“Wait, wait, wait. Run that back for me, would ya?” Natsuko said.

Her forgotten New Imperian iced tea dribbled condensation onto the marble countertop. The others had gathered around Shuixing as she tried to put into words what was a purely emotional realization. It would take some time before her theory could be packaged into an easily transferable version.

“There is nothing outside the “Mist”," Shuixing said. "And there is no “Entropic Axis.” Everything in Po-Lin, or rather Po-Lin itself, is constructed by the Yishang, and they have done so towards an end which is undeniably the increase of whoever or whatever these “Celestials” are. This is why physics only works in ways which are convenient to further adventuring, such as corpses and debris dissolving. Everything that occurs in our world is under their control to ensure that the total number of Celestials always goes up. The individual numbers, our numbers, don’t matter at all. Only the total.”

The jovial atmosphere was gone. No more funny stories, no more celebrations of triumph, they were all listening to Shuixing’s theory with the uncomfortable awareness that it was both distressing and crucial to hear.

“So, when Baran said the total number of Celestials went up because of the permanent deaths of Heroes and the hunt for the killers…” Pechorin said, trailing off to allow Shuixing the honor of elaborating.

“Forced dimension-jumping wasn’t an accident,” Shuixing said. “They wanted us to discover it precisely to set up this event. If the Celestials enjoy the blood sport, the total number goes up despite us individually being killed. Further, it might be the case that they can re-summon us after all and that they choose not to because it would ruin their special event.”

Daisy gasped and covered her face. “Oh gods… they gave Natsu her bottle on purpose.”

Shuixing nodded. “Which is also why Zhidao made sure to give her another one when Pechorin shattered the first. And if Hemiola, and for now I think we have to believe Natsuko, stole my research on behalf of the Yishang, it’s because they wanted the ability to make FDJ weapons to disseminate to the other Heroes to stoke conflict.”

“But it didn’t,” Pechorin added. “What do you make of that?”

“It’s possible Hemiola rebelled and is doing what he’s doing for his own reasons. That part I haven’t figured out yet. I suppose we would have to ask him.”

“Good idea,” Sofiane said. “Next time he shows up to blow us into pieces, we’ll put our hands up and say, “hey, wanna monologue about your motives instead?””

Natsuko punched him in the arm to get him to stop being snarky.

Daisy’s hands finally went down and uncovered her face. It was bright red in embarrassment. “Where do I fit into all of this? Zhidao told me to go to Vermögenburgh, after all. It must’ve been for a reason.”

“I think…” Shuixing hesitated for a moment. “We are approaching the end of what I can empirically falsify, but I believe they may have planted the bottle with Natsuko after she had become irrelevant knowing that she, for a variety of reasons, was unlikely to use it on other Heroes, and that I, who lived with her, would want to reverse engineer it. I don’t know what is going on between the Yishang and the Celestials, who influences who, but I believe that the Yishang do not openly intercede in our world because it would displease the Celestials. I think they may enjoy the fact that we are theoretically acting of our own accord in the Yishang’s playground. Hence why the Yishang prefer to conduct their business through the gentle nudging of Peng-wu, rather than telling us how we’re supposed to act and—”

Shuixing coughed from talking too much. Her body didn’t have as much stamina as her mind. Pechorin offered her some of his beer to wash her throat down with. She gulped and then shuddered at the taste.

“Dreadful stuff. Why did the Yishang even bother to invent it?” Shuixing asked.

“Shui,” Pechorin said.

“Hmm?”

“Daisy’s role?”

“Ah, oh! Right! Sorry, I have a million things going through my head and the wires are starting to cross,” Shui said, talking at a rapid fire pace. She took a moment to breathe. “I think Daisy was called to Vermögenburgh because the Yishang were ready to move on the Hero-killing event. In a backwaters town that new Heroes run through in a day, no one would notice Natsuko and her bottle since she only used it against the Ice Wyvern. So how do you indirectly draw people’s attention? Have the #4 ranked Hero go to the town and stir up some mischief. That was the trigger for Hemiola to go and steal my research.”

Sofiane looked disappointed. “I’m guessing my joining the team is entirely accidental then?”

“I believe so,” Shuixing said. “Not everything is part of the conspiracy. Although we should take comfort in that, because it means the Yishang don’t have complete control over events. We have room to maneuver, however small, I just don’t know yet how much. For the time being it’s safer to act as though we don’t know anything, and to not let this knowledge spread to the other Heroes until the time is right.”

Natsuko slapped the counter. “But this proves we’re innocent! Why wouldn’t we tell them!?”

Sofiane rolled his eyes. “Because then the Yishang knows we know, firecrotch. For all we know they might poof us out of existence so the truth doesn’t get out.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Daisy shivered at that. Here was a power that even Boulanger had to be scared of. In a way, the Yishang’s partial power made her more anxious than if they were in complete and total control. At least then she could switch her brain off, because what else was she going to do? The giant question mark over how much the Yishang controlled over them and the world they lived in made her anxious.

“Okay, so we don’t know how much they can intervene. How do we collect more information?” Daisy asked.

“And another question,” Pechorin added after slamming the rest of his harsh whiskey, “if we wanted to depose them, what happens to us after? We were created to live in their playground and serve their purposes, but if the world is run and sustained by them, do we get snuffed out no matter what happens?”

One way Shuixing could tell that her theory was a good one was that it prompted so many questions. Unfortunately, those questions were, for the moment, unanswerable.

