~.~.~
Phantom Thief Decimo
Previously: The Varia obtained the remaining six rings and distributed them among their members. Meanwhile, Tsuna, Gokudera and Lambo regrouped at a safe house belonging to the Cavallone Family. But, worried about endangering the people around him, Tsuna chose to go on alone.
~.~.~
"...ordered me not to disturb the peace of the residents of Namimori!" Iemitsu's voice came over the telephone. "Can you believe that? I'm a resident of Namimori too!"
Nono listened patiently, but he could see Reborn growing more and more restless where he waited on the other side of the Vongola Boss's office.
"I see," Timoteo said, "but, Iemitsu, have you made any progress?"
There was a long silence on the other end of the line. "...Not as such," Iemitsu admitted. "We haven't been able to trace his calls to Nana, and he didn't tell anyone where he was going."
"Are there any further leads for you to pursue in Namimori?" Nono asked.
The silence was even longer this time, as Iemitsu realized where this conversation was going. "...No," he said finally. "There's nothing here."
"Then return to Italy. We've already had to concede the remaining rings to the Varia," Nono said, his tone even and firm. "With the way things are, the Vongola needs the Outside Adviser present and visible, or things will degenerate even faster."
"But Ninth!" Iemitsu protested. "There's no sign that Tsuna left Japan! He must still be here somewhere. I have the best chance of finding him!"
"Do you? Is there some special knowledge you have that will aid you? Do you know something about him that no one else does?" Nono inquired.
Iemitsu didn't reply.
"Then leave the search to our more discrete agents and return to Italy," Nono ordered.
"Yes, Boss," Iemitsu finally acquiesced.
The dial tone followed immediately as he hung up without so much as a goodbye.
"About time," Reborn remarked, his tone even sharper than usual after he had to deal with Iemitsu's "whining."
Nono carefully replaced the handset and steepled his fingers. "Are you sure the Phantom Thief will head to Japan?" he asked Reborn.
He hadn't lied - he did need Iemitsu back in Italy to keep the Family and their allies calm. However, Timoteo had another reason. The Varia were no doubt beginning to suspect something. They would search for the Outside Adviser, and if the Phantom Thief was truly coming to Japan, then it was best if the Varia had no reason to cast their gaze there.
Reborn nodded, jerkily. Despite his generally cool demeanor, he was clearly tense and unhappy. Displeased, Timoteo judged. 'How dare that amateur go off on his own and try to leave me behind,' he seemed to be thinking. 'And after I told him to stay put!'
He did so hate being disobeyed. Nono could only imagine the sort of tongue-lashing young Dino had been forced to endure when he first reported the Phantom Thief's departure.
"I'm certain," Reborn said, rather snappy at being doubted. "He left the others behind, so now he's going to try to disappear. Being the Phantom Thief is no longer safe, but there is still another mask to peal away. He's going to try to go back to who he used to be, before he became the Phantom Thief. He's going to Japan."
Nono frowned thoughtfully. There was something nagging at him. "Perhaps he's from another branch of Primo's line," he mused. It was possible. In truth, they knew little about what Primo had done after he passed the Family to his successor. "Though it does not matter much in the end."
"Because of the ranking you got from the Ranking Prince?" Reborn said, his tone carefully blank.
Still, Timoteo could clearly hear the hidden meanings in that question. "That is part of the reason," he admitted, "but the rest still applies. A thief and an outsider would not have the legitimacy necessary to unite the family. The alliance would fracture."
"And Iemitsu's son was first on the list?" Reborn confirmed. He frowned. "Then what was that reaction? Why rip up the copy of the ranking?"
"It's something about Iemitsu," Nono said slowly. He had almost forgotten the Thief's strange hesitation at the mention of the Outside Adviser. A Japanese boy, with some relationship with Iemitsu. Iemitsu, whose son had been missing since six months before the Phantom Thief's first appearance.
It all fit.
'I really am getting old, to not see it sooner.'
Reborn raised an eyebrow in surprise as Timoteo suddenly threw his head back and laughed deeply.
