Ugh, the first three chapters are so boring -_- I'll make the next one exciting for sure. Sorry you guys had to make do with this boring plot so far. And YES, I know it's already thursday. I TRIED, okay? But this thing has 4,146 words. I'm not even trying to make it long, it just happens :/
Hope you enjoy~!
Giotto was starting to feel uneasy. Things were not looking so bright at the moment.
First of all, let's look at their current situation.
Alaude and Daemon were glaring at each other while throwing insults, as per usual. And G, who was berating them in an attempt to get them to get along for at least five minutes, was not helping the situation. Asari chose to ignore them in favor of trying to invite everyone to visit his father's restaurant. Lampo looked interested, but otherwise bored of the situation so he made a point to insult G every now and then which worsened the man's temper. And Knuckle was once again preaching to them about the Word of God because Daemon had said some... demonic things earlier which would've been best left ignored.
He could honestly live with all that; he has actually, for the past 15 years or so. But there was something else here that caused his expression to go dark.
"Hahaha, you're friends are really lively, son!" Iemitsu laughed, observing the scene in a tank top and boxer shorts with a bottle of sake at one hand. Colonello and Lal Mirch were bickering at the background, adding to the ruckus they were making which was probably starting to disturb the neighbors. Meanwhile, Tumeric and Oregano were peacefully chatting near the corner of the room, as far away from the noisy group as possible without looking like they were trying to avoid getting involved in the chaos. Basil was in the kitchen with Tsuna, preparing a snack for everyone.
Giotto pinched the bridge of his nose in an effort to relieve some stress, for the upcoming representative battle, he was gonna have to fight his father. Great.
Admittedly, he wasn't that close with his father. It wasn't that he had negative feelings towards the man, they were just often busy. Iemitsu with managing the CEDEF and Giotto with his training, they were both busy men so they never really got the chance to bond so Giotto was just a little uncomfortable with being with the man. Although the man had been planning to retire and give his position to his apprentice, Basil so he's had more time to spend with his family, much to Nana's delight. That still doesn't mean that he managed to repair the rift in between them so far.
So it was to his horror that the blond found out that his father will become his enemy soon enough, things were already awkward between them, this wouldn't help things at all. But for some God-forsaken reason, Iemitsu doesn't seem bothered by it all and was currently relaxing at their house without a care in the world.
They were going to be a tough opponent; of that Giotto was 100% sure. But he definitely wasn't the only one they had to worry about, Alaude has confirmed that Dino Cavallone was going to be the Storm Arcobaleno, Fon's representative while Daemon had informed him (with a grim expression) that his brother Mukuro and his band of misfits were going to be the Lightning Arcobaleno, Verde's representative. His Mist has also confirmed that the Varia will be involved, as per the Mist Arcobaleno's request. There was no news about the other Arcobaleno, other than what Alaude had told him about the Hitman Reborn, which only made him even more uneasy. The man had always had that sort of effect on people. He honestly wouldn't be surprised if the man was planning something. You can never be sure with that man.
"Here. You guys must be hungry from your trip..." Tsunayoshi said, or more like muttered but it was at least spoken loud enough for all of them to hear. He set down a plate of snacks; biscuits, sweets and a few home-made cupcakes. Basil, on the other hand, set down a tray with drinks.
"Ah, thank you, Tsunayoshi-kun." Asari gave him his usual calm smile, but Tsunayoshi only shifted uncomfortably before taking a seat next to his father.
"This is really delicious." Lampo commented, looking genuinely surprised after taking a bite of one of the cupcakes.
"Th-thank you."
"Tsunayoshi-dono baked those himself, I am not familiar with the process so I wasn't of much help." Basil informed them.
"Hahaha, well that's to be expected. He had a great teacher, after all! Nana's the best there is when it comes to food!" Iemitsu grinned.
"Hm... so you're good at baking, huh?" Lampo asked.
"Yeah. I guess..."
"He's a good cook, too." G commented, remembering their meals from before the other guardians arrived. They were all prepared by Tsuna and it rivaled the ones made by top-class chefs that they would often eat back in Italy.
