A Note to The Readers: I love you all. I love you so much. I didn't know it would be so thrilling to find that some of you are actually reading this.
To Moonlight Phonex thank you for finding interest in this *gestures vaguely* think I write before I crash to bed. I'll try my best to keep up!
To those who freaking began following this, I offer you a new chapter!
CHAPTER FOUR
The Playing Board
Tetsuya surveys the little café with a mulish frown.
"You don't approve?" Rosetta asks him, a hand on Tsuna's stiff shoulders.
"It's fine," he grumbles and asks for another table when the waitress leads them to one near the windows. They take a small inconspicuous spot behind a large vase of flourishing birds-of-paradise.
"No, it's not," Rosetta refuses to let go. "What's bothering you?"
"Few exits, too large windows… see those buildings over there? A sniper could hide on a terrace." Tetsuya takes a seat, his eyes wandering.
"Are you worried because the boss took men out of Namimori?"
Tetsuya was with her when she took the phone call the other night. The boss needed men, so they provided. Nobody was happy. Ryuusei knew that fighting a war in another country would be expensive and labor intensive. With all that relocation, Takenaka would age a decade before the year ends.
"I'm worried because you're choosing to spend time on a café. It's Saturday. We have paperwork. I have paperwork. Why can't you tutor him at the estate? We have space."
Rosetta glances at Tsuna, who pales at a certain memory. "Kyoya-san nearly killed him, remember? It's safer for Sawada-san this way."
"But it's dangerous for you."
"We could have stayed at my place," Tsuna says, trying to read the menu.
They glare at him. "Your friends are pests!" Rosetta crosses her arms. "Someone should hang Gokudera Hayato for carelessly breaking omertà. Only an idiot announces nonstop that they're mafia." At least Tetsuya shares the same sentiment. He's grown tired of Tsuna's loud friends, going so far as trading favors with the other retainers just so he could escape spending time with the rowdy bunch.
Rosetta orders tea and a small slice of sponge cake. Tetsuya orders the blackest coffee they have available and Tsuna, being Tsuna, orders the same thing Rosetta did.
"At least you didn't order milk this time. Straighten your posture. Lean forward will you," she fixes his tie to Tsuna's embarrassment. "A future mafia boss, no matter who should always be impeccable. Mafioso are savage beasts, the least they can do is to look like angels."
"I don't want to be a mafia boss," Tsuna says, dejectedly. His stutter disappeared after realizing after the first week that it wasn't Rosetta's habit to pummel lessons into him like Reborn. She rolls her eyes frequently, yes, when he repeats his mistakes. There was a time when she left the room in frustration. But she wasn't the one to bend his pinky until near-breaking point.
She frowns. "This is why Reborn-san isn't here. I needed to talk to you about that. Most people–"
"Most people would jump at the opportunity to become a mafia boss. Yes, I know. Reborn told me many times. I was hoping I won't hear it from you." Tsuna admits.
"Actually," Rosetta smiles indulgently. "I was going to say, most people don't know the value of money. Reborn is an expensive man to hire. If you back out now and end up as a salaryman. You'd have to work four lifetimes just to earn half of the money they pay him."
Tsuna pales further. At least he's not screaming.
"I wish I had a choice."
Her expression tightens. She stirs sugar into Tsuna's tea. He needs it. "Many of us wish the same thing. Tetsuya-san, what would you be doing right now if your family didn't serve the boss?"
Tetsuya is not looking at them. He's counting and observing patrons coming in and out of the store. He doesn't answer at first, but when it becomes clear that she is waiting for one, he gives up. "My family was originally in the tailoring business. Maybe I'd be mopping my father's shop right now." He doesn't sound wistful.
"Not sewing clothes?" Rosetta pipes in.
"It's the job of a woman."
"Right," she looks away.
"If my great-great-great-grandmother didn't marry her husband, I'd be in Naples, spoiled and arrogant and blissfully ignorant that the Vongola would name a fourteen-year-old civilian to be their heir," she whispers to Tsuna, bitter. "If Iemitsu wasn't your father. You would be a stain to society. In the worst case scenario you'd be a Hikikomori. In the best case scenario, you'd work a low income job in some dying office. Accept a promotion in every twenty years. Die alone and drunk in a dirty apartment, wondering what went wrong."
