A/N. So apparently this week is one of those weeks where I update something multiple times after basically disappearing off the face of the planet for a month or two… Let's rock!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Target 9: Conversations in the Library

It was the news that finally got her really moving. When she'd just been idly collecting as much information as she could about anything mildly unusual in Namimori before, it was that one sentence that had awoken something unfamiliar and distant within her, that spurred her into taking actions that would've never taken, even before Kyoko had died.

Not even a day after she'd been released from the hospital, Ryohei had apparently taken her place. It was an odd and jarring thought, to find out that someone had apparently assaulted Ryohei, had hurt someone so seemingly invincible so badly that he'd needed to be taken to the hospital, stitched up and swathed in so many bandages he almost looked like a mummy. The very sight unsettled her greatly, to the point where she was starting to feel something she'd never quite felt before.

Old instincts breathed life into what had once been a barely living shell of a human being, rattled around like dead leaves in the fall before settling in the mush of what had once been a very active mind and giving birth to something new and far stronger than before.

They were going to pay.

She wasn't entirely sure how, or what she was going to do. She hadn't thought that far ahead, wasn't entirely capable of it at the moment. But she'd been angry enough when the thought crossed her mind that she could do nothing but follow through with it once she saw the opportunity. Natsuyo had already been acting increasingly strange, but with Ryohei in the hospital he'd just gotten worse. She hadn't planned on asking him for anything, the feeling that he wouldn't tell her no matter how much she begged him very prevalent in her mind, and there was no chance he would now.

So she had decided to take matters into her own hands for the first time in three years. She'd gone to the library, an old one that not many frequented, but at that moment it was the only place she could think of to get the answers she needed. She wasn't the type to take actions without proper planning first, even if it was limited. And with so little information to go on beyond someone was attacking the students of Namimori Middle, she wasn't in any position to do much at all. She wasn't about to let it stay that way though.

The layout of the town had changed though, drastically so. She had been aware of it, so for better or worse she'd been forced to drag Meiko into helping her at the very least find her way.

"So remind me again why we're doing this?" Tsumiko wasn't entirely sure if there was anything she could say to justify this little trip to the nurse. How did one explain going to an old, nearly forgotten library to look up what was probably heavily outdated information in order to figure out why in the world someone would want to assault a bunch of middle school students? Even in her own mind, Tsumiko knew it sounded crazy. She didn't need Meiko looking at her as if she'd lost it to prove that. So instead, she chose to ignore the question all together and continue walking.

The library was old, had been around for the longest, and was largely abandoned. There was an old couple who ran the place, but with everybody flocking to the newer, more luxurious library in the center of town, this place had now laid on the wayside of forgotten. But something told her still, there was something to be found here, and with little else to go on she was desperate enough to take it.

"Oh, Tsumiko, is that you? Why I haven't seen in what? Four years?" The light, scratchy voice echoed across the empty building, making it sound a lot louder than it actually was, and Tsumiko tried to force a smile, if anything, to accommodate the old lady who now approached them.

"It's nice to see you Miss Obaa."

"You too, you too. So what brings you here, and who is this delightful young lady you brought with you?"

"It's nice to meet you, ma'am," Meiko greeted, offering her hand to shake before continuing. "Tsurama Meiko, I'm Tsumiko-san's nurse and currently her tour guide across the wonders of New Namimori." The old lady laughed at the last part, apparently finding great humor in the nurse's joke.

"Oh such a nice young lady. She's a keeper that's for sure. Oh Tsumiko dear, make sure that brother of yours doesn't let this one get away." She tried very hard not to slap herself in the face, at that, cheeks without a doubt beet red from embarrassment. She wasn't even going to mention that Meiko was at the very least twelve years old than her twin.

"I'll be sure, Miss Obaa. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm in a bit of rush." She said, patting the woman gently on the shoulder before quickly disappearing into the darker corners of the room, leaving her nurse and the old lady to chat.

