Author's Note: It's been such a long time! I'm sorry! I'm really trying my best. There's just a lot of stuff that I have to take care of before my hobbies at the moment. I'll finish my stories eventually. Seriously.

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

"Kyoya, please?" I ask. "It's only on their side of the base, and Kusakabe-san will be with me the whole time," I say as I try to reason with him. He hasn't been letting me leave his side since, well, stuff started to happen to the others like Yamamoto's father. "Please? This is a meeting dealing with Onii-chan. I want to be able to help as much as I can." Kyoya doesn't look like he's going to give into my pleas.

"I'll be heading there on my own then, Kyo-san, Hisoka-san," Kusakabe says. Kyoya and I nod and I wait for the door to close behind him first before continuing my pleading with Kyoya.

I put on my cutest pleading expression and look at Kyoya. "Please?" I ask. I pout at him, but clearly, it's not working to well. "Kyoya!" I whine as I continue to pout.

He sends me a mild glare as he says, "You're being annoying, Hisoka."

"Kyoya," I continue to whine. He doesn't look like he's going to budge any time soon. He's so stubborn! I pout and look away. There's a long moment of silence. Maybe a few minutes of him staring at me and me looking away.

"Fine. You can go and crowd with those herbivores," Kyoya says with a frown. He looks almost disgusted at the thought that I would willingly go and "crowd with the herbivores."

I smile and get up and go around the table. "Thank you," I say. I wrap my arms around him from behind and grin at him. "I love you," I say happily before leaving him with a surprised expression plastered on his face. I win again~

Maybe it was a bad idea coming here. "What are you trying to say about Mukuro's activity as of late?" Tsuna asks. "But… Mukuro is still in Vindicare…"

"We think so," Kusakabe replies, "Joshima, Kakimoto, Chrome, Hisoka-san… They all headed to Vindicare Prison five years ago in order to break out Mukuro, but they failed. After that, we lost contact with the three of them," Kusakabe says. Everyone looks serious. Kusakabe turns to me to see if I have anything to add.

"Ken and Chikusa are still alive. I can't contact them regularly, but we promised to continue to keep contract just to confirm to each other that we haven't been killed yet. Kyoya doesn't let me leave his side normally, so we confirm that we're alive through different means, rather than meeting up like we used to," I say. "But, I lost contact with Chrome-chan. I don't know anything about where she might be or if she's still alive. According to the last time I've spoke with Ken and Chikusa, they have no idea where she is either." I fown a little. "Sorry."

Kusakabe nods. "After that though, we noticed strange rumors."

"Strange rumors?" Yamamoto asks.

Kusakabe hesitates. He looks at me and I nod. They should know. "'Mukuro had been defeated,' was the rumor." There's the collective sound of a gasp in the room.

"What do you mean?" Tsuna asks. He seems a bit scared somehow.

"The information said that the Millefiore that defeated him was Glo Xinia," Kusakabe explains.

"Glo Xinia?" Gokudera asks.

"Please look at the monitor," Kusakabe says as he pulls up an image of the man, who admittedly, I would very much like to get rid of. "The 8th Squad Captain, Glo Xinia, one of the very few A-Ranks."

"This guy," Yamamoto starts.

"Took out Mukuro?" Gokudera finished.

"Supposedly," I add.

Kusakabe nods and continues, "If we take this to be true, then it means that there was a fight with something that was possessed. Mukuro took a big blow during the fight. There were few, but we don't think that Mukuro died because after that incident, at an airport in Italy, we noticed Chrome get captured.

"Chrome was alive! She looks like she got badly injured though…" Tsuna comments.

Gokudera, who is actually quite good at connecting the dots, says, "I see! If Mukuro had really died, then Chrome wouldn't have lived."

"But right now, Chrome is missing without a trace. So that means that we should look into the 'supportive' man in this picture," Reborn says.

"As expected, that is exactly correct," Kusakabe says. "Hibari is stepping on one of Mukuro's people."

"What?" Tsuna asks.

