Mai

She's had nothing for years.

Not even a name.

Her horrible relatives have names though. They call her 'girl' or 'freak'. Never her name. Each time they had no choice but to take her with them, it was always a random name but it wasn't her real name.

She no longer cared being nameless, but she did care about having to put up with their abuse and mistreatment of her.

So while left behind in the run-down apartment in Japan that Petunia left her in while they would go to a nice hotel suite, enough was enough.

She strongly wished that upon running away, nobody who would be cruel to her would ever find her in Japan ever again.

The result of her wish was immense pain as her whole body and blood boiled, except for her bones and her own brain...and 'something' within her.

When she came to, she looked different and her being caked in a stinky, black mess that apparently came from her scar on her forehead.

She was able to take a real bath without her horrible relatives around. And its night when she woke and they never came to even leave her food.

She prayed hard that whatever deal Vernon has in Japan, will fail spectacularly out of vindictiveness as she decided to take only what she's currently wearing, and ran away.

She's smart and if she wanted something, she learned that she would have to get it herself. Nobody would ever save her. NObody would give her anything. Nobody was ever kind to her.

To her, she's all alone and on her own.

Her against her new world. Japan.

She watched while she suffered thirst and starvation as usual. Cold was nothing new either.

When she watched street children like herself turn to stealing to get by, she did the same. She even targeted her own uncle in vindictive glee. Upon acquiring his fat wallet full of exchanged japanese money as well as his many cards and ids, she ran off with it, happy to leave them in a bind.

Her uncle withdrew 500.000 yen prior to leaving her in that apartment but now he had more money than ever. It increased to 900 grand for some reason. Must be planning to do shopping and having fun or something.

For now, she kept the wallet, and lived carefully with it. Her only concerns were food, clothes and a place to sleep.

But she would often sneak into a japanese daycare where the principal is kind to her and let her stay for free but as soon as she learns how to read, write and speak japanese, she has to go. The problem was she was nameless and 'ageless'.

She lied that she has no idea how old she is when in reality, she is 6 years old, same age as her cousin Dudley. So the principal gave her the name 'Mai'. A name that meant 'lost'. He's OK with her learning for free as long as she won't cause trouble.

It described her to a tee.

Unlike other kids who were taken by parents, she remains in the daycare, sleeping in the nap room at night and getting free meals from the employees. This was the first kindness she ever experienced in her life.

Eight years old later, she could read, write and speak, and left her 'home'. Because she practically didn't exist in paper as a street child, she could not enroll into school. So the principal advised that she should go to the library for self-study and gave her a list of subjects kids study from Kinder to High School.

Mai just stole the books off school bookstores in three different schools for Elementary, Junior High and High School. She spent a couple years reading them all while taking care of herself, and learned more how Japan works, and how japanese teenagers live, and what everyone expects of them. She also signed up for gymnastics, dance and free-running workshops to be a more effective thief, and stealing money to fund herself and her needs. She uses the name of her old kindergarten school as her surname whenever she signs up. She also took interest in manga.

She grew up cold, isolated and only cared for herself and her excellence in whatever she took interest in. She only steals at night as her features are noticeable during the day.

Really.

Nearly-white blonde hair with vivid gray eyes and very fair skin.

She was also said to be a very cute girl...when all cleaned up.

It was why she wears black clothes whenever she could and only strike in dark alleys.

One day, while dressed in a black dress with thin straps and black sandals that also has thin straps at age 13, she arrived in Namimori Town, quite far from Tokyo.

Life in Tokyo got harder lately due to her notoriety thus there's an increase of police patrols and installation of CCTVs, and she didn't want to get caught.

"I'll start over in this town." she mused to herself. She found an apartment to rent in with her remaining money while committing burglaries at night, stealing money or food.

And so...

'We should take better care of security tonight.' Sawada Nana mused over breakfast as she lent Reborn the newspaper wherein the Headlines, several houses in Namimori have been robbed off their money and food...but shockingly not jewelry.

'By the looks of things, its getting closer and closer to our area, maman.' said Reborn.

'Hiiie! What do we do, Reborn?!' Sawada Tsunayoshi a.k.a Tsuna freaked out.

'Well, if this burglar reaches this house, we catch them of course.' said Reborn cheerily. 'We can lay traps at night before bedtime. It seems Tokyo's increased security made this incredible burglar move away.'

'And to our town of all things, there's nothing here.' Tsuna sighed as he ate his breakfast. 'I better go warn Yamamoto at school...his family runs a sushi restaurant!'

xxx

'About the burglaries? Yeah, my dad is also spitting nails.' said Yamamoto, frowning. 'He's wondering where to hide the day's earnings as going to banks has been a hassle...nobody's happy about this.'

