Phew. It's finally out! I've made it to 10 chapters! Man, am I glad to finally be releasing this one. I apologise for the huge delays but as you probably know by now, University work will always take precedence over the stories (even though I'd much rather be writing these chapters than my essays).
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE CHARACTERS FROM KHR. I COULDNT POSSIBLY CREATE SOMEONE AS COOL AS XANXUS BY MYSELF.
CHAPTER 10
Ryohei Sasagawa was in hell. Technically he was in a private jet, but personally it felt as though he was flying straight to hell. And his journey was far from quiet. But the screams and shouts in the plane did not come from the tormented souls of those who had sinned and were heading for their infinite punishment. If anything Ryohei was the only tormented soul on the plane. The cause of all the shouts and screams- one simple word: Varia.
It was a strange sensation. Whenever Ryohei assisted the Varia on a mission, which he realized was becoming more and more frequent, he always felt as though he was a single mother taking her rowdy children on a day trip. For once he was not the loudest member of a group and suddenly he had all the responsibility of keeping the 'family' out of trouble.
All of a sudden he wished he was at the front with Lussuria, arguably the most sensible of them all, and not having to constantly separate Squalo, Fran and Bel or listen to Levi's sycophantic shouts to Xanxus who did absolutely nothing to control his men.
Xanxus, eyes shut, sat calmly and obliviously in his luxurious airplane seat, one long leg draped across the other and arms crossed. He looked the embodiment of authority but he was far from taking authoritative action. If anything it seemed as though he was paying so little attention to his men that they and their noise barely registered, like he was on the plane by himself. Ryohei was suddenly overcome with jealousy at Xanxus' capacity for ignoring noise.
Just as he was about to raise an objection toward the noise a whisky glass suddenly flew his way. Ryohei ducked instinctively and the glass smashed against the wall behind his head shattering into pieces, the content dripping down the side of the plane. The noise in the plane was already so loud that he barely heard the impact of the glass.
Ryohei sighed and rubbed his forehead with his fingers. The noise was doing nothing to help his migraine. Any other day and he'd probably be as rowdy as the others, or simply laughing at their antics, but as soon as he was airborne his head had started to throb painfully and the noise really was not helping.
I wonder how Gokudera would handle this. Wait a minute… is this how we guardians are too?
"That's an extremely depressing thought…" Ryohei said to himself dejectedly, his head drooping.
All of a sudden his respect for Gokudera had practically tripled. After all, some of the guardians themselves were not the most stable people, and it had to take some brains, not to mention patience, to keep on top of such unpredictable characters
Ryohei ducked once more as he saw a metal knife come speeding his way from the corner of his eye, He ignored his instinct to catch it in midair and his desire to throw it back in the direction it came from.
"VOOOOIIIIII. FUCK YOU DOING BEL?"
Squalo's loud voice boomed out in the midst of the noise, ringing painfully in Ryohei's ears. Ryohei turned to look at the space behind his seat and was alarmed to see that Squalo had his sword drawn and was pointing it towards Belphegor's smiling face. Fran meanwhile had tactically placed himself behind Squalo, ensuring that if any sharp blades came his way they would have to go through Squalo first. He may have been cowering behind the other man but it didn't't stop him from childishly pulling his tongue at Bel.
"Ushishishi. I do what I want because I'm a Prince."
Ryohei only needed to look at Fran to know what was coming next and before he could do anything to stop him...
"He's the Prince of idiots. All hail the Idiot prince! The only thing he never fakes is his own stupidity!"
Fran had knowingly crossed a dangerous line and even though Belphegor's eyes were hidden by his bangs Ryohei could feel that he was glaring with a serious intent to kill.
Thankfully, before Belphegor had the chance to initiate his deadly counterattack Lussuria's voice emerged from the speakers.
"Boss? Dino-san has established a line of communication with us, I need you in here."
Ryohei looked towards Xanxus whose eyes were now open and when the older man got up and made his way to the cockpit he followed. As Xanxus made no objection to him coming along Ryohei assumed that he either didn't't care if they had company or he simply didn't' acknowledge Ryohei' existence. Truthfully Ryohei believed it was more of a case of the latter.
Closing the door behind him with far more gusto than he should have, having finally been freed from the noise, Ryohei strode to Lussuria's side with Xanxus.
With a look of pleasant surprise Lussuria offered the plane radio to Xanxus who proceeded to look at it with a look of annoyance before snatching it away. As if it were a waste of time to use proper words Xanxus merely grunted into the radio to show that he was present.
"That annoyed grunt…if I'm not wrong…Xanxus?"
Dino's voice on the other side was tinged with amusement even though the sound of gunshots and explosions in the background were far from funny. Dino, obviously not expecting Xanxus to respond to him carried on.
