The atmosphere in the air was uneasy. Mana noticed it while still engrossed in her book. It might have had something to do with the massive chakra signature in the vicinity. People were generally uneasy but not in a way that would have suggested them feeling as if their lives were at threat. It was more due to the fact someone meaningful had entered the facility. Either way, this presence caused her no reason to pull out from what she was doing so she filtered it out.
By now Mana had become accustomed to dealing with massive chakra signatures. For months after she had discovered her ability to sense chakra and began training it, she couldn't handle being around powerful ninja. It was so bad that she had to turn off that ability altogether if she wanted for panic attacks to not utterly engross her. It felt like floating in the void of space and turning only to see a supermassive ball of gas blazing right before you. It was an almost cosmic and hopeless feeling that crushed one's spirit and stopped one from breathing altogether.
The trick was not looking at the star but at its separate features, minute details. To subject oneself to parts that helped understand the ethereal subject of the topic but not to allow it to take over and terrorize you. That was the only way in which Mana could even begin to manage this predicament though from what little licks of the tremendous chakra she had gotten from the reading room, it was a ninja who would have left Mana sweaty and wheezing on the ground if she met them a few years ago.
Some forty minutes later the magician slammed the book shut and went to place it back into the shelf she took it from. Soon enough the ninja that were currently undertaking their prep courses would flood the reading room and Mana didn't want to risk meeting someone who held a grudge against her for harming Guru Ayushi, someone who looked at her as being no better than trash for having a fearsome conviction record of surviving Jigoku, someone who associated Mana with Shogito's group that wanted her dead via scornful looks they stabbed her way whenever their paths crossed.
Basically, someone who had any kind of reason to feel insulted by Mana's presence. Starting her career as a stage magician anew might have been hopeless…
Mana sighed as she couldn't tilt her eyes off the floor and her own sandals clapping against its stony tiles. She ascended the staircase to the aviary room to send a short message to Konoha. It wasn't like she was still loyal to the Hokage, or so the Allied Ninja expected Mana to believe, though it still felt right to report about her making here to the Seventh as well as letting Mr. Hiro know about Mana's situation and that she wouldn't manage to start her World Magic Tour until she completed her prep course.
Honestly, the delay might have been for the better. That would be six more months for people to get over what had happened. Then again, Mana had wondered if people would muster up the strength of stomach to look at her again back when she left Jigoku, there was no reason to believe that six months later things would be that much better.
"Should I let the Supreme Leader know about your messages to Konoha?" a voice uttered in a masculine and jesting tone made Mana's chest deflate. So the man following her from the library decided to let himself be known at last.
"It feels a bit oppressive to know that someone of your rank has nothing better to do than to spy on me…" Mana extended her hand to show the approaching man the message she had rolled up and very nearly hung on the hawk's leg. The bird of prey clacked its beak in vexation of the fact that Mana was forcing it to sit tight and wait until she tied the message and let it take flight.
"I apologize if I strengthened the feeling of loneliness you might be experiencing. Not fitting in well, I take it?" the man refused by shaking his head. His lower jaw twisted in a grin as if he looked almost a tad insulted that Mana took his suggestion that she was spying for her village seriously and not as a joke that it was.
"It's a work in progress…" Mana rolled her eyes. "I found a room to settle in, I take my little wins where I can find them."
"Things are going to get easier once the prep courses start. The recruits present currently are mostly those going through their own sessions of prep courses, they have their own circle of acquaintances and so it's not easy for someone new to fit into their circle of trust. Don't worry, you'll become someone's best friend the moment they need something you know or have," the man shrugged. It was once he approached closer and out of shadows of the aviary beams that Mana finally got a good look at the man of blond and slick hair spiking on the back and cerulean, clear eyes that were all too familiar to her. He was of the Yamanaka upbringing.
"That's rather cynical…" Mana tied the message and let the hawk go. The proud bird just squawked, flapping its wings and hitting Mana's hand with their tips a few times in punishment before taking off and divebombing through the window. It seemed that only moments before headbutting the ground did the bird correct its trajectory and soared back up.
"Oh well… Can't help it. I cannot argue against empirical evidence…" the man smiled with a row of glistened pearly whites. His kimono and haori were scarlet with white decorations that had edges of gold, suggesting that either the man was grand import in this establishment or, at the very least, took himself as such. "Given how you haven't yet formally started your training, I'll forgive the fact that you aren't familiar with me. I am the East Regimental Commander Harcel Yamanaka. I oversee all Allied Ninja matters related to everything east to the Fire Country border though I share the Land of Lightning with the North Regimental Commander Hallam."
