Chapter 44:

Soldiers keep on going.

I'm sorry for not replying to your reviews from the past two chapters, but there's just so many that arrive whilst I sleep that I couldn't find the time to reply to them during the day. Please forgive me!

Oh, and did I mention I love you guys. I want to thank all of you who keep on reviewing, it really means a lot and makes me smile all day. I get these reviews in class and giggle and people look at me weirdly, it's hilarious.

I'm glad you all liked my version of Bermuda and the Vindice. And now here's a first for Mafia row…

Bermuda opens the front door of the Arcobaleno House, takes one step inside, turns on his heels, cloak flaring about at the spin, before quickly striding in the opposite direction. He was trying to get down the garden path as quickly as possible. He had to get back to those gates, back to the Vendicare and survival. Yes, survival.

"Hmm, Bermuda? We aren't going home?" asks Tsunayoshi, having watched Bermuda and was now following him like a duckling.

Bermuda shakes his head, sweat dripping down his forehead and being absorbed by the bandages. He'd have to change them after this was all done with. He sure hoped that sweat would be all that stained these bandages.

"Nah, let's come back tomorrow Tsunayoshi." Says Bermuda, almost running down the path way. But nobles didn't run anywhere, they just stride intimidatingly.

Sadly Bermuda didn't make it very far down the Garden Path.

"Na-ah-ah~. You're not going anywhere"

He could short warp out of here, but that would make Tsunayoshi sick and he didn't want to be in even more trouble. He didn't want to leave the boy here to the wrath of the Arcobaleno either. Ah! A portal! That was the answer.

Bang.

Nope, no portal then. Bermuda turns around to meet his doom: Some very unhappy Arcobaleno.

"Bermuda, darling," No not 'darling'.

But what had he done wrong? He'd left a note and everything. It was on Luce's Noticeboard that he was taking Tsunayoshi today to meet the Vindice. It had been on there for weeks! Talking of pinboards, Bermuda had taken a picture of the doodle of him Tsunayoshi had done on his smart phone. It was now his wallpaper.

"Be ready to Pay Bermuda." Says Viper, sitting down on a window sill and getting comfy. Maybe she should have brought some popcorn?

"Pay? May I enquire what for?" Bermuda asks, slowly stepping backwards. Away from them. Closer to freedom. Away from the death of his pride.

"What for?" asks Colonnello unbelievingly. "For scaring the life out of Luce, kora!"

The Arcobaleno nod, even Verde and Lal. Even Fon didn't look happy.

Oh cursed heavens this wasn't good. The Arcobaleno were almost as protective of Luce as they were of Tsunayoshi. And that was a whole lot. Princess Luce de Giglio Nero was not a woman to be messed with, even before she formed the Arcobaleno.

At some kind of signal that Bermuda didn't notice, even though he was watching them like a hawk, the Arcobaleno move at once and disappear. As soon as he realises this he grabs Tsunayoshi and holds his up like a shield. They wouldn't attack their own (collective) son now would they? What was he talking about, they already do. Still he'd do anything to keep his pride intact.

The first to reappear is Fon on his right side. Bermuda side steps but can't defend himself whilst holding onto Tsunayoshi. The extra weight made him slower too. Fon comes in, arm like a snake, pinching a nerve in his upper arm. Suddenly Bermuda couldn't feel his arm and almost dropped Tsunayoshi. Why couldn't he be like the other Vindice! A nerveless body would be good right now!

"Um guys, what's going on?" asks Tsunayoshi. Why were the Arcobaleno mad at Bermuda? What had he done wrong? Scaring Luce, when had he done that?

Fon spins, going to pinch the other arm, but Bermuda steps backwards, so Fon removes the precious cargo from the Jailer instead.

"Bermuda gave Luce a scare this morning so we're just telling him off. You know that Bermuda's just playing along." Smiles Fon as he placed the boy next to Viper. Viper wasn't involved since she was the weakest against Bermuda. Illusions didn't work on him, and she had the physical fighting capability of a pillow. Tsunayoshi turns and re-evaluates the scene. What Fon had said was true, none of them were trying very hard to win this fight. Indeed it looked more like… a play fight! Oh, the Arcobaleno had play fights all of the time. Plus Luce had something special out. There was nothing to worry about then. They were just having fun.

