Chapter 3

"VOOIII!" came Squalo's wake-up call which could be heard even past walls of solid concrete. Aoi tried to muffle his loud shout with her pillow. It was soo early in the morning. Can't a person who stayed half of the night playing the guitar get some sleep? But she had no choice to get up.

"Everyone! Out of their beds right now!" Squalo commanded. The sleepy guardians had no choice but to follow the order given to them. Doors opened revealing each of them wearing pajamas, except for Squalo who was wearing the full regalia of a Varia Officer.

Aoi yawned as she stepped out of her bedroom, clad in a size XXL white shirt and striped pj's, her hair in disarray. Fran was doing the same thing whilst wearing the frog cap that Bel forced him to wear.

"Ehh… what are we doing here so early pseudo-boss?" Fran asked.

"Voi! We have a new mission!" for a while, everyone brightened up. The prospect of something to do excited them all. They had been cooped up far too long. "We have to assassinate a whole family, this family, is called Cicspulo," he continued. "I have devised an attack plan- VOOI! Where are you going? I'm talking here!"

"Uhm… " Aoi raised her hand to capture Squalo's attention, "Can we fix up first? We can't possibly do a mission in our pajamas."

"Nnn…. Aah… yes, sure, be back here in 15 minutes!" Squalo said. That little girl had some nerve.

As the assassins head towards the shower area, Belphegor, Levi, Lussuria and Fran swapped looks. It was Levi's turn to test the girl. The tallest guy of the squad grinned in anticipation. He wouldn't let his boss down because of the mission and he would prove to him that Aoi didn't deserve to be in the Varia. It didn't look like she could kill a group of people; she could only knock them senseless, unless she was holding a sharp, pointy object which had never happened yet.

In a span of 13 minutes, they had all finished dressing up with the exception of Aoi. They all got impatient and agreed that they would fetch her themselves. They opened the entrance to Aoi's room; she was just slipping the last item of her outfit: her short shorts on. "What? There's still a minute left, there was no need for you guys to fetch me," she said as if reading their thoughts. She walked past them and raised an eyebrow when they didn't budge, "What? You're not coming?" she asked impatiently.

All the guys had to control their tempers. No. This was all wrong. A little, insignificant girl couldn't possibly order them around. They took a deep breath and followed. Squalo then took the lead and Aoi fell behind. It was her first official mission yet instead of being enthusiastic, she was in a foul mood. This was not good. Not good at all. The root of all this? The skirt. Damn that skirt. Aoi hated wearing anything girly. She despised it. Abhorred it. Loathed it. She was cursing herself silently when she found herself alone. She looked around; she was standing on a tree, in a forest out of nowhere. She dropped to the ground and felt a hostile presence. Oh… so she was the bait. Aoi sighed. Mataku… they could have told her before they left. Then she remembered that it was she who had interrupted Squalo before he could explain. That fueled her irritation even more. Now, she wasn't certain if she could hold herself back.

"You, who are you? State your intentions," a voice with a touch of superiority came from the vast darkness stretching in front of her.

Another voice, which was high-pitched and seemed to be in the verge of panic stopped the previous speaker saying, "Boss, it's dangerous! She's part of the Varia, stand back!" the dude then barked out a command, "Attack!"

When Squalo's ears picked up this word, he was pleased, and so was Levi. He thought that his plan was working. Now, the undeserved would die. No one could face against a whole army of people armed with box weapons. You had a stunning total of zero percent to survive situations like this, unless you happen to be really strong or really lucky.

"Senpai, aren't we going to attack?" Fran asked in his usual cold demeanor.

"No, we're gonna wait for the girl to get slaughtered before we retaliate," Bel slyly replied.

"Oh, I see," Fran had no qualms about it; everything seemed okay with him although a normal person would think that Bel's statement was full of evil intent.

But Aoi, who was pissed off to the extreme, ticked off at everything: the skirt, the whole Varia business, the unanswered questions running in her head, her uncertain and murky past, decided to hold back. She smirked; it wasn't worth it to take out her anger at the people in front of her. However, it's been a long time since she had the opportunity to kill people, might as well enjoy it. The last time was when she wiped out a whole mafia family of researchers when she was a kid. Her grin faded from her face. She remembered just a little bit of detail of her past.

