My usual team of Alpha, Koge and now, Volore were seated in the limo across from me. Romario sat beside me. An unknown driver directed our limo to the predetermined position. There was no Don Cavallone in sight.

Romario's instructions were simple. Go in, save the "products" without disturbing the guards (which was probably not possible), get out alive and go home and cheer up Dino with our victory. I suppose by saving people we would remind Dino that we were fighting for a noble cause. He really shouldn't need to be cheered up this early though. We went on one raid, for god's sake! JUST one!

We arrived and began the operation sans Romario's help. He didn't intend to help from the very beginning. He told us, "This is delicate. I'll be taking Koge's place."

Resigning himself to fate, Koge put on his bulletproof vest and came with us. Alpha gave him a pity pat and lent him a gun. He was bound to be clumsy but it's fine. We always do fine without him in the field so it wouldn't make a difference.

Volore remained in the car with Romario. He didn't have the potential to be sneaky so he stayed away.

Although, Romario's voice sounded unpleasant in my ear, "Okay. Heat scans are complete. As we previously thought, it's the same as the night we came scouting. A lot of guys are on the second floor."

Koge paused in the bushes as we approached the house. He was waiting for details just like the rest of us.

…

"Um…" Koge looked up at the second floor, "Which side?"

The fact that he even had to ask implied that Romario was not doing a thorough job. We were going to have a harder time than if Koge was sitting back there.

"Doesn't matter." He responded, "Go around back. It's empty."

"Heh." Koge put a finger to his lips and turned off his earpiece. He had heard enough from our terrible guide. From his back pocket came a small device. He motioned for us to wait as he held it up and pointed it at the building that looked like a normal civilian house. After a moment, he concluded, "Right side."

Alpha and I glanced at each other and turned down the volume to our earpieces as Romario was asking, "Are you in yet?"

I mumbled a quick, "Not yet."

"Turn it to the second available frequency." Koge said, "This building has only one person on the first floor. Isn't that a little strange?"

"If they keep their 'merchandise' here then it would mean the second floor is their merch." I mumbled more to myself than to anyone else, "Theoretically, if they had such a big cluster of slaves, they would need more than one guard to keep them in line…"

"So why is there only one guard…?"

Alpha held up his hand in silence. He reached for his sniper rifle and used the scope to peer up at the window, "It's tinted and the curtains are drawn… They're hiding something up there so it's possible that the single guard on the first floor means that some of the heat signals on the second one belong to slaves and some belong to additional guards."

"If we operate under that assumption, it means we have no solid moves we can make for now." I huffed, "Romario really did us dirty here…"

"So are we now operating under the assumption that all of the information Romario gave us is false?"

"If we're making too many assumptions, we might as well just start investigating here…" I sighed, turning my earpiece up, "Romario, are you sure this is where they're keeping the slaves?"

"Our guys saw someone come to the door. He went in and came out with a kid. There's no doubt about it."

I turned my earpiece off for a moment, "Okay. New plan. I'll go through the back assuming there's only one guard and dispatch him like Romario wanted me to. I'll proceed up to the second floor. Again, I'm assuming he's right and those are slaves. If he's right, I'll release them and we'll be good to go. The two of you should operate as a separate entity from me. Act like you know Romario's information is faulty."

"Then what?" Koge seemed even more skeptical about this plan than he had been before, "We would be separating our manpower into two teams. That would make you an additional external factor here. What if we do something counterproductive to your efforts?"

"You probably won't. You're smart. Think of something." I grumbled my faith to them, "I'm going in."

I rounded the house and went in the back after picking the lock in silence. I snuck up behind the singular guard and broke his neck in one swift but firm move. Oddly, this person was dressed like a civilian. He was an elderly man. There's no way this guy was a guard.

My spine began to buzz and chill ran down my backside. Something was right and my instincts were telling me to get out of here.

Confirming my suspicions, Koge's voice rang in my earpiece, "Kira, get out of the house!"

Koge never shouted. Something wasn't right.

As I ran for the front door, I saw the limp corpse roll from the chair with a sinister smile. This man knew he was going to die here and he was perfectly content with it.

With his weight removed, the cushion shifted and depressed whatever button he had been sitting on.

I barreled through the front door just as the explosion rolled down from the top floor and engulfed the stairs behind me. Caught in the tip of the explosion, my body went flying across the street and into the lawn of an unsuspecting neighbor.

My ears were ringing and I couldn't hear anything past the high-pitched whistling in my skull. I laid still for a moment, gasping for breath. I sat up, focusing on clearing my vision as Romario and Volore came running from the limo. Koge and Alpha ran from their hiding places and came to my side as well.

