Denkka walked out through a squeaky, patched, wooden door shaking her hands off of the literal gore and the figurative filth of the grisly affair she's been working on. The rest of the combined party of ninja turned to her with hopeful eyes. Shige-H was the only one noticeably absent, besides Mana.
"Any luck?" Endo raised his eyebrows with a hopeful look. "Initially, I had my doubts, but… After what I've seen, lady, if there's anyone that can make that guy talk, it'd be you…"
"No luck. I'd have better luck squeezing the juice out of a lump of rock," Denkka said with an unmoving face. Given the self-admitted series of failures that the woman had gone through, one would have expected her to show either regret for her heinous actions in that warehouse or disappointment and frustration about her lack of results. Denkka's face showed neither of those.
"Then our best course of action is still to rush to Ishigakure. If the reports are true and Kaguya Yaban has appeared suddenly, that is where the terrorists will strike next," Prim-S said with his arms crossed and his pouted lips staring at an unraveled map on the table before him.
"We can't rush it. Mana and Shige-H aren't in any condition to move yet," Prabba objected.
"Mana won't be in a fighting condition ever. Shige-H has regained enough chakra in the last few days to serve in the back lines as a medical kunoichi in a more supportive role," Endo shrugged.
"They're both your teammates!" Prabba said, looking appalled by the carelessness and dismissiveness in Endo's tone and the content of his response.
"Let's be realistic, Konoha's Sorceress' abilities were a tremendous asset to us but they're not something we can wait for, nor can we reasonably assume that they'll be back ever. Based on what you two have said, Nakotsumi Mana's physical and mental condition leaves us no choice but to sign her off of this mission. I'm not sure what retirement options the Allied Ninja have for their operatives but… At the very least, Konoha won't leave her homeless, which I know for certain. I've worked undercover in a Konohagakure squad during my time in the Black Ops, their military preparedness may be laughable but their social policies almost made me consider shifting my allegiances… That was a joke," Denkka reported with a straight face.
"Yeah, we got it from the context, thanks…" Prim-S squinted at the fellow Kumogakure kunoichi.
"Good, because if my allegiance to my village is ever questioned, I must spill my own guts," Denkka acknowledged the response with a slow and calm nod. Everyone looked at the woman, waiting for her to once again declare that she was joking, causing the lingering for an uncomfortable amount of time.
When the door that led to the operations quarters from the public quarters and offices opened, only Endo tilted his stare to acknowledge the entrant. He did so only because he was in a comfortable position to do so, the rest of the peacekeepers kept staring at the unraveled map, figuring their best options. It was only when Endo began coughing after a gulp got stuck in his throat that everyone turned to the door, seeing Mana still clutching a crutch under her armpit with a sweaty and determined face.
"Mana!" Prabba called out. "Are you sure it's okay for you to move around this much!? Endo, why did you tell her we were here? She must have been under an impression that we were expecting her to join us!"
"I was…" Endo shrugged.
"Maybe you Iwagakure ninja take your service so lightly as to sign yourselves off when you lose a limb on the battlefield. I'm glad, however, that Konohagakure ninja, our major rivals on the political and military table, are made of sterner stuff than that. Then again, perhaps it is the genetic background of Kumogakure ninja in the Sorceress' blood that pitched in," Prim-S nodded in acknowledgment of Mana joining the party with a smiling nod.
"Where is Shige-H?" Mana looked around. Based on what Prabba told her earlier, she had expected to have a whole uncomfortable confrontation with her team leader. She sort of wanted to get it over with and let Shige-H know that Mana didn't blame her for what happened in even the slightest.
"She's assisting the local healers. Plenty of them have actually fled the town, thinking that the other towns would welcome their prized skills with open hands, rather than staying here to die. The supply of medicinal herbs and drugs has also been strained, so Shige-H is helping with both the menial healing labor and helping the town replenish their supplies," Denkka reported. "I insisted she sit still for a little while, given her condition after the grueling few nights before, though I am, in fact, not her actual supervisor, nor is she under any obligation to heed my orders. I suppose I could always force her to heed them through some manner of gruesome physical violence…"
"You know she can "unmake" you with a punch, right?" Prim-S gave his fellow Kumogakure kunoichi a wayward look.
