Clear to cloudy
Target 44: It lies with the family
Everyone looks in horror as the phoenix returns to Antonio who looks quite surprised. "This upgrade truly makes him a fearsome foe, but I did not expect it to completely incinerate him…"
Ren is about to cry looking at the place once stood. "R-Reishiro…?" However before anyone can comfort him Reishiro is standing there again completely unscathed.
"Yeah? What's wrong Ren?" He asks casually and everyone on Kotsu's team almost falls seeing how casual he acts while Antonio and Ywan looks angrily at the young boy.
"T-that's IMPOSSIBLE! Even a mist user would be unable to do such a thing!" Ywan declares furiously and suddenly there's a light ominous chuckle coming from above.
"Kukukuku… well my son is anything but ordinary…" it says sliding down the bubble. It's Reishiro's father. "So Tsunayoshi… this is what you contacted me for… kukuku… you're devious aren't you… thinking I'll accept you getting my son involved in this mafia business…" He says and Primo takes a little step backwards.
"W-well your son fits the role quite well…" He says and Reishiro's father just chuckles.
"Kukuku… I can't argue with that… though I doubt Reishiro even understands the nature of his own powers… but let's see what happens when they activate…" He says holding out his trident and suddenly Reishiro gets a sharp pain in his right eye and falls to his knees grabbing around it.
"I-It hurts… it hurts…" He says gritting his teeth as dark mist starts emanating from him. Antonio and his phoenix seem vary of what's happening, remembering what happened to Faust due to underestimating these children. "R-Ren… m-make the pain stop…" Reishiro pleads as suddenly everyone on the opposing teams eyes go wide as his eye is penetrated from the inside making a little horn come out of it. Reishiro stops his pained expression. He slowly stands up again looking at his hands. Everyone looks afraid as his pupil is completely gone having been replaced by the curvy horn.
"What is this!? Explain yourself! That is no mere illusion!" Ywan yells stepping forward and Reishiro's father just chuckles.
"It is simple… inside his eye… Reishiro has one of the six cursed hell rings… Vendetta…" (Italian: revenge)
Antonio grits his teeth. "The cursed hell rings? Those mean nothing to my power! GO!" He yells and the phoenix launches another attack and Reishiro once more doesn't react still looking at his hands as the pain is gone. The attack hits as he looks up however the giant pillar of fire stops like it's being pushed elsewhere. "W-What is this?" Antonio tries with Ywan following when suddenly Reishiro falls to his knees again whimpering in pain holding over his eye afraid to touch the horn. The large amount of fire is getting sucked into the top of the horn flowing around his fingers like it's protecting him.
"N-no… make it stop… it's not good…" He says suddenly starting to flicker in and out of existence. Everyone is stunned at the strange power he's displaying and Kotsu looks frantically to Reishiro's father.
"What did you DO to him!? What's happening!?"
"Did you ever wonder how Reishiro can seemingly appear out of nowhere? I'm sure it's happened…" the tall man says and Kotsu and Ren look at each other. It's true… Ren fell over him when he was laying on the ground… Kotsu did the same… at the station… he appeared in front of Riccardo… and just now… he followed Ren all the way here without him noticing… "The ring… Vendetta has the ability to absorb non-physical things… such as Antonio's fire… or indeed… light," he says as Reishiro stands up panting.
"But… why's it called Vendetta then? Shouldn't it be called like… absorber…" Tsugemora suggests to which Kotsu can only agree. A strange ability for something named revenge.
"You'll see…" He simply says much like everyone else whenever Kotsu, Ren or Tsugemora wants something explained.
Antonio attacks again with another pillar of fire. Reishiro seems to be catching on to what's happening as his eye absorbs the giant attack again making it hurt. "S-stop… sir… it hurts… the bright light… hurts…" He says as he suddenly disappears absorbing light with his ring as his father explained.
