I do not own KHR.

Snippet 3 (Flower Funerals; Irine's POV)

Irine Gerst was not having a good day. Scratch that, she wasn't having a good week. In fact, her week had been utterly and completely awful.

So awful, that the only thing stopping her from taking out her gun and putting several holes in her ceiling and walls was the fact that she was supposed to lie low for now. That meant no bringing the police (or roof) down on her head.

Not to mention that this was the closest safe house she had for several towns. If she needed to escape quickly, chances were that she wouldn't reach another safe house fast enough and would end up dead.

Irine liked her life, so she wasn't about to lose her temper (and therefore her life) like some green-behind the ears rookie. She was part of the mafia; a calm, beautiful creature of the dark and she wasn't going to let a stupid little set back change that, damn it. So she instead settled for pacing around the kitchen table like an agitated cat.

Still, even if she wasn't going to lose her temper it didn't change the fact that this situation was very, very bad. It wasn't supposed to be bad; she had been hired by a business leader who wanted a rival to disappear but murder wouldn't benefit him as much as say, a scandal, so he hired her to seduce the corporate CEO of the rival company at a party and get as much blackmail material as possible. Easy.

Only that 'stupid little setback' ended up with her being chased across several cities after several Mafiosi decided to crash the party and slaughtered all of the guests and planners, including her target.

The only thing that let her get away was the fact that she had trained herself to get out of bad situations as quickly as possible after the incident of '99.

She was lucky that she did manage to escape, because while she could seduce just about anything on two legs (if she did say so herself), she had never been trained in combat and the only weapon she knew how to use that would serve her in a fight (because what good did knowing how to kill people with a napkin do in a fight to the death where her opponent would just destroy the napkin before she got a chance to use it?) was her gun, which honestly, she wasn't that good with—loathe as she was to admit it.

So she got away from the worst of the danger and the situation went from bad to worse, because the other Mafioso's weren't planning on leaving anyone alive, and that sadly included her. She fled as fast as she could to her nearest safe house hoping that she managed to lose the other assassins. But in real life wishes never came true so they were most likely still on her trail.

Now she was stuck in a small town named Nanimori which was ruled by the unknown leader of a vigilante group whose members wore their hair in pompadours. She didn't remember the Disciplinary Committee existing the last time she came here but it had been several years.

The situation could be worse; she could be dead in a ditch for example, but by no means was it good. And with no way to identify her pursuers and know when they stopped chasing her she would have to stay in this tiny town for at least a month. She would go crazy from anxiety!

A Ding! broke through her thoughts and Irine automatically froze her body before realizing that it was only the doorbell. She almost growled as she stomped to the door. While she was grateful for the distraction, that didn't mean she wanted to be interrupted.

She checked the peephole (anyone who didn't in this industry was either an arrogant idiot, a strong idiot, or a dead idiot) and yanked the door open when she saw a young man (kid really, he couldn't be older than 20 at most) holding flowers. She didn't have the time for someone to ask her on a date!

"What?" she growled at the kid. He blanched at her obvious disapproval of his presence before giving her a weak smile. He was determined; she would give him that, if he was still going to ask an irate woman on a date.

"Hello, I'm from Millefiore Flower Shop. Two men came to my shop on Tuesday and asked for me to deliver funeral arrangements to this address."

A flower shop delivery guy…Oh. She must be getting more worn out from her worry than she thought if she managed to mix up her observation of him that badly. Then the last part of his message registered.

"What?!"

"Ah…" the kid fumbled for a moment and reached into a pocket, pulling out a piece of folded paper and handing it to her, "is the address wrong? Here I have it on this paper."

She read the paper and her thoughts went into overdrive. That was her address all right, but why would someone send her funeral flow—oh shit. ShitshitshitshitSHIT! Funeral flowers— a death threat; someone sent her a death threat and the only people she knew who would have both the incentive and knowledge of where she was were her pursuers.

"Ma'am are you alright?" The delivery man exclaimed, looking at her anxiously—her thoughts must have caused her face to pale. Then, her eyes narrowed at him.

While there was a reason the saying 'don't shoot the messenger' existed —most people were too arrogant or afraid of the bad reactions a death threat could cause the receiver— some Mafioso were known to deliver the death threat themselves to observe the targets home environment—and maybe plant a spy camera in the process.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine, where did you say you were from again?"

"Umm, Millefiore Flower Shop." Millefiore: A thousand flowers. No connections that she knew of to the Mafia unless you included the fact that the shops' name was in Italian. That didn't tell her much except that the owner most likely knew Italian.

