Sabrina was getting ready to check out from the hotel.
She was feeling better than before...
But only because she realized that she wouldn"t be in pain if she didn"t think about, care about, or hope for anything - just like before.
"Did you leave anything behind?"
"..."
"Hey now, Sabrina. You"re the boss of the Jevini family, you know? Get your act together."
"..."
Sabrina didn"t respond to Juan at all.
Juan appeared to be bored and flexed his shoulders. As he did, one of his lackeys approached and whispered something in his ear.
"Is that so?"
His lips formed a small smile and he looked at Sabrina.
"What a bother. Well, it doesn"t matter. I"ll take care of it myself."
His words didn"t match his expression at all, he wore a crooked smile.
"But, I want you to do something for me."
At Juan"s orders, the lackeys left the room immediately.
"Now then."
He smiled and showed a change of mood.
"Sabrina, something has come up. Do you mind waiting in the lobby for me?"
"... Please make it short."
"Of course. It"s something really pointless that won"t take long. I"ll take care of it quickly"
Saying that, Juan left and only Sabrina remained in the room.
Something that doesn"t require much of his time?
Sabrina thought about what Juan just said, but she quickly stopped thinking and headed towards the lobby.
She won"t think about, care about, or hope for anything.
She entered an empty state.
Sofia, who was still feeling depressed after talking to Kazuki, returned to the room provided for her by Juan after she wandered the streets aimlessly. Unlike the suite room, hers was a small room.
She tried to gather her thoughts as she sat down on the bed.
Sabrina"s happiness.
A mafia member"s duty...
What was I expecting when I went to see that boy?
No, I think I already know... but I might have been afraid of acknowledging the fact.
Boss... what should I do?
What do you want Sabrina to do... boss?
Why did you give everything to Sabrina?
Because you did that, Sabrina and the boy are...
Sofia threw herself on the bed.
Rustle.
She felt something touching her face.
"An envelope...?"
There wasn"t an envelope here when she left. She opened it and looked inside... it contained a few doc.u.ments.
"Charted flights... making it appear as an accident... a.s.sa.s.sination of Sabrina? This is—."
As she read more of the doc.u.ments, Sofia nearly stopped breathing.
In that same instant, the door to her room violently flew open.
A few girls dressed in black suits were standing outside the room. In their hands, they each held a submachine gun.
All of the girls aimed at Sofia.
"Kuh."
And Sofia leapt from the bed.
2
Yet again, Kazuki was standing in front of the hotel where Sabrina was staying.
When he inquired at the reception desk, he was told that Sabrina"s party was about to check out from the hotel.
He was also told to go to the underground parking area if he had something to say.
So, he caught an elevator and headed to the parking lot as he was told.
"But why the parking lot? Ah, they must be going to the airport by car. I better hurry or I"ll miss them."
When he arrived in the underground parking lot, he didn"t feel anyone"s presence.
The atmosphere was heavy, the artificial light and concrete supports caused an unpleasant feeling.
Suddenly he heard footsteps in the distance.
Those sounds were getting closer.
"Sabrina."
Kazuki shouted out, but the one who appeared was none other than Juan.
He was alone.
"Well Kazuki, what"s the matter? Did you leave something behind?"
"That"s right."
"Strange, the rooms were checked before checking out, but I suppose I"ll get someone to check again. If what you"ve left behind is found, I"ll make sure to punish the one who checked the rooms the first time."
Juan was smiling as he said that, but Kazuki wasn"t smiling at all.
"It"s not an object that I forgot."
"It"s not? What kind of a puzzle is this? Hmm, if you lost something, but it"s not an object—."
"It"s Sabrina."
"What?"
For an instant, a sinister expression was visible behind his smile.
"I can"t say that I like those types of jokes, Kazuki. Also, I"m sure you heard from Sabrina before that you"re a bother to her."
"You"re right, but there"s something I must make sure of. Let me meet with Sabrina one more time."
"Why are you so obsessed with Sabrina? I"m sure I told you that we"ll be taking care of her from now on. Oh, I understand now!"
Juan clapped his hands as if he suddenly understood something.
"I see, so it"s the sum. I guess the money wasn"t enough for you. You"re quite greedy, Kazuki."
"That"s not it!"
Kazuki exclaimed to Juan, who was removing bills from his wallet.
"I don"t need it! Or this!"
Kazuki threw the bundle of bills that he received earlier. The bundle scattered like falling leaves on the ground.
Juan"s eyes grew cold and were glaring at Kazuki.
"She"s no longer the same Sabrina you once knew. She"s the boss of a mafia family now."
"I know that."
"No, you don"t know at all."
