Smooth Operator.

14. Until The End Of The Line

When she looked up at his face, Tangerine's eyes seemed to have dimmed, his expression faltering slightly. His bottom lip quivered as a silence hung heavy in the air, rendered speechless for the first time in his life. His chest heaved, hand holding the phone shaking.

"My brother..." He murmured, a distant look in his eye as he stared out the window, at Japan zooming by.

And then he exhaled, his confidence and shimmer returning back to him.

He let out a breathy chuckle. "Morning rush hour's rolling in quite nicely," he began, watching as the black sky began to ombré into a dull blue, indicating the beginning of a new day. "So, what's your plan, mate? You gonna fuckin' waltz up here and blow my brains out in front of the whole fuckin' carriage of witnesses?"

As if The White Death could see, Tangerine flourished an arm to the train car, which was quite empty.

"There is no one left on that train," the Russian responded, nothing Tangerine could say throwing him off his track. "I would know, as I bought every ticket until the end of the line." And then he hung up.

Together, Tangerine and Black Cat continued to step down the train. And he was right; every single seat was empty, no one left on the train.

Surely, the person that had killed Lemon was still there, unless they'd fled at the next stop after doing so.

As they entered the Momonga carriage, they shared a somewhat nervous glance. But then Estela saw something; someone.

At the end of the train car, right by the next door, was that little girl from hours before, the one in pink, although, in this lighting, she appeared more purple.

"Oi! You!" Estela exclaimed, continuing to step forward.

Since the beginning, when she'd first laid eyes on her, Estela had had a bad feeling about her. After so many years in this job, she had a knack for seeing through lies, and seeing through disguises.

"Oh my god..." The girl exhaled, her stance awkward and nervous as she looked around. She knew she'd been caught; for what, Estela knew not of, but she was too suspicious to not have done something.

Grip on her gun tightening, Estela continued to approach the girl, Tangerine behind.

"I remember you," the man piped up. "You're that girl, aren't you?"

"I'm so happy to see you," the girl whimpered, bringing her hand to her chest in faux-fear. "Please help me. There's this man, and he was holding me hostage. He was wearing glasses, and he killed my uncle. And then he also killed this other man who — I don't know — who just kept talking about, uh, Thomas the Train, and—"

"Tank Engine," both the cat and the fruit corrected in slow unison, their suspect radar going off the charts by now.

The girl nodded, her eyebrows furrowed and face wet with tears. "Right, exactly. Thomas the Tank Engine," she corrected herself before continuing, voice wavering. "But he killed both of them, and then he said he was going to get away with some sort of money. I– I don't know..."

For a moment, the two assassins just stared at her, faces contorted into some sort of confusion and scorn.

"I'm sorry, darling, I beg your pardon," Tangerine spoke up, waving a hand dismissively before him, "but we don't know who the fuck you are."

At this, the girl slapped a hand to her forehead in exasperation, huffing out a sigh before looking back up at them. "I'm just a girl who was supposed to get off at Nagoya—"

"That was fuckin' ages ago," Tangerine interrupted, eyebrows furrowed as he glanced over at Estela.

"I know!" The girl cried, causing the two adults to step back in surprise. "But this man, he just said that I could be a good back-up plan, and that a pretty girl makes a good hostage."

"Keep your fuckin' knickers on, all right?" Tangerine stated, gesturing with his gun at the girl.

"Please, just help me," the girl continued to whine.

Estela sighed. "All right, just calm down, okay?" She piped up. "Get off at the next stop, there's no one stopping you now."

The two adults stepped out the way, one against each chair to allow the girl to walk between them as she uttered watery thank-yous.

As she stepped past them, Tangerine's eyes lingered on her, watching her go. But then he placed a hard hand down on her shoulder, screwing her in place.

Against her back, stuck to the pink fabric of her vest, sat a sticker; a train. And not any old train. Diesel.

She was the Diesel.

Tangerine reached out to peel the sticker from her back, and shared a cautious glance with Estela. Could this little girl really be the Diesel they'd been looking for this entire time?

Face pulled into worry, the girl spun around. "What is it?" She squeaked.

Now stuck to the tip of his index finger, Tangerine turned his hand around to show the girl his most recent discovery. "Diesel; the absolute fucking worst. Little shit-stirrer, he is."

He held his gun higher, grip tightening as he placed the sticker at the end of the barrel.

"You see, Lemon — God rest his soul — was a don, and he could read people," Tangerine began to explain, eyes boring into the little girl's. "And he was right; there's been a Diesel running up and down this train, causing all sorts of fuckin' havoc. And it was you the whole fuckin' time, you dirty little diesel!"

And now, as the barrel of the gun fell in line with the girl's face, Diesel sticker on the end to emphasise who she truly was, her expression fell entirely.

Lemon was right.

If one wasn't enough, Estela followed suit, holding her beloved Beretta at her, aim steady and strong, unwavering and ready to shoot.

"You made lemon bleed..." Tangerine managed to force himself to say through gritted teeth. "And Lemon never bleeds."

Behind them, the all-too-familiar sound of the carriage door zipping open pulled them away from the scene.

"Oh my god, Mister! Please help me!" The girl cried, her voice piercing to the ear drums.

Without a second thought, the man pounced on Tangerine, and when Estela looked down she saw the man she'd decided she wanted fuck-all to do with; Mister Ladybug.

Ladybug grabbed Tangerine by the collar, rolling around with him against the seats, and Estela attacked Ladybug from the back, wrapping her arms around his torso in an attempt to shake him off her ally.

His hands found Tangerine's gun, where they wrestled around, fighting ownership. "What the fuck are you doing, you bellend!?"

BANG!