Notoriety

Having Fon, Reborn, Lal and Verde(who helps through scientific methods) gang on her everyday for helping her adjust to her newest condition was really difficult at first while she verbally coached Skull on what to do for himself. Viper was analyzing the extent of her abilities through his psychic abilities...and he was helping her own mental state and adjusting to mental stress of her troublesome eyesight.

He darkly commented that 'When they say the Sky sees everything, I bet they didn't know there's such a literal case.'

It would have been perfectly OK if its just Empowerment alone but Ichigo's new case sucked and she hated it.

It took two months for her to get a sense of normalcy too. They train her for six hours, and they train themselves after her for the same six hours every day.

Normally, the Arcobaleno wouldn't get along so fast. But dealing with a baby civilian Sky who is basically 'a power generator' who had to be protected lest she be caught by unsavory people as she has no clue how their world works yet, they had to adjust while Ichigo looked after them and made sure everyone got along.

Ichigo whose default expression is a a near-permanent scowl, with eyebrows drawn together, was more than she seemed as her personality showed. She was an open book to them, never knowing that in the mafia its bad to be like an open book as it gets you killed. But they were able to get to know that she's a true Sky even if she was stubborn, short-tempered, strong-willed, and impulsive that if somebody would pick a fight with her, she would clearly fight back. However, she is also sensitive and empathic, as she knows by sense their moods and treats them appropriately. She also hates it if she, a clearly-independent girl is being 'babied' and too-restricted despite her abilities as she was so used to looking after others. She also despises liars, especially to people who would even lie to themselves.

She was their only cook as 1.) Japanese schools start teaching students how to cook at Grade 4 and 2.) she took over the chores since her mother died.

She would also nag Verde into not staying up past eleven and often employ Lal's services into knocking him out with her flames just so he can be put to bed as people who get enough sleep function better and are less-cranky to deal with.

When asked about her life, she said that her mother died when she was little to protect her from a killer who Ichigo did not see, something she never forgave herself for because her mother was the center of her family whom they all loved because she was bright, cheerful, warm and doting her loss affected them all horribly that her father became a bumbling dad to cheer up the house, and Ichigo took over the chores as a means to make up for it, and helped raise her younger sisters. She clearly has a severe issue about it she never actually had PTSD counselling about the matter Verde and Lal took her to task. Her father may be a doctor but was a pediatrician not a psychologist and missed the signs as a result.

And thanks to her natural hair color and Japan's misconception about dyed hair=delinquent, she was often discriminated by her teachers and constantly mistaken for a delinquent, and it does NOT help that she gets attacked by delinquents too to sadly reinforce the teacher's beliefs of her, she basically has no respect for adults in turn who treated her unfairly in the first place. Even her friends know that she never calls her teachers the more friendly term 'sensei' and refers to them as 'kyoukan' coldly. And as she has no club activities to look after the house, she also has time to study that she was 18th in her school standing in the Top 50 just to shut them up. The same misconception also isolated her from peers and was friendless until her childhood friend was in the same class as she in high school that through her, she finally had friends. But as a result, she had trouble remembering names and faces from isolation. It took her a month to remember who was who during their time together in the cabin by daily exposure.

That explained Ichigo's treatment of them. At first, she refers to them TOO casually without the respect they were used to with their hard-earned reputations or respect of youngsters to adults. But since she saw that they treated her well and are protective of her, which was shocking for her as other than her dad and her master, no adult treated her kindly it was...refreshing, so her attitude towards them improved and liked them enough that she trusted them with her powers.

They weren't sure what to say to that. The Sky and baby of the team, was a troubled teenager. So they treated Ichigo how she liked to be treated. Like a normal girl her age while still letting her have her independence and in turn she now respects them and looks after them.

When the two months ended, they got a new job from Checkerface that required Ichigo infiltrating Mafia Academy to get close to a student...who fully knows what his family was up to because its extremely illegal but can't do squat. So she has to 'seduce him' into confessing everything and the adults will do the rest.

