by Nikita Thorn
He walked back into the storage house and up the second floor, where Yoko and Takuya stared at him in disbelief. He raised his hand in apology and started climbing up the rope again.
Why not just wait? They are ambushing someone, and once that’s done they will be gone.
Seiki exited through the window and sat on the sill, his feet resting on the roof, as he waited for his health to creep back up. “I need to go see someone now. It can’t wait.”
Once you get to the other side, then what? Jump off the wall?
Seiki was aware that it sounded completely stupid. “Pretty much, yeah. If I survive the fall on this side, I’ll survive the fall on the other side.”
He wondered if there was a trick to landing that would lessen the damage.
All right. Let’s see how this goes.
Seiki was checking his HP when he felt a powerful sparkly white Heal on him, even more powerful than Ikumi’s, which immediately filled his health.
“You’re a houshi!” he cried.
Go on, then.
Seiki jumped again, and it turned out—very much to Yoko and Takuya’s annoyance—that it took him two more tries before he finally managed to grab hold of one of the spikes on the dragon’s back. Each time, the mysterious houshi helped to top up his health. In the last attempt, Seiki had launched off the very edge of the roof and slammed onto the side of the dragon’s body so hard that it almost knocked the wind out of him, but his hand managed to reach the ceramic spikes and he clung on as tightly as he could while he caught his breath.
“Thank you,” he said to the houshi after he had recovered and pulled himself up into a better position. He was now lying flat on the dragon’s back, with Shinshioka to his left. Ahead, on his right hand side, beyond the wall, was a pine wood: his destination. Slightly behind and below him was the road that led from the East Gate into what appeared to be a dark expanse of grassland.
You’re welcome. This was rather interesting. Good luck, Seiki.
“Will you at least tell me your name?” Seiki asked, so he would know to whom he owed his gratitude. But there would be no more answer.
Seiki managed to get one leg up and one foot on the body of the dragon. And with his hands holding onto the spikes on its spine, he could make his way towards its tail, where he presumably would be able to drop down the other side of the wall without being detected.
The Rogami members were still gathered in a loose group. From higher grounds, Seiki could make sense of some of their conversation as he inched his way forward along the statue.
“—such a thing?” Taiyora was saying.
Rieko seemed upset. “I’m pretty sure it was them. That was Mirror Ward.”
“A lot of high priests have that.”
“A handful. And I’m pretty sure he used an old form of Whisper.”
“That’s a crazy claim, Rieko. Did you hear it? Did Kojiro?”
“The boy didn’t flinch. He knew, and a few seconds before that, he didn’t.”
“—spoil our plan, too?”
“—army, with them.”
Seiki was moving further and further away and could hear nothing more. It made him confident that they would not be able to catch him jumping off the wall later. The dragon’s body twisted in big waves and the slope up proved a bit of a challenge. Seiki planned to go as near the tail as possible and drop from the lowest point in the wave to save himself as much damage as possible. He was now starting to think about what he would say to Master Tsujihara when he found him.
At that moment, he heard a soft whistle that sounded very much like a tiny flute. The source of the sound seemed very near and Seiki searched for it. He quickly noticed that, in the middle of one of the spikes, drilled into the ceramic, was a small hole. When the breeze blew through it, it made a gentle high-pitched whistle that was rather pleasant on the ear.
The tiny hole was sparrow-shaped. The spikes were green.
Seiki’s eyes widened as he recalled something. “A green sparrow sings her song in the evening gale,” he whispered.
Until now, he had completely forgotten about the clue. Without thinking, he touched the spike with the sparrow-shaped hole, and realized almost immediately that he should not have. The ceramic scales underneath him slid open like a trapdoor and dropped him into the darkness below.
He ended up in water, and rather deep too, as he had fallen from quite a height. He struggled to the surface, noting that it was not that difficult to swim in his clothes, not to mention with the sword on his waist. Around him appeared to be an underground room, with echoing sounds of water. He spotted a tiled ledge and he swam toward it to haul himself up. That was when he learned that, from the room, there seemed to be an underground tunnel that led in all directions.