"You don't know that," Tsuna says, flushing.
"Tell me, what would you be without this? If Reborn didn't knock into your life, who would you be?"
Tsuna looks away, trying to be angry in a way he never could. He takes a sip of his tea and grimaces at the sweetness.
"I'd be dame-Tsuna."
"Exactly, choices are for other people who are far more privileged that we are." She leans back, the conversation no longer so private. "The sooner you stop complaining and do what you can with your resources, the easier your life will become."
Tetsuya grabs her arm so quickly that she jumps, her tea nearly spilling.
"I agree," somebody pipes in.
Rosetta gives Tsuna a look that hopefully says, 'be quiet', before she relaxes and takes in the intruder. He is a teenager, like them, but possibly older. White spiky unmanageable hair and piercing indigo eyes. She tries not to focus on the mark beneath his left eye. An upturned trident, its points dragged down as if weeping.
Trident tattoo. Purple. Famiglia Gesso.
She stands, smiling brightly. She doesn't recognize him. She extends a hand, and he shakes it, tugging her an inch closer to his torso, an attempt to drag her from the comfort of her booth. It doesn't work. Hibari Ryuusei is the king of disconcerting craftsmanship. He's a child compared to the boss.
"Byakuran. Nicodemo Provenzano is my father."
Nicodemo Provenzano, don of famiglia Gesso.
"I guess I don't have to introduce myself, since you came to me," she grins this time, sweeping her hand to her companions. "My retainers."
"How do you do?" Byakuran sounds sincere as he greets them. Rosetta sits back and stomps on Tsuna's foot before he does something stupid, like reply. Byakuran is met with brooding silence. Rosetta smiles further.
"Ah, perhaps we should go somewhere private."
"Oh please." She taps the table with her nails, exhaling. "There's another unoccupied seat. Why not join us? There are three of us and one of you. They can hear whatever it is you wish to say."
Byakuran shakes his head, revealing nothing.
On his seat, with his hand concealed under the table, Tetsuya begins texting.
"Then I guess I shall be concise. In an hour, my father will meet your father-in-law and he will declare war to your family."
Rosetta raises her eyebrows, her expression carefully cultivated to be one of delight. They've been at war for a while now, to make it official means that the destruction is vast enough that the Vindice will be involved.
"How kind of you to warn me," she chirps.
"This is a bid for peace."
"And what would I do with peace?"
Byakuran continues on as if she didn't speak. "We know that the Ryuusei is using your men and your men alone to fight. Their blood fuels this war and will continue when the declaration is done. Loyal followers urged to the cliff edge. The Japanese are fond of bayonets, aren't they?"
He pauses.
Rosetta knows her face is neutral, but she knows she has her tells.
"What do you want me to do?" She asks finally.
"There's money on a van outside this coffee shop. The Gesso is generous. It's enough to live lavishly for three generations. Take it and flee. We'll assist you for years to come. We know you don't have love for your husband's family."
Rosetta digs her heel on Tetsuya's foot.
That might work. The Italian mafia follow blood above else. Many will remain with Ryuusei but larger factions will divide and war amongst themselves. Ryuusei will not have the men to fight. The Gesso will win and she will come out richer.
"This family has many contractors. Running away now doesn't ensure my longevity."
"Yes, but they aren't powerful in every country."
Her lip curls. "Why not just kill me? It's easier." It's a dumb question. She knows why. If she runs away on her own, the Gesso by record will not be involved. Attacking them without provocation will lead Ryuusei in trouble with the Vendicare. The mafia has its rules after all.
A sound comes from the man's throat. "Don't take me for a fool. There are consequences to your death. Your father-in-law isn't feared for his docility." But he doesn't sound convinced when he says this. Often times, people make the mistake of underestimating their enemies. The old are reckless and forgetful, the young are foolish and arrogant.
"Let me think about it," she digs her heel harder when Tetsuya tries to say something.
