Slowly but, at the very least, surely Mana was progressing through the endless hallways of the castle ruins. A couple of times the floor spooked her by having a couple of spikes shoot out, large enough to pierce right through her legs and maybe even reach her abdomen but they were so few in between and so barely functional that they only provided a temporary scare. Luckily for the magician she was using the walls for support so the few spikes that did shoot out in the center missed her by a mile. She pretty much had to use the walls to help her walk forward having the state she was in in mind.
If her experience with the architecture of that age was correct, the throne room should’ve been somewhere in the ground floor, however, having in mind that the throne room also must’ve served as the treasure chamber it should’ve been at a separate wing of the castle somewhere at the northern parts. It was surprising how much in common different buildings of the same era had. Mana made a sharp turn that she didn’t really calculate to the end, she tripped and fell right on her front and shouted out in pain peeling her body off the ground through sheer force of will.
What her eyes saw after she stood up made her curse internally. The entire corridor in front had no floor, judging from the rather visible part where the floor lead to, the corridor must’ve once been a trapped one, it must’ve once had pressure plates on the floor that when triggered sent those poor unfortunate skeletons down below to their spiky demise. The water below was still evaporating even now, it must’ve vapored away and then gathered at the colder ceiling and then dripped back down to the heating source. Not only did those poor souls fell on giant spikes larger than their whole bodies but the water they fell into was also boiling.
“Someone really didn’t want anyone to find whatever’s in that throne room…” Mana thought to herself trying to find a way to make it across. Her fingernails were already bleeding and almost peeled off from the time she crawled the castle walls from outside the good old fashioned way, using her boots and torn up and scratched bleeding fingers.
Slowly the magician walked up to the wall on the other side, right up to where the big fall lurked there waiting for another careless visitor to claim.
“Well, if I was a big fancy castle snob, I’d want an easy way into my king’s throne room, scaling the walls and ceilings couldn’t have been the ideal way to pass this place…” Mana spoke to herself as she softly stroke the right side wall trying to find some pressure plate or switch that triggered something. Her foot accidentally stepped on a strangely elevated brick that closed the drop with a floor made of wet stones.
Mana smiled.
“I didn’t see any rocks below, the floor doesn’t crumble, it goes into the wall, it’s got to be a deceitful switch… The floor would most likely just close back in once I trigger the pressure plates again” she loved every single moment of this. Even when her entire body was beaten and broken, even when she felt like passing out from blood loss and pain of merely staying on her feet, Mana loved trying to beat this puzzle of death. Finally the magician’s hand pressed against a stone on the wall that was supposed to open a passageway but the wall was so old that instead of opening it simply broke off and partly blocked the girl’s path.
Through pain and a lot of teeth grinding Mana slipped through the small gap that was still left for her to slip through. It wasn’t ideal but she had to be careful not to rub her body too hard against the stone as it could’ve just all broke into bits and crushed her beneath it. Try as hard as she may have, Mana’s body still got covered with cuts and bruises from slipping under the collapsed stone wall. Not that new scratches and scars bothered her at this point, the pain was already so strong that new scratches barely even registered, she just left her bloody mark on the collapsed wall.
Slowly the girl made her way through the passageway and pressed a wooden switch that collapsed another wall instead of merely opening her. After a brief sigh and a moment to catch her breath and let the rampaging pain settle down somewhat Mana continued her walk forward. She looked around, this was strange, the room she was in was the treasure room but it made no sense. She had figured that the desert king would’ve kept his treasure somewhere inside his throne room, not made his treasury the default access to his throne room.
Right up there for her reach on a small platform stood a gigantic black cube, four or maybe even more times larger and wider than the girl that was admiring it. The black box was covered with some sort of beastly or demonic ornaments and had huge decorative fangs that looked large enough to impale someone on. The whole structure looked like it was made of some sort of gemstone, it felt almost like black marble or a slightly bleaker onyx. The magician smiled and sighed. This could have been it, the box!
“Step away from the box, girl…” Mana heard a voice behind her, terrified she turned around only to see wild golden grains of sand whirling in a vortex that looked like a miniature sandstorm that then gathered into a single feminine shape which soon gained substance and color. An impressive looking woman in hair matching Mana’s in their darkness and of rather similar skin color but with much more make up on her face and a much less conservative view on clothes stood in front of her with an angry look on her face.
“You’re one of the Sunagakure ninja that attacked Kusaguro’s squad… Why? What does Sunagakure want from this place? Didn’t you guys know that the box was here? I mean it was recorded in some pretty old sources, you had to know…” Mana tried to stall for time when a violent explosion of sand coming from the woman herself knocked her on her back. The woman slowly and confidently walked up to Mana and stepped on the girl just to keep her from standing up, she didn’t apply pressure, she must’ve somehow known that the girl’s insides were pretty banged up and didn’t want to further injure her.
