"We are just two weeks past the as horrific as it was random rampage of an unknown monster in the village. And what absolutely kooky pair of weeks this was… When one looks at the aimless toppled buildings or hears the occasional sob in the streets of a mother that had lost her child in the tragedy, oh so close to the calamity in the Ninja Academy, let's not forget, I'm sorry, but one can't make a different conclusion from the fact that the Administration's handling of the subject has been appalling..."

Click.

"It is really rare for such a high-ranking member of the Administration to step out from the ivory tower and grace us with your presence. As angry as many people may be with you, please let it be known that here at Azuma Lotus station appreciate communication between the ninja and the civilians, who are so often kept in the dark about the more… Confidential aspects of the village, which are as many as they are vital, don't you think?"

"Oh, absolutely. It's really relieving to be here."

"Relieving?"

"Well, I believe to say that it is a pleasure to be here, given the circumstances, would be very insensitive. What this chance to communicate with the civilian population of the village, the importance of which is generally dismissed by the ninja, I admit, is a relief. There has been so much animosity between the two sides of the village, and neither one can function without the other."

"I see. So how about we get right to the most important questions that nibble at each of our cores – where was the Hokage during the rampage, where were the A-Rank ninja. Our sources of completely normal, powerless, compared to your like, civilian reporters, that actually did not falter stepping into the proximity to the monster where all it would have taken to obliterate them would have been a blink, confirmed that it took at least a good pair of hours before even a single A-Rank ninja showed up."

"That is an exaggeration. It took a while for the high-ranking ninja to confront the monster, yes, but that is not to say they were sitting calm and doing nothing. People who say that forget so many other factors that go into problems like this: you cannot expect the Hokage to confront every enemy himself. That is not his role, he is a leader and a figurehead, not a bruiser. He is, oftentimes, the strongest ninja in the village but that also makes him the most important person and the largest target. Let's not even get into the number of higher-ranking ninja that were away on missions."

"Like both of the Sannin…"

"True, both Zairyo-san and Kusagoro-san are well-known for rarely being present in the village."

"Infamous, some would say…"

"Now, we both know that's a loaded statement. It is just so ignorant to close one's eyes and ears and shout obscenities at people that have sacrificed so much for this village and, really, deserve admiration for the secretive and highly dangerous work they do."

"Is that what the ninja think civilians are doing?"

"Obviously, as the individual in a head wrapped in cooking paper and a dozen of dead cats on their improvised headwear to protect them from the Yamanaka mind signals does not represent the opinions and intelligence of a civilian, I do not presume to speak for all…"

Click.

"Ninja are goddamn heroes! I don't see what these civwits don't understand about that. Please tell me about how scared and oppressed you are by your ninja overlords when you just sit down in front of your televisions brought to you, of course, by a ninja girl who was thirteen at the time from an alternate universe, try wrapping your head around that, and stuff your faces after what? Selling flowers and fruit… Shit, don't change the…"

Click.

"Once more, I cannot emphasize enough how healing and reducing the social schism it is to have the assistant, the right-hand man of the Hokage himself here. However, I believe you still failed to address the main fear and issue at play here – every single civilian in the village has been shown that a monster can rampage untouched for hours before he would be stopped. That was some mindless animal, no offense to the relatives of the poor boy, what if it was a devious agent from an enemy village? Or a criminal organization? Just how many A-Rank missing ninja are active right now?"

"That's confidential information. Even ninja must reach at least B-Rank before they get access to Bingo Books with that sort of information."

"Isn't that the popular answer these days?"

"I don't understand what exactly it is that you want me to say. Ninja who reach B-Rank could end the entire planet if they misdirected an ounce of their power. With willing intent, they'd probably decimate the entire known section of space just because a fraction of all the vital force that holds our universe together is within them. Because they learned to tap into that."

"Is that a threat or a gloat? At this point, it would be tough to say which is more disappointing to hear from someone of your esteem."

"Goddamn it!..."

"…"

"Look… I apologize for losing it for a second there but… You have to agree – if a ninja is entrusted the fate of the entire world in their hands, all that the light of the Sun touches even, they deserve to be entrusted with some confidential information that not every average Minato Yamamoto sweeping the streets should know. If anything, this public outcry we've been observing for weeks is the best argument in favor of some things being confidential."

