Archive of Our Own ^beta

Mina tries not to remember too much of her family's funeral. Whenever she does, there are certain things that stand out in her mind: the cloying smell of wilting flower arrangements, a fly buzzing overhead during a lull in the hushed conversations, the mole on the foreign priest's nose, Sana pressed next to her in the hard wooden pews, their hands sweating from hours of resting palm to palm. Mina hadn't known then what she knows now, that Sana's almost overbearing closeness had been a human shield disguised as a smothering display of sympathy  towards a grieving friend. They weren't even friends at the time, when Sana was still Minatozaki-san from Osaka, who had strolled into Mina's grief-clouded circle of existence as if she had belonged there from the beginning.

She can't help but recall those memories now, sitting in a private hospital room watching over the dying man whose actions had changed her life forever.

"Your father would be proud," the old man in the bed says, his feeble breath fogging the oxygen mask. Mina's father had once saved this old man’s life, operated on him in a hospital funded by his bitterest rival in Kobe’s criminal underworld--and her entire family had died for the mistake (was it a mistake?). She never did get the chance to avenge their deaths herself; a boating accident in the Philippines had stolen it from her. Now the old man is dying again. What a waste.

It is two o'clock in the morning and the brothers have rejoined the vigil after discussing the funeral arrangements. She looks over her shoulder at the brothers, and idly wonders what they plan to do with her now that the wakagashira-hosa is dying. Most of them have little love for the girl who is not ready to consider herself a woman, who had become their boss' favorite adopted child and as such was under consideration to inherit his position, much against the will of many of his subordinates, superiors, and most importantly, the kumichō. The idea had been quickly withdrawn, but perhaps they still think of her as an upstart rival. She has never truly been safe, but now she will be even less so; the old man's protection, borne out of his perceived debt to Mina's father, will end within the next few hours, if the doctors are correct.

"He would be prouder if I survive," she murmurs after a long silence, echoing what Sana had told her once, the first time Mina had killed a man.

The first time Mina had killed someone went a little like this: a customer at one of the gang's hostess clubs had been harassing one of the hostesses, and then physically attacked her when she was on her way home. Mina, hearing of the situation, had Sana lure him back to the hostess club, where she stabbed him in front of some of the brothers. The stabbing itself was amateurish and messy, with blood getting all over the place; this was before she started spending time with Momo, who would teach her how to use a knife with finesse instead of just hacking away. Either way, getting blood all over the front of her clothes had the intended effect, shocking the brothers and changing their perception of her as a wan, shy orphan schoolgirl that their boss had taken under his wing out of guilt and pity.

By the time Mina had made that first kill, Sana had killed five people and Momo--well, Momo had already lost count.

Mina sometimes has nightmares about the first time she met Momo, if one could call it a meeting. An assassin--shinobi, they are later told--had attacked Mina at home not long after her family's funeral; in Mina's nightmares, Sana is not there to prevent her throat from being slit. However, Sana had been there, being her usual chirpy self until she glimpsed the shadow moving behind Mina. Sana had immediately pulled her the floor and rolled herself on top of Mina; Momo appeared one heartbeat later. There was a muffled cry, followed by the sound of Momo breaking every bone in the assassin's body. The assassin's mistake, Momo would later tell them, was going for Mina first instead of Sana--but then again, few people knew what Sana was capable of, anyway. Soon afterwards, the suspected parties behind the hiring of the assassin to kill Mina, were routed out and arrested by the police, and the man in charge of it all, the one who had ordered her father's execution, fled to the Philippines, where that boating accident happened.

All Mina had seen of Momo that day were her wide, dark, and vacant eyes that Sana later compared to a raccoon's; she had vanished just as Sana had allowed Mina to get up off the floor. Mina would recognize those raccoon eyes again, when they were formally introduced by the wakagashira-hosa in less bloody circumstances. "She is from Kyotonabe," the old man had told her. A pause, and then he had added confidentially, "Her teacher was from Iga, but the clan is ended. She had nowhere else she wished to go."

The implication could not have been less vague; Mina had understood immediately. In this case, Iga was not referring to the modern city by that name but to the Iga-ryū. That shinobi still existed in these modern times was less shocking than the fact that Momo, a female, had been brought up in that caste. It would be a lie to say that Mina isn't curious about Momo's past, but Momo never talks about it. Momo might not even be her real name. The old man had called her Hirai-san, but she had barely responded to it.

Her reservation doesn't deter Sana; within weeks Sana had graduated from Momo-chan to cutesy nicknames like Momorin and Moguri. It had taken Mina a little longer to get used to Momo, to her habit of sliding in and out of existence, of glimmering in the corner of her eye before disappearing again. There are reminders everywhere of who Momo is, but Mina embraces it now. Momo's kinetic nature is comfortable to the point where Mina can reach out and be able to touch Momo without her hand encountering only the empty air. Momo goes still at her touch--as still as Momo ever gets.

"I think Sana's right," Momo says abruptly. They're sitting on a bench in front of the lecture hall on Mina's university campus; Momo is with Mina more often than not, trailing behind her unobtrusively or watching over her from the back of the auditorium, but rarely are they seen together like this out in the open.

Mina looks up to see Momo's raccoon eyes blinking at her. It makes her look endearingly slow and empty-headed to people who don't know what Momo is capable of in the realms of death and affection. For those who do know, those very same eyes are an exhilarating and fearsome abyss; Mina knows it.

"What exactly is Sana right about?"

Momo shuffles her feet. "You should be the one calling the shots in Kobe."

 The Minatozaki family had been staunch loyalists for decades, serving the gang's interests in Osaka for decades and supporting the old man's move into enemy territory in Kobe, despite the gang war that had followed, and Sana is a product of her roots.

With the old man dead, the family's loyalties are being called into question. Mina has begun to make her move, mobilizing the small troop of gang members who had supported her to continue the old man's legacy, mostly out of distaste for the candidates chosen to replace him. Within months Mina has carved out territory for herself in Ashiya, Amagasaki, and most importantly, Kobe, openly challenging the hierarchy of the syndicate. "I don't really see what there is to question," Sana says. "They should know that I'm never going to leave you. As for the brothers who are willing to stay on your side, they did it because their loyalty was to the old man and they really believe that he wanted you to succeed him even though the kumichō forced him to give up the idea."

She and Mina are sitting on the roof of a five story office building in Ashiya, eating popsicles and looking out over the neighborhood. They used to do this as high school students, but back then they had had to sneak up to the roofs so they wouldn't get caught. They don't have to sneak around now; this building belongs to Mina in all but name, after the shateigashira who owned it conveniently died in a public bath and his subordinates had accepted Mina's terms (both at the point of Momo's knife).

Mina hums. "So you won't leave me even if I fail?"

Sana scoffs. "You won't fail. You have me. And Momorin." She slurps up the rest of her popsicle and plants a cold, sticky, open-mouthed kiss on Mina's cheek. Mina yelps and then laughs. "You won't fail, so I won't leave you, no matter what. Don't worry too much, Minari; the moment I lay eyes on you, I'm willing to follow you to the ends of the earth."

"You're so sentimental," Mina replies, as Sana playfully laps up the sugary mess she made on Mina's cheek, and she hooks an arm around Sana's waist to draw her closer. Sana giggles and leans in, their lips touching once, twice before Sana flips her hair over her shoulder and angles into a longer, warmer lip lock. It's the stuff of cheesy web novels, but Sana is an amazing kisser, the way her mouth has perfected the languid suck-stroke-tug on Mina's lips, and Mina enjoys things that are done well, be it a ballet performance, food, or a long, lazy kiss. It's not quite the late spring romance that she's never dared to dream of, but that doesn't matter; she doesn't need that dream.

Mina doesn't quit ballet, not exactly; she just doesn't go to the studio as much as she used to. Her university classes take enough of her time that she finds herself delegating more tasks to Sana, who has no expectations of higher education to bother her. Mina's parents had always wanted her to attend university, so much so that her inheritance had come with the condition that she do so before receiving it; as her guardian, the late wakagashira-hosa hadn't seemed to care either way.

When she's not focused on schoolwork, she and Sana are focused on her other venture of expanding her base, which will inevitably lead to a flashpoint. There are rumblings of a power shift within the syndicate, with Mina's gang gaining momentum; rumors of large payoffs and other material incentives enjoyed by her group have started attracting defectors from other gangs. This does not go over well in the upper echelons of the syndicate. The kumichō has increased his threats of harsh punishment if she doesn't stop, and the saikō-komon have all but authorized the violent harassment of her followers, and skirmishes have been increasing exponentially. In response, Sana has resumed participation in what she calls the 'murder-y' part of the business, so that Momo has more time to keep an eye on Mina. The brothers do their part, of course, but Sana and Momo don't fully trust any of them with Mina.

Overall, Mina is a very busy person, but now and again she makes time to go to the ballet studio, to ease her mind by tuning her body to the strict delicacy of detailed movements. Ballet is hers alone; Sana loves to dance, appreciates the cutthroat nature of the ballet scene, but finds its instruction too strict and disciplinary for her taste. Momo is a dancer in her own way, if Mina's karate lessons with her are anything to go by; in fact Momo is more in tune with the human body than anyone else Mina knows, but there is little delicacy about her.

Mina glances in the mirror and is amused at the odd image of herself stretching in a black leotard, tights, and Sailor Moon leg warmers, with Momo seated in seiza in the corner, sporting an electric blue bomber jacket embroidered with a motley collection of tiger patches. Momo had filched the jacket from a bōsōzoku member who had gotten testy and tried to shank her, only to have his neck broken for his trouble. Flashy clothes are a rare thing for Momo, whose first instinct is to dress down and blend into the wall, but she has to infiltrate a nightclub later and needs to look the part.

