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Chapter Text

Kagami gazed out across the half-empty establishment. Nobody gazed back. Or rather, a couple patrons did glance in her direction, but then immediately looked away – presumably out of a concern for their own safety. The menacing presence of tommy guns in her entourage’s hands would likely have discouraged even the bravest, drunkest fool from coming too close.

She couldn’t blame them. But she found it dull. She would quite have liked to catch someone’s eye – perhaps a pretty little lady who could be persuaded to join her at a secluded table for the hour, then maybe at a hotel for the night. But of course, coming in here with her little gun-packed crew wouldn’t exactly provide her with many opportunities to get close to people. She was here on business, after all.

And ‘Belle’ Beaureal wasn’t here yet.

Tipping the brim of her fedora hat slightly backwards, she turned to Astruc, her capodecine – who also didn’t look her way. “She did say Théo’s, correct?” she asked.

“Yes, Miss Tsurugi,” he said, stoically observing everything about his surroundings except for her.

“And there have been no reports of trouble?”

“No, Miss Tsurugi.”

She sighed. It looked like another wait was in store. Running the Tsurugi cosca was getting to be a real chore lately. There were so many things to consider when running the largest family in the city – making associates happy, planning operations, organising the various crews, avoiding the long arm of the law, and keeping an eye on the other mobs. Mamma Tomoe had been pushing her more. There was far too little respect. And the ABCs had been getting uppity, too.

Three nights ago, a cugine from the Agreste mob had tried to be smart with her; she’d swiftly let him know just how much he was walking across the bridge, by putting a knife to his throat and twisting his arm until he begged for forgiveness. Which she had granted, because she was merciful. The young Fathom had left in disgrace, but he had left on his own two feet.

Then there was the run-in she had with Kimmy Chiggers of the Bourgeois gang, where he tried to get uppity with her at a bar. That was two nights ago, and she’d punched his lights out – because she could only tolerate so much touchiness from drunk men, and the amount she could tolerate was exactly zero.

And last night, she and Anciel had caught a gaggle of Couffaine mobsters trying to rob a store on Tsurugi turf. They claimed there had been a mixup and were apologetic, but she didn’t entirely trust them on that. She’d let them go, but only after giving one of them a warning shot through the shin to make sure they got the message.

Being second in command of the Tsurugi family was a position that required her to demand respect. But it also required her to show a certain species of gentleness – because you couldn’t rule a city with just terror and guns. You also needed trust, and you needed your associates to know that unless they did something terrible, they would still have your grace and protection. And flat-out killing members of other mobs was bad form; there would almost certainly be reprisals.

It was a philosophy that had served Kagami well. All her associates were satisfied, at least the ones that hadn’t done something truly objectionable and ended up with a message job through the eye. The other mobs – the Agrestes, the Bourgeoises, and the Couffaines – had kept to their own turfs. Beyond that, the only issue was cops. And they were annoying, in the same way that an itch on the neck was annoying, but easy enough to deal with.

The unrest this week was troubling, though. ‘Belle’ was supposed to have a thorough report. Although… her absence might be a report in itself. If she’d been whacked by a different mob on the way here, or if the cops had caught her, then the Tsurugis would have to make their displeasure known…

“Alright. Astruc, Caquet, with me to the bar,” she said, pointing with two fingers. “Anciel, Lee, back door. Duparc, Wang, stay here. Understood?”

“Got it, boss,” said five voices in unison. Astruc simply nodded, holding his gun aloft as he walked ahead onto the floor.

Everyone went to their assigned places; other than Astruc they all held their weapons halfway concealed. They relied on their grey pinstriped suits, their gritty confidence, and most of all the sword-shaped pins on their black ties to convey their presence instead. But Astruc, hot-headed and stupid as he was, made a whole demonstration out of it – brandishing the gun at the patrons while glaring at them.

“You know,” commented Kagami as she sat down at a stool by the counter, “I think the good patrons here are already frightened enough. Please, tone it down a little bit.” A man sitting alone at the table closest to Astruc was trembling so much that his drink was spilling onto the table.

Astruc nodded. “Got it, boss,” he said – then spun around to point the gun at the trembling man, causing him to slop the glass down his front. “No funny business, got it!” Astruc yelled.

Kagami put her fingers to her temples and groaned. “This is a respectable establishment,” she said, emphasising the ‘respectable’ part to underline that she really meant ‘associated’. Causing a ruckus would only lead to trouble. “Put your gun away.”

He nodded again. There was no indication that he’d listened. He didn’t lower the gun at all. Kagami raised her eyebrows at Caquet, who sat a few seats away, rolling her eyes as she leant onto the desk. They’d both had to deal with Astruc for a long time; he was the least pleasant out of all the capodecines. She had no idea how he’d stayed in the organisation for so long, least of all how he’d been promoted to capodecine specifically for this job, but she expected bribery to Mamma Tomoe must have been involved.

The other soldiers were all behaving. Most of them were experienced – Lee notwithstanding – and they’d keep a waking eye on anyone approaching the premises, and stop anyone from coming in if they seemed to have bad intentions. The mission was pure routine, other than how their informant hadn’t showed up yet. And that meant, until something happened, Kagami would have to remain bored.

She always appreciated Théo’s, though. Inside, it was small but open – so less likely to draw attention from the law. The large window out to the street – painted over with black, because of what Kagami knew was an abundance of caution – lent that particular side a strange and unsettling quality, because a small amount of light still got through the layer of paint, throwing a darker shade on that part of the space. The effect was like the inverse of a streetlamp, almost like it was sucking the light away. And less light was also useful.

“Théo,” she called, addressing the man behind the counter – he was sucking on his toothpick as usual. “I would like a Pink Lady.”

“You got it,” he said, and reached for the gin on the shelf behind him with practised ease. A professional, as always. Even Astruc’s gun didn’t seem to faze him.

While Théo was shaking the drink, though, there was a commotion at the door. The angle between the entrance and the bar meant she couldn’t see what was going on, but she reached down for her handgun either way, resting her hand on the holster.

“I’m sorry, madam,” sounded Wang’s voice. “Please stay calm.”

There was another voice, which sounded like it belonged to a young woman – somewhere around Kagami’s age, in fact. “Hey!” it exclaimed.

“I’ll look,” said Astruc, and Kagami let him go; he had the tommy gun in one hand, barrel pointing up at the ceiling like a complete sciocco. There was clearly no stopping him tonight. Instead, she went back to watching Théo work his magic.

She registered that Astruc was blustering about ‘Search her!’ and ‘No sudden moves’, and then a few yelps and squeaks that must have come from the woman he was accosting.

Soon, a cocktail glass was placed before Kagami, and Théo filled it with the Pink Lady. As he slotted the slice of lemon onto the rim, though, the plug at the entrance loosened up and Astruc came back in – followed by a woman who looked like she must have the unfamiliar voice. She was just too perfect a fit for it.

She was short (though Kagami could hardly throw any stones in that regard), with carefully groomed dark hair and a dainty but warm look to her face, just like the voice had sounded dainty and warm. Other than her flat black shoes, the only visible thing she wore was a magenta swing dress with black polka dots, a wide and poofy skirt, and no sleeves. Her arms and shins were surprisingly muscular given the rest of her frame – probably a factory worker or something.

A very attractive specimen, all things considered. Something to complement Kagami’s cocktail. Kagami would definitely be up for an hour at a secluded table or a night at a hotel with her. The dress was button-up the whole way in front, and Kagami imagined unbuttoning it slowly, or perhaps just unbuttoning one then grabbing hold of the sides and pulling apart so fast all the buttons would ricochet off the furniture –

– or she would have felt that way, if she weren’t here on business. Pulling in random strangers would be bad form.

Well. It would have been, if the stranger hadn’t come up to sit right next to her with an exasperated expression on her face. “Hey, Théo,” said the stranger, “what’s up with your new bouncers?”

“They’re not mine, Marinette.”

The stranger – Marinette? – blinked. “Really? Why are they here, then?”

“You gotta ask them yourself,” said Théo. He seemed a little nervous as he slid the Pink Lady across to Kagami. “It’s not my business.”

“No thank you. I’d rather walk on coals. Could you give me a Bloody Mary, by the way?” Then Marinette turned to Kagami, and beamed, like she was extremely happy to see her. “Oh, hi there! Sorry, I didn’t mean to sit so close. It’s just, this is my favourite seat. I can move if you’d like.”

Kagami just stared. Couldn’t Marinette see that she was part of the mob? And then she recalled her own clothes, because unlike the others she wasn’t wearing a jacket – just the white shirt with a pinstriped vest. And her trousers were just black, plus she was the only one of them with a hat. And she didn’t have the tie or the tie pin – instead, her cufflinks were sword-shaped. Maybe it wasn’t that weird not to realise, although the act of not recognising Kagami was a bit of an achievement in itself. Marinette must be new to the city, or at least to this district.

“No, that’s fine,” said Kagami, holding up a hand. Her smile in return probably wasn’t all that pleasant to look at, though. “Please, sit.”

“Oh. Thank you! I’m Marinette, by the way. What’s your name?”

“Kagami,” she said. She raised her eyebrows at Astruc, who was making a motion with his shoulders, and frowned at him; she didn’t want to end up with a bloody Mari. Astruc pulled back reluctantly.

There wasn’t any danger here. Only the pleasure of watching two beautifully pink lips moving as Marinette spoke.

“Kagami,” Marinette echoed. “What a pretty name!”

Kagami, hardened gangster, peered into the bluest eyes she had ever seen – and knew she was already lost. “Thank you,” she said. “You are also very pretty.”

A blush appeared on Marinette’s cheeks. “Um – did the, did the dugs at the Thor give you a hard time too?” she said, stammering a little bit.

“I – I came in before they arrived,” said Kagami. The most honest answer she could have given was ‘Just Astruc’, but something about sitting next to this innocent angel made her feel almost ashamed to be connected to la cosa nostra. “Don’t worry.”

Marinette leaned in conspiratorially. “I think they’re maybe gangsters,” she whispered. “I hope they won’t shoot…”

“You never know,” Kagami whispered back, because right now she truly didn’t. She tugged her Pink Lady closer, made to lift it off the bar.

But then Marinette pulled back, and as she did so, her hand went wide – and thumped into the base of Kagami’s glass, sloshing the contents all down Kagami’s shirt and vest. “Oh no!” she yelped, putting her hands over her mouth. “I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to do that!”

It was a surprise to Kagami how calm she was. She was always merciful – but to give mercy, you first had to make it obvious that retaliation was on the table. And a display of anger or irritation usually did well to put people in their place. Now, though, she found herself almost apologetic to this strange woman, who somehow still hadn’t noticed that Kagami had a gun strapped to her waist, or that the heavy soldiers were there for her benefit.

“No, that’s fine,” she said, holding up a hand. “I should have been more careful.”

“Oh my goodness, no, that was all my fault – I was clumsy. Oh, and you have such a gorgeous suit on, too! And that shirt! Is it Egyptian cotton?”

“Uh, yes, I think so –”

Before Kagami knew a word of it, Marinette had reached out to touch the shirt – pinching a fold of it between thumb and middle finger, clearly feeling it out. The fold was mercifully around the top of Kagami’s sternum and not any further down, or she might have been in dire need of blood pressure medication, or perhaps just a back room to pull Marinette into for an emergency spit exchange. Astruc and Caquet were both getting ready to shoot – their hands were hovering over their weapons – but she shot them first with a death glare that suggested any interruption would put a real hamper on any plans they might have for promotion, or even life itself if their interruption was bad enough.

“It’s probably very comfortable, right?” said Marinette. Kagami felt like she couldn’t possibly answer the question in a sensical manner, so she just stayed quiet.

Marinette then touched her hand to the stain itself – right between Kagami’s assets. Kagami froze. She realised that if Marinette had been a trained assassin, if she’d been heavy with a gun or a knife, then Kagami would have been dead. And she would have welcomed it, because she was happy just observing this pristine heavenly fairy twist her face up in concern and determination, feeling the hot gentleness of those fingers gently stroking against her ribs, hearing Marinette fret about her mistake.

Suddenly, Marinette’s hands were wrapped around Kagami’s wrist. “Come with me,” she said.

Kagami blinked three times, once for each word that had been said as she tried to register them. “Um – what?”

“Come with me,” Marinette repeated. “I ruined your clothes, so I’m getting you some new ones. Come.”

“Are you sure that’s adv-” was as far as Kagami got before Marinette was on her feet and literally pulling Kagami along by the wrist. She knew what was going to happen – Astruc was going to start firing wildly, destroying the whole bar and the Tsurugis’ reputation; Caquet would put a bullet through Marinette’s beautiful face or beautiful chest; all hell would break loose, and several of her crew would get injured, probably by Astruc; they would have to go lam from the police. She tried to raise her voice to stop it, but it was too late, because Astruc was already pointing that infernal tommy gun of his, and so was Caquet with her handgun…

None of that happened, though. And Kagami spent the next minute in a dream-like state of marvel and confusion. Marinette caught sight of Caquet and shouted something Kagami couldn’t hear – and then she snapped her arm out and grabbed the barrel and somehow wrested the gun out of Caquet’s hands. At the same time, Marinette lifted her leg backwards and onto Astruc’s weapon, hooking it down so it pointed at his foot – right as he started to fire. His howls of pain were deafening.

Marinette looked around, spotted Wang and Duparc at the door – and then she threw the gun full force at the black-painted window, shattering it. Then she wrapped both her arms around Kagami, gave Kagami a strangely awkward grin, and lifted Kagami off the floor as she ran full speed towards the hole in the glass, jumping off a chair and then a table on her way, past terrified patrons.

Then they landed in the lamplit street, and Kagami expected to be put down – but Marinette just ran further, into the nearest alleyway, at remarkable speed. It was only when they made it into the next street that Kagami had the presence of mind to say anything. “Marinette! Put me down!” she said.

“Don’t worry,” said Marinette, still running. How was she still holding all of Kagami up off the pavement? How was this so fucking hot? “We’re almost there.”

“Almost where?”

“My workshop.”

The response was baffling enough that Kagami couldn’t even muster any other protest. A ‘workshop’ – was that a word for a hideout? Was Marinette – ‘Marinette’ – someone’s goon, sent to kidnap her? Was she with the cops, pulling some kind of sting on the Tsurugi family? Maybe a state agent? Did she have a hit on her?

Those muscular arms – and the muscular chest, too, she knew now from being pressed against it – certainly suggested physical exercise. There were also two other things on Marinette’s chest that suggested things to Kagami, but nothing she would dare say out loud under the current circumstances.

And then, they arrived at a door. Marinette put Kagami down on the pavement and unlocked the door and pushed it open, and when she stepped inside and waved Kagami inside with a hurried hand, Kagami didn’t even consider the option of not obliging. Marinette stepped further inside, through an inner door from the hallway, and flicked a light switch.

But there wasn’t a lair inside. Or if it was, it was a poorly conceived one, and terribly organised. Several mannequins lined one wall, with two more placed almost haphazardly around the room, though they both had a stool next to them. Then there was a workbench with another stool before it, and the workbench was strewn with lots of fabric scraps; there was a stand atop it with multiple severe-looking scissors hanging on hooks. Multiple baskets and crates stood along one wall, with rolls of cotton, linen and wool jutting out. The whole space was lit by a dingy lamp but also, crucially, there was a row of windows along the streetside wall, none of which were covered up.

“Where are we?” said Kagami.

“My workshop!” said Marinette, throwing her arms out. The following sequence of words came out like bullets from a tommy gun. “I’m a seamstress, you see. And I’m going to get you a new shirt. I think I might have one that’s just like yours, actually, but I don’t have those cufflinks, so if they’re sentimental to you I can transfer them easy enough. It’s going to be a gift from me, of course. And I’ll put your actual shirt to soak, too. I might have a vest for you, if it’s okay that it’s different – are you fine with just a grey one? I think it’d work well with your other colours. Or even a red one – yeah! You’d look great in re-”

“Stop!” Kagami finally got her tongue to follow along with her wits. “You took me here just to replace my clothes?”

Marinette looked like she’d just been asked if the sun was made of water. “Um… yes? That’s what I told you earlier.”

“Then why did you – how did you – what the hell did you do all that for at Théo’s, then?”

“Well, they were coming at us with guns!” Marinette said defiantly. “And they were really unpleasant at the door. They would have shot us. Or maybe kidnapped us. Are you someone important, maybe? Do you think your family would pay a big ransom for you?”

“Well, yes, obviously,” said Kagami, a little exasperated. “Because –”

“There you go, then,” said Marinette. “They’re probably after you. Don’t worry, though, I’ll stick with you – I won’t let anyone take you away. Poor Théo… I’ll have to pay him back for that window. And offer to paint the new one.”

Kagami just stared. “So… you’re not associated with any mafia? And you have nothing to do with the police?”

“Of course not. I just sew clothes.”

There were so many things Kagami could say – at the very least, she ought to say that the crew at Théo’s had been her bodyguards. But she found herself at a complete loss for words. Marinette radiated earnestness; she was also clearly the strongest person in the room, and lightning quick in the brain. Except she also hadn’t bothered to ask Kagami who she was, or thought that maybe there was a reason all the guns were trained at Marinette in specific, and not at Kagami. Kagami was stuck in a room with the thickest savant she had ever encountered, and that savant was offering her a shirt.

“So. Um, I am going to have to take your measurements,” said Marinette. She was blushing a little again. “And that means, um, I might have to, I have to make tessurements. Of your, your, of your body. Height, um. Bust. Waist. Hi-hips.”

Heat rose rapidly in Kagami’s face. She wanted to, sure, but it was also a terrible idea. “What about the… mobsters? They’re probably after us. You made one of them shoot himself in the foot.”

“If I didn’t, he would have shot me.”

“I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it,” said Kagami. It was, in fact, incredibly funny that it happened. “But his companions might not look so kindly on that.” Besides – if this turned to gunfire, then Marinette was going to die. And that wasn’t in Marinette’s best interests, and it definitely wasn’t in Kagami’s best interests.

Coherence was returning to her now. She needed to make a plan. If she could just get in touch with Caquet or Wang, on her own, then she could explain the situation to them. The Astruc thing was bad, sure, but as long as he wasn’t present for the discussion the others could be convinced to overlook the holes in his foot. After all, he put them there himself. And – her word was law, as the capo sotto capo of the whole family. They would have to listen to her.

