Prelude to Another

A quick walk later, and the abandoned apartment rose into their vision.

During the time they were gone, the destroyed building across the street was already cleared out, and the vestiges of a new foundation were laid near the ground.

"Guys, help me with these husks. They will keep intruders out." Asher called out to Pete and his friends as he opened the storage closet.

The air seemed to freeze as the sight of the black husks made their blood run cold.

"U-Um, I don't really wanna-" Pete took a step back, but Aiko's frozen still body prevented him from retreating.

"Come on, it's good mental training. You want to get stronger, don't you? Take one!"

Mangchi stepped up to the husk Asher held out for him, shivering as its skin crackled on his. The holes punched into its body vibrated, producing a faint whistling noise as he trembled.

Soon, the three of them were each forced to hold a husk in their arms. Though they were fairly light, the sandpaper texture and piercing whistles caused them to tremble so hard that they immediately developed cramps.

Mangchi's teeth chattered as he asked Asher what to do.

"W-What should we do with these, sir?"

Asher giggled at the sight in front of him, fanning Mei behind him twice before grabbing two husks of his own. He placed his fan in a cleverly hidden breast pocket.

"You three just set half of them here, in the main room. I'll go upstairs to put the other six where I want to."

Asher's smile unsettled the three Fixers. They wanted their Captain back...

As Asher fluttered away, the three Fixers got to work.

...

Asher couldn't decide where to put the 'mannequins' in his arms. First floor? Second floor? He wasn't going to use any of those floors, though...

He wanted to make the entire apartment his Office, but found that it was just too much space to cover.

'How about one husk for each floor?' Plopping one husk in the middle of the first floor hallway, he deftly leaped onto the second floor, doing the same to it as well.

Jumping off the railing, he entered the main room again to find-

Asher giggled at the sight in front of him, clapping his hands together.

"Well, aren't you two having fun~ See, it isn't so bad, right?" Pete and Aiko had found new ways to bend the husks to make them sit on chairs or lean against the wall. Mangchi looked at the side with amusement. Some people's minds could just find joy out of everything, Asher thought.

Aiko glanced at Pete, smirking at their craftmanship.

But when they stepped back to look at their work from a bigger perspective, they nearly fainted.

The husks crackled as they seemed to stare at them intently. Aiko and Pete had created a truly horrifying piece of still life, with blackened husks posed with lifelike humanity.

Asher whistled.

"Nice work, let's see how it looks from an outsider's perspective." He ushered them out of the building, closing the opaque doors behind them.

Aiko covered her eyes with her hands; she did not want to see what she created.

Asher swung open the door. A small gasp escaped his lips.

A husk sat in a plastic folding chair, a newspaper in its hand. Its head, however, was snapped nearly one hundred and eighty degrees, staring straight at them as they entered.

Another husk leaned against the wall, whistling softly as it gazed into their souls.

If all the husks were replaced with human beings, the sight might have been ordinary, perhaps even homely. But this sight...

Asher was impressed.

"This is great," Asher waved his hands around as the three Fixers shivered behind him, "Feel free to relax in your Captain's room as I get these other ones set up."

Pete and his friends didn't have to hear his suggestion; they were already scrambling up the stairs to leave behind the cursed sight.

Asher took another two husks, climbing to the third floor. The door to Mei's room was shut tight. The three Fixers probably expected him to come up there with more husks, which they did not want to see.

This time, taking inspiration from Pete and Aiko's stunt in the main room, Asher placed the husk in the corner at the end of the hallway, posing it so that the husk curled into a fetal position.

He moved the husk's hands so that it clenched its neck in an attempt to strangle itself, creating the image of a raving, suicidal figure.

'Wow, now that looks good.'

Though abundantly obvious, Asher's mental state was not faring too well.

Before he could head to the top floor, he heard a shrill scream below him. It seemed like someone had already fallen prey to the 'scarecrow' tactic of his.

The noise came right below him, on the second floor. Did someone move into one of the rooms while he was gone?

He hung from the railing by his feet, observing the commotion.

A blonde woman shrieked as she opened her door straight into a grainy, elongated figure. It stared at her silently as she stuttered.

