The day after the raid, and after school.

~oOo~oOo~

First Person: Mariko

Bringing my cow back to Oka-san was an ordeal in and of itself. It didn't help that he had a TYL bazooka that I didn't remember him having. Tsu-nii was not pleased. We had just gotten back to the house, introduced my cow as yet another stray that I had taken in and refused to leave and almost made it to my room with my cow before disaster struck. In the form of two babies.

Holding guns.

And my cow sees them and wants to join in on the 'fun'. Crazy cow.

"Gyahahaha! Let Lambo-sama join!" I will admit, he has a pretty good grasp of the Japanese language for an Italian child. Naturally he gets kicked across the room by Reborn, Tsu-nii goes off into Overprotective Brother Mode, or OBM, when a gun gets pointed at me, and Lambo starts crying.

Me? I just stand there and sigh. In my past life I had to babysit a spoiled five year old with autism, so I am hoping that Lambo isn't going to be too much of a problem. Cheers to hoping. Also, the gun being pointed at me? Been there, done that. Have the scar to prove it. It's just a graze, Tsu-nii's OBM is to thank for that, but I still have one.

"Ciossu! I am one of the Home Tutors, Reborn." The baby in a suit and with a fedora on his head stated in clear, concise Japanese. The other baby was wearing a red cloak and what appeared to be military clothing, although I couldn't be certain. On her head was a red visor, not covering her brown eyes. "And I am Lal Mirch. The other Home Tutor." The blue haired baby stated.

"Ok, nice to know your names," no really it is nice to know who I will be working with "but I gotta ask, why did you kick my cow across the room?" Reborn looked slightly surprised by my question or at least to me. Intuition is a wonderful thing is it not?

"I did it because he was annoying." Reborn finally said. "Sooooooooo..... if either of you ar-" Tsu-nii slaps his hand over my mouth. "Imoto, I would prefer you not to finish that sentence, it could get you killed." He shoots a wary look at Reborn. Grabbing his hand, and pulling it off of my mouth, I shoot Tsu-nii a glare. "It is his fault! I just got that cow, and it's my responsibility to take care of it." Out of the corner of my eye, I see Reborn let a smirk cross his face. That can't be good.

"To........ler........ate......... I can't!" And my cow starts to bawl. Me being the good cow owner that I am, go over to comfort him. Only to get a TYL bazooka to the face.

Wibbly wobbly timey wimey tunnel time! (Couldn't help it!) Yes, I watched Doctor Who in my past life. Sue me.

I come out of the bazooka coughing, only to find myself being crushed by something. "Get the fuck off me!" I shout and the thing moves. Only for me to find a....... another stray hu? Well, at least this one is beautiful. An amur leopard with gorgeous fur. The large feline looks at me as if not to sure what to think. I wonder if it is used to me changing in purple smoke. "Ka-chan, you in there?" I hear a voice call from outside the room. Since I don't know who this 'Ka-chan' is I keep silent. Unfortunately the leopard with me has different ideas and yowled loudly. I frantically look around the room and see my boys lazing off to the side looking totally relaxed. The room is large, with lots of trees and cliffs and based on the sound, has a stream or river or something somewhere around here. Not to mention the voices of birds and other animals. I think I hear another large cat around here somewhere. Then I noticed the door set in the cliff face. It was opening to reveal my cow. Or at least an older version of my cow. Damn that bitch looked hot. But he is still just my cow to me.

"Oh, ten years younger Ka-chan." Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. 'Ten years younger Ka-chan'? The fuck?

"What, did I adopt you or something?" I ask sarcastically. Lambo gives me a look. "As a matter of fact, yes. You did." I let my jaw drop. I can't help it! I adopted my cow? "Legally?" I ask. My cow looks amused. "Yes, legally. You wanted to make it official since you were already my mother in just about every other way. I even called you Ka-chan before you adopted me. The Bovino Familia was pissed. You just laughed in their faces."

