"Family Ties and Famine's Leash"
The afternoon sky over Tokyo was the color of a wet sidewalk. Kiga stood dead-center on the concrete, her golden eyes fixed on nothing at all. Her scale earrings rattled gently with each heavy truck that passed the narrow alleyway.To her right, a violent tug threatened to dislocate her shoulder. Nayuta was practically horizontal, boots scraping against the asphalt."I am not going to the grocery store!" Nayuta screamed, squeezing her Pochita plushie so hard its felt tongue popped out. "They don't have the premium ice cream! The world must burn!"Kiga didn’t blink. She just pulled the leather leash a fraction of an inch tighter. "We need milk, Nayuta. And bread. Mostly bread. I am hungry.""You are always hungry!" Asa snapped from Kiga's left side, her twin pigtails shaking with pure irritation. She was trying to walk forward, but a heavy weight on her back was dragging her down. "And can you tell her to get off me? She’s shifting her center of gravity on purpose!"Behind Asa, clinging like an angry backpack, Yoru bared her teeth. The jagged scars across her face flushed a furious red. "Silence, human meat-shield! I smell a weapon nearby. That utility pole... if I extract the copper wiring, I can turn it into a high-voltage spear of mass destruction!""No weaponizing public infrastructure," Kiga said, her voice a flat, emotionless drone. She began to walk forward, dragging one sister and carrying the other two through sheer, terrifying older-sister aura. "If you behave, I will buy corn dogs."