A/N: Here's this week's chapter! You may notice that it's a bit longer than usual, and that there's a more serious air to this one than the previous chapters. So, uh, please enjoy!

Chapter 4

How to Be Varia Quality

No matter what, Fran always hated Mondays.

Whether he had something to do that day or not, it was always his unluckiest day of the week. Something unexpected would always come up and ruin the day for him.

Like right now.

The Varia members, excluding Xanxus, stood in the living room, eyes set on an unexpected visitor.

"Kufufu."

Earlier:

"Voooi, seems like we're all free today." Squalo noticed.

"Ushishi~" Bel snickered, placing his feet on the coffee table in front of him. "We killed a lot last week, didn't we?"

"Mou, it's so boring when we don't have missions to do." the gaylord complained, placing a hand on his cheek. "There's nothing to do."

Fran, who was sitting on the sofa, knees hugged close to his chest, butted in. "Staying home is pretty fun, though."

Everyone in the room shot him a look. It had been two weeks since he joined, and all he did was run around and play in the HQ, causing trouble wherever he went.

"Which reminds me," Mammon started. "When is Fran going to start his training?"

"Shishi~ Yeah, when? We can't have his ass sitting around the house all the time." Bel agreed, pointing to the kouhai as he did so.

"Useless." Levi mumbled, but no one cared about his opinion. Instead, they all turned to Squalo.

"The long-haired captain shrugged and shook his head. "I don't know yet, but I-"

"Kufufu, perhaps I could be of assistance?" a deep voice ran through the room. A purple fog misted in the middle of the room, and formed into a shape of a human.

Everyone, except for Fran, stood up and shifted into assassin mode, as Mukuro appeared before them, a smirk on his face.

"Kufufu."

Fran stood up and pointed at the older illusionist. "Heeeey~! It's the pineapple faerie!"

"Please refrain from calling me that, little one." Mukuro snapped, his left eye twitching. Then he turned to the Varia.

"I was a fool to trust you with Fran. It's been two weeks and I see no improvement." he retorted. "I should've expected you slacking off like this, Varia."

Squalo pointed his sword at the illusionist. Surprisingly, he wasn't yelling, and he kept a perfectly straight face. "If you care so much, why don't you just take him, then?"

"Kufufu, I have no such intention." the illusionist replied. "But I do plan on checking up on him regularly. I have to see for myself if this arcobaleno is teaching him well." he added, pointing at Mammon.

The baby looked up and raised an eyebrow under his hood. "Is that a challenge?" Mukuro simply chuckled, showing no signs of fear or hesitation.

Fran just blinked and tilted his head, not understanding the situation.

Squalo led Mukuro and the rest of the Varia into the training room. It was in a separate building from the HQ, but it was a walkable distance. As they entered the said room, the first thing they could see was a machine, complete with big buttons and blinking lights. Then, at the left, a huge balcony overlooking a stadium could be seen.

The long-haired captain instructed Fran to go to the center of the stadium, and the boy reluctantly obeyed. Mammon inserted a CD into the machine, and the words "Illusionist Training Program" appeared on the screen to the right. The rest sat on the seats provided, getting a good view of the stadium. Mammon floated to his seat, only to fail miserably as Bel grabbed the small baby's body and held him in the prince's arms, hugging him close.

The lights start to dim as the machine beeped and booped, initiating the program.

In the stadium, illusions start appearing and surrounding Fran, taking the form of soldiers, warriors and monsters. It was truly a terrifying sight. A normal child would've screamed, cried and fainted by now, but whoever said Fran was normal? The teal-haired boy gulped, but kept his emotionless mask on. He could feel the illusions get stronger as the stadium walls started to melt.

The illusions charged at Fran, attempting to take him head on. The young illusionist tried to think fast. He shut his eyes tight, hugging himself for protection and the illusions that were about to attack him stopped dead in their tracks.

Suddenly, they started floating in the air and reaching for their throats, as if something was strangling them. Apparently, Fran had unconsciously pulled out an illusion. Sort of like a defense mechanism.

Sure enough, the tentacles choking them started to become visible, getting tighter and tighter until...

...the illusions dissolved into flies and buzzed around the stadium. In a flash, they morphed back into their previous forms, but for some reason, they looked stronger than before. They charged at Fran again, and this time, the kouhai didn't have enough time to react.

They swung their weapons and claws at the boy, but he crawled away in time, earning tiny scratches all over his petite body.

