When he opened his eyes again, Asher found himself back in Mei's bedroom. He pushed Aiko's groaning body off of him, checking if everyone was there with a glance around the room.
'Pete, Mei, Mangchi... Yep! Everyone's back!' Asher grinned, thanking Yujin and the Overseer again, wherever they were now.
Aiko crawled to her friends' side, where they sat obediently for Asher's next order. The fact that Asher had saved their lives twice now was more than enough to gain their full trust.
Mei, however, shifted away from the three unfamiliar children.
"Um, Asher... Who are these three?" Through a few fragments of her memory from back when she was controlled by the Blood Red Night, she knew they were close to him. But those three were strangers to her, so she was still slightly wary.
Pete flinched, spreading his palms out in an attempt to explain himself.
"W-We're Sophie's-"
Asher pulled them to the side as Mei made a noise of confusion.
"Just wait in the bedroom a bit, okay Mei?"
Before the three Fixers could react, Asher pulled them to the kitchen.
This was a difficult situation for him. Asher had used Mei's room while synchronized with Sophie, so now Pete and his friends thought that Mei's roommate was her.
But she wasn't.
The three Fixers waited for Asher to say something, but found him staring blankly into the air,deep in thought.
"Er, Asher?"
Quick, think of an excuse!
"...Mei doesn't know that Sophie has an Office. I think she wants a little more time to reveal it. Lemme text her." Outside, of course. Can't let his Fixers see. The door shuddered as it swung open.
He gestured at them to stay put before closing the door, waiting for a reasonable amount of seconds before taking out Sophie's phone and pulling up Pete's contact.
"Please refer to Asher as 'Captain' when I am not present. I trust him fully with the responsibility, and I hope you three can do the same."
Hopefully, what 'Sophie' said would prevent them from saying anything out of line.
But honestly, Asher already knew that his lie was bound to get revealed. One extra question, or one extra remark, and the whole charade would come crashing down.
Asher hoped he could find a better excuse before that happened. And with a little luck, his lie would not be exposed today.
And when it was exposed one day, he had no idea what he would do. Asher had promised himself that secret would live and die with Yan alone.
As Asher mused to himself, lost in thought, Aiko opened the door for him.
"We understand... Captain."
Pete, Mangchi, and Aiko held more respect toward Asher now that it turned out that Asher and their Captain were so close to each other.
"Great. Let's head back in now. And remember what Sophie told you."
The three Fixers nodded their heads as they walked back to Mei's bedroom.
Mei sat on the bed, twiddling her thumbs. She broke into a smile as Asher waved at her.
"Yeah. Mei, you know how I became a Fixer? These three are my Fixers: Pete, Aiko, and Mangchi."
The petite woman squealed, rushing up to them to shake each of their hands. She tried to guess which name belonged to who with each handshake.
"Nice to meet you! Aiko~ ...Is it Pete? And Mangchi!" The three Fixers gladly shook the woman's hand.
But Mangchi's brows furrowed slightly. Something wasn't right with the relationship between Asher and Mei.
'It's like they've known each other for a while... But supposedly he only came here because Captain told him to?'
Mangchi, being the ever more perceptive one, had a seed of doubt planted in his mind. But only a seed, nothing more. The slight suspicion he felt was entirely washed away as Mei smiled brightly at him.
"Then, do you three want to stay for dinner?"
With a bit of Asher's persuasion, the three Fixers relented to her request.
...
Mei smiled as she heard Asher's voice bickering with his friends in the bedroom.
She turned back to the pot on the stove, her breath hitching as a nostalgic scent brought tears to her eyes.
She had unknowingly cooked one of the dishes that she did on 'that' night, the day she burned Bellecote's shrine with Asher and Yan.
It was almost as if Bell was sending a message to her. To live life without her.
Her face scrunched up as she imagined Bellecote saying that.
'Live without me, okay? Take care of Alicia for- T-Take care o-of.....'
Her ladle dropped to the floor with a clatter. Alicia was dead too.
When she came to her senses, Asher was holding her in his arms, shouting words that only echoed in her ears uselessly. Pete and the others stood to the side, concerned.
She was bawling her eyes out.
And when she raised her head, she was smiling again.
"Go back to the bedroom, okay?"
With a vaguely threatening tone, she asked them to leave her alone.
Surprisingly, Aiko stepped out of the way to comfort the woman. Being of the same gender, she was slightly more connected with the woman's feelings than they were.
So Asher led Pete and Mangchi back to Mei's room as Aiko comforted the sniffling woman.
