...

"Did you do this?" Verity asked, with a hiss to her voice. I didn't understood what she meant at first, but after a moment I realized that she meant whether I set up a trap for her.

"No," I answered honestly and quickly. Despite that, she didn't seem to believe me, as she raised an eyebrow, gritted her teeth, and took a peek towards the what was out there.

The footsteps were getting even closer. They were slow, methodical. I calmed my heartbeat slightly with a deep breath, and then realized that it was only a single person coming towards us - not a squadron or anything. I always believed that a single assassin is more dangerous than a group of thugs; it meant they had enough self-confidence to strike alone, and that in itself was like the first significant strike in a duel -- though there were two of us, we were both wavering.

So I focused, and stood back up. If I was going to have any chance to get out of here alive, I was going to need to be at my opponent's level first things first. Verity looked at me with widened eyes -- like she was unsure of all of this.

She hissed once more, "What are you doing?"

"I punch things, Ms. Verity," I explained matter-of-factly, "Stay here."

Verity seemed content to agree. The last I looked at her, she held her gun tightly. I got out of the booth and came face to face with the killer. The room stunk of blood -- it was a difficult smell to really stomach; the freshness of it all made me want to puke. The bodies were thrown around haphazardly, but I could tell they all died instantly: a single shot to the head to each one of the victims.

The person responsible was a mountain of a man, wearing a cheap suit. He was right in front of me, and the reason why he hasn't fired at me yet eluded me, so I took a cautious stance. The man had greasy-but-slick long hair, and a scar on his lip. He was smoking a cigarette, casually. I wouldn't call him attractive by any means -- he reminded me of those cage-fighters fighters Ms. Dakila sees on television sometimes. What was different from the cage-fighters and this man, however, was his choice of weapon.

Instead of just having an average gun, it seems this man has completely ripped off his left arm and replaced it with some sort of golden thaumatech sniper rifle. It was difficult to truly fathom how he would go along with his daily routine with that placed there, but it made it more obvious that he was modified specifically to kill others. On his lapel, there was the first piece of evidence that showed his identity, a small pin with a bonsai tree on it: he was part of the Villaneuve family. I never seen him, so he probably belonged to a different subsidiary than mine.

"Which family are you with?" He snapped almost like a serpent biting its prey, but then realized: "Ah, you must be Dakila's brat, right?"

"Yes, that's right. I was doing a job for her." I said, arms to my sides, a small tension in my shoulders.

"Ah, damn. You weren't supposed to see this. Well, whatever." He cracked his neck once, twice. "Look, kid, run along. I'll wrap it up for you, okay?"

"What's going on?" I raised an eyebrow.

"You still don't get it? Man, you're dumber than you look." The man flashed a grin. "We're getting both, kid. The money and the umbra. I was sent here to eliminate her, but damn, turns out I got here too early."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I swallowed, hard, and my eyes darted towards Verity's booth for a brief second. I let my disbelief escape, "The umbra?"

This was disastrous. I couldn't fathom it. How did they capture an umbra, let alone put it in a small suitcase such as that one? How did it not escape? This is not to mention the danger of having an umbra inside around a major city such as this one; even though the outside was well protected by the yakuza, even a small umbra like this in here was like an all-you-can-eat buffet. It felt truly unbelievable that such a thing was in that suitcase.

"Yeah - the boss wants it. Look, kid, I'll put in a good word for you. You did your job good, leading her here. Sorry for the scare. Tae-o Choi's word is worth a billion Crescents, you know?" He smiled, then started walking towards me. "C'mon."

It wasn't any of my business. If it ended like this, then it's fine. I was just here to do this job, and whichever way it ended, didn't matter to me. I could just step aside and pretend none of this happened. I didn't know Verity, and I was never going to see her again, and whatever happened with the umbra didn't matter. I was getting one step closer to the truth by just doing nothing. That was all that mattered, here. I shouldn't be reckless.

He approached me and put his hand on my shoulder. Tae-o Choi grinned. "Be a good girl and get outta here, yeah?"

