Chapter 8:
A Battle and the Truth
THE ROAD STRETCHED on and on in a single line. We were approaching the curve, and the oncoming lane looked clear. That meant nobody would get caught up in this if it all went wrong. No buildings lined the road, only trees. This place was perfect for this maneuver.
Habatake’s van was so close now that I could read their expressions, but they were maintaining their distance, clearly not keen on actually colliding with us.
“Nattyan-san! Now!”
“I told you just Nattyan is fine!”
I felt my body rocket forward as she slammed on the brakes. Only my seat belt kept me in place. Behind us, panic flared on the faces of Habatake and the punk. They were forced to stop suddenly, sending the van into a skid.
Once they’d slowed enough, I held Destiny up, careful to make sure our followers could see it clearly.
“The front tire.”
Destiny glared at one of the front tires and turned the rubber to stone in an instant. The van had braked suddenly on an icy road, and now one of its tires was a rock. It skidded sideways, sliding out of view. Unable to turn the corner, it was flung toward one of the snowy fields, landing on its side in a snowbank.
“You just can’t be so rough on the steering wheel on an icy road like this,” Nattyan sighed, glancing at her rearview mirror.
I could have had Destiny turn their tire to stone at any time, but it would have been too dangerous when they were going over sixty mph. At the very best they would’ve been heavily injured, dead at worst. They were incredibly troublesome, but actively murdering them would be going too far. Yamamoto-san had tried to kill me, but I didn’t sense that the punk was prepared to do that.
“They won’t be back on the road for a while now. Nice one, Yoshio.”
“Oh, it’s all thanks to Nattyan-sa—Nattyan.” A mild glare reminded me to drop the honorific halfway.
Now we could pull ahead and buy ourselves some time. As the tension drained from my body, I slumped back against the seat and let out a deep sigh.
“Nice work, both of you. Now we can talk properly.” Sewatari-san turned in the passenger seat and smiled at me. “Allow us to introduce ourselves again. I’m Sewatari Seri. I play the God of Fortune.”
“Name’s Nattyan. I play a good god, too, but I’m not gonna tell you which one just yet. It’ll make things more fun. I work at the same company as Senpai here.”
Sewatari-san was the woman in the suit with the straight bangs. The tanned one with the interesting fashion sense was Nattyan. Despite their introductions, I could still barely believe they worked at the same company. Sewatari-san was dressed like your standard, serious office lady, while Nattyan barely looked like she could hold down a job at all. Maybe she just liked to dress flashy on her days off and she dressed more conservatively at work.
“We’ll introduce ourselves again too, then.”
“Don’t worry about that. You’re Suenaga Yoshio-kun, you’re Carol-chan, and your peculiar lizard is Destiny-chan. Can I call it Deedee for short?”
Most people would be surprised at Destiny’s thorny skin and huge size, but Sewatari-san took it in stride as she stroked the basilisk’s head.
“Hey, no fair, Senpai! I wanna pet it, too!”
“You’re driving. Pet later.”
They made an unlikely pair, but their rapport was undeniable. Just listening to them calmed me down. I sat up straight and took a deep breath.
“Sewatari-san, I have a lot of questions for you.”
In fact, I had nothing but questions, considering what just happened. The fact that they were players didn’t explain how they showed up with such perfect timing. And what did they stand to gain by saving us?
“Right. I guess you’re confused. It’s as good a time as any, since it looks like Carol-chan is asleep.”
I followed Sewatari-san’s gentle gaze to find Carol snoozing next to me. We’d played a lot in the snow and then went through a car chase. She must’ve been so exhausted, both physically and mentally. Now she could finally rest. I laid her down against my thigh and gave her a gentle pat.
“You’re good with kids,” Sewatari-san remarked thoughtfully.
I shot her back a wry smile. “I used to take care of my younger sister a lot.”
“Okay, then. Where shall I start? I’m guessing your biggest question is how we know who you are and why we came to rescue you.”
She was right. I wanted to know that badly. I stilled the hand that was soothing Carol and waited for her explanation.
“I feel like it would be simpler just to start from the beginning.” Her tone turned serious as she started to explain. “You and I both play The Village of Fate, Yoshio-kun. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
I wasn’t expecting her to throw me a question right away, especially not one like that.
“Pardon me, but I don’t really understand how it’s strange.”
“There’s no need to be so formal. Not with either of us. And you can just call me Sewatari or Seri without an honorific. Let me put it another way. You play the God of Fate, and the game is called The Village of Fate. To you, that makes sense. But there are other players playing The Village of Fate, all of whom control different gods. Don’t you think it’s strange that the word ‘fate’ is used in the title in that case?”
“Well, at first I thought every player controlled a God of Fate, but now that you mention it, that is kinda weird.”
The God of Fate watched over the Village of Fate. That always made sense to me. But now I knew there were other players who played gods under the God of Water or the God of Fire…
“You get it, right? You might think they picked the name ‘The Village of Fate’ because it sounds cool, but there’s actually a deeper meaning to it. The God of Fate is a minor god—a god ruled by a major god.”
“Right, I know that.” My villagers had mentioned it before.
“Good, that saves time. The God of Fate is the highest-ranking god among all the minor gods.”
“Highest-ranking?”
“Minor gods have ranks. Ranks 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The lower ranks serve the higher ranks. It’s like a company. The major gods are CEOs, and then the rank 1 minor gods are the managers, then come the department heads, section heads, subsection heads, and then the regular employees. Does that make it easier to understand?”
“Yeah, I think I get it.” I didn’t realize there was a hierarchy. I thought all minor gods were equal.
“Your God of Fate is a rank 1 god, and my God of Fortune is rank 2.”
I could see Nattyan glancing at Sewatari constantly as she spoke to me from the passenger seat. Nattyan was grinning as though something amused her.
“I know there are lots of major gods. However, if you don’t mind my asking…um, which one rules over the God of Fate?”
Sewatari frowned at me as I almost slipped into formal speech again, just like Nattyan did before. They were practically strangers to me, so to be honest, speaking to them casually was nerve-racking, especially since they were women. But if that was what they wanted, I had to try.
“The major gods are the God of Light, the God of Moonlight,” I ticked them off on my fingers, “the God of Fire, the God of Water, the God of Plants, the God of Lightning, and the God of Earth, right? Which is the God of Fate’s manager—uh, ruler?”
“The God of Moonlight. The moon is said to have a strong influence on life and destiny, so that’s probably why.”
I knew the moon played a big role in fortune-telling from Sayuki. She liked fortune-telling.
“I see. How do you know that, Sewatari-san?” I asked.
“Impatient men are unattractive! Don’t interrupt me. And don’t use -san.”
Sayuki and Seika had told me off for this kinda thing in the past. I was supposed to leave all questions until the end of the lecture, apparently.
“When you level up in this game, you can do more stuff and get access to more perks. There are more miracles you can perform in real life, and the restrictions around them get more lax as your level goes up. When you get to level 5…” She paused and gave me a meaningful smile. “You can chat with the god you play directly. There’s a catch, though. You can’t post on the forums anymore once you get to level 5. You can still browse them, though.”
So that was why there weren’t any level 5 players on the forums. It wasn’t that level 5 didn’t exist, it was just that they couldn’t post.
“At level 2, you can only see the forums restricted to other players of the God of Moonlight. The games for players under other major gods have different titles.” Sewatari turned to Nattyan. “I think the players under the God of Fire play Villagers of Burning Passion, right?”
“That title’s so cringey. Though I guess it fits for the God of Fire,” Nattyan said, frowning.