by Nikita Thorn
Renshiro looked at him for a moment, then chuckled. “Not bad for an Ichikeya boy.” He shrugged. “Well, I guess we’ll reward honesty with honesty.”
He tossed Seiki a piece of crumpled post paper.
Mumei [Level 4]: (16 hours 7 minutes ago) A level 10 ronin by the name of Seiki will be traveling down the East Main Road to Kano Castle. You might be interested in an Ichikeya blood-locked box he’s carrying.
Renshiro smirked. “Yes, this is a robbery. And you’re going to unlock that box for us.”
Chapter 13
If there was someone who knew everyone’s secret, Seiki mused now, it was Mumei, with their anonymous messaging service.
“Took us a while to track you down, since they made it pretty difficult with that anti-Locate charm they gave you,” said Renshiro. “Typical Ichikeya.”
Seiki glanced around. On his left, the girl in tight-fitting purple with long sleeves, Itsuki [Level 17], was slowly getting up and dusting off dirt from her clothes. There was a ryoushi still hidden somewhere on the right. The houshi was nowhere to be seen, and Seiki still had half a minute before he could have his mount back.
“So, let’s make it easy for everybody,” said Renshiro. “We’re only interested in the box, so just unlock it for us and we can all walk away from here.”
Seiki had two options right now. He could try to run, but these people would most likely have superior mounts and riding skills—and, since they had chosen this location for the hold up, it was certainly far away enough from Ranger stations. Or he could try to fight them, and force them to kill him. Then, he could make a run from the nearest spirit shrine and try to claim the box back in Mannaka Village. Shame about the Sheathed Blade, shame about the scroll, but Seiki could see no other way.
It did not hurt, though, to try both at once. And it never hurt, especially when you were at a severe disadvantage, to make the first move.
Seiki slid forward and struck out at Renshiro with Sweeping Blade. The man Parried without energy, and made no attempt to attack, perhaps for fear of killing him in one blow. Seiki closed in, stepping forward into a Focused Strike. All he needed was for someone to accidentally hit him once, and he would be dead and that would spoil their whole plan.
Renshiro’s hands shot out and grabbed hold of the end of the Hikari. The man was grimacing, as the blade cut through his hand guards. Before Seiki could exert force to pull it back, Renshiro yanked the sword forward, while his left heel lifted off the ground. Seiki recognized, in a split second, that he was aiming for a forceful kick at the base of the blade. If the kick connected, Renshiro only had to push with his hands to his left, and that would give him plenty of leverage to exploit the weakness of the human grip and force the sword off Seiki’s hand without even having to use an attack.
With no time to be surprised, Seiki dropped to his knees, pushed the hilt of his sword down low and let loose a Slide. Two could play the leverage game, and Seiki twisted his blade as he shot forward on the ground. In this awkward position, the Hikari slipped off the man’s bloody grip. Immediately, Seiki pulled it up again in a backhand cut, leaving a gash on the man’s left thigh guard as he burst past.
Renshiro fell forward with a curse, and Seiki scrambled to his feet and broke off into a dash as he whistled to his horse. The faithful Fubuki was almost instantly there, and Seiki knew the ryoushi would try to shoot her again.
He had to stick to the main road, yet he could not afford to be out in the open. Seiki leapt onto his horse and pulled her behind a tree on the side of the road, just as three Rapid Shots arrows flew and grazed the trunk of the tree. Ryoushi could not shoot while mounted outside of war games, so in a little he would be out of range.
Galloping as fast as he could—on the uneven forest ground, parallel to the main road—, Seiki could hear Itsuki, the ninja girl in purple, catching up with him on her gray horse. He was out of energy, and she still had hers full. Her horse sped ahead to cut him off, and Seiki could easily guess what she had in mind. The very moment she leapt off, Seiki did the same and dismissed Fubuki, rendering the horse unattackable, and Itsuki’s volley of shurikens passed harmlessly through the snowstepper as she galloped away.
