Chapter 60:

And Us.

Don't worry, your eyes are not deceiving you. Today is indeed not Sunday, but I had a lot of work to get done on Sunday for Monday, like a presentation, a report and an essay. And as we all know, school, or in my case University, comes first.

People wanted Varia and 1st gen to appear more… I provide… *bows in a presenting manner*

This would have been last chapter, but since I'm a major Gokudera fangirl I just had to give him the 59th chapter.

A blond haired child skips down a corridor, the world's largest grin on his face, as happy as happy can be. And why was this child so happy? There was red blood everywhere. That was the good thing about the Varia, they knew how to throw a great party. So far Belphegor hadn't regretted joining the Varia when he was bored one day. Nope, not at all. Because there was so much blood.

He runs his fingers along the wall as he skips along, covering them in the best colour around. He stops to look at them, remembering the first time his fingers had been this red. The day he had killed his brother. Yes, that was a good day, a day to remember.

"Ushishishi~ Ushishishishishi~ Shishi" He laughs, staring at his fingers.

As the subordinates of the Fake Arco Iris round the corner, all they see is a small 7 year old child laughing manically as if they have just been given the key to a candy vault, but just… a hell of a lot creepier than that. They look at each other, wondering why a child would be here, maybe trying to save his friend perhaps? Their bait was only a small child too after all. But their orders had been to kill anyone who came with the Arcobaleno.

So they run down the corridor shouting out insults in Spanish. This boy sided with the Arcobaleno, with the Italians, and didn't deserve to live. He was already tainted and unsaveable. So they'd kill him now.

Belphegor hears the noise and turns to look at the men coming his way. His grin sharpens.

"Ushishi~. Now now, there is room for all of you to bow before the Prince. Please form an orderly line and I'll allow all of you to lick my shoe. There is no need to rush."

As a pile of dismembered body parts roll to his feet, Belphegor nods in appreciation. "That's right, bow before Prince the Ripper." He looks up, the wires attached to his knives now coated in blood and visible. The stupid peasants had run straight into his trap- although he was a genius so you could expect nothing less. He had placed his wires all along the corridor in a criss-cross pattern, and in their haste the men had run straight into them. The wires were sharp enough to cut through bone. And that was how a pile of dismembered body parts came to bow before the Prince.

However at the end of the hall are still a few men who dared to remain alive. "Ka-ching," Belphegor hisses, annoyed.

But before he can do anything about it, they are knocked to the ground by a flying knee before being beaten to death.

"Ohohoho~ Don't these uniforms make these men even more delectable." Lussuria asks over his shoulder as he holds one struggling man in the air.

"Ka-ching, those were the Prince's prey, birdy." Pouts Belphegor.

"Oh well, they're mine now." Claims Lussuria, throwing a wink at Belphegor over his shoulder before giving the man in his grip another knee to the stomach.

Belphegor shivers from the wink. Fine, let the birdy have them. So instead, Belphegor goes and collects his knives and wires. When he's finished he walks over to where Lussuria is before walking straight on past. Lussuria just happened to be in the way of the next corridor.

"Mou, Bel-chan, wait for me. I don't want you getting lost." Lussuria shouts, giving one last hug to the dead body of a particularly fine man before running to catch up. When Lussuria goes to take Belphegor's hand like a mother to a child, he is instead met with a silver knife and a brand new cut on his hand. That had better not scar! Getting the message, he pouts before pulling out a flower printed plaster and covering the cut.

As much a Belphegor would like to kill Lussuria for all of his weird habits, sadly he couldn't. Lussuria did the cooking after all- none of the peasants' food was worthy of the Prince. And Lussuria looked after him that time he had a cold, and there were probably a few other reasons that alluded him at the moment too.

So they continue to walk down the corridors, taking out any men who come their way. Luckily the men were well trained and a decent fight; most of the time it wasn't over unbearably quick. But still, none of them were Varia Quality.

Suddenly there is the sound of crashing glass and the lights around the pair go out. The Varia pair crouch down, wary of an attack. They sneak around the next corner, listening for any sound of footsteps or an attacker. They do hear something, something very familiar.

The crackle of electricity.

"Levi Volta!"