"Oh? That reminds me, do you want to come with us to my father's restaurant, Tsunayoshi-kun?" Asari asked. "Who knows? Maybe my father would even give you some tips to improve your cooking skills, although he only specializes in making sushi."
"... I'll think about it..."
"Great!" Asari grinned.
"Don't say that as if he's already agreed to go, idiot!" G scowled.
"Now now, I'm sure he'll love to come." Asari laughed. "Are you familiar with Takesushi, Tsunayoshi-kun?"
"Yeah... it's really famous."
The man beamed with pride. "When you have the time to come along with us, I'll treat you!"
"Th-thanks..."
Afterwards, there was mindless chatter. A few (most) of them continuing their bickering while others talked about anything and everything; Iemitsu asked Tsuna about school, Basil inquired about Takesushi, Daemon purposely trying to piss off Alaude but the man kept his composure, Knuckle preached to them, etc.
"Ah, I almost forgot!" Knuckle suddenly blurted out, effectively silencing most of them. "Tsunayoshi, do you anything about Hibari?"
This effectively silenced the remaining people (Daemon and Alaude) who were making a ruckus, good thing too because Alaude had already pulled out his handcuffs and seemed ready to pounce. Tsunayoshi blinked at the question.
"Hibari? You mean Hibari Kyouya?" he asked. "Of course, he's the ruler of Namimori. Who doesn't know him?"
"R-ruler of Namimori?" Giotto, and a few others, sweat dropped.
"Yeah, he's the chairman of the disciplinary committee at my high school. He's also the leader of the delinquents."
"Those two statements completely contradict each other." Lampo muttered.
"Why the sudden interest?" Giotto asked Knuckle.
"Well, I heard from Kyoko there's been some incidents going around here. Her friend told her that things should be fine soon though, 'because Hibari will handle it'."
"Yeah, it looks like some... troublemakers decided to take residence in Namimori lately, so he's been a lot stricter in enforcing the rules." the brunet explained.
"What kind of incidents has occurred, exactly?" Alaude crossed his arms, genuinely curious about the state of Namimori. It was being protected by his brother after all; he wanted to know how well the brat did his job.
"Just a few fights between some thugs and Hibari-san's subordinates. Although a few people have gotten hurt because they got caught up in the crossfire, it's nothing serious, really. It happens from time to time, so no one's really concerned." Tsuna muttered, barely loud enough for them to hear. But the way he spoke, it was as if he was talking about some school event that didn't concern him instead of potential danger lurking in the town he lives in.
"It sounds like something you should be concerned about though..." G muttered.
"It's nothing, really. Ask anyone, it's no big deal." he shrugged.
"But it should still be dangerous, since Kyoko's friend told her not to come to Namimori..." Knuckle said.
"Ah, that..." Tsunayoshi looked uncertain, but when he received expectant looks from them, he sighed. "Well, I'm sure she just wants her to stay safe. For us, these sort of things have pretty much become the norm. But it might not go so well for someone from the outside, so I just I can understand her intentions..."
"Well, that makes sense." Lampo shrugged.
The conversation shifted to useless topics after that with Tsunayoshi barely uttering a word. Neither Iemitsu nor Giotto was concerned with this, thinking the teen was just uncomfortable being in a room full of strangers.
They never noticed how he watched them with blank and almost dead eyes.
Luce arrived a week after Giotto had and immediately took residence within the Sawada household. Although Colonello and his team were also staying there for the time being, no one seemed to mind. It may have been a bit crowded, but nothing a few sacrificial lambs taking refuge on the couch and sometimes even the floor could fix.
