Death and Taxes (Mura, Medeia)

The electromage was quick on her… feet? In the air? Anyway, immediately after evading his air disc, much to Mura’s pained chagrin, she fired another fork of lightning towards his position. She had ample space to aim at, given the way that lightning forked out to cover a wider area. It meant that Mura only had miniscule time to leap away with his strong legs.

In the cover of blinding light, Mura further protested: “I don’t trust most loan sharks out there! Shit sounds too one-sided to be true – obviously, the old master’s paid back what he’s due! But you’ve made your choice!” The old head of this dojo knew what he was doing. This was such a problem that Mura, too, riled up his fury.

The air disc wasn’t fast enough to hit her, and the swordsman just noticed the increase in the air pressure. She was building up something big, so he couldn’t afford to play tag with her and his sword, hence why he retrieved Harukami once more. I need that technique now… numerous, barraging strikes from all directions should do the trick he thought, whipping the air in front of him twice… then leapt back, making space between him and the flying antagonist.

He released his Reishi into the air once more, straight through his rusty sword. It would pressurize certain orbs around him, clearly visible by someone with powers like the mercenary’s. Air would race towards those spots, densify, and take shape as… birds. Horrifyingly unrealistic birds made of pure, whirling air currents centralized in shapes less than 20 cm in diameter.

Niten Torigami… t-that’s such a headache- my arm feels like playdoh, but… should be tough enough to stop her from what she’s gathering Reishi for.

Piloted by his own spiritual energy, the birds took flight in random directions, circling in arcs and aiming to smash Medeia in multiple directions. As long as Mura kept his eyes on her… they could even dodge most of her lightning forks. He dared her to deal with the much denser compressions of air now, and while it took a visible tax on his stature and vigor, he was confident to put Medeia on the defensive for a change.

"What… what technique is that?"

It was working! Her lightning forks couldn’t hit the birds as easily as she thought, which meant that she was forced to flail and take blunt, razor damage in return for what she did to his dojo. It did less damage to her than he anticipated, but maybe… given by what he could sense from this distance, she must’ve coated herself in something born from her spiritual prowess and manipulation over lightning that granted her some sort of defense against his birds. Annoying witch bitch… and she made no effort to hide her discontent at his actions now, and what should’ve been just a job for her had now become a personal vendetta to destroy the annoying swordsman who opposed her in the moment.

And her anger only increased with her spiritual prowess, and as Mura braced himself for her next move, she aimed a bolt of lightning straight upwards, tearing through the roof and traveling into the heavens above. This didn’t bode well for the one-armed defendant, having a strong feeling as to what was about to happen. Lightning did come from the heavens, after all… and she was about to bring down a huge one.

It made contact on his position, but the large bolt retaliated against what appeared to have been his spinning sword Harukami again. Grains of rust released from its surface, super-charged with electric energy as they scattered in all directions, with the spinning blade providing an umbrella-like defense for- Mura wasn’t standing under it.

He’d used Harukami to tank the lightning bolt, much to Kyūken’s dismay, while he himself darted to the nearest wall like a bullet, then leapt off with all of the strength that he could muster in his powerful legs. Flying towards the witch, he risked a lot in trying to slam his leg into her torso, hoping that whatever damage his wind apparitions made earlier had weakened her defenses.

He… actually managed to slam her into the wall. He thought that his leg was done for then and there, but it proved that his wind scythe ‘birds’ had actually done the trick! Glad to know that he’d finally mastered that new technique, a stepping stone to his higher mastery over his spiritual powers. But even the likes of this party pooper, this so-called debt collector had other tricks up her sleeve, and Mura knew not the true extent of her prowess just yet.

This time, she didn’t benefit from long range – she flew towards him with the forces of lightning coating her form as before, attempting to physically strike him. Mura could tell that coming into contact with her now would electrocute him, so he’d need to wear down her auric armor once more, and his wind birds were waning off. If she stuck to close range, then he wouldn’t get the chance to deploy new birds…

He channeled his strength down to his feet, propelling himself up with the practices of Fa Jin, and allowing himself to maneuver over Medeia’s flight. Now! he alerted himself, locking his eyes onto her form while in the air, gathering his focus as his remaining wind birds would race towards her. She had the element of speed on her side, so evading or even causing the birds to crash into the walls was possible, but Mura was certain that he’d gotten a hang of this… manipulation of his reishi by now.

