Sorry for late update! But, eh…you should've expected this to happen sooner or later. I mean, I SUCK at updating. Plus, my last day of school isn't until the fricking 24th! And I was working on this one mini-project for English, and I still have my science finals project to do. No worries, it's not due 'til wayyy later. Wow, I sure rambled. ON TO THE STORY THEN! 8D

Kei0468: Hey, you guys have heard, right? The Yellow Scarves are attacking anyone that they suspect of being Dollars!

Rukia could only blink at her laptop's flashing screen. She wasn't one of the Dollars, of course, but she was curious. That's why she suddenly decided to check out the chat-room used by the Dollars members. Rukia, technically, wasn't even allowed to attempt joining the Dollars since Tsuna had ordered (with the help of Reborn) her to not get involved with anything big.

Obviously, a gang war is big, especially in a city like Ikebukuro, and the Dollars was one of the gangs involved with the fighting and violence. Becoming one of its members would surely endanger you and attract those against the gang, leading to you possibly getting severely hurt. That chat entry that Rukia just read right now only encouraged this.

Well, Rukia's in the mafia, the most powerful mafia family by the way, so she doesn't really have to worry about the fighting. However, the fighting may lead to some suspicions. Who knows? Someone with an IQ close to 200 might figure some things out and later exploit her status in the mafia world.

Anyway, Rukia realized some time later that she was running low on her food supply. She had a sufficient amount of money with her (thanks to the Vongola), so she decided that she was finally going to have to get her lazy butt up and go to the store. Her cobalt, sleek cellphone vibrated as she was getting ready to head out.

Baka Kida: wat r u doing rite nao?

Rolling her eyes at Kida's irritating text talk, she replied, "I'm going to go get some food from the store right now. I'm running out."

Baka Kida: y use prpr grmmr? its boring.

Rukia simply texted, "…"

Baka Kida: well neway, y go 2 the store nao? its rlly l8; 22:00 {1}

The Vongola Moon Guardian texted back, swiftly pressing the phone's buttons. "Why is it such a big deal?"

Baka Kida: scari ppl r out there u kno? & the gang war 2. ppl mite attk u

"I'll be fine."

Baka Kida: … wan me 2 go w u? 3 ill protect u~~ (no, im not gy, jus a concerned frend)

"…No thanks." With that, Rukia closed her cellphone before slipping it back into her pocket where it belonged. It vibrated once more, but Rukia ignored it as it eventually became silent.

Walking out in the dark streets of a city like Ikebukuro isn't exactly a smart thing to do. But then again, Rukia isn't smart either. She may be intelligent, but she's not really that smart. She has the brains, but she doesn't know how (or rather, prefers not to) to use them.

That's…probably why a couple of thugs donning yellow accessories decided to ambush the admittedly retarded girl. Then again, she looks like a guy. They probably wouldn't have done that if she looked more like a girl. …Right, moving on.

"Hey," the "leader" of the thugs sauntered up to Rukia, "Are you one of the Dollars?" He grinned with a cigarette in his mouth. Rukia's nose scrunched up from the familiar smell of smoke.

"Not at all," She said nonchalantly, bringing her hands into her shoulder bag, slipping intricately designed gloves out of them. The Yellow Scarves, she assumed, thugs didn't notice, however. If they did, maybe they might've recognized the Vongola crest embedded onto the gloves {2}. Or maybe not. Rukia doubted that the Vongola would've liked to be known by a lot of non-mafia involved individuals.

"Che," the leader grunted, spitting out his cigar before grounding it down into the earth with his leather shoe. "Yeah, right. Liar."

"No, seriously, dude. I'm not one of the Dollars," Rukia deadpanned, holding her glove-clad hands up in a "surrender" pose.

"Dude?" the ugl—thug leader snapped. "Listen, kid. This ain't America or anythin'. It's Japan."

"…But people say 'dude' in Japan, too, right?" Rukia's question seemed to be more of a statement since it was lacking the questioning tone.

The poor (eh, not really) guy twitched and finally had enough of it.

"GET HIM!" He ordered, pointing at Rukia with a random baseball bat (god knows where he hid it).

The other goons that were with him let out a roaring cheer before stampeding over to Rukia. They all lifted their dominate arm, holding whatever weapon they had (or just their fist for some) before going in for the "kill".

