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

Purgatory or Hell / Ad Lupi / Feet Meet Bottom

Overcoat hissed at Mana when she did the thing that she was not supposed to do until at least a handful more witnesses were questioned and the carefully engineered game led up to cornering Mana's contrived position into frames of guilt.

"I thought I did not care but... I can't just sit here and listen about everyone and every time I've failed someone. If I am to stay afloat, I need to keep moving and face new responsibilities as they come. Staying and staring at the depths of the ocean of tears I'm swimming it will only make me go under and never surface." Mana replied before the Ninja Tribunal demanded her full attention.

"Could you please repeat that and make yourself clear, accused? We were under the impression that you did not agree with the accusations and that our data was circumstantial and shaky at best?" Judge Laorth raised his eyebrow. Some of the judges looked relieved to have their works cut out for them, Laorth himself appeared to be walling off his ecstasy from having someone to point a finger at for Ayushi's misfortune but, ironically enough, those that Overcoat's organization had bought were those showing the most bitterness.

"Honored Tribunal, I thought I could just sit here and have my Voice lie through this. I thought it would be easy to just tie my hands up over my chest and smile through the struggle of the Tribunal to make something that sticks beyond a reasonable doubt in a space of unknowns and question marks. I may have overestimated my shrewdness because I can do neither of these things. I did it, I hurt Guru Ayushi." Mana repeated, solidifying her new position. Overcoat did not look pleased but he behaved and expressed himself better than Mana would have taken it.

"Well..." judge Sheniyur sighed, Mana was a tad alleviated to find out that the organization's lapdogs were not about to erupt and have their wrath crack down on her and her family. After all, Mana was still honoring their deal and very much intended on keeping her word to the final letter, it was just that she was a bit rushing through it. "In that case, to settle all questions there is only one more witness to question. Accused, would you please make your way to the stand?"

With a sense of wild nausea in her gut, Mana stood up, it felt like the tiniest breeze in the hall penetrated her whole, as if her skin was made of linen cloth. She probably looked about as pale as a linen shirt as well.

"You are the accused in this procession, therefore you do not have the obligation to tell the Tribunal the truth as your rights to defend against accusations comes first." The secretary explained, wasting no time after Mana had made her way to the stands.

"However... For the sake of clarity... If you will..." judge Kikuzen pleaded with the magician, possibly relaying the change of plans given the current predicament. The judges bought by the organization that employed Overcoat adapted but demanded that Mana stuck to her intentions of telling the truth now. The made-up truth but truth in the context of this procession.

"Of course." Mana nodded. "The truth is that I beat Guru Ayushi. I did it out of revenge and blind rage. It was childish, irresponsible and... I deserve whatever is to come. I welcome it even... Maybe it will make whatever time I've got left as a ninja more tolerable, maybe it will make me sleep better in the case of forced retirement. All that's certain is that I will have to live and deal with the fruit of my vengeance for what still remains."

"Your Voice raised some fine points that shook the validity of the accusation, could you perhaps address those arguments yourself just for the sake of solidifying the Tribunal's judgment?" the secretary wondered. "At the same time, please explain why and how you've managed to do the deed."

"Understood." Mana nodded. She sighed from the depths of her heart and looked down, then, lifted her eyes up and looked at as many of the eyes in the spectator seats as she could reach. Bewildered, frightened eyes, eyes of people that have just seen their hero exposed and would rip her to shreds themselves once they recovered from the shock. The jounin protecting the order in the Tribunal session tightened their stances in anticipation of the following outrage, Mana may have wanted to speak faster and explain herself before all hell broke out.