Chapter 7

Fran strolled towards the training center of the building headquarters approximately three weeks after Aoi's birthday. He was thirty minutes late for his appointment with his master. Despite this, he wasn't in a hurry. After all, who cares if one keeps another waiting? Nu uh, not him, never in his life had he worried about such a simple matter. Fran opened the doors and was immediately impaled by a trident on his huge, black frog cap.

"Ah, itai, shissho it hurts."

"You're late my useless apprentice," Mukuro said with a smile that depicted not of happiness but of suppressed exasperation.

"Shissho, let's get started shall we?" Fran asked, not minding Mukuro's displeasure. Columns of fire erupted from the floor. Fran dispelled the illusion, countering it by making the fire freeze and turning it into columns of ice. "You have to do better than that, shissho."

"Kufufufu," Mukuro disappeared or rather, vanished from Fran's sight, "Saa… find me!"

The green-haired illusionist was struck by Aoi's resemblance to Mukuro Rokudo. They played the same game!

"Concentrate!" Mukuro snapped.

"Ah," he absentmindedly dodged a swipe from Mukuro's weapon. Just as they were about to light their hell rings and to fight seriously, the door of the training arena blasted open. Aoi entered, running away from Levi.

"AHHH!" she hollered, "For God's sake! I didn't rip your most precious and important Xanxus plushie into shreds! It was Bel-senpai! Who else could have used knives huh? Use your head for a moment and think you big goon!" she rolled to the right, avoiding a blast of lightning that seared the floor.

"Oh honestly, I told your boss not to let anyone in this place," Mukuro muttered.

Fran stared at Mukuro; he was amused. "Guess this puts of our training," he murmured to himself.

Aoi stumbled and fell, "Ow! Damn it!" she cursed, her face hitting the solid concrete flooring.

"Serves you right," Levi said, adding insult to her injury. He turned and left saying something about boiling that Belphegor into crisp and blasting him with lightning.

"Itaaiii! I'm hurt! I am very much hurt!" Aoi complained as she rubbed her eyes. Fran stared, what was wrong with her? He noticed a pair of cracked violet contacts on the ground. Aoi stopped scratching her injured eyes and opened them. She heard somebody gasp. Well maybe that was only her imagination. "What?" she asked apparently confused.

"Red and blue…" Fran stammered, which was an action new to him.

"Eh?" suddenly, Aoi noticed there was someone else besides Fran in the room. It was the guy with mismatched eyes and blue pineapple-style hair of her memories. Red eyed met red, blue eyes met blue, a switch clicked on the siblings minds, and recognition dawned on them both. "ONI-TAN!" Aoi jumped up and dashed over to where Mukuro was standing. "You're my oni-tan right?"

A hundred thoughts flew past Mukuro's mind. For the first time ever, he was tongue-tied and at a loss for words.

"Hey, Kuro-nichan, you're my brother right?" Aoi asked, less confident that before while tugging the hem of his shirt.

"Ah… yeah," Mukuro smiled, he was surprised when Aoi hugged him for a brief time.

"You have no idea on how long I tried to remember your name," Aoi confided.

"Ah, shissho, Aoi's your younger sister?" Fran asked, drinking in the juicy information without any sort of reaction.

"Stay out of this," Mukuro told Fran. Aoi looked at both guys with a gaping mouth.

"Whaaat? Fran you knew Kuro-nichan? Rephrase… oni-tan, you knew Fran?" she asked.

"Hai, I know Kuro-nichan," Fran teased Mukuro. He earned a stab from the Vongola Mist Guardian's trident. She gasped, wondering why a fountain of blood hadn't appeared.

"Oni-tan, why are you here?"

"I have to ask you the same question, Aoi."

"Ah, about that, I'm the Cloud Guardian of the Varia," Aoi said.

"Tch, you're part of the mafia then."