The studio is quiet except for the pitter-patter-tap of Mina moving through her forms. Mina has the studio to herself tonight and doesn't bother with music; she has had a particularly stressful day and even classical music would put her on edge; only silence will soothe her at the moment. She's not sure how much her technique has deteriorated and there's no one to ask; Momo is not a ballet aficionado by any means, so it's no use asking her for an honest assessment. She seems to appreciate the movement of Mina's body well enough, letting a small, fond smile crack her face as Mina extends into an arabesque penché.

Mina doesn't stop until she feels the sweat beading on her forehead. She feels her legs wobbling like jello and winces; perhaps she's overdone it. Momo is suddenly next to her and she leans against Momo so that she won't slide gracelessly to the floor.

Momo's arm drapes around her hips, softly and cautiously; Momo is still not the touchy-feely type with her, but has begun to unfold under Sana's influence. "What's the point of getting close if you're not close enough to touch?" is what Sana likes to say, and while Mina finds that logic questionable, she has grown to love Momo's careful closeness.

"I'll take you home," Momo says. "Sana's still on the job. Apparently the, uh, meeting she was monitoring started later than planned."

"Don't you have an appointment?"

Momo shrugs. "He'll be at the club until four in the morning at least. I've got his schedule down, but it's where he goes afterwards that's more important for me to find out."

"Oh." Momo usually trails a target for months, learning their habits and movements down to the minute before she pinpoints an opportunity to strike--often while the target is occupied at some mundane task and is most at ease. However, with an inevitable conflict on the horizon, Momo's had to speed it up, sometimes only taking a week to eliminate a target that she normally would have spent at least one month following. It makes for sloppier work and Mina knows that Momo doesn't like it. "I'm sorry."

Momo blinks slowly at her. "For what?"

Mina sighs. "I don't think it's right for me to be at home if you and Sana are up working all night."

"You shouldn't let that worry you when you're tired." Momo tightens her arm around Mina, and even though the increase in pressure is minuscule, Mina is suddenly hyper aware of the memory that this same arm and hand are strong enough to break bones. A thrill races up her spine. "Sana will be home sooner than you think. She doesn't even think that this stuff is work, she likes it too much."

Mina almost asks Momo if she likes 'this stuff' too, but stops herself. She knows that Momo will probably not answer.

 Her childhood home is in one of Nishinomiya's wealthier neighborhoods, a freestanding two-story building with a gated outer wall, a covered car park, and a state of the art security system. Sana, who grew up in an aunt's cramped apartment in the heart of Osaka's Tennōji ward, calls it the nicest house she's ever seen. To Mina, it's just home, and it still is even with the reminders of her parents and brother in every corner, making it all the more lonely before Sana moved in.

Mina is brushing her teeth tiredly when she hears the deadbolt sliding and Sana's cheerful "Tadaima!" echo from downstairs. Sana sniffs her out immediately, hustling up the stairs and into the bathroom to wrap an arm around Mina and smother kisses on Mina's neck and face.

"Okaeri nasai," Mina replies, her mouth full of toothpaste foam. She spits into the sink, Sana's face nuzzling into her shoulder. "Momorin told me that the meeting started late."

Sana smells like smoke and drywall. "One of the geezers had their car break down on the expressway. So sad, I spent like an hour twiddling my thumbs when I could have gone to the studio to pick you up instead. Momorin was glad to have some time alone with you, though, I can't begrudge her that."

That surprises Mina. "She told you this?"

Sana winks at her in the mirror. "Not in words." She plants another kiss closer to Mina's lips and bounds away. Seconds later, Mina hears the chatter of the 24-hour news station on the television.

Mina puts her toothbrush away and ambles over to the home office down the hall from her bedroom, where Sana is peeling off her socks and watching the news with great interest. There is a live feed of firefighters hosing down a building, its top floor completely blackened and gutted; occasionally the camera will cut away to other firefighters scurrying in and out of the ground floor, illuminated by the flashing lights from the fire engine. Mina barely recognizes the building, but when she does, she turns to Sana with a raised eyebrow. "Did you do that?"

Sana harrumphs. "I can't believe they haven't finished putting the fire out yet. It wasn't even that big. Probably spread faster than it should have." Her tone is equal parts playful and sarcastic; the longer the fire burns, the more evidence is destroyed.

They watch the news anchor rattle away for a while longer until the coverage starts getting repetitive and Mina stands up. "It's late and I have class tomorrow, so I'm going to bed."

Sana's eyes twinkle at her, as if she hadn't just rigged a building to blow up a few hours ago, killing an important kaicho and his closest lieutenants in one fell swoop. She turns the TV off and makes a beeline for the bathroom. "Let me decontaminate, I'll be with you shortly," she chirps, before winking at Mina and sliding the door shut.

Mina shakes her head and turns out the light in the office before going back to her bedroom. The bed has been invaded by monster plushies and rainbow poop emoji pillows ever since Sana got it into her head to share a bed with Mina. Sleeping in the same bed sometimes turns into sleeping together ("You're gorgeous and I like you, I'm gorgeous and you like me, so we should do it," is Sana's rationale); Sana makes the transition easy because she is good in bed and does her best to take care of Mina. Sana had once even tried to invite Momo to join them, but Momo had just stared at the enormous plushies on the bed and deadpanned, "There's room for you and Mina and all of your stuffed friends, but where would I sleep?"

Sometimes Mina regrets letting Sana into her bed, especially during the nights when Sana's sleepwalking is particularly bad. Other times, when Mina jerks awake in the middle of the night to the sound of silent screams from the ghosts in her nightmares, the warm weight on the other side of the bed calms her, and she decides to let the arrangement be for a while longer.

She slips into bed, hugging a rainbow poop to her chest, and lets herself drift off into a foggy doze. Mina doesn't know when Sana finishes washing up and comes into the room, but is vaguely aware of Sana's long limbs curling around her under the covers, accompanied by the scent of lilac shampoo and one of Sana's usual kisses on the spot where Mina's neck meets her spine, and Mina sighs, lets herself sink from the fog into the deeper sea of sleep.

Some of the brothers and their associates find a large cache of weapons in a building that Mina's gang has seized from a local boss in Sakai. Mina and Momo arrive to inspect the cache, which includes a collection of small firearms and various parts with which to assemble bombs. "Probably headed for Southeast Asia," Mina notes, as Momo sifts through a box of ammunition. Arms trafficking is just one of the syndicate's activities, and it appears that they've run into a link of the supply chain.

"The payment was already wired to Takeda, so unless we can get our hands on his account we won't see any financial benefit to shipping these along as planned," one of the brothers says.

Mina nods. "Then we'll keep them. I'll leave you in charge here; have your boys take care of Takeda."

The brother nods and bows himself out. She watches Momo pick up and examine a pistol, a Smith & Wesson model currently in use with the Coast Guard. It's apparent from the calm, comfortable way that Momo handles the weapon that she is at least familiar with handling firearms, which is somewhat unexpected considering that Momo heavily favors bladed weapons in her work and is expert enough to be able to teach Mina the same. Sana had even said that Momo has a distaste for firearms--likely inherited from her teachers--but obviously she doesn't hesitate to use them. "When was the last time you used a gun?"

Momo purses her lips. "Last month. When I, uh, removed the boss of the Kyoichi-kai." All it took was one bullet to the head while said boss was entertaining a group of friends and their wives at a restaurant in Nagoya, the brothers had reported. Momo has never claimed to be a crack shot but Mina wouldn't be surprised if that Momo is that good; Mina doesn't miss the way the brothers stiffen and step back when Momo walks past them, even if some of them try to hide it. She likes it, likes how Momo intimidates them without a word. Even before the old man died, Momo's reputation had preceded her, since the clan that had trained her had had its members hired by several gangs as assassins over the decades, but now Momo is even more of a rarity, with the shinobi clans going extinct. It makes her all the more impressive, and in Mina's opinion, more fascinating as Mina spends more time with her.

Momo still keeps Mina at a comparative distance, which isn't much considering that Momo is being compared to Sana of all people, but the distance has been closing faster than Mina had expected. It's actually a pleasant surprise when Momo lets herself be seen with Mina more often, instead of just lurking at a respectable distance.

She mentions this to Sana later that night, when Momo is out on another nightly hunting excursion, as Sana calls it. Sana grins at her, like she knows something that Mina doesn't. It's an expression that Mina sees all too often. "What?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just that you're known on campus as the gorgeous business student who goes to class in black leggings and ballet flats, and it makes people want to date you. Didn't somebody ask you out to a movie after your philosophy lecture just last Friday?"

Mina frowns. "I don't have time to date, you know that. I turned him down. And aren't you the one who always says that I don't need to date because I have you?"

Sana giggles, leans forward and squeezes Mina into her arms. "Yes, very good. Moguri and I, you know, we think very similarly. It's just that she doesn't know how to express it, so she just ends up looming behind you like a big silly. It's all pretty foreign to her."

Perhaps it shouldn't surprise Mina that Sana seems to read and understand Momo so easily even though Momo isn't very forthcoming; Sana had done the same with Mina in the beginning, after all. Despite Sana's silly, flirty demeanor, there is a very clever brain underneath. It's little wonder that her family didn't see the need for Sana to get tertiary education, when she is already quite savvy about people and the real world. Mina has always admired that about Sana, how she reads and adapts to people and the environment with such ease. She lets herself burrow into Sana's embrace and Sana leans in to kiss her.

"That reminds me of something I've been meaning to ask," Sana says, pulling away a little and gently swaying Mina to and fro in the affectionate way that Mina has come to associate with Sana over the years. "Do you still feel lonely, Mina?"

