Author's Note: After reading stuff in reborn wikia, I've encountered Nono's guardians. Little is said about them, not a sliver of their hair color, and I was so tempted to include them… and so for the predominant part of this chapter, you will get to know them. I tried to incorporate a bit of character befitting of their stations to each of the guardians and hopefully it won't bore anyone because it finally got me to introduce the main plot. WEE. I do the celebratory dance. You must forgive me for grammar/spelling/and the rather rushed writing. I just have to write everything down ASAP before I lose the opportunity to.
Here's another chapter.
The Snow King
Several months had passed since Tsunayoshi found himself imprisoned in the Chiavarone manor. For the first few weeks, he had to be careful with what he ate and several attendants watched him just to make sure he didn't do anything to aggravate his injury.
Alaude called him for a brief apology. The man regretted informing Nono so hastily without even taking the time to educate him of Vongola but at that time, Tsunayoshi knew it was mostly his fault. Alaude had given him ample time to understand, and warned him to be cautious. He didn't listen.
He yawned, trying to fight off the sleep, after just waking up. He was about to when he heard a knock.
"Tsuna, are you in there?"
"Hai, Dino-nii."
He had to at least stay optimistic. He'd mourned and wallowed in his thoughts for the good part of his stay, and snapped out of it when he realized nothing was going to change even if he acted like an invalid. The only alternative he had was to somehow get back to Vongola, and show Nono and the rest of the heirs that he was capable… perhaps, to get them to retract the life sentence even if he was not allowed to see his mother again.
For a time, the idea seemed too big, and too great a risk, especially when he knew that the four just wanted him to drop dead, but what else could he do?
Even when Dino was providing for him, he was intruding on his good will, even if his Dino-nii was his guardian. He didn't want to be a free-loader. Somehow, he wanted to repay his kindness.
The door opened to show a bustling blonde, and with a happy squeal, he landed on top of Tsuna, hugging the boy tight to himself.
"C-can't breathe!"
Dino got off and rolled to the side. "Good morning, lil bro." Tsuna then got subjected to the infernal hair ruffling, and he sighed.
"One of the maids told me something happened last night."
"Yes, Isabella tried to put me in a dress. I had to run for my life and hide in this room. Why do you let them do that to me?" Tsuna whined.
Dino gave a hearty chuckle, "It's fun. That's why. Come, breakfast is ready, and today, we'll be having a guest over. He tutored me too, so I could put my word that he's good. A bit Spartan though. I've had Mariel bake you oatmeal cookies. The sooner you get up, the sooner we can go there and taste those godly cookies…. But no cookies for you until you've finished your meal."
Tsuna nodded, and allowed Dino to pull him out of the bed and out towards their private dining room.
"Itadakimasu."
Entering the sitting room was a man in his early twenties. However, if he was still in his early twenties, then how old was he when he was tutoring his Dino-nii? Tsuna was intrigued at how such a young man was able to garner the respect of the Chiavarone family who rarely lets anyone inside their manor. Secretive bunch.
Well, Tsuna understood that if he was harboring something dangerous, well, for the lack of a better word, he would stick to just using himself as a reference, then having guests over would be a big liability, a danger. Scratch that, he was the liability himself.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi. It is pleasure to meet you, my name is Reborn."
Tsuna tilted his head curiously, "Is that your real name?"
Dino stepped on Tsunayoshi's foot.
"Itai." Tsuna kicked back and the man chuckled.
"It seems you are right, Dino. We must do something about his mouth." Tsuna bristled, offended. "Of course, that's not my real name, but that is what you will call me. Today henceforth, I will be your mentor, Reborn."
The man smiled, and in the blink of an eye, Tsuna's last cookie was being eaten by the man.
"Dino-nii. I didn't agree to this! You didn't tell me anything about having a mentor!?"
Dino smiled, "It's for your own good."
The cookie was gone, and Reborn was reaching for Tsuna's glass of water.
"So… I'll leave you two to get acquainted." Dino hastily left, and a crash was heard downstairs followed by a series of apologies.
Silence remained.
Tsuna tried to reach for a glass of water and Reborn sat himself on the opposite seat.
The answering smile at Tsuna's refusal to acknowledge Reborn's presence was filled with malice and promised a world of pain. Pity Tsuna wasn't looking.
Coyote Nougat watched Vongola Nono pace in his private quarters.
