Someone was in town that shouldn't be, and Tsuna was not happy.
"Damn Reapers... freaking tourists..." he muttered to himself as he went to open up the shop.
With a slight turn, he dodged the scythe aimed at his head.
"Boss!" yelped Hayato.
Tsuna twisted, and yanked the scythe out of the Reaper's hand. Then in a move the reaper didn't see coming, he punched the fool out.
"What was that about?" demanded Reborn.
Tsuna held out the scythe. There was an inscription on it in Latin.
"Reapers of the Grimm?" translated Reborn. He gave Tsuna an odd look.
"Basically they kill people like me. And they're all Wesen...most of them have criminal records too, so it shouldn't be too hard to transfer him into the special Arena."
"What do tourists have to do with him?"
"Foreigners who come into town don't know the rules, and they get pissy when we kick their ass out for not following them. They don't know or care that we have a truce established between the Grimm and the Wesen, so they call in Reapers to kill us because their pride took a hit," said Tsuna rolling his eyes. "Probably that Blutbad from before."
"What's your standard protocol for this?" asked Reborn.
"Knock them out and throw their ass in the special Arena for Kyouya," was Tsuna's immediate reply. "He likes reapers... I think he once called one in after him when he was bored."
Fon frowned.
"He did and I took away his weapons for two months," he said sourly. "Reapers are annoying enough without calling them just to play."
"...So basically you intend to send any assassins after you into this arena for your Cloud to deal with."
"It keeps him from going after the Wesen in town for a few days, and they seem to enjoy watching him beat the crap out of someone else for a change," shrugged Tsuna.
The more violent Wesen respected Kyouya, and they accepted Tsuna because he wasn't afraid to kick their ass. Lowen in particular were frequent visitors of the special Arena.
Tsuna suddenly smirked.
"Besides, I get a cut on the betting action because I'm supplying Kyouya's prey for the night."
"And if they're human assassins?" asked Reborn, wondering what had happened to his life that he had to make the distinction.
"Depends on why they're there. If they're unrepentant killers or just plain assholes, we let the Lowen throw them into their Roman style Arena on certain nights so long as they remember not to let the cops trace it back to them."
"A very sensible approach for a mafia boss. Especially considering that as the future leader of the Vongola you have an entire Assassination Squad on speed dial, or you will."
Tsuna paused, and looked at Reborn oddly.
"Seriously?"
Fon was nodding in agreement.
"They're called the Varia. They're considered the 'Elite of the Elite' when it comes to assassins. Varia 'Quality' is a term often used to describe people who can get any assignment done, regardless of how impossible it is. And the current leader is the son of Vongola Nono, though he had a bit of an argument that got out of hand a few years ago. No one's seen him in some time so it's assumed he's on lockdown. The group is currently lead by a man named Squalo, an inverted Rain."
"Weird," said Tsuna, shaking his head. He had a shop to run, and a reaper to 'relocate'. "Hayato, get me an ampule from the cupboard. We're going to dose this idiot so he'll stay quiet until Kyouya wants to play with him."
Hayato tossed him what he asked for (it was even in a box labeled "In case of Reapers/Assassins) and Tsuna jabbed the man in the thigh. Then he dragged him inside and shoved him in the back.
Reborn stared with an impassive gaze. To be honest, Tsuna needed less training than he had feared, even if the headaches he kept getting from dealing with Wesen were something he could do without.
Honestly he was tempted to call in Dino to see what an unbiased assessment the older don could make of Tsuna.
"What's a human doing here?" growled a Balam. Hayato was quick to speak up once he woged, as if to tell the other Wesen to back off.
"Easy. He's a Kehrseite-Schlich-Kennen,"said Hayato.
"A what?" asked Reborn.
"Basically a human who's in the know about Wesen and can be kept informed," said Hayato.
"You vouch for him?" asked the other Balam.
"I do. Nice to see you again Tsume," said Tsuna easily.
