"Mu. It sounds like the boys have having fun," said Mammon. Tsunami was nothing like her idiot father, and when questions about Iemitsu immediately and vehemently denied any relationship with her "imbecilic genetic donor". Clearly there was no love lost between the girl and her 'father'.
The girl had a dry wit that Mammon could appreciate, and the two got along rather well. Mostly because Tsunami admitted to supplementing her meager allowance with high-stakes gambling, which she then turned around and used to make even bigger investments. She abused her Vongola Intuition shamelessly to make large profits, and do the same for her friends.
The second Mammon saw what she had in even one of her stock portfolios, she gained the Mist's immediate respect.
The two of them cheerfully talked shop while making their way into the mansion right behind Yusuke and the others. It wouldn't do for them to be noticed before Yusuke's distraction took their full and undivided attention.
The quartet breached the side door unnoticed, and Kurama was happily stealing anything that even looked remotely worth the time and effort. He had already agreed to split the profits forty-sixty with Mammon once they fenced the stolen goods (Mammon got an extra ten for selling it and 'holding' everything in a Mist-pocket).
Needless to say, Kurama was having a very good time despite the seriousness of the mission.
"I know, right? At least they'll take the brunt of the idiots and we can get Yukina in peace," said Tsunami, under a minor disguise.
Odds were that she'd only be recognized if she went in as she normally dressed. And as a Sky who was still gathering her guardians, the last thing she needed was for the underworld to take notice of her.
Mostly because it would alert the Vongola that the Heiress they had more or less cast out was back in play again. She refused to be married off just because she wasn't the main heir!
Mammon agreed to keep their silence on who she was for one reason only.
Tsunami technically had a stronger claim on the title of Vongola Decimo than their boss Xanxus. If she could build a power base on her own, then it was likely she wouldn't try to take the title and Xanxus could claim the rings himself, thus making her a potential ally later.
Right now Tsunami had put some black streaks in her hair, and was wearing a rather interesting outfit. She also had some tiger ears that twitched and a long tail wrapped around her waist like a belt (courtesy of Mammon who merely made Chrome's own fledgling illusions a bit more realistic... depending on how the mission went, Tsunami would likely pay Mammon for a few lessons for her sister's sake). Her coloring was mostly orange with a few streaks of the six other colors that made up the Flames of the Sky.
To be honest it looked like a rather conservative belly dancer's outfit...considering the top covered a bit more of her cleavage than the real ones did. The skirt still flared out, allowing her free range of movement and ended at the ankles.
Kurama very much appreciated the view it gave, since it actually empathized his girlfriend's growing curves rather than hid them as most of her clothes did. He got a very nice view of her back side and he could actually see more of the bust that she generally hid because she felt they were too small.
Years of having to deal with the sniping of the other girls who all claimed she was too "boyish" to attract a guy on top of the general mocking had completely wrecked her self esteem as a female.
Being a shape shifter by nature, Kurama honestly didn't care how big they were. He could turn into a woman of any general shape and size, so to him she was just perfect. He preferred personality over appearance.
In reality Tsunami apparently took after her "great-grandmother", who was in reality her many times great cousin Daniela, the last and only female Donna of the Vongola familigia. Mammon only had to imagine Tsunami with the same ebony black hair rather than the caramel-colored one she was born with to see the strong resemblance.
She might be the Primo's descendant, but the Mist had no doubt that she took entirely after Daniela. Xanxus would probably enjoy meeting her, since the girl had started to develop a proper backbone and wasn't afraid to go for the killing shot...at least when demons were concerned anyway. She had yet to kill her first human.
Hiei was decidedly murderous when he saw the place his sister had been kept in. those talismans would cause pain to demons, especially ice-elements like his sister.
He looked to the Mist.
"I will owe you one favor if you make that bastard's death extra painful and agonizing."
Mammon thought the offer over, before looking at Kurama and an idea forming in their head. Quick calculations passed through their mind and a smirk appeared.
"I'll trade you one agonizingly slow and painful death in exchange for you and your group helping to liberate our Sky. That bastard has no right to keep him frozen in that damn basement and it's already been seven years since we lost him."
"And if we get caught, then it won't be tied back to you," said Kurama dryly.
"You catch on fast," said Mammon.
"Hang on... who has your Sky in their basement and why is he there in the first place and not 'iced' in the traditional sense?" asked Tsunami.
"His adopted father put him through a technique we were unaware of when he went to confront him and deal with a large number of rats in the familigia at the same time. Our attack failed and he was turned into an ice cube, much to the joy of Iemitsu. As for why he wasn't simply killed... our best guess is that Timoteo didn't want to lose any more sons, even if he was adopted and not a bastard like everyone was told."
"So basically we'd get a favor from your boss for getting him out and possibly unfreezing him and piss off that idiots who put that Flame Seal on me. Hell, I'm in," said Tsunami flatly.
"What."
"According to Reikai records, the Ninth Vongola boss sealed me when I went Active at the age of five at the request of my genetic donor. I don't need to say there's absolutely no love lost between me and those idiots for making my childhood a living hell, now do I?" said Tsunami.
Mammon mentally upgraded her assessment that the boss 'might' like his cousin to a near certainty.
And if Tsunami was caught, then odds were they wouldn't kill her because she was one of the heirs and thus still valuable, if only to be married off. She could easily claim she wanted to get some payback for the seal.
"So we have an agreement?"
"We'll help you once we get Yukina settled in and make our way to Italy," agreed Tsunami. They shook on it.
