The floorboards creaked as someone made their way towards me, and I basically jumped awake, my sword instantly in my hand, without me really knowing how.
“Mornin’ to you too,” I heard Fury reply.
“Fucking hell, you scared the shit out of me!” I realised a bit late that the point of my blade was hovering only a finger’s breadth from his exposed neck.
“You mind?” he asked, eyes dodging towards the cold obsidian still occupying the space between us.
I sighed and scabbarded ‘Passing Breeze’. “I hate this place,” I complained, grumpy thanks to my poor sleep, growling stomach, and stiff neck.
“Here,” Fury replied, handing me an onigiri. “I still have some of the food Ismail left behind.”
The onigiri was the best thing I’d ever tasted in my life. The rice was perfect, and the contrast between the—
Okay, it was food, and I was hungry…[1]
“Our horse is outside, and we can leave whenever you want,” Fury stated, before I even had the chance to ask.
“Let’s leave now then.”
Our return trip to Kakon-shi was faster than the trip to the secluded village, though this was mostly due to my constant urging that Fury go faster. When the city finally came into view, the sun was halfway through its journey towards the horizon and the horse was frothing at the mouth from exhaustion. Had we ridden all the way to the Azure village, it would likely have collapsed somewhere in the middle of the forest. Granted, there was nothing waiting for me in the village anymore…
We left our horses with a shabby-looking stablemaster outside the city and, as we made our way through the slums, a messenger clad in lightweight jet-black armour, with the Magnolia flower on his chestpiece, ran up to us.
“The commander wishes to see you at the temple palace. It is urgent.”
“You got it, chief,” I replied in a lazy, uninterested tone. I wasn’t in any hurry to please the new master of the city, after all, I didn’t owe him anything. Fury gave me a bit of a stink-eye, to which I responded with a pointed tongue.
“You’re making a farce of this World’s story and characters,” he pointed out.
“It must really bother you.”
“It does.”
I smiled deviously, “Imagine staying partnered up with me and having to deal with it every day.”
“I’ve already mentally prepared myself for that.”
“Oh, I’ve only gotten started.”
He laughed, “Show me what you got.”
We decided to make our way to the palace formerly home to the White Tiger, though we weren’t in that much of a hurry, since we’d just returned from a long journey and were quite exhausted. But, despite being tired, we both sought to wrap up this World.
Fury handed me another onigiri as we neared the end of the Noble District.
“Thanks,” I replied. “So, do you know what this is about?”
“If I had to guess? I’d say it’s the prelude to the next World. Perhaps some kind of thing to establish the main premise of what we’ll have to deal with. Like how Captain Tabian introduced this World.”
“Hmm.”
As we followed the bridge across the large pond, I noticed that new flowers had been planted in the water, and rather than just one flower, there were several, even white lotuses which were symbolic of the White Tiger. To say the inclusion was strange, would be an understatement. Likewise, the garden was overflowing with life in a myriad of colours. It was impossible to imagine that anything could’ve grown in the two days that the Black Tortoise clan had been in charge, but I simply took it as a very overt sign of the clan’s healthy influence on the region. Besides, to quote the mysterious Ginko, Time was a convoluted entity in this realm of the Watcher.
At the end of the bridge two guards stood watch. They were fully clad in heavy jet-black armour with the carapace-like layers I’d seen the Samurai wear inside the Vermilion camp two days prior. I wondered if their exposed heads were meant to be a tribute of their clan’s namesake animal or if it was perhaps a way for them to appear more human than if they’d worn demon masks and helmets adorned with horns like the Vermilion and Azure Samurai. It at least seemed quite different to the White Tigers, who, I was very sure, had remained helmless as a show of fearlessness.
“Afternoon,” the guards greeted us in unison, which was peculiar. Part of my cynical mind considered it a tad bit too friendly, bordering on the edge of being suspiciously so. I looked to Fury for guidance, but he seemed completely unfazed by it, though I could’ve sworn he’d puffed himself up a bit so that his armour seemed more impressive on his somewhat-slender frame.
“Lord Genbu awaits you within,” the guard on the right informed us.
