by Nikita Thorn
“What is this?” said Ozuru. “What are you talking about?” Immediately, the ninja’s hand grabbed Seiki’s neck and slammed him down against the cold stone embrasure. “This is your spy, Akihisa?” His other hand pressed a bare dagger against Seiki’s throat, before turning around and yelling to Ippei and Mairin, “You two stand back!”
“Wait,” said Seiki. This was truly escalating out of hand, and he decided not to try to fight.
Outside the wall, Akihisa was observing the development in slight confusion.
“That ninja, Teruo, took the scroll when they invaded the White Crane Hall,” Seiki gasped. “He learned the scroll, and then he relocked the box, so you’ll find an empty box if you check, and then war will be inevitable.”
“What are you talking about?” said Ozuru.
“They left the key in your box to frame you, and even if you want to prove your innocence, you can’t, because the scroll is gone.”
“Let him go, Ozuru,” said Sayahime.
Seiki drew a deep breath as the ninja released the pressure from his collar and put away his dagger.
Akihisa was staring straight at him. “This ninja that also happens to conveniently not exist anymore? A Level 13 ninja with the highest possible level of Pottery?” His voice was cold. “That’s all you can come up with?” He shook his head and scoffed as he turned his horse around. “Well, the truce is almost over. I’ll see you all in your clan’s spirit shrine in a little.”
Had Seiki just made matters worse? This was not how it was supposed to work. Ippei had been entirely right about trying to stop two trains with bare hands. Akihisa was kicking his horse into a gallop and Seiki suddenly blurted out, “I’ll prove it!”
There seemed to be a short moment of silence as Akihisa stopped, and Seiki felt a hundred pairs of curious eyes landing on him.
“I’ll prove it!” Seiki said again. His mind was desperately racing so fast through useless thoughts that it was starting to give him motion sickness. “Give me an hour. Please. I’ll prove it.”
Akihisa turned his horse around. “And if you can’t?”
Seiki’s heart was beating fast and he was short of breath as if he had just sprinted a mile. “If I can’t prove it, then I’ll seppuku.”
Ippei was right again. All this was a horrendous idea.
Akihisa pursed his lips in disdain. “Why should I even care about that?”
Because it would be a very difficult two weeks, and because he was probably in so much trouble already pushing this night so far, and all of this would have been for nothing, and somehow this mattered. In this moment, it mattered more than anything he had ever done. Seiki stared at the man and, for a moment, did not know what else to say.
Sayahime stepped up beside him. “I’ll do it, too,” she said. “And we’ll surrender the White Crane Hall without further fight.”
Seiki turned to face her in horror, which was a reaction mirrored by everyone else. Kiku went very pale, and Ozuru’s mouth hung open in a voiceless protest.
Akihisa let out a scornful laugh. “Very well,” he said. “One hour.”
It was only after Akihisa had ridden back to join his clan mates that Seiki could finally let out a curse, sink down the stone walkway with his back against the cold parapet, and bury his face in his hands as he tried to think about what he had just done.
Mairin had crouched down beside him, speechless, and Ippei was staring at him in disbelief. But no one seemed to have any idea what to say that would make the situation better.
Kiku’s eyes were full of dread. “I hope you know how to prove that theory of yours, Seiki-san.”
Seiki inhaled deeply as he struggled to rein in wild thoughts. He had no freaking clue how to get out of this one, and he did not know why he had just sentenced himself, and perhaps a whole lot of other people, to two weeks of darkness.
Finally, he looked up at the obake girl and asked faintly, “Can I borrow some post paper?”
Chapter 25
Waiting was always torturous. The minutes leading up to an important match were always stuffed full of the worst kind of anxiety, which Seiki had always fought to get under control, and which would naturally dissipate as soon as he stepped into the ring, to be replaced by a clear, focused exhilaration as he faced his opponent.
This time, however, there was no opponent to fight. What lay at the end of the anxiety train was most likely a slow, useless death that accomplished nothing for no one.
After he explained to everybody what he thought had happened, Seiki excused himself to be alone and breathe with his eyes closed as he tried to calm himself, leaving Ippei to elaborate on the finer details of his theory to the rest of the White Crane Order members.
They were sitting on the battlement, facing the empty White Crane Hall, dark brown without the numerous lamps, since Coal was now a precious resource and would be best used to power cannons.
Whatever breathing exercise he was using was obviously not working right now, and Seiki found himself listening in to the conversation.
“Why would someone go to such lengths to destroy us?” asked Kiku. “And why do you have so much confidence in what Seiki-san said? Even if what he said was correct, that doesn’t mean anyone can prove it, now that Teruo has completely wiped his own records clean.”
“We don’t have a choice,” said Sayahime. “We can’t hold for much longer anyway.”
Kiku sighed. “If we can hold through the night, then when most of our members come back we might have a chance.”
“We’re outnumbered two to one,” said Sayahime. “And we’ve lost half our troops already.”
They had initiated an hour-long truce. The countdown was now in the single digits, and Seiki was at the point where he was starting to feel relieved that it would be over soon.