~.~.~
Chapter 7: En route ~ No Respect Among Thieves
~.~.~
When Tsuna first decided to travel to Italy, he had briefly considered doing it legally - getting a passport, buying a plane ticket, going through customs...
He had quickly discarded that idea. Tsuna hadn't been certain how far the mafia's power reached, or how much he was being observed, but he had wanted his visit to be a... surprise. He hadn't wanted any record of him coming, no warning to Iemitsu. He had imagined his father's shocked face when Tsuna confronted him, catching him completely off-guard.
Well, it hadn't gone like that. Tsuna had wimped out at the last moment, and his father had never even realized that Tsuna had come to Italy.
The point was, Tsuna had not left Japan through legal means. Instead, he had stowed away on a cargo ship - and then another, changing ships at each port until he finally reached Italy. It had been nerve-wracking, cold and miserable - hiding out among the shipping containers, avoiding the crew and customs officials, stealing food, when it turned out he had miscalculated how much he would need.
Now, after his time as the Phantom a Thief, he knew a few good forgers, so getting a fake passport wouldn't have been difficult, but Tsuna was feeling nostalgic. (And, of course, it was also safer not to leave any trail at all.)
He decided to return to Japan the same way he had left - by boat.
It was time to set aside the Phantom Thief and go home, where it was safe and peaceful.
However, Tsuna had no intention of going back to being just Dame-Tsuna. He wasn't going to huddle in the cargo hold, freezing and miserable. He was going to travel in style.
Sneaking on to a cruise ship was simple, first posing as part of the crew, running around in last minute preparations, then as a passenger, wandering the ship. Since the holiday season was only just beginning, there were plenty of open rooms for him to use, and the casino, the pool on the second deck and even the dining room were always available to the passengers.
Still, all the glitz and excitement wore off quickly.
He had come to the ship's casino with the vague idea of enjoying himself - he was there, so why not? But the loud, flashy press of bodies was beginning to feel stifling, and Tsuna began to drift away from the other passengers, first trying to find a quiet corner, then giving up and making his way outside.
Stepping out onto the deck, Tsuna breathed a sigh of relief. He had been alone more often than not, and being around so many people, all so loud and high-spirited, was just too… crowded.
The thought made his lips quirk up in a smile. Taking a deep breath of the ocean air, Tsuna told himself, 'I'm going home. I'm going to see Namimori, and Mom, and Hibari-sempai, and Haru. I can finally relax and just rest.'
He'd return the Vongola Sky Ring, of course, but...
"This is it," Tsuna said to himself and the open air. "We had some fun times. It was… really fun. Acting freely and boldly, being without fear or restrictions, living without regrets... I'll treasure those memories, even if this long masquerade is coming to an end. It's time. Goodbye, Phantom Thief."
He held up the flute of champagne in his hand to the night sky, the dark sea, and the pale moon.
The moment was interrupted just as Tsuna lifted the glass to his lips. The door leading into the casino room slammed open, letting the cacophony of voices and music flood out onto the deck. Jumping with a startled squeak, Tsuna fumbled with the champagne flute and lost his grip. He watched it flip soundlessly through the air until it finally disappeared into the dark, foam-flecked waters below.
'Way to ruin a moment,' Tsuna sighed to himself.
Straightening, he glanced over his shoulder at the sudden intruder.
The sight that greeted him made Tsuna pale.
He tried to spin away and mime hurling over the railing - a tried and true method for being left alone - but it was too late.
"Kaitou-sama..." Gokudera said slowly. "It's really you, Kaitou-sama!" His entire expression brightened, and he took a step toward Tsuna.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Tsuna lied, edging away. As Gokudera took another step, Tsuna ducked around him and dashed back into the casino.
"Kaitou-sama!" he heard Gokudera call again behind him, before the noise of the casino room swallowed up his voice.
'Why is he here?' Tsuna wondered desperately, sliding through the crowd. 'How did he even know? This is exactly what I was trying to avoid!'
