Dani was a total terror to some, but a total sweet heart to those she liked. In short, a kitty version of a younger Daniela Vongola.
That the two got along far too well was an understatement. Hotaru didn't think she'd ever forget the sound of Daniela's cackling at her new furry co-conspirator attack on Timoteo's paperwork. She had it recorded and shared copies of it with an openly amused Reborn. And Squalo, for some reason.
He hated that cat though...Dani seemed to make it her personal mission to attack that overly long hair of his, much to his annoyance and his coworkers open amusement. He couldn't even kill the damn thing, because Daniela always had this glint in her eyes that spoke of awful, terrifying things of how she would remind him in a rather...permanent...way why she was the only female don of the Vongola, who had one of the bloodiest histories during a freaking World War if he even thought of hurting the hell cat.
And damn Belphegor for howling every time she visited with the stupid furball, who treated the attention the fake prince gave it as it's due!
At least Daniela's apprentice/Cloud was tolerable. She almost reminded him of a less angry female Xanxus, except without the feathers and coon tail.
He just hoped that asshole who claimed to be the Boss' father let him out for the funeral. Even Squalo could see that Daniela was perilously close to dying within the next few years, and out of the main house he had always adored his Nonna the most next to his brothers.
Though he did find it hilarious that the woman had apparently been one of the people to set up the Black Cat with Dino of all people.
"How is Daniela doing?" asked Reborn.
"She's holding on. Mostly. But I have doubts that she'll last past Christmas at this rate," said Hotaru. It was clear that the idea of the old woman dying affected her deeply.
However what Hotaru didn't mention was that Daniela fully planned to pull the rug out from under her son. Timoteo's actions not only pissed her off as a grandmother, but also as a former Don of the very family he was in charge of.
There was also the fact that after Massimo's recent death, she suspected that she might lose all her grandsons due to Iemitsu and Timoteo's incompetence.
Which was why she was going to pull one last trick as Vongola Ottava...and select her own heir to the throne. The laws of the family said that the heir had to be bloodline, but it didn't specify that the one nominating them had to be a current Don.
Hotaru would abuse the ring's ability to call upon the previous dons of the Vongola to learn everything she could about the family's internal structure and laws, while quietly gathering Guardians to challenge the heir to a Ring Battle.
Just as Daniela's cousins once challenged her, she was going to make a bid of her own just to piss off the Ninth generation and pull the rug out from under everyone. No one would see her coming...they all thought she was just a Cloud.
It was subtle and the only reason she was even going along with such a headache was to give Iemitsu and Timoteo a slap in the face for sealing her Flames as a child, and never caring enough to at least look for her.
Besides, the sheer chaos it would cause was going to be so much fun.
As the days passed from summer into fall, Daniela's condition grew steadily worse. She would be lucky to last past New Years.
Which was why she planned to be theatrical as hell and get her grandson back from her foolish son's prison.
Hotaru made damn sure that Daniela's words were being recorded, both audio and video to make it clear this was not her idea, but the Ottavo Vongola's plan. It wasn't like the Ninth could do anything when his mother was going to die soon anyway, and very few would fault a Guardian for following their Sky's dying wish.
"Hotaru, I want you to break into the Iron Fort and free Xanxus. I refuse to allow my foolish son to keep him from the funeral, and I would like to spend one last Christmas with my favorite grandchild."
"Is that an order?" asked Hotaru.
"More like a last request. As your Sky and mentor, I would see this done before I join my ancestors."
Hotaru bowed her head.
"One more thing... my son is likely to take my last request ill, so if anyone gets in your way, you have my permission to be as lethal as necessary," said Daniela after a moment. "Do try to be lenient to the poor boy's Guardians though."
"Am I allowed to kidnap Lussuria? Xanxus might respond better to his own Sun, as opposed to someone else."
"Of course! The more chaos the merrier!" said Daniela with enthusiasm.
"I'll start preparations then," said Hotaru, a glint of impishness in her eyes. "Halloween good for you?"
"I demand cat ears!" cackled Daniela.
"Of course, why else would I do it on Halloween if not to dress up for the sheer chaos I'm about to inflict with permission?" cackled Hotaru.
It was official. Daniela had rubbed off on her in all the best ways.
