Bite To Death

Chrome understands people.

It might sound strange, coming from a girl who first had to put up with parents that really shouldn't have been in charge of a life, and then with the Estraneo Mafia Family and all of their loving care, but she's good at reading people.

Which translates directly to being able to manipulate them.

Chrome knows what she wants, and she's perfectly willing to kneecap a few people to get it. It makes her dangerous – not like in the way of Mukuro who can clinically unmake someone, or the breathtaking, widespread destruction that is Kyouya.

Her danger is insidious. It's slow but once she gets a hold it digs deep and weaves into bones and blood vessels until it's indistinguishable from real flesh - right up until she tears her prey to pieces from the inside out.

So maybe she's not flashy and maybe she can't make people kneel in awe and terror just with her mere presence, but if that radio host doesn't remove his hand from Mukuro's crush, she's gonna smack a bitch.

"Chrome?" Mukuro murmurs to her from where the two are hanging at the back of the group. "Is something wrong?"

After the zombie hoard incident, they headed out into the city and fought their way up a relatively low building that was placed next to a large crossing that could be used as a game board. Most of the time was spent teaching the new teenager how to command the zombies properly via short games of checkers.

Kyouya looked annoyed at first because it turns out no one else but him knows how to play Go, and he didn't have the will power to try and teach the rest.

So checkers champion went to Ryohei (only because he and Hayato teamed up due the whole 'not able to whistle' thing), and Byakuran was officially inducted to their group when he accidentally got shoved off the rooftop.

Lambo caught him, and Takeshi caught Lambo, and Ryohei caught Takeshi, and so on until they formed a human chain hanging off the side of a seven storey building, swaying in the wind over a large group of untrained zombies that had gathered because of how much noise they were making.

Kyouya, the only one still on the roof, calmly held onto Mukuro's ankle and stated that he wouldn't haul them back up until they could sing the entire Namimori high school anthem.

They couldn't sing the entire thing because most of them are foreigners, and Kyouya dropped them.

However, he first ordered the trained infected to dispose of the wild ones and pile them up to form a crash mat, so the landing was softer than it could have been. He's really a softie at heart.

They left after that, only to find the cars they came in gone – clearly by a human perpetrator because zombie can't drive. They did 'twenty-one is in' and threw out different numbers of fingers as they stood in a loose circle.

Lambo was number twenty-one and he declared that they weren't going after the survivors to exact vengeance, citing that maybe whoever did it thought the SUV and attached zombie transport trailer were abandoned.

Hayato pointed out that both had the Namimori safe zone insignia on them – which is actually just a bird in flight that Takeshi spray painted on when they first arrived and parked next to a paint store.

Lambo held by his decision so Mukuro challenged him to a duel and won the ensuing rock paper scissors battle. Mukuro spun his trident and chuckled darkly as they all started hunting.

It was absolutely no surprise to anyone that Kyouya tracked them down to a building easily. After scouting the place, Chrome reported that it was a base for what seemed to be yakuza, seeing as the place held very blatant graffiti on the walls declaring exactly that.

Kyouya murmured that he hadn't had yakuza in so long. It sounded a touch wistful, like he was thinking about his favourite food.

They knocked on the door like any polite visitor would, and Ryohei offered passage into Namimori. The yakuza refused, told them to go die, and then backtracked saying that the 'pretty one' could stay.

Mukuro was flattered but also took offence when all the Namimori teenagers turned to see his reply to that proposition, and the following noise ended up calling a hoard of zombies. Which also got decimated thanks to the natural disaster that masquerades as a group of teenagers.

Unfortunately, the cars got damaged during the one-sided slaughter. They shrugged at each other, uncaring, and started walking home at a meandering pace with a mob of lilac infected trailing behind them.

That's where they are now, scattered about the highway and chatting lightly.

"Hello?" Mukuro calls out teasingly to Chrome. "Are you getting any reception in there?"

"Ah, sorry Mukuro," she says as she blinks out of her thoughts. "Lost my train of thought."

"Then catch a bus," he replies simply and smirks at her unimpressed expression.

Chrome is about to reply when she catches sight of Lambo ducking behind Kyouya to escape an enraged Hayato. Lambo lets his hands wander and drift lightly across Kyouya's torso and back as he uses the Chairman for a blockade and dodges any swipes Hayato takes.

"Aren't you going to stop that?" Chrome blurts out instead.

Mukuro raises an eyebrow and follows her gaze to where Kyouya watches the two buzzing around him with an expression that says he's searching for patience.

"There's no need," Mukuro murmurs. "They're not enough to catch his attention."

Kyouya grabs both males by the hair and slams their heads together before letting them drop to the ground groaning, all without breaking stride.

Mukuro's eyes narrow and he nods towards the newest addition who slides up and engages the Chairman in conversation. "He's the one I have to watch out for."

Byakuran coaxes a smirk from Kyouya and then a small chuckle.

Chrome's eyes narrow as well. "Don't worry, Mukuro," she says determinedly. "I'll go down with this ship."

"What."

Chrome throws her shoulders back and strides for the two, ignoring Mukuro's confusion behind her. It's a simple matter to get Kyouya's attention, because he likes cute things and she's a cute thing.

Kyouya knows she's manipulating him, of course, but Chrome doesn't drop the shy, innocent act and it actually feels nice when the Chairman runs his fingers through her hair like she's a favoured pet.

By the time they reach Namimori, she's secured herself a red armband. Chrome is the first DC recruited since the outbreak, and she'll use her new status to stay as close to the Chairman as possible so she can keep other love interests away from him.

Mukuro gives her a discrete thumbs up and she winks at him.