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They sat on the rooftop, overlooking the dirty, gray city. The sun was bright and high overhead, but there was a nasty chill in the air.
Dave shivered, but if it bothered Bro, he didn't show it. Cal sat in a tiny wooden chair of to the side. Dave saw his brother drop something in Cal's lap before he went to sit down, but he didn't see what it was.
Dave had bugged him over and over to teach him the flash step, something Bro said was a Strider family secret.
Bro just said “Not yet little man.”
Eventually, Dave just stopped asking. He turned to his music instead of his fighting skills. Dave learned how to mix together songs. To take bits and pieces of rhythm and make them flow together until it fell into the wrinkles of the brain. There was something primal to it. Older than primal. There was no way to tell someone how or why it worked, there was just tuning yourself to world and following the rhythm.
He was listening carefully to some pieces of an album he wanted to put together when Bro walked up behind him and plucked Dave's headphones off of his head.
“Hey!”
“Roof bro.” Bro picked one of Dave's replica swords off the wall and tossed it to him. “You're ready. Bring Cal.”
“If I'm ready, can't I use one of your swords?” Dave said. The sword he was holding cost a month of his allowance, but it was still a cheap copy.
“Not that ready!” Bro laughed. “Not Bro. You're my student now young grasshopper. Call me...Sensei.”
“Like those old samurai movies you watch? This is so retarded.”
“Wanna play? Gotta pay, grasshopper. And those movies are great. You don't know what you're talking about. Roof.”
And there they were sitting, both cross-legged and facing each other. Cal stared into space from his chair as they sat here in silence. Bro told Dave one thing before he sat down.
“Listen.”
So Dave sat with his eyes closed. He concentrated on the wind, the cars below, people talking, television, radios.
Finally he opened his eyes. “What the hell am I listening for, Bro...”
Bro held up one finger.
“...Sensei.”
Bro nodded and put his finger down.
“It's hard to hear at first. Over all the other noise.” Bro reached over to Cal and picked up what looked like a little grey remote. He pressed a button and tossed it back on Cal's lap.
Tick, tick, tick, tick.
It was a metronome, an expensive one. Bro often complained about how hard it was to find batteries for it, but he used it almost constantly. Bro had tuned it to a very, very specific frequency. Dave thought it was the most...mundane rhythm he ever heard. The kind that faded into the background.
“Listen” Bro repeated.
Dave sighed. This mystic man on the mountain crap was getting old. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes anyway.
“Block out all the noise you can, and listen.”
“Wait, what?”
“You heard me, Grasshopper. Block all the noise from around you. All the cars, all the people, and listen to what's left.”
“Even the metronome? What am I supposed to be listening to if I'm blocking out all the noise?”
“Fer fucksakes Dave, just do it.”
“Jesus. Fine. Sensei.” Dave sighed and closed his eyes.
He pushed it all out of his mind. The cars were the first to go.
Tick, tick, tick.
The people.
Tck, tck, tck.
TV's. Radios. Wind.
Tk, tk, tk.
Breathing, heartbeat, white noise.
T, t, t,
He pushed.
T, t, t,
He pushed.
T, t, t,
“I can't stop hearing the metronome.” Dave whispered.
“I turned it off ten seconds ago.”
Dave opened his eyes and all the noise of the world came rushing back to him. The metronome lie silent on Cal's lap.
Bro grinned.
Dave looked around. “Then what was...”
“That was the rhythm, Grasshopper. The rhythm of time. The beat that everyone follows deep, deep down.”
“Sounds like a crock of shit.”
“It does, doesn’t it? Again.” Bro pressed the button and the tick started up again.
Tick, tick, tick.
Dave closed his eyes, he breathed deep, and pushed all the sound out. He pushed at the metronome especially hard. He still heard the muffled sound.
T, t, t,
Dave opened his eyes, the metronome was silent.
“This is some stupid trick isn't it?”
“Again.”
Tick, tick, tck, tk, t, t, t, t
“Again.”
tck, tk, t, t, t, t
“Again.”
Tk, tk, tk, t, t, t, t
“Again.”
tk, t, t, t, t, t
“Hold this. Don't look at it.” He shoved something cold and metal into Dave's hand. His fingers closed around it.
“Again.” Bro's finger tapped the button.
T, t, t, t, t, t, t.
Dave opened his eyes. Bro was showing him the metronome. It was off. “Look in your hand.”
Dave opened his fingers and looked in the palm of his hand. It was the battery from the metronome.
Dave looked up at him suspiciously. Bro simply stood up and pulled his sword out of the sheath. Dave stood up too, holding his own sword.
“Now watch.”
They stood facing each other, with Cal sitting at the side like some sort of silent referee.
Dave waited, eyes locked on Bro.
He waited.
He waited.
Bro vanished. Dave looked down at Bro's shadow covering his. He felt steel at his neck.
Bro laughed. “Did you see it?”
Dave was getting impatient. He wanted to learn this, but now all he was now was confused. “No, I didn't see it. What did that have to do with anything?”
“Fine. I'll show you again, oh impatient grasshopper.”
Bro walked back over to where he was standing before.
“Now. Listen.”
“What?”
“Listen.” Bro tapped his sword on the ground.
Tap, tap, tp, tp, t, t, t
“Hold that sound in your mind. Open your eyes.”
Dave opened his eyes. Bro's sword was still, but Dave still heard the sound.
T, t, t, t, t, t,
And then Dave saw Bro step out of rhythm.