Dioscuri
35: Trullisatio
"Are you still angry that Maestro missed your birthday, asks Elmo?"
The pair of girls stood together in one stall of the fitting rooms. The dark panelling belied the lace-filled shop interior outside of the stall, where Gamma was hanging out of earshot. Elmo hissed as she plucked at the bra strap she was putting on the dark-haired girl.
"Maestro was busy, it couldn't be helped." The dark-haired girl pouted, stretching the flower tattoo on her left cheek. "How long more must I wear this skin, Elmo-nee? I don't like it."
"Quit complaining, scolds Elmo. Your youngest sister is currently missing, so it falls to you, the second youngest, to work harder."
The living weapon that was currently an exact physical copy of Yuni squinted at her face in the mirror. "I know that," she huffed. "But I miss Aneki. I want to see her soon."
"#4F284B is benched for the moment, pending the aforementioned shut-down of #FF4E20, replies Elmo." Elmo plucked the buckle of the bralette. "This will do, Elmo diverts. #4F284B will likely attempt to retrieve your younger sister again."
"That doesn't seem like you, Elmo-nee. Have you updated your personality module while I wasn't connected to the Rete Vongole?"
"There were no major changes, assures Elmo." A corner of her lips turned down. "Elmo cautions to Ai, you should not mention such matters openly."
Yuni's face frowned in the mirror. "So... what are you going to do?"
"#2CA9E1 has been dispatched to complete the job, within one hour of preparations. Hibari Kyoya will most likely be unable to stand up to a follow-up assault. If it fails, I will send another shoal of soldati units."
"I see. No matter the failure or success of the retrieval, the plan will still move forward." The girl shook her head, exposing her sparkling indigo eyes. "Practical of you to have a backup plan. Can I please uncover my eyes for a moment?"
"No."
"But why?" Yuni's clone pouted. "I've been living as this girl for two years. Her life is so bor- urkg!"
Faster than the human eye could trace, Elmo had one delicate hand curled around Yuni's throat. She squeezed, slender fingers turning white from the grip. Despite the fact that their bodies were only mimics of human systems, Yuni gasped and flailed, knocking against one of the dressing room panels.
Elmo's eyes looked demonic, burnished gold meeting the blue eyes in the mirrored surface as Elmo hissed into the other's ear. "#264348. Do not forget yourself. You are an Infiltration and Impersonation Unit, but before that, you are a weapon of the Vongola dei Cieli. You are nothing but your mission."
Elmo relaxed her hand slightly. "Besides, you must be careful while undercover. Maestro would worry if something happened to you."
A sharp knock on the door cut through the tense atmosphere. "Princess? Are you alright?"
"I- I'm alright, Gamma!" Yuni's voice responded, high and thready.
"We're fine!" Elmo added, her voice pitched as normal as expected from Asari Amaya, the Vongola Decimo's ward.
Gamma did not seem quite convinced. "B- But..."
"B- Besides that, we need a bigger size..." Yuni's voice added.
"... I'll go ask the salesperson." Gamma left, his footsteps muffled by the store carpet.
Yuni blinked watering eyes as she sank down by a wall. She was silent, but the burning glare directed at Elmo was more than expressive enough to compensate. "You didn't have to do that. My Painted Skin function was nearly ruined."
Elmo grimaced. "Elmo agrees, with apologies for nearly breaking your cover. I know you miss everyone, Elmo says. You are Ai. Unit #264348, ai-iro.1 One of the Rete Vongole. Maestro has not forgotten you. So, you will fake an attack in the car, and then we will be on our way."
The girls exited the stall, Yuni blushing as she held up a stack of bralettes to Gamma's equally embarrassed face. Only Elmo, back into her Amaya guise, and the brown-haired man did not react. The Vongola Boss even opened the car door for Yuni with a gesture and a straight face while holding the packages Gamma had given him while the blond man was checking underneath the car for bombs.
Gamma got back to his feet with a grimace. "Please get him out from underneath the car."
The brown-haired man knelt down. "Natsu. Fuyu. Thank you for guarding the car."
"Gao."
"Grr."
"If you set fire to the fuselage, we will all be arrested. Get out, please."
Two blurs, one orange and one white, leapt out from the undercarriage and into Amaya's arms. One of them was a lion cub, complete with a visor sticking out of its orange mane. The other was a wolf cub, its breath steaming in the Sicilian November despite the balmy weather of southern Europe. Amaya smiled, bundling them into the car with her.
He was still holding the bags when everyone was inside the car, Gamma driving. Natsu leapt into his arms to be cuddled, and the Sky Lion submitted to being scratched behind the ears.
"For you. Yuni, buon compleanno in ritardo." The brown-haired man dropped a small box he had extracted from the dashboard. "I had Gamma check it just now, since it's supposed to be a makeup present for the birthday I missed."
"Y- You didn't have to, Sawada-san." She tripped over her words.
"Well, I see you as Amaya's little sister, the way you follow her around." A winning and sincere smile was directed at her from the vehicle commander seat. "Open it."
Yuni cracked open the silk-lined box, admiring the silver ring curled around a rainbow oval, paired with a pair of long earrings set with baroque pearls. "This is... pearl?" She traced the smooth jewel, realising that it was more like a plate.
"Ammolite, actually." Amaya leant forward. "Fossilised mother-of-pearl. It shifts colour, you know?"
Yuni blinked as a passing ray of sunlight changed the gem into a blue cat's eye, at least for that moment. "Oh!"
"And since you put a strict budget on birthday gifts, I was forced to improvise." The brown-haired man sighed. "I did promise to stick with a clam theme."
Gamma eyed him, quickly turning his attention back to the road when an indignant honk reached them. Palermo was nothing like Naples where people drove on the shady sides only, but cars were tailgating at speeds reaching into the hundred-and-thirties klicks. "A hundred thousand Euro for a pair of gloves is overkill."
"They were sea silk! Available only from an old lady in Sardinia!"2
"And I appreciate them," Yuni interrupted, her knuckles tightening on the car door handle as a Piaggio three-wheel cycle started playing paint chicken with them. "But they were really expensive. This is much more creative."
"I would have gone for the giant clam pearl, but Amaya said no." The Boss sighed, turning around to glare at the driver of the three-wheel motorcycle. It fell back very quickly.
"They looked like buttons, Papa. The oyster pearls is prettier, but we thought this would be more creative. Look, there's a chatoyancy – that's the term for a cat's eye effect," Amaya explained to Yuni.
"I think the Decimo's choice was quite good," Gamma remarked, turning a right corner and ignoring a honking De Tomaso Longchamp with the ease of a Formula One driver. "Pearls are... a bit mature, don't you think so, Decimo?"
"I like pearls." The brown-haired man said as Gamma jammed his foot on the brake, narrowly missing a Fiat Ulysse taxi and the Pioggia Ape auto-rickshaw racing it.
"Pearls are the result of a defence mechanism against a potentially threatening irritant, or an injury to the mollusc," he continued as Gamma made a rude gesture to the pair. "It creates a pearl sac, and floods the thing to trap it inside a layer of nacre to become part of its shell. It's like the mollusc is eating whatever that's out to get it to become stronger." His voice then turned pensive as he considered: "It's a bit like the Vongola, on hindsight. The Vongola absorbs its fallen enemies to become stronger."
Neither living weapon could render a sound psychological judgement. This was unlike Gamma, who might have said that the man was projecting a bit too much, but was too busy noticing that a horde of mopeds had just appeared out of nowhere at the car's right flank where they were supposed to turn next.
"I hope we don't end up fossilised, then." Yuni lightly said, admiring the ring as she slipped it onto her middle finger and clipped the earrings on. "The earrings, though..."
"You're wearing white all the time, so I guessed that some colour would brighten up your life." Amaya explained, with a wink and a deliberate look at the back of the shotgun seat. "The right earring's gem has a dragon skin pattern, which made it cheaper for us. But it looks like part of a dragon-"
"No!"
Silence reigned. Gamma refrained from pressing the car horn. Yuni looked down. "I- I'm sorry, Sawada-san. I just... it was Byakuran. His Box Weapon."
"No harm done." the Vongola Boss waved after a while. "I didn't know. I'm sorry. I'll get the earrings replaced."
"I couldn't-"
"Trust me. It'll be like exorcising the bastard's ghost. Right, Gamma?"
Gamma's grip in the steering wheel increased. The car engine rumbled in time to it. "I'll help."
"But- I'm alright, it's just a pair of earrings," Yuni gave a token protest. "They're so beautiful with the ring, too-"
"Don't worry, I was thinking about a pair of pearl studs with this marcasite setting. The indigo pearls were perfect."
"I'm alright, really."
Ai, Rete Vongole unit #264348, sank back into Yuni's skin, the earrings and their dragon-skin pattern ammolite gems set onto the leather upholstery. She had nothing against dragons, personally, and she doubted that the real Yuni had a problem with the mythological creatures, two years after Byakuran or otherwise. But her job undercover was to deflect suspicion, and she doubted that any of the Giglio Nero actually knew their newest Boss well enough to suspect anything odd about her outburst. So long as Gamma was busy worrying about the mental health of a teenage girl, the easier it was for Maestro to manipulate the affairs of the Giglio Nero Famiglia.
She clutched the ring in her hands. All of the subterfuge aside, Maestro had come, and had given her a present. Even undercover, she was not alone.
The Vongola Boss effected a long look as the car rolled past a closed-down roadside trattoria on the Via Piedmonte, its blue sign rusty at the edges. "La Trattoria Oscurità. This, girls, is a cautionary tale of Italian food safety standards."
Yuni looked interested. "How?"
"It's where the Vongola Ninth Generation and the last Chief External Advisor died," The brown-haired man explained, his voice deceptively mild. "Hardened mobsters the lot of them, died during the war by botulism from a sfincione Frutti di Mare. The tale is, be careful of what you eat, even if you have to cook it at a hundred degrees Celsius."
Gamma pondered the story with a furrowed brow. Perhaps that was the official story: it would not be the first time a Mafia Famiglia had been downed by food poisoning in a bout of ridiculous irony. There were always those who had their doubts that it was anything but a tragic, accidental death, which happened in a trattoria partly owned by the Millefiore. Many in the alliance had ascribed poison, some undetectable thing that even Vongola Nono had fallen to in the end. Yet, there was nothing to be done, since the mortician had claimed botulism.
"That sounds dangerous!" Ai, or Yuni, carefully did not look at Elmo. After all, the Trattoria had been one of the assets of Pizzino Srl, a subsidiary by a very long chain of connections to Lupara Bianca S.p.A., which was a front for the Maestro's operations. Clostridium botulinumwas also heat-resistant, with the spores able to survive a hundred degrees Celsius to produce the botulinum toxin in a human gut later. Dying Will or not, it was possible to die from accidentally ingesting the filter-feeding quagga mussels, which were easily mistaken for Mediterranean mussels to the untrained eye.
The fact that the trattoriawas a Millefiore investment had been the key, the crux to pressuring the Vongola to declare war on the Millefiore earlier than Byakuran's predictions, before the release of the Anti-Tri-Ni-Sette radiation. It was a Mafia war; poison was a long-established strategy, and the Vongola had barely investigated in the chaos of the Millefiore Famiglia's onslaught.3 The mussels might have been facilitated by Elmo secreting the poisonous mussels amongst those already boiled into the kitchen, just before the pizza was assembled, guessed Ai. Despite the chances of survival from botulism being well into the ninetieth percentile, Elmo had probably done something as well. Not that Ai had the ability, or motivation, to uncover what Elmo had done as her assignment to get the Ninth Generation, and Sawada Iemitsu, literally 'out of the Maestro's way'.
The Rete Vongole were made to fight the Mafia, after all. Nobody said that they could not be smart about it. Elmo, as the oldest unit made of the Vongola dei Cieli, was the most experienced one.
BIOS START-UP INTERRUPTED. EMERGENCY REFORMAT? IF NOT, PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD AND SELECT 'NO'.
"No, no, no," Tsuna fretted as men in suits typing on computers attached to the orange clam increased typing at their keyboards. "That means we lose everything!"
"That clam would be marvellous," spoke a lollipop-sucking blond mechanic, "if it wasn't currently threatening to destroy all the information we need. I'm gonna run a password crack."
Tsuna swallowed, eyeing the orange clam. Hibari himself stood behind them, staring unimpressed.
"Sawada Ietsuna is a bastard, just so you know." Hibari spoke as the blond mechanic inserted a USB drive into his CPU. "He would have precautions to cracking his passwords."
"Cross for luck. Or is that your password?" Spanner considered as another window popped up. PASSWORD CRACK DETECTED, flashed across all the monitor screens. EMERGENCY REFORMAT INITIATED. EMERGENCY REFORMAT 100%.
"He might have used biometric encryption. Explains how the cracking was detected." The blond fell back, eyeing a panicked Tsuna. He motioned to Hibari and Tsuna. "Should have used his DNA."
"They can do that?" Tsuna blinked at the clam. "Use my DNA to access computers?"
"Sure. Usually they use fingerprints, though." Spanner nodded eagerly. "Does he have your DNA on file?"
"I don't know, I just got here," Tsuna confessed to the blond. He felt drained, knowing that some explanation, something, anything, had just slipped past him, tossing him into the tendencies of the future.
The other offered him a wrench-shaped lollipop, still wrapped in clear plastic. "Spanner. I used to work for the Millefiore, ended up around an old guy, and now I'm here to find the legendary living Box Weapon."
"Living Box Weapon?" Tsuna echoed. As far as he understood Box Weapon technology, it sounded like a certain series of Nintendo games with an electric rodent. Which reminded him – he hadn't yet completed the PokéDex. There were good odds that the National PokéDex had expanded again.
"Normal Box Weapons are like extensions of their user's will," Spanner patiently explained, mumbling around his own ever-present lollipop. "They get their source directly from the user, which is very well and good, but they're not exactly efficient. The AI – artificial intelligence – for these Box Weapons are like robots. Not bad, but not exactly capable of learning or higher intelligence."
"This," Spanner pointed to the orange clam, "if Hedgehog-san over there is right, is capable of exhibiting intelligence of magnitudes far higher than any computer should be capable of. It can reason by itself. Anyone in robotics or computing would want to see this with his own eyes. But the AI wiped itself... we won't get any information from it..."
He trailed off as more text flashed across his monitor screen:
REFORMAT COMPLETE. BOOTING UP...
Tsuna's eyes widened as the one line soon turned into a wall of numbers and letters. "T- That's..."
Spanner leant forward. "It's starting up." The way he said it was, to Tsuna, slightly disturbing. "If it's reformatted, it's like a newborn computer. No instructions yet-"
Everyone jumped as the clam popped open. Hibari brandished his signature tonfas, but the clam just sat there, innocuously showing its soft innards to the world. Tsuna cautiously followed Spanner to it. The two boys stood on either side, examining the two halves joined at the valve, lying open and vulnerable.
"W- What do we do now?" Tsuna asked him.
"You poke it." Spanner motioned.
"B- But, it might close!"
"True. Who knows what to expect." Spanner nodded in agreement. "It could have sliced your fingertip off. I need mine to type."
Tsuna shot him a look, starting as orange Flame began to spark and ignite from the two halves. The motes of light shone like a scanner about the room.
"Vongola X Sawada Tsunayoshi recognised." A soft female voice echoed from the clam.
"HIIIEE!" Tsuna screeched.
"You're noisy."
"I'm sorry, Hibari-san, but..." Tsuna swallowed. "I just... they stabbed you! And this one followed me from the past! Who knows what she's going to do..."
Spanner was now looking at him with great interest. "Vongola Decimo... you're the Vongola Tenth? But the Tenth-"
"That one is a fake," Hibari replied.
"A fake? Someone's been masquerading as Vongola Decimo. Currently the most powerful man in the Mafia?" Spanner's eyebrows climbed. "Sounds interesting. So it's a re-enactment of Yoshitsune, is it? Brothers killing each other."
"Activity in basal ganglia of approved user detected. Proceeding to assimilate human model for general purpose. Do not be afraid."
Flames erupted around the model now; instead of orange, these were tinged with off-white and sparks of green static. The mass of Flames gathered into a writhing mass, which gained shape and definition, the white tinged orange and pink into a carnation that could pass for human. Orange gathered around to form a dress, which clothed her slight form as brown hair formed of the same mass of Flame to her shoulders. Two tufts stuck out at her temples, but Tsuna could recognise Ōtan, hale and hearty as she curtsied.
"Rete Vongole, Vongola unit #FF4E20." she spoke precisely. "Reporting to approved user Vongola X Sawada Tsunayoshi. Please do not be afraid. What is your order?"
"Ōtan?!" Tsuna spoke aloud in shock.
"Name registered." She tilted her head, looking at him with the empty amber eyes that all of the clones seem to share. "Will now respond to 'Ōtan' as well as my unit number."
"You... don't remember anything?" Tsuna tried again.
"Internal records indicate that I, unit #FF4E20, was reformatted and have been placed into quarantine mode. If approved, I will now commence uplink to Rete Vongole concept communication system."
"Rete Vongole... network of clams." Spanner swallowed. "A Mental Model right from the Fleet of Fog- Wait, wait, no! Sawada, tell the clam not to link!"
Before Tsuna could open his mouth, Ōtan said, "Uplink complete." She frowned. "Sudden shut-down and reformat initiated quarantine protocols. Error 444: no response. No communication possible."
Spanner unwrapped another lollipop. "I think we're screwed if you link up." Unfortunately, no one was paying attention to him.
"Why me? Why do you keep homing in on me?!" Tsuna wailed in frustration.
"I have been waiting for you for a long time."
There were so many ways to take that information. Tsuna's mind was busy considering all of those ways, and was crashing like a shoddy computer program.
"You are afraid as you look at me. Is it my appearance? Then I will change it."
The orange dress morphed into a shirt. That was the most accurate thing Tsuna could watch, as a clone of himself in an overly large buttoned shirt appeared. The clone knelt as he tripped over his own feet and fell down. "Is this not satisfactory?"
"What?" Tsuna gaped. "H- How?"
"This body is only a model composed of Mist and Lightning Flames." Ōtan explained. "If you wish, I can change my form as you desire. My onboard database is however limited by the default images placed in my IFF systems and what is around my real body now."
Spanner circled Ōtan eagerly. "You know, you're speaking a lot more fluently than the other unit I've met." Spanner babbled. "Are you the only one? What species are you? Are all of you clams?"
"I don't understand?" Tsuna hazarded.
"In my specifications, I have been noted to be the seventh of the seven-unit series marked as Big Seven by the Vongola dei Cieli." Ōtan replied. "We were designed to serve the Vongola X generation of the Vongola Famiglia. Thus, the series is marked by a physical resemblance to species of the Veneridae family of bivalves, usually of the genus Venerupis, and require special permissions to be accessible. My real self is a clam of the species Venerupis decussata, the true Vongola clam, and I am a Sky-primary unit assigned to Vongola X Sawada Tsunayoshi, designed for his benefit. By helping you to achieve results, I fulfil my purpose of existence as set by the Vongola dei Cieli."
Tsuna blinked. "What's that?"
Spanner leant forward to listen as well.
"The Vongola dei Cieli is our parent unit, administered as unit #FFFFFF of the Rete Vongole." Ōtan replied, her voice still flat as if her personality had lost some colour.
"That... doesn't answer my question." Tsuna shook his head. "Could you... change back?"
"Well... Box Weapons are named in Italian." Spanner explained as a hedgehog hopped over to his desk hiccuping purple flames, as Ōtan's form flashed back to the face Tsuna had first seen her, complete with an orange sundress. "It's shaped as animal name, followed by the Dying Will Flame of the Sky that it uses. For example," he pointed to the hedgehog. "This is a Hedgehog that uses Cloud Flames, the Porcospino Nuvola. So, the Vongola dei Cieli means… it's a Box Weapon shaped like a clam, and it uses Sky Flames, thought I'm not sure about the translation."
Ōtan leant close to the hedgehog. Ōtan's amber eyes studied the little insectivore before her back straightened. "Box Weapon design cross-reference, Lorenzini set #186, Porcospino, altered design version Vongola," she began to recite. "Modifications made to ensure upgrades, allowances made for Cambio Forma. Attribute: Cloud, may be used with Sky Flames. Main use is to propagate spheres of spikes, which can be used for offense or defence. Current specifications: power B, Intelligence B, speed B, stamina A. Size of thirty centimetres from tip to tail implies that artillery is not a good approach. Conclusion: cannot be fought in an endurance battle, requires concentrated, overwhelming power to defeat under assumption of baseline Cloud statistics."
Spanner's lollipop dropped out of his mouth as the silence stretched, before Hibari stood up. "And how of you know all of that about Roll?" demanded Hibari. He brought Roll closer to his chest, as if trying to protect him from Ōtan's eerily detailed knowledge.
Tsuna's fingers twitched as the hedgehog snuffled at his fingers. He remained still, watching the cute creature sniff and yawn. "It's cute."
"Pupi~!" The hedgehog squealed at the call, looking towards Hibari.
Tsuna followed the hedgehog's line of sight. Tsuna's face flushed. "Eh... it's Hibari-san's?"
"Pipi."
Spanner eyed the Cloud Hedgehog who was clinging with a vice grip to Tsuna's fingers, and then turned back to its owner. "Roll misses the Leone di Cieli."
"I just accessed the Vongola dei Cieli database of Box Weapon blueprints, Boss." Ōtan inclined her head, and then frowned. "My onboard copy is still being updated. I have also pinged sister unit #2CA9E1. She is approaching our current location."
"Approach-you mean, she's coming here?" Tsuna definitely did not squeak when he asked that question. "How do you know?"
"What part of the word 'pinged' do you not get?" Spanner rolled his eyes, pulling out yet another one of his ever present lollipops.
"Using Mist Flames, we are connected via a quantum communication system." Ōtan tapped her head, a humanising motion that belied the dullness of her eyes. "This translates to our detection abilities as well. Estimated time of arrival: ten seconds."
"Tetsu." A flash of purple set Hibari's tonfas alight once a furrow of chaos started at Ōtan's casual announcement. "What of our preparations to go to Sicily?"
"We're ready, Kyo-san." Kusakabe reported, materializing from that place where all highly efficient second-in-commands lived.
"Sicily?" Tsuna started at the news. "Hibari-san, you're going to Italy?"
"The two of you will be going." Hibari replied tartly. "These robots were sent to retrieve you, so that nobody would be able to expose Sawada Ietsuna at Sicily. Tetsu will guide you. You must meet the cow herbivore. There is no time-"
Hibari was cut off by an explosion that cracked the ceiling. Tsuna ducked out of the way of falling debris, fumbling for his gloves. He quickly swallowed two of Basil's pills, entering Hyper Dying Will mode instantly. The bright orange flame on his forehead attracted the attention of several things, most notably a multi-legged critter that bore a sad resemblance to a mutated lobster, which had driven one leg through Spanner's keyboard.
The lobster-like thing had a sleek blue carapace but little else to recommend it. One of its claws was disproportionately large, looking something like a piano hammer with spikes at the end. Black-grey stripes along the end of each abdominal segment, and around its claws, outlined its crustacean shape, along with four small cyan legs that are curved and come to a point. Its round yellow eyes peered straight ahead, at him.
"What is that?" Spanner spoke.
"Why is it looking at me?" Even in Hyper Dying Will Mode, a trace of hysteria could be found in Tsuna's voice.
"Box Weapon design cross-reference, Lorenzini #081 adapted, Gambero di Pioggia. The Rain Pistol Shrimp." Ōtan replied, her voice without any emotional inflection. "Modifications include solar cells and test-grade Zooxanthellae cell for independent action, though initial start-up of 1,000 Fiamma Volts with Rain Attribute still required. Independent action lasts for forty-eight hours. Main use for focus and tracking of a chosen living target, and use any projectile in any medium on hand to disable target. Power C, intelligence A, speed A, stamina A."
The strange pincer clicked, hammering down to spark a bright flash of light and a terrible crack like a cannon. Tsuna blinked, raising his arms and the Flames to shield from the pop of air pressure that caved his eardrums in. Spanner grabbed him, pulling him over a desk and using it as a shield.
Several things thudded into the plastic-covered pine wood. Tsuna lifted his head, counting the multiple plastic keys from Spanner's keyboard aimed at the side that Spanner had tackled him from. Then his attention was drawn as another unit of cyan-coloured artillery of the crustacean persuasion dropped down and began firing about.
"Pupi~!" Roll curled, and the resulting ball of spikes inexplicably grew in size to deflect the next blast. Then Tsuna was up and out, one flaming fist driving down to slap the crustacean into the nearest wall.
Hibari snarled, one tonfa driving into another blue thing, reducing it to so many bits. He rubbed at his left earlobe with a free hand. "Tracking units."
Spanner got back up, wincing as he massaged both ears. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. Tsuna rounded onto him, holding up the defeated shrimp in one Flame-less glove. The thing had been frozen, trapped into never-melting ice, and Tsuna shoved it into Spanner's arms.
"Open ground would be preferable," Hibari commented as more of them crept in.
The trio ran out, Hibari leading the way and Tsuna covering the rear. Tsuna skidded to a halt as he approached the main entrance, watching Ōtan slowly follow behind him. He had forgotten about her in the mess.
"What are you doing?"
"I am your Box Weapon." Ōtan replied. "Sortie mode enabled, IFF established. GPS function disabled. Your orders, Boss?"
"B- But you're a-"
Spanner screamed; Tsuna spared a glance, and saw ten more of the tiny artillery-firing shrimps from hell than he would have preferred. Hibari squashed two before the Cloud was caught in a concussive three-blast combination of airwaves.
"Well, if you're so good, then get these things away from us."
"Yes, Boss." Ōtan walked towards one shrimp and knelt down by it. Tsuna blinked, surprised despite his calm state of mind as he watched her talk to the shrimp.
It looked useless. But, as she stood up, the shrimp nodded and then turned its own pincer cannon on its compatriots. Tsuna winced as nine flashes of light downed nine other units.
"So, that was helpful," Spanner croaked, wincing at the pain in his ear. "You could have done that much earlier, you know."
"There was some confusion with regards as to the alignment of the Rete Vongole with Boss. There is no longer any confusion of my alignment with Boss."
"And we units of the Big Seven must follow the orders of our user, adds #2CA9E1."
"Basil?" Tsuna turned his head at the familiar timbre. Confusion kept griping at his mind, especially the fact that Ōtan had just discarded her sisters to follow his orders.
Snow began to fall overhead.
The voice was reminiscent of the young boy that was apprenticed under the CEDEF head, but it was not Basil who had spoken. Instead, it was another Elmo clone, this one dressed in a light blue turtle-neck sweater and jeans with dark boots. Further distinguishing herself from her sisters, not-Basil held a bladed boomerang by her side.
No, that was not right, he realised. Murasaki had used knives and guns, with devastating effect, but she had stuck to submission holds and grappling. Ōtan before her reformat had been downright terrifying, but she had not used a weapon, not that Tsuna had fought Ōtan. Yet, none of them had paraded around so openly like not-Basil did with her lethal boomerang.
"Greetings, #FF4E20." the clone nodded towards Ōtan. "Error 444. The situation is understood. Thou art unharmed, #2CA9E1 observes."
"The Big Seven!" Spanner squeaked.
"#2CA9E1 is named Ama, the fourth of the Big Seven series, responds #2CA9E1." Amber eyes flicked to Spanner. "Facial recognition; Spanner-sama detected. Information has been forwarded to relevant authority."
Spanner blanched. His lollipop fell out of his mouth unnoticed.
"Another clam masquerading as human." Hibari knelt, grey eyes alert as Roll rolled at his feet. Roll squeaked again, growing into a large sphere as Hibari drew two more Boxes. A ring on his hands glowed, sparking with purple before he punched one Box with it, and then there was another large sphere flying towards Ama.
Ama side-stepped, brushing it with blue-filled fingers as she passed. A squeak resounded, and both spheres froze over, ceasing their rolling motion as Ama continued to move in the opposite direction, her fingers fanning out to Hibari.
The Cloud Guardian dodged it, but Ama continued, flowing unceasingly as she managed to grab onto one of the subordinates. The man gave an inhale, falling to his knees. Ama kicked him aside, turning around to face Hibari again.
"A Rain Attribute unit," Hibari's lip curled. "With backup. I will bite you to death."
"Don't let her touch you, Hibari." Tsuna's voice was rendered toneless in Hyper Dying Will mode, the better to communicate clearly. Yet, Hibari clearly danced out of her reach, his tonfas glancing every now and then due to his superior arm length. Ama struck low with the bladed boomerang, missing as Hibari danced away from the blade – and struck her other arm, bearing blue Flames.
An involuntary inhale passed his lips. Hibari twitched, and fell over. Tsuna was barely able to respond as Ama abandoned the Cloud and attacked him. His breath steamed, a wisp of white in the midst of the cold as she drew blood with her blade, which had been rimmed in frost.
"Authorisation, minimal injury and paralysis." Ama dropped the blade, which bisected a piece of stone as it stabbed into the grounds of the Namimori Shrine. "Zero Point Breakthrough, First Edition. Countermeasure required. Simulation begin."
To Tsuna's great surprise, Ama grabbed one of his hands. Her own limb felt cold to his touch, though it could just be the eternal ice forming over the limb.
Her arm began to freeze over, ending as she drew a kukri from behind her and viciously chopped off her own arm and backed out of his reach. The point of it was established later, as her arm regrew in a flash of indigo and green, but the chopper arm weighed down his hand like a shackle.
"Our bodies which are composed of Dying Will Flames will also be frozen. Conclusion: Zero Point Breakthrough cannot be controlled towards certain targets. It will freeze anything it touches."
The orange Sky Flame erupted back onto his gloved hands, blowing the detached limb off of his hand. "They would go to such lengths-"
Ama was attacking again, trapping one of his hands in her own as the other arm coiled around his neck. Then it was simply cold; cold as standing in an iceberg naked might feel, so cold that he kept panting and twitching, unable to react as he fell into Ama's embrace.
"Cold shock response triggered. Transporting to Administrator." Ama looked at Spanner. "Will thou interfere?"
Spanner held up both hands. "Hell no. I'm just a technician. By the way... did you freeze them or something?"
"Classified information."
"Don't be so cold. You're one of the living Box Weapons, right?" Spanner entreated. "What's the use of granting you higher-order thought if you can't show it off?"
Ama's cheeks flushed. Tsuna felt like it too, since it looked like Spanner was entirely serious about flirting with the living Box Weapon.
"The special ability of #2CA9E1 is temperature control." Ama's shoulders tightened. "Upon contact... with the Rain Flame, the effect produced in living beings... similar to being dunked in cold water. Initial cold shock response would paralyse the affected for possibly up to one minute."
"Using a biological quirk against them," Spanner nodded. "Very clever. You're a credible retrieval unit."
Ama looked at him. Her amber eyes slid to the side and then, she nodded. "The Administrator has placed thy transport as a secondary priority. Irie-sama would be pleased to see his friend again."
The smile faded. "...Sho-chan is alive?"
"Irie-sama hast been the guest of the Vongola dei Cieli for the past two years." Ama drew a gun from her belt, thumbing back the hammer with one hand. "Will you follow, Sir?"
Spanner hesitated, one hand reaching out to her. "What about him?"
"The Administrator will return Sawada Tsunayoshi-sama to his time. Otherwise, the events of this time... will not come to pass."
"And... what about the rest?"
"#2CA9E1 confesses ignorance. It is likely that they will be wiped out."
"H- Help..." Tsuna breathed. "Ōtan..."
"Yes, Boss."
Ama dodged the Flame-covered fist easily, holstering the gun back onto her belt while tightening her hold on Tsuna's body. "#2CA9E1 cautions to #FF4E20, thou art inexperienced. Thine powers are difficult to use in single combat."
"What's with the keigo..." Spanner muttered, sidling away as Tsuna's hands began to rise. "Well, I've seen something unexpected here. The rest is yours, Vongola."
Tsuna swallowed, wrapping his arms around Ama. The living weapon started. "What-"
"Zero Point Breakthrough," rasped Tsuna, "Revised."
It was a half-assembled technique developed in training for the Varia showdown. Despite being technically not as effective as the First Edition, the basic idea was to absorb the opponent's Flames, purify them, and add them to his own store. He had not had the time to use it against Xanxus during the stormy battle – literally and metaphorically – but sleeping against her arms for a minute had given him the time to focus. Plus, in this case, his opponent was composed of literally nothing but Flames and a tiny clamshell.
"Zero Point Breakthrough: Revised Edition detected." A quaver entered Ama's cold analysis. "Countermeasure: counter-attack. Freezing. Lightning Flames reduced, overall percentage twenty. Losing stability... permission to escalate from 0.01 percent requested."
Tsuna's eyes snapped to her cheek with alarm, but then a regretful tone sounded. "Harm not allowed to Sawada Tsunayoshi-sama. Idea discarded. New objective: to delay Sawada Tsunayoshi until the Administrator arrives. Understood."
Tsuna had vaguely got that Ōtan could change her forms. The true implications really hit when an elephant seal where Ama had been standing decided to head-butt him. And then it sat on him. Over a hundred kilograms of cold Flame-constructed muscle and bone, was currently crushing his bones and ruining his focus. Tsuna was so surprised by the nonsensical absurdity of it all that he accidentally slipped out of Hyper Dying Will mode.
"Please close your ears, Boss."
Tsuna clapped his gloved hands over his ears as a bellow rang on his right side, nearly blowing out his eardrum. The seal shifted, or was tossed off of him, Tsuna did not know since a polar bear lumbered after the sea, its claws slipping on the fat-lined slippery grey skin.
"Are you alright, Boss?"
Tsuna started as Ōtan's voice trailed from the bear. "Y- Yeah-"
"Good."
The seal twitched its tail, before its form collapsed into a puddle of blue, changing fluidly into a winged form as a wave arose and crashed into the polar bear, and then it was a swallow, pecking the bear's eyes. The bear bellowed, its claws scoring the air with orange Flame, and then it was an eagle, pecking back at the swallow.
The swallow fell, coalescing into a blue snapper tortoise that snapped at the eagle. The eagle seized the tortoise's shell with its talons, rising above the ground, and for a moment it looked like it was over even as the snapper-tortoise thrashed.
Tsuna gasped as the snapper tortoise changed into a weasel, which curled around and bit into the eagle's throat as the wings bit on either side of it. The eagle gave a piercing cry of pain and fell onto the ground, wrestling with its mustelid foe as it changed back into Ōtan. The weasel snorted, collapsing into a mass of blue and a single clam thudded, before there stood Ama, who had blood leaking from the corners of her mouth.
Ama straddled the orange-shrouded clone, choosing to deal out punishing open-handed slaps to Ōtan. The ground cracked when her hands, glowing blue with Flame, deflected off of Ōtan's face and landed onto the stones.
It might be a fight between living weapons with the shape of girls, but Tsuna could only hear the restrained gasps of pain. "Stop!" Tsuna dived in, throwing a punch at Ama's head.
The blue-dressed clone rolled, getting back to her feet as fluidly as the weasel-shape she had assumed in tearing Ōtan's throat out. Tsuna let her, busy checking on Ōtan.
"She's your sister!" He yelled at the blue-dressed clone, checking on Ōtan. "How can you do this?!"
Without looking away, Ama openly spat onto the shrine's ground. The spit was openly tainted with blood, which melted into orange Flame. There was something ridiculously human in that motion, in that need not to cannibalise Flames. "We were on opposite sides the moment she had to fulfil her orders, explains #2CA9E1. Wilt thee yield, beseeches #2CA9E1?"
"I am functional, Boss." Ōtan panted, pushing herself away from Tsuna into a sitting position. Ōtan looked from her sister to Tsuna, ignoring the scrapes and blood on her face. She grimace, as they caught in Flame, repairing her features to their pristine cuteness. "Though I may be the youngest and least-experienced of the Big Seven, I am still a unit of high processing capability."
Ama nodded. "Currently... it cannot be helped, regretfully adds #2CA9E1. Orders are to be fulfilled. Will ye yield, asks #2CA9E1?"
"That is foolish. I cannot do that unless ordered by duly constituted authority."
Tsuna blinked, wondering if Hyper Dying Will mode had messed with his hearing. "What do you mean?"
"I am bound to your orders," Ōtan explained slowly, getting to her conspicuously bare feet. "We are weapons. We exist purely to fulfil orders. Even the naming of us as sisters indicate so, that we are united in the purpose of our orders in the name of the Vongola. By helping you to achieve your objectives, I fulfil my purpose of existence."
"But what do you think about that?"
"What I think does not matter."
Tsuna looked at her. "But do you really think that?"
"I do not understand." Ōtan looked troubled. "What do my feelings factor into the clear achievement of your objective?"
"That's enough, interrupts #2CA9E1." Ama sighed as snow began to descend around them more strongly, like hail or sleet. "Target Lock."
Tsuna prepared to fight back, but he was sucker-punched by another pop of air pressure as blue Flames were shot at Ōtan. Ama had not been stating a program sequence; she had been ordering a waylaid Rain Pistol Shrimp to stun him with its sonoluminescent attack as she ran towards him. He crashed into a shrine on the ground.
Now uninterrupted, Ama drew the black gun, preparing to fire but freezing as another gunshot resounded behind her.
"That looks even more interesting." Spanner commented, never letting up his two-handed grip on a small revolver. "When you were preparing to leave, you drew that as well. You clearly don't use it as a weapon, so... an escape? A signal? It looks just like a gun."
Barely responding, she levelled the firearm at him. "Can it be presumed that Spanner-sama is not following us?"
A muscle twitched. "No, I will not follow. And you'd better leave, or the police will come. Japan is rather strict about firearms, aren't they? Neither of us have a lot of time, but your boss, the one who made Murasaki and Ōtan, might have words to say if you were caught with that device."
Ama stilled, considering his words. Beside her, the whirl of tonfas resounded. "Get out of the way," Hibari snapped at Spanner.
Tsuna would have agreed, but the latest attack had broken his sense of balance, as if his brain had broken into a million pieces within his head.
"You know the Vongola kid can't fight you now." Spanner explained calmly, not to Hibari, but to Ama. "Neither can your... sister? Sister unit? Neither can Ōtan. But the police are coming to arrest everyone. As pretty as your name is – sky-coloured, am I translating it right? – I don't think you have the documents to prove that. So we can all wait here, and get arrested. The three of us will get out sooner or later. But illegal immigrants in Japan... you don't want to get caught and monitored, right? Especially holding that portal-making device disguised as a Beretta 92FS. It might lead back to your boss."
Ama's eyes widened. For the first time, actual panic crossed her face. It made for an ugly look. Ama's eyes slid to the side, and back. She holstered her gun on her belt, and swiftly retrieved her bladed boomerang, easily dual-wielding it with the kukri blade in her other hand before they joined the gun.
"You could kill everyone, but what about the evidence?" Spanner continued mocking. "You're just one unit. And, I'm sure that one of us just needs to keep you here and fighting-"
To Spanner's stunned face, she drew the gun, holding it up to her temple.
Ōtan held up a hand. "#2CA9E1, there is no need for drastic measures-"
Ama pulled the trigger.
~'*'~
VDC:/ReteVongole/777X/2ca9e1
#2ca9e1 syslogd: blue shading Big Seven. Location: (X, Y, Z)
Response: startup. Option: Leonids.
~'*'~
"Hmm?"
"What is it, Amaya?"
Elmo, under her cover as the princess of the Vongola, merely smiled in the rear-view mirror. "I was thinking about the Leonids in Enna."
"The Leonids are in November. We'll see them next year."
Elmo nodded wordlessly at the approval, mentally sending the message along the concept communication system. She settled back, and Asari Amaya kicked her feet as she peered out of the car window, the two of them alone. "Tomorrow, I will assign someone else to play Asari Amaya while I carry out the mission you need."
"To begin with, Asari Amaya is an identity of the Rete Vongole." Slender artist's fingers drummed a tattoo on the steering wheel. "Will you be alright?"
"Yes, Papa. Elmo will ensure that Uncle safely returns to his time." Elmo paused. "Even if the Vongola dei Cieli would no longer exist."
The gun clattered to the ground, discharged of all its bullets.
Spanner blinked slowly as Ama's body, brain matter and spilled blood melted into a puddle of blue, revealing the sky-blue clamshell contained within, like a robin's egg. "That's... she committed suicide?"
Ōtan was not listening to him, having assisted Tsuna to all fours and held onto his ears. "We must leave now," Ōtan urged. "#2CA9E1 will not die from that, since her hardware unit was not damaged. Her Flames mingling with the Black Cartridge's storage will have triggered a unique beacon for the Administrator's air-strike."
"W- What-?" Hibari staggered to his feet, shivering.
"Air-strike?" Spanner echoed, having heard Ōtan's urgent entreaty. "Shimatta."
Within a certain location that defied conventional notions of time and space, Yamabuki snorted as she received the OK. The containers that surrounded her disappeared, replaced by the interior of a bridge, complete with consoles, large screens and windows into every aspect of the place.
"Target locked, blue shading beacon." Yamabuki flipped a few switches. "Volley: Leonids. Fire at will."
Shoichi came to the room filled with screens as the roar of cannons firing into black portals that materialised before them appeared before the panels of the room. "Yamabuki, is there something in the bridge- did someone call down a Leonids air-strike?"
"Yes, Irie-sama."
Shoichi looked at her. "It's possible, I recall, for all of you to fire it off without being physically in the bridge."
Yamabuki pondered this fact as the explosive shells disappeared from before them. There was something towards pressing the buttons that delivered the payload of combined incendiary and shrapnel shells away from the long guns and towards whatever location their operative decided had to be razed to non-existence, and Yamabuki admitted as such. It was, to her, the flashy art of pyrotechnics and the combined technical expertise to realise it that was attractive.
As Shoichi slid into the nearest chair clutching his stomach, the second oldest of the Big Seven wondered what had brought his stomach-ache on.
Hibari's teeth kept chattering, which only reinforced that impression of hypothermia that Tsuna was stuck in as well. It had been near-miraculous, the way the blue aura that Hibari was wrapped in dissipated once the Cloud had been awakened from certain death by freezing. Several other men had succumbed to weakness in the cold, and it was doubtful if Spanner alone could have gotten them down the shrine's steps.
As it stood, the large black car being driven by Kusakabe stopping before them had been fairly close to a godsend. Kusakabe himself wrapped both Tsuna and Hibari into thick blankets and bundled them in with Ōtan and Spanner. Spanner only then realised that there was another man inside the back of the car, where two benches sat facing each other like the interior of a limousine.
The doors closed, and it took off. Kusakabe's maniac driving was explained as Spanner peered out of the window as a series of black portals rippled into existence over the Namimori Shrine and dumped a rain of artillery shells over the holy building. The large shells rained down, and halfway through their fall, the twenty-four plummeting rounds came apart in flashes of hell-fire or flying shrapnel.
Spanner paled as a ten-centimetre piece embedded itself into the window, held by shatter-proof polymer-covered glass of a Japanese car. Rolling next to him, a family of people were not as lucky, and blood painted the side-walk and the windowpane, causing Tsuna to stare in renewed horror.
A heartbeat later, Kusakabe's maniac driving took them away from the subsequent tattoo of concussive explosions, some streaked with the white fumes of what Spanner realised were weapons that completely ignored the Geneva Convention. More shrapnel flew around, slicing trees into ribbons and tearing roads apart, but green shields kept appearing at the back of their car, shielding them from similar fates as the completely razed shrine.
It was an example of networked, coordinated warfare at its finest, thought Spanner. At least the shrine, and by extension the base, had been isolated, and with the car came an excellent responsive defence system.
"That Lorenzo." The car's other occupant commented. Spanner would have dismissed him, if not for the off-white clamshell balanced on his crossed legs, right above his kneecap. Clams were turning out to be a more dangerous entity than he had thought. "A brilliant man, if as obsessed with art as that Innocenti. So, Mr Spanner. What do you say about this project?"
Tsuna, already out of Hyper Dying Will mode, felt his teeth chatter in sadness and barely concealed horror as he studied the other man. "W- Who are you?"
"I forget myself, young Vongola." The blond man eyed him, Hibari, Spanner, and settled upon Ōtan. "The Rete Vongole unit over there might remember me."
"I was reformatted recently, and thus am still in quarantine mode," Ōtan refuted. "I, Unit #FF4E20, have yet to receive the updated approved user list, but cross-referencing the lists with facial recognition indicates that you are Herr Kœnig, assigned to the user group Trio. One of the three creators of Box Weapon technology."
She turned to the clam, to Tsuna's surprise. "Congratulations on your assignment, Unit #EBF6F7."
Spanner kept looking from Ōtan to the clamshell, a trickle of drool escaping his mouth. "Hanging around the Vongola brings such interesting things."
Tsuna's jaw cracked. "D- Do y- you know... her?"
"No, Boss. #EBF6F7 is not registered as part of the Big Seven, nor was she existent in my records, outdated they may be." Ōtan honestly replied. "However, when a fellow unit has been metamorphosed and assigned, is that not the assignment of a purpose?"
"No, no," demurred Kœnig in accented, if excellent, Japanese. "Aij-iro was not assigned to me. I metamorphosed her from the Vongola dei Cieli itself to test my concept of specialising defences on the fly. She... became precious to me."
Tsuna believed him, watching the blond European gently stroke the off-white shell.
"That does not change the fact that you are the one who gave Unit #EBF6F7 a purpose, Herr Kœnig." Ōtan said. "She is your weapon to fight for you, defend you."
Kœnig shook his head, staring outside at the chaos and carnage that had rained down upon the peaceful town of Namimori. "There are weapons and armour aplenty, to wage that purpose. Weapons that have no need for sentience, or feelings, or judgement. They have no need to fight, or to defend. Lorenzo, Verde's student… He changes all of that. He has a drive and ambition beyond anything I've seen. His intelligence, his innate talents, and his creativity – they are all admirable traits, turned to creations which are more like dolls and fight like the armadas of old. But he is more dangerous than any of us. He has no limits. Nothing to stop him from accomplishing his goals. No regret. No good sense, no thirst of knowledge; not even a desire for creation. Like the black that consumes all colours, his drive to achieve his goals will hurt others, destroy lives, cover worlds in deception and mire them in darkness."
Kœnig drew a shuddering breath the very act of thinking weighing on his conscience. "It is as if his own life had been destroyed, and he is now retaliating against the world without restraint."
Couldn't resist the Arpeggio of Blue Steel reference.
Also, the Gambero di Pioggia is my creation. PM me if you want the specs!
Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!
1 This is a reference to the RGB code that the Rete Vongole units refer to themselves by. #264348 is the colour of Japanese indigo, also names 'ai-iro'.
2 Sea silk is an extremely fine, rare, and valuable fabric that is made from the long silky filaments or byssus secreted by a gland in the foot of pen shells (in particular Pinna nobilis). The shell, which is sometimes almost a metre long, adheres itself to rocks with a tuft of very strong thin fibres, pointed end down, in the intertidal zone. These byssus or filaments (which can be up to 6 cm long) are spun and, when treated with lemon juice, turn a golden colour, which never fades. The cloth produced from these filaments can be woven even finer than silk, and is extremely light and warm; however, it attracts clothes moths, the larvae of which will eat it. It was said that a pair of women's gloves made from the fabric could fit into half a walnut shell and a pair of stockings in a snuffbox.
Pinna nobilis has become threatened with extinction, partly due to overfishing, the decline in seagrass fields, and pollution. As it has declined so dramatically, the once small but vibrant sea silk industry has almost disappeared, and the art is now preserved only by a few women on the island of Sant'Antioco near Sardinia. Only one still harvests the material and knows how to dye it its golden colour, and according to the BBC, she's not selling it.
3 I took some liberties here, since it's not actually possible to mistake the striped quagga mussel for the black Mediterranean mussel in real life. Also, cases like these are the reason why seafood should be well-cooked, and raw stuff to be handled carefully for eating.