Right after the three of Imarizu barged in they proceeded to carry out their objective. Without a doubt they intended for Mana to die immediately. Judging from how devoted the Imarizu was in their initial clash to keep Mana from making hand seals they must’ve known or at least suspected some of her skillset at least and for one reason or the other considered it important to not let her perform a single jutsu.
Immediately the three Imarizu, dressed black as the night that gave them cover and wearing only blank dark masks that removed any semblance of their humanity, charged at each and every ninja remaining alive after their attack. This time Mana did not bother performing hand seals or trying to pull off techniques – she knew it would’ve been just time wasted as she’d have gotten interrupted again. The magician leaped and rolled over the beds that crowded the room and all the small bedside cabinets that made it difficult to properly evade.
Just like Kouta taught her, when there wasn’t enough space to evade, Mana utilized that stuffed space to put objects between her and her opponent. If the room did not allow her the luxury of evasion she made sure that it also got in her opponent’s way but with a single powerful hook each object sent their way got bashed and grinded to sawdust with a single chakra imbued knuckle duster strike. The blades on the bladed knuckle dusters the Imarizu all used sliced through wood like a jet of fire made its way through paper.
Mana offered herself the foolish luxury to care for her friends and see how they were doing. Sugemi, impressively enough, was moving in a way similar to her. The magician was terribly wrong to feel surprised about his skill in close range combat. He was a taijutsu user, if anyone amongst the three of them could keep up with the Imarizu it would’ve been Sugemi. However Mana saw it. None of them were close to being on the technical level of skill to match fists with the Imarizu. All of them fleeing, moving away and desperately working to stay alive. This fight would not end well unless they changed something up.
Then there was this sparking thought of the fourth Imarizu. Where was he? Lurking somewhere waiting for their ace in the hole chance to strike for a kill. One good hit would’ve been everything it’d have taken to kill. This time there was no mystery man to bring Mana or anyone of her companions back from death. It was just what she was willing and capable of doing to survive.
“Sugemi!” Mana shouted and she felt her friend grab her by her abdomen and move her away as he flipped beside her, letting a potentially heart piercing strike punch through the floor.
Her friend lit up like a candle, the young man activated his first gate effortlessly without even taking a moment to channel his chakra. The first gate now came off that naturally to Sugemi.
“Do it!” he affirmed Mana that he had it in the bag.
As the magician worked with her hand seals one of the Imarizu pointed their knuckle dusters at her and Sugemi who stood in front of her ready to block or deflect any attacks coming her way. The Nara grunted out loud in pain as he bashed the knuckle duster aside with the back of his palm, getting cut in the process. The tension and strain that the First Gate placed on his body made blood spout out from the Nara’s wound like an upchuck of vomit.
Mana’s hand seals concluded. A sweet melody filled the air as she gently and softly hummed out the tune of her genjutsu activating the Sweet Lullaby Jutsu. The lifeless and almost demonic looking Imarizu twitched and began shaking. Their bodies utterly overwhelmed with pleasure, sadly Mana saw Sugemi and Yanagi be affected by the same illusion. For a moment a relief of a possible victory took Mana over but then a sharp pain in her abdomen interrupted that feeling.
The magician groaned in pain and her eyesight blurred for a moment making a complete and utter mess of the shadow sunken room she was fighting for her life in. One of the Imarizu was leaned down on his stretched out back leg and kneeling on their front leg while they threw a powerful low-aimed punch right into Mana’s gut. The magician felt the rushing taste of blood in her mouth as she realized that the Imarizu that punched her was still wearing his knuckle dusters. She instantly devoted a fair flow of chakra to keeping her gut stab wound bleeding as little as possible.
She heard feint taps of blood but it wasn’t hers, it was too far away to be hers and then she saw it – knives stuck in each of the assailants’ thighs. They stabbed themselves in their moment of weakness, after being captured in her illusion, to allow the sudden outburst of pain to overcome the pleasure – that allowed them the needed concentration to break the illusion and right after it was broken they moved instantly with the cover of the shade around them. Too fast for Mana’s let down guard to keep up with.
As the Imarizu all prepared to pounce Mana realized that they were going to focus all their attention on her – she’s been marked as the sick and weakened animal and they had their highest chances of taking her down if they all focused on her. It was like knives stuck in their thighs barely even slowed them down or affected their thoughts at all, almost like pain did not exist for them. Mana couldn’t do this any longer! She’d remove those masks and expose their humanity, their pain ridden faces if it was the last thing she’d do. The demoralizing sight of those steel masks on their faces was too much…
The kunoichi lifted her hands up, Imarizu jumped at her but then they, too late, realized that she was not weaving any hand seals. Instead the card spring devices in her sleeves slipped a hand of cards in each of her hands which she threw right at her assailants. The Imarizu leaped over it and landed their feet firmly on the ceiling of the room, kicking off of it they aimed their knuckles right at Mana but Sugemi interrupted two of them, punching so hard at them and stopping halfway that the air pressure would cushion and block the attackers’ blows. The pair relentlessly bombarded the Nara with their taijutsu combinations moving in and out, switching between themselves just to give the young one not a moment of rest and it showed. Sugemi skipped more and more blows and was being tossed around.
