"What do you mean he's gone?" She shouted in outraged Italian. "Where would a five year old boy have to go!?" Her fingers clenched dangerously around the butt of her gun. There was a smear of red across her cheek, forgotten and overlooked by the sheer rage that twisted her face into a near snarl.
The maids cowered in the wake of her fury, eyes cast downward and lips struggling to shape the answer the Young Lady of the house sought from them. The truth was that in the rare silence of that had fallen over the mansion at the Young Lord's leave- the staff had basked in the small lapse of peace instead of worry too much about what had become of their youngest master.
It wasn't often that the toddler stayed quiet, not unless he had fallen asleep or wandered off; and nobody wanted to ruin the momentary calm by asking too many questions. Faced by the indescribable wrath of the Young Lord's older sister though, that decision was looking like it had been a horrible mistake.
"Are any of you capable of speaking or am I wasting my time asking you about where the boy you were all in charge of watching has disappeared to?" She asked in a voice that wasn't quite a growl but very close to one. It dripped with fury.
An older woman stepped forward, knobbly fingers twisting anxiously in the fabric of her apron. Her wizened face was crinkled in fear. There was a bead of sweat on her forehead. "I heard the Young Lord tell Master Bovino that he was leaving on a mission and wouldn't return until he completed it. He must have been unaware of your arrival today, Lady Risa."
"You're telling me that my uncle sanctioned a mission for my five year old brother to complete on his own? The same brother who in his short life hasn't taken on a single job without assistance?"
The maid trembled. "Yes, my Lady."
"I see," Risa said and smiled. It wasn't a kind smile. There were far too many teeth in it for it to look like anything but the baring of teeth. Far too much poison for it to be anything but a threat. It was sharp in the way daggers were right before they slit your throat. Dangerous. Brimming with the potential for murder.
"I'll have to speak to him about this misunderstanding. If I didn't know any better then it would almost seem as if he wanted to send my brother away." Her fingers twitched on her weapon. The mere thought of her brother in danger sunk her heart into her stomach as if instead of flesh and blood, it were crafted from lead. It made her mouth taste like ash.
"I don't know what you're waiting for," She stared at the frozen maids with a brow raised, contempt dripping from her gaze, "Shouldn't you be packing supplies and luggage- preparing what I need to pursue my brother? Or have you forgotten that part of your job as well?"
The staff burst into motion at her words, nearly mowing each other down in their haste to repack the luggage she had just dropped off in her room. It wasn't their fault, she told herself, swallowing down the worst of the scathing words that burnt like coals on her tongue. She turned away from them with purposeful strides, trying to focus on the mental checklist of the things she needed to prepare before she left once more.
"How spoiled," someone muttered under their breath, and Risa came to a slow stop on the staircase. Cocking her head as the words registered in their entirety. The bustle of maids behind her fell silent, frozen in horror and shock at the comment spit at her- by one of their own even!
The weight of the gun was heavy in her hand. Heavy with the metal, heavy with the death it had wrought. Still, it was much too easy to spin on her heel and pull the trigger, aiming right where the voice had come from with pinpoint precision. Splinters erupted the wooden panels besides the maid, a young blonde woman who gasped and went frighteningly pale.
"Spoiled?" She murmured in a deceptively calm voice. Risa's gaze, the same shade as her brother's with a harder edge to them, cut into every person she had been addressing, drawing a flinch and a terrified whimper from the maid. There was a darkness in them that was only present when it came to a danger to her youngest sibling, the only remnant of the mother she could scarcely remember. A coldness that only thawed when Lambo was besides her. "I suppose I am, aren't I? "
"Forgive me, Lady Risa," the maid stammered out, dropping to her knees and bowing her head submissively, realizing the monstrous mistake she had just made, "I apologize, I was out of turn. I don't know what I was saying. Forgive me, please I-"
"I have no interest in hearing your fake repenting." Risa sighed, suddenly looking bored with what was happening. The hardness in her eyes, however, remained. She pointed the gun at the kneeling maid, watching for a moment at how she froze, eyes dripping tears, nose running, shaking badly enough that it reminded her of a small dog.
She flicked her wrist to the side, gesturing with the gun. "Get out of my sight. Now."
The maid fled. Risa turned and continued up the stairs.
