of the force of impact was absent, like a complete enigma, one that may just have existed on the same realm as a man's spirit or the afterlife – the spiritual realm.