PLAYER 1


"Here goes nothing."

The grind of metal on rusted metal sinks into the roots of her teeth as the heavy doors of her iron casket open into the final battleground, the elevator's cheerful ring heralding the uphill climb to come.

There is no going back from this point-

"So, don't fuck it up."

The screams of the undead that unleash from the empty hallways swallowed her mantra as she stepped out onto the stained carpet, rifle at the ready. One by one, their rotten carcasses fell from a practiced aim that pierced flesh and bone- This was not the first army of darkness she'd sent back to whatever pit it had crawled out of, and it most certainly wouldn't be the last.

Check your corners, one hit and you're done for, Zua reminded herself as she stalked the emptied halls in search next wave of staggering corpses- She spun to aim the groan of bending metal above her, and the vent grate had barely hit the floor before the beast is dead, another crumpled heap to add to the candy trail of bodies and shotgun shells she left behind her.

She walks the halls of a nightmare incarnate, the once mundane mustard-colored wallpaper of the corporate casket now tattered by the creatures that crawl within its corpse; leeches, red-eyed bats, fanged corpses, and rotting rabid dogs, but none of them are a match for her persistence as she pressed forward, too focused on the primary goal to care about the chaos that bites at her heels.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Zua mumbled alongside her main, the dialog committed to memory from hours of trial and error that all led up to this moment.

Another elevator, another long ride that plunged her deeper into the depths of purgatory, the car's metal bending beneath the weight of the undead awaiting her arrival. Brittle fingers crumble as Zua aims between the widening gap, taking out both enemies with quick shots to the head- And then the elevator doors snap open to reveal two more staggering zombies attempting to bury her seven stories deep, and the gunshots sound like thunder trapped in the small room of steel that could have been her casket. Their corpses crumble atop their fallen comrades, and Zua steps over the gore, not daring to look down at the damp that soaks into her socks.

Room after room, she paints a bloodied path, leaving a breadcrumb trail of bullet shells through the maze of tunnels. If she had been allowed to run solo or with a stronger ally instead of the feeble-minded artificial intelligence trailing her and constantly begging for rescue, the descent would have been much quicker -

Despite her annoyance, she would need all the help she could get with what came next.

Despite the facade of its mammalian exterior, The Fool is a formidable boss. Its cage reeks of decay, the hunks of flesh that hang from iron rafters swaying as it clambers across the wall towards her, its claws sinking into steel like a hot knife through butter. Each shot she takes at them pings with a sound that sets her teeth on edge, slowly shattering the ivory as it relentlessly stalks her through its hellish habitat.

"Fuck -!"

She cursed as blood splattered across her field of view, and the beast's next attack knocked her off her feet before she had a chance to recover. One hit was bad enough, but two were enough to send this mission on a downward spiral straight to failure- But perhaps there was a chance to salvage it, all she had to do was avoid another hit, keep aiming for the sweet spots, and fight off the gnawing disappointment sitting heavy in her stomach.

A chill shoots down her spine, pushing her hair to stand on end, and it takes every ounce of her will to not turn around to find the eyes boring into the back of her neck- Another mistake with an audience would be too much, she'd rather be over and done, die and revive, so she wouldn't have to live with the embarrassment of it all- Just focus, calm down, she wanted to scream at her shaking hands, swallowing back the sound alongside the acid boiling in the back of her throat.

The smell of stale soda and chips fills her lungs as civilians blow past her, and Zua breathes a sigh of relief as the feeling subsides.

Three more shots into the behemoth's claws, and the Fool tumbles down the depths of the tower, spine snapping with a deafening crack as it crashes into the supports on the way down. The sound rattles the roots of her teeth, and she bites down on cracking plastic, chewing on her sweatshirt's cords to soothe the ache.

"Had enough yet?" Zua mocked the dialog with a roll of her eyes, unamused at her computer companions' overconfidence.

