Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman Reborn and its respective characters belong to Amano Akira, not me. Not that I don't want it, but I'd probably totally fuck up the story and you'll most likely hate me.

Chapter 3

The Sicilian Saying

On this sunny afternoon there was something unheard of happening at the Namimori Police Department. In office room number 21 around a large desk stacked with folders and documents, four officers had beyond bewildered expressions on their faces as a dark-haired middle school girl was facing them with a determined scowl.

"A chibi hitman?" said the intimidating man in the middle, sitting behind the desk.

"A power-up bullet?" deadpanned the balding one in the left.

"A middle school mafia boss?" The one on the right raised an eyebrow over thick-rimmed glasses.

"Here, in good ol' quiet Namimori?" The last man crossed his hands over his overgrown stomach with an unbelieving smirk.

"Phahaha!" the policemen all exploded with laughter, wailing about and slapping the desk or their thighs mockingly, much to the girl's annoyance.

"Neither of you believe my story, do you?" She sighed with her head slumped in defeat.

"Of course we don't! And how can we?" said the bespectacled man while tipping his glasses to wipe a tear from under his eye when his laughter finally died down.

"Look, sweetheart, it's all good fun, but joke's over. I know you're seriously obsessed with anime scenarios and you tend to get bored at home with mommy and daddy working all the time, but I suggest you take your little make-belief elsewhere because you're embarrassing daddy at work." The Chief Inspector of the Namimori Police Department behind the large desk, whose name was Hatsukaichi Tadashi as read on the desk plate, smiled sweetly and waved his hand in a "shoo, shoo" motion. "Run along now. Daddy's busy."

"Yeah, Mikami-chan, no matter how you look at it, everything you've said sounds absolutely ridiculous." The beefy policeman chuckled. "Either you're lying to us to prank your "mafia boss" friend or he pulled a fast one on ya'."

"Oh, come on! Can't you hear all those explosions coming from Nami-chuu? It's that Italian transfer student, Gokudera Hayato and his illegally imported dynamite! Aren't you supposed to be at least a little bit concerned over things like that?!" Mikami blew up on them. "And how can you miss the little kid in a suit with a friggin chameleon lizard on his fedora who probably snuck into the country unsupervised and with a whole bunch of firearms on him like it was nothing but child's play?"

The police officers exchanged glances as the bald one spun his finger beside his head to signal he was sure the girl was off her rocker.

"And that dangerous infant is even trying to recruit innocent people into Sawada's mafia family! Miura-san is from a totally different school and Yamamoto is my classmate! We're all practically underage! I can't stand for them to get dragged into this and get themselves hurt!"

"Calm down, kid! You're exaggerating." The fat man stood up and patted Mikami's shoulder. "We're kinda starting to think you're out of your mind here. Too much stress at school? Love problems? Can't make friends and you feel like a lonely anime-obsessed loser? Don't worry. I know about this. My son sometimes starts getting delusional when he's depressed, Chief, it's a common thing now-a-days." He shook his head and sent a reassuring smile back at Mikami's father. "You're around his age anyway, Mikami-chan, so don't be shy to admit if you have eight grade syndrome. It's nothing to be ashamed of, it even happens to eleventh-graders in some cases, so I guess the earlier you go through it, the quicker you get rid of it."

"Nothing's wrong with your classmates, Mika-chan. Go home and take a couple of days' rest from school, I'll make the call," Tadashi half-commanded, crossing arms in front of his chest. "We've got our hands full with tons of work and we also have to deal with the very real Yakuza, you know? I assure you, no one here has the time to deal with my daughter's demented hallucinations from watching one-too-many cartoons," he huffed.

"E-excuse me?" Mikami's eye twitched as she swatted away her dad's fat subordinate's heavy hand from her shoulder. "Dad! I am not demented! And I'm not experiencing chuunibyou! I'm talking about the real Italian Mafia here, not the ruffian jokes who call themselves this small town's Yakuza! Those sorry excuses for criminals are nothing even in comparison to some middle school mafia boss-to-be and his little kid hitman tutor, let alone the actual Italian Mafia!" Wait...Why does it sound like I'm bragging about those dangers to society?! "Don't fuck with me! You're supposed to be Namimori's protectors! Try doing something other than wolfing down on junk food, pretending to work on imaginary Yakuza cases!"

