by Nikita Thorn
“We’ll go on a nice little trip once the Festival is over.” Seiki patted her neck. “No Cursed Spirits, no demons, just a nice country road. How about that?”
Fubuki gently nuzzled his back as he turned to cross the instance boundary. Seiki laughed. “Don’t follow me in or the old man would dismiss you himself.”
He watched Fubuki casually trot away. She seemed to be in a good mood, and he guessed she appreciated not always being summoned in the direst of situations. Normalcy was the most frugal of simple pleasures.
Seiki took a quick glance at the wooden pigeon perch that he had placed a few days ago as he made his way across the grass ledge. Although nothing fancy, it marked the first of the available upgrades, and the instance was starting to feel like home.
“Hi again, officer.” Seiki called out as he approached the sole inhabitant of the instance.
The shabby old Field Officer looked up from his fire, his brows immediately wrinkling. “Back already? Ran out of things to do in the City? All that merry-making, nonsensical Festival whatnots. And they told me there’s enough to keep people occupied, especially the young and idle.”
Seiki had to smile. “I’ll tell you what, officer. Idle is the last word that comes to mind right now.” He glanced around the secluded instance and let out a deep breath. “To be honest it got kinda intense, so I’m looking for a short break from all the, uh, script.”
The old man mumbled something unintelligible before turning his attention back to poking the dying embers with his crooked branch.
Seiki took another long look at the scenery. “Thank God it’s quiet here. I guess that’s why people invest in soundproof enchantments for their windows. Can you believe it costs around eighty gold for each enchant and you need one for every sliding panel for it to work? Normally it’s not too bad. But now with the parades every ten minutes…”
The remark was met with an irritated look. Seiki grinned at the old Field Officer. “I can hear myself think here. It’s nice.”
The grass ledge was enclosed between rows of shade-giving trees on one side and a sheer cliff on the other. The surroundings were nowhere as spectacular as what Ippei had shown him out in the Wilderness way-shrine, but this corner was his, and the limitless view added to the sense of freedom of being the only traveler in an expansive and unknown land.
“We just finished this crazy Festival clan quest.” Seiki turned back to look at the old man. “I thought it was going to be an easy quest. Well, I was wrong. Anyway, when we went back to the clan to turn it in, the Society guy was offline. Responsible adult, apparently. But his clan mate Ikumi let us in to use the library.”
The Field Officer let out a grunt. “Listen, young man, if you want to talk, there are geisha girls on the second floor of Momiji Inn who will listen to all your ramblings and express sympathy.”
Seiki nearly choked on laughter. “Okay, just give me a second, officer. I swear this is going somewhere. So, you know, I wanted to look up masks, since I’ve been seeing this ghost thing.”
The old man raised his brow, but said nothing, and so Seiki continued. “Unfortunately, the Society only had the same stuff as the Crafters’ Guild, just the standard craftable items. There were a few possible candidates in their Beta Tales, but they didn’t come with illustrations… and they seem to be unreliable. Lots of crazy claims in there.” Seiki shook his head as he recalled a wild story about how you could glitch the last phase of a low-level dungeon boss and have infinite drops of energy potions.
The Field Officer stared at him, and Seiki was quite sure the man had no idea what he was talking about.
“Anyway, I think the best clue is in the Halloween’s event – I don’t remember the name. Something parade. Allegedly you had costumes that hid your player tags. Unfortunately, I haven’t found something with an illustration yet, so I couldn’t be sure. Eventually, we just kinda started drifting. The Society has an NPC librarian who can look up things for you, so I was experimenting with different words, then something struck me…”
Seiki knelt down beside the old Field Officer, before producing the Master’s Army Plate from his inventory. “I haven’t looked at it much, but recently I had to unequip it for a quest.” He paused to see if the Field Officer recognized it, but the man’s frown remained unchanged.
Flipping the Charm over, Seiki showed the man the engraved characters on the back. “I realized it says ‘Morishige Army’ right here.”
