Disclaimer: I do not own KHR.
Time-travel fic. No parings. Parent!FirstGen and Child!TenthGen. Beware of grammatical mistakes.
Summary: When trouble starts brewing, you will find Tsuna and his guardians at its epicenter. This time, 150 years back into the past and shrunk down to kid-size - and there is a whoooole lot more at stake than just the existence of a single world.
19th Century
Fingers of one hand drumed rhythmically on the smooth surface of the mahogany desk while the other held onto a sheet of paper brimming with printed lines of words.
Giotto let his amber eyes (that had once been golden yellow) skim through the proposal that was send to him by another Famiglia recently, asking for an alliance.
... As if he will agree to it.
The Founder of Vongola sighed, leaning back on his chair as he massaged his temple with the very hand that had been drumming the desk seconds prior. This had happened multiple times already through his career as the head of the Vongola, but no matter how many times he reiterated it, they just don't get it.
Doesn't any of these mafia b*****ds understand that Vongola, his Vongola, was a vigilante group and would always be one as long as he's leading it? Like hell would he let them use Vongola like a tool, and if they think he was dumb enough to not catch the obvious loopholes in their intricately worded proposals, then Giotto might as well never created Vongola in the first place.
He knew that Vongola was already deeply involved with the mafia since, well, they're fighting against them. Some Famiglias already saw Vongola as part of their Costa Nostra society. After all, even a vigilante group needed territory to protect.
Vongola was expanding, and mafiosi all over were beginning to become wary of it because of its reputation to protect the innocent and fight against injustice. They may have laughed at Giotto and his group at first, but once Vongola started showing its strength that was beyond what was human, they saw the threat... or an opportunity that was Vongola.
Giotto may have known next to zilch about the mafia other than the fact that he was against their way of conduct, but during his entire vigilant career, he'd realized that not all mafioso of the Costa Nostra society were particularly... bad per se.
In fact, they can be changed - and that was exactly what Giotto wishes for. (It might be wishful thinking, but Giotto really hoped that there would be a day that mafia world changes its course.) It may be long and arduous, but the blonde wanted to see it through - even if it wouldn't be his generation that makes it happen.
For now though, Vongola will take things one step at a time. (Giotto already had the Shimon [that one was a given] and the newly emerged Cavellone [the fact that their name originated from 'cavalieri', which meant meaning 'knight', which implied the knight's Code of Chivalry, was something Giotto viewed as a positive] supporting Vongola's ideals so there were some progress made.)
Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Giotto's eyes narrowed as he lit the proposal up in flames (one of his rare joys in paperwork was that he gets to burn away the ones that he deem to be superficial, or in other words, useless junk). That particular Famiglia who proposed an alliance was swimming in the deeper parts of the river (he had done his research through and through) and Giotto does not want his Vongola to be the scapegoat in their so-called plan of an economic trade with East Asia.
They had carefully omitted their actual objective, but Giotto doesn't have his Hyper Intuition and years of experiences dealing with these type of matters for nothing.
He picked up another sheet, mood dampening as he read it through to the end and compared it to another one. They include a data table filled with numbers, but... one was a damage report for a recent mission in Wales while the other is a bill that originated from the same mission.
The digits obviously did not match up, which meant his Mist guardian (he clearly remembered sending Daemon to Wales) had only... dabbled in what he had done there in his report. Again.
God, can his guardians not cause such a ridiculous number in the bills? (They get higher and higher by the mission) He has already given up on them not making collateral damage at all, but he at least hope they won't cause too much trouble in the future. Was even that too much to ask for?
(If Giotto didn't know any better, then he would have thought that they were indeed a mafia Family because his guardians seemed to create more trouble than fixing them.)
Giotto shook his head exasperatedly as he signed his signature on the bill as an approval for the payment for the damage.
He closed his eyes for a moment, the thrumming in the back of his head has been getting stronger and stronger as of late. It hadn't been to the point that Giotto will get a headache from it, but he would like to find the reason for his Intuition's warning before things get out of hand.
It felt like the one he had months before, but this time, there was an underlying danger in the warning.
Slam!
(A detached part of Giotto wonder if it was a good or bad thing that he was inured to his guardians spontaneous intrusions.)
Giotto looked warily at his Storm, the latter appearing tired from running, which meant that something was up because G wouldn't look this urgent unless something horrible - as in as bad as Alaude and Daemon fighting and a city is destroyed in their wake - had happened.
"Primo," Giotto frowned, the formal address meant that their line of work was involved and it's serious. The red (pink?) head held up a folded piece of paper. "We have -"
Before G could finish, Knuckle came, looking almost as distraught as G himself.