Mafia Academy also dealt with what a whole city had to deal with, baffled with the awakening of a powerful Sky and they can't even tell who it was, even though it happened on the same day Ichigo transferred!

It took Ichigo a whole semester to get it done and in the process, learned Mafia 101 but in her case, she learned what female mafiosi do which was she had to swallow everything and not freak out with good reason. The other Arcobaleno were doing other jobs while she was at school.

Sure she befriended Adrien Estraneo and her colleagues took care of the issue and made Viper make him and the class forget her, but one person never did. That person was Timoteo di Vongola who happened to be absent on that very day and he wondered where the new girl went, only for his classmates to look at him weird.

The next job after that, was a bodyguard job. Ichigo infiltrated as a young maid, and the others were openly bodyguards although she had to leave her swords at home. They were hired to protect an heir from being assassinated by other factions because he was the only rightful one who won't lead their family to ruin.

There were times they were even hired mercenaries to show that they were the strongest elements of their generation.

Ichigo was known as the strongest swordswoman(even if she had no style) and she keeps getting challenges until she became the Unparalleled Sword Empress, Fon was known for his mastery of all Chinese Martial Arts and ability to catch a barrage of bullets between his fingers, a feat Ichigo is also capable of doing, Reborn was the strongest Hitman, Lal was the strongest soldier no man in the military can even win against, Verde was already infamous as Da Vinci's reincarnation, Viper was the world's best illusionist and Skull's stunts got deadlier and deadlier that only he is capable of doing-and surviving-said stunts that no man can ever hope to replicate without dying.

They gained notoriety and infamy, and Ichigo's hollow side greatly enjoyed this kind of life she wished Ichigo would stay in Italy forever instead of boring Karakura.

By then it was already September.

'You know...I once told my dad this in a letter.' Ichigo griped, as they were all enjoying a holiday out by the beach. 'How does Checkerface manage to pay us with this amount of money? How rich is he or who is his backer?' she asked them. 'The rewards are too good to be true when not even mafia dons would pay us this big.'

'I agree. The priciest I could scrounge in my job was 40000 euros and even then that was a stretch.' Viper agreed. 'We get paid millions and even gold bars. Normally I won't complain but...'

'There's something going on here.' Reborn agreed. 'But we don't know what for now so let's be careful.'

'Right.'

Everyone else was silent, not liking what could possibly be the catch, after their good fortune.

A week later, they got a guest that got Lal annoyed by the living room.

'What the hell are you doing here, Colonello?!'

'I wanted to see my favorite Instructor, hey!' came the cheerful answer.

'I'm your ONLY instructor, moron! You're supposed to be under Commander Gaspar while I'm out here remember?!'

'I snuck out!'

'You WHAT?!'

Cue a cacophony of rumble and tumble with Lal scolding/yelling at the newcomer and yelps of pain.

'My my, was that an unwanted suitor I hear?' Fon wondered as he helped Ichigo make English Muffins by kneading the dough while she made Japanese Bread. They were making breakfast breads after dinner for tomorrow's use.

'Teacher-Student romance eh?' Ichigo snorted. 'One-sided too.'

'That never ends well...'

'Well, in legal society yes, but we work for the illegal sort...'

'Hey, not all mafia are into illegal dealings.' Fon sweatdropped. 'The triads I worked for weren't like that.'

'Oh, so there's good mafia too? Mafia Academy gave me a rather bleak view of them.' said Ichigo. 'And don't get me started on what lady mafia had to do.' she shuddered. 'I had to call Viper to rescue me from an unsavory lesson too and pay him 90 grand to get me out of it while seemingly still participating. I'm a believer of letting Mr. Right have 'it'.'

Fon knew what she meant by that and winced horribly.

'I see what you mean. I didn't know that. We chinese triads don't do that unless its political marriages and stuff. A bride's purity is especially most important.'

