Ciaossu everyone! This is xxDarkangelx again with another chapter for everyone! Hope you like it and please drop me a review if you liked it! Thank you so much~

Special thanks to PrimoWing, my crazy editor!

Chapter 9 ~ Appearance


Primo hurried through the forest, his cloak trailing behind him. Earlier, his hyper intuition had alerted him to several presences around the mansion, but he had brushed them off. He could deal with them after he had finished his meeting with G.

'Obviously, Xernus hadn't bother to adhere to the truce.' Primo thought as he walked rapidly towards the village. 'But then again, G did warn me about making a truce with the Xernus family, as he's the one who usually deals with them. Well, too late for any regrets now.'

Primo abruptly stopped walking. He could sense a very familiar presence nearby. Was it G? He turned towards the presence, which was currently residing under a tree and turned the corner. But it wasn't G.

Alaude glared coldly at Primo. Primo noticed that Alaude's traveling cloak was tattered and wondered if he had ran into any trouble during his mission in England. Alaude's face was also bruised, which pointed to the fact that he had been involved in a fight. And if he had been involved in a fight, Alaude usually won.

"Finally, you're back, Alaude." Primo said in relief. "Are you alright? Need any help?"

Alaude glanced over his shoulder. "The guards around the perimeter have been taken out by someone." He said in a monotone, totally ignoring Primo. "And there were footprints all around them. I estimate at least 30 men and, at the most, a commander with his entire company."

Primo nodded. He had expected that much. "Get back to the mansion to have your injuries treated, Alaude. I'm Knuckle is free at the moment."

The cloud guardian snorted in derision. "I'll never let that **** (self-censored) priest touch me." He shot back to Primo as he walked away.


G continued running for dear life. There was little chance of hitting him from this range but this sniper was from Xernus. They only hire the best of the best, even though so far, the sniper hadn't been able to get in a killing shot and live up to his reputation, thank goodness.

G leaned against a tree, his breathing ragged. His shoulder wound was still bleeding, the blood staining the right side of his shirt. His right hand was a mess. The bullet had entered and exited the hand, but it still hurt like hell. The sniper, after hitting his hand, had attempted to go for his legs, but had so far missed all of his shots, but some of the shots had come way too close for G's liking.

The loss of blood was making G dizzy. He banged himself repeatedly against the hardest tree he knew in the forest to keep himself in check, but it only worked for a few seconds before the dizziness came back.

'I can't die here.' G thought angrily. 'Primo's relying on me as his second-in-command. I can't be taken down by some cowardly sniper who probably doesn't even know the difference between a piece of wood and a sniper rifle.'

G stumbled forward a few more meters before his legs gave out from weariness beneath him. He crashed down onto the grass and leaves that carpeted the forest's ground, the light from his vision fading. Black spots started to dance in front of his eyes, taunting him as he faded into unconsciousness. His last thought, strangely, was of Asari, one of the most irritating person on earth he had ever met.

'I wonder what Asari's doing now.' G thought dreamily. 'Maybe he's playing his flute or training…or annoying the crap out of Knuckle. Who knows… ?'


Ryohei tried again, smashing his fists straight at the door. The door didn't even budge an inch and Ryohei's fists felt as though someone had deliberately snapped all the bones within it to tiny pieces.

"Argh, this is an extreme door!" Ryohei yelled at no one at particular. "But I should beat it to the extreme!"

"Give it up, lawn head." Gokudera muttered from where he was lying down on the sofa, his bandaged ankle propped up on the sofa's armrest. "They'll only let us out when they feel like it." Reborn had told Ryohei everything because everyone had been too stunned to do anything else, except gape with their mouths wide open at Ryohei, starting from where they had arrived and to their current situation. Ryohei's ring and box had been carelessly chucked by the owner into his jacket pocket, leading to protests from Gokudera.

"If your ring rolls out and they kill you," Gokudera snapped. "We'll help them dig your grave!"

"And if yours roll out, octopus head," Ryohei retorted back. "We'll help you escape by booting you out of the window!"

The familiar bickering had somehow helped Tsuna calm down, which allowed him to do a little thinking. The window and door were both locked, and were immune to attacks. But what if he used X-Burner against them?

"Reborn, do you think a X-Burner can fire through the window?" Tsuna asked the diminutive hitman hopefully.

"Most certainly it would," Reborn answered cheerfully. "But then, the impact would also knock everyone else out too."

"I can't think of anything else!" Tsuna cried, throwing his hands up in desperation. "Unless the guardians open the door and we run out of it when they unlock it….."

An idea suddenly hit Tsuna. He looked over to the window, an escape plan forming slowly in his mind.

"I think…." Tsuna said slowly to the whole room at large. "That we are about to commit an arson attack. I really hope Primo doesn't mind losing his window."