"Doesn't this information bother anyone else?" Lal Mirch asks.

"That is... completely…" Giannini starts.

Kusakabe agrees, "I feel the same way. The fact remains that this man is still unidentified. Unless we investigate, we will never know whether this is relevant to the case or not."

"If he isn't related, then we'll be out of leads…" Reborn says.

"Even if he is connected, we must continue," Kusakabe replies. "Furthermore, there is one more thing to worry about."

Tsuna asks, "There is?"

"Yes, this picture," Kusakabe replies. He shows Tsuna the picture of Hibird.

"That's the Hibird you showed us before!" Tsuna exclaims, "This is Mukuro?!"

Kusakabe corrects, "This is something related to Mukuro. Hibari was in the middle of battle in Italy when suddenly, things changed for the better. We kept surveillance with cameras."

"But," Yamamoto starts.

"That guy," Gokudera says.

"We played around with 'Mukuro' and used code names. It became Mukurowl," Kusakabe explains.

"'Mukurowl' because it's an owl…" Yamamoto says.

"Yes," Kusakabe replies.

"So in the end, having Mukuro's sister with us didn't help at all," Gokudera grumbles.

I raise my eyebrow. "Oh, really?" I ask. I nod. "So that's how you see me," I say, "It's nice to know."

"A-Ah, he didn't mean it that way, Hisoka-chan," Tsuna exclaims frantically.

I shake my head. "There's no need to cover up for him, Tsuna-san. It's… helpful to see what others think of me from time to time. In any case, it is true that Onii-chan hasn't been contacting me." I smile at Gokudera all too sweetly. "I'm terribly sorry, Poison Scorpion's younger brother." He glares at me and Tsuna and Yamamoto send me surprised expressions. "You can't attack me without expecting a counter," I reply nonchalantly. "I am who I am, after all." I glance at the screen behind Giannini. "Hm…?" It seems that there was a ring signal for a moment.

"What is it, Giannini?" Lal Mirch asks.

"It was a short signal, but we've detached the presence of an unknown powerful ring, around Kokuyo Land," Giannini replies.

Tsuna's eyes widen. "Kokuyo Land? Kokuyo Land… That's the place where we first met Mukuro."

"Even so, this area has some sort of electromagnetic interference," Giannini replies. "There's also a high probability that it was just a false alarm."

"Could you analyze the data on the Kokuyo Land ruins again?" Reborn asks.

"I'll do that right away," Giannini replies.

"It could be an enemy," Lal Mirch says. A pessimist at heart, I see.

"You're wrong!" Tsuna says. "You're wrong. I'm sure that it's one of our friends!"

"Tenth…" Gokudera starts.

Yamamoto asks, "By friend, you mean…"

"And if it was the Vongola Ring… It could be Chrome," Tsuna says.

I stand up quietly. "I'm going to head back then," I say.

"Eh?" Tsuna asks.

Gokudera grumbles, "So in the end, you really don't care about them, do you?"

I look at him. "No, it's the opposite," I reply. "I… I care for all of you. My Family. Hearing this uncertainty about who really has appeared in Kokuyo Land makes me anxious though," I smile a little. "It makes me want to go there myself to find out." I shake my head. "Kyoya won't let me do that though, so I'm going to head back and hope for the best. What else is there that I can do?" I ask. "Besides, I have faith in them. I'll leave you all to it then."

I head back to our side of the base and find Kyoya waiting for me where I left him. He looks tense. I smile a little and sit down next to him. "Worried?" I ask. He looks away and I laugh softly. "I was fine, Kyoya. I was still in the base. Besides, you said it yourself when we were kids. I'm a small animal. I'll find a way to survive." He turns to me and a I smile at him. "Want me to make you some tea?"

He nods and I get up.

"By the way, Kyoya, did you ever think that I'm stopping you from exhibiting the properties of a Cloud Guardian?" I ask. "You're supposed to be 'bound to nothing' aren't you?"

"Since when am I bound to that definition?" he replies.

I smile a little and laugh. "Yet the answer still fits the definition."