As the day was approaching its end, Mana and Kiyomi continued to wander forward through the Fire Country’s forests. They had already passed the incredibly rich trade route that lead to Shukuba pleasure town, the three decided recently that staying there would be counterproductive. While both girls would’ve used a warm room and a bed, those simple pleasures had to be given up on when the two heard about the prices. It appeared that Hisako, the raven haired assassin from the Yoruma clan was to blame for all of the trio’s troubles.
First of all, Mana and Kiyomi could’ve easily fit into a single room but the policy was that three people had to rent out two rooms. Even a single room would’ve drained the funds meant for hiring a mercenary, something that the magician and the Yamanaka would have to do, now that Hisako proved herself to be completely insane. Even more, with the black haired assailant being tied up she was moving at a turtle’s pace, there was no malice from her side, she just couldn’t move too fast as her legs were restrained and her hands were tied quite firmly. Mana knew which knots could’ve been escaped from and which couldn’t, she’s been doing it for the greater part of her life after all. Even the Academy “Rope Escape Jutsu” couldn’t have helped Hisako with those knots.
And so since the funds needed to be conserved, their prisoner kept in their sight at all times, also the mission implied urgency needed, with the life of a youngster being in question, the three needed to pass right through the pleasure town. Kiyomi was quite rough on the young woman, the Yamanaka kept dragging the woman around like her dog and appeared to greatly enjoy this. Mana asked if it was her turn to keep Hisako on her check and the Yamanaka denied it multiple times. It was a chore to keep the woman on watch and drag her around, still, it was a chore that Kiyomi had taken great pleasure in doing. After almost getting impaled by the Chuunin and having to spend most of her chakra on that incomplete augmentation she must’ve been tired too…
To Mana such hate and severity towards a fellow ninja seemed excessive but the magician had decided to show respect towards Kiyomi’s approach after the blonde showed so much respect towards Mana’s by not killing the woman when she had the chance. The Yoruma was so quiet and submissive the whole way after her attack that Mana almost forgot that the woman had just tried to kill them. Well, technically, if her statement was to be trusted she just wanted to mess with her comrades but Mana’s “rough” approach pissed her off. Apparently in Hisako’s mind it was OK to almost kill her comrades but when they as much as touched her in defense they had to get tortured and killed…
“Can you believe those Yoruma?” Kiyomi grunted aggressively yanking Hisako’s rope to the point where the rope had burned some nasty wounds on the woman’s hands and body where it came in direct contact with the woman’s skin. Even if those rope burns were supposed to hurt the woman didn’t as much as moan, she just stayed completely quiet and didn’t even flinch even when her wounds turned crimson red and were about to draw blood.
“I’m sorry, I am unfamiliar with the Yoruma except some small bits I’ve heard from my old team about Yoruma torture being the worst there is.” Mana replied quietly, still wondering if she wouldn’t have been out of line to ask Kiyomi take it a little easy on their prisoner. The magician wasn’t even a fan of having her around, after all, if the mercenaries refuse to take Hisako in and deliver her to Konoha they’ll have to go on a mission they have no hopes of completing with an offended Yoruma prisoner who was ready to slit their throats at the moment they make a mistake and let down their guard.
“I mean, they keep pulling shit like this off, once a Yoruma let his teammates die just to wait until the enemy set up camp and then they slowly tortured and killed every enemy in their own camp, the other time they joined the enemy side and killed their own comrades, then when the enemy let down their guards slaughtered them all too. They’re skilled strategists but their strategies involve their comrades getting sacrificed like it’s a game of goddamn shogi!” Kiyomi complained giving Hisako an angry stare and yanking her rope harder, finally the young assassin gave in and fell onto the dirt, Kiyomi walked up closer and stood by the woman giving her time to get up.
“But… Wouldn’t someone do something about them if they were that bad? Why are they allowed to do things like this?” Mana wondered looking at the whole situation. Hisako wriggled on the ground in pain and Kiyomi softly kicked the woman to the side, not strong enough to hurt her but strong enough for it to hurt and for her irritation to be made apparent.
