Rachael Hertz & fanfiction: CloudGateau

Katekyo Hitman Reborn concept: Akira Amano

Pairings: None

Cloud: Hey you guys, sorry for not updating in what, 7 months. But, it's summer and here's a 3000+ word chapter! enjoy~

Living in Sin

Chapter 2 .:One Dead, one broken:.

There's gonna be some new members…

"Heeey, get a move on, we haven't got all day!" Squalo drawled as he herded the combatants down the hallway. Lussuria and Squalo had each taken a group of competitors.

Rachael vaguely wondered if Fran would be okay with all those older combatants. He was half their age not to mention on the scrawny side. Insecurities and worries ran their course when Squalo stopped before a pair of doors at the end of the hall and flung them open.

Through the doors was a white, spacious room furnished with a number of large, granite blocks which dotted the room at random. A number of thick, ornate pillars supported the high ceiling. Most of the light in the room came from the narrow glassless slits high up on the walls.

"Okay damn newbies, start fighting."

Everybody turned around to stare blankly at him.

"What the fuck are you waiting for? Get to it damn idioti!" And with that, Squalo promptly turned on his heel slammed the doors behind him.

The competitors gazed at the door for a few seconds until the gentle rustle of clothing brought some back to their senses. It seemed like the more gung ho contenders had begun to ready themselves for battle.

Rachael glanced around the room in alarm-- this was going to end badly.

.::.

Elsewhere, Fran thought along the same lines. Most of the cockier illusionists had suddenly decided for themselves that Fran was just some snotty kid, way in over his head.

"C'mon kid, just give it up. If ya do, no one's gonna hafta hurt ya," one combatant sneered.

"Yeah, just run home to mamma and we promise this won't get ugly," another mockingly cooed in Fran's ear.

The corner of Fran's mouth twitched as he slowly reached in to his pocket.

.::.

"Oh… my… Chuck."

Rachael dove behind a pillar as the first cries of battle erupted all around her. Rachael cowered and clutched her dufflebag tightly against her chest.

"Oh Mein Gott!" Rachael screwed her eyes close as a light flashed and the first blood curdling screams or many pierced the air. Gunshots rang and the strange snarls of beasts reverberated around the room, adding to the din. The short breaths Rachael drew were laced with the earthy scent blood, sweat and gunpowder.

After a few minutes, Rachael deemed it safe to open an eye and tentatively peeked out from between her fingers. At that moment however, a body was flung past her and into the wall with a resounding crack. The body crumpled onto the dusty floors with a thud.

Still staring at the stirring body, Rachael realized she had drawn blood from biting into her lip in alarm. Unknownst to her, as Rachael wiped the blood with a sleeve, the body had awoken from his stupor and shakily crawled onto his knees. He tenderly shifted his leg with a faint crackle and grunted in pain.

Rachael looked up and froze. The man's head turned slowly to meet her stare and they both remained motionless.

The man then reached behind him as he inched forward with intent in his eyes. Rachael, panicking tried to scoot as far away from him as possible while staying hidden behind the pillar. He advanced closer to Rachael, his head now directly above her bent legs as he held a knife to her throat.

Without thinking, Rachael kicked upwards, kneeing him under the jaw. The man collapsed onto his side with a thud and Rachael quickly wrenched the knife from his hands. She pointed it at him with slightly trembling hands, waiting for him to get up.

Letting out a silent gasp of relief when he didn't, she quickly scooted back into her original position. Then with the toe of her boot, Rachael pushed the body away from her towards the way and drew her legs up to chest again.

.::.

Squalo sank into a chair with a content sigh. It was only a matter of time before a victor would emerge from either group.

Propping his legs onto a heavy oak table, he leaned his head back into a comfortable position and swept his hair from his face. In a few minutes, he would check back on their process.

Everything ran smoothly according to plan-- maybe even too well.

Within a fraction of a second, Squalo sensed the whistling of a weapon as it sliced through the air. His chair exploded in a dusty cloud of shrapnel just as he flipped out of his seat. Pieces of stuffing and wood rained down upon him and caught in his silvery hair.

