Back

And they were back.

[Pluto's seal is gone. You are safe for now.]

[Good work.]

Asher switched out of Little Red's Synchronization as Sophie huffed a sigh of relief in front of him.

The girl nearly died.

He crumpled to his knees, embracing the coarse, warm pavement. Their wounds occurred in the room, so their bodies were fine, at least physically.

With a breath of amusement, Sophie joined him, spreading her limbs on the sun-warmed street.

Their hands squeezed each other. Asher twisted his head to look at his partner.

"Well, I'm back, Sophie."

The girl smiled.

"Mhm. Missed you."

They basked in the sun's warmth for many more minutes, ignoring the strange stares of the pedestrians passing by.

When Asher spoke again, they were lying on their sides, hand in hand.

"So, what happened when I was gone?"

Sophie grinned.

They were back in business.

By the time Asher and Sophie stood up again, a few dozen minutes had passed.

They talked about important and unimportant matters alike. Of course, most of the conversation pertained to what Asher missed in the three days his consciousness was sealed.

'...' Little Red sulked as Asher and Sophie chatted nonstop, leaving her soul forgotten.

"Oh, Little Red? Are you alright?" Asher frowned as he felt an unnatural twitch in his heart. He could feel her anxiety, more than the Impurity back then cared to pay attention to.

Without another word, he synchronized with the woman. By this time, they were already well hidden in the folds of a dark alleyway.

As the stench of blood filled the air, Sophie wrinkled her nose. Her first impressions of Little Red weren't great.

However, Little Red's next words made the girl blink with surprise.

"Sorry." Her voice was still harsh and abrasive, yet somehow more mellow than Sophie remembered. "I didn't notice until it was too late."

Asher brushed it off with a smile.

"It's fine, Red. Did you do anything while I was gone?"

The disconcerting dance of voices from the single voicebox was uncanny, even by Sophie's standards. Asher and the new Abnormality seemed to have reached an agreement that they would each use the same voice in tandem.

Little Red perked up at Asher's question. But on second thought, she answered his question with one of her own.

"Who was that person, anyway? That devil..." Little Red shivered. She remembered the frightening moments of callousness the unknown soul displayed to her.

Asher glanced at Sophie for permission. The girl shrugged.

'We're both your souls, anyway,' her eyes seemed to say.

Asher cleared his throat.

"Well, I actually came from the future. See," Asher shared one of the first prompts that the System gave him.

"Thirteen years from the future..." Little Red whispered. Her tone was both believing and disbelieving at once.

Asher explained that the soul who replaced him for three days was his own soul from thirteen years in the future, his future self.

Seeing as Little Red still had her doubts, Asher imparted one last memory to her. The birdcage lamp. 'Asher' had used his bare hands to twist apart the eldritch bird god's enchantment.

Little Red let out a shaky breath. The throne of skeletons, the birdcage lamp, the unappeasable malice, all sealed into a child's innocence...

She was taken into a moment of introspection.

Just who was this boy?

This cycle, the System had chosen something truly special.

Sophie looked at Asher with worry in her eyes.

"Well, enough about that, what did you do over the three days?"

Little Red shivered. Mixed memories came to her mind.

She began to tell her side of the story.

Soon, the full picture was revealed.

Asher glanced down at the gun in his hand. His expression mirrored his thoughts. Over the three days, this was the only part of Little Red's set that upgraded.

'Asher' promptly used that upgrade to... In euphemistic terms, create a flesh painting.

The crimson crystals that lined the weapon's barrel glinted with blood.

"You said that you named it 'Ruby Extract'?"

Little Red nodded.

Asher asked the System.

It had a different name for it.

[Dulcet Rose]

[The barrel reeks of a sickly sweet fragrance. Memories of the deceased linger within the frame. In moments of bloodlust, its bullets will shatter into fragments of buckshot. This weapon may upgrade itself after being soaked in blood.]

Asher quietly stashed the gun into his cloak.

Next, he checked the other items in Little Red's set. The mark skill, her scythe-blade, and her cloak were all relatively close to upgrading. None of them were below fifty percent progression; 'Asher' had kept himself busy.

Finishing his check-up with Little Red, Asher desynchronized with her. As expected, he still wasn't entirely comfortable speaking with her, despite the apology she gave.

It was his personal bias, but he liked Sophie better.

"So, want to go see Mei?" Sophie suggested.

Of course.

...

While reunions were great and everything, Asher had much to rethink about his plans for Little Red.

His mind was on more important matters, so the reunion ended with little to note.

A long hug and peck from Mei, and then he was back on the apartment's rooftop. Chimère Office's de facto meeting area.

"Should I leave again or stay here?" Asher peered down the rooftop as he spoke. Sophie made a pensive expression.

"Honestly? Staying is better. Little Red," Sophie treaded carefully onward, "doesn't seem like a bad person, so I think your worries back when you first left aren't valid. Most of the stuff she did over the last three days was because of your future self. And now that you're back in control..."

