- The Black Veil Chronicles -
Disclaimer: Some of the main characters of this fan fiction appear often on the main canon storyline, standing there to do absolutely nothing while events that have little to no impact to this story in particular unfold. To avoid having useless filler exposition, I am skipping most of these scenes and resuming any important details on the next one. If you require further refreshment/information, please check the wiki or watch the anime. Thank you for your comprehension.
Chapter 1: What!? I'm the 9th generation Black Veil Boss!?
-Sicily, Italy -
Sicily at noon was truly a sight to see if you were a believer of the more romanticized version of the italian Mafia: the centuries-old buildings and floors reflected the sunlight into a dark and dangerous tone of orange and daunting faces sat in every corner, looking out for any disturbance in the order. Two figures jumped into sight, walking casually through the streets and attracting the attention and respect of everyone they passed by. The first one was tall, blonde man with a suit that meant business; the other one was none other than a blue-haired baby wearing a grey pacifier around her neck.
"I believe you've heard the news already." The man asked.
"Of course." The baby had a feminine voice too mature for its age. "I just said goodbye to Reborn."
"Does he have any idea? About your mission?"
"No, not at all." The baby followed the answer with a light chuckle. "He thinks I'm staying here."
"Not even the world's greatest hitman could figure our secret." He thought out loud as if the sound of it amused him. "Now all you have to do is figure out your approach."
"Don't even remind me about that... This is going to be a pain. Just do me a favor and get the guys to help me as soon as you can."
"Will do, Lal." The man agreed. He took a small wallet-like container from his suit and gave it to the baby. "Here's everything you need. Good luck."
- Namimori, Japan -
A young girl walked briskly through the Namimori streets on her way back home. She was short and thin, had short reddish-brown hair and large, innoccent eyes of the same color. She also wore the white shirt, blue skirt and black stockings from the Namimori Middle school uniform. Her brother, Ryohei Sasagawa, wouldn't return from his boxing training for quite a few hours that day, leaving her with more than enough spare time to think on that day's strange events. From Sawada "Good for nothing" Tsunayoshi's sudden and embarassing declaration to his ensuing impressive fight, the boy's image on her mind had changed drastically for good. Her mind and heart now stood at an impasse; as odd and inapropriate as his request to go out was, it was still a request and had to be evaluated as such. The problem laid in that the young girl was still far from being sure about her feelings for him and feared a bad and rushed decision more than anything. But how am I supposed to tell him to wait?, she thought to herself. That'd be sellfish, to say the least...
The Sasagawa's home was a large, yet simple middle-class two store house with soothing white walls and a very well kept bush garden. Just behind it laid the Namimori natural park, a preservated green area sadly underused by the population due to its lack of instalations. That mattered little for Kyoko, however, who knew the place as well as her own bedroom from adventures in her younger years. Now that I think about it, this might be a good place to meditate about today. After a quick visit home to greet father and mother and leave her backpack behind, the middleschooler headed straight for the back of the house and nimbly jumped over the wall into the park.
It was not like the place had always been abandoned, though. It housed a mostly impressive collection of cherry trees, whose blossoming over its crystal clear lake brought tourists from all over japan. Unfortunately nowadays it seemed like you could find similar parks just about everywhere and people quickly lost interest over larger and better versions of the same thing. After the largest tree of the lake had a termite problem and was forced to be cut down to its stump, people simply stopped caring about it; well, most of them, at least. Kyoko just happened to enjoy sitting on that very stump, enjoying the quiet noise of the birds and frogs, surrounded by the other still unblossomed flora and trying to spot where the forest ended and its reflex on the water began.
"It's a nice place you've found here." A feminine voice called out from between the trees, breaking the silence. "Very peaceful, very secluded. Should work."
"Um, hello?" Kyoko hesitantly greeted, looking around in search of the voice's source. "Do I know you?" The speaker made its presence behind herself, and she turned around to see who it was. "You're a... Baby?" The middleschooler asked, eyes and mouth wide open in shock.
The disturber of peace wasn't tall enough to reach half a meter, and half of her height seemed to be due to her immense head. The baby wore a crimson overcoat and grey googles with red sights, had greenish blue hair, brown eyes and a red mark over the right cheek. Perhaps her most interesting atribute, though, was the mysterious grey pacifier around her neck. Despite having clearly the body of a baby, she seemed more than able to think, move and communicate as well as any adult, possibly even better.
"Hey! Watch how you talk to me, kid." Am I really being called a kid by a baby? "I'm your teacher now, after all."
"Kid? Teacher?" Kyoko repeated, still having trouble swallowing so much new information. "This has got to be some kind of weird dream..." A swift chop hit her in the nape, proving the last part wrong. "Ouch!"
"What?" The baby seemed surprised by the negative reaction. "There's your proof that you're not in a dream. The name's Lal Mirch, by the way."
"Don't get me wrong, Ms. Mirch," The middleschooler tried to explain while caressing where she was struck. "But I'm not really looking for a teacher of any kind. What did you expect to teach me, anyway? Maths?"
