by Nikita Thorn
“Where’s Koharu?” said Seiki, as he slashed at the futon, and jumped back as one edge folded up to hit him. This thing was tuned to her level. And with only two people fighting it, they were experiencing slight problems.
The white fox was almost out of energy and Seiki slashed again, trying to drag his sword through the fabric to maximize damage. Unfortunately, the mattress started twisting as soon as his blade pierced through, threatening to wring the sword out of his grip. As he pulled back to free his weapon, the end flipped up and slapped him on the side, numbing his whole left leg and dropping his health by a third.
Its motion was entirely unpredictable, and the darkness was certainly not helping.
Seiki glanced and saw that Mairin was out of energy to Dash. To keep it off her, he would have to continue attacking it. Yet, before he could move, he felt the soft mattress under his feet and immediately knew he was in trouble. It was too late. The futon jerked itself to one side, throwing him onto its dusty body.
He landed in its soft, numb embrace, and the mattress took this opportunity to try and wrap itself around him. Seiki gritted his teeth, rolled over and hit its flapping edge away as he struggled to his feet. At the same moment, he felt Mairin’s triple-burst Spirit Mend.
The mattress kept jerking away beneath him though, keeping him off balance. It rolled itself over him again, and Seiki, in slight panic, scrambled to his knees and propelled himself forward with Slide. Not having properly planned his trajectory, he crashed and skidded on the wood floor. His right leg was still numb, as the end of the Boroboroton had managed to wrap tightly around it. Thankfully, the white fox ran in and bit the mattress, causing it to let go and shrink away.
Boroboroton [Level 13]. HP 544/860.
“I don’t know why it’s not taking a lot of damage!” said Mairin. “And where the heck is Koharu?”
“I was dead,” said the obake, as she appeared at the door, or at least what remained of it. “Apparently, you resurrect just outside the house. And,” she added in a strange tone. “I’ve brought… uh, light.”
Seiki looked down the hallway and saw that a source of light, much brighter than a candle, was making its way toward them. It was a lamp, floating through the air out of its own volition. There was a large, single eye in the middle, and the slit in the center that served as a mouth had a long, lolling tongue hanging out of it.
Before Seiki could even decide how he felt about it, something landed to his left, in a soft thud, thud, thud. Seiki turned around and found himself staring into a large black eye. It took him a split second to notice that it was attached to the middle of what appeared to be an old umbrella. It had a human leg instead of its handle, which it hopped with, producing the thud, thud, thud on the wood floor. From its mouth hung an abnormally long tongue.
Is that what Ippei had meant when he said it was comical? Anyway, the umbrella decided that he was an enemy, glared at him, and leapt up high. Seiki had to roll away as it landed where he had just been.
Kasa-obake [Level 13]. HP 700/700.
“What are these things?” said Mairin, as she threw herself aside before the haunted futon, which was still very much active, made a lunge at her.
“Ghost umbrella and ghost lamp,” said Koharu, rather unhelpfully. “And a ghost futon.”
The ghost lamp, Chouchin-obake [Level 13], HP 700/700, was bobbing up and down in the air as it slowly pursued Koharu. The shadows it cast from its burning core moved with it, covering the whole room in rather nauseating shadow waves.
But light was light, and Seiki could at least see where the monsters were now. The umbrella came thud-thud-thudding after him and he kicked it aside, trying to save up his energy.
Koharu swept out both her arms, which seemed to add a grayish tint to the air around her immediate vicinity. On the way there, Seiki had secretly studied her abilities and could now identify it as Nether Chills. This aptitude slowed enemies down when they stepped into its sphere of effect, did a little damage, and also enhanced the effect of Life Drain.
That was precisely what Koharu was doing. She was holding out her hand to Life Drain the futon, when it turned on her. Forced to Disperse, she morphed into a mirage form of herself. This removed her temporarily from combat and caused the mattress to go after Mairin instead.