Two of the policemen stared at her fuming form while the third sighed with a palm over his face. Great... the chief's demented little girl had gone completely bonkers.

Her father however, the moment he heard his precious little daughter's choice of language, took upon himself an uncharacteristically stern expression and eyed her from under dark eyebrows, a vein threatening to burst on the side of his forehead. This seemed to affect Mikami in some sort of way because she gulped loudly and took a couple of steps back, a bit of color leaving her face. Hatsukaichi Tadashi the Police Chief stood quiet and only made a single motion with his hand to signal one of his men who curtly moved towards the middle schooler.

"Okay, kid, fun time's over. Go home before you get yourself grounded for life on account of a foul mouth," the bald Sub-Inspector said, also fed up with the girl's attitude.

"Huh?" With her mouth gaping, Mikami blinked, as her father's bald deputy fetched her by the forearm, proceeding to drag— I mean, escort her out of the police station – "Aaaah~!" – and finally shoved her down the front stairs – "Oof!"– causing her to fall on her behind. "Hey! That was rude! You're supposed to be of freaking service to the public!" She waved a fist at his direction.

"Then next time you might find it useful to consider not "freaking" bothering us and the chief with stupid crap like that!" The Sub-Inspector stomped back inside and pointedly slammed the front door, glass rattling.

"Balding asshole! I'll remember this, damned Uchiha Police Force bastard! Acting all high and mighty just because you're dad's ass-kissing deputy!" Mikami stood up and yelled, taking a few minutes to glare at the poor front doors, while muttering another batch of curses under her nose and waving a balled fist in front of her. The oblivious pedestrians walking by pointedly circled around her, deliberately ignoring her embarrassing actions.

When she'd finally calmed down and was done with venting her frustrations on the inanimate building, she dusted her jeans from the ground dirt.

"Dammit! Reborn was right... No one believes me... Not even my own father! The police were my last idea, so now what should I do~?!" she wailed with a downcast defeated face.

And what the hell was that about breaking omertà...?

As she slowly began dragging her feet home, Mikami thought back to the past events of the last few days.

- xxx -

Gokudera came back from Italy the day after Yamamoto's suicide attempt as if her thoughts had accidentally summoned his dangerous presence back to Japan. The same afternoon during club activities Mikami could hear a huge ruckus coming from the back of the school grounds. Judging by the view she had from a window seat inside the third floor club room, the explosions and gunshots were, naturally, Sawada, Gokudera, Yamamoto and the kid hitman's doing. Off to the side, a smirking Reborn was actively shooting away his entire weapon arsenal and a suspiciously trigger-happy Hayato provided the "fireworks". To Mikami it looked like they were trying to assassinate the future boss and an innocent bystander who'd gotten himself dragged in by his idiocy. Suprisingly, some small kid in a cow suit and an afro also showed up with a huge missile launcher and started firing projectiles towards an energetic Takeshi and a freaking out Tsuna, who were already running about in panicked circles. Assuming from the cow kid's obnoxious outburst, he was named Lambo and he was a Bovino Family hitman.

I didn't see that! I. Did. Not. See. That. Mikami frantically waved around the ink brush over the halfway done manuscript of an Inuyasha doujinshi she was making in Manga Club. She couldn't bring herself to stop her trembling. Another weirdo came~! She banged her head on the desk, covering her forehead in black panel lines, a smudged blushing Kagome and several other inks stains, causing the club members to stare at her, having second thoughts about whether she had a mental condition.

- xxx -

The next day at school Mikami noticed the second new addition to Tsuna's dangerously fast-growing Family – a tall and pretty onee-san named Bianchi. Mikami initially thought of her as a very beautiful and extremely cool-looking person from her sense of style and the way she carried herself until she found out Bianchi's knack for poison cooking from what she overheard from Reborn, Sawada and Gokudera's conversation in the nurse's office on her way to Home Economics class. Some grim childhood did Gokudera have. His older sister was definitely another frightening person to avoid. And seriously... Him? A rich kid?! At least that explained why he had perfect grades despite looking like a trouble-making delinquent. Mikami guessed he probably had all sorts of tutors while growing up.

