Bushido Online: the Battle Begins: A LitRPG Saga Page 9

  That was all he needed.

  Seiki’s leg had already swept to the side to trip the man. And as the ninja stumbled, Seiki turned into position, ready to pin him to the floor. After all, he knew his ground game. Although he would be waking up in the morgue pretty soon, at least he had done his best.

  With his health abysmally low, Seiki’s vision blurred. He thought he heard Fuyu’s voice behind him. “Seiki-san, do you know what ninjas are most feared for?”

  Seiki didn’t. But obviously Taka did, and he tried to violently twist around.

  It was too late. With a flutter of her purple sleeves, Fuyu popped up behind him and planted a long curved dagger deep into Taka’s back.

  “Assassin’s Stab,” said Fuyu, her hands still gripping the hilt of the crimson dagger. Her tone was serious, and she said in an ominous whisper, “It ignores all armor.”

  Seiki was confused for a moment.

  Taka of the Shadow Manor [Level 19]. HP 1402/2852. Energy 47/1512.

  Fuyu of Ichikeya [Level 15]. HP 1411/1432. Energy 17/676.

  The battle was far from over. Taka still had half his health left.

  Their adversary had turned his head around, and his eyes widened in shock as he recognized the dagger. “Fang of the Blood Moon,” he said hoarsely. “How—” Then he stopped himself, and pulled a wry face. “Cheater,” he whispered.

  His life started to drain rapidly and, with a gasp, he went still.

  Taka of the Shadow Manor [Level 19]. HP 0/2852. Not lootable.

  Seiki noticed that Fuyu had turned deathly pale. “Taka-san, you should know by now.” Her voice was so weak it could hardly be heard. “That’s what ninjas are all about.”

  Then she dropped dead as well.

  In the midst of his confusion, Seiki heard a gentle explosion and both their bodies vaporized into black smoke.

  Challenge ends. Ichikeya territory successfully defended!

  Achievement earned: First PVP Battle! 75 XP gained.

  Achievement earned: Defense! 250 XP gained.

  Congratulations! You have reached Level 7.

  HP increased to 159.

  Max energy increased to 106.

  You can now venture beyond the City Plains.

  Seiki shivered as his health and energy filled, and the rapid information and leveling joy rushed through him like a splash of cold water. He was not sure he liked leveling when he was so low on health, as it felt more like an electric jolt then.

  Still breathing heavily, Seiki looked around, remembering where he was. The sun seemed to have just set outside and was now in a shade of dark blue. The first floor of the inn was brightly lit up with red and yellow lamps along the walls. It must have happened some time during the fight but he had not taken any notice.

  Then he heard applause and cheers from the crowd. A strange feeling washed over him and he felt sick in the pit of his stomach.

  Excited conversations had risen in the audience, and people shifted and moved around. Some were preparing to leave. Seiki picked himself up from the floor. Someone approached him. Seiki blinked and saw that it was Hatsuo. Now that he no longer had on a frown, Seiki could remark he was a person of friendly demeanor. “Seiki-san, come sit over here!” The man seemed very pleased.

  A few people who had been watching the challenge came up to congratulate him, most of them rambling about something that he could not quite understand. Seiki had always been rather indifferent to crowds and, right now, he simply wished they would quiet down and leave him alone.

  The furniture wreckage on the floor had started to fade and was slowly replaced by newly-generated pieces. Hatsuo led Seiki to a table in the corner, away from the crowd. Someone poured him a cup of tea, which Seiki downed in one gulp.

  Seiki just noticed that his fingers were trembling and his breath was short and shaky. During the fight, he had completely forgotten about the audience. Now that he saw them there, with their carefree applause and cheerful faces, it felt shockingly familiar. It reminded him of another life that seemed already so far away. The spectators were now only conversing amiably among themselves, but in his ears he could hear echoes of screaming voices, like packs of rabid animals, that instilled in him a deep sense of dread. As Seiki fought to suppress the feeling, it mutated into growing panic.

