"Hey, where are you going?" a voice said, stopping Birds in his steps. One of Bird's cute canary chirped, apparently at random and meaninglessly, but in reality telling him who it was that had just appeared.
The Inu, Birds thought silently, wondering what he wanted with him. They rarely interact since Birds didn't think much of him at all.
"Not that I give a damn," Ken continued, stalking forward so he was finally in Bird's peripheral, "but me and Kakipi are gonna take care of the ranked guys. If you take my preys" – a feral grin split Ken's face – "then I'll just haveta go after ya, byon."
Ah, of course, Birds thought as Ken revealed his intentions. Just like a fighting hound that could never get enough of fights.
"The Bloody Twins are getting restless," Birds explained as he turned around, calm and self-assured of his place. "Things aren't nearly as interesting as I thought they were, so I thought why not have some fun? Ah, how I miss the thrill of looking at frightened faces."Birds' face twisted perversely at the thought.
"Sicko," Ken said, wrinkling his nose in disgust.
Birds chuckled as he walked away. "I won't take your prey, Inu" – Ken growled lowly at Birds calling him dog – "but if you lose, it's all fair game."
"I won't lose!" Ken shouted angrily.
"Hm." Birds slurped the drool that threatened to fall from the corner of his mouth. "My cute birds are already looking around for a suitable prey. Soon, I can have some fun." Birds turned to the Twins behind him. "Let's go, Bloody Twins."
"I can't stand that sicko, byon!" Ken exclaimed as Birds left with the Bloody Twins trailing behind him. "'least we're not going after random people."
"Leave him be," Chikusa said, stepping out from the side. "As long as he doesn't interfere with us and does his job, whatever he does in his free time doesn't concern us."
"We're gonna go after number 4 now?"
"Not yet," Chikusa said. "Later. We don't have to move so fast."
"Why not?" Ken asked. "It's the same anyway."
"Once we find the Vongola, Mukuro-sama will have to make a move. We weren't treated as harshly in the Vendicare, but Mukuro-sama was at their mercy for a long time. He overexerted himself when covering for us during our escape. Although we waited for two week before we began flushing out the Vongola, Mukuro-sama is still not fully recovered. Let's take this slowly."
"Okay," Ken said, simply accepting. Multiple chirping noises brought his attention upwards as a grin spread across his face. His hand dug into his pocket and when it surfaced, it had his Wolf Channel. He slipped the fangs into his mouth and as his body morphed to the semblance of a half-wolf, he bent his knees to ready himself for the jump. "I'll just amuse myself with his birds then!"
With those words, Ken leapt at the canary birds Birds left behind with a feral gleam in his eyes.
Chikusa merely shook his head.
Xxx
"Birds and the Bloody Twins have been seen leaving Kokuyo Land," Reborn announced, letting the ladybug flutter away from his finger. "From the path they're following, they're heading towards Namimori Park." Reborn glanced at the two teenagers before him. "Gokudera, Yamamoto, as planned, you two will go. Ryohei and Tsuna will take the next two."
"I'll take on the Bloody Twins," Gokudera claimed, quickly dropping his video consol at the chance to finally do what he was waiting for, and Reborn had no doubt that he wanted to take on an extra opponent to show his worth.
"Maa, maa, Gokudera," Yamamoto said, abandoning his game as well. "I want to fight them too."
"What?" Gokudera growled, giving him a look.
"Why, Yamamoto?" Tsuna asked, speaking for the first time.
Yamamoto grinned. "I never fought against twins before. I want to try."
"That stupid reason—!" Gokudera said. "I'm gonna fight them."
"Eh? Can't you just let me fight them this once?"
"Only one person can fight against them!"
"G-guys!" Tsuna interjected, scared of interrupting but hated the thought of seeing his friends fight amongst themselves. Both Gokudera and Yamamoto stopped to look at him, and Tsuna paused momentarily at the undivided attention they immediately gave him. "How about you two just… er… rock-paper-scissors?"
At Tsuna's suggestion, a grin spread across Yamamoto's face. "Tsuna, you sure are smart."
"Of course the Tenth is," Gokudera said, calming down now that a solution was reached. "Now let's do this."
"Alright," Yamamoto laughed.
"Rock-paper-scissors!" both of them chanted, bringing out their chosen sign at the last moment.
