Queenpins 2: The Big Brass Ballad of Kronii Ouro

Hard Tack

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!