Major Boss Battle

October 12th 2018

At school, Ryuuji notices everyone is already gathered by the gate. Not wanting to miss out on anything, he rushes over. As it turns out, they were admiring the gift Seiji gave to Hanabi for her birthday. It’s a necklace with a flower that consists of blue and pink gems. Although the quality is really good, it’s probably not as expensive as some might assume.

“Ryuuji look at this! Isn’t it beautiful?” Sun says.

“That is nice. It really suits you.” Ryuuji says.

“Thank you!” Hanabi says with a smile.

“Even Ryuuji is impressed?” Steve says, surprised, “You make this hard to top, but I think I can do it.”

“This isn’t a competition.” Seiji sighs, “Besides with your family money, you could buy something way more impressive.”

They all assume Seiji purchased this with his own money, but he didn’t. After his caretaker stopped coming by, his so-called father started sending him an allowance of 12,000 yen each month. Since he eats at Hanabi’s home often, he saves most of it.

“Please don’t tell me how much you have saved. It might make me depressed considering I work for my money.” Ryuuji complains.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. I’ll make sure to buy the next big gift with my own money.” Seiji pledges.

“...you always say cool things and it annoys me sometimes.” Steve admits.

Steve admires Hargrave’s coolness, but in real life, he can’t help getting jealous of Seiji. He doesn’t need to compete with anyone to keep Sun, it comes down to the fact that she and himself have been separated for many years, making him feel like he has to make up for lost time. Not that she cares about that.

Ryuuji planned to bring up the wandering shadow, but he keeps it to himself and showcases a grin as if nothing is bothering him. He figured it would be rude to do so the morning of Hanabi’s birthday and doesn’t want to interfere.

Of course, it didn’t go unnoticed. During lunch after everyone is gathered, the three in the unknown all nod as if signaling for Seiji to speak up.

“What is it you wanted to talk about this morning?”

Ryuuji is caught by surprise and looks up to see all eyes on him. “Is it that obvious?”

“It’s always obvious when something is wrong, you just don’t normally look like you want to talk about it.” Sun says.

“You don’t have to be considerate just because today is my birthday.” Hanabi says.

“Yeah so tell us already.” Steve finishes off the interrogation.

Ryuuji gives him a glare. He considers if he reveals that Steve was already told about this, perhaps they could get it out of him in an amusing way, but he knows that’s not how he should go about it. This has to come from him, no one else. He only wishes he had more time to explain, rather than during their short lunch break.

“It’s kind of a long story.”

“Then why don’t we meet at Seiji’s after school?” Hanabi suggests.

“By this point, it is established that Hargrave’s home is our primary meeting place.” Steve nods.

“Fine I won’t argue,” Seiji says reluctantly. “Just make sure you tell us everything.”

“That’s the plan.” Ryuuji says.

********************

That evening, everyone gathers, sitting around the small table. However, clearly nervous, Ryuuji isn’t sure where to begin. Should he simply show them the picture? Tell them about his grandfather? Or maybe his father’s current state of affairs? Seiji and Hanabi have no idea about that, perhaps it’s only fair they know as well.

“Well first I guess I should mention my dad-” Ryuuji starts, but gets interrupted.

“Is your dad directly involved with what you want to bring up?” Seiji asks.

It does have to do with the original creations intended for the game, but other than that; “Not really, I guess.” Ryuuji says.

“Then don’t worry about it. When I said to tell us everything, I only meant about this situation.”

“Just let us know how we can help.” Hanabi eagerly says.

Have I really become that easy to read? Ryuuji considers. He then settles on showing them the picture of the original swordsman design. Once he places it on the table, they hear a gasp from Hanabi. Although it was only for a split second, she saw the face of the wandering shadow as well. There’s no doubt it’s the same design.

“Is this why you froze in battle?” Hanabi asks.

“Yeah. This design was done by my grandfather who disappeared 20 years ago. We don’t know what happened to him, and this was never input in the game, but it looks the same as the wandering shadow.” Ryuuji explains.

“I’m a witness too and I can say it looks the same.” Steve adds.

This shouldn’t be possible as it’s been 20 years since his grandfather was last seen and the game was released 6 years ago. The game was in development back then, and some of the original data was transferred since it contained parts of the story written by his grandfather, Takomi Yamato, but it doesn’t make sense. The time gap is too big.