When we passed through the bridge gate, they both stomped their tall, ornate black spears in the ground three times, likely to announce our arrival, or to spring the trap that I was fairly sure lay in wait for us. But… all that awaited us beyond the wall was a patrol of two guards stopping to bow their heads before continuing along their route. We crossed the courtyard that surrounded the palace itself, and I could still recall how the white stones had been slick with the blood of its defenders. Unlike that day, the massive wooden gate was flung wide-open, and though another set of guards watched its entrance, we weren’t halted when we tried to pass through.
The interior, which had been almost entirely unfurnished during the assault, was filled with furniture and colourful partitions, which created small sections for cooking food, eating said food, sleeping, storing armour and weapons, etc. The walls too were brimming with ink paintings, banners, masks, and the like. Even though I knew the temple palace was the same that’d belonged to the silver-tongued Lord Byakko, it felt like an entirely different building.
We crossed the wooden floor to the centre of the palace, where the strange room still remained, but through its open door I saw that it was no longer a private prayer room and now instead functioned as a command centre, wherein Lord Genbu was receiving messengers and directing his forces through proxies. A messenger was finishing up his report just as we came to the threshold of the open door.
“… Lastly, we have located twenty-seven civilians in a hidden village, thought to be the former residence of the Azure clan.” The announcement of their discovery made my heart skip a beat.
“Good. Instruct the men to repeat the same procedure as with the Vermilion encampment and report back to me when you are done.”
“Yes, sir!” The messenger hurried from the room.
“Tying up loose ends?” I commented sharply. Executing hostile warriors was just how wars went, but slaughtering civilians was inexcusable.
Lord Genbu looked at me with not a speck of compassion in his eyes. “Yes. Non-combatants are integral to restoring peace and mending ties between the clans. They are often the ones most sympathetic to peace talks, due to them bearing first-hand witness to the atrocities committed by their kin.”
Well, damn, these are the good guys…
“You are doing a very admirable thing,” Fury said. I could tell he was very pleased with the outcome of all of this, and perhaps it alleviated any misgivings he might’ve had about turning his back on the Vermilion clan. I still wasn’t so sure. The sight of Hayato reaching for the Lady’s dead body, while he was himself dying, still haunted me. I knew the Azure clan hadn’t been good, but they had been my clan, whose respect and friendship I’d gained.
“I am simply following the guidance of my late grandfather. He is the architect behind this plan of great prosperity.”
“So? Why did you call for us?” I finally asked.
Reimei fixed me with those serious eyes of his. “I have a matter of great urgency that I must implore you to undertake. A research expedition is being launched into an old, faraway part of our territory with which we have lost contact. The expedition is led by an ally of my grandfather, who personally sought my assistance, however, as I currently have no capable men to spare, and you two are the most talented warriors I know, I would greatly appreciate it if you could lend your aid to this mission in my stead. The preliminary reports say that some manner of infestation has completely eradicated dozens of villages and that the people who return from there are no longer sane, as though a sickness have turned them feral. Worst of all is that this infestation is spreading and may soon reach our borders.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
I didn’t even get a second to think before Fury enthusiastically replied, “It shall be done!” He then looked at me like an eager puppy knowing it was about to go play outside.
“I guess we’ll do it…” I followed, apprehensively. I really didn’t like the word ‘infestation’, nor the idea that I’d have to fight people who’d gone ‘feral’…
“I am pleased to hear this,” the Lord replied, his face entirely void of emotion. If this was how he looked when he was pleased, I’d hate to see what his face looked like when he was angry…
“How do we get there?”
“Outside the southern part of the city a Goshoguruma[2] will await you.”
Fury looked at me with the same incredulity as shone visibly on my face, but neither of us protested it. He gave me a shrug and a confused smile, which I personally interpreted as, “Par for the course with this nonsensical realm.”
When we’d made our final preparations and the sun was painting the clouds in auburn, amber, and pink hues, we found ourselves at the southern outskirts of the city. I realised I’d never been to this specific area, but it was nothing of great interest, just another part of the Residential District. I had unsuccessfully tried to track down Sunflower, but, after looking at the map I saw that she was within the Koike Rakuen inn, and I was quite sure I couldn’t just waltz through the front door without paying, so I hoped she’d forgive me.
A tall wooden marker, similar to those found on gravesites, was planted solidly in the ground on the side of the large road that stretched to Morinaka Village and beyond.