"GIOTTO WE EXTREMELY -"
"Oi, I was first -"
"Maa," In came Asari, which only made the situation worse. "Who's first doesn't matter because -"
"- It so matters because what I have to report is -"
"Yare yare, what's with all the -"
"- Mi dio, why is everyone f***ing interrupting -"
"Nufufufu, what is this, a party?"
"- f*** off Daemon -"
"- rude. The only reason I would even be breathing in the same air as you is because -"
What was supposed to be a report turns into a rowdy quarrel with Giotto watching in front of them. His gaze traveled to the door, and saw Alaude ready to pounce because there was a crowd here and it was too noisy - oh dear lord, they didn't disturb the Cloud's nap did they? That would be horrible because a grumpy Alaude will equal property damage and Giotto cannot deal with this right now! (Though, according to his Intuition, that wasn't the case, thankfully.)
The Founder of Vongola massaged his temples before taking a deep breath in and -
CLAP!
- the resounding clap he made with his hands put the commotion on pause immediately.
"G, put the gun down. Lampo, don't provoke him. Knuckles, Asari, I appreciate that you try to diffuse the fight but please don't, you're making it worse as it is. Daemon, Alaude, need I remind you that you're in my office and I rather have it intact unless you two don't mind doing my work for me."
Giotto narrowed his amber orbs on each of his guardians as he chastise his guardians, the sternness in his tone left no room for argument as each and every one of his companions stood straight to attention.
After all, they found it difficult to go against Giotto when he was in, as they dubbed it, his 'boss mode'.
"Alright," When no comments were forthcoming, Giotto leaned forward, his hands folded on the desk. "Now that that's settled. G, continue where you're left off."
Knowing that no one was going to interrupt him this time - because Giotto has the first and last say in everything whenever he gets serious - G got down to business, his ruby-red eyes serious as he spoke, "I just received a letter."
Giotto arched a brow and silently waited for his Storm to continue.
"The Scorpios are trying to provoke us for real." G walked over and handed the paper he had been holding. "They want, and I quote, 'what is rightfully theirs' back, which is to say, the port town overlapping our territory in the southeast that we took under our protection when we formed Vongola."
Giotto gave the letter a quick skim, picking up the important bits and the hidden meanings. The town of the enemy's objective was an ideal location to generate profit and it had originally belonged to the Scorpio Famiglia until Vongola came along and chased them out a few years back. It seemed that they held the grudge and wanted reparation.
Following his Intuition, he have Knuckles and Asari go next. "Go ahead and report, you two."
"The men that we sent over to Casarile came back critically injured." Knuckles said with a grim frown.
"They told us they were met with a few mafiosi lingering around town that told them that they couldn't enter. It escalated from there and our men ended up being repelled back with their current conditions," Asari added, obviously unhappily by the look on his face. "We first had the thought that a mafia famiglia is trying to take over it, but according to G..."
The rest didn't need to be said, since they all seem to have a vague picture now.
Giotto's sunset-orange orbs (it used to be gold) landed on the other half of his guardians. He knew that Daemon and Lampo came because of the commotion so there's really nothing for them to report but Alaude - "Anything else you might want to add?"
"... Human-trafficking."
The single phrase was enough for the atmosphere in the room to turn heavy.
Giotto's frowned deepen, he knew that Alaude had been following up on the matter of illegal dealings and the missing people report that's been coming in spoke volumes of the magnitude of the situation. Him saying that now of all times meant that the Scorpios were involved in the despicable act and planned to use the port city as a mean of transport to other famiglias and foreign countries.
He pressed his index finger against the area between his brows in an attempt to rid himself of the annoyance he was feeling. "Daemon, I want you to infiltrate the Scorpio Famiglia to get more information. We need to know who the Scorpios has and will have dealings with."
After giving the Mist his job, Giotto turned to Alaude. "Continue your search. We need to find where they hid the people they're going to use as... cargo." He spat the word out in distaste, then turned towards Asari and Lampo. "Can I task you two to give Casarile a visit? Make sure nothing goes worse than oppression of the townspeople."
Asari nodded in compliance while Lampo shown his displeasure at the task but didn't say a word against it.
"Knuckles, stay here in case anything happens," Giotto continued to instruct as he stood up, snatching the cape that has been draped over his chair and with a swing, it was on his person. "G and I will need to arrange a meeting with the Scorpios."
He played with the golden chains for a few seconds before having them connect the neck of the cape together. His eyes glowing an unforgiving orange as he swept his gaze across his guardians. "Be prepare for the worse though."
