Kouta was moving slowly, looking back every couple of steps to see how his newly met acquaintance was doing. The woman was moving, stumbling and needed wall support every couple of steps but she was moving which was much more than what she would've had, had the medical ninja not stumbled upon her and decided to be crazy and questionably unethical and brought her back. While the two were moving forward to a location that the soon to be departed lady continuously pointed out a new question came up for the Juugo ninja.
He healed the woman and went along with her request thinking that it was the right thing to do, after all, was healing people and bringing them back to life, whenever possible, not the purpose of the entire medical ninja profession? On the most basic and primal understandings of its linguistics and true meaning behind the word it was. However, there was a much deeper abyss of ethical and practical understanding which took arguably just as long if not longer to understand than the actual art of bringing people back to life using one's own inner power.
Was it ethical letting this woman stumble and wheeze through her final moments? Live as a burnt, rotten shell with the knowledge that she'd eventually die anyway? Was any of those things even close to touching the line that defined the medical ninja? The rules and practices of "pointless patients" were not vain ones, despite them sounding cruel to the uneducated eye. Just because Kouta could give this woman some hours of conscience and life he didn't ask the question "should he"? When the boy's chakra emanated through the woman's system he was sure it was the way to go, right now, seeing her struggle to even walk straight and wheeze, cough up blood... Kouta was not so sure anymore.
"So where are we going again? You just said that if I was to fulfill my promise to help you realize your last wish I need to get ready, you haven't spoken of this place in much detail..." Kouta asked. He was so absorbed with the ethical questions of his actions that he suddenly realized he stopped living here and now. He had heard of similar problems plaguing the stronger and higher ranking ninja. When one held the power inside to destroy the entire world one was plagued with much more complex questions than just if there was dog poop where they were stepping.
"My old friend's place. He used to be an actor in Konohagakure, now he's somewhat of a dabbler in blades and firepower for those unassociated with the Syndicate. In his earlier life made a living for himself, even something to buy a fancy painting once in a while and a nice ring for his wife... I kept telling him that living in Otogakure was the real life: love, delicious foods and drinks and all the pleasures one could dream of. Eventually, he took my advice..." The woman spoke, leaving the last sentence to come after a long pause and also to be uttered in an overly depressed and longing tone.
"What happened?" Kouta asked for more details, he wanted to know if there may have been bad history between the two. If there would've been he'd have had to fight someone that day and he'd rather not have killed a civilian inside another village, even if that was in defense of another person. He had enough ethical questions for one night...
"Jackbang..." The woman uttered with disgust, understandably so as she was talking of the substance that dug her an early grave. "He became obsessed with the Otogakure lifestyle, every day he took his wife to another musical, every day they dined in restaurants each more sophisticated than the other to the point where words "where will we be eating today" substituted "I love you"... He became addicted to pleasure, stopped working altogether and when he found out that I was doing something that provided momentary simple pleasure not unlike listening to a good musical would've to an artist... It was too addicting to resist".
As a medical ninja in Konohagakure, he had not heard that many stories like this. Konoha had its fair share of crime and death but people were too afraid of dying in attacks by enemy ninja to waste their time on drugs. The expected lifespan was so short that often people only became old enough to drink right before their passing. Obviously, during times of peace, the situation somewhat began to fix itself but drugs weren't a really big problem in Konoha, that was to say that with the village mentality in mind it was sort of an unattractive market.
"Seeing the village like this... I always thought that pleasure-seeking was not bad by itself but... It ruined a lot of lives, hasn't it?" Kouta wondered.
"Seeking pleasure is not bad. After all, happiness is what we all strive for, is it not? However, too many people confuse happiness and pleasure. Happiness is our ultimate goal and pleasure is just a stop to prevent us from going insane on the journey, our sustenance. My friend whom we will soon see found that his wife left him after an overdose of jackbang exploded inside and set him ablaze, fire-cracking from inside searing his flesh off. His wife left him, no play or one of those moving picture productions will ever hire him again. Do you think that pleasure brought him happiness?" The woman spoke up. Kouta didn't look back at her avoiding her eyes for a moment. He had taken the lady as much less wise and experienced than she actually was, perhaps it truly was those that suffered the most and lost everything that had the most lessons to teach.
