It had been three years since the fated day. None of them actually made progress in any of their research and Skull was still missing.

Colonnello had never really met the cloud. Sure, he had observed the group but it wasn't like he had spent time with him. The other arcobalenos did talk about him, quite often but it was more on the line of them asking if anyone had found a sign of the missing element.

It wasn't great and he especially knew that all of them were worried.

He looked down as his pacifier lit up for a moment.

It wasn't that surprising, they had decided to hold their meeting in this town, as the location always changed to where everyone could attend the easiest. But he was running late and he was still a bit too far away. Maybe someone had the wrong address or difficulties finding the spot?

He wasn't sure but he would find out.

He orientated himself by the intensity of the light as he moved through the town only to have his eyes fall on a in purple leather clad toddler.

Honestly Colonnello stopped dead in his tracks, just staring as Skull came out of the shop, a small bag of groceries in his hand.

This was insane. All of them had spent time and effort trying to find the cloud. Honestly just Lal alone went through an insane amount of newspapers every time in the hope of finding the tiniest mention.

And she hadn't been alone, everyone kept watch in their own way. He even knew that Reborn walked around with an old magazine frontpage where Skull was shown just to have the opportunity to ask if anyone had seen the cloud.

And now he was the one to find Skull? By pure accident? They were all in the same town and he was the one to stumble over Skull like this?

The rain could honestly slap himself when the first word that escaped his mouth was "Lackey?"

He blamed Reborn, he really did. The hitman was by far the one who spoke about Skull the most and naturally always with the nickname. It was a slip of tongue, sure, but now he already did it. How to get out of it now?

"You…You're the lackey right, kora? The lackey of our group? Of the arcobaleno?"

He messed up. He made it unbelievably worse. Reborn would kill him.

Leilani hadn't even known in which town she actually was when she finally made it out of the forest. She mainly had started to wander, never staying in one location too long otherwise her mind was overrun.

She still felt caged, not in one place but in this whole world as stupid as it sounded and whenever she stagnated it got worse until it kicked her down compeltly. To prevent it she had started to travel the world, by foot.

Even passing the borders wasn't hard with her flames assisting her. Honestly she was illegally wandering around in every country but it's not like she ever had actual legal documents since she arrived in this dimension. So it's not like she could make any of this worse.

Leilani had never even purchased a map, instead wandering off wherever she felt like. The four-point-spell worked surprisingly well in combination with mist flames and through it she was able to spend the colder months in warmer places.

It was still harsh to live outside permanently and she had more than once spent evenings longing for her trailer but it was no use. Leilani couldn't go back.

The last few weeks she had spent walking through the wilderness again only to stumble upon this town. It was actually just in time, while she mainly survived on whatever she could find she tried to keep a few purchased long shelved products for emergencies and the rations had run low. She was pretty good with her money management so far and so nothing spoke against a few purchases.

She even had gotten used to relying on her skyflame to spare herself from arguing with any shopkeeper that didn't want to sell to her. It had taken a while for her to actually lose her guilt at charming people as she had dubbed it. Charming didn't sound as bad as using the imperio and she knew there was a difference between it and it helped majorly with her heavy conscience.

This time the shopping trip went over without a hitch besides her pacifier that had been glowing constantly. She didn't pay it any mind though, over the years it had occasionally done it, mostly just for a few seconds but it never had any other effect so she ignored it and the thought of eating a can of baked beans tonight was way more captivating. At least that was on her mind before she heard the "Lackey?"

Leilani didn't stop in her tracks, even hurrying up. This couldn't be and it was definitely not addressed at her… at least that's what she was able to convince herself before the next sentence was uttered.

She really didn't want to but couldn't stop herself from freezing on the spot. Footsteps sounded out and she looked straight at a blonde toddler with a blue, glowing pacifier around his neck.

She remembered him, naturally. He had been the one to jump in front of Lal.

"I'm Colonnello, kora. You have no clue how hard we were searching for you, Skull."

She just slightly shook her head, she would definitely not spend any second more with him "I've got no clue who you're talking about."

"Come on Skull. The others are just a few blocks ahead. I can bring you to the meeting place."

"Me no speaky english"

"You have a British accent, Skull."

Hell no! Leilani had absolutely no interest in seeing any of them ever again! Her avoidance tactic was maybe not the most convincing but well… it was the one her mind could think up in the span of a few seconds "My mama told me I'm not allowed to talk to strangers."

"Skull, come on. You're not an actual toddler. You're not even talking like one."

Well she could add a lisp, couldn't she? She didn't even bother with the thought that it was horribly unconvincing when she instantly changed her voice to imitate baby speech "No Skull. Me Harry. Mama no allowing stranger talk. Stranger danger."

"You serious, kora? Come on Skull. let's go, yeah? They will all be so relieved to finally see you again."

She just shook her head vehemently and took a step backwards.

"Reborn will kill me if I let you get away… so just… please come with me?"

Just the mention of that bastard's name was enough and Skull started running. Where she was running to wasn't exactly clear but running seemed like the only way out she could find… not that she came far as a hand snatched her arm just a moment later.

Leilani stumbeld, only getting kept from falling by the firm grip on her arm.

"This is ridiculous, kora."

Sure, it was true that pretending didn't get her far but… it wasn't like she had never before put an effort at getting people to back off. "You never catch the great Skull-sama alive!" she screeched out and her magic and flames sparked up to give the rain quite a nasty electric shock to his hand.

She heard him curse the same moment she was already taking off again. She did get farther this time only to get thrown down by a full body tackle.

Leilani hissed at Colonnello, far from pleased.

"If you just come with me we can make this way more pleasant. Honestly, kora."

"Bugger off! Touching the great Skull-sama alone costy 10.000 euros! No matter how much of a fanboy you are, my body is bible! If you let me go now I might consider letting you go out of the depth of my unbelievably amazing good heart."

"I already told you Reborn will skin me alive. No can do. Will you come with me now?"

"Never!"

Colonnello groaned out, visibly annoyed "I get now why he calls you Lackey… ".

The rain stood up again, a tight grip on Skulls collar and even ignoring the instant electric shock that Leilani let out.

Leilani tried to hold onto one of the lampposts but Colonnello was done with the farce and just dragged her behind him.

It was humiliating and all she could do was constantly send out electric sparks. She didn't want to harm him and her control wasn't as good as that she could savely ramp up the power so that she would be sure she wouldn't greatly injure or harm him. It didn't stop her from screeching the whole way though. But exclaiming that you got kidnapped had no real effect when the aggressor was another toddler. She could even see a few women coo at the two of them.

She tried to escape again when he was trying to fish out the keycard to get through the security check in front of a house.

It was true that she had no intention of using her skyfalmes in front of any of them but the rest of her flames? They were fair game and as soon as he busied himself with his pocket, she pushed her storm flames outwards. Sure, it would injure him but it was better than giving up at least. Almost a last resort to be honest. She was too done with getting captured by any of them.

He cursed loudly out as the flames attacked his hand which made him recoil automatically and she ran again.