Me: So, this is Chapter 5! Thank you for the faves and follows! It really means a lot, no matter how cheesy it sounds!

I'm not really sure who exactly to pair up with Chrome. I guess that's up to you guys. I've set up a poll on my profile. Just vote, ok? (If you don't have an account, just vote through review~)

Also, I've been seeing reviews about me mixing things up. I know, ok? It's all part of the story. I would tell you why her name's still Chrome, but that would mean spoiling it. So I'd rather not say anything first.

Lastly, please review~

P.S.: Because I updated late, this is a longer chapter, compared to the others, at least~

K $h1

Chapter 5: What Came Next

Death wasn't something foreign to me.

There was a time in second grade. I think six months had already passed, and as usual, we had a new seating arrangement. There was this girl next to me named Elise. She was nice and pretty, although, I never spoke to her much, as I was always hanging around my closer friends. And then one day, she started to be absent, and no one knew why until sometime later – when our teacher told us that she had died of cancer.

As a child, I didn't understand death at all. Thus, it didn't matter much to me that she had died

But my thinking changed when my best friend got killed in a car crash.

I was in school when I found out about it. Our teacher told us the news, and it felt like a sense of de ja vu, since it reminded me of that time with Elise. But unlike before, I felt as if I couldn't breathe. Someone started to hug me, and I realized that I was sobbing uncontrollably.

I remembered begging our teacher if I could just go to the hospital where my best friend was at, but as much as he wanted to, he couldn't. School rules and all.

So, the moment my mum picked me up, I pleaded with her to take me there, which she did.

I remembered arriving at James' room and seeing him hooked to all those needles, bloody and bruised, was terrifying.

I remembered crying my eyes out, as my mum asked James' mum what the doctor's verdict was. Seeing his mum shake her head and break down caused me to break down as well.

So this was how it felt like, I thought, to have someone taken from you.

It hurt like hell.

I remembered how I stopped eating and stopped communicating with anyone else, holing myself up in my room.

Death was a nasty enemy.

And similarly, I was sure I was about to do the same thing when I woke up.

K $h1

A yellow colored ceiling faced me the moment I opened my eyes. Taking a look at my surroundings, I saw that I was in a room that definitely wasn't familiar to me. It had orange colored walls, and brown colored furniture such as bookshelves and cabinets. I was on a bed with blue colored covers, and a blanket was on top of me.

To my right, there was an open window, the cold wind coming in. Beneath the window were a desk, a chair, and a sleeping blonde haired boy who was my 'brother'.

Where am I? What happened?

And that's when it came rushing back to me, my whole being filled with dread and anxiety.

Was my mother safe? Is she here? Is she alive?

The last question was the trigger. Tears came out of my eyes endlessly, dripping onto my dress. I didn't bother wiping them away. They wouldn't stop anyways.

Angelo stirred and sat up, wiping his tired eyes. He looked at me, eyes widening before wiping my tears away. "Shh, please don't cry."

"I… I c-can't…" I struggled to say. "W-Where's my mother?"

"…"

His silence only made me cry even more.

"She's dead, isn't she…?"

"No, she's not." Angelo assured me.

"Then, where is she?"

"We don't know."

K $h1

Angelo had left me to get me and him some food. I stared into space as my tears started drying up by themselves.

So, she's missing… Should I be happy about that?

Of course, I should. It meant that she wasn't officially dead, even if there was a possibility of it.

What should I do now?

The answer was easy. Get some answers.

K $h1

When Angelo came back with a bowl of soup, I immediately asked, "Where are we?"

"The secondary mansion of your family." Angelo replied. "It's kind of like a safe house for us now."

"Oh?" I said in response as I held the bowl in my hands and began drinking the soup. When I had finished, I thanked him and asked, "What's in here?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, bewildered.

"Well, the first mansion was like, kind of the base itself, right?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I'm not sure. Why don't we ask your grandparents?"

"What?" I said, eyes widening.

"Uh, yeah, they're here," he said. "You didn't know?"

I shook my head as he helped me up.

"Come on, then. Let's go meet Grandpa and Grandma Cuore."

K $h1

Angelo and I walked out of the room and took many turns along the hallways. Left. Right. Right. Left. Right. And so on until I couldn't keep track anymore.

At last, we arrived in front of a door and he leaned against the wall across it. "Go on, squirt."

"I'm going alone? Are you mad?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "Just go."

I gave in and stepped inside.

The room was wide and had five, large, open windows, which let in some cool air. In front of the middle window was a red couch, where two not-really-elderly looking people sat, drinking coffee. At least, I think it's coffee.

I assumed them to be my grandparents. And if my assumption was correct, well, I knew that if my brain level was truly that of a one year old's, I'd be pissing my diapers right now, assuming that I was the normal one year old.

These people let out terrifying auras, probably as terrifying as the auras of those of the Generation of Miracles in Kuroko no Basuke (I would say 'God bless those pretty boys', but it seems that He already did).

My grandfather was a tall man with brown hair and purple eyes. My grandmother, on the other hand, had purple hair and blue eyes.

"Oh, Chrome!" Elaina, my grandmother, said as she hugged me. "You poor child, having to go through something like that at such a tender age!"

"It couldn't be helped, anyways… not with us being involved in the m—" Antonio, my grandfather, was saying until Elaina sent him a glare that made him stop and sigh. "Elaina, she has to know."

