The first time Hibari Kyouya laid eyes on Belphegor, it was when they were both sixteen-years-old and a police raid was being carried out. Kyouya had been accompanying his mentor within the police force, an Italian man named Dino Cavallone who enjoyed having his student tag along with him to gain experience for the position he was so adamantly training for.

"What's the information on this group?" Kyouya flicked through the manila folder in his hands as Dino parked the police cruiser in front of a mansion on the outskirts of town. As hard as he looked, he couldn't find much in any of the statements to give him a good idea of what they were in for, and he wanted to be prepared; he knew how quickly things could go wrong, and if he let his guard down even the slightest, it could mean his end.

"They're a group that calls themselves Varia." Dino turned the ignition of the car off, but he didn't get out of it just yet; he greatly enjoyed talking to his pupil and wanted to educate the younger as much as he possibly could on the job. "We haven't been able to find much evidence against them yet, but we have reason to believe they're running several drug and child trafficking rings."

"Do they cooperate with the raids?" The skylark slid the folder beneath his seat before he opened the door of the cruiser; he knew enough now to prepare himself, and he could always hear more as they walked to the front entrance of the mansion; he didn't want to waste any more time and potentially allow the suspects to hide any evidence they may have.

"Mostly – well, they cooperate as best as a bunch of antisocial criminals do. All of them already have charges laid against them for various things, but if they really are running this rings, they're covering their tracks extremely well."

Kyouya nodded as he got out of the car. He stretched slightly as the gentle breeze of the night blew against him. When he looked up at the mansion, he couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding, as if there was something that went on inside that place that was just pure evil. Kyouya wasn't superstitious by any times, but sometimes his gut told him more about situations than anyone else ever could – and right now, his gut was telling him that if walls could talk, there would be only horror for them to relay.

Dino was the first to approach the double doors leading in to the mansion. He pressed the buzzer and, within minutes, one of the servants was opening the door for them.

"Master Xanxus is out at this hour." The woman, who Dino recognised from previous raids as one of the maids, bowed respectfully to the officer. "I believe Master Squalo is upstairs in the office instead."

"Thank you." Grateful that Varia could at least employ respectful staff to make his job a little more pleasant, Dino offered his own bow. "We will go and see him now. He knows to expect us."

Kyouya was quiet as he followed Dino up the stairs, wondering just how often this place had been raided for Dino to look as if he felt completely in-place here; the blond knew exactly where he was going, and the way he was so openly relaxed was really no different to how he would feel in his own home. "Who are the two herbivores the maid mentioned?"

"Xanxus is the boss of the group." Dino glanced at the younger as they ascended the staircase, knowing there was still a walk to go before they arrived at the office the maid had mentioned. "He's the one in charge of everything that goes on in here. Squalo is his second-in-command, and holds almost as much authority over everyone's doings as Xanxus."

"What charges have already been laid against them?"

"Well, Xanxus has a very, very long list, but he's been kept out of jail because of how powerful his adoptive father is. I know; it's no excuse and it upsets me, but there's nothing I can do about that. Squalo has mostly been charged with drug use and assault, but there's much more he's gotten away with over the years; he used to be one of my classmates in school, so I was always familiar with the things he got up to."

Kyouya fell silent as he absorbed this information into his mind; they had already reached the end of the staircase, so now all that was left was to arrive at the office. It took much less time to stop at the door Kyouya assumed was the office than it had to climb the staircase; the mansion was a lot bigger inside than it had appeared to be when viewing it from the long driveway outside.

Knocking on the door, Dino waited for a response before opening it. Kyouya peered in curiously, finding a man with long, silver hair sitting at a polished mahogany desk with several documents spread before him. The other looked up, revealing grey eyes with dark bags beneath them and a look of pure dislike on his face.

"Back again, Bucking Horse?" The man – whom Kyouya knew must be Squalo – stood up as a sneer crossed his face. "You're wasting your time; there's no 'evidence' to be found here. You can tear this place apart, but you'll only leave in disappointment like you always do."

Dino ignored these words and approached the desk. His eyes were on the papers; he couldn't overlook them, because they could be what would lead him in the right path of finally bringing down this organisation once and for all. "What are these for, Squalo?"

"Medical shit." Squalo shrugged. He picked up the closest sheet and shoved it at the taller blond. "Don't believe me? Here. The stupid brat needed a doctor, so we called in our private one again."

Dino winced as he looked at the sheet, wondering just what kind of medical treatment had been required to total several thousand dollars; that couldn't be just an ordinary cold… "This is all for Belphegor?"

