His throat caught, despite his best efforts to stifle it. She was gazing at a passing flower garden as she asked, so Kazuto was unable to read her expression. It didn't feel cold, but it had clearly stayed in her mind for a while.
How was he supposed to explain this? Be honest? Make up some sappy story? There was nothing Kazuto could say that wouldn't make him sound insane. Devil attack, Dante dropping out of the sky, fighting off a horde of cloaked demons. The weight of that night pressed down on him again, that horrible feeling crawling across his skin.
She stopped and turned toward him. It had been a long time since they made eye contact. Her face was calm. Kind, even. No malice in her eyes. It cut right through Kazuto's guard. Her nose wrinkled.
"Do you smell that?" She turned to a row of buildings to the east. Kazuto couldn't smell anything. He opened his mouth to answer, but she was already walking toward the complex. He stumbled after her, not even bothering to ask what she was doing. Alice had a way of making Kazuto follow, even when she didn't mean to. Was it fascination, or just her personality? He had no idea.
They stopped in front of a big apartment complex. Kazuto stared up at a window, completely shattered. That's when the stink hit him. Putrid.
"Oh... that's loud." He'd smelled it before, around certain parts of his neighborhood. Not a smell you forget.
"Huh," Alice turned, face scrunched in confusion. "No, it's..." Her nose wrinkled again. "Wait, yeah, I do smell it. But that's not what I meant. Still, convenient. I think my sister might be here." She opened the door and marched in.
"Wait, what do you mean that isn't... How do you know your sister's here?" He was barely keeping up with her. She clearly knew where she was going now. The scent was easy to follow.
"Cat's dealer lives here," she said.
"DEALER?!" he yells.
She turned as they entered the foyer, or what was probably supposed to be a foyer. The whole place was slimy and run-down. Grime from years of smoking clung to Kazuto's shoes with every step. Every door looked worse than the last. After a while, Kazuto realized they were just following the smell. Or at least, Alice was. He was just trying not to gag.
They climbed up a bunch of stairs. Kazuto had hoped for an elevator, but of course, it was out of order. Naturally. After a short time, they found the door where the smell was strongest.
"What now?" Kazuto scraped his shoe against a loose floor nail, trying to get the gunk off.
Alice knocked way harder than Kazuto expected. He jumped. They waited a few moments, but no one came. Alice knocked again, even harder.
"Excuse me!" she shouted, making Kazuto grip the sides of his shirt. He knew what kind of guys hung around drugs. Alice clearly didn't. She knocked again.
"Alice..." he whispered. She ignored him and pounded this time, yelling.
"Excuse me! I'm here as a customer." Kazuto reeled.
"Customer!?"
The door flung open. An unshaved man with shaggy brown hair and grease-stained gray clothes stood there. He stunk. Not just like weed, either, but a lack of soap. Or water.
"Dude, god forbid a brother take a nap." his eyes were bloodshot to all hell. The man's gaze was fixed on Alice. He squinted. "Are you Cat's sister?"
She ignored the question and strode right past him.
"Yo, what's with your girl?" the man leaned against the door.
"She's not..." Alice was already scrounging around the guy's apartment. The guy looked back and just watched. He was utterly blazed.
"Heh. Yeah, no way." What the hell did that mean? Kazuto wasn't ugly or anything. Was he?
The guy, Klein apparently, just stood there for another few seconds, so Kazuto invited himself in too. Nearly the whole apartment was visible from the doorway. Dishes piled up in the sink, coffee table littered with paper plates, tins, and a few bongs.
Alice opened a door nearby and gasped, "Kazuto! She's in here!" He ran to join her. Alice kneeled in front of a girl with black hair, intense makeup, and even a few piercings. The complete opposite of Alice. She was lying on a felt chair in the middle of the bedroom.
After a few gentle nudges, Cat groaned and opened her eyes.
