Legendary Vampire in the Apocalypse
Chapter 2: Boulevard Bandits

Chapter 2: Boulevard Bandits

The scene on his laptop had become cinematic, to the standards of the best filming that he had seen.

The heart his character held in its hand throbbed, the sound of it audible from his speakers and its reverberations pulsing up his arms, and he heard an eager and hungry yawn through his character’s spreading mouth.

Abruptly, within fractions of a moment from his character biting down on the heart, everything went black.

Darkness filled everything, and Dion could hardly even see the outline of his laptop.

"No! No!"

The words spilled from his mouth as his eyes pried wide.

His arms had snapped forwards, reaching to hold the frame of the laptop. In their wake, his mouse had clattered to the ground.

Dion’s heart sank at such a painfully slow pace then, as the sound of his laptop powering down came.

"This thing has never given me a cool animation for anything before! How could you die on me now!?"

His hands had swiftly rummaged through the fallen pencils, pens, and open notebook pages on his desk.

Then he felt it; the cable had already been connected to his laptop.

He knew that he hadn’t forgotten to plug it in!

’Don’t tell me...’

Dion’s head whisked around his room. It was pitch black without the light from his laptop screen, and that was the problem.

He knew that at the very least he always left the light in his bathroom on even if he closed the door to it.

"Loadshedding!?" He hollered with great indignation as his hands rose, throwing themselves into his medium-length, dark hair. It had been held into a loose ponytail, and with that aggressive pull, the hair broke free. His voice gradually fell into defeat, "Now, of all times?"

Dion sighed through the shivers of mourning hurting in his chest.

When he had plugged his laptop in, he hadn’t even bothered to check if it was actually charging from how natural the action had become.

’Even if I managed to charge it, the game servers have been shut down by now.’

The chair that had so patiently caressed his ass as he sat tending to his now lost garden rolled back on its wheels, and the cushion of its seat inflated back up.

Then he simply sighed once more. There was nothing else that he could do.

Thereupon, before his thoughts could take him anywhere else beyond his grief, his phone screen lit up.

Thankfully, it provided much-needed light, and without stubbing his toe against that one menacing table corner, he was able to round it and pick it up from the side stand where it should have been charging.

His eyes briefly glanced to the top right, and his heart ached at the twenty percent.

’I won’t be able to sit in the corner on my phone for long even if I charge in the car...’

It was a rather old device, so its battery life was far from being good anymore.

What he had now might be able to last him thirty minutes at best if he used his most desperate power-saving means.

Regardless, his eyes fell onto the text he had gotten.

[ Todo Shijo ]

[ Game is gone. Time to get your ass out of the house to party, now! Spencer bought a club out for the night, and you’re my plus one. I’m waiting outside. And don’t worry about money. Drinks and condoms on me! ]

Dion almost immediately grimaced reading the message.

’For him to have timed his message arrival damn near perfectly... did he set an alarm on me?’

When faced with such a reality and his own sadness, what else was there for a typical overburdened college student than to lose yourself to the vanities of life?

’Even if I try telling him that we should sit and watch a movie this time instead, there is no way that he will listen.’

The semester would be starting soon, and he never partied during the semester.

This was the only time he would allow himself the debauchery of anything, in fact, and he was moments from typing that he was on the way when his phone screen changed, and it showed Shijo’s contact image, with the accept or decline icons.

Dion grinned to himself, shaking his head, and he held the phone a little away from his ear.

"Semester’s starting, baby! What better way than to get you ready for it than to have your nocturnal ass out prowling the wild of Lullin City!?"

The voice had immediately boomed from the phone, and even with the distance that he had graced himself with, Dion still grimaced.

"Hello? Gaia to Dionysus!" Having not heard his response, the voice had continued, "...Motherfucker, I know you can hear me!"

"...Too loud and too clearly, unfortunately."

Dion finally brought the phone closer to his ear as he turned on his heel, walking down his room.

He walked past the door that would have led him into the bathroom, and he flicked the switch on.

"I had to wake you up somehow. Knowing you, within minutes of the servers being shut down, you would have sent me a text saying some bullshit like ’oh, but to process my emotions and heal I have to take time for myself tonight. There is no way I can go be with people in the state I’m in, so how about we watch a movie instead’." Shijo’s voice fell coy and conspiratorial at those last words.

"..."

Dion turned once more, back inside to where his shoes were—he had been walking barefoot this whole time—and he didn’t respond.

"And what would you have done with all that time cooped up in the house for the twenty-third day in a row instead of watching this alleged movie? Taken you third bubble bath of the day and then listened to yourself play the piano all night."

Dion hummed rather faintly as he dropped himself down to his bed, forcing his shoes on one by one.

He had already taken a bath to prepare two hours ago, knowing that this would happen.

The faster that he moved now, the less time that he gave himself to come up with a reason not to go, a reason which, unfortunately for the most part, Shijo had guessed right that he would spew.

"...I don’t see the problem there." He had said.

"Man... fuck you. Just get out here. The party’s already started."

The call hung up there, and he shook his head faintly as he stood up, sliding the phone into his pocket.

Dion only briefly passed by his table where a Vaseline tub sat.

He opened it quickly, taking along with him a few dabs that were not scented as natural Vaseline should have been scented.

It smelled like a good fragrance instead, and thus he wiped down his neck and under his black shirt, over his chest, then his wrists.

Then, as he slid his phone into his pocket, he took his keys as well as his wallet along.

Shijo had said that he would pay, but he wouldn’t let him. These one-night parties at the beginning of the semester were things that he budgeted for himself.