The Balam shifted back.
"Tsuna. This kid one of yours?" asked Tsume.
"Hayato is my employee, and Reborn is staying at my house for the indeterminate future. Oh, and you might want to warn the others that Fon is in town for a while."
"Shit. The Skylark gets pissy enough when the alley cats get into it when he's trying to nap..." said Tsume grumbling.
Tsuna nodded cheerfully.
"Might be less annoying if you stayed close to me. And Hayato? Good job in diffusing the situation long enough for me to calm him down."
Hayato beamed at Tsuna, pleased at the praise.
"You could always talk to Tsume. I'm sure he'd introduce you to the other Balam in town. They might have a few tricks they can teach you, on top of the things Fon's planning to show you with your Flames."
"I'll keep that in mind boss. Where's Takeshi?"
"Training with his dad," said Tsuna, settling in for the show. He handed Reborn some binoculars so he could get a better look.
It was brutal and lasted for an hour. Definitely something that wouldn't have looked out of place in the old days of the Roman Coliseum.
"At least you're not going to be squeamish about death," said Reborn.
Tsuna gave him an odd look.
"Why would I be? I'm a Grimm after all. It's not the first time I've beheaded someone who shifted back into human form after. They leave me and mine alone and I won't come after them."
"Shishishi..."
"Mu. This is unexpected," said a voice.
Reborn turned to find...
"Viper?"
"Hey Prince Belphegor," said Tsuna, waving at him.
"I heard the Skylark had a new Reaper to play with," said Storm.
"Yeah, dumbass came after me when I was about to open up the shop. Good timing for you, right?" said Tsuna civilly.
"Oh god, not you too! Don't tell me the Varia is full of..." said Reborn exasperated.
Tsuna blinked, before he choked on his laughter.
"Reborn, Prince Belphegor isn't Wesen. He's a Royal," said Tsuna laughing.
Viper was staring at Reborn.
"How long has he..."
"He found out the hard way when I dealt with a Blutbad bothering some Bauerschwien. My liquor cabinet has been taking heavy hits ever since," said Tsuna. He snickered, "He was so irritated when he found out there was an entire society of 'animal people' under his nose and Fon knew about it the whole time."
Viper smirked.
"Ushishishi..." snickered Belphegor.
"You do realize there's still time to sign up for the Arena," said Tsuna to Belphegor.
"I already did. I'm just waiting for my turn... I can't properly see the blood from the participant's area," said Belphegor.
"Who's your victim... I mean opponent?" asked Tsuna.
"A smattering of peasants from the local Yakuza who made the mistake of pissing off the Hexenbiest you have on a leash," said Belphegor sneering.
"Have fun," said Tsuna.
"Ushishishi. A Prince does not need to worry about such peasants... but thank you."
Reborn eyed Tsuna oddly.
"What was that about?"
Tsuna sighed.
"Royals and Grimms have a...tumultuous relationship, to say the least. They still hold a lot of the same power they had centuries ago, though a good chunk of it was cut off after World War II. Most generally use shadow power plays you're almost certainly familiar with to get what they want done, and still hold to the whole nobility thing. Though I will say this... Prince Belphegor is one of the more tolerable Royals I've had to deal with."
"Mu. He's the only reason this entire set up you have in town even exists," said Viper.
"Why?" asked Reborn, fascinated. He didn't even mind paying the miser.
"Because Grimm and Wesen aren't supposed to have this sort of coexistence together. It upsets the status quo too much," said Tsuna tiredly. "Thanks the gods Prince Belphegor apparently loves sushi so much and was willing to hear me out when I brought it up after paying for his meal."
If the truce and the Arenas were sanctioned by a Royal, then the entire thing was considered legitimate in the eyes of the others. A sort of pet project of a bored Prince, as it were.
