The Lost Light

The smell of ash riddled the cave, lights fading as the torches were snuffed out. This world is not my own, I don’t know how long it’s been since I ended up here, but I’m beginning to lose hope of ever returning to my own world.

              The sun is bright today, the streets are busy and full of people shopping, running late to work, delivering food. Of course Japan is always busy, no matter which part of the country you go to, everyone is either working or planning to work. I’m on my way to a very important meeting. My company is about to close on the biggest deal it’s ever seen, and I’m the man that’s going to do it! My phone begins to ring, I grab it from my pocket.

“It’s Kaneshiro, I wonder what he wants.”

Kaneshiro is my best friend, we’ve practically been friends since we were born. We’ve done everything together our whole lives. Our career choices went totally different though, I went into business and Kaneshiro, well he went into a different kind of business.

“Hello?” I answer.

“Ban! Hey Ban! It’s Kaneshiro!”

“Yes, I have caller ID Kaneshiro, what’s up? I’ve got a meeting I’m heading to.”

Kaneshiro takes a deep breath.

“Ban, it’s done.”

“What’s don-“

“The game my company has been working on, it’s done!”

I let out a gasp. The game that Kaneshiro’s company has been working on is one of the most highly sought after titles of our generation. It’s an RPG, Open World, Level Grinding masterpiece that I have been lucky to see behind the scenes on for the past three years of production.

“No way! Warriors of Hikaru is done!?” I shout.

Kaneshiro lets out an excited laugh.

“Once you’re done with your meeting, stop by my office and I’ll let you get your hands on it!”

Kaneshiro hangs up the phone. I drop my phone back into my jacket pocket. I can’t believe the game is done, and I have to go to this meeting. When I say our careers went differently, I’d say Kaneshiro got the better end of the deal.

Well, this is it, this is the place the client requested to meet. This hotel is way out of my price range, that’s for sure. A tall man wearing all black opens the door for me. I straighten my tie, take a deep breath and step through the door.

The light, where did the light go? It’s so dark. I turn around and the door is no longer there. What happened? Where am I? Suddenly a very faint light appears, flickering, it’s a torch.

“Hello?” I mutter.

The torch stops moving. Suddenly it begins to head toward me. I can start to make out a figure holding the torch, it’s a man…a man in…armor? What is going on?

The man stops directly in front of me, he stares at me for a moment.

“You smell of them, who are you?” He asks in a very deep, growl.

“Hello…um, my name is Ban Haru…I am supposed to meet a client here to discuss a business partnership.” I extend my hand out to shake his.

The giant man looks at my hand and back at me.

“No idea what a business client is. But a partnership could be helpful. Perhaps not by someone who looks like them” He turns and begins to walk away.

I slowly follow him as he is the only one with a light and possibly my way out of wherever it is I am.

“You think I have a bizarre fashion sense? You’re the one in the samurai armor. What is this? The Edo Period?” I chuckle.

The man is silent, looks back at me and growls lowly.

“I haven’t seen anyone smile for long time. Much less laugh.”

“Um, why is that?” I ask curiously.

“Not much funny, not much to smile about.”

We finally reach the end of this dark tunnel, I expect to see tables and chairs, possibly reception. It’s the outside, there are trees, I feel the wind, I smell….ash?

“What’s burning?” I ask the man.

“Everything burn, only way for light.” He points to his torch.

I look around me and I can see ash flakes falling, I look up and see just grey, there is no sky. If there is, it’s under a very thick layer of smoke.

“What is this place? Where are we?” I ask.

The man continues to walk and to check his torch.

“We are in Japan. Do you not know this?” He looks back at me.

“No, this doesn’t feel like where I’m from. Did I get knocked out? Am I dreaming?” I pull out my phone to check my service.

No service. The man looks back at me and notices my phone. He rushes over to me and grabs it.

“Magic!? You’re with them!?” He goes to throw my phone on the ground.

I snatch my phone out of his hands.

“Magic? Them? What? No, this is a phone, it’s not magic, I’m not with anybody. What are you talking about?”

“You not with them, but you still carry their magic. You have the same uniform. Who are you?” He is practically touching my face with his.

“I told you my name already, and I don’t know where I am right now, I walked through a door and I was just in that dark cave with you. That’s all I know, I swear.”

“You really do not know where you are. I can tell you are not full of deception.”

“Thank you.” I release a sigh of relief. “Knowing where I am would be pretty great though.”

The man looks up to the ash cloud filled sky.

“This is Hikaru No Mura. It is my home, or was. This is what is left of it. Much was destroyed once the men with magic appeared. We had light, and peace. Now, nothing but darkness and war.” He looks at me. “You do not know the magic men?”

I shake my head no.

”Hikaru No Mura? I know that name, why do I know that name?” I look around and begin to see familiar landmarks. This is THE Hikaru No Mura. The samurai village in Japan. It’s said to be the most preserved village filled with the most preserved samurai history, showing their architecture and buildings. This is different though, because this isn’t preserved, this is mostly destroyed. “What happened here?” I ask.

“The magic men came, they left the village a gift, an egg made of steel. They used a tool like yours, they told us that our gift would be explained in a days time. I had been out hunting for food for the village, I saw a bright ball of light in the sky above, then I was hit by a wave of warm wind. Then, everything went dark and I have not seen the light since.”

Hikaru No Mura roughly translates to The Village of Light. How fitting that some sort of light destroyed it, now the light is taken away from this land. I don’t know how long I’m going to be stuck here, so it’s in my best interest to find out what happened here. I also need to be careful, because this is obviously not my time period. I somehow got sucked into a glitch in time and got transported back to what I assume is close to the Edo period given the clothing and the structures.

