"Thou shalt not pass," the man spoke in a warning voice as he held up a metal triangular blade threateningly. He met Andre's eyes and was momentarily taken aback, "Sir Andre?"
"Boss!" Hide spotted Rosario run out of one of the stores. Upon seeing her, Hanabi went pale and threw up. The woman noticed this as well as the other's presence, "Hanabi-chan and papa are here too!?
Andre grunted and shouted, "We're getting out of here!"
"W-Wait!" the older man called out but couldn't catch up to the pair as they ran off and disappeared into the dust and debris.
"Basil! Rosario!" Reborn called out to the newcomers as Basil put away his weapon and started dusting off the greenish-grey tweed suit he was wearing.
"That's Basil?" Hanabi gasped.
"W-Who?" Hide hesitated to ask and was shocked with the foreigner knelt down with his head lowered.
"Tis an honor, Sir Hideyoshi!" the man warmly greeted him with a reassuring smile, "Thine name is Basil, this one is an old comrade of the Tenth and Eleventh Vongolas."
"N-Nice to meet you?" Hide stammered in response while briefly wondering why the foreigner was talking in such an old style. He then turned to Reborn, "Um, what happened with Andre-san? Why did he attack us out of nowhere? He could have hurt a bunch of innocent people!"
His tutor immediately smacked him on the head, "Slow down, Hide. This man is an important advisor for the Vongola Family. If both him and Rosaria have come, then something wrong."
"Thou art correct, lord Reborn," Basil nodded, "In fact, it is for the same reason thou cometh to thee as when thou cameth to Namimori 50 years past."
Hide could sense a dark aura emit from Reborn who was uncharacteristically serious.
"Argh!" Hanabi suddenly yelped as she attempted to recover from seeing Rosario, drool was coming from her mouth. She struggled to her feet, while using her hands to avoid seeing her older cousin and sickly told Hide, "I told Megumi to wait for me at the front of the mall and said I would bring you guys with!"
"Megumi-san?" Hide yelped and quickly asked, "Is she alright? What about the other girl that was with her? OW-OW-OW-OW!"
Reborn had kicked Hide on the side and was now twisting his arm behind his back as the boy yelped in pain. "Basil, Rosario, we'll meet you at Takesushi, alright?"
"Of course!" The older man excitedly cheered.
"Basil, we'll continue our discussion on the way there," the tutor added as they left. He then looked over at Hanabi who gave a reassuring nod before ushering the boys away.
~12~
"Thank goodness your safe!" Megumi exclaimed as she rushed over to them, skipping right past the boys and hugging Hanabi in a close embrace, "I was so worried about you guys! What happened?"
"We're not sure," Hide shrugged as he had already thought of how to respond to Megumi without lying to her, "It looks like some guys were attacking people at the mall…"
"What happened to the underclassman?" Morita asked while looking around.
"Kurori-chan? She left right before you guys came out," Megumi explained, "She said something very important had come up so she had to leave without saying goodbye to you guys. But it was right before you guys came out, so I wasn't really alone for long!"
"She just left after I told her stay with you?" Hanabi raised an eyebrow skeptically before muttering to herself, "I'll have scold that brat later!"
"Well, what's important is that everyone is safe!" Hide quickly chimed in, "I think we should go home for now. Will you be alright by yourself, Megumi-san?"
"Yeah, I'll see you guys tomorrow, okay?" she nodded before leaving.
As soon as Megumi was out of sight, the trio hurriedly rushed over to Takesushi. There, they were surprised by the large number of black cars parked outside the usually deserted restaurant. Inside the restaurant was a huge number of suspicious looking foreigners that all stared intensely at the children when they entered.
"Back off!" Hanabi shouted haughtily at them, "You're in the presence of the Twelfth!"
"G-Gokudera-san!?" Hide yelped and quickly tried to hold her back from entering the restaurant.