The old man said nothing, and Seiki continued. “You know about Master Tsujihara and the whole deal with Okamoto. And since you’re my Field Officer, you’re somehow connected to the Shinshioka army, but you won’t even give me a name.”
“Which is none of your business,” said the man.
Seiki shook his head. Ippei’s Field Officer was a very good-natured Captain Takagi, who was always eager to offer much more information than anyone needed at the right trigger of relevant keywords. “If my friend’s right and things are not so straightforward in a ronin instance, there must be something I have to do, so I thought we should start with names.”
The Field Officer let out an annoyed scoff.
“It’s fine if you won’t tell me. How about you pick one from a list instead?”
The old man raised his eyebrow as Seiki retrieved a piece of paper from his inventory.
“This is what I managed to find from the librarian when I asked him about the Morishige Army. Someone apparently compiled a list of known NPCs in the former Morishige Army, and there was a note at the bottom that said, for a personalized version, ask for an official copy from the librarian. Turned out photocopying costs you ten Favors per page. Yeah, that was a rip-off, but it got me this personalized list, which is pretty neat.”
The item, Official Copy of Document ‘Known NPCs in the Morishige Army’ crafted by Inori of the Seekers was made with fine, whitish paper. On it were numerous lines of names, written in the neat NPC librarian’s hand.
Morishige Army Division I
Commander Kato
Captain Okamoto
Lieutenant Tanaka
Lieutenant Morino
Unit Chief Watanabe
Morishige Army Division II
Commander Tensho
Captain Tsujihara (randomized names for samurai and ronin players)
Lieutenant Matsuda
Unit Chief Gorai
Unit Chief Asazawa
There were more names and the list ran to Division III, but Seiki did not recognize the majority of them, and so he started to read them out loud from the top. “Commander Kato… we know that’s Lieutenant Kato’s father… Then we have Captain Okamoto, who was unjustly executed by the Shogun…”
“What are you doing?” The Field Officer interrupted him, waving his hand. “This is useless. Go do something else.”
“I’ve gotta try everything and this is the only thing I can think of right now. So, Lieutenant Tanaka, Lieutenant Morino, Unit Chief Watanabe…” Seiki continued to read from the list, pausing to glance at the old man, whose frown was deepening.
They continued the one-sided experiment for a while, with the old man showing no overt reaction to any of the names. By the time he made it to Division III, Seiki started to doubt this was the right way.
“So, uh, we have Unit Chief Tsukasa, Unit Chief Minamoto, Unit Chief Yajima… wait!” Seiki blinked as he stared at the name, way down at the end of the list. “That’s… that’s Commander Yajima now, isn’t it? He’s Captain Tsukuda’s commander, who’s in Fuoka right now?”
The old man stared at him. Seiki met his gaze. Neither of them said anything for a moment.
The Field Officer finally heaved a sigh that sounded more like a suppressed growl. “All right. Sit down.”
Seiki’s eyes widened slightly. “This is a good sign.” He sat down crossed-legged by the dying fire.
The old man grunted. “All right. Why do you want it so badly?”
The question
took Seiki by surprise. “You mean, to unlock the features? I have some new skills and I need to figure out how to use them properly, especially with the troops.”
The Field Officer frowned. “Why?”
“I… uh… well, there are these combo things that I haven’t really figured out yet and I’d like to practice some more.”
“Why?” The old man was now glaring at him, his sight almost hawkish.
Seiki was not quite sure how to answer. “So I can fight things better and… not die and also not get my troops killed so often. I don’t want to let down my friends...“
“Close your eyes, Seiki,” the old man interrupted him.
“Sorry, what—”
“Close your eyes.”
After a last wary look at the old man, Seiki did as he was told.
“What is it that you really want to do?” said the Field Officer. “Keep your eyes closed.”
