Bushido Online: Friends and Foes: A LitRPG Saga

by Nikita Thorn

  They decided that there was nothing they could do but keep pressing on. They burst into another bout of gallop, and Seiki took a quick glance behind to see the rider approaching. He was a man dressed in simple dark blue with a white cloth sack slung across his back. The black horse was fast and was quickly closing the distance between them. Seiki could not quite read the name yet, but they were all riding into the slowly setting sun and he caught a flash of silver from the rider. That made him a little worried that the man had a bared sword in his hand.

  Still, his worry could very well be completely baseless. So, Seiki decided to say nothing and keep riding. When he glanced back again, the rider was much closer, and as Seiki squinted he could note this time around that the man was unlabeled.

  “It’s just an NPC,” said Seiki to his friends, in relief.

  “Maybe a clan runner,” said Ippei. “They’re usually marked by their clan colors. You can use them to deliver things, but it’s not very safe since they can be robbed.”

  Seiki checked back but found no obvious symbol to mark what clan they came from. As he pulled Fubuki to the side in preparation to make way for the passing rider, he noticed that there was blood on the man’s sword and there were a few arrows stuck in his side and his horse.

  “He’s hurt,” said Seiki.

  “Who? The NPC?” Mairin asked.

  “Yeah,” said Seiki, just as the approaching rider shouted. “Can you hold this for me?”

  The man grabbed the cloth bag from his shoulder and tossed it toward Seiki.

  “Not right now,” said Seiki, stopping himself from reaching out to catch it. The man rode past and the cloth parcel dropped onto the dirt path at Fubuki’s feet.

  Quest accepted: The Cloth Parcel [Level 12].

  “Okay, I did not accept that quest!” said Seiki in protest, but the rider had burst past Ippei and Mairin ahead of him, and he was already gone into the tall grass.

  The Cloth Parcel [Level 12 Quest Information]: run! You will receive: 165 XP.

  “What was that?” Mairin turned to ask Seiki in confusion.

  At that moment, angry shouts rose behind them and out of nowhere poured a group of armed men with bared swords on horseback.

  “Abandon quest,” said Seiki.

  “You with the parcel, stop right there!” yelled one of the men who appeared to be the leader of the group.

  Seiki grunted. “End quest. Quit quest. I don’t want to do this quest.” He could hear Ippei laughing behind him, and he said to his friend, “Okay, I’m going to try to fail the quest right now but if something bad happens I’ll see you at the temple.”

  Mairin was looking at Ippei questioningly, and Seiki turned back to face the group of people.

  “Give us your parcel,” demanded the leader.

  “It’s not mine. It just, uh, fell in front of my horse,” said Seiki. “So take it, by all means.”

  One of the men suddenly let loose an arrow, which struck Fubuki on her side, and Seiki jumped off as the horse fled. “All right, that was completely unnecessary,” Seiki said with a sigh. Now they would have to wait two minutes before he could have Fubuki back. “I’m trying to end the quest right now, so just take the parcel. Please.”

  Another man approached, eyeing Seiki warily as he picked up the parcel, before running back to his leader. Seiki glanced at his friends, who were now looking on with unreadable expressions.

  The leader, a bearded man, quickly unwrapped the piece of cloth, before scoffing and tossing it down on the ground. Seiki found that the parcel contained nothing but a pile of blank paper.

  “Where is the real thing?” said the leader, angrily.

  Seiki cursed. He should have seen it coming that the rider had not wanted him to keep the parcel away from these people, but had meant for him to be a decoy.

  “Kill him!” said the leader.

  Seiki cursed again. “Do you, uh, phase out at half health and half energy or do you go to the nearest spirit shrine?” He glanced at Ippei, who was still quietly observing the unfolding scene. Phasing out did not sound too bad, but if he ended up in the nearest spirit shrine, Seiki was not sure if he would be able to find his way back.

  The leader let out a yelp as an arrow struck him in the neck and, as he tumbled off his horse, chaos broke out around his group of men. Someone then tugged on Seiki’s sleeve and pulled him into the tall grass.