Mina holds Sana tighter. When Mina had lost her family, loneliness had been her greatest fear, greater than the fear of dying. That's why she had let Sana in so quickly, quicker than she would have during her childhood life before. "No. Not when we're like this. Why?"

Sana nuzzles into Mina's hair. "Just wondering if I was doing this right."

The flashpoint finally arrives, sparked by a bloody clash over territory in Kyoto and Otsu between one of Mina's newer allies and a gang from Nagoya that has just announced their alliance to the syndicate and moved into Kyoto at the kumichō’s invitation. The clash results in the murder of Mina's proxy, a loyalist in the old man's party named Kubodera, gunned down in Kyoto's Ukyo ward. Kubodera had represented Mina’ group and their interests in meetings with other brothers who wouldn't deign to speak with a female but were too valuable as allies to simply eliminate; Mina supposes that a large part of his loyalty to her was due to a very obvious crush on Sana, despite his being over forty and married. Sana is an expert at catching and keeping fish hooked with only the occasional glance and smile, turning the knob from demure to flirty as needed, and Kubodera had been one of those unlucky fish.

Within a week of Kubodera's murder, Mina's gang formally breaks away from the syndicate and the kumichō declares a state of hostilities to exist between her and the rest of the organization. Of course all of this has to happen during exam season, which means that Sana is taking the helm while Mina sits in the library, cramming. Reception is shockingly poor in the library, so Sana sends updates by email when she can. Momo has been aimlessly browsing the moveable shelves (of course Momo would be able to slip into the library without actually being an enrolled student) as Mina stares at her laptop and wrestles with a final paper whose words will just not come.

Occasionally Mina will look up to see Momo squinting curiously at a row of books on a shelf, and she thinks she sees a sheen of awe cross Momo's face as Momo takes in the stacks and stacks of books, journals and portfolios, many of which are decades older than her. Momo never had much of a formal education, hadn't seen the inside of a classroom in years, which explains why the display--which of course is only a tiny, tiny part of all of the knowledge in the world--would impress her.

Mina pounds out two more pages, rubs her eyes and glances at the clock on her screen. It's four in the morning. Momo has commandeered the study nook next to hers, dozing. Mina knows that the tiniest movement will wake Momo up, and the moment she reaches back for a stretch, Momo's eyes blink open. "Let's go home already," Momo mouths at her, not breaking the suffocating silence of the library. Mina sighs and figures that she can proofread at home, anyway.

She packs her things and they leave the library, Momo walking behind as usual until they're outside, when Momo suddenly reaches for her hand. In turn, Mina's hand latches onto Momo's automatically before Mina realizes and tries to subtly loosen her grip in case Momo doesn't like a clingy hand, but Momo still hangs on, her calloused skin cool to the touch. Momo's hand in hers, the way they're walking together in the glow-in-the-dark ambience of the city in the middle of the night, tugs at Mina's emotions; she must be really tired, she thinks, as moisture springs to her eyes.

Mina has a car and a driver--an inheritance from the old man--but Momo has called a taxi to bring them back to Nishinomiya. Sana is in the dining room; she looks up at them from her phone when they troop in. "Did you pull an all nighter or something?"

Sana, the Captain Obvious. "It appears so. Did you?" Mina wants a shower and her bed, not necessarily in that order.

"Not really, I think I drifted off around two." Sana waves a hand at Momo. "I wanted to talk about the Kyoto thing before you conk out. Moguri, did you tell her?"

Mina sits down at the table, pinching the bridge of her nose. She's not sure if she'll be able to concentrate for much longer. "Please make this short."

Momo blinks, looks down at the ground. "I'm going to Kyoto. There's a cell that I have been tracking for a long time. I used to work jobs for them as far as Shizuoka. Sana thinks they're behind the, uh, what's the word..."

"Provocation," Sana supplies. "No, I'm pretty sure it's them; the boys have sent me pictures of the tattoos on their kills. Now they're bigger than when Momorin was working for them, but we want to root them out entirely; the big boy in Kobe will lose a lot of his support in Kyoto and Nagoya if that gang is wiped out."

Mina shakes her head wearily. "By herself?"

"It was her idea," Sana says. "Wasn't it, Moguri?"

Momo just shrugs. "I've been doing this for a long time. I still have contacts in Kyoto, so no, not by myself. That would be impossible."

"And do you have a plan?"

Momo scratches her head. "The same as always; if you cut off the head the body dies."

Mina leans back and closes her eyes. "Look, I'll let you do whatever you think is necessary because I trust you to do it well," she says, and honestly she is not even sure what she's saying because she's tired and sleepy, "but the way you and Sana have gone about telling me about this, it's like you're not sure that this idea will work out. Is there something you're not telling me?"

"You have enough on your plate. You've got school on top of this business," Sana reminds her, kneeling in front of Mina and holding her hands. "The big boy is fixing to take this away from you. Our job is to make sure he doesn't. Nobody is going to take this away from you. That's what Momorin and I want."

"I get it," Mina snaps, which is uncharacteristic of her but she's just so tired. "That's not what I mean but I get it. Momo's running headlong into danger and we're not talking about how I haven't been informed and, and I need some sleep."

"Not headlong," Momo mutters, and Sana rolls her eyes at Momo.

"Go to bed, Minari. She won't leave until you wake up."

 Somehow Mina survives finals. Sana meets her when she walks out of the lecture hall after her last final exam, enveloping her in a hug and petting her hair. "It's exceedingly unfair how put together you look; I see several of your classmates having mental breakdowns but here you are, looking as good as ever," Sana trills, loudly enough to prompt some students to look over and glare at her for not sharing in their misery.

"I would like to go home and sleep," Mina begins, but then Sana waves an overnight bag in her face, "and that's not going to happen, is it."

Sana slings an arm around her shoulders and steers her across campus towards the bus line headed for the train station. "Silly. You can sleep on the train. We're going to Osaka."

"I beg your pardon?"

"A reward for surviving finals! Didn't you say that you haven't been to Osaka since you were little? Oh, and also because your driver sold you out and it's probably not a good idea to go home right now. Lay low for a bit and the big boy's hounds will stop sniffing around the your neighborhood. If they're any less discreet about it the neighbors will complain."

Mina stares blankly at Sana; she's had her suspicions, but now here is Sana confirming that her driver, the one whom the old man had bequeathed to her, had defected. She hadn't trusted him with much, so it isn't really a blow to her--but it's still disturbing. "I think Momo knew," she says.

"Yeah. Anyway, he was supposed to be meeting with them to update them on your status but too bad I got to him first, he's begun the decomposition process in a mall dumpster. The car is still in that mall parking garage...but it's time you got a new car anyway."

"It's an Audi and it's less than ten years old."

Sana laughs. "So? The old man handed down a driver who's obviously worth nothing now, might as well ditch the car too."

Mina leans her head against Sana's. "Are we really going to Osaka? For how long?"

"For a few days. It'll be fun!" The 'it'll get your mind off of worrying about Momo' goes unspoken.

Mina expects Sana to take her to the Tennōji ward, but to her surprise, they don't make it that far. Instead, Mina finds herself staring at the entrance of the glamorous St. Regis, and then she turns to stare at Sana. "What is this?"

Sana hops in place. "A fancy hotel, duh! Come on, I've always wanted to stay here, and thanks to you, I finally have the money to pay for it." Sana has money from her family set aside, and Momo is probably at least a millionaire right now thanks to the contract kills she has made over the years, but Mina has always insisted on making sure Sana and Momo are financially compensated for what they do. All of it comes from the gang's activities, which have grown more lucrative with the gang's expansion throughout the Kansai region, as well as other private investments that the old man had quietly passed down to her.

"You really do have expensive taste," Mina grumbles, as she follows Sana into the ground floor lobby; a uniformed doorman escorts them to the elevator going up to the main lobby. "I feel underdressed."

The doorman bows to them as elevator doors slide shut. "Oh please. First of all, loads of the guests here are gaijin and they don't give a damn. Second of all, you're so beautiful, you make clothes from the bargain bin look like Balenciaga. Third of all, I know your jacket is Moncler so don't play that 'I'm underdressed' card."

Check-in is quick and discreet. The room is, as expected, plush and well-appointed, with an excellent view of the city below. Sana squeals about the complementary welcome chocolates, but Mina just flops face down on the bed. "I am going to sleep," she says into the pillow, and she does.

It's an old nightmare that shakes her awake a few hours later, a blood drenched scene that flees when her eyes pop open and she sits up. Dusk has fallen and the room is dimly lit by the light from the bathroom. Mina breathes in deeply, in and out, over the panicked pounding of her heart. She feels herself slump in relief when she sees Sana sitting on the other side of the bed, watching drama reruns. Sana immediately notices that her breathing is more forced than usual. "Hey," Sana says, moving closer to her. "Bad dream?"

Mina nods slightly, then gets up and goes to the window. Osaka is aglow at night, the city's lights twinkling back at her as she looks out at the view. She stands there, trying to let the expansive view swallow the buried memories that she can't quite escape.

"You look like a drama character, staring out the window like that." Sana steps up behind her, ropes her arms around Mina's waist, and noses gently at her neck. "You okay?"

"Not really." She averts her eyes from their reflection in the mirror. "I dreamed about my family, that's all." Sana says nothing, squeezes her a little tighter. "I don't think those dreams will ever go away." To her dismay, Mina's nightmare has touched off her emotions and she starts rambling, which is not something she's known to do. "I need to survive. That's why I want to do this; to become untouchable to so that people who want to hurt me never get the chance. You said my father would be proud that I'm surviving, even thriving in a world that's trying to kill me all the time. But he's still gone, they're all gone. They're not coming back. Nothing I do is going to bring them back."

