'Gods damn it,' he thought, looking up at a depressingly familiar ceiling.
'I agree.'
Tsuna blinked at the evidence that Daemon had somehow come with him again, despite probably not having had the time to jump bodies during that ambush.
'I think it's because getting dragged with you the first time linked our souls. In theory, anyway,' Daemon replied.
Tsuna hummed. He was obviously five again, which meant whatever hiccup Daemon originally caused had been corrected or accounted for by the Powers That Be. 'Well, I think it was pretty clear that Talbot was on to you and set up your death.'
Daemon managed to heave a sigh in his brain and convey a nod.
"Tsu-kun~! Time to get up~! Breakfast is almost ready."
Tsuna heaved a sigh of his own and got up. A few minutes later he was downstairs having breakfast and, as soon as he safely could, booked it to that one park nobody ever seemed to frequent.
'Keep a mental eye out for anyone, will you?' he asked. 'I'm going to see if I can reach through Between to grab the shop stock and whatnot. Even if it's unlikely I'll open a shop this time, there's no reason I can't fence that stuff here and start building up wealth again.'
'Certainly. No sense letting the city have it and gain money for their coffers when you can just acquire it back.'
It was not until after a tired Tsuna finished shifting goods that he remembered to check his flames. He had unthinkingly used his usual, so the only one in question again was Sky. A glance at his flaming hands revealed that he was again a Sky and in danger of being in the line of succession. Which, naturally, was simply a way of saying it was inevitable, unless he went to the trouble of ensuring at least one of the three brothers survived.
'Am I supposed to actually get to the point of becoming Decimo for all this to end?' he wondered.
Daemon huffed softly in his brain and said, 'Perhaps so, alongside fixing that little issue with human sacrifices for the sake of the world's balance.'
He rolled his eyes. 'Well, maybe this time, since it's likely I'll meet Talbot legitimately, I can ask him directly. Maybe this time I'll see an answer to the end of that particular practice. And if Byakuran is approached correctly, he might be able to disseminate the information to other dimensions, even without the boost of the Mare Ring. He was able to learn enough from other dimensions to know how to counter pretty much anything Vongola could come up with, and that was before he got his hands on the Mare Ring to help with the heavy lifting.'
'Such as pulling his other self over. Anyway, I need to find a body again. And what do you plan to do about The Visit?'
'Probably fake being sick again. I don't see the point in pretending to be an idiot once more, though trolling that pathetic excuse for a father might still be amusing. Depends on whether or not I can think of something other than my previous tactic, or if I'd have to default to that again. There's a bunch of yakuza in town, by the way. Do you think any of them might be Mists?'
'We do tend to be third most rare in terms of flame types,' Daemon replied, 'but there's no harm in checking.'
'All right! Let's go track down some criminals.' He used Between to safely spy out the situation with the Momokyokai, though he still had not figured out how to stay still while hidden that way. So he lurked at the edges of reality and stalked around the base, feeling for Mist Flames. He did not expect any of the men there to be active, but he might find a latent he could fake the death of so that Daemon could have, at the very least, a starter body.
Thankfully for his own questionable sanity, Daemon did take note of one who might temporarily serve, and a handful of spies were left to shadow the man before Tsuna ducked back out of Between into the park.
Within a few days Daemon had acquired a new body and Tsuna's thoughts were once again private.
They just had to get past The Visit, and plans could move forward—once Tsuna decided precisely what those plans were, anyway.
. . .
"Darling~!"
Tsuna barely refrained from rolling his eyes as he tended to the bonsai tree his mother kept in the sitting room. Daemon (in child form) was sitting nearby, ready to hand over whatever tool he needed. It remained a mystery to Tsuna, that bonsai tree. It was always there, it always had been, and yet he never, not once, ever saw his mother do any shaping. How the tree maintained its characteristic shape, therefore, was puzzling.
"My precious Nana~!" the blond idiot nearly sang in delight.
Tsuna kept a firm check on his reactions. One would think with the way the man always reacted when he came "home" that he would be more inclined to actually visit "home", if only to spend time with his precious and adored wife.
"And my adorable little tuna fish~!"
Tsuna gave Daemon a flat look before asking his mother, "Mama, who is that man?"
"He's your papa, Tsu-kun~!"
"Ha ha," he said in a dead tone. "Mama made a funny. Who is that man really?"
"…Tsu-kun, this is your papa," she repeated, more slowly.
He shook his head in clear denial and went back to tending the bonsai. "If Tsu-kun had a papa, papa would live here. Tsu-kun's papa must be a star in the sky," he replied with the implacable resolve of a child.
A surreptitious glance showed him that Iemitsu's face had taken on a hilarious cast of confusion, and Timoteo looked quietly amused. It only served to make Tsuna's opinion of the old man drop once more, the idea that he found it funny a five year old child had no clue what his father looked like and wouldn't recognize him if they passed on the street.
He handed over his wire cutter to Daemon, who slotted it back into its pocket, rolled up the cloth, and tied the straps in a neat bow. The two of them got up and disappeared upstairs. The view from the window he opened up nearly made him giggle (or throw up, he wasn't quite sure) as it showed Iemitsu pouting like like a two year old at the blatant dismissal and disregard.
His tool set went back on its shelf, then he and Daemon settled in to play a game of shogi.
Thankfully, Iemitsu was quickly distracted from his emotional posturing when Nana produced food and drink, though it did make Tsuna wonder about the purpose of The Visit each time. Was it for Iemitsu to show off his adorable and precious family? So that Timoteo could get an eye on a potential heir and make some kind of assessment? Just how mercenary was The Visit, and how much of it was purely innocent?
Considering the number of times the candidate from Giotto's line had been sealed—and didn't that just raise questions about Ricardo's line doing what they could to ensure the main branch never took the reins again—Tsuna had to wonder if the purpose of The Visit was to assess him for flames and as a threat. Or, as he had wondered already, if the purpose was to ensure he remained a potentially deliberately handicapped, clueless civilian, ready to be pulled off the shelf if things went south, and trained up by someone who had yet to figure out that Timoteo was almost as much of a moron as Iemitsu.
Unfortunately, Iemitsu got it into his head to "play" with Tsuna again, rudely snatching him up and tossing him into the air repeatedly. Tsuna maintained a stone-faced expression through it all, but managed his timing such that he "accidentally" kicked the man in the family jewels, causing Iemitsu to drop him and stumble out of the room.
