Haruka couldn't quite take the anxiety of doubting Rebirth's strange acception to Sora's apology of not telling her about the planned duel against Akio. It's my fault, Haruka thought dimly, Rebirth-san must be blaming Sora right now because of me.. She silently walked to the direction of her usual training place with Hayato, trying to let off the worry and predict what they would do next for the lesson..

Rebirth was punishing him. At least, Kagisora thought he was being punished.

Today's lesson was called 'Focus'. Despite how little it sounded, Sora despised the whole mention of it, though he tried not to think about it after.

The whole lesson can't be explained in this writing.. unless Sora changes his mind to share it.

Well after that, Haruka also ended her training. "Bye Papa! I'll go meet Sora now!" she called as she walked out of the room. She heard a grunt of reply, but Haruka couldn't help but shake with excitement to meet Boss. And test her skills for the first time! Now who to test it on was arguable.

Maybe she could beat up Hiroshi for once, or verse Suzako or Edward. Or maybe wait and challenge Xia, the mini Varia boss runner-up. Was she stronger than she looked, or was Loss' little praise for Xia's strength just for loyalty? Haruka thought she said 'Xia-sama' before..

She stopped by Sora's and Rebirth's door silently, waiting for the dismissal of Boss' training. It was soon when Sora stumbled out, forgetting that all of the doors were opened and closed automatically, but not manually like his front door has.

Kyoko does have a hint of 'sweet, old home,' throughout her stuff, usually cooking everything manually as always.

Haruka helped Sora correct his balance quickly. "Thank's Haruka..." Sora sweated. But the Storm Guardian wasn't listening to him. She held out a mini cubed box in front of him. It looked rather normal, but a few decorative lines adorned it delicately. "I just got my box weapon!" she let Sora hold it for a few seconds but quickly took it away and clipped it back to her belt.

The belt was new- similar to a police's overcrowded ones, but full with empty seats for gadgets and weapons to fill in. The box weapon appeared to be it's first carrier.

Haruka showed a gleam of happiness that literally made Sora widden his eyes in surprise. "Wow.. right after you got your Vongola ring?" he exclaimed. He was almost envious of his Storm Guardian. He wondered if he was that behind.. or Rebirth merely hard to please? "Yes! ….. Oh.. Boss," Haruka looked at him sympathetically, but she brightened again into a smile. "It's not your fault that you didn't get one yet, Boss. Want to hear a secret about Rebirth?" Sora pricked his head up curiously. "A secret?"

So hitman like Rebirth do have secrets..

"From her presentation, you learned about Reborn, the tenth arcobaleno right?"

Sora blinked. "I guess.." What did Reborn have to do with Rebirth..? Their name means the same but, that's the only visible appearance availible to his mind so far.

"I heard that Rebirth is the actual child of him, but he never mentioned it to anyone. Weird huh?" Haruka remarked, glancing behind the door for any sign of the miniature arcobaleno. Seeing no one there, she continued, "The strangest thing is that there was no record of Reborn having or adopting a child.. and they don't look anything alike."

"That's strange.. But wouldn't that rumor be fake if there's no.. er, evidence?" Sora stared at Haruka with puzzlement. The Gokudera's eyes glinted. "Well there's something else.. When I was really young, my family had arranged a meeting with the Vongola's at our mansion. While I was getting my violin, I glimpsed Reborn with someone who looked like Rebirth I think.. ( Sorry Boss! My memory was foggy on this one. ) I heard Reborn say, 'Be careful aright..? Don't tell anyone about.. our relation.' and I heard that someone say back: 'Yes papa~'.. It's strange, but I remembered everything."

Sora's slits widened. Rebirth.. is Reborn's daughter? "T-That has to be wrong Haruka. It's just weird that.." his sentence immediately stopped stiffly when he glimpsed Rebirth right behind Haruka.

"R-REBIRTH!"

The tutor blinked at him in a quizzical manner. "What is it? Did you break a limb?" Sora opened his mouth to answer, but Haruka beat him to it. "Oh! Rebirth, it's terrible! We just saw Suzako's box weapon run off with a box of that soymilk you left on the table!" she pointed to a random direction.

Disdainfully, Rebirth glared straight at the direction. ".. Is that so..?" Her penguin partner, Levy, transmorfed into a mini Lambroghini and she sped off, disappearing at a corner.

Haruka was laid dismayed; she couldn't understand how manipulated the strongest of the arcobaleno's was to soymilk. "Oh.. that worked." she said quietly.

"T-Thanks Haruka.." Sora looked at her thankfully, but there was a small hint of embarrassment in his eyes. He smiled.

After a split second, Haruka forgot about something she needed to attend to..

