The Stars observed Jishoku Quinton and Minara Bebe walking off from Minara's hospital room, leaning over a corner to take small peeks while Asuka kept her eyes on the fake wand that Damisan put together from scraps last evening before going off on his own errand. So far, the plan was proceeding as Damisan put it together.

"How did it go? Did she make the switch?" Shige-H asked without dropping the two magicians ready to walk through the planes back to the Citadel of Magisters out of her line of sight. This was becoming harder to do as the hallway was slowly beginning to turn, which made the turning hallway partly obscure the two magicians. This only meant that Minara needed to make the switch sooner rather than later.

"It's tough to say," Asuka teased her squad leader. "Isn't the point between these two wands that they're meant to look almost completely identical?"

"Hmph… It's a simple Substitution Jutsu. The magical girl claimed that the mana she and the other magicians use is the same as chakra. It should be impossible that she would mess it up with all of her training. Ninja teach that technique to children…" Endo scoffed. Despite looking sure that this would work, the swordsman had his hand on the hilt, which made him look nervous at least on some level.

"They've vanished!" Shige-H gasped, witnessing the space-time bending and swallowing them up like a rippling lake surface swallowed up an ambitious swimmer cannon-balling into it from a bridge up above.

"We're golden," Asuka smirked, showing the replacement wand with Mana's soul sapphire inserted into it while the wand that Minara Bebe carried off with herself held a crystal taken from the hanging lantern, illuminating each individual ward from inside. "She made the switch."

"That's one problem off our hands," Shige-H scratched her chin. "Now we need to find out why the Soul Diffusion didn't work and make it work. With Mana's soul trapped inside that gem, the ordinary means of returning her soul to her body might not work. If mana the magicians use is truly the same primal creation and destruction energy source as chakra as Minara claimed, the abundance of energy around this magical gem might serve as a barrier to an Allied Yamanaka ninja making the switch."

"There are still magicians left in this competition. If the Soul Diffusion is as natural as Minara alleged it to be, they should be able to give us more information," Endo surmised while looking at a storage scroll that he left vacant for the storage of any new swords he might have encountered but ended up sacrificing to store away Mana's soulless body in.

"That's a good point, I'd like you to get on that, Asuka," Shige-H turned around, scanning her two squad mates with a glare.

"Huh? Endo's the one who suggested it. Why do I need to stick my neck out for his idea?" Asuka complained, albeit not passionately. Likely, just about any reason would have convinced her to take the task up.

"Because Endo can't be left to negotiate anything. Also, you've proven to be better at gathering intel than either of us. Besides, I have a different task for Endo in mind," Shige-H replied, gaining Endo's attention. "I need you to unseal Mana's body in an empty ward room, place the gem on her chest, and guard her body.

"Seriously? After I've just used my storage scroll to seal it in again?" Endo sighed.

"We couldn't leave Mana in Minara's bed and we needed to be here to oversee the switch. If Soul Diffusion is a natural process, it might still occur at any point, so it might be a good idea to keep Mana and the soul sapphire close. Pick a remote ward, keep people out of it, and protect her body by any means necessary, preferably without raising too much attention and racking up a body count," Shige-H instructed only for Endo to nod and take off with a flicker alongside the scroll containing Mana's body. He also snagged the wand with the slotted soul sapphire inside of it from Asuka's hand.

"What are you going to do?" Asuka wondered, glaring at the squad leader.

"Our actual mission," Shige-H replied. "Just because Fennec's mercenaries and the Chaos Factor have been eliminated from the tournament, doesn't make us home clear. If any of Fennec's mercenaries are still alive, they might be up to something shady behind the scenes. I'm not about to allow something like a hostile takeover of Agbarah to happen."

"Alright, sounds like we're all occupied. And here I thought that this would be just a breeze, entertaining ourselves with a fighting tournament event from front-row seats…" Asuka sighed playfully before strutting off into the infirmary hallways, looking for an opportunity to get in contact with one of the magicians.