"I'm glad we finally got through to you guys. We can't reach the base no matter how hard we try. They must be going through the same thing we are."
"What the fuck do you want fucking trash?"
Xanxus' voice shortly interrupted Dino, who interpreted it as a 'get on with it'.
"We've managed to hold out pretty well over here so far, and we captured some of the spies. They have some interesting information for you guys. Also, Adelheid from Shimon contacted us. It seems they're under attack by another branch of the Urumeki family- around 90 men or so. They may need a hand since three members are away on reconnaissance. We'd go ourselves but we have one hell of a party over here and I'd hate to leave it when it's just getting started.
Ryohei had been listening to Dino's words intently. The fact that Dino couldn't contact the Vongola base unnerved him immensely. Spanner's inventions didn't just stop working…the enemies had to be far more formidable than they had first expected.
Xanxus suddenly grunted and threw the radio at an unsuspecting Ryohei. Luckily he had good reflexes and caught it at the last minute.
Xanxus turned and made his way to the cabin door. He didn't so much as look back even when he heard Dino calling his name over the radio. But when he spoke his tone was angry.
"Lussuria. Head for Shimon first. We'll split up to take these trash on."
Without another word Xanxus strode out of the room.
Lussuria looked towards Ryohei and shrugged when he saw the puzzled look on his face. It was strange for Xanxus to show so much concern. It was as if he knew that there was more going on than what appeared on the surface.
"Dino-san? Did you hear?"
"Yeah. What the hell is going on with Xanxus? I think we can manage to hold on until you get here and I'll contact Shimon to let them know you're on your way."
Ryohei couldn't help but interrupt.
"Dino-san this is Sasagawa. Could you try and reach Vongola once more just in case? We'll do the same on our side"
"Sasagawa? Tsuna sent you as a babysitter again huh? Sure, I'll see what I can do over here to get in touch. But don't worry; I'm sure it's just a glitch or something…"
Ryohei heard the uncertainty in the other man's voice but said nothing. He too wanted it to be just a simple glitch, even if his gut was telling him otherwise.
"Hang in there Dino-san."
"Got it."
The radio went dead silent. Lussuria sighed and ran a neatly manicured hand through his long bangs. He pushed a small button next to the plane controls and plonked himself backwards. He sighed once more and then suddenly threw himself forward, startling Ryohei, and grabbed the transceiver from his hands.
"Whoa, what…"
Lussuria pressed a few more buttons next to the radio, motioned Ryohei to be quiet with a finger on his lips and listened. The radio crackled for a few seconds and then went deathly quiet. Ryohei shivered.
"Is that the radio link with the base?"
"Yes..".
"Something's extremely wrong over there…"
Lussuria nodded in agreement. Ryohei could tell that he was as concerned as himself.
"We best get these rescue missions over ASAP."
Ryohei, Xanxus and Belphegor fought for a mere ten minutes, and then it was all over. With no real effort on their part. They had felt that the three could get it done, and even without Xanxus really participating in the battle they were more than enough. The rest of the group had been dropped off just outside the Shimon base. With almost half of the Shimon guardians away on reconnaissance they needed the most support.
But the Cavallone family themselves were far from pushovers. In fact they were nearly done when their Vongola reinforcements had finally appeared, and they had miraculously taken no fatalities.
After the battle was finished Dino, with a shallow gash over one blond eyebrow, walked over to greet them, his smile not completely reaching his eyes. He gave Ryohei a hard thump on the back and nodded in Belphegor's general direction. However, Ryohei was surprised with his greeting to Xanxus, a surprisingly warm grin. But even more surprising was the hint of a smile tugging at Xanxus' own lips.
"Squalo didn't't come with you? A shame…I found our old yearbook you know."
Xanxus harrumphed impatiently, the faint trace of a smile now completely gone.
"Enough pleasantries. You said you had some information for me so spit it out."
Ryohei watched as Dino's face turned from cheerful to serious in a split second and gestured for the Vongola men to follow him.
"At first we weren't really sure what these guys were after. They just seemed to attack for no reason. We thought it was because we're your allies and they were trying to weaken you by getting at us. But then we learned some interesting information from one of the men we captured. Apparently they were looking for something. A key. Xanxus, they found out about the keys".
Ryohei saw Xanxus recoil slightly from the corner of his eye. Xanxus was acting strangely.
Ryohei wasn't used to seeing any other emotion rather than anger emerge from him. Whatever this key was, Xanxus seemed to know about it, and whatever it was for wasn't good.
However, before Ryohei could open his mouth let alone speak he was interrupted by a screech of loud static in his ears.
"OOOOOIIIIII, SASAGAWA! WHY THE FUCK ISNT XANXUS'S RADIO ON?"
