Determination.

After bathing with the girls, I got out and dressed myself up. I was using a new suit that I got, it was a red one. When I walked out of my room, a small missile hit me. "Fufufufu. There is no need to hurry, Shiro."

"Nii, I have a feeling that you left me for a long time." She pouted.

"I just had to do a few things. Don't forget that I will always be near you." I hugged her.

She hugged me back but with all the strength that her small body could muster, so I carried her and sat on the couch with her on my lap. After a while, everyone grouped up in the living room.

"Our first objective will be starting an underground empire. Unfortunately, I can't help you. My Mother and Father have their eyes on me and they are trying to limit every single one of my movements." I petted Shiro while I spoke to them.

"Hey, what happened between you and your parents? Why do you consider them as enemies?" Menechi asked while she tried to tie her hair in that crazy bun she likes.

"That is a story for another time. Right now I need to send you to the human world." Before I could finish my speech, Ponzu interrupted me. "Human world?"

"Yes. Right now we are in the Underworld, the home of the Devils. I am currently under house arrest, if I leave using normal methods, one of my Father's Peerage members is going to follow me and bring me back." Shiro closed her eyes while she enjoyed my petting.

"Can't we just get rid of the one who follow you?" Shizuku asked.

"No. I need my status in the Underworld, If we kill one of my Father's Peerage members, then we will be hunted down for treason. Especially since we would leave the underworld and we couldn't defend ourselves in court. Besides, I still haven't gotten my Devil Pieces." Forr some reason Shiro liked when I scratched behind her ears... is she a cat?

"You keep mentioning Peerage members and now you said Devil Pieces, however, you haven't explained what they are." Machi asked as she glared at the blissful Shiro.

"The Devil Pieces, are a set of 15 chess pieces given to High-class Devils to increase their ranks by reincarnating other beings into Devils. It is basically a modern day slavery system that Devils use. We reincarnate humans that have high potential or the legendary Sacred Gears and use them to fight in the Rating Games, a game in which Peerage members fight againts each other." I summarized most of the information to Machi.

"So, you want to turn Pakunoda into a slave?!" She exclaimed.

"I will resurrect her once I get my Devil Pieces, however, I never said that it would be for free. I thought that you already knew how I worked, I never do anything without getting profit. Everything I do, I do it so that I can come out on top. It doesnt't matter how many corpses I have to step on to reach my desired outcome." I tried to stop petting Shiro but she grabbed my hands and made them pet her.

I had to stop when I saw how pissed Machi was when she got up and tried to kill me... again. I immobilized her on the table using her own strings. "Listen to me. I will use one of my pieces on Pakunoda, as far as I am concerned, I'm keeping my part of the deal. If you have other options, then I am all ears." I told her.

"Everything is a chess board for you. You want to create a family and yet you treat them as chess pieces!" She tried to break free from her own ability but she couldn't.

The peaceful smile that I had because I was petting my new kitten, Shiro, disappeared as soon as she spoke thosr words and my eyes locked on her enraged ones.

"Nii, are you okay?" Shiro asked after she saw that the room became a little quiet.

Breaking eyes contact with Machi, I looked at Shiro's big yellow-golden eyes that were filled with worry. To calm her down, I returned to pet her head while I looked at Machi. "Since the beginning, I never saw my family as pawns. If any of you is under a death threat, then I will gladly sacrifice my life to save you. If it means that my family will survive, then I will exchange my life for yours." When I talked about my death, I could feel Shiro shivering, so I scratched behind her ear to take this thought out of her head. "You know... I never had parental love... or any kind of love to tell the truth. I despise this blood that runs in my veins and is pumped to my entire body more than anything I know. However, the family that I created... the family that is around this very table. I love with all of my heart... even if I don't show it... or rather, I can't show because I don't know how. But the only thing that I know is that all of you are precious to me. You may call me a hypocrite, but I don't care. My feelings will not change." I picked Shiro up and placed her on the ground. "Go to big brother Vergo." I told her.

She was reluctant to go but after I smiled she decided that it was ok and went to Vergo.

"Machi, I promise you that I will care for Pakunoda. I promise that I will never treat her like a slave and I will not let anyone do so. She will be a family member, like everyone else around this table." I looked at Machi's eyes.

"Liar!" She still tried to break free from her bindings.

"You truly don't believe in me, huh? Okay then. If you don't believe in me, you can kill me. I always keeps my promises when it comes to family. To my enemies I will lie, deceive and betray, however, to my family, never. Should there ever come a time in which I breaks a promise to anyone in this table, then she or he can kill me anytime." I released Machi. "You are free to kill me if you don't believe in my words." As soon as I finished saying that, Machi basically flew at me and tackled me on the floor.

"YOU BASTARD!!! I WILL KILL YOU, YOU FUCKER!!!" With each word she said, it was a heavy punch delivered to my face.

Another, another and another. After a series of heavy punches, my blood dirtied the carpets beneath me. Everyone on the table was wanting to intervene, but Vergo lifted his hand while he held Shiro who tried to escape from his grasp and stop Machi. "Let me go! Nii! Stop doing that to Nii!" She tried to struggle but Vergo, someone who had trained his body to be my shield... or a wall, held her with ease.

"No one shall intervene. This is Oemitsu's wish. He wants to show how determined he is to never back down in a promise. So now, it is our job to see if Machi is actually one of us or not." He said that but I knew that behind those sunglasses he was feeling hurt.

"When are you going to stop it? When Oemitsu is dead? He's not using Nen to reinforce his body, so each punch is dealing huge amounts of damage." Menchi protested.

