Riza sighed.

“Honestly…” she said, leaning against her hand as her elbow propped up her chin. “Teru-chan, if you ever get involved with a barfly like me, whisk her away at the first opportunity. Got it?”

“Eh? I thought you liked it here, though. Actually, didn’t you literally just say that?”

“Well…I do, but that’s not to say I wouldn’t prefer somewhere a little calmer. Somewhere just for me and Kuro…you know? You’ll understand when you’re in love,” Riza said with a smile. “And of course, you and Aya-chan, if either of you ever need it. A quiet getaway is always good to have.”

Teru laughed as she took another sip of her whiskey, and shook her head.

“I don’t think Ayame would go anywhere rural if her life depended on it. Which it often does, these days…I’ll say that.”

Riza paused, and Teru felt her expression fall. She never was very good at hiding her concern when it came to Ayame.

Ayame was older than Teru by only two minutes – two minutes of life that they had ever had to be apart in such a way. Ayame had technically lived in a world without Teru, but Teru had never lived in a world without Ayame. It was a strange thought.

They say that twins have a special bond, unique to any other kind of connection that a human being could ever have. The Tokugawa sisters had been through much together; good and bad, heart-wrenching and stomach churning. Times of childhood and adolescent neglect and trauma only brought them closer together, united by a mutual drive to endure and survive. The two of them had been there for each other, able to scrape by whatever horrible things fate had thrown at them.

One of the only traumatic happenings in Teru's life that Ayame was absent for was “the revolver incident”. Teru was actually quite glad, for Ayame's sake, that she didn't have to bear witness to something so gruesome. It was never nice to see a woman who had taken care of you for the day get her brains blown out by your own mother for answering back, to say the least.

The memory sent a cold shudder through Teru's body.

Of course, all of that wasn’t to say that there wasn’t some good times in there, too – usually, those events were down to Riza and Kuro spending time with them, which really was brought about by Kuro taking the twins under her wing after hearing about Teru not wanting to leave her room for almost a week solid after the aforementioned incident.

“Teru-chan…” Riza said gently, reaching out to give Teru's hand a comforting squeeze. Teru shot her a lopsided smile, trying and failing to hide her sudden shift to dark thoughts.

“Damn. I'm sorry, Riza-san. I hate being a buzzkill.”

“You’re so silly,” Riza sighed heavily, and patted Teru’s hand. “You’re supposed to talk to the people you hold close to you, you know?”

“And what makes you so sure I hold you close?”

Riza laughed.

“Well, I know you were just being your usual, capricious self…”

“Hey!”

“But you actually bother to use an honorific when you say my name, for a start. I know exactly how you talk to others, Teru.”

Teru shook her head with a knowing smirk, and Riza smiled.

“Whatever…” she replied bashfully. “It was one hell of a night tonight, though. Like, for real. Do you know about mom’s body-cutting punishment?”

Riza’s eyes widened in disgust and fear.

“Hah? Like, your own body, or…?”

“No, no,” Teru hastily dismissed. “Like…if you kill someone, you have to chop them up and burn them yourself. As punishment, or something. Who knows what mom's ever thinking...”

“Oh, that’s all right, then,” Riza deadpanned sarcastically. “What the fuck?!”

“Yeah...we were reminded of that tonight.”

“You killed someone, Teru?” Riza asked in shock. Teru shook her head.

“Nah, I didn’t. Ayame did.”

“Ah…that makes more sense.”

“Usually we don’t have to cut up the bodies if it’s an ordered hit,” Teru continued nonchalantly. “The police are often already in the know there, so it’s not a problem. This was a whole other problem, though, because Ayame killed a lieutenant.”

“In cold blood?”

“Nah, this time it was self defense. The lieutenant threw a punch at her, and then charged at her with a fuckin' grenade in hand. If Ayame hadn't acted quickly…”

Riza paused for a moment, frozen to the spot, before she began cleaning a glass vigorously.

“Jesus. I always forget how scary the yakuza is until one of your lot begins talking about your dealings."

“…I’m worried about Ayame, Riza-san.”

Riza looked at Teru with a surprised expression. Teru couldn’t bring herself to look up from the amber liquid in her glass.

“You are?” Riza asked with a gentler tone. “Why?”

“…Come on. I know you’ve been able to see why, too.”

Riza bit her lip.

“Well…I mean, Ayame has always been a little…aloof.”

“But she’s gotten worse. Right?”

Riza paused.

“…Yeah. Yeah, she definitely has.”

Teru nodded; still staring into the bottom of her glass.

“She’s killed so many people now that I think it’s beginning to weigh on her. You know?”

