Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

An Explosive Encounter

The next morning came so peacefully and almost majestically, after all, there were no loud shouts, no smell of rotten food and sweaty men training overnight just to satisfy their inner desires to survive the next day. Mana's room was positioned, just like those of all champions of the Gauntlet, in a very comfortable position where Sun only barely let its rays gently stroke one's cheeks at only the later parts of the morning. Naturally, Sheikh probably had even more comfortable quarters but these were still much more sophisticated than any in which Mana has had the honor of sleeping in.

By the time Mana woke up, the fourth time that morning, everyone had already been up, eating or training or checking their kits and bags if everything was ready for the trip. It will appear so odd leaving this place... The reason why Mana had woken up multiple times that morning was due to inner pains, that so unfortunately always persisted the next morning after a fight, especially a big one, even more so when one had only their normal human metabolism. Mana tried to stay quiet about those pains, she didn't want to bother Kouta with what appeared to be a minor issue. The young man was already given more work than he signed up for, having to constantly drain his reserves almost completely dry.

"I'm surprised you're so quiet, Mana-chan," Kouta noted looking with a strangely happy expression on her pouty face still hiding under the covers, having just recently noticed that the magician was awake. "After all, after the beating you've taken yesterday the normal human metabolism should've torn you apart, I was plaguing myself with the idea of numbing your body today whole last night".

"I didn't take a beating..." Mana blushed, "That was the whole point of my training".

"Well, what damage you've avoided from your opponents you've dealt to yourself by overdoing it, as usual..." Shimo grunted still maintaining his sword and the hilt. The young Yuki appeared to have a new sheath, probably obtained it during the time that Mana got separated from everyone.

"Anyways, I don't really feel that bad, it's similar to a cramp everywhere at the same time but I can really take it, I've been beaten up worse," Mana replied finally jumping out from the bed in a nightgown she borrowed from Meiko and took her rags to head for the bathroom to change.

"We should get you some new clothes, maybe you should ask those ladies around the Sheikh for some spares?" Shimo tried to joke.

"Huh... I forgot you used to be a child womanizer at some point..." Mana smiled back at his friend. "It's fine, I saw the Sheikh's servants having prepared a full wardrobe for us, I'm sure we can buy some refills in our kits here as well, on my way being arrested I saw some small weapon shops," she added.

"We've already replenished our supplies, that's why we came to Agbarah originally. We didn't know about the whole "woman hate" thing but Meiko's fists soon made everyone reconsider trying to enslave us, we only asked around for you because we did everywhere we went..." Kouta explained showing a cartoonish drawing of Mana they've made on a small piece of paper that had multiple coffee stains on it.

"That's a really lousy drawing..." Mana laughed before disappearing into the small part of the room that was meant to be a bathroom section.

"Well, it's Meiko's, strangely enough, she was the best artist out of all of us, Shimo kept drawing stickmen with smiles and cartoon Sun on the corner that was also smiling, for a gloomy guy, the Sun in his pictures sure smiles a lot..." Kouta began to explain but Mana heard a loud pound to the head interrupt the medical ninja. The clothes that the Sheikh had provided for them were quite fancy and they'd definitely stand out in most places they stopped in so they may need to go shopping once they leave the Land of Wind.

"The hardest part was restraining Meiko from drawing you a mustache, she loves to do that..." Shimo added trying to justify the sudden stop of Kouta's recollection.