Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my OCs.

I was slightly frustrated. I was indeed picking up Italian well enough to be at the top of my class but with new lessons came new words that I had no idea about and so my Spartan Lessons with Squalo began anew. There was only one thing that was made certain here and it was the fact that I was a fast study. Squalo never complained that I was learning too slow and he never repeated himself but I had to ask.

"Why do you concern yourself with me so much?" I demanded, "You receive no benefits from recruiting me and you receive no benefits from teaching me."

"I do." He declared, lowering his textbook the slightest bit and pausing in his lesson, "You're someone I picked to serve the boss. If you do poorly, it makes me look bad as the one that recruited you."

"So why did you bother to do a troublesome thing like recruiting me?"

"Because Silvio is lagging and our boss wants to have him replaced." Squalo told me with blunt honesty. He looked me dead in the eye as if he was daring me to blow their plans to Silvio himself, "You saw it yourself and you felt it with your own hands. That man is arrogant. He's someone left over from Tyr's time but unlike Ottavio, he clings to the past. His entire squad is dead because of his lack of leadership skills."

An idea flashed in my mind, "So… you said you joined the Varia and became an officer by killing Tyr, did you not?"

"V-Voi…" He averted his eyes. He knew me well enough by now to know that I was scheming something that was not going to be conventional.

"And tell me. How did Ottavio become an officer?"

"He was Tyr's right hand before all this so he kept his spot! That's all!"

"And Lussuria? That Mammon kid? Leviathan?"

Squalo was clearly skeptical about whether or not he should be honest with me here, "Lussuria… beat the guy before him black and blue and sent him to the hospital. He's comatose even to this day. Mammon is an Arcobaleno. He's one of seven cursed powerhouse children. And Levi… was picked by the boss himself because he's obedient but also because he completes his work without considering his personal morals."

"So two out of six officers so far earned their positions by dethroning previous officers?" I closed my notebook with a snap and reached back for my gauntlets, "Come, senpai. Spar with me for a while."

"VOI! You have to study!" He snapped.

"Just for a little while." I was very convincing and I knew I was because Squalo was already reaching for his sword, "Unless you're scared."

"VOIII!" He drew his blade in an instant and my armored hands clanged against his blade. He swung at me wildly and I blocked his blade with my palm each time, "VOIII! How long do you intend to defend?!"

My hands were armored and taken up as defense but he never saw the powerful roundhouse kick coming. He always knew I was fast but I guess he never expected me to be faster than him. But since I had surprised him with my speed, he surprised me with a trick I had never expected a swordsman to have.

Flaps against his blade opened up and gunpowder rained out. I had only one moment to move away. I raised my arms over my face and slid back as far as I could go. I felt him aiming for my backside before I even turned. The smoke had been a distraction for his real aim. I turned, my fist aimed at his nose.

"TRASH!" A voice bellowed from the door. It was a tone of authority that made me and Squalo stop mid-blow.

We both turned to find the boss and Ottavio standing in the doorway. They seemed ready to reprimand us.

"Squalo. Kira." Ottavio leveled a glare on each of us, "What in the world are you guys doing? If you haven't been getting along then how come you didn't just say so?"

"You've got it wrong!" Squalo snapped, "We were just sparring! We get along fine!"

"Too well." I added. In fact, I had been enjoying this before these two interrupted us and I'd love to get back to it if these losers would just go away and leave me alone.

Ottavio's eyes softened, "I see… But we have proper sparring rooms for that here. Look at how dirty you've made this room. Please clean it up like responsible adults."

Squalo and I glanced around and looked down at our feet in shame, "Understood."

"Short scum." Xanxus scoffed and no one, not even I expected to take hold of his arm and flip him over my shoulder and into the floor.

My vision was red as I glared down at him and snarled, "You will never call me short again."

Not a single person moved, holding their breaths as they waited for Xanxus' response. Xanxus blinked up at me with wide eyes as if he couldn't believe what had happened. I had been holding it all in so well so now that I was starting to get comfortable here, I wasn't ready to stomach any more insults.

Xanxus burst out laughing after looking at me for a moment more, "Interesting."

I felt a chill run down my spine. In a fraction of a second he had drawn his pistol and leveled it on me. His lips curved into a deadly smirk that made a second shiver run down my spine. He hadn't even made to get up yet and I was certain that he was going to shoot me. Flames pulsed around his hands, feeding into the pistol's core.

