Here's the next chapter. Thank you all so much for the reviews! I'll try my best in this chapter! It has a much more serious air than the previous ones, but there's still fluff somewhere in between! Please do enjoy!

Chapter 5

How to Enjoy Your First Mission

"Phew."

The stadium lights slowly blink on as Fran flawlessly finishes off the last illusion from the training program. His skill for illusions have been dramatically improving since the first time he trained, and he was starting to get a little bored of 'playing' level 85.

Mammon floated down from the balcony and settled himself on Fran's head.

"You need to work on your footing."

"Yeah, yeah. As strict as always, huh."

Mammon narrowed his eyes from under his hood. "Show some respect."

"Pffff."

Fran lazily walked up the stairs and to the main hallway. Today's the big day.

The day he finally gets to go on his first mission.

Fran could hardly sleep the night before, the thought of going to a mission after staying in the HQ all day was just enough to keep him awake. The joy he felt when Squalo handed him his mission envelope was indescribable. He just couldn't believe it! Soon enough, he had to force himself to sleep since he needed as much rest as he could get.

Fran woke up earlier than usual, and ran to the training room to practice a bit more before heading out on his first mission. Mammon, who had been passing by, decided to observe his training. The teal-haired trained endlessly for 2 hours.

...

The duo finally reached the dining hall, and sat on their usual seats. Everyone, including the boss, had already finished their breakfast. Lussuria walked up to Fran and smiled at him.

"Here, Fran-chan! I made you some sandwiches to bring on your first mission~!" the gaylord mused as he handed the boy a small lunchbox. Fran nodded and quietly thanked him before accepting the small parcel.

Squalo saw this and complained, "Voii, stop baby-ing the boy. He's an assassin, dammit."

"Oh, Squ-chan, if you want sandwiches, you should just say so!" Lussuria giggled as he handed the Varia captain a different lunchbox.

Squalo's eyebrow twitched, but said nothing. Instead, he turned to Fran. "Brat, since your mission might be a bit tough on you, Bel and Levi will be coming along."

Bel, who was busy polishing his knives, almost fell off his seat when he heard that. "Why do I have to-!"

Levi opened his mouth to complain as well, but Squalo cut him off. "VOOOII! Don't fucking complain to me, you dumb brat. Your free today anyway, so go and do your fucking job, you lazy prince!"

The blonde gritted his teeth and glanced at Fran who was busy chewing on his food. 'I guess it would be fun seeing him in action...' the prince thought to himself before sitting back down and uttering a tiny 'che'.

"Ne, Bel-senpai. It says we have to kill the boss of some family. Apparently he's been trying to kill some of our members."

"Ushishi~ sounds dumb."

"What does?

"The guy."

"Oh."

Fran, Bel and Levi were making their way across a thicket, with Bel leading the way, Fran second, and Levi close behind.

Supposedly, in the middle of it, the headquarters of the targeted family was located in the middle. Luckily, the information in the envelope helped them out. It told them the exact location: the steps they have to take, the turns tthey have to make... everything. It had some information about their headquarters too. It described their HQ as 'high-tech with state-of-the-art defense mechanisms'.

But it was the exact opposite.

As they reached the center of the thicket, they couldn't believe their eyes. The mansion was old and run-down. The paint was chipped off, the fences were falling apart, and the front door seemed like it was for a garage or something.

Bel leaned over to Fran, asking him to open the envelope again. "Hey, frog. Are you sure we got the place right? This wasn't how the prince imagined it." he muttered. "I kind of pictured it...fancier."

Fran looked at the paper in the envelope, looked back at the building, and back at the paper again.

"Yep, this seems to be the place. The paper says there aren't any other buildings around, so..."

"Let's just go in." Levi interrupted, before brushing past them and walking to the garage-like door. For some strange reason, it was wide open, as if the targets were...welcoming them. Levi shrugged and tried to enter, when suddenly...

...the door started to close, lowering by itself, fast.

Levi tried to think fast and tried pushing the lowering door back up with his arms above his head.

"Uuuooooooh!" he huffed. The power of the door lowering to the ground was strong, but Levi stood there, keeping the door open with all his might, smirking with pride as he did so.

