Previously…
Fallen Angels are causing unrest and Byakuran suspects that they might try to do something on Earth. He warns Chrome and the others that he might send them down soon. On Earth, Tsuna is disturbingly quick in learning a new language and he encounters a near-death experience that changes how he sees his neighbourhood.
Chapter 5
One year later (age 13)
"Don't forget to look over that newspaper I gave you!" Adelina said and gave him a hug.
Tsuna smiled. "Hai," he said and put on his shoes. With a final wave, he let the elevator whisk him away.
"Nonno, I'm home!" Tsuna called out when he entered his apartment. When his grandfather failed to reply, he looked around, trying to find the man. "Nonno?"
Maybe he's still in the shop...
He walked into the kitchen and found nonno sitting by the table with his head between his hands. "Nonno, are you feeling okay?" Tsuna frowned and looked at the bottle of pills next to his grandfather. "What's this?" He picked it up and read the label but didn't understand any of the medical terms.
"They're just pills for my headache." His grandfather took the bottle and pocketed it. "Go and do your homework—I'm almost finished cooking dinner."
"How about I prepare dinner and you go and rest?" Tsuna said.
"Nonsense! I'm perfectly capable of fixing up dinner! Who said I wasn't?"
"Hiiie! N-No one said you weren't!" Tsuna squeaked and backed away from the table.
"Good! Then go finish your homework, Giotto."
Tsuna was quick to obey so he would avoid his grandfather's stubborn and outrageous rants.
They had a quiet dinner, with Tsuna eying his grandfather for signs of him feeling unwell.
"How is Donato?" his grandfather asked suddenly.
Tsuna shrugged. "He's fine. We still hang out when we have time. Oh yeah, he's also learning Japanese!"
"Is he?" his grandfather looked at him curiously as he stood up to refill his glass of water.
"It has something to do with his family business that has expanded to Japan. He and his older sister are learning it."
After dinner, Tsuna went off to study the Japanese newspaper before going to bed. He tossed and turned but was unable to fall asleep. He grumbled to himself and saw that it was already heading to one o'clock in the morning. If he didn't sleep soon, he was going to fall asleep in class. But he didn't want to sleep. Those unknown nightmares might come and haunt him again—they didn't come for him every night, but they came often enough that he didn't find sleep appealing anymore. Though he couldn't remember anything from those dreams, they left him shaking and filled with a terror he shouldn't know about.
"Cough cough!"
Tsuna tilted his head and listened. His grandfather was coughing again and it occurred more often nowadays. He rolled over and bit his lip worriedly.
Fifteen minutes later, his eyes grew heavy and he finally fell asleep…dreamless.
A week later when Tsuna was walking home from school, he was preoccupied with thinking of his grandfather's condition. It had worsened in the last two days and Tsuna didn't know what he could do for his grandfather that the doctors were already doing—that is, doctors that they could afford. But there wasn't a lot that any doctor could do with a patient who was so ill. It was the third time this week that his grandfather opted to stay at home to rest rather than go down to the shop.
There's no way I can take care of the shop! Tsuna thought as he pulled at his hair. I'll probably ruin everything!
Tsuna was so deep in thought that he didn't see the man slink out of the ally until he was pushed from behind.
"Hiiie!" Tsuna slammed into the wall with a scream and his school bag slid off his shoulder. He quickly turned around just in time to meet a fist in his face.
"Give me all your money or I'll kill you!" the man yelled and punched Tsuna again.
Tsuna ducked and kicked the man's right knee. "Let me go!" While using his right arm to block the man's third punch, he used his left to scratch the man's face.
"Arrg!" the man's grip loosened and Tsuna pushed him away. The man was dressed in clothes that could pass for rags and had hair so shaggy, dirty, and tangled that Tsuna could tell the man didn't have a decent life.
The man barrelled into Tsuna, who desperately delivered his own punch to the side of the man's head and kicked him again, while his own stomach received a punch. The man clung to Tsuna's clothes.
Tsuna gasped for air and pushed the man into a stack of boxes. Then he ran before the man could pick himself up again.