I glanced behind me and I knew that Xanxus would shoot when he thought my guard was down. Ottavio was behind me but I didn't hesitate. I leaped out of the way and rolled forward and right back up to my feet. It looked like Ottavio had managed to do the same.

"Xanxus!" Ottavio hissed, glared at the doorway the boss had just burned down with one shot, "You'll make a mess of this place and then where do you expect to live?"

"Tch." Xanxus' anger had abated with just one shot. The building was lucky to be spared another shot. The pistol was safely tucked away again and Xanxus lazily picked himself off the floor to continue on his way as if nothing had happened.

Ottavio, on his way out, turned and spared me a small, secretive smile and wink that made me realize that Ottavio was a pro at controlling our officers and others with words and actions. He was a silver tongued mafioso.

"He doesn't look that much like Cavallone." Squalo rolled his eyes, elbowing me in the shoulder due to our differences in height.

"That's what Dino's going to look like when he gets older. I'm sure of it."

He rolled his eyes at me and snorted, "Cavallone is going to be dead by the time he reaches Ottavio's age. He's a loser."

"You might be right." I huffed, "Now, let's see who I can get to clean this room for me."

"Don't act like a girl. No one's going to be seduced into cleaning the mess you made!"

"We made the mess together and who said I was going to seduce someone?" I smirked at the blush that crossed Squalo's face, "I'm going to beat them into submission and demand that they clean this up at once."

As I turned and stormed out, I heard Squalo mumble, "She's a demon."

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

One day, after I was returning from a mission with Mammon (It went too well by the way, Mammon was obedient and he let me do as I pleased. He said it was a 'good deal if I did all the work and I was willing to split the check 50-50' and he didn't object to my plans at all) I was caught in the hallway by Silvio. His fingers curled around my arm by the elbow and he jerked me back as I tried to walk passed him.

I jerked my arm away from him and glared, waiting for an explanation.

"When you see your commanding officer, you bow." He sneered, "I heard you flipped the boss over, you arrogant broad. Don't you dare think you're going to become an officer."

"I warned you people not to insult me again." I snapped, "Now move before I move you."

"Then move me." He growled.

Slowly, there were more and more people gathering to watch this scene. They were all just people trying to walk passed here but the tension prevent them from moving any further.

"Gladly." I hissed and pulled my gauntlets on over my hands.

He lifted his cloak aside and drew a small stick from his belt. When he swung it at me, it extended into a full staff and stayed extended. His crouch made it clear that he was an offensive type of fighter. That made things easy for me. When he swung at me, I grabbed his staff and pulled. He stumbled forward, totally not ready for me to do such a thing. My armored palm slammed into his face and my small fingers struggled to grasp his skull in my single hand, the other hand was occupied with holding his weapon aside.

My grip strength had startled him and he moved back, jerking his staff back with him. It was an odd tug of war kind of fight. I was desperate not to let go and he was desperate to pull his staff out of my hands. Frustrated, I let go and he stumbled back from the sudden change in weight. I spun on him, my foot slamming into his side hard enough to send him flying back into the crowd gathering in the hall.

Someone cheered, grasped him and pushed him back out front. He was winded but he wasn't ready to quit. Then again, with this many people watching, quitting was the same thing as being killed because Squalo and Lussuria were now both amongst the crowd. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Leviathan and Ottavio. Aside from our boss the rest of our officers were all gathered here.

Good.

My body moved on instinct. He swung at me and I ducked. He jabbed at me and I moved my body to the side, twisting forward to plant my counter attack in his gut. He peeled back, stumbling and he doubled over and vomited on the floor.

The men behind him jeered at me, "Silvio, you're getting beat down by a woman! Get up, you fool!"

The shouting was slowly attracting the one beast in our den that should never be awakened-our boss, Xanxus. The crowd split down the middle when he walked and our boss looked stunned to see me and Silvio duking it out in the center of all this attention. His crimson eyes took one look at me and he smirked, cocking his head upward as if he was telling me to continue so I did. Not that I needed his permission to do anything.

"Feh." Silvio regained his composure, spitting a mouthful of spit and vomit onto the tiles before me.

I was disgusted but the fight was pressing me not to look absolutely revolted by his herbivorous action. I charged forward and he was on top of me in an instant. In offensive power, I was losing. I was forced to defend once more and left to find opportunities to counter attack. He was not an opponent I could easily defeat because I could only counter his moves. He was nothing like Squalo.

