Another Path Part 21 : That worked with Varia-quality
Here's a chapter, just in time for Halloween. Not that it has anything to do with Halloween, but I think the Varia is scary enough for it. And you'll probably notice, but I have no f***ing idea how to write Levi-A-Than and no motivation to research such a lousy character that is clearly defined as Xanxus' b*tch. And I should stop writing Xanxus, it's starting to show in my writing, I usually don't swear all that much. F***ing Levi trash.
Once Lussuria, Squalo and Mammon had left the shop, Tsuna called for a meeting with all members. Hayato obviously had some information on those new customers that might change things and he wanted everyone to be aware of everything they knew about those 'Varia'.
He had not expected Varia to be the branch of Vongola in charge of assassination and all the dirty jobs. When Kyoya had researched Iemitsu's connection to the Mafia, he had quickly focused on CEDEF and didn't remember seeing the name Varia, so it was the first time the Japanese boys heard about it.
Chikusa, Ken and Mukuro's reaction mirrored Hayato's : they had frozen and only started to recover after Tsuna had shown them the contract ensuring their safety and anonymity (and he had made sure that the Varia members never knew the names of any of his friends). Even Lambo seemed to have heard of the group before, although only in terms as vague as 'really strong' and 'not to make an enemy of'. I-pin didn't know anything.
A couple hours later, when Byakuran arrived and was told about the new customers, he burst into laughter, mumbling that it had gone better than the last time. Nobody bothered to ask him what he meant; the white-haired teen made it a habit to say cryptic sentences and never give an explanation, so most people just assumed he was talking nonsense.
Anyway, the contract had been signed and Varia was now a customer of Caeruleus. The effeminate man -Lussuria- had given them directions to their home and told them to come as soon as they could, and none of them had anything planned tomorrow apart from Byakuran who added that given his circumstances, it would be unwise of him to see the Varia, so he would not work on the renovations. N of the others argued, even though they knew next to nothing about Byakuran's 'circumstances'. They would all go together the next day (minus the oldest teen) and take a look at the extant of the damage, to get a clear picture of what they would have to do. They would also make sure that nothing incriminating was visible and nothing that could shock their youngest members.
()()()()()()
The villa was a wreck.
Oh, all the foundations and load-bearing walls looked perfectly fine, the house was standing and from afar it looked pretty normal too (if enormous), but upon closer inspection, there was a lot of work to be done.
Rubble was strewn all across the grounds surrounding the villa, holes of all size and shapes littered the walls, most of the window were broken in not completely shattered and even the garden was half in a state of disarray, half burnt to the ground. And that had only been what they could see from outside!
The Caeruleus members looked at each other. Yeah, they had their work cut out for them.
They had arrived in front of the villa, facing the massive stairs that led to the front door, when the latter was violently pushed open. Lussuria was on the doorstep beaming at them.
"Oh, you really came!" He cheered. "Good, good! We were not sure you would dare. Quite a few companies quit on us before making it his far." He gave a bubbly smile. "Come in, come in, I'll introduce you to our Boss and then give you a tour of the place, so you can get a good picture of it!" His eyes looked at each of them in turn, stopping shortly on Mukuro, Ken and Chikusa with a light widening of his eyes, but he said nothing and beckoned them to follow him.
Tsuna shared a worried and incredulous glance with his friends, scooped up Lambo into his arms, saw Shoichi do the same with I-pin and joined Lussuria inside the villa.
The interior was just as bad as the outside, noticed the brunet upon witnessing the countless holes on the floor, walls and ceiling. The fragments had just been shoved to the sides to let people walk. There were scorch marks all over the place and some blood stains, but nothing bigger than a nosebleed and no body or body parts to be seen. At least they had respected that condition so far.
Thankfully, all the damage they had seen so far was manageable, and they could fix it with their little construction skills and a lot of paint. It would just take a lot of time to take care of everything, from the cleaning of the rooms, to the plugging of the small holes and the complete rebuilding of the most destroyed walls. The floor and ceilings were salvageable with some work. Finally, there would be the decoration part, with the painting of the wall, the removal of all damaged curtains and other furniture and the bringing of new ones.
This would take months, bu it was doable and the would be paid by the hour with a bonus for each finished room. If everything went well with the customers, it was definitely worth it.
Lussuria had been excitedly babbling about his 'mischievous coworkers and their bad habits of breaking stuff' -his words exactly- when he stopped in front of a massive closed double door that was miraculously devoid of any holes or burn marks. "Here's the Boss' reception room. He's a bit gruff and not very polite, but he's got a good heart. Somewhere. Deep down inside. He knows about the contract and he won't attack you despite what it looks like, so it will be fine. Just introduce yourselves, answer his questions concisely if he has any and get out. Easy right?" He smiled, but did not receive any answering smile strangely enough.