Mina's chest heaves and she realizes that she's crying. Embarrassed, Mina feels Sana turn her around and crush her in another hug, a hand stroking her hair. She buries her face in Sana's neck and wonders how long it's been since she's cried for the family she'd lost.

Sana nuzzles at the side of her face like a puppy until Mina lifts her head, then leans in to kiss her briefly. "I know. I know. I'm only going to say what I always say to you, Mina," she says quietly, mouthing the words into the corner of Mina's lips. Mina shakes her head, grabs Sana's face and returns the kiss full on, a little harder and more frenetic.

"No, I don't want to hear it. Not right now," Mina murmurs when she pulls away. "Because I might believe you."

The Minatozaki family still controls part of the Tobita Shinchi, Osaka's infamous red light district, although Sana says that the family's influence has dwindled after her parents went into retirement. Sana's cousin is the head of the faction there, and upon learning from their aunt that Sana is in town with her boss (and ultimately, his boss), the ambitious rebel from Nishinomiya, he asks to meet them. That's how Mina finds herself in one of the many kushikatsu restaurants in Shinsekai, sitting in the tourist-packed dining space across from a man with feathery facial hair, the Minatozaki grin, and a rumpled Armani suit that can't hide the beginnings of a potbelly.

Sana, for all of her excellent social skills, is relatively cool towards her cousin. Mina doesn't want to pry into any Minatozaki family drama, so she remains as gracious as possible despite not caring for kushikatsu. "Sana-chan hasn't been home for a long time, so I just had to take the opportunity to see the household to which she's attached herself," Sana's cousin says, picking a piece of raw cabbage from his teeth.

"It was father's orders in the beginning, you know that," Sana replies in a bored tone. "But I happen to enjoy what I do. The company is stellar." Her knee touches Mina's under the table. Mina smiles at her.

"I have to agree." Sana's cousin peers at Mina. "In my personal opinion, the older folks would be very impressed with what you've accomplished, Myoui-san, if they weren't so blinded by the fear of losing their own influence."

"Success attracts detractors, but it attracts followers as well," Mina says. "Nobody wants to be on the losing side. Bandwagoners are inevitable but as long as they stay for the ride long enough to be of use to me, I have no objections."

"And you're confident that you can maintain this success?"

"I see no reason why I shouldn't. With your family's support, for which I am always grateful, Osaka has remained relatively calm despite the disapproval of many factions here. The key right now is Kyoto." It's been three weeks since they last heard from Momo. Mina doesn't have a direct way of contacting Momo, due to security reasons; most of Momo's movements are reported to her through the communication network that she's set up within her gang. Even then, they are unable to give real time updates because Momo is so good at vanishing.

"That fat face was totally crushing on you," Sana says, visibly in a better mood when her cousin pays for their meal and finally departs. They leave the restaurant and stroll towards the Tsūtenkaku Tower, Sana's arm looped in Mina's. "Little does he know we had sex last night."

Mina shoves her. Sana laughs loudly, wiggles her eyebrows at Mina, and latches on to her again. It's not like she's lying; after Mina's embarrassing crying jag, Sana offered to help wash her hair (“They stock really nice toiletries here, Remède is actually really good stuff,” Sana says), which was the most transparent excuse ever but led to hot and slippery bathtub sex and damp, pruny skin when they finally tumbled into bed. "So you're saying I made a good impression on him? I felt like all I did was smile and spout platitudes."

"Everything you do looks good. Classy. You could be castrating him and he'd be thanking you for doing it so gracefully. Either way, fat face is going to go back and report to the others about how beautiful and gracious and practical you are."

Mina frowns. "How would he get all of that from our conversation?"

"Because you implied that he's the one keeping the peace in town. It's not true, but it feeds his delusions of grandeur as head of our family here." Sana leans their heads together. "Granted, installing someone who is as easily manipulated as he is does quite a bit to keep the peace. There would be a lot more friction if he were harder to sway."

"Isn't that...bad for your family, though?"

Sana shrugs. "The family has been in decline since before father retired, and with the kumichō being suspicious of us and all nowadays, it may decline further. Father's heart just wasn't in it," Sana's normally cheerful countenance darkens, "but he had no problem insisting that I grow the family legacy, and he meant it in only one way. Nobody would take me seriously as anything other than a marriage prospect, because I'm a girl. That was all that I supposedly had going for me. I got lucky when he told me to leave Osaka and find you."

Mina reaches to squeeze Sana's hand in the crook of her arm. "Because I took you seriously? It wasn't hard to do, you know. I was alone. You were there for me. It's that simple."

After sunset, Sana takes her to Dotonbori to see the Glico Man and the other famous illuminated signs and billboards along the Dotonbori riverwalk.

There's an old photograph of her as a three year old on the Ebisubashi during the daytime, standing next to her mother and brother with the Glico Man and the Dotonbori River in the background. She doesn't remember being there as a three year old or having the photograph being taken, so technically she is seeing it for the first time, and it's definitely her first time seeing it at night. At night, the streets and shopping arcades of Dotonbori are swollen with lights and noise and people, a sensory overload of images and sounds. Mina dodges tourists and hawkers pushing flyers, while absorbing all she can of the shimmering signboards above their heads, the enormous puffer fish lanterns and mechanized sea creatures advertising fugu, crab, and takoyaki, as Sana chatters away about her days playing hooky during junior high to go to Dotonbori and prank gaijin tourists.

Suddenly she stops, which also pulls Mina up short because they're holding hands, and fishes her phone out of her jacket. Sana glances at the caller ID and pulls Mina to the side with her to stand outside of the tide of pedestrians.

"Minatozaki," she barks into the phone, suddenly all business. She listens intently for a minute and then hangs up, her brows contracted in concern. "The boys are reporting that the Nagoya group in Kyoto has gone radio silent. The big boy has yet to hear about it, apparently he's at dinner with his mistress and is not to be disturbed; he'll have a nasty surprise in the morning. That's all well and good but they don't know where Momo is."

Mina feels her heart sink. Of course disappearing isn't a new thing for Momo to do but the fact that even the brothers are noticing her absence is enough to get her to worry again, this time even harder. Sana puts an arm around her. "She'll turn up. If not, we'll look for her, but she knows Kyoto inside and out and if she doesn't want to be found...she won't be. The boys want you to choose Kubodera's successor as soon as possible," and Mina frowns at that, "but I'd rather not be exposed to their sucking up schemes before Momorin shows up again."

The next morning, Mina's team of lawyers--another legacy from the old man--notify her that they are dealing with a police investigation into why a dead body was found slumped over the front gate of her house in Nishinomiya.

There is no sign of the police when Mina returns home. Living in an upscale neighborhood with wealthy and influential neighbors has its perks, especially when said neighbors dislike having the police poking around and disturbing their exclusive existence.

Mina is not really proud of how she reacted when they were told about the dead body; Momo had flashed through her mind, and probably Sana's as well. She hasn't had a panic attack since her family's funeral, something she'd much rather forget, and while it wasn't a full blown attack by any means, dread settled in her stomach like a cold stone and constricted her breathing for several minutes after she received the call. They were later updated with the information that the body had been identified as male, and she had almost cried with relief. The tattoos on the dead body spoke for themselves; the intruder had most likely been a spy from Kobe.

Everything looks just as she had left it, with the exception of an overturned accent table near the entrance. As Sana uprights the table, Mina picks up the framed picture of her parents and her brother in front of the Alamo, taken several years before she was born. It had been sitting on that table before and must have fallen when the table was knocked over. There is a large crack threaded across the glass front. She carefully places it back on the accent table.

When Mina reaches her bedroom and opens the door, she steps back in surprise. Huddled at the foot of the bed is a disheveled Momo, pale and drawn and curled in on herself. She hears Sana gasp and exclaim, “It's Moguri!”

They nearly trip over each other's feet to get to Momo, Mina kneeling in front of her and reaching to frame Momo’s feverish cheeks in her hands. “Momo, are you all right?”

Momo blinks at Mina in that slow way of hers, but the way her lids sag is worrying. Mina gently sweeps the jacket off of Momo's shoulders and discovers that Momo’s arm in a sling and there are gauze bandages peeping from underneath the collar of her t-shirt. “What happened?”

“God damn it, Moguri. You look like dog shit,” Sana says, crouching next to Mina, Kansai-ben thickening as it does whenever she says something off-color. “Are you drugged?”

“Yeah,” Momo slurs, her good arm fumbling at a tiny bottle sitting next to her. Mina takes the bottle and squints at the pills. She knows that imprint; it's Percocet.

She desperately wants to ask what happened in Kyoto, and if Momo had anything to do with the dead body that the police had found, but isn't sure if Momo will answer her in this state. Instead, Mina shuffles forward and puts her arms around Momo, who slumps into her and rests her head on Mina’s shoulder.

Momo isn't very forthcoming about the details of her sojourn in Kyoto; she doesn't elaborate much over the next couple days of nursing her. Her injuries are the first to tell Mina anything about what had happened; while Momo's arm is not broken, her elbow and shoulder had been badly sprained, and while she had managed not to get stabbed or shot outright, she had been nicked by several bullets and had been gashed numerous times, severely enough to require stitches. “The bleeding was hard to stop,” she mumbles.

Mina helps her change the bandages and finds herself staring silently at the scabbing lines carved into Momo’s side, bordered by surgical thread. The Percocet is for her injured ribs--something that could put Momo out of commission for a while. An inconvenient while, but it can't be helped. “You're amazingly lucky, it could have been worse,” Sana scolds.

Momo grunts from the futon Mina had set up for her. She's more lucid now, her dosage having been cut back. “How do you know?”

“We have other people who tell us things, since you won't,” Sana retorts. “There's a vacuum in Kyoto now which wasn't there before. The Nagoya gang that had occupied Kyoto is either gone or in hiding. Things like that don't happen in three weeks.” Mina has ordered the brothers to fill the vacuum and elect one of the seniors to be the temporary head of the Kyoto operation.