Halloween
Reborn, having a finely tuned sense of impending chaos, was eagerly waiting on the unofficial Mafia News Network, which kept the lesser mafioso up to date if they knew about it. It was run by a Vindice-enforced neutral party, which meant that the news could be relatively trusted for an underworld network without too much bias towards one family or another.
Considering his intent, most of the Cavallone were eagerly listening in as well.
Which was why they caught the first broadcast of a very loud and obvious attack on the Vongola's main house. Someone was openly attacking the Iron Fort again, less than five years after Xanxus did.
And the perpetrator was Dino's girlfriend Hotaru. This was either going to be hilariously chaotic for everyone, or go really, really badly.
With Hotaru
Breaking in was ridiculously easy. They were beyond arrogant and didn't even have more than the most basic of security.
It took them a good twenty minutes before the alarms finally went up that this was an attack, and another fifteen before they figured out it was the cat-eared Hotaru who was responsible.
Honestly, it had only taken her ten minutes to find Xanxus and thirteen to start the process of thawing him out. By the time the first idiots came to stop her, Xanxus was half out of the ice and still unconscious.
And the escape...if she wasn't hampered by carrying the Wrath on her back, she could have made it out in half an hour.
Angel Superbi, Daniela's Storm, looked openly disgusted at the fact that it had taken less than three hours with an open assault to retrieve the Varia boss from the main house. With the Vongola don present in the building.
Lussuria was only mildly amused at the fact that Hotaru then proceeded to break into the Varia HQ to kidnap them. Even if they did have a minor headache from how quickly the girl knocked them out.
To say Timoteo was unhappy was as vast an understatement as saying the "Sahara is hot during the day".
He was outright pissed.
His mother's young Cloud had broken in, somehow managed to undo the Zero Point Breakthrough around Xanxus, and then leave without taking even a minor injury. As if that wasn't bad enough, his mother had outmaneuvered him by sending a video to the MNN to be aired the second Xanxus was confirmed in her custody explaining who was behind the entire fiasco and why.
He was not oblivious to the fact his mother was fading and wouldn't last long. And this was the sort of thing she would pull just to tweak at his nose. She had never approved of how he handled Xanxus and his "tantrum at finding out the truth".
He had thought they upgraded security after the Cradle Affair. He was clearly mistaken, as Black Cat had waltzed right in wearing cat ears and a tail of all things, did a large amount of cosmetic damage while walking right out with Xanxus on her back.
The worst part was that he couldn't really punish Black Cat for the incident without slapping himself in the face. She was Daniela's Guardian and she could have done far worse... the fact she was following her Sky's orders meant that the most he could do was reprimand his own mother for her stunt, which was rather pointless since it was clearly her last request.
Which meant he had to put up with it as one last insane act of his mother. Of course she would delight in making his life difficult even as she was dying.
There was also the rumor that the Black Cat was Vongola as well, by blood no less. But he had never gotten any confirmation about that, and besides she was just a Cloud. She would be lucky to get a mere pittance if it was true once his mother died.
Xanxus woke up slowly, but when he did he was very pissed off.
That lying fucker... he should have expected the bastard to have one last trick up his sleeve when he confronted him!
"I know you're up grandson," said a familiar voice. "We didn't cause all that chaos and kidnap your Sun just for you to play dead now."
Xanxus cracked open a single blood red eye.
"Nonna?"
Daniela looked tired. But there was still some vitality left in her.
Daniela beamed at him.
"Boss, you're awake!" said Lussuria pleased.
"What happened?"
"I brought Vongola Nono some bad luck and caused chaos in a way he couldn't retaliate in any meaningful way despite the way I basically trashed his security," said an unfamiliar voice.
It was a girl with chin-length black hair that was likely dyed if her roots were any indication. She had a calm confidence about her and eyes that spoke of the fact she was blooded. There was a gun holster on her right leg, within easy reach of her hand. She wore a black trench coat that went down to slightly past her knees, and comfortable shoes for running. He could see his grandmother's influence on the rest of her outfit, because it bordered androgynous while still retaining some femininity. If not for the lack of Adam's apple and the soft features, she could easily be mistaken for a man. Her eyes were positively cat-like and were a distinct shade of amber.
On her shoulder was a half-grown kitten with a collar that proudly declared the cat's name as "Dani" and it wore a matching bell to the one the girl wore around her own throat.
"Who's this?"