Tsuna rolled his eyes and resumed playing shogi with Daemon.
. . .
Several months after The Visit Tsuna and Daemon were wandering the town looking for something to do when they were attacked. The kidnappers were starting in early in this life, it seemed. For a change of pace they used physical means to subdue the men, though Daemon produced a staff out of nowhere to fight with.
Daemon had just opened his mouth to say something when a large group of yakuza slinked out of the nearby alleys and grinned at them. "Look at you two~!" one of them said happily. "So strong!"
"We try," Tsuna said evenly, not able to get a clear read on their intentions, and was pleased that Daemon moved to cover his back.
"So cute~!" the man practically cooed. "Well! We're going to clean up this mess. There's no point in making chibis do so. It was bad enough you were forced to defend yourselves against grown men. If you two ever need a hand with something, come find me. I'm Daisuke, of the Momokyokai."
"I recall seeing your … office."
"Good. We are a helpful organization, after all~!" Daisuke smiled and directed his people to drag the bodies away, seeming to lose interest in the two children.
Tsuna and Daemon took the opportunity to slip away so they could speak safely. A Bounding Box was placed around that one park and they sat down to have a snack pulled from Between.
"So, that happened," he commented between bites of onigiri.
"I don't recall you mentioning this happening before."
Tsuna shook his head. "Never. I've encountered them before, mainly because Dino and Reborn cooked up that stupid scheme to test my guardians, and used the Momokyokai as the medium, but… No, they've never taken an interest in me that I'm aware of. And the last time assassins came after me when I was this young, uh… I handled that myself and they weren't anywhere near."
Daemon nodded and then smirked. "Well, Heul, this could be interpreted as an opportunity for us. We could 'learn' about organized crime, while still mostly staying out of it. Certainly not deciding to join the Momokyokai, for that would be imminently silly. But little Tsu-kun could learn from them, and allow them to help keep the assassins away."
He hummed thoughtfully. Daemon had a good point. There already was an organized crime presence in town, so it would not be outside reason for Tsuna to have some knowledge of and/or experience with it. The excuse of them keeping the assassins off his back helped.
"What do you think of the idea of using them as a cover for espionage?"
Daemon's brow cocked up.
"To start making profiles on Vongola and CEDEF. Meaning, skills learned from them used to create those profiles after someone figures out my connection to Vongola, but isn't inclined to let them know they know, if you follow. It would give me an excuse to start poking around quietly, and assembling reports on everything that's wrong."
"Perhaps becoming an anonymous informant?" Daemon suggested. "Sending some of those reports to the old man both to be helpful and as warnings?"
"Right. And it would give me backing for even knowing stuff like this when the time comes—assuming I live so long," he said with a sigh. "I'm annoyed now that we didn't see your twin as a priority, since I expect he'll go after that Enma's family. I thought we'd have time, not that I'd die again after having been there for so little time."
"I will make dealing with my twin a priority," Daemon said firmly. "I will need to find a better host, though. And speaking of those, do you want to rescue those poor Estraneo experiments?"
"Yeah," he said tiredly. "We can dump them in an orphanage. Maybe I can anchor a Bounding Box around the place to divert any mafiosi looking to find potential flames to abscond with or experiment on. Plus an anonymous donation of cash to help with the increased load."
"All right," Daemon said. "So we need to make your mother not notice when we disappear for a few days, so we can handle that. And if I get lucky I can find a better host while we're in Italy. I would prefer a better host for when it comes to dealing with my twin, but it's not essential. If he proves he can be reasonable, then excellent, we have an additional agent. If not, I'll absorb him to prevent him from interfering with any of our plans."
"I'll set up an account for the donation," he said. "Then we can move. Or, if you prefer, you can go hunting first, to see if you can get a better host body before we deal with the test subjects. Either way, once that's handled, and preferably your twin is handled, we can move forward with the Momokyokai and building our repository of data and potential blackmail material."
. . .
Tsuna eyed up the "stranger" Daemon had brought home with him with only mild suspicion.
"This is my … twin," Daemon said, "Xeul, as we decided to call him."
Tsuna nodded politely. Just because the man was an analogue of his Daemon did not mean he could trust him. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"Yeul … has told me all about you," Xeul said silkily.
Somehow he doubted that. "It's a shame you two don't have secondary flames and perfect hosts. We could see if we were compatible."
Daemon laughed creepily. "That would be amusing. Maybe I'll look harder. I find myself very interested to know if I could harmonize—with you, that is. And besides, I sincerely doubt that anyone could possibly top me as a potential Mist Guardian."
Xeul shot him a disgruntled look for that, but refrained from getting into a pissing match over it.
"I am more than a little curious myself at this point. I was kind of hoping I'd be able to last time," he said quietly, "after you explained." He sighed slightly, then eyed the native Daemon. "Are you interested in working with us, or should we just leave you be to do whatever it is you do?"
"There must be an exceptional reason why my … twin … has stuck with you for so long," Xeul said. "I will work with you, as I would like to find out for myself."
He nodded. "All right. How much has … Yeul … mentioned about our plans?"
"Only enough to intrigue me. I already keep an eye on the Vongola, their allies, and their enemies, but I expect you're after something far more in depth."
"The current plan is to investigate deeply, to find out exactly who is a problem in the Vongola and needs to be culled, what's going wrong, and what's being overlooked. For example, someone should have noticed by now that there's a Vongola Sky who has yet to gain even a single guardian, probably because he's a narcissist."
"You refer to Iemitsu."
Tsuna nodded. "Uh huh. He's completely stuck on himself, delusional, and gods only know just how much he's letting slip because he so convinced he's got everything under control, never mind the fact that he nearly always persuades Timoteo to seal the flames of his child.
"How many divisions of Vongola are doing underhanded things under the table, and it's not getting noticed? How many are selling information on Vongola to their enemies? How much is being handled inefficiently and wasting time, resources, and money? How much time is being spent strong-arming people who should be left alone? Giotto formed the Vongola to protect the weak and the innocent, not to profit off their suffering.
"Basically, I want reams of reports, indexed by problem, source material, et cetera, that can be used to point out just how much Timoteo has let things slip and how much of a mess he needs to clean up. If he choses to ignore what we're sending, well, that says something. I'm extremely curious to see if his sons manage to survive this time or if they'll assume room temperature again on schedule."
"…Assume room temperature?" Xeul said slowly. "That's a new one for me."
