(1): Karaage- Japanese fried chicken using potato starch and marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, garlic and fresh ginger.


Chi was going grocery shopping for today while her mother and Mika were airing out the futons.

Yesterday, the young woman had taken Chi to the park again for her first training exercise.

"Okay, today, we'll be working on endurance," said Mika, her hands on her hips and looking around at the empty park, "The equipment I have with me will have weights on it," She waved her hand at what seemed to be some sort of carrier designed to hold something rather heavy.

Chi swallowed and spoke up, "H-how…?"

Mika placed her hand on top of the girl's head, "Don't worry, I'll start you off with just wearing the carrier, as the days go by, I'll be putting one five pound weight on the carrier and I'll add on another one every few days, alright?"

Chi nodded weakly.

She still felt sore. The carrier had been unexpectedly light, but she and Mika had walked laps around the park, then started to lightly jog and at the end, Mika had her run as hard as she could without stop. Chi sighed and shifted the bags in her arms to rub her shoulder.

She then decided to stop by the music store on her way back, it had a beautiful grand piano on display and the owner usually had someone come in to play.

Standing outside the store where others had already gathered, Chi saw that the pianist was currently playing.

A tall girl was sitting in front of a large grand piano that was being showcased in front of the store. Her long fingers were gracefully dancing across the black and white keys allowing the notes to flow together in an elegant harmony known to the world as Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. As the girl's body gently swayed in turn with her playing, so did her lengthy crimson hair whose ends were inches away from the floor.

Giving the world outside the music store a quick, passing glance, passersby would catch a glimpse of deep sapphire outlined in black, drawn in such a way to give her eyes a catlike quality. The girl was wearing beige shorts and a long-sleeved mint green shirt outlining a curvy figure with a pair of plain, dark-brown, slip-on shoes and a mismatched gray and blue pair of striped stockings.

This girl had been playing at this music store for a few weeks and already garnered a small following.

Chi wished she could have stayed a little longer, but she had to go home before the produce and fish spoiled in the heat.


Inside the music store, the song had come to an end, the red-haired girl stood up, the storekeeper coming to speak with her.

"A wonderful performance, once again, dear!" she said. The girl smiled.

"Thanks for hiring me," the storekeeper 'tsk'ed.

"I can't let talent like that go to waste!" she retorted. The girl let out a short laugh.

"I'm not that good," the girl took out a cell phone and looked at the time, "S'it okay if I get the rest of the day off? I've got something important to do today."

"Not a problem! Go ahead."

"Thanks!" the girl called out.

Stepping outside, the girl looked through her cell phone's history, stopping when she got to a message that held directions.

Sighing, she murmured to herself, "I hope you know what you're doing, Reborn…"


Tsuna's house

After helping her mom put away the groceries, Chi went over to Tsuna's house to help him with some of his math homework and Mika stayed behind to learn some Japanese recipes from Makoto.

When Chi arrived, she noticed that there was a distinct lack of Gokudera.

"Hey, Reborn?" Tsuna asked, "Where's Gokudera-kun?"

Turning to look at them from his place at the windowsill, he replied, "Gokudera's going to be a little busy today, but he might come by."

Tsuna and Chi then gave each other a look and silently agreed that they should be worried, but for what, they didn't know.


Somewhere in Namimori…

The red-haired girl stopped in front of an apartment complex, one hand in the pocket of her shorts, the other holding her cell phone.

Letting out a breath, she quietly said, "Well, this is the place…"

Taking another glance at her phone's screen, she memorized the room number and put the phone away.

Reaching the room, she took in a breath and hesitantly knocked on the door, holding her breath as she waited.

She could hear the footsteps coming closer and she bit the inside of her lip as the door was opened.

"What the hell do you w-…Eva?"

She gave the boy in the doorway a nervous gaze.

"Hey, Hayato," she greeted meekly. He gave her a flat look before turning around and heading towards the middle of the living room, leaving the door open.

Taking this as an invitation, she walked in closing the door as she did, and followed him to the couch.

There was a tense silence as the two sat there. Gokudera was looking at her with an indescribable emotion in his green eyes and Eva looking back with the same expression.

Not being able to handle the silence any longer, Eva spoke first, "L-look, I know you probably don't want me here, b-but Reborn told me that you were in Japan a-and…" she sighed harshly, "I-I understand if you want me to leave, I-I'll go and you'll never have to deal with me again!"

