Target 12: Ciaossu, R.J.

Emiko swung her feet off the side of Hitomi's new bed, giggling every so often as Hitomi sighed from the desk. It had been three hell–filled days for Hitomi and Emiko still couldn't believe that within the span of a few hours, her clumsy best friend and Hitomi's equally clumsy father could destroy their own house with minimal help from a crazy five-year old and one of Tsuna's best friends.

"It's not that funny anymore Emiko—mom forgave us already." Hitomi practically spat at the girl. But this didn't make Emiko feel bad, as she knew if her father had been present and not out trying to "wine 'n dine" her 'mom', as he had put it with a strange little wink thrown in, the house wouldn't even have been standing on its supports.

"But it is, kiddo, it is. I can't believe you actually did that—And Kita hasn't been by in a few days either, I think you pissed her the fuck off." Emiko stated, wandering over to Hitomi's new desk.

"Don't remind me…" Hitomi mumbled, thinking back on how Kita had been avoiding Hitomi in fear that she might be used again for disguising Hitomi's house.

"I'm sure she'll be fine, anyway… where's Reborn?" Hitomi was wondering when Emiko would ask that. She turned, noticing the other girl staring up at the mini hammock hanging from her ceiling.

"I have no idea; I haven't seen him since he made me run laps around the town with Ryohei-san, Masa-nii and dad. And that was this morning." Hitomi replied easily, turning back to the picture in front of her.

"You suck with colored pencils," Emiko chose to start with, glancing over Hitomi's shoulder before returning to the brunette's rather large bed. "But I think we should go find him."

"What?! Why?! This is the calmest day I've had since he arrived and you want to go and ruin it by looking for the little brat?!" Hitomi stood abruptly, surprising Emiko.

"No way! Absolutely no—!" Hitomi was pushed forward and toppled over the chair, knocking into Emiko and creating a loud sound as the two hit the ground.

"Hitomi, fine!" Emiko groaned, "We don't have to go find him, jeez! No need to—oh, look it's him."

Hitomi groaned, clearly peeved by Reborn's sudden and very painful presence. Solana and Tsuna were at the door, staring at the two girls and Reborn, who had a rolled up note in his hands.

"Ciaossu, Hitomi I have a job for you." Reborn simply stated, jumping onto her desk.

Hitomi sat up, ignoring the pain of the chair and Emiko's groaning underneath her. "What? What could you possibly want now?"

"I have a mission for you from one of Vongola's subordinates—namely, Emiko's aunt." Reborn looked pointedly at Emiko before returning his gaze to Hitomi, noting that Tsuna and Solana had retreated from the door, obviously not wanting to be involved with anything relating to the woman.

"Eh?" Emiko blinked, "Aunt Bianchi sent you something?"

Reborn only nodded, tossing the paper at Hitomi. Hitomi growled, unraveling the paper and Emiko pushed the girl off of her, making Hitomi's face him the chair's bottom and the girl cry out in pain. After a few more minutes and an agitated sigh from Reborn, the two girls were sitting side-by-side and looking at the note.

"I didn't know Aunt Bianchi had kids…" Emiko muttered in surprise. That would be something to tell her parents when she got home—if she got home.

"Says here that she doesn't remember—or remember if she even knew the gender of your cousin—but, what does this have to do with us, Reborn?" Hitomi looked up at the tutor.

"I was hoping you'd ask. See, Bianchi wants me to find out the gender of her son or daughter, but since I'm training you, I'm giving the task to you. Find out if R.J is a boy or a girl. But that's only part of the task. You've also got to stop him from killing someone important to you."

"Well how are we supposed to do that?!" Hitomi asked him rather loudly. "Can't you do it? He's trying to kill someone!"

"Idiot, she wouldn't have given me the task if he hadn't been making her way to Japan. R.J is already here and they're coming for you. Bianchi says that they're a bit obsessed with you, Hitomi, so finding them won't be too hard." Reborn explained. "Besides, whoever they're trying to kill is someone important to you, so you need figure out who is the most important to you, yeah?"

Hitomi and Emiko exchange looks between each other then look back at Reborn. "Wait…" Emiko stared at him with a look of curiosity, "So where would we find him—er, her?" Hitomi sighed, knowing she wouldn't be able to refuse this.

"R.J. should be making their way here sometime soon. And be prepared if they try to feed you something." Reborn said before he jumped out of the open window.

