So hello our friends! Welcome to another chapter of Vongola 15th. This is an Epilogue, an important chapter, but not necessarily one that will get you to know Koneko, Yoshi, or any new guardians any better. This is necessary to forward the plot and so you understand how this time is different to Tsuna's.
So enjoy~
"Speech in a different language, Italian (when in Japan), unless stated otherwise."
"Speech in country language (Italian- Italy, Japanese-Japan), unless stated otherwise."
Thoughts, non-verbal messages etc.
"Speech in V-writing language."
Vongola 15th
Epilogue: Chapter 3: Reborn again
"Yoshimune," A voice cut through the glade in perfect, deadly Italian, from the position where all the bullets had rained down, "I was told by your Fratello that you were better than this. I'm disappointed."
Just as Yoshi tried to stand, using Koneko as leverage, another rain of bullets stopped in by grazing just too close. He snapped his narrowed eyes up to the shooter, and he recognised the black hair and feral smirk visible through the gloom of the trees.
"Now now, you've shown me you're not strong enough to handle them so you and your damned girlfriend can stay there; it's my turn. So," the voice seemed to turn to the still nervous enemies. "Let's get dangerous."
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Yoshimune looked up, eyes widening as he spied the figure in the trees. She was tall and lithe, dressed in leathers and a jacket that reached past her knees, her gun was trained on the mess of people around Yoshi and Koneko, and soon enough bullets rained down around them, ending men and women even before they stepped out of the shadows.
When the flames stopped the figure jumped down and Neko could only gape at the gorgeous woman before her, except her face was snarled into disapproval.
"R-Reborn?" Yoshi's voice quaked and Koneko felt a shiver run up her spine as she watched her friend's face widen in expressive nervousness, her own eyes trailed into the trees where she spotted flowing raven hair and eyes as dark as onyx. The grin was as white as alabaster and the gun that glittered in the hand of the woman who spoke glistened like the new ink of a coroner signature.
"The one and only."
Flashback to four generations ago;
"Sasha, I need you to come and sit down." young green eyes looked over at their grandmother with concern. Her grandmother was once a beauty, Sasha was told, and was long living as her and her family would be from then on.
"Nana, what's wrong?" Sasha loved her grandmother dearly, especially since she had been growing weak recently.
"Nothing dear child, I just need to tell you a story." Sasha's eyes widened with glee when she heard this. She so loved her grandmother's stories, especially the ones about the grand adventures her and her late friends used to have; the stories about a young brunet who saved the world.
They were always so wonderful.
The young child climbed onto her Nana's lap as the woman started rocking her chair, her voice was soothing to young Sasha and she listened to the recounting of the tale with intrigue, willing herself to never forget a single word.
When the child was settled, the grandmother started her story, her voice soft and her smile kind. Her eyes twinkled with the story. Her voice steady as she gave her legend to her granddaughter. "Well, it starts with the Arcobaleno…."
It wasn't difficult for the Arcobaleno to know that their time was coming to an end; they had felt it for years now. Years they wouldn't have had without Tsunayoshi.
Funnily enough, it was Reborn who knew first and Uni last, but that didn't mean that either had any more time to prepare than the other.
"I never thought that we'd see the end of the Strongest Seven, especially like this." Verde had mellowed over his later years, especially when the last of Tsuna's guardians –and the boy himself –had passed on.
"Surely not me, kora!" Colonello on the other hand never did. "Who woulda' thought; dying a mortal death."
"Oi! I will never die a mortal death! Only something spectacular will make the God of Death take me!" Except what was more spectacular than a mortal death for ones like the immortal Skull and the other Arcobaleno?
"Lackey, do you never shut-up?" Reborn's voice was tired. After Tsuna, Reborn never took another student, after said man's retirement, Reborn worked for many years after; but the boy's death –by no means a clean one –wore on the Hitman because he never thought he'd ever outlive the boy who was like a son to him.
"You've become even more bitter in your old age, Reborn." Lal sighed, her eyes raking over the Hitman's form –and wasn't it cruel that none of them looked even in their mid-forties though most were almost three decades older –before they drifted to her hand that was woven with her husband's.
"Yare, to think all that money I saved couldn't get me a half-decent set of companions to retire with."
Mammon's Xanxus was still alive, but barely. He was simply overseeing the transfer of Tenth to Eleventh generation of Vongola –Tsuna's youngest son actually chose the position –and Varia –Xanxus' oldest daughter was fucking terrifying therefore perfect –and Reborn held no illusions that as soon as they settled well the Varia boss would simply drink his oldest whiskey with Squalo –whose hair was a joke now, it piled on the floor when it wasn't braided –before both would simply sleep off the rest of eternity.
"Please, everyone. I thought you got over your spats years ago?" Fon's voice was soft; he still had Ipin.
