War Games

by Nikita Thorn

  Seiki secretly agreed.

  Koharu shrugged. “Me neither. But I’m just saying.”

  “That’s, like, totally not convincing evidence right there,” said Yamura.

  Koharu shrugged again. “Well... why would he make up something that specific? So I was thinking that maybe if you find the ragdoll, you get an obake unlabeled quest. Or if you’re a ronin and you find Captain Okamoto’s son, you get a ronin unlabeled quest.”

  Now that she had put it that way, Seiki had to admit she had a decent theory.

  “Like an Easter Egg?” said Mairin.

  “It’s one hell of an Easter Egg if you get an instant variation for your ability,” said Ippei.

  “But that can’t be,” said Yamura. “I mean, why aren’t people finding stuff like this all the time?”

  Despite that, a pensive silence descended on the group as everyone thought back to their own quests. If Koharu’s speculation was correct, Seiki wondered what exactly it had been that had triggered the quest. It could have been him noticing the missing hairpin from the old man’s altar, or his decision to follow Okamoto, or his decision not to take the charm enhancement the young man had offered, or his decision to pursue him a second time over the bridge. Maybe he needed to check certain unknown boxes before it triggered. Or perhaps other possibilities existed as well, and different decisions would lead to the completion of different unlabeled quests.

  There was no way to tell right now, and Seiki hoped that if they were correct about the next quest down the quest chain, it would help shed more light on the matter.

  Mairin was riding ahead of him, glancing inward as she seemed to be checking her own logs, and Seiki thought to himself that he knew very little about what other classes had for their quests. He had a vague impression that one of Mairin’s class story lines involved helping a secret society of NPC kitsune thrive among humans in Shinshioka, and he knew that Ippei’s quests had to do a lot with Captain Nakatani and other military figures in the army. What other classes did, however, he had no idea.

  “Now that I think about it,” the kitsune was saying quietly, half to herself, before looking up. “Hey, Ippei. You remember the Bite quest?”

  “Why would he remember a kitsune quest?” Yamura asked.

  “Ippei got a kitsune up to Level 9 once.”

  The samurai faked a wince. “That’s something I’m trying not to remember.”

  “But you remember, right? You go after the evil demon fox and she puts a spell on you to keep you in human form so you can’t attack her, and then…” She paused for a moment. “An army?”

  Ippei shook his head. “I don’t remember any army.”

  “No. I mean there’s an army coming toward us right now.” The kitsune pointed ahead as she pulled her brown horse to a standstill. The little path they had been following was leading straight to one of the main roads. “From there.”

  “Rogami?” said Yamura, reaching for his bow.

  They all stopped to listen, and now without the sound of hooves on the ground, they could hear soft thundering coming from the distance. Judging from the speed of the approach, it sounded like at least a hundred riders going at a full gallop.

  “Don’t tell me it’s the Rogami,” said Yamura.

  “If you keep saying Rogami, you’re going to be right at some point,” said Mairin.

  There was no way to know for certain, but Seiki’s locating charm gave no warning. So they waited apprehensively in silence slightly off the main path, keeping to the shades of the trees. Fubuki shook her mane nervously and Seiki patted her neck to calm her down. A moment later, a group of riders burst into view, a mixture of players and their troops, all in clinking Shinshioka armor sets.

  Yamura squinted as he tried to read. “Juro… of the Midnigh… Okay, not the Rogami,” he announced in relief.

  Surprisingly, closely following behind was another group of soldiers, led by half a dozen players, who seemed to be in an equal amount of hurry.

  “Souta of the Red Dawn Clan,” Yamura continued to read, as the train of players rushed past them on the main road. “Hideshi from Red Dawn… okay, lots of second-tier clans. And then we have… Eikichi of Protector of the Clanless. Wow, that’s a total fail on the clan name.”

  “Lively out here tonight,” said Kentaro. “Is it always like this?”

  The galloping crowd paid them no attention, and the group soon decided it was not their business and that they should just continue on their way. Mairin suddenly paused again, her fox senses picking up on yet another approaching group of people.

