Squalo didn't usually have reason to feel as if his assigned missions were personal, but this one was the exception; a mission assigned to him by his shitty boss who probably knew exactly what he was doing to the silver-haired male by sending him off alone to single-handedly destroy a child trafficking ring. Squalo's past had been torturous before he had been accepted into the Varia where he had turned everything around, so to be confronted once more by memories and emotions he had thought he had long left behind…

Even the slice of his blade through the ringleader's body wasn't enough to stop the subtle shaking that gave the enemy the impression he was nothing but a scrawny teenager who had simply wandered into the wrong building and didn't know how to escape undetected.

Yes, Squalo had personal reasons for being here, and not even his beloved sword was bringing him any enjoyment or excitement today; there was nothing except a dull ache in his chest that he could feel even through the numbness he was sure wasn't entirely emotional. Seeing the bodies of dead children thrown carelessly into an empty room, dead from being too weak, too emotional, too… child-like and afraid…

It wasn't just that. There had been surviving children earlier on he had set loose. Perhaps it wasn't just his own experiences coming back to haunt him. He wasn't the only Officer within the Varia who had come from something like this, either, but they had hidden that fact that from all but the six Varia Guardians in the hopes it would keep the thin string of sanity they all had left.

With a shake of the head, Squalo growled to himself as he tried his hardest to think about something else; not himself, not his comrades, not even the mission, because he knew that if he couldn't change his train of thought soon, he might just turn his own weapon against himself without anyone there to stop him this time.

It just so happened that Squalo's mind went blank by means he probably should have expected but never did.

Crying wasn't something Squalo was unaccustomed to. He had heard it too many times in his life, and there were even the nights where his dreams were filled with nothing but the sound. In his line of work, he had seen and heard many, many forms of crying, and it was with a heavy heart he could identify that whoever was crying was afraid.

The Rain Guardian moved to the door up ahead on his right. He was cautious, only too aware that this could be a trap, so when he was finally stepping inside what looked to be something akin to an isolation room, he lowered his weapon as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the strong darkness that came with having only a tiny window up high, covered in grime and blocking out almost all of the sun's rays.

It was a child, just like Squalo had suspected. A boy with fluffy brown hair and a face red from crying. He couldn't have been any older than six, but from the size of him, maybe he was even younger. The clothes he was wearing were so filthy, it was hard to tell what colour they were originally, and even with the darkness surrounding them, Squalo's sharp eyes could still make out the bruises on the child's body.

Squalo growled, more to himself than anyone else; he remembered only too vividly bruises just like those that used to cover every inch of his and his teammate's bodies, and the harsh crying the child was doing only made him think of all the reasons in his life he had to cry about but had never been able to bring himself to allow doing so.

"Voi… Kid…" As hard as Squalo had tried to allow his demeanour to soften, he still couldn't keep the gruffness from his voice. He growled again when the kid only cried harder and tried to scurry away from the teen; couldn't the other see he was only trying to help? "Voi… I'm not gonna hurt ya…"

The silver-haired male clicked on quickly, however; with the child having moved further into what little light could penetrate the room, Squalo allowed his tongue to slip into a language he hadn't had reason to use in a while now. In fluent Japanese, he asked, "What's your name?"

The child didn't answer, but while each second felt like an eternity, it became clear that he was slowly calming down. Squalo waited, having been certain long ago he had already slaughtered every adult involved with the ring. And then, when the crying stopped completely, the teen said nothing as he simply walked over to the boy and picked him up. He didn't know what had come over him; he had seen many children like this before, ones that he had spared out of pity as they mourned over the bodies of the parents he or his comrades had just murdered. He wasn't a monster like the rest on the Vongola made him and the other Varia guardians out to be, but he wasn't exactly the most caring of people out there, either.

With a shrug, Squalo took a step back so he could turn around and leave the room with the boy in his arms. Now wasn't the time to think about what he was doing; he would just have to call for his driver and once he and the kid were back at Headquarters, he would work out just what the fuck he was going to have to do.