Wow, long time. Sorry about that, but an evil plot bunny attacked my mind and drove me into the ground. But at least something managed to come out of all my trouble. So if you have time check out my new story Sentiment is a Sin, it's a reader insert and a few have found it enjoyable.
I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to: YuujouKami, TheKawaiiStar21, Alexandria Volturi, xxtoushirou, anna the viking XD, Preppy-Stealthy-Ninja, MCRDanime, xxOMGgalxx, and luipyon for reviewing! I was glad to read all of your reviews, and they help inspire new chapters!
Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 11 Requirements of a Hit Woman
One rare peaceful morning where everyone is having lunch together…
"Liiiiiiitttllee Flllllooooooowweeeeerr~!"
SMASH!
"All right! I got her!" Lily cheered, but was cut short as her brain finally started processing the signals coming from the leg that connected with her target. "Yeow!" Lily pulled up and hugged her shin. "What the heck is your head made of?"
"I should be the one asking questions," Nina pouted, sitting up with only a red mark on her forehead. "Is there any particular reason as to why you attacked me?"
"You mean transporting me here against me will wasn't enough?" Lily asked with a cocked eyebrow.
Nina rolled her eyes. "Besides that."
"Then it's because you're an idiot." The raven haired girl crossed her arms and turned away pointedly. "So why'd you come back anyways?"
"Aaw~! Were you worried for me?" Nina cooed.
A vein popped on Lily's temple as she deadpanned. "If that were the case then I would have asked where you'd been this whole time, not why you returned."
"Oh poo," Nina sulked. "Well, in any case, I came to tell you what I've been up to since I left."
"And what was that?" Asari asked politely for the other.
"I've been going around telling all the important famiglias that a new and powerful upcoming hitman, well hit woman, was personally scouted and hired by Vongola Primo!" Nina told the group brightly.
Cue spit take from Lily and choking from multiple others.
"You did what?" Lily demanded once she had cleared her lungs of the coffee she had been drinking.
"I told everyone that the new hit woman, who I named the Silver Fox, was just hired by Vongola Primo," Nina reiterated a little slower.
"Oh my candy rocks…I've just had a giant target plastered to the back of my head," the raven haired girl said with a hollow and dread filled voice.
"Maybe not," G said gently. "She said that it was a hit woman named the Silver Fox, but no one knows you by such a name. As far as anyone else knows, you're just our new translator."
"Plus, you have neither silver hair nor eyes," Lampo chipped in. Though he was stating the obvious, it was the obvious that was needed right now.
"Oh yeah! And I told them that the Silver Fox speaks multiple languages and serves more than just a hitman for your famiglia and that it was possible that she may or may not be the new consigliere!" Nina tacked on.
Lily slammed her head down on the table. A cloud of mist flames crept up around her, and then in a blur the girl faded out of sight. Though, the others could still sense she was present, but just barely. She had gotten a lot better with hiding herself.
"Signora Nina, why did you do that to Lily?" Primo asked wearily.
"Because she needs to get stronger faster and for her mission to finish anywhere on time, she needs more attention. Duh~!" The magenta eyed and blue haired woman answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
A repeated banging came from the general area of where Lily was sitting.
"She isn't anywhere near the level to claim such a title," Daemon argued, completely miffed with the situation the woman had created for his student. "She can barely even hold her own in a fight."
"That's not completely true," Alaude (amazingly/surprising) argued.
The male occupants in the room looked over toward their companion. The soft thumb of Lily's head meeting table also stopped.
"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked the other man.
"She refuses to fight me seriously, but I've seen her train on her own," Alaude informed the others while staring at the 'empty spot' where the girl was still seated. "She has become adept with using her new fighting style and her fighting instincts are better than our other workers. I believe she is capable of defeating the child and fight on even terms with the priests and storm."
"Ah, I'd like to negate that point," Lily reappeared with her hand raised. "True, I've been a successful street fighter for a good portion of my life, but hand-to-hand combat will only get me so far here. My lack of flame power would still land me with the short end of the stick."