“Not to sound cold, but…honestly, didn’t they all deserve it?”

“Most of them, sure. But you know what Owner’s like. It’s not me that gets called in to help with torture confessions.”

Riza winced.

“Christ, Teru, stop…”

“I’m serious!”        

Riza closed her eyes in anguish.

“I know you’re serious. That’s the problem!” she replied. “Ugh…poor Ayame. She just does all this stuff? Willingly?”

“Honestly, I think she just does what she's told because it's easier than having mom shove a gun in your face.”

Teru paused, realizing the gravity of her situation a little too starkly for a night where she wanted to party. Riza shook her head angrily.

“Holy shit. What a horrible state to get in…that would mess with anyone’s mind if you did it for too long.”

Teru nodded. “I know. I don’t know what to do to make her calm down, if only because I actually think she’s in line for a promotion.”

Riza blinked in surprise again, and leant a little closer towards Teru.

“Teru-chan…like I said, you should always feel free to vent to those close to your heart, but it’s very unlike you to spill your guts like this. I think you need to go home and sleep, not be out drinking tonight. Why stay out, hm?”

Teru tapped her chin.

“Well…because I want to get laid.”

“Teru! Ugh, really, I don’t need to hear that!”

Teru laughed mischievously, and Riza shook her head.

“Nah, don’t worry. It’s fine. I’ll go to another bar…tell Kuro I hope her poker night goes well, though. It was really nice seeing you both.”

A worried expression came across Riza’s face, and Teru slapped down several notes from her stack of yen.

“Wha…?! Teru, this is way too much!”

“Have a good night, Riza-san.”

“Teru!”

And then, just as Teru was turning to leave...

The front entrance's bell sounded loudly, as though someone had tried to kick the door off its hinges. Every head in the bar turned towards the source of the sound; and saw the source with a slight sense of irritation at the interruption of the nightlife vibes.

Two women made their way inside the Blue Canary with an aggressive air about them. They were both tall, stocky, and with tell-tale slicked back hair and an excess of jewellery hanging from their necks and fingers. As though their entry had sucked every bit of sound out of the area, the bar had fallen eerily quiet.

One of the women – a blonde one, wearing a purple Hawaiian shirt underneath her blazer – took a brazen step forward, carefully scanning every face in the joint. The other one – wearing a black suit and a pair of gaudy tiger-print pants – took her time lighting up a low-end cigar, exhaling the cheap smoke into the air with an intentionally obnoxious sigh.

“Evenin', folks.”

Riza briskly walked out from behind the bar with a visibly flared temper; with each step she took, her heels clicked powerfully against the floorboards. Everyone's gaze followed Riza as she brushed past Teru, who hastily reached out in a vain attempt to stop her.

“Wait, Riza-san–”

Riza stopped in front of the two intimidating bruisers and folded her arms. They were easily an entire foot taller than the small woman, and yet, Riza held her ground without a trace of fear.

“Welcome to the Blue Canary. Do you ladies need something?”

“We're lookin' for a Tokugawa,” the dark haired one declared loudly. “Don't get in our way.”

“There's no one by that name here, so why don't you two--”

“My, my. Fans of mine?”

Teru walked forward with a swagger in her step, her hands shoved in her trouser pockets. The two women mumbled something to one another, while Riza whipped her head around to give Teru a wide-eyed stare.

“What're you-”

The two obvious yakuza shoved past Riza, who stumbled slightly; the mere sight of which made Teru's blood boil with an incomprehensible rage. She wasn't about to let that flash of anger show on her face, though. “Never let them see you sweat,” as Kuro would always say.

The two thugs stood toe-to-toe with Teru, who glared daggers at the two of them.

“You the bastard who offed Lieutenant Takahashi?” the tiger print-clad woman asked loudly.

“Ooh, could you two be Himekawa girls?” Teru jeered, leaning forward with a smug grin. “I've never had the pleasure of talking to anybody from your shit-tier clan before. How fun.”

The blonde woman grit her teeth, and violently grabbed Teru by the collar; lifting her a few inches off the ground.

“Don't screw with me, motherfucker! Did you kill Lieutenant Takahashi or not!?”

“That wasn't my handiwork,” Teru replied; totally unfazed, “but I'll stand in for the culprit just this once.”

Before the thug had time to bark out a reply, Teru hooked her foot behind one of the woman's legs, and kicked it towards her with all of her strength. The woman swiftly lost her footing, her back crunching against the bar's floorboards with a loud slam.

“Fuck-!”

