Disclaimer: KHR is owned by Amano Akira, the genius that drew a manga about kick-ass hot mafia guys!

So yeah, enjoy and whatnot.

Chapter 1

Farewell, Halcyon Days

Ever wondered how strange it is that, no matter how much of an uproar and ruckus Tsuna and company cause in Namimori, not even a single soul suspects them of being mafia? Nobody finds it strange that a fourteen-year-old half-Italian with an appearance of a typical delinquent carries around explosives and actually uses them on whoever irks his short-fused temper. Neither is it strange when the local school baseball star runs around waving a katana that a minute ago was a wooden kendo training sword. And who cares that some good-for-nothing kid reveals inhuman strength and starts getting called by random suspicious people the tenth generation future boss of some fancy Italian-sounding family. And what about the little infant, dressed as a mafioso, claiming to be the tenth's tutor, pointing a green gun, formerly a chameleon, at random people?

Nothing to worry about! Just like the aforementioned baseball player, everyone ignorantly assumes it's just a role-playing game, a fun recreational pastime that sometimes happens to cause harm to innocent people and wreak havoc with presumably harmless toys that just look a bit too realistic. The numerous suspicious men in fancy suits, who randomly appear around the Mafia Game players, are also a normal occurrence. Everyone in town is calm and uninterested. They mind the ruckus, the insanity and the abnormality of it all and carry on with their boring everyday lives like nothing ever happened. It's all on a daily basis in Namimori, so why bother? They're just a bunch of kids, playing an innocent kids' game. Don't think too much about it!

"Oh, give me a break already! This is insane! Can't you see they're in the real Mafia!" a dark-haired girl yelled from a third floor classroom in Namimori Middle, startling a bunch of her classmates, who turned their attention to her.

Another girl, the one the first yelled to, looked around in alarm at all the people who were startled by the sudden loud voice. She shook her head, sighing, and patted her friend's shoulder. "Calm down, Hatsuka! You're making people stare at us, jeez..." she said, looking about to make sure their classmates took the hint and left them be.

"But Kitamura-san! You have to believe me! It's not like that time I tried to convince you that death gods with killer notebooks exist, I swear! Even though they probably do, just so you know, not that we can really see them..."

"Quit it with that shinigami business already! You've been at it for a month! That note thingy isn't real!" At that statement Hatsukaichi Mikami gaped dejectedly at her classmate, but decided against further discussing that particular subject in favor of more impending matters.

"I keep telling you, this time it's got absolutely nothing to do with some random anime I watched!" She furrowed childish eyebrows and sat back down in her seat by the window with crossed arms, deciding to pout at the glass.

The girl with hazelnut hair and blue eyes, Kitamura Rin, sat in the desk next to Mikami, facing her with an awkward smile. "Sorry, Hatsuka. But I still think you're just having an early case of eight-grade delusion sickness."

"Don't just sign me off with premature chuunibyou! At least try to consider this a little bit more seriously!"

"Please. Dame Tsuna a mafia boss? Who'd come up with that stupid idea? Classic eight-grade-itis. The chance of that happening is less than you giving up on being a hopeless otaku." Rin laughed at her own witty remark, receiving a shallow attempt of a glare from her classmate. "Though I do get why you'd fantasize about the transfer student, Gokudera-kun, secretly being in the Mafia. He probably looks soo hot in a suit, pointing a gun at us, making us do his bidding~" A number of stars seemed to appear in front of her perverted face. "He's so dreamy~" While picturing the person mentioned, Mikami also seemed to space out with a blush creeping onto her face but shook herself out of it in time to set things straight.

"I've never fantasized about that! Stop imagining Gokudera as a sadistic kichiku seme, Kitamura-san. You're such an obsessive fangirl, it creeps me out," she said with dull eyes.

"It's called love. There's nothing creepy or obsessive about it!" the blue-eyed girl retorted, turning back to normal. "And what's kichiku seme supposed to be? Geekspeech again? If you try pull yourself out of your 2D delusions for once and look around the actual real world, I'm sure you'll find someone you'd totally crush over and realize how exciting it is! Right Mizuchin~?" Rin looked over to the boy sitting in the desk in front, skimming trough his notebook with a deliberately impassive expression. With short black hair and steel gray eyes hidden behind ill-suited nerdy glasses, he was Morisaka Mizuki, Rin's childhood friend.

"Hm? Ah. Mm. Whatever you say, Ricchan," he replied with a bored face, not even bothering to turn around nor interrupt his reading.

"That doesn't count! Of course Morisaka-kun would take your side! He always agrees with you on anything to make you get off of his case, since he knows how persistently annoying you can get. It's just like Shikamaru is with Ino," Mikami pointed out, making Rin frown at her with the face of a person having no idea about whom she was talking about. "Anyway, stop changing the subject! What about Yamamoto? He's definitely mafia material what with that good guy façade of his! He acts all nice and friendly but I know that he's actually a stuck up dangerous insensitive jerk! All popular guys are!"

"Ah, you're just saying that because he rejected some friend of yours two years ago in elementary school. A talented hot guy like him can't be that bad. The way he swings that bat~! It makes me wish I was small, round and white so he'd catch me, and hold me, and hit on me~!" Rin went back to stargazing and Mikami sent her a deadpan look again.

"What? You mean like a baseball? Who'd want to be a baseball? Confusing fangirl logic..." Mikami muttered to herself, not at all fazed by the sudden change of her friend's target of affection.

"Who's Rin swooning over this time?" asked a voice by Mikami. A tall girl, looking eerily similar to the boy seated in front of Kitamura with straight black hair and gray bespectacled deadpan eyes, sat down on the desk in front next to her lookalike. She was watching Rin impassively who was now giggling like a pervert with hands on her cheeks.

"Oh, Yamamoto-kun, you're squeezing me so hard~" Rin whined in her daydream, making the tall girl and Mikami sweatdrop.

"Forget I asked," the aloof black-haired girl, Morisaka Sakura, casually withdrew, turning forward to take out a textbook from her bag.

"Morisaka-san! You believe me, don't you?" Mikami bent over her desk to give the girl a pair of pleading puppy dog eyes.

Sakura had to turn back again, directing her unnervingly unblinking gaze at her. "Believe what, Hatsukaichi?"

"You know, about the..." Mikami eyed the room carefully before she leaned in, cupping a hand next to her mouth. "...Mafia," she whispered like it was some big heavy secret.

Sakura stood still for a brief moment, just looking at Mikami with her sharp eyes, as she deliberated whether to indulge her. "You'll have to excuse me, Hatsukaichi, but I can't don't find any reason to be alarmed. All facts point that this situation can only be interpreted as a mere children's game," she monotoned as she faced forward, opening her textbook to join her twin in the silent reading session.

"Gah! Morisaka-san~! You too?! You know, with each passing day you remind me of a kuudere more and more what with that condescending stare and the way you always shoot me down in that rigid way of speaking. I can't believe how casually you can keep denying something that's so glaringly obvious!"

Sakura lifted her gaze from her book to briefly glance back at the snickering otaku. "I am not familiar with the aspects of what you're referring to as kuudere, nor do I have any desire to. Now if you please, class is about to start and I do not intend to give this matter any more of my attention." She continued reading, cutting the conversation to a close.