"Well, I guess we'll have to wait for my cousin to come around then, Hm?" Emiko stood, picking up the chair that lay in front of them and setting it right.

"I guess… but… What did he mean 'obsessed with me'?" Hitomi squeaked. Emiko shrugged.

"Guess we'll have to see when they gets here, huh?" Emiko suggested.

They didn't actually meet R.J until later that day, it was almost time for Emiko to leave when Solana let him in and they dropped their bags by the door and headed up to the spare bedroom without sparing so much as a glance at the two preteens in the kitchen.

"Was that them?" Emiko pointed where he previously stood.

"Yup, I think so… She didn't seem like Reborn had explained…"

"R.J acts different when they're tired, they aren't very chipper—but tomorrow morning they'll be back to normal." Reborn hung upside down in front of Hitomi.

"Ack! Don't do that! Reborn." Hitomi tried to swat him away.

"Well, I'll be back tomorrow morning for school, then, Hitomi." Emiko gave a small wave and left out the back door as Tsuna came into the kitchen, cup in hand.

"So, I'm guessing you saw R.J, huh?" Tsuna said as he sat down across from Hitomi.

Hitomi nodded, "Yeah… they didn't seem like Reborn explained they would…"

"Well, I don't really—wait, why are you calling R.J. 'them' and 'they'?" Tsuna asked.

"Well, Reborn was doing it earlier—and he's making me and everyone find out which gender R.J is, considering Emiko's aunt Bianchi doesn't know anymore." Hitomi explained. Tsuna nodded, understanding the situation better as Solana walked into the kitchen.

"Alright, since the house is now in order," Solana shot the two looks as the gulped, looking anywhere else, "Both of you can return to school and work."

The two brunettes groaned, flopping their arms onto the island counter. Solana merely rolled her eyes at the duo and moved past them, picking up her keys and dangling the, in front of Hitomi.

"C'mon, we're gonna get take-out." And the two females left, leaving Tsuna alone to wallow in his hatred for work.

The next morning came faster than Hitomi would have liked it too and she was greeted by someone, not Reborn, staring at her. She did what any sensible person in her situation would do, Hitomi screamed.

Those downstairs, which happened to be Emiko, Kita, Kamiko and Hitomi's parents, all rushed into the room as Hitomi fell off the other side of the bed, scrambling to get away from it. She was still screaming and Reborn eventually kicked her in the back of the head, making her fall over and effectively shutting the boss-in-training up.

"Hi, Hitomi-chan~!" Came R.J's chipper and androgynous voice.

"They're talking to you…" Emiko whispered to the girl. Hitomi only nodded before answering sarcastically, "Clearly. I didn't think anyone else here was named Hitomi."

Emiko shot her a look before R.J walked over to her, dressed in one of Hitomi's uniforms, smiling at her. Hitomi thought he was smiling a little creepily.

"I hope you don't mind," They started, lifting the skirt slightly, "But I borrowed one of your uniforms, is that okay? I'm feeling rather... flowery today."

"U-Um…" Hitomi trailed, only to be elbowed rather harshly by Reborn, "Hee- I mean, um, sure. It's fine."

"Okay thanks! I'll see you at school Hitomi-chan~!" R.J swept past the group and was down the stairs in an instant.

"Wait, I thought R.J was a boy—they sure acted like one when he came in last night…" Solana wondered aloud, leaving the room with Tsuna, who began explaining the predicament to his wife.

"So, that's him—er, her-them?" Kita awkwardly started. Hitomi only nodded, moving towards the bed.

"Yeah, and we have to find out what gender R.J is for Emiko's aunt Bianchi." Hitomi told her. Kamiko nodded, sitting down on Hitomi's bed.

"Don't forget that we have to protect someone important to you, too." Emiko added.

"Well, it shouldn't be too hard right? We could ask—I mean R.J's gotta see whatever they've got every day when they takes a shower or something, right?" Kamiko pointed out.

The girls nodded, "That does make sense, Emiko," Hitomi said before Kita inserted herself into the conversation, pulling Emiko and Hitomi into one-armed headlocks.

"Alright! Attempt One of Operation "Find the Gender" begins now!" And with that, Kita dragged the pajama clothed Hitomi and uniform clad Emiko out of Hitomi's bedroom with Kamiko following close behind.

The group consisting of the girls and Reborn had been a whole half-hour early to school, making Hikaru commend them for that. Collins just scoffed at them, yelling at the girls before passing by.

