17 years passed since Cosmo found himself in another world and is now standing in front tiger-bear, at least, it is what Cosmo calls them, since it looks like a bear with stripes and longer fangs. This animal towers over him, casting a long shadow, yet Cosmo remains unfazed.
"Another one?" placing his herb bag on the ground and takes a stance, his hands forward, palms facing down. "Third one this month, although I have been wandering for a bit…" He's relaxed, an air of confidence around him. The tiger-bear, in response, gets on all four and crawls closer, drooling from its mouth. "A hungry one this time…" Cosmo speaks to himself. In most cases, he would simply retreat as it's usually a conflict with territory, but every now and then, he meets a beast that's starving. Cosmo can't help but smile, "It's not every day I get to actually fight a tiger-bear." He leans forward, "How many strokes will it take to put you down…"
***
Walking back to the village, Cosmo is recounting the fight. "9 Strokes…" Cosmo sighs, the tiger-bear ran after the 9th stroke, leaving him disappointed that he couldn't test more of his technique.
It's been 7 years since he started imitating the touch of the succubus, first it was for him, reliving headaches and nightmares, but the more he learned the more her learned how versatile it can be, stroking and petting in a certain frequency can induce specific sensations and depending on the combination and location he touches, can cause more extreme reactions. After fighting most of the animals in the forest, he could easily subdue them, but fighting something as big as a tiger-bear was a rare chance for him since they often roamed for from the village.
Over the years, Cosmo only got better at it, able to perfectly imitate the touch of many of the succubui of Bushvess and at some point, developed his own way of touching.
"What should I call this…" Cosmo was thinking of a name for such a technique. "Succubi fist…no…" Cosmo is lost in thought until he hears someone call for him. Turning to the voice, he sees Nelly beckoning him over.
"Just in time, I was going to drop off this month's pickings." She speaks, like most of the women in the village, she's stunning, her hair, a dark green and on the shorter length, giving her this cute look.
"Here Nelly," Cosmo handed over the bag and as Nelly took it, her hand would brush over his finger, her touch lingers for a brief moment before taking the bag away and shaking it.
"56, good haul!" She throws the bag into the cart. "Oh and I was able to get this for you!" Nelly reaches into the cart and pulls out a pair of shoes. "Since you're growing, I assumed you might need a new pair of shoes…" She fidgets a bit, while holding out the pair of shoes.
"Thanks Nelly." Cosmo takes them from her and yet again, her fingers brush over his. Nelly smiles before turning away, blushing.
"N-no need to thank me, it was a simple order!" Nelly giggles to herself before hopping onto the cart. "Do you need anything while I make the trade!" Nelly shouts.
"I could use more books."
"Any kind in specific?"
"Hmmm…" Cosmo thinks for a moment, he already has so many books, ranging from history to plays. "Has the latest book of Carvine plants and animals come in yet?"
"No…" Nelly responds, looking a bit sad that she hasn't fulfilled this particular request yet. "But I can check!"
"Thanks Nelly and if you can't find it, more jerky would be nice." Cosmo waves Nelly good bye as she and her caravan rides away.
As Cosmo makes his way to his home, the villagers calls and beckon him over, giving him gifts and snacks. Old habits seem to die hard as they take any chance to pet him, thanking him for being such a good herb picker.
'Thanks', 'No need', 'Dried fruit? sure' Cosmo happily answers and accepts their gifts, as long as their convenient to carry, even if he rejects them, they'll drop them off at his home. Verra complains about the pile, while Sia helps herself to some of the snacks.
The women of the village adore him. They see him as some sort of prodigy as in his earlier years, he was the one to actually map out the madness of the forest, accurately guessing when a certain beast appears in a certain area. With his efforts, they are now able to comfortably reach their quota and with the extra herbs they're picking, they even started getting more from the dealings they made from their monthly trading. From more spices to new clothes, the little baby found in the forest turned out to be a blessing.
