by Nikita Thorn
Seiki stared at her. This was yet another one of these common situations he had never really imagined himself in. He turned to Ippei and found his friend in the exact same position.
“Abandon quest!” said the samurai again.
Mairin giggled. “What? Scared?”
The samurai grimaced. “I definitely did not sign up to deliver babies in the middle of the forest.”
Mairin leapt off and dismissed her mount. “Too late for that.” She laughed and walked up to Iyo, who leaned heavily on her arm and let out a soft moan.
Ippei frowned as he talked to Mairin. “Okay, we tried accepting and abandoning the quest with no problem. Twice.” The samurai turned to Iyo. “Why can’t we do it anymore?”
“As if she would know,” Mairin said.
“It has already started,” Iyo replied, ambiguously. She then inhaled and, letting out a long breath through her mouth, clutched Mairin’s arm.
Ippei’s eyes widened. “What has already started?”
Seiki realized something now. “She was waiting for me to get off Fatigue,” he said. Reaching no Fatigue had immediately triggered her reaction. “You must have been at Slight Fatigue earlier when you tried,” he told Ippei.
If Seiki had to guess, it was because the instance was designed to be tackled with full energy, so if people wandered into it while Fatigued, they would still have a chance to abandon it or sit down and eat before the quest giver prompted the events.
“Dang, I hadn’t thought of that,” Ippei said.
Seiki got off Fubuki and dismissed her. “Mairin’s right. We’re not going to need full energy to, uh, deliver a baby.” He winced at how strange it sounded. “So it’s probably something else.”
“This is a Level 16 quest,” the samurai answered. “And if we all die, we phase back out at half-life and half-energy. So if the Rogami Clan is camping the area, we’ll be easy targets.”
“I guess we would just have to, well, not die?” said Mairin.
Before Ippei could say anything else, Iyo cried, “Hurry! It’s getting dark.”
Seiki knew now that the game was not shy when it came to rapidly changing the scenery to match whatever mood the quest required. Almost immediately, the sun started to sink and, within twenty seconds, an ominous shade of dusk had fallen all around them, turning the whole world into a jumble of unholy dark purple, trimmed with orange near the horizon.
Iyo let out a long timely groan again as if to tell them to get on with it, and Ippei unequipped his Jade Steel sword to hand it over to Seiki. “Here,” he said. “You’re going to need a weapon.”
The blade was still sheathed in the polished wood scabbard that had allegedly been a good-will gift from Ichikeya. “Thank you,” Seiki said, noting that the sword was longer and heavier than the Hikari, and that it was comforting to be properly armed again.
Ippei apparently had been carrying his Hikari with him in his inventory, and he now took it out and equipped it. Something seemed to have crossed his mind then as he glanced at Iyo, but decided to say nothing.
“For all we know, it could be anything,” said the samurai. “Bandits, wild animals, or worse.” He looked at Seiki. “If we die, re-equip your Sheathed Blade as soon as you can after we phase out. Don’t worry about the Jade Steel.”
When unequipped, unnamed swords could be looted from the inventory and, if the Rogami were really waiting for them, this strategy would put the Jade Steel sword at risk. “Uh, I think—”
“Hey, you’ve got no say in how we do this, remember?”
“Right,” said Seiki with a sigh.
“Probably an escort thing?” suggested Mairin. “You’re going over that hill, right?”
Iyo pointed toward the foot of the hill. “Look,” she said, her voice full of hope. “There’s a house there. Maybe we can find shelter for the night and travel in the relative safety of daylight tomorrow.”
Indeed, through the trees, in the quickly approaching darkness, Seiki could make out a small house not too far away, with lamplight coming out of its window and faint cooking smoke seeping out the air slit near the roof. He could have sworn the house had just appeared when none of them were looking in that particular direction, which, again, was rather unsettling.
“Kinda convenient, huh?” Mairin said.
“Too convenient,” Ippei agreed.
“I don’t really like houses that pop up in the middle of nowhere,” said Mairin.