Byakuran shakes his head. "Don't patronize me, signora. I'm giving you a surefire way to escape your gilded cage. The Hibari group doesn't care for you. The rumors are true, aren't they? The husband you chose doesn't even tolerate you." Byakuran's innocent smile hurts more than if he simply sneered at her.
That stings. That actually hurts. A piece of her pride cracks away and drops like those massive icebergs in the documentaries they watch at school. Rosetta observes Tetsuya, curling her fist. There's a touch of guilt in his face. She doesn't even need to look at Tsuna to know he is sweating bullets, his palms pressed against each other as if praying for peace.
"The Gesso's don is in Italy amongst his other legitimate sons." She taps the rim of her cup. There's a reason she hasn't seen Byakuran before.
"What are you talking about?"
She takes her cup and sips, tempted to throw the contents at his face.
"You know what they call me in Italy right? A rat in hiding. They call me a coward. As if there's dignity in death." She scoffs. "It must have been an embarrassment for you to, sent here to negotiate with me." Wrong, he doesn't budge. She tries another angle. "Or, did you perhaps, felt pride that your father finally had use for you?"
Bingo. Something ugly crosses his features.
"I don't negotiate with bastard sons," she sneers, placing her cup down.
"Why do you want this war?" he asks quickly. "The Hibari group already has a claim on Italy. Why go further? Why risk the lives of your men, people loyal to you?"
"You can't answer that on your own?" She questions back. "This is why you are here, dealing with me and not there with your father talking to the boss. The mafia is a business. We've tried to negotiate with Nicodemo far too many times and he has turned down our offers for compromise. If he wants war, we will hand it to him on a silver plate."
Foolish notions of loyalty will get you killed, she thinks. Her men aren't loyal because they love her and she loves them back. They are loyal because the money flows easy. They are loyal because they entered the world with their eyes wide open, ready to pull a trigger to fatten their wallets and feed their families. They are loyal because Ryuusei will kill them if they leave without warning.
"You're doing this for money?"
"Congratulations!" Rosetta bursts, angry. Some of the patrons pause and watch their display. A waiter shoots them a dirty look.
Byakuran goes silent. When he looks at her, she sees pity in his eyes.
"You will remember that I offered you peace."
Rosetta scoffs. "Peace? That was not peace. This was an insult. Now please, leave. You've ruined our morning well enough."
Byakuran doesn't stalk out in anger. He walks away with his pride intact, elegant. But she sees the tension in his shoulders.
She pinches the bridge of her nose.
"We have about thirty seconds before his men kill either one of you," Rosetta whispers harshly to the both of her companions, standing up. "He will not touch a hair in my head. But he'd want revenge."
"Why did you provoke him?" Tetsuya berates her as he pulls Tsuna to his feet. Rosetta is scouting the area, whispering something under her breath.
"I'm going to reject him either way. He's going to kill you either way. The Gesso are filthy animals. This is their way. At least this time, we know he's doing it now rather than later. We're prepared for it. Sawada-san, this way." She pushes Tsuna hurriedly beyond the café's counter, ignoring the protests of the employees.
"Are we? Are we prepared?" Tsuna questions. She ignores him, looking over the kitchen doors.
"Tetsuya-san, evacuate the civilians," she says, shoving Tsuna into the kitchen.
"Evacuate?"
"Get them out now! Do you want casualties?"
"You better know what you're doing," he growls, bringing out a gun from a concealed holster. He shoots the ceiling twice, gunshots nearly deafening in the small space. "This is a robbery. Everybody get out!"
Inside the kitchen, Rosetta brings out her own gun. "You three, take off your clothes," she orders the terrified kitchen staff. When they don't move, she shoots the wall above the one that looks like the manager. They remove their aprons, their pants and their shoes. She asks Tsuna to do the same thing and follows suit.
She switches clothes with the civilians, her yellow sundress into a black-and-white uniform. Tsuna strips quickly, changing his tie and slacks into an ill-fitting shirt and jeans.
"Don't cry," Rosetta assures one of the weeping staff as she plucks the man's spectacles from his face. "Nothing bad will happen to you."
Tetsuya bursts in. "They're all out, what now?"
