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Title: Ayakashi

Arc 5: Arcobaleno Trial

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Chapter 132 The appointed time

All through the evacuation process, Xanxus had grumbled nonstop about Vongola, and the Varia especially, being reduced to doing community service. And having to work with those pompadour delinquents at that! It made him grind his teeth in frustration.

Admittedly — very grudgingly — the Disciplinary Committee knew what they were doing and enjoyed an amazing level of trust and obedience from the local population. In remarkably short order, with nearly no incidents, the citizens of Namimori were streaming out of the town, in an orderly manner, and into the temporary camps arranged by the Vongola.

"The last group are leaving the high danger zone now," Kusakabe reported, perfectly polite and with a deep bow. "We've made sure the evacuation areas are secure against landslides and other potential damage. Now, it will just be a matter of waiting for the appointed time to pass."

"Thank you for your hard work," Nono praised the teenager, who couldn't quite stop himself from fidgeting in pleasure. The Vongola boss had that effect on people.

Xanxus didn't share their lightheartedness. "I didn't see those shitty brats arrive," he commented, referring to the tenth generation. Scowling, he added, "And they took off with my illusionist too."

The sharpness on the short glance Nono sent him surprised Xanxus. Up until that point, the old man had met all of Xanxus's complaints with a smile — in fact, he seemed to be full of smiles and optimism ever since the fiasco a year ago. So why did he suddenly look so calculating and grim?

"Is that so? I haven't seen Reborn either," Nono said, as if it was a portend of doom, instead of the hitman's normal behavior.

"Mammon's help was requested to help with some of the more… uncooperative citizens. His illusions would greatly expedite the process of removing them from the high risk areas," Kusakabe offered.

He made a good showing of seeming like it was something routine. Against anyone but the leaders of the strongest mafia famiglia, it would have probably worked.

For a moment, the air around Nono seemed to darken. The pressure of the mafia boss's grim realization was enough to make even Xanxus go rigid, and despite his best efforts, Kusakabe looked like a rodent playing dead.

Fortunately, the tension was broken as a Vongola member stumbled into the tent command center. He bowed as deeply as he was able and blurted out, "My deepest apologies for the intrusion, Boss, but there is an urgent matter…"

Nono sighed, closing his eyes. "What is it?" he asked.

"A delegation from Giglio Nero has arrived," the Vongola man said quickly. "They want to enter into the restricted area."

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Chapter 133 According to plan I

"I'm afraid I can't allow that," Nono said calmly, as if refusing the demands of another boss, one of an old, established and respected famiglia, was a simple, everyday thing.

The look Aria pinned him with was remarkably intimidating. It was sharp like a blade and heavy, almost choking. Nono wondered idly if creating such psychic pressure was part of her powers as a shaman, or just skill. Undoubtedly, many men had caved under that look. But Timoteo was not an ordinary man, and he simply looked back without so much as a twitch.

"You do not understand the gravity of the situation," Aria said sharply. "I must go there. It is of vital importance!"

"It was my heir's request that no one be allowed to enter the danger zone after the evacuation was completed," Nono told her. "I trust he had good reason to ask that."

From the way Aria's eyes narrowed, Nono guessed she understood the implications.

"The Arcobaleno are not something a child can trifle with," she said sharply. "No matter how much you trust that boy, you must see that whatever he is attempting is far beyond his abilities and means. Has he revealed anything of his plan to you? Does he even have one?"

While two bosses matched arguments, their bodyguards considered each other with the eyes of practiced killers. Xanxus offered a taunting smirk, which was enough to make Gamma smile wryly and raise his hands as if in surrender. He knew he was outmatched. Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't attack, if only to stall them at the cost of his own life, at his boss's command.

"I don't know his plan," Nono agreed mildly. "But I'm sure he has one. Isn't that right, Chrome?"

The girl he had addressed jumped as all attention turned to her. Chrome nodded, almost uncertainly, and added, "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you anything. Boss knows what he's doing. Please believe in him."

"Yes, I have decided I will," Nono smiled. "I will believe in Tsunayoshi. Rather, I wanted to confirm with you that it's part of his plan for her to be outside the area, when all the other Arcobaleno were gathered."

Chrome blinked at him in surprise. It was not, in Xanxus's view, an encouraging expression. "But we were told… she's not an Arcobaleno?" Chrome ventured. "This person was just entrusted to hold the Sky Pacifier after the Sky Arcobaleno of this generation passed on. She would become the new Sky Arcobaleno on the Fated Day, so we definitely want her to not be inside…"

Realizing she was revealing too much, Chrome quickly closed her mouth.

The others were staring.

"You… How can you know that?" Aria whispered, too stunned to add any force to the question. "This isn't something you could find out on your own. Who told you? How could they?!"

Chrome shook her head in refusal.

Seeing that she would receive no further answers, Aria turned away sharply and rushed outside before anyone could stop her. She didn't get far before her way was blocked by Squalo, who had been left to stand guard.

"Stop," Chrome called out after her, as she, Xanxus, Nono and Gamma followed Aria out of the command center. "There's no point. You won't make it to the boundary in time."

"In time for what?" Aria asked.

"To make it across," Chrome answered simply, "before the barrier goes up."

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Chapter 134 According to plan II

The orange Pacifier tucked securely into the inner pocket of Aria's suit began to glow with a light that shone straight through the cloth. She glanced down at it in wide eyed horror, then toward the empty town, where six more lights stood out in more than brightness.

