Katekyo Hitman Reborn
VONGOLA vs CORLEONE ARC
Nyan. I re-published this story, in hopes that I could finish this already! Done only some minor editing.
READ AND REVIEW. Hehe. Hitman Reborn is not mine, its Akira-sama's.
Characters have no relation to the works of Mario Puzo. Only the names. And well, it's very far off from his novels - except for the Mafia thing:)
ONE: The Corleone
Trapani, Sicilia
Vitteli Corleone adjusted the magnifier but she can't see anything. She activated the heat sensor for detecting thermal radiation. Images of blue, green and orange that compose a human heat appeared in the monitor- still not very clear. From where she is, the target was approximately a mile away. Its 2:00 in the morning and the darkness has crept in every corner of the land and has engulfed everything blinding all human senses. It's impossible to see anything. She shrugged, no matter how you look at it, the job is inoperative. Even though her equipment is the new highly powered C-N5 Sniper Gun, the feat is entirely impossible. She glanced at Luca who was beside her. She can't see her but she knows she is there.
"Remind me again why I have to do this? Why I was called to do this?" She said in an irritable voice.
"One answer to all of your questions: The Capofamiglia." Luca answered calmly.
Vitteli stared at her unseen companion who was probably as still and unmoving as a grotesque carved stone. Her silence and calm demeanor fascinates Vitteli. Since they were five, they had always been together, never had once been separated. It's like they have to be with each other in order to live. They are each other's oxygen.
Going back to the topic, if the Capofamiglia himself ordered her to do this job, he could at least have the decency to tell her personally. But of course, who would in his right mind would not follow the order of the Don of the Cosca Corleone - the Boss of the only Family who has the top chain of command in the underworld Cosa Nostra.
"And Alex? Surely, he wouldn't put me up to this."
"You know the Consigliere would never oppose the Capo. He always agree to anything the Boss says."
"Well, he could have advised the Capo that there are other people who would gladly do this job." Vitteli emphasized the word gladly, just to point out that she was not happy about this.
"The Consigliere has other important business to attend to."
"Isn't this important?"
"Not on the macro-level Cosca point-of-view."
"That's bull."
"Your procrastination is bull." Luca said sarcastically.
"I don't need to give you the reason why it's impossible to this job, do I?"
"Exactly why you have been called to do this job, even when your eyes are closed, you can shoot him down." Luca retorted in all honesty.
"But just for a man? Me?"
"Just finish this already, Princess. Quit complaining." Luca said, with a sign of annoyance. Luca only calls Vitteli Princess when they are in public and when she is about to lose her patience. In this situation, it's the latter. Luca, despite of being serene has a short fuse of patience. Instead of saying another word, Vitteli obeyed her. Luca was after all the Sotto Capo, the person in the Family no one wants to mess with.
Luca watched the Princess as she pressed the trigger. No sound came from the exquisite firearm. The question is not whether the target was shot because no doubt he was. Once the Flame of Death started there's no stopping her. She would breach the impossible to possible, just like the Capofamiglia himself - the reason why she was assigned the job in the first place. Princess Vitteli does her job effectively and efficiently. Now, the question would be how to clean up the mess. As far as the whole world was concerned, the man named Joseph Valachi – doctor, husband, father, soldato of the Cosca Bonanno, and traitor doesn't exist anymore.
Sawada's Residence, Japan
Tsunayoshi Sawada, the Vongola Decimo, stared at the man on his feet. Reborn introduced him as Tomas Buscetta, a soldier of the Vongola Family. Tomas was crying desperately, asking for his help. Tsuna would gladly help him with all that he can, but as the Decimo, he has to hear the situation first. He was just starting to get a grip of being a boss, and suddenly this… oh man.
"Uhm, Tomas-san, why don't we talk about your problem first?" Tsuna suggested, unsure of what to do. The man looked at him with eyes full of tears. Tsuna was reminded of a pitiful dog on a cold, lonely, rainy night in an abandoned alley. Tsuna reprimanded himself. It's rude to associate the man who he just met with a dog.
"Vongola Decimo…" He started. "I did something horrible!"
"What did you do?" Tsuna asked when what he really wants to ask was how horrible it was.
"I killed a Corleone."
There was a moment of silence. After Tomas said it, the atmosphere in the house suddenly got heavy, poisonous and suffocating. Tomas seemed more afraid of the word Corleone than the implication of what he just said. Like the word itself was death. Tsuna was trying hard to remember who is this Corleone, but can't. In fact, he never heard of it until Tomas mentioned it. Besides, the real problem here was that Tomas killed someone. That was the thing horrible. And where would he exactly come in the picture? He can't possibly be an accomplice and hide him from the authority.