Seiki ran in to Parry it, grimacing as the cloth once again fell heavily on his sword and made him leap back. “Maybe one at a time?” he asked, knowing that it would be difficult to fight all three at once, and that the best strategy was to get rid of at least one as soon as possible.
The floor behind him vibrated in rhythm as the ghost umbrella came jumping after him. Seiki turned to slash it with a normal move, but it bounced up very high, pointed its tip toward him and sprang open, its round eye spinning around while the umbrella turned in mid-air as if it was hung from a string.
This was another thing life had never prepared him for. Seiki was debating what was about to happen, when the umbrella snapped shut in a loud clap, and an unexpected violent gust of wind burst from it and hit him like an invisible fist, sending him slamming against the wall.
Mairin’s three-step Spirit Mend brought his health back up as she ran past. Picking himself up, Seiki recognized that, while physically impossible, the umbrella ghost worked like air bellows. The Boroboroton was in pursuit as it clumsily dragged itself after the white fox, and Seiki managed to slash at it twice while it burst past him. The space was too limited and, without room to dodge, the tail end of the mattress slapped Seiki against the wall again. In that instant, he wished he had Brace.
The situation was much too chaotic to get a strategy going, and Seiki found himself running, turning, Parrying, and throwing himself out of the way as the umbrella leapt high.
Boroboroton [Level 13]. HP 319/860.
It was taking such a long time to fight these things. Koharu was somehow at a third of her health, but she had Life Steal, and that managed to take a decent chunk off the umbrella and brought her back up to half.
Kasa-obake [Level 13]. HP 478/700.
Chouchin-obake [Level 13]. HP 617/700.
“This is a weird one.” Mairin seemed slightly winded as she shot her smoky Fox Dust at the lantern above her head.
“Maybe not so much weirder than fighting angry merchants while not looking behind at the crane?” said Koharu.
Seiki had no idea what she was talking about, but it was most likely not relevant. The futon went after Koharu, and she Dispersed. At the same time, the umbrella leapt high again.
The umbrella was spinning its eye around in mid-air. It prepared to strike the obake, who was coming out of her Disperse, directly towards the oncoming futon.
“It has a wind effect,” Seiki said.
That was when he remembered that he did, too. Stepping forward in front of the materializing obake, he slashed up with energy down both his arms, just as the umbrella took aim and snapped shut. The Upslash wind met the ghostly wind in a quiet explosion. The force of the air collision pushed him backward a few inches, but sent the umbrella tumbling out of the air as if shot by an arrow.
The haunted umbrella flipped, landed on its foot with a heavy thud, and the single eye blinked once in surprise.
“It’s actually kinda… cute,” said Mairin.
“This thing, though, is not,” yelled Koharu, who was now safe from the wind, but not the futon. She Dispersed once again as it made a leap at her, getting away from it the first time. But as the effect ended, the futon flicked its tail end and caught her in the waist. She disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Seiki ducked under the lantern, which was bobbing through the air toward him.
“That single hit killed her?” Seiki asked in confusion. The mattress had already turned toward him and was again dragging itself noisily forward. He ran into position, and slid into Focused Strike.
Boroboroton [Level 13]. HP 245/860.
Again, he had to pull his sword back before the mattre
ss could wrap itself around him. Above his head, the lantern was bobbing up and down. As it got near, it spit out a tiny ball of flame. Seiki ducked under it, swinging his blade again at the mattress. With a source of light so close, Seiki finally saw what it was that made the mattress so difficult to kill. As if reading their minds, right before each move connected, the Boroboroton drew back, or twisted, lessening the force of the impact and turning a perfect blow into an ill-formed one.
“The things you do for fashion,” said Mairin, in equal amusement and annoyance.
Seiki was already thinking of other things. “Sorry, what?”
On his left, in the corner of the room, the umbrella was jumping high into the air. Having no energy for an Upslash, Seiki could only run out of the way. The lamp was floating ahead of him, and he struck upward. The blade hit the bamboo frame, and the lamp fell onto the floor.
Chouchin-obake [Level 13]. HP 523/700.