Seiki thought for a moment. “I want to be good at this. You should see what the West Defenders can do and I’m willing to work hard to get there. I’m trying my best and, yeah, sometimes it works, but I don’t want to rely on luck. Tom, my, uh, ex-coach, used to say you have to visualize what you’re going to do in the ring, you know. It helps. Right now I can’t do that yet because I don’t completely know what I can do. A long time ago I used to feel like I had a grip on life, like I knew exactly what I was doing.” He let out a long breath. “I miss that feeling.”
The old man said nothing.
“It’s like… I can do a lot in here that I can’t in real life, and I know I can be good at this. I want to be here because I’ve earned the right to be here… not because… you know… without…” Seiki faltered and shook his head. “Okay, never mind. What I mean to say is, what happened to Captain Tsukuda… I hate feeling like that, like there’s nothing I can do and I’m just waiting for something to change. For the longest time I’ve been feeling like that… but lately it’s… I don’t know, maybe…” He trailed off.
The only response from the old man was the sound of him moving the embers around with his stick.
“I’m ready for things to change,” Seiki concluded. He paused for a moment.
The old man was silent.
“Is there a keyword I have to hit?”
There was still no reply.
Seiki exhaled deeply. “Someone recently asked my opinion on something and I said I didn’t know because I was just trying to survive. I’ve been thinking about it, and, you know what? That’s not good enough. Yeah, things have been really hard. I feel like I’ve been dragged through a lot. Not that I’m not grateful. Sometimes you just need someone to do that for you. But I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to get up and look at where I’m going… and, you know, walk.”
There was another pause, and the old man said, “Will you do anything for Shinshioka?”
After a second, Seiki started laughing. “Okay, I see. This is what you were going for. Yes, I’ll do anything. I’ll fight any demon. I’ll do all the War Games and Inner Palace quests and Festival Quests and... uh, Fuoka quests and collect as many War Coins you tell me to. So, yes, anything. Just tell me what.”
“This commitment,” said the old man with a sigh. “But where does this get you? Keep your eyes closed, young man. I’m not talking to you. Perhaps it’s misguided, but weren’t we all at one point? Ah, yes, I see…” The old man descended into inaudible mumbling.
There was another moment of silence, before the Field Officer finally said, “Take a deep breath.”
Seiki did as he was told. He could smell mild soot from the fire, as well as the refreshing nature from the surrounding forest.
“And another one.”
Seiki took in another lungful of air.
“And another, until your mind quiets down.”
Seiki had just promised to do anything, so he kept his word. The ledge was silent, except for the crackling embers. Moving in the distance were winds in unseen trees, birds in unseen flight, the gentle, barely audible trickling of the stream in the ravine below in its perpetuity. But underneath all that, something was stirring, a fervent wish that had once again awakened and wanted to make itself heard. For a moment, he studied it, and realized it could be a steady source of strength.
Seiki had almost forgotten where he was when the Field Officer spoke again. “All right, now slowly open your eyes.”
The first thing Seiki saw was fog. Then he understood that it was in fact a whirling column of thick smoke that had risen from the old man’s fire. Its shape was shifting rapidly, like multiple twisting strips of white silk, before a human face formed near its top, its expression a little curious. The face disappeared as Seiki gave a start, only to form once again down below, eagerly looking at him.
Seiki opened his mouth, but the face dispersed into the rest of the smoke. Only the label clued him on what it was.
Enenra [Level Unknown]
The old man was studying his reaction. “So you can see them now.” He then turned to the being rising from the fire. “What do you think of him?”
Seiki blinked as he became aware that all this time the old man had not been mumbling to himself, but speaking to the sentient smoke that had now chosen to make itself visible. He looked at the so-called Enenra again, wondering what it was, before a faint whisper of a thought floated through his mind.
We are those who are traversing this realm to the next, and have chosen to linger to appreciate its joys and sorrows for a while.
Like its form, its speech was mere smoke, faint, gone as soon as it formed.
“Spirits of the dead?” said Seiki quietly.
Do not mourn us, young ronin. We have shed our worldly baggage, and are now free to look upon our former plane of existence without judgment.
