Michael ran a hand through his hair, sighing in relief. [b]"Whew..."[/b] he breathed, switching to Italian.. [b]"I thought you were all serious for a moment! I've seen so many rumors on forums about the mafia being heavily situated in the nearby city, too, and I got especially scared when I wandered off from my tourist group and realized that they left already..."[/b]

The boy wondered how long he would remain incognito. Sure, the mission had been to locate and eliminate the straggler from the family, but [i]his[/i] mission was to locate and eliminate [i]all[/i] of the candidates. Killing just one of them was not enough to satisfy his lust for blood, even if it was the thing that he needed to do in order to become the boss. Why kill just the Storm candidate when you could rid of the entire Vongola Famiglia right then and there?

[b]"And crap, I don't even have my cell phone!"[/b] Michael smacked his own forehead after digging into his pocket and sifting through for one that was nonexistent, groaning. For however long it took for him to exploit an obvious weakness in this group, was however long he would remain in this disguise. That, or however long it took for that Vongola dog to initiate their part of the plan. He wondered why the Vongola was helping him with his plan in the first place; the one knew exactly what his intentions were, and yet, they were still eager to help him in killing the Storm candidate. [i]The true face of the Vongola... a bunch of hypocrites, that's what.[/i]

---

[b]"I love you!"[/b] Daisuke chimed as Jak released him from the dark of the cavernous prison, taking her hand and pulling himself up. He dusted his clothes off before slamming the trapdoor shut, smiling widely. [b]"No more problems from now on! I promise!'[/b]

Though, Daisuke felt a wave of dejection sweep over him as his genuine smile slowly died out and was replaced by an empty one. He usually never felt any emotions of sadness or sorrow, but it happened every now and then whenever he said certain things; it incited memories of the past to emerge from the depths of his mind, and those memories had been locked away for a reason.

[b]"When are you gonna be home, dad?"[/b]

[b]"How long are you leaving this time?"[/b]

[b]"I'm sorry, sir... I didn't mean to make you mad."[/b]

[b]"I promise I won't hurt other kids anymore."[/b]

[b]"I won't be a problem kid anymore, sir."[/b]

Daisuke wondered if his father hated him for being so annoying. After they left Japan and started living in America, his dad became a stranger to him. He started to leave for business trips that started off as only days, until they began stretching to weeks and weeks. The only two consistencies were his dad's short amounts of time home, and the anger that he felt towards him. The truth was that his family was gone; [i]mom, dad, brother.[/i] All of them. Four years of happiness, ten years of a lie.

Even after making a lot of friends in America, Daisuke felt alone. For every friend he made, a bully followed. In America, if you were not Caucasian or you did not look the part, it was a living hell. He was one of those kids that, despite claiming to lead such a happy and normal life, suffered through that kind of torment every single day. Some called him the product of a failed system, others told him to go back to China. It was all equally demoralizing as it was derogatory.

Daisuke's eyes flickered back to life as he snapped out of his trance, blinking rapidly as his senses reestablished themselves. His eyes felt warm, prompting him to raise a hand to his face in order to wipe them as he turned back to Jak. [b]"Let's keep searching for Naoto."[/b]