Silenced reigned as the four occupants of the room looked at the two extended hands.
"Does this mean I won?" Yamamoto asked, looking at his open palm.
"Damn it!" Gokudera said as he fell to the ground, looking at his clenched fist in betrayal. A moment later, his head shot up with determination and fire in his eyes. "Again!"
"There's no time for this," Reborn interjected. "Gokudera, live with your choice."
The frown on Gokudera's face spoke of his displeasure but suitably chastised, he nodded in agreement instead of arguing.
"I'll get going then," he said, and hurried to the door. "Tenth, I'll make sure to defeat the stupid Birds."
"Ah, wait for me, Gokudera," Yamamoto said when he realized Gokudera was already rushing out of Tsuna's bedroom. "We're going to the same place anyway."
"Don't follow me, you baseball freak!"
"Maa, maa, don't be like that."
"Will they really be fine?" Tsuna asked, looking after where he last saw Gokudera and Yamamoto.
"Will you go with them, Tsuna?" Reborn said.
"No!" Tsuna immediately exclaimed.
"Then you have no right to worry," Reborn said. "Besides, do you really have time to worry about others? The next ones up are you and Ryohei."
"Please don't remind me of it," Tsuna whimpered.
Xxx
A few canary birds circled above Birds's head, chirping as he readied his monitor when Hayato arrived. Birds probably had to make sure the cameras he attached on the canaries were at the right angle, so he could clearly see his victim's face or something.
The observation only made Hayato, who was already angry at himself for losing his targeted prey – the Bloody Twins – to the baseball freak, more furious. The only thing Hayato could console himself with was the knowledge that if the baseball freak failed at taking care of the Bloody Twins, he would be happy to know he at least got rid of Birds.
"Oi, you're Birds, right?" Hayato exclaimed as he stepped in front of the other man. Birds looked up from where he was sitting, letting the tiny bird in his hand go. It fluttered into the air as Birds brought his attention to him.
"Oh? You know of me?" Birds said with surprise, standing up. "How interesting."
"Great," Hayato said, and before Birds could get another word out, he whipped out his dynamites. "I'm in a shitty mood right now. Just eat shit."
"Huh?" Birds said upon seeing Hayato's weapon. "Oh no. Wait –!"
"Double bomb!"
"Gah!" Birds screamed when the dynamites hit him. When the smoke cleared, Birds laid on the ground, twitching with second-degree burns.
Hayato stood at ready, waiting for Birds to get back up, because a prisoner who was imprisoned in the infamous Vendicare surely shouldn't be so weak, except Birds was. He didn't get back up.
Hayato stared. "Hey, you're kidding me, aren't you?" he said, stalking forward when he realized Birds was really beaten just like that. "I'm not nearly done with you."
"I – I don't fight," Birds said weakly. Above him, canary birds fluttered around.
"Hell no," Hayato said, ire boiling within him. "First I don't get to fight the Twins, and then this battle turns out to be damn anticlimactic? Now thinking about it, it was you who was sent those stupid birds to follow me, aren't you?!"
Birds whimpered.
"Get up," Hayato hissed, bringing his feet up and mercilessly kicked the other man. "Damn bastard. Get up and face me like a man. Give me a proper battle."
"M-mercy!" Birds shouted.
"Aw, fucking –" Hayato exclaimed, only to shortly notice a shadow approaching him. With his steadily worsened mood, he was willing to take on just about anyone.
"Who the fuck –?" he snapped, turning around.
Hayato froze when he found himself facing bandaged people dressed in black. "Vendice…"
Slivery chains shot out from one of them and wrapped around the whimpering Birds. "We'll take it from here," one of the two masked guards said.
Something let out a shrill noise and a few moments later, the other guard pulled out a round mirror-like device. The guard flipped it open, much like how one would do with a cell phone, and there were hushed, too low to be heard exchange for the next minute. After the guard flipped the device down again, he brought his attention to Hayato, staring at him silently.
Hayato unconsciously straightened up under the guard's eerie gaze and swallowed, inwardly wondering what the Vendice was doing here. Then he remembered the Kokuyo Gang, as they came to be known as, had previously escaped from the Vendicare before arriving at Japan.
"Y-" Hayato cleared his throat when he heard how weak it sounded. "You're here to collect Mukuro and his accomplice."
