A resonating sonic boom spread through the hall. Flames looking to devour the noise, the expensive stuffing, and coating of the hall's chairs and anything else that its tongues could lick failed to taste anything for they lagged behind the booming shockwave and turned blue before reaching the first row. Upon its elegant transformation began the drastic reduction of the flames centered around the rubble that stayed on the stage instead of being flung all over the hall.

The devastated, pointy shrapnel that flew toward the crowd soon became fluttery and soft, turning into butterflies and filling the hall. The insects flapped their wings, pooling together into a swarm and took to the ceiling where they burnt up into flames of sapphire blue, becoming nothing but the traces of harmless blue flickers littering the wooden frames of the ceiling but, with time, even those died out without leaving much trace on the structure it covered.

Mana might have put too much effort into her performance. The whole butterfly bit which required her masterful shape and elemental transformation to pull off, even if her trick would have been entirely useless in combat as nothing in her harmless flames had any sort of combat potential except the flashy distraction bit, was unnecessary since there was next to nobody in the seats to hurt. The magician bowed to her imaginary audience and thanked them for their unspent time and non-existent attention before leaving for her cleaner's closet to change and go home.

"Eh, don't worry, kiddo, they'll be coming back soon enough…" Mr. Hiro came in to comfort Mana about yet another show unseen by her audience. It was no cruel twist of fate at all. Mana was a controversial figure so she received virtually no promotion from Mr. Hiro's part. Any poster with her face on it would have been defaced, torn up, or otherwise vandalized and, Mr. Hiro might not have said it, but he neither needed nor wanted the backlash of being publicly tied to rotten Golden Child.

"I'm fine either way," Mana replied with a cold wash. These days she found herself caring much less about appearing perfect. Ever since her change of attitude and style she's been commonly getting sloppier with preparation and, had it not been for her experience, she might have gotten hurt. Sometimes she didn't even pack or even use her stage outfit on stage, choosing to just step up in leather and rags and almost throw the magic out at the non-existent faces before flipping the ever-present nobody off and walking off-stage.

"Eh, don't be that way, kid. You don't need to break your back every week for nothing. I've been meaning to talk to you about something though…" Mr. Hiro scratched his head. He found this conversation uncomfortable. It didn't take a profound face-reader to tell.

"I'll pay up for the rent of the hall. I've been paying the rent since I was twelve, haven't I?" Mana turned to Mr. Hiro. She knew deep down that she had the means to pay for her time in the spotlight, even if nobody wanted to look at the said spotlight, though it was because of that certainty that her voice shook uneasy. She was so sure that things were fine that she might have overlooked something.

"Technically, it was Hanada Katsuo who got you taking off, but that's beside the point. The point isn't the money, it's actually your performance," Mr. Hiro shrugged.

"Look, I know that I've been improvising a lot more lately and that I botch a thing or two. I didn't have much time to practice in Jigoku though I'm spending overtime practicing now," Mana felt her tone sounding defensive. She was embarrassed by the much less structured performance she was giving off, oftentimes coming up with new tricks and stunts on the fly using just the barebones tools she didn't forget to bring to the show that day but, as was becoming her way, she's been putting up the spikes and curling into a ball instead of showing it.

"Nah, your tricks ain't it, though I don't think you should be chasing trends you yourself inspired. Those punks that caught on to your act and made it edgy or brought it to the streets are doing their own thing, you'd better leave the stunts to them while you do your smoke and mirror thing, though that's just a piece of advice. My point is that… Would it be okay if you protected yourself a little bit more? Lately, stunts have been taking more and more of your time and I'm getting a bit worried. Just today you blew yourself up inside an iron maiden that you additionally skewered with swords," Mr. Hiro spread his arms out. He felt like he didn't need to emphasize any further on what he meant and perhaps he didn't have to.

"I was thinking… Maybe we should sink the trap underwater once more people show up? I know, Water Release isn't my style so the possibilities with manipulating water are limited but… It would put more tension to the act and the water would muzzle the blast from being such a nuisance to the front row…" Mana looked up, spinning around in her chair.

"Are you even listening to yourself, kid? You want to shut yourself inside an iron maiden, additionally skewer it with swords, stick it with explosive tags and then sink it… If you muck up not getting perforated or impaled, not getting blown up or not drowning, any single one of those would kill you," Mana didn't have to smell Mr. Hiro's sweat to realize that the hall owner was getting nervous. Its luster was reflecting ample of the light that the warehouse lightbulb was putting out.

"Okay, let's put sinking on hold. You know, if we mixed sand with water, it would become even harder to escape and manipulate. Wet sand is a real bother to work with, just bouncing ideas…" Mana shrugged and stood up, showing that she was ready to leave.