"Hide!" his grandfather called out to him as he exited the kitchen with a large platter of sushi in each hand. He cheerfully handed the sushi over to the foreigners, who were all salivating over the plates of food. "Eat up, guys! I'm gonna have a talk with my grandson and his friends in the back though, so you guys have got to watch the front. Alright?"
"Si, signore!" the group cheerfully chanted in thick Italian before joyously chowing down on the sushi platters.
"I'll come out with more in a bit, haha!" Hide's grandfather called out as he ushered Hide and his friends to the back.
Upon entering the kitchen, the trio found themselves in the presence of Reborn, Basil, Rosario, and two other women that Hide did not recognize; one of the women stood stiffly to the back and the other was younger and sitting casually on top of one of the counters. Yamamoto quickly shoo-ed the younger woman off his counter space and scolded her lightly, "This is a restaurant, you know? Have some respect for that!"
"The online reviews for this place are abysmal," the young woman laughed to herself while scrolling tapping on the phone she had in her hand. Hide and Morita stared blankly at her, this was the first time they had ever seen a someone in person that had such dark colored skin, eyes and hair. She hopped off the counter space and flashed the boys a pearly white smile.
"We should start with introductions," Reborn spoke up, "This man you guys met at the mall is Basil, and this person is Yaani. They traveled from Italy to deliver you guys something."
The woman that was standing rigidly in the back of the room stepped towards them with a small black chest appeared in her hands. On the lid of the chest was a golden engraving of the Vongola Family and was locked with a golden clasp.
"Could this be-?" Hanabi gasped and covered her face with her hands, but this could not hide the excitement she was showing upon seeing the box.
"Tis no surprise that Lady Hanabi would know what this is," Basil remarked with a small laugh as the woman opened the box. Within the black chest was 7 strange looking silver rings. While each earing looked similar to the other, the ring sitting in the center of the box was larger and rounder than the others.
Hanabi practically lunged for the chest and gawked at it, "I can't believe it! Which guardian am I? Am I the Storm Guardian? I must be!"
"Here," Basil handed her a ring from the box, which caused her to squeal in delight. Morita and Hide were startled and confused by this strange behavior she was exhibiting.
"Twelfth! Twelfth!" she cheerfully called out while showing Hide the ring she had received, "Look! I got the Storm Guardian Ring!"
"Hold on, what's all this stuff about being a Guardian?" Hide then recalled Delia having once explained all this to him before and he suddenly felt like fainting but quickly caught himself.
"Seems like you already know," Reborn quipped after seeing his student go pale, he then nodded to the woman holding the box, "Before we continue, we should allow her to explain more. Go ahead, Yuuko."
"Thank you, Reborn-san," the woman gave a small polite bow before looking to Hide, who couldn't help but notice how perfectly she spoke Japanese and seemed like a regular Japanese businesswoman. He also couldn't help but notice how stilted her way of speaking was, "Sawada Hideyoshi, you have been chosen as one of two candidates to become the Twelfth Boss of the Vongola Family."
"One of two?" Hide heard Hanabi muttered as she quickly calmed down from the hype of owning the ring.
"Uh, I thought I was the only candidate to become the Twelfth Boss of the Vongola?" Hide asked the woman as he looked at the center ring in the chest she held with a high degree of uncertainty. She went around the room to hand Morita a ring from the box before walking towards Hide and holding up the ring that was sitting in the center.
"Correct, you were previously the only candidate," the woman continued and nodded to Basil, "The Outside Advisor has endorsed you as his candidate for Vongola Twelfth, but the Vongola Eleventh has decided to endorse another candidate."
"What!" Hide quickly waved his hands and attempted to push the box away from him, "If there is someone else who wants to be the next Vongola Twelfth, then he should just have it! I never wanted to become a mafia boss anyways! I'm not sure what an Outside Advisor is or does, but why do they also get to decide who becomes a Mafia boss too?"
