Everyone, if it says I've updated and you still don't see the chapter, please DON'T panic. Odds are that I've posted it via the mobile app, which for some reason Fanfiction hates. From what I can tell it seems to have a time delay from when I post it and when it will show up.

Also, if you've heard or read the series "Mouse", you should recognize the characters really quick. It's a Phantom Thief series that's REALLY mature and I would absolutely recommend it.

The first time Mouse, or rather Sorata Muon, heard about the "Black Cat" was when he heard the last shout of the inspector who chased him all the time.

"Damn you Mouse! I'll catch you and that Black Cat one day!"

Sorata was rather confused by that comment, so he asked one of his girls what the inspector was talking about.

"Master, it seems there is a rookie thief with a high success rate that has been making a name for themselves by the monikor of Black Cat recently," said Mei.

"There is some major debate on the gender though. It could be a girl with a relatively small chest like Hazuki," said Yayoi.

Yayoi brought up one of the few pictures of "Black Cat", which had Sorata frowning for a second. The thief looked familiar for some reason, and not because he had seen them before.

He would definitely remember eyes like that.

"Is something wrong Master?" asked Mei.

"It's probably nothing..." he said.

Why did he keep thinking of his Aunt Nana all of a sudden? She hadn't spoken to the family in years, not since she got married and moved to another town.

The first encounter he had with the new thief was during a relatively low-level theft of a somewhat famous jewel.

He was mostly getting it for Mei's birthday.

It took him a moment to register the extra in his scheme to steal the jewel.

He spotted the hair first...the girl (and considering he lived with three of them he could spot the difference immediately) had wheat colored hair, amber colored eyes and was wearing a rather androgyneous outfit that covered everything and didn't reveal their gender.

It was the eyes and the shape of the face that once again made him think of his aunt. Why, he had no idea but he had the suspicion there was a good reason for it.

He would need to have a talk to this Black Cat to find out what it was.

It was easy enough to acquire the jewel...Black Cat was quite good, but somewhat clumsy.

However it was what happened after while they were escaping that lead to a rather surprising turn of events.

He only had a second's warning, and that wasn't nearly enough. Hazuki went to block the knife attack on instinct.

Except it never reached that far.

"Stop!"

Mouse felt a shiver as some sort of power went past him and hit the man attempting to kill him. He half-turned and realized that Black Cat's eyes were glowing an amber orange color, and it had been her voice that stopped the attack. The man was almost frozen, in some strange way.

Once they were well out of harm's way he started moving again. However Mouse's full attention was on Black Cat, who was coughly up a disturbing amount of blood.

He managed to catch her before she fainted entirely, though she curled into his arms on instinct.

"Yayoi, I want you to have a complete physical done on Black Cat," said Mouse.

"Yes, Master."

"Also...it may be nothing, but could you run a DNA sample against the ones we have on file?"

"Master?" asked Mei.

"It's just a feeling," said Mouse.

His slaves easily took Black Cat to a hospital under the control of the Muon family. Since she had used that odd ability to protect their Master, rather than use it on him directly to get the jewel, she was given the best of care.

Sorata wasn't entirely too shocked when the test results came back. He was worried about Black Cat though...she was still out cold after using whatever that ability was to shield him.

Yayoi came in with the test results.

"Master, there was a partial hit on the girl's sample. It came back to a 'Muon Nana'."

Sorata felt some relief. So he hadn't imagined the odd resemblance!

"So she is my cousin then?"

"Master?" said Mei in confusion.

"I have an aunt, though we haven't heard from her in over a decade after she got married. We just assumed she was enjoying life with her new family and kept her relation to us secret," said Sorata. "I always liked Aunt Nana."

"Master, the hospital called. She's awake, though the doctors would like to have a word with you about her condition," said Yayoi.

Sorata got dressed and went to meet his cousin.

Sakura Sawada knew she was in trouble now. Ever since she first discovered that ability, she had always known the consequence of using it.

Waking up in a hospital wasn't too surprising, however she was worried about who had brought her here.

"Miss Muon? I'm Doctor Hiroshi. We had some concerns over your test results."

"Muon?" she repeated baffled.

The door opened revealing a man about twenty-ish with another doctor.

"Oh good, you're awake. You scared us when you collapsed like that."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Sorata Muon...and I'm your cousin," he replied.

"EH?!"

Hotaru was in shock, by the time he was done explaining it.

"So Mama is your father's younger sister? Why didn't she ever mention I had a cousin?" said Sakura.

"I don't know. We lost contact with her after she got married," said Sorata.

While the news that her organs were in rough shape wasn't entirely shocking, the fact she had a cousin was.

Considering she was still a bit weak, she was quietly relocated to a small house until she was up to returning home.

