Several months had passed by since Mammon had died and, though Bel had slowly started showing back up outside of his room, it was usually because he was high. No one knew how or where he was getting drugs from, but the Varia didn't have too much of a problem with it - Bel was coming back out of his room and talking to them again.

Bel was quiet. He spent most of his time either in his bedroom, high as a kite, or downstairs on the living room couch, seemingly staring at the wall for the duration of his stay. A few of the Varia members had seen deep slashes on his wrists, noticed first by Squalo who had seen them when Bel had fallen asleep downstairs and his sleeves had rolled up sometime during his shifting. It worried them, but at the same time, as long as Bel could complete his missions, there was nothing they could do about his new habits - none of them even knew what kind of drugs their teammate was on, except that whatever it was mostly relaxed him and caused the occasional hallucination.

"Hey, Bel?"

Bel glanced away from the wall he had been staring at, giggling at random intervals. He smiled lopsidedly at Lussuria, giggling again as he reached out to poke the man's cheek.

"Is Mama Luss talking to the prince?" the blond questioned. "Ushishishi~"

Lussuria hated seeing Bel this way because of a ridiculous substance and, if he could, he'd do everything in his power to take his comrade off it.

"…Bel, boss would like to see you," the man said softly, reaching out to ruffle blond hair.

"Ushishishi~" Bel giggled again before he nodded, his lips set in a relaxed smile - so different to his usual blood-thirsty grin. "Then the prince will go and see boss~"

Lussuria watched as Bel left the living room, his heart aching for the younger. He wished he knew how to help, but there was really nothing he could do - not when Bel wouldn't accept any help anyway.

Upstairs, Bel giggled to himself as he stepped into Xanxus' office. He saw the dark-haired man sitting behind the desk, a bottle of wine in his hand, while an unfamiliar green-haired boy stood next to him.

The blond stopped, his obscured eyes narrowing at the boy who couldn't have been any older than fifteen. He didn't know why, but there was just something about the kid he didn't like.

Without waiting even for Xanxus to speak, Bel drew several knives before he flung them at the boy, stabbing the smaller male in the chest. He ignored his boss' shout and instead ran forward, drawing one more knife from his pocket. He knocked the boy to the ground with the weight of his body, driving the single knife into the younger's stomach again and again.

"Why won't you bleed?!" Bel snarled, ramming the knife as hard, as deep as he could into the frail body. He hated the way those emotionless teal eyes just stared at him, as if he weren't being attacked here and now.

The blond was barely aware of strong hands that pulled him from the unmoving body and throwing him against the wall - all he knew was that kid had to die.

"Fucking trash!" Xanxus roared, storming towards the younger male. He kicked Bel in the chest with deadly force, hearing the sickening crunch as the younger's chest gave out beneath his foot. "The fuck is wrong with you?!"

Bel reached up, holding his chest as blood dribbled from his mouth and down his chin. He giggled in that crazy manner that always sent chills down peoples' spines, pushing himself to his feet.

"Royal blood..." Bel lathered some of the blood onto his fingers, raising it to his lips to lick. "Ushishishi~ Royal blood has been spilled~"

Xanxus was as emotionless as the boy who had just been attacked, grabbing one of his guns. He pointed it at Bel, knowing he had no other choice but to pull the trigger. He waited until Bel started sauntering towards him, that blood-thirsty grin he hadn't seen in a few years plastered on the blond's face, having hoped that he wouldn't have to resort to such measures - if Bel died from the gunshot, it would be hard replacing the Varia's genius.

"Shishishi~" The Storm Guardian seemed to have forgotten all about his original target, closing in on Xanxus instead. He seemed unfazed by the gun, almost as if he believed the older man wouldn't shoot him - but he was quickly proved wrong when, the second he lunged at Xanxus, he was sent flying backwards, crashing into the wall behind him as blood poured out of his crumpled body.

The commotion had alerted the other Varia members. Lussuria took Bel straight down to the infirmary while Levi glared at the newcomer as if this was all his fault. Xanxus took Squalo aside, growling for the younger male to call the Vongola Decimo and ship Bel over to Japan.

Squalo would normally have argued that they needed their ace but, after having realised that the drugs had a worse effect on the Storm then they had realised, could only agree.

~~Namimori, Japan~~

Sawada Tsunayoshi sighed as his cellphone rang at an obnoxiously early hour. He debated on whether or not he should answer it, until he noticed the caller ID that read 'Varia'. He was wide awake at this realisation, not wanting to deal with irrate assassins if he ignored their call.

Putting the phone warily to his ear, Tsuna spoke. "H-hello...?"

Squalo was the one who was calling - no one could mistake that shouting for anyone else. "Voi! Brat, we're sending Bel your way."

"S-sorry...?" Tsuna was meek at these words - out of all the Varia, Belphegor was the scariest, next to Xanxus.

"That shithead is out of our control and we can't do anything for him," came Squalo's shouting reply. "You can look after him for us."

"But... Why?" the brunet's usually-soft eyes were full of fear - if Xanxus weren't here to control Bel...

"Because you're the Vongola Decimo!" Varia's Rain yelled. "Look after your fucking subordinates, brat!"

With that said, Squalo hung up, leaving Tsuna to comprehend what had just happened. Had they just...dumped Belphegor of all people on him...?

How was he supposed to look after Belphegor, let alone control him...?