Sora gasped for air as he reached for the next stone. The air pressure was unbearable for him to even breath in, and his body felt seriously numb.

He just wished Rebirth gave him, at least, some clothes to shelter his bare skin.. but she didn't.

Sora looked ahead. Rebirth wasn't visible through the fog, but he could hear her waiting for him somewhere.

"R-Rebirth-san!" he gasped again for the words and coughed.

"Please, can I stop?"

"So.. if I cancel this life projection, you would fall down 600 feet.. Do you want to do that?" Rebirth asked.

Sora shivered for the 30th time. "... No."

"Then keep climbing."

He could almost see Rebirth's beady eyes staring at him, and it sort of frightened him- what could he do? He was about to break, but only the crazed tutor's command allowed him to go this far..

He didn't want to be boss anymore, it was too much!

As if Rebirth read his very thoughts, she said, "Are you going to give up and let the Vongola Family fall into the wrong hands?"

"It is in the wrong hands! Me!" Sora shouted. "I have no idea who my father is, he was or is the boss of this Family, and I have no idea who my guardians are! How should I know I'm the right one?"

"Then die."

Kagisora heard a zooming bullet above him and blacked out.

Taking a calm breath, she tried to wait patiently. It was only late morning, and Haruka felt the least patient to wait for her father, whom he rarely- or barely visits from Italy.

She forgave him for that, because heard from her un-caring mother, ( who felt uneasy explaining to her, ) that Gokudera was off searching for any sign or clue of the disappearing 10th boss- Tsunayoshi Sawada. No one knew or found him.

Haruka tensed when the sound of footsteps neared. As for why, her fists clenched silently. A man walked by, as if he was searching for someone. When their eyes met, he broke into a brightened smile.

"Haruka!"

Haruka knew who he was, his father! Of course anyone from the Familia could tell from his pale hair and fiery eyes that he was Gokudera Hayato- otherwise known as the 10th Storm Guardian of the Vongola Family!

"Papa!"

Gokudera gave Haruka a long hug until his daughter choked with complaint. "A-Ah.. I think we hugged long enough.." Haruka sweat.

They walked into a dark room a few yards away from the first aid kit room.

At first, she saw nothing because the room was so dark, but then his eyes adjusted to the faint white light that filtered through a large rectangular window.

The walls were probably sound-proof, which was good for loud battles, crates of objects

Haruka did not know were neatly stacked in the nearest corner.

She walked to the door leading to another room. "Where does this lead to?"

"Where we train."

A little curious, Haruka slung her book bag around her shoulder and eagerly entered the room.

The room was bigger than she thought, actually bigger than the whole neighbor hood block she seen at Sora's house.

When Haruka looked back at the door to see if Gokudera followed her, a pair of red eyes suddenly flashed from the dark space, and a large, fierce cat leapt onto the white floor.

It had a lean body with powerful shoulders and tough looking paws.

A lean white mane surrounded it's neck; it's ears tipped with red flames.

It bared its fangs at Haruka and crept closer to her. It inspected her with curious, shrewd eyes, then flicked its spotted flamed tail dismissively.

"Ah.. leopard?" Haruka's eyes widened.

What was one doing here? The cat let her peer into its red eyes closer, and poke its ears. It growled lowly, but calmed to a purr when she scratched it's ears.

Somehow the fire didn't burn her fingers as she did so. And she finally figured it out.

"You're a box weapon aren't you?" Haruka asked the cat delicately, not expecting an answer.

But once it was questioned, the Gokudera heard a voice in her mind:

'Of course, I am Gokudera's trustful companion.'

Haruka looked around in alarm. The cat ignored her and licked a paw.

"Anyone there?" No one answered. Puzzled, she reached into her book bag for her staff.

'That wouldn't be wise.'

"Where are you?" she snapped, positioning to attack the invisible speaker.

A shock of something biting her exploded through her hand, and she fell to the floor, shaking away the biter.