Certain he had lost Gokudera in the crowd, Tsuna surreptitiously moved toward the emergency exit. It would easy for him to momentarily disable the alarm and slip out of the casino. The emergency stairs led down to the lower decks, including the crew and cargo areas, where Tsuna would be able to hide - and to tell when someone was coming.
Just as he reached for the door handle, a hand slammed against the wall next to his head.
"Hiieee!" Tsuna let out a startled shriek and spun around. "Go-Go-Gokudera?!"
"Kaitou-sama, please listen to me!" Gokudera insisted.
"I don't know how or why you're here, but you shouldn't have come," Tsuna said, turning his head to the side and bringing up one hand to shield his eyes.
"I followed you," Gokudera said, refusing to budge. "It was easy to figure out where you'd go. I know how Kaitou-sama thinks and acts. Don't you understand, Kaitou-sama? I'll follow you anywhere. That's what I decided. That's the proof of my loyalty."
"You're the one who doesn't understand. Having you follow me around is just going make things more difficult for me! Go home," Tsuna hissed, trying to duck around Gokudera.
However, just as Tsuna finally managed to get free, a sudden scream made him stumble. As Tsuna pinwheeled his arms in an attempt to keep his balance and Gokudera quickly propped him up, the crowd if front of them shifted uneasily.
"My pearls! They're gone!" a woman wailed, at the center of the commotion.
More startled cries followed, as other passengers reflexively checked their own belongings.
"My watch!"
"My diamonds!"
"Thief! There's a thief!"
Gokudera and Tsuna exchanged a look.
"It wasn't me!" Tsuna hissed, correctly interpreting Gokudera's expression. "...Probably." Straightening, he started patting down his pockets, just to make sure. There were a few extra key cards and IDs from employees, as well as one of their small hand radios, but for the most part, Tsuna had carefully kept tight control of himself. "I wouldn't do amateur work like that," he grumbled. 'No matter what Reborn says.'
The crew members in the casino were moving quickly to deal with the situation, before the unrest worsened. A few moved to block the exits, while others began asking the passengers to stay calm and check their belongings, while surreptitiously herding them together and looking out for any suspicious stranglers.
'They're going to start checking the passenger list,' Tsuna guessed. 'We'd better get out of here...'
Fortunately, the crew wouldn't think to immediately cover the emergency exit, relying on the automatic alarm. Without thinking, Tsuna grasped Gokudera's wrist and pulled him toward the door.
Disabling the alarm took barely a moment, and the two of them slipped into the cool, dark stairwell beyond. "Should we go down to the cargo decks?" Gokudera asked, almost whispering in the silent, slightly stale air.
"No need," Tsuna decided, snorting a little. "With that kind of messy work, the thief'll probably get caught in no time. Let's just wait it out." Fishing around in his pocket, he pulled out the radio handset and turned it off mute.
Crackling static and rushed updates from the radio echoed in the empty stairwell. Sitting with radio between them on the landing, Gokudera and Tsuna could both feel the heavy, uncomfortable silence pressing down on them.
"Kaitou-sama," Gokudera began uncertainly, while Tsuna pointedly looked away. "Kaitou-sama, what you asked... I can't do that. I can't go home. There isn't any place like that for me. To me... home is chasing after Kaitou-sama, following in your footsteps, watching your exploits."
"...Is chasing after the Phantom Thief really that exciting?" Tsuna wondered. "It was fun, but... it was just a performance. None of it was real."
"It was real to me. That night was real. Meeting you was real. What you gave me... What I learned from you, all of that is real," Gokudera said, quietly but firmly.
'What you learned from me?' Tsuna thought, sighing quietly. 'What could you possibly have learned?'
"Living a life that isn't bound by the rules of the mafia," Gokudera said, almost absently, staring up into the shadowed ceiling. "Following your own sense of justice, no matter what anyone says. Showing kindness... that kindness is also a kind of strength. All of those things, I learned from you. And also... how to be happy. All of that... it's real to me."
Tsuna had turned slowly to stare at him, wide-eyed. He was too surprised to even blush at the praise. When Gokudera met his gaze evenly, Tsuna found himself unable to look away.
