Disclaimer;
I don't own Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn - that belongs to Akira Amano. I only own my OCs.
…
Previous Chapter;
There was something that disturbed her conscious. Her instinct that had been helping her survive the cold mafia world urged her to do so.
"It looks like some kind of laboratory?"
"Do you think it'll come true, Raf? The Vongola's demise. I want to see it, Raf."
"Shit, we're being traced!" Rei uttered in realization.
"Boss, it seems that we have rats."
BEHIND THE SCENE
"Damn those rats. Because of them I almost lose my head! Fuck."
The man with the raspy voice slammed his hands on a table angrily with a scary look. He bit his fingernail while sweating as he stared at the screen monitors. He cursed and mumbled incoherent words under his breath irritably.
"Once I get you, I'll torture and make you guys suffer before I hand you over to the boss!" He laughed evilly.
He turned towards his talented group of hackers and gave the order to trace the rats. They answered the order resolutely and began their work. It would not take them long to find the rats.
IN THE BACKYARD
"Are you sure it's safe to go out like this?" Rei turned to ask her two friends.
She was still worried over the issue and could not help feeling anxious or flinch at every suspicious movements around them. Nico snorted at the statement. The crow sighed as she stirred the straw to her ice blended cocoa.
"For now? Sure. Heck, we're having these awesome ice blends and no one's shooting at our heads yet."
"It won't last long though. So you should savour it before the peace ends," Honey chuckled in agreement from the side.
The three of them were currently taking a break from training. They did not know why but it seemed their tutors had plans in the evening so they had to cut the training short. After almost seven or eight hours since early morning (4am) running around the Lunezielle's backyard, they almost lost the ability to walk straight. Note that the backyard was the size of a polo field, roughly 300 by 160 yards (270 by 150 m). Imagined they had to go ten rounds every single morning! In addition to the running, the tutors also had them do light exercises: 200 pushups, 200 sit ups, 5 minute plank, 240 squats, etc. It was true. 2 years ago Miria coaxed them into doing them every day by brain-washing. She tempted with possibilities of getting sexy curves and great figures. Obviously it did not need further persuasion.
Alas, after the training ended, they pondered what to do for the remaining day. The Sun was bright and the weather a bit dry. The wind also came by occasionally. Due to the hot weather, the girls decided to drop by the kitchen. Nico immediately went over to Greg and begged for something cold with puppy eyes. Seeing how dramatic and desperate the girl was, Greg made her ice blended mocha and two ice blended milk tea for Honey and Rei. Currently they were sitting under the shade of a tree while sipping on their cold beverages.
"The fact that we failed to react quickly when Vikram's hacker(s) hacked into our line showed his team's capability. Even if we managed to cut the line off, he could have traced it beforehand when the ladybug still hasn't self destruct," Honey praised calmly.
"I don't understand how you can say it so calmly even though he could have sent someone after our heads," Rei sighed at her leader's nonchalant attitude.
"I'm pretty sure he won't be using our tutors since they're quite defensive and trusting to us. Wait, is that why he sent them off this evening?" Nico wondered.
"Do you think he'll kill us?" Honey tilted her head to the right cutely.
"Uwah~ That's seriously an ill omen if you two said it! Please don't jinx it," Rei whined at hearing the two dreadful premonitions.
Honey laughed, "It's a joke, Rei. How about we just sit back and watch? That's better than worrying without reason."
Nico and Rei both nodded at their leader's calm conclusion. After all, it was better to face a threat calmly instead of panicking when an answer could be found once you analysed the whole situation clearly. They stared at the blue sky and enjoyed the warm evening.
It could be their last, but who knows.
"I still think that we're doomed. So let's start thinking of a counter plan, yeah?" Honey laughed.
"Don't jinx it, I said!" Rei screamed in horror.
"I'll make sure to think of our escape plan. With Vikram, we never know how stable he truly is. People often said, it's always the quiet ones you have to watch out for. And before you say he's not 'quiet', let me rephrase the quote," Nico glared Rei who was opening her mouth to retort, "Sometimes it's the sane ones who have the darkest side."
"That's deep, Nico. I'll leave the escape plan to you. By the way, where did you learn it from?" Honey wondered.
I/She learned it from you. Both girls thought at the same time.
AT VIKRAM'S OFFICE
"I recalled you were supposed to bring the rats to me by today. It's already evening and I'm still waiting but I don't have to tell you what happens if you failed, do I?" Vikram said in a dangerously low voice to the man.
"W-Wait! I was about to tell you s-something," The man said while cowering.
"Really? Say it then."
"I-I had my team tracked the line they used using their IP address… But it was a fake," The man explained.
"So you lost them?" Vikram frowned with displeasure.
"N-No! We retraced back and found another IP address. I-It came from tthe inside," The man finished.
"Inside, you say? Are you saying we have traitors inside our own territory?"
"Yes!" The man nodded his head frantically.
"Having traitors are old news. I take it you know who they are?" Vikram shrugged.
"That…"
"You know what happens to incompetent people, right?" Vikram clicked his tongue.
Raf who had been standing behind the man immediately pointed a gun to the back of his head. The man flinched in fear. He held up both of his hands.
"W-Wait! Please! I know where they are! Really, I swear!"
The man hurriedly pulled out a laptop and showed to Vikram the result of his investigation. It was a digital view of the mansion's layout. The man moved the cursor towards a highlighted green area at a certain part of the mansion. When zoomed in, it showed the section where the connection line they spoke of originated from.
Vikram raised an eyebrow interestingly. "So the traitors are within this area?"
