I know that my chapters have been getting shorter and shorter with every chapter so I'm making this one slightly longer. Also, I'm going to go from Shiyo's perspective now, so it'll be a little bit more in depth about her history than the last chapter, sorry for the lateness and the sloppiness of these past two ones btw.

Disclaimer: Nope, I still don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Just thought I'd remind you all... again.

Chapter 5

"Shiyo-chan!" Shiyo's best friend in elementary school was flouncing towards her, bag in hand.

Kurokawa Shiyona, as she was known as back when her 'parents' were still alive, frowned. "I told you not to call me that didn't I, Naoyuki-san?" she snarled, her language and pronunciation unusually sophisticated for a seven year old.

Naoyuki Yuri smiled, "Didn't I tell you to call me Yuri-chan?" Shiyo merely scowled.

"I'm going ahead." She said bluntly.

"Wait!" Yuri yelled after her. "Didn't we say we were going to your house to work on homework together!"

An "I know" was all that she got in reply as she chased after Shiyo.

The Kurokawas were fairly well-to-do in the neighborhood and their house was a fine, tidy little house at the edge of the city, that rarely had a stalk of grass out of place and was often filled with light. The couple would wait outside every day as their precious Shiyona came back from school. One thing that Shiyo had always found strange, however, was that her parents never talked about the past and their extended families, and they never had guests.

When the duo reached the Kurokawa home there were three things out of place. The first was that the lawn had been completely trampled over. The second was that the Kurokawas were not waiting for Shiyo at the gate. The third, and most obvious difference, however, was that there were several very professional, yet suspicious people in various positions of waiting around the gate.

Shiyona, at that point, didn't know a single thing about the mafia and her parents' relationships with the mafia, but she knew one thing, and that was that the people who mattered to her were in danger. Without wasting time she said, "Naoyuki Yuri-san. Leave."

Yuri opened her mouth to argue, but one look from Shiyo instantly silenced her. "Go."

Yuri turned and ran. Shiyona continued walking towards the house, one step at a time. She couldn't sense too much of a killer intent from the strange men, but the fact that they were dangerous was more than obvious. As politely as she could she asked, "Excuse me, do you need something? The residents of this house should be home if you want them, though their daughter, my friend, is still at school."

"Your name?" The apparent leader asked.

"Ah, I'm Kawatori Rina. Nice to meet you. Are you the Kurokawas' acquaintances?"

The leader, a big bulky man in a black suit, said, "In a way." and shifted uncomfortably.

Shiyo narrowed her eyes for just a second, then smiled brightly with a hint of confusion. "Well, as I said, they should be inside the house. Ah! Could you possibly be too shy? Then I'll introduce you. Come, follow me." And she began to head into the house.

The man put out a hand to stop her and she decided at that moment that these men had done something to her parents. She didn't think it through very carefully, being only in elementary school after all, but she had a feeling that these men were here to hurt her and had already hurt her parents. So she moved. She slapped the man's hand away from her and vaulted over his head, running into the house.

Going into the house was an utter mistake. More of the strange men were inside, but they hadn't finished cleaning the blood out of the inside of the house. Shiyo froze like a deer in the headlights. Her eyes were trembling but the tears wouldn't come. She found in herself, a frightening anger that she couldn't describe. It vanquished the sadness completely and she truly began crying. Not from grief, but from the anger which was boiling over in waves of pure fury.

She turned, her heart cold as ice, and walked out to where the men were. Although she usually had a reserved personality, her tears washed away her barriers and the full force of her feelings were shown more than clearly to the 20 or so men in and outside of the house.

Even as she continued to cry, the sharp look in her eyes wasn't softened, and her voice came out clear as a bell, "Come at me."

The men stared at her in confusion for a moment. This seven year old unarmed girl who had just realized that her parents were dead was challenging them. It was quite clear to them now that Shiyo had been lying and was really the daughter of the ex-mafioso they had just killed, but they hadn't expected to be challenged.

The head honcho was the first to break the spell, "Oi, girl, don't think you can beat us."

Shiyo was not crying anymore, but the last shred of kindness she had had suddenly sealed shut inside of her. She smirked, "Ara, when did I say I thought I could beat you? I KNOW I can beat you. Trash."

No grown man wants to be called trash by a little girl and these men were no different. Shiyo's words were practically a call for war that the men gladly took up. They charged at her and at that moment, something that should not have happened normally occurred. Not only did Shiyo's hyper intuition kicked in but her hyper dying will mode also activated.

Of course, she lost, that was obvious from the start, despite her confident assertion that she could beat the men and even despite the activation of her dying will mode. They believed her dead and hid her body some distance away from the house, where they thought that no one would find her for a long time. In that time, thieves stole pretty much everything off of her.

