Candy [Mura, Stella]

Her speed kicked up rapidly, and even more resemblances of Meninas hit him straight in the face. She also appeared to soar above the ground a bit, like a hovering ghost from a horror movie.

Mura didn’t need to soar in order to move at high speed – his shoulder was targeted by the flat side of her large axe, but a mere side-step could be amplified tremendously with the practice of Fa Jin. His Reishi traveled to his feet and allowed him to propel to the side without much movement, almost appearing as if he was pulled by another force to dart a meter to the side, kicking up dirt from his heavy steps. At least she’s not trying to kill me… The sun had yet to settle, Mura.

She was verbal in combat, too. Very much unlike Meninas, in that regard, but to each their own. She was curious in his technique, the way he moved to evade her large weapon. He felt the need to evade her axe once more, but instead, he unsheathed his rusty blade betraying the eyes of the beholder-

*CLING!*

Instead of breaking in half as expected in the eyes of anyone who knew how fragile rusty equipment could be, Stella’s axe met the solid wall of air… nay, the veil of aura that coated Harukami. How Mura manifested such a phenomenon was credits to his Reishi and control over his spiritual prowess, the simplest lesson from Akira and the simplest embodiment of his principle.

”Fa Jin! It’s a Shaolin martial arts technique…” He demonstrated once more to feed her curiosity by stepping back in a zigzag pattern, rapidly and leaving deep footprints as he flickered from each side like a string. “You got swift moves, too, so try and keep up! Otherwise, that candy bag is mine…”

Even when gazing down an opponent from the direct front, bracing from a full speed assault was still very much a gamble when their skills were this close to each other. He saw her form at first, then he saw her accelerate towards him… he tried to keep track of her footwork, but it really looked like she soared over the surface. He almost fooled himself into thinking that she was skating on the ground – honestly, with how Meninas was moving back at the dojo, he shouldn’t have gotten surprised at the mobile competences of these Quincy folks.

Since she was swinging with her axe, Mura found himself losing a lot of space – that axe had a wider side than thinner, smaller swords such as his own, so evading a flat blow from it could prove harder than dodging an actual strike from its sharp end. Instead of moving under the swing like he normally would try to do, Mura leapt straight up, somersaulting in the air before diving down again.

Now was his turn to strike, and he’d initiate his attack by slashing the air, pushing currents away with Harukami and manifesting wind scythes that’d rush down and cut the grounds right in front of Stella to try and cut any escape off. However, from his height, he was off on the precisions, and while he swung as fast as he could, he couldn’t swing faster than she could move with her strange step methods.

From this height, Mura could land on his feet safely, but her movement was rather precise. He… believed that he could keep track of her, but such irregular gliding meant that she, once again, found her path to his blind spot. Perhaps he should’ve gone in harder on her, but it was barely called for – this was all over a bag of candy, after all… a bag of candy that he’d planned to enjoy today.

To alleviate his mind after having it utterly towed around the country by the naggy excuse for a teacher’s ghost that was Kyūken. His candy!

While Fa Jin was a great help to shoot himself from point A to point B, he initiated his response by spinning around first. In order to meet Stella’s attack face-on, he spun like a human spinning top – results proved that he could no longer step away immediately after. So he pulled up Harukami to meet the incoming axe, sending bright sparks and grains of rust everywhere. Despite wielding a flat sword, he felt that he could try to block her attack instead of just leaping away every time… every time? Was this the second time she tried to smack him from behind?

Either way, unless she glided away with her stepping method again, Mura would use the opening to take a heavy step forward in an attempt to push her back, sort of make her lose balance or trip back.

Red.

Veins.

She was using that… what was it Meninas called it? Blood? The Blood technique, a Quincy power that directly boosted her physical capabilities. The moment Stella claimed her Quincy heritage, he should’ve seen this coming… but he got a little careless. His lack of motivation prior to this point had come back to bite him in the ass.

Harukami shattered, finally giving in after years of rust and missing maintenance. Against her axe, powered by her Blood – he was certain to remember the correct pronunciation later – his sword stood no chance in a direct collision. Powered by panic, he sidestepped to escape the rest of the axe’s descent, watching his broken sword in absolute horror-

“HOW?! WHY?! HOOOOOOOOW?!”

Kyūken was mad, his patience run out, eyes glowing redder than a Hollow’s nested in the skull of a plus.

“HOW FUCKING DARE YOU BREAK MY SWORD?! YOU IGNORANT CUNT! YOU GOT BREAST FOR BRAIN OR SOMETHING?! AND YOU – YOU UTTER FAILURE! YOU INEPT, DISABLED EXCUSE FOR A SWORDSMAN! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH Y- ARHHH!!! WAIT, NO, STOP!!! THAT HURTS!!!”

Something deep inside Mura snapped, and the next scene unfurling in front of Stella’s eyes was the one-armed, not-homeless swordsman pulling at (currently) the only physical part of Kyūken that he could affect – the damn, stupid chain protruding from his chest and wrapped around Harukami. Mura had learned overtime that pulling that chain hurt the ghost to a high extent, and Kyūken was not making friends today.

“I’m getting so sick of you and your godless antics, just shut the hell up and let me FOCUS!!!”

Likely not the most comfortable event for Stella to be in, but Mura yanked the ghost into the ground by his chain and yanked the broken Harukami into one of its holes to lock the ghost stuck. “WHA- WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! FREE ME NOW, YOU DAMN KID! ARRRGGGHHH, MY HARUKAMI…!!!”

“… *sigh* I give up,” Mura declared, grabbing the bag of candy and handing it to Stella with the few amounts of patience he had left, “It’s yours. Apparently, I’m not allowed to enjoy anything lately.”