Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!
I'd like to take the time to thank you for all the follows/reviews/favourites! I do try to respond to each and every review I receive. I hope I can continue to interest you with my future chapters and have your support!
Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.
Warning: May contain coarse language.
Three pairs of eyes with the same spark of curiosity watched a lone, dark-haired girl standing at a desk a few feet away from where they sat crowded around a similar desk. Their gazes followed her movements as she deftly extracted a black sweatshirt from her backpack, and pulled it on. Their eyebrows all shot up simultaneously when she pulled her arms in and after a few seconds of wriggling beneath the hoodie, impressively pulled out the white button-down she previously had on from underneath her sweatshirt. As she stuffed the shirt into her backpack, she adjusted the goggles she wore around her eyes before walking out of the classroom.
"How does she do that?"
"Witchcraft, I tell you, witchcraft!"
"Really, guys? That's what bothers you about her?"
Gokudera and Yamamoto both arched their eyebrows as they turned their attention towards Tsuna.
"I guess I could probably do that, but certainly not as quick as she does it," Yamamoto shrugged with a smile.
Gokudera snorted, rolling his eyes. "Psh. As if!"
"Don't you ever wonder just what exactly is it that she does in the Varia?" the mafia don asked, looking up at his friends, "I mean, I know she claims to be their mascot, but she's really normal compared to the rest of them, don't you think?"
As the swordsman and arsonist considered their boss's question, they had to agree with the fact that in the four short months that Riko had been in Japan with the rest of the assassination squad, they had not once seen her do anything other than that one quick costume change at the end of every school day that she didn't skip.
Otherwise, she was completely normal — they probably would've forgotten about her if not for the fact that she wore shirts whose sleeves were far too long and goggles that teachers had already given up on trying to confiscate. That had been a particularly memorable period — every teacher that had attempted to scare Riko into giving up her goggles with the threat of detention had failed, because Riko had not bothered to show up for the punitive sessions, and had the ability to disappear like the Cheshire Cat.
It also didn't help that she didn't care about being suspended for her recidivist behaviour — in fact, she had asked for a longer suspension, which had led to the teacher retracting it and ultimately giving up. What really took the cake, though, was the scarlet armband of the Disciplinary Committee that had mysteriously appeared around her arm one day — how it had come to happen, Tsuna decided he was better off not knowing.
Yang Riko was a proper conundrum.
"Well, I wouldn't think too much about it, tenth," Gokudera shrugged as he pulled his bag over his shoulder, "I don't think she's dangerous at all. Shall we go home?"
xxxxxx
Squalo shielded his eyes as he crouched behind an air vent on the roof of a tall building. Dusk was slowly settling in, but the dying glow of the sun was glaring unforgivingly in his eyes. He craned his neck towards the row of buildings spread out next to the one he was on, spotting a familiar blonde hiding behind tall concrete blocks.
He lifted a hand to his ear. "Do you see her?"
Bel's voice crackled through the earpiece in Squalo's ear. "She just reached the entry poi— she's in. Riko's in, cap."
"NO NO NO NO NO!" a distressed voice tore through the frequency, making Bel and Squalo cringe from their respective stations.
"Voi!" Squalo whispered as loudly as he could without raising his voice, "Shut the fuck up Lussuria! You're going to blow our fucking cover! Half the town can hear you from the comms!"
"I'm sorry, but you promised to use Riko's codename!"
"We are not going to use fucking code names, Lussuria! This is not a fucking game!"
"Exactly! If our frequency gets hacked, they're going to trace us down if they know our real names!"
"Peacock's got a point, cap," Bel snickered, "Or should I say—"
"Don't you fucking dare finish that sentence or I swear to god I will go over there right now and fucking decapitate you."
"What the fuck is Lussuria doing on the comms?" A whispered voice spoke, "I thought it was just the three of us?"
"I was listening to see if you were going to use the code names or not, and I was right! You weren't going to use them! You broke your promise!"
"What? Damn it, forget about that, I've found the room where the Hanabusa clan's head is, and I'd rather not stay too long in here, these air vents are disgusting as fuck. Orders, captain?"
"Ri—"
"Harlequin!"
"Oh for fuck's sake! Fine!" Squalo rubbed his hand over his face in frustration, "H-Harlequin, how many men are there inside?"
"Should've picked Blank Space, Lussuria. 'Cause you know, 'I've got a blank space, baby, and I'll write your name'? Very ominous."
"Voi!"
"Sorry!" There was a brief pause, before Riko spoke again, "Besides Saotome, there are about six men, and four teenage boys, possibly high school delinquents looking to join the yakuza, and— oh buonasera bella! Looks like Saotome has groupies, too, and damn, those are some big boobs!"
