Tengoku Club

  Little Tokyo

  Gloria City

  As soon as the audience member’s body hit the ground, everybody panicked and went into a frenzy trying to escape. In an instant, the surging panicked crowd separated Alcides from Ryota and Isabella. He tried to push back against the frenzied concert goers but couldn’t and kept getting swept towards the stage. From his position, all he could see was a sea of people and the cyberpsycho indiscriminately cutting a bloody path through the crowd. It seemed like the cyberpsycho was trying to make his way towards the front of the venue towards the stage.

  Out of instinct, Alcides’ hands moved towards where he holstered his pistol on missions, but with a silent curse remembered he had left it at home. He swore that if he made it out of this alive; he wasn’t ever going to make that mistake again. Still, that meant that he was completely unarmed, although he somewhat morbidly noted that with the amount of guards nearby he could probably swipe one of their guns once the cyberpsycho killed them. In a few brief moments, he was about to test out this idea as the cyberpsycho finally made his way to where Alcides was at.

  The few armed guards near him opened fire on the psycho but their bullets just bounced off his skin, no doubt because of the absurd amount of combat implants he was rocking. Just as Alcides expected, the cyberpsycho’s mantis blades cut the guards to ribbons. With the distraction of more gunfire from the other guards, Alcides slid over to the body of one guard and grabbed his pistol. He checked the magazine to see if it had ammo and luckily it had enough. Just then, he heard another scream from the stage. Swinging his head, he saw Deep Blue, the singer who had been performing, frozen in shock as the cyberpsycho faced her.

  For a second Alcides wondered if it might be better to leave her to her fate and look for Ryota and Isabella, but another part of his brain told him he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he let her die. With a small sigh, he jumped up on the stage and basically tackled Deep Blue out of the way of the cyberpsycho. She was a petite woman, so it wasn’t too difficult for Alcides to grab her and get her out of the way. He looked down at her and for a second her large golden brown eyes entranced him, but almost instantly the threat of the cyberpsycho with large sharp blades for arms took him out of the moment.

  Deep Blue basically fell out of his arms as the cyberpsycho charged at the two of them. Alcides sidestepped the implanted arm blade which sliced clean through his jacket. It was too close for comfort and if he had been a second slower, the blades would’ve gutted him. Although he couldn’t think about it that much since the cyberpsycho again lunged at him. This time, though, Alcides sidestepped the blades and taking the chance he fired a shot at the cyberpsycho’s head but as expected, the bullet just bounced off harmlessly. Still, it kept his attention off Deep Blue, who had left her shocked state and was taking notice of the situation.

  Her terror was clear as the cyberpsycho turned his head towards her and prepared to charge at her. Only to turn his head back to Alcides as he fired another shot at the cyberpsycho’s head. Alcides, for his part, other than occasionally shooting the psycho in the head to get his attention, was also gesturing at Deep Blue to hurry and run away. To his immense relief, she understood and while the psycho was charging at Alcides again; she ran off the stage and out of the venue.

  With her gone, it was only Alcides and a few living guards frantically trying to escape left facing the cyberpsycho. He mentally cursed their uselessness as they left him to fight alone. His only hope of survival at this point was for the Tactical Response Squad to show up and deal with this situation. His muscles burned as he dodged another lunge and, to his immense relief and slight terror, he saw the red warning on the floor that signaled Tactical Response’s arrival.

  Completely disregarding the burning of his muscles, he leaped off the stage not a moment too soon as the Tactical Response operatives burst through the roof. The four Tactical Response operatives shot off the cyberpyscho’s legs, causing him to fall to the ground. Still trying to get his blades up to strike, another Tactical Response operative casually shot the cyberpsycho through the head, killing him. That power and skill displayed by the operatives shocked Alcides, who was lying on the ground trying to catch his breath.

  However, before he could, the familiar voice of Ryota playfully asked, “Yo Cee still alive?”

  Alcides opened his eyes and responded, “Shockingly, anyways, where’s Isabella?”