There was no reply for many tense moments, before the Vendice with the chain turned away. "Let's go," he indicated to the other.
In silent agreement, the two Vendice began to drag Birds away. Hayato wondered how the citizens of Namimori didn't find anything amiss, before realizing one of them was probably using some sort of illusion to mask their presence. After all, Hayato hadn't noticed the Vendice's presence until they didn't bother hiding it from him.
Just when Hayato was about to relax upon seeing the Vendice leaving, the Vendice with the round communication device turned back. Hayato froze, wondering at his reason.
The Vendice looked at him for a long moment, before saying, "You might want to check up on your friend, mafia."
Then, without waiting for a reply, the two Vendice left and disappeared from sight.
"The hell…?" Hayato voiced. Then recalling the Vendice's words, he hurried over to where he departed with Yamamoto.
Xxx
Practiced, nearly silent footsteps neared him, causing Chikusa's hand to automatically inch towards his yo-yos. It was only when the shadow of the person fell upon him – his hairstyle shaped like a pineapple – that Chikusa relaxed. "Mukuro-sama," Chikusa said as he brought his book down and looked up.
"Chikusa, where is Birds?" Murkuro questioned, heterochromatic eyes peering out at him.
"He went out about twenty minutes ago," Chikusa informed the illusionist. "He said he was bored and went outside with the Bloody Twins for some entertainment."
Chikusa couldn't quite help the slight disgust that entered his voice at the mention of Birds's sick interest. Although he had meant what he told Ken before that as long as Birds's intentions and actions aligned with theirs then Chikusa wouldn't care what he did, it didn't mean Chikusa approved Birds's interest of terrorizing the weak. It reminded him too much of when he was experimented on by the Estraneo Famiglia because he had no means to fight back at the time.
A soft chuckle reached Chikusa's ears.
"You don't approve of him, Chikusa?" Mukuro voiced. Of course Mukuro was sharp enough to detect the minute distaste in Chikusa's tone.
"He's not strong," Chikusa said honestly. "I don't understand why you chose to rescue him."
"Hm," Mukuro said as his smile widened. "You have a point, although your distaste has to do with his personality as well, no?"
Chikusa said nothing, both knowing that Mukuro was right.
"Regardless, there's no harm of having a few more pawns. Birds is not physically strong, but those birds of his provide us with a surveillance network," Mukuro said. "Then, there is the Bloody Twins."
"Because they only listen to him," Chikusa voiced.
"Exactly. The Bloody Twins are serial killers, strong enough to have caught the Vendice's attention as we had. Birds was there only because of the sheer enemies he made through blackmails, but he controls the Bloody Twins. It's a pity that the Bloody Twins don't possess enough minds to be controlled, or I would have controlled them directly."
"Their movements are unusual," Chikusa mentioned.
"They're double-jointed," Mukuro said, "which makes a variety of their movements unpredictable since few people have ever fought against such enemies."
Xxx
"You two are very strong, aren't you?" Takeshi said, even as he was forced to skid back due to the force Twin #1 exerted against his bat.
Takeshi let out a small curse when the other Twin immediately appeared on his right, sweeping his long arm at him.
"Ahahahaha, I might have bite off more than I can chew," he said to himself as he swung his bat at the first twin (or was it the second one, Yamamoto lost track already). As he moved his arm, pain shot up his biceps, reminding him of the hit one of the twins got in previously.
Uh oh, Takeshi thought. I hope that'll heal before my baseball game.
Takeshi's bat slammed into one of the Twin's arm and the two had a standoff for a few second, with both attempting to push the other back. Then the twin brought his other arm out and swiped at him from an odd angle and Takeshi was forced to retreat.
Meaning he stepped right into the other twin's path.
This is not going to work, Takeshi instinctively knew, wincing as he took the hit from the twin and danced out of the way. What he needed to do was focus on one twin at a time.
The twins soon met with each other, both of them staring at Yamamoto with blank eyes. It was only through this pause in battle that Takeshi finally noticed a figure standing on the lamppost, watching his battle.
"Hey!" Takeshi shouted upwards, attention momentarily distracted from the Bloody Twins. "Whatcha doing there?"
The figure donned in black and covered in bandages said nothing. He didn't even seem to acknowledge him until he tilted his head down minutely and a disembodied voice said, "You might want to pay attention."