Mina snips off the end of the gauze bandages taped to Momo’s side. “There's something we don't know. Who stitched you up and gave you the Percocet?”

Momo shrugs, wincing at the tug of the stitches and possibly from discomfort in her ribs. “I have a contact from the, uh, the clan days. He's a doctor, he runs a free clinic in the neighborhood. The clan, they’d been funding the clinic so he was sort of obligated to patch me up ever since I started doing this. He thought I quit the, the thing when I left Kyoto. Said he thought he'd never see me again. He was pretty shocked to see me when I came through his daughter’s window.” Momo frowns. “I'll have to go back to get the stitches out.”

Sana raises an eyebrow. “You came through his daughter’s window without bleeding all over the place?”

“Listen, these injuries are real, you know,” Momo grumps. “Only amateurs bleed all over the place and leave behind a trail. And before you ask, his daughter wasn't there. She's a graduate student in Tokyo. I was basically knocked out on painkillers for a couple days. Then I came back here.”

Mina sits back. “You said the clan had been funding his clinic. I thought the clan had died out?”

“Yeah.”

“So is he self funded now or did he find another source?”

“Don't know.”

Sana laughs. “No need to be so humble, Momorin. It's pretty obvious that you're the one funding the clinic.” Momo scowls at her. “Hey, it's a good thing. The clinic is serving the community, right? That's a good thing, if you weren't aware.”

“What about the body at the front gate?” Mina asks. “Was that...did you have something to do with that?”

Momo sighs. “I got over the wall and he was already there, fiddling with the front door. He got it open just as I jumped him. Didn't want to be messy so I just broke his neck. Unfortunately,” she winces again, “I was off my game because of the pills. He got a good whack in at me before I could grab his head right, and we knocked over that table next to the door on the way down. Sorry.”

Mina strokes Momo's hair. “No harm done; nobody was home anyway and he didn't take anything. I'll just get a new frame.” The security system appeared to have been untouched, but Mina had checked and sure enough, it had been disabled for half an hour a day ago, but was restarted. Comparing the time stamps to the police report, the body found slung over the front gate had been dead before the system was restored. “Obviously someone hacked into the security system from the outside in order to shut it down. Were you the one who turned it back on?” Momo just nods.

“Well, dead boy sent a message to the big boy and his groupies that the shinobi is back in town, so we have some breathing room from the sad stalking. We're still going to have to encrypt the system better. State of the art no longer, apparently.” Sana bends into a stretch. “Hey, Minari. Don't you own a tech security firm?”

“Around three percent,” Mina clarifies. The Myslite Technologies shares were some of the investments in the trust left to her by the old man. “It makes money, at the very least; profits were up last quarter. I'll look into your suggestion.” After Mina had turned eighteen, she'd been brought up to speed on the holdings in the trusts bequeathed to her by her parents and the old man. She's a business student, so naturally she'll look in on the business section of the newspaper.

“Look, I'm no business student myself but isn't that kind of a lot of shares? Whatever, maybe you need to see if the company is actually good at what it does.” Sana hops to her feet. “Well, I gotta run if I'm going to make my appointment,” which could mean anything from a surveillance job to an actual hit. “Momorin needs time to heal up, but the work must go on.”

Mina dries the last of the dishes, places them back into the cabinets, and then pads back towards Momo's room. Momo is lying flat on her back on the futon, staring blankly at the ceiling. Her stare doesn't break even when Mina returns and sits next to the futon.

Suddenly Momo turns her head to look at Mina. “Did you have fun in Osaka?”

“I got to walk around the city a bit. I like doing that whenever I visit a city. It wasn't all for fun, mostly to keep me out of town because Hiroto-san was selling information about me to the kumichō's loyalists.” She doesn't mention the hotel and the meeting with Sana's cousin.

“Oh. Yeah, Sana told me her suspicions before I left. Said she wanted to play with him a little before busting him.”

“I wish you two would've told me. I didn't tell Sana that, but I wish you both would.”

“You were busy.” Momo looks back at the ceiling, her eyes distant. Mina watches her, wishing that she could read Momo as well as Sana does.

With Momo being injured, that means that she has to stay still for longer periods of time, which allows Mina to observe her more closely. She's noticed small things, like how Momo struggles to keep her mouth closed while eating, because she likes to shovel food in her mouth and isn't as deft about stuffing her face as Sana is (“Not my fault I have big cheeks, my aunt used to call me a squirrel,” Sana says). Mina finds it adorable, actually, since Momo loves to eat (her own admission) and even while she's struggling to eat neatly, the glint she has in her eyes while she's eating shows that she clearly enjoys her food. It's an image that stands in stark contrast to Momo as the shinobi, who had probably slaughtered upwards of thirty people within two weeks, if Mina’s calculations were correct (based on the intelligence from the brothers currently occupying Kyoto). Mina can also see the psychological toll it takes on Momo's mind more closely, now that Momo is physically forced to stay put and she can't just get up and run away from it.

Momo has nightmares too, probably exacerbated by the painkillers. Mina had been witness to one of these; Momo had almost reopened some of her stitches while thrashing awake. She'd opened her eyes, glanced around wildly, and then began hyperventilating, gasping for air. Mina, a little too accustomed to Momo's usual blankness, had been surprised and frightened, even as she leaned in and held Momo's face in her hands, touching their foreheads together and soothing her as gently as she could, trying to get Momo’s breathing to align with hers and slow down. That had only just been yesterday afternoon. This is the weakest that Mina has ever seen Momo, but even like this, Mina feels like she's missing something; Momo is still a cryptograph that she still can't fully parse.

She's so wrapped up in watching Momo's slow, almost hypnotic blinking at the ceiling that she almost doesn't hear Momo speak. “Sorry, I've been behind on your, uh, lessons. Since you're on break from school we can start again, well after I can start moving my arm.”

“Why are you apologizing? Don't be sorry. We've both been busy, I haven't even had time to practice the forms.” Mina scoots closer, her knee touching Momo’s hand (on her good arm, of course). “What's more important is that you came back safely.”

“Maybe I want to be sorry,” Momo grumbles. Her index finger brushes against Mina’s knee.

Mina nudges Momo’s finger. “If you want to apologize you can start by answering some of my questions, starting with you telling me your side of what happened in Kyoto. I believe I've heard enough from the brothers.” This is because numerous seniors are still campaigning for the head of the Kyoto occupation even though an interim head has been elected, and they seem to think that appealing to Mina directly will help their cases even though more than half of them are contemptuous of sharing sake with a woman. The cognitive dissonance is astounding.

“There isn't much to tell. I said before that I used to work jobs for the cell Sana mentioned that was going around with the attacks; they got absorbed into the Nagoya group, which is one of the richest gangs in the country because they specialize in banking and, uh, finance management for almost all the major syndicates in western Japan. They sent a faction to Kyoto to drive you out, that's why they killed Kubodera-san. I went straight to the guy running the thing and cut his head off, then a bunch of people came after me, I got rid of them, then I went and cleaned up after the boys. The Nagoya group had more people in place than they predicted and it was, uh, kind of messy.” Messy is an understatement. The news hasn't really picked up on the happenings other than references to “a spike in violent gang activity” in Kyoto, but since inter-bōryokudan conflicts are conducted in the shadows and are not to endanger civilians per a decades old tradition, civilians simply continue their daily routines unbothered.

“Do you still have connections within the cell? According to reports, the Nagoya group has all but left the city.” Sana in particular had reveled in that triumph, rolling with laughter at the reports of the kumichō’s outraged response to the failure of his allies to keep Mina’s faction out of Kyoto.

Momo shook her head, a wry smile on her lips. “Not anymore. And they didn't really leave. The ones who did, they're only leaving in an urn.”

“I was worried about you.”

A small huff of laughter and then a slight wince colors Momo's expression. It probably hurts her to laugh. “I know,” Momo replies. “Anyway, if I ever get caught, I'd be dead. No wait, I mean, uh, I'll be dead before I get caught.”

“Yes, I know. You've done this for a long time.” Mina looks down at Momo's finger, now tapping incessantly against Mina’s knee. All of this talking is probably making Momo restless. Perhaps Mina shouldn't press further, but she does. “Why did you choose to come to Kobe in the first place?”

Momo's finger stops tapping. “I almost didn't. Before then I wanted out of being a killer. I didn't want to do this anymore.”

Mina reaches down, catches Momo's hand in hers, willing her to continue. “Or at least that's I thought. The master wouldn't let me out unless I beat him in a fight, said that I was too stupid to know what I really wanted and that I'd never truly leave it behind. I beat him and then I killed him, and then I went to Kobe to finish off his last remaining student. I wasn't sure if I should bother since he and the master had a falling out, but I didn't want to take any chances. I caught him in the middle of a job. That's when you met me. The clan went extinct when I killed him.”

Her voice is matter of fact, unemotional. Mina remembers the sound of bones being broken, one by one, and looks away. To her surprise, Momo keeps talking. “To be really honest, I had, uh, I had a grudge against that guy for a long time. I...it was personal and I was still really mad.” Momo turns her head to face away from Mina. “I left right afterwards but...I realized that I didn't know where to go or what to do. I caved and asked an old contact about you, he does business in Osaka so he was familiar with the Kobe factions, and uh, I got an appointment with the former boss. He told me about you and offered to put me on your payroll.”

It's the most that Momo has ever talked about her past, and yet it's as if she hasn't told Mina anything at all because there are still so many unanswered questions. She only asks one. “Was there a reason why you didn't want to do this anymore?”