Halfway home, Tsuna realised that he forgot his school bag. "No," he groaned to himself and turned back. What if he's still there? he thought in a panic. He shook his head. "I still have to get it…"
He walked two steps and tripped over his other foot. Thanks to the bruises and possible strain the mugger gave him, Tsuna ended up lying on the ground, too tired to move.
"Kid, you alright?" a girl's voice said from above. A girl who was around nineteen years old looked down at him with her blond hair tied in a loose bun. She had a bracelet on her right hand and wore a few rings on her fingers.
Tsuna sat up quickly so he could look at her properly. "I know you," he cried out in surprise.
The girl raised her brows. "Yeah?"
"U-Um, two years ago, I think! I was on my way home and I bumped into this guy who used me as a shield and you told me I had to fight if I wanted to live. You threw a knife at me! Or…something like that," Tsuna said with a nervous laugh.
The girl tilted her head and stared at him with her dark brown eyes. Suddenly they lit up with recognition. "Now I remember! That scared you quite a bit, huh? You were just a little twerp back then."
She helped him to his feet and frowned at the bruising and dirt on him. "What happened to you?"
Aren't you going to apologise for the knife!? Tsuna winced as she touched one of the nastier bruises on his face. "Someone tried to steal my things…ah! I left my bag. He probably took it!"
"Whoa, hold the tears," the girl said and patted Tsuna's shoulders but quickly removed her hands when he yelped. "Sorry. Tell you what? I'll go with you to get it back. Maybe the man missed it."
Tsuna's expression brightened. "Really? Thanks!"
The girl waved off his thanks. "Oh, you'll do the same for me, won't you?"
Tsuna gulped, entirely positive that he wouldn't willingly go to someone's aid since he could barely fight to help himself. "S-Sure."
"Lead the way…I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. I'm Diana."
"G-Giotto."
"Heh. Giotto, huh? How long have you been living here?"
"Um…I moved in a few years ago. I think I was ten or eleven? It's just me and nonno."
"I have a kid brother your age. I suppose I have a rather big family. My dad owns a business and everyone has a home with us, see."
"Th-That's nice. It's just down this street," Tsuna said and pointed towards the right. They looked around the corner and saw that the man had moved on. The boxes were crushed from the man's weight. His school bag lay abandoned, covered by wood shavings and an old piece of cardboard. He went through it and sighed with relief when he found that nothing was stolen.
They turned around and walked back the way they came but Diana suddenly stopped when they had only taken three steps.
"What's wrong?" Tsuna asked. He looked around them and noticed nothing out of the ordinary.
Diana frowned at the person who was walking toward them, but Tsuna didn't see anything wrong with the guy, who was Diana's age. He wasn't dressed in rags, which reassured Tsuna slightly. Rather, he was dressed in a pair of jeans and a white shirt, both looking clean and free of any dirt that would have been collected by anyone who lived on the streets. His brown hair was trimmed neatly, his nose was unbroken, and his blue eyes were free of insanity.
Tsuna sucked in a breath. The unknown teen had left a few buttons of his shirt open, revealing the tattoo that Tsuna remembered as clear as day. This teen was with the other boy who used Tsuna as a shield two years ago. And Tsuna was right about the tattoo being words. The red inked words were squished together and rounded on the sides, top, and bottom until they looked more like a symbol.
The teen stopped a few metres from them and cocked his head to the side. "Huh."
Tsuna watched Diana's eyes sharpen. "Marco," she said in a flat voice.
The teen, Marco, returned the curt greeting and removed his hands for his pockets. Diana twitched and started to push Tsuna aside but Marco's hands came out empty.
"Relax. I'm not here to fight."
"Like how you weren't here to fight two days ago?" Diana asked. "Get out of my sight before I call for help and forcefully remove you."
Marco shrugged. "Just so you know, even if a few of your family came, I could still win—my control over my flames increased quite a bit from the last time we fought. But I'll save you the trouble. Ciao."
He started to pass them but whispered something into Diana's ear that had her whirling around, trying to land a punch on him. He evaded it easily. "You—what was that supposed to mean? Are you threatening me?"
"You know exactly what it means," Marco said over his shoulder and continued walking out of their sight.
