A/n: Thanks for the reviews! I didn't get a lot but they were all good anyway, so yay! Here's the second chapter, I hope I still get reviews for this one!
This chapter features the Vongola's Rain Guardian Takeshi Yamamoto.
Warnings: Changed the rating to T due to language, blood, gore, and mentions of sex.
Italics = flashback scenes.
Chapter 2: Takeshi Yamamoto: The cost of taking lives
"Good practice today team! Get lots of rest for tomorrow's game. Dismissed!" He said to his baseball team. His team mates excused themselves from him, as they scattered off into different directions. He grabbed his bat from the ground, and headed for the showers, he was covered in sweat and dirt, as was usual during baseball practice. Though a full fledged member of the Mafia, Takeshi Yamamoto could not completely let go of baseball, so when he got accepted to the university, he soon joined the baseball team, participating in inter university tournaments here and there. He was made captain of the team in his third year, and since then has lead the team to victory countless times. Truth be told, baseball was the only good thing going on in his life, but more on that later.
Most of his team mates had already gone home, he was the only one who opted to take a shower in the locker rooms... though it wasn't like he was going straight home, he made plans with his fellow guardians, they were going to eat out today, something they did once in awhile to hang out and not talk about Mafia related stuff.
After taking a quick shower, he put on casual clothes, jeans, a t-shirt, and a leather jacket. He grabbed his bag and his bat,slung them on his shoulder and left the showers. It was around 6 in the afternoon. The people in the University were starting to dissipate, most of the student population had probably gone home, or were in parties drinking the night away. He met a few people along the way, greeting some classmates he knew as he passed through the University's open field, on his way to the parking lot. Similar to his high school and middle school days, he was still as popular as ever in school, being the baseball captain and having a tall stature and good looks propelled him to that status, it took him quite some time before he got to his destination. And being the polite young man he was, he greeted each and every one.
When he got to the parking lot, he saw a woman leaning on his blue sports car's hood. He let out a sigh. And he thought Tsuna had girl problems, he was in the same position, and even more so. He walked towards his car. The woman noticed him as he got closer.
"Hey Takeshi." she greeted him as she stood straight. The woman in front of him wore a short tight skirt, a red tank top, and high-heeled boots. How this woman could wear something this skimpy in the middle of November, was a mystery to him.
He smiled politely at the woman as he passed her. He pushed a button on his car keys and the doors were unlocked. He put his duffel bag inside the passenger seat, and shut the car's door again. "Lucia" he greeted. A smile crept across the girls lips as she moved closer to him, putting a hand on his chest.
"Wanna do something fun tonight?" she asked, moving closer to him, pressing her body to his.
"Sorry, I have plans..." he quickly answered. He was very much looking forward to spending time with the other guardians.
Lucia was also a member of the Mafia, coming from a small Mafia family, she knows about Takeshi being a mafia member, but not the fact that he's one of the guardians of Italy's most powerful Mafia family. He and Lucia met in the University and have fooled around lots of times before, which is something he now regrets since he noticed the girl has been too clingy lately and seems to be developing feelings or something.
"You always say that lately." she said, pouting at him seductively.
"I really do have plans Lucia, I'm Sorry." he gently took her hands off him, nodded politely, as he got into his car, The girl had an annoyed look on her face as she once again failed on her attempt to seduce the handsome Japanese man. Takeshi rolled down the windows as to not come off rude. "See you, Lucia." he told her.
"Call me if you change your mind!" she called after him as his car sped off. Lucia was a beautiful woman, a little slutty for his tastes but she had some good in her. Takeshi just isn't looking for anything serious. He didn't think he deserved to be in a happy relationship anyway.
The drive to the Vongola mansion was uneventful, rush hour had just ended and it only took him 15 minutes to get to the base. He parked his car in his usual spot, greeting the lower ranked members of the Vongola on his way to the lobby. A familiar brown haired, suit-clad Japanese man and a beautiful long dark haired Japanese woman, clad in a short black dress, were sitting at the lobby, talking and laughing about something he couldn't quite hear. When he was near enough, the pair noticed him.
"Takeshi!" called the Vongola's young 10th Boss Tsuna. Chrome Dokuro smiled at the Rain Guardian as he came near them.
