by Nikita Thorn
“I get you much better things from the Black Market,” Gin protested. “Okay, yes, they cost money, but you only value things you earn through hard work.”
“And apparently, robbing people counts as hard work?” said Mairin.
“We only rob the rich,” said Gin. “Our line of work is called wealth redistribution.”
Seiki heard very little of the conversation outside the room as he continued to stare at the items. “There are no trade logs, are there?” he said quietly.
Traded items could not be traced. If someone had been trapped in a Spirit Shrine until they agreed to hand over a particular item, it would be impossible to prove ownership. Even with loot logs, there was no way to identify individual Sheathed Blades.
“No,” confirmed Ippei.
“All the more reason to do finders keepers, don’t you think?” Chika’s voice piped up.
His jaws clenching, Seiki sprung to his feet. The box felt surprisingly light in his arms, despite the number of items it held. Startled by his expression, the Bandits cleared out of the way as he strode toward the back side of the hall.
Beyond the southward window was the serene view of South City. The cool night air touched his skin as Seiki looked down on the alley below. Four people were in tidy line in front of a quest giver, their mismatched gear and bamboo weapons marking them as new players. Another two were studying a sign on the wall, the same one Seiki had studied before at the beginning of the Festival that explained how the event worked.
Seiki set the box on the window pane and shouted, “Hey!”
Two young men and a girl in Festival yellow looked up.
“Guess what?” said Seiki. “It’s raining Sheathed Blades tonight. One each. Don’t be greedy.”
He tilted the box and emptied its contents out the window. Like tiny footsteps, the wooden pieces tumbled over one another and fell against the side of the container before pouring down onto the alley below. A low wind caught some of them, spreading the items in a short loose trail of gray on the ground.
Seiki let out a breath he had been unconsciously holding, a specific tension draining out of him that he did not know he had.
The South City players initially ran out of the way to avoid the falling items. Seeing no danger, they slowly looked up in confusion, switching their gaze between the stranger on the third-floor of an unknown building and the unfamiliar gray items strewn around them.
Ippei appeared beside Seiki by the window. “Grab one and do a special move with it. If you don’t have the level yet, keep it until you do.”
“Only one each,” Mairin ran in to shout from the adjacent window. “If you take more, the whole Rogami Clan will hunt you down.”
The kitsune’s threat was baseless, but it worked. Several people immediately dropped the extra Sheathed Blades they had picked up. A man kneeling on the ground was the first to find one that suited his level. He cautiously pulled the weapon free, before crying out in delight as a curved blade formed in his hand.
“Hayakawa.” A girl in a lavender kimono read the name of her bright silver dagger out loud as if it was a magic word. Next to her, a young man leapt to his feet to try out his new red-gleaming short sword in the air. One by one, glows of different lengths and colors lit up in the shade in the alley, named blade after named blade coming into existence in the hands of people who would remember this moment for a long time. Seiki stood and watched, feeling a sense of ethereal peace as he witnessed a small yet significant step in someone else’s journey.
“What’s going on?” A Shinshioka Patrol trotted in on his horse, his attention drawn to the growing crowd that was getting noisier by the second.
The Level 8 girl who now owned a dagger called Hayakawa dutifully pointed toward the building. “The special weapons dropped from up there, officer.”
Seiki cursed as he backed away from the window. With no idea what the Patrols thought about territory invasions, he thought it was best to err on the side of caution.
Turning back toward the room, he saw a dozen stupefied faces staring at him. In fact, the group had let out a strangled cry the moment he had flipped the box over, but Seiki only now remembered hearing it.
Chika’s eyes were nearly bulging from their sockets. “I can’t believe you did that. Gin, why did we give him the loot distribution rights again? Why?”
“There’s no way I could let them keep the weapons,” said Seiki.
The ninja girl continued to stare. “Yes, but, Gin, why did we give him loot distribution rights again?”
Looking at her horrified expression, Seiki started laughing. So far, he had been very cautious about the consequences of the invasion, but suddenly it no longer mattered. The lightness he was feeling in that moment, he would not trade for anything else, and perhaps that was all he really needed to care about.
Ippei was apparently enjoying the Bandits’ reaction as much as Seiki was. He gave Seiki a clap on his shoulder, a smile now on his face as he looked at the rest of the group. “Well, that’s what you call real wealth redistribution.”
Some of the Bandits opened their mouths as if to say something, but no one seemed to be able to find the right words.
Gin finally raised both hands. “Fine, fine. A deal is a deal and I’m not going to say anything. All right, boys and girls, looks like our job here is done.”
“Wait. What? That’s it?” asked one of his clan members.
“That’s it. I mean, you can’t top that, and to be honest, after what I just experienced, my soul that has long been offered to the God of Banditry now wants to crawl into a very deep hole and die the most horrible death possible.” Gin waved to his clan mates to start moving.
“That’s kinda anticlimactic, isn’t it?” said Makino.
“You mean my most horrible death possible?”
“No!” cried the man “I mean this whole invasion.”
Gin started chuckling, and Makino looked around for support. “Come on. Chika?”