The fact that these people were trying to keep him alive was to his advantage. He charged at Itsuki in front of him, striking out with an energy-less Sweeping Blade as he passed, forcing her to jump back, perhaps out of instinct, to avoid it. His left hand went for his real target and hit the gray horse on its side with a bare-handed Focused Strike, instantly spooking it off.
With a whistle, Fubuki was back beside him, and the ninja girl was now locked out of her mount for a whole two minutes. Seiki leapt on and spent energy galloping as it recharged. The East Main Road was on his right, and he knew he had to keep following it or he would be very lost.
Behind, Renshiro was pursuing on his white horse, and Seiki could hear more gallops from yet unseen riders coming from that same direction.
Suddenly, the sky darkened above him, and Seiki glanced up just in time to see a wide thick woven net falling on him. He pushed his energy down on the stirrups to speed up but, at that instant, an explosion of smoke blew up right in front of Fubuki, and the startled snowstepper reared in fright. The web landed around them like tangling seaweed, tripping the horse and sending them crashing onto the ground.
The net caused no damage, apart from that from the fall, and seemed to be woven with sinewy vines. Seiki immediately drew his Hikari and, to his relief, found that the blade could cut through it. Fubuki had magically freed herself from the ordeal and was running off again.
This had bought the robbers enough time to catch up. Coming through the forest was Satoru [Level 17], a man in bright blue, who had some kind of strange bulky crossbow in his hand.
“Damn,” said the ryoushi. “Forced me to use my Net Trap.”
On the road, Renshiro leapt off his horse, visibly more amused than annoyed. “So you want to do it the hard way, huh, kiddo?”
Seiki was busy cutting the last of the net away from his feet, and he could see Satoru the ryoushi wincing as he did so. These people were obviously not going to kill him, and it was perhaps now an endurance test to determine how soon he would give up.
Renshiro sighed. “Hey, a little help here, Miya?”
As soon as the net fell away, Seiki spun and ran, and a ryoushi Trap landed at his feet. Having been expecting this, Seiki jumped over it and kept running, before turning and hitting the next one away from him. The metal trap clanked against his Hikari.
“Miya?” said Renshiro.
Seiki heard a girl groan in his back, and the Ward air around him heated up and thickened like a warm embrace. On his skin was the gentle coolness of Soothe. Then, a flash of something hit him, like nothing he had ever felt before.
There was no impact, no chilly effects, but something shook through him and his health dropped to half in a split second.
Seiki gasped as a powerful Heal reached him, filling his health.
“Can you stop running now before Miya has to use her second charge of Reprimand? Do her a favor, please,” said Renshiro.
Seiki looked and caught a glimpse of a girl in pale green beside one of the trees. Satoru had already tossed out another trap, and Seiki knocked it away. Turning back to face the road, he found that the ninja girl Itsuki had already caught up on foot and was now blocking his path.
You could not fight multiple opponents at a time, and four higher-levels were simply out of the question. Seiki was panting heavily as his mind raced. Satoru had another Trap in his hand.
The Ward air thickened around him again, as well as a gentle Soothe that seemed to caress his skin—and the second charge of whatever houshi ability Renshiro had mentioned hit him. Like the first time, there were no chills or impact, but this second charge was much stronger. It felt like a surge of emotion, which rose up and then vanished. And as his health dropped to a fifth, Seiki cast his sword to the side.
While Seiki stared in shock at what he had just done, Renshiro—who had obviously been waiting for this—rushed in with bare hands. No doubt in Seiki’s mind that the man was going for a takedown.
Out of instinct, Seiki drew his leg back in a quick turn, his palm shot forward and pushed the man’s shoulder. At the same time, his other hand reached to grab Renshiro’s arm as he tried to dodge the momentum of the attack and use it to throw the man off his balance. Seiki had been unprepared and it was a bit too late. As Renshiro’s forearm locked around his knee, the man threw his weight forward. His free hand swept Seiki’s left foot off the ground, and he landed heavily on top of him.
Seiki did not know anymore if it was the houshi who was saving him from death, and suddenly it did not matter anymore if they were nine levels apart. All he knew was that this man knew how to grapple, and this was the ground game.