“Of course,” he said to himself. He was probably under East City. And if above ground was a labyrinth, it was hardly surprising that there would be an underground sewage labyrinth to match as well.
The tunnels held dim torches along the walls, and everywhere were sounds of water sloshing, splashing, dripping. The air was damp and unpleasantly musty, and Seiki could not wait to get out of there. He did not know what he had just gotten himself into, but he supposed the best thing to do was simply to pick a direction and cross his fingers.
The room he had ended in seemed to be where all the water was flowing into, and he made his way upstream along the paved banks, noticing how loud the echo of his footsteps sounded in such a closed space.
He turned a corner, and another, and another, and found himself nowhere nearer to getting himself out of the place. Starting to feel a little claustrophobic, Seiki halted to recalibrate and think of a better plan. Strangely, the echo of footsteps did not stop. Which could only mean that…
Seiki spun around and found himself staring into the snarling face of a:
Crazed Demonic Beast [Level Unknown]. HP 24900/24900.
Seiki gaped in disbelief. The beast was slimy black with red protruding eyes. It was twice as big as a bear and had a long face and a parted mouth lined with rows of sharp teeth. It seemed four-legged, with long clawless limbs, and its tail was like a lizard’s. Seiki only had time to draw his sword when it leapt at him with a roar.
He Parried its bite, and his sword struck it on the side of its face. He was a bit taken aback to find he still had plenty of energy to spare. So, without delay, he spun around into a Sweeping Blade, which pushed the demon backward by a few feet.
Crazed Demonic Beast [Level Unknown]. HP 24812/24900.
It jumped at him again, with both legs forward, and there was no space to dodge except into the sewage water. Seiki Parried once more, cancelling its attack, and followed up with Focused Strike directly at its chest.
Crazed Demonic Beast [Level Unknown]. HP 24721/24900.
He was nearly out of energy, except for a few more Parries. Thus, for some time, he slashed at it with his normal moves, which felt like cutting through a sap-covered tree. The black slime clung onto the blade, making it heavier and heavier. Seiki swept Hikari through the air, casting off the slime, and the beast roared and continued to charge in with other attacks.
This kind of health was impossible. Seiki’s energy charged just enough for a Focused Strike and he used it immediately, dropping the demon’s health less than a meager hundred. The beast did not even flinch as it took each blow, and the slime that covered its body flowed forth to cover its wounds. Seiki relentlessly struck it again and again, with a combination of energy-less Focused Strike and Sweeping Blade. Although it was easy not to take damage, after a while Seiki was starting to think he was trapped in an endless nightmare, and his concentration began to slip.
There was no muscle fatigue, but mental fatigue was real as he dodged, Parried, and attacked.
Changing tactics, the beast spun around with its tail whipping at Seiki. He was out of energy, but he could only try to Parry. His hand went numb as the gigantic tail knocked Hikari out of his hand,
slammed it against the wall, from which it bounced and slid dangerously near the edge of the water.
Crazed Demonic Beast [Level Unknown]. HP 24298/24900.
The beast spun around again, and Seiki dodged its tail. However, with limited space, it slapped him across the shoulder in a glancing blow, which took a quarter of his health. Again, it leapt at him, and he only had energy for one Parry.
Seiki drew his Kohagane dagger and Parried with it, not certain if it would work. It did, and knocked the tail aside. The beast then rushed in for a bite.
Seiki felt completely exhausted as he dodged yet another attack. He was fighting an unbeatable foe, and for the first time he felt like throwing in the towel.
Stand still, and let this thing kill you, he thought.
He would wake up in the morgue and, from there, he would run back and go find Master Tsujihara. But then, even that did not matter anymore. He felt like giving it all up altogether. He was spent. He was tired of fighting, and he was so sick of worrying.