“That’s the thing, every time they do crazy shit like that they complete the mission. The village Council loves them. The First Hokage once fought over the Council to banish them, the entire clan was nearly snuffed out under the Second but they really must like sex because they’re duplicating like rabbits…” Mana giggled into her palm from Kiyomi’s mention of procreating, for some reason to her dirty jokes seemed funny, even if they never did before.
“Every time the Fourth tried to raise the question of their blatant lack of any morals or ethics, the Council shot the Hokage down. The Yoruma complete their mission, they do everything they’re told to do, why bother sending a Yamanaka to read someone’s mind, you’d need to answer a bunch of questions, you’d need to capture the enemy alive and then the Yamanaka would know all the secrets you’re conveying, they also are moral, they tend not to torture people needlessly. Yoruma can just delete them like that enemy was never born and they’ll never wink twice about it or ask a bloody question, if one needs intel they’ll torture it out from them with no moral code in their methods. For that reason the Council made them pretty much damned invincible in terms of responsibility. They do from time to time act out a Ninja Tribunal session but for some reason the Yoruma either get all charges dropped or just get placed in Eden, the softest of the Correctional Facilities.” Kiyomi kicked softly at Hisako again to which the woman moaned but managed to pull herself off the ground.
Mana wanted to raise a point that Kiyomi’s hatred seemed to be based somewhat on clan competition. There was a big tension between clans and the competitiveness of efficiency in terms of mission completion always made matters even more difficult. Yet the magician stayed silent, she had no clan so she couldn’t understand those sort of matters. “I’ve met a young man who was too powerful for his rank too one day, he was trained in the Kirigakure Demon Corps and he was quite ruthless, I wonder if he’s a Yoruma too…” Mana remembered the young Demon that they fought in the Junkyard district.
“Unlikely, those bastards are Konoha exclusive, as far as I know. Several villages want some of them for their services but the Council doesn’t want to share and the Yoruma don’t even care. As long as they have beer to drink, members of other or same sex to have fun with and throats to slit they’re happy in Konoha.” The Yamanaka grunted out annoyed. Obviously the matter of Yoruma was a painful and inviting a lot of hatred topic for the blonde so Mana wanted to drop it as fast as possible.
Finally as the sky turned dark the trio reached the mercenary camp that was wandering around close to Shukuba town and Konoha. This one was a particular and a special one, ninja sometimes used the services of mercenaries and this one was an exclusively that kind of a band. They hung around Konoha and offered their easily accessible services to the ninja of that village, other villages had similar bands as well. Mana and Kiyomi were hesitant to enter the camp. It was a large circle of tents with a colossal fire that lit up the night’s sky. Some sort of a large animal was being roasted on a spear just above the fire.
“You can come in, girls!” a loud voice reached the ears of Mana and Kiyomi. It was cybernetic voice, similar to that of the same Demon that Mana had remembered fighting before. This mercenary must’ve used a cybernetic amplifier which made his voice unrecognizable too. The three slowly stepped into where the band could have seen them. These were a very brawny lot, armed to the teeth and armored. They looked like quite capable of doing most jobs requiring muscle but it was always a gamble with mercenaries as the three were just teenage girls entering their fray.
The owner of the strange cybernetic voice stepped into the light, revealing himself from the large circle and looking over the three. The giant was almost twice larger than any tall normal man. There were many ways in the ninja world to achieve such insane height and bulk but this certainly was not by any means achieved by natural means. The man may have been closing in on four meters in his size and he did not lack anything in the physical bulk department either. His group wore the usual chuunin vests that would protected their vitals and their torso from most conventional weapons like swords and kunai knives or shuriken. This man however was too large for that, he just wore a white shirt and a black vest with shoulder guards to protect his oversized neck and shoulders.