“Ow,” said Iyo in distress. “Hurry.”
Help Iyo toward the house!
“Okay,” said Ippei in slight annoyance. “We know.”
Slowly, with Iyo leaning on Mairin’s arm, they made their way across to the cottage. Ippei and Seiki had their swords drawn, just in case there were enemies around, but the forest was deathly quiet. Iyo got slower and slower on her feet, moaning miserably. By the time they got to the door, complete darkness had already fallen, turning the Wilderness pitch black.
In the dark, Seiki could not make out too many details about the house. The outside was simple, with an old broom propped against the wall and a little roof sticking out sheltering a small pile of fire logs. There was lamplight coming from inside, which could be seen through the little gaps between the wooden planks that made up the walls. As they approached, Seiki could see that there was a wide clearing in front of the house, and the trees appeared as tall black walls surrounding the whole area, closing them in like a pen.
Ippei knocked twice, and movement in the house seemed to stop to listen. “Hello. We have a pregnant woman here. So, whoever’s in there, I hope you know how to deliver a baby, because we’re not doing it,” Ippei announced.
There was a moment of silence before the door slowly opened. Not knowing what to expect, they all instinctively took a step back. Seiki gripped his drawn sword tightly in his hand. The light from the doorway spilled out onto the ground, and in front of the yellowish glow inside was a plump old woman in a black kimono.
“Why is it always an old woman in a house in the middle of nowhere?” Mairin whispered.
The old lady was rather large, her face heavily creased with a web of aging lines, but she seemed strong and healthy, and looked pretty much human. As she realized Iyo was in labor pain, the old woman exclaimed, “Oh, dear, do come in!”
Help Iyo into the house!
“If you say so,” said Ippei.
They sheathed their weapons and half-carried Iyo into the building, which consisted of only one room with a simple ground stove in the middle. The place reminded Seiki of Manji’s cozy little place in Kakura Village where everyone started out; where he had spent his first peaceful few days in the game, drinking freshly-brewed healing tonic for no particular reason. This house, however, was dimly lit by a single lamp in the corner and smelled strongly of smoke, which gave it a strangely eerie atmosphere.
The old lady put Iyo on her old gray mattress, and quickly shooed Seiki and his friends out of the house, claiming there was no space for amateurs.
“No, we’re staying,” said Mairin, as the old lady gently but firmly pushed them out. “There’s no prompt telling us to get out of the house. What if—”
The old lady shut the door, leaving them once again in darkness. The lamplight escaping the house through the window slits fell dimly on the grass, and made the forest around them seem even darker.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit too quiet?” Mairin began after a minute.
She was right. Despite the many thin cracks between the wall panels, nothing could be heard from inside. Seiki glanced around. There was no moon, and somehow very few stars, and his friends were just dim shadows in the dark.
“No complaints from me,” said Ippei.
“We should go in and check,” Mairin said. “Make sure she’s okay. You know, it could be—”
“We’ll just wait for the prompt.”
“You see, I just thought of something,” said Mairin in almost a whisper. “
I don’t think it’s an escort quest. You guys heard of Onibaba?”
“No,” said Seiki. By now, he could suspect that anything that started with ‘oni’ was most likely bad news, though.
Ippei sighed. “This is from your folk tales book that keeps getting passed round your Social Guild circle again?”
“Something like that,” said the kitsune, and Seiki wondered if this was where she also got her ghost stories from. “Onibaba is a demonic hag who has a house in the middle of nowhere. She offers food and shelter to passing travelers. If it’s a pregnant woman, she claims to be a midwife, but then her real purpose is…”
“If that’s the case, I’m sure the prompt will just ask us to go in and save her,” interrupted Ippei. “I’m way more worried about something else.”
“What?” asked Mairin.
Ippei sounded uneasy. “That it’s not going to be a baby.”
“What?” said Seiki.