“She’s wearing zeroes,” Mairin was saying.
Seiki brought his sword down on the lamp, but it rolled out of the way and kept rolling, leaving a trail of tiny fireballs that immediately went out. “Uh, zeroes?”
The white fox was running around, distracting the mattress. “Zero stat clothes.” Mairin turned back into human just to explain. “Zero defense. Fashion pieces.”
“Zero defense?” Seiki asked in disbelief.
Mairin giggled. “Well, the things you have to do for fashion.”
So, that’s why Ippei had laughed? Again, Seiki wondered what he had gotten himself into. Deciding there was nothing to be done about that, he pushed the thought out of his mind and concentrated on the problem they were facing. The futon was the main problem, while the umbrella and lantern were there perhaps just to complicate things.
The lamp again had started to float up, and Seiki felt like he was in a kind of nightmarish circus. Mairin was out of energy.
Boroboroton [Level 13]. HP 139/860.
Chouchin-obake [Level 13]. HP 523/700.
Kasa-obake [Level 13]. HP 335/700.
They needed a strategy. “Am I supposed to tank this?” asked Seiki, as he knocked the futon back with Sweeping Blade.
“I don’t think you can,” said Mairin. “They’re all kinda fickle and won’t stay on one person.”
Both of them dodged around the room as the umbrella tried one of its blow-backs again. The instance was tuned to Koharu’s level and, with the obake out of commission most of the time, it was taking longer than it should.
“Okay,” said Mairin. She produced a bottle of potion. “I’m going to try something. You’ve got to keep the futon thing still for three seconds or as long as you can.”
Without waiting for him to agree, she drank her potion, which turned out to be one of those that restored both health and energy.
Casting the bottle aside, Mairin held out both her hands and what appeared like eight or nine phantom white foxes burst forth, seemingly made of smoke. Seiki instinctively knew this was Kindred Spirit, the Level 10 kitsune ability that Ippei had been talking about.
“Now,” she said, and Seiki charged at the haunted futon. Without energy, he could only run over the mattress. He pierced his sword down in the middle of its back and hoped for the best. His life was draining from the direct contact, and the mattress under him started to twist, trapping his Hikari in a tight knot. Seiki gritted his teeth and held fast. Right then, one of the phantom kitsune that had been dashing in the air around the room reached him. His health filled to half, and his energy a quarter of that.
Mairin flew forward in fox form and sank her teeth into the monster’s neck. So, like Seiki’s Slide, she could also combine Dash with Bite.
Another phantom fox running in the air reached Seiki, and added a bit more of his health.
Boroboroton [Level 13]. HP 1/860.
One was never a good number.
The mattress yanked itself from under him and threw Seiki off, and he lost his grasp on the sword.
“Why doesn’t it die?” said Mairin, as the futon swung its arm around and caught her in the back. Her health dipped, but one of the phantom foxes still dashing gracefully around ran into her and dispersed on her like a cloud, filling her missing health.
Kindred Spirit was something like a delayed, but rather random heal, Seiki figured.
Something dropped down beside him, and the umbrella leapt back up on its feet and blinked.
Kasa-obake [Level 13]. HP 1/700.
As they were fighting the futon, Koharu had once again run back from death and she had taken care of the umbrella. Which left only the lantern floating around and spitting out little fireballs.
Seiki drew his Kohagane dagger and slashed at it with Focused Strike, just as Koharu’s Life Drain reached it. The monster fell to the floor, looking confused.
Chouchin-obake [Level 13]. HP 1/700.
“They don’t die, either?” asked Mairin.
“Oh, my old things!” Dairi, whose presence had completely escaped Seiki’s mind, had appeared out of nowhere. “I’ve almost forgotten about them!”
Either because she could not see that her belongings had grown long tongues and a murderous intent, or because she did not mind, the old lady picked up the umbrella from the floor. “My husband bought me this umbrella!” she said. “I wanted one of those fancy ones that other girls seemed to have, and he very kindly bought it for me.”
