The music picked up, and the unnerving twang and female shrieking accompanied it like some twisted attempt at a choir. The Koto sounded nothing like itself anymore, its wonderous plucking at the strings seeming possessed and distorted, lacking any guiding melody, but still managing to provide exactly the kind of backdrop you would imagine in this kind of scenario.
Moments passed as I tried to fumble my way to Ginko. Then I heard footsteps. Several of them. From the uneven rhythm, it was clear that several were limping or physically impaired. Suddenly came the swish of a blade flying towards me. I moved backwards just in time to see it pass in front of me and then vanish back into the fog. From the brief glimpse, I could tell it was a Naginata, which gave way to a disturbing realisation. It wasn’t the Weeping Widow attacking me. No, it was the warrior monks.
My lungs were already working overtime and a slight wooziness clouded my mind. I couldn’t afford to use my abilities, not unless I could make them count, and if I exhausted myself here, I’d be dead… or worse.
Another hiss of a blade flying through the dense air caught my attention, but I couldn’t move fast enough as it sliced me across the leg, cutting through my pants and leaving a shallow groove just above my knee. I stabbed my blade at where I thought my assailant might be hiding, feeling the impact of my blade up through its handle and hearing the wet, fleshy sound it made. I’d struck deep into either its torso or head, but then I heard its blade again, and knew that it wouldn’t be that easy. I managed to twirl my body away from the strike, but something suddenly caught me in the back, stabbing my cuirass and pushing me forward. Before I could adjust, a third sword slammed down towards me and I tried to escape its path, but stumbled into something solid, breaking my nose and tearing the skin on my face. I then saw it was one of the stone lanterns I’d hid behind earlier, and I immediately knew where I was.
In a desperate attempt to save myself I turned around and sent forth a cleaving strike with my Quick Draw, feeling the satisfying feedback up through the handle as I carved through the three reanimated monks. But then the wooziness really set in, and I could barely stand on my feet.
Although my attackers should’ve been dead, they continued making sounds like their severed bodies were still trying to move. It’s like I was fighting zombies, I thought to myself. Then wondered what the hell a ‘zombie’ was and why my mind had conjured up such a word.
More shambling footsteps sounded in the distance, though with my vision impaired I couldn’t determine just how far or close they were. But it didn’t matter. I couldn’t even lift my blade above my waist and I had to cling to the lantern just to avoid falling. Slowly, I moved around to the lantern’s other side, hoping the dead-but-still-moving monks wouldn’t find me, though the sounds of them continued to come closer. I didn’t understand how they could see me, or smell me, or whatever the hell they were doing. I cursed my ring, which was supposed to give me an advantage in the dark, but was completely useless when it came to this kind of situation.
“Ginko! Where are you?” I yelled.
Silence.[1]
Well, fuck. This was apparently how I’d go out. I couldn’t say I liked the idea of being slowly chopped to bits, so I started moving away from my cover and towards where I thought the temple building was. If I was gonna die, I didn’t want it to happen while I was cowering pathetically behind a lantern. Plus, I was sure the Widow would kill me faster than her meat puppets could.
As I was crawling across the harsh gravel, which bit into my hands and knees, I bumped into something. My heart froze as I looked up at the silhouette.
“Is that you?” whispered a familiar voice.
Relief washed over me. “Oh, thank the Gods. Where were you?”
“I was looking for you, but I didn’t want to make too much noise, since that seems to attract them.”
Oh. Great… Good thing I’d yelled loud enough that even people outside the temple complex would’ve heard me.
“I can’t do anything, I’m completely out of stamina,” I told him.
“I don’t have anything for that,” Ginko replied.
“I just need some rest.”
“There’s no time for that,” he warned, and a moment later I heard the shambling footsteps on the crunchy gravel only a few metres away. I wondered if he could actually see them through the fog, but didn’t ask.
Just as he’d done earlier, he grabbed me by my shoulder and we hurried towards what I assumed was the main building. The pain in my ribs was a continuous beat of pain, and my broken nose throbbed as though it was an accompanying instrument, while blood tickled my skin as it made its slow progress down my face.
