"Who hired you to kill my father?"

Rita lead the interrogation herself with only two men in the room at the door. Soko might have once considered her overconfident, despite having been searched with her hands tied behind her back to the chair, because she had still put herself in a room with a trained assassin, but there was still only so much she could do. The men at the door had been instructed not to get involved, but she was certain that they'd protect Albini's girlfriend if it came down to it.

The air was humid and stale in the small room; sweat ran down her neck and she flexed her fingers behind her back. Rita was dressed in a heart print t-shirt and shorts and looked no different from any other girl Soko saw walking down the streets of Sicily. She hadn't had any involvement in organized crime before her father's death, or so they'd been lead to believe. Soko wondered if she had it in her to torture someone for information, though.

She found herself blindfolded when she didn't answer the first question, taking away what little vision she had of the room. She heard Rita walk around her, and then swore when she felt a hand dig into the bullet wound, gritting her teeth. "I'm still waiting," Rita reminded her, voice close to her ear, and she took a shuddering breath, crying out when the hand twisted. "You're not very careful," she went on, sounding further away, "Do you always leave someone alive? If you'd killed me when you had the chance, you wouldn't be in this situation."

"Wasn't the first time," Soko grunted. The hand withdrew from her wound and she gasped for breath.

"Oh? When else have you let someone live?"

"When I met my partner." Rita didn't say anything and Soko knew she'd surprised her. "If you want information, you're going to have to do better than this. I grew up in a family where mistakes got the ends of your fingers cut off."

"That must be a lie," Rita interrupted, "Because your hands look fine, and if letting me live wasn't a mistake, I don't know what is."

Admittedly, if she were still serving her father's organization, she probably would have been punished for sparing Toko four years ago, and again for letting Rita go. She felt a cold blade pressed against her chest through her shirt, not hard enough to draw blood, but shivered when the air hit her skin as her clothes were cut away.

"You have a lot of tattoos," Rita murmured, and she felt the girl's hand press against her shoulder. Soko knew every single line that ran from her shoulders to her hips, the waves and flames, the geisha, the festival fox mask and all of the flowers. She'd chosen them all herself on her sixteenth birthday, a rite of passage to mark her as a yakuza woman for the rest of her life. "They're beautiful. I like the big lily the best." The blade pressed into the middle of her back, right where the flower she mentioned was.

Soko smiled a bit to herself, bitterly, and waited. She felt the blade break the skin, trailing up her back and down again, tracing the same line, and then it suddenly went deeper and she shrieked. She wondered if she would bleed out before Rita got any of the answers she wanted. Suddenly, the blade retreated, and she felt Rita move away.

"You'll never guess what I just found," she said, and Soko heard the smile in the girl's voice, "You left your phone in your pocket."

She froze. She couldn't believe she'd been so careless. Xanxus' texts right before the five minutes ran up had distracted her so badly that she'd forgotten to leave it behind. There wasn't any incriminating evidence in her messages or call history, but she had Don Vongola and several of his people saved in her contacts, and Rita would likely put two and two together.

"Look, you even have a new message." There was a pause and she read over the words, sounding confused. "'I'm tired of waiting, trash.'"

As if on cue, gunfire sounded on the other side of the door and a panicked stampede of footsteps and shouting. Soko heard the door to the room open and the men guarding it rush out, and Rita moved to stand behind her, pressing the blade to her throat. "You had backup," she muttered, and if she wasn't being held captive, Soko would've argued that she was fairly certain she didn't.

The fight outside lasted only a minute longer before the doors were flung open again. "Trash," Soko heard, and she almost laughed, never so happy to hear someone address her in such a callous way.

"Step back," Rita ordered, pressing the blade tightly to the flesh of Soko's throat, "Put your weapons down." There was a yelp and Rita was suddenly no longer next to her. She heard the knife clutter to the floor before feeling the ropes binding her arms loosen and the blindfold was roughly tugged off of her eyes. Squinting, she saw that Xanxus wasn't alone; there were four others, three close to him and another standing to the side pinning Rita to the floor with a knife of his own held to her throat. There was one stuck halfway through her hand, likely what had caused her to drop hers. Anyone who could throw a knife with enough force to do that could only be a part of the Varia assassination squad.

"Boss," the one above Rita said, grinning widely, "Can I finish her off?"

