Ta-da! First dragon. Because Xanxus deserves dragons.
Note: I am not going to use any Harry Potter magical creatures. I may use some that share names and some traits, but only if they exist in mythology or folklore from somewhere real. One of my biggest pet peeves with Rowling's work is that she mix-and-matched names and lore as well as making up her own, which I accept in her work but find downright frustrating in how it's warped general perspective on actual mythos and lore.
Second Note: I am not planning to introduce any mythological creature that is 'part human' (centaurs, merfolk of varying types, humanoid fey, etc.) in the near future, and any such that do appear will either appear briefly and not move into Namimori or refuse to be seen regularly by anyone but Tsuna. Any creatures that are capable of speaking human languages will be intermittent characters, and those (like the dragon) whose lore doesn't agree from one area and/or era to the next on speech capability will summarily not speak any human language.
Western Dragon
Despite the naming, Western and Eastern Dragons don't have the same concepts attached to them. Western Dragons are generally depicted as giant, reptilian creatures with wings, most often indifferent towards people unless their territory is invaded or their 'hoard' (generally held to be gold/gems) threatened. Some legends have them being guards, others friendly towards people (Switzerland has some Nice!Dragon stories) some outright hostile. Most hold dragons to be intelligent, though few able to speak in human tongues, at least not the old stories.
xxxx
There was approximately one week of peace—well, as much peace as could be expected, between Tsuna's eclectic group of Elements, wrangling Sora affairs, reports from Shī on the First Triad pulling the same thing on the rest of the Chinese Triads that Sora was in Japan (and worse, for the same reason), and the occasional playful spat between a couple of tóngshī and an oversized wolf/orca (which was actually frustratingly hilarious when the tóngshī started it, as that generally involved the orca, a lot of saltwater, and several instances of digging squirming bronze out of wet sand)—before things got weird again.
The next bit started with some strange blond kid wielding Rain Flames and speaking extremely out-of-date Japanese dropping down off a skyscraper while he'd been hanging out with Yamamoto, Gokudera, Ryohei, Ryohei's sister Kyoko, and her friend Haru.
Tsuna still wasn't quite sure what to make of Haru and he had no idea why Reborn had invited her to Mafia Land with them. She'd adored Reborn for the first hour and then turned a weird sort of enmity on Tsuna for several days before abruptly turning nice.
… That probably had something to do with the unicorn. He was certain she'd seen her.
Anyway, blond kid was chased by a one-handed guy with long white hair and a sword as a prosthetic, and the kid was clearly in bad shape. The swordsman was hollering threats (it took Tsuna a few seconds to realize the threats were in Italian), and took a swipe at the kid while the locals screamed and scattered.
Tsuna groaned and moved to intervene as the kid scrambled back, ignoring Reborn's appearance off to the side.
The tóngshī had planted themselves at the sides of the café, waiting for Tsuna in their 'pretending to be statues' way, and they took his motion as a request to guard the kid.
Which it was, kind-of, but the male landing on top of the swordsman was a bit like overkill—or at least 'flatten'. The female dropped the cub at Tsuna's feet and pounced on the sword itself, biting it in half before pausing and biting it again, swallowing a mouthful of the metal before batting the rest to the cub and returning her attention to the man when he started cursing. (The cub started chewing his way through the bitten-off blade.)
Both adults growled at the one-handed stranger's increasing vitriol, in that echoing tone that was all the more unnerving for the fact that it came from living metal.
Tsuna sighed, "Please don't kill him, you two. We'll probably need to know what he was thinking, forcing a Flame-fight in a populated area. Was he trying to get himself arrested?"
The female—he really needed to hold another naming contest, just to increase the chances of them agreeing to some—chuffed pointedly. Tsuna didn't know how he always understood them (or Italian, for that matter), but he did. "Well, I know he's not worried about the police," he rolled his eyes, "I wasn't thinking of them. You'd think Vindice-set rules would mean something."
He liked the Vindice—their boss was bitter as all get-out, and his size and pacifier lead to questions, but they were straightforward. Brutally so, and they didn't hide what they were going to do or when or why they were going to do it. Tsuna appreciated that in a person, and even more in a group.
The white-haired guy stilled.
The male gave a questioning rumble.
Tsuna blinked and turned to Reborn, "I don't know; what do you think, Reborn?"
Reborn gave him a look, "Tsuna, I don't speak Mythological."
Oh. Right, he spoke Insect and Reptile. "Ah, do you think I should call Bermuda?"
Reborn covered his eyes with one hand, making that sound he did every time Tsuna did something improbable. "I know I told you that you were going to be a mafia boss, but having the leader of the Vindice on speed-dial is overkill."