“Those old sources you must’ve read it from were inside the Forest of Death’s archives, whoever recorded of the box’s existence wasn’t aligned to a single village. He hoped that the box would remain hidden if he hid the box in one location but placed clues about that location in another country. He was a pretty smart fellow, even if someone figured it out centuries from when the source was written they’d just assume that the box was already claimed since the location was so well known to another country…” Regalia answered and then walked up to the box spreading her arms and admiring the structure in all its beauty.
“I thought it was supposed to be as large as a building… Still, seeing it like this is impressive, how do I activate it?” the woman asked without even turning at Mana.
The girl grunted in pain as she sat back up on her behind and tried to check on all her reopened wounds and see if any of them were leaking too much blood for her to not be worried over.
“You can’t, this isn’t the original, it can’t be” Mana explained when Regalia turned back at Mana and walked up to her lifting the girl up and pressing her against a wall with her elbow, the woman placed some pressure on the girl’s throat taking away her air supply for a moment.
“I have no time for games, the man after us might follow us here, he always follows us wherever we go. We need the box to make him go away, where is it, I’m in no mood to play around, I’m warning you” the Sunagakure ninja slowly and firmly stated right up to Mana’s face letting the pressure loose when she was done talking. Mana fell on her knees and started coughing up blood in rather alarming rates.
“Hmmm, your chakra level is really low. You can’t have much left in you, even if you do activate the box the only wish that’d make sense for you in your current state is one that would keep you alive. I’ve seen you worry over your friends, let yourself be beaten to this state to buy them time. You’re a kind person, I know you are. The man after us does not negotiate, he does not sleep or eat or do anything other than take away innocent lives. Don’t you wish to make the world a better place, make a noble sacrifice and rid this world of that monster instead of just selfishly healing yourself?” the woman once again revealed how well she was able to read people from one or two signs she picked up.
Mana stared at the small puddle of her own blood on the rocky floor. What if the woman was right? All that she wanted was to leave this world a better one that she found it after being born. What if this was her way to make a difference, to leave a mark? What if by ridding this world of that thing she could’ve actually made a difference? It didn’t matter, her heart was already nagging her to do the right thing and selfishly asking for her chakra or her life back was not it. She wanted Meiko to hold that box for at least a moment but it couldn’t be helped. As the woman claimed Mana must’ve not had much time left in her.
“Fine, I’ll help you find and activate the box” Mana bowed her head and closed her eyes, knowing full well she signed a contract that ends with her own death.
“Really? Wow, you’re… Actually different from everyone I’ve ever met. No one in their right mind would give up their chance at a wish coming true for another person” Regalia’s eyes opened wide but then the woman strangely turned sad, “You know… You remind me of how I used to be, before this all… Before that man put me and everyone I love in danger”
“It sounds like that person after you is quite scary, you don’t sound like a bad person just… You love with all your heart and are ready to do all it takes for the people you love. With that I can relate. If I just asked for my chakra back the box would just give me a second chance to fail, if I helped you and your family I’d actually help someone before I die, it’s the only right choice”
Regalia’s hand softly pressed against Mana’s shoulder. The girl’s fading eyes opened up a little and the paleness faded from her cheeks. “My sand is special, I can transfer chakra through it, that is how I use illusions on my opponents. I can keep you alive, even after you help me, I promise I’ll keep you alive until your friends find us”
Mana smiled hopelessly, “It won’t work. You’d need to be an actual medical ninja. My body doesn’t do instinctual chakra augmentation anymore, I’m broken, been that way for some time now. I do appreciate the gesture though… Let’s go, if the box is here it’s in that throne room” she turned forward and started stumbling over the stone stairs before Regalia carefully took the magician into her support and held her up helping her walk.
“I’ll need your name, girl, it is possible that in your village you’ll be known as a traitor for this, you helped another village and defied your own mission objective but… To me and my family you will always remain a hero, also to thousands of people whom that man would have killed after us” the woman softly asked of Mana as the two slowly made their way through the L shaped corridor into the throne room.
“I’m Nakotsumi Mana and… I’m not a ninja anymore. I used chakra augmentation beyond my ability to control it and it ruined my system, I beat my opponent and protected the young man I wished to protect but it broke my body and I’m unable to help anyone anymore. This is the least I can do…” Mana replied her voice was filled with sadness but also a small hint of happiness behind what she was doing. It was obvious to the woman holding her in her arms that the magician was ready to give up on everything she still had to help her.