"Provided she has the stamina and chakra necessary to utilize her Advanced Bloodline ability," Denkka shrugged.
"Why is Denkka-san bloody? Has there been any fighting?" Mana pointed at the woman.
"Not in the literal sense…" Endo sighed. Given his prolonged acquaintance with Mana, he must have known how the following bit of news would be received, so he braced for the impact of irritation that'd inevitably come. "That lump of meat and spikes has been a handful though…"
"You've been torturing him!?" Mana felt her blood pressure sock her head, making her woozy just after raising her voice.
"Yes. I'm sure you'll be glad to know I've been very thorough and used my best tricks from the Imarizu handbook. I'd say I gave him the torment he caused you back tenfold," Denkka nodded with the same casualty in her tone and expression as if she'd just informed Mana about something she had for breakfast.
"Shit…" Mana desperately wanted to word herself better as she wasn't someone known for cursing, but ever since she woke up, it felt like the most inhospitable version of the world she's ever come to know has greeted her after she woke up. Just how many more times would she have to pay for her poor decisions in challenging the trio of attacking rogue ninja? Because it felt like she's sacrificed just about enough by now…
"Aren't you glad? Wasn't he the one that messed you up so badly that the healers had to amputate your leg?" Prim-S pointed at Mana, looking confused.
"She's not… Normal…" Endo tried pacifying the pair of peacekeepers with open palm gestures. "Honestly, sometimes it's kinda cute, but most of the time it's… Like this."
"I suspect where the enemy might be based. I came here to take you to them," Mana sighed, dropping the big bomb onto the group. The entire group howled in disbelief, raising a ruckus as Prim-S slammed his hands onto the table while even Denkka seemed to lose her apathetic expression, selling it in exchange for a direr one.
"Really? You know where the enemy is? That's odd, given how you've been napping for the past few days…" Endo raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to point us in the wrong direction and then free that sawdust-brained asshole or run off to fight them all by your one-legged self, are you?"
"Just because I acknowledge the fact I've made mistakes… I'll take this kindly once," Mana looked Endo straight in the eyes. Even with her body drugged up and numb to an unknown degree, her current chakra capacity being at around a quarter its usual top, Endo became unnerved looking Mana straight in the eyes when the young woman felt peeved about something. "Even back during the attack, I thought I could sense Asuka's chakra signature from the battlefield. I have reason to believe she's come into contact with the enemy, so we can home in on them by tracking her chakra signature."
"Those mountain ranges are full of active, training ninja. Some of them have accepted Kumogakure's terms for surrender and joined the combined ninja force, some are rebels, much like the rogues looking to kidnap the Tsuchikage and those that have attacked Boulder Town. How can we know that we're following the right torch?" Prim-S asked.
"I've been around Asuka's chakra signature to know it well enough to trace it from a smokescreen of others. I believe that she's contacted the enemy based on their communications," Mana insisted.
"This is foolish. Kaguya Yaban has been sighted in Ishigakure. Apparently, he is in grave condition and has passed out shortly after entering the village from an unknown illness. He is a prime target for an enemy attack," Denkka replied.
"And, as you might not know, Ishigakure is a ninja village that still very much belongs to the Earth Feudal Lord, meaning that it has no Kumogakure peacekeeper presence in it. They haven't lost to Kumogakure and have therefore not surrendered to it. I don't believe they'll tolerate us even showing our faces there, nor does our status as peacekeepers of Boulder Town permit us to pursue the enemy all the way to Ishigakure…" Prim-S couldn't stop offering excuses why the peacekeepers wouldn't continue this pursuit. "Our best course of action here would be to inform the Ishigakure ninja of this plot to kidnap the Tsuchikage and leave it up to them to deal with it. As it has become painfully obvious, we are ill-equipped and manned to handle a large-scale attack by that rogue group of ninja while we perform our duties as peacekeepers here at the same time."