Bermuda though was not having fun. He prided himself on his reputation and it was not being tarnished by cereal and milk of all things! It wasn't like he'd peeked on her in the shower or anything worse.

La was lying down ontop of the wall surrounding the Arcobaleno house. It had been designed to be this thick just for this purpose. Parts of the roof were also flat for her to be able to lie on. She carefully takes aim through the scope, watching as Fon takes Tsunayoshi from Bermuda. As soon as the pair were out of her sights she fires. Bermuda jumps backwards, the bullet just missing.

"Special round!" Viper shouts up. "I'll be nice and give you 50 bullets each to work with!" Wow, Viper was being nice, it was usually more like 5. Viper, being Viper, didn't want to waste money so set limits on the number of bullets used per fight. Lal didn't mind, it was just another training exercise for her and her useless student.

Bermuda had never heard of this special round before. But by the sounds of it, it was a limitation, so he didn't mind it. He jumps backwards to dodge another bullet coming from his left, however just as he lands, he feels something press against his back. He spins around, looking over his shoulder, but he doesn't see anything, nor anyone nearby.

"Usual Payment Plan, right Viper?" shouts Colonnello from his position in a tree. Viper shouts out an affirmative. Colonnello loved these rules, they were so fun. So taking out 10 bullets from his stash, he throws them like darts towards her, all collected by Fon and placed in a neat pile before her. From his back, Colonnello gets out his missile launcher and loads a shell. 10 bullets equaled one bazooka shell, as simple as that. Lal sighs at her student's antics. He was always like this. Boys always wanted things to be bigger didn't they? Since she knew what he was going to do, and the best position for it, she starts to shoot more bullets towards Bermuda, keeping him occupied.

Colonnello jumps out of the tree since it would only hinder him, before jumping on top of the small rooves above the windows, and then to the larger roof above the front door. From there he grabs hold of the next window ledge above him, pulls himself up before jumping to land on the roof over the centre piece window at the front of the house. He places the missile launcher down and gets into position, hefting it up onto his shoulder.

"Take this kora!" he shouts down before pulling the trigger.

The explosion is huge and loud.

[It could be heard all down Mafia Row. "Hn, the Arcobaleno are at it again." "Yeah, but I ain't telling them to quieten down, are you?" "Ha-h-ha-ah. Noise, what noise?"]

Bermuda had enough time to roll out of the way and cover his head with his arms before his world is consumed by dust. Again, there's another phantom touch, this time to his arm. He'd been getting them for a while now, always coming from behind him. It seemed as if Lal was leading him into these touches. He still hadn't figured out who was doing it.

"You idiot! Who shouts out 'take this!'. When did I ever teach you that? You buffle brained, egocentric, peacock-headed jester. If you ever do that again I'll remove your head before the enemy can!" Lal shouts out, throwing a knife at him.

Colonnello catches the knife before giving a pout to Lal. "Aww, ruin my fun. If a man can't shout out that, then what point is there in launching a missile!"

"I thought it was cool!" shouts out Skull from his hiding place.

"We don't care what you think!" Lal retorts, followed by a snicker from Reborn.

"OI!" shouts Tsunayoshi, crossing his arms and stomping his foot. That wasn't nice to Skull.

Meanwhile, in the dust cloud, Bermuda was sure that someone was in here with him. He never saw any shadows, but he kept getting a draft, which means someone was pulling on his cloak.

"Targeting… Two heat sources detected. Now one. Now two." Verde looks through his special goggles before lowering them. "For heaven's sake stop moving!" Verde raises the goggles back up. "Locking… target acquired. Distance… 2.759 metres. Time until impact… 4.927 seconds. Direction, north north east by 20 degrees."

"Huh?" asks Skull, staring blankly at Verde. Verde lowers his goggles and grits his teeth. This was why he liked working alone, less stupid people that way. He stomps over to Skull (which Tsunayoshi finds funny to watch, Verde had perfected the annoyed stomp) stands behind him and grabs his shoulders before forcefully turning Skull to 10 O'clock.

"Run you idiot." Verde growls before stepping backwards. "Even you can run in a straight line."