The sandy haze of debris cleared to reveal a large battleaxe in the chair's place. A figure jumped down from the ceiling and tugged the axe from the floor.

"Hmph. That's what was missing," Squalo smirked, whipping out his sword. "I told that fessacchione that recruiting members through a fucking ad would end like this."

Now, more figures appeared around him, some of whom he recognized as contenders for the Cloud and Mist positions.

Squalo smirked, "Bring it on then! Let's make this worthwhile you trash!"

.::.

Rachael peeked out from behind her pillar and nearly choked on her spit. In addition to the rubble and unconscious bodies strewn about the room, several fire engulfed animals appeared out of nowhere.

The remaining three contenders failed to notice the blazing animals as completely out of the ordinary. As they sized one another up, Rachael noticed that all three contenders produced a violet flame from the rings they were wearing.

One suddenly pressed his flaming fist to a small box he held in his other hand. Rachael's eyes widened as a hyena, bathed in flickering, violet flames sprung from the tiny box.

However, the other box animal, a panther, suddenly leapt onto the hyena biting and clawing into its back. The contenders themselves simultaneously hurdled at each other in a fierce brawl.

A blazing, violet-tinged vulture flying overhead suddenly swooped down, knocking over one of the combatants. As the fallen competitor struggled to her feet, the vulture swept around and dove for another attack.

Rachael gaped as the vultures split into two, and then four, until there was a swarm of black and purple shooting towards the girl.

In one fluid motion, the box hyena had freed itself from the panther and snatched a vulture from the air. The remaining vultures swooped around the hyena, pecking and gouging the beast.

The girl attempted to summon another box animal but fell over comatose when one of the other two combatants struck her over the head with the blunt side of his spear.

He quickly turned to meet the remaining contender but dropped to his knees when the panther pounced onto him and clamped down upon his neck. Rachael stifled a gasp as blood gushed out from between the beast's jaws. The man dropped forward onto his face and lay there motionless with a deep, throaty rattle.

The residual competitor, who she identified from her group as Luciano, stood there silently wiping the blood from his cheek.

The panther circled around her master's legs, tail swishing from side to side. Rachael's eyes followed the metronome-like swing of its tail and let out a shaky rasp of air. She suddenly realized her mistake when the panther's ears perked and turned to look towards her.

Rachael ducked behind her pillar, hand clamped tightly around her mouth.

"My, my, do we still have one last piggy left?" He gestured silently to Nube di Pantera, who began to advance towards Rachael's hiding spot.

The soft bottoms of the panther's paws cushioned every step she made towards her prey. Pantera tread closer and closer towards the pillar until her head came right next to the column.

With a snarl, she rounded the column to find nothing but air. Pantera's amber eyes traveled to rest on the two bodies slumped against the wall.

Cautiously, Pantera picked her way towards the bodies and sniffed the closest one. She did not sense reek of increased perspiration or the beating heart quicken. Pantera deemed this human truly cataleptic and moved onto the next cadaver.

There.

Pantera had located her prey. The increased tempo of Rachael's heart could not deceive Pantera's sensitive ears.

Pantera flattened her ears and lowered her body onto the floor, preparing to attack until she noticed her tail come in contact with something foreign. Pantera rolled the object into her line of vision-- a black, cylindrical canister.

Rachael screwed her eyes tightly as an intense light emanated from the cylinder, enveloping her, Pantera and the rest of the room in a blinding whiteness.

It was a good thing Rachael decided to keep the unused flashbang grenades that were left over from her assignments back at the Carabinieri.

.::.

When Luciano's vision returned to its original intensity, he quickly strode over to the pillar to find Pantera shaking her head in irritation and eyes narrowed in confusion.

With a look of absolute disgust on his face, Luciano held his box out and Pantera dissolved into purple flames that retreated into its box.

.::.

Squalo straightened up and smirked in triumph. The infiltrators had put up more of a fight than he had originally thought.

