Thank you for all the reviews/favourites/follows! It's really nice to know that there are people reading this, and like it as much as I love writing it. c:

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language.

She had managed to evade Hibari for two weeks now. It was a record, and Riko fully intended to keep beating the record with each passing day. After the incident where he had unceremoniously shoved her off the third floor, she was liking him less and less. There was even a blown-up A3-sized poster of the prefect tacked up in her closet door, with words of hatred written on post-it notes slapped around it, although she would not admit to actually tracking him down to actually take the picture in a surreptitious manner without him noticing.

"Hey bitch, you listening?"

Squalo's harsh voice tore her out of her reverie, and Riko blinked away from the window she had been staring out of, and directed her green-eyed gaze towards the Italian. "I've been listening for ages now, Kisame."

"Don't fucking call me that!" he growled as he flipped her off before slamming his hand down on the table between them, "Do you understand what you're supposed to do or not!?"

It was a generically beautiful Saturday morning, and while most teenagers were either out at club activities or sleeping past the ungodly hours of the weekend morning, Riko had been the recipient of a very rude awakening by Belphegor himself, saying that Squalo wanted to see her immediately for a mission briefing, while he threw knives at her and purposely missed vital areas.

Speaking of which, she would have to take revenge on the psychotic self-proclaimed royal.

"Am I doing this alone?"

"I fucking said that at the beginning, didn't I? I knew you weren't listening!"

"Calm yo tits, dude. You're saying this is a retrieval mission, and that's why I'm alone, si?"

"Did I fucking stutter?"

"And what am I supposed to be retrieving?"

Squalo jabbed a finger at a glossy picture of what seemed to be a silver chalice. "Were you not paying any attention to any fucking thing I said?!"

"Who wants the Goblet of Fire?" Riko wanted to know, as she picked up the picture and examined it. It was normal, compared to what she was usually sent to retrieve. The argent colour of the chalice was dull with age and possibly lack of polishing, and a dated design of European filigree snaked from the stem of the cup and wrapped around the base in an intricate pattern.

"The Basilica Family — that really old runty family? The Ninth wants to make peace with them, and apparently this shitty cup is a family heirloom that was stolen during a war by some Japanese warlord as a trophy of some kind," Squalo narrowed his eyes and yelled, "I fucking said all of this already! You're just making me repeat every fucking thing I said!"

"And you're doing a fantastic job, too," Mischief twinkled in Riko's eyes wickedly, "Shall I depart now, Kisame?"

"Directions and objectives are in the packet, and don't you fucking dare to mess this up."

"And what, put a black mark in my perfect record? I would never!"

xxxx

Because she was still unable to read Japanese characters despite having lived in Japan for a little over four months now, Squalo had thoughtfully gotten one of his subordinates to write GPS-like instructions for Riko. Taking 'a left turn at the next junction', Riko then stopped as the last line of instructions said 'you have now arrived at your destination'.

Looking up as she folded the paper and slipped it inside her pocket, Riko was met with a very impressive set of gates that had high concrete walls on either side of them. She looked at the nameplate on the side of the gate, but nothing registered in her head. After all, she was Japanese-dumb.

She looked around and noted that there were no cameras to be found, which she thought to be strange. After all, if these were descendants of warlords that were in prominent positions, it was very likely that they would have been a little bit more vigilant with their security. No matter, because this meant that her job would be much, much easier.

She pulled out her phone, and opened the camera app. Holding it up until the top of the gate was barely in the frame, she tapped the screen and squinted her eyes slightly. Riko didn't usually have the luxury of high-tech gadgets while she was on a solo mission to steal — yes, steal. 'Retrieving' was just a term they used to avoid admitting to any crimes — because she usually ended up losing them in the process, and while the Varia could afford to replace them, it was a hassle. That was why when she had been in a museum taking a picture of a glass-encased treasure in France a few years back, she had discovered that the invisible laser security barriers showed up as waves on her phone's camera.

Bless her habit for taking touristy pictures.

Waves did not show up. "Huh, strange," she muttered to herself as she slipped her phone back into her pocket. Was it odd that there was no extra security? Yes, but Riko decided to not pursue the matter. Maybe they had great faith in the security of Namimori's neighbourhoods, who knew?

She took a brisk walk around the perimeter of the mansion, which took ten minutes due to the sheer size of the estate. By the time she had reached the starting point, she had already pinpointed a blind spot where there were trees to obscure her from any windows in the mansion. She easily scaled up a lamp post from the outside, and vaulted herself over to the top of the concrete fence.