"Damn straight I can!" says Skull, rotating his shoulders to free them up. He takes a ridiculous running pose before shouting. "For. The. ARCOOOoOOooOoooo…ooo…"

Colonnello bursts out laughing, nearly falling off the roof in the process. "What a fail Skull! You can't fit the word Arcobaleno into the word Sparta. Plus it's 'This is Sparta' not 'For the Sparta'."

"Hn, the idiot can't even shout out properly." Comments Reborn, lounging in a tree on the opposite side of the garden, near Lal's position. "Get running stupid." Before Skull can make a retort, Reborn shoots a gun near his feet. Skull jumps before starting to run into the cloud of dust.

He runs as fast as he can and crashes like a freight train into Bermuda, knocking them down onto the floor in the process. Bermuda gasps as his back impacts the floor and tries to dislodge Skull. However something strange is going on for it feels like Skull's suddenly got more than one pair of arms. There are so many pulls and touches, but it's hard to tell whether they are all from their grapple on the floor or not.

Somewhere in the distance the Countdown ticking theme starts. Skull is pulled off of Bermuda only to be replaced by harsh knees on his shoulders and a heavy weight on his stomach. Something like a lead weight weights his feet down so he can't kick back. It was easy to tell who was sitting on him now. The gun to the forehead made it clear.

"You do not mess with Luce, understand. You don't scare her, you don't injure her, you don't back chat her. Next time, people will only find a cloaks and a hat and the Vindice will need a new leader."

Note to self: look before transporting body parts.

Do-dodo-do DUN! The countdown finishes and Reborn gets off of Bermuda.

"I'm all done, guys, what do you think?" sings Luce, standing in the middle of the garden, hands clasped and resting on his shoulder with a bright smile on her face.

A strangely well timed gust of wind blows the dust away, revealing Bermuda.

You see the thing was, Luce was actually like a ninja when she was dealing with The Bag. When it came to dressing people up, or when an adorable outfit came on her radar, she could move faster than Reborn could.

Viper gets her super-secret mini camera out and snaps a picture of Bermuda. Now she finally had some blackmail on the guy.

For standing before them was not the feared leader of the Mafia's Prison. Oh no. Before them was standing a life sized teddy bear. His top hat suddenly had a red ribbon with a huge bow. She had painted over his bandages with brown paint to give him the right face. There was also a red bow around his neck too. On his hands were fluffy gloves and on his feet were fluffy paw shaped boots (she had put those on when Skull had toppled them over). All over his cloak was a dark brown fur, almost like cotton wool.

"Isn't he just the cutest?" squeals Luce, skipping over before giving Bermuda a huge hug.

NOOOO! She had gotten him with The Bag. His record had been flawless and now it was all ruined! The terrifying Leader of the Vendicare had been beaten by Cereal, Milk and a teddy bear costume. Oh the shame.

Tsunayoshi runs across the garden and flings himself at Bermuda. The Jailer has no other option but to catch him and lift him up. "Bermuda you look really good!" he smiles.

Can't… resist… the cute. Bermuda sighs. Now he knew why the strongest people in the world feared a woman and her handbag.

Bermuda pouts, actually pouts, before holding himself up straight. This was not how he acts. He's better than a child holding a tantrum. He should accept it with grace and maturity. Placing Tsunayoshi down, Bermuda walks forwards and down the garden path. Yet the fluffy boots aren't very supportive and he trips. Yeah, grace, sure. He stands back up and continues on as if nothing had happened. Just as he's walking in through the front door, Fon pats him on the back.

"Welcome to the Arcobaleno Bermuda."

The next morning, Bermuda finds out the third reason that the Arcobaleno fear The Bag. That was coming after the humiliation itself, and then spending all night trying to undo what Luce had done. That cloak was never going to be the same again. The third reason is that the Arcobaleno aren't the nicest of people, nor do they let things down. At breakfast, Bermuda must have heard every teddy bear joke under the sun. The Arcobaleno didn't hold back their punches.

The Bag, and all its consequences, was truly a thing to be feared.

Even Tsunayoshi joins in the mental bashing, although unwittingly. When he came down the stairs after breakfast, he was dressed up in his mini army gear. Which was fine. If he wasn't singing a certain song too.

~Ciao Ciao Ciao. Cosplay Party Everyday! Everyday! Cosplay Party Yay! ~

Hn, He had work to do anyway. He wasn't saying here a moment longer.