"Wait," Soko called, shakily getting to her feet, and Xanxus looked to her for an explanation. "This is my fault," she said softly, "I let her go before." Understanding, Xanxus handed her a gun—hers, she realized with an appreciative smile—and stepped back. The Varia assassin looked disappointed but moved away as well, and Soko stood over Rita, flicking off the safety and taking careful aim.

The girl looked up at her, tears rolling down her cheeks and her eyes wide in fear, suddenly appearing her age. "You made a mistake," Soko told her softly, "You shouldn't have wasted time asking me questions. You should've just killed me when you had the chance."

"So now we've both made mistakes."

Soko nodded, murmured, "Yes," and pulled the trigger.


Toko suffered nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises, as Rita had been so fixated on Soko that she hadn't bothered to do anything but tie her up in the next room. Don Chiavarone apparently owned a hospital downtown, and Xanxus took her personally, draping his coat over her bleeding body. He told her—ordered her—over and over again not to lose consciousness, and she did her best to stay awake, her back burning and her head spinning.

She was rushed into the emergency room on arrival, and the next few hours blurred together, all red and white, machines beeping, sharp pain before the drugs kicked in. Soko remembered looking up at Toko's worried face. She might have seen Xanxus once, but was sure it was only her imagination.

The next time she was completely lucid was the following afternoon. Toko was slumped over in her chair, shoulders rising and falling with every breath, and Soko smiled. "Hey," she called hoarsely, "Toko. Wake up." She reached over to touch her arm and her partner jerked awake.

"Yu—!" her partner blurted, and stopped herself, red in embarrassment before she corrected, "Soko. You're okay."

"I'm sorry," she said, "That mess was my fault."

"It's fine." Toko leaned forward and took Soko's hands into her own. "We had no way of knowing. Don Bencivenni's daughter was a civilian; we were ordered not to kill her, remember?"

"Rita."

"Huh?"

Soko looked out the window at the blue, cloudless sky. "Her name was Rita."

Neither of them spoke for a moment.

"How long until I can go home?"

"Not long," Toko assured her, "They said your leg should be fine, too." She paused, a smile slowly working its way onto her face as she noticed something. "I'll be right back." Soko was about to ask her where she was going, but when her gaze followed her to the door, she saw Xanxus standing there. After her partner was gone, he took her seat.

"I thought Don Vongola said—!"

"The Tenth isn't supposed to involve himself in non-Vongola hits," he cut her off, "But I am the ultimate authority on my squad's actions."

"So you chose to act independently." Soko almost laughed but held it in. "That kind of thing can get you in trouble, can't it?"

"Please," he sneered, "He was a worried mess after you two walked out. I received commendation for my decision, especially since it was necessary."

"What would have happened if it wasn't?" Soko asked curiously, "You would have stormed in, only to find we weren't there anymore."

"Your partner told us about your five minute rule."

That made her pause. "When?"

"You haven't noticed how she's all over the Chiavarone boss?"

"How much has she told him?"

Xanxus's brow rose. "Why does it matter? Unless you have some sensitive information that your allies aren't supposed to know? And I'm still waiting for a 'thank you,' ungrateful trash."

"That's not what I'm…." Soko rolled her eyes. "Thank you."

"Like you mean it."

"Are you kidding me?" His eyes narrowed. She looked down at her hands and murmured, in Japanese, "Thank you."

"The Tenth is pretty torn up about this, since it stemmed from his orders" he said, "So he's paying for a vacation for you and your partner to a hot spring resort in Hokkaido next week."

Soko smiled. "That's very generous of him."

"I'll be going, as well."

"What for? You didn't get shot in the leg or stabbed in the back."

"Neither did your partner," he said, "But I led the relief team. And more importantly, we were supposed to meet at Brindisi today."

Soko didn't say anything, heat slowly rising to her face. A meeting at a bar so they could fully overcome their differences and get to know each other was something she could handle, but a hot spring was far too intimate. They were skipping at least five steps, unless this was some other angle of mafia relationships that Toko had neglected to tell her about.

Xanxus noticed when her cheeks turned red and smirked. "What are you blushing about? I saw you naked yesterday, trash."

"Don't remind me," she muttered. She hadn't been thinking about it when she'd been full of adrenaline and wondering if she would even make it to the hospital.

Apparently, he had nothing more to say, because he stood from his seat and headed to the door with a warning for her "not to avoid him again," leaving Soko confused and thinking of her upcoming vacation in equal parts anticipation and dread.