"Kid, I get it that you're crying really loud for help over here but… I'm not sure what I can do for you, honestly. All I can do is care for the kid I've seen grow up on my stage and tell her to knock it off with the attempted suicide every week," Mr. Hiro pleaded.

"Oh, come on…" Mana faked a sly smirk. "If nobody sees or hears the tree falling down in the woods – did it really happen?"

"Look, kid… I've been storming some ideas with my old lady and… I don't want to be associated with you publicly for the time being and you want to get the publicity of your act back on track, right?" Mr. Hiro stopped Mana from leaving the closet by grabbing her elbow softly just to stop her from strutting away.

"Harsh…" Mana closed her eyes, trying to cackle when her chest burnt up with swelling tears from how rudely this brutal honesty had played her sensitive nerves like strings.

"Don't get sassy with me, I'm trying to help both of us out here. How 'bout this – World Magic Tour!?" Mr. Hiro posed as if he was making the flashy neon signs into being just over his head, looking mighty proud of the flashy work of art he had created.

"World Magic Tour?" Mana sighed, trying to show the minimal amount of interest necessary not to have Mr. Hiro hassle her for not caring about her own act.

"Yeah, you've always been pretty huge with foreigners. Mostly it's because you've only performed in Konoha and people had to flood here to see your act. If you move around the world for a year or two, you'll have the time for everybody to cool the hell down about that situation you've found yourself in while you're working on building up more fame abroad. After you're back with all of what you've squandered returned to you, who cares if those Konoha types fail to show up to your shows when the hall will sell for an arm and a leg abroad?" Mr. Hiro did his best impression of an infernal tyrant pitching his Faustian bargain.

Except there was not exactly anything deceitful or sinister about it. The idea was quite sound. The only problem that Mana saw in the immediate vicinity when going for it was obtaining permission from Hokage to leave the village. Then again, plenty of jounin and especially Sannin left the village on pilgrimage and training all the time. Maybe she's had a few favors to call with the village after shutting Kanon down for them and restoring parts of the omniverse to its semi-coherent state.

"That doesn't sound too bad, I'll run it by Lord Seventh. He'll likely shut this shit down immediately but…" Mana sighed.

"But at least we'll know we tried. When it comes to the rest of your life, trying's the least that you can do," Mr. Hiro grabbed Mana's hand and pressed it in a grateful handshake. "Just don't you go around trying to kill yourself on the stage abroad. Buy yourself a mirror, blow some smoke on it, you used to be a class act, cut the edgy shit out, and leave it to the self-proclaimed pros."

"Mana!" a yell that might have qualified for the proud award of being described as a desperate shriek clawed its way through the somber silence of the absent crowd that never showed up for Mana's show in the first place, save for a few exceptions. It was a voice or irritating but also so welcome to her ear that the magician could have recognized it even in a semi-conscious state.

"Meiko…" Mana mumbled, failing to scrape the snark off of the kitchen walls to slap it at her best friend. She was too happy to see the redhead alive and okay after all this time, frankly.

"I missed it, didn't I?" Meiko panted, looking like she had worked up quite a sweat and barely could stay up on her feet.

"No, you're just in time. The show's over, you won't have to see it anymore," Mana shrugged. "I'm not sure what's on next, the crews renting the hall don't really let me into their circles these days."

"Mana… Look, there's so much I wanted to say. I'm sorry I missed your show, I've just… Look, it doesn't matter, it's a lousy excuse anyway. Can we just… Get a bite to eat or something?" Meiko gave Mana the puppy eyes. As crude as the magician tried making herself out to be in an attempt to shake off the few persistent apples on her support tree, these puppy eyes were a newfound weakness to that resolve to make the whole world hate her for what she's done to Guru Ayushi before working some respect back up for the work she's doing as a stage magician.

"Sure. I won't be able to treat you though, I'm not nearly as flushed with cash these days…" Mana sighed.

"That's fine, I make my own donuts now!" Meiko shined Mana with a beaming smile and a thumb up. "I got promoted to chuunin, Kiyomi too."

"Oh, I missed out on that…" Mana turned away. She really did regret not being able to be there and support her friends during the Chuunin Exams. More than she expected to have someone by her side in the last half-year of nothing but the crapshoot downpour she's been getting. "Congrats."

"Yep, I guess we've finally caught up to you!" Meiko nodded to herself. Mana didn't want to blow that balloon up nor did she feel energized enough to tell Meiko about her own promotion right after being released from prison. Frankly, talking about that would have felt like gloating and nothing else and would have served no other use so it was a pointless topic anyway.

"Probably surpassed me too. Spent six months doing jack shit…" Mana replied in a grungy tone.