While everyone is left pondering, Seiji has trouble wrapping his head around this.

“Are you trying to say the shadow has to do with your grandfather? Or do you want to beat it? I don’t get it.”

“I don’t either, I have no clue what any of this means, but can’t help thinking I have to do something instead of leaving it alone.” Ryuuji says.

Everyone remains equally confused as they consider what they were just told. Meanwhile Sun glances at her silent friends. She has little understanding of the game world in general, and doesn’t know about the wandering shadow, so she doesn’t get the debate and gives a blunt answer,

“Why don’t we just defeat this shadow?”

“I don’t know if we can...” Ryuuji says.

After a short pause, Sun speaks up again. “What does that matter?”

“We may not be able to, but that never stopped anyone.” Seiji adds.

“With this party we’ve accomplished amazing stuff already. We can do anything!” Steve says.

The conversation continues with each of them coming up with different ideas regarding how to narrow down its location and how to fight it. Steve, who was initially frightened, is now looking forward to this new venture. Stunned by their willingness to help, Ryuuji can only watch. This is about fighting a strange bug in the game, possibly a ghost of sorts, and they immediately began thinking of how to approach it.

Ryuuji lets out a soft chuckle, “I really should have expected this.”

“What was that, Ryuuji?” Sun asks after turning to him.

“It’s nothing. Let’s do it tomorrow if you guys are free. I can afford to miss one shift.”

“Is that enough time for you to gather all the info, Hana?” Seiji asks.

“Don’t underestimate me! It will all be done by morning.” Hanabi proudly proclaims.

“Then it’s settled. Let’s meet in Rayna tomorrow, Saturday, around noon to divide up the work.” Ryuuji declares.

“Yessir!” They all salute to Ryuuji as he always would to Hargrave, causing the group to break out into laughter.

October 13th 2018

At the promised time, they’re each on their own computer, gathered in the town of Rayna. Although Ryuuji brought up this excursion, Seiji takes charge as he was the first to have access to Hanabi’s notes. She stayed up until late in the night, going to bed close to 4am, but that hasn’t affected her enthusiasm.

Hanabi sorted through reported sightings and narrowed it down to the 18 most common. These also happen to be the original areas from when the game was first released, before they added new dungeons. This confirms their belief that the shadow is indeed from the data that was first developed.

They were each given a list of areas to explore. Sun looks over her list of a measly two locations and questions the overall number.

“18? Shouldn’t it be divided more evenly? You only sent me 2.” She points out.

“...you have the best eye for detail out of all of us so I gave you the 2 most common areas.” Seiji says.

“Wow that’s awesome Sun!” Steve joyfully congratulates.

“I’ll do my best!” Sun shouts, excitement suddenly flowing through her.

Steve then starts a group chat with just the boys, immediately sending: ‘Is that really true??’ Despite what he just said to Sun, he’s in disbelief. They receive a response from Seiji: ‘Of course not. She gets lost too easily so I sent her the areas that are the easiest to access.’ Then it all makes sense.

“What time should we meet back here?” Ryuuji asks.

“Considering the size of some locations…how does 1.5-2 hours sound?” Hanabi suggests.

“That’s reasonable. Let us know if you spot anything or are running behind. Remember, when we’re far apart, we’re still connected.” Seiji says.

“Ah~ what a Hargrave thing to say.” Steve swoons.

“Just shut up and get out there!”

After a laugh, everyone heads to their designated locations to search for the wandering shadow. They don’t expect an easy search. It’s never been reported to be in any spot at a certain time. As the name suggests, it ‘wanders’ from one place to the next without a destination in mind.

The first outing takes 90 minutes to complete, with them arriving back in Rayna. Even with only 2 locations, Sun is the last to arrive. Unfortunately, the reports are disappointing.

“Nothing as of yet, Sir Hargrave.” Ryuuji says.

“No one even posted a sighting in the forum today either.” Hanabi says, having checked it every few dozen minutes.

“Let’s search again. This time, check every location a few times before meeting again. Just double-check your supplies.” Seiji says.

They all head out again with the same amount of determination. Following Seiji’s advice, they circle the areas more than once. The wandering shadow is then spotted within the next hour. Everyone is surprised by who delivers the breaking news.