"The fools. It was not my intention to pit them against each other by not choosing an outright successor." Timoteo gnashed his teeth and stared at the monitor that displayed a valuable loss of assets and man power resulting from the skirmish between two of his heirs.
"This is for the best, and you know that Timoteo."
"While they are busy squabbling about, it gives you more time to develop a cure. Alpha, Beta and the Omega team are working together and they've made another breakthrough." The storm guardian sat down and showed the results of their latest experiment.
Timoteo took a harsh breath, "What… what have you done? What is this?"
"A cure. It's a small chance but if we do succeed, this project will contribute to future generations of Vongola."
"And what of the world?"
Coyote Nougat was too old for this, and he knew Timoteo was nearing his limit as well. He briefly sent a message to Brow to attend to Timoteo and he received a brief reply that Brow would come soon. As the head healer, Brow was hardly able to leave the manor, ensuring that the ninth's ailing body will last until it could. Given the matters at hand, they really needed all the help they could get.
"Timoteo, it is too late. We tried to contain it and billions died. It was a fool's dream to harness the power in the first place, but you gave in to their demands."
Timoteo floundered with words, and sat down himself, desperately wishing someone else would take on the responsibility.
"Fine, continue the experiments. I want their activity closely monitored. The Alpha leader… who is he again?"
"…Mukuro Rokudo from the deceased Estraneo famiglia. A brilliant teen."
"…I've heard he's closely working with Veckenschtein. He's Verde's pupil is he not? Why doesn't Verde warn him of associating with his kind."
"Yes, by all accounts, we are monitoring their movement. Do not be so hasty to judge anyone that comes close to Veckenschtein. Even deranged, he has his uses."
"You don't know what he's capable of. Even within Vendicare, associating with the likes of him will not…" Timoteo stopped himself, and agreed with Coyote. It would do nothing to push the issue. "How is the search for Nana Sawada going along?"
"… We've used the Brain to scour for her and only found remnants of the chip implant beneath the building. We suspect that all along, Nana Sawada had hers removed, but kept it close to her body, to fool the Brain that she was still a part of the community. It was expertly done… and I now fear if there are citizens who do the same."
"Then have all the districts checked. If there are similar cases, they must be related and one way or another, we will find leads."
An unprecedented snowstorm appeared en route to the trading capital of South Africa. The Africans speculate that this is the work of the GU. "They have promised to cease fire and yet they play the hands of God by killing us with their new abominable devise."
Verde, the head researcher of GU denies their involvement and informs the public of the changing weather patterns. "For a time, we have tried to prevent the backlash of radioactive war and we thought we had succeeded. This is a small hurdle that we will soon overcome. The climate will continue to change until the earth has finally acclimatized to it," he said in an interview made last Sept. 5, 2024.
Further changes in weather patterns are also being observed in different parts of the globe, and the Alliance has given refuge, building the "Green domes". Their head engineer, Spanner, a young man world renown for his invention of Mosca units used by the Alliance during the war, said that, "It's just a really big green house. I don't expect we can build a Green dome good enough to fit the entire world, that's just stupid. What we can do is make domes large enough to cover our population."
Irie Shouchi, a famous environmental activist supports the decision and said, "not only will it save us, but it can also be used to preserve the dwindling species..."
Timoteo was put to sleep, and as acting commander, Coyote Nougat summoned the rest of the guardians and sat together in the sitting room next to their leader.
"You all know why I called you today." Coyote began, and laid out the world map before them. The Grand Union glowed yellow, while several red dots marked as their bases flashed around. The rest of the world was filled with black and white areas, and then, there were the green zones.
"Brow finished compiling the data together for me yesterday, and as you can see, there are Black, white and green zones littered around. Compared to the data provided last year, the dead zones have grown, and the green have shrunk. The alliance cannot hold longer, I am sure of it."
"How… in the world do you keep this quiet?" Schnitten remarked, and held his breath.
"You have me to thank for that." Bouche Croquant remarked, and continued smoking his cigar.
"As much as we cannot let the public know for fear of inspiring panic similar to what happened in Japan, we must educate them and let them know. As it is, we are not sure if the research to prevent the catastrophe would make it in time… Verde thinks that the joint project with Vindice would solve this problem, however, we do not have the luxury of waiting."
"In three years, I surmise, this is what the world would look like." Brow shifted the display to paint a horrifying picture. The whole world was a mesh of black and white, and Brow questionably put in place the Green Domes of the Alliance, and a fifth of the original land mass of the GU in the picture.