"Maths are nothing but an excuse weak people make up to feel important." Lal Mirch observed. "I'm here to teach you how to become the most powerful woman in the Mafia, and I don't remember mentioning you had a choice."
"A what, you said!?" Kyoko gasped. "No, no way. I am positive you got me mixed up with someone else."
"Well then, let's check, shall we?" The angry teacher asked.
"Sure, go ahead."
"Sasagawa Kyoko?"
"That's my name..."
"Studies in Namimori middle school?"
"Yes..."
"Has feelings for Sawada Tsunayoshi?"
"I... Uh... - Kyoko blushed slightly as she remembered all the confused thoughts in her head.
"Trick question, I know." Lal Mirch agreed. "Just tell me if you care about him, then."
"Well, that I do." The middleschooler agreed. "But wait, what does Tsuna-kun has to do with this?"
"Ah, yes, I was about to get there." The teacher explained. "I'm going to take a wild guess here and say you've seen Tsuna with a baby about my height in a black suit."
"Actually, I did! He was very cute."
"Don't be fooled by that sly smile." Lal warned. "He's actually here to train your friend as well. He's been chosen to carry the very heavy burden of becoming the next Mafia Boss of a massive family. Ensuring you two go along well is key."
"I still don't get any of this." Kyoko complained. "Tsuna is nothing like a Mafia boss, and I look even less the part! You two must be insane if you think that we'll just go along with this."
"It's a lot of information for one day, I know." The teacher said, as if her student's words didn't really matter at that point. The baby turned her back and started heading back to the woods. "Don't worry, I'll give you some time before we start training." She stoped, however, to add in a serious tone: "One more thing, though. Tsuna, Reborn and their friends cannot know that we had this conversation. Can you do that?"
"I guess I can..." The student agreed. "But why?"
"Because a shadow is never truly seen, it can move freely and strike deadly." Lal explained. "That is the way of the Black Veil."
With those last words, the baby left. Kyoko was once again alone, now more restless than ever. While that little exchange helped explain some of Tsuna's unusual behavior earlier that day, it raised more questions than she could have possibly have asked in such little time. There was a clear choice there: either she could keep repeating those absurd questions in her head or calm down, organize the little information that was availible and draw a plan for reacting to it. And while the young middleschooler didn't seem like much from the outside, the fact that she chose the latter was a hint of her true self.
Ok, so they want me in Tsuna in a Mafia family for wathever reason. Those 2 babies somehow seem to work for it and are adamant of making sure we'll do that. If Tsuna-kun has any good sense at all, he's probably as shocked as I am and doesn't want it either. I guess my best shot right now is to show them that we're really not Mafia material. As soon as they try to train us, all we have to do is fail horribly at it... Come to think of it, as much as she'd hate to admit Good-for-Nothing Tsuna probably had a headstart on her for that.
- On the next day -
Ever since that encounter on the park, Kyoko Sasagawa had had no contact with anything unusual, which somehow gave her the hopes of never finding the strange babies again. It was a very nice day, the sun shone happily but it wasn't too hot, and every student was heading towards the Namimori Middle school to get ready for class. Expectations for the day seemed high for everyone, and the reason for that she overheard on the conversation between 2 students:
"Have you heard about the transfer student?"
"Yes! They say it's from an italian school! How cool is that?"
For Kyoko, that was the first clue that the baby wasn't lying about the whole thing. Just after we get called to join the Mafia, someone comes from Italy... This can't be a coincidence. With that in mind, she entered the locker room and saw Tsuna, of all people. He was grabbing his school supplies and hadn't noticed her yet. He looks a little stressed out, really... But how exactly am I going to get along with him if I can't talk about what's happening? Hard pressed to find something to talk about, the middleschooler had no choice but to go off about the only other thing on her head right now:
"Hello, Tsuna-kun!" She greeted with a candid smile.
"Oh H-Hello, Kyoko chan!" Tsuna was clearly still embarassed by his deeds on the day before and hoped she didn't bring them up.
"Did you know there is going to be a student transferred to our class today?" Kyoko asked.
"Ah, yes." He anwsered, calming down a bit. "It was on the agenda Reborn made out for me." So he's already mentioning Reborn like this... Maybe he took the news better than me?"
"What do you think this person is going to look like?" She insisted. "Do you think it is going to be a boy? Or a girl?"
"Who knows..."
The class buzzer interrupted the conversation and they went for class.
- A few hours later -
That Gokudera guy is up to no good.
That was the only thought going through Kyoko's head the whole morning, even when she did her best to smile and look clueless to the abuse Tsuna had to put up from him. The lunch break had just begun and everyone headed to grab some seats for the great volleyball tournament match. I gotta get there and root for Tsuna... And try to stop that new guy from trying to ruin it. She was on the way there with Hana Kurokawa, a close frend of hers, when Lal Mirch showed up. The baby was just by a corner in the corridor and gave her a short and irritated nod towards the other main exit before disappearing towards that way.
"You go on ahead." Kyoko suggested. "I have to do a little something first."
