Dioscuri
A/N: So sorry for the late update! I'm flying to China on the 25th. Hence, Dioscuri would be on hold until August. Please look forward to the next chapter!
– LLS
27: Loggia
"I have a very bad feeling," Timoteo abruptly announced into the lazy, relaxed atmosphere of the recreation room that Vongola had reserved at the hot springs inn.
Xanxus grunted once, and poured himself more sake, tellingly getting more insulting with every cup. Timoteo regarded the insults as an improvement to the awkward silence. "There's no way your candy trash will lose to the shark trash, old man!"
A yellow ping-pong ball landed on the table with such force it cracked the polished surface, mere centimetres away from an empty tokkuri. Further defying the laws of physics, the ball then launched itself toward the television screen, ricocheted off slightly cracked glass, and returned back to the ping-pong table.
"Shut up, Xanxus!" Coyote yelled between serves and fierce back-hands.
"This isn't about the ping-pong game," Timoteo said in exasperation. He held up his book in front of his face, just in time to deflect a rather nasty back-hand that Squalo had delivered to Coyote with a manic grin. "This is serious. The last time I had a very bad feeling, it was 1962."1
"The Cuban Missile Crisis?" Squalo asked before turning his attention back to the showdown of prosthetics between him and Nono's Storm Guardian.
Coyote snorted. "As if!" He paused to throw his paddle in the air, making it spin once before it intercepted the ball.
"Show off," Squalo muttered.
"No, Lorenzo was the one who worried about world affairs, storming about the mansion in a temper. '62 was Timoteo running around after the bastard like an ugly mother hen."
"Bastard, why are you holding a conversation?!" Squalo demanded. "Pay attention to the damn game!"
"Only because things like that were more personal for Lorenzo!" Timoteo said defensively, completely ignoring Squalo. "He did survive the Nagasaki bombings 2, remember? Besides, everyone else was worried about the Cold War as well!"
"You weren't worried about the world going to hell," Coyote retorted. "The Soviet Union could have triumphed for all that you noticed, but if Lorenzo growled or sneezed you were at his side instantly!"
"VOOOII! Stop fucking ignoring me!" Squalo yelled, unconsciously increasing his volume.
"Oi, I do that for you too," Timoteo heedlessly continued arguing. "You had that surgery and I took off two weeks-"
"You ate all my Swiss chocolate," Coyote pointed out. "That doesn't count."
"You didn't want it!"
"DAMMIT!" Squalo practically screeched, causing the ball to hit the net.
"Net, thirty-love!" Reborn announced, dressed up in a miniature referee's outfit.
Squalo continued yelling obscenities in Italian, blending into Sicilian very quickly.
"You suck, shark trash," Xanxus growled. "Stop worrying, old man. It's probably just your arthritis acting up again or something."
"No doubt made worse by your idiotic kidnapping attempt," Coyote added.
"I thought we agreed that it never happened!" Their budding argument was quickly cut short when Timoteo suddenly clutched his head. The tokkuri3 that held Xanxus' sake tipped over, spilling alcohol onto the tiled floor.
"Timoteo!"
"Old man?" Xanxus demanded, the harshness in his voice not enough to cover up legitimate concern.
"I..." Timoteo righted himself with Squalo's help and glanced from the spilled puddle to the cracked, but still functioning television. "Namimori. We have to get back to Namimori."
"What's wrong, Ninth?" Reborn asked. He jumped up to the television and had Leon transform into a remote so that he could turn up the volume.
"After a sudden earthquake swept the coastal region, passers-by discovered a sudden treasure of Namimori! Within this sleepy town, four graves damaged by the earthquake have uncovered flames burning within! These flames come in four different colours of orange, yellow, red and green, and though the identities of the late men whose remains lie here remain unknown due to the earthquake's damage, their positions allow us to determine that these graves belong to the same family..."
A moment of stunned silence was broken by Reborn's rather eloquent, albeit childishly understated, response: "This is bad."
The reporter continued to drone on about how the sudden natural disaster had scientists stymied while everyone in the room looked on blankly.
Reborn was the first to get his wits back. "Those Flames correspond exactly to the Sawada Family's Dying Will Flames."
"All of Primo's line have their remains there," Coyote murmured in dawning horror. "Ieyasu, Yoshimune, Yoshinobu, Ietsuna-"
"Shark trash," Xanxus snarled.
"I've already let Lussuria know that the officers we left behind are responsible for securing the site," Squalo announced loudly. "Is discretion a concern?"
"Yes," Timoteo said firmly. "Secure the Flames and cover it up with CEDEF. Iemitsu might be cutting his vacation short right now, so... Coyote?"