Asher nodded. As long as he didn't get sealed again, things should work out. Besides, back in the first night with Little Red, they had already reached an agreement about body rights. Which was that Asher would be in full control.

"And besides, we still haven't explored here in detail yet, not to mention other places. A lot happened, but only a bit less than two weeks have passed since you arrived with the System."

That was reasonable. No sense in branching out when there were secrets yet to be found where he was.

Now that Asher had three reasons (last reason being together with Mei and Sophie), he made his final decision.

"So, I'll try to get Little Red fully synchronized as soon as possible. I can set up shop here."

Sophie nodded.

"Office matters go to me, as usual. I'll call you in if there's anything we can do together."

Asher smiled; their ideas were so in sync.

They glanced up simultaneously.

The sun hung above them.

There was work to be done.

...

Asher reluctantly followed his future self's plan, plastering posters along the streets and alleys. It was easy enough to find a cheap printing shop, and he printed out posters of the same general layout as what 'Asher' did back on 6th Street.

He created a new email, abandoning the old one 'Asher' created. Emails, he realized, were so convenient, making it so he didn't have to get an entirely new phone for his separate identity shenanigans.

However, he kept his Synchronization's title, Little Red. The mercenary's name had reached most of Section 12, so there was no point in discarding it.

Before he could finish posting all his flyers, a few notifications had already begun to trickle into the email.

Asher took a quick break, stashing the remaining few dozen flyers in his cloak as he scanned through his email list.

This time, he would be more selective of what jobs he accepted. Little Red said that during the three days he was gone, his future self didn't hesitate to torture innocent people, or go on 'flesh runs' to supply the local cannibals.

Now that he was back in control, he wouldn't do such a thing.

(Your request has been denied.) Asher typed out his response to 'Little Piggy's Diner', for their commission of twenty human bodies for fifteen hundred Ahn.

With further consideration, he blocked the email entirely.

"Speaking of money, Red, where's the pay you got in the past few days?"

As it turned out, all the money was stashed in the hotel room, back in 6th Street.

"Ah. That's fine then." Asher didn't want that tainted money, anyway.

By this time, Asher had scrolled past half of the notifications. Unknowingly, more than half an hour passed as new emails kept arriving, and as Asher matched each requester with the Hana's threat list.

"Wait-!" He suddenly had a great idea. "Argh, I shouldn't have deleted the cannibal ones! What were their names again..."

Asher breathed a sigh of relief as he found the deleted emails in a trash section.

These cannibal restaurants... he might visit them later, as his Fixer persona.

With this, he could gain merit both as a Fixer and as Little Red.

Of course, there were a few requests that he was considering for Little Red to accept. Stealing, killing, tailing, he could do all those jobs.

Strangely, he wasn't all too troubled about matters like murder. His soul had been tempered well past that point.

His irrational (perhaps rational) fear of cannibals was because of the trauma of 'Hal's Meat and Pastry Confectionary', back when his Temperance and Insight was barely past single digits.

Those memories and pain and suffering were, in a sense, fresher than the memories he made when his Temperance could be rounded to triple digits.

Asher hummed as he scrolled down, further and further.

Suddenly, he froze.

(Investigate Asher.)

The title popped out with its simplicity.

(Compile a report on the location of Asher, the Chimère Office's Capo killer.) A sentence stood out from the body of the email.

'...Stray Dogs.' His eyes narrowed as he read their introduction once again. They were getting desperate, as Asher had disappeared from the streets entirely for over half a week.

He called on Sophie and Little Red for advice.

"Stray Dogs? Those were the guys who sent you to me, right?" Little Red mused aloud.

'Accepting such a task might create an unforeseen situation.' Sophie provided a reasonable viewpoint.

Asher slowly shook his head.

"I think I'll accept the request. If I can mark them, I might be able to win against them." Asher grinned, interrupting Sophie before she spoke. "Of course, I won't fight straight away. Just dip my feet in the water."

(Your request has been accepted.) He typed out his response.

"And-" Asher chuckled, "I already have a report ready! Should I ask them for a meeting place?"

Sophie's mouth twitched.

'Wait for me.'

In less than ten minutes, Asher/Little Red and Sophie met in an alley. A plan was hastily born.

(The request has been completed. Name a location.) He waited a bit before responding. Since Little Red was an Urban Legend already, there wouldn't be too much suspicion if she completed a task within an hour.

Soon, a set of coordinates were given. They led to a warehouse in the Industrial District, close to where Asher first met the Carnival.

Sophie nodded, flicking to the roof while simultaneously activating [Bystander]. She would stay close to him, in case a fight broke out. Since Fixers were known to work with Syndicates, they could fabricate a narrative if it came to that.

But Sophie would only intervene if the conflict escalated to a dangerous level. She was only there as a last resort.

Asher squinted, just barely making out a hazy patch of distorted air on the rooftops, which was Sophie using her concealing skill.

With that, everything was set.

To give a report about himself.

To the Syndicate that killed him.