“I don’t know what to do!” he yelled at the beast with its ridiculous amount of health. How could they expect him to do this, at this level? There was no way to win this. The beast charged again. Half-heartedly, he Parried, caring not that he had no energy, and he lost his Kohagane too, which clanked onto the pavement further away. The beast lurched at him. And Seiki twisted to evade its bite, when it reared up. Seiki slid forward to avoid its front legs, but he did not try very hard at all, and its left leg knocked him to the ground, taking more than half his health. Seiki rolled aside to escape another leg that came crashing down beside him. It would probably be over in a few seconds.
All of a sudden, he discerned something. Stuck in the beast’s belly was a large shard of black crystal that exuded dark smoke. The beast roared, and Seiki used the last of his strength to reach for Hikari. He grabbed it and struck up in a most desperately ill-formed Focused Strike. The blade met the black crystal and Hikari burst with blinding light. Seiki had to close his eyelids as he heard something shatter.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself still in the dimly lit sewage. Around him, water was still splashing, sloshing, dripping. Hikari was in his hand, and now only gave off its usual gentle glow. He sat up, and discovered that he was not alone.
A white horse with a silvery mane was standing peacefully a few feet away, sizing him up with its dark eyes. Perhaps it was due merely to the contrast but, this horse, in this ugly damp world, was to Seiki a thing of heavenly beauty, and he could only stare at it.
He did not know how long it was before he regained his composure and finally picked himself up from the floor. The horse looked at him, and he reached out his hand to touch its muzzle, which was velvety soft.
“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he said gently. “I didn’t know.”
Seiki petted it, and he took notice of the fact that it came fully tacked with matching dark gray bridle and saddle. Laid across the saddle, something that looked like a silk necklace had a carved bamboo whistle attached to the end. He grabbed it.
You have received: Horse Whistle. Use this whistle to call your mount!
Achievement earned: First Mount! 150 XP gained.
Seiki gasped, as a kind of joy flooded his heart, much warmer and more welcoming than the artificial leveling joy. “You’re mine,” he whispered, amazed at the realization. Then he started laughing.
Chapter 18
Seiki quickly learned that horses—no matter how pretty—did not know the way out of sewage labyrinths. At first, he was just leading the horse around as he looked for a passage out. Then, an idea occurred to him. He had seen people dismiss their mounts before, after which the horses would run off, presumably toward an exit. It took him a while to figure out how to get the horse to leave, which turned out to be as simple as to will it a certain way and the horse would be happy to trot off on its own. Seiki tried following it, but the steed picked a random direction every time. And as soon as it was out of sight, it simply disappeared.
Seiki called it back with the whistle, and the horse came running around the corner—a rather strange sight to see, with its hooves splashing droplets of water across the damp floor and the gallop echoing against the sewage walls. He could not help staring at it, as he still could not quite believe that it was really his.
“Looks like we’re going to be here for a while,” said Seiki to the horse, patting its soft neck for perhaps the tenth time, feeling its body realistically warm to the touch. The ceiling was rather low, so Seiki had no intention to ride, but he felt he could use some company.
“You only need to do it once, you know.”
Behind him, Kichirou [Level 17], a man with a short messy ponytail and a double-layered blue kimono, was leaning against the wall, arms casually folded.
Seiki was both relieved and slightly worried. “Sorry. What?”
“To claim the mount. Blow the whistle once and that’s enough.” He seemed friendly enough. “I take it, it’s your first?”
Seiki nodded, recording the information that mounts worked the same way as named blades. “You know how I can get out of here?”
“Took the wrong turn from the black market, didn’t you?” Kichirou made no attempt to answer but motioned toward the horse. “Mind if I take a closer look?”
“Sure.”
The man waded over the knee-deep water toward Seiki and inspected the white horse with keen interest. “Not bad,” he said fondly as he stroked it on the neck. “Not bad at all.”
“This, on the other hand,” he said as he looked down at his hand and frowned. “No loot from a guy with such rich friends.”