"The Outside Advisor doesn't just decide who becomes a Mafia Boss," Rosario began to explain, she was wearing a shiny gold cartoon mask over her face to prevent Hanabi from suffering further indigestion episodes. "We belong to CEDEF, it's an intelligence organization that originated from the Vongola but now operates almost entirely separate from the Family. In addition to spying and intel gathering, another duty of our leader is to endorse candidates to help lead the Vongola Family." She gestured to Basil and continued, "This is our boss, Basil, and he is the one that is endorsing your candidacy as Vongola Twelfth. This has been a tradition since the second boss."
"Why would you nominate me then? We barely know each other!" Hide began to ask but found himself dropkicked by his tutor and struggling underneath him.
"Who's the other candidate, Basil?" Reborn promptly asked, "All other candidates for Vongola Twelfth are dead, that's the only reason that Yuuto allowed Hide to become the Twelfth."
Did Reborn just say dad's name? Hide wondered Reborn was twisting his arm so hard he thought it was about to break.
The rigid woman, who was still holding the box in front of Hide's face, responded to Reborn's inquiry, "The other candidate is Vongola Eleventh's third son."
"Akito!?" Hanabi yelped, "But didn't he die in a shipwreck or something?"
Basil let out a reluctant sigh, "Akito-sama was found on a deserted island a few months ago. He has since been accumulating followers to support his candidacy as the next Vongola Boss. The Eleventh only found out a few weeks ago."
As soon as he finished, there was an uneasy pause that hung in the room. Hide looked up at his grandfather, who was busy working on making more food, and wondered from his blank expression just how much of all this he had expected to happen.
"CEDEF intelligence confirms tis truly Sir Akito," Basil slowly continued, "However, the Eleventh has been M.I.A. since announcing his support of Akito's candidacy. Not even the Tenth Boss knows where he could be. CEDEF doth trying to find his location to get a proper explanation. At the behest of the Tenth Boss, thou hast decided to put thine support with Sir Hideyoshi for the time being."
"So what does this mean for us? Are we supposed to hide with everyone while you guys find this Eleventh person?" Morita asked before Hanabi shot him a glare for speaking.
Basil shook his head disappointingly, "Unfortunately, during times like this, the Vongola Family holds a competition between the candidates and their respective Guardians."
"So that's what Tsukamoto is doing here," Reborn muttered, "She's the referee."
"Correct," the impassive nodded while putting the chest closer to Hide's face, "Each candidate and their guardians will receive a half of the Vongola Ring and compete in a series of challenges to complete the rings. It doesn't matter which side the Guardian candidate was originally on, as long as they complete their half of the ring then they become the official Guardian of that side."
"Could Andre-san have been on the other side then?" Morita asked while ignoring Hanabi telling him to shut up.
"Andre?" the other mysterious woman, who had been distracted on her phone throughout the discussion snapped it closed. Now that her head was raised and he could see her under the well-lit kitchen lights, Hide was finally able to appreciate the dark hue of her skin and eyes, as well as the abnormal hair style she wore which was unlike any he had ever seen in person. As she approached Hide, he noticed that the way she walked was almost like a glide. "You saw Andre? This isn't good…"
"Who are you?" Hide asked. He was ignored as she grabbed Morita's hand and looked at the new ring he now held.
"So, you're his Sun Guardian," she muttered while looking him up and down before giving a disappointed sigh and shook her head. The woman knelt down to Reborn and spoke, in a voice that was loud enough for everyone else to hear, "Reborn, are you sure these kids are cut out for this? This one seems rather weak if you ask me."
"Weak!?" Morita scoffed as she stood back up, "Hey! I have plenty of muscle! I can bench press over 200 lbs! What could you do with thin arms like those!?"
Hanabi grabbed his collar to pull him back, "Shut up, you muscle-headed idiot! Yaani was the former Twelfth's Sun Guardian! I hate to admit it, but she's way stronger than any of us."
