"Voi. What the fuck is this shit?" demanded Squalo.
In his hands was the file on "Hexe", the tiny as hell Lightning who had the balls to not only brave Xanxus in a foul mood without flinching, but also ignore Vongola Nono and his Storm before tossing them both bodily out of the office when Nono flared his Flames at her.
After that incident Xanxus had decided to take an interest in the odd Lightning, if only to see if she could replace Levi who was just plain annoying and half useless.
Except the file was wrong.
There was no indication of who recruited her, how she had been noticed and invited, what her specialties were or even if she was in fact a Lightning. There wasn't even a proper physical written by Lussuria, which was damn near standard.
It was as if she had suddenly walked into the Varia one day and decided to stick around.
The most horrifying thing was that if she hadn't gotten the attention of the Boss, then they never would have picked up on it!
Xanxus didn't know whether to be pissed or impressed.
He was very unhappy that Levi hadn't noticed the extra in his division without the appropriate paperwork to go with it, and impressed she had been able to not only slip into the Varia but avoid detection long enough to earn a proper codename without showing any signs of the fact she wasn't supposed to be there.
"Voi... how do we handle this?" asked Squalo. If someone like Hexe could slip in completely unnoticed, then who knew how many other infiltrators there were?
Xanxus eyed the file with interest.
Most infiltrators and spies generally gave themselves away within a few months or left. However from all general report, Hexe... or rather "Rosethorn" had managed to fit right in and was showing absolutely no indication of wanting to leave, much less give away secrets or traitorous acts.
One thing was for certain though... there was no way in hell this girl was a Lightning if she was able to pull something like this off and escape notice until now.
"We keep an eye on her. See if she gives herself away... either that or find out what her Flame type actually is and put her under the direct control of the officer in charge," said Xanxus. He wasn't about to waste potential Quality...especially not one who provided him such entertainment! Last he heard the old man couldn't even chew steak for the next few months and he'd feel the pain of that punch for the rest of his life.
"Ushishishi! Higher!" demanded Belphegor with great glee and childish delight.
Upon learning his favorite witch was able to turn into a dragon, Belphegor had all but demanded to see her animal form.
Hexe had obliged with tolerant amusement, and the second he crawled onto her flat wing, she sent him flying up in the air, only to catch him with that same wing.
It hadn't taken him long to figure out she was letting him use her wings as makeshift trampolines, or that she didn't mind if he crawled onto her head and used her spine as an odd, bumpy slide.
He found it so much fun that he made her transform whenever they had time off so he could act his actual age. Best of all when he wore himself out, she would let him use her foreleg as a pillow and would curl her wings and tail around him protectively to let him nap in peace without having to worry about anyone attacking him if he let his defenses down.
It. Was. Awesome.
Belphegor let out a shriek of surprise when Hexe's teeth suddenly grabbed him midair, stashed him under her wings and let out a mighty roar in the general direction of the door. There was a rush of heat from her side and the sound of something rushing past his ears... when he dared to look out past the protective embrace of the dragon, he found a dead peasant in Varia uniform that had more or less been turned to charcoal in the span of a few seconds.
He silently gulped...but he wasn't afraid of Hexe. Once assured that the threat was neutralized permanently, she nuzzled Belphegor gently, as if to make sure he wasn't hurt by the sudden mid air grab.
Belphegor ran his smaller hands over her muzzle, smelling the brimstone of her firebreath.
He noticed that her eyes had gone from a vibrant green akin to cut and polished emeralds to an almost amethyst color with streaks of another he couldn't quite catch.
She shifted from dragon form.
"You alright?" she asked with genuine concern.
"Ushishishi... the peasant deserved it, if he was stupid enough to come in here without knocking," said Belphegor. He hugged the older girl, and relished in the fact she seemed to genuinely care about him and treat him like an almost-adult.
At the same time she never used the fact he was younger and smaller against him. She let him be a kid without once doubting that he was any less dangerous than she was, which made her his second favorite person after the Boss and before Mammon who didn't always have time for him.
"Voi! What the hell happened in here?"
"This idiot came in without knocking and paid the price," said Hexe without hesitation and no little vehemence. If she hadn't caught the scent of something she really didn't like, she might not have been quick enough to snatch Bel from the air in time to protect him and launch an attack before the intruder realized the danger.
Her maternal instincts had all but demanded she protect the "princeling" as she had a habit of privately calling him in her head from someone she KNEW was a threat.
It wouldn't be until a few days later that she was called in by the Boss and found out who it was had set her off to the point she'd kill them on instinct.
Seeing her file on the desk made her blood run cold. To be honest she had always accepted the idea of this happening, but had hoped it wasn't so soon. She had barely been here a year and a half!
Boss, or rather "Xanxus" as she had belatedly learned his name was, had a rather odd expression on his face.
It was part amused, part irritated. Mostly amused though.
"Did you know you're the first person to ever successfully infiltrate the Varia so thoroughly that not even the Mist or Sun division caught on to the deception?" said Xanxus.
Belphegor stiffened hearing that, a look of betrayal on his face. Even he knew infiltrators were killed on sight if caught.
"To be fair, while the Levi is slavishly devoted to you, he is crap at doing his paperwork or registering a fake unless it's blatantly obvious or someone points it out to him," deadpanned Rosethorn. "It only took me a month before I was confident enough to slip in, create a file to pass his inspection and get in with the new recruits. It helped that your Mist was out of the castle for the better part of the week while I integrated myself."
Mammon looked visibly pleased hearing someone speak so highly of their ability to keep the Varia protections up-to-date that they only infiltrated the place after they knew the Mist would be far away.
