Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The whirring, crackling sound of a singularity being activated, a thin stream of golden-tainted-pink light arcing from the palm of my hand.

"Y-You bastard.. you'll never get away with this.."

Krrrk.. Another shimmering line of light burst from my hand, piercing the man through and causing him to collapse. Any more defiant words I couldn't make out through his mumbling lips, moving slowly before not moving at all.

"That should be all of them.." I muttered to myself, straightening my long overcoat and stepping past the crumpled figure.

I passed three more dead bodies on my way out of the dark, decrepit building.

Fixers.

Fixers, who had some way or another, gotten on the bad side of The Head, leading to me being dispatched. The poor fuckers probably broke some obscure law, or tried to rebel against The Head. I don't know why a Claw wasn't just sent out instead of me.. what a waste of time.

Either a worker of The Head or some other office would be hired to clean up the scene. Either way, it wasn't my problem anymore. Orders are orders, but I couldn't help but feel bad for the four fixers that worked in this office. I'd mourn their deaths later, despite that man cursing me for my actions.

My name is Rose — and I'm an Arbiter of the Head.

~~~

I couldn't remember anything before when it all started. 

My first memory is waking up in a lab — staring straight up at the grey, tiled roof, strapped to a metal table.

I remember the drugs flowing into my body, keeping me both awake and unfeeling — and the scalpels and knives used to dissect me without feeling an ounce of pain.

The horror I felt watching it all without being able to lift a finger, especially when I couldn't feel anything at all. The masks, the voices, the doctors gathering around me — and the tiny golden vials of shimmering energy that I could just feel, feel with a raw and primal instinct without them even being opened.

I recall my first days of training, when I was even shorter than I am now.. Feeling the raw power of multiple singularities coursing through my body, I trained hard, day and night, alongside other acolytes of The Head. Training day in and out, the bland meals every night, and the hard bed I woke up on every morning. There was a routine to follow, always a goal to achieve.

All I had to my name was.. well, my name. Rose. I don't know where it came from — or if I even had normal parents like any other child should have had. But it didn't matter.

My dedication and willpower led me to the top of my "class", even if it could be likened to a prison camp. Only the strongest would pass, and the others.. I don't know what happened to them.

Honestly, I couldn't bring myself to care either. I didn't have any friends in that place, not like we were allowed to make any.

After graduation, there was Arbitration — my job.

Anything I did relied on the orders of The Head. Sometimes it was stakeout, investigation, stalking suspicious members from the shadows and seeing what they were up to.

Sometimes it was murder. 

I did what I was ordered — death and decommission would be the result otherwise.

Murder of singular defiant civilians.. Then fixers, then entire offices. It was my day job to weed out the improper and impurities, to maintain The City's perfect garden. Sometimes, it was my night job too. Or not my job at all, when I wouldn't receive orders for days or even weeks on end before my name was suddenly called up for another job.

In a way, I was like a fixer — Only more powerful than the rest of them, and working for the most powerful organization within The City.

After graduation, I received my very own Arbiter uniform - A black overcoat with golden and pink hexagonal patterns, to match my hair: short-cut and pink.

It was kind of insulting when the very first time I tried it on, it was three sizes too big. You'd think if they went through the trouble to make the coat match with me, that they'd actually make it fit me.. Though the problem was quickly addressed in only a few hours.

During the first few days of my promotion to a fully fledged Arbiter, I mostly just.. wandered. Wandered around The City, The Backstreets and The Nests, because — well, I wasn't exactly sure what to do. What else was there to do after my job? I felt numb to emotion, and mostly spent my time enjoying my freedom before being ordered back to carry out more jobs for The Head.

It was then where I quickly learned that people were scared of me. More specifically scared of Arbiters. Everywhere I went, people walked across the road to a different sidewalk to avoid me. I heard whispers and gossips around why an Arbiter was around here, or people backing away from me in fear.

It was, to say the least.. depressing.. until I also found out that businesses would give me stuff for free.

Free cheeseburgers will do a lot to make up for your mood.

I wasn't given any restriction on what to do after work. After all, who would be stupid enough to try and hurt an Arbiter of all people?

So I started leaving the coat at home. Instead of giving me a wide berth, most people ignored me — which I found at least a little more comforting than people speed-walking away from me in fear of getting on the bad side of an Arbiter. 

After all, without the coat, I was a pretty unassuming person. Maybe five and a half feet tall on a good day, and a slim figure that was hidden behind a thick and fluffy black coat half the time. 

The City isn't exactly the most forgiving place though, especially for anyone walking by themselves with no visible weapon. Anybody but me, obviously.

I remember my naive first encounter "outside" of being an Arbiter, enjoying a warm bowl of pork ramen from one of my favorite restaurants. A group of men, armed with bats, knives, and other assorted weapons, walked in and demanded for everyone to shut up, threatening the workers and demanding that he give them all the money in the register.

"You better dump all that shit in here, old man!" The leader of the group, who wearing a leather jacket with a large baseball bat, held out a brown burlap bag for the owner to empty cash into, while the rest of his thugs looked around at the rest of the patrons threateningly with their own weapons. Everyone else was either too scared to take action or tried to make themselves as small and unnoticeable as possible, lest they get singled out and attacked by the group of bandits.

It's not like I could let this place get robbed dry. Besides, if this place goes under, I'd have to find another really good noodle place — which would be an inconvenience and a half. 

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?" I remember saying, standing up from my seat and confronting them.

The thugs were momentarily stunned, before the leader stepped forward and palmed his baseball bat threateningly. "Huh? Now who do we have here? A little do-gooder?" The rest of the restaurant workers and patrons stared at me, some hiding fearful expressions for my safety.

"Look you guys, this place is one of my favorite restaurants. Get the hell out of here." I rubbed my eyes casually, wanting to get back to my meal, and the group of thugs erupted into laugher.

"Huuh?! Or else what, little girlie?" The man smiled menacingly at me, baring his teeth. 

I sighed. Alright buddy, you really want to do this?

I held out my hand, creating four glowing mixed pink-and-gold lines within my hand. In a fraction of a milisecond, they connected together to form a 2d square in my palm, pointed directly at the first thug with a baseball bat.

Square. A technique that created a sort of "field" within a rapidly expanding, floating thin square that moved forward, electrifying and shredding anything that went through the shape, or cutting through anything that touched the edges of the square.

The results weren't pretty. The bastard didn't get the chance to even react or move before he was grinded into a mash of body parts and gore.

"W-What the fuck!?" The nearest gangster backed away, stuttering and dropping his weapon, slipping on the remains of his seemingly boss as I walked forward.

"Y-You're..!" One of them called out.

"I am an Arbiter. An Arbiter of the Head." I raised my hand skywards, concentrating glowing light within my hand. "And your lives are forfeit for daring to stand in my way."

I felt really cool saying that, okay?

Also, I may have gone a bit overboard.. A few of them tried to run away, but they were no match for a charged shockwave. Even if I did my best to limit the damage to the surrounding area, a few tables and chairs surrounding me ended up getting completely destroyed.

I paid for the damages, I swear. And that place is still my favorite restaurant, by the way.

The owner always tries to give me my food for free, but I always insist on paying for it. It wouldn't do any good to rob this guy after saving him from being robbed, after all.

Anyway.. that encounter taught me that without my Arbiter uniform, people saw me way differently. Without the coat, I barely carried any respect — the hierarchy of The City was based around respect and fear of the strong, and punting down the weak while abusing them.

Of course, I could just don my overcoat, and everyone would leave me alone — but where's the fun in that? I'd rather build a name for myself, without starting from the very top. 

And thankfully, I knew one really good way to do that. 

My name is Rose. I'm an Arbiter of the Head.. and a grade 9 fixer.

Chapter Text

"I'd like to apply for a fixer license, please."

In any other circumstance, I'd be happy to help any guest — in fact, it was my job too. I'd only been hired to the Hana Association about a week and a half ago, but I didn't have any talents of my own. I wasn't particularly talented with any fighting style, and I didn't have augmented limbs or powered blood running through my veins. What I was good at, though, was the paperwork that most other fixers hated with a passion for doing. 

I went through extensive vetting and training — almost as much as any fixer would go through to join Hana, only instead of combat I was trained for customer service. Countless hours of studying, classes, preparation, and late-night cramming..

Meant nothing when I was face to face with an Arbiter.

The woman had short and messy pink hair, unlike any other agent of The Head that I had ever seen. I wasn't one to judge, though, considering I had never seen an Arbiter before this moment in real life. Arbiters were usually just the ones hiding in the shadows, like in movies or cartoons.. kind of like the bad guys.

Being face to face with one, however, made me question if this job was even worth it. It's only been like a week! Why am I having to meet with Arbiters of The Head?!

"U-Uhm.." I swallowed, trying my best to stuff down any fear or anxiety I might show. "As you m-may know, there's a protocol to follow and such, I can't just give you a license-"

"This matter is top secret," The arbiter said casually. "And i'm sure the Hana of all things can make an exception for this." 

There was a dangerous glint in her eye, almost as if she was daring me to talk back. It took all I had not to just break down and run away screaming — would she kill me if I did that? Would she just kill me after she got her license? 

"I-I'll.. check with my boss.." I stuttered out, grabbing my phone and excusing myself from the front desk to punch in my superior's number.

"Riley.. come on.." I muttered. I heard the glorious beep of the call going through, and my bosses exasperated voice from the other end.

"I'm in a god- god damn meeting right now! Why the hell are you calling me, are you trying to get fired?!" She angrily whispered through the speakers.

"Riley! There's a fucking Arbiter in the front lobby right now!"

"Wait, what?!" I heard the sounds of multiple voices through the phone, all in various states of panic and urgency. "An Arbiter, as in a fucking Arbiter of the Head?!" She yelled at full volume, clearly no longer worried about the meeting she was in.

"YES! A bona-fide, fucking Arbiter! She wants a- grade 9 fixer license, I don't even know!" 

A moment of silence on the end, and then Riley was back, with the distinct ding of an elevator door. "I swear, if you're fucking lying to me right now, I'll-"

"Why would I have any reason to lie about this?! I made some bullshit excuse up to her, but if you aren't down here in the next 15 seconds she's probably gonna blast this entire building down!" I replied, quietly yelling at her.

Another moment of silence. "Riley? Hello? Are you freaking there?!"

The elevator at the end of the hall opened, revealing my disheveled-looking boss, her standard Hana Association suit askew and wrinkled, alongside a few other important-looking employees. "You better not be lying to me-" Riley said, briskly walking past.

"And if I'm not, I want a god-damn pay raise if I have to deal with Arbiters all the time!" I angrily said back. 

She glared at me for a brief second, eyes narrowing, before rushing past me to the front desk. "Yeah, whatever."

~~~

I thought getting a license would be pretty easy, considering the Hana Association was the organization that worked the closest with The Head itself, aside from the various Wings of the City. 

As it turns out, not the case.

Clearly the receptionist at the front desk was pretty new to the job, considering the fact that she kept looking away at the clock and kept wiping the sweat off her hands on her uniform. I'm not gonna kill you or anything, okay?! Aren't you guys used to Arbiters or something?! Maybe Claws are the ones who come around here more often..

The woman excused herself for a brief moment, and I took the opportunity to grab a seat in the lobby and check the Hana's website on my phone.

"Fixers.. Offices.." I scrolled through a few tabs of the website, before noticing a strange button on the homepage that hadn't been there before.

[ For Arbiters ]

Strange.. I don't think this thing was here earlier. I clicked on the button, and got redirected to a completely black-screen with only some small, golden text displayed in the middle of the page.

For Arbiters, we of the Hana Association respectfully and humbly request you to make an appointment for any and all matters at least 1 week ahead of time, as to not disrupt the flow of work at the Association and cause panic. Thank you for your service.

...Shit. Probably should have done that, huh?

"Excuse me, Miss?" A second voice rang out, and I turned to see a white haired, important-looking lady at the front desk, waving to get my attention.

"Oh, sorry." I said, standing up and walking to the front desk. "I got distracted and-"

"T-There's no need to apologize, Miss!" She frantically spoke, holding out both her hands. 

I swear, why does everyone act like I'm going to kill them? Arbiters don't just zap people because they're doing their jobs..

"Anyway, you're the boss of the.. other girl, right?" I said, shifting casually. "Does it usually take so much bureaucracy just to get a fixer license?"

"N-Not at all, M-Ma'am. Most fixers would have to undergo a test, and.." The lady quickly punched in some commands on the front desk computer.  "B-But for you, for The Head, I mean- uhm, there's no wait at all, miss. M-Ma'am."

"Alright.." I said, yawning.

"B-By the way, why do you want a fixer license, miss.. Arbiter. M-Ma'am?" The woman asked.

"Uhm-" I hesitated.

Fuck. I didn't expect to have to come up with a reason for this..

Would it be acceptable to just say out loud "I'm bored?" But if I said something along the lines of that, I might just get turned down for having such a stupid reason for getting a license!

"This matter is top secret, as I have said before," I spoke grandly, trying to sound as mysterious as possible. "I'm on a mission right now, so if you could refrain from asking any more questions-"

"R-Right away ma'am! I won't question you again!" The lady said nervously. Phew.. I'm glad she bought it.

~~~

After another few minutes, I got my fixer license stamped out and laminated. Unlike most other cards, fixer licenses were, well, much more durable, being made of a special plastic that could probably withstand a blow from a steel hammer and come out just fine. It made sense that they weren't just limp pieces of cheap paper, considering the job that most fixers had to undertake on the daily.

It didn't mean I didn't almost bend it in half within the first 5 minutes while fidgeting with it. A creased fixer license still counts as one, right..?

Anyway, being a fixer alone wouldn't be enough. Just like any fixer, I should get promotions over time by completing jobs and being recognized by the Hana Association.. And the best way to accomplish that would be to join an office. Single fixers alone barely got any recognition, unless they were truly powerful. One such example of that would be The Red Mist, who was actually a pretty scary person in her own right. That big fleshy sword always gives me the creeps.. Though she's been gone for a while.

After getting my license, I asked the woman what offices she would recommend joining, for my totally top secret purpose of infiltrating the Hana Association's ranks. I'm totally not just trying to be a fixer.. okay?

As it turns out, Riley, the boss of the other secretary, was a huge nerd when it came to monitoring offices. She rambled on and on about at least 20 different offices that had opened up in the past week in our district alone, until I told her to shove it and get a move on. Were all Hana Association members like this..? Maybe the scheduling feature really was helpful to us Arbiters. Hearing her go on about the latest Canard cases was about to grate on my last nerve.

Anyway, three options, or offices, rather, that I should join. All of them were grade 9 offices, to match my own grade 9 fixer rank.

The Shine Office, which usually did investigation and.. investigation,

The Raven Office, which was a more general office,

And The Eclipse Office, which specialized in both all-out combat and assassination. 

One of these options stood out to me more than any other. I mean, the Eclipse Office was pretty cool for marketing itself as a combat office only. Plus, I was alright at combat myself, even without my singularities. I probably had the raw strength of at least a grade 2 or 1 fixer, though the Claws were more durable for physical strength and endurance. Us arbiters usually just worked with them as a shield..

In fact, only a few Arbiters had bothered to learn close-quarters combat, and I don't think I've seen a single one of my co-workers carrying a greatsword or battle-axe around like how many of the fixers around here do. It's not like we had to learn massive, battleground style combat like how many fixers usually participated in, such as in Wing Wars where many hundreds of even thousands of people pitted up against each other in wide areas to fight for their various causes.

Of course, I couldn't just join the office without meeting the (probably) wonderful people there first.. sadly.

And so, an hour or two later, I found myself at the doorstep of the Eclipse Office. It looked basically the same as any other building around the Backstreets, aside from an old sign above the door with the simple title, "Eclipse Office".

ring~ I opened the door slowly, surprised by the sound of a jingling bell above. The inside of the building had a small lobby, with old chairs sitting alongside the walls and a bored-looking man with yellow hair sitting at the front desk, who perked up upon seeing me enter. It definitely wasn't as grand as other offices, and especially not as clean as the Hana. 

Though.. It still had a homey feeling to it.

"Welcome, welcome~" The man said, holding out his hand. I had ditched the Arbiter uniform at home, and wore a small t-shirt and jogging shorts instead to not scare anybody off. It was still jarring to see how much people treated you differently from just a change of clothes, really.

"Hello, sir." I said calmly, accepting his handshake. 

"I wasn't expecting clients so soon," The man said, smiling. "But I guess it's good to have business so early already. What can I do for you?"

"Ah.." I replied, pondering what to say. "I'm actually.. I wanted to join your office."

"You wanted to join?" He asked, surprised. "Well, I'll be damned~ We actually don't have alot of workers yet, so I'm glad to add anybody to our team." He chuckled. "What's your name, miss?"

"Uhhh.. Rose." I said, before quickly adding, "Grade 9."

"Grade 9, huh?" The man seemingly thought for a moment. "Is there a reason you'd like to join our office?"

"I wanted to become a fixer, sir." I replied casually.

"Hmm~ Everyone dreams about becoming a fixer, huh?" The man reached under the desk, pulling out a can of soda.. which upon closer inspection, was actually.. lemon juice?

"Well, if you truly want to become a part of our office, we're always accepting more members~" The man said. "I'm the head of the Sun Fixers, and one of the leaders of the Eclipse Office."

He took a swig from his can of juice, before continuing to speak. "Name's Lemon. You'll be working under me, alright?"

Chapter Text

I knew most fixers were at least a little out-of-it.. you know, a little loopy in the head?

I didn't expect my boss to be named after a god damn fruit, though. Lemon? Seriously? It didn't help that his first reaction to meeting me was to pull open a can of lemon juice and just start chugging it down like it was straight water. How the hell.. you know what, I won't judge. It's rude to judge.

The Eclipse Office, as it turns out, was made up of two groups of "fixers":

The Sun Fixers, who were the ones who actually participated in all out combat,

and The Moon Fixers, who specialized in assassination.

Lemon was the leader of the Sun Fixers, while his friend, Yui, managed the Moon Fixers. 

It was pretty obvious from just Lemon’s description of her alone, that Yui was by far the more competent of the two.. but I decided not to tell that to my boss directly. I'm not trying to get on Lemon's bad side on my first day of work.

What was more strange, though, was that the Eclipse Office was only a grade 9. Apparently, Lemon was a grade 2 fixer, and Yui herself was a grade 1. Even with two fixers, a grade 2 and grade 1 was at least equivalent to a grade 4-5 office. Was it only because they made this office a few days ago? The Hana Association should really do their research better.

Whatever the case, because of their grade 9 ranked office, not many fixers had joined yet. There were only a handful of fixers dispersed between the Sun and Moon sections, and if they wanted any fixers worth their time, the office would have to start taking clients and doing jobs in order to be recognized by the Hana.

For now, though, Lemon opted to show me around the office and get to know the rest of the employees working there, so I followed him past the front lobby further into the building.

As with most smaller offices, the building wasn't that large, and only contained 2 stories: the front lobby, a restroom, and some cubicles on the second floor that had assorted paperwork and computers strewn about. The rushed and untidy appearance of the area really made it clear that this office was probably only established a few days ago.. though I didn't hate it. 

It didn't mean I wouldn't do a deep-clean of this place later.

Lemon only had 2 team members in his Sun group at the moment, though I'm sure it would blossom into a full team soon enough.

"Hey guys, this is our new team member!" Lemon called out in the open.

"You already found another fixer?" Asked a girl with longer, black hair. I could see she had a Zweihandler-style greatsword strapped to her back.. wait, isn't that just the exact same design as the Zwei themselves? 

"Rose, meet Mia. She's a grade 8 fixer." Lemon said casually.

"Hello."

Mia looked me up and down, narrowing her eyes and scrutinizing me. "Who's this runt you brought in, Boss? She doesn't look particularly strong or anything."

"Ah.." I started, but Lemon cut me off. "I'm sure she's as dedicated to her work as any of you are, Mia. There's no reason to be so hostile to your co-workers, you know." 

"What grade are you?" The woman asked bluntly.

"Uhh.. Grade 9." I responded, confused.

"Only grade 9?" She snorted. "Can you even take on a pack of rats on your own? Not everyone is cut out to be a fixer, shortie."

I really was tempted to just blast this girl with a circle for her rudeness.. but that really wouldn't get me anywhere — After all, I didn't want to just straight up murder someone on my first day at work.

Maybe all fixers just act like this..  

"If you're so unbelieving in her abilities, there's a request from a nearby shop to take out some thugs loitering down the street." Lemon said, putting his hands in his pockets. "Ketch is out on another job right now, so you two can go together."

"..Tch." Mia clicked her tongue in clear distaste. "If she ends up dying, don't blame me."

~~~

After Lemon accepted the contract, Mia and I made our way to the area, an antique shop that claimed to sell all sorts of dohickeys and objects to do all sorts of things from getting rid of diseases to increasing your luck. I personally didn't believe in that kind of nonsense — unless it had a certified rating from a wing that they sold singularity products. Besides, with the cheap prices they had, I doubt any of their trinkets actually contained any effect.

"So-" I said, before Mia put a finger up to my lips.

"Quiet!" She hushed. "Those thugs are right over there, see?"

I looked to the alleyway next to the shop, seeing a few dark figures obscured by shadows and the glint of a blade or two. "So? They probably won't hear us from all the way over here."

"Well- Ugh, whatever." Mia unsheathed her Zweihandler, resting the weapon onto her shoulder. "Where's your weapon, newbie?"

"Weapon..?""

Mia stared at me with a blank expression, before rubbing her face tiredly. "Are you serious- you didn't bring a fucking weapon? Not even a pocket-knife or anything?!"

"Do I need one?" I asked innocently. It didn't really occur to me that, you know, fixers use weapons. I should probably visit a workshop after this job to get myself something cool, so I wouldn't be as suspicious.. 

"..Whatever. I'll just take care of it myself." Mia said. 

"We just have to get rid of them, right?" I asked.

"That much is obvious, newbie." She rolled her eyes. "And it isn't "getting rid of them", do you really think a band of cons are gonna leave when we politely ask them to?"

Right. I'm not wearing my uniform.. people aren't just gonna shit themselves when they see me. 

"..So we have to kill them." I said quietly.

"Now you're getting it, kid." Mia beckoned me with a hand to walk over to the group of bandits. As we walked down the alleyway, a few of the thugs paid attention to us and Mia's drawn sword. 

"What do we have here? A couple of ladies playing pretend?" One of them called out, fingering a knife on his side. Mia only stopped walking when she was in front of all of the thugs, seven in total. 

This takes me back to that ramen restaurant.. Each of the thugs were carrying knives or hammers, leaning against the wall or standing as menacing as possible. 

"..I'm a fixer from the Eclipse Office. Grade 8." Mia said, holding her Zweihandler in a fighting stance. 

Of course, I could just wipe them all out in a blink of an eye right now — but where's the fun in that? I'd rather not make my identity as an Arbiter known to my co-workers so quickly, or this entire thing would be for naught anyway.

Besides, the strangest feeling was coursing through my heart..

I was feeling excited for this.

"Hah! You really think you can take five of us on, crazy lady?!" The first thug said, and all five of them drew their respective weapons and held them out.

Baseball bat, knife, sledgehammer, cleaver, and hammer. Easy.

Each of them were pretty clearly untrained, and were visibly scared of Mia despite talking trash about her without restraint. This wasn't going to be much of a problem, despite not being able to use my singularities. Just because we weren't trained in close-range combat like the Claws didn't mean we were weak in physical strength.

"You're disturbing the peace!" Mia shouted out, readying her blade. "And as such, it is my duty to-"

I ran past her, rushing to the first thug with a baseball bat. It would be best to catch these rats off guard, to prevent making such a mess. And the perfect time to do that was in the middle of Mia's righteous rant about sweeping up the trash of the City.

I thrust my arm out, punching the man square in the chest and sending him flying across to the other side of the alley.

One down, four more to go. If I could hit them all before they could react, or at least 2 more of them, we'd only have to deal with a 2 on 2 battle, especially with the "leader" with the baseball bat being taken out of the fight.

"What-" The sledgehammer rat raised his weapon up, but I quickly ducked under it before he could even swing it down and kicked him away, sending him sprawling into a pile of trash. 

The third and fourth thugs both stood in shock upon witnessing their comrades get blitzed down, but I wasn't about to give up my advantage just yet. I grabbed the sledgehammer off the ground and bashed one man upside the head with it, leaving his weapon clattering to the ground. Using the momentum of the hammer to spin back around and knock another thug down to the ground, I left only one thug standing, with his mouth wide open while gawking at me.

"You."

I pointed to the last thug. "Are you going to surrender, or do you want me to break the rest of your bones?" 

"U-Ugh.." The man dropped his knife, falling to his knees and pressing his head against the floor. "Y-You'll never see any more trouble from me, m-miss! Please spare my life!"

"Get you and the rest of your buddies out of this alleyway as soon as they get up." I glared at the man. "If I ever see you here again, I'll make sure you regret it."

I stretched out, turning away from the man and looking back at Mia. "Well, that's a job well done-" 

Mia was also staring at me in shock, eyes wide with her jaw open.

~~~

"You fucking told me she was a grade 9 fixer! " Mia shouted.

"Hey hey, I never said she was as strong as a grade 9." Lemon came to my defense, still as nonchalant as ever. "I told you not to underestimate your co-workers, you know."

"Tha- That doesn't make any fucking sense!" Mia yelled. "If you saw the bullshit Rose pulled back there, you would be out of your mind too!"

Lemon smirked. "It only makes me just as glad that we hired someone as powerful as her."

..I may have gone a little overboard beating down those rats. Were lower grade fixers really that weak? I just assumed that Mia could also perform at around the same level I was displaying, but she was rambling on to Lemon about how I'm "A goddamn monster" and that "You should have told me she was that strong!". 

I'll make a metal note here — I should probably limit myself even more. I'm even if Lemon wasn't exactly the most.. bright.. he was still clearly suspicious of me before I even joined, and now he would be sure to suspect that something was up. Let alone the fact that Mia now knows that I'm far stronger than anybody would guess.

I need to be more careful to hide my identity in the future..

After Mia stormed off, Lemon came up to talk to me. "Listen.. you aren't really a grade 9, right?"

"Uhh.. It was the grade the Hana Association assigned to me." I answered casually.

"What, did you lie on your fixer test or something..?" Lemon sweatdropped.

I didn't really have the heart to tell him I never took the test in the first place.

"Anyway, you should probably go get your fixer license updated." Lemon said, patting me on the back. "By the way, Mia told me you didn't use a weapon. Is there a reason for that?"

Damn, does that Mia girl never stay quiet about anything..? Is there really a need to talk about everything that went on during our job?

"Uhm.. I don't have a weapon." I admitted. 

"I see.." Lemon thought for a second, before shrugging. "After you come back from that test, we should go get you at least a sword or something. It won't do to be a fixer without anything to fix things with."

"Alright.."

Chapter Text

Now that I was a regular fixer, I didn't need to don my Arbiter uniform going to the Hana Association. I'm not sure if there was a fee for updating your fixer grade.. if there was, I'd be in a whole lot of trouble. I didn't bring any money with me, after all. 

Before I even made it to the building, I could hear shouts erupting from the lobby. Opening the door curiously, I saw a man in a black, straight coat with matching hair arguing with the front receptionist.

"What the fuck do you mean our office didn't get credit for that!?" The man yelled, while the receptionist pleaded for him to calm down. "We took down a fucking Urban Myth with our office alone, but some fixer comes along and steals the final hit?! I ought to just fucking report you and get you replaced with a more competent-"

"Hey, is there an issue here..?" I asked quietly, and the man whipped around to face me. "Of course there's a fucking issue, our office.."

The man trailed off into his own rant as I made eye contact with the lady at the front desk — it was the same girl from last time that called her boss. I really hope she doesn't recognize me, or else this could get really troublesome..

A spark of recognition filled her expression, and her eyes shifted towards the angry man, seemingly pleading for me to do something. 

Ugh.. Are you serious? I thought they would have just switched shifts by now.. especially if she has to deal with people like this on the daily.

I actually did feel kind of bad for the lady. God knows what would have happened if some arrogant son-of-a-bitch came up to my workplace and started screaming in my face demanding something outrageous. 

"Sir.. Whatever point you're trying to make doesn't matter if you only yell and scream like a child." I said, stopping the man dead in his tracks.

"The fuck you just say to me, lady?!" The man angrily yelled, his face red with rage.

My earlier thought was proven right again — I think all fixers are weirdos in their own way. Either they get worked up over the most basic tiny shit or they're criminally insane.

I consider drinking 3 cans of straight lemon juice within an hour criminally insane, Lemon.

Walking past the man, I moved to the front desk to talk about my fixer license. "Hey-" 

I felt a firm hand on my shoulder, The man from earlier twisting me around to yell in my face. "Who the fuck do you think you are to talk to me like that?! I'm Hwang Woo, grade 3 Fixer! You should treat me with respect-"

I slapped his hand off my shoulder, glaring at the man. "And who the hell are you to touch me out of nowhere? A fixer should carry themselves with dignity, not throw a tantrum in a public place like this." This guy was about to grate on my last fucking nerve. How arrogant is this man to not only yell at a Hana receptionist, but also scream face to face at an Arbit-.. at a random person who just wanted to break up the fight?

"You fucking.. bitch!" The guy grasped down at his waist, drawing a blade from a sheath and swinging towards me.

How stupid can one person be..?

Alright, you want to play? Let's play.

I raised my palm up before the man could react, conjuring a 2d circle within my hand.

Circle.

~~~

After the Arbiter left, nothing else really interesting of note happened, so I was spending the time watching videos on youtube with my front desk computer. If my boss caught me, I'd be in for an ear-chewing.. if everyone wasn't shaken up by that encounter with an agent of The Head. The mood of the entire building was gloomy just from having that girl walk in.

Unfortunately, life just didn't want to let me catch a single break. Not even a few hours later, a man with a black coat walked in, with a sword hanging from his side. He started spouting some nonsense about how his office took on an Urban Myth by themselves, and some other office snuck in at the last moment and stole the rewards from them.

Now, first of all, I had never heard of this guy's office.

Second of all, when I did (begrudgingly) pull up the man's identity, the latest report stated that his office tried to sneak up on another office already fighting a distortion, and attempted to not only take out the remaining fixers, but the distortion itself.

What a bunch of scumbags..

Bringing this up to him, however, turned out to be the exact wrong decision. He started screaming on and on at me and threatening me, and I did my best to try and calm him down.

"What the fuck do you mean our office didn't get credit for that?!"

I was tempted to call security to kick the guy out, when my blood froze as another person walked into the lobby.

It was the fucking ARBITER from earlier, now wearing a casual t-shirt and shorts. She gave me a dangerous looking smile, before she quietly asked the man what was wrong. 

And then proceeded to tell him off about how much of an idiot he was.

I don't know why the Arbiter was back at the Hana Association so quickly — maybe she already finished whatever mission she was on and went to return her fixer license? But if that was the case, why was she in normal clothes instead of her normal uniform?

"Hey-" Before I knew it, she was at the front desk completely ignoring the man briskly walking behind her with a hand on the handle of his blade.

Look- Look behind you! I wanted to say, but the man did the most stupid thing possible:

He grabbed the Arbiter's shoulder, spinning her around to face him before screaming more in his face.

This guy is so fucking dead..

I wanted to jump up and pull the fixer away from the girl and force him to bow and apologize. I could see the Arbiter getting more and more irritated by the second, responding back to the man before he did the second most stupid thing possible — drawing his blade on a fucking Arbiter. While in the Hana Association, the association that oversees all other offices and fixers.

Within a flash, the Arbiter raised their hand forward, mouthing something and producing a blinding flash of pinkish light that made it impossible to see for a brief moment. When I opened my eyes, I saw the man suspended mid-air in a cylinder, banging on the sides fearfully with his face still red from anger. 

"W-Wait, don't kill him!" I shouted out, jumping over the front desk and standing in front of the Arbiter.

"Uh.." She looked confused. "That wasn't my intention."

"Oh.." I said. "T-Thank you for helping me out, but.."

An alarm blared from every corner of the lobby, and metal plates slid over the glass windows and doors while red lights started flashing. 

High energy detected within the building. Entering Lockdown Mode.

"Shit.."

"Eh? The hell is this?" The arbiter asked, still holding a hand up, swirling with pink and gold light and entrapping the man.

"It's probably because you used your singularity! This is a security measure to contain any fights that would break out.." I quickly explained to her, who only responded with an amused look.

Not 15 seconds later, a group of white-suited, Hana Association fixers burst from the doors, brandishing black spears, swords, and axes aimed towards all of us. 

"Listen guys, this was just a misunderstanding-" I tried to say, before one of them lunged forward and tried to stab at me with a spear.

W-Wait! I'm part of the fucking Association, why are you trying to murder me?! 

A shimmering wall of pink light blasted the man away, knocking him through the wall and leaving a fixer-sized hole, letting natural sunlight stream through both the broken window and twisted metal plate.

"Now, now. All of you settle down." The woman said, smirking with a sadistic expression.

A few more employees rushed out of the doors from the commotion, one of whom I recognized as my boss, Riley, who was brandishing her signature black Hana spear.

Her face paled when she looked at the person in the middle of the lobby, and I could see her eyes look fearfully between the man in the cylinder and the Arbiter containing him without any effort.

"ALL OF YOU, FUCKING STOP!" She shouted, making the nearest fixers towards us back away in confusion. 

She directed her voice towards me. "Kate, are you gonna explain what the hell is happening here?! Why is there an Arbiter attacking the Association?!"

Murmurs spread throughout the assorted fixers like a wildfire. "Arbiter?" "Like an Arbiter of the Head?" "Why are Arbiters here?!"

The woman herself spoke up. "I have no reason to cause pandemonium without cause within the Hana Association," She said, before continuing, "The without cause portion is the most important part."

Riley stood in place alongside the rest of the fixers, before sighing and shaking her head. "You guys, get the fucking alarm turned off. We aren't going to be able to take on an Arbiter anyway."

The majority of the fixers filed out, while a few stayed behind to spectate the scene alongside Riley. "Alright Kate, what the fuck happened here?!"

"Well.." I started to explain to my boss and the remaining few fixers about the man who came in here and started a ruckus first, the Arbiter walking in and subsequently defending herself, which probably triggered the alarms in the first place.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the Arbiter playfully turning her hand back and forth, turning the cylinder around in mid-air and rolling the now curled-up man inside the 3d object.

I'll just ignore that..

After Riley heard my story, she shooed me away and walked up to the Arbiter. "Ma'am, we're very sorry to inconvenience you in such a way-"

"Nah, you're good." She said, waving them off.

"I can't believe some fixers still act this arrogant though.. They give the Hana a bad name." "O-Of course! We'll have him and his office demoted for his actions today!" Riley said, pleading with the woman.

The arbiter rolled her eyes, snapping her outstretched hand and dissipating the cylinder in an instant, causing the man to tumble to the floor. "U-Ugh.." He made to get up to his feet, before the two remaining fixers grabbed him by the arms and led him away.

"H-Hey! Where the fuck are you taking me!? What about that freak..!" His voice slowly trailed off as the two fixers left the lobby.

"..Anyway, the reason I was here was to update my fixer license." The Arbiter said, holding out a visibly creased and beaten up card. "T-That's fine, we can remove you from the sys.." Riley stopped, blinking slowly. "Wait, update?"

The Arbiter casually handed a confused Riley the card, putting her hands in her pockets. "I came to take the fixer test, considering that 'grade 9' isn't exactly accurate." 

Was it just me, or did she seem a little embarrassed? Maybe it was just suppressed irritation for having to deal with an up-start fixer..

"We can take you to do the fixer test, miss. May I ask why, though?" Riley asked carefully. "Uhmm.." The Arbiter hummed, before shaking her head. "It's top secret. Business for The Head."

"Right.." Riley mumbled.

~~~

Having to deal with that fixer and then the Hana Association's over-zealous reactionary security systems was a bit annoying.

Actually, a bit more than annoying.

At least I finally got myself to take the fixer test again. Riley kept asking me questions all the way to the arena, and even though I couldn't help but be irritated, it was kind of endearing.

Seeing as she couldn't ask about why exactly I was becoming an official fixer, she instead opted to question my occupation as an Arbiter and everything that I could do. Most of these questions had answers that were completely confidential, so I couldn't answer half the time — but having her constantly talk into my ear was a little nicer than having it screamed at by that man, so I tolerated it.

"How are you going to be taking the fixer test, anyway?" Riley asked me. "Aren't you just going to pass with flying colors?"

"Just record my results as if I was a normal fixer," I replied nonchalantly.

My goal wasn't to get the highest possible score, but to just get a reasonably believable one — as such, I wouldn't be using my singularities for any of the tests.

The first part of the test was against machines — rather, fighting against as many robots as possible until you ended up getting touched by one of them, which ended the test at that moment. The longer you survived, the more score you would get towards your grade.

Mia had told me (or rather, yelled at lemon), that I displayed power equivalent to a grade 2 fixer. I decided to base myself at that point first, limiting my physical speed to around that range in order to get an at least kind of accurate result. 

..After 30 minutes though, I ended up just letting one of the robots touch me. I was getting pretty impatient, and these guys moved so slow comparatively that I could circle an entire district in the time it took for one of these guys to circle a single building.

The second test was more interesting — a live combat test against a fixer.

Obviously, I picked Riley to fight me.

"U-Uhmm.. you won't kill me or anything, right..?" She asked uncertainly, grasping her spear in her hand. 

"Relax, Riley. I won't even use my singularities, okay?" I assured her, but for some reason she seemed even more shaken up after I said that.

As soon as the bell rang, both of us rushed towards each other.

Spear, against.. uhh.. fist. Lemon was right, I really need another weapon.

Riley's face was dead serious, something that surprised me as she lunged with her spear forward towards my chest with blinding speed.

..With my enhanced cognition, she seemed about as slow as any regular human, even if I was limiting myself to move far slower than I actually could. Something was off about her stance.. Her feet weren't positioned correctly for a lunge attack, wouldn't she lose balance?

Trusting that she had more tricks up her sleeve, instead of sidestepping the spear and counter-attacking, I backed away and let Riley fall off balance in surprise as she tried to instead perform a sweep with her spear.

"Damn-it..!" Riley rushed forward at me again, swinging the tip of her spear towards me in a slashing motion. 

Of course.. She's using this textbook attack so soon?

Instead of dodging out of the way again, I met the spear head-on, knocking it away with my hand and preparing for a second punch to knock her back.

And, as expected..

Instead of a counter attack, she brought the spear up to her chest and blocked my fist, only pushing her back a few inches as she brought her spear up high above for a crushing blunt-headed blow.

"DIVINATORY..!" Riley yelled, widening her eyes when she realized I had no intention of dodging out of the way. She backed off and tripped on the floor for a second time when she pulled out of the attack, making me giggle.

"Wh- Why'd you stop?!" She complained, huffing while returning her spear to the holster on her back.

I shrugged. "Any normal fixer would have gotten hit by that, and subsequently lose the live test. I'm not trying to get an unfair grade."

"Besides.." I walked up to her, holding out my hand. "You did pretty well against an Arbiter, Riley."

"Ah.." She stared at my hand, clearly embarrassed, before quickly shaking it. "There's no need to refer to me by name, miss.."

"I've already had two annoying encounters with you, Riley." I said. "It's best for us to get to know each other, right?"

"There's no need.." 

"You can call me Rose." I told her, walking away. "I'll go wait in the lobby for my results, okay?!"

~~~

"Damn, that took a long ass time.." I said, taking the newly improved fixer card from the receptionist.

"I-I apologize for the wait, ma'am-" She started, before I held up my hand to stop her.

"It's fine, Kate. Thanks for all the help today."

I smirked as the woman sputtered before she could finally eek out a proper sentence. "Y-You.. How'd you know my name?!"

"Oh, I heard it earlier from Riley." 

"H-Huh?!"

~~~

"You guys, get the fucking alarm turned off. We aren't going to be able to take on an Arbiter anyway."

The majority of the fixers filed out, while a few stayed behind to spectate the scene alongside Riley. "Alright Kate, what the fuck happened here?!"

~~~

"Ah.. Right.." Kate meekly smiled, blushing a little bit. "You don't have to call me b-by name, though.."

"I already promised to leave on good terms with Riley, and I won't leave without you not being scared-shitless of me all the time." I responded, holding out my hand for her to shake.

"Uhm.. okay.." She said warily, shaking my hand.

"Name's Rose, an Eclipse Office Fixer." I said proudly.

"Uhh.. Kate. Hana Association.. Clerk." She mumbled awkwardly.

"Anyway, I'll be leaving now, so take care." I walked away from the embarrassed receptionist, looking down at the card in my hands.

Sol Rose

Official Fixer License - Grade 3

Affiliated Group - Eclipse Office

Assigned by the Hana Association

Chapter Text

"I'm back!" 

Lemon was, as usual, the acting clerk for Eclipse Office's Sun section, while looking as bored as ever. He looked up in surprise when seeing me, stretching out his arms tiredly and smiling.

"Hey hey, what took you so long?" He asked. "It's nearly been 3 hours, y'know."

Huh..? Three whole hours?! That fucking stuck-up arrogant fixer held me up for longer than I thought..

"Uhm.. The Hana Association was dealing with another guy first, something about not getting a good grade or whatever." I lied. "Anyway, look what grade I got!"

I pulled out my fixer card for Lemon to see. He took a peek at the fixer grade and whistled, clapping me on the back. "Grade 3?! I knew you weren't just a grade 9 after all!"

"Yeah. I guess the Hana Association got it wrong last time, who knows." I said, shrugging. “So, are we still going to that.. uhh..”

“You mean if we’re still gonna go get you an actual weapon?” Lemon finished, completing my thought. “Of course we are! Like I said, a fixer without something to fix things with is pretty sad.”

"I guess. By the way, where’d Mia go?” I asked.

“She’s off on another job, said something along the lines of proving that she’s stronger than you are.” Lemon chuckled. “I bet she’ll blow her lid when she sees your new license.”

To be honest, I don’t really know Mia’s obsession with being strong. Is it just her pride being shattered whenever I beat up a group of rats with no difficulty at all? 

"What about that other- the other fixer you had working here?" I asked Lemon. "Katch or.. Ketchup.."

"Ketch. He isn't as hot-headed as Mia, though I bet he'd be surprised a grade 3 fixer was working for us already~"  Lemon replied, digging through a few cabinets under the front desk.

I had never personally met Ketch yet. Any time I tried to ask Lemon about it, he just said something along the lines of "He's on a special job right now," with a tone that made it clear that it was pretty private information.

From Lemon's description though, he was a little more laid-back, just like the man himself — and his ranking was around grade 6.