"What happened to her?" Pete tentatively asked Asher.
"Ah... Her best friend died in the Midnight warning two days ago."
A solemn silence fell. Right, they lived in the Backstreets. Their bodies were under the Blood Red Night's control just a few hours ago, which reminded them of their fragile mortality.
The joyful mood from being saved again vanished, replaced by existential dread.
Sweeper, Pierre, Sayako, Blood Red Night, they should have died four times now. And one day, their luck might just run out.
...
As expected, dinner was a silent affair. Even with Mei's bright smile, the mask that hid her true emotions, could not distract Pete and Mangchi from their thoughts.
Aiko was relatively less affected - she ate with gusto and noises of contentment - and Asher was not phased at all. It seemed that his manic outburst back as the 'Sakura Haze', as a report to the Hana plainly named him as, changed him more than any of them. Though he could still laugh and smile, the hopelessness he experienced profoundly changed his mental state.
They finished up, with the three Fixers collecting the plates out of politeness.
Mei holed up in the bedroom after washing the dishes, smiling at them as she closed the door.
So Asher and the others were left in the kitchen.
"Um, thanks for saving us again, Asher. Did Sophie," Aiko's voice dropped to a whisper, "tell us to do anything?"
Asher thought about it, taking a peek at the time in the process. It was almost night. And, well, Pete and his friends had nowhere to live right now.
"She says you can take a room on this floor, seeing as you still don't have a place to live right now."
Mangchi nodded.
"Then Asher, where will you stay?"
"I'll just sleep with Mei. Why ask...?"
Asher's voice died down as the three Fixers tensed up. This time, even Aiko and Pete could catch the mistake in Asher's wording.
"Wait, but isn't Sophie staying with Mei? Or..." Pete narrowed his eyes, but he couldn't find any plausible reason for Asher and Sophie to lie to them.
A drop of cold sweat formed on the side of Asher's face as Mangchi closed his eyes. Just what conclusion would the boy come to?
To be honest, Mangchi's exceptional analytical ability made Asher wary, especially when he had to think of an excuse to keep his disguises separate.
The boy seemed to arrive at a conclusion.
"So Captain doesn't actually live with Mei. She was only using this place because you're Mei's roommate, and she knows you. Then... Does Sophie also not have a place to live, like us?"
Pete and Aiko nodded in misunderstanding. After all, all of their experiences in life never suggested that someone could seamlessly transform into another appearance.
Asher sighed in relief, though to the three Fixers it sounded like a sigh of a revealed secret.
"Something like that. She has to travel often. Sophie's busy most of the time." And with that, a shaky alibi was sealed. Asher's lie had shifted to a somewhat more believable form.
Pete and Mangchi thanked him for the explanation, believing it wholeheartedly. They left first, planning to choose a good room for the three of them.
Aiko stayed behind.
"Asher... Who is Sophie to you? Are you... really close to her?" She fidgeted.
A bit personal. But seeing her slight blush, it was to be expected. Aiko was still a teenage girl, after all.
"A close friend, nothing more. And you are that to her as well, a close friend. Now shoo," he said gently. He subtly denied her feelings toward 'Sophie'; he could tell that the soul behind his synchronization did not reciprocate Aiko's feelings.
"O-Oh, thank you then. Thank you for saving us!" She waved him goodbye before dashing out.
Asher let out a sigh.
'Geez, these kids...' But he smiled nonetheless. Everything was back to normal for now.
But Asher knew that he had more work to do.
First Mei's closed room. Turning toward it, he leaned forward to listen for any noise. A small sob wormed through the wooden barrier.
'Seems Bellecote was closer to her than I thought...' Asher suspected their room placement was not a coincidence; they had purposely made their rooms adjacent to one another.
Perhaps their relationship was as close as his and Yan's before... He could understand Mei's pain now.
He opened the door with a creak.
Mei had her head buried in a pillow. She didn't seem to register Asher's presence as he crept up behind her.
He touched her shoulder.
"Mei, want to talk with me about it?"
She glanced at him, her eyes puffy and red.
"No." Mei harshly rejected him, but the hurt expression on Asher's face pained her, too. She took her hands off of her pillow, reaching out to caress his cheek.
"Sorry dear, I just... need some time, okay?"
This time, Asher wasn't going to allow that. Mei was clearly destroying herself in her misery. Who knew what would happen if he left her alone for any longer.
And this 'breakdown' was familiar... Right, Yan also went through a period like this, unstable and inconsolable.
What was the solution to this pain?
The answer lied within him.
Or more precisely, in a certain soul inside him.