Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Into the Darkness

"Isn't that a job well done for you Justicars? Don't you just kill all criminals you find anyways? Why are you so angry someone did your job for you?" Shimo angrily tried finding some problems with this man.

"I can see that a criminal like you would have a problem with that..." The leader nodded beginning to get more and more peeved by Shimo's notes.

"That's the thing, I'm not a criminal, I never was. I was let go from the village with the Hokage's permission, I was a wanderer the whole time and I had to fight you losers off and never had a moment of peace and quiet. You don't hunt actual criminals, you label people you wish to kill and then proceed to do so." Shimo began losing it as well reaching for his sword, with the same degree of subtlety the Justicar's hand also reached for his blade.

"So you've never sent people down there? Your plan was to wait here and try talking ninja into going inside those tunnels?" Kouta scratched his head as the Justicar's explanation lacked some details that would've given it some more sense.

"We did send them, none returned, in fact, ever since quite recently we've even been getting attacked at night by something coming from inside these tunnels, someone that leaps out and uses the dark to drag people inside. None of those dragged into the tunnels returned either. We were planning a big-time raid of those tunnels but then we ran into some more mercenaries whom we must have killed at that moment following our code. Now we don't have enough manpower or weapons to properly raid it but our code demands to fight injustice or to die trying and so I'm prolonging the deaths of me and my men by as long as possible as any sensible leader would. Your intervention would be of great help." The leader explained.

These Justicars appeared to take the code even more seriously than most accounts Mana had read about them. It was true that some Justicars were outright religious with their following of the code but this group appeared to follow it like law where the leader was a master lawyer looking for holes in it that allowed the group to function better than a group functioning on centuries-old rules devised by a violent forest hermit would reasonably be.

"Who do you think might be inside those tunnels?" Meiko wondered relaxing and stretching out. It was clear that she may have been beginning to get bored of the ridiculously good looks of these Justicars and began feeling bored, knowing Meiko only being hungry could ever shift that boredom in a relevant way and a hungry Meiko presented more problems all of itself.

"Anything in existence, everything and anything lives inside these trees in those parts. Homes are etched inside, entire cities are built out of them, it could be people, it could be a very savage wild animal, it could be a little bit of both mixed in together..." the Justicar nodded his head in shame of not knowing just what exactly may have been killing his men.

"Very well, we will check into it..." Mana nodded. The team all looked back and raised an eyebrow or two remembering that the magician was thinking about completely sitting this one out and here she outright declared that the Konohagakure ninja would be looking into this small sidequest.

"We shouldn't be helping these men, nothing good ever comes of Justicars," Shimo looked at Mana, it wasn't a look of anger or even contempt, it was a look and advice of wisdom and experience that was supposed to encourage the girl to reconsider but the magician shook her head.

"I have a certain sporting interest into this. I've never heard of anything that behaves this way, I'm really excited to find a new species of animals or meet new people that behave in a way I've never heard about. I don't know much about Takigakure and this might help us get to know the place better, if it won't, it will still potentially save lives and give these people closure. I've never refused a person asking for help and I don't intend to begin today." Mana explained seriously with a little wink of excitement when she spoke about her sporting interest into this. She was genuinely intrigued by this story because it sounded so unlike something that'd normally happen in a place like this.