The pain in G's hand and shoulder had diminished. His vision slowly returned to him and he saw the last person he expected to meet kneeling and bandaging his shoulder, his cloak brushing against him.

"Giotto?" G slurred out in confusion.

"Hm?" Primo answered as he finished bandaging G's shoulder. Already, the bandage was turning red as the blood seeped out from the wound.

G took a deep breath. He knew he was about to do something unforgivable but it was unavoidable. He drew back his uninjured hand and with the force of an elephant stampeding, punched Primo in the face. Primo fell backwards and hit the floor hard but he didn't complain. He merely rubbed his face and winced.

"Huh, I guess I really deserved it." Primo sighed. He stood back up and looked at G. "I'm so sorry, G. I apologize deeply. There was a major situation back at the mansion and I forgot about our meeting in the village."

G laughed weakly. "Just as well you didn't come," he muttered. "There were Xernus snipers up at the hill, and they were probably waiting for you since they didn't start shooting until I moved out." Primo hoisted G up by the arm and slung G's arm around his shoulder.

"We've got to get you back to the mansion," Primo said urgently. First Lampo, now Alaude and G. All of his guardians were being attacked by the Xernus. Was Xernus that indifferent when it comes to truces? If he was, it just wasted Primo's time making the truce in the first place. Beside him, G coughed weakly, his breathing labored. He had lost too much blood already and it was probably going to take a few days for him to recover.

"And there're still spies to deal with." He muttered glumly. He knew it was normal for the Xernus to place spies around the mansion. Primo didn't mind them as long as they didn't interfere or harm the Vongola in any way. But this was getting too much. First Lampo, then Alaude and now G. The only way to stop this petty backstabbing by the Xernus was to march straight to their headquarters and cave in to their demands. Oh yes, Xernus was one of the mafia families that used every single dirty trick in the book and more. They were used to getting what they want by bullying or intimidation. But Primo was determined not to give in, no matter what. At least, that had been what he would've said before his guardians had gotten attacked. Now, what choice did he have but to agree to their demands? If he continued defying them, one of his guardians were going to end up dead one way or another, and Primo would never let that happen.

"Boss," G coughed out. "Don't worry about me now. What happened at the mansion?"

Before Primo could reply, a young girl suddenly stepped into their path. Her right eye was covered by an eye-patch and she carried a lethal-looking weapon with three sharp points. But her expression was different from her appearance. She timidly shuffled her feet as she stared shyly at Primo and G, not daring to move an inch. Was she lost?

G broke the silence. "What're you doing on Vongola's property?" He started asking aggressively, and then started to cough just as aggressively. Primo held him up and sighed. He looked towards the girl, who was looking a little taken aback by G's outburst. "I think you should follow us." He said neutrally. The girl nodded just slightly, a nod of acknowledgment. 'Maybe she was just lost.' Primo thought hopefully.

'Nah, who am I kidding? She might after all, be another spy sent by the Xernus' Primo shrugged as he started to walk back to the mansion, lugging G with him, the girl silently following from behind, her boots making no sound at all on the forest ground.


(Back in the present…..)

Location: Vindice Prison, Italy

The guard was feeling bored. He had thought that being assigned to one of Vindice's most escape-prone prisoner would be interesting, but it had turned out to be no different from the rest of the prisoners he had guarded.

He yawned, and looked at the door he was guarding. Behind that door, locked in chains and suspended in a water tank, was Rokudo Mukuro. His face was expressionless, suspended for an eternity in the water. Neither air nor light could enter his cell, and even the guard was forced to wear an oxygen mask.

The guard had heard (from his friends over a mug of beer) that Mukuro had escaped from Vindice once, which was the reason he was now being held in one of the cells with the tightest security ever. There was no way he could escape.

Suddenly, the alarm that had been built into the ceiling started flashing red. A wailing siren started sounding, its sound loud enough to fill the entire Vindice prison. The guard knew what it meant. A prisoner had escaped. Calmly, he took a large bunch of keys from his pocket and unlocked the door's six locks. It couldn't possibly be Mukuro. His chains would've held him had he tried to escape.

The guard opened the door, expecting to see Mukuro in his watery prison, but what greeted him was the water tank. Minus Mukuro in it.

Later, when he was questioned, the guard vehemently denied that anyone had entered the room, protesting his innocence. However, whatever the guard said didn't matter to the masters of the Vindice prison as it didn't change the fact that Mukuro still couldn't be found.

The guard was never seen again.


So, how was it~? Mukuro should be appearing in about 3 or 4 chapters more! (At least, that's how I planned it...I don't know whether the readers want it that way). So I guess I'll leave it up to the readers! Do you want Mukuro to appear earlier or later in the story? Drop me a review and tell me about your thoughts on this matter~!

Ciao for now~!