Aaah! I'm going to die from the overload of ideas, but the inability to type them down on my own right away! Sigh. If any of you actually want to know the details of my distress and why chapters are going to have more waiting time, then you can check out my author's profile. Most people don't care to read the A/N's here so I'm not going to bother putting it here this time.
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I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Target 21
"So let me get this straight. You want me to step into that machine, which has probably only been tested a couple of times and with only minor animals as test subjects…?"
Verde nodded.
"And then you want me to trust all of you to analyze chemically stimulated emotions that'll cause me to go through major abnormal mood swings?"
"Yes."
"And even though allowing these emotions through, I'll be losing my barrier and opening myself up to the world, I should believe in the assumption that all of you will be able to block the worlds' aura completely out?"
"Correct."
"Uh huh…" You nod slowly. "Goodbye." You then turn around pointedly and start walking away.
"Don't you want to know how to get back to at least the form we were all change to before, if not our original forms?" Verde questioned, slightly surprised that you would turn down his proposal without at least a small amount of consideration.
You deadpan a little. "And risk me becoming a lab rat? I think I can cope as a baby. There are tons of ways I can manipulate others and make them underestimate me as I am."
Reborn smirked. "You sure you want to deal with the downsides of being an infant as well?"
You smirk in return. "Otō-kun will get mad at you if you do anything."
"Only if he finds out," the hitman threatened.
You cross your arms. "You'll find that I don't believe that tattling to a child ten years younger than myself, is beneath me."
"You sure know how to take this acting like a child stuff to a whole new level, kora," Colonello commented.
"It's not acting, she really is just a child," Reborn mocked.
"Says the guy who likes to dress up in weird costumes to stalk his student," you mutter, though not too quietly.
"At least I don't pretend to be one of the students at a primary school so that I can stalk a child."
"Yeah, like forcefully taking over the position of a teacher for parent's day was so much better," you scoff with a roll of your eyes. "Besides, at least I don't have to constantly threaten my student in order to persuade him to train properly."
HA! That point goes to you. You stick out your tongue and pull down your lower eyelid at the man. However, this lead to you being hung by your ankle thanks to an irritated Reborn. You don't bother wasting any energy required to scowl, you had seen this reaction coming a mile away. On the other hand, you couldn't completely suppress the foreboding shiver that trailed down your spine when Reborn looked at Verde, then smirked at you…
Yeah, this was just not your day…
"You complete asshole, let me down!" You shout angrily, trying your best to kick the idiot's hand off your ankle, but failing thanks to a protective cover. Your shouting only succeeds in getting you stuck in the stupid glass chamber, which turned out to be nearly unbreakable from the inside. You yell a number of insults and curses in every language you can think of as you beat against the sides, but come out as unsuccessful as the first time you were placed in the stupid thing three hours ago. This is now the twenty-sixth time you've been stuck in here. "You're all asses! You hear me! Asses!"
"I really think you should knock it off, Verde, Reborn," Fong repeated for the umpteenth time since they started with a small uncharacteristic frown. Even Luce had ceased smiling.
"No way, this is too fun, kora!" Colonello laughed out.
"Not to mention that we have gathered a great deal of data through this," Verde added.
You sent the deadliest glare you could muster. But you cannot deny the scientist's claim. Even through your whirlwind of emotions that you hardly ever used (and frankly, never thought you were ever possible in displaying), you were able to make your own observations on the matter at hand. Though it wasn't clear how the fluxes in you different emotions worked with the curse, you were able to figure out by now that your emotions had some sort of affect. During this whole process each of you have taken a turn as an infant, you more often than the others though.
You were able to discover a few clear connections. When you were angry beyond reasoning, Fon and you were able to exchange forms. When you were giddy, it was you and Reborn. When you were sad, it was you, Colonello, and Lal. When you were feeling serene, you and Luce. When you were feeling sadistic or, for a lack of a better term, fuzzy, it was between yourself and Verde. And of course the feeling of wanting to be alone or aloof was between Skull and you. Easy to remember, but annoying nonetheless. You were also willing to be that the emotions full of trickery and mischief would have you exchanging forms with Mammon.
However, this did not mean they were allowed to torture you for this long, especially when the effects became pretty clear within the first ten minutes! Plus, using excessive amounts of laughing gas and other chemicals to stimulate a more exaggerated mood swing was probably going to leave a lot of side effects for you to deal with later on. You were about to demand that they set you free again, but then you cough and double over.
"That is enough!" Luce nearly snapped as she stepped in. She had finally reached her limit.
Reborn smirked. "She's just faking."
You cough some more and fall to your knees. Blood trails down your lip.
"Let her out!" Fon joined in.
"You proved your point hours ago," Lal added.
"Yeah!" Skull piped in, only to quiver in fear behind Fon when Reborn and Verde sent a glare his way.
You see Reborn refraining himself from sighing and cough some more. Verde huffs a little, but relents under the glowers of the three.
The moment you hear the door unlock, you're out of the contraption and breaking it apart before you can be thrown back in. "Ha! Freedom!"
"Told you she was faking," Reborn grouched.
Fon smiled fondly and stepped in before you could retort (probably very violently) and act upon your pent up anger. "I think it would benefit you to calm down. As Verde gathered before, by allowing your emotions to run wild, so will our changes."
