Hell is Empty, All the Devils are Here
Part 2, yay!
Warnings for beyond-abysmal parenting, pain conditioning, child neglect and child gladiators(practically). Also, Italian swearing and Mukuro being a creepy little shit.
Last Time:
Reborn practically pricked his ears at the mention of the name 'Commander'. "Who is this Commander and why is Tsuna so frightened of him? Besides the obvious."
It was Tsuna who spoke up, barely above a whisper as he turned his one desolate and despairing eye to Reborn.
"The Commander of the CEDEF, Iemitsu Sawada."
Reborn's blood ran cold. A part of his brain acknowledged that most child abuse was by a family member in a position of care, if not one or both parents. Another part was jarred as it tried to reconcile the naïve, ditzy man with the damaged children he could see. Yet another told him that it was entirely possible, considering that Iemitsu could have become so obsessed he broke all acceptable limits when it came to child-rearing, which meant a fourth part of his brain was now seething anger at both the abuse and at how long this had been going on for without anyone noticing.
The Hitman saw the wary looks the children were giving him, expecting him to dismiss their accusation of Iemi...the Young Lion and he took a deep steadying breath.
"I can train you to be strong," he said slowly, starting at the beginning so they could follow his line of thinking. "But that won't do much good, since that's what he wants. When you eventually become strong, it will be too late to gain support against him, since any definitive proof will be gone or obscured by time.
What I can do is put you in contact with trustworthy people now. People who will see what's going on and start discretely spreading the word. I already have a person in mind. Don Dino Cavallone, one of my former pupils. It won't be thought much of if I call him over; it'll be assumed that I'm using him as a role-model or rival for you."
"Will he try and take me away?" Chrome asked nervously, wringing her hands together. "It hurts." Mukuro pulled her into his chest protectively.
"Dino would never force any Bonded away from their Sky," Reborn assured her. "Nobody would. At least...did someone try and take you away from Tsuna? You have Flame burns as well." She nodded.
"We Harmonized with Tsuna at the same time," Mukuro explained. "The Commander didn't believe us and he tried to force a Bond with Chrome. We...it hurt...I was just so angry that I...even all of us together weren't strong enough to stop him. When his Flames didn't take no matter how hard he pushed, he went ballistic. He said Tsuna wasn't allowed to have more than one of each Flame-type and that Tsuna could only have the strongest."
Strongest of each Flame-type. Ryohei Sasagawa. Reborn as a possible replacement. "Porco Guida," he muttered hoarsely, reverting to his native Italian. "Figlio di puttana, cazzo, cazzo, cazzo...He made you fight, didn't he?"
"He said there was only one Vongola Mist Ring after all," Yamamoto said dejectedly. "He thought only Mukuro had Harmonized and he said that if Mukuro died to another Mist, Tsuna would Harmonize with the winner. You're the Arcobaleno Sun, so we thought...'"
Reborn slammed his fist into the white not-ground. "He's dead," he seethed, solid yellow eyes literally smouldering. "He's a dead man walking."
"Reborn's going to kill me~e!" Dino wailed, his men worriedly flitting around him. How was it possible to get lost in a town this size?!
The blonde squawked in alarm as tonfa coated in Cloud Flames smashed into the pavement in front of him, the dust clearing to reveal a school-uniformed teenager with a red armband pinned to the arm of the jacket on his shoulders.
"You are the horse and his herd?" the teen asked, pulling back his Flames.
Dino nodded mutely, sensing the Sky Flames shot through the Cloud's and that something had this Cloud incredibly stressed and protective to the point of being on a constant hair-trigger. "Who are you?" He asked warily, motioning to his men that they should follow.
"I am Carnivore," said the Cloud matter-of-factly, no doubt his given nom de guerre rather than his actual name. "You will follow me to a safe place. We are waiting for-"
A spasm ran through Carnivore's body, before his eyes began to bleed purple. "Sky," he breathed. "I'll bite you to death."
Dino dodged the first two strikes, then reached down and uncoiled his whip. What was up with this Cloud? Dino hadn't even reached out to him and the boy had been perfectly calm and civil just moments before! Not wanting to hurt who was obviously the Cloud Guardian of his honorary little brother, he only let his whip leave thin slices that bled profusely. When that failed to deter, he did his best to trip and bind.
