After that, the room went quiet. Masahiro had a look on his face, somewhere between graceful defeat and utter humiliation. He didn't look back up at Tsukiko. He didn't want to give her the satisfaction.

  "What do we have to do?" Tsukiko asked.

  Masahiro took a deep breath, then raised his hand. "Hand me my phone, I'll see if there's anyone out there willing to listen. It's by the bed."

  Tsukiko turned to the messy hospital bed and approached a table at its side. Nestled between a pile of candy wrappers, empty bottles, and scattered coins was a shiny black slate with a cable plugged in, its screen sparkling in the harsh artificial light. She reached out, but when her hand was just a few centimeters away, she hesitated.

  "It's not a trap." Masahiro said. "Just hand it over."

  As Tsukiko stood there, not moving an inch, the others went quiet too. There was a faint noise, a distant rumble with the high pitched twinkle of metal. Soon, the group could hear muffled speech from beyond the door. Tsuki grabbed the phone and pocketed it, then turned to Masahiro.

  "I had nothing to do with it." Masahiro spoke in a harsh whisper.

  "They saw your post, dumbass." Hotaru said.

  "Shit." Tsuki whispered back.

  Without a second's hesitation, Tsuki went behind Masahiro's chair and pushed him out of the room.

  "What're you--" Masahiro panicked.

  Tsuki almost put her hand over his mouth. "Quiet."

  Tsukiko stepped out the door and looked down the hall. She saw the glare of half a dozen flashlights flicking alight, illuminating the far end. The police opened each and every door, shining their lights inside to scan for her presence. They harassed the patients, a nurse clinging to an officer's arm, pleading with him to spare the sickly, but he was promptly shoved down to the tile as the cops kept searching.

  In the chaos, none of them had shined their flashlights in Tsuki's direction. Masahiro's chair squeaked as Tsukiko rushed to get around the corner as soon as possible. She walked on the toes of her high heels, praying nobody'd see or hear her as she quickly got out of sight.

  The group clung to the shadows in the dark halls as the police trailed behind. Tsuki found herself back near the entrance, the clinic apparently built in a square formation. At the final bend, Morgan leapt in front of Tsukiko, moving ahead to scout ahead for her, but Tsuki inched up behind to look over his shoulder.

  Most of the police officers had gone ahead to search the rest of the hospital, but a few armored officers had stayed behind to guard the doors back to the waiting room, pacing around. Each of them carried a pump action shotgun, marked with bright yellow bands around their barrels, handguards, and stocks.

  "Shit, this is bad." Morgan looked back at Tsukiko. "D'you wanna take the risk?"

  Tsukiko kept staring at the cops.

  "Boss?" Morgan asked.

  "What other choice do we have?" Tsuki asked.

  "A window, maybe?" Morgan pointed at an empty hospital room behind her.

  "We'll get caught trying to cram Masahiro's wheelchair through." Hotaru countered. "If you can even open the windows."

  "Well, we can't just run out." Morgan sighed.

  "And there's no way we're sneaking past with this fuckin' thing squeaking the whole way." Masahiro whined.

  "Everybody shut up." Hotaru demanded.

  All four of them went silent. Tsuki looked over her shoulder, and she could see the shine of their flashlights once again. They were only a few rooms away, and approaching fast, but the officers around the corner would surely prevent their escape.

  "Shit." Morgan repeated himself. "What do we do?"

  "Tsuki." Masahiro looked up at her.

  There was a hiss that flew across the hospital, then an explosion and a flash of blinding white light. A woman let out a scream, and then what sounded like a dozen pairs of boots started marching the other way.

  Around the corner, Tsuki saw the sleek black leotard and oversized boots of a Magicienne Musketeer. Merlin was there, practically dancing around the police as they all charged at her.

  "Come at me you bastards!" Merlin's voice boomed. "I will not let you tear the woman you call Izanami from her liberty!"

  "Is that--" Masahiro didn't get to finish.

  Tsuki ran for the doorway, the others just a few paces behind, too focused on her task to thank her savior. Just as she pushed Masahiro through the big double doors, a police officer shouted to his comrades and raised his weapon. Tsuki lowered her head and kept running. The few people still in the waiting room diving for cover as the officers fired their guns. An exploding cacophony of gunfire spilled out onto the street, glass flying everywhere as their beanbags tore through the windows and doors.

