The mafia sure worked in stranger ways than I thought it would. Our new home was even more of a dump on the inside than the outside. Why didn't the building manager tear this thing down years ago? The mold on the floorboards was enough to kill us in the night, let alone the rest of our lives.

I wanted to go home so bad.

Nicky took the apartment thing much worse than me though, outwardly. Her expectations must have been really high, whatever they were, like a secret base with servants and some disturbed reptile guard pet. And a moat. She would have definitely wanted a moat. "Those whores! This is child abuse! Enslavement! We don't even get a toaster!"

"We got a tent," I pointed out.

She glared iced eyes at me. I never knew she could ever get serious enough to be seriously pissed. "A tent is not going to cook me delicious baked goods in the morning."

I pretended not to hear her, and started to look through the bags that we dragged in with us, my spine shivering. "The baby also said we have some tools; maybe there's something we can use..... in here." Please stop staring at my back. She's going to kick me; I can feel it. I thought I was supposed to be the violent one? "Or money. We could always use that."

"Oh! Can I buy manga with it?" Nicky was on those bags like an addict on an unreliable crack dealer.

"No! Don't you dare!" I was about to say that if she recalled, it was for fixing this hellhole up, then stopped myself after considering what would happen if that frightening mood would come back. "They don't sell any in English, remember? And chances are, they don't have the series you want, because, you know, we're in it."

"You're right!" She dropped the bag, no longer interested. It broke the floorboard as it landed. Well, less work pulling that one up. "This is why I keep you."

"Oh yes, because my charming demeanor and sparkling personality have nothing to do with it."

"Not at all."

"Great to hear." I handed her a face mask, which was thankfully packed in there. "Do not take this off, Nicky. Do not take it off."

"She repeated it," my friend said to herself almost thoughtfully. I'll bet that it was some reference to another anime.

She tried to put it on, but the headset was in the way. A quick decision, and then the device was placed in her sock. "You can speak the English," she stated for her actions.

"But your sock?" I also took mine off, and then answered my own question; our uniforms had no pockets, and it didn't seem to be a good idea to leave the only means of communication with the locals in bags that sunk into the floor. "Nevermind."

Tools were dispersed across the room, seeing as that neither of us knew what we were doing and gave up on whatever we were using after a few minutes and moved onto the next thing. I ended up tripping over the hammer Nicky was using and accidentally lodged my saw into the floorboard. This was apparently very humorous in a certain vertically-gifted person's point of view. I threatened to kill her, and tried to wave the saw at her in a menacing way, only for the board to rip off and come up with it. I ended up walking over and kicking her instead. She didn't like that.

But in all seriousness, we had never done anything like this before, we had short attention spans, and we were starving. It was fantastic that anything was done at all. However, despite our best efforts, the room didn't look much different in terms of progress by the time the sun was setting. A stack of molded floorboards to be thrown out, a plastic bag containing the glass and garbage littering the floor, and two exhausted females complaining uselessly in the hallway to each other. The sight was pretty pathetic.

"I'm tired." Backs to the unpainted walls, facing the door to Hell; even the apartment door was shitty. It matched the place.

"Me too."

"My arms hurt."

"So do mine." We still had the masks on, giving the appearance of two delinquents loitering with no place to stay. Really, that wasn't too far from the truth.

"I'm hungry."

"Yeah." I wanted to jump out of a window. I've never been a death wish kind of person, so I would never actually try to kill myself, but the idea was very pleasurable. Even Nicky, with that irritating exterior, seemed to be on the same page with me. She stopped telling me how great the anime world was over an hour ago.

It was roughly silent, other than us. A television show was heard through one of the other apartments in all of its foreign glory, and the family two doors down seemed to be having dinner. It really sucked being able to smell whatever they were eating.

"We should use some of the money for food," Nicky said.

"We should. But how much?" That was probably not the best question to ask her, not like I would know what we need to save anyway. She didn't answer; her stomach did. "Right," I replied to it, "that would depend on how much the cheapest crap we can find costs."

"You know what would be smart, my midget amigo?"

"You had to put 'midget' in there."

"Yes, yes I did. But you know what?" She pointed her finger out dramatically, then saluted to the window. I'm not really sure why.

Looking at her, she was grinning, I took the bait. "Fine. What?"

"We should mooch off of Tsuna." That was her smart idea. Great. Nicky looked at me, and one of those eerie moments, seemed capable of reading my thoughts. "Oh, come on! I'm not saying that just so I can molest the little dinosaur pet-"

"-Though that is a factor," I interrupted.

