An indeterminate amount of time passed.
Asher gasped, shooting to his feet now that he could think again. All he could hear was the crackle of electricity and the sound of Mei beginning to hyperventilate behind him. The world was colorful again. Did the Black Silence die?
His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked below. Only the building that the Blood Red Night smashed into at first was destroyed, but how long had he been unconscious for?
The noises below distracted him from his thoughts.
Hundreds of portals blinked open and closed, seemingly at random as the air swirled with movement. Something was going on, but his eyes couldn't follow it.
The Black Silence panted, shrouded by his assistant's mist as he tried to recuperate his strength for one final blow. His mask was grey, completely sapped of strength. A smooth hole in his chest had pierced through where is heart would have been. The Overseer had come to help them just in time, otherwise this day might have proved the ascension of a Star.
"Now!" The Overseer grunted as Elena snapped his arm off.
Before the Blood Red Night could spit the Overseer's arm out, it detonated with a deafening boom. The street rumbled as the explosion blew a huge crater in the middle of the street.
The smoke cleared, and the Overseer was gone, now by the Black Silence's side.
"Krgh..." Now armless and jawless, the Blood Red Night stared at each one of them, the Black Silence, his assistant, the Overseer, even Asher and Mei, with endless hate. If she could speak, then this would be the moment she would curse them all one last time.
Before the Black Silence finished her off.
Asher only saw a flash of silver. Then the Star exploded in a shower of blood, dyeing the street red.
The Black Silence's mask swirled again, nearly depleting its energy, and the blood that coated the street began to sizzle. The blood burst into deathly black flames, cleansed of its filth. Other than the huge crater in the street and the destroyed building in front of Asher, there was no trace of the once prominent Star of the City.
The Colored Fixer sighed in relief, falling onto his assistant's shoulder as she glanced at him with worry, poking his neck as he winced in pain.
But before they left, the Black Silence asked the Overseer a question, almost offhandedly.
"What's that in your hand?" The man noticed the Overseer clenching his remaining hand around something.
As the Hana Fixer opened his bony grip, the tension in the air rose once again. In the Fixer's palm was a sample of reddish blood vessels, writhing and pulsing with savage crimson glow.
"Krkrkr... Sorry, orders from above. Why do you think I came here in the first place? Though, I think I came just in time, or else... Angelica over here would have been devastated, no?"
Angelica watched warily as the skeleton blinked away from them, teleporting behind Asher and Mei on the roof.
Mei's mouth gaped; her mind couldn't process just how much happened in such a short timeframe.
The Overseer's skull rattled as Asher clumsily bowed toward it.
"Sup, kid. It seems like you have some questions."
"Yeah," Asher said, pointing to the street below. The Black Silence and his assistant had disappeared without notice. "How come nothing's damaged except for the crater and that building? Shouldn't a lot more things be... destroyed?"
"Good question. The Black Silence is the Color most suited in dealing with threats in urban environments. Well, I'm not allowed to say much about it, but if the Fixer who accepted the case was the Purple Tear, or heavens forbid the Red Mist, you guys would be dead, swept up along with the carnage. Along with most of the Section, too."
Asher nodded his head, but the Overseer had something else to add. The skeleton slipped the vial of Star blood into his coat as he made himself presentable.
"And now for standard Hana procedure. After a Midnight alert, Hana has to survey who's alive, as well as erase the civilians' memories if they saw the direct confrontation. Obviously, the two of you are alive. Miss Li, let us head to the branch headquarters to get you treated."
However, when the Overseer grabbed her arm, she trembled in place, refusing to enter the portal that opened in front of her.
"Hic- If I forget this all... Will I forget about Bellecote's death too?" The Overseer nodded his head, but that only caused her to root in place. She wasn't going, no matter what.
"Krkrkr... Well, let's see what the manual has to say about this," the Fixer flipped open a pamphlet that mysteriously appeared in his hand. "Oh, nevermind. It says that memory erasure is completely voluntary. Though, I kinda got used to people begging me to erase their memories, so pardon me for that."
The Grade 1 Fixer asked for their pardon with absolute informality. He tapped his skull two times before glancing at them again.
"Right, another thing. You got a nice eye for danger, Asher. Serious potential. Everyone else was absorbed in your building, so expect a lot of... 'new tenants'. Criminals and stuff."