"Around two years ago Guru Ayushi disappeared after a visit in Konoha. He just never showed up in any successive planned visits, there was a large outcry about that, real war-waging stuff. Did Konoha ninja know anything about the fate of this esteemed, wise man?"

"…"

"What about the gigantic man that covered the sky barely a year ago? It seemed like the end of the world for a moment. The man's single finger seemed massive enough to cover an entire continent and he looked pretty content with crushing the entire world in-between his hands. We know for a fact that ninja know all about that event but choose to withhold certain details."

"You know very well that we disclosed all about the outburst of Akimichi Francho. He is a pirate roaming the oceans that wash the Water Country's shores, hardly anything that Konoha should worry about, Kirigakure fully has that covered. In fact, Lord Fourth has even drafted and signed the treaty for the international pursuit of pirates himself."

"Was that why Konoha ninja were there? Assisting Kirigakure pursuing pirates? Because we were told WHO tried to squash the world like a plum in between their hands but we were never told WHY… What would make a Pirate Lord just step up and go crazy like that?"

"This interview is…"

Click.

"The official reports state that they have not only managed to recover the head of that bastard but that it was also alive and is still alive at the moment. For *beep* sake we'll probably get an exclusive from that freakazoid sometime in the nearest future. Oh, it seems we've got a call, a call on the tel-ee-phone that none other than ninja brought back from a different universe… Yes, we're listening."

"I bet, Bengo-san, that you would get an interview from that… That monster. With the praise that you're singing for the village. You've sold our village, our country for the ninja."

"Now you listen to me here, you *beep*!"

"Real classy interviewing there… Real professional."

"You think this is an interview, you *beep*ing *beep*? This is a *beep*ing *beep*, you *beep*."

"You do know that the Daimyo is not a ninja, ninja are our servants, tools for the civilians and not the other way around. We pay them to do our laundry, and, quite frankly, the way they've been treating us makes me sick."

"I'll *beep*ing *beep* you in the *beep*! *Beep*, I think he *beep*ing left… *Beep*!"

Click.

The television box went black after its brightest flash yet. It would yet take a good while before the electronic appliance would settle down and chill out. It was heated like a miniature oven right now, like one of those boxes in Shikamaru's blueprints that Mana brought back that cooked food with the help of electromagnetic radiation.

"Bet ye'd much more likely go a few more rounds with the big an' ugly, ey?" Eiju cheeked Mana stopping by her ward. The magician sighed, letting her chest deflate to a dangerously flat degree as only her fingers could have been moved without a chain reaction of painful impulses resonating through her body.

"I can't believe how quickly television has gone to the crapper…" Mana sighed again. "Even when the fighting's over, even when nobody is trying to squish, punch, crush or eat them alive limb by limb it's just about people fighting with each other."

"I dunno, I think that Bengo Yugana fellow has the right idea… At the very least, the fucker's entertainin'."

"As a court jester, maybe…" Mana turned to the window to see the gentle sunlight gleaming outside.

"So… Out of commission again, ey? Just when you got back… Maybe you ought to start thinkin' about retirement?" Eiju poked fun of Mana's record-short return to active duty.

"That's just fine. I've been planning a big training trip for a while…" Mana closed her eye and sighed.

"Not for a good couple of months you're not. If you're even out of this bed by the end of the week you'll be lucky." Eiju hissed almost like a scorned cat. It was unusual to see the medical ninja get so defensive about something. "It's probably for the better, there's all sort of mayhem out there with the civilians and the ninja, the last thing they need if you, the girl who beheaded the bloody bastard walkin' around their midst. It would be the worst thing for your recovery."

"Oh…" was all that Mana let out. She flipped onto her right shoulder to turn to the wall and the window and away from the legitimized Quack.

The magician's step was slow but it was stubborn. Her body still hurt and she had months of recovery still ahead of her, even the thought of training made her whole body drain of blood and her head woozy. It's been calmer around the streets somewhat, while Mana was in the hospital the medical ninja managed to keep her away from the curious eyes and off the awfully productive tongues. Now it felt like open season and arrows were coming off of every direction, Mana could feel it.