Belphegor looked visibly hurt, and was almost pouting.
"Do you have any idea who it was you killed?" asked Squalo slowly.
"All I knew was that his scent set me off and I wasn't about to let him in the room when the little princeling's defenses were down. He should have knocked if he didn't want to end up dead," she said flatly.
"What's your Flame type?" asked Xanxus, equally flat.
"My... what?"
"Your Dying Will Flames. What type?" he repeated.
Rosethorn looked at him incomprehensibly. She had absolutely no idea what the hell he was talking about, and wondered if this had anything to do with why people seemed to put Varia members into specific divisions.
She had only picked Lightning because it was easy to join and fit with the instincts more or less trained into her by the senile old goat.
"Voi. Do you even know what Flames are?"
"I know that people seem to put a lot of odd emphasis based on 'type' and that whatever one you have automatically puts you in a general mold. I just found it all very ridiculous, to be honest."
She wondered why they were staring at her.
"...You do know what the mafia is, right?" asked Luss very slowly.
"General term for organized crime, most often has roots to Italy," she replied instantly. "Why?"
Squalo face-palmed in disbelief.
"I don't fucking believe this. A civilian managed to infiltrate the most elite group of assassins without even knowing anything?!"
There were pained and disbelieving expressions on all their faces, especially Xanxus. It was quite hilarious to be honest.
Belphegor suddenly snickered.
"She's not just a civilian, she's a witch," he said with amusement.
Mammon's head whipped towards Rosethorn with far too much attention for her to like.
"That explains a lot. A witch would be able to pull a lot more off than a general civilian and they wouldn't think twice about Flames being used in front of them," said Mammon with open interest. "What enclave?"
"I was a Gryffindor, if that's what you're asking. I was also in the front lines of the war that recently ended, and not on the side that got their asses handed to them by children."
Mammon floated over to the file and the second they saw the name "Rosethorn" their breath hitched.
"What?" demanded Squalo.
"Rosethorn as in Brier Rose Lyra Potter-Black?" they demanded.
She stared at the Mist.
"How in the hell do you know my full actual name? Everyone always just calls me Rosethorn."
Belphegor's head whipped towards her in shock.
"Voi. Who names their kid Briar Rose?"
"It's actually spelled 'B-R-I-E-R', not the variant you're thinking of. And it's a trick my mother played because she wasn't too pleased learning how easily those not raised in purely magical settings can be pulled into magical contracts simply by using their full name. Everyone knows me as Rosethorn because that's what my parents all called me, unaware it was a nickname," she commented. "Apparently if I been born a boy, my name would have been Brier. And this still doesn't explain why it matters who I killed."
Lussuria chuckled at that.
"Do you know how officers are promoted?" she asked.
"Not really. I was more concerned about doing my job than bothering with promotions."
"There are three ways to become officer. Harmonizing with the current Sky and showing an aptitude for it, rising through the ranks with the backing of most of that division, or killing the current one and taking his place," said Mammon.
Rosethorn eyed the actual child in the room.
"That explains so much, actually."
"Ushishishi."
"The trash you killed the other day was Ottabio... the Cloud officer. Which means depending on what your Flame is, you might very well take over his spot. That or you'll end up under the direct supervision of whatever Flame type you have," said Xanxus bluntly.
They already knew it wasn't Lightning. She might have the training of one, but her behavior didn't fit quite well. It was more like someone had tried to force her into fitting a Flame type, rather than catering to the ones she already had.
If nothing else she'd end up in the Mist division, because she was definitely tricky enough for it.
"How do you summon these...Flames...anyway?" she asked.
"Voi. You have to bring up enough resolve about something that you'd be willing to die for it."
"That's it?" she asked in disbelief.
"That's the general method," said Squalo.
Without even thinking twice about it, she fell into the memory of the Final Battle, when that strange rush of heat flowed through her body and she was able to shove Voldemort's fragment out of her body.
She might have been willing to die for her friends, but she'd be damned if she let Riddle have the actual satisfaction of killing her! Dumbledore had screwed her over enough, she wasn't going to follow his retarded plans to that extreme!
She barely registered the hitch in breath from most of the adults in the room.
"What is it now?"
"You... you went straight into Hyper Dying Will mode, without training and without even knowing what Flames are," said Squalo in absolute disbelief.
More to the point was the color of said Flames. On the plus side, once they had her file filled out appropriately she was going to be the new Varia Cloud officer for sure.
Though they would definitely be keeping the fact she had strong Sky Flames under wraps. Vongola Nono was already showing signs of far too much interest in the Lightning who kicked his ass and showed such blatant disrespect towards him. The last thing they needed was for the old bastard to try and get his claws into her as his replacement Lightning Guardian.
Ganauche the second was almost due for a replacement, and was letting his position get to his head. He was going to end up dead sooner rather than later, and that meant Nono would need someone to take his place.
"The good news is you're now Ottabio's replacement," deadpanned Squalo once he got over his shock. He was so getting drunk after this. "Bad news... we're going to train your ass into the ground until we figure out what your specialties are and as payback for making us look like idiots."
Rosethorn smirked at him.
"Bring it. It can't possibly be worse than the crap Dumbledore pulled on me for years," she said with a cold smirk. She only vaguely noticed that Xanxus had one of his own.
"Well first things first sweetie! We need to give you a proper physical and see what your actual condition is~!" chirped Lussuria.
The blind panic at the thought of going near a hospital room was definitely showing on her face. She spent way too much time in the infirmary growing up! She refused to go there when she was fine!
Squalo's vicious shark-grin did not bode well for her next few months.