"Here," Tsuna hands him a large button up. Tetsuya takes the hint and swiftly changes his clothes.
"Are the police coming?" She asks.
"Pretty much. Now we're trapped."
"We're not. Tetsuya, let them go," she orders to the man's surprise. He opens the kitchen door and urges the staff to run out. Two of them are crying. He drags an upturned chair from a nearby countertop and jams it under the handle, sealing the double doors.
"Here," she throws Tsuna her spare gun, who fumbles with it in panic.
"I've never used a gun," he says, holding it awkwardly as Rosetta rounds to the corner of the kitchen. She steps back and kicks a metal panel near the storage cabinets. She does it a few more times, giving a frustrated growl when it doesn't budge.
Tetsuya moves in to help her, taking her place.
"Give it," she says to Tsuna, taking the 9mm pistol. "This is the safety. This is how you load. You point and you shoot. It's easy. Even Tetsuya manages to do it."
"I- I don't think."
There is a loud crash, like thunder, leaving a ringing emptiness. Tetsuya's strength breaks through the metal. The frame of the trash chute falls into pieces, without it, you can easily fit a man through.
"Thank god for sanitation," Tetsuya mutters, looking down. He sees the outline of a rubbish bin, filled with eggshells and ground coffee. "Rosetta-san, you go fi–"
Rosetta jumps in, feet first, and lands painfully on the refuse. She flips to her stomach, props on her elbows and rolls off, slamming into the cement on her shaking knees. The garbage chute leads to a fenced alleyway, sandwiched between the café and the commercial building beside it. They can't see the street from where they are. The café's owner boarded the fence for esthetics. This buys them some time.
She can hear sirens in the distance.
Tsuna and Tetsuya fall in quick successions. Tsuna lands face first to a bag of eggshells, cutting him in places. Rosetta keeps low, crouching as she peeks through the fence.
"Let me see," Tetsuya pushes her off. He's silent for a moment, before he's cursing. Rosetta takes that break to wipe Tsuna's face with a handkerchief she found on her trousers.
"Are you sure they're out to kill us?" Tsuna asks as she presses the wound on his temple. "I don't see–"
Tetsuya tackles them both. They slam painfully on the cement as the world explodes. Fire shatters the windows above, showering the three with shards of hot glass. Tsuna whimpers beside her. She hears a girl screaming and nearly bites her tongue when she realizes that it's her.
"Fuck," Tetsuya is on all fours, above the two. There's blood on his skin. "Fuck. There were civilians there!"
She looks up and grits her teeth. Grenade launchers? Fuck. Byakuran wanted to kill her. She was arrogant. She thought… she actually thought she was safe. Anger courses through her. The fact that they smuggled heavy weaponry in the middle of Namimori after that insulting bid for truce meant that Nicodemo planned to kill her whether or not she accepted. They'd actually risk everything to hold their position in Italy.
Somehow, surrounded by glass and burning debris, it makes sense. Nicodemo is old and sickly. He is stuck to a machine like those rich dying grandfathers in the soaps Takenaka watches in his spare time. And his heirs are disgusting spoiled beasts. Knowing this, he would make sure to keep his legacy going. If that means a war with Ryuusei to ensure his full hold in Italy, he'd do it. His heirs will be swallowed by the other mafia clans if they didn't have territories to back them up.
"Hibari, Hibari-san," Tsuna calls her as her hearing comes back. He is clutching his gun. It's not a good look on him.
"What?" She snarls without meaning to. She can taste blood in her mouth. Tsuna is kneeling beside her, face contorted with worry. "You weren't responding," he says patiently. There are perhaps a million shards of glass in his hair. It glitters when he moves.
She feels bad to have dragged him into this.
Beside the garbage chute, she sees Tetsuya, lifting the lid of a manhole.
"The Namimori sewage system, built before our fathers were even born," he explains to them, kneeling down. Beneath his feet is a large crisscrossing labyrinth of tunnels, some filled with water, others dry. A main pipeline can hold up to seven men abreast, smaller ones can fit four.