"Yup! That sounds like me!" I say popping the 'p' in 'yup'. Lambo chuckles as if he agreed with me. "And then soon after you set this up." He said making a grand gesture encompassing the entirety of the area that were were in. "What is this anyways?" I ask out of curiosity. "This is what you call your safe haven. You keep all the animals that you saved here until they are well enough to leave. Some of them never can unfortunately. Like Meera here." He gestures to the leopard now trying to look into my pockets. "She was rescued along with another large cat from a drug lord passing through Namimori a while ago. It may be coming up for you actually. But she was never taught to fear humans, nor was she taught how to survive in the wild. When you finally managed to teach her how to hunt and defend herself, she had already formed a bond with you and refused to leave. The same goes for the other large cat, a snow leopard by the name of Souta. And by then, they had already been given bulletproof clothing like your boys have as a gift from Haru-chan. So you kept them. And they were happy about it too. After a while, you had quite a large collection of animals in similar situations, and so you created this preserveish area. There is another one right next door that is used for the animals that are still recovering. And before you ask, none of the animals have attacked each other. Nor have they felt uncomfortable in the enclosure. You set it up so that there were different sections that fit different climates." He takes a breath and I silently laugh along with Meera. "At least we know who you got your lungs from." I shoot at him before he says anything to continue. "You have no idea how often you say that." My cow said to me. "Your time here is probably about done. I think that you are going to renter the wibbly wobbly timey wimey tunnel again. Yes, you have said that to me before. And last thing, you are likely to enter the bazooka as much, if not more, than I do. So I guess I will see you later younger Ka-chan." And I disappear into the time vortex once more.

~oOo~oOo~

First Person: Mariko

When the smoke clears, it reveals my time's version of everyone. Unfortunately I was covered in cat hair. "Oh sweet air! Gods how much I love thou!" I shout, just to mess with them. But then I notice the state of the room. And of Reborn in particular. "Uh, what happened?" I ask slightly worried.

It is my new teacher who answers my question. "You come out of the Ten Year Bazooka, only to take one look at 'your cow' and start to aim lightning at Reborn." I look at Tsu-nii for the next part of the story, knowing by the way that Reborn looks that that isn't all. "You then manage to hit him once. And thus leading to our current situation." I look once more at the destroyed room, and then I let my eyes settle on Reborn. He looks a little singed around the edges, and likely temporarily paralyzed by the way he is laying. Not to mention absolutely livid. I let loose a whimper and a whispered "Please don't kill me."

The hitman doesn't look at me. Although, I don't know if he can. "Let's take him into your room since it seems that this area is done for." Lal says to Tsu-nii. "I think it would be a better idea to take it to our headquarters." Tsu-nii says slowly. "Headquarters?" Lal asks. I nod to her question and say "Yes, headquarters. We set up a place a few years ago when Tsu-nii took charge of the Student Council and made some major changes. Now we have a headquarters because not everything we do is approved of by everybody and Kyo-nii didn't want his school to be destroyed. That and we needed the extra room. You'll see when you meet the other Committee members." Lal nods and jumps onto my shoulder silently demanding a ride. I comply, not that I have much choice in the matter. We head to headquarters in an unlikely area. Right next door to Kyo-nii's house.

It is a big building, but it is bigger inside once you realize that it reaches far underground and for miles away. Which is the reason for it being in such a remote place. Took ages to build, believe you, me. But it was totally worth it. After all, I'm not dealing with damage costs anymore. And there was enough room that we could all live there is we ever needed to with a lot of elbow room. I could go for days without seeing or hearing someone. Thank the gods. All the walls were sound proof. A necessary feature when in close proximity to Ryo-kun.

On the inside, there was a literal maze that one could easily get lost in. Underground. Above ground we had the standard non-soundproof walls and office like structure. There were different offices, I insisted on one for each with extras as well as one for all of us. My reasoning? You never know when Tsu-nii would pick up strays. We both had a bad habit of it. The only difference between the two of us was that my strays were animals and his were people. Lambo didn't count since he was considered by many as a cow. We entered the main office were everybody's desks were. My office was truly down the hall next to Kyo-nii's office. We both hated noise so our offices were placed as far away from Ryo-kun's office and were semi-soundproof. Tsu-nii's office was just across the hall. Kyo-nii's office was far away from everybody but me. There was an empty office that was in between me and the others. Two offices if you count Sisko's office that was right beside mine. The empty office was on the right side of Tsu-nii's office (saving it for Hayato!). Thus there were three offices that were in between Kyo-nii and the others. We thought it best.

On the inside of the main office there are currently eleven desks inside. One for each of the members currently in the Student Council and in our 'family'. That group was for people like Haru-chan and Sho-kun.

Kyo-nii's desk was facing the window so that he could watch people coming and going since the main office was directly above the main entrance. He had monitors connected to the many security cameras scattered around the upper base. His office had all of the monitors in it. With every single one of them connected to at least one camera. He's in charge of security. His monitors took up only the side edges of his 'U'shaped desk however. I don't know how he feels safe with his back to the door. There is a small bird perch attached to the window that was made of a special kind of material created by Sho-kun. Kyo-nii's fest was the least cluttered next to Tsu-nii's desk which only had paperwork on it.