Breathing a bit heavily, Eva bowed her head, not wanting to face him.

Gokudera let out a scoff, "Do you remember what today is?"

Eva raised her head, a curious look on her face, "Hm?" Thinking quickly, her eyes widened, "A-ah, i-it's the day I stopped…coming to visit you…"

"Why?" he asked bluntly.

"I…I had to leave…" she replied quietly, shrinking under his gaze.

Green eyes narrowed, "Was someone in my family threatening you?"

"N-no! No," she shook her head, "I-it, it's something…personal."

"And you don't want to tell me?"

Eva nodded, "Not yet…anyway, but I swear I'll tell you."

"Good enough, now tell me where the hell you've been all this time, you've better have been practicing," Gokudera crossed his arms and leaned back into the couch.

Sinking into the cushions, Eva let out a relieved sigh, "I have, I picked up the violin too, I was hoping maybe we could play Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor together maybe."


Back at Tsuna's house

Tsuna and Chi were quietly studying under the intense stare of a tiny tutor wielding a rather impressive emerald green shotgun.

"Tsuna, go tell Mama that you're expecting guests," ordered Reborn.

"Wha-? What guests?" Tsuna exclaimed right before Reborn decided to jump-kick him right out the door.

"Go," he repeated.

Chi ran towards the open door, "Tsu-Tsuna! Are you okay?"

"M'fine," came the muffled response. Realizing she was alone with the baby tutor, Chi turned to Reborn.

"Reborn-san?" she asked nervously, "A-about Mika-san…"

He was frowning just a bit as he looked at the shaking teen, "If you're wondering how Mika knows about your suicide attempt, remember that she and I don't accept a mission without some knowledge of our targets."

Swallowing, Chi forced herself to start speaking as she felt her body beginning to lock up, "W-well, I was wondering about that, b-but I also wanted to know…who exactly are we expecting?"

"An acquaintance of mine," nonchalantly hopping on top of Chi's shoulder, he then said, "Let's go downstairs to greet them."

Reaching the bottom step, Chi heard someone knocking at the door. Tsuna left the kitchen to open it.

"Gokudera," said Reborn, "It's nice of you to join us, and with a friend of yours."

Tsuna and Chi looked at each other in confusion. The girl next to the silver-haired bomber laughed.

"I'll introduce myself," Eva bowed with a sweep of her arm, "Shimizu Eva, at your service, Boss."

"EH?" they shouted.

"Don't tell me you're involved in this mafia business too!" Tsuna cried.

"Now it's just random people off the street?" Chi rubbed her temples, trying to analyze the information.

Eva laughed, "He's pretty energetic, huh Hayato?"

Gokudera nodded proudly, "Of course he is, the boss needs the energy to take care of the family!"

"E-eh, Shimizu-san, how did you meet Gokudera-san?" Chi asked warily.

"Well, it all started when we were just tiny toddlers in Italy," she clasped her hands together and held them to her chest, "I, a lowly orphan, made contact with the ever-so-handsome Gokudera Hayato!"

"'Orphan'?" Tsuna and Chi voiced.

Eva nodded, "I'll tell you guys the details later, by the way," she turned to look at Chi, "Hayato neglected to mention that Boss had such a cute friend~."

"Eh, cute?"

"What's your name? Huh? Huh?" she asked excitedly, putting her face near the shorter girl.

Leaning back a bit, Chi replied, "M-Mifune Chi…"

Eva's eyes began to sparkle brightly, "Ah! Such a cute name!"

Then she clung onto Chi and squeezed.

"Ah! Chi-chan!" Eva gasped, pulling away from the shorter girl, "You're so thin! You should really eat more! And the bags under your eyes! You should really get more sleep!"

Chi, unfortunately, had passed out as the hug was too tight.


The next day at school, the teacher announced the arrival of a new student.

"Everyone, please welcome, Shimizu Eva," Eva was standing in front of the class wearing the female uniform, her flowing red tresses in a ponytail.

There was a lot of whispering going on from the other students.

"Hey, you think that red is her natural color?"

"There's no way her eyes could be that blue…"

"I wanna say she's wearing make-up, but those markings around her eyes don't look like mascara…"

"Hey, isn't she that piano player…?"

