Read Online Slum Online by Hiroshi Sakurazaka - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Hiroshi Sakurazaka
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standing in front of him wore neither headband nor wristband. Unlike Tetsuo, he clearly had no interest in street fighting.
> Of late, danger has come even here to Sanchōme. People have grown obsessed with farcical duels. Alas, I can scarcely scale a wall in peace.
> I thought fighting was the whole point.
> The point is what you make of it. I’ll not deny that many choose to make dueling that point, but dueling in and of itself has no more or less meaning than jumping walls.
He had worked out quite a little philosophy for himself, but we were starting to stray off-topic.
> I’m not here to duel. I’m looking for someone.
The jujutsuka relaxed his stance.
> And who might that be?
> Have you heard about the snake boxer?
> Snake boxer?
> They say he hangs out somewhere around here.
> This place teems with eagles and snakes. They’re two of the best schools, as you must surely know.
> The snake I’m looking for is no ordinary snake.
> An extraordinary snake, then?
> Extraordinary enough to beat 963. One of the top four.
> Ah, then it is Jack whom you seek.
> Jack?
> The shadow who stalks Sanchōme.
> That’s the guy.
> Here he is known as Ganker Jack.
The jujutsuka folded his arms. The shadow of the wall that towered over us lay unmoving at our feet.
The web of roads and alleyways grew more and more complex the further I went.
After he had parted ways with the jujutsuka, Tetsuo had gone back toward the outskirts of Sanchōme. According to his new friend, there was a saloon in Versus Town where people went to swap stories about the comings and goings in the virtual city. If I wanted to hear more about Ganker Jack, he assured me, there was no surer place to go.
I tilted the stick gently up and to the right. Tetsuo hopped over a log blocking the middle of the street. There was much more to Sanchōme than I had imagined. Houses, one very much like the next, lined long, winding streets. A passage that, at a distance, seemed nothing more than an alley barely wide enough for a person to pass could lead to vast, empty courtyards. And not a single character appeared to break the emptiness.
I’d heard European cities from the Middle Ages were rife with blind alleys and dogleg roads. They actually designed the cities to be difficult to navigate as a defense against invasion. Sanchōme appeared to be built on the same premise. Its tangled skein of roads and byways seemed tailor-made to prevent the uninitiated from penetrating its veil. Each new road looked very much like the last. It was as though the saloon was not meant to be found.
By the time I finally did find it, ten minutes had passed since I left the jujutsuka. Even coming straight from Itchōme it would probably take fifteen minutes to get here.
Tetsuo stood in front of the bar. The place looked like something out of a spaghetti Western. The walls were covered with textures of weather-beaten wood. The only entrance was a pair of swinging doors. Nearby, a lone wooden barrel stood sentry. Above the entrance, an old sign rested atop two massive beams. The polygons of the sign were just crooked enough to draw attention to themselves. Unlike RL, in a virtual world you had to go out of your way to make anything that wasn’t perfectly parallel with everything else. JTS SALOON declared the sign in giant letters. The only thing missing was a good whinny sound FX.
Tetsuo pushed the swinging doors open and peered in.
Inside was murky and dim. Two characters stood in front of the bar, having a conversation. There were probably others further back in the room, but it was too dark to be sure. Maybe staring at the sunlit cityscape for so long just made the saloon seem darker than it was.
I gave the stick two quick taps, then brought it back to neutral. Tetsuo speed-dashed into the saloon.
> Howdy, pardner.
The man who spoke was a heavyweight fighter behind the counter. The classic bartender.
There was no concept of money in Versus Town
> Of late, danger has come even here to Sanchōme. People have grown obsessed with farcical duels. Alas, I can scarcely scale a wall in peace.
> I thought fighting was the whole point.
> The point is what you make of it. I’ll not deny that many choose to make dueling that point, but dueling in and of itself has no more or less meaning than jumping walls.
He had worked out quite a little philosophy for himself, but we were starting to stray off-topic.
> I’m not here to duel. I’m looking for someone.
The jujutsuka relaxed his stance.
> And who might that be?
> Have you heard about the snake boxer?
> Snake boxer?
> They say he hangs out somewhere around here.
> This place teems with eagles and snakes. They’re two of the best schools, as you must surely know.
> The snake I’m looking for is no ordinary snake.
> An extraordinary snake, then?
> Extraordinary enough to beat 963. One of the top four.
> Ah, then it is Jack whom you seek.
> Jack?
> The shadow who stalks Sanchōme.
> That’s the guy.
> Here he is known as Ganker Jack.
The jujutsuka folded his arms. The shadow of the wall that towered over us lay unmoving at our feet.
The web of roads and alleyways grew more and more complex the further I went.
After he had parted ways with the jujutsuka, Tetsuo had gone back toward the outskirts of Sanchōme. According to his new friend, there was a saloon in Versus Town where people went to swap stories about the comings and goings in the virtual city. If I wanted to hear more about Ganker Jack, he assured me, there was no surer place to go.
I tilted the stick gently up and to the right. Tetsuo hopped over a log blocking the middle of the street. There was much more to Sanchōme than I had imagined. Houses, one very much like the next, lined long, winding streets. A passage that, at a distance, seemed nothing more than an alley barely wide enough for a person to pass could lead to vast, empty courtyards. And not a single character appeared to break the emptiness.
I’d heard European cities from the Middle Ages were rife with blind alleys and dogleg roads. They actually designed the cities to be difficult to navigate as a defense against invasion. Sanchōme appeared to be built on the same premise. Its tangled skein of roads and byways seemed tailor-made to prevent the uninitiated from penetrating its veil. Each new road looked very much like the last. It was as though the saloon was not meant to be found.
By the time I finally did find it, ten minutes had passed since I left the jujutsuka. Even coming straight from Itchōme it would probably take fifteen minutes to get here.
Tetsuo stood in front of the bar. The place looked like something out of a spaghetti Western. The walls were covered with textures of weather-beaten wood. The only entrance was a pair of swinging doors. Nearby, a lone wooden barrel stood sentry. Above the entrance, an old sign rested atop two massive beams. The polygons of the sign were just crooked enough to draw attention to themselves. Unlike RL, in a virtual world you had to go out of your way to make anything that wasn’t perfectly parallel with everything else. JTS SALOON declared the sign in giant letters. The only thing missing was a good whinny sound FX.
Tetsuo pushed the swinging doors open and peered in.
Inside was murky and dim. Two characters stood in front of the bar, having a conversation. There were probably others further back in the room, but it was too dark to be sure. Maybe staring at the sunlit cityscape for so long just made the saloon seem darker than it was.
I gave the stick two quick taps, then brought it back to neutral. Tetsuo speed-dashed into the saloon.
> Howdy, pardner.
The man who spoke was a heavyweight fighter behind the counter. The classic bartender.
There was no concept of money in Versus Town
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