Fantasy Online_Hyperborea

by Harmon Cooper

  Without so much as a raised eyebrow or askance glance, the front desk hospitality host tells them that there is only one room available, the heart-shaped Salle d’Amour featuring a heart-shaped bed, heart-shaped throw pillows, heart-shaped candles, heart-shaped water-based lubricant dispensers, heart-shaped vibrating novelty toys, heart-shaped towels, loofahs, sponges, and a single bar of soap shaped like a spleen. From floor to ceiling and wall-to-wall, the heart motif is displayed with the same pernicious ubiquity that the North Koreans give their current juche pimp’s portraiture.

  “I’m logging out,” Ryuk announces. “I’ll be back in at the Hour of the Morning Fire.”

  FeeTwix plops onto the bed and his eyes go from black to blue. “It’s been a long time since I spent the night at a love hotel. Fun places, really.”

  “You’ve stayed in one?” Ryuk asks.

  “I’ve visited South Korea several times for Proxima conferences. I have a pretty big following there, especially in Busan. So yeah, I have. You must have as well, being from Japan and all.”

  “Not all Japanese stay in love hotels.”

  “Sure, and not all Swedes have blue eyes and blonde hair.” FeeTwix places his hands behind his head.

  “I will see you in the morning.” Ryuk offers FeeTwix a small bow. He logs out before his guildmate can say anything else.

  As the wave lengths on the inside of his NV Visor slow to a crawl, Ryuk slowly becomes aware of his surroundings. It’s almost three in the morning in Tokyo, and his mouth tastes like the entire cast of the all-orc version of Riverdance has tap danced through it barefoot.

  He removes the NV Visor and stands on wobbly legs. He yawns, stretches, and rolls his head on his neck. A half-finished water bottle on his nightstand diminishes the orc-flavor somewhat, and he’s just getting into bed when he notices the stygian outline of someone sitting seiza in front of his bedroom door.

  “Hajime!”

  The humandroid’s eyes open. “Ryuk.”

  “You scared me!”

  “I dismissed Kodai’s men; it’s safer if I am in the room with you.”

  “Just stay in the living room, like you normally do.” Ryuk props a pillow up so he can sit with his back against the headboard. “It’s stupid. You know how much protection I have. And for what?” He kicks his legs onto his bed.

  Hajime considers his statement for a moment and says, “The man who sleeps with a machete under his pillow is thought foolish until the one time that he isn’t.”

  “I remember you telling me that once before, but with a gun.”

  “A gun is even better. How is the ultimate quest going?”

  “Just leveling now. We encountered a Thulean warrior woman who was attacked by the Shinigami. They had Tamana, and one of the players looked just like me.”

  “A doppelgänger? Intriguing. More intriguing still is that they refer to themselves as ‘gods of death’. And this Thulean female, what of her?”

  “I really don’t know. She attacked us because she thought I was the evil Ryuk, and she played with FeeTwix’s gun a little bit, but other than that, she didn’t seem too bad.”

  Hajime is silent for a moment. “And tomorrow’s plans?”

  “More leveling up. If I can get to Tamana, I’ll be able to figure out what happened to her.”

  “Wants and needs, wants and needs.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You should rest,” Hajime says after a short pause. “Your training begins in four hours.”

  “My training?”

  “Goodnight.” Hajime stands, bows, and exits the room. Ryuk can hear him sit down on the other side of the door.

  My training?

  The familiar smell of Hajime’s Nag Champa incense drifts in from the living room. Ryuk rolls to his side and focuses his attention on a glowing icon on the bottom of his iNet screen; a reminder that a new episode of an anime set in Tritania called Flight Feet,フライトフィート, has just been released, a show loosely based on some of the more infamous quests undertaken within the game.

  The icon senses his attention; the show is painted across the inside of his eyelids. In the latest episode, a group of mercenary forest ninjas and their leader, a buxom elf wench with blue hair, fight their way through the Attla Forest with a goal of collecting Attla spider venom to use in a future battle against their rival guild.

  It’s a tried and true story line, based on something the Knights of Non Compos Mentis did years ago, in the distant past before Ryuk was born.

