Disclaimer: I own the OCs, the rest is Akira Amano's work.
Fratellanza
Reborn's team: Tsunayoshi, Dino, Takeshi, Hayato and Ryohei were representatives. Tsunayoshi was most likely wearing the Boss watch.
Mammon's team: Xanxus with the Boss watch, Superbi, Belphegor, Levi and Lussuria.
Colonnello's team: Iemitsu with the Boss watch, Basil, Lal, Oregano and Turmeric were probably on the team as well. While they were not as strong as other fighters, they were great at recon and collecting information, as well as planning strategies. Sometimes...Iemitsu was a little too forward in his plans.
Verde's team: Mukuro wearing the Boss watch, with Fran, Chikusa, Ken and M.M as fighters.
Fon's team: Kyoya was wearing the Boss watch, while Alaric, Arro and I had white watches.
Skull's team: Enma. Just Enma.
Uni's team: Gamma or Byakuran were wearing the Boss watch, and the Millefiore minus Ghost would be participating in the fights, as well as...the two guys there were at the final fight in the Future.
It was the first day of the battles. We had taken turns in training to have someone collecting information about the other teams. Well, Kyoya was fighting and going to school, but us three and Fon were working. Verde visited yesterday to give back any of our belongings he was improving or just working on, as well as the marbles Arro used to make bombs while I was the fuse.
In any case, I said the word 'Byakuran' and Mukuro and his team had a target. They were most likely around Uni's base. I wouldn't be surprised if some of Colonnello's team were around as well, as there was Byakuran in Uni's team.
Kyoya would stay at school, I was supposed to keep an eye on Skull's team, while Arro would keep an eye on Iemitsu's team in particular and Alaric would keep an eye on my brother. Dino I mean.
The nice thing was: nobody knew, except for Reborn maybe, we had the Mare Rings. I mean, Team Uni knew, obviously, but apart from them, nobody knew.
School was totally normal. When the bell rang the end of the last class of the day, I packed my stuff quickly to head to Tsunayoshi's class. There had to be something on the way though.
The thing was Adelheid.
"I'm in a hurry," I told her, trying to walk past her when she stepped on the side to block my way. "What?"
"I want you to take back what you told Enma." I raised a brow. "You said we were weak. I want you to take it back."
"But I think it, I'm not..."
"I'll show you we're not weak!" I plugged one of my ear at the sudden raise of her voice.
"I'm really not interested." She grabbed her fan. I was glad nobody was around because with the speed Fon made me control, I walked past her in the blink of an eye and ran down the stairs.
"SINI LUCIANA!"
I was already out of the building and speeding away from the school yard. I vanished into illusions right when I was on my own and started looking for Enma. What did Fon say...right, from what he gathered, they lived in the…
I slowed down.
In the same area the Giegues was murdered. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and headed there. I was two minutes away when my watch beeped.
I kept my illusions though. The fight, from what my watch was showing, would last for ten minutes. I could feel several flares of flames though.
When I arrived, Enma had his hands chained in his back, the coral flame on his forehead and fists burning bright but from that angle…
I looked down when Skull landed in front of me, then looked up at Enma and I narrowed my eyes behind my glasses. Sure, I was not in Skull's team, or in an allied team, but Enma was on his own against four full-fledged assassins. I removed my illusions and knelt behind Skull.
"Hey." He jumped and looked up at me. "Don't yell or talk, just tell me if Enma is your only representative."
"And what if he is!?"
"It settles it then." I grabbed my Leon gun and shot in the ground. "Consider you have a debt to Team Fon." I focused and felt my Flame of Wrath bullets dividing in the ground.
It was tough to mix the two together, Flame of Wrath/Sky and the Flame of Cloud, but as they were intertwined with one another, it also made it easier. I didn't have it under a total control
In any case, my shots came out of the ground a few meters in front of Enma and blocked the attacks.
"What..." I took advantage of the lights to run to Enma and burned off the strings tying his hands together. Skull struggled to keep up with me.
"Why did you save Enma?" he asked in shock.