A loud shout stopped Kouta in his tracks, the boy looked back and saw the woman pointing at the house that they've reached. This must've been the place. The Juugo youth examined the place and had to hand it to the friend of the woman – he chose the most typical drug den to live in that possibly existed. To describe it with words would've been to simply ask one to imagine the worst kind of rundown building infested with lowlifes and people ruined lives and no hopes of bouncing back, searching for a quiet corner to die in. The house at one point just gave up on being serviceable just like its inhabitants must've. Even a dying man would've at the very least placed a cardboard sheet on top of the massive holes in the roof. One corner of the house was just simply blown up and didn't even exist.
"There is no fourth wall to break in this one..." The woman snickered looking at Kouta but she saw that the boy didn't get the joke.
"Yes, I can see that the fourth wall is missing but..." Kouta began but the woman's scratched and rough skin pressed against his lips as she shushed him.
"Forget it, it was a joke my actor friends always laughed at, sometimes I forget that those days are long since gone..." The woman said disappearing into the darkness of the corridors of the block. Kouta sighed.
"We all get nostalgic sometimes..." He tried to lighten up the woman's mood but having the fact that she's about to die in four to six hours it was insanely hard to imagine being possible.
Mana scratched her forehead, Meiko, in her transformed state, complained with great anger in her voice.
"Mana we've been over this, you're tied up, stop getting out of my knots!"
"There was some sort of a bug on my forehead, if it landed on my nose it'd have gone itchy, no one likes an itchy nose..." she shrugged apologetically.
Meiko tried to transform into a dark brown haired middle aged man. She ended up with a red-headed elderly chubby woman. The reason why the magician asked her friend to describe her transformation using words was because she had already seen Meiko fail at Academy level ninjutsu and wondered if it was imagination and focusing issues or actual physiological problems that were the problems. Based on Mana's theory, Meiko wasn't unskilled at ninjutsu that required precision and good chakra control, she was simply not focused enough to maintain the needed level of skill and slipped up on occasion.
And so Meiko described a fatso in a messy black suit, large cheeks, twisted sleek eyebrows, barely seen facial hair and squinty thin eyes that had a distinct cold stare – the eyes of a bandit that helped Mr. Imaginary Thug rise the imaginary mobster ranks to a skilled street enforcer cracking drug crackers and living large with women, much ryo, and earthly possessions. His choice in clothing included nothing but the finest, albeit a little aged, suits. The man was supposed to wear a black double-breasted jacket with slightly darker stripes and slick and shiny black leather shoes. To be fair, Mana was impressed by how well Meiko described the person to her and began feeling like her theory was going to blow up as soon as it was conceived.
The result was a short and chubby mixture of what was described and Meiko's actual image. Mana sighed for a moment and stroke her forehead but realized that her depressed reaction may have been rude to her friend whom the magician greatly appreciated and would've never wanted to hurt. Sadly her slow instincts tipped her off in the right way – Meiko began sobbing like a little child as her large loveable eyes filled with tears bursting over and rushing down the wrinkly cheeks of the old crone she had become.
"No, no! It's fine, it'll do!" Mana pleaded for Meiko to stop crying. "I didn't think you'd change the image you described at the last second, I mean... That was the point of describing it, ha ha ha..." the magician playfully tried to make it appear like she was not aware of Meiko's failure and thought that the blacksmith, in fact, changed her appearance that way on purpose. Strangely enough, it worked for Meiko and her sobbing face eased up a little. And so the first female mafioso the team had ever seen was born, luckily Meiko's transformation and the fat sausage-like fingers of the woman didn't impact the blacksmith's mastery at tying people up. Not that it mattered to Mana as she had escaped on multiple occasions. The current one being one of many.
Meiko angrily readjusted the knots, she used to make the strongest knots she knew as a blacksmith, the ones that were used to tie armor pieces together, ones that could take a good sword blow and almost snap but hold. None of that mattered when Mana's crafty fingers and her career as a magician often performing escape tricks was concerned. At this point, the blacksmith must've started to think that no knot or binding known to man could've held the magician tied up as she only placed a simple triple loop knot in several places.
