Chapter 2: At Your Service
"-I caused a lot of trouble."
"..."
After the clashing event with Squalo, Tsuna's injuries were taken care of and he was given a new set of school clothes. He changed as quickly as he could to check on Basil. As soon as he opened the door, he froze. He's sure he has this dumb look on his face.
"Dame-Tsuna, a mafia boss shouldn't look like a gaping fish." Reborn said.
"I can't help it! And why aren't you surprised? Should you be even saying stuff about the mafia?!" Tsuna asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about." The baby answered.
"What I mean is, why is Yuki-san here?!" Tsuna pointed at the said boy who was sitting beside Basil's hospital bed, quietly reading a book. Yuki stopped and looked up at Tsuna with his usual smile.
"Oh, hello again, Sawada-san." He simply said.
"Y-Yuki-san, why are you here?" Tsuna asked again. The boy looked at Basil and back at the Vongola heir.
"I'm here to check on my comrade."
Comrade? Tsuna thought. He's starting to look like that one photo with a bunch of math equations in front him while doing his best to connect the dots. Yuki laughed at that and stood up. He approached Tsuna and bowed.
"Apologies for the late introduction, Vongola Decimo. Allow me to introduce myself once more. Yukihiro Sora, an informant who works under the same master as Basil. It's nice to meet you."
Tsuna blinks. Vongola Decimo. Informant. Works with Basil. He blinks again. It was a long 3 seconds before he almost screamed in shock. He would've if it wasn't for the sleeping Basil in the room. Dino shoots Yuki a questioning look.
"You didn't tell him?"
"I'm not as straightforward as Reborn-san." The baby hummed as an agreement. Yuki goes back to his seat and opens his book as if nothing happened. There were a lot of questions going through Tsuna's head right now but he knows that all of it won't be answered right now. Dino then asks Romario about Basil's condition. His right-hand-man then answers that Basil is okay. He's well trained to avoid further injuries.
"Is he and Yuki-san a part of the Vongola?" Tsuna asked.
"No, they're not a Vongola. But they're on your side." Dino answered. Tsuna gets even more confused. His enemy from earlier is a Vongola but his new allies are not even a part of the family. In the first place, he shouldn't even be calling them with terms such as enemies and allies. He hasn't even fully accepted being a mafia boss.
"Seems like that's no longer the case." Dino frowned.
"It's because those rings are on the move." Reborn continued.
"Rings? He did mention that. Something about the Vongola Rings…" Tsuna said.
Reborn then reveals that the ring is called the Half Vongola Rings. It is the Vongola Family's treasure and they were supposed to be hidden in a secret location for three more years. The rings are priceless and it holds a dark past with untold amounts of bloodshed spilled over it. Tsuna is relieved that the rings were taken away by Squalo.
"Well… About that…"
"What?"
"I have them right here." Dino grinned as he pulled out the real Vongola Rings box from his coat. Tsuna panicked even more. Dino explained that someone asked him to give it to him since he's the next Vongola boss. Tsuna immediately cuts in saying that he has some reviewing to do and leaves the room.
"Does he still think he can run away from his position?" Dino sighs. They shifted their attention to the sleeping Basil.
"So Basil was the bait." Reborn states and looks at Yuki.
"-and you knew that, didn't you?" The informant remained silent and that was enough confirmation. Yuki knew that Basil was being used as bait and he wasn't allowed to interfere.
"Speaking of that, Yukihiro, why didn't you help your comrade?" Dino asks.
"Compared to Basil, I have weaker fighting abilities. Plus, the Boss ordered me to watch only. I could've ran away with the fake rings easily since escaping is my specialty but, the goal was to let the Varia take those rings. Basil was the right choice and he knew he's being used as bait." Yuki explains.
They left it at that. The informant stayed in the room for a few more minutes before excusing himself saying that he still had things to take care of. Reborn and Dino watch him leave and the Cavallone boss looks down at the hitman.
"Are you sure it's okay to have someone like him near Tsuna?" He asked.
"I doubt Yuki would harm Tsuna and the others. But if he does, he won't get away easily and he knows that."
…
A child is sitting on the cold hard floor wearing an oversized white shirt. Pained screams, cries for help… nothing new. It's scary to think this child got used to such noises. But it can't be helped. Hearing it everyday will eventually make you numb to it. What can a child do when they're isolated from the rest. Being thrown into a cell, being held as a prisoner, forced to stay in a facility located somewhere. It doesn't help that the child doesn't remember anything. Only bits and pieces remained. They don't remember what they hold dear and that made them lose their will to live.
That is until one day, the everyday screams stopped. Weird, the child thought. Even if people died in this place, it doesn't mean that the usual noise would just stop. Then, the child realized that something was making a mess of the floor that eventually seeped inside their cell. Adjusting those dull eyes…
"Ah…" The child plainly said. It's as if seeing multiple corpses whose blood painted the floor red is a normal thing to see. Did everyone just die? That would explain the deafening silence throughout the facility. Then, their ears picked up a sound. Footsteps. Multiple ones. As if answering his curiosity, the child looked up and saw a hand reaching out to him.
And…
Tsuna sighs. Not only is he involved in more mafia related problems, his father decided to come home and appear so unsightly in front of his friends. The stress was building up again. The need to just crawl into a hole and hide there for the rest of his life is tempting. He can't help but think back to what happened in Kokuyo Land. Everything during that time was so unexpected and draining. Now he can't help but imagine that what he'll deal with soon will be ten times worse than that.