The air glows blue as the electricity is discharged and shoots straight towards a small crowd of enemies. They try to dodge and to run but the electricity branches out like lightning. There is no way to escape. Shouts fill the air as lights and shadows bounce along the walls. The shadows show a pretty picture, Belphegor admits. But then the light dies out and the world returns to blackened silence.

"Che, pathetic weaklings." Levi growls before turning and walking away.

"Heeey~ Levi! That was so pretty." Sings Lussuria as Levi walks past. Hearing the voice, Levi grabs one of his umbrella's and creates a small spark, just enough to see where he was going and what was in front of him.

Levi grunts a greeting to the pair before striding down the corridor. The other two follow since there is nothing better to do. Belphegor half walks half skips backwards, taking out any who dare approach them like cowards from behind. In the meantime, white and blue electricity flashes out in front, creating patterns in the air before diving into its opponent. Those who have fallen are soon kicked out of the way or stepped on.

As they keep on walking, soon another colour fills the air other than blue and white and that is orange and red. Bars of orange shoot across their vision, illuminating the crossroads that they are about to come to. Shouts of defiance are silenced as soon as the orange lights up the corridor; there is no time to scream, no time to shout, no time to warn anyone else. Flaming shot after shot is fired, warming the freezing underground air, until every last enemy coming from that direction is obliterated. No questions asked.

After a quick peek to check they weren't about to become roasted, the trio walk fearlessly around the corner. Xanxus only sees movement out of the corner of his eye and reflectively shoots, but the Varia members are trained enough to jump out of the way. They finish walking down the corridor and come into what seemed to be some sort of gathering room. Trust Boss to find the enemy jackpot.

Even the lights down this end are out, Levi having destroyed the circuits totally when calling the electricity to him. But for Xanxus and Squalo, the best and most trained members of the Varia, that doesn't matter. As more enemies fall under the raw power of Xanxus and his X-Guns, light flickers across the room.

Squalo's blade was reflecting the light from Xanxus's shots, looking like a dancing flame or a will-o'-whisp. The flame shimmered all around the room, suddenly here, suddenly there, never in the same place twice.

It would have been a sight to behold… if Squalo wasn't shouting obscenities that even sailors twice his age would be proud of. Xanxus of course didn't say anything, this trash wasn't even worth his time. He wouldn't even be here at all if it he didn't need to teach these trashes of trash a lesson: To never take something Xanxus was interested in.

The trio knew better then to involve themselves in a fight the pair were in. It usually resulted in becoming a target yourself. Plus, Lussuria was far too busy patching Belphegor and Levi up. Squalo was one of the few people, possibly the only one, who could fight in the same area as Xanxus and not be burnt along with everyone else. It was a testament to how long the two had been together, and possibly a tiny show of respect on Xanxus's part. Maybe. Or maybe he was just in a good mood for once.

Finally the room returns to black, and for once silence as Squalo caught his breath.

"Boosssuu~ Hurry up, or we'll leave you behind!" Lussuria teases, standing in the light coming from a stairwell. Xanxus grunts and pushes Squalo down the stairs before him, which causes Squalo to shout and wave his sword at his Boss. Squalo's reward is another kick to force him down the stairs.

"Shishi~ How is it that Boss is the only one uninjured?" Belphegor asks, as they reach the very bottom. Everyone accept Xanxus had cuts and bruises on them.

Squalo flicks his hair over his shoulder in a 'because of me of course' gesture, yet remains silent. The other three nod their heads. Of course it was because of Squalo. Plus it was rather hard to get anywhere near Xanxus when the Boss had his X-Guns out and charged. Taking away something Xanxus considered he owned was a good way to fuel the rage he needed for his Flames to work.

Xanxus looks over his men before clicking his tongue and looking away. "Che, because you are all weak trash." He answers.

"Mou~ Those men were well trained." Defends Lussuria. "Although how those fake Arco-whatsits think they are on the same level as the Arcobaleno when they have subordinates to help them is unbelievable. The Arcobaleno don't rely on anyone else."

The others had to agree.

"Wow, weapons sure have changed over the past four hundred years." Comments G, ducking under something that was flashing and making a zapping noise. "Lampo, you should try this."