During class she couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy and all he had suffered. She also felt bad for eavesdropping on the conversation about his private matters, so she decided to leave him the riceballs she made in Home-Ed as amute apology for her nosiness. Even though he had an entire fan club to care for him, he was, after all, absent from class, bedridden in the nurse's office due to his trauma, and few knew of that. Hayato was half-asleep, half-moaning in anguish, so she just left the plate of food on the bedstand, making sure not to stir him up.

Before taking her leave however, Mikami took one last close look at his weakened pale face. He was actually quite an interesting guy, the more she learned about him, ignoring the fact that he was a reckless brute with a short fuse and anger management issues, who reminded her of a stereotypical pseudo terrorist suicide bomber with all that dynamite hidden who-knows-where on him.

When she realized she was standing over that same mad bomber's bed in the nurse's office with no good excuse to be there, Mikami shook away all concerns for the boy and hurried to leave in case he woke up, noticed her and got on her case.

- xxx -

And lastly, the morning before she barged into her father's office, shouting claims against her short loser of a classmate and his misfit buddies, Mikami met the first person who seemed to share part of her troubles. Alongside Hatsukaichi Mikami, Miura Haru had become the second semi-normal person to notice these strange happenings around Sawada Tsunayoshi.

As usual, Mikami was walking on her way to school by the riverside. Only this time she had to avoid the resident bomber, who seemed to be going in the same direction. She did so by trying to walk as farther behind him as possible, keeping a safe distance. They were in the same class, there was no helping it that she'd have to deal with his dangerous presence at certain times. Another trouble was the immense pre-summer heat that was annoying her sweat glands. She had tied her hair up in a ponytail before she left home but it wasn't proving any help.

"Ching... ching..."

Great, now my ears are ringing. Damn heat. I knew I had to get this stupid long hair cut. But I'm too lazy to do it. Besides... Don't boys like long-haired girls anyway? She curiously glanced at the silver headed boy's lazily smoking form.

Hayato seemed to look around upon hearing the clanking noise and his eyes stopped at the nearby bridge over the river. The cigarette dropped from his mouth dramatically when he suddenly called out, "Tenth!"

Mikami whipped her head towards the metallic sounds coming from the same bridge. The noise wasn't her ears ringing from the heat. It was a strangely dressed person in a pink track suit, samurai armor and a pink bike helmet, seemingly attacking Sawada with a hockey stick.

"What in the Kira-forsaken world—!" wide-eyed, Mikami started but noticed Hayato ditch his schoolbag and bolt towards the scene. "On second thought, I should probably ignore this for my own safety," she muttered with a deadpan look and observed from the sidelines as Tsuna and the weird samurai-hockey person yelled at each other.

"I'll never be a mafia boss!"

"Then, you're toying with Reborn-chan after all!"

"It's not like that...!"

A feminine voice... The attacker's a girl? Has she found about Reborn and the Mafia just like me? But why the hell would she attack Sawada if she knows how dangerous it is?! Mikami contemplated as Hayato stood between the armored girl and Tsuna with a newly lit cigarette and probably half his stock of dynamite out in the open, going with his finishing move right from the get-go. Oh, no, he wouldn't! Mikami went wide-eyed as her ponytail stood on end.

"Kaboom!" A second later the tracksuit-samurai girl was sent flying back from the force of the explosion that luckily missed to hit her head on and only startled her, making her accidentally fall off the bridge and into the river.

"That lunatic, he nearly killed her!" Mikami screamed with hands clutching her head, although she was almost sure that it was Hayato's main intention to do just that. In a confused burst of courage and stupidity, Mikami ran towards the bridge to see if the girl was okay.

"Save—cough—save me!" She saw the girl splashing water about in a futile attempt to float up with the heavy armor on.

"T-try to hold on!" Mikami panicked. She didn't have the guts to dive head on in the river from a bridge that high, even though she really wanted to save the girl.

"This isn't good!" Tsuna was in a similar worried state beside her. She assumed he couldn't swim, since he was called No-Good Tsuna at school for a reason, almost famously rumored to have no other existing talent other than failing at life.

