.

Mardyakowr
(Part II)

The Persian Mardyakowr was eventually adopted out as 'Manticore', and given a somewhat more stable description. Still, the very core of this creature is that of a man-eater, with fur the color of drying blood and a certain level of viciousness that is unmatched in natural beasts.

xxxx

It was early for him to be heading to the mess, but Travail had just gotten off what was possibly the worst guard-duty he'd ever had to pull—one of the men from the north side had just up and vanished, and they'd suspected a traitor but there were also scuff marks and the pawprints of some very large cat—which had left him being dropped in the empty spot while someone presumably reported to the Boss.

It didn't help that he'd actually been slated for the afternoon shift, and over ten hours on the outside wall was both mind-numbing and exhausting, especially since he hadn't been able to snag breakfast before covering the remainder of the missing man's shift.

He got himself a mug of coffee and plopped down at a table to drink it, the only person in the actual mess hall at off-hour. There were cooks in the kitchen, of course, and there was food ready and waiting under heat-hoods (and not, for the cold stuff for those in a hurry). Still, he wanted his coffee before he even thought about food.

(It was a guilty pleasure and not very Italian, that he liked his coffee heavily drenched in milk and sugar. He had the excuse of having a mom from California, though, for all that he'd been raised in Sicily. Vongola as a whole were big on the 'respect your mothers' thing, though, and the Varia were no exception, so the teasing he got for it was good-natured instead of biting.)

A soft clunk next to him made him jump, and he realized that not only had someone snuck up on him, but they'd set a mug down next to him with the clear intention of sitting. A small, delicate-looking hand snapped out to steady the coffee in his hands before he spilled it all over himself, and he had a half-second to register that before who he was looking at filtered into his brain.

"Careful, there," soft brown eyes glinted as their owner deftly slipped his mug from suddenly numb fingers and set it on the table in front of him. "I'm not that scary, am I?"

"D-decimo!" he stammered, hoping to God above that he wasn't blushing as badly as he thought he was. Stuttering and blushing were not Varia Quality.

The Decimo blinked, lips quirking, "Ah, so you were the one who called me a twig."

Travail went a little lightheaded, staring as his skin went from hot to cold. Oh, Dio, he'd insulted the Decimo in full view of everyone in the mansion, and the Decimo knew it had been him. He was dead.

"I was impressed," Decimo continued, sounding amused, "Even Squalo doesn't back-talk Xanxus where I'm involved."

Wait, what? Oh, that was not encouraging. Well, maybe a little. Decimo didn't seem mad.

"Relax, I don't bite," he assured, and… yeah, he looked pretty kittenish, actually. All small and fluffy with big, gentle eyes. (But he had also Harmonized Xanxus, who had mentioned having been thrown around by said small, fluffy teen.)

Decimo smiled brightly, and Travail blinked twice, trying to clear the sparks from his eyes. Were those illusions?

"Anyway, everyone but Xanxus is bickering in the back halls and Xanxus is being growly, so I thought I should probably bring him something, but then I saw you all by yourself looking… ah, like you've had a bad day. As you probably remember, I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi, but most of my friends call me Tsuna. What's your name?"

He was not calling Decimo anything so familiar. If Xanxus didn't murder him, his peers would. "Travail, Decimo, sir."

Decimo made a slightly irritated sound, "Please don't call me 'sir' outside of formal situations; it makes me feel like I need to be giving orders. I don't like the kind of situation that requires me to be giving orders."

"D-decimo?" Travail tried, trying not to blush at his repeated stutter. Nerves in the presence of Xanxus' Sky could be excused. Stuttering could not.

The response was a resigned huff and rolled eyes, "No worse than 'Juudaime'. So, what's got you looking so frazzled? Aside from rank-induced anxiety?"

Travail relaxed a little despite himself. Decimo had a sense of humor and was clearly about as far from a Wrath as was possible while still being a Sky. "One of the men on duty went missing," he admitted. Xanxus had said the kid's orders superseded even his own, and it wasn't like Vongola Decimo didn't have the clearance to know. "I was slated for the next shift in that area ended up pulling a shift and a half on the wall, but no one seems sure what happened to Shiv."

Decimo frowned, a tint of concern in his expression, "Yes, Squalo was furious at a delay in that getting reported, and Xanxus is very unhappy. We took a look at the area, but… any speculation on what happened?"

Travail shook his head, "There were the large cat-tracks and some scuff marks, but no blood that we've found. It doesn't make sense. If it was a wild or escaped animal, even the newest recruits would have at least put up enough of a fight to leave a blood-trail."

Decimo's frown deepened, "That's what Xanxus said. I'll ask Moeru to take a look around. Too bad I don't have the tóngshī or Akhlut-san here. One or the other would probably at least be able to pick up a trail… I don't suppose there are any tracking dogs on base?"

Travail shook his head, filing the names away in case he needed to know them later.

Decimo stood, eyes pensive as he picked up his mug, "I'll have to ask Xanxus what he thinks about getting a few. Can't hire one from a civilian, after all. All right, thank you, Travail-san. Make sure you eat a decent meal. If you've been on shift all day, you'll need the energy."

That sounded weirdly ominous. "Of course, Decimo," he agreed. He'd sort of been planning to just grab a sandwich or something, but after that he was definitely getting a full meal.

Decimo nodded a farewell and headed into the kitchen, reappearing with a tray before disappearing in the direction of the Elite Wing.

Travail tried not to worry about what the evening would bring.

(He wasn't very successful.)

xxxx

Xanxus was in the middle of slogging through every report either by or on his missing guard when he sensed the Brat heading in his direction—he'd noticed his tiny Sky had wandered and kept tabs on where that bright warmth emanated from, but as the closest thing to upset he'd sensed was a quiet ripple in the Brat's Flames, he'd focused most of his attention on making sure he didn't have a traitor on his hands.

He didn't think so—Shiv may have been picked up off the streets with one of the worst self-chosen names Xanxus had ever taken in, but he'd been young and shown Quality. He was no Elite, not by a long shot, but Xanxus had met the former street rat a time or three and Squalo had been right: he'd been scrappy and green-broke but loyal.

The small hand pointedly sliding the stack of already-perused papers aside had Xanxus blink and glance up, only to be given a mildly exasperated look in return as Tsuna set a tray with food and coffee in the cleared space. "Eat," he admonished, dragging the chair at the other side of the desk around with a foot and planting himself in it, lifting a plate and fork for himself and gesturing to the notably larger portion left on the tray.

Xanxus raised his eyebrows and the Brat shrugged at him, "You're the one who said I was a mom."

He snorted, "And you're proving it, Madre."

"Keep that up and I'll start pestering you about vegetables," Tsuna informed blithely before growing more serious. "But really, this whole thing feels…" he hesitated, uncertain of the words.

Just to keep the kid happy, Xanxus grabbed the coffee and a bite of the omelet he was clearly expected to eat, then decided the amount of bacon hidden in the thing was acceptable, vaguely wondering if Tsuna'd had it special-made, as the cooks didn't generally provide breakfast in the middle of the afternoon. After another moment, he waved promptingly, "Feels?"

The Brat sat back, frowning. "I don't know," he decided. "I have a bad feeling about it, though. I don't think you should have anyone on guard duty without a partner for a while."

Xanxus paused. He hadn't witnessed much of Tsuna's Intuition himself, but the Sun Arcobaleno had said it was beyond anything he'd seen in the old man or the CEDEF head, which meant going through all these reports in an attempt at confirmation was probably pointless. "Enemy?"

Tsuna frowned, "Maybe? Something about the whole thing feels… wrong, and it doesn't feel like treachery."

"If that scene ain't staged, then what the hell was it?" Xanxus demanded, because an enemy shouldn't have been able to stage something like that so fast in Varia territory without getting noticed. "I don't care how fucking big a cat it was; none of my Varia are the kind of trash to be caught that easy."