"Alright, I got everything!" Lemon called out, holding out a large-black backpack in his hand.

~~~

“Is it really fine to leave the office alone like this?” 

Lemon simply shrugged, hefting the backpack onto his shoulders. "We don't get many walk-in jobs anyway, so it's fine."

He explained that since his office was relatively new, most of the contracts his office got were from the Hana Association themselves. Not many people went to Eclipse Office specifically, so instead The Hana would distribute jobs to local offices that didn't get much traffic, one of those small offices being Eclipse Office.

"You said there were two sections in your office, right? The Sun and the Moon sections?" 

"Mmm, that's right. Yui mostly deals with under-the-counter and jobs that need to be a little quieter.." Lemon paled, seemingly coming to a realization. "Is that why I'm stuck with all the difficult, hot-headed fixers..?"

I only felt a smidge of pity for him.

"By the way, is this the place?" I nudged him, pointing to a smaller building, with a small sign above the door containing the words "Mook Workshop".

"Huh..? Yeah, this is the workshop I wanted you to come to~" Lemon casually opened the door, hitting a bell with a jingle as we both walked inside.

It was surprising to me how.. samey the lobbies for Eclipse Office and this division of Mook Workshop looked. The lobby here was a little bigger, but there was virtually no difference between the two, except for the receptionist looking a little bit more cheerful, and the distant sounds of clanging and forging past the front desk if you focused long enough. Hell, they even used the same brand of complementary lemon sugar cookies I loved munching on in Hana Association's lobby.

"Welcome to Mook Workshop, the best workshop for weapons around!" The man at the front desk said, waving at both of us. Clearly, he had been actually trained in customer service, unlike a certain guy I was with at the moment.

"Hi-" I was cut off by Lemon, who stepped forward in front of me. "I'm looking for a new weapon for one of my fixers. Think you can hook her up?"

"Of course, sir!" The man beckoned me forward, analyzing me top to bottom with narrowed eyes. 

"Uhm.." I wasn't sure what to say, but the man shushed me and continued staring at me, making me feel a flare of annoyance.

"Alright," The man finished, leaning back into his chair. "You're someone who's pretty light and quick on their feet, right? You prefer to blitz people down with speed, instead of drawing out and stalling in huge fights, and you have a dislike for confrontation." 

I blinked twice in surprise. Shit, he was right about every single thing! He could decipher all of that from me in a single glance? Doesn't this extend a bit farther than simple customer service?

I must have let the shock show on my face, because the man let out a chuckle, and I quickly tried to wipe off the expression with my arm. "Anyway, I recommend something fast that won't hold you down with its weight — either a dagger or tanto that you can wield effectively and quickly to surprise opponents."

Lemon whistled again. "Damn, that guy really read you like a book, huh?"

A dagger.. didn't sound so bad, actually. Daggers wasn't as bulky and annoying as the giant Zweihandler that Mia used, and it wasn't as obnoxious or basic as a regular old sword. The only problem was the reach of such a weapon, but with my speed, it shouldn't be an issue.

Also, what was a tanto?

I cleared my throat. "That's all well and good, but.. Do you even have any daggers or "tantos" here in the first place? I don't see any weapons around here."

The man looked confused. "Ma'am.. We don't keep our products in the lobby."

Oh.

Lemon snickered. "What, did you think they'd just leave that stuff lying around to be stolen-"

"I thought it would be just like any other shop!" I replied hotly.

"Anyway," The receptionist interrupted, "If you're interested in my recommendation, I can take you out back to our actual workshop to see if there's anything you'd like."

~~~

The actual workshop, or forge, or working place.. whatever, was a lot bigger than the lobby itself, which surprised me. You would think such a small building that housed only a division of a major weapons manufacturing company would have a less impressive line-up, but there were at least a dozen people here wearing aprons and welding masks hammering away at gadgets and blades.

We followed the man to a cork-board that displayed a large amount of katanas, daggers, and other assorted bladed weapons on protruding wooden pins. "Here we are!"

"Hmm.. Am I just supposed to pick one?" I asked to no-one in particular.

"Yep~" Lemon answered. Honestly, the selection was a little overwhelming at first, and it was hard to decide on any specific weapon. Simply designed Katanas with curved edges, Daggers with golden handles with gems embedded for the richer customers, on and on — but the one thing that caught my eye was a straight edged, foot long blade that had an ornate wooden handle as long as the actual metal portion.

"What's this one?" I reached out for the dagger, grabbing the handle tentatively and showing it to the salesman. "Ah, that's the tanto I was talking about. They're traditional blades that are basically mini-katanas."

I turned the knife over in my hand, watching how light reflected off the carefully sharpened edge of the tanto. "That the one you want, Rose?" Lemon asked me.

"Yeah. It's simple.. No weird quirks or modifications and anything. I like it." I grabbed the sheath next to the knife's resting place, clipping it to my waist. "By the way, how much do these things usually cost?"

"Ah.. A few hundred thousand Ahn, give or take?" Lemon mused. 

"Isn't that a lot of money for one weapon..?" I raised a brow at him, who just shrugged. "These are top-quality tools from an officially licensed, city-wide known workshop. Besides, we can make at least ten thousand Ahn for even trivial jobs like rescuing somebody's cat from a tree."

"Alright then.."

After paying the salesman back at the front desk, we went to walk back to the office with my new weapon. They even packaged it in a fancy white box with the workshop's logo stamped on the top — like how an Iphone box just slid open when you held it from the sides.

It was a.. nice.. feeling.. that I couldn't describe well. Like a kid waking up on christmas day and running to the tree to open up their presents. Was it anticipation? Joy?

"I think I'm just about ready to close up for the day.." Lemon said, yawning and stretching his arms out.

"Actually, I know a good ramen place about a block from here." I suggested. "Ramen? That actually sounds pretty great right now, you can lead the way."

I took Lemon to my favorite ramen place that I saved all the way a few weeks ago from getting robbed — which is when I ran into a serious problem.

"U-Uh, Miss?!" The waiter who greeted people at the door froze upon seeing me, clearly recognizing me.

Fuck.. I forgot this place knows I'm an Arbiter! I can't just back out now.. but how am I gonna get away with this without Lemon figuring it out?!

"Uhmm.. Do I know you?" I tried to answer as casually as possible.

"N-No ma'am, I doubt someone of your stature would remember me, I only started working here a few days ago!" The man stuttered out. "The owner told us all about the woman who-" 

I shot the waiter a glare, praying silently he would get the message and shut up — which thankfully, he did.

"Huh? What's the hold-up?" Lemon asked, confused.

"Ah.. I beat up a gang of Rats who tried to rob this place," I said, rubbing my head. "They always treat me like some savior even though I just come here for their food most of the time," I shot another glare at the man, "Even when I tell them to stop.."

"I-I'm sorry miss! We'll get you a seat right away!" The man backed away, running off into the restaurant.

Phew.. I can't believe I got through that..

~~~

"This is probably the best ramen I've tasted in my life.." Lemon sighed happily, leaning back in his chair so far that he was probably at risk of tipping over.

If he does fall, I'm gonna laugh my ass off at him.

"I told you this is my favorite noodle place," I said with a smirk. "If it's your favorite ramen place, then you should have actually ordered the ramen.."

Lemon had (foolishly) ordered a small bowl to start with, which he quickly demolished after taking the first sip. He ordered another bowl after that, which he was only barely able to finish. In fact, he was so distracted by the food here that he had forgotten about the-about 16 cans of lemon juice stuffed away in his backpack. Surprising, I know. 

Oh yeah. That backpack he brung — I just assumed it was some cash to pay for whatever weapon I decided to buy, but in reality it was 90% lemon juice he crammed in the bag for "emergencies". 

As for me, I only ordered a side of pot-stickers for myself. I didn't have much appetite after nearly slipping up in front of Lemon, which sucks because I was looking forward to getting a bowl of ramen here. 

I swear, I need to seriously have a word with these guys after work or something.

"By the way, that Mook Workshop guy said something about me being more of an assassin than an actual, frontliner fighter." I said to Lemon.

"Go on.." 

"Wouldn't that mean I would be better suited for the Moon section of your office? You know, the side that deals with assassination and stuff-" 

"Hmmm.. nah." Lemon said, yawning.

"..Huh?"

"Honestly, even if you're really strong, your fighting style is," Lemon paused, "For lack of a better word, maybe not the most refined? Yui- the Moon section isn't just about speed, it's about delivering precise blows to take out jobs they get hired to do."

"..That's a really stupid reason." I grumbled.

I got a sudden ping from my phone, ignoring Lemon's probably half-food-drunken response in favor of checking who messaged me.

I scanned the text quickly, sighing before grabbing Lemon's arm and pulling him up.

"And Yui- Hey, what are you doing?!" Lemon yelled as I dragged him into a standing position.

"We're leaving. There's something.. dangerous about this place." I told him in a serious tone.

"Come on, I didn't even pay yet-"

"We can pay later!" I pushed him out of the front doors, checking my phone once more.

Message from Beholder Hera

Hey, not an order, but I just wanted to let you know there's a group of 50 Thumb members converging on your location. 

Don't do anything stupid, okay Rose? I know you can probably handle yourself, but your Claw is on standby just in case. 

Chapter Text

"Everything is falling into place, sir." 

I took a sip from my coffee, grinning widely. "Good. The traitor?"

"He's currently at a restaurant, enjoying a meal with some unknown woman — most likely a fixer under his employ." The man standing on the other side of the table scoffed. "The idiot's a sitting duck, unaware of what's about to come for him."

"Hey now." I said. "When did I give you permission to insult the traitor?"

"Sir-"

"Do not speak." I commanded. "You dare talk back to me, A Sottocapo of the Thumb?"

The man remained silent, glaring at me in defiance. I nodded towards one of my guards, and he stepped forward as the man stiffly presented his hand towards him.

Shiiing~ In a flash of light and metal, the man's hand dropped to the floor with a light thud, and he quickly stood back at attention, the stump spurting blood for a few seconds before slowing to a trickle.

"You are lucky that I'm in a good mood, Kim. Wouldn't you agree?" I asked politely, as the guard quickly sealed the wound with a K-corp bandage and disposed of his hand.

"..." He trembled, clearly in pain, but stood tall with both his arms at his sides.

"The 'traitor' you underestimate is a grade 1 fixer," I started pacing around the room, "who has eliminated dozens of Thumb members alongside his associates."

I stopped directly in front of the man, only inches away from his face. "He is not weak, by any means. And that is precisely why he needs to be eliminated before the office he created gains any traction." 

"..." The man stared fearfully at me, still shaking as the K-corp bandage slowly stained red with blood.

"You may speak, Capo Kim." 

"..I-I apologize for my insolence, sir." He stammered out, trying his best to not tremble in front of me.

"Good." I walked back to my seat, taking another sip of coffee from my mug. "As for the matter of the Moon group-"

A buzz came from Kim's uniform, making him freeze in fear as he checked the phone with his other hand.

"S-Sir," He said. "It appears the traitor and the fixer alongside him have left the restaurant, and are quickly moving away. It appears they are wary of us somehow."

I waved him off. "No matter. Under my authority, tell the rest of the strike force to follow and encircle them."

Kim bowed low. "Yes sir," He replied before leaving the room quickly.

I grinned, draining my mug of coffee and slamming it against the table. "Today is a good day, wouldn't you agree?"

"..Indeed, sir." The guard beside me replied.

Tonight, Lemon the traitor.. You will fall!

~~~

"Why the hell are we-" Lemon started, before I quickly shushed him.

"It's bad to stay in an enclosed area like this.." I looked around for any sort of open area we could go to, before spotting an abandoned looking warehouse.

"There!" I led him inside the building, pushing open a rusted door and walking inside.

"Can you just tell me what's going on, Rose?!" Lemon demanded.

"My Be-" I stopped, shaking my head. "I got a tip from someone that there's a group of the Thumb after me for- god, I don't even know."

"The Thumb?!" Lemon asked with a worried tone.

"Yeah, the Thumb. You know, that whole Syndicate who's obsessed with loyalty and shit-" I glanced at Lemon, who was fidgeting with a guilty expression.

"Rose.. Are you absolutely sure that it's the Thumb after us?" He said meekly.

I narrowed my eyes. "Lemon. What'd you do to the Thumb?" 

"Ah.. I may have.. been a part of the Thumb in the past." Lemon admitted slowly.

Oh. Oh.

I thought this entire time the Thumb was trying to eliminate me — after all, I was a newly registered fixer with a grade 3 rank, which would be annoying for the operations of the Thumb in this area to have to deal with. But instead, they were after Lemon this entire time? 

Now I'm gonna have to talk to Hera after this too.. So much for being a god-damn Beholder! I thought with a flash of annoyance. Not to mention that restaurant as well..

"Wait, so the Thumb is after you?" I asked my boss, confusion evident on my face.

"Yeah.. I sorta betrayed them?" Lemon said slowly, before shaking his head. "I had a good reason for it, but the folks on the Thumb don't care. Loyalty and rank are all they believe in, especially when they can just use K corp technology to heal any injuries from punishments dolled out."

"God-damnit Le-" I stopped, hearing a very faint footstep from outside the building. Lemon noticed me on edge, fingering the hilt of a greatsword on his back with his hand.

"Whoever's out there, come and show yourself." I said loudly.

A single person, a woman with long white hair wearing the Thumb uniform with their familiar rifles on her back, stepped forward in front of both of us.

"Are you quite done bickering?" The woman said, staring disdainfully at both of us. "To think the person we were sent to eliminate was so childish — but it's no matter."

She casually pulled out her rifle, holding it at ease to the side of her body. "I am Senya, Capo of the Thumb. State your name and grade, traitor of the Thumb."

Lemon nearly responded to her, but I nudged him last second, making him regain his senses. "..Why would I bother telling you that? I'm sure you already know exactly who I am."

Senya clicked her tongue. "So disrespectful to your superiors — it's no wonder you're a traitor." 

Lemon held an arm over me, pushing me away. "This isn't your problem, Rose. This is business between me and the Thumb, you don't have to risk your life here-"

I coughed before Lemon could finish, directing her attention towards me. "It's no wonder that the Thumb are a bunch of crack-head criminals no better than any pack of Rats, especially when they only send one single person out to confront us." I smiled at the Capo, whose face had turned red with anger, while Lemon just stared at me in shock.

"..This conversation is over." Senya hit the stock of her rifle against the floor, and a stream of red and black uniformed Thumb members flooded into the warehouse.

Me and Lemon were surrounded on all sides, and as I counted the people gathered here, the amount came to 50 — just what Hera predicted.

On the other three sides, three people came forward from their group, each wearing a different uniform that was similar to Senya's.

"Capo Uriel." A slim man with short black hair said.

"Capo Dames." A shorter woman with tied-back blonde hair said.

"Capo Wilson." A bulky man with no hair at all said. 

Lemon whistled casually, trying not to show any fear. "Four capos, huh? You guys must really want me dead~"

"..For your crimes against the Thumb, we sentence you to death." Senya pointed her rifle towards Lemon, pressing a finger against the trigger. "This shot will commence the execution of Lemon, the traitor!"

Senya fired the gun, and in the blink of an eye — Lemon drew his greatsword and swung forwards, slicing the bullet in half.

These guys were really foolish, huh.. Any respectable fixer could easily cut bullets in half, and Lemon himself was grade 1, only a step away from being a color, even if it was a very long step. In a huge battle like this..

A single strong can defeat an army of a million.

Now, I could just blast them all to hell with a shockwave — but there isn't really any fun in revealing my powers, right? Even so, this situation was more troublesome than I thought. There was just enough quality and people here that I couldn't exactly deal with them all at a level a grade 3 would perform at.

Luckily, they had a lot of people. 

I nodded towards him, and he returned the nod as he charged towards the front side with his blade outstretched, intending to crash into Senya and her group, while I lept forward with my tanto and rushed down the closest Capo to me — Uriel.

If we just got closer, they wouldn't be able to fire their bullets in fear of hitting their own compatriots. It's not like a simple bullet could even harm me, but a few well placed shots could take down Lemon, so I had to act as fast as possible.

I raised my tanto towards the Capo-

A hail of bullets screamed towards me, forcing me to jump back and cut down a few of the bullets that were about to hit me.. It's not like they would be able to even pierce my skin, but one of the Soldatos behind me took a bullet to the chest and screamed, falling down.

"The fuck are you doing?!" I yelled. "You're gonna gun down all of your members before you even land a hit on me-" 

I heard a wooosh behind my back, rolling to the side as a rifle stock slammed into the ground, leaving a small crater in the concrete. I quickly got up and rushed forward, slashing my tanto forwards as it clashed with the stock of a soldier's rifle.

It was just a distraction?! 

I forced the man back while bullets flew around me, causing him to stumble and fall back as I quickly stabbed his neck with the blade. I glared at the Capo behind me, who was aiming straight at my back with his gun.

I need to go faster and cut down these guys so I can group back up with Lemon.. But these god damn suicidal soldiers aren't giving me an inch! 

I kept getting more and more agitated as bullets flew around the warehouse, meeting Uriel eye to eye while holding my tanto in my hand. "I commend your ability, fixer, but your inevitable death-" He said, before I held my hand up in front of my tanto.

"You."

The Capo seemed confused at me, but I couldn't care less anymore. "You are really fucking pissing me off, you know?" I said quietly.

Krrrrk~ An explosive golden and pink line streamed from my hand, surrounding my blade with singularities, causing it to glow rose-gold as I pointed the knife at him. I can't believe I have to limit myself in such a way.. but this is the least flashy thing I can do. This is fucking infuriating!

"T-Thats..!" Uriel backed away a few paces, dropping his rifle. I dashed forward and grabbed him by the throat, my eyes glowing with my latent singularities as I slammed him against the ground.

"I am an ARBITER." I hissed into his ear, stabbing him in the chest as rose-colored lines streamed all over his body, electrocuting the Capo.

I stood back up and glared at the rest of the group, who were all standing shakily. Some of them dropped their rifles in fear, just like the-late Uriel had. All I could feel towards these bastards was contempt. How dare they fire at me, an Arbiter?

I'll make them all pay in blood. I thought, holding my enchanted tanto towards the group with a firm hand.

"I'm going to eliminate all of you."

Chapter Text

While Rose dealt with the guys behind me, I had the pleasure of facing off against Senya — the first person who confronted us.

"You.. goddamned scumbag!" She yelled, swinging her rifle overhead towards me. I met the attack with my own greatsword, pushing her back and making her yell with rage.

The problem wasn't Senya herself. She wasn't particularly strong, and in a 1 on 1 fight, I could easily beat her — But the surrounding Soldatos taking pot-shots at me while I wasn't looking were really getting on my nerves. While my uniform could partially resist bullets, and I could cut down a bullet if I was focused, I didn't have the luxury of focusing on the opposing soldiers at the moment.

I needed to end this thing quickly and regroup with Rose — No matter how strong she is, a grade 3 fixer armed with a knife of all things wouldn't last very long against an entire group of the Thumb.

Do you think she would fall for the easiest trick in the book? I wondered to myself.

I quickly ducked and withdrew my sword, causing Senya to stumble forward from applying too much pressure to my blade in order to push me back — And I used the opportunity to slash my greatsword forwards, cutting her across the stomach.

"U-Ugh.." She collapsed, leaving me with only the regular Soldatos who didn't have the augmentations or strength of their Capos on the front side.

Honestly, this wasn't a good matchup for the Thumb. Bullets were only useful against weaker opponents who didn't have the equipment or training to deal with them, and while their physical strength combined with their melee rifle fighting style wasn't anything to laugh at, it was nothing compared to a fixer who specialized in all-out, melee combat!

I quickly dodged a Soldato trying to bash my head in, cutting him down and used the momentum to spin around and take down another man behind me. It was a pain to focus on the occasional bullet aimed towards my body and fending off the people surrounding me at the same time.

"AAAAH!" I whipped around to see a man running towards me with his rifle stock held high, intending to attempt to club me while I was turned away. I easily sidestepped the man and stabbed him in the side, but I was more worried about the scene unfolding behind him — Rose standing tall in front of the other Capo.

The hell are you doing.. Why are you just standing there?!

A sudden screeching noise that just felt wrong, accompanied by pink- no, pink and golden light erupted from her hand, coating her body and dagger with lines upon lines of rose-golden energy.

Everyone, including me, on the battlefield stopped, watching Rose rush forward at blinding speed and grab Uriel by the throat and slam him against the floor — and the cloud of concrete dust rising couldn't obscure the screeching sounds of the light she was producing electrocute the Capo she was fighting against.

Is that her EGO..? I thought.

No, that's not possible. Even a partial EGO would transform this entire area to match her willpower, so what the hell is that supposed to be?

I heard something clang on the floor behind me, leaving me on edge as I turned around with my blade ready — only to see the Soldato behind me shaking in fear, having dropped his rifle to the floor.

Rose muttered something I couldn't hear towards the Capo-less group in front of her, before almost-teleporting towards them, cutting them each down with such speed it resembled a bullet ricocheting off a wall.

"Holy shit.. that's.." A man nearby me said, frozen in fear. 

Another voice chimed in. "We didn't sign up to fight a fucking Arbiter! "

Arbiter? What are these guys talking about?

One of the two remaining Capos yelled at the soldiers, telling them all to move out. Within seconds, all the people surrounding me flooded out of the warehouse, leaving me utterly confused as Rose simply watched them leave.

Rose muttered something and snapped loudly, making me flinch as the aura of light around her dissipated. She turned towards me, about to say something, before freezing with her mouth open.

"W-Wait, you saw all that?!" She said with worry in her voice.

"Rose." I walked towards her, sheathing my greatsword. "What in the ever living hell was that?"

"U-Uhm.." She fidgeted with her fingers, clearly trying to make up a story. "I may have stolen a V corp-" I shook my head. "Rose. You aren't really a.. grade 3 fixer, are you?"

She looked sheepishly towards me. "Well.."

"Nnnh.. Are you telling me you didn't know.. this entire time.." A voice from under me said, and I looked down to see Senya, covered in blood from her wound, weakly grinning at me.

"This one's still alive." Rose said instantly with a more serious expression, holding her tanto out.

"Tch.. to think we tried to take on an Arbit-" Rose quickly stabbed her in the chest, ending Senya's life in a matter of seconds as she coughed and laid still.

"...Rose. Answer me." I ignored the dead Capo at my feet, staring back at Rose.

Looking at her again, I saw something I never noticed before — her eyes were glowing pink, and there was just this.. wrong feeling surrounding her. It took me a few seconds to realize what that feeling was as she stared awkwardly at me.

Primal Fear. The fear of being meek prey against an apex predator. The fear of staring death itself in the eyes, even if it was in the form of a five and a half foot tall girl.

She finally sighed, blinking quickly as her eyes returned to normal. Almost just as quickly, that feeling of wrongness disappeared as well. "Lemon.. I'm not really normal."

"Yeah, I get that, but isn't this a little past "not normal"?!" I rubbed my face tiredly, ignoring the various bruises on my body from the bullets hitting me. "First of all, what the hell was that pink light?! Why did all these Thumb members run like the wind whenever you used it?!" I took a deep breath, continuing ranting at her. "I have never known the Thumb to run away from a good fight like that — they'd rather hold their heads out to be executed!" 

Rose stared guiltily at the ground, not wanting to meet my eye. "Lemon.. I'm an Arbiter. "

"Huh.." An Arbiter? Like the evil agents of the Head that Yui always warned me about? Arbiters supposedly wore all black robes, imprinted with golden hexagonal patterns. They were also well-spoken, often speaking in riddles that no ordinary person could understand.

Most importantly.. weren't they sadistic and uncaring for anything at all, with no remorse for the people they kill? While Rose didn't mind killing to defend herself or for completing her jobs, she wasn't callous or jaded like I'd imagine an Arbiter would be.

Also, she was like 5 feet tall and wearing a god-damn pink hoodie and shorts. That- This doesn't make any sense at all!

Rose looked back at me, with a pleading expression on her face. "Listen, can you please just keep this a secret? I don't want to get fired from my job already, it's only been a few days and-"

I couldn't help but chuckle lightly, making her stop mid-rant. "I'm just really.. surprised. You aren't gonna kill us or anything, right?"

"H-Huh..?" She seemed confused. "No, of course I'm not gonna fucking kill you! You're my.." Rose's face suddenly grew rose colored, seemingly embarrassed about what she was about to say.

"Eh? What were you gonna say?" I asked her gently as she covered her face in her hands.

"..Friends. We're.. friends, Lemon."

Hm. Well, that isn't nearly as bad as I thought.

"Can I ask why an Arbiter of all people took such interest in pretending to be a fixer?" I didn't know much about Arbiters or the Head, but I'm pretty sure they didn't just go around joining offices and such.

Rose explained to me about her problem as an Arbiter — which actually did make me feel a little bad for the woman. She told me about how simply being an Arbiter made it impossible to associate with anyone, because they would either fear for their lives around her or try to kill her. 

It suddenly made sense why the workers at that restaurant treated her like royalty — it was because she was an Arbiter of the Head.

She couldn't make friends or build relationships with anybody. Her job was to be an assassin of the Head, and that was all; cursed to never be able to be a part of anything else.

So, she decided to become an officially, Hana Association licensed, fixer. She mostly wore casual clothes nearly all the time because it was far more "freeing" than her Arbiter robes, and she joined our office because of a recommendation by the front desk receptionist. 

Rose seemed to nearly be in tears by the end of her sob story, and I lightly patted her on the shoulder to comfort her.

"Listen, your secret is safe with me, okay?" I said. "You work well enough as a fixer, and I don't care about anything else past that." 

"Okay.." She said slowly.

"And, uh.." I felt a bead of sweat roll down my forehead. "Don't tell Yui about this, because she really doesn't like Arbiters." 

"I can live with that.." I reached down to start collecting rifles and ammo, and she watched me with a confused look for a few moments.

"Lemon, what are you doing?" Rose asked.

"Collecting their stuff." I replied casually. "You know rifles and bullets are very expensive because of the Head's taxes, so we're taking them for ourselves instead. Plus, Yui asked for them anyway."

"Damn, you're just looting them dry?" 

I shrugged. "Better for us to have it than them. Are you gonna help or not?"

~~~

"..Are you serious right now?" I growled.

"Sir.. The mission was a failure.." Kim replied, obediently standing in front of me.

"And how, exactly, did fifty of our best soldiers, including FOUR Capos fail to kill one single person?!" I demanded, making Kim shrivel back in fear.

"There.. The pink-haired fixer wasn't a fixer, sir." Kim stuttered, only agitating me more. 

"Was she a distortion or something?! No matter what happened down there, I refuse to believe 2 people defeated 50 of our members and killed a good 20 of them!" 

"Sir.." The Capo trembled in front of me, almost as if he was dreading the news he was about to give me.

"The woman was an Arbiter."

~~~

"Jeez.. that's the last of em.." Rose sat against a pile of around 30, high quality polished rifles, while I was busy stacking and sorting through the ammunition and sorting them into marked boxes.

"Oh, don't complain~ at least you don't have to sort all of the bullets!" I teased, making her groan.

"Lemon, what the fuck do we even need 30 guns for? Your entire office barely employs more than a dozen people, half of which I've never met!"

I chuckled. "It's good to always have spares, and besides, we can sell the rest of these off for alot of Ahn, even if they're used."

Even a crappy, sheet metal pistol was worth as much as an apartment's rent in cash because of the Head's taxes on firearms — let alone if you wanted to actually fire the damn thing. Even if we sold just five of these handmade, polished wooden stock rifles, it would be enough to get our entire office a larger building, augmentations and new weapons, and a night out at a steakhouse.

"I guess you're right.." She mumbled, still unconvinced.

The door to the front lobby swung open, catching our attention when a few seconds later, Mia burst through the door to the storage room we were in.

"God damn, I was looking for you guys-" She stopped dead in her tracks, eyes wide at the massive pile of weapons me and Rose were sorting through.

"Where.. where did you find all of this..?" Mia said in awe, reaching out to touch one of the guns.

"Oh, that?" Rose replied casually. "We got into a little scuffle with the Thumb. Took home a few prizes for ourselves while you were out on your own job."

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"

Chapter Text

Multiple Thumb Members Found Dead Last Night ~ Hana Still Undergoing Investigation of the Incident

At approximately 9:53 PM last night, locals reported the sounds of a commotion occurring from an abandoned warehouse in the area. This warehouse was originally an old distribution center for Lobotomy Corporation, and was used for transportation and storage of materials for the Wing. Since their collapse, however, the warehouse was left in disrepair due to the defunct nature of L corp itself.

Locals described the commotion as the sounds of a loud argument coming from the interior of the abandoned warehouse, before noises of blades clashing and gunshots erupted from the building. It should be noted that even with the cost of bullets, at least a hundred or more individual shots could be verified by CCTV cameras around the area.

"Honestly, whatever happens, happens man. You get used to the average syndicate fighting with each other until you get caught in the middle of it," Witness Jason Ceranova stated. "It's for most people's best interest to stay away from all the action and stuff. I'm not trying to die out here, yknow?"

Due to the warehouse's proximity to a Hana Association Section, a group of fixers were quickly dispatched to investigate the commotion. However, when they arrived, the fight seemed to already be over, with 20 identifiable people wearing Thumb uniforms found dead with various gunshot wounds or slash wounds that appear to have come from a bladed weapon.

Strangely, none of the deceased men appeared to be carrying their signature rifles known widely to be used by the Thumb — neither were they carrying any ammo to use said guns. Whether this is because residents quickly looted the bodies for the firearms or some external factor, the Hana has not released an official statement yet.

"In my opinion, I doubt it was anything that big," Hana Fixer "Riley", who was one of the dispatched fixers to investigate, stated to our reporters. "It was most likely just some Thumb members getting into a fight with some other syndicate or something."

We warn local residents to stay indoors for your safety in case more of these incidents occur in the future, and sit tight as our reporters and The Hana obtain more information about the incident last night.

~~~

I'm starting to regret joining the Hana Association.

Not that it doesn't pay well — in fact, I could probably get enough money to retire in just a few years if I worked hard. No, the problem was having to sit through hours and hours of mind-numbing, sanity-draining paperwork. The near constant daily influx of Fixers, jobs citizens wanted to be completed, and the internal working of the Hana ensured that there was something that always needed to be done. 

In contrast, I'm really starting to not regret getting these awesome headphones, which have proven to be my only lifeline to getting through a figurative (and soon to be literal) pile of documents and bills to sort through. Those fixers should really respect how much me and the other "disposable" employees work to keep this place running behind the scenes!

Then there was that incident not even a block away from the damn building with that abandoned- 

"Oh, uhmm, Hi Riley!" I said, waving at my boss who looked even more dead than usual.

"Hey.." She responded, dumping a fresh pile of papers onto my desk. "Get these sorted and stamped out by tomorrow. These news companies crawling up my ass for their latest scoops on what happened are about to grate on my last fucking nerve.."

"Y-.. Okay, I'll get it done." Normally, now would be the time I start giving my boss shit about giving me even more work to do, but something about Riley's expression made me think twice about getting into an argument for a thing so trivial. 

"Thanks for not being so difficult about it." I watched her trudge into the employee break room, emptying the contents of the coffee machine into a huge, insulated styrafoam cup — and then practically inhaling its contents in less than 10 seconds.

"Hey.. Riley. You alright?" I asked cautiously.

She stared at me with a guilty expression. "I- You know what, I'm not fine, Kate. I'm actually kind of worried right now."

"Huh? Surely it's not over that stupid warehouse incident with the Thumb, right?" I questioned. Even though the Thumb was one of the strongest syndicates in the City, their Soldatos were far weaker than the average Hana Fixer. I bet any one of their captains or caprices or whatever they were called would lose out in a battle against Riley.

"Well.. it actually is what I'm worried about."

I blinked. "What? Didn't you say for the news that it was probably just some Thumb guys getting in a scuffle with another group?"

"Kate, why would I ever tell some shady news reporter the truth? Listen," She glanced around the room, making sure nobody was around us before continuing. "The part that really worries me, you know- uhm, is the fact that we found a lot of strange burn marks in the area."

I shrugged. "So? Must've been some flame-infused bullets or something from those Thumb guys." 

"The thing is, uhm, those aren't any ordinary burn marks, like, from bullets — we always have the same energy readers we have in this building, and those burn marks are practically, like, leaking singularity energy to our detectors — and you know who uses singularities, right?" 

Oh. Burn marks and high amounts of energy still present in the area.. I flashed back to reading that news story about the incident, now realizing it was probably an Arbiter who was fooling around with those Thumb members.

"Well, can you really be sure..?" I said slowly. "Some singularities like Lock are sold in officially licensed, speciality stores. I think the Thumb could afford one of those-" 

"Kate, we had CCTV footage around the area. Wouldn't it occur to you that we know exactly what happened, and chose to withhold any information from the public about what went on?" Riley breathed deeply before sighing. "You know it's our policy with the Head to shield activity of their agents from the general public. Which Arbiter has been casually strolling in here and hanging out in this area?" 

"..Rose."

Riley nodded at me. "Yeah, her. She most likely just up and murdered a few dozen of the Thumb last night for- god knows, I don't fuckin' know."

"Isn't Rose, uhmm.." I wanted to say nice , but was Rose really any different from any other stereotypical Arbiter? She might dress and talk casually like a person, but deep down, was there anything to prove that Rose wasn't some cold blooded killer?

"You think she's too friendly, right?" Riley said, correctly guessing my thoughts.

"Mhm. Doesn't she seem really nice for an Arbiter of all people? I mean, she even told me she's okay with me and you calling her by Rose instead of ma'am or anything- right?" 

Riley shifted uncomfortably. "Look, it's never a good idea to associate with Arbiters, especially as someone working in such a prominent organization. The Head has executed many members of Hana before, even Color fixers who break the laws of the City from time to time." 

"..I guess you're right," I finally said.

Honestly, I didn't really believe that Rose was such an awful person. Even if Arbiters murder people as their jobs, don't fixers do the same things most of the time? It wasn't so hard to believe she was just some ordinary person beneath her role as an assassin of the Head and her power to obliterate anything she comes across. And maybe it was just my naivety talking, but.. 

Wouldn't it be cool as hell to be friends with an Arbiter?!

"By the way," Riley said to me while walking out of the break room.

"Huh?"

"Don't forget the rest of the paperwork that's due by next week, kay~"

"Oh, you goddamn-"

~~~

Now that I knew Lemon had his head on a bounty board, it was only a matter of time until the Thumb came back to try and ambush him without me around to watch. 

The fingers, especially the Thumb themselves, were really serious when it came to things such as retribution for a perceived slight. I'm not sure what Lemon even did to the Thumb besides just leaving the organization, but I'd imagine that even such a simple act like going into retirement would probably result in being labeled a traitor — the Thumb was obsessed to high hell with loyalty.

Their goal last night was probably to try and eliminate Lemon quickly before he could prove a problem, especially since his office was only grade 9 at the moment. Though, considering we eliminated an entire, 50-man Thumb division, shouldn't that be enough to boost us to grade 8 or even 7? I hadn't bothered to read the news, but I doubt nobody noticed the thumb firing off a few hundred bullets just to try and get rid of my boss.

Which really left me with only one reasonable option — I'll strike at them first.

It would be a pain to have to constantly deal with Thumb members crawling up our asses for some perceived slight, which would be an actual slight by now (maybe because we both just killed at least a couple dozen of them..) So, I'll just take care of the problem myself, so that this newborn office doesn't have to worry about fending off one of the biggest syndicates within the city.

Of course, my Beholder already knew exactly who up on the Thumb's chain of command ordered this ambush — but there was no way she could have put together that the only reason they were attacking us would be for Lemon himself. No one would be that petty and stupid, She reasoned.

Anyway, they were that petty and stupid. Which is why I was about to blow a hole through their Sottocapo along with my Claw.

Wearing my Arbiter uniform for the first time in nearly a week was.. heavy, if that was an appropriate way to describe it. Compared to any other clothes, donning my official, embroidered overcoat made me feel as though I had a sense of duty to accomplish. Did I always feel this way with my uniform?

"Are you quite alright, ma'am?" A sudden voice said behind me.

"WOAH- woah!" I whipped around with my palm already out, ready to blast the intruder — only to realize it was just my Claw, Sol.

Now, you might be thinking: Isn't that your first name, Rose?

..I may have used my Claw's name as my first name on my fixer license. I'm not that creative, okay? 

"What the hell are you doing here, dude?! You can't just- sneak up on people like that!" I loudly complained, glaring at the man.

"With all due respect, ma'am, my job as an Executioner is to, in your own words, 'sneak up on people.'" He responded, before tilting his head. "Again, are you alright, ma'am? You've grown strangely uncomfortable to your own uniform."

I brushed him off, rolling my eyes. "I'm not uncomfortable. It's just.. strange. It feels strange." 

"In any case, Hera believes that this little experiment of yours-"

"Oh, Hera this, Hera that. You don't need to worry so much about me, man." I sighed and walked out of my room, with the Claw silently following closely behind me.

Now, if just beating up a section of the Thumb was enough to make it to the news, eliminating one of their underbosses would probably cause an even bigger fuss. I owed it to Riley to, if not explain both what happened and what would happen, to at least warn them what I was about to do.

"Yo~" I said, strolling into the lobby. "Anybody home?"

I was greeted by the sight of the front desk receptionist, Kate, who looked up from a rather large stack of papers, eyes widening and instantly shooting from her slouched position when she noticed me.

"Wuh- Mi-Miss?! I-I mean ma'a-" 

"You can just call me Rose, you know." I said, grinning. "What's with the huge stack of papers?"

"U-Uhm.. Well mi-Rose, I uh.. just had a bit of work to do, y-yeah." She glanced behind me, her expression growing wary at the Claw behind me. "What's with the uh- the actual Arbiter uniform you're in? And is that a Claw..?"

I waved off her concerns. "Oh, that's the reason why I'm here. Is Riley here right now?"

"Uhm, yeah. I can call her, just give me a moment.." She quickly punched in a string of numbers into the front desk's phone, and I stole a look at the documents Kate was hoarding on her desk.

A large number of them were newspapers and news articles, which had their titles highlighted or circled along with various marks in the stories themselves. 

Incident at Abandoned L Corp Warehouse Leaves Hana Association Stunned

Multiple Thumb Members Found Dead Last Night ~ Hana Still Undergoing Investigation of the Incident

Group of Syndicate Members Murdered at Manuve Street Yesterday Has The Community Scratching Their Heads

Damn, I didn't know I made that big of a fuss. To think I left her with all this paperwork.. it almost made me feel bad enough to try and help Kate with all of these documents — I knew how awful it was to have to sit through hours and hours of tests and scan-trons and stamping official looking-things all day. 

Which is why I'm not helping her with it~

"Uhm, Rose..?" I looked up to see Kate staring at me sifting through the mountain of sheets. 

"Oh, sorry. I got kinda bored.. You're working on the little thing that happened last night?" 

"Yeah- Wait," Kate's eyes narrowed towards me. "Were you the one who caused this entire incident?"

Shit.

"Uhm.." I hummed, trying to think of something I should say-

"-And so you left me with a god-damn mountain of homework to do?" She said lowly.

"Weeeell.. Oh- hey Riley! What's going on?" I said cheerfully, waving a hand at the fixer walking behind Kate.

"Nothing much, other than us Hana scrambling around trying to shoo any investigators away from the mess you made," Riley replied, with a slight edge of annoyance in her voice. "The Hana will not interfere in the decisions made by the Head, we won't uhh- object to anything the Head wishes to do, blah-blah. But you're here to give me an explanation or whatever, right? I mean, you're like- in your whole uniform with a god-forsaken Claw . Isn't the Head supposed to give us at least a week in advance to warn of an Arbiter or something coming to meet with us? And now you've- like, showed up 3 times in the last week!"

Now that I looked at both Kate and Riley again, they both seemed really tired. There were bags under their eyes and the usual, perfectly maintained Hana Association uniform all their fixers — including Riley, wore, was even a bit crooked and creased. Did I really cause that much trouble for them?

"Ma'am," My Claw finally said, "The Head owes no explanation to any other association, even for the Hana." He flexed his gargantuan, clawed left hand casually, causing the duo to pale. "It is our duty to maintain absolute secrecy-"

I sighed, holding my arm out in front of him. "Yeah, but I do at least need to tell 'em what happened, right? It makes both our jobs easier."

I explained the entirety of the incident, from the beginning where I received a text from my Beholder, to leading the clueless Thumb to the most safe and inconspicuous (at least to me) area, and telling them why they were even after us (and more like Lemon) in the first place. Riley was right, I did owe them an explanation for all the trouble they had to go through this past week.

"So this entire time.." Riley rubbed her eyes. "They were the aggressors instead of you?"

"Yeah, they were basically-" I stopped in mock offense. "Hey, what the hell do you mean you thought it was me?!"

Riley chuckled darkly. "Still, why bother coming here in official, Arbiter uniform along with- well, him?" She nodded towards the Claw behind me, who maintained standing completely still.

"At least that clears up about half of this.." Kate mumbled, moving a nearly 6 inch tall stack off to the side away from her workspace.

"Well, I just wanted to let you know that we're gonna go and eliminate the source." I said simply.

Riley looked at me in confusion. "What do you mean the sour.." She trailed off, realizing what I had meant. "Don't tell me you're gonna take out an entire section of the Thumb. "

I shrugged. "Hey, if I don't get rid of them now, the bona-fide champions of being-a-pain-in-the-ass are gonna keep coming for both Lemon and his office."

The fixer groaned. "You know how much paperwork we're gonna have to go through to even facilitate this? The amount of censorship of local newspapers, cutting cameras, cordoning off the area and- like- isn't it better to just leave them be and deal with them when they crawl up from their hidey-holes?"

"Listen, it's better to deal with it now instead of later.." I mumbled, and my eyes lit up when an idea came to my head.

"Hey Riley, why don't you just come with us?"