Tetsuya hauls her down first, then Tsuna who doesn't complain about the stench like she did. He enters last, closing the lid just in time they to hear footsteps aboveground.
The gardener hoses the three of them down, trying to politely cover his nose and mouth with a towel. Rita, the maid, runs inside the house to fetch new clothes.
Rosetta doesn't even dry herself when she takes her phone and dials the boss.
Takenaka answers it.
"My son relayed a few messages. I presume you're all in one piece," he says once she's done her perfunctory greetings.
"Nicodemo tried to kill me," she hisses. "He wants a damn war–"
"We know," Takenaka says patiently, which does nothing to alleviate her mood.
Rosetta takes a breath in. The sun above them is annoyingly bright. "Why am I not talking to the boss? Where is he?"
"I was going to talk about that. Hibari-san is taking a phone call from Kuniyoshi's retainers. Can you please wait?"
Hibari Ryuusei has four sons. His heir is Hibari Mutsuo, the eldest. She's met him several times, an amiable man who smiles with everything but his eyes. And then there are his twins, Hibari Kuniyoshi and Hibari Kunishige. Dog kickers. She's met them twice and didn't change her opinions of them. Ryuusei, to everyone's surprise, remarried after his first wife went missing and had Kyoya, his last.
"Kuniyoshi?"
"Yes, Rosetta, excuse me for a moment," Takenaka covers his phone with a hand, speaking in rapid muffled Mandarin. Then there was a long silence. Something crashes over the phone, like a grenade over a glass factory. Then an angry scream that chills her to the bone.
"Kusakabe-san, what's wrong?" She asks, sounding young and terrified.
"You're in the house, right?" Takenaka asks.
"Yes, we are in the garden."
"Get inside and stay with my son. Don't leave, not until I say so. Hibari Kuniyoshi is dead."
"You're crowding," Kyoya's face is dark with anger, he's clutching his tonfas, white knuckled. There is blood on his clothes.
Rosetta puts her phone down before he could say anything else. "It's unavoidable. Sawada-san was seen with us when Byakuran attacked. He can't leave the manor just yet," she says. When Kyoya doesn't reply, she realizes her mistake and repeats it in Japanese.
"I understood the first time," he says. "What I don't understand, is why he's here."
She follows his angry gaze and sees Yamamoto, who doesn't seem perturbed at all that Kyoya's attention is on him.
"He's here because Gokudera is blacklisted. I don't want assassins in your house, allies or not. Yamamoto-san is a civilian, so I called him."
"For what?" Kyoya snaps.
"Emotional support," She says with the universal cadence of frustration. "They used grenade launchers! Sawada is a civilian."
"I'm honestly fine," Tsuna pipes in weakly. He's sitting by a crescent of dark green couches, squeezed in the middle of Yamamoto who was trying to tell him a story about baseball practice and Reborn who's drinking his chai. Yamamoto has the enviable habit of remaining nonchalant about everything. The arcobaleno watches them with amusement.
"He's a Mafioso," Kyoya tells her. "I want them out of here when the ban lifts." He gestures to her. "Come with me, now."
They don't end up at the terrace aslike she thought. Snipers and all perhaps. She follows him to a part of the house she hasn't explored yet, ancient pillars of wood loom over the pair, remnants of the time where builders built monuments with only hammers and ingenuity. There's a barely furnished study with a great view of the gardens. Lining the walls are untouched books with stitched spines, none in English.
Kyoya pulls out a bracelet from a drawer and throws it at her.
Rosetta nearly doesn't catch it.
"Wear that," he orders.
It's a black leather thing with a tiny pendant on the end, a silver bird. She flips the pendant and finsd a gaudy tracker almost immediately.
"A tracker?" She sounds almost amused.
"My father won't stop complaining," he says nonchalantly, looking away from her. "Your presence here has been nothing but a nuisance."
Oh, Rosetta gives him a smile, lips pulling back to show teeth. She hopes it comes less as a snarl. She can't believe she feels disappointment at his response. Did she expect him to care for her when he still ignores her every time they meet?
She slides the bracelet around her wrists, it fits perfectly.
"I'm sorry about your brother," she says, trying to sound sincere.
