Asher blinked. He had been lying in bed for quite a while now, wide awake and browsing through his phone.
It was currently 9:00, but Mei seemed to have left long before he woke up. She left him a note about buying plain black clothes and white flowers for a funeral at dusk.
Luckily, just as he needed some motivation to get out of bed, Sophie's phone rang.
Asher groaned as he headed to the bathroom to synchronize. He hadn't forgotten the promise he made to himself. To keep his disguise, only use the specific phone according to his synchronization.
Pete had texted him, asking about the place they would meet up at for today.
But wait a minute...
"Did you get a Midnight alert yesterday too?" Asher was somewhat relieved, yet somewhat confused. Could Pete also see the blood vessels?
"Oh, yeah, we got one. Mangchi said it smelled like blood everywhere, so he forced us to leave for a few hours. Good thing there didn't seem to be any Sweepers outside, though. Maybe they were scared away by the alert or something?"
Asher nodded his head in relief. Mangchi had a good nose.
'Wait... he said there were no Sweepers?' Asher shrugged, chalking it off to whatever godlike powers the Black Silence had.
They chatted about various things for a few minutes. Aiko stole Pete's phone to complain about how she couldn't sleep through all the noise, and Mangchi just wanted to know where they would meet today.
Not HamHamPangPang, that was for sure.
As he ate the breakfast Mei prepared for him, he thought of an idea.
"You guys can all climb, right?" After getting a confirmation from all three, he continued. "Get on top of one of Dusk block's buildings. We can meet right there."
Mei's apartment was on the mid-side of Dusk block. It would be easy to spot Pete from there.
He turned off his phone, preparing to head outside to wait for them.
By sheer luck, the first building Pete and his friends chose to climb was the one Asher was waiting for them at.
"Hey Captain!" Aiko, being the ray of bubbly sunshine that she was, ran up to him enthusiastically. Even though her arms were trembling from climbing so rapidly, she hugged him without restraint.
Her body pressed onto his; they were about the same height.
Asher's sexuality was a bit different when he was synchronized with Sophie. He would probably classify himself as asexual in Sophie's form if he was forced to choose.
So while Aiko pressing onto him might have elicited a response if he was in his original form, Asher felt nothing right now.
He stroked Aiko's hair as Pete and Mangchi greeted him with a light hello and a nod, respectively. They were used to Aiko's behaviour, so they didn't mind seeing her happy like that.
Unbelievably, Asher found himself warming up to this ragtag group of former criminals, his killers in a past life. Most of which had to do with their youth. He felt like he fit in with their age group, just like with Finn, Yan, and Philip. In fact, those six people were the only people he knew close to his age.
Asher coughed lightly, pulling away from Aiko. Now onto business matters. A somewhat vague plan formed in his mind as Mei's empty apartment creaked below them.
"This building, along with many others on this block, is devoid of people. Its residents have all died."
Pete nodded his head grimly.
"Yeah. We spent the night in Dawn block yesterday. Fewer people died, I think. Hell if I know. But this..." Pete and his friends followed Asher's gaze to the destroyed building caused by the Blood Red Night crashing into it.
Asher blew out a stand of hair from his eyes. A glimpse of opportunity shone through the rubble. He remembered how, after the blood vessels disappeared, Bellecote's room was left intact.
Time to be pragmatic. The dead residents couldn't use the money in there.
Asher might have hesitated if he was in his own body, but Sophie's will pushed him forward and rationalized the more coldhearted approach.
Mangchi grinned wolfishly. He could tell where this conversation was going. His Captain's next words confirmed his guess.
"We're going to spend our morning getting some money from this building. Come down with me." Asher jumped from the roof onto the third floor, the hallway where Mei's room was. They needed a temporary place before they cleared the building.
"This is where I live. Split up, break into the other rooms, and drop your findings here. I trust you won't take anything from this place." He tapped on the kitchen table as he spoke.
They badly needed some starting capital. Other than the few notes of cash Mei gave him from Bellecote's stash, he was completely penniless.
Pete, Aiko, and Mangchi's eyes seemed to sharpen. Picking locks, breaking doors... they've been doing it since before their ages reached double digits.
Even Aiko turned serious. There were moments where her life depended on breaking locks. To escape or die, to steal or starve.
"Yes, Captain."
Aiko was the first to walk out, but Asher stopped her.
"We'll split up. If you see anyone, text me immediately and do not engage. Other people might also take this opportunity to loot the buildings as well." Pete and Mangchi nodded, leaving Aiko and him together.
The reason he decided to accompany Aiko was that she was the weakest Fixer, technically as weak as Finn. But Aiko seemed to have more street experience than the other Grade 10, as she pulled out a banged up lock-picking kit from her ragged jacket.
"Ready, Captain? I can show you the ropes." Aiko's confidence seemed to soar at the topic of lockpicking. And Asher had to agree; the way she ran her fingers past the variety of picks virtually exuded her professionalism.
"Lead the way." He checked his phone. Pete's text said that he and Mangchi would take the bottom two floors, while Asher and Aiko could take the top two floors, 3 and 4.
*Click*
As he was lost in thought, Aiko had already picked through his other neighbor's door.
He blinked in surprise, following her as she entered the room.