“Well, come on, little ladies, won’t you ask how I knew of your presence, if anything you were pretty much invisible, ain’t that right, folks?” the giant turned at his group who all raised their beers in the air and yelled out with a deafening cry of joy and approval. Mana’s heart was thudding like mad inside of her little chest, one couldn’t have been too sure about how a bunch of mercenaries would react…
“OK, big guy, how did you know?” Kiyomi replied having decided to play by the leader’s rules in case of them staying there.
The man suddenly reached onto his eye lid and peeled it up as if it was some sort of a zipper revealing a red glowing eye with some sort of yellow symbols and numbers running down his fake eye. “Those damned Iwagakure sensor eyes, best thing in the world, I swear, calculates distance between multiple points, senses body temperature and all that neat stuff. I don’t know how those bastards rock miners did this but it’s hot as hell!” the man shouted out in excitement.
Mana actually was quite interested in this strange eye of the mercenary boss. She had heard stories about technological breakthroughs happening all around the world. Konoha with its glowing gas for vendor ads and computers which could calculate really fast and store files, some people said it’d soon push the carrier pigeons and the Konohagakure Archive and its scissor-man owner out of business! Iwagakure with its sensory and radar technology, inventing radars that could sense veins of certain minerals underground and put the structure of the soil on display, Sunagakure with its amazing weather prediction system and its amazing solar power drawing devices. So far, Kirigakure was the only one lacking of technological advances as it very much dabbled in the old ways. They did use Sunagakure’s solar power technology and started recently developing similar hydro power technology under the watch of the other villages…
“And what’s that on your back? Is that a sensor too?” Hisako’s voice came for the first time since she was captured. Kiyomi looked back at the woman angrily and was about to punch her but she decided not to, after all, showing violence in front of those guys may make them a bit annoyed.
“Nope!” the mercenary colossus removed his gigantic pole from his back. It looked like some sort of metallic column of some sort and it had bunch of weird numbers on it. “This is “Julie” the newest invention from Kumogakure, the world’s leading inventors of kickass weapons. This baby converts chakra into pulsar blasts that blow shit up, no jutsu needed. You sort of need to know how to channel it into this baby so that sucks but so far this baby and me are engaged!”
Mana smiled back at Hisako, the woman seemed to know how to play this man, if he was pleased and talking he would’ve most likely have grown fond of the three and maybe helped them out. Then out of nowhere the giant mercenary leader recovered and pointed his gigantic finger at Hisako, seeing those fingers made Mana shake, the man would’ve been able to pop her head like a zit with two of those if he grabbed a hold on her…
“Why is that little hottie all tied up? We’re all free men here, aren’t we? Untie her the fuck up, come on, don’t be such poor sports…” the man commanded.
Kiyomi stepped forward but Hisako leaped into her back pushing her forward, Mana realized what the young woman was doing so she covered her friend’s mouth too.
“Ummm… My friend wanted to know which mercenary band this was, if we were to have business and untie this woman, we want to know at least if we’re dealing with the right band…” Mana smiled and blushed as she just made that excuse up. She needed to buy time and play this right, hopefully Hisako got over her madness and started playing along, so far she seemed quite helpful and started making up for trying to kill the two. Not that saving their lives would make up for that but she was at least going the right direction.
“Right, well my name’s Hachi, I’m the leader here ‘cause I blew the last one the hell up. That dick tried to move this band away from Konoha, I didn’t agree with that and I used all of my awesome gear that I’ve bought using my numerous payments, which other members of my… Group… Wasted on booze and… You know… Temporarily fun things.” The giant explained. Mana didn’t really like this man, not because of his “weapons of destruction are cool” attitude but because he had enough brain to use his funds for something like bartering for such weapons. Most mercenaries weren’t so good at making investments for the long run because they had no long run, their life expectancy out here wasn’t that great so they just drank and humped until they died in battle. This guy was different and something about it rubbed Mana the wrong way.