"Are you saying," Gokudera continued, "that nothing you did held any meaning for you? That you were just playing a trick on all those people you helped? That you put nothing of yourself in it?"
'No, that's not true... I... I meant all those things. I didn't do them just for profit or just for excitement,' Tsuna thought.
"I can't believe that," Gokudera said firmly. "You are not that sort of person. I might not know your name, or your face, or who you were before, but I know who you are now. The Phantom Thief is only part of that. Kaitou-sama is Kaitou-sama. To me, Kaitou-sama is..."
As if suddenly realizing what he was saying, Gokudera trailed off and flushed heavily. As he glanced away, trying to hide his red face, Tsuna felt himself blushing too.
'The person I am now... I guess if anyone would know, it would be Gokudera,' he thought, smiling faintly. 'Mom, Haru, everyone back home... they might know who I used to be, but I... I've changed, even just a little. I'm not the same Dame-Tsuna anymore.'
"Gokudera, I..."
"Kaitou-sama, I..."
Both of them tried to speak at the same time, only to both fall silent, fidgeting uneasily. When the radio suddenly burst into static, they both jumped and looked down at it with a sense of relief.
"I've got one! A stowaway here on deck two!" the radio crackled. The crewman at the other end grunted and swore, his breath coming heavily. "I'm in pursuit! That stupid cow brat is fast!"
"Cow... brat?" Tsuna muttered.
He turned slowly to stare at Gokudera, who had paled and broken out in cold sweat.
Meeting Tsuna's eyes, Gokudera laughed nervously.
"Well, you see, Kaitou-sama, it's like this..."
~.~.~
"You seriously couldn't lose him somewhere?" Tsuna complained yet again, as they tried to make their way across deck five both swiftly and stealthily. There were crew members everywhere, no doubt in pursuit of the same target, and peering around the corner, Tsuna had to duck back quickly or be spotted.
"He's like a leech," Gokudera said darkly. "Even Mr. Reborn hasn't been able to lose him."
Tsuna paused, then shrugged. That was true.
Tsuna, Gokudera, and the crewmen nearby all froze in their tracks as a faint, distant boom reverberated through the ship, making the fancy light fixtures on the walls rattle.
"What was that?" one of the crew asked.
"You think we hit something?" another wondered. "Like... an iceberg?"
"No way! Come on, you'll jinx us!"
Tsuna and Gokudera exchanged a look. They knew what that was. That was one of Lambo's grenades.
'It came from the stern!' Tsuna thought, taking off, all thoughts of stealth forgotten in the face of scenarios involving Lambo, explosives, and the side of the ship. More specifically, the side of the ship acquiring a new hole.
"Over here!" Gokudera called out, taking the lead once they came closer. With his better understanding of explosives, he could guess Lambo's location better than Tsuna.
Indeed, it wasn't long before the sounds of Lambo's obnoxious gloating reached them.
"Gyahaha," the brat was laughing, "that's what you get for messing with the Great Lambo!"
Rounding the corner, Tsuna and Gokudera saw him standing over a crewman, proudly holding up his weapon case and also another grenade.
"You-you little freak!" the crewman unwisely hissed.
Lambo's lower lip trembled for a moment before his expression transformed into a furious scowl. "You'll be sorry you made fun of the Great Lambo!" the child yelled, carelessly yanking out the pin in his pink grenade.
"Lambo!" Tsuna yelled, running up to him.
Yanking the grenade out of his hand, Tsuna tossed it overboard, and not a moment too soon. Seeing the explosion just off the ship's side, the crowds on the upper decks ooh-ed in wonder.
Gokudera drove his fist into Lambo's skull, grinding it down despite the boy's wailing. "What're you thinking, you stupid cow?" he growled. "I told you not to use weapons on the ship!"
"That guy was being a jerk! He tried to drag me off somewhere!" Lambo protested, sniffling. "Auntie Ottavo said to definitely blow up anyone who did that!"
