Finding Sekita wasn't a particular problem that Mana had to worry about. The recruit had a chakra that soared leagues above most around her that was slowly fading out with every step and movement that the giant made. Even if she wasn't a walking beacon, it wasn't like Sekita was trying to hide and the entire ground shook from each love tap of her foot. The floor was still soaked with puddles of poison, making contact with skin dangerous, Mana floated using her Mystical Wings jutsu just in case.
"Sekita!" she yelled out. Seeing how the brute was unmoved by Mana's vocal plead to stop, the magician curved out and stepped up in front of her. She expected her appearance to at the very least slow Sekita down but the jumbo-sized juggernaut kept on walking, only taking a mean glare with her whited-out eyes to acknowledge Mana's presence.
Mana tsked and slipped a white card out from her sleeve, allowing Lightning Release chakra to pass through her body, the magician extended the card and channeled the molded chakra through it, using it as a sort of a lightning rod that helped her shape the chakra into a beam like a laser.
"Magical Shock Jutsu!" she chanted out. Sekita grabbed the beam of lightning with her hand, like a whip, and tore it to sparking shreds, continuing to walk forward in a threatening trajectory that would have led the giantess to walk right over Mana.
"Rebellious Twist Jutsu!" Mana yelled out, going through hand seals in a blink as only she could. Her sleight of hand movements had almost returned to her heyday before imprisonment. A wind current formed beneath Mana, spinning the magician and throwing her diagonally up on a collision course with Sekita's looming foot that Mana grabbed and moved together with the current of the whirlwind, flipping the brute over and down on her back.
Rebellious Twist was meant to deflect stray ninja tools and other projectiles, though this unorthodox idea that popped right into Mana's head for an alternative way of using the whirlwind in a different angle for a very different purpose did its deed. Sekita popped up on her bottom and rose from her fallen position. She looked to have finally been humbled enough to notice Mana now that the magician proved to be capable of stopping her strut to the HQ.
"I always knew it," Sekita mumbled, throwing a lightning-fast jab of her supersized arm. It was anything but a proper way to throw a punch but given Sekita's unnatural size and mutated source of power, she didn't need balance or proper arm movement to pop Mana's head clean off her shoulders with even such a puny blow. Fortunately for Mana, she'd not have been caught unaware by an even faster and more skilled physical combatant as evasion was second nature to her.
"I knew it that you were strong," Sekita continued her train of thought after gripping her hands together and throwing them in a spinning double-ax-handle slam aimed to send Mana flying up. Mana used a little bit of turbulent aid of the elements to boost her crescent-shaped vault over her opponent's attack, landing on the other side and slipping a full hand of cards from her sleeve that she flung at Sekita while she was open.
Whether the cards exploded or sent a jolt of electricity, unsealed a windstorm filled with more steel-tipped cards dancing inside it, or performed some other elaborate trick sealed inside one card, Sekita not only didn't appreciate Mana's resourcefulness but she didn't appear to at all be touched by it either. None of Mana's attempts to find a natural weakness to Sekita's ability other than the unnatural burn through her newly gained resources, nothing appeared to have any effect on the mutated Akimichi woman.
"You lied to me. You're just like Regimental Commander Harcel said!" Sekita yelled out, unleashing immense air pressure and airborne droplets of poison that brewed within her gut after she had ingested all of it that was on location. "You pushed everyone else away because you alone were strong! They'd have dragged you back!"
Mana bounced back gracefully to gain some distance and avoid the spray of venom that came from Sekita merely speaking with a raised volume in her direction. What was that she was spouting? Did she really think that Mana let the other tutors get incapacitated just so she could fight Sekita alone? What gave away that impression? There was no way Mana would have done anything like that.
"That's not true," Mana replied, flinging a handful of pouches from her side to roll behind Sekita while the magician clapped her hands together and extended them with her index fingers and thumbs touching each other while Lightning Release chakra passed through her wrists and hands. "Royal Flush Combination!"
Using her Magic Bullet Barrage, an improved version of the Magic Spark Barrage Mana used as a child, the kunoichi sprayed devastating Lightning Release spheres in a destructive barrage that should have either injured her opponent or, at the very least, stunned her and staggered her back into the twin pouches that contained a pair of Mana's decks with various sealed effects stored inside them. The myriad of seals, blasts, and elements raging all at the same time howled in a ruinous chain reaction that enveloped the stunned giantess whole.
Despite the fact that given the battle that Sekita waged with the rest of the Allied Ninja staff before, after taking such a hit anybody would have died for certain, Mana could feel Sekita's chakra blazing potently inside, still a fair bit mightier than the young woman's potency on her greatest day. And yet, not even she expected Sekita to bounce back this swiftly. A massive hand emerged from within the settling rubble, grabbing Mana by her collar and dragging her in.
