"You stupid fucker! What did you do to my gun? How am I supposed to shoot people with a party favor?" Mio fumed angrily. She was attempting to chase the mechanic around Tsuna's room, but kept tripping up on various things scattered on the floor.

"Can't you guys be quiet?" Tsuna exclaimed, entering his room.

"Tenth! Listen to me! This guy wrecked all our weapons!" Gokudera growled.

"Didn't I say before?" Giannini asked weakly, "That my abilities were no match for my father's? Besides modification doesn't necessarily mean improvement. Making it worse is also a modification!"

"How about I modify your face?" Mio asked, cracking her knuckles.

Lambo entered the room, asking about the ten year bazooka. Immediately becoming even more annoyed, Gokudera started arguing with the kid and inevitably hit him on the head. The boy pulled out the bazooka and shot it, while wailing up a storm. As the purple smoke cleared up, they saw that Lambo hadn't changed and he was still crying furiously. "He's just a liar" a small squeaky voice said.

"Ehhh?" Tsuna shrieked, "Gokudera-kun?"

"I'll never ask for help from you again" Gokudera growled angrily, not noticing that he had been turned into a kid.

Mio was confused. No one else had entered the room, but who was this new voice? "Oh…Reborn-san."

"Yes?"

"I feel closer to you now."

"Same."

Tsuna was busy panicking as usual so Mio could only puzzle through the situation herself. If Gokudera felt closer to Reborn and it was his voice that was all squeaky now…did that mean that he had turned into a kid? The girl grinned. Gokudera as an adorable little baby; now that was something she wished she could see.

"Whoa!" a surprised shout came from the newly born child, "Tenth, you're gigantic after all! Is this what they mean by an aura? You seem to be taller than before!"

Tsuna was in shock and could only stare, so when Gokudera announced that he was leaving for the day, it took the brown haired boy a moment to realize what the bomber had said. A second later, he was rushing down the stairs, chasing after him. Mio followed him closely.

Kyoko was talking with Gokudera, "So cute! Were you playing with Lambo-kun?"

"What did you say? Don't look down on me, woman! I'll blow you and your brother up!"

Tsuna grabbed him, shouting, "Hey wait!"

Gokudera froze, his eyes widening, "Wow Tenth! You're so strong!" Suddenly he noticed something and pointed, "Oh Tenth! There are some weird guys on the telephone poles outside!"

Unable to see or sense anything outside of the building, Mio waited for confirmation from Tsuna, but the boy was completely baffled. "Huh? What are you talking about? I don't see anything?"

Laughing, Kyoko said, "Those are sparrows!"

"Are you making fun of me?" Gokudera yelled, "I'll punch you!"

"Hey, what are you saying? Don't be like this!" Tsuna said, picking the small Gokudera up again.

Gokudera struggled out of Tsuna's grasp, whipped out his dynamite and started marching towards the door. "Hey! Goku- I mean, kid! Don't take out dangerous stuff like that!" Tsuna said.

"I'm going to go blow up the guys on the pole!"

"I said there's nothing there!"

They had just reached the door, still bickering, when Yamamoto showed up. "If you have so much free time, go get rid of the enemies outside, you baseball idiot!" Gokudera growled.

"Gokudera! You're here too!" Yamamoto grinned.

Confused, Kyoko asked, "Huh? Gokudera-kun?"

"N-no! He's Gokudera's cousin! Don't you think he seems really short?" Tsuna made up quickly.

Yamamoto picked the boy up and laughed, "Haha that's true when you look closely, but he kinda feels like Gokudera."

The shrunk bomber struggled furiously, "Hey! Yamamoto! Bastard! Let go of me! I'll kill you!" He flailed his arms wildly, "Damn it! Why can't I hit him?"

"Ararara where did this kid come from?" Lambo asked, popping out of nowhere. Ignoring Tsuna's comments, he walked over to where Yamamoto had put Gokudera down. "Does he want to become Lambo's follower? But his hairstyle is so lame! Eh, you're ignoring me? You better watch out if you make me angry." Blowing on his fist, he raised it and said, "I'm gonna teach you a lesson. Watch me beat the hell out of you!"

