Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

Minor Intrusions and Grievances

"It is a common misconception that one does not need to know geography, after all, why bother? Can't children name every Great Ninja Country? I'm sure that if you asked a civilian brat kicking a ball of rags they would only hesitate for a second before shooting it like a bag of peas at you," tutor Karlee, a familiar face to Mana from her unfortunate clash with Sekita, began elaborating in front of a map large enough to fit all sixty-four of the settlements in the edge between the woods of the Fire Country and the deserts of the Wind Country alone.

Tutor Karlee was a unique teacher since she managed to maintain a grasp over an audience and not necessarily because of the fact that she managed to pour the subject she was teaching in an attractive manner nor was it because of the remarkable devotion to learning it from the side of the recruits. To be truthful, Mana couldn't really pinpoint a single reason. She suspected that the youthful and exotic appearance of the tanned-skinned woman, her rich make-up, and lacking in substance clothing had something to do with attracting a part of the audience.

Even if titillation played no part in the natural draw of the woman toward what she spoke of, she just looked weird enough with her giant stone headdress and almost antique accessories and decorations to attract attention even if she was talking about geography and tried hammering down the fundamentals of rivers, lakes, and settlements present around the world in the three months that the recruits had to learn it all before her subject intertwined with that of tutor Takuro in a more detailed geopolitics course.

"M-Mana..." a muzzled whisper came from Damisan's side. Mana turned to her side, curious as to what it might have been to prompt Damisan to call out to her during a tense moment of the lecture. "C-Could you maybe... Take notes for me?"

Mana blinked a couple of times before the full-picture took hold of her mind and she realized that Damisan had no arms and only stood on one prosthetic leg at the moment after detonating three of his vital prosthetics in the clash against Shogito's gang during the war games. She wasn't sure how long it would take for him to put a set of new ones together.

"Ummm... Sure, sorry, I just sort of assumed that you'd have a new set of prosthetics by the time I got out of the ward," Mana blushed in embarrassment as she reached out over Endo's hawkish stare and slipped Damisan's notes closer to her so that she could record it in his notebook and then copy it at her leisure afterward. She did, after all, possess the luxury of both arms.

"No biggie. I guess it's hard to tell if I've got my prosthetics fixed or not when I'm always cloaked all over, huh? Thanks a bunch!" Damisan nodded with what Mana felt like was a rich smile underneath the holed tin bucket that he wore for a masking accessory to hide his face. For someone who lacked the limbs to do much of anything and was severely disfigured, Damisan sounded like someone who was just lent some pocket change to buy some dango from the vendor down the street as a treat.

*****

"Yo, Skaven! How about joining our gang?" Shige-H extended yet another invitation after the class was over, scouting out the loner from a massive group of recruits.

"Oh, wow... You know what, I think my answer hasn't changed since yesterday and the last fifteen thousand times you asked," Skaven raised his fist up in dismissal without interacting much with the troublesome gang or even looking at any one of its members once. Mana had to hand it to Shige-H, the woman could track that young man from a crowd with incredible precision and perception.

"Hey, Mana," Endo moved up to Mana to where they could almost touch their shoulders which only failed to make the magician nauseous because she needed some time for the belching instinct to build up though the stimulus had been more than fueled with this gesture. "The freak asked you to write for him for almost two hours straight and you did it. Why?"