As I came within sight of Koike Rakuen’s façade, I saw a person emerging from within. She too locked eyes with me, and we both just stood there awkwardly for a while, staring at one-another. She wore a red-and-white kimono with the white serving as the background and the red overlaying it in various shapes, such as birds and random swirls. Her hair was done up in a top-bun with two bone-white chopsticks skewering it and her face was mostly round, with large green eyes and plump apple-cheeks. If it hadn’t been for the green eyes, I probably would’ve thought she was just another NPC.
“Are you staying here?” she asked.
“I just got a room yesterday,” I answered.
“I thought I heard someone else enter!” she then replied excitedly. “I’m Sunflower, what’s your name?”
Two encounters with other players in one day… what are the odds?
“I’m Aiko,” I replied.
She suddenly got closer to me, and we both ended up standing partly in the middle of the wide road, with the traffic of carts and people diverging around us as though we were boulders in a stream.
“Aiko, can you help me?”
Uh oh… “What with?”
“I’m stuck on the Duel Stage and can’t beat it by myself.”
This smells like a trap. Don’t fall for it!
“I… uh… I prefer to fight alone,” I lied.
‘Sunflower’ looked very dejected at my answer and I suddenly felt really bad. “Okay, fine, I’ll help you, but only because I just unlocked that Stage myself.”
She suddenly perked up, and I couldn’t help but feel like I’d just been duped. Considering what I’d been told about PKers joining other people’s party to kill them, I decided that I needed to ensure she was legit.
“I would like to invite you to my group, do you agree to join?”
“I agree,” Sunflower responded, with the same kind of robotic cadence I’d used. We both then bowed at each other, and a chime sounded in my ear to let me know I’d entered a party.
Just like when I’d teamed up with Jakob and Patrik, I saw that Sunflower was listed in my team, although this time I had the crown next to my name, since I’d created the party. Where it showed our progress, both of us had ‘Duel on the Hill’.
So far so good.
“Before we go anywhere, I need you to show me I can trust you.”
She looked up at me,[1] her big green eyes swallowing up my view. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know! You can trust me, Aiko!”
This girl sounds sketchy as hell!
“Tell me what ability the Watcher gave you when you beat the first World.”
“…Oh,” she said. My request had given her pause, but that was my intention, since I knew from my own experience that the Watcher ability was made to make a mockery of a player’s life and experiences.
Eventually, Sunflower came to a decision. “Do you mind if we talk about this inside?” she asked, pointing back to the inn.
Internally, I was stressing out about missing the deadline for the Duel Stage, but I relented and followed her into the cool interior of the luxurious establishment.
We ended up finding a seat in the centre section next to the pond, where one Koi fish had emerged victorious and the water had calmed. Part of me felt slightly paranoid, since we were surrounded by windows on every side, and anyone within, whether on the first or second floor, could watch us.
“It’s called ‘Alienation’, my Watcher skill,” she started. “For ten seconds, everyone around you ignores your presence and you can move unseen,” she continued, reading its description aloud.
I ran a hand down my face in exasperation. “That’s horrible,” I replied.
“Yea… I think it was given to me because I was bullied in high school in this exact same way. I also grew up as a middle child in a family of five children, so being ignored was pretty common for me…”
“Sorry I made you recount that,” I replied. “I feel kind of like an asshole now. I can tell you what mine does, if it makes you feel better.”
In the pond, the remaining Koi fish was prodding the remains of its mate, who lay turned upside-down, its flippers shredded. Man… this world is fucked…
“That’s okay, Aiko. You don’t have to.”
“Alright then, let’s go to this Duel Stage. By the way, you wouldn’t happen to know where it takes place, would you?”
Sunflower laughed, but I saw tears in the corners of her eyes.
After finding us a horse, which I paid for, Sunflower guided us to a section of this World I hadn’t yet visited, which lay to the west of the Lady’s hidden village, almost directly opposite the Namida-jinja in the east. On my map overview, the great expanse of the Nijigahara forest lay as a barrier before the area, and I was unable to see past it.
I rode in front and she clung to me as we made our way out the city. While riding towards the crimson fields, she told me that she’d only survived the previous Stage by using her unique Alienation skill and she’d failed in her objective to neutralise the Weeping Blade, because Ginko had died. As a result, the Duel for her was a way to make amends with the Lady. It was interesting to me that despite us being given the same Stage, our motives behind them were vastly different. It made me wonder just how many different paths one could take through the Stages.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
When she told me that she used a shortbow, I hoped that she’d be able to provide the same kind of back-up that Hanada had during the first Stage of this World. However, given her self-deprecating nature, I seriously doubted her abilities.
My heart started pounding with the anticipation of a fight when we reached the crimson fields, and I kept an eye out for any farmer who seemed overly interested in my passing. Although I’d dealt with Genzō’s strawman for the bounty, I doubted that any would-be assassins were that easily deterred, and, for all I knew, there might’ve been other bounty sponsors.
As the end to the scarlet fields came into view, I breathed a sigh of relief. The duel, to which we were heading, was sure to be a challenge enough by itself, and fighting off another ambush would’ve been an unwelcome waste of my stamina and time. I wanted to show up fully prepared and in peak condition, so that the chances of me sustaining another serious injury[2] would be slimmer.
Open ground covered the few metres between the waving fields and the wall of trees belonging to the Nijigahara forest. As though triggered by a switch, rain fell in thick drops as soon as our horse reached the edge of the forest, and the journey westward was accompanied by the familiar Shakuhachi flute and the sound of rain showering the canopies above. Occasionally, the red droplets found their way into the forest proper, splattering dramatically onto the understory around me in tiny explosions of water.