He grinned.
"Now that we have an agreement," Daemon said, "how about the two of us see if we can track down better hosts?"
Xeul nodded. "Let's."
Tsuna found himself ridiculously surprised when several months later the two Mists showed up in new bodies—that of identical twins. "Say what now?"
Daemon grinned. Tsuna knew it was his Daemon due to the familiarity of his manner. "These two went active while in a moving vehicle, which startled the driver and caused a major accident. They suffered traumatic brain injury as a result, and ended up in a persistent vegetative state. When we found them they'd been like that for six months already."
He blinked a few times, then frowned. "You're using flames to even be moving around, aren't you."
Daemon nodded. "These bodies need some serious work due to muscle atrophy, so yes. On the bright side…"
Xeul took over and said, "They're both dual flames. Yeul has Mist and Cloud, while I have Mist and Lightning."
Tsuna's eyes went wide. "Seriously? And you can use them natively?"
Daemon smirked.
"Huh. Assuming things go south, would you be willing to act as my Lightning, Xeul? I really, really don't want to have to draft in a five year old child for that. And speaking of which, how old…?"
"Eight."
"Okay, not so bad. I mean, it's horrible for the two kids, but they're kind of gone now…"
"Since you're going to be stuck dealing with school soon, we figured we would pretend to be your age and attend with you."
Tsuna groaned. "That is going to be hellaciously boring. Good thing we're all Mists, right?" It had not escaped him that Xeul had not agreed to act as Lightning, but there was no point in pushing the issue. "At least one of us could have a window open while suffering through school, or hiding the fact that we're using laptops… Whatever."
"A window…?" Xeul prompted.
He exchanged a look with Daemon, who nodded, then said, "Literally a window. I developed a trick with Mist Flames, first to allow me to store things in the space between molecules—which incidentally, seems to be someplace between dimensions, since I not only retain anything I put in there even after I get jumped, but I can reach into another dimension to take things, or place things.
"But, once I had that, one of the additional uses I came up with was holding a pane of glass, a window, on the edge of Between, with one face on my side, and one face looking out on whatever it is I want to spy on. Being able to use Earth Flames helps, so you can manipulate what you see on the other side."
Xeul's eyes went a bit wide at first, then he smirked in appreciation. He looked at Daemon. "You did tell me your friend was intriguing. I must say I quite agree."
. . .
Tsuna was ten when the next big surprise in his present life reared its head. He, Daemon, and Xeul had made good use of their time, compiling reports (with all accompanying documentation and evidence properly stored) about Vongola and CEDEF, and sending one every so often to Timoteo from the anonymous source "Oracle".
Timoteo was slow to respond in any meaningful way. He was apparently under the assumption that someone out there was attempting to cause discord within the famiglia, and therefore took very little of what was sent to him with any kind of seriousness.
It was a shame the man's mother had already died, for she had sounded like a far more sensible person, and would likely have listened and done something.
The surprise came in the form of three boys who appeared one day at that park nobody ever seemed to frequent. Tsuna and his crew were there, busily spying on various operations, when Mukuro, Ken, and Chikusa strolled in as if there wasn't a mild barrier in place to keep any curious civilians away.
Tsuna took one look at them and got very confused.
Mukuro let out a creepy little laugh and came close enough for Tsuna to see the slightly unhinged mischief in the boy's eyes. "You rescued us."
"Uh… Yes, I did. You were sedated, though."
"Not so much as you thought, obviously," Mukuro said with a hint of condescension.
"Right," he said slowly. "So, you're here, why?"
"The orphanage was boring," Mukuro stated. "We wanted to meet our benefactor."
Daemon laughed, rather creepily (which made Mukuro give him an odd and interested look), and said, "Looks like we may have to forge some identification for these three and get them enrolled."
"Assuming they plan to stay," he said, eyeing up the three. "Also, a word of warning. There's a yakuza group in town, the Momokyokai. They seem to be under the impression that we three are adorable and something to be protected, so if you stick around they'll probably treat you the same way."
Mukuro raised a cynical brow. "What, so they can make use of us later?"
Tsuna shrugged. "Perhaps, though it'll never happen. We took advantage of their offer to hide the bodies one day after some assassins came after me, and then ensured they continued to see us as precious. We can just as easily ensure they never quite make the jump to expecting us to become minions once we're old enough. Besides, knowing them gives us all the excuse we need to know more than we should."
Mukuro's brow slipped down and a slow, crooked smile contorted his mouth. "I already knew you knew of the mafia. How else would you have found us and have the skills to rescue us."
Tsuna got the distinct impression that Mukuro had been forced through at least one remembered life already, despite not having that odd red eye. The boy was far too mature to be explained otherwise. With that in mind, he firmly resolved to treat the kid as an adult, or at least a teen. Talking down to him would only piss him off and cause him to start trouble, and then they'd have to go to the bother of reining the kid in.
"We'll have to find you a place to live," he mused, giving Daemon a look. "Maybe the place next door? I'm sure we could convince them of a pressing need to move. I can't really see us packing three more people into Mama's house, even at the size we are now."
Daemon and his twin exchanged an evil look and nodded. "Of course, darling. We'll get right on it. And once we've gotten rid of them, you can help us anchor an illusion to keep people from realizing there are no adults in there."
He nodded. "Sure. Once you have a general price figured out, I'll set up an account to make the payments for it. I'll set up a separate account to make sure the household bills are paid automatically. We'd only have to worry about normal shopping—food, clothing, and so on."
Mukuro looked intrigued, but unwilling to outright ask for clarification or details. His two companions just stood there quietly, listening. It was obvious Mukuro had taken the lead as he always had, and they followed his cues.
"Are you three all right with that idea?" he asked, since not one of them had even nodded an agreement to their plans.
"…Yes."
"Cool. For now, you can stay at my house if you want. My mother is…" He paused, unsure how to explain things. "She's very gullible, for one thing, and won't bat an eye over the idea of me having 'friends' staying for a time. She's also a very good cook, which is nice, because for the most part she's rather oblivious. I try not to tax her brain too much, and frankly, I'm still not convinced she's not just a highly advanced robot."
His mother, as it turned out, was delighted to have more boys to cook for. But, then, she seemed to take everything in stride, and ignore what didn't work for her limited worldview. In less than a month Tsuna owned the house next door under an alias and had the accounts handling the regular bills.