Seiki stretched out both his arms against Renshiro’s side, using that as a leverage point, and he pushed with all his might as he threw himself into a roll. Renshiro grunted as the move was breaking his balance, when the man’s hand shot forward in a quick jab at Seiki’s throat.
Seiki’s whole chest went numb as if someone had stabbed him in the neck with an icy dagger, and he could not breathe anymore. He gasped, feeling his strength draining from his body, and he gasped again, before succumbing to a violent coughing fit.
“The hard way it is,” Renshiro said, as he shoved Seiki back onto his back. He then grimaced. “Geez. How many charges have you got on that charm?”
That jab would have caused serious damage in the outside world, but the coldness cleared out as a warm Heal filled his health. And as his strength returned, Seiki threw himself to the side as he once again tried to roll the man off him. “That was illegal!” he said.
Laughing, Renshiro clutched his arm before Seiki could completely push him off. “There’s a reason why it’s illegal,” said the man. “And that’s more the reason for it here.” He tightened his grip on Seiki’s arm as he fought the push. In his eyes was a hint of exhilarated glee. “You want to fight fair, kid, you go do that in the real world.”
At those words, Seiki felt like the world had silently exploded around him. He completely lost his will to fight, and he felt as if he was about to faint.
He stared at the man, feeling a deep shiver rising in his chest. Renshiro’s eyes widened in surprise, and he loosened his grip, allowing Seiki to free himself.
An unnecessary Heal filled Seiki again with warmth, but it could barely counter the cold. Seiki could only watch in stupor as Renshiro looked over the contents of his pocket, which were now strewn on the ground: the small blood-locked container, the enhancement scroll, the sheathed wooden blade, charcoal, post paper, signal flare, as well as six gold and twenty-three silver. The only items that could not be Pickpocketed were the horse whistle, tinderbox, and the mysterious bottle of something he had received from the world event.
From the left, Itsuki, the ninja girl in purple, approached. Further away was Miya [Level 23] in pale green, presumably the houshi, who had now made her full appearance. Satoru the ryoushi seemed alarmed.
“What did you do, Ren-san?” said Itsuki.
Seiki stared at them blankly, suddenly finding it very difficult to care. “I can’t do this anymore,” he whispered, his mind in a daze. “I’m done.”
With that, he logged out.
…
The silence was deafening. And the solitude was deafening, as he relived everything that had happened since that day in the fullest details. Before this, his thoughts had been in fragments of anger, confusion, blame, and fear, but now for the first time the whole narrative laid itself out in front of him.
It was perhaps unfair what had occurred to him, but that was not even the question. Regardless of what actually happened, or why it happened, or whose fault it had been, or whether it had been avoidable, none of that truly mattered. His whole world had been shattered then, and this was his situation now, among the broken bits.
His old life was over. He no longer really knew who he was, and what he was worth, but there was no use thinking about why it happened, or how the world had wronged him, because nothing was going to change.
He had imagined that when he would finally manage to piece all his bits of turbulent thoughts and emotions together, it would be a click, and the world would be brighter, and everything would become clear, and he would have figured it out. What he had not expected was that when he finally understood what had really happened to him, the answer would be simply the confirmation that it was all empty and broken.
It shocked him, but in another way it didn’t. He had exhausted all possible thoughts around the matter, and at this very moment it was a relief that he did not have to think about it anymore. He simply had to be, and although it did not make him feel any better, it was somehow liberating.
He exhaled deeply.
He was in the middle of this whole mess that was his life. There was going to be a whole lot of other mess ahead of him, and he did not know if he would even make it out of there. But there was only one way left, and he had to keep going.
This little virtual reality was everything he had at the moment. He used to resent how much he loved it and how much he depended on it. And he often thought about quitting out of anger, perhaps to spite them, whoever they were, or himself. But he knew now that if they threatened to take it away, he would get on his knees and beg to let him continue. Life, too; despite the fact that he often entertained the bitter thought of ending it all, he knew now that if it came to it, he would beg them to let him live. No matter what they did to him, he would still cling onto this miserable little existence of his, and perhaps there was no shame in that. It was humbling to realize that his pain was not in any way special or significant. He was just another confused, fragile human being, struggling through it all.
