Thumb burst through the hospital door, not the one that Mana and the burglar had entered through but one that lead to a small alleyway leading to an important vein of the city, pulsing with movement and inhabitants.
"I don't think it's such a good idea. You can't just burst into the place and start punching people." The tone of the woman was different from before. She was no longer teasing or being playful, Thumb was genuinely concerned. Whom for exactly Mana couldn't be sure. Her buzzing and tired mind couldn't be sure of anything lately. The pulsing veins in the side of her head demanded chakra input to remain functioning properly but Mana was purposefully denying them it. Was it Mana's instinctual phobia of needless augmentations or some other reason that made the girl behave this way, she could not entirely remember.
"I've tried anything but that. Yes, if I do this right and if I do this how I always do things, I shall succeed. But when I do things how I've always been doing them, other people suffer. Good people." Mana tried shutting the woman down. The searing pain in her mind did not let her put together a better answer so she went with the outer layer of the feelings that bubbled inside of her chest.
"You cannot do this alone, that's why you've put together the team, isn't it? Where will you even find… That man?" Thumb almost broke her taboo in fear of Mana doing something either very smart or very stupid.
"I have my ways." Mana cut it down again.
"Oh, please. You won't torture anyone, of all people I know that the best. Stop lying to yourself. All you're going to do is get yourself killed or hospitalized in there." Thumb persisted. "I know how powerful the other Rings are, most importantly, how cunning they are. You can't do this alone."
"You don't know anything about me. You've only seen the shell of what I can do, only what I've allowed you to see." Mana turned back at Thumb, meeting her panicking gaze with a contrasting one of her own. The magician may have been delusional to think so, she acknowledged that much even in her hazy mental state, but she was beginning to think that it was not her or the youngbloods that the burglar woman was protecting by being this cautious. "You insisted on coming with me. I know you're afraid to head to the den of your predators but it was your call to follow me around whole day. You are more than welcome to head back to the Security building."
"Why are we standing about? How will you even know where to find that man?" Thumb placed her hand on Mana's shoulder.
"I'll ask them." The magician replied leaving the last part ominous, a pair of moments after she left it hanging in the air, the little capillary leading into the busy town street filled with people of questionable intentions. Some were all muscle, some looked all grace and speed yet all of them were entirely composed of murder and violence in varied ratios of the two.
"Who are they? Do you think they're after me?" Thumb took a couple of cautious steps back.
"I don't know nor do I care. They've been following us for a while, since Heiho Square at the very least. I could sense them but they were too minor a concern to stop our progress then." Mana turned against the handful of thugs rushing into the alleyway so she could stand against them face to face.
One by one, the bandits spread out to both sides, letting a tall and intimidating figure approach through the middle. One with the smallest chakra signature of them all, strangely. It was a tall and incredibly well-trained physically individual. He wore nothing but a tank top underneath an unzipped military vest that was supposed to keep away an injury from simple swords, kunai, and shuriken at bay. The vest was far too short for the man, which was why it was worn so loosely and was in a constant state of tension, moments away from tearing.
"Is this one of the Rings?" Mana looked back at Thumb.
"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" Thumb flipped out on Mana.
"You told me you were a Ring. That means that yes or no Ring-related questions are a loophole in your Taboo Seal." Mana explained with a calm and calculated face.
"Not even a gasp?" the muscular man with the Kumogakure military vest spread his massive arms wide, adopting a mocking grin on his ugly and scarred mug. He apparently expected Mana to recognize him but the magician couldn't really put a finger on his shaved brick-shaped head and his face that looked like it was flattened by a titanium wall when the man hit it face-first while traveling at great velocity.
"Unless you are a Ring of the Diamond Hand, I do not care who you are. Unless you have information about them, get out of my way." Mana shoved air out of from her chest as anger was making her breathing highly irregular. The old man in the Sun Disc arena would have been quite disappointed with her breathing had he seen her now.
"Those fuckers? They only sent the woman who directed me your way, my only association with them is that they gave me men and a goal which both of us could agree on – snapping your little body like a twig!" the giant almost roared out, spraying an alarming amount of bodily fluids from his mouth as he did so.
"I think he harbors some kind of grudge against you… The woman he is speaking of could be the Index Ring though." Thumb noted the obvious.
"I do not care," Mana exclaimed, still brimming with anger for what happened to Itemi, for the misfortune of it all and the betrayal of someone she considered a friend to go off on a raid all by himself, before starting to slowly walk towards the gang of armed men lead by this mysterious titan of physicality. "Seeing how you don't know anything, move."
Seeing how none of the sixteen men that the gigantic mystery-man brought with him planned to move, instead deciding to twitch and display all the signs and gestures of an incoming attack. Each one of them was taken down in a split-instant, collapsing before their bodies could complete the first motion of their attacks.
