Summary:

Fran's not blind, and Fran's not deaf; she can tell she's only a replacement. Yuni was the trusting, benevolent "Aria's daughter". Fran was the suspicious, bitter "spitting image of that-guy-who-married-Aria". She's even born with the "wrong" Flame; a strong primary Mist and a weak secondary Sky. But now that Yuni's vanished, Fran's the (grudging) Giglio Nero Boss. Byakuran's intrigued by a Fran who differs so drastically from her parallel selves. Meanwhile, Yuni being gone has a greater significance than any of them realize.

Disclaimer:

KHR! rights go to Akira Amano.

The cover picture may or may not be mine, depending on which one I'm using. I tend to switch frequently. In case it isn't mine, then this is a general disclaimer for that. So, yeah. Don't sue me, please.

Note:

/insert words here/ are thoughts.

Assume that they are speaking Italian unless otherwise stated or implied. Fran is canon-ly French, so her father here is French, and she is fluent in it. When stressed and cursing, whether out loud or mentally, she has a tendency to slip and slide back into French. So, congratulation, you will probably be picking up an assortment of French profanity.

Reviews:

Thank you to 'SilverWhiteDragon' for reviewing. To be honest, that wasn't really what I was thinking when putting Fem!Fran as Aria's daughter. It would make a lot of sense, though. :] The reason I wrote this entire thing, actually, was because I was inspired with a plot bunny that just grew and grew after seeing the picture of Fran in Yuni's outfit. And no, I was actually angling for 10026 or 100666 (ByakuranxFran), because that's a really rare (cracky) pairing, and it just seem to fit here, y'know? Like, Fran's all monotone and morally gray because she can't comprehend 'good' and 'bad' and struggles with 'feelings', and Byakuran can comprehend all those, he just disregards them in pursuit of his goals. Plus, she emotes very little, and thus doesn't give Byakuran the reactions he prods for, which keeps him interested, since he's the kind of person who likes to know exactly how to manipulate someone to get a certain response. He doesn't know much about parallel Frans, though, and this Fran is entirely new to him, so there's that factor as well.

~The woods behind and around the Giglio Nero Headquarters play host to several varieties of plantlife. Picnics are popular pastimes in the summer, when many of the flowers are in bloom, and the shade from the trees can be enjoyed optimally. Of course, some stubborn members insist strictly on only sparring in the forests, since they've apparently never heard of the concept of 'fun'. Those people don't get invited to many picnics.

Betony is a brightly colored plant, with blooms that are reminiscent of flared sleeves dyed pink-purple. The French often call betony by the name of 'betoine', and it attracts many bees, butterflies, and birds.

It can be analyzed to mean surprise.~

"All I want is ultimate power. Is that too much to ask for?" - Byakuran

/This Fran is certainly different,/ Byakuran thinks with a privately amused smile.

The person in question looks even more frigidly polite at the sight of the smile, if such a thing is possible.

"Lovely to finally meet you, Fran-chan~," he greets her, taking a seat, and with a lazy wave of his hand, inviting her to do the same.

The Giglio Nero Decima drops unceremoniously into the seat opposite of him.

She scans his office briefly, perfunctorily, before returning her cool gaze onto Byakuran.

(And hell if that doesn't scramble his plans.

He was expecting Yuni, not Fran, and thus has no tailored strategy for negotiations.

{Well, okay, for attack, since it's not like he's really fooling anyone here.}

To salvage what can be salvaged, and revise what can't, will take a fair bit of parallel-viewing, and that always taxes his Flame reserves and tires him out.

Mentally tired out, of course, although he often feels a tad uncomfortable in his own body for a few hours later on.

The detached sensation usually fades soon after, as he refamiliarizes himself with 'his' world, and becomes reoriented.

However, he reflects grimly, it's entirely possible that he can parallel-view dozens of parallels, for dozens of months, and never find one of his parallels that knew how to handle the possible Varia Illusionist.

Parallel-viewing is an unrefined craft; slightly more controlled than Clairvoyance, maybe, but vastly more hit-and-miss, with several variables and drawbacks.

