Outer Ragna: Volume 1

by Kasugamaru

  01 Prologue

  Life is shit, so I throw myself into super-difficult games. That’s my life.

  Perhaps that’s a bit of an overreaction?

  “Oh, girlie, brooding again are yeh?”

  I had a dream where I was a battle-scarred young girl who was being hugged by a wrinkled old lady. What do you make of that? Freud would have a field day, I’ll bet.

  “It’s okay. Everyone fails. Everyone feels shame. There are as many regrets in this world as stars in the sky. That’s just how it is.”

  It was actually a rather soothing dream. Maybe I’m just dealing with a lot of pent-up stress. I haven’t had a real break in forever. The train to work is always as packed as a mass grave, its riders like stumbling zombies. A modern slave ship.

  “It’s okay to cry. Everyone has their detractors. No one can be beloved by all. Not even God.”

  That’s true, yeah.

  “Don’t worry. I’ve been where you are. It’s what makes us human. We’re lonely, sad creatures. Alone, we’re miserable.”

  Hmm, that hits a little too close to home. I mean, I like to think I do my job well, but... my personal life is more isolated than private. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been watching others be happy. I’m not particularly blessed nor cursed. I’ve just... watched a lot of things pass me by. My life is a haze. So it should come as no surprise that I did it again.

  Old lady, how did your face look?

  All I can remember are the whites of her eyes, wreathed by wrinkles. In the darkness, they floated like two winter moons. Her trembling lips were probably trying to scream, “Get down!” or “Run away!”

  And then, the sudden blinding flash and ear-splitting roar; the shockwave; darkness. The rest is chaos. My memories are jumbled.

  I can’t breathe.

  It hurts. I’m dreaming, but it hurts. What is up and what is down? My body is heavy. My body is in pain. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts.

  Desperately, I reach out a hand and touch something. It’s hard, firm, and large. I grab onto it. Fighting back against the flow, I cling to it. Wait, the flow? Right, the flow. I’m in water. I’ll drown if I let myself get swept away. I’ll die. So I frantically try to climb the tree. In the water. Crazy, right?

  The trunk of the tree I’m holding onto for dear life is thick. I can tell it’s a ginkgo tree. For some reason, I just can. It’s the big tree that stands on the outskirts of the village. The one with the leaves that glitter golden.

  I break through the water’s surface. As I do, I void my lungs of water. It’s the only way to breathe. And breathing is the only way to stay alive. Living is the only thing on my mind right now. My numb body resists suffering and death.

  Another loud sound. What is it? It’s thunder. Far off in the distance, thunder rumbles.

  I see it. I see the world.

  What... is this?

  I gaze upon a ruddy brown sunset on the distant horizon. Above me are dark grey rain clouds. Below me is pitch-black water. The darkness is broken up by lightning and violent, frothing waves, as if each is trying to outdo the other.

  This is a nightmare. But even for a nightmare, this is sick. What is going on here? It’s just too absurd.

  My breathing still ragged, I look around. Between the waves, I can see something. There are small islands scattered about. Someone’s there. Figures, dressed in black. Brandishing heavy weapons and armor, they bellow a war cry.

  Those are... vampires. A vampire army. Yellow eyes adorn their tan faces.

  Wiping away my wet hair, I look up. There’s something amid the clouds, too. Figures, dressed in white. Their light clothes flutter in the wind as they gracefully float in midair.

  Those are elves. An elven army. Long ears extend from their pure white faces.

  “You think this a draw, then, just because you destroyed the battlefield?” A voice echoes loudly across the land. I search for the source. On a small island stands a lone vampire. A flaxen-haired girl—wait. That design...

  “Withered branches should return to the earth, like nature intended!” The girl swings a metal rod and the sound of something ripping is accompanied by a blinding light. My eyes are dazzled by the electrical discharge. Slashes appear across my vision.

  But no one is hit. The attack creates a great wave and disappears. The lingering reverberations disperse.

  Behind the wave stands an elf on the water’s surface. An effeminate man with purple hair—wait, that character!

