Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Rivers of Apathy

"How many days has it been?" Kouta looked at Mana sitting further from the fire with a bowl of mushroom stew still in his hands. All the mushrooms the four had gathered in Takigakure were now compensating for the lack of notable settlements where they could've bought food and supplies in. That being said, if they were attacked by stronger bandits they'd have no tools to fight back with... Meiko's weapons dulled out from the past battles forcing her to have to resolve to fist fighting mostly, everyone's ninja kits had run empty except Mana's who managed to save up her steel tipped cards since discovering the ability to use physical chakra.

"Since Mana hasn't eaten? I dunno... I'm just kinda glad she's not cooking anymore, though." Meiko tried to lighten up the mood but somehow her jokes fell on troubled ears.

"At some point, I will need to force it down her throat. Her survival and well-being are directly dependant on our mission performance." Shimo angrily grunted looking at the fire lit sky. There were no visible stars, only murky dark clouds that could only be seen because of the flaring red fire of theirs.

"You're not the one to talk, you haven't been eating much either lately..." Kouta replied looking at Shimo with a raised eyebrow. "At this point, it's clear that both of you are pissed at each other but also feeling guilty for something. When will it be enough of this self-imposed punishment"?

"You do need some food, you need to be strong enough to fight off someone that decides to go at us. Lately, we've seen plenty of that..." Meiko added on to Kouta's remark. Since Mana was too far away from the fire, sitting alone in the darker corners of the Mountain Graveyard but not far away so that she isn't seen, the two decided to gang up on Shimo and make him eat at least half a decent portion.

"Yeah but I'm a ninja, I can live without food for months, Mana is a civilian, just physical chakra won't sustain a decent ninja metabolism, she needs just as much food as a normal person who walks intensely throughout the entire day does." Shimo fended off both of them coming at him at once. 

The Yuki appeared to have had enough of this bickering, he stood up and took his sword with him moving off further away from the fire to train. It was quite impressive that he could still move just as fast and split the ground beneath his feet open just as strong when he had only eaten a couple of mushrooms a day, just to sustain the illusion that he ate something. Still, that was a luxury compared to Mana. The girl didn't eat and she claimed angrily that she drank water but the trio had some reasons to doubt that. That big fight in Takigakure may have just ruined their team and no one felt sure if it could even be stitched back together.

Kouta looked at Meiko questioningly before taking another look at Mana who was just meditating further away from the fire. It was clear that she didn't wish to talk to them.

"How's your training been lately?" The medical ninja asked.

"I dunno, I didn't ask Mana to resume it, I just... She's just so cold and... I don't want to add up on whatever's going on with her with my shit." Meiko replied cleaning another bowl. Wonder of wonders, despite having extra portions of food left over from Mana and Shimo, Meiko was not content with that. She did finish the food since she wasn't sure how well the stew would've held up if left alone and Kouta's cooking was a bit better than Mana's but... The refusal to talk or eat of those two really troubled her.

"You should..." Kouta looked down at a dusty and cracked skull laying on the ground right beneath their feet by the fire. "She's probably suffering a lot over what happened, she thinks so strangely that I'm not sure if she blames us for what happened or herself. Either way, I'd like to talk to her myself but... Things are more awkward with us now than they have ever been, maybe you should ask Mana to train you and I'll talk to Shimo. Hopefully, we can make those two eat together by the time we reach the Sound Village".