"Tsk… Pussies…" Endo hissed in disgust. "What Mana's offering you guys here is a chance to ruin those assholes for everything they've done to you. While they're waging useless attacks on Ishigakure, ones that Ishigakure will know of because of our warning, we can wipe their headquarters clean and leave them homeless and dry of any supplies. This could be the end of their organization."
"Hmm… Infiltrating a ninja village would be troublesome to them, even a weaker one such as Ishigakure. If Ishigakure ninja know of their infiltration ahead of time, there is little doubt they'd wipe the enemy out for us," Denkka stroked her chin. "That is very underhanded, though effective. I approve of it."
"They won't send a large party, though. It's more than likely that they'll only send one or two ninja there so someone will most definitely stay behind. Our triumphant backdoor sneak attack won't exactly be a walk in the park," Prim-S waved it off with dismissal.
"Aren't you pissed about the fact that asshole that sicced his goons to take a chomp out of your shoulder got away? Don't you want to get back at him? Don't you have any pride at all, you worm?" Endo crossed his arms with a disgruntled look at the Kumogakure shorty.
"I'm more worried about your role in all of this, Mana…" Prabba spoke up. "You seem to imply that you'll be leading us to that base…"
"Absolutely," Mana blew a hefty load of air off of her chest. "There's no other way for you to find it without my guidance. What if the signatures move all of a sudden? I need to be with you and constantly keep up the updates. The closer we get to the location, the more precisely I can tell you where the source of the signature is."
"Don't joke around," Endo snorted. "Look at you, you can barely walk. Are you telling me you can keep it up across mountain ranges and rocks? You'll have to take leaps across canyons, caves, and whole hills…"
Mana let her crutch slip from her grasp. She wobbled on one leg while it socked the ground with a wooden thud. The hazy kunoichi tried to weave hand seals necessary for her Mystical Wings Jutsu, but her hands didn't connect right and she faltered. It was a smile of fortune that Prabba rushed to the rescue and caught Mana in mid-fall, serving as an improvised human crutch.
"Amazing… You've convinced me…" Endo rolled his eyes.
"I'm… Gonna get better at this before we leave," Mana couldn't find where to focus her racing eyes from embarrassment.
"We can't possibly be entertaining this idea. The enemy is targeting Mana specifically. She's a secondary target and we're talking about just taking her right to their doorstep!" Prim-S passionately objected.
"Come on, Prim-S, do you really feel like just letting those guys stay alive and operate on our backdoor while we're stationed here? Everyone's lives are going to be so much easier if we wipe them out, ours first and foremost…" Denkka placed her hands on her hips and sighed. "We'll go pick up Shige-H. It'd be better if Mana snaps out of it a bit meanwhile. Drink something spicy or sour or breathe some fresh air or something…"
"It's frightening how much that woman knows about causing pain and killing people and how she still thinks that's how you heal from a trauma…" Prabba shook her head after the pair of peacekeepers left through the main door, heading toward the hospital to call Shige-H for their arrowhead charge toward the enemy headquarters.
"Things have really gone downhill, huh? The Stars are done for…" Endo grumbled. "Just when I was getting a feel for being a part of the team."
"You don't have to push people away. As long as you let more of them in, you'll end up in another little family, eventually. I think it'd be good for you," Mana recovered, taking off of Prabba's shoulder and ramming onto the table for support before straightening out. "Also, the Stars don't have to end."
"Right, you're in no condition to stay on active duty, Damisan's gone to get himself crucified and executed, Skaven's probably doing some more shady black ops affair right now, Tomi's… Well, you know…" Endo sighed, rubbing the back of his head and ruffling his unruly hair. "Do you know what you're going to do after this mission? Provided you don't get captured and exploited and survive it, of course..."
"Endo!" Prabba scolded the swordsman for his crude talk. It wasn't just his crude talk that made one feel like being washed by boiling water after he finished talking. His casual tone of saying those things was a significant part of the entire deal too.
"What? She's defenseless, and she's headed to an active battlefield. We've always been outgunned and unprepared for this assignment. Fatigued won't even begin to cut it. Did you know we were on the Moon just before this mission?" Endo tried excusing himself in Prabba's eyes.