It didn't help that the man left scowling up at them from the deck looked like a distinctly unsavory sort, with close shaved hair, a scar over one eye and the face of a thug.
"You're all freaks!" the crewman snarled. "I'll make sure they throw you lunatics off the boat!"
Bursting into tears, Lambo heaved his cello case over his head and pointed the narrow section straight at the crewman. 'Wait, isn't that the rocket launcher part?' Tsuna thought.
"Meanie! I'll show you!" Lambo wailed. A round section slid open, confirming Tsuna's fears.
"Lambo, no!" Tsuna yelled, grabbing hold of the cello case and trying to pull it away from the boy - or at least point it away from the ship.
Pounding footsteps heralded the approach of more crew members, finally catching up to Lambo. 'If they catch us with the weapons, it's over,' Tsuna thought, panicking. 'We'll never be able to explain that!'
There was only one thing to do.
"Sorry, Lambo," Tsuna apologized. "But this thing's got to go!"
Heaving the case up with all this might, Tsuna managed to fling it over the railing, into the sea below. Lambo stared after it in shock, too stunned to even cry.
A moment later, they were surrounded by the crew, and the thug-faced man Lambo had threatened was pointing at all three of them accusingly. "They're with that brat! They're all stowaways!" he declared. Sighing, Tsuna held up his hands and let himself get dragged away.
~.~.~
The three of them were dragged before the captain, an older man with a fluffy beard that made Tsuna think of his middle school principle. Probably the most memorable thing about the man had been his ability to remain completely calm in the face of the school's demon prefect - which was also probably what got him his job.
"You have no identification, and you aren't on the passenger manifest," one of the captain's aides declared, staring down at the three of them. "You're clearly the stowaways we've been looking for. Now tells what you did with the things you stole, and we might bother feeding you before we reach port."
"Now, now, Ichiro," the captain said, stroking his beard. "None of that. Let's hear what they have to say before we make any judgements."
"How dare you accuse us?!" Gokudera raged in response. "We're passengers just like everyone else here! Our stuff got stolen too, and I want to see this passenger manifest of yours myself! I'll sue you for this harassment!"
Tsuna watched him turn the situation around, honestly impressed. 'Way to go, Gokudera,' he thought.
"Passengers?! Don't screw with me!" the thug-faced crewman yelled back. "This brat threw a grenade at me!"
"Huuuh?" Gokudera drew out, like a true punk. "What are you talking about? You see any grenades? How would a kid get something like that? See, this man is completely delusional. He was practically threatening to beat this kid up."
"A grenade is rather far-fetched," Ichiro, the captain's assistant, agreed, pushing up his glasses. "It's just the stress getting to Jiro. It must have been fireworks, but those are illegal as well."
"You see any fireworks? Don't go accusing us when you've got no evidence!" Gokudera sneered.
"We also have a witness," Ichiro pressed on, gesturing to one of the waitstaff, a young man with stylish long hair. "Saburo here saw you two in the casino, skulking around near the emergency exit. You must have used it to escape after you stole from the passengers."
The passengers, who had been confined to the casino, began to shift agitatedly, murmuring to each other. It felt like having a growing mob at their backs.
"Now, confess! What did you do with their belongings?" Ichiro continued whipping the crowd into a frenzy.
"We haven't done anything-!" Gokudera insisted, though it was clear the tide had turned against him. Between him and Tsuna, Lambo sniffled. It was probably for the best that he was still too distraught to say anything.
Tsuna had been watching Ichiro and the crewman, Jiro, something about the pair bothering him. As his gaze shifted to Saburo, it all slid into place, and he sighed in annoyance.
"Why did you assume that the thief is a stowaway?" Tsuna asked, his clear voice cutting through Gokudera's protests and the crowds murmuring.
Ichiro gaped for a moment, thrown off by the questions. Recovering, he smirked and pushed up his glasses. "Are you accusing one of our passengers? How shameful!"
"What makes you think it's a passenger?" Tsuna asked again, his cool gaze making Ichiro twitch. "For a job like this, it would be easier to act as part of the crew, with access to more areas and able to come and go as they please. A server, for example."
