A/N: Today is a lovely day and a better yesterday, but beware of tomorrow, for it will be different than all the days put together.
Disclaimer: Nowhere in the past, present or future or any loop of time do I own KHR.
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Chapter 2
Something's wrong
Another day in personally visiting a new famiglia into the Mafia world. The Vongola Decimo loved these visits to newly formed famiglias, especially if it meant to step out of the Vongola mansion. Yet this is something important personally for him. These visits tells him if the famiglias need help to survive this world or inform them of any lines they could and could not cross. It minimizes any misunderstandings down the road that causes people caught in between messes that could have easily prevented from getting hurt or killed.
Currently the Vongola Decimo boss isn't feeling very pleased. It's the fact how the Gesso famiglia was already a couple of years old, yet there has been no way to make an appointment to speak personally with the boss. Tsuna could understand starting a new famiglia is a lot of work, but there is something off about the Gesso boss from their distant interaction. For example currently, Byakuran just sat there eating marshmallows with his eyes closed, saying nothing, listening (hopefully) to Hayato stating the guidelines and whatnot. Not that Tsunayoshi wanted the young man say anything with his mouth full of fluffy treats.
"Do you have any questions?" Tsuna broke the silence after Hayato sat down again. He catches a glimpse of a red haired, glasses wearing young man who seems to be slightly older than him. He was taking notes of everything said. Either that or catching up on paperwork.
Byakuran puts down his bag and tilts his head curiously. Tsuna mentally prepares for his question. It seems to be something important.
"Can I have your Vongola rings?" Byakuran gives a sharp grin at Tsuna's barely concealed shock at his audacity. Normally, when a newly made famiglias or first meetings with bosses ask the same question, but only after they beat around the bush. Never it was done right off the bat.
"No deal," Tsuna quickly responded.
Byakuran shrugs as if amused, "Suit yourself, Tsuna~yoshi."
Tsuna ignore for the time being at the faint mental alarms at this and smiles politely, "If that is all, we will take our leave. You know how to reach us if you are having any problems. We can help to a certain degree."
"Of course! Maybe we will speak about an alliance, but first I need to do other things before I am ready~" the Gesso boss grabs his marshmallow bag again and jumps up to stand.
The Vongola Decimo ignored the sudden chills that went down his spine as he stood up as well and puts on his coat, which Hayato grabbed from the back of his seat, "Wish you luck on your endeavors and have a good evening, Byakuran of Gesso."
"And you have a good night Tsunayoshi of Vongola~"
The world has finally ended.
Surprise visitor and impolite Naito, actually call ahead!
Tsuna got over his shock after a minute the phone call ended and prepared for him. Extra food was made, his main maid had mysteriously given a nice vacation for her hard work and he cleared his desk from getting damaged by the Longchamp boss.
Hayato secretly pockets a couple of charms that ward off evil and stands casually next to Tsuna as Naito cheerfully enters the Boss' office and takes his seat in front of Tsuna's desk.
Without further ado, Naito digs in his tray of food with gusto and begins talking, "You should join us at Mafia Land! Pantera wants to get a tan or something. Not sure why she was packing a rope with a knot that suspiciously looks like a noose and guillotines with my name on them into her luggage…oh well!"
Hayato facepalm muttering something about being blind. Tsuna only chuckles, "I don't think I could. I still need to check some of our branches. It seems there has been some problems."
"Oh yeah! I heard about that!" Naito ignores his fork and spoon and went for the chopsticks to eat his spaghetti, "Chust tha ojah dwah, mwa nwa rejuits bwaly com bwak ajuve."
"Dang it Naito swallow your food before you choke!" Hayato looks away, slightly green. Naito laughs with his mouth open, still filled with food that flew across the desk. Tsuna mentally pats his own shoulder at his foresight to move all his work somewhere else. Then he eyes Hayato who was ready to off someone or throw up.
"Naito, please use your napkin."
Finally, the other mafia boss swallows his food and wipes off the sauce that even smeared his forehead, "As I tried to say before Haya-chan had a mental breakdown," at this Hayato hands shakily rises to strangle the man, but used the thin thread of self-control he had left to not follow through.