He wondered if he should anchor a second Bounding Box over the place to prevent anyone outside the group from entering it. As it was he had the makings of an almost complete set of guardians, Storm lacking.
Enrico was already dead, so Timoteo was not living up to his responsibilities. Enrico had left behind no wife or children, and neither of his brothers had married or reproduced. The sheer arrogance it must take to be so damn confident in the face of contrary evidence was staggering. Seriously. Had Daniella procreated with a complete idiot to have produced Timoteo?
Tsuna shuddered at the idea of a version of himself having married Sasagawa Kyoko before he had woken up to reality. Maybe it was time for Primo's line to reclaim the family if Timoteo and his ilk were an example of breeding gone straight into the mutated end of the gene pool. Things weren't looking too good on the Primo side, either, with Iemitsu as an example, but Tsuna clearly had the brains, talent, and imagination to succeed, without coming across as delusional or a complete idiot.
Mukuro had watched with intense interest when Tsuna anchored the illusion to make people think at least one adult lived in the house, and again when he created the anchored Bounding Box to prevent intrusions. If Reborn did show up to be his tutor, he wanted a place of safety and relative sanity to hide in.
"How are you doing that?" Mukuro asked, once they were safely settled in the new house and having a snack.
"Heh. Let me counter with a question of my own," he replied. "How many lives did they force you through before we got there to rescue you?"
Mukuro blinked, his expression going blank after that. "Lives?"
"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I know it had to be at least one. You are way too mature for your age. I wouldn't be surprised if it were more, despite how young you were at the time."
Mukuro looked deeply conflicted for several long seconds. "…Three."
Tsuna nodded. "I've lived… This is my eleventh life," he said. "I've learned a few tricks. And since you are clearly a Mist, I can teach them to you."
"Mist… And Ken? Chikusa?" Mukuro asked, eyeing him hard as if looking for lies.
"Ken-san is a Sun. He can heal, amongst other things, though I cannot personally do so. Chikusa-san is a Rain. He can pacify people and affect water, as examples, also not something I have. Mist is known for its construction properties, or more commonly known, illusions. Your imagination is your greatest weapon."
"Tsu-kun~!" Daemon sang. "If we got the right rings, you probably could."
"Eh, probably. Mist is funny that way. Suppose I could, uh, reach out and grab some. Talbot did kill us, after all, so I feel no remorse over the idea of stealing rings from that version of him."
Xeul chuckled.
"Talbot?" Chikusa asked a bit stiltedly.
"A metalsmith who has worked for the Vongola since the time of Primo. No one quite knows how he's managed to live for so long, but in my last life, which Yeul shared with me, Talbot got annoyed and led him into a trap. I happened to be with him, and we were killed there. Since Yeul's soul is linked to mine, he came with me to this life."
Mukuro stared at him for some time, then made a leap of logic. "You've met me before."
Tsuna smiled serenely. "I have. You killed me once. It was my fourth life."
"…And yet you saved me this time."
"I've also killed you, in a manner of speaking. I figured we were even at that point, so I rescue you now instead. This is the first time you've ever tracked me down, though."
"And what are you, aside from a Mist?"
His smile widened. "Also a Cloud, which has the property of propagation. It means I can multiply … objects, force, other flames…"
He received a look that said Mukuro was suspicious he holding something back, but the Mist refrained from pushing.
"So, you guys want training? You're probably already well aware that the mafia will not let go, and it's better to be well trained so you can push back."
Mukuro looked away long enough to assess the mood of his two fellow victims, then nodded.
"All right," he said, then held up a finger for a moment. He reached Between to grab a pane of glass to position, remembering to gloss the far side, and started spying on Talbot's workshop. If the time of day lined up then the man was probably eating, but it shouldn't matter either way. He was not in there at the moment, so Tsuna quickly located the man's supply of rings and liberated a dozen of each, just to be an asshole.
The trio's eyes widened on seeing jewelry simply appear out of thin air and be real, solid objects, not illusions.
Daemon grabbed them and quickly sorted out the applicable ones, and handed two each over to the boys. He handed applicable rings to Xeul, if only to make it easier to channel flames, kept ones for himself, and handed the remainder to Tsuna.
Tsuna grabbed rings for every type, just to see what he could manage with the backing of Mist. No reason not to! To that end he placed a Sun ring on his finger and tried channeling flames through it. They came out a curious and weird colour, but there was enough yellow in there to give him hope that he could figure out how to narrow it down and refine his control.
"Awesome. Something to work on during my copious free time." The remainder of the rings got tossed into his storage Between.
"Even with school?" Ken asked, finally saying something.
Tsuna scoffed. "We use illusions to cover the fact that we're not paying attention and are instead working on our own projects. I've been through school so many times now that I'm heartily sick of the damn place."
"Would you prefer to teach Rain or Sun?" Daemon asked his twin in an aside.
"Sun."
With that settled, and their snack consumed, the three settled in to teach the three boys how to not only be active, but useful.
. . .
When Tsuna was fourteen that dratted flier showed up in the mailbox. He had known it was coming the second they got a report that Federico had been vaporized. By that point Tsuna had finally learned what harmonization was—and so had the others. All he was missing was a Storm, and the only one he knew offhand aside from Fon was Hayato. Given that the kid was mafia already, it wasn't so terrible if he ended up in that role again, though Tsuna seriously doubted he could achieve harmony with the kid.
Daemon was his right hand and Cloud, while Xeul took on the role of Lightning. Mukuro could fake other flame types once they taught him how—along with the more interesting tricks Tsuna had developed as a Mist—but his body only naturally produced Mist Flames, unlike the "twins" with their now duel flames due to the bodies they inhabited.
And, while it was hardly his responsibility to save each and every person he had known or befriended at any point in time, Tsuna did take the time to ensure Takeshi did not fall into a suicidal state of depression by subtly instilling better habits into the boy, so that he no longer lived and breathed baseball.
Nagi's mother had likewise been tweaked, though she was tweaked a second time when Mukuro took a definite liking to the girl. Tsuna had sighed and shook his head slightly. Those two seemed to be destined to entwine, and short of killing one of them, there wasn't a damn thing Tsuna could do about it.
That being so, he simply accepted the odd relationship those two had and set it aside in his mind. The fact that he had harmonized with Mukuro meant he was less inclined to worry about being stabbed in the kidney from behind.
