Hey mina-san, this is Kumiko. I have made a few changes to this chapter (really minor stuffs, generally wording of phrases). I can't really guarantee the quality of the chapters without this note. But anyways, please enjoy!

—Postmark: April 30th, 2013


The New Introduction

"Hey Vongola," The young man in the hood whispered, pointing a gun at the Vongola Guardians. "Do you want to be our ally or not, I am getting terribly angitated."

There was an awkward silence. The young man seemed to become impatient after a mere five seconds. Firing a bullet inyo the ground, he awoke the shocked guardians.

"Uh..." Yamamoto was a little nervous. Looking at the guards who were lying motionless on the ground with non visible physical injuries, his body shivered a little. Slash through the nerves point blank, oh my freaking god. He thought. Even stronger than...stronger than...than Tsuna! "Uh huh...Who are you, Mr. Hooded-Guy?"

The young man was definitely 'amused' by the name Yamamoto just gave him. Sighing, he put down his gun. Without taking off his hood, he said in a somewhat nostalgic but strangely emotionless voice. "Zero Salvo."

"Boss of the Salvo Assassination Committee." Reborn stated with a raised eyebrow.

"No, the boss of the family is not me." Zero Salvo said as he walked towards the guardians in a slow tempo. "I am just...just a normal family member with no honour."

"But how can a 'normal family member with no honour' be on the list of the top ten people whom Vongola wants to invite? And how can such a young man be the best assassin for one whole year inside the Salvo family which live on assassination projects?" Reborn said with an interesting smile. But inside his heart, he took notice of something he just said. One year? Exactly one year? Wasn't that when the incident happened?

"You got something wrong, the Sun Arcobaleno." Zero interrupted. "First of all, I have been the Salvo's top assassin for more than three years, your information is definitely wrong; Secondly, I actually do not have any honour, at least not any after I have lost all my hope." After finishing that sentence, a mysterious coldness flashed through his face. But thanks to the hood, nobody saw it.

"Huh? No honour at all?" That question poped out in every guardians' mind. At the same time, they were shocked by the young man's experience at the Salvo family. How old could he be three or four years ago? At most sixteen or seventeen! And he's been an assassin since then?

Zero did not reply. He continued to walk towards the guardians. When he was in front of Reborn, he stopped. Hibari's eyebrows raised unonicebaly. He felt a sense of familiarity beneath the cloak. Not a familiarity of voice, but a familiarity of coldness. He had experience this kind of emotionless attitude before, but when? When!

"The sun Arcobaleno: Reborn." Zero said formally, but his voice remained monotonous, as if he didn't have any emotions inside him. "I, Zero V. Salvo, hereby passes on the request of the boss of the Salvo Assassination Committee -Francesco M. L. Salvo - to be ally with the Mafia Vongola Family of Palermo. Reborn, as the current leader of the Vongola Family, do you choose to accept this request?"

"How do you know I am the leader of the Vongola Family right now?" Reborn suddenly said with suspicion. After that incident, the guardians' found Tsuna's will inside a small box inside his office. It said something about letting Reborn take control of Vongola before the eleventh was chosen. But this was not told to anyone other than the seven guardians, Reborn, and Sawada Iemitsu. How can Zero Salvo, somebody who they just met, knows about that?

"That is out of your range of knowledge." Zero said coldly.

"Okay, then. I will turn down the request of your boss, Zero Salvo." Reborn said with a tricking smile. "Until you tell me how did you get that information!" His tone turned dangerousat the end.

"If that's your answer." Zero bowed slightly. Then he turned walked briskly out of their sight. He was no where to be seen within 2 seconds. Non of the guardians felt any movement of flames. But none of them noticed that Hibari Kyouya's body went numb while his eyes were filled with surprise and fear. "Then I will return to my family base without causing any further interruption to your 'extremely important meeting'." Zero's sarcastic voice reached them from the distance.

"And how did you learn about that?" This time, Rokudo Mukuro asked. There was no anger evident in his voice, only a tone showing his interest towards this cold young man called Zero Salvo.

A shadow appeared at the outside gate, 300m way from the guardians "That is out of your range of knowledge." The same answer. Before the sentence could end and Zero could disappear outside this place, he felt something behind his head.

"Join us, Zero V. Salvo." A emotionless voice that can compete with Zero's. "Join our family."

"What?" Zero said slowly as he turned his head towards the person who was holding a revolver against his head. "What if I choose not to?"

"Then I will blow open your head." Hibari replied with his signature excitement.

Shaking his head slowly, Zero sighed. "Do I have a choice?"

"No." A very cool answer to this very cool question.

"Well, I think I do." Without an extra movement, Zero turned his back at a speed no human can see clearly and slashed Hibari's neck before anyone could even react. When he was hit, Hibari's eyes grew wide open. But it was shut the next second, when his body went numb and all his nerves were forced to shut down. His body collapsed, and Zero caught him right on the spot.

"Sleep for a while, Vongola Decimo's Cloud Guardian-dono." Zero muttered beside Hibari's ear.

"Hey, you!" Gokudera was clearly surprised at Zero's sudden actions. "Hibari was just asking you a question in his own way! How can you just slash on his neck like that, you could have killed him!" He protested loudly. Sasagawa nodded in agreement,

"But I did not," Zero said calmly as he placed Hibari's body gently on to the ground. "I just made him sleep for a while, a very simple task."

"Heading straight for those nerve, right?" Reborn suddenly said. "Not the thin veins on the neck. You didn't mean to attack him, did you, Zero?"

"Of course not." Zero walked towards the door in a slowly tempo. "He wasn't going to kill me, but I am not sure about the choice of hurting me. So that was the best solution."

