Hello, people! Carlile, here.

So, I'm still not over KHR (of course), hence I was thinking KHR-related thoughts some time ago and had the idea of somebody to love for Basil. BTW, do you agree that Basil's hair is FREAKING AWESOME?!

Just FYI, don't expect consistent updates, at least for a while. Sorry. Keep with me, though, will you?

Anyway…so, yeah, enjoy. Disclaimer: me no own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or anything related to it, you no sue! XD

Of the Nameless: Prologue

"Ladies and gentlemen," announced Master Iemitsu Sawada, our leader of the CEDEF, "I called you all here for a specific reason."

Some members present formed quizzical countenances. Some did not stir in the slightest. Tarragon, seated to my side, set his elbow upon the table and planted his chin on his open palm supported by said elbow. He sighed, eyeing the Japanese man. "Obviously," he groaned.

I glanced at him with brows furrowed, blatantly taking offense, but Master's continuation of the speech snapped my attention right back to him.

"Another member will be joining us." His shoe clunked on the laminate-wood-floored stage when he stepped out from behind the podium. The Ninth's Outside Advisor took a few more paces out before turning on his heels and coming back to the podium. He held the sides of the stand, and while bobbing his head up and down between his papers and his audience, he explained further. "Her name right now is Marisa Sinclair-Cortés, though by the end of the week you'll know her as Rosmarinus, or Rosemary."

The entire crowd before him was thrown into an uproar: chatter erupted among nearly everyone, and I could make out some groups even plotting rumors. However, the chaos was swept away by Master holding his palm up, nonverbally commanding silence.

"Now, she's almost completely through with the CEDEF admission process, so there are no photographs or anything available to us, but I have met with her in person and I do guarantee she will be a useful addition to our organization."

Sage, who was sitting at the other end of the room, slowly came up off his chair. As the oldest member of the Vongola's Outside Advisors, Sage's days of adventure were long over, but he still had a great amount of skill for accounting in him. His long, white hair rustled slightly, accented by the wrinkles on his mostly bald scalp. His hard gray eyes were not obstructed in the least by his thick, frameless eyeglasses, but magnified for an even more uneasy feeling when one looked directly into them, and above his eyes was the large forehead that made him look as wise as he was.

Master Iemitsu Sawada nodded in the elderly man's direction. "Ah, yes, Rosemary is Sage's niece, I believe…or something…"

"My cousin's daughter," Sage corrected sharply. He sat back down much quicker than he stood.

Our leader chuckled a little before reverting back to his original thought. "Anyhow, I want you all to welcome her when she comes. She'll be the new addition to our secretary division—I'm setting her up to work directly with my son, actually."

A large disturbance exploded out from the area of the room in which those of the CEDEF's secretary division were placed. There were numerous complaints and sentiments.

We, the CEDEF Organization, weren't just a group of assassins and spies. We also had other specialties: body guards, servants, secretaries and receptionists, even temps for positions to be filled in mob families that were short on members. The CEDEF was famous for its ties with the Vongola Crime Family, which was our number-one client by a significant amount, but we also worked with other mob families, for the right price, as long as they were allies of the Vongola. Master's son, Tsunayoshi Sawada, who was a very close friend of mine as we were the same age and sparred together on many occasions, was the current boss of the Vongola.

Tarragon had never done anything in the CEDEF but murder-for-hire; he sympathized with the secretaries, regardless. "That's bullshit." His eyebrows turned toward the center of his face in anger.

I turned to my good friend and frequent partner with a scowl. "Thou shalt not question Master's decisions," I chastised. He just rolled his purple eyes at me.

"Settle down!" demanded our leader. Gradually, the room as a whole quieted, allowing Master to say what he had to say. "Now, I know these things are a little irresponsible and illogical on my part, according to you, but I believe this girl can do it. She's fifteen years old, truly talented—she has a lot of promise in her. So, please welcome her into the CEDEF with open hearts, minds, and arms, or I'll have to punish you."

A louder storm of voices than ever swirled about. Everyone's reactions were the same as always: they got angry that anyone was comparative to their skills and became part of the elite CEDEF Organization, and they got angrier if Master favored the new member, and they became angriest of all if Master's favoring brought better fortune upon the new member than everyone else. It was this same way when Oregano joined, when Turmeric joined, Tarragon, Sage, Saffron, Cinnamon, Thyme, Cumin, Dill, Pepper, almost all the other members, joined us. We got used to them within the first week, completely forgetting how angry we had been at them before they officially became a part of us. That seemed to be the trend in this CEDEF generation. Many members were still a part of our organization from the time of the Vongola's Ninth Boss, as Tsunayoshi Sawada hadn't even been in charge of the Vongola for a full year yet, but there were few of us left from before the Ninth's reign. I joined during the time of the Ninth—in fact, I was probably one of the longest running CEDEF members there, especially in my hitman section. (Rare was it that CEDEF assassins lasted more than five years. Similar statistics went to bodyguards.)

Master Iemitsu Sawada just stood there behind the podium for a fairly short while, scanning back and forth over the vicinity, waiting for his audience to calm down. However, when nearly five minutes had passed and the noise had not reduced in the slightest, he nodded one last time and walked off, hands in his suit pockets.

I stood up when I found him some yards away from the podium, and when he had exited the room I walked briskly away from my comrades and went out the same door he did.

Not realizing how truly loud it was in there until the door shut behind me to muffle out almost all the noise, I jogged over to the blonde-haired man. I called after him, "Master!" once before catching up to him. He felt that I was at his side and looked at me with interest.

"Yes, Basil?" he asked.

"This 'Rosemary' that thou hath spoken of…thou art quite certain she will not bring some of our comrades to leave us?"

My Master shrugged. "Eh. Some members come, some go. It's a great way to filter out the useless ones."

Gulping, I added, "But doth your son approve?"

"I'm sure he will," he replied.

I raised my eyebrows in something like astonishment. "Thou meaneth to say, thou hath not consulted thine own child?"

He shook his head and faced forward, his chin angled upward slightly like he could not decide whether to watch the lights above or the path before him as the two of us walked. "I told you, Tsuna will be fine with it. That boy and his crazy friends may have beaten the Varia for the rings, but he's still totally clueless. He needs all the help he can get. Rosemary seems like just the person for the job."

I faced forward, as well, listening to the tiny echo of our four feet as I pondered for a moment just what Master could have been getting at. I figured, to be brutally honest, Tsuna was rather disorganized, knew next to nothing about how to be a boss, and had to be extremely overwhelmed. Of course, Reborn was remedying those situations, and he had gotten better about those things since his adventures in the future and his returning to the present, but even so, Tsuna needed somebody to schedule his calendar and such. As the result of my thoughts, I nodded in agreement with my Master, not that he could see. "Thou doth have a point."

It was sensed beforehand by me that Master was going to pat me on the back in his normal manner, but even so, as it always had, his placing his hand upon my back over and over neither gentle nor painful in force caught me by surprise. He eyed me and grinned. "Don't worry about a thing, Basil. You'll be fine, Tsuna'll be fine, Rosemary'll be fine, the whole CEDEF'll be fine. Things happen. Sometimes they're little things with little effect, and at other times they're big things that will change your life. But don't you worry!—it's going to turn out all right in the end."