Tsuna tightened his hold on Lambo and followed Lussuria. From what he had learned from his friends, the head of Varia, a man named Xanxus, was infamous for his perpetual anger and violent behavior. He just hoped that they would go in and out of the room without starting a fight. Right here in the middle of Varia territory, they didn't have a chance in battle.
The room was spacious, just as dilapidated as the rest of the mansion, with a throne of all things at the opposite end. A man -although from his appearance he wasn't any older than 20 was leisurely lounging in it, a glass of wine in one hand. He was properly terrifying : red eyes that stared at them, a frown that made him look furious and guns at his hips. The stuff of nightmares.
His eyes glared at them all in turn with recognition shining at the three former criminals, settled on Tsuna and he frowned even more. After that his eyes didn't leave the brunet, and the Sky was uncomfortably reminded of that Squalo guy's reaction.
The long-haired man was actually standing on one side of the room (still staring at Tsuna), along with the probably-Arcobaleno Mammon, a tall guy with an odd mustache and a weirder hairdo and a boy around the same age as Tsuna with a fringe covering his eyes and- was that a tiara? Lussuria joined them and left Caeruleus (and the brunet in particular) to face the glare of his Boss.
"You mini-trash are the construction company?" Growled the red-eyed man. Kyoya, Hayato, Ken and Mukuro stiffened at the slur, but thankfully stayed quiet and didn't move.
"Uhm, yes we're Caeruleus. We're here to assess the extant of reparations." Stumbled the Sky. Xanxus was still staring at him, so he was obviously the one who would be the one to answer.
The man kept glaring at him, and Tsuna had to fight not to fidget. What was wrong with these people? Eventually, the guy scoffed and started talking again. "I'm Xanxus, and you scum are now working for me. You already know the long-haired trash," He ignored the answering indignant bellow. "The sissy and the baby. The laughing princess is Bel and the fucking lapdog with an afro is Levi. They are the elite and will make fucking sure that no other trash bothers you when you work. You'd better do a good job and not do anything against us or I fucking swear that you will regret it. Capisce?"
He had still not looked away from Tsuna, but all the members of Caeruleus nodded their understanding. Lussuria then led them out of the room and the brunet let out a sigh of relief when that glare wasn't burning his neck anymore.
"Well, that went well!" Chirped the over-excited man. "I'll give you the tour of the place now and show you where the previous companies' equipment has been stored." He announced as he skipped ahead in the decrepit corridors.
()()()()()()
As they had expected, the work was hard, but not impossible. It took them two weeks just to clear all the rubble that littered the grounds and the inside of the villa. Since none of them could drive the truck (left by another company that had ran without demanding it back) to carry away the fragments, a subordinate of Varia made the ride back and forth to the dump (or wherever the man went) almost twenty times a day.
They were also always followed by at least one of the 'elite' at all times, both to protect them in case of danger and to ensure they didn't do anything against Varia. Lussuria was cheerful and sometimes even gave them a hand for the heavy-lifting. Mammon just hovered (which intrigued Shoichi and Hayato immensely) nearby without a word. Squalo was a bit more annoying, since he kept staring at Tsuna, but apart from that and his occasional bellows, there was no issue.
No, the problem was Levi and Bel (or Levi-A-Than and Belphegor as it turned out). The former disliked the attention Xanxus had given them all, and Tsuna especially. Which was a bit weird, because since their first tense meeting, they had not even seen the scary red-eyed man. But Levi begrudged them for it and kept making snide remarks all the time that slowly pushed them to the limit of their patience. Tsuna had had to bodily restrain Hayato once when the silveret had started pulling out his dynamite. The brunet Sky had found it insulting when Xanxus had called Levi a 'fucking lapdog' when they met, but he was finding the description more and more accurate.
Bel was a whole different issue. The 'prince' as he called himself was a bloody psychopath! He kept egging them to fight him, pulling out his knives and threatening them; they had immediately decided never to let the mad blond alone with their weakest members -Lambo, I-pin and Shoichi. Nevertheless, when it was Bel's turn to keep an eye on them, they kept a watchful eye on him to ensure he didn't try anything funny.
That had been the only thing saving Chikusa from losing a limb when Bel decided he had waited long enough and had finally thrown a knife to the Rain. Thankfully, Mukuro had noticed in time and had pushed the other to the ground, leaving the knife to embed itself on the wall the had just finished, just where the beanie-wearing boy's shoulder had been.
"What the hell!" Yelled Ken, who rushed to his long-time friend's side to make sure he was alright and in one piece.
The sound attracted the other members of Caeruleus who were working on the next room under Levi's supervision. They all rushed in and instantly understood what had happened; the knife in the wall and pretty telling.