Then, she would have to tell Marinette what was up. She hadn’t wanted to at first, but that was obviously foolish of her – the truth would have come out regardless. And now, it was a matter of life or death for the girl.

And by Santa Maria she was going to make it a matter of life or death for Astruc, too.

Marinette looked perturbed, opening and closing her mouth a little bit. “I guess, but… I have to make it up to you, somehow…”

“I’d be happy to let you, but maybe we could do that another day? I would love to spend time in here with you when we’re not being chased.”

“… Okay.” Marinette’s face set itself into a determined frown. “But I’m going to find you a replacement shirt first, and then hnhnnmnhn, and then we can leave. Just wait here!”

Right. This was good. Marinette would be busy for a little while, and that meant Kagami would have time to find her soldiers. Or at least get started. As Marinette disappeared into a side room, hidden behind a wall, Kagami moved towards the front door.

Until she heard a whining hinge, and then a yelp from Marinette – and then a gunshot, and then a gurgling sound. She turned around immediately – pleasepleaseplease – and ran back to the side room, where…

… where Marinette stood upright in the middle of the floor, though not so much in the middle of it as the body that lay flat on its back in a slowly spreading pool of blood. Going by the scissors that stuck out from the body’s throat, it was very dead; going by the spray of blood across the wall, the death had happened quickly.

“What happened?” said Kagami.

“He came in the back door,” replied Marinette, breaths short. She stepped back a little bit, because the blood was now flowing towards her shoes. “I couldn’t let him get you.”

‘Couldn’t let him’ – this was one of the most efficient kills Kagami had ever seen. The scissors had severed the main artery and cut off airflow in one single stab, and from how deep the scissors sat they’d probably entered all the way through to the spine. Even if he didn’t die straight away, he would have been paralysed. And even more impressively, Marinette hadn’t got any blood on herself, except a couple droplets on her hand.

And – he wasn’t a Tsurugi. Kagami couldn’t recognise him at all; but he wore a tie, and there was a tie pin, and it had an image of… crossed bones.

“He’s a Couffaine,” said Kagami. “Why are the Couffaines after…”

“You know him?” asked Marinette, horrified.

“I just know the Couffaines use those tie pins,” she said, pointing. “How did you… know how to do that?”

“Do what?”

“Kill him so fast.”

Marinette shook her head, and bent down to pull out the bloody scissors. “I – I can’t – I don’t know… he came in through the door, with a gun, and I had to stop him so I just… stabbed him, I guess. He’s mafia for real? Are the Couffaines scary? Oh no – I’m going to have to run away! Close the shop and get on the train to –”

“Marinette,” said Kagami, bending down to pick up the pistol. “I don’t know what’s going on, but the Couffaines are nothing to be afraid of. They’re pretty small-time.” A thought struck her, and she raised her eyebrows. “Have you interacted with the mafia before?”

“No! I’ve never – does seeing them count? I’ve seen gangsters, but today is the first time I’ve met any. Aren’t they after you?”

Kagami sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “The others were Tsurugis. They’re the biggest mafia family in the city, and… I’m their underboss. They were never after – they were there to defend me. They were training their weapons on you.”

“Oh.”

Kagami looked Marinette deep into her nonplussed face and felt something shift inside her. “… Is that all you have to say?”

Marinette’s eyes widened. “No! I mean – I just – I didn’t know. Are you, like, really important? Is that what underboss means? Oh no, I shouldn’t have tried to take you away, oh no, you probably super hate me now because I made your guy machine gun himself in the foot, I’m so sorry!”

“Actually,” Kagami tried a little smile, “I don’t mind that last part at all. But I do need to talk to them, so they can call off the hunt.”

“I – I see,” said Marinette. Her eyes fell to the floor and rolled away from the body at her feet. A droplet of blood fell from the scissors and hit the floor. And Kagami was struck with the urge to talk things out. But then she glanced down at the dead man on the floor again.

“… Marinette? Are you sure you’ve never dealt with mafia before?” she asked, nudging the body with her shoe.

Marinette nodded rapidly in response – a little too fast, maybe. “So… who are the Couffaines?”

“Well, they definitely shouldn’t be here. Their area is south of the docks. This is… either Bourgeois territory, or it’s ours. It’s near the border either way. So…”

There was a click from outside, and Kagami immediately reached for her pistol. She held up her finger to her lips and waved Marinette aside with the gun, and then stepped back herself so she was just beyond the doorway to the workshop proper.

The click was followed by hesitant footsteps – just one set. They approached the back door that led into the room they were in, before stopping briefly just outside it. There was a small noise like of a gun being cocked. Then the door opened slowly.

Kagami let the shot go off as soon as she saw who it was, planting a bullet straight between his eyes. Marinette, who didn’t flinch once except a tiny wince at the gun’s bang, immediately darted her head through to have a look at the new arrival.

“I don’t know him either,” said Marinette. “Um… is he also a Couffaine? His cufflink’s a wing.”

“No. His name’s Fathom, and he’s an Agreste,” said Kagami. “And I had a bit of a… fight with him…”

The reality dawned on her. Beaureal’s absence, the Couffaine and Agreste kids on the floor, the run-ins she’d had over the past few days. They were after her. The Agrestes and the Couffaines had either joined forces to take her down, or they’d had the strangest luck in coordinating attacks against her. Although, as she looked over at the two bodies on Marinette’s floors, she reflected that their luck was definitely on the bad side.

“They’re after me,” she said aloud. “I’m the target.”

Marinette was still looking at the door, though she didn’t seem to be watching Fathom’s body anymore. “I see,” she said, voice low and demure.

“Get inside. There could be more of them.”

“Okay.” Marinette pulled back into the room, dragging the door shut with her. Her eyes wandered between the door – with her hand still on the knob – and Kagami, as her mouth wobbled between open and closed. “Um…”

Emotions. Probably Kagami’s least favourite thing to have to deal with. That was why she liked to spend just the overnight with someone and then leave in the morning. She never knew what to do when other people were sad or out of it. She barely even knew what to do when she felt that way herself.

“… Are you scared?” she said, hoping the answer would be no.

But the answer was nothing. Marinette drew a deep breath, clutching the scissors tightly in a doubled fist. She turned towards a nearby cupboard, pulled it open, and reached into it – and pulled out a white cotton shirt, very similar to the one Kagami was already wearing. When she turned back to Kagami, she looked grim.

“Wear this,” she said. “I’ll come with you. If – Coffins and Aggressives are coming after you, and I’m the reason you don’t have bodyguards, then it’s my responsibility to help. And then, after you’re safe, you can… you can tell your people not to go after me, and we’ll just go each our own way after.” She looked away, her words trailing away somewhat at the end.

“I can’t let you come with me,” Kagami said. “You are not a button. You would die very quickly.”

“I can pin a button easily.” There was a certain hint of defiance to her tone.

“You did this time, bu- wait. Do you know what a button is?”

Marinette finally met Kagami’s eyes, and she looked like she was about to be run over by an oncoming train. “It’s – it’s a thing you have on your clothes, so you can open and –”

“Button means a hitman. You aren’t trained. You haven’t been inducted into a mob, and you aren’t a part of the Tsurugi cosca. It’s too dangerous.”

“Well, that’s just silly,” said Marinette. “You are putting on that shirt, and I’m getting you a vest, and then we’re going out together. And that’s final.”

Kagami shut her mouth. Authority was her field – having someone else muscle in on it was usually grounds for a lesson in respect, or possibly a bullet in the stomach if they did it often enough. But this time the one muscling in was a very attractive woman. Even more than that, she muscled in in a very… attractive way.

She decided the best thing to do was not to say anything. So she took the shirt, and went back into the main room to change. Back turned to the windows, she started to unbutton her vest and top. A few seconds later, Marinette came back in holding a vest – and also a gun, presumably Fathom’s. She looked a little flushed as Kagami turned towards her, working her way down with the shirt’s buttons.

“Here,” she said. “It’s not the same style, but I think it should fit your body shape.”

“Thank you,” said Kagami. She let Marinette hold on to the vest, though, briefly enjoying the feeling of having some minute control again. She wrested off her shirt, and noted that with the aid of her bra, she had sufficient control over Marinette’s gaze to make her look away embarrassed.

“Do you have, um, gun fights often?” said Marinette, staring resolutely out the windows.

Kagami shook her head. “This is the first time there’s been actual unrest for over a year. They’ve been throwing their weight around over the past week… but before that, it was completely calm.” She balled her hands into fists. “I should’ve realised what was going on. The way they were all trying to muscle in at the same time… ‘Belle’ gone… I was a fathead not to notice.” She reached for the fresh shirt.

“Do you think –” started Marinette. Then she went quiet. Then there was the sound of a car driving past outside, and Marinette dived forward, flinging her arms around Kagami, throwing them both down on the floor –

– and then the tommy guns started blasting, shattering the windows, peppering the back wall, ripping apart the mannequins and rolls of cloth. Glass rained down over them, as did splinters and dust, and a box of buttons and cufflinks flew off its perch and crashed onto the floor next to them – spreading its contents all over the floor.

The spray of bullets lasted for maybe five seconds. Then, in the relative quiet, they heard the car whine to a halt, and doors click open then slam shut. Kagami crawled up to her knees, and reached for her guns – her own, and the Couffaine cugine’s. Marinette also got to her knees, but she put the Couffaine gun down next to Kagami and instead picked up another pair of scissors, a roll of measuring tape, and the box of buttons…

“Stay back,” hissed Kagami.

“No way in hell,” hissed Marinette. She walked up to the doorway on shockingly quiet feet, as five pairs of boots approached the front door, and Kagami could only get to her feet and aim her shooters.

The door slammed open from being kicked in by two right feet. Marinette hid – but as soon as the mobsters entered through the door, she went into action so fast that Kagami could scarcely believe her eyes. She flung the contents of the button box into the mobsters’ faces and jammed her scissors straight into the nearest one’s heart, kicking hard against the grip to drive it further in, and the man collapsed; at the same time, she spun the measuring tape around the next one’s neck, pulling him in to strangle him. Behind him, a woman pulled her weapon, ready to fire, but Marinette simply kicked her pistol out of her hands without ever putting her leg back on the ground, so that the gun hit the soldier in the side of the head.

This was when Kagami caught on, and she launched a volley of shots. There were two people left armed as well as the woman who’d just had her pistol kicked away; Kagami fired two shots into the forehead of one of the armed mobsters, then shot the second one in the throat and chest, dropping both of them. Everyone except the disarmed one had held tommy guns; now they held nothing.

There was a sickening snap – Marinette hadn’t been strangling her target; she had been snapping his neck. Now she threw the whole man at the disarmed woman, releasing the measuring tape. In the shock of the moment, she whirled the tape around the woman’s neck and pulled her inside.

Kagami was of the opinion that violence was a tool, one that could be used both wisely and unwisely. It needed to be measured out to its situation, and not glorified as a tool in itself. It wasn’t supposed to be satisfying, or pleasant. But right now, she was getting an inordinate amount of satisfaction from watching Marinette’s specific brand of violence: efficient, potent, and precise. It would be terrifying in any other situation, but now that it was helping to keep Kagami alive, it was… pleasant.

And hot.

The woman in Marinette’s clutches was one of the Bourgeoises, Kagami noticed. She didn’t recognise her, but the tie pin was sun-shaped and she looked like classic Bourgeois material – someone who was used to being poor, but who had come into some money through the cosa nostra. She didn’t seem comfortable in her suit, and her face bore the marks of previous manual labour. Or perhaps low-level secretary labour – her red hair and glasses looked suited for a clerk job.

Marinette pulled the captive closer, still with the tape wrapped around her neck, but the grip wasn’t strong enough either to choke or snap. Instead, it was a firm hold that suggested either one could still be an option. Kagami holstered her guns and met the captive’s eyes.

“Who are you? Why are you here?”

“I’m… Sabrina. We were… supposed to kill you,” said the redhead, struggling slightly against the pressure to her throat.

“Obviously,” said Kagami, tipping her head sideways to the shattered windows. “Why are three families suddenly out to get me? And don’t try to lie – my associate is very adept.” Behind Sabrina, Marinette looked surprised and bashful.

“The bosses… got together. They made an alliance… to take out the Tsurugi outfit. I don’t know why, all I know is we were told to go after you. All the crews were instructed separately…”

“Are you a capo?”

Sabrina shook her head with some difficulty. “I’m just a soldier. Please… don’t kill me…”

Marinette quickly released the grip of the measuring tape around Sabrina’s neck, but instead took hold of her wrists behind her back. Snagging some yarn off the nearest desk, she tied Sabrina’s hands together.

It was time to be merciful. Sabrina didn’t seem like the type of person who wanted violence, either. She was just told to go out there and shoot. “We won’t kill you, Sabrina,” said Kagami, nodding to Marinette. “Not unless you cross us.”

Sabrina’s eyes bulged. She glanced sideways at Marinette, presumably recollecting the vision of seeing the whirlwind that had killed two of her crewmates with sewing equipment and a fantastically sexy leg. “No! I won’t. I won’t do anything to you.”

“Are all the ABCs out right now?” said Kagami. Sabrina looked confused. “The Agrestes, Bourgeoises, and Couffaines. The ABC gang.”

“I don’t know. Boss sent a lot of us out, but I don’t know what’s going on with anyone else,” said Sabrina, adding in a much quieter voice: “I’m sorry.”

Kagami sighed. “I suppose I can’t expect too much information from a foot soldier. Can you drive a car?”

“I – I drove the car here. That’s why I only had a handgun, the others were the ones shooting… the key’s in my pocket.” She didn’t struggle against her bonds at all – her hands were tightly bound with yarn and string, and she just stood there meek as a lamb.

“Excellent. You will be our driver. As for you, my little tailor…”

Marinette met her gaze. “Um… yes?”

“I don’t know,” Kagami went on, stepping closer and taking hold of Marinette’s left hand with her right, “where you learned to fight like you do. I know you can’t be a simple seamstress, comare.” She took pleasure in Marinette’s burning face and helpless eyes, such a contrast to the killing machine she had been just a minute ago. She was a mystery – not a hardened mafiosa, but also not a simple innocent caught up in danger that was beyond her.

“I – I just make clothes…”

“No,” said Kagami. She realised, suddenly, that she was still shirtless – but maybe that didn’t matter. At the very least, it made her seem more vulnerable, maybe put her more on Marinette’s level. Bare chest, open heart. She put her free hand to Marinette’s chin, caressing it. “You have secrets you aren’t telling me. I’m not going to pry them from you, because right now, we have other things to worry about.”

Marinette’s mouth fell slightly open, and she let go of Sabrina. The look in her eye was… surprised, confused, but also longing. Under any normal circumstances, Kagami would have rented a hotel room for seven days, put all other responsibilities on hold, and spent all her waking hours just exploring Marinette’s every aspect.

“There are many things I’d like to do with you, if we survive this. But in case we don’t, I can’t leave this one thing undone.” She leant in, and kissed Marinette on the mouth. Marinette’s soft lips tasted like raspberries and sweat, like summertime and blood and the dust of city smog, like the promise of eternity spreading out between them. They parted too soon and Kagami saw that eternity vanish into the depths of Marinette’s eyes.

“You’re my pink lady. And you will be my bodyguard, until death doth us part.”

Chapter Text

Kagami finished buttoning up her shirt while her ragtag crew looked the other way. The vest slipped on nicely, but it did sit very differently from her usual one – it was a little tighter across the chest, but the shoulders felt more free. The shirt was a perfect fit, however. Marinette must have a good eye for measurements to hit the mark so well.

Clapping her hands, Kagami called for Marinette and Sabrina’s attention. “We have business to attend to,” she said.

Sabrina turned around a little awkwardly, because her hands were still bound. Marinette was also awkward, despite her hands being free. “What type of business?”

“Right now, every mob in the city wants to kill at least one of us. I’m wanted by the Agrestes, the Bourgeois, and the Couffaines. You are wanted by the Tsurugis,” she pointed at Sabrina, “and because you will be next to me, you will be wanted by the other three too.”

Then she turned to Marinette. “You are wanted by… probably every mob in the city at this point. Everyone is going to shoot at us the moment they spot us in the streets. That means we have to hit the mattresses.”

Marinette blushed extremely red. “Is that really necessary? Don’t we need to get going?”

Kagami blinked. “No – that means we go to war.”

“Oh.” Somehow, Marinette seemed disappointed.

“So to avoid all the trouble of taking out every group as they get to us, we’re going to go straight to the source and cut them off there. Don Gabriel of the Agrestes, Primo André of the Bourgeois, and Donna Anarka of the Couffaines. With them dead, the crews circling the city will be without a leader. And you, Sabrina, are going to drive us.”

It was absolutely, utterly, incredibly ludicrous. She was proposing they go around killing three separate mob bosses, and probably scores of soldiers and wiseguys. They would be hunted, shot at, and probably killed, and all the while they’d be destabilising the city’s underworld. The night either ended with the Tsurugi clan destroyed, or with three other mobs running around like headless chickens. Kagami would probably be dead in both cases.

But Kagami wasn’t one to hesitate. If it needed to be done, then she would do it – and she wouldn’t let Mamma Tomoe down.

The time for mercy was over. Now was the time for respect.

She picked up all the weapons off the floor – four tommy guns, nine box magazines, and five pistols on top of the three they already had. Sabrina hadn’t yet proven herself trustworthy enough to hold any of those for herself, and Marinette seemed averse to do anything with a firearm that went beyond just carrying it gingerly. Not that it mattered. Kagami was a damned good shot.

They went out into the dusk and loaded themselves into Sabrina’s five-seater, Kagami slotting herself together with Marinette in the back seat. At least that way, nobody except Tsurugis would fire at the car unless they looked into the back.

“Instructions, boss?” asked Sabrina. She didn’t sound like she was pretending – rather, she oozed determination and assuredness. Either she hadn’t been particularly into the Bourgeois mob to start with, or she was just that much of a sycophant that she’d throw her weight behind anything.

“Take us to Agreste headquarters. They’re to the north, along –”

“Butterfly Avenue, crossing in from Peacock Street. It’s the textile mill,” said Sabrina.