"Now now, it's still better than being cursed infants." Uni was still gorgeous, though physically older than all the Arcobaleno, well into her nineties, she had bright eyes; a sky still burning long and bright.
"Heh, as if." Verde's opinion was echoed by other grunts of agreement.
"So what do we do from here, Uni?"
The woman hummed, looking over her friends as she rocked her young granddaughter in her arms. She was dead to the world, barely one but already burning like her grandmother and late mother. It was a shame, but the child's own father had killed her in a fit of rage before taking his own life in shame; leaving the dear little girl to Uni.
"Tsunayoshi gave us a chance." The sky explained, though she didn't bother hiding the agony that spiked through her voice as she thought about the boy who had saved her time and time over. Trinisette skies were special, and with both Tsunayoshi and Byakuran gone –killed in the same gun battle along with half their guardians –Uni was often left soulless. Once a Trinisette sky, always one soul. "We mustn't let this world forget our sacrifice or Tsuna's."
Lal sat up, her eyes shifting with intrigue and horror. "You can't mean…?"
"I mean exactly what you think." Uni smiled softly, running hands gently through soft black hair. "We need to find the next Strongest Seven; we need to continue the Arcobaleno."
Reborn, as expected, grinned so ruthlessly that even Mammon shifted away. "I couldn't have agreed more."
And so the ex-Arcobaleno, Strongest Seven, tutors and examiners of the brilliant Vongola Decimo generation set out to find the next Strongest Seven –and the eighth capable of holding the title of cursed.
The seven –excluding Uni for she had found her heir –spent their final years finding the Strongest Seven who could take on their helm and be trusted to remind the world of their sacrifice and Tsuna's power; in hopes that no one would allow true Arcobaleno to happen again.
Once found, the heirs were trained relentlessly by the ex-strongest whose prowess hadn't dulled a single inch in their aging. They fought and taught and lectured and told stories until the newest Arcobaleno were up to standard and could understand the importance of their roles; the ex-Arcobaleno; all the Arcobaleno before them; and Tsuna and the Decimo generation as well as why they were chosen.
When finally the new kids were ready –a Hitman, a soldier, a gunman, a scientist, an illusionist, a martial artist, and an entertainer –their tutors started to die, slowly with but a single instruction: Go and raise your sky.
Reborn died first. He had grinned as he handed his precious gun –though Leon had ceased changing years ago –to his heir before walking away. His body had been found sitting against Tsuna's gravestone, fedora missing. Later that week he was buried next to the boy.
Mammon died next, his funds transferred to his heir and grunted displeasure before he visited Xanxus' grave for a final report; his body had never been found.
Fon died peacefully, he had watched his heir's last competition before passing on his final technique and the keys to his dojo hidden away in the Chinese mountains. I-Pin buried him on her family plot where she joined him not four years later after a run in with a rival famiglia.
Verde stuck out as long as he could, learning from his heir even as he taught the child himself. But there was a time and a place. Verde's final gift were the keys and locations of all but one of his labs before he locked himself away in his most private location; news of massive explosions in the Rocky Mountains blew over quickly after that. Verde's body was never recovered.
Lal and Colonello did not die together; though barley a day apart. They were buried in CEDEF grounds.
Colonello's heir was a Para for the air force, a reckless one that Colonello had grown fond of. Colonello barely regarded the child as he patted his shoulder one night and left.
Lal's heir was a quiet, strong, and no-holds sort of person. They had a cool head that Lal trusted would not buckle under the strain of being the 'cured' one. Lal gave her heir the necklace that held the same dark twirls as the pacifier it was designed after, before she left. Lal laid next to Colonello and within minutes she too had passed on.
Skull held onto the bitter end, determined that the God of Death did not and never would want him, which is why he joined his heir for his show. And it went over like clockwork; absolute perfection. It was why Skull had smiled kindly before giving his heir a cuff earring for luck, winked and was on his way. Skull was taken on the road side to nowhere. He was found, sleeping beside his bike; pure contentment on his face.
Sasha listened to this story with intrigue, but with confusion also. "But Nana, there were eight Arcobaleno. What happened to Miss Sky?"
The grandmother looked at her dear granddaughter with an almost bitter smile. She was already so grown up, but also so young, it was ironic that Sasha, and her grandmother would be the longest living Arcobaleno.
"The sky is never meant to live long my dearest child." Uni explained, watching as the girl's face crumpled.
"But you never said what happened to her! She can't have died before the others, she didn't have an heir yet!" the child persisted, looking pleadingly at her grandmother.
Uni smiled again and pet the girl's hair. "Dear child, the sky is meant to flicker out the fastest and with the strongest light, but do you remember what I told you about Tsuna?"
"How could I forget? You told me about all his adventures; how brave he was even though he was so scared. So what did he do for Miss Sky?"
