Blurring the Boundaries

“How does he know we’re here?” Ren whispered, his voice faltering for the first time since we arrived in this world.

“Come on. We are waiting. There’s no point in hiding any longer,” the only man of the three standing demanded again.

Ren didn’t speak. Instead, he motioned with his hands, signalling a countdown from three. His fingers dropped to two…then one…then zero.

We leapt out from behind the tree and readied our weapons, my sword scorching with fire, and Ren’s crackling with his shining lightning. We pointed them directly at the standing man, aiming the tips right at his neck to warn him that one wrong move could prove fatal.

Against our expectations, he seemed entirely unshaken by our threat.

My hands trembled lightly — something that I hadn’t allowed to happen in so long.

Ren had told me this fight in particular was difficult. Not just because we were outnumbered three-to-two, but because one of them in particular was frightfully strong. Though Ren valiantly declared that he would make sure to take care of him on his own, I still worried about what would come of us. The other two, Ren claimed, weren’t far off the leader — as we perceived him — either.

As the leader confidently spoke, he revealed himself to us. A grim sight followed as he pulled down his hood. The left side of his face was cruelly burned, leaving his eye bulging outwards and his hair non-existent.

His words, however, were clear despite only the right side of his face moving when he talked. “There’s no need to jump to conclusions, boys. Why don’t you first tell me the reason for you intruding on us so abruptly?”

We paused for a second, seemingly taking too long to answer as the other two men jumped from their seats and stood beside their leader. Their face-reveals were not as daunting. They looked like regular humans…like us. Or more specifically, they looked like our father. Bald, wrinkly and feeble.

I wasn’t going to let those features deceive us. I assumed that was the whole point in their appearance.

The pair of them looked both me and Ren dead in the eyes, standing firm, maintaining the same expression on their face for the long minutes that followed.

Their leader cut the tension between us, reciting his question with his nonchalant tone. “Oh, they won’t do anything until I tell them. I want to talk to you guys first. So, tell me…why are you here?”

Something was strange about this one. He was too conversational. It felt as though we weren’t talking to a regular in-game character. He seemed too cocky…too responsive to our concerns.

It was like he was fully in control of himself. But then again, I wasn’t sure if this was what was supposed to happen.

He bellowed arrogantly. “Are you just going to stand there the whole time and say nothing?”

I took the lead, noticing that Ren wasn’t stepping in for me. “Don’t you remember what you—”

“I don’t care, actually,” he childishly chuckled, seemingly baiting me into talking.

I stared at him with an agitated look, directly showing him he had succeeded in his endeavour.

“Even if you have a good reason to want to kill me, it doesn’t matter. Your choice to claim revenge is a poor one, and it will prove fatal. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Lost for words, I stared at him blankly, hoping Ren would step in. For yet another time, I was left waiting.

“In the end, you will not achieve your objective, whatever it may be. You’ll simply end up dead... And then we will forget you even came here, just like everybody else who threatens us.”

My mind blanked. This time I had to call upon Ren.

I didn’t think there could have been any reason as to why Ren wasn’t acting his usual courageous self. But as I turned to check his face, his expression told me that what was happening wasn’t what he knew or expected, either.

“What’s wrong, Ren? Why are you making that face?” I asked, believing I already knew the answer.

“He—He is saying far too much…and responding perfectly to what we are saying. He’s—he’s playing with us. Let me test it out.”

Ren stepped forwards, pointing his sword coldly at the leader and demanded an answer to his question. “Why did you kill that innocent girl with blue hair in the forest just two days ago?”

The leader grinned cunningly, his face holding a satisfaction only a psychopath could feel. “You’re going to have to remind me which girl you’re talking about. During that day and beyond we have done a lot more…it all kind of becomes a blur.”

Ren pulled back, dragged his mouth to the side and whispered to me. “This is bad. That response was far too specific. We have to be careful with that one…even more than we had anticipated.”

“Ren, I was thinking about it. This might sound crazy, but what if that’s—what if that’s another ‘player’...like us?”

“Don’t be silly, Taro. That wouldn’t make sense. That stupid Being has probably done this on purpose. Remember what I said: not everything is exactly the same here as in the game. But so long as we stay on our toes, that shouldn’t matter.”

Ren was probably right. Besides, I had no proof that my suggestion was correct. Yet nor did Ren about his claim. Either way, we couldn’t progress unless we killed them — and that’s all we needed to think about right now.

“You both seem like nice chaps. Why don’t you come and have some food with us? I’m sure you’re like me and would prefer not to fight on an empty stomach, right?”

I was taken aback at how calm and confident he was. Did he really believe that Ren and I were not a threat to him at all? Or was this all part of his facade to scare us?

The former I wished wasn’t true, and the second I wasn’t going to let myself succumb to. However, his calmness infuriated me as I despised it. It was obvious that what he and the rest of them did to Izumi was nothing more than a game to them.

I lashed out at him, marching forwards with a purpose. “I’ve heard enough of your arrogant remarks. We came here for one reason and that is—”

A violent tug at my hair dragged me backwards.

“Watch out, Taro!”

I turned to Ren, rubbing my head to suppress the pain.

“Why did you do that?”

“He’s baiting you. There must be a reason for it. Look around. I think there must be something he’s trying to catch us with.”

We both scanned the area thoroughly. It hadn’t been ten seconds before Ren spotted something. And something else. And another. He continued to call out numbers, counting upwards and pointing towards what I could see as wires laced across the floor.

“You see, Taro. Those wires…if we stopped on them, I’m sure they would’ve triggered something.”

The leader interjected before I could even thank Ren.

“I commend you. You are smarter than I wanted to give you credit for. However, we don’t ever expect anyone to fall for that. If we did, we would be ignorant fools who couldn’t fight.”

Confusion rattled my brain. If he wasn’t aware of who Izumi was, then how did he know to prepare for something like this?

A brief moment passed before my brain jumped to life. I realised how foolish I was being. That was the whole point in the bait — which I had so easily fallen for. If I thought they knew nothing about our motivation, why would I bother taking precautions when approaching them at all?

It was smart, and I was lucky I had Ren beside me to improvise despite the immense pressure.

We crept past the wires on the floor, edging closer to the three men. Once we had made our way through all of them, we weren’t given a moment to think.

The leader pointed his fingers at us, and the two men to his side were unleashed.

Ren and I held out our weapons, both embracing their respective special abilities.

Though focused, I realised they were charging at us without any weapons. I wasn’t sure if they were supposed to have any, so I quickly asked Ren why that was. “Where are their weapons?”

The leader answered for Ren.

“Weapons? We don’t need those.”