"I'll do it." She uttered in a low voice. "Why didn't you just say that in the first place? If you had told me that it was the mafia that did this… I would've done something about this either way…"

Rin sulked in her room that night, resting her forehead on her knees and sighing heavily. "I sounded so arrogant back there." She muttered. Her heart poured out again when she said those words to Reborn. Of course talking back to him often meant more training later, but even so why did she say it like that? She hated mafia to the core. She didn't want to hurt anyone and she didn't want anyone to get hurt either. What the hell was she supposed to do though? She had no choice, but to do something about it. It wasn't right that someone had to get hurt and it was horrible that it was someone who was like family to her. She muttered the name she had for Gavin and prayed that he would recover soon.

She looked at her phone that was charging on her desk and reached for it. Calling Remilia was out of the question considering her current emotional state. Maybe Hoseki? Her thumbs quickly tapped the screen and dialed his number.

"Leave the message at the beep."

It perplexed her how Hoseki didn't pick up his phone this time. Maybe he was in the shower or something. Still, looking at how late it was, there's no way he could be taking a shower right now. He'll reply later, right? Even so, it was worrying. She didn't see Hoseki for most of the day and normally he'd called to make up for it. The brunette could only scratch her head at this. Finally she came to the conclusion that she was thinking too much and decided to sleep it off. With any hope it's all just a dream.

However, the dream was a living nightmare and the brunette had discovered that the next morning. She had managed to wake up early for once and slowly made her way down the stairs. She looked in the kitchen to see her grandmother and Tsuki cooking up breakfast, accompanied by the little blond child who donned his bunny hat in a messy fashion.

"Ok, Lining, what did we say about getting dressed in the morning? Always look in the mirror." Rin yawned as she fixed his hat on straight.

The child pulled his hat down shyly and covered his face. "L-Lining doesn't need a mirror! Go away!"

"You'll have to pardon Lining, he's been like this all morning." Tsuki sighed as she set the silverware on the table.

"Is that right?" She asked lazily as she took her seat. She took a small bite of toast and looked at Lining.

Normally he was noisy in the morning like Rima was. He'd be yelling at Rima to stop picking off his plate and would even throw his hat around, accidentally sending firearms flying throughout the room. Now he was completely silent minus his last statement. He seemed completely different from a child in general. His face was solemn and he wouldn't look up at anyone. Rin opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong when suddenly the house phone called for someone to answer it.

"Oh, Rin, can you get that?" Her grandmother asked her polite as she looked up from frying the eggs.

"Sure thing." She pushed the chair back as she stood up to answer the phone in the hall. "Hello, Amano residence." She greeted formally, stifling a yawn. Shouts and screams blared into her ear and nearly made her drop the phone. She tried to listen to what they were saying, but it was complete incoherent. "Guys, calm down! I can't hear you when you're all shouting like this!"

The other end of the line turned quiet for a few seconds and finally someone stepped up to speak. "Rinny, I know how you said it'd be great if school just didn't exist, but…" Remilia's voice began to trail away. "Our school's gone, it's a freakin' empty lot!"

Rin almost dropped the phone again. She was left dumbfounded. Surely, she's dreaming again. Or that thing where you wish at 11:11 really works. It's all the late-night homework sessions from Reborn. Yeah, that's it. It's those late-night study sessions. "I'm sorry, Remmy, but did you say 'gone'?"

Silence. "I knew you didn't have such great hearing, but really? Yes, it's gone! There's a just a fat empty lot where the school used to be! There's even a freakin' hole in the ground as proof!"

"There's more, Rin."

"Viola?"

"Rin-san, the school's not the only thing missing. Takasu-san, Hoseki, Shiroi and everyone from class including Murasaki-senpai are all missing. The only ones that showed up to school were me and Remilia-san." Viola's voice was serious for once. It wasn't that polite tone of voice nor was it that semi-sarcastic tone. It was dead serious. Her voice was cold enough to send chills down Rin's spine.

Rin felt her heart stop. Everyone was gone overnight. Her skin quickly turned pale at the thought. Then it hit her. It hit her hard in the chest like a wrecking ball. Hoseki was missing. It was pieced together in her head. The guy had been missing since the previous night. She froze in the middle of the hallway, unable to move. She stood there trembling. She wanted to say something, anything really to prove that it was all just a surreal dream. Sadly it was reality.

She felt the plastic surface of the phone slide out of her hand and turned around.

"Leave it to Rin. She said that she'd take care of it." Reborn assured them with a sly smile. With that simple sentence, he hung up the phone and threw Rin's clothes in her face. "Go and get ready, we're going to the park."

Her chocolate eyes showed how dumbfounded she was. She watched his broad back walk up the stairs with his hand in his pocket, stunned and awed. Then she realized that she let Reborn speak for her again. "Hey, Reborn!" She hissed as she ran up the stairs after him.

Once she had changed into a pair of dark blue jeans and a black T-shirt that concealed the dark red thermal she donned underneath, she followed Reborn to the park per his orders. There, her eyes grew fixated on a familiar silhouette sitting on a park bench. Long golden hair was tied back into a flowing ponytail by a sky blue ribbon, an open book on her lap and glasses sitting on her face.