Feel it, not sense it. She's had her chakra sensory suppressed and closed off for a while, if the magician had it opened for even a moment since she almost died fighting Honda it would have been subconsciously, maybe during her sleep, during the nightmares when her entire body appeared to be fighting off the gloom that took it over at nights. Nerve impulses of all sorts firing off like fireworks during the Summer Festival.

Mana scratched her right eye. Her touch was light, it was a trade exchanging a little bit of itching from the bandages for a whole lot of pain. Pain that behaved like an old and cranky grandpa but was pain nonetheless. It was none of that smashing stuff that fired off from all cylinders when she fought Honda. None of that quick, firing sensation that made one jump back. It was slow, senile but it still had some kick and it wasn't going anywhere nor could Mana escape it.

That was just fine, however, it was what she had chosen. The price she had to pay to live up to the responsibilities she had placed on herself, penance she had to endure for messing Ayushi's brain up enough to make all of this happen. She was reckless to pursue Honda with this much obsession and selfish need to stop him herself, especially so when Ayushi was still out there.

No matter how badly she has to get beaten, how much pain she needs to sit through, Guru Ayushi was next. Mana refused to die until she saw the banshee's cry that she had let out wreck more havoc, have more people suffer for it.

She wasn't a complete idiot though. If she was to even stand up to Guru Ayushi she would need time, training, a full recovery for one… Just becoming strong was nowhere near enough. If Mana was short-sighted she'd fret over the months lost while her friends were out and training with some of the most perspective people in their lives, undoubtedly becoming mighty beyond the wildest imagination. Just mere training and strength was irrelevant. If Meiko and Kiyomi surpassed her, that was fine, as long as she could still stop Guru Ayushi. Even if by that point her body does break and become useless, even if by then she really does need to retire.

Just mere strength will not do. Ayushi has had centuries to gather that and now he's utilizing his ancient wisdom to wander the world and acquire even more, not unlike her own friends. No amount of moxie or silly shouts with fists raised into the sky would change that kind of difference in strength. If Mana was to stop Ayushi and capture him, she'd need to do it her way, intelligently, just like she's always done it.

The kind of fist-swinging, reckless bouts like this one only served as pain in her ass and as another nail in her coffin. Not to mention it actually cost her loads of sleep after invading her consciousness and holding tightly. The memories of Honda won't leave Mana's dreams anytime soon and never once has she come out on top even in her own dreams.

"You can come in now."

The voice that Mana had not heard for a while, maybe a month after she had heard the Hokage's assistant talking on the television broke the magician's concentration. The girl lifted her eyes up and noticed Lord Sixth and his assistant just staring at her through open doors on the top floor of the Administration building. Slightly flustered, Mana picked her aching body off the chair and somehow managed to carry the busted bag of bones into the office.

"How are you feeling?" Sixth asked without beating around the bush, he tried saying something about Mana when the magician just collapsed on her knees awkwardly but figured that if the girl was willing to fall this badly she was adamant about kneeling.

"Kneeling has never been easier… I just stop trying to fight gravity." Mana tried alleviating the mood, she even smiled genuinely. It was a somewhat melancholic smile but a smile nonetheless. Nobody could have expected more from her at this point.

"I figured that you needed to know this for sure, I won't be giving you out any missions for a while." Lord Sixth said.

"That's it? I pretty much knew I was not going anywhere after getting the three months of extensive Mystic Palm session treatment." Mana looked relieved as she said it.

"No, you don't get it, there may not be any missions for a good couple of months at all. The rate of missions has dropped extensively, people appear to have realized that they were supporting us through their inability to do their own dirty work and have actually started picking up their own slack for once. Ninja aren't most popular these days…" the Hokage scratched his neck, he looked ticked off but it was the social situation he spoke of that pissed him off and not something Mana said or did which was a welcome change.

"Needless to say, this caused a rise in crime as people are committed to doing their own assassinations or… Even worse… Paying criminals to do it while helping them infiltrate the village." The assistant added.