'Hey, who's that out there? Lal's clearly turning him to ground beef.' Skull asked, fresh from the bath and taking cold milk from the fridge.

'Lal's student Colonello. He went here on AWOL so she's pissed.' Ichigo explained. 'Looks like we'll have a fun guest for now.'

'A fun guest who's definitely gonna walk home in a bag.' Skull muttered.

'Well, going AWOL from a military base, particularly a mafia military base has sanctions for stuff like this, of course Lal is angry.' said Fon. 'But I'm amazed he tracked us out to our out-of-the-way cabin. That took skill as nobody tracked us here for our entire stay and we switch cabins.'

'Now that you mention it...anyhow, can we stop them before Lal really kills the dude?'

'We are not butting in Skull.' Ichigo shuddered. 'I'm not insane to get between that. Wait for Hurricane Lal to calm down before we can see if the guy is still fix-able.'

'Right...'

And so...

'Don't worry, he's still alive.' said Reborn wryly as on Ichigo's request, he healed Colonello. 'Lal's a military woman through and through and breaking rules she reinforces through discipline is normal for her. Why're you here anyway?'

'Awww its normal for a student to miss his teacher once in a while right?' Colonello grinned, but he fooled no one, especially when Lal blushed.

'You moron! It's ME who'll Gaspar will bitch at since I pawned you off him for this job!' she yelled. 'Go back now!'

'No way I just got here~' Lal had to be held back by Ichigo and Viper before she jumps on the freshly-healed blonde to beat him again.

'Maa maa Lal, its night already and its dark in the forest.' said Fon. 'Let him leave tomorrow.'

'Grrrr...'

'Well, you owe us 50000 euros for saving your life.' Viper quipped.

'Huuuuh?!' Colonello squawked.

xxx

To Lal's chagrin, Colonello stuck around. Breakfast this time, was Eggs Benedict using the English Muffins baked last night. Except, it has a slab of salmon fillet, a square slice of ham on top of it, poached eggs and poured with hollandaise sauce and a bowl of soup.

'So what do you guys do when not called?' Colonello asked them. These guys sharing the same table are famous worldwide(among the mafia circle) for their reputation as the seven strongest. The youngest of whom being the strongest swordswoman. The. youngest.

'Well, we train to stay in shape dimwit or someone will take away our titles.' Lal grunted.

'So uh...who's the strongest?'

Everybody paused.

'Uhhh that's one territory we won't dare step into without becoming an all-out slugfest at the breakfast table Colonello.' said Ichigo flatly. 'Everyone's got their pride here. Its best nobody answers that...'

'Oh, I'm the strongest.' said Reborn smugly, earning him six glares and breakfast time, got chaotic with Viper starting it, but at least they took the fight outside.

'Oh boy.' Ichigo sighed, pinching her nose.

'Holy cow...' Colonello choked as six out of seven rushed out to try to kill Reborn for that remark.

'That question is Pandora's Box. And I'm the only sane man if anyone dares to bring up that topic.' Ichigo grumbled. 'They tend to be very, very immature about it.'

'That's immature?!' Colonello sputtered as he looked at the all-out battle royale outside.

'Well, to answer your question, indeed, nobody can deny that physically-wise, Reborn's our strongest as Skull hasn't finished training yet. In a couple years, Skull will have that title as he should be as a Cloud so for now Reborn's the physically-strongest. In terms of fighting ability, its Fon, me, Reborn, Lal, Skull, Verde and Viper in terms of fists. Never bring up the question again. By the way, what flame-type are you?'

'Er, Rain like Lal. Why?'

Ichigo grinned.

And so...

'No fair!' they all complained as Ichigo empowered Colonello who smothered them with his flames into calming down and temporarily disabled.

'I want you idiots to reflect on this before you have a late breakfast.' Ichigo scolded. 'I had to stop you as if you guys fought any longer we'll have to move to a new cabin!'