The much harder part was finding a Syndicate establishment, it was mostly wandering through the streets aimlessly trying to find one. Luckily the whole town was taken over and infested with them, the runts were breaking into the very infrastructure of the village and so every other building had some of the Syndicate thugs standing around and talking. Some of them tipped their hats or even whistled at Meiko, or more accurately, her changed shape. That Mana found really odd, these mobsters were grown men of varied ages, was this kind of woman really the best they could've strived for? Honestly, the magician was a little offended that she wasn't harassed instead of Meiko's abominable redhead grandma.
Meiko turned corners and lead the magician into an establishment that the goons blocked passage into. Just as the two were passing the two tipped their bats and crossed them blocking the way.
"Who the fuck is dis? Who da fuck are you?" the mobster spat to the side. This one didn't wear a suit but just a bit more fancy casual attire of the locals, it was clear that this was a low ranking goon which Meiko planned to fool with this charade and yet it would've been unlikely that they knew anything about this case or the people involved. These were lowlifes and yet the bigger fish may have yet seen through the bait.
"Ey, Jimmjon how the fuck yer talkin' to a lady, da fuck's the matter with you? Can't you see she's wearin' the soldato drapes? She outranks ya, yer lucky she didn't whack you right fuckin' 'ere, get what I'm sayin'?" The second tracksuit goon objected to his partner's rude behavior.
"Yeah... Don't you know who I am, sonny, I'm..." Meiko got a bit confused as she was bad of making up names, given how the last name she gave herself after dumping the clan name was "Wakizashi" it wasn't hard to get to that part.
"Yeah, she's the infamous Sarady "Bazooka" Choolip, I wouldn't have been captured by a lesser foe!" Mana playfully acted out a vengeful stare from a defeated foe she so often had seen in the plays she had seen before or after her shows. She knew a lot of the actors acting there and all the artists in the hall had a friendly relationship letting the others see their shows and get the chance to a professional critique. Making up the name was easy once Mana remembered all the history chapters dedicated to the village she had read.
"Oh shit, hear dat Jimmjon? She's got a nickname, granny's packing serious heat!" The mobster began genuinely worrying.
"Well we dunno whachu want from us, granny Bazooka, dis 'ere is just a simple establishment, couple a lowlife brothel managers count their money 'ere, you see?" The one who was so fired up before now became tranquil as a sheep and bowed his head repeatedly in apology yet he still couldn't be troubled to utter the words.
"Kay, dis bitch 'ere busted my kunai dispenser, I'd appreciate a replacement..." Meiko nodded trying to keep a serious face because for some reason, possibly the name, made her cringe which bloated the woman's already chubby and very pinch-worthy cheeks and forced her to fight the cringe within.
"Good call," Mana whispered to Meiko's ear, whenever they approach a serious establishment with more chances of intel being leaked they would appear much more credible with authentic weaponry instead of nothing resembling Syndicate's kunai dispensers.
"Well, we dun have much... But I mean if it's Sarady "Bazooka" Choolip asking..." the Syndicate goon scratched the back of his head and disappeared inside the small room, from what little Mana had seen the place they guarded was a glorified basement and little of actual value transpired inside. They could've wasted the whole night chasing and shutting down the brothels that placed their income there and never would've even scratched the surface of the operations... It was best they didn't stray from their path.
Soon the goon appeared and handed Meiko one of the big rapid firing kunai dispensers, one of the likes that the Syndicate leader used in the Katabami mine scuffle.
"Dis 'ere is our last heat-tube, it'd be a real treat if ye didn't break it and vouched for us when we get slack that it disappeared. Believe it or not, the Boss is really displeased about any firepower we lose because that means someone in the streets can get popped by someone that isn't us and that's bad for business..." The man explained.
"Happy people buy more whores, happy people buy more drugs, happy people order more hits to keep being happy..." The other added as a mantra which the first joined into.
"And no one's happy if there's disorder in the street..." Mana uttered without her own control to which the criminals only glared at her.
Meiko slapped Mana with a backhand which really hurt, no surprise probably, given the size of the hand...
"Shut the hell up, ye... Bitch..." Meiko tried her best mobster dialect since she's only heard what she's heard on this trip to find the Box.
"She is right though..." One of the goons shrugged.