Other than the private meetings held between teams once in a while, they all got along fine. You would never have thought that they were opponents or anything. Luce, specifically, has been brighter than usual. Although she has always been known to be positive in the face of dire situations, it was still comforting to see her act like her usual self. She has especially been trying to get close to Tsunayoshi who, at that point, still hasn't warmed up to them. Iemitsu kept telling them that the teen had always been very shy but that wasn't stopping the Sky Arcobaleno from trying. More often than not, though, she was brushed off. Once thing they immediately noticed was that Tsunayoshi was a loner, he didn't seem to have any friends, or at least he never talked about any of them or brought them home to hang out. But it was possible he had one, since he tends to be away from the house from early in the morning until the sun sets, even on a weekend. It could be possible that he just goes to the arcade or the library alone though; maybe he was uncomfortable with how crowded it has become? He only comes back to prepare dinner, and once that's done and he's eaten, he locks himself in his room. Based on what Giotto hears, the teen was probably playing video games.
"Maybe he hates me..." Luce sulked after they finished eating and Tsunayoshi once again went upstairs to lock himself in his room. So far, none of Luce's attempts to get close to the boy was working and it was really starting to affect her self-esteem. She had always been good with kids, whether they were toddlers or teens; her motherly aura attracted anyone and everyone.
"Now now, it's nothing you should be bothered about! I'm sure he'll come around, he's just really shy." Iemitsu's grin didn't really provide as much comfort as his words did but it was helping, at least. "Just give him time to adjust; he probably gets a bit nervous around crowds."
"He's right, Luce-san. You just should focus on the battle ahead instead of letting things like this bother you, you know. I'm sure things will work out just fine if we leave things be for the time being." Giotto added. He didn't mention that his father's statement was wrong, even when it had only been just the two of them during the first day; Tsunayoshi had not been much of a talker. But that wouldn't really help the situation; it would probably make his mentor even more dedicated to talk to the teen. For now, they needed to focus and avoid distractions.
"But he's your brother, Giotto-kun! I want to get along with him just as much as we did when you were his age." she pouted, making him sigh.
"Well, we may be brothers but we're not exactly alike, so you might want to try a different approach..."
"I suppose so..." she muttered.
She toned down on her attempts to get close to him after that and started focusing on strategizing for the upcoming battle. One thing had led to another and they had agreed to ally themselves with Team Colonello. Giotto didn't particularly mind, might as well, after all.
They were given watches; eight for each Arcobaleno, by a strange man that they had assumed was working for Checkerface. The color of their watches also represent the Arcobaleno their fighting for. Since Giotto and his friends were representing the Sky Arcobaleno, they had orange watches that had three different models. There were six 'battler watches', an 'arcobaleno watch' and a 'boss watch'. It was basically a last-man-standing battle, only there were a few rules;
1. All teams will be informed half an hour before the battle will take place and each battle will be held within a time limit ranging from one to three hours. Fighting between the representatives outside of the battle hours will result in disqualification for both teams.
2. All Arcobalenos must be gathered at a designated meeting spot while the battle is taking place. Failure to be present at said meeting spot by the time the battle starts will mean an automatic loss.
3. All Arcobalenos will be accompanied by the representative they chose to hold their boss watch. These representatives may participate in the battle but it will be under the time limit of thirty minutes, the time limit for their participation will be removed when all other watches excluding the Arcobaleno watch has been destroyed.
4. The destruction of either the boss watch or the Arcobaleno watch will mean the loss of the team.
5. The Arcobalenos are forbidden to interfere with their representatives' battles and are only allowed to fight when they themselves are being threatened by an opponent, or in other words, if someone tries to destroy their Arcobaleno watch.
6. Representatives holding a boss watch may not attack another representative, but should someone attack them in attempt to destroy their watch, they are allowed to fight but is still under the thirty-minute rule. Should the representative with the boss watch fail to defeat their opponent before the time limit, they are no longer allowed to fight back and doing so will result in disqualification.
7. An exception to the thirty-minute rule would be if an Arcobaleno is attacked, the boss representative is allowed to defend the Arcobaleno they are representing without being restricted by any time limit.
They were simple rules, although a bit troublesome. It would mean that Luce, Colonello, Iemitsu and Giotto would not be allowed to fight for the most part. But the two arcobalenos would only trust them to bear such a responsibility. They had to make great adjustments with their plans, but it was nothing they couldn't handle.