"Just the other day, my new recruits barely came back alive and had the senior members return in mid mission to bring them back. It wasn't pretty," Naito grabs a cookie and eyes it curiously before eating in one gulp. Once he belched, he waves his fork before stabbing it on his steak, "Also the companies I was sponsoring recently lost too much stock on America and some on European countries."
"It seems like a recent common problem. Some unknown person is buying everyone stuff, undermining Vongola," Hayato growls, no longer sickly green.
Tsuna knows how frustrated his storm was. Hayato prides himself in knowing everything and up to date of everything is going on, especially with Vongola. Only recently someone is hogging information and Tsuna and Hayato are having problems in fixing up any problems cropping up around the world.
"Well I'm off to set up things at Mafia Land with Ryohei-chan! I've heard Pantera would be coming by later in the week to talk with the girls or something," Naito stands up and gives them a very crushing hug each of the two men and waved them off.
Tsuna isn't sure if it was dread pooling in his stomach or disgust at the sight of the retreating fellow boss. Probably the latter when he turn his sight to the already chewed food left on his table caused by Naito. Even Lambo is better than that!
Guess it isn't the end of the world after all.
Tsuna was returning from another frustrating meeting. Lately the bosses had been demanding more protection or being disrespectful. It is somewhat understanding that some of the bosses are stressful since they had reasons to be furious. Some were being attacked by some unknown hitmen or even blown up via powerful dying will flames. Although he didn't like being accused of such attacks being one of the few powerful flame wielding famiglias.
Suddenly the car he was in skid on the empty road by the cliff. His driver cursed and guided the bumping car to the upcoming shoulder next to the cliff face, off the road in case if another car passes by. Tsuna looks through the window to see what damage the car suffered, mindful at the possibility of a sniper being the cause.
The chauffeur checks for his pistol and carefully steps out the car to check any damages. Once he was sure everything was alright, he steps next to Tsuna's window, "Master Vongola, please forgive me. It seems like the road was damaged by yesterday's rockslide and it was yet to be fixed and caused damaged to the tires."
Tsuna hums, "Can it be fixed?"
The chauffeur looks sheepish, "Afraid not. I meant to change the backup tire this morning, but since we were running late, I have forgotten."
"Can't be helped, then. Better to call for a pick-up crew or whatever you deem fit," Tsuna smiles to calm the flustered man.
"As you wish Master Vongola," the man frowns as he raises his phone trying to get signal and kept walking farther down the road to get a signal. Tsuna sighs and leans back on his seat. He takes in a breath, then releases it before repeating it for the next couple of minutes.
His eyes snap open when he felt a foreign presence nearby. Tsuna slowly looks out the window, while putting on his gloves, without activating his flames. He realizes his chauffeur was no longer visible. The Vongola boss mentally groans, This is a perfect time to commit a crime right here, possibly kidnapping or assassination. Terrific.
Suddenly someone taps the window across his seat. Tsuna quickly summons his flames and was a split second of shooting them when he catches a familiar red haired man raising his hands up in the air in panic.
He slowly lowers down his flamed hand and releases a pulse to search for any other foreign presence. He only senses the red-haired man with glasses and with dread, didn't sense his chauffeur.
Tsuna eyes the panicked young man in suspicion.
"Your chauffeur is fine, but I had to knock him out because I really, really need to talk to you," His green eyes widen as Tsuna raises his flamed fist back up. Now that he looks more at the other man, Tsuna cannot help there is something familiar about him. Like he seen him once before and it wasn't the last meeting with Byakuran.
"Why?"
"I, I—" then the young man bends over and holds his stomach in deep pain.
In reflex Tsuna drops his hand and then puts it back up quickly, mentally berating himself at dropping his guard. Fortunately, it seems the young man really was in pain. He sighs and steps out of the car.
Once the young man noticed Tsuna was was a couple of steps away, the former squeaks and slides down with his back against the cliff wall, "Please don't kill me! I really need to talk to you!"
"What is it?" Tsuna crosses his arms and crouches down on the young man's level. He can feel something in his intuition shifting as he stares at the other young man. It was hard to tell if it was a good thing or not.
"Just for the record. I cannot do much and I'll try to minimize the future damages as much as I can," Tsuna narrows his eyes at the other man's words, tensed for any surprise attacks, but he has a feeling that isn't what the other is trying to hint at.