What was that about no childish tantrums?

Tsuna jumps down the last step and looks around. "Hm, Colonnello, where's Lal? I thought we were going together today?"

Colonnello turns around, a slice of toast hanging out of his mouth since he was trying to eat so much at once. "She went on ahead." He says. As Luce walks past, she bops him on the head.

"No eating with your mouth full." She admonishes. Colonnello ducks his head in an apology and quickly finishes the slice of toast.

He stands up and walks over to Tsunayoshi. "Ready to go little man?" he asks. Tsunayoshi nods in agreement. Colonnello kneels down and Tsunayoshi jumps onto his back. "Then off we go." Colonnello sings before running out of the house.

They run down half of Mafia Row and take turn onto Mafia Row Central, running past the Sasagawa Gym, past the sushi shop and up the hill and into the forest.

"Colonnello watch out." Warns Tsunayoshi.

"Haha, don't worry, already on it. Hold on tight." Instead of going around the trip wire, Colonnello jumps over it and continues on running.

Right into a pitfall trap.

Colonnello throws Tsunayoshi into the air and the little boy safely lands outside of the trap's radius. Hands now free, Colonnello can grab the side and plant his feet against the wall for stability. He quickly looks down into the hole and notices the sharp spikes there. This was another reason why no one stole from the CONSUBIN training grounds: They couldn't even get there safely. Colonnello pushes off with his feet and jumps out of the hole, landing next to Tsunayoshi.

"I tried to warn you." Tsunayoshi says, shaking his head. "The leaves were all wrong. You said you knew about it."

"I thought you meant the wire, kora!" complains Colonnello, letting Tsunayoshi jump back onto his back.

"Lal's not going to be happy," says Tsunayoshi sadly.

"Nah, we'll just miss the rest. She'll be pleased with that." Assures Colonnello.

They make it safely to the open training grounds, where all of the recruits and Lal are waiting.

"Not being adventurous today Colonnello?" shouts one of the trainees as Colonnello approaches.

"Did Lal finally knock some sense into you? I never thought I'd see the day when you'd stop doing suicide runs." Comments another.

"Of course not. And you'll never see that day for it won't come. I just had the kid with me that's all." Reminds Colonnello, defending himself. Colonnello had a habit of activating all of the traps. Not because he was stupid or blind, but to gain the experience to overcome them when they were triggered. It trained his reflexes and reaction times better.

Tsunayoshi walks over to one of the female recruits and hands her over a stick of bamboo. "I believe this is yours." He says with a smile as he places the dart into her hands. This woman liked to use poisoned darts, so she was the most likely suspect to have set that trap up.

"Thank you Sir." She says, giving Tsunayoshi a salute. Tsunayoshi just giggles before walking away. It was so funny when the adults called him sir and saluted to him. He liked it when they did that.

"LINE UP." Shouts Lal. The recruits quickly line up in front of her. Tsunayoshi decides he wants to stand in the middle next to Colonnello. He tries to copy their standing position as best as he can, legs apart, arms behind his back. Colonnello quickly adjusts Tsunayoshi's hands before ruffling his hair and returning to looking at Lal.

"You all know what day it is today!" she announces. There are groans of protest from the recruits in front of her.

"Do we have to?"

"There's no point to it anymore!"

"Yeah, Colonnello always wins."

They all quickly shut up at her bared teeth. But Lal's growl quickly changes to a wicked smirk. "Don't worry, I've evened out the odds. Colonnello will be taking Tsunayoshi with him."

The recruits look suspicious. That wasn't much of a disadvantage. It wasn't any different to carrying their backpacks really. In fact Colonnello looks pleased.

They all line up at the starting line. Lal holds up a gun into the air and fires it. Even though the recruits didn't sound too enthusiastic, this time they actually wanted to win. Secretly they all wanted to show off to Tsunayoshi. And they might actually have a chance this time. They all set off at a run, heading for the first obstacle of a pool of mud.

Just as Colonnello is about to jump in (him and Tsunayoshi loved getting muddy) Lal shouts out. "Colonnello, remember it's washing day today." An innocent remark sure, but it's like a death toll for Colonnello. He pales before grabbing Tsunayoshi off of his back. In mid jump he spins, holding Tsunayoshi in the air as his own back impacts the mud.