Clairvoyance, at least, can roughly determine the distance of the parallel world viewed, depending on whose Clairvoyance it is, and what it can do.

Fran's Clairvoyance automatically seeks out the closer parallel worlds, so as to maximize the similarities and likelihood of accurate predictions.

For parallel-viewing, it's possible to 'call' to a parallel of the viewer who they've contacted before, but they might not 'pick up', or the 'call' might not 'connect', and the distance of a new parallel world sighted is not immediately determinable.

What might be true in one world, might not stay the same for another.

Like comparing a fishing trawler that targets a specific area, looking for generalities, to a fishing line wildly flailing about, hoping to catch a certain fish by chance.

Hit-and-miss indeed.)

Her eyes focus with an unidentifiable intensity; some of the disinterested haze lift from them.

"Please refrain from addressing me so informally, Gesso; it is unbefitting of a Boss to address another Boss like that upon first meeting," she replies curtly.

And maybe she's speaking a lot more uptight, with much more verbosity than strictly needed, but hey, she's wound-up and tense and rightly expecting a face-off of sorts and when she's nervous she falls back onto automatic reflexes while rambling furiously on the inside.

So sue her, okay?

(Internally, Fran's thoughts are more along the lines of: "Besides, we're in Italy, speaking Italian, and I'm fairly sure we're both at least partly Italian. Why the enfer [hell] would you use distinctly Japanese honorifics?")

(If one was to inquire as to how she knows they're Japanese honorifics, the answer would not be "because of her linguistic proficiency".

Although Fran's a quick study [helped in part by the mental order established from diligent meditation and mindscape discipline], and will prove to be somewhat of an expert in various languages in the future ['manifest Varia-Quality destiny', anyone?], at age 15 at that point in time she's only adept in French, Italian, English, and German, the top 5 [not in that order] commonly used European an languages.

Since, y'know, she lives in Europe and all...

[French as her first language, since her late father's French

Even then, it's just verbal + heard + written + read French, VHWR Italian, VH English, and R German.

Rather, her loose knowledge of Japanese honorifics, and Japanese customs as a whole, comes from [unwillingly] spending many hours listening to the ramblings of the Giglio Nero's very own resident Japanophile.

It is a good thing that Spanner is a prodigious mechanic, and has an unruffled personality that [most of the time] doesn't aggravate Fran, or else she would've sent him off to a distant base in Antarctica already.)

Byakuran pouts childishly, thoughtfully eyeing the (out-of-place-out-of-place-out-of-place) hard-to-read girl.

/Usually the closer parallels are fairly accurate in the larger events and details, but I'm pretty sure that this is the first world where Fran is the blood daughter of Aria.

Speaking of which, how is she even Boss? I'm aware that Yuni hasn't been heard from ever since she was eight, two years ago, but I always assumed she was simply undergoing more secretive and rigorous training than her parallels. And even if Yuni is somehow gone, Fran shouldn't have been able to be Boss, regardless of her family relations, because she's a Mist.

...Wait, what if that changed, too? Damnit, this is so derailing my plans for the Tri-Ni-Set; Fran's going to be much shrewder and difficult to work with. The mind-repressing drug might not even work on her if she can sense it. Mists and their 'constant vigilance' and acute sensitivity ...

The real problem is all the ifs. I have virtually no information of her except that her parallels are all 'top magicians', as blank-faced as she is, and have an eternally snarky monotone drawl, which she was probably curbing right now in favor of keeping up the 'Boss' facade./

Brushing away his thoughts before the silence became prolonged, Byakuran tries out another smile, overflowing with (false) sincerity and charm.

To test the waters, so to say.

"Of course, Giglio Nero-san. It's still lovely to meet you. Your Boss hat and cloak fit you very well."

She remains unfazed by the sudden compliment, merely narrowing her eyes fractionally, obviously trying to figure out what he was getting at.