The cape fluttered as he walks out of his office, his guardians trailing behind in a uniform formation. "If negotiation falls through, then we need to show them why Vongola isn't a group they could casually mess with."
And the Vongola makes its move.
Sawada Tsunayoshi was in Italy. (Or to be precise, Southern Italy, one hundred fifty years or so in the past)
He blinked. Riiiight.
Italy.
.
.
.
Chosen as one of the Trinisette holders, Tsuna honestly had no reason to shirk on his obligations. So he sighed and pinched his nose. "I guess I have no choice."
"Ne, Tsuna," Takeshi swung an around over the brunet's shoulder, his voice sounding a bit scary. "Don't you mean, 'we'?"
The others agreed with a nod. Hell would freeze over if they ever let their boss and friend be involved in something as dangerous as this alone.
Tsuna placed a frown on his face while looking quite worried. "But it might be -"
"Dangerous," Mukuro cut in, twirling his trident in his hand. "But that's what makes it interesting, no?"
"Didn't think you would agreed to this," Hayato grumbled.
"Kufufu, this has its... benefits."
Tsuna's eyes slowly widen in revelation and pointed at Mukuro as if he was reprimanding a kid. "No, Mukuro, no! You will not mess with Daemon!"
At the name, practically everyone perked up in realization. Tsuna started regretting that he'd blurted it out loud because now, there seemed to be several murder plans coming into existence.
"Guys! No!" The brunet grabbed a fistful of his hair. "Daemon didn't mean for all of it, understand? He was just looking out for Vongola - although in his own twisted way - you can't plan revenge against him! Besides, if it's in the past, then he hasn't done anything yet! He is only guilty when he has already committed the crime!"
"Kufufu, you are too forgiving Tsunayoshi," Mukuro commented, but relented on the subject. (He was still going to collect unpaid debts though.)
"Anyways," Takeshi brought everyone back to reality. "We're not going to let you do this alone."
"That's right," Hayato nodded his head profusely. "It's the right-hand man's duty to follow his boss to the ends of the Earth so there's no way I won't be going with the Juudaime!"
Everyone else voiced the same stance - and Tsuna was flabbergasted when Kyouya was part of it. (Though the Skylark's motives were pretty much on same page as the illusionist, just with a different target.)
"Guys..." Tsuna felt warmth bled through his heart at his family's unity. It was moments like this that Tsuna held no regrets in ever meeting Reborn and finding out he was related to a crime syndicate.
(Because it gave him a family that he will never trade for anything else in the world.)
And so for the sake of the world - again - Tsuna and his guardians had agreed to go time-traveling... well, it wasn't something uncommon since they have already went to the future (and commuting between it and their time more than once). With the addition of the past, they would have been to all three time-tenses - and fought in them.
However...
.
.
.
"We have to what?" Tsuna squawked.
"Cursed." Verde explained, miffed. It was obviously a sore subject for all of them, but it couldn't be helped. "Time travelling between a a century or so gap is no laughing matter."
"There has to be a trade off since we have to tap into the powers of the vertical-time axis controlled by the Vongola portion of the Trinisette as well as this," Lal added as she took out a another container and gave it to Verde to Tinker with. This one, Tsuna knew, contained the sealed Mare Rings that Lal personally retrieved from the Vindice (On their approval of course). "The Mare Rings' powers will be partially injected into your Vongola Gears to make sure that you all arrive in the same world's timeline as well as leaving and coming back to ours. Like Byakuran said, the parallel worlds are unstable, we can't rely on their natural tendencies to bring you all back here safely."
"You mean not only will we turn into kids, we might not even arrive or come back to the right timeline?!" Tsuna wailed but was then promptly trampled by Reborn.
"Quite whining so pathetically Dame-Tsuna. This is your problem since Vongola's the target and you are the direct descendant and the successor to Vongola."
"I'm not -"
"Now, get ready to be turned into brats."
"Wait!" Tsuna exclaimed. "Lambo is too -"
Reborn, being perfect at everything he does, have already predicted Tsuna's oncoming protest, so he kicked the sleeping cow into the purple bazooka and - Poof! - Ten-Year-Later Lambo was the replacement. "We made sure that he's staying until the mission is complete."
"How -"
"Yare, yare, what's -"
"Verde."
The scientist nodded and made the last finishing touches onto the Ring form of the Lambo's Vongola Gear, causing it to emit a brilliant flash of green light -
Whoosh...
- and everyone in the room watch as teen-Lambo shrink down to about six to seven-years-old with the mental age of sixteen. Then, in a succession of colorful lights, every other guardian element were shot and the room became filled with kids ranging from six to nine.