So, this man was the one that pushed Sekita down the road she had tumbled down to. It took everything Mana had not to groan in frustration that she got involved in this group's business again since clearly this man had a relation with the large woman. Mana could only wonder what Harcel's business was with her though, given what she heard about him from Sekita, she was sure to hate it.
"Oh, I see. Can I help you?" Mana played ignorant. It was for the best that she shrugged off the fact that the man's beliefs and name were known to her and just played it cool.
"That's what I came here to find out, Mana. It has come to my attention that you have affiliated yourself with five very misguided though talented young people. Once they graduate and complete their prep courses, they will fall under my command, which is why I pay very close attention to their development. Sadly, they make that task a grueling one…" Harcel lamented. So Mana wasn't the only one cursing the day she fell into their field of sights then?
"I've met Shogito, Sekita and Stein tried to kill me… Or hurt me, I'm not sure, he doesn't speak so I'm not sure how many times he intended to smash me with that boulder…" Mana dragged her hand through her hair, driving it back and revealing her tired eyes.
"Ah, well… Yes… It appears that young Stein has brewed himself quite the bowl of porridge so it is disheartening for his prospects to hear that he attempted to assault yet another recruit outside of an honorable sparring session," Harcel stroked his chin, his lips shrunk and plumped out as if after eating a sour fruit.
"He attacked the recruits that hospitalized Sekita?" Mana groaned. It wasn't like she really needed that question answered as the answer was quite obvious.
"Ah, so perhaps you do know something about Stein's behavior? Perhaps he… Has somehow… Relayed anything to you before? He is to face disciplinary procedures and he is detained until that disciplinary session can take place. I am not under the impression that you quite like those five but… Perhaps you could speak as to what you know about them and this whole situation before the disciplinary committee? It would be a nice opportunity to meet all the Regimental Commanders, some of the tutors you'll be studying under, and make a good first impression on the authority." Harcel wondered.
"I don't know that much…" Mana opposed the idea with her body language though her promise to mother flashed back before her eyes and the way she's been secluding herself and trying to protect herself from all the sharp pointing fingers and venomous tongues continued to plague her. "I can speak about what I do know."
"Oh? Come in!" a weakened voice in a tone that boomed far too loudly for the wooden door in its path to muzzle it informed Mana that it was safe to enter. Abandoning both care and rush alike behind her, the magician turned the door handle and pushed it ever so slightly just to ease her into the boiling pot she was stepping into.
Lucky! None of the band of misfits were visiting Sekita at the moment. When Regimental Commander Harcel told Mana that Stein was detained, she figured that it would be prime time to check up on the misguided young lady.
"Mana!" Sekita yelled out, her voice was too full of emotion to tell exactly what the meaning behind her exclamation was. She was a little bit of everything: exasperated, befuddled, elated… Mana approached Sekita's bed and crossed her arms, even now, when her skin pores seemed like they'd set on fire from the embarrassment she felt and the hatred of being here that she experienced, she did her best to fend it all away.
She promised…
"I… I came to see how you were," Mana shrugged her shoulders, still lacking the strength to look right at the pummeled to a pulp young woman that laid on a futon on the floor because she'd break any bed that the Allied Ninja had access to.
"Oh… Ummm…" Sekita wasn't sure what she wanted to tell Mana. Once the magician managed to look at the jumbo-sized kunoichi, she saw the need to explode in Mana's face for not being there to watch her fight, also to lament her own weakness and beg Mana to acknowledge Sekita's strength as the icon of strength as described by Harcel. There was a wish to cheer for the fact that Mana came to visit her in the hospital when most people only elated that she no longer roamed the easily accessible building hallways, making everyone uneasy with her unsightly visage.
"It's not because I don't believe in you that I didn't come to see your sparring match. It's because I disapprove of your motivations for it. It's because I've been burnt very badly for being misrepresented before and I don't want to go through that again. I believe that you can be a great Allied Ninja and that you shouldn't give up." Mana just did the talking for the young woman who looked glad that her visitor took the initiative.
"I'm sorry Stein tried to mush you with a boulder…" Sekita butt her index fingers together in embarrassment. "I didn't tell him to do that, I swear! He just… He gets very protective over me, we're very close friends!"
"Come on, you don't need to be well-read on the subject to know love when you see it," Mana shook her head, finally finding a genuine reason to smile. "Stein truly loves you, only a man in love would be willing to get into the type of trouble that he found himself in."
"H-Huh!? What happened!?" Sekita leaned back and hid her face halfway under the cover. Crap! Did she not know yet? How come her friends didn't tell her?
