Masako nearly had a heart attack when she met Gene...mostly because Naru was off on a quiet date with Mai (with Mukuro acting as chaperon/deterrent for their co-workers) and he was alone in the office playing cat's cradle with Fuuta.
The mere fact he was openly smiling was enough to make her almost faint.
"Naru?"
Gene blinked and turned to face the shocked medium.
"Naru's out of the office. Did you need something or have a real case?" he asked.
"If you're not Naru, then..."
Gene grinned.
"I believe Mai called me 'Yuu-chan' a few times before. I know she mentioned me to the team."
Masako stared at him in disbelief.
"You're 'Yuu-chan'?" she said in shock. He looked identical to Naru, minus a few things...like the fact he wasn't wearing all black.
Though Gene had tricked Naru into wearing a dark violet shirt for his date. Mai certainly seemed to like the color on him.
"Well it's not entirely Mai's fault that my name happens to sound very similar to the Japanese word for 'friend'. I'm Eugene, Naru's much friendlier brother."
Seeing the brief hope spark in Masako's eyes, Gene was quick to give that potential for disaster a painless death.
"Before you say anything, I am really not happy you blackmailed Noll into those fake dates and I've been staying with Mai for months. To say nothing of the fact that I've been helping her develop her powers since the first case she helped on."
Translation: You may have gotten away with bothering Naru for fake dates, but he wasn't going to let her silly crush transfer to him instead. Oh, and he liked Mai better.
Masako huffed.
"I wonder how the others will react if they knew who he really was."
Gene almost glared at her.
"Actually Monk was rather annoyed Noll didn't say anything when you were dealing with that fake. Especially when he figured out what our real names were when I introduced myself."
The fact he continued to treat Noll as "Naru" rather than the famous Oliver Davis won him a lot of brownie points with his brother. It was hard to act like a fan boy when you had been working so closely with the person you admired enough to know their faults.
It didn't hurt that Gene dropped the bomb that the Davis twins were willing to share the same girl the same day.
"What?" said Masako in shock.
"Monk and the others figured out who Noll was, and they agreed to keep their silence. Like Mai said when they found out... Naru is Naru. They could understand his desire to do his job without having to prove he's the real thing since he's so famous in the psychic community," shrugged Gene.
Masako realized her only 'leverage' on Naru, or rather Oliver Davis, had crumbled into dust.
Though it would only be later that she realized that if she actually cared for him as a friend, she wouldn't have used such underhanded tactics to force him into situations he hated in the first place.
Masako left without a word, obviously shaken by the encounter...and more than a little miffed that Mai had succeeded where she had failed.
Gene was already texting Mai and Noll about the incident. Hopefully Masako would finally drop her silly crush on his brother at last.
He was just glad he got to see Mai in that dress before they left. That and she had easily accepted the idea of sharing the two of them.
To be honest, she had dreaded the day she'd have to chose one of them over the other. So the idea of sharing was a welcome one, even if it was going to take a while to work out the kinks.
Namely which areas would actually hold Naru's interest, since she had no desire to drag him to the same areas Masako had and dredge up bad memories of those fake dates.
Gene was easily. Unlike Naru he enjoyed crowds and movies. The last date they had was to an amusement park, where they had a lot of fun spending the day.
Ayako had a lot of fun helping Mai update her wardrobe. She was such a tiny thing that most of her clothes from middle school still fit, and she didn't really shop for things like that much.
At least, not until Gene and the others started living with her. Though Gene was staying with his brother now. After the way he disappeared, Naru was forcing his twin to share a room with him, though they had separate beds.
Mai had a headache, and it's name was Dino Cavallone, tenth boss of the Cavallone Familigia in Italy.
"Explain to me why you came here and specifically asked to see the legal guardian of Fuuta de la Stella. If you try anything like the last bunch of idiots who attempted to kidnap him for his gifts then Mukuro has free reign to do what he wants with you. And he hates mafioso."
Mukuro took the role as the part-time bodyguard of the Ranking Prince with great glee.
Mainly because anyone stupid enough to try and take him from Mai's custody by force was going to end up very dead in short order, with her full blessing so long as Fuuta didn't see what he did with the idiots.
