Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

The Witch in a Red Dress

Mana expected to see space. She wasn't sure what had happened outside, to her physical body. Somewhere amidst her serene tranquility of meditation, there was a bleed of crimson inside of her mental expanse and it was something outside of Mana's experience. She had been poisoned before and fought it off with meditation, fended of minor sicknesses but nothing quite like this. Cracks and fissures that seemed to shatter her very inner universe began cradling the entire psychic orbit, forcing Mana to choose to stay inside and cradle psyche off, see how she could help herself from inside rather than rush to what might have been her certain death.

At the very core of her immaterial scope, there was no space, no nebulae. Only an orb of lapis lazuli and salad-green. An Earth drowning in serene waters that hosted only one continent and if Mana was certain what it was that continent reminded her of – it was a curious sight to explore. The magician girl tilted her hand and pulled on the mental fabric like she'd have pulled a shroud to unveil what's underneath, pulling herself through the spiritual province. Her feet touched solid, sandy ground.

"Well, this is a surprise..." a voice familiar to Mana's own demanded the magician's attention, prompting her to tilt her arms and not turn by herself but roll the world around her as if she was turning a barrel. Thusly she positioned the inner world of her mind to where the mysterious mental construct now stood before her in full-view.

"What's wrong, has it been that long out there that you can't recognize me anymore?" a woman who was undoubtedly Mana though no mirror image of her as she had seemingly lived an entirely different life to the magician crossed her arms, resting both her elbows in a gentle grip of her hands while her lips made a mocking tilt. Her eyebrows joined in on the proud facial expression, challenging the magician to prove that her mind was made of sharper stuff than to fail to comprehend the inner workings of her own brain.

This Mana was an adult, her hair laid flat and long, reaching the lower sections of her thighs as scarlet strings tied around iron rings comprised her red dress. She donned extravagant make-up of eye-carving colors, shaped in patterns, more like ritualistic face-paint rather than genuine touch-ups meant to improve her appearance and hide the natural imperfections. Her exposed arms displayed an intricate network of abstract tattoos, lines running like threads, weaving, and hiding underneath various symbols and other simplistic artwork.

This construct's existence challenged what Taiga-sensei taught her about the human mind. The only way that a version of oneself could exist inside one's own mental realm would have been if one hosted multiple personalities. When Mana probed the minds of other people – she saw their mental avatars but only because she was a third person roaming their mental forts. If she was to roam her own – she'd have had to only perceive it from the first person.

"Space Baby...?" Mana muttered. Her first instinct was to recall the last time she found herself in a similar predicament – trapped inside of her own mind as her physical body floated slowly onward across the hellish river and toward the doom of a roaring whirlpool of finality.

"Oh, come on!" this new, adult and quite human version of space baby tsked as she wagged her finger in front of Mana's face like a cute warning. "I could forgive you calling me that back then, namely, because I wasn't quite sure what I was, and I certainly looked the part, but if you call me this again, I'll crush you and take over."

"Crush me and... Take over...?" Mana scratched her head, never having imagined that this was an option that was pointed at her and put on the table.

"Oh, don't linger on that!" this alternate construct of Mana waved her hand at it and raised her hands, proudly displaying the version of Konoha that she had created for Mana's mental fort that shined like a brilliant gemstone in all of its glory around them. "Like what I've done with the place while you were busy?"