Lord Bovino scrawled his signature across one of the many reports the Weapon's Research Division had placed on his desk. The research on the 10-Year Bazooka was still ongoing and there seemed to be a lack of leads on how to extend the five minute limit the weapon had, or if the future was the only time that one could be sent into. He frowned. He had hoped that the influx of data being received from Lambo's jaunt in Japan would be sufficient to make a breakthrough in the development of a solid theory on how to not only fiddle with the future, but the past as well.
It had only been a month, so perhaps more time was needed before new data came to light. It was yet another thing to add to his list of growing concerns. The approaching date in which his niece was due to return from her mission was another.
He restrained the urge to rub a hand across his face at the outrage he knew that his decision in regards to Lambo would bring. His niece was, in theory, the ideal mafia woman, protecting what was hers and becoming truly ruthless in destroying things that would bring harm to what she sought to defend. Absolute loyalty was commendable in the mafia, sought after by every famiglia to strengthen their own; and the thought of arranging a marriage between Risa and the member of prominent family had crossed his mind more than once. He had already been approached by smaller families trying to merge with his own via marriage, all who had eyes on the eldest of his dear sister's children.
Although, Risa was nothing like Mirabela. She didn't have the delicate, trusting, warm personality that her mother did, only the eyes that had been passed down to her and her brother, the curly black hair- and the face that was already beginning to resemble his sister enough that something twisted in his stomach at seeing her. She reminded him of what he had lost. She looked so much as Mirabela had at that age but… wrong. Like an echo that wasn't heard right, a sickening mockery of the sister he had sworn to keep safe, distorted and warped like a specter that looked like Mirabela but could never be her.
It made him itch to see her- with his sister's face and cold, cold eyes that seared through him whenever she was in the same room as him. It made him want to send her way and never let her come back, like he had her brother, like he would do to her if he didn't simultaneously ache at never seeing Mirabela's face on a living person again.
He was trapped in a complexities of emotions in regards to his nephew and niece. And as always, he didn't have the time to sort out those feelings without having another task thrust in his direction. Such was the life of a mafia boss, especially of a family as prone to experiments and explosions as the Bovino.
The door to his office slammed open with enough force to crash into the wall behind it. Plaster flaked from the damaged wall and onto the carpet below. His bodyguards tensed and aimed their guns at the short figure in the doorway, who had eyes for only one person in the room.
"Where is my brother?"
And there lay a prime example of why he hadn't been able to find a match for his niece.
There was no one Risa Bovino was more loyal to than her brother.
Not even him- her uncle, her boss, her family.
He handed the signed documents to the assistant waiting before his desk without looking away from the frigid glare of his niece. He sighed and gestured for the guards to lower their weapons. Having guns pointed at Risa usually just aggravated her more and he would like for at least some part of his office to remain intact after she tore through it like the thunderstorm the underworld knew her as.
"Your brother is out on a mission right now."
The girl snarled. "He is five years-old."
"You were only a little older than him when you began your first missions," He stated tiredly. If he had known Risa was due to arrive today then he would have thought a little more about sending his nephew out to Japan or at least have delayed it until the next time Risa left on a long mission. He might have even sent her out on another mission straight away, without waiting for her to arrive home before sending her new orders. "He's the one that requested the mission to begin with."
"And you just let him go?" His niece spat, hands fisted at her sides and mouth curving into a derisive sneer. Mirabela would have never let that expression cross her face. "The Great Lord Bovino, bested by a toddler. The Concerned Uncle, unable to say no to a child."
His own temper rose, sparking aflame as if the words directed at him were gasoline. "Watch your tongue, Niece. You forget your place." Risa didn't look the slightest bit surprised at his anger, instead she glided to his desk with all the grace of a predator and slammed her hands on the polished surface. Splintering cracks formed in the dark wood.
The smell of gore and jasmine rolled off his niece and he couldn't help but scowl in disgust. Had she even bothered to change out of her mission clothing before coming to see him? Did Risa really storm into his office without at least washing off the remnants of her mission?
"I know my place quite well, Uncle. I'm the Bovino's prodigy killer, the would-be heir turned into nothing more than a mare you want to auction off to the Famiglia willing to pay the highest price." Risa hissed, venom dripping from every word. "Just like I know you're obsessed with Mother, how you resent Lambo for looking more like our father. Just as I know that these missions you send me on are an excuse to keep me out of your way, so that Lambo and I don't live long enough to contest your right to lead this family when we're of age."