"All this because they're afraid criminals will infiltrate the village and nobody will notice or protect them from it… Years of working in Black Ops and reading people haven't prepared me for this kind of bullshit…" the man rubbed his tired eyes. "In any case, if you have any healing or training locations to visit, the village would be glad to compensate that. Not only did you capture the monster but you captured him alive. That's insane…"

"The Golden Child justifies her reputation." Lord Sixth's assistant nodded his head.

"I think we've first met during similar circumstances. Back when you returned with the capsule full of blueprints and future technology from a different universe. If matters were not this dire with pretty much every ninja clan, I'd arrange a doujutsu to be transplanted into that missing eye of yours."

"Oh… It's not missing." Mana blushed. It may have been tough to tell over her scars and bandages.

"Excuse me?"

"It's not missing. It's just damaged. I should most likely regain some degree of vision in it and make a recovery. I was warned against straining it or moving it too much though. Lest it heals back looking at an odd angle or of a weird color…" Mana admitted. "I do appreciate the purely theoretical gesture though."

"We wish we could do more, sadly, there are currently very few strings we can pull. If you wish, we may arrange a trip to a country of your choosing, keep you comfortable there for a full recovery and the ability to train with the most skilled ninja of that country. You'll be sure to surprise your old teammates when they get back thinking they've garnered progress…" the Sixth's assistant fixed his glasses. He looked quite confident and smug about his offer, it must take a significant amount of pull to put something like this together.

"Somebody pulled me out from the water when I was out. Saved my life. Also recovered the head of Honda and managed to contain it somewhere, sorry if I'm fuzzy on the details, my only source of information this whole time was television. I sort of begin to understand why the civilians are so outraged." Mana looked down and away for a moment. "That's enough gratitude and a bit on top."

"It's true, you were fortunate to be pulled out of the sewers when you were. By the time you were found you already had to be saved from drowning. It was a good thing you were out, the panic would have made you draw in more water." Sixth's assistant nodded.

"The ninja that recovered you also kept chipping at the poor Honda's head to keep it from growing something back as it was very much trying to do that. They kept cutting things off and burning it until we could find a way to detain it safely in the appropriate conditions to prevent further regeneration." Sixth leaned back in his chair.

"That's great. Studying Honda's condition might help a whole lot of other people affected by Guru's experiments. It might be key to helping people in the following catastrophes." Mana breathed in and out with a smile that looked tired but genuine.

"Yeah… That's our hope too." Sixth closed his eyes and placed his hands out in front of him as he leaned forward on his desk. "So I take it you won't take us up on our offer then?"

"I have already been thinking about that. If it's all the same, I'd like to train with the Ninja Rabbits in the Rabbit Caves. If you ever need me, I'll be one hawk swoop away." Mana scratched her elbow.

"Really? The Rabbit Caves? Seems a bit plain and casual but it's something Chestnut Hanasaku used to do quite often, train with her wolves for an extended period of time… Can't be wrong looking up to someone like that." Lord Sixth nodded a pair of times. He obviously was disappointed that he was unable to pull on his strings and arrange something for Mana, maybe get the magician under his wing and debt, if not literal then a bit more subconscious one. One was sure to not forget favors like this.

"Yeah, I've had a lot of success training there before the Chuunin Exams and I'd rather recover amongst friends." Mana nodded.

"Alright, feel free to depart whenever you feel like it, if you need accompaniment don't feel shy to direct that to us, we'll arrange something. It may be for the better that you don't wander about all by yourself while still recovering." Lord Sixth relaxed in his chair and moved a larger pile of paperwork from the uppermost left corner of his table to the center.

Given how their professional relationship started and how it developed, this meeting went significantly more successfully than Mana had hoped.

Mana stared at the oddly shaped house for a while before knocking on the door. The structure was shaped almost like a vegetable, a radish, with sprouts of seemingly useless additives sticking out. Those sprouts could have been corridors that lead to dead ends or small apartments for young people who have lost their parents in the wars or missions.

Konoha did provide those. It did since Fourth's days when the guarantees were first introduced. While the law demanded that the village provided say a student studying in the Ninja Academy whose parents lost their lives in service to the village a home to call their own free of charge or taxation, it did not specify if the property had to be a house or an apartment or the exact sophistication or condition that the house had to be in.