"I'm going to handle the broadcasts and the rest of it," Coyote sucked in a breath through his teeth. "Lorenzo, you bastard! You're a bigger pain dead than alive!"
"What did Fon want?" was Mammon's first demand on arriving at Verde's newest laboratory. "I saw him passing by."
"Mm, a test of our research," Verde replied, sorting out three cuvettes and fiddling with a colourimeter. Next to him, Caiman was rolling about with a bored expression on its face. "I managed to develop a pill that would return us for three hours, but Ietsuna's power is still far more effective. Although we haven't figured out how or why the sunrises and sunsets are involved. It's good to see you too, Mammon."
"...did someone possess you, Verde?"
"I was testing to see Ietsuna-san was correct about basic manners smoothing the way to communication," Verde huffed. "Help me sort out the warm and cold colours if you want us to be done, Mammon."
Seated at the same plastic bench as Ietsuna away from the bickering pair, Skull was fidgeting. "Ah, Ietsuna-san?"
"Hmm?" Ietsuna looked up from the matrix of numbers that Verde had handed to him once the middle school student had arrived at Verde's makeshift Tri-Ni-Sette hideout. "Yes, Skull-san?"
"Are you not going home?"
"No," Ietsuna stated. "I sent a message. I don't know if it got through the earthquake, though..."
"B- But," Skull flailed. "Uhm... what about Reborn-sempai?"
"Reborn's out of town with the Ninth and Xanxus on their fatherly bonding hot springs trip," another flat reply was delivered. "Can I go back to calculations now?"
"Uh, then your mother?" Skull hazarded.
"Kaa-san knows that I'm outside doing stuff," Ietsuna shrugged. "She doesn't care since Papa is in the house."
The tone made Skull want to drop the conversation, lest they enter the terrible realm of teenage angst and family circumstances. "That sounds very complicated," Skull deflated onto Ietsuna's paperwork, which in his current adult form made him look childish. "Ah, Verde-sempai, are you sure he can do these problems?"
"This is experimental data derived from the examination of the Zero Point Breakthrough ice," Verde explained. "Even he can do a simple v=fλ transformation."
"...I don't understand," Skull nodded, "so I'll just sit here."
"Good," Verde sat back at his work.
The stunt biker fidgeted, and then turned to Mammon.
"I'm busy," Mammon arranged a few more cuvettes. On her head, Fantasma ate a passing fly.
"Ah, fine!" Ietsuna sat up. "Skull-san, I'm going to give you the simple version of what we're setting out to do."
"Really?" Skull sparkled.
"Whatever," Mammon waved. "His babysitting is up to you, Ietsuna."
"Where to begin..." Ietsuna sighed. "Ah, there are seven known types of Dying Will Flames, which historically been grouped by the Vongola Family with certain weather phenomena."
"Eh? So it's not always fact?" Skull asked.
"Skull-san," Ietsuna sighed, "What you call fact, I call knowledge derived from extensive physical observation, that has been easily distilled into an easy-to-teach format for simple comprehension. So, it's current theory which may be structured differently in the future."
"Alright," Skull nodded. "I get that. Go on."
"The seven known Flames we currently know of were assigned a name based on the Vongola Guardian that held the Flame," Ietsuna recounted. "In the order of the visible spectrum: Red, the Storm Flame. Orange, the Sky Flame. Yellow, the Sun Flame. Green, the Lightning Flame. Blue, the Rain Flame. Indigo, the Mist Flame. And violet, the Cloud Flame.
"In the Mafia, Flames are described as a high-density form of energy that is derived from life force," Ietsuna continued, after sketching out the seven names of the Flames on a piece of A4 paper. "It has been regarded as a type of battle aura as well, due to observed emotional resonance. However, the Dying Will Flame is more alike to a real flame, possessing its own destructive properties. Each Flame's attribute has its own special characteristic."
"That much I know," Skull nodded. "So far so good."
"There are also other characteristics, like Dying Will Flames of the same colour expressing opposite characteristics," Ietsuna described. "For example, Tsuna's Flame is completely orange and easier to manipulate, but Xanxus' Flame is a reddish-orange which has more destructive power at the cost of control."
"You saw the Flame of Wrath?" Mammon commented, looking up from her work.
"Up close and personal," Ietsuna agreed. "Back to the lecture. These Flames' special characteristics can make certain effects happen, such as Verde-sensei calling down lightning regardless of season. Also, we can affix these Flames to objects, like your Pacifiers or the Vongola Rings and so on."
"OK, Flames equal magic powers," Skull nodded. "You fix magic powers to something, like a totem, so that they continue running. Like how people wear those weird talismans to ward off the evil eye in Sicily."
