Aiding Vongola Part Two

The next day...breakfast is Eggs Benedict, Egg Drop Soup in Chicken Stock with scallions and carrot bits, and a clubhouse sandwich. For dessert, its doughnut-shaped bread with filling and for drinks, its coffee with honey.

'So what's today's agenda Giotto?' Alaude asked Giotto after everyone finished their breakfast.

'We received an urgent mission request as of last night...' said Giotto grimly. 'Knuckle, Asari, Alaude and G, I'm sending you guys. This mission is about a grossly-underpaid, understaffed AND a lacking hospital in the next town.' he said. 'The secretary to the Director is getting complaints from the staff and demanding where's the money for their salaries and needed pay to hire more workers, and money for the hospital pantry since patients are getting less food which is even more baffling. The Secretary asked the Director but he said he wasn't getting any money either even though there were promises of funding from the Town Mayor. Alaude will be investigating that. Knuckle, Asari and G will fill in as temporary staff...and damage control within the hospital itself. The Secretary will fill you in since she isn't exactly...detailed with her letter in fear of interception and corruption within the staff itself. If she writes about her suspicions AND its intercepted, she feared losing her job and she's a recently-single, widowed mother.'

'Daemon, Elena sent you a dozen letters as of last night with labels 1-10 in that order and no, I didn't look into it.' Giotto said, giving Daemon a stack of letters bearing a wax seal stamped with Elena's family crest. Lampo, Tsunami just gave me a list of things needed buying so I leave that to you.'

'Alright.' said Lampo, getting a long list from Giotto.

'Oh yes...since the next town is a day away, that's enough time for your four to study these. Don't lose those!' said Giotto, handing them Tsunami's notes about their flames. 'Good luck. Tsunami, after breakfast, what will you be doing?'

'Well for one, plant a garden in your bare backyard after I do the laundry.' said Tsunami wryly. 'Then some rooms are gathering dust already I have to clean some of them, but I leave your personal bedrooms alone of course, cleaning that is up to you if you don't want stuff missing...and anything to the laundry boys?' she asked them. 'Better ask me now before some of you leave for that trip!'

'Er...'

All of them has stuff that needed washing.

'Oh, as I'm aware that four guys will be leaving today, I made a bento for both lunch and dinner, you can pick it up in the kitchens.' she added.

'Ben...to?' even Asari is unaware of that word due to his upbringing.

'Its packed lunch you know.' said Tsunami in amusement, making note of asking Giotto why Asari doesn't have knowledge of his own culture somehow AND he's Japanese. 'They can last a whole day so its OK. And Lampo, I really need that maid uniform and chef's uniform ASAP...cooking with long sleeves is troublesome!'

xxx

'OK...you guys have THIS much dirty laundry?' Tsunami twitched as before her, is a big pile of dirty laundry separated in seven baskets due to their owners.

'Well, the only time we could do laundry was when Elena comes over with her personal maid...' said Daemon sheepishly. 'We're total disasters with the laundry even if we can do cleaning just fine and our cooking is palatable enough but not as good as yours.'

'Some colors bleed into others and we don't get what we're doing wrong. We had to get rid of the damaged ones.' Knuckle complained. 'So we really just wait instead of making things worse!'

"Kami-sama help me..." Tsunami twitched. These guys basically FAIL Laundry 101. Apparently they don't learn from laundry mistakes either. And so, she began doing the laundry.

And being a Fire User, its easy to dry them when done...and she can effortlessly heat the old fashioned iron...apparently, to heat the clothes iron, they fill it with hot coals, let it heat, and then iron away. What a hard life without electricity dammit. And by using Psychometry, she could tell which belongs to who. Then she would simply teleport folded clothes into their bedrooms.

By the time she's done, Lampo arrived with some men who would deliver stuff into the pantry and supplies room...and she got four new sets of clothes, shoes, and the uniforms she requested.

She would then go to the bathroom, and wash her current dress and her medieval underwear before taking a bath herself.

Bad timing came in the form of Daemon however, who came for a bath AND saw everything while she was toweling herself dry...

'DIE!' Tsunami yelled while shooting fireballs at him with the nobleman yelling, 'I DIDN'T KNOW!' in a panicked horror while running from her. In their offices, Giotto and Lampo wondered what was that all about and decided they really didn't want to know.

