"Where is he now!" I asked in a threatening tone.
"Your father works for us now, Yuu-kun." The man said calmly with the back of his chair still turned to me.
I stood up hastily and attempted to kick the table upside-down on the Tenebre boss but I stopped myself when a swift thought came to me. I laughed out loud like crazy and sat down.
The chair turned around and he faced me once again while I was laughing. "You're much madder than you father, aren't you?"
"ME? MAD! HAHAHAHA! YOU ARE THE MAD ONE!" I roared at him between fits of laughter. "C'mon, don't you fool me! Papa isn't working for you right now, as a matter of fact; he's missing from your clutches too. And you can't accept the fact that he escaped you to the extent that you're lying about it to your subordinates!"
Tenebre looked shocked and stared at me as if he was asking how I knew it.
I continued laughing. "Wanna know how I came to know it?" I asked him, grinning.
His eyes seemed to blaze with fury at me.
"I'll tell you." I gave out one last chuckle. "If Papa indeed works for you right now, you'd probably use him as bait for me, but you weren't able to do so because he isn't with you. I knew that he's missing from you right now because you weren't able to answer my question directly as how you did in my previous ones and your tone changed too. And because your subordinates think they know where Papa is, it made me believe that you lied to them, but I can't deduce why you're still telling me this despite the fact that there's only you and me in this room until I noticed the cameras at the corners of the ceiling. Hmm, so it was you who personally tortured my dear father to turn him to your side and you are also the only one in the Tenebre family who knows about the loss of a vital captive."
The man gazed thoroughly at me. He was dumbstruck, shocked, surprised, enraged, amazed and stunned at the same time. His grip on the arms of his chair was tight but shaking and he was holding his breath.
"What's wrong? Was I right to the extreme?" I asked, garnering the right to grin slyly at him this time.
He regained composure and gulped nervously. "I-I never knew Sasagawa could have such a smart son like you." He stammered as he tried to act cool.
"Stop digressing, I was right, right?" I pressed the matter on him.
He turned the back of his armchair to me again. "I wonder what's taking the other captives so long, so that I can already kill—"
"I'm afraid they won't be coming." I cut him short.
"What?" he asked, bewildered.
"I've warned them already; by now, your poor men who have a cowardly liar for a boss would have already been defeated by the Vongola." I said, grinning.
The chair spun around rather violently and Tenebre stood up. "You brat!"
He was about to fling the table at me when the door slammed open and two members of the Tenebre family stood on the threshold. One of them resembles a younger version of their boss with shorter black hair while the other has a light brown hair and looks like a local.
"Boss." The man with brown hair said faintly.
"Why are you here?" Tenebre snapped at them.
"We've heard everything from the control room, Boss. Is what the boy said true?" The other one who resemble the man he calls boss asked.
"You…" He turned to me with gritted teeth.
"Answer us, Boss; did Sasagawa Yuu say the truth?" The men stepped closer.
I smiled at myself; it seems like I've caused a big stir in the Tenebre family.
"Tell us!" The man with brown hair pushed the matter on his boss.
"Tell them." I told, or rather commanded, the boss of the Tenebre family with evident amusement in my voice.
"YES!" Tenebre replied, his voice echoing throughout the room.
"You bastard! How dare you make us look like fools! You didn't trust us despite the fact that we're a family! A vital captive have escaped and you're not telling us because of your pride. You insulted the entire Tenebre family, Bertrando! Ti insultato tutta la famiglia!" The man who resembles his boss accused the latter. His voice was slightly quivering with rage and he spoke with mixed Italian.
"Yes! Si, l'ho fatto! But what are you going to do about it, il mio fratellino?" The boss asked the man who called him Bertrando.
Papa used to go to Italy in business trips and sometimes, he would teach me bits of Italian. I was able to understand the last phrase of the boss and was surprised when he called the man his little brother (il mio fratellino).
