First Words:

Well, this is a crossover between Katekyo Hitman Reborn and Touhou, so I am expecting you to know about both series: if you don't, then you will most likely be confused, so I wouldn't advise you to read this without knowing at least a bit about them. Anyway, this fic mostly involves conversation and doesn't have much of a story behind it beyond all of its set-up, but still I think has at least some worth to it, which is why I decided to upload this (besides, every piece of writing is an exercise to improve ^^): I enjoyed writing it and reading it, so I feel like it's at least somewhat enjoyable, despite the lack of action. Haha, it would've been amazing if I just wrote a fic about random characters beating each other up lol, but I don't find that interesting so that'll never happen. Whatever the case, since this is my first crossover, and also my first legit (without an extra chapter) one-shot I've written, so I'm proud of it regardless.

Anyway, most people know that arrivederci means goodbye in Italian, right? ^^' Also, Mukuro Rokudo means, literally, 'Corpse Six Paths', (with Mukuro meaning corpse, and Rokudo meaning Six Paths) or if in eastern order, 'Six Paths Corpse'... It's kind of a disturbing name for a person to have, huh? The six paths in question are surely the six paths of reincarnation, referencing his abilities; the fact that he reincarnated more than once can allude to him having crossed these paths, which is why it's treated in such a way in this story.

"..." = dialogue

'...' = quotation marks

italics = emphasis, thoughts, foreign words

Enjoy!

Before Being Born Anew

A certain darkness covered the mystical area Mukuro Rokudo was standing on, almost like an eternal night. Despite that, there was no sky to speak of, at least one similar to the one in the plane of existence that is Earth. An atmosphere of calm, excessive calm, lingered within that space, one that would make any normal person feel nervous by just standing there: as if nothing was moving, all was stopped, dead even...

The many cherry blossom trees surrounding the path Mukuro was on were more beautiful than what he had ever seen on Earth. A smirk stretched on his face, reminding himself of all that he had experienced there and comparing that to what he had gone through in this plane of existence. "Kufufufu, Earth is truly the most unsightly of all worlds..." Mukuro was not what anyone would call a normal person: the sense of death evident in the beautiful, dark landscape he was seeing was not something he feared; he welcomed it even, knowing that every person was destined to stand on the solemn ground, or the stone path leading to a place yet unknown to him at least once in the end of their lives.

Mukuro walked on that path, knowing that it would lead him to an interesting location: after all, what else could the only path in the Netherworld lead him towards? Since his time in the Netherworld was close to ending, he figured it would be a nice way to spend his last moments. On the horizon, he could spot a large mansion with an equally large, well-kept garden. Who could be 'living' so lavishly in a world as dead as this?

He invited himself in, his smirk intact as he could see floating white beings, being able to identify them as ghosts. There was an especially greater number of them around the mansion, but not inside. Inside the mansion were occasional ghosts traversing the halls, but they seemed to pay Mukuro no mind: they looked 'busy', moving through the mansion at a faster speed than the ghosts he saw outside the mansion. "Kufufufu..."

"Oh my, a guest?" Sitting on the edge of the porch with a view to the garden was a woman with short pink hair and a curious smile on her face, turning her head to Mukuro. "This is certainly unexpected; and just when Youmu had errands to attend to... it seems like I'll have to make the phantoms bring us some tea."

By saying that, one of the nearby phantoms left the area, having heard her say, not even order, that; Mukuro observed that amusingly. She turned to the flowers she was gazing at again, almost as if to tell Mukuro that she did not mind him being in her mansion: she could always use some company in such a place, so a guest was not something she disliked. "Oh? You are being quite welcoming to someone who intruded upon your home. For you to talk about ghosts as if they were beneath you, you must surely be able to control them; was that why the ones I saw in this mansion were behaving differently from the ones outside?"

"Indeed," she cheerfully answered. "Guests are rare in a place like this, so intruders are also welcome! Especially if they can entertain me in some way," the woman added, her smile turning slightly devious. "How about you? You seem to have some awareness of what this world is, so what reason would you have to become an intruder here?"

Mukuro stepped closer, but did not sit next to her, wanting to stand tall in comparison to the woman. She seemed to be the opposite of nervous or tense, taking any sort of serious mood that could have surged from their encounter: if anything, she seemed amazingly carefree, having yet to turn to Mukuro once more. "It is only natural that I know of this world: I have been here for quite some time, after all. Though, while in here, I had not come across this location; I had never found any interest in exploring the land of the dead before, you see. But now, you could say the path I had found piqued my curiosity, and brought me to this mansion."

"I see," the woman said, having completely understood that he had not only been in the Netherworld for a considerable amount of time, but more than once as well; he had reincarnated more than one time, so there was nothing foreign to him about that and the Netherworld. "You were missing out then; this garden is lovely, don't you think so? Phantoms like visiting it often, as you can see." As the woman had pointed out, there was a sizeable gathering of phantoms lurking the area of the garden, seemingly to enjoy its beauty.

