Chapter 9

The Yellow Hyacinth

Uncontrollably, I sneak under my covers. I don't want anyone to see me like this, I don't want anyone to see me this vulnerable. Especially… not him. Especially not Mukuro-san.

I hear footsteps, closer and closer. It's resonant, it's deep, it's not Grandma's footsteps.

"Kufufu… you're shy?" Mukuro walks closer, I can hear his deep voice, it follows into my ear canals, triggering every nerve in my body. Silent wind chimes add on, how I should be calm, how I should act like a princess now, but my head is bumping, it's beating fast, hard, and loud.

"No! I… I'm fine…" Suddenly, a chill runs up my spine, making me cuddle more into myself, curling up my covers on my body. He keeps on walking forwards, just keeping on laughing his renowned kufufu.

"Oya oya," I felt something pressing down on the covers, and peek my eye out to see. Mukuro was smiling, sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked… so… good. He was so caring… as if feeling a volcano eruption in my face, I hide back into my covers, breathing in and out rapidly.

"That girl—she's a strong one." Grandma's crinkly voice breaks open the silence, and I hear Mukuro's laugh once again.

"I know." He peels open the covers, and stares at my hot red chilly pepper-ed face (yes, maybe that's not a real word now, but some day, it will.)

"Eh?" I attempt to sit up, but his large hand is on my head, pushing me back down in my covers.

"You're going to get cold. Stay in your covers." Mukuro turns away from me, and stares into Grandma's eyes.

"How long has she been like this?"

"One day."

"Her temperature?"

"Thirty-nine."

Mukuro sighed, and walked out of the room with Grandma right behind his heels.

I hear him mutter a bit.

Right… he had work too. He needed to go take care of his followers. And he had said it before, I was just his prey. No one would care for prey, right? But I shake off all those extraneous thoughts.

It just made me happy to know that Mukuro-san was happy, that he was smiling, that he was still that large boss character that I admired.

But I don't hear the door opening, I just hear more and more footsteps, louder, louder. Louder.

My door slides open, and in Mukuro's hand s a large wet towel. It doesn't fit his princely image. He spread it out as if it were a whip, and slaps it onto my forehead. I tingle slightly at the sudden cold, and uncontrollably begin laughing.

"Arigato, Mukuro-san." I smile, and he turns away, muttering, "be quiet and rest."

He turns away, muttering some words to Grandma, then, as he was planning to leave the room, he muttered,

"The snack-shack without you isn't anything anymore…" He turned around with a smile, "I only want my pineapple- seller, so get well soon."

And the door closed.

r-

Reika sat on the couch, hearing the murmuring of Chikusa and Ken in the corners of the room. She curled up in a ball and took out the bag of dry pineapples she had bought the day before.

Munching each, one by one, she got more and more angered…then lament.

Mumu-kun.

There was always a way that this man could ruin her serenity in her words, always a way that he'd make her life, always a way that he'd make her feel ease.

But when he was gone, she had felt nothing similar like this before.

Her life—before Mumu-kun entered it—wasn't this bad either.

"Are you hungry bya? " The blond guy walked over, his tongue sticking out of his mouth. Reika, surprised, looked up. Those two boys never cared about her one bit.

"Nope." Reika smiled, it felt good, in a way, being cared about by him, by anyone else in this world that showed her that she had meaning. As she grinned, she held out her bag of dried pineapples, offering it to Ken.

"Is it good bya ?"

Reika shrugged, then, continued grinning. Ken reached in and grabbed a handful.

"Thanks, I'll buy food later bya." Instead of gulping that handful down himself, Ken walked over to Chikusa, and poured half into his hand, then silently, began eating the pineapples.

Ken…wasn't as abrupt as she had thought. He wasn't as bad as she had thought. She smiled to herself as she continued eating. Maybe if there were other people caring for her here… she could enjoy some parts of it, even without Mumu-kun.

Hopefully, that'd be true.

A few branches twitch outside, and everyone gets on alert. Ken, holding his fangs in his hands, Chikusa, holding his yoyo, and Reika, pulling out her rings in alert.

Seeing that Reika was the closest to the door, she was also the first to get to the door. He saw a boy with brown hair, will flames from his forehead, and Vongola gloves on his hands. She knew Mukuro was in Vongola, but who this man was, and what he wanted with them, she didn't know. It was red alert.