Can Gokudera swim? Mikami turned with helpless eyes to Hayato's calm figure. The heck is he doing standing there glued to the ground?! Surely, he can do something, can't he?! It's his fault in the first place that the girl's drowning! He should help her!

"Hey, Gokudera, don't just stand there! Do something! You caused this!" In a thrust of anger and pursuit of justice Mikami barked at the smoker, even though she knew she could be threatening her own life with the offhanded way she spoke to him. But she couldn't let go so easily of a potential ally who also seemed to know about Tsuna's connection with the Mafia, even if that person seemed to like to dress in funny getups. "You've gotta save her!"

"Me?! No freakin way! Who the fuck do you think you are?! Don't order me around!" Hayato barked back, chewing angrily on his cigarette. That girl had no right to scold him when he had done as it was expected of a right-hand man and protected the tenth's precious life.

"Reborn!" Tsuna suddenly exclaimed upon noticing the latest arrival.

"Little hitman?" One moment, Mikami saw Reborn pointing an all-too-familiar gun at Tsuna, and the other, the boy was already soaring down towards the water.

"Save Haru with my dying will!" yelled Tsuna, ripping his clothes apart as an orange flame danced on his forehead. Reborn shot him with another couple of bullets, making Tsuna's legs spin at the heels in an unnatural painful-looking way, helping him swim the river like a motorboat. "Hold on to me!" he bellowed again when he reached Haru and held her in his arms bridal style.

- xxx -

Moments later Haru was safe and sound by the river bank where Sasagawa Kyoko and her friend Kurokawa Hana ended up coming to see what the commotion was about when they noticed the ruckus on their way to school. Everyone, with Tsuna in doted boxers, were gathered around Haru. Hayato was scolding her from the side while Mikami drowned him out, bombarding Haru with questions while wiping the girl's head with her gym class towel.

"Save Haru with my dying will! Hold on to me!" Haru suddenly jumped, startling everyone with her imitation of Deathperation Tsuna. "I thought cheesy lines like that only existed on TV." She swooned, blushing. "Swim to the other bank!" She pumped a fist in the air.

Mikami watched in mild amusement as Haru confessed to Tsuna, still in dot-printed boxers, who panicked that his crush Kyoko was watching and would get the wrong idea. Heheh, a love triangle so soon into his middle school life. Moe Sawada is so embarrassed. How cute! On the other hand, Haru's a bit weird... Didn't she try to hurt him just moments ago in that ridiculous fail of a samurai cosplay? She joined Hayato in his dull expression at Haru's attempts to get Tsuna to hold her in his arms again. There goes my potential ally...

"Haha! She's a funny one!" Takeshi laughed next to Mikami.

"Yeah, I guess you could look at it that way..." She smiled with a sweatdrop.

Then she froze.

Wait... That voice... Am I missing something?

She turned very slowly to the obliviously cheery Yamamoto as her mouth hung open.

And then she jumped, nearly getting a heart attack, and pointed accusingly at the tall boy while panting from the shock.

"OH MY KIRA! YAMAMOTO?! WHEN DID YOU GET HERE? ARE YOU A FRIGGIN NINJA?!"

"Ahaha, what are you talking about? I was here the whole time!" Takeshi didn't seem to mind her not noticing him and waved it off easily with a cheeky grin.

"The whole time?!" Dumb look mode: on.

"Yeah, my pal Gokudera and I live near each other so we often walk together to school. Isn't it convenient!" He tried to pat his so called friend's shoulder but the grumpy smoker shoved the taller boy's hand off to correct him grumpily.

"We're not pals, baseball freak! And how many times do I have to fucking tell you to stop following me around!"

"C'mon, how can you say that? Of course we're friends, Gokudera!"

"Not! Don't you fucking get Japanese?! Want me to write it to you in a letter?! Get the hell lost!"

And so the two started a one-sided quarrel. Not that Mikami paid any attention to them. Her mind was busy panicking in confusion on how she could not notice Yamamoto walking beside Gokudera when she had been staring at the gray headed bomber the entire time they walked along the riverside.

