“Your girlfriend, dickhead. Let me in.”
Aiden blew raspberries and let me inside. This wasn’t my first time inside their apartment. It looked exactly what you’d expect: the interior design was done completely by Chie, so lots of anime. With their new roommate, there was also a concerning number of swords, both real and fake.
I smelled freshly baked cookies from the kitchen. The best smell I could ask for, better than any artisan candles; however, the TV was blasting the apartment so loudly that I couldn't hear myself breathe.
“You look uglier than usual,” Aiden said, adjusting the volume, as he took his seat on the couch.
Not even a minute in and he was already coming at my neck; damn, was this how everyone felt whenever they had to interact with me? “And you’re not helping your girlfriend bake cookies.”
“Last time I helped, I nearly burned down the whole building.”
“Yeah, I got one of those myself.” Let’s ignore the number of times Leo triggered the fire alarm in the past couple months. “Either way, have fun watching…”
I leaned over and saw what the family had on their flat-screen. To nobody’s surprise, it was an anime. Also to nobody’s surprise, I didn’t recognize the title and judging how there were bikini-wearing high-school girls wrestling each other on a beach, this was not my preferred genre. If I even had a preference anyway other than vaguely hating everything.
Aiden cringed. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
The animators really loved their physics.
I nodded. “Yeah. Enjoy yourself.”
Leaving Aiden to his, erm, devices, I instead checked on Chie’s in the kitchen. Much like her workshop, her kitchen was a clean yet disorganized mess that only she knew the logic of. She thrived in her manufactured chaos, happily humming along to lyrics to a pop song that'd bombarded me since I entered. On the island counter, there were two cooling trays of chocolate chip cookies, and she added a third.
Her assistant uselessly lazed about on a stool, scrolling through social media on his phone. Until he sensed the presence of the team’s resident troublemaker. “Alex!”
Chie spun around wielding a dangerous rubber spatula. “When did you get here?!”
I shrugged and leaned against the open doorway, trying to ignore the laughter of anime girls behind me. “I’ve been standing for ten minutes now—” (“He’s lying!” yelled Aiden.) “—I just got here.”
“Hmph.” Chie put her spatula down. “Don’t toy with my heart. Yesterday almost drained all my energy.”
“I can imagine.” I broke through the threshold and instead leaned against the island, eyeing the cookies that had my name on them. “How many cookies are you making? I stole Leo’s car, so if we shove even a pebble inside the trunk, the whole thing’s bound to pop.”
“It’s not just cookies…” Rei muttered, his eyes suddenly distant as though remembering his time in the war.
“We have cookies, brownies, and homemade mochi on the menu!” Chie returned to her duties. “We’ll find a way to make ‘em fit.”
“Hopefully, unless Aiden feels like flying to the girls’ place.” (“Fuck you!”) “I didn’t say shit about you, fuck off!”
“Play nice!” Chie shouted at both of us, and she slapped her rubber spatula against the counter. “Your butt’s mine if you fight each other in my house!”
Aiden said something but I couldn’t make it out.
I muttered under my breath, “Bet Aiden would love that.”
Rei furrowed his eyebrows. “What was that—?”
“What was what?” (“What would Aiden love—?”) “You’re really going all out for this, Chie.”
“Huh—? Oh yeah, of course!” From one of the cabinets, she plucked a few aluminum trays and set them on the island.
Rei took that as a cue to return to work, and he began scooping the cookies with tongs.
“Hey, be careful! Don’t let the cookies break—” (“Gomen!”) “—jeez, but yeah, I’m not the best at, you know, heart-to-heart conversations, but I am good at baking. I just hope my world-famous sweets can drag Kotone out of her room.”
It certainly dragged Leo out of bed; this morning, she couldn’t stop talking about how much she loved Chie’s baking. If I didn’t know any better, she was subtly hinting at me to pick up baking trays instead of a kitchen knife.
“Yeah…” My jaw shifted uneasily as Chie tidied her workspace, and she turned the speakers down further to hear our conversation better. “Did Morgan and Leo bring over the plans yet?”
Rei shook his head. “They said it’ll take some time, senpai.”
“Well, at least we have tentative plans.” We had Morgan and Leo speaking with a special person about replacing the [Psionic Pylons], but I wish we didn’t have to do this in the first place.
“Are you okay?” Rei asked, noticing how my face looked extra uglier than usual.
“It’s nothing. I’m just… Just going over the details in my head again.” I folded my arms together, fingers tapping on my sleeves. “Tsukasa thought I’d be receptive to his arguments. I should’ve noticed the red flags earlier. He said all sorts of shit about Kotone.”
“Like what?” Chie inquired, taking an empty tray as soon as Rei plucked the last cookie.
“Like…” I vaguely waved. “To him, Kotone is a bucket of problems that only he can carry. Thus, as her older brother, it’s his obligation to take care of her by fucking…ripping her from her friends and using her psionic powers for his Tokei portfolio. God, saying this out loud is making me pissed again.”
