Four Legs, Two Legs, Three Legs, And... [Medeia, Mura]

He didn’t heed it at first… and woe to him for that. It wasn’t like he had time to treat himself after the incident with the Witch. His dojo… the Head Master’s dojo… was tattered. And finances were low after quite literally paying the Witch to fuck off. Once the one-armed swordsman had time to settle his thoughts and evaluate his experience with her, shame swept over him like a carpet bombing. It was… excruciating to think that it ended like that. He could only push her, and what good would that ever do? In the end, his loss meant the loss of the dojo, and look at its state now…

But today was different. On top of the hustling, the grinding, Mura felt his vitality drop. It had to be some sort of fever, so he took the day off and… strange things began to happen. Pain began to develop in his neck and stomach, aching without end, and he felt his strength dwindling by the second. Even the 600-year old ghost, Kyūken, who rarely cared about anything other than himself… looked distraught at the sight of Mura.

Mura’s first instinct was to go to a doctor. Despite being a skilled swordsman with Spiritual Energy flowing en masse, he was unable to just heal himself or others like a certain Akira could. However, the diagnosis was haunting – back and neck pain caused by minor arthritis, and a development of refractive errors in his eyes, which caused heavy headaches. The doctor was astonished that Mura developed these conditions when he just barely turned 30 in a few months… these conditions were associated with much older ages. And Mura was no lazy bum – he was an active martial artist, an athlete who took his health in high regard.

His years… so this was the aftermath of that encounter. It happened recently, so Mura still remembered the scene vividly – her slender, possessive fingers lined up on his chest, taking away what was fundamentally his. She’d… she’d taken away much more than he anticipated!

He had to find her… but where on earth would she even be now? Even as he struggled to walk with the headache and pains only faintly suppressed with painkillers, using his sheathed Harukami as a cane, he hadn’t the slightest idea where the Witch would even be holed up at.

“… Where the hell could a sorceress like her even go? You losers handed her a big sum of valuables, did you not?”

“B-Be quiet…”

“What I’m saying is, she should have a place to keep those valuables safe… like a treasury. Or ask if anyone’s associated with-“

“…”

Preoccupied with just staying conscious, Mura slowly made his way across the street of Kyōto, a street he once strolled across full of energy. He’d either find her or cave in…

Ever since she had spoken to Stella, Medeia had found herself in a state of flux. She could find no comfort in her work nor anything else and it was slowly but surely driving her mad. There were thoughts in her mind that had not been before and the witch was, for once, somewhat lost as to what she should do next. She had brought so much pain, robbed so many of life and now she was unable to even think about taking on a job without thinking twice. Of all the times to grow a conscience.

Medeia was sitting outside a bar, sipping at a drink as she watched the world go by. What would she do now? How could she possibly start a new life after having lived her own for so long? Such questions probed at her mind constantly and the brunette wanted to rip her out with frustration. Still, she retained her cool demeanour for now and instead amused herself by releasing small sparks of lightning from time to time. She hated feeling this way and yet the witch could not escape.

Her free hand drumming on the table, the distinctive green eyes of the witch would fall upon a man, walking as though he was in his eighties. Yet, she recognised his spiritual pressure and with a raising of her brow, Medeia would muse about current state. She remembered their encounter well but could have sworn that she had not injured him that badly. The witch could feel his youth within her still but his current state baffled her. Surely she had not taken so much of his life force?

Feeling that it was best to simply not delay the inevitable and finding it somewhat difficult to look at him for some reason, Medeia would sigh and call out to him. “Over here, Mura, before you hurt yourself.”

Struggling as he was, at first, he heard a feminine voice and was bewildered. Who on earth was it, again? Did he recognize that voice, or was his body failing him? Why’d he feel the stinging pain in his neck again? For fuck’s sake, being sick was tough… he felt like a very old man suffering from a tumultuous lifestyle.

…

“W-Witch…” he almost hissed, too damn tired and pained to even be mad – he looked like a deer in headlights for a brief few seconds, then like a senile who was behind times as he approached her table, “I can’t think like this… and I’m so thirsty, too.”

Instinctively, he reached for a table opposite of her, basically toppling onto it as he leaned back and heard cracks in his neck and back. “A-Ahh, shit… *crack, crack* y-you, explain. W-What did you… how much energy did you steal? How’d you even… what did you do?” Barely remembering the details of her last move, his brows rose and sunk with utter confusion.

As he sat down in a rather uncomfortable way, Medeia had to take a minute to understand the scope of the damage that her ability had done. While it was true that she could kill a weak person with it given enough time, the young man had more than enough strength to have survived the brief moments that she had used it on him. It was quite an anomaly and the brunette eventually sighed, not all that used to actually meeting someone again after fighting with them. She was generally rather thorough, after all and she had spared him due to his Master.