A Guardian!? Hide went pale as he looked up to the woman, who laughed to herself at what Hanabi had said, "Aw, a complement from the 'Princess'!"
"Don't call me that!" she hissed back, before holding up her ring, "Even if you don't have confidence in us, there's no need to worry! We're strong enough to protect the Twelfth!"
As she said this, Rosario leaned to Reborn and handed him a thick folder, "Father, this is a report gathered by CEDEF on the other side's candidates. It does confirm that both Andre and Augustus from the Varia are on their side."
"The Varia as well? Why isn't Delia involved in this conversation?" the tutor wondered while going through the folder.
"Pardon me," Tsukamoto piped in, she was still holding the chest close to Hide, who was still on the ground with Reborn on top of him, "I must distribute the rings and explain the rules of the competition."
"Oh, right," Reborn hopped off of his student and kicked him, "What are you doing sleeping around for, stupid-Hide!"
"You drop kicked me and stood on top of me!" Hide groaned before pausing to look reluctantly at the ring Tsukamoto took out form the chest and held out to him. He then felt Reborn's death glare on him and quickly took the ring from her. He looked back up at her as she backed away and felt that there was something familiar but also odd about her.
"The competition will begin 1 week after the rings have been distributed to all participants. The current estimate is that this task will be completed in 2 weeks," the strange but familiar woman said in an emotionless manner, "I will be the organizer, judge, and referee for the competition. If you have any questions, you may contact me. If you have no objections, please say that you accept."
"Who are you anyways?" Hide wondered.
"Yeah, and how do we know you aren't going to side with the other side!" Morita piped in.
"What? You guy's have never seen a Tsukamoto?" Yaani wondered with a raised eyebrow, then then knelt back down to Reborn and loudly remarked, "What kind of backwoods place is this?"
What a rude woman! Both Hide and Morita thought in sync.
"Tsukamoto is a robot, she is going to be the most impartial judge for this sort of situation," Reborn explained, before Hide could be surprised his tutor had already replied back to Tsukamoto, "We accept this."
"Thank you." The robot nodded and closed the chest before leaving through the front of the restaurant.
"Hmph," Yaani sighed with disappointment and looked down at Hide, "I thought that the Vongola would have sent you a Tsukamoto to you when you were training. What have you been doing all this time?"
"He's been training with me, what business do you have being here?" Reborn coldly responded.
Yaani smiled proudly to herself, confidently puffed out her chest and pointed straight at Hide, "I'm here to be a training partner!"
"WHAT!?" Hide and Hanabi shouted in shock.
"I never heard anything about this," Reborn remarked before a letter was handed to him.
"I say that, but it's really just temporary. Mr. Yuuto asked me," she took out another letter and handed it to Morita, but not before scoffing at him, "I don't know how much good it will do for you at this point, but these are directions for you to find your tutor."
Morita glared back at her and asked, "Why would I need a tutor?"
She laughed in his face in response, "Do you want to die? Just be a good little boy and go, you don't want to waste time and be a drag on the rest of your team, do you?"
He was momentarily taken aback and silently took the letter from her before leaving.
Hanabi glared at her as soon as he left, "That was mean."
"Nothing like lighting a fire under his ass, haha," Yaani laughed again before looking to Reborn, "Finished reading?"
"I see," the infant folded up the peace of paper again and lit it on fire, it turned a unique blue before fizzling out. "This is certainly something that Yuuto wrote."
"Yuuto as in my dad?" Hide asked, "Reborn, just how involved is my dad with all this? I thought he was just a travelling teacher!"
"Well that's partly true," Yamamoto laughed as he brought the group some rice balls that he had been making throughout the discussion, "Eat up, you kids must be hungry."
Hide heard his own stomach growling as soon as the rice balls were put in front of him. Embarrassed, he started eating with Hanabi and Yaani following, with the foreigner asking how she should be eating the food.