  “A bloodsucker dares talk of the laws of nature? Don’t make me laugh. Your very existence throws this world into chaos.” His voice rumbles low. Oh, no. He’s planning something new. Flooding the village wasn’t enough, it seems.

  With rushing sounds, the water begins to whirl. Not naturally; he bends the water to his will with his power.

  “Drown!” The water rises, and then shoots forward in the shape of a snake. It’s large enough to swallow a whole human.

  “Mere child’s play. You’re the real joke!” The girl strikes the great snake with her rod and a bright flash of light—lightning—tears it apart. It seems familiar. Was that what had blown the old lady away? “Deep Sea? Maybe if the sea were a kiddy pool!”

  “I think I hear the squawking of a fledgling warrior who presumes to call herself ‘Golden,’” the elf snorts. The other vampires and elves also begin to stir, incited by the girl and effeminate man—Golden and Deep Sea. The sound of drums erupts from the ground, wild, savage, and deafening. From the sky, flutes flutter, annoyingly haughty and obstinate. A merry undertone runs through both sides. It is as if they think they’re at a festival.

  “Ah ha ha ha! Die! Come, I’ll smash you to pieces!”

  “No, thank you. Why don’t you hurry up and drown?”

  Lightning flashes. Currents surge. The aftershocks of this great clash of magic shake the giant tree repeatedly. Leaves and branches fall. With every pulse the tree creaks dangerously.

  It’s a crazy dream. An impossible nightmare. Gritting my teeth, I cling for dear life to the tree’s trunk. My nails dig into the bark. Huh? I’m shaking... but I’m not cold or scared. What is this hot thing boiling up from the pit of my stomach?

  “I don’t... accept it.” The words slip from my mouth, in a voice far younger than my own.

  “I don’t accept it,” I continue. No, is it the girl herself who’s talking? I can feel my strength waning. My body isn’t responding to me. It’s getting harder to control... Wait, control? Am I controlling this girl? What kind of dream is this?

  I stretch out my hand. It’s small and delicate. Young. My hand points straight towards the rioting armies and the flickering world. My body is dripping wet. I fill my lungs, step onto a branch with my bare feet, and open my mouth wide.

  “I! Don’t! Accept! This! World!” Tears overflow. They flow hot and endless down the girl’s cheeks, for no one can hear her. No one can hear the words she shouts at the world. There is no one to listen.

  No... That’s not true. There is someone. Someone right here. I can hear you. Don’t worry. If you need to cry so badly it hurts, then go ahead and cry yourself dry. Cry all of your tears for the rest of your life, right here. Offer everything you have here, where the old lady and all the villagers sleep under the water.

  “Yeah... Yeah, I will.” Oh! Our minds connected.

  The girl’s body is shaking with fury.

  “I offer my name. I offer my memories. I offer my love, my hatred, and everything else... I offer my all.”

  Our eyes meet. Deep within her dark, dark pupils burn bright red flames. But in a world as cold as this one, that’s just fine. In fact, it’s perfect.

  “So, God, I ask you to give me power.” This is a dream. It has to be a dream. It’s j
ust not right for such a young girl to be asking God for the power to fight. A tragedy, is what it is. No one wants this. This isn’t some super-difficult game, for crying out loud!

  Ah... I get it now. Everything just clicked. A world where humans are on the brink of despair. The set-up. The designs. The characters. The magic. Without a doubt, this is a super-difficult game. One that I’ve played for hours and hours: Dragon Demon RPG a.k.a. DDR.

  I’m getting the urge to play again. I remember buying the download-exclusive deluxe version but never installing it. The fact that I never looked up the extra contents might make a replay fresher. Yeah, let’s do that. Some holidays are coming up, after all. I might as well stream my gameplay, too.

  After waking up from my nightmare, you might expect me to be a wreck. But instead, I was quivering slightly from the fire burning in my chest.

  02 Choosing A Character In DDR / The Knight Reflects On His Chance Meeting With The Girl

  I am not lost, for God saves me, loves me, and shepherds me.