The ninja girl shrugged. “You heard your clan leader.”
“One thing for sure is I’m not waiting around for bloodshed,” Gin added.
Seiki had to agree. The full roster of Rogami members discovering unwanted guests in their home territory would most likely result in a very one-sided bloodshed, especially after they discovered more than a dozen missing Sheathed Blades. He had done the best thing he could have, and now it was time to put his message somewhere and leave.
“Yeah, you guys go home,” said Yamura quickly. His expression sobered as soon as he got the Bandits’ attention. “We’re staying a bit longer. You see, Seiki has been meaning to completely thrash the place as part of his long-term revenge plan.”
Seiki nearly choked, but Yamura shot him an intent look before turning back to the group. “Bad blood. It’s a long story.”
Chika narrowed her eyes. “Really now?”
“Thrash the place?” said a voice from within the group.
Seiki grimaced. “Yeah, that’s… my real reason.” It was so obvious a lie that he did not even try to make it sound convincing.
Gin raised an eyebrow, an amused smile creeping back onto his face. “Oh, how interesting.”
Seiki could see several thoughts passing through the man’s head. Although he could not tell what conclusions Gin was drawing, the man seemed more delighted than annoyed.
“Well, I’ll leave you to your business then. All right, everyone, let’s give them some privacy.” Gin clapped his hands again to break his clan mates out of daze. “Hey, come on, let’s go, start moving. Gotta respect a man’s need for revenge.”
With unhappy murmurs, the Bandits started heading toward the stairs. Someone once again brought up something about overthrowing their leader and starting a salary system, while the rest were already discussing choices of late-night Festival food.
Gin gave Seiki and his friends a last thoughtful glance. “Don’t stay too long for this… revenge. Our re
al hosts are probably coming back soon.” He then turned to follow his clan mates down the steps. “If you need me, you know where I am. Bring some gold the next time you come to East City, though. It’s been a while since we got to rob people.”
“You still owe me a conversation with the guy called Hatsuo,” Seiki called after the man.
Gin raised his hand in acknowledgement without looking back. “Yeah, I’ve booked you a schedule. You’ll hear from him before the end of the week.”
Seiki and his friends waited until the footsteps grew fainter. The main group soon reached the ground floor, and more commotion broke out as they made a dash back through the hallway with the Enchanted Panels, but more time had passed, and the enchantments had degraded even further.
A gleeful smile lit up on Yamura’s face as soon as the Bandits were out of earshot. “You wanted to know what the Bandits were really up to, right? How about a clue? Turns out my crappy Pickpocketing is decently useful sometimes.”
He held up a piece of paper. The item was labeled Custom Document. Crafted by Chika of the East City Bandits.
“Oh, well done,” cried Ippei.
Mairin nodded. “Nice. Gave them a taste of their own medicine.”
Seiki only now noticed that all his Bag Charm charges were completely gone, meaning the Bandits had been practicing their Pickpocketing all this time. That somehow made him laugh.
“It took me a few tries, but I had a lot of time, especially while you were dumping the Sheathed Blades out the window.” The ryoushi paused to give Seiki a brief questioning look. “Yeah, about that… we’ll talk about that later, so, anyway…”
The ryoushi unfolded the piece of paper, revealing a drawing with four rectangles, representing Usukumo Mansion’s four main buildings in the correct positions relative to one another. There were no other details except little crosses marked on the corners of some of the shapes.
“Makes sense that they had a map,” said Ippei.
Seiki pointed to one of the rectangles. “This is the building we’re in right now. And the three X’s in the corner here are…” He glanced toward the corresponding direction and found himself looking straight at the secret room.
“The storage boxes!” cried Mairin. “Wait. They… knew all along there were boxes there.”
“Were they after the Sheathed Blades?” said Yamura. “That would make sense. Maybe the plan was to wait until we leave and they get loot distribution rights back?”
Ippei nodded. “That would explain why they gave up immediately after Seiki got rid of the Sheathed Blades.” The samurai thought for a moment before shaking his head. “No. Can’t be. It didn’t seem like they were expecting the Sheathed Blades, and, to be honest, they didn’t really protest that much.”
Seiki looked at the map again. “Well, they’ve also marked these other boxes. Gin called it, uh… a storage building? There are two more X’s here. Maybe they’re looking for something specific and these are all the locations to check?”
Yamura’s eyes widened. “Oh, I get it. The most obvious location on the top floor only had Sheathed Blades and some junk, so whatever they were looking for they didn’t find here.”
At the implication, the group leapt to their feet and rushed to the north-facing windows. The Bandits had been more than happy to leave before their guests, which could very well mean they could be attempting something else on their way out.
It was perhaps too late. From the third floor, the line of sight to the storage building was mostly obstructed by two large pine trees next to it. The moving shadowy mass that was the group of Bandits had already reached the front gate and were slowly disappearing into the darkness.
Seiki grimaced. “To think we could have caught them in the act just now.”
Something flashed in the shadows below, moving from the storage building to the central path. A second later, a small white fox emerged from the shade of the trees, trotting toward the main building.
