The light of dawn filtered through the cracks of the boarded windows; the smell of must and mold hung heavy in the air.
Another morning in the Backstreets.
"Huaaam..."
Camille brushed the hair out of her eyes, stumbling up from her comfortable bed. The last resident's blanket was incredibly soft.
She bowed toward a picture frame by the side. It contained the photo of a gaunt man dressed in a stringy black tuxedo.
This was the man she replaced.
"I'll be living here until I kick the bucket, if you don't mind."
There was no sarcasm or humor in her voice. It was just the way most of the people imprisoned in the Backstreets talked.
Saturated with the coarse awareness of their fragile existences.
Camille looked at the flimsy metal safe beside her nightstand.
When she arrived, the safe in the bedroom had already been picked, and its insides taken.
It didn't matter to her much though; she was already thankful enough that she had a place to stay, instead of... where she was previously.
She shook her head with a manic shudder, pulling the sleeves further down her discolored arms.
Horrid, blackish bruises snaked around her entire body. A constrictive vice, choking her until she couldn't breathe.
But now was time for her new life.
Camille brightened her expression, chiding herself for thinking about the past.
"Phhww~" She made a cutesy attempt at a cheerful whistle. Of course, the only noise that came out was a drawn out, focused exhale - not a whistle at all.
Camille practiced more of her whistle as she went into the restroom to freshen up and apply some powder on her arms.
By the time she finished her preparations, her faux-whistles began to have a sharper note, a whispering melody of a hopeful future.
"Hmm. I only have enough food for one more meal." Camille pondered to herself in between licks of hard, unchewable bread. She brought no money with her either. There just wasn't any opportunity to do so.
"But I have a job now! Which means I can..."
She looked at the piece of bread in her hand. It was moldy and disgustingly dense, but she couldn't bring herself to throw it away.
"...Let's just save this for now." It would be best to save it.
Camille pulled out her mangled phone. An aluminium device shattered beyond recognition, an old model of the past.
She turned it on by digging her nails into one of its twisted buttons, contacting Sophie to ask her if what Asher said to her was actually real.
(Yes. Meet me by Room 307. Thank you for considering this offer.)
It was real.
"Y-Yay~!" Camille leapt from her seat, bouncing out the door with light, cheerful steps.
Jumping up the steps three at a time, she swiftly made it up to the floor above her.
"Oh- Good morning, Camille."
Sophie was already waiting, with Asher by her side.
"Yep! Anything I can do for you two?" Camille donned on her practiced service smile, bringing her hands together.
Sophie glanced at her partner.
"Alright, I'll take it from here. Just link with me if you need help. Take care."
The boy smiled, leaping from the railing into the street below.
Now it was just Camille and Sophie. They idled around awkwardly for a moment, unsure what to do. Finally, Sophie couldn't stand the silence.
"I want to-"
*Creaaak*
The door a few rooms away from them shifted open, and a palish young man with heavy sunken eyebags walked out.
He took a sweeping glance at them before shifting his gaze back to the floor. His raven black hair covered his face down to his nose, preventing any scrutiny.
Even the man's clothes were plain white, with no discernable features of any sort except for a single black button, sewn onto the center of his coat.
"ah... can you...? blocking the stairway..."
Sophie's face warmed slightly as she let him pass her.
When the man was gone, Sophie coughed into her hand in embarrassment.
"Well, I *wanted* to make the main entrance a reception area for my Office, but..."
Camille gestured at Sophie to finish her sentence.
"This is a residential building, not an Office. Hm..."
The woman deflated. It seemed like she wouldn't get paid after all.
Sophie's attention was taken away to the room that strange young man emerged from.
"He didn't shut it after he left?" Sophie stepped to the stranger's room, taking note of its number, 313.
Her eyes widened as she opened the door.
Nothing was there. White walls; white tiles. No sink; no stove. There was a room like this in here?
Then she blinked, and the illusion disappeared. Trash littered the carpeted floor, and drips of water broke the silence.
"Did you see that?" Sophie glanced back at Camille, but the woman wasn't paying attention.
Must have been an illusion.
"Don't mope so much, Camille. I still have work for you to do."
The woman shot up to attention.
"Really?!"
...
"So, what job did you end up having her do in the end? And where are my kiddos?" Sayako sat by the edge of the roof, listening to Sophie's summary.
"Your 'kiddos' went with her. They're putting out some flyers for me. Spreading the word."
Sayako grumbled, taking out the golden pin from her hairbun. Her glossy black hair unravelled to her waist, seductively disheveled.
She tugged at her loose collar, revealing a tattoo of a soft black cloud etched onto her pale skin.
Its center was situated above her breast, and it snaked around her body in a light ink blanket. So this was the 'Dark Cloud' of the Dark Cloud Blade.
Sophie's eyes trailed away from the pedestrians below for just a second, distracted by the unintentionally seductive display of flesh.
The two of them sat on the rooftop, admiring the hazy scenery below.
Though, that wasn't the reason why Sayako was here.
"You know that disguise you had on when we first met? The boyish one."
Sophie blinked, nodding her head. When Asher still had control of her body; it was that time when she first met Yan as well.
"What of it?"
Sayako took a deep breath. Her hand scrabbled to her pocket.
"Well..."
The woman opened up a video, one that only the Thumb had access to so far.
It was an exclusive video of the fight between Asher and Stella last night. Its title was merely one word: 'Warning'. It was sent from her clan Patriarch.