Pulled by some unseen force, the Pacifier rose out of her pocket and began to float upward. Even as Aria tried to grasp it, it slipped out of her hands.

Suddenly, another hand — larger, in pristine white gloves — wrapped tightly around the Pacifier, stopping its ascent.

Everyone jumped — even observant Nono and paranoid Xanxus. Seemingly without the slightest warning, without so much as a displacement of the air, a man in a strange hat and mask had appeared next to Aria.

"What is the meaning of this?" he said coldly.

Recovering first, Chrome squared her shoulders and said, "It's as you see — a ritual to pass on the Arcobaleno Pacifiers."

"I did not authorize this," he growled.

"A-Administrator…" Aria spoke up. "This is… I'm sure they don't know what they are doing. Please…"

The man in the iron hat gave no indication of having heard her. His hand clenched around the Sky Pacifier, he took a step forward, and in the next moment he had disappeared again, moving along a plane that humans could not touch.

"For someone so powerful and knowledgeable, he's surprisingly easy to manipulate," Chrome commented rather calmly. "I thought I would have to goad him more, but he's already taking it exactly where we need it to be."

The others turned to stare at her, but Chrome gazed in the direction of Namimori. A seventh, orange light winked into existence in the center of the town, atop the highest skyscraper. The lights — the Pacifiers — pulsed in sync, flaring like beacons.

There was a loud sound, like a gong, and a translucent, rainbow-hued dome rose up around the evacuated area.

"A barrier of Flame," Aria muttered, remembering Chrome's earlier words.

Chrome nodded. "It's a barrier created by the Pacifiers around the battlefield we chose. Now, the Trial will begin."

"He's not going to let that happen," Aria insisted. "Checkerface is not someone your friends can stand against."

"They won't be standing against him. We're not alone. Everyone is working toward a mutually beneficial outcome," Chrome said. "…Even if they don't know it yet."

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Chapter 135 According to plan III

Looking down from the roof of the tallest skyscraper in Namimori, the town should have looked much the same as always. So far above, he wouldn't have been able to make out the figures of the people who would have been walking the streets, and the winds would have erased the sound of their daily life.

But somehow Tsuna could feel the difference now that everyone was gone. Namimori had become a ghost town, and the absence made him shiver in its unnaturalness. Or maybe that was the stinging winds, which made Tsuna sneeze and sniffle, his nose growing red from the cold.

Depending on how things went, people may never be able to return to Namimori, he thought.

Tsuna shook away the gloomy musings. Instead, he assured himself that at least the evacuation had been successful. With this, the potential casualties would be minimized. Now, it was almost time for the next stage.

It would have been nice if they could do it on autumn equinox, when everything stood in balance, but they didn't have time to wait that long.

That kind of thing probably didn't matter in a ritual of Flame anyway.

In the distance, across town on every side, five lights winked into existence, plus one more much closer to the skyscraper, and Tsuna knew the Pacifiers had begun to react. As another light appeared further out, at the evacuation site, Tsuna mused, "Huh, so she did come. Well, I guess it doesn't matter much."

Drawing his hands out of his pockets, he readied himself, as that extra light vanished suddenly — only to reappear just steps away from Tsuna, in the grip of a man in a strange hat and mask.

Tsuna didn't have time to do more than flinch away as the man in the iron hat moved toward him. But Tsuna didn't need to. Instead, while the man's eyes were on him, black chains shot out of the shadows, wrapping tightly around him and dragging him to the floor.

As black-cloaked figures emerged from the shadows, gripping tightly onto their chains, Tsuna let out a sigh of relief.

Checkerface frowned, seemingly more annoyed at the interruption than concerned at the appearance of the Vindice, the feared enforcers of the underworld. "You," he stated. "What are you hoping to achieve with this pointless action? You can't hold me, and I assure you, the consequences will be severe."

"We can manage a short while, and that is all we need," Bermuda told him. The clear pacifier in his tiny hands was wreathed in dark Flames, as Bermuda poured his all into generating enough power to at least temporarily restrain the administrator of the Trinisette.

Checkerface's frown deepened a little, and with the smallest movement, Mist Flames burst to life around him, brighter and more intense than even Mukuro's. Tsuna instinctively jumped back, but the indigo Flames were almost immediately swallowed by the Vindice's black.

Still, even Tsuna could see the building strain in Bermuda's tiny figure, and judging by the way the black Flames continued to rippled around Checkerface's unruffled form, he was only beginning in his escape effort.

"Get on with it!" Bermuda snapped, making Tsuna flinch.

"R-right," Tsuna said quickly.

Holding out both hands, he reached deep inside himself and the warm pulse of his Sky Flames. The Vindice had explained that they had once witnessed this ritual activated unknowingly. The requirements were intuitive, if the proper situation was taking place — match the rhythm of the Pacifiers and focus your will on the single thought that would serve as the trigger.

"The Selected Seven are not suited to carry on their duty," Tsuna stated the claim to be proven. "The Trial of the Arcobaleno will now commence!"

Checkerface's expression twisted, and he jerked at the chains, but there was nothing he could do as Flames burst out from the orange Pacifier still grasped in his hand.

They were joined by the six other Flames that lit up across Namimori, all of them combining and spreading out, then surging up in a wall that curved inward until the dome was sealed over the town.

"The battlefield is set," Bermuda noted. "There's no halting the ritual now."

"Yeah," Tsuna muttered, his attention fixed in the direction the bright yellow Flames had come from, very, very close to their location. "There's no stopping it now…"

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