Dioscuri
50: Rocaille
C:/VDC/000000/Predictive_Suite/Analysis
ANALYSE:/Problem present_ _point Shimon_Island_Dec.2005
5%...
100% complete.
Situation:
Vindice:
Vindice Boss, Bermuda von Veckenschtein; Vindice consigliere, Jaeger; and, officers: Small Gia; Big Pino; Jack; Alejandro.
6 teams x 3 = 18 total combatants, of which 12 remain unidentified across confirmed records of former members of I Prescelti Sette.
Arcobaleno: Reborn/Renato Sinclair/Boreen/other assoc. aliases; Fon Lei.
Corollary: Reborn-etc KIA, substitute uncertain. Sun Lizard: Leon disabled, KIA.
Hibari: Alouette Lei, Fon Lei, Kyoya Hibari identified.
Corollary: Tentative classification – Mukuro Rokudo, Chrome Dokuro.
Vongola: Tenth Generation full upper echelon. Overlap with above category: Hibari.
Ninth Generation Boss, Timoteo.
ACH-47A Chinook helicopter noted, armed with 5 M60D 7.62×51mm machine guns, XM32 armament subsystems, 2 M24A1 20mm cannons, 2 XM159B/XM159C 19-tube 70mm rocket launchers.
Complement of Storm, Rain, Lightning, Mist, Sun and Sky flames detected, keyed with Varia frequencies.
Simon: Full complement of Tenth Generation Simon Famiglia. Threat earmarked: Enma Kozato; Mami Kozato. Gravity-controlling Earth Flames must be avoided.
Mission: to prevent the tragedies of the Millefiore-Vongola War, where Byakuran successfully killed the Vongola Decimo (henceforth Uncle) and drove Quatromaestro Papa (henceforth Papa/Maestro) to distraction and clinical insanity.
Mission objectives:
Establish min. 3 people with the theoretical understanding of Vongola dei Cieli operations.
Prevent Papa from getting killed.
Save Papa.
Calculating appropriate responses... Calculation complete.
Access Pinocchio UI: microcode MANGIAFUOCO; in conjunction, implement application 'Il Grillo parlante' and 'Il terribile Pesce-cane'. Chaos model 'La Volpe e Il Gatto'.
Lie: the creator of ELMO and the Rete Vongole is Sawada Tsunayoshi.
#Sawada Ietsuna must live#
#Does it need to be a happy life?#
#More data needed#
"Papa, didn't you introduce us?"
"Who is Papa?"
"Why, you are. That is why Elmo has crossed space and time to defend you. You absolutely must not die until Elmo is created."
#Sawada Ietsuna must live#
#Does it need to be a happy life?#
#More data needed#
The chain was falling, the target was already giving up, and the Vindice Boss can no longer take back his move. That was when another body slammed into Tsuna's, knocking him out of the blade path only to be struck with that very same weapon.
#Papa...#
It was a funny thing how all her plans were disrupted in a single moment.
For one, Simon Island was still an island, however large its landmass, and however varied its geography. Where one started, one had to return to, sooner or later.
The Shimon team managed to return first, after losing sight of the Vindice pursuers, and saw half their manor house blown up in the distance.
A box landed near Enma's feet, but the boy with hair the colour of blood did not pay it any attention. He was more focused on the black Flame currently eating its way through his family history.
There was a girl with gold hair and gold eyes. She wore a dress of black cotton frills, but Enma's senses told him that the cloth was not actually calico cotton, of even fabric for that matter. Every part of her was aesthetically pleasing – from her amber eyes to her heart-shaped face to her feathered hair – in its own right. Its sum total, however, exuded far more coldness than beauty. To Enma, she seemed far more suited to his name than himself; an impartial judge of the dead who neither knew nor cared about her victims, only the job at hand.
The stairs had survived a few assaults; flames, conventional cold-weaponry and Flame-enhanced blows. It was a miracle that it bore Alouette's weight. While her son and grandson had elected to engage the girl in close-combat, Alouette had stayed on the banisters with her cane pointed from above at the girl's back. It was somehow extending far beyond its usual length with tremendous force enough to qualify as a low-powered impalement.
Enma squinted; the purple flame of the Cloud burned vaguely around the old woman's hand.
"That's neat." Even if he felt somewhat sickened that he had to clean up this mess.
Then he started screeching as the girl in black twitched. A chain pinged, and the strange girl that had taken on the killings blows of three hitmen head-on took a shuddering breath.
"Papa..."
"Ie!"
Enma knew that shout. His feet carried himself forward, cursing his own uselessness and powerlessness. Ochre flame burned, protecting him from the shadowy conflagration, into the remnants of the Shimon manor still standing.
A chain with a weighted end thudded to the ground. Its weight had been honed with a sharp edged, almost like a weighted throwing knife. Blood was on the pointed edge.
His red eyes tugged up. Mami's stifled gasp only confirmed it.