A chirping and squirming wall of bugs protected Mana from the bladeless Imarizu but she could have sworn she heard a thick. Like some sort of a switch was being pressed and after hearing the steel string reeling sound she rolled aside only to get another quadruple gash on her back – like a cheetah leaving its marks on the girl, smacking her with its clawed paw. It appeared that the assailants’ weapons had the option of being returned to their user after they were used as long range projectiles via string reeling mechanism. Yanagi’s bugs continued to swarm wherever the Imarizu who now regained his knuckle duster tried to rush in on Mana, shielding her with their collective effort at their master’s command.
The magician pulled her hands back revealing the steel strings being attached to the cards she had used as the light from the floor below shined through the ground hole made during the missed strike of one of the attackers, illuminating the strings. With her other hand she weaved hand seals, just barely fast enough now that she had the assist from Yanagi’s creepy crawlies. Even as they protected her from being skewered to death the magician still felt glad that there was barely any light coming into the room – else she had seen the nature of insects that were protecting her life right now.
“Magic Bullet Barrage!” Mana shouted placing her steel wire holding hands in front of her and expelling an intense barrage of small balls of lightning chakra. The lightning chakra spheres rushed right at where they were pointed at, the Imarizu member she was aiming them at easily flipped and vaulted aside but Mana pulled her steel strings trapping the man. The lightning balls transferred their charge right into the steel strings almost like fusing with them – the steel strings attached to Mana’s cards directed the lightning chakra spheres right into the tangled Imarizu member who finally displayed a sign of humanity shook in immense pain as his entire body twitched and contracted under immense lightning shock. Even when exposed to such incredibly painful attacks well beyond the voltage needed to kill a normal man the Imarizu did not shout or grunt in pain.
The magician could smell a tense burning flesh sensation and the brief rays of light from below transferred through the hole the Imarizu punched earlier as well as the countless holes Mana left in the wall with her technique briefly illuminated the streaks of smoke coming off of the Imarizu member and his torn up and damaged black skinsuit and halfway broken mask.
Sugemi meanwhile slid back after a strong shoulder slam broke the wind out from his lungs. He grinned after realizing where he was located as the Imarizu duo charged at him. The Nara clutched himself together…
“First Gate: Gate of Opening! Open!” he shouted out opening his first gate with much more focus, molding up incalculably more chakra and becoming just briefly fast enough to match the Imarizu duo blow for blow. The Imarizu simply displayed bad positioning trying to approach their opponent in the straight line but it was not their fault – it was Sugemi’s more clever positioning getting them in between another partner of his or a wall, not letting the two surround him.
Finally as a massive influx of insects bashed at the wall cutting the Imarizu off of him he could weave his hand seals.
The two Imarizu members took their time to backflip out of danger of being overwhelmed with whatever kind of parasitic chakra devouring insects Yanagi used.
“Shadow Tendril Barrage!” Sugemi shouted as the light coming in from below was sufficient for him to form a very short shadow, at long last, and unleash a powerful barrage of strikes with the shadow constructs branching out from the ground.
Sadly the Imarizu were too skilled and evaded the attack, bobbing and weaving from each strike, an impressive feat of agility as the strikes appeared almost simultaneously, before moving too far away for Sugemi’s weakened technique’s range to even reach them. The Nara’s offensive comeback was cut short. Mana looked at her opponents carefully surveying them and their utter silence really was getting to her. They weren’t coordinating any plans with their own teammates, they weren’t expressing any emotion. They were just acting. They knew their plan, they knew their objectives and could sufficiently enough work together to understand their motions from half a thought.
Angered by his lack of success Sugemi reached into his back pocket. The Imarizu lashed out at him not feeling overly enthusiastic about allowing the youth to properly utilize his arsenal. A flock of knives and blades enveloped the Imarizu who just in time managed to swing and throw his companion away from the same fate. Surprised by the turnout Mana realized that it was Yanagi’s insects that each carried a small blade with them, clutched by their numerous legs sharing the weight effort. It was almost like a storm of swarm minded knives that enveloped their opponent and cut them at the same time as they feasted on their chakra, as most Aburame parasitic insect breeds did.
A strong gust of wind sent the swarm of knife wielding parasitic locusts away. It was a powerful strike with Wind Release chakra forming a shockwave around it, strong enough to either tear apart a body hit by the initial strike or blow away something like the swarm of insects surrounding the Imarizu member at that moment.
Bleeding and torn up, with his mask cracked the second Imarizu also leaped back into safety. Suddenly a powerful flash of light surprised Mana – Sugemi set off his flash bomb that most ninja carried in their ninja kits. It was a small pellet like sphere that when cracked emitted a brief flash that lasted a couple of times longer than an actual flash of light – the light emanating from it persevered for a brief fraction of a moment longer than an actual flash of light.
Having been given a chance to use his Nara hidden shadow techniques, Sugemi went through his hand seals and shouted out.