"We don't have anywhere to contain her if she's a prisoner, if she's alive so long that means the Boss wants her alive, that means ye better take 'er twelve blocks east to a bigger joint... Ya know... Ta see what she knows." Another added trying to speak politely and carefully. Meiko having a nickname added to her name must've really intimidated them, must've been some sort of sign of achievement amongst these people...
"Right, then that's what I'll do... Dis bitch 'ere will know how terrible Sarady "Bazooka" Choolip is before the night is over." Meiko got really into her role. Despite the bloodied mouth Mana couldn't help but crack a grin, seeing her friend so excited and enjoying herself had that effect on her...
Shortly after the quarrel with the two mobsters ended the curtains moved aside and the show could begin. A short and slim girly walked out from the side with a violin in her hands. She was so eerily similar to Mana's build however whereas Mana's skin was of a slightly tanned shade the skin of this young lady was milk white. Her hair was worn in two playful ponytails that extended above and formed a horn-like shape, had they not been a combination of light blueish green and dark purple in color they'd have appeared like a demon's horns or angel's wings sprouted on her head.
And when the girl began playing Shimo observed in awe as her lovely yellow-iris eyes closed in sublime serenity the heart of the young man danced in his chest right alongside the divine melodies that the young lady played. The young woman, who appeared to be in her late teens if not early twenties was energetic with her playing, she danced, leaped, flipped and shook her head violently, rhythmically, the violin was no instrument, her entire body was molded with it into a harmony of music and dance that was hard to wake up from. After she was done her white sleeveless shirt was tucked out and messed up so the young lady fixed it and her plaid skirt without a flinch and placed the instrument on the ground pushing it towards the audience and bowing like a samurai bowed against his Feudal Lord offering his sword and his services.
"I shall require a tune..." the young woman uttered and despite her weak voice the whole audience heard it, it could've been that there was something magical about her voice, or maybe it was the great acoustics of the hall they were in. Either way, at that moment Shimo realized that if this lovely girl ordered him to jump off a cliff with a song he'd jump off the edge of the world itself. Then again, in a moment of regained composure, the young man realized he wasn't that tough to impress by the weaker gender...
"Ajisa's 4th sonnet "Moon of the Heavens"!" Someone in the audience suggested, it was a strong manly voice, without a doubt it came from a well refined and culturally educated gentleman, the typical crowd to attend such events, together with the Syndicate goons, obviously.
"Overture to Redemption by Muhanovski Yuya." Another suggestion came from the public.
"Ode to Snow Tulips perhaps?" An alluring feminine voice from the public suggested.
"I like that last one..." The violinist admitted leaping up by flipping back and using only her left hand for balance while grabbing her violin with the right one before playfully bowing and nodding while picking up the bow off the ground. "I shall improvise a musical piece out of all three of these together..." She declared placing the violin under her chin and preparing to play.
What came out next Shimo could barely comprehend. He had never heard either of these three pieces but he could swear that he heard a unique harmonious piece comprised of three different musical pieces. It was like this young woman created a unique musical piece on the fly out of the unique properties of the suggestions given by the public, such musical genius surely must've been impossible, how could one just create a perfect harmony of notes and tunes out of all that's best of previous geniuses' best works, using them like nothing more but primal and useless notes in her performance. Shimo was no musical expert or even that much of a fan, nowhere close Meiko's fascination level, however, what he heard amazed him to no end.
"Impressive, ain't she?" Another mobster leaned in from the other side speaking up to Shimo while the young lady decided to take a break as she played so immensely that her hair burst out of the bindings letting it all loose, unleashed into an ocean of purple and green majesty.
"She does that every time, every evening she performs... Notasa... But she's off limits if yer interested in her loins. She's got a nasty guard dog protecting her. He'd pull out yer fucking throat with his own teeth while pulling yer balls out with his bare hands. I'm tellin' ye as a Syndicate soldato, he'd plow through our ranks like no tomorrow and leave no able or willing man to even give her as much as a rose. I mean... It's the goddamn Carnefici Satsu we're talkin' 'bout. Out of the slammer right to guarding Notasa's back door," the mobster went on and on as the young lady bowed and finished her performance. Her forty minutes of pure musical magic...
