It was at that moment that Francis knew his brother truly was in an affair with the pink-haired stranger.

::

Beep! Beep! Beep! Attention, the first round of the Representative Battle has ended.

Ryota heaved a sigh, his hand that tightly gripped his extendable rapier stick slightly loosened its grip as he kept his eyes strained on the obnoxious white head in front of him. Around him, the few doubles scattered into clouds of indigo before fading into nothingness. His tinted irises went back to their usual gold.

He exhaled, his green lashes minutely trembling as he kept his focus on the ex-Millefiore head. He casually waved his hand, the rapier-like stick retracting with the motion before he brought it to his waist and hooked it to his belt.

His face which previously displayed an expression akin to a dangerous predator, one similar to when he used to play basketball, smoothened into something much more welcoming. His lips curled up into one of his professional sham grins as his left hand gently combed his messy locks of green.

The feeling of his clammy palm against his slightly sweaty head made him almost frown, it wasn't very hygienic, then again, compared to when he played basketball he supposed he was in much better form right now.

"Yo, Byakuran was it?" he greeted as if they weren't at each other's throat the second before.

Byakuran returned the greeting with a brilliant smile, unbothered by the passive aggressivity the green blatantly displayed in his gaze. "Ara, isn't that Mikaël?" he replied with as much phlegm as him.

Gold and purple met in a staring contest, the aggressivity and nonchalance growing stronger with the seconds until Ryota felt a tug on his shirt sleeve.

He glided his golden eyes to look down at his brother's blank face, discerning hidden worry behind his green eyes before looking back at Byakuran.

"Next time, I'll be sure to take that unfashionable watch of your wrist-ssu," he promised, his grin turning slier and more vicious as his eyes narrowed, flashing with turbulent red before settling back to their usual golden.

Byakuran raised a contemplative eyebrow. "Really now? Ha, I'd love to see that. Well, I don't have much expectation for you— or your Bratva as a whole," he jeered, a taunting smirk growing to replace his usual plastic smile. "After all, from what I remember, Aleksey wasn't much of a challenge. Why should I fear you?"

Ryota gnashed his teeth, his smile faltering for a moment before Storm Flames flared around him in a show of blatant anger and provocation. "Hah? Mou, don't take me for him, we aren't the same," he retorted, barely keeping his temper in check.

"Really?" the white drawled. "Now that you mention it, I suppose that unlike him you couldn't even put up a decent fight. Passing out before it began if I remember right?"

Ryota was about to snap back when he felt someone harshly grip on his arm before tugging him back. He flickered his eyes to meet a pair of deep blue irises, "Shura?"

The dumb teen silently shook his head before shooting Byakuran a murderous glare. The air filled itself with strong almost tangible killing intent, cracking of Lightning Flames echoing in the process before it abruptly disappeared. The ordeal lasted less than a second but it was enough to convey all of the pink-haired teen's emotion at the moment.

Byakuran blinked, not having expected the boy's action before he released a weak sigh. He shook his head in dismay, shrugging. "Whatever," he breathed before looking at his other teammates. "Let's head back."

Ryota lowered his sight to look at the ground. There was no use in losing his nerves now, the round had ended, attacking Byakuran would have resulted in a penalty for his team, he couldn't do that to Master Fon.

"Are you alright, Big Bro?" Fran's voice pulled him back to the situation at hand. Ryota smiled, his hand gently patting the top of the boy's hat as he hummed. "Do you know him?"

Ryota's hand paused mid-air before he brought it back to his side, gently rubbing his left earlobe to feel the cool gem of the Mist earing under his fingertips.

"Yeah, though it is my first time speaking with him," he admitted, a wry smile on his face.

Fran blinked, the deadpan never leaving his face as he tilted it to the side. "Oh," he vocalized before lowering his gaze and raising it again to meet his brother's eyes. "Then, why were you so mean to him Big Bro? The game was already finished, you didn't need to," he developed with some confusion.

"That is—" he interrupted his speech, looking for an answer before resuming. "Because I want our next game to be even more exciting-ssu!"

Fran's eyes lit up with enlightenment. "I see, that explains everything," he stated matter of factly. "No wonder Big Bro is so smart. You know so many things," he complimented.

"Ah-ahaha, thanks Francchi."

Ryota kept a practiced plastic smile on his face to the rest of his exchange with his brother before he bade him farewell, walking away with Shura in tow as they headed back to his apartment.

Closing his eyes he recollected his nerves. Getting excited over Byakuran was useless, he should take example on Shura. After all, while it is true he lost Junichiro because of him, Shura lost much more. From his adoptive father to his lover, not counting the number of underlings he had to give up—

He smacked his cheeks, the sound of slapping loudly echoing in the street. "Yosh, let's beat him next time!" he declared, feeling fired up. His eyes slid to look at Shura's surprised figure.

"I'll be counting on you— Shuracchi!"

Shura blinked, he beamed.

::

Well done everyone.

This announcement is coming from all the participants of the Representative Battle's watch.

Ryota who ungracefully laid on his living room's couch, his body aching from the previous exercise suddenly straightened at the foreign voice that came out of his watch. He hissed, feeling the pull on his muscles as he closed his golden eyes, supposedly to minimize the pain.

I am the proprietor of the "Representative Battle of the Rainbow," the deep yet static riddled voice introduced. Checker Face.