"So...what made you decide to become a thief?" asked Sorata.

"...You're Mouse, aren't you?" she asked.

Sorata's smile shifted, just a little, but he was still kind.

"I am."

"Phantom thieves bring hope, don't they? And it's not like I would ever get into college. Besides, with this ability of mine, I had a higher chance of getting out of trouble."

"What is that ability of yours?"

"I call it Dominion. It works best with eye contact, but if they can hear my voice it's still effective. But every time I've used it I always feel really weak after. And it's been getting worse," she said quietly. "I have no idea what it is, just that so long as I give the command it will be obeyed without question."

Sorata was nice, and something about him made her feel relaxed. Like she could trust him completely.

Once she felt up to it, Sorata made sure she was able to get home.

She had no idea the consequences of meeting her first cousin would be.

"Mei, I want you to do a full investigation of Iemitsu Sawada. Yayoi, Hazuki, I want you to find out more about Sakura's home and school life," said Sorata.

"Yes Master," said the girls.

Something about the whole situation felt wrong to him. Nana didn't recognize him at all, and when he brought up the subject of his father, she had seemed dazed and almost disoriented. Never mind the fact she didn't even question why her daughter was missing for five full days.

It didn't take much for them to come back to him with some rather alarming results.

"Master, it seems this Iemitsu Sawada is part of the Italian mafia, specifically the external advisory group of the Vongola famiglia," said Mei. "According to our sources, he boasts about what a 'loving family man' he is, but has been regularly seen with other women and hasn't been back since your cousin was born more than two or three times."

That pissed Sorata off. How dare that man treat his Aunt Nana like that?!

"And her living situation?"

"She's being bullied, rather heavily," said Yayoi. "Nearly the entire district knows her as 'Dame-Sakura', and the teachers are doing nothing to discourage the behavior of the children when it comes to her. Far from it, I've found several instances where she has tried to get her grade average up only to be accused of cheating and has received harassment from the teacher in question. She has zero friends. I suspect the Black Cat persona is her only outlet."

Sorata was not happy. Not only was his cousin being bullied, but it was clear that the man his aunt had married was less than a good husband. Never mind the fact that Sakura seemed openly resigned to the fact her mother either didn't care and that her father was nonexistent.

He wasn't about to let this sort of situation stand, not if he could do something about it. Besides, his aunt's behavior when he visited worried him greatly.

It was time to start making some arrangements.

Sakura POV

It was back to her boring life. Good thing Hibari accepted the doctor's note and the hospital bill as a 'Hibari-approved' excuse for missing almost a week of school.

"Hey, check it out!"

"What's with the limos?"

Sakura looked out the window to see what everyone was making such a commotion about, only stop and stare in shock.

Wasn't that her cousin Sorata? What was he doing here?

"Look, it's Hibari-sempai!"

She couldn't see what was being said, but to her complete disbelief Hibari-sempai stood aside and let them enter the school unharmed.

"Everyone calm down and get back in your seats!" shouted Nezu-sensei. She didn't particularly like him much.

Less than fifteen minutes later, the door opened revealing Hibari's right hand Kusakabe.

"Is Sawada-san in here? She's wanted in the receiving room."

Sakura paled. Everyone knew that office was Hibari's den, and to be called there was an almost guarantee of being bitten to death. She thought he had cleared her for that absence last week!

She took her bag, feeling as though the sword of Damocles was over her head.

So imagine her shock seeing her cousin in the office talking easily with Hibari!

"Sakura-chan! We came to pick you up," said Sorata.

"What's going on?" she asked, baffled and wide eyed.

"Hn. You're being transferred to a new school, effective immediately," said Hibari.

"Eh?!"

Sorata had a grin on his face as he made sure her classmates all saw her being loaded into the limos they brought with them. Nana was being given a full exams by trained doctors in several fields to determine what was going on with her. The fact she barely reacted to basically being kidnapped was highly worrying...she was like a puppet who's string was cut, and nothing like the woman he remembered.

"What the heck is going on?!"

"We've removed you from Namimori," said Mei. "It was rather easy to get temporary custody handed over to Master after we presented the evidence of bullying and possibly neglect."

"But Mama takes care of me," protested Sakura.

"Aunt Nana was a lot more lively and vibrant before she got married, and neglect doesn't have to present obvious signs for it to be present. Emotional neglect is just as damaging," said Sorata. "It's only temporary until we find out what happened to her."

"But...my school?"

"The Muon family has control of a rather famous and well respected school. Thanks to our connections you'll be accepted immediately as a transfer, once we have a general idea of what your placement should be," said Mei. "At the very least I wouldn't be surprised if they put you into the art department, since Master works part time there as his cover."

Everything was moving way too fast for her. Her head felt like it was spinning.