Ryohei winced in pain. Squalo was loud in person, but over the transmitter he seemed even louder. He hadn't even thought that could be possible.
"TONE IT DOWN. YOU'RE EXTREMELY LOUD SQUALO!"
"AND YOU'RE NOT? FUCKING SHITTY KID!"
Before they could go any further with their shouting contest Xanxus suddenly yanked the earpieces from Ryohei's ears and inserted them into his own. As he heard Squalo's overenthusiastic voice Xanxus's face seemed to degrade into several stages of annoyance over the following seconds. Xanxus soon followed suit with his own shouts.
"BE QUIET YOU FUCKING TRASH! Now tell me everything. Leave out a single detail and I'll fucking decimate you."
"Xanxus? I told you to leave your transmitter on! We've got a fucking serious problem here! OIIIIIIIII Lussuria. Fuck you doing?"
Ryohei heard Squalo's voice get quieter and quieter. He assumed that, much as Xanxus had done to him a few minutes earlier, Lussuria had yanked the radio from Squalo.
"Boss. It's Lussuria. We got the job done over here. They'd already got a lot done before we arrived. But something is strange, boss. They were clearly here looking for something."
Xanxus' face showed such an intense anger that Ryohei was momentarily stunned. What was it for him to get so angry over?
"Was it the key?"
The following silence was almost tangible, and then Lussuria spoke once more.
"I would assume so, boss. They completely wrecked the place looking for something. Lucky he was smart enough to anticipate something like this".
"Fuck! Finish your shit and get ready to head out. We'll meet back at the base."
"Yes boss!"
The radio went silent.
The silence stretched. No one moved for at least a minute and then Xanxus suddenly threw the earphones back towards Ryohei, who caught them immediately that time, and turned on his heels. Belphegor followed close behind, his face surprisingly serious.
Ryohei meanwhile turned to face Dino, aware that he couldn't take too long to join his comrades. He was the only one of the three of them that could fly the plane after all.
He extended his hand towards Dino, who shook it firmly.
"Thanks for the help Sasagawa."
Ryohei couldn't help but laugh. After all, when they had arrived much of the fighting was already finished.
"I don't know what kind of help we were but I guess you're welcome. But we should be thanking you guys too, it seems that you gave us some extremely valuable information."
Dino looked back over his shoulder at the Cavallone base, his expression filled with regret.
"We need to be more careful from now on. We can't let these bastards get the keys…"
Ryohei was about to question Dino about the nature of the keys when Xanxus' angry shouts boomed from a few yards away. Ryohei sighed, nodded to Dino and somewhat dejectedly made his way to Xanxus' side. He couldn't afford to make Xanxus any angrier than he needed to be after all. Realizing that he had just missed the chance to learn about the keys from Dino Ryohei made it his mission to learn about them from Xanxus on the plane. Even if it killed him. Which was a frightening possibility where Xanxus was involved.
Raising a single hand in farewell behind him to Dino's general direction, Ryohei boarded the Vongola jet, eager to learn about the keys but even more eager to get home to the base. That niggling feeling in his gut still hadn't left him; he felt that something bad had happened….and even more worrisome, Ryohei's instincts were almost always right.
The plane was almost eerily quiet without the rest of the Varia members, and Ryohei almost wished that they were there to distract his thoughts by making their usual racket. Almost.
As they got closer and closer to the base Ryohei's initial desire to know about the keys was overcome by his own nervousness. He didn't feel that something was wrong anymore, he knew something was.
Realising that he was far too preoccupied to pilot the plane safely he set it on auto-pilot and sat back, biting his nails nervously. He was worried about his sister. He knew that Tsuna would make sure that she was safe, but he couldn't help but be worried. It's what older siblings did after all.
When he saw the outline of the base in the distance Ryohei was instantly relieved of some of his worries. It was still in one piece.
" Phew…"Ryohei was inches away from deactivating auto-pilot to get ready to land when he saw it from the corner of his eye.
A sudden eruption of flame spurted through the roof of the Vongola base, followed by another, and then another.
Within a frame of only ten seconds the Vongola base had been completely overcome by a cacophony of violent explosions…
To Be Continued
So as I mentioned in chapter 9 (so long ago lol) this chapter includes some of my favourite characters! Ryohei and The Varia! (although I don't care for Levi much does anyone lol?).
God I love Xanxus! He's the epitome of cool. I feel cool just writing about him lol :D (and you'll be glad to know that this wont be the last you see of the Varia!) Gokudera and Xanxus will always have a special place reserved in my fan girl heart.
Man I really hope this story isn't getting too predictable…
Chapter 11 won't be long now. I promise! Ciao x