~.~.~

Title: Vigilante Tendency

Summary: Mukuro is a killjoy, as always. Surprisingly, no one gets possessed.

Notes: Edit 5/24/2014. Hmmm. This one is pretty weird, because it's about Mukuro, you know? And he's such a wet blanket. Not much funny to be had. But! Next chapter will be about the great Vongola entrance, so, uh, look forward to that...? (Also, the last chapter, most likely.)

~.~.~

Standing under the blooming sakura in front of Namimori Elementary School, Tsunayoshi Sawada, age 12, wept shamelessly.

"It's okay," Kyoko said, patting him on the shoulder comfortingly. "Even if Onii-san and Shoichi are graduating, Takeshi, Hayato and I will be here next year!"

"That's right, Boss!" Hayato exclaimed earnestly. "I will take care of anything you need! I know I'm still inexperienced, but please put your faith in me!" Considering his answer to everything was still - despite Tsuna's best efforts - "dynamite" and "more dynamite," Tsuna didn't find his offer of support very reassuring.

Kyoko continued to smile. "I'm sure you'll figure it out, Tsuna-kun," she said. "And if all fails, run. But make sure to run somewhere I can find you and bring a teacher."

The sakura petals fell like snow, marking an end and a beginning - of a school year, that is.

~.~.~

5th grade end, 6th grade began, but despite Tsuna's fears, not much really changed.

Bullies, after all, were not in any way immune to tasers.

(It wasn't the bullies he should have worried about, anyway.)

~.~.~

Even if they were now in separate schools - Ryohei and Hibari in Namimori Middle, Shoichi in an elite private school - it wasn't like Tsuna never saw his friends anymore.

They all still met up at the Momokyokai building, after school on most days.

After Namimori Elementary let out on the first day of the new school year, Tsuna had run all the way to their headquarters. Bursting in through the front door, he almost crashed straight into a crowd of Momokyokai members. A couple of them caught him as he stumbled and helped move him to the front of what he now realized was an impromptu fighting ring.

"Join the boxing club!" Ryohei roared, swinging another punch at Hibari. This was apparently the reason for their newest fight.

"No," Hibari refused coldly, blocking with one tonfa and striking back with the other.

A Momokyokai member helpfully explained - Ryohei had made himself captain of the newly formed Namimori Middle School boxing club and was now recruiting members.

Hibari was not interested, but that didn't seem to deter Ryohei in the least.

Tsuna hung his head in defeat. Why, why had he thought anything would change? And why in the world had he dreaded that? Surely a decrease in this kind of nonsense could only be a good thing. This must be what they call Stockholm Syndrome, Tsuna thought.

Closing his eyes in something like pain, Tsuna tapped a Momokyokai member on the arm and held up his whistle meaningfully. A minute later, every Momokyokai spectator had plugged their ears, knowing Tsuna's methods well. Hibari and Ryohei, engrossed in their battle, didn't even notice.

Tsuna took a deep breath and blew.

~.~.~

5th grade end, 6th grade began, but despite Tsuna's fears, not much really changed.

There were still, infuriatingly, mafia people suddenly appearing on their doorstep.

~.~.~

The man - teenage boy, really - who called himself Rokudo Mukuro had a fine-tuned instinct for self-preservation. It came, he supposed, from having experienced death so many times. He could sense it closing in on him yet again, feel its noose tightening around his neck.

In retrospect, he could admit, if only to himself, that his actions had been... a little too rash. He had wiped out many despicable mafiosi, and he didn't regret that, but he should have, perhaps, been a little more discrete about it. As it stood, the entire criminal underworld was hunting him, and even Mukuro could not stand against them all.

At least, not with only Chikusa, Ken and Lancia's almost will-less body behind him. If they were lucky, they would end up imprisoned. More likely, they would end up on a short list to execution.

They couldn't stay in Italy, but where would they go? Where could they go? Who would aid them?

Rokudo Mukuro had a fine-tuned instinct for self-preservation, and he felt the wind shift. Just a hint of something unfamiliar.