It took courage and acceptance of the chaos and the fact that one was including a vegetable-shaped house in their life to knock on the thing. A cheerful, brown-haired woman opened the door, a fragile thing in a pink, flowery dress about Mana's height and build. She must have been one of the students who got a part of this house for free from the village…

"Hey, I'm…"

"Konoha's Sorceress, oh, sorry, it seems so odd to call you by your stage name when your name flies around the house so much! You must be Mana! Come in, please, Kouta is working out." The woman erupted in a dance of cheer and pure speed of moving from one point in space as well as the conversation to another.

"No way…" Mana uttered under her own nose.

This woman could not have possibly been Kouta's mother. Just how old was she? To have given birth to Kouta she must have been at least around Kusagoro's age, maybe in her middle thirties but certainly not someone who could be confused as a student of Konoha High. Not to mention the fact she had to not only have finished Ninja Academy but also the exhausting medical ninja courses in the Konoha High as well, done all the practical studying as well as made a name for herself in the hospital.

"Oh… Where're my manners!? I'm Shori Hirano." The woman bowed her head as she introduced herself.

"I thought Hirano was a name Kouta made up," Mana mumbled to herself through half of her lips. This unexpected meeting served as all sorts of eye-opening experience.

"What was that!?" the frail ball of joy turned back at Mana with possibly the warmest smile she's seen in a while. Ignoring the tremendous amount of time she's spent on missions and life-threatening times, real nightmare inducing stuff, the past weeks she's spent in the hospital introduced her to a whole roster of faked and real smiles of a whole bunch of healthcare specialists so this actually was decently impressive.

"Nothing it's just… You're not really how I imagined you in my head." Mana admitted deciding that she was too bad at lying to try and make something meaningless up so instead she just told a speck of the truth she was ashamed of to share.

"Heh, it must be my looks. Would you believe if I told you it has nothing to do with the Transformation Jutsu and that it's all natural?" the woman began to chat while leaning closer to Mana. As if entrusting a highly confidential fact or something.

"Transformation…" Mana uttered. She had never thought about the Transformation Jutsu and how it could have allowed her to temporarily bypass her battle-scarred appearance until her scars are treated properly. It would be extremely straining to keep it up for long initially, it would take training and focus to learn to upkeep the technique to the point where it becomes natural.

No, she had responsibilities that demanded her full attention. She had no time or effort to waste on something as vain as appearance, even though the girl would eventually need to get as much treatment as possible if she was to ever appear on stage again.

"Yep, people keep thinking it's my secret, when I tell them it's not they keep nagging me about what it is and, truth be told, it's just my love for my job! I love treating people which is why I never have to truly work a single day of my life!" the woman shrugged before turning at a wooden staircase and calling for Kouta pretty loudly for someone of her frail build.

She was an exact opposite of what Mana would have expected to have attracted Kusagoro. Short, frail and weak in terms of combat potential, a skilled medical ninja surely but always a lover and a softie rather than a fighter.

"That's right, of course, it would be a shock for you to finally see me, you haven't really seen me because when I've treated you in the hospital a pair of times you've always been pretty banged up. You should be more careful out there, you know, honestly, you're all just like Kusagoro…" the woman waved her finger at Mana, making the magician's lips curl up from the awkwardness of the situation as her entire body leaned backward. To the opposite direction of the mean pointed finger or else the woman's arm would have disappeared entirely in Mana's mouth through her lips.

"Sometimes I really don't get a choice…" Mana shrugged looking quite guilty. She had never been scolded quite like this about the way she has been fighting up to now and her reasons for fighting and the way she picked her fights. Given how she could not even begin to muster about responsibilities and people she was saving at the time, it may have been a highly efficient way of moralizing her…

"Mana is really devoted to her job, she fights with all of her strength and heart out there when she's protecting people. She's a lot like you like that, mom…" Kouta smiled with a gentle smirk while quickly running down the stairs. The boy was awfully shy about the affair as she stopped right in front of Mana and began looking away and browsing for words to say.

"So… Can I…" he sputtered.