"That's... one way to say it," Ietsuna sighed. "So, the important question. Assume that these Flames are the only supernatural phenomena involved. How would someone go about constructing a curse using only these Flames?"
"Use the Flames themselves," Skull realised. "But, how?"
"We believe that the curse is a mixture of different types of Dying Will Flames, which induces physical reverse-ageing," Ietsuna agreed. "If we find that composition, we can, in theory, cancel it out. Since we managed to break the curse, however temporarily, by freezing it with the Zero Point Breakthrough, we think it's based on the electromagnetic spectrum. We think that he's been using a scheme to apply his Dying Will Flames similar to additive colouring."
Skull raised his hand. "I don't understand the last phrase. What's additive colouring?"
"Additive colouring, is colour created by mixing a number of different light colours," Ietsuna explained. "Since white – the existence of all colours – implies a non-effect, we think that the black Flame – which is the absence of all colours – might imply something that would lead us to break the curse."
"Oh," Skull nodded. "Erm, so... the existence of colours imply an effect. But the existence of all colours cancel the effect?"
"Yes, all the colourful personalities drown each other out to form a blank white world," Ietsuna chuckled. "It's quite philosophical."
"There's a lot of white in normal light," Skull commented. "Wouldn't it be easier to minus a few colours first?"
"Are you listening at all?!" Verde exclaimed loudly. "That's not how light works. Use your common sense! You don't have to explain to him anymore, boy."
Ietsuna's expression was contemplative. "...let's try it."
"You're seriously going to try it?" Mammon exclaimed.
"What?" Skull spoke up, confused as the other two Arcobaleno were growing excited.
"I was always thinking about it in terms of light," Ietsuna emphasised. "Because you guys kept talking about the light on the Fated Day. But, what if... if it's not light? What if Dying Will Flames are the condensation of an individual's life force, and it colours whatever it touches? That is, it doesn't act like light. It acts like paint! The colours in paint act differently from the colours in light. That's why Mammon's illusions stand out too much, since you're daubing colours on a white surface."
"And that explains how our theory doesn't account for why we can still see through the Zero Point Breakthrough ice, because if it acts like light, then normal light should have been frozen and we shouldn't be able to see through the ice," Verde quickly nodded. "Experiments! Experiments! We need data!"
Skull blinked as a metal block was pushed in front of him. "Huh?"
"Experiment one," Verde explained. "The Cloud Flame has the power of propagation. Use it on this block."
"Why me?" Skull complained.
"I can't produce a typical Flame," Ietsuna pulled out the Ring that Verde had devised as a result of their experiments, and showed them the black Flame. "Mammon's Flame has too low a hue for experimentation. Verde-sensei has the Lightning Flame, and Solidification is hard to measure. You have the Flame that is most easily tested right now."
Skull sparkled. "This is the first time anyone's been so nice to me!"
"You don't have to explain things so clearly, you know," Verde snorted. "He's an idiot."
"He's an idiot because the people around him never explains anything without a payment," Ietsuna retorted. "Well, I'm also getting something from him... but that's not the point now! The point is that, if explaining things will get Skull-san to cooperate, I will sit down and doodle and explain until my throat ruptures if necessary. If he learns something that would help him, that's even better, because unless something sudden happens in the future, we're going to be working together for a very long time, so Skull-san learning something is to our long-term benefit. And..."
Here, he fidgeted uneasily. "...I like the underdogs anyway."
Skull absently poked the metal block with a Flame-covered finger, and soon there were two cubes on the table. Verde remained silent as he filmed the process.
Mammon coughed, and patted Skull on the back before turning to Ietsuna. "He's weak. He won't be of benefit to you."
"Well, he's my ally now, right?" Ietsuna replied. "Call it... the expectation of future favours."
Mammon nodded. "I understand. But there's not much that a stunt driver can do."
"Publicity? A public face?" Ietsuna shrugged, gesticulating in excitement. "I'll worry about that in the future. Right now we need to consider other things."
"Such as?" the illusionist prompted.
"If we change our hypothesis from an additive colour scheme to a subtractive colour scheme4, that implies that the manipulation of Dying Will Flames is done outside the body," Ietsuna exclaimed, sharing a look with Verde. "Everyone would contain more or less the same... paint composition. So, a person might be able to steal and use the Dying Will Flames of another person. I mean, if it exists, it can be stolen. It can be transferred, bequeathed, stored. Theoretically every living being has a colour... yet, I don't have it."
The extremes of moods made Mammon back away as Ietsuna turned from elated to contemplating. "I have a Flame that implies the absence of colour. The absence of life force. If I don't have this... what do I have?"