  Tsuki pushed Masahiro as far as she could, running through various streets and alleys to weave the most complex path and hopefully leave the police behind. Hotaru and Morgan did their best to keep up with her, Masahiro's wheelchair screeching and rattling the whole way.

  The group ran as far as they could, Morgan being the first to give in to exhaustion, with Hotaru slowing with him. Tsuki could still keep running, but she stayed with them. The sound of sirens continued to blare all around.

  Masahiro let out a sigh. "Why'd you pull me out? Worried I'd take back our deal?"

  Tsukiko was silent for a moment before speaking. "It... it didn't feel right letting Ishikawa take you away again."

  "Now you care about me?" Masahiro glared. "...no, he wouldn't touch me."

  "D'you wanna risk it?" Tsuki asked him.

  Masahiro put on a defeated smile. "Hell no."

  Tsuki turned to Morgan and Hotaru, who were still trying to catch their breath.

  "You two alright?" Tsuki asked.

  "I'll be fine." Hotaru waved her hand.

  "Goddamn..." Once he'd regained his composure, Morgan was the first to speak. "Ishikawa must be getting impatient if he's resorted to just trying to shoot you."

  Hotaru spoke quickly. "No. Those are beanbag shotguns."

  "Are those even legal?" Masahiro looked up at her.

  Hotaru didn't respond.

  "Well, at least he's not trying to kill you." Morgan let out a sarcastic laugh.

  Morgan had his hand on his forehead. "I can hardly figure that idiot out. I thought he was trying to make you look like the bad guy, but by the end of this, there's no chance he's keeping his job."

  "I think that might be why things've gotten so crazy." Hotaru closed her eyes. "The longer this goes on, the worse things get for him. Maybe he thinks he can save his own ass if he manages to catch Tsuki."

  "But why? Why all this effort? Why manufacture a gang, why try to trick her, why make her a villain, why start all these protests, why obsess over her this much? What the hell is he even trying to do?" Morgan seemed utterly disoriented just trying to make sense of it.

  Masahiro replied. "What would you do if you were so close to getting what you wanted and someone snatched it away last second?"

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Hotaru lowered her eyes.

  "...maybe he's got the hots for her." Masahiro joked, trying to lighten the mood.

  "Hold on." Hotaru stopped them.

  Hotaru put a hand up to her ear, and everyone stopped moving to listen in on whatever she'd heard. She turned quickly, around a corner, and pointed down an alley. Several police officers had come in close, their rattling equipment and heavy boots just loud enough for her to notice through all the chatter.

  "We gotta keep moving." Morgan urged.

  "Can you keep going?" Tsuki asked him.

  "I..." Morgan hesitated. "...you want me to be honest."

  "If you can't run, then we can't run. I'm not losing you here." Tsuki turned back to the group. "...you two get Masahiro out of here."

  "What?" Hotaru immediately resisted. "No way, we're not abandoning you."

  Morgan nodded in agreement.

  "But they're after me." Tsukiko didn't budge. "If I stay behind--"

  "And?" Morgan replied. "You're the boss. I'm not afraid of them, Tsuki."

  Tsuki turned to Hotaru.

  "...I made a promise to help you." Hotaru looked back at her.

  Tsukiko let out a quiet groan. "Listen to me."

  "What's the plan?" Masahiro asked. "We need a plan now. I know you're tough as shit but even you can't shrug off one of those. Get hit in the head or the chest, and you're out like a light."

  "I know that." Tsuki paused. "But I need you all to get out of here in one piece."

  "And what about you?" Hotaru stared.

  Tsuki didn't answer, but the look on her face made the others fall in line.

  "Loud and clear." Morgan lowered his head. "I'll take him outta here, but I'll be back for you."

  Morgan positioned himself behind Masahiro and started pushing him down an adjacent alleyway, returning to the darkness.

  Tsuki called out to him. "Thanks."

  Morgan stopped, as if taken aback by Tsukiko's words. "...yeah."

  Tsuki then turned to Hotaru. "If you wanna help me, take care of Morgan and Masahiro. Make sure they get out of here."

  "What about you? Do you seriously think you can take them on all by yourself?" Hotaru scoffed.

  Tsuki looked back at her. "...if there's one thing I'm good at, it's this."