Momo scoffs. “They took me from my family. I barely remember what it was like just being a regular kid, but a part of me always hoped, maybe I could try to go back to a normal life or something, if I...” She trails off. There is a stiff jerk, a weak attempt from Momo at pulling her hand away, but Mina holds fast.

“You were taken from your family? As in kidnapped? Wouldn't they be looking for you?”

“No,” Momo says, bitterness creeping into her voice. “They knew who took me all along and thought it was too dangerous to get me back. My dad worked in physical therapy and got involved in pushing pills, and had pissed off the wrong people that way. I was in the car with him when...”

Mina's grip on her hand tightens. The story has taken on an eerily familiar sheen.

“I think it was supposed to be a drive by or something, my dad lost control of the car and it flipped and went into a ditch. I was in a car seat but I still have a scar on the side of my head from that wreck.” Mina has felt the scar several times, but hasn't dared to question where it had come from, knowing that it could be from anything. “My dad died at the scene. The guys sent to get rid of him didn't know what to do with me, so someone said ‘just send her to Iga.’ I think I was part of a payment package to the clan for services rendered. That's how that happened. But my family just disappeared. I was told they died and I believed it because when I returned to Kyotonabe on my first mission, I found that my home had been burned to the ground and a new building was in its place.”

Momo's voice has started to tremble and thin out, which makes her harder to hear since her natural voice is already thin and high. Mina leans in to rest her head on the pillow, pressing her forehead against Momo’s ear in an attempt to soothe her. “About three years before we met, I tracked down a target that had been trying to break open a corruption investigation into the Kyoto police department. I took his hard drive and found a file dump with memos requesting to close certain investigations. One of them...was the car crash. Turns out a corrupt detective had arranged for my family to go into hiding in exchange for information and made it look like they died in an arson fire. They became johatsu.”

Johatsu. Vanished people, people who shed their identities and disappear from society, usually out of shame, and made all the easier with Japan’s privacy laws. Mina's thumb strokes across Momo's knuckles, willing her to continue. “You realized that the rest of your family was alive, and you wanted to find them.”

“I wasted three years looking. They didn't want me to find them, they were horrified when I showed up at their doorstep in Hiroshima. My sister has a kid now. I have a nephew...but she doesn't want me anywhere near him or any of them. She told me as much and slammed the door in my face. Right at that moment, I was so angry that they wouldn't stop to understand me...I seriously thought about kicking the door down and killing her, all of them. The next moment, I realized that the master had been right. I was stupid to think that I knew what I wanted. I'm unable to leave this life behind.” Momo's thin voice has now thickened, clotted with the effort of holding back any sign of emotion. “I sat around thinking that I could probably be some use to you and Sana since I took down that guy. So that's why I went back to Kobe.”

Mina is at a loss for words; she doesn't think anything she could say would be proper. Instead, she takes a bolder step and stretches out to lie down next to Momo on the futon, her hand still clasping Momo’s colder one before detaching them to wrap her arm around Momo's waist. This is a particularly Sana move, but Sana has always been brilliant at comforting others and Mina is just trying to emulate her. Momo has been molded to be hard, but Mina holds her in hopes of reaching her soft spots; hardness can mean brittleness and Mina thinks that it is better to be soft and bend, than to be brittle and break.

They lie there in the silence, Mina wondering to herself what she would do if she discovered that her own family's deaths had been an elaborate lie, if she discovered they had abandoned her on purpose. She tightens her arm around Momo, who still isn't looking at her but tugs the hem of Mina’s shorts signaling her to come closer so that Mina isn't practically lying on the edge of the futon.

“Was that enough of a ‘sorry’ for you, Mina?” Momo mumbles, voice still a bit congested. Mina presses closer to Momo, fingers reaching to fumble gently through Momo's hair and brushing against the old scar on Momo’ scalp on the way down.

Mina wakes up to whispered voices in the room; she hadn't realized that she had fallen asleep. It's still dark, which means someone entered in the middle of the night and turned the light off. Mina's eyes remain closed but she faintly hears Sana whisper, “It's just me, Momorin. You don’t need to get up. Go back to sleep.” A familiar weight settles behind Mina on the tatami floor, and familiar arms tuck the edges of Momo's blanket around Mina before draping themselves over her. Mina would recognize Sana's style of cuddling anywhere and returns to sleep.

When she does wake up again, it's to the sunlight streaming through the window curtains. Mina squints and rolls over to see Sana snuffling softly in her sleep, still snuggled against Mina's back, and her fingers are basically hooked in Mina’s shirt. Somehow they've both migrated onto the futon even though she's pretty sure Sana was on the floor earlier. Momo must have left at some point.

Mina sits up, eliciting a throaty whine from Sana. As she wonders how Momo extricated herself without waking her up, Momo walks back into the room; her gait and posture are still stiff but nothing about it seems particularly painful. Mina gives her a questioning look; Momo blinks back at her. “I had to go to the bathroom,” she explains, before gingerly lowering herself onto the floor across from the futon.

“Are you hurting anywhere?”

“No more than the past few days,” Momo mumbles. “I'm just tired of lying down.” Their eyes meet and Momo blinks once before looking away. “I'm itchy too. It's the stitches. I want to go back tomorrow to see if he can take some of them out.”

“You're not going back to Kyoto by yourself in that state.”

“Uh, I made it all the way back here while injured and doped up on painkillers, I think I'll be fine.”

Mina folds her arms. “Just because you can doesn't mean you should. I have to go to Kyoto anyway to see what the brothers have been doing there.”

There's a sleepy groan from the futon. “Fomenting rebellion, apparently,” Sana grouches, rolling onto her back. “Apparently some of the boys are just so pumped with the recent string of victories that they've suddenly decided that all of it was their idea. Some of them are dreaming about taking their holdings and breaking away from the old gang, meaning that they really don't want to be paying tribute to you. Ungrateful bitches are ungrateful.”

“Wasn't Kyoto your idea?” Momo asks.

Sana flings an arm across her eyes and raises her other arm to give Momo a thumbs up. “If only they knew! There's some of the old man's boys still clinging to his legacy, or they're scared of Momo, which means they'll still respect Mina’s leadership, but they're mostly in Ashiya and Amagasaki. Our faction in Osaka will stay loyal if I have anything to say about it. I'd just really like to keep what we have in Kyoto, instead of having a bunch of disloyal assholes squabbling over it like a pack of hyenas over a lion’s kill. No more damn proxy rule, I say. They always let their fucking heads get so big.” Sana's Kansai-ben gets heavier and heavier as she speaks, and honestly it would be funny in any other situation.

“My priority--our priority--is to dethrone the kumichō,” Mina says, sweeping the hair out of her eyes. “We needed a foothold in Kyoto for that, that's why I wanted them to elect a representative. None of this will happen anyway if brothers want to defect. I'm not going to tolerate that.”

Momo's face darkens. “Usually I wouldn't worry but I still can't move my arm the way I need to.”

Sana waves her off. “We have some time. Fat face has sent a group to Kyoto to issue a few threats, rough some people up and see if the boys come to their senses. If not, well...their revenue stream is easily sabotaged, since we're the ones who set it up. I've been in contact with Seulgi,” referring to Kang Seulgi, a Korean-born hacker that is one of Momo's numerous contacts in the underground. Seulgi had originally been based in Yokohama, and there have been rumors that she worked a secret job or three for the American military before going underground. Sana stretches and yawns. “A word from me and those bank accounts freeze. I deserve a Family Mart’s worth of chocolate bars for this. Throw in a shelf of Pocky too while we're at it.”

“Really? That's all? I would have thought you wanted a yacht or something.”

“Ooh, I want that too!” Delighted at the suggestion, Sana sits up and drapes herself over Mina’s back and hugging her. “Please make it happen, rich girlfriend!”

Momo doesn't seem to register Mina's blush at Sana's casual escalation of their relationship status. “Who's fat face?”

“Sana's cousin in Osaka,” Mina explains. “Speaking of revenue, my biannual meeting with the lawyers is coming up.” This had been a regular thing since the old man had died and she'd turned twenty.

“In Osaka again?”

Mina shakes her head, a small smirk flickering across her face. “Not this time. I'm going to Tokyo. I've got an important meeting there.”

“Did you know that Moguri is afraid of heights?” Sana asks casually, as she observes the view of Roppongi from the window of one of the conference rooms at the law offices of Phillips Kano & Morishige. Kano-sensei, a former senior partner at Nishimura & Asahi (back when it was still Nishimura & Partners), personally oversaw the firm’s role as Mina's trustee. They were seated in the conference room, waiting for him to arrive.

“I did not. How did you know?”

Sana giggles. “There's a helipad on the roof of this building that allows for direct helicopter service to the building from the airport. I was telling her about this before we left and her eyes were as big as plates. Then she said she didn't like helicopters.”

Mina frowns. “We took the train, Sana. Why would we need to fly to Tokyo when there is a bullet train?”

“I know that, silly. I was just having fun imagining it.”

As if the stay at the St. Regis and excitement over yachts aren't evidence enough of Sana's taste for luxury, now she's talking about helicopters. “Is this another thing to add to the list of things that you would like your rich girlfriend to do for you?” She's starting to like the sound of that. Girlfriend. After all, they've done everything else except apply the label. It might have been a throwaway remark, because it's Sana, but it's precisely because it's Sana that it could have been taken seriously. Mina can do both; she'll play along if it's a game, apply herself as a good girlfriend if it's not.

“You're making a list? You're so sweet to me.” Sana turns away from the window and resumes her previous seat on Mina's lap. Kano-sensei would probably find it highly unprofessional, but Mina can't find it in herself to care about how scandalized he might be. “And to Momo, too. You and Moguri were so adorable this morning,” Sana says, her arm circled around Mina’s shoulders. They had taken leave of Momo at Shin-Osaka, where she had boarded a separate commuter train bound for Kyoto. “With her lunch box and everything. When she saw that you'd packed Chocorooms for her, she looked so happy and squishy, it really was a sight to behold. Also, who knew she was that excited for egg salad on white bread?”