Coughing slightly, Zero added one more sentence before leaving the room at last. "So Vongola's Leader, you turned down our request to be your ally. Is that your final decision, because I am leaving right now. Once my right feet steps out of this room, there's no coming back."

"Ah, to be the Salvo's ally..." Reborn thought about it for a moment. He for sure wanted to be the Salvo's ally, but he still hoped to fish more information out of Zero V. Salvo. Yet that seemed impossible at the moments. Looking back at Zero's stern face, Reborn sighed. If he ask one more question, he might totally screw up his only chance to befriend the greatest assassination organization on Earth. "Alright then, I agree."

No trace of emotion went across Zero's face. But that didn't matter at all since nobody could see even his face. "Great. So Sun Arcobaleno Reborn, my boss Francesco will come to the Vongola Japan Headquarters for the signing of documents at noon. Will that work for you?"

Without thinking, all of the guardians replied in unison: "NO!"

"Why?" Even Zero's questioning voice had no sentiment.

"That is out of your range of knowledge." Yamamoto mocked Zero with a tricking smile. For some reason, he enjoyed teasing this unfeeling assassin. The fun felt nostalgic.

"Ah, I see." Zero said in an interesting tone after five seconds of silence, but still quite cold and definitely emotionless. "Going to see somebody you guys regretted killing? Fine, good idea. You guys should regret it."

"How did you know that?" Rokudo Mukuro suddenly freaked out It appeared as if this man was dragging out all those secrets they tried so hard to bury deep their hearts, those secrets that they were dead afraid to share.

"Mind reading, huh?" Reborn said with a short bitter laugh. "And it's some really good mind reading. If there's a standard exam on it, I bet you can score 100%." But deep down, Reborn was curious. There's only four people on Earth who can master mind reading during this era of time, no, only three now, one of them was already killed. How come there's another one, just jumping out like that? "Who taught you that?"

"That's out of your area of knowledge." Zero ignored Reborn as he headed out of the room one more time. "I will come at noon tomorrow and visit Vongola Decimo's grave with you guys since he had been my idol since I was young. Francesco, my boss and brother, will come three hours later. No more discussions. Bye." Abruptly, Zero disappeared.

"He was trying to end the conversation as soon as possible." Yamamoto observed. "But he's pretty bad at it, that Zero. Little baby," Then he turned towards the pondering Reborn, "Can you read his mind?"

"No, I can't." Reborn said with a grin. "He sealed his brain away from the outside world. He has some secrets to bury, too."

While the guardians headed back into the meeting room (huh, ignoring Kyouya-san's passed out body?), Sasagawa turned and looked at the place where Zero disappeared. "I wonder what's the face under that hood like..." He murmured to himself.


Hibari flushed his eyelids, he didn't know what happened after he was hit on the neck. He could feel that he was inside the Vongola Hospitalization Room right now. This base was designed by 'that person' three years earlier. It was also underground, but the whole layout was completely different from the one they lived in from the future battle. It was so familiar that it brought a sour feeling towards his eyes. But he's Hibari after all, Hibari Kyouya never cries.

Shaking his own head, Hibari tried to remember how he ended up here. There was a guy called Zero Salvo, he brought a request, then he, Hibari, saw something, what was it again? It was something extremely important, something important enough to make Hibari act out of his disciplines and approach a complete stranger like that. What was it?

And he remembered. His eyes widened in surprise, making him nearly fall off his bed.

Cursing himself, Hibari muttered under his breath.

"Those eyes...Zero V. Salvo's eyes..."

"They are the same as Sawada Tsunayoshi's!"


The next day approached quickly. After a short argument with others about what to bring with him during the visit to...to...to that place, Gokudera headed outside his room in the Vongola Base. While he locked his door, he took notice of the shut door next to his room. The name card on the door was so filled with dusts Gokudera failed to make out the letters. Tilting his head slightly, he tried to remember which person owned this room. But since he hadn't been in this base for two years, he couldn't remember a trace. Out of curiosity, he headed for the door.

Putting his bag of things onto the ground, Gokudera tried to turn the orange handle of the door, but it was impossible. Knocking on the door slightly, he expected somebody to answer, but nobody did. Finally, whispering a word of sorry, he kicked open the door with great force, totally ignoring the name card that he forgot to look at. There was something important inside, that was the only thing inside his head, and it is calling me.

The door quickly swung open. Picking up his bag, Gokudera Hayato stepped inside. As dusts cleared, he focused his gaze to observe the surroundings. Then his body froze on the spot.

It was a perfect replica of the Vongola Decimo's office in Palermo's Vongola Headquarters.

The same wooden table, the same plain bed, the same cupboard, and the same window, except the scenery outside was constructed of LED screens. Couldn't help himself, Gokudera quickly ran to the table and picked up the first piece of paper that his finger touched. Blowing off the dusts gently, he recognized the familiar handwriting which belongs to him, him, his Jyuudaime...

His finger went through the lines. The file was in French, it looked like a letter. Gokudera couldn't read French perfectly, but he could make out a few words. His eyebrows raised as he finished the letter chunk by chunk, muttering out the words.

"Je suis désolé...mais c'est inévitable...une guerre après quinze jours...bien...je vous remercie..."

Looking at the date, Gokudera's body went numb. It was exactly two weeks before the incident, the incident that ended the letter writer's life.

Looking back at the letter again, Gokudera noticed something expecially important.

"Jyuudaime knew there was going to be a battle?" He exclaimed under his breathe. "I thought it was a surprise attack! That was why...why we did that to Jyuudaime..."

"Why in the world didn't Jyuudaime tell us!"

You were alive, do something!