The Stars Above

Bonus Chapter

Written in 2020, uploaded on 12/24/2022

Note (12/24/2022) - This was a bonus chapter that was written for...reasons I can't really remember right now. May contain continuity errors...or something like that.

--

'I am curious.'

The Infected stood in an alleyway, watching as a random street thug stood in front of a warehouse, lighting a cigarette.

As all cities do, no matter the size, they always have a shadier part that nobody really likes going to.

It was quite well known that Kuoh was a safe place, but a few small-time gangs always ran around causing mischief.

What the Infected found, however, was an upstart gang planning to use the Gremory Territory to manufacture some drugs to ship out of town.

Not that it really knew any of that.

It walked out from its hiding place, approaching the thug.

"Oi, kid! Skedaddle! There's nothing to be seen here."

"Kuuuu."

The mobster-wannabe only got a blank stare in response.

"Are you retarded? Scram! Shoo! Let a man smoke in peace!"

Stare.

"Fuck off or I'll stab the shit out of you!"

The infected didn't really care, solely focused on the lit cigarette in the man's mouth.

"Don't say I didn't warn ya!"

The man pulled a knife and drove it deep into the Infected's gut.

Huge mistake.

The Infected grimaced in pain for a moment, looking down at the wound. It looked back up and grabbed the now-terrified man by the throat, the Spawn's face contorting into one of primal anger.

"Kuuuuu...!"

The thug was promptly thrown out of the alleyway, creating a somewhat comically oversized dust cloud when he hit the wall of another building.

'Pain is unfavorable. Annoying.'

With that out of the way, the Infected looked down to see a carton of cigarettes the man had dropped.

Curious, it picked them up.

"Kuuu." It poured the tobacco sticks into its open hand, staring at them intently.

Then it promptly tried to imitate the man, by shoving them all into its mouth. Its eyes looked down at the mishmash of cancer blunts, confused.

'No glow?'

It wondered why the ends weren't glowing at all. It shrugged, taking a big deep gulp.

The Infected's gut gurgled before it keeled over, puking up a load of tar.

'Taste awful! Do not eat!'

One of the side effects of cigarettes, besides lung cancer, is that it can fill your lungs with tar, which greatly cripples their ability to filter air.

Normally, one would need to smoke cigarettes for a rather long time to accrue the amount that the Astral clone had just barfed up. However, with the Astral Infection's ability to assimilate just about any material, its internal organs simply just produced an excessive amount before realizing how detrimental it was.

Once its insides had been thoroughly purged of the foreign substance, it looked up at its surroundings.

The door where the man had been standing was cracked open.