Squalo quickly ran through the algorithms in his head. "Okay, R—"
"Harlequin!"
"Harle-fucking-quin, you drop the tear gas. That'll make them clear the building. Bel—"
"Ripper!"
"Gah!" Squalo stomped his foot in frustration, tugging at his hair, "Ripper, you be ready to intercept Saotome if he tries to run. Take down anyone in your way, and if you engage in close combat, Harlequin will be ready to assist you from long range."
"And you, cap?"
"I'm just going to stay here and watch."
"Oh, hold up! Someone's just arrived."
"What? Doesn't Ripper have eyes on the entrance?" Squalo glared in Bel's direction.
The prince shook his head. "I've been watching the entire time and I haven't seen anyone go in."
"Must be the back entrance, then," Squalo frowned, "Harlequin, who is it? Do you recognise him?"
"You're fucking joking," All trace of humour in Riko's voice had disappeared, and was now replaced with disbelief, "Why is it that every single fucking time I go somewhere, that asshole has to be there as well!?"
"Who is it!?" Squalo asked impatiently.
"Hibari fucking Kyoya, that's who!"
"What? What business does he have with the yakuza?!"
"I don't fucking know!" Riko hissed angrily, "But it looks like it's not a friendly visit. They've gone on the defensive and taken up their weapons!"
Squalo frowned and paused as the algorithms flashed in his mind's eye again. "Is Hibari targeting Saotome?"
"No, it looks like he's talking to the delinquents… oh, fuck. I know why he's here."
"Well, tell us then! We don't have all fucking day!"
"They're from that stupid school that attacked Revolta a month ago! Kyoya doesn't have beef with Saotome — he's here to bite those boys to death!"
Squalo rubbed his chin, formulating a new course of action with the information Riko had just given him. Certainly, this had been an unprecedented turn of events, but taking into account of the fact that Hibari would be more than enough to take out all the enemies, maybe having him in the picture wasn't too bad, after all. After all, their mission objective had been to kidnap the head of the Hanabusa family, and it was impossible for them to simply storm in and hack and slash whoever got in their way. After all, Timoteo had warned them to restrain themselves.
"Namimori isn't like Italy. Don't draw too much attention to yourselves!"
Way to state the obvious, Nono.
"Kyoya could possibly kill Saotome, you know," Riko's voice pulled Squalo out of his thoughts.
"Okay, I want you to get in there once the fighting starts, and isolate Saotome. Bring him to the entrance, and Be—"
"Ripper!" Lussuria's voice warned.
"Jesus fucking Christ! You're still eavesdropping, Lussuria!? Get a fucking life! Vaffanculo!"
"Well, mi scusi for wanting to preserve the integrity of our identities!"
"Ugh, fine. Ripper and I will be waiting out front with the car."
xxxxx
Riko pulled her hand away from her ear, and extracted a swiss army knife from her pocket. Quietly, and carefully, she pulled out the screwdriver attachment and swiftly undid the screws that held the metal grate in place. Beneath her, she could see that Hibari had been cornered, but she knew better than to be concerned for the prefect.
Multiple yells erupted, and a cacophony of weapons clashing against each other could be heard. Good, everyone was distracted. A middle-aged Japanese man — Saotome — sat on a sofa at the back, watching passively as Hibari fended off the attacks. The girls that had been draped all over him earlier were gone — they had probably ran off as soon as Hibari had arrived.
Taking this as her cue, Riko silently pulled the grate off, and jumped through the opening in the ceiling. She landed directly behind the yakuza boss, her boots barely making a sound as they tapped against the grimy tiled floor. Crouching behind the sofa, Riko readied herself with a sack to pull over the man's head, but a gasp made her hold her position.
Fuck it, what was it now?
Riko peered out from where she was hidden, and saw that Saotome had removed himself from the sofa, and was hurrying towards the exit. Nearly all of his men had been knocked out, and it looked like Hibari had his eyes set on the yakuza boss.
Now what on earth had Saotome done to incur the wrath of the Demon of Namimori?
Riko shook her head — now wasn't the time to daze off. Her mission was to kidnap Saotome and she'd be damned if she allowed Hibari to steal her target!
Saotome had fled through the door, and a string of Italian curse words left Riko's mouth as she belatedly realised this. Pulling her hood over her head, she then dashed towards the door, and saw the yakuza boss turning a corner at the end of the hallway.
Oh hell, no.
Riko ran as fast as her legs could carry her, and easily caught up with Saotome. She dug her sleeved hand into her pocket and extracted a handful of playing cards, all wedged between her fingers. Furrowing her eyebrows, she concentrated on a focal point, and red flames began to flicker to life as they lit the cards on fire.
"Hey, cazzo!"