She then took a hammer, a nail, a length of cord and a piece of wood. She made a door sign which she hung on the nail hammered to the door. Above is a scorched writing of 'si prega di capovolgere questo segno se il bagno รจ occupato o vacante' written with Giotto's translation help. On the sign was the scorched word Occupato on one side, and Vacante on the other.

Giotto also learned why she wanted his translation help.

Apparently Daemon stumbled on her in her birthday suit while she was drying herself off after a bath. She then fired fireballs at him for it.

xxx

The gardens...

While its good that there's a lawn in the bare backyard, there's really not much plant life to consider.

That, and there's rules about the garden.

Trees are climb-able for assassins to get a good shot in, or a good hiding place behind the trunk. It'll take quite the manipulation maneuver with Alaude's help regarding tree growth when he gets back. As for shrubs...Lampo deliberately bought spiny, thorny plants and stinging plants...with good reason. To discourage idiots trying to get to them. Tsunami is to plant the defensive plants strategically while planting ornamental flowers within the gardens.

Easy enough...and then she would use Rain on today's cloudy day, and cause rain as far as the clouds are, and giving the card enough power to pull the stunt, and cause a 5mm rainfall.

She would have to trouble the other guardians a bit. 5mm rainfall isn't much but definitely enough to water plants.

xxx

Dinner...

The Mist Guardian is sweating buckets.

Why?

Giotto and Lampo watched while sweatdropping.

'Boss, what's with this atmosphere?' Lampo whispered while shivering because Tsuna is letting out a dark aura aimed at the older nobleman.

'He had a little walk-in bathroom accident on her.' Giotto explained weakly. 'Er Tsunami, he's already sorry about it, can't you forgive him now?' he asked her kindly.

'...I haven't torched him yet. Can I? I promise he'll only be red and he'll still have his hair intact...or maybe we can play dodge fire. If he survives for one hour, I forgive him.' Tsunami spoke with a dark smile with shadows on her face while speaking in a creepy monotone.

'Dodge...fire?' Daemon twitched while still shivering from her presence. 'Don't you mean dodge ball?'

'Fire.'

'...'

'F-fine. When Knuckle gets back.' Daemon relented. If only to get her off his back. Its not his fault he didn't know she's in there right?!

Giotto and Lampo prayed for the Mist Guardian. Really.

But when he drank his wine after dinner...he roared, 'HOOOOOOT!' and he ran out for water while wailing about it.

'Tsunami, what did you do?' Giotto asked their time-traveling guest almost warily.

'I mixed a lot of spicy condiments into his wine.' Tsunami said with a sweet smile.

'T-there's none in ours, right?' Lampo squeaked nervously.

'Nope.'

The remaining two sighed in relief.

xxx

A week later...the others are back, looking very cross.

'Ara, what happened?' Tsunami asked them worriedly while dealing with a delivery man who brought something over.

'Meeting Room. Now.' said Alaude as Tsunami quickly sent the delivery man on his way. 'And what's that?'

'Its very light and something soft...nothing too solid inside.' said Tsunami, walking alongside them while shaking the package. 'Probably clothes from the Alberdini Famiglia...who're they?'

'Ah, its from Daemon's Fiancee Elena.' said G. 'She's fully aware of our laundry issues so she sends him clothes instead from his own closet from his family.'

'Ah.'

'Tsunami, we'd extremely appreciate some dinner soon.' Knuckle said with a forced smile. 'Leave us men to some...extremely not nice topics to discuss.'

'Alright. At least be honest with me if you guys are OK at least.' she asked them worriedly. 'You don't look so good.'

'We're OK. Just very mad with the people we had to deal with in our job...we'll calm down soon.' Asari reassured her.

'Looks like I have to make dinner extra special tonight then.' Tsunami smiled. 'Your constipated looks really don't suit you. And tell the houri-atama ahou to get his package from me after your meeting. It'll be in the kitchen.' and she ran off.

'Pineapple-head idiot?' Asari blinked in translation, perplexed.

'Daemon.' G quipped. 'His hairstyle looks the part.' he snorted.

xxx

In the meantime, Tsunami can't help but be worried. But as she has no part in their jobs and activities other than looking after them and having part in their training, she stays out of their businesses. Nobody likes people who are too nosy after all.

Now then, what would be ideal to cheer up a bunch of men in bad moods~?