Kagami nodded. Sabrina was smart, then; there was more to her than met the eye. “Very good. Take us there carefully. We do not want to raise undue suspicion. And on that note… if you see a large man with a beard and a limp and a Chicago typewriter, or any woman who looks Asian and has a weapon, get away as quick as you can. They’re going to want to fire at you specifically.”

“Understood, boss.”

“Then we’re ready. Be careful.” Kagami looked sideways at Marinette, whose eyes sometimes darted nervously to the weapons, or to Kagami’s eyes, but otherwise looked forward. Kagami hesitated for a moment – but then she stretched out her hand and put it atop Marinette’s.

“I asked you to be my bodyguard,” she murmured, as the engine started up. “Was… that not to your liking?”

Marinette spluttered. “I – I would love to guard your body, but… are you sure about this? This is dangerous. I’ll protect you if you need it, but… going on the attack? That’s a little…”

“Would you prefer to stay back?”

“I…” Marinette blinked. Then she set her jaw. “No. If you’re going, then I’ll come with you. I’m responsible for putting you in this situation, and that means I’m responsible for getting you out again. Just… don’t expect me to use guns.”

“You seem to be more than capable enough without them,” replied Kagami, smiling briefly. “Okay, Sabrina… drive.”

Sabrina made a “Hmh!” sound, and the car wheezed to life. Soon, they were driving down the murky street at something that must have looked to outsiders like a leisurely speed, but in reality it was masking a tense inside. Sabrina sat with fingers clenching the wheel, and Marinette held tightly onto her bag of sewing supplies – which was quite heavy, and no doubt full of weapons more terrible than any boring gunsmith could ever imagine.

And Kagami never let go of the guns that lay by her side, moving her hand between the pistol and the tommy gun depending on how the road they were on felt to her at that moment. If there were lots of vehicles along the street, she might expect attackers to jump up suddenly, so she needed the spread of a submachine weapon; in a street with fewer hiding places, accuracy and ease of use would be better, so she moved to the handgun.

But nobody interrupted them. They spotted no roving gangs of mobsters, no passing vehicles with suspiciously dark windows. There was some traffic on the roads, more so on the boulevards, but the city seemed relatively quiet.

Which meant… the ABCs were probably already hunting Mamma Tomoe.

It would be too risky to follow them there, though. A sure-fire death sentence. Either the Tsurugis went out in a vengeful blaze, taking out as much of their opposition as possible; or Kagami would have to take over la cosa nostra, stepping out of her mother’s demanding shadow and into her over-sized shoes.

When they turned onto Peacock Street, and the textile mill’s tower rose up two floors above all the surrounding structures, Kagami murmured: “Be on your guards.” She could feel everyone’s tension rising – although Marinette also seemed curious. She must not have been to this part of the city before, maybe she was new to the city altogether.

Or maybe… it was just an act…

“Sabrina. How fast can you turn?”

“Very fast. Boss.”

The car turned onto Butterfly Avenue, Sabrina being very gentle on the throttle. There were usually many cars parked outside the textile mill, but now there was just one – and beyond the chain-link fencing, only two more cars were visible.

There was a guard posted – a humongous man with sideburns. He conspicuously held a gun. There was also an unlit lookout post in the tower, with the windows open. She wasn’t naïve enough to think even for a second that it would be unmanned, but the darkness of the night would probably make whoever was in there be a worse shot than usual…

“Keep driving straight. Don’t speed up. Turn when I tell you to. Marinette, roll down your window.”

Marinette obliged. Kagami picked up the pistol and aimed it. They were going very slowly – slowly enough to be suspicious, but they couldn’t exactly speed past this gorilla-sized guard if Kagami were to get a proper aim on him.

He eyed the oncoming car like it was a stray dog and he feared rabies. His hands tightened around his weapon, but he didn’t aim it yet. Sabrina kept going. As they passed, Kagami steadied her hand with the other arm, leaning down – and took two shots straight at his head. One went through his eye and the other cracked the bridge of his nose, and he toppled backwards onto the ground.

“Sabrina. Turn. Take us in.”

Sabrina’s turn was fast. She had them completely turned around in what barely felt like half a moment, and as they swung in through the gates the first shot from the tower missed them completely. They drove up almost to the door, where Sabrina parked and got out in a flash. Marinette also stepped outside quickly, moving straight up to the mill’s entrance. Kagami picked up her tommy gun and the handgun both, plus a magazine for each, before opening her door.

A shot rang out and grazed the hood of the car. Then there was a gurgle. Kagami turned – a mobster had just exited the factory and fired his gun, but Marinette had gotten in behind him and jammed two knitting needles into his back. He fell forwards, his weapon dropping from his hands and clattering across the concrete path with a bright and empty tone.

“Is… is he dead?” asked Sabrina, eyes wide.

“I got him in the heart and the spinal column,” replied Marinette, remarkably even-voiced.

“From the back?”

“It’s a lot easier to access the spinal column from the back,” said Kagami, perhaps a little too acerbic. She wasn’t used to Marinette’s improbable feats yet, but she would save her amazement for later – when there weren’t gunmen hunting them.

“I meant the heart,” mumbled Sabrina. Kagami looked at her. Perhaps it would have been wise to tie her up. But Sabrina had followed instructions to the letter, and nothing about her affect or behaviour suggested she had any plans for betraying them. In fact, she seemed almost inherently honest. She might be able to pull of subterfuge, but she didn’t seem like the person to initiate that subterfuge on her own.

“Pick up that gun,” she said, stepping past Sabrina and up to the entrance. She was going to give Sabrina a test of character. “Don’t shoot unless I give you permission.” Sabrina nodded, and went to pick the gun up. Meanwhile, Marinette had already retrieved her knitting needles, and blood was dripping from them as she clenched her fists around them.

They filed in through the door to no further interruptions. Kagami was unfamiliar with the layout of the place – she only knew where it was. They would have to be careful.

A huge, flat space opened itself before them. It was filled with mechanical looms, huge spools of fibres and threads, and large drums filled with fabrics and textiles that had been fully spun. The whole space was quiet, all the equipment shut off; every step of their feet rang all the way across the space and echoed back between the giant machines.

“It’s a trap,” said Sabrina. Marinette grabbed a sheet of cotton from a nearby drum – or rather, she took what must have been a long continuous sheet and tore off a large section, which she held in one hand while reaching into her bag of supplies with the other hand.

“Let’s move. Eyes sharp,” said Kagami. She indicated for Sabrina to go first, so she would be able to see the gal’s movements.

But there was nobody there – nobody lurking behind metallic corners, nobody taking aim at them between the looms and tenters. There was no sound of quiet breathing, of guns being cocked, of people sneaking through for a new hiding place – all they could hear were their own footsteps.

“Do you think they left?” said Sabrina. Her grip on the gun was that of a relative novice; she had enough knowledge for the basics, and must have some direct experience, but she obviously lacked practice and seemed uncertain in how she moved with it. Not a safe shot outside of an emergency.

“No… they’re here. We just have to keep our eyes o-”

A door opened to their right, along a side wall. It went up slowly, with a whine that was less threatening and more menacing; whoever was opening it clearly was in no hurry.

They turned – and came face to face with Don Gabriel himself, a good twenty feet away. He was hideously tall and wore a suit and tie that made him look like he belonged on the sign of an old-timey barbershop – and he looked them all over with a look like they were mould on his morning onion.

His eyes fixed on Kagami. “What is the meaning of this?” he said. “Why have you shot two of my men and invaded Agreste grounds?”

“Don Agreste. I am aware of your designs on the Tsurugi family.” Kagami held her gun trained at the floor. “I decided to strike back.”

“Tsch. Insolence,” replied the don. “You have no idea what my designs are. But I will humour you just for a moment, Ms Tsurugi. Your little crew from this evening should already be dead. My buttons have already been sent out against them, and the Bourgeois and Couffaines have also sent theirs. Your presence here will not undo their demise.”

Kagami’s blood ran cold. Caquet and Anciel were good friends; Duparc and Wang were very good soldiers, and Lee would have become one with time to grow into her role. Their losses were a tremendous blow to the Tsurugi family – and to Kagami.

Astruc… not so much.

“Wheels are in motion that you can neither understand nor stop,” gloated Don Gabriel. Kagami heard a sudden, sharp intake of breath from Marinette. “And your petty arrival here will save nobody. So lower your weapons, and ghlk –”

He had scissors jutting out of his neck. He had scissors jutting out of his his neck. Kagami looked to her right and saw that Marinette was already throwing her cotton sheet over – over a man’s head, someone Kagami hadn’t noticed, and she yelled “Look out! Guns!”

There was muzzle fire from the left, but Kagami was already ducking down. Two more shots rang out, each of them missing whoever it was aimed at, a tommy gun started clicking out bullets. Kagami dived behind a loom.

“They’re in the drums!” shouted Marinette. There was a nauseating sound of something crunchy and splashy, and then Marinette ran past Kagami with the piece of cotton in her hand, trailing blood behind her…

Kagami spotted another figure rising from a drum, to take a shot at Marinette – but it ricocheted off a machine instead. She took aim and fired her submachine weapon at his chest, landing a row of shots across his lungs, and he fell backwards and out of the vat he was standing in.

“Sabrina!” she yelled. “You have permission to fire!”

A gunshot went off almost immediately and also went wide, the bullet glancing off an edge and embedding itself in a spool not far from Kagami.

“But fire better!”

She listened. A number of people were already taken out. Judging from the sound of the guns and the directions their shots were coming from, there were six people left shooting at them – no, five – no, four.

Kagami stuck her head up and saw Marinette crush a man’s skull against a wooden roller, so hard that bits of him actually went flying. One of the remaining gunmen lifted his weapon to fire at her – but Kagami cried out “No!” and took the shot first, landing at least three bullets in his head. She also seemed to catch the woman behind him, who clutched at her firing arm’s shoulder and screamed out in pain. Next to Kagami, Sabrina stood up and took a shot at the third one, but again she missed the mark. He turned to fire at them – towards Kagami.

As the man trained his weapon, though, Marinette threw something. It wasn’t a pair of scissors this time, but instead a spool of thread, with one end of that thread tied around her finger. It wrapped itself around the man’s gun several times, and then Marinette pulled hard on the string, yanking the gun away. This incredibly unlikely feat somehow did not break the thread. Kagami peppered his stomach with bullets after, and he keeled over and fell to the ground.

“Any left?” said Kagami, scanning the area. No other goons materialised; all the gunfire had stopped. Marinette stepped forward, though, towards the corpse of Gabriel Agreste – and Kagami followed, waving Sabrina along with a lazy hand.

Don Gabriel was incredibly dead. His expression was almost stereotypical in its deadness, his mouth hanging open and his tongue lolling out, his eyes wide open in shock. The scissors had pierced his skin and windpipe, but this time they hadn’t reached the spine – instead, they had just impaired any chances the man might have had of ever eating or breathing again. Though given how quickly he died, Kagami was willing to bet it was the shock that killed him, and the wound and blood loss were more like incidental details. There definitely wasn’t enough blood on the floor to assume a still-pumping heart. Or perhaps he just never had a heart to begin with.

“That was a very accurate throw, Marinette,” she said, as Marinette pulled the scissors free and dried the blood off on the man’s dreadful tie.

“I suppose so.”

“And a very powerful one.”

“Maybe.”

Marinette got up from her crouch and looked away, but Kagami sighed. “Come on. We need to move on to Hotel Bourgeois,” she stated, only now letting herself recognise the message that the man in front of her had given her: her crew was dead. With a multitude of ABC soldiers lining the city, and many of them provably in the same neighbourhood as her crew, there was no way they could still be alive. Maybe one or two of them could have survived through a stroke of luck – maybe Caquet, or Anciel or Wang – but not if they’d stayed close to Astruc.

There was no time to mourn them, though. She turned around to face Sabrina, who immediately stood to attention. She’d passed the gun test in every way except for her aim.

“I know where it is,” Sabrina volunteered.

“I should hope so.” Kagami raised an eyebrow. “However, Hotel Bourgeois is also where we’ll find all your colleagues.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Tell me why I should keep trusting you in that particular nest of vipers.”

Sabrina glanced to the side for a moment, before focusing in on Kagami again. “I have no loyalty to the Bourgeois,” she said. “I only have one good friend among them, who is the reason why I joined. She is Primo Bourgeois’s daughter, Chloé. As long as she isn’t harmed, I have no reason to oppose wiping out the Bourgeois mob. My loyalty isn’t to the name itself.”

Kagami regarded her in silence. She again hadn’t sounded dishonest; in fact, if anything, she sounded painfully honest when describing the Primo’s daughter, in a manner that Kagami could only start to guess the reasoning behind. But it was still possible that Sabrina was a double agent, a turncoat, that she would refuse to go against her own mob and instead aim her muzzle on Kagami and Marinette.

Also, there was the thing about loyalty – to Kagami, loyalty to the family was incredibly important. Without that, how could the organisation put any trust in her? You needed cohesion. Every member should be able to rely on every other member, or the whole structure would fall apart.

Then again… Sabrina had personal devotion. And now that they were working alone, that kind of devotion was absolutely cardinal. Right now, it was more important that she had renounced the Bourgeois mob – and had proven herself trustworthy, though with terrible aim – than to expect oblique and nebulous devotion to something she hadn’t even been exposed to yet. That was part of the principle of mercy – to not expect more from people than they would be able to give.

“… Very well, Sabrina. Though I won’t allow you to hold a g-”

She saw Sabrina tense up and clench her hands around her weapon, eyes fixed somewhere in Kagami’s direction, and for a flash of an instant she thought Sabrina was actually turning coats – but then she heard a riffling noise and a groan from behind her, and spun around, weapon raised.

It was the woman she apparently shot in the shoulder earlier, clutching her hand around the wound as she stood up from her drum of textiles. She was groaning, too, starting from when her chest began to rise above the rim of the container and continuing all the way to upright. She didn’t have a weapon, but Kagami was no fool – she held her barrel steady and pointed at the woman’s head.

She snarled and spoke through gritted teeth. “Hey – I’m not trying to fight you. It’s not like I could use my Thompson with only one arm, either.” She was pretty tall, with short brown hair in a pointy pixie cut, and she wore the standard Agreste pinstriped attire – but without the tie-pin. She had also wrenched off her jacket and vest, leaving only the shirt.

“You were still aiming a weapon at us before you got shot in the shoulder,” said Marinette.

“I wasn’t planning to shoot!” The stranger turned around slowly as she spoke, her feet catching somewhat on the tumult of cloth she was standing in as she did so. “As you can see, I’m completely unarmed. And I already had my misgivings about where the family was headed before tonight. Hnnh…”

“What’s your name?”

“Lila. Lila Cerise Rossi. And I’m done with the Agrestes.”

Kagami looked at Sabrina, then at Marinette. Sabrina seemed nonplussed – Marinette seemed almost angry.

“Hey – don’t you trust me? See, I couldn’t hurt a fly,” Lila went on, inclining her head towards her hurt shoulder. “Look, I’ve got a proposal.”

She tried to climb out, but struggled to cross the rim with one hand gripping her shoulder. With some groans and grunts of effort, she managed to heave herself across – Sabrina had her gun trained on Lila, and Marinette obviously had no interest in helping her, so that left Kagami to handle the actual gunning duties.

“So what is your proposal, Rossi?” said Kagami. “Do you just wish to leave this room alive? Because if you’re not going to shoot us, we won’t cause you any further harm.”

“Gh. No. But I’ve got info on what’s going on. I was attached to the consigliere, Ms Sancoeur. I can tell you what’s happening, how, and why.”

“And in return?”

Lila’s expression turned into a twisted grin. “Allow me into the Tsurugi family. I’m done messing around with the small leagues. I know the Agrestes are a sinking ship, and I want to jump to one that can actually stay afloat. Hell if I’m staying with them. I could help the largest mob in the city remain on top at the end of the night.”

It was a tempting offer. Like with Sabrina, Kagami couldn’t see subterfuge in Lila – she could see anger and a taste for blood, but those seemed aimed somewhere else. Presumably, they were aimed towards the other families. And they needed support, and any knowledge Lila could provide would be invaluable, even if Lila herself would struggle to be helpful in combat with that arm.

But then Kagami looked at Marinette. And Marinette looked at Lila like she were roadkill arranged to spell out an insult to her mother. Gaining an ally in Lila might have been helpful… but not if it came at the cost of losing Marinette. Marinette was intensely devoted, a lethal bomb on legs, and also – just incidentally – an absolute bombshell. The foxiest lady Kagami had ever laid her eyes on.

She turned back to Lila. “I’m sorry, Rossi, but there’s no more room in this crew. But you’re free to leave this room unharmed. And…” There was cloth everywhere. A lot of it was cotton. She grabbed a wad from the drum next to her and carried it over to Lila, who just stood there watching with a somewhat perplexed look on her face.

This was mercy in practice. She spoke as she uncoiled the cloth and wrapped it around Lila’s unresisting – though stiff – shoulder. There was blood on the shirt around the hole, but actually an unusually small amount. Perhaps the wound was more of a graze. “I’m going to stop your bleeding. You might have a bullet in there if the shot went in, so you need to get to a doctor. There’s one on Turtle Street, just a ten minute walk. Ask for Wang Fu. However… this is where we part.”

“But I would be a great asset to the Tsurugi family! Without me, you’ll be running through the city blind!”

“We’ll manage,” said Kagami. And just for a moment, she could spot a flicker in Lila’s eyes. Something that suggested she had lost something she really wanted. And in that moment there was a trace of anger and disappointment shooting in Kagami’s direction, before Lila got it back under control and wrapped it up in the layer she had from before.

“Do you really think you can win on your own, boss?” she said, with a strangeness to her tone, a sweet acidity, sugar poured into turpentine.

Kagami shook her head. “I don’t know. But we’re not going down easy.”

“Yeah… I can see that.”

They left her there frowning, exiting the mill to go back into the car. As Sabrina shut the door and started the engine, she asked: “Any other stops before we hit the Bourgeois joint?”

“No. Take us there slow, don’t raise any suspicion. And Sabrina?”

“Yes, boss?”

“You’ll not have a weapon for as long as we’re in Bourgeois territory. I trust your loyalty, but I don’t yet know if I can trust your impulses.”

Sabrina looked momentarily concerned in the rearview mirror. Then she nodded. “Understood, boss. Just… don’t shoot Chloé.”

