Contrary to what many most surely thought, I haven't abandoned this story :3 I just had a major writer's block that lasted two years -w- what a lame excuse, right?

But I still have hope for this story. I keep rereading it trying to spark anew my inspiration. But I've slowly gotten it back :)

I've been wanting to start a new DGM AU but I want to further this one and see how it goes c: So hopefully you guys still like this one. I'll be trying to continue this story as much as I can. The uploads may be slow but they'll be coming :D So to unveil my 2 year long hiatus here, you go!

.: Playthrough 4 :.

= Basic Rules =

You play games with people's lives. You forget that they are fragile.

- Patricia Briggs

Reiyo couldn't believe that she sat in the room that she had undeniably escaped from but two hours ago. After the meeting, she had thrown a whole fit about the orangutan boy being her owner.

"Like shit he is!" she had yelled at the old man to whom she'd just agreed with to join their cause. Cause which still she didn't know of. "I am not accepting a low life, bad-mouthing guy like him!"

"Look who's talking," he sneered with the permanently plastered scowl that remained on his features.

Reiyo's temper blew at the snarky comeback and had one leg over the table ready to jump over it and kick his ass had it not been for Marie grabbing her and holding her back. "Let go! I'm gonna kick his girly ass!"

Although he gritted his teeth trying to withhold his anger, he managed to give her something close to a condescending smirk before replying her insult. "As if a skinny twig like you could. I bet you wouldn't even be able to touch a hair in a toddler's head."

"AH!" she exploded in rage kicking and punching the air as Marie lifted her into the air with his arms locking her own. "I'll rip your fucking head off!"

"Calm down," Marie shushed with a calm tone while holding the small girl aloft.

"Please, Reiyo-san," Allen spoke above the yelling and threats that were being thrown between the two. "We had no choice but to place you in Kanda's hands."

"He's the only capable and eligible one of us to take you in as his Excell," Lavi added to Allen's argument.

"Bullshit!" she growled through gritted teeth. "He's a pigheaded, transgender guy who's so anally retentive that Freud would be shocked!"

"That's it."

"Stop! Don't, Yu-chan!" Lavi pouted as he held onto Kanda by the waist holding him back from cutting Reiyo into little pieces for the doberman's at the entrance. He had a clear hand on the cane that Reiyo had seen earlier. What was he planning to do with it? Beat her to death?

She scoffed, not like Grace hadn't beat him to it already. Physical punishment wasn't something she was unfamiliar with.

"All I'm saying is that you could have at least put me in more capable hands," Reiyo called with a huff as she glared down at the old man.

"More capable than my own son, I don't believe there is, Reiyo-chan," Tiedoll responded sitting back on his chair. "He's very much responsible about his personal affairs. And for what you are needed as an Excell is very much a personal affair to us all. That you accomplish this is in our best and foremost interest."

Reiyo remained aloft while listening to him say this. She sighed and turned slightly to Marie, "You can put me down now. I won't burst out, I swear."

"Just...relax." She nodded at his request and he slowly put her down on her feet. Once free she tugged at her vest to straightened it and turned to face Kanda.

She couldn't believe what she was saying but as long as they left Gemma alone, she would go through hell. Even if that meant being owned by this excuse of a man. "As long as you keep your end of the bargain, I can't really complain. You literally own me after all."

"Please, Reiyo-chan. We don't intend to treat you as mere property," Tiedoll commented with a soft smile on his face. "I know you wish to go back to your life but we have our own matters to attend to which, unfortunately, require your help. I tell you what, once completed and over with, you will be given back your freedom."

"What?" she gasped softly hearing that one word. "Are you...serious?"

He nodded once with the smile still on his face, "Once over and done with, we will return you to your home and to your family. Your affiliation with us will be severed and you can go back to being the same young woman you once were."

She didn't need to think much of it and agreed to it. She was then dismissed and left to Marie's hands so that he could take her back to her room which was where she now was by herself.

She sat on the edge of the bed while thinking deeply about the pros and cons of this verbal contract they had just formed. She had no idea who this people were but Tiedoll, the one apparently in charge of everything, seemed to be the least tad bit reliable to trust. If just for now, that was.

These people were shady to put it simple. First breaking into their house to take Gemma in what was the equivalent of kidnapping. Only to take her instead and forcefully place a tracking device in her. She softly scratched the side of her neck where she could still feel the slightest bump upon her flesh. That must be it then. She could take it off and escape but that'd be useless. They'd simply catch her again like they did last time.

Okay, then what was good about this. If she did go through with this then, once it was over, Gemma and her would have enough money to move anywhere they wanted and live a life of tranquility.

