Dokeshi March ~ 5!

“Grant, he’s waking up! Get in here!” Suki called from the other room. Her tone told him that he’d better hurry. The man they had saved was awake and clearly bewildered at his situation. Before he had been knocked out, he was in the market square, surrounded by angry strangers beating him to death; now he was in an abandoned building with strangers.

The now-twenty-year old could sympathize. He had been through some similar situations himself. In his mind, this guy had it easy: there weren’t even any spiders trying to eat him.

“Who are you people?” The confused villager rubbed his head, trying to massage away the memory of almost dying. “Where am I?”

The name tag above his head said ‘Phil the Peasant’, so Suki addressed him by name.

“Well, Phil, this is Grant, and my name is Suki.” She handed him a canteen of water. “We managed to get you away from the mob, but you were pretty banged up. We used a very expensive healing potion on you, so we were hoping you could return the favor by answering some questions for us. We just came from District February, and any information on this place would really help.”

He thought for a minute, clearly weighing the idea in his mind before speaking. His words, when they came, were slow and careful. “Since you did a life-saving service for me, I think I can get away with telling you things without involving gambling.”

“Explain. What do you mean?” Suki leaned forward, her short hair falling across her forehead and nearly reaching her intense eyes. “Why would you need to involve gambling just to talk to us?”

“It’s… it’s Dokeshi March. He makes the rules, and we have to follow them.” Phil sat up and handed back the canteen after taking a long drink. “He says that the rules are there for our protection, to make sure we don’t hurt ourselves in our confusion. We… I think the real reason is to keep people from assassinating him. All fighting is done in turns. Since he likes gambling, you have to play a game of chance to buy just about anything.”

“Wait.” Grant stepped forward and knelt next to the man, his armor creaking with the motion. “Who is ‘Dokeshi’ March? Does he work for Lord March?”

“No, Dokeshi March is Lord March.” Phil made a noise of deep frustration as he read the confusion on Grant’s face. He spoke his next words slowly, to make sure Grant could understand. “He thinks the title Lord sounds too… stuffy? He makes people call him ‘Dokeshi’. You know, the word for clown… I mean, jester! By the Regent, never call him a clown!”

The man was so distressed that Grant rocked back on his knees in shock. “It’s okay, you don’t need to-”

“His Vassals! You need to stay away! All his Vassals are named after the greatest jesters in history. Plinko, Blinko, Floof, Fluffy Fingers, Fluffy Buns, Buns the Bear, Boo, Goof, Gank, Yank, Yoinkers, Boinkers, Beans, Taters, Tatters, Frank; you get the idea. But… I’d go against… against any two of them before I upset Cuddles. C-Cuddles is the scary one. I heard he eats people who make Dokeshi March angry.”

“He eats people?” Suki was aghast at the notion, and her face took on a slight tinge of green. “He can’t actually eat people, right?”

“Well, miss, we all aren’t far from that now.” He held up his baggy clothes, proof of how much weight he had lost. “If those food shipments don’t start coming back through the border soon, people are going to have to do something to feed themselves.”

Grant grimaced at the news and locked eyes with Suki. He was partially responsible for the food shortages. Sarge made a grunting sound, as if he were shrugging his non-existent shoulders. <No, you are definitely entirely responsible for that. Meh. Not like you had a choice.>

“What else can you tell us about Dokeshi March?” Suki passed the man one of her ‘healthy’ granola bars. He eyed it skeptically as he gave it a sniff. Grant knew exactly how the man felt. “Anything you have to say would certainly be a help.”

“Well, the big thing to remember is to never gamble with him.” He tried a bite of the granola, made a face, and put it in a pocket for later. “I don’t know if he has ever lost a game. Unless he wanted to, maybe? Everyone knows he is either the luckiest man alive… or he can cheat without ever getting caught. But never call someone a cheater, not anyone. I shouldn’t have even said it, and certainly not about the L-Dokeshi. You never know when the walls have ears.”

He looked around furtively, checking to make sure they were alone. “Why do you guys want to know so much about him, anyway?”

“Is that why the people in the square attacked you?” Suki deflected his question, asking one of her own instead. “You accused that man of cheating?”

“Cheating is severely punished, depending on the stakes of the bet. You never call out a cheater unless you can prove it.” Phil grimaced, clearly remembering something terrible that had happened in the past. “Some have even been executed, if it was bad enough. That’s why people care so much.”

<With every bit of their lives dominated by gambling, there is no doubt that everyone in this District cheats somehow. Getting caught is the real problem, so we need to figure out the best way to make that happen.>

“Sarge, I don’t like this place.” Grant recalled Lucky Luca, how his hands were so fast with the cards, and how the man selling steaks hadn’t seemed surprised at where the wheel had landed. “They take advantage of one another.”