"Once you are ready and all hope is lost, call me," the red-haired glasses wearing young man's hand shook as he took out a small card.
Tsuna eyes it for a moment before accepting it and reads it to himself, "Shoichi Irie?"
He flips the card, but nothing was on it. Confused, Tsuna looks up and gaps in surprise. The young man was gone.
Tsuna stands up and dusts off his dusty slacks. He was just about to return to the car when he hears a shout behind him, "Master Vongola! We're in luck! Master Hayato was nearby!"
Tsuna turns and opens his mouth only to hear a high screech.
"JUUDAIME! WHY IN NAME OF UMAS ARE YOU OUTSIDE YOUR CAR?!" Then as if realizing something, Hayato sharply turns to the chauffeur, "AND YOU! HOW DARE YOU LEAVE JUUDAIME'S SIGHT!"
The chauffeur splutters out a bunch of apologies, mentioning something about willing to go to Vindice to regain his honor. Tsuna rolls his eyes at this then turns to stare at the card in his hand.
Tsuna casually asks to distract Hayato, "Who is Shoichi?"
Hayato stops berating the older man and slowly looks at Tsuna. The Vongola boss mentally groans at the blank face his right-hand man made.
"Calm down, Hayato. I just remembered something and realized I don't know much about the Gesso's subordinates."
Hayato still stares at him blankly and slowly takes out his phone.
"Hayato," Tsuna called out again, but was still ignored, "Don't you dare."
He took a step forward, while the chauffeur crying at the side of the road. As for Hayato, he speed dials a certain guardian.
"HAYATO!" Tsuna ran to take the phone from Hayato. Unfortunately, the call was answered.
Dodging miraculously from Tsuna, Hayato quickly said, "Lambo, I give you permission to blow up Juudaime's room."
There was an answering whoop before the line died. Tsuna drops on his knees almost in the same position as the chauffeur. Tsuna tugs his hair in frustration. It seems he couldn't distract his overprotective guardian fast enough.
"Next time stay in your car," Hayato puts away the phone.
Tsuna stretches his arms, feeling the slight popping from his shoulders as he walked to the Science Division of Vongola. He wonders if he will catch Fuuta free to go out eat ice cream. It has been a long time he had hang out with his little brother. Lambo may be available, but he isn't talking to him now. The Vongola boss had to sleep in the couch of his office thanks to the insane, fun house room of his. He was actually begged by a couple of the younger staff for permission to play inside.
He wonders if he should've charged admission.
"Vongola!" Putting down his arms down, Tsuna turns to see Giannini rushing toward him. He nods at him and greets him with a smile once the older man reached him.
"Thank goodness I found you. I was about to head over your office," Giannini explained and guided the Vongola boss toward his station, "Fuuta was here earlier, but I had him go to another section of the division to pick up a couple of things for that new project Verde hinted on."
Tsuna huffs a slight laugh. He knows by hint, it meant the lightning Arcobaleno gave them a couple of plans that left his Science Division zombies by the time they decode the heavily, complex coded file.
"Maybe tonight or tomorrow, I will have the basic plans for the box animals that Verde send as part of the same message of the coded file," Giannini's face brightens up excited, "There is so much we don't know and I'm still not sure what most of it means. Although we did decode enough to shed light on our previous project of the flame rings."
"Really? How many trials have you done already?" Tsuna smiles at the sheepish look of Giannini.
"A couple, but it almost ready for a real trial run. Maybe one of your guardians, who are free of course, can come by and check it out."
The Vongola boss nods, "Of course. Do you have specific flame type ring ready or is it free for all?"
Giannini frowns and takes a seat on his chair to look through the computer, "Well we have a couple of cloud rings ranging in different class levels. As for the rest, they're the highest level of all the flames."
Tsuna grins, "I bet Kyoya would love to try out new weaponry."
Giannini nervously laughs, but frowns as he checks a new message that popped up. He clicks on it and frowns, "Vongola, it seems the Bovinos mainframe has been breached. They're not sure what was being looked for."
"Really?" Tsuna frowns and takes out his phone, "Better send Lambo and Hayato along with one of your people to personally check it out. Only if they approve us to check it out."