"Don't get me wrong. If Machi kills him, then I will kill her right after... but stopping Machi right now would be the same as betraying Oemitsu and that is something that I can't do. I would rather die than betray him." After Vergo said that, everyome around the table stopped their actions, everyone except Shiro who was desperately trying to escape from Vergo. "Let me go! Nii is going to die!"

"If we don't stop her, Oemitsu will die! I don't mind being branded as a traitor but I can't sit here while he dies! I own him too much." Ponzu said.

"Have faith in him. Remember that if you betray him in any way, or form, I'm going to be the one that is going to kill you. It doesn't matter why you did it... I will not allow anyone that betrayed him to stay alive." Vergo declared.

"You don't want Oemitsu dealing with traitors." Menchi guessed.

"Yes." Vergo nodded. "Oemitsu is too soft when it comes to family. Killing a family member will probably revive his past trauma and I don't want such thing to happen. If anyone betrays our family, then Oemitsu must not be the one that will deal the final blow." He said.

While they were deciding at what to do, Machi was keeping up with her scream show and punches. "Why aren't you fighting back?!" She asked after she stopped to see what would my answer be.

"Fufufufufu-*Cough*." I couldn't even laugh because blood went down the wrong pipe.

"What is so funny?!" She punched me again while she asked.

"You have no idea of what you fight for. The Phantom Troupe has abandoned you. Your former teammate has left your side and now you are afraid that your dead teammate will become someone that you don't recognise when she's resurrected. Fufufufufu. You are pitiful." Right after I said that, she punched me again. "IT IS YOUR FAULT!!! I LOST EVERYTHING BECAUSE OF YOU!!!" After screaming that, she started to tear up. "Why won't you kill me?"

"Your place is inside my family." I told her.

"I don't want to be in your family. You blackmailed me and forced me to join, and yet, I can't kill you." She said.

"Fufufu. Anything I want, I will take. That is how I work and that is my family's motto." I looked at her. "Ne, won't you join my family?"

"You already said that my place is in it." She said.

"But I want to hear it from your own mouth." I told her.

Her tears began to fall at a faster pace, so she rested her head on my chest. "I would hug you if I could move but your punches hurt a lot." I joked.

"It is your fault for not using Nen and refusing to kill me." She said.

"Never. I will never kill anyone on my family." I said before I got up using my strings that were attached to my right hand's fingers.

My face was completely destroyed by Machi and I had a lot of broken bones but all of these bones was slowly mending together since I was also using my strings to stitch my bones and stop them from hurting my organs. It is just a matter of time until I completely recover but right now, I can barely move. I'm moving because I am using Parasite on myself.

"Machi, rest." I told her before I knocked her out. "Neon, take her to the bed."

"No. She needs to sleep on the floor like a dog, to reflect about what she did." She said.

I sighed and used my strings to send Machi directly to my bed with my left hand. After getting up, I sat on my seat before looking at the blood on the floor. 'That is going to be a pain in the ass to clean. Not only that but I will also have to replace my suit.' I turned to the the rest of my family. "The plan remains. I will send 4 of you to Russia. To be more exact, Moscow. Your job is rather simple. You will destroy the current mafia groups there and will create our own mafia family. Your main objective is rulling a part of the city in the next 6 months. You will be divided in two groups. Group 1, Shizuku and Menchi, you will destroy the existing groups and Group 2, Ponzu and Machi, when she wakes up, you will be in charge of bribing the local authorities and finding a place for you to build our base of operations and our future lab." I closed my eyes because I needed to concentrate in my healing.

"We are going to bribe them using what money?" Ponzu asked.

"We still have the treasures from the auction and if you need more, then you can always steal some banks or some underground auctions. Or even better, Shizuku and Menchi can always get the gold and money from the other mafia groups. I will be clear. No one must survive. When it comes to rival mafia groups, you cannot leave anyone alive." Since I was using En, I could feel that all of them nodded. "Great. I will send the three of you in advance and afterwards, I will send Machi. For now, just work as a team of 3. Survey the town and get information on the local terrain."

"Unfortunately, I'm not good at managing an organisation and I doubt that anyone that I choose will have the capabilities." Menchi said.

"You don't have to worry about that, I will give you precise instructions about that." I told them while I opened my eyes.

"Nii, let me do. Let me do it." Shiro said.

"Are you sure that you can run a mafia business?" I asked her.

"Yes, I can learn. I just want to be useful." She said this with a fire in her eyes.

"Fine. Shiro will deal with the management of the organisation."

"How will we get out of the Underworld?" Ponzu asked.

"I have someone who can help me with that. Its my elder sister." I sighed.

"Who?" Menchi asked.

"She is a legendary being that is rather annoying, and yet, she will help us. Nyarlathotep." I said and waited for a few seconds. 'This is weird. She normally answers immediately.'

(Onee-chan is currently ignoring her cute little brother because he is a reckless idiot.) I heard her irritated voice.

'Sorry.'

(You have to promise that this is the last time you did such a reckless action. You almost died, even now, you're barely conscious. You really need to consider my feelings more before you do such stupid actions. You can't die on me. You are my everything.)

'I will not die. I can't die. I will never leave you alone.'

(Promise.)

'I promise.'

(Great. Now it is time for my magic portal!)" Suddenly, a portal appeared. "Get ready to buy cold jackets, or else, you are going to freeze to death." Right after I said that, a string attached to their bellies.

"Wait, wait!" They said but I simply threw them inside the portal before it closed.

Right after the portal closed, I lost consciousness. Not using Nen or any type of defense againts Machi's blows injuried me a lot. I need some time to rest. Right before I fell, Shiro stopped my fall. "I will make sure that everyone in the family will obey my Nii. I will not allow him to go through another thing like that." Shiro said before she kissed my forehead. "Nii, rest well."