The frisson of excitement died as quickly as it had descended. The three Arcobaleno were suddenly very aware that they were sharing laboratory space with a paradox. The living contradiction had suddenly tapped upon the metaphysical and philosophical implications of his existence. None of the Arcobaleno present were prepared to handle the boy if he broke down, if the panicked looks Mammon and Skull were sharing was any indication.
The solution was presented from, of all places, Verde.
"We do not know!" Adjusting his glasses, Verde looked every bit the mad scientist that was stereotyped everywhere. "But I suddenly find myself desirous to see that black Flame again."
Skull and Mammon sank in relief as Ietsuna left them to follow the currently adult-sized scientist towards the only open space in the laboratory. "We're saved..." Skull gasped.
"No one is paying me to deal with a brat's existential crises," Mammon agreed quietly, listening to the soothing scientifically constructed babble between the two over a metal cube and spatial placement of the thing.
"Yeah," Skull agreed. "Mammon, do you think they're getting closer?"
"Well, we made a major breakthrough today."
"I meant Verde-sempai and Ietsuna-san," Skull corrected as he indicated the empty space. "They're quite close."
Ietsuna inhaled and exhaled, back straight as he put on the ring with the black stone. The black smoke that erupted from its stone did not seem like a Dying Will Flame, despite Verde's extensive tests indicating that the black smoke had a far higher energy output than the seven known Dying Will Flames. The metal cube was shrouded in the black, and then a fwip resounded.
Skull then screamed as the colourimeter cuvette next to him exploded. The metal cube bounced off the worktop, skidding on the concrete to land with a stop near a board of Post-It notes.
"Sorry!" Ietsuna perfunctorily called to them.
"What was that?" Mammon exclaimed.
"Oh, right," Ietsuna shrugged. "You weren't around for a lot of our experimentation. The basis of this Flame is spatial point-to-point connection. In short, teleportation. We figured out a basic 3-dimensional coordinate system for it, using myself as the origin point in my calculations. We also established that if I teleport object A into object B, object B gets displaced regardless of their respective compositions. Meaning, if that cuvette was Reborn's head, it'd be one headache out of the way."
"Teleportation... if you don't need to touch the object, you could steal anything."
"Your face is scary!" Skull retorted in answer to the baby's sudden manic grin.
"It's an incredibly flexible power," Verde agreed. "But if you can only teleport yourself, it becomes another tool to run away."
"Actually, at the lack of air friction and gravity operating, I could probably displace a concrete wall," Ietsuna mused, frowning. "And if I expand my range worldwide, I can see the world without caring about customs. If I can teleport fast enough to reach orbit, I could probably fly. I can teleport someone up with me, and then return back to ground level while they fall and splat on the ground. If I can move fast enough, I can surpass the speed of light."
Verde smiled. "It won't be so smooth, though."
"But it will be worth it," Ietsuna insisted. "It's worth testing."
"If you say," Verde nodded. "So, about the gun you mentioned?"
"I'll leave it at home," Ietsuna commented, sending another cube into the far wall with an ominous crack. "That gun is against the Swords and Firearms Control Law, so carrying it around would be even more troublesome if I were caught. As part of the Disciplinary Committee, I have to meet policemen, so it's even more dangerous. I don't know why, but I feel... something wrong going to happen."
"The Vongola Hyper Intuition?" Mammon stated in interest.
Ietsuna rubbed his face. "I don't know. It's been starting after the earthquake just now, like there is something... pulling at me."
"Ah, is it your worry for your brother?" Skull suggested.
"No, it's pulling in the opposite direction," Ietsuna flung the last cube forward, blinking as it winked out with a fwip and thudded onto the wall behind him. "Verde-sensei, do you think I could use needles instead? I could try to hide them in my clothes."
"We'll carry out the tests with a body analogue next time," Verde promptly replied. "But needles don't actually hurt people."
"Erm..." Ietsuna regarded the ceiling. "I was thinking about teleporting them into people. You know. As a threat."
"Don't!" Skull wailed. "That's even more dangerous!"
Mammon sighed, and on her hood, Fantasma croaked. "I'm leaving..."
Oodako waved goodbye from the rather tiny aquarium some bright spark had deigned to stuff the octopus in.
"This is too dangerous," Tsuna insisted. "Alouette-san needs help. Can't I sleep somewhere else instead, U-san?"
"Tsu-chan, I'm just asking if you don't mind the spare futon in Kyoya's room," U dead-panned. "Ma is in the spare room with me, Lancia-san is crashing on our couch, Chrome-chan is using the other spare room, and we're expecting others soon. I know you know about our problem with crowds, but you're tiny enough not to count."
"I'm, not good with nights and Hibari-san," Tsuna confessed.
"Yes, skylarks are diurnal birds," U agreed softly. "I assume that you do mind spending a night together with my son in his room."