Recently, his allies have been leery of letting anyone outside of their famiglias going to their own mansions that even the weekly meeting with the boss are postponed until further notice. It was a shame, but a bad telling how the Mafia is getting worse. Hopefully it's one of these recession periods that eventually everything gets better.
"They said it's alright," Giannini looks back at Tsuna in worry, "As soon as possible will be great."
Tsuna mentally cursed, It must be very serious then.
"Alright then, I will check who is available and send Lambo latest before dinner time. Also, once we finalize the final preparations of the box animals, I'll start freeing up Kyoya's schedule for the next phase."
"You do that, Vongola," Giannini dries off the sweat on his brow with a small handkerchief, not eager to make contact with the Cloud guardian, even in a good day.
Tsuna pats his shoulder and smiles, "I'll try to have others nearby or even myself, if I escape my nemesis."
"Reborn?" Giannini blinks.
"Paperwork, but don't tell Reborn I said that," Giannini nervously laughs.
Tsuna leaves the Science Division, absentmindedly rubbing his forehead.
Hayato grumbles at Tsuna in the safety of the Vongola's main office, "The nerves of those new famiglias. Seriously as if these rings were mere trinkets used for bartering alliances or something."
Tsuna would have pointed out that Hayato was being paranoid especially the fact he keeps bringing that conversation up again. This time he was silent. For some reason the Vongola boss cannot help remember his meeting with Byakuran even if it has been weeks since he last spoken with the Gesso boss. He fears what does that mean. Yet the Gesso were still a new famiglia especially compared with other famiglias. And don't get him started with Shoichi. Turns out the guy was from Namimori. He wonders if he ever cross paths with the guy.
"—Todd famiglia were one of the many killed during an unexpected attack on 3 warships in the Mediterranean Sea. What was even odder was that the Vindice stepped in and took the attacker," Hayato reported startling Tsuna out of his reverie.
"Really? Hold on, are you saying only one person did this?" Tsuna barely caught Mukuro silently appeared, but didn't point him out to his unaware right hand man, "Did you find out if this person is allied to any famiglia or organization?"
"I didn't have much luck with finding a lot of information. Everything is hush-hush, but only that it was done by some strange humanoid creature!" Tsuna chuckles at the familiar glint on his right hand man's eye.
He turns his attention to reads over the reports on his desk, Strange. The problems are increasing more so around the smaller bases near our allies…
"Wish I can sent you to look deeper, but we still need the check the other Vongola bases," Tsuna frowns for a moment and smiles, "I also need to send Takeshi to check over to Namimori. It has been a while since he seen his Dad."
"What about you, Tsuna-sama?" Hayato whispers, but Tsuna didn't hear him, too focused on writing notes to find the other reports that went with the ones he has presently for more information, "Tsuna-sama?"
Tsuna looks up at Hayato, looking a little lost from reading too fast and too much. He tried to focus on the present, "Sorry. What was your question?"
Hayato sighs with a hint of amusement, "You should take a break too."
Tsuna's frown quickly turned mischievous. He stands up, putting down his fountain pen, "Well, if you insist, then I will!"
"After I send in the Sword-Idiot," Hayato shakes his head when Tsuna sits back down with a pout.
Hayato leaves the office in amusement at Tsuna muttering something, "Hayato is so mean lately."
Once he was sure Hayato was really gone, Tsuna's sobers up. The Vongola boss turns to the shadowed corner near the bookshelf, "What's the report, Mukuro? Do you know who it was?"
Mukuro appears faintly for a moment at the area Tsuna was staring then reappears next to Tsuna's desk. "Not sure what it was. I am after all locked too tight to know who else bunked with me, Tsunayoshi~"
Tsuna places his fist under his chin and waited with a pointed look.
Mukuro chuckles, "My, aren't you being cute! Although you are right to be wary of that new Millifiore. There is something fishy going on there."
"Millifiore?" Tsuna sits up. He had read just few days ago of the new list of all the known famiglias and most of the hidden ones. He has yet heard of this one.
"Previously known as the Gesso. Just this morning they changed their name after merging with the Giglio Nero. It would be announced and spread out to the world by evening or afternoon by what they are planning next."
Tsuna's clasps hands were over his mouth as he thinks for a moment. Gesso again. This is getting too suspicious.