Before Mana could grunt or think about resisting, Sekita slammed her to the ground and pressed her with her palm like a fragile, little bird. The pressure then faded but only for a second. Mana sensed Sekita's chakra signature up above – she was intending to slam her whole body onto her downed opponent. Mana clapped her hands and formed the Magic Bubble jutsu, augmenting it to the best of her ability and hoping for the best. She had better odds of blocking a meteor than mutated and enraged Sekita in her current state. And yet, the barrier held, if only long enough for Mana to roll away. Still, she cried out in pain when the resonating shockwave flung her aside like a whimpering leaf.
Still, she survived that slam even though it was as close as it got.
"You're wrong, I never pushed anyone away! You're wrong about strength!" Mana called Sekita out while getting some air back into her troubled lungs and preparing for another round.
"You didn't fight with them. I saw you, you weren't fighting together, you were avoiding me, avoiding the fight. You waited until all the weaklings die out, as a true warrior would. I don't know why you keep on denying it…" Sekita grumbled, returning back to her own feet and towering over her opponent. The brute finally got to see that to get to the headquarters and Stein she'd have to step over or onto Mana.
"No. It was hopeless to engage you back then, I tried making a plan, letting everyone in on it to fight smart." Mana denied Sekita's implication though she could hear how quivering her own defensive tone was. Damn it! This was the least convenient time to let Sekita get to her.
"They were too weak so you let them fall. But you haven't thought this through, because you are strong but you aren't stronger than me!" Sekita pressed her arms in to her sides while she rolled into a ball. Mana's jaw dropped and she went pale, realizing what her opponent intended to do. It was a manifesting nightmare – a literal human tank that wouldn't stop no matter what once it got rolling.
"Summoning Jutsu!" Mana bit her thumb, going through hand seals while calling out to as many summons at once as she could. She was desperate, inserting far too much chakra into her call but maybe seeing the strength she sacrificed to call out to her partners, the rabbits would realize how dire the situation was?
"Human Bullet Tank!" Sekita yelled out as the human boulder got rolling. Usubane, Usuzoku, and a handful of others appeared all at once and engaged the incoming human juggernaut roll without asking any questions. Mana didn't even know a few of the rabbits that showed their face but they were willing to answer the call of the young woman that led them away from the snakes into their new home, to safety.
Everything went black, Mana could hear her own pain-ridden scream and a cascade of popping around her. The rabbits failed – she failed. Though she couldn't feel the ground rumbling anymore, there was no more earthquake nor were the people screaming or the foundations of the Allied Ninja HQ being toppled down like a stack of pins could be heard. There was nothing before Mana's eyes opened for a blurry and weakened sight of the satisfied scowl of her enemy, holding her head in her hand and dangling Mana's helpless body in her grip.
Mana's body felt distant, almost like it didn't belong to her anymore. As if it was some other weightless sack of broken bones being dangled like a fancy trophy in front of a proud opponent that tried to figure out if the enemy was worth the time spent finishing her off. The pain, the feeling of blood rushing up and down, and pressure in Mana's temple, it all went away for a second. Then dirt and rock seared bloody scratches and bruises all over Mana's body as her body left a dragging ridge where Sekita flung her.
"No, you're strong, you deserve death. Then, I'll show you to Regimental Commander Harcel and he'll understand that I am strong too. Stronger than even you. Stronger than you at your strongest, with all meaningless bonds thrown out and severed, with your true self exposed and full power on, I still beat you!" Sekita leaned over Mana, trying to hammer the point of her defeat into the magician's head.
There was still chakra in Mana's system, her body was banged up more than it ever has been since her fateful clash with Guru Ayushi but the magician felt like she could still go. These last few seconds that Sekita wasted bragging… If only she'd waste a few more and let Mana's eyesight align, breath return back to her burning lungs and the searing in her muscles to let up some.
Mana's scream ended in an awkward gargling sound, she didn't even see Sekita's foot move but the overwhelming pain coupled with tremendous numbness below her neck made the magician realize that Sekita had stomped her into the ground. Unlike everything below her neck, the feeling of Sekita's massive fingers creeping over Mana's scalp like anxious centipedes looking to inject their venom into just the right spot was not lost on her.
"I only need your head anyway…" Sekita smiled with a sign of unnatural twist to her expression, while Mana had her doubts before, now she realized that the Akimichi girl might not have even been fully in control here. Whether it was merely the psychological rush of this power getting to her or something more concrete, something else was dictating her actions.
No… This couldn't end here, not this way. Mana promised mother she'd give this Allied Ninja thing a chance and so far all she's done was push people away. She couldn't let her head get ripped off from her body before Mana could at least begin living up to that promise.
Intense heat flushed through Mana's face, forcing the magician to augment her toughness just so that the flesh on her face didn't turn to mulch immediately. Sekita wasn't very moved by the surprise attack from behind her but she turned back with a bemused scowl. One that soon changed to shock when she saw the people that declared they would fight her to whatever their clash led to.
"Shogito, Joshipa, and… Baiso, you're still kicking?" Sekita turned around, realizing that her squad of reject friends, save for the one that Sekita wanted to see the most – Stein, were all standing up to oppose her.