Mikami face-faltered and leaned back in her seat, her theory rejected for the third time in under two minutes. There's no way so many shady people are taking part of some mere kids' game, she thought to herself while shifting her head backwards, looking at the ceiling. And for such a long time... Not even cosplay skits and conventions last this long. You'd get dead tired. And these guys are at it 24/7, staying in character...

A moment later shouts were heard from the corridor and three boys entered the classroom, one yelling at the second, while the third, the shortest, was desperately trying to calm him down. Mikami followed them with her eyes as they made their way to the short boy's seat.

"Tenth! Please let me to break this imbecile baseball freak's neck! He went too far this time, daring to attack you from the back!" The one with chin-length silvery-gray hair glared with pale olive green eyes at the tall one as he wriggled angry fingers in the air, itching for a fight.

That hot-headed overdone loyalty – just like Asahina Yusuke from that BroCon otome game I played last week...

"Hiiie! Go-gokudera-kun, please don't! Not here! No violence!" the short one shrieked, shooting up from his seat, and stood between the two, frantically waving his hands.

What an anxious wimpy pushover... Reminds me of Niwa Daisuke from DN Angel.

"Ahahah! You're so funny, Gokudera! I just gave Tsuna a pat on the back to say hi, that's all. No harm meant." The tall "baseball freak" easily laughed it off.

A happy-go-lucky oblivious baseball nut – the male version of Toradora's Minorin.

"That was supposed to be just a pat on the back?" Tsuna stopped his freak out session to sweatdrop. "I nearly got knocked over!" he cried out.

"Guess I don't know my own strength. Sorry Tsuna!" The tall black-haired boy beamed once again his toothy grin.

"A-ah... It's alright, Yamamoto..." Tsuna meekly nodded at the apologetic smile, sitting back down.

"Cheh! You managed to get out of this one, lucky bastard! I'll let it slide, but only because the tenth accepted your sorry-ass excuse of an apology! You better be grateful that the tenth is so forgiving even to undeserving losers like you!" Huffing, Hayato turned on his heel and made his way to the front of the classroom. Takeshi also dropped the subject with an oblivious shrug at Hayato's as-per-usual excessive behavior and sat in the back of Mikami's window-side row. Tsuna exhaled a heavy sigh and lay face down on the desk, silently complaining about how these things only happened to him.

Mikami finally tore her gaze away from them when the bell rang. She glanced out the window in attempt to occupy her mind with anything else beside mafia weirdos, just for something down near the school gates to catch her attention. There, a malicious-looking black-haired tonfa-wielding guy, with the Disciplinary Committee's uniform thrown over his shoulders and the trademark red armband pinned to the sleeve, was mercilessly beating up some poor kid who just happened to be a couple of seconds late for class. Up in the safety of the classroom, Mikami nervously looked away, shocked from the daily Hibari gore scene, and instead decided it would be far safer to stare at her desk. With sweaty hands clenching the sides of her head, she tried to ignore the shiver that ran up her spine.

"This is the most insane school ever!" she muttered wide-eyed to herself before the teacher came in, silencing the chattering students to start the lesson.

- xxx -

The Morisaka twins – Sakura and Mizuki, being rather quiet children, usually kept to themselves as they generally liked to just sit around reading books. The only other kid their own age they played with was their childhood friend Kiramura Rin, living right next door. Even their families were friends, so they've always been together, whether going to school or on holidays. Even though they still interacted with their peers, they never felt the need to make additional friendships. Rin was enough.

Kitamura Rin on the other hand, being an energetic bundle of sunshine, was very sociable. So whenever they switched a grade in school, she made the habit of befriending even their most timidly shy classmate. It was probably some kind of attempt to get the stoic twins to warm up to other people that she judged to be similar in behavior. But it always blew over by the end of the year. Either because of Mizuki's indifference, Sakura being too strict and needlessly straightforward or Rin's overbearing character, the new addition to their circle was quickly intimidated by the already well-developed dynamic of their little group and either switched to new friends or made a gradual retreat to their old lonesome lifestyle.

It went like that even when they eventually entered middle school. At their very first school day in Namimori Middle, Rin somehow managed to fish out the most awkward-looking oddball from the shadowy corners of their class and kept bothering her, trying to hold a conversation. It was another plain-looking pale girl with typically Asian dark hair and same-colored dark dull eyes, almost identical to Rin's former victim, if not for the flat chest and the perpetually bored look. And the poor soul had no way of escaping Rin's motor-mouth, since class seating arrangements somehow managed to glue her right beside Rin and her stone-faced childhood friends at all times.

First they would talk about dramas, then Rin would jump to boy talk, only to make the girl's interest drop quickly, since she didn't seem to have any motivation to become as outgoing as Rin herself. Then a strange thing happened. Whenever this girl lost interest in Rin's love-obsessed blabbering, she would seek out the twins' more level-headed company all on her own, odd for someone who seemed too awkward to actively pursue friendships. It was then that they started finding out small things about her that made them understand why would Rin feel compelled to stretch her hand out to this particular girl.

Her name was weird – Hatsukaichi Mikami. Rin insisted on calling her Hatsuka, which was derived from her surname, and it caught on, spreading like wildfire among the rest of the class. Mikami was also actually really talkative when you got her going and what made her open up the most were conversations about the games she played or her favorite anime characters. Rin and the twins could hardly ignore that Mikami was a hopeless otaku, since it was engraved in everything from her speaking pattern and her hobbies to her entire way of life. It was probably why she initially seemed so socially impaired to them. To make it worse, she had a terrible tomboyish streak and was awfully stubborn about things only she found important, holding lengthy debates with a fed up Mizuki over the importance of shounen manga and how it helped develop greater values no matter the age group just because he dared to let it slip that it was for kids and people who refused to grow up. Not to mention how she always let curiosity get the better of her, like when she kept pestering an annoyed Sakura, asking about the reason behind her sour mood, only to get a ruthless tongue-lashing in return. And while it all sounded like Mikami was an ill fit, somehow she clicked better with them than all the rest before her.

One day however, she began acting stranger then usual. And the main reason for that all wound down to her random acquaintance with another class oddball – an unfortunately talentless scrawny boy whom everyone his whole life liked to call No-Good Dame Tsuna because of his terribly bad luck.

- xxx -

Back during Namimori Middle School's opening ceremony was when Mikami met Sawada Tsunayoshi, still innocent and unaware of his foreboding future. She was standing in front of the notice board with the class assignments, trying to figure out where she was placed. Trailing a path with her eyes over various names, she side-stepped left without taking care to look to her side and, naturally, bumped into someone.

"Hiiie!" That someone made a strange sound between a yelp and a squeak from a rubber duckling and tripped over his own two feet in his hurried attempt to distance himself from her, even though the impact from Mikami's shoulder was a mere accidental light push. He was just that easy to startle.

"Ah! Sorry! Didn't see you," Mikami immediately apologized, noticing a short boy with spiky caramel hair and big warm brown eyes. Heh, this little shota fell down just from that, how moe! Definitely uke material! Unaware that she was letting her perverse thoughts show, a large grin spread on her giddily amused face.

"A-ah! No, no, I'm the one who should be sorry! I wasn't paying attention!" the boy managed to say, picking himself up, as he felt the girl eyeing him strangely. Looking back made him feel a bit uncomfortable so he hurried to turn back to the notice board, only for this time to hit his face on it. "Ow!" He clenched a hand over his nose and retreated a few steps back to get away from the violent construction.