Kyoya pulled out his tonfas at once and stood ready to attack the bloody blond who was still holding his knives ready for combat. "Herbivore, drop your weapons or be bitten to death." The raven had plenty of shortcomings, but he was very protective of all those he considered pack, and that meant all the members of Caeruleus (although Byakuran was still on probation).
Bel just laughed an especially creepy laugh and aimed a knife at Kyoya's head, which the Cloud deflected easily. That spurred Levi to step forward, not to defuse the situation, as he should have, but rather to stand by Bel and pull out his own weapons. Which were umbrellas. Really. The elite member of the greatest assassination group fought with bloody umbrellas...
Anyway, the moron was speaking. "You have attacked a member of Varia, in Xanxus' name, I shall have to execute you!" Cried Levi while brandishing his umbrellas. Bel made weird 'Ushishishi' sounds besides him.
"Hey, we haven't done squat!" Answered Hayato, dynamite already in hand. Shoichi was gathering Lambo and I-pin closer, Mukuro, Chikusa and Ken had recovered and were inching closer to their comrades weapons out.
"You have disrespected members of Xanxus' Varia, you deserve to die! You are not worth Xanxus' time!" Was Levi's passionate reply. Honestly, there was no talking to the man, and Bel wasn't any better. The freak was actually licking his knives like a villain in a manga. Yuck.
"If you attack us, we'll fight back." Warned Tsuna, but the situation was already out of hand. He discreetly made signs for Mukuro, Chikusa and Ken, who were still apart from the rest and closer to the door, to get help. Levi and Bel were too insane to talk to, but the rest of the elite was not and would probably listen to them, even if only to keep a company for renovations. And the three former outlaws had best stay together, because while some of the elite would not harm them, other members of Varia might see them as a threat if alone in the villa without supervision.
The brunet also silently told Hayato to stay close to stay close to Shoichi and not intervene. The silveret's weapons of choice were simply not suited for indoor battle, not if they wanted some of their hard work from the last two weeks to stay standing. Hayato, who while hotheaded was also very smart and loyal to a fault, nodded despite the obvious displeasure on his face. He went to stand in front of Shoichi and the kids, and would only fight if there was no there choice.
That left Kyoya and Tsuna to take care of Levi and Bel. The blond had been focused on the Cloud since he had pulled his tonfas, and Levi held a grudge against the brunet, so it was obvious who would fight who until someone sane from Varia arrived. Or someone saner at least, Tsuna didn't hope for a miracle.
Levi, who was proving to be more of an idiot by the minute, actually used Flames right from the start. In front of civilians who should not know anything about that! Had Tsuna and his friends not practiced using their Flames for years, the fight would have been over in a flash.
As it was, Tsuna, who had been wearing his fighting gloves since he had entered the villa and been told he would be supervised by Bel or Levi, didn't hesitate to use his Flames either and blocked the man's umbrella thrust. Orange fire clashed with green lightning and it was Levi who was pushed back. Good, thought the brunet, that means I have more power than him.
Meanwhile, Bel had used the distraction to throw dozen of knives tinged with red fire to his own opponent. Following Tsuna's lead, Kyoya immediately coated his tonfas in Cloud Flames and proceeded to deflect or dodge every projectile while shortening the distance to eventually strike.
The fight went on and they were making quite the commotion. The only reasons no low-ranked Varia member had come close was that the knew better than to step in on one of the elite's fights. Still, that might not stay true very long and Tsuna didn't want to have to face the entire assassination group. The battle had to end, and fast.
Kyoya had already managed to hit Bel a few times, so the Sky was positive that his friend would win the fight once he managed to corner the 'prince' so that he couldn't escape again. The problem was that the sight of his own blood had put the blond in a frenzy and he was giggling even more maniacally than before and was twice as vicious. As for Levi, well he was clearly not as powerful as Tsuna and a bit more Flame output than what he was using so far should take care of the 'fucking lapdog'.
He increased the amounts of Flames on his gloves, not realizing that his eyes were glowing and that fire was burning on his forehead. He stepped to his left to avoid one on Levi's thrusts -the man was not very diverse in his attacks- and rushed straight ahead. He closed in on the surprised Lightning in a second, the man's arm still extended for his attack and not able to block the heavy punch to the gut. Levi went flying backwards into the wall (which thankfully was a load-bearing one and didn't suffer anything), almost hitting Bel, who was leaning on said wall to cover for an injured leg.
Kyoya used the opportunity to run on Levi's trail as he went flying, using the moron as a shield and Bel's blind spot. That got him close enough to land a solid hit on the prince's head, making him crumble on the floor unconscious.
Tsuna and Kyoya relaxed, thinking the battle over, but unfortunately, what Levi lacked in brain, he apparently had in endurance and the Cloud didn't see the crackling umbrella aimed at his head before it was too late to dodge or block.