The man in the middle was left with a twitching right eye, watching Mana approaching him. The magician did not attack him because she was actually quite curious, not about his origins or why he was so fixed on killing Mana, maybe that would be of interest to her if she was in a better mental place. What interested the kunoichi was what exactly the man would do, would he surrender some useful information in hopes that Mana would not harm him or if he would remain adamant about his strange quest for vengeance.
"Y-You ruined my life, you little bitch!" the man roared out, charging forward. He was either very mindless or very skilled in hand to hand, compensating the difference of chakra Mana had on him to augment her abilities with would have been profoundly difficult, next to impossible even.
With careful leans back, a very flawed dodging motion admittedly, Mana leaned away from the massive arms that aimed to punch all that was soft inside Mana's body out of her. The manner of her evasion was mocking to anyone who knew a bit about martial arts. Leaning backward or sideways only invited a very simple counter but, at the same time, it was a very psychologically vexing dodge, the equivalent of a verbal abuse in martial arts form.
"I do not remember you. Had I done something of the sort, I'm sure I would have remembered it." Mana closed her eyes. She decided to calm her nerves, her current boiling state would have lead to her accidentally killing this weakling of a man. He was a mere civilian in prime physical condition, the very human peak of strength and endurance. It must have taken an entire lifetime of grueling training for this man to acquire this shape, he would have been an amazing ninja had he had a semblance of spiritual training to balance his physicality.
"You little bitch, you left me impaled on a moose horn! Captured by a little magician girl, I was the laughing stock of the entire prison! I was given six years for my crimes but I had to swallow my pride, to almost beg to be placed in Jigoku, that way I only had to suffer one-third of that punishment." As the man continued to express years-worth of suppressed feelings Mana was beginning to remember the man.
How did he expect her to recognize him? Last time she saw this man he was wearing full mercenary military gear, admittedly, he had this same armored vest but his face was almost completely concealed behind a gas mask, not only that, he had a quite rich head of greasy hair back then. Granted, remembering this man did calm Mana's heart a bit for his identity had some sentimental value for Mana.
"It was a deer horn from a deer trophy." Mana fixed the man's mistake. Given how much blood he was losing and that he was impaled through the back, he may not have seen the exact animal that had foiled him. "And I am afraid you are giving me too much credit. I did not ruin your life. You decided to capture Hanada Katsuo and beat his life out of him, threaten his family and children, also a room full of innocent children who just came to wish their friend a happy birthday as well."
The once leader of a mercenary gang did not wish to listen to Mana's words at all. He continued to throw fists without a moment to hesitate or to stop at the magician's direction, using them as both thrust punching weapons and hammering the ground beneath his feet in an attempt to mash the magician to the dirt. A rather symbolic gesture given his searing hatred for the girl. Neither of the mercenary's fists landed on their desired target. Mana was like a mirage of a spectacular oasis to a man stranded in a desert, alluring yet untouchable.
"You had a choice, you could have left this hateful cause of yours behind, move along with your life as you have left your hatred for Hanada-san behind, in pursuit of my life. Instead, you chose to keep on subjecting yourself to that flame, to keep simmering in a pot of hellfire. All this time passed and you haven't moved on because of it. All because of choices you made. If you want to hate me, if you wish to kill me that is fine, just don't lie to both of us that I have anything to do with the wreck your made of your life." Mana kept on taunting her opponent.
Even if this clash did not even begin resembling a fight, in the meaning that the opposing forces were nowhere near equal in this case, Mana did feel a semblance of worry. This man was completely normal in terms of his chakra signature, the physical aspects of his chakra were peaked but that was not the correct path to strength. She would need to hit him at some point but Mana felt a slight hint of worry that she was in no state to properly control the force of her strike so that it isn't ineffective or doesn't outright kill him.
If she hit this man too weak, the hit would just bounce off without any use. If the hit was to be too strong, she would completely demolish this man beyond any point of reasonable dignity for his remains. It was once Mana caught a glimpse of the sweaty and grimacing pure, unadulterated hatred face of her opponent that she got an idea of what she would do.
"That's right, I suffered profoundly in Jigoku, bested by a little girl, I was the laughingstock amongst the world's most dangerous people. I had to swallow my pride, my dignity and any semblance of self-worth! All that left was hate!" the man smashed the ground beneath his feet, shattering the rock tiles and pavement and raising broken off pillars of dirt and shattered stone from underground while his arms burst with blood. Mana vaulted over the man, scaling his massive, veiny chest like a wall before flipping over the man's head but instead of exploiting any of his openings she just took a graceful hop back to get some distance.
"You think you've become strong after lifting some weights and sparring with some blockheads, after picking up scraps from truly strong men but they saw you for what you truly were this whole time. You were weak because you abandoned your spirituality, you've abandoned your humanity because you needed space to stuff all that hatred somewhere. Those men in Jigoku used you for entertainment, Index used you just for fun, directing you my way just to see what will happen." Mana's voice softened. Even if she was exploiting the man's anger and hatred for a plan on stopping Bakku for good, she felt that realization soothing the anger and hatred inside her own heart too.
