Between Theft And Envy [Veralia/Mura]

”Are we there yet? Can’t you just run or jump towards the dojo? Burn some calories while we’re traveling-“

Mura had a damn bone to pick with this nagging ghost. Kyūken had somehow made the very concept of ‘training’, ‘practice’ and ‘dedication’ sound undesirable by the monolithic amount of obsession his ethereal self held over it. Day and night, day and night – Mura wanted to become much stronger, faster and smarter with a sword than anyone else in this world, but he didn’t want to break his body in half!!!

“Kyūken, I swear to God, I’m going to throw this sword away if you don’t-“

“I-I’m just worried for your health! Please, listen to me, Mura! You crave strength just as I did! I understand completely what you’re feeling… that’s why I’m trying to motivate you. Always do your best – I promise you, that’s how I became as strong as I was.”

Is this also part of sharpening my mental prowess, Akira? he pondered angrily, gnawing his teeth and speeding up a bit on his way through this cold forest. He wasn’t in the higher altitudes right now, so vegetation did grow out and turn into these woodlands with their fair share of inhabitants.

“!!!”

Strange… Mura still remembered the chill of being eyed down by one of those blackened demons. It had only happened twice in his life, however – preying upon his previous, younger self like tigers in hiding. This one… was different. But it startled him, causing him to spin around as fast as he could to face the form that had made her presence known. Had she been following him?

“…” It wasn’t surprising that a burglar of this country’s national museum had gathered some measure of fame – more like infamy, really – but it pained him to know that this was currently his greatest legacy. His eyes glared at Kyūken for a second before moving back to her, rather… uncertain as to how he should reply. From a first glance, she looked like an ordinary young lady, but from a second glance… she looked like… no, that couldn’t be.

Shaking that thought off, he heard her next question and was left tilting his head at her ability to find entertainment in his predicament, one way or another. He had to make things clear, first and foremost. “I didn’t take it for myself – I know it looks like that, but it’s for someone else…”

“Hi.”

Mura lowered his voice, trying to whisper to Kyūken who floated next to him – a samurai was likely the first idea one got at the sight of him; white, long dress akin to a shredded haori, chest and arm plates in red, and strands of hair bristling around his head with the characteristic short ponytail. A little dirty, a little unkempt, a little… roughened up were the best descriptions of his appearance. His Chain of Fate almost intimately coiled around the sheath of the long tsurugi that Mura was carrying on his right hand. And with his clothes not having accommodated for his missing left one, the left sleeve was torn straight off, only revealing the bandages covering the lump that was left.

Something clicked.

“… H-Human?”

Her… interest? Oh, damn it all – did he obtain fame for being a thief?! The literal last thing he wanted was for this event to go down in history, and it already appeared as if he was making a goddamn reputation! And what was with her happy-go-lucky tone? Something felt oddly off about how light she took all of this, as if she had stumbled upon a new hobby that she’d like to try-

Mura… Mura, come on, just relax. She was just a strange, curious lady – nothing to panic about! How long had you been up in these hills and mountains, you dummy…

But when he noticed her choice of referring to him as ‘human’, and his brain’s gears began to shriek, he finally laid eyes upon her horns once more, coming to the conclusion that – based on her next words – she wasn’t human. That terrified him at first, because Mura wasn’t familiar with other sentient, humanoid races – and the only supernatural entity he’d ever met were beastly monsters of very distinct, recognizable characteristics that he couldn’t see in her, so she couldn’t be a demon… but she had horns, mate?!

“… You’re going to tell me you’ve eaten… other humans before? Certainly, this is a joke…”

Maybe imagining a very humanoid-looking being like her utter such words made his brain scramble itself – imagining her feasting on human flesh was no pretty sight, after all – and the fact that she was now here, uttering those words with no care in the world, right in front of the only human (allegedly) within miles of woodland, just made him feel a little bit… on edge.