As she pulled out her laptop, it finally dawned on her just how little she could do for her brother. There was very little chance she would find anything remotely enlightening as to what was going on, and even if she did, what could she possibly do with it all? She wasn't physically fit like Takeshi or Ryohei, she didn't have any special skills like her brother, and she wasn't whatever Reborn was supposed to be, because a tutor was the farthest from it. For one thing, she was fairly certain tutors didn't shoot at their students to incite a better response, definitely did not chuck bombs at them, and the last she checked the very last thing a tutor did was make said student run laps around the town and then threaten bodily harm when that student did not obey.

No, there was nothing she could rightly do for her brother. She wasn't capable like any of her brother's friends, she had no special skills that she could think of. For all the intelligence she used to boast, what was there she could do to help at all?

"You know it's not very nice to disappear like that." Her eyes almost widened comically at the sudden appearance of her brother's tutor. She didn't see much of Reborn beyond that first conversation they'd had, he was her twin brother's tutor, not hers. And he'd certainly needed no part in her life up until now. So she wondered why he was here instead of hounding her brother like he normally was. "You know, you gave Natsuyo a heart attack when he noticed you weren't home."

"How'd you find me?"

"It wasn't very difficult. You don't know your way around Namimori like you used to, so I just had to find the one face that you probably knew. It was just a matter of asking the right questions."

"You didn't hold a gun to Tsurama-san's head for answers, did you?" She couldn't help but ask incredulously. After observing his interactions with her brother, she didn't trust Reborn to interact with anybody to any sane degree. He seemed more likely to hold people at gunpoint for answers rather than ask like a normal human being.

"What makes you ask that?"

"You do that to Natsu." The man quirked an eyebrow, though whether it was at the tone she used or simply the fact she'd actually been paying any degree of attention to them was unknown. Either way, she didn't much appreciate how he treated her brother, but she figured there was some point to it. Or at least she hoped so, because as little a chance as she probably stood against the strange man in a fight, she was already in a bad mood, and if it turned out he was treating her brother like he was for kicks and giggles, well she wasn't entirely sure what she'd do.

"But Tsurama-san isn't Natsu."

"Neither are any of his friends," she countered just as easily. "And neither am I. So if you're done trying to play mind games with me, I suggest you get to the point of your coming here to bother me."

"You're right, you aren't Natsuyo. If you were, you wouldn't have taken that tone with me. But I'll let it slide just this once." He began, taking a few steps closer to her before turning around and leaning against one of the bookshelves. "You gave your brother quite the heart attack when he discovered you weren't home, and that nobody knew where you'd run off to."

"He needs to be worrying more about himself than anything else. At the rate he's going, he'll give himself an aneurism." Reborn laughed at that, finding it at least mildly humorous. They both fell into a strange sort of silence she hadn't ever experienced except with Kyoko and Natsuyo. It was… not bad, but she wasn't about to say it was pleasant either. Just strangely calm. "What should I do?"

Reborn looked down at her, expression carefully inquisitive, as if he didn't want to scare her off or something.

"I can't… I'm not Natsuyo, I can't pull people together like Natsuyo can, I'm not athletic like Takeshi and Ryohei, I can't fight like you can. But there's something going on with Natsuyo…" she paused, unsure exactly where she was trying to go with this, or even where it all came from and why she was even telling the man any of this. "Something important, and Takeshi and Ryohei are involved in it somehow. And now Ryohei's in the hospital…" She stared ahead for a few seconds, as if all the answers she wanted would throw themselves at her feet if she just glared at the walls long enough. "I want to help… But what should I do?"

She heard the deep sigh that seemed to signify when Reborn was thinking. He only ever seemed to do it when her twin was asking him significant questions, but it meant that Tsumiko had his attention, and for some odd reason that seemed very important to her.