As his fist came towards Gokudera, the boy kicked the cow baby viciously, growling, "I don't have time for you."

Suddenly the boy gasped and pulled out his dynamite, "When did they get in here?"

Yamamoto picked the boy up and started prying the dynamite from his grasp, "Hey, kid. You shouldn't copy Gokudera."

"What are you doing?" Gokudera yelled, "You baseball freak! Can't you see them at all?"

"Don't point those short legs at me" Yamamoto laughed.

"What did you just say?" He looked down and noticed his tiny legs. "Eh? What?" Clutching his face, he shrieked, "I've become small!"

Continuing to decline into depression, he mumbled, "W-what is this…? A body that's so soft and weak…" He went limp from the horror and shock of it all. As his head lolled to the side, he seemed to spot something, "Oh no! Tenth!"

Mio however, had other things on her mind. She could hear the faint rustling of two somethings on the ceiling but she wasn't sure what they were. At Gokudera's worried shout however, she decided to put caution to the wind and pulled out her gun and fired at the same time that Gokudera was throwing his dynamite. They had forgotten about the changes Giannini had made to their weapons however, because both the bullet fired and the dynamite thrown bust into party favors.

Cursing, Mio felt around her for something to use as a weapon. Behind her, Gokudera was goading Yamamoto into teaching him baseball. There was a solid thwack and gasps of surprise and horror. At that moment, her hands came into contact with something hard. She grabbed the book, ran towards to the other intruder in the house, and slugged him with the book. The two intruders collapsed on the floor together as Tsuna shrieked and Gokudera grinned in victory. "Who are those people?"

"Ah! We've been found out!"

"Damn it! The impact broke the optical camouflage suit!"

"Good job Gokudera and Mio" Reborn's voice said, walking into the room, "I gotta give you more credit." He turned to the two assassins and said, "You were the people hiding on the electric pole."

"Ah! How did you know?"

"Children can see you. I-Pin saw you while she was out running an errand." The Chinese girl scooted out from behind the Vongola assassin.

"No way!"

"The optical camouflage should be perfect!"

"I think it was designed so that children could see through it" Giannini said, finally having come down the stairs.

"That was designed by your boss. Your boss is the Arcobaleno with the Green pacifier, Verde, right? I remember him researching on camouflage." Reborn smirked, "Verde believes that if he couldn't see through the optical camouflage, his subordinates would eventually try to rebel and betray him. That's why he made it so people under a certain age could see through it so that he could see it."

"Since we've already been discovered-"

"We'll just kill him directly!"

Tsuna screamed, panicking. "Help, Reborn!"

"I can't do anything about it right now because all my weapons are useless. Look, this dying will bullet is even dancing."

Little Gokudera cursed and attempted to attack the assassins, but one of them kicked him away. Mio flung the book in her hand at one of the assassins but he batted it away as well. She lunged forward to attack but was held back by Yamamoto, who, worried for her safety, had grabbed her by reflex. Luckily it didn't seem as if her help was necessary, because a moment later, Tsuna was yelling angrily and there was the sound of flesh meeting flesh.

"Tch you actually did something useful for once" Gokudera scowled.

Mio grinned, "Well since you were in such a chubby form, I had to step forward and take charge."

"Ahaha Gokudera's cousin was a lot like him, wasn't he?" Yamamoto laughed from where he was sitting on the other side of Mio.

"What did you say?" the silver haired boy growled.

"It's a good thing you were turned into a kid" she mused quietly, "I can't be sure that I would've heard those two assassins otherwise. I wasn't being very wary."

"Hmph" he replied proudly, "As the Tenth's right hand man, I'm always on the alert for possible enemies. As for you, baseball freak, could you get any more useless?"

Yamamoto chuckled, "Well all's well that ends well, right? You take this mafia game pretty seriously Gokudera."

Before the boy could explode, Mio interrupted them, "Let's all get along. The right hand man shouldn't argue with all the other subordinates, right?"

"As the Tenth's right hand man, I have to keep the others in check! And as useless as I think this baseball idiot is, the Tenth decided to accept him into the family so I have no choice but to do so as well! So! I'll do my best to get along with you even though I hate you." Gokudera rambled.