"Shishi~ good job, Lev." Bel snickered, linking his hands behind his head as he walked into the building with ease, now that someone had been holding the door up for him. Fran followed, before giving a farewell nod at the lightning guardian.

"You bastaaaaaards!"

"Was it really alright to leave him there?" Fran asked the prince, still looking back at the empty hallway behind him.

"Shishi~ he's never been so useful before."

The teal-haired boy made a face and replied, "If only you were as useful, senpa-"

STAB.

"Ow."

The two remained silent after that, as they continued to walk down the hallway that never seemed to end. It almost felt like there was no one in this building at all. Perhaps this was just a waste of time? The two had no idea. The building seemed pretty deserted; no soldiers or obstacles blocking their way. It was a perfectly normal, abandoned building.

Or so they thought.

…!

The ground begun to shook, making Fran lose balance and tripping onto the cold, hard floor. Out of nowhere, a wall lowered itself onto the ground, separating both from each other.

Crap...! I let my guard down!

Bel punched the wall separating Fran from him. Maybe calling out will work...?

"Oi, froggy! Can you hear me?"

"..."

...no response.

Bel scratched the back of his head. "Che. I guess the prince will have to look for a way to get to the other si-"

"...SENPAI!"

Bel quirked his head up at the call. "Wha-?"

That's strange. Fran's voice sounded... distressed. The prince didn't like it one bit. "Oi! Froggy! What's going on there?"

At the other side of the wall, the kouhai was panicking. Though his face didn't show it, his trembling knees and furrowed eyebrows made it obvious. He had been surrounded by eight tough-looking men, each with a gun in his hand. He tried calling out to his senpai, in the hopes that he might just bust through that wall and save him or something, but it wasn't likely. Fran gulped and quickly tried to make an illusion of tentacles to restrain them and give him enough time to attack.

But it didn't work.

One of the men chuckled and smirked at Fran. "Your flames have been cancelled out since you stepped into this building, little boy."

"This building has a defense mechanism that cancels any flame that enters this place without wearing this ring." another man added, holding up his ring finger. Sure enough, there was a ring on his finger that had the family's insignia engraved in the middle.

Fran tried to buy some time, enough to calm down and formulate a plan. "Then why didn't you just ambush us in the forest or something?"

The men chuckled. "Heh, and what's the fun in that?"

...Che. They're almost as twisted as senpai.

The men pointed their guns at Fran and proceeded to fire at him. Luckily, Fran put his training to good use and barely managed to evade the bullets. He ran down the dark hall with the eight men chasing him.

Bel's side.

He was surrounded by fifteen men a few minutes ago, but that was before he slashed their throats and ripped out most of their organs, leaving fifteen bloody cactuses behind.

The prince grinned. "What the hell, this is easy-peasy."

He turned on his heel and ran down the corridor, silently praying that his kouhai had not been killed yet. He learned about the flame-cancellation ability of this building from one of the men he killed. The soldier begged for mercy, hoping to be spared by telling him this peace of information. However, it wasn't his lucky day. As soon as he told Belphegor about the building's mechanisms, he was rewarded with five knives stabbed deep into his torso.

Bel picked up the pace. He knew Fran couldn't really fight without his illusions. Without his flames, he was powerless.

...Froggy!

BANG!

"Ah?" Bel turned around to the source of the noise. A tall and lean man pointed a gun at him, his face written with pure anger.

"You... I'll never forgive you..." the man slowly muttered. "You killed my soldiers, you bastard!"

"What the... you're the boss? You're more pathetic-looking than I imagined." Bel teased, readying his knives.

"I may be, but this is the end for you, Prince the Ripper."

Soldiers grabbed Bel from behind, restraining his arms and legs, making the prince drop his knives.

"What the-"

BANG!

Another sound of a gunshot pierced the air.

Fran continued to run down the hall, making quick turns along the hallway in an attempt to lose the people chasing him. He was at his limit. For the first time in a long time, he was scared. His heart banged against his chest, his palms were sweating and he could barely even keep his trembling legs still. One man caught up to him, but the teal-haired boy simply kicked the man in the shin before continuing down the hallway to escape from the guards.

He just ran.

Ran along the long, long corridor, hoping that the exit might just turn up somewhere.