All he had to do was sneak away to speak to the bartender to pay his own bill before Shijo could, as usual.

Then lie and tell him that he had paid it and just forgot because he was too drunk. The alternative of telling the truth was far more troublesome.

Thus, Dion was ready to set out.

However, suddenly, his gut churned something nasty, bubbling, folding and churning, and his face fell dark as he grimaced!

Dion immediately turned on his heel, seething with regret about his spicy noodle dinner.

"..."

"...Shijo, forgive me."

Once he had gotten into the car, he met with the glaring brown eyes of a Japanese college student, threatening him with all the ferocity of his pre-gamed heatedness.

"I had to take a shit."

Shijo, dressed in all black just as he was, didn’t bother responding.

"If anything, I’d say we should be grateful that I didn’t try to have us stay home because of it. Home is nice, safe, and warm, you know? Unlike club toilets, there is always toilet paper. What if I needed to go again? I ate a lot of spicy noodles today, so really don’t be surprised if I have to leave early as well."

"There is no way I was letting you weasel out of the one day I can rightfully drag you out of the house." Shijo spat those words, grumbling as he glanced over to the time. "Someone needs to belt all of you phone shitters. Twenty damn minutes just to drop a load? It’s unbelievable."

’I didn’t even use my phone.’ Dion grimaced internally. He had to preserve the little battery that he had, for his corner. ’It was just that bad.’

As the car rolled down the road, lights brushing past them, Shijo thanked the gods under his breath that they found the majority of them green.

Dion, meanwhile, glanced down to where the charger he always left in the car should have been.

"Don’t bother looking for it," Shijo grinned victoriously, "I left it at my place. That phone of yours can die tonight. You aren’t sitting in a corner scrolling socials this time."

Dion’s eyes widened, and his world fissured before his eyes, and then, it shattered.

He hadn’t brought the one from his place because he knew that there should have been one in here. There was always one in here.

"Shijo... listen. Just hear me out! We have time to turn around! I’m not a party animal like you. I’ll die if I can’t sit in a corner and happily isolate myself. In fact, we will die because my introverted self will have to stick to you like glue all night and ruin all your fun. It’s a lose-lose situation!"

Thereupon, all that he heard was Shijo’s laughter, and then on a long straight, the revving of the engine.

"I’m not letting you waste all the attack power we both know you’ve got by sitting in a corner this time! You’re going wild! We’re meant to be men of the boulevards! Boulevard bandits! Conquistadors! It has been far too long for me to let you keep moping! I’m unleashing all of your potential tonight!"

Dion hurriedly pulled his phone out of his pocket, and his attention immediately fell onto the percentage. His heart sank, and he felt the blood draining from his face.

’It’s already lost two percent without me having used it...’

With a long sigh, Dion gave himself to fate, sinking back into the seat. He simply let Shijo laugh beside him.

At a later time through the night, after they had arrived at Club Utopia, just as Shijo had promised, he had been dragged to drink and party.

Shots went down in gulps, soothed by lemon and salt, until at some point they did not care for the lemon and salt anymore.

They bounced and danced to music, their throats working till raw, and the world blurred as he mingled, losing himself amongst people.

At some point, Dion had even lost Shijo. The guy had, at whatever point, given him the slip.

So, he only continued on with the crowd under the flashing of myriad lights and the celebrations of those who bought the most expensive bottles.

Eventually, Dion had also disappeared from the crowd for a while along with someone else.

Having given himself to the rare blurs of debauchery, Dion had truly fallen to utopia at the sweet sounds humming through his ears, drowning away the sound of the music and screaming along.

And a little time thereafter, he had been standing in front of the wide, toilet mirror, dishevelled with lipstick markings over his neck.

Although the drunkest that he had been in a while, he was nowhere near being blackout-stupid drunk.

He was aware of everything, and thus, he thanked the stars for the condom that Shijo had discreetly snuck into his pocket without him knowing until he needed it.

The stall behind him opened, and the clatter of heels over the ground echoed.

His eyes followed the tall, attractive woman, draped in a figure-hugging dress, her blonde hair still a mess with a flush to her cheeks as she waltzed up to him.

"I’ve got to go home, but call me tomorrow, okay?" She whispered faintly in his ear, pressing her lips to his cheek briefly as her hand snuck into his pocket.

Dion absentmindedly hummed in agreement at what she said. He could feel her faintly smile to herself through her kiss.

She then spun on her heel, her blonde hair tousling as she made her way out, yet seemed to take her time to flaunt her ample ass at him before she left.

Dion laughed faintly as the sound of the door clicking shut came, and he caught himself having stared all the way.

As he shook his head, sighing, he looked back to the mirror, one of his hands raising to comb through his hair.

"Shijo’s never going to shut up about this if he hears about it..." He muttered to himself as he opened the tap. He lowered himself and splashed onto his face, letting go a sharp, relieved sigh once he had. "Good thing I didn’t..."

He was about to mention that he hadn’t gotten her name, but in his drunkenness he had briefly forgotten that she had almost definitely left it with him along with her number.

Dion dug his wet hand into his pocket and felt a rolled-up paper within it.

It felt like toilet paper, and once he pulled it out, he knew he was right.

Her name and number had been written in lipstick.

However, his brows were deeply furrowed, and he immediately put it back into his pocket as something utterly strange happened.

Text had appeared in front of his face, on a light blue screen, and a voice had rang throughout his head, an urgent, alarmed voice that warned:

{ Critical error! }

{ Critical error! }

{ Critical Awakening error! }

"What the fuck?"