G. grabs the arm of his attacker and flips the man over his shoulder before putting a bullet in his leg. As the man grabs his leg to stop the pain, he drops the tazer, so G. picks it up. He presses the blue button on the side and the box makes the same zapping noise. He wondered whether Lightning Flames could do the same thing? Leaning down he tries the tazer out on the man he'd shot earlier. The man spasms and makes a weird gurgling noise before going limp and not moving for a long time.

"Good stuff this." He comments, nodding to himself.

He is suddenly chucked over someone's shoulder. "Oi, what do ya think you're doin'?" His bow was currently now digging into his back rather uncomfortably in this position, not to mention his arrows were about to fall out of the holder.

"You should pay attention G." chides Giotto, finally putting G. down after punching some guy's lights out.

"But Giotto, have you ever seen one of these?" asks G., holding the tazer out. "It's like a lightening strike stored in a box! I wonder how they managed to get the lightning in there?"

"Well you can ask Verde later when we return." Sighs Giotto, G. was always interested in the newest thing available. The amount of money he used to spend on the latest gun parts was amazing.

"Should you two really be having a granny nattering session here?" asks Cozart, walking up to them casually. Behind the red head, two men who were suspended in the air by gravity fall to the ground.

"Well, there's not really a lot to worry about, the others seem to be having fun and have got it covered." Shrugs Giotto.

"Che, that's assuming that Daemon and Alaude don't have so much fun that they tear the place down around us. This church does look rather unstable." G says in a warning tone. The pair never really bothered about property damage, having come from rich families who sorted out all of their messes.

"Talking of churches, Knuckle looks like he's about to burst a blood vessel over there. I don't think he likes the idea of fighting in a church." Comments Cozart, nodding in the priest's direction.

With a right straight directly in the solar plexus, yet another man falls before Knuckle. The priest takes the hymn book that the man was about to throw towards him and places it with the others of God's books he had managed to save. He may have gone over his three minute time limit, but he was sure that God would forgive him just this once. Violence should not be committed in a place of peace and sanctuary.

Another opponent comes towards him, so Knuckle meets him head on, his fist meeting with the metal of a gun and denting the weapon before it is forced out of the man's grip. A quick jab to the temple renders the man unconscious and he falls to the floor. A knife grazes the back of his leg, so he quickly spins around to face the cowardly attacker. Even if his footwork is hindered slightly, it is more than fast enough to dodge the next knife and come into the man's personal space. Once there, Knuckle gives a few consecutive jabs to the man's torso, followed by a left hook under the chin.

Across the room, metal clangs against metal before the sound of a gunshot going wrong resounds. G. hisses in sympathy automatically at the sound, he himself knowing how painful a backfire is. Looking over to the unfortunate soul, he finds the man knocked in the back of the head by the hilt of one of Asari's swords. Asari had come in and cut off the barrel of the gun, causing the misfire.

With the sword in his other hand, Asari spins it around his hand, deflecting the bombs that had been thrown at him. They fly into a crowd of enemies who were trying to get through Lampo's shield. Good luck with that. Lampo's shield was practically impenetrable when he was curled up like he was. He was still protecting their escape route like he said he would. Within a few seconds the bombs go off, and the enemies fall to the ground, clothes blackened and charred. Lampo himself was unharmed, but did peek around his shield to check what was going on. Asari waves to him to let him know the blast was his fault, before turning back to his opponent.

In three flashes of blue the men around him shout out in pain, their weapons dropped to the floor and useless. With three quick yet harsh taps, all three are unconscious.

However the blast from the bombs shakes the room, causing some cement and tiles to fall from the ceiling. Cozart uses his control of gravity to stop the debris landing on his comrades before sending them flying into the enemies around him instead. Alaude growls, brushing the dust quickly out of his hair and off of his coat. Daemon does the same after felling his most recent attackers.

"And that makes 24." He smiles confidently at Alaude, knowing he had more than the other.

With a harsh twirl of his wrist, Alaude's handcuffs go flying towards Daemon, who ducks under the rather obvious attack. However the handcuffs actually land on an enemy who was coming up behind Daemon. With a tug, the man comes stumbling forwards, trips over Daemon and lands on the floor. A few swift blows finish the man off. Alaude sneers down at Daemon who was sprawled out on the floor.

"28." He supplies, before turning and running across the room to find someone else interesting to fight.