Kagami nodded, too. Then she turned to Marinette – who had been completely silent since she accused Lila of trying to shoot them. Even now, she seemed reluctant to look Kagami’s way.

“Marinette. I need you to answer a question for me,” she said, as the car started up and pulled back out towards the road. “Do you know Lila? Why did you want to reject her offer?”

“I… I can’t tell you that. But she’s bad news.”

“I need your honesty, Marinette.” She reached out her hand between them, resting it on the seat. “She could have been an asset to us.”

“No.” The word was spoken with a finality that bordered on a nail being driven into a coffin. “She couldn’t.”

Kagami sighed. “How can I trust your judgement of her when you won’t tell me what is wrong? As I said… I need honesty. And yet you sit here on the day of my family’s downfall, and you offer me… nothing. Only vague denial.”

“It’s all I have to give. I’m sorry. Isn’t it honest to just tell you that I have a secret that I can’t share right now? I won’t lie to you.” She grabbed Kagami’s hand and lifted it to her lips, pressing a kiss to it. “Can’t you trust me to know this without knowing my reasons?”

Kagami pulled her hand back a little roughly. “Clearly you don’t trust me.”

“I do!”

“I am the second most powerful crime boss in the city. But you hate the mafia.” Something shifted in Marinette’s expression, but Kagami held up her hand to forestall any interruptions. “Yet you expect me to trust you blindly. Even so, I have trusted you with my life. And I expect to be shown some trust in return. I am the boss right now, and that means I need to expect devotion from my crew.”

She felt angrier at the end of her speech than she was before she started it. She should be able to trust her underlings, to expect them to inform her about important things. And she would keep digging until Marinette divulged what she knew.

“… I’m sorry,” said Marinette. She hadn’t yet learned the etiquette. So Kagami looked away from her – difficult though that was – and stared out the window instead.

The ride passed in silence, though they occasionally heard gunfire – coming from inside buildings, for the most part. There was a lot more of it at the Roth Bank – nominally in Tsurugi territory, and not one that had been ordered attacked in the foreseeable future. But wherever she looked, no conflict was happening openly – no robberies or drive-by shootings, no roving crews, no bodies on the sidewalks. Either the hostile takeover was being done behind closed doors, or something strange was going on…

Kagami clutched her handgun closer as they rolled into Hotel Bourgeois grounds. However, Sabrina kept the jig up, and drove them safely past the posted guard, parking the car next to a back entrance. Then she handed her gun back to Kagami handle first. Finally, Kagami stepped out and took a shot at the back of the guard’s inattentive head, dropping him immediately.

“The sooner we get this done with, the better,” she said, as Sabrina and Marinette exited the vehicle. “These sciocci will pay for daring to oppose the Tsurugis.”

The hotel was well-known turf to both Kagami and Sabrina. Kagami had been her a handful of times before; it had been Sabrina’s base of operations for as long as she was in the Bourgeois mob. There were also minimal guards for the first two floors; the six soldiers they found were quickly dropped, as were the two concierges, neither of whom were packed. A couple of patrons stuck their heads out of their rooms; they were quickly encouraged to hide back in their rooms by Kagami’s muzzle.

Trouble only arose when they reached the third floor: the people there had heard the gunshots by now, and had mounted a barricade at the entrance to one of the corridors. The hotel was split into two wings; to even get to the barricade from the corridor they were currently in, Kagami and her tiny crew would have to cross the space to the other wing, easily twelve feet or more of unguarded, open space, all of which could be fired into by the mobsters’ guns.

Not only that, these mobsters were actually playing smart. They didn’t pump out bullets the moment they saw someone; they saved most of their shots, and seemed to fire in turns. Which meant that one person could reload easily while the others kept firing, should they need to keep up more sustained fire.

Kagami huddled beside the doorway with Sabrina – Marinette stood on the other side. They luckily had a big buffer in the wall that surrounded the doorway, and the structure itself was constructed from thick wood and bricks. Unfortunately, that meant they wouldn’t be hitting the Bourgeois wiseguys either without nailing them through the doorway.

“Are there any explosives in the building?” she whispered to Sabrina, whose eyes widened.

“No! They are – there aren’t any explosives here,” Sabrina hissed back. “And you promised not to hurt Chloé.”

Kagami didn’t bother pointing out that she hadn’t promised anything. She wasn’t aiming to hurt Chloé if she could help it: however, if Chloé was hurt as collateral because there was no other way through, then Kagami wouldn’t hesitate. The success of the job was the most important thing. “Then we’ll need another way through. Suggestions?”

“There’s the elevator that enters their hallway, but they’ll be ready for anyone using that. The only alternative would be to… smoke them out. But…”

“I see,” said Kagami. She sighed, tried to poke her head out past the jamb – but could only see overturned tables and chairs, as well as thick oaken doors that had been lifted from their hinges and stacked as a last defence – and then the glint of metal beyond. She pulled back straight away, before those guns could land any lucky shots.

“So our options are… set fire to the hotel, or a death run across an open space with wiseguys firing at us,” said Kagami.

“They use doors for their barricades,” said Marinette suddenly.

Sabrina nodded. “So?”

“These doors are thick enough to protect against bullets,” Marinette went on.

Then, without any further preamble, she kicked her leg backwards – into the door behind her. Somehow, with just that one kick, she buckled the hinges and smashed the lock: the door shifted into the room beyond by at least a couple of inches, dust and plaster scattering from above. The whole hallway seemed to groan from the impact; Marinette, however, just stepped in after the door and hefted it sideways so she could pull it back out.

There was a man inside – one that looked absolutely terrified – and at the sight of Kagami’s gun, he let out a little whine and escaped into his bathroom.

“So you want us to build a barricade,” said Kagami.

“No,” said Marinette. “I want to be more direct. Stay back.” She took the door out into the corridor; it was remarkably whole, with most of the damage having been done to the doorway itself. And she stopped there, taking a deep breath like she was plucking herself up.

That was when Kagami realised what was about to happen. “Marinette – no. Don’t. Don’t even think about doing that.”

“It’s the quickest way to get through.”

“And the quickest way to die. Stay back. Do not step through that doorway.”

“I’m doing you a favour,” Marinette replied. Something had shifted in her tone: she sounded aggressive, irritated. She shifted her bag of sewing and murder supplies more safely onto her shoulder. “Stay out of sight.”

“Marinette. I am capo of this crew. I give the orders.”

“And I’m not in the mafia. So I order myself.”

Before Kagami could say a single other word of protest, Marinette stepped out into the hallway, holding the door in front of her like a shield, fingers clutching around the sides. Kagami tried to reach out for her, but she was too late – the guns behind the barricade were already firing, and she had to pull back. Several thumps and cracks told her the door was holding up, even as she held back and couldn’t see what was going on.

It took ten seconds before they heard sounds of splintering wood, and shouts of surprise from the far side. The gunners had lost their nerve: they all fired together, and the gap for reloading was noticeable. Then Kagami heard more fleshy and bony thumps, gunfire that started and then abruptly ended, shouts of pain, and one roar of anger that could only have come from Marinette. There was a sound much like when Marinette kicked in the door, except it was somehow more dull, more muffled, and yet more painful to hear. The last thing Kagami heard before everything went quiet, was a yelp and a thump.

A while later, Sabrina said: “I’m going to take a look.”

Kagami didn’t stop her. She only followed when Sabrina waved excitedly for her to come along, before stepping out through the doorway herself.

The barricade was broken. As was one of the doors that had been in the barricade. It had been splintered down the middle, probably by one of Marinette’s kicks.

‘Probably’. Like it was probable for a person to be able to kick her way through a door that could stop machine gun fire.

When they entered the corridor, the sight that met them was only slightly less improbable. One woman had been attached to the wall via her neck through the application of knitting needles; there was a man lying in a pool of his own blood with Marinette’s scissors poking out of his ribcage. Past him, a man with his neck snapped; past him, a woman with her throat slit, presumably with the seam ripper that was embedded into the floor next to her. There was a man who had had the top half of his head liberated from the bottom half and into a toppled paper basket, and then the probable cause of the painful door sound: a door that had been kicked in with extreme force, and the man that had come between it and Marinette’s foot, who seemed unlikely to ever again come between anything other than a coffin and its lid, on account of his collapsed ribcage. An array of weapons and rounds lay scattered around them.

“… I don’t see Chloé anywhere,” whispered Sabrina, with a tinge of hopefulness to her.

And then they saw Marinette, just around the corner, standing with her back to them. She held someone’s lifeless body in her hands. Someone pale and blonde, without a jacket but with a vest, and a pristine white shirt.

“Chloé!” shouted Sabrina. It was obvious she wanted to run forward, but something about Marinette seemed to hold her back. Or perhaps just something about knowing that every corpse behind them had held on to Chicago typewriters, and would now never typewrite again, and it was all because of Marinette – whose only weapon had been a bag full of seamwork tools and a double set of piston legs.

Marinette turned around fully, still cradling the body in her arms. She had blood on her now, spattered across her front, staining the skirt of her dress and painting the skin of her arms and legs. She looked like a vengeful saint of retribution and death. A Bloody Mary.

“You killed her! You killed Chloé!” said Sabrina; the tears waiting behind the words were obvious.

But Marinette just hefted the body a little higher. She looked… less terrifying now they could see her expression, which was fretful with nervous eyes. And Kagami saw that Chloé’s body wasn’t bloodied at all, nor was the neck at any unusual angle.

“She’s not dead,” she said, putting her hand on Sabrina’s shoulder.

“I just knocked her out,” said Marinette. “She was trying to get up to the top floor.”

Chloé stirred faintly in her arms. She didn’t seem to wake up, though. Sabrina rushed forward and grabbed hold of her, practically tearing her out of Marinette’s arms; she put Chloé gently down on the floor, holding up her head with one hand.

Kagami frowned at Marinette. Normally, this type of behaviour would have earned someone in Marinette’s position a reprimand and a dock to her pay and privileges; she was seriously walking across the bridge.

“You disrespected my authority,” she said, voice low. “You are never to do anything like this ever again. The leader’s orders always come first. Capisci?”

Marinette sighed and turned away. “We need to get to the top floor.”

“What you did was reckless and dangerous. A soldier doesn’t work independently of her crew and capo. She does what she is told.”

But Marinette just looked sidelong at Kagami, with eyes that seemed at once tired and sorrowful. And Kagami bit her tongue before she could continue. She thought about Astruc: why was Marinette’s behaviour right now so much more frustrating than Astruc’s had been? Astruc, too, endangered the safety of operations with some frequency because of his hot head.

Even so, Marinette’s behaviour felt different. Maybe it was just the different situation – with attackers out to destroy the Tsurugi family completely. Maybe Kagami just wanted something to just be stable right now.

She shook her head. Despite everything, Marinette was right. They could have their tiff later. “We still need to find Primo André. Both of you, keep your eyes peeled.” Sabrina picked Chloé up in her arms, refusing Marinette’s offer to help.

They moved through the corridor and took the stairs up to the fourth storey. It only had half the floor space of the three below, but they couldn’t see any guards – no people waiting suspiciously around corners with cocked pistols, no stetsoned heads peering around corners. Which either meant that everyone else was outside in the streets, hunting Tsurugis, or that as soon as they opened the Primo’s office they would be pelted with a thousand bullets.

“Sabrina,” she whispered, “do you think they’ll be waiting for us?”

“They will. I counted fourteen dead so far, and Chloé incapacitated. There are at least four more mobsters, as well as the boss and advisor.”

“So what do you propose?”

“I think… um…” A nervous look fell over Sabrina’s eyes; she looked back and forth between the end of the hallway and Chloé’s face a couple of times. “I think…”

Once again, Kagami found herself uncertain how much she could trust Sabrina. Ostensibly, Sabrina had gotten what she asked for – her dear Chloé’s life, even though Chloé wasn’t particularly awake to appreciate her livelihood right now. She hadn’t done anything to interrupt the mission yet. But could she still be enough of an actress to fool Kagami? Could she be cold enough to watch her fellows get dropped again and again, just for a shot at an ambush?

“Is there another way inside?”

“… Yes. Chloé showed it to me. It leads to a side room at the back of the office.”

“Should we use it? Would it give us an advantage?”

“I… maybe. I…”

“Tell me, Sabrina. Why were you so hesitant to mention this?” Kagami didn’t point her gun at Sabrina – but she tried to make it clear through her posture that the gun could be pointed at any moment.

Sabrina didn’t seem to catch on, though. She just avoided Kagami’s eyes, her fingers clamping a little more tightly onto Chloé. “Look… I don’t… I’m no good at taking charge. Don’t ask me for advice. I can tell you information, but I shouldn’t –”

“What are you hiding from me?” said Kagami, keeping her voice calm, though her fingers were twitching around her weapon.

“Nothing! The last time I made a decision for a group, I got them killed! I’m no good at decisions! I need instructions, not responsibilities.” The words weren’t shouted, but they were as close to that as they could be in a whisper; as she said them, Sabrina finally looked Kagami in the eye again. “I’m just a soldier. I’m not a consigliere. You’re in charge, boss. Tell us what to do.”

Kagami’s twitching fingers suddenly solidified. Sabrina was being genuine – there was no longer any doubt about that.

“Sabrina. You and I will go through the passage and take down the Bourgeois heads. And you, Marinette, will hide with Chloé inside one of the rooms, until we come back to retrieve you.”

“No.” Marinette sounded clear as a bell. “I won’t accept that plan.”

“I’m the leader.”

“And Sabrina can’t use a weapon. Furthermore, if Chloé wakes up next to a stranger, then she is going to get hysterical. Sabrina would be far better suited to watch over Chloé. And if things go belly up inside the office, you need me to help you.”

Kagami tried to protest, but something about Marinette’s demeanour made her hesitate – she was confident, assertive, and far too reasonable; at the same time Kagami was starting to see that her own feelings towards Marinette went a little beyond the field of ‘reasonable’. Perhaps even into the range of ‘irresponsible’. And Kagami’s hesitation was enough for Marinette to push even more forward.

“I might not be a capo or a don or whatchamacallit. But I’m not here to be bossed around, either. I’ll follow orders if they make sense, but I’m also gonna speak my mind. And if you can’t take that, then I’m going in there on my own. Got it?”

“I…” started Kagami, though she had no conception of anything she could possibly follow up with. So she swallowed, partly for something to do, partly to still her thundering heart. In the end, she plopped down on “Capisco.”

Kagami hated insubordination, but this – this was hot enough that she didn’t mind it as much as usual. And much though she hated to admit it, Marinette had a point.

Sabrina gave them instructions for how to enter the passage – into room 408, then pull on a string behind the curtain; this would let them into the otherwise-unavailable room 409, where they could access the office through a regular door – before taking the potentially-unconscious, potentially-sleeping Chloé into suite 4-3. Then Kagami and Marinette went together through the passage, quiet as they were able.

Room 409 was messy. Not disordered or filthy, but it was clearly not regularly kept by hotel staff, and the bed seemed to have been in use recently. Dust covered the tables, a used set of clothes lay haphazard on a wooden chair in the middle of the floor. A crate of whiskey stood right next to the door that worked as the office’s side entrance. There was scarcely a sound to be heard.

Kagami inched her way up to the door, peeked through the keyhole. She could see an office desk, with Primo André sitting behind it on a desk chair in his checkered suit and his wife, consigliere Audrey, leaning against the desk the other way, clad in a flapper-fashion dress – about twenty years out of style, just like the Bourgeois themselves. It was impossible to see the whole room, but Kagami did spot the backs of two people further ahead, both of them postured like they were aiming their guns at the opposite side of the room from the desk.

In other words, the advantage was all Kagami’s.

The very moment Marinette pushed the door open, Kagami stepped in and filled the front half of the room with bullets. Two of them dropped before they even realised people had entered, the other three had time to turn around but not enough time to fire before they were torn apart by Kagami’s tommy gun. Primo André tried to pull a handgun out of his desk, but Marinette was already on him, her hand on his wrist and her arm around his neck.

When the bullet echoes stopped ringing, Kagami turned her gun towards the two Bourgeois leaders. “There’s no use resisting,” she said, and noticed to her relief that the Primo fell limp; his wife seemed entirely paralysed. Marinette started to rifle through the desk for weapons.

“You… you…” started Primo André.

“We’ve learned of your plans,” Kagami went on. “And I’ve come to make sure you won’t see the light of tomorrow morning, whether or not those plans succeed.” Marinette finished her search; she returned to Kagami’s side with three pistols in her hands.

André scoffed. “You are but one girl and her little crew, against a whole city full of goodfellas. You’re dead the moment you set your foot outside the hotel.”

“The Tsurugi family has many allies. We are the largest family in the city.”

There was a sudden noise from Audrey. It was at once the sound of her waking up and the sound of her laughing. “Ahaha! You think we are after the Tsurugis? Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. This isn’t about destroying the Tsurugi family. This is about destroying you.”

Kagami froze. Her grip on the gun wavered again. “… What?”

“This isn’t a simple grab for power, you dimwit,” said André.

“All the dons are working together, dearie,” cackled Audrey. “We’re taking out the police. And we are pruning the weaklings from all the mobs. After this night is over, this whole city will be under complete mafia control! And you – Konami, whatever your name is, I don’t care – you are one of the weaklings being pruned, along with your little crew. As well as this… monstrous specimen, she looks like an escaped chimpanzee, she’s also going to die like the animal she is. You’ll all bleed out in the gutter, and the city will be ripe for the taking!”

André banged his fist into the desk. “Who helped you? You were not alone when you arrived, and you would not have found that entrance without help. Give me names!”

Kagami clenched her grip on the gun again, but that grip was the only part of her that wasn’t crumbling. Her shoulders drooped, her knees trembled, her stomach tried to turn itself inside out. If this was true – if they weren’t lying – then Kagami could trust no one. Least of all Mamma Tomoe. And the name slipped past her tongue before she even realised: “Sabrina. And… Chloé,” she said, at some volume she didn’t know; but it must have been loud enough for them to hear, because their eyes shot wide open, and then Audrey was roaring in fury.

“You – you thief! Mongrel! Cur! I swear I’ll make you pay!” In her hands was, she only noticed now – a telephone handset. Their conversation had been transmitted somewhere. To the Couffaines, or to Mamma Tomoe herself. Audrey had realised they were already dead, and phoned for someone else to finish the job. A strangely selfless act for someone of her caliber.

