Author's Notes: Timeline wise, this chapter takes place on the same day of the Sasagawa siblings' and Lambo, I-Pin, and Fuuta's rescue. In fact, it takes place right after both rescues take place. So the 'business' that Tsuna said he had to take care of? That's what he was referring to. Personally, I really enjoyed writing this chapter mainly because I got to write about Boss mode!Tsuna. And he's wearing a SUIT (spazzes). Of course, the interactions between all the allied Family bosses is very BOSS as well. Pun intended?
And to all of you who are asking about my cover: first of all, thanks for the compliments! Yes, this cover is something I made myself with my shoddy, nonexistent design skills. And if you wish to see a bigger picture of it, I have a link of it on my profile which will send you to my friend's Deviantart since I don't have an account of my own. Also, special shoutout to EK12 who made me some really epic fanart. Thank you so much—I'm so flattered! Follow the links on my profile to check it out!
Disclaimer: All the lovely characters in Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belong to the amazing Akira Amano. I do not own or claim to own anything.
Chapter 10: Meeting of the Allies
Tsuna adjusted the tie of his suit and schooled his expression. He took a deep breath, then pushed open the large double doors. Several pairs of eyes immediately locked onto him.
Nono smiled from his place at the head of the table. "We have been waiting for you, Vongola Decimo. The meeting was just about to begin."
Tsuna nodded and walked over to take his seat by Nono's right side. "I apologize for the delay, Nono," Tsuna began. "There was some business I had to take care of first."
Nono waved him off. "There's no harm done." Tsuna took his seat, filling the last empty space at the table. "Now," Nono declared in a loud voice. "I formally commence this meeting of the Vongola Family and its allies."
Tsuna threw a quick glance around him. Seated around the table were all the Bosses of the branch families and the main allies of Vongola—he could pick out Xanxus, Giotto, Dino, Luce, Enma, and even Byakuran among the occupants. There were, however, a few faces he did not recognize, like the man with the layered silver hair who gave Tsuna a brief smile when he caught Tsuna's stare.
"As you all know, the threat that the Disdetta Family is posing to the magic world has reached a critical level when they took out the Tomaso Family the other day. Even the Vindice is beginning to get involved at this point." Nono said gravely. "I called all of you here today because there is valuable information regarding the Disdetta that I wanted to share with you all." Nono gestured. "If you would please, Vittorio."
The silver-haired man that smiled at Tsuna earlier stood up. "Thank you, Nono. It's an honor to be here, everyone." He said smiling. "My name is Vittorio and I was previously the right-hand man of a small Family located in Italy." His face darkened. "I say 'previously' because just last week, my entire Family was wiped out by the Disdetta. I was the only one who managed to escape because my Boss covered for me."
"As you can see, Vittorio personally witnessed the powers of the Disdetta firsthand—he is one of the best sources to receive information from." Nono said. "Please share with us what you had managed to learn about the Disdetta, Vittorio."
"Of course, Nono. Several Disdetta Guardians attacked our base sometime late afternoon. Their magic..." The silver-haired man seemed to hesitate for a moment. "...was like nothing we had ever seen before. Just one Disdetta Guardian was strong enough to take on at least three regular Guardians by themself."
Giotto raised an eyebrow. "They are that strong?"
"Unbelievable." Dino breathed out.
"Heh," Xanxus snorted. "Or maybe it's just your Family who's weak."
"Xanxus-san!" Tsuna admonished.
Vittorio frowned in thought. "It's not that we are particularly weak or anything like that...but the Disdetta Guardians had a particular type of magic that seemed to weaken our own power."
"Weaken your own power?" Tsuna repeated. "Could you elaborate more on that, Vittorio-san?"
"I don't really know how to explain it, but it just felt as if our magic got weaker the longer we fought with them." Vittorio explained. "That's really all I can say."
"Thank you for the report, Vittorio," Nono said. "That information was much more useful than what we had managed to find out on our own." He steepled his fingers and brought them in front of him. "Now that we have a better idea of what we're up against, what do you all propose we do at this current point in time? I'm open to hearing your suggestions."
"The information we have right now is a good start," Giotto said thoughtfully. "I'll have my Guardians and the rest of the CEDEF conduct more thorough investigations."
"Perhaps we can question the Families that have already made contact with the Disdetta and see what other information we can obtain from them." Dino suggested.
"Mm. I'll see what else I can dig up from my sources~" Byakuran said cheerfully.
"I will also have the Arcobaleno Affiliation step up the security around the school." Luce supplied.
"Why are you all acting like a couple of wimps?" Xanxus growled with disapproval. "If it were up to me, I would go hunt down those Disdetta trash right now and show them the true power of the Vongola. We are the strongest Family. Why should we..."
