The entire trip to this Sun Disc place where she was apparently being taken was not a comfortable one. Despite his somewhat present degree of empathy towards her the guard holding her didn’t shy away from being too rough or pushing Mana around and while he did sort of try to keep the cursing furious mob away from her somehow to the magician it seemed like there was a much more material reason for it than simple human empathy. And yet, with all the roughness and all the new wounds she got from falling down after being pushed too hard when she didn’t expect it to or getting hit by an object tossed at her, the trip itself was not the worst part.
The worst part of it all was easily the hatred in the eyes of people Mana had never met in her life before that day. They looked at her as if she was responsible for all that was bad in their lives, as if she was the scapegoat for all of their suffering. Maybe not everyone would feel as crushed by such stares and all of that hatred, most perhaps would simply ignore it all and feel high and mighty as they’ve not really done anything to deserve this hatred making them feel in the right. Mana had not done anything to these people and yet she still felt terrible just due to the fact that they hated her for no reason.
She was supposed to be the person who helps people, one who guides them through example. If she wanted the world to stop being violent, to view life as being as precious and as magical as she thought it to be she needed to eliminate all this hatred and become someone people would follow and yet… These people couldn’t have been more to the opposite side of the spectrum to that which Mana tried to achieve. She didn’t know why or how but… She was failing her objective miserably and that just added to Mana’s sadness. Made her feel even more depressed than just seeing a mob of people try to hurt you and spill their hatred out in whatever ways they can.
“Can you fight?” the guard mumbled quietly so that only he and Mana could hear, the girl looked back at the armored elder, wondering about the purpose of the question. What was she supposed to tell him? If she admitted being trained from her earliest days in the arts of killing people but perverting them to save them instead, would she be executed on the spot? Won’t she at the very least get the chance to fight for her life?
“Depends on what I’m supposed to fight” Mana decided to be vague about it, usually in life half-assed answers were always wrong but in this case the world around her was mad enough to not answer to the rules that it usually followed. The guard actually cracked half a grin, maybe she didn’t answer wrong.
“An interesting answer, if you can’t I can always kill you quickly, it’ll be faster and you won’t have to suffer. It’s an easier option” he replied revealing the purpose of his question at last. He didn’t really feel like a bad person, from what Mana’s gut told her he was just someone following a very messed up set of rules.
“I am known to always torment myself with harder options just for the sake of it…” Mana kindly smiled to her captor showing that she didn’t really hold any bad feelings toward him. “I am to assume that I am arrested merely because of my gender then?” she asked again once the guards leading her to where they were supposed to go took a turn into an alleyway.
Another guard punched Mana in the gut, he yelled something out in a strange dialect which the magician couldn’t initially pinpoint. It was a lot like hearing a weird accent of a language one spoke in, it took hearing a couple of sentences before one could’ve gotten accustomed to it. There was only one universal language in the ninja world, still, some people around various parts put different spins on it, invented new words or ways of pronouncing words and those dialects were as numerous as drops of water in a river. As someone who read a lot the girl knew a couple of them but most of them were already gone as the people talking them were extinct.
“I’d advise you to stay silent, little woman, stay silent unless you are asked a question” the elder guard spoke once again, this time it was in a much stricter tone than usual.
Finally once the alleyway ended Mana realized where she was taken, in the middle of the street there stood a giant temple of hulking towers surrounding a great central structure. Rotund shapes dominated in this strange eastern style architectural wonder, shapes and mosaics danced all over the building telling tales and stories starting from possibly quite old times when this wonder was built. The Sun Disc was finally in sight.
Once Mana was lead into the building she was taken into one of the towers, it was an endless spiral of stairs with dark and damp rocky cells protected by steel bars. The kunoichi was surprised to see steel bars and chains being used instead of chakra barriers and seals. The girl was lead into a cell and was thrown inside.
“Wait here for your calling, once it is your time you will know what to do, if you won’t… Well, no tears of sadness will be shed” the elder guard lowered his head and closed Mana inside. Once she was closed in and chained down to a small rotten wooden bench the girl sat down and looked at the ruined floor with a sad and lifeless expression. So many people with pure hatred for her, so little hope that she would ever see her friends again but if there was at least some that would be what Mana would be counting on.
“You’re a woman… Sorry, a girl… In Agbarah? Are you suicidal?” a large man sitting in front of Mana’s bench asked. He was a very large and bulky individual, couple of meters tall and lifted his fair share of boulders. His body was covered with scars and one of his eyes looked really creepy and messed up “ must’ve been a battlefield wound. For someone like him to be really freaked out by her presence it must’ve been a really big deal.
“I’m a kunoichi actually… Was at least… I don’t even know what I am anymore” Mana tried to calm him down a little but she ended up just confusing herself in the process.
“Oh… Didn’t notice a headband on you… A kunoichi should’ve known not to venture into Agbarah Sheikhate” the man replied, he didn’t really seem very hateful towards her, whatever ailed the common folk didn’t seem to be as deep rooted as Mana initially thought.