Back to Eva, she was bowing, "My name is Shimizu Eva. Please take care of me!"

"Looks like this 'family' is going to keep growing, huh Tsuna?" whispered Chi to Tsuna.

"I just wish Reborn would stop forcing me to do things I don't want…" he grumbled. Chi rubbed his shoulder in sympathy.

It was the weekend again and Chi was over at Tsuna's (no surprise). They were starting a new video game that they had bought and after awhile the two decided to go buy some snacks.

"Man, it's so hot today…" noted Tsuna, covering his eyes from the sun's rays beating down on us.

"No kidding," agreed Chi, "Hey, think we could fry an egg on the sidewalk?"

They laughed.

Ring-Ring

Tsuna and Chi looked back, seeing a young woman on a bike heading their way. She stopped near them and took off her helmet revealing her face.

'A foreigner?' thought Chi. The young woman reached into the basket connected to her bike.

"Here, have one," she said, tossing Tsuna a soda can and riding off.

True to Tsuna's unfortunate clumsiness, the can hit his forehead, and it dropped to the ground causing it to open.

"You okay, Tsuna?" asked Chi.

"Yeah," he sighed, "That was so uncool…"

"Could've been worse," she tried to reassure him.

Tsuna and Chi then noticed that the soda that spilled out was suddenly bubbling ominously, releasing a noxious, purple fume that apparently affected a crow since it just fell from the sky and was currently foaming at the mouth.

"Waaaah!" They jumped back.

"What the heck is going on!" Tsuna shouted.

Chi was tugging gently on his sleeve, "L-let's just head back."

When they got back to the house, they were greeted by Reborn who was covered in beetles.

"Oh? You're both back," he greeted. Before Tsuna could reply angrily, Chi had fainted from fear of the large beetles crawling all over the baby tutor's face.

From the kitchen, Mika stepped out, "Hey I heard you guys…come…in…?" She stared at Chi's unconscious form, "Ah, her infamous faints."

"M-Mika-san!" Tsuna shouted after hearing the explanation about Reborn's beetles, "What are you doing here?"

"Hm?" Mika was picking up Chi to place her on the couch, "Your mother offered to teach me some of her favorite recipes, figured I could learn something new. And Reborn, I heard you mention 'Bianchi'?"

Reborn nodded, a particularly large beetle crawling across his face, "She's in town and will most likely be headed here."

Mika scoffed, "Seriously? I hate hearing her 'Love' talk."

Ding-Dong

"Italian pizza delivery," came a muffled voice from outside.

"Hm?" Tsuna opened the door, "H-Hey! You're that woman we saw on the street!"

The young woman quickly put on a gas mask and opened the pizza box she held, an odorous smoke immediately spewed out.

Tsuna began to choke and fell to the floor while Reborn shot at the box and Mika was threatening the woman with her own pistol, the barrel placed right against the woman's forehead.

"Poison Scorpion Bianchi," Mika muttered lowly. Bianchi's eyes widened.

"Michael Acedia…" she breathed, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm taking care of a student," Mika answered curtly, "And why the hell are you here and trying to kill children?"

Bianchi didn't bother to answer since she caught sight of Reborn, "Reborn~!" she gushed.

Mika groaned and picked up Chi from the couch, "Tsunayoshi-san, could you please tell your mother I'm leaving early?"

"E-eh? Ah, sure…"

Waking up later that evening, Chi had dragged herself to the bathroom to get rid of her grogginess. One refreshingly cold shower later, Chi decided to call Tsuna.

"Her name's Bianchi?" She asked, drying her hair.

"Yeah, Reborn said she's more commonly known as 'Poison Scorpion Bianchi' because she makes people eat her 'poison cooking'," explained Tsuna.

"Well, that explains the weird soda." On the other side, Tsuna groaned.

"I can't believe she'd go all this way just to kill me!" Chi tilted her head slightly.

"But isn't that what assassins do?" Chi heard Tsuna beginning to ruffle his hair.

"She wanted to kill me because I was, apparently, taking up all of Reborn's time!" Tsuna complained, "If she wants him, she can have him!"

"She sounds like she's obsessed," she noted, "And that's never a good thing."

"Hm? How so?"

"Remember Yamamoto-san and his arm?"