"O-kay! Might as well…" Riko pulled out her iPod, unravelling the white earbuds and inserted them into her ears. Scrolling down a list of playlists, Riko stopped at one named 'Mission: Boss Ass Bitch', and with a grin, she pressed the button and music started playing in her ears.

Pocketing the music player, she then silently tapped her way along the fence and launched herself towards the verdant canopy of a tree. Landing with a rustle, she carefully scaled down the branches, humming and quietly singing along to the song underneath her breath as she worked.

"I've got the mooOOOOooOOves like Jagger…" she sang softly as she studied the layout of the mansion from where she stood.

It was a traditional Japanese mansion, with an immaculate rock garden that spanned close to a quarter of the total area of the estate. There was a large pond next to a well-polished porch, with a bamboo fountain that clicked periodically as it filled up with water and tipped it out. Massive koi fish swam lazily in the water; bright flashes of orange, black, red, gold and white clashing brilliantly against the grey of the rocky bottom.

Beside the pond, Riko could see stumps of trees that had been cut down, and there were gardening tools heaped in a small pile nearby. A small platform had been erected close to where the tree stumps were, and from what she knew about Japanese tradition, it was probably a platform for tea ceremonies. Beyond the garden, there was nothing else but the massive structure of the mansion.

Fuck, these people were rich.

Riko closed her eyes, recalling the instructions detailing where the chalice would be. The central area apparently had a garden inside as well, and along the corridor that bordered around that, there would be a massive room full of displays.

'Whatever you do, don't fucking take anything else!' Squalo had written.

Tch. Did he think she was some sort of fucking kleptomaniac? It was just that one time! And they had stored it with a bunch of useless junk, anyway!

"It's going down, I'm yelling timBER!"

Riko grinned at the song as she stealthily slipped through an open rice-papered door, and tiptoed across the empty tatami room. Stopping at the closed door, she slowly slid it open and peered out.

Empty.

And Jesus Christ, there really was another garden!

Riko shook her head — now was not the time to be ogling. She silently sprinted down the corridor, and thankfully, a lot of the doors had been left open. She paused at the next corner, and a room bathed in a vermillion glow attracted her attention. If there was one thing she had learned from her experience as a retrieval expert, it was that priceless objects were usually kept in rooms with special lighting. And the orange-hued glare of the lights was definitely different from the other room whose lights had been switched off.

She peered inside, and a massive grin crossed her face as she was met with a fantastic sight of glass cases erected along the middle of the room, as well as the sides. Seemingly priceless artefacts lay pristinely inside the glass boxes, and as she looked at the walls, she could see that there was a mixture of Asian and European weapons that came from different eras mounted against the walls.

This was definitely the home of the descendants of warlords.

She looked around for her target, and spotted a gleam of silver down the end. Briskly crossing the room, she stopped at a table where various trinkets lay glittering against velvet cushions. Riko raised an eyebrow. "No glass for these?"

Indeed, the trinkets were vulnerable to thievery as they lay unprotected on the wooden counters. It was, once again, odd, but Riko decided that these people were either really, really stupid or really, really rich.

The chalice, albeit more polished than it had been in the picture, was exactly as it had been in the picture. Riko picked it up, extracting a cloth from the pocket in her jumper and wrapped it around the cup. She then carefully tucked it against her abdomen, strapping the leather belt around the stem of the cup, and pulled at it to ensure that it was secure.

"Mission accomplished," she said with a satisfied smirk. Well! That had been a lot more easier than Squalo had said it would be! That Kisame, always worrying for nothing…

"We're rich and we're young! You know you lo-,"

She turned around, and stopped dead in her tracks. Her jaw dropped open, and her blood ran cold as her eyes met a pair of very familiar eyes of blue-grey that glinted with amusement and malice.

Standing in front of her, despite the absence of his usual uniform and scarlet band, and instead dressed in a black kinagashi, it was unmistakably the very object of her nightmares and agony.

Hibari Kyoya.

"Why, it looks like a little herbivore has managed to wander in…"

DIDJA ALL EXPECT THAT?

Ahem. Sorry about that. I know it's a recurring theme for it to always be Hibari. Heh. I got a little bit excited writing this chapter. Anyways, lots of fun stuff planned for the next few chapters, so stay tuned! Reviews are greatly appreciated, and questions are very welcome. c:

PS The songs mentioned in this chapter are as follows:

Moves Like Jagger - Maroon 5
Timber - Kesha
Rich & Young - Ola

''Til the next chapter!

Delphoxi