The black marble takes the fem-orc’s head right off.
Instakill!
Tamana has room to swing her ironing board sword and executes a very flashy spin-twirl-swoop-and-chop. The ASF zombie collapses in a well-partitioned heap; his detached head still glowers and grimaces even as she gives it the final chop.
At the end of the street, Zaena wields her four blades like she’s both pairs in a doubles sabre fencing tournament. The undead are stacked around her in her own impromptu Hesco barrier.
“Come on!” he tells the others, as he leads the charge. The shuffling dead claw their way up the corpse pile, and Zaena neatly lops heads as they stick them up. Ryuk unloads the magazine of black marbles and thins the crowd around her.
“Ryuk,” she smiles as he joins her. With a flick of her wrists, she decapitates the next clambering corpse.
He’s about to ask where FeeTwix is when the ripping snarl of a minigun moots his question. The Swede has a six-pack’s worth of empty, store brand healing potion bottles at his feet, and he sips yet another as he unleashes a storm of supersonic metal at an approaching cluster of the living impaired. -86 HP! -75 HP! -30 HP! -9 HP! An unmanned minigun mounted on a tripod fires short, economical bursts as it covers their backs.
“He called it a remote sentry weapon system,” Zaena explains, slightly out of breath. “It is triggered by movement. I dislike many of the alien weapons he has brought to our world, but that one has been most useful.”
“Liz!” Hiccup cries as he approaches. “We found one of your cousins.”
Her eyes narrow on the goblin as she says, “Schloni tugtukh.”
“A ghost ficker, eh? Well, hello to you too, darling! Marbles, show her the egg.”
“Watch my back,” Ryuk tells Tamana.
“Did you think I would let you die?” She holds her surfboard-sword at the ready and keeps her eyes on the avenues of approach. The designer tote bag takes shape in Ryuk’s hand, and Zaena gasps when he shows her the contents.
“You found the egg of an ice dragon?”
“Found is … umm, yeah, we found it.”
She touches it. “That’s really what it is! We need to get this to an incubator. We need to … ”
“Incoming!” Tamana steadies her blade.
As Ryuk raises his marble gun a message flashes on his viewing pane. “Fuck,” he gulps. “I need to log out. Now.”
“What is it?”
“Hajime just sent me a message.”
“And?”
“My brother is at my place.” Ryuk takes a deep breath.
Concern flashes across Tamana’s eyes.
“Don’t worry,” he assures her as he fires a molten marble at an approaching zombie, “I’ll be back in as soon as I can. For now, I’ll set my avatar to auto-level.” Ryuk lifts his finger and the option menu appears. After a quick bow, he makes the necessary adjustments and logs out.
Chapter 25: Drop in, drop out
Ryuk waits for his haptic chair to power down. As his vision blurs into focus, a bubbly advertisement for Mister Donut plays across his iNet screen. In the ad, a kawaii girl with pigtails and a schoolgirl outfit looks into the holes of a pair of donuts and says something in a high-pitched voice about two-for-one donuts this week only.
He hardly pays attention.
His nerves are jumping and the sense of impending doom relentlessly reverberates through him. Ryuk rubs his eyes and his ears prick up at a conversation in the living room. He’s suddenly hot, his temperature through the roof. Off goes his hooded black sweater, and after he finger combs his hair, he reluctantly exits his safe haven.
“Glad you could join us. Glad I could finally get you out of that stupid fucking game of yours.” Kodai sits on the couch, behind the glass coffee table, sipping from a cup of green tea. Hajime is across from him, in the black sofa chair. No basket hat at the moment – the humandroid has his long hair pulled back into a tight manbun. He looks at Ryuk and smiles calmly.
“Why are you here?” Ryuk’s shoulders tense and he clenches his fists. He relaxes them, but the tension in his shoulders remains.
“Can’t I visit my own brother?” Kodai casually sets his tea down on the coffee table. He leans back for a moment and bares his teeth in a humorless grin.
Ryuk glances to the door. Where’s Gorira? Usually, his brother’s shadow of a henchman is always close by. He yawns and stretches his hands over his head to cover the fact that he’s firing off a message to Hajime.
Ryuk: Where are his men?
Hajime: Outside.
Ryuk: Why is he here?
Hajime: Likely to make a point.
Confidence swells Ryuk’s chest as he says the first thing that comes to his mind. “Cut the bullshit, Kodai, what the fuck do you want?”
“I told you,” he grits, “I’m here to see you.”
“You can message me. You don’t need to come here to see me, especially after what you did the other day. It’s 2075, message me.”
“The bruises on your face are healing nicely.” Kodai rests both elbows on his knees and looks up at Ryuk. He admires his handiwork for another moment before saying, “I’ll make a man out of you yet, if I can ever get you to fight back, that is.”
Confidence boils over again as Ryuk hisses, “Try it, bitch.” His fingers tingle now, a sinking feeling in his chest forces him to lower his shoulders. With a deep breath, he pulls his shoulders back and holds them in place. Stay strong.
“Both of you, relax,” Hajime stands. “There is clearly animosity between you two, and threats will do nothing to quell this animosity.”
“Keep your fucking mouth shut, droid!” Kodai snaps.
“Allow me to remind you that my directive is to protect Ryuk, your brother, whom you should not abuse or assault.”
Kodai laughs as he reaches into his jacket pocket. “I’m going to show you both something that you’ll really like.”
“I’m aware that you have a humgun,” Hajime says.
“A humgun?” asks Ryuk. The tone of his voice activates a rapid search on his iNet feed. Pictures of humstunners appear over a brief description: A humgun, humstunner, or humandroid stunner, is a hand-held device which forcibly overrides a humandroid’s auto-reboot protocol. Once so disabled, a humandroid cannot self-reboot and must be taken to an authorized service and repair facility for an externally induced ‘hard’ reboot.
Kodai brandishes a small silver pistol with a bulbous muzzle. “Take your seat,” he directs the humandroid. “Sit on your hands and keep silent. If you interfere, I will disable you and personally see to it that your reboot process includes a personality wipe.”
Hajime steps away from Kodai and takes his seat.
(0)__(0)
“You’re a real piece of shit,” Ryuk bites his lip, surprised that he has the courage to speak.
“Where were we?” Kodai is on his feet now, his humgun still aimed at Hajime. “Let’s have a simple, pleasant conversation, Ryuk, shall we?”
“Just ... Just leave me alone and let me live my life!” He points a shaky finger at his older brother. “Get the fuck out of my apartment and LET ME LIVE MY LIFE!”
Kodai’s dark eyes narrow in on his brother. “You can live your life all you want, as long as you do what I tell you to do and what mother expects of you. It’s as simple as that.”
“Is this about her?” Ryuk shakes his head in disbelief. “Don’t you see, Kodai? Can’t you understand what’s going on here? You’ll never be our father and you’ll never be able to run the business as well as he did! You’re her puppet! A fucking puppet!”