I think it should be pretty obvious now that Shiyo was not dead. When she woke up, she was dazed, had lost a fair amount of blood, and was bereft of everything she had had. She wandered around for a while, weakening as she went. In other words, she was on the edge of death. She was saved by Naoyuki Yuri. Yuri found Shiyo when Shiyo stumbled into the area and called the ambulance immediately. It was several weeks before Shiyona recovered and when she did she resolved on two things that would drive her life from then on. The first was to get revenge on whoever it was that had destroyed her life, and the second was to pay back Yuri for everything she had given Shiyo. The night she was told that she was to be adopted by the Naoyuki family she ran away.

The year she lived out on the streets taught Shiyo the hard side of life she had never seen before. The hyper intuition that she remained unaware of was the only thing that kept her alive and helped her adapt. She learned to pickpocket, to hide from the authorities, to sharpen her senses, to increase her endurance, and to toughen her body. But the most important thing she gained from living alone on the streets was the realization that she had an undying thirst to live.

Then, she had a run-in with the Estraneo family. This was before Mukuro destroyed the family and they were just beginning to experiment on the children of the family. The children did not create strong bonds because of the repercussions, but especially since she was a stranger to them. She very briefly met Chikusa, Ken, and even Mukuro, but only for a moment, and the memory was swallowed up in pain for all four of them. She did not die, but it was from the Estraneo experiment that she gained her ultimate weapon. Unlike Mukuro, she did not destroy the family in order to escape, she merely sneaked off, killed the men guarding them while the other children cowered or slept and ran off. It was a fast operation that the Estraneo's covered up in order to prevent the other children from trying to do the same. Because of the Estraneo's, Shiyo lost her conscience, which would prove useful to her later.

She continued to live on the streets for a while, but she was once again found by a mafia family. At first she was filled with mistrust, but the new mafia family she encountered was kinder to her and took her in as one of them. She gained a few friends and was vigorously taught how to use a variety of weapons. She told no one of her association with the Estraneo family and practiced using her special weapon in secret. Her "practical training" from living on the streets made her one of the family's best children. She was not perfect, but she learned over time how to carry out assignments with deadly and quiet precision.

Her best friend, in whom she confided many things, was the child of the head, Luciano Ricci, whose Japanese name was Ricchi Kei. Because the family was in Japan, he referred to himself as Kei; he had few competitors in the small, tightly-knit family for head of the family. He was one year older than Shiyona, but they took to each other quickly because of the difference in their temperaments, yet similarity in process of thought. They were both strong and smart with a somewhat sardonic view of the world in general. However, while Shiyo was pragmatically cold and reserved, Kei was friendly and wore his heart on his sleeve.

In that one short year, Kei learned everything about Shiyo's past and Shiyo learned of Kei's growing uncertainty in his own ability to lead the family. They learned about each other's screw ups and their respective pet peeves as well as each other's fighting styles. Most importantly, Kei learned about Shiyo's secret weapon. Due to their compatibility, they were eventually assigned a job together. As fate would have it, that job was right around the Kurokawas' old house.

Now, something you might like to know, is that Kei had a younger sister, who was basically hated by the whole family. She was not strong in mind or body so she was no use as a mafioso, but she was still a child of the head, so she was spoiled frequently. That, coupled wither a sense of loneliness and a naturally cold pride led to her becoming a selfish narcissist. Her name was Adreana, and, unlike Kei, she demanded that everyone call her that because it was proof of her proud, Italian heritage.

Despite all of this, Adreana adored Kei, though she would only call him Luciano, and out of the whole family respected only him. This was most likely because he taught her and took care of her from the moment she was born, and was the only one who was genuinely kind to her. Of course, this meant that she hated Shiyo's blossoming friendship with Kei and was determined to stop it from progressing any further. Thus, she decided to follow the two, when they had their first assignment together.

Now, Kei knew that Shiyo had lived in the area, so after they had cleaned their hands of the assignment he began pestering her.

"Hey Shiyo-chan, isn't this right around where you lived?" He asked mischievously.

She coldly replied, "Saa, I wonder." without looking at him.

He frowned at her, but when she ignored him, as she usually did, he changed tactics. "Oh, come on Shiyo-chan, let's go."

"You go alone, there's nothing there for me."

"Think you can escape? Come on, we're going." And he grabbed her wrist. Shiyo sighed and let herself be dragged along.

Adreana, watching from the top of a building with a binoculars was surprised, not totally sure what was going on because she couldn't hear, but unable to get any closer due to the two's instincts. She frowned and continued chasing them as Shiyo was pulled all the way to her old home.

