Umano Slums - Abandoned Card Shop

Aside from the little spat back at the main corner of the Slums, Bashiro was a man of his word... mostly. Well, to pretty girls at least. Just as Karin demanded, he's been good. Didn't punch out anyone trying to jump him. Reaching a "card shop" that was used for one of the losing faction's base of operations, he was greeted by a couple other sleazeballs or dangerous-looking thugs.

"Hey man, where's my money?" One of the more violent ones spoke.

"Uh... I think I gave it to Jim? Go hit him up in Shinjuku if you wanna walk all that way."

"Nah, nah. I want my money from you man."

"Man, I'm telling you, he's got it. Shit doesn't matter, just get it from him. I've been havin' a rough time."

"Aren't you always?"

"This time I got caught by one of the big scary ladies of the Resistance. Now their boss might be on my ass."

The guys "oooooo'd" like they were in preschool.

"Was she cute?"

"Please, any woman I give my time to is cute. Her name was Karin, played Kagero, kicked my ass. Showed me from weird-ass thing called Stride. You heard of it?"

"... Uh... Naw. You guys heard of that?"

They all shook their heads except for one young-looking recruit of Hikaru's faction.

"Alright kid, watcha know?" Bashiro called the boy out.

"U-Uh... W-Well... it's a... popular thing with those Resistance folk. Use some weird... accessory thing? A bracelet, I think." The boy answered timidly, frightened by all the gangsters around. The Brawler player remembered seeing his opponent have a bracelet or bangle of sorts, but it looked entirely normally to him. Taking a bottle of alcohol, he took a swig while contemplating what it could possibly be. The power to surpass reality fascinated him more than he was willing to admit, especially having seen it in his life more than once now.

"Wait, wait, so you lost a game of cards to a girl?"

"Dude, Kagero players are some hardcore shit. She had Dragonic Overlord and everything."

"Damn dude. Cute and hardcore? Sounds like the type who'd whip your ass into work."

"Haaaaa, no way in hell mate."

They just sat around, talking about Karin like she was some tough floozy while taking drinks and shots.

It had been a long time since Cero had been in the slums. There hadn't really been a point to it. He had heard nothing about any real notable fighters there, until recently. Apparently an extremely strong fighter was showing off his strength, and had even attracted the attention of the former Resistance. In order to test the validity of such claims, Cero descended from his training facility and into the underground slums. It seemed as though people had forgotten who he was at first. Several thugs attempted to stop him. However, a quick display of power shut them up.

"I'm here in search of the underground's strongest fighter," the Kaiser said, looking at the scum surrounding him.

"W-who? You mean Bashiro?" One of the fighters said. "He's over there!! In an abandoned card shop!!! Please, please, please get rid of him! He's been doing nothing but cau---" the man's pleas were cut off by Cero's fist, leaving the man unconscious on the ground as Cero walked towards the card shop.

When he reached it, he slammed the door open hard enough that it broke and hit the opposite wall. Hopefully no one was crushed behind it, but Cero didn't bother checking.

"Which one of you is the fighter known as Bashiro!?"

"Jesus!" A couple men said at the door abruptly flying open and literally breaking off. Good thing nobody really cared about this place except for those with that whole "restoration" project. Bashiro was one of those surprised men, and calmed down by taking a swig.

"That's me!" The eyepatched thug held a hand up, and immediately regretted looking at the newcomer. Good lord, this guy oozed anger and ferocity!

"Actually, it's this guy." Bashiro pointed to one of his nearby friends.

"H-Huh?!"

"Later Bashiro. Lemme know about your new friend when I get back."

Bashiro quickly hopped out a window.

Cero may not be the brightest, but he's not an idiot. He saw right through Bashiro's ruse. In what seemed like an instant, he was already outside the window Bashiro attempted to escape through and grabbed the poor man by his neck. Cero was here for a challenge, and a challenge is what he planned to get.

"Don't think you can just outrun me, scum," Cero said. "I'm not leaving these slums until I see for my own eyes whether the rumours about you are true." As he said this, the others in the cardshop seemed to tremble in fear at every word Cero spoke. It was as if the very presence of this man was enough to kill.

"Holy sh-" Bashiro was cut off by Cero suddenly grabbing him by his neck. How the hell did he even get out here that fast?! The thug kept a bit of a smirk while sweating, as at least this guy wasn't choking him. Not only that, but he came here on account of the brawler's fierce reputation. That was a plus! He'd feel proud if he didn't think this guy wouldn't murder him on the spot.

"I'm tellin' ya man... You got... the wrong guy!"

Would rather not risk getting killed.

Cero still wasn't buying the guy's act. He tightened his grip on Bashiro's throat. "Quit your lying, scum. I'm not that stupid," Cero said, lightning in his eyes as he stared at the eye-patched man.

"Gack! Alright, alright! What do you want, man?! I'm not up for a fistfight or anything!"

Please, God, don't be a physical fight this guy wants.

Cero released his grip, letting Bashiro drop to the ground. "That's fine, no regular human could stand up to me in a test of physical strength." Cero pulled out his deck, "I'm after this kind of fight. I hope you live up the rumours, scum."