  -DDR Stream Part 1-

  The time spent in front of the vending machine deciding on what coffee to buy is so relaxing. There’s bliss in being lost, isn’t there?

  Anyway! Moving on! Hello newcomers and welcome back, veterans! I’m PotatoStarch! For today’s stream, I thought we’d do a little Dragon Demon RPG DX. I’m sure all of you know this one. It’s a completely untraditional Japanese game. An open world RPG where the narrative depends on your actions, the level of freedom, number of playthrough options, and required hard drive space are off the charts. Plus the difficulty is so high you have to question the devs’ common sense.

  In the trailer they state, “Go on a grand adventure in a world of swords and magic.” But the game is so brutal it flies in the face of that tagline. First, the title itself is a trap. There are dragons and demons in the game, but if you ever meet them as enemies, they’ll kill you. Just absolutely murder you. They’re basically forced-death events. And even if you get them as allies, they’ll still kill y—Oh, it’s starting!

  Ah, the opening cutscene is so great. That’s the deluxe version for you. It’s just so beautiful and fills you with happiness. Handsome guys are shouting in victory while pretty women are smiling coyly.

  But it’s all a lie. An illusion. There are no hopes or dreams in this game’s world. It’s a world of heartbreak. Well, that’s why I like it, though.

  Now, who should I play as? I might die right away, but you gotta pick a pretty girl, right? Let’s do that, leave the face up to the character generator, and... Huh? Th-This girl... A-Anyway, she looks pretty good, right? Let’s go with her. As for a name, how about “Kuroi”? She has black hair, after all.

  I choose you, Kuroi! By the way, have any of you noticed that you can only select your race, gender, and appearance in this game? Everything else is left up to luck. It’s such a gamble. Really makes their catchphrase, “Infinite fates await you,” ring hollow for me.

  As you can see, I picked a human. They’re the most unpopular race by a huge margin. But I think this way I can show off the game’s best features to you all. You could say it’s like drowning in a sea of despair, but enjoying it. Just gotta click confirm and that’s that.

  It’s rolling for my start location! The results of this will determine my stat levels and skills, so it’s super important. Seriously, basically everything is decided based on where you were born? Where’s the romance, huh? It’s just pointlessly realistic. Keep your B.S. to yourself, devs.

  What’s it gonna be? A noble or a top brass military background would make my beginning stats super great and lower the strategic difficulty a bit... Oh God. Oh God. A slave. Of all things, a slave? A human slave is, without a doubt, the worst start you can get. That’s double bad. I mean, humans are basically slaves anyway. They’re the weakest race in the game, making them the perfect choice for masochists.

  The world setting for DDR is incredibly unfair to humans. Vampires control 40% of the continent and are aggressively expanding their territory, while elves control another 40% and staunchly defend their borders. The remaining 20% is controlled by humans—or rather, it’s more like a buffer zone that they’re permitted to occupy. They’re treated like a lower race that’s a target for discrimination. Just talking about how cruel the situation is makes me sad.

  In fact, as living things, their strength in battle is on a different scale. In terms of physical strength it goes: vampires, humans, elves. In terms of magical ability it goes: elves, humans, vampires. When I explain it like this, humans don’t seem that bad. But each of the other races’ specialties breaks the balance and leaves humans overwhelmingly in the dust.

  Now, I know you’re thinking I’m being all doom and gloom—Geez! Loading is taking forever. How much longer? By the way, my start as a slave is locked in, but there’s still a random roll for what kind of slave I’ll be. There are a lot of spots in this game where the player might think there’s freedom, but there isn’t. A gladiator slave would mean my fighting skills increase easily. That’d be nice. Even a miner slave would mean my physical strength would be... No, I won’t be that lucky. Since I’m a female character, I’ll probably end up a chained slave. The best I can hope for would be another race’s treasured pet. That way I could bide my time and aim for the perfect chance to free myself. With some bad luck I might just end up instantly game-overing, but... Oh, it’s loaded.

