Chapter two: To prepare the stage.
Hibari entered the room in a foul mood; his recently applied bandages were making every move uncomfortable, bringing pain with each pull of the evil strips of cloth. The familiar beep-beep, made him glance at the only resident of the room. He stared at the still form and kept listening to the steady sound; which had mysteriously become a balm to his bad mood.
"I'm back herbivore." Muttered the teen. It was a strange quirk he had developed over time, speaking to the child, telling him his plans, his aspirations for Nanimori, his troubles with crowding herbivores. Somehow this was like speaking to a small animal or a fish. It was safe.
"I heard you have been acting up again." It had taken almost a year for this ritual to begin. "Foolish herbivore you should just behave."
He took the chair at the side of the comatose child and stared at the only human he could find tolerable for long periods of time.
"Kusakabe has finished the arrangement for the reorganization of the disciplinary committee."
It was a testament of his aversion to humanity that only a comatose boy could be tolerated in his presence. Still his face remained impassive and cold, with only the lack of bloodthirst in it. The small frame and pale skin reminded him of a weak animal, a pitiful harmless animal, perhaps a chick that fell of its nest, he mused while graceful fingers touched the soft tresses, yes just like feathers.
"He said something about those fools doubting my strength. I had to correct their suppositions"
The respiratory machine made a sound again. Hibari had hear one of the healer herbivores saying that the boy had caught pneumonia, again, something about damaged lungs and sea water.
The machine signaled a rise in the numbers of breaths. Just like a small animal the little herbivore seemed to sense his anger. He frowned at the child. "This town needs discipline. Otherwise it will become an unsightly place."
The repetitive sound instead of being maddening usually lulled him to calmness, the soft whoosh of the ventilator making him exhale at the same rhythm. Breath In-two heartbeats- breath out.
"The new crowds of herbivores were making a ruckus again in Nanimori, so I bit them to death."
The heartbeat increased and his trance was snapped, with a reproaching frown he stared at the child, the heart monitor marking an accelerated rhythm, it was just three more heartbeats above, but still it was a change. "Of course I'm not hurt, I'm not a weak herbivore like you" a minute later the steady rhythm came again and Hibari went to his own bed and closed his eyes, the sound and the quiet presence lulling him to a deep sleep.
Outside the room a nurse was saved by a doctor from being mauled when she almost went in to take the vitals of the sleeping Hibari.
"Nanako-san! Hibari-san is in there now!" Said the man in a whisper and she blanched at this, she nodded fervently and took her hand away from the knob.
"Uh… it's just I thought I heard someone speaking there…" She said in an uncertain voice, and the doctor smiled slightly at this. "Yes, well, we can't be sure, but a few people have heard voices in that room, especially in the night, we think Hibari-san is talking to our sleeping child."
"Uh? Hibari-sama? No way!" Said the woman in wonder. "Yes, but I believe is a good thing, for both of them, so don't you ever, EVER dare to mention this in Hibari's san face." Said the man gravely, he was the pediatrician in charge of both boys, only because no one else was brave enough to treat Hibari more than once, and because checking on the comatose boy, meant that they could possibly be faced with the feared teenager.
The nurse seemed unconvinced, but nodded glancing at the forbidden room. "Doctor, about that boy… there is not signals of his family?"
The doctor grimaced and shook his head in despair. "No, there is no record of his fingerprints in the systems, at least not in Japan, I sent the information to the international database but there is nothing, this child is inexistent… don't believe that finding his parents would make his situation better… we don't even know if he is going to wake up anyway…"
"But who is paying all this… he has been a patient here for so long…" Said the nurse in a whisper,
"Well at first it was a charity association, but since a year ago an anonymous donor is making monthly deposits for him. I heard the hospital administrator saying that the money is more than the quantities required for his treatment, and it's being deposited in an account for him, in case he ever wakes up"
The nurse eyes glinted at the new information, it was gold for gossip. "Oooh. But who would do this?"
"Who knows, sometimes this happens, some anonymous person taking care of a sick lonely patient, perhaps one of those rich persons who comes here sometimes. Although some one said something about the Hibari family being the benefactor.." The man continued and watched as the nurse's eyes shinned in greed, it was fleeting, but it was there. The young woman was new, he shouldn't be suspicious of her, but the slight smile she gave him was telling him the opposite.
Xanxus stared at the blond idiot before him; he had always thought that Iemitsu Sawada was a pest. It was not a small thing the power the man commanded, and it baffled him that such a man could be content in remaining as an external advisor. "What do you want me to do with this, Sawada?" In front of him was a black box, inside, glinting was half of the sky ring of the Vongola.