"She is but a child!" she protested.

"A child, but a smart one!" Antonio responded with a raised eyebrow, and then he looked at me. "Isn't that right, Chrome?"

I nodded, avoiding Elaina's disapproving glare.

Antonio faced me and said, "You love your mother, don't you?"

I nodded again. Beside me, I could hear Elaina silently seething, glaring at her husband for some reason.

"Then, would you like to fight alongside her?"

That question caught me off guard. A one year old fighting another Mafia family (if a mafia family was really the enemy)? Impossible!

But then again, the Arcobalenos are only two year olds. Argh, but they're really skilled hitmen in a child's body. But as they are in a child's body, it'd be hard to move. But they'd need training!

Too many 'but's.

Wait…

Training…?

"If I say 'yes', I would clearly be trained, correct?" I asked.

Antonio nodded, a small smile appearing on his previously scary face that could put an angry Aomine's face to shame. "Told you she was a smart one, Elaina."

Elaina huffed but didn't say anything.

"However, will I be trained in hand-to-hand combat only?" I asked.

Antonio raised an eyebrow. "And in what other fields should we be training you in, assuming that you survive the training?"

Okay, Lily. Remember everything in the manga and don't just focus on the hot guys! Let's see, Chrome probably had a shitty childhood, she got into that accident, and – aha! Mukuro! Mukuro = illusions.

"Illusions, perhaps?" I suggested.

Antonio smirked. "And how do you know of 'illusions'?"

Ah, fudge.

"…Google?"

Surprisingly, Antonio accepted that answer. I was relieved for a moment until he asked, "Why would you even bother searching them?"

…

"Well, originally, I was searching for some tricks to play on Angelo, you know, the other kid who came with me? So, I was searching some magic tricks, and eventually came upon optical illusions. So, I started searching more on illusions."

It was probably a stupid response, but it was the best I could come up with. Like hell I would tell them the truth or come up with a weird excuse such as seeing the future (not that seeing the future was weird since Yuni and Luce and Aria could do it, but that would lead to more… er, 'complications', I guess). They'd think I was a nutter.

And thankfully, Antonio also accepted that. "Very well. You are serious about this?"

I nodded again.

"Good."

…

"Where's my mother?"

Elaina and Antonio looked at each other, before looking back at me.

"She's currently missing, however, she isn't dead, so there's no need to worry." Elaina said, patting my head.

"Bianca was a tough kid, anyways. She'll come back." Antonio added.

At least my mother isn't dead. It's still bad that she's missing, but hey, at least she's alive and kicking, right?

K $h1

"—and then he dismissed be and here we are in my room, eating these seriously delicious cookies." I said, as I had recounted what had happened earlier to Angelo.

"But you're only a year old! That's so unfair!" Angelo pouted. "You're only a year old!"

"And you're five, but look at us right now. Plus, we technically are in a Mafia family, so it's quite inevitable that we'd end up fighting."

"But you're starting earlier than me! Mum forbade me from ever learning until I was six!"

"Dude, that's only a year."

"365 days is equivalent to 8760 hours which is 525,600 minutes which is 31,536,000 seconds which is—"

"Dear Akashi, I signed up for training and most definitely not for Math, so please, Angelo, do the world a favor and shut up."

"Are you on your period?"

"If you're as smart as you say you are, then you'd know that girls get their periods between the ages of eleven to seventeen, from what I remember, at least."

"It was just an expression, Princess."

"…Ew. Don't call me that. You sound like a pedo."

"Do not!"

"Do too."

"Do not!"

"Too."

"Not!"

"Too."

"Not!"

"Not!"

"You admitted it, ha!"

"Dang. Reverse psychology doesn't work on you, huh?"

"But of course."

K $h1

"Hey, old man, are you sure that was the right decision?"

Antonio and Elaina looked at the open middle window and saw a teenage boy walking towards them, twirling a knife in his right hand.

Antonio smirked. "It's about time you got back, brat."

Elaina sighed exasperatedly. "Honestly, both of you are such thrill-seekers."

"Both?" the boy repeated with curiosity.

"She's the girl."

The boy smirked as well. "Interesting." He turned back to Antonio. "Well? You haven't answered my question."

Antonio chuckled. "Of course it was. You were around her age, too, you know?"

"Do I get to…?"

"Yes."

"Perfect."

K $h1

Sneak Peek

Chapter 6 – And So It Begins

Panting, I stood up again and threw a punch at that bastard's face. He could insult me, but insulting my mother was a big no-no.

However, he smirked and easily dodged it. "You know, I was so much better than you when I was your age."

I clicked my tongue. "Shut up. Also, why don't you take off that goddamn mask of yours?"

He chuckled. "Perhaps, if you can beat me, I would."

I smirked as well. "What a perfect challenge, then."

K $h1

Me: Want to know the reason for my late update? Hahaha, well, besides me just finishing my exams last month, our school dismisses us a bit later than most schools (probably because we start late, anyways). Also, I was super busy with projects and (here comes the not really valid reason): I was playing Fire Emblem. It's super addictive, really! Nya~

Ahem.

Anyways, since it's summer already, expect an update… either two weeks from now or three weeks from now. It depends, since I'm going to attend basketball classes, lol. (I did this so I could feel as awesome as the GOM, even if it's only a dream)

Review please~