Koge was immediately in Romario's face, probably yelling although I couldn't hear anything. Alpha grabbed one of my arms and lifted me from the floor. Volore dusted me off vigorously and took my other arm. They ushered me into the car-we had to get out of there. We didn't want to be associated with the blast.

When my hearing cleared, I was immediately curious, "How'd you know?"

The group stopped their bickering and in an upset tone, Koge spat, "Heat source on the second floor wasn't moving. It never moved the whole time I was watching it. There was only one guy inside. It had to be a bomb. Word on the street is… some guys from another famiglia are building bombs that explode in some strange way that has never been done before. All the informants I got this info from said they don't know why it doesn't explode prior to the release of the switch since it's kept intensely hot."

"Good stuff, Koge." I praised him. I had always known that Koge was really passionate about his job. He was often saying that his hobby was gathering data off the streets and this time, he had indirectly saved my life with something that probably just started as gossip.

"It was nothing but if Romario had just gathered better data, we would never have come here in the first place!" He snapped. He was furious and rightfully so.

"There was no way we could've known!" Was Romario's poor excuse, "They set us up! They must've known we were coming! How…?"

"Wait a minute." My senses had cleared now and I could feel something was off. A chill crawled down my spine, "Romario… Who's driving?"

"One of our guys…"

I looked up and the guy was watching us through the rearview mirror. The guy had a sinister look on his face as he observed us. No… He was looking past us. I looked around. We were definitely not going the same way we had come. We were heading towards abandoned warehouses.

I looked out the back window. Another vehicle was following us and then it began to slow down as if they were giving us some room. For what?

The driver and his passenger were wearing the same sinister smile as our driver.

"Everyone out!" I ordered, reaching for the lock but it had already been smashed shut, "Shit."

Volore and I smashed windows on opposite sides of the limo. I threw Romario out before leaping out behind him and Volore had thrown Koge out before doing the same. I didn't see Alpha but I didn't have time to check for him.

For the second time that night, I narrowly avoided an explosion with my body intact. Well… relatively intact.

My fist had barely made it through that bulletproof window and was probably out of commission. I mean, I'm surprised I broke it. That was my already crippled hand after all—you know, where that bullet went into my wrist from protecting Dino on one of our first outings.

My ears were ringing again and I could barely see straight but I got up. I had seen the vehicle following us. They were likely here to finish the job.

The men got out of their car. Just four of them. I could do this… But my gauntlets were in the car. They were probably reduced to ashes… The first man stepped forward and shot. I narrowly dodged it… well it was more like I had a moment of weakness and I stumbled out of the way by pure luck. I needed every ounce of luck that I could get at this point.

I couldn't hear so I didn't know what they were saying but I think they were here to take a hostage judging by the handcuffs at their belts.

My senses were beginning to clear and I could feel everything. My legs were in pain. One of my toes was broken and on the opposite foot there was a chunk of metal piercing through my combat boots. My left thigh was littered with glass.

Fuck. If only—NO. No if only's. I'm strong regardless but my body didn't agree with me. Sinking to my knees, I searched for an answer… Did I have any way out?

No…? I hung my head for a moment as the attackers approached me. They intended to take only one hostage. They weren't shooting. So everyone's in bad shape and they're trying to figure out which one of us will survive the trip to wherever they intend to hold us.

I took a deep breath and willed my body to obey. My senses were returning to me so I looked up.

The driver of the car was above me, "This one looks like she's going to live but I can't be sure. Lots of blood. She also looks familiar..."

I could hear Koge groaning in the background. He was alive but deeply in pain.

"Hey…" The guy finally caught my chin and yanked my face up, "She has purple eyes… Isn't this the don's lover? She was at the party, right?"

The men gathered around me. I glanced around, counting to make sure all the men had gathered. I yanked my face away as they began to have perverse expressions. I looked about for my chosen teammates just to make sure they weren't moving… save for Koge who was still groaning… Fake groaning. I knew it. He was calling for backup but I know if I just sit here and wait, we're dead. They won't make it in time.

I looked back up at the man who had confirmed my identity and declared, "Yeah. I'm Dino's lover. So what?"

"Heh… Feisty aren't you?" He snickered, putting away his gun. His allies kept their guns pointed at me, "We're going to have a lot of fun with you later. Kill the others."