"I thought you knew about the Vongola policy regarding the rings?" The mocking tone of the blond idiot made him bristle and he snarled at the man. "Cut the crap! I tried to kill off the old man, I have been his leashed dog for these past years, and you want me to believe that suddenly I'm a candidate? Do you think I'm a fucking moron?"
Iemitsu Sawada actually had the gall to smirk at him; it was only the reminder of just how quickly the man could beat him into a pulp that stopped Xanxus hand for reaching for his gun.
"I'm merely fulfilling my promise. You are not the only one who believes that the Vongola should change." That made Xanxus pause in his tracks. Surely not…
Xanxus snarled; a deep primitive demonstration of his burning rage. He took the ring in his hand and glared at the still smiling man. "You can take this shit. And you can tell the brat to shove his pity deeply in his ass." The words where said through clenched teeth, he barely stopped himself from throwing the ring at his face.
"Better yet, you can say it yourself. He requests a single fight, since he doesn't have his guardians yet." This was another way of saying that Giotto had been putting off choosing them.
"He has already informed the Cervello, one fight for the sky ring and the seat of the decimo. If you refuse it will be his win by forfeit." Laughed the man before calmly leaving the room and the irate teenager behind, if he jumped slightly at the sound of something very heavy being smashed against the wall, nobody noticed it.
"Such temper…" He sighed and stopped outside his car, the Varia state was medium in size in comparison to the Vongola main House, but still it was enormous. Discretely he took out a small device out of his pocket; he carried it around all the time, since he didn't trust anybody with it.
The small phone-like device was only a small screen with five blue dots blinking innocently. Each one marked the status of one safe house, red meaning in danger, blue meaning no change, and green would indicate that his son was awake and safe. For two years now they had remain in blue, each house had received either a person or an object to protect, even more that one, but only one was the real safe house for his son. They had changed their plan so much along the way, that at the end it had become a real puzzle.
The logistics had been terribly complicated; anyone searching for the true reason of such an operation would be left lost in a sea of misdirection. Not even his own strategists knew about his ruse, everybody thought that Tsuna was in fact in a small house in Rome with the Shimon family.
The blue dots kept their steady on/off like a steady heartbeat; he just hoped that Tsuna would forgive them.
G stared, before him was a scene that was making his brain slowly melt out of his head.
"Where is it?"
"Fuck y-AAAAHHHH"
"Tut-tut Bad answer, where is my dame student?" Came the deep velvety voice, one that promised an exquisite pain and suffering. "And don't you even dare to say Rome."
Before him was Giotto strapped down to a… device… thing… it?...that seemed to be a love child between a treadmill and an iron maiden, Giotto was actually shackled to the arms and his feet were bare, and the thing was working fast, at his side there was a tall man dressed in an impeccable black suit and matching fedora with an orange stripe, a very familiar fedora.
"Gualterio! How nice for you to join us, this idiot student of mine is being stubborn perhaps you can help me before he gets even more retarded?"
G could never be called a coward, and he would never hesitate to help his best friend and future boss, but his body was paralyzed in fear at the warning in the man's eyes. The dark menacing man pushed a button in the machine which was followed by an electric discharge from the device.
"AAAAAHHGG!" Just how much electricity could pass through those cables? Some part of his traumatized brain mussed while he stared at his friend. "Signore Reborn?"
He had always known that Reborn wasn't actually a baby, but the real thing was even more impressive that rumors and stories. "Perhaps you should stop the thing to let him talk?" The dark glare made him more than a little nervous, before, the sharp black eyes were frightening, but now; the long deadly limbs, and the sharp angles of his face made him terrifying, it was like facing a hungry lion bare handed.
"Stop it! You lunatic!" Screamed Giotto and G stared in pity at his friend, already suspecting what the topic was.
"Mmmm… well, at least your resistance has upped." Chuckled Reborn and stopped the machine abruptly, which only made Giotto fall in a bundle of chains, knees and elbows, it looked really painful.
"Y-you bastard…" Giotto was gasping and trembling from the electric discharges, his muscles contracting painfully.
"Uhm… perhaps is this about Tsuna?"
The sharp eyes were back, now focused on him and G swallowed. "I returned yesterday. Only to find that not only my dame Student is missing, but that my stupid student launched a challenge against Xanxus."
That was new, why would Giotto do such a thing?
"I will ask once again, where is my dame-student?"
"Safe!" Snarled his friend and G grimaced when a gunshot grazed the blond, but the blue eyes where still firm and very, very pissed off. G started to list the things necessary for the funeral.