Mana almost jumped at the boy, she did the closest equivalent to the motion she could, given her physical condition and wrapped her arms around him. At least she could do that much. Hoping that notion would answer Kouta's question. The boy looked confused by Mana's affection but after the first few moments of fear over Mana's condition worsening if she came in contact with him as roughly as she did, he gently placed his own hands around her.

Shori sniffled from somewhere nearby, ruining the moment. Although she realized that she did so and after an apologetic nod disappeared somewhere. She did remind that it was a pleasure to finally meet the magician after peeking out one final time though. It certainly has been a pleasure. A very outlandish kind of pleasure but pleasure nonetheless, meeting Shori Hirano was a delicacy of meetings.

"Thanks for visiting me in the hospital. It was pretty rough in there. Would have been a lot rougher without your visits." Mana pressed her head against Kouta's, her skin burnt up with disdain for the contact with the boy's clothes and his skin, even something as casual as a show of affection became a struggle with discomfort and pain.

"I wish I could have been there more, those few times they did let me visit were more of an exception of the rule. Hell, I wish I was there to help…" Kouta rubbed his temples while his upper body blushed. He was not that much different from Mana, blaming himself for all sorts of things he had no need to do so about, seeing it in another person made Mana reflect about how annoying it must have been to people around her when she ceaselessly did so.

"If you were, you'd likely have been dead… Most of those in Honda's way died." Mana sighed. While she had learned to accept that fact and somewhat keep pushing herself past the fires of self-blame, power through the nightmares of the dead coming back to haunt and blame her through grit, teeth, and nails, it was never easy.

"I was away… Training with…" Kouta repeated those same words he kept on telling Mana as well as himself but judging from his regret and sadness it rarely, if ever, worked.

"I won't lie and say that I didn't need you or expect you or your father pop out of nowhere and save everyone. But you did help, you were on my mind when things got really hard. You helped me stand back up so many times, do what was hard but necessary when no one would have blamed me for staying down." Mana tried assuring her loved one.

Kouta's blank stare and unease in his eyes, him hiding his eyes from the magician made the girl realize that it would take some time for the boy to forgive himself for this thing that needed no forgiveness.

"Whatever your path is, your father is clearly an important part of it. He was someone you aspired to see more, impress and be acknowledged by. He happens to love seeking challenges and training elsewhere so as someone who is the way you are you would be happiest away and with him." Mana tried again.

"I'm not leaving, too many times I've left to come back and hear about you going through trouble while I was away," Kouta replied. His eyes were sad and he suffered for his stoic and strict decision. Mana would not have that.

"It would be very lonely to stay in the village in that case." She smiled with the tips of her lips.

"Wait, you're… Leaving?" Kouta's eyes shot open wide.

"Yeah, to train in the Rabbit Caves." Mana nodded. "I may end up spending a couple of years there, the first part of my stay will be purely to recover fully. You've seen the rabbits, you know how fun they are to be around."

"Yeah, I suppose…" Kouta looked away. "Did you tell your parents yet? If not, this may not yet be final. Can't imagine them letting you off the leash after nearly losing you twice in a row."

"They were to be the most difficult to convince, I told them first during one of their visits in the hospital. As my parents, they were granted many more compared to other civilians." Mana nodded. "Convincing them was the toughest part of leaving, the actual trip will be nothing."

"I see… Good old Mana. Always planning ahead." Kouta mirrored Mana's somber smirk.

"You could probably come with but… I really want you to train with your father and be happy. We'll have all the time in the world when I return. There is a lot of work that is to be done before the fun." Mana rubbed her elbow awkwardly. She did not like telling Kouta that she did not want to take him with her, anyone else would have gotten offended and questioned their relationship but Kouta should have understood. He was not anyone else.

"No, you should definitely go alone. That way the rabbits can reverse summon you, right?" Kouta raised a point. "You're wounded and tired and I can see pain emanating from your every movement. The moment you wander further from the village – you'll be like catnip for bandits and missing ninja."

"Yeah… That's probably a good idea." Mana nodded with discomfort.

"This is just fine, just like you said, we'll always be somewhere around here, right? Just a little bit outside immediate reach." Kouta reached out for a hug but Mana raced past that and nosedived forward for a surprise kiss.