His gaze turned on Saburo, who gulped. "W-what are you saying? There's no way we'd miss a stowaway pretending to be one of us!" he insisted.
"You're the one who's assuming the thief is a stowaway," Tsuna said, his eyes narrowing.
"Of course it must be a stowaway!" Ichiro said. "No member of our crew would do something like that."
"Then you won't have any problem proving it," Tsuna said decisively. "Empty out your pockets. You've got nothing to hide, right? You can go first... Saburo, wasn't it?"
Tsuna already knew he wouldn't. The bulge in his pockets was telltale.
"What? Why should I? You're the one who's under suspicion here!" Saburo snapped, already swearing heavily.
'Amateur,' Tsuna thought, huffing. Keeping his expression impassive, he didn't hesitate to stand up and turn out his pockets. They were empty, of course. He'd stashed his small cache along the way.
Following his lead, Gokudera did the same. Fortunately, he didn't keep his dynamite in his pockets anyway, and Tsuna had swiped his wallet and lighter earlier, so all that came up was a collapsible pocket telescope and a couple of grape candies.
At Tsuna's blank look, Gokudera shrugged. It kept the cow brat quiet, at least for a short while.
Tsuna had been ready to press Saburo again, but he didn't need to. Instead, one of the other waiters nudged him. "Man, just do it," he hissed to Saburo. "No one's gonna care if you were sneaking a cigarette or something."
"Come on, hurry up," someone else agreed, showing Saburo into the open circle around Tsuna, Gokudera and Lambo. He was one of the defendants now.
"This is ridiculous!" Saburo yelled. "Are you really going to believe these criminals?!" He looked around frantically, searching for support, but all the eyes on him were impatient and growing suspicious. The crowd was beginning to whisper again.
Ichiro and Jiro both tensed, Tsuna noted, as Saburo reached his breaking point, about to try to run at any moment.
Tsuna didn't let him, stepping forward and reaching into his pocket. Even as Saburo squawked in protest, Tsuna pulled out a diamond pendant and a pearl necklace. He held the jewels up to the light, letting the crowd see.
"My pearls!"
"My diamonds!"
Pulling away from Tsuna, Saburo turned desperately to Jiro, then Ichiro.
"T-that is unfortunate," Ichiro said, swallowing heavily. "But it doesn't change the fact that you're stowaways and have no right to be on this ship."
"According to what, the passenger manifest you altered?" Tsuna said, crossing his arms.
"That's a heavy accusation!" Ichiro protested.
"Weren't you the one who got him this job?" Tsuna asked, pointing at Saburo. He was just guessing, but judging by the way Ichiro winced and the captain's eyes narrowed, he had been entirely right. "You alter records to have them pose as part of the crew, and when the thefts are discovered, you him find some scapegoat to blame everything on!" Tsuna pointed to Jiro, who scowled and raised his fists threateningly.
"That's preposterous!" Ichiro yelled. "Captain, you can't possibly believe this nonsense!"
"Whether I believe it or not isn't important, Ichiro," the captain said, sighing. "Saburo was caught stealing. We have to investigate properly. Call up the home office and have them send a new copy of everything, including the passenger manifest and the crew records." He paused, then added, "And for any outstanding warrants for thieves matching their description."
Until that last point, they had managed to keep their cool. But the captain's last remark - probably a bluff - made Saburo and Jiro snap. The younger thief tried to run, while the older thug tried to attack.
Neither was successful. Slipping his foot between Saburo's ankles, Tsuna sent him tripping to the carpeted floor. At the same time, Gokudera easily grabbed the fist Jiro tried to plant in the nearest crewman's face and twisted it harshly behind him back.
Only Ichiro was left standing among the thieves, shaking with both anger and fear.
"Well, I'm glad the truth came out so neatly," the captain commented blandly, gesturing for the security guards to take the three men away. Stroking his beard, he turned his gaze on the three stowaways instead. "Now, about you..."