An unknown quality that had the mafia whispering uncertainly.

An opportunity, in Japan.

~.~.~

Mukuro didn't believe in having allies, as he would loudly and insistently proclaim. People were untrustworthy and ugly.

But he believed in having lots of disposable pawns to throw to the wolves when the situation called for it - which was just what he did with Lancia, leaving him in Italy to temporarily throw Mukuro's pursuers off his trail.

Also, that robot army sounded very useful. He just needed to figure out who to possess...

~.~.~

One day, Tsuna arrived at the Momokyokai building to find a teenager on their couch and two more behind it, flanking him like bodyguards.

The teenager smiled and said, "I hope you don't mind that we let ourselves in. I am Rokudo Mukuro. There are my companions, Ken and Chikusa, and we wish to join your organization."

Mukuro had planned out a speech - several speeches, actually, depending on if and how much the organization he wished to join knew about him and his activities. The best case scenario was, of course, that these backwater small fry yakuza had no idea of what he'd done in Italy and would accept him easily. The worst case... well, there was always mind control.

Those speeches proved largely unnecessary.

"...Nice to meet you. I'm Tsuna," Tsuna said, far past even being surprised. "Do you prefer tea or just water?"

His smile didn't waver, but Mukuro mentally revised his initial assessment. He had thought the boy who had walked in so carelessly was just some little fool, but it seemed he had at least some skill in manipulation. Even if he wasn't aiming for a poisoning attempt, he was effectively shifting the confrontation onto his terms with just a simple "courtesy" offer.

Mukuro was probably the first person to ever fully appreciate the power of Tsuna's passive aggressive politeness.

"Tea is fine," Mukuro said.

Tsuna set out four cups - one each for Ken and Chikusa as well, a strange and interesting move, since the two of them had clearly positioned themselves as just muscle and to be ignored - and also some cookies. Even well trained as they were, Ken and Chikusa both wavered, looking at the tea and snacks longingly. Ken even sniffed the air and swallowed heavily.

Settling down on the couch across from Mukuro's group, Tsuna tucked in his legs and took a cookie to nibble on. He might as well enjoy this, he thought.

"So," Tsuna began, "just to clarify, which group are you here to join?"

It was a completely legitimate question. The Momokyokai? The Peaceful Namimori Committee? Hibari's new Disciplinary Council (which he had renamed from the traditional DisCom because it would get confusing)? Or, Tsuna admitted sourly to himself, the mythical, non-existent "new power in Asia" group the mafia believed to have been created, but which was actually a total misunderstanding?

Mukuro was still smiling as he eyed his cup of tea. Unlike Hayato, he only picked up the cup gingerly and did not take even the smallest sip.

"The one you're in," Mukuro compromised neatly.

"So the Committee," Tsuna decided. "Okay. Do you have a place to stay? There's rooms here at the base, and the apartment manager down by the bank promised us a discount if we need it."

All three of their new recruits stared at Tsuna, who looked back with polite interest. He knew exactly what they were thinking - "Aren't you at least going to ask why we want to join? Who we actually are? Or where we came from?" - and he would admit to perhaps enjoying their befuddlement a little too much. Misery loves company, after all.

But Mukuro had too much self-control, and Ken and Chikusa were too well-trained to let Mukuro do the talking, for any of them to blurt out the questions on their minds. Thinking about it, Mukuro supposed this was a rather reasonable move - keeping them close while judging their usefulness.

"We'll be happy with a room here," he said. Two could play at the information gathering game.

~.~.~

"So, what are we going to do with them?" Tsuna asked later, as a full meeting of the Committee. "I mean, I set them up down the hall, and it's not really a problem for them to stay here, but they must have had a reason for coming to find us."

"They must be spies," Hayato said. "Saboteurs! Infiltrators! They might be hitmen after you, Boss!" There was definitely a certain irony in having him, of all people, say that.

"I still don't get why the mafia is so interested in us," Tsuna muttered.