"He is safe; also he hasn't come out of his coma. Otherwise Iemitsu would have been notified." Said Giotto and Reborn stared at him in clear annoyance.
"You and Iemitsu better pray that he never wakes up then, either he will become a traitor or will become a waste of space after being abandoned by his family." Snarled Reborn and G watched as Giotto flinched at the accusation.
"He is safe…" He said once more, and G had heard the same argument over and over, about how it was better if the boy was protected, safe, unharmed.
Alone.
"You, and Iemitsu will regret this and we will be paying the price for it." Said Reborn and actually kicked Giotto in the head, now in his adult form, the act seemed much more violent and cruel, especially because the already pathetic appearance of Giotto. "You and Iemitsu fulfilled his deepest fear. You betrayed and broke a promise to a close member of your family" Reborn crouched before Giotto and captured the pair of blue eyes, his gaze unforgiving and hard. "Regardless of your good intentions. This is something that all the Vongola will remember."
Reborn made a silent signal at him and acknowledging the already foul mood of the man he didn't hesitate to follow. "Don't pity him Gualterio. I was easy on him."
G hated the fact that it was true, he could have been even harsher, but perhaps the challenge against Xanxus made him reconsider leaving a too damaged Giotto behind.
"By your expression I assume that he didn't tell you about his lovely plans?" Asked the hitman and G stared at him in trepidation. "Iemitsu gave Xanxus half of the sky ring, the whole Vongola and the Varia is in chaos right now; the rumors reached me all the way to Guatemala."
"Guatemala?"
"I have been searching for someone."
"Excuse me sir, but I have to assume that your absence this past months is related to this change? Has the curse…"
Reborn stopped him with a glare and G bowed his head in a silent apology, the arcobaleno curse was a heavy guarded secret after all. "Make sure he is ready and on time for his battle."
G nodded and left him.
Reborn frowned and continued walking until he reached the ninth's office, the tall mahogany doors still imposing and old, he could barely hear the muffled voices inside. He knocked and the face of the storm guardian appeared inside.
"He has been waiting for you" He nodded and stepped inside. Before him were the ninth, and his storm guardian. Both seemed tense and deeply stressed. "I apologize for making you waiting Boss; it's been a long time." He went down to his knees before the man and rose at his signal.
"Reborn, I hope Giotto is still alive?" Said the ninth, he seemed old, too much old.
"He is, but he will wish for another thing before the week is over." He promised with a dark smirk. The ninth nodded and frowned at him. "I must say it's extremely strange to see you in this form."
Reborn smirked again, two years, they seven arcobaleno had been in an upheaval for two years. "You read my report?" The ninth nodded and sighed. "When your flame disappeared two years ago, I must confess that I was expecting for some sort of a Judgment Day, yet you report implies that the balance of the tri-ni-set is still intact."
"The curse is present." Long fingers took out of his suit a yellow pacifier and Coyote noticed a slight difference in it, a white halo around it, like a brush of mist. "One year ago the pacifiers suddenly went transparent, five of us went into a coma, Mammon, Lal, Colonello, Fon and I. Then three months after that, we woke up, the pacifiers were like this and then we started to change back, little by little."
"You have no idea what could have been the cause?" The ninth had seen Reborn panic a few times, three times in fact, but the face of the small baby wearing an almost desperate frown would be etched in his memory forever. "Lal returned six months ago, she has been working nonstop, but not even the CEDEF network seems to be able to help."
"No, we have checked with him, the curse and the tri ni set are intact, but there is something interfering, whatever it is… we can only wait. Verde was especially infuriated by our transformation and disappeared; I was searching for him in South America."
"The other three are unaffected?" Exclaimed the ninth in surprise. That would mean...
"Only those in direct contact with the Vongola are like this. Thus my return, whatever is happening is related with the Vongola or its enemies. If we can find an answer it will be here."
Nono sighed once more; he had been doing that a lot, he mused. "So we wait… How is your strength?"
"One hundred percent boss. Just like old times" The smirk he received made him feel a little better.
"I would like to give you good news but things here have been getting tense. Giotto refuses to appoint his guardians, and the families are getting nervous about the lack of an official successor, and last night Iemitsu asked me for half of the Sky ring."
Reborn frowned darkly, he hated sloppy jobs, and he never, ever made a half-ass mission, while he had appointed substitute teachers for his idiot student it was not the same. "He gave it to Xanxus." He watched the flicker of pain in the ninth's eyes, and hated to be the one to break the news to the man.
"The battle is in two days." He was sure that the families had been notified already, there was no stopping this, not if they didn't want to initiate a bloody mess.}