Chapter Text

"Hey Riley, why don't you just come with us?"

~~~

Well, speak of the devil.

Not even around a hour or two after my conversation with Kate about the Arbiter in question, I get a call from her about Rose fucking -I don't know, spontaneously appearing in the lobby. In full uniform. With an Executioner of the Claw.

I really hoped they weren't here to deep clean this Hana Association's Section — though it turned out not to be the case. Rose gave a few words of insight about the incident at that abandoned warehouse, (which might be the single biggest thing to happen in the local area in a few weeks) like it was practically nothing. I felt kind of bad for the irritated tone that had slipped in my voice, because Rose herself seemed a bit.. put off by the way I was talking to her.

Kate might have been right — She was making an attempt, even in full uniform with a Claw backing her, to just talk to us normally, like school-friends on a sunny weekend discussing a group project together. 

Honestly, the longer I had thought about it, the more clear it was that Rose was.. probably pretty new to her quote-on-quote "job". The very-very few times I had personally seen Arbiters in real life, they were always cynical, sadistic, and generally spoke in such a roundabout-and-verbose way that it was near impossible to decipher what the hell they were actually talking about.

The only similarity that Rose; mostly cheerful, casual, and outgoing Rose, shared with those "older" Arbiters (as I liked to call them).. I'm kinda hoping one of her singularities doesn't have mind reading properties or anything, but she's really short for someone who has so much power at their fingertips.

The height difference between her and her at least six-foot-tall Claw didn't really help matters there either.

"Uhm.. what do you mean, 'coming with you?'" I asked nervously. "You said you were worried about paperwork and stuff, right?" She said, "If the Hana Association worked with us, I could probably mark it down as an official mission. Then the Beholders can take care of it!" ..Right. Her idea was to shove the paperwork onto someone else instead of us. Actually, I shouldn't be complaining right now.

"Is that.. well," I glanced at the Claw standing obediently behind her, "Something you should be talking about in the first place?"

She looked at me, confused. "Don't the Hana and the Head work pretty closely together with one another? I mean, you guys are like the Association that oversees all the other fixers."

Isn't there a "Arbiter Training Booklet" or something that this woman had read before, you know, starting her job? The Hana and the Head basically never-ever go together on missions, especially an actual Arbiter alongside their Claw working with some.. comparatively puny fixers.

I couldn't just, like- tell her no, though. I'm pretty sure a Beholder could wrap up and censor this incident much better than we at the Hana could — I wasn't sure what Beholders even did, nor had I ever seen one of their hologram-thingies in person. From the limited info trickling down the chain of command, all I really knew was that the Beholders were the brains, the Claws were the brawn, and the Arbiters were the.. like even more brawn, I guess.

She took my silence as a nod to say something even more outrageous. "You can even bring just Kate and a few other guys around, It'll be like a field trip-"

"Wait, wait, WAIT!" Kate yelled out, waving both her hands in front of Rose. "I'm not even a fixer or anything, I'm just an ordinary person! You want me to fight with you against an entire section of the Thumb?!"

I exchanged a glance with the Claw behind her, almost as if he (she..? they?) were silently telling me " This is the shit I deal with every day. " Did all Claws- like, practically babysit their Arbiters like this, or was just Rose the anomaly here? I even felt a little bad for the person behind that mask — Rose clearly held the actual authority between the two of them, the Claw was just a soldier of the Head following orders.

Rose was pretty clearly proud of this (admittedly awful) plan she had come up with in.. I dunno, five seconds? It was pretty clear that we weren't gonna be able to get rid of her until we agreed to follow her on her self proclaimed mission to eliminate a section of the Thumb. We had other fixers that could fill the gaps, and I could probably call in a replacement at the front desk to fill in for Kate herself. Besides, having an Arbiter in the lobby alongside their Claw was.. like, not the best for customer service?

"Alright, fine." I said finally, interrupting the bickering between Kate and the Arbiter. 

"Oh- okay, awesome!" Rose exclaimed, taking out her phone from one of the various pockets inside her coat. "My Beholder already has the address, all we need to do now is-"

"Hold it." I commanded in a firm tone. "If you're gonna bring my favorite receptionist along-" I patted Kate's shoulder affectionately, "You have to make sure she doesn't get hurt, okay?"

"Wait, you're just gonna let her kidnap.. take me to an actual Thumb hideout?!" Kate said worriedly. 

I rolled my eyes. "Listen, if a god-damn Arbiter can't protect you against some snot-nosed syndicate-" "A syndicate who's part of the Five Fingers!"

"-Then nobody's going to be able to protect you at all." I continued, directing my gaze to Rose. "You will be able to protect her, right?"

It was a little funny watching Rose shrink under my voice, something that her Claw seemed to deliberately ignore. "Uhm.. Yes, Riley." I doubt the Claw themselves were allowed to steer away their Arbiters (if there were more of them like Rose) from doing basically whatever they pleased — so they probably felt vindicated that if a literal executioner couldn't talk her down, at least I was able to.

"You guys wait down here, okay? I'll go grab my team before we set off together." I announced, leaving the lobby to head back inside headquarters. My own group probably wouldn't be too happy to already have to set out on another job — especially considering how it hadn't even been a full day since the last mission we were on.

I'm pretty sure they'd come around when I explained the situation though. Besides.. Who doesn't wanna see an Arbiter beat up a bunch of good-for-nothing criminals? 

~~~

"I need a god-damn explanation."

Standing in front of me were the two remaining Capos of the soldiers I had put together. Surprisingly, Senya wasn't among them — It was a sharp blow to have one of my most talented and loyal captains be killed in the heat of battle, by a disgusting traitor of the Thumb, no less.

"Fifty soldiers. Need I drill that into your heads?" I glared at both of them, who put their heads down in shame. "Fifty our BEST members within this district — not only that, led by four of my most trusted lieutenants! How the hell do you mean to tell me," I said, stepping closer, "That fifty trained members of the esteemed Thumb couldn't take on two people?!"

Capo Dames raised her head slightly to speak up. "S-Sir-"

"Don't give me any of that fucking Arbiter nonsense." I growled, causing the woman to quickly shrivel back. "There is zero chance that an Arbiter of the Head — the fucking assassins of the City would be safeguarding some brat like that kid!" 

I paced around the room, furiously racking my brain for how the hell I was going to answer to That Person about my failure this time. Fifty of the strongest soldiers within this district — an absolutely gargantuan amount for one single mission. And all of them, defeated? Not only was their equipment looted — probably by some good-for-nothing Rats, but 20 of them were killed by two people alone. I would be the laughing-stock of the Thumb itself, if I wasn't executed myself for treason due to the incompetency of my men.

"Is there anything, anything you can say for yourselves?" I said again, sitting back down at the front of the meeting table. "I send a god-damn platoon of our best men out and all you can show for it is casualties?"

Both of them remained silent, almost as if they were trying to flare up my temper. "Well?" I questioned angrily, glaring at both of the Capos.

"..Sir, I plead with you to hear us out," Uriel begged. "That pink-haired girl — she was wielding the powers of an Arbiter, I saw and felt it with my own eyes-"

A flash of silver flew across the room, embedding itself into the man's chest. 

Uriel's eyes bulged out, his throat gurgling with blood as he tried to reach for the throwing knife — before collapsing, dead. 

I slid my hand towards my coat pocket, holding a knife inside between two fingers. "Are there any more lies that you wish to say directly to my face?" I barked at the remaining Capo, who silently trembled in front of me while trying not to move. 

"..N-No, sir." Dames sputtered. "This entire operation was.. the fault of us Capos. W-We failed to deliver fair and righteous justice, as the Thumb always has."

I grunted. "Your remaining Soldatos under your command will be transferred to other sections — As for you, " I glared, daring her to move an inch with my eyes, "Your title of 'Capo' will be revoked, and your office will be handled by a more competent member. As of today, you will be demoted to the lowest rank possible for your failure, without any chance to advance."

"..Understood." She said quietly, sneaking a look at the man dead on the floor below her.

"Guards. Dispose of this.. trash." I said with distaste, nodding towards the corpse. "Dames, yo-"

I stopped mid-sentence, noticing the faint sounds of loud yelling far behind the meeting room, past the double-wooden doors of my private office. "Who the hell.."

Dames paled. "I-I'm so sorry sir, my so.. former soldiers must be in another argument right now. Allow me to discipline them-" I waved her off. "That isn't your duty anymore."

"..."

"Guards, go and break up the fight-" I said nonchalantly, before the noise of an explosion cut by screams could be heard.  Was there a fixer office or something trying to raid our building? I stood up and walked past Dames, grabbing my rifle. Whoever was so arrogant as to invade the main office of a Thumb section was going to pay.

"I'll take care of them myself."

~~~

"Nonono, Rose you shouldn't just-"

KaBOOM!

This entire operation was already going to shit. Why- Why the hell would you blast open the door with a singularity, which I remind you, is in broad daylight to any civilians that could just- stroll on by and notice about 10 people in Hana fixer attire going full "POLICE ASSAULT IN PROGRESS". 

I'm starting to understand why Beholders exist. If they have to cover up shit like this on the daily, then they must be far more stressed than I am..

"Hey boys, miss me?" Rose yelled, holding out her palm with a wicked grin on her face. Her Claw was the first one to enter the building while the rest of us stood in shock, holding out his aforementioned claw in a threatening manner.

"Wh- it's that girl from earlier!" A uniformed member yelled out, drawing the attention of likely many more soldiers to come rushing out to the entrance at any moment.

"As is the duty of the Head," The Claw spoke ominously through their filtered mask, "This entire building has been selected for cleansing-"

ping~ A bullet ricocheted off their mask, falling uselessly onto the floor. "There's more where that came from, you bastard!" The singular Soldato yelled, hurriedly reloading their rifle with shaking hands.

"..." I dared to peek into the room as the Claw casually walked towards the man, struggling to pull the bolt to fire another bullet, before slapping him bluntly with his giant metal hand, easily knocking him out.

A few more people streamed into the room like ants with their rifles ready, backing up in fear when they witnessed the two people standing in the lobby.

"It's that fucking pink-hair from earlier!"

"Why is the Head here?!"

"I didn't go through all of that to be finished off here!"

Me and the other Hana associates cautiously came into the room as Rose blasted lines through the newcomers and continued further into the building — really, it felt more like we were spectating everything going on rather than actually being a part of this job.

"Uhm.. Claw." I said, not really sure how to address the tall figure.

"..?" The Claw turned, tilting their head down towards me.

"Do we really even need to.." I pointed towards the direction Rose had gone, who was already out-of-sight before another explosion rang out nearby. "Yknow, do anything?" Me and my fixers had came fully armed to the teeth with various official-Hana spears, swords, axes, and other assorted weapons and accessories — after all, raiding a main section of the Thumb was no joke. In fact, the Hana would be better off just leaving them alone to their own devices rather than causing a big fuss trying to eliminate them.

A good analogy would be like- trying to fight a fish inside of a fishbowl, even though it might sound a little dumb. Sure, you would come out on top, but all your clothes would be covered in water and- and there would be shattered glass everywhere 'and stuff. 

Trying to rid even one of these districts of a major syndicate like one in the Five Fingers would be as if that fish bowl was rigged with explosives. These guys had Capos the strength of grade 1 fixers, and were usually led by an underboss, or Sottacapo, who was the top of grade 1 with their strength. You'd need an entire strike force of the Hana to clean out this place!

..Now compare that to Rose, who was sweeping through the entire damn place like it was no weight off her back. The gap between us grade 1 fixers and an Arbiter was just too high.

The Claw let out a deep breath through his filtered mask, seeming to sigh. "Ma'am goes on excursions to this degree very often. I am merely here to intervene if something goes wrong, or if Ma'am would unwittingly somehow get into danger herself." You had to feel bad for them. I can't imagine having to babysit an Arbiter every day to keep themselves from doing stupid things. 

"Riley, it stinks of burning in here!" Kate loudly complained, stepping over a few chunks of rubble towards us.

I rolled my eyes. "The burning smell is from miss trigger-finger spamming her singularities like it's Christmas Day."

"That doesn't mean I can't hate it!" "Well, you can just stay outside then!"

"Ma'am..!" A sudden movement caught my attention, and I watched as in a blink of an eye — the Claw drained a blue tube attached to their shoulder, before rushing forward with their arm extended out, ripping and collapsing space itself both in an instant and in an eternity with his clawed arm-

And then he was gone, leaving a 2d crack in the middle of the room, floating in complete stillness. From the inside of the dimensional crack, I could hear sounds of yelling and gunfire emanating through the "portal".

"What the fuck?!" A fixer beside me said, taking a step backwards while watching the crack warily.

"Should we.. go through that?" Kate motioned towards the gate, and a scream could be heard — both from the portal, and a floor above us.

"Y'know, let's just go the less.. weird way." I said, stepping around the portal and pointing out the corridor Rose had gone through to the rest of my crew.

~~~

"Hey, boss man~"

By the time we made it up to the next floor and met back up with the duo, Rose and the Claw were facing off against an especially well-dressed man with a rather-large looking, ornate wooden rifle, flanked by a group of guards with their rifles aimed towards the two. 

Did she call him "boss man"? That's probably the Underboss, then. 

The man's face was flushed with rage, screaming at her from behind his wall of loyal guards. "You dare come in here unannounced, attack my men and trash our-"

She flicked her hand up before anybody could react, conjuring a pulsing, pink-and-gold square out of thin air. The guards raised their firearms towards the Arbiter and fired — and all of their bullets were promptly deflected by an orange puff of choking gas, as the Claw leaped forwards and blocked all of the gunfire.

The man yelled even louder. "Insolence! You are a mere-"

Rose smiled with a look that I'd never seen on her before.

"Square."

A 2d square suddenly expanded from Rose's hand, growing in size exponentially while flying towards the group. A few of the armed soldiers tried in vain to shoot at the square — most of their rounds missed, but I noticed in the single second it took for the square to engulf the remaining Thumb resistance, one of their bullets passed through the middle of the square and was promptly shredded by flashing pink-and-yellow bolts of singularity energy; a small warning for what was about to come.

The square passed effortlessly through the entire group and part of the floor and wall behind them, viciously cutting through everything in its path — and those unfortunate enough to be caught in the middle of the shape's area were torn apart, including the shouting underboss who hadn't even realized what was happening before him, his entourage, and his limbs by extension fell to the floor.

I instinctively reached in front of me to shield Kate's eyes from the gore (because I feel like a receptionist shouldn't have to watch what the hell just happened!) as one of the fixers beside me muttered a few words of awe.

"Holy shit.."

The rest of my group murmured agreements as Rose turned back towards me, making me flinch for a split second. "Well, that's probably it~ My Beholder will send some guys to clean up and corone off the area, so we're free to go!"

..You can't tell me this is normal behavior for an Arbiter.

Chapter Text

"Wooo, I'm finally back~" 

Riley was acting kinda weird the whole time we walked back to the Hana Association, almost as if she was unsettled by something. I'd have to ask her about it later, since Lemon would probably be questioning my absence in duty at my Fixer Office. Hopefully he'll understand when I tell him all about the beating I gave to the Thumb for attacking us earlier. In fact, I could probably fill out this whole thing as one big "contract". Not that anybody had.. Well, even put out a bounty for the entirety of this district's Thumb section, but I'm sure I can bullshit some stuff together later.

I'll probably have to bullshit another explanation to Hera too. She's always really unhappy after "cleaning up my messes" from every single mission I go on.

The first thing I noticed when entering the Eclipse Office again — there were way more people than before. Usually, there wasn't even a single person around in the lobby. But now, there's at least 5 people waiting and sitting around while a receptionist (that wasn't Lemon!) was talking to some guy at the front desk. I walked past the receptionist and reached for the doorknob behind them to go up and talk with Lemon.. only for some big burly guy to stand directly in front of me, blocking me off from the door. 

"Hey miss, you're going to have to wait in line with everyone else."

The man had an ornate, old-school sabre attached to his waist with a golden hand-guard — He was wearing something that resembled a pirate captain's clothing, complete with multiple clearly-fake admiral medals attached to his breast and a cheap looking pirate's hat. 

Really going full naval era, huh? I thought before he tried to gently shoo me away from the door. 

"Come on, miss-" I brushed off his hand, causing him to stop. "Listen, I'm a fixer here. I work for Eclipse Office." I said quickly, glancing at the other guests who were, at this point, staring holes into my back.

The man laughed. "A little girl like you, claiming to be a fixer for our Office? Listen, I know other places would go along with your prank, but we have clients we need to take care of." He gave me a wide smile that had a hint of intimidation hidden behind it. "Get out of here."

This guy doesn't really know when to stop, does he? I sighed loudly, pulling out my fixer license from my pocket. "Alright, you-"

"Hey hey, what's all the commotion going on out here?" A familiar voice said — and I turned to see Lemon casually walking through the door behind which the man was guarding from me.

"O-Oh, Boss!" The man chuckled, scratching his head awkwardly. "I was just telling this young lady that she needs to wait in line-" 

Lemon glanced at me quickly, turning to elbow the man with some force. "Ketch, this is the girl I was telling you about — she's a grade 3 fixer, for god's sake. Why aren't you letting her in?"

"That's Rose?! But she.." The man trailed off, looking between me and the card I was still holding out frantically, as I stared at Lemon in gratitude. Thank you so much for getting me out of this, I tried to signal to him with a look.

He turned to me, exasperated. "And you.. Where the hell were you, Rose? You missed us getting promoted to a grade 7 office!"

Wait, what?! Grade 7.. isn't that 2 grades above grade 9?! Not only did we get promoted, we even skipped grade 8 completely! No wonder there were so many people milling around in the lobby — If our office was grade 7 now, we'd be receiving a lot more clients who now knew we had the strength to handle more serious cases than an average pack of Rats or an escort contract. Besides, I was only gone for like.. what, a day at most? Maybe the Hana was actually backed up from all of my messing-around with the Thumb and stuff.

Sorry, Riley..

"I.. Was doing something pretty important. Can I talk to you about it in private?" I said more seriously, causing the man to roll his eyes.

"It had better be a pretty good explanation, considering you missed our celebration party as well." Lemon responded, teasingly. 

"You guys had a fucking party without me?!"

~~~

Not only was the lobby (relatively) packed compared to before, we also had a few more fixers under our employ — some were lounging around the break room, sorting through paperwork, or chatting with each other. The place was way more lively when the entire section didn't consist of literally 4 fixers in total, and it was a nice change to see in the office.

Lemon had also gotten his own room as well — A small, meeting-room with floor to ceiling glass panes sandwiched between wooden framing, and an actual god forsaken wooden door. Presumably the room was soundproof, considering he was leading me to it despite the curious glances I got from the newly employed fixers I didn't bother trying to meet and greet. I really couldn't remember that many names, anyway.

 "Alright, what did you want to talk about?" Lemon asked, closing the door behind us and sitting at his desk, prompting me to take a seat facing him.

"Well.." I explained how after the Thumb had attacked us, I went and contacted the Hana, and sweeped out the offending Thumb hideout with their help — leaving out a few details like bringing Kate and Riley along, instead just referring to them as general Hana fixers. 

"So, let me get this straight.." Lemon sighed loudly. "You destroyed, no, completely obliterated the section of the Thumb that had attacked us that night, correct?"

"Yeah!" I exclaimed proudly. "They won't be around to attack us again, so-" 

Lemon held up a hand, signaling me to stop. "And you think that all the other offices and syndicates are just going to ignore this happened?"

..Why did I feel like he was disappointed in me?

Lemon rubbed his face tiredly. "Alright, A little crash course on how the hierarchy of the Thumb works. You know how an underboss usually precedes over a section of the Thumb in their district, and depending on the district, multiple Sottacapos can be working in tandem in a single district."

"..Yeah?" I said, confused.

"And so," He grabbed a few pens and moved them around with his hands, "If a section of the Thumb just goes bye-bye," he used one of the pens to knock over another, "the Thumb, and for that matter, any of the other syndicates, are not going to just ignore this happening. And what's the first thing those syndicates will investigate when they see what happened?"

"Uhm.. our office?" I mumbled, my pride fading quickly.

He nodded. "So, you just set like — what, every single major syndicate's and the Thumb's eyes on our small office, which, in their eyes, somehow managed to take down an entire section of the Thumb."

Shit, I didn't really think of that.. Lemon was probably right. I couldn't just take out a small portion of the Thumb and expect our problems to go away. After all, all these smaller syndicates were going to be targeting us alongside the Thumb itself, even if I had momentarily gotten rid of the issue.

So the only solution would be..

Lemon waved his hand in front of me, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Hey hey, what the hell's with that look on your face?! You are NOT going to try and kill the entire Thumb's leader!"

I scooted away reflexively. "I wasn't thinking of that, I swear!"

The man seemed unconvinced. "Listen, now that the Thumb in this entire district has been wiped out; something that you can't seem to comprehend very well, there's going to be a pretty giant power-gap that other syndicates will try and fill, as the Thumb tries to take control again while fighting off the other Fingers."

We sat in silence for a few moments, when an idea came to my head. "Wait, I had my Beholder clean up the area! So the other.. the gang members shouldn't know-"

Lemon cut me off. "Even if that were the case, it wouldn't be long before people start to realize how there is a distinct lack of the Thumb in the area, and they'll start connecting the dots. People aren't that stupid, you know." My boss seemed pretty fed-up with the situation, and honestly, I was too — Why was getting rid of these guys so difficult? You cut away one group and 5 more seem to pile in like nobody's business! It was like a rampant tumor of criminals growing endlessly and endlessly. What the fuck was I supposed to do? Lemon kept putting up sound arguments for how my "mission" had consequences beyond what I had planned for..

Wait, wasn't this what Riley had warned me about earlier? "It's a bad idea to try and wipe out the major syndicates," or something along those lines.

"More importantly," he continued, "Did you even bother to loot the place? Yui's still looking for more ammo, even when we grabbed that strike force's worth of ammunition." 

"..I may have forgotten." I answered sheepishly.

"God damnit, Rose."

~~~

Shit, SHIT! I have to get out of here..

Who could have predicted that the Arbiter we were talking about would just fucking show up at our doorstep and start wiping out our entire attack force?! Our Sottacapo requested — and was granted nearly two hundred god-damn Soldatos, an army's amount of soldiers to prepare for an attack on the Index's stranglehold of this district. While gearing up and training the new force of soldiers, the Underboss requested me and 3 other Capos to ambush an upstart office's founder — A fixer who just so happened to be a traitor to the Thumb. 

Nobody could have predicted that not only was that Fixer way stronger than his grade 1 license suggested, the fixer he was with turned out to be none other than an Arbiter of the Head. We didn't stand a chance against the both of them — Senya and another Capo who's name I didn't remember ended up dying in that excursion, while the rest of us retreated.

The Sottacapo was, understandably, furious. Maybe too furious — As he refused to believe any of our accounts as for what happened, but he had good reason to be upset over the incident. With our failure to capture and execute a single person, our section would be the laughing-stock of the Thumb, and the Underboss would be blamed for all of it. Other sections could have even considered pulling out their reinforcements if they believed that our Underboss was incompetent.

..In my own opinion, he was incompetent, to the very last breath. But now is not the time for reminiscing! I have to warn the other sections, before anyone can take advantage of the power-gap left by the literal erasure of our entire force!

The Head. In one fell swoop, that Arbiter single-handedly wiped out the main building, our main stronghold, killing hundreds of my men.. killing hundreds of people in a raid that took place in less than an hour. Any resistance, even my own righteous anger would have been quelled in an instant in the face of the assassins that could destroy entire wings on their own. 

I did the cowardly thing — While our Sottacapo was making his last stand against the Arbiter, I grabbed what little equipment I had and fled the area. My demotion from Capo wouldn't have been known to any other section so quickly, so I was still Capo Dames to the Thumb.

"Damn you.." I muttered, panting and sitting against a decrepit wall in a dark alleyway. In one single raid, our remaining force in the district was completely wiped out, thanks to one single person.

"Sol Rose.." I'll burn your name into my fucking head, and repeat it so many times that I won't forget it even after my death! If you didn't exist, we would have executed that fucking traitor — we would have gone on and finally beat the Index out of OUR district — hell, I could have gotten recognized and promoted for my hard work! All of that was taken away due to that one single fucking brat!

It's all so unfair, how one single piece of trash erased all of us so quickly! As long as I live, I'll curse your name, Rose! I'll rip you apart, just as how you ripped apart all the people I've known for years!

"I need to move.. need to warn them.." I whispered to no one but myself, shakily standing up and trudging forward. If I could just make it to the border.. I'll be able to warn K corp's Sottacapo about what happened!

Walking forward, one step at a time, I didn't notice in my exhaustion a flicking aura of fire coating my body, if only for a moment..

~~~

"There has to be an easier way to carry all of these.."

A small team of the Sun fixers, including me and Lemon, went out and searched the now ruined Thumb hideout — which thankfully, still had a majority of the weapons and bullets left over by the Thumb. My Beholder must have cleaned out the area, because there wasn't a trace of any bodies left.

Lemon had phrased the job as "looting some old Thumb base" to the fixers, though a few of them must have been suspicious of how all this stuff had gone unlooted — nevertheless, we still went back and forth, piling up stacks of rifles and ammo boxes near the entrance to be carted off to our Office.

"Don't you have a singularity to carry all of these, Rose?" He complained, after cautiously looking around to see if there was anybody nearby.

"I don't." I lied.

I did. But I wasn't about to do all the heavy lifting for Lemon either. That wouldn't be any fun at all — Plus, it was kind of funny watching the pirate guy, who's name was Ketch, having to carry way more stuff than any of the other Sun Fixers due to his size.

I remembered the name Ketch when Lemon had brought him up once or twice — apparently, he was on some secret contract that Lemon still refused to tell me about. I'm sure Hera could figure it out in just a few seconds, but I decided not to pry into the matter and respect their privacy, even if I really did want to know what the hell he was doing that would leave him out of commission for weeks.

"That should be all of it, anyway~" I said, dumping a final rather large stockpile of bullets onto the nearly 7 foot tall, leaning tower of ammunition crates, ready to be loaded onto a moving truck we had rented.

"Now," I turned back to Lemon, "We just have to wait for the others-"

A large crash sounded behind me, and I quickly turned to see the entire pile tumble down onto the floor, spilling clinking bullets everywhere, and denting many of the boxes under their weight.

"..." I could feel Lemon's gaze boring into my back, too afraid to turn around and face him. 

"Rose, you're picking all of that up."

Chapter Text

"I can't believe he made me pick up all of that by myself.." 

Mia snickered next to me. "You had it coming!" 

I huffed, rolling my eyes. "Oh, shut the hell up. I've already gotten an earful from Lemon, and I don't need you piling on top of me too."

I didn't actually pick all of those bullets up. There was no way in hell I was going to spend like 3 more hours reaching for every single round — so before everyone else came around, I may have used one of my singularities to dial-back the pile of ammunition to before it fell over. The only issue now is, even if nobody else saw what happened, Lemon is totally going to make me pick up everything the next time a syndicate drops all their stuff for us to loot.

"By the way, have you been to that really good restaurant around the block?" I asked Mia, who now had her full attention on me.

"There's a new restaurant around here?"

"Yeah, they got this whole cafe-style brunch thing going on — they have these awesome sandwiches, the only problem is the lines are really fucking long, especially around noon-" I stopped, noticing her now blank expression. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"..Are you talking about HamHamPangPang?" Mia slowly said.

"Yeah, that's the name!" I stared quizzically at the woman. "How'd you already know that, anyway? Do you go there often?"

She snickered. "'Do YoU gO tHeRe OfTeN-'" Mia repeated in a mocking tone, scoffing. "It's fucking HamHamPangPang , have you never heard of it?"

"Uhm.. is it bad if I haven't?" I hadn't really spent much time in the Backstreets before I joined Eclipse Office — I usually just hung out in the Nests, where people were more used to Arbiters. In the Nests, seeing an Arbiter was like encountering a police officer in full SWAT team attire. Not really natural, and it might grab your attention for a little while, but at the end of the day, they weren't (probably) there for you. Meanwhile, in the Backstreets, people treated me like I was an Angel of Death descendant from the heavens themselves. And considering my role as an assassin on a bad weekend, maybe that was to be expected. Was HamHamPangPang a Backstreets-only brand or something?

Mia sighed dramatically. "Well, I guess it's to be expected for a sheltered, nest-dwelling newbie fixer like yourself-"

"Excuse me?"

She cleared her throat loudly. "As your superior in the Eclipse Office-"

"I'm like, 4 grades above you," I pointed out.

"I'll personally show you around HamHamPangPang, one of the greatest restaurant chains across the City!" She finished proudly, completely ignoring what I had just said.

"..I've already been there a few times, you know." I raised a brow at Mia. "Why else would I talk about it in the first place? I just didn't know it was such a big deal."

"Okay then, what's your favorite thing there?!" She questioned.

"BLT."

"The BLT? That's just so.. basic! Have you even bothered to try any of the baked goods? The burgers? The pizza?! No wonder you haven't known of it before, you're just..-"

Does she really feel a need to one-up me so bad that she'll try and gate-keep an entire fucking restaurant? I thought in annoyance as Mia rambled on and on about the various menu items. What'd I even do to this girl? Was she still mad about the whole Rat contract I duo'd with her earlier? 

"Alright, if you know what's best to get there, why don't you go and show me yourself?" I asked, attempting to play up to her ego.

"Huh- of course!" She answered. "I'd be more than happy to prove to you that the lasagna there is — just, the most incredible-"

"Also, you're totally gonna be paying for it." "..Okay, fine."

~~~

Maybe this wasn't such a great thing to recommend to Mia. It had been like what, half an hour already? And we were barely halfway through this god-damn line! It was kind of a testament to how popular this place, or rather, this chain really was, though. If people were willing to wait in hour-long lines to get their lunch here, the food truly was really good. 

I still preferred that ramen place, though. No way in hell can I reasonably wait for an actual hour every single day.

"With great food, comes great lines, apparently." I muttered to no-one in particular. There was even a makeshift hostess-stand constructed using a bar-stool and a podium, and a man wearing a slightly-unkempt uniform with brown hair was sorting through reservations and letting individual groups of people into the building.

"Mia, do you usually wait this long just to order here?" I asked.

"Huh?" She said, surprised. "Oh, we got in on a lucky day. Sometimes I'm standing here for more than 2 hours straight!"

2 hours- are you fucking kidding me? 2 hours just to get inside, let alone actually get your fucking food? In 2 hours I could get an entire 5 course meal and still have time left over! Are these people insane?! Like- it's good, but not good enough to burn a good sixth of your waking day sitting in line.

"My airpods are dead, though.." The woman grumbled while fiddling with a plastic-white earbud case.

Yeah, that probably explains how she got through it. Also, isn't Apple a Nest-only brand..? How'd she even get her hands on those in the first place?

The man at the hostess stand looked up at the line, glancing over us once or twice before his.. purple..? Purple eyes widened. He stopped a group of 3 people who were just about to enter the restaurant, beckoning both of us to walk over.

"Hey, Mia." I spoke, elbowing her. "The employee at the front is calling us over."

"Oi-" She stumbled for a moment, dropping the earbud case and quickly snatching it before it could hit the ground. "What the hell, Rose?! Are you trying to break my airpods?!"

I simply pointed at the guy still waving at us, Mia finally taking note of the man as both of us walked towards him.

"Uh, why'd you want us up here?" I asked politely. "Yeah dude, did you really just make us both get out of line to pitch us an advertisement or something?" Mia responded less so.

"You guys are from Ecli-" The hostess stared at Mia, looking scandalized. "What..? No! I just noticed the badges you were wearing," He said, gesturing to the button-pin attached to my shirt. "You're part of Lemon's new office, right?"

"Uhm.. yeah." I answered quickly, before Mia could spout off something stupid again. "Is there anything wrong with Lemon or our office?" I kept my voice flat, expecting him to say a whole spiel about “The Eclipse Office being banned from this establishment for disorderly conduct” or something.

He waved off my question casually. "Lemon's an old colleague of mine. You guys are working under him, after all, so you two can skip the line."

"..Wait, seriously? This isn't a joke or something?" I warily eyed the group of three the employee had dismissed, who were now muttering things about god-damn corrupt fixers and why do they get to cut in front of us?

The man chuckled lightly. "Me and Lemon were, ah.. we worked together in a now-defunct corporation, around a year or two ago." He warmly held his hand out to me. "Name's Vincent, but you can just call me Vince." 

I shook hands with him. "Rose, grade 3 fixer. And Mia," I said while motioning towards Mia, "one of my co-workers, who's a grade 8."

"Well, I won't keep you two waiting any longer." Vincent sat back at his hostess stand, waving both of us off. "It's nice to see Lemon's doing well for himself after all that.." His face cringed for a moment as he sighed. "Nevermind."

"Do you know what all that was about?" I asked Mia, who was staring at me in shock while both of us walked in.

"No, I never got to skip the line before! And the one day I bring you here, we get a free pass for just being part of Eclipse Office?!" She grumbled.

I shrugged. "Maybe it's because you aren't wearing their badge."

"What- You aren't even wearing it either! You're just wearing one of our gift shop's button-pins — Those things are for tourists!" The fixer protested, before crossing her arms. "Besides, I would have been wearing mine if I didn't get it lost. The damn thing just disappeared from my desk!"

"Whatever, still counts." I replied, to her infuriation, before a thought crossed my mind. "Wait, we have a gift shop?"

Mia blinked. "It's part of Lemon's stupid advertising plan. Believe it or not, the fucking thing makes more profit in a day than we do from any regular contract." The woman said, glaring at me. "How'd you even get that pin if you didn't know if we had a gift shop?!"

"Oh, I just swiped it off someone's desk." I responded nonchalantly. "You wouldn't believe how many of our employees just leave stuff around like they own the place."

"..Wait, so you just stole stuff from one of our employees?" Mia said, incredulously. "You- Rose, why are you just stealing things from people?"

"Who cares? We steal stuff from the Thumb all the time — besides, isn't the Zweihandler you use stolen too-"

Someone in front of us cleared their throat loudly, and we both looked to the side to see the front register employee staring tiredly at me and Mia.

"Can you two order, please?" The employee asked with strained politeness.

"Sorry.."

~~~

"I'm sorry, but this is a private business. No trespassers or outsiders allowed."

I stared at the man blocking the dimly-lit, weathered metal door. "Do you know who I am?"

The Soldato looked me up and down, taking note of my untidy appearance. "By the looks of it, you're just some dirty Rat trying to dig up some scraps." He shifted casually, though I could see fingers brushing against the standard-issue wooden stock of his rifle slung across his back. "Last chance, you vagrant. Get the hell out of here."

"..." I sighed, my posture deflating. "I'm part of the Thumb, and I'm here to see Underboss June," I continued, as the man stared quizzically at me.

"Who told you that we're even the Thumb? We could be any average syndicate."

"I know this is a hidden Thumb hideout. In fact, I know about the ones not only in this district," I listed, "but in V, M, and U districts as well. Also, every Thumb soldier uses that same rifle." I finished, motioning to the gun strapped to his back.

The man laughed. "So, you're not just some homeless bitch. It doesn't mean you have the authority to even grovel at the Sottacapo's feet, let alone meet them." He quickly unholstered his firearm, carrying it lightly-but-threateningly in his arms. "Who are you? Some stuck up fixer, maybe? Or are you a rival Finger here to try and take us out?"

In truth, with my augmentations, I could easily have disarmed and beaten this arrogant new-hire down. And with the collapse of my Thumb's section, I could pretend like I had the authority of my Sottacapo behind me to justify my retaliation.

My temper unnaturally flared for a moment as I imagined pummeling this asshole into the garbage-littered ground of this alleyway, and I swear — I felt a rush of warm heat, almost as if there was fire coating every inch of my body.

I shook my head. I was tired from the journey all the way here, and from sneaking unseen by border guards that patrolled the edges of every district. The most I would muster myself up to do is instill some respect into those too hard-headed to give it.

"I'm neither a fixer, nor a rival Finger," I replied. "I'm simply here to discuss a very urgent matter for the Thumb with the Underboss here." I took a step forward, causing him to raise his rifle towards my head.

"Besides, why else would a Capo of the Thumb go to all this length to try and convince a mere Soldato for entry?" The man instantly paled, lowering his gun.

"W-Wait, you're a Capo..?" He said uneasily, staring at my clothing once more — I could see the gears turning in his brain as he registered the various messy, but authentic medals attached to my worn uniform.

"My name is Dames, Capo of L district's Thumb Section," I announced to the Soldato. "And once again, I need to speak to Underboss June. "

"I-I.. Of course, ma'am!" The man stood straight at attention, refusing to make eye contact with me as he quickly side-stepped away from the doorway.

"And what of the tone you were using just a moment earlier?" His expression morphed to horror, realizing that he was shit-talking a person miles ahead of his position only seconds before.

"Uh- I-I'm incredibly sorry, miss- ma'am.. I didn't know of your rank, please.." He bowed in apology, his voice desperately pleading with me.

"What's your name?"

"U-Uhm.. Soldato Jason, ma'am.." He replied fearfully.

I'm totally not remembering this guy.

"Jason, huh? I'll remember how you treated me." He kept his torso level with the ground as I quickly opened the door and entered the building.

The Sottacapo in charge of managing the Thumb's affairs in K corp's district — while any other Underboss would make me heed their beck and call just to earn an audience with them, June was one of the few people I knew back when we were both Soldatos. I was transferred over to L district, where my boss was stuck-up, rude, and refused to listen to both suggestions from his "lowers" and refused to listen to reason.

June, on the other hand, climbed the rank ladder quickly, and even despite the difference in our standings being the difference of the Nest and the Backstreets, we still remained friends, chatting with each other on the phone or through text. Hell, we even had a celebration together with a few other mutual pals when she got promoted to a Sottacapo. 

We probably would have gotten scolded if any of our soldiers saw us sneaking out to an arcade to go and have fun..

Still, June was one of the people I had left who I could trust.. at least, I hoped. I don't know if she would be able to take me in, with all the bureaucracy of the Thumb, and she probably wouldn't be able to lend me any reinforcements to try and build back the holding we had in L corp before the Index made their move. Swift action would be the only way to prevent that, which the Thumb just didn't have. Ranks and the politics in our system and so many things just got in the way when action needed to happen.

It was the only option I had left, though. And I was praying that June would be able to approve me joining this Thumb section, even if just as a Soldato. And if she couldn't, I would be able to use the authority of my dead Sottocapo — after all, he's dead. Nobody would be able to confirm if he really vouched for me, or the fact that I was demoted in the first place.

"H-Hey! What the hell are you doing.. coming in here and.. tracking dirt all over headquarters?!" 

I looked over wearily to a clearly-drunk man lounging on a couch, who had just noticed me due to the influence of.. about 3 beers littered around him.

Oh, god-damnit. Am I really doing this again?

Chapter Text

"Capo Dames, you may now enter the room."

"Thank you." I said evenly.

To be honest, I kind of hated the absolute respect and ranking system the Thumb had sometimes — Every single one of the Five Fingers, the five largest syndicates in the City, had their own weird quirks. The Index had their prescripts they followed as if they were laws commanded by god himself. In comparison, the hierarchy we followed wasn't as demanding and strict as the prescripts, but it was still tiring from time to time.

Walking into the meeting room, I could see June sitting straight up at the end of the table, staring ahead and not giving me a second thought. I bowed politely for a few seconds before raising my head, not forgetting to look away to avoid eye contact. Even without staring directly at June, I saw that aside from the frankly-suffocatingly grand Underboss uniform, and the huge amount of medals and pins attached to her jacket, clinking softly with every slight movement she made..

She was still the same person. Her short-cut, silver hair still remained the same after all these years, though she did look a little more tired in-person than across the periodic facetime meetings I had with her from time to time.

"It's an honor to meet you, Sottacapo June." 

"Likewise." She stated, without a hint of emotion.

I cleared my throat cautiously. Just like we always practiced. "My name is Dames, and my rank is a Capo within the Thumb. I humbly request for your private audience, and for the authority to speak with you on equal terms."

A smile flickered on her face, something only I could notice — Even with my vision augmentations, I could have missed it if I wasn't so focused. "Granted, Capo Dames." She nodded towards the Soldatos who had escorted me inside, both of them perfectly standing at attention and facing blankly forward.

"The escorts can leave now." She announced clearly, and the two men saluted quickly and left the room in a hurry. June glanced at the guards on either side of her, nodding towards the door the two Soldatos had just left.

"Ma'am, if I may interject, it is not safe for someone of your stature to be alone with this unknown figure-" One of her guards spoke quietly, but June held up a hand to silence him.

"Dames currently holds the authority of a Sottacapo, and you will treat her with the same respect that you apply to me." The fact that one of her guards had the balls to speak out of turn — equivalent to a Soldato trying to speak to an Underboss — was testament to just how much more lenient June was compared to my old boss.

"..Ma'am, we both care for your safety," The guard on the other side of June said, "And even if this.. if Capo Dames is trusted by you, there is the possibility of someone else trying to attack you-"

"Do you believe that your Sottacapo cannot handle themselves in a fight?" June simply posed a question to the man.

"I-I was never insinuating that notion, ma'am." The guard quickly replied.

June cleared her throat. "This is a private meeting between me and one other person only, and as such, not even my bodyguards are allowed to overhear what will be said in this room." She nodded towards the doors again. "Go."

I waited until both the guards reluctantly left through the wooden double-doors before stiffly taking a seat, on the other side of the table facing June.

"..."

"..."

We both stared at each other for exactly 5 seconds — the time it would take for the cameras and sound in this room to cycle off, before we both burst into laughter.

"Oh my god- You're a Sottacapo, and you still have to deal with this shit?!" 

"That's what I thought at first too!" She said, vindicated. "The higher up you go, the worse it fucking gets!"

"Jeez.." I chuckled, wiping a tear from my eye. "Hey, what do you think are the chances that the big boss- like, the boss of the entire Thumb hates dealing with this bureaucracy too?"

Her straight-posture relaxed into the chair she was sitting in. "I bet he came up with all these ranks for laughs, and now everyone follows them like it's Lord of the goddamn Flies."

"Yeah, you bet- it's nice to see you again after all this time, too!" I added, internally grateful that June really was just the same as years ago.

"Uhmm.. excuse- me, pardner?" She spoke, clearly trying not to crack up between every word. "This might as well be a damn Teams call with the 30 foot long table separating us!"

Both of us laughed more, exchanging stories from our lives that slowly drove closer and closer to the present — until that dreaded question quickly arrived.

"Alright girl, you have to get to the point." June finally said, a trickle of seriousness leaking into her voice. "It's awesome to meet up with you again, but I know you wouldn't abandon your post just to pay me a visit. What happened?"

I breathed deeply in, exhaling slowly. "Okay, but it's a long story. No complaints allowed."

"My Sottacapo requested reinforcements from every single one of our surrounding districts, due to similar mobilization from the Index across the City. Do you remember that?"

"Yep. God, that meeting was so fucking boring- we had to sit through this moron's Powerpoint for like 3 hours going through every single excruciating detail complete with basically a thousand photos of the Index!" June ranted. 

I deadpanned. "Didn't I just say no complaining..?"

"Sorry, sorry!"

"Okay, and after that, we received 150 members in total from all four of you guys-"

"Wait, wait. Hold it right there," June said, stopping me. "You said all four. Both me and the V Section-Thumb guys didn't send anybody at all. We told him we just didn't have the members.. or rather, competent members to spare."

"Huh? He told us that he successfully convinced all four of the underbosses-"

"Then he's a fuckin' liar and a total bitch," June replied.

I shook my head. "Okay, anyway. Around a few days later, we found out that- like, a traitor of the Thumb had started his own office, and he ordered around 50 of us to go and annihilate him and his colleague he was traveling with."

June nodded glumly. "I remember hearing about that. The dude spammed my fucking DMs with links to both their fixer pages and pictures of both of them. Though.." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "I never heard back from him, even when I tried calling the fucker. Are you gonna tell me what happened?"

I laughed darkly. "Am I gonna tell you what happened? Of course I'm gonna tell you what happened."

"Fifty people went to take those two out, including me. Only thirty came out alive from that mission.”

The entire room was silent for a moment.

"Thirty.." June paled. "Twenty of you.. how the fuck did twenty of you die?" She demanded. “That’s a forty percent mortality rate on ONE mission!”

"That's the exact same thing he asked me and Uriel. I was smart enough not to say anything, but Uriel.." I held my finger up to my neck, imitating my neck being slit.

"That fucker.. " June muttered, clenching her fist. "But still, how did twenty of you die? It was just two people, a grade 1 and a grade 3, for heaven's sake. Did you guys walk into a trap?"

"We didn't walk into a trap." I breathed deeply in and out again, trying to calm my voice. "Sol Rose. She might have put herself in as a grade 3 fixer, but.. Sol Rose is an Arbiter of the Head. "

"Wait.. you.. a-" June sputtered out. "You're kidding, right?!" She finally exclaimed.

I shook my head grimly. "It was a god-damn massacre, that's what it was. Senya and some other Capo that one of the other districts sent in got killed, and we lost a good portion of our forces to that travesty."

“Senya..” June murmured in shock. “There’s.. there’s no way she’s dead! Right?! I just saw her last month — she was.. She was fine!” 

“June, it’s lucky that so many,” God, I felt horrible comparing them like numbers in a report, “got away as they did. That Arbiter could have massacred all of us as soon as we drew our rifles. The only reason why I’m sitting here is because she was holding back.”

June silently looked at the table, clearly not wanting to accept this. “That.. it should be impossible. Why would an Arbiter of all things be escorting some random fucking fixer?!” 

She groaned, covering her face. “Is this why I haven’t been hearing from your section at all? A fucking Arbiter ambushed you guys on patrol, and your Sottacapo is in hiding?”

“No.”

“Then.. This is just all a story, right? A joke?”

I sighed, mentally preparing myself for what I would tell her next. “One day- no, not even twenty-four hours later, Sol Rose came to our headquarters with not only a Claw Executioner,” June cringed as I continued speaking, “but with Hana Fixers leading behind her. That Arbiter cleaned out the entire fucking building in less than 30 minutes.”

“...”

“..Dames, your entire section got wiped out.” June spoke, after some clear deliberation in her head.

“Yeah.” I said solemnly. It took less than 2 days for an Arbiter — The agents of the Head that regularly destroyed entire Wings — to obliterate our entire standing in L district.

“How.. How did you survive?” She asked, still slightly unbelieving. “You managed to survive an Arbiter toppling the chain of command in L corp’s district?”

“We were still having that meeting where the Sottacapo killed.. You know.” I said with distaste. “The Arbiter knocked down our front door, and the idiot charged in with his guard like he was invincible.”

“I knew he was stupid, but not that stupid..” June muttered. 

“And I.. God, I just fucking ran away, okay?” I said quietly. “I had zero, zero chance of fending off an Arbiter and their Claw on my own. I grabbed everything I could and.. and I left everyone there to die.” 

A tear rolled down my cheek, dropping onto my uniform. I didn’t care.

“You went on foot?” June asked. “That's like at least 50 kilometers — and you walked all the way here in what, 1 or 2 days?”

“It’s not like I could just buy a W Corp ticket to the other side.” I clenched both my fists. “I left all of them to die, June. All of my soldiers, Senya, Uriel.. everyone on base..”

June mouthed something across the room. 

I couldn’t hear her. God, I didn’t care either.

“They’re all fucking dead because of one slipup. Because of that one god-damn Arbiter, ruining everything me and so many other people had in that place..”

“Hey, HEY!” June was suddenly beside me, shaking me back and forth by the shoulders. “Dames, you’re..”

I stared down at myself, realizing that a bright red fire ever-so-slightly covered my entire body. The longer I stared, the more the flame visibly dimmed out of existence.

“You’re flickering, Dames..” She whispered, as the flame blinked a few times before finally winking out.

“I.. I’m sorry, I don’t know..” I tried to explain, and June shushed me and quietly wiped the tears from my face with her rough.. wait..

The skin on June’s hands was rough and cracked, with visible blackened-spots and char dotting around her palms. “Oh my god- June, I’m so sorry, I can’t control that, I mean.. I don’t know- are you okay..-”

She shushed me again, grinning through the pain. “I’ll be alright. We have a few K Corp balms for fire and acid burns — but more importantly, you’re okay, right?”

“I.. Yeah, I’m fine, I think.” I stuttered out. “I don’t know what that fire stuff is, I swear! My augmentations might be bugging out or something-”

“No, it was because you were distorting. ” June quietly told me, her worry seeping into every word. “Ever since the disaster of the Library, we know that people distort when they become overtaken by their emotions.” 

“Shit.. was I really..” I muttered, rubbing my head tiredly. 

“It’s fine, Dames. I’m just glad you’re okay.” June sat back down (next to me this time), wincing slightly as she eased herself into the chair using her hands.

“So, we have a pretty major situation on our hands now. We have the Index ready to exert its full influence over L district,” June held up 1 finger, “And we have a known Arbiter exerting their influence in the district as well.” 

I nodded. “That’s part of the reason why I wanted to report back everything I knew to another district with the Thumb’s presence as soon as possible — we have to take care of the Index, or else we’ll be stuck fighting not only the Ring surrounding us, but the Index moving behind our lines-”

June cut me off. “Listen. L district.. Is a lost cause.”

I stared at her, confused. “What?! But.. you’ll just let the Index have their way? You don’t want revenge on those fucking prescript bitches?!”

She glared at me. “Don’t assume I don’t want to crush those god-damn Index into the floor with the stock of my rifle. But if everything you’re saying is true-”

“It is!”

“-Then it means there is an Arbiter who has actively attacked the Thumb not just once, but twice.” June finished. “It would already be difficult to take back control of the district even if it was just the Index with their already prepared forces. But add on the Head itself, and it’s downright impossible.”

“..So we really did just lose that district? Just like that?” I was the one who didn’t want to believe what June was saying this time.

“Yes, we did just lose it like that,” June confirmed. “And not only that, but as the sole surviving member of that disaster, all the other sections will be putting the blame on you for what happened.” 

“What- What the hell could I have done?! What do you mean putting the blame on me?!” I exclaimed angrily. “That makes no fucking sense- for fucks sake, we lost Senya of all people!” Senya was easily one of the most talented Capos in the entirety of the Thumb — hell, I was expecting her to get promoted to Sottacapo in just a few months!

And if she replaced my boss, well, that would just be real fucking lucky too.

“It doesn’t matter if it isn’t rational,” June explained. “The Thumb would need something to blame for what happened, and you’d be public enemy number 1.”

“But.. You’re a god-damn Underboss now, can’t you do something about it?!” I questioned with an edge of panic.

“I.. Even if I used my influence to protect you, there’s only so much I can do. I’d get pressured from all the other sections to reprimand, fire, or even execute you.” She said grimly. 

“They’d.. would they make you do that..?” I asked slowly.

“Listen, I would never, never-ever let the Thumb get to you.” June spoke sincerely, forcing me to stare at her again. “But the only way for the Thumb to get off your back is to pretend like this never happened.”

“What do you mean by that?”

She smiled. “It’s simple! All I need to do is act like I got all of this from the Sottacapo before he died. You would have to be erased from our records, and I have to pay off a few Soldatos to keep their mouth shut too..-”

“Wait. You’re just going to.. practically disown me from the Thumb?” I replied, uneasy.

Her smile faded. “It sounds bad when you put it that way.. but this is the easiest way for me and you to not get hit by any fallout from what happened. All you need to do is-”

“No. I just.. I can’t do this,” I stated hotly. “You want me to give up everything I’ve accomplished for this?”

“Dames, it’s not like that,” June pleaded. “I can redirect some funds to you, you can live easy in retirement for the rest of your life, we can sneak out together and stuff-”

“June, I’ve been in the Thumb my entire life,” I lashed back. “You want me to give up my life’s work, to go into permanent hiding from the Thumb for the rest of my years? I’m not a convict on the run! I’d rather die by your side than give up against that.. that fucking Arbiter, or give up against the Thumb!”

“Look, I don’t have enough favors to even be able to allow you to remain a Soldato!” June said, yelling over me. “If word gets out that you’re still alive — they’ll demote me, they’ll withhold shipments of equipment and ammunition, they’ll punish me in so many ways until I let them hurt you!” 

I stared in shock as June’s expression softened. “I’m sorry for yelling, Dames. But please,” She desperately pleaded, “Can you please just accept this? If you can’t do it for yourself, then do it for me, as your friend-”

“If we were friends, you should have known that I would never agree to this,” I finally said. “I’m not going to die old like some fucking vegetable, I’d rather die standing on my own two feet. I can’t live with a failure this big hanging over me.”

“I..I can’t take the fall for this either, Dames. My entire career on the Thumb is teetering on this single incident. If this goes public, I could never live it down.”

“Then just let me take all the blame for it, Sottacapo June. ” I stood back up, glancing at the scorch marks on the chair I had sat on.

“Dames..” June said softly, her voice full of hurt. “Please, we can work something out here. If you would just hear me out-”

“Take your fucking money and rank, Sottacapo June. I don’t want it, nor do I fucking want to associate with you from now on.” I replied coldly, not caring for this fucking- whatever, anymore. 

“...” June sat in silence, and a drop of water- no, a tear dropped from her face and disappeared into the floor.

Maybe I went too far. I don’t care. I don’t fucking care anymore.

“I thought friends were supposed to be there for each other,” I spoke, voice thick with anger. “Friends are supposed to help each other when they need help, right?”

“That is enough. ” June announced, wiping the tears off her face and standing to face me. “You want me to use my rank? Fine. I am ordering you as a Sottacapo of the Thumb, to leave and never come back. That order is the final order you will receive, as you are officially dismissed from the Thumb, with no recourse or ability for joining our ranks ever again.”

I stood in brief disbelief — but that feeling, along with everything else, melted away into anger as well.

“You are done.” The Sottacapo said angrily, before she turned away from me, trembling slightly. “Dames, please, just go. Just go..” I turned towards the door, gripping the handle tightly with one hand to leave — but not before getting one final word in.

“I would die one-hundred times for you, June. I would have accepted a hundred years of torture to see you walk freely, June. I would go against all the laws of this god-forsaken City for you, June. I would have split heaven and earth itself for you, my best friend..”

“Dames, please..” The Sottacapo said, her voice full of pain.

“I would have never betrayed you, June. It appears you can’t say the same for me.” 

As I left the room, I could, if only faintly hear — the sound of June hitting the floor, and the sound of her muffled crying.