"They afraid of your potential!" Hayato insisted. Fortunately, this time he didn't go on a rant about evil, backstabbing adults. Instead, he just added, "Lots of bosses and group leaders started going on about not letting it turn into a repeat of the first generation, whatever that means... "

Tsuna sighed. "I'll call Naito and ask if he knows anything," he said.

"How did they find us anyway?" Shoichi wondered reasonably. "I mean, everyone else just wanders blindly around Japan, but they definitely knew what they were looking for."

"Octopus-head found us too," Ryohei pointed out.

Hayato glared and just barely stopped himself from protesting against the nickname. It was hazing, he figured. He just had to endure it. He hated being the most junior member. "It wasn't hard," he said. "I just followed through with the information available."

He listened to what the Tomaso had said - they were no longer fighting for their own profit or to increase the power of their Family. No, now they fought to protect the peace in their territory and the safety of the people. And that ideal had come from their allies.

Thus, their allies must also oppose all disturbances to the peace - in other words, crime. Thus, the place where their allies were based had to be a place with incredibly low crime rate. And judging by how new their group was, and how fast their rise, that place would have experienced a sharp drop in disturbances.

Comparing all the information across Japan, Hayato easily identified Namimori.

From there, it was just a matter of looking for the Momokyokai, which might have been unknown to anyone in the criminal world, but which everyone in Namimori had heard of.

"My sincerest apologies, Boss! I was such a fool!" Hayato added, bowing so low he was almost folded in half. "I should have realized then and there that you were not the enemy! That you were the ones I should fight for!"

"That's... fine, really," Tsuna told him, almost reflexively now. "But do you think Mukuro did the same?"

Everyone could only shrug. Mukuro worked in mysterious ways.

"We can start having them help out with the requests. I'll partner them up with you guys, so show them the ropes," Tsuna decided. "And I guess we can enroll them in school." Because if he wasn't allowed to drop out, neither was anyone else. "They're about a year older than me, Takeshi, Hayato and Kyoko-can, so I guess they'll be going to Namimori Middle School, with Onii-san and Hibari-san..."

~.~.~

That... didn't work out too well, to put it mildly.

Oh, the enrolling part went fine. Namimori Middle wasn't all that stringent with the paperwork, which Tsuna suspected Mukuro lied on shamelessly, and in short order they were accepted in as transfer students. Puzzled by the sheer domesticity of it all - here is your room, do you need more blankets, don't forget to have lunch, did you sleep well, here's your school uniform - Mukuro played along.

Except that Hibari seemed to just hate him on principle. Really, Mukuro had only been using some basic hypnosis on a couple of girls to get some information, when in came the prefect, tonfas already swinging. This repeated six times in just the first day, not to mention Ken's extensive problems with authority figures and Chikusa blowing up the science lab.

Mukuro had some trouble pinning down the look Tsuna gave them when he came to get them from the school. (It was disappointment and guilt-trips.)

Actually, why exactly was a boy a year younger than them informed of all this, like a parent would have been?

"Going to school is an important formative experience," Tsuna said, sitting on one side of the coffee table at the base, while Mukuro, Ken and Chikusa sat on the other. This was what he had been told when he tried to skip school. "You can't just not go. You'll be stunting your growth as fully functioning individuals."

Calling any of them fully functioning individuals was hilariously inaccurate.

"Also," Tsuna added, "Hibari-san considers truancy the same as disrupting order."

Mukuro couldn't quite stop himself from making a face.

Hibari had also indicated, in no uncertain terms, that he wanted Mukuro and his friends out of Namimori - Hibari's territory - but Tsuna had put on his blandest look, the one that promised vindictive sadism and misery. It wouldn't be the Peaceful Namimori Committee if they weren't even in Namimori, he had insisted. And really, was Hibari-san saying he couldn't handle it? Well, Tsuna supposed they could arrange something...

Pride overcoming common sense, Hibari had insisted he could handle it and he would, in fact, turn that pineapple into a model herbivore citizen. Tsuna had smiled, very unsettlingly. (Hibari thought of elephants, or maybe hippos. Eats plants, herds a lot, can crush predators just by sitting on them. That last part was a little off, somehow, but still...)