Luckily, a familiar green hammer cratered the ground in between them before it started getting truly bloody.
"Chaos," Dino's old tutor said in greeting. "Hibari-san, if you reach out to Tsuna, you'll find that he's fine." The Cloud tilted his head and sighed, tension easing out of him.
Dino fell to the ground, twitching, as the tiny Hitman clocked around the head with hammer-Leon. "A good Boss is always prepared, useless-Dino! Since you got lost so easily, I suppose you're in need of some remedial training. I'll introduce you to Tsunayoshi, but keep a lid on your Flames, whatever you do, or his Guardians will go berserk."
Dino hadn't known what to expect as they approached the clearing, but an exhausted, fluffy little Primo Vongola clone who flinched in fear when he laid eyes on him, was definitely not in his mind. It was far too reminiscent of a beaten, neglected colt he had once seen, long ago.
"Dios, Reborn," Dino breathed. "What have you done?"
The Strongest Sun tipped his fedora forward to bathe his eyes in shadow. "I'm brutal, Dino, you know that. But I'm not the one who broke his spirit. And it goes far deeper than that."
"You're a Sky," a voice purred behind Dino as a finger deliberately laid itself on the now-thundering pulse in the crook of his jaw. "Sky Flames have only ever blinded us, bound us, burned us. When the little fish found out Reborn's friend was a Sky...he forgot how to breathe."
The finger was joined by the rest of a hand, caressing the Cavallone's Adam's Apple ever-so-gently as fear seeped into the blonde's bones.
"Just imagine it," the voice crooned. "The mass expulsion of air in a single breath as the diaphragm pulls flat and the ribcage tightens. The trachea constricts as adrenaline floods through his brain, vision darkening at the edges even as he struggles to take in that life-giving oxygen. The fear, the panic, the pain that screams through his Flames. Begging, pleading for his Guardians to save him from the approaching, unstoppable, burning Soul whose Flame-type he knows only brings the dark, cold abyss of Space."
The grip tightened and Dino felt hot breath on the nape of his neck.
"Will you burn us, Cavallone?"
"Shrike!" A Japanese Rain carrying a bamboo shinai broke in. "You should know better than anyone that people lash out when they're scared."
A quiet scoff and the sudden crushing despair lifted from Dino, sending him staggering forward. He regained his senses in time to see a Mist with dark blue hair hefting a trident stalking across the grass to stand by Tsunayoshi's shoulder.
"Thank you for the explanation, Rokudo, even if it was a bit much on the intimidation front," Reborn said wryly, kicking Dino in the shin. "A Boss always introduces himself, useless-Dino, you are being extremely rude right now."
Head still reeling from the implications of what the Mist had said, 'another Sky forced their Flames on Tsunayoshi and his Guardians, conditioned for Sky Flames to mean pain', Dino introduced himself mechanically, not realising that Tsuna didn't reply likewise.
"Aah, you have wonderful Guardians," Dino said, not noticing the glimmer of dawning hope and incredulous wistfulness in Tsuna's eyes at the compliment. "They care a lot about you and they're very strong. I guess that means you're a caring person and strong as well, right?"
The Cavallone Don's eyes flew open wide in shock as he felt tentative flickers of Tsuna's Sky Flames hovering around him, nudging him gently. He leaked out a little of his own Flames, Tsuna's drawing back some, before swirling forward again. Dino made his Flames as soft and welcoming as possible, trying to sooth the skittish ones that danced around him for a minute before brushing up against him. The boy stepped forwards, and before Dino could react, tapped him on the forehead with a handful of Sky Flames.
The world went white and Dino spun round in shock, coming face-to-face with a high-quality waistcoat and tailor-cut yellow shirt. Dark eyes shadowed by an Italian silk fedora and framed by familiar curled sideburns stared down at him and Dino screeched incoherently in shock.
"Get a hold on yourself, Cavallone," Reborn said harshly, grabbing him by the shoulders. "We don't have time for you to be surprised. Welcome to the truth."
The Hitman turned him around and Dino could only gape in horror.
"Reborn wanted you to see this," Tsuna said quietly. "Things aren't exactly quite right, you see."