He tried to keep his face indifferent as he called out to the people on the balcony. "Heeeey, are you trying to get me killed?"

Mukuro simply shook his head and replied, "Little one, enemies do not have time for hesitation and show no mercy in the battlefield. If you truly have the desire to live on, you must fight."

"But-"

Squalo was pissed by now. He stood up from his seat and yelled, "VOOOOII! USE YOUR ILLUSIONS, DUMB BRAT!"

Fran bit his lip. How do you fight with illusions? All he could do was defend himself with them, or use weak attacking illusions like tentacles or small projectiles.

"Ah!"

Fran's thoughts were interrupted, as he barely avoided another attack. He winced as blood leaked down from the side of his cheek. He felt his knees go weak and knelt on the ground, panting hard for breath.

At the balcony, Mammon could feel Bel's grip around him tighten, as they watched the wounded kouhai pathetically try to evade the attacks.

He looked up and asked, "Are you worried?"

Bel, not even looking at the baby, replied, "Ushishi, hell no."

Mammon could hear the hesitation in his voice, but decided not to question him further. Instead, he turned back to the teal-haired boy, who was desperately trying to make useful illusions.

Mukuro, getting slightly annoyed at Fran showing signs of weakness, called out, "Little one, use your imagination and visualize. Think of illusions that could give you an advantage."

The young illusionist nodded, and slowly closed his eyes.

I have to hurry. I need to think of something. Like...

… a room dripping with acid.

In the blink of an eye, the room started to melt; the floor was sinking lower and lower, the walls started to drip a red, sticky substance.

Fran snapped his eyes open. He sniffed the air, taking in the scent of the weird, red liquid dripping from the walls. It didn't take him long to realize something was wrong.

Th-this is...

"Strawberry jam?" Mukuro gawked, as he smelled the familiar scent of strawberries sifting through the air. Squalo stuck out a finger and dipped it in the sweet, red substance. He gave it a lick, and confirmed that it was, indeed, strawberry jam that was seeping through the walls, and not poisonous acid.

"That's not right..." Fran whispered to himself as he attempted to make another illusion, but this time a weapon for himself. But, for some strange, unexplained reason, his illusions never come out the way it was supposed to be.

Fran never had any experience with weaponry, so he had no idea what they would look or feel like. He tried guns, swords, explosives...even knives. No matter how hard he tried, they were always weird and deformed, twisting into different directions.

Weaponless, he was really weak. A warrior-like illusion managed to whack Fran on the head, causing blood to run down his face.

He clicked his tongue."Che. I let my guard down."

His vision was getting blurry and he could barely keep his feet on the ground. His legs started to wobble until they finally gave way altogether, letting him hit the ground. He managed to prop himself up with his two hands, panting as he tried to keep himself steady.

Lussuria panicked, "Is he alright? He might die out there!"

Squalo opened his mouth to say something, only to be interrupted by Mukuro. "'In the Varia, only the strong survive.' isn't that right...?" he smirked. "Varia quality is really something."

The captain didn't answer. In all honesty, he wasn't that sure if that rule applied to Fran or not, seeing that he was still a child who knew nothing about the mafia. But, despite Lussuria's frantic worrying, a rule was a rule. He couldn't do anything about it.

Tentacles started wrapping themselves around Fran's legs as the illusions slowly walked to him and raised their weapons, ready to strike at the young illusionist.

BANG.

Bel stood up and slammed his hands on the ledge of the balcony, a pissed look on his face. Everyone brought their attention to the prince. Even the illusions froze for a few seconds, giving Fran an opening to summon illusions of his own to pin down the attackers.

"YOU IDIOT-FROG! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" he yelled. Fran looked up at that, staring wide-eyed at his senpai.

"What-"

"This whole time, the prince has been stabbing you with knives, and you don't even bleed! Heck, you don't even make a single frikkin' noise!" he complained and pointed at the still-frozen illusions. "But you expect the prince to believe that illusions as lame as these can actually beat the crap out of you? Get your shit together, frog!"

Everyone's jaws dropped to the ground. Even Mukuro, who seemed so calm and unwavering, had his mouth hanging a few centimeters. However, Mammon snorted. He kind of saw that coming, since the whole time they were watching, everytime Fran was somehow hurt or injured, the prince would tighten his grip around the baby, but will loosen up a few moments later, after the kouhai manages to evade the attacks.

Bel took a deep breath and added, "If you die, I'LL KILL YOU!"

