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I don't own KHR.

"Mukuro?!" Ryohei cried out in concern and alarm. Kyoya skidded to a stop and looked behind him to see Mukuro just standing there. Kyoya would have snapped at him if it wasn't for the fact that Mukuro's face was even paler than before and that his eyes were wide with horror.

And with the way he had his hands over his mouth and his body was trembling...it really looked like Mukuro was going to be sick.

"Are you going to throw up?" Ryohei asked, obviously on the same track as Kyoya.

"Ryohei stay here with him till he's better," Kyoya ordered, thinking fast because the time for hesitation had long since passed. "I'll go on ahead..."

"T-They shot Hayato!"

For a moment...Kyoya could only stand there in shock, his brain slowly but surely absorbing the horrible words. Then, truly unbidden, the image of his mother's lifeless and bloody body lying on the floor flashed in his mind, seizing both body and lungs up.

No...not again! Not Hayato!

"Is...is he..."

"Chrome wait!" Mukuro interrupted Ryohei with a deserpate shout. "No...no! Chrome why..."

"What happened?" Kyoya demanded of him, using all the self control he had to keep to keep his voice firm and calm. He was the oldest, thus it was up to him to be the leader and the firm rock for his younger siblings to lean on in situations like these.

Even though he felt far from calm.

Hayato...Chrome...

"Hayato's still alive but he's not doing good and...and Chrome cut our connection off! Right after she told me she was going to fight the mafioso with all her remaining strength!" Mukuro exclaimed. "We gotta get there now!"

And with that, Mukuro started running towards town again, only this time he was much faster than before.

"Hang on Hayato! Hang on Chrome!" Ryohei almost screamed as he followed suit. "We're coming!"

Kyoya quickly followed suit, hoping beyond all hope that they would get there in time. While relieved that Hayato was still alive, that relief was rather small since it was obviously clear that he was dying. And if that wasn't enough Chrome, his dear sweet sister, was pratically sacrificing herself to stop the ones that put them in this situation in the first place.

And since she cut the connection between her and Mukuro off, Kyoya and the others will have no way of knowing their fate till they got there.

Needless to say, Kyoya was going to do more than bite the two mafia men to death once he finally catches them.

As they continued to race against the clock, Kyoya found himself wishing that he and his siblings lived closer to town. Maybe then they would have gotten to their siblings before the herbivores did. Then they would have been able to take down the herbivores and Hayato would not have gotten shot. And Chrome would not be in danger of exhausting herself to death. Or being killed by the patethic herbivores that dared to attack his pack for that matter.

Oh if only he was there to begin with!

Though on that train of thought...why didn't he go to town with them?! Or better yet, why didn't he go to town by himself?! None of this would have happened if he had just done that! What was point of calling himself the leader and protector of his pack, his family, if he couldn't make the right decisions?!

"Finally! There's the town!" Ryohei called out as they cleared the hill that overlooked the town. If Kyoya wasn't using his breath to run, he would have sighed in slight relief. He was actually beginning to think that the town was never going to show up.

It didn't take long for them to enter town and even though there were a quite a few crowding herbivores, Kyoya and his brothers didn't slow down. They couldn't afford to. They had to get to them before they lose Hayato and Chrome forever!

It was right about then that Kyoya realized the...horrible truth of their situation. Even if they got to their siblings in time...there was still no guarantee that Hayato will live. Hayato's gunshot wound wasn't something that could be cured by over-the-counter medicine like Kyoya's pneumonia.

The only way to save Hayato would be...to get him to a doctor.

"Alleyway with a dumpster...alleyway with a dumpster," Kyoya heard Mukuro mutter as they raced down the sidewalks, all of them peering into each alleyway that they pass. Oh come on, where are they?! They can't be too late, they just can't...

"Here's one with a dumpster!" Ryohei cried as he took a sharp right turn into an alleyway. Which while it indeed had a dumpster, it was completely empty of humans.

"Wait Ryohei!" Mukuro called out as he followed Ryohei. "There's no one...oh no."

Kyoya, who had stopped at the edge of the alleyway, felt his heart skip a beat at the way those last two words were just dripping with certain dread. Even though there was a part of him that honestly didn't want to, Kyoya walked into the alleyway, his body slightly trembling with exhaustion and fear, and asked the obvious question.

"What's the matter?"

Instead of answering, Mukuro took in deep breath and let it out. Meanwhile, Ryohei went to look behind the dumpster before going back to them, with a scared, disappointed, and guilty expression.

"I...I thought they still might have been behind the dumpster..." Ryohei mumbled right before Mukuro finally answered Kyoya's question.

"Blood. It's faint but...I smell blood."

Kyoya instantly strain his nose and till his ever-growing horror...Mukuro was right. It was faint but the rusty smell of blood was still there. And once Kyoya recognized it, the smell penetrated his senses to the point where the twelve-year-old felt like it would never leave again.

Did the blood...belong to Hayato? Chrome? Both of them?!

Once he gets his hands on those mafiosi...

"Blood? But I don't see any blood!" Ryohei pointed out. Which was true, from what Kyoya could see, there wasn't a speck of that red lifeforce on the ground. "And there wasn't any behind...uh guys...that's a vulture right?"

Kyoya looked up and saw a big bird with gray feathers and a sharp curved beak perched on the edge of a rooftop. It's black eyes were surprisingly not on them, but on the dumpster.

Or rather, inside.

If Mukuro confirmed Ryohei's question, Kyoya didn't hear it as he walked to the dumpster. Because even though he was walking calmly, he could only hear the storm of apprehension and dread swirling inside of him.

Please...don't let them be in there...please don't let us have come all this way only for us to be too late...please...

Don't have me fail them.

Once there, Kyoya jumped and grabbed the top edge of the green container and pulled himself up far enough so he could look inside it. Then with a deep, albeit slightly shaky breath, he looked down.

The bodies of his brother and sister were not in the dumpster. Instead, two men in black suits were lying in the dumpster, clearly dead.

Even though he was...relieved that the vulture hadn't been looking to eat the remains of his siblings, he was still concerned and afraid. Because there was no way that Chrome had enough stamina to keep her and Hayato invisible, defeat two mafiosi, clear up the blood, and haul two dead bodies into the dumpster.

Which brings the question...who did?

And the more important question...where are Hayato and Chrome?

Well...that is unfortunate. But at least Kyoya and the others still have hope that their siblings are alive...for now. So what did you think of this chapter? Was Kyoya in character? I am a bit worried that he was a bit OOC but considering this is a high tense situation and he is still a kid...maybe it makes sense. And it's not like Kyoya was letting Mukuro and Ryohei know that he was scared...willingly anyway.

So here is another poll for you guys...do you want the next chapter to be about Kyoya's backstory or what happens next in the main story? Either way honestly works for me.

Please leave a review on the way out and have a good day/night!

P.S. Fun fact, vultures were almost extinct in Italy but have luckily made a comeback. Something I learned as I did some research for this story.