"Um," Reborn begins. "So the trials for the World's Greatset Hitman is about to begin and a whole lot of people are going to try and kill me for a solid two weeks or so. I'm just letting you know to not get involved."
"What if you're seriously about to die?" Luce wonders.
"Well then I deserve it for losing to weak scum," Reborn says simply.
"Uh, well alright then." Luce looks down at the body in the kitchen, currently housing three knives. "What are we doing with that woman?"
"I'll clean it up."
Reborn shoves Lal out of the way, into a shop's window, and pulls his own gun.
The shooter ducks into an alleyway ahead and Reborn gives chase up until the entrance where he jumps up, runs over the roof of a car that speeds towards him, and lands on the sidewalk again behind it.
He turns and shoots out the tires, the car rolling and slamming into a shop across the street. Reborn jogs up to it, smashes the window with the butt of his gun, and ducks the upper half of his body inside.
Lal brushes herself down after that surprise hug with the window and sighs when Reborn doesn't even bother to use his silencer.
BANG – BANG … BANG.
"Can you try to struggle a bit more?" Viper asks. "Because right now the odds are 38:1, between you and last year's second place. I would make a whole lot more money if you evened that out a bit."
"Oh," Reborn says and looks down at last year's second place. "Well this is awkward."
Verde hears a whole lot of splashing coming from the downstairs bathroom and he's going to be very upset if Oodako got into the bath again. The octopus has several tanks scattered around the place, it doesn't need to make a mess.
The bathroom door is ajar, the lock broken off, and the water is still running into the bath, most of it then splashing out and onto the tiled floor.
Verde shoves open the door only to find a fully-dressed stranger sitting in the bath, holding a naked Reborn down under the water.
The man turns to look at Verde and Reborn's fist lashes out, getting the man in the throat. He rears back and Reborn braces against the slippery bath to buck the man off him and onto the floor.
Reborn explodes from the water, coughing it up even while he flips out of the bath and lands on the man's chest. Reborn gets a good few punches in to stun the other hitman and then grabs at the drawers under the sink. The man rolls them over to get the upper hand, but Reborn is already holding hairdressing scissors.
Verde closes the door and walks away to the faint sound of Reborn repeatedly stabbing the man in the face with the scissors.
Reborn grabs her by the hair and slams her head against the edge of the table once, twice, three times.
Shamal waits off to the side, a bit embarrassed.
Reborn drops the woman on the floor and frowns at Shamal. "I know this is your first year participating and all, but it's common knowledge to not pick up bed partners in the last few weeks. It's all honey traps."
Shamal grumbles and starts puttering around, righting all the overturned furniture.
Reborn kicks off the wall, lands on the man's back and gets him in a headlock. The man throws them both back and Reborn wheezes when he's slammed against the wall but he holds on and the man quickly drops, unconscious from lack of blood flow to his brain.
Reborn holds it for a bit longer to make sure, and then pulls back enough to rearrange his hold and snaps the man's neck.
"Are you sure you don't need any help?" Fon asks worriedly.
Reborn hits the ground and rolls a few times, ending up at Fon's feet with a groan.
"It's just because…that man is really quite big," Fon continues. "And he propagated the metal of your guns so they don't work anymore and…Reborn, you've never been the best at hand-to-hand."
Reborn pushes himself up onto his hands and knees and winces. "It's fine, I'm a big boy hitman."
The absolute mountain of a man grunts at Reborn. "The Fjoll wish to repay your kindness."
Reborn blinks. "Oh, it's not a hitman thing." He flops back down onto the ground. "Fon, you're up. Have fun."
Fon gingerly moves over Reborn, take two running steps and then leaps into the air, whipping around until his heel connects with the mountain's neck, slamming him to the ground hard enough that the alleyway seems to shake.
"So if I defeat you," Colonnello begins, leaning over the backrest of the couch. "I get the World's Greatest title?"
"If you then don't die to anyone else, yes," Reborn explains.
Colonnello flips over the couch, bullies Reborn down flat and then bellyflops on top of him to assert dominance. Reborn knees him in the ribs and kicks him off but then Skull has a grip on Reborn's ankle and drags him off too and they both tickle Reborn until the hitman pulls out a gun.