They had finally found the one person who could drive Hibari absolutely insane. Like hell Tsuna was going to let pass this opportunity to spread the pain around. Now Hibari would know how Tsuna felt all the time, with all of his crazy friends.

As for Mukuro... well, he was far from the first weirdo Tsuna had to deal with.

"I have here the full list of prohibited behaviors," Tsuna said, heaving a massive stack of printouts onto the coffee table, which groaned under the weight. "Please study them closely. If you have any complaints about these rules, please submit a form to the Disciplinary Council. If Hibari pursues you when you have no committed any violations, please let me know and I'll talk to him. Do you have any questions?"

Ken raised a hand. "Are we gonna get more of those box lunches?" he asked. "'Cause I'll go to school or whatever, if it means I can have that every day." Chikusa nodded.

When Mukuro shot them a sharp look, they could only shrug. In their minds, it balanced out pretty well - nice bed, good food, daily threat of murder. Not a bad life, definitely a step up.

~.~.~

"Have they been causing any problems?" Tsuna asked the Momokyokai Kumi-chou later.

Kumi-chou frowned but shook his head. "Not exactly. That Mukuro kid is always poking around, asking questions, but nothing really bad. He sets the men on edge, that's all." He hesitated for a moment, until Tsuna's patient gaze convinced to go on. "The other two are just rough brats, we have plenty like that. But him? He's bad news. Be careful around him."

"I know," Tsuna smiled wryly. "I can tell. He's got the same look as all of you did, after the first time Hibari beat you. And the second time too, actually..." When they had come crawling back, pretending surrender just to get close enough for a chance to strike.

Kumi-chou coughed into his fist. "You're too kind, Leader," he said, refusing to blush under Tsuna's amused look. He was a hardened yakuza man! "But you might be on to something there. Maybe he'll change his tune after a few beatings from that Hibari."

Or rather, after getting beat up and being rescued by Tsuna. Compared to Hibari, anyone would look like a saintly savior. It was a life-changing experience, really.

"I was thinking of just taking him along on a few requests," Tsuna said mildly.

~.~.~

"And you just... help them, anyone who asks," Mukuro summarized, disbelieving and stunned almost beyond words. This thought did not compute. "...Why?"

Tsuna had been trying to explain to him that, aside from beating up bullies, criminals and gangs, the Peaceful Namimori Committee was also accepted any request for assistance from the people of their town. Whether getting groceries, moving furniture, painting buildings, managing events, babysitting or finding lost pets, they did it all.

Mostly, this was because Tsuna was number one least able to turn down a request, and he had sort of dragged everyone along. Needless to say, the Momokyokai had not been very happy the first time Tsuna had asked them to help set up the annual picnic for his mom's Foreign Cuisine Club. Of course, with Hibari standing right behind Tsuna, his expression of pure anticipation for the moment they gave him an excuse to beat them up again, the Momokyokai hadn't had much choice.

(After getting plenty of delicious leftovers from the picnic, the former yakuza had been a lot more enthusiastic.)

"W-well, it's all part of protecting the peace in Namimori," Tsuna said quickly.

"...Keeping control of your territory, then," Mukuro muttered to himself. "And what do you ask for in return? What's your fee?"

"Fee? It's not like that," Tsuna sighed. "Really, you're just like the Momokyokai... We don't ask for anything. Sometimes people give us something, or they just say they owe us a favor, but that's all. Like the restaurant down the street giving us a big discount, or the city forgiving the utilities we owe them. Or all the fruits and vegetable we get from people. Actually, we're getting lots of donations now too..." Remembering how that word confused the Momokyokai, he quickly added, "But they're really donations, not a code word for extortion!"

"Building a network of indebted individuals," Mukuro continued to mutter. "Hmm... not a bad approach. A bit soft, though."

"I feel like you're getting the wrong idea," Tsuna said. "Anyway, maybe you'll understand better once you see it first hand. We just got a request, actually. It's from a girl who often comes to us. Her cat keeps running away, and we help her look for it. It kept happening, so we put a tracking chip in its collar. It'll be very easy..."