"I gave way to your being boss, Bertrando, because I was convinced that you will lead us as good as how Papà used to! But now, you betrayed us! Ci hai tradito!" the man called 'little brother' yelled at the boss.
"And what can you do about it, Raul." Bertrando asked.
"Ne ho abbastanza del tuo dominio ingiusto, fratello." The man named Raul snapped a gun from his pocket and shot Bertrando Tenebre on the head which immediately killed him. He walked towards the corpse and took a ring from the latter's right hand finger which he placed on his own. "Addio, caro fratello."
"Fujioka, release the boy." The man who killed his boss/brother told the other man in the room.
"Yes, Boss." The man with brown hair untied the rope that bound my hands.
"Boss?" I asked, dazed by the sudden turn of events.
"I am Raul Tenebre, brother of the late Bertrando Tenebre. Since my brother is not yet married and has no son of his own, I, as the younger brother, would succeed him if he dies before me. I was sick of Bertrando-niisan's unjust leadership and thus killed him, making myself the boss of the Tenebre family right now." He explained, sitting on the armchair his brother occupied a while ago. "Thank you for revealing the truth about my brother's lies, Sasagawa Yuu."
I sensed that this man is not as bad as his brother and eventually felt a mild liking for him so I took up the courage to speak to him. "A-ahno, can I ask you a question or two?"
"I would be honored to answer you with everything I know." He replied.
"M-my father, do you… can you…" I can't find the right words; I just wanted to ask about Papa.
"Sasagawa Ryohei was indeed kidnapped by us and was personally tortured by Nii-san to turn him to our side." He took out a journal from one of the table's drawer and flicked through its pages. 'It seems," he stopped on a page, "that a week ago, he escaped smoothly via unknown means and we hadn't heard of him ever since."
"I-is that so." I said, hanging my head. "How about the picture?"
Raul Tenebre gave me a questioning look.
"The picture; the family picture I dropped somewhere yesterday. You traced me through that right? Can I have it now?" I asked earnestly.
"I'm sorry, Yuu, but we traced you through investigations we carried on ourselves and not through a certain picture." Raul Tenebre answered. I can tell that he was saying the entire truth.
I was saddened.
"You're now free to go, Sasagawa Yuu. I'll have you escorted back to your home later." The new boss of the Tenebre family told me.
"Thank you." I replied.
"No, no. Thank you." Raul said, smiling.
I smiled back.
"Fujioka, please request the monitoring department to air all the events in this room for the past fifteen or so minutes to all members of the family so that they'll be informed of my getting into power." Tenebre told the man with light brown hair.
The man named Fujioka made a call.
"And can you please escort the young man back to his home." The boss of the Tenebre family kindly smiled at me.
"My pleasure, Boss. Let's go, Sasagawa-kun." Fujioka led me out of the room.
I looked back at Raul Tenebre before we exited the doors of the room. He spun the armchair around and gazed languidly past the window, probably in deep thoughts. He looks like his brother but his features suggest not just a younger one but also a kinder character, his smile was true and transparent, his manners were naturally kind and I can see from his eyes that he is a compassionate man.
Outside the room, the monitors in the building were playing the scenes recorded by the cameras in the room we just left.
"Raul-sama is younger than Bertrando-sama by seven years." Fujioka told me as we walked along corridors. "I have been with them for ten years ever since Raul-sama took me into the Tenebre family after my parents died during my first year in middle school. Raul-sama studied middle school and high school here in Japan and we were classmates. Raul-sama isn't like Bertrando-sama at all. Bertrando-sama is a devil in disguise." Fujioka-san frowned.
"How could you say so, Fujioka-san?" I asked as we stepped into the elevator.