“Fine, we want to do business with you, Hachi” Kiyomi pulled the bag of coins that she was given by the Fifth as mission funds. “-san…” Mana added trying not to disrespect the man and desperately wanting not to pick a fight with this group. There may have been as many as twenty men and women here, most of them wore chuunin vests and how they earned them was quite shady, they may have been bought or looted from dead bodies and ninja tend not to sell their equipment to strangers unless they’re greedy and the deal is good.
“Well then, why don’t you settle down by the fire, young ladies, also untie the blackhead chick, even if she’s your prisoner she’s not running away from all of us.” Hachi ordered.
“You’d be surprised…” Kiyomi started but then mercenaries surrounded Hisako and cut her ropes. “Or… You know… Do whatever the hell you want…” the blonde finished her thought having realized that all semblance of control had just been taken away and the table was officially flipped now. The rug couldn’t have been more pulled. The mercenaries gently lead the girls around the fire as they settled down in front of it, on the other side Hachi dropped down shaking the ground under his giant rear cheeks. His size never ceased to impress, apparently his weight must’ve been matching the man’s size as well.
“Well then, what do you need to do and what do you have to offer for it?” Hachi asked curiously placing his head onto his giant palm and looking at the three girls with genuine curiosity. The lack of malicious intent in his eyes was surprising but Mana had seen kind eyes change into malicious in a matter of moment. This situation was as close to sword of Damocles as possible.
Kiyomi peeled a chunk of meat from the giant animal roasting and stuffed her mouth after being gestured to eat. After swallowing the whole thing down she slammed her hand on the ground to try and gather some respect and authority. Mana also took a small bite of the meat, she wasn’t much of an eater but if a host wanted one to eat, the worst thing to do was to dishonor them by refusing, especially if a host had a heat-seeking eye and a pulsar chakra blast launcher on his back as well as God knew what other enhancements… Hisako also sliced a piece with her knife. She had multiple belts of knives all around her body, as many actually as Mana had cards. For a moment this revelation of all the hidden sharp blades around Hisako’s body made the magician feel happy that she recollected most of her cards she had tossed in their brief scuffle before.
“We have a hostage kidnapped and we need hands to rescue it. This woman here is Yoruma Hisako, she was supposed to be our teammate, a Chuunin no less, and she tried to kill us. Now we’re short on competent hands and we need your help. All of the ryo here is all we have to offer, unless you’re also charging us for the food…” Kiyomi explained their situation revealing the bag of coins on the dirt, it was picked up by a mercenary and brought to Hachi who counted the ryo and nodded.
“Fifty thousand ryo for an assignment like this? I assume you’re paying for a single merc because one mercenary costs forty five thousand at the least, I price my own services in the ranges starting from a million ryo.” the man rumbled out. Kiyomi looked really confused, she probably expected hiring the boss as a single mercenary may not have cut it in this assignment.
Hisako spat to the left, her spit landed alarmingly close to a near naked mercenary woman who was rubbing her body against her colleague. “Anyone told you you’re a greedy bastard, Hachi?” she remarked, the mercenaries started shouting out in excitement as they felt like this woman had just challenged their leader.
Hachi laughed out, his laugh alone appeared to nearly put out the giant fire in the center of the camp.
“I mean a kunai with an explosive tag costs what… Eight hundred ryo? To have decent meal costs more like nine hundred, if we’re talking Ichiraku Ramen it’s five hundred or even three depending on the bowl of ramen. Now I haven’t seen shit from you yet so if you asked me, I’d rather eat two thousand bowls of ramen and let my egg allergy kill me than hire you. Or just buy a thousand and a quarter of another thousand of explosive kunai, I’ll let your little calculator in your eye do the math and check if I’m correct, I get it, you’re big, it takes time for blood to reach everywhere…” Hisako kept on throwing insults at the man but it appeared like the more she insulted the man, the more he kept on laughing.