Daemon grumbles as he stands up, brushing even more dust and litter off of his jacket, noticing every rip and tear it had. He clenches his fists in anger before looking up at the nearest enemies. He gives them a devilish grin, promising a painful end. The enemies gulp and take a step backwards at the expression, slightly scared of him. That fear builds as they watch the one of the man's eyes change into a spade shape. That was not normal.

Giotto sighs from over the other side of the room, watching as Daemon mentally broke the minds of the men he was fighting. But he doesn't watch for long since his hyper intuition acts up at that point.

Luckily G. was still shooting arrows and covering Giotto's back or else he might have gotten hit for his lack of concentration. However, after years of friendship, G. already knew to watch Giotto's back. Many thought that G. was constantly by Giotto's side due to his position as Giotto's Right Hand Man. But that wasn't the case. Over many battles together, G. had noticed moments where Giotto would lack focus and stare into space for a moment before suddenly looking with adept focus at some random point or person. Just like he had done now. So to keep his best friend safe, G. automatically covered Giotto just incase one of these moments of intuition appeared.

Giotto looks up to the ceiling, watching as a huge crack across it gets wider and wider. He quickly realises that it's going to fall. There had been shakes and shivers from underground for quite a while now, no doubt from Xanxus's X-Guns and the battles the Arcobaleno were certainly having. Add those in to the damage his own Guardians were doing, and it was a wonder how the building was still standing. With a burst of Flames from his gloves, Giotto flies to the ceiling to try and hold it up. If worst come to worse, then he could try and burn the falling ceiling instead.

"Everyone! Be careful with the building. It's not stable and is going to fall soon. Hurry up so we can get out of here." He shouts. The Guardians give shouts back to say that they've heard him. Not that they remain careful for longer than 5 minutes.

There is another shake from underground and more of the ceiling breaks away. "I'm serious guys! It could collapse with just one more-"

BOOM!

A section of the wall near the door is unexpectedly surrounded in dust. There are shadows in the dust, barely visible. The Guardians just hope it's not more enemies. And it isn't… kinda. As the dust settles, it is revealed that the Varia have arrived.

"VROIII!" Squalo shouts, steping into the room. "So this is where you've been keeping them!"

"Ahh~ Look. Even more handsome men in uniform~" coos Lussuria, taking a good look around at the few left standing.

Basically, the Varia had gotten to the lowest level of the place, only to find the remains of a torturing session, Mammon and Reborn. Before Squalo can even finish a 'vroi' or before Belphegor can run over to pull on Mammon's cheeks, a black portal appears behind them and the Arcobaleno disappear, dragging an unconscious man after them.

Of course that meant that the brat was safe, meaning there was no one to punish. So getting bored the Varia decided to see if there was anyone else to fight against. As they climbed back to ground level they heard the sounds of another fight. With a quick blast of Levi's lightning, the wall had been destroyed, creating their grand dramatic entrance.

"YOU IDIOTS!" Giotto roars as the ceiling starts to collapse.

Needless to say, two teams of dust covered men arrived back at Mafia Row early that morning. Apart from Xanxus, who was still as clean as when he'd walked out. He had used his X-guns to destroy the ceiling before it got to him. A piece of rock was not going to be the end of Xanxus. That blast of Flame had also saved the majority of the Varia too. Cozart had a harder job, having to save many different people from different parts of the room. He was currently over Giotto's shoulder since using that many Flames after a long battle had wiped him out.

The two groups glare at each other since the battle had had such an unorthodox ending, before turning away and each entering their own houses.

Well, at least Tsunayoshi had been saved.

Too bad it wasn't by them personally.

Hmm, the Varia part sounded a lot more like a Thief chapter than a Mafia Row chapter. Oh well, that's easily rectified in the next chapter where I'm bringing back the cute!

I hope to see you all there tomorrow!

Phantom Hitman 1412

First Published 12 December 2012

Since I wasn't planing on this chapter, I had to come up with a title for it, 'and us' fits onto the end of the rest of the sentence, making it:

When something important has gone missing, you ask everyone, look everywhere and do all you can to find it again and deal with whoever had dared to steal it from you and us.

Sounds a little weird now, but oh well. The Varia and 1st Gen weren't pleased that Tsunayoshi was taken either so it fits contextually.