by Nikita Thorn
“This is not your scripted weekly war, so you never know. We have a period of relative peace right now. A few months ago it was crazy, when the Jigokuryu people tried to challenge one of Kano Castle’s villages. As retaliation, Kano Castle launched a full siege on them and drove their whole clan out of their home territory.” She shook her head. “They got destroyed so bad that they pretty much had to disband after that. So now, Kano Castle also holds the Crimson Pine Mansion, which is bad news for everyone.”
Seiki blinked. Kano Castle was where he was heading, and he had no idea they were this big. “Kano Castle?”
“Yeah. Heard of them? No one messes with Kano Castle. They’ve got different clan names, but they’re basically the Shinshioka Nobles. You see, really powerful clans do everything. They hold nine villages and their territory troops give them a slight advantage in the West Gate wars, and that in turn makes gaining Honor with the Shogun easy.”
“I see,” said Seiki. This was a completely different kind of game, perhaps even a lifestyle. In comparison, life in Shinshioka seemed straightforward and stress-free. Again, there were too many questions at the moment, and he eventually decided to go for the most sensible one. “Is there a map for this somewhere I can get?”
Kiku laughed. “Don’t worry. Right now, it’s all peace time fun and games. You go disrupt people’s rice runs or, if you’re spoiling for a fight, you go yell insults in front of their clan territory, and sometimes they just invite you in so they can kill you for some extra Clan Honor. There was this one time when Hiro—”
“Kiku!” a voice cut her off. Katsumi of the White Crane Order [Level 16], a slightly older woman in a dark red kimono, had come in through a door beside the wood carved panel that seemed to open into the main building. “How long are you going to keep hime-sama waiting?”
“But I still haven’t shown Seiki the altar room!” answered the obake girl in fake protest, falling back into character now that they were with company.
Katsumi frowned and gave Kiku a look that perhaps meant something.
“Fine,” Kiku said. “Let’s go. We’ll do this later.”
“Sorry, Seiki-san,” said Katsumi. “Please don’t mind Kiku. She’s like this around visitors.”
“By the way,” Kiku whispered, as they followed Katsumi through the door. “Stay in character upstairs, okay? We have an OOC room, but outside of there just try not to break character.”
Someone must have told him before what OOC meant, but Seiki could not quite recall it at the moment, and he quickly got distracted by a large board opposite the wide staircase in the middle building. The painted surface was completely covered with pieces of paper, written with different levels of Calligraphy. And now that they were side by side, Seiki could make out the difference in the quality.
One said: Upgrading village. Woodcutters please contribute. Still need quite a bit!
Another said: If you need potions, feel free to take from clan box, or ask Madoka.
Katsumi frowned and took down a piece of paper from the board as she walked past. “Haven’t I told people not to post useless stuff here?”
Seiki stole a quick look at the paper in her hand, which said: Solo’d bridge dungeon. The fish boss gave me Brown Gloves. What the hell was that?
“How many members have you got?” Seiki asked in amusement.
“Seventy-ish,” said Kiku.
“Seventy-two,” said Katsumi. “But only around forty of us are here regularly.”
“By regularly, she means every day,” said Kiku. “We have a good rate of active members, actually. Unlike those huge city ones where they have hundreds of members but no one even knows where their clan territory is.”
The place seemed alive. The beginning to the second floor was hidden from view by a large wooden screen painted with more white cranes, and shoji sliding walls blocked off all remaining sides of the stairwell. Yet, Seiki could make out the lively conversation and laughter coming from within.
Ichiro of the White Crane Order [Level 12], a young man in white, rushed out behind the partition as he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. “Katsumi-san. When is hime-sama going to be available to see me?”
“Not right now,” said Katsumi. “Is this about giving you the hunt quest?”
Ichiro grinned. “Oh, that one’s done. Eighty-eight. Better than Arata’s average.”
“Beginners’ luck,” said Katsumi. “Why aren’t you out, looking for the intruder?”
“What?” said Ichiro. “I just came in, like, right now.”