What Lal actually meant was don't get Tsunayoshi muddy. Or dirty in anyway. This Army outfit was made by Luce. And since it was washing day today, he wouldn't get time to clean it before she found it. He'd get murdered for any speck of mud on the little boy. Boy Lal was a mischievous devil! To do this course without getting Tsunayoshi dirty was nearly impossible. It really was going to slow him down. Someone else might win this time. He couldn't allow that.

"You hear that, kora?" asks Colonnello standing up whilst holding Tsunayoshi out of the mud. "We can't get you dirty at all or else Luce will get mad at us." Tsunayoshi nods gravely. This was quiet a situation. Colonnello places the boy on his shoulders, yet Tsunayoshi has to hold his feet out straight in front of him so his feet don't enter the mud.

As he climbs out, Colonnello finds a bottle of water and an umbrella just lying there. He takes the bottle of water and uses it to wash off as much of the mud from his chest as he can. That way Tsunayoshi can put his feet back down. He also washed off his hands so he can touch the boy again if he needs to. He has no clue about the umbrella though. Lal had never done that before.

The next obstacle is an easy one, having to climb up and over a brick wall. Now normally, he would put Tsunayoshi on his back and carry him over, but his back was currently one huge blob of mud, so that was out of the question.

"Hurry it up Colonnello, you're currently in last place." Reminds Lal, leaning against the wall.

"We can't lose Colonnello!" cries Tsunayoshi. Colonnello nods.

"Stand on my shoulders, how far can you reach?" the soldier asks. He steadies Tsunayoshi as the boy changes positions, using the wall as support too.

"I can reach the top Colonnello." Tsunayoshi reports back.

"Can you jump and sit on it, or at least half climb over it?" Colonnello asks back. His answer is in Tsunayoshi jumping up and not returning his weight back down. Tsunayoshi doesn't answer since he's half over one side and half over the other, with a very squished stomach knocking the breath out of him. Colonnello climbs over the wall as quickly as he can before encouraging Tsunayoshi to finish his climb over the wall and to jump down into Colonnello's hands.

The pair look to the side at the unusual sight of a drawer unit standing innocently at the side of the path as if it belonged there. Colonnello had done this hundreds of times and there had never been a drawer unit in that position before. Not even on April's fool's day. They stop staring at the piece of furniture and keep on running towards the next obstacle- barbed wire that had to be crawled under. On the first post is a pile of thick white card in A4 sized sheets. Ignoring that too, Colonnello remembers the problem with this one. If Tsunayoshi crawled under then he'd get mud on his trousers. Yet the barbed wire was too low to the ground for him to carry Tsunayoshi on his back again. He couldn't walk over it either.

"If there is a brain rather than butterflies in your head then use it. I've given you everything you need. I thought I'd taught you to take note of your environment?" shouts Lal from the opposite side on the barbed wire.

Environment? The only things different from usual were all of the weird things Lal had placed around them. White card and a unit of drawers…

Oh, idea!

Colonnello runs back to the drawer unit and pulls out one of the bottom drawers. He runs back to where Tsunayoshi is with it before holding it out infront of him.

Tsunayoshi looks warily at him. "I don't think I'd fit in that…" Tsunayoshi mumbles.

"Sure you will Tsunayoshi! You can lay in here and then I'll push you along. You won't get dirty at all that way." Colonnello lays the drawer down on the ground before noticing a fatal floor. The drawer was too tall to get under the barbed wire. Maybe if it had been a normal sized large drawer then it might of, but this one was an extra deep drawer.

Okay then. The answer must lie in the white card. Colonnello rushes back to the drawers and pulls out all of them. It was all ordinary things that any drawer might contain. Ahh! Sticky tape. Kneeling before Tsunayoshi Colonnello places one of the pieces of white card around Tsunayoshi's shin before sticky taping it in place. He repeats the process until all of Tsunayoshi's leg and hands are covered. Now he could crawl and not get covered in mud.