The pain slowly faded as the fangs slid out from her skin.

The cat licked her fur busily, as if it didn't do anything to cause the attack.

"You said that didn't you?" Haruka exclaimed, bewildered. The leopard flicked it's tail with annoyance.

'Who else?'

"You're just a cat! A.. box weapon!" She realized how powerful her words were, and looked for a way to fix it, but the cat yowled, and pounced.

"Uri!"

Before it did, Gokudera's voice saved Haruka. Uri growled objectively, but stalked away to its master's side.

"Haruka! Are you ok?" Gokudera ran to Haruka, scanning her body for any injuries.

When he saw her bleeding hand, he quickly glared at Uri, who glared back.

'..Well, she insulted me!'

Sora didn't know what he was doing, but he could see his blurry hands.. and ground. Was he still at Mount Fuji? He didn't know..

"Wake up Sora! You've lost the race!" Rebirth's familiar voice flew into his head like a gong.

He remembered now! As they were climbing the virtual Mount Fuji, he constantly complained about his trouble keeping up, and was shot by Rebirth.

As the blurring cleared, Kagisora looked up and saw Rebirth right above his nose, looking down at him.

"Now, you'll have to climb down without the Dying Will Bullet."

"W-what..? .. Ack!" Sora's head suddenly exploded with pain and throughout his body. He fell to the ground, squeezing his hands as hard as possible to stop the pain, but the aching in his ribs prevented him to move at all.

"Re-birth! What did you do to me?"

"I killed you and you were Reborn again with your Dying Will."

".. Back to life..?"

"Precisely. Now look here."

Rebirth slid open the bottom part of her mini semi-automatic pistol, and took out a shiny ruby bullet. And fiery orange flame was pasted onto it.

"This, is a Dying Will Bullet. Once hit by it, you get extreme power beyond your limits. It's like fighting with a mind that isn't yours, but much crazed." The infant tossed the bullet in the air and caught it with her front palm.

"Use them the wrong way, you die.."

"B-but getting back to life.. It's impossible!"

"Then get shot again for proof."

Rebirth slid the bottom and the bullet back in it's right place and pointed the pistol at Sora's head.

"W-wait! I believe you.. but how does this work?"

"I told you didn't I? Once the bullet hits you you get insane power. Remember that, and don't use it without me."

"Y-yes.." His only worry was how he could survive with all these scratches and splinters.

"Time to climb back, make sure you focus on your coordination now!"

Rebirth kicked Sora at the edge when he stood up, and jumped down after him.

"UWAAAA- Ooof!" An edge of a rock saved his life from falling, and Sora took a hard grasp on it as he did, still shocked by the sudden fall.

His ears pulsed with hot blood as the wind ringed into his ears like a bell, and his skin felt ice cold.

He felt even worse when Rebirth plummeted down after him, and took refuge in his redish hair.

Sora yelped with pain.

"What's wrong? Can't hold a baby?" Rebirth mocked.

"I.. can do it!" Sora snapped back angrily. He took another step down.

"I bet your mom can do better than this!"

How dare she speak of his mom into this?

Boiling with anger, he climbed down faster, feeling his sweat fall down as he did.

"Mad? I doubt anyone would be offended by that puppy face."

Sora's eyes flared like fire as his body reacted to his anger.

This time, tears started to stream down his face.

Finally, Sora jumped down to the cool grassy floor and wobbled wearily to the ground. It felt like ages since he felt the floor.

He thought of little else during that time.

The only question that throbbed in his head was: Why did I do that?

He suddenly felt a wave of guilt when he remembered himself tearing up when Rebirth mocked him.

This was a test of mind and brain!

Oh why was he so absent-minded about his own feelings?

Kagisora looked around for Rebirth, and saw her watching him.

"Learned your lesson?" she cat-grinned.

".. Yeah. Thanks Rebirth-san.."

Rebirth's cat grinned widened.

"Lesson 1, accomplished."