"Bwahaha!" hugging her sides, Mikami burst into unrestrained laughter. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry— Haha! But— Ha! It's so funny— Hahaha! Moe~!"

"Ahaha, right..." The boy tried to join in awkwardly while rubbing his pulsating nose. Moe? Is she an otaku? Am I supposed to resemble an anime character?

"I'm sorry but you have to admit it's hilarious. You managed to fall on your ass for no reason and then right after that, you smacked your nose right on the board like some klutzy dojikko! Ahahah! Seriously, who does that IRL?" She wiped the stray tears from the corner of her eyes, stomach hurting from all the laughter.

Dojikko? IRL?! Why does she feel the need to use so much internet slang?! It's hard to understand and just makes her sound lame!

"A-ah... It's okay, I guess..." he stammered, still not sure if he hadn't met someone troublesome to be around and if he wasn't better off not talking to her in the first place.

As the excitement died down, the two continued their search through the name list from where they left off, their eyes landing on the same class – 1-A. Surprised, they looked at each other and Tsuna offered an uncomfortable polite smile, cursing his bad luck.

"Looks like we'll be in the same class, Sawada," Mikami said cheerfully, unsuspecting of his view of her, "I'll be counting on you."

"Y-yeah, me too, Hatsukaichi-san." Tsuna nodded nervously, thinking how he won't be able to handle it if his other classmates also started calling him a klutzy stock anime character all because of this otaku who liked to link everything to her made-up 2D paradise.

"Well then, we better get going. The assembly should be starting soon. Hurry up, Sawada!" As she rushed him with a beckoning wave of her hand, Tsuna could practically envision his dreadful future middle school life so he resolved to stray far from her in fear that she might bring him an even lousier school reputation than he already previously had.

Thanks to that well-judged decision, their acquaintance made no further progress from there and Tsuna could sigh in relief that Mikami didn't think to seek out his company after a rather chatty classmate named Kitamura Rin got a hold of her.

- xxx -

Some time after that, came the day a mysterious small hitman turned Dame Tsuna's life upside down. Mikami was calmly walking to school that same morning, dressed in the school's issued summer uniform. Strolling down the road by the river with a schoolbag lazily thrown over her shoulder, she was just about to yawn sleepily when she saw a short spiky brown-haired boy clad only in his boxers dashing over the near river bridge. Mikami froze mid-yawn as she watched him turn down the road towards Namimori Middle, while shouting about "confessing" with his "dying will".

"What the?!" Mikami could only gape wide-eyed at the cloud-trails of dust that followed the boy. "Sawada?! What does he think he's doing, running half-naked trough town in broad daylight?! He's never been able to run this fast last time I checked! And is it just me, or was his forehead on fire?!" she muttered under her nose and squinted her eyes to see better.

Instead, her gaze was drawn up to the sky above where a strange green parachute with yellow eyes was carrying some small child with weird spiral sideburns wearing a suit and a fedora hat. Making eye contact, the kid randomly smirked at her and gave her a wave like it was the most normal thing to do.

Perturbed, Mikami looked back dumbly at where her now presumably borderline insane classmate had disappeared off to and slowly placed a hand over her forehead. "Am I sick or something? I feel fine though. Maybe I'm still a bit sleepy." Trying to forget about the weirdness of it all, she continued walking.

- xxx -

Mikami got her second doze of shock this morning when Rin, her classmate positioned next to her, informed her that the class loser, No-Good Tsuna, had confessed in his underwear to the school idol, Sasagawa Kyoko, and in the process managed to piss off one of their seniors – Mochida, the Kendo Club Captain.

"So I wasn't seeing things after all!" Mikami said, while hanging her schoolbag on the side of the desk. "Please tell me you also saw that weird flame on his forehead! It was almost like his fringe, or rather, his forehead was on fire, but it was smaller and looked kinda like it was made out of reiatsu or chakra of some sort. Actually, wait, I think it was more like furyoku." She frowned, thinking way too deeply than needed about it.

"Flame? What are you talking about? Have you been overdosing on anime?" Rin gave her classmate a pointed look.

"No!" The otaku raised her voice, obviously in denial. "Well, not that much more than usual... Look, last night I was only up until two, okay! I just had to finish reading the arc I started or I wouldn't have been able to sleep and would've ended up tossing and turning in bed, thinking about what happens next! But that's unimportant and D. Gray-man has nothing to do with this, unless... Sawada has somehow acquired a parasitic type innocence!"

Judging by the lost scrunched up face of having no idea what the hell that meant that Rin was giving her, that may not have been the case.

"As I was saying..." Mikami cleared her throat deliberately. "You didn't see it? It was big and orange and blazed in one concentrated spot right here." Mikami put a hand pointing up on her forehead and moved her spread fingers like a flickering flame. "I can draw you a picture if you want?"

"No need. I can imagine." Rin sweatdropped and turned to the black-haired girl in front of Mikami's desk. "Sasa-chan, did you notice if Dame Tsuna's forehead was on fire this morning?" The stoic girl just threw them a deadpan look without making the effort to entertain their stupidity with any kind of answer and continued reading her book. "Mizuchin?" Sakura's twin grumbled a lazy "don't know, don't care" from the front, not even bothering to raise his head since he was too busy napping away sprawled out over the desk.

Mikami became even more confused. Maybe she really was seeing things.

"See, Hatsuka, no one knows anything about any forehead fires. Anyway, listen to this. Now, the Kendo Club captain, Mochida-sempai, is gonna fight Dame Tsuna, lunch break, in the gym! He wants to take revenge on the insult Kyoko received. Isn't that super romantic? Mochida-sempai is so manly~" Rin's eyes became heart-shaped as she wobbled in her seat.

Still bothered by what she saw this morning, Mikami paid no mind to her classmate's gushing and glanced at Tsuna's desk where the boy lay face down in shame with his uniform looking like it had been stitched at the back. If she was him, Mikami thought, she'd run far away to avoid this needless confrontation.

- xxx -

Lessons went by and the moment of truth for Dame Tsuna was upon them. Half the school, probably everyone actually, was gathered in the gymnasium, since Mikami even spotted the fear-inducing Hibari Kyoya lurking the shadow of an ominous dark corner. Mochida stood in the middle of the crowd with his kendo gear and a cocky smirk on, boasting about his superiority over deadbeat Tsuna and how easy it would be to prevail over such a weak opponent.

"Stuck up jerk, trashing small fries to show off. How noble of the Kendo Club Captain," Mikami said sarcastically to Rin, who totally ignored her to ogle the aforementioned noble Kendo Club Captain.

"Where's Sawada? He's late!" Mochida yelled at two poor souls, who answered him that Dame Tsuna probably ran away, making the black-haired sempai laugh as his ego grew larger than life. "This means I win by default! Ahahaha!"

"So the shota is actually smarter than he looks," Mikami praised Tsuna for ditching this farce of a fight for the school idol's dignity, though she couldn't shake off that annoying nagging feeling she had at the back of her mind.

"It's Tsuna!"

"Dame Tsuna came!"

"Whoa, he really came!"

"It would've been better if he ran..."