“Yeah, I must’ve lost it, been through a lot these days…” she admitted, “I’m not from around, I wouldn’t even know where I am if everyone wouldn’t constantly remind me as if I committed some huge sin by coming here”
“Hasn’t everyone?” the man asked, his tone was friendly, he didn’t try to scold Mana for trying to imply that her burden was greater than everyone else’s, he just tried to empathize with her and try to show her that the two were somewhat on the same boat and that they didn’t have to be too distant from one another.
“What’s the deal with this place anyways? Why does everyone hate me just because I’m a girl? I mean, if all girls and women are brought here or executed how does this place even stay on the map?” Mana asked the first thing on her mind. She really felt bad being hated by everyone around her for no reason at all, being hated just for the sake of hatred just didn’t feel right for her and made her hate herself and feel down for no reason. Not one that made any sense anyways.
“Oh, this place isn’t like a settlement or anything. It’s a place people come to and leave, like an entertainment center, it’s very unlike the other Sheikhates in that way” the large man shook his head and explained. The man continuously caressed several of his fingers on his left arm, upon a longer glare at them Mana saw that they were actually broken and swollen. Was this man going to fight too? He wasn’t in a fighting condition…
“What’s a Sheikhate? I thought Sunagakure was the only large cradle of civilization here and all the other settlements were just a couple of small portable tents and blocks” the girl asked trying to find out as much as she could from the man.
“Well, technically it’s like a settlement of desert people but… It’s hard to explain, the Land of Wind is unlike the other countries, before there were ninja here and Sunagakure was founded, there were the Sheikhs that split apart the riches and all the resources and the land of the desert to rule in their Sheikhates. I don’t really wish to go into too much detail but some of those Sheikhates still remain in some shape or form and they have some political power too. They’re almost like separate states of the Land of Wind and often times they hold the Wind Lord back as well. It’s not a secret that the Kazekage wishes to remove the Sheikhs from their posts and unify the desert under the Wind Lord’s rule, still, the place is too vast and too complicated to just place under a single Lord” the man explained. Mana leaned up closer to him, straining her chains as much as they could’ve been strained. His skin appeared to be quite dark, much darker than even hers, he may have not been from around either.
“Strange, I like to read history scrolls and legends and I may have come upon a term like that before but I don’t recall hearing much about it” Mana scratched her chin confused before nodding her head down and letting it stay that way. So even as an amateur historian she still had things to learn.
“Well, you know… Not every little bit of information is found on a scroll, sometimes you have to leave the archive and travel a little” the man tried to crack a grin but he couldn’t. Just a tiniest look at his face revealed the reason “ he pitied Mana. He knew something that was going to happen, or at least thought he knew and he must’ve thought that it wasn’t fair that such a fate would befall her.
“So, are we going to fight then? Is this like one of those gladiatorial arenas where people fight for money, like ones in Kumogakure?” Mana asked. The girl was not sure about how much time she exactly had, she may have had days, she may have had minutes. May as well find out all she could from this man as long as he feels generous with the information he knows.
“Something like that… This arena was actually built to mimic those in Kumogakure and it used to be just like them: people fighting for fun, entertainment and money, ninja and common folk, mercenaries even, no hits too brutal, no murder, just the art of combat at its finest. It used to be one of the best too once, ten or twenty years from now if you asked around “ Agbarah Sheikhate was the best place to see some kickass fights and the Sheikh was a wicked manager. He knew all the right matchups and all the right recipes for an amazing match. That’s how a place like this “ an establishment could even stay on the map and relevant in the political scheme” the man kept on explaining, he then looked at his mangled hand and then back at Mana who, while banged up and clearly been through a lot, looked still quite young, frail and innocent, “Nowadays, you better remember your ninja days, but don’t stand out too much, they’ll kill you if they think your abilities give you unfair advantage and I don’t think you are high ranked enough to take on the entire Sheikhate military force”
“I… I actually can’t do any of those things anymore, I’m sorry if you relied on me or put hopes in me or anything. I don’t think I’ll be of much help to you in my current state” Mana looked away sadly.
“No, no, it’s fine, I wouldn’t be much of a warrior who travelled all the way from Kumogakure to compete in the amazing Agbarah Sun Disc arena all these years ago if I relied on a young lady to fight for me. I may be worn out by all these years of senseless murder but I will manage or die trying, either one is fine by me, it is the life I chose, the only one I know” the man smiled, so Mana’s thoughts were correct “ he was actually from Kumogakure, just like her ancestors may have been, that’s why the magician had a slightly darker shade to her skin compared to her peers and such dark hair and those weird facial features that were more native to the Kumogakure folk.
“So you came here willingly? Why? It seems like a place one is cursed or banished to, not one people choose to live the rest of their days in” Mana wondered.