It felt good. Just for that one second, that one good moment surrounded by calamities and uncertainty all pain, all responsibilities and everything unpleasant went away. For as long as their lips stayed connected, Mana felt like she was brand new, full of vigor, life, and purpose to move on and move mountains. They could not have stayed that way forever, as much as the magician wanted it to be so.

That was why her face lingered up close to Kouta. Why she kept her forehead firmly pressed against his to the point where the warmth of his breathing began causing a moderate need for fresher air and the magician's busted and patched up forehead lit up with more fresh and youthful pulse of pain that had a much sharper kick to it.

"I could heal you right now. As much as I can, like old times…" Kouta suggested with a whisper.

"No, you'd just drain yourself of all your chakra for such limited use." Mana refused. It felt almost like rejecting Kouta himself that way, after all, while they may have met first during the boy's time assisting Mana on her shows, they truly connected when the Juugo served as the medical ninja for their squad and had to heal Mana over and over.

"Yeah… It doesn't look like you have that many actual wounds. These are just scars and small-time cuts that will pass by themselves. They wouldn't spend valuable manpower treating something like this." Kouta pulled out of the close proximity to Mana's face.

Feeling the boy run through her with his eyes made Mana feel a bit uncomfortable and embarrassed. It may have been quite some time that she's spent in the hospital but there'd be much more until her wounds would truly heal. She was a long cry from the frightful wraith wrapped in bandages she was when she confronted Honda but…

"I must be hideous." Mana sighed.

"I've seen you, the real you. I've scanned your chakra network, remember. I don't need to look at what's outside. All I need is to remember the side of you I fell in love with." Kouta replied with an affectionate smile.

The magician jumped up on her feet and off the couch before running off and stopping in the middle of the doorframe. Her clenched fists trembled while she desperately tried to not look back and reveal her stupid, whiny face. What an idiot she was, she was the one who decided to leave, to put a break in everything, recover and train and give Kouta time to do the same with his father as he's always wanted to since he was a toddler.

And here she was… Crying and having trouble saying goodbye.

*POOF*

A bunch of rabbits coughed up, blowing a cloud of smoke off and assisting it in dissipating all over the cave under one of the endless massive trees of the Forest of Death. It has been a while since they have reverse summoned anyone into the caves and the previous system was slightly larger, mainly because it was built up over a much greater length of time. That was why it was less of an issue before.

A bunch of bunnies blindly rushed on ahead and into the smoke, grabbing firmly to the powerful and rather muscular for the girl's build thighs. Trained by none other than the ninja rabbits themselves when they gave the magician the very basics of their fighting style way back.

"Hey, you guys…" Mana's smile appeared from the dissipating smoke. There were no longer tears irritating her skin and old scars anymore. Those traitors appeared to have trouble dying out before, resurfacing shortly after goodbyes with Kouta and his mother and during the time for farewells with her family. Still, Mana was an entertainer at heart so it would have been a cardinal sin to show her audience her tears.

"Who wants to see a magic trick?" she grinned even as sorrow choked at her throat.

500 Chapters... Wow! I wasn't sure I'd ever go this far, in fact, I still haven't caught up the point of the story I thought I'd be in at the end of the summer when I first started this story. I sure as hell never expected for the end of this arc to line up this well to the 500th chapter. There's still a lot of the story to tell, I'm grateful to those who were with me for this long and haven't grown disinterested with the story for one reason or another. I can't promise another 500 chapters even if I don't believe I am yet halfway done, but I am profoundly grateful to those who have read the story and let me know what they thought of it. A lot of people voiced a lot of very useful points that helped me grow as a writer (not that I am one, except by the very strictest definition of the word :D). Having a full-time job the whole time through definitely made it tough to work on the story some days but looking back at the start from here, I do ultimately feel it's been worth it.

Anyway, thanks a lot of reading however much you've read, even if you just decided to check the Author's Note at the end of the 500th chapter just to check if 500 chapters aren't just some joke. Sorry I sort of jumped forward on the schedule with this but, as you can see, it is twice the size of the usual chapter which is why I had trouble posting it on the allotted time. Enough looking back, there's a lot of story to write still up ahead and, sadly, I can't just let someone else write filler arcs for me...

Love all of you 3