84 How the World Changes so Fast

After the chaotic flood of evacuating guests - a deluge that even trickled down to the bottom floors - Pete and his friends stuck together like gelatin. They moved as a pack to find Asher and Mei.

The three of them ran into Mei on the eleventh floor, clawing at the elevator doors, screaming and wailing as a Soldato held her back. Aiko ran up to her.

"Mei, what's going on? Why are so many people leaving this place?" Mangchi eyed the Soldato staring down at them.

"Conflict has broken out on floor twelve. It is currently being resolved."

Mei broke into a babbling wail.

"But Asher's still in there! I saw a Capo break his legs!!"

The Soldato's gaze darkened, and he kicked her back to the ground.

Mangchi felt an ominous premonition hit him. He took out his phone. A new video had been posted on Hana Association's Section 12 forum.

This was his main source of news in the Backstreets. Not even his Captain knew of its usefulness in information gathering; he had never heard her mention it before.

(Conflict at Club Vivi?)

(After the Midnight Warning, which claimed over ten thousand, the Thumb has...)

A video was attached to the article.

"Guys, come look at this." Mangchi briskly pulled his friends to the side, including Mei. She shut her sobs as the title filled her with morbid curiosity. The article title could only be referring to what was happening on the top floor.

The beginning of the video showed the outside of Vivi, the building them and Mei were currently huddled in.

Everything was normal. People walked the streets, some sad, some miserable. A dreary curtain of smoke assured them that they would amount to nothing in their life.

A meaningless existence, with no chance to rise, and all the chance to be exploited by Syndicates and criminals.

Then a wall fell down from the sky.

Four unlucky individuals couldn't even scream out before they were mercilessly crushed to paste.

They didn't have to worry though. The screams that followed certainly made up for their lack of voice.

A period of silence descended on the four of them, only interrupted by Mei's hiccups and a whisper of "fucking hell" from Pete.

And just as suddenly, a crimson haired woman fell onto the broken wall piece, face first. Even from a distance, Mangchi and his friends took in a sharp breath. Mei let out a strangled noise from her throat.

The woman was wearing the uniform of a Capo. Her face was so mutilated that the scratchy video camera did nothing to ease their imaginations of the sheer brutality that must have happened for her to reach that state.

A single cheer rose. Someone in the crowd rushed up, tearing the embroidered jacket off of the Capo's skin, ignoring the woman's missing eyes and jaw.

That person couldn't get far before a knife stabbed into her stomach.

A brawl ensued, short and sweet. A few Fixers rose from the crowd, mediating peace between the conflict. A peace of broken limbs and fear-ridden silence.

The attacks ceased just in time for another man to point at the air, screaming some words unintelligible from where the video was taken.

Mangchi could read the man's lips.

'It's a kid! A kid's falling!'

Something dropped in Mangchi's stomach. A child, a child who wasn't evacuated?

Asher was a child. Asher wasn't evacuated.

Another person, too fast for the video camera to capture properly, slammed into the hastily set up net of hands.

For a few seconds, only a chaotic mess of tangled bodies could be seen as the fallen child disrupted the net's threads.

Then the crowd dispersed. Mei was allowed to see who fell.

"ASHER!"

Mei screamed, her voice more approaching a bird's screech than a human's.

No one could tell who received worse wounds. A gaping hole in Asher's stomach allowed for the organs inside to spill out. And the boy's legs... Just looking at their remnants gave Mangchi a sense of unbearable agony.

Neither of the two bodies moved.

The video cut to back.

Mei's complexion was the color of marble. She didn't move. She didn't breathe. She could only scream.

"AAAHH-!"

The Soldato grabbed Mei's throat, lifting her off the ground.

"Shut the fuck up!" A heated roar silenced her sobs.

Mangchi's eyes widened as the Soldato teared up. The man's voice was shaky and coarse. Was he...

Mourning for his Capo?

The man set Mei down. He was panting as hard as she was.

"Just... be quiet. Capo Stella has retired. Don't sully her service... with your screams."

Now would be a great time to leave, before their emotions piled into something unsalvageable.

Pete pulled Mei away as she mumbled incoherently under her breath. Aiko wrapped her arm around Mei's waist, supporting her as she staggered away.

Mangchi glanced back at the Soldato once more before following his friends to the elevators.

Those tears streaking the soldier's face weren't fake.

...

*Gasp!*

Asher shot up from the ground. The coarse asphalt scraped his skin.

Shards of glass welcomed him back to the Backstreets.

"System, you there?"

[Mhm.]

"What happened to the Fragment? Did it fuse with you?"

[No. Imbuing you with that power exhausted it back to hibernation.]

Asher fell into a silence. That... It sacrificed its chance for freedom to help him.

"Okay. I'll make good use of that. Sophie, you ready?"

She couldn't respond; he wasn't Synchronized with her. But Asher knew that she'd love this. Finally, she could finally experience the life of a true human being.

"[Fragmentation]!"

His chest split open, and a searing cold jolted his body. Asher grit his teeth, placing one of his hands on his heart.

[Which Synchronization do you wish to insert into a Shell of the Universe?]

[Scorched Girl / ??? / ??? / ??? / ??? / ??? / ???]

Six unknown Synchronizations. Asher wondered who they could possibly be.

