64. Raid

Russo

Uri growled. Hostile, tensed, and in an absolutely threatening manner, Uri growled.

Russo took a slight step back, wary of the tiny feline that was baring her claws and fangs at him. It's not as if the cat was scaring him-- Russo, in fact, was much charmed by the feline being all wary like that. He loved cats.

But in contrast to the way he loved cats; cats and any other species of animal often found Russo a threat to their environment. A nuisance-- a trespassing fiend.

"Sorry, sorry." he tried to apologize for daring to enter the cat's line of sight, "To be fair, why are you here?"

Another sharp hiss, and Russo panicked to apologize again.

"Sorry!" he prayed the cat wouldn't pounce.

With a thundering BANG!, the door to his right slams open. Hibari Kyouya glowers moodily, having been disturbed from his rest. 

With the look of the god of Death on his face, Hibari glares straight at Russo.

It took a fraction of a second for Russo to start bolting.

-

(TYL) Rei

A loud crash of wood against marble, and the sharp clang of porcelain plates hitting each other or shattering in contact of the ground-- 

Rei opens one eye. Mimi, from the corner of the room, jumps in surprise at the noise and scurries toward Rei who slept in another corner. Running to the crook of his neck, he curled in his hair and stayed there, shivering in fear.

Rei sighed. He had opted to sleep in the corner of Xanxus' room because it was unnecessarily huge and always sickly quiet. And Xanxus could care less if Rei was quiet enough.

Rei rubbed against the mouse in attempt to soothe her, the easily scared mouse she was, but pulled his gaze toward the source of the sound.

Xanxus was enraged. "You expect me to eat this shit?" a sharp, low growl like the bellow of a sleeping lion or tiger.

Looking down to the cause of the sound, Rei figured Xanxus had just been served a whole bountiful feast filled with numerous variety of juicy, delicious-looking gourmet meats--

and the bastard had swept it all down into a messy pile on the ground.

Right before it, a few grunts wailed in fear-- Rei only got a brief look at what they were supposed to look like before Xanxus punched them black and blue and red.

Looking at it with a deadpan-- because really, after nine years of being with him, he's gotten past the point of trying to retort. Sae and Sui were so much easier to deal with.

Rei stood up, noticing the thin blanket draped over himself. Leaving it aside and walking over to the commotion-- sleepily-- he let out a yawn and stepped forward of the grunts.

"Xan, you're noisy." he whined in a slurry, sleepy voice, "And you people, go on now."

The grunts, taking the chance, scurried off and out of the room. 

Xanxus, frustrated, gritted his teeth as he dropped back down unto his chair. "Clean that shit up." was a strict order, perhaps not completely to Rei, but Xanxus wasn't in the mood to speak any more. 

"Mimi," Rei sighs, lifting his hand and lighting his ring.

-

Russo

It was the middle of the night-- when one huge shudder in the distance roused some of them awake. It sounded like an explosion somewhere far off, and many stepped out of their rooms to take a look.

Russo, having still been playing cat and mouse with Hibari for disturbance, stopped. Hibari paused as well, knowingly sheathing his tonfas.

Russo turned to Hibari.

"I'll go." Russo said.

Hibari raised an eyebrow-- how did Russo know anything about the tracker Bianchi had found in Chrome's bag? He was quite sure no one told him much.

Russo seemed to have read his mind. He let out a cheeky chuckle, and gave him a dismissing wave. "I'm sure the kids back in base woke up. Why don't you take the Storm cat back to them while you're at it? I'll buy some time till you save the day."

Hibari did not take orders-- but Russo wasted no time to break into a sprint.

He ran away, Hibari spitefully thought. But watching the speed Russo was going-- Hibari realized Russo was running at a much faster pace than before. Which meant-- Russo was merely toying with him before.

Understanding that he had to first divert the attention of everyone else back t base, he decided to leave holding back the forces to Russo, picking up the cat that was now dozing on the side.

-

(TYL) Rei

"Uhm, Rei-sama?" 

The very nervous grunt was one of the weaker and less bulky one than most-- to be perfectly honest, Rei would say that the thin boy was simply hired as a lackey. 