Without realizing it, she fainted from the sheer overload of what was happening to her.

"Well that could have gone better," said Sorata.

Sakura woke up in a bed that wasn't her own, in a room that was very unfamiliar.

It took her a few seconds to register the fact that the window was open and she had a clear view of the sky.

Going out to the balcony, she almost cringed when she saw how high up she was!

Feeling the hand on her shoulder, she turned to find her cousin.

"Where am I? What the heck is going on?"

Sorata smiled at her.

"Well when I found out how bad things were for you in Namimori, I made sure to do something about it. This apartment is yours now," he replied. "I wasn't about to leave my baby cousin in a horrible situation like that."

Somehow, she had the feeling her boring and somewhat unhappy life was about to change in a big way.

Momozuka-san was a very odd man, but he was rather nice.

"The history of the Muon family and that of the Mouse legacy has gone on for well over four hundred years. In that time many males of the Muon line have taken up the name and responsibility of Mouse. Young master Sorata is the 20th head of the Muon family and the current Mouse. The females, however, serve a different role as the peacemakers of the family and the ones who insure that the influence of the Muon family never wanes," said Momozuka-san. "This can primarily be attributed to the fact that whenever a woman is born into the family, oftentimes it goes hand in hand with a very rare gift of being able to sway even the most difficult of people to the side of the Muon family."

"You mean my ability to give orders and have people follow them without question is normal?" said Sakura shocked.

The old man coughed a bit.

"Actually from what we've been able to ascertain from the physical you were given, the ability is being powered from an internal source, but there is some form of block. Whenever you use it, the resulting backlash causes damage to your internal organs. The natural hypnosis ability of the Muon's female line seems to have transcended into something a bit more powerful," he explained.

Finding out that her ability was actually inherited was something of a relief.

"So what exactly do I do?" she asked. It sounded like the Muon family was really important.

"Since you have inherited the ability of the Muon family, that makes you the current heiress until Master Sorata decides to have children. You are free to continue acting as Black Cat, with all the resources of the Muon family available to you, or you may continue your education the Momozuka clan has served the Muon family for generations and is at your disposal," he replied.

It sounded like she was free to do whatever she wished, to a point.

"What's going to happen to Mama?"

"Miss Nana is being overlooked by specialists. With any luck we'll find out exactly what was done to her and be able to reverse it," he replied immediately. "Until then continue as you have been."

In school

"Everyone, I want you to give a nice welcome to my little cousin here. Why don't you introduce yourself?" asked Sorata.

Everyone in his class had been briefed about the fact she had been bullied a lot in her last school, and that he would be keeping a close eye on her until she got settled in.

This would be her first official day as a student of Yamanoue's high school freshman class.

Needless to say everyone in his class was rather eager to meet his cousin.

Sakura walked in, still a bit nervous.

"Um...hello. My name is Sakura Muon. It's nice to meet you," she said a bit quietly.

"Sakura-chan, why don't you sit next to Tsuki-chan over there?" said Sorata gently.

Sakura took the only available seat.

"So how are you related to Chuu-chan?" asked Yuki, who sat behind Tsuki.

"My mom is his father's younger sister. It was only recently that they managed to find her after she was married and found out I existed," said Sakura.

Which was more or less true, but didn't tell the full story.

"What did your dad have to say about all this?" asked Tsuki.

"I wouldn't know. He left us years ago," said Sakura bitterly.

Reading the rather extensive file on Iemitsu had insured she wanted nothing to do with him or his famiglia.

Ever since he found out Iemitsu was unfaithful to his aunt, the Vongola famiglia had become persona non grata to anyone with connections to the Muon family.

Ironically Nana (and by extension Sakura) had more influence than Iemitsu or the Vongola did.

From what they could find out, Nana had fallen for Iemitsu while working undercover as a waitress and simply kept her true heritage a secret because Iemitsu had been less than honest with her from the start. If he had simply come out and told her he was part of the mafia, odds were she would have revealed the fact she was part of the Muon main family. Then when she had Sakura she simply decided to keep it all a secret until things started to fall apart.

"So Koneko-chan, what was your last school like?" asked Tsuki, wisely changing the subject.

"Koneko-chan?" repeated Sakura.

"Well we call Sorata-sensei 'Chuu-chan' or 'Chuuta-sensei', and you look like a skittish kitten, so Koneko," explained Yuki. "What do you call him?"

"Onii-chan, because he said he never had a little sister before," she said blushing. "And my last school wasn't very nice. Everyone called me by Dame-Sakura, even the teachers."

"That's horrible," said Tsuki appalled.

"It wasn't too bad... Hibari-sempai kept the worst bullies out. If they tried to escalate beyond name calling or minor shoving he came down on them hard," said Sakura.