"Thank you," she answers cordially, with a barely-there edge of sarcasm. "Your purple spike-tattoo is very distinctive as well. We haven't time to dawdle on appearances, however. I'm the Giglio Nero Boss, and you're the Gesso Boss. Right now, we're having a talk about our Famiglias' futures. And that's the only thing that matters, isn't it?"

/Ah, there it is. Her acid tongue's slipping through, huh?/

Outwardly, the white-haired boy just keeps up his smile, though it sharpens considerably, cutting off the artificial cheer.

"Yes," he says pleasantly, eyes crinkling up into an upside down 'U'. "Yes, that is what matters. But you see, I'm afraid I'm slightly lost right now; I was under the idea that your Flames were Mist, not Sky, and therefore couldn't ever ascend to Boss. Wasn't little Yuni supposed to be heiress?"

And he isn't lying, at least, not at this moment.

Byakuran truly doesn't know why Fran is here and not Yuni, and that frustrates him, because he needs to know things. Needs to know everything, so he can prepare and be ready and nevereverever got caught off guard again.

/That was what got her killed.../

Fran's eyes widen marginally, her dark blue eye-markings stretching over her fine cheekbones, before recovering with only an interrupted hitch in her breathing.

/Touchy spot about her Flames and suitability?/

He almost wants to applaud the girl; such a master over her expressions is she, that if Byakuran hasn't been specifically watching her with all the experience he'd gotten about reading body language from his parallels, he would've thought her to be completely unperturbed as ever.

With a placid expression, Fran shrugs casually.

"Meh, my flames of Sky are strong enough to take the throne for the meantime. But now I'm the one lost here; I fail to comprehend how any of that has to with two Bosses talking out amiable agreements between non-Rival Famiglias. Although, I'm especially concerned with how you knew about my Mist Flames, and yet haven't heard of Yuni's … absence. Wasn't your little spy, Genkishi, supposed to keep you updated on inside information?" The two snapped their gazes squarely on the other, and a silent confrontation happened between them in the space of seconds.

Then they both look away at the same time, and the tense build-up of rising Sky Flames, and Mist Flames with a fainter undertone of Sky, peter off, before slowly dissolving back into their bodies.

/So she knows about Genkishi? That's bad. Her suspicions of me probably just rose a hundredfold because of our little stare-off, too. Plus, I still have no idea what happened to Yuni. Shit, shit , shit… how to turn this around?/

Plans after plans whirl around the boy's head, and then are discarded and scrapped twice as quickly.

/So he knows about my Mist? That's bad. He just got a lot more suspicious with that little stare-off. At least now I've confirmed that Genkishi's a traitorous bastard, just like I originally suspected. Merde {shit}, merde, merde… how to turn this around?/

Visions after visions blur in the girl's head, and then are disregarded and shuffled twice as quickly.

"...Anyway, we're off-track again. So let's be honest here, or else we'll get nothing done, and this'll be an even greater waste of my time. We've pretty much already established that you don't think I should be Boss because of my Flames, and I don't think you should be trusted because of your spies, as in plural, because I'd be a naive fool if I assumed that you'd allow yourself to rely so heavily on one person and one perspective. We've also established that you didn't know of Yuni's disappearance at age 8, and for some reason you'd prefer to see her as Boss rather than me, meaning that you probably want something that only she could get, or rather, give. Correct so far?"

Byakuran gives a genuine half-smile at his counterpart's blunt summing up.

/How refreshing. Better than the parallel Tsunayoshis who never stop either trying to 'convert' my parallels, or swearing vengeance on my parallels for the death of their allies, or some other repetitive 'happiness' and 'rainbows' and 'the power of friendship' drivel like that. Sho-chan, unfortunately, still stutters too much. Maybe Fran could help him get to the point? Ah, but that's no fun when coming from him. It's funnier watching him tip-toe around me./

He leans back in his chair and places his hands down onto the table separating them.

"Mmm, yes, yes, correct so far, I believe," he agrees easily, raising his right hand to idly examine his fingers.

Then, purposely keeping his eyes on Fran to observe her reaction, he deftly twists around a silver band to reveal a formerly upside-down and hidden silver winged ring with a blue gemstone. "Continue, Sherlock?"