“Hey! I think I see him!” Sun shouts into the microphone.

She actually did it. Ryuuji had no doubt Sun would be the one to first find the shadow.

“Where is it?” Seiji asks.

They hear Sun mumble as she looks around her screen until she sees the name, “The Sacred Mountain.”

“That’s a bad area to fight in. Where is it going next?”

“How am I supposed to know?” Sun says.

“Is that a serious question?” Seiji asks, still unable to deal with her inexperience.

“Sun, look straight in the direction it’s walking towards and then check the compass next to the map-” Steve tries to explain, but quickly gets frustrated. “Nevermind, just send me a picture of your screen!!”

Sun complies and they await Steve’s answer. After looking at the picture, he can see it’s going north east which leads to the ‘Azure Desert’. Being an open field, it makes a much better location for battle.

“Sun, it won’t attack so long as you follow behind. Just make sure that’s where it’s going.” Seiji says.

“Basically, let us know if the compass arrow turns in a different direction!” Steve explains in a way she would understand.

“Got it!”

While Sun follows behind the shadow, the rest of the group travels to the desert. On the way, Seiji is sure to add, “Just be sure not to engage until we all arrive. Hear that, Ryuuji?”

Although he doesn’t like that he’s being singled out, he understands his worry, “I won’t. We’re all in this together.”

Once they arrive, they each prepare themselves to battle the shadow. They didn’t have enough time to come up with a good strategy and settled on two key things: Flora will stay in the back to focus on healing and for protection, and RedShinobi will be the primary bait, rushing around to distract while the rest attempt to attack.

The battle lasts a grueling 40 minutes, the longest any of them fought within Starfight. The wandering shadow had no health bar, making it difficult to determine how much damage they inflicted. It also didn’t seem to use any spells or skills, simply utilizing the generic sword it carried.

Hanabi was able to keep up with healing so everyone remained on the field. However, even with the perfect distraction, the shadow would turn to attack any of the 3 who remained the close range fighters. It’s no surprise that when it targeted Sun, she had the most difficulty parrying his attacks with her small blade, but Steve came to her rescue and was able to push it back. This allowed Seiji to land what ended up being the final attack.

After the strike, the shadow stands up straight and begins to disintegrate from the ground up. Speechless, they watch the scene unfold. When it’s almost gone, they can hear a voice with heavy static mixed in. It simply says “Star…fight” and disappears. After a couple of minutes, Steve breaks the silence,

“I can’t believe it! That was a real ghost wasn’t it?!” he shouts.

“Whatever it was, I never want to fight it again.” Seiji says, exhausted.

“I have to agree. I used almost my entire stock of potions so I could keep healing everyone.” Hanabi says.

“I got really worried at one point. That thing was fast.” Sun says.

Ryuuji, the one who instigated this, remains quiet, trying to understand what happened. Seiji notices and decides to give advice just as Ryuuji has done for him.

“There’s no real point in trying to decipher this. With the shadow gone, there’s nothing left to investigate, not that it talked much anyway. The best thing you can do is put it aside and maybe you’ll find the answers one day.”

“You’re right. Thanks, Seiji.” Ryuuji says.

“Y-you’re welcome.” Seiji says, flustered.

“Some rare real-life advice from Hargrave!” Steve swoons.

It all started with ‘Starfight’. The name was decided by my grandfather. ‘Stars are sacrificed and throw the world into chaos’ was the original premise he presented to the team. They ended up going wild with all different ideas that lead to the creation of the beloved game. To hear the wandering shadow utter that as its last words, an image of my grandfather appeared in my head, the same as when I revealed its face. Since he was gone before I was born, I never met him, only seeing him in pictures. But through that experience, I couldn’t help feeling as if I was introduced to a small part of him.

After the battle, we all felt restless and continued to play into the night. Sun and Steve were the first to leave, Seiji and Hanabi were next, and I was left to play by myself. I wound up staying up until I could no longer keep my eyes open.

As I practically fell in bed, I realized it had been a long time since I played this late. Even Hargrave’s training sessions ended by midnight. When was it that I started playing for such short periods of time? When my dad began drinking? When I got the job at the supermarket? Working while attending school was definitely exhausting.

After finishing those pointless thoughts, I was finally able to fall asleep.