"You have such weird ideas Colonnello." Says Tsunayoshi, looking down at the piece of card taped to his hand. But Tsunayoshi gets down on all fours anyway and crawls under the wire. Colonnello follows suit. They finally pass that obstacle and Tsunayoshi is quick to remove the dirty card from his body. It was rather uncomfortable. Colonnello picks Tsunayoshi up again before running forwards. Picking the boy up was quicker than Tsunayoshi running.

The next trial they have to face is something new. There are lots of leaves on the floor, as well as sprinklers raining down from above. What? He couldn't get Tsunayoshi wet either!

Colonnello sighs harshly before turning around and running off the way they came. "Grrr Lal!" he was so annoyed with her right now. The damn umbrella was back at the start!. However he takes the short way, going around the obstacles instead of back through them. Lal had never mentioned that he had to stick to the course. Nor does Lal seem to shout and slap him silly when he does so. Now back at the start, he grabs the umbrella before running back to where Tsunayoshi was. He places the boy on his shoulders before handing him the umbrella.

They walk forwards under the sprinklers, but Colonnello still has to be careful of the slippery leaves. If he slipped then Tsunayoshi would get wet. This continues on for a little while, and Colonnello gets a mental workout having to solve these puzzles. Tsunayoshi is having a wonderful time. Just after he clears the most difficult obstacle yet, Lal meets them during the walk in-between.

Colonnello pants before handing Tsunayoshi to her. "You know what Lal. I think it's your turn to look after him." Tsunayoshi smiles up at her and claps his hands.

"Yay! Let's go Lal!" he encourages. Lal shrugs her shoulders and starts running whilst holding the child. She knew that Colonnello would stop after that one. All of the trials after here were easy ones. She could make up the lost time easily from this point onwards.

It's not until after Lal finished the next trial in record time that Colonnello realises what she's done. "Damn you kora."

Their next trial consists of walking across a balance beam whilst arrows were shooting from one side to the other. "I've got this one Lal!" sings Tsunayoshi, tightening his grip on her back with his legs. He would need his hands free for this one. Lal nods, and places one hand under Tsunayoshi to steady him along with another one on his back to keep him stable.

She watches the timing of the arrows for a few moment, recording their patterns. "You'll have three to catch." She warns. Tsunayoshi nods, eyes serious. If there was one thing the Lal and Reborn had taught him, it was how to catch flying weapons. It was a skill that he'd been good at back when they'd met Vongola Version Vigilante. But in the many months since then he'd gotten even better at it. "Ready? 3,2,1, now." She runs forwards ducking under one arrow. Tsunayoshi catches the next arrow that comes their way. Lal then stops to let an arrow fly infront of her before continuing on her way. Tsunayoshi catches the next two before Lal jumps off of the bar.

Colonnello smiles at them from his seat on the grass nearby. "You know Lal, you could have used the frying pan that was hanging on those rocks earlier to shield him with. Or don't you look at your environment?" She hated that Colonnello was using her own words back at her. "You can't get complacent now Lal." Colonnello reminds. He wasn't afraid to talk back to Lal. Someone needed to keep her sharp as well. He was one of the few people with the guts to order her about, to provide challenges for her to face. "Chop chop, you're still in third Lal. You're not going to be beaten now are you?" Lal was competitive, horribly so. She never lost at anything physical if she could help it.

Resisting the urge to slap him, she grits her teeth and carries on. Next they come up to a rope suspended over a sand pit. For this one the trainee usually crawled along it upside down, with their back barely above the sand. This time it was not possible for her to carry Tsunayoshi across. Nor did he have the arm strength to do it by himself. She turns back around and runs off to gather some of the useful things places around. She grabs a few coat hangers as well as a wrapped up tent.

She goes back to Tsunayoshi before taking the tent out of its casing. The tents she throws away, she doesn't need it. Instead she takes the casing and bites into it before ripping it down the seam. The seam tears leaving Lal with something similar to a blanket. She loops the handles over the hooks of the coat hangers before telling Tsunayoshi to climb in. The tent had been one of the large ones, along with all of the sticks needed to put it up so the bag was a large one to start with. And since Tsunayoshi was so small he easily fitted inside the makeshift bag. She holds the bag up in the air by the coat hangers to see if it'll hold his weight. Since it's army grade the stitching is excellent and holds up. She then places the hooks of the coat hanger over the suspended rope before tying a rope to them. She then proceeds to cross the rope herself before pulling on the other rope and dragging Tsunayoshi across. There nice and dry.