If only I could land a solid blow on him… That's it! He swung at me again and I dipped my head and went straight for his torso. I tackled him to the floor and finally he lost his grip on his weapon but his weight was nearly double mine.

He wrestled me to the floor beneath him. My jaws grinded against the floor. My teeth cut into my inner cheek and blood began to slide out onto the floor through my lips. Slamming his knee into my back with all his weight, he weaved his fingers in my hair and jerked my head up.

My vision blurred the smallest bit and I realized that my offensive abilities were indeed lesser than Silvio's. I should have been patient. I gritted my teeth in pain.

"Look at him." Silvio growled, giving my hair another sharp tug, "Die knowing you brought Squalo shame. And die knowing that the boss was watching you."

My eyes shifted towards Squalo and then Xanxus. Squalo was anxious. It wasn't showing on his face but I knew him well enough to know he was expecting me to win. But Xanxus pissed me off. He was watching us as if he didn't care which one of us won. We were both not in his class so it wouldn't matter. Either way, we were fighting to decide which one of us would serve him.

My teeth grinded together in anger and with monstrous strength that I didn't know I had I flipped Silvio over. I'm sure he pulled out a clomp of my hair but oh well.

I clenched my fist hard and punched for his face but he jerked his head aside in time to avoid the blow that shattered the tiles beneath him. He retaliated and we were now wrestling on the floor like children as we scrambled to find dominance over the other.

He grasped at my gauntlets, trying to remove them because he was convinced that my punches were definitely only heavier than his because I was wearing them. I curled my fingers tightly so he couldn't remove them.

My foot jerked out and slammed into his gut, sending him flying backwards. I charged him again. He let me tackle him, knowing that I didn't possess the weight it took to come out on top but that's where he was sorely mistaken this time. My goal was to get close to him rather than to out wrestle him.

He pressed his body down on mine with all his weight, reaching for my gauntlets again. I let him take one and while he was throwing it aside I took my chance. I took him by surprise by pushing him down and putting my weight over him this time. I leaned down and bit down as hard as I could on his adam's apple.

He threw his head back and let out a gurgling scream. I clenched my teeth and pulled back, tearing a chunk of flesh right out of his neck. Writhing in pain, he didn't see my next punch coming. My fully armored fist slammed into his nose with a sickening crunch. I knew I had broken his nose.

I turned my head and spat his flesh onto the floor next to his face. My fist pulled back and I slammed it into his jaw this time. The angle at which his lower jaw moved proved that I had dislocated his jaw at the very least and broken it if I was successful in achieving my goal.

He had no strength left to struggle and my third punch would have KO'ed him but he begged for his pitiful life, "Okay! You win!"

My fist hesitated and I glared down at him, assessing my options. Slowly, I lowered my fist and pulled back. I hadn't even gotten off him when the boss let out a wild laugh, his gun was already pointed at Silvio. The officer looked terrified and he opened his mouth to beg forgiveness but he was unable to get out another word as the boss' flame incinerated his already disfigured face off his head. I stumbled back in shock.

He leveled his gun on me and smirked, "Trash needs to disappear."

He was going to kill me.

Fear shot down my spine and I tried to take another step back to regain my fallen gauntlet but I stumbled over my own feet and fell onto my rear hard. I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Xanxus!"

The shot never came so I opened my eyes to find Ottavio standing in front of me. I stared up at his broad shoulders in wonder.

"I'll kill you both." Xanxus' eyes narrowed in a deadly glare, gun unmoved.

"She did well to defeat Silvio. You're wasting a good soldier, Xanxus." Ottavio was indeed convincing with his words, "There's no point in driving them to fight each other if you were going to kill them both from the start. She needs to take Silvio's place as an officer. Who knows, she may grow into an assassin as good as Squalo or Lussuria."

The boss' eyes slowly shifted from Ottavio to me and an unsettling emotion passed across his eyes. After a moment or two, he lowered his gun, "Tch. Whatever. Clean this up, trash!"

"Yes boss." The crowd chorused.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

"People have been talking about you." Squalo said one night when we were in the middle of our Italian lesson, "They're calling you the Cannibal since you eat people."

"I don't eat people." I glared at him, my pen stalled against the page, "I only bite them to death."

"People think you eat them." He shrugged, lowering his notebook as well, "Since they're always missing a chunk of flesh. But anyways, they think it's a man. I think the Vongola upper echelon is putting bets on who this 'Cannibal' actually is. Anyways, you've been announced as our new officer so I think it's only a matter of time until they realize it's you."

