Hi!
Hmmkay, what to say here… I really have no excuse for this apart from the fact that I got a STORY-ALERT for a COMPLETED story, Melodia Di Disperazione, and so I decided, just for the honor of that particular person, to make a side-story. Basically elaborate more on the details and events that led to such a tragedy.
Umm…enjoy?
Tsuna was seated at his desk again, surrounded by the mounds of paperwork he had begun to surrender to. He'd been lost in thought when his mist guardian made his sudden appearance.
"Kufufu…letting your guard down again I see…" Mukuro chuckled, pointing the trident in Tsuna's face.
To his surprise, his boss meekly took the trident in one hand, and pointed it to his heart. He met Mukuro's shocked gaze with a resigned smile and eyes that looked weary of the world.
"So go ahead, Mukuro. You might just be doing me a favour, I don't want…to feel this way anymore."
Mukuro's eye narrowed. "Do you understand what you are saying, Sawada Tsunayoshi?"
"I think you and I both know I was never suited for this. Maybe, just maybe you would do better in my part. I can't bring myself to protect the Vongola anymore.""
Mukuro quickly pulled the trident out of his boss' feeble grip.
He merely laughed a little. "I'll come back some other time when I feel like shooting myself with the Possession Bullet."
As he turned and closed the door, the last bit of his swishing, long dark blue hair stuck out from behind the door, and Tsuna sighed sadly.
"Why…won't anyone help me?"
It wasn't that he didn't want to protect the Vongola. In fact, it was the exact opposite. He now knew all the members of the Vongola like close friends ( or as much as he could pry into their normal lives, really) and they were all that was worth protecting, including CEDEF, his parents, and I-pin, Kyoko and Haru.
It wasn't that he was shirking his duties either. He'd rejected Yamamoto's calls to watch the Namimori team play and take a short break for awhile, so on and so forth.
He'd politely declined Gokudera-kun's invitation to go stargazing instead of being cooped up in the office, and the most unusual thing was that even HIBARI was asking him whether he'd like to join him in a particular trip to search for new box weapons.
This was the world they had come back to, a few months that were now drawing to the end of a year, after Byakuran had been defeated.
It only got more troublesome from then on out, though. Families which were in hiding suddenly appeared, attacking the Vongola, the family they had formerly allied with, and taking advantage of the disarray in the Mafia scene.
And then, there was that other family that posed the greatest threat. The Cenere famiglia. Composed of 5,000 dangerous convicts and former Millefiore A-Class fighters, the Cenere famiglia pit itself against the Vongola, which had been weakened to a mere 500+ after the war with the Millefiore.
Of course, Tsuna had been working hard on making alliances, but with which families?
The ones that were still strong doubted his power as he had recently been pronounced dead, shot by Byakuran. And that's also what had made Gokudera the most furious of the six guardians, because you'd think he'd go down like a hero, in an epic battle, with the enemy and him coming to an ultimatum or something.
The other families were scared spineless by the war with the Millefiore, and several of them had already disbanded, not wanting anything to do with the Mafia.
At this, Tsuna was already too overwhelmed by the stress of the whole issue to politely point out that he was also the one who had defeated Byakuran, the one who was all but borderline human. Well, the him 10 years ago was still him, right?
Depression ate at him after the Corsa famiglia took Kyoko. Why Kyoko?
…Would anyone be next?
The Corsa famiglia and Cenere famiglia have decided to merge.
"B-boss!" His secretary stuttered out. He snapped awake, realizing the letter of declaration was scrunched up in his fist, crumbling into ashes after being lit with the sky flame.
"A-ah, I'm sorry, Chrome." He quickly disposed of the letter.
It didn't tear him apart as much as the next one.
He used the golden letter knife Iemitsu bought for him on his 25th birthday and slowly used it to part the dreaded, familiar seal on the silver-embossed parchment. With shaking fingers, he traced the message handwritten on the letter.