"Hey... What were you talking about?" he asked, he sat next to Chrome, and inched away a little bit just in case Hibari arrived.
"Bossu and I were talking about Ryohei-san's failed attempt at proposing again." said Chrome. At this Takeshi laughed. It was just last week that the loud Sun Guardian tried proposing to his long time girlfriend Hana Kurokawa, which ended in Hana being covered in wine from head to toe, How that happened was anyone's guess.
"Sempai did? What happened this time?"
Tsuna and Chrome looked at each other, then started laughing again. "H-he... he..." Chrome tried to say, but she couldn't talk straight, apparently, it was that funny.
Tsuna continued instead. "They were having dinner yesterday, Ryohei-san gave the ring to the waiter to put into the cake they were gonna have for dessert,"
"Let me guess, Hana-chan accidentally swallowed the ring?" That sounded like something straight out of a romcom movie that would likely happen to the Sun Guardian.
"No, the waiter stole the ring and left the restaurant!" Tsuna laughed, Chrome continued laughing too. After all, a mafia member getting robbed was very uncommon and laughable. They were mobsters, for crying out loud.
Yamamoto chuckled. "Did they catch the waiter?"
"Ryohei-san got his men to search for the waiter, and they managed to corner him, but then the waiter said he had lost the ring during the chase. But one of his men noticed that the Guy's breathing was off, turns out he had swallowed the ring and it was stuck in his throat!" Tsuna started laughing again, and this time Chrome finished the story for him, although she herself was still laughing.
"Ryohei's men tried to get the waiter to choke it out, but during the struggle, the waiter managed to swallow it. So now they have the waiter captive, and they're waiting for it to come out of, well you know." said Chrome. Tsuna laughed louder this time, Takeshi joined him.
"If Hana-chan found out where the ring's been in, I don't think she'd say yes." Yamamoto said. " Where is Ryohei-san anyway?" asked Takeshi. Chrome and Tsuna's laughter died down, as they looked around the lobby for signs of the Sun Guardian. A Vongola Bodyguard came up to Tsuna and bowed to him.
"Tenth, the cars are ready." He said. Tsuna thanked him and the bodyguard excused himself and headed out the door, towards the mansion's main entrance where their cars were waiting for them. Just as the three of them stood from their seats, a white-haired young man rushed past them, and into the Main Entrance looking all over the area for signs of his fellow guardians. He stopped just in front of the car.
"Ryohei-san! You rushed past us!" Yamamoto called. He, Chrome and Tsuna all walked towards the Sun Guardian.
"Sorry! I thought I was already running extremely late!" said Ryohei as he went back in to meet them. He wore his usual suit, save for the jacket. His orange shirt's top two buttons were opened and he was sweating a bit, his hair was slightly disheveled too.
"We wouldn't leave without you." said Chrome. At seeing Ryohei, Tsuna started snickering, remembering Chrome's story earlier. Yamamoto started doing the same and when he met Tsuna's gaze, the two burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" the boxer asked. Takeshi and Tsuna both shook their heads and tried to control their laughter. Chrome was giggling again too. Ryohei looked at the two then at Chrome and his eyes widened.
"Hibari told you!" he accused Chrome.
"N-no Tetsu-san told me. Tetsu-san was there when you were rambling to Kyoya..." said Chrome.
"That Tetsu! Stop laughing already! I have news!" He declared with a serious look on his face. Tsuna and Takeshi stopped laughing and turned their attention to the older man.
"What is it, Ryohei-san?" asked Chrome.
"I'm Extremely Engaged!" He screamed. The three's eyes widened in surprise.
"What? How did...?" Takeshi started to say.
"Hana noticed that I was acting extremely nervous and sweaty that night, and she confronted me about it, and you know I find it extremely hard to keep things from her so I spilled! So she extremely said yes!" he said, all excited and with a huge grin on his face.
"That's Great! Congratulations!" said Chrome, as she gave the Older Guardian a hug. "Where's Hana-chan?"
"I... errr... left her in my office. When she said yes, I ran here to tell you the news." He said, scratching the back of his head.