"Isn't that what I just said?" the girl muttered.

Scoffing, Gokudera leaned back against the grass and stared at the sky. The silence set in and Mio slowly drifted off to sleep.

Yamamoto watched curiously as Gokudera scooted closer to the girl surreptitiously until she was a mere centimeter away. As he reached out a hand, the baseball player asked, "What are you doing Gokudera?"

He hissed, "Shut up! It's none of your business!"

But Mio had already woken up. "Mm, Gokudera-kun, when did you get so close?" she mumbled, tiredly.

"What?" Gokudera spluttered, "None of your business woman!" He got up and brushed himself off. "As the Tenth's right hand man, I don't have the time to be lazing around!" He rushed off, leaving a confused Mio.

"What's his problem?" she muttered.

Mio sat as far away from the pool as possible. Everyone was gathered to cheer Tsuna on as he reached his goal of 15 meters while she was huddled in a corner, terrified to even go near the water. Suddenly she heard, "Oh that's right, Kiyo-chan, the girls have to swim 15 meters too. Do you need help?"

She flinched as the sound of footsteps approached her. She clung to her chair and whispered weakly, "I can't swim…"

"Nonsense! If you don't try, how will you know? Come on, Tsuna learned, you can too!"

The others all added their cheerful input and she was coaxed to the edge of the water. She dipped a foot into the icy liquid and shuddered, pulling back immediately. Yamamoto encouraged her gently and before she knew it, she was standing in the pool, the water up to her waist. The sensation was terrifying. Half of her senses had been blocked out and it was all she could do to not start screaming.

Behind her, a ripple of water warned her that someone was coming. A familiar scent reached her and then gentle hands were reaching for her arms and showing her how to move them. "Breathe in deeply and try holding your breath underwater, okay, Kiyo-chan?" Yamamoto instructed, seriously.

She nodded hesitantly and took a deep breathe. She slowly put her head under the water. As soon as the water completely surrounded her, she felt something akin to panic rising in her, but the hand on her arms reassured her and she continued holding her breath. As soon as the hands left her however, her head shot up out of the water and she gasped for air, looking miserable.

She continued practicing until she could hold her breath underwater without panicking. Swimming was another matter however. She would have to let go of all her senses in order to do so and she absolutely couldn't. No matter how much they encouraged, threatened, pleaded with her, she simply could not do it. She had already let go of her sight and accepted the fact that she was and would be blind; to let go of all her other senses was too scary to think about. And she hadn't forgotten about the incident on the mountain yet either.

The others had given up trying to teach her, but Yamamoto was still persistent. As she attempted to swim a little and failed once again, panicking once she lost all her senses, Gokudera exploded, "What the fuck is your problem? So what if you can't feel anything? It's just 15 meters that you have to get over!"

She couldn't say anything back, knowing that he was only frustrated, so she gritted her teeth and continued trying. She plunged back under the water, trying to get used to the bleary dimmed sounds and feel of the water pressing against her. She moved her arms the way Yamamoto had shown her and kicked her legs and moved forward a little. But without a clear picture of where she was, she couldn't help but wonder if she had died and not even known it. Everything was dark, the sounds around her were muted, and all she could feel was wet.

She came back up to the surface and in that moment; Gokudera caught a glimpse of the eyes behind her bangs again. He froze. And then he slid into the water, shoving Yamamoto aside and calmly started to teach her again.

In the end it turned out that the girl had been excused from the swimming class, but she was able to surprise everyone when she successfully swam 15 meters just like the rest of the girls. Granted, she was using the wrong type of swimming form, but it was still impressive for a girl who a day ago, had been terrified of the water.

Gokudera leaned back and breathed out a mouthful of smoke. As he did, he remembered Mio's eyes. They were an unremarkable brown, similar to the Tenth's eyes. But the amount of emotion they held was astonishing. Her eyes held all the emotions she was feeling, laid out clearly for anyone who was looking to see. They were clear and honest, and made him feel almost sympathetic for the girl.

He inhaled from his cigarette again and held it in his lungs for a moment before breathing out. He wouldn't feel sympathy for a girl who didn't want any. All he could do was support her by treating her as an equal.