“Well, given the atmosphere—”
The door burst open behind them, and they were instantly on their feet. Seiki had instinctively placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, and was reminded once again of the distinct difference between the Jade Steel’s slimmer grip and his Hikari’s.
The old woman’s face could hardly be made out against the brighter background in the interior of the house.
“Don’t go in there if you value your life.” Her voice was hoarse, and it was too dark to distinguish her expression. Somehow, Seiki really could not tell if she was threatening them or if she was very scared. Before they could react, she pushed past them with enormous force and ran off into the darkness.
Ippei seemed to hesitate. “I guess we can… Wait!”
Mairin had already kicked the door open and rushed in.
“Foxy!” said Ippei, as he and Seiki ran after her. As they stepped into the brightly lit house, Seiki forced his imagination off the worst case scenario.
To his relief, the house was impeccably clean and Iyo was sitting peacefully on the mattress. In her arms now was a tiny human, cute and reddish and seemingly healthy, wrapped in warm rags. Their wild entry had startled Iyo, but she relaxed when she saw it was only them.
“Oh,” said Mairin in surprise. “You’re okay.”
“It’s a boy,” Iyo said, her lips bending in a tender smile. “Danna-sama would have been very pleased.”
Mairin let out a sigh of relief. “Okay,” she said. “That was pretty… easy. See? Told you they’re not going to make things too bloody.”
“Must be this easy delivery charm I got from Kiyosei Temple,” said Iyo.
Ippei stared at the kitsune. “Foxy,” he said in disbelief. “You didn’t think it could have been…”
Mairin shrugged. “Whatever it is, it’s better to get it over with, right? Like, don’t think; act. Saves you a lot of worry.”
Seiki felt like he must have been missing something here. “Okay, what exactly are we relieved about?”
“Well, a pregnant woman in a creepy house could mean two things,” explained Ippei. “Let’s put it this way: it’s either a psychotic hag who murders pregnant women and eats their babies, or a blood-soaked demonic fetus that shoots out of the womb and tries to eat the mother alive.”
“Ugh,” said Seiki, almost involuntarily. He could see now why his friends had seemed worried. “Those are the only options?”
“Why else a pregnant woman at all? Why not just an injured… What?” Ippei asked, as he saw Mairin looking at him with a hidden smile.
The kitsune giggled. “Despite all your claims of not wanting to waste time on old wives’ tales, you actually read the book?”
“What book?” asked Seiki.
Ippei shot Mairin a brief look. “I skimmed,” he said. “There was a particularly long lull in Kentaro’s charm business the other night.” He then explained, “It’s this book of, well, old wives’ tales. Mostly horror folklore. The Social Guild loves these stories.”
“They’re big on lore,” said Mairin. She giggled again. “Didn’t sign up for a scare, samurai-san?”
“Didn’t sign up to fight a 3D demonic fetus, that’s for sure. It’s not like you can actually sue for emotional damage. They made that very specific.”
Seiki raised his eyebrows. “It says that in the contract?”
“Yeah,” said Ippei. “You didn’t read?”
It was a hundred pages of Braille, and Tom had given him the basics. “Uh, I skimmed,” said Seiki.
“I didn’t read,” Mairin proclaimed. “Well, I guess we’re lucky it’s Onibaba, then.”
That seemed to prompt Iyo to continue. “You think so, too?” she asked. “The old woman seemed very odd. She told me to wait here as she needed to go fetch something. Don’t leave me and my baby alone with her.” Her eyes widened in fear.
Apparently, these tricks did not work on Ippei.
“You know what?” said the samurai. “We can strategically die at the same time, drink, then make a run for the road. That way, we’ll be back in Shinshioka for level-appropriate content.”
Despite knowing that it was a reasonable idea, Seiki could not make himself immune to the feeling of the new mother’s hopeful eye burning on his skin. “Well, we’ve come this far,” he said. “I guess it doesn’t hurt to try?”
Ippei looked at him for a moment, before chuckling. “No sword, no dagger, and with that armor that’s close to being zeroed out?”