A large raindrop slapped against the top of my head, startling me out of my distracted gaze at the marker. Then another partially collided with my nose, before suddenly a shower hammered down upon us, sending tiny gravel particles flying around our feet, and playing a simple backdrop that easily fit the ever-present melody of the Shakuhachi flute.
Despite the overwhelming volume of the rain, the approach of thunderous hooves was distinctly audible and, moments later, a tattered, perhaps-centuries-old Goshoguruma drawn by a dark-grey musclebound ox of freakish proportion skidded to a halt in front of us, ploughing a fifteen-metre-long skidmark in the road behind it. I found the lack of any guiding attendants to be rather ominous, but, nevertheless, Fury and I quickly got inside the tiny box-on-wheels, which might once have been hand-painted in elaborate patterns or decorated with an Emperor’s favourite bird, but now retained none of its former glory, as all but a few parts of the paint on the walls had peeled off. The carriage had only been made to fit one person, which made it quite claustrophobic with the two of us inside, but once we figured out a proper distribution of the available space, it wasn’t the worst seating-experience possible. Although, perhaps Fury did feel slightly undignified having to sit on my lap…
Just before we closed the decaying bamboo blinds, I realised that the puddles that’d formed from the rain were translucent and not the crimson that I’d come to associate with rain in this World. I was just about to point it out to Fury, when the blinds shut and that familiar rush and feeling of freefalling pulled any available air from my lungs.
While rainbow colours swam through the box, only to be extinguished by darkness, before reappearing seconds later, Fury turned and looked at me. He grabbed hold of my hand and was just about to say something, but then—
“Now leaving World ‘The Fields of Red’.”
The uncomfortable-and-yet-familiar void swallowed me, my consciousness ripped from my body and drawn to this place ‘between’ Worlds. Like a rising tide, a voice built all around me. It warbled as its volume ebbed and flowed, and I could’ve sworn a melody played with every spoken word:
You have rarely betrayed expectations and this is no exception. I have watched you and you have performed well. As promised, here is your reward:
I blinked my heavy eyelids open. “Beep” said the machine to my left. It repeated itself a moment after.
My back was sore, possibly from lying in this overly-soft bed for too long. But the entirety of my body was sore though, in the way that a fever makes you ache all the way down to your bones.
I swallowed once, my throat feeling incredibly dry and my tongue adhering to the inside of my cheek like Velcro. My vision was a slurry of colours and lights at first, and my body felt as though it was floating, even though I knew I was grounded in this bed.
My vision stabilised shortly after, and I started flexing the fingers of my right hand, where silvery-white criss-cross scars marring the forearm rolled with the motion of my tendons. The mind-addling drugs in my system were making even the use of my fingers a difficult task.
I carefully swivelled my head left, to my other hand to repeat the exercise.
Oh.
Bandages and ugly stitches covered everything from below the palm of my hand to the hollow of my elbow. I tried to move the fingers, but they didn’t respond to my command.
A hand settled on my right leg, or maybe it’d been there the entire time and I just now noticed. I looked up, tracing the arm to its owner.
“...Shinohara-sensei...?” My voice was crackly and wispy. I could really use some water, I thought absently.
Shinohara looked up at me, her usually-stern expression traded-out with one of concern, but with a glimmer of hope twinkling in her eyes. Or maybe they were tears.
Behind her, through the window in the wall, snow was lazily drifting down to earth, and the sky was dark.
“You’re in a hospital,” she explained matter-of-factly. “You were lucky I found you before it was too late.”
I looked back to my left hand and the mess it’d become, realising what’d happened.
Oh.
I batted a mosquito from the air, feeling the clammy humidity coil around me like an unwanted blanket in the heat of summer. In front of me, a party of people were walking through what looked like a jungle, and I didn’t really question where I was or who they were, even though, now that I thought about it, I couldn’t really say.
Then a rush of air flooded my ears and nose, like some kind of strange wind only I could feel, and I dropped to my knees with a gasp.
“Holy shit.”
I looked around in panic. “Where the hell am I??”
My party didn’t seem to notice, but just continued trudging through the jungle.
“FURY!?” I yelled.
No response.
“Fuck.”