~~~

I felt myself walk outside the building. I didn’t pay any attention to the Thumb members who stared curiously at me, to those who glared at me, to those who felt any sort of feeling at all towards me. I didn’t care.

I wandered through the dark alleyways. 11 PM, on my watch. Good. If I waited, what- 4 or 5 hours, the Sweepers would come crawling out of the woodworks to come and devour me. Good for them. Good for everything, I guess.

I walked until I couldn’t feel my legs anymore, finally collapsing against a garbage dumpster. My head was pounding, and all I could think about was repeating what June had said over, and over, and over again..

You want me to use my rank? You are done.

I don’t have enough favors to even be able to allow you to remain as a Soldato!

You’d be public enemy number 1.

-will be putting the blame on you for what happened.

-officially dismissed from the Thumb,

-leave and never come back,

You are not welcome here, Dames

I hate you, Dames

I hate you

I hate you

I hate you

I hate you

I hate you

I..

Hey.

I opened my eyes, seeing nothing but pitch blackness.. And a flickering flame so far away.

You, who has experienced so much pain and hurt.. you poor thing.

I found that the darkness was solid — and even if I couldn’t walk on it well, I still crawled, ever so slowly, towards the flame in the distance.

This City is filled with suffering and unfairness, wouldn’t you agree?

The closer I got to the flame, the warmer I could feel its heat. A welcoming heat spreading throughout every inch of my tired body, crawling closer and closer with every movement.

Don’t you wish to take revenge against it all, Dames? Nobody would blame you for wanting to rebel against this broken system so badly..

I was only 20 or so feet away from the flame now. The flame had stopped flickering by now, illuminating the darkness around me. I looked down at my arm, only to find it an unrecognizable mass in the vague shape of a limb. Horrified, I stumbled back away from the fire, which flickered once more — and my arm slowly shifted towards its normal shape the further I crawled away.

All you need to do is Link the first flame touch that flame, Dames. When you touch that flame, it will give you the strength to take your revenge.

Despite how the flame contorted my body into something disgusting, I craved its warmth and comfort.. I found myself standing in the wobbly, semi-solid darkness, slowly trudging towards the flame. The closer I got to it, the more the “ground” below me felt solid.

Your colleagues died and abandoned you. Your best friend betrayed and ousted you. And the Arbiter.. they all need to be brought to justice, Dames. They all need to pay for what they’ve done to you.

I was only a lunge-away from the flame now. I watched my feet, legs, and torso contort into the hideous.. No, they blossomed into a beautiful new form. It was only my face that felt the same-ish to its imperfect, human counterpart.

Touch the flame, and you will have all you desire.

I took another step closer, reveling in the warmth and heat the flame gave me.

Touch the flame, and you will get everything you want.

I took another step. The flame was only an arm's width away from my face now.

Touch the flame, and you will become your wonderful true self.

One more step. The flame was mere inches away from me now.

Touch the flame-

Dames, don’t listen to her!

My eyes flew open. What.. what the hell was I doing? Why was I okay with my.. My body forming itself into this sludge? I scrambled away from the flame, shivering from the loss of its heat.

You.. No! You can’t ruin this! I was so close!

Dames, you need to overcome this on your own! You can’t succumb to this, or you’ll distort!

“Ah.. Ah..” I looked down at myself, watching the tumor-like features covering me slowly morph away. What the hell.. why was I okay with being trapped in a fucking pitch-black void of nothingness?!

All you have to do is touch the flame, child-

No! There is no reason for you to submit to this! You have to fight back! Make this flame’s power your own, Dames!

I tried. I really tried. I imagined the flame being the one to touch me instead, because it was all I could think of — and I could tell it was working, when I felt the heat of the flame growing warmer despite me standing still.

STOP! You need my help- You cannot-

Just a little more, Dames! You’re stronger than this stupid campfire!

I concentrated even harder, squeezing my eyes shut and trying my best to envision the flame merging with my torso. What seemed like only seconds later, I felt the sensation of my shirt catching on fire, before an unbearable heat covered my entire body.

“Ggg… GOD, IT FUCKING HURTS! MAKE IT STOP!”

I opened my eyes again, being met with the familiar sight of the alleyway wall across from me. The stench of burning garbage hit my nose, causing me to gag- wait, burning garbage?

I stumbled to my feet warily, staring at the fire that had started on the broken garbage bag I had collapsed on top of. The entire garbage dump was now a roaring flame, making me unconsciously step back in fear.

“Woah, woah!” I pressed myself against the wall, only to feel soft cloth against my back and arms. “The fuck..”

My original Thumb uniform is gone , I realized, seeing that I was wearing a far more elaborate looking maroon-colored overcoat, complete with comfortable matching pants — actually, I felt really comfortable wearing this. I took note of the golden stitching embroidered in various patterns crossing and spiraling around the jacket, and the once uncomfortable heat of the literal dumpster-fire mere feet away from me becoming noticeable.

“Wait, where’s my rifle?!” I muttered to myself in a panic, reaching for the holster on my back. Something attached to the coat clicked open, allowing me to freely inspect the rifle in my hands. The firearm was now coated in actual, well, fire, which was strangely colored maroon like the rest of my clothing, a darker shade than what the Thumb uniforms used. The wooden framing of the gun was somehow not burning despite being coated in the-stuff-that-makes-things-burn, and it was slightly smaller than I had expected — allowing it to fit more comfortably in proportion to my body. I had always complained about my standard issue rifle being too big, and always being told to “Shit, I dunno, kick bricks I guess!”

“What the fuck is all this..” I thought back to what June had said to me: letting my emotions take control of me would cause me to distort. What was the counterpart to distorting? What if you succeeded in that trial against.. God, whatever the fuck that voice was, and instead didn’t distort? What was that called?

“Heyo, I heard screaming over here-” A voice said from outside the alleyway.

I turned to the source of the voice, seeing a familiar pink figure standing in front of me.

“Woah, what the hell are you doing?! Are you trying to commit arson or something?!” The person said.

I looked at the figure again, eyes narrowing. She had short-cut, pink hair, and was carrying something spherical-shaped hidden behind a few layers of what looked like old rags. The woman was wearing a heavy, pink robe with yellow embroidered, hexagonal patterns streaking across the overcoat.

The robe of an Arbiter. I thought. So that must mean this person is..

“Rose.” I said calmly. My own coat flared slightly warmer in response to my emotions, and I held my rifle at ease while scanning her for any possible movement she could make.

“Yeah, that’s m- HEY, DID YOU JUST FUCKING SET YOURSELF ON FIRE?!” She yelled, stepping back while cradling the rags in her arms.

“You might not remember who I am,” I ignored her, “but I’m a former Thumb Capo, by the name of Dames.”

“Uhm.. Yeah, I don’t recall.” Rose attempted to stuff the object into her overcoat to no avail. “Just.. hang on.. I can’t let this thing explode..”

What the fuck was she doing? I shook my head, clearing away the thought. “You killed my entire fucking section, you know.” I said, raising the rifle towards the Arbiter.

“Are you really gonna try and shoot me, miss?” Having given up on fitting the spherical object into her coat, she instead opted to carefully set it on the ground.

I laughed. “I don’t know what the hell this new flaming clothing is supposed to do. What I do know,” I put my finger over the trigger of the rifle, “Is that tonight, I’m going to make you pay for what you’ve done.”

“Uhh..” She yawned. “I mean, okay? Like, there’s tons of angry fixers that want me dead for carrying out my duties-”

I pulled the trigger, expecting a bullet to shoot out of the gun — and while I was correct, a beam of pure flame followed the bullet, racing towards the Arbiter far faster than any regular bullet would.

“..!” Rose, in an instant, held her hand up and conjured what looked like a shimmering, pink-and-gold cylinder around herself, and the flaming line impacted where her head would have been, erupting into a blast of black smoke that made me cough uncontrollably while I tried to fan it away-

Krrrrrk~ 

A line of pure energy - no, singularity energy raced past me, narrowly dodging my torso by only a few inches as it exploded into a shower of pink and golden sparks on the other side of the alleyway. That beam.. No, that line made me feel so uneasy, and I just couldn’t figure out why.

“Alright, firing on an Arbiter, and possessing an illegally-powerful firearm is MORE than enough grounds for your death.” The woman announced stoically, as the smoke unnaturally cleared away from the line blast.

Her palm was outstretched towards me and glowing with energy, and the cylinder protecting her was quickly fading away into nothingness — I noticed something strange, though.

Before that circle could fully dissipate, there was a large crack right where I had shot the bullet at — and even though the object had already faded away into nothingness, Rose still looked slightly on edge from the near-miss.

“I’m not going down without a fight.” I said, raising my flaming rifle once more.

“Oh trust me, you are going to be going down. ” The woman said, before unleashing another array of lines at me.

Chapter Text

Buzzz.. Buzzz...

The noise of my phone vibrating against the table awoke me. I usually left my ringer off, since the harsh ringtone would always make me jump — and I could easily feel my phone buzzing even in my heavy uniform, regardless if the phone was in silent mode or not. I was tempted to roll the other way and ignore the call, but only a few seconds after the incessant buzzer ended, it started up from another call once more.. and again.. and again.

"Nnn.." Okay, who the fuck is trying to call me right now? I fought the weariness from my tired body and forced myself into a sitting position, rubbing my eyes tiredly. I could easily see the phone's screen picking it up, the device's harsh light feeling far more intense due to the pitch darkness in my room. 

"Four in the god-damn morning.." I muttered to myself. I scanned the caller's ID a few times, squinting despite setting my phone's brightness to the minimum. Out of anything it could have been, it was Hera calling me. Why would she bother me so early in the morning? Hell, it isn't even the morning, this is practically still nighttime!

I pressed the accept call button, blinking once or twice before the call went through. "Hera, what the hell-"

"Why didn't you accept my calls earlier?!" Her voice blared through the speaker. "I swear, if you had wasted another second I would have just tampered with your electricity and flicker your room lights on and off until you-"

"I don't know if you know this, but people don't usually wake up at 4 AM, unlike you Beholders who basically never sleep," I replied in a snarky tone. "What the hell do you want right now? If it isn't anything important, I'm going back to bed."

"..Get dressed and get to your A corp section as soon as possible." Hera said, making my blood run cold. "You have an assigned job today, and you're expected to show up to your briefing by 7 AM."

The call immediately went off after her parting words, leaving me staring at my phone's blank wallpaper in the darkness.

"Gotta be fucking kidding me.."

I quickly threw on some clothes, deciding against wearing my actual Arbiter coat — my apartment was, while not right next to my Office, it was still a close enough distance away that I didn't want to risk the chance of someone recognizing me, even if it was early in the morning. I'm sure they had some extra uniforms at base anyway. 

Actually.. no, the last time I got a new uniform, it took like 3 separate emails to get through the bureaucracy of the chain-of-command to get myself a custom coat. Better stuff it in the duffle bag.

I slipped on a warm gray hoodie and shouldered the bag strap to carry the duffle bag like a backpack, taking a seat at my couch to check my phone. It was still 4:18 AM, and the Night of the Backstreets was still in full swing at the moment — giving me at least 15 minutes of time to kill.

Honestly, I could have gone outside anyway. As it turns out, the first time I had entered the open Backstreets without my signature jacket during the dark night, I had found that Sweepers didn't dare cross paths with an Arbiter, let alone go anywhere near me; which was even more impressive when you considered how Sweepers appeared in such large numbers that they were basically shoulder-to-shoulder — I had seen comments on a few videos I had watched out of interest describing the event like "waves", as if each Sweeper was a drop of water in a flowing river.

I didn't know if their willful ignorance was due to the fact that they recognized me using the power only an Arbiter of the Head could wield, or if it was because Sweepers could somehow sense the singularities running through my body. Either way, I preferred not to venture outside during their time if I didn't have to. Though my job was that of an assassin, I found the method Sweepers used to.. sweep.. their victims.. a bit nauseating. 

While I'm waiting, I should probably shoot Lemon a text too. I already don't spend the most time.. lets just say I don't work too much, okay? He probably wouldn't be happy to see me disappear for a full day once again, but this time-around, I had a reasonable excuse. After all, you can't really just ignore the Head, unless you had a death wish — both for ordinary people, and for us Arbiters included.

"Looks like it's time," I whispered to myself as the clock hit 4:34 AM.

Stepping into the noiseless air outside my apartment, I was greeted by a chilly breeze — I should have worn something warmer, but it wasn't too far of a walk to the closest W corp train station. The Sweepers leave no trace of themselves or any unlucky prey that they might have found. Unlike in the Nests, where the roads are crowded throughout every hour with after-midnight commutes, drunken men singing songs or the occasional Association Fixer patrolling as watchmen, the Backstreets are eerily quiet, even when the Sweepers themselves are gone.

Either the few brave enough to leave a place of safety are travelling as quietly as possible, or the naive and cowardly cower in their homes and buildings for the remainder of the night. The W corp train station had the odd situation of being placed directly between the Backstreets and the Nest of this district — so that both residents of either side could travel freely to the station without either a Nest entry pass or migration ticket, or a permit to enter the Backstreets.

While walking towards the station, I noticed the very faint sound of footsteps echoing from behind — Somebody was trying to follow me, clearly trying to stay hidden. It was probably just some Syndicate member trying to rob me for "protection money" or something, or just.. actually robbing me. Whatever. I don't have the time to deal with it right now, so I'm just going to ignore them and hope nothing happens.

Even at this time at night, the station was still pretty active with people on either side of the border patrol that prevented people from running across the station to sneak into the Backstreets and/or Nest. 

"Where to, ma'am?" An obviously tired and annoyed W corp official asked me.

"A corp," I replied without pause.

"A corp? You got the pass for that, miss?" The official looked me over up and down. "You need proof of residence in the Nest along with your Backstreets entry permit, or a Nest Migration Pass, or official proof you've been hired for work inside the Nest." He listed off blandly, narrowing his eyes at me. "I doubt you have any of those three for A corp itself."

Right, I'm not wearing the actual Uniform.. "Just a moment.." I dug around in my pocket, fishing out my actual ID. "Here."

The man raised an eyebrow, quickly snatching the card from my hands and reading it over — before his face paled.

"I-I- I'm sorry for the trouble ma'am. Y-You're free to do whatever you wish, M-miss- ma'am. A- A corp trains over there." He thrust the card back into my hands and retreated a few paces back, as if being quick about it would absolve him of any wrongdoing.

Walking towards the boarding area, I could tell the same unknown guy from earlier was still following me — In fact, whoever was on my tail had gone all the way to the train station with me. I don't think they would be foolish enough to cause a confrontation in the middle of an actual Wing's area, much less one so heavily guarded by patrols and various fixers hired by the Wing to make sure no trouble occurred. 

"Hey." I tapped the shoulder of the first person I saw that was wearing a W corp uniform, and looked like they vaguely knew what they were doing. "Do you know when the next train for A corp leaves?"

"Uhh-" The woman turned around with an annoyed expression on her face, before reverting to a customer-service smile. "I believe in about 30 minutes or so, miss."

I nodded. "'Kay, where's your boss?"

Her smile faded a bit. "..Excuse me?"

"Let me rephrase that — where's the person who has the authority over the train controls right now?"

"Miss, if you're planning something nefarious," the woman eyed my duffle bag warily, "I would suggest against it. We have multiple guards stationed in every single section of this area whom are trained to interrupt acts of terrorism, and we have a contract with the Zwei for additional-"

"What?!" I exclaimed. "You think I'm gonna blow up this place or something?!"

The woman shrugged. "It's policy to remind suspicious looking passengers that any attempted hijacking or otherwise trouble caused will be swiftly dealt with. Besides, you aren't the most regular looking individual I've seen."

I rubbed my eyes tiredly, groaning. "Look, will you just show me?"

"..Fine." She replied after a moment of deliberation. "Follow me."

I was led to what looked like an air-traffic control tower on the opposite side of the boarding area, which somehow wasn't entirely out of place — despite the fact that it was located within a train station. She swiped her keycard at the front door and guided me up a few corridors and flights of stairs, before knocking on a rather average looking metal door.

"Come in," someone inside the room voiced.

The woman opened the door to an array of sensitive-looking panels, levers, buttons, and all sorts of machinery and gadgets — all managed by a single, gruff looking man with a stubby, short beard and black ruffled hair.

"Sir, this person-" She gestured down to me, "Wanted to talk to you."

"Oh, it's just you, Captain." The man chuckled. "I was expecting one of those stuck-up wealthy college boys to come barging in here, asking me another stupid question about what to do for this and that."

"It's a wonder most of them make it past the first week," She replied with a grin. 

"Hmmhmm." The man hummed in agreement, turning his attention towards me. "And who might you just be, young lady?"

"Turn off the T corp singularity for the next train departing to A corp."

"..What?" He stared at me in confusion. "I don't believe I understand what you mean. The only singularity W corp utilizes is- well, our own singularity, ha-ha." He nervously laughed, trying to play it off.

"Don't lie to me. I know exactly what goes on in those trains in the '10 seconds' you guys advertise," I stated, with mild agitation. "A single train isn't going to be much of a loss for your corp or T corp anyway, especially considering what I could do right now if you refuse to listen to me."

The man sighed. "You know that your memory will be wiped after the incident, leaving you with no recollection of what had happened. Any suffering you would receive would be nullified in the first pla-"

The man suddenly glared at me with an intense look — no, he looked right to the side of me — and at that moment, the "captain" who was still waiting in the room drew a hidden blade from inside her sleeve, grabbing my shoulder with her other hand while extending her other arm to stab me.

..Alright, are we really doing this now?

I whirled around and elbowed the woman in the stomach hard, causing her to stagger a step back, recoiling and gasping for air, dropping the knife. I kicked her once more in the abdomen, sending the figure flailing into the back wall with enough force to shake dust from the ceiling.

Meanwhile, the man lunged for a flip-cover at one of the control panels, swinging it open and reaching for a red button labeled "SECURITY". Like hell I would let this guy make things even more annoying. I lifted my hand, concentrating energy in my palm within a split second — and encased the man within a shimmering pink-and-golden cylinder.

I brought my hand closer, lifting the cylinder over to the collapsed woman and, with a snap — roughly dropped the man onto the floor next to far wall, aside the injured woman. "I told you, to just turn off the T corp singularity."

"Boss.. Urrgh.." The woman coughed up blood, gingerly feeling her ribs.

Her boss defiantly stared up at me. "Even if you're going to kill us.. I won't betray W corp's contract for some manic like you!" 

What a troublesome pair.. Is it really that hard to just switch it off? 

A pair of footsteps could be heard — one, then two, someone slowly walked down the corridor towards the control room. I turned away from the duo — they probably wouldn't be getting up any time soon, and faced the newcomer.

"I knew you were planning something dangerous, but I didn't think you would wreck this place so quickly." A young man with combed black hair, wearing a leather jacket over his white t-shirt, stood in the open doorway. He had what appeared to be a longsword with no sheath — only straps keeping it attached to his back, while aviator sunglasses accompanied a confident smile.

"You're.." The downed older man groaned out.

"While it may be partially my fault, for not taking out this Backstreets scum before she made it to W corp's station," He grabbed at the handle of his sword, flourishing it theatrically before pointing it at me, "I'll make up this failure right here by executing-"

"Wait, you're the one who was following me?" Seriously, who does this guy think he is, the FBI Head? Who just follows people around all day in the name of catching criminals in the act? I'm not even a criminal to begin with.

"Silence, you criminal!" The man shouted angrily. "How dare you convince this beautiful lady working at W corp, to let a piece of trash like yourself into this building, only to try and kill both of them and sabotage this entire station?!"

Yeah, this is the kind of "righteous justice" person that won't listen to anything I say. And I wasn't even going to kill either of them in the first place. I really, really should have just worn my actual uniform to begin with..

"I, Bane, am a grade 1, unaffiliated Fixer!" The man announced, as if he was addressing a stadium full of people. "And I'll rid the world of-"

Okay, my patience is going fucking to run out.

Krrrrk~

I pointed a single finger towards the man's leg, shooting a line of pink energy straight through his kneecap. "A-AAAAH!" The fixer screamed, falling to the floor and cradling his pierced leg like a newborn baby. " M-MY LEG! YOU BASTARD!"

God, this guy doesn't have a lot of pain tolerance, does he? How'd he even get to grade 1 in a sorry state like this? The dude's acting like I shot a line through his balls or something. I rubbed my face tiredly. Honestly, he's lucky I didn't aim for his balls.

"Bane! How- How dare you injure our hired workers like that?!" The woman from earlier voiced.

"Look- he's going to be completely fine, okay?!" I replied quickly, turning to Bane. "Listen man, can you just.." The fixer screamed out another string of curses towards me, attempting to stem the bleeding from his leg.

"Oh my fucking god," I muttered. 

No. You know what? No. I'm not dealing with this. Not at four-and-a-half in the fucking morning. 

"Can all of you just SHUT THE FUCK UP ?!" I yelled, stopping the now-crying fixer dead in his tracks. "I'm already so fucking done trying to deal with- with all this bureaucracy while trying to get to my own fucking workplace, and idiots like you- fucking harass me at every damn turn!" I glared at the two W corp employees. "And you two, you guys can't even be fucking bothered to- to listen to a fucking Arbiter of the Head when I ask calmly so many god-damn times, I'm already sick of having to wake up at- Jesus, four in the god damn morning, just to attend a fucking meeting out of nowhere with no warning, and may God-fucking-save-me if I went and decided- to level this god-damn entire building, any other fucking Arbiter would have- fucking, they would have murdered you three for your incompetence by now-"

"Y-You're an Arbiter..?" The tower controller asked.

"YES! What the fuck is so hard to understand about that?! I even got stopped by- your fucking border control at the fucking entrance, like- your workers are god-damn dumbasses-"

"You a-aren't wearing your uniform or anything though, m-miss.." He shakily pointed out.

"..I'm going to actually blow this fucking district up."

~~~

Crunch~ "Mmmm.." 

A well-dressed man in W-corp-blue bowed his head in front of me. "I'm terribly sorry for any trouble we would have caused, miss. If we had known there was an Arbiter-"

I waved him off, still chewing. "It's okay, I guess. Though, the cookies do make me feel a little better."

The ruckus those two employees and the uptight fixer made ended up attracting the attention of other workers, who rushed in to defuse the situation. Thankfully, they realized that I wasn't just some terrorist, which was good — I probably would have actually blown my top otherwise. That annoying grade 1 ended up getting fired and dragged off the premises, moaning about his injured leg, and the two other W corp guys were suspended temporarily. Admittedly, those two didn't really do anything wrong, assuming I actually was just some crook.

The Barn guy or whatever his name was can go fuck himself, though.

The man laughed awkwardly, sitting down on a couch opposite mine. "By all means, enjoy the refreshments. Such a thing is a drop-in-the-bucket to our Corporation, if you consider how much it would have cost to rebuild the surrounding area if my employees had angered an agent of the Head."

"Uhhuh." I reached for another cookie — oh hey, this one is lemon flavored. I wonder if Lemon sees other people eating lemon-flavored stuff as cannibalism or something.. Actually, no. Doesn't he drink a lot of lemon juice anyway? ..Wait, does that mean he's drinking what could be considered basically piss to him-

"Anyway, miss, we at W corp terribly apologize for the delay in your travel. If there's anything we could do-"

I swallowed, before taking a bite of the lemon sugar cookie. "You're good, dude. I was just.. pretty tired from having to wake up super early." 

"Morning commutes — they get everyone, huh?" The man attempted some small talk, carrying a light smile on his face.

"Mhm.. in my case, I have to be at a meeting at 7." I rolled my eyes. "Something about some stupid briefing — I bet they'll just send me to the Outskirts again to deal with another random group of bandits who try and raid the outer districts."

"Ah, 7?" The man said nervously.

"..What's with that look on your face?" I asked, confused.

"Our A corp trains may be running a little late due to some complications regarding the.. last train controller." He scratched his head. "Those two guys ended up damaging some sensitive internal wiring within the walls while trying to subdue you — they failed, of course," The man exclaimed quickly, "But we had to call in an alternate train controller, and spend some time repairing the internal wiring to get everything up and moving again!"

Nerd.

"Wait, so how long is it going to take me to board the next warp train to A corp?"

"Ah.. maybe, two to three hours?"

I pulled my phone out to check the time, finishing the last of the cookie and reaching for another one.

5:56 AM.

"..Hey, you guys got any breakfast service?"

The man looked surprised. "Huh? Well, some of our senior employees have access to complementary meals at our buffet — I'm sure I can inform the guards to allow you inside, just excuse me for a moment-" He walked some distance away, holding his phone to his ear to call someone.

I took a bite from the cookie I was holding.

God-damnit, I'm still going to be late..

Chapter Text

"..You're late, child. How contemptible." 

A (still rather short), but imposing woman stood in front of a projector, holding a pointer in her hand. She was wearing a rather new-generation Arbiter uniform, with really only added golden-yellow stripes across some of the seams. 

It was only the two of us in the briefing room — though, it only served to make the atmosphere even more oppressive. This woman was someone I knew too well.. my self proclaimed (by her) "Mentor", Zena.

I groaned. "Listen, I had some trouble at the train station. Some guys got into a fight and the W corp people had to make repairs-"

She scoffed. "Your Beholder dearly informed me you were awoken at 4 AM, and this meeting was scheduled for 7 AM. There is no plausible explanation your sorry self could conjure up — other than your laziness causing you to disappoint me once again."

"Or rather," She continued, turning to stare me down, "Would it be the fact that you, impudent child, were the one to cause that disturbance?" 

"Uhh.." 

Zena harrumphed, turning back to the board. "Do you believe me to be such an idiot, Rose? It is frightening — rather, embarrassing, the accuracy in which I was able to predict your incompetence as an Arbiter causing others to look down on your position, and attempt to start a fight with you — I must give you credit, though, as you did not manage to get yourself killed by some lowly city-folk — your Beholder informed me of the circumstances as soon as it had occurred — If only you would put your formal Uniform as an Assassin of the Head in higher esteem, but-"

I rolled my eyes.

Honestly, does she always have to talk like this? It must be tiring as all-hell to use so many big words in casual talk. I thought it was just a joke the first few times, but now I'm starting to wonder if Zena has a singularity that makes her ramble on and on like this-

"-That is precisely the reason- Why I had in secret," She continued,  "this meeting in actuality, planned for 10 o' clock instead, after all, the likelihood that you would appear astoundingly late was exceedingly large-" 

Speaking of rambling.. "Get to the point already, Zena."

"Ever the impatient, are you child-" She murmured, flickering the pointer to go to the next slide. "Do you recognize this image, child?"

"You can stop calling me a child.." I muttered under my breath, before looking at the projected image. "Uh, the old L corp's logo?"

Zena tilted her head. "It is rather impressive that someone of your caliber could correctly identify this branding-" 

"Shut up, Zena."

She did not shut up. "Now, we as agents-of-the-Head presume knowledge- well, maybe not you," She muttered loud enough to be intentionally heard, "that L corp produced rather volatile equipment, known as EGO equipment — This equipment was ransacked by both the employees and citizens, and gangs of syndicates alike during the fall of L corp, where a large portion of their facilities went under."

I rubbed my eyes tiredly. "Everyone knows about EGO equipment by now, dude. Especially now that we got a lot of insight from your failure, on what happened to the old L corp — what was it called, the Library?"

Her eyes narrowed. "You'd do well to watch your tongue, Rose. I was simply unprepared for the situation, that in combination with their prior knowledge of battle against the Head meant that it was a troublesome endeavor to successfully execute the original plan — I truly doubt that you and your newborn Claw, being both inexperienced, could have performed any greater-"

"Yeah yeah, whatever." I yawned, stretching my arms out. "So, what about this EGO stuff anyway? Why'd you bring me all the way here to talk about all this dumb stuff?"

The woman sighed loudly. "The occupation of being a disrespectful child's teacher," She said with distaste, "has the potential to become incredibly infuriating — can you not at least show a modicum of prose within your speech?"

"You mean whether or not I'm ever gonna talk like you?" I responded. "The answer, is, god, I fucking hope not."

Zena ignored my response. "In any case, I will redirect this conversation to the Beholder who had discovered this complication which needed to be addressed — perhaps earlier than expected, but it is no matter, only a further testament to your ineptitude as an Arbiter,-" She pulled out her phone. "Regrettably, the Beholder in question could not be here physically, and so I am unfortunately forced to settle for this-"

The phone sparkled to life, and a blaringly-loud voice echoed out of the gritty speaker. "Hey, you're letting me take over now, right-right?"

Zena groaned. "Yes, Luda. Go ahead from slide.. two."

"Only number two?! Damn, how'd you already get stumped-" I could hear the Beholder snicker through the phone while Zena took on an expression of shock while holding the phone up, "Anyway, there's like, 5 risks of level the old L corp used-  ZAYIN, TETH, HE, WAW, and ALEPH, all in ascending order, right?"

There was a small moment of silence before Zena shot me a look. "Oh, I was supposed to respond, uhm.."

My "mentor" looked away in disdain. "Goodness, child.."

"Yeah, I get it.. Luda."

"Alright- so like," The Beholder continued, "After L corp fell, some people took the chance to ransack some of these EGO equipment and stuff, y'know? Basically, there's an ALEPH one — so, an extracted weapon from one of their abnormalities as strong as maybe a Star of the City or lower — We just kinda found it lying around in some abandoned apartment."

"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" I said to the phone.

"Yes, child, of course it's dangerous-" I saw Zena mouth, trying to appear as disappointed as possible.

"Yep, it's some abandoned apartment in K corp's Backstreets — This one's called Sound of a Star, and it's especially volatile, how some untrained, L corp agents could manage to utilize it is something I will never understand —  anyway, you need to go out and confiscate it so it doesn't fall into the hands of some random civilian and end up killing them from its power-"

I shrugged. " Sounds.. easy enough."

Luda tut-tutted. "Nuh-uh, It isn't that simple! If you willy-nilly just pick this thing up, it's gonna probably activate and spew harmful thoughts to everyone in the.. say.. 2 or 3 mile area," The Beholder probably saw my face go blank, because she quickly added, "obviously, it won't be able to harm you at all, but for other people it would be a different story — it's apparently sitting in a pile of old laundry that has been masking its effects, that's how I couldn't find it until now, so you should probably keep it wrapped up in those clothes while bringing it back so it won't go haywire and explode!"

"Uhm.. okay?"

Zena glared at me. "Please Rose, if you handled this mission with even an ounce of care, you would come back with flying colors compared to your usual performance — the way you deal with these things is so sloppy, it reminds me of.." She stopped for a moment, her expression growing blank.

"-Alright, I'm gonna go now!" Luda said quickly. The phone buzzed off, leaving Zena standing with it held out for a brief moment, before she returned it to her coat pocket. "..Child, will you be serious for once? It will do you good to be attentive to my instruction as a Senior Arbiter-"

"Either that, or you're just salty that I'm 'stealing your lines', Zena." I replied. 

The woman sneered at me. "Simply copying my technique will do you no good in the future, child — and while I am glad you could take inspiration from my style of combat, it is mortifying to see how you have twisted it in such a way."

"A square is, like, the least twisted thing that could exist. It's a fucking square."

Zena cleared her throat. "Luda will relay the coordinates and guide to your Beholder, who will in turn inform you of the location- please try not to disappoint me further, child."

"Is it because you're still looking for support from the other Arbiters in that second Library raid or whatever?"

Zena sighed, her posture deflating. "It is.. correct, that I wish to be seen in a more positive light after my failure in ridding our beautiful City of that Impurity — That situation has made me out to be the laughing stock of A corp, and I would rather not be associated with even more incompetency in which you continue to display over and over-"

"I'm pretty sure it's because you talk like you're going to die if you don't use more than 3 sentences to make a single point, not because you're bad at your job." 

Zena looked stunned.

"Nobody likes talking to you, man, or talking like you. Even that other Arbiter- Joy, or whatever, retired after that scandal you had with her-"

A writhing, solid mass of something - No, it was a Pillar, one of the signature Pillars that a majority of the mainstream Arbiters loved using — materialized in front of me, inches from my face. I unfazed, tilted my head to look to the side of the pillar — seeing Zena holding out her arm forward, hand slightly trembling.

"Do not.." Zena spoke thickly with barely hidden anger, " ever speak about Joy again. That situation is one that had occurred ten years prior, that you are wholly unfamiliar with- I do not want to hear a word out of your mouth regarding her character."

I got up from my chair casually. "Gonna kill me over it? Clearly, somebody's got some issues with their pride." The pillar dissipated. "..Tch." Zena clicked her tongue, lowering her arm and walking to the door.

"I expect good results from you, Rose," She said. "So much squandered potential, and for what.." Zena walked past me, leaving the door open as her boots clicked further and further away against the hallway floors. 

"Alright, new mission.." I muttered. I'm sure this would only go well.

~~~

This time, I actually wore my uniform. I had enough problems dealing with security across the districts, so displaying myself as an actual Arbiter was far more convenient. Apparently, the W corp guy I had met with earlier with free cookies had informed the other stations to keep a lookout for me or something, because I got through with even less issue than I had before.

While waiting for the train on the side-platform, I felt a slight tug on the hem of my coat — I turned to see a young girl pulling on my clothes, clearly trying to get my attention. 

"Woaaaah! Your coat is so cool, miss!" She said excitedly, grasping the fabric with both hands.

"Jaclyn! Don't go and bother other people-" I moved my gaze upwards to see an older woman in fixer attire — probably the girl's mother, scolding the girl, before making eye contact with me. Her expression quickly turned to horror, eyes flickering between me and the young girl still examining my coat, seemingly deciding if she should attempt pulling the girl away — and risking an Arbiter's wrath, or leaving the girl alone to suffer the consequences. 

"Uhh.. yeah. It's my uniform." I spoke awkwardly, not sure how to get along with children.

"My mommy," The girl's mother froze still in fear, "says that the train tickets here are super expensive! I bet only people with super cool jobs like my mommy can afford the tickets here!"

"Ehh.. yeah, you're right!" I chuckled nervously, trying to act friendly. "My coat is super expensive too, so don't mess with it."

"When I get older, I wanna wear a cool coat like you, miss!" She smiled before her mom finally made the decision to scoop up the child into her arms.

"I-I'm so sorry, m-ma'am, she's just a little girl, s-she doesn't know who you, u-uhm-"

"Oh, uhm.. it's fine." I waved her off. "Kids will be kids, right?" I joked.