"Simple: four professional assassins against a fourteen-year-old. Sure he can fight but...it's not a fair fight and I hate that kind of shit." I got up and pulled Enma on his feet. "You're okay?"
"Yeah..thank you Luciana-san."
"Heh, you're the first Japanese one to not butcher my name the first time they say it in front of me." I was sure Kyoya did it on purpose in China.
"VOOIII WHO'S THE FUCKING TRASH WHO INTERRUPTED OUR FIGHT!?"
"Ushishi~, didn't the flames look familiar though?" The lights and dust cleared up, revealing Enma, Skull and I. Their jaws dropped a little. "Makes sense now."
"Ma, Lucia-chan move out of the way!" Lussuria screamed to me. I just looked at my watch. It beeped, signaling the end of the fight.
"Vooii the hell are you playing at brat!?" I shot Superbi an icy look.
"You're the one who should know already." He widened his eyes slightly before clicking his tongue.
"Let's get out of here!" he yelled as he spun around. They left, jumping on the roof of a building.
Tch, it was basic mafia behavior, trash behavior.
It was the one thing I would always hate about Xanxus I guess.
"ENMA!" I was pushed back by Adelheid, who grabbed Enma and hugged him between her breasts. I grabbed my inhaler and deadpanned at the scene, taking breaths from it. I graciously helped and here was my reward.
"Ad..Adel...can't breath!" She pulled him away.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"I'm fine, nothing too bad...Luciana-san helped before it could get very bad."
"I was about to step in as well but..." Skull started to say but he was royally ignored. Adelheid shot me a dubious look.
"Why did you decide to help Enma?"
"Meh, I grew up with a brother who always defends the weak and the defenseless so when I see something unfair I hear his voice saying I should do something." And past experience, and the way Dino was treated back in the days. "Anyway, you owe me one, bye." I waved at them while I left the construction site, grabbed my bag and headed back to my place.
The debriefings would be at my place, and once we were done with ours I would call Mukuro and Verde and put them on speakers to have their debrief as well and share information.
Once I was out of sight, I leaned against a wall and breathed deeply. To match the amount of their flames I had to spend a lot more energy I thought. The Cloud Propagation Ability helped a lot, but it also took a lot. I'd be fine by tomorrow, it was only one battle per day anyway, but no training for me today.
I was the first one here. Feng was making snacks and tea.
"What the..."
"Don't worry, I didn't break anything while coming inside," she told me casually, her eyes glued to her cooking.
"...Kyoya told you to come through the window?"
"I'd tell you to get it fixed but he'd just break it again." It was a family thing or what? "Any injury?"
"No, just tired." I removed my shoes and coat and beanie, walked to my room and threw my bag inside before slouching in my couch.
Alaric was the next one to arrive, not wounded and still with his watch, then Arro, who was totally fine as well, and then Kyoya and Fon.
Kyoya was not happy.
"Everybody have their watch?" We all raised our wrist at Fon's question. "Good. Nobody seems hurt either." He shot Kyoya a look and sighed. His nephew was fuming, glaring at the green tea in front of him. If it was not Feng sitting in front of him he would be glaring at the person as well. "I'll start. Kyoya battled with Sasagawa Ryohei, Yamamoto Takeshi and Gokudera Hayato, all fighting for Reborn. Sasagawa-san was eliminated pretty fast." Arro snickered.
"He totally forgot the rules I'm sure."
"Then, the other two ran away using Yamamoto Takeshi's Rondine di Pioggia." Kyoya glared harder. "What about you?"
"I kept an eye on Don Cavallone and Reborn. We did not fight, but they went to Sawada Tsunayoshi's aid when he lost against his father." I raised my head at that.
"Iemitsu went to Tsunayoshi first?" Rick nodded and I frowned at my ceiling.
"From what I heard, Team Reborn and Team Colonnello now have an alliance. It was the condition to keep Sawada Tsunayoshi's Boss watch intact." I pursed my lips.
"It would be safer to consider they might have known you were there listening," Fon told him. I widened my eyes at the same time and sat up in a flash. "Luciana?"