"I'll admit that and deny it later." Now she stood up. "Think about it, taco! His mom will give us food without question! If it's raining or something, we can just hang out there! We can steal his belongings and sell them on Ebay!" I wanted to kick her for that last one, but was too exhausted to bother getting up.

Though the idea was flawed, that baby would kill us if he figured out anything, it could be really helpful to our mission of fixing up this hell-hole. Except for the guilt. The guilt sucked. We had to take advantage of Mrs. Sawada, who was so innocent and would completely let us. "Poor Tsuna's mom," I said.

"Poor her? Poor us! Your empty stomach is making you the stupid one. Let's go get us some grub!" Nicky made whoosh noises at me while flailing her hands. I think that meant to stand up, so I did. She ran off, down the corridor, where the good apartments were. I began running as well, to follow her. No need to get separated when we could be lost together in the apartment complex.

Outside was a different story. It was dark by now, and although the place was artificially lit better than sunlight seemed to provide, I couldn't read the signs for shit. Which place served food? Does that look edible? How do we know it's cheap? I wish I took a foreign culture study class now. Or watched anime, because Nicky ended up finding something in the end. "Let's eat! Man, I wish they served tacos on sticks, that would be so bad-ass."

"Watch your language," I scolded.

"Hypocrite."

"Don't make me kick you." she dodged. We began walking back to the cruddy apartment with our spoils, some thing on a stick. There was a lot of stick food being served, now that I think about it. We almost went to the place across from where we got it instead, but then I noticed the picture of the octopus; Nicky still wanted to go. Good thing I grabbed the wallet first and ran across the street. These people are crazy to eat all this weird food. I started to question what I was putting in my mouth, but decided against that.

We ate, and walked. And once we were done with the food, threw the sticks away and walked. And walked. Turned a corner, walked some more.

You get the idea.

It wasn't until the fifth street we walked the length of before I started to get worried. "Nicky, was this tree by our building?"

She looked at where I was pointing. "Nope."

"Then what about that store?"

"Never seen it before." I stopped, but she kept walking.

This is absurd. This can't have happened for the second time already. "Nicky, are we lost?"

"We are misplaced, young grasshopper. Don't you know the difference?" She looked at me and smiled, that oh-so stupid smile that made me want to hit something. Or someone.

"No, I do not know the difference, Nicky. There is no difference." We turned a street. I think she sensed the extreme irritation I was giving off in waves. Or perhaps she just felt like running, because that's what she did. Sprinted off down the street like a gazelle.

Needless to say, I booked it towards her, and faster than she thought I could. "What," I huffed, "are you," huff, "doing?" Huff. Huff. However, I didn't have the stamina to stay at her pace long enough to hear the reply given, nor the long legs to catch up again once I caught my breath. Thank you DNA, for giving me my fabulous athletic talent.

She continued on for a few more feet, then stopped herself. We were a good distance apart. Oh, the likelihood of me getting kidnapped right now just spiked up to astonishing levels. This was one of those things they always warn you about in school, how not to walk on strange, foreign streets in the dark and having your buddy farther than elbow-length from you. Here I am, breaking all of it. And I guess Nicky, though I doubt a kidnapper would be willing to put up with her; she'd thrown out of their van faster than she was dragged in.

"Nicky, stay still," I called out. "I'll be over there in a minute. Just stay still." I began fast-walking it to the end of the street. I was doing this for her and not me, I swear. My safety was just an added bonus. Really.

Still a couple feet away, something caught Nicky's eye, and she turned. "We're saved!" she then called out, and figures, began to run again. My lungs hurt.

She was standing in front of a house with its lights on, showing occupancy. People were heard from the inside talking, or maybe yelling; a mixture of both. "We're going to rob some people?" I asked.

"No! No! Well, later, but look!" I look at the place again. Someone looked to be getting strangled in the living room behind a closed curtain. It seemed a tad painful.

"We're reporting a murder?"

"You are not fit to work under me after I rule the world if you still don't get it." She made this sound like something I really should understand. I took a third look at the window, and a small fedora was seen. It clicked. I pointed, smiling. She cheered. "Yes! Finally! Dense you are, grasshopper!" We ran up to the door.

Tsuna's mom answered, and she let us in. It was warm in the home, and bright. Small children were running amok with very realistic firearms and the sound of screaming in pain never left the background noise, but it was incredibly better than the outside, which did not even compare with that apartment. Nothing compared with that apartment.

We were spotted almost immediately by an incredulous Tsuna, who I guess is not used to having people showing up at his house at.... Huh, I wonder what time it actually was. I peered around for a clock, then clicked my tongue. That late? Heck, I don't blame the kid. No one else seemed to mind our sudden presence though, except for the killer baby. He was not pleased. "You two are here," he said in that baby voice, only it was threatening and almost like a question with accusation attached.