"T-Thumb? I'm so sorry sir, plea-"

Then she noticed Asher hanging upside down from the ceiling.

Asher flipped upright with ease, landing beside the husk.

"Don't worry, I placed these here. My name is Asher. I'm a Grade 7 Fixer." A swish of his fan covered his expression from the woman.

The woman trembled before she bowed deeply.

"S-S-Sorry miss. I will take my leave-" Asher covered her lips with his fan, preventing her from continuing.

"No, you can stay."

"Then, how much do I have to-"

The woman's eyes widened as Asher made an '0' with his finger. For free?! Nothing extra, no extortions, no demands on her body?

Before Asher vaulted the railing again, he turned back.

"But the catch is that you might see these husks now and then, alright?"

The woman nodded with some difficulty. But that small inconvenience for a free room, who wouldn't take the deal?

And with a leap off the railing, the mysterious figure was gone.

...

On ground level, Asher sighed in disappointment. He did not expect that people would come to the apartment so quickly, but he didn't feel like kicking that woman out. Though unstable, he was still a 'good' person.

She reminded him of Mei.

Perhaps he could work around this situation. Honestly, he didn't need to have the entire building to himself. That decision was only a product of his greed for space.

As long as nobody slept in the main room or entered the room with all the money from looting the apartment, Asher felt that he could let other people live anywhere in the building.

So he moved all the husks from the hallways into the trashed neighbor's room, positioning them all to stare directly at the doorway, twisted in various eerie positions.

With so many husks cramped in such a small space, even Asher felt a chill down his spine as he looked back at his work.

'Neat, now to head back.' He dusted his hands on his clothes.

*Knock Knock*

A quick shuffle inside, and Mangchi opened the door for him.

Pete and Aiko lay sprawled out on the floor, bored out of their minds.

Mangchi, on the other hand, was scrolling his phone attentively. They looked up at Asher as he set Mei's body to the side.

"Sir, what's your relationship with Sophie?"

Asher blinked as Mangchi seemed curious about his personal history. Really, he had the least history out of all of them, as far as he knew.

"We're... relatively close. Closest, in a sense." Asher resisted the urge to say 'twins'. While that would be fun, it might provide too big of a hint.

They nodded, a misguided light of understanding flashing through their eyes. Aiko pouted by the side, somehow upset.

Asher peeked at his phone. Still half a dozen hours until night.

But perhaps this free time was just what he needed.

Asher chatted with the three Fixers a bit more, understanding each of their opinions about their Captain, as well as other miscellaneous things.

After Sophie saved them and gave them clothes, Pete regarded his Captain as a good friend. A strange and emotionless one, but a friend nonetheless. Aiko seemed to have a crush on Sophie, comparing her to Harold in a series of praises that left her blushing furiously.

Mangchi's opinion of Sophie was held together by near reverential fear, as the incident with Sayako from yesterday still haunted him far more than it did the other two. Asher noted that down for later.

The atmosphere grew warm, and after half an hour or so, they all grew fairly comfortable together.

Aiko went with Pete to the kitchen to grab something to eat, leaving Asher and Mangchi alone in the bedroom.

Mangchi elected to stay silent, sinking into Mei's bed. A few moments of silence passed before he opened his mouth again.

"You know, I still don't trust you. Something just doesn't feel right."

Asher stood up, shrugging his shoulders carelessly.

"Alright then~ Though, I think being with you three is quite fun. And I think I trust you."

Mangchi grunted noncommittally, sitting up from the bed.

The door creeped open; Pete and Aiko had come back empty handed.

"Asher! Come to the kitchen with us!" Their voices were urgent; it subconsciously made Asher step up to check it out.

The boards creaked as he walked to the kitchen.

The hairs on his neck stood up. He felt as if the air had suddenly turned more ominous.

With baited breath, he-

"-!" A knife stabbed into him from behind. It twisted inside of him, rending his stomach into an incomprehensible mess.

But what was even more of a mess was Asher's mind. Because behind the knife was a familiar presence.

"A- ...Aiko?"