  It was a boy, who reminded him very much of Saburo from the man-eating demon quest. “Run, nii-san! Don’t just stand around!” he said.

  “I’m just trying to fail the quest right now,” explained Seiki, when suddenly Mairin burst through the grass beside him on her horse, followed by Ippei, as they were pursued by the armed men. “Run!” she said.

  “Okay, never mind,” said Seiki, as he raced after his friends. Still locked out of his mount, he waded his way through the thick grass as fast as he could. Behind him, he could hear sounds of fighting break out as whoever was trying to rescue him engaged the armed men.

  “This way, this way,” said the boy, as he ran ahead, turning to grab his sleeve once in a while to make sure Seiki was following. The light was dying and dusk was falling around them, making it difficult to see where they were going, and Seiki could not help but feel that it was a very bad idea to run blindly off the road into the Wilderness, especially when it was getting dark.

  “Wait a minute,” said Seiki, making a halt. It was now nighttime, and he was very certain the sun could not have set without him noticing. The boy tried to pull on his sleeve again, but Seiki stopped him. “This is an instance,” he said, as he looked around at the tall grass.

  The boy seemed confused. “Nii-san, we have to hide. I’m sure the monks will let us!” he said, pointing toward Seiki’s left-hand side. And sure enough, as Seiki turned to look, he could find a wooden wall with pagoda-shaped shadows behind it, all of which he was very certain was not there a minute ago.

  “No,” said Seiki.

  To his surprise, he could see Mairin and Ippei riding toward the entrance, and the monks opened the gate without a fuss and let them through.

  “Okay,” said Seiki with a sigh. “Guess we’re doing this quest after all.” He looked at the boy. “You know, this is not the temple we’re trying to get to. Why can you quit some quests and not others?”

  The boy simply looked puzzled.

  “Not that I actually accepted this one,” said Seiki, as he made his way toward the temple gate. The boy was still staring at him, and Seiki gave in. “Sorry. You did good. You saved us,” he said to the boy, who then grinned proudly and said how he was very sure the monks would hide them from the attackers.

  To Seiki’s perplexity, the old monk told him that his friends had asked for lodging for the night and had been put in a guestroom, which was in one of the low buildings. “Get yourselves settled in for the night and it is best that you don’t come out until morning,” said the old monk, ominously, as he pointed the way to Seiki. “Strange, evil creatures roam our temple grounds in the dark.”

  Seiki shook his head as the monk opened the door and let him into the so-called guestroom, which was a dusty bare room with torn tatami floor. Seiki had a feeling he would not be at all surprised if any ancient things would come to life and try to murder them like in the haunted house mission he had done.

  Ippei was resting on the floor as if asleep, and beside him was a white fox, who was lying very still, and Seiki started to sense something uncanny. A quick inspect revealed that they were simply labeled Ippei and Mairin, with no levels attached.

  “I should have known,” said Seiki, as it dawned on him. He was in a personal instance, and these were just NPC clones of his friends, whose real selves were presumably still on the road, and who must have seen him disappear into the grass. Thinking about it, he realized it must have been because they had been grouped, and Seiki wondered if post pigeons worked in here.

  “They’re fast asleep,” said a voi
ce Seiki recognized. “And will be for a while.”

  Seiki now noticed that on the floor was a tray of tea and two half-full cups. He turned to look and found a figure stepping out of the shadow in the corner of the room. It was Mitsue, the thief girl who had tried to burn him alive in the underground library in Mani Shrine. “No use calling for help,” she said, perhaps as a way to answer his question that post pigeons did not work in the instance.

  Seiki winced. “Okay, there’s no way I can get out of this quest now, is there?”

  Mitsue smiled and ignored his question. “I added a few drops of concentrated Joro Spider Venom to their tea, and I suppose you know what that means?”

  “Uh, it means that you’re going to make me do something in exchange for the antidote for my friends, which would probably work if it was actually them over there,” said Seiki, nodding towards the sleeping shells of his friends. “But which would still work anyway because I’m stuck and have no other choice?”

