13 The Kappa King's Lament II

  [Player: Kazuki Arata]

  [Level: 3]

  [Waza: Minor Black Hand, Thread Cutter, Aura Sense, Dark Rider, Retribution]

  [Kegare: 35%]

  [Status: System Status: ERROR] [Objective: Escape the Kappa's Domain | New Objective: ?E?R?R?O?R?]

  ---

  The King snapped his fingers, and the chamber erupted into chaos.

  Kappa surged forward from all directions, while others scattered in confusion. Fleet was in full fox form, his small body darting between webbed feet. Suzume grabbed Kazuki's arm.

  "Run!"

  They sprinted toward the nearest tunnel, Fleet racing ahead. Behind them, the Kappa King's voice rose above the din, not angry but delighted.

  "A chase! How thrilling!"

  The tunnel was slick with moisture, phosphorescent fungi providing just enough light to avoid colliding with the walls. Behind them, the sounds of pursuit grew louder; splashing, gurgling, and the Kappa King's occasional cries of excitement.

  They rounded a corner, and Kazuki nearly collided with a massive shape that blocked the tunnel - a centipede the size of a train car, its countless legs rippling along segmented sides. Atop it sat the Kappa King, lounging as if on a daybed, the Shirayuki Knife still in his hand.

  "Going somewhere?" he called down to them.

  Suzume pulled Kazuki into a side passage, Fleet yipping frantically ahead of them.

  "This way!" she hissed. "I remember - these tunnels lead back to the surface!"

  They ran through a bewildering maze of passages, taking turns seemingly at random. Fleet dashed ahead, his nose guiding them. Behind them, the walls shook with the centipede's pursuit, the Kappa King's laughter preceding it through the tunnels.

  His voice called out, "Do keep running!"

  A dozen kappa honor guards flanked the giant centipede, their movements coordinated and precise unlike their chaotic brethren. They wielded tridents of bone and coral, their eyes gleaming.

  Without warning, the tunnel floor gave way beneath Kazuki's feet. He plunged into cold, fast-moving water. The current immediately pulled him under, spinning him until he lost all sense of direction. He tumbled through the darkness, lungs burning.

  Something grabbed his ankle; a webbed hand. Kazuki kicked frantically, connecting with something solid. The grip loosened momentarily, but then more hands seized him, pulling him down into deeper darkness.

  Kazuki felt the Kegare lines beneath his skin burn with cold fire as his lungs screamed for air. In desperation, he struck out.

  [Black Hand - Active]

  The kappa recoiled as if struck by lightning, releasing their grip on Kazuki.

  [Kegare: 37%]

  He kicked upward, breaking the surface with a desperate gasp. Fleet and Suzume were on a narrow stone ledge above, reaching down to him.

  "Grab on!" Suzume shouted, extending her injured hands.

  Kazuki grasped her wrists, wincing at the pain it must have caused her, and they hauled him onto the ledge.

  "They're everywhere," Fleet gasped, speaking words even in his shivering, wet fox form. "The tunnels keep leading us back toward the center. It's like they're... changing."

  "The Door is calling you," Suzume said to Kazuki, her eyes wide. "It wants you specifically. I can feel it."

  Before Kazuki could respond, the ledge beneath them shuddered. Cracks appeared in the stone, spreading rapidly. They ran again, the ledge collapsing behind them.

  The tunnel sloped upward, but when they rounded the next bend, their path was blocked by a wall of kappa, their bodies forming a living barrier.

  "Back!" Suzume shouted, turning to run in the opposite direction, only to find more kappa approaching from behind.

  They were trapped.

  Kazuki's corruption, the kegare lines beneath his skin pulsed with each heartbeat. He felt a strange resonance with the tunnels, as if they were alive and watching.

  The kappa closed in from both sides, forcing them down a side passage that plunged deeper into the earth.

  Fleet suddenly stopped, his nose twitching rapidly. "Wait, I smell fresh air!"

  "Where?" Suzume demanded, her injured hands clutched against her chest as she gasped for breath.

  Fleet pointed with his snout toward a narrow fissure in the wall, barely visible in the dim light. "There. It's faint, but it's definitely surface air."

  They squeezed through the fissure one by one, Fleet leading the way. The passage beyond was tight, the walls pressing in on all sides. Kazuki could feel the weight of the earth above them, the closeness of the stone intensifying his already ragged breathing.

  After an eternity of crawling through the suffocating passage, they emerged into a larger tunnel. Fleet's nose hadn't lied - there was fresh air here, a subtle current that hinted at the surface world.

  "We're close!" Suzume gasped, her injured hands clutched against her chest as she ran. "I can smell open air!"

  The tunnel began to slope upward. Faint light appeared ahead - not the blue-green glow of fungi but pure, natural moonlight. Hope surged through Kazuki.

  They burst around the final corner and froze.

  Before them stood the Red Door.

  It pulsed and writhed, its surface moving like liquid crimson. The symbols etched into its frame seemed to crawl, rearranging themselves into alien, painful patterns.