"I don't have him on speed-dial!" Tsuna protested, "Besides, he's the one who offered his number!"
"Yes, because he's joined your cult."
Tsuna kind of felt like crying, "He has not!"
"Yes, he has," Reborn snorted, "We've been over this, Tsuna; handing three criminals into your custody and letting a fourth go with all charges dropped just because you asked means he worships you at least as much as the Triads."
Tsuna made an inarticulate sound of frustrated horror and took advantage of the handy (speechless with shock) subject-change, "So, white-haired sword-wielding maniac and blond kid calling me '-dono' dropping from the sky—or 'skyscraper', as the case may be—and if this weren't Namimori people would have done more than scatter. What do we do about them?"
The female tóngshī chuffed hopefully.
"No! You do not feed the—he smells like live sharks? Why is 'live' an adjective there? No. No, stop distracting me, I don't care if he smells like sharks, you are not teaching your cub to eat people. Besides, you're living metal and I've seen what you do to the recycling. Why would you want to eat him?"
The male gave a barking chuff, shaking his metallic mane.
Tsuna stared for several seconds, "I know you guys are guardians and all, but eating attackers to discourage further attempts is just—no. We're not doing this. We'll keep sword-guy—"
"Squalo," Reborn interjected, "Inverted Rain, belongs with Vongola's independent assassination squad, the Varia. Second-in-command."
"—we'll keep Squalo in the holding cells—yes, you can guard him," he added to the hopeful tóngshī, "—and see about getting some answers."
Tsuna turned to the street, where he just knew some of the Sora were moments away from intervening, "All right, can a few of you go with the tóngshī and get Squalo situated? I think our other guest needs medical assistance. Oh, and keep him away from the yakuza cells."
"Yes, Juudaime-sama!" was mingled with "Yes, Oyabun!" from the four who sheepishly came out of hiding.
Tsuna raised an eyebrow at the two he could still sense, but didn't comment, instead sitting their rescue-ee down and calling for a ride to the Vongola hospital.
It took a while for him to come out of the haze of confused shock and introduce himself, and when he finally did, all Tsuna could do was give a resigned sigh and prepare for coming chaos.
xxxx
Of course it didn't end there. The leader of the Varia showed up less than a full day later in a blaze of fury and completely wrong Flames, and only the fact that Tsuna had sensed him coming kept anyone from being incinerated. "Sora! Evacuate the area and mobilize defense for the city!" he ordered, dodging a barrage of knives from a Storm wearing a crown.
He heard several shouts of assent and his Yakuza scrambled to gather the civilians while Gokudera and Takeshi ran interference on the Varia elite, several of the Flame-trained Sora scattering out to handle the small fry Tsuna could sense descending on Namimori. A burst of Cloud from near the school said that was handled, and bell-chime hoofbeats announced the unicorn's arrival.
"Venna," he called to her (name, finally, even if she'd refused ninety-eight percent of the ones offered) "Take care of the injured! We can handle this!"
She bugled a sound that was half affirmation and half protest, but whirled to follow the Sora while the crazy Storm and an equally crazy Sun balked on seeing her. Tsuna's Sun—the 'extreme' one, anyway—was across town, probably knocking out attackers from the feel of his Flames. Gokudera took the Lightning bulwark of a man at the wrong Flames' side, Takeshi smothering the crazy Storm in a wash of Rain.
Squalo was safely held at the base with Fon, Skull, and the tóngshī, so he wasn't too worried on that front. That left the wrong guy and the Mist, who—was aiming to catch the two Guardians he had with him in illusions.
"Agh, where're my Mists when I need them?" he grumbled, Harmonizing with the attempt and promptly disrupting it. (Between Reborn and the myths, Tsuna was getting quite capable with using his Flames in creative ways.)
Moeru thrilled a greeting, depositing Mukuro and Chrome in the middle of the fray with a burst of fire, and Tsuna gave a despairing wail as he lunged to deflect another shot of the broken Flames before it could hit either of his startled Mists.
He got a somewhat apologetic warble for that and made a sound of frustration while his two Mists got their bearings and promptly turned on the little one—Arcobaleno? Yes, glowing indigo Pacifier, there. That left him with the broken one.
He caught the next ball of not-right, his Harmony factor instinctively purifying it as he absorbed the power into his own Flame stores. Suddenly he was in what Reborn called 'Hyper Dying Will Mode', though it was really just a sustained visible Flame and glowing eyes as far as Tsuna was concerned.
The stranger snarled, roaring at him in Italian.
Tsuna blinked, "Well of course I did!" he shot back, "What would you have done if someone came crashing through your territory waving a sword while spitting threats and chasing a kid? He's fine, by the way. I've got him under guard back at the base."