Cosmo himself is quite happy helping the village. From what he heard from Sia, the village started well compared to other succubi villages, since Verra and her took charge and became hunters, fending off the beast of the forests. They still had trouble gathering herbs since it was difficult to accurately map out the region, so when Cosmo wrote out a map, they were skeptical, but when herb pickers followed the map, they had a massive increase in the amount of herb they picked. With the help from Sia and Verra, more areas were scouted for any danger, and Minny, since she was of the few people that can read, were able to develop more accurate versions of the map. This helped them avoid any danger and plan ahead, allowing a more relaxing environment in the village.
Still, Cosmo helps by picking some herbs in his free time, promising to Sia and Verra he only goes to the safe zones to pick herbs and gather information for any improvement to the map. They followed him at first obviously, but after getting caught by Cosmo multiple times, they finally left him alone. When they ask him why he picks herbs alone, he responded with.
"I want to return the favor..." Both Sia and Verra can't help but feel proud that they raised such a humble and smart boy.
Although there was some truth to the statement, Cosmo simply took the opportunity to develop his skills. The amount of herbs he was able to gather comes from traveling into the danger zones and since it's full of beast, it was quite the testing ground for developing his technique.
Pick herbs, train, go back home, get spoiled, rest and repeat. This continues for the past 7 years and once in a while, Cosmo can't help but compare this life to his past life.
***
Cosmo doesn't remember his first name and most of what he can remembers is a blur. When he was a kid, a runt, left in the streets of some city, digging through trash for a meal. One day, a man came up to him and handed him a knife and pointed to another man across some street and said.
"Stick this in his belly, and I'll give you a prize." His tone was mocking, not expecting much from a starving runt, but looked surprised when that same runt came back bloody with an equally bloody knife.
That day, with a fist full of money, he bought his first meal, and from what Cosmo could remember, it was the sweetest meal he ever had. Since then, he would go around the city, looking for more work. A couple of cuts here, and stabs there. The more work he does, the more he gets paid, and the more he ate.
Until that one day, a job like any other, his current target, a simple looking old man, caught him by the wrist and broke it. Cosmo remembers grabbing the knife with his other hand and thrusting it at the man, then he remembers waking up in a car, both wrists broken as the old man bandaged up a stab wound. This old man was someone he'll be seeing far too often.
"Wanna a job kid?" The old man spoke.
***
Those days after were filled with workout hell as the old man made him run, lift weights, and even fight other kids, all with broken wrists and once those healed, he doubled the amount of training, even making him fight adults. He remembers being forced to learn how to read and hunt, although he remembers enjoying this as most of the food he hunted tasted better then the distasteful to disgusting food they served him and reading was something he found enjoyable. This was short lived as they went on with firearm training. Piecing together a gun, accuracy and speed tests. He would sometimes compete with other kids, and when he came in first, he would never see them again. Competition after competition, he would come first and only remembers one feeling, winning. Being faster, stronger, better than the rest as the old man would praise him.
One day, he was in a room with a bunch of tools. Here, he was given a task, a point on the map and the face of a man was marked with 'Kill'
This was simple from what he remembers, they dropped him off in some forest, he made his way towards his target, found him, shot him and made his way back. Once he came back, the old man was shocked, as if he planned to never see him again. Like before, he was rewarded, he no longer had to train and hunt, they even gave him some nice food and let him read whatever books he wanted.
Then another job came in, then another, from one battle to the next, some by himself, others with people, some needed to be quick, others needed to be a message. Days move in a blur as he follows the same routine over and over again. He remembers being bored of those days, eating the same fancy looking food, reading the same book, having people begging for someone to be killed, he remembers those days before the voices became one, from quiet whispers to vengeful shouts.
***
Cosmo takes a deep breath, stopping before he remembers those sleepless nights. Even so, he can't help but feel nostalgic as it's all too familiar. As he walks through the village, surrounded by beautiful women that love and appreciate him. Their gaze lingers on him when he walks away, their fingers touching his when taking their gifts. He would steady his breath, a body relaxed, his voice calming and sweet, his steps long and quick, breath steady. A sense from a life before, to feel and recognize a sensation that helped him survive one battlefield to the next, a sensation he was all too familiar with, Bloodlust.