Seeing the large stack of cash, Mammon smirked...in between taking most of it and letting Tsunami swipe the rest.
Hey, her boyfriend was a thief and she would be putting it to much better use than what this fat slob had.
And then they found Tarukane and his goons.
Mammon happily killed the humans, while Kurama and Tsunami removed Yukina from her own captors.
"Who... who are you?" she asked worriedly. It was hard to see Tsunami's face, considering half of it was covered by an orange veil that wasn't see-through.
"We're friends of your brother. He was very...unhappy...when he found out where you were being held against your will and he asked us to help get you back."
"You know my brother?" said Yukina hopeful.
Tsunami smiled and shared a look with Kurama. Hiei had asked them to keep the fact Yukina was his sister secret from her... but he never thought to ask the same of Nana.
"You have the same eyes. I'm sure Mama would love to have another girl my age to spoil, and she already adores him like a son. Besides, he paid the illusionist to make sure that the fat pig who hurt you gets what he has coming to him," said Tsunami.
"Too bad we didn't bring Kyouya with our group. He might have enjoyed gutting the man."
"He's playing with the fake demon. He's having enough fun as it is," said Tsunami dryly.
Kyouya, when alerted what they were doing, had opted to go with the "distraction" group since he would rather be causing damage instead of sneaking around. Even if he was good at it.
He was a very happy Cloud today. Takeshi and Ryohei were in Namimori keeping their civilians safe, so he knew things were well in hand.
And right now he was having a lot of fun trying to kill Toguro. He was already pissed when he saw the small canary-looking demon in that far too small cage.
Tsunami wasn't surprised when she later saw that same weaker bird demon nesting on Hibari a few days later... he was vicious enough to be a demon in his own right, despite being human. Hibird seemed rather happy with his new arrangement, even if it meant being the 'pet' of a human.
"Kurama, do you have any healing salves for these burns?" asked Tsunami, handling Yukina's wounds gently.
He handed over some of his potions and salves along with the bandages. It was a good thing he had brought them, just in case.
"Um... can you teach me how to make these?" asked Yukina quietly. From the way the nice girl had spoken of her brother, it was implied she was more than welcome to properly meet him as she had been trying to do when she was captured. Being a gentle soul Yukina hated hurting others, but she had a natural aptitude for healing...much like Chrome did.
She too, had asked Kurama for lessons the moment she learned he knew a very large and quite extensive variety of healing with plants and other home remedies.
"The idiot's dead, most of the cash I could find is under our possession and as far as the Black Book Club is concerned a 'Tora-Hime' has managed to secure the assistance of the current Spirit Detective in order to liberate his prized Koorime since her brother asked for a favor as her bodyguard," said Mammon.
"Mission success, let's grab the conquering heroes and get out of here. Coincidentally would the cash you just liberated cover lessons on how to use illusions? I have a girl who's good at the 'soft' application of Mist Flame but I have no idea who to ask that's actually competent."
"Considering you just netted me several million in yen, I could teach her how to use Mist Flames for a few weeks. Provided you acquire the 'item' we spoke of while I was teaching her," said Mammon.
"Deal," said Tsunami without hesitation.
Chrome was disheartened to learn she wouldn't be brought on another exciting adventure, but was reassured that once she was able to fight using illusions since her body was far too frail for physical combat (something that had Mammon sniffing... an illusionist should never use physical violence when their ability to warp reality as a whim was far more dangerous in their opinion) she would join the next one. The fact Yukina would be staying behind as well helped.
Ryohei would keep an eye on the 'home front', mostly by making sure no one took a pot shot at Nana or I-Pin. Kuwabara had chosen to help the boxer, mostly because he wanted a better chance to try and woo the rather pretty Yukina.
He claimed "love at first sight". Hiei declared the teen a complete idiot...while discreetly informing the rest of the group that he had noticed his twin sister having a thing for Kyouya.
He fully blamed the fact Kyouya had a soft spot for small animals and had even rescued the bird demon from Tarukane as the source of that crush.
Kyouya, Takeshi, Yusuke and the two demons would infiltrate the Vongola basements. Tsunami was naturally included in this group...since if they were caught they would have to rely on the fact she was one of the Vongola heirs and Iemitsu's daughter to keep from being killed outright.
Mammon helped them to get to Italy by loaning them the same Varia jet that had brought them. With Belphegor using his ID it was unlikely anyone would ask stupid questions.
As it was, Lussuria and Squalo had been quietly alerted by the Mist about the deal they made and would be waiting on standby to help retrieve the ice block that contained their boss. They weren't Varia Quality for nothing, and to be honest Kurama was rather curious to see if any of his Makai plants could help heal the damage that was almost certain to exist from being frozen for almost a decade.
Besides, Luss was all too happy to meet Tsunami the second he heard that she didn't mind dressing up so long as she got to have a say about the outfit. The fact she was Iemitsu's only daughter was more or less ignored... five minutes with the girl had proven she was nothing like her "genetic donor" as she would call him if questioned and was in fact more in line with the sadly now deceased Daniela Vongola, the previous head of the family.
Now they just needed to set a proper distraction in case they were noticed before they were able to reach Xanxus in the basement. It was better to sneak in and out, considering most had generally forgotten he was there, but you never knew.
(Hiei was designated as the distraction, as a green-skinned demon with multiple eyes and able to control people with his Jagan was attention getting enough and he was sneaky enough to be ignored before he was needed. He was also fast, so if he had to, he could reach the group within five minutes once he located them.)