Now the biggest question would be: was it worth it to hurt living, breathing, human beings for their own happiness?

Her conscious clashed with her morals. Getting back to Gemma was her priority right now and she would have to do what she had to do. She'd never hesitated before so she wasn't about to now. Her sister has and will always be her foremost priority. Always. Damn the costs.

A couple of knocks came to the door getting her attention from her train of thought. "Come in," she softly responded and saw the door as it opened.

The one who had knocked was someone she hadn't seen since she'd run around the estate that she now, apparently, would live in. It had been the one girl that she had bumped into in the kitchen which had led to her certain capture by Marie and Daisya afterwards. Her bobbed, teal hair was just as well kept as she had seen it and her large eyes seemed kind unlike most stares that she'd gotten from the people that lived here that she'd met so far. And just like before, Reiyo noticed that the girl wasn't wearing the same outfit as the other maids that she remembered seeing in the kitchen.

She came in fully to her room leaving the door half open. "Dinner is ready and Tiedoll-san wishes for you to join."

"I'm not hungry," Reiyo simply answer her and head for the wardrobe and started taking her vest off. "I'll just go to sleep now."

But just when she was unbuttoning her vest, she felt her grab onto her arm. Turning to her, she flinched at seeing her puffed cheeks and furrowed brow. She was...angry.

"You are coming down to eat dinner if I have to drag you down myself," she said with a steel tone of voice that took her by surprise. Who knew that such small thing carried such a temperament. Then again, who was she to talk about sizes and tempers.

"O-Okay," Reiyo stuttered still amazed at her harshness. With this she took her wrist and dragged her outside. Once outside, she went ahead and put the vest back on. She couldn't believe that she was now being forced to eat of all things.

Silence ensued quickly as they walked paced towards the dinning room. She didn't remember it being this far then again back when she got out of the room she wasn't really paying attention to her surroundings. Much less to this monstrous place that made a mockery of her little ass home.

"Um, do you work here? Miss..."

"Lenalee Lee," she answered with a smile as she glanced behind her shoulder at Reiyo. "But you can call me Lenalee. And no, to answer your question, I don't work here. I'm a guest just like you are."

"A guest of the old man's?" Reiyo inquired a bit curious.

"Tiedoll-san is a very kind man, Niyishima-san. He's a good friend of my brother who happens to work under one of the Four Houses," Lenalee explain a bit.

Four houses? She made it sound like some kind of fraternity. "If you're not a worker here then why are you here, exactly? And what did you mean by 'four houses'?"

"You still haven't been briefed as well as you should have," she called with a soft chuckle that even made her bubbly. It's not that she liked girls it's just that her gleeful attitude was contagious. "You will at dinner, though. As for why I am here, well, I'm the same as you, Niyishima-san."

The same as me...? "You're an Excell?"

Lenalee nodded at her question and fell behind to her pace and walked beside Reiyo. "I belong to Allen-kun and to the House of the Black Rose but only officially. Unofficially, I'm actually part of the House itself as it's elite defense trainer."

"Elite defense?" she murmured confused. Why the hell would a girl be an defense trainer? And what the hell did she mean by officially!? "I think you just left me a bit more confused that I already was, Lenalee."

She chuckled at her simplicity, "You'll be thoroughly informed and will have time to answer questions during dinner. We'll be all there to help you grasp a hold of the situation that you're in better."

"Mm," Reiyo simply said as she thought about it. "You weren't dragged into this, were you? You volunteered."

"I'm not in Inaguri's volunteer list if that's what you're hinting at," Lenalee answered her. "I was specially assigned to Allen-kun because of my position."

"So you know Walker then," Reiyo continued to which Lenalee only kept her head low.

And before Reiyo could ask what was wrong, Lenalee stopped before a pair of double doors that lead to the dinning room. "We're here," she softly spoke. "You'll be sitting in between Allen and Kanda."

"Oh boy," she scoffed and grinned. "This is going to be fun. Let's see how long we can last without giving an insult."

"Kanda-kun's not as bad as he makes himself out to be, Niyishima-san," Lenalee assured her with a wry smile. "He's just..well, that's just how he is."

"Yeah, and I'm just here 'cause I want to," she answered her comment with such thick sarcasm that not even a knife could cut through it. Lenalee opened the double doors and walked Reiyo up to her seat while taking her own next to Allen's right and Lavi's left. Kanda sat to her left and next to him was Marie and after that Daisya who, curiously enough, still had his soccer ball with him. At the other extreme and across of the table was Tiedoll. They were well separated and had enough personal space that Reiyo didn't feel like she was intruding into anyone else's.