~.~.~

"Can you see him?" Nagi asked, tugging tentatively on Tsuna's sleeve. She shot a worried look at Mukuro, who had been hovering in the background ever since the two Committee members met up with the girl. Ostensibly, it was to better observe his "sempai" on the job, but mostly so he would be better positioned to give creepy smiles and run if it proved necessary.

Sighing a little, Tsuna tilted the screen of his phone toward her. It showed the location of the tracker they had placed in her cat's collar after the fifth time she approached the Momokyokai to find her beast of a pet.

How a sweet, high-class "ojou-sama" girl like Nagi ended up with that massive orange monster, Tsuna had no idea. She must have picked it up off the street, and the cat seemed quite eager to return to its previous lifestyle, given how often it ran away.

"Just around this corner," Tsuna assured her.

They turned the corner... and stared.

"Um," Ken said, all but covered in cats. In particular, Nagi's orange beast was sprawled across his lap. He tried to glare, as if warning them to make one comment - just one! - about his affinity for animals, but it was really a wasted effort. It was hard to be threatening while covered in a fuzzy, purring mass.

Clapping her hands together, Nagi made a joyous exclamation and ran up to Ken, who jumped, then winced as her orange monster dug its claws into his legs.

"How did you get him so calm?" Nagi wondered, hooking both hands around her pet's middle and trying to lift it. The cat didn't budge.

"I see. So that's why all the strays have been looking so fat recently," Tsuna commented. "You've been feeding them?"

Ken scowled. Mukuro tried to hide a snicker, but not very hard.

"What a touching reunion," Mukuro said, smirking. "I suppose this makes it our first successful mission. We should celebrate."

He was probably making fun of them, but Tsuna just smiled and said, "Sure. What would you like for dinner?" Pointedly, he turned to Ken, since Mukuro had done exactly nothing to help.

But their victory celebrations were premature. Growing tired of Nagi's attempts to cuddle, the orange monster yowled and made a break for freedom once more. Nagi gave a startled cry as the cat leaped out of her arms and began to race away.

"Wait!" Nagi called after it, giving chase.

"Nagi! Be careful!" Tsuna yelled, scrambling after her.

Breaking the fundamental rules all children are taught - don't play in the street, look both ways - cat, girl and boy all rushed out into the road, which a moment before had been empty. A horn blared and tires squealed, a truck suddenly looming over them.

Following its animal instincts, the cat had frozen; Nagi, catching up to it, had only time to throw her arms around the orange beast and squeeze her eyes shut; Tsuna, bringing up behind them, could only watch, reaching out futilely, as the truck bore down on girl and cat, too fast to stop or avoid. He knew, in a single horrifying instance, that he wouldn't make it in time.

And then...

He could barely believe it, but Tsuna was sure of what he saw. Just before it could hit Nagi and the cat, the truck was suddenly engulfed in a web of... lotus vines, which pulled it sideways, off its path and straight into a street light.

Running to Nagi's side and kneeling next to the shocked, shaking girl, Tsuna spared a glance at the crashed truck. The lotus vines had disappeared, but he was sure he had seen them. Some instinct made him look over his shoulder. Ken was on his feet, the cats that had been clinging to him having scattered, and his gaze shifted between Tsuna and Nagi, the crashed truck, and Mukuro.

Mukuro lowered his hand slowly and met Tsuna's eyes. From so far away, Tsuna couldn't read his expression - unease, annoyance, anticipation?

Inwardly, Tsuna sobbed. What was this sudden fantasy genre shift?

On the outside, he smiled. "Thanks," he mouthed simply. Mukuro turned away.

Fortunately, Nagi was uninjured aside from a scrapped knee, but Tsuna stayed with her as the police arrived and all through the following questioning. When all attempts to call her parents were met with failure, he firmly maneuvered her over to the Momokyokai building. They had plenty of spare mattresses, after all, even with their new members.