"Xanxus." Tsuna said in a voice ringing with authority. Though Tsuna had uttered only a single word, the Varia leader immediately stopped talking. Even he knew better than to cross Tsuna when he used that tone. And everyone knew that when Tsuna dropped the characteristic 'san' he added to everyone's name, he meant business.
"It's true that we now know a little bit more about the Disdetta thanks to Vittorio, but that does not mean we should just charge in recklessly." Tsuna continued in the same tone. "As of right now, the best course of action would be to relay this information to our other allied Families in order to strengthen our relationship with them and to fortify our own defenses until more can be found out about the Disdetta Guardians. We should not heedlessly risk the safety of our Family members until then."
"I agree with Decimo," came Enma's immediate reply. "This is not something we can just rush into."
"Well said, Decimo," said Nono with approval in his voice. "Let us take a vote on this then. All in favor of Decimo's proposal." The hands all went up around the table, even Xanxus', albeit with obvious reluctance.
"It seems that the majority has spoken." Nono announced. "Very well then. Thank you all for coming today. I hereby adjourn this meeting." At his words, everyone stood up from their chairs and began to interact and talk with amongst each other in small groups.
"Tsunayoshi-kun, a minute if you please," said Nono, dropping Tsuna's official title and reverting back to a more grandfatherly tone now that the meeting was over.
Tsuna came over immediately. "You called for me, Nono?" He asked respectfully.
"Yes," Nono's eyes crinkled as a smile spread up his face. "I just wanted to check up with your progress. Reborn informed me that you have already contracted with a few Guardians, correct?"
"Yes," Tsuna said nodding. "And I'm working on finding my other ones."
"That's good to hear. Remember that if you ever need help with anything, I'll always be available to you, Tsunayoshi-kun." Nono finished with a warm smile.
"Thank you very much, Nono." Tsuna said, bowing.
"Anytime, Tsunayoshi-kun." Nono waved him off. "Please feel free to go speak with the others now." Tsuna bowed once more before heading over to where Xanxus was.
"I'm sorry for shooting down your idea earlier, Xanxus-san." Tsuna said softly when he reached the corner where the Varia leader was standing.
Xanxus did not reply, but grunted to show that he was listening.
"I know that you don't like standing around doing nothing, but I don't want to see any of you charging in and getting needlessly get hurt, especially since we don't know the full extent of the Disdetta Guardians' powers yet." Tsuna explained sincerely.
Xanxus leveled Tsuna with a look. "Tsunayoshi," He began. Tsuna knew Xanxus was being serious when he heard him say his full name instead of using the customary 'brat' to address him. "I'm not going to just sit here and just wait for those scum to attack our Family."
"I'm not asking you to, Xanxus-san," Tsuna said soothingly. "If they ever come messing with us, I will fight back with all of my Dying Will. I'm just asking you to please exercise some restraint until that time comes."
"…I won't make any promises, brat."
Tsuna smiled. "Thank you, Xanxus-san. That's all I ask of you." Tsuna paused for a moment. "Ah, I just remembered. Xanxus-san, I've been meaning to ask but what type of contract did you form with your Guardians?"
"Do you even need to ask? Through respect, of course!" Xanxus said with a haughty look.
Tsuna laughed lightly. "That's what I thought."
Xanxus merely grunted. "Oi, brat. You've already found yourself a few Guardians right? How have you been forming your contracts?"
Tsuna rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Reborn wanted me to form all my contracts through…ah…affection so…"
"THAT DAMN INFANT HAS YOU WHAT?" Xanxus promptly growled.
"Form my contracts through affection?" Tsuna repeated. He hastily added, "But please calm down, Xanxus-san. It's not such a big deal..."
"Not a big deal? I'll show that damn infant what's not a big deal once I get my hands on him." Xanxus continued to rage.
By now, Xanxus' increasingly loud words had attracted the attention of the other occupants in the room. From the corner of his eye, Tsuna caught sight of Giotto, Dino, and Enma wandering over.
"What's with all the loud yelling? Care to let us in on the secret?" Dino asked with a smile.
"Ah, it's nothing really, Dino-san." Tsuna hastily cut in before Xanxus could completely blow everything out of proportions. "I was just asking Xanxus-san what type of contracts he formed."
"Oh, that's it?" Dino looked slightly disappointed. "From the way he was yelling, I thought something serious was going down." He chuckled. "Instead of asking this bad-tempered grouch," He jabbed a thumb at Xanxus, who growled in response. "You could have asked me, your older bro, instead." Dino flashed a smile. "I can tell you everything you need to know about forming contracts through friendship."
"So Dino-san's contracts are formed through friendship?" Tsuna asked wonderingly.
"Yep! So if you have any questions, just go ahead and ask! I'm always happy to help out my little bro." Dino said with a thumbs up.
"Actually," Giotto cut in. "The contracts with my Guardians are also formed through friendship."
"Mine are too." Enma supplied.
