Thumb

"Wake up, hurry!"

Asher woke to Mei shaking him like her life depended on it. Still groggy and confused, he looked at Mei strangely, burrowing back into his blankets.

"They've come earlier than I thought! Just-! Get-! Up-! Already!" As she spoke, she ripped the blanket off of him, pulled him up, and shoved him into the closet, much to his muffled complaints.

An impatient rapping on the door made Asher close his mouth. He realized the situation could be more serious than he originally thought.

Mei ran to the door, stumbling a bit on the way, and flung it open.

"Greetings, esteemed Thumb Soldato." Her voice turned low and respectful.

"You have the money? You know how expensive it is to protect our territory, Miss Li." Asher heard a male voice coming from the kitchen. Of course, it was one that he did not recognize.

"Yes, yes, honored sir. I have prepared food for you to eat as you wait." Mei rummaged through her purse, taking out a stuffed packet and placing it on the man's outstretched hands.

The situation confused Asher. What was she giving money for? Why would she prepare food for him?

*CRASH*

The sound of shattering porcelain nearly caused him to barge out of the closet.

'What the hell is going on out there?!' Asher paused at the last moment; Mei didn't want him to cause trouble.

"Don't lie to me, missy. You prepared this food for yourself, right?" The man laughed at her pitiful attempt to flatter him.

"Yes. This lowly one is sorry for lying."

"I hate liars the most... So I'll ask you a single question."

"Yes?"

The man's fist smashed into the wall.

"...Why are there two plates here?"

"-!" Mei froze up, clearly unwilling to answer the man. She quickly came up with a plausible lie.

"I-I was planning to eat both of them-" Her body froze as the man pulled her chin up, examining her like an animal.

"Heh, don't come up with excuses, girl. Here, I'll cut you a deal. I won't tell my boss, and you give me double the amount you gave today, alright? Protecting two people is naturally going to be more expensive, right?" The man rubbed his fingers together greedily.

"...Yes, sir."

The Soldato leaned into her ear, whispering something else. Mei stiffened, then relaxed her body.

"Yes, that is fine."

"Haha! it's all for the good of the other person hiding here, right?" The man increased his voice as he left the building, almost wanting the hidden person to hear.

"...Yes."

Asher clenched his fist. Just what did that man say to Mei?

The door closed shut, and Mei went back to her bedroom, opening the closet he was hiding in. Asher burst out, immediately barraging her with questions.

"Who was that guy? Why do you need to pay him? What the hell did he say to you?!"

He stared at Mei's face. It held an expression that he had seen after he killed Hal. Forced calm.

"That man was a Soldato of the Thumb. The Thumb is one of the Five Fingers, the most dangerous Syndicates of the Backstreets. You don't stand a chance against them." She stared at him, pleading for him to not do anything rash.

"Why the hell do you have to pay him, though?"

Mei sighed, hiding her face in her hands.

"It's a tribute you have to pay for the 'protection' of the Thumb. It's more like their way of controlling their territory. Each Finger has a different way of doing so. Like how the Index hands out 'Prescripts'."

"Well then, what-"

Mei shushed him with her hand again, clearly exhausted.

"You don't have to worry about what he said, Asher. I'll be fine."

He stared into her eyes. They displayed many emotions, most of which he would not categorize as 'fine'.

Mei looked at him, begging him to not investigate it further.

"Tell me you won't do anything bad? I can trust you, right?"

Asher looked at her face. Why should she trust him? They had barely met just half a day ago.

He couldn't just do nothing about this.

But he nodded on the outside.

Mei sighed in relief, walking to the kitchen by herself. As Asher followed her, a sight of pure carnage greeted him.

A plate was shattered on the floor, its shards completely covering floor of the kitchen. There was a hole that went through the drywall and into the bathroom. Food covered the ground, dirtying his feet.

"Don't worry about this mess. Go eat your breakfast, the one on the table." Mei leaned down to gather the shards of plate and food scraps on the floor, and Asher saw one plate lying unbroken on the kitchen table.

The Soldato only bothered to shatter one.

Asher clenched his fist. How dare that man do all of this yet still ask for more money!

"I'll help you." He leaned down as well, scraping up the sharp porcelain shards with his hand and dumping them in the trash.

He did it much faster than Mei did, as she gingerly picked up each piece one by one to avoid injury. Asher didn't care about injuries, and soon his hand became lacerated with cuts.

In less than five minutes, Asher picked the floor clean as Mei wiped it again with a towel.

She looked at Asher's hand, which was wrapped in a thin gauze which was quickly turning red.

"Why did you pick them up so fast??"

Asher didn't answer. He could not tell her that the reason he did this was to channel his anger into a honed point. The blood on his hand was a reminder of the man who did this.

"I ate my share of the food. The rest is for you." He had split the remaining food on the unbroken plate into two parts, and he ate his portion while Mei was wiping the floor.

"What the... This is practically all the food! You ate nothing!" She looked at him incredulously. The portion Asher took was so small that it was almost comical.

"I'm smaller than you, I don't need as much food."

"But I'm not growing anymore, you are!"

"Bigger equals more energy."

"You're wrong, it's actually..."

They bickered like that for a few more minutes until Asher finally relented, eating another half of the mixed vegetables. He didn't know why Mei only had vegetables in her kitchen, but food was food, and it tasted decent. Maybe she was a vegetarian?

"Alright, I'm going to go to work now, okay? Stay home and don't do anything rash."

"Where do you work?" Asher wasn't willing to let her go so easily. He still didn't know what that man said to her, after all.

"Sigh... I just work at a random store. I'm going to leave now!" She rushed out the door, eager to leave as fast as possible.

Asher was left staring at the closed door. But he didn't stay still for long.

He burst through the door, just in time to see Mei on the street below him walking away.

Just like last night, he climbed the wall of the apartment, eventually landing himself on the roof of the building.

From there he slowly followed her, leaping across the buildings, still worrying about the words the 'Soldato' told her.

'What if he told her to do something awful?' Asher wasn't sure what things could happen, but he wasn't willing to risk it.

Only when he saw her enter a building called 'HamHamPangPang' did he let out a sigh of relief. It seemed like a small restaurant based on the layout and sign. And the smell that emanated from it told him that it didn't deal with human meat, unlike Hal's kitchen.

...

But now what would he do now that she was gone? Try to find a job?

He peered at the maze of alleys below his feet.

'Fixers... if that cannibal and Pete mistook me as one, maybe other people will, too...'

He jumped down from the rooftop into the alley, landing on some conveniently placed trash bags.

By the time he landed, he was already wearing his E.G.O.

Its wings fluttered in anticipation.