"Now, now, you must be joking! It can't get that bad. We've already found a way to filter radiation," quipped Ganauche, "that can't happen."
"It won't if it's just caused by radioactive waves." Brow said, and he showed them the next picture. It was a snowy white mountain that used to be a bustling town from the looks of things. Brow pinched his hands to zoom in and showed them the blurred image of what seemed to be an apparition, a man with wings.
"What's this?"
"An image from one of the satellites of GU. We suspect that it is that creature's doing. The series of misfortunes suffered across the world can't be a coincidence. I am not sure about the dead zones, but as for the sudden snowstorms-"
"Now that's something… I can't… but he does seem familiar."
"That is what's unusual. To all those who has seen this picture, they felt the same. I myself feel as if I've seen it once before. It's not because it looks like an angel. We do know that there are no angels alive. If there was, we'd have seen it. The last time, I heard, they likened it to the image of God, but we all know that can't be true." Coyote interjected and motioned for Brow to move on to show the next images while he continued talking.
"For now, we have dubbed him the Snow King. I believe it's hardly apt to call a man a god just because he has wings."
There were wry laughs until Brow coughed. Simultaneously, several screens appeared before the guardians. "I hate it when he does that," Ganauche whines.
"What you have there is the illegal research that Vongola decided to put a stop twenty seven years ago. That is the research that is currently being conducted within Vendicare with the Alpha, Beta, and Omega teams."
"What are you talking about?"
"Schnitten, Ganauche, I know both of you don't listen during our meetings, but you should know that a part of Vongola's aim during the war was to wipe out a contagious virus that first spread in Japan. The research base was only permitted to carry tests using different non-human animal species, but the resident researcher, Shoichi Irie's father, now deceased, under the command of Bermuda von Veckenschtein carried on with human experiments."
A picture of a mutated human with bulbous pus filled extra body parts snapped on the large screen. Ganauche had to hold a hand to his mouth, "Holy–"
What seemed like a dyrad, only on closer inspection, an ordinary girl, wrapped around with what seemed like parasitic green vines was shown next. The next picture showed the mutation of the girl as an unknown hybrid human plant specie, and its eventual death.
"The experiments failed. Gene splicing has been the focus of the medical industry for a long time, but during this research, they tried to introduce genes from different species, exposing them to different environments, several of which was radioactive, a known cause of mutation.
"The researchers unwittingly created a virus that killed several of their men, and the facility had to be abandoned."
Ganauche scratched his head but Schnitten bit him to his question, "Why would Vongola even agree to such a dangerous risk?"
"It's a child's dream, I think. Timoteo shared to me a tale of the founder, Giotto Vongola..."
"The brat?"
"No… the brat was only named after him. Primo Vongola, or Ieyasu Vongola… well, supposedly he was able to harness a power… to manipulate flames at will. He was even able to fly. We do not know, but the successors to his line likened him and his power to that of a God. As descendants of this mysterious power, those privy to this tale wondered about the possibility of harnessing the same power and for centuries, they've sought after it."
"...don't tell me... we've killed all those people for this?" Ganauche was scandalized.
"Fool. You forget that while we have our own agenda, we were not the ones who wanted the war."
"We did fan its flames," Bouche said, amused.
"I... I know that but you shouldn't call me a fool."
"Then would idiot suffice?"
"Visconti!"
"Gentlemen, calm down," Coyote said, and gave the three men a sharp look.
"The virus spread, and we do not know if any of the experiments survived. We are no closer to the truth of the tale… and if it is not true, then at the cost of more than five billion people, we have failed." Coyote solemnly said in a quiet voice.
"But, Coyote, you told me it wasn't our fault."
"It's nothing but a change in perspective. We founded GU and among them were greedy men who wanted to unite the world under their banner. At the same time, we had our objective. To destroy the virus, and to discover the truth..." Bouche grinned.
There was a lingering silence and Ganauche tried to ask himself why he failed to notice.
"…What does Timoteo plan to do with this? Does he know? Oh. Of course he did. How long have you all known?" Ganauche asked.
"Long enough. Why does it matter. I am revealing everything to you so that when the time comes, you will know what to do."
"Timoteo is not of sound mind. His age is catching up to him. He is well over two hundred years, and I… I cannot prolong his life any longer." Brow's eyebrows knitted and said, "Vongola... has never stood up for good or evil... but we are an organization with its flaws. We hold a lot of power, and Ganauche, you know this already. Moving on," Brow tried to compose himself.