The night was going to end in blood and fire. That was certain now more than ever. And Kagami pulled the trigger, letting the last of her magazine bore its relentless way through the Bourgeois.

Chapter Text

The walk back to suite 4-3 was silent and tense, a string that had been pulled taut but not yet released. If tonight was an organised effort by all the mafia heads, and Kagami was being targetted by the majority of mobsters in the city – her, and an unknown number of other undesirables – then things would have to end very differently from what she’d first imagined.

There was only one clear thought in Kagami’s mind as she walked behind Marinette: she wasn’t going to go down easily. She was going to take down as many people as she needed to survive the night, and what happened afterwards would have to come as it may.

Well. There was one other clear thought in her mind, but it related to Marinette’s gyrating backside. And she wanted that one to be less clear, because Marinette was not being fully honest about something. She was failing to follow orders, she was failing to pay respects, and she was failing to give Kagami what she wanted: clear answers.

Still, the backside was a pleasant distraction on the way, bloodstains notwithstanding.

When they opened the door to the suite, though, they were met with a terrifying sight – Sabrina was bent over Chloé’s still body, clasping Chloé’s face, breathing into Chloé’s mouth like she was attempting resuscitation.

“What happened?” said Kagami, stepping closer. “Did she stop breathing? Does she need medical help?”

Sabrina pulled away, startled – and as she did so, Kagami saw that Chloé was in fact awake, staring back at her with wide and furious eyes. “What?” said Sabrina.

A kiss. It had been a kiss, not pulmonary resuscitation. Kagami’s heartbeat slowed a little bit, but then shot up again as Chloé sat up and pointed an angry finger at her.

“What is she doing here?” Chloé shouted. “And – and that woman over there! Sabrina, shoot them! They have assaulted the Bourgeois family! My inheritance!”

“I’m sorry, Chloé,” said Sabrina, wrapping her arms around Chloé and putting her forehead against Chloé’s cheek. “I helped them. I can’t shoot them.”

“What? You have betrayed me? Utterly preposterous! How could you do this to your best friend?”

“I’m sorry,” Sabrina repeated. “I helped them, but I told them to spare you. I could never let them hurt you.”

Chloé opened her mouth to shout some more – but closed it as Sabrina’s last words bled through. Her expression softened, though only a little bit. “… Sabrina. What are you doing? This is embarrassing… there are people in the room with us.”

Sabrina didn’t answer except by pulling Chloé into another deep kiss.

As they exchanged spit, Kagami sighed and leaned against the wall. “If I didn’t kill your parents, Chloé, they would have killed me,” she said, half-expecting Chloé to end the kiss and get back into raging – but the only thing that happened was that Chloé’s arms crushed Sabrina’s ribs a little harder. “There are currently four mobs trawling the city for me, and I have no time to consider the moral implications of their deaths.”

The kiss ended for air and Chloé pushed Sabrina away. “This is all nonsense! Why would they all be afte- four? Even the Tsurugis?”

“Apparently, they are ‘pruning the weaklings’,” said Kagami, putting maximum bite into her tone. “Did you not hear anything?”

“I am Daddy’s most trusted! I’m the underboss!”

“Second underboss, after Kimmy,” said Sabrina, speaking with a sensual undertone that jolted Kagami; it felt almost like she shouldn’t be here listening to the conversation, even though she was the one holding it.

“Exactly! And – oh.” Chloé went quiet, creasing her eyebrows. She looked from Sabrina to Kagami, then back to Sabrina. “You… knew you were going out to kill her?”

Sabrina nodded. “I didn’t know why, but the orders went out.”

“And they didn’t tell me!” said Chloé, her ire back in full but now with its barrels trained away from Kagami. “They went behind my back! Me! The best, richest, prettiest mafiosa in the whole city! I was told to sit here and wait, because nothing interesting was going on tonight, they said, and then you came in,” she pointed at Marinette, then shook her head and pointed to Kagami, “and started killing people.”

“I’m sorry, Chloé,” said Sabrina, kissing Chloé on the shoulder. “But you could join us and –”

“I could join you!” interrupted Chloé, putting on a haughty expression and a haughty affect, and in general being very haughty. “I’d be willing to lend you my talents and expertise and devilish good looks… on one condition. I become head of the Bourgeois family.”

“What?” said Kagami. “I am taking down all the mobs. Either the Bourgeois family dies tonight, or I do.”

Marinette cleared her throat, and her hand landed on Kagami’s shoulder. “But… can you make it alone against the police? If everyone’s dead, then it’s just you and me. And, um, also Sabrina and Chloé. And that’s okay! I don’t mind, but, um, maybe if the mobs got new leadership, leadership who could be convinced to work with you –”

“I would never work with the likes of her!” said Chloé. But there was something odd about her tone. And she seemed to be… smiling? Snaking her arms back around Sabrina, she went on: “We’d be rivals. The Bourgeois will be supreme!”

At this point, Sabrina seemed to catch on to something. “Yes! We’d both be engaged in a fight for territory. And we’d only stand together against the police, and against other people who try to kill us. Chloé never called for you to die, so don’t – don’t treat her like she did, okay?”

Kagami looked sideways at Marinette, a little lost for words. There was clearly something going on in the conversation, but that something had moved past her. “I don’t know what is going on right now,” she said, “but I will not accept any attempts on my life.”

“They mean… you’ll fight together now,” said Marinette. She spoke hesitantly, stopping here and there mid-sentence. Her hand still rested on Kagami’s shoulder. “And after the night is over, Chloé takes over her own thingamajig, gang thing, the Boogies, and then you won’t actually fight each other. You’ll just pretend like you’re at war, and keep going like you did before tonight. Except you’ll be allies.”

“Why would we pretend to fight?”

“We’re already hitting the mattresses tonight,” said Sabrina, and Kagami felt Marinette’s arm tense up again. “Having peace after that might be… suspicious. And also, Chloé is competitive.”

“I’m the superior boss anyway,” said Chloé, oozing with unearned confidence. “But I’ll accept your attempts to reach my level.”

“Neither of us is a donna yet.”

At this point, Marinette cut in again. “Should we get going?”

Kagami was about to protest, purely for the principle of the thing – but she realised there was no point. “Sabrina. Do you know the way to the Couffaines’ shipyard?” she asked. Sabrina nodded. “Good. We go take out the Couffaines, and then we confront Mother. If Audrey Bourgeois was telling the truth, Mother has disgraced our family, and she needs to be gone.”

There were two things you never did in the cosca. You never tattled to the law, and you never betrayed a family member. Going together with the other families to kill ‘weakling’ members of your own family was as anathema to Kagami as she could possibly imagine. Even Astruc deserved better than that – even though she would prefer never having to deal with him again, she could never betray and kill him simply for existing. And she knew that because she’d worked with him for long enough that she’d wanted to do that multiple times, but she didn’t have the stomach for senseless violence. Violence, death, must always be used with a purpose. Like for self-defence.

Come to think of it, it was strange that Astruc was assigned to her for this mission. Kagami had thought it was because it was an unimportant assignment in the grand scheme of things, but when it came to it he was possibly the worst conceivable choice for the job. It was an understated and non-violent meeting in a friendly bar, while Astruc was overstated, violent, and unfriendly. He was most certainly among the targets of this culling. That must be why he was assigned.

They went down to the car, and Kagami told Chloé to sit in front, which Chloé gladly agreed to because it was ‘the boss’s seat’. Kagami imagined she’d give Chloé a gun before they went into the Couffaine stronghold – Chloé was painfully honest and deeply prideful, and Sabrina had gone to bat for her, so while she had her doubts about Chloé’s efficiency she thought there was no way the girl could hide a betrayal like this. Meanwhile, Sabrina had proved she deserved many levels of trust.

And Marinette…

“I will give you one more chance to explain why you didn’t trust Lila Rossi,” Kagami said calmly, as Sabrina pulled out of the hotel’s parking lot. “I am not questioning your lack of trust. But I need to know that you’re being honest with me.”

There was silence. Chloé and Sabrina, in the front seats, also remained courteously quiet. But the tension in the car was thick enough to cut with a knife, and you’d have to use a very big knife to cut it, and you might not get more than an inch or two in.

“… I can’t tell you yet,” Marinette said eventually. “I may have to tell you soon, but until I have to, you may not – I mean – it’s… I’m sorry. I wish I could just say, but… it’s pretty unbelievable.”

Kagami raised an eyebrow. “More unbelievable than a woman who can throw a pair of scissors straight through a man’s neck at twenty feet, catch a gun with a spool of thread, and stab a knitting needle through to a man’s heart from the back?”

Marinette looked extremely serious as she said “Yes.”

There was really nothing more to say. Kagami reloaded her handgun and pushed all her dreams about Marinette away. It wasn’t even that Marinette was unreliable, because she had been the most reliable – if unpredictable – aspect of this whole evening. But when she clearly didn’t have trust in Kagami in return, then Kagami couldn’t devote attention to her. It just wouldn’t be worth it. She was just wasting her time on someone who would turn away from her.

The ride from there on passed in silence, other than the occasional clicks from weapons sliding back and forth in the middle seat. There were five tommy guns and as many handguns; Kagami would take one of each. Sabrina could take a handgun, and Chloé’s personality suggested she’d be best at wielding spread fire, so she’d get a Thompson.

They slid into the docks area, which as usual was the least pleasant part of the city, especially considering the roving bands of mobsters that were out for Kagami’s head. It was moody and grimy, most of the open areas they drove through were harshly lit by arc lamps which cast deep shadows into every corner and across every wall and container, of which there were many; there could be dozens of people hiding in any one of them, just waiting for a chance to unload their bullets into the car. And considering how Audrey Bourgeois managed to send warning to someone, be they Mother or the Couffaines or even a Bourgeois capo but probably all three at this point… they couldn’t afford to miss a single hiding spot, or it might end up being their end.

Strangely, unlike everyone else in the car, Marinette didn’t seem anxious at all. Or rather, she seemed anxious about Kagami, but not about the impending danger. There was a sheen to her eyes, almost like a physical glow, as she flitted her eyes between Kagami and straight forward.

There were no guards posted at the Liberty docks. Which could only mean one thing: they were all waiting inside, weapons armed. Sabrina pulled up to the building’s front wall, perpendicular to the door.

“Keep a waking eye. They’re ready for us,” Kagami said, handing out the weapons. “Sabrina, you take this one. Chloé… I hope I can trust you with this.” She glanced sideways at Marinette – and for a moment she thought there was something lit inside Marinette’s sewing bag, but then she blinked and it was gone. Whatever it was, if Marinette was going to be secretive, there was no reason to dig.

The one good thing about the shipyard was that they didn’t have any watch towers or hidden positions to fire from. There was just a massive building, with multiple stories to be sure, but there were no windows or holes overlooking the parking area. There was just a corrugated metal wall all the way up to the roof, and a set of large doors. Further away there were other buildings, but far enough away that they wouldn’t be good to fire at the car from.

“So… do we go out?” said Sabrina.

“Yes. Let’s.”

Outside creaked with wind against metal, old wood and rope straining against the things they were supporting. There was a strong smell of salt in the air, but it was mixed with oil, gunpowder, hints of sweat.

As they pushed against the wall around the door, Kagami realised that the question wasn’t who would fire the first shot. The question was if her little decine could dodge those first shots enough to fire back. She had never been inside this building before, but it was a shipyard, so there had to be a lot of open space – and probably, they wouldn’t be near it when they walked through the door.

Kagami reached for the handle. But then Marinette spoke up: “I have an idea,” she said. “Wait here.” Without waiting for a reply, she pulled away from the wall and walked over to the car, where she grabbed hold of the bonnet – and ripped it out. Then she went a little further, grabbed a wooden pallet, and lifted it up. Then she came back, holding a bonnet that was just a little bit longer than she was tall in one hand, and a hefty piece of nailed-together wood in the other, without breaking a sweat.

Chloé looked baffled. “What –”

“Just go with it,” said Sabrina with a sigh. “I’ll take the bonnet. Chloé, stay behind me.”

“I’ll hold this,” said Marinette. The pallet was a lot shorter – basically only enough to reach down to just above her knees if Marinette wanted it to cover her head – but that didn’t seem to bother her. “We go through, and find cover. Okay?”

The last question was directed at Kagami – who could only nod. She was getting tired of Marinette being so right all the time. The least she could do, if she wasn’t going to trust Kagami, would be to be wrong every now and then. So Kagami could feel better about her disapproval.

Guns blazed the moment they pushed the door open. Here, the fire was desperate and aggressive, not like it had been at the Bourgeois hotel. Either the Couffaines were just that poorly trained, or they were terrified – or possibly both. It sounded they were firing every bullet in their magazines, without concern for whether or not they were hitting.

The fire rang against the wall for the most part, but Sabrina’s bonnet also clanged, and the pallet crackled too as metal slugs pierced into – but not through – the wood. A couple of sounds were different, though, like the bullets weren’t hitting either metal or wood, but rather flesh. But they all moved and nobody screamed in pain, and they made it to more permanent cover after running left halfway across the hall: a stack of metal drums, with wooden poles lined up against it and tarpaulins stretched across.

Kagami gave Marinette the most incredulous look she could muster, also glancing at the woman’s bare legs. There was no sign of blood, no wound, no trace of pain on Marinette’s face. What had the flesh-sounds been from, then?

In front of them was a large boat with its stern aimed towards the entrance; there were gunners posted on them. They had full-on machine guns – which meant they had to be out in the open, which meant they’d be easy to take out. In front of the boat were multiple makeshift barricades, seven in all, with several people hiding behind each one. They all held Chicago typewriters and presumably had multiple weapons each. There was also some other movement on the deck, but Kagami couldn’t tell what was going on behind the gun turrets.

The fire paused for a moment – possibly because the Couffaines all needed to reload. Kagami stepped back slightly so she could see all three of her compatriots, and made sure to keep her voice low. “Chloé. Fire at will, take out as many people as you can when you see them. Sabrina, I want you to take the call to shoot whoever, whenever, when you see them. I know you’re scared of taking charge, but there is nobody you can hit here that’s going to be a problem unless you turn your barrel on us. And Marinette… do what you can, I guess.”

All three of them nodded, Marinette with a worrying level of determination, and Chloé with a gleeful grin. “You got it,” she said. “I’ll kill all of them.”

“Take your chances when they’re reloading. There’s less return fire to worry about.”

“Got it,” said Sabrina.

Then the firing started again. The four of them stayed in a crouch, waiting for their chance –

– but then suddenly, Marinette sighed and stood up fully. “I’m going to do the unbelievable now,” she said, and then – after putting her hand on Kagami’s shoulder – she added, “I’ll tell you afterwards.” There was an unquestionable authority to her demeanour now which made Kagami unwilling to protest.

And then Marinette simply walked out onto the floor, where every gun in the house could be aimed at her, and kept going forward.

Bullets hailed against her. Kagami was sure she saw several go straight into Marinette’s head and torso, but Marinette was completely unfazed. She just kept on walking, as the machine guns, the submachine guns, the handguns all fired every part of their magazines against her – and she grabbed the scissors out of her sack, still resolute and grim.

Kagami couldn’t even scream. She didn’t know what good it would do. But if nothing else, at least Marinette had been right that this was even more unbelievable than the rest of what she’d done. It was like a dream, except a dream that didn’t know if it was a good dream or a nightmare.

Chloé took initiative first, while Kagami was still trying to pull herself together. She shot to her feet and started firing on the barricades, hitting several people – their screams reverberating across the massive space. Sabrina was next, jumping up and aiming her weapon.

They were right to do so, of course. And Kagami followed suit a short while later, but she aimed her handgun at the people up on the boat. They fell in short order, each of them standing up fully to aim their muzzles at Marinette, not paying attention to anything else. Then she shot the barrels too, for good measure, hoping to disable them.

Marinette was the last to jump into action, despite – despite everything. She ran the rest of the distance to the nearest barricade and eviscerated the people behind it with her scissors, kicking their pistols out of their hands before stabbing them through the head or neck or chest and moving on to the next one. With Kagami and Chloé both firing their tommy guns now, the Couffaines were quickly winnowed down. A couple of them turned smart and ducked away – but they were quickly hunted down by Marinette, who jumped them with her short-range sewing tools.

A short while later, all gunfire had ceased. Marinette stood up from behind a barricade, her scissors and knitting needles dripping with blood.

“What…” murmured Chloé.

“I… agree,” said Sabrina. “What was…”

Kagami didn’t say anything. She only stared at Marinette, silently demanding an explanation.

But before any answers could come, someone clapped from up on the ship. They all turned to look, and saw Donna Anarka Couffaine walk into sight range. She seemed extremely apprehensive – no, she looked downright fearful. The claps were slow and uneven.

“Well done,” she said, her voice trembling. “Ye’ve proven yer strength.” She glanced at Marinette, but turned to Kagami when she spoke. “Ye got us beat. I can’t best ye. I just want ye to spare me life. Me and what’s left of me crew out in the streets. And in return, I’ll give ye the life o’ yer compatriot up here. We captu-”

She was cut off, very abruptly, when her whole eye exploded. But this time, the culprit wasn’t Marinette – it was Sabrina, who had fired her gun with impeccable aim.

Kagami looked at her. She shrugged. “You said it wasn’t a problem unless I fired on one of us. But, er, that was a lucky shot. I thought I’d miss…”

“I don’t mind,” said Kagami. She truly didn’t. She was just surprised. “Donna Anarka conspired to have me killed. She deserves nothing.”

Sabrina looked quietly pleased that she hadn’t been chided. But before she could say anything, they heard another voice from above them. “… Hello? Kagami?” said the voice. “Is that you?” Kagami recognised it after a few moments to unscramble her brain – that was Caquet’s voice.

“Mireille? You’re not dead?”

“I’m just tied up! I got away from the first attack…”

“We’ll get you down from there. Are you alone?”

“… Yes. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” said Kagami. For a moment, she’d gotten her hopes up that the others might have survived as well – but even just Caquet was a lot more than she’d hoped for only an hour ago. “I’m glad you’re alive.”

“I’ll get her down,” said Marinette.

Marinette jumping up to the boat’s deck from the floor, easily twenty feet or more, was – in the grand scheme of things – not a particularly surprising event. But it wasn’t the kind of surprising Kagami had expected, so she still jolted when Marinette practically flew out of sight.