Suddenly, Ginko stopped. I hadn’t realised that he’d lost his cigarette until he withdrew a fresh one from a pocket in his trench coat. He set it to his lips and carefully lit it with a match, acting like he had all the time in the world. A huff, then another, followed by an exhaled plume of mysterious smoke moments later. It flowed from his mouth like tiny tendrils, and little-by-little expanded and cleared the fog around us. He huffed again, the next exhale spreading further, removing more than before. After his third exhale, I could see more than ten metres in any direction, and ahead of us I saw the source of it all. A woman whose body was made of thin grey worms, long hair falling down in front of her face like a veil, and the mirror blade skewering her chest like some extreme body piercing. Flanking her were a score of monks in various states of dismemberment, rocking side-to-side as though the strings that held them upright were slacking now-and-then. I looked over my shoulder and saw two other monks closing in on us. The disappearance of the fog hadn’t seemed to make it easier for them to sense us. It was like they were blind.
“What should we do?” I whispered to Ginko.
“Do you see her?”
“I do, why?”
“Her body is made up of the Mushi, but she is still connected to the sword. Severing that connection might kill her.”
“And how do you propose we do that? I can barely lift my own sword as it is. Can’t you do it?”
“I told you, I’m not a fighter.”
“Right, you did say that.”
“Maybe you could pull it out of her body?”
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“Really? That’s your plan??”
“I don’t see any other way.”
I sighed in response. “When I die, I swear I’ll haunt you.”
At this point, a modicum of stamina had replenished. It likely wasn’t enough to afford even a single sword swing, but I figured I had enough to at least cover the distance to the Weeping Widow before the shambling corpses could reach us.
“Wish me luck,” I said, and wrenched myself free from his grip.
I stumbled for a second before regaining my balance, then stowed my sword away in my inventory and willed my body to move, before setting off in a sprint.[2] My whole body felt heavy, almost like the gravity of this World had tripled, but I continued closing the distance. I caught a quick glimpse behind me of Ginko wrestling with an unarmed monk whose head looked like a split watermelon, but I didn’t stop.
Four steps, three, two, one, and I was there, both my hands seizing the handle of the Weeping Blade. I tried to yank it out of the Widow’s body, which pulsated with the movements of the worm-like hairs, but it was no use. Then a roar sounded from her head,[3] its sound completely alien to my ears, and I wondered distantly if the Mushi were trying to replicate her voice. My train of thought was forcefully interrupted as a powerful hand struck me in the chest.
Wind brushed my hair as I flew across the courtyard. The air in my lungs tasted like fire and I couldn’t breathe. There was another roar in the distance and, as I slammed hard into the ground, I heard metal clang next to me. My own reflection stared back at me from the mirror-like blade, its face was a bloody mess. I blinked once, and everything went dark.
When I came to, Ginko was looking at the sword next to me. Poking it with a stick as though it was a dead animal he’d found.
“Are you okay?” he asked with his back turned. It didn’t really sound like he cared.
I took a deep breath and coughed a lot. It hurt like hell when my lungs pushed against my ribcage.
“What… happened…?” I managed to croak out. Gods, my voice sounded like a mess.
Next to me lay my beautiful, dark cuirass. Its front had a groove along its length and was more like a bowl, thanks to a newly-formed deep dent that should’ve crushed my torso. How Ginko had managed to get it off me was a mystery, but then, his whole nature was strange to begin with, so I didn’t linger on the question for long.
“When you pulled the blade from its body, the monks all collapsed and the Mushi turned to stone again. She is still standing over there, if you want to take a look,” he explained, pointing to some place I couldn’t see from where I lay.
“Did…”
“Yeah, you did it. It looks like the sword has become inert. I think the spirit left the safety of the blade to try and defend itself. How it managed to control the Mushi is still a mystery though. Usually, it’s the other way around.”
I blinked in response.
“Give me a moment, it should be done shortly.” I didn’t know what he was talking about, but a minute later he brought a cup with scalding tea to my lips and, even though it cauterised my tongue and the roof of my mouth, I immediately felt its healing properties take hold. Heat flowed across my body, erasing the pain in my chest and numbing my throbbing nose. With my every heartbeat I felt increasingly stronger and energised, until I was able to rise to a sitting position. The wooziness was pushed back, but still remained like smoke in the depths of my skull. My broken ribs and nose didn’t heal themselves together, but also didn’t hurt as much when I breathed in-and-out. Pain was replaced with a soreness like the one following a long workout.