"We cannot trust the current CEDEF head for he is Giotto's underling. Vongola will be in direct supervision of Coyote until a rightful heir can inherit Vongola. There are more pressing concerns aside from this matter. The last skirmish between the heirs decreased our defenses and they took with them 227 soldiers. The Egyptian districts 1726 to 1737 are heavily affected and request compensation and aid."
"Timoteo gives too much leeway. Massimo deserved what he got, for luring Xanxus and Giotto into a trap. Once the kids found out, they started an all out war."
"Would you like me to dispose of Massimo? We can always say that he mysteriously drowned."
"For the good of Timoteo?"
"For his good."
Bouche smirked and set off. "Coyote, send me the details of the meeting once you have finished." Visconti who remained silent the entire time left with Bouche.
"There is also the matter of the youngest heir. We were ordered by Nono to protect him at all costs."
"I've already sent Reborn."
"Then he is in good hands."
"Schnitten, you will be sent to appease South Africa. You will be accompanied by the Bertesca Famiglia."
"The exiled famiglia?"
"This would be their first test, and you will need their expertise should another storm arise. They will grace these walls by day break, tomorrow."
"I advice you to take some of your best men. Not much is known about Gelaro Bertesca and if they take this as an opportunity to escape mainland, or… show sufficient amount of insubordination… any sign of betrayal, we have our orders to kill them on sight."
Schnitten laughed wryly, "Sometimes, I ask myself if I have done something to incite our king's wrath. He always likes to put me in dangerous situations."
"But you always return to us alive." Coyote remarked. "Well, I am one lucky man."
"An old man." Ganauche teased.
"Ganauche, you and Visconti will visit the Alliance to inform them of the situation."
"W-what!? Why me and him!? You know I can never get along with Visconti!"
"More like, he knows how to make you work and you work your ass off when you're with him. Don't complain." Coyote nodded to Brow and Ganauche received the small package file that contained 273 photos, 41 videos, and 3897 files about the entire situation that was briefly discussed. "Visconti already looked through it, I expect you to skim everything along the way."
"What about Brow, you and Bouche?"
"I will be staying here to manage Vongola affairs. Brow cannot leave Timoteo, and Bouche will be here for damage control once the situation is made public." Coyote pinched the bridge of his nose, sounding a little resigned.
"How public is public?"
"We'll tell them what we can tell them. If word gets out about human mutations, we've done enough in the past to let them believe it's plain rubbish. Do not worry. Bouche will do his thing. If we are lucky, the citizens will be more concerned of passing the diamond chip test, than the situation outside since it has barely began to affect us."
''Ah, the one with Nana Sawada,"
"Yes that," Coyote replied.
"I didn't think there was a way to bypass it." Schnitten murmured.
"Well, we have Verde working with it simultaneously with the project."
Schnitten chuckled, "you're a slave driver."
"The weirdo likes to work."
They all chuckle to themselves at the thought of the green haired scientist. He was instrumental to Vongola's success in taking over GU and in effect, the world.
Brow sighed feeling spent. Then Coyote began, "Just don't worry about us here. We will handle it. Worry about the situation overseas first. Even though our heirs are war mongers and would enjoy destroying the fragile trust that we have with the alliance, we cannot afford to lose more lives. It is our responsibility, and Timoteo cannot carry the weight of this sin all by himself."
"Don't be too over dramatic old man. You'll never grow black hair as it is."
Brow spluttered and laughed. "It always amuses me how you can still find the time to laugh when the situation is this dire," Brow said.
"Hey, we still got time, and you were frowning and serious having this pinched look that made me somehow wonder if you had to go to the bathroom. Even king's die, we all know that… but we're still alive now, yeah? So cheer up Brow." He turned to stare at Coyote and Schnitten "Coyo, Sin, get him drunk or something."
Schnitten vigorously shook his head and the Brow Nie Jr. smiled innocently or a tad too dreamily. "It's been a long time since I had alcohol."
"Coyote, now, now, you hardly have time to drink. You must watch over Timoteo, remember?"
The rather hopeful look that spawned on the brunette's face turned to another frown again. "Right, I just remembered, I have to check up on him."
"With this, I consider our meeting adjourned. Further concerns will be relayed through the DC."
Published 1/3/2013
Revised 1/5/2013