"I'm here, looking for Reika."

"I'm Reika, how can I help you?"

"Heard you were Mukuro's strongest companion, and, as the leader of Vongola, I must test your powers."

"So….it's a fight?"

"Yes. I'd like to get started as soon as possible, as I have many other things to take care of reborn." The boy's face went grim as he muttered, "stupid Reborn." But looked around cautiously as he said those very words.

"I'd be glad to accompany you."

The man took in a deep breath, but the two figures appeared behind Reika.

"Tsunayoshi, what are you doing here?" Chikusa murmured, springing his yoyo.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi! God bya! " Ken stormed in front of Reika.

"Not here to fight you two, I'd like to keep you two nice and safe for the time being. I just needed to test how strong Reika was."

Ken flexed his arms out, narrowed his eyes and glared into Tsuna.

"She's a new member, she still needs to train!"

"Then she can continue training after I test her. I will try to keep my attacks as soft as possible."

Hearing until now, Reika couldn't hold it anymore.

"I'm not that weak!" Reika shouted, walking past Ken. "I'll fight you…"

Reika lied wounded on the ground, huffing desperately. She lifted her hand up in the air, looking at the rings on her fingers.

-flashback starts—

"Rei-chan, come over here!" The old man's voice echoed into Reika's room, and she leapt up happily, launching herself in the chest of the old man.

"Put your finger in this ring." The old man held out a red ring, and Reika slipped it on without another thought. A birthday present?

She felt an energy surge up, almost so much that she felt like her chest was going to break open, she began frantically reaching for air, until finally the turmoil stopped. Her chest stopped heaving. She had pointed with her hand at the ceiling, feeling something surge inside of her. But it was trapped.

"Call out 'fire' Use your will. Hope for fire."

Why would the old man want fire? But Reika couldn't care anymore. Fire…fire…fire.. I want fire… she began concentrating her thoughts, but each time, it would end in a series of giggles.

"Do this or else I'll kick you out!"

It worked that time. Flames that seemed to appear from her palms broke down the ceiling. But she fainted right after.

What this power was…she didn't know until much, much, later.

-flashback ends—

"What is this, Reika?"

Reika puffed for little while more until she brought herself to sit up.

"Each ring has a different property. Red for flames, yellow for heat, green for Earth, blue for Water, white for temperature and rope, and the black… I prefer not to ever use that."

"How does it function?"

"It's basically the combination of will power and actual things. For example, for Earth, I need to call out into my brain for the Earth, as the will power begins to energize the ring, there has to be the certain element nearby or else it doesn't work. If there were no plants near here, my green ring wouldn't work. For my blue ring, if there weren't any water near, then it wouldn't work as well."

"Eto, how did you get these rings?"

"The old man that I lived with was an experimenter, I got lost and was abandoned. He brought me up and used me as a test patient. When he finished that first pack, he gave it to me and kicked me out. He said I knew too much already."

"Reika!" She suddenly heard a voice from within, and realized that it was the blond boy, Ken.

"Hai?"

"Are you okay?" He glared at Tsuna, placing his fangs in his mouth. Tsuna sighed and grinned at Reika.

"You're really strong. I'll pass down to the other guardians as well, of course, Reborn too, but now I really need to go. You took me so much longer than I had expected. Well, not like Mukuro was ever clear about what he meant by 'she's somewhat strong.' "

The boy waved, before running off down the street. What an interesting character….

But the leader of Vongola had said she was strong. Strong!

"You baka!" Ken appeared in the doorway, scowling at her. But soon walked out of the room and down the street, waving a hand back at her and shouting out, "I'm getting food!"

Chikusa walked out silently behind him, and sat down beside Reika.

"He's funny."

"Who?"

But Chikusa didn't respond, just sat with her and looked off into the horizon. Shades of red, purple, pink.

Her mind rotated back to the one subject now that there was time to think once again.

Mumu-kun.

He'd still be with Yumi now, having fun, laughing it off.

But Mumu-kun, Reika really wanted him. Just to have fun with him was fine.

bellluv's note:

YAY! Basically no homework in school anymore (hoop hoop!), so I'll try to update as frequently as possible! And… of course, reviews r greatly appreciated~ now… getting back to work…