Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

No Such Thing As Magic

Mana's face was twisted in pain as she and Meiko traversed the streets of Otogakure, running quickly through the streets instead of using the roofs and the wires on the upper levels for transportation as ninja would've normally done. It would've taken Mana a minimal output of physical chakra to be able to traverse like she used to be able to once – like a real ninja but combined with the intolerable pain from her wounds from the torture it would've been an agonizing trip. Even moving as fast as the two did, which was to say at a sluggish pace, Mana was twitching and trying to conceal just how bad her injuries were, or at least how badly they hurt.

It was really stupid to take Kouta's ability for granted like that and treat her own health with this much disregard and disrespect. By now Mana had gotten used to the young man healing her whenever something like that happened so she forgot what moving around injured even felt like most of the time. Now when Kouta was somewhere else, probably too far away to be found and asked for help, Mana had a painful reminder of just how stupid the idea of taking all the torture was. She probably could've protected her body using chakra augmentation but then she'd have risked losing it all again...

After she managed to somehow regain the ability to use physical chakra and at least dabble in some of the things she used to be able to do, at least play being a weakling ninja instead of feeling absolutely useless, Mana dreaded losing it all again more than she feared her own death. Just a small taste of the identity she once had and lost made the magician addicted to it again, losing all of it would've been absolutely unacceptable. It would've sent Mana spiraling down the pit of darkness again, she'd have done stupid things and thought even dumber thoughts and the magician knew it.

"We're moving really slow..." Mana whimpered in pain, clutching at her sides, Meiko asked to take a look but Mana pleasantly refused.

"It's OK, we have no idea if those guys will even strike today, we're just checking those areas and... There's really no need for us to rush." Meiko smiled to Mana so genuinely that either the blacksmith was a really good actress or she really believed it.

"They will..." Mana closed her eyes as her feet refused to move and she sat down by a dumpster. "If that map you've shown me is right they've hit over eighty points already, now they've only got several more. They'll be getting desperate, whatever they're trying to achieve with this coordinated string of pointless violence they already have it in sight and that makes people desperate, it makes them rush and hopefully make mistakes." The magician explained her stance on things and stood back up starting to slowly pick up speed again.

"I... It's probably gonna sound really rude but... You said you can't feel anything while meditating and that's how you probably withstood that torture for so long but so can't you just do it now? Filter it all out?" Meiko asked of Mana, probably fully realizing that if Mana had any way of avoiding this pain she'd have done it. Normally, the magician was never afraid of suffering or even placing her own life on the line. But this time her pain was actively stopping them from reaching the goal and that was dangerous.

"I can't. If I was sitting still I could but not while trying to move somewhere. I can't both move and meditate." Mana replied coldly.

"I could carry you, then you'd just tune out and not feel any of it." Meiko suggested again with a voice that suggested pity for Mana's pain.

"It's fine. I'm not going to make you carry me around and even if I would I may slip out so hard that I won't be able to snap out when we arrive. Last time I only woke up when my body was being dumped and everyone thought me dead, after losing my chakra my meditation mastery is a bit wobbly. I can't do anything right..." Mana shook her head. All of this temptation of ways she could've avoided dealing with the pain she accepted so easily without fully comprehending the consequences made her jumpy and her rude tone may have revealed that to Meiko already.