From behind, a phantom moved to the woman's side and laid a tray beside her, which contained two cups. "Ah, here's the tea; it's surely more pleasant to enjoy the view while drinking tea, no? Why don't you sit over here and make use of the little time you have left?" She held the cup of tea with both hands and had her head turned to the opposite side of the tray, as if suggesting that as Mukuro's seat. "After all, it looks like the time for your reincarnation is near."

"Kufufufu, so you can tell," Mukuro remarked, amused at the fact that the woman was able to know that, as if she had some sort of power to do so or simply guessed out of sheer experience: that interested Mukuro since it was actually plausible that the woman had an important position in regards to the Netherworld. "You must have a lot of free time on your hands if you seek the company of a soul about to reincarnate." Despite his words, he sat down anyway. There was no point in trying to seem superior to the woman when she was displaying such a carefree attitude, and Mukuro was definitely not against avoiding the short period of boredom he would experience while waiting for his time to be born anew.

"Ah, well, you know how it is when you die: having no life can leave you with plenty of free time to waste talking with intruders and offering them tea." She put back her own cup just so she could give the other one to Mukuro, staring at the smirk on his face for the moment she had done so. "So, I see you remember your past lives; that's quite unusual. I assume you no longer have past regrets?"

"Indeed: the only thing within me now is the ambitions I must fulfill," Mukuro said, his smirk wider by simply thinking about it. He had experienced many things in his past lives, and those things had formed his ambitions to crush the mafia, and control the world as he'd see fit from the shadows: due to that, he was not simply going to linger in a dead world and gaze at its beauty; there were more important things at hand.

"Ambitions, you say? That sounds fun." The woman turned to him and momentarily stared directly at his eyes, an amused expression on her face. "With the unique set of powers you have, there is no doubt that your ambitions can be realized, whatever they may be. Still, good luck with that," she cheerfully added, almost as if it was an afterthought.

She turned to the cherry blossoms again, seemingly carefree. "Oh? So you have noticed this right eye of mine? Kufufufufu, impressive. You betray your appearance with such skillful observations; could you be the ruler of this world?"

"Is it the clothes? Though it may seem hard for me to move with them, I can assure you that I am fully capable of doing as I please." The woman put down the tea cup, stood up and spun around as if to prove her point, even though that would barely answer any of his questions.

... Mukuro made a slight effort to keep smirking, despite not being satisfied with the woman's words. "Are you avoiding the topic at hand? How disappointing."

"Which one? Ruling over the Netherworld, my appearance, or your powers? I was sure I hadn't neglected the most crucial one." The woman sat down again, and took the cup back with both of her hands. "More importantly, you have yet to drink your tea; is there something wrong? I can assure you that its taste and fragrance do not disappoint."

The woman had even included the word 'disappoint' as if that would link her conversation with what Mukuro was actually saying, when that was not the case at all. Even so, Mukuro was not going to give in. "I never said I wanted to be served tea. Besides, you are avoiding the topic again; if it is something so important that you would bother to do such a thing, my interest is piqued."

"Was I? I simply decided to ask why you weren't drinking the tea. Perhaps you are simply being too hasty? I can't blame you: you have only a few minutes left until you disappear from this world, after all. Even so, I would advise you to relax and enjoy the tea while you can; you surely won't find something quite like this in the world of the living," the woman said. "But then again, maybe you are too pressed on time to even finish it... How unfortunate."

For a moment, the woman had a thoughtful expression, but it immediately faded away for another smile, putting down the cup of tea that she had emptied. "Kufufufu, could it be that you are purposely trying to anger me?"

"Of course not; I can't control people's emotions."

... Mukuro's eye twitched. The woman, who was still looking towards her garden in a carefree manner, showed no signs of having noticed that, but being as she was, it was unclear as to whether she did or not. "So be it: though I do not know your exact occupation, it is still clear that the ghosts obey you. Besides, the Netherworld's affairs are not important for my goals. This is farewell," Mukuro said, elegantly standing up as if the woman had not annoyed him in the slightest, seemingly drinking all of the tea in one go and giving her his cup of tea afterwards.

It seemed empty, as far as anyone could see: whether it was truly empty or not, however, was something Mukuro wanted know if the woman could notice. "Such a pity: if there was any time left, I would have proposed a duel; it would have been an entertaining way to spend my free time," she remarked. The woman, despite being carefree, also exuded a considerable amount of elegance from her actions, which made her not show much weakness.

Mukuro considered her words, imagining a duel with someone like her: despite her appearance, it was clear that she possessed a lot of knowledge and perhaps, powers that he could not begin to imagine; after all, she was not a mere ghost. "Kufufufu, it would have surely been an interesting match. Perhaps it would have been more enlightening than asking you questions."

"Maybe so. Say, would you mind telling me your name?" The woman turned to Mukuro, seemingly curious.

"My name is Mukuro Rokudo. For someone like you, it must be quite the ironic name," he remarked, not at all hesitating in telling her his name as he figured nothing would happen out of revealing it to a ghost.

The woman chuckled. "It fits you perfectly, since you've had many past lives: the only thing you need is to possess a corpse."

"Kufufufu, I would rather not; I prefer possessing the living," Mukuro amusingly stated. "Well then, since I have told you my name, I am expecting you to do the same." Since he had gotten to know so little about the woman, who seemed like a fairly powerful figure, he decided to at least know her name.