Minutes afterwards butlers came in and served each the appetizer, some salad that funny enough everybody but Kanda seemed to have been served.

Reiyo was reluctant to eat. For one, she wasn't kidding when she said she wasn't hungry. She really wasn't. Second, Reiyo wasn't much a veggie person. Were it on her, she'd take the candy house from the witch from Hansel and Gretel. That or a good steak. So instead of eating it, she just played around with it with the fork.

"Not up to your standards, sweetcakes?" Lavi gave a small burst that broke all the silence there ever was.

"Please don't call me that," Reiyo uttered still playing around with her food and staring at it. "I'm just not hungry is all."

"Then why the hell did you come?"

She sighed at hearing Kanda voice his insult and simply peeked at her wrist watch. Glancing over at Lenalee, she raised it towards her and bragged, "We almost went five minutes without an insult." Lenalee chuckled at the comment but cleared her throat and continued eating.

Reiyo simply ignored his outburst and kept playing with her salad. Not much afterwards the butlers came back again, this time with the main course. It seemed to be like any other good Western food that she would serve at Gabrielle's. She liked that kind of food better than her normal Japanese but here it seemed kind of odd.

Specially when the only one served anything Oriental was Kanda with a plate of soba. Reiyo didn't eat either although the food look exquisite. She played around with it and gave up on eating after a few minutes and sat back down on her chair sloppily. Just when she did that, she heard a distinctive clinking of something under her shirt. Reaching in to her jacket, she pulled out the dog tag that held the same engravings as Gemma's locket.

What are you doing now, Gemma, she thought to herself as she played with the tag. Are you well? Are you fed? Are you unharmed? Please be okay. Reiyo's appetite was completely lost with those thoughts.

"Well," her train was wrecked when Tiedoll suddenly spoke. "I see that you have no interest in eating so I'll stop beating around the bush. I'm pretty sure that you're curious as to who we are exactly."

"I'll say, I could figure some things out of what you've all said and what I've come up with," she commented, her attention on better things like how her food looked. "I'm pretty sure that you all aren't outstanding people in society. Firstly because you broke into my house and kidnapped me. Though after agreeing to your mad plan, I don't think it's a kidnap anymore. Second, you injected me with this crap which, by the way, is sore as hell. And thirdly, you don't seem like your typical family specially because well-" Reiyo looked around at the three 'siblings' that sat on one side of the table. All three completely different from the old man. "Let's just say that you're an odd ball of a family." Not like she could talk about that though.

"Well you're not off the mark," Lavi assured to her while he laid his chin on his hands. "We're all part of the underworld."

Reiyo scoffed at his outburst and waved him away, "Funny, boy. You're hysterical."

"It's not a joke, Niyishima-san," Lenalee agreed and tried convincing her. "All of us are part, one way or another, of the yakuza. The four houses are factions that control the whole system."

"You keep mentioning some houses. What's that about?" Reiyo inquired drinking her lemonade.

"The Four Houses are the pillars that uphold the underworld here in Japan," Tiedoll explained to her while glancing her way. "My own, the House of the Black Lotus, is part of it. Alongside with the Walker's House of the Black Rose, Bookman's House of the Black Sunflower, and Noah's House of the Black Iris."

"Seems like you guys are obsessed with flowers and black," Reiyo said nonchalantly bored and turned to Lavi. "Black Sunflower? Doesn't even make since, buddy."

"Hey, that wasn't my choice," Lavi laughed out at her comment. "The Old Panda was in charge of the naming. Code names aren't stuff to joke around about."

Reiyo gazed around the room and noted who was from where. Kanda, Marie, and Daisya were Tiedoll's sons so they belonged to the Black Lotus. Walker and Lenalee came from the Black Rose. And Lavi from the Black Sunflower. If they were representing then...

"Is there anybody from the Black Iris here?"

There was a dead silence that took over the dinner table all at once. Reiyo gulped down and hesitated on pushing on. This seemed to be a sensitive subject on all.

Allen was the one that answered for them all with a wry smile towards Reiyo, "The three houses don't like associating with the Black Iris."

"Why? Are they like the black sheep of the yakuza family or what?" Reiyo contended while confused.

"They're fucking pieces of shit that should be eradicated," the sudden outburst from her supposed owner took her by surprise since he'd been so quiet the whole time during dinner.

"Violent much," Reiyo muttered and turned to Allen who simply had the same wry grin on his face.

"Let's just say that not everybody's in good terms with them," Allen added finalizing that part of the conversation.