Then there's that thing with Yuki being involved in the mafia. Honestly, Tsuna didn't think much of him other than being his new classmate who adjusted so fast despite transferring from Italy. He'd be lying if he said that he never felt anything off about Yuki when he first saw him. When Yuki was introducing himself in front of the class, Tsuna couldn't help but feel a nudging feeling inside him. That there was more than what meets the eye. But he ignored it. It's rude, you know? To immediately assume that there was something wrong with someone he just met without getting to know them properly. Although his instincts were right with Yuki being more than your normal foreign student, it doesn't make him wary of his presence. In the first place, Yuki never showed any kind of hostility compared to his first meeting with Gokudera. Tsuna sighs again. He's thinking too much. Hopefully his house would somehow clear his mind.
The Vongola heir is currently walking home from school and his friends aren't with him today. Yamamoto has baseball practice and Gokudera is at his part time job at the convenience store. Tsuna was about to ask Yuki if he wanted to walk home with him but the said boy was nowhere to be found after classes. Hence, he's walking home alone today. He arrived home and went straight to the kitchen.
"I'm home- Yuki-san?!"
Yuki was there eating along with Reborn. How did Yuki even get to his own home first before him?
"Welcome back, Tsu-kun! Yuki-kun here was just telling me about his experience in Japan so far!"
"Thank you for the food, Sawada-san." Yuki said with a smile, finished with his food.
"Mama is fine!"
"Then, thank you, Mama."
Reborn also finished his food and jumped down from the chair. He excused them saying that they're going to have a tutoring session in Tsuna's room. The Vongola heir was about to complain until Reborn stomped on his foot and told him to hurry up. Yuki, noticing his inability to walk properly without wincing in pain, helped him walk up to his bedroom and made him sit down on his bed.
"Thank you, Yuki-san."
"No problem, Sawada-san."
"Ah- you can call me Tsuna."
"Okay, Tsuna-san." Yuki said and sat down in front of the table. Silence fills the room until Reborn turned to the informant and asked.
"Would you like to join Tsuna's family?"
"Reborn! What are you even saying?!" Tsuna exclaimed.
"I'll think about it." Yuki answered.
Tsuna sighs in relief and hopes that he rejects Reborn's offer. He doesn't want to drag more people into this mafia business. Well, Yuki is already involved but he doesn't want to include him in this whole family thing.
"Is that why you asked me to come here?" Yuki asked Reborn.
"Nope. I want you to tutor Dame-Tsuna in math. He's pretty much hopeless."
"Reborn don't bother him-"
"Shut up." The hitman throws a pillow at his student and it lands straight to his face causing him to fall back to his bed. Yuki laughed and agreed.
"The usual bank account?" Reborn asked.
"Yes, please." The informant answered. Tsuna sighs and removes the pillow from his face. He guesses it's fine since Yuki is basically being paid. Plus, he would prefer being tutored by him over Reborn. But the hitman said "the usual bank account" so does that mean that they met before and had some past deals?
"Ah, the time." Yuki mumbles as he looks at the time from his phone.
"You're leaving? Then let me show you out." Tsuna offered and the informant shook his head.
"It's fine. Thank you." He got up and was ready to leave the door before looking back at Reborn. Tsuna just blinks. The two of them are somehow holding a conversation with their eyes. Yuki held back a sigh and bowed before excusing himself. The informant said his goodbyes to Nana, Bianchi and the kids before leaving the Sawada residences. That was the plan until he saw his boss waiting for him by the gate.
"Boss."
"How's my son, Yukihiro?" Iemitsu asked.
"The opposite of Xanxus." The CEDEF boss sighed at the mention of the other Vongola heir. That's right. The reason why Iemitsu sent Yuki to Japan is to oversee the upcoming battle between Tsuna and Xanxus' family. He wants Yuki to gather every single detail. From each participant's abilities to the events and results of the ring battle. Yuki was chosen because he doesn't miss any detail and that's exactly why his information gathering and observation abilities are to be feared and protected. Keeping everything up to date is important for future purposes.
"Yukihiro."
"Yes boss?"
"This is an order." Iemitsu wants him to watch Tsuna and his guardians' training. Yuki nodded and bowed before leaving to prepare for the days to come. Waiting for the informant to be out of their sight, Reborn jumps down near Iemitsu from Tsuna's room window.
"So, how did it go?" Iemitsu asked.
"Not good. He can't run away from it forever." Reborn sighed.
"Hopefully it will work out." The CEDEF boss said with a frown on his face.
"Hopefully."
Yuki enters his apartment and looks over the information he has gathered so far. His hand stopped at the very last page. It seems like there's no more room to write on. He sighs and closes the red notebook before storing it inside one of the many security boxes inside his room.
"It seems like I need to buy a new batch."
His bedroom is filled with hundreds of security boxes specifically made to be unlockable by no one other than him. Inside the metal containers are thousands of similar looking red notebooks that are filled with priceless information. Well, he wasn't known as "The Eye" for nothing.
Yuki opens his closet to get his last stock of the red notebook and something catches his attention from the corner of his eye. He looked at its direction and frowned. A defeated sigh escaped his lips and a heavy feeling settled on his chest. He walked past it and threw himself to his bed.
He has better things to do.
"It's rare to see you so defeated." The usual voice rings in his head.
"Can you blame me?" Yuki sighed.
"Maybe. I did warn you."
"You're in the same boat as me anyways." Yuki replied and rolled his eyes.
"You're such a brat when it comes to me." The voice says, amused.
"You enabled me."
"Correction. You want to act like one."
"Old geezer." Yuki teased.
"You won't be able to utter those words when we meet again." The voice threatened.
"Watch me."
"That's my line" The voice said. Yuki just smiled and yawned.
"Looking forward to it."
"Sweet dreams."
Hello again. Next chapter will be longer and the battle will begin! Thank you for your support so far and I hope you stick around until the end! I have a lot in store especially for the next arc. Thank you again! Bye bye~