“I transferred some of your life force from you to me.” Medeia finally explained. “It is the most formidable of my techniques and had I held on to you much longer than it could have been the end. That being said, I am surprised by just how much you have…aged. It almost appears that I am talking to an old man rather than the vibrant young one that I fought. I am somewhat stunned. If you must know, it is how I maintain my youth after so long and if I do not…feed then I age rather rapidly myself.”

On another day, she might have just walked off and left him to his misery but the brunette could not quite find it within herself to do that. Her head was god knows where right now and after finally thinking it through, she would fold her arms and sigh, for once feeling like complete garbage. “The ability works both ways and I am capable of restoring what was taken although that will involve you having to trust me to use the same ability again.”

Thinking a moment more, she would add a sense of finality in her tone. “I am done with crime and I no longer feel the same sense of…contentment that I used to.”

”My… life force…” Mura sighed as his worries were pretty much confirmed – like wondering if that one, bad thing was a bit too convenient to be true, only to be confirmed and ruin your mood. He listened to her explaining her siphoning prowess, and that it had taken a toll on his youthful appearance…

“Damn it, do I look that old…?” he asked with tired, widening eyes in brief shock, “*cough* T-That’s… wait, s-so you use my life force… to maintain your own…” Upon uttering those words out, his brain began grinding its cogs and wheels, wondering about a certain thing about her that he felt was a bit shameless to bring up.

But she revealed that she could also hand the life force back to him. Now, that did sort of throw him off – she had gotten oddly… helpful now, hadn’t she? She, who waltzed into their dojo as a merc, destroyed their foundation and ran off with their money… the truth was, if not for his predicament, he’d be pissed off right now. But the pain of his ailments tempered his angered spirit and made him willing to listen… perhaps, desperation was part of that too.

And her last words caught him off guard. “… Something happened, after you left the dojo. I-I can tell…” he expressed, his dry eyes blinking as he cracked his neck with a grunt of pain escaping his lips, “If you don’t help… I’ll probably die, anyway.”

“Wait, do you seriously trust her? What logical human being turns over a new leaf that easily? Do you blindly trust any beautiful woman you meet?!” Kyūken already began his rambling, but despite his oldness, Mura threw Kyūken a sharp glance. “If she has no intention to help, then I died the moment she took those years from me… s-so shut the fuck up, and let’s bet on her newfound capacity for charity.”

"Charity? She's giving back what's YOURS."

"Oh, be quiet, brat…"

"Bra- I'm CENTURIES older than you!"

Mura's words revealed his feelings well – something in him didn’t have it in him to trust her quite yet. Not fully, yet… but he was, fundamentally, a compassionate man. He wanted to give her, at least, a chance to prove his instinctual distrust wrong. After all, even if he felt uneasy… something about her words did strike him with honesty.

"So? What, do you let her grope your chest again - or is it the other way around, this time?"

"Please, pretend like he doesn't exist… it's best for your psyche."

“I met a Quincy, shortly after meeting you and she treated me with something I was not expecting…Respect. I told her all about my life of crime, my powers and everything else but still, she did not look down or criticise me. Never have I come across such a sweet soul and I suppose you could say that her words had an effect on me.” Medeia replied with a shrug. “Believe me or not but I no longer feel like the same woman I was when I fought you.”

Thinking for a few moments, she would then say. “The only way you are going to recover is through my powers so it is entirely up to you. In order to heal you, I am going to have to touch you and there is nothing I can do about that. If it helps, I can tell you that you will not feel the same pain as you did the last time. That will be entirely on my end, you will only feel relief. I am tired of living the way I have been and I think even your Master knew that when he spoke to me after our fight. I have no idea where my path lies now but it is not with the criminals of this world. Perhaps I will have a try at taking them out instead.”

There was something else as well and after taking a sip of her drink, she would speak once. “I still have his money, by the way, as my employer is now just a charred husk. When you are healed, I can take it from the bank and you can return it to him. I do not want it, I have enough.”

A Quincy? Shortly after… so here in Japan. Was it Stella? Or perhaps, she met Meninas… or perhaps someone else who visited Japan recently. It was a strange feeling – he had a strong inkling that she must’ve met either of the two cherry-haired Quincesses, but without sound proof, it remained a mere gut feeling… and a pretty painful one at that. Old guts sure had it rough these days.