Ryota pinched his brows, deep creases easily appearing on his face as he stole a careful glance at the older Asian male who sat opposing him. The target of his attention calmly read through the newspaper, as elegant as ever, if not for his unmoving eyes, Ryota would have sworn he was unaffected.

Every future battle will occur exactly as this one did. And, after each battle, I will report each team's ranking.

Ryota heard the sound of crumpling paper, without raising his head he knew Zhihao had probably squeezed the edge of the newspaper to hard, tearing it in the process. Ah, the animosity was real.

A hologram will be broadcast out of your wristwatches with this attention.

True to the mysterious man's words, a holographic rank board emerged from each watch, making it three in the living room. Ryota, Shura and Zhihao's eyes kept their focus on the name list, registering every team's score.

There wasn't any sound following the announcement, as if the man had done his task and simply left, only the projected image remained. Ryota carefully gazed at the numbers, his lips curling up when he saw the number four on the same line as Verde's name.

Compared to the meager number of the other team, it was a lot. With two kills, Fon team ranked second— Ryota supposed that their fourth teammate took someone out. His eyes narrowed, counting the number of defeat in each team, someone from Reborn's team?

The idea was more than plausible, after all, he remembered Fran telling him that they took two Colonnello members before they came, and while he and Shura were there, they had faced some Yuni representatives. Two were taken out by Verde while Shura and himself took one out.

Fingers slowly releasing the shredded paper, Zhihao exhaled. "I suppose we did, okay," he enunciated, his blue eyes calmly scanning the numbers in front of him, mild disinterest evident in his gaze.

The paced drumming of Zhihao's fingers against the armrest came to a minute halt as he silently narrowed his eyes in thought, his other hand discarded the torn newspaper to grab his metallic fan, gently tapping it against his lips in thought.

"Team Yuni, how many members do they have?"

Huh? "Shouldn't they have one Boss watch and six normal ones?" Ryota answered, his golden eyes sliding back to the holographic display before he cut himself, following the elder's expression his features morphed into a frown. "Wait, they have nine?"

There was a soft humming. "That is what I read too."

Ryota bit his lower lip, carefully rubbing his left earlobe to feel the comforting coolness of his earing he thought back on Byakuran. The boy definitely owned the Boss watch, out of the nine watches, six logically belonged to the six real Funeral Wreaths.

He closed his eyes, remembering the previous fight and further imprinting every move to his mind and registry. Daisy and Torikabuto were out, leaving only the white's Cloud, Storm, Rain, and Lightning— no, the current Byakuran didn't have Ghost. If he was correct, the third lost member on Yuni's team was part of Giglio Nero, then—

"Little Martial Brother," Ryota raised his head, suddenly pulled out of his musing. "Could you give me some insight into Team Verde's situation? You fought by them didn't you?" the Sun rhetorically asked, gently fanning himself as he settled his unsightly watch aside.

Ryota's lashes trembled at the question, casting a shadow over his eyes as he seriously considered the older's question. "Team Verde is a perfect combination of skill and science. Verde taking Si— Mukuro, and Francis as his representatives was his best and most probably his winning move," he confessed with some reluctance.

Zhihao hummed, blue eyes sliding to look to the side of the room.

"Verde created a machine that enables intangible illusions to become tangible— I, I believe his invention is worthy of the Lightning Arcobaleno and I'm sure a dream for every Mist user," he wasn't lying, Verde's machine when one was proficient in illusion making was Heaven on Earth.

The possibility to make the impossible possible, dreams into reality. Although it wasn't to the point of allowing the existence of another human being, it remained something extraordinary and straight out of this world.

There was a light chuckle as Zhiaho brought his attention back to the green head. "My, does Little Martial Brother want one for Christmas?"

::

"In the next two days, four teams will go down while one will rise from ashes."

Reborn's eyes narrowed underneath the shadow od his fedora. From ashes?

"Wait, four teams in two days!" Tsunayoshi exclaimed at the Sky Arcobaleno's words, fear and apprehension driving him at the prospect. Four teams, that was more than half of the contestants! And with how strong every team was, he couldn't possibly imagine any of them loose.

"Aaah isn't that really bad," he whisper-shouted, grabbing his spiky brown hair to pull on them. After all, from the future Don's point of view, team Reborn was far from strong compared to the dark horse team Verde, the bloody team Mammon, or unexpectedly strong team Colonnello, let's not speak of team Yuni who had Byakuran— the man who almost conquered every dimension before.

Is it even possible for them to win?

"Don't panic, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn's firm voice broke the teen out of his mental break down, a precise kick in the head accompanying the comforting words of his tutor. "Although the elimination of four teams is alarming, so long as it isn't us it doesn't matter," he calmly reminded.

Tsunayoshi almost wanted to scream back at the Arcobaleno, how could it not be them? Simply taking the first day as an example was enough proof to show the gap between themselves and the other teams.

"What I'm more preoccupied with is one of the team 'rising from the ashes,'" Reborn confided, voice low and more serious than ever when he spoke of the Battle Royal before.

After all, although they weren't familiar with one another, Reborn knew enough of Checker-Face to know that the man wouldn't allocate a team a second set of battle-watch after they broke.

For plot purpose (and because I didn't realize until I finished writing this chapter) Byakuran will bear the Boss watch the whole time team Yuni is on the go. (In Canon, Gamma supposedly wore it the first day while Byakuran wore it the second— they decided it by playing rock-paper-scissors.) 

Thanks for reading, until next time^^