Reiyo made a mental note about that. Noah's are a forbidden fruit here, alright then. "Then why are the big wolves running around playing a kid's game? I mean Exailion's only been around for a little while. Why would you involve yourselves with this?"

"When threatened with fire you payback with fire," Lavi called out to her.

"But you're going in unknown territory. I'm pretty sure none of you have ever even fought in the battles. They're..."

Inhuman. And now she was taking part of these inhuman games too. She sighed deeply and sunk into her chair. She's despicable.

She shook the thought away and kept going, "All I'm trying to say is that you're oblivious to Exailion and it's rules. Even I am but I at least know the basics of how it works."

"We're glad you do," Allen explained to her. "But we can learn as we go."

"Isn't learning through experience better than anything?" Lavi added playfully.

"Not with this, I wouldn't think so," Reiyo intervened. "All injuries are transferred and although death can't be given through it, the side effects are pretty damaging themselves. I mean I've seen that when girls are broken after fights."

"Don't you mean during?" Lenalee corrected her.

Reiyo shook her head and sighed, "Weapons are given at random to volunteers. These weapons are the ones used by them and what's transferred from owner to owner. They're a part of them and sometimes when the owners lose a weak weapon they do stupid things."

"Spit it out, brat," Kanda growled at her.

Reiyo didn't really didn't want to say it but Lenalee had a right to know just like she did. She turned to face her, "When I said that there's no risk of death via the game, I meant for the owners. This doesn't extend to the weapons. We can die if we are broken."

She gasped clearly not knowing about this little clause, "Have you seen this happen?"

"Once," Reiyo answered twirling the straw in her now empty glass. "The bastard broke the dagger that the girl was given as a weapon. Daggers are quite useless when many others get guns, lances, swords, or the likes. When he broke it poor girl had a heart attack and almost died. Luckily another bystander called the ambulance and she got to the hospital in time." She bit her lip and glanced up at Lenalee, "I don't know you well so don't think I'm doing this for you. I just hate seeing people hurt. Be careful about that."

"I would never do that," Allen intervened with a deep glare at Reiyo for insinuating this. Reiyo smirked at finding that the short boy had more than just a quick tongue on him.

"I guess not," she agreed and took the glass to take an ice cube in her mouth. Biting down on it she turned to face Kanda, "Am I going to have to worry about that with you Bocchan?"

"What did you say?" Kanda growled at her.

"Kanda, please calm down!" Marie called out holding his 'brother' down on his chair before he got a chance to cut her into pieces.

"You don't have to worry about Yu-chan, Rei-chan," Lavi assured her while the latter was busy thanking a maid that had brought her another glass of lemonade. "He has very good morals despite his violent pouts. He respects women most of all and wouldn't lift a hand against any."

"Call me that again and you're head'll roll," Kanda threatened getting a slight chuckle from Lavi.

Reiyo watched as the two as she took in what Lavi had said. So the orangutan did have some sense in him. It wasn't as it she were going to let herself be beaten by a man either. "What about you Bookman-san?"

Lavi jumped back to his sit after jesting around with Kanda and his volatile mood swings. "It's just Lavi, Rei-chan. And what about me?"

"Likewise, it's just Reiyo," she retorted a little annoyed that he was so straight forth about calling her by her given name. "I meant to ask but where is your Excell."

"We're working on it," Allen answered her question.

"I thought if there was a turf involving Exailion and the underworld, you guys would be more prepared than this?" Reiyo called a bit baffled by their nonchalance to the situation.

"Like the Brit said, we're working on it," Lavi agreed with a wide grin. "For now what matters if getting you, Yu-chan's Excell-" Lavi moved back, the chair toppling over backwards, just as Kanda withdrew a sword from what Reiyo had mistaken for a cane the first time she had seen it barely missing the tip of Lavi's nose that was now a good distance away. He simply ran his hand through his hair once before continuing, "We need to get you fit as a fiddle to fight for the Black Lotus Family."

"That's going to be really hard, my friend," Reiyo chuckled knowingly. "I don't know if you've notice but I'm not quite as fit for fighting as you make me out as."

"That's why tomorrow your lessons are starting," Allen called with a cute smile plastered on his face.

Reiyo sucked in her lemonade at hearing this and choked on it. Once she was done wheezing and coughing, she glanced up at the group before her, "What did you say?"

"Like you heard, Rei-chan," Lavi added going around the table placing an unwelcome arm over Kanda's shoulders. "Tomorrow your own private lessons begin."

It wasn't much and not much went on but I had to come back with this somehow. Ill keep uploading slowly so please be patient. I'm still working on other stories and maybe upload a new one. Who knows.

For now I'll leave you with this c: