Meanwhile, at the Namimori Concert Hall, a rehearsal was going on. It was the rehearsal for a J-Pop concert, where the number one Idol in Japan was performing. People were bustling here and there, setting up microphones and lights in preparation for the concert.

"Good work everyone!" a melodious voice echoed throughout the Concert Hall. The source of the voice came from the center of the Hall's large stage, it was a thin woman with long, straight black hair and wearing a sparkling silver dress. She was the number one Idol in Japan, "I'll be going home now. Thank you all for working hard!"

There was a tired cheer that resonated from the workers around the Hall, the woman turned to leave off-stage when she noticed a dark-haired boy standing backstage with an uncomfortable look on his face.

"Oh! Kou-kun!" she happily exclaimed as she ran over to Suzuki Kouhei and hugged him tightly, "Kyaa~! You're so handsome, Kou-kun! It's been too long! You've gotten taller too!"

"M-Mom…" the boy said uncomfortably as he tried to pull away from his mother, Suzuki Shigure*, "Why'd you call me here, mom? Usually you don't bring me to your rehearsals unless you need something."

"Wow! Kou-kun, you're so smart! Kyaa~!" his mom squealed like a fangirl before letting go of her son and saying, "I just wanted to see my cute little boy! By the way, I've been thinking on going on a long vacation, wouldn't you want to come with me this time?"

Suzuki looked at his mother cautiously while asking, "What? Mom! School literally just started, I had my first day today. I can't just take time off because you want to go on vacation. If it's about getting into the music business, I've already told you that I don't want that."

"No, no!" she quickly shook her head, "But, if you ever change your mind, I would be more than happy to help you start! Like I said, every now and then a change in scenery can be a good thing. Don't worry about school, I'll talk to your teachers. It's been a long time since we spent time together, right? I was thinking we could travel around for about a month?"

"A month!?" he exclaimed, "That's such a long time! Can't we go on vacation closer to the holiday break? Why do we have to go now?"

"Let's talk about this more at home," she insisted while ushering him out of the building and towards a limo that was waiting for them, "Actually, let's talk about this more at the airport!"

"We're going right now!? What about clothes? And a toothbrush? Where are we even going?"

As they talked, Shigure opened the door of the limo and was guiding him into the vehicle with a coercive force, "Don't worry about clothes! We can always buy the things you need!"

"Wait! Wait!" her on resisted as he grabbed the outside of the limo to try to get himself , "Mom! Why are you acting like this!?"

"Kouhei!? Shigure!?" a voice called out to them as the pair struggled against one another. They both looked up and saw Yamamoto running towards them with an unnatural urgency that neither had ever seen on him. Upon reaching him, they saw how out of breath he was that he carried two large duffle bags on his back. Suzuki heard his mother click her tongue in annoyance as the old man approached.

"Thank goodness! I caught up to you before it was too late!" he gasped upon reaching them while attempting to catch his breathe.

Suzuki broke free from his mother's grip and ran to the old man to check on him, "Are you alright, Yamamoto-san? Why are you here? Why were you running?"

"Goodness, I haven't run that much in such a long time!" Yamamoto took a deep breathe before standing up more straight. He gave Shigure an apologetic look, she responded by crossing her arms and frowning. "Shigure, you know what he has to do."

"He doesn't have to do anything!" she argued, Suzuki was unnerved upon seeing his mother act like this as it was very uncharacteristic of her. She pulled her son towards her again in a tight and protective embrace. "He's only a boy! He shouldn't have to do something like this!"

"Hide's also the same age," Yamamoto pointed out, "Even Kouta and I were the same age too when we got to do it too."

"Pardon," they stopped upon hearing an emotionless voice behind them, turning around they saw a dark haired woman in a black suit holding a black chest. She looked directly at Suzuki with a glassy eyed stare. "You are Suzuki Kouhei, correct?"

"Um, yes?" he unsteadily replied before his mother pulled him away and got between him and the woman.

"Stay away from him! Please!" she tearfully pleaded as the woman stepped towards him and opened the box, revealing the small rings inside.

"You have been chosen as a candidate for the Twelfth Vongola's Rain Guardian, please take your ring to represent your candidacy," the stiff woman took out a ring and handed it to him, "By accepting this ring, you will represent the side of Sawada Hideyoshi."

Suzuki blinked and, before he knew it, he was already holding the ring in his hand. "Represent…Hide?"

"You've done it now," he heard Yamamoto sigh.

Just out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mother storming towards him. She grabbed his shoulders and began shaking him, "You don't have to do this! You can still return the ring!"

"Kouhei-kun, picking up that ring means that you're going to fight for Hide against some very dangerous people," Yamamoto sternly warned, "If you want to continue, then keep the ring."

"I see," Suzuki gripped the ring in his fist and looked up at the strange woman with the chest, he flashed her a cheerful smile, "Okay then!"

"The first battle will be held two weeks after distributing all rings to the other candidates. Estimated task to be completed in 1 week," the rigid woman closed the box and began backing away, "You are invited to attend this along with the Twelfth Vongola Boss candidates and Guardian Candidates, but this is not a requirement."

"Got it!" he affirmed with the same cheerful energy before he saw how despondent his mom was now.

"This is unfair," she sighed in defeat.

Yamamoto rested a reassuring smile on her shoulder, "I'll take care of him. In fact, I was going to ask for help from his grandmother."

"My grandmother?" Suzuki tilted his head to once side, "I have a grandmother?"

"Ugh, that almost makes it worse," his mother groaned while holding her head in her hands, "To think we have to ask that old bitty for help…"

Yamamoto patted her back one more time in an attempt to comfort her before walking towards Suzuki. Handing him one of the duffle bags he was carrying, he flashed him a cheerful smile, "Kouhei! I hope you've got your sea-legs on you! We're going to Shimon Island to see your old man's mom!"

"My old man?" he questioned and then was shocked as realization dawned on him, "You mean my dad? Wait-I have a dad!?"

~8~

Bleary eyed and hungover, Kurokawa Takuma slowly woke up feeling as if nails had been drilled into his head. He was only a little surprised to find himself in the outdoors as this was not the first time he had gotten blackout drunk and woke up in a strange place. He was only thankful that he still had his clothes on.

As he slowly got up, his head still aching to no end, he heard a polite cough and was horrified to see one of his own students, Sakuraba Morita, sheepishly looking after him. There were a few gym bags next to him that looked full to the point of bursting.

"Sakuraba!? What are you doing here!?" last he could recall, Kurokawa had been drinking earlier with his cousin whom he had not seen in several years.

"I was supposed to hand you this, sensei?" the boy also seemed just as puzzled as why he was there too and handed a letter to his homeroom teacher.

"Er, I didn't grab you and bring you here, did I?" the man sheepishly asked, he had done more embarrassing stuff before but this could get him fired if he didn't navigate the situation appropriately.

"Not at all, sensei!" Morita quickly shook his head, "Actually, someone else brought you here and told me to come also!"

"Someone else?" the teacher then turned his attention to the letter and quietly read it. Morita noticed that his attention was strangely more focused than usual on the contents of the letter until the man finally spoke, "Sakuraba, who gave you this letter?"

He was momentarily taken aback by the question but quickly answered, "A woman with really dark hair and skin."

"Was she wearing a yellow ring like this?" he was surprised when Kurokawa pulled out a necklace that had on it a metal ring with a yellow gem on it.

"Uh, I think?" Morita was uncertain as he couldn't recall specifically what the woman was wearing on her hands, "I don't really remember, but she was pretty rude."

"That must be Yaani," Kurokawa sighed and looked back at the note while thoughtfully muttering, "So this isn't another prank, Yuuto…"

"A joke?"

"I see," Kurokawa folded the note and placed it gingerly in his pocket and then bent down to dig around the gym bag that had accompanied him. He rummaged through the bag for quite a while, every now and then pulling a new thing out to inspect it like a jeweler inspecting a fine gem, before putting it back and finding the next object. Morita recognized many of the objects he was pulling out to be related to boxing or other fighting.

"Ah, found it!" Kurokawa announced and then stood up to face Morita. On his hands, the teacher was now wearing a pair of thick, fingerless gloves with significant padding over the outer parts of them. He tossed a second pair of similar gloves as well as a mouth guard to Morita and told him to put it on.

"Are these kind of like boxing gloves?" Morita wondered as he put the mouth guard into his mouth and fit the gloves snugly onto his hands.

"Sort of," he shrugged and then got into a fighting stance, "Now, Morita, I want you to come at me."

"Uh, like fight you?"

"Yup!" his fists began to softly glow with a yellow light, "5 minutes. Give me 5 minutes to show you a different way to fight."

Morita tensed up and quickly got into his boxing stance, he couldn't help but notice how strange his teacher's stance was. He threw a punch and was surprised at the speed Kurokawa dodged and followed up with a punch to Morita's gut, knocking the tall boy to the ground. He struggled to catch his breath as his teacher circled him, in the same stance as he was in before.

"Get up, Morita, we still have more than 4 minutes."

Morita struggled to his feet and threw another punch in, Kurokawa dodged again but before he could close in again Morita followed up with a hook to the side he dodged towards. The hit landed on his teacher but a chill went down his spine when he saw Kurokawa's eyes narrowed and a devious smile washed over his face. The teacher grabbed his students' neck pulling him forward and thrust his knee into his chest. For the second time, the air escaped Morita's lungs and he almost passed out at this. Morita then felt something hook onto one of his legs and the next thing he knew he was staring up at the sky with Kurokawa on top of him and throwing punch after punch in Morita's face.

Morita could barely catch his breath at the flurry of punches being thrown in his face and eventually he passed out from this. When he next woke up, he jumped to his feet, heart racing and panting nervously as Kurokawa sat casually next to him eating a granola bar.

"Oh good, you're awake," his teacher laid down on the ground and stretched out. He then waved an apologetic hand limply, "Sorry, guess I went too hard on you, but I'm sure you got the message."

"The message!? You wailed on me until I passed out!" Morita yelled.

"Now, now," Kurokawa held out a granola bar for Morita to take, "Eat up and tell me what you learned from that fight."

"Learn what? That wasn't boxing!"

"Exactly!" his teacher quickly sat up and smiled brightly, "Well half right! The first strike was like boxing, wasn't it?"

"Uh," Morita blinked as he tried to remember, "I think?"

"It was! You threw the first strike, then I dodged and striked back!" Kurokawa began excitedly ramble on while making gestures that imitated the fight they just had, "Then you threw another strike, I dodged again and you threw a right hook – which wasn't a bad thought, in my opinion – afterwards I did what's called a clench - or a double collar tie that I didn't follow up with right – then I did a leg trip take down to bring you to the ground. In terms of defense, you could have elbowed me when you got on the ground. Or when I had you in the double collar tie, you could have turned that into a tie up or pummel clinch."

Morita's mouth dropped open, he wasn't quite sure if this was the same homeroom teacher that snoozed in his own class as he was so animated and excited while talking.

"I got maybe the first part of all that," he admitted while trying to run a lot of what was said, "What's a double collar tie? Or a clench?"

"Those are muay thai terms," Kurokawa explained as he dug through the gym duffle bag from earlier, a half-eaten granola bar was sticking out of his mouth as he rummaged through the bag, "I thought there was a book in here…it's kinda like a grapple, but you lock the opponent in close so you can use your legs to hit their face. I messed up my leg a while back though, so I could only reach your chest or belly."

"Muay thai?" Morita repeated the words, he had never heard of this before in his life. Then he realized that Kurokawa had completely dominated him with a handicap.

"Here!" Kurokawa finally found what he wanted, a thin pamphlet-like book that was mostly pictures with short, succinct descriptions underneath. The pictures were of two figures punching, grappling, kicking, and doing all sorts of other fighting techniques. On the cover of the book were the words 'MMA'.

"MMA?" Morita's brow furrowed in confusion as he flipped through the book, pausing briefly to look up what a clench looked like. As it turned out, there were multiple types of 'clenches'.

"Mixed Martial Arts," Kurokawa explained, "It's a fighting style that uses boxing, muay thai, kick boxing, and wrestling. You have a pretty good skill set for boxing, but the people you're going up against are masters at something that's different from boxing. I'm not sure if I can teach you how to master that skill, but I can teach you the basics and give you more tools to add to that skill set you already have."

Morita studiously flipped through the book again, looking up every now and then to ask questions, "You can teach me all of this?"

"Yup!"

"Then what's this 'skill' that you can't help me much with?"

Kurokawa stood up and inspected Morita's body wordlessly until finally nodding in approval and muttering proudly, "I still got it!"

He then pulled his gloves on again, making Morita flinch from the last time he was hit with those gloves. A soft yellow glow radiated from them, for a brief moment, he thought he saw small flickers of a dazzling light come off of the gloves too.

"These gloves are special, they can help channel a certain energy from your own body called 'Flames'," as he spoke, the glow became brighter until his fists finally burst into a full flame, "There are different kinds of Flames and each one has different abilities. This particular one has healing properties and can help to heal and fix wounds."

Morita gasped as he remembered the injuries he should have sustained from the earlier fight. His whole face should be swollen and his whole body should be bruised all over. But at this time, his body felt amazing, even the muscle soreness he had from boxing practice every day this week was gone.

"This flame can be used to make my muscle injuries better while fighting!" Morita concluded.

"Haha, the flame only lasts for as long as your stamina allows though!" Kurokawa laughed.

"Ah! Wait, if I punch my opponent with gloves like that, won't they just instantly heal from their injuries?" Morita yelped.

Kurokawa laughed again, "True! These gloves are meant for training only though, these guys are completely useless in a real fight! But if you learn these fighting moves as well as how to ignite this Flame, you'll stand a chance against your opponent."

"And I can help Hide?" Morita asked, "If he gets hurt, or if anyone on our side gets hurt, I can help them!"

Kurokawa smiled in response to this and pulled on the other glove.

"So," he grinned at Morita, "Are you ready for round 2?"

~8~

"Alright, listen up!" Yaani loudly declared as her, Hide, and Reborn headed into a dark forest, "Since you're a total wimp and newbie at all this Mafia stuff, I'm going to teach you all about the different Dying Will Flames…but first, what do you know about them?"

"Reborn?" Hide looked questioningly to his tutor.

"Go ahead and answer her, I thought it was best for her to teach you about this sort of thing since she can show you best,"" he explained.

"Uh," the boy hesitated before continuing as he tried to recall all he knew, "Well, there are different kinds. Delia-san said that I have the Sky Flame, but there are also flames like the Storm and the Rain Flames too. I think she said grandpa could use the Rain Flame."

"Very good," Yaani nodded in approval, "But do you know what the differences are?"

He thought about this before sheepishly replying, "How they look? Sorry, other than that I'm not sure."

She shrugged while shaking her head haplessly in response to this and sighed, "Well, that's a good start."

They stopped upon reaching a clearing and Hide finally saw that the sun was starting to set. It was a long day and he was exhausted. Yaani took out a small yellow box from a bag she carried. A dazzling yellow flame erupted on the small ring she wore on her fist and she quickly put it into the box before the ring could disintegrate into dust with the flame. The box then opened and a tent, logs, table and cooking set appeared before them, baffling Hide.

"Where did those come from?" he asked, bewildered by the sudden appearance of an entire camping set.

"It's a type of Box Weapon," Yaani explained as she walked towards the logs to begin a campfire, "I say 'weapon', but really its used for storage. Oh yeah, a Dying Will Flame is usually used to open boxes like that. The one I used just now to open it is called a Sun Flame. Certain boxes can only be opened by certain Dying Will Flames. This one can only be opened by the Sun Flame…actually there is an exception to the rule, the Sky Flame can open all boxes, regardless of their affinity."

"Harmonization…" he muttered to himself.

"So you do know about the Sky Flame's affinity!" she exclaimed.

"A bit," he sheepishly admitted while recalling fighting in the underground basement the previous year, "I remember seeing something like that before last year, but everything was so scary at that time and it all happened so fast. I do remember doing something strange with that flame though…"

"Strange? Well the Sky Flame is a quite special and unique," she continued while holding up the box to him, "Not only is it a rare type of Flame that not many people are able to use, but someone with the Sky Flame can also use any Ring and open any Box with it, regardless of what affinity the original Ring or Box had!"

Hide was surprised by this revelation, he had not known it was so special before and looked to Reborn uncertainly. He then realized something and quickly asked, "Hold on, how could you use the Dying Will Flame without being shot? Don't you need to be shot with the Dying Will Bullet in order to get the Flame to come out?"

"You believe that?" she seemed surprised by his question, she looked to Reborn questioningly.

The infant got to his feet and held out a case containing several round pills that almost looked like candy. He tossed the case to Hide.

"Eventually you should be able to ignite the Dying Will Flame without the use of a bullet, but I'm running low on ammo and your short on time," Reborn told Hide, "Those are special pills that should also help to unlock your Dying Will for training. Take 1 to go into your Dying Will Mode, and then 2 to go into Hyper Dying Will Mode. But you need to start with just your regular mode since your body isn't accustomed to Hyper Dying Will Mode yet."

"That's something we'll have to work on," Yaani thoughtfully tapped her chin, "I suppose we can start working on those things tomorrow, but it's really important that you're able to release your Dying Will Flame on your on. So here's some 'homework': Think about the things that are most precious to you and why you fight for them."

With the campfire lit, she stretched out and laid down on the ground, looking up at the boy expectantly. "Well?"

"Well what?" he asked.

"Aren't you going to find food?"

"You don't have food here!?"

"Nope, no water either," she nonchalantly explained, "I was thinking you would have that."

"I didn't even know we were coming here!" he exclaimed and then looked desperately at Reborn. He nearly fell to the ground upon seeing the infant was currently enjoying a candle lit dinner with a steak and glass of wine before him. "When did you get that!?"

"A hitman always comes prepared," The infant slyly replied while sipping his wine.

"Not everyone is as prepared as you, Reborn," Yaani huffed while chewing on a bread roll that seemed to randomly materialize in her hands.

"Didn't you just say you had no food?" the exasperated boy wondered.

"This barely counts as food," she declared while continuing to chew on the bread.

Hide stared at her dumb-founded, he had grown somewhat used to the ridiculous behavior of Reborn but was not expecting the same from an adult woman.

"You may want to hurry to find something to eat and drink, I hear bears come out in these woods," Reborn remarked as he dabbed his face with a napkin after finishing his meal.

"I hear bear meat is quite a delicacy in Japan," Yaani remarked sarcastically.

"It's best to eat that sort of thing up north, but I'm sure Hide could manage to get some for you."

"I can't fight a bear!" the boy exclaimed.

"Hey Hide!" Yaani called out to him, her tone was now more serious, "The sun will set soon, so you better get going."

"Maybe you need some encouragement?" Reborn offered while pointing his gun at Hide's forehead.

"No-wait-Reborn! Stop!" he stammered and attempted to run away before the gun went off. Yaani was just as surprised upon seeing the boy fall to the ground but then quickly rise, with noticeably less clothing than before.

"FIND FOOD AND WATER WITH MY DYING WILL!" Hide screamed, his voice echoing in the woods, before running off into the woods, kicking up dust as he left.

~8~

Earlier when Suzuki had asked if he had a dad or not, he wasn't joking. He had never heard his mother nor anyone else make mention of his father nor, for that matter, any family other than his mother. He never questioned it as he had always assumed that some people just didn't have dads and maybe some people only had moms.

On the boat ride to Shimon Island, he wondered why his mother never mentioned his dad or grandparents before. He also wondered why Hide's mom was on the boat as well.

"Oh my! It's been so long since I've gone on a vacation!" she cheerfully on the boat ride over, while basking in the sunlight.

"It's been a while since we met the Shimon's, right, Namie?" Yamamoto called out to his daughter as he steered the boat, "I'm surprised that you wanted to come with!"

"Well, Yuu-kun surprised me by coming home suddenly last night," she grabbed her sun hat to prevent it from flying off into the ocean, "Oh my! He said he wanted to spend some father-son time with Hide-kun and then brought up that you were going to see your old friends! I thought it was perfect timing!"

"Hah! Can't get anything past my son-in-law!" Yamamoto laughed, Suzuki felt that his response was a little more forced than usual.

"Father-son time, huh…?" the boy muttered to himself. He recalled that Hide had a fairly good relationship with his dad, but it was difficult to imagine that being the ideal type of dad he had in his mind. While stuck thinking about this, he found himself saying aloud, "Was my dad also like Hide's?"

"Your dad?" Namie let out a small gasp, surprising Suzuki. She then quickly covered her mouth and tried to hide her shocked expression, "Well…I suppose we are going to his home…

"Oh, that's right, you would know about him too, wouldn't you?" he asked her.

"Uh," she anxiously looked over to her own father and then back to the boy, "I'm sure that you'll learn plenty about him at the island, more than I can tell you at least."

Suzuki was not satisfied by this answer and it must have shown on his face as the woman suddenly became worried. Yamamoto seemed to pick up on this and pointed to the horizon where Shimon Island could be seen quickly approaching, "Look, we're getting close."

As the island got closer and closer to him, Suzuki couldn't help but grow progressively more anxious and nervous to meet the relatives he never knew and never thought he would be anxious to meet.

He was not expecting to be greeted by a watchful group of excited looking children and adults, whom all looked at the newcomers with interest. The most noticeable presence amongst the group was a tall, grey-haired woman who stood in the middle of the group with her arms crossed and a dissatisfied look on her face.

Yamamoto was the first to greet her upon disembarking on the boat. "Adelheid! Long time no see! Thanks for greeting us, I hope all this isn't too much trouble!"

"It is," the stern older woman staunchly pointed out, she then grabbed the older man's hand and roughly shook it, causing him to wince upon feeling her grip.

"Still strong as ever, Adelheid!" he held his aching hand after she had released it.

"What have you come here for, Yamamoto Takeshi?" she questioned as an amused smile appeared on her face, "Come here to train those weakened muscles of yours? There's nothing like hard work to keep the muscles and senses keen! Looks to me like you could do with some tuning of those muscles and senses as well!"

"That life is far behind me," he sheepishly replied before gesturing to his daughter and Suzuki, "I brought some guests with me."

"Yamamoto Namie!" the woman nodded towards her, "It's been quite a while since I last saw you, have you been keeping up with your training?"

"Oh my, I don't train nearly as much as before! I'm just a housewife now!"

"A housewife is still an honorable profession," the woman then finally noticed Suzuki, who stood behind Namie, and turned her steely gaze to him, "Now you must be Yamamoto Namie's son, what is…your…"

She trailed off and for a brief moment she seemed astonished to be looking at him She quickly recovered and walked briskly towards him, pinching his face which caused him to yelp in response.

"Goodness, you look so much like him!" she exclaimed before displaying a much softer expression and patting his shoulder, "So, you're Kouhei…"

"Who are you?" he asked while the woman continued squishing his face, he heard a murmur explode from the attentive crowd around them. They all whispered his name as if they were already aware of it but were looking at a celebrity.

"Apologies," she pulled back, and gave a triumphant smile, "My name is Suzuki Adelheid, but you may call me grandmother."

~8~

At that moment on the other side of town in downtown Namimori, in a ritzy hotel, inside a luxurious penthouse, thunder boomed outside of a large glass window as Ugo and Andre came in.

"What happened?" asked a voice, it came from a luxurious looking red chair that was facing the window and away from the pair of assassins. The pair were bowing and kneeling on the floor before the person who sat on the chair.

"I'm sorry, Akito," Andre was the first to speak out, "Basil from CEDEF showed up, I decided it was best to retreat."

"Y-Yeah, it was Andre who did it!" Ugo stammered with fear.

"Quiet!" the source of the voice, a young man referred to as Akito, shouted from the darkness. He rose from his chair with a disgusted scowl on his face as he looked down at the pair scornfully and glared at Andre, "I thought the point of hiring the Varia was that their success rate was near 100%. Why, then, are you back here with your tail tucked between your legs and without the other side's boss!?"