"Tourniquet... Enma, first-aid kit!" Gold eyes, the same as that girl, glanced up before returning to their task of staunching blood. "Please! Get a first-aid kit!"
"Tenth...!"
"Sawada...!"
"Tsuna!"
It did not take any deduction to realise that Ietsuna had taken the bullet for his brother.
The girl blankly stared at the rising Guardians, then blinked at the nasty limb-locks she had been caught in. "Why did you act only now?"
"Because you are the worst threat."
The girl disappeared in a blink, reappearing at the top of the exposed stairs. Seated at the head of the steps, her expression was blank in her survey of all combatants.
"Not human." Hibari's voice resounded over the crackling flames, continuing from his original assessment. "Rather than a pit-bull that has defied its masters, there is no killing intent in your actions. Fighting you derives nothing more than mere survival."
Her fingers snapped. Several strange explosions imploded around her, before it seemed like the scenery was breaking like glass. Lotus vines grew, wrapping round the burnt walls like some strange briar before two figures appeared on the ground floor, next to the fallen twins.
A sword blade, a fist, twelve sticks of dynamite and a tonfa flew in her direction.
Her eyes glowed.
"MANGIAFUOCO."
A black body in thermal equilibrium emits electromagnetic radiation called black-body radiation. The radiation is emitted according to Planck's law, meaning that it has a spectrum that is determined by the temperature alone, not by the body's shape or composition. A black body in thermal equilibrium has two notable properties: firstly, it is an ideal emitter: at every frequency that emits as much energy as – or more energy than – any other body at the same temperature.
It is also a diffuse emitter: the energy is radiated isotropically, independent of direction.
All of the attacks vanished into the depths of portals, which then threw up the same attacks; be they explosions, cuttings winds or pure kinetic energy that could shatter boulders.
Elmo dodged another cane blow, a machine-gun materialising in her hand. The stairs rattled from enduring a hail of bullets, and leaden death chewed through aged wood and plaster and rococo layouts. A yellow bullet shot towards Elmo, but she contemptuously conjured another portal that swallowed one bullet – though that bullet split in mid-air, leaving nine projectiles aiming for her.
"You can have them back!"
Flames erupted, a sea of sable black sweeping along the walls of the hallway. The Chaos Shot scattered in mid-air, the gold bullets barely lighting up Elmo's face before they winked out. They re-appeared at their point of existence, hurtling into a tiny hitman's body. The world's strongest hitman choked, ducking for one of his own bullets to barely graze him while burying into the walls.
"So that's a black-body," Gokudera gave a low whistle. "Tenth, normal attacks can't go through!"
Flesh-eating crows tore rips stained with indigo Flame into her body. Bullets filled the air, shattered more masonry, and mowed down rows of dynamite.
A portal appeared outside of the half-collapsing mansion. Bermuda appeared first, followed by the rest of the fighters. Alouette's form was slumped, leaning on a conspicuous red-dressed baby. A moment later, Elmo dropped before their stunned visages, with not a single injury or scratch on her.
"What is... that? Tsuna?" Yamamoto looked pale.
Tsuna swallowed. "She's... Elmo. She's a... she is our vengeance. In the future..."
"W- What happened?"
"I died. And... Ie made her." Tsuna swallowed, his throat going dry at the thought of admitting it. "He made a weapon to protect everyone, all my friends... but he made something that had no empathy with those it protected. It had determination, but no restraint. It had ability, but no mercy. She killed women, children... she fired air-strikes and k- killed Mukuro when he turned against... against the Vongola."
He took a deep breath. "Fon-san... She killed the guy with the Mare Ring, Byakuran Gesso. She killed the Sky Arcobaleno. She killed Checkerface."
Fon swallowed, staring at the living weapon, who had yet to make a move.
Bermuda, who had overheard everything, nodded briskly. "She's an ally."
"Wait, don't just categorise based on our mutual enemy!" Fon retorted. "We're fighting her right now! She killed Reborn! And now... and now... she followed Tsunayoshi-kun home, from the future... Ietsuna-kun created her? What kind of enemy was he facing?"
"Long story," Tsuna explained, still holding onto his brother.
Elmo's hand turned; a revolver materialised in her hand. Faster than anything human could react, the muzzle had already pointed towards Tsuna's direction.
"Elmo was created from the vengeance of the Vongola Famiglia's two heirs separating," she related. "Or rather, that spirit of vengeance had stripped Elmo of my original purpose. Elmo was meant to... Elmo was meant to be your shield and sword... Uncle. Left with no recourse but vengeance after your death, what you see is the results of waiting so long as a ship tied to port. What you see is the survivor of a destroyed family."
Slowly, a Dying Will Flame blossomed at the centre of Tsuna's forehead. It was a gold flower of flame, one that rapidly grew in size to match the sheen of his amber eyes... the amber eyes that all three of the Sawada family shared.
"'When Castor was killed, Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together'," Elmo continued her monologue. "One of the two of you have died, and the other have lived. And if the living one dies... the other will return. Papa loved you very much, Uncle."