“It's because I put a lot of mayonnaise. You were the one who noticed that she puts it on everything. She has very simple tastes.”

“Unlike me, yes I know.” Sana nuzzles her head against Mina's. The door to the conference room opens and Mina expects to see Kano-sensei march into the room; however, it isn't Kano-sensei who appears, but a young woman.

Sana casually gets up from Mina's lap and bows; Mina follows Sana’s actions, taking in the feline eyes and dark, bone-straight hair of the newcomer, who returns the bow politely. She's Asian, definitely Korean, but her carriage is suggestive of an upbringing outside of Asia. “Hello,” she says in reasonably good Japanese. “My name is Krystal Jung. I'm here per your invitation through Kang Seulgi. I've asked Kano-sensei for some of his time with you, which he was gracious enough to give.”

“A pleasure to meet you. I am Myoui Mina. This is Minatozaki Sana.”

“Of the Osaka Minatozaki clan,” Krystal murmurs. Sana glances over at Mina, eyebrow quirked in realization. Suddenly, Krystal switches to Korean, a language that Mina isn't familiar with, but Sana is conversational in the language; obviously Mina has rarely heard Sana speak Korean, but whenever she has, she notices that Sana's tone grows syrupy, almost sticky in its accent.

“So you're Jessica Jung’s sister,” Sana says. It takes a moment for Mina to register that Sana has switched back to Japanese. “Jessica Jung of Obelus and Synthyris Holdings.”

“I know Synthyris is the majority shareholder of Myslite Technologies,” Mina adds, “but I was unaware that you were involved in the actual company. Seulgi merely said someone higher up would meet with us. She also mentioned that Kano-sensei and your father used to be colleagues.”

“That's so. And I am everywhere when it comes to my sister’s interests. To the point; I've already asked Seulgi to hook you up with the encryption techniques being developed at Antiaris. You know, however, that it's not the only reason I'm here. Let's sit down.”

Mina resumes her seat; she already knows what they're going to talk about (Sana takes a chair instead of Mina's lap this time). Only a certain subset of people refer to Sana as an ‘Osaka Minatozaki’: those who are intimately familiar with the criminal underground in Japan. That level of familiarity requires actual involvement in bōryokudan activities. Obviously, since Krystal Jung is working with Kang Seulgi, she has a similar organization behind her--an organization that Mina knows to be a worldwide drug cartel, from the information Seulgi has passed on to her. This is what Mina wants to discuss. “You mentioned your sister’s interests,” Mina says. “How do I fit into that picture?”

Krystal folds her arms and rests her elbows against the table. “I think you'll find that her interests and yours are similar, and they can be achieved with a mutual partnership. We made a push into Japan several years ago. In fact your late guardian, the wakagashira-hosa, was open to an alliance and did several favors for us. He was compensated for his help.”

“The Myslite Technologies shares.”

“Mm, among other things. However, we were blocked from expanding into the Kansai region, mostly through the efforts of your dear friend who is heading the syndicate in Kobe. We would have bulldozed through if we could, but we had to focus our resources elsewhere, particularly in Europe; this is a global organization, you know. Recently, a break in the Kobe syndicate opened up another opportunity for us. An ally of yours in Sakai appealed to our faction for assistance in obtaining weapons while your group was planning to take Kyoto. He planned to defect and turn over the profits from trafficking those weapons to your friend in Kobe--not realizing, of course, that we were not going to help him help someone who was already resisting us. Besides, my sister was very impressed with the progress you've made in the region. Following your Kyoto campaign was probably the most interested she's ever been in our Japanese operations.”

Mina remembers the visit to Sakai, wonders which of the brothers who had shrunk from Momo as she walked past had made the decision to betray them. “So you've been holding Sakai for us as a bargaining chip. You may have a foothold there, but the domestic business is still very insular.”

Sana leans forward. “Not to be too blunt, but if we partner with you, then what's in it for us?”

“Kobe. You'll have Kobe all to yourself.” Krystal waves a hand towards the window and the view of Roppongi below. “Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Shizuoka. Maybe even the whole damn country if you play the game correctly. Our resources and manpower will be at your disposal, and of course your organization will receive a percentage of the profits we generate in your territory. The amount is negotiable depending on the level of cooperation involved, but you will be compensated, just as your predecessor was.”

Sana whistles. “It's go big or go home, huh?”

“And what does this cooperation entail? What would you like in return?”

“For you to represent and safeguard our interests in Japan as equally as you would your own. We want full access to the trafficking routes and the cooperation of the organizations who either directly run contraband or profit from them. What do you think of that?”

“Maintaining the revenue stream and finding profitable opportunities to make alliances is what I deal with. Sana does the grunt work to make it all happen; she'd have a bigger say in this.” Mina purses her lips. “I had the intention to discuss an alliance with you because as a female, the loyalty of those under me is always in doubt. Already people are banking on Kyoto slipping through my fingers. I needed help to secure my position in the region, and circumstances led me to believe that you could provide it.”

“My sister thought similarly,” Krystal says, lounging back in her chair. “We were aware how male-dominated your business is, and my sister, a businesswoman herself, identified with that. Her thinking was that we could offer you a deal, the consolidation of your position in return for access to expand our opportunities in the country. Your main rivals have been interested in international expansion for a while now, but they were never quite keen on us because they prefer to be in charge, and were afraid of being swept aside. It's their loss, honestly.”

Sana shrugs, bounces in her chair a little. “It sounds good. Too good. However, what's important to us is Kobe. If we take his seat, we'll be of much more use to you. If you could give Sakai back to us and help solidify our position in Kyoto, we’ll make a move on the big boy.”

“How about this: give us access to Osaka and we will return Sakai to you, and then we will partner with your loyalists to carry out a campaign to weaken his position enough for you to strike him directly. I can't stress enough that your rivals need to know that you are the one taking him down, Myoui-san. You and nobody else. I suggest that you be the one to execute him.”

“Are you certain that you have the...personnel to carry out your plan?”

Krystal smirks. “Strategy and surprise is more important when it comes to a rival who is entrenched in his own stronghold. You were able to make headway because he never saw you coming. To people like him, girls don't do these things. That played to your advantage at first but now people are finally completely awake to the fact that you're actually serious about taking over, and that scares them. Now you will watch and learn how to out-strategize him.”

“It seems that there's a lot for me to learn,” Mina says.

“Then start with this lesson. People are ruled by their possessions and their emotions. Learn to control those and you control people.”

Jessica Jung is surprisingly petite for a fashion model, even though everyone knows that she had made her name as a print model, not being tall enough for the runway. Mina had seen Jessica Jung on magazines, billboards and the internet; the cold, elegant aura and artfully designed heels she often wore had made Jessica seem much taller and more imposing than she apparently is in real life. However, the first thing that comes out of Jessica's mouth when Mina and Sana are shown into the room is, “Oh my God, you're so pretty!” in blatantly American English. Mina hadn't been entirely sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn't that.

“What?” From the shock and irritation on Krystal’s face, it seems clear that Krystal wasn't expecting that either. Sana presses her lips together, not even hiding the fact that she's suppressing a laugh even as they bow in greeting.

“Look at them, Soojung! They're literally babies. Come, please sit down.”

Mina's reading and comprehension in English is still relatively good, but her verbal fluency has deteriorated since she left high school. “Pleased to meet you,” she says, almost squeaks. Sana plops down next to Mina and greets Jessica Jung in Korean.

The setting is a restaurant on Ishibei-koji in Kyoto’s Higashiyama ward; the surrounding area is a tourist’s delight of traditional architecture and narrow alleys. If not for Momo, Mina would not have known going in that this was one of the priciest restaurants in Kyoto (“I had several targets who liked to bring business associates there to show off. It's super nice,” Momo had said, when Mina had showed her the address). The restaurant itself fits the theme, with shoji screens, tatami mats and calligraphy scrolls hung on the wall; the private dining area is open to a small but beautiful garden, with artfully placed rocks and pebble paths winding among the greenery. The weather is extremely cooperative, too; sunny, quite warm but not a humid furnace. On the whole, the summer has been wet as usual, but also unseasonably cool and not as sticky as it usually is. There were a few hot and humid days, especially during Momo's convalescence, but the really bad heat is yet to arrive.

Krystal might be the more intimidating of the two, but Jessica is a consummate businesswoman, a truly savvy one at that; Seulgi had told them that she easily alternates between coldness and warmth as the situation demands. It's only to be expected from the billionaire CEO of Synthyris Holdings. That being said, Jessica appears to warm up to Mina immediately. Jessica veers away from serious talk at the beginning, preferring to pepper Mina and Sana with questions about their hobbies, their favorite things and the like, switching between English and Korean for Mina and Sana. Sana smirks at the look of horror on Krystal's face when Mina's love for the Dallas Cowboys, beer, and e-sports is coaxed out into the open. “That is adorable!” Jessica exclaims. “It's so unexpected but it fits.”

“Because she's from Texas? You don't even like pointyball, Jess,” Krystal gripes into her futamono. Whatever it is that's happening to the cool, in-control young woman they'd met in Tokyo, it's making Sana force down her snickering all through the meal, even as Jessica launches into a story about meeting Beyoncé courtside at a Nets-Warriors basketball game.

It isn't all fun and games, though, as two men in Fendi suits enter during the mizumono course with leather bound folders. This is why they were invited here; to sign a contract of agreement to establish the partnership. Mina is impressed by the subtle pageantry of the thing, even as she carefully reads through the document, which is entirely in Japanese. The terms are admittedly generous, and Mina vaguely wonders how big their organization really is to be able to offer such terms and still maintain a dominant footing.