“I think we need to sleep on things. Let’s worry about this in the morning,” Shui said.

There was neither agreement nor disagreement, but a vague sense that all of their brains were overloaded with new and uncomfortable information, and that sleep was the only thing that could help process it. Without another word, the group of tired, brooding Heroes got up and made for the elevator.

Halfway across the lobby, Daisy said, “actually guys, I’m gonna go for a short walk to clear my head. I’ll be up in a bit.”

“Don’t let Hemiola catch you,” Pechorin said.

No one thought that was funny. Natsuko hit him for making the joke.

When they arrived at the top floor, they were met by three angry-looking Heroes standing around out front of the penthouse door.

“Hey!” barked the one in front. “Are you the assholes that got us kicked out?”

The one barking at them was a man wearing light metal armor with a green-and-white surcoat and a yellow-tipped lance in his hand, the banner of the Knights of Innocentus hanging on below it. Natsuko felt like she ought to know the dork’s name given her background with the knights, but she was drawing a blank.

“Who the hell are you?” Natsuko asked.

“Excuse me, who the hell are you? You’re 1st-gen nobodies, you shouldn’t be able to kick us out of our penthouse!” he said.

Team Natsuko looked around at each other, trying to see if anyone else knew who they were either. None of them recognized the Vermögenburgh Hero. Natsuko guessed they were probably a 3rd-gen, somewhere in the sweet spot between Sofiane and her peak adventuring eras. The two teammates beside the man more or less confirmed this chronology: A Tianzhounese Hero with an overly-complicated set of robes which still somehow managed to show off her pale limbs, and a Shikijiman Hero in the cobbled-together armor of a footsoldier who looked like the template for Yuna but objectively more boring. The only thing “different” about her was that her hair was moss green.

Natsuko exhaled and rubbed her temples. “Look, man, it’s been a long day and we just had a bomb dropped on us, so would you get the hell out of the way, please?”

The man stepped forward and dipped the lance down towards them. “How about you get the hell out of our room?”

The Tianzhounese Hero went wide-eyed.

“Wait, Harbin, I think those are the ones the Peng-wu were talking about. Look, she’s got the bottle!” she said, pointing at Natsuko’s new bottle.

Shuixing cleared her throat. “Erm, whatever do you me—”

“Gods-damned right we are,” Natsuko said, thumping her chest. “Whatcha gonna do about it?”

Sofiane pinched the bridge of his nose. “Natsuko, you idiot, I’m in my PJs. I don’t want to mess them up because I have to kill these idiots for you.”

“You won’t have to. I wanna fight them myself,” she said with a grin.

Harbin scoffed. “It takes some balls to sit at the bottom of the Use-Rankings and think you’re going to fight someone in the middle.”

Sofiane was curious, so he scrolled through the rankings looking for Harbin. It looked like he was sitting at #93 at the moment, and based on the origins of the two Heroes with him and the fact that teams tended to cluster together in ranking (Team Natsuko notwithstanding), his two teammates were probably #96 Yinyin and #98 Shinshuu. He was almost certain he could kill all three single handedly, even without the Swap-Coup de Grace trick he and Natsuko had accidentally come up with. But these were his best silk pajamas, and he didn’t want a thread out of place. If he had to live in some messed-up playground of the Yishang, he was going to be comfy and fashionable while doing it.

“We can work something out,” Sofiane said, his voice dripping with tiredness. “We’ll talk with our teammate Daisy and find another room, alright?”

Harbin shook his head. “Now that we know there’s a ticket to the Top Ten standing in front of us, I don’t think that’s possible.”

Yinyin seemed to share his bloodlust, but Shinshuu, the Shikijiman Hero, looked worried. She tugged on Harbin’s surcoat.

“Harbin, they can kill people for real! They’ve done it to two Heroes that were higher ranked than us. I don’t think this is a good idea.”

Harbin stiffened. His eyes flicked to the bottle at Natsuko’s side. “That’s your killing tool, huh?”

“We haven’t killed anyone!” Natsuko said. “Listen, y’all are clearly not caught up on the lore if you missed the Card Tournament arc. You’re outta your depths here. There’s a lotta angles and things—and I mean a lot of angles, that you’re just not getting here. But look, I’m gonna set down my bottle to prove to you that we aren’t the people you’re looking for, okay?”

Natsuko gingerly set her bottle down. The act made Sofiane nervous. On the one hand, it would be nice if they could convince other Heroes they were innocent and have them spread the message. On the other hand, he preferred Natsuko to have the ultimate deterrent in her hands rather than the floor.

“You’re not gonna trick us!” Yinyin said, producing a spell tome from one of the many layers of her outfit. “You’ll pick it up and attack us when our backs are turned! That’s how you managed to kill people higher-ranked than you!”

“I’m trying to tell you, we didn’t…” Natsuko trailed off.

A glance shared between Harbin and Yinyin tipped her off that an attack was imminent. Oh well, she supposed. A fight would get her mind off of the existential dread that Shuixing had just dumped on her.

Natsuko waited until the last moment, when Harbin was about to make the first thrust, before swapping with Shinshuu, placing her in the lance’s path. Harbin stabbed his own teammate and before he realized what had happened, Natsuko slammed a Fire Gale-powered side-kick into his stomach, knocking him backwards into Yinyin.

Natsuko grinned malevolently. “You wanna fight? Let’s fight.”