I really shouldn’t stay here any longer – one bad move, and she might switch…

He didn’t want to get on her bad side, but he did mentally prepare himself to draw his tsurugi. Just mentally… in case things went down south. He couldn’t tell much about her except her Spiritual Energy, which backed up her indirect claim of not being human. “*sigh* J-Just… what do you want?”

Honestly, he should’ve asked her that a bit earlier. What on earth did she want, if she didn’t want to eat him… yet.

”Maybe I have eaten humans before, maybe I haven’t. Who knows?”

… Wass he jesting him? This sounded like one of those elaborate pranks, and Mura wasn’t that gullible. A vein really did pop up on his forehead at her joking antics, as if she enjoyed his astonishment. Still, from what he knew… and from what he saw… she was a random prankster who almost got him. And yet, from up close, those horns looked more and more engrained into her head than mere accessories.

“My… sword?”

Huh… it was a famous sword, after all. Maybe she wanted to see it up close now that the museum couldn’t stop her from doing so- when the hell did she move over to his side? Mura jolted, moving to the side one foot with widened eyes, as if slapped in the face with the realization that her build did piss-poor justice to her apparent capabilities. He blinked, and she appeared to ‘teleport’ next to him, and his heart was running much faster now.

But her expression was akin to a curious child eyeing a figurine, and it calmed Mura down again – this was the last time he’d underestimate someone because of their size. Promise. “… I’m… not sure what exactly you’re getting at, but…” he speculated, half-telling the truth. Satisfied with the way he was… nah, not yet. He had a goal, after all – everybody did, in one way or another. Although, why was she attracted to that?

Was she… alright?

Mura’s instance of worry was washed away with anger at her little bop on his nose and her rather rude comment, his vein from previously starting to bulge like a siren. “Well gee, sorry about my inexperience, we’re not all whores and bouncers out here…” he hissed, interrupted by none other than Kyūken himself. “But you are turning 30 soon-“

“Who the fuck asked you?!”

“Hey, hey, I’m just saying…”

That rude rōnin spirit wasn’t making things easier, so Mura took a deep breath to remove the red flare on his face. He was getting worked up over nothing, and he realized that. “So… you wanna know why I’m training?” he asked, remembering her previous question, “What or why my soul wishes for… if that’s how you wanna put it, then I guess it’s because I like it. I’ve always liked swordsmanship, so why not pursue my interest – really, you gotta try it yourself, too. What other reason do I need?”

While nowadays, he was rather adamant at helping others with his strength and skills, the core of his gift with the blade was really just a childish awe at the craft. As long as he could remember…

“…” Approaching her face in the end, Mura did let his morbid curiosity get the better of him for a brief moment, “Are you a demon or something? You don't have a skull for a face, though. If you’re trying to prank me or something, congrats – you got me, but… those aren’t accessories.”

”… For the love of- I’m not shy around every woman I meet, I just… know when to lower my gaze, unlike MANY,” he protested rather angrily, her attempt at poking fun of him having full effect. Regardless of how tough he thought he’d gotten over the years of practicing Niten Ichi-ryū, cementing his future as a swordsman, such… silly words just got to him, in a way. Sticks and stones can’t break his bones, but don’t hurt his feelings – that type of thing.

Upon realizing that, he felt like a sad loser and cleared his throat. Why was he letting her get to his head like that? No matter what she said, she was clearly the weird person here – joking about eating people… even if she was some sort of non-human whatever, it just didn’t sound any bit serious. Mura didn’t even feel any hostile, bloodthirsty or anomalous intents from her after her apparent teleportation. Maybe she was a demon, but a weird, silly trickster kind of…

He had a lot to re-evaluate about life when he got a place to rest again.

“Y-You don’t have to make this any weirder, c’mon…” Mura groaned with a twitching eyelid, “I… if demons exist – which I’m well-aware of – then other beings sure might as well.”

