It saddened me quite to admit it, but I was starting to get used to the white hair on What's-his-face's head. That meant I was beginning to accept illogical things, like everything Nicky does, which was not in the job description. Then again, it may just be due to the fact that joining the mafia and having dynamite thrown in a small space, being aimed at the only person I knew here, took priority over the absurdities of anime hair.

The two of us headed south, and by south meaning the opposite direction of Nicky and Tsuna and probably in an easterly direction or something. People who solve problems with explosive weaponry most likely have no sense of direction, hence the whole explosive part. A simple matter of compensation, really.

He was muttering under his breath for a little while, which I tolerated, then at a busy street corner, decided to confront me. "What the hell is wrong with you and your friend?" The idea of a proper introduction flew out the window.

"Excuse me?" I hardly came up to his shoulder, which gave me a huge disadvantage if he liked to fistfight, but it was OK, I'm a cheap shot. I think I was getting ahead of myself though. Violence is not the answer. Unless he whips out dynamite from wherever he's hiding it on his person.

He scowled at me. "Yeah, you and that crazy bitch destroyed the Tenth's room. You two have a death wish?" He made a punching gesture with his fist. This guy was nuttier than a Snickers bar.

I made a wide-eyed face and pretended that I wasn't thinking of a hit and run. "We, we were invited into the mafia by that small child."

"Oh, really now?" I'm going to die any second now. Right in the middle of a street of a country I should not be in. My dying words would be that I'd kill Nicky once I hit the afterlife. "Me too!"

.... What?

The guy was tripping happiness. "Yep, I'm going to be the Tenth's right-hand man!" His mood then went to sour and he made a motion to his pocket for dynamite. "You're not planning to steal that position, are you?"

"N-no, not at all, I would never" I said, petrified. "Nicky and I are very new, very, and would never try to take such, uh, high-ranking position from someone much more qualified like yourself." I shook my hands frantically and tried to sound very convincing that the very idea was ridiculous, because it was.

He went back to whatever high he was on. "The Tenth is so great, he even got foreigners to join the family!" This was a good thing, how? "So what skills are you and that bitch specializing in?" He still was upset with Nicky, or just called all women that and just not me at the moment because "You" would suffice.

Well, now that I was almost out of the woods in terms of being blown up to smithereens, I wasn't about to say something to tip that scale over again. Like, I don't know, "We don't have any." Instead, I decided to be a wimp and change the subject. "So, we're looking for someone who plays baseball?" I asked.

Gokudera twitched. He twitched! That had to be a bad sign. "Baseball freak" he corrected me.

"Oh" I said intelligently, like I understood. "So what does he look like?"

"He has black hair and he's ugly."

I looked around; everyone had black hair. Why couldn't this guy have something weird for a hair color? It would be so much easier to identify him if we were looking for someone with pink hair or green hair or whatever kind of hair these people had. I pointed and reminded him that I had never left my country in my life until today, "I think you need to be a little more descriptive."

He looked around, spun a couple times. "Damn it!" he yelled, stomping his foot down and attracting a lot of attention. Why has no one noticed these mafia people up until now?

'No, no, it's OK" I said holding my hands in front of me, as if it was some sort of calming gesture. "I'm sure it won't be too hard to find him, though shouldn't you have already known everyone had black hair already? You kind of live here."

"Not that!" he yelled directly at me. I found out the hand gesture is a sign of helplessness, and can help sometimes when something is being aimed at your face, like the rage of a white-haired middle-schooler. "We're lost, stupid!"

Stunned, I said"What." Not even a question. I'm going to kill him. I am. Going to kill him. "How did you get us lost?"

"I don't know! This is your fault!" He walked over to a garbage can and picked up a piece of cardboard lying on the side. "Do you have any chalk?"

"Yeah, I carry chalk on my person at all times for emergencies. No I don't have any chalk! Don't blame getting lost on me and then ask a favor!" Now I was yelling. We looked absolutely ridiculous and out of our minds to the random passerby afraid to make eye contact.

The guy then kicked over the garbage can for no reason. A cat practically flew out of there, making me jump onto one foot. Yes, I do that when I'm startled by disease-ridden animals and the like. Nicky compared me to a flamingo with crazy hand gestures once. Trust me, it was only once. I made sure of it. He ignored me and took out a piece of dynamite, then with his teeth, ripped off the top. Aren't those things made of plastic or some material that makes doing that impossible? Maybe no one did because it was just dangerous.

