Unwanted Surprise

A month has passed since the battle against Mukuro. Since then, I've learned a few new things about myself: I'm a fast healer. Three breaks to the same arm, two out of three of them were not clean breaks and I still managed to heal within a month and 3 days. I thought it was going to be something celebrated with a baseball game with Takeshi, but that was going to wait for a couple weeks. Some people were going to really pay for it. The second thing is I can learn to be perfectly ambidextrous in one week courtesy of learning to serve tables with my non-dominant hand. Third thing I've learned is Takeshi and I are best friends. He's as reliable and trustworthy as Leviathan is likely to irritate the hell out of me, but Takeshi isn't annoying though his obtuseness is exasperating. It's also just easy to be around him. Also, Tsuna is like family and strangely enough it feels right. Nana, his Tsuna's mom, has adopted me as her daughter. In a way it's kind of nice but also kind of creepy. She makes Takeshi look like a katana in the obtuse world. Finally, I'm moving into Tsuna's house. The Ukitake's daughter is really annoying.

"I can't wait to get out of this damn thing," I groaned,

"Serves you right for falling off the monkey bars," Akane, the only daughter of the family that is letting me stay with them until my tenure in Japan is over.

"Knock it off Akane," her mother scolded her, "Just four more days Karen, then you can get it off…and watch your language," she tacked on as she handed me my bento for the day. If she thinks 'damn' is impolite language, she should hear what goes on in the Varia. On bad days I've used the f-bomb after every other word. Yup, definitively moving out.

Daybreak's Bell by L'Arc~en~Ciel blared, indicating someone was calling my cell phone.

"Yo, Karen Squalo speaking,"

"Hey Karen. How d'you feel about skipping school today and going to the mall?" Takeshi asked

"What's up?" I asked,

"Tsuna's in the dump, and we decided to cheer him up,"

"You mean you and Gokudera," I smiled

"Who else?"

"I don't know, I promised the junior kendo students I'd give them tips at lunch"

"Oh, okay. I'll think of you teaching those guys how to swing a bamboo sword while we're having fun". I could clearly see the smile on his face. That Takeshi, I shook my head; he doesn't know the meaning of the word 'solemn'. The prospect of skipping school was really tempting but when I make a promise, I keep them. It's really bad for my reputation if I start breaking them. Some mafia assassin habits are impossible to break when they've been drilled into a person for survival.

"Grip your hands like this," even with a broken hand I can still teach kids how swing a sword without chopping their own body parts off. A lot of things started happening fast, and suddenly I felt like I just got hit by the explosives in my brother's sword. Oh shit, they're here already? That was fast, even for Xanxus.

"Hey, Squalo-senpai? What's wrong?" one of the juniors shook my good arm,

"Eh? Oh nothing, just feeling a little sick," I rubbed the back of my head. Good Lord, Takeshi is rubbing off on me, "sorry, I gotta get some medicine," I shot out the room.

Where did Takeshi say they were going to be? Oh yeah, the mall. When I got to the mall, destruction reigned supreme. From the gouges in the floor and shattered walls and glass windows, crater dented floors to the general havoc oriented organization of things yelled Noisy-Varia-Assassin-Passing-By.

The next day, I was just wandering around with no destination in mind aside from figuring out what it was I needed to do. A car turned the corner, and started moving towards me. That's Dino's car and I mean one of his nice ones! The kind Xanxus would go out in if it was up to his impossibly high standards.

"Oh Karen, hey," Dino got out. We were by an abandoned hospital.

"Dino? What's going on?"

"Did you know your brother's in town?" he frowned

"What? When did he…he didn't," realization dawned on me slumping my shoulders. Superbi had come to Japan and the reason can only be to eliminate Tsuna and anyone related to him that can succeed the Ninth along with his Guardians.

"So you didn't know Squalo was here?" Dino sounded confused

"I knew he would come eventually, but I ….didn't…think it would….so soon," Crap, crap, crap, crap, CRAP! What am I going to do? Where are they so I can talk them out of this? I didn't show my inner turmoil, only Superbi and maybe Takeshi, would be able to see it.

"How is everyone?"

"Huh?" Dino glance at me,

"HOW IS EVERYONE? Was anyone hurt or killed?" I demanded,

"No, well no one was killed, but Yamamoto and Gokudera took a couple nasty knocks, but nothing life threatening. In fact, they were just in this morning. Tsuna knows how to motivate them for training,"

"They're pissed aren't they? That my brother kick their butts," despair colored my voice

"What's wrong? Oh stupid me, of course things are wrong. You're brother is targeting your friends,"

"I'm not worried about them. They can look after themselves," they proved that at Kokuyo Land, I thought as I looked out the window,

"Than what is it?" Dino put a hand on my shoulder. How can I tell him I'm afraid? Might as well tell someone since I can't talk to my brother about it for a variety of reason with the most dominant one being I had no idea where the hell he was, nor can I talk to Takeshi since he's training.

"I'm worried Tsuna and them will…that they will…well, quite being friends with me. After all, I am their enemy,"

"If they are your friends, they'll stick with you," Dino gave me an awkward, one armed hug. It's weird to say this, but I do like Dino, not in the crush way!

"Those rings Superbi got, they were fakes weren't they?"

"Yeah," Dino looked sheepish, "the Young Lion gave the real ones to me,"

"Poor guy," I thought about Basil who was resting a couple stories above me; he couldn't have gotten away from my brother without getting seriously injured, "he was used" I stated. I could understand it but it's still kind of sick; at least he knows Iemitsu cares about him unlike a certain someone else. Xanxus knows better than to manipulate me but the same can't be said about me. I have death wishes some days since Xanxus always figures it out and comes close to throwing me out the ten story high window.

"Karen," Reborn popped up, "what are you going to do?"

"I…I don't know," was all I said when I left.