Takeshi's instincts screamed at him in that moment, causing him to duck down and simultaneously bring his bat up to block the other pair of arms. Two pairs of hallow eyes stared down at him.
"Creepy," Takeshi said with a grin at odds with his words, before he quickly rose and using that momentum, pushed back the Twin back. "I guess I'll fight against you then!"
Without waiting for a reply, Takeshi hurried forward and let out a barrage of attacks onto the Twin. The twin, although pretty strong, was taken by surprise by Takeshi's sudden aggressive attacks and couldn't react accordingly.
Takeshi attacked as he dodged most of the other twin's attack, straining all his attentions to ensure the twins didn't switch place during the fight, since that would defeat his purpose of trying to focus on one of them at a time.
At last, Takeshi saw the twin he was actively fighting against falter in defending himself. Takeshi stopped, ignoring opening he left for the other twin, and brought his both of his hands on the handle of his bat. Takeshi shifted his stance like he had done it all his life and leaned back slightly to give himself momentum, and then shot forward with his bat in hand.
The twin could only let out a cry before he crumpled. Takeshi couldn't even let a proper grin spread across his face before he became aware of the shadow of the other twin falling upon him.
Takeshi attempted to twist around even though he instinctively knew he wouldn't make it in time. He readied himself for the pain a fifth way through his turn and guarded his arm, before a sudden explosion propelled him forward.
Takeshi blinked and turned, a grin spreading across his face when he saw who it was. "Gokudera!"
"Shuddup," Gokudera hissed as threw some more dynamites at the remaining twin. "I'm not doing this to help you, alright? This is the first mission Juudaime gave us. I'm not letting you fail it for us."
Takeshi couldn't help but laugh at Gokudera's words. "Thanks!"
"I just said –!" Gokudera hissed, directing his attention to Takeshi. The twin that remained took that moment to leap at him.
Takeshi shot forward and blocked it with his bat. "Let's win this together, Gokudera," Takeshi said.
Gokudera huffed as he pulled out more dynamites. "Just don't get in my way."
"Hai, hai," Takeshi acquiesced.
Xxx
It didn't take long until Gokduera and Takeshi brought Twin #2 down. The second they did, another presence came along.
Both Gokudera and Takeshi's eyes followed the figure in black's path as he jumped down from the lamppost and gracefully landed on his feet. Chains Takeshi didn't notice previously slithered from the figure to the two Twins on the ground, firmly constraining the two prisoners.
"My team leader wants me to pass on this message," the figure said. "Clean up the rest of Mukuro's people as soon as possible. The Vendice don't have much patience."
With those last words, the figure in black walked away with the Blood Twins trailing behind him.
"What's the Vendice?" Takeshi finally voiced when the figure was gone. His skin prickled as he said the name. "I have a bad feeling about them."
"They're guards of the prison Mukuro escaped from," Gokudera answered, eyes never leaving the spot where he last saw the figure.
Gokudera tore his eyes away at last. "Let's go," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "We should go back and tell the Tenth and Reborn-san about this."
"Sure," Takeshi said. With one last look at where the figure was last seen, Takeshi looked away and followed.
Xxx
"Birds hasn't returned yet?" Mukuro said, sitting on a couch regally as his mismatched eyes peered at each minionwithin the room.
Chikusa silently shook his head in reply as M.M answered, "Nope. Have no idea where that old geezer went."
"Interesting," Mukuro said, a faint smile appearing on his face at the mystery. "What do you think, Chikusa?"
Chikusa pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose before he spoke. "There are two options. Both are equally likely," he started. "One, Birds purposely fled from us. Two, Vongola or another party defeated him."
M.M shook her head at the last suggestion. "By who? No one in this little town is strong enough to beat us. The old geezer is weak, but he had his cute Bloody Twins with him. Fat chance anything will happen to him," M.M said. "He probably just went senile and forgot to come back. It's not like we have a curfew anyway."
Mukuro let out a little thoughtful hm as his eyes shifted to the stairs. "Let's see what Ken has to say, should we?" he said, just before Ken came trampling up the stairs.
"Mukuro-sama," Ken beamed, grinning at him. He made his way to join Mukuro's other minions.
"What did you find, Ken?" Mukuro prompted. He had told Ken to track down Birds earlier with his Wolf Channel when Birds hadn't returned after a full day.