The woman wearing tiger print sprung into action a moment later, lunging towards Teru with a dagger in hand. Now free from the mobster's grip, Teru leapt backward to put some space between herself and her opponent, and unsheathed her own weapon of choice. It was a black sawback knife that gleamed with a poignant, silent danger in the dim lights of the bar.

Around this time, a gaggle of the Blue Canary's patrons began to swarm around the blonde woman who had fallen flat on her back, dragging her outside to take care of business their own way. The blonde thrashed about as she tried to break out of their grip, shouting demands to be let go at the top of her lungs.

Unbothered by her partner's cries, the tiger print-clad woman thrust her dagger towards Teru's face with a guttural scream.

The gnashing of steel clashing against steel rang sounded through the space like a bell. Moving as quick as a shot, Teru had stopped the lesser dagger using the sawback edge of her knife to catch the blade between her weapons teeth.

With a show of force she only reserved for times like these, Teru used her knife as leverage to shove forward with all of her strength. The mobster woman would come to regret the ironclad grip she used to hold her dagger, as her wrist bent backward with an audible crunch.

“Aaagh--!”

Her weapon clattered to the bar's floor as she held her now limp wrist with her good hand, gritting her teeth to avoid letting tears spill down her face.

That moment of distraction was all it took, though.

Using this golden opportunity, Teru darted behind the woman and wasted no time in bunching a hand up in her slicked-back hair. Roughly pulling backwards, Teru forced the woman's back to bend at a deeply uncomfortable angle; and with a wail of pain, she failed to grab Teru from this impractical position she found herself in.

With a victorious chuckle, Teru held her knife to the woman's neck, tapping the flat side against it in an almost playful manner.

“It's my win.”

“Wh…! What the fuck?!”

Teru held the woman in this terrible lock until what remained of the Blue Canary's rough patronage had made their way over to accost her, dragging her outside to meet the same fate as her partner.

“This'll teach you to screw with the Tokugawa clan, punk!”

Teru sat atop a nearby table for a moment to regain her composure, exhaling shakily as she put her knife away. Riza rushed over to her side after a beat, looking over her would-be daughter with eyes of panicked concern; and rushing out of the back, Kuro re-appeared with two of her friends in tow.

“Riza! Teru!” Kuro declared. “Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine, but - Teru! Are you alright? They didn't hurt you, did they!?”

Teru swallowed around the lump of adrenaline that had formed in her throat, and smiled at the women by her side.

“I'm more than fine. Are you okay?”

Riza shook her head in disbelief, rubbing at Teru's shoulders somewhat absentmindedly. Kuro nodded to her friends to check outside.

“Don't worry about me, you silly girl! Are you really not hurt?!"

“Riza, she said she’s fine…”

“I promise, Riza-san, I'm fine. I think I'm gonna head home and sleep now, though…no energy left to party, that's for sure.”

“Want me to make mincemeat of ‘em?” Kuro asked darkly. “Those little fuckers.”

Teru hopped off of the table she used as a makeshift seat and pulled another small stack of bills from one of her pockets, slipping the wad into Riza's palm. Riza looked dumbfounded at the cash in her hand, then up at Teru's face.

“What's-"

“This should cover any damages the fight might've caused. Thanks for everything, Riza-san.”

“Teru!"

And with that...Teru left the Blue Canary, not turning around as she raised a hand over her head to wave.

Riza placed her hands on her hips as she heard the door bell ring out, and slipped the yen bills into her pocket.

“Seriously…” she mumbled with concern. Kuro shook her head, and squeezed Riza’s shoulders affectionately with strong hands.

“Hey, come on…you know Teru-chan can take care of herself.”

“You Tokugawas are nothing but trouble!”

“E-Everyone!”

As fast as Teru left, a different woman now came running in; this time, with her hair a dishevelled mess, and her pinstripe suit baggier on her body for the run. The bell that gently rang upon Teru’s departure now almost flew off of its hinges.

“Oh, for…! Whaddya want!?” Riza barked. Kuro raised her eyebrows. Everyone else in the bar knew that if this woman didn’t have a good reason to be rushing in here, she’d definitely have to deal with Riza’s wrath.

But one look upon the woman’s features said it all.

“Chairwoman…! I…she…!”

“Calm down. Spit it out already!” Kuro interrupted. “What’s the big-”

“Fourth Chairwoman Sugimoto has been murdered!”

Riza was glad that Teru had left before that announcement, because the entire bar blew up with emotion immediately after.

Roars of shock and outrage shook the bar's patronage as they struggled to process the gravity of the news. The lone head of all of Japan's yakuza families, Sugimoto, was dead; and amidst the despair and disbelief inside the Blue Canary’s walls, there was something there now brewing above all else.

A new, tangible lust for power.