“Now there’s a bitch who knows how to talk to a merc…” Hachi laughed out. He stood up and took his “Julie” off aiming to the side and blasting a single bright blue ball of pure chakra into the area where the three have come from. A deafening sound equaling a thousand thunderclaps made Mana lose her hearing for a moment and the bright light completely devastated her sight. The magician only regained her senses after almost a minute and she only saw devastation and destruction, craters and trees pulled with their roots and incinerated in the blast into dust and ashes. This man blew up at least fifty meters radius area with just one blast, a glass container shot out from “Julie” breaking on the ground. It was empty.
Hisako nodded, she didn’t appear surprised or impressed but Mana could smell the sweat from the girl, she clearly was stressing out a little even if her act was pitch perfect. “Fine, we’ll take either you if you’re willing to work for this price or a man whom you trusted enough to join your group. Give us someone of your choosing.”
Hachi sat back down putting his trusted cannon back it its sheath. “Not so fast. There’s still one matter I don’t get. You came here with this mission and hired us, that’s fine. But then where will you go at night? You are clearly also asking us to let you sleep here in our tents, that’ll cost twelve thousand ryo extra, I mean you’re ninja and this gal looks like a Yoruma with those fucking tats, I can’t really trust you out here unless you’re willing to buy my trust. You’re also asking us to lead this “Hisako” chick right back into Konoha, so you’re expecting my mercs to just waltz into a ninja village? That’s twelve thousand ryo extra. So to sum it up you owe me twenty four thousand ryo more than you got.”
Mana shook in her seat uncomfortably, they didn’t account that at all. When a mercenary feels ripped off he might turn uncontrollable. Kiyomi looked really pale and it didn’t appear like she knew a way out either. Hisako on the other hand wasn’t worried, she was utterly terrified. Mana couldn’t understand it, what exactly could this girl be so terrified of? Then the raven haired woman just stood up and walked up to Hachi on the other side and whispered something into his ear. The man laughed out from his full lion’s chest, the buttons of his shirt shot out revealing his hairy and bulky chest.
“Well then… This girl knows how to make a deal, then again, you did tell me that you were doubting my skill, why should I value yours at that price? I’ll need a display of your skill or I’ll just send your two underage brats home and keep you under my protection.” Hachi ironically winked at Hisako who just lowered her head. She nodded, then Hachi pointed at some random mercenary who took Hisako to a tent.
Mana turned at Kiyomi who was a bit horrified by the transaction, more perhaps that Hisako was the one to initiate it. The magician didn’t get what exactly was scaring her teammate. Clearly Hisako made some sort of a deal and it from how skilled she was with words it appeared like she was quite skilled at those sort of deals. “What happened?” Mana asked Kiyomi with a whimpering and silenced voice, trying to talk with just her friend. The Yamanaka weaved a hand seal. Her words started appearing in Mana’s thoughts as if the two were linked with their minds, Kiyomi knew how to telepathically communicate!
“It might be better if you don’t know…” the Yamanaka said. Mana wasn’t completely sure why on Earth was the atmosphere suddenly so sad and why her teammate was so crushed. Kiyomi’s hands were trembling for some reason. Fifteen minutes later the mercenary and Hisako walked out from the tent and the mercenary nodded at Hachi. The boss then smiled at the two and at Hisako who soon joined the two by the fire. “Well then, I suppose a fun lady for the night…” Hisako raised her palm and nodded at Mana. Hachi coughed up, “To tell me stories from her rich ninja life whole night, I mean… That concludes the deal if my associate is happy…”
The boss stood up and spread his hands out wide with a happy smile, his giant cannon almost slipped off of his back. “Well then, young ladies, enjoy yourselves, eat and sleep wherever the fuck you want, my camp is your camp, my mercs are your mercs. My associate just let me know that I in fact owe YOU some. I am glad we could reach a consensual agreement here.” Just like that Hachi disappeared, he danced around by the fire, sang songs and kept on drinking. Mana looked at Kiyomi who couldn’t pull her eyes off of Hisako, for a moment the magician saw the reflection of Kiyomi’s eyes from Hisako’s crystal eyes. The Yamanaka was looking at the Yoruma with both pity and disgust.