Kasa-obake appeased. 88 XP gained.
“And this lantern used to hang in front of my little place,” she said, picking it up from the floor. “Ah, and our first mattress after marriage.” She went to the futon and caressed the tattered fabric, lovingly.
Chouchin-obake appeased. 69 XP gained.
Boroboroton appeased. 102 XP gained.
The lantern and umbrella closed their single eye, which then faded away, leaving only old, torn objects in their original forms in Dairi’s arm. The futon stopped moving, and seemed to let out a very soft sigh, before collapsing on the floor, returning to being a normal dusty mattress.
Seiki had not predicted such an ending.
“Oh,” said Mairin as she looked at the old lady. “That’s kinda sweet.”
“Kinda sad, too,” said Koharu.
“It’s been such a long time,” said the old lady. “Such a long time now since I moved into this house.” She shook her head. “Years of nothing but misery. And I almost forget. Ah, such sweet memories. My husband was so good to me, so very, very good.”
Seiki did not expect the scene of the old lady hugging her old things to hit him like that, and he took a deep breath. He wondered when, if ever, he would be able to appreciate memories of things he no longer had without the burning rage associated with them.
“Oh!” said Koharu. “I see. I see! Very old items gain a soul, especially if they’re neglected. They have a name for it, too. Something that starts with a T. I read it somewhere. I think there was this book that someone was passing around. You know, people really have this ceremony to get rid of old things before they reach a hundred years old so that they won’t turn into monsters.” She knitted her brow as she thought of something. “But if the house has been here that long.” She turned to the old lady. “Then how old does that make you?”
The old lady looked up at her rather confusedly. “Oh, Yuriko. I didn’t know you were here.”
Mairin chuckled gently. “I guess that explains it.”
That, Seiki remembered, was only Phase One.
Chapter 05
Phase Two started almost immediately, with a loud, blood-curdling squeal from outside, which turned the old lady pale.
“The wolves,” she exclaimed, her hand still clutching the old futon, now inanimate. “The wolves are coming for my pigs. We need to lock the pens! Help me, Taro, Yume!”
“Now Yume’s not a bad name,” commented Mairin.
Dairi Residence Mission Progress: Phase 2. Help the old lady lock the pigpens.
Seiki p
icked up his Hikari from the floor. He thought he was tired but, now that something had jolted his memory and reminded him of unpleasant thoughts, he could not wait to spend some more energy. He was secretly glad to learn that the second phase would be outside. Fighting in such a cramped space had forced him to keep repositioning himself, limiting the use and range of his Slide. Upslash was still a mystery, and he had not quite figured out how to work it into his repertoire of special moves.
“That sounds pretty… straightforward,” said Mairin, shooting her Spirit Mend at Seiki and Koharu to top them up. “Unless the wolves are demonic wolves, you know, to keep up with this haunted farmhouse theme.” She sounded excited at the thought.
“I’ll go look,” offered Koharu.
“Wait!” said Mairin, but the obake had already disappeared through the wall. The kitsune sighed and turned to Seiki. “And she knows she can’t take a single hit with those clothes on.”
Seiki was still staring at the spot on the solid wood where Koharu had just vanished through. “Obake go through walls?” He was not sure if he was more surprised by what he had just witnessed or by the fact that he had never known about this. When he thought about it, perhaps he should not be surprised after all, since they ran on water, their horses ran on water, and they never took fall damage. It would be perfectly natural that they walked through walls as well.
“Some walls,” said Mairin. “Just ones in the wilderness that you can potentially break with Focused Strike.” She giggled. “Obake abilities are kinda complicated. Their Fade is pretty much like a magical Brace, but you can’t use it to avoid direct hits. So what you do is use it during Disperse, and that gives you more control over when you come out of Disperse. Or when you’re running away from people, you can Fade through a wall to put some distance between you and them.”
“I see,” said Seiki, making a mental note to check out the rest of Koharu’s abilities later. Magic was an entirely different kind of world, and Seiki was not sure he understood the nuances of that kind of play.