"I heard your people like to eat everything with chopsticks, are there any?"
"You just grab it and eat!"
As they started eating the food in front of them, Yamamoto pulled Basil and Reborn aside.
"Who are the other guardians?" he asked with concern.
Basil nodded, "Adam and Anna Grandhart as the Cloud and Thunder Guardians respectively, Suzuki Kouhei as the Rain Guardian…and the Mist Guardian was a special request from Yuuto, but we are having difficulty finding them."
"Kouhei-kun as the Rain Guardian…?" Yamamoto thoughtfully repeated, "His mom really isn't going to like this…does he have a tutor lined up yet?"
"Actually, Lord Yuuto wanted us to find some of his extended family."
"His extended family?" the sushi chef tilted his head to one side as he thought who they were talking about. He then recalled them and shouted, "You mean them? But don't they live on a far off and secluded island!? I also don't think Kouhei has met any of them before!"
"Right, and they are also unaware of the current circumstances with the Vongola Family," Basil remarked, "Considering the Vongola's close ties with their family though, I believe that they would agree."
"They probably will," Yamamoto shrugged and then thoughtfully tapped his arm, "How about I take him to the island? My old fishing boat is docked at the port and we should be able to get there in no time…"
"Just say your concerned, old man," Reborn teased him.
"You're older than me, haha!" he laughed back and then looked over to Hide, "Reborn, Hide's going to be okay in that young lady's hands, right?"
"The logic is sound," the tutor nodded, "If something goes wrong, then blame your son in law."
Yamamoto nodded before gathering a fishing pole and loudly announcing, "Well, all this fish that's getting eaten needs to be replenished! Hide! I'm going to close the restaurant for a few days while I'm off fishing! Basil, Rosario, Yaani! If you guys need a place to stay, feel free to use mine!"
"How gracious, Sir Yamamoto!" Basil remarked happily, "Reborn, we'll continue our investigation of the Eleventh's location from here."
"Good," he nodded before jumping up to the table where Hide and Hanabi were eating. He momentarily stared at the rice balls before continuing, "Eat up, that's the last good meal you'll have for the next two weeks. Yaani, did Yuuto give you anything to help with Hide's training?"
With her mouth full, she pulled out a black silk cloth bag containing a silver pill box and a thick black watch with a clamshell design on it. "Is this what you mean?"
"Perfect," Reborn gave a satisfied smile as he gathered the materials back into the bag and handed them back to Yaani. "We should start now then. I already have a location in mind."
"Start now?" Hide repeated uncertainly before choking on his rice ball, as Reborn grabbed his uniform's tie and began dragging him out the back of the restaurant.
"Wait! Don't forget me!" Yaani called out as she ran after them.
"Lady Hanabi," Basil gently grabbed the girls' shoulders and guided her outside, "I believe your brother has a surprise for you back home."
"Nagi!?" she also choked on the rice ball as she was taken out of the restaurant.
"Reborn! I can walk on my own!" Hide yelped as his tutor continued to drag him. Yaani casually strolled alongside them with her hands in the pockets of the hoodie she wore.
While she appeared disinterested, Yaani had been using the time she spent in the restaurant to carefully observe Hide and Reborn. She had never met Reborn in person before but had numerous rumors and stories about him. While in the restaurant she found that his demeanor and presence was so powerful that it overwhelmed her. His student, however, left much to be desired.
She found the boy, who was currently being dragged around by Reborn, was pitiful and showed no ounce of strength or willingness to fight. Yaani rolled her eyes as she wondered why someone like Reborn would be willing to teach such a child. She also wondered why Yuuto had brought her to this country. If it had been anyone else, she would have just ignored them and continued living her life in Italy.
"You're underestimating him," she heard Reborn speak.
She raised her eyebrow in response but said nothing.
"Reborn?" Hide wondered what he was talking about, and looked up to Yaani. He wondered if she always had this disinterested look on her face.