"You're dismissed."
Kyoya leans to his desk, crosses his arms, waits for her to leave.
Perhaps it's the loss of adrenaline. Perhaps it's the thought that if she made a wrong move at the café, so many people would have burned to death. She kept on replaying the scenes that happened this morning. If she was a minute late, Kyoya would be left with a pile of bones. His only friend in the world, Tetsuya, along with his wife, dead. Forever. This poor angry man would be alone. He would have lost everything.
"So, don't really care, do you?" She doesn't snarl, but she's quite near it. "Not about your brother, me, or Tetsuya-san."
"That's none of your business," Kyoya says. "Go somewhere else where you're wanted."
Somehow, Byakuran's singular taunt etches to her mind. 'The husband you chose doesn't even tolerate you.' Is that what they say about her? A rat in hiding. A rejected wife. It never mattered then. It shouldn't matter now.
She opens her mouth to curse him, but something in her throat drops to her stomach.
"Cat got your tongue?" Kyoya asks, smug. This happens every time. She can talk about school or Italy, anecdotes, philosophy, her old piano lessons before Ryuusei broke her finger bones. She can talk endlessly in the hours he tolerates with her. But it doesn't matter, doesn't it?
She looks up at him, eyes blurry, and sees his expression morph into something incomprehensible.
"What did I do to-" She manages to croak before she gives up, scrubbing her eyes with her borrowed long sleeve.
"Fuck you," she says instead. Her chest stings the way a wound does and she hates it. She doesn't even love him. But she feels rejected anyway. She wishes she is an adult. Maybe an adult knows how to handle emotions better instead of bottling it up. If she is older and far more experienced…
She crashes into Tetsuya on the way out and ignores him when he calls her, feeling lonely and angry and homesick. Homesick for where? Her childhood home is a pile of rubble. The boss' safe house in Italy is as restricting and as comfortable as a jail cell and… She opens the door to her room, sees the barred windows and cries openly.
The funeral ignored traditions. Instead of cremation, Ryuusei opted for burial. The body had to be flown from outside of Japan. There isn't much of a body either. They found little to be buried, a few scraps of clothes, bones and ashes. Hibari Kuniyoshi didn't die quickly.
"A father shouldn't have to bury his son," Ryuusei is wearing black as he watches the coffin being lowered. To his right stands his firstborn. Mutsuo is five inches taller than his father, but they looked nearly the same, besides Mutsuo stands Rosetta who says nothing the entire service.
Behind them, there is a chorus of sobbing women.
"I don't remember Kuniyoshi having many admirers," Ryuusei says mildly and nods to Takenaka, who turns to quiet the women down. Rosetta doesn't want to turn around. Takenaka can be pretty violent. But why would anybody cry for someone like Kuniyoshi in the first place? People should be celebrating his death.
"Where are my other sons?"
"Kunishige couldn't make it, father. He is stricken with grief," Mutsuo says solemnly, he is wearing a suit, unlike his father and Rosetta, who is wearing something traditional.
"Hm. I'll teach him what grief is. Beat some manners into him, will you?"
"Yes, father."
"I'm serious," Ryuusei clenches his fist around his cane. "I want him crawling to me for an apology tomorrow."
"Yes, father," Mutsuo says without pause.
The funeral ends quickly, dispassionate family members disperse back into their bases after their duty is done.
"And you, where is your husband?" Ryuusei asks her later, when they're at home, sipping tea by the sunroom. It's bright where they are, native trees seemingly leaning against the wide windows. The walled garden is visible here, the trickle of a manmade stream pleasant to the ears. The effect is ruined by Ryuusei's bodyguards, dark and looming against the white walls.
"Avoiding you. He was at the funeral." Rosetta recognizes the ugly tea set on the table. Ryuusei seems to bring it with him whenever he goes.
"Yes, yes. I saw him," Ryuusei leans back. He taps the floor with his cane. "I don't suppose you've beaten sense to my youngest?"
She chokes on her tea. The boss sighs at her display and hands her a towel which she uses to wipe her face clean. She doesn't want to answer him at first, but soon enough it becomes apparent that he is waiting for a response.