"I want to pay the Ranking... I mean Fuuta for his help clearing out people who don't care about civilian casualties. They've been passing out guns to people who really don't need them and there are a lot of unnecessary funerals because of it."
Mai stared at him, gauging his words. He was telling the truth.
"Help how?"
"I need a ranking of their strongest fighters. That's all," said Dino quickly. He looked green at the idea of having a child help fight.
Mai once again tested it against her personal bullshit meter. He came up clean, for a mafioso.
"Fine, I can take you to the office where Fuuta spends most of the day. We generally don't mess with the whole 'ranking' thing since Naru's been trying to train Fuuta out of levitating everything when he uses his clairvoyance," said Mai. Then she pointed a finger at Dino, surprising him. "But! You can't bring a ton of people with you. I'll allow one or two, but that's it!"
Dino stared at her for a second, before he started chuckling.
"Fair enough."
Naru certainly didn't like it, but he agreed to stay silent since Fuuta wasn't surprised in the least by the request. At least this person was polite about it and hadn't tried to outright kidnap him. Again.
Fuuta wrote down the rankings and handed it to Dino, who gently ruffled his hair.
"Thanks."
It was as he was leaving that he left a rather odd and cryptic message for Mai and the others.
"You know you should really train your Flames. Either that or learn to hide them, otherwise a lot of people will be after you and your Guardians," he commented.
"...What?" she said baffled.
Dino stared at her.
"Your Dying Will Flames. They're leaking all over the place and I could sense you halfway from the house and that was before my men told me you were almost there," said Dino. "And while I can tell your Guardians are powerful, the only one who looks like he has any idea how to use them properly is your Mist with the duo-colored eyes."
Mai looked completely baffled at the comment. Naru wasn't much better.
Though she had no idea that the one visit from the Cavallone don would lead to her old life catching up to her that much sooner. Or that she would have a confrontation with someone she would rather avoid.
Fon was on a rather unusual mission and since there was minimal risk of actual fighting, he was bringing his apprentice with him.
Kyouya had a friend, or at the very least an ally, who had asked him to keep an eye on a rather large mess in Namimori for her while she set up shop in another district entirely.
Kyouya had been...annoyed...to say the least that one of his small animals had to flee his territory because of something he had failed to account for. To be fair, Kyouya had never come across a Mist as cold as this before.
Fon's face frowned slightly.
His colleague Reborn had been called in to train the Decimo candidate, only to discover that he was missing several pieces of vital information.
Namely that the "heir" in question wasn't qualified to take the Decimo title in the first place. It wasn't the bloodline that was the problem, but their flames.
A Mist could not hold together the familigia, especially one that didn't give a damn about family, blood related or not.
Reborn had been properly horrified upon learning his new "student" had deliberately and knowingly erased the memory of his older sister, the true heir of the Vongola who had been sealed when she was a child. The girl had done the smart thing and left town, rather than stay in such a caustic environment. And she had done so with help, which left her practically untraceable by Reborn's sources.
Not surprising, considering Fon had been among those who helped the poor girl create a new identity.
Which was exactly where he was heading. He was one of three individuals who knew the new identity of the missing girl.
He had Lichi knock on the door, and once Mai adjusted where she was looking her face brightened.
"Fon-san! What brings you here, and with such an adorable apprentice to boot?"
I-Pin blushed, and tried to hide behind Fon. She wasn't entirely successful considering she was slightly bigger than he was.
"Hello again, Mai-chan. Mind if we come in?"
He noticed there was a distinct difference in her aura. She was much happier and he realized she was the source of all the Flames he had been sensing since he entered the neighborhood.
It didn't surprise him in the least to find that she was a powerful Sky. She was a Vongola after all, though in this instance he didn't think she was doing this deliberately. She was civilian raised, so odds were she had no idea what Flames even were.
Then he spotted several people he certainly didn't expect to see. Mukuro Rokudo and his two minions and the missing Ranking Prince. Who apparently wasn't missing at all. He looked rather content and at home in this place.
Mukuro took one look at him and stiffened.
"Arcobaleno," he hissed. He winced at the look Mai shot him.
"Fon is a friend of mine, through someone who helped me leave a bad situation. So behave or I'll have Chikusa and Ken deal with the next batch of idiots and force you to babysit Gene."
"You wouldn't dare!" he glared at her.