  “If I didn’t know better, I would say it’s a world event out here,” Ippei said, before he frowned. “Or is there one?”

  “Where are they all going?” said Yamura. The third group of soldiers had galloped through. “Oh, and that’s one of my clan mates.”

  “They seem to be heading where we’re going,” said Kentaro.

  Ippei drew a troubled breath. “Maybe it has something to do with the Rogami army, since they rode out earlier.”

  Yamura turned to Seiki. “Just give in and say yes to your Ichikeya chick already. Now’s a good time. Even if you don’t want to know, just do it for the team…”

  “Why don’t we just ask?” Mairin almost interrupted him, a determined expression bordering on stubborn appearing on her face. “Help me see who the next bunch are?”

  Yamura looked ahead, muttering something about how it was difficult to tell when everyone was wearing identical uniforms. He squinted into darkness for a moment, before reporting that it was most likely the Fuoka Army. “And… like, a lot of them,” added the ryoushi.

  The army, with their collective summoned NPC units, made up a total of around six hundred. The troops were moving down the road in a long swarming line, like black water rushing through a pipe. The clamor of hooves and armor grew louder and louder, solid and steady, reminding Seiki of a recent out-of-season storm that lashed against his window that he had heard coming from far away. And he could not help thinking how aptly-named the clan was.

  Yamura pulled his black horse backward a few steps to make way for the army. “Good luck trying to get their atten—”

  The kitsune had already burst into her fox form and dashed ahead into the middle of the road right in the path of the rushing crowd. As soon as she landed on her feet, thick white clouds of Fox Dust exploded, once, twice, three times in succession, before a group of Kindred Spirit silvery foxes merrily burst out and started running around her in the fourth and final explosion.

  It was in perfect rhythm and Seiki noted to himself that this was indeed how you got attention. He remembered a short lockout on her Fox Dust, which meant she must have put an enhancement on the ability to give it more charges.

  As the smoke thinned, the Fuoka Army came to a confused dead stop in front of a smiling kitsune girl in white and green, who was already by then sitting serenely on her mount again.

  “Hello,” said Mairin, in the tone of a trained ambassador. “Where are you guys going?”

  “Who is this?” cried someone from within the group.

  A murmur went through the crowd, before Eisuke of the Fuoka Army [Level 23] finally made his way forward. Clad in six Shinshioka pieces, the samurai had on his hip his Fiery Katana and another longer sword whose real identity was hidden under the effect of an appearance-transfer.

  “What do you want?” Eisuke said warily, before he finally recognized her. Immediately, he glanced toward the side of the road where Seiki and his friends were waiting. The man did not seem surprised.

  “We kinda want to know what the Rogami Clan and, well, everyone else is doing out here,” said Mairin. “Because we got a message from Ichikeya.”

  “The message should be self-explanatory,” Eisuke said as he turned back toward her. “Just show up with your troops and stay for a while, and you’ll get your gold tomorrow, guaranteed. That’s why we did it through Ichikeya in the first place. Yo
u don’t have to attack if you don’t want to. If combat breaks out, you’re free to run.”

  If Mairin had been surprised by his response, she showed no sign of it. “Uh, attack who again?” she said casually.

  “The Rogami.” Eisuke sounded slightly confused by her question. He glanced at Seiki and Ippei one more time. “I see. So you are going mercenaries, considering you turned down our offer and never got yourselves a clan.” The man appeared to be a little disappointed, but perhaps a little relieved at the same time.

  Seiki had never thought of it that way, but from what Ippei had been pulling with the West Defenders, he guessed the man was not wrong. One thing, for certain, was that his friend made no attempt to deny it.

  “I think we’re sitting this one out,” said Ippei with a casual smile. “Since it’s out here, if you know what I mean.”

  Eisuke sighed. “Yeah. Unfortunately, we owe a blood debt to Hiro, and he chose to call it in right now.” He kicked his horse to a walk and let out a grim chuckle. “So if you’ll excuse us, we’ve all got to go get ourselves on war lockout.” He pulled a long face, before adding under his breath, “Although some of us have already done it and got their troops obliterated.”