Damp cotton catches on the dry patches of her lips as she waits, eyes trained on the screen to watch as the intel filters in line by painful line.

[CLEAR TIME] CHAPTER-4 EFI GENOME WARD 03'30'07

[SCORE]

PLAYER 1 0234899

[RANK]

PLAYER 1 A

A B C D E

"You've got to be kidding me." The game's solo player groaned as her head knocked back, the round bumps of the clip holding back her hair pressing painfully into the top of her spine as Shizuka Kurai glared up at the black-light bulbs that flickered overhead through unkempt bangs. "One hit and it drops me from S tier? That's bullshit."

Don't be such a baby, - she silently scolded herself, the heavy music that signaled the high score screen pulling her attention back to the game as it prompted her to claim her spot on the leaderboard; At least she'd kicked "AZZ" out of the second spot again, and put an ample distance between their scores, so hopefully it would be a little harder to take over her monopoly on the leaderboard. Shizuka flicked through the clunky input system with practiced ease, adding another "ZUA" to the list as the timer ticked down.

Seven out of ten is still winners odds, you're being too hard on yourself- But only like five people in the district still play this game, so the odds would be best out of five, which is -

"Not bad."

The piece of skin she'd been picking at ripped with a painful sting that pooled blood beneath her fingernails as Shizuka spun around to face the unfamiliar voice that entered her internal monologue. She'd been too focused on her failure to notice the black mass of bagging hoodie and fraying jeans standing a foot or two to her right, so close that another step would knock over the melted remains of her iced coffee to the carpet.

Where the hell did he come from?

"Uh-" Shizuka shoved her hands into the pockets of her sweatpants, a pathetic attempt to make herself look a little less like a lunatic after nearly jumping out of her skin at the compliment and hiding the blood pooling in her cuticles, before clearing the creaking of her voice with a soft cough. "Thanks?"

At least she'd been too startled to scream, and her shoes stayed firmly on solid ground - it could have been much, much worse.

"You look disappointed," the man said as he shuffled closer. What was the point?"

"The…point?"

She felt so small standing beside him; The stranger seemed to tower over her despite the hunch of his shoulders as he leaned in to read the high-score screen, his expression hidden beneath his hood and hair. Seconds stretched on as he stood beside her, dragging on endlessly until Shizuka began to wish she had the backbone necessary to ignore his intrusion and go back to her game. After all the time she'd put into getting an "S" ranking on the first three chapters, it would be such a waste to time out now, even if she'd possibly ruined her chances-

Clumps of ashen blue swing with the turn of his head towards her, but his face remains shrouded in shadows.

"Yeah, what were you trying to do? High score or speed?"

"I was, uh-" Idiot, of course, that's what he was asking about, you're in an arcade - Shizuka winced as another patch of dry skin detached itself from her thumb, the raw flesh beneath scraping against the pilling fleece of her pocket, and resisted the urge to suckle on the broken flesh in favor of responding. "I'm trying to get the ' SS ' overall ranking."

"And you're giving up now? Sounds like a waste of time- you might as well finish it."

Shizuka blinked; Usually, people would have taken the chance to point out how quiet she was by complaining they couldn't hear her over the electronic dinging of arcade machines, or stare blankly before mumbling an affirmative and shuffling away- Or worst of all, feign interest by leaning in too close before asking for her number in between obvious explanations of the gameplay.

This man did none of those things. Instead, he stood beside her in silence, bathed in the sickly amber of the "Continue?" message flashing above her pre-loaded game credits, and waited for her to reply.

"I'm not- I don't know if it's still possible. Getting an 'SS' rank is basically a loaded dice roll and- as far as I know, only guaranteed on a near-perfect run."