  "Don't be an idiot." Hotaru snapped.

  "Hotaru." Tsuki said.

  Hotaru just looked at her, shook her head, then turned to catch up with Morgan and Masahiro. Tsuki watched the officers from around the corner, waiting for the others to get far enough away for her to finally get the cops' attention.

  When she looked over her shoulder and could no longer see their silhouettes, Tsukiko calmed herself the best she could and got ready. As the cops got in close, she leapt forward and ran across the alley to draw their attention. An officer opened fire, the loud blast reverberating off the concrete walls on all sides. He missed, the beanbag projectile striking a trashcan, knocking it over, and leaving a sizable dent in its side. Tsuki could hear the officers increase their pace, one of the officers shouting something she couldn't understand.

  The path ahead led Tsukiko into a small closed off area lined with dive bars and small restaurants. The buildings inside created a crisscross path of tight packed asphalt alleyways that had a meter of space at their widest, and barely enough space for somebody to walk through without knocking anything over at their narrowest. Luckily, with Ishikawa's curfew, the place was empty, and almost pitch black in some places. As she heard the boots of the police enter, Tsuki quickly hid among the shadows of a side path.

  As the officers ventured further in, they started barking orders at one another, but the walls made it impossible for Tsuki to know for sure what they were planning. All she could do was wait for them to come closer to her.

  Soon, they were separated, far enough from one another that Tsuki could more or less distinguish where each officer was. There must have been four or five, but she wasn't sure. Then, she heard the sound of an aluminum can crushed under the weight of a boot, and Tsuki's heart sank into her stomach. She looked out from the shadows and found a police officer looking the other way.

  Tsuki moved as quietly as she could, inching toward the cop before he could turn. When she was close enough, she reached forward and wrapped an arm around his neck, choking him. The policeman struggled in her grasp, dropping his shotgun to the ground, but he wasn't able to let out a sound. Tsukiko struck him in the head a couple times in a desperate bid to get him to stop moving, then dragged him into the shadows.

  "You there?" Another officer called out.

  In a primal fear, Tsuki froze, quietly looking around for whoever called out.

  "Report."

  The voice was further out. She hadn't been spotted, but they definitely knew where she was. Tsuki kneeled down and grabbed the shotgun off the ground before slinking away back into the shadows and out into another alley.

  The shotgun felt heavy in Tsukiko's hands, utterly disgusting and alien, but also strangely familiar. She did her best to try to use her limited knowledge to her advantage, pulling back the pump just enough to see the shell before slamming it forward. She didn't know how much ammunition she had, and there was no way she was gonna waste any time finding out.

  Tsuki moved through the streets, her movements clumsy and cumbersome. The three and a half kilo steel rod in her hands made her second guess her every movement. She didn't dare leave her finger on the trigger, she knew that much, lest she accidentally blow a hole in whatever was in front of her, and ruin her cover.

  The other officers now definitely knew she was around, somewhere, and they knew they'd lost a man to her. She could hear them pacing around, some walking, others jogging through the narrow, winding paths, all of them looking for her.

  Now that she was armed, though, Tsukiko felt confident enough to finally go on the offensive. She kept her ears open for any approaching police officers, hoping to get the drop on one of them. Her plan, however, quickly fell apart. As she ventured out of the dark, and into the light of one of the alleys, she found one of the cops staring right at her. He looked like he wasn't quite sure what he'd seen. A second later, he let out a shout.

  As fast as she could, Tsuki raised the shotgun, shuddering as she did so. She took a firm stance, pressing the gun's stock firm against her shoulder, something she'd heard about on TV or on some online video sometime. Then, she aimed low, lining the aim nib at his stomach and pulled the trigger. It was loud, deafeningly loud, the world turning white all at once, her peripheral vision reduced to a hazy blur.

  The officer was raising his own shotgun as the beanbag struck him, and he fell to the ground, grasping at his stomach. Tsukiko moved the pump back, the plastic casing flying out and falling to the ground, then pushed it forward again. When she could hear again, the first thing in her ears was the officers all shouting from different streets rushing over to help their fallen comrade. She knew she hadn't killed him, but in her gut, it felt like she had.

