DISCLAIMER: I don't own KHR or any of the associated characters aside from my OCs.

Called out by the CEDEF's Outside Advisor Sawada Iemitsu, I wasn't expecting anything strange. I did as ordered and went with Lussuria to meet with Cavallone Decimo. Dino was as serious as any mafia boss. It surprised me. He was a different person. Someone I didn't expect to see. It was like this every time I saw Dino. He surprised me more and more each day.

"Kyoya should be alive. He was transported to the future with the Bovino's Ten Year Bazooka." Dino explained, "I gave him the Vongola Cloud Ring and told him everything he needs to know."

Suspicion drove my instincts to prickle, I stared at him in wonder, "You knew he was going to vanish."

Lussuria was immediately on guard and I was armed, gauntlets clanging together for a big fight. Dino might be the Vongola's greatest ally but he's still another mafia family's boss. Betraying our alliance would be nothing for a mafia don.

"W-Wait!" Dino was armed but he refused to fight, showing his will as an ally, "Let me explain everything to you too. If you want to come back alive, you need to hear this because… they need you now but I need you always."

"Oh my." Lussuria squeaked, "As romantic as he is, tell him off, Kira-chan."

"No time." He said sharply, fingers digging sharply into my shoulders as he looked down into my eyes and told me, "I don't know what's going on but you need to know. In the future, you might see some things you don't want to accept or even admit you saw but you have to go."

He reached into his pocket and presented me with a ring. A steel band with a purple stone embedded in the center.

"This is all I have now and you might only be able to use it once but once you get to the future, Kyoya will give you everything you need to fight." He was speaking in a hushed yet fervent tone, "I can't go with you and neither can Lussuria but it just means we're not necessary."

I tried to refuse the ring he was pressing into my hands, shaking my head furiously, "What is this?! I have no need for herbivorous jew-"

"It's a weapon." He hissed, finally able to push it into my palm and curl my fingers around it, "When you need it most, you'll be able to light it up. The secret to lighting your flame is probably going to be straight out anger. Imagine your anger as a burning flame."

"What?" I stared down at the ring in my hand and thought he had lost it, "What are you talking about?"

"What makes you the angriest?" He paused a moment and chuckled, "I suppose everything makes you mad. Alright. Here it is then."

"Where is Kyoya, you mentally crippled horse?" I snarled, tucking the ring in my pocket and coming forward to grasp his tie and pull him down, "Where is he?!"

"You'll be with him soon. Forgive me, Kira." He said, leaning down to press our lips together.

Memories of Squalo and the boss flooded my memories in order of how it happened. Squalo, the boss, and now Dino. My hands curled and I drew back my arm to sock him. The first time I was drunk, the second time it was shock, this time I would respond with the only feeling I was capable of using-anger.

I was just about to punch his lights out, my fist sweeping toward his face, but I never connected. Before I knew it, the world before my eyes disappeared and was replaced with a totally unfamiliar light.

"Kira?" My brother was staring at me from behind the tempered glass of a prison. He went from neutral to furious. Tonfas in his hands, he was swinging at the glass for freedom, "Why did you bring her here?! I'm enough!"

Gauntlets on, I went straight for the cage encasing my brother. The echoing ring of my all out punch against the glass vibrated straight down to my bones. On the glass, not even a crack remained.

"Release him!" I turned, looking for my opponent. My eyes first landed on Sawada Tsunayoshi and I went for it.

"Tenth!" Gokudera was now pounding at the same cage, right beside my precious brother.

"I-It's not me, Kira-san!" Sawada shrieked, running away in horror as I gave chase. Throwing someone under the bus, he shouted and pointed off to the side, "It was him!"

I came to a screeching halt and turned, my weight shooting for a killing blow.

The person immediately threw up his hands and shouted, "I'll release him! One moment!"

My fist came to a stop just a centimeter shy of his nose.

"Now is this enough for you to see how serious I am about Byakuran-san." The orange haired brat sighed in relief, stepping away from my armored fist for safety, "Anyways, welcome Hibari Kira. We've been waiting for you. I almost thought you wouldn't come."

I don't know this guy. I went to Dino to find Kyoya's location and now I'm here. There isn't much to think about past my current situation-my mission. How do I take these guys and return home?

"I've been warned by the Kira-san of our time about you. Ehhh… Umm…" He paused, reaching for some notes, "For now, my name is Irie Shouichi. We're allies so I'll prove it by releasing your brother and the other guardians. But I need you to cooperate if you want to save the world."

I waited for Irie to release my brother and then I was immediately on him, one hand fisted into his collar and the other pulled back to hit him in his bespectacled face.

"Wait!" He pleaded, peeking at his nose through his flinching eyes, "I-I'm sorry! I meant, you only have to cooperate if you want to but let me tell you the conditions of our battle first."

I waited again, watching him.

