Chapter 9
You'll look back and see.
It was the sun coming through her windows, along with the Sun coming through her door, that woke Luce up the next morning.
"You know the punishment."
She sits up and sighs. This happened every time she disappeared on them without warning. It wasn't too common an occurrence, but it was common enough to be noted and have a punishment created. Trying not to be obvious, she looks at her windows- damn, they're shut and locked. The door? No, too late, Reborn's already coming straight at her. Without a care for the baby, Reborn grabs Luce and hefts her over his shoulder. Luce smiles down at the baby, who had woken upon Reborn's arrival, and sadly waved to him. Looking confused, the baby shook his arm in an attempt of a wave back. Reborn exits the room and carries her downstairs.
Peeking his head around the corner, Fon shakes his head at the way the baby has been ignored. Picking the baby up, he carries it downstairs too, before making it a bottle of milk.
Tsunayoshi looks around the room, clearly not having a clue what's going on, nor how he should react. In fact, Tsunayoshi wondered if Luce was going to sleep again since they had 'wrapped' her up. Whenever they got covered, the people around him fell asleep. Whenever someone placed a cover on him, they expected him to sleep too. Tsunayoshi didn't mind since the cover was soft and comfortable, but Mamma Luce didn't look like she wanted to go to sleep; they'd only just woken up.
Tsunayoshi looks up as Reborn approaches, keeping a tight hold on Cosmo. Giving the squirrel over to Tsunayoshi, he gives the baby a stern look and says, "Keep hold of it until tell you to let go." The baby doesn't understand, but is more than willing to hold onto the animal. It's soft and fluffy after all.
The rest of the Arcobaleno do nothing to help their Boss. Instead they just wonder at the smirk Reborn gives Luce. It seems as if Reborn was going to enjoy this. Reborn kneels down next to Fon, getting on the same level as Tsunayoshi. Putting a large hand on the small shoulder, Tsunayoshi looks away from the squirrel to the Hitman. "See Luce?" Reborn asks, pointing to the woman. "Luce's been very bad." Tsunayoshi looks at the woman, tiny mouth open in shock. Even if he didn't understand the words, he knew the tone and atmosphere. Mamma Luce was in trouble. "She's been very very bad, so we need to punish her."
Luce couldn't stand to look at Tsunayoshi as he slowly tears up and starts to cry. She would turn away if she could, but Reborn had made sure that she couldn't. This was certainly the harshest punishment yet, and maybe the most unusual too. Now the other Arcobaleno understand Reborn's smirk from earlier, and the Hitman was indeed enjoying the look of anguish appearing on his Boss's face.
But what was even worse was that Tsunayoshi was holding Cosmo. And the squirrel looked upset too! Two of her most important (and cutest) people were crying. She couldn't bear to see that anymore.
When Reborn deemed that she had been punished enough, he stood, taking back custody of the squirrel. He looked at the other Arcobaleno around him, then at Luce. She didn't like the look on his face, it promised that more evil was to come. What did he have planned?
He walks to the door, opening it, and leans against the door frame. "Continue as usual," he says to them, before smiling that evil smile of his and leaving. Luce's eyes widen in shock. Not the usual punishment on top! Wasn't making her watch a crying baby enough?
The usual punishment consisted of Luce being tied to a chair- which she was already- and being fed food she didn't like. After that, she was ignored the whole day. No one was allowed to talk to her. She wouldn't get any visitors, no phone calls outside, nothing. And being the social person she was, it was very hard for her to be ignored. She had also found out that if she decided to talk to the others, or even herself since she was her only company, then Reborn would come in and gag her to shut her up. The silence was horrible to Luce. They tied her to a chair for two reasons. Firstly was so that she couldn't escape the punishment. Second was so that she couldn't move around and help the others. It made her happy to make breakfast for the others, to help them if they needed it, or to help any of the other residents of Mafia Row. Yet tied to the chair she couldn't. She couldn't lift one finger to help anyone. And doing nothing was boring. She wasn't one to sit around doing nothing.
So much for being the Boss. Didn't being the Boss mean that the others couldn't punish her like this? See if she made them breakfast again.
Like Reborn had ordered, after eating, they had all left and ignored her. Since no one seemed interested in keeping the baby today, Fon decided that he would keep it. Walking outside, he went in a different direction than Skull's warehouse. It was quite a walk to where he wanted to go, but the peace and quiet was worth it. By the time he reached his destination, no sound of civilisation could be heard. Just the birds, the river and even the sea if he listened hard enough.