This Quincess… sure had an effect on her. Medeia sounded far more self-reflective, questioning her very self. Not at all as steel-tight as she was when she visited the dojo demanding payment or ruin. Meninas wasn’t exactly the most talkative when he met her, but she was still friendly and easygoing enough to leave an impression like this… and Stella was cheeky enough to leave behind pleasant memories.

His head was still aching, so regardless – if the only way out was through her power, then so be it. Despite being touched… uh, a little erratic – last time she touched him was when he was about to die, so it didn’t exactly bring back pleasant memories or anything. There was still a sinister air to her touch yet… but he had no other way out. She even went to mention that his Master, the Head Master, might’ve spotted the exhaustion on her face before anyone else could. Even in his old age, his eyes remained sharp as ever.

“Oh… that’s a relief… t-then please-“

“Wait, are you just… believing her?”

“What. Other… W-Way. Do. I. Have?”

“… Your naivety will be your undoing one day, boy…”

The ghost floated away, sulking in his own personal headspace while Mura rested both hands on the table, bowing his head down. “P-Please, prove him wrong… bring me back my energy.”

It was strange. A part of her expected him to just accuse her of being deceitful and throw her offer back in her face and yet here he was, almost begging her to go through with the procedure. After promising to do it, she was not going to revert back to her old ways now although there was a moment of fear that ran through her body, knowing that what was about to happen was going to be incredibly unpleasant for her. Yet, perhaps she deserved the pain, after delivering so much to not only him but so many others over her long life.

With a nod, Medeia would remove her ladylike gloves before placing her hands on top of his, closing her eyes briefly as she braced herself for what was about to happen, She could not remember the last time she had actually restored life instead of taking it but as she her body began to channel with lightning, the brunette could not help but feel a sense of rightness, a feeling that she had not experienced since…before her tale of woe had begun.

Activating her ability, the lightning would begin to escape the witch, in the exact opposite manner that it had the last time, leaving her body and instead restoring the years that she had taken from him. He would more than likely feel nothing but reinvigoration but for the witch, it was agony and after a while, it could be seen across her face. Her usual calm and icy expression changed to one of pain and as the draining sensation almost overwhelmed her, the brunette had to grit her teeth hard to stop herself uttering something rather unpleasant.

After what felt like an eternity, she would finally bring the ability to a halt, ending the link between them and panting rather hard. It had been an age since she had felt anything like that and without any pause, she would place her gloves back over her rather burned looking hands, before taking a long sip of her drink.

For the moment, words were quite beyond her.

Watching her delicate hands rest on his, Mura took a deep breath and readied for the worst. After all, last time, it hurt like hell… she was like a reaper of death, siphoning his life from him with no regard to his protests nor feelings. But… he felt a surge. A pleasant one – an energizing one. As if he was waking up from a long night’s sleep.

He felt his muscles expand again. The light and colors returned to his skin gradually, and his hair got its darkness leaking back out once more, pushing away the greyish edges that were beginning to form earlier. He no longer felt the weight on his eyelids, nor did he feel his wrinkles press his facial features in anymore. He began to feel warmer and warmer inside… but the look on Medeia’s face spoke another story. She wasn’t having any pleasant experience.

At the end, she was left panting as if she had just poured her heart out into the drink she was sipping. He only got a short, brief glance at her hand… but he wasn’t going to comment on it. As of right now, she had paid back the years she took from him, and he no longer felt pain nor sickness… he felt rejuvenated.

Kyūken widened his eyes at the sight, but ultimately didn’t even bother returning to the conversation. His loss. “… Thanks,” Mura nodded in approval, glancing over his arm, singular, “Phew, that was way scarier than I thought… so, like… does that make you younger or o-“

“MURA!”

“-S-Sorry, I almost… fuck, forget about it. Wait, why are you butting in, now?!”

“I… hmpf…”

What a stubborn mess. “So… uhm, are you going to be alright? Someone with your history might have made a few enemies.”

“Restoring your lifeforce has had the opposite effect on me but fortunately, I will be able to recover although it will involve me having to use my skills on another.” Medeia answered honestly, deciding that it was best that he heard the truth. “Do not be alarmed though. I will no longer prey on the weak and innocent, I will instead go after those who I once worked for as they deserve nothing less. A most effective way of dealing with troublemakers, no?”

It led right into his next question, which she answered with a nod. “Indeed I do and that is another reason for me to dine on them, so to speak. In order to protect myself, I will have to hit my enemies first, as they are not going to be happy that I have turned. Most of my employers are long dead but there are a few who will waste no time in sending their minions after me. I, however, am not frightened. If they want me, they will have to work for it.”

Looking him over briefly, she would ask with a raised eyebrow. “Do you feel fully recovered now? I admit that it is rather difficult to know just when to stop.”