They were informed of when the first day of the battles will begin, which they were very grateful for. It gave them time to prepare, although it was mostly done through information-gathering and a bit of training. It wasn't in vain since they found out lot of useful information that may prove to be useful in the future. For example, they found out that Giotto's best friend, Cozart had agreed to be the Cloud Arcobaleno, Skull's representative along with a few trusted members of their famiglia. For what reason, Giotto wasn't entirely sure but the redhead had mentioned something about his little brother, Enma, getting along fairly well with the daredevil.
They also found about about Fran, Mukuro's supposed apprentice, who had great potential in creating illusions and handling his mist flames despite his young age. I pin, Fon's apprentice, was chosen to be the holder of his boss watch instead of Dino. They had wondered why, at first, but figured since Fon only had two representatives, it would have been best to have Dino on the offensive instead of a little girl. God knows why Fon let the child join in the first place.
There were also loopholes for Checkerface's rules. For example, the representatives don't necessarily have to be a human, which was proven by Viper after they discovered one of the Mist Arcobaleno's representative was a Gola Mosca.
They didn't bother looking into the so-called 'turf war' going on in Namimori since Alaude had assured them that his younger brother's Disciplinary Committee would handle it. Speaking of which, there was still no confirmation whether or not he will be participating but Alaude seemed very confident that he will. So they made sure to take him into account.
Although they agreed on an alliance, the two teams decided to split up during the battle. The only agreement was that they wouldn't target each other until they were the last two teams remaining, and if the other ever needed help, they would to help as much as they can. They had different strategies though, which both teams had decided not to share with the other.
For Team Luce, Giotto would not be participating, probably not any time soon, since he held the boss watch. Considering he was pretty much the ace, they were most likely going to have trouble but it helped knowing the other teams most likely chose their strongest to bear the boss watch, except for Fon, that is. So they didn't have to worry about people like Xanxus, Cozart, Mukuro or Iemitsu. That didn't make things any easier though, since the Varia has proven to be a tough opponent and the Bucking Horse was not someone to be taken lightly. But then again, neither were Giotto's guardians.
Daemon was chosen to be the one to handle Team Fon. If Alaude's little brother were to join, then they had no doubt the illusionist would be able to handle the teen. He was still, for the most part, a civilian despite his rumors of being involve in the yakuza and other shady business. He has had no direct confrontation with Flames, which would make it easy for Daemon to take him out using a few illusions. Based on what they know of his personality, he should go solo instead of sticking with Dino too, which will make him a better target. Once Hibari Kyouya was taken care of, Daemon would regroup with Asari to defeat Dino. The illusionist had assured them that he did not need any sort of help, but none of them wanted to take any chances. In any case, Asari would only be there to watch for the most part. He would serve as backup only if necessary since even he was not immune to Daemon's illusions and the man did tend to get carried away.
Lampo was a coward, which they all knew. And he outright refused any physical confrontations unless absolutely necessary. He was, however, skilled in infiltration and other such things. This allowed him to become quite skilled at hiding his presence from others, which helped since he was admittedly a coward and often took advantage of this ability. His role was currently to follow Team Skull. Despite being long-time friends, they had no idea about Simon's true strength since nothing ever occurred to provoke the small famiglia to bare their fangs. They had no doubt they were strong though, so Lampo would gather information on their members and once he does, then they would be able to deduce the best course of action.
Finally, G and Knuckles goals are Team Verde. The only real threat there was Mukuro, and although his subordinates have proven to hold potential, they don't stand a chance against two Vongola guardians with great control of their flames.
They were going to have to deal with the Varia on a later date, it was best if all the guardians were to deal with them with their combined strength. But there was still the possibility that they cross paths with them. So Alaude, another master of stealth, was tasked with following them. Their watches were designed with communication devices as well as tracking devices, Alaude was to report Varia's location to Giotto, who would be able to see their positions across Namimori with his boss watch. It would pretty much be improvisation from there, their goal is only to reduce the number of opponents they'll have to face and with Team Colonello on their side, and they should be able to manage.