He flexed his shoulders backwards.
And he removed a handgun from his sleeve like it was nothing.
Bang.
A dry sound echoed through the car park.
"Huh?"
Kazuki unconsciously kneeled.
His thigh felt like it was on fire.
Red blotches started becoming visible through his school uniform pants.
"Aaarrrrggghhhh!"
Kazuki"s painful howl rang out. Juan had just shot him.
"Hey, hey, don"t overreact."
Juan happily watched Kazuki writhing in pain. Kazuki desperately tried to resist the pain in his leg and glared at Juan.
"Mafia my a.s.s. I can"t leave Sabrina to you people. Return... Sabrina"
Juan wordlessly pulled the trigger.
Kazuki felt a huge impact in his shoulder.
This time he wasn"t even able to scream. He started losing consciousness from the pain.
"Huu... kuh, kuh..."
While Kazuki suffered, Juan pulled him up by his hair.
"Excellent... it seems like you"re special to Sabrina. If you tell her what you"ve just told me, she might actually remain in j.a.pan. It would mess up my plans."
"Your plans...?"
Juan covered his mouth instantly, but he leisurely smiled again.
"W-What are you planning on doing to Sabrina...!?"
"Someone who"s about to die doesn"t need to know, does he? Well, I guess it doesn"t really matter. You"ll be separated for now, but she"ll see you soon."
"D-Don"t tell me, you"re going to—. Sabrina is the boss of the Jevini family! Why would you do that!?"
"I"m doing this because she is the boss."
"Da...mn."
Then from the beginning, he was just using Sabrina...!
Unforgivable!
I won"t let him!
"Ouaaaaaa!"
Kazuki head b.u.t.ted Juan in the nose after struggling free of his grip.
"Kuh."
Juan let out a surprised yell.
The two of them fell down. Exploiting the opportunity, Kazuki mounted Juan and swung his non-injured (right) fist at him.
But before his fist came into contact, Juan struggled and hit Kazuki in the temple with the gun.
"Ughh."
His sight became blurry and Kazuki stumbled.
While pinning Kazuki to the floor, Juan got in a better position. His once pure white suit was now covered in a large amount of blood from his nose.
"My nails...!?"
Juan looked at his fingernails while shaking. It seems like his precious nails broke in the struggle.
"This runt!"
He kicked Kazuki, who was still on the floor, in the stomach.
"Urrp."
Bile from Kazuki"s stomach filled his throat.
His stomach was kicked over and over again.
After kicking Kazuki repeatedly, Juan was gasping for breath and held the gun under Kazuki"s chin.
"Die."
The finger hovered over the trigger.
I need to do something... anything....
But his body wouldn"t listen and his head was going blank.
I guess it"s over for me...
I need to at least tell Sabrina... about Juan"s plans.
Need to tell Sabrina—.
At that moment, there was an ear shattering noise.
Clang. Clang.
After the noise, two bullets flew towards Kazuki.
Kazuki"s eyes traced the sound to the source of the bullets.
At the source of the bullets stood a young girl.
Kazuki was barely able to murmur the girl"s name.
"Sa...brina."
"Are you Sabrina-san?"
While she was waiting for Juan in the lobby, someone walked up and spoke. Sabrina wordlessly looked at the speaker, who was a hotel employee with a cap covering his eyes.
"Your companion told me to pa.s.s along a message. The car to the airport couldn"t be arranged, so he would like you to come to the underground parking lot."
Companion? ...Juan or Sofia?
"Si."
She curtly nodded and walked away.
Grruumbble.
Sabrina heard a noise she was familiar with and looked behind her... but there were only members of the hotel staff present.
So Sabrina decided to ignore it and head to the parking lot.
And now—.
There was an unbelievable sight before her eyes.
Juan was holding a gun and pointing it at a battered Kazuki.
Sabrina dropped her briefcase unknowingly. It hit the ground and the contents spilled.
"... What are you doing?"
Sabrina was barely able to say it. Juan let go of Kazuki"s hair.
"Kazuki came all the way here to see you Sabrina. I tried to talk to him about it, but he suddenly rebelled. Look at my nose and my broken nails. Isn"t that too much?"
With Kazuki laying motionlessly on the ground, Juan opened his arms wide in an innocent manner.
"..."
Sabrina didn"t respond.
"Don"t worry. I only punished him slightly. It"s not like I was going to kill hi..."
"Shut up."
She coldly cut him off.
"I wasn"t talking to sc.u.m like you, and no matter how much you try to make up excuses for yourself—."
A cold aura appeared around Sabrina.
"I will kill you."
In an instant, at a speed impossible to follow with the naked eye, Sabrina removed her gun and shot.