  “Waiting outside with everybody else. You should probably get up so you can show her you’re not dead.”

  “Ughhhhhhh” Alcides groaned, not wanting to get up.

  “If you don’t, I’m carrying you out of here and giving Isabella a heart attack.”

  “Alright, alright I’m getting up.” Alcides said as he got to his feet and once he did he asked, “Happy now?”

  “Immensely come on, let’s go.” With that, the two of them left the venue with the operatives sticking around to clean up the situation. Outside, several police cars with officers had set up a perimeter around the door, although they hadn’t actually had to do anything since Alcides had been the one to keep the cyberpsycho busy.

  As soon as he passed the police perimeter, he felt a small person run into him at high speeds and once he looked down; he saw Isabella gripping his shirt. “Do you know how much you scared me when you didn’t come out?”

  He patted her head. “I just couldn’t leave the people in there behind without trying to help them.”

  “Just don’t do something like that again, ok?”

  Wanting to put her at ease, he agreed. “Don’t worry, I won’t do something like that again.”

  She sniffed slightly. “I just don’t want to lose you…”

  “Hey it’s okay. Trust me, it’ll take more than that to get rid of me.”

  As the two of them separated, Alcides looked at how damaged his jacket was. To his annoyance, it was so badly cut up it was worthless now. As he sighed about having to replace it, he heard a woman with a soft Japanese accent trying to get his attention. As Alcides looked behind him he saw Deep Blue, the singer who he had saved.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Excuse me, you are the one who saved me, right?”

  “Yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t leave somebody to die if I could help them.” Alcides said.

  “Thank you, I-i…” For a second, it looked like she was about to bow, but then she stopped and, slightly embarrassed, continued. “I wanted to ask what your name was.”

  “I’m Cee.”

  She was visibly confused and asked. “Cee?”

  “You got it.” Alcides gave her a thumbs up.

  “Huh.” She finally settled on after thinking for a second.

  “Well, I’ve gotta go, but I hope things go better next time you perform.” Then internally Alcides cringed slightly, realizing that was slightly insensitive, but thankfully Deep Blue didn’t make a comment about it and said goodbye as well.

  With that Alcides, Isabella, and Ryota left the area with them all, heading back to Alcides and Isabella’s apartment. Once they made it inside, Isabella excused herself, saying she needed to sleep after everything that happened, which was very understandable. So the other two headed out and since they didn’t want to go too far, they went to a small nearby bar run by their friend Nathaniel Wade.

  Nathaniel was about a decade older than the other two and was in his early thirties. Although he had never directly mentioned it, they assumed he had fought in the Devolution War since he still had the Independence Flag hanging on the back wall. He was fair skinned and had red hair and a long beard and was physically imposing since he was tall and muscular. As soon as the two walked in, he greeted them with a smile. “Evenin’, how are you two?”

  Ryota teased Alcides slightly, saying. “Our good friend here decided to be a big hero and fight a cyberpsycho alone.”

  “Ha, there’s no way you did that, did you, Cee?”

  “Surprisingly, for him, he’s actually telling the truth.” Alcides said.

  “Well, I hope you don’t make a habit of it. You two are my best customers.”

  Ryota responded. “On that note, let’s order something. I’ll get my usual.”

  “I’ll get an oxy-water.” Alcides said.

  “Alright, coming up. Honestly, Cee, I’m surprised you keep ordering the water since it’s more expensive than anything else we have.”

  “This is like the only place I know that the water won’t make me sick.”

  “You really have to find a new place to live.” Both Ryota and Nathaniel said.

  Despite them being correct, Alcides was about to defend himself when a small group of gangsters entered the bar. They wore American flags which had anti foreign slogans written on them. The symbols of the Old Stock street gang, which dominated the district. As soon as they glared at Nathaniel and at the flag hanging on the wall.

  One of them sneered and said. “Take that rag off the wall.”

  To which Nathaniel responded, “I pay your ‘taxes’, so I get to keep my flag up.”