"Marco!"
Marco gave her a grim expression before turning the corner.
Diana kicked a box. "Ugh! I hate that guy."
"W-Who was he?"
"He's one of the Puniamo. You stay away of him, okay? I'm sorry, but since he saw you with me he probably thinks that you're one of us now."
"O-One of us? Who's…us?"
"The Cavallone," said Diana. "We protect this area from families like the Puniamo."
"Okay…?" Tsuna said and looked at his watch. "I guess I should head home now. Bye! Thanks again," Tsuna said and left Diana to walk the streets alone.
He made a stop at home to drop off his bags and to make sure that his grandfather was alright before heading to the seventh floor.
"What's bothering you, Giotto-kun?" Adelina asked at the end of their lesson. They were sitting down at the kitchen table, each drinking a can of pop.
"What do you mean?"
"You're spacing out and looking worried."
"O-Oh…ah…my grandfather's not looking too well and he's not opening the shop as often now. I'm really worried about him. There isn't much of a profit coming from the shop in the first place so that's another thing to worry about. How is he supposed to see the doctors if he can't afford to?"
Adelina furrowed her brows and thought for a moment. "You could get a part-time job this summer. It's just a few weeks away, right? You should be old enough."
Tsuna stared at her in shock. "I can't take on a part-time job!"
"Sure you can. You're what, turning fourteen soon? That's a nice age to start. I know that there's a restaurant in the tourist district that's looking for some help. The pay obviously won't be very good, but if you know a foreign language…" she raised her brows as her sentence trailed off, giving him a hint.
"I-I still don't want to talk to others…"
"Please don't tell me that you're choosing now to be socially awkward!" Adelina exclaimed and slapped Tsuna's back hard enough to have him spilling his drink.
"Jeez, I'll…I'll think about it,"Tsuna said.
Adelina laughed. "Then we will go tomorrow. It's a good idea for you to talk with others in Japanese to see how well you really know the language."
"E-EHHHHHHHHHH?"
"Didn't I tell you? It's a Japanese restaurant."
"B-But!"
"No buts," Adelina interrupted his stuttering with a hand. "My treat."
Tsuna seemed to deflate as he nodded his head. "Oh alright. Well, I'm going to go home now."
"I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Wanting me to work part-time," Tsuna muttered to himself as he entered the elevator. "Do I really have to do something so tedious? Nonno, I'm home," he called out when the door to his apartment slid aside.
"Giotto? I'm in the kitchen. Wash up and set the table, would you?"
"Sure. Oh, and Hayate-sensei thinks that I should work part-time at this restaurant…what do you think?" Knowing his grandfather, he might take this as an insult to his ability to look after them on his own.
"That's a good idea. You're going to have to learn to live on your own life and earn your own money sooner or later."
Tsuna dropped a fork in surprise. "Sorry. Here, I'll just get that washed again. You really want me to work? Are you sure you don't think that it's unnecessary?" he asked, trying to figure out what his grandfather was up to.
His grandfather lifted his eyebrows as he pulled out his chair to sit. "You should know that I'm not going to be around for much longer! Everyone will die at some point and you should learn to survive on your own," he said, scolding.
"But nonno!"
"Not only that, but we should have another source of income…in case the shop gets vandalised in any way."
"What are you talking about?" asked Tsuna as he filled his plate.
"We don't live in a nice neighbourhood. There are going to be people who will destroy things and run off, especially those rowdy kids who have a few nuts loose in their heads," said his grandfather bitterly. "All this business with the Cavallone and those Puniamo…it's going to people's heads. Giving them too much power, I'd say!"
"Cavallone? Puniamo?" Tsuna repeated in a puzzled tone. "What?" Diana did say something about that…
His grandfather put down his eating utensils while he continued to chew slowly.
"What are they?" Tsuna asked again.
His grandfather cleared his throat. "They are Mafia families."
Diana's in the Mafia!?