One guy kept his gun on me while the other two shifted their aim. I shot out of my kneeling position, grabbing the gun from the first guy's holster. Now that he was unarmed, I gave him a quick kick to the balls and shot the guy who was supposed to be keeping his gun on me. I blew his brains out with a well placed bullet between his eyes. Then I shot at the two who were aiming at my allies.

The guy I had kicked was now recovered but he looked horrified. I had just turned the tables on him. He knew what was coming for him.

Now, I was the one wearing the sinister smile. I put a bullet through his leg and watched him fall to his knees.

"See…" I smiled even wider, "This is why you don't take hostages unless you're really good. They couldn't kill me because I was the hostage. If you had chosen anyone else, you would have won."

Just imagine if I wasn't Dino's lover. Imagine if I hadn't come here on Romario's stupid "orders." I'd be at home, sleeping. Hah. This is the last time I do any favors for anyone. I can't trust them. They're not skilled enough.

I shot one more time into his right shoulder and watched him squirm, "You tell me. Who sent you? And how did you know we'd be here tonight?"

He sneered and said, "Your guys aren't very good. We saw them sneaking around a few days ago. We knew you were coming. Our guys have been waiting for you ever since. Now you tell me. You're clearly in a different class than those guys. You and the guys dying behind you… What's a bunch like you doing with a famiglia like the Cavallone?"

"That's none of your business." And I shot him dead.

I didn't have time to play with this guy anymore. I had to go take my guys to the hospital.

Koge had stopped groaning and sat up. He was totally fine save for his broken arm. He grinned at me sheepishly.

"Wow. How could you do that to me?" I huffed, feigning hurt, "You could've helped."

"I didn't want to make it harder for you by accident. You know I'm clumsy." He jiggled his loose arm at me, "Mind snapping it back into place for me?"

I took my time getting Koge's arm back into place and enjoyed the screams, "Heh."

"Man…" He huffed when I was done, "I guess I deserved that."

"There seems to be one more person who deserves some suffering." I was slowly getting angrier and angrier. I stood over Romario's stiffening body and smiled a sinister smile, "I hope you don't think you're getting away with this, Romario."

He immediately got on his knees, begging for mercy, "I just had faith in you! Please don't take it the wrong way."

"You were a useless herbivore." I kicked him right in his traitorous chin and stormed away.

My useful teammates were still down. Alpha (I still don't know how he made it out) was losing blood fast. It looked like the door was crushing his vitals but maybe not. Volore was lying face first on the pavement. He had yet to regain consciousness. Like me, his hand was demolished from going through bulletproof glass.

This was pretty much the worst case scenario. Our fighting force, save for Dino, was out of commission. We started this war but now, we were going to lose it. And I blame this situation entirely on Romario.

Minutes later, Koge's backup had arrived. Although… It was a rather shabby group. It was just Dino and a few of the medics trained for combat. They approached me first and I shook them off.

"Alpha first." I murmured, "If he doesn't make it, I'll have your heads."

Dino had just gotten done surveying the battlefield. He was no longer sad for the enemy. He was furious for our sake now, "How dare they."

"Save it." I knew now why he was furious with them and not us. He knew he was sitting out. Romario had told Dino about this operation. He sent us out here. He was part of the reason we had ended up like this.

In part, this was my fault. I should've checked the info before I blindly came out here with Romario. If I hadn't said I would come, we would've been fine. I had become too trusting.

My own voice roared in my head, "Herbivore!"

Again, I had this impending sense of death. I had a feeling that I was becoming someone else. My identity was blurred. I am not someone who fails missions. I am not someone who feels helpless thinking I'm on the losing side. I should feel confident in our victory. Even if I die, I should die knowing victory was in the forecast. Instead, I'm here knowing that if this team dies out, the Cavallone Family will no longer be able to survive.

Watching the injured leave the battlefield on stretchers, Dino sighed, "Romario, I need you to call Reborn. We need help."

Herbivores.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

I was in and out of the hospital in less than thirty hours. I healed fast. My body was resilient and meant to fight. It ran in my blood. I was supposedly as good as new, save for the wrist that had already been crippled. Now, the doctors claimed I would not be able to fight at all.

They don't know what they're talking about. They said I'd be down for the count last time too but I recovered. They shouldn't judge me on their herbivorous standards.

Leaving most of my team behind, Koge and I returned to the Cavallone estate where Dino welcomed us. He was no longer moping. He was gearing up for investigative ops to take place later in the night. I ignored him entirely.

I no longer intended to help him. The Cavallone might have started this war but I was going to end it. I operated alone. When Dino and Romario were out gathering info, so was I. Only Koge knew I snuck off but he never said a word. He knew I needed to do this on my own.

