"It's a good thing that we have private helicopters, otherwise this would have been really awkward," said Daniela as she stared at the devestation of the Hanging Gardens falling apart.

She had taken a few rather spectacular pictures of the massive dragon that flew out carrying the Greater Grail.

In the helicopter was Jack, her Mother, Xanxus, Squalo, Belphegor, Mordred, and Atalanta. One of the Rain mooks was flying them away from the collapsing fortress.

The awkward part came from the fact that the Rider (Astolfo) was only able to carry two other people on his Hippogryff, and there wasn't enough room for their group. Then again, Xanxus had ordered a withdrawal once Sieg had shown up and hadn't bothered to stay and see who won their fight.

If Father Shirou won, then they would transcend the human form...which was his idea of "salvation".

If Sieg won, then the Hanging Gardens weren't likely to survive and it would be rather difficult to make it to the helicopter before everything went to hell and started falling apart. Fortunately Semiramis was 'kind' enough to let them land the machine on her fortress long enough to board and get off. They hovered around long enough to see who won, but Xanxus had made it clear he wasn't particularly interested in interfering. Besides, Shirou had already fulfilled his end of the deal by 'incarnating' Mordred, Atalanta and Jack so that they had physical bodies before making his own wish.

If he succeeded, they would end up back in the Throne of Heroes anyway, and if not then he had at least upheld his word.

On an unrelated note, Xanxus fully planned to make a trip to the graveyard where Shirou said his mother had been buried. It was in Fuyuki, where the Tohsaka burial grounds were. The fact it would allow him to meet Father Risei and deliver the letter of introduction to the son and grandson of the priest who had protected his great grandfather was just bonus.

First things first though...he needed to deal with the 'security leak' Mammon had discovered on accident. Fortunately it wouldn't be too difficult to replace the fucker.

As a side effect of being given an actual physical body, Mordred had accidentally awakened her Flames. Amazingly, she was a Cloudy Sky, though the Sky part of her flames was somewhat weak. It was likely a side effect of being Arthur's clone, though there was really no way to tell.

Mordred was just pleased with the explanation that the fact she had Sky flames meant that she had just as much right to rule as her 'father' did.

Jack, unsurprisingly, was a straight Mist and a rather strong one at that. Xanxus fully planned to throw her to the miser brat for training before letting her partner up with Belphegor. Atalanta had no interest in being an assassin, but agreed to act as 'security' for the castle so that there was always someone competent on watch.

Once it became known Xanxus wanted nothing to do with the Ninth's incompetence or Iemitsu's outright idiocy any longer, he had no doubt that they would have to deal with people trying to infiltrate or bring him down. He would rather have someone he trusted that he knew could never be bought off as part of security than trust in luck. As an Archer, Atalanta had superior senses and could take out any invading force solo before they had to do much.

The fact it allowed her to stay close to Xanxus while at the same time avoiding the craziness of the Varia was just bonus.


Dead silence. It took a few seconds to register the fact that the recently Named Mordred had just decapitated Ottabio in full view of everyone else, while her Cloud flames licked the edge of her sword.

"...Did the Boss' new girlfriend just kill that ass Ottabio?" asked one brave Mist in disbelief.

"About fucking time. That guy was a total prick!" said one of the Storms.

"Anyone got a problem with your new Cloud officer?" drawled Xanxus.

The rules were clear...if the one who killed the previous officer had the same Flame type and the right Quality, then they got to take their place as the new Officer. It was how Belphegor earned his place and it meant Xanxus wouldn't have to sift through the Clouds for someone suitable to take the traitor's place.

By the time dinner rolled around, the newly minted Cloud Officer Mordred was decked out in her uniform and was already making some of the mooks clean out Ottabio's quarters. All the paperwork was going straight to the Boss' office to be sorted through after Mammon accidentally discovered the possibility he was leaking information to Sawada.

It took a week, but Mordred soon settled into their new office and had already dealt with the rather poor challengers from their division. A few of the Clouds were soon parted from their heads, but an investigation after the fact by Squalo revealed they were also in on Ottabio's betrayal.

The thing that really rattled the mooks was the little girl that went by "Jack" that kept showing up to 'play' with Belphegor. The cackling those two let off were the stuff of nightmares, and the crimes scenes they left behind were often enough to leave even a seasoned assassin throw up.

Gradually, life in the Varia settled into a new norm.


Xanxus looked at the corpse of the man who had ordered his mother's death. He spat on it for good measure.