Giotto was well-aware that things don't always go according to plan, inevitably something will go wrong. Especially since they had no information about the Sun Arcobaleno, Reborn who was without a doubt the most troublesome one. It was probably the only thing the Arcobalenos agreed on, Luce said that Reborn had always been unpredictable and there was nothing they could do about it. So the blond didn't let it worry him too much, no use fretting. He was just gonna have to trust his guardians, which he does.
Everything will work out, it always does.
The most-awaited day arrived and Giotto found himself following his mentor through the forest beside Namimori. He wasn't exactly sure where they were going but Luce seemed pretty confident so he trusted that she knew her way. Soon enough, they could see a bright light from the distance and it led them to a clearing.
"Took you long enough, kora!"
"Hey there, son! Did you two get lost or something?"
"Well, you know, it does take some time to maneuver through the forest, and it hasn't been that long since the watches alarmed. We were all simply too early." Fon informed them from his position, seated on a boulder with a little girl hiding behind him, peeking at the strange people that arrived one by one.
"But still, you guys are the last to arrive." Cozart smirked. "That's unlike you, Giotto."
"I wasn't aware that there was a race to see who could arrive here first." the blond chuckled, looking around. Cozart and Iemitsu seemed to have been chatting prior to their arrival while Colonello had been bullying Skull. Xanxus must've had his men bring the chair (throne?) he was currently sitting on near the edge of the clearing with Viper serving him his wine. Finally Verde was staring at them with a blank look, Mukuro was standing not too far behind him, leaning against a tree and looking uninterested.
At the center of the clearing, there was a tall boulder where the man who worked for Checkerface- Onomichi, he had introduced himself as- currently stood.
"Well well, looks like we'll be able to start soon!" he smiled, creepily in Giotto's opinion. "Only 11 minutes and 6 seconds remaining before the battle starts!"
"Hm, now that I think about it, we're not technically the last one to arrive..." Luce commented, looking around. "Is that person still not here?"
"Nope, haven't heard from him either." Colonello shrugged.
"It's strange though." Verde muttered, although loud enough for them to hear. "I've been keeping an eye out for you lots lately and as far as I know, he's not even in Japan right now."
"Last I heard, he was in France just two weeks ago." Viper informed them.
"Yeah, the Ninth gave him a mission, right?" Colonello asked.
"That's strange..."
"Well, he's always been like that, don't you think?" Fon chuckled.
"But still... at a time like this?"
"Don't tell me you're worried, Luce?" Colonello snorted. "For that guy? You're just wasting your energy. He's more than capable of taking care of himself."
"Now that I think about it," Giotto turned to face his father. "I keep hearing about this 'Reborn' from Ninth, but I've never really met him before. What's he like?"
Iemitsu frowned, as if remembering something unpleasant before shrugging. "Well, we never really got along so I don't know that much about him but... He's definitely a man befitting the title of 'World's Greatest Hitman'."
That brought him more questions than answers; it took a lot for someone to be disliked by his father, especially when you're an ally of Vongola. Although Reborn was still an independent assassin, he signed a contract with Nono stating that he won't accept any jobs that harm anyone from their famiglia and will occasionally do jobs for them in exchange for protection and, of course, a generous pay so he was technically an ally, although not someone you should completely trust from what he's heard.
He couldn't help but think; just what kind of person was Reborn?
Hope you liked it ~ !
Okay, I'm gonna be real honest with you guys. I started this off centering the whole perspective on Giotto and to be honest, I don't know why I did that because I could care less about that guy. I want me some Dark!TenthGen and some blood! :D So do you guys mind if in the future chappies, I just focus on the TenthGen? I know it's a bit strange to shift POV's and that it's inconsistent, but I'm honestly not happy with the way things are right now, it's so boring ~ not fun to write at all -3- So yeah, tell me what you guys think!
REVIEWS:
SoulFlames = Noted :/ I'm starting to get an idea from that... Thanks for the suggestion and the pleasant review~! :D
Lovelydragonfly = I will, soon :3 But I won't just be focusing on Tsuna. Let's give his guardians some love too, ne? ;) Thank you for reviewing ~ !