“Someone is coming! It may be magic men.” The samurai grabs my shoulder and pulls me into a patch of grass.

It’s like he said, two men are walking through the village.

“Well, the test went as expected, the whole village was wiped out, everyone and everything. The Village of Light is now The Village of Darkness.”

I know that voice. That’s…

“Kaneshiro?” I stand up.

Kaneshiro looks at me.

“Ban?” He mutters. “What…how…are you here?”

“I don’t know, I stepped through the door to my meeting and I was in a cave with, well a samurai.” The samurai stands up next to me.

Kaneshiro looks at the samurai. “Fascinating, you survived. You’re the only one that has survived every single time we have run this test. How do you keep doing that?”

“Um…Kaneshiro…what do you mean? You did this? You killed all of these people? With light? What are you talking about?” I point towards the carnage of The Village of Light.

“Ban, there’s something you’re missing. It’s very important. None of these people are real, I’m not sure how you ended up here with us, but this is my game. The one I’ve been working on. This is Warriors of Hikaru. My company has created a device that allows us to jump into the game. We’re able to just live the game to work out bugs, and glitches, see everything with our own eyes. It’s incredible.”

I look at Kaneshiro with disbelief, attempting to wrap my head around the sort of technology that would have to exist for something like that to be possible. If this is a game, none of these people are real, then, why does it all feel so real, why does the air smell like death? If there is no life here, why does it smell like death?

“Kaneshiro….”

“Yes, Ban?”

“What did you do to the village?”

“Oh, we just dropped a nuke on it. I wanted to see what would happen. Cheat codes, you know?” He smiles.

“Kaneshiro, are you sure this place isn’t real? Do you smell the death? The blood? Do you have any idea what you’ve done to these people? Look around you Kaneshiro, this place is real. I don’t know what you did, or how you did it, but this isn’t a game. This is…..real. All of it.”

“Look, Ban, the first time I traveled here, I thought it was real too, but my people assured me, that it was the game. I’m not lying to you Ban. I promise.”

“But were you lied to….Kaneshiro?” I look at him.

The man he is with, a guard most likely. He pulls a gun out and begins firing at me and the Samurai.

Kaneshiro flinches at the sudden shots fired.

“What the hell are you doing!?” He shouts.

The samurai grabs me and throws me into a hut.

“Magic men, they are liars, they do not think we are real people? What does that even mean!?” He pulls out his sword.

I still hear Kaneshiro shouting at the man, who is still firing his gun at the hut. Suddenly a blue light shines through the window, the firing has ceased. Kaneshiro is silent. I look around and I’m in an empty lobby. Lights are out, no one around.

“What?” I mutter.

Suddenly my phone is ringing. It’s Kaneshiro.

“Hello?” I answer.

“Ban, I don’t know what that was about, I don’t know why you were there, I don’t know anything. Please, come to my office. Let’s talk.” Kaneshiro hangs up.

With an offer like that, how am I to refuse?

I arrive at Kaneshiro’s office. I reach the top floor and he’s there, waiting for me. He guides me to a chair in front of his desk, I don’t see the man that was with him in the village. I sit.

“Ban, what happened out there, none of that was real, it was just the game.” He clears his throat and his eyes are darting back and forth. “You do know that right?”

“That is what you said, isn’t it?”

This is all too suspicious. He’s acting weird.

“Kaneshiro, you’re acting weird. Are you okay?” I ask.

Kaneshiro looks up behind me. I turn around, it’s the man that was with him. He looks down at me, arms crossed. His demeanor isn’t very friendly.

“Kaneshiro, what’s going on?”

Kaneshiro sighs. “Believe me, I didn’t know. I wasn’t aware that place was real, I didn’t know we traveled back to the past, we killed actual people. I didn’t know. I thought it was my game. That’s what they told me. I hired an outside company to build a device to allow me to jump into my game and I was willing to pay whatever the price. I wanted to give the world a way to play the game that was more immersive than any current virtual reality sets we have. I wanted my game to be more. I didn’t know Ban.”

The man behind me pulls a handgun out.

“Wait, wait, wait, Kaneshiro, why do you need to kill me? Why tell me all of that if you were just going to kill me anyway?”

“Because Ban, it makes me feel better knowing that you knew I didn’t know it was a real place. I want you to remember me as a good person.”

The man puts the gun to the back of my head. I close my eyes, shivering. Scared. I’ve never been more scared in my life. He takes the gun away. I open my eyes.

“Ban, you won’t die if you promise me, that you won’t tell anyone about what you saw, what you experienced. Can you do that for me? Please, Ban?”

I look at Kaneshiro, tears in his eyes. He’s being truthful. I nod my head and he has me escorted out of the building.

                                                          ….SIX MONTHS LATER…

I visit The Village of Light, it has been rebuilt since then. These people, they didn’t even know how to prepare for something like that. They weren’t prepared for modern day evil. A mother and child pass by me, I can overhear the child.

“The Warriors of Hikaru had a village just like this! It’s where a samurai stood up to the bad guys. He went to war with them and eventually won. He was able to find peace in knowing the bad men were put to rest. Once he took down the leader of these bad men, the light returned to his village, once the light returned, he knew he could rebuild!”

I smile and pat the statue of the Samurai, Ina Takesada. The warrior to singlehandedly bring back the light. Underneath his name is a caption.

              “The Lost Light, Returned After Twelve Years, Thanks To This Brave Samurai.”