The house turned out to be a decrepit old place. After the sudden and strange disappearance of the whole family, the house, which now technically belonged to Shiyo, had become something of a legend. It was now believed that it was a cursed place, haunted by the souls of the dead. The only visitors were boys who had been dared to enter it. Shiyo and Kei, however, felt no dread in entering.

Kei got to the right house quickly enough and continued dragging Shiyo inside. She said, "Che, I'm not going to run away, so you can let go of me now. If you want, I'll show you around."

Excited, he said, grandly, "Please do." And let go of her hand, bowing to her.

She turned away and said, "Follow me, I'll show you my room." They headed up the stairs and explored her old room, full of old notebooks and moth-eaten clothes. Then, Shiyo took him through the living room, the dining room, everywhere but the one place she herself had never entered: her parents' room.

That very obviously didn't escape Kei's notice, it was the door at the end of the hall of the second floor, there is no way that something like that wouldn't be noticed. "What's that door over there?"

"It's a door."

He laughed, though she kept a straight face, "I know that, where does it lead?"

"My parents' room."

"Let's go in."

"No." A hint of steel entered Shiyona's voice.

"Why?" Kei asked, seriously.

"Because, it's a private room I was ordered never to enter. I have no doubt that there were secrets in there that I should never touch."

Kei stepped in front of her and mock seriously said, "Shiyo-chan, you must face your past now. GO!" And he forcefully pushed her towards her parents' room.

"Kei!" Shiyo said, fractionally annoyed at his childish behavior. However, she didn't let too much emotion show on her face and she let herself be pushed towards the door. What awaited inside was nothing special. A single, old king-sized bed coupled with two desks, a bed stand, and an ornate oak wood closet was all that was there. "See? There's nothing bad here." Kei said confidently.

Shiyo had stopped listening to him, because she had caught sight of the closet and it entranced her. She went over to it, and opened it with no little certainty. A random book sat in the back right corner of the closet. She almost wrenched the book off of the closet floor and frantically started to run her hands over the spot the book had been.

"Ano... Shiyo-chan? What are you doing? Trying to salt the closet?" (BTW, this is a lame joke Kei made using Shiyo's name as a pun, since salt is shio in Japanese)

"This closet is special. My father told me once that there was a story of a magical oak wood closet with a small book that hid the secrets of life and death in it. He said that if I ever found that closet, I had to find it and learn the truth about life and death. This closet has to have been what he was talking about."

Kei blinked at her half-stunned. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Shiyo made a triumphant noise and pulled open a small panel with an even smaller diary in it. She frantically started reading it. She flipped through several pages that documented her father's days as a mafioso, but found particular interest in his retelling of how her parents had fallen in love. Finally, she came to the part that documented her kidnapping.

When Shiyo looked back on that time as she read what had transpired in the hospital, she only remembered these few words: "not our child" and "Sawada Shiyona." But at that moment, every word she read was like a poison dagger. Of all the assumptions that she had had broken down since the moment the mafia intruded in her life, this was the worst. The Kurokawas had hidden many things about their past. In some ways they had betrayed Shiyo in leaving her by herself to face a world they hadn't prepared her for or warned her about. But at least they had always been family. And now she was learning that they had not. It made her angry, betrayed, and sad.

For the first time since her parents had been killed, Shiyo was utterly emotionally unstable. Her feelings were threatening to bubble out of her and from the deepest recesses of her heart all of the locked up resentment and fury and fear was suddenly embellished tenfold. For a moment, Shiyo was utterly still, holding her entire body tightly and letting her hair shadow her eyes. But it wasn't enough and at that moment, Shiyo utterly gave up all of her restraints and let it go.

Kei, who had been staring at her ever since she started reading the journal, was uncertain what to do. Here was stone-heart Shiyo, bawling her eyes out, and although he already knew her secret, seeing it manifest itself in such a way was frightening beyond belief to him. In a nervous voice he asked, "Shiyo-chan? Are you alright?" She didn't respond, just continued crying her strange, freaky tears. "Oi, Shiyona, don't cry." Still no response. Kei felt like he was going to lose his mind watching one of the strongest people he had met so far crying. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, saying loudly, "Didn't I say not to cry? Kurokawa Shiyona! Answer me!"

She smacked away one of his hands, "Don't call me that! That's not my name." She looked up at him, even angrier and sadder than before, and was met with a shock. Kei moved his face right up to Shiyona's, and kissed her.

Up on the neighboring house's roof, Adreana Ricchi froze at the sight before her, then narrowed her eyes, intensifying the hatred which she had had for Shiyo from the beginning. A hatred that would become a powerful tool to her in the days to come.