Finally the big feast and all those horrible songs and hilarious dancing was over. Mana sat by Hisako who had her hands untied. Kiyomi disappeared in her tent, the mercenaries chose to vacate the tent which Kiyomi had chosen. “If that bitch tries something just think about it, I’ll cut her throat that same instant!” Kiyomi’s thought appeared in Mana’s head, this ability of Kiyomi’s sounded scary, just how did the girl use it? How potent was it? Who heard it? How exactly could Mana talk to Kiyomi back? Apparently it was as easy as focusing on a thought. Still, now the magician saw why the Yamanaka clan was so treasured by the village. They may not have been “point to make the problem disappear” people like Yoruma but they were incredibly handy in other departments.
“Why the fuck are you still here? What are you, seven? Go to bed, twerp!” Hisako hissed angrily at Mana, for some reason the woman wanted to stay alone by the fire. Mana looked at the sad female and she sort of felt sad for her. Whatever that deal she made was it looked like she was really familiar with those terms as that cruel realization moment made it apparent that Hisako had done it multiple times before. Did she often hire mercenaries or something? Mana just wrapped her hands around her knees and buttoned up her blazer and moved in closer by the fire, the night was a really cold one.
“You look sad, I thought maybe you needed company…” Mana tried to be nice to the woman. “Plus I’m like almost fourteen, so come on, don’t be like that.”
“Trust me, kid, I’m about to have my company, more than most can handle.” Hisako hissed back, just with a little less anger, Mana wondered if maybe she could talk to the woman before it was time for the assassin to go to Hachi’s tent to tell those stories of hers.
“You know… If you don’t want to follow up on that deal, if you don’t know that many stories or if you don’t feel like it… We can just leave, we can do the mission just the three of us, we wouldn’t need the mercenaries, we’d just have to get together…” Mana suggested, she was really ready to follow up on that suggestion, if Hisako felt uncomfortable with any part of that deal she made the magician just wanted to let the woman know that she had options.
“Jeez you’re so fucking stupid. How do you think it’d go? Me working with that blonde Ms. Morals in there, I’d never wish to impose on her “my bloodline is so exalted and you’re all just fucking disgusting plebs here” personality. Plus just seeing you makes my blood boil, I’d probably just kill the two of you anywhere in the middle of the job. I’d rather tell stories to this whole fucking camp by the fire for a month and then go to prison than have to listen to the condescension of that Yamanaka bitch.” Hisako grunted out, she spoke quietly but she was visibly angry. She looked like a woman who was hurt way too many times as a girl and when she became corrupted by that damage people’s hatred for her made that damage grow out of control.
Mana placed her hand on her chest and wiped her nose. Her eyes started watering a little. “Hisako-san, why do you hate me?” Mana asked.
“Shut up, go to bed already.” The woman hissed back at her.
“I mean… Why are you so stubborn that you’d rather do something you don’t like than just work with us?” Mana asked again.
A painful shock emanated in Mana’s side, Hisako kicked Mana pretty weakly. Kicks from a sitting position weren’t that potent but it really did hurt, mostly the mental idea that the woman would’ve rather hurt the magician than talked to her. Mana picked herself up and sat at the same spot where she was.
“I mean, I think I get it why you hate me, Hisako-san. You’re a person who’s had bad things happen to you a lot for your whole life, you became a person who could deal with that pain and all that darkness but other people didn’t like that person. All that dismissal and all that hate, all that condescension and all that prejudice of your Yoruma legacy made you shut in even more, it’s a circle… No, a drowning spiral of darkness and sickening hatred that doesn’t help anyone.” Mana spoke up, Hisako turned at Mana with a violent stare, the magician saw the woman’s hands trembling on the handles of her knifes on the belts on her thighs.