"He was at the park, byon," Ken said. "And fought someone with lot of , his scent just disappeared."
Mukuro raised a delicate eyebrow at Ken's word choice. "Disappeared, you say?"
"Yeah, his scent was erased. There was nothing to follow after the battle, byon."
"How intriguing," Mukuro voiced. "What of the Bloody Twins?"
"Same thing, byon. Defeated then just disappeared," Ken answered. "Around the town, there are lots of places that have these blank spots with no smell, like someone is going around erasing them."
"Can you follow these blank spots and track their movement?" Mukuro questioned, although he didn't hold out much hope.
Ken shook his head. Had he been in his Wolf Channel and he had ears and tail, both would have drooped. "All these stuff 'round are confusing my nose."
Mukuro nodded, mind whirling at the information Ken provided. "How…unexpected. It seems like there is an illusionist about, power and skilled enough to cloak even the sense of smell." He paused for a moment, before he said with a wry tone, "It appears the Vendice might have caught up with us faster than I've excepted."
M.M's head shot up, Ken voiced a loud 'Huh?!' and Chikusa's eyes widened ever slightly. Mukuro chuckled at their reaction.
"Kufufu, there's no need to worry, my dear minions," Mukuro said as he leaned forward. "I say this development is unexpected, but not yet troubling. Not nearly. After all, my illusions are strong. I fooled them once when we escaped the Vendicare and that was at my weakest. I can easily do that again."
"But Mukuro-sama!" M.M protested. "We are still going along with your plan, right? It means we'll still have to go outside for the remaining ranked fighters."
"Are you scared, M.M?" Mukuro asked, his single crimson eye gazing piercingly at her. Mukuro chuckled as M.M involuntarily shivered. She scowled and straightened up, lifting her head proudly.
"No," M.M stated, plain and simple.
"Good," Mukuro said approvingly and M.M preened at the approval heard in his voice.
"Ken," Chikusa said softly. Ken looked at him. "What's that in your hand?"
Ken started and glanced down in his closed hand. "Oh, this?" Ken said, unfurling his fist. "I forgot about this, byon."
"Ew!" M.M exclaimed upon seeing the little charred bird in his hand. "Why did you bring that?"
Ken stuck his tongue out at M.M's reaction.
"I found it at the park, byon," Ken said with a grin, gazing at the bird. "It looks cooked, so I'm gonna try eating it." Ken licked his lips at the thought. "Looks tasty, byon."
"Nasty," M.M declared.
Ken grinned at her. "Want some?" he said antagonistically. "I have more."
He dropped the bird he held in his hand and dug into his pockets, pulling out at least a dozen of the same little birds charred from being caught in the crossfire of dynamites. They all hit the ground with little thumps and clang.
Mukuro, who up until then was simply watching the spectacle in front of him with amusement, narrowed his eyes. "Ken," he voiced and instantly, he had everyone in the room's attention.
Although it was Ken's name that Mukuro called, it was Chikusa who silently stepped forward. He moved to the pile of birds on the ground and bent down, hand and eyes rapidly shuffling through them.
Mukuro smiled his approval at Chikusa's actions as M.M and Ken looked at each other in bemusement, not understanding. Chikusa didn't bother explaining, only occasionally pausing in whatever he was searching for to remove something from the pile. Finally, he stood.
"Mukuro-sama," Chikusa said, looking at him. He angled his hand so he could show the illusionist the items that were on his palm. "They're cameras."
"Birds had a habit of filming the reaction of the people he blackmails by using his canaries, didn't he?" Mukuro asked rhetorically. His lips quirked minutely. "Seems like our mystery might be solved. Chikusa, shuffle through them all and see which ones are salvageable."
Chikusa nodded his acknowledgement of the order and went. An hour later, the Kokuyo Gang gathered at the second floor of the dilapidated building that they called their base. That was the only layer with electricity.
Chikusa inserted a memory card into the computer slot and waited for it to load. "I moved all the viewable parts of the recordings here," he explained as a window popped up with a list of options for him to make. Chikusa clicked open folder and double-clicked on the single video in the folder.
A familiar figure came onto view, blown wide on the monitors Birds insisted on installing in the base. A creepy voice followed. "Keep still, little birds," Birds said in the video. He could be seen adjusting a camera on another bird that patiently held still. "Soon, we can start having fun."
