The rusty keyhole creaked ominously as it unlocked with shaky imprecision.
Asher frowned as the door shook for a couple of seconds, refusing to be opened. He walked forward, swinging open the door-
Mei fell into his arms, babbling incoherently. Her eyes were red and bloodshot; she could barely stand. One could only wonder how she got there in one piece in the first place.
If one looked closely into her pupils, even they were bloodshot as well.
...How was that possible?
Her clothes smelled of alcohol, the cheapest kind. The kind that burns and lingers.
She carried a shopping bag in each hand, but other than that, there was little evidence of the 'stuff' she supposedly prepared for Bellecote's funeral.
"Asherrr... Let me walk..."
Even though she said that, Mei didn't complain as he carried her to her bed.
He placed Mei onto the bed carefully, so as to not disturb her.
"Pill... Pocket..." She feebly grasped toward one of her pockets, which Asher helped her with.
A bottle of pills emerged into the light.
Snatching the bottle away from her for a second, he read the label. It was a cure for drunkenness and hangovers. Etched into the bottle was the name 'K Corp'.
He looked at the price tag. For only 115 Ahn, it seemed like a steal.
'But then again, did Mei seriously buy that in order to get drunk without consequences?' Giving the bottle back to her, Asher's mouth twitched as Mei tipped the entire thing to her mouth, downing four or five pills in a single swallow.
"Sorry Asher..." She muttered, wringing her hands as the medicine coursed through her system, allowing her to realize what she did.
"No problem. What's in the bags?"
Mei nodded, handing him a plain white grieving outfit from one of them.
"Go get changed. We'll go to the roof soon."
...
The dusk air reeked of ash. Their white burlap clothes darkened as they soaked in the smoke. But perhaps that was intentional.
The two of them stood on the roof, the gravel coarse and heavy under their feet.
In front of them was a picture of Bellecote and Alicia, fastened upright to a crude wooden shrine.
Mei walked up, placing a bundle of white chrysanthemum in front of the picture. She motioned for Asher to do the same, which he did.
Next, she pulled out a few sticks of incense-
The gravel on the ground in front of them coalesced into small cubes. They rose to form a metallic figure wrapped in a white cloak.
It was a Proxy, as evidenced by the manacles clamped on the thing's wrists. It glided past them like they didn't exist, placing its own bundle of flowers on the memorial. Yellow azalea flowers.
In the long faded customs of the east, yellow azaleas represented the happiness that washed over sorrow, the purest form of joy.
They did not exist anymore, having been burned to extinction. And there was never an occasion to be happy about in the City, not to the degree of yellow azaleas.
Mei shrieked as a bundle of flowers appeared on the shrine, seemingly out of thin air.
"Hehe~ She can't see me, don't worry!" A single glowing eye glanced back at Asher. Acrid smoke billowed from the girl's mouth as her bubbly voice glitched with static.
The Proxy's towering appearance was indescribably terrifying.
Asher couldn't move. Terror locked his joints in place.
Mei stared at the azaleas in the center of Bellecote's shrine. Her eyes trembled with anger.
"Happiness? Flowers of happiness?! W-What kind of sick joke is this!" She rushed forward, flinging the bouquet off of the roof. She glanced around her with crazed ferocity, but she couldn't see anyone that could have done it.
"Aww, poor Meiby-baby's upset~?" The Proxy cooed in a singsong voice that only Asher could hear.
Mei took several deep breaths.
"Just a hallucination... Asher, did you see that?"
"Kehaha! You didn't, right?" The Proxy clapped her hands together, producing a glissando of metallic clinks.
Right... Asher never saw that.
Never saw what? He glanced beside him. No one was there.
He shook his head as well.
Mei sighed, collapsing to the ground as her mind buckled under the pressure. She believed that her grief was causing her to hallucinate.
After a few minutes of trembling sobs, she grasped a small container from her bag, shaking it to reveal that it was filled with liquid.