Now, Mura wasn’t a dedicated researcher of different, sentient races – he had no fucking clue what an Arrancar was. “… Arrancar… s-sounds like something I should know, but I’m blanking ou- h-hey, stop that…” Mura replied in honesty, taken aback by her brazen flirtation. His heart wasn’t going to race for any random woman approaching him like this – only fools let their guards down that easily. She was still a total stranger, one with a claim of being a maneater. “Just call me Mura. Now, what’s the name of this maneater, eh? It still feels like you’re just joking, but I get the whole non-human thing, you being this Arrancar race… do you eat just about anybody? Am I just a special case? Or do you just eat your enemies, like wood elves in some videogames do?”

Veralia… he didn’t know what that name meant, but it sounded like an earthly name. Not that he could ever tell to begin with, but it was a hunch, alright… in spite of her outrageous implication of maneating, she seemed pretty friendly overall. She sure loved to touch his nerves, though.

Hollows… wait, is that what those demons are called? And she’s one of them – I didn’t even know they could evolve, he pondered with widened eyes, even more at odds with his standing concerning those other creatures. He’d met two ‘Hollows’ then, if his conclusion was correct – both vicious, animalistic maneaters not hesitating to devour his own kind. One of them even had a taste of his left arm, as could be seen. And here was an evolved version, far more talkative and reasonable, sentient and accommodating, precisely as if he was talking to another, typical human being.

Those two views of Hollows scrambled his brain, so maybe he ought to reevaluate his ideas about Hollows overall and not turn into a bigot. But he couldn’t just ignore the ‘I eat humans’ part…

All of his facial expressions were those of deeply thinking about the info he’d received, grimacing and turning his eyes to different places, squinting, raising his eyebrows, the whole package. And she just had to get closer at that point, her teeth awfully close to his chest with a threatening question-

“…”

His thumb was pushing up Harukami from its sheath, but he quickly pushed it back in again. She was probably just trying to scare him for a laugh- fucking knew it. His face was only getting redder.

“… So it’s like a weapon of yours. At least, I can get behind that – still a weird thought that you eat your enemies, but… who am I to judge, I don’t even know much about Arrancars,” he admitted in the end, coming to somewhat of an understanding with her deal. His reddened face was returning back to normal, but there was something about her approach that deeply bothered him. Maybe it was the fact that a woman he’d just met for the first time was invading his private space so leisurely – who could just shake that off? Mura was dedicated to training for the most part, but he was still aware of the opposite sex, and given her Arrancar thing, that was just a can of worms he wasn’t mentally prepared to open.

But he could tell that she was also interested in Harukami, and she even requested a display of his swordsmanship. Finally, something he was confident in. “Dunno what you mean by that-“ he replied to her choice of word ‘covetous’, since he thought he was seeking strength that didn’t belong to anyone else – Kyūken understood the implication though. Mura was borrowing a dead man’s sword art to increase his skill beyond what that ancient legend could accomplish – in a way, Mura did envy Kyūken…

“-But I can perform, alright. Watch closely.”


Now, knowing that these woods were vulnerable in this region, he pointed towards a large boulder nearby. Finally flicking out his long tsurugi, Harukami’s rusted appearance was revealed, and Mura wasted not a second before swinging it towards the boulder from a distance, causing a wind gust from Reiatsu pushing the air to spiral and travel towards his target. As if summoning a small tornado, the gust lifted the boulder up in the air, just as Mura’s still body suddenly lit up with his spiritual prowess as well, energy traveling to his feet and launching him up in the air with minimal movement.

Up there, he kept his distance from the boulder and swung Harukami in various directions, each creating a wind scythe that cut cleanly through the boulder and allowed him to land on the ground first. The boulder turned into small pillars of rock, each landing around him in a fine circle as he sheathed Harukami once more. “You know, it kinda bothers me that you’re abusing my killing arts for street performances…” Kyūken groaned, knowing there was little he could do in the end…