"That stupid Boss of mine!" I snarled against him. "There was no way he would have really crushed Tsunayoshi's watch on the first day, he must have known Reborn would step in before just to have an alliance with them!" I laid back down. "I wouldn't even be surprised if he saw our alliance with Team Verde coming."
"Team Colonello is a serious threat." I nodded. "What about you Luciana?"
"Huh...I followed Enma, the only representative of Skull's Team. He was facing Superbi, Belphegor, Lussuria and Levi all alone, so I helped him. Then Adelheid came and now the all Shimons might have joined the fight but Team Skull in indebted to us."
"You had to help him?" Arro muttered under his breath.
"Blame Dino, not me."
"Let's look at it on the bright side, Skull's team owes us a debt. It might be useful later on. What about you Arroganza?"
"Well, I followed the rest of Colonnello's team, they went to Team Uni's HQ, where Team Verde already was, so I helped them behind the scenes." Fon nodded. "Oregano, Turmeric, Tazaru, Daisy, Torikabuto and Bluebell all went down."
"Alright. About what you were wondering Luciana, I managed to contact this Tsunomichi man on the way to school today." I raised a brow at Fon. "We destroy the watches, be it with someone wearing them or not, during the battle time." I smirked.
"Heh, now it's interesting." I decided to really sit in my couch instead of laying down. "Then, I'd like to borrow Alaric tomorrow and go straight to the VARIA." They all looked at me.
"Lulu you're su..." I raised my hand, shutting him up.
"They were four against one today, it pissed my off pretty bad, even if I don't show it. Plus, they're my brother's men, I want to see for myself if they can keep up with him. Alaric and I will destroy the watches still in the suitcase. Outsmarting them will be even more satisfying than just beating them." Fon had a disapproving look on his face.
"I'm not sure it is a great strategy."
"Nah, it is. They won't hurt me to the point of no return because I'm their Boss' sister, and I'm not wearing the Boss watch, neither is Alaric. He'll just grab me and leave if it becomes too much anyway but..." I pulled my Mare Ring from my jacket pocket. "Maybe I'll be able to use it tomorrow. Rick as well." I pointed my thumb at Arro. "He should go back with Team Verde. Knowing Mukuro, he'll go back to attack Team Uni tomorrow if he didn't manage to get to his target today." Byakuran. "With Byakuran being on her team, there's a high chance Iemitsu just head there as well."
"I want Haneuma." I pursed my lips at Kyoya.
"Dino's the most the experienced one, unless you take the fight to him he'll most likely stay back and watch others fighting," I whispered, playing with my necklace. "Reborn won't put him in the spotlight just yet when he's not as dumb as he could be before..." I sighed.
"So...we have a plan for tomorrow? We call Muk..." My phone rang and I answered, Kyoya leaving the room. I recognized the sound of my door shutting behind him. "Seriously..."
We shared information, Mukuro confirming they were going back to the Millefiore tomorrow. He told us not to lose against the VARIA before hanging up.
The Millefiore...I wondered if Reborn had made any alliance of his own before today. With Tsunayoshi on his team, I wouldn't be surprised but then who? Not the VARIA, Mukuro and Verde waged war on them, not us, I doubted Reborn would team up with Skull so…
He would team up with Uni though. It was Uni, and she did pick the one and only Byakuran to fight for her. The Byakuran who had a big change of personality.
Hum...maybe…
I texted it to Mukuro, to which he replied quickly by a 'kufufu interesting'.
He wrote down his laugh, no joke he really did.
"Luciana, you seem tired so get some rest. Arroganza, Alaric, we're going back to training." They all left, which left Kyoya and I in the apartment. It took a deep breath, fighting the blush creeping up my cheeks as I thought back of the last time I had been alone in the apartment with Kyoya.
I joined him in my bedroom and sat next to him against the headboard. He was on his side, but he turned around and put his head on my lap. I buried my hand in his hair.
It was soft, and thicker than it looked.
"Apart from your pride, they didn't land a hit on you?" He groaned.
Three hours later, when Checker Face spoke to us through the watches, Kyoya groaned again, his nap disturbed. I had been texting back and forth with Xanxus who was being paranoid and asking me if his men had injured me.
