"Something's wrong…" Mana mumbled to herself, alerting Damisan, who also perked up and began looking around. Mana's warning was rather ominous. Unlike when the Sunagakure ninja Tala walked in, she didn't say if the issue was homing in on her ward or if it was more of a bad omen in general. "Endo and Asuka are approaching, and they're in a bit of a rush."
"Asuka and Endo? Why could they be rushing here? You don't think the match is over so soon, do you?" Damisan became troubled. There would have been no reason for those two to rush here like this unless Shige-H had new orders they needed to be up to date with or the match really was over and the conclusion wasn't pretty. Neither of those possibilities sounded appealing.
"The noises in the arena haven't come down yet, but… The chakra signatures sure have," Mana scoped the outside environment with her chakra sensory. Peering into the match from afar wasn't simple with so many powerful ninja and the Kazekage himself present in the arena's vicinity. Still, Mana was no longer the inexperienced little sensor who got lost and terrified in the presence of vast chakra signatures. Leaving aside the brimming suns of chakra, Mana focused in on just the presence of signatures in the arena itself and found the findings rather lacking.
Before the two could wander around the woods of this mystery any longer, Endo and Asuka walked into the ward with sullen faces. Like kids who have done something naughty and have already staged the conversation with their parents and set their stories straight, the two lined up. Asuka glared at Endo for support in deciding who would go first, but Endo seemed signed off and distant. With a hefty sigh, Asuka realized that reporting was up to her.
"The match is over. It was a complete wash. Dashula got overwhelmed and driven out of the arena. Quite violently, too, there are hundreds of civilian casualties and thousands injured. Dashula got smashed into the spectator area faster than the barrier hoods could react," Asuka reported, speaking through Mana's horrified expression and the shaking hand covering her mouth.
"The boss lady is helping the injured and the dying, assisting the healers and whatnot," Endo finally pitched in with something, just to be able to say he helped with the task Shige-H assigned him. "The truth of the matter is, we've got one, fat Cursed Warrior problem. Not to mention those sewer rats possibly still hiding out somewhere in Agbarah."
"This is so horrible…" Mana plunged her face into the cradle of her hands, sifting them through her hair and tired facial skin, pulling it all back. Like a thirsty woman begging for water, she craved that fresh and icy-cool relief, but the air was too stuffy and dry and there was not a drop of solace in sight.
"That's an outcome I certainly couldn't have anticipated," Damisan pinched his chin, displaying seriousness befitting the situation and sinking deep in thoughts of what their options were right now. "With Dashula having defeated Batsudoru, I'd have thought that he had this match in the bag."
"Yeah, the Cursed Warriors didn't differ too much in terms of power, which made sense–they're factory-produced machines of mass destruction. Standard issue, products of a conveyor belt. However… That one was different, this much should have been apparent from the get-go," Endo gnashed his teeth, placing his restless hand on the hilt of one of his swords just to stop it from craving action and bloodshed. Like an anxious critter having been given something to nibble on, Endo's nerves calmed down immediately after feeling the brush of silk and cotton against his hand.
Before the conversation could continue developing further, a ruckus outside distracted the Allied Ninja. The infirmary halls became a busy highway, bustling with activity. The unintelligible mumbling of the shrouded healers, and the stressful commands and status reports of the overworked nurses, the haunting wailing of the injured and the dying. Even Mana's ward wasn't safe, prompting the magician to stand up and attach the leg prosthetic to the stump so that she could stand just before the door busted open and the wounded began filling the ward.
"I can walk, we're clearing out," Mana raised her voice, reporting to the nurse and grabbing the bundle of her stuff off the drawer, limping away toward the door. It wasn't just the pain from her bruises healing up. Her stump had grown longer again and Damisan's prosthetic was too long once more.
"Are you sure?" a nurse exclaimed, seeing Mana limping and wincing as her entire body resonated with aches.
"I'm not an active combatant anymore. We have our own healer in our crew. These people need this space more than I do," Mana nodded and limped out of the room, noting the broth of chaos outside. Mangled bodies of people either screaming in agony or whimpering in deep-seated shock, still unable to believe that their body parts or whole chunks of their bodies were smashed to bloody paste by tempered debris. Feeling her eyes getting moist, Mana closed them and turned away.
"Let's head to the palace. Hopefully, things will be a bit more peaceful there and we'll be able to figure something out," Damisan embraced Mana for comfort, pressing her closer to help her cope with seeing so many dying or wounded.
"I'll let our squad leader know you're out of the ward and headed to the palace," Asuka waved before pocketing her hands and smoothly navigating around the rolling stretchers and strained infirmary staff navigating them. Asuka may have been described as ruthless and she may have been born in luxury and respect while growing up in a cutthroat environment of an orphanage run in a country that flipped its switch into hating her guts and the legacy of her entire family, but even she wasn't completely unfazed by the aftermath of the tragedy that's occurred in the arena.
The mood in Mana's chambers in the Agbarmahal was dour the entire evening. Rightfully so. The sunset skies were blood-red, which wasn't uncommon for this part of the world and, under normal circumstances, might have even been considered beautiful, but the wicked symbolism one unwillingly drew pointed arrows to only made it feel like the blood that was shed in the arena had permeated the very atmosphere of the town and had smeared upon the heavens themselves.