Rei waved one of the cookies in my face.
He was offering.
I gladly accepted his peace offering. “This won’t, though.” I took a bite, and shit, maybe Leo was onto something after all. “Okay, your cookies actually taste fantastic. I can see why our princess is obsessed with them.”
“I have years of experience!” From the oven, she brought out the next item on the menu: the brownies; then, she started working on the next thing.
As Rei transferred the second tray of cookies, he said, “How can someone be so callous toward their own family? I-I couldn’t imagine saying or doing those things to my worst enemy, let alone my friends.”
“Yeah, me too.” I ate half the cookie in a single bite. Need to watch myself, otherwise I’d gain ten pounds by tonight. “I would never take the same tone with Thea, let alone say a fraction of what Tsukasa said. Sure, she fucks up sometimes. Badly, even. But I’m her brother. If I’m not her biggest cheerleader, then I’m not doing my job. Yet for Tsukasa to pull the shit he did and feel not a lick of remorse? Yeah, good fucking thing Chie found them first because I would’ve—ugh.”
I inhaled the rest of the cookie.
Okay, I felt better.
Another one would send me to euphoria, but not yet. I wanted to shit-talk Tsukasa more.
However, a heavy set of footsteps disturbed the kitchen-floor. Aiden had finally gotten sick of watching anime. As the man of the house, he took a cookie for himself, hugged the pastry chef from behind, and kissed her cheek.
Rei recoiled from embarrassment as he continued to carefully fill the aluminum trays. Poor guy. He was the eternal third-wheel in the relationship. Hell, while he lived by himself in Japan, the mountains were a very different environment than life in the city. Despite everything, he was adjusting to his new circumstances pretty well.
Aiden joined the island. “So whatcha talking about? Kotone’s brother?”
“And how he’ll end up a bodybag soon, yeah.”
Aiden broke a soft, gooey piece off the cookie and ate it like that. Freak. Weirdo. “When will we get to the part where you had a mental breakdown in front of Evelyn Nightingale?”
I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t have a ‘mental breakdown’—” (“Uh huh.”) “—my personality was overwritten for seven minutes. As you can tell, I’m the same Alexander Shen you know.”
Stolen novel; please report.
“Yeah, wish we could trade you in for a better one.”
Rei pouted and disapprovingly shook his head, still shoveling cookies. He was taking a long time with that. “I think our Alexander is the best Alexander we can ask for!”
“Thank you, Rei.”
“You don’t know any other Alexanders.”
“Either way, he’s ours!” Rei exclaimed like he was defending me against my arch-nemesis or something. “Also, who’s Evelyn Nightingale?”
Me and Aiden looked at each other.
He pointed the cookie at me. I wanted to slap it out of his hand (and maybe eat it off the ground since no cookie should go to waste).
Because someone had to tell Rei, I bit the metaphorical cookie, “Long story short, she's a really smart engineer. She co-founded the Special Counterforce Group and invented, like, robotic suits for its members. Degenbrechers.”
“I see.” Rei stopped working and put a hand on his chin, working through his growing knowledge of the world. “Isn’t Cross a member? I always wondered how a regular human like him is ranked No.15 in the world.”
Aiden scoffed and finished his cookie, wiping his hands on his sweatpants. “Had been a member. He killed over a hundred high-rankers, and a tenth were Mythos-level Slayers. Even fought Kosmos to a tie.”
Rei dropped his tongs. They clattered against the metal pans, getting Chie’s attention before she sighed, mumbled about boys, and returned to baking. “Huh? He… What?”
I elaborated further, “The Counterforce’s main primary mission is countersystemic action. By that, their whole job is researching the biggest and badass Slayers on the planet, creating action plans based on that intelligence, then executing those plans if-slash-when our ‘heroes’ go rogue. Cross happens to be the best executioner, and no one comes close even in today’s generation. Except for his only student, Sanguine, probably.”
“So good at his job that he’s the only human Longwang acknowledged,” Aiden commented with a depressed laugh. “The Jianghu’s terrified of him. I think a quarter of his kills are just xias.”
“Yeah, thereabouts.” I remember Chunhua telling me stories about the Counterforce’s influence over the Jianghu. Just about everyone, even the strongest cultivators like Shui Yuan, feared Cross the most. “But the CF won’t strike unless you’re literally a terrorist.”
Speaking of strong cultivators, his terrifying influence infected even a young kensei who grew stronger when it was raining. “Okay, but how? I-If he’s a ren, then how can he kill so many high-rankers during his career?”
I shrugged. “Technology and techniques. The Degenbrechers are a century ahead of their time, and Cross—”
A rubber spatula bonked Aiden on the top of his head. “Can you boys stop talking about murdering and killing for one day, hmm? How about you start wrapping everything up and putting them in Alex’s car—” (“Leo’s car.”) “—Leo’s car!”
We all sighed and nodded.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Yessir.”