Gokuder and Tsuna exchanged a look. In the euphoria of dealing out justice, they had forgotten about their own position.
The captain smiled suddenly. "I deeply apologize for the inconvenience, dear passengers," he said lightly. "Naturally, we will upgrade you to our special suite."
"Captain, we still haven't confirmed their identities," one of the other crew members said. "It'll take some time to hear from the home office..."
"There's no need for that," the captain said, waving away the protests. "These people were not only wrongfully accused, but also helped us discover the real culprits. Doubting them now would be beyond disrespectful, wouldn't you say?"
The look he gave Tsuna from under his bushy eyebrows was knowing, but also understanding. Tsuna smiled back. 'All's well that ends well, after all.'
~.~.~
However, there was one issue that had unfortunately not neatly resolved itself.
Leaving Lambo to sulk in their new suite - he wasn't even close to forgiving Tsuna yet - they wandered out onto the large private balcony.
It was almost dawn, the sky beginning to lighten just beyond the horizon.
Tsuna sighed. He could feel Gokudera's presence next to him, but he only looked away, keeping his back to the Phantom Thief's number one supporter.
More than anything, he hated confrontations. It didn't matter who won or who came out on top. In the process, something would be lost and everyone would get hurt. In the end, Tsuna had avoided his father precisely because of that. Whatever his father said or did, Tsuna knew that their peaceful facade of "family" would be ripped away the moment Tsuna confronted him.
He always dealt with his problems by running. But now there was no where to run.
"Kaitou-sama, I won't leave," Gokudera declared without preamble. His approach was the exact opposite - take the lead and turn it to your advantage. "I'll follow you anywhere. I want to stay by your side, even if it means putting my life on the line. Even if it means I might die. That's my decision."
Tsuna cringed away, understanding what Gokudera didn't say - there was no way to change his mind.
"...I'm just a thief," Tsuna said quietly. "I can run and hide, better than anyone. I learned how to keep myself from getting hurt. But the truth is, I'm not strong. I'm not strong enough to be someone who protects."
"Kaitou-sama," Gokudera tried to say, but Tsuna shook his head sharply.
"You think of me as your boss, don't you? But I'm not like that," he said. Not a leader, not strong, not someone to look up to. Tsuna wasn't anything like a boss should be, no matter what Vongola's Ring tried to claim. "You said we're Family, but... Gokudera, the Phantom Thief isn't part of the mafia. He has no Family."
Gokudera might have followed the Phantom Thief, but that was all he could ever be - a follower. Whether a fan or a pursuer, everyone could only follow the Phantom Thief as he dashed off alone, unbound by anyone or anything.
It was a fantastical, unreal existence.
Tsuna stared out into the distance, where the boundary of sea and sky blurred into one. He tried not to imagine the sort of expression he'd see if he turned around. Gokudera couldn't seem to find the words to protest, but Tsuna could feel unspoken plea pressing against his back.
'Don't leave me,' it seemed to say. 'We're Family.'
Tsuna sighed, but a smile slowly formed across his lips. 'Haaa… I guess in the end I'm still number one least able to refuse a request,' he thought. 'Well, it's probably for the best.'
"But you know, the Phantom Thief has disappeared forever," Tsuna mused.
Reaching up, he pulled off the thick glasses he had worn as part of his disguise.
Turning to Gokudera, he said, "My name is Sawada Tsunayoshi. Call me Tsuna, okay?"
~.~.~
EDIT: 1/25/2014 Rewrote the entire middle portion, hahaha.
Notes
Q: Wait, the Ninth figured it out?
A: Yes, he did. Reborn didn't have all the pieces, in particular the knowledge that Iemitsu's son was missing, so he couldn't quite make the connection, but Nono was able to guess it once he took a step back and thought about it. (Which he probably should have done earlier, but…)
Thanks for the great response to last chapter! I think most people expected something different from this chapter, haha. But next chapter will actually be what everyone has been waiting for, Namimori! Neither big nor small, Nami is the best!
~.~.~
Next time: Yamamoto Takeshi
~.~.~