"Look!" Kita's chipper voice cut through everyone's musing, she happened to be peeking over the corner edge of Nami-chuu's school building A, "I see them over there! Someone go ask!"

The three girls had come closer to Kita, each leaning over each other and peeking around the corner. Hitomi, being the shortest, was on the bottom, Emiko, being the second shortest, was above her, Kamiko above her and Kita at the top. They noticed R.J sitting with their legs scrunched up to their body, giving anyone who would look a clear view of whatever was underneath their skirt.

The courtyard in which they sat was slowly filling with people who were talking or just messing around, as the school building had yet to be unlocked. Emiko pulled everyone back, standing in front of the group who was sitting against the wall.

"Alright, now that we know where they are, someone's gotta go over there and ask them if they a boy or a girl. Who volunteers?" Emiko asked. Everyone seemed to suddenly find something interesting elsewhere.

"I can't," Kita said, "I suddenly remembered that I have something to do that's not here."

Before the curly haired girl could leave, she was pinned down to the ground by Kamiko's dagger, "No, You have nothing to do." Emiko promptly covered Hitomi's mouth before she could scream. "Besides, I can't do it, I feel sick just looking at the dude."

After much arguing, it was Hitomi who was chosen to go over and ask R.J, seeing as they liked her the most and thanks to Reborn pointing out that the other girls didn't really have to help Hitomi, as the task was asked to be done by Hitomi.

Hitomi approached R.J with slow strides until Emiko yelled at her from their hiding place. Finally, Hitomi came to stand in front of R.J., though he was oblivious to her presence.

"R.J," Hitomi started, they didn't look up immediately but Hitomi continued anyway, "Um… I've got a question for you."

It was then that R.J looked up, smiling at Hitomi, "What can I do for you, Hitomi-chan?"

"I wanted to ask you something—er, it's important." Hitomi managed out.

"What is it?" R.J had replied, staring up at Hitomi with a questioning gaze.

"Well…" Hitomi was freezing up; she could feel herself forgetting the question she was supposed to ask.

R.J leaned forward, as if ushering the brunette to continue. Hitomi blushed darkly and their face contorted in a pout as she clenched her fists.

"Um… are you a girl?" Hitomi had whispered.

"I didn't hear you, Hitomi-chan, you have to speak up." R.J smiled at her.

"Are you a boy?" Hitomi said a little louder, but R.J shook their head, making a gesture that said that they still couldn't hear her. She frowned, clenching her fists even harder.

"I just wanted to know if you had a penis or not!" Hitomi had yelled, drawing the attention of everyone in the courtyard.

"U-Uh… what?" Hitomi heard them say before she had run away from R.J, leaving them confused.

"That was just great, Ecchi-Hitomi, you totally blew it." Emiko told her as the two approached their classrooms.

"I know what I did, Emiko. No need to rub it in. People have been calling me weird names all morning!" Hitomi snapped.

Emiko held up her hands in mock-surrender, "Whoa now, sorry! Geez, sorry, Hitomi."

Hitomi didn't answer and left Emiko in the hallway as she entered her noisy classroom. Emiko rolled her eyes before entering her much quieter classroom. Hitomi had sat down in her seat near the window when the bell had rung and the class quieted significantly, allowing the teacher to speak.

Fuzuki-sensei brushes her long dark purple hair behind her and calls the class' attention, "Class! Today we've got a new student."

The class erupts into noise as they wonder who the new student is. Hitomi groans, guessing who the new student is. She puts her head down on her desk as the Fuzuki-sensei opens the door, allowing the new student to walk into class. Hitomi raises her head a little, only to try and suppress a scream of shock.

"Class, I'd like you to meet Gokudera, R.J." Fuzuki-sensei smiles.

"Whoa," Arashi nudges Tadashi and Hitomi groans, knowing what the guy is going to say already.

"H-Hello…. I-It's very nice to m-meet all of you." R.J bows lowly, their pink bangs covering their face.

"Please treat Gokudera-san with the utmost respect." Fuzuki-sensei tells the group, "And pick a seat anywhere, Gokudera-san."

If Hitomi was anyone else, she'd have thought it good luck that R.J chose the seat behind her, but sadly, Hitomi was Hitomi and she knew this was just a part of her bad luck. She groaned once again, cursing under her breath and trying to stop herself from turning to look at R.J, who didn't seem too embarrassed at all about this morning. They weren't even looking at her; in fact, they were glaring daggers at a certain red-head.