No, the Cicspulo's army wasn't scared. After all, they were fighting against an opponent from Varia who was still just recently recruited. They were glad that they weren't against Prince the Reaper or Squalo, the strongest swordsman of the era. They felt that their number was sufficient enough to defeat the girl with a slender build. They were about to find out that they just committed a fatal mistake, and this mistake might just cost them their lives.

"Chaarge!" they shouted, scaring most of the forest life.

"Yare, yare, it's bad to gang up on a girl, you know," Aoi calmly said, holding her ground. At the last minute, a few seconds before they stampeded on her, the cloud flame lighted up; it's size so tremendous. In a flash, the soldiers saw that they, instead on stabbing the girl, gutted their boss. "Let's play Hide and Seek. Winner takes all. Saa… Find me!" Aoi's cheerful voice rang loud and clear; as if she hadn't done anything wrong.

Immediately, the soldiers lunged for her. Due to their haste, they stumbled and fumbled as they couldn't seem to catch Aoi who looked like she was everywhere at once. When one person thought he had got her, afterwards, he would notice that he had just killed his friend. Not so long after Aoi had started the bloody game, there were only ten who remained. Those people formed a tight circle, hoping to predict where Aoi appeared next. But she noticed a flaw in their formation. She materialized in the middle amidst the ten's petrified stares.

"Eeeh… time's up. I win… for the umpteenth time," she announced, disappointed that they didn't last at least an hour playing her fun game. She used her cloud flames and coated it around the pencil she kept inside her pocket for emergency uses; whether to poke someone's eye out or to scribble some notes, whichever came first. She discovered that pencils made good, inconspicuous weapons when she was a little girl. With a wave of her hand, the pencil's number increased from one to ten. They shot forward, imbedding themselves in the hearts of the last of the Cicspulo Family. When the bodies of the dead dropped to the ground with a thud, she suddenly remembered doing the same thing for entertainment with somebody, but she couldn't quite recall who. She sighed and walked over to where Bel, Fran, Lussuria, and Squalo stayed. She plopped down on the ground beside Fran, not a wound on her, not a trace of blood on her hands.

"Jeez, you could have at least told me I was the bait," Aoi complained to no one in particular.

"You damn bastard, it was your fault for interrupting me while I was about to explain!" Squalo shouted. Aoi couldn't take acting like a good girl. She was being unfairly treated even if she interrupted for the good of the group.

"Well, it was your fucking fault that you woke me up so early in the fucking morning!" she retorted, her voice escalating.

"Voooii! I had to! That damn boss said to get this worthless mission done with as soon as possible!" They began arguing. It was beginning to look like a pingpong match. It was so amusing the way that Aoi made such a big deal out of a small issue. Levi and the others couldn't help but watch Aoi and Squalo verbally abusing each other, waiting to see who would win this round.

"It's still your fault Mr. Effeminate guy whose hair is longer and more elegant than a girl's," she insulted, "I bet you wake up early in the morning just to wash and comb your long and silver locks," she cracked a smile. Squalo couldn't think of a comeback, he was too shocked to do so. No one had dared to badmouth him in ages, save for Xanxus who did that every day. Aoi pictured Squalo sitting in front of a mirror combing his hair with a blue, plastic hairbrush. Whoops, uh oh. She laughed and laughed until she cried, tears glistening in the corners of her eyes. "Vooi! I'll die if I have a bad hair day," Aoi mimicked Squalo badly, struggling to show a straight face while doing so. She burst into peals of laughter again, clutching her aching stomach.

"Trash," Squalo muttered. All he could do was to walk away. "I have to report the outcome of this mission to the boss."

"Eeh… what a lame excuse," Aoi said while massaging the sides of her mouth which started to hurt after smiling too much. She got up and followed the sword master, giggling once in a while.

"Heh, it seems like I'll have an interesting time testing her," Bel thought.

"Ah, senpai, we're getting left behind," Fran said, still having not moved an inch from his sitting position.

"Ushishishi, let's get going then," the prince replied.