She leaned in close now, face inches apart from his and voice a near whisper. "Just as I know you wouldn't be behind that desk if you hadn't let Mother die and-"
The slap surprised both of them.
Then, in the blink of an eye, before he could open his mouth to say something- to apologize, to reprimand, to say anything that would make what he had just done better- there was a knife pressed against his throat and his niece's fingers clenched tightly around the hilt. Risa's head was turned away from him, cheek already reddening and the corner of her lip split from the impact of his ring. Her face would most certainly bruise. Mirabela's face, damaged by his own hand.
His bodyguards cursed loudly and jumped into action, aiming their own weapons at the girl pressing the cold steel harder to her uncle's neck without so much of a hint of concern. She wasn't even looking at him, he thought and broke into a cold-sweat, as if being held at gunpoint for threatening the boss of her Famiglia wasn't anything more than another mission she didn't care enough to worry about.
She slowly turned her eyes in his direction, her profile shifting into a direct view.
"Where is my brother?" She said, repeating the question from earlier and pushing the knife hard enough to draw blood. Risa's green eyes burned with icy rage and the smear of blood on her cheek stood out starkly in contrast. Her lips were still curled into a mocking smile, although sharper, showing more teeth. There was a film of blood from where she had cut her cheek on her teeth.
She looked like the killer he had allowed her to be turned into.
He had sent his sister's eldest child to be dragged into the inky depths of the criminal underworld; a place where it wasn't unusual for thirteen-year-old girl to kill others in the name of the mafia, or learn how to weave words that cut just as deeply as a blade- just because looking at the twisted familiarity of her face made him feel sick. Even as he couldn't bring himself to send her entirely away because of just how much she looked like her mother at times.
He had sent his nephew out on an impossible mission for the reasons he wouldn't admit to himself. He didn't want the boy dead, but simply out of his way- and the fact that he had received word from the legendary Reborn, himself, about his nephew meant that it was no longer his business to worry about. Confessing it felt like a betrayal to Mirabela, but the only person he was fooling was himself.
"In Japan," He offered quietly, remorsefully staring at the swollen cheek he had caused with his own hands and the burning hatred he saw his niece's eyes. Would he have ever raised his hand against his sister this way? No, never. "His mission is to kill the Arcobaleno Reborn or else he cannot return back home."
Risa's fingers twitched around the knife.
"What part of Japan?"
"Namimori."
"Then that is where I will go as well," Risa said, lowering her weapon slowly enough that the bodyguards knew she was backing down. He had to verbally tell the guards to let her leave before they would fully lower their weapons. It wasn't the first time Risa had come into his office to argue with him but it was the only time things had escalated this badly. The throb in his hand told him that he was just as guilty as she was.
His niece was at the door when he called out to her, feeling in his gut that what happened here today had broken something between them that could not be fixed. "Risa, niece, please… come back safe."
Risa paused. Her back was to him and he could see the faint trembling of her shoulders. For all the killer she was, for all the blood on her hands, he often forgot that she was just a child. She took a deep breath. He saw her back straighten. She tilted her head to the side enough that he could see her face.
"Yeah, okay, whatever," She said and walked away.
He buried his face in his hands and tried not to think about how much like her mother Risa had looked in those final seconds before leaving- walking away from him for what felt like the last time.
He peered at the telephone on his desk through his fingers, considering, emotions churning inside him that nearly made him reach out and dial that number. He could stop everything right here, stop it from continuing and bring his niece back home, where she belonged instead of chasing her brother down half-way across the world. He just had to make that single call and-
-"She already loves Lambo so much," Mirabela laughed, watching as Risa carried her brother on her back and showed him around the garden, chattering happily about the flowers to the infant, who gurgled in delight, "It makes me so happy, that they have each other." She turned her warm gaze at him, "It reminds me of us, don't you think?"-
What would Mirabela think of him now? What would she think of him if she knew what he had been thinking; if she knew that with a phone call he could ensure that Risa wouldn't see her brother again? The thought of her made him feel ill.
His hand fell away from the receiver, thudding softly on the desk.
He didn't make the call.
Oh, but in another world, his hand was not stayed.
(This changes things.)
In another world, his sister did not cross his mind, nor did the memory that swayed his heart from its choice. He picked up that phone without guilt, and changed the gears of fate with a single call.
