Unfortunately, I don't own anyone or anything from KHR. They all belong to Amano Akira. However, I do own whatever original characters and crazy theories that I'll fabricate.

Children Can Be Cruel

Bullet 1

Full Summary: It's scientifically proven that children without proper guidance during childhood tend to develop few to many problems. Mari only began to grasp the depths her problems when she suddenly awoke in a town of her favorite fictional universe. From Namimori, her journey begins as she eventually discovers that the Mafia is not all sunshine and daisies as the Reborn! universe painted it to be.

Warnings: Will contain dimension hopping, hints of violence, Gokudera's potty mouth, and uncooperative hospitals.

Andersen Residence

Mari's Room

Mari was in the middle of coloring a commission for a client when a sudden wave was nausea hit her like a bullet train. Queasy, she pursed her lips and rubbed soothing circles on her stomach in attempts to quell the unease. A small groan escaped her lips when the heaving sensation grew in her abdominal region.

"Are you feeling unwell again?" Someone asked her, their voice laced with apprehension. Mari grunted as she continued her ministrations. She didn't even have to turn around to know that the intruder was Angelina. In their household, only Angelina would rudely invade another's privacy so shamelessly. "You really should get it checked out," Angelina said.

"I did," Mari replied tersely. "The useless old geezer just prescribed me a bottle of painkillers and politely told me to get my ass out of his office."

Angelina merely chuckled and made her way towards the grumbling girl. Stopping behind the smaller girl, she looped her long slender arms around Mari's thin shoulders and leaned down slightly, careful not to set too much pressure on the worn girl. Her wavy, golden locks tumbled past her shoulders as she gently embraced Mari. "You should just go and rest, Mari. It's not like you need to work. Ma and Pa can get you anything you want. We've got the money."

A scowled tugged at Mari's thin lips as she shrugged Angelina off her. "Like I don't know that," she retorted, annoyed. "I don't want to rely on you guys. I can provide for myself."

"Ma and Pa would be sad to hear that."

"Yeah, I know," Mari replied, sounding unconcerned. Turning back to the blonde standing behind her, she said, "Can you leave now? I don't want to talk to you anymore."

"Sure," Angelina said, unaffected by her blatant disregard. In the four years that they've known each other, Mari never bothered to mask her aversion towards the older girl. Constantly, she'd bluntly voice her feelings and ask to be left alone, but Angelina always insisted on sticking to her no matter what. "But I'll come back later to check on you."

"You're disgusting. Don't come to stare at me while I sleep, you creep." Mari grimaced, but Angelina showed no signs of acknowledgement. By the time Angelina left the room, Mari looked positively green with nausea. Groaning in discomfort, she weakly pushed herself off her chair and stumbling to her bed with the grace of a drunken man. Gingerly, she settled in the bed, fearing that any sudden movements would cause her to expel gallons of vomit at the speed of light. As improbable as that notion sounded, it was exactly how she felt.

"I just want to stab this nauseous feeling," Mari moaned painfully as she curled into herself. This really was not the time to be feeling sick, she thought to herself miserably. Her promised deadline was quickly approaching and it'll stain her spotless record of promptness if there was even a single delay. Everything must be perfect, or she might as well not bother doing it at all.

Eventually, after her energy was completely spent, slumber came and drifted her miserable self into a dreamless sleep.

Namimori

XXX Street

For the first time in weeks, Sawada Tsunayoshi felt contentment bubbling in his chest from the peace and tranquility of his life for the past few days. Ever since the Reborn came into his life, trouble just tumbled after the pint-sized toddler and crashed headfirst into the unsuspecting Tsuna. Just when he thought that it was bad enough to be forced to become the boss of the Vongola family, the entire incident with Mukuro occurred, bringing him many sleepless nights and back-breaking pain.