Mio wandered around, sorting through the different sounds and scents surrounding her. She had been visited by an enthusiastic Kyoko and Haru who had forced her into a yukata and then dragged her out of her apartment. They had gotten to the summer festival but then she had been separated from the other two at some point.

"Hey! Buy some, damn it!" a familiar voice near her said angrily. She carefully made her way over and sniffed the air curiously. Chocolate bananas! And that familiar smokey scent that could only be Gokudera.

"Gokudera-kun? What are you doing?" she asked curiously.

"Buy a chocolate banana you stupid bi-" he froze, "Oi…woman?"

She searched her purse for 400 yen and handed it to the stricken boy, taking a banana in exchange. Biting down, savored the delicious taste and then walked over to where Yamamoto was and asked, "Takeshi-kun, what are you guys doing running your own stand? Idiot over there forgot how to speak."

The baseball player grinned, "Kiyo-chan! You look cute in that yukata! As for this stand, we had to pay back some debts from before."

"Ah really? Aw too bad, I wanted to hang out with everyone today." She frowned.

Yamamoto grabbed her hand and led her around the stand, "How about you help us with the stand then?"

"Can I?"

"Of course! We'll take the orders and handle the money and you can dip the bananas in chocolate when the orders come in."

"May I have one?" a familiar voice asked.

"Coming!" she replied cheerfully.

As Gokudera handed the banana to the person, she heard a surprised "Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto!"

"T-tenth!"

"Yo Tsuna."

"Tenth, I'm here too!" Mio waved. She turned away to focus on her task at hand and was rather focused until she felt rather than heard the enormous presence of a certain person she knew all too well.

She whirled around to hear her the boys already confronting the prefect.

"50,000 yen."

"Don't tell me…"

"The placement fee goes to the Disciplinary Committee?"

"It's for our activity funds. If you can't pay it, I'll crush your stand." Mio bristled at the arrogant tone the boy used. But she could already hear the sounds of a stand near theirs being crushed.

She put down the banana she was holding and made as if to leave the stand. Yamamoto grabbed her hand, "Kiyo-chan, what are you doing?"

"Takeshi-kun, I have to go after him." Her tone of voice pleaded with him. "You understand, right?" His hand went slack and then disappeared and he sighed, "Just…don't hurt yourself."

She nodded grimly and then left to follow the Disciplinary Committee head. She made sure to match the pace of the crowd around her so as to not attract any suspicion. She could clearly make out where Hibari was, his killing intent only increased in crowds. She followed him till the edge of the festival and then although she knew she would be found out, decided to continue following him.

Sure enough, they had only taken a few steps when the boy turned to face her, growling, "What do you want herbivore?"

She responded coolly, "I want a fair one-on-one fight with you."

She blinked in surprise. The killing intent that the boy had emanated had suddenly disappeared almost altogether. "I have no desire to fight a weak herbivore such as yourself." He said before turning to walk away.

The comment only served to infuriate her further, "Well this herbivore is challenging you. Are you going to forfeit by walking away?"

The killing intent came back even more intensely and she bravely stood her ground. "I'll bite you to death."

She heard the tonfas come out and whipped out her gun, firing an experimental blank to get a general idea of his speed. Before she could even think about her next move, he was already next to her, tonfas raised. She threw herself backwards, away from his attacks, and then aimed at where he had been, firing a quick shot. The bullet met thin air as Hibari lithely avoided it and charged at her. She continued backing up, fiddling with another gun in her pocket while continuing to shoot at Hibari.

Unfortunately, she had come too close to the path's edge and tripped over a tree root behind her, dropping her gun in the process. Cursing, she scrambled out of Hibari's reach and finally brought out what she had been messing with in her jacket pocket. It had originally been another gun, but she had had it remodeled so that it could be taken into pieces and then reassembled to resemble a cane. A white cane. As Hibari lunged at her, she managed to hold up the cane in the nick of time and defend herself from his attack.

