Before Akiri could fully process the warning, the night erupted.
Gunfire shattered the uneasy calm, echoing through the walls of the Moonlight Family headquarters like a thousand cracking whips. Red bursts of tracer rounds flared through the windows, reflecting in shards of glass that littered the marble floors below. The masked intruders poured into the compound with surgical precision, their movements eerily coordinated, each footstep measured and deadly. The smell of gunpowder mingled with the tang of blood, smoke curling in thin, choking wisps along the corridors. Chaos ignited like wildfire. Shouts of alarm collided with the metallic ping of bullets striking reinforced doors, and somewhere, the shriek of a collapsing chandelier added a terrifying note to the symphony of destruction.
"Raid! Moonlight Family under attack!" Ichiro's voice cut through the din like steel, carrying both urgency and command. His hair, slick with sweat, clung to his forehead as he drew his katana, signaling squads with tight, precise gestures.
Akiri's heart skipped. Reflexes took over before her mind could catch up. She dropped low, pulling a pistol from beneath her tailored coat, the metal cold and familiar in her grip. Smoke, gunpowder, the acrid tang of burning wood, and the bitter scent of betrayal filled her senses. Every movement had to be deliberate. Every breath measured. Control had always been her strength, but now her hands trembled slightly... not with fear, but with a surge of helplessness that clawed at her chest.
A shadow lunged at her from the staircase. Akiri sidestepped, pivoting with fluid precision, and fired. The report cracked sharp in the hall. The man crumpled to the floor, his masked face frozen in shock. She did not glance at him. There was no time.
From the rooftop above, a figure appeared, calm, sleek, impossibly composed amid the carnage. The emblem of the Solari Familia gleamed on his coat under the pale moonlight. Akiri's breath hitched. Salvatore Lucente.
Not yet friend. Not yet enemy. But the presence that would shape the rest of her life.
She shook herself back into the battlefield. Another wave surged from the grand entrance. Her enforcers moved valiantly, fists and firearms blending in chaotic harmony, but they were outnumbered. Outgunned. Screams of her family members cut through the air like knives, each one a reminder that the cost of hesitation was life itself.
A young soldier, barely older than a boy, sweat and blood mixing on his forehead. Fell beside her. A bullet meant for her had struck him instead. Akiri froze, the weight of guilt twisting her stomach. She had survived: her body, her training, her instincts. But others had paid the price. Swallowing bile, she forced herself to move; every heartbeat mattered, and delay here meant more death.
She sprinted down the grand staircase, debris scattering at every footfall. Bullets zinged past, ricocheting off walls with deafening ping. Ichiro shoved a wounded guard behind a steel support beam, shielding him as they returned fire.
"Evacuate the civilians!" Akiri commanded, voice steady yet cutting through the storm of panic like a blade. "Take them to the tunnels, now!"
A handful of enforcers nodded, signaling to one another before disappearing into hidden passages beneath the building. Akiri followed, covering their retreat with precise bursts of fire, crouching low as her mind raced. Her chest pounded in a rhythm that matched the chaos around her. Walls seemed to close in, the sense of control she had cultivated slipping like sand through her fingers.
Time blurred. The Solari fighters moved like shadows—silent, ruthless, precise. Akiri's own men fell around her: a lieutenant taken down by a sniper, another crushed under falling beams. Each loss stabbed her heart. Each scream echoed in her mind. She had trained for strategy, for anticipation, but this scale of devastation was a force of nature, not a battle she could choreograph.
The central hall came into view, once the jewel of the Moonlight Family's power. Chandeliers swung precariously, shards of crystal scattering across the marble like frozen rain. The throne-like chair of the clan leader lay toppled, a silent testament to the sudden violence. Akiri's breath came fast, ragged. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, but she would not let them fall. Not yet. Survival demanded focus. She had to endure. She had to protect what remained.
Salvatore Lucente stepped forward from the shattered moonlight, his presence unnervingly calm. His coat shimmered, and the glint of his weapon caught the moon's reflection. "Akiri Tsukiyo," he said, voice smooth and cold, "so this is the famed Moonlight Family. Strong, organized… and yet, here you are, crumbling."
Akiri's jaw tightened, muscles taut. "This is just the beginning."
Salvatore's lips curved into a faint, almost imperceptible smile. "I hope so. Otherwise, this will be boring."
A grenade rolled across the hall. Its explosion shredded the air with a deafening roar, sending shards of glass, chunks of marble, and a cloud of acrid smoke into every corner. Akiri coughed violently, blood streaking her forehead, eyes stinging as the hall became a haze of chaos. She scanned desperately. Only a handful of her family remained. Her chest ached with grief... every loss magnified by the knowledge that she could not save them all. The Moonlight Family, a symbol of order and precision, lay in ruins.
And yet, amidst the wreckage, clarity sharpened her mind. Survival was no longer about dominance; it was about learning, understanding, anticipating. Revenge would come. Precision would come. She would rise from this ruin stronger, harder, and more determined. But she would carry the memory of every fallen member like a weight around her neck, a fire fueling every calculated step.
She glimpsed Salvatore one last time before he melted into the shadows... calm, confident, a ghost that promised a war stretching across continents and years.
Akiri straightened, scanning the hall. Smoke coiled around marble pillars, blood streaked across walls, and shattered chandeliers dangled like broken stars. The Moonlight Family's strength had been shattered in moments, but she remained. Akiri Tsukiyo, the storm rising from the ashes. Silent, calculating, unstoppable.
Tonight, the Moonlight fell.
But the war had only just begun.