After Mukuro and his subordinates were dragged bodily away by the mysterious people of Vendicare, some semblance of normality returned to Tsuna's life along with the itching sensation of sympathy for his enemies' demise. A slight frown marred his youthful face as he wondered about Mukuro. Despite the pain and injuries that he and his friends received, Tsuna still couldn't help but to feel sorry for him after witness him being dragged away in chains.

Chains, he thought, gnawing at his lower lip. The method the Vendicare use to escort their prisoners was simply horrid. Even the police merely handcuffed the felons and cart them off in a very humane manner.

Suddenly, a shiver crawled down the length of his spine, drawing a violent shudder from the scrawny boy. Snapping out of his daze, Tsuna nervously screened his surrounds with his wide brown eyes, attempting to pinpoint the source of his unease. Other than his friends happily chattering around him, there was a mother with her young son walking up the path.

It can't be them, Tsuna told himself as he eyed the joyous smiles on their faces, because happy people can't be bad people. His eyes darted across the street to an empty sidewalk. Confounded, he glanced around, but found nothing that could have been the source of his discomfort.

A sudden cry from Lambo surprised him and he immediately rushed to the toddler. "What's wrong, Lambo?" he asked, instinctively scanning the careless child for any signs of injuries. "Did you hurt yourself again?"

Lambo upturned his nose at him in response. "Ha! Lambo-san is invincible. Nothing can hurt me!" he insisted and tackled Tsuna's legs to emphasize his so called strength.

"Alright, alright," Tsuna sighed, slightly annoyed. "So, what's the problem?"

Lambo hummed as he stared up at the teen thoughtfully, as if pondering on whether to disclose information to him or not (which was ridiculous, Tsuna thought, because what can a kid know?). The child pointed a finger at the dimly light alley to their side, gazing into the shadows as if they held a great important secret. "You know, Dame-Tsuna," Lambo began, voice hushed. "There a ghost in there!"

Tsuna blanched. "Don't be ridiculous, Lambo!" he exclaimed with a hint of nervousness. "T-there are no such things as ghost." He attempted to appear fearless, but his stuttering betrayed his anxiety. Tsuna looked at Gokudera for assurance. "Isn't that right, Gokudera-kun?"

The Italian jumped to support his beloved leader and nodded furiously. "Of course, Tenth!" he insisted vehemently. Glaring at Lambo, he said, "Stop dreaming in board daylight with your eyes open, you little snot." Lambo scowled at their responses and stomped his little feet indignantly. Yamamoto gave his typical carefree laugh and attempted to soothe the tension, but they paid him no heed.

"There really is a ghost there! There is!" the little afro-sporting child insisted with tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. With a small distressed cry, he pointed into the alley again. "See, there's a pair of legs over there. It's the ghost's!" They followed the direction of his outstretched arm, squinting dubiously, but at the sight of a pair of thin, pale, and battered leg, their eyes widen in astonishment. Tsuna gave a small shriek of fear.

"A d-dead body!" he cried with an ashen expression.

Lambo shook his head with a small exasperated sigh. Condescendingly, he smirked, "I told you, stupid Tsuna. There's a ghost in there!"

Tsuna freaked as Gokudera and Yamamoto stared blankly at the visible limbs. "Oh god, what should we do? We found a dead body!" He tugged at his brown locks in distress. "T-that's right, the p-police! Someone call the police."

"Calm down, Tsuna," Yamamoto, who recovered from the initial shock said kindly. "It's probably just a drunk who passed out in the alley. It happens sometimes. Murders don't usually occur in this part of Namimori."

Gokudera voiced a grudging agreement with a constipated expression, as if agreeing with the baseball player greatly pained him. "He's right, Tenth. That bastard Hibari wouldn't let crimes like murder occur in his precious Namimori."

"T-that's true…" Tsuna stammered, calming visibly, but his face remained placid. "There's no way Hibari-san would let a dead body litter the streets of Namimori, right?" He croaked a forced chuckled. "T-that's definitely it…!"

