Chapter One – Lunacy
Crap hit the proverbial fan after a meeting between the Council, the name officially given to the alliance of the Shimon, Giglio Nero and Cavallone Families and the CEDEF with the main branch of Vongola and the sub-party Varia. As usual, the Gesso Family came in uninvited along with the ex-Arcobaleno.
Everyone was in one of the smallest reunion room of the Vongola Headquarters, in Sicily. It was their regular monthly meeting, not the Annual formal one.
Xanxus was already drinking– he drank even during the formal reunion, anyway- and ordering Squalo around. Mammon was counting the money he gained when he set up a betting pool on the Dino's lover (who was surprisingly Reborn). Bel was… laughing with Mukuro about some guys he had 'roughed' up. The sadists. Chrome was busy chatting quietly with Yuni while Yamamoto was being yelled at again by Gokudera (Lovers' quarrel again. It would not be surprising if no one would approach Yamamoto's room later due to certain loud and seemingly painful events). Byakuran was floating around by everyone's head, munching on his precious marshmallows. All in all, there was absolute noisy chaos.
And Tsuna was asking God and his ancestor- thrice damned Giotto! Who told you to impregnate so many women and give birth to so many branches of your family- again who the hell gave his a Family and allies like that. Finally, his infinite patience (which he developed as soon as he started the gatherings some two years back) snapped and he went into what was officially dubbed as 'Master Mode'.
His fists descended heavily on the poor, but handsome oak table and abruptly silence reigned in the room. And Mammon and Gokudera started on a financial debriefing of the Vongola. It was concluded rather abruptly when Squalo had to dodge a whiskey tumbler but it was magically deviated towards his head again.
Then, the time of requests came. Ryohei asked for new boxing gloves and Lussuria wanted the usual rematch as he did for the past two years. Mukuro desired to try to take possession of Tsuna's body again and demanded compensation for the battles he had participated in for Vongola's sake. Lambo requested for more siesta time and grape juice (The little guy had grown up since the Inheritance Ritual. He was no longer styling his hair into an afro, instead adopting the more relaxed haircut his older self was used to, but he was still a bratty crybaby). Hibari almost bit everyone to death since they were disturbing his nap. He was placated when Dino placed himself (was forced) in front of him (by his sadistic lover) and -was ordered to at Leon point- asked for a fight.
Tsuna sighed for what seemed to be the two hundred and fifty seventh time this day and ordered all of them out of the room. The reunion was completely useless anyway, since it had never been successfully concluded for all these years. The brunette was questioning himself about his sanity and common sense. He should really stop being too stubborn and demand reports instead of conducting those meetings. There would always be extra monetary expenses coming later anyway, as the guys would fight to decide would was most intelligent, stronger, had better fashion sense and such useless topics.
Tsuna chuckled softly under his breath. He had been Dame-Tsuna, yet, there he was, deciding what things were useless or not, as the Boss of one of the most powerful Famiglia in the world. Oh, the irony of Life!
He could possibly let his Family and his friends enjoy themselves for once. These meetings were the seldom occasions where all of them were present.
The whole horde shuffled along, pressing against and into each other to get out of the Vongola Mansion. Tsuna had planned for a moment of rest in the garden, where a table full of savoury delicacies and refreshing drinks had had been laid out, though that single moment would most definitely become a whole afternoon and part of an evening.
Tsuna decided he was pretty content to let all his allies relax, though Hibari was a bit tense, glancing at his phone regularly. He was after all the one who was in charge of Vongola's internal security as the 'Protector of Namimori' (which equalled to about everyone who had once stepped on the Sacred Land, where no criminality was tolerated and the fool who dared try to step on the line would be beaten-bitten to death: the Sanctuary, Namimori in itself).
The young Boss soon forgot the faint downwards quirk of Hibari's mouth and the scrunched up eyebrows as he was dragged into a match of Poker (which was unfortunately the Strip genre of game) by Dino, – who naturally lost spectacularly without Romario by his side and Reborn watching him like a hawk - Byakuran and Mammon. His supposedly older brother better thanked him for making the blonde avoid losing his slacks and underpants. Reborn would have their hides, both of them, though Dino had lost his watch, Tsuna his stuffy overcoat in which he had been forced into by his maids in the morning before the meeting and Byakuran his shoes which he gave rather happily to Mammon, Mammon and Mammon respectively (Yes, Mammon was the one and only who had beaten them all).
And their evening was of course ruined by the arrival of yet another crazy Mafioso, who, this time was a foe. Tsuna almost introduced him face to him palm, or vice versa. He really had caught the Lunacy sometime during the time spent in the presence of his friends-allies-uncertainty-something.
Where was the resting time for an over-worked boss, damn it?!
A guy appeared in front of their fancy gates, a pair of thin wired spectacles slightly askew perched on his nose, very vampire-like canines out in a small morbid smile and what seemed to have been a white lab coat which had fallen off his shoulders to rest at his elbows. Coupled with his eccentric appearance a mane of wild fiery red hair, a height the Boss estimated as six feet one and a leash connected to the porcelain neck of an assuredly lovely doll resting in his arms (It was the most beautiful one Tsuna had ever seen).
The last article captured the young brunette's complete attention. It was a life-size model of the most magnificent girl he could imagine, being short in stature and lithely built, with almost alive jade eyes, delicate milky skin, choppy mid-long ebony hair, long eyelashes and full rosy lips, from what Tsuna could see. That crazy man had dressed it up in a rather old-fashioned knee-long forest green dress with lace and flower embroidery, a pair of dainty low heeled shoes on its feet and a choker around its neck, where the leash had been tied. The young brunette boss always had good eyesight.
Tsuna had this nagging feeling, the one he always had when the situation would turn sour. The brunette Boss subtly looked around for what could have triggered his Intuition. His gaze unconsciously landed on Lambo and then on Hibari. Both of them had paled, the child looking on the verge of crying and Hibari ready to attack. Still, apart from his Guardians' apparent discomfort, there was nothing on their side which could have made his senses prickle like that. Only then that he looked on the other side of the would-be battlefield.
The evidently scientist was staring at them with a glint Tsuna could recognise anywhere, his lips stretching more and more by every seconds. Something was off about this man. Xanxus surely thought along the same lines as he released a feral growl and took out his guns.
"Look in his arms."
Reborn announced loudly and clearly. He was ordering all of them to do it. Everyone who had not been able to discern what was wrong apart from the obvious breach in the security of the Vongola Famiglia complied without complaints. The others let their eyes rest solely on the man.
The brunette observed the doll while keeping an eye on the strange vampire-man. The toy looked out of place by that man's side. He carefully studied it to find what had made Reborn adopt that dark cruel look. What the hell?
Tsuna realised to his growing horror that the doll was breathing. It was no bloody puppet, but a real, living person whose will had been extinguished and left an inanimate living corpse.