"Wow," Tsuna said. "It seems like contracts formed through friendship seem to be the most common, huh?"
"That certainly does seem to be the case," Giotto replied with a smile. "If I'm not mistaken, the contracts that Luce formed with the Arcobalenos are also through friendship, as with Nono's contracts."
"Say, Tsuna, how have you been forming your contracts?" Dino asked, unknowingly repeating the question that Xanxus asked earlier.
"Through affection." Xanxus cut in with an angry growl.
"Really?" Dino blinked. "Now that's rare. But of course Tsuna would be the one to pull it off." A mischievous grin suddenly spread on his face. "So is this the reason why Xanxus was freaking out at first? Now now, no need to be so overprotective, Xan-Xan." He teased.
"Do you have a death wish, trash?" Xanxus growled raising one of his X-guns.
Tsuna hastily stepped between the two. "Well you all know how my contracts are formed now, right?" He asked, attempting to distract the two. "When Reborn told me, I was a bit hesitant at first, but it's not that bad once I got used to it."
"I think this method of forming contracts suits you, Tsuna-kun." Enma said. "It fits your personality."
Giotto chuckled. "It really does, doesn't it? You can't find anyone who can care more than Tsuna. Well, good luck finding the rest of your Guardians."
"Thank you!" Tsuna said. "Uhm, if you all don't mind, I have to go speak with the other guests now."
"We understand, Tsuna." Dino said cheerfully. "We'll be here if you need us."
Tsuna smiled and walked off to the other guests. He mingled about, exchanging casual words with the others before he headed to the last person.
"Thank you for coming all the way over here to deliver the information to us, Vittorio-san." Tsuna smiled at the silver-haired man. "What you have told us is undoubtedly useful."
Vittorio returned the smile. "It was my pleasure, Decimo."
"You can feel free to drop the formalities now, Vittorio-san, since we're not in a meeting anymore. Please call me Tsuna or Tsunayoshi, if you wish."
A lazy smile made its way up Vittorio's face. "If you say so, Tsunayoshi-kun~ I'll take you up on your offer then."
"So what do you think of the situation regarding the Disdetta Family so far?" Tsuna said, attempting to strike up a conversation.
"I think they should be captured as soon as possible." Vittorio smiled wryly. "We can't have strong Families running around unchecked now, can we?"
"What do you mean by that, Vittorio-san?" Tsuna asked curiously.
Instead of replying, Vittorio looked out the window with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Don't you think that it's unfair how some magic Families are more powerful than others, Tsunayoshi-kun? Not that I'm saying that the Vongola is bad or anything." He added as an afterthought. "But there are some despicable Families who use their powers to oppress weaker Families."
His expression hardened for a moment before it reverted back to the thoughtful expression. "Tell me, Tsunayoshi-kun, have you ever wondered what it would be like if there was no magic in this world? If everyone was equal and placed on the same level?"
"Well I can't say that I've ever imagined living in a world without magic," Tsuna said contemplatively. "But I don't think that a world without magic will necessarily make everyone equal. Also, not all powerful Families necessarily want to dominate the weaker ones, Vittorio-san." He added.
"Oh, I know that, Tsunayoshi-kun. I was just throwing out some random thoughts. Something to think about is all." Vittorio stared out the window a moment longer before turning back to Tsuna with a smile. "Thank you for taking the time to talk me, Tsunayoshi-kun."
Tsuna shook his head. "Oh no, it was a pleasure to speak with you today, Vittorio-san."
Vittorio merely smiled again. "No, I believe I should say that the pleasure is all mine, Tsunayoshi-kun."
Tsuna, now changed out of his suit and back into his normal school uniform, sighed as he walked back to his classroom. His mind was still swimming with the thoughts of the meeting. It seemed that the Disdetta were going to make their move soon, which meant that he really needed to get a move on with contracting Guardians.
Distracted as he was, Tsuna was still able to notice the two students—a female with purple hair and a male with dark blue hair, both with similar hairstyles—standing in the hallway. The male stared expressionlessly at Tsuna, but Tsuna merely smiled kindly at both of them and greeted them with a pleasant, "Hello," as he walked past.
The male's miscolored eyes widened slightly, as if not expecting Tsuna to react as he did. He continued to stare sharply at Tsuna's retreating back even as he left.
"Is something the matter, Mukuro nii-sama?" The girl asked in a worried tone.
"It's nothing to worry about, my dear Chrome-chan." The male replied casually. A smirk slowly spread across his face. "But I do believe I've just found someone of great interest."
Author's Notes: Aaah, they're here! They're here! I repeat, the pineapples have finally made their appearance! And everyone calm down, a certain prefect will be appearing very soon. Something to look forward to, yes?
But other than that, I hoped you all liked the portrayal of the meeting. Any comments, reviews, or feedback is greatly appreciated!
-Bird of Dreams