Many thanks, as always, to Aori for beta-ing.
"You know it's a trap, right?" Arthur asks when Ash arrives at the warehouse dock after he took Skip and Eiji. "So why did you come?"
"I knew I'd have to settle it with you, sooner or later," Ash answers, and it is the truth, though not the entire truth. The relief that pierces through him like a bullet when the warehouse gate to the right opens to reveal Skip and Eiji, captured and bounded but alive and uninjured, betrays him, though he lets none of it show on his face.
"Let them go," Ash says, disregarding Skip's yells for him to run, and Arthur smiles, ugly and conniving, and walks over to Eiji.
"Kill him," Arthur orders, and one of his people pulls out a gun. Arthur knows Ash too well to make such a threat, and Ash knows Arthur too well to think he wouldn't go through with it.
"Hold it," Ash calls, pulling his gun from his pocket to toss it aside, as another is leveled threateningly against Eiji's head. He only has an instant to register the resolute look on Eiji's face, before Eiji shouts, "Ash, save Skip!" and tackles the man holding Skip.
Two gunshots ring into the air, almost simultaneously. The man guarding Eiji falls, but too late. Ash puts another bullet into the man holding Skip, and does not look in their direction longer than necessary.
Skip's cry of Eiji's name amidst the shootout is enough of a confirmation.
"Skip, run!" Ash shouts, shooting when Arthur as he tries to grab him. Arthur curses and abandons his attempt at Skip to jump into his car instead. Marvin tries to follow, but Ash puts a bullet in his head before he could take more than two steps. The sound of car engine reaches his ears and Ash jumps to the side just in time to avoid the car barreling in his direction. Ash rolls to his stomach as soon as he hits the ground, arms braced against the ground for another shot, but the car rounds the first corner and disappears from his sight, taking Arthur with it.
Skip's scream has Ash running for him; he has hidden himself in the darkness of the warehouse. "Ash, Ei-chan!" Skip says as soon as he spots Ash, and Ash whirls around to the sight of Eiji's splattered skull against the pavement pulling itself back together, blood, bones and all.
Ash has a gun pointing at Eiji - is it Eiji, is it really him? - when his eyes flutter open not even a minute later. Eiji yelps when he wakes to the sight of a gun barrel pointed between his eyes and scrambles back, limbs gracelessly flailing and body full of openings for Ash to take a shot.
"Ash?" he says when he catches sight of him, and then, "Skip! Is Skip okay?!" and Ash lowers his gun. He doesn't know what just happened, how Eiji is still alive - came back alive, a voice in Ash's mind whispers chillingly - but nevertheless it is him, the ditzy Japanese boy with a heart too big and soft for such a cold world amidst a gang war in New York City. Ash has so many questions, but for now, he is just glad that Eiji is fine.
"Ei-chan?" Skip says, coming out from the warehouse, and Ash has never heard Skip sound so close to tears, even counting the time an enemy of his broke Skip's arm. Skip starts out walking and then all but leaps into Eiji's arms when he is close enough. Eiji stumbles at force of it, but wraps his arms around Skip reassuringly as Skip cries, "I thought you died!"
"I'm sorry for scaring you," Eiji says, patting Skip soothingly on the back. He glances up as Ash tucks his gun in his back pocket and walks towards them, including him in his apology, and something like relief warms Ash's heart when he can see up close that Eiji really seem fine, like he hasn't ever been shot in the head not even ten minutes prior. "I'm immortal, I can't die. I should have told you, but I didn't have enough time and I didn't want you to surrender to them because of me."
"You're not hurt, are you?" he continues, looking Ash up and down for injuries, and then pulling Skip to an arm distance so he can examine him just the same.
"I'm immortal," Eiji said, dropping that on them like it's nothing more ordinary than stating he's Japanese. Ash thinks back to his previous encounters with Eiji, combing through them to see if there are any signs that Ash could have missed that signify Eiji's immortality, but there was none, and even now as Ash looks down at Eiji checking Skip for injuries, he would have been hard-pressed to believe Eiji is anything but human, if he hasn't seen Eiji pull his skull back together after a bullet pierced his head.