"Yeah, it must have been tough, wasn't it?" Meiko made an exaggerated face full of pity. She was good at being a cartoon character given life, mostly because she felt without any restriction or deeper layer of thought and was lousy at hiding her feelings. "We've been thinking on how to check up with you or support you in some way but… We didn't even know where Jigoku was. It hurt, knowing you were in trouble and that there was nothing we could have done to help!"

"Yeah, it must have hurt really bad…" Mana rolled her eyes.

Meiko saw that frustration boiling deep down in Mana's gut but she lacked the words to confront or deal with that so she just dropped that subject altogether. Walking around with the blacksmith actually made Mana feel less visible. The solitude, the stigma of rejection that she carried around wherever she went sort of marked her and made her stand out no matter how hard Mana tried to rebel against that outlook with her changes in style and appearance.

The redhead chuckled to herself when the two walked into Yakiniku-Q and Mana felt obliged to try and conceal her face with letting her hair fall over her face while she covered her cheeks, lips drowning in cherry red and her puny chin behind her hands. She must have still thought that Mana was avoiding the hassle of being recognized by her fans. Then again, she had no reason not to think that way. The world being just unicorns farting rainbows to her was the most charming quality of Meiko, though, now Mana had the perspective of how frustrating it might have looked to someone not sharing that view nor feeling particularly inspired by it.

"I'll have the Salamander-Dragon Ribs, four servings of Salted Beef-Tongue one of each: barbecue, ketchup, honey-mustard, and red wine, the Fire-Mountain Bulgogi, Gold Tyrant's Jingisukan with additional salt to complement the lemon juice…" Meiko's order tired Mana out and she wasn't even the one writing it down.

One notable reason why Mana felt worn out by Meiko's order was that Mana just looked away and stared through the window on her left as if she had seen someone she knew and that person just stopped in a moment in time and remained frozen for her admiration. If only the waitress didn't see her face, if only, maybe, she didn't care that Mana was eating in Yakiniku Q and didn't tell her manager, while the manager didn't consider it a problem and kick Mana out, making a stunt for publicity points with the audience that loved grilled meat and hated delinquent vandals.

"I know you're ordering a lot but… I'm afraid your friend is going to also have to order something. Sorry, restaurant policy, though you can just have some water if you really don't feel like eating." The waitress turned to Mana, the magician couldn't see her eyes though she could feel the tense, suspicious aura lingering and forcing the air to press at her chest and shortening the breath for the young woman.

"I'll… I'll just have Salmon Bibimpap if it's okay." Mana mumbled, still looking away though the sight of her own reflection in the window sent chills down her spine. There was not a single doubt in the magician's mind that the waitress had to see the reflection too – she knew who she was.

"Heh, alright, ironically enough, I might end up mixing up your order just because it comes right after Meiko-san's and I haven't written it down," the waitress let out a burst of nervous laughter and walked off.

It could have gone better. It could have gone way worse.

There was clearly tension in the air, though, the way Mana took it, Yakiniku Q must have valued the revenue stream that Meiko was providing them with far more than the good publicity they'd have gained for kicking out the friend that Meiko was dining with. At least Meiko's bottomless stomach served one use…

"Heh, I would have never recognized you if you didn't answer my call," Meiko laughed out to herself, shaking in her seat, pumped up while waiting for her order. "You've changed your style up a whole lot, just like Kiyomi has."

"Well, I wanted to get a mohawk done too but then I realized that getting a mohawk was the worst way of avoiding attention," Mana shrugged with snark still stuck to her teeth, leaving a dry taste in her mouth.

"So, how come you're low on ryo these days? I've found myself capable of supporting pretty much any hobby and lifestyle I can think up of from the income, though the missions have gotten way harder too. It's tough to even imagine how out of your depth you must have felt having been promoted all those years back…" Meiko leaned back in her seat, relaxing a bit, which was a luxury Mana didn't permit herself. More and more the magician found her eyes wandering over the entire establishment catching wayward stares from the visitors, hoping that none of them would cause any problems for her and Meiko.

The last thing Mana needed on her conscious was knowing that she wrecked Meiko's chances of eating out at her favorite joint.

"Well, I haven't been the most popular pick for missions lately. Plus, the only mission I have managed to nab was ranked B+, ranging on A-rank, so, as it turns out, the world tends not to approach its end every day, which leaves me with plenty of downtimes in between missions," Mana shrugged.

"Huh? You're getting those sorts of missions, huh? That's amazing, so far I've only been handed out one B-Rank mission and we did it in a squad too. Still, you should be more responsible with your finances, a high tier B-Rank mission has to pay enough to pay for a respectable home," there was something rich in Meiko scolding Mana about responsibility with money.

Saving a chunk of the omniverse from total collapse and preventing leaking of village information might have counted Mana in for a considerable reward but said reward did not count in the luxuries of supporting her father's life on a weekly basis as well as assisting her mother's business as payback for the harm that she's caused it in the first place.