He breathed a sigh of relief and took my silence as a sign to continue, "In ten days time, we'll gather to face Byakuran-san in a game of Choice. It's a game where soldiers face off against each other in a restricted area. The request was for you to be amongst our soldiers. There's someone who wanted to face you."

"... Who?" I could think of about a thousand people who could have a grudge against me but I can't really say much for picking one to fight. I'm a hated person normally so any person I've ever fucked with could probably want to fight.

His hesitance made Kyoya step up, a hand on my shoulder, "Our mother."

"Don't fuck with me." I slapped at his hand sharply, "Why would our mother be among the enemy? She's not even mafia."

"There could be any number of reasons but… the mother who I saw didn't recognize me. Either way, there's no mistaking it. She was our mother." From his shirt, he pulled another set of rings. He passed it to me, "From Haneuma. He claimed it was for you in case of emergency and even I consider making our mother your enemy an emergency."

I dropped Irie to the floor in a heap, glaring down at the weak-kneed fool, "What is the meaning of this?"

Irie watched Kyoya put the spare rings in my palm before handing me two purple boxes, "These were left for you from the current Kira-san. And as for your mother… The details are unknown. You'll have to beat it out of her at the Choice Battle."

I saw the glint in this boy's eyes. He's playing me. He's feeding me the bait he knows I won't refuse-a good fight.

I took his bait but not for nothing, "Fine but if the fight doesn't satisfy me, I'm biting you to death in exchange."

I was extremely excited at the prospect of fighting my mother. I remember mentioning I've never bested my mother at anything but of course, when was the last time we went at it seriously?

"You're not going to win." Kyoya said cleanly, meaning not even Kyoya has beaten my mother at anything.

Then again, the truth is we've never gone at it so seriously before. My father forbids it. He's strong too but… for some reason or another, my father is against us fighting to hurt each other. Maybe because he knows, with our level of power, death is imminent if we put our all into it.

Regardless, I hold the strength I inherited from two monsters. This is the perfect opportunity to test it.

"Have some faith, Kyoya." I reached out, patting his head although he was taller than me by some, "You've never seen our mother lose but have you ever seen me lose either?"

"You lost to us just a while back, Cannibal." Gokudera cut in, "If you're the reason we lose Choice, I'll-"

Even before I was angry, Kyoya's tonfa was at Gokudera's throat, "Silence, herbivore. Last I checked, you were defeated by my sister during the Sky Ring Battle."

"Why you-?!"

"Gokudera-kun!" Sawada was pulling him away from my brother immediately, "This isn't the time to pick fights amongst allies! We need them both so shhh!"

It's confirmed. I hate Gokudera. Gokudera hates me. I'm totally okay with the news.

"But we saw her. Kira-san's mother." Yamamoto Takeshi was overly friendly as he approached me, grinning the whole way, "She's strong and if this is the Kira-san we know… How will she be able to fight someone who can light up a ring and use that many box weapons in just ten days? We barely mastered our one or two box weapons."

"It's quality over quantity. She'll have to make due with just those two boxes." Reborn said sharply, "Regardless, they requested Kira. If we show up without Kira, you heard Byakuran. We'll be killed without even a chance to fight. We'll just have to train her."

"But Reborn… That's… just like the box Lal gave us when we first tried to open the boxes and light our rings." Sawada said, warily pointing at one of the boxes I had pulled from my pocket, "It's never been opened."

"Ah!" Irie went scrambling to the desk a few meters away and scrambled back with a crumpled sheet of paper, "I have a message from the Kira-san of our period. Uhhh… She said, 'The second box is the key to victory but I am unable to open it because I've lost something in ten years that you still possess. You will certainly open it. I have the utmost faith because you are the me who flies without chains.'"

I lost something in ten years… that I still possess today?

"What is it?" Kyoya was giving me a side-eyed glare, "In ten years time, you become an herbivore?"

"That's impossible and you know it." I hissed, holding up the box for closer inspection, "Tell me. How do you open boxes?"

It seemed relatively undirtied. It was, as they said, unopened. The other one had a gaping hole looking back at me but this one didn't have any.

"With Dying Will Flames." Reborn said, staring up at me with that analytical gaze I hated, "But you haven't been taught to light one yet. We'll start there. If you come with us, we'll explain everything for you."

If Kyoya's going with them, there's no choice for me. I'm eager to open these boxes and even more excited to face off against my mother. If I stick with these guys, it'll happen and I'll prove I'm the strongest in front of Kyoya as well. It's perfect.

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

I returned with Sawada's group to the place they've been calling their home for the duration of their mafia war with Byakuran. It was a dingy place and I could easily see why Kyoya left to be on his own. It was an underground base so there was no air, no limitless sky, and certainly no space to be alone.

The person who would be my teacher for the ten days I had here came to me riding a white horse like a prince out of a story book. I recognized him immediately. Don Cavallone Decimo. Dino.