"I don't think I can beat anything into him," she says lightheartedly.
"Like father like son, I suppose. Your dilemma reminds me of myself when I was at your age, courting my first wife."
She blinks but doesn't say anything.
"You're not curious?"
Rosetta shoots him a wry look.
"Not curious at all?" He hums.
"I'm sorry, Hibari-san."
"At least you learn when punished," he sighs loudly, taking a resigned sip of tea, fingers itching for any sort of punishment. "Mutsuo here needed to visit the hospital four times before he stopped asking." Ryuusei pats Mutsuo's knee. The heir rolls his eyes.
"How long will you be staying?" She asks.
"In a few days." He frowns at her, eyeing the bandages around her limbs. Then, like a jeweler, he takes her hand and inspects the tiny bandaids on her fingers, not even trying to conceal his amused humming.
"I heard that Byakuran wanted peace." He puts her hand down.
"War would have been declared whether I agreed or not. The fact that he showed up with explosives meant that he wanted to kill me anyway." She says, finishing her cup, readying to leave as soon as the conversation ends. A maid, she recognizes Rita, sweeps in quickly to refill her tea to her displeasure. "What was your meeting with Nicodemo about?"
"I tried to bid for a permanent truce," Ryuusei admits.
"A permanent truce? The Gesso is a pack of two-faced mongrels. You shouldn't have tried." Mutsuo sniffs. In this light, he looks very similar to Kyoya. "Contracts mean nothing to them in the long run."
"And we're not?"
Mutsuo's brows furrow. "And we're not what?"
"Two-faced mongrels?" Ryuusei curls and uncurls his fingers around his cane. "Do you think the men who built our empire from the ground up succeeded because they were law-abiding citizens? Did I send you to study so you could embarrass yourself to me?"
Red sears Mutsuo's face. "I'm sorry, father."
"And now you apologize too quickly. If you're going to pick a habit from my external-advisor, pick a good one."
Rosetta doesn't flinch.
"Nicodemo played me for a fool," Ryuusei sighs. "I spoil my children too much. Kuniyoshi wouldn't have died if he was half as strong as Kyoya."
"We don't know that," Mutsuo says. "He could have been outnumbered." Kuniyoshi was truly outnumbered. They picked him up on the city and dumped his charred corpse on a lake twenty miles from when he was last seen. The bodies of his retainers were shot so many times that a news writer described them akin to honeycomb. The surviving bodyguards and the news writer were disposed by Takenaka on a similar fashion.
Ryuusei raises his eyebrows. "If Kyoya is outnumbered he'd simply–"
"Father, please. I know Kuniyoshi wasn't your favorite, but you shouldn't speak ill of the dea–"
"I can talk about him however I want."
"Just because you're his–"
"He was my son!" Ryuusei bellows, his cane clatters on the floor. Rosetta and Mutsuo look away like a pair of cowards, bowed by the boss' sudden wrath. When Ryuusei continues, his voice is low and rough. But in the deafening silence, it's loud enough.
"I don't love him, yes. I don't care for him, yes. But he was mine." Ryuusei shuts his eyes, placing a pale trembling hand over his face. "Nicodemo wants to teach me grief. It's only fitting that I teach him a lesson too."
A Note to The Readers: Well. I officially destroyed canon (As if I didn't sledgehammer it at the prologue). I wasn't even intending this story to go this way. I just sat in front of my laptop and the words started coming and flowing and before I knew it I was jotting key elements of the entire plot on my handydandy notebook. This story will include the Mukuro arc and the Varia Arc, which shouldn't take long because Mukuro is pretty much right around the corner.
I also didn't expect Tsuna to appear so much but I can't help myself. XD
This chapter was also supposed to be longer, but it will be too long if I don't cut it in half. The second half is under construction too, since I pretty much changed my mind on how the story should go.
In terms of romance development, I guess this is quite slow? I apologize for you all unsatisfied readers. Kyoya is pretty much this immovable brick wall. There will be catharsis soon enough and a good explanation for everything.
Thank you so much for reading this! I appreciate it! If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave a review or a message!