I pinned my focus on the back of my mount’s head, where the mane flowed in its galloping frenzy, and time seemed to pass by in an instant, as my blurred rainbow-coloured surroundings flew past. I distantly noticed that Sunflower’s grip on me tightened as well. It seemed it wasn’t just me who this forest oppressed with it radiant rainbow splendour.
When light broke through the endless trees in the distance, I snapped to attention and surveyed my map. In what had felt like only a few minutes, we’d cleared the forest and reached a vast open field, where once trees had stood, but now only stumps and tiny sprigs dotted the grassy earth nearest the treeline. Leftover charred husks of trees and houses, as well as scorched earth, occupied a large portion of the space, with a field of red Higanbana at the far western end and an expansive azure Tsukikusa field carpeting most of the eastern section. Possibly natural or perhaps man-made, a hill stood in the midst of these two opposing colours, the only highpoint amidst a mostly-barren No Man’s Land. At its crest, a tall, pale, and gnarled tree cast its limbs into the air like twisted fingers on a hand, all reaching for the sun that hid behind sombre grey clouds. The rain, which had been a constant companion throughout our journey through the forest, was now gratefully absent.
As we neared the hill, I spotted a large scar, where the pale wood had darkened as though black sap had oozed from the wound and become a permanent fixture, and I got the impression that it was an old scar, but perhaps not older than the civil war.
Only a few metres from the rising slope, I dismounted and helped Sunflower down, then we left our horse untied at the foot of the hill, praying that the duel wouldn’t scare it away.
“Now entering Stage ‘Duel on the Hill’.” A rising beat of Taiko drums started building, growing louder and more fervent with my progress up the hill. Before long, my heart was matching its powerful rhythm.
Sunflower hung back, having switched into a light-armoured version of the Azure Samurai’s armour, which made it easier for her to operate the shortbow in her hands. From its design, I could tell it was something she’d found in the previous World. It, unfortunately, looked to be a completely bog-standard shortbow, lacking any traits whatsoever. She hadn’t said anything when I donned my armour and cloak, which I was simultaneously grateful for, but also perplexed by.
Beneath the twisted branches stood a crimson man, and crimson was truly the only way to describe him. Cold, serious eyes tracked my approach up the hillside from beneath a wide-rimmed red helmet with large antlers and a neck-guard attached to it. Unlike the first Vermilion Samurai I’d fought, he did not wear a demonic mask, and his battle-hardened face and muscle-lined throat were fully exposed beneath the rim of his helm. He wore a loose red coat over his Samurai Dō, its peaked shoulders partially covering the wide shoulder plates. His gauntlets, greaves, and lower-body armour were all the same spotless red lacquer on top and no doubt backed by a leather and iron mesh beneath, which I knew from experience was difficult to penetrate, despite the wicked sharpness of my blade. The fact that this man wore all red, despite the black countenance of his faction, showed that he was either brave[3] enough to single himself out on the battlefield or skilled enough to have earned the right to wear his bloodred suit. One might have thought that this man was an overly-decorated mercenary, if not for the black Higanbana insignia that marked his armour on every available surface, as though part of some cursed ritual.
Although his appearance was foreboding enough by itself, it didn’t unsettle me quite as much as the incredibly-tall Jūmonji Yari planted in the ground next to him: a veritable banner of death if he knew how to use it. The cross-like blades that formed its spearpoint had long red-glowing grooves running along their cutting edges and seemed to pulsate in sync with the drum of my heart. I understood now why Fury had warned me about this boss. It seemed prudent to avoid his blade at all cost, which unfortunately meant that I couldn’t put my newest skill to the test against him lest I had my stamina sapped away.
“It seems you have some sense of honour, despite being a mercenary dog…” he said, ignoring Sunflower altogether.
“I wouldn’t let down one of my admirers,” I replied mockingly, while hastily attaching two of my four healing potions to my new sash, from which my ‘Passing Breeze’ already hung.
“I admire one such as you, as much as a peasant admires the meal he consumes every day.” To be honest, I hadn’t expected a proper response from this guy, but it seemed his range of replies was far broader than the average NPC’s.
“How about we just start killing each other already?”
“Indeed, let our blades do the talking.”
Nobushige lifted the enormous spear from the ground and spun it around twice before levelling the point at me. It seemed he’d let me make the first move, as though some sort of courtesy. So, I cleared my blade of its scabbard and held it angled towards him.
When I took my first step forward, he suddenly fired his spear at me, letting its length glide through his grip as it shot towards me. As though I’d predicted it, I jumped back, just barely out of reach, and he caught the shaft in his hand and swung the spear around himself as he charged me, immediately returning his grip to its centre point with such efficiency that it briefly made me self-aware of how rough and messy my own style was. I weaved my body under his spear, leapt over it on the next pass, then closed the distance and stabbed my own blade at his abdomen. A quick spin with the non-stop momentum of his spear had him slapping my blade out and away before I could even adjust, and I was forced to retreat backwards as he fired a series of jabs at first my legs, then torso, and finally my head. As soon as there was an opening I pushed again, without even really considering why, and that was when I realised. I’d fallen into that battle trance of mine without even noticing. I was dancing the Dance of Death, with the sword in my hand as my partner.
----------------------------------------
[1] I was at least a head above her in height.
[2] …or several.
[3] Read: foolish.