The feeling disappeared as Mikami turned to see the short brown-haired boy at the entrance. After getting over her surprise, she found herself silently cheering the boy on, if only because he had the guts to actually make himself present, despite knowing he'd most probably get his ass owned.

When he had finally gathered the courage to move from his spot at the entrance, Tsuna walked up to Mochida, who was still babbling about his forthcoming victory. The price set by the senior became the school idol, Sasagawa Kyoko, earning murmurs from the crowd and another sarcastic remark about his integrity as a man from Mikami. The fight began as Tsuna was passed a shikai, a kendo training sword, from Yamamoto. Unfortunately, Mochida easily disarmed him with his own and the brown-haired boy spent two good minutes running around in circles, trying to dodge the sempai's attacks while screaming his head off, which made the crowd burst in hysterics. Just when Tsuna tripped and fell over and Mochida was about to land a solid hit, Kyoko yelled "Sawada-kun, do your best!" much to everyone's surprise and one particular sempai's displeasure.

Then, Mikami heard a faint gunshot and caught sight of something piercing through Tsuna, the force making him fall on his back.

A-are those red drops actually ...blood?!

For a second there, Mikami almost thought he was dead and she struggled to come to terms with what happened, that somebody, her classmate, was murdered in the bright of day, in the presumable safety of the school building, right in front of her. A moment later however, the boy jumped up alive and well, ripping his clothes apart in the process, and a familiar orange flame burst to life on his forehead.

"Reborn!" Tsuna bellowed. "I'll get a point with my dying will!"

"There it is, Kitamura-san! The flame! Do you see it?!" Mikami pulled on Rin's sleeve, her eyes not leaving the suddenly entirely different boxers clad boy, who jumped Mochida and started pulling his black hair.

Everyone stared in shock for a moment as Tsuna ripped out wisps of Mochida's hair, but then the crowd erupted in laughter again. Afraid for his captain, the referee, who was also a Kendo Club member, planted at the position with the pure intention of cheating if it were necessary, had no choice but to hurriedly raise Sawada's flag, signaling his victory. The crowd went wild, amazed by none other than Sawada Tsunayoshi. Who would've thought No-Good Tsuna could pull this off? In the end, everyone had gained a new-found respect for the kid.

"Stop it with that flame thing of yours, Hatsuka! You're starting to give me the creeps! There was nothing there! All I saw was Dame Tsuna tripping over like he always does. Anyway, it was so sweet of Yamamoto to help him out, don't you think~?" Rin babbled on as she and Mikami were exiting the gym along with the crowd. Voices could be heard talking about how crazy in an amazing way Tsuna kicked ass.

As they walked, Mikami drowned out Rin in her mind as she spotted someone who was standing aside from the crowd – a strange boy with unusually silver or rather just plain gray hair. There was a cigarette in his mouth and she could see an assortment of rings, wristbands, bracelets and other trinkets decorating his crossed arms. Even though he was smoking, he was definitely underage, since he was wearing the school uniform, although with a red t-shirt underneath, a pair of slender chains around his neck and another hanging loosely over the side of his left pant leg. He just stood there by himself, mumbling something under his nose as he stared at something back inside the gym hall.

While this guy really was one of a kind, the remnant of a dying breed even, considering people usually got beat up at Namimori by the rule-obsessed prefects for ignoring the dress code so blatantly and daring to smoke on school grounds, what really made Mikami look his way were his stunning pale olive-green eyes, a rare color to see in Japan. She wondered if he was half-something in nationality to have such eyes but she didn't put much thought into it, since she didn't know him and didn't care that much, so she eventually forgot. A nagging feeling at the back of her mind still remained until the end of the day however, bothering her. Like there was something important that she was supposed to remember.

- xxx -

Mikami certainly didn't expect to see the very same boy first thing in the morning the next day at school, standing in front of the class with all his fancy accessories and a spiteful scowl on his face.

"A transfer student at this time of the year?" she muttered under her nose before she managed to recognize him. "Wait...! That's...! From yesterday...!"

"I'll introduce the transfer student. He was studying abroad in Italy until now. His name is Gokudera Hayato-kun." After the teacher's announcement, chatter spread throughout the class.

"Hey, hey, Hatsuka~! Isn't he hot~!" Heart-eyed Rin turned to whisper giddily to Mikami.

Mikami swore she could hear similar statements from the other girls in class. She couldn't blame them. Yesterday, for a moment there, even she had spaced out in his direction, mushy thoughts overcoming her about how if the mysterious transfer student was an anime character, he would be a combination of two of her favorite types – "good-looking troubled delinquent" and "young yet silver-haired bad boy". She even thought he resembled a longer-haired middle school version of Dante from Devil May Cry, only with kinda pretty green eyes. She excused that stray thought with the fact that no one was used to such an eye color in Japan. It was probably one of the main reasons his appearance excited the girls in class. This guy was like a limited-edition item to these depraved Asian girls.

Too bad he looks like he's probably another lousy grunt, judging by his sour expression. Real life boys are often just plain boring.

Maybe the only one who wasn't affected and wasn't into anime boys was Sakura in front of Mikami. The stoic girl didn't tear her gray gaze away from the book she was reading, not even to just throw a single glance at the newcomer. She probably liked more mature men anyway, Mikami thought, just like Kurokawa Hana, another classmate of theirs, who scowled and grumbled "another ugly monkey" as soon as Hayato had entered the room. The school idol next to her, Sasagawa Kyoko also paid no mind, but she had yet to take an interest in those kinds of relationships, being the flowery bundle of kind-hearted innocence that she was.

Gokudera Hayato began walking between the rows but when he reached Tsuna, he took a halt. To everyone's surprise, he forcibly kicked the smaller boy's desk, toppling it over along with its inhabitant.

"Gokudera-kun! Your seat is... Gokudera-kun!" The teacher tried to get the transfer student's attention to no avail as the silver head ignored him and made his way to a back seat.

"What was that all about...? Do they know each other or—?"

"His scary-ness makes me so numb~!" Mikami's monologuing was cut short by Rin's fangirlish outburst.

"That's not a real word, Rin. Stop making stupid things up," Sakura chided her while flipping a page from the book she was reading.

"We're definitely making a fan club!" Some other girl said from the back.

"Oh~! Let me in~!" Rin waved her hand enthusiastically.

Mikami tried her best to restrain herself from placing a palm over her forehead. The guy hasn't been here for five minutes and he already has a fan club. Looks like Yamamoto has a rival on his turf... She looked back at the new guy to see him glaring daggers at Tsuna. And what the hell is his problem with Sawada? Are they fighting or something? Dame Shota sure is getting some attention lately... She moved her gaze to the whimpering in fear Tsuna who was trying his hardest to act like no one was sending him evil looks.

"Hmm..."

"Hatsukaichi-kun! Pay attention!"

"A-ack! Yes, sensei!"

- xxx -

Lunch break, Mikami, Rin, Sakura and Mizuki were eating while talking about various topics, as usual.

"Ah! And there's our class' match in the Volleyball Tournament this afternoon! Too bad you got a doctor's note Mizuchin. It's gonna be so cool! Yamamoto is so good at sports~!" Rin blabbered giddily with over-exaggerated hand gestures as Mizuki sent Mikami a subtle eyeroll. "And he looks so hot in a baseball uniform~!"

