“One way ticket, please.”

Sirius hopped onto the bus and paid the driver. Lihar was already ahead of him, heading straight for the back seat.

Behind Sirius, an old lady dropped her coins.

“Finders keepers,” a man in his thirties said with a proud, boastant tone.

“Dear, please—I need to pick up my grandson,” the woman pleaded.

“Old hag, didn’t you hear? Finders are keepers,” he sneered.

As the man bent down to pick up the scattered coins, Lihar extended his long, bamboo-thin leg and kicked him sharply. The man stumbled backward and fell out of the bus.

“Oops, my leg slipped,” Lihar mocked, chewing casually.

“Lihar, what are you, a kangaroo?” Sirius said, shaking his head as he strode toward the man.

He stepped toward the fallen man, offering a hand. But as soon as the man took it, Sirius twisted his arm behind his back and slammed his head heavily against the bus entrance.

“To the lady,” Sirius said coolly, retrieving the coins and handing them back to her.

The old lady rested her hand on Lihar and Sirius’s shoulders, giving the small bag into Sirius’s hand.

“Flowers are blossoming in Fitta,” she said.

“You have my gratitude granny ,” Sirius said, closing his eyes slightly in thanks.

“Oh, I’m not even that old,” she said, smiling.

“Thanks you,” Lihar said, putting his right hand on his chest as a form of gratitude.

Sirius and Lihar made their way to the back seat, giggling as they treated the dates like little candies. Each bite was sweet, and for a moment, the hum of the bus felt far away, like the world had slowed down just for them.

First stop-Siha High School 

After a while, the bus reached the first stop—Siha School.

A few high schoolers, along with two girls, stood to get off. The students shuffled toward the exit, backpacks jostling.

One of the girls bent down to tie her shoelaces.

“Mei, we need to get off,” her friend urged, her voice sweet like cotton candy.

“Just a second,” Mei replied, fingers fumbling with the laces of her right foot—black leather shoes, mandatory for every Fitta High student.

As Mei was about to straighten up, something whizzed through the air from afar—a gun.

Before anyone could react, it struck her friend in the throat.

The girl collapsed into a sitting position, eyes wide open and unblinking, blood pouring from her mouth like a waterfall.

Sirius looked up, dropping the third date he was about to eat from his hand.

A second gunshot aimed at Mei, the girl tying her shoe. Before it could hit her, Lihar leapt forward, forcing her to bend down to the floor. The bullet slammed into the bus window instead, sending shards of glass scattering across the floor. One shard grazed Lihar’s forehead, drawing a thin line of blood.

“Get down! Everyone, get down!” Sirius shouted, his mouth wet and sticky from the date.

Still bent low, he sprinted toward the girl who had been shot, one hand instinctively raising to protect his neck as chaos erupted around them.

Lihar’s voice cut through the screams. “She’s already passed away. Check the injured ones by the window seats!”

Sirius glanced down at the fallen girl, frowning. “But her pulse is still going… there might be a—”

Before he could finish, another shot rang out from the front of the bus. The impact caused the metal pole to snap loose and swing violently, striking Sirius on the head. Stars exploded in his vision, and dizziness swept over him as he collapsed to the floor.

Lihar crouched over him, concern etched across his face. “Sirius… you’re hurt. Stay still—moving may cause damage.”

Sirius blinked, trying to speak through the pain. “I… I never had the chance to tell you…”

His eyes watery with pain, and his breath heavy with agony.

“What is it, brother?” Lihar asked, genuinely staring at him, as if he was feeling more pain, while moving hair from Sirius’s forehead.

“But I want… I want… another one of your mother’s baked Moroccan biscuits.”

“Huh?” Lihar froze, incredulous.

“You’ve… lost it this time,” he muttered, shaking his head.

With that, Sirius’s body went limp, and he fainted. The gunshots stopped, leaving the bus eerily silent.

Saubara District Hospital , day later 

Sirius opened his eyes. He was lying down on a hospital bed.

“Morning, Captain!” Nilo said, energetic as ever.

“Nilo?” Sirius mumbled, still groggy.

“Ah, the sleeping beauty is awake,” Lihar said from the next bed, his arm and forehead bandaged.

“The girl?” Sirius asked, sitting up.

“She passed away on the bus, as Raz verified,” Lihar replied. “The others, including her friend, are either in the hospital or have departed after minor injuries.”

“So… Zoro and Unkie finally get to be the main leads… ahh—” Sirius winced as a headache shot through his head.

“You need to get better before wasting the rest of your brain cells on studying jokes,” an unknown man said, entering the room. He was a doctor.

“No way! What are you doing here?” Sirius exclaimed, shocked.

“My son got injured,” Sirius’s father replied.

Departing from his shock, Sirius quickly asked, “Father… her pulse was still going even after she was shot in the throat? If we had reached earlier, could we have saved her?”

“If you had listened to me and became a doctor,” his father said, looking into his eyes with the ophthalmoscop, the doctor uses to check pupils.

Sirius sighed.

“You couldn’t have saved her, because sometimes, even after a fatal injury, the heart twitches for a few seconds—agonal beats. That faint pulse you felt wasn’t life… it was the body’s last reflex.”

“Lihar, you need to cleanse your wounds regularly; otherwise, they are very susceptible to infections,” Sirius’s father, Kareef, suggested.

“Since when do you work here, uncle?” Lihar asked, calling him that out of respect.

“Well… everywhere in Fitta,” Kareef replied with a proud smile.

Police Station, a day later…

They were discharged from the hospital.

“Nephew!” Kyrokuto greeted Sirius and Lihar with a side hug.

“Details?” Sirius asked, sitting down on a chair, still wearing the white bandage on his head.

“Well,” Zoro began, “Mila Yueng, 17 years old, high school student at Siha High School, lived with her grandparents and has one brother in kindergarten. Mei, the other girl who was about to get shot, was her best friend.”

“Appears it was an attack on both of them,” Kyrokuto added.

“Suspects?” Lihar asked, cleaning his glasses with his shirt.

“Well, no CCTVs in the school, but the shops at the front showed that the gun was fired from the school, right in front of the bus station where it occurred.”

Zoro took a sip of his coffee.

“And???” Lihar asked impatiently.

“And…” Zoro continued, zooming in on the footage, “it showed that the shooter was a male, dressed all in black, wearing a full-coverage black mask.”

“Is the investigation done?” Sirius asked.

“Yes,” Zoro replied. “None of the people on the bus are suspects; they all have nothing to do with using a gun. We’ve looked through everyone’s family history. But from the position of the shot, it was clearly the work of a professional.”

“Then the culprit could only be in one place,” Sirius said, unusually serious.

“The school?” Kyrokuto asked.

“Not exactly,” Sirius replied, leaning forward. “I’m talking about The Shadow Syndicate—an underground gang, hidden in plain sight but ruthless and highly trained. They have resources, connections… and someone like that can pull off a hit without leaving a trace.”

“How do we catch them? There are way too many,” Zoro asked.

Sirius pulled a smile, raising his eyebrows.

“Not this time… I’m retiring,” Kyrokuto added, annoyed.

Zoro still looked confused.

“Alright, let’s do some shopping for tonight. Dress code: ganstahhh!” Sirius said, back to his energetic self.

Lihar glanced at them and tilted his head. “Should we twin?” he asked, checking himself and already thinking of getting ready.

Kyrokuto grinned, baring his teeth. “Why not? We’re at a wedding—and yes, we’ll find a bride for you idiots from the top gangsta’s daughters!”

While they laughed at their jokes, little did they know, someone from the Shadow Syndicate was waiting just up ahead.