Belphegor mostly went along with it because it was interesting and every Wesen in town knew him by name and would call him "your highness" or "your majesty" if he visited. Technically the whole area was under his jurisdiction, and the two Grimms were his "enforcers". That and it allowed him to let Prince the Ripper out without having to deal with the annoyance that were cops or civilians seeing him. He got to play, eat his favorite food, and they dealt with the messy clean up without demanding payment.
Mammon agreed to help because they got a cut of all betting done in the Arenas. And considering how popular the Arenas were... well, Mammon was a happy Mist.
The Ripper Prince gleefully tore the Yakuza to shreds. To be fair, they should have known better than to call Momoka a bitch in court when things didn't go their way.
She was Hexenbeist. Some Yakuza thugs would have no chance against her and by this point the local gangs knew better than to piss her off. If she sentenced you to the barely legal jail that had direct connections to the Arenas, then your only hope was that your boss liked you enough to bribe her into allowing you to be transferred out.
Otherwise you were as good as dead.
Tsuna frowned.
"What is it?" asked Mammon.
"This is the fourth time we've had to send a group of five or more from the lower yakuza gangs to the Arena. And these morons aren't even local. I think we need to remind the idiots who's in charge of Namimori again."
Reborn stared at him.
"I thought you weren't involved in our world?" he frowned.
"I'm not, but we have a mutual agreement of understanding. And my shop is a hundred percent legal, with a side business of me being able to remove bullet wounds without asking questions. They pay me good money to patch their men up, since I don't ask questions and can prescribe things at the same time."
That and he kept Kyouya "on the leash". In exchange for looking the other way about their presence in his city, they kept all their illegal activities he didn't approve of out of Namimori.
Reborn looked rather pleased for some reason. Probably because he was planning to put some new group in their place and wasn't afraid to deal with them in a more...permanent...fashion.
"Actually we should ask the Prince if he wants to join in. He does technically 'rule' this area, even if he has no interest outside of playing in the Arena when he visits."
"You do that and people will start asking questions," Mammon pointed out.
"Not if we pay him to help," said Tsuna.
"Mu. You're learning. So which famiglia are you with anyway?" asked Mammon, nodding to Reborn.
"Vongola," said Reborn.
Mammon nearly dropped from the air in shock.
"In that case I have only one question. Will you let me sell all the blackmail photos I KNOW you're going to be taking the second that moron finds out what you are?" asked Mammon, almost begging.
If Tsuna was the Decimo candidate, that meant Iemitsu would show up at some point. If only to try and keep his job.
When that happened, it was inevitable the idiot would find out his own son was a Grimm.
And they wanted pictures, dammit. The bastard had caused them enough problems, especially with the Boss frozen.
Tsuna beamed.
"Why Mammon, who said you needed to ask such a thing? You know perfectly well I would happily call you and the Prince here so you can watch the show personally and take multiple pictures of your own to use against that pathetic excuse for a Lowen," said Tsuna with so many sparkles and rainbows that the Arcobaleno had to blink at it. "We are something close to friends after all."
Mammon blinked...before an evil smile came upon their face. They were clearly trying to resist the urge to cackle.
"You keep surprising me," said Reborn pleased.
"Well that and I plan to arm every Arcobaleno who visits that day with cameras so we can get all the best angles," said Tsuna. He didn't care about the money, but he did care about keeping that bastard far away from his life. "If you come by the shop later I'll give you something you'll really like. I can even have a shipment of fresh strawberry milk within a few minutes before we leave."
"Mu. I knew there was a reason I liked you," said Mammon pleased.
Mammon wasn't the only one laughing when they saw the pictures Tsuna had helpfully taken off his security cameras...and the cameras of the area where the idiot Blutbad had been. Belphegor was laughing in his own creepy way and demanding copies, which Tsuna cheerfully gave to him without a second thought.
It was pictures of Reborn's "WTF" expression, and the look of utter shock he had when confronted with Grimm and Wesen.
Mammon was going to make a fortune off these, selling them to the others. Not Fon though... he got his own copies first hand from the source.
He was still giggling over them.