  Seiki wondered if he meant Takeru and Aina, whom he could not spot in the army.

  “Uh, good luck?” Mairin backed her horse up to avoid getting trampled as the army started moving again. A few Fuoka Army players Seiki did not recognize turned to look at them as if wondering why they had even stopped in the first place. If they said anything at all, their voices were lost in the cacophony of thundering hooves as they rode further down the road.

  Like a passing storm, the army disappeared beyond the small bend slightly ahead, returning the night to its serene state.

  “So now you’ve got your answer,” Ippei said. “A pointless West Gate war between the White Cranes and the Rogami, with the Fuoka Army dragged in. Same old, same old.”

  “What about all these other clans?” said Yamura.

  “Those are… window troops, for show only,” Ippei answered. “The Fuoka Army is probably trying to avoid getting on the lockout, so they’re bluffing the Rogami with numbers and will probably try to force them to withdraw and leave the White Cranes alone.”

  “So what does Ichikeya have to do with any of this? Don’t they allegedly deal in rare goods or something?”

  “The power to quickly mobilize different groups of people is arguably ‘rare’,” said Ippei. “I’m sure Ichikeya acts as the middleman for everything, not just items. So the Fuoka Army pays Ichikeya, Ichikeya pays you. Of course, they probably take a cut off that, but everyone feels safe with their transaction. Ichikeya handles recruitment messages to their contacts and they can use Sasu Locate as proof.”

  “That is actually sound business sense,” said Kentaro.

  Seiki was still not quite satisfied with the explanation. “The message Fuyu sent us didn’t say anything like that at all.”

  “Maybe in your case, Ichikeya’s trying to skimp on the payment.” Ippei had to laugh. “Get you to go help out the White Cranes out of your own free will and they keep the full payment from Fuoka Army.”

  “Which we’re doing, right?” said Mairin.

  Ippei stared at her as if she had said something in a foreign language.

  “Oh, come on,” said the kitsune. “We came, we saw, we left our friends to die?”

  “Friends?”

  “Kiku-chan’s a friend,” said Mairin. “And this Hiro guy’s cool, although he does get on your nerves sometimes. I went on a rice run with them once. Nice people. And they never kicked us off their territory guest list.”

  The samurai sighed. “Your friends have nothing to lose right now. This battle is going to be completely pointless. Zoning exists for a reason, you know. You want a proper clan war, you do it out the East Gate where you actually get Clan Honor for your troubles.”

  Something tugged at Seiki’s mind. Fuyu had called his friends a rescue team, but he was now starting to suspect that they had not been meant for him, and that he was supposed to be part of the so-called rescue team himself.

  “It’s not a clan war,” he said. “The White Cranes really have something to lose right now.” He took out the piece of post paper he had gotten from Takeru and Aina, which he never had a chance to hand back to them. “It’s a Mumei message to Rieko.”

  Mairin looked at him. “And why do you have… Okay, never mind.”

  Kentaro took the piece of post paper and lowered the tip of his glowing staff toward it for more light. “Well, apparently Mumei writes poetry.” He sounded mildly amused. “Let’s see. The white crane flies west, out on mighty Renkan Range, searching high and low. All right, we’ve got ourselves a haiku…” The houshi suddenly gasped. “Oh, I see what you mean.” He looked up at Seiki. “The White Cranes are out here, with a puzzle poem, looking for treasure.”

  Seiki nodded. “And someone indirectly tipped off the Rogami with this message. Being the opportunists that they are, the Rogami’s here to take it.”

  “No, that makes no sense,” Ippei said. “You find the treasure, you just log out. Or if you don’t find the treasure, you keep the poem, you log out.”

  “That sometimes doesn’t work with the Rogami,” Seiki reminded him.

  “Or if you’re worried about getting ambushed when you log back in, just make a mad dash back to the city. That Hiro guy’s got troops, so if you don’t try to fight, you can probably make it. You know, you just have one person stay back to take a stand. The rest of you can flee, and that will slow people enough that they will never catch you.” Ippei noticed Yamura’s curious look. “And I know this for sure because I’ve done it. Sometimes, you’ve got to run from griefers who are there just to catch you coming out of war instances.”