Uncomfortable heat rose to her face as she realized the implication.

Okay, that didn't sound quite right... Maybe the unbearable weather did something to my head, fried my brain. I was just so preoccupied with keeping my distance from dynamite boy over there that I completely missed to notice the less dangerous person beside him. Although Yamamoto's pretty tall, making him a lot harder to miss... and I'm pretty sure he's not that safe to be around either... Agh! Whatever! It's just from the heat! It messed with my perception of reality! And I was still sleepy!

"Hey, you, the girl with the ugly pained look."

"What!" Mikami snapped at whoever called her in such a rude manner and then widened her eyes at the small hitman sitting on the stairs descending from the bridge.

"Ciaossu!" he greeted cheerily.

Oh crap, I completely forgot! I got involved in a dangerous situation again! Me and my stupid jumping in on the spur of the moment...

"I haven't had the chance to talk matters with you, Hatsukaichi Mikami." Reborn tipped his fedora as Mikami gulped, frozen on the spot.

Great, he knows my whole name. He's done research on me too, no doubt. I was probably just lucky he didn't take care of me before. This time, for sure, I'm dead meat. That's what I get for being a nosy anime geek. I knew I should've transferred schools the moment I heard the first mention of bullets.

"I-I'm so sorry! I got involved again! I'll be sure not to get in your way ever again! And I won't tell anyone, I swear! Please don't kill me!" She knelt, pleading Reborn, as Takeshi laughed ("Haha! What's that about? Is she playing the game, too? Great!") and Hayato snickered evilly from the side. He's probably enjoying this, stupid sadistic delinquent!

"That confirms it. I was right in my assumptions, Mikami, you have found out about us." The baby smirked as amusement flickered behind seemingly childish onyx eyes. "Now don't worry, we have no intention of harming you. You don't pose much of a threat to us."

"Y-you're n-not gonna kill me?" Mikami carefully raised her head and stared disbelievingly at him, sensing a silent "yet" at the end of his words. "You don't think I might tell someone or call the cops or anything?"

"Even if you provided someone with what little information you possess, it is neither believable nor sufficient enough to bring harm to us in any way," he casually explained, taking the chameleon off his hat and petting it with his small hand like some kind of stock evil bad guy character type.

"So you won't kill me no matter what I do?" She still didn't believe him.

"Now, don't misunderstand, we might decide to deal with you if you show any intention of standing in the way of our plans but we don't kill every person that looks us in the eye, I assure you."

Mikami sweatdropped when she heard Hayato snort and mutter "Yeah, sure..." silently under his nose as he pressed his lighter to light a fresh smoke.

Is the kid lying to get me to side with them? Her thoughts weren't far from the truth. Well, I'm not giving in! Mikami stood up and crossed her arms, adopting a more serious expression in preparation to say something stupid she thought she might regret later.

"Mr. Hitman—"

"Reborn."

"Right... I'm grateful that you're letting me live but you should know that I can't allow myself to stand around doing nothing while innocent people like Yamamoto and Miura-san are getting swept into your mafia schemes!"

She trembled and gulped when Reborn let out a "It's more like a Family business, really."

"If you don't stop involving civilians in whatever dangerous things you're doing, I'm telling the police!" She tried to sound serious but she was sure she could feel her voice tremble. And so could Hayato, who snorted again behind his cigarette holding hand as he pretended to take a drag. She aimed a frown at him for that.

"Too bad, because I have no intention of listening to some powerless little girl's pathetic attempt of a threat." Mikami's eyebrow twitched when this short tiny infant dared to call her of all people "little". "I'm here on a special request from the current Vongola boss, the ninth, to train Tsuna to become an admirable boss and to supervise and recruit members for his, the Vongola tenth's Family. It's not my call if innocent people get involved. Rather, if they were indeed as innocent as the claim, they would learn to keep their distance the first time around and never bother us again." The corner of Reborn's lips shifted again when he noticed the uncomfortable look on Mikami's face, which was telling him she'd understood the reference to her own actions up until now. "There's a popular Sicilian proverb for that from where I come from – Cu è surdu, orbu e taci, campa cent'anni 'mpaci."

