"Shishishi, look what I found, stupid shark." A blonde little boy giggled and decided to annoy the silver-haired teen working in the study. He had a evil grin right under his bang-covered eyes, and he was holding a thing that was not much smaller than himself.

"Get out, Bel." Superbi Squalo ordered, with his head still buried in the documents. "Can't you see I'm working? The ninth said he's gonna cut our budget by half if i don't hand in all the reports that you guys didn't do last month before his really dead deadline-tomorrow noon. If you're not helping then at least stay out of-"

He paused, as he heard a slight whimper. He finally looked up and saw the white little thing in Belphegor's arm. An absolutely adorable little girl around four or five opened her puppy-like violet eyes. She blinked and smiled at the frozen Squalo, "Ciao." Then she yawned.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH A CHILD?" Squalo's roar penetrated the entire mansion. The girl frowned and rubbed her ears, She struggled out of Bel's arm and came to Squalo's feet.

"Why are you yelling?" She asked with her innocent voice.

"I-" Squalo really wanted to hit someone, but being the sanest person in Varia, he actually would feel guilty if he made a five-year-old cry. He took a deep breath to suppress his anger, and tried to soften his voice as much as possible, "Who are you and how did you get here?"

"My name is Piuma." She replied, then a slash of fear crossed her eyes and Squalo did not miss that. "I ran away from home. I was cold and hungry and I fell asleep."

"I found this little cub near the forest. I'm gonna keep her as a pet." Bel grinned in pride as if he found a treasure. He pinched her smooth, chubby cheek and toyed, "Little Piuma liked the milk the prince gave her, didn't she?"

"NO YOU'RE NOT GONNA KEEP HER. And she's a kid, not an animal." Squalo pulled Piuma out of Bel's reached and gave him a glare. "I gotta get rid of her before Boss finds out."

"You're gonna get rid of me? Why?" Piuma eyes started to get watery. "My daddy also said he would get rid of the Vongola then the whole world. I don't like people when they get rid of stuff. They're scary."

"What?!" Squalo grasped something important. He crouched down so that their eyes were at the same level and asked, "Get rid of the Vongola? And the world? Who's your dad?"

"Daddy is daddy." Piuma tilted her head and did not really understand the question.

Squalo knew he would not be able to get much from her now and sighed, "I guess we'll have to keep her for a while. I hope Boss won't kill her the second he sees her."


Hane was in quite the struggle now.

She could go on and list a bunch of reasons for her to stand on Xanxus's side. First, she only met Tsuna for a week or so, yet she lived with the Varia for a year. Second, Xanxus was obviously the right boss for a mafia, while Tsuna and his friends were normal people who knew nothing about the underworld. Third, Xanxus was 9th's son, and was the person most entitled to succeeding Vongola. In fact, she didn't understand why Varia had to rebel since Xanxus was going to take over Vongola anyway.

Yet something didn't feel right. As much as she wanted to stand on Xanxus's side, she couldn't make such decision. Maybe it was because she knew that if Xanxus won, he would kill Tsuna and his guardians for sure.

"You skipped school today." Hibari stated. He was reading on the sofa. He took a glimpse of Hane as she entered his mansion.

She tossed the keys onto the table and walked towards her stairs. She didn't really want to deal with anyone, let alone her unempathetic, abusive landlord.

"You respond when I talk to you, Herbivore." Hibari was obviously pissed by her silent treatment. He yanked his tonfas against her throat and pushed her against the wall. Hane moaned in pain, one hand trying to pull the tonfa away and the other pushed against his chest. She slightly made a small distance between her and Hibari's tonfas and sighed, her weary eyes met Hibari's, "Hibari-san, I'm having a very rough day. Can we just not fight?"

Hibari raised his eyebrow. He could see exhaustion and frustration in the horned herbivore's eyes. He felt strange. She had always been cheerfully bouncing around or gritting her teeth in dissatisfaction (but was too weak to oppose) like an angry kitten, or a fox cub. But now she seemed to have lost all her energy. He didn't understand it, but he guessed this was genuine depression.

"It's no fun fighting you now anyway." He retrieved his tonfas, walked back to sofa, and went back to his book. Hibird hopped onto his head and found itself a comfy spot. Hane sighed again and sat down beside him quietly.