"O-oh, yeah…"

"Obsession can really mess with your life," Chi explained, "We should be more careful if we meet more people like Bianchi-san."

"Right, that's a good plan," agreed Tsuna.

They both sighed.

"But knowing our luck, we'll attract those kinds of people no matter what," Tsuna moaned.

"W-well, let's just try and look on the bright side of things," Chi assured, "Tomorrow, my Home Economics class is making riceballs for the boys, and Sasagawa-san's in that class."

"Oh yeah! That's right!" Chi could almost feel the cheery air emanating from him through the phone. She suddenly found it hard to swallow.

"It's getting late," Chi informed, "Get some sleep, okay Tsuna?"

"You too," he said, "Good night, Chi."

"Good night, Tsuna."

Click

Chi put her phone on her nightstand and laid down, tossing her towel at the foot of the bed.

'Why does talking about Sasagawa-san make my chest feel like its being crushed?' she sighed and turned off the lamp, falling into a fitful sleep.


While walking to school the next day Tsuna and Chi were discussing what the home economics class was doing that day.

"Well, our teacher said we could make some pastries if we finish our riceballs early," Chi explained, "Though, I don't understand why no one would be able to finish making three riceballs in the first ten minutes…"

Tsuna laughed, "They don't have a mom like yours, Chi. That's why!"

Chi blushed, "W-well, still! It's not that hard to make one!"

"Hm? Sawada-kun? Mifune-san?"

Chi froze. Tsuna looked behind them and his face instantly brightened, "K-Kyoko-chan!"

"Good morning, Sawada-kun!" she giggled, "You don't mind if we walk together, do you?"

"E-eh…" Tsuna glanced at Chi who, hesitantly, shook her head, "O-of course not!

'That laugh still bothers me…' Chi thought, looking away.

Ring-Ring

"Hm?" The three turned around.

Tsuna and Chi saw Bianchi coming right at them on her bike. She sped by, tossing three cans of soda, which Tsuna quickly smacked away using his bag as a weapon.

After that, they ran towards the school.

"Mmm…" Chi mumbled, "Let's see, three riceballs…Tsuna's is just umeboshi, I'll give it to him after class, wouldn't want Sasagawa-san to get the wrong idea. Yamamoto-san is…tuna, but he'd be surrounded by his fans…still, he is a friend, and Gokudera-san…um, he looks like someone who likes savory foods…a piece of karaage?" (1)

"Hey, Chi-chan!" called a voice from behind her. Chi reluctantly turned to look.

"A-ah, Sh-Shimizu-san…"

"What're you gonna put in your riceballs?" Eva's blue eyes were glittering with excitement, "I'm going to put some vegetables in Hayato's, he needs to eat healthy since he's sucking on those cancer sticks day in and day out. And if I'm going to be the family doctor, I have to start making sure everyone starts eating healthy!"

"O-oh, um," Chi stuttered, not used to talking to other people in this class, "I'm going to put umeboshi in Tsuna's, fish in Yamamoto-san's, and some fried chicken in Gokudera-san's."

Eva's brows quirked, "'Yamamoto-san'? Who's he?"

"H-he's the school's top baseball player, he's tall, has short spiky hair, and…um, amber eyes…?" she tried to describe.

"Oh! That guy, he seems pretty cool, I guess," said the other girl plainly.

"That's why he's popular…" Chi murmured.

While the two finished shaping the riceballs, Eva spoke again.

"So, Chi-chan."

"Y-yes?" she asked.

"You and the Boss seem to be pretty close," said the tall girl, "Considering that you two don't use any honorifics for each others' names, isn't that a big thing in Japanese culture? I mean, I heard that even married couples and lovers still use honorifics."

"W-we've been friends for a long time…" Chi muttered.

"Even so, it's rare for people in Japan to call each other without them, isn't it?" she asked.

"Mmm…" Chi murmured uncomfortably.

Eva sighed quietly, noticing she was making the shorter girl nervous. She decided to change the subject.

"Since we finished early, what pastry are you gonna make, Chi-chan?"

"A-ah, I was planning on m-making berry tarts…" Eva's eyes brightened.

"Oooh! Are you gonna use blueberries? Those are really good for memory!" she exclaimed, "They have a bunch of antioxidants and stuff!"