  The answer was apparently good enough for Mitsue. The thief girl smiled. “Glad you know.”

  “Well, let’s get on with it, then,” said Seiki with a frown.

  “That’s the right attitude, ronin-san,” said Mitsue, cheerily. “I suppose the old monk told you stories about not going out at night because evil creatures roam the temple grounds, right? Well, that’s all lies.” She walked toward a window and opened it. “This is what it’s actually about.”

  Out the window, on the edge of the temple ground, standing tall in the ghastly white moonlight, was a four-storied bell tower.

  Mitsue continued in almost a whisper, “That bell tower had been sealed shut by a senior monk for a long time. An accident happened there, they say, a terrible accident, and the place is haunted by an evil spirit, but actually the monks are just trying to stop people from finding out their most well-guarded secret.”

  Seiki observed the slim tower in the middle of an empty courtyard and remembered something. “Wait,” he said. “I’ve heard this story before.”

  This was the one Mairin had never finished telling, and Seiki looked warily at Mitsue, wondering what this meant for the quest story.

  Mitsue ignored his comment and was already climbing out the window. “Come on, ronin-san. Your friends haven’t got long.”

  “No, they haven’t,” Seiki agreed, as he climbed out after her. “I hope they heard me when I told them to meet at the Kensoku Temple.” He tried to think back, but the instancing had been so seamless that he had no idea when it had actually happened.

  The temple ground was empty, and the slant-roofed buildings and halls rose up like dark shadows all around them as they made way towards the bell tower. Mitsue was probably right, and the tale about evil creatures must have been untrue, since they encountered nothing out of the ordinary. Faint wafts of incense floated through the air. And as Seiki peered into the pitch-black buildings, he could see dim glimpses of light reflecting off perhaps the face of a Buddha statue, and that gave him this uncanny feeling of being watched. It was deathly quiet and the night air was cooler than usual. Sometimes, he would hear soft scraping sounds ghosting his footsteps like someone with no legs dragging themselves across the ground but, as soon as he stopped, it would stop as well.

  “Nice atmosphere,” Seiki muttered.

  Something brushed against the back of his arm, and Seiki jumped and spun around. But it was just a leaf in the wind that had somehow happened to perfectly drag across his skin like a cold finger. “Oh, yeah, these things again,” he said. “Of course, they would try to scare you.” He was convinced Mairin would dig the whole thing.

  “What is it, ronin-san?” asked Mitsue.

  They had reached the bottom of the bell tower, a narrow building which shot straight up perhaps taller than it needed to be. Its sole window was on the top floor, facing south, and was nothing but a gaping hole of darkness at the moment. The roof was almost a square, slanted upward on all sides. Mitsue pushed the door open, which let out a soft screeching creak like a murder victim screaming from very far away.

  “Unlocked,” she said. She then produced a small candle lamp, which Seiki noted was exactly like the last time before she lured him into a trap. “Remember how to do this, ronin-san?” she asked, lifting the paper cover and holding it out for Seiki to light the candle inside.

  “Yeah,” said Seiki, as he reached for his tinderbox. “But I’ve seen all this before, so you’d better come up with some new tricks soon.”

  “How about I go first this time?” she said with a smile.

  “Go ahead.”

  She took a step in and her lamplight revealed the beginning of a spiral staircase leading up to the tower. “Squeeze in,” she said. “Oh, come on, ronin-san. Or we’ll be standing here forever.”

  “Fine.” Seiki stepped through the door and Mitsue reached across him to pull the door shut. He was not at all surprised that it snapped with a loud click, effectively locking them in.

  “How long is this going to take?” Seiki said.

  “Worried about your friends?” asked Mitsue. “Joro Spider Poison is slow. They still have a few hours before it reaches their hearts.”

  “I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing,” said Seiki, hoping that the quest would not really require several hours to complete.

  Mitsue had started making her way up the very narrow and steep spiral staircase, and Seiki followed her quietly. The wooden steps groaned under his weight and the whole place smelled like very old dust.