I swear, he had a serious problem with my safety, an even bigger one than Dino had.
"I bet everyone is wondering what's Team Verde's secret. Well, Verde did create a machine that turns illusions into reality for a certain amount of time and with these two using it..." Fran and Mukuro were great illusionists of course, but this new equipment was great as well.
Verde was a genius scientist, no doubt about it. I mean, from what Cloud looked like yesterday with his cute little armors around his paws…
I couldn't wait to make him fight!
"Shut up," Kyoya told me, sitting up.
"You're rude." He ignored me and showed my closet with a movement of his chin.
"You shouldn't leave the rings in the open."
"I didn't leave th..." I stopped myself from talking when I noticed the box where I kept the Mare Rings was on the floor, keeping the closet from totally closing. "I'm sure I put in the back of my closet after the guys took theirs." I got up and opened my closet.
It was a mess inside. I gulped and opened the box.
The Mist, Rain, Storm and Sky Rings were all with people. The only remaining ones were the Sun, the Cloud and the Lightning ones. Three rings should have been inside.
There were only two.
I tried them, but couldn't light up any of them, meaning the missing one was the Cloud one. I slowly put everything away and turned to Kyoya, livid. He frowned and stood up.
"The Cloud Ring is missing." He just stared at me for a few seconds and crossed his arms.
"I knew that guy was bad news."
"You don't know if it..." He shoved me on the side and grabbed the box. He opened it and put it upside down, shaking it. The rings didn't budge, safely tucked in their spot.
He closed the box and put it back in my closet before shooting me a frustrated look.
"Maybe you shouldn't have broken the loc..."
"Luciana," he hissed with a glare and I looked away.
"Why would he take the ring? I mean, why now?"
"I don't know but I'm biting him to death when I see him."
"Kyoya, it's not..." He grabbed my arm and brought me closer to his face. I had a nice view of steel-colored eyes glaring at me.
"What now?"
"It's none of your business," I whispered quietly. "What happens with him...unless it impacts you directly it..." He threw me on the bed and straddled my hips, pinning my wrists against the mattress.
"If he brings troubles to Namimori it's my business." He moved my wrists above my head and freed one of his hands, my wrists now pinned to the bed by only one hand. Not that I was fighting back anyway. "If you go deal with it on your own without telling me first, I'll bite you to death." I pursed my lips.
"Noted." I pushed him aside. He didn't resist and let me get up. "Why now, why now...how did he even get inside my place? I know the window's broken, but nothing was out of place apart from my closet, so how..."
"Didn't he appear out of thin air in the future like the Vindice?" Kyoya asked me and I froze in my spot, staring at him with wide eyes.
"The Vindice?" Yeah, they used the Flame of the Night or something like that and they could teleport, pretty useful to get in a place unnoticed.
I gaped when it clicked in my head.
We were in the midst of the Arcobaleno Battle, fights aiming at removing one out of seven curses. In Vendicare there was that baby with a clear Pacifier. Was it linked or something?
"The baby," Kyoya whispered, probably thinking about the memories they got on the Shimon island.
"Yeah, the baby. This fucking baby." I put my Mare Ring on. Kyoya frowned. "I...maybe I can get information. I mean, Byakuran could do it, sharing information among his parallel selves, now I have the ring maybe I can..."
"No."
"But Kyoya!"
"No," he repeated firmly. "You're calling Fon."
"I'm calling Fon." He nodded.
"Yes, you are." I took my phone in shaking hands.
I was shaking. If...if the Vindice were getting involved then...I mean, Romain had links with them, and the timing was too accurate for him to take the ring with no reasons. He didn't like me that much at the moment anyway, so I doubted he'd take anything related to me and use it.
Kyoya sighed and sat me down on the bed, taking my phone from my hand. As he talked with Fon, effectively summing up the situation, I grabbed his free hand. He squeezed it back immediately.
I should have put the rings in safety and not just at the back of my closet, who knew what could happen. Who knew what was going on in Romain's head and what he was planning.
"Panicking over it won't solve the issue," Kyoya sternly told me.