"Yes, we know, Kitamura-san..." Mikami sweatdropped. "We all went to the same elementary school as him and got to watch him play on several occasions, yet you never fail to remind us."

"Also, Sawada's going to be participating as a substitute. It may prove to be particularly interesting," Sakura pointed out and put some rice into her mouth.

"He is? Wasn't Dame Tsuna supposed to act as the substitute of the substitute of the substitute of Nakamura?" Mizuki lifted his empty gaze up from his boxed lunch, showing interest in something for once, with which he astonished Mikami greatly, making her drop her chopsticks from her mouth onto her lap. Rin and the twins were childhood friends and rarely anything one of them did surprised the other but Mikami hadn't seen Mizuki express any kind of emotion other than boredom and indifference before that moment.

"That is correct, Brother. The three of them are sick. Stomach disorder," Sakura said.

"Haa?" Mikami picked up her chopsticks, clenching them together in a fist.

"What is it, Hatsuka?" Rin looked bewildered.

"There's no way all three of them got the same disease at the same time! This has to be a set up! Sawada probably did something! He poisoned them!"

A collective groan filled the room.

"Please, Hatsuka," Rin was done with her, "In grade school the three of us had influenza at the same time. It's perfectly normal, especially since the team gets together for practice a lot more often before the tournament. They probably got sick at the same time when they ate something funny on a get-together after practice or something like that."

"It's not the same! A flu is contagious! This is food poisoning, I tell you! Sawada is definitely up to something! First that orange flame, then the inhuman strength, after that it turns out he and the mysterious transfer student from Italy know each other and now he's poisoning people! There's something fishy around here and it's got something to do with inhuman superhero powers, furyoku fire, flying green parachute babies, blood splatters and the mysterious transfer students from Italy and I'm gonna find out what right now!" Mikami quickly gobbled down the rest of her boxed lunch and practically flew out of the classroom.

"Furyoku fire? Flying green parachute babies?" Rin and the twins exchanged dull looks and sighed. "Hatsuka should stop watching so much anime... It's wrecking her brain..."

- xxx -

After a while of walking around the corridors the fuming Mikami had calmed down and realized she actually had no clue where Tsuna could be. She felt stupid, the thought of going back making her regret her embarrassing obnoxious outburst. Just when she was starting to think that maybe she really did have chuunibyou, she heard someone yelling from the next corridor, "Reborn! Reborn! Where are you?"

Is that Sawada? Mikami poked her head from around the corner. The short boy was looking around for someone. Mikami then caught notice of some strange smell in the air. Huh? Coffee? Where's that coming from...?

Apparently, having noticed it as well, Tsuna knelt and pressed his ear on a random fire hydrant box, just to get his head hit when the small door opened by itself.

What the–?! Why is there a small secret room inside?! And that kid! He was the one with the weird green parachute yesterday morning! He's... Is he drinking coffee?! Isn't he just a kid?!

"Ciaossu! I'm having my coffee break now," the infant spoke.

It spoke! Like an adult! And it's wearing a suit! And a fedora! And is that a lizard?! Why is there a lizard on some fancy-dressed little kid's hat?!

"What are you doing in a place like this?!" Tsuna freaked out too, though it seemed that he knew the little kid.

"I have secret hiding places all over school," came the disturbingly natural answer.

A-all o-over?! Mikami looked around with her mouth agape. She could just imagine the maze of tiny tunnels running through the walls.

"When did you have time to do that?"

Sawada has a good point. And that's a freaking kid! Screw time! How did he even manage to build those hiding places without anyone noticing?! And with what resources?!

"Anyway, never mind that! Shoot me with the Dying Will Bullet. The volleyball tournament is next. I have to look good in front of Kyoko-chan!"

Sh-shoot?! B-b-b-bullet?! So yesterday...! The sound of a gunshot...! And what hit him...!

"I can shoot you but you will die." The kid had said it as such a matter of fact that it seemed wrong.

D-d-d-die?! Mikami was frozen in place behind the corner with a horrified expression, millions of questions that she was too afraid to speak aloud rushing through her mind. She slid down to the base of the wall and didn't dare move a single muscle. I'm not supposed to be hearing this! What did I get myself into?!

"Yeah, sure, I'll die." Tsuna nodded to himself, but then quickly backpedaled, "...wait. What?!"

"If you don't have any regrets when you are hit by the Dying Will Bullet, you won't revive."

Dying Will? Revive? Aren't you normally supposed to be killed from a gunshot, no matter what funny title name you choose to call it?!

"Do you think that someone like you who's gotten so overconfident after all the flattery will have any regrets?"

"Oh, right. Which means..." Tsuna could now panic. "The Dying Will bullet is useless!"

The kid in the suit took the green creature off the rim of his hat and it turned into a... Green gun! which was pointed straight at Tsuna's head, sending all sorts of alarms off in Mikami's mind as she screamed inwardly.

"Hiiie!" Tsuna made no effort to restrain his own yell.

"Do you still want to give it a try? If you're lucky, you'll die a painless death," the kid teasingly tried to tempt him.

"N-no way!"

Is he seriously going to shoot him with that?! Is that even a real gun?! How in the world did the lizard—?!

"Well then, good luck, hero!" And with that, the small room's fire hydrant door slammed shut without anybody getting shot at.

Tsuna stood kneeling on the floor in despair, not sure what to do. Mikami was in a similar state around the corner, though far more shocked in comparison. She was completely shaken, too busy replaying everything in her mind, so she didn't even notice when Tsuna had walked away.

Italy... Fedoras... Suits... Guns... Bullets... Shooting... Blood... Death... Don't tell me!

- xxx -

Eventually, Mikami recovered from her stupor enough to be able to stand on her trembling feet, but remained greatly disturbed by the matter. Feeling the need to reaffirm that she wasn't going insane by relaying what she'd just witnessed to her three friends from class, she hurried over to the gym for the volleyball match where Rin and the twins were waiting for her in the crowd. Once there, she was surprised to notice a number of posters with slogans in support of Tsuna of all people, who seemed to have gotten a bit of popularity ever since his rather amusing fight with Mochida. Reminding herself of the more important task at hand, Mikami managed to quickly zero in on one bigger poster with "Go, go, Yamamoto~!" and a painted heart, which was carried by Rin and some other girls from the unofficial Yamamoto Fan Club respectively.

"Yo, Hatsuka~!" Rin greeted her with sparkly eyes. "Ready to scream your heart out? Yamamoto is soo going to win!"

"A-ah, no thanks, Kitamura-san. I'll leave that to you. You fangirl enough for the both of us..." Mikami sweatdropped. "I just fail to understand how the noisy fan club and the unnecessarily large tacky poster are really necessary. It's like we've suddenly entered the Haikyuu-verse as background students from Aobajousai where Yamamoto is Seijou's ace setter. Seriously creepy."

Ignoring Mikami's usual geekspeech sidetracking, Sakura chose to address another fault in Rin's words. "I think we need to stress over the fact that volleyball is a team sport and as thus, there is no such thing as a lone individual winning."

"So Yamamoto's team is going to win. Same thing, whatever. He does most of the work anyway." Rin shrugged, ignoring her two sweatdropping childhood friends and Mikami's face palm, which the girl failed to restrain this time.