Anyways, he carefully spoke, slowly, nervously, and with his feet shaking like a baby deer, he spoke up with a higher tone in absolute fear.

"Yes?" Rei slurred, having just cleaned up the remainder of spilled food from the carpet. Mimis were eating up the bigger chunks of spilled goodness.

"Uh- I must apologize but- actually- uh-" he spluttered, trying to pick between his lines and attempting to figure out the supposed situation in the room-- like, why is he cleaning and why is the area flooded by mice-

"Get to the point," Xanxus snapped.

Flinching with a shriek, he straightened up and tensed at attention. "Rei-sama, Squalo-sama and the rest of the commanders have already headed out!" he quickly said, looking straight forward and avoiding eyes.

"Squalo and the others?" Rei seemed to recall something, "Ohh, there was something about a raid or something. I forgot." 

"Forgot?" the grunt was taken aback.

"Teehee." Rei chuckled. "Well, I don't think it matters much. They can survive without me."

"Eh?" the grunt worried now, losing his nerves to panic about his laid-back superior, "But-- but Rei-sama, the situation doesn't really seem to look good--"

"It's alright--" Rei tried to assure, a bright smile on his face-- 

A loud bomb went off at the west wing. The whole mansion shook like an Earthquake, but Xanxus just sighed and closed his eyes in a resigned manner.

"--or not." Rei changed his mind. 

With a sigh, Rei stood up from his spot and his smile died down into a serious face.

Seeing the change, the grunt stood up straight and saluted. "What are your orders, Defense Commander?" 

"Lussuria should be coming back any moment now. Send someone over to inform the outside army of the situation. Organize troops and fight back." Rei said simply, "We call ourselves Varia Quality or something, but we're all simpletons and idiots with a little brains or brawn. Figure out the rest yourself!"

"Yes, sir!"

-

Russo

"What's with this place?"

Millefiore soldiers, after affirming enemy base location, were not expecting to find a large, open space upon infiltration. It was a huge hall that could fit plenty-- like a great hall-- or an overly large training room.

"Hi~" a sudden carefree tone intruded from above-- from where they've jumped in from. "Fancy meeting you here. I come here a lot too! Just without the bombs and guns."

"Who's that?!" 

"From above??"

"He's not our soldier-- wait a minute--"

"That's the Information Broker, Russo!"

"Bingo!" with a joyful thumbs up in praise, "Congratulations, you are absolutely correct!" With a little twist in his footing, Russo dropped down to the same level as the soldiers, landing almost gracefully.

"Is he an enemy?"

"Not necessarily. Irie-sama, are you receiving?"

"He's neutral army, fighting him would serve repercussions!"

Russo went 'tch, tch, tch' disapprovingly, a finger shaking like a trainer reprimanding students-- "If you all talk at once instead of quietly demanding orders, you will create panic and disorder among your comrades. That's not strategically promising."

"Whose side are you on?" 

This time, guns were unanimously pointed at him. One man, possibly the leader or the one commanding, held up a hand as a sign of ceasefire as they waited for an order to fire. Some soldiers had stern looks on their faces, angered by his carefree actions. Russo smiled, for that was his motive.

"Surprise, surprise~" he spread his arms wide in a welcoming way, shining a bright smile-- then in an instant his eyes sharpened. A jeering look, of arrogance and confidence-- "I currently side with the Vongola Famiglia!"

"Fire." and the hand was let down.

One hard stomp towards the ground-- and the square, strangely smaller than the rest tile sprouted upward, flipping backward and toward Russo--

Each bullet was easily deflected into all direction by the strange metallic material, ricocheting the shells toward other soldiers or a wall.

The tile eventually dropped back down-- but now Russo was gone.

The next thing the commanding soldier knew, his neck was twisting in the wrong direction-- and in the next moment a loud snap was heard.

The surrounding soldiers stepped back in surprise-- when did Russo get here? What just happened-- no, the commander was down. His neck broken in a flash of an instant--

"Hey, if you're gonna challenge Russo the Information Broker," he smirked slyly, placing his hands back in the pocket of his long, black coat.

His red eyes-- they seemed to glow like a beast with its eye on prey. 

He licked his lips.

"You should know I started off as a combatant hitman."