“Maybe all is still not lost, I’ve seen people with your disability, I’m an advanced sensor so I’ve sensed my fair share of chakra disorders and… Well, usually people like you bounced back. I mean to travel here from Konoha… By now your chakra system should’ve fixed itself already and I am actually quite surprised that your disorder still persists. I think your problem may not be physical but mental, the event that left you disabled didn’t scar your body nearly as badly as it did your mind. If you live through this, please try to overcome not your physical disability but the mental block that forces you to consider yourself worthless” Regalia explained as the two shared their first impressions on the ruined throne room.
Once in history this place must’ve been quite impressive, it had several burnt down carpets and silk covers all over, diamond incrusted walls and various art pieces ravaged by time were all around the place. The entire room in its colossal entirety was rotten to its core in that depressing rocky grey that was only emphasized by the slowly dying desert sun. Mana’s weak hand barely lifted up pointing Regalia at the throne where the woman placed the girl’s body.
“Look… Maybe… Maybe this isn’t the way… Maybe we should… Take care of you…” Regalia started to shake as she didn’t seem so sure about her determination to let a person die over her dream. “I mean, I’m using you as a tool for my own survival and it just makes me feel so rotten inside… Almost like living like that wouldn’t be worth it”
Mana didn’t even listen to the woman’s words, she had to be strong, it wasn’t any easier to her either. She was the one who accepted her own death just so Regalia’s family could live after all. Mana’s weak and pale hand, covered in bleeding scratches ran over the inscriptions on the throne. The giant stone chair had one large silk and suede covered cushion that was torn up and also similarly to this entire building crushed under the weight of entire centuries passing by.
The magician tried to stand and move down the throne but she just slipped and fell down the stairs. Seeing her own brief track of blood on the stairs looked pretty gruesome to the girl but she only laughed out, she solved it… Regalia tried to lift the girl up, the woman’s eyes were almost tearing up but Mana shook her head and quivered out of the woman’s hands.
“The throne itself is a giant ancient safe, just break it and you’ll find the box inside” her pale lips uttered.
“You sure?” Regalia asked.
“”Ultimate power caressed by the Greatest One’s butt cheeks, breaking through the stone of arrogance will yield the dream that one seeks” that’s what the inscription on the throne says in Anansu dialect, I’m pretty sure” she smiled feintly.
“No, about all of this… What if there is another way, maybe some way to find the box once it has been used, we could heal you using the box or maybe… Maybe there’s some loophole in its rulings that would let us fulfil two wishes, maybe we could ask for a map of all the box’s future locations?”
“For the wish to work it has to be a selfless one. Why are you hesitating now? All of this life being chased by that man has lead you to this moment. Don’t you wish to finally get rid of everything that plagued you, finally have a happy family life like you dreamed to? I mean it must’ve meant a lot to you to come here and risk your own life over this box… Go on and claim it, I want to still be of some help to someone, maybe before I die I’ll still get to see a woman freed from being chased…” Mana closed her eyes annoyed that the woman wouldn’t follow up on the deal.
“I was so entranced by being chased, reduced to a primal state of being a prey, never standing up to the one after me that I failed to recognize just how the chase has changed me and my family. What we are actually ready to sacrifice to gain what we want “ freedom. I’m starting to realize that people like us, people willing to let young and kind people like you die to achieve their dream aren’t worth of life. I have come to realize that I no longer wish to have my curse be magically wished away at the cost of someone else’s life. I wish to earn my freedom by defeating that man” Regalia declared crushing the rocky throne with her golden sands. A small sphere of sand moved above her open hand and dropped a small iron ball with the manji symbol stuck on it.
“I… I don’t get it… Where is the box?!” Regalia shouted out in desperation, “I want to help you, where is the box!? Mana, where is the box, don’t die on me!” the woman yelled out gripping the symbol in her hand almost strong enough to crush the iron it was made from. Seeing Mana’s twisted by pain but unconscious face brought horror to her own, the woman tossed the iron ball aside breaking the manji decoration on top of it. The woman pounded the stone floor below her.
“Get away from Mana-chan!” Kouta’s voice made Regalia’s tear ridden face to once again reveal itself from the mess of hair that she was hiding it in.
“I think she’s still alive, dying frees one of pain and Mana like anything but free of it” Shimo mumbled out gripping the hilt of his sword and preparing to intercept the woman if she tried something funny.
“So is this the Box of Ultimate Bliss?” Meiko pouted tossing the round iron ball around in her hands, “I thought it’d be shaped like an actual box…Oh, well, Mana’s wish for me to hold it is complete, we can now kick this woman’s ass, save Mana and go back home!”
Mana’s team has finally reached the throne room as well!
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