  As the other cops came running to the downed officer, Tsukiko fled to one of the side streets, in the dark behind a dumpster. Her shoulder felt sore, the shotgun kicking her like a horse. Her hands shuddered in fear, Tsuki putting her free hand over her mouth to quiet her shaking breath. Her chest rose and fell with each long inhale, then exhale, her heart pounding in her ear. The minutes stretched on like hours till Tsukiko was finally able to calm herself down enough to start moving again.

  "We've got two injured." One of the officers came close enough to hear.

  Someone responded on the radio, but their voice was so distorted, Tsuki couldn't tell what was being said.

  "Shit." One of the officers came close enough for her to hear. "She can't be far."

  Judging from her counts, a few cops, maybe two or three, remained. She couldn't be sure. It didn't take long for her to find two of them moved in lockstep to avoid another sneak attack. Tsuki watched them for a while, shadowing them, and waiting for an opening to strike.

  The two officers walked together until they reached an intersection. One officer kept marching ahead while the other turned onto another path. Tsukiko seized the opportunity, striking the advancing police officer in the back of the head with the butt of the shotgun once, then twice. The other officer turned quickly, but Tsuki was able to raise the gun and fire, hitting him hard in the lower chest. Tsukiko froze, realizing that a round from his own gun had flown right past her head.

  The officer writhed on the ground in pain. Once Tsukiko'd swallowed her fear again, she approached, kicking his shotgun away from him. She pulled the pump of her gun back, then pushed forward again, a plastic casing falling to the asphalt.

  Tsuki stopped to listen for the sound of any other cops chasing the noise, but heard nothing. There was no way for her to know how many officers were still looking for her, and she definitely wasn't going to stick around to see if any more were on their way. With however much time that granted her, Tsuki ran back through the alleys and back out onto Tokyo's wider streets, still holding onto the shotgun.

  Tsukiko bolted straight down the same road as far as she could, desperate to put as much asphalt between her and the police officers that she could.

  The former Knight ran till the path ended, splitting into a T-junction. Tsukiko turned left first, finding a dead end. When she turned to her right, her whole body went on edge, sensing someone watching her from the dark.

  Down the alley, everything was shades of grey and blue, distant signs and marquees illuminating the place just enough for Tsuki to see. When she stepped forward, though, she caught a glimpse of a pitch black figure within, a black shadowy blotch moving ever so slightly. The impossibly dark silhouette of a person pushed itself up off the wall and started slowly pacing toward her.

  Tsukiko didn't hesitate. She raised the shotgun and pointed it at the figure, her body tensed. Two red eyes stared back at her. The figure raised its hands, as if to surrender to her, but it didn't stop its forward match. Tsuki would've shouted something, but she couldn't force herself to speak.

  There wasn't any sound. Everything had gone so quiet that Tsuki could hear her own heart, beating in her chest, the figure moving in complete and utter silence. Tsuki squeezed the gun tighter, the stretching of her gloves' leatherine material making just enough noise to keep her sane.

  Instinctively, Tsukiko took a step back as the figure entered the light, her finger pressed against the trigger. Her body shuddered, the plastic parts of the gun rattling a bit in her weak hands. A familiar face revealed itself. Shizuka had her hands up, and a terrifying smile on her face. Her eyes were bright and piercing.

  "Lower the gun." Shizuka commanded.

  Tsuki did as she was told, moving her finger away from the trigger.

  "Good girl." Shizuka slowly lowered her hands. "Good."

  "Shizuka." Tsuki could finally speak.

  "Tsuki." Shizuka spoke in almost a whisper. "About time I made myself useful."

  FROM THE AUTHOR: Sorry for the long wait. Life has been very difficult as of late, especially getting the motivation to keep on going. I would've had this in 2025, but stuff happens, y'know?

  EDITOR'S NOTE: Happy new year everybody! Proud to deliver to you, the first chapter of Tsukiko's Belonging for 2026! This one came about with a very simple premise, "What if Tsukiko had a shotgun", and from there we somewhat contrived the sequence of events that would lead to this occuring within the words of the chapter, while also making sense of how this made sense with what came before it, and what will come after it. At the very least, that's how the process felt for me, Mariko had a much more guided process for putting this one out. In truth, I somewhat delayed releasing the chapter because I wanted to take a break during the holidays. Apologies for the delay, and thank you for your continued readership! We must now figure out how to include a horse, in the story.