  "No," Suzume whispered. "This isn't right. We were heading up, away—"

  "Space itself bends around the Door," the Kappa King's voice came from behind them, suddenly soft and almost respectful. "It wants you, Kazuki. It's been calling you since you entered my domain."

  The centipede and honor guard filled the tunnel behind them, cutting off retreat. The Kappa King slid from his mount with graceful ease, landing without a sound.

  "Can't you hear it speaking to you?" he asked, his golden eyes reflecting the door's crimson light.

  Kazuki could.

  A faint rhythm, just below the threshold of feeling, hummed in his bones. The kegare lines beneath his skin responded, darkening and spreading across his flesh like spilled ink.

  **[SYSTEM ERROR]**

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  **[WARNING: Unauthorized Protocol Detected]**

  **[SYSTEM REBOOTING...]**

  **[E?R?R?O?R? ?E?R?R?O?R? ?E?R?R?O?R?]**

  *????????????????????*????????[??????????????E??????????????????????????????????????R????????????????????????????????????R??????????????????????????????????????O???????????????????????????????????????????R??????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????E????????????????????????????????????????R????????????????????????????????????R??????????????????????????????????O???????????????????????????R????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????E?????????????????????????????????R??????????????????????????????????R?????????????????????O???????????????????????????????????????R???????????????????????????????????????]????????????????*??????????????????????*???????????????????

  The game interface flickered before Kazuki's eyes, artifacts corrupting the display. Then it vanished entirely, leaving him feeling strangely vulnerable without its presence.

  The Red Door pulsed faster, its rhythm matching Kazuki's heartbeat. The symbols on its frame began to shift more rapidly, some crawling off the door entirely to float in the air between Kazuki and the entrance. They twisted in impossible ways, folding through dimensions that shouldn't exist, reaching toward him like hungry tentacles.

  As he watched, mesmerized, the door's surface rippled, and something pressed against it from the other side; a suggestion of a massive form, testing the boundary between worlds.

  And.

  Then.

  Kazuki was sitting in a dimly lit karaoke box, the fake leather of the booth sticky against his thighs. Colorful lights pulsed overhead, and a half-empty pitcher of beer sat on the table amid scattered snacks.

  His coworkers from the convenience store laughed and chatted around him. Tanaka-san was attempting a high note in some pop song, holding a tambourine in each hand. Yoshida-chan was recording it on her phone, giggling uncontrollably.

  Suzume sat across from him, her face flushed with alcohol, smiling. Her hands were uninjured.

  Kuro lounged in the corner, checking her makeup in a compact mirror, looking bored.

  And Fleet was scrolling through the song catalog, his fox tail (why did he have a tail in a karaoke bar?) swishing with excitement.

  "Found it!" Fleet exclaimed. "This one next!"

  The door to the karaoke room opened, and Kazuki turned, expecting to see his mother return from the bathroom. But the doorway was empty, revealing only a darkness that pulsed faintly crimson.

  "Your turn, Kazuki!" Fleet shoved the microphone into his hands. "I picked the perfect song!"

  The karaoke machine screen flickered, displaying not lyrics but a cascade of symbols identical to those on the Red Door. They crawled across the monitor, rearranging themselves in patterns that made Kazuki's head throb. Behind the symbols, a dark red surface pulsed and writhed.

  The opening notes began; a familiar guitar riff that raised goosebumps on Kazuki's arms. Despite the corrupted screen, he knew it without doubt: "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones.

  Something about it felt important. Vital, even.

  Kazuki rose to his feet, the microphone suddenly heavy in his hand. The corrupted screen continued to display eldritch symbols rather than lyrics, but he already knew the words by heart.

  "I see a red door and I want it painted black..."

  His voice cracked on the first line, but he continued, feeling something shift in the air around him. The room's patrons - his friends, coworkers - began to flicker like bad Wi-fi.

  "No colors anymore, I want them to turn black..."

  The karaoke room began to dissolve around him, the faces of his friends blurring. Only the music remained, growing stronger as reality itself seemed weakened.

  "I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes..."

  The Red Door reappeared before him, pulsing in time with the song. The Kappa King stood frozen, his golden eyes wide with something between fear and awe.

  Kazuki continued singing, not out of confusion or accident, but from defiance. The Kappa King wanted chaos? Wanted to reshape reality? Kazuki knew about chaos. About feeling disconnected from the world around you. About searching for meaning in a universe that was empty and cold.

  But there was another way to find meaning. To create it yourself.

  "I have to turn my head until my darkness goes..."

  He poured his heart into the words; all the loneliness of his life, all the alienation he'd felt even among friends, all the hours spent alone with nothing but his guitar and a handful of chords.

  [SYSTEM REBOOTING]

  [DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE]

  [PLAYER CONNECTION RESTORED]

  Reality snapped back into focus. Kazuki stood before the Red Door, Fleet and Suzume at his side. The song still flowed from his lips and the hypnotic pull of the door diminished with each note.