A minute later, after some confused outbursts from Caquet, everyone was on the floor and Caquet had been unbound through the single conventional use Kagami had seen Marinette make of her scissors. Chloé and Sabrina were watching Marinette with baffled, open-mouthed awe – Caquet, meanwhile, looked like she had seen, and was still in the process of seeing, a car collision.

And Marinette, who up until then had looked like a murderous avenger, softened into a sheepish young woman under their gazes.

“Um, I suppose this is where I tell you what’s up,” she said.

“Yes,” said Kagami, as authoritatively as she was able under the circumstances.

“Okay, so…”

Somehow, it seemed that Marinette – who was able to break through heavy oaken doors with a single kick, kill people with seam rippers, and stop bullets with her mind – was frightened of something as simple as telling someone about something. Her eyes darted everywhere, her mouth opened and closed, and her hands were worrying each other, possibly in order to catch up to how worried the rest of her was.

“… So. I’m not actually a seamstress. Or, well, I am – I can sew, but…”

“Kagami,” said Caquet, “why is this woman still here? Didn’t you ditch her, or kill her, after she kidnapped you?”

“She’s Marinette. She’s hard to get rid of. And she is about to tell us what is going on.”

Marinette sighed. “I’m actually… a guardian angel,” she said.

Kagami vaguely registered that Sabrina’s mouth, which had closed temporarily, fell open again. “You’re my guardian angel?” she asked, trying to keep her voice level.

“Not your guardian angel. A guardian angel. I guard human lives but I’m not, like, bound to anyone, unless I choose to be. And, um, I still do sewing work, that’s my day job, but I get a forewarning if there’s going to be danger or trouble nearby, and then I go out, and…” She squirmed. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” said Chloé.

“I, um, for everything?”

“Honestly, this is ridiculous. Why should we believe you?”

“Because… she was just fired at by thirty guns for a minute and not one of them hit her?” suggested Sabrina.

“You were warned of trouble, and you came to protect me,” said Kagami.

Marinette shook her head. “No. Again, I’m not your guardian angel – I mean I like – I don’t – I wasn’t – I was just warned there’d be trouble. Guardian angels aren’t guardians of anything in specific, we can guard whatever we want, good or bad. And we don’t even need to actually guard unless we want to.”

“Right,” said Kagami, considering her now-frequent saviour. Marinette looked… off, now, in a way she hadn’t before. She still looked like probably the most attractive woman Kagami had ever seen, it wasn’t anything to do with that – but now that Kagami looked closer, she thought she could see dents in Marinette’s skin, a hundred pocks and hollows from where the bullets would have entered if they hadn’t been deflected. And sure, Marinette looked strong, but she didn’t have anywhere near the kind of muscle that would allow her to do… any of what she did.

She looked like a human. But that human had some sort of magic inside her. She was real and tangible and physical, but also kind of… No. No, it was something else.

Kagami had heard about guardian angels in her childhood, because the mafia was nothing if not worryingly superstitious – but those tales had always been different. The angels had always been distant, otherworldly, with their sole human emotion being excessive and suffocatingly warm love for whoever they were guarding. Marinette, in comparison, was refreshingly human. Aggravatingly so.

“So the reason you didn’t trust Lila is because you can read people’s minds?” Kagami said, feeling her way forward through the thought as she spoke.

But Marinette’s eyes shot wide open. “No! No,” she said, waving her hands. “I can’t read anyone’s mind, even if I want to. But she’s… also a guardian angel.”

Kagami raised her eyebrows. “I shot her in the shoulder.”

“She only pretended to be shot. She probably got some blood from a nearby dead guy.”

“But… wouldn’t it have been good to get another guardian angel on the team?” asked Sabrina.

“Like I said. Guardian angels aren’t – they’re not good people.” The admission seemed to hurt Marinette a little bit; she looked over at Kagami with a worried expression, before dropping her eyes to the floor. “We just guard whatever. And she had already picked a side.”

“She picked ours,” Kagami pointed out.

Marinette shook her head emphatically. “No. She was aiming a gun at us. She only stopped when she was the only one left standing. Whoever’s side she’s on… she’s not on yours.”

“I’m confused,” said Caquet, half raising her hand. “What’s going on here?”

“I think we’re all as lost as you,” Kagami said. She let her eyes drift over the others, linger for a moment on Marinette’s now painfully honest face, land again on Caquet. “All I know is, we’re being hunted, and we’re not going down without a fight. Come on – we’ve taken out the leaders of three mobs already. We may have to take out the fourth as well. Let’s get to the car.”

Then she paused, looking her sole remaining soldier up and down. Caquet looked dishevelled and dusty, and had scrapes across her face – her suit was scuffed and she seemed to have lost her tie-pin. But she was alive. “… I’m glad you’re okay, Mireille,” said Kagami. “I thought I’d lost you. What happened?”

Caquet looked both angry and scared at the same time. She hesitated slightly, before plunging all in at once. “We were about to go after you. But a bunch of cugines from the other mobs stopped us in the streets. They aimed their guns – we thought we were ready for them, they were only a couple people more than us and looked like pivelli to a one. Their leader said we were going down, though, along with you, and ‘all the others’, whatever that means.

“But… then Astruc turned on us. Walked over to them and just aimed his gun straight at Duparc. We had no idea what to do, but I had the wits about me to duck before they started firing. Iced a couple of them, but I couldn’t stay there or I’d get killed. Tried to lam, but got pinched by the Couffaines ten minutes later… and here I am. Don’t know why they didn’t clip me, though, despite everything.”

Astruc. Astruc. Not only had Mother betrayed Kagami, gone behind her back to lay plans for whacking her with the other mob heads – but out of all the people Mother could have chosen to ally herself with for this endeavour, all the people she could have considered to be ‘not weaklings’, she’d picked Astruc. The worst capodecine in the whole of the Tsurugi family.

“Did any of the others survive?”

“I don’t know. I saw Duparc, Lee, and Wang get shot, but I don’t know what happened to the others. I was too busy running away.”

“Mireille. We are taking down every single one of these stronzi. Everyone who raised a gun at you, everyone who laid plans against us. As long as they’re mafia, unless they prove otherwise, that includes every single mobster we see. And we are going back to face Donna Tsurugi.” Kagami clenched her grip around her guns, her lips forming a straight and narrow line.

Because family no longer mattered. Only vengeance did. There was no longer room in Kagami’s head for the idea she might fail; it was simply inconceivable. The night would end with her standing as the victor, along with her little makeshift replacement family, or it wouldn’t end at all.

“… Kagami?” said Mireille. She’d looked concerned for a while. “What’s happened?”

“A lot of things,” said Sabrina.

They explained – the parts that hadn’t already been thoroughly established, at least – on the way to the car, and as they slipped into their seats. Kagami naturally took the middle seat in the back, with Marinette to her right and Caquet to her left. Caquet got a pistol and a tommy from the pile; Kagami also gave one of each forward, so they’d all be armed with one of each. They accepted, with grim nods and ferocious eyes.

She also glanced sideways at Marinette – who reached her hand out. Kagami put the last handgun into it – and Marinette promptly took it, and emptied the magazine out onto the floor.

“Another blunt instrument,” said Kagami.

“Of a type,” mumbled Marinette.

Of a type. That was this whole evening in a nutshell. Kagami had had a meeting, of a type. She had found allies, of a type. She had been shot at and targetted, but because she had Marinette at her side those attacks had only been threats of a type. And the Tsurugi family – that had only been a family of a sort, too.

Now she had a new family, which was still only of a sort. But it would have to do. Chloé and Sabrina were both driven and motivated; Sabrina was sharp as a whip, too. Caquet – no, Mireille, because she deserved to be recognised beyond code names and titles – was her usual watchful and cautious self, but once the next shootout happened, there was nobody she could possibly feel safer next to.

Except…

Marinette. A guardian angel, apparently; an explanation Kagami had truthfully only accepted because there was no other way to rationalise it. If such an admission had come under any other circumstance, she would have dismissed it as drunken foolishness, but that was just impossible to do right now. Marinette was an angel who had chosen to get involved specifically on Kagami’s side – for whatever reason. She could deflect bullets with her mind, she could jump atop buildings, and she could kick someone’s teeth out through the back of their neck. It was hard not to feel safe with someone like that on your side. But to feel secure, feel appreciated… that was a different story.

“Let’s go,” said Kagami, and Sabrina pulled the car out and put it back on the road. Their next stop: Tsurugi headquarters.

A temporary silence fell over all of them – only broken, at first, by the occasional clicks from Mireille and Chloé adjusting their firearms. Kagami focused on Marinette, though, who sat quiet and sullen by the window. The bullet-free gun she’d jammed into the sewing bag; she clutched it tightly to her chest. She seemed apprehensive, which Kagami found peculiar.

As they drew away from the docks district, Kagami asked: “Can you die, Marinette?”

Marinette sighed. “I can’t be injured by mortal weapons.”

“What about weapons that aren’t mortal,” said Kagami, taking note of what a bizarre distinction that was. Weapons were always mortal, because they decided life or death.

“There’s one thing that can kill me. The wish of another angel. Or intervention from God.”

“So God exists too,” said Mireille, almost mockingly, certainly disbelievingly.

Marinette sighed. “Yes…”

“Well, cazzo. I don’t know the first thing about what’s going on here, and I’m not going to catch up during a single drive… but I swear, if you do any angel shit to harm the boss, I’ll make you eat a cactus in reverse.”

Marinette shifted her bag; again, Kagami thought she saw something glowing inside, but the light faded quickly. “I think a great amount of trouble is coming. You should all be on your guards.”

“Way ahead of you, feather girl,” said Chloé, tapping her handgun against the car window. “I’m going to ice anything that gets in my way.”

Her confidence did seem likely to be necessary. As they drew into Tsurugi-controlled districts, it was impossible to miss the roving bands of soldiers. Kagami recognised several Tsurugis – Hill, Keynes, Hombee, Rochip, among others she didn’t care to remember the names of. There were also Couffaines and Bourgeoises around, high-ranking members Kagami had run into before, and many others who could be from any of the ABCs.

At first, they didn’t seem to be moving with a specific purpose; instead, they seemed to be scouring alleys and shopfronts, and Kagami didn’t need a second guess to figure out what they were looking for. Several grisly scenes of blood and bullet-shattered windowpanes told the tale that they’d already found some undesirables.

How many people were on the whack list tonight? Certainly Kagami’s whole crew, and presumably Beaureal as well. There were hundreds of soldiers, capos and bosses across all the city’s mobs, around three hundred and fifty connected to the Tsurugi family alone. So what was it that compelled the dons to target some but not others? Who could possibly draw up a map of maybe a thousand people, and decide who should and shouldn’t live?

And was Kagami the only target high-profile enough to bother with? Chloé hadn’t even been informed about what was going on; Kagami was pretty certain she’d seen both of the Couffaine heirs dead on the floor back at the docks. Why had Kagami been singled out? What was the definition of ‘weakling’?

The car drew closer still, and the crews on the sidewalks seemed to be paying more and more attention to the moving car. Sabrina slowed down slightly, perhaps in an attempt to seem less suspicious – but naturally, that just drew every crew on the boulevard’s attention. As one, Kagami and Mireille raised their weapons; Chloé gripped hers more tightly, too, ready to get it into firing position at a moment’s notice.

But it was Marinette who broke the silence. “Pull to the side,” she said. “Like you’re dropping me off.”

“Right,” said Sabrina, hitting the brakes.

“Prepare your guns,” Marinette went on. “I’ll draw their attention. You’ll have to take them out.”

Mireille looked at Kagami. Orders – those were technically Kagami’s job. With everything she knew about Marinette’s abilities, she could at least trust in this plan’s success – even though she didn’t like it. She nodded.

“Right,” sighed Mireille. “You’re the boss.” The emphasis on ‘you’re’ was slight, but noticeable.

The car pulled aside and came to a full stop. Marinette stepped out of the car, leaving her bag behind on the seat. Everyone else aimed their tommy guns through the window at the nearest mobster they could spot, then held their positions – trusting to the darkness to hide them.

“Um, hello!” said Marinette; she walked towards one of the mob crews. “Is there a doctor nearby? We’ve been trying to find one, my friend was hit in the leg by a stray bullet…”

“Doctor?” said one of the mobsters; Kagami couldn’t see him, because her head was turned another way. Any bullet fired towards a mobster within Marinette’s immediate vicinity would be a wasted bullet.

“A medical doctor! Please, her leg could get infected… Do you know what’s going on? Why is everyone out shooting at each other?” Kagami eyed a soldier behind the car, who had stopped in his tracks along with the rest of his crew.

“There’s no doctors here, miss. Onl-”

The glschrksh sound was their signal, and soon everyone in the car was firing. Kagami dropped half the crew with her first tommy gun sweep; she got most of the remaining ones with the second one. The last of them ducked behind a car, but Mireille nailed him through the forehead with her pistol when he tried to pop out for a view of what was happening.

A spray of bullets hit the car on Sabrina and Mireille’s side, but didn’t get past the doors. Kagami aimed for the person who fired, but didn’t get a chance to shoot because they were dropped with alacrity by Chloé. A couple more bullets pinged against the chassis, before a volley of return fire from all four Chicago typewriters in the car ripped through the space those bullets had come from.

They let off the triggers, saving the rest of their magazines. There wasn’t any sound left – only the immediate echoes of noise that had just died: the metallic roar of gunfire, the pained shrieks of death and injury, the shattering of glass, the last few clicks of shoes against the stone pavement.

Something like a metal can clattered against stone in the distance.

Chloé breathed out.

Kagami scanned the area. To her reckoning, there had been between fifteen and twenty people on the streets before the shootout started. It would be a fool’s errand to try and count the bodies – but the complete lack of response suggested they were alone.

“Shit,” said Mireille. “Chamack was out there. I shot her in the chest.”

“She shot at us first,” said Kagami.

“Still… that’s not a good feeling.”

It wasn’t. Kagami hadn’t been particularly enthusiastic about anything that had happened for the past few hours. It was all just… necessity. And Kagami would bring down anyone who stood in her way.

Sabrina sighed, lowering her weapon. “I’m not sure we should drive any further in the car,” she said, glancing back at Kagami for confirmation. “It’s too damaged to not be suspicious… right?”

Kagami nodded. Sabrina blinked. Chloé, too, lowered her weapon. The car felt a lot less tense.

“Right,” said Sabrina. She pushed her door open, stepped out onto the pavement. “I could short a less damaged car, if we want to drive, or we could walk. It’s just –”

A brief rap of gunfire rang out in the street, and Sabrina’s suggestion turned into a shriek of agony as she fell back towards the side of the car. Someone had ducked down behind a vehicle on the other side of the street – and waited for a chance to shoot unobstructed. Kagami went straight for her gun again, but she was completely outpaced by Chloé, who was peppering the hiding place with her tommy gun before Kagami even had her own weapon fully raised. Within seconds, the car exploded, as Chloé screamed, and Sabrina groaned against the chassis.

Mireille pushed outside. Kagami followed. Chloé kept firing into the flaming inferno she’d caused, still screaming. When Mireille touched Sabrina’s shoulder, though, Chloé stopped her barrage and dropped the weapon – and made to leave the car as well.

“Sabrina! Are you okay?” she howled, voice cracking.

“Hrh,” breathed Sabrina. Kagami saw, through Mireille’s administrations, that the bullets had only pierced her shoulder. There was no blood or injury elsewhere – but on the other hand, she was bleeding plenty from the wound she had.

“We’ll need to bind her up. Do we have a kit in the car?” said Mireille.

“No. All we have is –”

“My bag,” said Marinette. Kagami hadn’t noticed her in the chaos – but there she was, even more dishevelled before, holding the sewing bag in question. She looked grim, but also worried, sorrowful, twisted-up.

With Sabrina lying half spread out across the bullet-riddled bonnet, and Mireille holding her stable, Marinette pulled out a roll of cloth she took from the Agreste mill and placed it next to Sabrina’s head. Then she bent down, considered the wound, and gave Sabrina an apologetic look. “This will hurt,” she said.

“What are you doing?” demanded Chloé; she stood on the opposite side from Mireille and Marinette, put her hands on Sabrina’s cheek. “You’re an angel, aren’t you? Can’t you just heal her?”

“No. I can’t. I’d have to use my wish, and we only – we only get one.” Marinette looked away, clearly uncomfortable. “A wish can do anything. I don’t want to use it unless it’s about life or death.”

“I’m going to shoot you if you hurt her,” Chloé hissed. “We need her! I ne- you’d better not hurt her!”

Sabrina’s hand – the one from her uninjured arm – landed on Chloé’s cheek. “I’ll be fine. I’m not dying.” With that gesture, Chloé calmed down a little bit; she still watched Marinette with distrustful indignation, though.

Sabrina still screamed when Marinette physically pulled two bullets out of her shoulder by reaching in and pulling them out, and groaned as Marinette spat on the wound to clean it of large particles, and then went over to deep and heavy breathing as Marinette bound the cotton cloth tightly over the wound.

“It’s not disinfected. You’ll need antibiotics and a full patchup at a doctor’s as soon as possible,” Marinette said when she was done. Sabrina winced as she got to her feet, but was able to move on her own – or would have been, if Chloé hadn’t been dangling off her.

“We’ll walk the rest of the way,” said Kagami. “Be careful. Anyone comes too close, shoot first and ask later.” A ring of nods came in reply; she couldn’t help but be a little bit proud. Sabrina with just a handgun now; Chloé with just a tommy gun, because she used the other hand to steady Sabrina. Mireille and Kagami both had one of each weapon, and Kagami held a bunch of magazines for each as well; Marinette, though, still only had the ammunition-free handgun. Not that she seemed like she would ever need it, with her arsenal of lethal sewing equipment.

They met two more crews on the road – both of them Couffaine, with smatterings of Agreste – and iced them easily. But as they approached the Tsurugi headquarters, the electricity plant, Kagami knew they’d have to be even less conspicuous. There were multiple lookout posts on higher floors, and guards posted outside. The place was so intimately known to Kagami that she could probably have navigated it blindfolded; however, now the place was infested with people who wanted to shoot her.