Fran doesn't bother too much with controlling her emotions this time around.

/Does the shock short-circuit her or something?

Worth noting./

She sucks in a short gasp and her eyes flash nine ways to kill.

Metaphorically.

(... Probably metaphorically.)

"Where did you get that." she demands, voice flatter than a burnt pancake, and lacking the upraise lilt of a question altogether. Her Mist flames fluctuating visibly around her clenched hands, singing the wood of the table.

"Oh, this?" he asks, with mocking surprise in his voice, exaggeratedly widening his eyes in what he's dubbed his 'anime surprise eyes'.

Sliding it off in a smooth, practiced motion, he begins tossing it up into the air before catching it again with the same hand, just to not-so-subtly emphasize how familiar he is with the ring.

Lavender eyes, half-lidded but keenly observant, slide sideways to match her own irises.

A smirk, an actual smirk and not those false smiles, curl his lips. "A little brain gave it to me. Why? Does it look familiar to the misty black lily?"

Her jaw twitches (with what, to her, felt vaguely like amplified irritation) at his taunting sing-song remarks.

(And, frankly, the horrible puns.)

/Brain? Don't connerie [bullshit] me, you putain bâtard [fucking bastard]. Those putain Cervellos… hah, 'unbiased' my cul [ass]! Putain favorite-ers, that's what they are. And that last phrase was clearly a jab at my Mist Flames or last name and the Giglio Nero; the translation is 'black lily', after all, and 'Brume' means 'mist'. Well, two can play at that game, though only one can win./

"It does look rather familiar," she remarks mildly, drawing heavily on her constant stores of languor to bank the cinders of her ire, currently being heavily stoked by the white-haired menace's casual provocations. "Now where have I seen it before?"

She pretends to be absorbed in thought for a moment, talking through her 'thought process'.

"There is a certain eerie resemblance to the Sky Mare Ring, which should, by all rights, belong to the Giglio Neros. But that's of no consequence; if it is the Sky Mare Rin, it would've chosen it's own wielder, anyway. So I suppose congratulations are in order. Oh, and tell the Cervellos I said 'hello', alright? I was wondering why they'd suddenly dropped off the grid a few months ago, and had stopped visiting for 'diplomatic' meetings. Not much to be diplomatic about, anymore? Though now I'm pretty sure I have a good idea of what you're after … you think you can get away with conning the rest of the Mare Rings out of me for your Funeral Wreaths?"

"Of course not; why do you assume I would try conning you?" he shoots back with a faux puzzled glance, not missing a beat.

"Please, think me not a fool, will you? I can piece it together. Even now, people automatically think 'innocent' and 'gullible' when Yuni is mentioned, and 'cynical' and 'paranoid' when I'm mentioned. I've got ears, you know, and there's no loss for whispers. It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you," she retorts, her indifference cracking slightly when traces of bitterness seep through at her description.

The last sentence obviously is not meant to have slipped out, judging by her slightly too fast blink at the end.

"Ouch, how cold of you, Franny-chan. Fine, since we're having a heart-to-heart right now, I admit I was planning to convince dear Yuni to hand over the Mare Rings peacefully. I expect that that's no longer an option for you?"

"'Franny-chan' is worse than your former 'Fran-chan', not that 'Fran-chan' is acceptable either. If you absolutely must have a cutesy nickname, at least take off the honorifics. We're not even in Japan, you realize? And did that convincing include drugging Yuni so she looked like a mind-controlled zombie? If so, than you expect rightly."

"Hmm? And how did you know of that, 'Franny'?" His tone is laced with poison honey, needles prickling the surface.

/Howhowhow? Did she have a spy, too? Unacceptable; can't slip./

" 'Franny' is still unacceptable, and famed Giglio Nero 'Clairvoyance', of course. I presume your uncanny knowledge has something to do with the Sky Mare Ring's ability to see parallel worlds?"

"But of course, 'Francy'. But of course. So what are you going to do?"

"You know what, just use 'Fran-chan' or whatever, I really don't care anymore. And that depends. What can I do to counter what you're about to do?"