  The Red Door's surface roiled violently, the liquid crimson churning like a stormy sea. The stone around the door cracked, hairline fractures spreading outward like a spider's web, dust raining down from the ceiling.

  Kazuki blinked at the interface - Player Connection Restored? His mind suddenly became sharp and focused. The song died on his lips, but its echo remained in the chamber, a phantom melody that hung in the air.

  The Kappa King and his subjects had backed away, forming a semicircle around him. But their reaction went beyond mere shock. Several kappa had collapsed to the stone floor, their bodies twitching, water spilling from the bowls atop their heads. Others pressed their webbed hands to the sides of their heads, eyes wide and uncomprehending. A few were making strange, halting attempts to mimic the rhythm of Kazuki's song, their movements jerky and confused.

  The Kappa King himself had fallen to his knees, his crown askew, the red fragments within it noticeably dimmer. His theatrical confidence was gone, replaced by something Kazuki had never expected to see; raw, naked fear.

  "What..." the Kappa King whispered, his voice trembling, "...what was that?"

  "What was what?" Kazuki asked.

  "That... sound. Those sounds. It was like... like the Door's whispers, but different." The Kappa King rose slowly to his feet, his movements cautious, subdued. "You opened your mouth and... magic came out."

  Fleet, back in his human form, tugged at Kazuki's sleeve. "Cursed Prince, you were singing! And they all just... broke!"

  Singing. Music.

  Kazuki looked at the assembled kappa, noticing for the first time the total absence of anything like melody or rhythmic patterns in their communication. Not even simple drum beats. They knew sound, yes, but not music. Not melody, not harmony, and never a... song.

  The Kappa King approached slowly, the Shirayuki Knife forgotten at his side, his golden eyes fixed on Kazuki's face. The fear in his expression was gradually being replaced by something else; a desperate, hungry curiosity.

  "Can you..." The Kappa King began, then stopped, his usual eloquence failing him. He tried again, his voice softer, almost childlike. "Can you do it again? Please?"

  The please hung in the air, stripped of all pretense, all theatricality.

  Then, to Kazuki's astonishment, the Kappa King knelt before him. "Teach me," he whispered, his voice cracking. "Teach me how to make those... sounds."

  The world of the kappa was one of water and darkness, of survival and instinct. They had no music, no cultural foundation of rhythm and melody. To them, a simple song was as mysterious and powerful as the most arcane magic—perhaps more so, because it came not from eldritch entities beyond a crimson door, but from somewhere within.

  Kazuki met the Kappa King's pleading gaze and saw what truly lay behind the dramatic persona—loneliness. Crushing, endless loneliness.

  "You can't open that door," Kazuki said quietly.

  The Kappa King's shoulders slumped. "You don't understand. I'm surrounded by subjects who can barely string two thoughts together. I am a king with no one to talk to, no one to share ideas with. No one..." He gestured helplessly toward Kazuki. "No one to make sounds like you just did."

  For a moment, Kazuki glimpsed the weight of centuries in those golden eyes—the burden of being the only one of your kind who thought deeply, who yearned for more than mere existence.

  "I'll teach you," Kazuki said, surprising himself.

  "Teach me... what?" The Kappa King tilted his head.

  "To sing. To make music." Kazuki gestured to the Shirayuki Knife. "But first, you return what belongs to Suzume."

  The Kappa King looked down at the knife as if seeing it for the first time. With a fluid motion, he flipped it, catching it by the blade and offering the handle to Suzume.

  "A fair exchange," he said, his theatrical persona beginning to return, but tempered now with genuine curiosity. "The cold steel for the hot... what did you call it? Music?"

  Suzume took the knife cautiously, her injured hands trembling slightly.

  The Kappa King stepped back, then fell to his knees once more, spreading his arms wide in supplication. "Well then, Cursed Prince," he said, his golden eyes shining with something new—hope. "Teach me your power! Show me this... music that can command even the call of the Red Door!"

  Behind him, the Red Door continued to pulse, but its rhythm was erratic now, discordant. The symbols on its frame were dim, some missing entirely. Whatever lay beyond seemed to have retreated, at least for now.

  Kazuki hesitated, then began to hum—simple at first, a basic melody. The assembled kappa tilted their heads in unison, water sloshing in their bowls, eyes wide with wonder. Several more collapsed, overwhelmed by the novelty of harmonized sound.

  The Kappa King's face transformed with childlike delight, all pretense of dignity forgotten. He crawled forward on hands and knees, positioning himself at Kazuki's feet, face upturned in rapt attention.

  Kazuki opened his mouth and began to sing.

  ---

  [New Achievement: Friends in Deep Places]

  [Next Chapter: The Storm Gate]

  Thanks for reading!

  New chapter every day at 6:07 EST.

  If you’re enjoying the story, please consider leaving a review, rating, or comment—it really helps!

  What would you sing at karaoke with the Elder Gods?

  Drop your theories in the comments—I read every one.