"What does a stick have anything to do with this?" G questioned, slightly incredulous.
Lily shook her head. "No, no. It's a turn of phrase. It just means the bad end. So no matter how much my physical fighting prowess increases without my flame ability growing as well, I'd still be as good as a sitting duck. And don't hitmen usually use, I don't know, a gun!"
"Not always," the sky guardian refuted, "but it would be a good idea to lengthen your range. G, how is she doing with your training?"
G smiled a little. "Much better. She's not always consistent, but we were able to make a good amount of progress. Then again, it would have been pretty pathetic if she hadn't made any progress in the five months she's been here."
"That's okay, feel free to belittle my already well known horrible abilities like I'm not right here, go ahead," Lily said uncaringly with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
"Ooh! Ooh!" Nina jumped in again. "Do you want to hear the backstory I came up with for the name I created?"
"Depends, am I allowed to shoot you first?" The raven haired female asked. Nina shook her head with a giggle. "Then I don't give a rat's ass-umption." Lily scrunched her nose as she fixed her near swear.
"Well," Nina continued anyways, "I came up with the idea that people started calling you the Silver Fox because you are cunning and sly, not only that but when you attack at night, all people can see is a flash of silver from the moon shining off your hair. After I told them the story, people started thinking that they had seen you all over and now you have a really big name for yourself! Isn't that great?"
All the color seemed to drain out of Lily's face. "Oh my g-ah…sh. My life has been dictated and shortened by an idiot with magic. If I even meet the wise ass who thought it would be a good idea to give a complete moron that much power, I swear I'm gonna rip them a new one!"
Lily continued to threaten the unknown person, but the others weren't able to understand as she had gone off into another language in her rage.
Nina giggled and started speaking again despite her…'charge's' ranting. "I think most of them agreed that the Silver Fox has black hair, since I said her hair reflected the moonlight."
Lily froze, her face turning red, then paling, then really red, then really, really red, then with a sigh faded back to normal. She massaged her temples, looking extremely stressed. "Aiya~…headache~." She sighed and stood up. "I was wrong. This is more than I can handle."
"Oh? Where ya goin' little flower?" Nina asked innocently.
Lily didn't answer, choosing to leave the room without looking at anyone else. She hugged her guitar closely to her, like she was trying to find some sort of security from the musical device. She hopped out a hallway window and headed into the forest, no doubt heading to her favorite little clearing.
"Why did you do that?" Giotto asked again, one the girl was gone.
"Because Lily's not going to open up and make any progress unless I push her into a corner," Nina said with a mock serious face. She smiled serenely. "Part of the reason I chose her is because I thought that she needed the most help. Whether she realizes it or not, her heart is crying out for help. And I thought all of you would be able to help her. You should go listen to her play right now. She's actually made a lot more progress with her flames than you would think. Lily was able to find her own way to practice and strengthen her abilities."
The first generation shared a quick conference through a few glances and stood up to follow the girl. They followed their sky guardian till they heard a light strumming and someone singing. They slowed to a stop so that they were still shadowed by the trees. Sitting on the branch overhanging the ledge, was seated Lily playing her guitar and singing. Suddenly a mist flame appeared on the ground below her and slowly took form of a piano, playing and adding to her song. Then they noticed that there was already another guitar on the other side of the tree as well and they could swear that they heard other people humming every so often as well. Then the sounds of violins came in as the forms of the instruments came into being next to the piano. The song was pretty, but sad. It seemed to reflect her solemn mood.
She ended with her eyes closed and a morose sigh. She frowned. "ARG! Stupid depressing song! I came out here to cheer up! Bad Lily! Bad!" She shouted.
The men sweat dropped.
"Happy song! Happy song!" She started strumming another song, but froze before she was too far in, even though it sounded pleasant enough. "Nooooooo~! No stupid love songs either! Don't laugh at me!"
They looked around and spotted the top of a bear as well as lion's head.
