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Shuriken had avoided his sister’s tree and the odd looking plants growing around it as much as he could, as it had been a bad reminder of her death. Katana had told him that he should go visit her, something about grief and acceptance, but Shuriken had refused, staying stubborn.
In hindsight, this is probably why he didn’t get sick like Slingshot and Katana. Slingshot had been the first to fall, being bedridden due to his horrible coughs. Because of this, Shuriken was left alone to take care of his roommate’s cafe. At first, he struggled with having to take care of the place all by himself, but he adapted rather quickly.
Since he was so busy with the cafe, however, he didn’t get to see Slingshot much; Katana took care of his roommate instead. Every day Katana made sure to bring Slingshot food and water, and kept him company for a bit. That was probably why Katana was the second one to get sick.
At that point, Shuriken, refusing to get sick, started wearing a mask whenever he went back home. After all, who’d take care of the cafe if he got sick too? So he always had a few masks on him for whenever he’d go in his shared house. These masks were also shared with Boombox and Skateboard whenever they came to visit Slingshot.
Because, according to them, visiting Slingshot was worth it even though they had the possibility of getting sick. Shuriken decided he wouldn’t let them get sick too and so made them wear masks, even though he always noticed how Skateboard wore the masks wrong and let his nose be exposed to the sickly air.
Which explains why he was the third to fall to the slowly spreading infection. Of course, he had ignored his sickness, and so he had the genius — note the sarcasm here — idea to go to one of Boombox’s concerts while he was sick. He didn’t even wear a mask to prevent the sickness from spreading! So really, the reason the infection got so out of hand was because of that one single decision Skateboard took.
Because of Skateboard, a huge amount of demons also got sick, and those who were infected also infected others back home. Once the governments of each faction finally caught news of the rapidly spreading infection, it was already too late; most demons were infected by that point.
Even though they knew it was too late, they tried to keep more demons from getting infected by demanding demons stay in their homes. Which led to a whole panic about food and other things necessary to survival, which in turn led to demons raiding shops and stores. Shuriken had anticipated the fact that demons would try to raid Slingshot’s cafe, so he had stayed there to ward them off.
However, he was stuck there now. He would get arrested by a guard if he tried to leave the building, as Crossroads had enforced security to make sure no one tried to leave their homes. For two months Shuriken lived off of whatever he could find to eat and drink in the cafe.
And by the time he found out the security guards had mysteriously disappeared and he was able to go back home again, it was already too late.
oO0Oo
“Slingshot?” Tried Shuriken as he pushed open the door of their shared apartment. He pocketed his keys and slipped off his shoes, pushing his mask back up with one hand as he did so. He then went up the small flight of stairs to his left and looked around the place.
Everything looked… dead. It was clear that no one had been here in a while. Shuriken frowned at that thought. If no one had been here for a while, did no one check up on Slingshot for the two months Shuriken was away?
The green phighter quickly looked away from a dead plant and instead turned to his right, making his way through a hallway until he got to the end of it. He then grabbed the doorknob to Slingshot’s room and slowly pulled it down, pushing the door forwards as he did so. “Sling?” He asked, as he entered the room. He received no response.
He faintly noticed how there was some light spewing in from the half opened curtains, giving him sufficient lighting to properly see inside the room without having to turn the lights on. However, his attention wasn’t on the half opened curtains. Instead, it was on what — not who — was on his roommate’s bed.
A tree.
A tree that had Slingshot’s bandana around one of its branches, which were pushing up against the ceiling, trying to break through.
Shuriken looked at the tree, getting flashbacks to Vine Staff. This… couldn’t be what — who — he thought it was… right? He took a few steps forwards, enough to be able to reach up to grab the bandana. He made sure to avoid stepping on the strange plants around the roots of the tree that had also been around Vine’s tree.
Once the bandana was in his hands, he took several steps back, looking the tree up and down with a scared expression. The sinking feeling in his gut refused to leave as he came to the realisation of who this is- used to be. “Phuck…” He muttered under his breath, his expression turning from scared to saddened.
He stared at the tree, his eyes scanning it all over, memorising every detail. This was what he had left of his roommate, after all. That and Slingshot’s bandana. The thought made him look down at the blue fabric in his hands, and he held onto it tighter.
He tore his eyes away from the blue bandana in his hands and instead scoured the room with his eyes for anything important. He refused to stay in a house that two people had died near — or in Slingshot’s case, in.
Shuriken looped the bandana around his tattooed arm as he carefully walked around the room, avoiding the weird plants again. He opened several drawers, making sure to close them afterwards. In the end, all he took was one of Slingshot’s hoodies and a picture of the four of the Thieves Den phighters that had been framed on Slingshot’s desk.
Holding the picture frame, the hoodie being tied around his waist, he exited the house. He had decided to go back to Slingshot’s cafe, deciding that the cafe would be a safe spot to live in until further notice due to it still having a large amount of food in storage.
As he started walking, he glanced towards Katana’s house, before averting his gaze. He knew the older man had had the same sickness Slingshot had, and he didn’t want to see what had become of Katana. So he just kept walking, ignoring the red phighter’s house.
oO0Oo
Once back at the cafe, Shuriken glanced up at the sign. He quickly looked back down and let out a sigh as he pushed one of the glass doors open, entering the building. He let the door close shut behind him as he made his way to the counter, and placed the picture neatly next to the cash register.
Shuriken stood still for a bit, processing everything that had just happened. And that’s when it all came crashing down. Slingshot was dead. And so was Katana, and Skateboard, and so many others too.
Shuriken stared at the picture. It had been taken after a phight where the four of them had been in a team together. Katana had won most valuable phighter and the three others were surrounding him, smiling. His eyes flicked from face to face. He had looked so happy.
He couldn’t believe he had lost them. All three of them. He felt himself tear up and sniffled, reaching out towards the picture frame, but before he could touch it, the bell above the front door made a ding, signifying someone had entered the building.
Shuriken swivelled around, not expecting to find a familiar demon. His eyes widened, a few tears slipping down his cheeks, as he said, “Boombox?”