“Gomen…”
***
After the baking was finished, we carefully packaged our luxury goods and piled into Leo’s car. Thankfully, there was enough space in the backseat for the sweets; Chie and Rei didn’t take up that much space unlike the asshole who took shotgun. Afterwards, it was a “smooth” ride to the girls’ apartment; by that, our passengers decided to engage in a heated argument about an anime they watched together.
Aiden wanted nothing to do with it, but Chie kept bringing him into the conversation. As the driver, I was thankfully excluded.
The “debate” was almost as bad as Kotone and Vic’s spats over their favorite Foxmaidens.
Imagine my relief when the drive ended.
We hoisted our treasure and made the short trek to the third floor, room three-oh-five. It was our hope that this big showing would entice Kotone to come out of her room. Vic said the door was unlocked, but before I could turn the handle, we heard muted yelling and TV static on the other side. Multiple voices. Something bad was going on.
“Hold this.” I handed the tray of chocolate chip cookies I’d been carrying to Rei—well, more like forcing him to take it—and opened the door.
Boom. A cascade of screaming voices hit my ears, and the girls’ TV flickered horrendously between a dozen channels a second. The volume bar showed on the screen, the module spasming between zero and one-hundred, and the soundbar was the one screaming static. Lights flashed: the lamp sending us a psychotic message through morse code and LED strips went through all the colors on the rainbow. Everything that breathed electricity was on the verge of total burnout—
My pocket suddenly felt hot.
“Shit!” I pulled my phone out and tossed it out the door. Chie, Rei, and Aiden caught on and did the same, not wanting an actual bomb to blow inside our pants.
From down the hall, Vic ran into view, looking more terrified than the day when we fought Seraph’s Alternate. “It’s Kotone! She’s freaking out—!”
A dull thud echoed throughout the apartment; it wasn’t loud but startling nonetheless.
The yelling stopped.
The lights returned to normal. The TV remained to a single channel. And lastly, the speakers were relatively quiet. I think everything was back to normal. Relatively-speaking. Rei gathered everyone’s phones and handed them back. I thanked him, and at that moment, I spotted Chunhua coming out of Kotone’s room.
She looked horrible.
Her hair and skin was paler than the last time I saw her yesterday.
I don’t think she slept at all last night.
“What the hell just happened?” Aiden demanded as Chie and Rei awkwardly brought the sweets in.
Chunhua impassionately answered, “[All-Machine Resonance]... Whenever Kotone’s mental state is too agitated, every electrical device in her vicinity goes haywire.”
Chie set a couple trays on the couch for that. “That happened yesterday when I, uhm, found her—wait, how did you...?”
“I knocked her unconscious,” Chunhua stated as though she’d put her dog to sleep. “I had to. It was becoming increasingly dangerous. She’ll wake up in a little bit, but…”
Vic patted her shoulder. “It’s okay. You just knocked her out, right?”
“I just told—!” Chunhua pulled away from Vic and shut her eyes briefly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. Just… I tried telling Kotone that you were coming over and that caused this to happen. It was a horrible idea. I’m sorry that I allowed this—”
“Let’s not give up hope just yet,” Rei pleaded. “We can still support Kotone-chan—!”
“She has never broken down this badly since our first year together!” Chunhua roared over everyone, and immediately she regretted yelling again. “She… I’m sorry. I can’t explain right now.”
Chunhua grabbed her slippers and walked toward me—no, walked past me and straight for the door. Before I could stop her, she said, “If anyone asks what happened, just tell them the truth. I need to make plans in case we get rightfully evicted.”
And she slammed the door.
We were all dead quiet.
“...So how about cookies?” Chie said, doing her damn best.
I sighed. “I’m going after Chunhua. Hold down the fort, Vic.”
He bitched, “How am I gonna do that—?!”
***
Chunhua had isolated herself at the backlot of the apartment complex, standing just outside the door. It was a warm day in September but she looked chilly, wearing thin pajamas and panda-themed slippers, the whole set a gift that Kotone had gotten her last Christmas. She hugged herself and had her eyes closed and she was rhythmically breathing. A meditation exercise to calm herself down, something she’d learned from her master.
Yet when I came around the corner—I didn’t go through the door fearing she’d stick me through the throat—her lips pressed tightly together.
I swallowed my own spit.
The year when we first met was the best time of my life in college. Back then, I never thought I’d be friends with these three dumbasses.
Despite my words, they bounced off her pitiful armor.
I frowned.
She didn’t answer.
Frankly, I was much the same way as well, but I was working on it: learning how to use sutures as well as holding a knife.
I said,
Chunhua said, her voice turning autumn into winter.
If Sect Leader Du Zhi (杜智) was standing before her, Chunhua would be in Kotone’s position. If I saw Reynold’s fucking face again, I’d be locked in my own room.
We all had those people that induce mania.
<...How?> Chunhua asked after thinking about what I said for a few seconds.
Good question…