“What is that?”
“Tea.”
“Yeah, but what kind of tea?”
“The healing kind.”
“Ugh… whatever.” I could’ve used something like that in the future, but if he wasn’t sharing, I’d just have to try to figure it out myself. I could potentially make some kind of numbing and energising potion from the plant he’d used.
“So, what now?” Ginko asked me.
“I need to bring this the Lady, as proof of our success,” I explained, gesturing towards the mirror blade.
“Okay. I will remain here for now, in case more of these Mushi appear. I will go see her later for my payment.”
“Suit yourself,” I replied. I wondered if there would still be monks fighting with the Vermilion force beyond this temple complex and how they’d react to the Mushishi and the scene around us. I also wasn’t sure if Ginko could manage to find his way to the hidden village by himself, but then again, maybe he was more capable than I gave him credit for.
“Don’t get yourself killed,” I told him.
“Shouldn’t I be the one to say that?” he commented smartly.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” I replied, while picking up the inert blade and my ruined cuirass.
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‘The Weeping Blade (inert)’
-Melee Weapon-
Sword > Two-handed > Katana
“Once possessed by a mournful and vindictive wraith, this blade is now an inert sword with a dulled edge and tarnished sheen.”
Equip
Discard
Weight: 1.4 kilos
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I felt a shift in my stamina and movement speed as the additional weight of the sword increased my inventory weight and put me in a higher weight group. My movement speed was lowered to Modest and my stamina capacity was set to seventy percent, down from eight-five. Additionally, without the cuirass on my body, my armour rating fell from Modest to Low.
As I headed for the exit, I noticed that the music had finally stopped. There would be no more surprises it seemed.
The sight that greeted me beyond the temple gate was an unsettling one. The impoverished town, which had prior to our arrival been thronging with malnourished residents, was now completely desolated. There were a few sounds of fighting beyond the gate at the other end, through which, it seemed, the residents had fled. I didn’t blame them. They’d been used by the monks to sate the Weeping Blade and whatever fate that awaited them beyond the walls likely couldn’t be worse than what they’d already experienced.
I decided to not interfere with whatever fight was still taking place between the remaining monks and the Vermilion warriors. Whether or not this place remained in the hands of the warrior monks or was conquered by the bloodthirsty Reds was all the same to me. My job was done, and I was too injured to even consider taking on another opponent before I’d had time to rest.
A nagging ping sounded from somewhere deep within my ear. It seemed my hard work had at least earnt me something besides a useless blade and a broken body.
Before leaving the now desolate town I found a dark corner in-between two houses and pulled up my skill menu. The glowing line, which showed my weapon experience, had reached ‘Level 5’, which held a new set of divergent paths. My choice of new skills was either ‘Deflect’ or ‘Feint’. Their explanations were self-explanatory: “Deflect incoming attacks”, and “Feint an attack to mislead your opponent.” I could technically already do either of these things, but clearly my form was way off and acquiring either of them would make me far more effective at using the skill. Feinting was quite a useful tool, but perhaps more of a skill to use against players, whereas deflecting would be more of a universal tool at my disposal, and, considering I couldn’t block with my weapon, I chose this skill. As I clicked ‘Accept’, knowledge flooded my mind and the ability was stored in my muscles as though I’d always known how to pull it off.
When I was ready to finally leave the temple village, I climbed up-and-over the same section of wall that I’d entered from. The doghouse-like abode nearby was vacant just like the rest of this place. My sore body protested as I grabbed hold and pulled myself up, while my aching chest felt like an open wound whenever I accidentally grazed it along the stone. Once on the other side, I started making my way back. Though, to be honest, I had no idea exactly how I’d get back, as I couldn’t remember what path Hayato and I had trekked. Then I realised, to my own embarrassment, that I had a map…
There were several roads that led back to the Azure village, but I decided to take the long route, which avoided the majority of the Nijigahara forest by crossing through farmland. I’d had enough of the rainbow-coloured forest and, honestly, a change in scenery felt needed right about now.
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[1] Well, ‘silence’. There were still the footsteps, background music, and the ambient wind-and-rain.
[2] Let’s be honest, it was more of a jog, really.
[3] Or rather, the lump of worms that was supposed to look like a head, though it lacked eyes, nose, ears, and mouth…