Wrong Game, Chouji

The city was ablaze with neon light and laughter. Drunkards and scantily clad people of all genders and species prowled through the streets. The buildings here stretched all the way to the sky, made of some glass or crystal that reflected the glowing advertisements. Almost exactly like on Earth, magic was used to hoist light molded into the shape of images, messages, anything that would capture your fleeting attention. The sky was full of visions and smells of food, wealth, sex, all the baseline human desires one could satisfy in a world of fantasy. 

In the distance, spiral towers dominated the horizon. They belonged to a castle, the last bastion of actual fantasy aesthetic in the city. The castle walls were a plain white, or rather they used to be; now they were adorned with blast marks, graffiti, and more advertising, all large enough for me to see from this distance. Humongous, fluorescent letters floating above the castle itself announced the city to every living being in a five kilometer radius: PRAYERHAVEN.

So this was the capital. I knew from Gina’s description it would be bad, but I had no idea it would be like this. 

Lying on the ground, I craned my neck to take another look at the horizon. To the left of the castle and much further away stood a spiky, black evil-looking castle. Like this castle’s evil twin. I remembered more of what Gina had said. That Prayerhaven was right next to the Demon King’s stronghold. That this was humanity’s very best. Our first and finest in the fight against tyranny. What a joke.

I heard a yelp behind me. 

“Daisuke!” Gina cried.

With my hands and feet still bound, I wiggled and wormed my way around, flopping on the floor like a fish. By the time I flipped myself over, I saw the same muscular dude dragging Gina towards a lone gate without any surrounding walls, presumably the gate to the city.

“Stay calm, Daisuke! Use your phone, be smart—” Gina’s mouth was covered by the dude’s rough, calloused hand. And struggle as she might, the rest of her words did not reach me.

“Gina! I’ll save you somehow! I promise!” I screamed. My limbs strained against the ropes binding me, but they did not budge. I could only watch as the dude handed over Gina to what looked to be city guards at the gate. Afterwards, he stomped back over to me.

“You piece of shit!” I said, immediately spitting into the dark of his hood. If there’s anything baseball players are good at, it’s spitting. You get a surprising amount of practice in the dugouts. It paid off here. I made sure to phlegm it up this time. It hit the dude in square in the face with a splat.

He didn’t react, let alone wipe it off. Even with all the flashing lights and when viewing him from a low angle, I still couldn’t see into the shadow cast by his hood. Yet somehow I could feel him looking at me. It was unnerving.

“Calm down,” he said. His voice was solid and unmoving, like stone. “I am taking you to him.”

“Him?” I asked. “Who?”

“You will see.”

And he picked me up just like he did Gina. He yanked off my leg bindings and shoved me forward to the gate. It still puzzled me. But a gate wouldn’t just be there on its own. Where were the city walls? Upon as we got closer, I realized that the air surrounding the gate and extending to either side of it was tinted a very faint blue, so faint I hardly noticed it amongst the clashing colors from the nightlife.

Instead of handing me off to someone, the dude continued to escort me through the gate and into Prayerhaven. All five of my senses were overwhelmed by debauchery surrounding me. I squinted, attempting to protect my eyes from the brightness of all the glowing glyphs and advertisements. My eardrums ached at the boisterous voices of the crowds. The stench of alcohol and perfume made my nose wrinkle. I could feel the body heat and sweat radiating off of everybody else. And somehow, my mouth tasted like parsley.

Shambling forward, I couldn’t help but notice that so many of the people here were Japanese. It wasn’t everyone. It wasn’t even mostly everyone. But for every five wizards/merchants/scantily clad catgirl maids/scantily clad wizard merchants I saw one Japanese guy. Some were as old as my dad, some were as young as Chouji. They all had ginormous grins on their faces and were tailed by what I could only describe as groupies. NPCs who wanted to be them and/or be with them.
Humanity’s very best.

With each step I took, I understood Half-Sword Dave more and more. I would never say that I truly get it. I doubt I ever could. But looking around me, and seeing the former pride and joy of your nation be reduced to this? It would drive any reasonable person crazy. It’s nearly as bad as watching your favorite team lose the playoffs.