Fran just gaped at the prince, not believing what he just heard. Still, he managed to keep his emotionless mask on, and muttered in monotone, "Idiot-senpai. That doesn't even make any sense-"

Wait.

...make any sense...?

-Flashback-

"Hey, hey, grandma, did you know? Someone called me a freaky weirdo 'cause of my hair color." Fran started as he sat on the sofa, sipping some orange juice from a glass with a straw.

His grandma looked up at Fran, taking a break from folding clothes and asked,"Oh, is that so?"

Fran nodded and added, "It really doesn't make any sense grandma. I've seen black, brown and blonde hair before, but I've really seen anyone who had hair colored like mine."

"Hmm. So, do you hate your hair color because of that?"

The boy didn't know what to say, so he simply shrugged. It's not that he hated his hair color, but he just wished it could've been something more...normal. He was always conscious about it, though he never showed it. He lifted his hands and played with a stray strand of hair.

The old woman closed her eyes and slowly spoke, "Ah, Fran. You shouldn't listen to others who don't appreciate the things that make you unique. Sometimes the things that don't make any sense are the most special."

Fran tilted his head, not really absorbing what his grandmother had just said.

"So... sometimes it's better not to make any sense?"

"That's right."

…

"...That's right." Fran whispered to himself, feeling his strength slowly come back to him. The tentacles were still wrapped tight around his limbs, but it didn't seem to hurt as much anymore.

My illusions don't have to make sense!

The illusions that were pinned down by Fran's own started to dissolve, and reappearing in a different location, proceeding to attack the boy.

However, Fran didn't move an inch. Instead, as the illusions lifted their weapons to strike at Fran, a sudden parade of elephants riding on unicycles started trampling the illusions, giving the young illusionist a chance to escape from the illusions that were strangling him. As another wave of illusions approached the boy, he simply stood still as whips of licorice and taffy wound themselves around the illusions, slamming them on the ground repeatedly until they slowly faded away.

More illusions started to appear, but Fran would flawlessly defeat them, one way or another. From monkeys on flying bicycles dropping explosives on the monsters to giant whales rising from the ground and swallowing the warrior-like illusions.

Mukuro gawked at the spectacle before him, then laughed. "Kufufu. A child's imagination is truly unmatched."

It took about another 40 minutes, but the young illusionist finally defeated all 4000 illusions the program hurled at him. However, powerful illusionist or not, he was still a child.

The small, fragile body flopped to the ground, allowing himself to fall asleep on the cold, hard surface. Mukuro and the rest of the Varia stayed in the training room, discussing something about Fran's training as Lussuria carried the boy to his room, laid Fran on the bed and healed the boy with his sun flames. After he finished, he placed a small, green band-aid over Fran's wound on the cheek, a wound the boy received from all that fighting from earlier.

As the gaylord stood up to leave, he noticed that a certain blond-haired prince was sitting on a chair near the side of the bed, staring intently at his kouhai. He knew the prince really cared about the frog, more than the prince would like to admit.

Lussuria didn't say anything else. He left Bel with the duty of watching over Fran, knowing that the prince would've objected even if Lussuria shoo'ed him away,

Mammon entered the room a few minutes later to check up on the two young assassins. Bel looked up from a book he was reading, and smiled at the baby.

"Ushishi~ Hey there."

Mammon didn't say anything, he simply floated over the kouhai's bed, examining the boy.

"He's a real talent, huh." the baby complimented.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Bel questioned. "He barely got out alive. And it was just a training program."

Mammon glanced at Bel, his eyes narrowing under his hood. "That training program had a total of 100 levels. A normal illusionist would've been fatally wounded if it went higher than 75."

"...So?"

"I use that program too, Bel." the baby murmured. "It seems I forgot to set it back to an easier level."

The prince cocked his head to the side.

"The level was set to 93."

...What?

Bel glanced over his kouhai, who was sleeping peacefully on the bed. That cute, angelic face seemed to look more adorable when Fran was asleep. The boy's mouth was slightly open and his body was tucked comfortably under a blanket. The prince laughed to himself.

Perhaps you won't need the prince's protection after all, Froggy.

Next Chapter: How to Enjoy Your First Mission

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! I really enjoyed typing this one up. It's a real long one, huh? I hope you liked it! Mukuro even made an appearance! Please R/R! I enjoy reading everyone's reviews, and it really motivates me to write new chapters. Fran's adventures will continue and get more complicated as time passes, so look forward to it!

Again, thank you so much!

-Minto-san