After school they made a beeline, not for Tsuna's house, but the one next door, mostly because Tsuna wanted to see if Reborn would be rebuffed by the Bounding Box he had anchored in place. By the time it neared dinner, Reborn still had not found his way in, so Tsuna cheerfully headed next door with his guardians in tow.
A call of, "I'm home," was met with, "Wash up, Tsu-kun~! Dinner is almost ready!" so the six of them fought for space at the sink before filing into the kitchen and taking seats. Well, except Ken, who immediately went to help Nana bring the food over.
The boy was nice that way.
"Oh, Tsu-kun~!" Nana burbled, tilting her head at the interloper sitting at the table. "Your new home tutor is here~!"
"Ciaossu," Reborn said cheerily. "I'm Reborn."
"…As what?" he asked with a confused tilt of his head, deciding to go with a recent favorite. "Wait, no, I can't deal with that. I'm going to take the boring part out of your name and call you Ren."
Reborn twitched, but at least that time he knew why. The cursed man's birth name was Renato Sinclair, so it only made sense the diminutive would affect him in some way.
Tsuna beamed a smile at the chibi and tucked into his gyūdon. Mukuro's trio left after dinner and a "thank you" to Nana, while Tsuna and his twins went upstairs to Tsuna's room. Reborn strolled in with an annoyed expression.
"Why are they here?" the chibi asked.
"Oh, gee, I don't know… Maybe because they live here?" he said.
"That would explain there being three futons," Reborn muttered. "I need to talk to you, and they don't need to be here."
Tsuna scoffed. "What, you think any of us are going to be shocked like delicate little snowflakes when you spring it on me that I'm the last remaining possible candidate to become Vongola's tenth boss?"
Reborn went still for a moment, and then Tsuna had the muzzle of a bright green CZ75 practically shoved up his left nostril. He wondered how Leon felt about that.
"And how would you know that?" Reborn inquired evenly, looking somewhat put out that his student didn't so much as flinch.
"The Momokyokai took a liking to me, Yeul, and Xeul and cleaned up the bodies after some assassins came after me. It was through them that we learned of the yakuza and mafia, and eventually, my connection to it all. I've known since I was six who I am, and what I might be called on to do. I have no idea what that tainted sack of wind provided you with as a profile on me, but I can guarantee it's teeming with lies."
"And these two?"
"My Cloud and Lightning. The other three are Sun, Rain, and Mist. I lack a Storm. I have yet to run across one here that would even warrant a second look. Most of them are pathetic trash."
Reborn twitched again, probably due to the one word.
"Oh, right," he said suddenly, as if it had only just occurred to him. "I suppose I should mention I'm a Cloud secondary."
The skin around Reborn's eyes tightened a skosh. "Wonderful," he said dryly.
"Isn't it just?" Tsuna said cheerfully, his serene smile sliding into place. "So, how about you enlighten us as to the sheer enormity of lies that tainted sack of wind told you about me, eh, because I wouldn't doubt he failed to mention all the assassination attempts, amongst other things."
Reborn tilted his hat down in a move that practically cried, "Lord, give me the patience to know who to strangle first."
. . .
Most of Reborn's antics were neatly cut off due to Tsuna's knowledge. It had the result of making Reborn incredibly grumpy. He was further annoyed when Tsuna kept calling him either Ren-san or Ki-san and accusing the chibi of flirting with him. He compensated by making all six of them go through rigorous physical training exercises, which none of them actually minded.
When Hayato finally arrived the poor boy had to deal with a united front of unimpressed, emotionless faces.
"You're nothing impressive," Hayato blustered, his cigarette angled to one side and drooping slightly from its spot at the corner of his mouth.
"And you're a damn fool for courting lung cancer," Tsuna said flatly, "not to mention polluting my lungs."
Hayato paused in confusion, then sneered and said, "If a coward like you were to become Decimo, the Vongola Famiglia would be finished."
"I wonder how he figures the coward part," he muttered, mostly for the benefit of his guardians.
"I refuse to accept it! I'm the one who's fit to be Decimo!"
Tsuna's brow went up. "Are you truly that delusional and stupid?" he asked.
Hayato snarled and produced a handful of dynamite sticks, lit the fuses, and flung them Tsuna's way. Tsuna, not willing to bet on Reborn getting involved, especially with the changed circumstances, propagated the earth at his feet into a wall to shelter them from the explosions.
"Ciaossu."
Tsuna looked sideways to see Reborn in the expected spot, perched on a low wall bordering one of the covered walkways on the side of the building. He dropped his barricade, but remained ready to raise it again at a moment's notice if Hayato got ideas.
"So you're Nono's highly trusted assassin. You weren't kidding about me becoming a candidate as the successor if I kill Sawada, right?"
"That's right. Well, let's get on with the killing, then."
Tsuna sighed and sent Reborn a nasty look. It was one thing for the chibi to put him through hell because he was annoyed, but to drag in a boy so desperate for recognition that he was pathetically easy prey for manipulation…
Hayato snarled as his focus switched back to Tsuna and more dynamite came out. For a split second Tsuna wrestled with his conscience and seriously contemplated letting the kid blow himself up. Instead, he put his dodging skills to work as his guardians drew back to let him handle things on his own, having been forewarned.
Only when Hayato finally got frustrated enough to mess up and endanger his own life did Tsuna do more than dodge and acted to save the boy's life. Dirt was propagated to rise up and smother the dynamite, and to shield the boy. The second he felt the concussive force finish rippling through his protections he allowed them to lapse.
Hayato's eyes were wide with surprise, relief, and the fading remnants of terror. The he dropped to his knees and bowed from the waist. "I was mistaken! You're fit to be the boss! I'll follow you! Command me to do anything!"
Tsuna rolled his eyes. "I want an essay on everything you've done wrong since you stepped foot in Namimori, and what you should have done instead. You have a week." He turned and left with his guardians in tow.
As soon as they were out of earshot Mukuro laughed. "I see what you meant now. That boy is a lost and desperate puppy."
"How could the kid possibly believe he could take over Vongola?" Ken said snidely. "He's not of the blood."
"If he's that desperate," Chikusa said quietly, "he'd probably stretch credulity for anything even remotely plausible."
"Do you think he'll actually do a decent job on that essay you assigned?" Xeul asked, looking like he was a hair's breadth away from cackling in amusement.
He shrugged. "I guess we'll see."