"Well then what do you suggest I play?" Lily asked exasperatedly. She grimaced. "What? That one again? I didn't bring Little D with me…You make that sound like it's the easiest thing in the world…Don't give me that look! Tch. You two have gotten pretty cheeky." Lily leaned her guitar against the tree next to her and made a ukulele appear, strumming a relatively quick tempo song.
The others narrowed their eyes when they noticed a group of men creeping out of the shadows toward the girl. Lily looked up with a smirk, but didn't stop playing. She let her song come to an end, then picked up her guitar and started strumming another tune.
Suddenly she wasn't playing her guitar, but behind the group. A few jabs sent at least four of the men to the ground, unable to move anymore. One of the men took out a gun and tried to shoot her, but Lily twisted around and grabbed the man's arm, making him fire at his comrade's limbs. She incapacitated the man once he had run out of bullets. She grabbed a nearby rock and threw it at the farthest enemy, back flipping away from another round of shots. Before they could try to take aim again, Lily disappeared in a cloud of mist. She appeared behind one of the men and placed her rain coated hands over his face, tranquilizing him before tossing him up into a tree and out of sight before his comrades could notice. She repeated this with all but one of the remaining men. Finally she reappeared and swept her leg under the last man, knocking him off his feet.
She pinned him down and pressed a knife she created out of mist flames to his neck. "Any reason you and your men decided to attack me?"
"You're her, aren't you?" The man chortled.
Lily raised an eyebrow. "I assure you that I have no idea what you're talking about."
"The Silver Fox that the Vongola hired," the man sneered.
"I think you're confused. I've never heard of this 'Silver fox', are you sure you didn't just make them up?"
"Your lies won't work on me wench! I know a professional hitman when I see 'em!" The man spat.
"Well that would make one of us, since I've never met one before." Lily placed a mist coated finger to the man's temple. "Mikki Lorenzo of the Corvino Famiglia…EH? You're just a new and upcoming family and you have the nerve to attack me for no reason? I oughtta kick your sorry ass into next week, dammit!"
The man's eyes widened dramatically. "H-How?"
"Oh, you mean the reading your mind bit? I wanted payback on Daemon for stuffing me inside one of his illusions for nearly ten hours and decided the best way to do that was blackmail. That technique was in preparation for that, but I hadn't gotten a chance to test it out before, so thank you for that!"
Primo glanced over at his mist guardian with a raised eyebrow. "Ten hours? I said to train her not punish her."
Daemon shrugged. "Nufufufu, if she had taken my illusion seriously then she would have gotten out of it sooner. But I'm glad we came. Now I know that I should have my guard up whenever she gets too close."
"Her aim was a lot better than in practice," G commented.
"Not to mention her combat," Asari added.
"She's not strong, but she should be able to survive the ball next month," Alaude commented.
"Ah! He passed out!" Lily whined. "I didn't get the chance to use my little trick yet! Hey! Wake up! I was trying to scare the crap out of you! You're not allowed to pass out just yet!"
Most of the group sweat dropped. What the heck was up with this girl?
Lily huffed. "Fine, you joy killer. Now, what am I supposed to do with all these-" She froze as she turned around and spotted the majority of the first generation (Lampo and Alaude had already left). She placed one hand on her hip and used the other to cover her eyes. "Sacrebleu."
"Darling, this is so wonderful!" She cheered, appearing out of nowhere and diving forward for a hug. Lily panicked and made herself disappear and reappear behind the woman, who flopped onto the ground. But this seemed to make the woman even happier. "You've progressed even farther than I had hoped with your combat ability! I thought that you were even worse than that dame brunette boy, but you were just hiding it from all of us haven't you! This is perfect!"
Lily sighed heavily. "Shi-zzle." She had been hiding her abilities for just this reason, but her desire to vent some of her pent up anger on the thugs had overrun her awareness of her surroundings.