"Y-Yes, ma'am. K-Kids will be kids, yes." The woman quickly walked away, but not before I overheard a question from the young girl — "Mooooom! Why can't I talk with the nice lady?!"

"T-That lady's an Arbiter! You can't just walk up to Arbiters and ask them questions- let alone mess with their stuff, are you crazy?!"

"Ah.." I reached my hand out to tell them to come back, but the fixer was already on the other side of the platform, tightly holding the child's arm.

The intercom screeched to life. "NOW BOARDING FOR DISTRICT ELEVEN, DISTRICT K!"

I was hardly the first in the crowd to make it to the W-corp-blue train slowly sliding across the tracks, but the crowd gave me a wide berth, easily allowing me to pass into the passenger compartment first. The train rapidly filled up after that — but even though there was barely enough space for everyone, nobody sat within 5 feet of me, almost as if I was infected with the plague or something. Some people even decided to stand, hanging onto metal poles and handles rather than sit next to an Arbiter.

The fixer from earlier ended up standing next to me, looking visibly uncomfortable as she held onto a metal handle attached to the roof, with her other hand grasped around the young girl's wrist.

The intercom buzzed to life once again, announcing our departure — and the train's doors closed, speeding us off to our destination.

The young girl from before- no, Jaclyn, looked gloomy when she noticed me sitting alone, her face brightening up.

"Hey! You're here again, Miss Coat!" She exclaimed, drawing the attention of the nearest passengers. "My name isn't Coat.." I muttered, before returning a friendly wave.

"My mommy says I shouldn't talk to you, but you're super nice!" The fixer, now paying attention, looked frantically for the young girl, who had already slipped out of her grip to take a seat next to me.

"Hmm.. that's because my job is really scary!" I replied, grinning. "I'm an Arbiter, y'know?"

The closest passengers, including the woman — stared at us in various states of shock or horror. I found I didn't care, though. It really reminded me of how much more differently I was treated in public as an Arbiter, rather than just as.. me.

"Woaaaah.. Like in the movies?! Like that kinda Arbiter?!"

"Yeah! I'm an Arbiter of the Head! We're like," I stopped, thinking of the right word. "..the really-strong special forces for the Head!"

"I heard that Arbiters were always grumpy 'n stuff.." The girl continued, "But you're super cool!"

"Uhhuh.." 

The train suddenly stopped — the doors slid open beside me, and an intercom announced our arrival to K district.

"Do you know how these trains take 10 seconds, miss?! You're like, super smart and stuff, so you should know!" The girl asked me as the first few passengers cautiously filed out of the doors.

"Hmm.. I actually don't know much about that," I admitted. All I really knew was that somehow, the Claws used little syringes of some blue liquid derived from W corp in order to break through space and transport themselves (or other people) rather forcefully across large areas in a blink of an eye. Besides, was that really something I wanted to tell a small kid?

The girl's mom quickly grabbed the child's hand, making brief eye-contact with me before walking out the train doors. She wore a clearly uncomfortable expression on her face, but it was tinged with less fear and more confusion than anything.

"I'll see you later, Miss Coat!" The girl yelled, waving at me before her mom quickly shooed her away.

"Ah.. yeah.."

I waved back.

~~~

Getting to the apartment block proved not to be a problem — I mean, how could it be when you were being fed directions left and right by a (slightly snarky) Beholder? 

The door to the apartment ended up being locked, so I had to blast through it to get inside. There was nothing out of the ordinary around the dusty room — maybe a few stale instant-ramen packs, some unfolded laundry.. ah.

I felt a slight tremor as I stepped towards a pile of old clothing in the corner. Looking closer, I could make out a spherical object's outline inside of the clothes.

My phone buzzed at that instant, and I pulled it out quickly to check the recent notification.

Make sure not to expose any part of that thing. There's no telling how volatile old EGO equipment could be. -Hera

"Right.." I muttered to myself, picking up the pile of dusty laundry. I felt the sphere inside of the pile of clothes vibrate for a moment — I repressed the urge to drop the thing while it hummed quietly, and then it apparently decided to shut itself off.

"Eeech.."

Now all I needed to do was take this.. thing.. back to headquarters and pack up for the day.

I could go for a sandwich right now.. or maybe a burger.. actually, I wonder if those two are up for dinner?

A scream distracted me from my thoughts while walking down the street, before I saw a flash of light from the corner of my vision — from a nearby alleyway. I cautiously peeked around the corner to see what was going on.

"Heyo, I heard screaming from over here-" I turned my gaze to a figure in a maroon-red cloak, standing beside a very-currently burning dumpster.

"Woah, what the hell are you doing?! Are you trying to commit arson?!" 

The figure turned to me, allowing me to make out their features. Surprisingly, they were a girl, with tied, but messy blonde hair — probably some cultist or minor syndicate member trying to prove themselves, judging by the religious-styled golden stitching criss-crossing her uniform. 

The woman frowned at me. "Rose."

"..Yeah, that's me-" ..Wait, how the hell does this person know my name? Don't tell me it's someone from District L that recognizes me from the office..

Her coat suddenly flared bright red, completely smothering the woman in flames within seconds. "HEY, DID YOU JUST FUCKING SET YOURSELF ON FIRE?!"

I unconsciously stepped back as the woman glared at me, standing completely fine in her aura of fire. "You might not remember who I am — but I'm a former Thumb Capo, by the name of Dames." Did she have some temperature-resistant augmentations or something? What was the point of setting yourself on fire out of nowhere?

"Uhm.. Yeah, I don't recall." Am I supposed to know that name? I feel really dumb right now.. Oh right, the fucking EGO equipment!

I moved my overcoat a bit in an attempt to shove the spherical object into my shirt, glancing at the woman who was now just looking at me awkwardly. "Just.. Hold on.. can't let this thing explode.." I muttered.

The woman looked lost for a few moments before shaking her head. "You killed my entire fucking section, you know." She said, before reaching behind her back, pulling out a similarly blazing rifle and pointing it towards me.

I stared questioningly at her. "Are you really gonna try and shoot me.. miss?" I was no Claw, but I could easily dodge a bullet headed towards my way — really, any grade 2-3 fixer or above could.

Also, this thing wasn't gonna fit in my uniform.. I ducked down and set it aside on the ground beside me, making sure not to let any part of the sphere peek out of the pile of old rags.

The woman looked puzzled, and then laughed. "I don't know what the hell this new flaming clothing is supposed to do. What I do know," The woman's finger moved over towards the trigger threateningly, "Is that tonight, I'm going to make you pay for what you've done."

"Uhh.." Oh great. It's another one of these vengeful types that come after me after I get ordered to expunge some syndicate or corrupt office. Why can't I just ever have an easy job? Maybe it really was a good idea not to have the uniform on after all..

I yawned. "I mean, okay? -Like," I continued, "There's tons of angry fixers that want me dead for carrying out my duties-"

The woman pulled the trigger, and both of our eyes widened — instead of a bullet, what appeared to be a burning column of flames burst from her gun, speeding towards me far faster than any actual bullet was supposed to go.

I shot my hand up, forming a line within my palm in an instant, forming it into a rapidly-expanding circle to provide a barrier around myself. The very next moment, the flaming shot impacted the now solid-cylinder, making me breath a sigh of relief.

"I swear, these fucking trigger happy-" I grumbled, dissipating my cylinder — until I froze in my tracks. Where the flaming line had hit the shimmering wall, a very visible crack was spread across the area, spider-webbing along the structure.

No matter what it was in the City, no legal firearm could deal enough damage to, while not shatter, deal significant damage to my barrier. How the hell could some shoddy flaming rifle put a crack into my cylinder?

I was simply unprepared for the situation —  Zena's voice rang out in my head. The woman had seemed surprised at how capable her flaming clothing and rifle were, almost as if she had never used either of them until this very moment. Even if she couldn't feel it, I could sense the very same presence of Willpower that her Claw, Baral, had mentioned to me. Because of course, I couldn't understand what Zena was saying half the time.

That red-haired woman utilized something called EGO — Which means that this person, Dames, was an EGO user. She had manifested her EGO.

I raised my hand once more, shooting a zig-zagging line to where the woman was.

"Alright, firing on an Arbiter, and possessing an illegally-powerful firearm is MORE than enough grounds for your death." The smoke around the line slowly faded away, revealing the woman still in shock, looking past her — rather amazingly my attack had missed, seeming to have detonated on the other side of the alleyway.

The woman unsteadily raised her rifle again, closing shut an eye and aiming down her sights.

 "I'm not going down without a fight."

"Oh trust me, you are going to be going down."

My outstretched palm glowed with singularity energy, before a shower of lines raced to meet another flaming bullet...

Chapter Text

Krrrk~

BLAM!

The sound of ember bullets, clashing head-on with singularity-infused Lines of raw energy, echoed across the empty street.

Just when I thought this request would be cut-and-dry.. Get the fucking EGO equipment and get out of dodge! That was all I had to do!

"Are you crazy?! Don't you know that I'm an Arbiter?!"

The woman ignored me and simply raised her rifle once again, chambering another bullet that was sent only inches from my head. Despite the fact that it was past midnight by now — The heat of her flaming EGO and projectiles was more than enough to send me into a mild sweat from the temperature rising in this once-busy road.

If I just hadn't said anything at all, I would be walking into headquarters with an easy job complete! Do I have to be this freaking unlucky?! The one disturbance I come across turns out to be some crazed lady that wants me dead-

While the former Capo was slotting in another round, I took the opportunity to blast another rose-golden Line, straight through her shoulder. The woman fell with a yelp to the ground, her rifle clattering to the ground.

I walked towards the figure slowly. "You aren't going to be beating an Arbiter, lady-"

-only for a bullet to race towards my voice, missing my face by a hair's breadth. I stumbled back as the woman jumped to her feet, having aimed her rifle conspicuously towards me while laying on the floor. 

"Oh, you god-damn bitch.." 

She put a hand to her shoulder, wincing slightly before turning to glare at me, her clothing — no, armor, flaring up even more with intense flame.

"This is nothing.. nothing compared to the anger I felt at your hands for destroying my entire section!" The woman dashed towards me, having turned her rifle around in an attempt to bash me over the head with the stock.

~~~

I grit my teeth.

Rose's Lines were something I had to watch out for. Despite their thin size, they had the capability to pierce straight through the raging flame that my clothing gave off — And when I had gotten hit by that Line earlier, it had made me feel unnaturally weaker than I should have been from a simple piercing wound.

If she keeps dodging my bullets, then I'll send her straight to hell myself! I grabbed my rifle by the barrel, charging at the surprised Arbiter, who still had her hand down. She wouldn't be able to react..

I took a split-second glance at her outstretched hand, which wasn't unguarded at all — instead, there was a crackling formation of four Lines in her palm. I watched in slow motion as the Lines in her hand conjoined together at 4 separate locations, forming a small, but maliciously-glowing Square that followed her hand as it turned towards me.

That's..- That's the move she used against the Sottacapo..!

I stopped my momentum forward dead, trying my best to shield myself for the inevitable, pulsing-square to race towards me..

~~~

Is she seriously trying to melee me? How desperate is this girl?! 

I clenched my hand, gathering energy within and forming it into a square within a matter of moments. This was my favorite area-denial technique, something I developed against a Color Fixer I had the misfortune of dealing with months ago. The expanding field that would cut through anything that dared to touch it, and rapidly fire Lines through anything caught through the middle of the shape — Square.

The woman seemed to realize what I was planning, and braced herself accordingly, stopping in her tracks and huddling against her rifle. 

It's too late for that!

I released the square towards her with a flick of the wrist. Despite her heavy guard, she passed straight through the middle of the square — and this is where my magic happens!

As soon as she entered the square's field, a cascade of Lines streamed towards her from all sides, like lightning — And in the next second, the square had gone on its way, tearing through a concrete wall before I dissipated it manually. Dames fell to the floor, her EGO's flame growing dimmer.

"That's enough, Dames." I said, gathering up energy in my palm for another Line. God, I've already wasted enough time on this.. Hera is going to be so pissed.. "You've lost-"

Her clothing suddenly burst into a massive bonfire, blasting me away with fire and making me cough from the smoke. The woman arrived like a truck barreling towards me, swinging her rifle to the side to knock me down — I barely had the time to create another circle to protect myself before she slammed the stock of the firearm into it.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! You're already heavily injured-" I watched as she, in fury, repeatedly slammed the butt of her rifle into the walled cylinder, attempting to break through the structure.

The wound I had shot through her shoulder was bleeding profusely despite the fire, and her entire body was covered in deep gouges and slashes that dripped blood onto the floor with every attack she performed to my barrier.

"It's not fucking over.. until.. I FUCKING KILL YOU!" Dames roared, flipping the gun quickly to send a round into the shimmering cylinder — already under stress, the walls of the barrier finally cracked, and the trailing bullet flew straight through my arm, stopping my hand from charging energy for a split second.

"OW-!" Dames ran towards me, swinging her rifle straight down in an attempt to crush my skull. I barely had the time to narrowly-evade before the butt of the stock impacted the ground, sending shards of concrete flying along with a dust cloud. I skidded backwards, coughing and groaning, holding my wounded arm limply.

~~~

"Haah.." Her stupid fucking barrier finally cracked — I doubt she was going to use that any time soon. All it took was one good hit to land in order to put Rose down for good — Even with all her augmentations, it didn't appear as though she could shrug off one of this gun's bullets. Rather unfortunately, though, the wound it drilled through her had cauterized from the heat, so I couldn't rely on blood loss to finish the job.

"There's more where that came from.." I chambered another bullet into my gun, holding it steady towards the Arbiter, waiting for her to make a move.

She looked away for a second at some distant point, before glaring straight at me. "Fine. You want me to get serious about this?"

Rose raised her hand towards the sky, very much visibly gathering energy into her palm. It didn't even take me a moment to register what she was about to do..

The signature move of any Arbiter of the Head, their Shockwave!

I quickly jumped back, holding my rifle out sideways in an attempt to block what was coming. Rose seemed unfazed, simply grinning with a dangerous glint to her expression. What the hell was she planning with this? I was ready for any counterattack that she could pull out after this Shockwave — her Square was simply too slow to catch up with me if I kept my distance, and with that wounded arm, she couldn't pull off her perfect aim as easily with any Lines. What was her goal here..?

The Arbiter smirked. "I'm ending this here — I'll wipe you straight off the face of the City!"

My instincts blared warnings into my ears. I was far enough away by now that her Shockwave would do little to nothing, especially if I guarded myself against it. Was there a way she could have..

A tiny glimmer of light flashed out the corner of my eye. I looked up to see a mass of gathering energy right above me , a small eye of calm right before the storm.

God damnit, Rose..!

"Placed Sho-" 

Fwoooom~

I didn't get to hear the rest of what she said before a raw explosion of hair-curling, malicious wave of pure-pink-colored energy slammed me into the ground forcefully, causing me to lose my grip on my weapon and choke out a shout of pain.

"Uurugh.." My arms moved themselves to a crawling position, trying to heave myself up-

Fwooooom..

 until a second wave of the same Shockwave, feeling even more powerful than the first, completely intombed me into the asphalt of the street. 

Several somethings cracked in my body. My bones? Ribs? I couldn't tell — everything was a haze of pain as I struggled to get up to my feet, failing miserably.

"Enough resistance." Rose swiped something from the ground — my rifle, and examined it closely before tossing it backwards, leaving her between me and my weapon. "This is over. Not even an EGO user is going to stand up against the might of the Head."

"EGO..?" So that was what that flaming clothing was called.. I swear, I heard.. heard that person.. talking about it once during our meeting, but I must have forgotten..

"I can still.. fight.." I shakily got up to my feet-

Krrrk~  

A pink-and-golden Line blasted straight through my kneecap, making me cry out in pain and collapse back down to the ground. 

"This.. This is over." Rose said — with a hint of discomfort in her voice, holding out her palm once more to execute me.

So this is all I amounted to.. You were right, this City is so unfair.. You could live with pride in one moment, and lose everything in the next..

And even this.. this power I had, wasn't enough to fight back against the Assassins of the City.. 

The only thing I could do was stare Rose in the eyes defiantly, urging her to just kill me and get it over with. My EGO had cooled from a raging fire into a dull ember, barely strong enough to keep me warm in the chill of the Backstreets.

I was a failure until the very end, huh-

"DAMES!"

~~~

I tilted my head curiously. Me and Dames looked up from the kneeling woman to see a sharply dressed, silver-haired girl, flanked by 2 red-coated, rifle-wielding soldiers on either side of her — It was the Thumb, and this girl appeared to be some sort of leader among them. 

"DAMES!" The girl ran forward with no hesitation, leaving her soldiers stunned for a moment before they also followed her, rifles raised to fire on me. 

"June.." Dames weakly croaked out.

I sent the Line I was charging at the silver-haired one, blasting a 2-inch thick hole through her leg. She cried in pain and fell to the floor, as the four Thumb Soldatos all yelled in concern for the girl.

"Boss!"

"This bitch dared to hurt the Sottacapo! EVERYONE, FIRE!-"

With a wave of my hand, a shotgun spray of zig-zagging Lines flew towards each one of the standing soldiers — and in the next moment, they were dead, clattering their rifles to the ground, crumpling down to the ruined street.

"Reinforcements?" I scoffed, trudging forward to the groaning Sottacapo — the title that one of her soldiers addressed her as. "You really think 5 people are going to change what's gonna happen here-"

"NO!" Dames grabbed onto my leg, stopping me from getting any closer. "You- You can't.."

I watched in confusion as the heavily-injured Dames got up to her feet — foot, as her other leg was unmovable and simply hung limply — trembling in pain and fear as she assumed a fighting stance in front of the injured woman.

"..What now?" I asked, exasperated.

"You.. You can kill me.." She gasped out, "But don't.. don't lay a finger on her, please.." The Sottacapo behind her spoke. "Dames, you don't have to! You're bleeding everywhere, and, and.."

I blinked. "Don't lay a finger on her, or.. what?" 

Dames continued to stare me down, still attempting to put up a brave front as her body shook involuntarily.

"What could you possibly do that would make me spare her life? You don't have the means to stop me." I sighed. "You're bleeding from dozens of lacerations on your body, your left leg-and-arm are useless, and you're going to pass out or die from blood loss very soon," I pointed out. "What's the point of all this? What was the point of wasting my time like this?"

"You don't understand.." Dames spoke, slightly quieter. "You Arbiters are all the same — going around and killing people out of nowhere simply because you have the power and authority to. You took everything I had built up, the people I had known for years dead in an instant for daring to stand up against you. Don't you have any guilt? Remorse? Any- Anything at all?!" She ended in frustration, barely holding herself upright.

"I don't have any remorse for ending the lives of those I never knew." I replied. "Your section attacked me, and I simply responded in kind. I do my job, and that's it."

Pity and guilt only get in the way of things, child- Zena's voice echoed in my head.

"You.. you just "do your job"?! What kind of bullshit is that.." She murmured. "Who the hell let someone like you become so irrationally-strong..? There's no justice in it. None at all.."

"That is simply the way of the City."

Her expression hardened. "Fine. Kill me then. But I'll struggle until the very end, so at least I'll have done something.. I won't let you kill my.. this person.. for no other reason than-"

A hand suddenly gripped her shoulder, nearly pulling the woman down — The Sottacapo had gotten to their feet, sporting a.. hey, is that a fucking K-corp brand bandage? Where the hell did a syndicate even get one of those, even if it's one of the Five Fingers?

"Dames.." The woman said slowly, her voice slurring — most likely from the anesthetics in that bandage flowing into her system to both dull the pain and her mind. "I won't let you.. go alone again.. if you're going to die, god-damnit, I'm going to die with you.." Her rifle was handled clumsily in her other hand, aiming half-hazardly in my general direction.

"June.." Dames tried to brush off the Sottacapo, but she held on — leaning against her, then turned to face me. "Whoever you are, I won't let you.. I won't let you kill my best friend!"

"..What's the point of this?" I held my palm out to the duo, gathering energy into my palm. "This is a futile attempt at revenge against an Arbiter. I could have killed both of you minutes ago and moved on. Why bother with all of this when it won't matter in the end?"

Neither of them flinched from the clearly-glowing hand I aimed towards them. "Why bother? The same reason humans bothered to create the City, to create a society! Do you think we'll sit down and accept our deaths like it's nothing?!"

Dames spoke next. "You.. wipe out my entire section, and then dare to ask why I want revenge..?" She shook her head tiredly. "You killed hundreds of people in that one day alone. People with dreams, People who had lived for years and years, People with their own wishes and aspirations and stories — and you ruined all of it. Of course.. Of course I want revenge against you.."

I stared at them, puzzled. "Killing is just a reality you have to accept in this City. That section is a mere drop in the water compared to the Fixers who execute criminals, the criminals who execute innocents, and the many dozens of syndicates and offices fighting for control in every district."

Even so.. My eyes flickered, for a moment, to my palm — which, while gathering energy, hadn't formed into one of my Lines at all. I could usually do that without even concentrating, almost as if creating the one-dimensional and two-dimensional Lines and Shapes was a task as-easy-as breathing. So why.. why was I hesitating here?

Dames and June didn't seem to have anything more to say. I focused on creating a line, pointing my hand towards the two again..

Oh. Oh..

I stared at them once more — and realized why I had even bothered entertaining this useless argument at all. 

They're just like those two.. Riley.. and Kate..

I had never really thought about it before, but what did these two do that deserved all.. this.. other than joining a Finger instead of an Association? That fierce look in Dames' eye, it was just like Riley.. And that uncertain, wary gaze was just like Kate's..

What if Riley was the one in this situation instead? Would she take up arms against me — Hell, I already know the answer. If I annihilated her Hana Section, her friends, her colleagues, Kate.. there's no question that she would give her all to take revenge on me. 

Would Lemon execute these two without a second thought? Would he seperate this away as "just a job", and let it flow through his conscience unfiltered? 

..I dropped my arm with a sigh. 

"I'm not."

Dames and June stared at me, puzzled. "Wha.."

"I said, I'm not going to do it. Kill you, that is." I breathed deeply in, taking a look at the surrounding area. Blasts of charred and twisting holes alike could be seen through walls and buildings, and the road and surrounding buildings were completely destroyed from my shockwave. 

Shit, the EGO equipment! Where'd the hell it go?

"After all this, you're going to give- hey, where are you going?" June called out towards me, as I dug through rubble and assorted dust in the alleyway we started in — before finally reaching the rag of clothing, which, miraculously, still contained the Sound of a Star EGO.

I turned back around, cradling the pile of old rags, much to the twos confusion. 

"Uhh.. nevermind." Dames shook her head weakly. "Why would you bother sparing me now after.. after all you've already done? What kind of sick joke is this?"

"That reason is personal, and it's mine to keep secret." I brushed off the concrete powder still sticking to my hands. "Besides..-"

Faintly in the distance, I could hear the sound of scraping and gurgles — both of them must have noticed it too, because they were instantly on edge.

"Shit, it's nearly time for the Sweepers.." 

I pulled out my phone with my other hand, checking the time. 3:11 AM. There were also about 50 unread messages from Hera, but I'll just ignore that for now.

"Nice going, you two. Not only am I gonna be late as shit to bring this back to headquarters, there's also gonna be a bunch of Sweepers wandering around for the next hour looking for a midnight snack." 

"Huh.. Hey, how the hell are you going to be so casual about this?" June yelled. "I doubt even an Arbiter like you- could fend off three waves of Sweepers like nothing! Do you even know how many Sweepers just- fucking, appear out of nowhere?"

3:12 AM. I rolled my eyes, grabbing both of them by the wrist with my free hand and leading them over to the closest building, so we could have a wall against our backs.

"Hey- the hell are you doing?! Are you just going to go around and ask people for entry?!" 

3:13 AM, the beginning of the Night of the Backstreets.

"Rose, what the hell are you.. planning.." Dames weakly groaned, moving to a sitting position against the building.

"DAMES!" The Sottacapo's concern quickly switched to the still-bleeding woman, who had left a trail of red-stains across the ground towards our current location. It's a miracle, really, that she hasn't passed out from blood loss by now.

"Hang on for me! You aren't going anywhere, okay?!" June crouched down, taking a few of the same very-illegally procured K-corp bandages from her pocket, wrapping them around the more grievous wounds on her body.

"June.."

I could hear the sounds of marching, as a few Sweepers followed the trail of blood towards the building we were against. The first among them, a taller, bulky Sweeper, chattered something and raised his hook threateningly-

Before a Sweeper next to them chittered something else into their "ear". The larger Sweeper and their group quickly backed away, leaving me and the two alone. A few seconds later, I heard the sounds of their hooks digging into something else — probably the group of 4 Soldatos that were guarding June.

"What was.. what was that?" June asked, concerned.

I sighed. "Do you really think a Sweeper would try and attack an Arbiter? Pissing off the Head only spells a death sentence for their group of weirdos."

"Ah.." 

I checked my phone again. 3:16 AM.

I'm going to be here for a while..

~~~

A vision of flame dancing across my eyes..

I reached out to touch it, but it wisped away, farther and farther..

Am I in a dream, where..

...

"..I'll leave you guys alone in L district. But if the Thumb comes after me or my office again, The first people I'll be looking for are you two.."

The sounds of voices talking.. I struggled to move or open my eyes, but an overwhelming sense of exhaustion covered my body, as if it was a thick blanket I couldn't bring myself to get out of..

"Alright.. Rose. You'll have my word on it. The Thumb won't be interfering with you ever again."

"I'm not going to compensate you guys for your casualties. That's the only warning the Thumb is going to get if they mess with an Arbiter — but I'll overlook.. what happened here."

"..."

"Looks like the hour is up. The Sweepers should be gone, so I'll head back to complete my mission. If Dames asks, tell her.."

I couldn't overhear what Rose said, but I heard the sound of both of the two giggling after. "Okay- Ok-ok, I'll do that."

"See you- Well, hopefully, I shouldn't. Goodbye, though."

Click, clack — Rose walked away from wherever the two were talking, and a few seconds later, a set of footsteps walked towards where I was sitting.

"Dames, Dames! The Sweepers are gone-" June shook me from side to side.

"Nnn.." My eyes fluttered open, and I was met by the sight of June's face right in front of mine, concern creasing her brow.

"Oh thank god.. I thought you wouldn't wake up, you lost so much blood.." I looked down at my body, eyes widening as much as they could when I saw bandages with K-corp's logo stamped all over them wrapped around every part of my skin.

"Uggh.." I tried to get up, but June stopped me. "Hey- don't move yet! I don't know how steady these bandages are gonna hold.."

What happened..? I was about to say, before a truck of memories came flooding back to me.

The mission to eliminate the traitor..

That Arbiter decimating all of us..

The Sottacapo murdering Uriel in front of me..

Him dying shortly after to that Arbiter..

My escape..

June..

Argument..

Fighting..

..Rose.

"I.." I glanced guiltily at June, who seemed to be confused. 

"Dames, what is it?"

"I'm so sorry.." I murmured.  "All those.. the arguments we had.. I'm sorry for.." 

"Oh." June looked surprised. "I.. It's all in the past now. You don't have to worry about that now. I'm.. I'm just glad you're fine, okay?!"

"But.. all those things I said, June.. I.. I just wouldn't listen.." I choked out, a solitary tear streaming down my face.

..nor do I want to associate with you from now on.. A memory echoed through my head.

I thought friends were supposed to be there for each other..

I would have never betrayed you.. 

Take your fucking money and rank, Sottacapo Ju-

Slap!

"Hey, snap out of it!" June smacked me across the cheek angrily, before her expression softened. "I'm sorry too, Dames. I knew that you wouldn't have agreed to what I was saying at that time, but.. I held hope that you would have understood.. but it's in the past now, okay?"

"I.."

"Listen," June said. "I'm your best friend, okay? That's not gonna change anytime soon, and I wouldn't give you up for anything, okay?"

I'm your best friend, okay?

"..Okay." I nodded weakly.

"I called some of my guys over here — they'll be coming any minute to help us get back to base." June smiled, a bright smile that, for once, seemed so unclouded — it reminded me of the good old days, where we were both just Soldatos, going on patrol and chatting with each other about everything under the sun..

"Hey.. what about.." What about that Arbiter — What about Rose? But something told me not to bring up the topic. At least, not so soon..

"..?" 

"Nevermind.."

"We're gonna get you patched up, Dames. I'm sure the other Sottacapos won't have the balls to complain about me anymore.." June muttered, before she stood up and waved to a group of red-wearing Thumb members that nearly walked past us.

"You alright still, Dames?" June said as the group quickly rushed over towards us. "Ah.. yeah."

I returned June's happy grin. 

"I think I'll be just fine."

Chapter Text

After I was brought back to the Thumb headquarters, June had ordered that I was to be taken to her personal room — much to some of her soldier's dismay.

"Ma'am, why would you go so far just for one injured person-"

"Quiet," She barked back. "Don't question my orders. This is a private matter, and as such, I expect the utmost in caring for my.. our guest."

That shut the more belligerent complainers among them. Being phrased as a respected "guest", especially a guest to a Sottacapo themselves, meant that they would treat me with the same respect that they showed to their own Underboss. 

Still, some of them didn't approve of me. Even with K-corp branded bandages and wrapping, whatever wounds had been inflicted by that.. that woman's singularities seemingly, no, near actively tried to fight against any healing that would have had me back-up in shape by now. Neither my nano-augmentations that allowed me to heal faster or the expensive bandages showed much progress at all — but June ordered that her soldiers stand guard over me at all times, and for some of them to help change my bandages from time to time.

The next few minutes.. hours..? They were all a blur to me. K-corp's bandages may have accelerated healing properties, but they also contained numbing agents and sedatives to help dull any pain from grievous injuries. I spent most of my waking time in a haze, slowly piecing over and contemplating memories of the most recent events that had led me here. Even if I wasn't wrapped in heavy bandages and blankets, I doubt I could move much anyway.

Aside from that, whenever I drifted off to sleep, I kept experiencing that same dream- the dream that I had seen with my own eyes whenever I nearly became a distortion. A burning flame, flickering so-far and yet so-close, both in an inch's reach and a mile's. The voice that tried to convince me to touch the flame never showed up, though — It was just me, left alone with that flickering flame, until I eventually woke up.

My mind gradually cleared with time, however. June frequently checked up on me to bring me liquidy-soup that I struggled to choke down, and talk about the fun things we did in the past. It was all I could do to nod in acknowledgement or nudge a finger. I wanted to speak, but the effort was far too draining on me — "Besides, Dames, you need your strength to get better," She said.

As my injuries began mending themselves after a while, sometimes I could overhear shouting and arguments from below me. June's Office, which was converted into my hospital-room, was directly over the meeting room where she greeted guests — and while the room was sound-proofed with some of the best technology the Thumb had their hands on, my hearing-augmentations were powerful enough to pick up the conversations she had with the people that came and went.

The last meeting she had was when I was nearly fit enough to walk on my own again. The bandages stayed on to improve the speed of my injuries mending, but it was easy to feel that I had enough strength to move my arms and legs.

"Sottacapo June, that- that's completely ridiculous." A masculine voice said, from below me. "What the hell do you mean, the Thumb stationed in District 12 was 'wiped out'?!"

I heard her sigh. "I had this conversation with Mare and Lolita already — that idiot in L-corp's district got himself, and by extension, his entire force, on the bad side of an Arbiter. What more do I need to tell you? You know how fickle and vengeful the Agents of the Head are."

"God- we sent one hundred, a HUNDRED of my finest, most well trained, and strongest Soldatos to that guy!" The man yelled. "You're telling me that every single one of them were killed?!"

There was a pregnant moment of silence in the meeting room. I weakly looked over to the two guards, standing on either side of-the exit to the room. If they had heard anything at all, they didn't show it.

"Sottacapo June-" The man started, "I know you're one of the most senior and competent among us Underbosses. Hell, I wouldn't doubt that you'll be in charge of the entirety of the Thumb's operations in the southwest. But what you're saying now- it just isn't believable. Don't you have any proof of this even happening?"

"..I do." A few seconds later, there were sounds of gasping and hushed whispers throughout the room. "That Arbiter didn't stop at District 12 — she came to me personally, and forced me to agree that we would never, never interfere with her or her.. as she described it, 'side job', ever again."

What did she show the people she was meeting? I thought briefly, before realizing that it was, most likely, the giant inch-thick wound clean through her kneecap that.. that woman gave to her.

"By side project, do you mean that traitor- more-so, that office she has been spotted at several times?"

June hummed affirmatively. "If the Thumb dares to set their eyes on the Eclipse Office, or any of their members, that Arbiter said 'The first people.. person I'll be looking for is me.'"

 "Tcch.. So is that it?" The man grumbled angrily. "We give up control of District 12 to the Index with no resistance at all? That fucker.."

"As long as we leave the Eclipse Office alone, the Arbiter told me 'she doesn't mind the Syndicates any more than she minds the gravel under her feet'."

"That arrogant bitch.."

June cleared her throat. "In any case, this has been a major loss to the Thumb, but not irrecoverable. In fact, I'll personally lead half of the soldiers under me to set up influence within the district."

"Half?! That's.. nearly three-hundred and fifty!" The man spoke, stunned.

"It's not an unreasonable number if you consider not only the Index, who are exerting control over District 12, but the various smaller syndicates that are under us as well, which we need to manage." 

"Besides," June continued, with a hint of amusement in her voice, "If I lead the largest amount of soldiers to recapture L-corp's district, I'll be the one to receive the most praise for my actions."

Another pause. "..Tcch. Come on guys, we're leaving."

The man and the various soldiers that had accompanied him left the meeting room, their complaints and grumbling much more identifiable now that they had left the sound-proofed area behind. Judging by the way he referred to June, the man she was meeting with must have been a Sottacapo himself. Even more strangely, June hadn't mentioned me at all..

I heard her quickly walk up the stairs to the floor I was on, her footsteps marching towards the room before the door opened. 

June looked around, eyeing the two soldiers stationed to me. "You're dismissed. This is a private conversation between me and the guest."

The two Soldatos quickly exited the room, grateful for the break.

"Ahhh.. thank god.."

"Another private meeting.. only god knows what boss is up to.."

June carefully closed the door behind her, walking up to me. "Hey-hey- Dames, you here?" She said, in a much softer voice than in the meeting.

"Nnn.. y-yeah, I'm here.."

She grinned. "That's good, 'pardner. I was scared you would be asleep again."

I chuckled softly. "Who were you talking to?"

"Oh, just some up-tight Sottacapo from U district. I've been having to meet with all of them to relay what happened in district 12." June rolled her eyes. "They're all idiots, not-gunna lie. Formality demands I have to speak with them professionally, though."

"That must suck.." I rolled my eyes. "I could tell you were lying out of your ass near the end, though. Really, 'she didn't mind the syndicates more than she minds the gravel under her feet'? You're so dramatic."

"Well, I have to make it believable, riiiight?" Her expression turned a bit serious. "Say, Dames- by now, you're nearly well enough to walk, right?"

I blinked in surprise from the question. "Ah- yeah..?"

She sighed. "Now that all the surrounding Underbosses know of what happened, this is probably the best time to use Rose's plan B."

Rose. The memory of-the-name hit me like a truck. "Wha.. What do you mean by 'plan B'?"

"I didn't want to tell you, considering last time.." She trailed off, before shaking her head. "At this point, there's nearly nothing neither of us can do otherwise anyway."

"Huh.."

"It's better if you see for yourself," June deftly slid a hand into her coat-pocket, taking out a black business card and a hastily-looking written note. She handed, or rather, set the note and card next to my face so I could read it better.

The black business card was what appeared to be an official card issued by the Head — there was very little on the card itself, other than a name, Rose, and a phone number printed in bold-white. Just like Rose herself, the card's only decoration was rose-golden colored streaks across the card, stretching from the back to the front.

Rose's plan B, as June said.. I looked to the note, expecting the worst. I didn't know what that woman would cook up for me- retirement maybe, or..

or..

Reading over the note, I couldn't help but look shocked, causing June to chuckle a bit.

"This is.." I muttered slowly, double checking the note to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

"..Dames, it's not as bad as it sounds," June pleaded. "You can't exactly.. join.. the Thumb again.. or else the truth of what happened will uncover itself eventually-"

I weakly raised a hand up, making her pause. "I.. actually, I might be okay with this.."

June sighed in relief. "You know, Rose ended up telling me that the only reason why she.. you know- it was because of those two. I guess this was her first instinct, in-case you couldn't rejoin us."

"..When can I start?"

"Well.. let's pay 'em a visit when you get better, alright? For now," June walked over to a mini-fridge, pulling out a tupperware container, "We're going back to L district tomorrow in order to set up a new command-point."

"Ahhh.. not the soup.." I moaned, in mock-fear.

"Hey, you need to eat something at least!" June said sternly, before cracking up in laughter. "O-Okay, say Aaaa.."

"Fuck you, June."

She shoved the spoon into my mouth, forcing me to swallow the chilled-liquid with a cough.

"God-damnit, you little-"

"Here comes the airplaaaane~"

"FUCK OFF!"

~~~

"You know, I never thought to ask — why do you even drink so much lemon juice?"

Lemon gave me a weird look. "..What?"

After I had retrieved that EGO equipment (with a little bit of fighting) and returned to A corp, I was in for a earful of scolding by Zena. She went on and on about how I was a "shining example of incompetence among Arbiters" and how I could have possibly not only had any trouble at all with an EGO user, but actually get injured by one. 

I feel like Zena sometimes just projects whatever insecurities she has onto me.. After all, wasn't she the one who got her ass kicked by some old L corp employee who was utilizing EGO in that Library or whatever? Something about a "Red Mist.." 

Not only was Zena lecturing me, but Hera, my own Beholder, was angry with me as well. When Zena paused to take a break from her rambling, Hera went on after her about how I completely ignored any of her texts, asking if I needed my Claw, or backup from the district's Hana section, or even another Arbiter.. Look, how the hell am I going to respond to my phone if I'm in the middle of a god-damn fight?!

"Regardless, child, you did manage to actually retrieve the object — I suppose that earns you at least an ounce of praise."

Zena never stayed mad at me for long. Whether that was because she didn't have the energy for it (because nearly half her words needed to be looked up from a dictionary) or she genuinely was a little proud, I could never tell. The scariest part about being around her was not the fact that she was an Arbiter, but the fact that her way of speech would probably rub off onto me if I hung out with Zena for too long. God, I don't want to imagine myself speaking a riddle for every single sentence whenever someone asks me something. What's one plus one? Someone would ask me, and I'd be like, "Well, what does it actually mean to combine the numbers one and one together?"

. .SEE?! She's.. I'm actually getting infected with a Zena virus!

Anyway, I did make it to the Eclipse Office eventually.. by now, it had been like, what, 36 hours or so after I had left? I'm sure Lemon would understand the reason I had left, right?! I mean, being called up by The Head themselves for a work matter seems like a pretty good excuse.

"Rose- having to 'go on a cool mission for the Head' is not an excuse to be ignoring your duties as a fixer in our office."

Shit.

Lemon rubbed his face tiredly. "Look, I know your.. unique identity may cause you to go.. absent, from time to time. But you've done basically nothing for the Eclipse Office so far, other than getting rid of a pack of Rats with Mia."

"What about taking care of the Thumb?!" I protested. "That has to count for something, right?!"

"We've already been over this — that's going to do nothing but cause us even more problems." Lemon explained. 

"Well.. I at least got the office a lot of supplies, right? I mean, the bullets and rifles and stuff.." I mumbled quietly.

He sighed. "Listen, you weren't even around for the two times we've been promoted in grade-"

"Wait, two?!"

"We're grade 6 now, but that isn't my main point. All of our other fixers, both in the Sun and Moon section, have been working hard day after day to improve themselves and our office. Even Mia is a grade 5 now — all thanks to the new augmentations she's been able to afford from commissions."

I sat in silence for a few seconds, while Lemon took a long swig from his lemon-juice can. 

"Rose," He exhaled after his sip, "I can't exactly force you to do anything. I know it has to be at least a bit stressful working two jobs, especially one with the Head — but at the same time, it's starting to get really suspicious, at least from the other employee's side of things, how one of our highest-grade fixers is always absent and has done basically nothing so far."

"..I guess you're right," I said finally. "What can I even do, though? By the sound of things, you guys have gotten everything covered without me."

"Well," Lemon thought with some deliberation, "Since we're grade 6 now, there's bound to be a few more dangerous contracts our clients have asked of us. One of the more annoying ones," He dug around in a file-cabinet to the side of his desk, pulling out a folder, "Is a newly born Distortion, which has started to be called 'Lion's Rook'."

"A distortion? I thought only grade 4 or 5 offices and above got those."

He shook his head. "At the moment, we're one of the highest-grade Offices in the area. And this is a lower-grade Distortion, only around Urban Myth. I'm sure it won't be a problem for you, even if you're holding back- But you really need to actually do something for the office."

I waved him off. "I get it, okay? Nobody has taken this contract yet, right?"

"Well, that's the thing.." Lemon hesitated. "Mia is the only one that wants to do that contract right now. Not only that, she's 'waiting until you come back' so she can show you how strong she's gotten."

"Ah.." I deadpanned. "Of course."

"Anyway, I'll give you the details and the information of the case later, so you can study it before you get started-"

"Wait- wait! Don't I get a say in this?!"

"And obviously, you'll need to secure or kill the distortion to finish the contract," Lemon continued, ignoring me. "Y'know, Mia's actually pretty excited to see you, even if she doesn't act like it. You should try and be a little nicer to her, even if she can be.. overbearing sometimes."

"Overbearing is an understatement."

"Okay, that's all I needed to tell you about," Lemon took another sip from his lemon-juice can. "There was this thing about Yui coming to visit to see what was up, but it wasn't really much of anything important-" Lemon waved me away. "Now shoo."

I got up and opened the door to the meeting room, only to be greeted by a certain, arrogant, Zweihandler-wielding fixer.

"Look who finally showed up, newbie!" Mia shouted, smiling widely.

~~~

Another slow day at the Hana.. 

After the excitement of watching Riley (not really) and Rose in action, the pace of things had really slowed down. A good person would be glad that no incidents were going on.. and a bad person would be bored out of their mind.

Evidently, I am a bad person.

"Here's your new license, sir.." I said sluggishly, dropping a card into an awaiting man's hand.

"Thank you!" He waved, the bell over-the-door clinking as he left the building.

I wish something new would happen.. I thought, picking at the dirt underneath my fingernails, when I caught a flash of red from the corner of my eye.

"The hell.." I muttered, looking out the window. The windows in the Hana Association, or at least, this Hana Association Sub-Section, were one way tinted — which meant while anybody inside the building could clearly see out, anyone outside the building without high-grade augmentations wouldn't be able to gaze into the lobby.

And so, very strangely, a man in a dark-red uniform appeared to be staring straight through the window, at the front desk where I was sitting. He carried a clean, wooden-stock rifle on his back..

Wait, isn't that a Thumb Soldato?! What the hell are they doing here?! 

One Soldato quickly became two — then four, then ten. In only the span of a few minutes, a crowd of Thumb members parked themselves right in front of the doors to the Hana, loitering as if they owned the entire place.

None of the guests or fixers waiting in the lobby seemed to notice, except me — most of them were reading through provided magazines, examining their equipment, or texting or calling people on their phones. What the hell was going on?!