A week later Hayato presented him with his essay, which Tsuna silently read. The two biggest issues Hayato had nailed were his temper and underestimating his opponent and potential boss. Tsuna decided it was close enough for government but for one issue. "You missed something," he said quietly.
Hayato looked stricken.
"See, I've done my research, so I know about you. You still haven't touched on the issue of why Shamal dropped you as a student. That happened before you came here, true, but the reason he did it still exists, and it's affecting you even now. So you need to think about that, figure it out. You can hang out with us, train with us, but you're not one of us, not until you get your head screwed on straight."
The stricken look blended with confusion.
"So, let's go. We check out just what you can do, and what you need to work on."
. . .
When Squalo showed up chasing Basil, Tsuna heaved a sigh and exchanged looks with his guardians. Mist keyed to their sight only was employed to say, "We're using the other house while the tainted sack of wind is around."
They sat back to watch Basil battle Squalo, after sending Nana off with the kids. She had (un)fortunately been shopping at the time, and it was best to get Lambo, I-Pin, and Fūta out of the area rather than risk one of them getting hurt.
Reborn kept fingering his gun and glancing at Tsuna, but had learned the hard way that if he tried to shoot him, Tsuna would deflect the bullet using one method or another. Reborn was heard cursing Hyper Intuition as often as he praised it.
Tsuna used his Earth Flames to cause Basil to have a whoopsie moment and send the box with the fake rings skittering away from him. Squalo jumped on the opportunity and grabbed it, then took off. Dino sailed in much too late to be of any use except to cart Basil off to get checked over by a medic or healer-type Sun.
Well, and hand over the real set of half-rings.
Tsuna handed them out, but spent some time examining his before sliding it onto a finger. It felt like plain old flame-reactive metal, not half of the real thing. He honestly expected the real set to be with the ninth generation. There was literally no point in them being split and kept locked away in safes when they were a part of the Tri-ni-set and had to be worn so they could leech off the holder.
It made far more sense that the Sky version of the half-rings had been designed to test a potential heir, limited by the same blood-lock as was present on the real thing. Vongola could safely check a candidate—for the right blood, if nothing else—without risking the real thing. Whether or not the real set was quietly swapped in after the fact was something he would have to check when the time came.
Besides, why would there be two versions of a ghost Giotto to test an heir, when it should be only the original Vongola rings that might contain soul echoes of their original bearers?
Tsuna left the makeshift hospital Basil was being seen to in and headed home. A glance ahead showed that Iemitsu was already making himself at home; the side yard had blossomed with orange. He sighed and ducked into the house next door and spent a few minutes ensuring that the anchored Bounding Box would keep the sperm donor out.
When he joined his guardians in the kitchen Mukuro eyed him and asked, "So how are we playing this?"
"I have an idea," he said, then explained so he could get feedback before committing to it.
. . .
They arrived at the school an hour prior to the stated time and, as Daemon and Xeul had scoped out the preparations ahead of time, went straight to the arena. The Cervello looked vaguely surprised to see them so early, but Xanxus and his people looked more annoyed.
"What … is that?" Hayato demanded, pointing at what was obviously a boxing ring, though instead of having just waist-high ropes around the perimeter, it had barred metal "walls" going up a good twenty-plus feet, with four bright lights in the corners up near the "ceiling", plus banks of more, currently unlit.
"Thank you for gathering."
"Now, we shall begin the Scramble Battle for the successor of the Sun Ring. Please look—"
"Hold up!" Tsuna called out.
"—over… What?" the Cervello said, managing to look confused even with the concealing hair and eye mask.
"I want to put the Sky Ring together and let Xanxus-san try the thing on. He's the old man's son, he's older, so he should have first shot, right? It's not like I wanted any of this."
The two women looked at each other in confusion. Xanxus's eyes widened slightly, before narrowing in suspicion.
Tsuna slipped the ring off his finger and tossed it at the Cervello. "So? Get on with it. It's a trash move for someone to try to take away his right in favor of an unknown. All you people come trampling into my life, trying to tell me I'm going to be a good boy and obey, like I'm a dog or something."
He knew damn well Xanxus wouldn't risk it, but he had to try.
"Well?" he demanded. "Or were you lot going to try some fancy Mist tricks on me? Brainwash me into compliance? Though why anyone would want a brain-dead pawn as a figurehead… Oh, wait, I remember. They'd want a scapegoat, right? So they had someone to blame for what a fucking mess the Vongola is. Xanxus-san can be Decimo. I'll take over the Varia. At least I know he'd pay attention and do his damn job, and not be afraid to take out the trash."
Reborn groaned quietly and tipped his hat down to cover more of his face.
Xanxus laughed suddenly, a deep-throated, resonant explosion of humor. "You're interesting, trash. Give him the ring back, woman. I want to see just how well my opponent's men can fight. Not gonna just take his word for it."
Tsuna raised his brow, but nodded and caught the ring when it was thrown at him. It went back onto his finger for the time being. "I guess you're up, then, Ken."
Ken nodded, seemingly unconcerned.
Tsuna had gone over the Varia with his people, though Daemon, Xeul, and Mukuro had assisted with spying on them so they could formulate a game plan if the fights actually happened. Lussuria had that tricked out knee, after all, and details like that were necessary to be known.
Tsuna suffered through the explanation of the arena, held down his combination of amusement and disgust at Lussuria's idea of "flirting", and did his damnedest to ignore that Iemitsu had shown up to watch the show. At least this time he wouldn't be meddling and bringing innocent girls in to provide motivation.
Ken, for all that the experimentation had been cut short on the boys, had still suffered some of them. As a result his senses of smell and hearing were phenomenal (which meant he could fight blind) and he did have certain animal-like characteristics, though not the channels other versions of him had. This Ken had also received the best possible training they could give him, well before Reborn had entered the scene, and that included how to heal.
In the ring, Ken appeared to humor Lussuria's behavior—or rather, he appeared to be hesitant and a bit confused as to how to proceed—but that façade ended when Lussuria got a bit too confident and Ken shattered Luss's right knee after sliding under the man's attack and hitting him from behind as he twisted his body around.
Luss went down like a ton of bricks.
Ken cracked the man's ankle for good measure and nailed him in the kidney with a cestus-covered fist. And then, when Luss tried to get up despite the damage, Ken cracked him in the temple with a quick follow-up to the jaw. Luss went down again, and that time did not keep moving, having been knocked out.