Tsuna and Takeshi laughed at their Sempai. "That's just like you. Congratulations, Sempai!' said Takeshi, as he extended his hand to Ryohei and he shook it. He was happy for Ryohei, but couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of him.
"Yeah, Congratulations!" said Tsuna, shaking hands with his Sun Guardian and patting him on the shoulder.
"Thanks! I'm extremely glad she said yes! I should probably buy a new ring though. She knows about the waiter." at that they started laughing again.
A luxurious black sedan stopped right at the entrance. A suit-clad man stepped out of the car's front seat, and moved to open the back seat. A handsome blonde-haired man in his late twenties, wearing khaki pants, a shirt, and a green coat stepped out of the car. He smiled once he saw the Guardians and waved at them, stumbling a little as he stepped out of his car.
"Dino-san!" called Tsuna.
Regaining his footing, the Cavallone Boss waved at the Vongola Boss and his Guardians. "Yo Tsuna! You guys going somewhere?" he asked. Glancing at their cars at the entrance's driveway.
"We were just about to get dinner. Wanna join us?" Tsuna asked.
He nodded his head enthusiastically."Sure I'm up for it! I was just gonna drop by and say hi, but now I get free dinner! Your treat right? Can I bring Bianchi too?" He asked Tsuna, as he put an arm around the Vongola Boss who was like a little brother to him.
"Of Course." said Tsuna. Yamamoto cursed mentally. He didn't have any problems with the Cavallone boss, he's a good guy. But spending time with him and his wife was a completely different thing.
"Thanks. It's been awhile since she got out of the house, what with our daughter being sick..." said Dino, as he pulled out his phone and dialed his wife's number. The phone call to his wife took only a few seconds. He put his phone back to his jacket pocket afterwards.
"She says she'll meet us there." he said.
Chrome glanced at the Rain Guardian standing beside her, and sighed to herself. He looked conflicted. He gave the rain guardian's arm a small friendly squeeze.
"It's just you guys? What about Kyoya or Hayato, and Mika? " the blonde boss asked. Usually whenever they went on dinners like this, the three mentioned by Dino were also in attendance.
"Kyoya said he had to finish up a report on that last mission he went to..." Chrome told them. The exchange between her and the rain guardian went unnoticed by the others.
"Hayato went to a meeting in my place, so he'll just meet up with us at the restaurant." said Tsuna.
"And Mika?"
"You don't know where your own sister is? You do live in the same house don't you?" Tsuna said. Dino smirked at him.
"I don't know, you tell me." He said, winking at the Vongola Boss.
The young boss sighed. "She's back home resting."
The Bucking Horse grinned wider. "Resting? Did she do something strenuous the night before?" said Dino. Chrome blushed at the blonde's insinuations. Ryohei and Takeshi exchanged amused looks.
Tsuna cleared his throat. "ANYWAY, Shouldn't we be going? I'm hungry!" he said, as he opened the back seat of the parked tangerine SUV at the entrance. "Ryohei, we're bringing your car! " Before he could ride at the back, he stopped in his tracks and pulled out his ringing phone. He glanced at the number and tapped the green button on the touch screen phone and held it to his ear. He turned away from his guardians as he spoke to the person on the other line in Italian. He spoke in quick hushed tones that the other guardians and Dino were not able to understand most of the conversation. After a few minutes, with Dino and the guardians just waiting on Tsuna, the latter turned towards them, a concerned look on his face.
"What's wrong Bossu?" Chrome asked.
"Well... Remember that mission Bianchi-san went to, the man from the Lantoine Family who escaped. He's back and he's on a killing spree. Five of our men are dead." He paused, a sad look on his face as he continued. "He needs to be... subdued." He finished with a sigh. The man from the rival french Mafia family was a mass murderer, he stole from, raped, tortured, and murdered not only members of the Vongola family, but of the Allied families as well. He was a menace to both the underground and the society. Of course, to those close to Tsuna, they knew what he meant by "subdue". It was his way of saying that someone needs to be disposed of. It means that there's no other choice but to kill this person. It hurt Tsuna every time they had to kill someone, but nonetheless the young leader knows that it is necessary to protect his family and his allies.