In this room lived the man who screamed at them that night Bellecote dropped her daughter off to Mei.
Now there was no one. Beer bottles filled the room, emitting a disgusting stench. The floorboards were caked with gooey, rotting trash.
Aiko ignored the smell, pushing past the kitchen, deeper inside. She did a cursory sweep of the bathroom, but there wasn't anything of interest to her in there.
Asher didn't know what she was looking for, so he simply followed her around.
The bedroom reeked of cigarettes and raw squid. Even Aiko gagged a bit at the smell. She leafed through the closet, under the bed, and across the nightstand, finding a few paltry bills in her search. She turned back to him, away from the unbearable stench.
"Ten Ahn. Man was living on the edge. Probably spent his savings every week doing god knows what."
Asher smiled as she handed the bills to him.
They spent most of the morning breaking into the rooms on the third floor. A nice sum of 600 Ahn covered Mei's kitchen table by the time they broke through the last room, the sum of Pete, Aiko, and Mangchi's labor.
Pete and Mangchi had finished exploring their floor faster than Aiko, and were currently on the first floor.
But just as Asher moved up to the fourth floor, he got a phone call from Pete.
Strange.
He picked up the call, with some hesitation.
The voice that greeted him made his blood run cold.
"Ara? Little children playing thief, have we?" Sayako's seductive voice drawled from the speaker. Aiko twitched, preparing to dash down the stairs, but Asher stopped her. He prepared Sophie's most ethereal voice.
"It's you again." He cut off Sayako with a slightly threatening tone. Sayako didn't speak for a while, until her anger boiled over.
"I see you are still playing house. Come down now~ Or these two brats will die." Sayako spat out the last few words with vicious scorn.
Aiko growled, glancing at her Captain with worry.
"I have the time to play with you. Let's see how many people you brought this time." Asher hung up.
Asher tried to psyche himself up. His Fortitude hadn't increased by much from the time he last fought Sayako. His [Frenzy] skill was ready to use, but he didn't want to break his disguise in front of so many people.
And besides, he would be controlled by the Fairy Queen if it activated. He had a feeling that the Queen's fairies wouldn't discriminate between friend or foe.
Still, he wouldn't leave Pete and Mangchi to save his own skin.
"Stay behind me no matter what."
Aiko nodded. No matter how much she wanted to run down there right now, her experience as a 'rat' of the Backstreets honed her survival instinct. The way that woman spoke... Only the ones at the relative top could spare the energy to draw their words like that.
Relative was the key term. Still, the strongest in any group would still be beyond normal human capability.
Comparing the woman's seductive drawl to her Captain's emotionless hum, Aiko didn't know which one was more dangerous.
They made their way down the stairs. Soon they reached the main entrance, where Pete and Mangchi were being held hostage. The two of them were bound by rope, kicked to the corner.
They weren't struggling. First, the wall beside them had a deep gash in it where Sayako displayed her strength. Second, there were over ten Kurokumo henchmen towering over them, each with a wicked katana sheathed on their waist.
Everyone turned toward Asher as he stepped into the spacious main entrance. Aiko hid behind him, cowering in fear.
"How nice, a reunion. Let's hope you give us a good show." Sayako smirked as Asher's mouth twitched at the sheer number of people in the main room.
Pete barked with laughter, coughing blood as a Kurokumo henchman punched him in the stomach to keep him quiet. But the boy didn't stop cackling until his breath ran out.
"Captain! It seems my luck has returned! They're the Plague, the Urban Plague!" Pete laughed with slight madness in his voice, equal parts manically amused and desperately hopeless.
Sayako glanced at Pete, then at Asher, waiting for his reaction.
"Run away, dirty fake! I know you're a Fixer now, I can't believe I hesitated last time!" She gnashed her teeth, placing her hand on the grip of her sword. The Kurokumo men all did the same.
Asher knew he couldn't beat all of them with his low Fortitude. But who said he had to use his physical strength?
"Really now? Who said a Proxy couldn't be a Fixer?" At this point, he was just toying with Sayako, waiting for her to send her men at him for the greatest effect.
"Bullshit. Men, I want this bitch dead, sliced to pieces!"
The main entrance room was large enough so that he was soon surrounded by the clansmen. Aiko squeaked beside him as she covered her eyes. Pete and Mangchi took this moment to try and escape, but Sayako's blade pressed against their necks, stopping them in their tracks.
"You wish to see what I can do? Don't regret it later." Sophie's frigid voice echoed across the room. Suddenly, not even Sayako's presence could compare to hers.
This was the pressure of an abnormality of the Ruins; no mortal could compare. Nightmares, perhaps. And there was no need to think of the Stars. The Stars of the City could destroy hundreds of abnormalities like Sophie with minimal effort.
But to the people around Asher right now, he was likely the most suffocating presence they had ever felt.
Strangely, Sayako didn't seem to be fazed as much. She had met Sottocapo Kalo once, and she never wanted to meet him again.
Despite most of the Stars and Nightmares mellowing down over the years of the Head's control, she would never forget her childhood.
When the night sky was filled with Stars. When dreams were twisted into Nightmares.
But now her attention was focused on Sophie.
[Echoes from Beyond]
A low, droning noise vibrated in the back of Sophie's throat.