"No matter how much you can absorb! There must be a limit! Once more! He's but a child! He cannot move so fast!" He yells and the phoenix flies into the air shooting feathers all around to locate Reishiro and when one of them stops and changes course a bit before disappearing it dive-bombs straight at where it now knows Reishiro is. Antonio points with two fingers leaning his head back. "It's over! FENICE RINASCITA!" (Italian: Phoenix rebirth) He yells and the phoenix looks to bloat up and even without the translation Kotsu knows that it'll blow itself up.
"REISHIRO!" He yells causing the frail young man to look back and reappear.
"Mini-Ren… what's the matter!?" He says before suddenly it detonates right behind Reishiro creating a bright light right before making Reishiro look at it right as his entire body is enveloped in the blast which vibrates through the bubble and everyone looks away with one exception. His father, who lets on a slight smirk.
"Indeed… it's over… Vendetta has another ability which isn't just absorbing things… the ability that gave it its name," He says as the entire fiery death seems to stop and reverse creating a small tornado of flames and smoke which all centers around Reishiro's eye as he stands, bruised and with a few burns, but relatively unharmed. After the entire blast has been fully absorbed Antonio looks on in horror as suddenly Reishiro's horned eye widens still with him having that nonchalant look making it quite a frightening sight. Suddenly Reishiro's father holds his hand out in front of the younger three of them. "Stand back… this could be dangerous…" He says before suddenly Reishiro's horn starts glowing, a small red ball of energy forming in front of it. The little ball pulses a few times before shooting a truly extravagant vibrant stream of fire and light directly at Antonio who can do nothing except put his guard up but it's no use… the larger than life explosive force launches him back destroying absolutely everything in front of Reishiro. As it hits the bubble it pops it as if it were a mere soap bubble ravaging the stage occupied by the Cervello. Luckily they leapt out of the way in time but after about the three seconds it lasted there's a gigantic crater in the wall taking up both the first, second and third floor. "That is the true power of Vendetta… VENDICARE!" (Italian: revenge (the verb not the noun)) He declares as Reishiro is standing on the other end still just with that look in his eyes and a rather large scorch mark going behind him from his massive the attack was, looking frighteningly calm.
The Cervello and pretty much everyone, even Reborn and Ywan, look shocked at Reishiro as the Cervello jump into the debris to locate and check on Antonio. They quickly find him since they're the Cervello and all and check for a pulse. He's naturally unconscious and his box weapon is completely gone in the rubble. "He lives! He requires immediate care, but he lives!" they declare and with that Reishiro is declared the winner. Ren sprints up as fast as he can to check up on his friend with Kotsu close behind.
"Reishiro! REISHIRO! Are you alright!?" He tries shaking him and Reishiro chuckles lightly.
"Hey Ren…? What happened?"
"Y-you won… but are you okay?" Kotsu answers and Reishiro starts slowly toppling around in place as if he's lost his balance.
"Ah! Sokaaa…" He says before collapsing with Ren catching him.
However as usual Ywan is furious! "What was the meaning of this!? No mist user ability can multiply an attack and send it right back like that!" He yells taking out his knife.
Reishiro's dad takes a step forward. "then allow me to explain… Reishiro's never used Vendicare before. He's had the ring since he was an infant, due to a sickness… the ring keeps it in check… so that single attack… was all of Antonio's attacks as well as 15 years worth of light compressed into a three second long attack… you figure the rest out…" He says smirking before having Reishiro handed over to him by Ren. Cotton has looks frightened at Reishiro.
"So strong Reishiro-kun…" She says puffing her cheeks. "Cotton-heika could use you for her plans!"
"Sorry but his ability will likely never be that strong again. He has no light left so to speak but he should start charging up right away," His father explains and Cotton thinks a little.
"But it's still so strong!" She argues and Marco holds her back a little.
"My lady… please remain calm… he is hurting…" He says and Cotton sits back.
The Cervello have regained composure after the intense attack, also having taken Antonio into their care. "Ahem… that final attack was quite impressive… we will now move to the final round of today… will Ywan's thunder guardian and Zaccaria's mist guardian please step forward?" They say and the entirety of Zaccaria's team seem to get shivers except the boss himself.
"Not… him…" Boris almost cries clearly being creeped out by whoever it is.