Mei stiffened at the mention of 'criminals', but the Overseer continued.
"This building is now considered 'Unoccupied'. Lawless. A Wing might decide to buy it, who knows. But for now, watch your backs."
Asher and Mei looked down at their feet. The ghost apartment groaned beneath them. Their lives suddenly became a lot more difficult.
"A-And what about HamHamPangPang, the one down the street?" Mei asked the skeleton anxiously. Was it intact, or was it demolished, like the building in front of them?
Asher looked at Mei's expression. Her job was probably the only hope she had to pay the tributes for the Thumb. At least, it was her only hope when she was living alone.
"That was one of the few buildings to fall. Unlucky, eh? The new restaurant should be built by the end of the week, but it seems like the HamPang company has been replacing their waiters with robots nowadays."
Mei sighed, deflating even more.
The hopeless situation, combined with the pain of losing an old friend, caused her to weep quietly. Asher put his hand on her shoulder, comforting Mei. He was there for her.
Fixer work was profitable, and could easily support the two of them. As for Bellecote...
"Thank you sir," Mei croaked, "we need some time to think."
"Mhm. Watch out for Sweepers. You should be safe on the roof for now."
The Overseer snapped his fingers, popping out of existence with a sharp crack.
Asher and Mei sat down on the roof, sighing at the same time as their life was turned upside down in an instant. So many things happened in such a short time, they nearly forgot that it was currently the middle of the night.
As Mei checked the time on her phone, her eyes widened.
"Holy- It's three-thirty!" The red glows cutting through the night below reminded them of the Sweepers' presence. Asher looked down the street again. Like magic, the Sweepers were teeming on the streets, having appeared out of thin air.
There were so many Sweepers that their glowing visors became a single mass of light, supplementing the dimmed streetlights.
Asher had never seen so many Sweepers at once. Their numbers increased as the night deepened, so at this hour, an uncountable number of Sweepers roamed the City, searching for victims.
The two of them slipped off of the roof, landing in front of their door.
Mei glanced at Bellecote's room next to them with sorrowful eyes.
"Asher... you don't see anything unusual with the building anymore?" As he shook his head, Mei pushed aside the broken door, walking into her late friend's room.
The blood vessels were gone; it was likely they were an illusion from the start. A tangible illusion, but one that disappeared after their creator was defeated.
Mei blinked, tears in her eyes as she saw two photos of Bellecote and Alicia together hung up on the wall. One recent and one a year or so older, judging by the amount of growth Alicia showed between the two.
"Bell and I both promised each other. That if one of us died, then..." She looked down at a floorboard below her. A hidden latch revealed a compartment underneath, filled to the brim with Ahn.
The Backstreets made its residents into a pragmatic bunch. Bellecote couldn't use that money anymore. Her memory was left in her savings, which Mei would use to survive. It was romantic, in a sense.
Mei pocketed the bills, giving a quarter of them to Asher. In total, the bills added to one hundred and fifty-three Ahn exactly. Even less than a single Urban Myth case. The slips of paper, although seemingly in large quantity, consisted of only single bills.
"Mei, how much did you make every week?"
"Fifty? Sixty with tips included. All of that goes away after rent, food, and the weekly Thumb payment. Except for the money I saved for Bell when I died."
She sighed, taking the photos hung on the wall as well. She checked the bedroom and bathroom, but nothing seemed to catch her attention. They left shortly afterward, going back to their own home.
The two of them crawled back into their bed, turning the lights off wordlessly. Asher looked to the side as he lied down. Mei clutched a photo of Bellecote in her hand, silent tears flowing down her face.
"Mei?"
"I'm alright." A terse voice responded to him.
As Asher turned away from Mei to give her some space, he heard a choking sob next to him.
Through the night, the sound of Mei crumpling and unfolding the photo repeatedly in pensive thought kept Asher awake until, finally exhausted, he slipped away to dreamland.
The sound of crumpling film filled his nightmares.
...
The Overseer looked at the vial set on his bony palm. He tapped his temple in an unknown code, deep in thought.
"Say, release them? Doesn't really seem like..."
The skeleton shrugged, tossing the tube behind him.
"Head's orders, eh... That's been how long, four years already? Blast, I'm old..." He closed the holo-projector, dusting his hand on his coat.
Now, how much would it be for a new arm?
The cracked vial of blood had already been forgotten behind him.