Lambo fiercely protested their conclusion. "No," he screamed, beating Tsuna's legs with tiny fists. "It's a ghost for sure. I'll prove it." Annoyed, Gokudera aimed a light kick at the child, but the sniffling toddler nimbly slipped away and made a beeline for the dark alley. Realizing his intentions, Tsuna started after him, attempting to stop the unruly boy, but Lambo dodged out of the way with surprising dexterity. They continued their short mock game of tag until Tsuna stumbled to an abrupt halt, nearly stepping on one of the bruised limbs in his haste.

Lambo toddled to the unmoving figure's side curiously. "Oh," he lightly remarked, slightly taken back. "It's a girl ghost."

"It's a girl…" Yamamoto faintly echoed, right behind Tsuna with Gokudera at his side. "It wasn't an old drunk like we thought." His hazel eyes darkened grimly as they trailed over the unconscious girl's tattered form. "But…this is quite terrible," he said, gesturing at the bruises and scratches that marred every inch of visible skin.

"Shit," Gokudera swore with a grimace. "What bastard would do something like this to a kid?" Tsuna nodded mutely in agreement. The girl appeared to be their age, but younger, with hints baby fat lining her cheeks and a small, demure form. Eying the matted silvery strands fanning out around her head, Tsuna could easily see why Lambo had thought of her as a ghost. Coupling her hair with her dirty white dress that was fraying at the hem, the girl truly did resemble the traditional description of apparitions.

"She's got an awful lot of booboos," Lambo said thoughtfully. "Hey, stupid Tsuna, do you think she got in a fight with another ghost?"

"Maybe," Tsuna replied, indulging the child's naivety. Flipping open his phone, he dialed the hospital to alert them of their newest patient.

Sawada Residence

Living Room

"What do you mean you can't keep her?"

"We apologize, Sawada-san," the nurse from Namimori Hospital droned, not sounding as sorry as she claimed to be. "But it's our policy to keep patients without citizenship for only three days."

"But she's hurt and I have no idea where she's from!" Tsuna exclaimed in frustration. He was tempted to kick the wall in his fury, but decided against it when he remembered how he fractured his foot the last time he gave into his emotions. "Aren't you doctors? Why won't you keep healing her?"

"Sawada-san, we can't keep her without any sort of information about her," the nurse insisted, voice laced with annoyance. "Please come to Namimori hospital by the end of today to retrieve her. Thank you for your time. Please have a nice day."

"No, wait, hold on!" Tsuna cried, but the dial tone was the only response that reached his ear. He ripped the phone away from his ear and gaped at it, stunned.

Namimori Hospital

Room 405

"So, I'm being kicked out?"

The nurse, a young woman with kind eyes and mousy brown hair flinched and replied in heavily accented English, "No, Miss Mari. The doctor thinks that you are fine now. He thinks it'll be okay to send you home."

Mari merely stared at the flustered woman blankly, trying to wrap her mind around her words. "Oh," she murmured after a moment. "Okay."

"Er, yes," the nurse stammered, her confidence in her linguistic skills faltering. "Mister Sawada Tsunayoshi will be here soon," she told Mari as she hurried out room, wanting to be as far away from the unnervingly apathetic girl as possible.

Mari stared after her retreating form. "Sawada Tsunayoshi?" she murmured to herself, bemused. "Like the boy from the manga? What a funny name for a person in my dream to have. I think I've been reading too much manga lately." With a heavy sigh, Mari leaned back in her seat and braced her head against the wall, waiting for the unknown person to retrieve her.

She didn't wait long. In a matter of seconds, the sound of someone fumbling with the door knob alerted her, and she tensed, eyes narrowing. A nervous brunette poked his head into the room as his tawny eyes silently roamed around until they landed on her. With a slight awkward smile, he fully entered the room and fidgeted anxious.

"H-hello, Marianne-san," he greeted her in Japanese, pronouncing her name as 'Ma-ri-en' instead of 'Ma-ry-ann' like it should be. She frowned at the butchering of her name and remained silent. His smile wavered at her unresponsiveness. "Um," he cleared his throat and opened the door. "Are you ready to leave yet?"