On Ywan's side there's a bit of snickering as the person steps forward and when Kotsu, Tsugemora and Geraldino specifically look over they're quite surprised at who they see… Gerald… Tsugemora's father. "F-FATHER!?" Tsugemora yells and Gerald looks at them.
"I told you Kotsukiba… you would not be able to become the boss… because Ywan is the man who'll rule the vongola family. Believe me I find you to be a kind whole-hearted boy but that is NOT what the family needs… And Tsugemora… I hope you won't think less of me for being on the enemies side for this conflict.
"I-I see…" Kotsu starts before puffing his chest out a little. "But I'll win! I'll beat Ywan! AND Zaccaria! And I won't back down! Even against you Gerald-san!" He yells making Primo and Reborn smirk a little seeing that he really is still confident in his ability to win.
However Ywan simply ignores him and gruffly clears his throat. "Don't go losing now Gerald… Finish it before they have any chance to do something!" he commands with the backing of the whole team.
The man nods smirking. "I certainly wasn't planning on losing. If nothing else then to make my son realize he stands no chance so he'll avoid getting hurt unnecessarily!" He says taking out his laser blade he used against Kotsu.
Suddenly on Kotsu's side Cotton gets a little frightened whimpering into Marco's chest. "N-noooo…" She cries everyone thinking it's about Gerald being scary however once everyone looks at Zaccaria's mist guardian stepping forward they see what she's really scared of. His hair is long and crimson combed in a pattern that makes the hair around his face look like spike tattoos going over his forehead and swirly patterns on his cheeks while the rest hangs down quite sharply as well. He smirks as the hair moves over his eyes making a lizard eye appear and Ywan recognizes the shape to be the man in the shadow from when he visited Zaccaria's apartment. Who's more a boy than a man.
"You…?" He says and the boy laughs.
"Who me!? Why of course it's me! And I have a few things to say to YOUR team Kotsukiba!" He yells pointing completely ignoring Ywan's comment. "First! How on earth did that idiotic boss conclude that COTTON was the best match for your storm guardian! AND adding Marco in! Jute would be much better! SECOND! How pathetic can your mist guardian be to knock himself out with a single attack! THIRD! Your cloud guardian is a complete joke! A little girl!? Giving her a box weapon doesn't make her a better guardian! Overall I'd say Faust and now Antonio should be pretty embarrassed to lose to such a pathetic group of kids!" He yells and Cotton hugs close to Marco clearly being a little scared of this person.
Kotsu gulps. "B-but… who are you…? You look like… one of Cotton's siblings…"
He tsks angrily. "Don't lump me in with that outcast! I'm her cousin at worst and her superior at best! Name's Barley! Better remember it. And there's no way ANYONE of those pieces of crap can beat me! Especially not this stain on the carpet! What was he? the father of YOUR thunder guardian? Guess flames stick with the family… unless you're us… but that might've something to do with pops' way of doing things." He yells and Kotsu gulps.
"This guy looks… really dangerous…"
Barley gives an evil grin. "Hey there Jute. Marco. How's it hanging over on the losers side…?"
"It's looking fine Barley. You just concentrate on YOUR fight and we'll worry about ours," Jute says stoically.
Ywan breaks in with a little laughter. "And worry he shall. Gerald is among the most powerful members on my team. He's been at many of the vongola's prevalent battles through the ages… and the experience and power to show for it… so you must prepare for a wild battle… Barley… was it? I'll admit I got spooked at your sudden appearance in the apartment however here you do not have the element of surprise," Gerald swings his sword around a bit.
"I don't need you to explain my past Ywan. If you were thinking you'd frighten him… you're wrong. The mist guardians tend to be the least susceptible to mind tricks after all," he simply says before taking his fighting stance. "But I do fully intend and expect to win,"
"We'll see about that…" Zaccaria adds from the side having been mostly quiet up until now. Kotsu gulps feeling the tension as the Cervello raise their hands and the bubble reappears with Gerald's sword extending and Barley just smirks leaning his head back slightly in a confident and condescending manner.
"Let the match… BEGIN!"