"Ugh...Al?" she muttered. Alice sat her up, but Cat brushed her hands off. "What the hell are you doing here?" Her eyes finally reached Kazuto, who wasn't sure what to do. "Who's that guy?"
"I'm taking you back to the funeral." Alice grabbed Cat's hands and pulled her up. She slumped and let her weight resist the pull, but couldn't escape Alice's grip. She was fully standing now, but still slumped over. Her hands went to her hair as she pulled on her roots.
"ARGHHH! I thought it would be over by now. Are you f'ing kidding me?" Her foot slammed into the ground, her heavy boot nearly dented the wood floor. She walked over to the bed and sat back down. "I'm not going back there, Al. You're literally going to have to make me."
"Kazuto," Alice turned to him, "we need a moment, please." This was the most intense he had seen Alice this entire day. He didn't say a word, just strolled out with his hands in his pockets. Kazuto closed the door behind him, and the scratch of smoke hit his nose immediately.
"Haha," he heard, "You're completely whipped, bro". Klein was on his grease-stained couch, lighting up a joint.
"What?" he asked in near disgust. Klein turned up the TV, the only source of light in the room, and started watching music videos.
"Whipped. Like, you're easy to boss around by your girl. Well, I guess she's not even your girl. So you're not even whipped, you're just a sucker."
"I know what whipped means." Kazuto walked over to get a better look and finally noticed another person slumped next to Klein. "Oh shit!"
"Haha, yeah, that's Oscar, he took some fucked up new shit. Sabbath. Fuckin' hardcore. Been like that for a few hours."
Kazuto peered over the couch and saw that Oscar's eyes were completely open, but devoid of any thought. Even for just a moment, he swore that Oscar's pupils were changing shape.
"God." He muttered.
"Yeah," Klein spoke, "I don't really fuck with pills or anything like that. Much more of an herbal guy."
"Which you need eight bongs for?" Kazuto asked.
"Fuck yeah. You know they all do different shit, right?"
"Guess I didn't," Kazuto could hear Alice's voice through the door. They were yelling at each other. He didn't have any siblings, but he'd known many to get into fights like this. It didn't seem to bother Klein. Then again, he did have someone actively tripping out next to him. Kazuto saw something glimmer near Oscar's body. He walked over and saw another collection of about five pristine-looking bongs.
"Fuck, you have even more?" Kazuto looked past the shadows clouding the apartment. He counted at least 39 different bongs.
"Yeah, dude, they're all for sale if you want one." He picked up a controller and started playing a fighting game.
"You sell bongs?" Kazuto looked at the games menu. It wasn't anyone that he could recognize. It wasn't really his scene after all, and full-dive fighting games were unable to compensate for a lack of actual user skill.
"I make them," Klein took a hit of his blunt.
Kazuto had to pause for a moment. The sounds of the game overtook the room, even covering Cat and Alice's arguing.
"You make them?" Kazuto hadn't seen how clean every single one was. The materials all differed too: glass, porcelain, metal, and some made of household objects like whiskey bottles. That meant Klein knew how to work every single material. "Wow," and finally, he took a seat on the couch.
"Yeah, I make em' at the art place down the street." In the middle of his sentence, he hit a nasty combo on his opponent. His character of choice was a monkey with eight arms, and it seemed to be good at keeping your foe in the air. In just a few moments, Klein exhausted his enemy's health, and the match was over. The other person declined the remath prompt that appeared, and it looked like Klein was actually a very high rank. "Damn," he groaned. "This is my alt account too."
Kazuto could relate to that. Competitive games had a habit of getting too easy, but anything around your level required tremendous effort. There was a firm line between enjoying a game and it becoming a chore. Kazuto had passed that a long time ago with SAO. He even —
A character appeared on Klein's select screen. One with a stark red jacket and star-white hair. A black blade accompanied by two contrasting pistols. Kazuto jumped forward, catching Klein by surprise.
"Daemon Spade!" he pointed.