Mairin had dedicated the hour of waiting to questions about battles, and Ippei had patiently explained. And since Seiki had been listening in the whole time, he was beginning to get the gist of it. Apparently, once you reached Level 14 in a land-owning clan, you were given your own unit of NPC troops, starting with four, but could increase according to the clan’s Rice resource. Leveling and completing certain quests and achievements gave tokens, which could be used to either increase the number of your unit members or increase their abilities. Physical classes often benefited from having a large number of soldiers under their command, while magic classes usually spent tokens on building a small unit of elite troops.
As a clan gained members, it could start promoting some members to a higher rank, giving them a flat multiplier on the tokens they could spend on upgrading their unit. The more members a clan had, the more levels of hierarchy it could have, and the multipliers increased greatly for higher-ranked officers.
The White Crane Order had over seventy members, and so had six officers of the lowest rank with a 2x multiplier, three of the middle rank with 3x multiplier, and one of the highest rank, who was Hiro, with a 4x multiplier, which came out at slightly more than a hundred and twenty soldiers under his command alone. Sayahime herself, as the clan leader, had a 5x multiplier, and at Level 27 she commanded almost two hundred in her personal army.
In the event of a siege, the clan had access to NPC units owned by offline members, but the soldiers would become downgraded to the basic level of Level 10. The clan would need to spend some of their siege bar to temporarily upgrade them if they were to be of any use.
Dead NPC troops automatically respawned at the rate of 10% of each unit’s total number per hour, but the clan’s siege bar could also speed this up.
Seiki was starting to grasp why the White Crane Hall had no chance in this siege. The Fuoka Army had over a hundred and twenty members. Akihisa, as the leader, was a 6x, and together with his ranked officers, commanded a total of more than two thousand soldiers.
“Here comes someone!” a voice that Seiki did not recognize yelled.
Seiki opened his eyes and saw Yuna of the
White Crane Order [Level 13] peering over the parapet. Everyone scrambled to their feet at once. Seiki jumped up and ran to join his two friends.
Making his way slowly toward the territory on his dusky gray horse was Kentaro [Level 12], in a long silvery robe with large bronze-trimmed sleeves. Across his back was a bronze staff with a metallic white tassel at the top that rattled pleasantly as he rode, very much like the sound of light rain.
The houshi glanced around, a little smile on his lips, as he pulled his horse to a stop at the midway point between the wall and the Fuoka Army crowd.
“Greetings,” he said. “I have been summoned, so here I am. I’m not sure what your quarrel is, but would both sides please send two representatives to bear witness to what I have brought.”
“He’s loving this,” Mairin muttered.
In the clearing, all the lamps and flames seemed to be reflecting off his silvery robe, and the houshi suddenly looked like a prophet who was about to reveal some holy truth to a collection of unenlightened souls.
Ippei grimaced. “He’ll soon be making us RP while selling charms.”
“At least, I’ll be spared of that for two weeks,” said Seiki, not sure why he was trying to make a joke right now. Judging from Kentaro’s demeanor, Seiki guessed he should be relieved, but he had no idea what the houshi was up to.
Kentaro looked up toward the gray wall. “Seiki, I think you need to come down.”
“Let’s go,” said Sayahime.
A moment later, Seiki found himself and Sayahime in the middle of the clearing, opposite Akihisa and his clan mate Sana, who was a sensible-looking Level 26 houshi, in a half-armored blue robe with her hair tied up in a tidy bun. Between them was Kentaro, who did not appear to be in any hurry. And all around were more than a hundred pairs of eyes from both sides of the siege, looking on in anticipation.
“That was a hard one, Seiki,” said Kentaro.
Seiki must have looked very desperate, since Kentaro suddenly met his gaze. “Have some faith, young man,” said the houshi in a very religious tone.
It struck Seiki then that his friend needed his confidence and that, if you trusted someone, you had to trust them all the way. He looked at Kentaro and gave a little nod. “Okay,” he said, in almost a whisper.
Kentaro smiled. “You see, my friend Seiki here gave me a very simple request to find proof that a Level 13 ninja called Teruo had taken the scroll.”
“Cut to the chase,” cried Akihisa.
“Patience is a virtue, Master Akihisa,” said Kentaro, perhaps quoting some NPC trainer. Akihisa glared at him, and the houshi continued, “Very well, since many of us have other obligations we need to get on with, may I first ask whether any of you have Level 27 Pottery skills?”
“No,” said Akihisa, before glancing at his clan mate, who also shook her head.
“No,” said Sayahime.
“And, of course, Seiki only knows how to kill trees,” said Kentaro. “So that’s a no.”
The houshi then produced an item from his chest pocket. “The reason I asked is because I had to borrow this, and I don’t want anyone accidentally learn it and poof it into thin air. Yes, go on, pass it around.”
The item was a red-and-blue Precious Craftsman’s Scroll.
“Feel free to pull it open and have a look,” said Kentaro, sounding like a primary school teacher.
Akihisa sighed audibly, perhaps at the fact that they were now forced to play along with a meager Level 12 houshi who was flirting with RP. Sana looked very skeptical as she inspected the scroll, before passing it to Sayahime.