"When Raul-sama was still in Japan, we lived together and when he was called back to Italy after high school, he took me with him. I lived in the Tenebre mansion with the brothers and I noted that Bertrando-sama is a soulless person. Whenever he's in front of their father, Bertrando acts nice in order to win his father's favor and be chosen as the next boss. Raul-sama is a kind person, a true son, a good friend and a loving brother. He knows his position as a second son and always supports his older brother in everything, though most of the time, he does it half-heartedly. Their father died four years ago and Bertrando became the boss. He was power hungry and he wants to be on top of everybody, and thus, he had fights with other mafia families including the Vongola. Bertrando-sama would have everything obey all his wills even if he would massacre the whole world just for the sake of it." Fujioka-san narrated.
We stepped out of the elevator and walked out of the building as the other members of the Tenebre family celebrated the rise of Raul Tenebre to power. A car was waiting for us outside the building and we rode it, with Fujioka-san driving.
"Fujioka-san, were you able to meet my father?" I asked him curiously as we drove through the streets beneath the morning sun.
"Yes. Sasagawa Ryohei sure is a tough guy. Bertrando-sama had him locked up in the darkest room in the basement and the boss would go there often just to torture him by different means; he sometimes uses illusions on him, but Sasagawa-san never succumbed to being a member of the family. I was the one who brings him food and I sometimes get the chance to talk to him. Sometimes, when his mind is in a very hazy manner after a series of beatings, he would gaze blindly into space and talk about his son. He would tell me about kite-flying, playgrounds, fishing, swimming, gardening, boxing, camping and even about the bedtime stories he reads to you when you were little." Fujioka-san chuckled.
"He still remembers all those." I mumbled to myself, my eyes pricked with tears.
"He's kinda forgetful but he treasures every memory he has with you. Once, I felt so bad for him that I told him that if he really doesn't want to become a part of the Tenebre family, why don't he ask Bertrando-sama to kill him and end all his sufferings instead?" Fujioka-san smiled with a bit of bitterness. "And you know what he said? He said, 'I'll continue living as long as I know that Yuu-chan is living. Someday, I'll break outta here and reunite with my son. Right now, all I can see is darkness to the extreme, but there's still light burning somewhere in that darkness, and that light is my child. He's waiting somewhere in the darkness for me, as long as I haven't heard that the Tenebre hadn't laid their hands on my Yuu-chan, I'll still refuse and continue living for him to the extreme.' That's what your father said."
The tears flowed down on my cheeks. "Papa said that?"
"Yes, he did. And, as you may know, I was orphaned at almost the same age as you are now. I know how hard it is to lose your parents at such an age. If Raul-sama didn't help me back then, I don't know if I'm talking to you right now while driving this car. I don't want another child to lose his beloved parent without even knowing it so, I helped your father escape." He said, glancing at me and giving me a wink.
"You helped him get out?" I asked, my eyes wide with amazement. "Wh-where is he?"
"He didn't tell me where he planned to go because he said that I've already done too much for him." Fujioka-san replied.
The car came to a halt and we were in front of the place where the apartment I rented was situated. We got out of the car and Fujioka-san accompanied me to the unit I was renting.
"Would you come in and have some snack, Fujioka-san?" I asked him as I unlocked the door with the key from my voodoo doll keychain.
"No, thank you. I must go back to the base now and see what our new boss is planning to do." He replied.
"Okay. Please congratulate him for me." I said, smiling.
"I must thank you for him, then." He replied, smiling back. "Yuu-kun, you are the sun that gives life and illuminates your Papa's world; never lose your brightness and this luster of yours would lead your father's path back to you."
~end of chapter~
Author's note:
Poor table, what has it done? *sniff*
Now, let's explain the meanings of the Italian phrases:
Ti insultato tutta la famiglia- You insulted the whole family
Si, l'ho fatto- Yes, I did
Ci hai tradito- You betrayed us
Ne ho abbastanza del tuo dominio ingiusto, fratello- I've had enough of your unjust dominion, brother
Addio, caro fratello- Goodbye, dear brother
Now, the name meanings! Whee! :D
Tenebre- darkness
Bertrando- bright raven
Raul- wise wolf
Fujioka- it's a surname which means someone living near mount Fuji
PLEASE REVIEW! :3