The door suddenly swung open with a chime, making me flinch. A well-dressed woman in short-cut, silver-gray hair, entered the lobby alongside a very-slightly limping blond-haired Thumb soldier. The woman had an uncountable amount of awards and badges clinking on her over-sized, Thumb-colored jacket, that clinked with every single step she made.

Despite the fact that I was an employee of the Hana, an association that prided itself on wiping out these very people, the rules of rank and loyalty among the Thumb played through my head. 

Bow your head when greeting a superior, don't make eye contact.. The gray-hair had far-too-much grandeur in her step to be any average Capo.. and with the massive amount of awards displayed on her clothing, there was a good chance she was a Sottacapo, someone who ran Thumb operations in an entire district!

As the duo approached the front desk, I couldn't help but bow my head slightly, not making eye contact with either of them. "U-Uh, hello.. uhm, what are you doing here- I mean, uh, how can I help you today-"

The blonde-haired woman read a note in her hands, while the Sottacapo glanced over her shoulder for-a-moment, checking over the wrinkled paper. "We're here to see an employee here named 'Kate'," She spoke with ease. "She's a receptionist that works in this section of the Hana."

They were looking for me?! 

"I-I uh, that would be me, but- I mean- I'm Kate, the receptionist, miss- ma'am, uhm-"

The Sottacapo stared at me, seemingly puzzled. "Well, if you're Kate, this note is for you."

The blond-haired woman handed the note to me, alongside a black business card — wait.. wait. This is a official business card issued by the Head- not only that, this is Rose's FUCKING BUSINESS CARD! YOU REALLY LEFT ME TO DEAL WITH ALL THESE PEOPLE?! 

I put aside the business card, suddenly understanding why all these Thumb members were here — Rose probably got in trouble with these guys, and put all the blame on our Hana Section..

I took a look at the note, expecting something far different than what was actually written. The handwriting was pretty bad, but I could still make out all the words quite easily.

THIS NOTE IS FOR THE EYES OF JUNE OR DAMES ONLY!

Hey, Rose here. Uhmm.. I know you mentioned that Dames would probably be out of a job after all of this was over, so if Dames is actually reading this, hi! I know a few people that can get you hooked up at a job in the Hana. Just ask for Kate at the Hana Section in L district, it's only a few blocks away from the Eclipse Office!

She's a receptionist at the front desk, but if she isn't around you can ask for Riley instead. She's another fixer here that I'm friends with, around grade 1.. I think?

I rubbed my eyes tiredly. The rest of the note was mostly just useless tid-bits and rambling by Rose. There was an entire section complaining about someone called "Zena" — But anyway..

"..Rose sent you here?" I asked.

"Uhm.. yeah?" The Sottacapo coughed. "Ahem- I was told, at least by, well, that Arbiter , you two knew each other at least a little. My friend here-" She gestured to the blonde woman, "Wanted to retire from the Thumb to join the Hana as a fixer."

I blinked. "Isn't that.. wait, isn't the Thumb obsessed with loyalty or rankings or whatever? Why would you just- like, willingly let one of your soldiers defect to the Hana? Aren't we supposed to be enemies and stuff?"

The blonde-haired woman chuckled. "Well, the situation is pretty complicated. Especially considering the fact that an Arbiter-"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, that's the reason why I haven't pushed the panic button by now. Like-" I pointed towards the actual crowd of Thumb members outside the building. "Was there really a need to bring an entire army with you guys? Couldn't you guys have just worn less.. identifiable clothes?"

The duo seemed stunned for a moment, before the blonde elbowed the Sottacapo. 

"I told you- this was way too conspicuous!"

"Shut the hell up, Dames! I just wanted to look cool-"

"Yeah, and you're going to have to pay to keep all these guy's mouths quiet!"

I cleared my throat loudly. "So, uhm.. Dames-" I said hesitantly, only half-sure if it was her actual name. "Usually there would be alot of paperwork for this kinda stuff- I mean, fixer licenses usually take a few hours to apply for, but having this business card-" I held up the card, "It speeds up the process alot."

"I used to be a Capo, if that helps matters."

"Uhhh.." I thought back to a short training-video on all the Fingers that I had before getting hired. "That's like- grade 2, right?"

"..One. Equivalent to grade 1." 

"Right- well, I'll phone my boss really quick and tell them about uh, this-" I pointed towards my phone, hurriedly walking away from the front desk while the two awkwardly watched me.

First an Arbiter, and now a god-damn Thumb Capo.. the Head really just turns the city upside-down whenever they feel like it, huh? I punched in Riley's phone number, before waiting for her to pick up.

"-I haven't even had my morning coffee yet, what the hell is it?!" Her voice blared through the cellphone.

I breathed in. "Yeah, there's uh.."

"There's a Thumb Capo here that wants to become a fixer."

Chapter Text

"Did you study the case file at all?"

"Nope!"

"..Okay, did you try asking the locals or other offices about the Distortion?"

"No?"

I groaned. "Mia, do you even know where this thing is?"

"Why are you asking me so many questions, newbie?! I know what I'm doing!"

Mia, as it ( very surprisingly) turns out, may not be the most competent fixer within the Eclipse Office.. to say it lightly. She might have brought me along so she can, in her words, "teach me how to be a real fixer", but I'm glad I came along to begin with — not only because it would get Lemon off my case about "not doing anything", but because this idiot would probably die otherwise. 

For an Arbiter like me, it was acceptable- (maybe not around Zena..) -acceptable-ish to not gather and study every single piece of information about your requests, but Mia was a grade 5 fixer. She really couldn't afford having that kind of attitude around actual Distortions, even if it was a supposedly weaker one. Her augmentations may have given Mia an edge over her past self, but, if her fixer grade correctly identified her strength — which unlike me, most assuredly was, then it's safe to say that she could potentially get bodied by this Distortion.

"..You've been leading us in circles for 15 minutes, Mia."

She scoffed. "We're not going in circles , Rose. we're.. looking out for clues that the Distortion would have left," She added with slight hesitation.

Like hell we're "looking out for clues", you're just wandering around the exact same place! Are we even in the right city block right now?! 

"Just watch and learn, newbie-" A low growling-like noise came from behind a dumpster in an alleyway, to the side of both of us.

I raised a brow at Mia. "Did you actually get scared from that? It was probably just some garbage bags shifting or something."

"I-I'm not scared!" She yelled directly behind me, having jumped back within less than a second to use me as a shield.

I caught another growl emanating from the dumpster, which was now shaking back and forth slightly. "Uhh.. okay, maybe it isn't just a few Rats digging around in the garbage."

"Rose.. doesn't that kind of sound like something growling to you?!" Mia pointed to the garbage dump, as if I would have somehow not noticed it prior.

I shrugged. "I mean, I guess..? You could even say it sounds like a li-"

The dumpster suddenly flung upwards, flipping end-over-end and blocking the path out of the alleyway with a loud clang . Crouched down in its place, was a giant, snarling, lion with white-reflective skin, like ceramic. Some of its body was obscured by clumps of garbage bags that had ripped open, spilling spoiled food, old cardboard, and general mush that it shook off angrily.

"ROSE! T-THAT'S THE FUCKING DISTORTION-"

"I'm on it, so shut the fuck up!" The lion growled, staring straight at us as it moved from its crouched-pouncing stance to run towards us- and in a blink of an eye, the creature flew right by us two — narrowly missing me by less than an inch, before slamming into the furthermost wall behind us with enough force to leave a crack into the concrete siding.

I.. I couldn't track its movements at all? It's like it teleported right past me! 

My hair whipped around as I turned to the ceramic lion, which was slowly, unnaturally turning to face us once again. It only took me a few seconds to realize why it looked so strange — the lion's legs weren't moving at all, rather, it was turning in place like it had wheels embedded in its paws.

"S-Stay back, newbie!" Mia unsheathed her Zweihandler, flourishing the longsword with grandeur and holding it out with two hands. "These distortions aren't a pushover-"

"Forget staying back, we have to fucking move! " I shoved Mia out of the way as the lion turned to face us — only to continue turning slowly, adjusting itself to turn left. 

"The hell..?" I watched the creature slide itself slightly left, turning to face us two again. "I thought it was turning to run at us again-"

The lion started to crouch, moving lower and lower to the ground with every degree it rotated to face us, snarling and growling all the while. "Mia.."

"Oh, fuck this!" The fixer ran forward, utilizing what looked like machinery embedded into her ankles — she held her Zweihandler to the side in an attempt to cut the monster down, which was only a few-degrees away from lunging at both of us once again.

" MIA! Get the fuck back-"

"C'mere, you god-damn animal!" 

The lion finished its turn, and I only had a split second to react — I held my palm out, forcing Mia to the side with a localized blast of energy while jumping back to dodge myself. Not a moment later, the statue blinked forwards — this time, however, I had a clearer view on what it was doing. The Distortion was just sliding so quickly along the ground that it appeared to teleport, though the difference between the two hardly mattered at that speed. Hell, I doubt anything other than a Claw with Serum R active could dash that fast!

I got behind Mia as she groaned in pain, making it seem like I had pushed her myself. "God-damnit Rose.. I think I just broke a rib.."

"Worry about that later, it's turning back to us again!" The lion roared in anger — having left a large, dented imprint into the dumpster it flipped to block off our escape, it was once again turning to the side to move on the same line as us.. wait.

My mind ran through the hours I spent reviewing everything Lemon gave me about the case. 

A large, 12 foot lion made out of white, ceramic or plastic-like material..

Uses sheer kinetic force to kill targets and consume them.. 

The Lion's Rook can only move in straight lines..

move in straight lines..

"Mia!" I yelled out. "Position yourself diagonally to the Distortion!" 

"Urrgh.." She shakily got up, still clutching her side from the singularity blast. "What the hell are you talking about, Rose-" Thankfully, she hadn't seen the energy I used to push her — or if she had, she just assumed it was a trick of the mind and that I had pushed her instead. 

"Just do it, or the next thing that's gonna push you around is the lion!" 

The two of us quickly ran to the other side of the alley, where the Distortion had bashed face-first into the flung garbage dumpster, making sure to avoid being directly in front of either of its sides. 

"This thing is gigantic.." Mia said in awe, staring directly at the turning creature before shaking her head. "How are we gonna break this thing apart when we only have bladed weapons?!

"I-" My face scrunched up, hesitant. "Listen, we'll worry about that later! Just focus on staying diagonal to it!"

My theory was proven correct as the lion turned away from us, shifting left slightly and attempting to turn towards us once again. Me and Mia quickly sidestepped the creature, causing it to roar once more in rage.

"Great, so we know how it attacks.." Mia uncovered her ears, wincing from the beast's shout. "Still, how the fuck are we gonna take this thing down? It's made of ceramic and all!"

I rolled my eyes. "Distortions are of human origin.. I think."

"Oh, you think? "

"It might look like ceramic-" The creature shifted right this time, and we walked to the side once more to avoid its pounce, "But it's probably just skin and blood underneath all that paint, or whatever the hell it is."

Why is this Distortion even painted white anyway? It's called the Lion's Rook.. My thoughts trailed off when I came to a realization. 

It's called the Lion's ROOK.. No wonder it's painted white, it's supposed to look like a chess piece! And it moves exactly like a Rook does as well!

I relayed my idea to Mia, who just stared at me, unconvinced. "Ro- Newbie, that doesn't mean we can just charge head-first into a giant thrashing lion with huge claws and teeth!"

"..You know what? Just give me that thing."

"Hey- ROSE! LET GO OF MY SWORD!"

I backed up a few steps, holding the large Zweihandler by its center of gravity — somewhere between the handle's hilt and in the blade, I reasoned, before throwing it with a grunt directly at the Distortion.

As I expected, the longsword plunged deep into the animal, making it scream in pain and anger as dark-red blood flowed from the wound. We both quickly moved to the diagonal of the lion again as it nearly turned towards us once more, leaving it even more enraged.

"I guess you were right.." Mia said slowly, before slapping her forehead. "God-damnit, wait- you just fucking left me without a sword, newbie! Great job, dumbass!"

I raised an eyebrow at the woman. "What the hell are you talking about? Just get it back."

"Get it back-" She sputtered. "You want me to just walk up to a giant, rampaging lion and yank my Zweihandler back?! Do you even know how expensive those things are?!"

"Kay," I said casually. "I'll get it then."

Ignoring her further protests, I reached forward and pulled on the handle of the longsword, ripping the blade out of the creature and causing it to howl loudly. "See? Not that hard."

"..."

"Well, now that we know how this Distortion works, we should probably dispose of it now-" I spoke nonchalantly. We could get a bonus from capturing it alive, but I'd rather not take my chances with a creature that has no qualms bashing through a solid concrete wall."

"Rose, wait just a moment-" The fixer uttered weakly.

I stepped forward and, with a single stroke, decapitated the lion. Its body fell heavily to the ground as the head of the beast wobbly-rolled towards our feet.

"Not so bad, right?"

~~~

"Yeah, no way that Distortion was only an Urban Myth. That 'Lion's Rook' moved so fast that I couldn't even track it with my own eyes, and that's saying something."

"Mhm.." Lemon half-ignored me, pondering over the contract with some obviously-prop reading glasses while holding a comically-large magnifying glass to the Distortion's head — which we had preserved in a W corp stasis box. "Looks like this thing matches the photos.."

"Wait- Lemon!" Mia shouted indignantly. "You aren't gonna fucking- question how Rose figured out the Distortion so quickly?! Rose might as well be like that Distortion Detective relaxing in V corp- Mases or Moses, that grade 1 fixer- She even used- stole my sword to kill the lion!"

"Hm?" Lemon looked up from the assorted documents, pushing his prop reading-glasses down. "I was under the impression you were the one who did this all on our own," He said with a hint of amusement. "Besides, both me and Rose reminded you several times to read over the gathered information that the Hana had collected so far — it was in a PDF included in the contract's description~" 

Mia turned in shock to me, and I just shrugged. "Told you."

"What the fuck do you mean, 'told yo'-"

"Anyway," I loudly said over Mia's complaints, "There is actually something I wanted to tell you, Lemon — I had alot of.. stuff.. to do recently, so I kinda forgot about it until now."

"Oh?"

"Me and Mia went to HamHamPangPang a few days ago, and there was this employee who let us skip the line because we were part of the Eclipse Office." I crossed my arms, leaning back in my chair. "Apparently, he knew you from some past job or something."

"Past.. job?" Lemon appeared slightly on edge. "Did the man tell you his name?"

I yawned. "Yeah- his name was Vincent, but he told us he preferred to be called Vince."

His guarded expression faded away. "Oh, you guys met Vince? I was always wondering where that guy went after-" Lemon stopped, shaking his head. "Regardless, it's good to know he's doing well for himself. I didn't know he was that close to us, working at a regular restaurant."

Mia took on an offended tone. "What the hell do you mean, a regular restaurant-"

"Also," I cut the angry woman off, "What kind of job did you guys work at together? Vincent had the same reaction as you when he tried talking about the place."

"Ah.." Lemon shook his head. "I'd rather not talk about it," He said, his glance flickering at Mia.

You don't want to talk about it while she's here? "Nah, you're good. I'm not the kind of person to pry."

He cleared his throat. "Anyway, great job, you two. Now that we've successfully taken out a Distortion, we'll be receiving even more dangerous contracts and jobs from clients, so expect things to get harder from here on out."

"Right.."

"Yes, sir!"

~~~

I waited until Mia had left the room before walking up to close the door, taking a seat to face Lemon again.

"So, what kind of job did you really work at?" I asked him, more serious.

He sighed. "It's kind of a long story — but basically, I used to be an employee of L corp."

"Woah, really? Like- the one that collapsed and all with that giant tower of light?"

Lemon nodded his head. "To be honest, that place was pretty terrible. Us agents were quite.." He paused, looking for the right word, " Disposable, if you want to put it like that. We risked our lives every day to care for monstrous beings, big and small, to produce the energy that L corp creates. But at the same time.." Lemon reminisced with a fond expression, "We had a sense of camaraderie with each other, if you can understand that. Being stuck in that death-grinder of a corporation made us glad to have friends to lean on."

"That sounds pretty awful, I guess.." 

"It was, though I'm sure other places in the City endure suffering just as much or more than we had there. I had many memories there, good and bad." 

"So, does that mean that founder of our Moon section- Yui, is one of the employees that worked there too? Do you know anybody else that worked at L corp?"

"Well, yes. Yui was one of the agents that worked alongside me back then. I had many co-workers I knew quite well in L-corp, but we've all parted ways since then." Lemon's face shifted from pondering to a more serious one.

"Also," Lemon stared at me, "I'm not going to be telling you any L-corp secrets, Rose."

"Oh, come on!"

Chapter Text

"Normally, this would be.. kind of an impossible event, right?"

A moderately-tall woman with white hair stood in front of me, wearing a crisp, white Hana suit. Other than her messy, shorter hair, everything about this person from a first glance screamed professionalism and competence — Her tie was perfectly aligned, her posture was both casual-and-cautious, and a lightweight, black spear hung from her back.

She cleared her throat. "I mean, a Thumb Capo defecting.."

"Retiring."

The fixer raised an eyebrow at my friend, June. "..A Thumb Capo retiring to join the ranks of not just any Association, but the Hana Association themselves. It's safe to say that this is practically unheard of."

I shrugged. "Well, I can't exactly-"

I have already heard of the circumstances regarding this situation," The woman voiced, cutting me off. "And while I do have my doubts about this situation being wholly-without any nefarious purposes, there isn't much I can do about it."

She looked over to June. "Of course, there won't be any.. complications from the regular Fixer process — I already know how competent the average Capo is, and this person clearly isn't average by any means."

"Mm," June hummed in acknowledgement.

 The woman turned back to me. "Although- I still wish to have a private meeting with you, Ca.. Former Capo, Dames."

"Ah.. Alright."

June seemed a little concerned, but the fixer assured her that I wouldn't be in any danger, especially since they didn't feel like dealing with an actual battalion of Thumb Soldatos lounging around outside their front door.

I was led through a complicated series of winding hallways and elevators past the front lobby, until we entered an office-like meeting room about two-thirds up the building. As you would expect from the Hana, the office was decorated with modern and futuristic elements, with a huge floor-to-ceiling window that stretched across the entire outer wall, giving a rather bleak-view straight to the Backstreets. The Hana section in the Nest would probably look far better — you know, if the Nest still existed .

"Sit." The woman took a seat at her L shaped, pristine-white desk, typing something into a similarly high-end desktop while gesturing to a chair on the other side of the table.

I cautiously sat in the chair, waiting for a moment in silence as the fixer typed in more important-looking things, before she finally faced me.

"Alright girl, what the fuck happened between you and Rose?" To my surprise, her professional tone had completely dropped, replaced with an exasperated one.

I blinked in confusion. "Uhm.. what?" 

She let out a sigh. "You heard me. That careless- freaking, Arbiter always dumps work like this on me, whether she realizes it or not. Do you know how much damn paperwork this is going to take? A Thumb Capo becoming a Hana Fixer?"

I didn't expect her to be so.. is angry the right word? Angry at Rose? The way she was talking about Rose was like a teacher complaining about a bad student, or a businessman going on about a failed investment.

"Like seriously, my higher-ups would have a fucking field day with my career if it wasn't for their fear of going against the Head, like-"

"Okay, hold on!" I took a deep breath in, staring at the fixer again. 

"The note I got from Rose told me about another fixer she said she knew well, aside from Kate." "Uhhuh..?"

"So, then.. you're Riley, right?" I guessed.

Her expression deadpanned. "..Is that not obvious? Didn't I tell you two earlier my name as soon as I got down to the lobby? Besides-" Riley groaned, holding her face in one hand. "Okay, we aren't here to talk about who I am. I want to hear how the hell you got into this situation."

"It's.. kind of a long story, though-"

"Anything to make the paperwork less complicated!"

~~~

"Your move," June said, crossing her arms smugly.

Kate frowned, staring at the board. "Shit, I can't go there, because that fucking knight would take.. but if I don't, then it'll be checkmate.."

"What's wrong?" June replied, snickering. "Just take the piece with your queen."

"No, I- I fucking can't, because then I'll just lose all this material!" The receptionist yelled. "I don't pay attention for like- three moves, and you're already in a position about a billion times better than me! Are you just good at every strategy game or something?!"

"I'm an Underboss, you idiot. It's literally my job to be a good strategist."

"Can't you just go easy on me?!"

"Move the piece."

"..." Kate reached forward, moving her queen past the trap June had created, landing it directly onto the king and knocking it over.

"Checkmate."

"Wha.." June blinked twice, before glaring at the woman. "What the fuck do you mean, checkmate?!" She yelled in outrage. "That's an illegal move! You can't just — fucking, slide your queen past all my pieces and move sideways like that!"

Kate smirked. "Well, in the real world, you always have to account for unknown variables and for things that could happen out of the blue. For example," She held up the Queen piece teasingly, "An Arbiter appearing out of nowhere and bulldozing your pieces."

"What the hell are you on about, 'in the real world'-" June scoffed. "There is no real world here, this is fucking CHESS! Put your queen back and play normally!"

"I'm not going to fucking play normally when you're about a thousand ELO ahead of me!" Kate argued back. "I should be able to get one illegal move, like- every five turns!"

"Every five turns?! You shouldn't get illegal moves at all! That's not how the god-damn game works, Kate!"

"It is."

"The fuck you mean 'It is'?!"

"'Cuz I said so."

"..." 

June flipped the board over, knocking all of the chess pieces onto the lobby's floor.

"H-Hey! Those are fucking expensive, you know! That's a Hana-official Chess Board set!"

"Fuck expensive, I'm not going to play with a god-damn cheater! And an official Hana Chess Board is the most stupid thing I have ever heard of!"

"We still have Monopoly and the Game of Life left! You can't just quit now, coward!"

..Meanwhile, a few Thumb Soldatos nearby, who were assigned to the Sottacapo's side to guard her and watch out for any ambushes and sneak attacks — were sitting on the lobby chairs and sweating fucking bricks.

"There's no way the boss acts like this all the time.." 

"I don't think anybody would want to challenge the boss in a fight, though.. other than that receptionist."

"That girl has some courage to rile up the boss like that. I don't think I'd ever be able to act that rude and live to tell the tale."

~~~

"I don't really understand why she suddenly decided to.. you know, not kill me, or June for that matter."

"Hmm.. well, you know how the Agents of the Head are." Riley leaned back, staring off into space with a thoughtful look. "Arbiters do whatever they want, and in Rose's case, the same is even more true. She doesn't pay attention to protocol like the few and far-between Senior Arbiters that come to visit occasionally. Rose just kind of.. like, barges in whenever she wants?"

"That sounds difficult to deal with." 

She scoffed. "Difficult is putting it mildly. The amount of begging I've had to do to my commander and paperwork I had to file for incident reports is insane. Kate helps me with alot of it, but.."

I yawned loudly. "-At least in the Thumb, we didn't have that sort of bureaucracy — just follow orders from the people above you, and order the people below you around."

"Yeah.." Riley had a dreamy-look on her face for a brief moment, before shaking her head. "Now that I've heard your point of view, I can kind of see where Rose is coming from — even if it's an insane amount of round-about logic. You guys- sorry, your Underboss ordered you guys to attack her and the fixer she was with. Obviously, she would defend herself, though I'm not sure why she went as far as wiping all of you guys out."

"I don't really know either, and it's not like I got the chance to question her."

I still felt a tinge of anger whenever I thought about that incident. It's just not fucking fair to have all your work ripped away from you! But at the same time..

"Although, I can't truly say that I.. despise Rose, for what she did." I admitted.

Riley chuckled. "I think if you really hated her, you wouldn't be sitting here right now."

"Honestly, while it may be a bit rude to say, I didn't really care for my Underboss, or nearly everyone stationed with me."

"Hm?"

I took a deep breath. "My Underboss was.. kind of a bitch? And a tyrant too. He wouldn't consider his underling's suggestions at all, and treated us all like trash. He's the type to rule with an iron fist as soon as they have an ounce of authority."

The fixer laughed at that. "Hell, I wish I could talk about my commander like that so openly."

I shrugged. "I don't understand it. Rose is just kind of.. free, I guess? She tries to follow the same philosophy that every person in the City knows, but I know she doesn't really believe it at heart."

"The word you're looking for is capricious," Riley said. "You know what all the citizens of the City dream of, right? The freedom to act independently and choose what they want to accomplish, outside the laws and rules of the Head. But there's only a few ways to get that freedom."

I nodded glumly. "You can become a fixer famous enough to arise to a Color, become so infamous across those fixers that you'll be graded as a Star of the City.. or be mysterious enough to evade the Hana by leading a Finger Syndicate. Everyone looks up to one day attain one of those titles, whether it be a flash of light powerful enough to shine through the fog of the City, a color bright enough to pierce the gloomy night sky, or a Finger so mysterious that you'll hide within that fog."

"The Fingers, the Colors, and the Stars.. but even if you make it all the way to the top," Riley continued, "The freedom you'll receive is limited at best. The Head, on the other hand, is completely outside of that system. Their Arbiters, Claws, and Beholders, do what they please, whenever they please — they are the ones that create the laws even the free have to abide by, or you'll be marked for extermination."

I sighed. "In that sense, Rose is completely outside the system that us common-folk deal with. In the end, she doesn't agree with the way of the City, and unlike us, doesn't have to follow that philosophy. Even if she pretends like she doesn't care.."

"Rose isn't a cold-hearted murderer, can't be a cold-hearted murderer, unlike how trained fixers or organized criminals are," Riley finished. "I know not all Arbiters are completely unaffected by death, and she's proof of that."

"..I'm just torn on the issue."

"With your loyalty to the Thumb?" Riley raised a brow at me.

"No, it isn't that." I waved her off. "Lately, I've been disillusioned with the cultish-ranking and absolute respect that the Thumb makes you follow. It was a blessing in disguise for Rose to take out my Underboss — because, even if for just a few hours, I was free. I care more about June than the Thumb itself at this point."

"Then why not just leave? I'm sure with June being a Sottacapo and all, she can facilitate your peaceful retirement."

"I'm not that old, Riley." I took a second to glare at the fixer. "I still have my life ahead of me, and I still want to go on contracts and jobs and missions — the Thumb has betrayed my loyalty, so I have no problem becoming a Hana Fixer."

"And you say that with one-hundred percent certainty?" She questioned.

"I might use their fighting styles, their weapons- but at the end of the day, I'm done with the Thumb," I said angrily. "I'm sick of their borderline insane hierarchy and way of life."

"Mmm.." Riley hummed. "To be fair, we didn't really need to have this meeting, especially with Rose making us streamline the whole process. I just wanted to know your own thoughts and your backstory on how it happened."

"Not even gonna hide it, huh.." I grumbled.

Riley typed in a few commands onto her computer, before a very loud blare sounded from underneath her desk. She leaned over, reaching for the machine and grabbing a sleek, white-and-red card made of laminated plastic. "Your fixer license."

"You aren't going to test what grade I am or anything?" Riley shrugged, and I looked down at the card.

Dames

Official Fixer License - Grade 1

Affiliated Group - None, Group 16 of South Section 3

Assigned by the Hana Association

"I already know you're a Thumb Capo, so you'd be equivalent to grade 1 in the first place," She explained. "Of course, whether you can perform at grade 1, we'll find out eventually-"

"Why does it say my Affiliated Group is 'None', and then what group I'm with right after?" I asked. "It's in Bold too, I don't really think that's normal for Fixer Licenses.."

"Huh?" Riley looked confused for a moment. "Oh! That's because you're a part of the Hana Association, and not any subsidiary-office or Associations."

I narrowed my eyes. "Right.. And what is group 16, Riley?"

"Ahahah.." She laughed nervously. "I'm the captain of group 16. You'll be working under me, okay-"

"You gotta be kidding me."

~~~

"Anyway, that should be it-"

Both of us stopped in the lobby, staring in shock at the scene in front of us.

June and two of her Soldatos were currently in a fierce match of Monopoly against Kate, all of them sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounding a square board with cards and cash plots drawn and strewn around.

June's eyes flickered towards me and Riley standing in front of them, before realizing we were back, and shouted towards us. "DAMES! Come help us in Monopoly, this fucker is a filthy cheater-"

"Filthy cheater?!" Kate angrily yelled. "Cheating-my-ass, you landed on Boardwalk fair and square!"

"And you're saying I have to pay nearly two-thousand fucking dollars for just visiting your god-damn property?!" She argued back, nudging a Soldato beside her. "Dude, back me up here! 1800 for one turn is fucking insane!"

"Uhm.. The receptionist seems to be correct, boss," He nervously replied. "The reason you're paying so much is because she owns the rest of the blue properties, and the fact that she has a hotel-"

June threw her hands up. "I'm not fucking paying three-quarters of my savings just for landing on your cheat-of-a-property! You fucking rigged the die or something!"

"Fair. And. Square." She smirked, turning and beckoning Riley to come join the game. "You wanna play some Monopoly? This Underboss person kinda sucks at board games."

"I do not fucking suck!"

"Ah.." The fixer whistled casually, taking a step backwards and bumping into me. "Oh, Dames! I didn't see you around here!"

"..What- Hey, let me go!" Riley grabbed my arm, pulling me away from the bickering group. "I forgot to tell you about the powerpoint I have to show you all the new recruits-"

"HEY! Dames, get the fuck back here and-"

"RILEY! Are you really going to skip out on this game-"

She quickly closed the door behind the front desk, breathing a sigh of relief in the hallway. "..We have a powerpoint to do? How'd you even forget about that?"

Riley glared at me. "No, you idiot. It was an excuse to get the hell out of that situation. And newbie," "I'm really not a newbie, y'know-"

"Make sure to NEVER play any tabletop games with Kate, under any costs. Her luck is so good it's fucking ridiculous." The sounds of shouting erupted from the other side of the door, and I could clearly make out both June's and Kate's voices from the lobby.

"You know what?" I said. "I think that's some great advice, captain."

Chapter Text

"You know.." "..?"

"I think this is the first time I've ever gone on a request with you alone, Lemon. Well, besides the whole Thumb thing."

For what it was worth, I had actually completed one singular mission in the past week, which was when me and Mia had gone and dealt with a Distortion. It wasn't anything super complicated or difficult (maybe because of my very legitimate grade 3 ranking), but we still got a good chunk of cash from the whole thing.

Nobody tell Mia what my salary as an Arbiter is.. I think she'd foam at the mouth and faint, judging from her reaction to getting the paycheck from the Lion's Rook.

Anyway, that line of thinking eventually led me to Lemon himself.. After all, I only ever see him managing paperwork or just chilling in the office. I know he's supposed to be the boss and all, but even so — you would think someone registered as grade 1 would go on a few more field missions.

..Which is how I got myself in a duo request with the man.

"You said we were looking for a lost pet, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"God, I hope this doesn't turn out to be like Mia- I mean, uh, do you know what we're looking for?" I asked. "I know people have weird kinks and all, but you didn't give me anything about the pet's height, or what kind of clothes they were wearing-"

"Wait, wait! What the hell are you talking about?!" He yelled. "It's not some- fucking roleplay human pet, it's a god-damn cat!" 

"..A cat?" I said, confused.

"Yeah, a cat. You know," Lemon explained, "A regular ass, tuxedo black-and-white cat. Some rich nest-dweller is paying us a huge amount of Ahn to complete this job, so I was in a hurry to get to it. Money makes the world go 'round, you know~"

"Lemon.."

"What?"

I sighed. "So you mean to tell me — one of our clients is intentionally breaking a city-wide Taboo? A cat is a sentient, non-human. How the hell did you find somebody with a cat in the first place?!" 

"What do you mean it's a Taboo? It's a freaking cat. What are they going to do, take over the city and rule over all of us?" 

"It doesn't matter if the laws of the City make sense, Lemon. Besides having your office probably getting targeted by Taboo-Hunters, are you sure this- your client hasn't been fucking murdered by a Claw by now?" I questioned. 

He shrugged. "Well, you're a.. you know. Have you been ordered to kill this cat?"

"No..?" I answered cautiously.

"Then it isn't a problem. We can worry about Taboos and laws and stuff later."

I swear to god, this guy..

"Also," He continued, "I'm kind of surprised that there's already half a Nest here. It's been like what- maybe a few months since The Library? The rebuilding-and-construction power of the Head is pretty terrifying."

"Just because the Nest is getting rebuilt, doesn't mean all of its functionality is still there." I yawned. "Listen- even if these stuck-up rich guys are moving back into District 12, there's still a shit ton of Syndicates and gangs running around trying to consolidate influence and wealth for themselves. Other than those Sweepers, it's basically the same as the Backstreets right now."

"Mhm.." He hummed in affirmation. "Last I heard, didn't the Hana section in this Nest get their asses kicked by The Library? After that, the Index toppled their remaining force here and forced them back-to-the Backstreets."

"One of the few districts without a Hana Section in their Nest~ I remember Riley talking shit about the Index earlier because of it." I scratched my head. "They're a bunch of weirdos — with all their Prescripts and Proxies and whatever.. I don't wanna stay here for any longer than I have to."

Lemon chuckled. "I don't think the Index would just randomly ambush us out of nowhere, not like the Thumb. You're right, though, on how the Nest here is somehow less stable than the Backstreets surrounding it. I guess it'll take a couple more months until things here return to normal."

"Right.." I cleared my throat. "Ahem- let's just get this request over with, okay?"

"Pfff~ like searching an entire god-damn Nest for a single cat is something you can 'just get over with'." 

mrrrrow~ Lemon quickly turned back, staring quizzically at me.

I returned his stare with an equally confused expression. "What?"

"Shhh- Rose, did you hear that?" He whispered.

"The meowing?" I snickered loudly. "Nah, that was just me. There isn't actually a cat here." meow~

"Wha- Oh, god-damnit, Rose."

~~~

Eventually, I had to say my goodbyes to June. After all, I couldn't exactly just show up at the new Thumb headquarters in L's district, now that I was a member of the Hana. 

Of course, it was an open secret that I had 'defected' to the Hana across many of June's subordinates. The way she had phrased it to the (frankly-unnecessary) escort she had brought along was that I was a double agent for the Thumb.

So while some of the Soldatos knew, not all of them did — and definitely not any visiting members of the Thumb from other districts. I had to move my residence from near the Thumb's hideout to an included apartment within the Hana Section's building, much to her dismay.

"Wh- Why the hell are you crying, June?!" 

"It's-" She sniffed. "It's just really hard to let go, okay?! We aren't going to be able to see each other anymore, Dames-"

"That's bullshit, and you know it! We can still just meet up out-of-uniform like old times, and Facetime exists for a reason! Stop being so dramatic!"

..Anyway, my new job as a Fixer was actually treating me quite well. I had always thought being on the wrong side of the law meant that you were bound to get more Ahn rolling in than your average office — and that was true to an extent, seeing as how the Thumb could afford throwing bullets and firearms at us whenever we had to do any Purges.

True, to an extent. 

The Hana Association was just different. Built different, you could say. Riley didn't bat an eye when I explained to her in further detail about my fighting style, and how I used extremely-expensive firearms and bullets instead of spears or greatswords like other Hana Fixers often used.

In fact, she even took it upon herself to pay for a new paint-job on my rifle, something practically unheard of within the City — and instead of my older, chipped wooden stock, my new-captain got it replaced with a sleek, carbon-fiber and steel infused stock.

The amount of cash the Hana is rolling around in is fucking insane- I couldn't help but think that, after my rifle was not only upgraded, but also supplied with at least ten different variations of bullets-and-shells I could use depending on the situation. Seriously, I had a literal crate full of each type laying in my also new, futuristic, white-and-black themed apartment. 

I had toxin-infused bullets that could inflict paralysis onto the people I shot, flame-infused ones that exploded on contact with surfaces, hollow-point and heavier bullets designed to maim and kill, like- the list went on and on. Hell, it was like I was living in a Nest instead of the Backstreets! I don't know how the hell they could afford having this much crap in not only every single district in the City, but in every Nest and Backstreets of those districts!

..Also, the coffee machines here are really good. Probably the biggest plus of becoming a Hana Fixer. 

I don't know if all these perks were just given to me solely because I was a grade 1, or if it was due to Rose's influence — either way, I wasn't complaining. Maybe it was just my upbringing as someone who spent nearly their entire-life in the Backstreets, but I couldn't help but be awed and amazed by all the new quality-of-life changes that some of these guys just- took for granted.

One day, I caught my captain in the break room to ask about all of.. you know, everything. 

"Say, Riley.."

"Hm?"

I took a deep breath. "Listen- how the hell do you guys afford all of this?"

She looked confused. "What?"

"one, all the ammunition you guys just- fucking delivered to me," I counted on my fingers, "two, the god-damn upgrade to my already great rifle, three, all the god-damn amenities and stuff that all of you guys enjoy. four, the fucking- giant apartments you can assign to each of your fixers, it's just all- Like, what the hell, Riley? How do you guys afford all of this!?"

"Woah, slow down on the rant~" Riley chuckled nervously. "Okay, do you mean- I guess, how we're so much better equipped than you thought?"

"YES!" I rubbed my face tiredly. "Like, I thought the Thumb was rich and all- but you guys are just on another fucking level! How do you do all of this?!"

"Well.." She hummed thoughtfully. "I'm only a group captain, so I'm not exactly high up on the corporate ladder — but I'm pretty sure we get subsidies and tax-breaks from the Head, being the biggest Association and all."

"Subsidies? What the hell are those? And you guys get tax-breaks?!"

"Hey, perks of not being a criminal organization." Riley casually filled a huge, stainless-steel thermos with steaming-hot coffee. "Basically, since we're pretty much the only Association that works so closely with the Head.. well," she stopped, "other than the Wings themselves- But anyway, the Head basically funds us with a shit-ton of resources and Ahn so that we don't go completely broke having to manage basically every single official fixer in the City."

"So those- subsidies thingies," I asked. "Are they like- I guess price-cuts given to you by the Head?"

She nodded. "A more accurate term would be grants of money they send us, but yeah. Our losses are actually pretty low, as most Syndicates don't want to mess with the Hana."

"Mhm.." 

Back when I was a Soldato, I remember a briefing I went through with some clearly-inexperienced Capo about how to avoid drawing the attention of the Hana. Lots of big words were thrown around with basically zero context or meaning (probably so that Capo could seem more competent), but the essentials were: Don't fuck with the Hana.  

"Besides that-" 

A shrill sound suddenly came from Riley's pocket, and her face shifted to concern as she checked her phone. "Shit.."

I gave her a confused look. "What is it? Did something important come up?"

"Emergency Mission, variation C.. Must be serious if they pinged me instead of holding a stupid meeting." Riley stared me in the eyes. "Hey, do me a favor. Go to room 537 and wake up the Fixer inside there for me. If he says something along the lines of 'go away' or if he doesn't respond, say it's an emergency mission from Riley."

"Uhm- alright."

"Meet me at the side entrance after. Now go!" 

Riley quickly ran off, and I did the same — room 537 should be the 37th room on the fifth floor , I thought quickly. I raced up one of the stairwells and passed several doors with the wrong number stamped beside them.

531.. 533.. 535.. 537! 

I rapped on the door with my palm, unsure what to expect — after all, this room looked the same as basically any other in the building.

"Hey! Anyone home?!" I yelled.

"Shut up! I'm coming!" A muffled, gruff voice answered from the other side of the door. 

I heard a few heavy footfalls before the door swung-open forwards, nearly knocking me off balance. Standing in the doorway was a tall, gray-haired man with a stubby beard. He had large eye-bags sitting under his eyelids, and seemed like he could honestly fall asleep at any moment. I had assumed he would be sleeping or something, but he was wearing a full, pristine-white Hana suit with a gargantuan greatsword mounted onto his back.

 His eyes narrowed as he looked down to me. "The newbie? Who the hell do you think you are, bothering me out of the blue?"

"Uhm- Riley told me to get you," I said quickly. "She said it's an e mergency mission. "

"Tch.. to think that the rookie captain believes so little in me." He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a white-lighter. "Do you really think I didn't receive that order myself, when I was the one who sent it out?"

"Huh..?"

The man lit one of the cigarettes, setting it in his mouth with a sigh. "I betcha' haven't seen me around before, but I'm Cane. Grade 1 and Mission Coordinator for groups one through twenty within this section-"

"Wait, so you're the one who sent out that order, right?" I asked.

Cane raised an eyebrow. "I already said that before, newbie."

"So then," My face deadpanned. "Why didn't you just go down by yourself? Isn't whatever emergency mission this is- kinda serious, if you're the one who sent this order out?"

The man laughed. "You got some balls to ask me that, kid. The reason is-"

"We're in a time crunch, dude. If you don't want to come with us, then I'll leave you behind." I walked away from the room, moving back to the stairwell to meet up with Riley.

"Hey, don't you fucking leave me behind, kid!"

~~~

"Lemon, we've been here for like- at least two hours! Just let me get the cat!"

Lemon, in all his brilliance, had actually managed to locate where the animal was in less than thirty minutes. Some of the clues he picked up on were reaching Death Note levels of madness, like noticing.. cat.. droppings.. around the area, and tiny pawprints in the dust of the sidewalks and alleyways. Sure enough, we had actually found the cat — who was perched on a precarious ledge on top of a brick-and-mortar wall. 

The way the wall was designed, the other side had a fire escape from a neighboring apartment we could have used to reach the top far, far easier — the only issue was, a bunch of Index members just showed up and started loitering around. Lemon had both refused to let me kill them all or use my singularities to just- get the fucking cat, and instead tried every single method conceivable to either increase his height or jump up to reach the cat.

"Hold on, just let me try this-" Lemon had affixed a net to the end of his greatsword, and was preparing to jump upwards to try and drag the cat off the ledge (who was now casually grooming itself as if it didn't notice the two hours we had spent doing this stupid charade).

"NO!" I yelled, holding my face in my hands. "God, you're gonna give me a fucking headache- just let me get the god-damn cat!"

"It's not a good idea to use your powers in public, Rose!" He shouted back while completely overshooting the ledge, tumbling back to the floor heavily. 

"OW!"

"Okay- you know what? I have a good idea." I said quickly, ripping the net off of his sword.

"..Oh?" Lemon groaned, getting back up to his feet. "What's your big idea, Rose?"

I picked up two sheets of paper lying around from one of Lemon's past experiments, and uncapped a pen I was carrying to scribble on a message for each one. 

"Rose, what the hell are you doing?" He asked.

"Just follow me and see!" Once I was done writing a message on each of the papers, I ran around to the other side of the wall — where, thankfully, a few way-too-uncomfortably dressed Index members were still hanging in the area. Lemon followed behind me, with a few choice complaints I decided not to hear.

"Excuse me!" I shouted out, drawing the attention of the group. "I got a Prescript that told me to deliver the next prescript I receive to the first Index member I see!"

The rest of the Proselytes and Proxies watched me carefully- before turning back to chat about something else. I handed both of my fake Prescripts to a taller, white-haired woman — wearing a far-more-detailed uniform than the others, and a non-standard knife affixed to her side. "Here you go, miss~" 

The woman stared at me, blinking in confusion. "I'm.. not female," She replied in an un masculine voice.

"Wait- what?" She He read through both of the papers quickly, his eyes narrowing more with every sentence he went through. 

He finally sighed. "..You understand that forging false Prescripts is against one of our cardinal laws of the Index, correct?"

"Uhm- what are you talking about?" I said, feigning ignorance. "Those are completely real, okay?!" I grabbed both of the Prescripts from his hand, reading them out loud. "Look- the first one says 'give the next Prescript you receive to the first Index member you see', and the second one says 'Retrieve the black-and-white cat above you, on top of the brick wall you're standing next to, and give it to the person who gave you this Prescript'. They aren't fake!"

"Creating false Prescripts is punishable by execution , and you aren't even an official Index Messenger." The man said, raising an eyebrow at me.

Shit.. Maybe I should have thought this through a little more! I'm probably gonna have to get into a fight now-

"Rather fortunately for you, however," The Index Proxy continued, "I just was delivered a Prescript this morning, that ordered me to.." He reached into his pocket, reading over a far more ornate and official-looking Prescript, " 'Follow the orders on a false Prescript a female, pink-haired, grade 3 Fixer, and their male, yellow-haired, grade 1 Fixer companion, who is hiding behind a nearby building, will give you at 5:34 PM. Furthermore, refrain from injuring or maiming them in any way. " 

"Wha.. Wait, you got a Prescript to do what?" I asked, completely dropping my lie. "Are you fucking serious?"

The Index Member pocketed all three pieces of paper — before effortlessly jumping up onto the ledge without a sound, scooping up the cat and landing back to the ground with the animal. "Here."

What.. the fuck.. just happened..? 

I found myself taking the now-purring cat from his outstretched hands, cradling it in my arms and trudging back to meet up with Lemon.

"That.. how the hell did that work?!" Lemon shouted. 

"I don't know, but we got the cat, I guess?" I shrugged as much as I possibly could without bothering the cat. "We can finish this request now, right?"

"Looks like they took the bait! Everyone, to your individual positions!" I heard the same man from earlier yell, and the group of Index I had just-approached ran past us, stopping in front of some closed-up office.

"The hell was all that about?" I voiced.

"..You know what, Rose?" He sighed. "It's best not to interfere in the Index's work. Let's just go back and return the pet to our client."

Lemon walked off, and I rubbed the cat's head with my other hand, watching it lean into my touch while purring.

"Rose! Let's go!"

"-Kay!" I stopped petting the cat, walking quickly to catch up with Lemon.