  “You know what the monks have hidden here?” asked Mitsue. Seiki could hear her footsteps above him. The light from her lamp, he could see now, was clearly more for herself than him, which was why she had offered to go first, leaving him to make his way up after her in near darkness. Seiki somehow could not help but chuckle at how shamelessly selfish she was and was grateful for the fact that he knew how to do stairs in darkness. As long as you kept one hand on the wall and tested the step beforehand, you were mostly all right, except for a few unexpected large steps, which seemed placed there to trip people on purpose.

  “What do you think is their secret, ronin-san?”

  “Probably a dead body?” Seiki played along.

  “How grim,” said Mitsue with a giggle, her voice echoing strangely in the narrow stairwell. With her lamp lighting the way, she was easily running up the spiraling stairs. “No, ronin-san. It’s much better than that. I guarantee you.”

  As Seiki cleared the last of the steps, he found himself in a circular room on the top floor. A large dusty green bronze bell hung in the middle, and in the moonlight coming through the open window Seiki could see that it was covered with text detailing the history of the temple. A striking log, that seemed very old and worn, hung from the ceiling between the bell and the window. High above and mounted on the wall on the opposite side of the window was a circular metal lamp-holder; it was currently empty.

  Mitsue was standing by the window. The first time he had met her, she had disguised herself as a young priest. But now that she was in a long light gray kimono, with her hair loosely tied at the back of her neck, Seiki wondered how he could have ever mistaken her for a boy.

  She smiled at him. “Are you curious what the monks have been hiding?”

  “To be honest, no,” said Seiki. “But I guess I’m going to find out right now.”

  The atmosphere was enough to make him imagine terrible things, and Seiki found himself checking the walls for traces of blood or cracks that could hide piles of skeletons so that nothing would catch him by surprise.

  The girl nodded toward the window. “Ring the bell and look down.” Mitsue’s voice was chilly.

  Seiki was suddenly reminded that this was exactly how Mairin’s little tale went. He could not quite recall the exact details but, if he had to guess, the sight down there was going to be something disturbing enough to be a worthy climax to a ghost story. A thought crossed his mind and he quickly checked the floor, but he
found that Mitsue cast a shadow like any living person would.

  Mitsue laughed. “Scared, ronin-san?”

  Seiki sighed as he pulled back the suspended beam and let go, somehow thinking about what Ippei had said about not being able to sue for emotional damage.

  He had to cringe as the bell’s harrowing clang blasted out much louder than he had expected, followed immediately by an explosion of thick dust that filled the room. Seiki coughed and covered his nose and mouth with his sleeve, blinking as his eyes watered from irritation. As the dust settled and the ring died down in his ears, Seiki looked warily at Mitsue. Nothing horrible had happened so far.

  With a little smile, the girl nodded toward the window, and Seiki turned toward it and glanced down.

  The moon was high up and, in the darkness below, he could make out a dim figure in white.

  Seiki blinked as he recognized the person. “Shousei?”

  This was the man who had pretty much taught him Parry and set off a chain of events that eventually killed Master Tsujihara. Seiki used to fantasize about killing the man to avenge the old swordsman, but today the idea seemed entirely pointless.

  Shousei was looking up toward the bell tower. Upon identifying Seiki, the man paused in confusion for a moment, before saying, “You?”

  Seiki let out a little chuckle. “Okay, that’s not very terrible.” He did not really care to ever see the man again, but this was far from being the most horrendous thing one could witness when looking out from a bell tower under dubious circumstances.

  He turned back to look questioningly at Mitsue. But what he discovered was a hissing, melting, bloodied skeletal face staring at him, only a few inches behind his shoulder.

  Seiki let out an involuntary yelp and threw himself away from whatever this was. The space was limited and his back immediately hit the circular wall behind him. The creature, despite its disfigured human face, seemed to be half liquid and it reached out to him in a flowing mass of white and gray and red that looked like melted blood and bones.

  His first thought was to wonder how the girl had turned into a monster, but then he noticed that she was now at the other end of the room.