  He fights to stay awake to finish the episode, but struggles in vain. The last troubling thought on his mind before sleep takes him is about Tamana – he should have done something more to save her.

  He should have done something.

  (0)__(0)

  A prompt from Hajime wakes Ryuk:

  Ryuk selects option two.

  He rolls to the right, and even with eyes still closed, a beam of morning sunshine sears his rods and cones. Covering his face with a pillow is the only logical action, but he’s awake enough at this point to check a few feeds he follows on GoogleFace Line. He’s deluged with non-news, celebutard oopsies and lolcats, and reaches his threshold of annoyance pretty quickly. He rises, scuffs into his slippers, and heads straight to the bathroom.

  Examing himself in the mirror, Ryuk runs his hand through his black mop of hair and tries to smooth out that damn cowlick one more time.

  He splashes cold water on his face and jolts himself slightly more awake. The delicate scent of gently bubbling miso broth meets his nostrils, beckoning him to the kitchen.

  His stomach feels particularly empty, but he decides he has enough time to shower. He frees himself from yesterday’s clothes, adjusts the water temperature and seats himself on the plastic stool under the showerhead.

  The steam billows around him and the image of Tamana leaping in front of the train flashes before his mind’s eye. He does his best to push it away as he lathers his hair, and the warm water sluices down his face, runs down his chest and back and twists to the drain.

  With eyes still closed, he’s eventually distracted by a game of Pong on his iNet screen against some anonymous player in his apartment building.

  The mystery opponent defeats him in no time, and he finishes his shower and towels off.

  Ryuk changes into a pair of black jeans, dark gray shirt and his favorite black sweater, which he bought a few months back at a Uniqlo boutique. He was with Tamana at the time; Hajime wasn’t yet part of his entourage, but he had others outside the store keeping an eye on him.

  “Is it too cold?” Hajime asks as Ryuk enters the dining area and sits.

  “No.”

  “I can turn the heat on.”

  “I’m fine; I like the sweater.”

  Hajime places a clay bowl of miso soup in front of him. “Careful, it is hot.”

  After he sets the temaki rolls down, Ryuk goes to town. As he eats, Hajime begins rearranging things in the living room.

  “I would like you to turn off your iNet feed for the next hour,” the humandroid tells him. “We will start your training as soon as you finish breakfast.”

  “Isn’t that kind of a bad idea?” Ryuk asks. “I mean, for my stomach.”

  “Have you turned it off yet?”

  Ryuk checks the Tritania player boards once more, checks to see if he has a message from anyone – he doesn’t. A prompt appears asking him if he is sure he’d like to log off and he selects ‘yes’. None of this requires any physical action; his life chip is the neural lace that allows him to do any number of things through the symbiosis between brain and technology.

  A small power icon now glows in the bottom right hand quadrant of his pane of vision, reminding him that he can log back on anytime.

  “It’s off.”

  “Good. Now remove your food from your placemat and look beneath it.”

  Ryuk does as instructed. Beneath his placemat he finds a card that reads: Emphasize differences.

  “What’s t
his supposed to mean?” he asks.

  “It’s your oblique card for the day.”

  “I see … ” Ryuk finishes his soup. He gets the sudden urge to check iNet but a quick look at Hajime stops him. The humandroid pulls his hair back into a tiny ponytail; he rolls his head on his shoulders for a moment to loosen up.

  After a quick glance around the room, he moves the glass coffee table clear to the far wall. “Are you finished yet?” he asks without looking at Ryuk.

  “Finished.”

  “Good. I want you to come over to me now. Stand directly in front of me.” Once Ryuk is standing in front of Hajime, the humandroid calmly places his arms at his sides. “Now, I want you to hit me.”

  “Do what?” Ryuk can hardly believe his words.

  “I want you to hit me, strike me, as if I were your brother and he had just punched you in the face. Come at me! hit me!”

  Ryuk takes a step back.

  “Hit me!” Hajime says again, louder this time. “Hit me!”