The smoke column shifted left and right, as if in carefree laughter, while a slight wind blew through the grassy ledge.
We were once many. Different. Young. Old. Lords. Peasants. Warriors. Monks. Murderers. It matters no more. Death united us all.
The faces showed subtle differences, but were always changing too quickly for Seiki to attribute a gender or age to them. The Enenra’s last statement caused him to look back at the old Field Officer, who was staring at the smoke column with a slightly wistful expression.
It struck Seiki then that the old man spent his days alone on a ledge, watching nameless spirits appearing and disappearing in smoke fire. “Did you lose someone?” he asked quietly. “Are you… looking for someone?”
The Enenra replied in his stead.
Many, who are not to be found here.
The Field Officer looked at the billowing smoke and sighed. “What do you think of him?”
Of him? We do not judge. We no longer judge.
“You judged him worthy enough to see you,” said the old man.
That was not our doing. The Enenra paused for a moment. Those of pure enough spirit can see us if they are in a tranquil state of mind. He judged himself worthy to see us.
The Field Officer scoffed.
The Enenra wavered again, looking somewhat amused. It is you who are trying to judge. Should I guide him so he will not make the same mistake I did? Or should I do nothing since it is all futile? Is that right, Commander Asaji?
Seiki’s eyes shot toward the piece of paper in his hand. On the page, indeed, was:
Morishige Army Division III
Commander Asaji
“It was really the Morishige Army that triggered it,” cried Seiki. “Right, Commander Asaji?”
The old man flinched at the mention of the name, but shook his head. “Too many have died in this war.”
Perhaps save this one, then? the Enenra suggested, and Seiki was both fascinated and amused as the smoke column twisted to gesture toward him.
The Commander scoffed.
Or perhaps we will? the Enenra pondered. What is your name, young man?
“Seiki.”
&nb
sp; All right, Seiki. We transcend different realms, and the one you are in right now is full of strife, so we will give you a test of strife.
The Enenra started twisting like a tiny tornado. It was a hopeful development, but Seiki had no time to rejoice when, suddenly, walking forward from within the smoke, was Fumiya of the Kano Castle—except that the man was made entirely of wispy cloud-like substance. Before his mind could fully comprehend what was happening, Seiki was already on his feet, drawing his sword.
Enenra Illusion [Level Unknown]. HP 125000/125000.
“Is this supposed to be my deepest fear?” muttered Seiki as he stared at the incredible likeness of the Kano Castle ninja, which the Enenra had copied perfectly, down to the man’s cold smirk.
It’s something you recently had to struggle against, Seiki.
Without warning, the Enenra Illusion shot out its hand, and Seiki raised his Hikari to block whatever it had cast. An unexpected metal clank rang out, and the impact shook through his body. A single white Shuriken dropped to the ground and instantly dispersed into smoke.
Glancing up again, Seiki swallowed a curse as the smoke ninja leapt at him. From the angle, he could anticipate what was following, and he spun around and swept out his Hikari, even before he saw the smoky form disappear from its original position.
As expected, the Shadow Strike repositioned the copy of Fumiya behind his opponent, and Seiki’s anticipated slash cut across the ninja’s torso.
His sword found no impact.
Enenra Illusion [Level Unknown]. HP 125000/125000.
Seiki’s eyes widened as the blade passed harmlessly through the smoky form. He pulled his sword back to block the attack as the ninja’s hand shot out at him to finish the move. To his alarm, the smoke palm went straight through the hilt of his Hikari.
Seiki felt as if he had been rammed by a telephone pole where it hit. Numbness spread through his body. He dropped listlessly to the ground, gasping for breath.
Fight, Seiki!
The ninja drew a smoky dagger and leapt forward. Seiki pushed himself into a roll as the blade stabbed down beside him, missing him by a few inches. It was way too close for an enemy he could not hurt, but luckily he once again found one knee and one foot on the ground, and he burst away in a long Slide.