After three days, I assaulted an enemy base of operations alone. Sticking to the Cavalone method of operations, I invaded the base, set off the alarms, decimated the entire group with my armored fists, and rescued just four slaves. There was a fifth but he had been sold off just last night.

Unfortunately for him, I didn't have the means to save him that night. I couldn't risk any activity that might potentially give away my intention to raid this place tonight but I had other plans for that boy. I had tagged the vehicle that picked up the boy. I planned to rescue him from the buyer's home.

I was surprised when Koge and Alpha came to pick me up. I suppose Koge's silence did not equate to cluelessness. He was an excellent informant, of course he knew where I was going.

I ushered my four rescued herbivores into the limo in silence. Alpha drove and Koge assured the freed ones that we would help them.

When I brought the kids to Dino, he was shocked. He had so many questions. How? Where? Why?

I only had one question in turn, "What do you want me to do with them?"

Romario was scowling at me from the table. I had interrupted a meeting and judging by the men sitting at the table, I had just semi-humiliated Dino. I noted the map rolled out on the table in front of the Vongola liaisons-Squalo and Reborn.

They'd marked their first target as the building I had planned to rescue the taken boy from.

"Voi." Squalo looked mildly amused by all of this, "'When you said they needed manpower, I thought you mentioned Kira was out of commission."

Reborn looked equally surprised, looking me up and down for permanent scars, "She was in hospital just a few days ago."

"Feh." Looking bored now, Squalo leaned back in his chair and put his feet on the map, "Well, we came all this way so I hope you don't mind us stealing your prey."

I stepped up and pushed Squalo's feet from the table. Despite his protests, I got in his face and jabbed my finger into a blank spot on the map, "This is an empty warehouse as of this morning. They moved the goods."

"Wh-What? Where?" Romario's lack of skills was now on full-blast. He scrambled to make the note, "And how do you know?"

"I was there this afternoon." I huffeed, moving on quickly. I pointed out the location I had just hit, "I was here tonight. No one was left alive. These four come from there. There was one more boy there yesterday but he was already sold. I traced the vehicle to this location."

"Great!" Dino grinned at me, proud of the red circle around the location I was now pointing at, "That's where we planned to go tomorrow."

"Why?" I demanded.

I had been to the location. It was a residential home. A rich man had purchased a slave. Dino's main force would be wasting their time there.

"He brought a little boy in last night…" Romario explained, "Must be the boy you're talking about."

"He's got one boy." I said, "He's unaffiliated."

"He's not mafia?" Dino's eyes were now on Romario, "I thought you said…"

I had enough of these idiots.

"Koge, show Romario how to gather information before he costs Squalo's men their lives." I growled, storming away without looking back.

I could hear Squalo howling with laughter behind the door I had just slammed shut.

On my orders, Koge stayed behind to work with Romario and share whatever he had gathered.

"Alpha." I didn't have to look to know he was behind me, "If your arm's alright, will you go with me one more time?"

"I'll follow you anywhere, milady." His answer had not changed. It confirmed he didn't blame me for our injuries that night.

"I just need you to shoot one guy." I said, "I'll sneak the kid out."

"Are you referring to the location with the singular slave?" He already knew, "Wouldn't that derail Dino's plans?"

"They were shitty anyways." I grumbled, "I planned to hit this location tomorrow but he might waste Squalo's help on a location with no armed soldiers if I don't finish this up tonight. Will you help?"

"Gladly, milady."

"Hey!" Squalo had come after us. He looked embarrassed when we turned around, "If we're going to be allies, I want to see how good you are. I don't work with trash."

"Huh…" I glared back at him, "We had an accident but Dino asked for your help before I even got started. I don't actually need your help."

"Hmph… An accident? Pros don't make mistakes, Kira. My guys are going to walk all over you."

I turned, gesturing for Alpha to follow, "My only mistake was trusting Romario's info. It's the same mistake you'll make if you think this famiglia is capable."

He faltered in place for a moment, "What? Having a change of heart about Cavallone?"

I didn't stop but I thought about it. Squalo was right. My feelings about Dino were no longer the same. I always knew Dino was kind and soft-hearted but it was just barely starting to become a nuisance.

Dino didn't scold Romario. I knew how he felt about his right-hand man. I understood the feeling. They had been together a long time and Romario had been part of Domenico's reign as well. But this family did poorly under Domenico's reign and at some point, you have to look at Domenico's chosen subordinates too.

Trash subordinates, trash famiglia. We belong in the gutters but we climbed and climbed and finally, we were here. Their complacency kept us from climbing any higher and that's what truly bothered me.