After confirming that this famiglia was behind his mother's death, Xanxus felt a strange sense of closure. Of course he would be heading to Japan later this month to visit her grave, and to meet the priest currently holding on to what was left of his ancestral inheritance, but for now he was just glad to have avenged his mother in some small way.

Just for good measure, Xanxus had made a point to let the Vindice know exactly why they were wiping out the famiglia without any prior authorization. Considering how low-ranked these morons were, their destruction was barely a blip on the underworld's unofficial "radar".

He could care less that it might make him look more like a feral dog about to bite his master's hand, which was what the Ninth generation (especially Iemitsu) kept portraying him as. His mother deserved justice, which was something any mafioso would be able to understand and approve of.

Xanxus walked into the mafia-owned hotel, washed off and spotted a familiar form on his bed.

Mordred had come with him, mostly so she could 'reward' him for avenging his mother and to help him relax after a massacre.

He smirked in a darkly possessive manner.

He wondered how his ancestors would react if they knew he had taken up with two Servants, rather than a Magus girl.

A few days later...

If Risei was surprised to see Xanxus, he made no sign of it.

"So my son is dead then," sighed Risei.

"He died with more dignity than most of us get in this life, and his faith in our Lord never faltered even in the end. He was merely a means for God to test our faith in humanity, and in the end God deemed humanity still worthy of his love," said Xanxus.

Risei inclined his head in approval.

"I am pleased that the Tohsaka line has been given new life, and that you are a devout son of our Lord," said Risei. "It would ease quite the burden having the proper Second Owner take over the reigns, even if you chose not to move back to your ancestral holding until after you retire."

"Would be difficult to move back with the old man watching me like a hawk. He wouldn't hesitate to harass me because of some weird notion that he has the ability to control me," said Xanxus. "That being said, I have no problem with continuing our relationship with the Executors and loaning some of our men in extermination hunts. The amount of whining I have to put up with whenever one of those comes up..."

Risei blinked.

"Do they not appreciate doing the Lord's work in cleansing foul abominations?"

Xanxus snorted.

"More like too many of them want to join in since they don't really have to worry about collateral damage and ghouls present a more interesting challenge than humans do."

Either way, the entire trip was rather productive, even if Daniela gave him the weirdest look when she realized that the older priest's son, who happened to be a very skilled Executioner, followed Xanxus home.

Kirei was strange, but not in a way Xanxus found disturbing. The man had a strange void in his life that he had spent years trying to deal with, to no luck...that is, until he saw Xanxus and Sky Attraction hit him hard.

As a compromise, since Xanxus really didn't think the Church would appreciate losing one of their best Executioners to the Mafia, no matter how devout they were, Kirei became the "official" priest for the Varia and the go-between for all 'cleansing' missions.

Which made a lot of bored assassins happy, because Xanxus had no doubt that once they temporarily cut themselves off from the Vongola's payroll, that the old fart would try to cut the missions available from the Alliance down in an effort to put the squeeze on them.

One of the perks to removing themselves from Vongola control was that they would only have to stay in-house for a month, before they were allowed to leave Vongola territory unhindered. After all, they owned the Varia jets and Mammon had been pre-warned about the move so that they could make the Varia self-sufficient enough to weather the storm until a new normal set in.


Tsunayoshi Sawada was a tiny kitten in a town that had clearly set itself against him for the most ridiculous of reasons. Xanxus couldn't help but feel an iota of empathy for the brat...being dragged into the mafia was likely to be an upgrade from his current situation, as sad as that was.

Atalanta had taken one look at the way he was being treated by not only the children, but any authority figure in his life, and had bristled in absolute fury. Even his own mother, which was the part that pissed the Archer off the most, treated him like he was 'no good'.

The fact the kid had latched on to the first show of actual kindness from a complete stranger said far too much. Atalanta didn't mind carrying the child, who had a death grip on her shirt but showed no actual fear towards her.

Even Daniela was frowning, which was saying a lot.

"This doesn't make any sense...why would an entire town turn against one little child to this extent?"

"Think you can give the kid a basic physical? Maybe something caused his flames to come out wrong," said Xanxus to Lussuria.

"Can do boss!" said the Okama cheerfully. He didn't try to extract the kid from Atalanta's hold, but a quick scan via his flames already had the Sun frowning.

Lussuria paused then tried again.

"Madam, would you be so kind as to perform a basic flame scan on the little one? I'm not sure I'm reading this correctly," said Lussuria to Daniela.

Daniela raised an eyebrow, but the second he humored him her eyebrows went upwards in absolute fury.

"Who the fuck put a flame seal on an Active child?!" she nearly shrieked.