"Looks like someone's got a fan, huh?" Ryota chuckled, leaning against the wall outside of the classroom at lunch. Hitomi walked by, trying her best to ignore him. But Ryota wasn't having that, instead of letting it go, he followed her. "Still talking to you." He tapped her repeatedly.

"Ryota, look," Hitomi stopped, turning around to face him, "I have things to do and I'd appreciate it if you left me alone, okay?"

"Whoa, where'd that come from? What happened to little push-over Hitomi?" Ryota laughed, shaking his head. Suddenly, he became serious, "I don't think I like the way you're talkin' to me, Sawada. Wanna rephrase that?"

"Hitomi-chan, is there something going on here?" Seemingly out of nowhere, R.J. appeared. They was just as tall as Ryota, but seemed a lot more menacing, at least to Hitomi. Ryota didn't seem fazed at all by R.J, and instead, raised his arms in mock-surrender.

"There's nothing going on here, bro." And as he walked by, whispered, "We'll finish this later."

Once he was gone, all traces of a serious face left R.J, "Whoa, he's a bit of a jerk isn't he? If he hurts you, Hitomi, don't hesitate to tell me! I'll kill him if I have to!" They said with a smile, "Oh, and here! I made you lunch!" The bento that they handed her looked positively normal, so Hitomi, not being one to turn down free food, accepted it with a smile.

"Thanks, but I have to go now. See you later…" She rushed off to the rooftop, leaving R.J alone in the hallway.

"C'mon," Emiko said through a mouthful of rice, "You think R.J's out to get Ryota? That would have to involve you actually caring about him."

"And Reborn did say someone important to you, is he really that important to you?" Kamiko asked. Hitomi shook her head, "See? It can't be him. It's probably like… your mom or something."

"Maybe…" Hitomi replied uneasy. She pulled out the bento that R.J had given her. "R.J gave me a bento when we were in the hall… I wonder if it's any good."

"Matte, depending on how my auntie cooks, I'm not so sure about that…" Emiko shrugged. Kita grabbed the bento from Hitomi, not wasting any time in opening it.

"There's no way to find out than to open it!" She said, pulling off the top. "Ah! It looks disgusting! Is that mold?" Kita showed the box to the others who cowered away in disgust.

"What did they do to it?" Kamiko pushed herself further away from the group.

"That's why we don't let auntie cook when she comes over… no matter what it is that she cooks, it—!"

"Turns out like that." Reborn finished for her. Closing the lid, Kita looked to the baby. "Ciaossu, girls."

"Wh-What is it?" Hitomi asked, pointing at the bento, "You knew about this strange thing and you let this person come into my house?!"

"I didn't let 'this person' in, your parents did. And to answer your question, it's a particular kind of cooking used by assassins, such as your Aunt, Emiko." Reborn said, "R.J's probably going to use it to kill whoever this person is if you don't stop them."

"Stop them?! How do we do that?" Emiko asked, "We don't know where they are or what they're planning or who they're trying to kill!"

"Well, we do know something now. Look." Kamiko pointed down at the courtyard where R.J, along with the school's cooking club were setting up a stall.

"They're going to poison the whole school?!" Hitomi squeaked.

"Not if we have anything to say about it!" Emiko stood up abruptly, pulling Hitomi to her feet, "I will not let anyone suffer what I have been through with Aunt Bianchi!" Emiko pulled Hitomi to the door and descended the steps, Kamiko and Kita following the two down.

"…that was your idea of stopping them?" Kamiko asked, blowing hair out of her eyes.

"…I'm not proud of what has been done, but there's no changing it now. We just have to learn from this mistake." Emiko pushed the flap covering the dumpster.

"Learn from it? What—what are we learning, Emiko? That we shouldn't let you handle anything that has to do with this mission?" Kita yelled at her, helping Kamiko out of the dumpster.

"I can't believe they've got such a huge fan base already…" Hitomi shivered, plucking garbage from her uniform. "What do we do now?"

"Well, we don't let Emiko lead us around, that's for sure." Kamiko hopped over the edge with Kita's help. Emiko hopped over, wobbling slightly before standing up fully.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? How was I supposed to know that they'd go fuck crazy and attack us?" Emiko dusted herself off, "I mean, the food they were serving didn't even look bad at all!"

"Yeah, until you puked all over it." Kita added, crossing her arms.

"Look, it's not my fault that looking at that person makes me nauseous! Those foods have some type of aphrodisiac that I'm probably allergic to!" Emiko defended herself.