The Decimo still remembers the letter of a deep apology from Aria about a possibility of not renewing their alliance and not to communicate with them until further notice. Reborn was furious and went on looking for his fellow Arcobaleno to figure out what is going on. Tsuna in the other hand trusts Aria that she must had a reason to do so. That is until few days ago, after Aria's death, the Vongola and Giglio Nero alliance officially broke. Reborn didn't take that well either and hadn't spoken to Tsuna since.
How strange such an alliance between a new minted famiglia with an old, reserve famiglia made almost as if hastily and no warning.
Frowning, he looks up to ask what are they planning next, but stares at Mukuro, who moved to sit on his desk with a leg crossed over. The illusionists tuts at him, "My, my, Tsunayoshi. However will I able to possess a body like yours, if you don't take care of it."
"Illusion or not, Mukuro, I do have a policy of any of you sitting on my desk," Tsuna deadpans. He doesn't like anyone messing with his system he has going on his desk. He barely getting the hang of controlling his paperwork.
Mukuro's smile turns fixed and slides off the desk as if he planned it all along, "Oh before I forget, you should bring the cavalry to a certain brother who our mutual bird denies calling his teacher."
Tsuna face darkens, "I see. Well best send whoever is not in a mission then. By the way, don't forget to visit Chrome. It has been too long since your last visit."
Mukuro stares at Tsuna to something close to curiosity in silence for a long second before smirking, "I'll see what I can do."
Tsuna made sure Dino was fine with the back up he sent from an ambush that came out of nowhere. As for the Bovino situation, Hayato said it would take him a couple of days to check everything. It was a shame Fuuta was chosen to go as well. Tsuna sighs and returns his attention to Kyoko and Haru sparring. Bianchi had invited him to come see how far they have come along.
Then Onii-san burst through the training room doors. Bianchi doesn't look up from her fight with the two young women.
"Big Brother?" Tsuna asks when he caught the furious look of his Sun guardian.
"May. I. Have. A. Word?" Ryohei said in such a normal tone that it rather frighten the Vongola boss. Especially the lack of extreme.
"Sure…" He turns to Bianchi, "Look for me later in case I don't return before you finished."
"Right," Bianchi responded offhandedly focusing on the young women sparring, but Tsuna knew she did heard him, "A little higher and more force on that pivot or you will slip on that turn!"
Tsuna mentally prepares himself and half-hoped Kyoko at least told her brother something about her training.
By the look of the crossed armed stormy look of his big brother, no such luck. Kyoko! You promised you will tell him!
Naturally Tsuna checks for any exits and mentally calculates which exit will make the quickest getaway. Unfortunately, he never did get a chance to use any of them.
"Since when has Kyoko been this involved?!" Ryohei slams Tsuna harshly against the wall.
Ignoring the slight pressure on his throat, Tsuna answers as calmly as possible, "I made sure and explain with details of the consequences of such decision. She and Haru still wanted to go through with it."
Ryohei glares Tsuna for a moment longer and drops him. Tsuna casually fixes his collar, trying not to rub his sore throat.
"I would have extremely appreciated a warning, Sawada."
Tsuna hid a wince at the formality of his big brother, "Please forgive me for such oversight."
"And don't you forget it to the extreme!" Ryohei grins and Tsuna returns it with a small smile before he groans in pain of being punched at.
Tsuna bends over, blearily staring in disbelief at the smoking fist of Ryohei, "Onii-san…?"
"Good, still conscious then, extreme little brother. That was my fist of love to the extreme!"
The door opens and a dark short haired woman stares at the sight of Tsuna wincing while straightening up and Ryohei beaming at the visitor.
"Really, Ryohei?" Hana sighs, "Anyways, Sawada, I've brought my dear husband's mission report. You know, I would have appreciated if someone gave me at least a warning before being abandoned in our anniversary to go off and prepare Longchamp's bachelor's party."
The Vongola Sun guardian, scratches his nose with a nervous laugh, "Well I better extremely go now, so I get back sooner, extremely love you Hana~"
With a quick kiss on her cheek, leaving Hana with a slight blush on her cheeks, Ryohei disappeared.