"We got lost on the road of Life," Nicky stated, holding her index finger up. Why did people do that anyway? They're only pointing at the sky, and it's rude to point.

He did not say anything, and simply walked away. A moment of silence passed before I spoke. "He..... he didn't kill us."

The tall one looked around, seeing if he was coming back with a hacksaw, before saying anything as well. "Yeah! My powers of persuasion worked!"

"You didn't persuade anything," I told her.

She looked dismissively at me. "Der, mental persuasion. I am above your speaking of the words." She then headed off to the stairs, no doubt going to Tsuna's room. "Hey guys, we're sleeping over, OK? Thanks!"

Well, I guess that settled it. I watched Tsuna run after Nicky, and sat down to listen to the entertainment. "Sorry for imposing," I told his mom, who waved it off like it was nothing. The couch was comfy. I sat there for a minute, your average chaos around me, before deciding to see what was under the cushions. I wish I hadn't.

After backing away from that, I scavenged around the place for blankets and pillows; they would be useful later. Much more quickly than I thought, because the discipline suddenly got stricter once the adults, and the baby, noticed what time it really was. Good schoolchildren needed to go to bed.

Nicky whined; I kicked. Someone threw garlic. Tsuna, unlike everyone else, was happy to lock himself in his room. Did they fix the door?, I wondered. A stray explosive rolled under the couch. With that particular piece of furniture being right where I made our makeshift beds, I really hoped it was a dud.

Sleep was restless, but in a different way than last night's. I kept waking up abruptly, jerking up and thinking I died from being blown up. Then, as I tried to go back to sleep, I had this feeling that I was being watched by something very dangerous. I could've sworn I saw a figure around three in the morning.

When I woke up and stayed up, however, there really was one. "Ahhhh!" I screamed and fell backwards onto Nicky. She woke up with a grunt. "What is your problem, Reborn?" I nearly screamed.

The baby stood there innocently holding a gun, like he wasn't considering shooting us in our sleep. "You two, get up and get dressed. We're leaving."

"We?" My tired friend asked. Her blonde hair was sticking out everywhere; another person who slept as well as I did. I almost laughed, except for how serious the baby sounded. "Who's coming?"

"Not Tsuna," I guessed. He just kept staring at us, and it was freaking me out. Reborn seemed ready to cock the gun at us any second now. "Um, could you leave? We kind of need to get dressed." I was almost surprised that he did.

I watched Nicky pull her socks up as high as she could on her school uniform. "Do you think he will destroy our brains and then mix them up into stew for his demon babies?" she whispered.

"I think this is punishment for not camping out with the mold," I whispered back. Sensing us dressed, he came back into the living room, and we stopped conversing. There was a deathly aura as he led us out of the house.

Outside, it was still dark, much earlier than than anyone had to wake up for school. The sound of our steps echoed. It was beyond creepy, frightening even. "Where are we going?" Nicky asked.

"Namimori High."

"Why?"

"Initiation into the Vongola family." And punishment. The last part felt implied. Did this baby want us dead?

I was a bit confused, in the least. "Why?"

"You have to fight one of the existing members," he stated flatly.

"And win? How do we know if we win?" Nicky started to get excited. "Do we get to team up or go one on one? Do we get to battle on flying horses?"

He didn't answer any of those, so I decided to something only remotely pertaining to the fight. "Why would any mafia member be at the school this early in the morning to fight us?"

"You upset him." Reborn stopped walking; we were in front of the school. I was going to ask how, but then something caught my eye. On the cement right in front was some red graffiti inn Japanese, with what was most likely the same words in English right below it.

The blonde and the redhead did this.

"Hey, we didn't do that-" I started to say, but then Nicky began tugging my arm in either uncontrolled bliss or extreme fear. I looked to see someone in a school uniform walk up to us, armed. He had black hair, a killer look in his eyes, and what looked to be sticks. "What's with the sticks?" I asked.

"They're tonfa," she replied. I'm sure it was fear now. Apparently, whoever this kid was, he was not someone Nicky hoped we were going to fight. There weren't any serial killers in this manga, were there?

He distastefully looked at the graffiti, and stopped in his place, looking like an animal ready to pounce. "I'm going to bite you to death," he said, only adding to my mental comparison of him to every dangerous animal I could think of.

"Hibari," Nicky murmured.

Petrified, I eyed Reborn. "Do we at least get weapons?"

N: Done. Time for some action in this story. :D