“Yeah, we’ve got an intruder,” said Katsumi, as she continued up toward the third floor. “Get everyone who doesn’t know yet out with you. Akari. Houshi. Level 9. Should be easy.”
“Awesome!” said Ichiro. “Hope it’s Kensoku.”
As Seiki watched the excited young man run back behind the partition, he was starting to understand something. There was a real sense of community among these people, and a strong sense of pride in what they did. In that instant, Seiki could not help but feel that perhaps it would not be a bad life at all to belong somewhere, to be given a purpose, to be relevant to someone else’s life. This unexpected detour was drawing out longer and longer, and Seiki secretly wondered if they would let him log out here once they were done, since it would be rather nice to come back to this place tomorrow and perhaps seeing the estate in the day time.
The third floor was designed in the same way, with a large wooden partition at the end of the stairs to hide the interior from sight. As they went around it, Seiki found himself in a spacious corridor, which zigzagged around rooms of different sizes, divided by shoji walls. A nearby door slid slightly open, as an older girl in golden brown with an ornate hair bun, Kame of the White Crane Order [Level 19], peeped out to see who was passing by and exchanged smiles with Kiku.
The shoji walls seemed identical, and the interior itself seemed to be a maze.
“Ozuru-san’s design.” Kiku giggled. “Some clan halls are wide open spaces, but Ozuru-san likes complicated floor plans.” She then whispered. “Ninja.”
The corridor took them left, another left, then right, and Seiki could see what she meant, before they finally arrived at their destination, which turned out to be a large room at the corner.
“This is hime-sama’s private reception room,” said Kiku, rather proudly. “Not a lot of people get to come up here. Best view in the whole building. Shinshioka on the left, the whole Plains on the right. You can’t beat that.”
Seiki was surprised to find that the room had two layers of doors, with a narrow waiting area in the middle, which Katsumi explained was to accommodate queues. He thought Kiku and Katsumi were going in with him, but the obake girl said they had better get on with finding the intruder, and simply left him there.
Seeing no real purpose for it, Seiki could only guess that the waiting room was there just to add to the sense of occasion. And as he waited, he casually looked through the small window at the extremity of the room. The territory was located at the end of the village, so Nanamura’s houses and bridges were on the other side and not visible to him, and he peered out into a rather dense forest. Now that Kiku had mentioned rice, Seiki realized that some of the green areas he had seen from treetops must have not all been grasslands, but rice paddies, tilled by numerous farmers. Suddenly, the world felt very alive and real. Further away in the dark, he could make out a small stream among the dark thickets, which he guessed was the same one that flowed through the village under Kentaro’s allegedly romantic bridges.
In that very moment, Seiki wished that all this was real. He could not help but think how nice it would be if the only thing he had to worry about was how to defend a village, or even haul water from wells and chop wood. He chuckled. Even if it was all they let him do, it would still be better than what he had right now.
The inner door slid open, and a White Crane Hall Servant beckoned him in with a smile. As he stepped in, the servant excused
herself and left, sliding the door shut with impeccable manners.
The reception room was lined with windows across its length, hidden behind bamboo shutters. At the right-hand end was a low wooden platform, where Sayahime of the White Crane Order [Level 27] was sitting in the middle of her elaborate red and yellow patterned kimono.
“Good evening, Seiki,” she said.
Sitting on the tatami floor in front of her was Hiro, his long sword, which Seiki had had a chance to inspect earlier and recognized as Akebono +124 attack -18 defense +2% health recovery, resting on the floor beside him.
Susumu, the Level 16 ryoushi who had ridden in with Hiro earlier, was also there. He now had his long black bow resting against the nearest wall. Beside him was a serious-looking older man Seiki had never seen: Ozuru of the White Crane Order [Level 25], who carried no visible weapon as was common for ninjas, and who allegedly had designed the interior of the whole place.
“Have a seat, Seiki,” said Sayahime, gesturing to the middle of the tatami floor.