“Right,” Seiki said, remembering the condition he was in. “Uh, what about we try without potions, then,” he suggested. “We’ll save the potions for the run when we phase out.”
It was only after seeing his friends’ reaction that Seiki realized it must have been a ridiculous proposition.
Mairin giggled. “Now that’s going to make this quest even more impossible.”
“Impossible is actually non-gradable,” Ippei muttered, before shaking his head. “Fine. If it will help you sleep better tonight.” He drew his sword. “I guess I’m tanking this.”
Mairin glanced at him. “You hate tanking.”
“I’ll tank,” offered Seiki.
Ippei shook his head. “I’m Level 12, and I have Brace, so I’m the only one with any chance of surviving a hit. How many potions have we got left anyway? Since we’re trying, we might as well go all out.” He looked at Seiki and finally chuckled. “Ronin-style. Risk all.”
Kentaro had given Ippei all the potions in his possession, and they counted three health potions and four more which restored both health and energy. They decided to take one of each, with Mairin keeping the extra all-purpose one.
As if sensing their resolution, the prompt flashed.
Bolt the door!
“Better keep me alive, Foxy,” Ippei said.
Seiki quickly secured the door with a thick rectangular piece of wood conveniently propped up against the wall. Unlike the rice shed door from the Onihitokuchi village, this one seemed sturdy enough and would be able to withstand at least a little bit of force.
“If Seiki and I both die, drink and kite for as long as possible,” Ippei told the kitsune. “I don’t know where the respawn point is in this instance, but we can’t all die or we fail the quest and phase—”
Something banged against the door and interrupted him, causing Iyo to gasp in terror.
Seiki unsheathed the Jade Steel sword, which was gleaming dim silver in his hand, and was even slimmer than he had remembered it.
Something banged against the door again. This time, the wooden bolt creaked dangerously.
“Can’t this Onibaba be a little more civilized?” said Mairin. “This is like a bull trying to charge through.”
As if someone had heard her, a voice cried, “Open the door!”
Mairin froze in a weird grimace, before glancing at Seiki and Ippei. “And she’s a… man?” she said, doubtfully.
“Open the door!” said the voice again, accompanied by more repeated banging on the door
.
The voice was definitely human and male.
“Maybe it’s not what we think it is,” said Seiki. Now that he thought about it, there was nothing to suggest that this quest was about fighting a demonic old lady.
Ippei seemed to like this turn of events. “Who is it?” he shouted. “What do you want?”
“Where’s the woman?” the man asked.
Ippei paused for a moment. “Which one?” The samurai laughed. “We have a few in here: the animal hybrid kind, the recently maternal kind, and the possibly demonic but currently absent kind.”
That was perhaps too complicated for the intruder to process and he went quiet.
“They’re after me,” said Iyo, from the corner.
“Who are they?” asked Seiki.
The new mother shook her head. “My late husband was a hunted man. We were always in hiding, always on the run.” She sighed deeply. “He was a good man, with the kindest eyes.” She then looked fondly at the newborn in her arms. “I think he’s got his father’s eyes. And his nose, too.”
“Okay, now is really not the time to dote over your baby,” said Mairin. She activated her fox form and crouched down in front of the door. “Eight of them,” she said, as she quickly turned back into human.
The banging started again. “Open the door!”
“Okay, I’ve got an idea,” Seiki said. He glanced at the door. “We might be able to fight one at a time. So if we can find a way to let only one through, we might be able to do it.”
Ippei thought about it. “Well, if it works, we’ll do that. If we can’t get the door to close again, then we’d probably die and that would be the end of the quest.” He turned to Seiki. “Remember, equip your Sheathed Blade, drink and run as soon as we phase out.”
The man outside was now throwing his weight against the door, and they quickly devised a plan. There was a rather predictable rhythm and, after a while, Mairin quietly lifted the bolt and waited for the man to try forcing the door again.
“Open the—” The man came staggering through before he could finish his sentence.