"Huh?" Bashiro was completely lost once he hit the ground and saw Cero's deck. Vanguard...? Well, it was better than a fistfight. "Y-... Yeah, sure. Okay." The eyepatched thug let out a sigh of relief, knowing that today isn't gonna be the day he dies. He's got a whole life of booze, debt, and women to live out to its fullest.

The Brawlers were taken out of Bashiro's pocket as he walked over to one of the tables out in front of the card shop.

It was a Brawler mirror match. Cero, however, was disgusted with the deck. The ace card was a fake. An imitation. A cheap poser attempting to replace Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion. This was an opinion that was made very clear during the fight. He rarely referred to Bigbang knuckle by name, instead calling it "Mockery" and "Faker." On top of that, throughout the entire fight, Cero had the upper hand on Bashiro, despite his claims that Brawlers wouldn't have Cero's back if he treated them like dirt. The way Cero treated them didn't matter. He was strong, that's what mattered, and his strength brought him a rather easy victory. Bashiro's excuse was that he tried harder "with a pair of tits around," something Cero chose to keep in mind.

As Cero was about to leave, Bashiro asked if he needed anything else. Cero smirked, and turned around, aiming his fist for Bashiro's left eye. Kind of a dick move, but that's what Cero was.

Bashiro had no idea what this guy's deal or problem was. Even so, the thug played the game. Despite saying "vanguard isn't really my thing", he enjoys it more than most of the underground fighters here. The man wasn't all too pleased to see how this challenger treated the Brawlers like garbage though. If you don't treat your friends well, they won't have your back... well apparently, that was wrong, and they didn't have Bashiro's. It felt like a slap from Miranda, honestly. Such heartbreaking, even damage checking two Bigbang Slashes. Well, he got a good laugh out of it, anyway. Bigbang Knuckle and company even laughed with him on Cray. Though he couldn't hear them, they heard his praise and genuine words of companionship.

Even if they're not the best, they were still all drinking buddies. Punching buddies, same difference.

Maybe he would've tried better had he been fighting a pretty girl. He did against Karin, at least. Breasts and a nice butt did wonders for this sleazebag's motivation. Alas, a loss is still a loss. Carbuncle ran out on him.

"Need anything else?" Bashiro inquired like a gentleman. He was kind of sick of this guy. He comes in, nearly fries him, then insults him most of their match? Christ, not even this lazy bum was that bad. Though, he was almost caught off guard when Cero turned around to punch him in his covered eye.

Acting on pure instinct, the brute blocked the assault with his arm, and a shockwave was released from these two forces meeting. Cero said no human could hope to match him in strength, but Bashiro definitely just did.

Then again, Bashiro being human or even real was a question that hung over Umano.

Cero was more than slightly surprised by this man's ability to block the attack. Of course, Cero hadn't put all of his force into the attack. Someone like this mongrel wasn't worth the effort. Returning his fist to his side, Cero scoffed and left the underground, leaving behind a pendant with a ruby in it. This time, engraved on the back of the pendant was a description of its purpose as a pass to the training facility. Cero wanted to face this man again in a situation where Bashiro would actually go all out. He might be able to put up a decent challenge in such a situation.

Bashiro was sort of sweating, and then chuckled as the guy left, shrugging this all off. Crazier events have occurred. At least the guy felt the need to leave a little gift for using up Bashiro's precious time. The thug could've been looking for a woman or guzzling down more booze, y'know? Reaching down, a pendant was picked up. A pass to some facility? He knew it, this was some cop rundown.

"Maaaaan..." He sighed, putting it in his pocket. Maybe it'll mean something later. Maybe it'll let the cops know they've already got on his ass enough. Maybe the Resistance or whatever will get the same memo.

"Dude, what the fuck?" One of the other guys asked, coming from underneath another table. "Who was that guy?"

"You think I remember random guys? Please." Bashiro wasn't really interested in anyone giving him mess after that ordeal. The man checked his phone instead, seeing a text message from a pen-pal. She asked about how one would go about improving Narukami?

"Buy him Eradicators or something. Those are easy to get a grasp of. Otherwise, just get him Brawlers. Archetypes are all the damn rage now, and they're easy enough to play."

"Holy shit", Bashiro awoke, laying on some half-destroyed couch. He remembered getting drunk, then literally nothing for what felt like hours. The man winced, nursing his aching head. He proceeded to curse a bit while he got a feel for his surroundings. He was still in the abandoned card shop, and a few of his buddies were out like lights too. Part of the thug wanted to believe a pretty girl was lying on top of him with the weight he felt, but it was actually just a couple of beer bottles.

"Ah... man... Did we miss goin' out to Kizoku, man?" Bashiro called out for anyone to answer him.

"Oh... oh damn, we might have", one of his friends stated.

"N-..." Someone was getting up. "Naw... we all crashed here... nobody went..."

"I remember that one guy came here and nearly killed you dude. Then, after you texted somebody, we all got drunk and..." the first drinking buddy had a better memory than anyone else. Not even Bashiro remembered what on earth he was talking about until a few minutes later.

"God... I'm goin' back to sleep", the lazy bum declared, feeling dizzy from sitting up on the couch.

The boys got an outing for Kizoku town at some point.