"Yup. Dumb little fuck fell off his balcony a few nights ago." There was not a hint of caring in the man's voice, and both Dino and Kyouya knew Squalo didn't care for this person referred to as Belphegor. "Doctor said he probably would have died if it hadn't been raining and he fell into mud, and on his side instead of his back."

"How does one just 'fall' off a balcony?" Speaking up for the first time, Kyouya's instincts told him that what he was hearing was a lie Squalo probably didn't care if they believed or not.

"I just said; he's a retarded little shit. He's always sitting on the railings; he slipped off them because of the rain."

Kyouya didn't respond again; he simply watched as Dino put the paper down on the desk. "We're going to have a look around, Squalo. Come on, Kyouya."

Kyouya nodded, following behind Dino. He helped search through everything under his tutor's guidance, but no matter how focused he was on his task, he could never ignore the fact that Squalo seemed to be floating around behind them wherever they went.

"Does he think we don't notice him?" Kyouya rolled his eyes as he stopped what he was doing.

"No; he knows we know he's there, but he doesn't care. He's always been like that, even in school."

Kyouya dropped what he was holding back into the cupboard he had been looking through before he shrugged. "There's nothing in here, Cavallone."

Dino, too, put back what he had messed; their current location was clean of evidence, so it was on to the next room.

"When we go into the next room, there will be someone in there." Dino led the skylark back out into the corridor so that he could point out the room he was talking about. "That's Belphegor's bedroom. He's the same age as you, actually. Out of all the Varia, he's the most antisocial of them all, so since your back is turned to him, don't let your guard down. Trust me on this."

Kyouya nodded. "He is the same one who 'fell off his balcony', yes?"

"That's correct."

"He didn't 'fall' off it." Kyouya trusted his gut instinct, and he cared nothing for the long-haired man stalking behind them who could most likely hear them; all that mattered was pointing out what he believed was important for them to acknowledge in this case because any small lie could be what finally closed the case for good.

"I know."

"If he even has a balcony, and he did come off it, it wasn't an accident."

"I know, Kyouya." The young man knocked on the bedroom door. He waited for a few seconds for a response, but when none came, he opened it hesitantly; he hated walking into occupied rooms uninvited because who knew what he would be walking in on.

The first thing Kyouya noticed was the lack of… Well, the lack of anything, really. There was a bed pressed against one of the far walls, and a wardrobe hanging open not far from it. There was clothing and dirty dishes spread all over the floor, and plenty of cracks in the walls that looked as if they had been made on purpose, but there was nothing else; nothing to suggest that whoever lived in this room was cared about in the slightest.

The skylark turned back around to look out into the hallway so that he could address Squalo. For once, the man was closing the distance between them, with a look of pure annoyance on his face. "There's not even a television in his room. There was plenty of entertainment in every other bedroom we searched through. This bedroom is almost completely void of life."

"Voi! There's a fucking TV downstairs, you little brat! What, you think we want him up all night watching porn or something?! Fuck off! He's not your kid; don't you fucking tell me what to do with ours!"

Kyouya ignored the outburst and looked back into the room. His gaze finally fixed on the apparently-existing balcony that was across from him. What he was quick to notice was that the handles to it had been chained shut, complete with a padlock; for whatever reason, someone certainly didn't want anyone going back onto it.

"So the balcony does exist." Kyouya ignored the muttering behind him as he now noticed the body on the bed with blankets wrapped tight around it. It hadn't moved since they had walked in, and the skylark couldn't help but wonder if it were even alive.

Squalo pushed past Dino in order to enter the room. He yelled at the occupant in the bed before tearing the blankets away from them, revealing a blond teenager curled up into a ball on the mattress. Their back was to the doorway, but when they turned around to face the two guests, Kyouya had never felt someone look at him with as much hatred as this person had, even with long bangs obscuring their eyes.

"Squalo said you fell off the balcony." Dino's voice was soft as he took notice of the cast on the boy's arm and leg, and the bandages wrapped around the rest of his body. "How do you feel?"

When the smaller blond spoke in a hiss, Kyouya knew that this… this boy right in front of him was already the angriest, the most loathing person he had ever met – and he hadn't even said a word to the other. "I fell five fucking storeys; how do you think I feel…?"

Kyouya didn't listen as Dino soothed his fellow blond; he instead started investigating the room, leaving the two adults and the other teenager to their own devices. While once again, he found no evidence, what he did find was himself becoming more and more convinced that it was no accidental fall off the balcony, and that if this group really was running a child trafficking ring, then the boy on other side of the room had undoubtedly come from that.

Kyouya always trusted his gut instincts, and he was willing to bet everything that this would not be the first time he was wrong.