  Ryuk takes his swing and at the very last second, Hajime steps aside. Ryuk tumbles forward and narrowly avoids colliding with the wall.

  Hajime claps his hands together and gets into position. “Again.”

  “I don’t see the point in this.”

  “Again!”

  Ryuk tries to lay Hajime out with a running swing. Hajime ducks just in time, almost as if he is slowly bending forward to bow.

  “If you want me to hit you, stop moving!” Ryuk runs at Hajime again. He misgauges his step and Hajime catches him almost as an afterthought.

  Ryuk pushes Hajime away. “I don’t want to learn Aikido.”

  “I’m not teaching you Aikido; I’m teaching you about differences and how to emphasize them.”

  He exhales forcibly. “This is stupid. You’re a humandroid; I’m sure you know my trajectory before I even start to swing.”

  “I’ve turned off all my predictive capabilities when it comes to combat. In fact, I haven’t used them in nearly a year.”

  “Really? Isn’t that … ” Ryuk thinks of the word. “Against protocol or something?”

  “Try to attack me again, surprise me this time.”

  Ryuk turns away from Hajime. “I need to log in.”

  “Attack me!”

  Ryuk pivots and brings his fist around; Hajime sweeps his legs out from beneath him.

  Ryuk lands on his back and with a loud umph, the trauma forces his iNet system on. It scans his vitals, notes the changes in heart rate and body chemistry, and a flashing prompt asks him if he needs medical attention. It reminds him that he must give an answer or medical help will be sent to his location.

  “Why did you do that?” Ryuk curls to his side as his stomach clenches and his inner ear shifts. He puts all of his focus on not upchucking right there in the living room.

  “What are our differences?” he asks. “Have you ascertained the meaning of this morning’s oblique card?”

  A few deep breaths in but Ryuk still feels nauseated, and the anger and frustration aren’t helping any – getting his ass handed to him in his own living room is not how he planned to start the day.

  “I don’t know,” he grits, “this is stupid.”

  Hajime helps him to his feet and in the same motion tosses him over his shoulder.

  Whoof! Whatever air was in his body is gone again. Ryuk’s pulse pounds in his temples; his head feels like it’s about to explode. He moans, and again his gorge rises in his throat. He rolls to his knees and crawls to the bathroom.

  Hajime follows close behind him, light on his feet as a helium cat in wool socks. “Have you figured it out yet?”

  “Fuck you!” He kicks the bathroom door shut behind him. He goes for the toilet and makes unproductive gagging noises; he feels even more frustrated with himself for being so weak. Seething with anger now, he pulls himself up to the sink. He takes a good long look at himself in the mirror and …

  Laughs.

  His hair is a mess and still a little wet too, his skin is now blotchy, his pupils are tiny dots.He’s never actually seen himself in such an enraged state.

  Sure, he’s seen himself depressed, mopey, tired, but never this angry. His laughter ends when he recalls why he’s in the bathroom – to vomit – and the fact that Hajime seems hell-bent on either beating the shit out of him or annoying him to death with his little oblique kōan.

  He opens the door to give Hajime a piece of his mind only to find the humandroid in full headstand. “Do you think you can punch me now?”

  Ryuk clenches his fist, looks down at it, and slowly lowers it to his side. “What’s the actual point of this?” he asks. “Just get to the point, Hajime, I need to log in soon and I’d like not to have a concussion when I do.”

  “Were you laughing in there?” Hajime remains straight as a board, his hands clasped behind his head to create a perfect base.

  Ryuk clears his throat. “Briefly.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I looked stupid when I’m angry.”

  The humandroid’s legs remain perfectly straight, his feet angled so the tips of his big toes are touching. “I haven’t met a human yet who doesn’t look stupid when they are angry.”

  “Good, so I was angry and I’m not now – still a little frustrated, but that will pass.” He shakes his head at the upside-down humandroid. “You may have given me a migraine, and you’re lucky I didn’t vomit.”

  “No, you are lucky you didn’t vomit; I’m lucky I don’t have to cook more food for you.” Hajime arcs his legs backwards and brings himself back to his feet. He turns to Ryuk and offers him a peaceful grin. “I must know: You had an opening just a moment ago while I was in a headstand. It would have been hard for me to block you in that position, even with my physical advantage.”