Uni had changed the names of no one in her stories but her own name, she wanted her granddaughter to know the stories and feel the awe and respect, but she couldn't know her fate too early. But Uni felt her time as sky coming to an end, she felt completely pale compared to the sky starting to burn in her lap.
"Tsuna gave the Arcobaleno sky time she wouldn't otherwise have had." She said, "He made sure the Arcobaleno and I would live a full life and we made sure he wouldn't be forgotten."
"So she found her heir?" The child was all bright smiles and Uni felt sorrowful; she hoped they would remain in place, those smiles and that life, except Sasha's smile started to fall. "But Nana, you said I and We, these are stories. You've told me all of them. You can't be in them! That's cheating."
Uni frowned, tears in her eyes even as she felt her heart slow. "Dearest, this is the last story I have, but they weren't fairy tales. They were all real, and also the last thing….I can give to you." Uni reached into her pocket and passed the faded orange pendant to her granddaughter; none of the Arcobaleno had pacifiers anymore but each one had a pendent to remember the past by.
"Nana?" Sasha asked shaking the unresponsive woman even as the burn of realisation appeared behind green eyes. "Nana wake up, this isn't funny. Nana Uni!"
"Child, don't fear." A cool voice spoke behind her; the young black-haired child whirled around, clutching the ball-like pendant close to her chest, tears clinging to the flower-shaped birthmark on her cheek. "We are here to care for you, like your Nana promised." The man who spoke was a brunet with eyes like oceans.
"W-who are you? Why are you in here?!" Sasha reached for her gun –one her Nana had trained her to use by the time she was nine –but her hands were held in a gentle embrace by a man with a smile that acted like aesthetic.
"Weren't you listening girl?" A severe blonde snapped, her hair was as shorter than her ears and stuck up like tufts. "We are the Arcobaleno."
"We are the honorary Arcobaleno, and you are our leader." the aesthetic man explained loosening his grip on Sasha's wrists and leading her towards the group of three men and four women. "I am known as 'Fon' the storm Arcobaleno. I am a martial arts specialist."
"I am 'Verde'," a kind woman soothed, stepping close to the young girl and offering her hand. "I am a scientist who was close to your grandmother."
"You mean those stories were real? The ones about the Arcobaleno?" Sasha whirled around, meeting the eyes of each adult with disgusted uncertainty. "B-But it can't be! Nana told me they were dead, that their heirs were only children. S-S-She was alive because Tsuna gave her time!"
A small man stepped out of the crowed, eyes like chocolate cookies and a smile like a sad embrace. "She was right, and she was wrong, Sasha." he soothed, "Tsuna gave them time, but that could only last so long. He made sure there would never be Arcobaleno again…but the Arcobaleno were strong and their rein was long and purposeful. The world needs to remember what they were and what they sacrificed, along with the Decimo who aided them. The story your grandmother told you, that is what we are here for, to continue the tradition. We are the children she talked about."
"We're each the strongest in our field." Another red-head explained his smile less happy. "I am Colonello and I'm the greatest sniper, Lal here is too." he gestured to a lady with long brown hair and blind eyes.
"I am Skull," the man with the oceanic eyes said. "An eccentric if I am anything. The scowling blonde is Reborn a Hitman; I'm sorry, Hitwoman."
The final woman was quiet and reserved, a small woman with a cute face and soulful eyes. She smiled gently at Sasha before stepping forward. "I am Mammon, an illusionist with the strongest mist flames. And you, dear, are our sky."
"How am I supposed to lead you? I'm not special, not one of the 'greatest seven'!" Sasha defended, the orange pacifier still clutched tight in her hands.
"But you are child, and your children will be too." Lal explained with gently, but stern words. "Uni would not pass you a title you couldn't hold, she would never be able to pass on again if she let you suffer."
"Again?"
"That is a story for another time." Fong explained with a hand on Sasha's back as he lead her away. "Let us go home, we have many years together."
Back to current time line;
"R-Reborn…I thought….you weren't supposed to get here so soon."
"Well," the silky voice purred, "As I see it, it's a good thing I did turn up. Or else we'd be without an heir."
Yoshi flinched back even as Koneko sprinted to his side to get him to his feet. "It's not like that, this was a fluke." Yoshi's face was blank again but Koneko heard the shame.
"Right." The woman scoffed before turning away. "Now let's go, we have much to talk about young man, and this worthless guardian of yours."
Natsu: So, this may seem like a weird chapter, and it kind of is. My Fukutaichou and I decided that the Arcobaleno had to have a part in this story, and that Yoshi and his guardians needed tutors, but the Arcobaleno are no longer such, so this was our idea.
The Arcobaleno would become honorary, something to remember the struggle by, but still remind the world that the strongest seven were just that. We hope you like it. Not much of the 15th gen here, but this was also a needed chapter to help set the future out.
We thank you all so much for your support, please review.
~~Bleach-ed-Na-tsu, D.F.D., and Hitomi Torng :3