The boy was faster however, and his other tonfa came crashing into her side, knocking all the breath out of her. She gasped in pain, but knocked his tonfa away, holding the cane in front of her protectively. She clearly had the disadvantage in close combat however, because a mere second later, he had knocked the cane out of her hands and had a tonfa pressed against her throat. She remained perfectly silent and he dug the weapon in deeper in irritation. Her gasp of pain seemed to satisfy him and he pulled away. As he walked away, he said over his shoulder, "Herbivore, do not bother challenging me while you are this weak."

Mio coughed, rolling over and felt around for her weapons. The gun went back in her pocket, but she held the cane in her lap for a moment. The wave of nostalgia that washed over her made her smile bitterly.

She had her eyes shut tightly and was slowly taking little steps forward, the cane in her hand hesitantly tapping the ground in front of her. She could hear the encouraging words of the doctor next to her and continued to move around the room slowly. As she made her way to a wall and carefully felt the texture with her fingers, she asked, "Doctor, will I ever be able to see again?"

The silence in the room was stifling as the man carefully thought of a response, "The technology that we currently have is unable to cure your eyes, however in the future as new technologies are invented, there may be a solution."

The girl bowed her head after a moment and then slowly made her way out of the office. As she tapped her way down the long hallway to her hospital room, she felt tears pooling in her now useless eyes. She attempted to speed up so that no one would see her crying, but only ended up tripping over herself. The cane went clattering out of her hands and she frantically searched for it on her knees. Behind her she could hear footsteps and then someone was next to her, helping her onto her feet. The cane was placed into her hands and the doctor said reassuringly, "Take it slow Kiyomizu-san. You will get over this. You're a strong young girl."

She turned away so he wouldn't see the tears that threatened to spill over and continued walking back to her room. As soon as she was back in the familiar silent room, the tears came pouring out. She curled up against the door and sobbed her heart out. All sorts of questions and thoughts filled her mind.

"Why haven't my parents come to see me yet? How will I survive in the future? What am I supposed to do now?" And the question that made her cry hardest "Why did this have to happen to me?"

She continued crying until there were no more tears left in her and then wiping her face determinedly, she stood up and started practicing with the cane. The bed was over there, five steps away from the door. The dresser to its right. The couch three steps to the left of the bed, right next to the window.

She would survive this and then one day she would get her sight back. And life would go on. And until then, she wouldn't cry because of self loathing again. No matter the hardships she was put through, she would stay strong and push on by herself.

And she had kept that promise to herself up until the accident with the bridge and her confession to Gokudera. The boy made her feel safer and warmer and her walls of defense seemed to just crumple when she was around him. She sighed and got to her feet, disassembling the cane and tucking it into her jacket pocket.

Her defeat led her to only one conclusion. She needed more training, much more. So she would train. And then she would come back and demand a rematch from the boy and beat him. Whether it took days, weeks, months, or years; she would definitely beat him someday.

She slowly made her way back to the stand they were running, but was stopped when she heard a familiar voice yelling angrily. "Tenth?" she thought. Turning, she ran towards the voice, only to hear explosions. Quickening her pace, she emerged in a clearing where the sounds of an outnumbered fight were taking place. She loaded one of her guns and took careful aim, taking care to avoid her friends and Hibari, who oddly enough was fighting as well.

Together, the five of them made quick work of the attackers and then after a brief tussle with Hibari and the arrival of Haru and Kyoko, they settled down to watch the fireworks. And although Mio couldn't see anything, she thought that the sounds of explosions in the sky were the most beautiful she had ever heard.

Author's Note:

Omigosh I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I was on a writing streak for my other story Collared and I completely neglected this one. (Plus I had midterms and I was watching Rebocon videos cause I'm obsessed). Anyways, luckily, my muse has come back and I've got tons of ideas. :D

Tada! Like I told everyone that reviewed, the whole eye thing wasn't as big of a deal as people thought it was haha. But it is important later! Sorta. So this is the last chapter for the daily life arc. Starting next chapter, it gets serious! Look forward to it! Kufufu~

Thanks to everyone who reviewed who wasn't logged in or was anonymous. I wish I could reply to your reviews but since I can't, I'm thanking you here. Thank you so much for giving me encouragement to keep writing!

As always, please read and review~