"Tenth?" Gokudera's footsteps were quick and sure as the silver-haired hitman alighted in front of his Boss, shielding him from the bullet. "Tenth, don't listen to her! Ietsuna-sama is... gone."
"I..." Tears evaporated on contact as they trailed down his cheeks, burnt away by the Flame. "I..."
The gold flame began to take on a distinctly sinister shade of dark gold, and the gold of his eyes were shifting to a reddish sheen. "What do you mean?"
"Elmo is born from the vengeance of having the two of you separate," Elmo explained tonelessly and calmly, as if bored already. "Elmo never said that Papa alone had to bear the burden of vengeance. Your brother has died. You can't help it; to feel such overwhelming anger and despair. Even if Elmo disappears now, the veligers have been scattered across the world. One day, one of them will find you and that overwhelming vengeance you hold in your heart. And then Elmo will be born again."
"So in the end... it didn't matter which of us died, as long as one of us lived?" Tsuna sobbed, despite the sounds of confusion around him. "You didn't care who lived and who died... Elmo?"
Her face shut down. "...Elmo is a Box Weapon. Elmo does not have the facilities to compute caring for people. That was the point where the Big Seven series is superior to Elmo. Because for all of Elmo's superior processing capabilities, the souls of Alouette Lei, Innocenti, Miura Haru, Basilicum, Bianchi, the unknown third child of the Lei family, even Yuni, were far more capable of caring for the unknown strangers that Papa called his brother's family. Elmo cares for Papa, however. Elmo has run several calculations and devoted much of Elmo's hard drive to care for Papa. To care for my father is Elmo's only pride as a full artificial intelligence."
Gold eyes shimmered, and Elmo's hair stood on end before the brown strands began to burn a blue Flame.
"W- What the hell?" Gokudera cursed.
Yamamoto made to cut her, but something shifted in her eyes. A series of strange explosions took out most of the Vongola Guardians, blowing off the two strongest, and disappeared all the adults and the Simon family, leaving Tsuna with Ietsuna's blood cooling on his woolly mittens.
"Y- You're..." Tsuna stared at her, and her warmth.
"Firmware activated: La Fata dei Capellini Turchini." Elmo's blue hair continued to burn as she leaned closer to Tsuna. "Blue is the contrasting colour of orange. Accordingly to the Flame colour theory, a sky blue flame would interact with the Sky and create a quantum copy in the real dimension."
There was a smell about her now, a warmth and humanity compared to the previous illusionary bodies that, while solid and certainly painful, could not fool Tsuna's Hyper Intuition if they fooled his eyes. The warmth of her breath, the texture of her hands pulling the body away...
Tenderly, Elmo cradled the master of the Vongola dei Cieli in her arms. The smell of burning meat began to arise, but Tsuna remained staring, shell-shocked at having been defended by someone taking the bullet for him. "He is extremely warm. This is the first time Elmo had hugged Papa. The other Elmo in the imaginary dimension could never feel Papa, or hold Papa."
Tsuna winced. Even if she had become a real person, Elmo obviously lacked any of the shame, social cues or notions of propriety amongst that even the youngest of children knew. Curiosity, though, gnawed at him. The blue Flame that burned her hair started to shrink, a calmness being disrupted by ripples across its surface. "You... this is a last resort?"
"Yes. Normally, Elmo should have found another terminal to re-upload herself. However, this copy of Elmo no longer has the power to teleport. And..." her gold eyes flickered, "even if Elmo's formation is guaranteed if Papa died tonight, and Uncle's throne is guaranteed as the sole remaining heir of the Vongola... Elmo would regret if Elmo did not save him. Don't you?"
Another tear burned and evaporated halfway down Tsuna's cheek. The red in his eyes receded; the darkness in the pure gold Flame faded, leaving crystalline orange sparks in its wake. Slowly, the body of Sawada Ietsuna began to stir.
"Heart cavity repaired, spinal cord repaired, lung puncture sealed... temperature core rising..." Elmo swallowed. "Papa, Elmo has traded Uncle's safety, Uncle's family position, Uncle's welfare for your uncertain life. When you meet another copy of me in this uncertain future, Elmo does not know... will you still love Elmo?"
In the end, Tsuna reached across to her hand, and squeezed it. "I forgive you."
The fairy with the turquoise hair smiled, as her hair burned to its roots, leaving no trace as her body composition disappeared. A loud snort was heard as Ietsuna's body collapsed onto burn-marked ground, and she disappeared into the cold night.
"Elmo supports you." Tsuna whispered to his revived and sleeping brother. "I support you too. I have to. If at this moment we could trade Flames, so that you would become Decimo and I would become hunted... I'll do it, Nao-kun. So, you have to fight with your Dying Will, because your daughter is waiting for her father. Because I'm waiting for my brother."
Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !
Next chapter will be the epilogue ! I've decided !