Either way, she would have to investigate it. To see if it existed in the first place, to see if the kid actually worked there, to see if he was the one who sent her the death threat, and, if all the previous questions revealed that it really was only a flower shop with no connection to the mafia—then to find out who did send the flowers; he mentioned two men didn't he?

But first, she needed him gone from her house. "Where do I need to sign for these?"

After signing and being handed the flower arrangement (it probably wasn't poisoned since he wasn't wearing gloves) she closed the door, went inside, and dropped the flowers on the kitchen table before taking out her laptop.

Opening her search engine she typed in "Millefiore Flower Shop + Nanimori." There, that would be a good place to start from.

Irine looked down at her computer from where she was hacking the street camera. The image shown —the two men that Tsunayoshi (the delivery guy) had mentioned getting off their car and walking into the store— was frozen in place with the license plate firmly in view. Irine took out a note pad and jotted down the number.

It had been pathetically easy finding this place. Her search on the internet revealed a webpage for this shop, complete with work hours, the prices of the flowers and how many were available, phone numbers, and the address.

So far it seemed that it was really just another flower shop, but appearances could be deceiving and she didn't have that much time, she needed to make sure that the delivery guy wasn't after her because if he was and she just dismissed him she would end up as dead as a pig set for the slaughter-house.

So she called the number on the webpage to check if it was legitimate and when the kid answered, she used the old 'wrong number' routine to avoid any suspicion. Then, she used a valuable tidbit of information that she remembered. The kid had a name tag that said 'Sawada' (there was something that tugged at her mind when she heard that name. Sawada…Sawada what?) pinned to his shirt.

It took a 30 minute drive to Nanimori's only hospital, 10 minutes to find the files of all Sawada's and all of 2 minutes to go through the three people currently alive with that surname before she was satisfied that the kid wasn't one of her pursuers and really did just own a flower shop (either that or she was unlucky enough to walk right into the proverbial lion's den).

Iemitsu Sawada (something tugged at her memories when she saw that name) hadn't been to the hospital since his son's birth and was too old, Nana Sawada was a woman and therefore not the kid (because for all that Sawada had soft features, he was clearly male), and the last one, Tsunayoshi Sawada, fit the bill to a T.

Aged 19, he'd been an occasionally frequent visitor to the hospital as a child—going by the injuries he had a problem with bullies. He was caught in an unspecified accident 4 years ago, around a month before he turned 16, that took most of his memories from age 13 to the day of the accident.

A concrete history. But she was incredibly paranoid right now and it had been a week since she arrived. A skilled enough hacker could fake files in that time and she wasn't that good with the illegal side of electronics to tell the difference unless it was slightly obvious.

Which was why she had gone to the address of the flower shop exactly 10 minutes after it closes and after the owner (the Tsunayoshi kid apparently) left. It existed, which made her rapidly shrinking theory that Tsunayoshi was the one behind the death threat shrink even further.

And now she was hacking the street cameras. The video showed him coming in every day—even before she had come to Nanimori this week. That was the last straw that was needed to completely dissuade her of any association he might have to the mafia.

So she went on to her second goal of the evening: getting the license plate or at least (if they didn't come in a car or arrived in a taxi) the appearance of the two men that Tsunayoshi mentioned ordering the flowers. And now she had all that she came for.

…It was so easy her paranoid brain was checking the information for traps. It hadn't even been one day! And now she (who wasn't even primarily trained in Recon!) had all she needed to track down her pursuers!

Maybe they weren't professionals and just had lots of fire power? That was probably it. She would still check out where that car (and the people in it) was now, but most of the tension bled from her shoulders. She almost got killed by rookies! If she wasn't busy containing a relieved laugh she would be crying in shame.

(Still, there something familiar about the one with the odd hat; something about mist users? Meh, she'd figure it out later.)

Walking out of the hotel, Irine felt like she was on top of the world—or at least like she wanted to grin—which she did.

Tracking where her pursuers had been staying had been very simple—which only made her believe that they were rookies even more; they hadn't covered their tracks at all. It helped that the car had only gone to one other place (the airport; where the man with the large hat had exited) before coming to the hotel.

With the location of where they were staying in hand, all it took was a small use of her seduction prowess on the receptionist before she had their room number and reason for coming to Nanimori (Two friends from work on vacation who decided to split the pay of one room in half to save money; it was one of the simplest yet efficient excuses she had heard).

And now she was standing directly in her enemy's territory, as close to victory as she could be without directly murdering her opponents. But that would be counter-productive to her health since they had some time to scope out this place, not to mention their superior fighting skills.