'Reborn's thinking of filling the house with traps before bed.' Tsuna sighed. 'Of all towns, why ours?'

'Who knows...I guess all we gotta do is be careful. And I haven't seen Gokudera today...' said Yamamoto. 'You guys normally come together.'

'Now I'm worried.' said Tsuna, frowning. 'We should visit him later. Its not like him to skip.'

But later, they found him unconscious in his apartment and his apartment clearly showed signs of intrusion and struggle.

'Gokudera!' Yamamoto yelped as Tsuna freaked out before picking up his guardian.

'Help me take him to Shamal!' Tsuna gasped out, unable to carry Gokudera by himself. 'He got robbed!'

xxx

'Nani, he got robbed?' Shamal blinked as Gokudera is in the school infirmary.

'Yeah. His apartment is a mess and he was on the floor...he clearly tried to fight back but got beat.' said Yamamoto. 'All he got is a black eye and stomach bruise so it means he got punched or kicked in the gut.' he said as Shamal took out smelling salts to wake up his ex-pupil.

'Wake up and smell the roses kid.' said Shamal, waving the smelling salts under Gokudera's nose, causing him to choke from the stench and wake up.

'Guhaa!'

'Gokudera-kun, you OK?!' Tsuna fretted out. 'We decided to visit since you didn't come to school today...'

'A girl!' Gokudera burst out. 'The burglar is a girl!'

At this, Shamal, Tsuna and Yamamoto stared at him.

'I sleep with the lights closed.' said Gokudera. 'But since it was a full moon last night I could see she has long white hair and she wore a black dress but her hair is kinda disheveled, obscuring her face...she's also on the small side. When I woke up to take a leak, she was rummaging my apartment! I fought her but she's fast and sharp...and she's just our age when I tackled her and then she socked me in the face, pushed me off and kneed me in the gut.' he explained. 'By now my wallet and food are probably gone by now...' he swore gloomily. 'Good thing I have a bank account!' he bit out.

'So the thief is a young girl with long white hair, is it?' Hibari and Kusakabe went in. Apparently they were eavesdropping.

'Hibari-san!' Tsuna gasped out. For how long has he been in there?!

'One of my members saw you guys bringing him in in his pajamas so I was thinking I should bite you for coming here without proper uniform but with intel you have, I'll let it slide only once.' said Hibari. 'Kusakabe, mobilize the committee. Look for any girl with white hair but just to be sure, that's not a wig?' he asked, glancing at Gokudera.

'It ain't.' Gokudera confirmed. 'She has gray eyes and a really pale skin too. Its all I know since she avoids the moonlit parts of my room when we fought and what little I saw is when she gets careless.' the prefects left.

'To be safe stay over at my house for now.' said Tsuna. 'At least until she's caught and Reborn's thinking of booby-trapping our house.'

'Really? Thanks, Juudaime.' said Gokudera gratefully. 'I want to give her a piece of my mind too!'

xxx

'So Gokudera got robbed last night huh?' Reborn mused as Gokudera came to stay over and would share a room with Tsuna.

'Looks like it...' Tsuna said worriedly. 'At least most of his money is in the bank. He only takes out enough for a month.'

'For now we wait. She only comes out at night when mostly everyone is asleep.' said Reborn. 'We'll wait for her to come here.'

xxx

Meanwhile, Mai sleeps in her apartment, unaware of the plans plotted against her. She sleeps till the afternoon before her workshop begins after all.

Life so far has been pretty simple.

She learned all she could from the schoolbooks she stole which she keeps to this day, as well as a dictionary, and a collection of manga related to superpowers. She has fascination in particular with lightning powers...and she could do it. It even manifests in a greenish color.

She once could do many 'freaky things' but upon wishing that those who intended her harm and cruelty can never find her ever again, she lost 'the wide range' of her powers, her healing speed and original appearance after suffering sheer, absolute pain that made 'her usual' seem like needle pricks in comparison. Now all she could do, was control and use electricity or if she puts more power, lightning.

Her powers were also a key role in her successes aside from gymnastics and free-running.

She could magnetically attach herself to surfaces, increase her speed, fry anything, use it like a laser beam, temporarily numb her pain and even steal electricity as well as locate people by their bio-electric signals like a radar so she knows where and how many are out to get her.

By nightfall, she now targeted a certain family after warming up in workshops.

In the meantime...

Hibari searched every public place for a girl around middle school age with white hair and gray eyes. He skipped school that day with his committee...and his prey is just up in the studios at three pm for her Gymnastics.