It took him minutes to realize he couldn't take it anymore. He discovered a small room and decided to hide there and try to get back some of his energy. Panting hard for breath, the kouhai tried his best to calm down by rubbing his upper arms up and down.

Tip. Tap.

Footsteps?

Fran hugged himself as he heard the footsteps getting louder and louder. Had he been discovered? Shit, he was cornered in a small room! No way can he escape now! I guess he had no choice but to fight.

Tip. Tap. Tip. Tap.

Fran shut his eyes tight. 'No. I can't!'

Tip. Tap. Tip-

Silence.

The footsteps stopped.

Fran braced himself on what was about to come. Will it be a shot in the head? A stab in the chest? He didn't know.

...

Nothing came.

Instead, he was lifted up by his collar, his legs dangling in midair as he tried to struggle.

Fran, eyes still closed, flailed his arms. "Hey, hey! What're you-!"

"Quiet, you dumb brat."

Fran opened his eyes at the familiar voice.

"L-lightning pervert?"

"Don't call me that!" Levi argued, letting the boy down. "Where's Bel?"

Fran lowered his head. "We got separated..." Boy, Fran felt pathetic.

"Tsk! Fine then, we'll have to look for him." Levi uttered, before throwing something at Fran. The boy struggled to catch it, and looked at the item suspiciously.

This is... the target's family ring...?

Levi scoffed, annoyed at the stupidity of the young illusionist. "Wear it. It'll help get your mist flames back."

Fran nodded and slipped the ring onto his finger as he followed the lightning guardian back to the hallway. With his illusions back, he was unstoppable. He knocked all the soldiers unconscious, before Levi stabbed them in their chests with his sharp umbrellas, electrifying them and burning their corpses to a crisp.

The young illusionist couldn't believe his eyes. He knew they were an assassin squad, but this was too much. The bloodied corpse of their target was hanging- pinned -on the wall, eyes gouged out, neck slit and body cut up in different areas. Fran didn't even dare look down at the mangled-up corpses near his feet.

"I guess we're done here, Bel." Levi spoke as he walked over the corpses, away from the scene. Fran just stared at his senpai, his face indifferent but his eyes had fear and confusion written all over it.

"Ushishishi~! Blooood, blood! There was so much blood!" Bel laughed insanely, arms over his head.

His mad phase isn't disappearing...what should I-

…?

A knife grazed his cheek, and blood trickled down that petite face. Fran looked at Bel. Another knife was in his hand.

"Ushishishi! You bled! I should cut you up too, froooggyyy~"

He's completely lost it!

The prince charged at Fran, knives in the ready. Fran tried to think fast. He couldn't fight anymore, he couldn't run anymore... and man, he was pretty damn hungry right now-

...!

"Bye bii~!"

Before Bel could stab the knife into the kouhai's head, Fran leaned forward and pushed one of Lussuria's homemade sandwiches into the prince's mouth with one finger.

"Mmmppggh!"

The prince stumbled backward in shock, and fell to the ground. Bel tried to chew the sandwich before slowly swallowing it down his throat, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Wha- what was that for you dumb frog?"

Fran sighed in relief, before sinking down to the ground on his knees. "You're back..." The illusionist closed his eyes and panted heavily. His wounds were opening, and he was just about ready to faint from the blood loss. He crawled closer to his senpai and buried his face on Bel's chest.

"H-hey, froggy...?" the prince stuttered. This was certainly new. The urge to wrap his arms around his kouhai was making his arms tremble, but instead, the prince simply placed one hand on his kouhai's head and smoothed the little boy's hair.

Right now, Fran was too tired to argue with the fallen prince. Deep down, he was just glad he brought Bel back from insanity on his own. Even Mammon had difficulty trying to bring him back.

Before slipping into unconsciousness, Fran whispered,

"You owe me another sandwich, moron-senpai."

Next Chapter: How to Spend a Quiet Day

A/N: Hm, that was pretty short and disappointing, but the next chapter will be fluffier, I promise! In the meantime, I'd like to know what you'd want to see for the upcoming chapters! Please leave a review with your suggestion, I'll be sure to note it down and see if I can write a chapter about it! 'Till next time!

-Minto-san