"Shissho, you're also part of the Mafia too. After all, you are the Mist Guardian of the Vongola Tenth generation Boss," Fran answered for his master. He earned a stab from Mukuro's trident for the third time. "Itai."

"I didn't order you to tell her, you useless apprentice," Mukuro justified.

"Oh yeah, oni-tan, do you remember our past?" she asked.

"What?"

"I don't remember any of what happened, so… what exactly happened?" she persisted.

Mukuro raised his eyebrows, "That you have to find out for yourself."

"Ehh… you're not exactly a helpful brother are you, oni-tan?" she asked, "By the way, did you both realize that neither of you are really here?" without her contacts, nothing could interfere with Aoi's sight. She could see things as a mist guardian could.

"Hm?" Mukuro asked, cocking his head to the right.

"Ah," Fran said, avoiding Aoi's observation, "Shisso's stuck in the most impregnable cell in the Vindice Prison," he continued, determined to irritate Mukuro. His master just ignored him.

"Eeh… what did you get in there for?" Aoi asked.

"It's your fault that I got caught," Mukuro bitterly replied, Aoi was stunned. How was it her fault? She didn't even remember! How did her oni-tan find the guts to blame her? Was it even true?

"Really? I don't remember…" as she tried to recall. Her cloud and hell ring suddenly lit up because of the strength and determination of her resolution. Her ability with the mist awakened once more. She had just opened one of the gateways of hell. Columns of fire erupted from the floor with such a ferocious glow so abruptly that Mukuro and Fran didn't have time to not get swept up by it.

"Shisso, she's better than you ever were," Fran commented. The flames grew bigger.

Aoi was staring at her handiwork. Whoa… she was capable of that. "Sweet, but a little more…" she muttered, suddenly snakes and all sorts of icky animals appeared, multiplying number in each second. "Awesome…"

"Aoi, stop it, you might lose control of you illusions!" Mukuro warned, he and Fran were being squeezed by a two huge boa constrictors Aoi had accidently summoned. Slowly but surely, the fires grew taller and hotter. "Aoi! Stop it!" he commanded.

"Huh? Why should I stop? It's like I'm making my own version of hell," she replied stubbornly, pleased with her achievement. She caught a glimpse of her brother and Fran struggling to breathe. She tried to stop her illusions but it wouldn't. She concentrated harder, the flames subsided as fast as it had increased and the animals disappeared. "Sorry," she apologized sheepishly while looking at the mist guardians catching their breaths. "Ah! Yabai! I have an important errand to accomplish!" Aoi clamped a hand on her forehead due to her forgetfulness; said her farewells to her brother and Fran then left.

"Was she always like that?" Fran asked Mukuro as Aoi left running.

"You have no idea," he replied back, "It seems like a long time has passed since I've seen her."

"Eh, you're probably right Kuro-nichan."

"Be prepared my young apprentice, you've just signed up for an extremely dangerous life."

"Betsuni, I don't mind," Fran said evenly. Mukuro restarted the training by summoning snakes and turning the floor into quicksand.

"I'll show you that I'm better than my little sister, saa… what are you going to do?" Mukuro taunted. The boy just stared. The Vongola guardian scowled, he suddenly saw that the Fran in front of him was just a copy, an illusion that had been with him ever since the start of training. Aoi was right. None of them were really physically present. Mataku… that kid skipped lessons again. His mind slipped its consciousness back to his numb body in his prison cell, leaving the arena empty.

Fran chomped at the chips he had stored under his bed. Hah, he escaped once more from Mukuro's cutches. He wondered about Aoi's identity, was she really Mukuro's sister?

"VOOOIII!" Fran, Aoi, Levi, Bel, and Lussuria weren't expecting the loudest officer to bellow at the top of his lungs during the ungodly hours of the night. "The boss calls a meeting! Get your lazy fat asses in his room!" Loyal to Xanxus, all of the Varia guardians dropped what they were doing and made haste to the rendezvous point.