Ah, Chrome Dokuro, the only Vongola Guardian confirmed to have more estrogen than testosterone. Represent, Chrome.
I will never get tired of saying this, although you may get tired of reading it, but thanks as always to you awesome, awesome reviewer people. This would not be nearly as fun or possible without you.
On an entirely unrelated note, I think I just broke a personal curse of mine! This is the first fic I have EVER written to manage to get past five chapters without suffering a horrible death via writer's block! Suddenly, I feel capable of anything!
(Except maybe flight. Which is kind of a shame.)
One Tsuna and five Guardians down, two to go!
(To Feri: Er, if you don't mind me asking, how so? It's too late to do anything about this chapter but hopefully it could help with the rest! Thanks for the concrit!)
Chrome Dokuro
1.
Nagi is the spitting image of her birth father, who ran out on her mother when she was six months pregnant.
One thing neither she nor her mother ever realizes is that Nagi is not the one putting distance between them.
2.
Nagi has always had a soft spot for strays because they remind her of herself, wandering through life invisible and abandoned. She makes a habit of taking in as many as she can hide without her parents noticing, and for the most part the strays seem to like her too. Their gratitude and affection is the only thing she finds truly worth living for.
The cat she saves on the day of her fateful accident was to be her latest addition. While in the hospital, she overhears her mother saying she had found all her pets and had them put to sleep, and finds herself more upset over the fact that she was unable to save her tiny family than her own impending death.
When she is reborn as Chrome and first meets Ken and Chikusa, she realizes instantly why Mukuro-sama considers her a kindred spirit.
After all, he collects strays too.
3.
Contrary to popular belief, Chrome has devoted herself to Mukuro not because he saved her life, but because he is the first person to make her feel needed.
4.
Mukuro admits to Chrome when they begin her training for the upcoming ring battle that he never would have met her had it not been for her own latent ability with the Mist flame, and she believes him. As for the actual training, she manages to impress him by instantly mastering the art of illusionary concealment, although more complicated illusions and his attempts to teach her a few of the other Paths take a great deal more effort on both their parts.
She never tells him that the reason concealment came naturally is because she spent her entire lifetime as Nagi pretending she didn't exist.
5.
Chrome's first Christmas present as a Guardian is a video camera, given to her by Reborn. He smiles as he gives it to her, and tells her to put it to good use.
Ten years later, she has amassed an extensive library of blackmail discs of every member of the Vongola family. She has a separate collection dedicated to the enemies of the Vongola, but this is her pride and joy.
Incidentally, Chrome's best kept secret is the fact that her beloved Mukuro-sama's section is the largest of them all.
6.
On the day of the Mist ring battle, Chrome gives Sawada Tsunayoshi her first kiss, and that kiss is the only one she has never regretted.
(For the record, she has kissed four other members of the Vongola family since then.)
7.
Chrome, despite the lack of her internal organs, is endlessly grateful for the new life Mukuro-sama has given her.
And yet, when she sees the distrust and hostility in her new family's eyes at the sight of her distinctive and ever-present trident, she can't help but wish they'd gotten to know Nagi instead.
8.
Chrome is well aware that the only reason Ken and Chikusa put up with her at all is because she's their only link to their revered Mukuro-sama. Nevertheless, she'd like to think that they're all companions on some level, even with Chikusa's cynical remarks and Ken's verbal abuse.
At least they acknowledge that she's there.
(Thankfully, as the years go by they realize she's there to stay and she gains the technical equipment and skill necessary to blackmail them both, so their relationship becomes considerably less one-sided.)
9.
Although the other Vongola girls make considerable effort to invite Chrome into their circle of friends, she repeatedly declines out of habit cultivated by years of solitude and concern that they'll discover just how maladjusted she really is.
I-Pin, of all people, is the first to worm her way past Chrome's shield of self-imposed isolation, and Chrome finds herself reluctantly opening up to the others not long after that. I-Pin, however, is the one she remains closest to, and prior to Byakuran's hostile takeover and the frantic scattering of their family to all corners of the globe, the two of them are nearly inseparable.
She really wishes Hibari Kyouya would stop mistaking I-Pin's love-induced explosions for rematch proposals from Mukuro, though.
10.
Chrome has never been entirely sure of her position in the Vongola family. Her name may have been the one announced at the Mist battle, but it was Rokudo Mukuro who Sawada Iemitsu signed on as his son's Mist Guardian, and it shows. While Gokudera Hayato has at least shown the same level of hostility towards both her and her savior, most of the others (Hibari Kyouya in particular comes to mind) tend to hold Mukuro in higher regard, both as a threat and an ally.
When Sawada Tsunayoshi, newly appointed as the Vongola Decimo, declares her to be his one and only Mist Guardian, even Chrome's loyalty to Mukuro is briefly eclipsed by her gratitude to the Tenth.
Mukuro gave her a life. Tsuna gives her a family.
Chrome is absolutely certain that she'd die for either of them.
So I've pretty much decided that Ryohei's next and Lambo can finish up the Guardians, so there's nothing you can do about that at this point. NOTHING, I tell you!
…Sorry about that. Anyway, even if it is two chapters from now, feel free to decide who you want next post-Guardians. The choices are: Reborn, Lal Mirch, Bianchi, I-Pin, Haru, and Kyoko. As before, the Varia are going last and may or may not already have an order, which is why they're not on the list.
Until Ryohei, then! (Although I have a bad feeling that he'll be difficult TO THE EXTREME.)
Heh. You only THINK I'm joking…