Ah, Kinomoto-Style Banquet Masterpiece. Now if only their pantry has something she really could make it with~!

xxx

Giotto twitched.

Complete with many angry veins on his temple.

His sentiments are shared with the other two guardians.

'I-I see...so that's how it ended...and what about the money?'

'...long gone. Even the sponsors were pissed.' G grunted. 'There's no telling what they've done to that guy and his family now. We just did our jobs and left judgment to the people...'

'Because its more fun that way!' Asari said with a beaming, dark smile. 'I wish we had Tsunami-chan's cakes and sweets while watching~!'

'Sadist.' Lampo scoffed.

'But at least that's dealt with.' said Alaude. 'But still...to even reach the hospitals of all things...this is getting even more serious than we thought it would be.' he sighed softly. 'And you three, what happened?'

'It was scary!' G wailed. 'Learning how to use my powers for good is one thing, but practicing them in real time is a stuff of nightmares and I haven't even had training yet!' he freaked out in a high-pitched voice. 'If Asari wasn't there to calm me down, I would have ended up doing more harm than good!'

'Well, he helped removing cancer cells, tumors and other diseased fluids and parts off a patient before the doctor could operate on them to fix them back, and for Knuckle to heal the wounds while Asari calmed the patients and made them feel no pain.' said Alaude. 'G began freaking out when the job was done Asari had to dose him again.' he said bluntly to many sweatdrops.

'Maa maa G...this happens to first-time healers.' Knuckle reassured the redhead. 'Even I freaked out on my first few times and after that, all I could think about is helping others.' he said with a smile. 'But still...I'm glad she came here.' he sighed. 'Medical procedures would be rougher without her and we'd never know our full potential otherwise.'

'I agree. Sepira was vague when she told us about the ability of our flames.' Asari commented. 'Those words don't exactly say much and we just pretty much stumbled clumsily our way through to our abilities like toddlers.'

'No kidding. Man, the old days were nuts.' G griped.

'That was before Elena introduced me to you, right?' Daemon asked the six others who nodded with a rather exasperated look on their faces. 'That bad?'

'Crazy.' Lampo griped. 'Out of all of us, the ones most freaked out were me and G. Ours are the nastiest...until Tsunami came with those notes...now I'm not sure who among us has the scariest power.' he shivered. 'What kind of world is the future other than more rights, freedom and advancements?'

'Its not like she'd tell because she can't trigger a change in history.' Giotto moped. 'Anything else of concern?'

'Ah, she said a deliveryman sent a package from Elena's family for Daemon.' said Asari. 'More clothes.'

'Eheh, no need for that anymore since she did our laundry.' said Daemon. 'We now have clean clothes again.'

'Really?!'

'Really.'

'Well, I'll still go get my stuff from her...where is it?'

'In the no man's zone...the kitchen.' said Lampo wryly. 'She's wearing a female chef's uniform she had me buy on request.' the Mist Guardian went blue. 'Better wait lest she shoots you again.'

'Urk...'

'NOW what did you do?' G asked him wryly.

'He was about to take a bath when he walked in on Tsunami in the bathroom...she shot him with fireballs and hasn't forgiven him yet.' Giotto chuckled as four pairs of eyes widened.

'Its an accident OK?!' Daemon spluttered out. 'Knuckle, I need you on standby tomorrow...she said she'd forgive me if I survive being target practice for an hour!'

'...may god bless you.' said the ex-boxer priest, patting him sympathetically on the shoulder.

xxx

Dinner time...

Tsunami outdid herself this time...with emphasis on presentation to boot it was just gorgeous. There's even spaghetti, pizza, curry, stew...basically Japanese Yoshoku in her own style. And for desert? Namagashi that she improvised with the available ingredients in Italy's markets, and used hardened fruit fillings to substitute for the lack of azuki bean paste. Beautifully-crafted...with the help of magic of course, otherwise she'd take FOREVER. But she still made pies and cakes.

'O-oh my!' The desserts are...extremely beautiful and colorful to say the least.

'Ahaha, Asari-san since Azuki Bean Paste doesn't exist in Europe, I have to substitute with hardened fruit fillings. That OK?'

'Sure! I'm just glad to see an old sight at home!' Asari marveled, trying to gulp down the pool of drool that flowed in his mouth.

'What ARE these? I nearly thought they were home decors!' Lampo exclaimed, wide-eyed at the artistic-looking desserts other than pies and cakes present.