"I need one of you to go tonight." Tsuna said as he looked at his three guardians. Sending one of his guardians to a mission like this meant that they didn't have room for error. The man must be killed, or else the family would continue to be in danger. Though he has the utmost trust in his guardians to complete an assassination like this, after all, all of them were not first timers when it came to killing someone, Tsuna included, they have all taken lives, but it was only his two guardians who could sleep at night and was not as broken as the others afterwards. One of them, is obviously Hibari, while the other was the calm, ever smiling, and cheerful rain guardian.
Over the years, Takeshi Yamamoto became famous in the mafia community, as one of Vongola's most ruthless assassin, almost on par with Kyoya Hibari. Tsuna depended on him usually when it came to missions like this. He was pretty much used to taking lives, As a master swordsman he is an efficient Hitman and killing came second nature to him, it's as easy as breathing to him.
To save Tsuna and the other guardians the trouble, he spoke up. "I'll go" he said, turning to his boss and smiling. "It's fine." he assured the boss.
Tsuna nodded appreciatively. "Thank you, Takeshi..."
To lighten the atmosphere a bit, the Cavallone boss spoke up. "Aww man, I rarely get to hang out with Takeshi."
The swordsman awkwardly smiled at the Cavallone boss. "Next time then, Dino-san." He lied.
He woke up the next day in a bed that was not his own. He cursed inwardly. How many times has he woken up like this? Far too many times to count. He glanced at the naked woman sleeping next to him and sighed. He felt bad for Lucia, she was developing feelings for him and yet he just used her. He hates this side of him. And every time he does this, it breaks him.
He slowly and quietly slid out of the woman's bed. He picked up his clothes from the floor and hurriedly got dressed, careful not to wake her. He sneakily crept out of her apartment, into the hallways, then the lobby, then out on the street where his car was parked. He turned the ignition and sped off, remembering the events of last night that led him to this place.
(Flashback)
After Tsuna gave him the details on the target, he prepared to leave. The target was a man named Franz Lantoine of the now defunct Lantoine Family, a mafia family native to France. The Lantoine family was one of France's most powerful mafia family. The Lantoine family targeted Vongola when Tsuna took in a small french family as an ally. The move enraged the Lantoine family since they have had their eyes set on taking over that family, who was famous for having talented cloud users. It turned to an all out war. The Lantoine family started targeting Vongola's bases. They killed members and ransacked the place. This enraged Tsuna, and he proposed an ultimatum to the Lantoine, stop their attacks or else they will destroy the family. But that didn't faze the Lantoine as they continued to attack the Vongola and its allies, left with no choice, Tsuna ordered the elimination of the Lantoine family, who became such a menace that they were not just attacking Vongola, they attacked other European families to gain more power to defeat the Vongola.
It was a month ago that Tsuna had sent the main members of the Varia, Xanxus included, plus two of Vongola's elite assassins, poison scorpion Bianchi Cavallone, and Foundation leader Kyoya Hibari, to infiltrate the Lantoine's main base in Marseille, France, to put an end to their tyranny.
The Vongola were successful, a number of Lantoine's members surrendered, while the others who didn't surrendered was made to forcefully do so by Xanxus and Hibari. They were wiped out, but the Lantoine's leader, Franz fled. Bianchi caught up to the leader and managed to corner him, but the leader who was a sky user, also happened to be an illusionist and had managed to fool Bianchi by faking his own death. It was only when Vongola's other mist guardian Mukuro got to the scene that they realized the man had escaped and was still alive.
Reports from the Cedef indicates that Franz Lantoine was last spotted in Rome, at an abandoned factory just an hour away from the Vongola's main mansion waiting for a chance to infiltrate. Tsuna wouldn't give him that chance, and Yamamoto would make sure of that.
He drove his own car for the mission. Making his way through dark streets, and into a mountainous region, where the said factory was at. When he was almost at the factory, he lit his rain necklace with dying will flames, and summoned Kojirou. He rolled down the windows of his car, sent Kojirou out as it emitted rain flames along its path. Trees that he could see far in the distance had disappeared and now the factory was clearly visible. The rain brought about by Kojirou had purified the illusions set up by Franz, a technique he learned over the years. He parked just outside the entrance. He stepped out of his car, and put on the shades given to every member of the family. These shades were made by the same technology as Tsuna's contact lenses. With the combined effort of Gianini and Vongola's chief engineer Spanner, they managed to come up with these shades that would help them detect heat signals within 50 feet of the user. It was quite useful for missions like this, but of course, even the shades can be fooled by illusions, which was why he had sent Kojirou out. He found what he was looking for, as the display on the shades indicated a heat source not far from where he was standing. He took out Shigure Kintoki from its sheath, as he dashed towards the target.
