Chapter 9: Cursed Cure

Sweat poured down my face. My tongue felt like a pufferfish. It's poison pulsating in my mouth. I coughed black blood. Fuck! It hurt so much! Where was I? There was darkness all around me. Was this hell? Someone should've told the devil to turn on the heating 'cause it was fucking freezing in here! Someone must've removed my clothes. I only wore something like a nightgown. That was not enough. I didn't even have the strength to shiver. I needed to move! It took everything I had left in me to turn my body to the left, wanting to stand up. I tried to support my upper body with my left arm only to grasp the empty air. Right. I've lost my second favorite arm. The floor tiles welcomed me with their typical hospitality. I would have said everything went black. But everything already was black so… Let's just say I fainted.

"Why did you leave her alone like that? What if her condition worsened!?", demanded a familiar voice. "And why is it so fucking freezing in here?"

"Weren't you the one responsible for this mess?", responded a raspy man, "Also, how would her condition worsen? Could she magically lose another arm, eh? I stabilized her. I know my trade as you are well aware. If you want to criticize anything then criticize me for not being able to calculate her intrinsic healing ability. I can not accurately determine the rate at which she purifies the painkillers. They should be soon… No, I think they have already worn off. Time for another dose."

An azure-blue syringe was being injected into me. A dreamless sleep took over.

When I awoke again, I was sitting in a chair comparable to a dentist's. Tight straps were keeping me in place. They wouldn't want me to prematurely move again, smart. I attempted to move anyway, to no avail.

It looked like I was in an abandoned hospital. The tiles were all broken, the ceiling's insulation practically torn out. Where the shit was I? On the floor ran cockroaches and rats rampant, hunting each other in the crevices of rotten cupboards. Only a table on wheels with various doctors' utensils was conspicuously clean. The tools were so well polished that one might think them brand new.

In the doorway, I saw a grey-haired and clean-shaven man in a lab coat entering the room. He smiled when our eyes met. Under the coat he wore a rough sweater and patched up trousers, screaming into the world that he was an underground doctor. He started to do a check-up on me. "Ah, I see you're awake Miss Song. How do you feel?"

Silly question. Of course, I answered, like shit, in unintelligible noises. And I was so hungry! I could eat a whole cowling!

"Yes, your tongue. I did the best I could. We'll have to wait for the swelling to decline to tell the real scale of the damage. But I must say that your regeneration talents are quite remarkable. Quite remarkable, indeed!" He sat down on an armless glider, "well, where are my manners? My name is Muramasa Toshifumi but everyone calls me Muramasa. And you, young lady, are a guest at my humble doctors' office. Welcome! I'd say have a seat but as you are already sitting I can only follow up with an offer for water."

I nodded. While he poured me a glass of water, I pondered. Did I had a regeneration ability? My healing was strictly bound to the activation of my spirit. I sipped from my glass of water and took a look at my spiritual sea. A black storm was raging in me! I choked. What was that!?

Muramasa either didn't notice or chose to ignore my sudden discomfort, "Here is a small recap of what emergency procedures I had to do…"

Who cares about that? What by the holy cowlings is that storm doing inside me? "…As for your arm… We chose a rather unorthodox method of treatment."

My arm? I was fighting two goatee-wearing brothers in a sketchy-looking Arcade and… One of them shot his spirit at me… It hurt like crazy… Right, I've lost an arm. I silently screamed. I'm sorry, Mom. I… I should've run. Tears ran down my cheeks.

But how bad was the wound? I had to know. I expected to see a bloody mess. Guess, that my gaming career was at an end too. Needed that hand to move my virtual characters. Well, game over, I guess. I turned slow and deliberately toward the most significant of my injuries. My heart stopped. I saw a mechanical arm with shiny bronze plating resting on my left armchair.

"After the brothers' sealing was done, we integrated this unique model of a cyber interface onto you, the Midas."

"-owh!?" Was that even possible?

"As to how we could integrate a cyber interface onto you even though you already had an innate spirit. Well, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure. It is more of an ongoing experiment than a done procedure. See, the Salamander with which you were shot at had the will of his owner infused. The injury it caused is permanent I'm sad to say."

The Doctor lit up a Sutra and inhaled deeply. "Well, normally, it would be temporary because it is a death sentence. Its affliction is more of a curse than a regular injury. It would've only stopped if it finally engulfed your whole body and turned you to ash. Neither modern medicine nor the most potent alchemy could've saved you. Only an intricate Daoist seal did stop the spread. We had to remove the whole arm though, the heat already made the bone brittle. You really should thank the two brothers, the loud runt and the gentle giant. Anyway, as I was saying the seal did stop the spread. It did not heal you. There is no healing you. I want you to be aware of this fact."

My lips shivered. It was too much. A quiet school life was all I ever wanted. How did I get here? Why me? I tried to keep my cool and nodded. I understood each individual piece of information. The questions of why and how the brothers helped me could wait. The more burning question was why did they integrate a cyber spirit without my consent!?

The doc continued, "As to the arm…"

"Let me explain", a boy not older than twelve suddenly appeared behind the doc, sitting on a desk, legs crossed. His sudden appearance made Muramasa jump in surprise. "The seal will weaken with time. To suppress the Salamander we merged it with another cyber spirit, Midas, the Gold-Plated Black Dragon."

I felt a strong sense of deja vu. Midas, huh. I never heard of named cyber spirits.

"It's attribute is hunger, nearly identical to the Salamanders last order, to consume. As long as you are able to keep your cyber spirit in check, the Salamanders command is overwritten. If you start neglecting your cyber spirit the Salamander will resume its original task. As such the seal will weaken until it is completely dissipated", The boy jumped from the desk and made an exaggerated shrug, "Ultimately it's your life and your choice how to live."

That explained my grumbling stomach. I struggled to get out of the chair. A huge hand gently opened the restraints for me. The boys' brother, the timid-looking giant, offered me a hand. He also appeared seemingly out of thin air. Muramasa startled. I gladly accepted and stood on shaky legs. Now, let's see if this cybershit worked. Timid like a cat seeing snow for the first time I took the first step. Making a fist. It worked! Lifting? Yepp! Rotation? Sure! Flexing? Of course! Victory pose? Hell yeah! I laughed! My gaming career was not at an end! Those guys must have thought me crazy, standing there half-naked in a hospital gown making a victory pose but I couldn't care less. What a relief!

After I calmed down I kowtowed on the freezing floor, first in front of the boy, "Huh, manners! I like you kid!" Then before his brother. He smiled and nodded approvingly. At last, I lay to the feet of the doc. He was so touched that he turned around and sniffled a bit. Even all alone in this god-forsaken city, I'm accompanied by the values I was taught. Even if Confucius and I don't look eye to eye all the time, he certainly is helping me from time to time. Respect and gratitude go a long way, even in this fucked up world.