  Shivering, Seiki leaned back against the wall. He buried his face in his hands as he breathed to calm himself down, concentrating on nothing but the sense of his existence. When he finally opened his eyes again, the crowd had thinned, and he was thankful no one was paying him any attention.

  He could see Hatsuo talking and laughing with the last of the guests, who were just leaving. After saying farewell, the man turned and walked to his table. Noticing the empty cup, he asked, “Seiki-san, would you like some more tea?”

  Seiki looked up at him. The man seemed genuinely good-natured. “Maybe something stronger?” Seiki managed to say, rather breathlessly.

  Hatsuo chuckled and shouted to someone to bring sake. Seiki had started his martial arts training way before drinking age. His teachers and coaches had always frowned on the substance, so he had never developed a drinking habit. But right now, he felt he could really use something to numb his brain. He drank four cups in succession, so quickly that he could not even taste the dry flavor of the sake.

  You are now 10% drunk.

  The notification caused Seiki to start laughing, and he simply could not stop until his sides ached and his eyes watered. Hatsuo gave him a puzzled look, but Seiki did not care.

  “Come, Hatsuo-san,” said Seiki, choosing to adhere to the code of politeness when it came to terms of address. “Have one with me.”

  Hatsuo smiled, and they downed a cup each. Seiki sighed. Now that his strong emotions were starting to subside, he was beginning to feel rather exhausted.

  From the street, sounds of gallops drew near, and a black horse pulled up in front of the inn. Fuyu leapt off and made her grand entrance through the front door.

  “Just another day at Ichikeya!” she announced happily. She greeted the few people who had lingered behind and made her way toward Seiki.

  Back in full health, her cheeks flushing from excitement, she plopped herself down opposite him. “You probably have questions, Seiki-san, but first I have a confession to make.” Her expression turned very serious. “I did not expect you to live through that, and I tricked you into accepting the challenge. I’m sorry.”

  Seiki did not expect that from her and he could only stare back without a word. It had never crossed his mind that she should have anything to apologize for.

  Then, just like that, she beamed and her eyes brightened with admiration. “But you were great, Seiki-san! I really underestimated you.” She turned to pull on Hatsuo’s sleeves in a childish manner. “Hatsuo, don’t you think Seiki-san is great? Fuyu-chan is really impressed!”

  A new understanding hit Seiki, something that had not made sense until now. With all her dramatic theatrics (weaving in and out of being completely in-character, annoying enemies and flirting with friends), Seiki realized that this girl, whoever she was, was having a tremendous amount of fun with being Fuyu.

  And for some reason, that fact comforted him. Wasn’t he, too, enjoying being Seiki right now? At that instant, everything made a lot of sense, and it was liberating.

  Seiki shook his head and let out a big breath. “You’re good,” he said.

  Fuyu smiled very slightly, and Seiki knew she understood his meaning.

  The moment quickly passed. She pulled Hatsuo down to sit at the table beside her and ordered someone to bring more sake.

  “All right, Seiki-san. You can ask questions.”

  A new sense of enthusiasm had filled Seiki. “That dagger,” he said.

  She took the weapon from her obi and slid it across the table over to him. The curved dagger rested in a dark crimson sheath, with jeweled patterns that resembled petals and clouds. Seiki was not sure if he was ima
gining things, but the blade felt as if surrounded by a strange aura of power and mystery.

  “This is one of the sixteen unique named blades,” said Fuyu, in her voice a hint of pride. “Ketsuki no Kiba, Fang of the Blood Moon.”

  Ketsuki no Kiba. [Unique] +112 attack. +1% energy regeneration. The curse of the blood moon drains the life of both the user and victim who come into contact with the dagger! Effect: grants the user the ability to sacrifice all remaining health to instantly kill their target, as long as their current health is more than or equal to that of the target.

  “There are a lot of identical weapons you can get, but there’s only one of this,” she said. Then she proceeded to explain about common weapons, named weapons, and unique named weapons.

