CRIMINALE DUELLO

CRIMINALE DUELLO

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About: After a while being taken care by the members of Amphisvaena, the daughter of the past leader of the group is again being targeted, now by the internal rebellion within the organization. Her life for the next 24 hours will depends on the two men who chose to protect her.

Trivia: This is the spin-off of the Criminale series, and officially the third of its releases. I recommend listening to the first two to get the full details of the background for each characters.

• Gerardo & Chiave (CV: Midorikawa Hikaru & Toriumi Kousuke)

With the previous Father assassinated, and MC was rescued, she then later made to choose the new leader and Gerardo became her choice for the new Father. He had played the role for a year already. Together with Chiave, the Hacker/Intel head, they spent most days sitting together drinking coffee she brewed for them.

They one day came upon the fact from the members that a certain important item is missing to make his appointment as Father 'official' (or something. I'm not sure. All I know the rebelling side want that item). MC then was targeted by the rebelling members who had been unhappy since she chose Gerardo and raised him to his seat. The rebels also targeted MC's mother, who were on a trip overseas. With all the other Gerardo's trusted underlings out on a different mission, MC had to rely only him and Chiave to save her life.

While running away trying to protect MC, suddenly Chiave betrayed them and had Gerardo and MC to be surrounded by the rebels. They were thrown to a prison but soon was confronted by the rebelling faction to kill them both. Chiave appeared from behind to help them and the three escaped once more. He said he pretended to accept their offer so he could find out more about this treasured item they want. It was later revealed to be the proposal ring the past Father gave to MC's mother. Gerardo then got a call saying that the rebelling faction is waiting at the airport where MC's mother was supposed to land. They were to race there but MC thought of to call the airport (and IDK what she suggest. Delaying the plane? Changing airport?) Gerardo, Chiave, and MC confronted the enemies before effectively erased them. The three went back to their laid back days of drinking coffee together afterwards.

• Lucia & Tempesta (CV: Kondo Takashi & Morikawa Toshiyuki)

The two of them does not really like one another. Lucia is a gifted assassin, who were personally trained by the previous Father as an elite spy. While Tempesta usually is very kind but sometimes would be reminded of his trauma of watching his family murdered in front of him and would go berserk with his machine gun.

Tempesta was helping with MC with her grocery shopping one day when Lucia approached them and suggested to take a short cut he knew to a cafe they're going next. He didn't lead them to the cafe but instead a deserted back alley. Before Tempesta and MC could ask him anything, he had a knife near MC's neck. But to their surprise, Lucia threw his knife towards a man who was hiding nearby, killing him instantly. He then explained that he was given a mission to kill her by someone from Amphisvaena, and the man he just killed is supposed to be the one to make sure he did the job right. Lucia then wanted to take MC to a safehouse to protect her, but Tempesta followed as well as he was worried about MC.

They interrogate one of the enemies after managing to defeat them, as to find out who their boss is. They found out that the boss was indeed one of the elders in Amphisvaena who wasn't entirely happy with Gerardo as the new Father. They took the train to Bolognia to seek that man but he detonate a bomb to bury the three of them before killing himself with a gun. Lucia, Tempesta, and MC wasn't hurt from the collapsing building (into the underground area I think, not sure) but they can't see any way out. MC remembered the necklace with a little bottle of perfume that can attract bugs (that's strangely convenient lol) so they just had to follow where the bugs came from. Free at last, Gerardo only then managed to contact them. Lucia told him that the three of them will not be home immediately, instead will stay in Bolognia for a well deserved holiday.

• Dante & Fantasma (CV: Nojima Kenji & Hino Satoshi)

Both came from another mafia group before swearing fealty with Amphisvaena. One day, they were given a special mission from Gerardo, the new leader, to find out if there's any unrest within the group. Sure enough they heard that some of the elders who were not agreeing with Gerardo as the new Father, and would make up a false accusation towards Dante and Fantasma for trying to betray the group. With Gerardo and the other trustworthy members away for another mission, Dante and Fantasma decided to flee along with MC, as there is a possibility the rebels would target her as well.

At first they just kept their distance from their main city and planned to stay for a few days at a secret safehouse. The three went out for a walk when they saw the enemies are already looking for them. They had no choice but to hide down the underground water channels. Yet the enemies didn't give up and still scattered above ground to look for them even after some time had passed. It was then that Fantasma remembered the various replica items Dante bought before and planned to use it to fool their pursuers.

Fantasma used the replica handcuff and made MC to cuff him and bring him to the rebelling Amphisvaena members waiting above ground. She said she caught him for stealing her important heirloom of the previous Father, her bracelet. The rebelling group just wanted a reason to blame the new members, so they ate up their performance and lowered their defense. That was when Dante, the sniper, made his attack from a distance away and effectively erased the threat. With everything done and handled with, Gerardo finally returned and he believed the reported threat of usurping. He threw a party where Dante, Fantasma, and MC toasted to their victory.

• Nero & Chara (CV: Hirakawa Daisuke & Shimono Hiro)

The twin brothers received an anonymous call to the HQ while Gerardo - as well as all their trusted members - was away, that MC had been abducted by them. And that she is said to be a 'good material' for them. Nero and Chara immediately went on a wild search for her and eventually found her unconscious in a abandoned house. While on a run from their assailants, MC suddenly hallucinated of seeing a snake with two heads. Both brothers recognize the hallucination as the same thing they saw while under the influence of a deadly drug when they were still under the Project Machina; a human experiment to produce the perfect assassin. The drug/poison is very potent that one would die if within 24 hours after taking them. Nero developed the fear of the silent dark while Chara could never feel pain due to the prolonged abuse and torture of the Project.

Knowing the people who had abused them is the one pursuing them, also the fact that they had drugged MC, Nero and Chara had limited choice in order to keep her safe. They were tasered and thrown to prison, then handcuffed together to make their escape even harder. Nevertheless, they managed to escape anyway and went immediately to the nearest safehouse, but the enemy would be only one step behind them before the brothers and MC had to flee again. With the threat of the deadly drug spreading all over her system due to being always on the move, MC slowly lost her energy to go on anymore. This terrifies Nero the most because he is very attached and obsessive of her, and would lose his mind if she dies.

In the end, they fooled their pursuers by having MC to fake her fainting, and the brothers pretended to leave her for a while to call for help. The brothers found out that their enemies managed to always know where they are heading from a listening bug they planted on the handcuff. Nero and Chara defeated all their enemies but couldn't find the antidote of the supposed poison on the enemy as they thought. I'm not too sure but I think they figured out that the poison can be cured with the twin's blood because... I'm not really sure of the details lol. In the epilogue, she went on a gelato date with the twins, enjoying peace once again.


Final say: I don't really like their introduction first series, except for maybe Nero and Chara (blame my CV biases), because these dudes are pretty rude to MC at the start. And I don't particularly like 'bad/rude/rebellious boi' vibe that much to overlook them and see their real characteristic. But somehow for this spin-off, their annoying traits are muted, and I can finally enjoy the thrill of being pursued and being caught by crazy mafias, while in protection of just-as-crazy mafias LOL. I would say my favorite of the duos would be Dante & Fantasma, and Nero & Chara, entirely because their stories are much more interesting compared to the other two combinations.