In another world, Lord Bovino did not let his niece slip away, and the leash that dragged her back home hardened her- changed her into something colder, into something with hard edges and bloody teeth.
(Not even her brother would recognize her then.)
Oh, in another world, another time, another life- Risa Bovino did not escape.
The airplane was filled with people that thankfully knew how to keep their mouths shut.
It was a quiet flight, the second one she had boarded from Italy. It was odd that there was a flight to the town of Namimori to begin with, but Risa knew better than to question things she would be better off not knowing. Whatever the reason for an airport existing in a place that lacked the intrinsic aspects of a tourist town, Risa wanted nothing to do with it. It would most likely be linked to the underworld, anyway.
Plus, she had more important things to think about.
She hadn't really planned what she was going to do after she found Lambo. Sure, she had plenty of hard earned money from the various missions she had completed with this very purpose in mind; but there was something distinctly more terrifying about actually putting her plots in motion.
She had known that one day she would take Lambo and run as far as she could.
She had dreamed about it even, between the deafening sound of gunshots and her heart being the only one left beating in a room, between the months without seeing her brother and fearing that she would grow to forget what his smile was like. Risa had dreamed about finally having the chance to take her brother away from the too empty Bovino mansion and from her uncle who cared only for the dead sister he couldn't save, not the children she had died to protect.
Now, with the only thing between Lambo and Risa's chance at freedom being the distance that Risa was traveling across an ocean to lessen- she was afraid that somehow it wouldn't be enough.
The plane touched down just before her mind was able to sink into the same thoughts that had haunted her the entire plane ride from Italy.
How would she take care of Lambo when she had no idea how to even take care of herself?
Risa groaned and fiddled with the earrings on her right ear.
She just had to figure it out, whether she was ready or not. This was her shot at finally taking care for her little brother the way she had promised their mother years ago and she refused to mess it up.
By the time she was finally out of the airport, the sun was midway across the sky and Risa was realizing just how little she had thought ahead for this trip.
She had brought enough weapons to supply a small militia as well as plenty of clothing for both herself and Lambo. She was thankful that a lot of Lambo's clothing fit in her luggage since they were smaller and easier to pack; even if the boy's outfits seemed to consist purely of cow print everything. Unfortunately, she hadn't thought to bring any of her art supplies, so the pieces she had been in the middle of working on were now lost to her. At least until she could break into the mansion and smuggle them out, along with the other things she hadn't considered bringing or telling the maids to pack. Well, it was that or wait until she at least had enough money to buy what she needed; hopefully with a job that didn't include shooting people in the face, or stabbing them in the throat.
Risa sighed and took a look at the town where she had followed her brother. For a place that was said to be the current residence of the Greatest Hitman in the World, there was nothing particularly impressive about Namimori.
It was considerably smaller than she expected, although more like a budding city than a quaint town. The quiet air didn't bother her much either, considering that the Bovino main mansion was located on the outskirts of Florence, rather than amidst the bustling city. The architecture leaned more to the side of modern but it wasn't necessarily a bad look for such a small place.
Risa stared at the familiar way that people exiting the airport greeted the pedestrians making their way along the street and held back a shudder at the fact that everyone seemed to know each other here.
Places like these gave her the creeps. Risa didn't like it when people would talk about her. Knowledge was a dangerous thing to allow to spread so freely. If she really thought about it, maybe that's why the Arcobaleno was residing here. There was something about the gossip of small towns that served as a truly formidable way to gather information about anything out of place. She was sure that by sundown, her arrival- as a clear non-native of this country with no one awaiting her at the airport- would be gossip all over the town.
Risa sighed and brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear, hearing the chain dangling from one of the two piercings on her lower right earlobe rattle against itself. She worked her lip between her teeth and randomly settled on a single direction to walk towards, aware that standing on the sidewalk like an idiot simply made her stand out even more. Her footsteps made no sound on the ground below, even with the steel toed boots that she wore.
The airport quickly settled into the distance behind her.
Risa scowled as she made another turn into another street that looked identical to the previous ones from earlier. She wasn't going to admit it aloud but she was hopelessly lost. It seemed that whenever she thought she would find herself out of the suburbs and into an area where she could find a cheap motel to rent, she would end up right where she had begun.