Seiki leaned over to watch as Sayahime pulled the scroll open. The paper was filled with text but, to Seiki’s surprise, it was all gibberish, except for a few characters at the top that read Omeshionando Decorative Vase. Requires Pottery Level 27 to learn. Obviously, only people with high enough skill would be able to decipher it.
“Yes, it’s a Pottery scroll. So?” asked Akihisa, impatiently.
Kentaro produced another item from his pocket, which was a piece of grayish green ceramic, not much larger than the palm of his hand in the shape of a small flask. “So,” said the houshi.
Omeshionando Decorative Vase [treasure]. Made by Teruo.
“Do be gentle with it if you can,” said Kentaro. “It’s worth at least eighty Favors when you trade it in at the Palace.”
Akihisa studied the small vase. “That still doesn’t prove anything.”
“No.” Kentaro smiled. “It only tells you that a person called Teruo once existed, and that he had a very high level of Pottery. Now that that’s established, let me explain how I came about this piece of lovely ceramic. Would you mind if I have that back, please? One slip and eighty Favors shatter just like that. Yes, thank you.”
The houshi continued after he had stored the piece back in his pocket, “When I got the message from Seiki, I asked everyone I knew to look for any trace of this person Teruo, and then someone finally reported back that they had found this vase up for sale in their random daily pawn shop offer. For you people who might not be familiar with how the pawn shop works, let me tell you that the things people sell to the pawn shop for cash don’t disappear but get stored in a pool of items. Every day, the shopkeeper offers five random items for sale for each player who checks, so if you’re diligent sometimes you find a great bargain. I asked my friends in the Social Guild to check theirs, and two people found these identical vases up for sale in the pawn shop. Now, why would anyone actually pawn something that valuable, when you can get eighty Favors for it?”
Seiki saw where this was going. “Because they most likely didn’t know their real value.”
“Exactly,” said Kentaro. “What struck me as strange was that there were no other items made by this Teruo around at all. If you want to level, you usually make things you can sell back for gold, so you can keep leveling. These are objects like potion bottles, and ryoushi clay pigeon for target practice. But I asked everyone to check, and we could not find a single thing that is made by Teruo. It’s as if this man is very careful to cover his tracks.” He paused for a moment. “Which leads us back to the question of why this thing would be in the pawn shop pool of items?”
Akihisa frowned, and he was about to say something, when Kentaro answered his own question, “For those of you who do not frequent the streets of Shinshioka, there is one thing that is a constant hazard, especially to low-level citizens who are just trying to go about their business.”
“Brawls,” said Seiki.
“Yes. I believe our friend Teruo got unlucky one day and ran into one of those. Since there’s a loot log, we searched for when someone ever looted an Omeshionando Decorative Vase from anybody, since there aren’t a lot of those lying around, you see. What we found was rather interesting.” He took out a long piece of paper. “Older entries are lower on the log.”
Omeshionando Decorative Vase Loot History:
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from Kira [Level 13] by Haki [Level 9]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from Kira [Level 13] by Haki [Level 9]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from Kira [Level 13] by Kenichi of the West Hills [Level 12]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from Kira [Level 13] by Haki [Level 9]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from Kira [Level 13] by Haki [Level 9]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16] by Kira [Level 13]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16] by Kira [Level 13]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16] by Kira [Level 13]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16] by Kira [Level 13]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16] by Sho of the West Defenders [Level 17]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from [unknown] by Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16]
[18 days 7
hours ago]: looted from [unknown] by Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from [unknown] by Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from [unknown] by Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from [unknown] by Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16]
[18 days 7 hours ago]: looted from [unknown] by Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16]
[89 days 18 hours ago]: looted from Mayuko of the Crafters Guild [Level 23] by Takuma of the West Defenders [Level 15]
[112 days 3 hours ago]: looted from Ayumi of the Social Guild [Level 21] by Una [Level 14]
The list went on.
Seiki was not quite sure what he was looking at. “Uh, okay, what does this mean?”
Kentaro smiled. “It was an ugly brawl. The record here shows players at their current level, which is why our Teruo is now marked as ‘unknown’. What we know from this is that Teruo had six of these vases on him when he died, which he was probably going to trade in for Favors or then sell Favor tokens for more gold to buy materials for leveling, which is a smart, untraceable way of leaving no evidence. On his way to the Palace, he got caught in a brawl, and several people came by to join in the loot frenzy. The vases changed hands many times, but ultimately four of them got looted by Haki. Now, this Haki is currently at Level 9, but eighteen days ago, he could have been Level 4 or lower, which was why he could loot and walk out of there without anyone being able to attack him. And, like most new players, he did not know what these vases were worth and sold them to the pawn shop.” The houshi paused again. “Which brings me to my last point.”
He produced another piece of paper. “We then looked up Maki’s combat logs. Maki was the first person to loot Teruo.”
It was another piece of paper marked Certified Copy of Combat Log – Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16], filled with many names and numbers, which looked strangely out of place when written in ink on old rolling paper scroll. Kentaro ran his finger through the paper and pointed out the relevant bit. “Mind you, this is Maki’s activities we’re talking about. Again, older entries are lower. We do not get minute details, but we can guess what happened.”