"Uh… Well… You see, this injury of yours hit Stein quite hard. He decided to beat-up the recruits that did this to you and… Well, he must have stepped over the line somewhat. They're holding him detained for now but he'll have to face a disciplinary hearing and I'll be speaking in it." Mana explained the best she could.
"Please! Please! You must say whatever can get him off!" Sekita clapped her hands and began bowing her head. "I know he tried smushing you with a boulder but he's a really good guy! You might not get him because he can't talk but… Even when he's completely silent, we kind of understand him… Somehow… And… He's our friend, Mana!"
"I'll…" Mana pulled her bowtie open so that she could free up the collar of her shirt and scratch it lightly. "I'm not sure what I can say that would result in him keeping his status, honestly, but… I'll… I'll do what I can. I know he's not a bad person, neither are you."
"I am though!" Sekita drove her open palms down with such a hefty thud that Mana shook believing that a lightning bolt lashed the sky with a roar of thunder. "I'm useless! I'm weak!" she shook her head, splattering tears wherever laws of physics demanded them to soil the ward.
"So, what if you are weaker than those recruits that bullied you? That's the nature of bullying, nobody bullies someone stronger than them. You were always set-out to lose that fight and you were wrong to play the game the way your bullies demanded it to be played," Mana tried comforting the young woman though it didn't look like she needed or responded to the softer approach that Mana had to offer. It would have taken the strict scolding of an authoritative man like Harcel to crack through the shell of self-loathing put before her.
"I… I guess…" Sekita sniffled. It didn't look like she was over whatever boiled within her but she at least could push that aside, for now, wipe those tears and look at Mana down beneath her despite the fact that the magician was standing whereas Sekita was sitting up. "Say, say… Shogito told me that you have a real problem with hardcore pornography. Do you think you could read some of your smut to me while you're here?"
"Honestly…" Mana smacked her forehead and shook her head. This group was simply heinous. Every time that she thought she had misjudged them, they'd pull something like this. "Shogito might have overplayed it, I've read a few romance novels. There's only that much time you can spend training before your mind starts asking for something more and, so far, I've not made too many friends…"
"Romance… That's weaksauce," Sekita lamented with disappointment. "Anyway, I think I understand your problem, sister. Harcel told us that friends are only good to back you up in trouble but that we shouldn't count on them for anything other than an additional number to your own strength. I'm trying to distance myself from anything else but power alone but… It hurts. Even before you came here, it felt so lonely… I don't think I have yet reached the part of being alone where it makes you powerful."
"Sekita… I am beginning to think that Regimental Commander Harcel doesn't have your best interests in his mind…" Mana tried bringing the topic up Sekita's violent, thrashing reaction shocked the magician and made her take a few steps back for her own safety.
"Shut up! Regimental Commander Harcel gave all of us a chance. He helps us when we're behind, he is a strong man who sacrifices that strength and stoops to our level to help us get stronger. I'm not sure what disgusts me more, people that speak ill about Regimental Commander Harcel or the fact that I'm too weak to justify his mercy. Mercy, love, family… All those things are a source of weakness yet Regimental Commander Harcel subjects himself to them for us all the time, just so he can root those weeds out and make us stronger as a result. Harcel is noble and more than anything else – he is strong!" Sekita bellowed before looking at Mana with eyes that were just as hateful as Stein's were when he tried to smash her to bits for not being present during their sparring match.
"That's not how you overcome hatred. Strength alone won't do, Regimental Commander Harcel is trying to isolate you from the things that truly conquer hatred, things that help you take a hold of yourself and keep moving when things get tough – your friends, the love and support of people around you, your family…" Mana knew she was making a mistake by standing her ground when faced with such violent backlash. She shouldn't have pressed on that issue, she might have salvaged a friendship that way.
"Get out," Sekita hissed with a whisper that sprayed vitriol so corrosive that Mana's façade crumbled down and she couldn't help but hunch and shrivel up. She left Sekita in her ward with fists shaking in passionate rage, carried away in sadness over her failure to reach this young woman.
She wanted to be a hero as a child. Someone who just said the right things to the right people and made friends out of all of them. The legendary hero of justice who performed magic tricks to break through the toughest walls before inflicting the finishing blow in getting people to her side via the magic of friendship. Someone who vanquished evil that was beyond repair, the evil that had no face nor did it have a name. The evil that was easy to identify and one that always made the skies shine when it keeled over and dispersed like a bad storm cloud.
After all of this path she walked, she was no hero. What was the right thing to say here? How was she supposed to reach Sekita when she wouldn't even entertain the chance of seeing Mana's side of the argument, choosing instead of shelter herself in loneliness and seethe in the toxic illusion of meaningless power that would come as a result?