Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Crossroad Between Order and Chaos

It's strange how deep and long the sleep of cold autumnal nights was. It's like the body was getting ready for some sort of human hibernation, the exhausted body and the somniferous cold nights made a very freezing and almost dreamy combination. Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was the fact that everyone had their troubles to wake up to, oftentimes those troubles got edgy during the autumn period as one had to both work and prepare for the winter. This may have been a very primal reflex of postponing stress of preparation and casual trouble but it seemed to be passed down the generational line quite efficiently...

It took Mana good two or three "love taps" from Kiyomi to wake her up. The magician softly rose from the fur, rubbed the aching skin as the fur etched into her face. She made the right call to sleep with her clothes as her entire body would've felt itchy and had those weird sleep marks of hair rubbing at her body. Ignoring the stench that once again smashed itself mercilessly at her nostrils, Mana also desperately tried to get her wild hair in order but, unfortunately, the bed hair was strong on her. Kiyomi giggled looking at the magician.

"God you're so cute like that, I'd nom you like a pickle..." the blonde remarked but then her lovely smile quickly changed back into disgust as the Yamanaka peeked from the tent to see Hisako by the fire.

After Mana left she just barely restrained her surprise. Hisako looked amazing, someone did her hair and she wore a majestic, almost regal-looking, fur coat. It appeared to be made from the skin of some rare and once very beautiful marten, sable perhaps. Also when Hisako turned back Mana noticed her wearing a silver hairpiece. Were her stories that great that the assassin earned some additional bonus points with the mercenaries?

"Well, Hachi liked Hisako to begin with, I suppose she just got to know him better, I wish she let us in and opened up a bit as she did with..."

Kiyomi's grunt interrupted Mana's thoughts. For a moment the girl wondered if the Yamanaka was able to hear everything but then the blonde transmitted something back at Mana.

"I've had it with this bitch, let's get our merc and leave already, they'll deliver Hisako to the village or keep her for themselves, I don't care..." Mana still hadn't gotten used to the mental link. Thoughts just materializing in her head with her partner's voice sounded just too weird. It was like the blonde was some sort of an alien or something and communicated through telepathy. Just like in all those weird plays that spoke of the Moon People...

"Why would the mercenaries keep Hisako-san to themselves?" Mana thought back to her teammate curiously.

"Oh, for God's sake, Mana, Hisako paid for the mercenaries, the food, the tents and all that with... Ugh, you laughed at a dirty joke before, come on!" Kiyomi blasted a powerful sensation into Mana's mind. The magician tapped and rubbed her head as the thought was really powerful and caused some headache, even by shouting through telepathy Kiyomi was able to cause headaches, just how powerful her clan hidden techniques were it was scary to imagine!

Mana couldn't believe for a moment but then it all made sense. Why Hisako whited out before committing to it, why Kiyomi was so disgusted, why Hachi was so happy and content and why Hisako got all that special treatment like she's the queen of the mercenaries now... The magician walked up to the woman and gently tapped her shoulder.

"I'd stab that hand but I'd stab so deep that I'd plunge it into my own shoulder too, what do you want, idol-bitch!?" Hisako yelled back at Mana to which the mercenaries just laughed like they were a bunch of monkeys.

"How did it happen?" Mana let out a very serious and concentrated question, her tone implied that she was about to do either something very stupid or just let it go, depending on the answer.