“I’ll fucking kill you kid, it’s not worth it, leave it alone!” Hisako warned Mana as her voice started to pick up.
“Mana?” Kiyomi’s trembling mental voice reached Mana’s mind through the telepathic link.
“Please go to sleep, we’ll have a troubling couple of days ahead.” Mana thought concentrating on the thoughts with all of her might.
“You don’t have to concentrate that hard, you’re basically screaming it at this point…” Kiyomi replied mentally.
Mana reached up and hugged Hisako unexpectedly. She felt a sharp pain in her gut, Mana coughed up as all traces of oxygen left her lungs and she fell down on the dirt. She looked down where the pain came from, Hisako tried to punch the magician out by punching her in the gut. The girl desperately struggled to pick herself up. “Next time there will be a knife in that hand” Hisako grunted out. The woman stood up and started walking away moving to the large tent that belonged to Hachi.
“Does this hatred come from your family? Do you at the very least have a home to go back to and relax?” Mana huffed out, struggling to breathe. Hisako punched like a truck and a single punch almost made the girl throw up all that brief dinner that she had. Even after almost a minute had passed the magician struggled to get up.
Hisako stood there for a moment, she didn’t say anything, she just stared into the tent and closed her eyes, the woman’s head lowered as she stared into the dirt, she was shaking but then her voice returned to Mana.
“My mother was killed on a mission, she was a spy assassin, the slipping poison kind and she slipped poison to an official who was immune to it. She got tortured for hours before she died. My father was killed in front of me by the same people who wanted revenge for that attempt, they didn’t attack the Kage, they attacked the family that was hired. That scar on my eye, that’s from back then. Now go back to sleep and don’t go to that tent, not if you want to see this world for what it really fucking is. Sick world for sick people, a world where excess of sickness is rewarded and kindness and weakness leads to suffering and death. Keep living in that dream, keep thinking it’s beautiful, keep thinking you can change it. I want you to have that thought in you when I kill you, I want you to think about that, I want to see that thought leave your eyes at your last moments.”
After that monologue Hisako entered the tent, Hachi’s happy welcome echoed from inside and Mana finally managed to stand back up. The girl still rubbed her gut from the pain, Mana painfully walked up to Kiyomi’s tent and peeked in. Yoruma had a way with murderous monologues, that much Mana had to hand it to Hisako…
“Kiyomi-san, can I sleep here too, I don’t want to force some pair of mercenaries out of their homes?” she asked in an apologetic tone.
“Sure…” Kiyomi’s sleepy voice returned. Mana entered and settled down into the corner of the tent on the fur that was taken off some dead animal’s carcass, possibly even that same animal that Mana ate that night. The magician sighed, the air that entered her lungs was shaking in fear and hesitation.
“Don’t talk to Hisako anymore, don’t even think about her, she’s nuts and she will kill you.” Kiyomi warned Mana, this tone she used was incredibly strict and almost maternal. Mana closed her tired eyes and rubbed them wiping all the remains of any premature tears that may have formed. Yoruma really could talk, their scary monologues were so cold and so distancing, they made any sane person realize that this person was trouble. Most people would’ve described Mana in many ways but sane wasn’t one of them. “Also, you may want to cover your ears, maybe cover your head with the fur.” Kiyomi said gently pulling the fur cover on Mana’s ears.
Mana’s head slipped out from the fur, “Why?” she asked. Kiyomi grunted in frustration, “Yoruma kill a lot so I imagine her story telling techniques will be quite vivid and energetic, if you want to get any sleep you might want to cover up” the Yamanaka said covering the magician’s head back up. “That sick self-centered bitch…” Mana heard the last message come through the mental link before she couldn’t feel Kiyomi in her own mind anymore.
Despite the tent being cold and stuffy and the smell of dead flesh being all around her Mana drifted off rather easily, that fight with Hisako earlier left her quite exhausted.
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