But for now, there was only one choice.

"Scorched Girl. Sophie."

[Checking requirements, 'Us, We' (Scorched Girl)... Condition met.]

[Please hold.]

The palm of Asher's outstretched hand began to pulse.

Thick, tar-like fluid condensed into a ball on his skin.

Slowly, the shape of a heart was formed, as black as midnight.

[Release it.]

Asher tossed the heart into the air. The sky dimmed as ghastly shadows emerged from the street.

Incoherent whispers plagued his ears. From above, millions of lamp-like eyes watched the unworldly ritual unfold.

The darkness wailed as the blackened heart pulled them into its folds.

Slowly, steadily, the flesh began to form.

And when the figure touched the ground once more, its form was entirely completed.

Still, it was only a featureless shadow.

Asher held his breath.

Then, with a comical popping noise, the pure darkness was expelled from the shadow, revealing pale white and soft blond underneath. Sophie's new form.

Her long lashes fluttered as she opened her eyes. Asher's breath escaped him in a shuddering sigh of relief.

"Sophie!"

Asher leapt forward, embracing her in an enveloping hug.

"Asher!? Wha- Is this real??"

Her hand shakily caressed her own face. The smooth feeling of skin greeted her. Tears welled in her eyes.

Sophie fixed her teary eyes on the boy in front of her.

Her pupils glittered like diamonds, filled with an unfathomable gratitude that took Asher's breath away.

Sophie buried her face in his chest, hiding her expression from him as she let out a choked sob.

...

They didn't let go of each other for a long time.

When they finally separated, the pink reverie broke at last.

The acrid air stung their lungs.

Stella's dead body was still propped up next to the dumpster.

"..."

They still had a long road ahead of them.

"What do you want to do with Stella's body?"

Sophie's voice had reverted back to its monotone state. She crouched next to the corpse.

"Wait- you're not gonna ask me what happened?"

She looked back at him plainly, muttering beneath her breath.

"...I saw your fight with her earlier. Just because I wasn't Synchronized didn't mean I couldn't see what was going on."

Asher blanched. Then, did she also see what he was like when his future self took control?

Sophie took his hand, lacing her fingers with his. They were warm.

"Asher. I trust you. It wasn't something you could control."

She patted his head.

"Don't beat yourself over for that. What's done is done. But it is regrettable..." Sophie looked down at the pale body below her.

The blood flow had ebbed to a trickle. A garish puddle of blood soaked their shoes.

"I think we should cremate her," Asher mumbled.

"It would be better than letting her necrose here. Phone?"

Sophie pocketed the phone Asher gave her.

"We're damn lucky that no one stole anything from my body. Kinda strange actually." Asher mused to himself.

"You're right. But what's stranger is that our phones only have a few cracks in them."

"My luck stat came clutch." A subdued smirk flashed into his expression.

They conversed with a level of dryness only closest friends could imitate as they tucked Stella's dead body into a ball.

Asher hoisted Stella into his arms with relative ease.

"Did Mei text you back yet?" Sophie's voice held a bit of concern.

Asher looked at his messages, but realized that Mei wasn't in his phone's contacts, only in Sophie's. There were only a few urgent messages from Mangchi in his. He jerked his head at her, and Sophie understood what he meant.

A few swipes later, and Sophie nodded her head. Mei was practically incoherent in her texts, rambling on and on about a 'video'. A video which he died in. Maybe someone recorded a video of the fight?

That was five minutes ago.

She cared for him. Sophie's eyes softened.

"(I'm alright, Mei. See you soon.)" Sophie spoke her text aloud, and Asher approved her message with a thumbs up.

"But let's send Stella off before we go."

They looked at each other simultaneously

Lay the corpse of their enemy to rest.

...

An undisclosed warehouse in the Industrial District. Previously used to manufacture machinery and other goods, before it was Swept clean in a particularly eventful Night of the Backstreets.

Slash marks from the hooks of Sweepers riddled the walls, a lingering remnant of the past.

What was this warehouse used for now?

Cremation.

The glows of the furnaces spewed more smog into the air.

A scar-riddled man narrowed his eyes at the two kids in front of him. It wasn't every day that kids came into the Industrial District.

But his experience told him that these were no ordinary kids.

One was carrying a corpse of a grown woman in his arms; who knew how long the boy had maintained that standing position in their staredown. The girl had ash strewn over her dress and exuded a dangerous, caustic aura beneath her delicate exterior.

The woman in the boy's arms also had her neck slit from ear to ear. She was otherwise untouched.

An assassination?

The odd pair waited for his response. A few of the man's colleagues craned their heads toward the commotion.

The girl slipped her hand in her companion's pocket, pulling out a few more bills.

"How about fifty? Don't be ageist, this is already extra according to what it said online."

"...Fine."

He flicked his head up, directing them to one of the rooms deeper in the warehouse.

The man spat out his chewing tobacco, waiting for the sound of flames. He didn't ask for names, background, anything.

Such was the business of the Backstreets. Any and all services could be bought with enough money. Some more morbid examples would include live cremation.

Even with those live cremation cases, they didn't care who was going to enter the oven.

*FWOOSH!*

"..." He counted the money in his hands.

The two kids walked past him, exiting the warehouse without another word.

Another day in the Backstreets.