"Alright, I'm back," Damisan announced himself, knowing that his newly met friend was blind and would have appreciated it.

"You dashed away in a rush, is everything okay? Are you sure you want to be doing this?" Ryoku Genshi wondered.

"Absolutely! I've sorted things out with my team. Now I need to calm my mind and find out if my skills can be put to good use for anything but inventing weapons and deadly puppets," Damisan replied.

"I thought I would be fighting a samurai tomorrow. I don't think I'll make do with no weapons…" Ryoku Genshi seemed skeptical of Damisan's proclamation with no trace of mean-spiritedness in his comment.

"I won't build you a new arm and a leg to kill people, they won't be equipped with weapons, how you use them will be up to you," Damisan explained. "I'm done building dispensers, weapon storage units, hidden blade compartments, and brewing poisons. Whether or not my team approves, from now on, I'll be building prosthetics that return the love of life back to people as opposed to taking it away forever."

"I was just as willing to step out, an arm and a leg short tomorrow, so… Weapons or no weapons, I'm down for it," Ryoku Genshi nodded.

"Believe it or not, this way the prosthetics will take much less time to put them together. Most time spent building a puppet goes into developing weapons, mixing poisons, and finding solutions to how to fit all of them into the puppet. Remove all that and we'll have more time left for you to get accustomed to your new arm and leg. Maybe you'll even be able to slip a few hours of training in today," Damisan explained before opening his robe and revealing a sealing glyph painted over a sewn sheet of white cloth. Upon undoing the seal, Damisan had a box of tools and scrap to work with and could at long last get to work.


"Ladies and gents!" the announcer shouted out, addressing the audience that once again filled the seats of the Sun Disc colosseum, ready for the second round of the competition to at long last take place. "Welcome back to the new and improved Sun Disc arena, where we'll be hosting the second round of the tournament to determine the new Sheikh of Agbarah! After the impressive competition the day before, we've narrowed down over 170 competitors down to the 16 that would end up clashing to determine the quarter-finalists! You better believe that our construction crew was working overtime putting this arena back together and our healers hustled and bustled to put our fighters back on their feet! We sincerely hope you appreciate their effort!"

The audience roared and pumped their fists, having barely had the time to unwind after spectating an event to define their lifetime of coming to see wild martial arts competitions in this Mecca of martial arts tournaments around the world. In all of that excitement, the Stars had found each other and sat down in a single queue, having found some empty seats vacated by unfortunately deceased owners who would have otherwise occupied them.

"Where's Endo?" Damisan asked.

"I left him watching Mana. The Soul Diffusion might have failed once, but it might still happen at any time. Endo is watching out for it while guarding Mana's body in a lone ward. With more and more fighters being cleared out and more of the infirmary building being vacated, the odds of them being discovered are slimming down too," Shige-H replied. "I found out something interesting yesterday. I asked around and spoke with some of the tournament support staff, they claimed they didn't see Fennec's mercenaries leave. Curiously enough, I couldn't find them in the infirmary either. There weren't many survivors from their faction, but they had to have gone somewhere, right? How about your errands?"

"I'm satisfied with Ryoku Genshi's progress and I did the best job I could to equip him with the best prosthetics I could make, given the time and material constraints. Whether that's enough to hold his own against a samurai, we'll just have to see," Damisan reported.

"We really should have chosen a more likely competitor to win if we're going down this route," Shige-H groaned. "Though, I suppose, only the desperate ones would collaborate with us. It's not like we have much to offer the favorites."

"I couldn't find any magicians yesterday. It's not a simple thing to gather intelligence on, and most healers and attendants were incredibly irritated to see me "bothering the patients" in the afternoon," Asuka reported. "It's not like I can just prance about asking people if they know any magicians nearby. I was hoping to gather some intelligence on the remaining magicians during today's competition and then approach one of them, or all of them, directly after the competition."

"Hmm… Tough luck for you too, huh?" Shige-H noted.