He gestured to each of his Guardians in turn; "You've met Carnivore, my Cloud and Shrike's the Mist who was being creepy just now. Lionfish is my other Mist. Shuinsen is my Rain and Quicklime my Storm. Taiyang is Sun and this little one here is Fulgurite. Sorry about being such a mess, but we're trying to do something about it. That's why you're here."
"Dios, Reborn, why are you just standing there!" Dino yelled. "These kids are hurt, heal them already!"
"I can't, Dino." His tutor replied distantly, a snarl creeping into his voice. "Flames don't work here. This is Tsuna's mindscape and these are their mental avatars. These are their minds and Flames; Tsuna has been fucking mute for years because nobody listened to him and he gave up talking! Lionfish had a Forced Harmonization attempted on her! Take a good long look at what Iemitsu Sawada is doing to them!"
The words rang in his skull and he toppled backwards onto his ass. "W-what?" He stammered, before his brain caught up and pushed the word abuse into the front of his head. All the horror stories he had been told since he Activated came flooding back; Soul Burns, Forced Harmonization, Flame Suppression, Flame Rape...' And then all the physical and mental abuse he had heard of raised it's ugly heads.
He tasted bile on his tongue.
"Dios," he muttered. "Dios. His own son. How does no-one know?"
Reborn reached down his hand to him and pulled him to his feet. "We need to get the word out. Discretely. Who knows how Iemitsu will take it if he finds out? We need dissent in the ranks of Vongola about what sort of training the Heir is getting, if not Iemitsu's own capability to lead."
"I understand," Dino affirmed, mouth set in a grim line as he dusted himself down. "There's not a chance in Hell that this is continuing. No-one hurts my little brother, not even the Young Lion."
"Little...brother?" Tsuna piped up, voice quavering. Dino forced the anger from his face, smiling as gently as possible as he knelt in front of the little Sky and offered his hand. "Tsunayoshi Sawada. I would be truly honoured if you would accept my loyalty and that of the Cavallone Famiglia, as not only an Ally, but also as a brother and a friend."
Dino's Flames sang as Tsuna's hand slipped into his, the little Decimo's own Flames washing over them both like a warm sea. "I...I guess another nii-chan would be nice...'" The Sun covered in band-aids whooped excitedly and latched onto the Rain, babbling about something 'Extreme!'. "...can I call you Onii-chan?"
Dino's heart felt a tiny bit lighter. "That would be wonderful, Tsuna. Thank you so much, Otouto." He was promptly blinded by the beaming smile that spread across Tsuna's face. Were those actual sparkles, or was Shrike the creepy Mist messing with him again? It took a second or two to blink them away.
"Hey, Tsuna, let me tell you about when I was in Mafia Academy. I was in the same class as this guy from the Superbi Familglia, genius at swords, but an utter loudmouth. Somehow we became friends of a sort and through him I met his Sky. Tell me, Tsuna, what do you know of Xanxus Vongola of the Varia and the Cradle Affair?...'"
Damn, this is actually stretching to a Part 3!
So yeah, I'm giving the 10thGen codenames. Because this is fanfiction, dammit. Also, I have a weakness for symbolism and codenames.
Hibari Kyouya = Carnivore (Do you need to ask why?)
Mukuro Rokudo = Shrike (A Eurasian bird that eats large insects and small rodents. It stores them to eat later by impaling them, probably still half-alive, on thorn bushes.)
Chrome = Lionfish (A very pretty, ornamental-looking fish that disorientate their prey and have poisonous defensive spines.)
Takeshi Yamamoto = Shuinsen (Red Seal Ship. Early 17th Century Japanese armed merchant ships. Japanese traders were very much feared as 'devils' in the rest of Asia.)
Hayato Gokudera = Quicklime (Calcium Oxide. Used as an explosive weapon throughout history. Ignites on contact with water*cough*fights with Takeshi*cough*.)
Ryohei Sasagawa = Taiyang (One of the 14 major stars in Chinese Zi Wei Dou Shu fortune-telling. Translates to Sun. Means masculinity, self-sacrifice, ideals, power and capacity to give.)
Lambo Bovino = Fulgurite (When lightning strikes sand or ground containing certain minerals, it becomes glass and creates a fossil of itself.)