... After all, this may not be the last time they could meet, and in that case, it was best to be on the good side of what could be the ruler of the Netherworld: depending on his sins, he could end up in there once more, though the chances were slim; Mukuro was not planning on being sinless. "Oh, is that so? You could have said so sooner. My name is Yuyuko Saigyouji, pleased to meet you." She was gazing at the cherry blossoms again while smiling, almost as if she had expected, at some point, to say those words. "It seems that now is when we finally part ways, or more specifically, when you finally part ways with me."

Despite the roundabout way of saying it that did bother him somewhat, Mukuro said, "Indeed. May we meet again, should I go through the cycle of reincarnation once more. Kufufufu, maybe we could have a proper duel then." He stepped back, feeling within him an urge to leave: it was most likely because his time was drawing near, and he could not remain in the mansion for it. "Arrivederci," he uttered before turning around and walking away, disappearing from the area.

. . .

Yuyuko did not look back to see if Mukuro was gone, and simply tilted her head to the side in confusion. "'Aribederchi'... What an interesting word, I wonder what it means." With those words, Yuyuko proceeded to sip what was initially supposed to be Mukuro's tea, but since he had left it all on the cup, she figured it was alright to indulge herself in it instead. "Ah, gazing at the flowers while drinking tea is surely pleasant..."

. . .

Yuyuko, sitting by a table inside her mansion, was idly passing time when she was greeted by Youmu's arrival, observing her as she walked over. "I've returned, Lady Yuyuko. I took care of what you asked me to do," Youmu added.

"Oh, aribederchi, Youmu! You took more time than usual," Yuyuko said, feeling much less bored than before since Youmu had arrived. Even so, Yuyuko was already in a fairly good mood.

It was not every day that Yuyuko would get to talk to someone beyond Youmu, so any guest was welcome for her to relieve her boredom by any possible means: the man that came by was a passing soul simply waiting for his reincarnation, but Yuyuko was able to tell that he had special powers.

Unfortunately, she never got to see him use said powers, but she did not mind being entertained by conversation, especially when she was in the mood to gaze at the flowers. "Um, Lady Yuyuko, what did you just say...?" Confused with the unknown word, Youmu asked that, hoping to get a good answer from Yuyuko but knowing that would not be the case.

"I said you took more time than usual," Yuyuko answered.

... Youmu sighed. "No, before that."

"Oh, 'aribederchi'? Not even I know what it means but it sounds interesting, no?" Yuyuko stated cheerfully.

"And where did you learn that word from? It seems foreign." Despite the previous reactions, Youmu was actually curious about it, but she was also not exactly sure if it was something good or bad that made Yuyuko learn that word.

"Well, I learned it from a wandering soul who got in the mansion and humored me for a bit. He was quite interesting: he seemed to remember his past lives, and had special powers of his own. When he was leaving, he said that word to me," Yuyuko concluded the explanation, still smiling in a carefree manner.

. . .

Meanwhile, Youmu only thought and muttered out loud at the same time, "If he said it when he was leaving, then I'm pretty sure that word is not supposed to be used as a greeting for when someone comes back home..."

Author's Notes:

Hell yeah, I did it! This is my first crossover... where nothing happens. Seriously, I wrote 2000-and-something words of Mukuro and Yuyuko having a conversation. If anything, I think the true title of this story should be, "Mukuro and Yuyuko sit down and talk." To be honest, I never planned to have some story to this, as this was simply something I wrote out of a whim.

So ultimately, you must be wondering, "Why Mukuro and Yuyuko?" Well, it's not because I wanted them to be friends or that I ship them or whatever, I simply came up with this because Mukuro was said to have had 6 past lives in either the manga or the anime (one of them said he had gone through all the paths of reincarnation, while the other said he had six past lives): this meant that he could've stepped into the Netherworld and reincarnated, which would make him able to meet a character like Yuyuko and talk to her. I didn't want him to meet her and continuously talk to her, so I made him close to reincarnation so they could only talk for a while.

This, I imagine in my head, was before he reincarnated into the Mukuro you see in KHR, so I guess that's nice? I mean, it would explain why he'd kill Lanchia's family when he was a kid, since he already had those ambitions from his past lives: I guess getting experimented on afterwards only added salt to his wounds, ouch. Whatever the case, he could've hated the mafia before his current life, damn you! It doesn't matter, I didn't write this so I could speculate about Mukuro, I just... I don't know, I just wrote this; it's not like Mukuro is even my favorite character (I do like him though).

But then again, Yuyuko is one of my favorite characters of Touhou, so it was fun to write them both: they both speak in a fairly elegant manner, so I had to use my vocabulary to the fullest so I could write them; so no, Mukuro and Yuyuko's dialogue is not how I usually write people speaking! I really love how roundabout and whimsical Yuyuko is, and I also enjoy writing Mukuro, so I didn't mind this at all. I liked the ending, with Youmu not speaking as elegantly and seeing her mistress spout incorrectly pronounced Italian words XD

Anyway, I liked writing this one-shot, but it's a bit sad that nothing actually happens here ^^' Whatever the case, thank you for reading this story!