"Try me."
Mukuro actually pouted. It wasn't that he hated Gene, but more that the idiot always seemed to be so damn cheerful.
Fon stared at Mukuro for a long moment.
"You know about the mafia."
"I know it exists, but that's as far as my interest goes," agreed Mai. "So long as you don't bring your 'work' here, you're welcome to stay as long as you like. It's not like it has anything to do with me."
Fon debated his choices, but considering Reborn had been sent to train the Decimo heir... it was probably best to warn her now.
"Quite the opposite, in fact. Especially since you're leaking pure Sky Flames of unusual purity. I'm surprised the Vindice haven't come by to warn you already."
"I think the Vindice were more surprised to have a mere civilian tell them off about arresting me for defending the Ranking Prince from the Todd familigia, on top of telling them that they legally had nothing to hold us on considering why I killed off those two familigias," said Mukuro dryly, sipping coffee.
Fon looked at him hard.
"What."
"They showed up after I dealt with the Todd familigia goons trying to reclaim Fuuta, and Mai told me to get rid of them while leaving the methods up to me. They showed up immediately after and Mai came out and told them to back off, considering they had nothing to hold me on. The first two familigias I took out were allowed on the grounds of self defense and the fact I wasn't mentally culpable since we were taken in by yet another mafia family after just escaping one who tortured and experimented on us. As for the goons... well, I was following orders," said Mukuro matter-of-fact.
According to Jager, the Vindice who arrived a month later to inform Mukuro that they wouldn't arrest him "for now", but that any further infractions would drag him, his minions and his Sky into a very long stay in Vindicare.
He was just happy that he was free and clear of his so-called crimes, and that Mai didn't mind taking them in. It was the closest thing to home they had ever had, and they weren't going to mess it up.
Fon rubbed his eyes tiredly.
"You've really stepped into a mess now Mai. Any chance of arguing your civilian status to the Cosa Nostra died with that stunt. Especially since I'm only assuming you took legal custody of the Ranking Prince as well."
"It's not like she was born into it, right?" joked Ken.
Dead silence.
"Right?" he almost pleaded. He didn't want to go back to that world.
"I'm afraid it's worse. A colleague of mine with a similar condition has been sent specifically to train the next heir of the Vongola familigia since their last one died. Right now he's playing with your younger brother, but he is actively looking for you. It's only because we hid your tracks so thoroughly that he hasn't found you yet."
Mai groaned and lightly banged her head against the table.
"I am not moving back to Namimori. My life is here and if he doesn't like it then he can move," she said flatly. She wasn't leaving SPR, her friends or her home just because another "baby" demanded she return.
That girl died the day she left that town at the tender age of fourteen.
Fon's frown was more pronounced.
"Considering the mess he created with that stunt of his, it's highly likely he'd simply move into here rather than force you back. Especially since we still can't find a way to reverse what he did. In any case, it seems I'll be staying here a while. I could feel your Flames long before I even reached the house. It's a miracle no one else has picked up on it."
"Someone already did. The don of the Cavallone familigia showed up to buy rankings from Fuuta two weeks ago and commented on how he could sense Mai long before he actually saw her," said Mukuro dryly.
Fon had a pained look on his face.
"Then expect Reborn to show up even sooner, because I have no doubt Dino will mention seeing you here when he inevitably visits his old tutor," said Fon.
I-Pin tugged her teacher's sleeve. She said something low in Chinese.
Mai had a look of sympathy on her face.
"The bathroom is down the hall and to the left," she replied. Fon translated, before he gave her an odd look.
"Since when do you speak Chinese?"
"I don't. But there are some facial expressions that are almost universal," she replied. She looked to Chikusa. "Could you grab some of the square pillows from the closet, at least six of them? That way they can eat and not have to suffer the indignity of a baby chair."
Chikusa nodded, as silent as ever. Mai was one of the few people who could translate what he was trying to say without having him to speak. And she let him get away with not talking for days at a time, and even introduced him to Lin. The two of them got along rather well, to the point Lin was teaching Chikusa how to operate and maintain their equipment.
I-Pin seemed to warm up considerably during dinner. The home didn't seem as intimidating as it had when she arrived, especially since the nice older girl who owned it treated her teacher with more respect than most did.