"Me? All I want is ultimate power. Is that too much to ask for?"

"You're about as humble as a peacock, Gesso. That is a little too much to ask for, yes. Far too much to be reasonable. Then again, who ever said you were reasonable? I certainly didn't. Fine, let's assume I agree to a mutually beneficial and reasonable trade for the Mare Rings, and we merge our Famiglias into that 'Millefiore' thing I've seen you construct in the future. What will you do with the Rings? What will you do with the power?"

"You wound me, Francy-chan, truly you do. Peacock? And please, call me Byakuran. The Rings? My Funeral Wreaths, naturally. The power… haven't really thought about it."

That last part is lie, and they both know it.

She doesn't pry, and he doesn't offer.

/All to fix it into a world for her.../

"I want equal rights. And I mean actual equal rights, none of that second-in-command puppetry you had going on...correction, would have had going on. Co-ruling, at least."

"Mmm… makes sense, I suppose, though I give no promise. Some equalities are more equal than others, is what they say."

"That's the best I'll worm out of you, so I'll take it. That whole 'Black' and 'White' theme you were planning? Horrible idea. Divisions breed sabotage and animosity. If not a mixer or a rotation schedule, than have a neutral 'Spell' in there for smoothing ruffled feathers, otherwise it'll be a veritable civil war going on. Sabatoge from the inside is how 80% of organizations are felled from the height of their glory. 'Gray Spell', maybe, if you insist on that whole 'spell' thing."

"Who'd lead? You?"

"If you agree, than yes, me. I'll hand off heading the 'Black Spells' to Gamma; he's much more trusted than I am by the Giglio Nero, regardless of rank. I'm no Yuni, and they seem quite fixated on that, so it's for the best, I guess."

"What would the Gray Spells be made of? I was thinking offensive for Black, and tactics for White. I can allow Gamma to head, but he won't be co-ruling with us, then; that's too easily 2 versus 1 for my comfort."

"Defense, diplomacy, peacekeeping, support, healing, technicalities: all those areas that don't fit neatly into 'offensive' and 'tactics', and would benefit from level-headed neutralists. Most will be from hand-picked members from the White and Black, screened for ability and personality, and later when we can properly roll out some recruitment offers, the Gray Spell will grow as well.

"I'm predominantly Mist, true, and I'm not being arrogant when I say I'm a good Mist, too. I can train the Mist users to be defensive and offensive if caught unaware, and some Rain and Suns and Lightnings would be helpful for the peacekeeping, healers, and adding to the defenses by Hardening them. I see your point on Gamma, and I wasn't going to suggest that, anyway. Hey, I just met you, and call me crazy, but I have an inkling that you two would clash heavily in terms of ethics," Fran added dryly.

"Oh~? So you wouldn't clash with me in terms of ethics?"

"The difference between me and you when talking of morals, is that I don't see the difference between good and bad, while you simply don't appear to duly care very much."

"Hmm… so very true, so very true. ... Marshmallow, Francy-chan~?"

"No thank you. I prefer my guava, Gesso."

"We'll see if I can get you to change, then…"

It is the start of a frightening relationship.

Revised 6/6/15

Added: parallel-viewing info, more Byakuran thoughts, few typos, the flower thing, present tense, subbing in French curses, and general fixing-up and extra info.

Do you guys get the metaphor of the last four lines? Basically, he's kinda asking if she's willing to join his side, or something along those lines. Fran refuses, citing her preference for her guava candies, which are the ones that her mother used to give her [from: Chapter 1], signifying her [somewhat] loyalty to her roots and Famiglia. Byakuran then says that he'll be trying to change her mind.

(Why guava candies, you ask? Well, first of all, I happen to be going through a guava candy phase, and second of all, they're teal-ish. See? White marshmallows for a white-haired Byakuran, and teal guava candies for a teal-haired Fran. Although guava-everything will be popping up in the story, as will many variations of marshmallows-on-something.)

#

#

#

~Please Review~

~I appreciate reviews like Ryohei appreciates the extremeness of boxing!~