Queenpins 2: The Big Brass Ballad of Kronii Ouro

Cutthroat Choreography

"Hargh... hagh..."

Mumei Nanashi hobbled through the shadowy back alleys of Winningson, leaving a small trail of blood behind her. Covered in crimson streaks on her arms and legs, she gritted her teeth and weathered the pain. She crawled into a nook between two dumpsters, plopped down to sit under a flickering street lamp and steadied her breath. The moment she stopped moving, though, her aching bones throbbed with dull pain.

"Who the hell was that... monster of a cop?" Mumei shuddered. She looked at her wounds and hissed, "It's been a long time... since I got this fucked up. I'm almost impressed!"

Mumei took a deep breath, wrapped fabric from her apron around her hand like a glove and started pulling out shards of glass and window wood splinters from her wounds. She shook and grunted the entire time but she bit on her maid uniform's red ribbon to mask her voice.

"HRGGGK... HRRRRRRM!!!"

Mumei plucked the last of the glass shards and spat out her gnarled red ribbon. She then took off her long black socks and wrapped them around her now shard-less wounds like makeshift bandages.

She leaned against the flickering lamp post, but the wails of police sirens filled the alley - familiar sounds that Mumei had gotten sick of over the past few days. But now, along with that familiar cacophony, Mumei heard the barking of dogs and the menacing shouting of gangsters.

Over the past few days, Mumei had run-ins with the four major gangs of the Vanguard Syndicate. She brawled and dueled with the valorous fighters of the Comfykois, smacked the Salvation Cube Gang with their own extremely heavy books, stole the tools and vehicles of the United Wheeler gangsters and humiliated the artsy Cirque du Fantome gang one at a time.

From what Mumei could hear over the police sirens that time, however, they were coming out together in force. The different colors of their voices mixed together in the air. Gangs and the police working together openly painted a noose tightening around Mumei's neck.

"I can't stay here." Mumei grunted. She picked herself up from the floor, weathered through the pangs of her pain and continued hobbling away.

Mumei kept her head low and stuck to the shadows. Her bright, albeit bloodshot golden eyes scanned her surroundings brisky as she crossed streets. The whistles of trains caught her attention.

"The Central Train Station..." Mumei muttered to herself. A strong gale blew through the alley and toppled a back alley trash can, forcing empty cans of Lemon Shark fruit cocktails to come spilling out. She looked at the logo of Lemon Shark and thought out loud, "I could hitch a ride... go back to The City and get some help from the Shrimps - maybe the Deadbeats too. But how long would that take? No... would I even make it there alive?"

She furrowed her brow and shook her head, "I have to try. For Kronii's sake!"

...

Spurred by her thoughts, she dashed forward as quickly as her injuries would allow. She emerged out of the back alleys and found herself on the broad, tree-lined thoroughfare of Sarsaparilla Avenue. Very few cars plied the roads and the streetcars hadn't begun their services for the day yet - but the streetlights were starting to turn off one by one, anticipating the coming morning.

In that twilight hour before the sunrise, Mumei's path to the Central Train Station five blocks away was as clear as it was ever going to be.

Mumei forced herself onwards and avoided the gazes of the few passers by scattered about. She passed by a newsstand where a delivery van was dropping off the latest morning newspapers.

"The Daily Rattler..." Mumei thought out loud.

The injured owl glanced at the newspapers, hoping to see some morsel of information about Kronii, but the front pages showed nothing of the sort. Instead, the headline was about her: Mumei Nanashi, Public Enemy Number One. Suddenly, the delivery truck started its engines and its headlamps flickered on. Mumei's frayed, bloody clothes were illuminated, along with her smudged, sullen face.