"And now, for the first round of today's Top 16 rounds, that will determine the first quarter-finalist! First off, we've got Hanomahal Moenaka VS Yoibetsu-N!" the announcer declared, gesturing for the turning gears to shift and raise a sandstone bridge from the underwater area outside the arena's bounds. "Entering the ring now, from the Land of Lightning, yet he's made his name in the Land of Water Union Ball competitions, the Unstoppable Force of Motion, the Breakneck Tackling Machine! The man who eliminated the final superhero from our battle royale–Hanomahal Moenaka!"

The audience went off for an emerging musclebound giant in a plain white shirt, a tanned skin. A round and rather small-looking head attached to a neck that was as thick as a sequoia tree was the first one to emerge before the entire visage of a beefy athlete who was as physically powerful as he was fast and explosively sudden with his movements emerged and walked down the sandstone bridge to the round arena and positioned himself by the southern side of the arena's center.

"And now, the only ninja to make it out through the battle royale, not much is known about this young man, except for his rank and place of birth, the bold and capable Kumogakure chuunin who's inherited the Kumogakure's Lightning Armor fighting style and brought it to our tournament with uncompromising effectiveness and unchained raw power of the thunderclap–Yoibetsu-N!" the announcer introduced the second competitor who's made it into the Top 16. Unlike Moenaka, who strutted into the ring, Yoibetsu-N dashed in with a hi-speed Body Flicker blur in a single blink-and-you-miss-it blitz.

"This match-up's promising to be a match between the immovable blockbuster front rush tackle that flattens even the thickest of walls and force accumulated through the swiftness of a greased lightning bolt!" the announcer hyped the audience up further before waving his arm and authorizing the two competitors to go at it. "FIGHT!" the announcer declared the second round having officially begun.

Hanomahal kicked off the moment that the announcer's declaration of the beginning of the battle snuffed out. Unfortunately for him, while he accelerated his entire body with tension and built up toughness and bulk in his muscles, Yoibetsu-N was up in his face with an aerial backside spin kick that neatly transitioned into a repeated whirlwind kick with his free leg.

The sudden explosive combination of kicks stiffened Hanomahal and prevented him from his trademark unstoppable shooting tackle. After landing on both feet, Yoibetsu-N turned on one leg, shooting off a flurry of nigh unperceivable kicks that split from his knee and therefore came out twice as fast as an ordinary kick. This only drove the already overwhelmed Union Ball athlete to lean back and adopt a defensive position that wasn't very favorable for him.

"This guy's not half bad," Asuka whistled out, getting lost in the excitement of the crowd to the point of clapping and cheering herself a few times. "Do you know him?" she turned to Shige-H with a question.

"Just because we're both from Kumogakure doesn't mean that I know him," Shige-H squinted at the ludicrous proposition on Shige-H's part. "However… I do know Yoibetsu-N, though not because we're from the same village. He graduated from the same Ninja Academy class I did. We weren't exactly friends, but I've seen him around back in the day."

"Lightning Armor: Cross-Arm Charge!" Yoibetsu-N chanted out, crossing his arms up and becoming lit up by a sparking yellow and orange bolt of electricity. In a flash, he charged straight into Hanomahal Moenaka, flattening him on the ground and dragging him a decent distance toward the edge of the ring in a trail of black skidding marks.

"Oh my, competitor Yoibetsu-N is taking on the offensive from the get-go! Unlike how he behaved in the battle royale, where the Kumogakure ninja preferred to keep it to himself for the most part, in one-on-one competition, Yoibetsu-N is exploding with an all-out offensive, crashing straight into his opponent and preventing Hanomahal Moenaka's steamroller from getting started!" the announcer reported on the turn of the tide of battle early on.

Despite a loud and mean-sounding beat down, Hanomahal Moenaka picked himself up and wiped the dirt and dust off that stuck to his face from Yoibetsu-N's sandals off with a dusting motion. He looked bemused and hardly fazed by the attacks. Something like that couldn't have registered well with a warrior, gaining an advantage and delivering a flawlessly executed combination of attacks only to see the enemy brush it off and stand back up with little to no issue.