"Nevermind any volleyball bishies..." Mikami began on a more serious note, "Listen, guys. I need to tell you something real bad—!"

"Look. He's here," Mizuki announced to the small group, unintentionally interrupting Mikami, and they turned to see Tsuna at the entrance.

Everyone in the hall immediately exploded into cheers for the boy, drowning out all of Mikami's chances of getting back her friends' attention and relay the news. All that unexpected fuss caused Tsuna to sweat nervously as he went over to his team, trying his best to pay no mind to the excited screams. Yamamoto and several of the other boys from their class were also there, including...

"Isn't that Gokudera? What's the transfer student doing there? I know I practically cheated to get out of this brainless sports competition but is it really alright for him to play on his first day of school? Almost makes me feel bad for the guy," Mizuki monotoned, making Mikami turn her attention to the unusual silver head.

Yeah, when did the mysterious transfer student have time to get signed for the team when he just joined our class a few hours ago?! There's definitely some conspiracy here!

After a brief last minute floor polishing and the approval from the Disciplinary Committee President, the game between class 1-A and 1-C started with the referee's whistle and the roar of the crowd. Naturally, Tsuna was terrible at playing, dropping the ball each and every time he had to do a receive, This caused trouble for the rest of his team and especially Yamamoto who had to exert a lot of energy in attempt to either compensate for the lost points or make last second saves, doubling as a libero along with being the main hitter.

"Go Yamamoto~! Fight-oh!" At least Rin was enjoying herself. She was waving the ridiculous poster with the heart, frantically trying to outvoice the other fan club members, disturbingly reminding Mikami of Oikawa Tooru's fangirls from Haikyuu.

There goes another ball towards Tsuna... it's coming... coming... Tsuna jumps... and...! "Woo~! Go Tsuna~!" Ah... he missed... The ball painfully bounced off his head, making him fall over on his back. "Eeeh..." the crowd groaned, disappointed.

"What is he doing? He should get up already! He's getting in Yamamoto's way!" Rin whined beside Mikami.

Tsuna completely failed every chance he got, no matter the position the rotation provided him, in contrast with the other team members, who were jumping around like headless chickens, desperately trying to prevent the ball from touching their side of the field. He even got a self-smacked ball to the face when he tried to make a decent serve. It was admittedly hilarious to watch but no one dared to laugh when their team lost the first set with the large gap of 3 to 21 for class C.

"What's Dame Tsuna doing? He sucks so much, it's making the whole team suffer! Takeshi-kun can't possibly win like that~!" Rin almost cried anime tears.

"Since when are you so close with Yamamoto to be calling him by his first name?" Mikami raised an eyebrow.

"Mou~! Hatsuka~! I'm too upset to pay attention to such minor things~!" Rin flailed her arms in exasperation.

"Regardless, Sawada has to get a grip and try a harder for the sake of his teammates, if not for his own," Sakura returned them to the main issue.

"Or they're gonna beat the snot out of him later, figuratively speaking," Mizuki added grimly as they saw some of the team members giving Tsuna evil looks.

"You've got that right." Mikami sweatdropped.

Would he have done better with that Dying Will Bullet thing the fedora kid mentioned? But he said Sawada would die if he gets shot in the state he's in. ...what am I thinking?! I'm sympathizing with that little wolf in sheep's clothing and his little minion! Mikami shook her head from weird thoughts, looking back at the game, where the teams were already back on the court for the second set. Thinking about that little guy... If he was the one who helped Sawada win against Mochida-sempai yesterday, then where was he hiding? The gunshot I heard came somewhere from above... She scanned the second level of the gymnasium with narrowed dark brown eyes. There! He's here again! W-what the...?! He's... h-h-he's pointing a gun at Sawada!

Mikami freaked out and reached to tug on Sakura's sleeve. Before she could however, the armed child moved his weapon from Tsuna's direction and changed target, pointing the barrel towards Mikami with a wide unrestrained smirk. The girl stopped her hand, which hovered over Sakura's sleeve, and froze completely still, staring in horror at the infant. The next thing Reborn did confused her greatly. The kid put a small finger to his mouth in a "keep quiet or else" sort of mafia way, like he trusted her to not tell a soul if she didn't want to lose her head. Then, he loaded his gun with a pair of the weirdest blue bullets and shot them into Tsuna's legs, gun turning back into the lizard-like shape-shifting chameleon creature afterwards.

Mikami wanted to scream. But she couldn't. Her throat seemed to suddenly dry up. Like she was so immensely horrified that she had lost the ability to speak. That or her gaping mouth was letting too much air in, which made all her saliva evaporate. Tsuna had fallen to the floor, faint drops of blood visible from where Mikami stood. Those eerie red dots almost made her vision blur as her entire body started shaking. The others seemed to assume Tsuna had just tripped on his feet or something. Naïve, pure, oblivious souls.

Amazingly, Sawada managed to get up. And he was well! The game continued business as usual. Actually, no, it didn't! Tsuna was kicking ass, in a sense. He managed to receive each of the opponent's spikes, though with the most embarrassing and fragile male body part possible. The crowd went "woo, yeah~!" and "ooh, that hurt~" at the same time, but at least everyone was rooting for Tsuna and he managed to slow the ball enough for Yamamoto and the rest of the team to retaliate with attacks of their own.

Mikami stood speechless. His jumps were so high, it was like his legs were made out of rubber, or like he just grew springs for legs. He's just like Hinata from Haikyuu! A flying floating chibi shrimp! That little fedora kid must have shot Sawada with some kind of bullet buffs, Mikami figured, even though it was hard to wrap her head around the concept of real life bullets which helped you instead of harming you. She wanted to ask about it but she was too afraid to do so. After all, now that she was actually caught witnessing everything, the little baby might decide to hunt her down and kill her! Like a true hitman.

"That's it!" connecting the dots, Mikami exclaimed, causing Sakura to jerk in place and throw her a mildly offended questioning look.

Italy, suits, guns, blood...! This kid's a hitman! A real live mafia hitman! Just like Agent 47 from the Hitman game! I can't believe this! This is bigger than I thought! I swear, this whole mess has definitely got something to do with the Italian Mafia, I can just feel it. And if I'm right... Oh, god, this is bad. Real bad. This can't go on like this. Someone should do something about it. Why am I the only one seeing this clearly?!

Okay. Breathe. I might be just jumping to conclusions. First things first, I have to make sure I'm not seeing things. Ugh, but if it all turns up true, the hitman kid might decide to off me when he sees me snooping around asking questions! M-maybe I should try talking to Sawada in private first to get a feel of what exactly's going on. Yeah, that might work. After school it is then!

At the end of the match, class 1-A won, much to the delight of Rin and the other members of Yamamoto's own Aobajousai-like fan club.

- xxx -

After school, Mikami hurriedly said her goodbyes with Rin and the Morisaka twins to go find Tsuna who had disappeared off to somewhere. She was looking for him around the grounds by the east side when a loud explosion and a barely noticeable tremor came from behind the school, followed by a high pitched "Hiiee!"

"That squirrel-like girlish yelp! Could it be... Sawada?"