He looked nothing like the Dino of my time save for the dazzling smile. I paused and wondered why I thought his smile was so bright and beautiful. My eyes immediately went to the golden band on his left ring finger and my eyes narrowed.

"Ah!" He spotted me and he was immediately dismounting his steed and rushing to wrap me up in his arms, "Kira! You made it!"

Sawada's group was standing around gawking at us. I heard Yamamoto laugh, "Maybe the thing she lost in ten years was her virginity."

Suddenly fuming, I slammed my fist into Dino's guts and turned to give Yamamoto the same rough treatment. They were both doubled over for a good long minute before Dino was finally able to straighten up.

"Jeez. I forgot how violent you used to be." He grinned, scratching at the back of his head. He thought for a moment before he quietly put in, "Wait… In your time are we not together yet?"

I felt disgust swirl in my stomach and I tried not to hurl, "What?"

Did I obey my mother's wishes? Is he… about to be killed by me after I bring his family to ruin?

Laughing, Dino put up his hand to show the wedding band around his ring finger, "I hate to break it to you but you and I are married in this time."

"Geh. The baseball idiot was right?!" Gokudera looked absolutely disgusted, "How could you, Cavallone?! She's the enemy!"

"Then again…" Dino sighed, big brown eyes swirling with hurt, "I did make a promise to you when we got married. I promised you if there was ever a chance I can change her unhappy future, I would do it."

"Let's leave them." Reborn said, gathering up the Tenth and his Guardians to leave us be, "Don't forget, Dino. You're still going to have to teach her how to use the boxes."

"Sure." He smiled until they were all out of sight and then he was suddenly serious, "Kira, you're only with me because it was your mother's dying wish. I'm sure of it."

Out of all the emotions in my chest the only one that came out was the strongest, "That's impossible! How long have we been together?"

"A few years?" He shrugged, "We dated a few years and your parents were… killed in the Vongola hunt by the Six Funeral Wreaths and we got married. You told me it was your mother's dying wish."

My heart was burning with the desire to… protect this man? From myself? What on earth…?

"You… stepped down from the Varia to marry me." He said, trying his best to smile for me, "I was the happiest I had ever been in my entire life when you told me you were giving it all up for me but… you're definitely not happy."

Something wasn't adding up. First, if my mother died, then who am I really here to face off against? Second, if I left the Varia then… Did I join Dino's family as an assassin? Where did I get these boxes? What in the world was I thinking?

"That's impossible." I shook my head, confusion turning into straight denial, "You're lying."

"Yeah… I'm sorry." His grin became lopsided as he tried to play it off but the pain was all there, "I guess… That's all this sounds like to you."

"I would never do that to you." I spat, grasping at his shoulders, "If I'm with you…"

The look in his eyes made me hesitate. The words were caught in my throat. What have I done?

"I'm telling this to the Kira who still has a chance." He leaned down, pulling me tight against his chest, "I love you. More than anything or anyone in the whole world, my heart holds you. So, don't decide something for my sake or your mother's sake or even Kyoya's sake. Do it because you want to do it for yourself because… that's the Kira we all loved."

Warmth filled my heart and I bit back the urge to embrace him back. I shook my head, trying to pull away but he held tight, "Dino, you don't understand. If I married you on my mother's orders, I'm trying to kill you."

"I know." He whispered, "And I'm telling you if it would make you happy, I'd kill myself. If you would just tell me, I'd happily give you my life."

I felt it. The reason the me of the future hasn't killed Dino. He's too kind. His devotion probably got to her. The me of the future is probably confused about what she needs to do from now on. There must be nothing but confusion, doubt, and self-hatred in her heart.

Dino, regardless of how irritating he may be, is someone I protected. I spent many years protecting him so to be forced to kill him is a waste of time. He's an ally to the Vongola and I'd be a traitor to the Varia. So… for all of them, I took up my mother's dying wish, abandoned my position as an officer, and became Dino's wife.

The idea of it all was just so stupid. Lost in feelings, I did everything but accomplished nothing. My mother's wish was Dino's death and ruin, not marriage. I left the Varia so as not to be a traitor for killing him but quitters are traitors. And, as for Dino, I couldn't kill him. He might be an herbivore to me but he's precious. I know it. So I failed at everything.

In the end, Dino's still alive, I betrayed the Varia for nothing, and Dino's unhappy. This feels so wrong.

This is not the person I want to become. Be it ten years in the future or a hundred, I don't need anything but strength. Everything else is just a bonus. Byakuran and the Millefiore, they ruined everything for me.

"Dino, I'll fix everything so tell me how to use these." I gave him a firm push this time and he backed off. I reached for the rings and boxes, holding them up, "What do I do?"

Surprise fell away to a great, big smile that could only be described as blinding, "Now that's the Kira I wanted to see. Come with me. I'll show you everything."

Happy April Fool's Day everyone! I hope everyone had a great day! Thanks for reading as usual!