  “Well,” said Mairin. “What if the White Cranes are trying to run, but they’re… surrounded?”

  “Thanks to RP, Hiro’s called in his debt, and they’ve got the whole Fuoka Army plus all these other people rushing out to create confusion,” Ippei said. “Seriously, Foxy, what difference is another six people going to make?”

  Seiki wondered if the blood debt Eisuke mentioned was the fact that they had forced Hiro to seppuku back before the siege at the White Crane Hall.

  Kentaro was still closely studying the piece of post paper. “What’s this floating ‘fu’ character at the end?”

  “Fuyu?” Mairin wrinkled her nose. “So she’s tipping off the Rogami about the treasure and then she wants us to help the White Cranes?” With a decisive look, she reached into her pocket. “You know what? I’m just going to write to Kiku-chan and ask what it’s all about.”

  Ippei sighed. “Whatever Ichikeya wants you to do, you’re better off doing the complete opposite.”

  “I’ve got to agree with that,” said Seiki, as Mairin let her pigeon fly off. “I’m sure Ichikeya is somehow pulling the strings.”

  They waited for a little longer, with Kiku’s reply failing to arrive, Seiki failing to figure out what Fuyu actually wanted, and Yamura failing to convince everyone to quickly decide on something so they could stop standing uselessly on the side of the road.

  After two more unanswered messages to Kiku, they finally resorted to a vote, which Mairin lost one to five. And so they were soon back on their way toward the hidden cave mouth on the map.

  “But if Kiku writes back that she needs help, I’m going,” Mairin said.

  Still, no pigeon returned as they continued down a side road. After a short while, Kentaro announced that they were close to being where they needed to be.

  Locating the two distinctive rocks and a large pine tree that were marked on the map proved slightly trickier than they expected. Wild climbers had grown over the rocks and the tree was now nothing but a broken trunk, as if it had been struck by lightning a long time ago.

  “Nice touch,” said Kentaro. “It did say ancient map. Of course, it’s going to be
inaccurate.”

  From the markers, they followed a small winding path through a field of tall grass, which had also nearly disappeared under the overgrowth. Here, they dismounted so as not to lose track of the faint dirt trail. Ahead of them, the Renkan Range loomed up dark and foreboding against the night sky, giving the illusion of the location being very remote despite being only a few minutes off the main road.

  Seiki was not sure what to expect of the quest, or whether there was even going to be one at all. But going into an unknown expedition, he was somehow glad for the company of his friends, who were still discussing the morality of the act of picking your battles.

  “Why isn’t she answering me?” Mairin had still not given up and had been sending off further messages to the White Crane obake.

  “Maybe she’s not on,” said Yamura.

  “She is. The last pigeon was a Sasu Locate, and it says she’s around here. It says West Plains - Renkan North, and that’s where we are, right?”

  Yamura shook his head. “Okay, here’s the thing: we’re on some unlabeled quest right now, and that’s huge, and way more important than a stupid clan war.”

  Mairin crossed her arms over her chest. “But if the Rogami comes after you, and you know your friend’s right around the corner, but they didn’t try to do anything, how would you feel?”

  “Okay, I change my vote,” Koharu said. “Mairin’s friends are my friends, and that would suck if it happens to you.”

  Kentaro looked troubled. “Well, if we’re helping them, I’d say we do it discreetly? Like, secret heals from the side or something like that?”

  Mairin smiled. “Thank you! Okay, that’s fifty percent of us.”

  “Oh, please, no,” Ippei said in what almost sounded like a groan.

  “Seiki?” said Mairin brightly as she faced him.

  Her hopeful look was almost enough to sway Seiki, but he still shook his head. “The whole Ichikeya thing is suspicious,” he said. “Last time, I thought I was doing exactly what I wanted to do, but…” He paused as a disturbing thought occurred to him, that maybe the messages were not even meant for him in the first place, but Mairin, since Ichikeya must know about the relationship between the kitsune and the clan. Having no evidence but a hunch, though, he was not sure how to explain.