Dear Vongola Decimo,
The Cenere famiglia has taken interest in an alliance with the Vongola famiglia. We are very excited to share our weaponry and meet you at the next Equbrilio meeting, a fortnight after the harvest moon. We hope you will consider this seriously and will be displeased should our families not be able to reach a mutual agreement.
Yours Sincerely,
Luca Cenere
Tsuna knew the underlying message. Become allies with us and keep quiet or we'll be forced to eliminate you.
Frankly, Tsuna was scared. Scared of a war there would be, and scared of the…thing he would become if he formed the alliance. The Cenere were brutal with innocents.
He spent the rest of the week mulling over the proposal.
The future depended on it.
The day of the harvest moon came, and it was blood-red that night. All his men were excited, and Tsuna allowed them to go see it.
They all gathered in the plaza, leaving Tsuna alone with that hell's scripture on his desk.
He was out of options.
He didn't know what to do.
He tried. He really did.
Reborn was on a mission right now. There surely would be no rebuke bullet to stop him this time.
His eyes landed on the golden letter knife, the same one he used to open the Cenere's alliance proposal.
He took it in his hand, and he didn't notice how tightly he was clutching it. How the crimson liquid dripped onto his desk.
It was a moment of decision for him. He couldn't do anything.
He was better off dead.
With that in mind, he swiftly plunged the knife through his chest.
The pain was intense. He felt the blood rising out of his mouth, felt the slightly limp muscles of his heart clench around the cold blade of the knife.
The last thing he saw before he'd faded was the horrified face of his right-hand man.
"I'm sorry, Gokudera-kun. It's all up to you now."
Iemitsu wasn't stupid. He knew his son wasn't happy.
He'd regretted everything he'd done these past ten years. Maybe even more.
"Ninth, why? I thought you wanted Tsuna to live quietly. To stay safe."
"All in preparation for this moment, Iemitsu. You and I both know there are no other suitable heirs to Vongola."
"But Xanxus-"
"Really now, Iemitsu? Xanxus isn't fit to lead. He's too cruel."
"Please, Ninth."
"There's no other way, Iemitsu."
Iemitsu wasn't born with Vongola blood. Nana was the one who was a descendant of Primo. He took her last name after they were wed, which was a very rare thing in Japan.
Nana gasped. "Is that really true? Oh, Anata!"
He couldn't face Tsuna when he came back. He knew that all he brought with him was bad news, and only after disappearing for two years, too.
He stood at the open doorway and gazed at his son. He looked so cute while sleeping, that innocent round face and closed eyes, muttering something about Reborn's torture. The blanket was curled up around his delicate, feminine shoulders, the shoulders which would soon be burdened with the position of boss.
His son stirred.
"Dad?"
"Yo, Tsuna! Wanna go catch some breakfast?" He said quickly, putting out a bright, silly grin.
"…No thanks. I have school today."
"Ah, I see. Well, I'll catch a huge fish for us! Later!"
He quickly closed the door and left before his eyes could fill with tears.
That was the first conversation he'd had with Tsuna in two years.
"Remember not to get in my way, Iemitsu. The boy's fate has been decided." Reborn threatened in a low voice, handgun trained on Iemitsu's back.
God, he didn't know whether to hate Reborn or be appreciative for tutoring him in Iemitsu's absence. Either way, he disliked the man's behavior. Or perhaps, his personality.
He didn't miss the look of utter terror of his son's face when he read out the Ninth's message. Yeah, neither did he believe the message. Something was wrong.
After he was shot, he saw the Ninth in the Vongola hospital too, and he immediately knew what was wrong.
'Ninth, how is Tsuna feeling right now? How?'
He didn't return to Namimori to celebrate his son's victory.
The next five years were the best. Tsuna overturned the rule of the elders, and made Vongola into an organization more synonymous with the peace of the people. The famiglia's subordinates spoke of him like he was the greatest man ever. He saw Tsuna a little more often, could see the fine man he was turning into. To say he was a supportive dad was a major overstatement, though.