"Is that what it was? I thought I was imagining it because it feels like the little kitten is going between inactive and active irregularly," said Luss.

"Both of you calm down...you're scaring her," said Atalanta sternly.

"Her?" said Xanxus, looking at the Archer. "You mean to tell me that fucker Iemitsu can't be bothered to get the gender of his own kid right?"

Daniela looked at a suitably freaked out little kid and asked gently in Japanese (everything else had been in Italian so the child wouldn't pick up any swearing) "What's your name sweetie?"

The kid in Atalanta's arms looked at Daniela for a moment, before deciding the odd auntie was trustworthy.

"Setsuna. But Mama calls me Tsu-kun," said the now apparent little girl.

"Just when I thought my estimation of that idiota couldn't fall any lower..." muttered Xanxus.

He knew Iemitsu was delusional as hell, but to mistake his kid's gender because he wanted a son instead of a daughter? That was a new low even Xanxus wouldn't have expected.

"If the kid is sealed, does that mean we have the evidence we need to cut off the old bastard?" asked Mordred. She was showing all sorts of interest in the kid, because she felt like a little lion cub and was all sorts of adorable.

Mordred had formed a very low opinion of Timoteo and Iemitsu on her own after the first...and so far only meeting of them. Apparently they wanted to restrict the Varia further and wanted to use the fact his new Cloud Officer was a woman against them.

If it wasn't for the fact that Xanxus had made it very clear upon his return that he was going to find evidence that would allow them to break away from the idiocy of the Ninth generation, half of the Varia would have happily gone on strike after hearing what they tried to pull.

Daniela stuck close to Atalanta, if only so she could dote on the tiny kitten who was in the other woman's arms. Even Mordred, who didn't particularly LIKE children, was showing some feminine interest in the kid.

It was a very surreal image.

Xanxus was busy chatting up Iemitsu's wife, who was suffering from depression so obvious that she had clearly made up a little world to live in that worked just enough with the real one that she could fake being happy. She wasn't oblivious in the least...Nana was suffering from outright denial and refused to acknowledge her daughter, who she apparently believed to be a boy, was suffering from bullying and straight up harassment from the adults and children around her.

Xanxus might not have liked his mother's profession, but at least when his Ma was lucid she never tried to hide behind a lie like this woman was. Even if he was still sore she had given him up for a better life, despite what a shitty father the old man turned out to be.

Mind made up, Xanxus allowed a wicked grin to cross his face.

"You're up to mischief, Xan-xan... What scheme do you have in mind?" asked Daniela in Italian. The woman clearly didn't understand it and the little girl only spoke Japanese.

"Imagine what chaos we could sow if we just happened to relocate these two to Italy and brought an...unfortunate...end to Iemitsu's bachelor lifestyle. He claims he cares about the Family, but he clearly doesn't give two shits about his own."

A slow, evil grin formed on Daniela's face.

"Yes...it would be tragic if he had to actually take responsibility he couldn't shove on someone else for once, wouldn't it? And this little one needs a proper role model to follow after..." said Daniela, with a speculative gleam on her face.

It was not his problem if his Nonna decided to mold Iemitsu's brat into a mini-version of herself. God knows he'd probably enjoy the fireworks of a second Daniela from the Primo's bloodline.

Mind made up, they took Setsuna with them to an 'accredited' (read: trustworthy and Vindice-enforced neutral) mafia hospital so they could record and find out who actually sealed the little girl before Daniela removed it.

She was not pleased to find out that her own son was the one who applied the seal...not only because little Setsuna was a powerful, active Sky who couldn't have possibly done anything to deserve such a nasty restriction on her soul, but also because the seal in question was never meant for Skies in the first place. Sure, it sealed the flames so that the person appeared latent or inactive, but it did shit for Sky attraction.

The poor kid was reaching out for any compatible Elements she could, to restore the balance of her harmony, but the seal kept any bonds from forming and drove anyone with flames that she was in regular contact with closer and closer to Discord because there was a Sky right there and they weren't allowed to bond.

They might not realize what was going on, but the situation was fairly obvious even to his inexperienced eyes and how the hell did Iemitsu miss this?

The worst part was that Namimori was an unofficial place for those with flames to retire and attempt to settle down into a civilian lifestyle, so there were plenty of Elements for the kid to bond with that would turn hostile without even noticing it.

The girl was really going to be better off living with Daniela. Especially now that Xanxus had actual evidence Iemitsu and the Ninth didn't have the family's best interest in heart if they were stupid enough to pull this sort of stunt.