~~~

When I made it down to the side entrance, Riley had already flagged down a jumbo-sized van that could fit the five other fixers she had brought along. All of them wore the same color scheme Riley did, and their weapons followed suit as well — from spears to axes and straight swords with white-and-black blades and handles.

Riley gave me a confused look, already sitting in the driver's seat. "Where's the guy I told you to get?"

A few seconds later, the man himself came down the stairs, nearly out-of-breath. "These new recruits, I swear.."

He looked up to the van, glaring at Riley — who returned it with equal intensity.

"..Whatever." Cane clicked his tongue, and hopped through the side-door to sit right next to me. 

As soon as everyone was inside the van, Riley shot off through the alleyway, merging onto the road. The inside of the vehicle was mostly quiet, aside from the rumble of the car's engine. Thankfully, there weren't really too many cars to give us traffic.. or the Hana was pulling some shenanigans so we could get there as fast as possible.  

"Hey, mister Mission Coordinator," I said quietly, elbowing Cane in the side.

"Wh-" He turned to see what had hit him, rubbing the area before glaring at me. "What the hell is it, rookie? And don't call me 'Mister Mission Coordinator', I told you my name for a reason."

"Yeah, but- what the hell is variation C?" I whispered, trying not to disturb the silence that the other Fixers created.

"C stands for corrupt," He replied. "It means that there's an office or association that has been found to be corrupt, either by evading their dues to the Hana, working in tandem with Syndicates, or other reasons."

"Oh. That.. makes sense. Why the emergency, though?" I asked.

Cane rolled his eyes. "This mission is quite serious, considering it's coming from one of the only offices taking requests and such in the old L corp's Nest. Since protection is hard to come by in a rebuilding Nest, these offices are valuable to both us and the innocent people returning to their homes — and this office is a grade 2 as well."

Innocent people, my ass.. Nest dwellers are always the most stuck up pieces of shit-

"We're here," Riley voiced calmly from the driver's seat. "Everyone, out!"

The doors on either side of the van slid open, and Cane gave me a shrug before ducking out of the car. I followed him in-suit to find myself in front of a newer-looking building, with a sign above two darkened-glass doors reading "Tide Office".

Riley walked up to the door, testing the handle before knocking on the glass forcefully. "Open up! We're here to investigate a report of your office performing acts that don't align with the best interests of the Hana!" When nobody gave a response, Riley braced herself to kick one of the double doors open, shattering the glass with her leg.

"Everyone in!" 

The inside of the lobby was unlit, and the place seemed as though it had gone unused for quite some time. Boxes and chairs were still obviously being set up or removed, and nobody was sitting at the front desk taking clients or sorting out requests.

"The hell.." I muttered, with similar confused words being exchanged amongst our group. "Riley, there's nobody even here."

"Check the upper floors, I'm sure they're around here somewhere," She replied quickly. "We're looking for teal and dark-blue uniforms."

While Riley and 2 other Fixers checked the second floor, me, Cane, and another Fixer checked the third — and two stood guard at the entrance. The third floor looked like some sort of office cubicle space, but just like the lobby itself, it was unlit and dusty. It was as if the people who had worked here completely disappeared — expensive looking weapons were still hanging in sealed cases, and electronics like phones were simply laying out on decorated desks and work spaces.

Hey, a pair of Airpods.. I'll take that~

"Also, Cane!" I asked again, when the other Fixer had gone to the other side of the floor. "What is it, rookie?"

"I was wondering- who's the higher-up in the Hana, you or Riley?" 

"Hmm.." He rubbed his head. "It's complicated. Right now, we're the same grade — but I'm a mission coordinator, outside of the system of captains and commanders within the Hana."

"Right now..?" I trailed off. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, before the Hana Section in this Nest fell, I used to be commander rank." He scowled, rubbing his face. "Those god damn Index cockroaches.. Since there was a huge absence in manpower due to the situation, I had to take the role of Mission Coordinator. Even now, the Hana Section in this district's Backstreets is missing two out of five commanders that it should have."

"Wait, it was the Index that destroyed the Section here?! I always assumed it was the Thumb or something.." I stopped, realizing that it probably wasn't the best to tell this up-tight guy that I used to be a Capo of the Thumb.

"Right on, rookie." He took another puff of his still-lit cigarette.

"Sir-" The other fixer on our floor ran towards us. "I haven't found anything suspicious or incriminating regarding Tide Office. Should we regroup in the lobby with Cap' and the others?"

"Fine with me," Cane said in a gruff voice. "Riley's probably got a plan on what to do next."

The three of us quickly raced down the stairs together, entering the darkened-lobby once more — to find that the two Fixers assigned to guard the lobby doors were nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell? Did those two Fixers desert us or something?" Cane was the first to speak. 

"Wouldn't we have heard the doors open?" I responded.

The other Fixer with us fiddled with their belt, pulling a flashlight out. "Hang on, let me-"

When the flashlight flickered on, it revealed the two Fixers — dead and lying in a corner of the room, with multiple wide lacerations and gashes on their bodies. Both of the Hana uniforms they were wearing were stained red with blood, and there was also a trail of blood from both of them leading to the door — they were clearly dragged away from the broken glass door to avoid being noticed instantly from the natural light.

"Holy shit-" The Fixer dropped their flashlight, tumbling over to try and grasp it again.

"Who the hell could have killed these two without making a single sound?" Cane muttered. "They're both grade 2.."

I unclipped my rifle from my back, holding it in both my hands. "Whoever it was, they're probably here for the rest of us."

Cane nodded. "A dark, indoor area isn't a good place to fight in. And considering their wounds, it ain't no inexperienced gang either. They knew we were coming."

"I-I'll go get Cap' and the others!" The Fixer tried to run off, but Cane grabbed them roughly by the shoulder.

"Kid, what the hell are you doing?!" He yelled. "These two died separated from the rest of our group! Are you trying to get yourself killed too!"

"S-Sir, I.." 

"Besides," He said in a quieter voice, "I don't think they'll ignore me hollerin' in the lobby." Cane's assessment was proven true when only a couple of seconds later, we heard the rumbling staccato of boots going down the stairs.

"For that matter, you could have just texted them too.." I added. 

Riley was the first to peek her head in the room, and the rest of her Fixers soon followed suit. "Cane, what the fuck are you shouting for-"

He gestured to the two dead bodies slumped against the corner of the lobby. "When these two-" He thumbed towards me and the newer Fixer, "and I didn't find anything conclusive on the third floor, we came down here to find both the Fixers you assigned to guard the entrance dead."

Riley slowly walked towards the bodies without a word, kneeling down to both of them for a few seconds. Her lips moved, muttering something I couldn't hear- before turning around to face us.

"We're leaving. I'll inform the Hana that this is a high risk operation and bring in reinforcements." She said, in a steely-cold tone.

"Yes, ma'am!"

Our remaining group of six ducked through the shattered glass door — to find at least twenty people dressed in white-and-golden cloaks, and various weapons sheathed to each one of their sides. Underneath those cloaks were black formal attire and suits, and a single, golden badge — depicting an image of a single finger surrounded-by blue flower petals — affixed to the left-side of their chests. 

No way.. That's gotta be half the fucking Proxies in this area!

Riley glared hatefully at each and every one of them. "What's the meaning of this, Index ? " 

Chapter Text

"What's the meaning of this, Index?"

~~~

Dames POV (for clarity, of course!)

Proxies.

The elite veterans of the Index. If the Proselytes are the enforcers, the Proxies are the military.

While the organizational structure of the Index didn't exactly allow for climbing the ranks — not like the Thumb, obviously — there were still a few more 'powerful' or well-known members of the Index, despite their near-crazed obsession with following Prescripts. Proxies were usually only seen in the most important missions — After all, the point of the Index is to basically treat everyone as an equal, by assigning vague and nonsensical Prescripts. Missions such as the near takeover of an entire Nest, so to speak. 

And here was twenty of the damned zealots, appearing out of fuck-all nowhere to ambush us. There wasn't a single Proselyte here either, their number consisted of only Proxies and Messengers of the Index.

A single Index Proxy was equivalent to a grade 1 fixer in strength — fixers that were powerful enough to take on Stars of the City. The Red Mist herself, a legendary Color Fixer that carved a reputation through the Backstreets which still left deep marks years later.. One of her famous tales was taking on five entire Proxies at once and coming out on top.

So why.. why were there twenty, twenty of them here to finish us off? Was Riley's group so important that the Prescripts ordered every single damn Proxy in the area of L district's rebuilding Nest to murder us? Hell, some of these guys were even Messengers! You could tell by their more elaborate and decorated uniforms compared to the 'regular' Proxies.

I had already known that the Index was preparing to make its move to try and take hold of District 12, before any other Finger could — but for all of this to be happening so quickly was nothing short of insane. 

If it wasn't for my damned boss, pissing off an Arbiter.. If the Thumb still held a headquarters in this district, these fucking guys wouldn't have had the balls to show up in the first place — well, maybe they would, considering their devout and near-religious following of their Prescripts. June was still wrangling all of the subsidiary syndicates that had taken the risk to go independent after their Finger disappeared, and she wouldn't be able to arrive in time with reinforcements to beat back these freaks.

"What's the meaning of this, Index?" Riley said, glaring hatefully at the group of Proxies surrounding us.

"..To think that it would be this easy to entrap the Hana," A tall, long white-haired Messenger replied. "You fixers have truly lost your focus, haven't you?"

Silence from our group.

The woman chuckled. "This is even more simple than wiping out the Hana office situated within this Nest-"

"You shut your god-damn mouth." Cane spoke lowly, before Riley herself could respond. "What the hell do you know about 'easy'? There's no honor in sending sheer numbers to overwhelm us!"

The Messenger raised a brow, confused. "We're simply following the Will of the City. In any case, we aren't here for you-" She turned, and pointed at me. "We're here for her."

Her.. me? What the hell do I have to do with this? The rest of our group turned to me, confused.

"The Prescripts warned us of an agent of the Thumb masquerading as a fixer," She continued — and everyone other than Riley's expression turned to shock. "And not only that, this Thumb agent has shown the ability to manifest.. what was it?" The woman hummed in thought. "It was called Psychoment I believe- according to that retired detective, anyway."

"..EGO."

"Excuse me?"

I couldn't help but correct her. "It's called EGO. The ability to manifest your will in the physical world." I narrowed my eyes. "But why? Why go through all this trouble just for me?"

"Now- just hold on!" Cane yelled, his anger whipping to me. "You're- a fucking double-agent for the Thumb?! A spy?!" He turned to Riley, furious. "How the hell did you manage to overlook this?! A Syndicate member joining the ranks of the Hana?!"

Riley remained silent, guilty eyes meeting his angered ones. "You.. you knew, didn't you? Riley, why did you-"

"I trust her, and that's final." She glared back up at Cane. "And, we should be more worried about the near-battalion of Proxies here to push our shit in. Still-" Riley looked at me. "You can use EGO? And you never thought of fucking telling me?"

"..." Cane, for his part, only gave me one final glare, before turning back to the group of Index — who had watched our interaction with amusement.

"Either way, if you are curious about our numbers-" The Messenger from earlier said, "-We were already in the area to begin exerting our influence within the Nest. The fortunate and strange disappearance of the Thumb only served as a confirmation that the Index was chosen by the City to control District 12."

These guys are so arrogant, it really pisses me off.. The woman unsheathed her weapon — a long and narrow, elegantly crafted knife, which appeared as if a katana had been cut in half. At her movement, the rest of the Proxies and Messengers followed suit, similarly readying their weapons.

This was bad. Really bad. The Index might love to talk shit — but in this one instance, they actually had the manpower to back it up. Even though I was a former Capo, equivalent to grade 1 myself, I didn't like my chances in close-combat with a Proxy of the Index. More importantly, even though I could manifest my EGO, I wasn't really sure how to do it again. And even with my EGO, I doubt I could take on more than two or three of these guys at once.

Why did I have to be put in such a hopeless situation- I had the urge to laugh, aiming my rifle while the rest of our meager force armed their weapons. Riley and Cane could probably take on a Proxy each, but our newer members didn't stand a chance against seasoned, close-combat oriented veterans, even if I gave them the benefit of the doubt. In short, we were heavily outmatched — both in quality, and in quantity.

".. Alright. We fight with pride." Riley muttered, quiet enough so that only our side could hear.

An apology formed within my mind.

Sorry, June.. I hope you'll get revenge for me, okay?

"..We fight with honor."

Both our group and the Index stood at a standstill — waiting to see who would make the first move.

"..And we give our ALL FOR HANA!"

With that shout from our captain, both we and the Index rushed forwards, a desperate struggle versus an unstoppable force-

~~~

"Thank you so much, miss! I didn't think I'd ever see him again!"

For the record, neither me or Lemon actually knew who placed this request to find their missing cat. While we could verify the contract as legitimate, the owner was clearly reclusive, not wanting to even visit the office in person. At first, I thought that they were some stuck up, rich old guy — or maybe an old, sweet lady who was simply naive to the laws of the City.

What I didn't expect.. was some teenager who showed up at the door, wearing a loose t-shirt and shorts, bouncing up and down in happiness at being reunited with their pet. What the hell?

I could tell Lemon had the exact same reaction of confusion as mine. How the hell did this.. girl.. even get enough Ahn to pay out this massive reward of a contract just to find a cat? Either she was way more important than she looked, she won a lottery and had no idea on the value of money — or she was just using up her parents or guardian's savings to hire some fixers. 

"Uhm.. you're welcome?" I said first, while Lemon just rubbed his face tiredly. "I can't say you were the kind of client we were.. expecting, though."

"Huh? The hell do you mean by that?" Her tone instantly switched to a ruder one. "You think that someone like me can't have any pets?"

"No, it's just.." I scratched my head awkwardly. "I'm pretty sure no one at all can have pets. Isn't it against an amendment of the Head to have a non-human in the City.. even if it is just a cat?"

She shrugged. "My Arbiter hasn't gotten on my case for it yet, so it doesn't really matter."

"Well, I guess if the Head themselves don't want to label your cat as an Impurity, we as fixers don't really have a say in the matter, do we-" 

I doubletaked. "Your.. your Arbiter?"

Lemon's face perked up, alarmed at the mentioning of the Head. "Wuh-what? Arbiters?"

"Wait, what the hell do you mean your Arbiter-" I said, entirely confused. "Do you work for the Head or something?!"

"In a way, yeah..?" The girl also seemed confused, but only because I was first. "I'm a Beholder of the Eye. You know, the people who make sure your job runs smoothly?"

"What do you mean, my job? Wait-wait-" I laughed nervously. "Is it even okay to just- tell ordinary fixers this? Isn't the very existence of Beholders kind of a secret among the Cityfolk? I mean, they're not exactly as public as Claws or Arbiters, after all."

She deadpanned. "The very fact that you know what my job title is, means that you aren't just an ordinary fixer." At this point, the cat had jumped out of her arms in the middle of our conversation, curling up on a couch farther into the apartment. "Do you really think I didn't do my research? Of course I would pick the office that has a literal Arbiter to do my chores for me. Secrecy, y'know?"

"Besides, you literally just said Impurity earlier. Nobody aside from the Head and the top ranks of the Hana even knows of that term."

"Uhmm..-"

The girl cut Lemon off. "Your friend is fine knowing this as well, but you better make sure he doesn't leak any information about us to anyone else. You know how the Head tolerates people knowing our secrets."

He sighed in response. "No, it's just — why do I keep meeting all of these seemingly high-up members of the City?" 

"Oh, it's probably because of Rose." She put a faux-consoling hand on Lemon's shoulder. "Us Beholders have been running around like headless chickens trying to cover up all of her antics. Newbie Arbiters really are the worst, man~"

"Hey, what the hell are you doing, pushing all this blame on me!? I'll have you know-" I crossed my arms against my chest with a huff, "-I do my job perfectly fine, thank you very much."

"Perfectly fine.. compared to what?" Lemon awkwardly brushed off her hand while she laughed. "Compared to any grade 9 fixer, sure — but compared to say, Leonia? You're as useful as a fire extinguisher soaked in gasoline."

"Pfff- Don't even mention Leonia!" I grumbled. "She's so bossy, even to her own Claw! Nobody even likes her!"

"While she may be.. 'bossy'," The Beholder quoted, "She's about fifty times as efficient as you. It's abhorrent really, how much you Arbiters can get away with stuff just because of how difficult it is to-"

"Okay, that's enough!" I quickly shushed the Beholder, who laughed even more. 

"..Okay- While you two catch up, I think I'll head back to the office~" Lemon said quickly, ducking under the stairwell and descending down to the ground floor.

"Hey- WAIT! LEMON!"

I turned back to the Beholder. 

"..He's gone." 

She stared at me quizzically. "In any-case, you as an Arbiter shouldn't be associating yourself with mere denizens of the City. No matter what Hera tells you, I swear-"

"I've already heard this entire spiel!" I groaned. "Don't do this, don't do that — as long as nobody knows that I'm actually an Arbiter, I'll be fine!"

"That would be the case, if you weren't so sloppy with every single action you take! Why are you even so invested in this 'project' of yours-" 

Mrrrow~

A sharp call rang out, and we both looked down to see the cat from earlier rubbing itself against the Beholder's leg.

"Aww- okay, c'mere~" She quickly leaned downwards, scooping up the cat into her arms and tentatively rubbed its head. The cat trilled in response, similarly leaning into her hand's touch.

I looked away with a scoff. "This is the person lecturing me? You can forgive me for not taking a cat-lady Beholder seriously."

She didn't really need to know that I was a bit jealous to not be the one holding the cat.

This time, the girl was the one to huff, exasperated. "Rose- you know what? No matter what I say, I'm not gonna be able to convince you. If Hera couldn't change your mind, I probably won't be able to either."

I sighed. "I mean- I'm kind of an Arbiter, y'know? As long as I get my actual work assigned by the Head done, nobody should care what I do in my free time. And nobody except the Head is going to stop me."

For her part, the Beholder nodded. "You're right about that — but again, we're worried that your actions, like- seriously seriously, might tarnish or change the public's sentiment of Arbiters and the Head in general. And you should know, better than anyone, what punishment awaits for those who attempt it."

She rubbed the cat's head again. "Again, we just want the best.."

Her expression shifted to a confused one. 

"Best.." She repeated, blinking. 

"..You gotta be kidding me. The audacity to do this shit, in my own backyard? I ought to just send a Claw-or-two to teach them a lesson." The girl muttered, gently setting down the cat on a couch before wrestling with her pockets to retrieve an old-looking cellphone.

"Huh? What's going on?"

"God-damn Index Proxies," She replied on beat. "They've been planning to try and extort this entire damn Nest that I've been helping to rebuild. I wouldn't care about them, as long as they don't try and knock on my door and give me Prescripts — but now they're going way too far!"

"Index.. Proxies?" I shifted awkwardly.

"What? Can't you hear them fighting, Rose?" She punched in a few buttons on the cellphone. "You're an Arbiter. Surely your augmentations are advanced enough to-"

"No, not that- I mean I could hear them, can- but, I think I actually met a few of them earlier." I laughed nervously, seeing her deadpan face. "It was on the way to get your cat, actually- they helped me get it down from a wall."

The Beholder hummed. "Oh.. Well, either way, I can't have a bunch of grade 1 fixer level-people fighting right next door. I'll probably send an Executioner to break them up-" She scratched her head, wincing. "They're fighting the fucking Hana, too? God- what a fucking mess.."

Hmm.. "You know an Arbiter is standing right in front of you, right?" I said. "It isn't too much of a hassle for me to go and fix it myself."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "And why would you do that? Do you want brownie points from me or something?"

I shrugged. "Well, I don't have much else going on right now. A few Proxies isn't much of a deal." 

Besides- didn't June say something about the Index gearing up to try and take control of this Nest as well? I thought. I could do her a favor now and just get rid of the problem here too-

Both me and the Beholder froze, (each for different reasons) when we felt a strange, prickling heat thickly coating our bodies — almost oppressive and suffocating with its temperature. Even from a full city block away, both of us could feel exactly what that heat was.

"Is that.." The Beholder shook her head. "Nah, there's no way- there's no way someone really just-"

"Wait a fucking minute!" I rounded on the girl. "You said that the Hana were fighting those Index Proxies- Do you know exactly which Hana members are fighting with them?"

A scoff. "Why is that what you're worried about?" She took another look at my face, and sighed. "Okay, you want their names? Let me see.."

The Beholder began listing off names. "John, Cane, Riley, Mansa, Dames-"

As soon as she said that last name, time seemingly slowed down for me.

Dames.. How the hell are you already getting into trouble only a few days from then? If you manifested your EGO, you should be fine- wait, I thought. Riley's part of that group too.. I doubt they'll be able to take out all those Proxies I saw earlier, even with Dames' help!

"Alright, I changed my mind!" I ducked out of the apartment, vaulting over the stairwell and falling to the ground floor. 

"HEY! Where-" She ran for the edge of the railing, watching me land with a stomp to the sidewalk. "-Where the hell are you going!? I know your dumbass isn't gonna take on.."

Whatever else she said I couldn't hear, because I was already back up on my feet — running towards the source of the heat I had felt. I already saved this idiot's life once, and I'm not about to let Dames or Riley get themselves killed either!

~~~

"Newbie Arbiters.. I swear.." The Beholder rolled her eyes, punching in a few more buttons onto her cellphone.

A few seconds later — A rip in space appeared out of nowhere beside her figure, collapsing in on itself and yet expanding in an instant and in eternity all at once, two-dimensional and still fully visible-

And a moment after, a tall man, dressed in a crisp, business suit, stepped out of the two-dimensional crack in reality. While his left arm was normally sized, his right was covered in brown-bronze metal, bulky and extending all the way towards where his hand would be — a massive, metal, Claw. The same material plated his face, filtering both his voice and breathing, and three vials were attached to his head and shoulder, with a sky-blue vial slowly refilling itself.

"..Is there a reason you called me, Lady Sophia?" A deep, near robotic voice sounded. "You are not my usual appointment, so the occasion must be important."

The Beholder hummed. "Yeah- your fucking Arbiter just ran off, Sol. Make sure she doesn't get herself into any trouble."

A deep sigh. "I apologize for Ma'ams behavior-"

"Just go!"

With a nod towards the girl, the Executioner stepped forward and leaped off of the stairwell, leaving a noticeable dent in the steel railing-and-stairs as he boosted himself into the air. 

"That duo, god.." Sophia turned and walked back into her apartment, again calling a number on her cellphone. 

"City Building Services? This is code H-B, requesting repairs at.."

~~~

Shiiing~ CRASH!

With a metallic ring, I blocked a Proxy's longsword with the barrel of my rifle, surprised at the amount of force they were pushing back with. The carbon fiber of my new rifle was far better suited for clashes than my old weapon — but I myself couldn't press on too long having to fight in close quarters only.

"Get.. the fuck.. off me..!" With a shout, I stepped forward and pushed back the Proxy's blade, twisting it and forcing the handle out of their grip with a clatter to the floor. In the same movement, I flipped the rifle around, ready to fire off a shot at the smirking.. why were they smirking?

I realized a split second before it happened — I rolled to the side, and a gargantuan  silver battle-axe buried itself into the asphalt right where I was standing. Getting up to my feet as quickly as possible, I witnessed another Proxy pulling the massive blade out of the ground with a grunt, while the first casually picked up their sword.

There's just too many of them.. I exhaled heavily, taking a look at the scene around me. Riley was expertly dodging and blocking attacks from a Proxy, and Cane was somehow fending off two — but the rest of our members were struggling to deal with just one, and there was still plenty of manpower on the Index's side. Even though our situation was dire, I couldn't help but feel at least a little proud that our grade twos or threes were somehow able to slightly hold their own against far superior opponents.

"How pitiful.. To see a Capo of the Thumb reduced to such a state. I suppose this is just the Will of the City, after all~" The Proxy with the longsword taunted, smiling at me.

"Shut the fuck up.." I quickly aimed my gun in their direction, not bothering to aim before firing — and, as expected, the Proxy casually raised their blade, deflecting the paralysis-infused bullet with ease. 

"Not only is your hierarchy completely backwards, your style is unrefined at best~" They fucking laughed. "Some simple bullets and rat-like blunt attacks are easily dealt with, just like your actual comrades. Why bother fighting?"

 "Didn't you hear what Riley said?" They stared at me with a confused expression. "We give our All to Hana- but not only that, I have more than an association to fight for."

June..

"Don't you fucking lecture me about your Will of the City or Prescripts being created by gods." I loaded my rifle with a new magazine discreetly, this time with electrical bullets. "All you fucking zealots, spouting the same god-damn religious bullshit."

My words seemed to hit a nerve with the Proxy. " Bullshit? I don't think you fully understand what you're talking abou-"

BANG!

The Proxy raised their sword to deflect the projectile, clearly expecting to be interrupted — but the bullet shattered on impact with the blade, releasing electrical tendrils and shards of metal that drove into their only lightly-armored body.

"Gggukh.." The Proxy's sword clattered to the ground for a second time, and they heavily collapsed to the ground, having been effectively hit with a taser. "W-what.."

I loaded another bullet into the chamber — only for the same fucking battle-axe to swing towards me from the other Proxy, forcing me to spring back to not risk getting bisected vertically.

I can't even finish off one of these guys.. They're all fucking protecting each other! 

"No matter what methods you use, you won't be able to overcome the Will of the City," The larger man with the axe said. "All of you city-folk are the same, too blind to realize the glory of our Prescripts."

I clicked my tongue. "Who are you to talk about 'will'?"

A pulling sensation, in the back of my mind..

"I'm here because I have the willpower to stand on my own two feet. I have no problem brushing off your bullshit about being part of a greater 'power', when you don't have the strength to even take action without a slip of paper telling you to." 

For a longing desire, to make them all pay..

I took the chance to look around myself again — The rest of my group was still struggling to take on less than a third of these damned Proxies, and the rest of them were either just fucking standing around or ready to spring into action to protect their allies. We really were outmatched in every way, huh..

A flickering, burning flame — whispering in my ear..

Don't you want to make these worms feel your same pain?

Make them all regret their arrogance..

Make them PAY!

An explosion of heat and flame erupted from my body, causing the two closest Index Proxies to stumble back and catch fire. Without even consciously thinking about it, I was back — back with a righteous fury to cremate all before me. My familiar, darkened-red cloak, wrapped around myself yet again.. and a flaming, ornate rifle held within my hands. That heat burnt away any injuries I already sustained, closing up the various slashes and gouges I had taken from their one-sided attacks and cheapshots.

In the heat of the moment, I didn't notice the awe-struck look from ally and enemy alike — and frankly, I didn't care either.

"There it is.. I was hoping this wouldn't happen-"

Shiing- BANG!

The Proxy drew their sword, expecting in a split-second what was about to come as I raised my rifle — and a trail of flame, led by a red-hot golden bullet.. shattered the Proxy's defensive stance, simultaneously melting-and-breaking through the blade of their longsword to deliver a burning projectile straight into their chest.

Whatever that Proxy muttered out to me, collapsing heavily to the floor, I didn't hear — I was busy evading a crazed rush of slashes and swings from their enraged partner carrying the gigantic-silver battleaxe.

Even with this, I can't do enough.. hopefully Riley and the others can escape if I gather their attention..

I was no legendary Color Fixer who could take on an army and survive. I wasn't The Red Mist, after all.

And I'm not a Rose-Golden Arbiter, who breaks all laws of common sense- A part of me thought, amused despite the situation. 

What I am, though- I dodged a particularly powerful slam, the Proxy burying his weapon into the ground- I'm determined to make these sons of bitches work for my death! If my will can carry me this far.. then I'll take out as many of these fuckers as I'm able to!

My flame glowed even brighter with that thought — a brilliant, furious red in contrast to my previous, wrathful maroon. 

I loathe how unfair this City is.. and I'll take this chance to finally fight back!

Stepping aside one final charge from the Proxy, I loaded another, flaming-red bullet into my rifle — and fired.

Chapter Text

"Lemon.. are you alright?"

A young-looking girl sat before me — small in stature with purple-hair done in twin pigtails, wearing a black skirt and a long leather coat that draped down to their knees. She wore thick, black and sturdy boots, commonly used among many fixers, and to her side was a plain rifle — not unlike the many firearms used by the lower ranks of the Thumb.

Unlike those Thumb Soldatos, however.. a Sweeper's hook was attached to the end of the rifle's barrel, its near six-inch, red barbed hook serving as a bayonet of sorts. 

This girl — was my best friend and partner, and the founder of the Moon Section of our Eclipse Office, Yui.

She tilted her head. "We've been having more of these.. you could call them 'serious' meetings, more often than not. And each time you come back, you look more worried than ever. What's on your mind?"

Well, a lot's been on my mind- I wanted to say, instead deciding against it and clearing my throat. 

"That's because.. well, the Syndicates in our area are getting more bold- not just Syndicates, actually," I reaffirmed, "It's the Fingers of the Backstreets as well. I already told you about what happened to the Thumb in our district, right?"

Yui nodded. I sighed.

"After..-" After Rose annihilated the Thumb..

I wasn't about to tell Yui about what exactly had transpired with Rose and the Thumb. I wasn't the kind to withhold secrets from her — but at the same time, it would go against Rose's wishes to have her identity as an Arbiter revealed. It would probably go against the Head's wishes as well.

Aside from that, her history with Arbiters of the Head are.. suffice to say, not the most friendly. I don't think she'd react well to knowing that an Arbiter was sitting in my Sun Section's ranks, so I'd kept the details as vague as possible.

"Sorry- After what happened to the Thumb, the other Syndicates and Fingers are getting bolder and bolder in trying to exert their control, especially over the still-rebuilding L District's Nest."

She raised a brow. "That much is obvious, Lemon — so why bring all of this up now? Did something recently just happen?"

I paused. "Yeah, something has happened. I was out on patrol with one of my Sun Fixers, when we came across this-"

Flicking through my phone, I showed Yui a picture that instantly caused her face to pale. 

"That's.."

"..At least twenty Proxies and Messengers of the Index, gathered in one single place," I finished. "I took this photo just a few hours ago, when I was doing a request in the Nest. If it wasn't clear before, it's clear now.."

"The Index is finally making its move."

~~~

Shiiing- BANG!

The closer I got to the Nest brawl that had broken out between the Hana and the Index, the more clearly I could hear the sounds of their battle — Carbon Steel spears and blades, shimmering black in the afternoon sun clashing against the silver-and-golden blades of the Index. And of course, that prickling, thick heat seeping around every corner of the area from (presumably) Dames' EGO, giving me an uncomfortable feeling of weakness and exhaustion that just barely caused sweat to drip from my forehead.

When I finally made it to the area, I was greeted by a group of around seven Hana members, dressed in crisp-now-creased white suits, fighting a hopeless battle against Index Proxies and Messengers that outnumbered them by a factor of nearly three. In the middle of the crowd, the first person to draw my attention was Dames, her flickering, brilliant red cloak and rifle of flame firing flame-trailing bullets every which way like a woman possessed.

Dames, for her part, had taken the aggro of all the nearest Proxies around her, leaving her teammates in a slightly worse-off position.. if you could even call it that.

Even though Dames was the center of attention for the Index, her allies weren't ignored either — the second person I could easily spot was Riley, locked in a head-to-head confrontation with a rather smug Messenger, both of their bodies covered in glancing rips and light slash wounds. Rather surprisingly, Riley was actually one of the Hana members performing the best, and the rest of their group was struggling to only take on one Proxy — with the expectation of a burly, taller Fixer, simultaneously pushing back two Proxies that tried to contain him away from the rest of their group.

Damn, this got serious quick, huh..  

Of course, my first reaction was..

..to shout out at the top of my lungs to both sides. "HEY! CAN YOU GUYS- JUST, STOP FOR A MOMENT!?" 

Rather quickly, however, I realized I was just getting ignored. Whether it was because of their raging brawl making them ignore any outside influence that wasn't directly striking them, or the influence of Dames' EGO, I couldn't tell.

What else could I do, though? I wasn't about to start blasting Lines everywhere — the risk of hitting someone I didn't intend to was just too high, with how close the battle had gotten. Maybe..

Still going basically-ignored by both parties, I raised one hand into the air, charging my singularity's energy into my palm — at the same time, I focused on an "area" right above the confrontation, imagining a small, stationary whirlwind of singularities condensing themselves into a sphere. Following my command, the energy gathering itself into my palm tunneled over to right above the battle, gathering itself into a Placed Shockwave that would help re-energize the people I chose, while blasting back anyone else with a raw pulse of-

"Ma'am-" A gentle hand touched my shoulder from behind, making me jump and trigger the Shockwave early.

Instantly, the uncharged Shockwave detonated before anyone in the area could react, knocking both the Hana and the Index alike away from the middle of the street — leaving a small crater in the middle of the road's asphalt. The nearest, unlucky Proxies suffered broken bones and concussions from getting effectively ragdolled and flung into the closest buildings, while the more fortunate people (including all of the Hana's group) were simply picked up and slammed against the floor and walls.

..Ignoring all of that, I whipped around to see who the hell would dare and try to distract an Arbiter charging up possibly one of the most potentially destructive attacks within the City — only to come face to face with a familiar-looking Executioner of the Claw, standing still at attention like usual.

"Sol! What the hell was that for?! Why'd you fucking distract me!?"

He responded with a filtered sigh through his mask. "Beholder Sophia cautioned me to escort the Arbiter who jumped down five stories of stairs without warning to "break up a fight", seeing as their emotions would most likely get the better of them. Of course, that Arbiter would be you-"

"-Even if she told you to follow me here, it doesn't mean you have to listen to her!" I shot the Executioner a glare. "As your Arbiter, my orders come first. You shouldn't be taking suggestions from a cat-lady Beholder!"

"..May that be the case, you did not bother giving me such an order to refrain from protecting you," He replied, near-exasperated.

I groaned. "Listen- I wouldn't have needed your help if you didn't distract me from charging my shockwave in the first place! I'm trying to break up their fight, not kill all of them."

"STOP!" A scream from behind caught my attention, and I turned away from my Claw to witness two Messengers in front of me, holding back a white-haired Proxy who was tightly gripping a silver-and-golden longsword in their left hand.

"This bitch- let me-" The Proxy grunted as we both looked on in confusion, before the two Messengers wrestled him to the ground. 

"You can't attack her!" One of the Messengers cried out. "That Prescript is still under effect — you can't just ignore the Prescript we received only a few minutes prior!"

"Are you kidding me right now?!" He snapped back. "Did you not just see this girl try and attack all of us?!"

"She's clearly an Arbiter of the Head," The other Messenger replied through gritted teeth, trying to hold the enraged man down. "I don't claim to speak for the Will of the City, but engaging in a scuffle with one of the Agents of the Head is the last thing we should be doing!"

"Tcch.."

I took the chance to look around the area, witnessing both the mob of Index Proxies and Messengers and the scout force of the Hana seperate back into their own groups — recovering from the blast and uncertain of my presence, staring at me and the Claw Executioner behind me with wary eyes. Everyone had a look of bewilderment or shock on their faces — with the exception of Riley and Dames, who both had their eyes wide upon recognizing me.

"Uhm- what do you mean about 'not attacking me'?" I questioned loudly, half-addressing the trio in front of me and the rest of the confused combatants. "I was sent here to break up this fight and all- you guys are kind of causing a huge fuss in the middle of this Nest."

"She doesn't even remember what Prescript we're talking about!" The Proxy complained, now being pressed against the floor with both their arms secured by the first Messenger. "Surely- that has to count for something, right?!"

The second Messenger got up from the restrained Proxy, and I realized that she.. no, he was the same Messenger that helped me rescue that Beholder's cat earlier.

"As much as some- " He glared at the Proxy laying against the floor, "-of our group would like to exchange blows with an Arbiter and a Claw, we were instructed to refrain from harming you in any way by this Prescript."

The Messenger reached into their coat pocket, pulling out a familiar, formal-looking slip of paper. " Furthermore, refrain from injuring or maiming them in any way-" they quoted from the Prescript, before returning it to their jacket. 

"..Wait, seriously?" I said. "That's the reason why you guys just stopped fighting? That Prescript about that cat from earlier?!"

The Messenger clicked their tongue with clear distaste. "Obviously, any attempt at further conflict would only result in one-sided retribution by an Arbiter of the Head ."

Behind me, Sol flexed his namesake metal Claw threateningly at the Messenger, who lazily stared up at the Executioner — the height difference between the two very apparent.

"An Arbiter.. and an Executioner of the Claw," he corrected. "And since previous Prescripts similar to yours have had no time limit, it would only be safe to presume that this order does not have one either."

Groans and complaints resounded from the crowd of Index behind us, before they were silenced by a bark from the Messenger. "Everyone, we're withdrawing until further orders from the Prescripts are given!"

While the rest of the Index started packing up their weapons and checking themselves for injuries, The Messenger turned to me before leaving, with an unreadable expression on his face.

"I suppose this is just the way of the Will of the City — I'm sure we'll be meeting again, no?" And less than a minute later — they were all gone, having vanished into the corners of the Nest yet again.

"I'm glad that resolved itself, huh.." I muttered, walking over to the Hana group — causing a few fixers I didn't know to flinch at my approach.. or maybe it was the Executioner behind me actually intimidating them instead. 

I ignored the other Fixers in favor of addressing Riley first, who was still staring at me like I was a ghost.

"Alright, I wanna know-"

I was immediately cut off by Dames, who stormed over and grabbed me by the shoulders. "Where- the- hell-," She yelled, shaking me back and forth with every word, "were- you?! You can't just barge in like this every single time I get into a fight! Where the fuck did you even come from, Rose?!"

The rest of the Hana exploded into shouts and arguments, seemingly not caring for the injuries they had sustained — in favor of rapid-fire questions aimed in every single direction.

"Captain! Aren't we going to do something about the Index-"

"Hold on, do you two know each other-"

"What the hell was that, Dames?! You can manifest EGO-"

Ah.. I glanced at Dames again, who was fortunately back into a standard, Hana Association Fixer's suit, instead of her blazing bright-red cloak of fire. I didn't notice exactly when her EGO had actually dissipated — maybe I accidentally knocked it out of her with my shockwave, or it had gone away on its own when the Index had packed up and left. Either way, the absence of that syrupy-thick and prickling heat flowing around every curve of my body didn't go unappreciated.

"Everyone, some PEACE AND QUIET, PLEASE?!" Riley's voice sounded over all of the commotion, carrying a clear signal of authority that made even me want to shut up for a brief moment. The rest of the fixers stayed silent as she directed her gaze at me, narrowing her eyes. 

"Rose- I'm thankful that you saved our asses," She started, "But I can't be the only one who's wondering how the flying fuck you just appeared here. What gives?!"

"Uhm.." I nervously scratched the back of my head. "I was actually in the area, doing some work-" Because I didn't want to say I was doing a fixer request, of course- "And I got a heads-up that the Index was pulling some bullshit and ambushing a local group of the Hana."

"..That makes sense, but-" Riley groaned, face-palming. "Arbiters don't usually go out of their way to investigate battles between Associations and Syndicates, right? Why'd you feel the need to show up to this specific fight to break it up?"

"Well, because you were here, Riley- and Dames too," I added. "I'm not gonna leave you guys high and dry, you know?"

"Riley." The taller, burlier-built fixer from earlier elbowed the captain. "Is this- the source of all the 'performance reviews' you've been having lately? The shit I keep hearing about from the higher-ups about you breaking protocol over and over, and yet never punishing you for it — is it just because of.. her ?"

I blinked. Performance reviews? Breaking.. protocol? 

To be fair, I probably was causing a lot of trouble for Riley (and by extension, Kate) in the Hana's internal affairs. I wasn't sure what the organizational structure of the Hana actually looked like, but judging by the way their Hana Section freaked out when I dropped by earlier, and how I triggered the "high power" alarm from that bitchy fixer.. I really was making all these higher-ups scramble to find an explanation for all of this, huh?

Sorry, Riley..

There was also that thing Lemon always ranted to me about, something along the lines of me "disrupting the delicate eco-system and balance of power between Syndicates and Fixer Associations alike,".. all of that shit is probably just nerd talk, though. After all, June was already moving into this District's Backstreets to reinstate control over all the Thumb's sub-syndicates and stuff, so it wouldn't be a huge amount of time before the Thumb's operations here were up and running again.

I wonder if I can just ask her for some extra bullets. Lemon's always in need of extra bullets for some reason, even though he uses a greatsword..

"..Name isn't just 'her', you idiot. Her name is Rose." I overheard Riley arguing with the burly fixer from earlier, snapping me away from my train of thought. 

"Captain- just why are you on a first name basis with an Arbiter ?" The man whipped around, pointing a finger at Dames. "And you- how the hell do you know her too?! What the hell has this group been up to while I was on that Bloodfiend request?!"

Riley shrugged. "Apparently, Rose is stationed here on some important secret mission for the Head. We ended up becoming friends after we kept running into each other at the Hana Association, mostly because it was convenient for her to be meeting with the same 'representative' of the Hana every time she needed to clarify something."

"That," She continued, her tone becoming slightly agitated, "and the fact that I can pretty clearly notice all the shit this Arbiter's been up to around the District, especially since she insists on being so flashy and basically ignores every single stereotype that could ever exist for an Agent of the Head."

"Uhm.."

She cleared her throat. " And , since I know her so well, the higher-ups force me to deal with all the paperwork associated with covering up an Arbiter's tracks to the public-"

"Listen, I'm sorry for causing you guys so much trouble, okay?!" I waved my hands out in front of Riley, who just seemed unamused. 

"'So much trouble' is a fucking understatement, Rose! I've easily had to drill myself through more inches of documents this past month than in my entire career! Not to mention Dames over here-" Riley gestured wildly at the surprised woman, "-I'm sure she has a shit ton to say about you fucking everything up!"

"I was only trying to help out.." I weakly said. "I didn't mean for all of- this, to happen, like-"

"-Ma'am, I believe this fixer is correct." 

Out of all people, my Claw was scolding me now. 

"This is the sort of thing Hera has warned you so much about — there isn't a need to trouble yourself to such a degree over the mere denizens of the City-"

"' Mere denizens of the City '?" Dames echoed, incredulous.

"-And the shifting power webs of influence within its borders." Sol didn't spare as much as a glance at Dames while continuing to stare me down. "This is not a game of two sides, it is a mixed canvas of allegiances and groups all keeping each other in check. Any attempt to help one group, will influence one hundred others."

Riley sighed. "Your Claw gets it, girl. Rose, if we're friends- I'm really asking, can you please just stop causing so much trouble? I know you only have our best interest in mind, but you really go about things the wrong way."

"Yeah, I-I got it." I let out a nervous laugh. "I'm really sorry for all the trouble n' stuff, everyone.."