It was frustrating. She didn't have time to waste on dumb shit like this, she had to find Lambo as soon as possible. She needed to see her brother after months away from him. It was the only way to calm the itch under her skin. Otherwise, it felt as she was going insane. Although, it kind of already felt that way.
Risa passed another house that looked the same as the last one and felt her eye twitch.
"I really should ask for directions," She muttered to herself in Italian and looked up to the sky in despair. She hefted her duffel bag higher on her shoulder and eased her grip on the handle of her suitcase before she left dents in the metal. She had to calm down before she broke something. "Why is this place such a freaking maze? It's supposed to be a small town."
She paused and scanned her surroundings for something that might show her where she was.
There! It looked like an exit! Maybe she would finally escape this residential hell after all.
As she walked, Risa couldn't seem to shake the anxiety that clung to her when her brother crossed her mind once more. It had been months since she had last seen him. With every long mission that separated them, that forced Risa away from her little brother- she was terrified that a day would come in which Lambo wouldn't remember who she was.
It was a fear that always lingered in the forefront of her mind.
Her feet led out her of the suburban labyrinth and right in front of a tall building. She cocked her head at it in bewilderment. It didn't look as if there were any motels here either. The streets were empty as well, so it wasn't as if she could simply as anyone for directions either.
She sighed and smoothed down her skirt, making sure it wasn't wrinkled and did the same to the green shirt she had neatly tucked in. She shook out her curls and stared at the school building for a moment longer, casting her eyes at her surroundings one final time before letting out a heavy breath. She had no idea how to find her way around this town.
She was going to have to ask someone for directions, wasn't she?
There was a sign right besides the entryway that read Namimori Middle School. It confirmed her theory that it was a school. Although, it was for children her age and not younger ones like she had imagined at first. The school was tan and sat tall before her with the wings of the school sweeping to both sides of the main building. Each wing was dotted with windows, giving her a clear sight to some of the classrooms and the occasional student sitting in the desks closest to the windows.
She stepped through the gates and walked towards the building, noticing a giant clock hanging right over the entrance of the school. The grounds were deserted which was odd. Usually every school had its rebels, the ones that skipped classes and loitered during school hours but she couldn't see here any at all. Maybe Japan was different enough that there was a lack of delinquents.
Or maybe they had better hiding places than in plain view of anyone entering the premises.
Risa walked into the building with only minor hesitation. She was an obvious foreigner and wanted to avoid as much attention as she could but she needed directions before she could move on with her plans. Her feet glided over the polished linoleum without making a single sound, a habit left over from the long missions where silence was the only way to stay alive.
She nearly bumped into someone as she rounded the corner a hallway. The boy was older than her, a teenager to her budding adolescence. He stood a head taller than her and wore what she figured was the school uniform or at least a variant of it- considering she didn't think that a gakuran draped over the shoulders of all the students would be a very professional look. He looked more like a mini Yakuza boss than a student, but she looked like a delinquent herself so she had no room to judge anyone else's fashion sense.
"Ah, my bad." She said, inclining her head slightly in apology but not taking her eyes off the boy. There was something about the way he was staring at her; about the way his eyes methodically took her in; that made her nerves tingle in warning.
A loud bell rang through the school, signaling the end the current classes. Classroom doors were pushed open and students began spilling out into the hallway without second thought. They froze upon seeing the boy in front of her and peered at the Yakuza-looking boy in fear.
The boy's eyes were intense as he looked down at her. Risa met them unflinchingly. "Herbivore, for being out of uniform during school hours, I'll bite you to death."
Risa cocked her head. "Is that a threat?"
The tonfa came out of nowhere, swung sideways towards her head.
She acted on instinct, dropping everything in her hands and bending her body backwards, avoiding the blow to her temple while planting her hands firmly on the ground besides her head- kicking her legs up swiftly. Her steel-toed boot slammed straight into her attacker's chin, hard enough for his teeth to clack together painfully. She did a quick handspring away and landed on her feet smoothly.
Around her, the whispered conversations of the students loitering in their classrooms came to a screeching halt. Risa didn't say anything. Her hands were loose at her sides but in her chest, her heart pounded quickly. She waited for the boy to look up at her, from where he raised the back of his hand to wipe the dribbling of blood away from the corner of his lips. There was silence as he pulled back his hand, staring at the red smear on his skin.
A sharp smile cut across his face. It was bloodthirsty.
Then, he lunged.