Taking Joshipa on was troublesome. Even if the young woman wielded a weapon large enough to force her to use her entire body for its swings, making every blow telegraphed to a skilled evasive specialist as if she yelled it out from the top of a mountain with a megaphone, Joshipa had fought Mana plenty of times during their training sessions and knew some of her moves.
That was why Mana needed to pull out some new ones. The ninja magician raised her hands up and crossed them, flicking her fingers and slipping out a pair of steel-tipped cards from her sleeve. The two cards touched their edges down in the middle, traveling in a crossed trajectory and sparked a blast that was more smoke, flash, and noise rather than concussive force but it gave Mana the time she needed.
The literal white glove came off her hand as the magician flipped it over her head with a violent jerk and bite her finger, shuffling through hand seals at the fraction of a second and planting her hand onto the ground beneath her. Joshipa felt aggressive that day, just as Mana completed her motion and opened herself up, the guitar-swinging Jashinist charged through the smoke and flickering, flashy sparkles ready to crush Mana's skull but her swing was blocked halfway.
A claymore sword blocking the guitar at its neck from the right while an iron leg crossed in from the left, forming an adamant cross-shaped block out of two rabbits that Mana had called upon.
"Ya've got some nerve callin' on us now, Hatchling…" Usuzoku grumbled, looking as if it didn't take him much effort to intercept the assailant looking to do his summoner harm.
"Sorry, I hope you guys recovered okay from the last time, I needed moves that Joshipa hadn't seen before and you were the first thing that came to mind," Mana nodded her head with a blank expression.
"Mana-san! Where were you!? We were so nervous! You didn't call us for months and then just summoned us out of blue to… I'm not even sure, honestly… It hit us so hard and we've poofed away before even getting to say hello!" Usubane reacted with a more favorable reception of seeing her idolized summoner after a long break.
"Summons?" Joshipa exclaimed in shock and withdrew with her weapon in hand, choosing not to challenge these two rabbits in a struggle of power, especially since she had no idea what their skillsets were all about.
"I'll take it that you absolutely must settle this now? You won't just stand down and wait until one of our comrades returns with an objective?" Mana wondered with the advantage of six eyes being focused on Joshipa's reply instead of just her own natural pair.
"You've lied to me…" Joshipa quivered with a proclamation leaking with profound sadness. "Drove a wedge between me and Lord Jashin. Now the only way for me to ask him for forgiveness is to bring carnage on the battlefield. Maybe if I kill all of your crew in the most imaginative, vicious way I can think of, maybe then he'll forgive me?"
Mana closed her eyes as she didn't want the disappointment that she felt for this young woman to gleam right through from her look. Usuzoku gave Mana a wary, creeped out stare but the magician didn't even humor it, choosing instead to open her eyes and greet Joshipa's weeping and maniacal face with sternness.
"Stop looking at me with those eyes!" Joshipa roared out, flipping the table of her emotional stability and moving from crushed to absolutely livid in a flick. She shouldn't have opened herself up by raising her bludgeoning, spiky tool for murder over her head. Usuzoku moved in a brown blur, stepping past her in a gentle air tunnel that followed his swiftness that only rustled a few clouds of dust and gravel around the pair and shook the rings of flowers planted as decorations of the simulated village street.
"Double-Draw!" Usuzoku let a calm breath out while sheathing his claymore on his back and another, slightly smaller and more traditional blade to his side.
While the hateful scowl of Joshipa suggested that the scorned woman would have very much wanted to continue her charge and caved Mana's head in, the force of drawing slash with all two of Usuzoku's blades at once and the draft created by the speed of the ninja rabbit's movement caused her to flip over her back and land on the empty street as she wheezed in pain over the cross-gash on her chest.
"Go on…" Joshipa coughed up blood while she sat up on her side and began picking herself off the ground. "Laugh at me, mock me, tell me how disappointed you are. Do something but don't just stand there staring at like you're so high and mighty…"
"Mocking those that are hurting isn't my style and I want you to know that I understand. You feel hurt and betrayed and so you're clutching back to that buzz, right down the same rabbit hole you've worked so hard to crawl out of," Mana replied softening her expression. "Don't worry, I'm not going to let you spiral back down, I promised you, didn't I?"
"You!?" Joshipa spat blood aside before rushing to Usuzoku, correctly assuming that unless she picks off all of the ninja rabbits she'd stand no chance at ever as much as touching Mana. "You're the reason why I'm hurt in the first place!"
"Dynamic Entry!" Usubane chanted out as she kicked Joshipa in her exposed backside and sent her flying toward the fake and empty little restaurant built to the edge of this complex of the war game battlefield. Light sparkled as it danced on the surface of countless glass shards where Joshipa burst through while Usubane pulled her pink, shoulderless top-down to straighten it out and raised her fist up, pointing toward the hole in the window. "Don't you dare attack Mana-san or Usuzoku-san on my watch!"
"So that's your plan?" Joshipa rose up and emerged from the busted-up window, throwing broken rubble aside. Minor cuts and lacerations decorated her face and the torn-up parts of her top as she left the decorative building. "Just let your rabbits lay the self-righteous smackdown? Run away and hide behind their backs as you've hidden behind your crew?"
