"-and then I just woke up and you're like that..." Now that Tsuna was finished summarizing what little he knew about everything that had led to this, he realized that it sounded rather... improbable.
If someone had told him that a year ago (if anyone had told him about what had become of his everday life a year ago), he would've asked what anime they were talking about.
He couldn't help but feel like a bug under Reborn's blank stare.
Those bottomless pits of frozen abyss...
But he kept his back straight, gaze meeting his. Because Lambo, I-pin, and Fuuta were in the same room and he instinctively knew that he just wasn't going to show any hint of weakness with them and Hayato and Takeshi at risk.
Reborn blinked.
Leon crawled from his shoulder to the brim of his hat.
"So I'm your tutor?"
Tsuna felt hopeful that he seemed to choose to humour him for now at least and not immediately start shooting.
"Yes."
"...And you're telling me, that Viper is an officer of an assassination squad -the Varia specifically. And that Skull is part of the Carcassa Famiglia?"
The narrowed eyes belied the blatant disbelief at that and made Tsuna almost hesitate. But something told him that that would be a very bad idea if he wanted to convince Reborn that they should be let go alive.
"Yes."
"...who the hell is the Carcassa even?" Reborn demanded in disgust. Then without waiting for a reply, he pushed himself off the floor they had taken seats on, and smoothed down his suit.
"Bring me to the others. I don't care which one." He ordered abruptly.
Tsuna briefly floundered before he began babbling, "Oh! I don't really know how to find Verde-san or Fon-san, and Mammon-san should be in Italy I think but Skull-san shou-" "Viper."
Everyone startled at the sharp tone.
Tsuna waved his hands, "Yeah! Yeah! Viper-san! It's just that they're always insisting to be called Mammon and doesn't seem to like Viper-"
He registered his hyperintuition warning him too late.
"What did you say?"
His eyes had turned flinty and though he'd lowered to almost a whisper, the frigid quality of his tone didn't actually help.
Babyfied Reborn was already scary enough.
Adult Reborn was absolutely terrifying.
"H-hiiiiiiiie?!"
The older man shot him a glare, then suddenly stepped back, tilting his hat to shade his face. He breathed in deeply.
"... you are accusing Viper of deserting us?"
Tsuna really didn't know what to do here. He knew he was missing something big and didn't have any hope to even start navigating the metaphorical mine field.
Backtrack. He needed to backtrack.
He gathered every little scrap that he was worth and in the most even voice he could manage, said, "I am not accusing anyone of anything. As I said, the Arcobaleno were really mysterious people. No one knows what actually happens among them, so you'll just have to ask the-"
"Tsu-kun! Your Papa called and he wants to talk to you!"
"... I, I should get that." He squeaked weakly. "Yes, Mama!"
He didn't know where the sudden bravery to turn his back on Adult Reborn came from, but he did, dragging his friends and the kids out and down the stairs.
"Juudaime-"
"Tsuna-"
He left them by the kitchen table and snatched the phone from his mother, "Thanks Mama."
He had a feeling he knew what this was about.
"Tsu-"
"Help! Reborn can't remember anything -well, anything after the Arcobaleno curse, I think- and he's an adult and he's really dangerous!" he shrieked quietly.
"...same situation here with Lal, though at least she agreed to stop training a gun on me. Tsuna, do you know what to do?"
He opened his mouth to say no, of course he didn't know what to do, but just as quickly snapped it shut.
Now that he'd put distance between them, he was much calmer and could actually start thinking.
"Y, Yeah, I do. I think?"
...how that could convince Iemitsu, he didn't know? Tsuna wasn't convinced with himself.
"Good. Because no one but you can handle this. And I mean that in more ways than one. We don't have any people there but Reborn."
Which should've been enough for any other kind of threat to his life but incidentally, no one ever accounted for Reborn ever being the threat.
_
Renato was actually a lot calmer than what Tsuna thought.
He was also a lot more murder-y. Because that was what Renato did when he didn't know what else to do.
He flexed his hand unconsciously, inclined to believe what he'd been told so far because it might explain (some kind of Flames sucking curse) why he was feeling as if his core had just been recently gouged out but was now steadily but very slowly recovering?
That sensation running up and down his spine was what had him bristling and in a hostile mood.
He stared at his hands, mind turning.
Luce betrayed them.
Granted, he shouldn't take some random brat's word for it -the boy himself had admitted he was an unreliable source. He also repeated, multiple times, that no one was a reliable source when it came to the Arcobaleno except for the Arcobaleno themselves -the 'Arcobaleno' who were apparently Renato's family.
The fact that Luce, of all people, betrayed them -knew what she was going to do from the very beginning, had been basically leading them on this whole time-, that was unbelievable.
But combined with the fact that she'd supposedly done it for the rest of the world- damned them for the rest of the world... somehow that made everything a lot more likely.
Rage, hurt, confusion, and a very tempting urge to deny reality warred in him but he easily shut himself to it.
He'd accidentally snapped at the boy -Tsunayoshi, who was his closest lead to unearthing whatever this was that he'd somehow managed to land himself in the middle of- and he needed to calm down. Clear his priorities.
Check on his family.
Skull, specifically. The others could take care of themselves better than that kind idiot -including Viper who was the youngest of them.
Speaking of which...
Mammon.
...check on all of them first, gather if possible, then they could wade through this mess they (it occurred to him that maybe it was only him -Luce was dead, and there was no guarantee the same supposed amnesia happened to the others- but he swallowed the bile that rose with that thought and swept it aside) found themselves in, together. As a family.
Pulling his sleeves up, he began tinkering with the multi-purpose watch secured around his wrist.
_
In Canon, we see Mammon fit in quite well with the Varia. And yet, the Arcobaleno were shocked to find them there.
Assuming that they would've searched for them when they'd 'died' -maybe because they care or just because of the Arcobaleno balance and all that- then they must've searched in all the places Viper was most likely to be in.
Which means Varia would be the last in the list -Or not even in the list because I'd think someone like Viper would know how to hide well. So we see Mammon who's Varia, but who was Viper? The one no one thought would be in the independent assassination squad of Vongola -the strongest Mafia Famiglia at least within Europe.