The smell of his cigarette smoke made my blood boil. Maybe, if I survive, I'll use that as an excuse. I grabbed his hand, and felt his energy connect to mine, almost as if he was an object and I was the force guiding it -- I threw him back without thinking, towards the counter, strong and hard. It broke with a heavy impact, and the man seemed bewildered with my strength, but lifted himself back up with a livid expression on his face; a vein popping on his forehead.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, kid?"

"This is a no-smoking area," I lied. Most areas in Maulap City allowed for you to smoke. "So I can't allow you to be here any longer."

"You're also a fucking comedian, huh!?" Now he was really mad. "You're protecting that bitch!? Why!?"

"It turns out… I just can't watch someone die in front of me, and do nothing about it. I'm really sorry." I bowed my head, but I could feel that just made him angrier.

He raised his rifle-arm, and pointed it towards me. "Heh. Well, if you say so. You two can be all nice and cozy in the Below, then."

Tae-o Choi didn't hesitate; his gun somehow activated, and with a loud bang, a bullet was fired towards me. The only sign that I had that somehow he had fired was the recoil from his gun, but by then it was too late for me to react. The bullet was very close. I tried to dodge, but it only barely missed me; it grazed my cheek, and where it did, it burned intensely.

I prepared my fighting stance. Reacting to his bullets will be difficult; that was a stroke of luck that I didn't get my head blown off immediately. Though like Master Atsuko told me -- there was nothing wrong with luck in a fight. In fact, it's a key component of any brawl. I attempted to circle around him and approach, and he did the same. Tae-o Choi seemed caught by surprise that the bullet didn't hit its mark, so he was a little more cautious.

But then, I could see it in his eyes.

I quickly ran towards him - my speed seems to have surprised him. I was the one who fired first, but his bullet came right after, shooting towards the ground where I once was. It was a haphazard shot; like he couldn't believe I won the duel. I approached him quickly, and with a wind-up punch, I hit him right in the stomach. It was enough to do some damage. I could feel something, at least, break. Tae-o Choi took a few steps back, and I couldn't give him any moment whatsoever to breathe.

I leaped into the air, and tried kicking him on the head to knock him out.

Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned. He shielded himself with his left arm, and my foot made contact with his gun. He swatted me away with his rifle, and I fell down to the ground. I felt small, almost like a bug.

"Huh. Turns out Dakila's brat can fight. What's your name, kid?" Tae-o Choi asked, breathing slightly heavier.

"Kofuku." I answered honestly.

"I'll remember that." Tae-o's gun clicked once.

I looked him dead in the eyes once more, but I wasn't ready for what happened that time - though I thought it was a sniper rifle, his gun shot multiple times, almost automatically. It felt like rapid fire, and I quickly had to run and hide under a table from the bar while the quick gunfire could be heard everywhere in the bar.

It then stopped abruptly. I realized what just happened -- whatever that gun was, it had multiple modes of firing. I didn't know how many, but I had to be careful. If I got out of this cover, I had to be prepared for whatever mode he wanted to be in.

"Come out, Kofuku. I'm gonna give you a death to remember."

I didn't want to come out at all, but I had to. I lifted the table from under me, and then stood back up. I quickly spun around, almost as if I was throwing a shot-put ball, and threw the table at him at my full strength. The table broke when it made contact with him, but I could hear the machine gun fire once more as he tried to defend himself.

This was good for me, at least. In those brief moments where his vision was obscured by the table, I ran to the booth that Verity was in. Thankfully, she was still there. I was relieved, but was also somewhat hoping she had ran away: it'd make Tae-o's job of killing her much harder if that was the case. Regardless, it's my responsibility to make sure she's okay.

"Ms. Verity." I put a hand to her shoulder.

"What? What do you want?" She blinked, almost like a deer-in-headlights.

"We are getting out of here."

"Get out? We're getting out of here? Is that what you just said?" Verity snapped back at me. "He's going to shoot me the moment I peek out of cover..."

"No, he won't. I have an idea." It wasn't a bright one, but… "Ms. Verity."

"What?"

"I'm your shield. Trust me."

Something in her eyes seemed to shift when she looked at mine. Despite her begrudging nature, she relented.

"Fine. Do whatever you want," she sighed.

Tae-o Choi started approaching once more. It was now or never.