"Squalo, I'll show you how we climbed up here tonight. Then tomorrow, you'll go with Dino's plan and see why we struggled. Even with Koge's help, they'll make things difficult."

He was 100% on board. In silence, we went on our way, Alpha was not just the driver. He was also, without a doubt, going to be the main driving force of the operation. I was counting on him but really, I would be fine without him as well.

He stopped the car a bit further than I would've thought but it was a good spot. I put in my earpiece and took off with Squalo on my tail. For such a noisy guy, he was dead silent on the field. I could hardly hear his footsteps behind me. Getting into place was no problem.

I slipped on my gauntlets and went in real quick, muttering a quiet, "Count to ten and then shoot."

The plan was simple. Alpha killed the man from the window. It's always open. He dropped dead. Mayhem ensued. I went in, killed anyone who approached me and took the slave-boy out of his prison.

Lucky for me, it went just as planned.

Squalo was satisfied by my methods, "Okay. Well planned but if they're just civilians then why the unnecessary slaughter."

"A warning to the public not to buy into the slave trade. Each fight is a message and the Cavallone message is not to do this inhumane shit anymore."

"Interesting but was that your message?"

I almost laughed out loud, "Well, they won't be associating these kills with me specifically but if someone can look at those bodies and say they see me… Then I suppose the message they would see is all about strength. I killed them easily. I suppose they might fear me or come challenge me."

"Okay. You have my support." He said, getting the kid in the car and climbing in with me, "Honestly, I came because the Ninth made me but my guys aren't exactly convinced that this is worth our time."

"Then why did you come?"

"You." He said it so simply I almost thought he hadn't spoken at all.

"Me?" I didn't miss Alpha's eyes shifting to glance at us through the rearview mirror, "Why me?"

"To see if you're Varia Quality." He declared, "My offer still stands."

Suddenly, I remembered a moment from our school days. It was a moment I thought was long forgotten. He had only asked me once and I hadn't ever actually refused the offer but I assumed he was no longer interested. So what's the deal? He came to save us many times and he was still inviting me into their no-failures-accepted taskforce. Why?

"Why me?" I demanded, "I'm not even Vongola and you know I'm with the Cavallone Family."

"The way I see it, Cavallone's holding you back." He said, "And you're preventing their growth. You're bad for each other."

I had never thought of it that way but maybe it was true. Was Squalo right? A lot of my losses were caused by Dino's men or what faith I had put in them. And Dino's men had so much faith in me that they no longer tried to get stronger. We were definitely doing something to each other.

"So if you're right and I'm in Dino's way then why do you want me to join your team?" I asked although we had already pulled into view of the Cavallone estate and Dino was running down the stairs towards us. It was almost like I wanted Dino to hear that Squalo wanted me to join his team.

"The strength of others is a competition to us. Your strength would have a different effect on us." He seemed so certain that his allies would not depend on me the way Dino's family has come to use me, "And maybe you're used to being the top dog here but you're probably at the bottom of the list amongst our officers."

It was a rude and bold assumption to make but it lit a fire in my heart that hadn't been there for years.

"You, I can handle but I can't see myself as weaker than the man you were with at the ball." I snorted, getting out of the car and bringing the rescued boy with me, "If there's a chance, let's spar."

Squalo got out behind me, "Lussuria? He'd be so mad to hear you say that shit. Looks like your guys are well-trained so they're welcome to join too but we have a no-fail policy."

Dino had reached us now, grinning from ear to ear about the boy we had rescued.

"No fail?" I liked the sound of that. It just meant that my teammates would be competent.

"Failures are left for dead." He claimed bitterly, "Prioritize the mission over all else. We don't care how you fight or why. We only care about victories."

Dino raised his brow at us, his hand on the back of the boy we had brought in, "What's going on?"

"Nothing." It was a clear lie but I gave Dino a push into the building and paused to look back at Squalo over my shoulder, "My team has a high success rate. When this is over, bring your guys and fight us. If you guys live against our full might, I'll think about it."

"If?!" Squalo growled as I led Dino inside. He shouted at me as I closed the door, "You mean when we win?! I'll bring your contract tomorrow! We don't lose."

I laughed despite Dino's confused questions. He was an interesting guy. I can't say I'm not interested in "Varia Quality" mafiosos. They're the ultimate test of strength.

That night, I received a call saying Volore was coming home in fighting condition. Needless to say, the call was from Volore himself and not from a doctor. I laughed at his gusto and told him to suit up.

Looks like we're back in business.