It bugged me to think that someone thought it was a man pulling off these high level hits. Sure, men like Squalo and Lussuria and everyone else here are highly capable of pulling off the hit I pulled off but it bugs me that they assume it's a man. It's sexist. And it means they're underestimating my strength. I'm a woman. Yes. But am I weak? Absolutely not. I came here to prove that.

"But the point is, we're bringing you to the next Vongola Christmas party." Squalo continued, "It just a party for our own family and alliance so… we're going to show you off as our new officer."

"Oh." I grumbled, "I hate parties."

"That makes all of us…. Except for Lussuria."

A soft knock at the open door had us looking up to find Ottavio smiling down at us, "Mind if I cut in? Squalo, Xanxus was looking for you."

"V-Voi…" Squalo handed me his notebook and got up, "I'll be right back so read it!"

"Your handwriting is messy." I grumbled, taking the book reluctantly as he left the room. I turned my eyes downward for only a moment and then I looked back up to find that Ottavio was still watching me, "Is there something you need from me too?

He smiled at me softly, "Just wondering what you think of us so far? You've only been hanging around Squalo since you've gotten here."

I thought about it for a moment and frowned, "No one else has tried to interact with me but Squalo-senpai."

"I'm trying now, aren't I?" He chuckled, taking a few steps toward me and pausing, "Do you mind if I sit next to you?"

I glanced at the floor beside me and looked back up in confusion, "There's a chair…?"

"But it's not next to you and I'm not interested in moving the sofa." He grinned at the way my eyes widened, "I want to know more about you. Is that wrong, Kira-chan?"

My eyebrow inched upwards, "Chan?"

"Oh. Is that wrong?" He frowned, "I was told by a certain someone that I should use it if I thought you were cute."

"C-Cute?" I flinched back when he took a seat casually beside me, my cheeks burning in embarrassment, "I'm not-!"

"Shhh." He pressed his finger to my lip and said, "Cute and weak don't have anything to do with each other. You're cute because you approach a dirty world like ours with such earnest eyes."

It felt as if he had read my mind. I think that being called cute is associated with a person's strength.

Smiling as usual, he drew away from me, "What do you think of your fellow officers?

"Squalo-senpai is a hard worker. He's strict but he's hardest on himself and I can see that." I grumbled, turning back to the notes he so kindly left me, "Lussuria is lenient and kind in comparison to the others but he's not making up for a lack of skill. I can see why he's popular among the foot soldiers. Mammon is… he's easy to control with money. Leviathan is disagreeable and clearly stands at the bottom of our chain of strength."

Ottavio laughed, rubbing my head affectionately, "Kira-chan, you're very observant. Then… what do you think of me?"

I slapped his hand aside, my cheeks turning red again, "Y-You're shameless! And overly affectionate!"

"But I can't help it! You're so cute!" He chuckled, lowering his voice to a whisper, "Then what do you think of our boss?"

My instincts told me not to answer this question and I wondered why. I shook the feeling off and muttered, "He's a lazy oaf. I don't know what else to think…"

"I think in terms of a traditional, demanding boss type of role, Xanxus is ill suited. Squalo is more suited for the role of the boss and it was a well discussed topic but Xanxus is the Ninth's son so… he became the boss because he insisted on it." He explained, "What do you think of that?"

I arched my eyebrow at him as I always did. Why did I get the feeling that this man was trying to set me up against Xanxus?

"I guess I'm asking if you want to make Squalo our boss or not?" He said quietly.

"Squalo-senpai…?" I was stunned by the sudden question. Why was he asking me?

"With our strength, I think we could easily unseat Xanxus." He leaned forward into my personal space and whispered, "Don't you think Squalo-"

"VOI!" A sharp call from the door had us spun about in shock. Squalo was awfully red in the face and he was pointing at us rather accusingly, "O-Ottavio! Get the fuck away from her, you pedophile!"

"Eh?" I turned, stunned by the sudden accusation.

Ottavio stood, dusting his rear off rather coolly and chuckled, "Squalo, we were just having a conversation."

"What kind of scandalous conversation would you be having in that position?!" Senpai demanded, "Kira?!"

I hesitated and Ottavio answered for me, "That's our secret."

He shot me a wink and left the room just like that, ignoring all of Squalo's complaints and demands for the truth. Stunned by Ottavio's boldness, I kept this quiet for a long time to come.

Hope you're all having a wonderful day/night.