Tsuna tapped his fork against the side of his plate, grimacing a little, "Well, that's assuming it's a normal cat. If it's something more like Akhlut-san, though…"

Akhlut—the thing the mini-Sun called the 'whale-wolf-monster'? Shit, after the dragon and the damn invincible cobra, he should have thought of that himself. Mythological creature. Who the hell knew what to expect with something like that? And Xanxus' knowledge of handling that kind of monster was exactly nil, considering the snake had shaken off a Wrath shot without even losing a scale.

"Suggestions?" he asked, because at least the Brat had been wrangling impossibilities for a while.

"I'll ask Moeru to take a look around, see if we can find out what it is. Usually the legends around them have some kind of hint, right?"

"Right," he agreed, mind flicking through the few myths he knew that involved killing monsters. They were very this-monster specific, so knowing what they were dealing with would theoretically help. "And if it ain't a myth?"

"Then it will need to be dealt with differently," Tsuna informed, eyes going startlingly dark. "If it's not, then it was staged, and that would involve people who need to be shown the error of their ways."

True, and damn, he'd seen the fluffy brat in a fight or pissed at their old men, but that was an entirely new level of black threat. Now, which option was worse; mythological monster or enemy famiglia?

(Xanxus was leaning towards the 'monster' answer, but he had the feeling his little Sky would disagree. Either way, he gave the order to pair for watches and set Luss to reworking the schedule to accommodate.)

xxxx

"Why are we doing this so late in the afternoon?" Squalo demanded as Tsuna led a group consisting of himself, his Elements (except Chrome, Fon, and Skull, who had been left behind with Bel and Mammon), and most of the Varia Elite out into the Sicilian countryside with Moeru providing chirped directions from his left shoulder.

"Because I have a bad feeling about waiting until tomorrow," Tsuna informed, ignoring how Gokudera pulled out his notebook to mark that down and the slight tightening of Reborn's fingers in his hair.

"I'm not sure whether to love or hate your Intuition," Reborn informed, perfectly flat.

Tsuna wasn't sure whether to love or hate it, either. Sure, it was great when dodging attacks, but the excessive mental prodding to do this or that without a clear explanation why could be very aggravating.

"The Vongola Intuition is legendary and s-crap," Squalo corrected himself down to a less violent curse at Xanxus' glance, and Tsuna hid a grin. (It was gratifying that they were trying, okay?) "But the old man and the idiot don't have it outside of a fight."

"Tsuna's Intuition is… more along the lines of that which Primo was rumored to have," Reborn stated, sounding halfway between diplomatic and disgruntled.

Tsuna glanced at him, interested despite himself. "Primo's Intuition was the reason that the Vongola Intuition is considered legendary," Reborn informed. "The fact that no one else has possessed it to such a degree added to your looks and position will likely have at least some of the more superstitious in the mafia assuming you're a reincarnation or something."

Tsuna wasn't going to ask. Nope. Did not want to know.

"That strong?" Squalo asked, sounding mildly surprised as they trudged through the trees.

"Tsuna's never wrong," Takeshi informed.

"Lil'bro's extreme!" Ryohei agreed.

Gokudera rolled his eyes, tucking his notebook away and ducking under a branch but not actually commenting. (Tsuna was starting to wonder if he was actually getting more comfortable and no longer feeling so defensive or just stuck in permanent professional mode around the Varia. They needed to have a talk at some point either way, preferably without any prying ears, eyes, or cameras.) Hibari, naturally, only grunted.

"I had him ignore it once," Reborn informed, "when it was both an inconvenient time to do what he was sure he needed to and seemed to be something relatively innocuous."

Xanxus side-eyed him, reluctantly curious. "What happened?"

"I will never tell him to ignore it again."

Tsuna winced; he remembered that. He remembered that well. So, very likely, did half the Sora and a good portion of Nami-chu. The winces from his other Elements said they remembered, too.

"That never happened," Hibari hissed at Reborn, vicious in a way that his usual casual violence wasn't. (The Sora and Nami-chu had all decided that it had not, and that anyone who said otherwise had been hallucinating. Hibari's adamancy on reinforcing this meant no one spoke of it in the Cloud's hearing. Except, apparently, Reborn. Who was both an evil little troll and contagious, because Tsuna was starting to enjoy trolling people, too.)

