Polynya

“Enway is taking care of Yangu,” Zaena reminds the goblin.

Sophia sighs audibly. “So it is settled then. I will be in Tokyo tomorrow and I will meet you both then. Chuntao, my AI, will get in touch with both of you to arrange the meeting. Because I’m not able to simply give you levels, you will need to grow stronger here. Searching for the Runestones of Tritinakh should help. In the meantime, Aiden will arrange another meeting with the Mitherfickers and Dirty Dave, but not here. It’ll need to be somewhere far from any guild quarters associated with the Knights.”

With that, Sophia spins and is gone before she can make a full rotation.

“I’m going to log out for just a second,” Ryuk tells his guildmates. “I want to tell Hajime what’s happening. I need to tell him about my brother.”

He lifts his finger, and as it has countless times in the past, the logout button appears.

Chapter 29: House Call

Ryuk wakes to the sound of something crashing in the living room. As the sine waves filter away, he becomes aware that he is now in his real world avatar.

He gulps in a fresh breath of air and removes his NV Visor. His bedroom is warm, the red light on the air conditioner signaling that the heater is on. His haptic gloves off, Ryuk first glances to the corner of his bedroom, looking yet again for the spider.

Nothing.

As his vision blurs into focus, more signs of a struggle meet his ears. His first thought is that his brother’s henchmen have come and that Hajime is handling them.

His heart pounding against his chest, Ryuk quickly casts this thought aside when a new, more sinister thought comes to him.

Kodai’s female humandroid.

As soon as his eyes adjust to the darkness of his room, Ryuk slips out of bed and crouch-walks to his bedroom door. Every nerve in his body firing, he closes his eyes and tries to discern what could possibly be happening in the other room.

His mind a whirlwind of fight or flight thoughts, Ryuk breathes as deeply as he can, hoping to center himself, to prepare for what may come next.

He doesn’t believe that Kodai is trying to kill him; something at the back of his mind assures him of this, but at the same time, he wouldn’t put it past his older brother.

Another loud crash shakes Ryuk to the very core.

His feet are suddenly Jello, his knees wobbly, his stomach in a knot, his ribcage barely able to hold in his beating heart.

Open the door, fight back.

Ryuk has never been a fighter, not in the real world, but as this thought comes to him again, he makes the brash decision that this is the only way forward.

One more breath in and he goes for it.

Ryuk cracks open the door to find Kodai’s female humandroid on top of Hajime, punching him repeatedly in the face.

The light from the kitchen gives Ryuk a glimpse of how bad off Hajime is. His face has been crushed and swaths of his face hang from his cheeks, revealing a mesh-like covering intercrossed with wires.

“Dammit, no!” Ryuk shrieks at the humandroid female.

“Stay where you are,” she tells him firmly, her eyes dilating as they take in Ryuk’s features.

One sickening crack later and Hajime has the upper hand as he punches the humandroid in the throat. Her boots screech against the ground as she struggles to get out from her pinned position.

The humgun.

Ryuk takes off towards the kitchen to the drawer where he knows Hajime stashed the weapon.

“Ryuk, go! Leave!”

The humandroid female leaps to her feet and produces a small blade from her belt. She swipes at Hajime, cutting into his chest.

“Hajime!” Ryuk reaches the drawer and shoves his hand in. He pulls out both the real gun and the humgun, and in his dash to get the right weapon, he drops the real gun to the floor.

He cringes, but once the gun doesn’t fire, but rather spins a few times, Ryuk places both hands on the humgun and points it at the two humandroids.

“Stop!” he shouts, his finger instantly finding the trigger. Having never fired a weapon, he tells himself it is just like his Marble Gun in Tritania, that all he needs to do is aim and fire.

It can’t be that difficult!

The female humandroid, the left side of her face twitching, looks at Ryuk and back to Hajime. One roundhouse kick later and Hajime’s knees buckle.

She steps on his already crushed face and digs her heel in further.

“No!” Ryuk screams as he hears a snapping sound. He triggers the weapon and …

… Nothing happens.

The female humandroid turns to him.

“Put it down,” she says firmly, “and let me finish what I came here to do.”

As she takes a step closer to him, a message flashes across Ryuk’s iNet screen.

Hajime: I am not dead, but she has shattered my vocal folds. If you plan to use the humgun, you need to turn the safety off. Use your thumb to do it. It will be on the right side of the weapon.