  Common weapons came mostly with fixed stats, but occasionally with enhancements. Named weapons were much rarer, and usually had random stats, and often came with an extra enhancement or ability.

  Unique named weapons were the rarest, with a grand total of sixteen in the entire world, and were the only kind of weapons not bound to the user. Meaning that they could still be passed on to others, even after they had been used. Or they could be looted from the owner’s dead body if they were killed. They also came with one unique effect that was not found anywhere else.

  “You can choose whether you want to use the effect, right?” Seiki asked to make sure, since he thought it would be a terrible weapon if it killed the user every time.

  “Yes,” said Fuyu. “But there’s no real point in carrying it around if you don’t plan to make use of the effect, since there are much better weapons out there.”

  She had taken the Fang of the Blood Moon in her hand and unsheathed it for him to see. The blade was double-edged and showed a tint of pink, which got darker near the hilt.

  “Being a unique named blade doesn’t mean it’s the best. It’s just… unique. For example, Asakiri, the Spear of Fog, is by itself a terrible weapon. But when you swing it around, it creates a very dense fog that only the user can see through.” She giggled. “Sounds silly, but that’s why no one can do anything to the archers of Kyuhou Peaks. Even now if you want to go do the Kumagami Lair, you have to pay them a protection fee or they will shoot you dead on sight.”

  Seiki remembered something now that he had been wondering. “You didn’t have it equipped at first.” If his memory served him correctly, she only had on a silver dagger when the challenge started.

  “That was my whole trick,” said Fuyu. “I had it on me, but not equipped, or Taka would have guessed what I had planned.”

  Seiki now completely grasped her strategy. She did not have to defeat Taka. With this dagger, she only had to bring his health down to her level of health and use it on him.

  “I was worried he would notice that I only had one weapon equipped,” she said. “And that he would get suspicious. But I guess it’s Taka after all.” She pursed her lips. “His master Nichi would have suspected something.”

  Seiki now just became conscious of how outclassed Taka had been against her. Still, there was one thing he did not understand. “But this ability also killed you,” he began.

  “I made sure I had a bit more health than Taka. As long as the challenger dies first, the territory is defended,” she explained. “If we had had exactly equal health, it would have been a draw, and he could have come right back to challenge us again tomorrow. Now, the Shadow Manor is locked out from challenging us again for the next seven days.”

  Despite all her teasing and running around, Seiki felt that the whole challenge had been well thought-out. It required a lot of precision on Fuyu’s part.

  She seemed to be recalling minute details of the challenge. “But I really didn’t know Taka had gotten his hands on Purifying Will. That definitely made things trickier. If you hadn’t been there, it would have been much more difficult.”

  When she realized that Seiki did not understand the significance, she went on, “It’s not a ninja-specific ability. There are some abilities you can learn from rare Ancient Scrolls. This is one of them. And the thing is, you will never know what they have learned, so it can always be a surprise.” She nodded to herself. “And good thing Taka hasn’t managed to learn his Triple Slash yet.”

  It became apparent now that they all seemed to know one another very well. Seiki suspected that this was not the first time they had fought. It was like he had taken a step into a different kind of game than he had played up until this point.

  “What will happen to him?” Seiki could not help wondering. After all, Taka’s death seemed rather violent. Seiki secretly took a look at Fuyu’s ability.

  Assassin’s Stab [Ability Information]: stab the target in the back. Only usable when the user is behind the target. Attack ignores all armor and luck effect. Doubles the attack power of the weapon when used to initiate combat.

  Concentrating further, Seiki was surprised to find he could study Fuyu’s specific numbers.

  Assassin’s Stab [Fuyu of Ichikeya - Level 15]: stab the target in the back for 494 damage. Only usable when the user is behind the target. Attack ignores all armor and luck effect. Doubles the attack power of the weapon when the ability is used to initiate combat. Required energy: 552. Ability modification: none. Enhancement: none.