  A serf, huh? Yick. They have some physical strength. But their skills, though! This’ll make acquiring magic difficult. Oh, but my starting location is pretty interesting. It’s on the outskirts of human territory, so I might be able to show you all the true charm of DDR faster than expected. There’s monster attacks to deal with, abuse from elves—a vampire might even murder us. Yup, so many things to look forward to.

  Anyway! In order to avoid all that, I’ll have to steadily increase my stats. In other words, endless mini-games! Heh heh heh! Behold my crafting skills. Click-click-click! By the way, are you guys the type to look up strategy information ahead of time? Or do you only use it when you’re in trouble? Personally, I... Oh! The sun’s setting. It’s vampire time, which means we gotta get inside the hut. The mini-game I recommend here is...

  -Knight Agias I-

  This girl was a strange one. Black hair. Black eyes. Wiry. Silent. Curt. And a hard worker. The cultivation of the Frontier was seen as no less than punishment. And in truth, only serfs and convicts were sent to work there. Any worries or complaints she might have had were overwritten by clear-headed resignation, and despite the fact that she was the only one there who swung her hoe with any sense of conviction, she never gave up. Diligently she plowed, working quietly. No one could match her results. Day in and day out, she never tired.

  She did have some curious habits, though. It was something I witnessed during the tiny breaks from our heavy labor. Sometimes she repeatedly jumped over firewood. Other times, she threw pebbles at boulders. I even saw her stare unblinkingly into a bucket of water drawn from the well and endlessly count grains of wheat. If you count even the tiniest things, then she had dozens of these activities that she for some reason whole-heartedly repeated in a certain order. She even sacrificed sleep to keep this up.

  One moonlit night, I confronted her. I just had to know. I had no interest in others, much less commoners who could not even swing a sword, but I was compelled. Or perhaps I was drawn to her by fate.

  “Where are you from?”

  “There.” She pointed at the ground. I wondered if her parents might have sold or abandoned her. Either one was common enough.

  “How is your family?”

  “I don’t have one.”

  “Were you raised in an orphanage?”

  “No.” Whatever she had gone through, I could not get it out of her. Her face, pointed up at the stars, sought no consolation, gave off no sadness. I could not even glean a hint of loneliness from her. An unwavering determination, I suppose you might call it, smoldered in the depths of her eyes. />
  “What are those things you do? I see you have many strange habits.”

  “Preparation.”

  “For what?”

  “For survival.”

  “They just look tiring and like a waste of energy.”

  “Not really.”

  “R-Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Hmm. Really, now?” The girl rebuffed all attempts at conversation. She seemed to curtly reject all around her, and yet in truth she was an eager servant. She worked harder than anyone, with an unwavering disposition. Her beautiful face was only rivaled by her pure behavior, and she brought a refreshing feeling in everyone around her.

  She was herself, always. Despite the public attention, she never asked for anything, she never changed. Perhaps the world from her eyes was just different from the one the rest of us saw. Ultimately, she lived strongly and carefully in this cruel world of ours. It was as it should be—or should I say, Deus Ex.

  One day, a group of monsters appeared from the forest. The air was filled with screams and roars as the ground was covered with human blood, flesh, and innards. But she alone fought back. She thrived in the adverse circumstances. She was greater than all of us.

  This girl, beloved by God, was named Kuroi. She would go on to earn such heroic titles as Dragon Slayer and Demon Slayer, but this was her first battle. And I, Agias Willow, bore witness to her incredible might. If not for her, a weak knight like me would have perished in that battle.

  03 Battles In DDR / The Sorcerer Is Shocked By The Girl’s Strike

  I wait, mind empty and ears open,

  Such that I can hear His voice,

  And offer my body unto Him.

  -DDR Stream Part 2-

  I want to be a ninja. Give me the ninja technique to vanish during meetings.

  Anyway! PotatoStarch here! I’m excited for today’s stream of DDR DX. Last time we were going at the serf life wholeheartedly, but this time we’ll finally be getting to the battles. Gather up, everyone! Allow me to share with you every detail of this game’s unfairness. Be sure to tell everyone how epic this was. Oh, and if you can’t handle gore, I suggest you leave now. This is going to turn into a horrorshow.