When they inched close enough to see the compound clearly, from a vantage point in the one alleyway that was entirely hidden from the lookout posts, Kagami could see that the entire location was infested with members of all four mobs. She recognised Lahiffe from the Agrestes and Césaire from the Couffaines, ‘Mile High’ Haprèle also from the Couffaines, and Kimmy Chiggers from the Bourgeois, along with a whole nest of Tsurugis that – if Kagami could help it – would never again be part of the family.

The Bourgeois consigliere had succeeded admirably in her final act. The entire compound was on high alert. The myriad of mobsters, mixed but not matched from ABCs and Tsurugis alike, patrolled the area with nervous eyes. They were armed with submachine guns, and seemed poised to use them if they saw so much as a raccoon anywhere between the transformers and pylons. But the real target was the four-storey office building beyond, where Mamma Tsurugi always sat when conducting business. And that one was even more heavily guarded.

“Well, we know the way in,” said Mireille. “The question is how to get there.” She pointed with her pistol towards the upper windows, the guard posts. Everyone else seemed to catch on, going from open mouths to closed and wide eyes to intense and focused.

“We clip them all,” said Chloé. “Straight through the head.”

“We’re going to have to, yeah,” said Mireille. She looked to Kagami. “Orders?”

Kagami didn’t reply at first. She kept eye on the guards as they walked around – they were too disparate. The way they moved around, the places they looked… most of them didn’t have experience patrolling this area, and a lot of them seemed to lack experience patrolling at all. Maybe fresh soldiers, only barely out of gun training, or maybe just soldiers who were far more used to going out as muscle for robberies or extortions.

The Tsurugis on display were clearly the most comfortable with the location, but they were intermingling with ABC mobsters who threw off the careful rhythm that was necessary for a good guard posting. And there were far too many of them, relying on sheer force of numbers to discourage attacks. They were as jittery as lit firecrackers. Which meant that any amount of chaos could throw them into disarray.

The place itself was also difficult to keep track of. Electrical noise would make it hard to pinpoint where any shot was coming from; there were also multiple nooks and crannies along the way that they could slip into, behind sheds or raised-up walls that could provide temporary shelter. And the pylons would hide them from the lookout posts…

“Marinette?” said Kagami, looking aside at the girl – which was a mistake. Because she’d almost forgotten how Marinette looked in her dress, and the glance didn’t offer adequate protection to help Kagami relax. She’d been able to steel herself for a while, but now her guard was down and she suffered for it.

“… Forget I said anything.” She bent down to pick up a glass bottle from the ground instead, before turning to the others. “Mireille. Chloé. Help Sabrina, but keep your guns ready. I’ll create a distraction.”

“How?” asked Marinette.

“I give them a target to shoot at.” She just aimed her pistol, lobbed the bottle to the side – and as the bottle crashed into the wall, she fired a bullet straight through Kimmy Chiggers’s forehead.

The reaction was immediate. Several of the less experienced gangsters turned towards where the bottle had landed and started firing – while the others yelled not to get distracted. That didn’t last long, though, when Kagami planted another bullet straight into the back of Contard’s skull. Soon after, all hell broke loose – when the different groups started to fire on each other, because they were too disorganised to know what was going on and too high-strung not to have itchy trigger fingers. Or maybe they just didn’t trust each other. It was difficult to build a large alliance so quickly, after all.

Kagami signalled for everyone to move forward, and they pushed on past the warring factions by sneaking between buildings. While a couple of people did spot them, nobody could actually identify them in the chaos, and so the disparate guard factions just kept firing at each other. And then Kagami’s crew were up to their final goal: Mamma Tomoe’s building.

Kagami still didn’t look at Marinette. But she did catch, through the corner of her eye, that glow from Marinette’s bag again. And it seemed like the lady was very protective of that bag now, clutching it tightly to her chest.

“They’ll have barricaded themselves,” Kagami said. “I don’t know what they think is going on down here, but there could be weapons trained down every single hallway.”

“And they’ll have a guardian angel with them,” said Marinette. She reached into her bag now, took out the gun, then wrapped her hand around something she didn’t take out yet.

“Can you feel her?” asked Sabrina.

“No. But she got involved. I know she’ll be there.”

“And that means you can die.”

Marinette frowned sharply, clenched her fist inside the bag. “Not if I kill her first.” She pulled out something glowing and inserted it into the chamber of the gun, where it kept on shining a warm-ish pink.

“Is that a wish?” asked Kagami.

There was no answer. Marinette simply stuck the gun into the bust of her dress – where the light briefly made it look like her heart was illuminated, before it faded. “I’ll take the lead,” she said, rather than give a simple reply.

Kagami supposed that an angel would be beholden to making their own decisions, to a degree. They weren’t really accountable to human affairs, because they weren’t human. But to not even be shown this basic level of trust was really grating on Kagami’s nerves. She already knew about Marinette being an angel, she already knew about Lila, she already knew there was such a thing as a wish – and yet Marinette still insisted on carrying her cards so close to her – chest, Kagami really needed to pick her metaphors more wisely – Marinette insisted on keeping things to herself. She was hot and strong and all that jazz, but without trust she could only be a passing fling. A single evening over a fancy drink and a following night at a hotel, but nothing beyond that.

Though Marinette did put a dent into Kagami’s self-control with her next action, which was to literally kick the door inside so hard that the hinges shattered, and the whole door flew into the hallway like a projectile. Much like Kagami had expected, there were people inside ready to shoot at them – but not a single shot went off, because Marinette was upon them immediately afterwards.

“Inside,” said Kagami, and the others followed. What they saw in the settling dust was – for the most part, other than boring things like architecture – Marinette murdering people. There had been four mobsters in there before Marinette arrived, all of them presumably alive before her arrival; Marinette was in the middle of murdering the last two at the same time, one with a sewing thread garrotte and one by stomping scissors into the chest cavity as they lay on the floor.

“How have you not taken the whole city already,” said Mireille, rolling her eyes as she walked ahead of Kagami to check on the bodies.

“She can only be in one place at any given time,” said Sabrina, hobbling along with Chloé’s help.

“Um,” said Marinette.

“Let’s not focus on that right now,” said Kagami. There wasn’t enough time to go through another round of Marinette’s avoidances. “Onwards. The office is on the top floor, and takes up almost the whole space.”

They climbed up the stairwells, breaking down barricades, taking out goons, letting Marinette draw fire as she spun through crews like a whirlwind of sartorial murder. The only stop came at the bottom of the last stairwell, where probably the most complete barricade had been set up – stacked with doors, filing cabinets, chairs, metal sheeting, hatstands, room dividers, and just about anything the people behind the barricade had managed to scrounge from the now-empty offices and cupboards along the walls. And atop the barricade…

… stood Astruc, aiming his Chicago typewriter at them.

“So you’re back!” Astruc laughed, with a manic edge to his voice. “All three of you!”

Kagami wanted to shoot him right then and there. But that would be suicide, because there were only four of them, and the ten other people behind the barricade with Astruc might not be able to shoot through Marinette but the sheer concentration of fire would probably shred everyone else regardless. They were better hidden, too, and therefore harder to hit; most of them had pistols, but two had the same gun as Astruc.

But the impulse still remained, because he had shot Wang and Duparc and Lee. He had turned his weapon on his fellow soldiers with intent to kill. He had been favoured by Mamma Tomoe while Kagami had been discarded as undesirable, as a weakling.

Kagami glanced at his feet – he wasn’t wearing a shoe on one of them; instead it was wrapped in a thick bandage, with a faint pink colour at the top. That was Marinette’s doing. Which reminded her – he had also tried to shoot Marinette. That was such a minor thing, and it felt even more minor given how persistent Marinette was in trying to keep a distance all the time, but it still drove the nail in just a bit deeper.

“We have returned to reclaim our rightful place,” Kagami said, and she felt the iciness in her voice, the acid that dripped from the edges of her words. “We will reclaim what you took from us with your betrayal.”

His eyes didn’t so much light aflame as they seemed to be experiencing out-of-control wildfires for the fourth week running. “I’m still loyal! You’re the renegades who abandoned us, and who have gone out on a killing spree across the whole city!”

“We stayed true to the principles of our family,” Kagami bit back. “You never – never – turn your gun on a family member.”

“You are no longer a part of the Tsurugi family,” retorted Astruc. “You and your ilk have been… expelled.” When he said this, he looked at Sabrina and Chloé. “And you’d better run, or you’ll be shot down where you stand.”

His arms tightened around his gun. Every single barrel behind the barricade turned their way. Kagami briefly noticed a fiery orange glow from one of them –

“Duck!” shouted Marinette. She grabbed Kagami by the waist, then Mireille by the wrist, then Sabrina by the wrist with the arm that held Kagami and she ran, away from the barricade and into the nearest office, which was as doorless as every other office on the floor. Kagami didn’t have time to protest – but the bullets quickly started spraying outside, just as Chloé stumbled in through the open doorway. Her heel barely avoided getting perforated by a dozen shots.

“This is outrageous! Why did you run?” Chloé demanded.

“Lila has used her wish,” Marinette replied, voice raised to a half yell to be heard over the rat-tat-tat of the firearms outside. “One of those guns is charged with magic. I don’t know what it does, but I’m not going to risk it. It could end with all of us dead.”

“What? How?” said Mireille.

“The bullets could phase through me. The bullets could target my own wish and break it, so we can’t defeat the enemy. The bullets could kill me. The bullets could turn me human so all the other bullets would kill me. Or it could be something completely different.”

Kagami couldn’t see any dishonesty in Marinette. Not only that: she’d seen the strange glow from one of the weapons – it was a tommy gun, and the glow had been similar to the one from Marinette’s presumably wish-laden gun. In other words… Lila Cerise Rossi was definitely present.

The rate of fire was enormous. But just like the guards outside, these ones weren’t organised enough – they fired constantly, not like the practised gunners behind the Bourgeois barricade. That meant… there would be a gap. A space where all or most of them would need to reload.

“Listen for when they run out of bullets,” Kagami said. Marinette stared at her, surprised – then nodded. The others followed suit, sharpening their ears to the din outside.

Three seconds passed. Five. Seven. Then –

Marinette rushed forward before Kagami had even registered the change. The angel’s feet disappeared around the corner, and Kagami cursed her inwardly before setting off herself.

The handgun users were still firing, even as Marinette flew into action; Kagami turned the corner to see her decapitate one of them with the heel of her boot, and they were all turning to shoot at her now –

– and she kneed the person who’d held the magic gun in the chest so hard that the whole cavity collapsed, and blood and gore exploded violently out of the man’s mouth, as Marinette turned her focus to the next person –

– and Astruc was still there, putting a new magazine into his gun, and Kagami thought she saw a blaze of orange from him as well; and Kagami looked to the person next to him, also with a tommy gun, also with that strange magical sheen, getting ready to fire into Marinette’s back –

– it wasn’t just that one gun, it was the magazines –

– “Watch out!” she yelled, and took aim to shoot. She didn’t take proper aim, because she too used her tommy gun now, spraying her ammunition wide across the space they were in. She hit Astruc first, nailing him in the head, and he dropped hard on the spot. The other man started firing just barely, rat-a-tats cut down to just a single rat before Kagami nabbed him in the arm, then in the gun, then across the chest, and his sole shot burnt a molten hole in the air before it hit the wall with a heavy thud.

Marinette was upon the rest of the mobsters straight away, cutting through them with a sewing needle, but Kagami had no more patience. She dropped the typewriter on the ground, strode forward propelled by an anger that felt so much stronger than she expected, and caught up with Marinette just as the woman turned around with a half-smile and said “Tha-”

Kagami grabbed Marinette by the front of her dress, and pressed down every other thought that exploded into her mind in order to focus on the one: “I am so frustrated with you,” she snapped, although she felt less authoritative than she wanted to be.

Marinette’s face fell. “Um… what’s wrong?”

“You are what’s wrong,” said Kagami, leaning closer. She heard footsteps and sharp intakes of breath behind her, from Mireille and Sabrina and Chloé, but she ignored them. This was between her and Marinette. “You keep things from me. You refuse to explain yourself. I ask you questions that you never answer, because you think I’m not smart enough to keep up with you – is that it? Or is it that you can’t trust me?”

“I – no, I just –”

“I am the leader of this crew. I expect to be kept in the loop about what you’re doing. If you can’t follow orders or communicate with me, you can’t be part of my group, capisci? Especially – especially – when you almost get yourself shot over it!” One of the dropped guns lay on the floor next to Kagami; she kicked it heavily with her foot, sending it crashing into a door jamb. “If I did not follow to save you, and the magic in those magazines meant you could be killed by those guns, you would have been gone. I don’t want –”

– here, Kagami realised a detail she hadn’t thought about yet, a tiny little detail that jammed a stick between the spokes of her anger and sent it tumbling to a crash. It wasn’t just that Marinette didn’t trust her; it wasn’t just that Marinette kept secrets and acted thoughtlessly. It wasn’t that Marinette was unfit for a long time engagement, if this was how she was going to act. No – it was that Kagami wanted Marinette to trust her, to confide in her, to be reliable. To be a long-time engagement. Not just a night at the hotel but someone to wake up next to one day and know they would wake up together the day after. Someone to kiss deeply on the lips, and know there were more kisses waiting.

And that was impossible. Because Marinette was an angel. And angels couldn’t have affairs with humans, probably. She would be bound by different rules. Kagami could never have someone as dramatic, as powerful, as attractive, as dangerous, as devastatingly interesting as Marinette, because for all intents and purposes, Marinette wasn’t real. And even if there was a chance hidden in there somewhere, Kagami couldn’t put up with being sidelined.

“– I demand that you respect me, or you can’t be part of my crew,” Kagami said. And dislodging those words felt like pulling a metal brush across her throat, but she also knew she couldn’t have kept them in any longer.

Marinette looked like a target well aware she would soon be iced. Her eyes wide, her mouth barely open, her breaths heavy, she didn’t resist Kagami’s grip but instead leaned into it, like she was accepting the chastisement. “I’m sorry. I really am, but I… can’t tell you everything,” she whimpered.

“Why not?”

“I – because I don’t – what should I tell you? That I am a guardian angel without a purpose, because the Great Messenger abandoned us years ago? Should I tell you about the wish, and how we can basically ask for whatever we want, but if we ask for too much we might have to give up angelhood? That I fell in love with you the moment I saw you? That I know Lila, because we’ve met during other conflicts, and I know how she opera-?” Marinette closed her mouth suddenly before even finishing that last word, and her face grew incredibly red. She squeaked, a brief little “Mmh!” through closed lips.

“Yes! I need to know why you do things. I expect honesty, and I expect fidelit- wait,” said Kagami, her brain only just now catching up to her ears. “What was that third thing?”

“Nothing!” Marinette croaked. “I meant – I spilled a drink on you! I did that the moment I saw you! And I saw you! That I did! At Théo’s bar, and um, yep, yeah…”

“That was not what you said,” replied Kagami, though she wasn’t exactly confident about what she thought she heard. All she could tell was that Marinette was lying, and that she was a terrible liar to boot.

Marinette shook her head so quickly her cheeks smacked against her teeth. “It was nothing important! Don’t worry about it. Honest.”

“Marinette! Tell me the truth!”

“Oh my God,” interrupted Chloé, “just kiss already. Save us the argument, we know where this is going anyway.

Marinette turned even redder, a feat Kagami had thought must be impossible until it happened. And Kagami wanted to keep pushing more than anything, to know if she’d heard right, but… it couldn’t be right. Angels couldn’t love humans – that had to be a rule somewhere. She sighed, let Marinette go, and murmured: “If you are committed – tell me more about what’s going on. Put some trust in me, for once. I have invested enough trust in you to deserve that.”

“… I…”

“Tell me things. Please.”

There was a small pause. Then Marinette sighed. “So… Right. Look… I’m not used to this. I’ve never collaborated with people before.”

“You’re hardly doing that now,” said Mireille – and Kagami turned around and shot her with a glare. She stiffened, stepping back; Chloé and Sabrina, just behind her, also sharpened to attention.

“I’m sorry,” said Marinette. “I – no. Look, I’ve basically only been working on my own before. Or with other angels. You guys are all fragile, fleshy, soft, um… I mean, you get hurt so easily.” She glanced aside, presumably towards Sabrina. “If I get you hurt or killed when I’m supposed to protect you, then what kind of guardian angel am I? And we’re not supposed to talk so much to people about who we are, because we’re meant to be a secret, but I just couldn’t… Ugh. No. I’m just, I’m not used to this. You’re supposed to just be – something I protect. Not something I fa- gah!”

“If you get yourself killed,” said Kagami, “then you’re even less of a guardian angel than if you get one of us hurt.” She could feel her anger melting into something softer – like annoyance, or frustration. “And in a mafia family, we work together. It’s cosa nostra, not cosa tua. That’s the first rule of any crew I work with. Got that?”

She picked up a bloodied handgun from the floor. It was still warm from being fired so much earlier; she aimed it at Astruc’s prone head and shot one more bullet into him. “We work towards the same goal. And if you can’t be party to that, then you shouldn’t be part of this crew. Capisci?”

Marinette swallowed. “Capisce. I want to be on this crew.”

“What else can you tell me?”

“Um… well, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I know how Lila works, but I have no idea why she’s here… I know she hates me, though. We’ve fought before. But I didn’t expect her to use her one wish to try and get me killed… it’s like she’s only here for her vendetta. I mean, she could make another wish, but that would strip away her angelhood…”

“This… wish. What can it do?”

“Anything. And… yes. It’s what I loaded into my chamber. I don’t know for sure, but I think I’m going to need it – if I’m going to protect you, I might have to put it to use.”

‘Have to’. If it was weird for Lila to use her one wish here and now… “Why would you be willing to spend that wish on us?”

Marinette looked wretched. Her eyes and mouth kept twisting and untwisting, curling and uncurling, expanding then contracting. “I – I – it’s – I –”

“You and I will need to have a long conversation about this later,” said Kagami. “But… thank you for your honesty.” Because there had been honesty in Marinette – enough for Kagami to want that long conversation. Enough to want something past the night. She sighed, not relieved, certainly not content, but… something that edged up to those feelings.

The others came closer now, and Kagami threw the bloody gun aside. “Are you with me? Can I rely on you to fight for my cause?” she asked Marinette.

Marinette fell into an awkward smile. “Y-yes. Absolutely. A hundred and twenty percent.”

“And the rest of you?”

