Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Discipline

Mana tapped her sandal against the other one, just hard enough to hear a light rub but not enough to disturb the proceedings of the disciplinary hearing. A rugged man with a pale kimono, shoulders decorated with intricate and hefty pads spoke before the gathering of the four Regimental Commanders and the Supreme Leader herself.

Stein sat on his own chair with a stone face, his eyes just barely flared with spite when Mana walked into the room before the hearing started. The magician wasn't sure if she should have been proud of the importance that hating her had in Stein's life or if she should have rolled her eyes of how obsessed this group was with messing with her one way or another. She could have gone either way.

"Shinzo-san, what are your impressions of this young man?" one of the Regimental Commanders, a man in a clunky piece of the armor of a bloated body that could have fit a small group of people inside of it inquired with his voice passing through numerous obstacles in its path before wheezing out through one of the openings in the rubbery fabric covering the bulky pieces.

This entire affair hardly smelled of being an official tribunal session or something like what Mana had experience with since her own hearing back home. There were no introductions to the people involved and none of them gave any official testimony. Those of the important figures of the Allied Ninja just invited whoever they wanted out of the circle of invited individuals, asked the questions they had before letting them go.

Mana had hoped to see some of the tutors that she'd be working with, maybe getting to know them and their subjects better a little bit at the same time as she fulfilled her promise made to Sekita and Regimental Commander Harcel but this wasn't the case. She got to see some of the mentors she'd be looking up to in a few months' time for certain but just seeing them and hearing them speak of matters she was hardly familiar with was not the type of knowledge that Mana hoped to get out of this.

"I'm afraid I cannot say for certain. I do not know this young man," Shinzo stated with a stoic face of closed eyes and tightly pressed lips. The man's face beaconed traditionalist ways and bushido-type honor but his words appeared to cause confusion between the committee.

"What the fuck, dude? You're teaching the military course. Are you saying this guy hasn't shown up in a single one of your lectures?" the Supreme Leader growled as she removed her leathery hat and ran her white gloves through her hair before putting the hat back in place after the top of the woman's hair was ironed straight.

"That is not what I meant," Shinzo shook his head. "I meant that this young man has performed what I asked of him adequately, he did not excel nor did he drag behind the group, but beyond doing what is expected of him he did not open up at all. He does not speak, does not ask questions, or voice his thoughts."

"Is this because of some condition that the recruit suffers from?" another Regimental Commander, a woman of unimpressive size and build and facial scars ravaging her face and complementing her strict look wondered as he bent her head to the right ever so slightly, making her dark, short hair bend alongside it, just barely reaching her shoulders where a pair of scrolls hung awkwardly in the woman's seated position.

"I do not know. I respect a man's decision to stay silent. I do concur that the young man has the potential to make a decent Allied Ninja for he has never struggled with a task I put before him though he is no prodigy or talent we cannot afford to lose." Shinzo answered the question armoring himself up with patience. "It is up to you to decide if his breach of the rules is something you wish to send him back to Iwagakure for. As someone burdened by the knowledge of my subject, I can assure you that he would not thrive in the current situation of his home country. I simply do not think that the Kumogakure occupants would see much value in a voluntary mute unwilling to lick their boots and denounce his old allegiances."