Lily had, in fact, been training every morning since she started learning how to fight in this dimension. During her morning runs in the forest she had set up a course, which she ran through often (she guessed that it was thanks to being in an anime that she could not only set it up quickly, but keep her activities hidden). It was a wonder how no one noticed that their ammo was being depleted so quickly. She couldn't allow herself to be so weak as to beg for help from the others, now could she? She had also made a very realistic human dummy, which she had drawn in all the pressure points she needed to know and practiced hitting them every day. It was just like back in college, where she had to balance work, school/homework, going to the gym, and everyday necessities. Only here it was a little less since she only had work and homework to deal with.
But it had been over half a year now, so it would be pretty pathetic if she had made only a little progress. On the other hand, Lily was sure that Nina wanted her to progress quickly, so the girl had covered up her abilities. But seriously, even someone with horrible aim (Lily should know, hers is terrible) should have been able to make even the slightest progress in a couple of months. And it was already a well-known fact that Lily had been a successful street fighter, so why on earth wouldn't she be able to pick up fighting a little faster?
She sighed again and led the way back to the mansion, collapsing on one of the couches in the lounge she made it back inside. She gave a halfhearted wave to the blonde woman seated across from her.
"Now we just have to pick out a dress for you!" Nina squealed.
Lily deadpanned and held up a hand to stop the woman. "Elena and I already figured out a dress for me to make out of an illusion."
"Oh? Was Elena aware of your abilities?" Daemon inquired.
"Of course. She wanted to see what every single on looked like, so I had to be good enough for her to try each one properly." Suddenly Lily looked like she hadn't slept in a hundred years. "There were so many freaking designs. I almost never want to even see a dress ever again, I had to try so many."
Daemon narrowed his eyes a little. "Oya? So you show my beloved your full capabilities, but not your teacher?"
Lily waved the man's accusations away. "Of course. I like her more and it was either that or actually where one of those horrid…things. That and I like her more." Lily intentionally repeated her preference of people as to piss off the illusionist.
Elena giggled. "Girls just understand each other better, that's all dear."
"I like to think that you're a better person," Lily refuted, causing the other woman to giggle again. "Besides, that statement obviously doesn't pertain to everyone. After all, Nina's a woman and I hate her."
"You're so mean, little flower!" Nina cried, hugging her knees in a little corner of woe.
Lily rolled her eyes to this.
"How come you feel the need to hide things from us?" Primo questioned. "We truly do wish to be your friends and we trust you, we have since at least a month after you arrived."
The raven haired girl studied the group with a carefully blank face. They said those things so easily, but how could they possibly know? How could they possibly understand the burn of a betrayal, when they had yet to experience the full blast of that feeling? If she had arrived after Daemon's treachery, then they would be more cautious as well. But right now, they go by gut and appearances. She knew that she wasn't as pure as they thought she was. She was just as bad as…
'No! Don't go there!' Lily scolded herself with a shake of her head, her eyes noticeably darkening. 'Don't think about that thing! Don't think about that monster!'
"Lily…" Elena said gently, breaking the girl out of her inner turmoil. "If you don't mind me asking…could you tell us a little about your past?"
The girl's emerald eyes darkened. "Which part? The happy-go-lucky little girl all the way up to age ten, or the 'rebellious' bitch afterwards?"
The group blinked in surprise. Lily had actually cursed out loud without trying to cover it up.
The blond haired woman smiled sadly. "How about the event that caused your belief in mankind to be lost."
Lily sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Then you'd be asking my life story… No. The shadows of my past are mine to tame and conquer. It is not your burden to bear."
"I find that shadows are more easily carried when their weight is shared with others," Daemon told the girl offhandedly.
Lily smiled bitterly and covered her eyes with a hand. "Not when it risks breaking down who you are and everything you ever aimed to be. Besides, I'd rather you judge me by what you have learned so far and not by the darkness of my past. And it's not something I'm proud of, nor take pleasure in remembering."
"Even if there's the chance that we could help those scars that cover your heart so?" Knuckles asked gently.
Lily's gaze unfocused. "Some things are better off left forgotten."
Hm...kind of a downer for an ending. But hey! The next chapter is the ball and I have much in store for you!
Hope you liked this chapter! Reviews are lovely!