And when the guardians became kids, they were even more like brats and bicker among each other because someone just had to comment on how cute they were or complaining about how high-pitched their voices became.
"Kufufu, I don't think the Skylark can pull it off as a kid."
"... I will bite you to death."
"EXTREEEMMMEEE!"
"Shut up, Lawn head!"
"What was that to the extreme Octopus head?!"
"Haha! We're kids!"
"No sh*t sherlock!'
"Young Vongola, I'm hungry." Lambo seems just fine with shrinking... unlike some of the others.
"H-hie?! But - ah, I think I have some grape can - HIIIEEE! M-my clothes are too big!"
Reborn had to once again kick Tsuna because of the girly scream that came back with his child form (he sure as hell did not want to hear that horrible shriek again.)
"Fix up that pathetic scream of yours, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn all but demanded. "I did not spend a good week correcting that for it to be a waste of effort."
"B-but -" Tsuna inwardly wince at his own childish voice, wanting very much his old voice back. "- I can't help it!"
Blatantly ignoring Tsuna's outcries, Reborn threw a brown knapsack in his student's face. "In there are everything you need to survive in the nineteenth century - for a short while, that is. And just so you know, we made it so the passage of time is different between our times. An hour here is a week in the past so you don't have to rush - though I rather have you finish your mission asap to prevent the timeline from deviating too much or it'll be harder for you all to return, understand?"
Tsuna never knew time-traveling would be this dangerous.
.
.
.
Tsuna sighed at the recollection. They had been quickly forced to change into appropriate clothes before being send into the era he was now in by the vertical time-axis feature of the Vongola Gears... and alone.
Lo and behold, Tsuna was now separated from his friends. (The Gears obviously deemed that location didn't matter when Tsuna and his guardians were transported back one hundred and fifty years - then again, they didn't have sentience... do they?)
Great.
For all Tsuna knew, Takeshi could be laughing while running away from wolves while thinking it was some kind of tag and Hayato desperately flipping whatever place he landed into just find Tsuna!
And knowing that Hibari and Mukuro was somewhere on the loose, Tsuna couldn't help but worry... for the area that they will most likely cause collateral damage to when they meet (Tsuna had no doubt that they will). He can only hope that Chrome would be with Mukuro, because she and Tsuna were pretty much the only ones that could stop Mukuro from doing anything - Tsuna in particular when his Cloud and Mist went at each other's throat.
(Though Tsuna hadn't realized it, he'd gained his two volatile guardians' official recognition in the Representative battles.)
Then there's Lambo and Ryohei.
He knew that the former already time-traveled twice in succession (thrice if the de-aging counted), but Lambo's ten-years-later self is still as much a dependent - and, admittedly, spoiled - teen as he was when he was six. And he didn't even want to think what would happen to his Sun guardian because the boxer is even more directionally-challenged than Tsuna!
For all he knew, his surrogate brother could be somewhere in the mountains wrestling bears and challenging wolf packs (Wait, then he might meet Takeshi!) and boxing cougars and -
Let's just say that Tsuna has a very active imagination, and is downright paranoid for his friends that he is going to make a trough on the very ground he is pacing back and forth in if he doesn't stop.
(Reborn, if he sees this, will definitely put lead into his head for being unproductive.)
Of course, that has its own consequences since in his panic-stricken state, Tsuna can be extremely clumsy. (His usual clumsiness quadruples.)
Not long after pacing in panicked circles, air decided to continue its grudge from who-knows-when and trip him, causing himself to tumble down the perfectly picturesque grassy hill.
"Ow ow owowowow -" The telltale bonk foretold of Tsuna's headbutt against a rather solid boulder buried half under "- OW!"
Tsuna now cradled his head in his hand while whimpering and cursing the world for his rotten luck. (Stupid Reborn and his methods of teaching. Stupid mafia for getting him into this mess. Stupid Gears malfunctioning. Stupid Reborn and his sadistic ways. Stupid time-travel. Stupid clumsiness that leads him into trouble every step of the way, stupid Reborn, stupid fate out to get him, stupid - you get the idea.)
And to add more to his Japan-sized headache, his Hyper Intuition was practically blaring for him to -
A shadow loomed over him -
"Ah - Mmprgh!"
- Great. Not even an hour into the past and Tsuna already got himself kidnapped.
Fan - frickin' - tastic.
What can I say other than Tsuna having extremely bad luck?
Thanks to Guest,sousie, D C JoKeR H S, uniquemangalover, Takuz,ilovecartoonsgirl, kurosaki7setsuna for reivewing!
Happy reading! ~ヾ(＾∇＾)