The bullet knocked Juan"s gun out of his hand and sent it flying.
"Kuh."
He reached towards Kazuki to use him as a hostage, but it was too late.
Sabrina rapidly shot until her magazine ran out.
"Garrhh!"
Juan fell backwards as if someone just pushed him over.
Although Sabrina shot at him until she ran out of ammo, the gun contained rubber bullets. It obviously wouldn"t cause any fatal injuries.
Nevertheless, it dealt a fair amount of damage. The areas. .h.i.t should be useless.
"I- I will... k-kill you. I"ll kill you and your precious Kazuki... urpp"
With his hands and feet immobilized, Juan could only lift his head up and curse at her.
Sabrina looked down at him and shifted her gaze to the two bullets lying on the ground near Kazuki.
One was a real bullet.
The other was a rubber bullet.
—Understand, Sabrina? Our number 1 Omertà is「Do not hurt anyone. There are exceptions, but still, killing is not allowed.」 Got it?
She remembered what Kazuki told her before.
Omertà...
It... doesn"t matter.
Because I"m no longer related to that person.
Sabrina picked up a bullet. She loaded it into her gun and took aim at Juan"s head.
"Heeek! Stop it... don"t!"
Juan was begging for his life.
Without hesitation, Sabrina pulled the trigger.
When the bullet hit Juan in the forehead, it send him flying like someone was dragging him head first from behind.
He slowly collapsed onto his side.
Seeing Juan in that state, Sabrina audibly sighed.
She heard a voice behind her.
"Sabrina, you... kept your promise... our Omertà."
It was Kazuki. He was dragging his feet as he slowly made his way to Sabrina.
"Uuu..."
At that moment, Juan groaned.
That"s right. The bullet Sabrina shot was the rubber one.
"No, it was just a coincidence. Why did you come here in the first place?"
"I had something to say to you, Sabrina. So I came...."
"But I told you that I didn"t have anything else to say to you."
Sabrina turned her back to Kazuki.
She rejected him.
Silence fell and it felt like the two of them were isolated from the rest of the world.
"Sabrina... let"s go home."
Kazuki spoke first.
But Sabrina didn"t look back.
"Why must I go with you? I"m a mafia boss. I told you that I have nothing to do with you."
Sabrina pushed Kazuki aside with cold words.
Why did you come back?
I tried so hard to forget about you Onii-chan.
Why won"t you let me go?
Her heart started to ache again.
"You"re lying when you say you have nothing to do with me!"
Sabrina flinched.
"Why are you telling me it"s a lie? I"m not lying. I"m a dangerous person, an a.s.sa.s.sin in training and a mafia bo—."
"No."
Kazuki cut Sabrina off.
And continued...
"You"re my family. I can tell when my little sister is lying."
Affected by his words, Sabrina quickly turned around.
Tears were rolling down her cheeks.
"Onii... chan..."
With his uninjured arm, Kazuki gently hugged Sabrina.
"Sorry Sabrina. I"m sorry for hurting you like this."
Kazuki stroked Sabrina"s head softly with his hand.
As he did, Sabrina realized for the first time that heartache and tears were caused by being hurt.
However, she started crying in her brother"s warm arms because of a different emotion.
Many different emotions were clashing inside her.
But she didn"t need to hold back any longer.
"Uuuu, waaaa. Onii-chan... Onii-chan."
Sabrina was bawling her eyes out on Kazuki"s chest.
"I want to be with you forever, Onii-chan..."
"Yeah, family should always be together."
"... Si, ... Si."
Kazuki patted her head softly.
"Welcome back, Sabrina."
"... Onii-chan."
Sabrina hugged Kazuki... Including his injured arm.
"... (Press)."
"It hurts—."
"... (Presssss)."
"... S-Sabrina, hold on. It hurts. Could you let me go? Look, I"m injured because I was shot."
"No... no."
She just wanted to be by her brother"s side, so she couldn"t let him go. She couldn"t control her strength and hugged him even stronger.
"It hurts! It hurtsss! Sabrina, time out! Time outtt!"
"No."
Kazuki"s painful yell echoed through the underground parking lot once more.
3
"Don"t move!"
While Kazuki was being tightly hugged by Sabrina and screaming, he heard someone yelling at them.
It was Juan. It looked like he regained his senses. He was pointing the gun that he"d previously dropped at them.
Still tightly attached to Kazuki, Sabrina tried to turn her body.
"Oh no, don"t move! Don"t do anything suspicious."
Juan was in an unstable state. They could tell by the look in his eyes that he was about to do something.
I need to protect Sabrina...
