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

Death and Rebirth / No Soul Left / Reality no Nightmare Compares to

"I did not originally intend on causing you this much pain, Mana-san, but your resistance has forced my hand. I will now come at you with my full intent on taking you down and I apologize for the consequences up front." Ayushi declared. His face turned grim and serious as if to emphasize the weight of his declaration.

The Guru stretched his body out, flexing out his tattooed body and gaining a decent amount of bulk in the process while he strained his bodily systems to work with much vaster amounts of chakra than he usually needed to. The man placed his hands in a position one would have taken before a prayer. While streams of chakra drove out through Ayushi's pores and rotated into solid spheres just outside the man's body, floating like miniature satellites, positioned from the left shoulder to the right.

"Rasengan Riot!" Ayushi growled through his teeth while the spheres obtained an azure, polished glow and stabilized in size.

The Guru wasted no time employing his new technique, within an instant after its completion, one of the spiraling spheres drove off into the ground behind and underneath Ayushi's feet. The resulting blast sent the legendary medical ninja shooting forward. While Mana had no chance tracking the not just superhuman but super-shinobi speed of Ayushi, she could have identified the telltale signs of a devastating kick before Ayushi's forms blurred.

Mana's hands moved fast enough for her to be proud of her, she no longer had the comfort of relying on gadgets to pull out different cards and decks and she had no more luxury of precision switching but one functionality must have remained the same – violent release. Using the tossing motion with her right and whatever remained of the damaged gadget in her tattered sleeve with her left, the magician sent entire decks of random cards floating and scattering at Ayushi just when the monk signed the resolution of charging at the kunoichi but before he truly executed his movement.

"Mere child, playing with toys!" Ayushi taunted Mana as he powered through the Lightning Release crackles, the sleeping gas, the tear gas, the blinding flashes of light, fire and water alike. Ayushi's devastating kick persevered but Mana's obstacle had served its purpose. It distracted the Guru so that he did not notice his opponent leaving his sight.

It was dangerous approaching the man with eight of these Rasengan still floating around him. Mana had no doubts that he had utter control of when and how they left his "orbit", so to speak, if she tried coming at him from the back, he'd just send one after her and it would be troublesome. More likely than not, the jutsu was mighty but not immediately lethal. If Ayushi truly intended to wear on Mana's willpower, he'd bust her ribcage, break her limbs but keep her alive, so that the Merchant did not heal her and reset his progress.

For the mental trauma to be at its maximum efficiency, one needed to keep their opponent suffering for as long as possible. This was perhaps the most violent and twisted competition for world peace in existence, all of the irony acknowledged.

Mana had no precision in her cards anymore, with the sleeves of her uniform busted and the gadgets bent out of shape, releasing all of her decks was a good choice but now she was missing a useful asset in her arsenal. Somehow, she would have to keep moving forward and improvise. These Rasengan...

Mana's hands worked at hand seals, she could feel the fatigue building up, the searing sensation in her wrists that suggested that it may have been a good idea to stop relying on precise arm movements for a short while. That would have been the sound decision but no one has ever accused Mana of being that.

"Naïve!" another Rasengan slammed against the ground, sending Ayushi flying the opposite direction. What first seemed like an opening turned into doors slammed into Mana's face within an instant. Before the magician could complete the final hand seal, Ayushi slammed his body into the magician with a shoulder slam and grabbed her arm, using Mana's faltered balance, the Guru swung the magician over his shoulder, instead of driving her into the ground, however, he kicked her at the center of the exposed back, sending Mana flying.