Rin smiled and her heart filled with excitement. "Dana!"

The woman looked up and smiled. "Yo, kid! How's my little sister doing?" She casually greeted as she took off her glasses. She looked at up at the man who walked up from behind Rin and suddenly her expression became stoic. "So it did happen."

Reborn nodded. "I'm afraid so. The Velenospino are making a comeback and they chose to do so here."

Rin looked at up at the two, confused and worried. Hearing a foreign name like 'Velenospino' and the word 'comeback' just called for nothing, but trouble. She was scared to ask and began to gnaw at her lower lip. However, despite her effort in avoid questions, she parroted the name.

Dana could only look at her and feign a smile, trying her best to assure the teen. "It's a long story, kid. All we can say now is that they're dangerous."

A smirk crawled across Reborn's face, complimenting his sly shadowed eyes. "That's why she said she'll take care of it."

The blonde's lips could only gape as she looked at the hitman. Her brown orbs shifted back and forth between the brunette in front of her and the man on her right. She furiously shook her head, whipping her ponytail wildly. "Oh no! Absolutely not! She's not ready for this, Reborn! I'll accept the Spartan studying and the madness of your training, but not this! S-She's not just ready for this, Reborn! A-And more importantly, you're putting words in her mouth like you did to me when I was student, ri-"

"Dana, that's really not the case. He's telling the truth." Rin interrupted her. She looked away and stared at the ground where the sparrows were pecking and scavenging for a little snack. "I really did say that the other day. The circumstances… T-They were grim and I couldn't sit by while more people got hurt, you know?" She began to sulk again. "And now the school's missing. It's just one big empty parking lot from what they told me." The brunette could only lean back and sigh, her voice laced with what sounded like remorse.

The woman looked at Reborn with determined eyes. "Reborn, let me take her place. If I do then there's a smaller chance of someone losing their li-"

"Dana, this is something that Rin was asked to do and this is something that Rin agreed to. She can't go back on her words at this point." Reborn reminded her almost harshly. "This is the affairs of the Vongola, not the Cavallone."

"It may not me the affairs of the Cavallone, but this does involve me, Reborn! I'm putting my foot do-"

Reborn stared down at her, his eyes hard and cold almost like a knife. He frowned, but he remained absolutely silent. The tension in the air grew to become suffocating as Dana tried to hold her ground against her former teacher. In the end she grimaced and looked away. "I can't easily agree to this, but since this is law…" Her voice began to recede, understanding the reason why. Then she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Dana, I promise." Pause. "I-I promise nothing will happen to me! I'll come back and succeed! I'm not that reckless little kid anymore! Please, just trust me!" She back down and began to shuffle her feet. "I know what I agreed to might be something that could get me killed, but…" She dug her heels into the ground. "This is my fight! My reason for agreeing is not the Vongola! It was never about the Vongola to begin with!"

The birds scattered at the sound of her voice, echoing throughout the park. A wind blew in between and past the three, bringing up dirt and dust across the legs of their pants. Suddenly Rin felt a blow to the gut. There was that arrogance again, mocking and daunting her. Maybe she was still that reckless in a verbal fashion.

"Vongola this and Vongola that… I really don't get why this game is so important to you." A familiar voice startled them.

"You-"

"Let's get one thing straight. I like what Rinny said just now." The owner of the voice smiled and slugged her bat over her shoulder. "Normally I wouldn't step into a game of war, but there's a potential threat to my friends…" She swept her bags away from her face and flashed a brilliant white grin. "There's no way I'm letting you have all the fun in handing those butts their butts!"

"Remmy, that's really…" Remilia's cliché speech certainly threw her off. She expected that with everything that had happened that Remilia would be in a bitter state. She also expected Remilia to say something less cheesy or at least something more of her character like "Rinny, you butt. I'm not letting you do this alone." It was obvious what Remilia was thinking of doing and it was obvious that it was enough to render Rin speechless.

"I guess, I have no choice." Dana sighed dejectedly, pulling her jacket off her waist and sliding her arm through the white sleeves. "I'm going too."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I said I'm going." Dana snorted as she slid her jacket over her bare shoulders. "As if I'll let my baby sisters fight alone. As your older sister, I have the job and responsibility of protecting you too." She smiled gently and roughly ruffled their brown hair. "That and I couldn't live with myself I let something happen to you two."

"We can handle ourselves, Dana, unlike you!" Remilia and Rin snapped simultaneously.

"Alright, alright, just calm down." She sheepishly chuckled. "I'm not that clumsy."

Reborn smiled at the scene and looked at Leon who perched on his shoulder. The little reptile crawled behind his neck to reach his other shoulder. As he turned around, his tail dropped into Reborn's hand, twitching during its final moments and falling limp and cold within seconds. He frowned at this and looked at the three. He wasn't sure as to what would happen, but he knew that he helped raise Rin right. The sly smile came back and his eyes fell back on to his partner who began to lose shape. "A second generation loser student, but since she's his daughter, I expect to see a legacy."