Tsu-nii's 'O' shaped desk was in the middle of the room, facing the door with a small slice of the desk cut away from the back. It may look the least used, however it was anything but. Under that misguiding clutter free zone that was the top of the desk held many many drawers. Most of them held files. Each file color coded to each person depending on their flames. My folders were electric green with an unfolded purple tessen on the outside of the files. Each and every one of them were full of condensed information gathered from Namimori and nearby areas as well as some places that I have long distance informants for. Kyo-nii's folders were a dark purple with silver tonfa on the outside and contained lists of who came here at what time among other things. The others had files as well, but they weren't going to be mentioned just yet.

The next desk that I will describe would be Sho-kun's desk. His desk was littered with papers and half completed experiments that had caught his interest. His box shaped desk was pressed up against the right wall. One of his yellow folders was out on his desk with a little robot printed on it. It seemed that he would be turning in some theories soon. He had almost as many computers as Kyo-nii, but Sho-kun's computers were not monitors. They were all for his research. Sometimes I would come into the office late expecting to have it all to myself only for Sho-kun to be talking animatedly with his pen pal from England.

Then there is Take-kun's desk. It is a simple standard desk that is placed right behind Tsu-nii's desk with his back to the opening in Tsu-nii's desk. I saw one of his blue folders with the crossed swords on Tsu-nii's desk. Looks like he had a report or two on the civilians. His job is to collect anything that the people of Namimori report. His official job? Head of interrogation. Truly he reports to me and not Tsu-nii since I condense all the information for Tsu-nii so that he doesn't go insane. How I haven't? Fanfiction of course! But that's for another time. (Yaoi *stairs off into the distance with a dreamy expression*)

Next would likely be Haru-chan's desk. Hers looks like an L, that is flush against the wall right next to Sho-kun's desk. Her folder is black with a sewing needle on it. We actually don't know what her flame is. We believe that she may not have one. Her desk is covered with fabric scraps.

After Haru-chan is Ha-chan who is right across the room from Haru-chan. Her's is also a simple standard desk, her back is to the L shaped couch which sits is the upper left hand corner of the room. Her folder is a plain dark red with a small bright red flower on it.

After Ha-chan would be Kyo-chan's desk. It is similar to Haru-chan's desk except rotated counter clockwise a full 180 degrees. Her folder is a light purple, more of a lavender, with a small cake on it.

In between Haru-chan and Kyo-chan directly in front of Take-kun's desk is Ryo-kun's desk. The design is the same for Take-kun's desk. His folder is a bright vibrant yellow with boxing gloves on the outside.

Sisko's, or as everybody else calls her Chrome, desk is right next to Haru-chan's and is a simple desk. It is the usual design, and is tidy. Portraying her personally. Her folder is on her desk as well, likely just returned to her. It is a light indigo, with a silver trident on it. Her job is actually cleanup. She is the one who comes in with Tetsuya and do damage control as well as hiding our, by which I mean we 'warrior's', aftermaths. She is likely at our latest site hiding the cleanup.

Muku-nii's desk is right across from mine and is basically a mirror image in terms of design and placement. The only difference is that it is almost never used. The only time it is used is when he comes back from a mission that I have given him to 'visit his cute little sisters and to "warn off" a Skylark'. I used air quotes because the only thing that Muku-nii does with Kyo-nii is fight. Although I believe that there is something more there even if they don't see it themselves. Muku-nii's folder is also on my desk so he is likely in town for a quick visit to Sisko. It is a dark indigo with a silver trident. Almost identical to Sisko's only a darker background.

And finally, my desk is L shaped with one end flush up against the front wall and the other end far enough from the left wall that I could walk through. My desk was full of little things, some papers here, some binders there of all sizes. It meant that people didn't know where I kept my things, because all that clutter was just a cover. The inside of my desk was orderly and precise. Nothing out of place. The top of the desk however, was covered in returned homework and tests, all with perfect scores, and pictures of my animals that lived in the house. Tsu-nii's desk however, was completely bare. If you disregard the stacks of paperwork. Walking over to Tsu-nii's desk, I snag a stack of paperwork and take it over to my desk, clearing a small portion off for immediate use. Picking up my desk took less time than it took Tsu-nii to complete a sheet of paperwork. Binders in a pile off to the side of my chair, my laptop, the latest version special ordered to be able to keep up with me and then tweaked by Sho-kun so that it was even better, was on the extension that faced the door, and snugly in between  my computer and the wall was the charger and wireless mouse that was hooked up to my computer. All the papers were placed into a small trey next to my computer, and all of the pictures lined up on the edge of the desk leaving only enough room on the edge for the cardboard box that I kept on my desk for Lucky to sleep in when she wanted to, the box was there so that she didn't mess up my desk. The two dog beds that were under my desk were soon occupied by my boys. Kenshin under the part that is perpendicular to the door and Tarou under the part that is parallel to the door. Before sitting down, I go back and take one more stack of paperwork from Tsu-nii's desk before heading back and closing the door. Sitting down, I notice that Lucky was in her box, and that the bird perch installed on the wall above my desk was occupied by my Japanese skylark named Kyo, and my willow tit named Michi. Lal hops onto my now clean desk from my shoulder as she inspects me. Tsu-nii places Reborn on the L shaped couch that I insisted needed to be included in the spacious room before going to his desk and starting on a stack of paperwork. Starting on my stacks there is silence while Reborn recovers from the shock that my future self managed to land on him, and while Tsu-nii and I did paperwork. I finished my last paper which I placed into the 'review' pile. That pile needed to be signed by Tsu-nii and couldn't be signed by me even though I was a part of the Student Council as Vice President and as the head of the Secret Spy Committee, commonly known as SSC by the general populace. They didn't know what it meant when they said that. Tsu-nii had a lot of us like that. Kyo-nii was the head of security, I was the head of the spy department, Take-kun was the one who led the branch of the Council that would take in civilian reports and complaints and sort through them too see what was what before condensing it and giving it to me to be later distributed to the ones who would be benefited the most. There were other committees, but I wasn't going to go into that just yet.