The factory was old and moldy, every contraption could easily break by a mere touch, Yamamoto moved with haste but was careful not to make any noise, something he was very accustomed to doing. Most of his targets couldn't even see him coming. He stopped in front of a small rusting metal door, by the size of the room it would seem like this was the factory's office. He kicked the door and it broke with ease, he couldn't quite see the target yet what with all the dust settling, but he assumed that the target could see him now, being a mist user.
His assumptions came true, as he quickly backed away from the now broken door, as a bullet went pass him, missing him by mere inches. Once the dust cleared out, he saw the target. The man wore a suit, but it was in tatters. His hair was very disheveled and his face was covered in dirt and bruises, he held two normal looking pistols in his hand. With the amount of dying will flames he had used on his illusions, plus the fact that he's been on the run for days, meant that he no longer seemed capable of producing flames. He looked very pitiful, for a man that was once known as France's most fearful mob boss.
"Vongola?" the man spoke in a thick french accent.
"Vongola the tenth's Rain Guardian, Takeshi Yamamoto." Yamamoto spoke in English, remembering that the man didn't speak a word of Italian.
"A Guardian? Came to finish that scorpion bitch's mission?" He smirked.
"Yeah. Alhough, you are lucky that you managed to escape from her, She's much more brutal than I am, you know." said Takeshi. The man laughed.
"I almost had her, that woman. She really believed I was dead. I was going to sneak up on her, If that Illusionist hadn't shown up, I would have managed to kill her. Although, killing her would be a waste." said Franz.
"So you have morals now? You didn't seem to have any when you mercilessly killed our members." said Yamamoto in a calm mocking voice. His hand firm on Shigure Kintoki, holding himself back.
"Morals? Me? Of course not" He snickered. "I simply meant that I would have enjoyed her first before I killed her. " The man said in a sadistic tone. That irked Takeshi a bit as he gripped his sword's handle tighter. The man continued. "A woman in the mafia, I'm sure she's quite the slut, she would even enjoy being fucked by an enemy. I would have shown her a very good time and she would've begged for..." the man's sentence was cut short, as blood splattered everywhere. He hadn't seen Takeshi move, but saw his arm on the ground, no longer attached to his body. He growled in pain as he sank to the floor.
Yamamoto flicked his sword as blood dripped from the blade. "Don't you dare speak about her like that." He said, his eyes and tone were now devoid of emotion. The man backed away from him, dragging himself.
"P-please don't kill me!" he plead. Yamamoto was unaffected by it. Years of being a Vongola Hitman taught him to never give in to mercy, he almost lost his father because of that.
The man in front of him could no longer move in fear. He was cowering on the ground, shaking. The man could tell that death was upon him, and in the face of death, he was nothing more but a coward, and to think such a coward took the lives of good Vongola members, it was infuriating.
Wasting no time, Yamamoto raised his katana , And swung it with force. The man's head rolled on the floor, stopping next to his arm, even more blood spilling out.
The man he killed was ruthless, vile, and a menace. He killed members of the family, destroyed their bases and he spoke badly of Bianchi. This man deserved to die, or so he would like to think, and he was so used to taking lives. But that didn't mean he didn't feel something. He showed everyone he's okay, made sure to act normal in front of them after finishing a mission. But when he kills someone, no matter how vicious the man is, afterwards he'd always make his way to a bar, get drunk, and sleep with a random woman and every time he did so, he felt farther and farther away from her, from Bianchi. Maybe that's his karma. The cost of taking lives is his chance of happiness with the only woman he's ever loved and will ever love. So at the end of the day, aside from his friends, Baseball is the only good thing in his life.
A/N: Next Chapter: Hayato Gokudera: The woes of a right-hand man