Klein reeled, "Uh, yeah, that's the new collab character. I usually don't buy them, but there was a deal on the season pass." He selected the character, as if to show it off to Kazuto. The match started, and immedietly the pace was different from Klein's last. He was spamming specific moves more often and failed to land any intricate combos. After losing his parry gauge, Klein was juggled until he was KO'd. From watching, Kazuto couldn't tell exactly what Spades' niche was in the game.
When it came to 2D fighting games, a character was good at specific concepts. Zoneing, Rushing, Shotos, but Kazuto didn't fully know what each term meant.
Klein groaned, "Argh, yeah, every single one they release gets more and more fuckin' complicated. Before, it was just old characters from past games, which is fine, but now they're doing collabs. Becasue you have to pay for it, they feel like they have to make the new drops 'worth it'," he finger quoted with his free hand.
"So they make each one overpowered?" Kazuto asked.
"See for yourself, man," Klein reached over and handed Kazuto a controller of his own. He took it and, of course, selected Daemon Spade. Klein chose his spidermonkey fighter, and the match began after a visual scene of the two clashing.
Klein didn't hold back at all. Out of 3 rounds, Kazuto had lost the first round without even denting Klein's health bar. Spino, the character, was incredibly good at controlling the space between them. His webs were his main skill, pulling Spade in from afar, or launching him if he got too close. So, it's a rushdown character, Kazuto thought.
Spades' moveset didn't translate well to a 2D genre, and...
Kazuto input down + light attack, and Spade switched styles, to which Kazuto noticed he had his usual three. The right bumper switched Spades melee weapon, and the left switched his ranged one. This meant that this game had actually translated nearly his entire moveset, seemingly the best weapons and styles from the entire series.
"You see?" Klein asked, "he just has too much bullshit. It's too hard to keep track of which combination of things you want to use—" Kazuto then input a series of commands, completely throwing Klein's rhythm off. For the first time in the entire match, Spade touched the floor. Kazuto leaned forward and realized all he had to do was translate Daemons Triggers controls to a fighting game, so instead of a jump button, it was up. Instead of using a joystick with a d-pad, the d-pad was prioritized as the movement input, with certain combinations becoming special buttons from the original series.
It took a few moments of experimenting, but Kazuto was able to figure out which buttons meant light and heavy moves, and which ones meant skills. Kazuto shot Spades iconic pistols to stagger Klein from a distance, and then used one of his styles to teleport behind Spino. With a style switch and a change to his gauntlets, Kazuto began to input a series of light and heavy attacks.
The tempo of the match had completely changed.
"Whoa, dude. Were you dicking around earlier?" Klein also sat up from his lazed position. It was difficult for him to adjust to Spades' rapidly changing moveset. Whether it was a style change or a weapon change, his kit was just too fast. Klein's bar was already down to its last third. Kazuto had been trying to figure out how to use the special gauge he had amassed when he was beaten down the round before. Now, it was completely necessary.
With the use of both triggers, Spade flashed purple and charged forward, likely to perform his iconic slash combo. It would be a tie! Kazuto had a chance.
Kazuto hadn't noticed that Klein had completely stopped inputting any commands. Right before Spade made an impact, Klein used a single bar of his gauge and performed a perfect counter, negating Kazuto's play. It was over in a few moments. Two out of three.
Klein jumped from his spot on the couch, "hell yeah! You're a natural dude." He held his fist out. Embarrassingly, Kazuto flinched before realizing it was a fist bump. They connected, and Klein got up and walked over to his kitchen.
Now that the game had ended, the arguing had picked back up. Kazuto had almost forgotten about it.
"Kazuto, right? Go check if the girls are done cat-fighting or whatever," Klein asked from the kitchen.
"Y-yeah. Okay," Kazuto approached the door. A slight groan came from his left. It was the Oscar guy. He had started shifting around more. The muffled shouts grew louder and finally were clear as day as he opened the door.
SMACK!
Alice had slapped Catherine right on her cheek.