Mukuro and Ken were already there, Ken demanding peppermint chicken and pineapple souffle for dinner. Tsuna let him have his way. Amusingly, Nagi kept glancing at Mukuro and then quickly looking away. Mukuro made sure to meet her eyes every fourth glance and smile, which made Nagi turn bright red without fail.

Between Ryohei challenging Ken to an eating contest and Hibari suddenly declaring he hated pineapples, both of which led to food all other the floor, walls and ceiling, Tsuna never actually got around to asking what Mukuro had done.

When he remembered about it in the morning, he couldn't find it in himself to even be surprised. Compared to Hibari's continued and repeated inhuman feats, magically appearing and disappearing plant life wasn't particularly traumatizing.

More to the point, it seemed they finally had someone with the right... talents for all those lost cat finding missions. Tsuna made a note to himself to assign them all to Ken.

Ken complained, at first, but the sweet grandmas who generally requested them fed him quite well, so he got over it quickly.

~.~.~

Mukuro kept his smile firm, through every stupid, useless mission he was given. He could endure this. He had endured much worse. But he couldn't help but feel he was being mocked.

Why were they wasting their time with all this community service? Because that's what it was. Just petty volunteer work, which rarely had any tangible payoff. Even the ones that were legitimate paying jobs - usually something like contracts from the city to help with events or from stores for heavy labor - were all so small, so meaningless that Mukuro found himself gritting his teeth in frustration.

And that wasn't even taking the farce of "school" into account. ...Well, actually, that one was kind of amusing, if only for the vindictive pleasure he got from seeing how close he could drive Hibari to the edge of his tolerance. (Very close; very, very close.)

Trying to understand what was going on - just what kind of group had he joined? - Mukuro asked the Momokyokai members. They were yakuza, thugs, the dregs of society, surely they weren't pleased with this goody two shoes benevolent nonsense.

But all of them just... accepted it. They grumbled about it at first, but then they elbowed each other and laughed too.

Mukuro didn't understand it.

(What happened to the robot army?)

He didn't want to admit how long it had taken him to work up the nerve to venture into the research and development part of the base, which Tsuna had pointed out to them on the first day. Of course, Shoichi's workshop was nothing like the Estraneo labs. Despite all indications to the contrary, both Hibari and Ryohei came by their insane abilities naturally.

Shoichi was certainly brilliant, but none of his project were even slightly aimed at gaining more power or building a better weapon. He didn't seem even slightly interested in that.

What were they doing? What were they doing all this for?

"We didn't really like it at first either," one of the Momokyokai members told him, in a quiet moment. "You know, all this silly helping people stuff. We thought, we're yakuza! We're too great for that. But... after a while, we just kept on doing it, even when Leader didn't tell us to. We got used to it. And, eh, how to say it... it's not bad. We didn't want to go back to the old days anymore. I guess... we didn't want to lose the smiles people give us now. It's nice, you know?"

Because things had changed. When they walked down the street now, no one cowered away or eyed them mistrustfully. The townspeople greeted them with smiles and respect.

"The smiles people give us..." Mukuro repeated to himself. "What useless nonsense."

~.~.~

"Okay... I see..." Tsuna said into the phone. "Yes. Thanks, Naito. I'll keep that in mind."

He had finally gotten a response from the Tomaso regarding Mukuro and his allies - the whole sordid tale. Naito had even managed to get some of their people to pick up Lancia before the rest of the mafia could and find out the true depth of Mukuro's abilities - and his cruelty.

"What are you going to do?" Naito asked, his voice unusually solemn.

"I wonder..." Tsuna muttered, looking up at the night sky. "Keep an eye on him, I guess. He's our responsibility now."

Closing his phone, Tsuna sighed. He supposed it was time to act like a leader.

~.~.~

Mukuro knew the moment Tsuna came to see him that the cat was out of the bag. It was obvious in the way the boy looked at him, even if Mukuro couldn't quite read the emotion in his eyes.

Ruffling his hair awkwardly, Tsuna tried to think how to start the conversation.

"You've been here a couple months now," he said finally. "How are you settling in? Do you like it?"