The scarred man faltered, and it took Tsuna a moment to realize he'd answered in the language that one of the Sora had dubbed 'AllSpeak' after some American comic thing (he heard Reborn make his 'not again' sound off to the side). An instant later, the man's fury only increased, and he flung more not-right Flames out in a wash of destruction, and it was all Tsuna could do to catch them before they killed one of his Guardians.
Things got a bit complicated after that.
Tsuna wasn't sure the actual full sequence of events—later, he could only remember snatches, and he was pretty sure most of them weren't in order, except the end.
He'd knocked the man back over and over, and when he wouldn't stop, Tsuna started to change his approach, Ice crackling where Flame had roared.
There was an instant where the angry man's eyes had reflected terror and he couldn't bring himself to freeze him. This one was supposed to be one of his, one day, and he couldn't be so cruel.
He nodded once and let his Flame flare once more, preferring to inflict physical trauma over mental.
The stranger kept struggling, and Tsuna wasn't going to kill him or hurt him the way he'd realized the Ice would, because this man was—would be?—important and he would not harm him like that.
But he wouldn't stop.
And then there was a roar, not the tóngshī but deeper, like forge-flame and angry bears instead of lions and the clash of bronze.
A shadow swept overhead, punctuated by a rush of wind and a slamming thud, and then there was a dragon pinning the stranger down with a single, massive claw.
Tsuna heard Reborn make a despairing sound, and he himself had to cover his face briefly, only half exasperated. The dragon was western, with a lizard-like body and wings half-flared in threat, a somewhat shorter neck than he might have expected, and skin more like a reptile's than a fish's mail of a dark, earthy red.
"Thank you, dragon-san," Tsuna decided on. "I didn't want to have to hurt him. Ano… why are you here?"
The rumbled explanation made Tsuna groan, "Why?" he demanded of no one in particular, "Why do so many supposedly mythological creatures insist on finding me?"
The dragon rumbled again, and Tsuna blinked. That was… huh. Baffling explanation, there. He was going to have to look up northern European lore—he had never paid it much mind, and while he was pretty sure the term sounded very vaguely familiar, he didn't know what it actually meant.
Tsuna's present Guardians took advantage of the utter gaping shock of the interlopers—Varia, if the angry guy was Squalo-san's boss—and disarmed and restrained their opponents. "New friend, Tsuna?" Takeshi laughed, using what looked like lotus-flower-covered vines to tie up the knife-wielding Storm, coating said vines (probably Mukuro's creations—Chrome was less ridiculous) in Rain Flames as he did so.
Tsuna sighed, glanced at the wide-eyed man still pinned by a dragon's paw (though it had somewhat retracted its claws on Tsuna's assertion of not wanting him hurt), and nodded. "Dragon-san wants to join the group. I don't know where we'll find the space for a home, though…"
The dragon rumbled again, brightly cheerful, and suddenly got a whole lot smaller while letting the now stunned-speechless man go.
Tsuna considered the winged creature now about the same size as Venna, and nodded. "That's going to make it much easier," he agreed.
Because dragon. Why not?
xxxx
By the time Dino showed up with the real Vongola 'half-rings', Xanxus had given in and the Varia were being fairly well-behaved in the main Namimori Sora base, their leader grudgingly impressed by the size of Tsuna's still-young organization. This was only reinforced by Shī showing up in person to report successfully unifying the Triads and asking what their new name should be.
Apparently, the Wrath Flame user—and Tsuna did not approve of how damaged his Flames had been upon first showing up—really only wanted Vongola to be strong, which meant they needed a strong leader, which did not mean 'clueless civilian'. Ergo, if Tsuna was rapidly taking over the entire East, he must be a strong leader and Xanxus therefore had no problem with him, even if he didn't quite subscribe to Tsuna's methods.
Tsuna didn't care about Xanxus' approval nearly as much as he cared about Xanxus' health and demanded a full explanation of what had happened to make his Flames not only furious but unstable.
Then he got very, very angry with Vongola Nono.
Tsuna swept up his Guardians—whom he'd firmly stated that Lambo was too young to join yet while assuring Lambo that he was still loved—and the Varia and headed off to Italy with Reborn on one shoulder, Fon on the other, and Skull in his arms.
Reborn was looking forward to the coming chaos, even though he had a vague sense of dread for whatever new not-myth would show up. They seemed to be getting bigger.
(When Iemitsu arrived in Namimori, he was welcomed cheerfully by his wife, who introduced him to Fuuta, Lambo, and I-pin with his son nowhere in sight.
All a smiling Nana had to say about it was, "Oh, you didn't say you were coming, dear! Tsu-kun went on a trip with his friends!")
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