"I'm hardly hiding. Do you think I've chosen this place by accident? I can sense chakra, you know," Mana cut the ridiculous accusation down. "I know you're hurting. I can't really understand it, but I know you are feeling that way and I'm here to make sure you don't do something stupid. I'll do that by defeating you and preventing you from calling out to Jashin, keep your head straight."
Joshipa's arms were shaking. Mana wasn't sure if she was about to lash out again or explode into a wrathful, reckless charge again though her mood looked like both were just as likely. The movements on her hands were a bit stiff and her lips turned pale whenever Joshipa attacked. Mana feared for what she'd soon find out but she turned to Usuzoku.
"Zoku-chan, Bane-chan, I need you two to hold back for a second while I affirm something," she requested. Usubane hopped back with an obedient nod while Usuzoku cursed something down under his nose and crossed his arms over his chest. In a manner very much unlike her, Mana charged at her opponent after clapping her hands together and riding a wind current.
The magician stopped in mid-charge to let Joshipa's guitar smash into the ground. Joshipa might have been anticipating Mana's attack and swung up front to intercept it but her entire aching body was like an open book when she was using a weapon this hefty. Mana raised her hands up and flicked another pair of steel-tipped cards that brushed past Joshipa's shoulders, cutting her jacket open and exposing her bruised shoulders.
The goth-style Jashinist growled in wrath as she looked to raise her weapon off the ground and began swinging it at the magician but she found herself unable to move it one inch. Joshipa tilted her head in bafflement only to see Mana's image dissolve into flower petals while the real Mana hiding behind the illusion phased into Joshipa's perceived reality standing on top of the weighty neck of her weaponized, spiky guitar. The magician kicked off of her position, throwing both of her feet at Joshipa's chest while she focused an air current normally used for flying to emit a shockwave and bolster her dropkick. While still airborne, Mana weaved a signature clone jutsu hand seal.
A Fire Release and Lightning Release clone moved in from Joshipa's sides and slammed the airborne goth into the ground, pinning her down and ripping at her sleeves, exposing the ridges of scar tissue hiding underneath while the real Mana moved in between the two clones and reached down while the two clones flipped Joshipa on her belly and ripped her torn jacket clean off, taking a peek under her cut-up shirt underneath. It had been littered with various etchings most of which looked recently made and Joshipa's carved body barely resembled the gruesome scars that Mana recalled seeing on the young woman earlier.
"Heh, no wonder da Hatchling's 'andin' dis ere punk 'er arse. She's all cut-up…" Usuzoku cringed in disgust. "I'd ask ye to let me put 'er outta 'er misery but I know ye better dan dat…"
"You've tried reaching Jashin before this, haven't you?" Mana sighed. "He won't respond no matter how badly you're hurting yourself. He demands that you deliver a higher form of carnage, doesn't he?"
"Shut up!" Joshipa yelled out, struggling against the two clones, powering through the painful armlocks and through the gruesome flesh-churning sound that came as punishment for her defiance. She rubbed her face across the pavement, her front and her wounds punishing herself more and more as she went on with her fruitless struggle. "You don't know me!"
"I don't, what I do know is that I'm still your friend. That didn't change just because I've aligned with another group of friends. Heck, I haven't worked with my best friend for almost a year now and my team captain probably wants me dead at this point. You think that you're hurting and so you're hurting yourself further to stop it from hurting but what you don't consider is that this is hurting your friends, me, and those you recognize as your friends both," Mana replied with a shaking tone of voice.
"Don't you dare… Don't you dare talk down to me like you know it all. Like you know better! That's what I hate most of all about you, you're just like all those people telling me how to look, what to say and how to act, always looking down and talking down!" Joshipa bellowed out and smacked her forehead a couple of times into the pavement so hard that she cracked both the pavement and her head open. The pain did seem to inspire her some as the young woman used her dislocated arms to slip out from the simplistic lock of the clones and dispatch of them both with a high spinning kick and a high stomp.
Joshipa cried out in pain when the clones dissolved into a lightning storm and a blast respectively, throwing her in a violent fling across the street and leaving her powerless in the wreckage of the outside café where Mana found her. The magician couldn't believe her eyes which was why her right one was twitching in shock and her limp hand still hung in the air as if she could reach out and grab her friend away from harm.
"Ferget it, dis 'ere's maniac is outta kill 'erself. Let us take care 'a 'er, if she kills 'erself by yer hand, ye'll never fergive 'erself," Usuzoku whistled as if he was somewhat enjoying this sadomasochistic fighting style of the enemy.
"Zoku-san is right, please, Mana-san, step away, I know how heavy it would hang on you if this young lady happened to kill herself by accident this way!" Usubane turned to Mana with a plead.
Ignoring the pleads, Mana approached the battered and beaten body of Joshipa and sat down by her. Observing the chakra signature of the young woman that still rustled though to a very limited amount, Mana realized that Joshipa would be in no condition to lash out at her now or to hurt herself any further.
