Mahala fell back into the car with deep rasping breaths. She hadn’t fallen face first into the seat — Luck had caught her, as he always did. 

Her father was waiting at home. Thank god.

“What happened?” Luck barked to the front of the car.

“S- Some maniac ran right across the road! Th- There was no way I could’ve stopped in time!” the chauffeur spluttered. “Oh gods… did I kill her?”

Luck frowned. He propped Mahala up and elbowed the door open. “Stay here, my lady.” 

He stepped out of the motorcar, slamming the door shut behind him. His black eyes swept over the road while Mahala rocked in her seat.

In a blink, a dark figure appeared behind Luck.

“Luck!” 

A blade pressed to Luck’s throat. He stilled.

"No point to having a spatial awareness compass if you can’t react in time, Unlucky,” a voice sneered. It sounded identical to his own.

Mahala rolled down the window, relieved to hear it. “Shuteye, is that you?”

Behind Luck was a mirror copy to him — a homunculus. Like all homunculi soldiers, he shared the same face as Magus Tibalt Kinderum. This one was dressed in the same coat at Luck with matching heights, broad frames, black eyes, and half-masks. The difference was seen when he folded his switchsword and shrugged back his hood, hair shaved close to his scalp and revealing the scars marked across his face to his left temple.

“My lady,” said Shuteye with a bow, his voice low. “Apologies for the mess.”

Luck stepped in front of the motorcar and inspected the woman they had hit. A faint groan emanated from her direction.

“Not dead,” he announced. He grabbed the woman by the arm and dragged her to her feet. “What are you running from, miss?”

“From us. She’s been caught moonshining, out of her own bathtub, no less,” Shuteye answered for them. “Been chasing her little circle for two weeks now. These bastards are getting more conniving by the day. They’re getting their own women involved.”

“They’re distilling alcohol? With what?” Mahala asked, curving out of the car.

Shuteye placed a hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her back inside the car. “Stay where it’s safe, my lady.”

“How many of them are there? Is it a gang?”

Shuteye chuckled. “I won’t let it get that far. But best you run along. We’ve closed all the roads around this street to box in the remaining members of her operation, so a queue will be forming.”

“If it’s closed for everyone, I should stay put too,” Mahala sat back and folded her arms. “Not even my father is above breaking quarantine measures."

"I’d hate to keep the Lady caged in with these crooks. At least let me spell you out of here,” said Shuteye, leaning into the window.

The moonshiner was tossed at Shuteye’s feet with a yelp. Her tangled hair fell over her sobbing face. Mahala tried to catch a look at her, spotting a part of the moonshiner’s open blouse and short skirt showing a pair of scraped knees.

Mahala’s nose scrunched up as she cringed back into her seat. Obscene.

“Don’t forget your job, Shuteye,” Luck said, his voice coiled with tension. “The Lady is my charge.”

“And a bang-up job you’re doing with that,” Shuteye drawled in a scathing tone. “Blind as a mole, slow as a slug. You can’t even manage long-distance teleportation. It’s a miracle you’re keeping a job.”

Luck’s hand twitched near the hilt of his switchsword. “Keep this up and I’m going to put you through a wall.”

“Oh yeah? Show me,” Shuteye snickered.

The moonshiner began crawling away - until Shuteye spelled invisible walls around her without so much a second glance.

Luck drew slow, steady breaths, his fists balled so tightly the leather threatened to burst at the seams. His black eyes looked darker than ever, locked with Shuteye in a staring contest. Shuteye maintained his gaze as he tilted his head back, still casually resting against the motorcar. His hand remained offered to Mahala.

She coughed loudly. “Shuteye. Your offer is kind, but I’d rather you save your magic in case you need it. Luck, we should find somewhere to wait until the roads are open.”

The two homunculi continued to glower at each other, but eventually Luck’s hands relaxed and Shuteye pushed off from the motorcar, grabbing the moonshiner.

“We won’t be long, my lady,” said Shuteye with a sweeping bow, so different from how he spoke to his own brother.

“Be safe!” she called back.

A blink, and Shuteye teleported away, criminal in tow.

The chauffeur anxiously drummed his fingers against the wheel. “S-So… where to…?”