Mikami felt it might turn out to be a grave mistake on her part, but she still made her way to the school backyard and halted to peek behind a corner. She seemed to be doing a lot of sneaking around today. In sight stood a whimpering Tsuna and the scowling transfer student, towering over him with a cigarette in his mouth and a number of cylindrical objects labeled "Dunamis" that had something reminiscent of fuses sticking out, making them look oddly similar to—

"D-dynamite?! Are you fucking kidding me?! The mysterious transfer student's a hitman too?!" Mikami freaked out silently, keeping her voice to a whisper.

"It's said that Gokudera Hayato can hide explosives in any part of his body. In other words, he's a human bomb," Reborn speculated from a safe distance, observing the two.

A h-human b-bomb?! Isn't that just like a kamikaze?! Is he supposed to be some kind of suicide terrorist?! Does that mean the mysterious transfer student came here to bomb the school?! Mikami felt bad about all those times she and her classmates were happy to evacuate the building in the middle of class because of some unnamed delinquent upperclassmen's fake bomb calls to avoid unwanted tests. ...wait! The kid hitman is there too! The moment she noticed him, Reborn turned towards the general direction of Mikami's hiding spot and touched the rim of his fedora in a form of a greeting, making her jump in surprise and hide her face further behind the corner. Oh, no! H-he spotted me! But oddly enough, he didn't call out her name to alert the others of her presence, making Mikami wonder what his game was.

"My other name is Hurricane Bomb Hayato," Gokudera added with dynamite sticks held between ring-decorated fingers. That was perhaps the first time Mikami heard him speak since the weird guy appeared. "Prepare yourself." And then the dynamite fuses blazed, somehow lit by his cigarette, and went flying towards a mortified Tsuna. Maybe Mikami wasn't the only one in shock there.

Why is he suddenly attacking Sawada?! Is he his target or something?! This is crazy!

Fortunately, Tsuna's legs acted fast and dashed for safety, wherever that was. Dynamite was flying everywhere and Sawada was having a hard time barely managing to avoid the explosions. "Someone save meee!"

Sorry, Sawada, it's not like I don't want to help you, I just value my life. ...but then WHAT AM I STILL STANDING AROUND HERE FOR?! Mikami banged her head softly and silently against the wall. I should leave while no one has taken me hostage yet... Or, gulp, killed me...

"Yo!" Just before she could attempt a quiet retreat, a grinning Yamamoto went past her, waving, and made his way towards Tsuna.

Mikami had no idea how she was supposed to react to that out-of-the-blue salute, gaping at the oblivious guy that was casually walking into a minefield. "I-idiot! Don't go there! It's dangerous!"

"This is the end..." Hayato stated grimly, getting another batch of dynamites lit and ready between his fingers.

"Hey~! Tsuna!" the beaming Takeshi called out.

"Ya-yamamoto?!" The boy gaped at him.

"What are you doing here?" Takeshi asked, though the same could go for him.

"Yamamoto! Get outta there, you numbskull!" Mikami moved on instinct, appearing from behind the corner to run breathlessly towards them, intent on getting the innocent away from harm. Namely, Takeshi.

"Ha-hatsukaichi-san?" Tsuna's eyes widened even more. That was the geeky otaku girl from class who liked to link everything to anime! How many more innocent people were carelessly going to put themselves in harm's way?!

"This is the end of you, Tenth." Hayato threw the bombs toward Tsuna and the others. "Disappear!"

Mikami, once again, had no time to react, to scream, to do something, anything! She just stood there along with Tsuna and Yamamoto, stupefied. Her breath hitched. She couldn't believe this was happening. After only a moment's notice they were about to become smoke and dust!

"Aaah! Gotta extinguish them!" Tsuna jumped onto the ground and grabbed a couple of fuses, but only managed to get first-degree burns. "I-it's not working!" he yelled in despair, pain prickling his fingers.

"The little hitman! Where is he?!" As she desperately tried kicking all the dynamite away from them, Mikami's light bulb went on and she looked around nervously for help. Surely, Reborn would aid Tsuna with one of those weird bullet buffs again, wouldn't he?

"How do you know about Reborn?!" Tsuna snapped his head wide-eyed at the girl the moment he heard her utter the word "hitman" as he feared the implications of her mentioning that. But he had no time to worry about it now.

"What kind of game are we playing?" Yamamoto was holding up a dynamite stick in his hand, looking at it like it wouldn't blow up any second. "It looks like fun! Let me in on it too!"

"No, not that!" Tsuna was going to cry. It couldn't get any worse than this.

"Yamamoto, put that down! It's gonna blow up in your face, stupid! It's dynamite!" Mikami shrieked, frantically trying to slap the sizzling explosive from Takeshi's firm baseball grip. "If your deceivingly angelic mug gets mangled, Kitamura-san's gonna strangle me for having the chance to save everybody's Prince Charming and not doing so!"

The boy just blinked stupidly, not understanding a word of the references in that statement other than "angelic" and "Prince Charming", giving him the impression that she was somehow badly complimenting him instead of being sarcastic, so he smiled and said out of courtesy, "Thanks. I think?"

"What the hell are you thanking me for?! Just drop that thing before it's too late, you moron!"

"Fight with your dying will!" a small voice said from not far away, before any of them could manage to make a run for it.

Immediately, a gunshot sounded and yet again, like during the fight with Mochida, Mikami saw a flash and how Tsuna tumbled to the ground with a bloody hole on his forehead. Now normally, anyone would be dead, but in this case, Tsuna rose to his feet, ripping his clothes apart in the process, leaving only a pair of star-printed blue boxers. He had that strange orange flame on his forehead again.

"Reborn! Extinguish the fuses with my dying will!" Sawada yelled and then effortlessly took the dynamite from Takeshi's hand, putting it out along with every single lit explosive tube at their feet. "Extinguish, extinguish, extinguish!"

That made the Hurricane bomb madder than ever. "Twice the bombs!" Just as Mikami was about to sigh in relief that the crisis was averted, Hayato threw twice the amount of dynamite sticks as before. Amazingly, Tsuna managed to extinguish the bombs in mid-air.

Are my eyes too slow or is he using shunpo like in Bleach? Mikami blinked in disbelief. Sawada looked like he was teleporting in mid-air, putting out fuses. No! He seemed to be in multiple places at the same time! He's moving so fast, he's leaving afterimages!

"Triple the bombs." Now you could barely see Hayato's hands from all that dynamite. Not to mention the factory number of cancer sticks in his mouth and the thick smoke they produced. "Crap...!" Unfortunately that huge mass of smoke clouded his vision, stinging his eyes, and he let one of the tubes slip out from between his fingers causing the whole bunch to topple by his feet, putting him in range of his own attack with no time to get away from it.

"This is the end of me," he said hoarsely, realizing he was the maker of his own demise.

Fortunately, Tsuna was on an "extinguishing high" and didn't plan to stop soon, not that he could control himself to do so. He moved on to the dynamite about Hayato's feet, much to the bomber's surprise, and accidentally saved his attacker from oblivion. After the final fuse was out and the dynamite sticks were completely disarmed, Tsuna's forehead flame also blew out and he reverted back to his former self. "Ah, thank goodness."

Suddenly, Hayato went on all fours in front of Tsuna in what looked like a very formal bow as he spoke with a completely different attitude, "I did not realize it!"

"Huh?" Both Tsuna and Mikami's mouths gaped at the sudden change.

"You're truly the only one fit to become the boss." Even his voice was higher and filled with praise.

