Game 11: Aisha

“Don't tell me you're still looking for that blasted girl,” a woman asked him.

“That ‘blasted girl’ is very important to our mission,” the man scolded her, though he did not shift the tone in his voice in the slightest. “Losing her sets back our plans by God knows how long. I need to find her as soon as possible.”

“Surely, you must be exaggerating,” the woman responded.

“I assure you, I am aggerating just fine,” the man snapped back, not realizing what he had said was technically wrong. “The whole game falls apart without the girl. It's almost the Blue Moon. I hope you've have plenty of magic for the road ahead.”

“I wouldn't worry your pretty little stone face about that,” the woman assured him. “I have plenty of magic to spare.”

•

After bringing Aisha to Innsbruck, Takeshi explained to the others her current situation.

“I just need someone to look after her until I figure out who's keeping her prisoner,” Takeshi told them.

“Why is this girl so important to you?” Rita asked him. “You barely even know her.”

“I saw her in a dream,” Takeshi explained, “Well, several dreams, actually. Well, the same dream repeated like two hundred times, actually. I guess I just sensed she was in danger.”

“That's an awful lucky intuition, Takeshi,” Proteus told him. “Something tells me the five of us were brought together for a reason.

“I agree,” Makoto added. “The odds of the five of us coming together right here, right now, in a game with almost two million players? That's no accident. Someone IS manipulating The Game. Whether for good or for evil is anyone's guess.”

“For all we know, it could be both,” Rita added. “But my gut is leaning towards someone manipulating The Game for evil."

“Well, if Aisha is going to be tagging along with us, we need to see what kind of skills she's got,” Makoto explained.

“You say that like I have any skills worth offering,” Proteus told him.

“You can turn into basically any cute critter in The Game,” Makoto responded. “I'd say that's pretty useful. You just haven't put your power to good use yet.”

•

The gang took her to an open field just outside of the village. There, they found a pile of discarded scarecrows to use as target practice.

“Alright, Aisha,” Takeshi instructed her. “However you can, find a way to defeat these scarecrows.” However, Aisha was not listening to him. She had already went off to another area of the field, sketch pad in hand, doodling away once more.

“Uh… Aisha?” Makoto asked her. “Can you show us a bit of that magic power Takeshi told us about?”

“Do I have to?” Aisha asked him, clearly disinterested in the test.

Takeshi found a better way to explain it. “Pretend those scarecrows are attacking you. What do you do?”

With a sigh, Aisha simply said, “Fine.” In an instant, an arc of lighting had zapped every single scarecrow at the same time, turning them all into dust. The gang couldn't believe what they had seen.

“Makoto, do you know of any magic that can do that?” Rita asked.

“All the magic I know is verbal,” Makoto explained. “She didn't even say a word! It's like she just willed the lightning into existence!”

“She could be a Game Master,” Proteus offered his opinion. “I've heard stories that the Game Masters have powers way beyond even the best players as a means to keep us in line. She could be here to test us, or maybe she's here to destroy us.”

“You sure have heard a lot of stories, haven't you,” Rita told him.

“She's my age,” Takeshi protested. “I highly doubt she's a Game Master.”

“What's a Game Master?” Aisha asked.

“See?” Takeshi continued. “Nothing to worry about.”

But right as Takeshi said that, a loud rumbling could be heard coming out of the nearby forest.

“Uh-oh…”

Emerging from the forest was a giant boar-like creature. A rose mark could clearly be seen on the creature’s left side. Takeshi, Rita, Makoto, and Proteus all got into their fighting stances, ready to defend themselves against the monster.

“It's another one of Desert Rose's victims!” Makoto shouted. “Be gentle! Maybe we can capture it!”

“Capture it?” Rita asked him. “Are you crazy?”

“I've been reading about curse magic,” Makoto continued. “It might be possible to mitigate or reverse the effects of the Desert Rose curse.

“Whatever,” Rita scoffed at him as she charged towards the boar monster. “Ice Arrows!” Rita then launched a volley of ice arrows at the creature. The creature's tough exterior made it very difficult for the arrows to do their job.

Proteus shifted into the form of a deer, charging at the creature with his antlers. Just like the arrows, Proteus’ antlers did absolutely nothing to the creature.

“So much for being gentle,” Makoto complained.

Takeshi charged forward with his sword. He aimed for the rose marking on the creature’s left side. Direct hit! The monster's Life Counter went down to 9.

“Oh great!” Takeshi complained. “Another player with more than four Lives.”

“Never mind that, Takeshi,” Rita pointed out. “You found the monster's weak spot!”

“Remember! We need to be gentle!” Makoto reminded them.

The others simply continued their offensive, managing to gradually reduce the monster's Life all the way down to 1. This, however, did not come without caveats: Makoto, Rita, Proteus, and Takeshi all took hits to their own Lives. At the very last minute, before any of them could finish the creature off, they heard the sound of a girl singing.

“It's Aisha! She's singing!” Takeshi realized. Aisha's singing magic had not only calmed the monster down, but also carried it away from the rest of the group. There, the singing began to affect the monster in other ways. Slowly, the monster began to change into the form of a human. Finally, once the singing ended, a girl laid on the ground where the monster once was.

“Aisha's singing… it cured her…” Takeshi realized.

“Dang, I need some of that magic in my life,” Proteus commented.

“Aisha, you did it,” Takeshi said as he went over to congratulate her. “I don't know what you did, but you did it.”

But Aisha was gone.

“Aisha?"

“Takeshi! The girl is standing up!” Makoto called out to him.

Takeshi arrived back at the scene to join the others in waiting to see what the girl would do next. However, as soon as she picked herself up off the ground, she gasped for air. Something had stabbed her in the back, a spear. Her last Life had just been wasted.

The words “Game Over” echoed once more across the sky. As she fell back to the ground, a man revealed himself to the gang.

“I smell fear,” he told them. “It reeks of lamb's blood.”

“Why did you defeat her?” Takeshi asked the man. “She could have been cured!”

“Cured, maybe,” the man explained himself, “but then she would have joined your team. That's why I defeated her. Momma always told me to never let good prey go to waste. And you, Takeshi Ishida, are my prey.”