"Huh?" Mikami took a mental step back when he randomly switched to Italian in mid-sentence, although she had to give him some credit that he sounded believably fluent at it. It made her rethink initially not believing he was a real Italian. "W-what the hell does that mean?"

"He who is deaf, blind and silent will live a hundred years in peace," Hayato translated smoothly, exhaling a thick gust of ominous smoke in her cringing bewildered face.

Mikami stiffened as understanding sunk in. Reborn surely meant her by all of that. Was she really as innocent as she thought? Maybe it was her own fault for butting in on their affairs. What am I thinking? He's just trying to get to me, get into my head and confuse me, that sly little hitman, he's probably trained for that!

"Then I'm seriously going straight to the cops!" Mikami placed hands on her hips and a determined face on as if her posture could help her channel the confidence she needed for this. "I'll do anything I can to stop you from placing people's lives in danger! I won't give up on my word, dattebayo!"

"We'll see if you succeed," Reborn smirked to himself, finding the situation amusing. "But let me warn you, if you do try to inform the authorities, beware that you'll be daring to break omertà." The solemn voice in which he said it somehow caused Mikami's entire body to tense over.

"Wha—? Omertà? I think I've heard that somewhere before. Isn't that—?"

"Dattebayo?" Hayato cut her off. "Where the fuck did you pick up that ridiculous expression from, ponytail woman? Who talks like that?! So lame!" His words made her ditch the confused look and flush at her geeky Narutarded outburst and at the silly nickname he gave her.

"P-ponytail woman?! Lame?! You mean you don't remember who I am?! I've been showing up a lot lately! We're in the same class, you moron! My name is Hatsukaichi Mikami!"

"What?! Who're you calling a moron, moron! I'm not obligated to remember every single fucking person, especially when the tenth has no use for them. There's no point to it, its anti-productive," he yelled back as he stared her up and down with a slightly uncomfortable look on his face. "And there's always hair in your face, so you're practically unrecognizable with a ponytail!"

"Are you retarded?" she snapped, "What kind of a made-up reason is that?! Are you chronically unable make out people's faces?! It's too damn hot so of course I decided to tie my hair! It would be a killer not to! Don't you feel the humidity, girly locks?"

"Argh! What's up with everyone and nicknames about my friggin hair?! To hell with you!" Hayato neared his boiling point and pulled out a bunch of explosives from practically nowhere, at which Mikami immediately took back everything she said and curled into a ball on the ground with hands over her head in attempt to shield herself from the upcoming onslaught of firepower.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry! I didn't mean anything by it, I swear!"

"Now, now, don't fight! We're all friends here, right? Let's get along!"

"Shut up, baseballtard! How many times do I have to tell you I'm not one of your stupid buddies!"

Back up on the bridge a certain black-haired figure with a Nami-chuu disciplinary committee uniform and a familiar red armband observed the commotion below with an ever-present glare.

"Such an eyesore, that crowd..."

- Omake -

Mikami: So you said you're Miura Haru from Midori-chuu. It's unfortunate that you ended up getting involved but I'm kinda glad there's finally another normal person like me who also knows the truth. So... How did you find out?

Haru: Haru is pleased to meet you, too~! But... find out what?

Mikami: *sweatdrop* Uh... you know, about the mafia thing...?

Haru: Hahi! Yes! Tsuna-san will become the best mafia boss! And then Haru will be the tenth's pretty mafia wife~! Donna Sawada~!

Mikami: Hahi? *more sweatdropping* Umm... you didn't answer me...

Haru: ...and the wedding's gonna be on a big boat and Tsuna-san and Haru are gonna eat fried shrimp...

Mikami: *dumb look* Why do you keep talking in third person? And here I thought I had found someone sane who shares my struggles...

- A/N -

Turns out I'm not gonna be able to post a new chapter every week. So just add the story to alert and you'll probably get a new chapter every month or so. ^^; Oh, and thanks to everyone who reviewed last time! Thanks to you I received the mtivation to write and made this chapter, even though I had some internet problems and couldn't upload it for some time. Special shoutout to kimikissu07 who nagged me to publish this to the very end (and kept wanting spoilers). xD

Review please~ Thank you~