I opened my ‘Friendlist’ and saw that Fury was still on it, and, from the location available, I saw that it said: “The Wandering Forest”. The ‘Show on Map’ button showed him almost exactly on top of my own marker, though I couldn’t see him. Lastly, ‘Group Functions’ revealed that we were still in a group together. This doesn’t make any sense… why can’t I see him?
Then I remembered the reward I’d been given. I instinctively looked to my left forearm and then my right, imagining the silverly scars that would’ve been there in the real world. This memory hurt more than the first, because I vividly remembered how no one but my homeroom teacher, Shinohara-sensei, had been there in the hospital. Neither my mother nor my father, nor any of my classmates for that matter, had come to see me. But Shinohara, she had been there for me when no one else was.
From that memory sprouted other ones, as if it was a lamp in the darkness that clouded my recollection of the past, casting light on things nearby. I’d gone on to study to be a teacher because of Shinohara, because I had wanted to be there for students struggling just like I had. She had been a major pillar in my life as a high school student and young adult. My major in university had been history, but apart from that, I couldn’t recall anything about my job as a teacher.
He’s saving that for later… I realised with dismay. Only two of my core memories returned to me and I already knew the pattern of the Watcher. He would hold on to the worst memories I had and return them to me when it would hurt the most.
Alongside the memory was also another Watcher Ability, which appeared in the third tab of my progression menu. It was called ‘大姫蜘蛛’[3]and its description read: “You can sense the presence and movement of anyone within a radius of thirty metres for a minute.”
The ability was definitely strong, but now that I knew the memory sacrificed to use one of these abilities was permanently lost, I felt it didn’t matter how strong the abilities were, since I could unintentionally gimp my entire fighting style if I forgot how to wield a sword, or walk, or whatever other necessary skill the Watcher found it amusing to rob from me in exchange.
For a while I stood there, within the dense jungle, wondering why on earth my new ability had such a mundane name, but then I put two-and-two together and realised it was a twisted way of saying I was like a house spider: an unwanted pest in a home, in this case my parents’ home. I mattered as much to them as something that lived in the corner of the ceiling and ate flies.
This bastard Watcher sure doesn’t hold any punches…
As I looked up ahead, I saw that the train of people had moved quite far and, afraid of being abandoned in the jungle on my own, I ran to catch up to my party. I immediately noted how they were bringing a ridiculous amount of supplies with them, not to mention animals such as dogs, and even chickens in cages. I’d figure out how to meet up with Fury again, once I came to a city, and part of me wondered if this was actually by design, and if I was meant to be introduced to this new World on my own.
After a few minutes, the party stopped, and I moved to the front of the train of people to see what was going on. A stout man, probably in his late fifties, with a thick greying moustache, tanned skin, and clad in very European-styled buttoned-up white-and-black-striped shirt, durable woollen pants, a beige pith hat,[4] and round glasses, was addressing the crowd, who slowly gathered around him. Behind him was the remains of a house that looked strangely Japanese in style, though with clear influences from other cultures too.
“Senhoras e senhores, finalmente estamos aqui,” he announced in Portuguese.[5] I realised this man was the leader of this exploration, and the one who’d sought assistance from Lord Genbu.
The assembled crowd cheered, and the air was suddenly filled with the pleasant melody of a guitar playing a wonderous tune that to me emanated the desire to explore the unknown and chart the depths of this jungle within which I now found myself.
“Now entering World ‘The Wandering Forest’.”
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[1] Though, to be fair, it did taste like it had just been made a minute before I ate it, as though the inventory system was like the ultimate save-it-for-later leftover-food storage-box, which preserved everything in some kind of time-ignorant eight-dimension wormhole. So much for realism, ey?
[2] Translates to “Imperial Cart/Coach”. It isn’t exactly the sort transport that’s meant for speed nor long-distance travel, as it’s drawn by an ox that has to be guided by attendants. In Medieval Japan it was the only type of animal-drawn carriage in existence, as the idea of horse-drawn wagons wasn’t introduced until after contact with the United States were established. Also, this sort of transport was normally meant for the Emperor, Empress, or important Aristocrats, so it was strange to think that we’d be riding in one, but, it made more sense than a cross-country rickshaw…
[3] Pronounced “Ōhimegumo”, literally meaning “Large Princess Spider” but translated as “Common House Spider”.
[4] I know, very jungle explorer cliché, but it didn’t look half-bad.
[5] “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are finally here.”