He was now among the broken bits, and he just had to deal with it.
Whether it was ultimately an act of courage or cowardice, he took a deep breath and logged back in.
…
Night had fallen, and the pine forest was with faint sounds of cicadas. The Wilderness was cool, calm and strangely windless, and Seiki sat there for a while in thought.
He had expected such a realization to come with strong emotions, but what was there was only awareness, and now he felt strangely awake. Like a sailor who had survived a turbulent shipwreck and had washed up on a desolate shore.
He had no idea what he was going to do, but he could not help but feel a little thankful that the stars and the new moon conveniently provided just enough light for the Main East Road to appear like a long ribbon of light gray through the vegetation, a hazy road that led into the unknown.
To his right, a small fire was burning, and four people were sitting around, conversing casually. Renshiro, sitting cross-legged on the other side of the fire, was apparently throwing thin sticks into the flames to keep the fire going. Itsuki, the ninja girl, was lying on her side in apparent boredom. Satoru, the ryoushi, had a large piece of cloth or blanket over his legs. Beside him was Miya, the houshi. In the firelight, Seiki could see her profile clearly. Dressed in light green, she had a finely-woven cloth hair clasp that held up her hair in a side ponytail, and she was sitting poised on her legs with a piece of paper in her hand, which she appeared to be reading.
Seiki shifted, and Miya detected his movement instantly. She turned to look at him with an acknowledging smile, but she said nothing and went back to her reading. Her companions noticed her gesture, and a quick silence fell. They all took a glance at him, but remained quiet.
They were waiting for him approach. Seiki sat for a while longer, before he got to his feet and walked up to them. The fire greeted him with its Fatigue-curing warmth.
“I want my things back and I’ll be on my way,” Seiki said.
He was not sure if it had been his imagination, but it seemed Miya was glad he did not try to attac
k them.
Renshiro looked up at him. “Sorry, kid. We need what’s in this box.” He held up the blood-locked container, and the gold semi-magical keyhole brightly shone in the firelight. “So, you just open it for us and you can have all these things back.” He grinned. “Looks like you’ve accumulated quite a few pricey treasures.”
He nodded to the ground in front of him, where the Enhancement Scroll, the Sheathed Blade, the bare Hikari that Seiki had been forced to let go of earlier, as well as the signal flare and post paper and charcoal, had been laid out parallel to each other like products for sale on a Market Street stall.
“We haven’t touched them,” said Renshiro. “And we’ll return your gold. We’ll even pay you more.” He looked over to Satoru opposite him. “Hey, how much gold have you got?”
“Fifty-eight,” said Satoru. What the man had on his lap was not a blanket, but a half-finished woven net.
“And you, It-chan?” Renshiro turned to ask Itsuki, who was lying on her side and was idly twisting the grass in front of her.
The ninja girl shrugged. “About three and a half.”
“What did you spend your gold from that quest on?” Renshiro asked.
Itsuki giggled. “Bags, shoes, poison bottles, smoke bombs. You know, girl stuff.”
Renshiro looked back at Seiki. “You can have all that, plus my forty gold. Just open the box for us.”
“No,” said Seiki.
Renshiro shrugged. “Then you’re gonna be stuck here for a while. We can’t let you leave and run to the nearest Lost and Found, you see. You can log out, but we’ll be here when you come back.” He glanced into the darkness. “You can try to run. Or you can try to get killed, but that’s not going to work.”
“You can force me to, right now,” said Seiki. With four of them, or maybe even with Renshiro alone, they could physically do so, since all they needed was a drop of his blood and then someone to pick a Level 22 lock.
“Oh, I want to,” said Renshiro. “Saves us a whole lotta trouble. But you see, Miya here thinks it’s inhumane.”