In the man’s hand was a ceramic bottle, a paper origami crane and some coins. Just as Seiki figured out he had been Pickpocketed again, Kichirou laughed and gave it all back. “Sorry about that.” The man then looked behind him and shouted. “Yo, Master Thief, that was ten people!”
The individual who materialized behind Kichirou was middle-aged, bald, short and stout. Akisu the Master Thief was clad in all black, much like a ninja, and his small cunning eyes sparkled with a mixture of mischief and malice, leaning more toward the former. Seiki was certain he had heard of him before, but could not quite recall where.
“Well done, my dear young foxling,” said Akisu the Master Thief to Kichirou, who winced at the word. The thief continued mysteriously, “Are you ready to delve deeper in the world of crime and learn the next level of pickpocketing?”
This was the guy who taught you pickpocketing and lockpicking, Seiki remembered now—which made this man in front of him a pickpocket in the making. He was not sure if he should be witnessing this.
“Yep,” said Kichirou.
“Close your eyes and hold out your hands.”
Kichirou pouted. “This again?”
“Young foxling, how often do you get the chance to learn from a master thief like me?”
Grimacing, Kichirou did as he was told.
“Close your eyes!” cried the thief.
“They’re closed!” said Kichirou. Right then, the Master Thief grabbed his hands and yanked him off his balance. Kichirou let out a yelp as the man launched him into the shallow water. The old man cackled. “Aha! Got you again, young foxling! Come find me when you’ve pickpocketed another twenty-five people in West City!”
Kichirou did not seem all that bothered as he got up and wrung the water off his sleeves. “This guy treats you like dirt.”
“Reminds me of someone,” said Seiki, perhaps to himself, as he thought of Shousei.
“If you try to get Lockpicking, he really gets you to go pick locks in the Palace where you actually lose Shogun favor and get locked up in jail several times. Good thing I’m not doing that.” Kichirou shrugged and looked at an item in his hand, which seemed like a tiny cloth pouch. “At least, he gave me this.”
Seiki took a peek.
Ornate Thieving Charm [Quest Item]: reduces the lockout time for Pickpocketing in West C
ity to 10 minutes. 25 charges.
“So there’s a lockout” said Seiki out loud, realizing that up to now he knew pretty much nothing about trade skills on either side of the law.
Kichirou had already waded back up the bank, and was kicking water out of his hakama. “Yeah. It starts at two hours at Level 1, and reduces by fifteen minutes with each level you gain until it flats out at half an hour. But after that, you start to build charges.“
Then he looked up at Seiki seriously. “I’m only doing this for the Horse Thief perk, and you need to be a Grand Master Pickpocketer for that.”
Seiki was not sure if he heard it right. “You can steal a horse?”
“Of course, not!” Kichirou seemed amused as he sensed Seiki’s worry. “But you can borrow it for a joy ride of fifteen seconds. Trade Perk, you know. Ultimately, it’s just for flash, but it’s great fun to annoy people in the Wilderness.”
“Oh,” said Seiki.
“Your rich friends didn’t tell you?”
“What rich friends?”
Kichirou chuckled. “Come on. That’s a snowstepper you’ve got. You need at least a few hundred gold for that in the black market.”
“Sorry, a what?” asked Seiki.
Kichirou seemed completely mortified. “Don’t tell me some idiot sold that to you for cheap.”
Seiki shook his head but could not quite find a way to explain it properly from the Aka Manto to the crazy leap onto the decorative East Gate dragon. “It was, uh, a treasure puzzle kind of thing.”
“Ah.” Kichirou breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, unfortunately now you can’t sell it and I would have happily taken it off you for five hundred. Regret claiming it now?”
“No,” said Seiki faster than he thought.
The man gave a knowing smile. “Yeah, yeah, first mount, you get attached. Guess what. I still like my slow little red horse.” He then held out his hand to Seiki. “Kichirou, horse enthusiast.”
