OpalescentGold: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
Mukuro
This is how the moonlight shines through the mist.
Notice
Mukuro doesn't spare a second of thought on Reiki Noriko in the beginning. He sees no reason to. For all that Fuuta de la Stella has ranked her as the number one most powerful student in Namimori Middle, he has also ranked her as the least likely to fight.
Seeing as the petite girl with platinum hair and blue-grey eyes does nothing the entire time while her friends fight his pawns, Mukuro is inclined to agree with Fuuta, right up until said girl intervenes when the Vindice arrive to recapture them.
Then, Mukuro notices how her eyes burn, not wholly different from the resolve shining in the Vongola Decimo's orange eyes, and wonders how he dismissed her so easily as a threat.
Bargain
It's peculiar how Reiki Noriko brushes off the Sun Arcobaleno's warnings not to get involved, acknowledges the Vongola Decimo's anxious glances but ignores them, to lock gazes with the Vindice, when by all rights she should be cowering in a corner.
"Under the Gestione Accord," she says, a confusing echo of power in her silvery voice, "I hereby proclaim Rokudo Mukuro and his associates above the jurisdiction of the Vindice."
Mukuro doesn't understand. He has vast knowledge of the mafia world despite his hatred for it, but this document is a new one. And, curiously, from the frown on Reborn's face and the tilt of Tsunayoshi's head, they do not know it either.
Ah, but the Vindice do, for the one in front, the one that holds the chains, stiffens slightly. The temperature seems to drop. "Only one person should know of that treatise," he whispers with dark menace. "Who are you?"
"My name is Reiki Noriko," she responds, not answering the question at all. "Let them go, Vindice."
A chain goes shooting by her head, burrowing in the wall next to her and cutting off a few strands of hair as pale as moonlight. The Sun Arcobaleno goes predatory still while the Vongola Decimo squeaks, eyes widening.
In contrast, the girl challenging the most feared group in the mafia world doesn't even blink.
"...very well," the Vindice says. "But you must be aware that agreement will only earn Rokudo Mukuro's freedom once. When we come again, he will never leave Vendicare."
And then they are gone, melting back into the darkness to leave the three convicts on the ground.
The last thing Mukuro sees before succumbing to the pain of his wounds is Noriko hovering above him, gazing down at him with an indecipherable look in her eyes.
Reason
"Why?" Mukuro asks immediately oncr he has Noriko alone, lounging nonchalantly on his couch.
After getting their wounds bandaged up by the Vongola Medical Team, they have been left alone for the most part, but the Vongola Decimo and his little group of friends come around every few days, bringing groceries and what-not.
It's honestly disgusting how earnest Tsunayoshi can be. Does the brunet expect him to turn nice and good simply because Mukuro was defeated once? That only means he will have to plan out his second attempt better.
(Even if it means that the warmth in those brownish orange eyes will be lost, even if the acceptance and kindness the Vongola Decimo gives out without thought will be gone. Even so.)
But this is the first time Noriko has returned to Kokuyo Land after successfully wrenching Mukuro, Ken, and Chikusa from the impressive claws of the Vindice without so much a decent fight.
Mukuro still has no knowledge of the Accord she named, though not because lack of effort.
Granted, Tsunayoshi and his minions are here as well, along with the Sun Arcobaleno, but they have consented - reluctantly - to give the two privacy.
No doubt Ken, Chikusa, and M.M. are doing their best to distract the fools from listening in. It doesn't matter; the layer of illusion Mukuro has raised will keep this conversation known only to its two participants.
Noriko sits on the couch opposite of his, legs crossed and hands folded. Her response takes a long time coming, slate blue eyes focused on some obscure point outside the window.
"You remind me of someone I knew," she says simply, and he isn't at all sure of what to think of the weary poignancy in her voice or the past tense she uses.
"Is it a good or bad memory?" he asks instead of the questions rebounding inside of his mind and just barely catches her flinch, the tightening of her mouth.
"Both," Noriko says with a note of finality and rises to her feet. Mukuro does not make the mistake of preventing her from leaving, but after she closes her hand over the doorknob, she turns to give him a sharp look.
"Don't stay here, Mukuro," she warns evenly. "Travel a bit. Wander. Bring your friends with you. The Vindice will be keeping an eye on you."
Then, she is gone in a flutter of white-black silk and almost-silver hair.
Rescue
Mukuro is casually walking down the sidewalk, Ken and Chikusa off shopping while M.M. handles the hotel, when he sees the truck barreling down the road, heading straight for a girl whose eyes are fixed on the ground, unknowing.
But when she looks up, there is only resignation on her face.
Mukuro does not know why he does it, but he reaches out with his illusions and effortlessly upends the truck.
My name is Nagi, the girl says quietly, pleadingly. Please, take me with you.
He only needs to take one look at Nagi's family, a selfish mother, a cold father, to agree, though the vast Mist Flames that hum in her core help convince him as well.
And so Nagi becomes Mukuro's, though he promptly renames her Dokuro Chrome.