Prologue

"Wanna try that again?"

"Ahh! No, I didn't mean it! Don't hurt me! I'll just leave now!" A boy – man, really – scrambled backwards until he hit the wall behind him, covering his already beat up face with his hands.

A girl walked up to the man. "It's 'kay dude. Just give me what you got as compensation. Wallet… fancy watch… gold ring?"

The man hesitated for a moment, but with a wave of the bat she was holding, he relented and started taking off his watch and ring. Taking out his wallet, a regretful look crossed his face.

"Dude. Don't start crying on me now. I'm not that mean. I might be holding a bat 10 centimeters from your face and have 5 dudes behind me, but I'm not that mean. You can keep like, enough for a cab or something. So you can go home." She smiled.

Shooting her a look of gratitude, the man quickly went to pull some bills out of his wallet, before it was kicked out of his hands.

"Whoops. Shoulda told you you had 5 seconds. Too bad." She pointed the bat at his face. "Scram."

A look of horror flashed through his face. Getting up as quickly as he could, he ran out of the alley, stumbling.

When the man was out of sight, the girl picked up the items forcibly left behind.

One of the men behind her laughed, "Did you see his face! I think that was the best one this week!"

"Nah man, I still think Wednesday's guy has got him beat."

Ignoring the men behind her, the girl started appraising the watch and ring. Once satisfied, she took out the bills from the wallet and started counting.

"So what's the loot?"

She shrugged. "Eh. Something around 30,000 yen, give or take. So... Tori-kun gets the most, since he was the one who cornered our target…"

The youngest looking member - apart from herself- mock-bowed, "I'd like to thank all my supporters—"

A friendly push was given, and laughter erupted from the five.

"Yeah whatever. I get the second most since I did most of the talking..." She counted several bills and put them in her pocket. "The ring is mine also, as that is for my own personal collection," she looked at all of them, silently challenging them to dare say otherwise. "Then the rest is divided up evenly. The watch isn't as fancy as I thought it, so you'll only get 5,000 yen, at best," she said as she handed the watch to the nearest hand.

"I won't be coming next time, so get one of the other guys to come with you. I don't like any of our guys travelling in groups of less than six. With that, good night, my friends." She gave a small salute, and started heading home.

-x-

Shutting the door as quietly as she could, she took off her shoes and started to make her way to her room. Tip-toeing and avoiding certain spots in the floor, she went into her own room, and closed the door behind her.

"Why are you home so late?"

She whipped around, nearly knocking her lamp over. "Bloody—Kouta!" She shout-whispered, "Do not. Do that. Ever. Nee-chan just went to work. When did mom go to bed?"

The little boy yawned. "Maybe around 4 hours ago. Did you go to school today?"

She put her bag down and exhaled quietly. "Yes, but only because I had to break my streak so that they can't suspend me." She took the money out of her pocket and put it in her book – her hiding place. "How was your day?"

The little boy perked up. "Well, today we had to draw what we wanted to be when we grew up! So I drew a dinosaur! I think Tara-sensei really liked it. We also had phys. ed.! We got to play soccer, and I scored a goal!"

"Kouta, don't be so loud." Shushing him, she started to dig around for clothes to sleep in.

"We also worked on our hiragana today!" He whispered excitedly, "Sensei said I was getting better every day! And tomorrow we're going to keep learning about addition and subtraction!"

"Great. Now sleep. You can continue going on about it tomorrow."

"'Kayy. Good night, nee-chan."

"'Night Kouta."

-x-

"Why won't you listen to me? Am I not a good enough mother? I'm sorry that I can't work as much as I would like to, but we're still getting by, aren't we?" Her mother held her arm softly.

She shook it off. "I don't care what the reasons are I still don't like you." She slammed the door behind her. "C'mon Kouta, we have to get you to class."

He started following her. "Why don't you like mom? She takes care of us fine."

She sighed. "Okay, maybe I don't even remember anymore. Maybe it's because she seems so helpless all the time. Maybe it's because dad left her for some younger woman, although that's not her fault that's his. Maybe it's because dad also happened to take nearly everything so we just barely make it by, if it weren't for-" my own hand in getting the landlady to push back deadlines.

She shook her head, "It doesn't really matter; you shouldn't worry about it."

"I guess- Nee-chan there's a cat there!"

"Adorable. Your point?" She looked back at him.

"The one on the road! Nee-chan it's gonna get run over!" He tugged at her arm.

She sighed, "It's just a cat, it's not even yours! Just cover your eyes and ears – Kouta?" She looked around, "Kouta!"

A little boy was running towards the cat.

The cat that happened to be in the middle of the road.

Which also had a car headed for it.

"Fuck! Kouta!" She started running towards said little boy, who had reached his destination; the cat.

Just as she reached him, the headlights were too close to be avoided, so she did the next best thing.

Why do I have to be so goddamn protective…?

Curling around him completely, a car horn was the only sound she heard.

Nee-chan? Nee-chan! Nee-sama!

Huh… Good job kid. Saved a fucking cat that wasn't even yours. Saving up good karma?

Nee-chan! I don't even know what karma is! Tell me!

Uh… It's… this thing people believe in…

Yes, an accident. Saved a kid trying to save a cat.

What…?

Nee-chan you get to ride in an ambulance!

That's… generally not good.

Opening her eyes as much as she could, she could see a white ceiling and a little panicked face next to her.

"They told me to keep talking to you! That it'd be bad if you feel asleep now! Nee-chan I'll finish telling you about my day at school! There's this boy, Hotaru-kun, and he said that we're friends! He's my first friend nee-chan!"

"That's… good…" She panted.

She tried to lift a hand up to her face – couldn't. She couldn't feel her legs, either. Her head felt like she had hit it multiple times with her bat, and warm liquid was all over her torso.

"Nee-chan?"

It was so tiring…

"Nee-chan!"

~o~o~o~

Kay, so, yes, this is a prologue, i.e., it's meant to be short, and just a little cap that gives you readers an advantage over the story that the characters don't have. Put bluntly, anyway. Also due to this being a prologue, let me reassure you that we will make contact with the protagonist - Tsuna - next chapter.

I usually don't like swearing, but alas, the character calls for it so, yeah. Sorry if you mind it. (But Gokudera swears too so you shouldn't =3=)

I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going with this – I mean, I've been thinking about it for maybe the past year, and it just kept building up until I could take it no longer. I've actually probably written like 5 different versions, with very different character personalities, but I like this one the most, and this is the one that opens the most possibilities. Therefore leaves less chance of writing myself into a corner.

Of course, pardon the love for stories that alter the story not as much as it regularly would, but I just really like that kind of fic, and I couldn't keep myself from writing it.

Random pointer: When changing from yen to US/CAN dollars, you can take two zeroes from the end and that gives you a (very rough) value of what it's equivalent to.

Anyway, reviews would be nice! Chapter 1 will be posted at the same time, but I make no promises about when chapter 2 is going to come out. Hopefully my motivation snowballs. Wish me luck and don't hate me for starting yet another story~! (Taking that into account, don't ask when FiK is going to be updated, please. Check the bottom of my profile.)