Ken had a lot of practice with that move thanks to the Momokyokai offering up misbehaving members as punishment. Tsuna hadn't even had to persuade them into it, either. They were so used to seeing Tsuna's group as people to teach and protect that they gleefully handed over the ones who did stupid things for use as "sparring partners".
His Sun stood ready to nail Lussuria again, on the alert in case he recovered quicker than expected, but loosened up when one of the Cervello called the match. The Sun dipped down long enough to confiscate the chain and half-ring, then dove through the bars to get back out and rejoin his fellows.
Tsuna cocked a brow at Ken and smirked faintly. Ken gave him a feral grin in return. A glance at Xanxus showed a neutral expression, though some of his people were giving Lussuria disdainful looks.
After being informed of the next match—Lightning—they took off.
. . .
Xeul had an angelic expression on his face when they arrived at the battle ground for Lightning. Xeul had plenty of practical experience with Earth and was prepared to use it in subtle ways to fuck Levi over while grounding any lightning that came his way. That was on top of having centuries of life experience and practice in deflecting other flame types.
He still had not figured out the trick behind Levi's parabolas seemingly floating, but that was of little consequence when four of his group could render them useless in a heartbeat if they chose. There were so few people out there with Earth Flames that no one took them into account when it came time to strategize.
After a long, boring explanation of the battlefield, Levi and Xeul took their places. Tsuna zoned out on most of the talking; he had already been through all this several times. If something interesting was said, Daemon would give him a nudge.
He yawned and leaned back against the waist-high concrete barrier that ran the perimeter of the roof.
Levi was a big guy, but Tsuna doubted the man was inured to the effects of electricity, so Xeul had a basic strategy. Earth Flames, subtle in use, to throw the man's reactions off. Lightning, both as a buffer for Xeul and to act against the electrical impulses in Levi's body. Combined with the effects of gravity it should fuck him over nicely. And finally, using Levi's size and bulk against him with martial arts.
Xeul maintained his angelic smile through all the posturing, ignored the lightning strikes as if they weren't happening, and then struck like a cobra when Levi made his move. The parabolas went up, but out of sync and position.
The second lightning struck and started to charge those things—and seriously, what real opponent was going to just stand there and wait to be vaporized by that attack?—Xeul dove forward, grabbed Levi's arm on his way by, and used his momentum (and cheating, of course) to heave Levi around in a partial circle and back the other way, right in time for the guy to get nailed by his own attack.
Tsuna was not the least bit impressed by the smell of burnt hair and flesh, but it did mean Xeul had made a mockery of his opponent, all in less than thirty seconds. All while maintaining that creepy as fuck angelic smile.
A serene smile slid into place as Tsuna collected his people to depart, nodded slightly at Xanxus, and ushered them away.
. . .
Hayato, well primed with reports on how Bel fought with his knives, and how he would snap and go even more psychotic if someone drew blood, made short work of the wires the prince used. Using a knife of his own, edged in Storm Flames.
It was the Storm battle that made Tsuna decide he had intrigued Xanxus enough that he had ordered his men to avoid killing in these battles.
He wondered, idly, given that the Cervello were adamant about how the rings were worn during a fight, how many of these Scramble Battles had resulted in someone being choked to death or having their neck snapped because of the chain. Of course, that made him wonder if other experienced people saw Levi as intimidating and therefore failed to capitalize on the man's piercings to cause pain and a temporary loss of sight due to head wounds bleeding like a stuck pig.
Sadly, mainly due to how little time they had had to prepare Hayato and teach him tricks beyond flinging sticks of dynamite at people, Hayato lost the battle against Belphegor. If Xanxus had bothered to do his homework he would know how little time the young Storm had had with Tsuna, as opposed to the years the others had.
Hayato wasn't Quality, but with time he would be.
Hayato's dolorous expression had lightened considerably when Tsuna said to him, "Considering how little quality training time you've had, you did very well."
Chikusa was up against Squalo next, which would be interesting if only because Chikusa was not a sword user. They had recreated his yo-yo, with its lovely needles, needles poisoned with Chikusa's own Rain Flames, those that were poisoned, in a way, from what Estraneo had managed to do to him.
They were, in a way, the perfect delivery vehicle for death. Chikusa had been taught how to gather moisture in the air, condense it down into needles with his flames, and "load" his yo-yo. The entire "magazine" could be swapped out at any time, the needles poisoned differently, as befit his need, simply by releasing his hold on that portion of his flames and reforming them as updated ammunition.
The fact that the battle was being staged in a sealed Building 8 that was ceaselessly being filled like a huge, bizarre fish tank, well…
Squalo wasn't expecting the kind of attack he got, and never did get a chance to set off his paralyzing attack when he realized his opponent was not some pampered, wimpy school kid. Chikusa kicked his ass in under five minutes.
His Rain also got a faint smirk of approval, though rather than a feral grin, Chikusa responded with a deceptively mild smile.
Mukuro was up next, against Mammon.
Tsuna would have expected the Varia to get a bit more serious about all this, but Mammon was either putting on a good show under orders, or truly was too arrogant to see a real threat standing in front of them. Mukuro was a flashy bastard when he wanted to be, and could ooze arrogance as good as or better than Mammon.
Technically, Mukuro's win should have ended the Scramble Battles, being then 4:1, but a look at Xanxus showed that the man was grinning in a somewhat bloodthirsty way.
"Cloud's next!" Xanxus called out.
"These battles are over," the Cervello said in disagreement. "The winner has already been determined."
Tsuna shook his head. "And you clearly don't get what's going on here, lady. You want to hand the remaining half-rings over? Fine. But we're finishing this test, this show of skill. If you no longer need to be involved, then by all means, go. Otherwise, please cooperate and arrange for the final two."
The two women stared at each other for a while (he suspected they were using Mist Flames to communicate), then nodded. "As you wish. The Cloud battle will commence tomorrow."
"Brilliant," he said dryly.
Back at the house—they continued to avoid Nana's due to the tainted sack of wind being there and occupying her every thought—they sat down for a short pre-sleep meeting.
Daemon started off by saying, "Yes."
"Right, so they did kidnap the old man and use him as the power source."
Daemon nodded. "Which means I need to be careful. I have a few plans worked out, though. A primary, plus a few back ups."
Tsuna looked at him carefully, focusing on Daemon's eyes. They were brimming with amusement and plenty of confidence. He nodded. "All right. Let's get some rest."