“I was just telling hime-sama about the whole thing,” said Hiro. “And how we can’t trust Ichikeya anymore.”
“Better not jump to conclusions,” said Ozuru, before turning toward Seiki. “So,” said the man. “What’s your relationship with this Akari person?”
Seiki was slightly surprised to find that the man’s tone was not entirely friendly.
“Come on, Ozuru-san,” said Hiro. “She obviously lied to Seiki-san to get him involved.”
“Yes,” said the ninja, eyeing Seiki carefully. “But why you?”
Seiki was wondering the same thing himself. Akari’s plan had relied on him being the one to initiate the group with her and also on him actually forgetting about it at the time of Hiro’s invitation, and perhaps even on Hiro’s failure to check in advance.
“Wrong place at the wrong time?” suggested Hiro.
“No,” said Seiki. “It was my fault. I should have suspected that it had all been an act.” They had targeted him, and now that he had had time to think back to the events leading up to the present, there were many things that did not add up. The ryoushi had known exactly where the sewage led, and he could have shot Akari and not her horse if he had wanted to.
“Really now?” said Sayahime with interest. “How so?”
Before Seiki could begin, hurried footsteps and voices shouting “Hime-sama!” thundered down the corridor toward them. The door slammed open, revealing Isao, the samurai Seiki had seen earlier on the bridge, with Katsumi right behind him.
“We found her!”
With a push, Akari the houshi girl fell onto the floor in the room and let out a soft grunt. Seiki winced, before Akari hissed viciously at Isao. “That’s how you handle a girl?” she said. She seemed a different girl now.
No one had reached for a weapon, maybe because a Level 9 houshi could not be much of a threat.
“Why did you come into our territory?” said Ozuru.
The girl sat up and looked around. She then smiled at Seiki. “Interesting night, isn’t it, Seiki?”
“Talk!” demanded Ozuru.
Akari smirked, and Seiki’s last hope that this could have been nothing but a misunderstanding vanished right away. He was starting to see now that she was most likely not an innocent party in this.
“I have nothing to say,” said the houshi.
“Since she’s not talking, kill her before she invites someone in,” Sayahime said.
Akari scoffed but said nothing.
Seiki glanced at the people around the room, trying to remind himself what Kiku had said, that it was all play. The room was silent for a while, before Hiro noticed that Sayahime was looking at him. He picked up his sword as he got up from the floor.
“Wait,” said Seiki, not quite certain what he was trying to achieve. There was a huge difference between combat and abuse, even make-believe ones. And somehow, he was starting to have problems telling what was real and what was not. “Can’t you just let her go?” Since she had already been removed from the group, once they tossed her out of the territory she would not be able to re-enter.
“Oh my!” Akari laughed.
Ozuru shot her a dark look. “Kill her,” said the ninja.
Hiro stepped forward toward the girl, and Seiki moved in to block his path. “Let her go,” Seiki said. “Please. I’ll make sure she leaves.” After all, if she had not invited anyone in, she was probably not going to do it right now, and there was absolutely nothing a Level 9 houshi could do.
“Seiki,” said Katsumi from the doorway.
Everyone was staring at him.
“It’s our rule. Trespassing is punishable by death,” said Ozuru.
“Seiki-san.” Hiro’s tone was solemn. “Move out of the way, please.”
“No,” said Seiki. He ignored why he was doing this, since he knew full well he would not be able to stop Hiro, or perhaps any of these people. He looked at them. “I started this. I’ll end this.”
Recognition lit up in Sayahime’s eyes, and he had a feeling that he might have said something like this to her before. But then it was gone, and she grimaced. “If you don’t like what you see here, you can walk out right now,” she said.
“No,” said Seiki again, carefully getting to his feet, his eyes still on Hiro. The samurai was looking at him uncomfortably and had already placed his hand on the hilt of his long sword. An apprehensive silence fell, and everyone seemed to be holding their breath.
“Get up,” Seiki said to Akari behind him.
Katsumi and Isao shifted nervously in the doorway.