Five minutes later, she couldn't stand the silence nor the turmoil of thoughts in her mind. She crossed her leg on the sofa and faced Hibari with a distorted, troubled face.

"Put your legs down." Hibari calmly ordered.

She followed his order and started, "Hibari-senpai, what do u do when things don't go the way you wanted it to?"

He smirked and flipped a page, "Bite people to death until things go my way."

"Well that's one way of doing it…" Hane knew that Hibari was definitely not the best person to talk to, but he was the only one who was not emotionally connected to either side. "But I don't think I'm strong enough to hurt the Varia, not to mention that I don't want to."

"You're talking about the ring conflict." Hibari finally got slightly interested.

"Yes. Tsuna and the others are really nice and they're my friends- potentially my first real friends. I like them. But Varia is kind of like partly family to me. I don't want them to fight against each other."

"Hmmm, so you are crowding." Hibari's scent became more dangerous and Hane shuddered, but he continued, "I don't know why you are so attached to them, but if you want to defend something, just get stronger than anyone else."

Wow. Hibari could occasionally say something deep. Hane thought. She gave Hibari a slight glance of reluctant gratitude and agreement, which Hibari interestingly found that he was actually in better mood upon receiving it.

"Well, you are probably right this time." Hane leaned back onto the sofa. Hibird joyously landed onto her lap. Hane tickled its pliant, yellow feathers and it chirped in delight. "You think so too, little thing?" And Hibird gave her a slight peck on the finger.

Things might not be so bad after all.


The next night was the Battle of the Sun Guardian. Dino got Hibari somewhere far away from Namimori Middle School so that he wouldn't rampage when the fight destroyed it. Therefore, Hane went to watch the fight. She didn't want to, but she knew that she wanted to be there and try to protect Tsuna's side if they lost. The Varia were professional, ruthless assassins, after all. Xanxus didn't come, though. Hane guessed it was because he was very confident of his subordinates.

"Ha-ne-chan~!~~3" Hane shivered as the gloriously dressed assassin called out for her with his high-pitched, goosebumps-triggering voice. She swiftly grasped Yamamoto's arm and hid behind his broad back.

"Ehhh Hane? You're not gonna hi back?" Yamamoto laughed and asked curiously, without a clue of the situation.

"The boy is right! Mommy Luss misses you!" Lussuria pulled Hane out and hugged her, so tightly that she almost suffocated. "Last time you only hug Daddy(aka Xanxus) Mommy is so sad!"

Yeah this was the only kind of "Mom" Hane had had.

Hane pushed hard until their faces were no longer rubbing against each other, and squealed, "Hi."

"Varia's Sun Guardian, Lussuria, are you ready?" A Cervello prompted.

"Hai hai~" Lussuria answered, let go of Hane, and walked to the arena. The cervello pressed a button, and the arena lit up. Sasagawa Ryohei flinched in reflex and tried to block the intense, irritating light with his hands.

"The arena is specifically designed for the Sun Guardians." The cervello announced.

"What? This isn't fair!" Gokudera and Hane protested at the same time.

"Actually, what are you cervellos?" Hane couldn't help but question. "I haven't even seen you guys anywhere around the 9th I'm pretty sure you just popped out of nowhere."

"You don't know a lot of things, Shirotatsu Hane." One of the cervellos coldly replied. "Don't forget that you're an outsider."

"Voi! Don't talk to her like that." Squalo growled and waved his sword menacingly at the two women as Hane winced at their words. "Just hurry up and start the battle already."

The two cervellos exchanged a look and gestured Lussuria and Ryohei to start. Hane was worried, of course. Sasagawa Ryohei was fearless, and, though he probably had nothing in his head, he was a talented fighter. But his opponent was a well-trained, ruthless assassin who had killed more than the number of exams Ryohei failed.

Hane knew that it was futile to protest against the strong lighting, or Lussuria's metal knee. The Varia did not care about fair fights. The goal was to kill, to win, and how it was done did not matter, if not for the sake of Vongola's fame.

"Maximum Canon!"

"Ehhhh?!" While Hane's mind was still filled with guesses, Sasagawa Ryohei gave Lussuria a powerful punch, which completely shattered his metal knee. Hane stared in surprise as Lussuria wailed, and then was punished by Gola Mosca.

"Wow Sasagawa senpai, you're awesome!"

"Of course!"