"Oh, sure." Hana agreed. "Take care."
Sasagawa followed her self-entitled instructor through the empty halls of the middle school all the way into the main outside court. Since it was on the other side of the gym, no student could be seen in vicinities. She asked to the baby:
"Are we going to do something about the Gokudera guy? He looks dangerous."
"Don't worry, he's small fish." Lal commented, much to her surprise. "Tsuna can handle that kind of thing. We've got a much, much bigger problem to solve right now." She raised her arm and pointed it towards Namimori's roof. "Right there."
"Oh, no!" Kyoko gasped. "It can't be..."
There was actually another Namimori middleschool student nearby. A young girl could be seen atop the middle section of the school, on the ledge just above the giant clock. She seemed to belong to a class a year before Sasagawa and Tsuna and was very thin and pale, with long, purple hair covering one of her large, also purple eyes with a bang. What made her gasp, however, was the girl's body language. She's going to jump!
"Well, there she is." Lal Mirch commented on a sad tone. Kyoko felt a very deep chill on her spine as she heard the sound of a gun cocking. "Time to see what you're really made of, Sasagawa Kyoko."
The Black Veil leader in training glanced back at the gun one moment too late, and the Baby fired a shot directly at her forehead. The bullet turned into energy and fazed into her head, knocking her out before any reaction could be had. Instead of feeling pain, despair or hate, however, Kyoko felt calmer than she ever had been. Is this what death looks like?Well, I guess I don't have that many regrets... A sudden wave of determination interrupted that dangerous thought. Except for that girl on the rooftop. She must have been gone through something terrible and just needed a friend... I wish I could've saved her.
As if the bullet had heard the plead, it took control of the Black Veil's leader in training and filled her body with boundless energy and the determination to fullfill her last wish. The dying will took the form of a flame in her forehead, white as snow, and ciovered her uniform with spots of ice. But Kyoko didn't seem to mind the strange formation in her clothes: her eyes were focused on the suicidal student and that only. She sprinted at the school's walls at maximum speed, leaped into the first floor and gripped tighly into the window. She kept on going from there, climbining quickly into the next floor and then into the ceiling.
"I'm gonna save her!" The dying will flame bearer shouted.
The girl with the purple hair finally noticed someone was coming for her and readied herself for the jump. Kyoko was having none of that, however, and doubled her speed heading towards the middle section. Defying gravity completely, she hit the upright wall and kept running vertically, reaching the highest point of Namimori Middleschool in less then a second. The young Black Veil leader caught eye of the suiciding student just as she fell from the top and ran after her. Sasagawa stopped as close from the ledge as possible and her hand reached out into the gap below.
"Gotcha!" She screamed. Below that, a very confused purple-haired girl took a moment to notice she hadn't died, being held on by her foot, looked back up and ask:
"But... Why?" Tears started showing up on her eyes. "Why did you save me!? You don't even know me!"
With the last moments of her dying will flame, Kyoko pulled out the rescued student back into the rooftop. The purple-haired girl just sat there, begging for an awnser with those big, wet purple eyes. So this is the face of someone who has nothing to live for. Seeing that despair awoke seomething inside Lal Mirch's student, a long lost determination that seemed to run vividly through the Sasagawa's blood. Going on pure instinct, she pulled in the scared student and gave her a tight, warm hug.
"I don't care how hard it is for you to go on living right now." Kyoko whispered. "We're gonna get through this, together. That's a promise."
"A promise?" She asked back. "B-But I don't deserve it..."
"Don't be silly." Kyoko asked, separating the two apart. Not that her Dying Will flames had run out, she finally noticed she was sitting on top of the school and freezing from all the ice covering her. "Waah! Why are my clothes frozen?"
"That's just a side effect of the dying will bullet." Lal Mirch explained, throwing at her student a new pair of clothes to wear. "Not bad, kid. Most people think of something much more sellfish when they are about to die."
"This is supposed to be the 'training' you mentioned earlier?" Kyoko asked, dressing herself up again. "You must be insane."
"Actually, I might be the sanest person you'll ever know." The baby replied before turning her attention to the saved student: "Hey, you. Do you want to get back at my student for saving your life?" The purple-haired girl hesitated a moment before answering:
"Y-Yes! I'll do anything..."
"Great." Lal answered. "You'll join her family, then. Welcome to the Black Veil." The newest member of the Black Veil turned her head to the side, confused with the baby's words.
"Don't listen to her." Kyoko suggested, glancing angrily at her teacher before returning her attention to the girl she saved: "Let's talk a bit. Are you from this school? I don't think I've ever seen you around here..."
"Yes, I am." She replied. "I-I'm too scared to go to class, and my parents don't care if I go. I... I don't think anyone has ever been this nice to me before." Her huge eyes were melting Kyoko's heart like butter on a hot day.
"It's alright, but you shouldn't miss school anymore." Kyoko insisted. "And what's you name, my new friend?"
"F-friend? Already?" The word seemed most dear to the purple-haired girl. "My name... My name is Nagi."
- Chapter end -