"... Ah! I have to meet up with Papa in a few minutes, see you later Boss!"

Sora smiled the best he could, but it didn't seem so reassuring to himself. "Bye,"

As Haruka walked away, the Vongola boss couldn't help but quiver with fear when he heard a faint yell of Suzako's voice in the distance and a cry of a ravaging animal.

The next day, Haruka was strolling in the hallways boredly. She didn't have anything else to do, since Hayato had a temporary mission to run back at Italy; so there was nothing to do. Maybe she could invent her own Sistema C.A.I., but she would need her father's help to make it perfect. His genius father made his himself after all.

For no reason, the Gokudera went to the kitchen and made a small strawberry shake by the stainless blender that was sitting around quietly in the kitchen. Strawberries were nice, but not her favorite fruit. Every fruit tasted just the same amount of sweetness to her. But that must be why lemon's first appeared?

She grabbed a forsaken sports magazine near the fridge and leaned on the wall as she scanned through the pages with little interest. As she did, she heard someone sniffle. It sounded so near, but who could have walked so silently in the kitchen?

Haruka glanced at the door, but no one was in sight. She heard another sniffle. Looking at the direction of the sound, it was actually a small baby that stood there by herself. She wore an enormous light purple scarf that almost covered her nose, white mittens, a matching purple skirt, and strangely, a white coat that had two large bunny ears on the hood. The toddler was too well dressed for winter, and her short brown hair stood out the most.

The Storm Guardian curiously titled her body over to see the face of the girl, surprised to see who it really was.

The toddler looked at her with mourning watery emerald eyes, and sparkled when their eyes first met.

"Hawruka?" her muffled voice was caused by the enormous scarf.

"Congii?"

Like Edward, Congii was one of Haruka's cousin's as well, but the more.. innocent and clueless one.

Haruka remembered Congii when she was a baby with an enormous collection of bunnies. She loved bunnies, she cared for bunnies, she hated hunting season, but she has no live rabbit of her own to keep.

"Hey!"

Suddenly Hiroshi ran inside the kitchen, and grabbed Congii up. "I told you not to wander around, didn't I?" he said. He moved his hair around his ear dismissively.

Congii gave a reluctant look of a pouting girl, but remained still. "I wanted to fw-wind Papa." she answered, her words struggling on 'find'.

"Papa went on a mission.."

"Papa went on a wission?"

"Oi, Hiroshi." Haruka tapped his shoulder repeatedly to get his attention.

Hiroshi almost jumped by her voice. "Haruka? O-Oh I didn't see you there.."

Didn't see me there..? The brunette looked back. Short intention span I guess..

A silence followed by. As the toddler drank the rest of Haruka's strawberry shake, Haruka and Hiroshi sat on the floor quietly; the sounds of Congii slurping on the shake were only heard.

The two didn't look at each other for awhile, but a strange feeling intensely rose to where Haruka looked first. She turned her head a little to see Hiroshi.

He was reading the magazine she picked up earlier, focusing the most on the baseball article. It looked as if he was critically in deep thought, so Haruka only stared. The presence of being watched made Hiroshi blink once at Haruka, but suddenly he flinched in surprise and pushed the magazine away from him.

Haruka blinked back in surprise. "W-What?" she asked intrusively but worriedly at the same time.

"I-I'm not like him..!"

"Like who?"

"Takeshi.." His eyes looked almost mournful and Haruka felt sorry for him.. but couldn't understand what happened.

She bit back her sympathy with disdain. Not long ago, they had a immature fight of mocking and insults, but why were they talking so smoothly before?

"I hate sports.." Hiroshi mumbled gravely. He watched the magazine slid through the doors cracks like a mouse. "It ruined my life." Haruka looked at him, wide-eyed. "What happened?"

"I fell over a bridge when I tried catching the baseball."

"Oh.." Another silence continued.

Congii finished her shake after a long sip and burped loudly.

".. Hey Hiroshi, sorry I threatened you before. I didn't know you were this nice." Haruka softened a smile. "Can we be friends?"

Hiroshi blinked, surprised. "O-Oh, really? I guess so-" The Storm guardian stood up and pulled Hiroshi up as well by the hand. Her eyes sparkled with fierce energy. "Yosh! Then from now on we're rivals!"

"W-What? I thought we were- oh whatever!" Hiroshi puffed angrily. Haruka laughed. "We'll be rivals and friends. Better?" "But why rivals?"

"Because," she made a look of determination, "I'll have to beat you one day in being the best guardian, won't I?"

Hiroshi glared at her, but smirked. "Who said I wanted to be the best?"

"Then what about baseball?"

"You don't have a chance.."

"Oh?"

"Oh."