"Officially I'm Daniela's Cloud Guardian. Unofficially I'm her candidate for Vongola Decima in order to royally piss off her son one last time."
Xanxus' eyes sharpened at that.
Daniela lightly bopped him on the head.
"Enough Xanxus. I don't know why my idiot son never told you the truth about your heritage, but even if you had succeeded there's no way you would have been able to take on the rings. They're bloodlocked to the Vongola line specifically and we never did confirm if you were from the Secundo's line or simply had the same variant Flame type he did. We had to get a second set made just for Ricardo to properly claim the title since the original ones he took from Giotto were...finicky...when he attempted to use them," said Daniela flatly.
Xanxus blinked...this was news he hadn't been aware of.
"Even if you had gotten your hands on the rings, the second they rejected you no one would have accepted your claim. However no one can take the title of Varia Boss from you since you took it all those years ago," said Daniela gently.
"Why? Why could he had told me this from the beginning? Why did he lead me on as his son and make it like I could have inherited like my brothers?!" demanded Xanxus.
"I don't know why Timoteo never explained the full truth to you. I was very unhappy that he used that technique on you in the first place, since I know for a fact he was never good at seals. Just look at the half-assed job he did on the little kitten!"
"Kitten?"
"She means Black Cat over here," said Lussuria. The mystery girl nodded to him in silence.
"Black Cat, really?"
"You got a problem with my name?"
"Bit cheesy."
She openly rolled her eyes at him.
"It might be cheesy, but at least it's easy enough to remember and translate to multiple languages," she shot back.
"How did you get me out? I remember sensing the ice retreating way too fast to be normal."
Daniela actually growled a little at that.
"You weren't the first one that fool sealed."
Xanxus looked at her, before his eyes narrowed on the girl with a great deal of intensity. With a roll of her eyes, Black Cat conjured a ball of orange and deep violet fire. His eyes widened in shock...especially when the fire swiftly turned into several 'claws' that were made of the same ice he was trapped in.
"Iemitsu asked Timoteo to put a seal on me shortly after I turned five when I went active during their visit. Woke up with a migraine and realized I could conjure ice after a week. It wasn't until Daniela removed it that I could use my Flames properly again. On the plus side I've never run out of bullets because of it, though Reborn refuses to tell me how he does that Chaos Shot of his," she said scowling.
"Why would Iemitsu ask for you to be sealed?" asked Xanxus confused.
"I'm his daughter, not that he remembers he has one considering he never even tried to look for me when I left home before I was eight. He goes on and on about my brother, but my family has apparently forgotten I even existed," she explained.
Which meant she was bloodline Vongola through Giotto's line.
"Do they even know?" asked Xanxus, already feeling a hint of vindictive payback rising in him.
"They only know me as the stray Daniela took in...they have no idea we're planning to completely usurp Federico as heir just to piss off the Ninth generation and clean up the mess Timoteo has made of the family. I might be Giotto's descendant, but I plan to be the second coming of Daniela," said Hotaru, eyes glinting wickedly. "And my first act would be to fire Iemitsu and send Nono on a long vacation as far away from me as possible. I don't exactly need the Ninth generation's input to get through this."
Xanxus was openly grinning. Screwing over his 'father' and that ass Iemitsu sounded hilarious, and Daniela had been a very effective Donna for the family. If this brat was planning to follow in her footsteps, he might be able to tolerate her at the helm.
"How did you pull off removing me from the ice and the fort?" he asked.
"Last wish of a dying Sky. We made it clear that Daniela wanted to spend one last Christmas before she dies with her favorite grandson, since he clearly had no intention of ever releasing you until hell froze over or he had a use for you. Not like anyone would fault a Guardian for fulfilling their Sky's last wish, and if anyone asks it was an internal disagreement between a former don and a current one. Add into the fact she's his mother, and there's little the old idiot can do about it. And he can't put you back into the ice without a damn good reason."
"Earlier you said that you wanted to usurp Federico's spot as heir. What happened to Massimo?"
"Dead. Someone drowned him with a pair of concrete shoes in a harbor, no culprit as of yet," replied Lussuria succinctly. Timoteo's holding off on naming Federico as the heir until they find out whether or not this is a pattern to wipe out his sons or just a freak coincidence that he lost two in the span of less than six years. Odds are he might name him after Daniela passes."