"I know."
"They're coming back."
"Good, good..."
I was not well for the rest of the night.
It was dead silent between the five of us. We were on the roof of the school while the first period was happening. I was leaning against the wall, Fon in front of me, while Reborn was in front of him on the right, Colonnello in front of him on the left. Iemitsu was standing behind Colonnello. Of course, we were talking about two teams we were not allied with, but although it may have a link with the current events, Romain stealing my ring was on another level.
Iemitsu was doing a good job pretending he was okay with me hiding this tiny detail to him.
"Thanks for sharing," Iemitsu told us. "Do you have any information about this Bermuda?"
"He was in Vendicare during Primo's era," Reborn said, "and it seems like he's still around."
"The real question is how much does it change the battles?" Colonnello wondered, crossing his arms. "If the Vindice is planning to join the party, then it's going to be troublesome."
"We should keep going as usual." We all looked at Iemitsu. "It's impossible to predict their potential movements. As long as they're not officially on any of our radars, we can't do anything but keep this piece of information in mind."
"Shouldn't the other Arcobalenos know about this?" I whispered to them.
"It would mean telling all the teams about the Mare Rings. Apart from Team Uni, it would attract unwanted attention on us." Didn't we do that already by telling Colonnello and Iemitsu?
"We should leave now," my Boss said. Falco grabbed his master and they both left.
I deadpanned at Reborn casually changing into a spider costume.
The bell rang, signaling the second period. Knowing Rick would give me hell if I skipped his class, I grabbed my bag.
"I don't even want to know," I mumbled as I left.
History was not half bad, but Alaric couldn't care less about his 'job' as a teacher, so he was pretty much letting us read on our own anything related to Japan.
And in a Japanese school, a lot of Japan's history was covered in class.
We had a ten-minute break and then English. There was a loud noise of someone or something falling on the floor and a familiar whine of pain.
"Geez, these floors really suck I already fell before my first class..." I heard in Italian and Arro turned his head to me with wide eyes.
I tried to hide when Dino entered the room with fake glasses on.
"Hey guys!" he said enthusiastically in English before switching to Japanese. "I'll be your substitute teacher for a few days, nice to meet you all!"
"So dreamy..." a girl close to me whispered with a stars in her eyes and I rolled mine.
Disgusting.
The rest of the day was hellish, the worst part being when my brother gave us a test to do and walked past me, looking over my work and telling me I should do it instead of daydreaming.
When I arrived at the DC room, Kyoya left to patrol while I'd do paperwork. Alaric actually arrived shortly after, slouching in the couch with a sigh.
"Is teaching really that bad, Alaric-sensei?" He shot me a cold look.
"Don't get me started on this." He stretched out with a yawn. He was less cold and professional than he used to be. "So, when should we head for the VARIA?"
"They're assassins, my guess would be for them to 'hunt' when it's getting dark outside, so maybe in an hour, hour and a half." He laid down in the couch. "...Alaric?"
"I'm a teacher and have to go through Fon's physical training, I am sleeping now, no matter what you say." His tone indicated he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.
"...of course you are..." He fell asleep and I filled in paperwork quietly, taking my mind off Romain.
An hour later, Kyoya came back, apparently finished with his patrol. I was just done with my tea. He shot Rick and inquisitive look.
"Exhausted," I told him. He moved on and walked up to the desk, leaning on it. "What?"
"I'm going for Haneuma." I blinked.
"Sure Kyoya, I knew you would do your ow..."
"He told me to find him at his hotel." Wow...how ambiguous. "After he's done with his work, so soon. It's the same hotel as the Monkey King, right?"
"You know, none of my brothers are animals." Even if Haneuma was his nickname...Xanxus was just Xanxus, not Monkey King.
"I'm going with you."
"Okay." He took a deep breath and looked above his shoulder. Rick was awake, staring at us through his purple hair. Fon was on the back of the couch. "You're creepy."
"Don't be rude Luciana," Fon reprimanded me, yet he was smiling.
"You're staring and creepy."
We left shortly after for the hotel.
Fratellanza
Thanks for reading this chapter!
Bye!