As Squalo brushed the dust off his clothing and out of his hair, one defeated assassin struggled onto his feet. All of a sudden, he hunched over and coughed blood into his hands.

The Administration would not be pleased with him. His only two choices: return to the family, triumphant or in a coffin, unsuccessful.

A hand suddenly pulled him upwards and he found himself face to face with a snarling Squalo.

"So, what weak, foolish family decided to challenge the Vongola Famiglia?"

The assailant kept his jaw clenched as he stared stonily at the growling shark.

"Heeeeey, if you're not going to talk, then I'll make sure you never talk again." Squalo raised the blade into the assassin's open mouth, nudging the corner of his cheek gently.

Squalo received only a strained silence as a response before he flung his attacker into a wall.

"Che, well that was a waste of time."

Just then, Lussuria walked in, stopping short at the carnage that lay at his feet.

"Oh my, what happened here?"

His long haired team member merely stomped over to him and gave the older man a well intentioned knee to the stomach.

"Guh! Commander, what was that for?!"

Squalo scowled, "Are those sunglasses painted over? What are you, fucking blind?!"

He trudged huffily over to the nearest body and flipped him onto his back.

"Look, these half-rate hitmen were sent to sabotage us, possibly even kill us. And how did they find us? Through YOUR advertisement! Didn't you think just maybe someone would try and take advantage of that?"

"But you took care of it Squalo, so we're fine. And even if someone stronger was sent, we could have still crushed them. We are of Varia quality after all," Lussuria piped.

"Feh!"

:~:.

Glaring guardedly around the room, Luciano carefully swept the room with eyes, trying to detect any signs of deception. He glided over to a random corpse, kicking it over. Nothing.

On the far corner of the room, Rachael shrunk into the shadow of a large cube-like structure as Luciano strode past. As the clicking of his heels on the hard, stone floor faded away, Rachael let out a quiet sigh and proceeded to rummage through her dufflebag.

All that she had left were several flashbang grenades, a Beretta AR70/90 she never returned, and travel items that were barely enough to sustain damage to a mouse, let alone a panther. Oh, andno ammo.

The flashbangs would give away her position and she couldn't keep hiding forever.

Rachael inhaled deeply, held it in for 3 seconds, and let the air escape from her like a deflating balloon.

'Think dammit, think!'

As she racked her brain for a solution, images of the bedroom she slept in as a child flashed in her memory.

She remembered the great oak tree that stood sentinel outside her window and how each night, the street lights would illuminate the branches. And on windy nights, the branches thrashed and flexed like a giant, gnarly hand. But what especially terrified her 4 year-old self was how the hand would whip back and forth, in and out of view from the window so that she always imagined something was hiding outside her window.

"That's it!"

As Luciano wound his way back towards where Rachael's hiding spot, a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.

Luciano slowed his pace as he cautiously moved closer to the pillar, eyes lasered in onto the corner of a jacket. Baiting his breath, Luciano rounded the corner ready to face his enemy.

His eyes widened in frustration when he realized the jacket was snagged on a jutting piece of rubble.

He exhaled softly through his nose and he turned around to see a blur of black before a blunt instrument smashed into his face. Furiously blinking away the stars that danced in his vision, Luciano stumbled back and reached for his box weapon when the butt of the Beretta rammed itself into his groin.

A sickening flash of color exploded before his eyes and a terrible pain rose up his abdomen before he reeled over and fell onto his side. He let a high pitched noise as he convulsed horribly, hands gripped tight in front in an attempt to stifle the ungodly pain.

Kicking the box that Luciano had dropped a good distance away, Rachael let out a sigh of relief and leaned on the Beretta as she surveyed the battlefield. A far as she could see, she was the only one left standing.

With a sniff, Rachael picked her way forwards towards the door. Miraculously, the wooden doors remained undamaged.

Before she could raise a fist to the door, they swung open with a loud bang and there stood Squalo as sullen as ever.

His gray eyes swept the battlegrounds until they came to rest on Rachael who cringed slightly under his hard gaze.