"Tsu-nii, there is something that you may want to look over. I'll make up my report later for you once I get all my people's reports and sort through them. Also, prepare for damage costs from Sisko, I just received Muku-nii's report. And you know how much he likes to give those in person." Tsu-nii sends me a grateful smile as I walk up to his desk with the 'review' pile. I place it on his desk right as my Intuition tells me to duck, and apparently it does the same for Tsu-nii because he ducks right as I do to avoid a kick to the head curtsy of Reborn. "Good job dodging that, but-" Reborn quirks his eyebrow at me. One of my tessen is pointed in his general direction and the other is holding my phone to my ear. "Get here now." Is all I say to Kyo-nii before I hang up. I have piqued his interest by doing something I don't normally do, and I know that he will do it. I don't order him around unless there is danger. And Reborn is the biggest threat that I have ever faced. Just by how he holds himself. I'm not even getting started on his chameleon. I know for a fact that the smaller the animal, the more dangerous it is to underestimate. The chameleon crawls to Reborn's hand and changes into a gun. That is when my girls, Kyo and Michi, fly in chirping about their father like they usually do when referring to Kyo-nii. Kyo comes to land on my head, only to see the gun pointed at me and shriek her battle cry. Michi seems to understand what is going on because of Kyo's 'Danger! Hawk attack!' the bird's equivalent to someone with a gun, as she also shrieks a battle cry and they both dive toward Reborn.

I shout a 'Kyo! Michi! Halt!' and whistle the bird's signal that states that the predator may not be a threat. The two birds pull out of their nose dives and circle towards me, right as Kyo-nii comes into the room. "Wao. Carnivore where did you find the playmates?" "Kyoya, this isn't the time to joke. That green gun was s chameleon first." Kyo-nii stiffens. I only call him Kyoya if there is a serious threat. And after Leon changed, I remembered just how much of a threat Reborn is. "Not my job. Get the loud Herbivore to do it for you." I want to growl at him, but I know that won't work. My boys slink out from under my desk and stand beside me, hackles raised. And I think Kyo-nii finally understands how much of a threat this baby is. "Take care of it yourself." And Kyo-nii walks away. "Traitor!" I shout at Kyo-nii's retreating back. And I see how stiff Kyo-nii's back is when he exits the room.

"Well, as much as this is entertaining, I am here for a job. Reborn, put Leon away it is obviously making the birds nervous. Mariko, put down your tessen and calm your birds and dogs. Tsunayoshi, I would recommend not lighting your flames." As Reborn puts away his gun after a grunt, I put away my tessen and turn to look at Tsu-nii.

I feel his rage through our bond. "Oh shit." I say and then dive off to the side. "NO GUN IS POINTED AT ME! PLEASE DON'T MAKE US REVISIT THE HONG KONG INCIDENT!" I shout. Not three seconds after my cry, Kyo-nii runs into the room with Take-kun following directly behind him. "Anything but the Hong Kong Incident." Take-kun states as he goes to calm Tsu-nii down. I couldn't agree more. Lal quirks her eyebrow. "The Honk Kong Incident?" All three of us shudder and say at exactly the same time in the exact same tone "Trust me, you don't want to know."

Lal raised her other eyebrow just enough so that we know that she is interested before she says "Mariko, come with me. I would like to see where you are at and what I need to train into you." And leaves the room. Helpless, I follow her.

~oOo~oOo~

And thus the fourth change. May the consequences be large or small, it is done and cannot be reversed.

So mote it be.