Game 27: Sneaking Out

For eight days, Takeshi had been looking for a way to get back into The Game. He had become obsessed with it, depressed because he couldn't go back, absorbed by every little detail he could remember. He even took up drawing, which was Aisha's favorite hobby, in an attempt to vent out his frustrations. But all he would ever draw is scenes from his time in The Game.

Now, he sat in the City Park, completely alone except for his thoughts and his books.

Waiting…

•

Inside The Game, Rita and the gang were getting used to having Sora around. After the Blue Moon incident, a massive influx of monsters began encroaching on the village of Innsbruck. Previously, the gang may have had to deal with one or two monster attacks per week. Now, they were dealing with several per day. The gang was absolutely clueless as to why this was happening. These monsters didn't have Life Counters or rose-shaped curse marks like the ones before.

For that reason, it seemed really nice to have Sora around.

“Lightspeed Kick!!”

Another day, another monster attack was thwarted.

•

That night, Takeshi resolved he would find a way back into The Game, any way possible. He remembered a specific name in Mr. Set's diary: Chaos Directive. Wondering if that had any connection to The Game, he searched for buildings with that name. Eventually, he found a building with that name in the Shibuya district, a large industrial complex.

Tonight, he was going to sneak out.

•

Back in Innsbruck, Rita and the gang had just returned to celebrate another job well done. Everyone was glad to have Sora on the team.

“You know, the magic names could use some work,” Rita commented, “but I could get used to this.”

“Now if only Takeshi was here to see this,” Makoto added.

“Who's Takeshi?” Sora asked.

“Takeshi is one of our teammates,” Rita explained. “But he's been missing for several days, and we can't seem to find him anywhere.”

“Aww, how adorable!” a voice called out to them. Sitting alone on the bench was someone who looked and sounded very much like Takeshi. “I had no idea how much you all cared about me!”

But this was not Takeshi.

•

The real Takeshi was still trapped in the real world, staring down the building that he had been rescued from just eight days ago.

Once he gathered up the courage to walk inside, he was met by a complete stranger. This stranger, who looked as if she had just been pushed into a swimming pool, asked Takeshi where the exit was. He pointed to the doors he just walked through.

With a “Bless you,” the woman ran out the building and into freedom.

Takeshi explored the building further. He was looking for the pod room. He reasoned that the woman he encountered was freed from one of those pods, so he just needed to try to retrace her steps. Every so often, he would encounter another person running for freedom. This person would ask for the exit. Takeshi eventually noticed a stretch of wet footprints. He would tell each person to follow those footprints to the exit. Each new person would add to the footprints, making it easier for the next person to find the exit, like a trail of bread crumbs.

Takeshi, in turn, would follow the footprints in the opposite direction, gradually leading him to the pod room. Once there, the first person he encountered was none other than Eileen. She appeared to have been rescuing people from the pods all night. At first, she didn't notice he was standing there; she was too absorbed in the task of freeing people.

•

Inside The Game, the fake Takeshi had already gotten into a fight with Rita and the gang. Even the five of them combined weren't enough to deal with this much stronger copy.

Trying to reason with him, Rita asked, “Takeshi, what's gotten into you?! We're your friends!”

“Some friends you were!” Fake Takeshi screamed. “You abandoned me in the Emerald City, left me there to die!”

“Takeshi, I swear! We looked everywhere for you!” Makoto added.

“A whole lot of good that did!” Fake Takeshi countered. He then singled out the new guy, Sora. “So they definitely found a replacement for me very quickly.”

“We don't want to fight you,” Sora told him. “But if you insist…” Sora pulled out his sword, calling out “Henshin!” in order to don his crystal armor.

“Big deal, I got fancy new armor, too.” The fake Takeshi pulled out a black orb, similar to the white one Takeshi had. “Let's rocket.” The fake Takeshi now wore stony gray armor, and his power had increased greatly.

•

The real Takeshi called out to Eileen, startling her, but alerting her to his presence as well.

“Takeshi…” she said sleepily. “What are you doing here?” She had clearly been struggling to open pods and drag people out of them for quite a while.

“I was about to ask you the same thing.”

“If the authorities aren't going to do anything about this,” Eileen explained, “then I'll have to do something about it…”

“Funny. That's exactly why I'm here,” Takeshi told her. “Wait… The authorities still haven't done anything about this?”

Eileen nodded her head in response. “I've shown them pictures of the pods, I've shown them the bodies. They're convinced that it's all just some Halloween haunted house thing. They've even threatened to arrest me if I kept bugging them about it… So I'm making it to where it can't be ignored. Those people will start talking, and when people start talking, word gets around fast…”

“Eileen…I need you to tell me where my pod is.”

“You aren't going back in there, Takeshi… If you try, I'll just drag you back out…”

“Eileen, I need to do this. My friends need me. The world needs me.”

“What about your parents? They told you no…”

“There are bigger things happening here than me and them,” Takeshi told her. “Try as you might to interfere with Set's plans, the only way to truly end The Game is to win it.”

Eileen finally relented. “You are just so stubborn, Takeshi Ishida. Just like Set.” She then pointed Takeshi in the direction of his pod. “Down that way, look for one that has your name on it. It's actually really easy to plug into The Game.”

•

Back inside The Game, the fake Takeshi had made light work of Rita and the rest of the gang. Sora was down to just one Life; some of the others were down to just one, maybe two as well.

“So long, everyone,” the fake Takeshi told them.

Rita, however, still had one last trick up her sleeve. She reached into her bag to pull out the green orb. This was her gift from Eileen, but she had never figured out how to use it before. Watching the fake Takeshi use his orb gave her a pretty good idea, though. Summoning one last ounce of strength, she activated her orb with the words “Level Up!”

A massive gust of wind blew through the village as Rita's power up began. Unlike the white and black orbs, Rita's green orb gave her a special emerald cloak that granted her the ability to fly. Her speed increased tenfold and her agility likewise increased. This was the Mossy Sylvan form.

The fake Takeshi smiled. “Maybe we can have a real fight now.”

•

The real Takeshi woke up inside the sphere, just as he did when he started The Game. This time, he could hear faint screaming in the distance. It didn't sound like Eileen. Rather, it sounded a bit like Rita.

“My friends are in trouble,” Takeshi realized.

The voice inside the sphere did not greet him the same way as before, though. This time, it said, “Welcome back, Takeshi Ishida. Would you like to resume your current game?”