Rukia lifted her hands, preparing to take on the hits and stop them before they got to anywhere else on her body besides her hands.

"Hey." Rukia heard from behind her. She turned around to glance at their visitor. There, in that place, was that blonde bartender guy that she had met once before. The one that threw a vending machine at that Izaya guy and she had gotten away… Gosh, now that she thought back to it, she realized what an idiot she had been.

"15 against 1 isn't really fair, you know?" Shizuo grinned; a grin that could only be worn by those who loved fighting. "Unless it's me, of course."

'…Talk about a kickass entrance,' Rukia thought. 'Kyoya has those too, and sometimes Tsuna. Actually, I think everyone has had their chance at a kickass entrance but me! Man, this bites. …Haha, bites. Kyoya. Haha. …Well, wasn't that lame.'

Finally snapping out of her weird and totally random mental moment, Rukia lifted her head to look at Shizuo pwning (I am sorry, but there was no other officially English word that could be used in that space) those guys that had tried to gang up (literally) on her.

"Hey," Shizuo spoke up after he beat up all those guys, taking only about 15 seconds or so, "Let me see those gloves."

"Er…" Rukia reluctantly showed Shizuo her gloves, feeling like they were on display or something. Shizuo seemed to examine them for a moment, being all analyzing and stuff like that.

'That's an interesting symbol,' Shizuo thought as he stared at a steel blue version of the Vongola emblem. A deep ocean blue colored metal covered the fingertips of the glove as well. The glove's fabric was something similar to black leather, except that it was thinner.

"…They're cool." Shizuo bluntly complimented, although the way he said that with no feelings had Rukia doubting whether it really was a compliment or not.

"…Thanks, I guess…?" Rukia awkwardly expressed her gratitude, unsure of herself.

"Go back home already or something," Shizuo's hand made a "shoo" gesture, annoying Rukia without him knowing.

"Excuse me?" Rukia's sarcastic tone was anything but polite.

Shizuo glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "You heard me. If you keep on going to wherever the hell you were going, then you'll just encounter even more of these assholes." He motioned towards the unconscious bodies slumped on the ground.

Rukia inwardly winced. 'Vulgar language, much?'

"…Fine." Rukia relented, turning back in her route. She strolled her way back to her hotel's location while Shizuo stared at her back for a moment before looking away.

Suddenly remembering her texting conversation with Kida, Rukia slipped a hand into her pocket to take out her phone. Flipping it open, she wasn't surprised at the 3 new text messages from Kida.

Baka Kida: oi r u rlly goin by urself?

Baka Kida: h3110~~?

Baka Kida: D; answr plz?

Rukia sighed before texting, "Don't worry. I'm back at my place. All 'safe', so just leave me alone now.'

Not even a minute later, Rukia's cellphone vibrated, notifying her with a new text message.

Baka Kida: tats g00d ^-^ well bye-bye, im going 2 sleep~ sweet dreams~ 3

Rukia stared at her phone's glowing screen for a moment before smirking. "Sure. You too. ;P"

Covering herself with midnight blue blankets and sheets, she groaned as her phone vibrated again.

Baka Kida: =) u no, tat ";P" makes me think sumthing kinky~~

Growling in anger, Rukia didn't even bother to reply this time. With her face planted into her pillow and her phone loosely held in her hand, the Vongola's Moon finally conked out.

Bzz.

Baka Kida: jk~ 3 …r u a girl? im subconsciously putting 3's in my txts 2 u…'n' i uslly dun do tat 4 guyz

Bzz.

Baka Kida: …i cant go 2 sleep! ruki, help me~! D8

{1}- Japan doesn't use the AM and PM stuff, so…

{2}- No, it's not the same thing as Tsuna. You'll have to wait to see what Rukia can do with her gloves. ;3

*sigh* D000d…since I'm not used to using txt tlk, I had some serious trouble typing Kida's texts. Seriously. And, hm? What's dis? ;D Kida almost thinking that maybe our dear Ruki's a girl? xD

SHIZUO MAKES AN ENTRANCE, YO. 8D Hope this satisfies those of my readers that are also dedicated Shizuo fangirlies. ;3

-Ruki

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