Putting the baby and the carrier down (Luce had brought it yesterday) and in the shade, Fon takes a few minutes to prepare himself. He gives all of his muscles a stretch, removing any remnants of sleep left. Jumping across the river, he lands on a rock near the middle. Crossing his legs, he's about to start meditating when Tsunayoshi starts to create a fuss. The baby stops crying as soon as Fon's head and smile appear in his vision. Gurgling happily, Tsunayoshi reaches up to Fon, wanting to be included too. Deciding it couldn't hurt, Fon takes the baby out of the carrier and returns to his position.
"Tsunayoshi, this is called meditating. You sit and listen to the world around you, whilst being as still and quiet as you can. It gives you time to reflect on the world around you, and helps you find yourself and your centre. Can you do that?" The child looks up with those huge brown eyes and places a hand over his mouth, imitating the gesture they use to tell him to be quiet. Fon smiles in agreement, before raising his head and closing his eyes.
To his amazement, the baby doesn't make another sound, but just wriggles to get comfortable and doesn't move again. With Lichi on his head and Tsunayoshi on his lap, Fon finds it quiet comfortable.
It's hard to think that this child has such a sad past when he's so happy all of the time. The rest could use him as an example. Not that I'm any different, but I've already learnt that lesson. I learnt it a long time ago. I hope that Tsunayoshi stays like this when he learns what the rest of the Island is like. But if he can stand living with us and not change, then I'm sure that he'll be fine. He may even teach those Mafioso a lesson.
But what am I even talking about. He's only a child. I can't place such high hopes on him. He's got to survive growing up first.
Opening his eyes, he finds that it's close to noon. Had he really been thinking that long? He had gotten carried away with those dreams of his. Stretching once more, he finds that the baby is still awake. Seeing that Fon has opened his eyes, Tsunayoshi takes that as a cue to talk again. He places his hands on his stomach and starts crying. However, Fon has a pretty good idea what's wrong this time. He had found that Tsunayoshi's crying was like clockwork. He could set his watch by it. It was lunchtime, therefore Tsunayoshi wanted to be changed, eat and sleep. After the nap, he'd want to play. So jumping from his rock across to the river bank, he sets about pleasing the small child. And just like he predicted, as soon as the baby was cared for, he fell asleep. Fon left him in the carrier, under the shade of a tree, with Lichi keeping watch.
It was time for the next part of his routine- his martial arts practice. Settling into his stance, he begins the swings, thrusts, punches and kicks that have been trained into him until they are as natural as breathing. There's something soothing to just letting his body take over and lead the way. It's not until he hears a happy giggle that he realises that Tsunayoshi is awake once again. That means that another two hours had passed.
"Do you like that?" he asks the boy. Tsunayoshi claps his hands whilst cheering, giving a definite yes. Fon smiles and does a few of the flashier moves, ones involving spins and flips. Tsunayoshi gets even more excited, almost getting out of the carrier. "No stay there. I don't want you to get hurt by accident." The baby seems to understand and sits back down, still cheering away.
Fon spends the rest of the afternoon like this, entertaining the baby with more complex patterns and chains of moves. It's all good training after all.
Everyone is in the living room after dinner when Fon asks, "Tsunayoshi, we are going to bed now. Who do you want to sleep with tonight?" The baby looks around the room, before pointing in a direction that none of them are in. Reborn narrows his eyes.
"How did you know?" The baby just glares back at Reborn and punches his hand in that direction again. Reborn smiles and bursts out laughing, "Well you got me. Well done." He gets up and walks in that direction.
"What are you talking about, kora?" asks Colonnello, just as confused as the rest are. All is explained when Reborn reaches the utility cupboard and opens it, revealing Luce, still tied to the chair and gaged. She glares at him and the temperature in the door drops a few degrees. It wasn't a good idea to make her mad.
"I moved her to a different place when none of you were looking. It was an extra punishment for taking the child with her when she disappeared. But it seems as if Tsunayoshi saw right through me." They all look at the baby, who just seems happy that Luce is no longer in the closet. Yawning, he grabs Fon's robe and curls up to sleep, showing his preference for tonight. The others just shrug it off as mere coincidence, whilst Verde scribbles furiously in his little book. There could only be so many coincidences and acts of amazing judgement like this. Something must be up.
Phantom Hitman 1412
First Published 31 March 2012.
Edited: 27 February 2013