"We won't let you break in there and throw your career away!" Shogito yelled out, swiping his hand aside in defiance as a metallic backpack with a pair of metallic appendages reaching out over the young man in his protection. "We'll fight you until you can't move if we have to!"
"You won't hurt Konoha's Sorceress either, I'll tell you what I've told Stein – she's not worth it!" Joshipa, the gothic young lady pleaded with her friend as well.
"We're not done fighting yet, how dare you find yourself another opponent… I'll pound you into the ground for that!" Baiso, the burly-haired strongman cracked his knuckles despite appearing to be in a terrible condition to fight.
"You…" Sekita's eyes sunk in shadow as she let her messy hair cover them up. She shook, distraught by what she took as a betrayal from her friends. Mana felt relief followed by immense burning on her chest as the massive foot moved away from stomping her into the dirt. "You came here but you didn't bring Stein with you."
"Stein has his own bucket of troubles to sort out but he's facing them," Joshipa replied softly, still hoping in salvaging what was left of her friend from within the raging beast she had become. This intervention might have been just what they needed – Sekita's chakra had dipped even more since Mana stood to oppose her and struggled alone against her. Together, those three may just have stopped her the way she was now. If things proceed at the same rate – she'll be back to normal in a handful of minutes.
"He's… Facing them alone…" Mana coughed blood up but she struggled back on her knees, feeling like this was something too important to try and drown her lungs with the rest of the scarlet bile in her chest. "Because you're not by his side. The person he loves… The person he wants to be by him the most."
"But that's exactly why…!" Sekita cried out as she turned around, leaving Mana to eat her dust as she charged off to dash right through Shogito and leave him trampled. Shogito's mechanical puppet limbs moved to Sekita's feet and slammed them in place, forcing the rushing brute to stumble and plant into the ground, stopping just before him.
"You're not going to be of any help to him if you get there like this. You need to get yourself together, get this garbage out of your system and go to the session to support him, not to take him away! This session is the responsibility he has to face as a man!" Shogito spoke to his fallen friend as she struggled to return back to her feet.
"That is what it means to be strong… To see the full weight of the responsibility before you but to tackle it regardless. I've tried to do it alone… Don't force Stein to go through the same." Mana stood up on wobbly feet, making Shogito exclaim a warning that she shouldn't push herself that way.
"The weak band together, like herring, so that they can avoid being singled out by the shark as the weakling it is!" Sekita bellowed into the sky, brimming with strength and raw power, and yet her cry has never sounded more powerless than it did at that moment.
Mana pushed her disappointment back down as she inspected the gathered Allied Ninja recruits, doing her best to relay her resolve for what needed to be done. They needed to either hold Sekita here until she pushes through this toxic condition or to beat her until the augmentations she would need to use accelerate her sobering process.
Baiso didn't need to be asked twice, he rushed right at Sekita with a shoulder charge but the giantess swopped him and slammed him on her other side like a ragdoll. Shogito aimed his mechanical limbs, letting them crackle with jolts of electricity as he concentrated Lightning Release into their tips.
"Magical Shock Jutsu!" he yelled out, focusing the Lightning Release into concentrated, laser-like beams. Mana's dazed eyes powered through her weakness to express the appropriate shock of seeing her own technique being employed. The magician had used it plenty of times on stage, it was one of the first handful of jutsu that she had invented and continued to build up on ever since she was in the Academy, though the fact that Shogito learned it merely from still images was still something.
"I wonder where'd you learn that trick!?" Sekita mocked her friend as she grabbed both beams to rip them apart as she did with Mana's own attacks earlier. With both of her hands employed in the repeat of the feat she performed earlier, there was little that the walking tank could do to protect from the spinning umbrella top that came at her from Joshipa's side.
Sekita stumbled forward, leaning her sliced open back and writhing in pain while remaining on both feet while the umbrella buzzed back to its mistress who promptly attached it onto the iron rod it came off of and placed it on her shoulder. The edges of the tool dripped with blood, making a false impression that the gothic kunoichi was shielding herself from a crimson rain this way.
"Y-You!" Sekita grumbled, opening her arms for another bloodthirsty charge, this time aiming herself toward her female friend instead who appeared to be less capable of protecting herself from up close. Intercepting the realization of that idea, Joshipa flicked her umbrella again, flinging the spinning top aiming for Sekita's face. With a vain grin on her face, the walking juggernaut caught the buzzing umbrella top with two fingers.
"Gotcha," Joshipa proclaimed with an emotionless tone as she weaved a hand seal with one hand. "Curse Technique: Flogging of the Pure!" Joshipa proclaimed, erupting into a curious-looking dance motion while incorporating the topless umbrella pole into it.
"Curse Technique?" Mana muttered as it was not a part of the standard ninja arts that most people knew.
Sekita let out a blood-curdling scream as her knees twisted and snapped, dropping the giantess to the ground and shrinking her down to normal size as she wept in the accumulating bloody puddle left of her knee caps.
Despite not being fully sure what happened, Mana just accepted the reality that they've somehow managed to stop Sekita's mutated transformation for now.