No, she would need to do something to make them believe that she could take them out at any time—make them feel the terror that she felt when she realized the flowers were a death threat. She smirked. What better way to bluff than to throw their own tactics in their face?

A silent message that said "I know who you are and where you live" like all good death threats, with a side of "See? It only took me a day to track you down, how long do you think it'll take me to kill you?"

Still smirking, she hailed a cab.

"Where to?" asked the driver with a glance behind him.

Her smirk widened. "To Millefiore Flower Shop please."

A Ding made her look up from where she was chopping vegetables for lunch. She blinked and set down the kitchen knife before walking to the door and looking through the peephole. It was the kid from the flower shop again…This wasn't a good development.

"I take it someone asked you to deliver flowers to me again, didn't they?" she asked him, noticing the funeral flowers that he had with him. Had the others not gotten her message? No, this was a counter death threat; or rather a counter, counter death threat.

"Yes, could you sign here to confirm the delivery?"

She took the paper and pen from him and signed her name. Then he handed her an envelope while he took the signed papers. "They also asked me to deliver this with the flowers."

She turned it around so the top was facing her and almost choked on the sharp breath that she drew in. That seal…It was the Vongola Famiglia emblem. Why would Vongola…the death threats. But, no, that was impossible. There was no way that those rookies had been from Vongola; but, then again, hadn't one of the Varia's members been said to wear a large hat that looked like a frog—exactly like the hat that one man wore.

Slowly—as if though by delaying this would all turn out to be a horrible, awful joke—she opened the envelope, took out the letter, and began closing the door. Distantly she was aware that the kid had just gone back to his car and was now driving away but most of her attention was firmly on the words in front of her.

"Roses are red,

Violets are blue.

Flowers have short life spans,

And soon you will too.

Irine Mirjam Gerst, if you do not leave Japan by September 17 you will be killed.

Signed,

Vongola Decimo, Xanxus Vongola"

It was simple and easy to understand—and got the message across in an incredibly efficient manner if her shaking hand was anything to go by. Then she noticed writing underneath the Decimo's (Vongola, she's just been sent a death threat by Vongola) signature.

"P.S.: I do not appreciate you stalking my subordinates on their vacation. Do so again and they have full authorization to kill you on sight.

Signed,

CEDEF leader, Iemitsu Sawada"

Aw shit. That mean that the two people saying at the hotel were CEDEF operatives (a small, tiny part of her brain noted that they really were two co-workers on vacation). Not to mention the name signed. Iemitsu Sawada, father of Tsunayoshi Sawada, otherwise known as the kid who had delivered all her death threats. She had been played by him right from the start and never noticed.

Either way, she needed to get out of Nanimori (and Japan) now. She only had one more day before her deadline was up and she had no intentions of waiting for the last-minute. Vongola wasn't known for giving people death threats; simply preferring to kill all opposition. She didn't know why she was given a choice in the matter, but kicking gift horses in the mouth was one of the worst habits one could have —and that was one habit she wasn't about to begin practicing anytime soon.

Screw lunch, she needed to look up the next flight to anywhere that was not here.

"—she's leaving right now….Yes boss...I don't think that happe—…. Alright boss. Goodbye."

Oregano looked up from her report to glance at Turmeric.

"So how is everything over there?"

Turmeric sighed and a small, amused smile rose to his lips.

"Boss spent 10 minutes on the verge of coming to Japan to make sure 'that foul woman' hadn't tainted his Tuna-fishes purity."

Oregano laughed and went back to writing the report.

"I see that everything's alright now."

Author Note:

This is the POV of the 'enemy' assassin. I hope it managed to explain what happened in the last chapter, if not, please tell me and I'll try to fix it. Oh, and the reason that the shop name didn't make her think "MAFIA" is because the Millefiore (from what i know) only formed in the alternate future.

I also sincerely hope I didn't make her a Mary Sue. If I did, please, PLEASE tell me and I'll try to change her. That's like, the worst possible outcome.

Also, this probably is the last of the daily chapters. I've now run out of brain juice for the story (even though I have a couple more ideas in mind).

On a side note, many people, including me (trust me!), want for Tsuna to become friends again with all of his guardians. I'm not planning for it to go in that direction atm (no inspiration), though I do have one idea along that line but it's with Hibari which really, Hibari, nothing more needs to be said for it to be understood that it won't be very fluffy (kind of).

Back to the main point, if I do decide to write those (actually I only have one) snippets, it won't be for some time (at least a couple of days) since, like I said, no inspiration right now.