Prologue

"The first headquarters of the Vongola Famiglia resided in the outskirts of Palermo in Sicily, and was relocated in 1891 when the rapidly growing numbers of the group proved too large for the mansion of the Vongola Primo to house. It was burned down during a particularly violent gun fight in the 1920s with the Dicicardo family.

The new headquarters is located in Messina and has been standing strong ever since Vongola moved in. Vongola HQ is a massive area spanning seventeen square miles, including an eighteen hole golf course, five gun ranges, a training facility and four heated, Olympic-sized pools.

The main building itself is a work of architecture, rivaled only by the White House as an office building. This is the Don Vongola's home and office, where his family and Family reside in. It becomes the center of his life the moment he takes up the mantle. The Vongola Boss' office is the most spectacular and noteworthy room in the building; even the ballroom of pure marble and the dining hall that opens up to the heavens cannot compare.

Left untouched since it was first unveiled, the room is roughly ten meters across; all plush red carpeting and cream walls. The room is semicircular, with floor to ceiling windows stretching through the circumference of half the room, leading out to a balcony overseeing the gardens. Expensive paintings from all eras are hung on its walls; collectors would pay and arm and leg just to see some of these pictures.

The Don's work desk is handcrafted by a master, dark rosewood, a heavy, antique affair costing an estimated USD $12,700,000, perhaps the most expensive item in the room yet. Purchased in the Sixth's time in the office, the desk is carved from single piece of wood and is said to be able to deflect bullets…"

- Vongola: the Present Past, 2045 edition, by Jacob Riley

Reborn was having a bad day –a rarity for him, since he always believed in taking control of things with his own hands, but there was no other way to describe the last few hours. He woke with a massive hang over, couldn't find his trademark fedora, he left his bullet cartridges in his suit and put it in the wash, had one of the CEDEF members put a bullet through his phone when they could not identify him without his hat and was now listening to the CEDEF leader's woes and worries. And it wasn't even noon yet.

"My poor, cute little son," Iemitsu bawled. How the man had risen to his position was beyond Reborn. Crossing his arms over his chest, Reborn tapped his foot impatiently as he watched the crumpled mess of man on the carpeted floor. Iemitsu had greeted him into his office jovially, his tanned face in an excessively wide smile. Then he called for his new secretary to get Reborn a coffee, excitedly boasting to Reborn about his wife-cum-secretary's excellent coffee, dissolving into a likeness of a love-struck teen.

He explained about how it pained him so to have left his beautiful, lovely wife and his adorable child in Japan for the past twenty years and how joyous it was to finally live together with his beloved again. Then Iemitsu had abruptly collapsed, mourning the loss his child. At first, Reborn had thought Iemitsu's son to be dead and offered his condolences, only to find that the kid had applied for and been accepted to a school in Florence; without telling his parents.

If he did not have a reputation to retain, the hit man would have buried his face in his hands in exasperation. "He's going to Florence University to study. Tuscany! That's halfway across the country from here!" The man's distress was annoying and made Reborn was to blow his brains out of his head; assuming that there was anything to shoot out.

"He was in Japan," Reborn pointed out. "He was halfway around the world from the beginning. Florence is closer to Sicily than Japan."

"He said he didn't want to come here because he didn't want people to know that I was his father," Iemitsu wailed, not listening to anything Reborn said. "Where have I gone wrong?" If I were him, I would have done the same, Reborn frowned, distaste evident in his eyes. In fact, I pity the kid for having a father like that.

A pretty, middle-aged woman with short brown hair offered Reborn a cup of coffee before reaching down to pat her husband's back. "Tsu-kun said, 'You couldn't have done anything wrong because you were never here. You didn't seem to have a problem with leaving mother and I in Japan, so I don't see why you should care.' It wasn't your fault at all, Papa!" At this, the man seemed to brighten up. Apparently, neither of them had caught on to their son's true meaning despite the fact that he practically smacked it into their faces.

I think it was completely his fault, Reborn kept to himself. The sooner the man recovered from being a blubbering mess, the sooner he could get his orders.

"But," Nana said contemplatively, and Reborn wondered, for a brief moment, if she had suddenly caught on to her son's displeasure before dismissing the possibility of such a thing. She had thought Iemitsu was a construction worker working abroad for twenty years, despite the absurd amount of money he sent back and occasional postcards from dubious locations. "Tsu-kun became like a different person since two years ago. Suddenly, he put in effort into his studies and work. It wasn't as if he was stupid, but Tsu-kun has Papa's laziness. But since then, he's been acing his tests, studying and reading a lot, as if he suddenly found a goal."

Reborn raised a brow. The boy was a candidate for boss, though he wasn't a real competitor due to his inability pass tests, complete lack of physical ability and competence. No one had him on surveillance for a while now, but he had heard that the child was completely useless. However, according to Nana, it seems that his intelligence was outdated. The boy was now attending a course in international law in the University of Florence, which was quite a feat for someone who could not pass a single math test three years ago. If the shit hits the fan, he may truly become a candidate for boss, Reborn mused.

"Because of his heartless abandonment of his father, your mission is to keep watch on my son!" Iemitsu suddenly declared with a flourish of his hand.

Reborn was a smart man. He knew that disobeying a direct order from a superior was not something a normal or intellectually competent hit man would do. But then Reborn was not normal. He was the world's best hit man damn it, and he was not about to babysit Iemitsu's kid. Rolling his eyes uncharacteristically, he ran a hand through his messy hair, missing his hat immensely. Then he squared his shoulders and glared hard enough to burn holes as he drew his loaded gun.

"Iemitsu, I do hope you know the consequences of calling me without a good reason."

This is a prologue, so it's shorter than the actual chapters. Information about updates will be on my profile page.