"Guys," Hitomi said, trying to stop the arguing, "Look, we messed up. Next time, we just have to remember that Emiko's weakness to R.J. Now we have to think of a new plan before the school is over-run by people tasting R.J's food."

"Well… we could get Collins to shut it down." Kamiko suggested.

"No way! I saw here heading over to the stall—and they had a permit to sell on school property too!" Kita said.

"Well we've gotta stop them somehow, c'mon, let's go spy some more." Emiko said.

"We've been watching them for three hours! They haven't done anything at all and R.J isn't even with them!" Kita complained, rolling over, "This is so boring!"

They were camped out underneath a row of bushes, using binoculars to watch the bake sale.

"Wait… I see something!" Hitomi whispered, motioning them to look again.

"Isn't that…"

"Those are my parents! And your parents! And Lucia? What if they eat those desserts? What if they die?" Emiko yelped, having a mini-breakdown.

"Kita?" Kamiko called, motioning to Emiko. Promptly, Kita slapped Emiko, trying to calm her down. While Kita was having fun smacking Emiko around Kamiko was busy texting.

"Oh no! They're about to eat one! I need to do something!" Hitomi stood up, though unnoticed by those across the courtyard. Suddenly, a whistling sound was heard and Hitomi was knocked down.

"What the fuck just—?"

"REBORN!" Hitomi screamed, running from the bushes over to the small stand in her underwear.

"What's going on?!" Kamiko yelled, only for Reborn to appear next to her, aiming another shot at Hitomi.

"One shot means dying will, another shot to the stomach means…"

"IRON GUT!" Hitomi yelled, going to town on all of the baked goods. Five minutes later, she was lying on the ground, moaning in pain. A scream pierced the air and the group that was staring at Hitomi's crumpled body turned, looking at R.J who had just returned with a cart of freshly baked goods.

"Hitomi! If you wanted some of my sweets, you could have asked! No need to get naked and eat them all!" R.J scolded her.

"You didn't make these!" Gokudera said, "They don't taste like death!"

"So… let me get this straight," Hitomi wobbled to her feet, burping, "I just ate… a bunch of good desserts and not the bad ones?"

"Mine take longer to make because they're filled with love!" R.J defended, "Here, Hitomi! Eat one of mine!" R.J promptly stuffed one of their disgusting moldy looking cakes into Hitomi's mouth.

"Oh my god, Ew." Three dull thuds were heard and everyone looked to see Gokudera, Emiko and HItomi lying on the floor, foaming at the mouth and convulsing spastically.

"Should we… I dunno, take them to a hospital?" Tsuna asked.

"Yes, Tsuna. We should take them to the hospital. We'll see you at home, R.J." Solana said, pulling out her cellphone.

"And that's what poison cooking is all about." Reborn informed Kamiko and Kita.

"In the end, we didn't find out if R.J was a girl or a boy… nor did we save the important person to Hitomi." Kita laughed.

"Huh? Is that why you guys were stalking me?" R.J asked, "Well, of course I'm a girl!—Well, today I'm a girl. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. And you might've read my letter wrong, it said I'm here to instill a killing purpose into Hitomi, not kill an important person to her." R.J explained.

"Well that ends that! Case closed!" Kita smiled content with the turn of events. Reborn hopped off of Kita's head and onto Hitomi's stretcher, deciding to go to the hospital with them.

"We spent a whole fucking day doing this and you just tell us what you're after when three people have almost fucking died and you're just humming like everything's fucking hunky-dory!?" Kamiko screamed, scaring everyone around, "You better run, 'cause once I catch you, no amount of poisoned food can save you."

R.J ran, screaming like the girl she was with Kamiko counting to ten before running after her. "Wow, and I thought Hibari was scary!" Yamamoto laughed.

Hello all! And once again, after a really long hiatus, I'm back. I'm not going to lie or anything, but I've been busy and I sort of lost motivation to finish this chapter and the story, but it's back now and I hope it doesn't go away. A few more chapters and the first arc will be finished! Wow, what a long time. Anyway, a few things about this chapter: 1. R.J is genderfluid. Occasionally they'll feel like a girl and occasionally they'll feel like a boy, but biologically, they're a boy and that's that.

Another thing is, this isn't my best chapter. I'm sure you already know that from reading it, but please excuse the mess while I get back into the groove. Expect Chapter 18 to be out some time soon! Thanks, bye!