  Fuyu did not seem to take notice that he was looking and shrugged. “Well, I didn’t see him at the morgue, so I guess he chose to resurrect in his clan’s spirit shrine. And he’s probably going to get grounded by his clan leader for a while.” She put her fingers to her lips. “You see, he was hasty in challenging us all by himself. What was he going to do anyway? Even if he won and went upstairs, Mimura-sama was simply going to kill him in one stroke. Now he’s got the whole Shadow Manor locked out for a week.”

  “Can I ask what it was in that box that I gave to Mimura?”

  Fuyu shook her head. “That’s for Mimura-sama to share, if he wishes to.”

  Seiki thought for a moment. “What should I do right now?” he asked.

  “Seiki-san, I really don’t know how you managed to live through the challenge, but don’t you think it’s about time to get yourself a few more abilities? You’ll make a good samurai,” she said. Then she added, “Or a ronin.”

  Seiki thought he had heard that before. After all that happened today, he felt he was already decently educated in the ways of the ninjas but, as for the other classes, he still had not a single clue. “What’s the difference?”

  “They start out the same,” said Fuyu. “And then they… diverge,” she concluded mysteriously, and Seiki could not get her to say anything more about it.

  “You’ll see when the time comes, Seiki-san,” she said. “And, for the sake of the kami-sama, deliver that Manji letter already! And stop walking around so casually with a freaking Blood Essence on you. I’m surprised you haven’t got robbed!”

  “How did you know about that?” he asked, surprised.

  Fuyu flashed one of her ambiguous smiles. “It’s our business at Ichikeya to know things, Seiki-san. Now off you go.”

  You are no longer in a group with Fuyu [Level 15].

  Seiki thought he felt a little wistful when he walked out of the inn into the street outside, which was now lit with lovely red lamps.

  Chapter 07

  Behind the bamboo counter, Goro, a small well-dressed man with a tiny mustache, was flipping through a thick pile of parchment.

  After a bit of getting lost in the city’s many alleyways, Seiki had managed to locate him on the second floor of an unnamed building on the lively Trade Street, which ran across the city in a straight line from east to west.

  It was still rather early in the day—a cloudy one, as it was turning out to be—and the air was cooler than usual, with the sun only making occasional peeps from behind the clouds. Seiki had handed Manji’s letter to the man and had been waiting patiently for Goro to finish doing whatever business he had with the pile of papers.

  The man finally looked up,
a single piece of paper in his hand. “Manji-san had asked me to help get you settled in the capital city. I’ve found a place for you to stay for a while, please sign here.”

  “A place?” Seiki was curious. It sounded perfectly realistic.

  He took the document to have a look, delighted once again to be able to make sense of the Japanese characters.

  TERRITORY DEED

  Type: Personal

  Owner: Seiki [Level 7]

  Address: Yanagi Alley, South City

  Monthly maintenance fee (PVP enabled): 0.

  Monthly maintenance fee (PVP disabled): 0.

  Expiry: never.

  Seiki looked at the man in puzzlement. “What is this?”

  “This is a place I have found for you, Seiki-san. Manji-san told me to get you settled in the capital city. It is your private lodging where you can take refuge from the outside world in troubled times. Since you are a friend of Manji’s, you are welcome to use it as long as you like.”

  “Okay,” said Seiki, a bit uncertain. “What is it for again?” It was not like he ever needed to go to sleep in this virtual realm.

  “You can use the place to store valuables, unused items and conduct private meetings. Please sign at the bottom of the deed to accept it.” He handed Seiki a brush already dipped in black ink.

  “Right,” said Seiki. Storing valuables sounded reasonable.

  “Trust me, Seiki-san. You’ll find time alone quite welcoming after a while in Shinshioka.”

  Seiki chuckled. “I guess you’ve got a point.”

  He grabbed the tool between his fingers. Having never used a brush before, signing his name as Seiki was rather strange. To his amazement, as soon as he willed it, his hand automatically wrote down two graceful Japanese characters. Seiki studied the lines and quickly had them memorized, for the sake of knowing how to recognize his own name, before handing the document back to Goro.

  Quest completed: Letter to Shinshioka [Level 3]. 40 XP gained.