The last two obstacles are easy ones. The first one is a net climb. She takes the parts of her riffle out of its various places, like strapped to the inside of her leg and arms, and quickly assembles it. "Tsunayoshi. You have 10 seconds to climb that before I shoot at you, understand?" Tsunayoshi nods and gets running as soon as Lal fires a bullet at his feet. Well, near his feet at least, she couldn't have been much further away if she tried.

The recruits didn't know a small boy could move that fast. He quickly overtakes the recruit in second place. His capabilities always rose exponentially when his life was in danger. Lal knew that and exploited it. She herself is right behind Tsunayoshi just in case he misses and falls off. She doesn't need to worry since he passes it easily. The next one was a pyramid log climb; usually the trainees had to cling from one to the other, climbing up and then down the other side. If they fell off they had to start again. Lal had made it harder this time by coating it in sticky black gel.

Lal goes and finds the plank of wood she had used earlier and brings it back. She lays the plank on top of the logs before prompting Tsunayoshi to run up it. He does so, nearly slipping due to the steep gradient, but she pushes him onwards. Once they get to the top, Lal grabs the plank and hefts it up and over so it covers the logs in the other side. They had to be quick, the trainee in first place was nearly at the goal. Lal pushes Tsunayoshi and he slides down the plank before hitting the ground and doing a roly-poly through the goal line. Lal copies the gesture in true action-man style.

There she had won.

Not two seconds afterwards, Colonnello half slides half surfs down the slide too since he was standing up, before performing a cartwheel over the line. Almost immediately after the first recruit passes over the line. He would punch Colonnello for cheating and using the plank at the end, but he's far too out of breath to be able to do more than stand at the moment.

"Lal, that last bit, he didn't get grass stains on his back did he?" asks Colonnello frantically.

Lal shakes her head before smacking Colonnello. "Of course not, idiot. Why else do you think I spent a full two minutes of my time putting Clingfilm on his back?"

"That was so fun." Says Tsunayoshi with a huge smile decorating his slightly red face. How someone could smile so brightly that sparkles formed in the background after completing one of Lal's demon courses, no one, even Lal and Colonnello themselves, knew. Then again he had been carried most of the time. "Can we do it again?"

"NO!" Both firmly say. Once was more than enough for both of them.

Of course training doesn't stop there for the recruits. There are still shooting drills to go through. Tsunayoshi watches them for a bit, every now and again making a comment about who was going to miss their shot since something had told him that they would. Lal and Colonnello knew to take him seriously, especially since he had had this ability ever since he was a baby. At least now they knew where it came from. But eventually the rhythmic sound of guns shooting and arrows thunking into the boards sends Tsunayoshi to sleep. The recruits are surprised that Tsunayoshi could sleep through that, but he had had a lot of practice. Guns were a common weapon inside of their house after all.

Once Colonnello passes all of the tests for the shooting elements, he goes and sits next to Tsunayoshi to watch the others. But that gets rather boring rather quick. He didn't know how Lal could watch and teach them. But at least the sun was nice on his back. He stretches and lies down, enjoying the warmth. Soon after, he too falls asleep.

Lal eventually broke the recruits up for lunch. But when after an hour passes and Lal's not shouted for them to return, the recruits go and find out what's happening. They can't believe what they are seeing when they eventually do find them. Lal was asleep in the sun, an arm slung over Tsunayoshi, whose head was on Colonnello's shoulder. All the recruits knew that Lal and Colonnello loved each other, despite the flirting nature Colonnello had and Lal's apparent rejection to it. It just seemed to everyone that both were denying their feelings. But looking at them like that with the small boy, the recruits reckoned that Lal and Colonnello would make a great family one day.

Ahh, isn't that a cute image to end on? I can picture all three asleep like that, all cuddled up close. And talking of cute, Bermuda looks cuter as a baby when he has his bandages on compared to being a baby without the bandages. A bandaged Baby Bermuda is just adorable, I want to cuddle him.

So who likes Bermuda's first encounter with The Bag?

See you next time!

Phantom Hitman 1412

First Published 11 October 2012

Soldiers keep on going- Lal incorporates Tsuna into the training to hinder Colonnello