"Those men," Eiji says, and Skip stops crying now, and Eiji is looking at Ash with a serious look on his face. "I overheard them talking while they were holding us captive. They said you have something of their boss's… Banana Fish?"
Ash doesn't quite tense, but Eiji has his attention now. "Yeah," he says, and then couldn't resist teasing, "does the great immortal Eiji know something about it?" despite the weight that lodges in his heart. Ash doesn't know what Banana Fish is, but it has already gotten half a dozen people killed and them almost joining their ranks. Ash isn't sure how he would feel if Eiji is involved in it, but Eiji merely shakes his head.
"No," he says, as Skip stands, "but I think I know someone who might know. I don't know how gangs really work, but do you… do you want to meet them?"
Ash cocks his head to the side, intrigued despite himself. Gangs, Eiji says, with his baby innocent face. He knows someone, he claims.
Ash couldn't help but recall Eiji's reaction when Ash lets him hold his gun at his behest.
"Wow, this is pretty heavy too."
Eiji has never tried to hide, just that it's only now that Ash is beginning to recognize the signs as they are.
"Who?" Ash asks, and Eiji's eyebrows scrunch together as he tries his best to pronounce, "Firo Prochainezo and Maiza Avaro?"
All the air rushes out of Ash, unbeknownst to Eiji, who continues, "Ennis too. I also kinda know Luck, Keith, and Berga, but I'm not as close with them." He tilts his head to the side in contemplation and continues, "Though if I call Firo and Maiza, I think they're close enough with the brothers that they'll hear about it."
"The Martillo Family and the Gandor Family?!" Skip exclaims, because Ash is very careful about schooling his gang on who they should never cross, and those two families are at the top list.
The Martillo Family and the Gandor Family are both self-contained mafia families with close relations. Although relatively small, both families are based in Little Italy of Manhattan since before the Prohibition and has maintained their territory over the years uncontested. Ash suspects the Martillo Family and the Gandor Family individually has enough power to rival Dino's, though they keep to themselves, and the only time Dino tries intruding on the Gandor Family's territory, the Gandor crushed the attempt without even calling on the Martillo's help.
There are also rumors that circulate around the Martillo and the Gandor for as long as Ash can remember. No one can remember a time when the Martillo Family and the Gandor Family did not rule over Little Italy, nor can anyone remember a time when anyone else other than the current upper echelon rule over each family. There were whispers of something that is like out of fairytale, of deals with the devil, and of...
Ash looks at Eiji and breathes, "Immortals," and Eiji blinks at him and then nods with a smile.
"Yeah, it was Maiza who made me into an immortal," Eiji says. "Firo's and Luck's family too, I think most of them are immortals."
Those words click with him, despite how outlandish it should have sounded. The Martillo Family and the Gandor Family are immortals; Eiji is an immortal. So much has happened today that it seems like nothing can shock him anymore.
Eiji thinks the Martillo and the Gandor family can help him. Ash doesn't want to rely on another organization; it feels too much like running from Dino only to fall into hands of someone no different than him, but this is already much bigger than him, much bigger than them all. The Martillo Family and the Gandor Family are known for their neutrality, their interest focused on their own trade and less on power and territory. They have no lost love for Dino and if it turns out they have no interest in what Ash has to say, he knows they at least won't deliver him straight into Dino's hands. More than that, Eiji is vouching for them and Ash hasn't known him for long, but he has already died once for them and saved their lives. Ash finds himself wanting to trust him and if Eiji says, as confident as Ash has seen him in all the time that Ash met him, that the Martillo and the Gandor can help, then Ash wants to believe that.
Skip is looking at Ash, wide-eyed from the events of the day, but still so willing to follow his lead. Ash places a hand on his shoulder and meet his eyes, before glancing at Eiji.
"Let's meet them, then," Ash says, and Eiji smiles then, wide and beautiful, and Ash hopes he hasn't made a mistake.
He doesn't think so, however.