"B-boss?! Sawada?! The boss?!" Mikami's eyes widened as she frantically looked back and forth from Tsuna to Hayato. "You can't mean—?! A mafia boss?! Is that was why he attacked you, Sawada?! He was trying to kill you! You were fighting for the top spot! This is bigger than I imagined!"

"What?! N-no! Hatsukaichi-san, it's not what it looks like!" Tsuna hurriedly tried to explain upon witnessing his classmate's alarmed state, as he realized that she was too close to the truth for comfort. What is my calm uneventful school life coming to?! The place where I can be around Kyoko-chan! Everything will be done for if Hatsukaichi-san gets the wrong idea and tells everyone in class about this! "Please, believe me, Hatsukaichi-san! I have no intention of becoming—"

"Tenth! I'll follow you until the end of this Earth! Ask whatever you want of me!" Admiration was evident on the bomber's face.

"Wha?" Tsuna was staring with almost the same surprised expression as Mikami. Gokudera pledging allegiance to him was not helping in the slightest.

"The one who loses becomes the winner's subordinate. That is the Family rule." Reborn stepped into the scene, now that the real danger had passed.

"Rule?"

"Actually, I never had the desire to become the tenth." Hayato straightened up and his expression softened. As she watched his entire demeanor change, Mikami noticed something in him she couldn't understand. It made her pre-pubescent heart flutter, if only for that mere second. "I just wanted to see if the tenth really had the strength to become a suitable boss."

"Gokudera-kun..." Also a bit touched by Hayato's uncharacteristic humility, Tsuna didn't seem to be that mad at him anymore.

"But you proved me wrong! You are much more than I'd ever expected!" Now that look of admiration from before turned into full-out puppy to master hero-worship. It looked ridiculous, coming from the guy who normally had a permanent scowl on his face.

Talk about bi-polar. Mikami almost laughed inwardly, a grin threatening to spread across her face, which she had to hide with the back of her hand – a nice change from the horrifyingly worried expression she couldn't get rid of all this time.

"You even risked your life to save me, even though I was your enemy! As Gokudera Hayato, I will give you my life!"

What? Seriously? They practically just met today for the first time! And he says that right after he tried to kill him! That's going a bit too fast even for a boss and subordinate relationship. Still... If this dangerous brute really values things such as duty, loyalty and self-sacrifice as highly as he seems to, then maybe I've been too quick to judge, Mikami thought, smiling behind the back of her hand.

"Wait! That's too troublesome!" Tsuna said worriedly and waved his hands in defense. "Can't we just be regular classmates?"

"I can't allow that." The intimidating scowl came back again, it's seriousness making Tsuna feel reluctant to talk back.

Nope, he's the same brute I thought he was, Mikami immediately bit back her previous thoughts.

"Good job, Tsuna." Reborn said next to the boy in the blue boxers patterned with stars.

"What...?"

"Thanks to your strength, you managed to get Gokudera to become your subordinate. You passed for today." Reborn took out a small note book to write something down as if he was marking a grade for a student and Tsuna couldn't help but smile at the praise from his tutor. "And you didn't really seem to need the Dying Will Bullet to achieve it."

"Ahahaha! Tsuna, you're actually a pretty interesting guy to be around!" Takeshi threw an arm around Tsuna's neck, making a certain gray-headed subordinate irritated and Mikami sweatdrop with an awkward smile. "Let me join in as well."

"What?"

"You're the boss right?" Takeshi asked, as Mikami froze up.

Oh, right! These people are trouble! I should get out of here! And Yamamoto... He doesn't know anything! I should stop him from getting himself into anything dangerous or Kitamura-san might hang me. "Yamamoto, I'm pretty sure you don't want that—"

"Hey you!" Hayato cut Mikami short and stood up, seething through his teeth angrily at Takeshi. "Don't go acting all friendly with the tenth!"

"Is that what got you so worked up that you felt the need to interrupt me, you jealous guyfriend?!" Too busy glowering at Takeshi, Hayato didn't even pay attention to Mikami's jabbering.

No one has the time to hear what I have to say even when it concerns their well-being! She hung her head over being ignored by the two.

"Huh, what's up with him?"

"That underwear guy is such a loser!"

"Ahahaha!"

Some mean-looking seniors called out to someone in their group.

"Oblivious idiots... You don't know what you're getting yourself into." Mikami sighed, palming her face. Yes, no one ever listened to her and it would become their undoing, she was sure of it.

"T-the third year delinquents...!" Tsuna panicked in a high-pitched tone.

"Looks like it's time to make myself useful." Hayato could probably make a hellhound run for his life in fright with the murderous glare he was giving them.

"W-w-wha...?" Tsuna and Mikami stuttered in confused unison. They and could only stare as Hayato pulled out his bombs and took slow grim steps towards the delinquents' doom.

"I'll totally annihilate them." It was funny how casually he said that, no one dared to laugh though.

"Do you have to?!" Mikami grumbled, face-palming.

"Wait! Y-you don't need to!" Tsuna stammered out but it was no use.

The only fortunate thing that happened during all that ruckus was that Mikami decided to leave Takeshi to his own devices and managed to escape by herself, unnoticed by anyone with the exception of Reborn of course. He gave her a smirk and the same fedora-tip greeting, as if he knew what she was up to. Strange, why he let her go, even when she planned to try and tell Rin and the twins everything. It was weird, dangerous and... plain insane! Oh, who was she kidding... Insane didn't even cover it. Mikami had the feeling that her boring old halcyon otaku life was over now with these new characters in town.

Farewell, halcyon days...

- Omake -

Takeshi: Hey, Tsuna, where did that girl go? She was just here a second ago.

Tsuna: Girl...? *thinking* *realizing* Hiiee! That's right! Hatsukaichi-san! She saw everything! She knows too much!

Hayato: That cowardly-looking annoyance you mean? Don't worry, Tenth! *sinister smile* I'll take care of her, whoever that was. *takes out dynamite*

Tsuna: G-gokudera-kun! No! Don't do that! I just need to find her and set things straight. She's definitely freaking out by now. And she might tell someone! Rumors are going to spread, I won't be able to go to school and I won't have an excuse to see Kyouko-chan anymore! My life will be ruined!

Reborn: Don't sweat it, Tsuna. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about.

Tsuna: How can you say that?! Wait... don't tell me you're planning something again! Is it something dangerous?! You're not going to harm her, are you?!

Reborn: *smirk* Who knows...

Tsuna: Reborn!

Takeshi: Ahahaha! You sure are funny, kid!

Tsuna: Ya-yamamoto... *sweatdrop* It's not funny... He's most probably not joking at all, not even a little...

Takeshi: So... who was she anyway?

Tsuna: Uh, Yamamoto... she's in our class, remember? *sweatdrop*

Takeshi: Really? Another transfer student?

Tsuna and Hayato: *stare*

Hayato: You seriously can't be that much of a dumbfuck...

- A/N -

Hope you liked it~ Review please, all comments are appreciated. ^^

Also, this is an OC falls for Gokudera one-sided love story, but only in the beginning. I'm thinking of agonizing my little Mikami by taking it as slow as possible right until the end. That doesn't mean that there won't be any frustratingly embarassing moments along the way, so look forward to an abundance of that. :D