"Is that where you're keeping Gwirlon-san?" Mana pointed at the door that led to the cells that were all too familiar to the Stars who once ended up captured.
"No. Though he's proven to be harmless and he's not twitched a muscle to try and escape, his appearance and demeanor freak out the other detainees," Prabba shook her head, walking up to another, thick, reinforced wooden door and patting on its surface.
"Ah… Lure the suckers away with a fancy story, then slip in and kill the bastard. I like how your head works…" Endo nodded with his arms crossed and walked up behind Mana. "Don't worry, I'm right behind you and if he tries to defend himself, I'll cut him up so he can't move a muscle anymore."
"Sometimes I wonder if we were ever familiar at all…" Mana shook her head. "Those horrible things won't be necessary. I just want to see and talk to him."
"He doesn't do much talking. Talking implies a two-sided connection, an exchange of ideas, words, and sentences, Gwirlon just follows orders. His is a curious case. If you talk to him–he will brush it off, but if your tone of voice is strict enough–he'll do it. Even if we're supposed to be his enemy…" Prabba pointed out while following Mana and Endo from behind. As the sole and highest-ranking peacekeeper watching over the Allied Ninja, she felt responsible for making sure they did nothing heinous or heinously stupid.
"What a horrible place…" Mana observed in a depressed tone. She never imagined that a facility like the peacekeepers' HQ would even house a damp, stone-based warehouse with an old-fashioned iron bar barrier fencing off the restrained giant. The point of the iron bar gate was lost on Mana, seeing how the poor man had been attached to a rack by reinforced steel claws that shut over his jaw, his neck, his chest and abdomen, and his limbs. Mana pulled on a lever, hearing a shrill bark from Prabba standing right behind her. The restraints over Gwirlon's body snapped open, leaving him looming in front of the crippled magician behind an iron bar barrier and a simple chain attached to the cuff on both his legs.
"Mana!" Prabba barked out. She felt a certain fondness for the magician based not only on the fact that the young woman had saved her life from a rather grisly end but also because she's come to know Mana as a warm and kind person but Mana's carefree behavior was putting even that affection to the test.
"It's okay, haven't you told us he does everything we order him to do, and that he doesn't act unless specifically ordered?" Mana smiled to Prabba with a lack of fear that was all in itself terrifying while having in mind the millions of ways this interaction could have gone wrong.
"I mean… He's dangerous, Mana… He can do whatever you can imagine him capable of doing. He messed you up so badly you've lost your leg…" Prabba tried convincing Mana what a bad idea this was but the magician dangled the keys that Prabba had in her flak jacket pocket, making the woman become so pale that she contrasted the bleak gloom of the warehouse lit only by a lone, ancient lamp covered by dust and webs and constantly under siege by no less than a dozen thumb-sized moths. "Mana!" she screamed out before the magician stuffed the key into the barred gate.
"You're getting on my nerves, woman. If the invalid acts up, I'll cut him down, now shut up. I'm getting interested to see where this is going," Endo growled to Prabba, while Mana stood and met Gwirlon's eyes. The crippled magician raised her hand for a shake and smiled. In a way, she was glad of Gwirlon's already mangled appearance before whatever horrors Denkka had put him through. This way she'll be able to push it at the back of her mind and try her most honest to flip a blank page.
"Hey, I'm Mana. We met before but… Back then, neither of us acted like our best selves. I want to start anew. Let's be friends," Mana said with a warm and welcoming face. Gwirlon just stared back down at her with small, beady eyes and loose, drooling lips. It was unclear if he was still confused about some part of this interaction or if he was contemplating something gruesome in his mind.
Heroes weren't just people who could punch their way through injustice. Sometimes heroes were people that acknowledged it and faced it with honesty. Someone who reached out and did their best to make things better and one didn't need two legs or overwhelming skill and power to do any of it. They just needed the bravery to make the first step. This was something Mana desperately wanted to believe right now, because if that was truly the case and she still wasn't a lost and useless cripple and could still do some good in the world, then her life still had meaning.
The next step was on Gwirlon.