Shige-H walked into the room with a light pant. She looked distant and emotionally dead inside, but vitality returned to her eyes and face after she brushed it away and scanned the chambers she'd made her way to, helping her realize that the grim and nerve-racking work on the wounding was over. Mana had always dreamed of possessing the ability to save lives with her ninjutsu like the medical ninja do, but now, for the first time, she doubted her ability to shut herself off and dedicate herself entirely to the dirty work of mending bones and patching flesh, while stonewalling oneself against the screaming and moaning…
"There will be no finals tomorrow," Shige-H reported in a crushed voice. "Too many victims, the Sheikh said that tomorrow will be a day of remembrance and reflection. A day of serenity and relief. The Succession Tournament will wrap up the day after tomorrow. Normally, the tournament would be called off after such a tragedy, but… The Sheikh wants to determine his replacement, given the stakes, calling the event off is quite impossible."
"How could this have happened? How could the barrier corps have been blitzed like that?" Mana grumbled, still struggling with accepting the reality of what had happened and still wasting her time with bargaining. Usually, Endo or Asuka would've given her flak for letting tragedy get to her like that. Ninja were supposed to be above such sentimentality, but… With bitter and gloomy looks, both of this pair remained silent.
"It doesn't matter now. It's clear what we must do. What's left is to decide whether we do it tonight or tomorrow. Doing it tonight is riskier–Mana's still recovering from her injuries and I'm a bit winded, but the arena will be less guarded. Tomorrow, before the finals, the arena security will be at its peak, but we'll have more time to prepare…" Shige-H laid the facts out how she saw it.
"What do you mean? What is all this about?" Mana looked up at the squad leader, grabbing the sheets of her bed and squeezing them in between her fingers, worried that the answer she suspected was what was coming at her.
"What does it look like?" the look on the medical kunoichi's face became more aggravated and her voice attained a certain growling property to it. She was too tired and too disturbed to be having this argument right now. "We're taking out the Curse Walker."
"That's lunacy!" Mana exclaimed, slipping out from her bed and assembling an armored leg out of Armor Ninjutsu. An unfinished design for her new prosthetic still lay on the drawer to the left of Mana's bed with Damisan's tools and spare parts scattered around it in disarray. "Even if we could pull such a thing off, we'll get caught, it will sabotage our mission!"
"That's not for you to decide," Shige-H stepped up, approaching Mana and glaring at the rebellious Stars member face-to-face. "I'm the squad leader, it's up to me to decide what's best for the mission and what's not. Your input was provided in an out-of-line way, but, given the circumstances, you're excused, now stand down and start workshopping a plan."
"We'll never execute the Curse Walker without raising alarm in the arena and the entire town! This is insane!" Mana stood her ground, stomping her armored foot down and igniting a wave of cinders when her armored heel hit the floor.
"We can take out the guards quietly, non-lethally, then take up the work," Asuka shrugged. Even the usually aloof and sarcastic blonde was a bit taken aback by the intensity of the confrontation between Mana and the squad leader. Asuka sometimes played Shige-H's nerves like a rockstar fiddling with their guitar, but Asuka was always playing around and teasing. Based on the looks on both of the women's faces, these two were about to square up against each other and tear each other up.
"The rock-asshole is usually dormant when it's not directly threatened or up to fight, it won't do much to stop us from taking out the guards and will only activate to defend itself. It'll give us the advantage of being able to make the first move," Endo added.
"Our best move is to back Genshi-san and make sure he defeats the Curse Walker the right way, and you know it. But you're too spearheaded on this one track to admit it because you want to get back at that flamboyant pair sponsoring Genshi-san. Without their help, his odds of winning will greatly diminish, and you know it, so you'd rather put us into trouble before the Agbarah Sheikhate and the Kazekage and sully the reputation of the entire Allied Ninja organization than get over yourself!" Mana spat into Shige-H's face, flaring passionate and aggressive stares in the way of the team leader.
"You're stepping so far over the line, you're about to cross it again on the other side," Shige-H replied much more quietly, yet somehow matching Mana's level of aggression, albeit more personally. "I am the squad leader, I'm giving out the orders. My orders are to assassinate the Curse Walker before it can hurt or kill Ryoku Genshi like it injured Dashula and how it killed all those people out there. You haven't seen that thing in action. It can tap into the Yang chakra permeating this entire country. All the bloodshed and violence that's ever occurred in this arena, can channel and fuel its boundless aggression and brute force. You're the biased one here, Mana."
"Since when is common sense bias?" Mana turned and stepped up on her toes, reforming the foot of her armored leg to elevate her higher so that Mana could look the squad leader eye-to-eye on her level. "You don't need to answer that because if you could identify bias, you'd smell your own from a mile away."
"M-Mana…" Damisan stepped in, approaching the magician cautiously from behind and trying to calm her down with a soft touch on her shoulder, lightly escalating in the force he was using in an attempt to separate the two feuding Stars members.