"Well, a good place to start would probably be to stop thinking about what you can't do, and start thinking about what you can." Suddenly he shifted, taking the spot next to her on the floor and motioning for her to face him. He rolled a shoulder, before settling one of the most frighteningly serious gazes Tsumiko had ever seen on her. "So what can you do, besides put yourself in the hospital for malnutrition that is?" She felt an eye twitch in irritation at that, but she let it go instead to focus on what the man before her had pointed out.

What could she do?

Take apart a computer and put it back together in under five minutes was a start. She could fix all the electronics in the house, including the more complicated ones in the kitchen, save for the blender and toaster. For some odd reason those two were beyond her expertise. She could find almost anything on the internet. There was one other thing, but she'd never been very proud of it, and she doubted even Natsuyo knew about it, he'd been gone long before she'd ever discovered the ability.

Really it was nothing but childish innocents taken a turn in the wrong direction, idle boredom given birth to something not so good. But still…

"When I was little…"

"Hm?" She figured he might've gone to sleep in the time it had taken her to get to this point, but if he had she had his full attention now.

"When I was a kid, this was after Natsuyo had left… I was bored, and he wasn't around to talk me out of it… I took our mom's computer… It was a stupid thing to do…"

"What did you do?" He asked, silently encouraging her to continue. She hadn't told anybody about this honestly, swore up and down she'd take it to her grave, a secret nobody would hopefully ever find out. But if it could her brother whatever trouble he'd gotten himself into, and Reborn didn't seem the type to go to the police no matter what was happening.

"I hacked into some random banks database." She'd said it so quickly she wasn't sure Reborn had heard her clearly, but if the quirked eyebrow and bemused expression were anything to go by, he'd definitely heard her.

"You, Natsuyo's supposedly goody-two-shoes sister who was too shy to do anything remotely bad, did something illegal as hacking into a bank's computer."

"Well, more specifically the security system, but yeah…"

"And you didn't get caught?"

"I was eight, I was bored, but I wasn't stupid enough to get myself arrested for something as hacking. The last thing I was going to do was get myself caught… It was just so easy…" He laughed, the very last thing she needed, was him laughing at her for it, but laughing he was. And she wanted to smack him for it. "It's not funny!"

"Oh no, it is," he contradicted, lifting a hand to adjust his hat before seemingly appraising her. He seemed to be reevaluating every little assumption he'd made of her. "But that is something you can do. And really I shouldn't be so surprised."

"What do you mean?"

"You're a genius. I believe Natsuyo told me you have an IQ of 164 was it?"

"Something like that."

"Yes, well, considering the fact you spend so much time around computers, it would only be given that you'd have at least some skill in hacking. Even if it's just minor systems such as a community run website. But a bank when you were eight? Who's to say those innate skills haven't improved since then?"

"What are you getting at?"

"You can't fight, you're not athletic like your brother's friends. You have no special skills that would make you useful on the battlefield. But your good at gathering information, I've seen it." He pointed out, eying her like he would some sort of prize. "You can take things that seem to have no relevance to each and find the hidden connection between them, find what is needed, discard what isn't, and come to a proper conclusion. You have the skills, and the innate talent. Use your abilities as a hacker to find the information you need to help your brother succeed."

She nodded her head, only just barely understanding what he was getting at. It was clear for certain, but she'd been sidetracked by the realization that Reborn hadn't been looking at her like some sort of prize earlier. He'd been looking at her as something to mold. Much like her brother had probably been when they first met, she was un-touched talent, a diamond in the rough in his eyes. To him, all she needed was a little polishing, some direction, and she'd shine just as bright as her brother probably did in his eyes. Reborn interrupted her from sinking any further into her own musings.

"I'll give you a hint," she perked up at that. A hint would do her wonders right now when she had little else to go on but an article that was at least a week old and sparse in anything remotely useful. "Rokudo Mukuro."

A/N. Okay, hope you guys enjoyed that chapter! Things are really getting going now! Anyways, please leave a review and tell me what you all think, see ya!