“Nara Clan Hijutsu: Shadow Yggdrasil!” he roared out as his body tensed up to point where it seemed like at any point it could burst in blood. With the whole room being enveloped in a flash of light providing him a faster than a lightning bolt chance to use his technique Sugemi unleashed a gigantic beam of darkness on the floor that was like his own shadow expanded dozens of times from which a colossal pillar of solid shadowy construct came out blasting the two Imarizu who were lined up to one side of the room out with an impressive explosion as the room could no longer contain the battle inside.
The expanding shadow pillar then morphed into a horizontal tree-like shape of fists that kept on assaulting the two Imarizu members and trying their best to do as much damage as possible. The third Imarizu member just looked on at Sugemi blowing his two teammates away and saw his chance right after the flash of light faded and the Nara’s technique was abruptly ended. He leaped at the weakened and exhausted Sugemi but only heard a shout from his side.
“Spear Kick!” Mana yelled out right as her foot collided with the Imarizu’s block. The magician was impressed that the assailant managed to block her attack without actually seeing it coming as she did not chant out the name of her taijutsu technique before it was already blocked.
After the Imarizu member slid back and bashed his way through the shoddy wooden wall unable to stop from the inertia, falling good two floors down in the process. Mana rushed after him but saw nothing. The trio waited on trying to anticipate the next attack but there was only the cold chill of the night and the howling misty winds rushing through the numerous holes in the battle damaged building.
No one came at them… The Imarizu disappeared just as fast into the night as they attacked.
*****
Mana, Yanagi and Sugemi wandered the gloomy streets of the island. After the inn got completely trashed they could obviously no longer stay there. That being said, they had nowhere to go to nor did they have any options. They were worn out, made to bleed and sweat before their big battle and that was only the second to worst possible outcome. Even when they lost the Imarizu won…
Obviously their intent was to kill the three quickly and efficiently, with a single strike take out Mana – proceed to take out the sleepy duo the same way. Even if the three were still drawing breath they took some pretty nasty blows. All three of them were cut up and bleeding as one couldn’t just block the Imarizu’s blows. Mana’s gut felt burning up even after she had applied an ointment that was supposed to help her wound heal. Sugemi looked like he was attacked by a wild animal with the claws of steel, Yanagi was also decently scratched up but out of the three he looked the best. Probably because he had his bugs protect him most of the time. Their blade using defense was efficient enough to keep him alive.
The three did not speak to each other. Just like the Imarizu did not speak with their companions but it wasn’t for the same reasons. They just knew that the attack left them weakened and battered, they knew that even at full strength they stood little to no chances of survival. Right now they almost got taken out by a squad of Imarizu that was missing the member with Shimo’s sword.
The trio found a calmer alleyway to turn into. Slowly they wandered in and scared away any smalltime criminals counting their nightly profits from mugging and casual gambling scams. Mana used the seal in her hat to remove some emergency supplies out of the pocket storage space inside it and began changing her clothes behind the cover of a corner alleyway to the one her companions were doing the same in, she also refilled her deck compartment with a couple of cards she was missing. The My Battle Bikini Goddess manga fell out but she carefully shoved it back inside. Mana’s eyes shot out wide and she straightened out, looking back, then at her friends.
Sugemi accidentally slipped in a look at Mana before she was finished getting ready – her slip into her thoughts caused her to not get ready as fast as her looking away male teammates would’ve thought it to take. Swiftly Mana finished getting ready and placing the decks into their compartments, checking the seals on the decks and seeing if the spring devices still worked. She put on her top hat before letting a handful of blue sparks shoot out from inside it signaling that the seal still worked. Seeing how Mana was no sealing expert and only knew the basics taught in the Academy such checks were often needed.
In the Land of Waves it was tough to say when exactly the Sun rose up. It was constantly misty and near impossible to see anything at all. However at some point in time from the absolute pitch black murky darkness the day turned into just the casual everyday depressing gloom.
Slowly, yet at an accelerating pace, Mana, Yanagi and Sugemi moved onto the northern beach location. No one was quite sure what would come out of it but Mana wasn’t about to stop. She couldn’t allow her friend’s sword being used to kill, she couldn’t allow one of her best friends to get married to a kidnapper who tried to have her killed nor could she allow Inomame gain untold influence over the world. Someone who used power and influence like Inomame did couldn’t be allowed to have that much power and influence.
Yanagi didn’t slow his step either. The Aburame was determined to rather die than continue being a smalltime undercover over-glorified prison spinster whose job it was to catch and filter through rumors of when a smalltime criminal of even smaller importance would be tried to be broken out. He wanted to move past it and the man knew that the path to where he wanted to get laid in something exceptional, often in risking his life.
Mana was not entirely sure of what Sugemi was thinking, honestly. He looked equally determined to have another arc added to the manga about his story which would one day inevitably be written. Maybe that was all it was about, the magician was not sure, but she herself liked to think that there was another reason to her friend’s presence by her side. Maybe he wished to genuinely redeem his youthful mistakes of the past, maybe he only used those silly mad speeches of tropes and meta-sounding madness as cover for his true intentions? While her short introduction course to manga didn’t allow her to state it for sure, as a believer in all the best in humanity, Mana wanted to believe that…
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