"Don't worry, Hibari-san," Tsuna smiled cheerfully, and Hibari blinked rapidly several times while Squalo stumbled, Levi tripped into a tree, and Xanxus glanced aside with a disgruntled sound. "It never will."

Hibari grunted and looked away.

Tsuna didn't pout, but he did have to wonder why people had such strong reactions to his smiles when he felt cheerful. Was that a Sky Flame thing? Now probably wasn't the time to ask, because the same feeling that had prompted him to gather up the makeshift hunting party was pointedly informing him that something bad was about to happen while Moeru thrilled a warning that they were close to where it—whatever 'it' was—had denned down.

"Be careful, everyone," he ordered, letting his Flames saturate the air around him.

This had the immediate effect of killing the levity and putting the entire group on full alert. Reborn hopped off Tsuna's shoulder, Leon dropping into his hand in gun-form as he set his feet while Xanxus loosened his X-guns in their holsters. Levi shifted a little—the biggest sign of discomfort Tsuna had seen from him, ever—and Squalo's real hand checked the prosthetic where his sword clipped on.

The younger side of the group tensed, Gokudera reaching for his seemingly never-ending hidden stores of dynamite while Takeshi shifted his not-shinai from his back to his shoulder, unclipping the strap. Hibari had his tonfa in hand, and Tsuna wasn't quite sure when that had happened, but that was Hibari for you. Ryohei shifted on his feet and Mukuro materialized a trident. (Why did he like tridents so much? They were a weird weapon to favor in this age. Even swords were more normal, and that was saying something.)

Moeru chirped uneasily, and Tsuna felt more than heard scale shift against feathers as the khe-ti's form rippled with disquiet.

Then Reborn was no longer in front of him, the sharp crack of Leon-gun firing quickly echoed by a screeched sound more angry than pained, the sharp flare of Reborn's Sun lashing out in answer, and Tsuna's fear turned to raging dread. Reborn was Arcobaleno, was Flame-strong and an expert marksman. He had the strength of an adult man packed into that cursed body.

But he was tiny, and if Flames washed off whatever that was the same way they did from the khe-ti's scales…

(It had slipped through his own shrouding Flames like smoke.)

"Xanxus!" Tsuna barked, not even hearing himself as he lunged towards the bright heat of Chaos, distantly aware of Levi's parabolas snapping up to cover the other two Suns while their Rains both had swords out, falling in with Tsuna and the Storms—and at the moment, Xanxus was Storm, Flame flaring more red than Wrath—ready to disintegrate whatever threatened rather than just beat it down.

(Mukuro's eye switched to three and the Mist faded from sight.)

Fur the color of half-dry blood, a face and form neither human nor feline but something twisted between. A tail shaped like the dragon's, studded with spikes and tipped with a scorpion-sting, tattered bat wings far too small for flight. Paws, not hands and feet, growling and shaking its head, tiger-ears pinned back against a skull too long to be a man's but too short to be a cat's, turning eyes like pits in reality towards Reborn, half-crouched amidst tree-roots with Leon-gun trained on the thing.

Tsuna noticed all that in a fraction of a second before he rammed his shoulder into the creature's ribcage, using his smaller size (the thing was bigger than Xanxus) to wedge down and heave.

Its mouth opened in a screech, and Tsuna had an instant to see too many rows of shark-like teeth before a shot of Wrath-Storm engulfed it.

He didn't stop, darting forward to snatch up his smallest Sun before he twisted aside, that sense of 'do this now' telling him to move and a taloned paw the size of a Clydesdale's hoof smashed through the bark behind where his head had just been.

So, that was Storm not working, then, and it was clear enough that Reborn's Sun had only pissed it off. Hibari slammed in, tonfa wreathed in purple Flame, and while he clearly made an impact, the creature smacked him away with a move that looked almost human, the Cloud's head cracking against another tree hard enough to at least daze him.

Tsuna snarled, his vision tinting orange.

(He didn't remember what happened after that, but he woke up in the Varia's infirmary with a number of worried Elements hovering nearby.)

xxxx