You cuss in several languages and storm off into the forest. Several explosions and 'mysterious' craters that sent animals running for miles, you take a deep calming breath and focus on calming down, emerging only when you were sure you had a grasp on your emotions again.
You smirk maliciously. You had a theory about this whole changing form due to your mood thing, and you were going to test it out. If it worked like you hoped it would, then it would be the perfect revenge. The moment you rejoin the group, you closed your eyes and focused on your emotions in general. When you opened them again, you were sadistically pleased to see that all eight of the Arcobaleno were infants.
"Hmph," Verde studied his hand thoughtfully, calculation for something you didn't care to find out about running through his eyes. "Did you do that on your own accord?"
You let your face fall back into your normal, and frankly more comfortable, neutral expression and nod once. You tap your chin thoughtfully, then reach down and pick up Lal and Luce, setting them down a little to your left. Next, you picked up Fon and Reborn, setting them about a foot away from the two girls. Then you place Verde a foot from those two. Next was Colonello, then lastly Skull.
You nod to yourself. "There."
"What are you doing, kora!" Colonello demanded, a bit peeved that he could be picked up.
"I'm rating you by how cute you are as a baby," you reply apathetically. You may not usually care about the looks of something or someone, but you did have the ability to tell what was and wasn't pleasing to the eye. Why else would Tsuna be able to manipulate you with his puppy-face?
Reborn clicked his tongue almost inaudibly. "You're being sexist then if you put the two women in front."
"Damn right I am," you agree easily, crouching down in front of them while resting your elbows on your knees and your head on your palms. "At least I'm not rating you guys by how much I trust you. I'd have to find a way to ship Reborn and Colonello all the way to Jupiter. But I have to admit, while I find your sideburns absolutely ridiculous and quite laughable, as a child you look rather adorable with them. It's too bad for you that you irritate me so much or I would probably give you the same treatment as Tsunayoshi."
You take a deep breath and return the others to their original forms before anything else could be said. You fall back onto your rear and try to calm the erratic beating of your heart. "That took way more energy than I thought. Note to self, don't try to change the forms of everyone to make myself older again."
Verde hummed and jotted down your mumbling. "So changing all of us uses up your own energy. But when it's just a change between one of us, then the power distribution is even and doesn't require any of our own…Interesting. I must find out what this means."
You wave a hand, finding yourself more out of breath than you care to show through a verbal reply. It was taking a great deal of effort not to fall back completely as it was.
…Oh screw it. You flop back and close your eyes, completely ignoring the others now. Maybe you could just take a nap while they discuss their findings? That was a nice thought.
The irritating vibration and ringing of a cell phone went off abruptly.
Of course you couldn't take a nap, what else was new (Oh sarcasm, you're such a good friend). You sigh and take out the device, holding it close. "Speak."
"The date is set. One week from now, they will strike." There was a click, indicating that the person had hung up.
You sigh heavily. Yeah, this was definitely just not your day.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Whoever was making that insistent tapping had better stop soon or they would be eating bullets in the next few seconds. But the tapping continues and you can't bring yourself to investigate, playing with the pen in your fingers as you contemplate the situation back at Vongola HQ instead. You could always slap the person later (so long as it was anyone but Nana).
Someone starts talking, but you ignore them. They probably weren't even trying to converse with you anyways. The person says a few more things, getting a little more irritated each time you notice.
Suddenly, there was a sharp tug from your fingers and you look down to see your pen broken and bleeding its ink all over your hand and desk. A bullet was ingrained in the wood a short distance from you, smoking a little.
You sigh a little and look up at the only person you know who would actually pull such an action. "Is there something you need, Reborn?"
"You wouldn't stop that irritating tapping," he grouched.
You blink slowly. Oh? So the tapping had been coming from you. Were you really that out of it? You stand up with a sigh and clean up the mess. There wasn't really anything else you could think about. What must be done is obvious enough, anymore thinking would be pointless by this point.
"When and how long?"
You're tempted to sigh again, but refrain yourself. You had been doing a lot of that ever since you came to Japan with the hitman. But, these questions were expected. Reborn always seemed to know, the stupid nosy bastard. "I'm leaving tonight and I'm not sure when I'll return. It all depends on the backlash that will occur when I run interference I suppose. I'm surprised you of all people aren't coming with me."
Reborn crosses his arms and leans against the wall. "No need if you're there. That punk is more likely to listen to you than me anyways, that and I'd probably just shoot him and get it over with."
You roll your eyes. "Right, and I'm just so soft hearted," you reply sarcastically. "I'll say goodbye right now so you don't give me any extra grief when I get back. Well, at least you can't put it under that pretense anyways. Later."
"You better be back in time for my birthday." No matter how childish that sounded, the 'or else' was still unneeded.
You sigh. What a pain.
Your pace is almost leisurely as you head through the forest toward the thin streams of smoke trailing up a short distance away. You aren't surprised by the lack of security, you didn't even need to even bother to hide your presence. You hear several explosions and the popping of gunfire, steadily getting louder as you approached. The imbeciles were even shouting out their frustrations and instructions, the moronic fools.
You pause on the very edge of the clearing, where your form was still hidden in the shadows and went unnoticed by the two warring sides. You close your eyes for a moment to gather the last of your thoughts and open them slowly, you 'game face' (or lack thereof) set in place.
With a pistol in each hand, you finally step out and make your presence known to the rest of the Vongola and Varia alike. "Hello boys."
A little jumpy, but again, moving through time quickly.
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