“Seiki-san,” said Hiro. “I don’t want to do this.”
Akari let out a short laugh, and Seiki asked himself again why he was even trying to save her.
“Get up,” said Seiki again to the houshi girl. “We’re getting out of here, and you’re going to explain everything.”
Hiro let go of his sword and closed his fingers around his dagger grip instead, perhaps deciding to go for the disarming wrist slash he had used before with the unique blade in their duel. Even before the samurai could draw, behind him, Ozuru’s left hand shot out. And from the ninja’s sleeve, a black dagger whisked toward Akari in a move Seiki had never seen.
Seiki only had a split second to think. He grabbed his dagger with both hands and swept it up in a blind Parry. The shorter blade meant it left the scabbard faster and gave him a better chance to connect. This was faster than anything Seiki had ever witnessed—even the charged up ryoushi shot in the woods earlier—, and he could not even manage a proper Parry. Seiki could feel an impact on the tip of his Kohagane as it touched the projectile. But then, the dagger was no longer in his hand, and a wave of violent cold shook through him as if he had been hit by a block of ice.
The next thing he knew, his arms were numb and his knees gave out. He collapsed, gasping, on the floor. It was not until the strange clarity kicked in with his automatic Strength of Will that he realized that his energy was now at zero and his life was in the single digits.
Katsumi had let out a startled cry. Seiki tried to feel his hands and, behind him, he could hear both daggers land somewhere at the back of the room.
In the doorway, Isao’s eyes were wide with shock, and he whispered to Katsumi, “Told you there’s a limit on Parry.”
Seiki was not surprised. He had never tried to Parry something this high before, and he wondered again for the millionth time whether Upslash would have been a better idea. Out of nowhere, Akari’s cold hand touched his arm and he involuntarily shivered, before her Heal landed and eased the numbness.
“Geez,” said Akari. “You’re going hardcore on your new recruits now, aren’t you?”
There was a moment of appalled silence, before Ozuru cried, “You—”
Akari scoffed. “How far are you going to take this, huh? Does he have to die to prove his worth?”
Dazed, and not entirely sure he was comprehending this right, Se
iki pushed himself up from the floor. The room was deathly quiet as everyone stared at the houshi girl in bewilderment. She chuckled, putting a second Heal on Seiki to fill his health.
“What do you mean?” Seiki whispered, not daring to leap to conclusions.
“These people aren’t worth your time, Seiki,” said Akari. A cold smile appeared on her face as she looked at the people in the room, one by one. This was definitely a completely different girl than the one cowering in the vegetable shop. “They will test you and test you again to see if you’re going to break.” She let out a shrill laugh. “Just for a bit of diversion.”
Seiki stared at her, feeling a kind of slow dread descending on him. He shot a glance at Hiro, but the man seemed as confused as he was. Sayahime, on the other hand, seemed perfectly calm.
Akari let out another scoff. “Interesting night, isn’t it, Seiki?” she repeated, conversationally.
“What are you doing?” Susumu asked. “It’s not like that.”
Seiki froze. If there was one thing life in the dark taught you, it was how to identify people by their voices, and he was getting ridiculously good at it. This was the first time the ryoushi spoke, but Seiki was very certain he had heard the man before.
Seiki’s head reeled as he placed it. “The Patrol,” he whispered. It was the Patrol who had chased them to the door in West City before they jumped through the trapdoor.
Another terrible thought flashed in his head, and Seiki remembered now he was still in a group with the man.
Rapid Shots [Susumu - Level 16]: fire up to three arrows in quick succession. Required energy: 295. Enhancement: Double Arrows – Rapid Shots now fires up to 6 arrows at a time but costs 20% more energy.
Six arrows.
Seiki stared at the people in the room, feeling now sick in his stomach, even before he had figured out what this really meant. Sayahime and Ozuru seemed perfectly collected, Susumu alarmed, and Hiro in complete confusion.
“It was you,” said Seiki. “You’re that ryoushi.”
The only sound in the room was Akari laughing.