Sayako pressed play.
The grainy footage of a security camera began to play.
Even Sophie twitched slightly as the sheer carnage of the fight was played back to her.
She had experienced it from a first person perspective, so seeing the actual fight was an entirely different matter to her.
The way the Capo's eyes glazed over with disbelief, then anger as Asher's fist sunk into her stomach was unexpectedly pitiful, considering what happened to her in the end.
For a few seconds, Stella threw Asher around viciously, without restraint. The absolute confidence Stella had in her strength was truly admirable, like a magnificent beast. A proud wolf.
But it also wrenched Sophie's heartstrings.
Because who Stella was facing was not prey like the Capo anticipated. As the woman slammed Asher into the ground, Sophie could pinpoint the exact moment Asher's future self took control.
It was when an uncontrollable malice oozed from her partner's body.
Even through the grainy security camera, that horrifying malice almost dyed the world red with bloody pressure. A haze of bloodthirst, an illusion so terrifyingly tangible that the roof they stood on began to shake in fear.
Sayako's husked arm began to perspire black, tar-like fluid as she felt the first reverential fear since the Melody of the Universe.
This amalgamated aura... When she met the Sottocapo back in her childhood, who bled the most terrifying presence?
Sayako couldn't tell. And that was what frightened her the most. An aura on par with a Sottocapo's? Was this yet another god?
The two of them had their attention sucked back into the video as Asher began to howl, his words blurring together with indescribable fury.
The tables had turned.
Fingers into eyes. Skull onto flesh. Knee into nose.
Hand onto jaw-
Ripping it off.
The sheer savagery even made Sayako glance away. This wasn't even her first time watching it, yet she nearly couldn't stop the bile from rising in her throat.
Of course, as the Dark Cloud Blade, she had bloodied her hands many times before, but sword wounds were bound to be more elegant and manageable than this.
Sophie held the phone in Sayako's stead.
The footage cut off just as the elevator dinged, imprinting one last image in their minds.
Asher sobbing over Stella's mutilated body.
Sophie felt a pang in her chest. She had lived as an abnormality long enough to be unfazed by mere gore, but she remembered what the System told her before it gave her soul to Asher.
[The purest innocence, a child born from sin. He will be your master from today forth.]
'The purest innocence... Born from sin...' With those words, she was fused with Asher's soul for eternity. And from many days of service, she could understand what the System meant in its words.
"So you wish for some explanation. Why I disguised myself so." A shimmering light flickered in Sophie's eyes.
"Please do."
No longer was the woman's tone casual.
It seemed her fear from the Fragment's melody compounded with the figure in the video who she assumed was Sophie.
Sophie stayed silent for a minute, linking with Asher for a brief moment.
"Yes... Actually, that was not me."
She took out her phone, tapping a few buttons. Finally, she showed her screen to Sayako.
(Asher, Grade 7. Rank 9440. Chimère Office Fixer.)
An exact picture of Sophie's disguise was displayed on screen.
"I just used his face for a while, as a disguise."
A note of understanding flashed past Sayako's face.
Right, the boy in the video was insane, nothing like-
"...Someone like that is a Fixer?" Sayako saw no Fixer qualities from the madman in the video. In fact, it was more like she watched the advent of a Nightmare or Star.
"A-And, a Grade 7 defeating a Capo?? I-" She clenched her fist. Sayako knew far better than most the level of difference from a Capo to ordinary humans.
They were the Star's demigods. Simply inhuman. Inhuman.
"Yes. He is usually incredibly kind. As his Captain, I know his real personality." Sophie felt the unnecessary urge to defend Asher from Sayako's judgement.
The Dark Cloud Blade shot her a look of 'wha-?'.
Sophie pretended like she didn't notice.
"So, what will happen to the video now? Will there be any chance that it will be leaked?"
Sayako thought about it for a second, nodding her head after a moment's thought.
"There's no reason for the Sottocapo not to; it wasn't as if he lost face or anything. All that fell was one of his Capos, and soon enough, no one will remember that woman."
Sophie's gaze flickered back to the mangled body in the video. It really was a pitiable sight.
"Thanks for the warning. I will inform my Fixer of the situation. How is your arm?" Sophie noticed that Sayako wasn't hiding her huskified arm with a glove anymore.
"Ah... Just didn't feel like hiding it. Explaining to the Patriarch was hell."
Sophie narrowed her eyes.
"'Explaining'? Explain."
Sayako giggled dimly at Sophie's unintended repetition, understanding her worry. But Sophie's stare quashed the laughter from her.
"Don't worry, I didn't tell him anything. Only that I got it from a fight. Besides," she added as a rueful afternote, "I'm a woman, so he didn't care as much as he would if it were one of the Heirs..."
Sophie didn't know what to say. Sayako acted surprisingly young. She clasped the woman's shoulder.
"Do you need help?" The blunt words scraped Sayako's eardrums.
She shook her head violently.
Sophie shrugged, taking her phone out of her pocket. Coincidentally, her Fixers and Camille had finished posting their advertisements.
"My Fixers have finished. Want to train your 'kiddos'? I need them strong enough to handle themselves on their own."
"...M'kay. Pin me."
The woman passed her hairpin behind to Sophie, allowing the girl to stick the golden needle into her hair as she held it in place.
Sophie did so absentmindedly, pinning Sayako's long, sweet-smelling hair into a large ball.