Seiki blinked. It looked like Mairin. When he glanced behind him and saw the kitsune was nowhere to be seen, it confirmed that it was indeed Mairin. He had no idea when she had snuck out.
Mairin reappeared on the third floor a few seconds later, a triumphant smile on her face. “They really went into the storage building,” she announced. “I had to jump from the second floor window to catch up, but never mind that. And, okay, the next bit is going to sound weird. They waited until most of the clan members had gone ahead, then Gin slipped into the building alone. I couldn’t follow him in without being seen. After, like, five seconds, he came back out and did something to the door. When they left, I went to look at it and there was a piece of paper, a crafted Door Seal, that said the door was now magically locked for half an hour.”
Seiki took a second to process the information, before everything clicked into place.
“Yes!” he cried. “They broke in to do something else. This confirms it. They marked the chest locations, so either they were looking for something specific, or… Or they wanted to leave something in one of the chests, like what happened with the White Cranes.”
Ippei looked a little doubtful. “So the Bandits are trying to frame the Rogami for theft?”
“I know it’s still a wild guess,” Seiki admitted. “But that doesn’t matter. This invasion was really about something else. Which is why they didn’t care about loot distribution rights at all.”
“Too bad we can’t go in and check for sure what they’ve done,” said Yamura.
“Oh, okay, I see. So the Seal on the door is to keep us out,” said Mairin.
“They know we don’t have half an hour before the Rogami come back,” Seiki reasoned. “And Gin’s right about getting out of here before that happens. All right, we can figure things out later. At least we know that Gin did something in the storage building. Not to mention…” He trailed off, his brain stumbling on another piece of the puzzle that looked like it would fit. “Okay, something happens once, it can be random. Twice, you see a pattern. Three times, it’s definitely not a coincidence.”
He pulled out the unlabeled Shadow Key. “This dropped from the guardian.”
His friends stared.
“Man, your luck tonight,” said Yamura.
The room was brightly lit, but it was still enough for the item to cast a faint shadow when Seiki held it out away from himself. They squinted at the shape on the tatami floor.
It was a wild boar, which indicated the existence of a rare wild boar boss somewhere. Seiki was sure the Society would be able to immediately name it if they were to ask.
Ippei pondered for a while. “So the Rogami also had one of these. And that’s why the guardian had Fear.”
Seiki nodded. “All this must be connected. It has to. Maybe the Bandits were looking for this and didn’t realize the Rogami had put it in their guardian.”
Ippei suddenly chuckled. “And the whole time I was worried they had a Black Market deal to leave you dead in the Rogami spirit shrine.”
Seiki blinked. He had imagined a whole range of reasons why the Bandits started this invasion, but that particular idea had not crossed his mind. “Yeah, that would have been bad.”
Ippei shrugged. “If that happened, I would have had to get to the Territory Deed and all that, which would have been kinda annoying.” He made it sound like something on the same degree as filling out hospital forms.
Seiki looked at his friend. “I’m gonna buy you all drinks after this.”
“A drink is premature,” said Mairin. “So, now we know that everyone secretly has a Shadow Key, and when you have one, weird things start happening around you, and we have no idea why.”
“Maybe we’re going to find out what it is,” said Seiki.
He grabbed the empty storage box that had once held the Sheathed Blades from beside the window and placed it right in the middle room. With a last glance at his friends, he dropped in the Shadow Key and placed his message next to it. “We star
t by joining the dots.”
The message was his pre-written Custom Document. Crafted by Seiki. On it was a single line of text: I want to talk.
He closed the lid. The wooden box snapped shut with an unexpected sense of finality. This was the first step. There was no going back now.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The Night of the White Dragon Event is starting in 2 hours. You will be directly teleported to the Banquet Tower at the beginning of the event. Festival Quests not completed by then will be considered abandoned. Festival Reward Booths, however, will remain in the City for the next 48 hours after the end of the Pacchi Festival.
Seiki dismissed the notification. The same message had flashed eight times already since the countdown started six hours ago, and he now forced his mind to concentrate instead on the fireworks ingredients on the table in front of him.
It was supposed to be quite straightforward: the bamboo tubes had specific numbers of slots, which were to hold fireworks stars and packets of black powder. The problem was that different ingredients had slightly different properties and seemed to interact with one another. Also not helping the matter was the fact that Seiki’s current mental state made it impossible to think about anything else other than the outcome of the Rogami invasion. For the hundredth time, he wondered if the message he left should have contained more than four words.
Putting the Black Powder packet in his hand back on the table, Seiki sighed. “I’ll wait for Ippei to optimize these things so we don’t waste your Undo Potions. I think he’s out finishing the last of his daily Festival Quests right now.”
At the opposite side of the table, Kentaro looked up from his tray of crafted goods. There were no customers buying Charms at the moment, but the houshi was making sure his shop was well-stocked before Shinshioka returned to its state of normalcy.
“The Rogami are probably waiting until after the Festival.” Kentaro sounded a little amused as he correctly guessed the source of Seiki’s restlessness. “I bet everyone’s priority right now is to get the remaining Clan Achievements in.”
