Earlier that day, long before the sun had risen over Winningson State, flashing red police lights filled the streets and alleys of Winningson City for the seventh night in a row. Just like clockwork, in a run-down neighborhood of The Nation's capital, citizens cleared the streets and locked their homes. Officers of the Winningson Police Department, meanwhile, arrived in half a dozen police cruisers that flooded the streets with their lights and their wailing sirens.

Mumei Nanashi watched this scene unfold through the gaps of a barricaded window of a condemned row house apartment. The ex-Queenpin, clad in a maid uniform that was now frayed, tattered and torn, stilled her breath and watched the WCPD fanning out to search for her.

"Who ratted me out this time?" Mumei croaked, clicking her tongue, "This safehouse isn't gonna be safe for much longer."

The owl-girl wiped the sweat from her brow and brought a can of Lemon Shark brand redberries and a can opener. She opened the can as quietly as she could, and gulped down its contents - berries, light syrup and all. A faint, blood-like crimson trail dripped down the side of her mouth and she wiped it with the back of her hand.

Mumei tossed the can aside and it struck a small pile of empty cans of redberries. The small tower collapsed and fell upon a pile of newspapers from the past few days. So, red syrup splattered upon the front page of one of those papers and stained the mugshot of Kronii Ouro from the Fort Whiskey Medium Security Prison.

"... Kronii." Mumei muttered weakly.

She closed her eyes, caressed the newspaper and thought about the snake-like girl who promised her the world for half a heartbeat.

"Are you going to be alright there, Kronii?" Mumei mused, "Because I… don't know if I'm alright here without you."

Mumei shuddered. She drew a pistol from her pocket. With her gun in hand, she eyed the mess of empty cans and newspapers and frowned.

"I can't give up yet. Not after what they did to us."

Spurred by her own words, Mumei propped herself up once more and looked out the barricaded window. She watched the officers going house to house and started planning her escape, just as she had done almost every night before by then. All the while, she checked her ammunition and counted the shots she had left.

Nowhere near enough, she thought.

Suddenly, another car arrived at the scene: a smart, albeit older-model sedan that stood out from the other police cruisers, but it also had a police light mounted on top of its roof. It parked right across the street from the condemned row house where Mumei squatted.

"... what the?" Mumei furrowed her brow.

The sedan's door opened and a tall, tan-skinned lady in a brown, checkered suit emerged. Her golden eyes shimmered in the waning moonlight and reflected the flashing lights of the police cruisers. By her hip, she wore a peculiar badge unlike the badges of the typical police officers.

"A detective…" Mumei recognized the badge shape, "Not someone I know, though."

WCPD police officers hurried over to the detective and saluted her. She saluted them too. Then, after she gave the so-called 'uniforms' instructions, she put on brown leather gloves and sauntered towards the condemned row house.

"She's coming here?" Mumei gulped, "Can't be. She's by herself. She told her officers to get a battering ram or somethi-"

Before Mumei could even finish her sentence, the tall, tan detective cracked her neck, took a deep breath and sprinted towards the door like a freight train, tackling it!

CRASH!

"Ack…!" Mumei yelped.

She ducked and shielded herself from the flying debris and the displaced door hinges . When Mumei raised her head, she saw the burly detective looking down on her with bright, glowing, golden eyes. Moreover, she wore an unsettling smile that didn't wane even after she literally barreled through a door.

"Sanana~!" The detective declared with youthful enthusiasm, "Mumei Nanashi of the Ouro Crime Family, you are under arrest!"

Mumei gritted her teeth and spat.

"You'll never take me alive!"

She grabbed an empty redberry can from her pile and threw it at the intruder. The detective shielded herself this time and swatted away the can, but Mumei followed through and lunged at her! Mumei swiped her sharp, talon-like nails and struck the detective's face.

Mumei then pistol-whipped the detective square in the jaw.

And yet, despite the punishment that Mumei dished out - even as blood dripped down her cheek, the smile never left the burly detective's lips.

"You're just as feisty as Dispatch said!" The detective mused. She grabbed Mumei's wrist and roared, "This is gonna be fun!"

Without warning, the detective dragged Mumei through the floor and threw her back-first into the fallen door.

"GAH!" Mumei wailed. Her pistol fell from her hand and rattled onto the creaky row house floor.

Sharp pain reverberated throughout Mumei's body. Nothing in her years as a gangster, or as a Queenpin of the Owl Pals in The City compared to it. She had never been bested so soundly in a fight.

Not even against Kronii.

Mumei's fierce expression melted quickly, replaced by fear. She eyed the gun on the floor, but the detective picked it up and disassembled it piece by piece before Mumei's eyes.

"You were planning to shoot me? With a gun you swiped from a Winningson Police officer, no less. That's not very… civilized." The detective teased.

Mumei's face went pale. The detective's golden gaze intensified.

"You'll be joining your 'Queenpin' in Fort Whiskey soon enough." The detective cracked her knuckles and her smile widened, "Now, you can surrender. Or you can make it interesting. Your choice!"

Mumei chose neither.

She hobbled back up to her feet, scrambled past the detective and ran towards a window.

SMASH!

The detective ran after Mumei and looked out the broken window. However, Mumei had already disappeared into the darkness of the backstreets. Only a trail of blood on the pavement and on the broken glass of the window and a shredded bit of fabric from her maid uniform remained of the fugitive ex-Queenpin.

…

"Aww… I was just having fun." The detective sighed.

Only then did a handful of police officers storm the condemned row house. The detective smiled at them and barked her orders.

"Alright boys. I need you to search this room for clues. I have to call dispatch."

"Yes, detective!" The officers saluted her.

The detective hurried out of the row house and found a WCPD gamewell telephone box on a wooden pole. She opened the box, took the phone and spoke firmly.

"Tsukumo. Badge 2-1-8-2-3."

A brief silence followed before someone answered her.

"How can I help, Detective?"

"I need to make an APB regarding Miss Mumei Nanashi. She is on the loose in the South-West District by Sarsaparilla Avenue - probably heading towards the Central Train Station."

"Understood, Detective Tsukumo. Sending the APB now."

"Thank you."

"Shall we also send a Class-2 Message?"

"... a Class-2, huh?" Detective Tsukumo frowned. Her childlike enthusiasm evaporated, "To the VS."

"Yes, ma'am. The Comfykois, United Wheelers and the Cirque du Fantome gang… I mean groups are active there."

Detective Tsukumo rubbed her temple and groaned.

"Do we really have to?"

"The Police Chief has authorized Class-2 channels for situations like these, ma'am."

"Fine. We can't let Nanashi get away this time. But I don't want that call on my record."

"Understood, Detective Tsukumo."

The call ended. Detective Tsukumo put the phone back in the box and closed it. She heaved a sigh and watched the moon sinking in the horizon.

"What in the world is Chief Novella thinking, letting the VS boss us around like this?" Tsukumo mused.

Out of frustration, she reached into her coat, brought out a dinner bread roll and bit into it viciously. She ate the roll all in one go and grumbled.

"It's becoming a dog eat dog world, huh?"

…

Queenpins 2: The Big Brass Ballad of Kronii Ouro

Hard Tack

…