Tsuna looked at Tomas once more. The fragile-looking, thin Italian man doesn't look like he is capable of killing, more so swat a bug. There must be a reason why he has killed someone… at least.
"Uhm…" Tsuna started but was at a loss of words. Truth to be told, he doesn't know how to approach the subject. He is new to this kind of thing. He just started being the full-pledged Decimo, for crying out loud!
"This is the worst Tsuna." Reborn said seriously, relieving Tsuna of the pressure to say something appropriate and at the same time scaring the crap out of him. When Reborn says it is bad, then it is bad. He didn't say 'bad', he said worst. And what's worse than worst? Tsuna suddenly got a bad feeling about the whole situation.
"Tell us exactly what happened, Tomas." Reborn ordered the still crying man.
According to Tomas, just a week ago after he went to a pub and was about to go home, a man suddenly attacked him claiming he was in possession of 'their heroin'. As far as he was concerned, he is in no way and will never be involved in a heroin business, much more get a hand on it. He knew better. Sensing that he will be killed, he has to do was he was supposed to do. He shot the man dead in self-defense. Later, he found out that the man he killed was a member of DeCavalcante Family – a family of a high-ranking branch of the infamous Corleone Family. As a mafia man himself, he perfectly understood that sooner or later, vendetta will fall upon him. However, knowing that it was the Corleone who would do the act of vengeance, he fled from Italy in fear, with his family, to a safe place and gathered all his courage to ask the Vongola Decimo for protection. The Corleone was a mafia family who takes vengeance not only on the person guilty of shedding blood but also to that person's family.
"I'm not asking for my protection but of my family." Tomas said, concluding his situation.
"You do understand what you're making us do, don't you?" Reborn asked, still serious.
"Yes."
"And you know that we can't do that."
When Reborn said this, Tomas' face dropped. The hope, if there was any, left him like a soul that left a body. He was as if he died. Tsuna was all ears to Tomas' situation, and being the soft-hearted person that he is, he can't just let them die in the hands of the Corleone. Not even Tomas himself. That's why when Reborn said that they can't protect them, he has to do what he thinks is right.
"Reborn! We can't just let them die. It was clear that Tomas-san just defended himself." Tsuna exclaimed. The justice he felt he has to give to the man was overwhelming.
"Tsuna, vendetta has been an unbreakable code in the Mafia world. We can't do anything about it. The Corleone Family has every right to that." Reborn said as if Tsuna does not know this.
"But we can't just let them die!" Tsuna repeated. He has to do something. This was exactly the reason why he refused the Boss position a few years ago. It's the crooked law of the Mafia that he never liked from the very beginning. The injustices that people like Tomas have to suffer. The illogical laws that guide the way how the organization works. The twisted perspective of how insignificant a human life is. It just wasn't fair!
"If we protect them Tsuna, we are risking everything the Vongola has. We will start an unnecessary war and innocent lives would be sacrificed."
War. Reborn said it to define the eminent and definite result if Tsuna would insist that the Vongola will protect Tomas and his family. The impact of the word wasn't still sinking completely in him. He never expected this. It was as if Reborn slapped him with the reality that they should lay-off in this matter because they don't have a choice. How can it result to a war? Is it just normal of wanting to protect the people who are important to you? Like he, as the Decimo, to protect Tomas who is a family in every sense of the word?
"What do you mean?" Tsuna managed to ask quite stubbornly and half-confusedly.
As Reborn explained, Tsuna gradually understood the situation - the horror and gruesomeness of it. Doubts to protect Tomas claimed him like a hundred-foot tsunami that swallowed everything he believed in. The hesitation scared him. He felt fear. He felt resignation. He felt anger. He even felt hate. But the worst of them all was that he felt helpless. It dawned to him that he might not be able to protect Tomas and his family. That being the Vongola Decimo would not be of any use. If there was any conviction that he will protect them at the risk of the Vongola's name, of his name, even of his life, then it's wavering.
"We can't just let them do what they want." Tsuna finally said. His voice present of the weakness that he never hid.
"I'm afraid we can't do anything." Reborn said.
"But that's…"
"It's ok Boss. I knew from the beginning that it's a lost cause. It's just…my family…they have nothing to do with this." Tomas cried for the desperation of gripping the hope that was never there. He cried the tears that can no longer flow out of his eyes because it was already empty. He has cried his all.