"Fuck you," Joshipa spat at Mana but missed her face as the bloody stain landed somewhere below the intended mark. "I'd kill myself just to give your self-righteous ass the middle finger and make you hurt half as bad as you deserve if I could still move my arms… I'd then be the first one to royally fuck you over."
"You are wrong," Mana stated. "I'm not talking down to you. I'm asking you as a friend, please stop hurting yourself and those that treasure you like this. Let's keep training together, just because I don't belong on your crew, it doesn't mean that we can't be friends. I realized it from the first time I met you guys that you were inseparable, you weren't just a group working together – you were like a family. I just don't belong anywhere near that but I still want to help you work through this and move past your Jashinist style. Let's fight again when you're all healed up and cleared for it. This won't count, if I pinned you down with my lousy taijutsu skills – it means that you should have stayed in bed and recovered today."
"Whatever… It wouldn't have worked anyway…" Joshipa calmed down some and just stared at the sky with a blank pair of eyes. "No matter how many people I'd have disemboweled, Lord Jashin would have never looked back at me again. Not after all those training fights, we had that didn't end in absolute carnage. You've tricked me with that and I knew it deep down the whole time."
"Wait a sec, da hell's a Jashin?" Usuzoku scratched behind his ear as his right one flapped and twitched in a pleasant tick fueled by the relief of his twitch.
"It's some mystical deity that permits the use of Jashinist Curse Jutsu," Mana replied.
"What da hell!? Ya mean da only god we got turns out ta be a massive prick!?" Usuzoku dragged both his ears down pissed off while Usubane slowly crept up to Mana and began rubbing her face in the magician's back.
"Guess so…" Mana sighed. "Somehow I'm not surprised one bit. Still, just because the only deity that we know of and can prove is some sadistic, evil bastard doesn't mean that we can't be better than that."
Joshipa began to chuckle lightly so as to not aggravate her numerous wounds before transitioning into a full-out riot just seconds later despite the pain and strain that it caused. Both the rabbits and the magician looked down at her.
"It's really crazy how easily you just take that in. Back when I realized that something out there is talking to me, it completely flipped my table," Joshipa proclaimed. "I mean… A god is out there, talking to us and working through us and he demands that we maim, torture, and slay all that moves in our way. What does that say about our universe?"
"I've been to other universes, I bet they've got a Jashin of their own too. I've spoken to the Author and fended off a crazed fan of our whole story. A wicked deity is just kind of par for the course at this point," Mana shrugged. "There is more than one way to be happy. Hundreds of thousands of people experience them every day, you don't have to appeal to some jerk god for that if you don't like it."
"Where were you this whole time, Mana-san?" Usubane finally found a moment of silence to slip the most pressing question in. "You've no idea how worried sick we all were that you just disappeared like that."
"Ye, some 'a us thought ye've gone on an' gotten yerself killed out dere an' dat we're left all by ourselves…" Usuzoku stated bluntly, devoid of any terror that had been gripping Usubane and only now slowly beginning to release her.
"I've been to prison, my chakra was sealed off so I couldn't have accessed any of you," Mana replied.
"I guess dat's why we couldn't 'ave summoned ya home to Forest 'a Death…" Usuzoku breathed out a long and hefty breath. "You 'ave a lotta bridges to repair, lil' missy…"
"It seems like that's all I've been doing ever since…" Mana sighed. "I'd like to visit and train sometime. I kind of feel embarrassed that I forgot you guys could reverse-summon me. Could have used some peace and quiet and friendly faces a long time ago…"
"So where is this? What's happening? Who are these people you're fighting?" Usubane wondered, looking down at Joshipa and freaking out when the gothic punk stuck out a bloody tongue at her.
"It's the Allied Ninja HQ, I'm working on becoming an Allied Ninja," Mana replied. "That way I can travel all over the world and perform at my World Magic Tour."
"So de rumors are all true, yer still doin' dose jerkoff shits and giggles…" Usuzoku sighed.
"Yep, nothing's changed on that front," Mana kindly smiled at the first ninja rabbit she ever got to fight alongside. "Then again, after everything, I could use a little bit of stability and things staying just the same."
"Yeah, well… Keep callin' someone else ta do yer tricks. Da great rabbit hero won't be embarrasin' himself like dat ever again…" Usuzoku grumbled before popping away. Usubane cried out, hating to be left alone as she wrapped her arms around Mana and pressed herself against the magician like a little sister before hopping further away and popping back home after one last bow.
"Yo, you were still holding back on me now, weren't you? Back when we were training, you were keeping secrets from me, you're keeping secrets even now, aren't you?" Joshipa asked, mustering just enough strength to lift her bloodied hand off the ground and point her fist at the sky over her head.
"Give yourself more credit than this. I've spent almost half my chakra dealing with you now, summoning multiple ninja rabbits at once, utilizing multiple elemental clones at the same time… It's hard stuff, you know, and all that just for a cut-up and unprepared version of you. Give it time, you'll be kicking my ass eventually," Mana offered her fallen, mad friend a warm smile.
"You're a dumbass, you know that? You mean you've used half of your chakra just prancing around and teaching me lessons? Fighting like that will get you killed out there…" Joshipa chuckled to herself.
"Yeah, people keep saying that…" Mana replied.