Chi nodded hesitantly, "I bought some fresh fruit yesterday…I-I'm going to put in sliced strawberries and raspberries too…"

Eva hummed excitedly, "Ah~ Those sound sooo good! I wanna eat one!"

"Wh-what are you going to make, Shimizu-san?"

"Hm…a small chiffon cake with strawberries," she said, "Chiffon cakes are pretty light in fat since it uses vegetable oil instead of butter."

"I-I see…"

As the period was reaching its end, the teacher clapped her hands, stopping all conversation, "Alright everyone! Time to give away your riceballs!"


The boys in class were all abuzz when the girls came in. Eva had already sped to Gokudera, offering her riceballs and strawberry chiffon cake, to which he accepted with a wary look.

Chi looked around the classroom and saw that Yamamoto was already surrounded by his fangirls.

Looking over at Tsuna, Chi saw him eying Kyoko's riceballs. His eyes flickered over to Chi and they both silently agreed to meet up after class for Tsuna's riceballs.

Sighing, Chi caught some movement out of the corner of her eye.

'Bianchi-san?' thought Chi nervously, 'Wh-what did she just do? H-hey, why are there maggots coming out of those riceballs? S-since when were they purple?'

Tsuna noticed too, he was looking around frantically to see if anyone could tell.

"Sawada-kun, do you want one?" asked Kyoko.

"Eh, u-uh…" he stuttered.

"You don't like salmon?"

"N-no, no! I-it's not like that!" he was waving his arms around wildly. Yamamoto and Gokudera walked up behind him.

"If you don't want them, Boss, we'll take them!" said Gokudera.

"Good idea, Gokudera!" Yamamoto agreed.

"W-wait!" cried Tsuna.

"Ah!" Chi squeaked, trying to stop them along with Tsuna, but he was already moving.

"You'll die if you if those!" and he tossed them up in the air.

Then, Chi heard a faint bang! coming from outside and something hit Tsuna in the forehead and stomach.

"Oh dear…" she trailed, her body feeling a bit weak as she witnessed Tsuna running around and causing chaos while eating all the riceballs.

"Ah, ah," Eva tutted, she took the riceballs out of Chi's hands and held them up in the air, "Wouldn't want him to eat those without savoring them, right?"

"A-ah, th-thank you…" Chi whispered.

"No problem," chuckled Eva, "Just try and stay standing until the boss calms down."

Once everything settled down, the class filed out, leaving Tsuna, Chi, Gokudera, Yamamoto and Eva behind.

While walking out, Chi overheard Kyoko's friend, Hana, talking to her.

"Guess you can take that as Sawada's declaration of love, Kyoko."

'…?' Chi choked, 'Why do I feel out of breath?'

"That was an incredibly manly thing to do, Boss," commented Gokudera.

"Way to go, Tsuna!" laughed Yamamoto.

"Huh?" Tsuna asked.

"Shouting, 'I'll kill anyone who eats the riceballs Kyoko-chan gave me!'" Gokudera recited, "Just what I'd expect from you, Boss!"

Eva let out an amused scoff and gave Chi back her riceballs, "Right…sure, that's what happened…"

Walking closer to Tsuna, Chi held out her three riceballs, still in perfect shape, "Here Tsuna, a riceball with umeboshi."

Sighing, Tsuna took one, "Thanks, Chi," he said, gratefully.

"I made one for you guys too," She held them out to Yamamoto and Gokudera.

"Hahaha, thanks Chi! These look great!"

"…They're okay," said Gokudera begrudgingly.

"Oh, admit it, you like them~!" teased Eva, "Just wait until you guys eat her berry tarts!"

"Hey! You're the new student, Shimizu Eva, right?" asked Yamamoto.

"Yep, yep!" she greeted, "And you're Yamamoto Takeshi, right? Mind if I call you 'Yama-tan'?"

"Hahaha! Sure!" he laughed, "S'okay if I call you, 'Eva-chan'?"

"It's perfectly fine!"

"Oi! Eva!" shouted Gokudera, "Don't get so friendly with him! We can't completely trust him!"

"Aw, c'mon," whined Eva, "Can't I make friends?"

While this was going on, Tsuna was shrinking under the combined glares of the boys that were still in the room.

Tsuna and Chi whimpered.