'They're called Namagashi in Japan...only the wealthy, nobility and royalty can afford them as expert artisan confectioners make them.' Asari explained while looking quite happy and eager to have at least, half a taste of home. Europe doesn't have bean paste after all.

Needless to say while the men rushed dinner, they wanted their hands on those pieces of bite-sized beauties on a platter.

'Tsunami-chan...can I have some made while I do paperwork?' Giotto asked her hopefully.

'After work perhaps.' Tsunami said wryly to his horror. 'These things are sticky and you can't have bits of sweets on paperwork or people will question your professionalism you know.' G, Alaude and Daemon gave Giotto a warning glare at this.

'I almost forgot that they're a bit sticky myself since I haven't seen it in four years now.' Asari admitted as Giotto looked utterly crestfallen as if Christmas was suddenly declared an obsolete holiday. 'Well, we'd best enjoy while we still can before our night-hours work.'

Giotto whimpered.

Especially when later, they get to sink their teeth into these beauties...

'Tsunami-chan...is there a way to NOT make them sticky?' Giotto whined as soon as the last piece was gone.

'There IS a way but its not yet invented in this era you know. Even I don't know how to make it since we just buy it off stores, shipped in by factories.'

Giotto banged his forehead on the table.

'Live with it Giotto.' G snorted. 'You can have some as soon as you finish your paperwork.'

'I'll make more but sleeping tonight might be a bit harder...oh well, you're in for an all-nighter anyway. But when are you guys going to train though~?'

'As soon as we get the needed equipment.' said Alaude. 'Your equipment is kind of...intriguing, to say the least.' Indeed. For karate body conditioning, you need Chi Ishi, Ishi Sashi, Tetsu Geta, Nigiri Game, Makiage Kigu, Sage-Makiwara and Tachi-Makiwara, Jari Bako, and Kongouken.

'Well, with your power you can increase the weight without unnecessary spending, but DO understand that the change is permanent in regards to non-living things, don't forget.' Tsunami warned him. 'Its only for living things that its temporary unless you choose to.' the blonde man nodded.

'Show us the use of these items when it does get here by next month.' said Giotto. 'Until then we do things the old fashioned way while working .'

xxx

And the next morning...was a big day. For Daemon at least. At the clearing five minutes away from the mansion...

'Time for Dodge Fire Daemon~!' Tsuna chirped a tad TOO cheerfully and this was to the man's chagrin, and everyone else's amusement. Several fireballs conjured up in mid-air...and shoots quickly, making Daemon utilize his evasion skills and survival instincts to survive an angry female whose full, bare body he saw.

'Eep!'

'...y'know, good thing his family has a militaristic background or he'd be roasted by now.' G commented. 'And this is because he accidentally saw her as naked as a newborn in the bath?'

'Yep.' Giotto nodded.

'Well, I'd normally say 'lucky bastard'...she's beautiful isn't she? I wonder what he saw exactly.'

'Yeah. Let's pretend we didn't have this conversation while she's possibly within hearing range...I don't want to be in his shoes.' Lampo snickered as they all stayed quiet.

One hour later...Daemon survived, but utterly exhausted with clothing damage.

'You lived...I forgive you now.' Tsunami smiled. 'If you get even a bit roasted in the skin, it just means you're not totally sorry.'

'I don't get the logic behind that.' Daemon said wryly.

'Because if you get hurt, it means its OK for you to do it again someday or sometime soon so you don't mind getting singed. Perverts in my era are resilient you know.' Tsunami snorted, making them wonder how much have men degraded so badly in the future to such degenerates towards women. 'But if you made sure you have no scratch AND not wanting a repeat, it means you're sorry.'

'Uh...OK?'

They all had trouble getting it. At all.

Future logic is confusing.

Scratch that, women ARE confusing.

xxx

Tired. So tired.

His muscles and joints ached and he wanted a hot bath first before going to Knuckle for pain relief.

And to think that was just a minor punishment for walking in on her but hey, once is enough because that beauty is imprinted in his mind forever. He wondered if Elena is just as beautiful when naked. As they're still just engaged, he could only kiss her knuckles, lips and cheeks, not exactly see everything. Tsunami on the other hand, is sculpted and flawless. Young woman indeed. Or is it because she's a fighter that all that training shaped her body that way? He could ask at risk of course...