After dealing with her for this long, Mura had some sort of idea about who he was up against. Despite having stuck to long-distance attacks to begin with, he could tell immediately that she was faster than him – especially since she clad herself in the forces of lightning. However, she still took clear damage from his Niten Muryū techniques, but his sword wasn’t taking very kindly to tanking her lightning attacks. Even though he tried to coat Harukami in raging winds, her lightning attacks had powered through, and the sword was once more on the brink of breaking in half.

But he didn’t have time to think about that! She freaking teleported away, right in front of his upside-down field of vision! And he barely managed to roll himself up straight in the air before getting slammed down by the witch’s descent, his entire body feeling battered and burned by her electric energy as they both crashed the matted floor.

No doubt, his entire body was in deep pain from that sudden charge. His back wasn’t doing well, either, but beyond the electric shocks that had run through his body, it was as if the tackle itself wasn’t nearly as devastating as he’d expected. She was nowhere as physically imposing as Meninas, but damn her powers – Mura gritted his teeth when the shocks had stopped tormenting him, his last attempt being to grab her by the neck and force her off of him-

His arm felt so unbelievably sluggish all of a sudden. Just raising it up to meet her face took so much… energy… and his breathing was getting heavier and heavier. “W-What are you-!” he panicked, instead using what strength he had left to grab one of her arms, desperately trying to shake it off. His breathing only got worse overtime, so he stuck to Kyūken’s breathing technique – the Breath of Day and Night… maybe it’d give him more time to get her off.

“W-What are you doing to me…?”

…

The old master felt that things had drawn out for far too long. Mura was in trouble, and the dojo was standing on fragile legs. He finally rose back up on his feet and walked up from the basement, meeting himself in the dojo’s inner hall where Mura’s grip on Medeia’s arm had gotten stronger since he focused on his breathing as taught. Her spiritual prowess and its roaring manifestations versus his physical strength amplified by his remaining Reishi.

“So now, he sent you to extort more yen from me? Damn that loan whale… he always wants more than what was agreed.”

The old man, in spite of the scenery, looked quite confident in himself with his arms resting behind his back, glaring at the two combatants pulling and tugging on each other. “I’m the one who made a mistake, trusting a guy like him to begin with. I’m the one you’re after, in the end… but before you take out the last remnants of your anger on me, bear in mind – he won’t pay you justly.”

The old master glanced around the pretty much destroyed dojo and sighed sadly. “Haven’t you taken enough from me, already? I may not survive long enough to see my dojo fully renovated. Take pity on my student – he knew nothing about my mistakes. He holds no ill will towards you – just a deep sense of duty to protect what remains of this place.”

Mura’s mind was… everywhere, at the moment. At the witch’s remarks, at his Head Master’s arrival, and at himself and his own emotions. He was scared. Hurt. Taken by surprise, and visibly weakened beyond even his own recognition. And just when he’d managed to turn the tides against her…

But she stood back up again, allowing him free roam. That was when the extent of his exhaustion became apparent as he struggled to lift himself up with just one arm. Life force? Did she shorten my life? How long do I have, then?! he panicked, understandably bewildered at such an ability. To think that she could just absorb other people’s lifetime like that was above and beyond a simple spiritual construct… it was occult. Like the makings of a real witch.

So once again, this martial art of his… Niten Muryū… was beaten, once again. And Kyūken was too absorbed by the witch’s machinations to pay any mind to his empty promises and almost deathly ill gazes at Mura for losing once again.

“*sigh*… I guess I have no other choice but to sate his demands. And here I’d hoped that somebody would’ve killed him by now,” the Head Master sighed before turning around and walking back to the basement again. Meanwhile, Mura was looking away, leaning on his side and turning his back to Kyūken’s ramblings.

“You- You lost again? With my sword, my skills? You lost again?”
“Be quiet, I don’t wanna hear it.”
“Again? Really, boy? Again? You must be the WORST swordsman I’ve ever trained. I-I’m honestly baffled at your rotten record – do you even try?”
“I said SHUT UP!”

The Head Master returned with a suitcase for Medeia to control for its contents – approximately a couple million yen that was meant to be saved for a future installment in the dojo. So much for that. “Knowing him, you’ll likely be sent right back to extort more – especially now that he knows how efficient you are at bringing him money. You don’t seem like the type of mercenary who takes everything to the face, but at the same time, why ever listen to a pensionist like me?”