"Yes! The line was shut down when we were at 73%, so I could only pinpoint the narrow down the size to this area."
"I see. Raf, get some men to 'sweep' the quarters. Make sure to make it look natural and professional. I don't want our rats knowing our intentions," Vikram twirled a pen while smiling. "If you find any evidence…"
"I'll inform you. And I will place guards to keep an eye on the rats before you decide what to do with them," Raf replied knowingly and took his leave whilst dragging the relieved man out of the office.
Left alone in the office, Vikram chuckled in amusement at the thought of having traitors in his Family. Like he said, having one or two in his own family was a norm for a mafia boss. Besides, he had enemies who wanted him dead. They were free to come and try killing him. In return, he enjoyed making them experience a painful death so why not have some fun taking care of this matter?
…
WORKERS' QUARTERS
"Pixie, you will be in charge of the east wing whereas Zoey the west wing," The head maid allocated the roles among the group of maids and butlers working exclusively for the Lunezielle's 'sweeping' duties.
"Remember: If you find anything suspicious, bring it to us," The head butler strictly reminded both the maids and butlers.
The staff nodded their heads with grim expressions. Once the head butler dismissed them, everyone left the servants' quarters and headed to their respective assigned areas. Lucia walked calmly towards her charges' room: the girls she was appointed to 2 years ago. Remembering them, she wondered if they had left their room in a disaster state once again. If so then she would have to clean it up later on. Would she find things/people at the weirdest places again as well? Last she remembered Miss Nico had slept under the living room's table and Miss Rei sleeping upside down on the sofa (her legs on the back, head hanging from the edge). Weirdly, Miss Honey was sleeping peacefully on her bed.
She always laughed every time she thought of her charges. They were amusing to the fault. She mused to herself, wondering whether she would find anything suspicious in their room. Heck, the mafia was filled with weird people in the first place so how suspicious was the level of suspicious the boss wanted?
Lucia entered the room. Good thing the girls were not there because they were on training. She wondered from where she should begin her search. The bedroom? The living room? The work room? There were quite a few suspicious places to search for. Maybe she should try the bedroom, the living room and the work room respectively in that order. It always seemed to be the obvious flow of events.
She found nothing from the first two rooms and was up to the last room: the work room. Lucia examined the room's interior and looked for any suspicious items using her keen eyes. She had always tidy up this room every time Rei turned everything upside down so she knew which item belonged where or if there was any new items/inventions. Oh, that one seemed new. Ah, Miss Rei had finished tinkering with that one.
At first she found nothing worth reporting about the room but as she walked past Rei's table, Lucia accidentally stepped on something and it made a loud crunching sound.
"Oh lord, did I break something?! Was it something important? Oh no. Miss Rei will be so angry at me!" Lucia cried in panic.
Lucia bent down to retrieve the broken item and wondered if she could perhaps fix it into an acceptable form before Miss Rei returned. She could pretend that it exploded or broken apart suddenly. She blinked and noticed its weird shape. A ladybug? Where did it come from? Lucia slowly twirled it around with curious eyes.
"It's a machine, I guess. But I've never seen this kind of invention before. She normally does bigger things. This kind of delicate thing is not one of her usual," Lucia uttered to herself. Calling upon her photographic memory of every single machine Miss Rei had designed or created or destroyed, this invention had certainly never showed itself.
"This is quite suspicious," She said to herself and pocketed the half broken ladybug into her maid apron.
Before she left the work room, Lucia examined every corner of the room, drawers, tables and even papers on the table for other clues. In fact, she did found a report and calculations written by Rei concerning improvements on information gathering. However, considering that it did not matter much and too complicated for her to read, Lucia dropped the report back onto the table.
What she did not know was how important the report was.
…
All the maids and butlers were gathered back in the servants' quarters by the end of the day. Each revealed their results and handed all items to the head maid. It was Lucia's turn. She gave the item with her hand upside down. The head maid stared at the small object in her hand.
"What's this?" The head maid inquired.
"I do not know, Madam. I just found it on the floor in one of the rooms and think that it requires your attention," Lucia admitted with her head bowed.
The head maid nodded her head without smiling and gave the item to the head butler. The head butler elegantly reached for the item and put it on the trolley with the other suspicious items.
"Right, since that was the last of it, everyone return to your post and continue your duties efficiently," The head maid clapped her hand as a sign of dismissal.
The rest of the servants waited no longer to leave the quarters. Once there was no one else in the room other than the head maid and head butler, they glanced at each other.
"I'll be delivering these to the master," The head butler moved the trolley.
...
Examining all of the items on the trolley halfheartedly, Vikram sighed, "We have quite a number of weird things inside the mansion, don't we?"
He dropped a book that contained knowledge about dark magic and demons back onto the trolley. Next, he picked up a tube that held rolled up papers inside but contained nothing beneficial nor interesting. He sighed for the umpteenth time.
"I'll just send all of these to the investigators. They'll know what to do about it," Raf coughed as he pushed the trolley to the side.
"Sure, do whatever you think is right. Just inform me if you find anything interesting that actually worth my time," Vikram slumped on his chair lazily.
"I'm sure we'll find something from this heap," Raf convinced the boss gently.
"And hedgehogs will fly."
"Stop quoting the dialogues in those books, please."
"Why? It's cute and I like it!" Vikram pouted from behind the table.
Raf rolled his eyes. Even if his boss could be scary and intimidating at times, he could also be quite childish. Heck, that man loved reading books about cats titled Warriors for years!