A group of delinquents rounded the machine behind him, shouting about skipping school and waving their winnings wildly as they went- It suddenly struck her how uncannily still this stranger was, the turn of his head towards the oncoming collision sharp, like he'd meant for it to cut them down, but so slight that she wasn't sure she'd have noticed under more casual circumstances. It was impossible to tell from what little she saw of his face, but he almost seemed angry as they blew past them, despite how little their carelessness affected him; Unlike her, who they ran through as if she wasn't there, knocking her hip into the sharp metal base of "House of the Dead III" as their feet tangled with the straps of the bag nestled between her feet. Shizuka bent, waving off the half-hearted sorry the kid mumbled through a mouthful of chips and quickly scooped the few things that had scattered back into the shapeless canvas.

Long fingers appeared out of the pocket of a battered black hoodie to scratch at his neck, and from her place knelt at the stranger's feet, Shizuka finally caught a glimpse beneath his hood as he tilted his head to one side- From what she could see of his face he looked slightly older than her, with pale skin and dark eyes that barely peeked out between matted bangs, sunken with same sleepless nights that painted purple beneath her eyes.

He lazily reached across the Player 2 gun holster to the glowing green button beneath her gun and selected "Continue?" with a sharp click.

"Then try again."

Shizuka didn't recognize him, that much she was sure of; he might have been a regular who had finally decided to try his hand at asking out the only girl not consumed by dance mechanics and claw machines, but if that was the case then forcing her to continue playing solo was an odd way to monopolize her time. Why not just drop in credits of his own and join in as her Player 2, like the handful of boys who had tried their luck before him? Honestly, she would have preferred that over having him standing stone-still at her side, waiting expectantly for her to snap the fuck out of it-

Shizuka scrambled to her feet, ripping the gun from its holster before her run was ruined beyond repair, and swallowing down the dread that settled into her stomach as she stupidly took a hit before she'd been able to aim.

The blood still staining her fingertips smeared onto the glaringly non-lethal neon body of the shotgun as she focused in, adding atmosphere to an otherwise lackluster finale- Not that anyone else is weird enough to care about anything other than the walking biohazard bleeding all over the equipment. Her throbbing fingers remained steadfast despite the added pressure of an audience, their trembling calmed enough to allow her to take deadly aim as she pushed through the grueling battle that was the game's final boss.

Shizuka ends the level undamaged, save for the initial scratches she'd received.

The epilogue seems to drag on forever, a monotonous dialog she's heard a hundred times before, and her nails tap impatiently against the gun's plastic barrel as the credits begin to roll- It takes every ounce of self-control she has to silence her squeal as the screen lit up with the brilliant glow of a job well done.

[TOTAL CLEAR TIME] 22'05'36

PLAYER 1

[RANK]

Chapter 1 S

Chapter 2 S

Chapter 3 S

Chapter 4 A

Chapter 5 S

SS E

[SCORE] 0289000

[ TOTAL RANK ] SS

You Are Special Agent

Shizuka didn't know what she'd expected to find when she spun around to where her spectator had been standing just a moment before. Perhaps she would have thanked him for forcing her to continue, or simply shared a smile with a fellow arcade goer- but he's gone. There's no sign of him as she leans out to peer down the adjoining hallways of arcade cabinets, not even a slouching black dot disappearing out the greasy front doors. She scowled as she turned back to her game, as confused at her disappointment as she was at the strange interaction that would plague her thoughts through her evening shift.

Quickly inputting her name at the top of the "SS" ranking, Shizuka slid her bag over her shoulder, grabbed her phone from where it sat atop the cabinet and snapped a photo to share with her group chat before the home screen spoiled the moment. Shizuka wrapped her bloodied fingers in strawberry bandages, tossing the scraps into her bag before stepping back from the cabinet and giving a careful glance to the area around her feet to make sure that she'd not somehow missed any of her essentials. She took one last look at her accomplishment before drifting off for a congratulatory coffee, hoping no one, not even the dark figure lurking among the crowded city street, could hear the gloat she mumbled into her fraying sweatshirt sleeves.

"Take that, LOV, whoever you are."