Then the Millefiore came along, and Tsuna urged Iemitsu to take a break with Nana. And while he was in Mafia Land, he heard of Tsuna's death.
He knew he'd failed him.
Then he came back in tears again, because Tsuna was alive and well. He'd even restored peace to the Mafia world.
Not for long, though.
The subordinates of the Six Funeral Wreaths were all bonding together with other fallen families to create the Cenere famiglia. And add that to the fact that Kyoko vanished after an attack by the Corsa famiglia, most probably dead. Tsuna'd never gotten the chance to get married with her, one of his lifelong dreams.
He entered Tsuna's training room another day, to talk to him. He knew his son was creaking slightly under all the pressure, because of all those damn fake smiles he was flashing the men these days, to keep them strong when the one who truly needed encouragement was himself.
He heard weeping, bitter sobs from the other side of the room, and he saw the figure of his son crouched in a corner, slumped against the wall with his back to Iemitsu. He must've been really shaken up not to have picked up Iemitsu's presence with his Hyper Intuition.
"Oh hey, dad." He says, and he looks to Iemitsu with that goddamn weary, fake-looking smile again. His eyes are red and cheeks stained, usually spiky brown hair falling limply over his face.
"I uh, gotta go back to work. See, my new technique didn't work." He says sheepishly, voice hoarse from crying.
Iemitsu didn't buy that, of course. He'd seen the bleeding fingernail marks embedded in Tsuna's palms from clenching his fists. He saw the slightly swollen skin on the bridge of his nose, pinched a tad too many times.
It was the first time he'd seen Tsuna cry in fifteen years, and that said a lot about his parenting. Honestly.
It had been the final blow when he'd gotten the news of Tsuna's suicide.
He'd had to break it to Nana, too. Then she'd heard of all the things about the Mafia.
At first, only her smile faltered, and her eyebrows slowly drooped. The next thing he knew, he held a sobbing wife in his arms, one who was known to be cheerful, begging him to leave his job.
He'd let Tsuna down.
The last thing he could do for his son is acknowledge his wish of never wanting to be a Mafia boss. He'd approached Reborn during the funeral- that hard-nosed, condescending bastard- and requested that Tsuna's gravestone would not bear the title of "Vongola Decimo" but simply Sawada Tsunayoshi, the best friend and a great man.
Reborn didn't seem like he could care less.
He wasn't even able to do that for his son.
"I'm leaving." he announced.
"I understand why, Iemitsu, but-" Lal was cut off by Iemitsu, who waved the resignation letter in his hand.
"You have my condolences, Master. And if possible, I'd like to follow you to the ends of the earth."
Iemitsu fled Italy with Nana and Basil. They ran to the Bahamas instead of Namimori, because he knew Reborn would hunt him down if he went to the most predictable place.
"I'm so sorry…Tsuna. We're leaving you here. Take care, and I hope that whatever reincarnation you may have, you will never look like Vongola Primo again, nor will you even hear of the word 'mafia'. I'm sorry we can't take your body with us."
Iemitsu sits up from his hunched position over the coffin, and walks away, not even turning to look at Reborn's grave by his side.
"The tutor who was misunderstood."
"Now the brats are members of our world. They will regret it one day. They would have been better off dying in this fight."
-Squalo
"I wonder…what would've happened if we'd heeded Squalo's words, Reborn. The whole mafia world is in chaos now, and everyone blames you for Tsuna's death. Don't worry though. I understand."
"Boss. It's time to go. You're going to take over the Vongola for a while, until Xanxus returns."
"Ah, I know…"
"…Romario."
Oh holy crap, so dark and mellow and everything.
Anyway, on a lighter note, I will be posting the tenth and eleventh chapter of Infante Del Cielo today. I've taken a whole week off and I think that was enough of a break.
Bye!