Andre and Ugo flinched as they were yelled at.

"W-We won't fail you next time, sir!" Ugo blurted out nervously, he then found himself before the young man, whose ire was now focused on him. The next thing he knew, blood was splurting from Ugo's chest and mouth, Akito's fist had impaled him through his chest.

"There won't be a 'next time'," the young man grimly spoke as he shook the blood off his fist and Ugo's body fell lifeless to the ground. He then turned his attention to Andre, who closed his eyes as he accepted that he would also meet the same fate. After waiting a few moments, he was surprised that he was still alive and looked up at the young man but found that he was already seated back in his seat.

"Eve," he gestured for someone to come forth.

In the moving shadows of the penthouse, Andre spotted a tall, thin, blonde haired woman dressed in black scantily clad clothes walking around the room and watching him like a tiger circling its prey. She had an unnerving look in her eyes that would have terrified most people but Andre only felt disgusted whenever he saw her. In her arms, she carried a large box wrapped in a red velvet clothe. The box itself was the same size as him.

Wordlessly, Andre watched as the woman set it on the ground with a loud thud in front of him. He knelt down to remove the cloth and lift the lid, revealing a large steel sword. The blade was nearly as wide as his head and as long as he was tall. The guard was decorated with an intricate pattern of steel and the long grip was wrapped tightly with a dark blue leather. What drew Andre's attention most was the pommel, it had a small but deep depression in it that definitely served a purpose.

"To be clear, this isn't a reward," the young man sternly began, "It's an investment. I thought it was befitting for someone once known as the 'Varia's Annihilator'."

"You're lucky that Lord Akito considers you useful still," the woman called Eve snickered as she looked down at the former Varia Assassin with disdain. She retreated to Akito's side and fawned over him, "Lord Akito, doesn't this fool deserve some sort of punishment?"

Akito pushed the woman off of him and looked thoughtfully on Andre before seeming to come to a decision and smiled slyly, "I think he is undergoing enough of a punishment now. After all, I believe the one he will go up against will be none other than a boy named Suzuki."

Andre flinched upon hearing the name, this did not go unnoticed by Eve or Akito.

"Is that so? Why does that name sound familiar," Eve pondered while tapping her chin and gliding over to the swordsman to rest a hand on him in order to lean on his still kneeling body. "Oh right, I think I killed someone with that name before!"

Blood began streaking down his mouth as Andre bit his lip to hold himself back. He clenched down on the new sword in his possession and kept his eyes glued to the ground. It was all he could do to not lash out at Eve at that moment.

"Enough of that. One of you, take care of that fool," Akito ordered while waving his hand dismissively at Ugo's body.

"Let me!" Eve said with delight as she stepped forward, her icy blue eyes were eerily glowing in the dim light. Her hands were bloodied as she had been rummaging through Ugo's dead body, but in them she held up the Thunder Ring. On one of her fingers she was already wearing the Cloud Ring. She smiled with delight as she put the Thunder Ring on her other hand and held it up to the light to admire it.

"Lord Akito," she began while still enamoured with the new ring, "I heard my precious little 'brother' and 'sister' are to be the Cloud and Thunder candidates for the other side…would you allow me take on both roles?"

"Do what you want," he rested his hand on his fist as he leaned back in the chair, "But don't disappoint me."

"Of course," her smile grew as she clapped together both hands in delight, "I can't wait to crush them!"

"That's going to have to wait," Akito closed his eyes in thought, "That robot woman said two weeks until we start since they have to find all the Guardian candidates for the other side. What's taking so long?"

"I believe they're attempting to find the Mist Guardian since she's in hiding," Even mused as she kicked Ugo's body off to the corner of the room. She then snickered to herself, "They're going to have to work hard finding her though! Ah, the blood from her body was such a rich shade of red!"

Andre continued to grimly looked down at the ground, he felt like throwing up but he had felt this way for several months now. There was nothing more he could do at this point, he was already too far in the rabbit hole to go back now.

* In the chapter: Hospital Blues, where Suzuki states that his mom is Suzuki Shigure, a popular idol.