Kazuki hung onto Sabrina tighter.
"You runts, how dare you look down on me..."
With a sinister smile, Juan placed his finger on the trigger.
"Wait—!"
A voice suddenly interrupted.
Ta ta ta ta!
Surprisingly, the one running towards them was Saki.
"Ehh-it!"
While Juan was caught off guard with the sudden intrusion, she swung a wooden box at his head.
Slam.
With a great noise, Juan was knocked out again.
"Ootaki-kun, are you ok!?"
"K-Kinos.h.i.ta... how?"
"Si. Why are you interrupting our precious time together?"
"No, no, shouldn"t you ask how she got here!?"
"You see, Izuna-san said "I"ll take you to a nice place" and she brought me here. But as soon as we arrived, she said "Something smells good!" and ran away. So while I was looking for Izuna-san, I saw you guys. ...So, I guess I rushed in to help you out. Heh heh heh."
Saki, who was being shy, had shivering legs.
"But Ootaki-kun, those wounds..."
"Ah, yeah, it"s a bit... but it"s ok. It"s nothing... maybe."
"Ah, that"s right. I"ve brought a first aid kit."
"Wait. W-why did you bring that?"
The box that she swung at Juan was a first aid kit.
"It was Izuna-san who told me to. She said that I needed a first aid kit when going to a nice place."
The definition of a "nice" place was completely off. That aside, it was great that she brought it.
"I think I"m starting to get dizzy from blood loss."
"Hold on, I"ll treat yo—."
Rustle.
Sabrina stopped Saki"s hand, which was reaching for bandages inside the first aid kit.
"Sabrina?"
"Thank you for bringing the first aid kit, but I"ll be the one to treat Onii-chan."
Tug.
She tugged at the box.
However.
"Hold on! This is my first aid kit, so I think I have the right!"
Tug.
This time, Saki tugged it toward herself.
"Both of you..."
Tug, tug.
The box was being tugged back and forth between the two girls like a fishing net.
"Treat me..."
Tug, tug, tug.
Kazuki was able to faintly hear the girls" voices as his consciousness faded away.
"As soon as possi...ble."
Gulp.
With those words, Kazuki died... or more likely, he fell unconscious.
"Nya ha ha ha, they"re as funny as ever."
"Is this your way of doing things?"
Izuna spoke to Sofia while they were watching the other three converse.
"Ah, not good! I need to go and run my business. Ah— so busy."
" But wait, you"re a nun."
Sofia stopped Izuna who was trying to hurriedly run away while checking her non-existent watch.
"The one who put the envelope in my room, told the boy about Sabrina"s location, and called Sabrina here was you, wasn"t it? You"re not very honest."
"What are you talking about? I don"t know what you"re talking about. Look, I"m just a nun."
"It doesn"t really matter if you"re a nun."
"... So, you found me out?"
Izuna laughed while scratching the back of her head.
"You"re not that honest either. You were hiding in wait for a chance to help Kazuki out~."
"Um, that"s... I don"t know."
Since she didn"t expect to be attacked that way, Sofia blushed and pretended not to know what the nun was talking about.
"Ah! Sabrina started to treat Kazuki in a loving way!"
"What!? I"m jealous! I"ll kill that boy!"
When Sofia turned around to look at Sabrina by reflex, all she saw was Sabrina wrapping the bandages normally. While Sofia was distracted, Izuna ran away and left behind a ridiculously large bill of hotel services she used.
"Should we go after her?"
A girl wearing an eye-patch took Izuna"s place in the conversation and picked up the bill.
"No, it"s meaningless to do so anyway. I"ll leave it to you."
When Sofia said that, the girl with the eye-patch motioned using her hand.
Many Jevini Family members gathered and took Juan away.
"I suspected something when the underboss accepted Sabrina, but I didn"t expect him to try to a.s.sa.s.sinate her via a plane crash."
"The ones who were part of the plan were arrested in Italy. They really do hold all the information in the world, as expected of the "Happy Crown." Their fearsomeness is unchanging."
"Fearsome, huh... that aside, when you guys charged into my room, I thought I was going to die. To think that the special corps was moving against the underboss himself."
"Juan aimed for Sabrina"s life. He broke the law, it was the obvious thing to do."
Sofia and the eye-patch girl both looked at Sabrina.
The emotionless girl that they once knew back in Italy was gone.
All they saw was a girl who loved her older brother very much.
"Will this really be ok?"
"Yeah, it doesn"t matter to me. This is what she wanted, anyway."
"... Is that so."
"And..."
Sofia looked away from Sabrina and began looking at the girl with the eye-patch.
"I think being a mafia boss will be fulfilling."