Mosca was massive, intimidating, and for most people would be more than a credible threat. Then again, mafiosi with even halfway decent training could dodge bullets, so perhaps that wasn't saying much.
Tsuna had, prior to leaving the house that evening, reminded Xeul and Mukuro to be on the alert for any Mist tricks Mammon might decide to throw in.
The Varia had arrived prior to them which, while tiresome, was not unexpected. Mammon was no longer using Mosca as a perch, instead choosing to perch on a low wall that divided the field from the pavement that ran up to the nearest building. Unfortunately for Mammon, that meant having a much lower point of view, but Tsuna could almost understand not wanting to use Levi for a perch.
Try as he might (not very hard, admittedly) to appreciate the man, Levi was an even worse example of personality than Hayato usually was. There was just something about the man that grated on the nerves in a way that Hayato did not manage to provoke.
The battle ground was the same as he remembered from previous lives, so he discreetly paid attention to Xanxus, to his expression, mood, and posture. The man seemed relaxed and in a fairly good mood, but Tsuna couldn't tell if that was because the man was enjoying the spars, or because he was hoping Timoteo would end up dead. Or both.
'Blah blah blah, death trap,' he thought, ignoring what the Cervello were saying.
When the battle started he was amused rather than dismayed. Mosca did as his memory reminded him of (hazy as that could be at times) and fired a missile.
Tsuna made sure not to be in the line of fire.
Daemon smiled and threw something with his left hand, and immediately used Cloud Flames to propagate whatever it was.
'Ah,' he thought. 'That looks suspiciously like a polyurethane adhesive. I wonder if—oh, that's locked up tight now, isn't it.'
Mosca dropped out of the air shortly into its jet-propelled flight and hit the ground with a thunk. A thick, somewhat cloudy substance covered nearly all of it, though Tsuna assumed Daemon had accounted for the person inside needing to breathe, for one. The adhesive had also stopped up the finger guns and the missile launcher. He expected that trying to fire any of those would result in part of the construct exploding.
Was the thing's AI intelligent enough to realize that?
Apparently it was, as nothing further happened. Daemon approached (rather cautiously for him) and unlatched the chest piece, opened it, and removed the chain from around the power source's neck so he could claim the half-ring.
"I rather think it's nearly cheating to not have had the ring on the exterior," he muttered.
Daemon eyed Timoteo (who looked rather worse for wear), and slowly walked backward, saying, "He looks a bit peaky in there," to no one in particular.
Tsuna sighed and shot a look at Xanxus. "Is he seriously that incompetent? Him and his so-called guardians?" he asked dryly. "Do they even realize he's missing from his post?"
"Tsunayoshi-kun?" Timoteo said weakly.
Tsuna coughed. "I don't remember the part where I gave him permission to use my given name," he muttered.
Reborn sent him a look, then rushed forward to check on the old man's health. He would have been followed by Iemitsu (presumably), but one of his Mists was running interference. Iemitsu was presently deeply invested in a one-sided conversation with a straggly shrub, which he appeared to believe was named Turmeric.
Basil was shooting the man a disturbed and bewildered look.
Tsuna sidled over to Dino. "Think you could hook the old man up with a bed in that makeshift hospital of yours? I'm sure Reborn will contact the right people to come, but for now…"
Dino startled like a gangly colt, then nodded. "Uh, yeah, I'll take care of it."
"Awesome," he said blandly as Dino gave orders to Romario.
. . .
"So how aware was he in there?" he asked Xanxus while they waited for the Cervello to get their shit together.
"Eh…" Xanxus waggled his hand back and forth.
"Well, hopefully he learned something from the experience, and I'm not referring to how small his bladder may or may not be. I hear that happens when you get older. I can't say I'm looking forward to it."
"You expect to live that long, trash?" Xanxus asked.
"Not really, but who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky this time. Or unlucky, as the case may be," he said. "Tea goes right through a person as it is. To have a small bladder on top of that, well…"
Xanxus's mouth twitched.
The Cervello finally dropped into place and started talking, which Tsuna listened to with half an ear. It was the same battle they always did, and he had prepared ahead.
He, Daemon, Xeul, and Mukuro had created Mist-Earth wisps and stationed them appropriately, having watched via panes as the Cervello worked. Thus, they were ready to act as extra hands to acquire the rings while the people involved were all dealing with that Death Hitter poison.
Seriously, they were mafiosi. If they weren't finding ways to "cheat" in fights they weren't doing it right.
Tsuna nodded very seriously at the explanation about how his people were in imminent danger of dying and then ignored it the second the fight started. Xanxus was a damn good shot with those guns of his, but Tsuna already knew that from his time in the Varia and from spying in this dimension.
Tsuna, on the other hand, was damn good at moving just enough to dodge, cheating with flames outsiders didn't realize he had, and generally making it all look like it was luck.
"You planning to attack at some point, trash?" Xanxus inquired lazily.
"Hm? Ah." Tsuna practically teleported across the courtyard and slammed a flaming fist into Xanxus's face, breaking his nose. "So, are Wrath Flames a thing on their own, or just a Stormy Sky thing?" he asked, following up by speeding past Xanxus as he staggered backward so he could acquire both guns and deposit them, encased in ice, behind a chunk of rubble.
When Xanxus did find them he would be alerted to the fact that Tsuna was perfectly capable of using Zero Point Breakthrough and chose not to use it on Xanxus himself.
Tsuna then pulled off something akin to a shell game by propagating the earth under the paved courtyard to create multiple hollow columns. He "allowed" Xanxus to see him being swallowed by one, as protection, but stepped Between the second the column finished forming so he could safely watch how his opponent reacted.
A few minutes of destruction later Tsuna called out, "Bravo!"
Xanxus's head whipped around toward to voice to see Tsuna parked on a bench with a carton of popcorn in his hand, smiling serenely.
"So it does hold disintegration properties. That's pretty cool."
"Trash?" Xanxus growled.
"Hm?" He tossed more popcorn into his mouth.
"You're not complete and utter trash."
The serene smile came back. "I do my best to be a tricky bastard. So, are we good, or do I have to crush your skull like a grape?"
Xanxus threw back his head and laughed.
. . .
A close examination of the completed Vongola Sky ring revealed it was just a placeholder, but he fully expected that someone would, at some point, sneak in to replace the entire set. He was impressed that the placeholder rings were of exceptional quality, but they were not part of the Tri-ni-set.