"You! You're the only one left?!" Squalo said indignantly "Don't tell me that you singlehandedly wiped out every other competitor here?!"

But before Rachael could say anything, Lussuria bound happily into the room, bulldozing a stoic Fran in front.

Rachael thought Fran wore a grim look of satisfaction as Lussuria wheeled him in beside her and under the scrutinizing eyes of Superbi Squalo.

"Ah… Rachael was it? You survived, congratulations." He held out a hand.

"Eh… um… thank you," Rachael replied with a wry smile. She grasped his hand briefly before Squalo interrupted.

"Voi! Enough socializing! Turn and face me."

He gestured to Lussuria who handed him two manila files. He opened one and read it with eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"You! Fran!" Squalo addressed roughly, "it says here you're a student from Turin and your master is the Vongola mist Guardian, Rokudo Mukuro?"

"Yes."

"Didn't I scout you for the Varia?"

"Did you?"

"We contacted you through your email. Didn't you get a job request from vhqvongola at CosaNostra. com?"

"Oh… that was you? I just assumed it was spam or some pedophile trying to—"

"Yes it was us!" The vein on Squalo's forehead pulsed.

"Did you by chance send a blond guy who called himself a prince---?"

"Belphegor."

"He tried to kidnap me from my bedroom. I only managed to get rid of him when I dove into the Po River," Fran said in an undertone to Rachael.

Giving an exasperated grunt, he turned to the other folder and read out,

"Rachael… Hertz?"

"Y-Yes."

A pause. "What kind of family name is Hertz?"

"I'm German on my father's side." Rachael couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated as well as peeved by this loud, silver haired man.

"And you used to be a plumber?" His criticizing eyes peered over the top of the folder.

Rachael flushed.

"Uh, briefly. I needed a job."

"Then, you went on to complete training in the Carabinieri? Those useless idiots?"

Rachael pursed her lips as the tips of her ears grew steadily redder.

Only in the media!

"Yes sir," she said with slight animosity.

"I don't see how some brat from the Carabinieri could've wiped out everyone in this room without so much of a scratch."

"But that only means she is of Varia quality," Lussuria broke in, saving Rachael the pain of explaining.

"Hmph, I haven't assessed your skills yet because of a slight setback on our part," Squalo said, glaring at Lussuria, "but you'll be a temporary placeholder for now. Meaning you'll be paid as a Varia general up until we scout someone better than you OR you prove yourself to us that you really are Varia material."

"Oh… okay then."

With a final haughty look, Squalo turned on his heel and left.

"Ah…"

"Oh this is just going to be fabulous!" Lussuria trilled as he flung his arms around Rachael and Fran in a bone-crunching hug. "We have two new members joining our dysfunctional family!"

Rachael grimaced. "Yeah… just fabulous."

(AN: The following information pertaining to this fanfiction is historically/culturally/geographically etc. accurate. Cited from Wikipedia and Google Maps)

1. Idioti: idiots (Italian)

2. Chuck Norris: an American martial artist, action star and television and film actor who is known for action roles such as Cordell Walker on Walker, Texas Ranger, his iconically tough image and roundhouse kick.

3. Oh Mein Gott: Oh my God (German)

4. Fessacchione: Big idiot (Italian)

5. Luciano: an Italian male name meaning light.

6. Nube di Pantera: Cloud Panther (Italian)

7. Flashbang grenade: a nonlethal weapon, similar in many respects to a true grenade. The flash of light momentarily activates all photosensitive cells in the retina, making vision impossible for approximately five seconds until the eye restores the retina to its original, unstimulated state.

8. Beretta AR70/90: An assault rifle supplied to all Carabinieri staff.

9. Canon: In Lussuria's interview with Fran, he mentions that Squalo scouted him for the Varia and upon refusing, Belphegor kidnapped him.

10. Po River: a river that flows eastward across northernItaly,

11. Hertz: a German surname.

12. Carabinieri in pop culture: in movies and television, the Carabinieri are often portrayed as a bumbling bunch.