Unscrewing the cap, she poured it all onto the shrine. The picture and wooden memorial were soon soaked in shiny, clear oil.
Asher took the bottle from her, looking at the label again.
'Magnesium gasoline...?'
A presence appeared beside him.
"It's often used during funerals, due to the pure white flame it produces when burned." A soft voice caught him off guard.
Yan. Her eyes were closed as she tilted her head at him. She was 'calm' now.
Mei gaped at the Messenger that stood next to Asher. She wanted to ask her whether she was the one who placed the azaleas, but stopped as Yan held out her hand, revealing an exquisite bouquet of white roses and lilies that was previously hidden behind her back.
"I'm sorry, Miss Li." Something deeper than superficial condolences was hidden in her words.
Yan had time to think over the day. And in response, the shell protecting her soul had hardened magnificently.
Mei took the gift of flowers with shock. Seeing the effort put into tying the different flowers together into a grid pattern, she took Yan into her arms, hugging the girl with gratitude.
Yan's eyes seemed to dim as Mei hugged her tighter and tighter.
She couldn't breathe, but it wasn't because of the physical pressure.
She couldn't cry, but it wasn't because she didn't want to.
Mei was hugging the very Messenger she hated, the Messenger she would have gladly torn into millions of pieces if she knew the truth.
Asher's heart tightened as Yan sank into Mei's embrace, completely listless. She had calmed down since the incident, but not necessarily in a positive way.
Yan pulled away to watch the ceremony. She allowed Asher to wrap his arm around her.
'...I'm going to tell him tonight, even if he hates me for it.' She leaned her head onto his shoulder expressionlessly.
Mei placed the bouquet of lilies and roses in the middle of the shrine, allowing it to soak in gasoline before she took out a bundle of matches from the bag.
*Skkk*
A single match burned in the night air.
Mei stared at it for a long while.
Just as the flame started to burn her fingers, she flicked it onto the oil soaked ground.
The boards and flowers instantly caught fire, wreathing the picture in the middle with blinding white flames.
The flowers disintegrated into motes of white light as they floated into the air. Asher was reminded of the Kurokumo clansmen when they peeled away to become husks.
It was beautiful.
Fragments of light whirled around them, and soon, only the picture and the board were remaining. The flames seemed to pulse as they devoured the picture of Bellecote, dissolving it into light as Mei wept next to him.
The picture was gone now, but the wood was still blazing. The shrine glowed brighter and brighter, until, in a flash that burned into their memories, it was gone.
Nothing remained. The ashen evidence blew away, facilitated by a gust of wind.
Mei snapped towards them, her face stretched into a painfully wide grin.
"Now it's time for dinner, a feast! Yan, you join us too!"
Yan let out a strangled noise from her throat.
"T-Thank you, Miss Li. How long will it take to prepare?"
"Twenty minutes!" She skipped off of the roof, her steps sharp and unnatural.
Before Mei disappeared from their sight, Yan called out behind her.
"Can I... say something to Asher?" Yan had something she had to tell him.
Glancing back at them, Mei's eyes were scarily hollow. Together with her insane smile, Asher nearly took a step back.
"Sure, sure! Sure! Bye then!"
Mei left them alone.
"...So, what did you want to say?"
"A confession." Yan walked to the edge of the roof, motioning for him to sit down with her. It was an odd sight to behold, a Messenger of the Index sitting beside an ordinary boy, watching the sunset from the rooftop.
Asher waited a few minutes for Yan's 'confession', but the girl stared blankly into the sun, her gaze unfocused.
She leaned back, falling to the ground with a rattling sigh.
"Yan, what's wrong?"
He also lied down with her. Their legs dangled over the edge, swaying gently.
They stayed there for a dozen more minutes, in the awkwardly warm atmosphere. Even though Yan's face expression was flat, he could tell that she wanted him to stay with her for just a little longer.
"Let's eat first. I'm starving." Yan's stomach growled as she stood up, dusting the pebbles from her cloak.