"You look rather smug about something," said Usagi.
"Reborn saw the commercial, called me, and is now very confused and wants a proper explanation. It's been a good day," said Fon pleased with himself. Skull nodded enthusiastically to that statement.
"Can I stay?" he asked, hopefully.
"What's your specialty?"
"Motorcycles and stunts, mostly. I was a civilian before I got cursed. I'm known as the Great Skull-Sama!"
"Then you get to play around with our garage," said Usagi seriously. "If we're technically going to be an almost famiglia in our own right, then someone is going to have to soup up our cars and everything else."
Skull looked particularly enthusiastic about the idea. He wasn't too happy killing people for a living.
"Do you mind having an octopus around?" asked Skull.
"You own an octopus?" said Usagi in surprise.
Skull pulled off his ever present backpack...to reveal a fishbowl that was just big enough to contain the rather adorable octopus inside.
"Too cute! You should totally show Mokuba! He'd love it!"
Skull beamed at her, before going off to show the younger Kaiba his pet octopus Oodako. Mokuba already thought Lichi was awesome... he was over the moon meeting the cephalopod. It was so creepy it was cute.
Mai, however, was not a fan. Neither, apparently, was Anzu.
The guys though? They loved it. Especially Jonouchi who was just a big a fan of Godzilla as Skull was...and promptly found a real career goal in life when he was too old to duel without getting looks. Skull was more than happy to teach the blond how to maintain and drive a motorcycle.
"If we're supposed to be an almost famiglia, what should we call ourselves?" asked Mokuba. He didn't really care for the mafia crap, but he found it all rather fun.
"Well what name did you give Usagi as a surname?" asked Fon.
"Sorano," said Usagi.
Fon blinked. He looked at her amused.
"You literally called yourself 'Sky Bunny' as a name?"
"Well Mama hadn't remarried yet, and I wasn't about to take the jackass' surname a second time..." shrugged Usagi.
Fon snickered. Personally he couldn't wait for the Vongola to play catch up with their next Donna. Usagi was nothing like they were used to and was more likely to take over the place and treat it the same way Kaiba treated his corporation. Odds were that the Varia would be very, very busy cleaning house by the time she was done.
Best of all, he would never be bored again!
"So... how does one go about becoming a full famiglia?" asked Mokuba. He was bored...they still had a couple of hours to kill before they reached the site of the old Kaiba Corporation tower where the finals would be held.
Hayato had gone over that place with a fine toothed comb to clean out anything that could still be useful or re-purposed. Shōichi had helped a lot in that regard...it was a headache explaining why a civilian wanted military grade hardware, regardless of how outdated said hardware was at this point.
At most she was killing time until the Vongola got their head out of their asses. This was more like 'work experience' than anything serious.
Though she refused to listen to the idiots who let things get this bad. The second she took control of the group, she was sending the Ninth generation and the jackass far, far away for their long overdue retirement with strict orders for them not to show their faces for five years or unless the Ninth died.
Okay, so she was still bitter as hell about the fact the jackass had been lying to them for years and the fact the Ninth screwed her over with that damn seal. But if she was going to be petty about it, then dammit she was going to do it properly!
As Fon explained the bare minimum required to be taken seriously, Fuuta promptly sat in Usagi's lap.
"Ne, Usagi-nee? Why do you always walk so slow?" he asked. She always did things slowly and methodically, and he wondered why. He knew she could be really, really fast when she wanted!
"It's a hold out from when I had the seal on me. If I tried to do things at a normal speed, I was really clumsy and would likely trip on nothing. But if I took my time then I didn't have as many accidents. I suppose now it's more of a habit than anything... besides, heels are a nightmare to run in," said Usagi.
It had taken her weeks to get used to wearing anything with elevated heels. It had taken even longer to find a pair she even liked enough to wear as casual wear.
People took her seriously with the extra height. Kaiba certainly seemed to approve of the more professional wardrobe, though the ears stayed.
She always feared that if she ever took them off for too long that she'd go back to being Tsubaki the No-Good, Clumsy and Useless girl she had been. That everything would be a dream.
And that would crush her completely.
"It's better to do things slow and get them right the first time than waste a lot more time doing it correctly after a failed attempt."
The fact Kaiba cared more about things being done right the first time rather than it being done fast had only reinforced this habit.
"So where are we going?" asked Fon.
"The old Kaiba Corporation's private island where they used to have all their illegal weapon smuggling and trade done. Hayato's taken over the old contracts, but big brother doesn't want anything to do with the island since who knows what sort of mess was left behind on it. He plans to blow it up once the finals are over," said Mokuba.
Fon blinked.
"He plans to blow up an island."
"More like he told Hayato to scour the place for anything he thought was useful or he'd like to keep, before setting as many demolition charges on the old munitions and things so that whatever is on the island would be blown sky high once we leave," clarified Mokuba. "We've already had a lot of security on the island to make sure there aren't any squatters before we arrive, and we'll be doing a general sweep before we take off to make sure there aren't any when it blows. Shōichi made it pretty cheap to install a couple of special elevators tied to the duel disk system for the round robin, and the rest is just one big platform. Only cost us a couple million yen, since the rest is purely window dressing."
"...All this for a card game," said Fon.
"I don't get it much either, but his ego needs to be stroked every so often or he becomes all grumpy because the dead idiot in Yugi's Puzzle keeps beating him," shrugged Usagi. "Besides, compared to what other teenagers with far too much money on their hands do, is this really that over the top? At least it's earning us a lot of money since it's a great way to promote the duel disk system."
"True. Compared to what he could be spending it on, this is actually relatively tame," said Fon, conceding her point. Just look at Mafia Land.