"Yes...?" A quizzical head tilt made itself known.
"Because he presents a constant source of danger," U nodded, half-murmuring to herself. "They say that girls like bad boys, but I don't know if it applies to boys as well..."
"I wouldn't call it like that, U-san. Actually, are you really supposed to say that about your son?"
There was a spark in U's eye that made any doubt about her parentage disappear. It was disturbing, Tsuna realised, how the old skylark's gaze of certainty looked in a face much closer to Hibari-san's. "Call it training to get over the suspension bridge effect5."
"Eh?"
"You shouldn't misplace your affection, Tsu-chan," U continued. "You need to be absolutely certain."
"Y- Yes?"
"So, you need to sleep with my son."
"Huh?!"
This was how Tsuna found himself on his back, wrapped in a futon, in the only washitsu6 in the Hibari home. Hibari stared down at the boy with an unreadable expression.
"I'm afraid of ruining your sleep and the consequences," Tsuna babbled. "Ie says I snore..." He froze then, the large honey-coloured eyes flickering between the shoji lattice that made up the north-facing wall of the house, and the fusuma that made up the other three walls7.
Anyone could read the desire to throw himself through the doors on Tsuna's expressive face. Hibari was no exception. "You will learn to desist."
Tsuna hiccoughed. "Erm..."
"You will learn."
"Yes, Hibari-san," Tsuna laid back down. A muffled rustling of bedsheets indicated that Hibari had laid back down soon after.
"...I'm worried for Alouette-san," Tsuna spoke up. "I think I'd better-"
"The old carnivore is asleep," Hibari's silky diatribe cut him off. "You can't do anything for her as you are. Go to sleep."
"That... may be true," Tsuna admitted. "But I'm still worried. Alouette-san is strong like Hibari-san. That's why just now, her confusion is... frightening."
"Hn."
"It's worrying," Tsuna continued, one hand flopping to his chest. "It's like... something is calling at me to move. Like there is something I need to find."
"Hn."
Tsuna hummed, staring at the ceiling. "Hibari-san... has a nice mother."
"The mother carnivore keeps doing herbivorous things," came the muffled reply. "The phone bill escalates each time she calls in from Hong Kong. The luggage bill escalates with each visit. She invites the Discipline Committee over for tea. It's noisy."
"-.-' That's extraordinary, especially coming from Hibari-san..." Tsuna muttered. "But, that just shows that she cares about Hibari-san, right? Dad never called back to us, brought souvenirs, or talked about his job at all. U-san is busy, but I think she's really trying to be the best mother she can."
"No, she's trying to poach members. You'd better not follow her."
"Mmm..." Tsuna subsided into the soft bedding, eyes still open. "I wonder why we haven't met U-san until now-"
There was a gravity to Hibari's motion that usually allowed the Disciplinary Committee's general affairs manager to keep track and dodge the chairman. Said gravity was unfortunately put to very good use when a weight slammed into Tsuna, and sandwiched his body between the futon mattress and the quilt.
"Maybe you don't understand, herbivore, but right now you're weak and useless," the hiss was punctuated with the shine of a tonfa in the darkness. "It is midnight. Go to sleep."
"Yes!" Tsuna squeaked. "I'm very sorry!"
"Hn," the weight climbed off of Tsuna and settled back down next to him, a warm presence on a cold night. "The mother carnivore doesn't stay in Japan for long. That city always needs discipline. Good night."
"H- Hibari-san... good night." Tsuna fidgeted, considered his dark surroundings. "Thanks... for the explanation."
A moment later, Tsuna shifted closer to the prefect and closed his eyes.
It was sometime around midnight that Ietsuna turned to the laboratory. "Tsuna fell asleep."
"How do you know?" Verde asked. In answer, Ietsuna pointed to his own flaming forehead. "Wait, you enter Dying Will Mode every time your twin sleeps?"
"Probably," Ietsuna replied after a pause, nonplussed by the sudden revelation.
"Don't say 'probably', we need more concrete timings!"
"Well, since I lied to Tsuna that he snores so that he doesn't take naps in public, we have the same schedule, the same waking time and the same bedtime," Ietsuna reasoned. "I can't sense if I enter Dying Will Mode when I'm asleep, but probably not, since Reborn hasn't interrogated me and my mother isn't freaking out about it. So it probably works only if I'm awake while Tsuna is asleep."
"Verde-sempai, don't you think it might be because they're twins?" Skull volunteered. "Like, people sometimes say that twins share something between them."
"So how many sets of identical twins do you know, who are sufficiently versed in Dying Will Flames, and are available for testing?" Verde groaned in frustration.
"Belphegor had an identical twin," Skull volunteered. "I heard from Mammon."
"The Varia psychos don't count," Verde face-palmed. "Varia Quality would render all tests to be outliers."
"Whatever. I'm going home," Ietsuna dismissed.
"And what would your mother say?" Verde demanded. "Your head is on fire, boy."
"I'll just be sneaky," Ietsuna crossed his arms.
"Your house has the chief external advisor and the Poison Scorpion," Verde pointed out. "You're not going to be sneaky enough."
"Ah, I'll steal a hat."
"You're a stubborn brat," Verde sighed, pulling out a hat-box. "Luckily, I came prepared. But you're coming along to my next business meeting."
"Eh?" Ietsuna blinked at the hat that Verde had tossed to him. It was black, with a high crown and a wide, stiff brim. "A cowboy hat?"
"It's a design based on the original Stetson prototype, which was called the Boss of the Plains," Verde explained. "Your power is portals, not teleportation. That crazy stunt which broke my wall is the result of opening a portal within the wall and letting Newton's second law of motion take over with no frictional force. Using something to focus your power would improve your ability."
"I see," Ietsuna played with the hat. "Because this hat is round, it provides a shape for me to open a portal inside, right? It feels like a magician's hat."
"Verde-sempai, what's that going to do?" Skull complained.
Glaring at the Cloud Arcobaleno, Verde drew a breath. "He's going to hide that his head is on fire."
"Well..." Ietsuna frowned as he set the hat over his head, drawing it down over his forehead. "Is my head on fire?"
"No, you were right about Flames not actively holding destructive properties unless focused," Verde replied. "You look normal."
Ietsuna wrung his hands. "I don't like it. I don't look like Tsuna."
"Grow up, boy. You and your twin are two different people."
"But people are after Tsuna, and I need to be able to draw them away," Ietsuna reasoned, still fingering the hat-band as he pondered the question.
"Ietsuna-san, you are also an heir of the Vongola," Skull pointed out. "Your twin can take care of himself. He has six Guardians. Right now, shouldn't you care about yourself more? You don't even have one subordinate."
"I... I just want Tsuna to be safe and happy," Ietsuna shook his head. "If he wants the Vongola, he can have it. He doesn't want to be Boss in the first place. It's not his fault or his choice. Why can't anyone realise that?!"
"It's because this world is unfair," Verde spoke up. "It doesn't matter what is anyone's choice. Your twin is being supervised by Reborn to take over the Vongola Famiglia, and Xanxus... did not qualify. That is how it is. Or he dies."
"Then I hate the world!" Smoky black erupted, and the hat took on a distinct sheen like the star-studded velvet of night. "For his sake, I hate the world!"
Glass cracked, and blue liquid spilled over Verde's bench. The scientist ignored this, distracted by the killing intent that had formed on the boy's face.
A few seconds later, Skull poked his head out of the desk that he had ducked behind. His form was still trembling. "W- What was that?!"
"That was us providing the superior argument, Skull," Verde gravely replied. "You lost control. You did not want to acknowledge a truth, Sawada Ietsuna. He does not need you to do everything, however much you want to lend your hand. He is not you, and you are not him, no matter how you masquerade yourself. You are entitled to hate your brother sometimes."
Ietsuna stared down. "...Sorry, Skull-san, Verde-sensei. I'm going home. See you tomorrow."
"Ietsuna-san-!" The fwip punctuated the ensuing silence. "He ran..."
Verde pensively regarded the spilled blue liquid. "I hope he'll be alright tonight."
A waning crescent smiled in the blackness of night, the eventide lit with the stars above, and the lamps of civilisation here and there. The mountain path that led away from Namimori and towards Shimon Town was shrouded in darkness – the lights having become victims of the earthquake beforehand. In the darkness, there was a boy, slipping through rings of smoke and disappearing and reappearing over the roofs of town, leaving what could have been the tapestry of the stars trailing with every step.
The tapestry was banished as lights streaked the skies over Namimori in four colours, and Ietsuna stopped before this enchanted light, one hand still holding onto his new hat. "What the hell?"
The streaks of colour also lit another silhouette in the skies.
"What the hell?!" Ietsuna's breath caught as a scythe, wielded by a red-haired woman, swung towards him. He bowed forward, hands thrown forward to support his body through the back handspring, throwing his feet bodily into the scythe-wielder's middle. Having knocked the woman off-course, the scythe sliced through a set of red tiles, knocking them down.
Ietsuna set his feet back onto solid rooftop, the hardened rubber of his shoes and the skin of his fingers granting him purchase amidst the jangle of falling tile. "Nufufufu," the woman giggled, picking up her scythe easily. "The Vongola Tenth, I see."
"Oh, you're looking for me?" Ietsuna lied. "Sorry, I'm busy. Can you arrange something with my right hand-man? He's the Smoking Bomb, Gokudera Hayato." I hope this doesn't count as approval. I still don't like that bastard. "The waiting period is about two months."
"In the name of the Simon Famiglia, I will have revenge!" the woman shouted, brandishing her scythe. "Present your neck!"
"..." Ietsuna 's lips parted. "Oh."
The scythe was slapped aside. In that small moment, Ietsuna had ducked and kicked her between the legs, before leaning in with a finger fan to the throat. Red hair fanned out as she dropped back, using the incline of the roof to duck the attack. She could not, however, duck the chassé latéral kick directed at her skull that sent her reeling, the scythe's pommel digging through tiles barely saving her from tipping overboard.
"I haven't seen you around," Ietsuna commented, squatting on the roof's apex. "If I didn't know the Simon Boss, I would believe it. Either way, you're not part of the Simon, despite that red hair and whatever you say. Even if you were, I wouldn't believe anything you say."
"Nufufufu," the woman gloated as a blaze of indigo covered her hands and the scythe. "You're sharp, Sawada Tsunayoshi."
"And there it is," Ietsuna smirked as her face contorted, her pupils slipping to the sign of the spade . "The final proof. If you were really part of the Simon, you would know that I'm not Sawada Tsunayoshi."
"You're not Sawada Tsunayoshi?" the female voice deepened to a masculine tone. "That's not possible. There's only one Vongola Tenth, Sawada Tsunayoshi. Sawada Iemitsu only has one living child. The rest of the Sawada family's Flames are burning over there!"
"Your information sources suck, and so do your counting skills," Ietsuna stuck his tongue out, pulling another knife from his pocket. "Die knowing that you went after the wrong target."
"There should only be one heir of Primo left in this generation!" the woman screamed as they parried blows. "I killed the other one!"
"So you did..." Ietsuna closed his eyes in a gesture of denial. "I'm the one you killed."
At the Sawada house, Iemitsu silently tiptoed out of the master bedroom, and sidestepped the Poison Scorpion and her brother's debate about the late-night rom-com movie involving aliens – their current attempt at making up – and then slipping out to regard the illuminated skyline. A sleek black car rolled up to the gate, and Basil stepped out, a suit on a hanger in hand.
"Tonight," Iemitsu declared seriously, taking up the suit to duck into the car as Basil got into the vehicle commander seat, "will be a busy night."
The car peeled away, a silent conveyance into the dark of night.
"Why do we have a copy of His Last Bow in our cars?" Basil asked the female driver spoke as she turned a corner, adjusting her spectacles with one hand.
"Excuse me, Oregano?" Iemitsu adjusted his cuff-links. "I didn't quite catch it."
"The Sherlock Holmes book, Master," Basil, currently riding shotgun, explained. "I shouldn't be speaking out of turn, but why does our every vehicle contain a copy of His Last Bow?"
"Ah..." Iemitsu fidgeted, pulling on his jacket. Changing in a car had never been one of his finer points. "No, Basil, you asked a valid question. It's a cautionary tale. I'm actually surprised that it didn't come up sooner. You see, before World War One, there was a traitor in the Family. Someone was sent to clean it up. The hitman not only managed to bungle things up, he got killed by his target and Scotland Yard was dragged in. So the founder of the External Advisors himself had to intervene, but at the end of it we got mentioned in that book."
"What?!" Basil exclaimed.
"Yes," Iemitsu heaved as the car drew closer to the source of the lights that currently bathed the walled ground with colour, "that book is the reason why CEDEF became responsible for covering up everything that would violate Omertà on the Vongola's end; some idiota flashed our emblem about. Attenta, pericolo, red circle. That's our emblem."
"Covering up Omertà got us mentioned in a literary classic?" Basil echoed in disbelief.
"Better than the Gorgiano guy," Oregano shook her head as they pulled into the cemetery and the engine was shut off. "He had to face two angry skylarks."
"Ushishishi," Belphegor giggled in front of the four graves. "The external advisor peasants are late."
"Oh, Bel-chan, don't aggravate them," Lussuria cooed, albeit distracted by watching the beacons of Flames. "They're in big trouble if we hadn't interrupted that television broadcast. It would be troublesome if another situation like Squ-chan were to appear now."
"Boss said to cover this up," Levi grunted in reply. "Do we dig up all four of them?"
"Well, I'm the one whose actual family members are buried there," Iemitsu stepped in, holding up his hands in a gesture of calm. "Oregano, find out the broadcast and get the tapes. Basil, keep a lookout for any keepers around. I presume that all witnesses-"
"We knocked them out," Levi stolidly replied. "I would have killed them since Mammon is off-duty."