  Ryuk shrugs him off. “Look, Hajime, I really don’t understand what you’re trying to prove here.”

  “I really want you to think about how the phrase ‘emphasize differences’ applies to what has happened here. That’s what all this was about.”

  “How does the phrase have anything to do with me attacking you? It’s not like I could actually win.”

  “You are indeed correct that you would not win in direct physical confrontation with me, but oddly enough, you declined to engage even after I offered you an easy attack.” Hajime smooths out the long sleeves of his robe. “Emphasizing our differences would lead you to believe that you couldn’t best me. Along the same thought process, emphasizing our differences led you to grant me mercy.”

  Ryuk scratches the back of his head.

  “Emphasizing differences is helpful in preparation, but knowing what you have in common with your enemy is equally helpful. In a headstand, both of us are disadvantaged. In the case of what just happened, emphasizing differences led to missing your opportunity to attack.”

  Ryuk eyes him wearily for a moment. He’s pretty sure that Hajime would have performed some sort of hurricanrana if he had attempted anything.

  “Now, I want you to sit for ten minutes and think about the two words.”

  “Hajime … ”

  “Ten minutes, then you can log in. We’ll discuss it more once you log out this afternoon.”

  Ryuk clears his throat. “Actually, I wasn’t planning on logging out this afternoon.”

  “You are now,” the humandroid says, “we need to do some research in regards to NPCs attacking people here in the real world. But first, ten minutes of silence, and no iNet.”

  Chapter 12: Hanging coffins

  ‘Radio silence’ is an archaic term not often used in the hyper-connected 2070s, but the concept perfectly describes Ryuk’s brief experience with his moment of reflection. A small part of him hoped for it to last longer, but his ten minutes of disconnectivity ended almost as soon as they started.

  Now in his haptic chair, he places the NV Visor on his head and adjusts its strap.

  The sine waves begin their hypnotic dance, and Ryuk is prompted to select a spawn
ing location. He chooses the love hotel, his last physical location in the game, and his avatar takes shape in the lobby after a few moments. He checks his stats and notices the change in defense with his dream armor.

  Ryuk Matsuzaki Level 5 Ballistics Mage

  HP: 213/213

  ATK: 48

  DEF: 47

  MATK: 81

  MDF: 24

  LUCK: 6

  The same hospitality host is behind the front desk, and as Ryuk heads to the Salle d’Amour, the deskman looks up from his book and calls after him. “Sir? Sir? SIR! Your friend has vacated your previous room and is now in room 309.”

  “Why’d he do that?”

  The clerk wipes his hands. “Sir, we here at the Rosebud never pry into our guests’ activities. Room 309 is where you’ll find him.”

  “Thanks.” The circular stair case to the third floor features stylized paintings of idealized romantic couples – Kurt and Courtney, John and Yoko, Barrow and Parker, Stein and Toklas, Jack and Marilyn, Rivera and Kahlo, Edward and Wallis. Ryuk reads the nameplates as he passes; he has no idea who most of them are.

  His staccato knock on 309’s door is answered by silence, then sudden thumping, shuffling, and FeeTwix calling out, “One minute!” More than a minute goes by before the door swings open and the Swede greets him, a fluffy white hotel towel clutched around his waist. He looks like he’s been dragged through a hedge backward, rode hard, and put up wet.

  “Ryuk! Shit! Um ...” FeeTwix double checks his towel to make sure he has adequately covered his digital junk.

  “Who is it?” An unexpectedly familiar female voice asks.

  Dude!

  FeeTwix shuts the door, harrumphs, and steps into the hallway. “It’s not what it looks like … well, okay, it is what it looks like, but dammit Ryuk, I couldn’t resist!”

  “Did you … um … video it?”

  FeeTwix’s eyes are currently sky blue, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t black holes just a few minutes ago.

  “Pfft! Are you kidding me? Of course I didn’t!”

  Ryuk exhales audibly.

  “I don’t see the big problem here.”