“I'm looking forward to working with you, Mina, Sana,” Jessica says when the formalities are over. “It was lovely to meet you. Lunch is my treat. Thank you so much for joining us.”

Mina and Sana are seen out of the restaurant by the kimono-clad staff. Sana casually slings an arm around Mina, boyfriend style, as they stroll along, and presses her mouth to Mina's ear. “Well, that's that. I'm positive that she's got bodyguards following us,” Sana whispers, as they turn the corner and join the steady stream of tourists heading towards the Gion district. “She seems to favor tall gaijin models for that role, so can't say that I particularly mind because they are particularly gorgeous specimens. Also, Kyoto isn't completely settled and Moguri is still not at a hundred percent, but if they somehow provoke her...”

“They won't provoke her as long as they don't bother me,” Mina murmurs back. “And the brothers considering a rebellion here have backed down, for now. Thanks for that, by the way.”

“It's just as I thought. The boys can jaw about family loyalty all they want but that means bullshit. They can’t live without their yen. Gotta pay their bills somehow.” The extended period of time that Sana spent speaking Korean to Jessica Jung is now coloring her Kansai-ben, drawing out her words like taffy candy being pulled. “Let's go find our raccoon.”

The scenic Arashiyama district is one of Kyoto’s natural treasures, where the Katsura River winds past tree-covered mountains, lush with summer foliage. Famed for its bamboo forest and dotted with shrines, temples, and a few hot spring hotels, its residential streets are quieter compared to other districts of Kyoto. It's also across town from Higashiyama, which means they have to cross the Kamo River, take the train at Kawaramachi Station and transfer at Katsura Station to board the train heading towards Arashiyama. “We really ought to get you a new car,” Sana grumbles as Mina, who is too interested in the bustling scenery from the Shijo Bridge to mind Sana's complaint, leads her by the hand.

It's a seven minute walk from the train station serving the famed Matsunoo-Taisha shrine to the cluster of houses lining the base of Arashiyama itself, their backyards abutting the slope of the mountain. They stop at one of the houses with a moped parked in the concrete driveway, which bridges a small canal between the street and the house that reminds Mina of a moat. Apparently the house was a gift to Momo from someone who she met as a newly fledged shinobi and refuses to talk about. Momo has said that she'll never give up the house unless she really has to: “I nearly bled to death twice in the bathroom shower, so I'm kind of attached,” as she puts it. For all that she's revealed to Mina since they met, there's still so much that Mina doesn't know.

There's a gate separating the driveway from the house, which unlike her gated driveway in Nishinomiya, is only waist-high and has to be physically unlocked and slid open. While both of them could definitely climb over it, Sana pulls out the key and unlocks the gate, opening it just enough to let them both through. The gate lets out a low, rusty screech as she does so. She huffs as she pushes the gate back into place and locks it, pocketing the key again. “This damn thing hasn't been opened for years.”

“Momo isn't the type to enter through gates the usual way.” Or through front doors, or any doors in particular.

“Since neither of us can climb walls well enough to go through the window on a regular basis, we'll just go through the front door,” Sana says. “Knock knock and all that.”

Mina knocks on the door. There's the sound of several deadbolts sliding open and a harsh click of a lock before Momo pulls the door open, a half eaten container of instant curry rice in her free hand. Her arm is out of the sling now and the stiffness in her movements is almost completely faded. She looks at them quizzically, curry smeared at the corners of her mouth.

“When did you get here?” Sana asks, as Momo closes the door behind them and resets the deadbolts and locks. It doesn't surprise Mina that Momo crossed town so quickly. Kyoto is her city after all; she'd know it with her eyes closed.

“Ten minutes ago? Mostly I was on the roof opposite watching her security stroll around the street, they did a good job of looking like regular gaijin tourists milling around. One of them ate eight skewers of goma dango in one sitting. It made me hungry.” She shuffles into the small kitchen and plops down on a stool next to the counter. Mina shakes her head, but smiles as she sits next to Momo and reaches for a napkin to dab at the curry stains.

Sana joins them, propping her chin on her hand. “I wonder what Seulgi might have told them about you. The Jung sisters, I mean. They didn't mention you, but that means nothing. The boys talk, and their tongue wagging leads to your reputation preceding you. Wasn't so bad before, in fact it's a great scare tactic, but you basically went on a rampage here recently and there's no way people aren't talking now.”

“Seulgi thought I ran messages and guns for the bosses,” Momo says, shoveling another spoonful of curry rice in her mouth. “If she heard about the rest of the stuff, I can't do anything about it. As long as they don't bother Mina, I won't have a problem.”

Mina pats Momo's head. “What did I tell you, Sana?”

Sana grabs Mina’s other hand and plants a kiss in her palm. “Okay, Minari. Rub it in if you like. I do like your rubs.”

Momo snorts into the last of her curry.

coda.

The kumichō, a man her father's age (if only her father had lived that long), is not a man she would have suspected as someone who would want to die by seppuku, much less request her as a second, knowing the contempt that he has always had for Mina ever since the old man had made her his legal heir. She has no illusions about him being an honorable man in any way. Even so, Mina would rather not waste time arguing over whether he deserves the privilege, as long as the end result is the same. While she can respect tradition and how it's been romanticized in modern society, these rituals mean little to her personally. A dead man is a dead man.

Sana's mouth twists slightly in annoyance at Mina's decision to honor his request; Momo merely stares at him, arms folded and posture tense, ready to spring at the slightest movement. "Better make it quick," Sana says. Momo nods in agreement, hands Mina her sword and retreats to guard the doorway.

The Jung sisters had held up their end of the deal, supplementing Mina's loyalists in Ashiya, Amagasaki, Osaka, and Otsu and deploying a part sabotage, part charm offensive campaign throughout the Kansai region in Mina's name, in exchange for full access to trafficking routes through Kobe, Osaka and Sakai. Newspapers would later dub the ensuing conflict the Ashiya War, after a particularly fierce gun battle in that city. It is nearly Christmas when it became clear that the tide was against the current Kobe regime. Krystal Jung sends her a dozen bottles of Hakushika Junmai Ginjo sake as an early Christmas present. “Because your Texan ass won't appreciate anything that's actually better,” the accompanying card reads. Mina wonders if she should be insulted, but Sana almost dies laughing when she reads it.

For those who accepted Mina's terms, the money to be made from drugs, guns, and foreign real estate as part of her organization is just too attractive to refuse. For the others who did refuse, they were either shot down or arrested, their homes and offices were raided by law enforcement, tipped off by a seemingly endless network of spies. In the end, Momo broke into the kumichō’s headquarters in Kobe, a three story building in the Chuo ward that houses a strip club and a sushi restaurant, located in a back alley not far from Sannomiya’s main drag. By the time Mina and Sana arrived, Momo had slaughtered the remaining bodyguards and any supporters she found. Not that there were many left at that point; the Jung sisters had done their job thoroughly. Momo had spared the kumichō, knocking him to the floor and disarming him before pinning him down with her knees, to wait for Mina's final sentence.

His request to die by ritual suicide is a surprise. “You owe me this much,” he says as he removes his shirt and takes up the tantō that Momo had reluctantly returned to him. “I left you alone when I could have destroyed you.”

Sana scoffs. “You just didn't have the balls to face a real life shinobi.”

Whatever he meant by owing him, at least he seems resigned to his fate now. Mina draws the blade, her mind absorbing the tiniest details: the slither of metal against the wooden scabbard, the rumble of the heater, the faint honking of cars stuck in Sannomiya traffic, the dust particles floating in the air, glinting in the bars of sunlight filtering into the room and landing on the shirtless man kneeling in front of her, tantō already poised for the cut. She recognizes the tattoos on his back--a colorfully inked depiction of the storm god Susanoo slaying a drunken Yamata no Orochi, the eight headed serpent--on full display as she stands behind him.

When the old man was still alive, some of the brothers had first taught Mina to swing a sword when she was in high school, demonstrating the basic stance and grip with Sana hovering nearby to ensure nobody got handsy. She has since graduated to an iaido instructor and then to Momo, and is no stranger to killing people, but Mina has never actually had to behead a man before. Ever since Krystal Jung made the remark about executing the kumichō, however, she's been diligently practicing. Sana smiles encouragingly at Mina, as if she hadn't disapproved of the whole thing a minute ago. Mina lifts the sword, her shadow looming in sharp relief behind him, so that he knows that she's ready.

The tantō sinks into his belly and Mina swings.

 coda.

Most of the council of elders who would have continued to oppose Mina are either dead, in hiding, in jail, or have fled the country. The ones that remain and have withdrawn their opposition have been called to Kobe to establish new allegiances within the syndicate. As the brothers escort the elders into the former kumichō’s haunt, one of them stumbles over his cane at the sight of the kumichō’s decapitated head on the table, unseeing eyes open and staring at them.

The rest of the council pull up short. Before them sits the little girl from Nishinomiya, in the kumichō’s high-backed leather armchair, calmly wiping down the blood from her sword, with her Minatozaki friend perched on the right arm of the chair, casually scrolling through her phone and noisily sucking down an iced coffee despite the chilly weather. There's no visible sign of the rumored kunoichi that serves her, the one some of their more superstitious foot soldiers have called ‘that bloodthirsty bake-danuki,’ but the way the girl’s own subordinates tiptoe around the room give them an uneasy feeling.

Myoui Mina stands up, sword still in hand, and bows perfunctorily, almost mockingly. One of the brothers places a sake bottle and a cup on the table next to the head. She smirks at them, close-lipped and predatory. “Welcome.”