  “It’s the flag of traitors to our glorious president and union.”

  “Sure. Are you going to order anything?” Nathaniel said, clearly not engaging with what the gangsters were saying.

  At that, the gangster pulled out his pistol and exclaimed. “You better learn some manners. We’re the ones in charge around here. Maybe we need to make an example to everybody else around here.”

  Almost instantly, both Alcides and Ryota both rose with their pistols drawn as well. As they did, the other gangsters also raised their weapons. Alcides started talking. “Now then, how about we dial things down a bit? I don’t think your boss would like you getting in a shootout in an innocent person’s bar.”

  As he said this, and the attention was on Ryota and Alcides, Nathaniel pulled out a shotgun and aimed it at the gangsters. “How about this? I’ll keep paying you people and you’ll leave now before things get to a point that nobody wants.”

  An angry glare came from the lead gangster, who eyed the three people against him as if mentally weighing his options for an actual fight. Then he holstered his gun and spat. “Tch, you’re lucky the boss is so lenient with you people. Mark my words, one day you won’t be so lucky.” Then he left.

  Alcides asked. “Any idea why they were so much more aggressive today?”

  Nathaniel answered. “Probably just some new gang members trying to flex their muscles on innocent people. Nothing new around here. Although it’s probably going to get worse since there’s apparently a power struggle inside their gang.”

  “If only we could actually do something about those people,” Alcides said.

  “Nah, organizing enough people in a society like this is impossible. Most people just barely scrape by and can’t afford to risk everything like that. Plus, the gangs will have a constant stream of recruits as long as the city keeps working the way it has always worked.” Nathaniel explained as he handed the two their drinks.

  Ryota joined in, saying. “True, that’s why we need to do what we do. Either make a name for yourself or die penniless in the gutter.”

  “Yup, the entire city is a mess for everybody. Like it’s designed to drive people towards either working themselves to death or turning to other means of making their way in the world.” Alcides said and then after sipping his water, he continued. “Although we might as well make the most of it.”

  “I’d toast to that,” Ryota said and then toasted. “To making the most of this life!”

  The other two did the same, and they sat and talked and drank some more for the rest of the night before they split up. As he walked back to the apartment building, he watched the surrounding city. Various cars passed by him, carrying all sorts of different people. He wondered about their lives. Were they like him doing odd jobs and mercenary work or were they office workers? Were they important people like high-ranking police officers, corporate officials, or gang leaders? All these different people were so close, yet so different from him.

  It really was something fascinating. After all, once you strip things down to the basics, what really separates all of them? What made some of them be part of the upper class? A modern aristocracy almost from how much their wealth separated them from everybody else. As a child Alcides grew up hearing stories from centuries past about great lords who enjoyed vast wealth unimaginable to the average person of their era. Maybe that was what this era was, too. Only instead of noble fiefdoms, it was corporate fiefdoms. Either way Alcides abandoned thinking about all of that as soon as he got back to his apartment since he knew it was a waste for him to spend time thinking about that. He wasn’t some kind of philosopher or politician making a speech.

  As soon as he went inside of his apartment, he bumped into a package. Which was strange since neither he nor Isabella hadn’t ordered anything. Slightly annoyed, he picked it up, fully expecting that the shipping company would force him to pay some kind of fee for it. Only to see a note on the top. It was from the singer that he had saved earlier, basically apologizing because he had to risk his life to save hers. Seeing that he decided to open it up and inside was a new jacket.

  He smiled slightly at it. It was the first time in a while that he had gotten a gift of some kind. Granted, he was also very adamant that he didn’t want any gifts, but still underneath it all, it was nice to see. Even if it was basically payment. He would’ve been more concerned that she had so easily found out where he lived if not because he knew it was criminally easy to track down people. He’d done it before on jobs. Although that was only if you knew their actual name. After he placed the jacket in the closet; he settled into bed. In his head, he made a mental note to find a way to thank her for the jacket.