"Groargh!" Moenaka rumbled and charged off straight at Yoibetsu, using the very distance that Yoibetsu's Cross-Arm charge dragged him to gain some acceleration for his blockbuster tackle. Instead of tackling the enemy ninja, however, Moenaka slammed his left arm into Yoibetsu's jaw and lifted the amber-haired ninja off the ground. "That kind of rough play wouldn't even register as a foul in Union Ball!" Moenaka said while pulling out a rubbery ball and shoving it into the chest of the airborne Yoibetsu-N.

"Let me show you how rough Union Ball is so that you know how hard you need to go at me to have the advantage of an unpunishable foul on me!" Moenaka barked out, slamming the leather-clad play ball into Yoibetsu-N's chest. For a brief moment, the audience stopped cheering, the battle grew dead silent.

A violent eruption of transparent shockwave boomed clean through Yoibetsu-N's body and burst onto the other side, sifting through his skin, blood, and bone and causing a boiling ruckus on the young ninja's internals before blasting off toward the air so hard that the burst of the slammed leather ball expelled an aerial shockwave ring. Yoibetsu-N coughed up blood, his stare blanked out as the Kumogakure ninja shot off into the air.

"Incredible! Hanomahal Moenaka has sent his opponent flying by merely slamming him with the Union Ball's unique, heavyweight, leather play ball! There aren't many occasions when one throws or kicks the ball in Union Ball, most of the time, passing and scoring is done by forcefully shoving the ball into the other players' hands or by driving the ball into the ground with a dunk! Because of that, Hanomahal Moenaka's ball isn't a long-range projectile, it's a close-range clobbering weapon!" the announcer became pumped up by the apparent success of the pro athlete in close-range combat. "It doesn't look like the troubling state that his clash with Quill-Man has left Hanomahal Moenaka in has diminished the Union Ball player's skill at all!"

Bellowing from the bottom of his chest, Hanomahal Moenaka took it into the air with his leather ball clenched underneath his armpit. Like a shooting sky-bound rocket, the Union Ball forward took off and wrapped his entire right hand around Yoibetsu-N's face, seeking to crash him down onto the floor. Swinging him around to gain some further momentum, Hanomahal Moenaka crashed the face of the Kumogakure ninja into the ground, raising some ruckus and shooting off sprinkles of busted tiles and dirt that splashed and rippled like disturbed water after his ruthless grounding pound.

Something was off, the pro-athlete blinked rapidly a few times before realizing that the body of the opponent he had forcefully grounded with such force was gone and that he was now clenching only the leathery, heavyweight play ball of Union Ball fame. Just as the athlete was about to look around and wonder where his opponent had gone, he received a stiff high kick to his face with Yoibetsu-N dashing away with hi-speed, flickering movements meant to confuse his discombobulated opponent further.

"Incredible! As expected from a ninja, utilizing some sort of mind tricks and fooling even me to escape from a tight situation and avoid taking too much damage early on!" the announcer praised Yoibetsu's movements.

"No, this was no illusion," Shige-H observed. "He used the Substitution Jutsu to replace himself with the ball. Because Substitution puts great stress on one's body and muscles that eases over a short period, Yoibetsu-N dashed away instead of emphasizing on the opening he's made for himself."

"He's been fighting conservatively until now," Asuka added. "Substitution Jutsu has a long cooldown in which the tension on your muscles needs to ease up before you can use it again. If he's to avoid taking such brutish blows in the future, he'll need to crank up the voltage. Heh, I guess we really might end up enjoying ourselves watching this a little after all."

The Top 16 round of the tournament to determine the next Sheikh of Agbarah has kicked off, with plenty on the Stars' plate to occupy their attention behind the scenes too. And yet, despite all of their worries, right now they've been entranced by the same thing that pleased the hyped-up audience of spectators clapping and pumping their fists into the sky–the clash between Moenaka and Yoibetsu-N.