From off screen, a voice called out, "Oi, you're Birds, right?"
The bird with the camera turned to the speaker, enabling the camera to capture the appearance of whoever called out and presumably defeated Birds. It was a young boy, no older than fifteen with silver hair and a scowl permanently stuck on his face.
They watched the following battle and when the silver-headed teen brought out dynamites and threw them towards Birds, and by extension, the surveillance canary birds, their screen blacked out.
"The audio could still be heard," Chikusa explained when he made no move to change the video. The rest of the gang listened.
"Aw, fucking… Who the fuck –?
"…Vendice…"
"Y-You're here to collect Mukuro and his accomplice."
"You might want to check up on your friend, mafia."
A little later, the visuals came back on, this time featuring the Bloody Twins. The Bloody Twins were following a girl around, who was oblivious to their presence. Undoubtedly, they were waiting for Birds to give them orders when a teenager with black hair and a bat strapped to his back suddenly appeared, cutting between them and the girl.
"Hey," the teenager said simply, an easy-going grin on his face. "It's not nice following someone like that, you know?"
The twins gave no reply, staring at the teenager blankly like they didn't know what to do since no order was given from Birds.
"Hello? Anyone home?" the teenager said, peering up at the twins when they didn't react. "You guys are the Bloody Twins, right?"
At the sound of their names, both of the twin's heads snapped to him like activated dolls. The teenage blinked in surprise at the reaction he so suddenly received, and that was all he managed to do before the Bloody Twins suddenly launched at him.
"Whoah, ouch!" the teenager exclaimed as he was pushed back, receiving a hit on his bicep even as his eyes narrowed dangerously and he brought his hand back to his bat. The next moment, the teenager had the bat in hand and was charging forward.
The teenager did pretty well against the Bloody Twins, considering his lack of fighting experience, as seen by his reaction every time he received a hit. He wasn't used to pain and hits that stemmed from a battle, but he was made for fighting.
As the battle progressed, although he was losing, a grin slowly made its way across his face.
"A natural born hitman, I would say," Mukuro murmured as crimson eyes carefully watched the screen.
Despite the teenager's inexperience, his movements smoothed as the time passed and his body got used to the pace. His awkward moves bled away from him as instincts took over, and at the moment where an opening was presented, he leapt like an experienced predator.
One of the twins was down, but the other one was upon him. The teenager wasn't going to make it on time to guard himself and what a pity. He would have been an interesting person to control.
But ah, then came the silver-haired teen and how interesting. Although the camera blacked out once again due to the silver-haired's dynamites, it appeared that the teenagers worked well enough to take down the remaining twin.
Mukuro's eyes sharpened when another voice was heard from the audio.
"My team leader wants me to pass on this message. Clean up the rest of Mukuro's people as soon as possible. The Vendice don't have much patience."
"What is the Vendice? I have a bad feeling about them."
"They're guards of the prison Mukuro escaped from. Let's go. We should go back and tell the Tenth and Reborn-san about this."
There was another beat of silence after the video was finished, before M.M spoke.
"So the Vendicare are after us," M.M said. She stole a glance at Mukuro, recalling how he asked her if she was scared of the Vendice, before saying, "Not that I'm afraid, but why are the Vendicare letting the Vongola fight against us? Wouldn't the Vendicare want to personally capture us as soon as possible instead?"
At that question, Mukuro's lips slowly curved. "It seems like Vongola made a deal with the Vendice regarding us," Mukuro said.
"Ehhh?" Ken said, tilting his head to the side like a bemused pup. "Why?"
"It doesn't matter," Mukuro said. "Regardless of their plans for us, we're going to do as we planned. Birds' capture actually gave us valuable information. We now identified two of Vongola's subordinates." Mukuro looked at Ken. "Can you track their sense down, Ken?"
"Yup," Ken said. "I get to fight them afterwards, right?"
"Kufufufu, yes," Mukuro said. "Both sides are now aware of each other's presence. They took something of ours, so you'll take something of theirs. After you defeat them, persuade them to tell us where the Vongola heir is. If they're stubborn, bring them back here."
"We'll persuade them, Mukuro-sama," Chikusa said, glasses glinting. "Soon we'll be able to take over the mafia and destroy it from inside out."
"Good," Mukuro said, his eyes glinting in anticipation.