"Levi-chan, wait!~" Lussuria scolded. "This is not Italy. We aren't fighting the GICO here8. If we did that, it's the opposite of discretion."
Clicking his tongue in irritation at the bickering Varia officers, Iemitsu then approached the closest and newest of the four gaping maws created by the earthquake. Within the hollowed tombstone, the crackling green light danced like a static charge imprisoned and made visible, surrounding a core of orange light settled within the patterned urn. It looked like the late Sawada Ietsuna's glare, only halved.
"Good news," Iemitsu announced. "The Flame is set inside this urn, so we just need to move them and patch up the damage. Check the others as well."
"Ushishishi, they're all intact," Belphegor sniggered as he poked his head in and out of the grave emitting red light, next to the one Iemitsu was currently moving. "Your grandfather has the Boss's Flames!"
"What?" Levi, momentarily distracted, snuck next to the grave. "T- This-! The Boss has brighter Flames than to- this badly-made copy!"
"Oi!" Iemitsu yelled back. "That's my grandfather!"
"I have an interest in that one," Lussuria pointed to the third grave next to the oldest grave of the four, a weak yellow almost drowning in the orange light of the Sky Flames. "It's not visible, but clearly it's a hybrid of Sun and Sky Flames."
"Actually, I'm not sure which is more amazing, ushishi," Belphegor giggled. "That all of them have Sky Flames, or that there's a whole Family's worth of Flames in this graveyard. Mammon would be amazed."
"I am, Bel," Floating down, the Mist Arcobaleno just surveyed the scene.
"Mammon, are you done?" Lussuria cooed up to the floating baby.
"I just retrieved the tapes and wiped a few memories," Mammon tonelessly replied. "There's nothing to do about what's already been broadcast. Luckily, there's nothing to connect the Flames to the Vongola except its location."
Silently, Basil walked towards the CEDEF head. "Master, why dost thou bear thy troubles on thy face?"
Iemitsu grimaced, still holding onto the urn with the crackling lightning. "Fifteen years he's dead, and he's still being a pain," came a chuckling grumble as he reached for the Flame. "We'll come back soon, old man-"
Iemitsu fell silent as the Flame made contact. A bat fluttered by, and was skewered for its trouble by Belphegor's thrown knife. A breeze shook a few trees.
"M- Master?" Basil pressed in concern. "Are you... alright?"
Iemitsu set down the urn with a definitive thud. "I saw a black Flame. My father was murdered by it! My son was murdered by it!"
A storm of wildlife erupted from the surrounding trees. There was a shouted curse, grunts. In the night, a familiar brown-haired boy crashed against the last gravestone and knocked the urn aside before he burst with a smoky pitch-black.
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1 The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis, The Missile Scare, or the Caribbean Crisis, was a 13-day (October 14–28, 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba. It played out on television worldwide and was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.
2 In August 1945, during the final stage of the Second World War, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.
3 The server of a sake set is a flask called a tokkuri (ja:徳利). A tokkuri is generally bulbous with a narrow neck, but may have a variety of other shapes.
4 Additive colour is colour created by mixing a number of different light colours. So you start from black, and mix colours to get white. This is present in LCD screens and is how computers present images as the RGB model. Subtractive colour is the opposite; you start from white, and then add colours to take away visible wavelengths to get black in the end. This is present in commercial colour printing and painting as the CMYK model. In both schemes, black is understood as the absence of all colours, and white as the presence of all colours.
5 The suspension bridge effect is what happens when a person in danger makes a mistake in assuming what is causing them to feel aroused. In Tsuna's case, U is assuming that Tsuna is mis-attributing fear as arousal – both for Hibari. I don't think putting them in the same room would help things, though...
6 Washitsu (和室), meaning "Japanese-style room(s)", is a Japanese term used as an antonym for the term yōshitsu (洋室), meaning "Western-style room(s)."
7 In traditional Japanese architecture, a shōji (障子) is a door, window or room divider consisting of translucent paper over a frame of wood which holds together a lattice of wood or bamboo. Fusuma (襖) are vertical rectangular panels which can slide from side to side to redefine spaces within a room, or act as doors. They typically measure about 90 centimetres (3.0 ft) wide by 1.8 metres (5'11") tall, the same size as a tatami mat, and are two or three centimetres thick.
8 Gruppo d'investigazione sulla criminalità organizzata (Organized Crime Investigation Group) acronym GICO, is a specialized department of the Italian Guardia di Finanza. Yes, in real life, anti-Mafia operations are handled by a military police force that has actually fought with valour in both World Wars and is equipped as light infantry (up to general purpose machine guns and 40mm grenade launchers) and has combat helicopters and small warships... and serve as tax evasion investigators.