It took me a minute to realize Gokudera was using the gun powder to write on the cardboard, which was surprisingly clever. I put my other foot back on the ground and scooted behind him to take a look. "I don't get it" was what I came up with after observing. "What's with the fancy math equation?"

"I'm trying to figure out how far we walked to see if we can retrace our steps."

I raised an eyebrow. "You're good at math?"

He looked proud. "All for the Tenth."

"Huh" I said, "a living oxymoron." His facial expression could not be described. "Please don't kill me." I backed up a lot, and fast.

He grumbled and went back to work. I occupied myself with looking around for something familiar. Heck, maybe we'd see that baseball guy while here. Right about then was when this sickening noise echoed from a couple blocks away. I tapped on Gokudera's shoulder. "What?"

"Did you just hear that?"

"That diseased bird? Yeah." He was looking at me like I was the crazy one.

"We should go to the source" I said. I swear I'm sane. Really.

He stopped completely what he was doing and looked me over to see if I showed any signs of drug abuse. "You're joking."

I crossed my arms. "As funny as that sounds, no. I'm serious." He was about to tell me how idiotic that was, and maybe cuss me out, when I pointed out that we were lost and couldn't possibly get more so and that he had resorted to writing on dirty cardboard with gun powder. We were then off, following a hunch of mine. I sure hoped I was right, otherwise we, me particularly, were screwed. And I might die.

The odd noise stopped, but after walking about twenty feet, a new one took its place. Quite frankly, it sounded less sane than the former one, and more like we needed an exorcist where we were going. It then stopped again, but we were already close to the source and prepared to take the thing on. Luckily, as Nicky and Tsuna came into view after turning a corner, I gloated to myself on being right. They did not see us at first and were still talking. "We're really close" she answered. "We love each other. Not in a lesbian way, you know, but like a quote unquote, 'Nicky, one night I am going to break into your house and rip out your uterus so you can never breed' kind of way. See?"

"Um, OK." Tsuna looked just as comfortable around her as when she offered him candy; frightened and ready to run away. There was another guy with them, tall with black hair. He laughed a little bit, like what she said was a normal joke. It didn't take much to figure out he was who we were supposed to look for.

"Hey!" Gokudera decided to blow our cover, because being right in front of them can be considered cover. "Baseball freak, what the Hell?"

The other guy waved. "I got lost."

"Nice Nicky, what exactly were you imitating?" I asked.

She made flapping motions with her arms. "I'm a sea lamprey that feasts on children" she said. "I knew you would receive my telepathic message and take us back to the hideout now that we have the loot."

Right. Of course, why didn't I guess that? Stupid me, not being able to distinguish their call. "Actually, we're also kin-"

"-We're freaking lost." Gokudera finished. Tsuna whined about how we were supposed to get back now, and Nicky called him no-good. I don't see why that was as insulting as it was, but it did not put him in a better mood.

A small argument broke out on which way we should go. I introduced myself to the baseball guy, Yamamoto, in the meantime. Why can't any of these people have names that are easy to pronounce? They then settled on going right, not like I cared enough to put any input in. We didn't actually go anywhere when a bullet flew through the middle of our little posse. Some of us, well, me, freaked out. The lid of the garbage can it came from opened up, and somehow Reborn was just there. Creepy little baby, I was starting to deduce. "Ciaossu. I see you all found each other."

A certain white-haired male made a remark, and the guy was suddenly over there and snapping his arm. I backed my way up to the fence and tried to kick Nicky for laughing so hard. This was not funny.

He continued without a change in expression. "We are all going back to Tsuna's house now. Congratulations you two" he pointed a tiny finger at us, "you passed the first part of your initiation."

"What?" Tsuna asked; he still did not agree with this. Yamamoto laughed and said something about a mafia role-playing game. Gokudera was still nursing his arm.

"Oooh, there's more?" Nicky asked. She was so excited, and pumped her fist in the air. "Bring on the bitches!"

I smacked my head. Why isn't today over yet?

Hi, it's Neurotic. Chapter late. I don't think it's that great either. It's so short.

Happy, Insomniac? I didn't leave you with a cliff-hanger this time.