diff --git a/smile/src/main/java/tools/jackson/dataformat/smile/async/NonBlockingByteArrayParser.java b/smile/src/main/java/tools/jackson/dataformat/smile/async/NonBlockingByteArrayParser.java
index ceb55b9b7..aea407b55 100644
--- a/smile/src/main/java/tools/jackson/dataformat/smile/async/NonBlockingByteArrayParser.java
+++ b/smile/src/main/java/tools/jackson/dataformat/smile/async/NonBlockingByteArrayParser.java
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 import java.io.OutputStream;
 import java.math.BigDecimal;
 import java.math.BigInteger;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 
 import tools.jackson.core.JacksonException;
@@ -1583,28 +1584,9 @@ private final JsonToken _finish7BitBinaryBody() throws JacksonException
     private final String _decodeASCIIText(byte[] inBuf, int inPtr, int len) throws JacksonException
     {
         // note: caller ensures we have enough bytes available
-        char[] outBuf = _textBuffer.emptyAndGetCurrentSegment();
-        int outPtr = 0;
-
-        // loop unrolling seems to help here:
-        for (int inEnd = inPtr + len - 3; inPtr < inEnd; ) {
-            outBuf[outPtr++] = (char) inBuf[inPtr++];
-            outBuf[outPtr++] = (char) inBuf[inPtr++];
-            outBuf[outPtr++] = (char) inBuf[inPtr++];
-            outBuf[outPtr++] = (char) inBuf[inPtr++];
-        }
-        int left = (len & 3);
-        if (left > 0) {
-            outBuf[outPtr++] = (char) inBuf[inPtr++];
-            if (left > 1) {
-                outBuf[outPtr++] = (char) inBuf[inPtr++];
-                if (left > 2) {
-                    outBuf[outPtr++] = (char) inBuf[inPtr++];
-                }
-            }
-        }
-        _textBuffer.setCurrentLength(len);
-        return _textBuffer.contentsAsString();
+        String str = new String(inBuf, inPtr, len, StandardCharsets.US_ASCII);
+        _textBuffer.resetWithString(str);
+        return str;
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/smile/src/test/java/tools/jackson/dataformat/smile/async/SimpleStringArrayTest.java b/smile/src/test/java/tools/jackson/dataformat/smile/async/SimpleStringArrayTest.java
index 4fcfb54bd..3580e5320 100644
--- a/smile/src/test/java/tools/jackson/dataformat/smile/async/SimpleStringArrayTest.java
+++ b/smile/src/test/java/tools/jackson/dataformat/smile/async/SimpleStringArrayTest.java
@@ -57,6 +57,35 @@ public void testShortAsciiStrings() throws IOException
         _testStrings(input, data, 1, 1);
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testShortAsciiStringAccessorsWithContiguousInput() throws IOException
+    {
+        final int[] lengths = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 31, 32, 33, 63, 64 };
+        final String[] input = new String[lengths.length];
+        for (int i = 0; i < lengths.length; ++i) {
+            input[i] = _ascii(lengths[i]);
+        }
+        byte[] data = _stringDoc(_smileWriter(true), input);
+
+        AsyncReaderWrapper r = asyncForBytes(_smileReader(true), data.length + 1, data, 0);
+        assertNull(r.currentToken());
+        assertToken(JsonToken.START_ARRAY, r.nextToken());
+        for (String value : input) {
+            assertToken(JsonToken.VALUE_STRING, r.nextToken());
+
+            assertEquals(value, r.currentText());
+            assertEquals(value.length(), r.parser().getStringLength());
+
+            final char[] ch = r.parser().getStringCharacters();
+            final int offset = r.parser().getStringOffset();
+            final int len = r.parser().getStringLength();
+            assertEquals(value, new String(ch, offset, len));
+        }
+        assertToken(JsonToken.END_ARRAY, r.nextToken());
+        assertNull(r.nextToken());
+        assertTrue(r.isClosed());
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testShortUnicodeStrings() throws IOException
     {
@@ -203,4 +232,13 @@ private byte[] _stringDoc(ObjectWriter w, String[] input) throws IOException
         g.close();
         return bytes.toByteArray();
     }
+
+    private String _ascii(int len)
+    {
+        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(len);
+        for (int i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
+            sb.append((char) ('a' + (i % 26)));
+        }
+        return sb.toString();
+    }
 }