~~~

"What do you propose we do about.. this?"

A small moment of silence. "We know the Index has been planning this near-takeover of District 12 for months. You could even see their numbers mobilizing from other neighboring Districts, and — nearly forty Proxies, their three or four assigned Proselytes each, the group of Messengers heading the entire operation, and not to mention the subsidiary Syndicates under the Index's authority."

Yui looked me in the eye, and sighed. "Lemon — isn't this kind of a hopeless situation? The Library releasing all of the guests it had defeated just exacerbates the entire thing as well. Our entire office doesn't stand a chance against that many numbers. A single Proxy alone is equivalent to grade 1."

"Well.." Yui stared at me in confusion. "There is still the Hana, at least — in fact, there's a lot of offices that aren't just us that won't stand for the Index lording over everyone."

"The Hana and the offices around this area aren't going to be able to beat back hundreds and hundred of the Index, Lemon. They don't only have numbers — they have quality on their side too. I doubt there's more than a hundred-or-two Hana fixers stationed here in the Backstreets, after their Nest variant fell to an Index raid-"

"-There's one more thing, too. Most importantly of all, the Thumb isn't going to be watching and letting all of this happen. While their subsidiary Syndicates clearly went rogue for a while, haven't you noticed that gangs such as the Kurokumo have gotten back in line recently?"

"..Yes, I have." Yui admitted, begrudgingly.

"My best guess — the Thumb is getting ready to make a 'last stand' sort of thing in this district. They've probably sent reinforcements from surrounding Districts to, if not take control from the Index, at least hamper them enough to make it impossible for either Finger to advance any further."

"Cut to the chase, Lemon," She said after some thought and a huff. "We both know the Thumb can't hope to build up enough influence in this District quickly enough to beat back the Index. And the Hana Association, along with all the other Association Offices and independent offices in the area suffer the same problem. What are you implying?"

I sighed. "It might not be something you like — but if we want either the Thumb or Index gone from this district for good, there will have to be at least, to some degree, an agreement or truce with the Thumb. Neither us Fixers or the Thumb alone have the power to force the Index out, not when they've ramped up so much power — but together, there is at least a chance the Thumb will exhaust the other Finger enough that the Hana can swoop in and take care of everything else."

I didn't want to tell Yui about Rose — not only because of their inevitable incompatibility due to her being an Arbiter of all things, but the fact that she in of herself, was a wild card. 

At the very least, Rose is a somewhat competent Fixer that can at least get enough requests done that it wouldn't make sense to fire her — but the way her presence and power shifted the entire hierarchy of this District was comparable to a natural disaster. It was likely that Rose would take offense to the Index getting uppity in the Index — all I needed to do was make a reasonable claim to Yui, that would match the shenanigans that Rose was always up to.

She grumbled. 

"So, where does that leave us? Things are already high-tension around here, and I'm not in the mood to deal with a finger war in our backyard."

"It's better than following Prescripts, I guess~ If all goes well, both Fingers will have their attention focused on each other, instead of the local Fixer offices in the area, at least until the Thumb ends up getting forced out."

Yui raised an eyebrow up. 

"And, if things don't go 'all well'?"

"..Then we have more than enough manpower to defend our office."

Chapter Text

June's POV

It hadn't even been a few weeks since my Soldatos arrived here in the 12th District, but problems were already beginning to show themselves. 

The Index were getting far too bold for their own good, and it was only made worse by our current situation. Apparently, when their rivals (or rather, us) were mysteriously wiped out from the area by a certain Arbiter, they took it upon themselves to heavily increase all of their operations within both the Nest and in the Backstreets. Even though Rose had promised to "leave us alone" after figuratively kicking the shit out of Dames, the trouble she had caused for our operations as a whole couldn't be understated.

It reminded me of the Black Silence, actually — or rather, the Black Silence's Husband. After the death of the Black Silence, her husband — a rather powerful grade 1 fixer — went on a rampage throughout the City, crippling a majority of the Middle's operations and leaving them by far the weakest Finger at the next Finger Bowbell. 

At the time, I was only a Capo of the Thumb, but my Sottacapo came back with tons of stories about how the Middle was basically forced to suck up to the other Fingers due to their losses. They were still obviously much more powerful than any other Syndicate, (not like any average Syndicate brought along would dare talk down to a Finger), but the Middle was practically made to sit out the juicy war between the Thumb and Index over the now-defunct Lobotomy Corporation and their land, as well as the Library incident which swallowed up even more of our forces.

But now, we were in the same situation as the Middle, albeit slightly less severe than whatever the Middle's was dealing with. After all, they're still recovering from Roland's rampage.

If I made one wrong move, Rose could have easily taken the Thumb down another few pegs- I thought, holding back the urge to laugh. That Arbiter really wasn't so different from the "Black Silence" at the time, or Roland — she was basically a chaotic force that was near-impossible to account for. What if she didn't decide to spare us, and completely obliterated my Thumb's Section right after Dames'? The Thumb would be in a situation nearly as bad as the Middle, if not even worse from losing control over an active hotspot of a District that was Lobotomy Corporation's District.

At least she's practically neutral with us now..

Our losses over the past few months were massive, unprecedented compared to even major civil wars between Fingers. We lost a majority of our strongest sub-syndicate, the Kurokumo Clan, as well as a Sottacapo and many of his underlings to the Library. Not only that, Rose had taken it upon herself to exact her own (really, deserved) revenge on a newly-built Thumb Section headed by a newbie-Sottacapo to take control after Kalo's death, further crippling the Thumb once more. We simply couldn't afford any more losses.

..But, unless we want to be made a laughing-stock at the next Finger Bowbell, I'd have to take more drastic actions — considering my position as-basically the only prevailing force the Thumb had in L district at the moment.

The Index's level of influence was so high, that my Soldatos had to even start traveling in larger groups to avoid getting singled out by Index ambushes in the district — and that wasn't even considering the damage these fucking zealots were doing to our subsidiary Syndicates, which I spent many agonizing hours wrangling back into direct loyalty to us.

Honestly, it made me think back to the meeting I had with the Sottacapo from just a few weeks ago. "In fact, I'll personally lead half of the soldiers under me to set up influence within the district" — I myself, thought three-hundred-and-fifty Soldatos — while excessively large, would still have some mild issues considering the Index in the past still being a looming threat over L's District and Nest. But now, now that I know that the Index was just so encroached in the District — the situation really did feel a bit hopeless. I simply didn't expect to be met with this much resistance after only a week or two of the Thumb's disappearance from the District. 

Bzzzt.. Bzzzt..

I looked over to my side, confusing flashing on my face for a brief moment.

"..Seriously, who could be calling me?" 

The only people I gave my number out to were Rose, Dames, a few of the closest Sottacapos I knew, and the Capos under me — but none of these people were calling, as evidenced by the 'Scam Likely' displayed on my phone. Did someone just happen to misspell someone else's phone number?

I swiftly picked up the phone, answering the call with a tired greeting.

"..Hello-"

"Sottacapo June," A deep and clearly modified man's voice drawled from the speaker, as if the caller was purposely changing their speech to hide their identity.

I froze. "W..Who is this? If you're from the Index, I don't have time to deal with you-"

"There will be no need for questions about my identity," The voice cut me off, and I could faintly make out the sound of electrical crackling from the other side, almost like.. interference?

"I'm calling to inform you — to receive an audience with me this evening, at precisely midnight," The voice spoke coldly. 

"Take a left from the road where you encountered the pink-haired Arbiter, and stand in the middle of the third alleyway you come across. Bring no one aside from yourself. Your duties are effectively postponed until this meeting, as ordered by The Godfather. I have already scheduled a Warp Train, and the ticket and its necessary details will be delivered to you via email for you to print out. I hope to see you there, Sottacapo June."

Click- The call ended not even a moment after the last word, leaving me feeling oddly chilled — and nearly shivering. The.. Godfather? The Boss of the entire Thumb? What the hell could he want with me? Was this even real- no, this had to be a prank call, right? But the man — or rather, whoever that person even was knew exactly which number to call, as well as my name and rank. 

I checked my email, and sure enough — a Warp Train ticket, to be printed out, was proudly blinking at the very top of my unread emails, sent to me by a clear-burner address. It even had all the extra added amenities on it, and included first-class travel in a seperate train compartment, something no troll or prank caller could really ever afford unless they were incredibly rich.

..There was also about a dozen emails from Rose underneath the actual ticket email, talking about tens of rather mundane and petty topics. After opening the first email and being met with an image of what appeared to be an Arbiter drawn as a bubbly cat-creature sitting on top of a Claw's shoulder, I decided to ignore the rest of her messages in favor of reading them out at a later, more appropriate time — which would (hopefully) most likely be never.

(insert zena cat image)

~~~

Kate's POV

"Woah, you guys look.. awful. The hell happened out there?"

"..And the hell happened in here?" Riley was the first to reply, shooting back with an eye-roll. "Aren't you supposed to be on runner duty for all the backlogged paperwork we gotta do?" 

I laughed nervously. "I really don't wanna talk about it, okay? But seriously, you look like you just got done working as a training dummy for a paintball field.. that specifically only uses red paintballs. Are you sure you can't just tell me what happened?"

"-Got fucking ambushed by the Index, that's what happened!" Dames was the next to enter the now-active lobby, practically trudging her feet alongside a couple Hana Fixers that looked just as unkempt as Riley did. 

"A bunch of the pricks just- showed up out of nowhere while we were out on some emergency patrol and attacked us, if you really wanna know!"

I doubletaked. The Index? "Wait, are you serious?! I mean, surely you guys were able to handle a few Proselytes, right?"

I didn't think the Index was ballsy enough to go out of their way to try and attack Fixers that were a direct part of the Hana Association — Index members acted solely based on the Prescripts, so it was unlikely that they would attack anyone at all unless a Prescript ordered them to, or if they were acting in self defense. And since the Hana obviously wasn't trying to get the jump on a band of Index Proselytes, the fact that they would even attempt such a thing meant that their influence within this district was getting really bad. If that wasn't bad enough, th-

"..Proxies." Dames corrected. "They were Index Proxies . And it wasn't a 'few' of them either, it was twenty of the damn Prescript-cultists trying to eliminate our entire squad."

"Haha.. Proxies.. you- you ARE kidding, right?"

Proxies..? As in the veterans of the Index, the juggernauts that were comparable in strength to a grade 1 Fixer? What the hell did she mean by twenty Index Proxies? That.. that can't be true!

Dames simply stared at me, stoic aside from a confused eyebrow-raise. I darted my eyes over to Riley, who just sighed and walked off. 

"I'm going to go get a coffee.."

"W-Wait! Riley! Is all of this actually true?! You can't just leave like that-!"

My cries were left unheard by basically everyone else, who muttered their own various excuses to get out of the lobby for some (probably deserved) time off. The only one who remained, or rather, the one walking away the slowest was Dames, who was the last to make up some excuse for leaving the room.

"Dames," I started, "Surely- come on, you have to explain some of this to me! I've been cooped up inside having to deal with paperwork the entirety of this damn afternoon, you can't just come in here and casually drop that you've been fighting the Index without anything else to follow it up!"

She continued to stare at me with a dead-pan expression.

"Casually..?" Dames echoed. "I'm sorry, there wasn't anything casual about the 'fight' we had. You- you seem to have this sort of idealistic view of things, and what exactly we as fixers were doing out there. In fact — we fucking lost two people to those metalheads, it was nothing sort of an ambush! We wouldn't have come back alive at all if it wasn't for Rose of all people butting in at the last second!"

"Hold on- you said Rose was there?! Like- the Arbiter , Rose? It would have been nice to know that little detail-"

"Gah, is nothing I say going to get through to you!?" Dames rubbed her face tiredly, groaning. "What's gotten into you- you know what, nevermind — I don't even know why I should be here entertaining this conversation!"

"Jeez, there's no need to be so snappy.." I said, shrinking back a little.

Dames' seemed stunned for a moment, before sighing loudly. 

"..Sorry." She reluctantly mumbled. "It's just- I don't really feel like talking about it right now. I feel.." She blinked. "Actually, strangely exhausted.. Not like how I should normally, ordinarily be, y'know? Like after a skirmish and all.."

"Exhausted?" I voiced, worried. "I mean, I'm sure you have good reason to be — I'm sorry for pushing you to speak up and stuff. I- was really curious about it and all."

"Trust me, I'm fine.. Hell, I might go and pull a 'Riley', and actually start bringing some coffee around me wherever I go." Dames chuckled. "If she has to deal with stuff like this on a daily basis, it's no wonder she decided to replace half her blood with caffeine."

"Haha.."

Dames stretched her arms out, yawning. "Well, I really should get going — god, I need to tell June about all of this too. It isn't good news for any of us that the Index is getting more and more active by the day."

"..June?" I asked, confused for a second. "Oh, the lady who got mad at me over board games. She's really fun to play with- I don't know why she complains so much about me using 'illegal moves', though. I guess I'm one of the Hana's best at tabletop-games, right?"

"Yeah.. let's go with that." Dames said quietly, looking strangely uncomfortable. "Anyways, I think I'll take my leave — board games aren't my best work, so-"

"Hey, I could always teach you!" I called out, but the woman had already slinked off past the lobby, nearly-running away from me.

"Damn.."

Chapter Text

~~~

June's POV

The instructions I was given worried me. While I knew that this couldn't be any ordinary prankster — after all, no ordinary prankster could afford a first class Warp Train ticket — I still felt a pang of doubt over the whole thing, even while I was being cleared to enter my compartment at the closest Warp Station I could find. 

Unlike many other stations, due to the recent chaos and upheaval occurring in L's district, this train's First Class was one of few that was actually full to capacity — something that would most likely continue to happen for months as Nest-dwellers both fled the district out of fear, or reluctantly returned out of hope as the Head began reconstruction of the district's Nest. 

Hell, there wasn't even a new corporation to fill the gap that Lobotomy Corporation created yet, so I don't know why so many people were returning to the district. As soon as the Head was done rebuilding, they would essentially be on their own without a Wing to safeguard their Nest — maybe even sooner, considering that the Index was prowling about with their eyes set on taking over the entire district.

Even though First Class was packed full with people like a can of sardines, there was still a private compartment for each and every person or family. One of the few amenities of First Class — alongside customizable floor-to-ceiling screens that could mimic any background, the most expensive and high-quality food that even a snobby Nest-dweller would enjoy, and all other sorts of perks that normal passengers just didn't have. I didn't care much for all of that, though — my mind was still on the instructions from the voice that had called me.

I noticed a few people look at me with distrust while boarding, their glares a bit too harsh for me not to see. While W-corp was one of the few wings that didn't really care about the Fingers using or abusing their services, the tension between the Five Fingers and the Wings in general was.. for a lack of a better word, tense. Of course the Fingers were still allowed to board (after all, we were paying customers) the other paying customers couldn't help but seem off-put by my rather excessive and grand Sottacapo cloak and uniform adorned with medals.

Maybe I should have worn something more casual.. but the clothing did come with the perk of having basically no off-brand Syndicate or band of Rats attempt to ambush me on the way to the station in the first place. A Capo alone had the rank and power of a grade 1 Fixer, and a Sottacapo like me could easily be comparable to the top ranking fixers of famous offices and associations, only slightly below those assigned a Color by the Hana. Even without a weapon, as the voice had told me not to bring, I could easily defend myself against any band of low-life criminals — though, it would be annoying as hell to deal with. Regardless, it only took a few seconds to reach my destination, which was back in my old district. 

"Receive an audience.." I muttered to myself, that voice's words replaying in my head over and over. I probably looked like an insane person to any passerby watching me trudge out of the WARP station, muttering god-knows-what, but my own personal image wasn't my biggest concern right now.

What was my concern, though, was how the Godfather of the Thumb, the Big Boss of the entire Syndicate, had something so important to say to me that I had to travel a good way across the City for some top-secret meeting. The possibility that someone was just playing a casual prank on me was next to zero, but I also had to consider if there was someone out there that wanted to lure me out to an unsecured area to target and "take" me out. Again, though, if anybody, particularly any rival Finger Syndicates, wanted me dead, this was one of the worst ways to go about it.

Or, maybe — It was the Boss himself that wanted me gone.

I hadn't exactly been a perfect soldier throughout my career, and even with my promotion to a Sottacapo, I could think of a handful of ways I could have fucked up enough that the top echelon of the Syndicate wanted me dead. It's not like the last few weeks hadn't been uneventful enough that I didn't have plenty of chances to do something that the Boss or my fellow Sottacapos would disapprove of — hell, I basically survived a standoff against an Arbiter, an Arbiter that near-completely annihilated the Thumb in District L — an Arbiter, that, decided to spare my life.

-And, while kind of awkward to say, she's an Arbiter that I.. became friends with? I mean, just going off from how much Rose messages me at the most random times with this strange looking "ZENACAT" she seems to have a massive collection of, she certainly thinks so.

I don't exactly respond much to her, either. I'm still a bit shell-shocked on the reality of basically having, like, one of the top assassins of the Head watching over your shoulder at all times, let alone casually chatting with one like an old friend.

Wasn't Rose supposed to be undercover as a fixer for some sort of mission? For someone with such a seemingly important task — as well as an incredibly important job, she really seems far too casual all the damn time. It makes me wonder what she's even up to day-to-day.

~~~

Rose's POV

"So, in my meeting with Oda a few days ago, he stated: Arlong is like DIO. I asked him how-"

"Rose, what the hell are you watching?"

"H-Huh?!" I quickly hid my phone and looked over my shoulder — to see Lemon of all people, peering over my shoulder with a rather-agitated expression at my messy cubicle, strewn with a lot of.. let's just say in progress forms and documents that I would be definitely getting around to doing!

"Uhhhm.." 

Quick, make something up! 

"I'm busy doing all the paperwork you've been assigning me.. and I just really quickly needed to check my phone for a text! That's all!" 

That's a pretty reasonable excuse, right? I mean, I've really been working hard to-

"I've been behind you for like- five minutes, Rose. We both know that isn't true." Lemon stepped forward and picked up a mess of documents, before sighing loudly. "Being a Fixer isn't all just flashy battles and fighting, y'know — and hell, you barely even take up requests for our office anyway! If you aren't going to be finishing client requests for us, then you have to at least help with everything behind-the-scenes to make sure our office runs smoothly."

I groaned. "Look, I HAVE been actually trying to help out, alright? I've gotten a fair amount of stuff done already, and you know I don't deal with paperwork well!"

"This means that Arlong can do the same by screaming, ZA WATER-" 

Lemon raised a brow at me as I quickly shut off my phone.

"Ehe.."

"Are you really gonna pretend like I haven't seen you scrolling through social media for the past five minutes?" 

"Weeell.."

Lemon rubbed his face tiredly. "Maybe if you spent more time filling these out, instead of on your phone watching Tiktok.." He muttered, just barely out of earshot.

"What?"

"Forget I said anything. Just — make sure all of this.. stuff .. gets done by today." Lemon walked away in a huff, clearly annoyed. "And clean up your cubicle, it looks like a tornado just ran through here!" He called out.

"Man, this is so stupid.." I grumbled to myself, sitting up in my chair and sluggishly gathering all of the unsorted pages and documents and stacking them into piles on my desk. 

If only my Beholder would just help me out a bit with these.. but when I asked Hera to help me get a few (as in: literally all of them) of these papers done, she quite happily told me that since I was undercover, having my Beholder help me out with these dredges of sliced-tree-bark would be "a bit suspicious". Like hell it's suspicious! I'm supposed to be an Arbiter, not a fucking accountant! I'm supposed to be going on stakeout requests, and assassinate people, and- and not have to sit through a stapled and itemized seventeen page document about this office's tax write-offs!

"I really gotta start going on more requests.."

~~~

June's POV

I guess there wasn't any use wondering about what Rose was doing. And besides-

"-Ah.. looks like I'm here."

Time: around eight-thirty in the evening — plenty of time before the Sweepers would appear throughout the Backstreets.

Right here, was the super-specific alleyway I had been told to go to. The alleyway I had ran through only a few weeks ago, shouting out my best friend's name — before watching in horror when I turned the corner to see her half-dead, trying to face down an Arbiter of the Head.. After all, I was only a few dozen meters away from the place where I nearly died as well trying to save Dames.

I took another look around the alleyway. Coming back to this place.. A big ball of some jumbled emotion was born here, I realized — and I wasn't sure if it was a ball of hate, of anger, of sadness; but whatever emotion it was, it would have to be dealt with sooner or later.

I'll deal with it later — I thought to myself — and besides, there were more important things to focus on. Such as the only sorta hidden array of speakers strewn about the darkened alleyway. Even though there was obviously an attempt to get them out of sight — with a few of them tucked between or in corners of the concrete walls, I could still make out the glint of their metal framing in the remaining moonlight. 

I couldn't help but spot the glare of a small, almost-unnoticeable camera as well, peering down the end of the alleyway and facing me perfectly — something that obviously no ordinary civilian or day-to-day blue collar worker would notice just walking down the Backstreets.

It wasn't very difficult to be totally unsurprised as a robotic, heavily deepened and modified voice began echoing throughout the alleyway, emanating from the multitudes of speakers surrounding the area. 

"It's good to see you've made the journey all the way here, Sottacapo June. I was beginning to expect you wouldn't show up."

"..It's great to see you too, Godfather. Or, rather — it's quite nice to see that we're still all being led by a collection of speakers with a camera attached to them," I started with a hint of sarcasm, still a bit nervous. "Seriously, would it really be that awful to pay your dear Sottacapos a visit in person?"

The disconnected voice hummed, amused. "Hm~ You should know better than anyone the secrecy my position must entail. And though I would love to have a chat, face-to-face, with you for this particular conversation, my life is at risk for the current time being-"

"-Wait, what?" I replied automatically, confused. The Godfather's life, being at risk? What kind of fool would try targeting the leader of a Finger Syndicate — or, perhaps they're actually inflicted with something? Maybe a disease?

"I can see the gears turning in your head, dear Sottacapo-" The voice drawled, making a noise not entirely un-reminiscent of ice grating against steel, "-And not to worry, there isn't any immediate danger to me right now."

"Though — you've made quite the unprofessional entrance, no? I can't believe you'd crack a joke within the first ten seconds of arriving here. Has that strange and fickle Arbiter made such an impression on you?"

Shit, I forgot this wasn't just some random staged meeting with Dames.. and how much does this guy know about me? Did they witness all of my interactions with Rose — or even the Hana?

"I-" I quickly caught myself, clearing my throat. "Ahem- even if you may be the legendary Capo Di Tutti Capi of the Thumb, I have exactly zero proof that your identity is the one you claim it to be, and I have no obligation to properly salute those whose ranks I have no possible way of confirming," I casually recited. "The only reason why I'm even here in the first place, is to investigate if that phone call was even legitimate — or if I need to punish a few pranksters attempting to impersonate the figurehead of our Finger."

"Quite the fibber, are you-" The disembodied voice chuckled again, though it sounded like more of a rumble through their heavy-voice filters. "There's no need to question my identity so thoroughly, Sottacapo June — as we both know that I can recognize, deep down, you believe that I'm the person I say I am."

"..You're right." I begrudgingly said. After all, this was the exact same alleyway I had shown up at years ago, where I was officially promoted to the rank of a Sottacapo — and no one else except me and the Godfather themself had known about or witnessed that meeting. There was no possible way anybody would have noticed me, hidden away in a shaded alleyway, under the dim moonlight — in an area where there were few residential or commercial buildings at all.

~~~

On the other side of the City, inside Hera's Operations Center

"God, if Rose asks me to handle another inch-thick stack of Fixer Office paperwork again.. The depravity of it, I ought to crank the lights in her apartment up to max to send her a message! Even then, I dou-"

Achoo~

"T-The hell..? Why am I sneezing out of nowhere?"

~~~

June's POV

The fact that nobody else could have even possibly known about this specific area.. even though it was quite a slim piece of evidence, I couldn't shake the feeling that this was for real — that this was the real deal.

"Regardless, June ," The voice said — emphasizing my name without my title, "I don't quite mind speaking to you on equal terms. In fact, it'll be required very soon, considering the plan I have in mind for you right now."

"The.. plan?" I asked, uncertainly. Fuck, he's probably gonna have my execution planned or something like that! It wouldn't matter how I'd address the Godfather if I'm just going to die anyway..

"June, you're surely recognized that despite the fact that your behavior is far more lenient than it should be — even bordering on being unreasonably forgiving for transgressions halted against you — you're truly one of the most competent Sottacapos within the Thumb," The voice stated, with.. a hint of pride?

"Even though the Thumb has been recently struck with a flurry of blows to our standings within the Southwest, you have risen above and beyond in your leadership. You've even gone so far to effectively reinstate our once utterly-destroyed Section within district L, as well as successfully negotiate with the Arbiter that spearheaded the operation to ensure their future neutrality. Even if you might not realize it, your ability to make the best of a situation that seems unrecoverable, combined with that incredible surge of luck, allows you to do something that no other Sottacapo has ever managed to do.."

"..You've somehow allied yourself with an Arbiter of the Head, June," The voice finished.

I was left.. for lack of a better word, completely stunned . Is this.. was this really their true opinion of me? Hearing this from the Godfather themself — hell, this was practically glowing praise! 

"I-Um, well-"

The Godfather chuckled at my stuttering, continuing his speech. "A few of the other Sottacapos have already stated their approval of your competence. In fact, Sottacapo Davis — while he didn't show it during his meeting with you, was certainly impressed with your ingenuity and swift action. He even put in a suggestion that you'd make a great leader for the entirety of our operations in the southwest — and I couldn't agree more."

W-Wait, I'm not even remotely ready for this! Was this really happening?

"And, thus, I see fit to promote you.."

Could it really be happening? There's no way I deserve this!

"..To the position of Chief Sottacapo for all Thumb members, governing the southwest region of the City, as well as all of our operations within the area. You will be the first Consigliere I've truly believed to be worthy of their position in over five years, June."

Chapter Text

~~~

Me? 

Me?

As a Sotta- no, not even a Sottacapo anymore — I'll be a fucking Consigliere, one of the legendary eight executives of the Thumb that directly answer to the Godfather themself only! One of eight legendary executives that oversee the operations of not just an entire district, but multiple at once — one of the legendary executives of the Thumb who control an entire cardinal direction of the City, a rank equal in value to a Star of the City..

Oh god, what the hell am I gonna tell Dames.. what the fuck am I going to tell my troops, or the other Sottacapi in the area?! Are they even going to accept me as the leader of the entire southwest portion of the Thumb? I haven't even hit thirty yet! There's no way this can be real, right — I mean, half of the god-damn Sottacapi I've seen look like middle-aged war veterans that are easily pushing fifty! Why am I of all people getting put in charge of managing, like, three or four of them, alongside the casual couple Districts worth of the Thumb's troops and their hundreds of subsidiary-syndicates?!

This is completely unbelievable..

Like hell I'm even remotely ready to act as a Thumb executive lording over entire district's worth of manpower and their leadership, are you fucking kidding me?! I've barely even been a Sottacapo for a few years! How stupid and embarrassing would it be to go to the next southwestern-Thumb meeting and suddenly announcing, 'Oh yeah everyone, the Capo Tutti Di Capi, the fucking Godfather of the Thumb, promoted this twenty-seven-something absolute newbie to lead all of you!'

"Of course, your competence as a leader isn't the sole reason I see fit to promote you — quite obviously, you wouldn't be kicking out the previous Consigliere of our Thumb's southwestern section," The voice spoke. 

"Huh..?" I mumbled, still just a little bit starry-eyed and shell shocked by the promotion. "Buh- But, if I'm not directly replacing them, then.."

"Oh no, don't get me wrong — you will be replacing the previous Consigliere, seeing as they've recently died," The speakers replied dismissively, "But that's beside the point."

"What?! The previous Consigliere died?! I feel like that's a very major point!"

The Godfather continued talking, bulldozing past whatever I said. "The point is, June — Even though you're an exceptionally-capable leader in the Thumb, rising through the ranks with remarkable efficiency.. Even if I personally, certainly believe you are truly worthy of this post, the other Sottacapi or my Executives won't take too kindly to a youngling like you 'muscling in on their market', so to speak."

"Why would that matter, though?" I questioned. "I hardly had anybody questioning my rank or authority when you promoted me to a Sottacapo. Besides, as long as I provide proof of my promotion, there isn't really anything dissenters can do except grumble and complain about it behind my back."

The voice hummed. "Well, in the past when I gave you the position of Sottacapo, the bar was set quite low for any new players entering the leadership roles of the Thumb. With the disappointing failure of Sottacapo Kalo and his underlings to take on the Library, coupled with their subsequent 'transfer' afterwards, there wasn't much expectation for you to shine so particularly well when you replaced district V's Sottacapo."

"Now," They explained, "compare that incident to the one now, where I simply promote you to a position of Consigliere of the Thumb without any countermeasures. The hierarchical balance of power inside the Thumb is sure to shift drastically — not only will any previous, ultimately less suited for the title and role yet-still-senior Sottacapi be dissatisfied and resentful for a supposed 'newbie' stealing their promotion out from under them, the various other executive members of the Consigliere will be bewildered at the fact that you'll be standing among them as equals."

"Yem.." 

All these inground politics start to give me headaches after a while~ maybe I'm really not suited to be a Consigliere after all..

"Even if you don't firmly enforce it like your previous-fellow Sottacapi, the structure of the Thumb is built on rigid devotion in both to your superiors and to our code of loyalty. Threatening to shake that valuable, unbreakable trust in our organization by — to outsiders, promoting a younger star like you 'willy-nilly', will only serve to weaken the confidence and faith of our leadership as a whole, even directly threatening my very own position. Which is why.."

"..I have a plan for you, Consigliere June."

I sighed. "God-damnit, I knew there was a catch."

The Godfather cleared their throat — but through the rough speakers and their filtered voice, it sounded more like a rumble. "My plan involving you is both a means to test your capabilities, that also simultaneously allows you to prove that you deserve the role of Consigliere to the other executives. If you do this right, both your and my authority will be safely unchallenged with you having proved yourself."

"Sounds.. simple enough?" I said, slightly anxious. "What's this plan you have anyway, Godfather? What could I possibly do that will solidify my right to be a Consigliere? Like- am I just gonna be throwing myself at the Index in district L until they get the message and fuck off?"

They chuckled. "Nothing so mundane as the things you've already been doing~ no, my plan involves a far more grand way to deal with the zealots of the Index."

Out of nowhere, a flash of something white and golden floating past me instantly caught my attention — I quickly turned around, only to see a thin, white slip of decorated paper flutter to the ground in front of me.. A Prescript.  

Whatever was written on the slip was too hard to make out, smudged against the unkept floor of the dark alleyway. I quickly picked up the Prescript, holding it up to the dim moonlight to get a better read of what it said — and my eyes widened in shock.

To Messenger 'Zane'

"On the third day of the Finger Bow-Bell, Approximately one-third of the way through the meeting, covertly reveal the location of the Grand Hall's Meeting Room to ambush team C."

"..My plan with you, Consigliere June, involves uncovering whatever the Index has planned at the next Finger Bow-Bell, which is only eight days away."

"Are you interested in hearing more?"

~~~

Dames POV

Being a part of the Hana Association, especially as a Fixer, can get.. a bit tiring at times.

After my performance against that crowd of Index Proxies and Messengers nearly gutting us all, it was clear that I needed at least a little more training to perfect my fighting style.

Unlike most Hana Association Fixers, such as that old man Cane or Riley herself, nearly-all of my combative training was my years of experience working as a Thumb Soldato, then as a Thumb Capo — and combat training as part of the Thumb mostly includes extortion of the occasional loser who refused to cough up their protection fee to the Thumb, subjugation of the occasional loser subsidiary-syndicate that refused to pay their contract fee to the Thumb, and, last of all, the very occasional battle against other syndicates, or against the few Fixer Offices that dared to try and take on the Thumb directly.

Now compare that to the baseline, completely-normal, benchmark-average Newbie Hana Association Fixer. 

The few Fixers that manage to get into the top Association of the entire City, the gleaming and respected Hana, are only there for one of two reasons: either because they clawed their way through other Fixer Offices — earning themselves a name and at least the rank of grade 3, before scraping by the annual entrance exams to only be booted into the weakest sections of the Hana.. 

..As for the other reason? The other archetype of Newbie Hana Fixers are rich Nest kids who barely pass the legal drinking age, boosted to grade 3 using their families' wealth to purchase top-grade equipment — and for those who are so unskilled that they can't pass the entrance exams to the Hana despite having weaponry and augmentations that other Fixers could only dream of, they use their wealth to bribe the testing officials into letting little ol' them sneak by to join the ranks of the most prodigious Fixer Association in the entire City.

It's not like the Hana is unaware of this unbalanced system, though — because as soon as you DO get into the Hana, there's a shit-ton of work to be done.

For those from the Backstreets, clawing their way up to reach the peak, finally joining the Hana is a soothing break in the pace of rank-climbing — like any self respecting Fixer Association, the Hana obviously has many amenities for it's Fixers — but one of the perks of being the strongest, most well funded, most well known Fixer Association in the City is both the Hana's top level training facilities driven by professional trainers, (who are usually either experienced, but retired members of the Hana, or various high-ranking Fixers from either the Hana themselves or other Associations), but also the fact that they have access to some of the top augmentations and weapons to exist in the City.

And for those rich, spoiled and bratty Nest kids? The Hana Association quickly becomes a living nightmare for the Fixers that were boosted to the top, seeing as they'll have to actually train to a skill level above that of a new grade 9 Fixer that can barely even take on a pack of Rats. Honestly — serves the little shits right for growing up learning to only fight with money.

As for me? Due to the.. nature of my employment, which I'd rather not think too hard about — I had basically entered the ranks of the Hana the exact same way that those sorts of spoiled rich Fixers had. And while I was easily far more competent than any loser that could barely even wield a Hana-brand, carbon-fiber spear, my rank at grade 1 still didn't accurately reflect my true battle prowess.

You see, Riley only made me grade 1 at first, because it represented what grade a Thumb Capo would be equivalent to — unfortunately, however, I didn't exactly have the skills of an actual grade 1, or even the relative strength of one without my EGO active. With my EGO in full force, I was far and away easily a grade 1 in power — but my skills, even then, were still lacking, and against more than maybe 3 opponents at once, I just had a hard time keeping up.

Because of all of this, (especially with the incident against those Index Proxies and Messengers earlier), the captain saw fit to put me down to join her training as one of her students.

..Which is where I am, right now.

"DIVINATORY-!" (A/N: Divinatory Impact has die in this order: Slash, Block, Blunt, Pierce, and Evade)

Clang~

"Oh, like hell I'm going to let you get away with that again!"

Clashes, feints, defense and offense.. Riley might change it up ever so slightly every time, but I know she can't leave out the big strokes in that specific technique without majorly slowing her momentum! As soon as I see her raise her spear up for that block..

Now!

Krrk-ching~

"Damnit-!"

I couldn't break past that iron-clad defense.. And right after that, she's going to- 

fuck, DODGE!

Whoosh~

I need to be faster.. I need to hit harder.. I need to break through these limits I'm restrained by, or I'll never stand at the top! I'll never be good enough to stand along even with her!

Clang~

Standing on a level equal to that person.. to that fucking ARBITER!

As long as I can't even better myself to be on a level of a grade 1.. I'll never be able to reach her level! Like hell I'll sit still and stay content below that person always coming to save our ass!

Woosh~

"You finally came up with a way to clash with my Divinatory Impact, huh?! But I doubt you'll be ready for this..!"

In a blink of an eye — right after Riley dodged my last attack, she stepped back and spun around with immense speed, thrusting her spear forwards at my face while giving me zero time to react-

-And stopped the attack with incredible precision, leaving the tip of her black-and-golden spear mere inches away from giving me a violent haircut.

"..Fuck."

"That was a good effort, Dames — but as soon as you started underestimating me, you lost." Riley said, flourishing her spear and deftly sheathing it onto her back.

"Wh-What the hell was that, though!?" I yelled, indignant. "Your Divinatory Impact is a technique that relies on keeping an even pace of momentum — you have to move in such a way so that each move smoothly blends into the next all while shifting its speed as well! Hell — I even saw it for myself! What the hell was that at the end!?"

"Oi, I'm not some sort of predictable training dummy you can endlessly practice the same move on," Riley replied. "As soon as I saw that you could finally manage to clash with my Divinatory Impact, I transferred my remaining speed into a Celestial Spear right at the end there."

"Wha- that's the Celestial Spear I've been hearing about this entire time!? How the hell is that even fair!? How are you supposed to mitigate that, it's way too fast!"

She sighed. "It's not supposed to be fair, dumbass. In a real fight, do you think your opponents are gonna fight fair? Do you think they're gonna refrain from ganging up on you, five-to-one, just like that incident a few days ago? You need to prepare for every eventuality, prepare for anything your opponent can do and how you can best counter that. That's the difference between a grade 1 like me, and someone who's only grade 1 in name."

"..This just sucks."

"I know. Welcome to training."

As much as I hate to admit it, Riley was just right. There's just such a huge jump between the skill levels of grade 1 and grade 2 — and hell if I know if I can even call myself a grade 2 in terms of skill. Of course, my EGO could help make up the gap — but I didn't even know how to reliably manifest my EGO, something that both Riley and surprisingly, Cane were both annoyed about.

Ever since I manifested my EGO in front of those Index bastards for the second time, Cane has been strangely respectful to me, and I wasn't sure exactly why. Maybe he finally saw just how strong EGO could be firsthand, and as a result didn't want to try and set me off anymore? Either that, or he noticed some sort of 'potential' in me, something he started going on about after seeing my EGO in full force.

"I was wondering where'd I find you two.." Shit, there was the man himself.

Me and Riley turned to see Cane slowly walking towards us, dressed in a more casual-looking version of our typical Hana Association Fixer-suits. "What brings you here, old man? I suppose you aren't gonna start training me alongside her?"

The 'old man' chuckled, something that he would have probably never done in the past when met with such casual disrespect. "I'm not that old yet, Dames. I still got a couple decades left in me as a Fixer." He then smirked at me. "As for joining you during your training, I might start to consider it if you keep bringing it up — although it's a shame you haven't been able to bring out that flaming EGO ever since."

"That better be a joke, grandpa." Sparring alongside Riley was already exhausting enough, with how often she sought to remind me just how long of a way I had to go before truly earning my title as a grade 1. I didn't need this old man on my case during my training sessions as well!

"Now that you mention it, I don't think Dames has yet to be able to manifest EGO again.." Riley sighed — and to my horror, added, "I wouldn't mind having you train her too, Cane. No matter how much potential our resident newbie has, I can't spend all of my free time helping her perfect her technique. Hell, she hasn't even been able to utilize our Four Trigrams yet."

"Don't get me started on those fucking 'Trigram' things you guys use, I find the whole concept of them stupid." I grumbled. "What the hell does it mean to 'focus on the spirits of fire, water, sky, and earth?' I'd rather focus on my actual strength first, and I don't need to take turns sparring with you and Cane either."

Cane whistled. "Damn kid, you're that far behind? I know your fighting style doesn't leave much room to be taking on our techniques of the Hana — but those Four Trigrams are something that anybody can study, even if they have a steep learning curve." He said, eyeing Riley pointedly during the last part.

"What?" Riley spoke, in a defensive tone. "Are you still judging me because I couldn't master your 'True Trigram Formation' bullshit?"

"All I'm saying is that you don't have much room to talk about Dames not being able to use them, if you can't even use the Four Trigrams to their full potential~" He replied.

"Oh, fuck you. And Dames," Riley said, "You better expect to have some of your training with this old man in the future, whether you like it or not."

"Wh- But why!?"

"Because I said so." She replied flatly. "You know he's a good deal stronger than me, even if he looks like a dried-up raisin."

"A dried-up raisin?" Cane laughed. "Hell, you have some spunk for calling me that. I'm not even that old, y'know. I still have a lot of fight in me."

"Wait- are you actually serious?" I questioned. "There's no way he's actually a stronger Fixer than you, right?" To be honest, I didn't actually know the power dynamic between Riley and Cane. Although I had heard a few words exchanged from either of them about their time in a different Hana section, I don't think I've ever been able to get a clear look at either of them fighting at the same time, since the only time I've been in a situation like that was when I was busy trying not to get fucking skewered by a Proxy's blade.

Riley rolled her eyes. "I don't know if you didn't notice during your rampage against those Index Proxies, but Cane has been in this business a good bit longer than I have." She said, seemingly reading my mind. "In fact — before our other Hana Section in district L got swallowed up by both the Library and the Index's assault, I used to be working under him as well."

"Aren't you above him in rank, though?" I asked.

"That's in rank only. When it comes to an actual battle.." Riley seemed a bit nervous. "..I don't have any doubt that he'll eventually come out on top."

"Damn, you're just openly admitting it like that?" A sudden vibration came from my pocket, and I took out my phone to see an incoming call from June of all people.

"Ah.. do you two mind if I take this call real quick?" Cane simply looked confused while Riley peeked over my shoulder, her eyebrow raising a touch when seeing the name of the caller on my phone.

"Not at all, go ahead. Besides, I have some business to take care of with this old man." Riley said.

"Oh, are you seriously going to try and spar with me again..?" Came a reply from the older Fixer, though I was already walking away to one of the side-benches in the training room.

"What is it, June? I'm a bit.. busy, right now." I spoke, after quickly pressing the 'accept call' button.

"I'm sorry for interrupting whatever you're up to — but I have something important to ask of you right now." June's voice came through the speaker, her tone slightly frantic.

"Hey, is everything alright over there?" I said, worried over her tone. Was there something going on with the Thumb? Was the Index launching some sort of move or something?

"Well, I guess everything is alright, but it won't be for long." June sighed, pausing for a moment before saying something that made my blood go cold.

"The Finger Bow-Bell is coming up, and I need your help for a very important plan. A plan that involves the Index. Are you free?"