Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

The Bullies and the Bullied

Mana's floating body lowered and her buttocks gently touched the ground. Her eyes filled with light once the magician opened them and directed them right at the manager of the indoor gym who was approaching her. The short, middle-aged man looked around the burnt streaks and bent-up wooden boards with irritation in his face. He didn't like any of it but not to the extent where he'd forbid Mana from meditating in the gym.

"That's some mighty freaky shit you're doing with all that floating and lightning shooting out of you," the man noted, leaving it up to an obvious hint that he was not a fan.

"Sorry, chakra manifests itself during meditation. It frees my spirit and mind and builds both of them up at the same time. I actively suppress the Fire Release from manifesting," Mana nodded in acknowledgment of the fact that her meditation sessions have been growing a tad unruly, its devastation growing alongside her strength and skill.

"Well, at least I didn't have to wake you up from it, that's still a win, I guess..." the man scratched the right side of his neck and sighed. "The guys usually use this place for games and some friendly wrestling, this is the first time someone uses it to form whirlwinds and jolt with lightning inside, that's all..."

"Oh, don't worry, once entranced, I'm hyper-aware of everyone's presence. More so than I'd be with thoughts cluttering my mind normally. You'll never have to worry about slapping me awake," Mana assured the man as she gathered the few things she brought to the gym and headed for the door.

"You know, you've been hanging out by yourself this whole week. It just isn't normal, you know. The guys that usually use this gym are training outdoors in the training field, I'm sure they'd love to include another gym-lover to their group..." the manager shrugged. He disappeared inside his little office, appearing a few moments later with a broom in his hands.

"That's fine, I'm sorry I made such a mess. I'm in a hurry to get to the library before the lunch break but I can leave a clone to help you clean the place up," Mana suggested.

"Nah, missy, that's fine. It's kind of my job," the manager sighed. From the looks of it, Mana lost all the good faith she had accumulated with the man just by bringing the singed floorboards up. "You go take care of your books and whatnot..."

"Thank you," Mana thanked the man for letting her use the gym to meditate and bowed.

Maybe she could have been just fine meditating inside her room but to restrain herself to the extent where her chakra barely manifested itself would have greatly hampered her training. She's been doing plenty of meditating in the evenings already and while they haven't said anything yet, Mana had a hunch that her roommates didn't appreciate the glowing outline around her and the hum of rushing chakra when she focused.

The librarian didn't speak to Mana. She didn't say anything specific due to that problem but from what the magician could gather, she recognized Mana and that was exactly why the tall, old woman, who had a turtleneck for every day of the week and a broach with a different gemstone to decorate it alongside it, didn't speak to Mana.

Seeing the grumpy librarian put a stamp on her completed library card and file a new one under Mana's name reminded the young woman of how excited the scissor-wielding lunatic in charge of the Konoha archives was whenever Mana's card was filled up and he needed to start a new one. He had a pretty neat habit of storing filled-up library cards in stacks and show them off to their owners and other passionate readers and Mana's stack was beginning to gain up on the village's leading readers before all the madness went down.

Maybe it was that inhospitable atmosphere or maybe it was something else but Mana couldn't stand reading in the library. It had a reading room larger than Konoha's own rather dark, oppressive and gloomy archive but it was constantly full of people of various ages and stages of progress in their courses which just didn't let the reading absorb Mana within them like it did when she was alone or in the company of the few very apathetic roommates.