"You really think pissing this guy off is a good idea?" Thumb intervened, just narrowly avoiding a wild backhand swing from Bakku coming her way.
Bakku had clearly picked up some moves in Jigoku, some self-taught criminals taught him basic forms of Strong Fist, clearly. The most ironic part was that by surrendering to the basic principles of the Strong Fist – dominating physicality and brutal destruction and breaking of all bones in one's opponent Bakku made Mana an insurmountable wall to overcome. The very core principles of Mana's evasive style were designed to evade such styles, the magician needed no time or draw no profiles to understand Bakku's fighting style. No form of pure Strong Fist would ever lay a finger on her.
"Why? He is just a toy, always was. Hanada Katsuo toyed with him and his men back home, the prisoners in Jigoku toyed with him so that they could laugh after seeing a worm train to fly so it could hunt down hawks, Index played with this man just for chaos' own sake. Whether he dies and she loses nothing or I die and she gains something – to the Diamond Hand Bakku is nothing but a toy." Mana replied while she danced around her sweating and wheezing opponent who desperately tried to realize all of the sick dreams he had of breaking the little girl that, in his mind, caused his life to crash down and burn.
It was then that Mana saw her chance when Bakku extended his hands with an attempt to block off Mana's escape. The magician extended just one finger, placing it lightly to Bakku's chest as lightning crackled down her body.
"Lightning Style: Magician's Touch", Mana calmly whispered.
Bakku's body began jerking wildly as he fell to his knees in an instant, collapsing without a sign of life, pulse or any hints of consciousness. Mana had to step aside just so the collapsing giant did not fall right on top of her. A moment of deadly silence reigned in, Mana closed her eyes and placed her hands inside of her coat pockets. Just as that happened, a bunch of men and women in white coats started flooding the alleyway outside of the hospital backdoor, likely having observed the entire thing. While they did pick up the downed giant, Mana and Thumb had already disappeared into the busy street further down the alleyway.
"That was mean of you. To belittle a man so much and crush his dreams before you killed him." Thumb spoke up, her tone was no longer mocking or playful, it was serious and a little respectful even.
"I did not kill him. He suffered a cardiac arrest right outside a hospital. It is dangerous, it might result in death but this facility has the technology needed to treat it. Itemi-san survived getting riddled with kunai blades, didn't he?" Mana bitterly replied. The suggestion that she would have intentionally killed a man she felt so bad for was quite sickening but she did not blame Thumb for that. The burglar did not know Mana's dislike of ending life.
"So… You just shocked him and he had a cardiac attack?" Thumb raised an eyebrow. "For someone trained to kill, that was awfully inventive of you to keep him alive like that."
"His training was that did him in. I barely had to supply a spark. Did you not see his pitiful state?" Mana looked away, feeling her eyes moisten.
"Oh yeah! The guy looked like he could lift a building over his head with his right arm, what a pathetic fellow…" Thumb's cheekiness and sarcasm returned about at the same time that the blood in her pale cheeks did.
"Don't laugh. I was taught my entire life that strength was acquired through rigorous improvement of one's body and mind, both spiritual and physical selves must grow in harmony in order for a person to grow strong. Bakku-san had ignored his spiritual side, trained himself to the point where his body was on the verge of breaking down already. He was wheezing and sweating, his facial muscles were twitching and contracting irregularly, he was a wreck while in complete physical prime. The spark was just a catalyst for the cries of help from his already dying heart." Mana mumbled as she snuffled with her running nose, luckily she was in cold enough environment to leave everyone fooled about the source of those sounds.
"You mean his heart was messed up or something? Well, a cardiac arrest won't help that. My grandpa had one of those after a heart attack, he couldn't do anything strenu… That was your intention, wasn't it?" Thumb pushed Mana playfully before shaking the girl by her shoulder.
"Yes. It is more than likely that he will never be able to fight or train his body again without suffering another attack to his damaged heart. He could keep on fostering his hatred and choose death, in that case, I'll have failed him truly. But there is still a chance that he will change his ways now that the other option is sure to kill him." Mana explained, wiping her tears and working up a smile for her companion.
"That's pretty kind of you, for someone so determined to end your life as painfully as possible…" Thumb smiled back.
"Not true. Bakku-san helped me see what reveling in hatred and wish of immediate payback does to someone. How it can undo all training and all the growth someone had accumulated throughout their life. I just… Wanted to help him, that's all." Mana looked on ahead, only for her stare to freeze and widen in disbelief of the youth standing right in front of her.
"You've done enough here, Mana. I'm here to bring you back." Aozora Yushijin, Kouta's ex-teammate from back in the Chuunin Exams, was standing right in front of Mana, staring her right in the eyes with determined and driven eyes.