That was when Lussuria and Mammon arrived, the Ken, Chikusa and Mukuro on their heals. The Arcobaleno had the time to summon a tentacle to intercept the attack before it connected, and the umbrella stopped a few centimeters from Kyoya. "Mou, don't kill the construction company before the are finished, idiot." Drawled the flying baby. "It was already a hassle to find them, I don't want to waste more money and time looking for a replacement."
Levi opened his mouth to protest, but was interrupted. "Voooiiiii! What the fuck is going on in here?!" Questioned Squalo, who had just arrived, a disgruntled Xanxus behind him, looking like he was ready to disembowel the first person to tell him.
"Oh, just Levi and Bel attacking our cute little construction workers and getting their asses kicked." Chirped Lussuria, who who had arrived just in time to see Tsuna send Levi-A-Than flying. "Apparently our adorable contractors forgot to mention that at least two of them could fight and use their Flames." He added with a hint a suspicion in his voice.
The two Varia who had not witnessed the fight looked at Lussuria, then for some unknown reason focused as one man one Tsuna, Squalo with an accusing glare, Xanxus with a glower so powerful the brunet took a step back. Why were they staring at him? Kyoya had also used his Cloud Flames! Why were they not looking at the raven? Why in hell were those two so focused on him? They could not know that he was Sawada Iemitsu's son, right? The Varia didn't even know their first names, they had been extra-careful about that...
Thankfully -or not- Xanxus decided to speak up before Tsuna could work himself into a full-blown panic attack. "You scum are Mafia?" He growled threateningly, still staring daggers into the brunet.
"No!" He cried before the red-eyed man could reach the wrong confusion. He had to get the situation under control quickly. Defeating Levi -who had only a few attacks and had been obviously restricted in them on the inside- and Bel -who was still wet behind the ears- was one thing. Getting alive out of a fight with the entirety of Varia, including its infamous Boss, the second-in-command who was waiving around a sword attached to his severed limb and an Arcobaleno (Mist, given how he had stopped Levi) was another. "Some of us come from the Mafia, but we're no longer part of it!"
"Then how do you know about Flames?" Demanded Squalo, sword pointed directly at Tsuna's throat. "No civilian is allowed to know about those!"
"You recognized some of us, right?" Replied the brunet. "I can't and won't give you our names. It was in the contract. And it's not important for you to know. We only defended ourselves when we were attacked. Bel threw a knife at one of us, who luckily avoided it. Those three" He pointed at Mukuro, Chikusa and Ken without naming them. "Then went to get help from another of your elite. Levi sided with Bel -he had been antagonizing us since we arrived."
At this point, Levi tried to protest or defend himself, but he did not manage to get a word out. He had barely opened his voice that a bullet was fired through his leg. Xanxus didn't even bother looking away from Tsuna and still had been too fast for the boy to properly see him draw his gun. The brunet swallowed; they really had no chance at all if this turned into a fight. "Keep talking, mini-trash." Ordered Xanxus.
"Since they were openly trying to kill us, me an him" He pointed at Kyoya, who was still ready to strike. "fought them off until help arrived. It was taking too long and we feared that some of your lower-ranked members would eventually barge in and attack us, so we decided to incapacitate Levi and Bel. Lussuria and Mammon arrived just after it was over, and Mammon stopped a surprise attack from Levi towards my friend." He gestured towards the umbrella that was still immobilized by a tentacle sprouting from the floor. "You arrived just after them." He finished lamely.
Xanxus was studying his face intently again, but at least Tsuna believed that the fury had alleviated a bit. The next person to talk -yell was Squalo. "Where did you learn, then? To use your Flames. Not with civilians, that's for sure; Vindice make sure that no-one outside of the Mafia learns anything about it."
"Some of us learnt in the Famiglias they used to belong to. Some of us discovered Flames on our own and perfected their use by ourselves. The rest were taught by the firsts once they joined Caeruleus. And Vindice knows about it too, but they don't mind." He added, carefully avoiding looking at the three former criminals. From the looks Lussuria sent them anyway, they already knew who those three were.
But talking about the Vindice had reminded Tsuna of the mark of contract he still had on his arm. They had said he could use it once to call the Vindice for help; if things turned sour, he would use it immediately.
Silence fell in the room. Xanxus eventually broke it by turning around and exiting the room. "Just return to work, scum." He barked. "You morons return to work too!" He added towards the Varia. "And if the princess or the fucking lapdog try anything again, they get shot between the eyes. Capisce?"
Once Xanxus had disappeared behind a corner, the rest of Varia looked at each other before leaving the room as well, leaving only Lussuria and Caeruleus behind.
Tsuna shared a puzzled look with his friends, shrugged and took a good look at the new damage to the room. The would have to do everything again.