The first time the Arcobaleno had seen Skull die had been on one of their first group missions.

Actually, it was the first mission.

The mission itself was simple; infiltrate the base, kill off any members present, steal some blueprints, and leave.

What really happened was completely different. There had been no hierarchy worked out within the world's strongest 7, so everyone was arguing, wanting to go about the assignment a different way. Verde wanted to build robots to send in, Lal wanted to somehow send in three of her troops from COMSUBIN, Luce and Skull wanted to be subtle about it, avoiding the killing where possible, Fon just wanted to be as quick as possible, and Reborn wanted to go in style. Everyone was arguing over who would do what, an in the end, no-one was happy. Add this to the fact that it was team mission where no-one knew each other, and you had the perfect recipe for a giant clusterfuck.

And clusterfuck is exactly what happened.

Everyone had managed to co-operate somewhat that everything was going somewhat smoothly, until Reborn, in his typical fashion, decided that he didn't want to be a follower anymore, that he should be leader. Lal, the person who'd actually been designated as leader, started yelling, which completely got rid of the whole surprise factor that the mission had depended on, and attracted pretty much everyone in the building.

Guns were firing, grenades were blowing up, everything was beginning to smell like garlic, and in the worst position was Skull, who, while one of the strongest, was still getting used to the mafia, and the way it worked. He was a stuntman, not an assassin or anything along those lines, and thus, didn't have the reflexes everyone else did.

He got shot. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 times. In his chest, in his head, in his gut.

In the midst of the furor, no one realized that he had been shot. However, when the fight ended roughly 10 minutes later, everyone could see the shock of purple lying in the middle of possibly 20 bodies, and feel a weird energy floating in the air. It felt dangerous, malicious, like death.

Fon, being the best person at healing, moved urgently, but not rushed, never rushed, over to Skull, and began to check his vitals, declaring him dead after 10 minutes of increasing urgent checks.

Heartbeat: What heartbeat?

Breathing: Nope.

Temperature: Cooling.

Reflexes: Not responding.

He was dead.

Reborn, Verde, Mammon and Lal scoffed at the fact that someone who was supposed to be one of them had died so easily, he was obviously too weak to have been any good.

Luce was only smiling creepily in her "I know something you don't" way.

Fon was torn. On one hand, he agreed with Reborn, Verde, Mammon and Lal that Skull had obviously been too weak, but on the other hand, someone had died. A teammate, granted, for a short while, but a teammate none the less. So he just sat there.

After a couple of minutes of not really knowing what to do, everyone began to get ready to leave. Moving the bodies and preparing the building for destruction was necessary. They were just glad they'd gotten the blueprints before being ambushed.

Just as they were about to leave the room, Reborn heard the sound of someone coughing. It was a wet cough, like the ones a sick person does when they've liquid in their lungs. Telling everyone to continue on, that he was just going back in to grab a gun and some ammo ("It's not like they need it.") he went back into the building, and stopped. He was shocked!

Skull, the one who died, was sitting up, and, from what Reborn could see, talking to the air in front of him. Curious, and wondering if the purple-fanatic had gone loopy, he moved closer to hear what was being said.

"Why couldn't you have just let me stay dead, Ch-" Skull sounded angry, and sad, and all around negative, but before he could finish whatever he was saying he was cut off by Reborn cocking his gun, leveling it with Skull's right temple.

"Checkerface, why do you think Sun Arcobaleno candidate Reborn is pointing his gun at my head?" Skull queried, completely relaxed, as if the gun pointed at him were a mere water-gun.

"I don't know, Maestro della Morte (Master of Death), but it could have to do with the fact that you were dead not 30 minutes ago."

The tension in the air, building from Reborn's displeasure at the dismissive treatment, jumped to an almost palpable level. The cogs were ticking over in Reborn's brain, and he was arriving at a very unlikely conclusion.

"You're actually immortal, aren't you, Skull?"

"Yup! And, while I congratulate you on working it out so quickly, you're not going to remember this conversation. You'll just remember hearing me miraculously come back to life, shrug it off as mafia (God I love that excuse) and leave to join the others."

"What are you talking about? You're not going to tamper with my memories! It's impossible!"

"Hehe, Reborn-chan, darling, nothing is impossible when you have magic!"

"Wh-"

"Obliviate"

And Reborn's vision grew black.

~~~OOO~~~

When Reborn finally came to, he was back at the coffee shop where the first Arcobaleno meeting, sitting in between Luce and Verde. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he sat up, spine perfectly straight, hand on his gun, and looked around the room properly, assessing for the danger in the room that was making his instincts go haywire. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone in the room was causing his danger signals to go off.

Giving up finding the "danger" as a bad job, but keeping tense and ready to move, he tuned in to the conversations around him.

"Ne, hitman-san, how do you feel? Skull brought you in, saying you'd tripped over a body and knocked yourself out." No matter how much Luce tried, she couldn't keep the giggle out of her voice when voicing how Reborn got there.

"… I'm fine. Just on edge." Well, that was a gruff response. Luce smiled. It was obvious to her (and everyone else in the room) that Reborn didn't appreciate waking up in a completely different location to where he went "to sleep".

"Psst, Reborn. Does Skull look different to you?"

"Hm? Ah, I see what you mean. His hair is darker, and his eyes are slightly bigger."

Speaking of Skull, he seemed to be trying to make eye contact. Reborn, with a put-upon air about him, met his eyes and paused. His instincts were going haywire again, and Skull was looking at him with condescending amusement screaming from his posture.

'Hmm. I'll need to keep an eye on him. But not too close, he can't do much to me. He's just a stuntman. I'm the World's Greatest Hitman. So why does he make me feel like I'm back in training?'