Mari stared at him, trying to decipher the meaning of his words. "Yeah," she replied in English after a moment of muteness. "Yes, I am." He stared at her, confounded, and then squinted in concentration, trying to decipher her words. Mari sighed heavily as she slowly stood and stiffly made her way to him, body aching with every step. Brushing past him and stopping just outside the room, she turned and inquired, "Coming?"

He blinked. "Um, yes, Marianne-san," he replied in English, his accent even more atrocious than the mousy-haired nurse from before. She allowed him to take lead, rolling her eyes at him as he did so, and slowly followed with leisure steps. They walked in suffocating quietness with him shuffling nervously and her scowling irritably. It wasn't until they've ambled quite a distance, until the hospital faded from view that he decided to make small talk.

"M-my name is Sawada Tsunayoshi," he introduced himself with shaky English. He offered her another awkward smile which died at her unimpressed expression. Pink crept from his neck, dusting his cheeks, and travelled up to the tips of ears as he shrunk back, curling slightly into himself in embarrassment.

She scoffed at him with a small snort. Lips curling into a smirk, she replied, "I know." Surprisingly, he understood her with what feeble linguistic skills he has, and appeared quite taken back. Unsure of how to reply, he opted to shoot her another wobbly smile and continued to lead the way. He didn't try to start another conversation after that, or even look her way, so Mari began to discreetly observe him. At first glance, the boy vaguely resembled the Sawada Tsunayoshi of the manga, but up close, she realized, he was exactly what the character from the manga would look like in real life.

"Huh," she said dazedly, shocked at her newfound insight. 'Tsuna' gazed her curiously, but immediately looked away when she stared back uninterestedly. 'What an absurd dream to be having,' she mused to herself. She peered at him again, bemused by her discovery. His hair was still every bit gravity-defying and his eyes impossibly wide, nearly half of his face's width. His eyelids were highly defined, his brows in thin arches, and his brow bone was unrealistically high for an Asian. Overall, he was the epitome anime character with his improbable facial structure. "Huh," she murmured again.

"Marianne-san," Tsuna said, snapping her out of her thoughts. She abruptly halted and backtracked a few steps to not crash into him. He didn't seem to notice her blunder, and made a slight gesture at the house they stood before. Mari tilted her head at it inquisitively, squinting faintly as recognition flickered in her eyes. "Here is my home." He told her as he scratched his cheek with a bashful smile. He made a beeline for the door before turning at gazing at her imploringly. She took it as a sign to follow him and complied.

He led her to the kitchen where a woman bustled about, humming joyously as she cooked. Mari sniffed appreciatively at the aroma of food and glanced around interestedly. "Mom," Tsuna addressed the woman in Japanese. "I've brought her home."

The woman, Sawada Nana turned to look at them. As she made eye contact with Mari, she beamed and kindly said, "Welcome, Marianne-san! Tsu-kun told me of your predicament. You're free to stay with us for as long as you like."

Mari blinked in surprise when she understood her (Huh, I understand Japanese, she thought) words. She returned a small smile and said, in slightly accented Japanese, "Thank you, Sawada-san. I'm very grateful for your help." Nana smiled at her words before returning to her cooking, leaving Tsuna to gape at her in disbelief.

"You understand Japanese?" Tsuna squeaked in surprise. "B-but, I thought-!"

Her lips tugged into an amused smirk. "It's a recent development," she told him, further mystifying the brunette. 'Since this is dream,' she thought as she watched Tsuna splutter incoherently. 'I might as well enjoy it a bit, no matter how odd it is.'

-end-

To clear things up, this is the remake of 'Trapped In This World' that I wrote a while ago. I was completely unsatisfied with my immature and plot-less writing, so I decided to rewrite the entire thing. This here is a short starter to the remake. Unlike before, I have almost everything planned out and ready to be written and published. I hope everyone who followed TITW will enjoy this remake.

Reviews are loved and critics are welcomed.