Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

The Shadow Connection

The mercenary Geppo widened the spread of his legs, lowering his point of balance in the process as his arms adopted a position of a wide guard. Air howled as it flowed inside the multiple open tubes and stressed the rubbery artificial veins of storing and circulating it inside of the complex gear the mercenary wore. Because of the ever-amassing influx of air, wherever the suit found its pathway to bloat and expand–it took it.

Zokaka, the towering, quadruped elephant raised its trunk up and honked. Because of its size and thickness, the ninja animal was far less affected by the previous shock that had reduced the rest of the Stars to their knees. In such a way, the ninja elephant sent a straight aerial ripple to Geppo. The cocky mercenary thought so much of his newly obtained abilities that he made a mistake of just running out in front of a group of enemies and beginning to channel his technique.

The transparent sonic howl shot out from Zokaka's trunk slammed right into Geppo's chest, making the shocked mercenary wheeze. As the quick yet robust sound wave continued to drill against the mercenary's body, it shoved all the pent-up sonic waves from the ventilation openings in his gear like pressing a tube of toothpaste. Geppo had turned around vertically a handful of times, clockwise, on his path down and on his back. Little Tomi clapped with Zokaka's trunk after standing up and pulled out a pair of boomerangs from a pouch of cloth on her waist.

"Nice work, Zokaka," she commended the colossal ninja animal.

"I don't understand..." Geppo wheezed, still rubbing his chest and feeling up his busted up ribs.

"You dumbass, just 'cause the assassin gave us his good shit, that doesn't make you a peerless warrior. You still need to know how and when to use it," Raitoncide shook his head in disappointment with his partner. "Stop messing around, the elephant just sent you a little nudge to interrupt your attack, it couldn't have been anything strong. Pick yourself up and let's finish those kids off."

"I see..." Skaven muttered.

"What's that? You know something about this "assassin" that they spoke of?" Shige-H wondered.

"No. I was wondering why Geppo would gain this much confidence. Usually, he was the type to bully ordinary civilians around, but when he met his match, he started to get salty and demand help, even in fights he could perfectly win by himself. These two were given something by a third party–likely they are the ringleader but what could they have offered these two to make Geppo betray Ijiki?" Skaven scratched his chin, still trying to figure out the bigger picture before allowing himself to become absorbed in this battle.

"Who cares!?" Endo growled. "These two are just criminal scum, they need little incentive to betray and stab their own brothers in the back!"

The fearsome samurai apprentice twirled his sword behind him, charging head-first into battle. Raitoncide clapped his hands together, preparing a repeat of Endo's first failed attempt to attack the rogue ninja up close. But this time things went different. The apprentice samurai disappeared, taking a steep plunge upward and to the leafage. Upon his disappearance, the image of Damisan standing behind his fellow Stars member became clear. The prosthetics-user had his artificial arms crossed up as a faint glow of blue illuminated steel wire he used to manipulate the body of his ally.

Raitoncide's technique lashed and hissed before running out of range and becoming harmless while the opening persisted. Damisan spread out his prosthetic hands and then swung them in a single direction, like a gift of a constipated pigeon Endo swooped down with a ruthless slash of his sword, trusting the timing of his unattractive teammate. Raitoncide coughed blood out as he staggered back with unbelieving eyes. The part of his black jumpsuit underneath the wide laceration peeled off under the demand of gravity, prompting the rogue ninja to tear the other half off as well, though that was hardly his most pressing concern.