“Well, when I came here all those years ago, this place was still in its prime, shining, golden and mighty. Glory and strength emanated throughout these walls and there were no bars or chains to it. This place was once a fighting heaven for mercenaries or martial artists, low ranking Sunagakure ninja also trained here but it would’ve been unfair if the higher ranking ones applied so they didn’t bother. Then one day… It happened” the man allowed his own head to sink down, just like Mana’s has done quite a number of times, it appeared like the memories of that fateful day had plagued the man and invited darkness into his heart not quite unlike the one that being hatred for being born invited into Mana’s.
“So what happened?” the magician hurried her newly met friend as he sat there for quite some time sulking in silence.
“The greatest fight the world has ever seen. You see, the Sheikh was and still is a fighting aficionado, he lives and breathes to see a good fight, a long fight between equal opponents and he had eye for talent and was always a good manager of this arena. He always matched equal fighters and knew how to extract the best out of them to deliver a fight unlike any other. That day he outdid not only himself but also the Gods. It was like the Gods themselves descended and took shape of the bodies of the fighters competing, they punched each other for the whole twelve hours, they fought on and on and on and exchanged blows with such grace and finesse… The Sheikh was in ecstasy and so was everyone else! I’m not sure if the fight was so divine and majestic due to the power of the two contestants or if it was so because of how equal they were in strength, it was the cream top of management and combat. The complete perfection” the man got so invested into his description and his tale that he failed to notice Mana’s growing discomfort hearing about it.
“What’s wrong? Do you hate fighting or something or are you just that afraid?” the veteran asked her trying to realize the true reason behind her disgust.
“Well, I suppose if it’s purely a sporting event I see nothing wrong from it but… I hate killing, always have. For the longest time I held myself from fighting in general just because I was afraid of causing too much harm to people or that I’d kill them” Mana revealed the real reason. The man just spat aside and cursed in some strange dialect the magician did not know.
“Well then, girl, you truly are dead, I’m sorry. It seems you’ve found yourself in the worst place in the world to be a woman in without your ninjutsu and with hatred for violence… If you feel like you can just talk yourself out of here or try being smart, trust me, I’ve seen women try all the specter of the rainbow out in the arena to survive and only those that can kill did… For a while” the man’s opinion of Mana appeared to deteriorate a little after that last revelation, just like everyone else’s did. It must’ve been the combination of the facts he knew of her “ the whole deal about Mana being a ninja yet refusing to kill… Just another person disliking her for someone Mana was deep inside.
“So why did that fight change this place so much? I mean if it’s so amazing should it not have had the opposite effect?” Mana asked trying to see if the man would still even talk to her. He was a fighter after all, a warrior who looked for the best places to compete and display his skills in and she probably offended his entire way of life. As if she didn’t have enough enemies, as if she didn’t have enough reasons to hate herself, at least this one would make sense, at least this one would be actually caused by her and earned…
“Well, I suppose for a while it did, but you know what happens to a collector who finishes his collection “ he goes insane. After that fight there was always something missing in the Sheikh’s heart, he always wanted to satisfy that need to see a glorious fight once again and yet… He kept organizing fights one more crazy and mismatched than the other, he tried everything to recapture that moment until he killed his greatest contestants and almost ran this place into the ground, right now he’s in the process of losing everything just for that thrill of seeing a good fight. Contestants are now more his slaves than anything else and these days he throws anything and anyone into the arena. All things considered, I’m not sure how no one thinks him mad, the place gathered the weirdest and the most messed up creeps in the whole ninja world now that it’s known more for its bloodshed than honorable competition, the fighting experts and aficionados have long since left, the crazy bloodthirsty freaks are all that stick around” the man replied without a single hint of spite towards the girl, he didn’t appear to feel offended and yet he still wore that pity for her soul just as proudly as he wore his warrior’s pride.
“Huh… One thing doesn’t make much sense though, why all the hate for women?” Mana wondered, “I thought the story of this place would involve a loss of a woman in the Sheikh’s life and that would’ve lead him to this but… Everyone just appears to hate them for no reason”
“Women are just weak fighters in public opinion, I mean it isn’t like we see many kunoichi here so that doesn’t help either. The Sheikh hates them because they’re useless in his eyes they cannot give him his perfect fight, the rest are just catching on to the wave. I suppose the guy thinks that if he kills all those women that come here in the arena they’ll stop coming and stop wasting his time. Those few women that prove themselves in the arena are actually quite respected, not any less than any man would be. They don’t hate you for what you were born like, they hate you because they think you’re weak and won’t put up a good fight before you die. Most women try to seduce, they try to escape, they try to trick or beg their way out and die dishonorably in the arena, very few bother fighting the dirty fight. Still, I believe the public opinion of this place outside Agbarah must be terrible, with so many women never returning from this place the talk of this place must be just as bad as it actually is” the man lowered his head.
“My name is Mana, what’s yours?” the magician asked.
“It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t look like I’ll be lasting another fight so it may be better if you don’t get too attached, just see me as that old geezer that couldn’t carry your weight but really hoped you’d walk as long as your frail legs let you” the veteran replied with a lukewarm expression and laid down turning at the wall. Seeing how before she was taken here it was not really even remotely late, Mana just assumed that the man didn’t wish to talk any longer.
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