<Sneaky little ninja. They have no honor!> Sarge’s shout inside Grant’s brain made his eyeballs vibrate. <They do not know the way of the samurai!>

<One of these days, you are going to tell me more about this ‘samurai’ stuff.> Grant rubbed his temples in a futile attempt to stave off the headache. <Could you not shout like that? It isn’t like I can ignore what you are saying.>

A crash from outside made them all freeze. A quiet chittering sound quickly faded into the distance, and they slowly relaxed. Suki peeked out a window but didn’t see anything. “What was that? It didn’t sound human.”

“That was probably one of the monsters that lives underground, in the sewers.” Phil shivered, apparently from another bad memory, and looked down at himself. “They’ve gotten bolder—and more desperate—ever since the food shortage. No one is throwing out anything edible anymore, so they must be starving. Like the rest of us.”

“We need to hurry and defeat Dokeshi March.” Suki turned to look at Grant, determination in her eyes. “Once we do, the food shortage here needs to become top priority. It’s only a matter of time before the creatures of this District start thinking of the people as their next meal.”

She placed a hand on Phil’s shoulder, trying to convey a sense of comfort and stability. “With the silly turn-based fighting system in place, even a swarm of weak monsters would quickly overcome any warrior, no matter their strength. Putting an end to it will save lives.”

Grant opened his mouth to answer, but Phil turned and bit Suki on the hand with an animalistic snarl. She shrieked in surprise, falling back from her attacker. The screen indicating they were in combat popped up in his vision, and he quickly selected ‘Defend: With Weapon’. His body jerked into motion, interposing himself between Suki and Phil, with February Twenty Nine held in a low guard.

“What is wrong with you? Why would you attack us?” Suki quickly sprang to her feet, her gloves morphing into giant gauntlets. “We saved you!”

“I’m… sorry… have… no choice…” Phil seemed to be fighting with himself, and his movements were jerking and erratic. He picked up a hunk of wood, cocking it back over his shoulder. “Must… follow The Rules…!”

Suki took too long to select an option, so the system rotated to Phil. He let loose a scream, charging at Grant. The makeshift club shattered against his sword, and he impaled himself through the chest. As the man slid to the floor, Grant stepped back and stared at the rapidly-growing sanguine puddle. The notification that blinked in front of his eyes wasn’t a welcome vision.

Congratulations! Your new battle count moves from [1 Wins / 0 Losses] to [2 Wins / 0 Losses]. Remember, the lucky rise to the challenge!

<Well, that escalated quickly.> Sarge paused for a moment. <Also, your weapon cultivation improved by a very small amount. Whatever this system is, it seems to supplant the normal methods of cultivation.>

“Why? Phil, why would you attack us?” Suki rushed forward and leaned over the man, wiping away the blood frothing from his lips. “We were just talking!”

“Dokeshi made us a deal, and everyone had to take it.” He paused, wincing in pain. “To live in his lands, we swore on our lives to protect him. If he dies, and a person knows about the plot to kill him… they die too.”

A coughing fit produced more blood, spraying Suki with the red mist. Phil grabbed Grant’s ankle; his grip far stronger than should have been possible. “Promise me you won’t do it. If you kill him, everyone could die.”

Grant’s heart seemed to stop beating in his chest. “Kill everyone? What do you mean? Are Wielded Weapons truly strong enough to kill an entire District like that?”

<I don’t know if they can wipe out that many people in one fell swoop, but a thousand years ago, Regent December used his Wielded Weapon to divide the entire world into twelve Districts and installed the system screens that everyone sees.> Before Grant could panic, Sarge sent a rock into the side of his head, causing his ears to ring. <But I have never heard of a Wielded Weapon with the power to kill based on a deal. Especially one people were forced into taking.> He paused thoughtfully. <I would give you even odds on it enforcing the oaths. Fifty-fifty chance you either kill everyone or free them entirely.>

“He’s gone. He… he died.” Suki interrupted Grant’s train of thought before he could reply to Sarge. “I can’t… I can’t believe how bad this went.”

“Do you think what he said is true?” Grant’s fears were plainly visible. “Could I really kill everyone by defeating Lord March?”

“I don’t know.” Suki took a few moments to think. “He did say that only those who knew about a plot to kill him would die. You aren’t trying to kill him, you’re just going to defeat him, right?”

“That’s the plan. I just have to be careful not to kill him…?” He let out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t killed Lord January or Suki, so he could surely do the same once again.

<Don’t get cocky, kid.> Sarge, true to form, had to crush his hopes and dreams. <You are in Late Spring now, and pulling your punches won’t be an option. You may have to choose between going all out and killing Dokeshi, or giving up and letting him kill you. I don’t envy you the choice.>

Grant sat down next to the body of the man he had just killed while merely defending himself. It was a perfect reminder that a real fight might not go the way he wanted. He could always stop here, or go back to February and live out his last ten months with Suki. Or, he could push forward and save himself. <Not just save yourself, kid. Once you know what you want, you must be prepared to sacrifice everything to get it. You have the chance to heal the world; that isn’t something to take lightly.>

“But can I? Really?” He looked down at the sheathed sword on his hip. “Healing the World is a quest, but is healing the world worth anything if there’s no one left to save?”

The sword didn’t have an answer. For once, silence was the exact answer Grant was looking for.