“Yes,” said Mireille, without a moment’s hesitation – as Kagami knew she would. “Of course.”

Sabrina nodded. “I’ll follow you.”

“Look, I’m still gonna be your rival when this is over,” said Chloé. “And I’m contractually obliged to remind you that you suck, but… yeah. You’re better than anyone else in this shithole of a city. Almost.” She put her arm around Sabrina, clearly taking care around the wounded shoulder. “I’m in too.”

“Then let’s take this rotten nest of vipers down. Mireille?”

Mireille, who could capo with the best of them but had never gained that title, stepped forward. She had Kagami’s tommy gun in her hands. “There’s only one entrance,” she said. “We’ll be forced to come in the main door. I suggest Angelface goes first.” Marinette nodded, after a moment’s hesitation and a glance Kagami’s way.

“Can you cover us, Marinette?”

“Yes. I can do that.”

Kagami sighed. “Mireille, you’ll be underboss in the new Tsurugi family. You, me, and Chloé will follow Marinette with tommy guns. Sabrina, you have a handgun. Use it if you have to, but I don’t expect you to do anything with your injury. If anyone gets wounded, pull them back out and into hiding.”

“Right.”

“Got it, boss.”

“I’ll listen this time.”

The climb up the stairs was tense. Once they were at the top, it was just a quick spin around the stairs to face the other way, and then the double doors to Mamma Tomoe’s office would be the only thing protecting her crew from a storm of gun flame – and likewise, the only thing protecting Mother and her entourage from a cascade of lead and steel. Kagami had no idea how many people would be holed up with her, but judging by experience, they would be up against at least a dozen people – and they’d probably have a barricade like this one.

Furthermore, Mother would have a guardian angel. For the first time in a while, Kagami felt uncertain – like she might actually die. Get shot through the heart in the fracas and bleed out on the floor as Marinette punched it out with Lila, unable to protect four people against twenty people pumping a whole side of a room full with bullets. They could retreat, of course, or dive back behind the doors – but both of those required them to enter firing range to begin with. The room would be on high alert – it was fully possible that gunfire would ensue before they had a chance to duck away.

And she still hadn’t even had a night at a hotel with Marinette. If she survived this… that would be the first thing she’d do. If that was even possible for an angel…

They grouped outside the door. Marinette took point. She lined up in front of the door, and for a moment Kagami thought she was going to kick it loose – but she just pulled them open, the heavy gilded wood sliding apart like they were made from cardboard. And inside –

– sat Mother behind her desk, next to her braille-keyed typewriter, with Lila behind Mother’s chair. Only Lila was visibly armed, twirling a pistol around a finger as she puffed cigar smoke out into the air; Tomoe sat straight-backed and firm, leaning her hands on her cane. As for Mother’s crew of bodyguards…

… there were none. The two women were all alone in the room, until Marinette stepped gingerly inside, and Kagami followed with a tight grip around the handle of her Thompson.

“Welcome,” said Lila. “I was hoping I wouldn’t see you again, but here we are.” She sounded like she was in control. Like she was the one with superior firepower and numbers. Then again… she was an angel…

“So this is how you join the Tsurugi family?” said Kagami. She didn’t aim her weapon yet, even though she wanted to. “You get in good graces with its leader after she betrays it and sends it into ruin?”

Lila laughed. “You have no idea. Hello, Marinette. It’s so dreadful to see you again.”

“Lila.”

Kagami looked at Mother. She seemed unresponsive, barely even moving her head to follow along with the conversation; normally, she would incline it to better hear what was being said. She had no visible reaction now.

“Are we shooting or not?” asked Chloé. “Before the angel can do anything.”

“Oh?” said Lila. “You’ve told them, Marinette? That’s a big no-no, isn’t it?”

“Circumstances made it impossible to avoid,” said Marinette through half-gritted teeth. “They know about me and you, and they know about the wish.”

“Pathetic. No wonder you’re a failure.”

“Drop the smug act,” snarled Kagami, taking a step forward to be next to Marinette. Then she turned to Mamma Tomoe. “Mother – is it true you ordered me executed? Is it true you conspired with the ABC leadership to try and take over the city?”

There was a pause. Then, Mother finally reacted. She lifted her head and said, voice scratchy and dry: “Yes, Kagami. You are a disgrace to our family, and I want you gone.”

The final nail, driven through the coffin and into Kagami’s foot. She clenched her jaw. “I only worked to aid this family, and you cast it all away.”

“You are a disgrace,” Mother repeated, almost mechanical. Her lip twitched strangely after she spoke.

“Don’t listen to her,” said Mireille. “Once she’s gone, you’ll be the best boss the Tsurugi family’s ever seen!” There was a small echo from Sabrina behind them: ‘Yeah!’

But Kagami ignored them both. She only had eyes for the woman who had once held all of her respect. “You are a disgrace as a leader,” she said, trying to keep her voice under control. “You ordered the deaths of your own soldiers, and your own daughter, as a ploy for your twisted dreams of perfection. You kept Astruc, but you wanted me dead. I see now that I was wrong to ever support you.”

Her control was fraying now, but she didn’t care. “I am no longer your daughter,” she said, voice cracking. “I’ll take back control of our family, from the brink of ruin you’ve left it on. And I’ll run it a thousand times better than your treacherous hands ever could. The disgrace is you, mother, and I liberate you from life.” Tomoe reacted – she clearly felt the sting of the words, and her expression flitted into pain for a moment, but then she was straight back to her previous impassive look.

At this point, Lila laughed loudly, mockingly, gleefully. She stepped forward, clapping with her palm and the handle of her gun. “I love a good argument,” she said. “But do you want to hear a secret? Without me, tonight wouldn’t have happened. I got the leaders in touch and gave them a plan for how to move forward. So much bloodshed, all because of me!”

“You – you caused all this?” said Marinette, suddenly horrified. “But… why would you orchestrate a gang war? How long have you been at this?”

“I started getting in touch with them a week ago. I contacted the consiglieri and arranged meetings. I even showed up at the Agreste mill specifically so you’d know I was there, and be tempted to follow into the trap I was setting up. I manipulated them all and planted thoughts into their heads, and I made them my puppets. Without me, you wouldn’t have gotten the call, Marinette.”

“But… why?”

“So I could facilitate a scenario to kill you, of course,” said Lila. “Because you are the most insufferable do-gooder of an angel I’ve ever met. Tell me… did you use your wish down there, to escape the magic? Did you do what you always do, and put everything on your own shoulders?”

Marinette was quiet for a moment. Then her shoulders fell, and she said “Yes. I did.” A lie – well, half of one.

“You wouldn’t want to risk these worthless bags of flesh you care so much about, would you?” Lila laughed sharply. “You always were a sentimental piece of scum.”

Kagami stepped forward once more, and this time she did aim her gun. Straight at Lila and no longer at Tomoe, even though she knew it was pointless – she couldn’t kill an angel. “You will stop insulting a member of my crew,” she said. “And you will leave, and not bother us again, because with the things I’ve seen Marinette do she could beat you to a pulp with both arms tied behind her back.”

“Ahaha, how sweet, the worthless bag of flesh cares about Marinette in return! I’m surprised you’re here, but I’m glad you came. Because that means I can fulfil my plan.”

The shot went off so fast Kagami had no time to see it coming, no time to duck away. There was a stinging pain in her chest and she crumpled to her knees, clutching at where the pain was blooming from: straight on top of her heart, where a bullet had pierced its way through and entered her chest cavity. Spurts of blood were gurgling out, pumped by a heart that hadn’t gotten the message yet.

“Kagami! No!” shrieked Marinette, and “Boss!” shouted Mireille, and they both knelt down on the floor next to her. She could barely register their hands landing on her, because every impulse in her body was focused on the extreme jolting agony of her damaged blood pump; even so, she was aware that the outer parts of her were already shutting off, and her mind was fading away, and she had failed, and Tomoe had won…

“And now you have a choice, Marinette!” Lila said. “You can either save a human, and become a human yourself, just for a few brief moments before I shoot you dead… or you can walk away and remain an angel, and know that one day I’ll be coming for you again, and you won’t even see it coming.”

Kagami swayed, fell backwards but was supported by – someone or other, who held around her and kept her from falling to the floor. She closed her eyes, felt the blood pour down her chest.

And she heard a quiet voice whisper into her ear: “I’m so sorry, Kagami…”, before a hand landed on her chest, before there was a brief burst of heat.

Suddenly, the pain was gone, and feeling returned to her extremities. She gasped in a gigantic amount of air, and looked into Marinette’s worried face, and she clutched at the wound in her chest and realised it wasn’t there.

Before she could even gather her thoughts again, Marinette leaned in and whispered – possibly even more quietly than the last thing – “Be ready to shoot when I tell you to.” Then she got to her feet, and looked into Lila’s smug face, as Mireille hissed a “Fuck!” into the open air.

Kagami listened. She took the handgun out of its holster, and aimed it at the bridge of Lila’s nose – which Lila completely ignored.

“So you chose to become human,” said Lila. “You sacrificed all this power just to save a little sack of garbage from dying. And the irony is, once I shoot you, I’m just going to kill them all again.” And she raised her gun and pointed it at Marinette, and fired a single bullet – a non-magical one – at Marinette’s chest.

But the bullet ricocheted off, and Lila widened her eyes in shock. “You’re still an angel!” she growled. “You lied to me!”

Marinette reached into her bosom and took out her wish-loaded gun. “I did what I had to do,” she said, and fired that pink glowing shot, and Lila screamed and flinched –

– but the bullet simply hit her and dispersed, like a circle of waves from a rock thrown into the harbour. And Lila uncoiled again, and laughed: she sounded uncertain at first, but soon she was cackling confidently, patting herself down as she stood up fully. “Hah – hah! Whatever you wished for, it didn’t work. I’m even still an angel! I can feel it! You were judged unfit, and now you’re human, I can kill you for good!”

“My wish worked perfectly,” said Marinette, and paused long enough for Lila’s cocksure smirk to turn into an uncertain snarl. “I wished that Kagami would kill you, right here and now.”

Kagami got the hint. She shot her bullet before Lila’s expression had time to shift again, before her eyes and mouth could fully register what Marinette had said. The bullet went straight through the ex-angel’s forehead, as Kagami followed it up with two more shots: one to the base of Lila’s throat and another to her chest, right above her heart. Lila dropped like a sack of potatoes, and the thud as she hit the floor was weak and unimpressive.

But that didn’t matter. Kagami turned to Marinette, heart racing, and opened her mouth – but then Mamma Tomoe stood up. “Kagami,” she said. “Leave this room. Now.”

“I won’t go anywhere,” she replied. “I’m taking this family out of your worthless hands.”

“No. You will leave, for now. I need to prepare for my death. In a few minutes, you may return to claim your place as the head of the Tsurugi family.” Unlike earlier, Tomoe sounded restrained – not emotionless, but like she was forcing the emotion away. Her voice tore at the edges, but physically she looked as composed and rigid as before.

The way she behaved was a hundred per cent Tomoe Tsurugi. But it still felt… off, somehow. It felt like Tomoe, but not like the Tomoe that had just called her a disgrace. There was – too much respect. “What is your plan?” Kagami asked.

“Nothing,” snapped Tomoe. “I plan to leave this family in your hands. I simply need a few minutes to collect myself. After that, you may do with me as you see fit.” She put one hand on the typewriter, resting over some of the keys. “I leave this family a disgrace. Do you hear me, Kagami?”

Kagami’s heart had risen for a brief, hopeful moment – but now it deflated again, flopping down against her diaphragm. “I hear you loud and clear, Mother. I give you five minutes before we return.”

“Good. Now begone.” Tomoe stamped her cane into the floor hard enough that Kagami jolted. But she couldn’t let it faze her.

Kagami turned around and looked from Marinette to Mireille, to Sabrina and Chloé – and she nodded her head sideways towards the door. They got the hint and started to leave; all except Marinette, who hesitated for a moment before looping her arm through Kagami’s and leading them both outside. And Kagami let her.

“Should we really let her do whatever she wants? What if she tries some bullshit?” opined Chloé from the bottom of the stairs, as Marinette and Kagami walked down them together.

Mireille scoffed. “She’s slippery, but she knows when she’s been beaten. She’ll face her end with honour. That’s always been her approach to life.”

“If you say so.” Chloé shrugged.

Kagami didn’t join in that conversation. She had something far more burning on her mind. Leaning a little closer to Marinette, she whispered: “You trusted me. You told me something, in advance. Thank you.”

Suddenly – on the last step – Marinette halted, and enveloped Kagami into a rib-crushing hug. Marinette was wordless at first but heavy with breath; then, she whispered: “You’re okay… You’re alright…”

“Hyes,” breathed Kagami, though it came out as more of a wheeze; she couldn’t even move her arms, because they were pinned in place. “Are you hstill an hanhgel, or did you –”

“No. I gave it up to let you shoot her.” Marinette pulled back, and Kagami heaved for a complete breath, which Marinette seemed almost oblivious to. Apparently, Marinette was still strong even without divine inspiration.

“You became fragile and fleshy and soft… for me?”

Marinette briefly looked like she had seen an oncoming train barrelling down the tracks towards her, but then she relaxed. “… Yes,” she said. “I think so. Yes, I did.”

“Why would you do that,” said Kagami. It was more of a demand than a question, but also more of a mumble than a demand; it was all she could muster to even get the words out, because those words were born from a bubble of hope that she needed to pop straight away, or it would suffocate her.

“Because I lov-”

The gunshot jolted them all Immediately; everyone with a gun pulled it, while Marinette went into a boxing stance. “Did Lila survive?” said Mireille.

“Someone was hiding,” said Sabrina.

Kagami set off up the stairs. “Let’s go!” she yelled; soon, everyone followed.

She didn’t know what she expected to find up there – an attempted escape, a gun fired into the melee below, a hidden assailant – but the thing she found was not one of them. It was Donna Tsurugi, her blown-open head leaking blood and gore onto the desk, with a pistol in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other. The pistolled hand had fallen carelessly, but the hand with the paper had been laid carefully forward, both elevated above the wood of the desk and as close to the visitor’s end as possible. And the paper itself was fresh off the typewriter, with barely three lines of text on it.

She was numb as she walked over and grabbed the letter, as she tore the envelope open and pulled out the sheet of paper inside, as she read the five brief sentences printed on it in machine type:

The angel poisoned my mind. She commanded my actions. My actions have brought disgrace to the Tsurugi family. You must take over. I am proud of and love you.

“What does it say?” asked Marinette, coming up next to Kagami.

Kagami could feel tears pushing on the corners of her eyes. There shouldn’t be tears. She was the head of the Tsurugi family now, her rival was in the room, and the devil who had been behind it all had just been iced. She needed to be strong and commanding, lead the way forward for the city’s underworld. But she couldn’t help it – she threw herself into Marinette’s arms and wept.

“I’m sorry,” murmured Marinette.

“I called her a disgrace,” Kagami said, choking on a sob.

“You didn’t know.”

“I said I would kill her.”

“It’s okay.”

Kagami clenched fistfuls of Marinette’s dress, driving her knuckles into the ex-angel’s side. “Can you bring her back?”

“No,” said Marinette, sliding her arms around Kagami’s waist.

Kagami had spent the past two hours hating Mamma Tomoe. She had called her a disgrace and threatened to kill her. But it was all Lila’s doing – and now Mother was dead, and Kagami didn’t get to say goodbye.

“She sent us away so we wouldn’t stop her,” Kagami whispered.

“I know,” said Marinette. “You didn’t know she would do that.”

Didn’t she? She knew what type of person Mamma Tomoe was. But the point wasn’t whether she knew what would happen or not – it was that Tomoe was dead, and they never got to reconcile. To show each other mercy. Mother killed herself because she couldn’t bear the weight of what Lila made her do, and now that weight was all Kagami’s to bear.

She stood like that in Marinette’s embrace for a while longer. Nobody else spoke, only Marinette – occasionally mumbling gentle words into Kagami’s ear, as Kagami sobbed and drenched Marinette’s bloodstained dress with tears and snot.

It was warm, and comforting, and Kagami would have stayed there forever if she didn’t have things she needed to do. But she knew she needed to be back in those arms later.

She pulled back after God-knows-how-long, when the tears had mostly ceased; she dried the remains off with her sleeve and cleared her throat. “We have a lot of work to do,” she said. “We need to rebuild the Tsurugi and Bourgeois families. We need to calm the fighting and restore order to our territories. This means we have to put our feet to the pavement and bring back anyone who can be brought back. Mireille – we should also recruit any Couffaines we find still alive. They can bolster our ranks.”

Mireille nodded. “Got it, boss.”

“We’ll recruit the Agrestes to ours,” said Chloé. “Mafia stragglers are dangerous. We want them all under control, right?”

“But,” said Kagami, looking to Marinette. “It’s been a long night. I need to rest and clear my head. The fighting will clear on its own… I require a stay at a hotel.”

“The Bourgeois hotel has free rooms,” Sabrina volunteered; Kagami didn’t look at her, because she was still looking at Marinette – who seemed curious, anxious, about the attention she was getting.

“The Bourgeois hotel is even free for rivals, just for the night,” said Chloé. “With complementary breakfast in the morning.”

“Good,” said Kagami. She kept on looking at Marinette, who was starting to squirm a little under the attention. “I require a spacious room with a double bed. It needn’t be as spacious as yours, though,” she added.

Chloé barked out a brief laugh. “Hah! You could only dream of getting a suite better than the one I’ll be sharing with Sabrina from now on.”

“And I require a spacious single room for my newly appointed underboss. And I require you, Marinette, to join me in my suite. We have many things to discuss between ourselves.”

Things like… if Marinette would be amenable to prolonging the arrangement of sleeping in a double bed with her. If Marinette truly meant to tell Kagami that she loved her, twice. What it meant that she was now a human, and if there would be any consequences. If she could fight and be part of a mob.

But for tonight, what she needed most was just a warm and welcome and comforting and reassuringly powerful place to cry.

She was overjoyed when Marinette stopped writhing and said “I’d love that” with a relieved smile.

This time, Kagami could actually see a future with Marinette. Her Pink Lady. Her Bloody Mary. Her Corpse Reviver. Not just in hotel rooms, but in her own home. And she knew that after a night’s rest and some distance from this terrible night, she would be able to appreciate that future the way Marinette deserved.