I tried getting some answers out of the dude, some reactions, anything at all. But the dude wasn’t much for conversation. Looking back at the wall, I realized that it didn’t ever end. It kept extending upwards, matching and surpassing the heights of the near-skyscrapers inside, until it arched down on its path to the wall on the other side. It was a completely protective magical dome. There really were the best sorcerers in this city.

We walked for tens of minutes. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re being forced to walk against your will in a strange, hedonist city and you also spent the last twenty-four hours basically hog-tied, it feels like torture. The only saving grace was that the rambunctious nightlife gradually died down as we walked deeper and deeper into Prayerhaven and closer and closer to wherever it was we were going. But judging by how the spiral towers of the castle were getting bigger and bigger, I had a guess.

We arrived just as the sun breached the horizon. The technicolor glow of the city was washed out by the world’s familiar eternal golden rays. Prayerhaven’s protective dome was even more obvious now, with the blue of the magical shield contrasting strongly with the yellow of the dawn. I wish I had a camera to take a photo. Oh wait. I do. Well I wish I had my hands unbound so I could use my phone. But alas. The dude does not budge.

The castle looked the same as it did in the distance, but bigger. I’m not gonna waste words describing the place, it’s a white castle. It was at this point that questions began percolating in the recesses of my mind. So it was the king that kidnapped us? Why? Where’s Gina right now? Is it because she’s a girl and the king is very sexist so I have to be a feminist and take a stand for girls the world over? But why male models I mean players?

The gates creaked open, but it nothing to assuage my burning mind.

~⚔~

For the second time in the past hour, Chouji wished he was dead. For the second time in the past hour, Chouji was coping with pain caused by blunt trauma injuries. 

“I am so sorry,” Morty said. “There wasn’t any other way out.”

Morty, through his nebulous Reaper powers, was able to take the drop without sustaining fall damage. Chouji had to deal with the fall damage on top of being thrown out of a window, which included slashing damage from the glass shards and bleeding damage also from the glass shards. 

“Augh,” Chouji said. “My back. My arms. My everything…”

“Again, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry.” Morty lowered his scythe to his eye-line. “I got this.”

With a few taps, the damage was undone. Chouji was able to stand up and brush himself off. He felt his back for any bits of glass, but all had been ejected from his body and were now scattered across the parking lot. Along with his blood.

Chouji swayed a little, and Morty rushed to his side to steady him.

“I thought that you had healed me,” Chouji said, his words slurring a touch. 

“Um, I can basically close the wounds of your body,” Morty said, “but somethings I can’t do. For example, you lost some blood and I don’t have the power to put it back into your body. But things like setting bones are fine.” 

Chouji glanced down. Sure enough, there was a decent amount of blood on the ground. That didn’t seem good. 

Before he could point it out, Morty was already yanking him away from the parking lot. They hugged the side of the building as they rounded the corner of the hospital. All of the sneaking around made Chouji remember the reason he was defenestrated in the first place: there was some assailant in the hospital.

“Wait,” Chouji said. “You never told me that there was another Reaper after me.”

“T-To be honest, I couldn’t get that good of a look because I had to stay hidden while peeking my head out. It might have been a Reaper, but maybe it was just a nurse. Ultimately, I didn’t want to take that risk.”

Morty tugged at his sleeve.

“Either way, it doesn’t really matter,” he said. “Whichever it is, they’re gonna stumble onto the cut-up hospital bed. Oh, and also the broken window.”

Chouji’s blood was starting to replenish, and his now oxygenated brain developed a thought.

“Were there security cameras in my room?”

Morty opened his mouth and paused. Then his eyes bulged.

“Oh shoot! I knew I was forgetting something! Since I don’t appear on cameras, it’ll look like you magically destroyed your hospital bed then leapt out the window.” Morty chewed his lip. “And they’ll find your blood in the parking lot, confirming it was you.

Chouji thought that magically destroying your hospital bed and doing stuff with blood reminded him of a video-game he really liked. He kept this factoid to himself as to not undermine Morty’s negative feelings.

“So, um, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, Chouji. The police will be looking for you too.”

Chouji took a deep breath in, and exhaled.

“Well. It’s fate I guess.”