But Mukuro wasn't about to let him lead the conversation. He needed to seize the initiative for himself. "That's not what you want to talk about," Mukuro said, smirking. "What you really want to ask about are our intentions... right?"

"Kind of?" Tsuna said, frowning bemusedly. "I mean, are you planning to stay? This probably isn't what you were expecting."

"I see no reason to leave," Mukuro declared. He still hadn't found the robot army, after all. And if nothing else, the Vindice would have trouble tracking them to such a dull, obscure place.

Ken and Chikusa seemed content as well. Maybe too content, Mukuro thought, his mouth twisting.

"That's fine, then," Tsuna said. "But if that's the case, there's something I wanted to talk to you about. Even if you're part of our group, there are things we can't allow. That's true even for Hibari-san, and it's true for you as well."

'So basically, don't go acting like you did in Italy,' Mukuro mused, smirking without humor. "I'm not sure I understand," he drawled, with only the most cursory attempt at pretense. "Could you explain it better? We wouldn't want to have a misunderstanding, after all."

Tsuna thought for several long moments before giving his answer. "I suppose there's just one rule," he said finally. "It's like this: Always fight to protect. That's what we do. We fight to protect. The town, your friends or yourself, whatever you value. But never forget that that's the reason. Don't lose sight of it."

It sounded simple. Too simple. There had to be something else, right? Even a fool deluded on his own ideals would see the flaws in such a simple thing.

"...I don't understand you," Mukuro admitted. He hadn't meant to say it, but somehow the words slipped out. "I can just say that all I did was to protect myself. That kind of rule is meaningless." It wasn't even a restriction, not the way it was stated. There were too many ways around it.

"You're right," Tsuna said. "That's true for everyone. I just have to trust them to follow the meaning of it. I trust all our members, and I'll trust you too. And if you fight to protect yourself - if you value yourself, that's fine. I'm glad to hear it. You're part of our group, so we'll protect you too. ...Though I guess that doesn't mean much coming from a wimp like me..."

His smile was terribly honest, and Mukuro couldn't tell if he was just a fool or the most cunning, dangerous person he'd ever met.

"I'll try it out," Mukuro said, turning away. "This protecting thing."

It was barely a promise, and even weaker than Tsuna so-called "rule." And it would hardly be the first time Mukuro had lied, right?

~.~.~

It was a long time before Mukuro understood the meaning and logic behind Tsuna's request.

You can fight to protect yourself, your pawns, your power, your goals. On the outside, it looks just the same. If you declare everyone your enemy, than killing them all is just a form of protecting too, right?

But if you fight to protect, you can't fight for revenge. You can't fight with the thought of hating this world.

Just closing that door with a few words made Tsuna's "rule" stronger than any chain or lock.

~.~.~

Tsuna spit out his tea when Mukuro walked in one day, followed by Nagi - her hair now in a horribly familiar pineapple shape.

So much for his five month record of handling things calmly and without any beverage failure.

"I've taken dear Nagi as my apprentice," Mukuro announced to the lobby at large. "Please call her Chrome from now on."

"So you finally asked him? Nice!" Takeshi congratulated the girl.

Nagi nodded, ducking her head as she fidgeted embarrassedly. "It's just... Mukuro-sama looked so cool when he did that..." she mumbled. "That" being making physically improbable lotus plants appear out of thin air and then disappear again.

Come to think of it, Tsuna had never gotten around to asking about it.

"You're nicer than you look, Pineapple-head!" Ryohei declared.

"That hair style looks really cute on you, Nagi-chan," Kyoko added, beaming. "Or, hm, Chrome-chan?"

"It's Mukuro-sama's requirement," Nagi explained. "Like a uniform. The name too..."

"Wait, does this mean she's joining too?" Hayato asked.

Hibari didn't comment, either too indifferent or too horrified. Shoichi had fallen asleep sitting upright, the result of another all-nighter.

Ken was too busy choking on a biscuit - Tsuna suddenly felt a bit better about his own mishap - while Chikusa pounded him on the back obligingly.

Mukuro smiled benevolently - or perhaps smugly.

~.~.~