"Not sure why I even agreed to marry the man," Hana sighs again and passes over the file to Tsuna who by now recovered.
"Same can be said agreeing this job," Tsuna eyes the report in his hand with loathing.
"Love is blind, but let's not be too stupid about it," Hana looks over at the glass window, showing Kyoko and Haru listening Bianchi's pointers.
"You sure you don't want to join in with them?" Tsuna asks, hesitating in checking the file.
Hana huffs, "Not my cup of tea. Words are just as strong as any extreme punch."
Tsuna grins at her slip. The young woman catches his smile and narrows her eyes at him, "Watch it, Boss. I can easily get you bankrupt and regret nothing."
"I know you will," Tsuna shrugs, but looks back at Kyoko and Haru with a thoughtful look, ignoring Bianchi.
"Got over them, didn't you?" Hana whispers. Tsuna turns to her in confusion.
"Be glad that baby," she shivers at the thought of a certain hitman, "doesn't know yet, lest you would be set up to be part of a dating scam."
Tsuna takes a step back from Hana in horror, "Hana! Please don't ever say that again! What if Reborn hears you?!"
All of his guardians were out, which was rare since even Hayato stayed behind and keep him company or threaten him when he tried to escape his office. Kyoya has yet to return to get his new mission with the Box animal research, Ryohei was preparing for next week's Naito's bachelor's party, Lambo was with Hayato along with Fuuta at the Bovinos, Reborn who knows what mission he took. Mukuro and Chrome were still infiltrating in search of the one behind the strange attacks. Since there was no one to stop him from taking a break, Tsuna decided to send a message to Takeshi who had recently taken a couple of months vacation back to Japan when he hears a familiar knock.
"Come in!" He beams at Fuuta's appearance through his office door. He wonders what kind of crazy excuse he should make to take an early break to spend time with his younger brother. Either that or go the suicide route of finishing up all the paperwork as fast as he can with no restrooms breaks or food.
Then he saw Giannini's worried look walking next to Fuuta.
"What's wrong?" Tsuna leans forward and signals them to take a seat. He tries not to let yet another headache sidetrack him from this conversation. What other possible news there could there be since it had been a couple of days before they had last seen each other.
"Not sure…but we have been getting some weird readings from our machine. One of the places we could pinpoint was in France, Hong Kong and some abandoned island on the coast," Giannini fiddles with his hands.
"Also, Verde is staying for a bit. Something about being outside is making him sick or something," Fuuta gave him a questioning look.
Tsuna solemnly nods, "He is always welcome here. As long as he doesn't start messing around by getting unwilling subjects."
Giannini nervously laughs, but it cut off by the sound of glass breaking from the hallway.
The three young men ran out of the office to see I-Pin crouched down with shattered glass scattered around her. She was holding something tightly. Sensing their stares, the young girl looks up. Tsuna became very worried by her tear-stained face and worried wrinkle on brow.
"What's wrong, I-Pin?" Fuuta asks as he slowly walks toward her.
"Get the hospital staff ready," I-Pin shakily stands up, "I—I had to run…master isn't…something's wrong."
The girl only walked a couple of steps, before her legs crumbled. Tsuna barely caught her. That is when he sees in her arms was Fon, who looks very pale and gasping for breath. Tsuna looks up at Giannini who nods. The scientist quickly calls the Hospital wing.
"May I carry him, I-Pin?" Tsuna whispers at the high-strung girl. She shakes her head and her grip tightens. He sighs, "How about if Fuuta carry Fon and I help you walk with us. That way you don't get separated."
The girl bits her lip in worry. She looks down at her master. He looks like he was getting worse. With a nod and a pained look, I-Pin reluctantly relinquishes her hold of her master to Fuuta. Tsuna moves to stand in front of I-Pin to get her on his back. With a slight tremble, Tsuna stands up once the young girl wraps her arms around his neck.
They rushed passed panicked maids and butlers and Kyoya, who just arrived from his mission. The Cloud guardian shows a hint of worry to see his boss run with I-Pin on his back and the urgency the two others running next him.
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A/N: Yep something is definitely wrong (of course some of us knows why). Upcoming next more trouble will come to pass and tragedies began to fall like the rain in a monsoon with no sun within sight. Until next time, LaniAhava out!
