"So…" said Ryohei, finally breaking the tense silence (and prompting Tsuna to pray for him a swift and painless death). "If you want to get back at that foreigner, he's in the other direction."

Apparently (and amazingly), Hibari's temper wasn't so bad that he would take it out on anyone who dared spoke (which absolutely unbelievable, but, hey, look at him now). "No," the prefect grunted, "we have to get out of the building first."

The others exchanged glances. "Not to correct you or anything, but…we aren't in any building. We're outside," said Takeshi.

"No, we are. We're trapped inside an illusion."

And that certainly elicited a reaction out of them. "Wait, what?"

"Rokudo Mukuro and Dokuro Chrome are specialized illusionists who are able to conjure up mirages of authentic likeliness to anything real. This what you see here," Hibari said, gesturing to the muddy land and rusting joyrides, "is nothing but an illusion."

"But there's no way," blurted out Tsuna. When Hibari's sharp eyes rested on her, she flinched. However, seeing that his expression didn't contort into anything that hinted hostility (but with that poker-face, who could tell?), she plowed on reluctantly. "I-if this whole place really is an illusion, then shouldn't we not feel the cold and rain? Or have our hands pass through objects like we're intangible?"

She more or less expected him to snap at her and call her a stupid herbivore. But, and much to her greater shock, Hibari only nodded in understanding. "For most illusions, that would be the case. Yet with highly skilled ones like Rokudo and Dokuro, the illusions not only delude your visionary senses, but also your other senses."

Tsuna felt faint. 'Why isn't he threatening anyone? How is he talking so much?'

Ryohei, who was well-aware of Hibari's notoriety as much as Tsuna did, appeared to be perturbed. Takeshi, on the other hand, was unaffected. "Seriously?" the sports-savvy teen said, his eyes wide with awe. "I didn't think that magic tricks could do stuff like that!"

"This isn't magic," retorted Hibari. "This is a highly complex ability that has been banned from fifty-eight different nations for its interminable misconduct and dangers. It tampers with the different lobes of the brain, especially the occipital, and further subjection to the illusion's influences would result in brain damage."

"So that's why we gotta get out of here?" Takeshi frowned. "But what about Belphegor? Shouldn't we go get him if sticking around is a health hazard?"

"The bastard can take care of himself. He frequently accompanies himself with another illusionist, so he's relatively…immune, I suppose you can say."

"You seem to know an awful lot about illusionists," Ryohei commented warily, narrowing his eyes. "Not to mention Roku-what's-his-face and that blonde foreigner."

Hibari gave him a sidelong glance. "And you know what I want to know? Why is it that you're in this rundown warehouse and not at Kokuyo Middle like how Reborn assigned to go?"

"We are!" Tsuna hastily cut in the second she saw the boxer bristle. "B-b-but—well, we were planning to, but we didn't know that this wasn't the place."

"What do you mean?"

"What else does it mean?" Ryohei huffed out. "If this really isn't where we're supposed to be, then we were led here! There's no way that my master would give us the wrong directions."

'Unless intentionally.' Wouldn't put it past Reborn to pull up tricks just for kicks and giggles.

The prefect's face soured in irritation. "I got that, turf-top, but what do you mean?"

"Belphegor took us here on his sweet ride. He said that Reborn sent him," answered Takeshi. "I think it was because Reborn felt sorry for us for having to walk all the way in the rain. Great guy, isn't he?"

Ryohei's temperament did a one-eighty at the mention of the man. "The greatest!" he enthused, clenching his fist in the air while grinning from ear to ear. "Master Pao Pao wouldn't let us down!"

"Well," began Hibari after a moment's pause, "I'm going to say that either Belphegor purposefully drove you to the wrong place or that wasn't him at all."

Everybody was taken aback by the idea. "You mean that either one of those illusionists drove us here on a PJ-4?" Takeshi gasped. "Unless that was an illusion too!"

"I think the important question is how they knew we were coming," Tsuna said wearily.

"It could be possible that Rokudo got inside information," mused Hibari.

Tsuna sighed and raked her fingers through her hair. This was going to be meddlesome.