Saotome halted when he heard the foreign voice, for his curiosity was stronger than his instinct for survival. In the split second when he turned around, Riko flung the cards at him, and he let out a pained howl as they cut into several points on his torso. He stumbled, crimson patches blooming all over his chest, his face contorted in pain as he collapsed onto his knees. Blood splattered onto the floor as it dripped from the shallow stab wounds on his shirt. Riko ran up to him, and quickly pulled the sack over his head.
"I wouldn't move too much if I were you," she warned as she clicked handcuffs over his wrists, "The cards might fall out, and you wouldn't want that, trust me. They're the only thing stopping you from bleeding to death."
"F-Fuck you, bitch," the muffled voice spat from beneath the sack.
"Eh, no thanks. Life has done plenty of that to me already, and I must say, not as enjoyable as everyone says it is."
"What the hell is going on he— oi! He's got the boss!" a masculine yell attracted Riko's attention, and a group of men emerged from the end of the hallway, running towards where she was standing.
"Merda!" Riko swore loudly. When on earth did the rest of the Hanabusa clan come back? There was no way in hell she was going to engage with that many people — not without the risk of Saotome running off.
She tugged Saotome's arm, and his response was a groan. "Let's go!" she hissed, and dragged him onto his feet. With great difficulty, she managed to drag the groggy man all the way to the front entrance, and saw a black car with tinted windows waiting outside.
"Door!" she yelled, and the backseat door was thrown open. Bel reached out and grabbed Saotome, pulling him in.
"Riko! Get the fuck—" Squalo's sentence was left unfinished when multiple gunshots went off, and he ducked, narrowly missing being hit with a bullet. Saotome's men had caught up with Riko, and they were not a happy bunch.
"Just go! I'll handle them!"
Squalo gritted his teeth. "Keep in contact with the comms, and if they capture you—"
"Say nothing, I know! Just fucking go!"
As the car drove off, Riko turned around to be greeted by the angry swarm of grown men advancing towards her. She bit her lip, and her mind raced as she flicked through every possible escape route she had stored away in her head, before settling on one.
She was going run for as long as she could until she outran them.
Riko turned and started running in the direction opposite to where her comrades had driven off in with the full intention of drawing them away. And it worked, of course. Between someone on foot and a car, they would be idiots to try and chase after a moving vehicle instead.
Riko wasn't as strong as most of the Varia, except maybe Bel, whom she was on par with due to their similar use of mid-to-long-range weapons. But she was part of the elite squad of assassins for a number of reasons, and she damn well knew that one of them was her agility and unparalleled speed. But unfortunately for the Hanabusa clan yakuza, they did not know that.
She had already run past at least eleven blocks, managing to avoid being shot, when the horde of angry yakuza had thinned out to a select few men who were starting to falter in their steps. Riko looked back as she ran to see the angry, red-faced gangsters holding up their guns, aiming at her.
Fuck.
Spotting a street lamp, Riko quickly clambered up the metal post and stepped onto the concrete fence next to it. Gunshots erupted once again, and Riko ducked as one whizzed past above her head, and pain seared through her arm, eliciting a loud, "Oh, fuck!" from Riko as a bullet grazed her shoulder.
Stumbling, Riko fell off the wall, but managed to somersault into landing onto her feet. Grabbing her bleeding arm, Riko continued running as she saw one remaining gunman still chasing after her. He continued wildly firing off his shotgun, and bullets ricocheted off the concrete sidewalk, narrowly missing the assassin as she evaded them.
A blinding flash of pain struck Riko's body, making her trip and fall over, when a bullet successfully hit her, embedding itself deep into her flesh, and then another, before the shooting stopped. Pain throbbed through her entire body as she curled up on the ground, clenching her teeth. She had been struck in the back — once next to her left shoulder blade, and once near her tailbone. The fact that she was still alive — that meant that her organs were safe. If she could get herself back to the mansion quickly, there was a possibility she would not bleed out and die. She willed herself to soldier through the pain; to get onto her feet and get away, when footsteps approached.
Through her pain-induced haze, Riko saw a pair of familiar black leather shoes stop next to her. She attempted to lift her head, pressing her arms against the ground in an effort to get onto her feet, but the pain was too much for her. She weakly let her limbs go limp, and her eyes fluttered shut as a single thought crossed her mind.
'Escape later… sleep first.'
My first attempt in writing an action scene! It was difficult, but a fun learning process.
Translations
buonasera bella - good evening beautiful
vaffanculo - fuck off
mi scusi - excuse me
cazzo - vulgar expression for the word penis
merda - shit
Let me know how you liked or disliked this chapter, or if you have any questions! Have a lovely holiday and I'll see you in the next chapter!
Delphoxi