"You're a big-shot superstar in this town, so you're worried that if you assassinate a competitor–you'll lose all of it. Not to mention your status as a beloved stage magician. After all–an assassination occurred while you were performing in-town and the investigation revealed you may have been involved. You're too selfish to do what needs to be done, too self-absorbed and invested in this "Gladiatrix" and "Second Goddess" bullshit this place has been feeding you. You're worried about losing it all and realizing that, in the end, you're no superstar, you're no champion, just a broken mess, like all of us together. Tell me if I'm wrong, try to deny it…" Shige-H stood her ground, deciding to attack Mana personally instead of insisting she followed orders since the latter approach proved fruitless.
"Is it a bad thing not to want to shatter the reputation I've spent my entire life building, one that got us into this town to begin with, over some delusional attempt at getting all of us captured, disowned by the Allied Ninja, and imprisoned or executed? Not to mention, the only way for Genshi-san to meet the same fate that Dashula or the countless spectators have met today is to allow him to face this threat alone," Mana yelled out before walking past her squad leader. Instead of slamming her shoulder against Shige's, how Shige-H had positioned her body, Mana turned hers fully, as if disgusted by the very idea of touching her squad leader in that instance.
"You're going nowhere, Mana!" Shige-H barked out without turning around to look at Mana's back as if challenging Mana to force her hand into subduing Mana for disobedience. A line which, quite frankly, Mana had crossed several times over already.
"Neither am I going along with this," Mana turned around and pointed at Shige-H's back. "I may be too weak to subdue all of you and prevent you from making this mistake, but I won't be making it alongside you. I'll have no part in this."
"You WILL, because you're part of my squad and I'm ORDERING you to!" Shige-H turned around, fuming and looking like she was an inch away from snapping and beating Mana senseless and it was only the fact that the Stars needed Mana's specialty in powerful ninjutsu to overwhelm their opponent and stand a better chance at assassinating the Curse Walker quickly.
"Maybe we should take a vote?" Damisan shrugged with a goofy expression, running in between the two arguing kunoichi in a desperate attempt to cut the cyst and let some rot bleed out of it so that the tension in the team would go back to acceptable and normal for the Stars' parameters.
"There's nothing to vote about, you're way out of line, Mana!" Endo scolded the magician.
"Yeah, from the sound of it, it's three against two with the leader being on the side of the majority, and… You know, Shige-H being the squad leader and being worth like… Ten votes or something…" Asuka looked extremely baffled and off-guard about how far this situation had escalated.
"You're not even part of this conversation, Damisan," Shige-H glared at the puppeteer, prompting him to stagger away from her line of sight. "You're even more emotionally engaged in this than Mana is. You were the first one to choose Ryoku Genshi as your protégé in this tournament, even before Mana recovered. Not to mention, this troublesome work relationship that's formed between you and Mana. I always considered it might become a problem, but never have I thought it would be this soon!"
"Sounds like the lines are drawn," Mana sighed, doing her best to alleviate her pounding and scorching head and cool down. "You've always known my stance on murder and you've hand-picked me for your squad knowing it full well. Now you're ordering me to assassinate someone and put all our lives in jeopardy because of some misguided obsession of yours to sabotage the plans of those sponsors behind Genshi-san."
"If the next words out of your mouth aren't an apology and submission to the orders I gave you, I'll treat it as if you've gone rogue, Mana," Shige-H declared, silencing the room.
"Mana, don't be stupid…" Endo stammered out with a wide-eyed expression, finally getting stunned at how far this feud has gone himself.
"Mana, please think this through…" Damisan turned to the magician, pleading. "You cannot afford to go rogue. Squad leader, please… This is madness!"
Even if Damisan's reaction hurt Mana, there wasn't a part of her that couldn't rationalize it. This was, after all, Shige-H's disproportionate all-or-nothing play. If Mana defied her squad leader's orders for the last time and accepted her status as a rogue ninja–there'd be nowhere in the world she'd be safe. As a Konohagakure Special Jounin, she already had a place in the bounty books of most Black Market sites. If she went rogue with the Allied Ninja, she'd effectively burn her ninja license and become an enemy to the entire world. Both criminals and ninja will be after her head.
"You were wrong to threaten me with going up against the world, Shige-H-san," Mana replied, leaving even Shige-H stunned that Mana would call her all-in-play. "After all, I've always known those to be the odds."
"MANA!" Damisan exclaimed, but not before Endo dashed at Mana with a cross-shaped drawing slash, attacking her seriously, with the full intent of cutting her down like the rogue ninja she's now announced herself as. Endo's swords brushed only against harmless flower petals as a gust of wind rocked the door to Mana's room open and scattered them all across the hallway.
Damisan leaned his head to peek outside, only to see the confused faces of the palace guards staring back at him, having come to check up on the room because of all the noise and arguing that was audible from all the way outside. They may not have been able to pick out the specific details or the brewing assassination plot, but they heard the tensions were high inside this room.
"Here's a surprise, she escaped…" Asuka snickered to herself, pocketing her hands.
"No matter. We know where she'll be," Shige-H grumbled out, distraught by having lost a useful asset and earned another thorn in her side.