"Besides... we're almost finished buying another island to build a Kaiba Land theme park. It won't be moving like Mafia Land, but we're hoping it generates a lot of revenue... to say nothing of the Duelist Academy Kaiba's been planning to make," said Usagi with a straight face.
"...They really love this card game, don't they?" said Fon, deadpan.
"I've long since come to terms with their obsession with it. So long as I don't have to deal with it outside of helping them keep the budget on task and keep their spending to reasonable things, I learned to tune it out," admitted Usagi.
"Yeah, big brother used to be much worse when it came to this game," said Mokuba. "Usagi once had to forcibly pull him away from this over the top plan to beat Yugi because he was pissed the runt beat him at it. It would have cost us way too much, never mind the headaches dealing with the legal fees."
"I'm almost afraid to ask," said Fon.
"He was planning to hire mercenaries for an over the top deadly game of laser tag, just to wear Yugi down before the duel," deadpanned Usagi. "To say nothing of the death trap he planned to make and then televise."
Fon stared at her.
"...I want to ask if you're kidding, but considering he plans to blow up an island as the grand finale for this tournament..."
Mokuba snickered.
"Considering the popularity of our 'announcer', I think big brother was planning to have Usagi use some over the top 'magical spell' to set off the explosions or something as a joke."
Usagi twitched.
"Just for that, I'm getting a 'magical wand' and then using an X-Burner to set off the chain reaction. If anyone asks, it was all digital effects."
Mokuba started cracking up. Then he paused.
"What's an X-Burner?"
Fon smirked.
"Usagi figured out how to attack with her Flames directly. Remember that magical blast she used on Ra? She was using her X-Burner while amplifying Mogget's shield. And that wasn't even full power either," said Fon.
"So...what you're saying is that Usagi-nee can now blow things up with her magical powers," said Mokuba slowly, grinning widely.
"Not just blow things up. Once she figures out the trick of it, she'll be able to fly too. There's a reason they're called Skies, after all," said Fon.
"If big brother finds out he's going to make you wear that magical girl costume forever," said Mokuba dead serious.
Usagi rolled her eyes.
"So long as I get to pick what it looks like, and he lets me wear professional clothes during business meetings. At this rate I'm going to become the 'official' mascot of Kaiba Corp with the Blue Eyes being the mascot of the boss."
Mokuba cracked up...because it was way too true. Then an evil thought occurred to him.
"I wonder how people would react if you had a Blue Eyes White Chick as one of your cuddly pets or something?"
Usagi blinked, before she started laughing.
"At this rate we might as well try making an anime!" she joked.
"Actually Shōichi and the others are already in the talks with Pegasus about ideas for an anime. He's agreed to split the revenue with us so long as we time any 'new' characters that are based on monster cards with the expansion."
"Just so we're clear, if anyone tries to make me do some corny speech about love and friendship I will blow up the studio. I refuse to be part of a cliché magical girl series. I'd rather be more like the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series than anything close to Sailor Moon or the various series it spawned," deadpanned Usagi.
"Do we get to pick our roles?" asked Fon, jokingly.
"You're a mysterious Chinese restaurant owner where the characters usually go to eat. You dispense sage advice, random things that sound like they're from Confucius, and generally act as the one who trains them in hand-to-hand once things become serious and the team is assembled," said Mokuba without missing a beat.
Fon blinked twice. He had been joking about that.
"What about I-Pin?"
"Daughter of the shop owner and the reason why they picked that place to eat. Once we find someone to do the voice for her older self, she's going to be the second or third member of the team," said Mokuba.
"Fuuta?"
"The usual little brother character, one who's always being kidnapped and the one who generally tends to contact the 'mystery planet' to get special items, advice and general plot lines for new enemies," said Mokuba. He grinned. "I'm going to be the sneaky kitsune who shows up to give directions and generally be a nuisance while making their romantic and personal lives difficult, but still an ally."
"Hayato?" asked Fon, grinning.
"A delinquent with a crush on the main character's older brother. He means well and he's always blowing things up in his face, but he's one of the more dependable male side characters. He'll actually win a few battles against monsters, but his main job is distraction and rescue," said Mokuba.
"Takeshi."
"Older brother who pretends to be clueless but helps behind the scenes. He mostly acts as an alibi and helps to keep things humorous," said Mokuba.
"Kaiba and Kyouya?"
"Kyouya acts as the main male fighter, while big brother is her crush. We plan to make it clear that both happen to like her, and eventually they agree to share when big brother finds out who Kyouya is and what he's been doing to keep Usagi-nee safe. You'll actually see two dragons sizing each other up, only to back off when Usagi shows up. We plan to add a Blue Eyes White Chick at some time that turns into a puddle of goo when she turns her Look on him."
Fon was snickering openly, as was Usagi.
"Mukuro and his group."
"Reformed villains," said Mokuba.
"Chrome."
"Neighborhood girl with a bad home life that comes to live with Usagi, only to turn out to be one of her 'allies/partners'. We're trying to keep it as true to life as possible. Though we're having trouble finding a way to get Usagi's character to realize she's now stuck fighting crime and other monsters," said Mokuba.
"Considering Reborn is openly planning to show up sometime after the finals, I doubt that will be an issue much longer," said Fon dryly. "The trick will be to convince him to go along with it."
"Wonder how he liked that commercial?" asked Usagi.
"He actually swore," said Fon openly amused. "Though odds are we'll have to deal with Viper sooner rather than later... there's no way the miser would pass up a chance to complain about someone using their face without their permission."
"Give them the sales of the cards featuring them directly. It's not like Pegasus will care since odds are the 'magical Usagi' cards will be his biggest sellers."
"True."