Unaware of Tsuna's shock, his grandfather continued, "The Cavallone take care of this neighbourhood and the other one—that is, the Puniamo, which is what people call them, apparently—is sort of their enemy. I'm not too clear on these things myself. The Cavallone are a decent sort. I met with their boss or someone near the top when we first moved in. It was an introduction to tell me how they look after the people around here. Some fights do break out because the Puniamo won't leave them alone."
Tsuna gulped as he remembered when he heard a gun firing outside his building and then when he was taken hostage. They weren't good times but for some reason he didn't think of the Mafia. He always thought of the Mafia as something separate from his own small world.
"Will you do the dishes tonight?" his grandfather asked when they finished their meal. Tsuna nodded absently. "Don't forget to do your homework either, Giotto."
"I won't."
"There's a good lad."
Half a year later (age 13 ½)
"Thanks for coming," Tsuna said numbly as another person left the cemetery where his grandfather was buried. He didn't know who it was but the man gave him a sad look and patted his shoulder. When Tsuna turned away from the man, Donato approached him.
Donato, his long time best and only friend, was dressed in black from head to toe. He wore a sweater to accommodate the change in weather. When the wind blew, Donato shivered and pulled his sleeves further down to shield his hands from the chill.
"Hey, Giotto…" he said. "Are you going to be alright?"
Tsuna nodded and smiled for a second before the smile disappeared.
Donato took a deep breath. He should say it quickly. "Listen…I'm going to be leaving Italy to study abroad…Please don't give me that look. I don't have much of a choice."
"But why?" Tsuna asked as he pushed his own sorrows to the back of his mind to give his friend his full attention. He could see pain in Donato's dark brown eyes as though he was recalling a bad memory.
Donato shut his eyes and shook his head. He rubbed his face with his sleeve before looking up at Tsuna again.
"I just have to get away from here for a while. Something terrible happened in my family and I can't handle being here. My—my…you remember how I have a sister?"
Tsuna's eyes widened in horror. "Yeah...Dee, right?"
"She…she died. In—an—a-a-accident."
Tsuna immediately wrapped his arms around Donato, who clung to him.
"My father thinks that it would be better if I'm away for a while. To get away from here. I can't stand it, Giotto. It won't be the same there without you, even if I'll be attending a school that my father taught at."
"We'll stay in touch," Tsuna promised.
Donato let go and wiped the tears form his cheeks. "I don't want you to think that I'm abandoning you or anything. After all, you just lost your last relative."
Tsuna faked a smile for Donato's sake. "You're like my brother, Donato. I'm sad that you're leaving but it's not like you're leaving forever. It's not your fault that something happened in your family and that it happened while nonno was…anyway, good luck."
"You should come with me."
"Wh-What?"
Donato was nodding enthusiastically as though he was running with the idea. "You don't have anyone else here. A change in scenery might help you. Come with me to Japan."
"I can't, Donato. Even if I wanted to, I don't have the money for it," Tsuna said.
Donato sighed. "It was worth a try." His eyes sharpened and he pointed a finger at Tsuna. "Don't think that I won't dare call you, crying for help if I don't understand what my teacher's saying."
"Remember the time difference!" Tsuna said automatically, remembering the last time his friend went to Japan for a visit.
"I promise I won't call you if I'm bored from waiting for my dad to finish his meeting," Donato said. "I swear it."
Tsuna punched Donato's arm lightly and gave a genuine smile. "Safe flying."
"Ciao."
Tsuna waited until the car that drove Donato to the cemetery rounded the corner before he allowed his legs to buckle beneath him. Before he could fall, Adelina caught him.
"Giotto!"
Tsuna leaned into her and closed his eyes. "They're all gone…"
"I'm still here," said Adelina in a soothing voice. She rubbed circles over his back and led him out of the cemetery to walk back home. "Did you think that I'd just abandon you?"
"N…No," Tsuna said. "It's just that the world feels so empty now."
Adelina made a quick decision. "Come stay in my apartment tonight. You can have the living room. A child shouldn't stay home alone so soon after burying his nonno."
Tsuna shook his head. "I'll be fine! There's no need to trouble you."
"It's no trouble at all—"
"No, really. I'm just two floors below you, I'll be alright."
She gave him a doubtful look but said, "If you're sure."
The months following his grandfather's funeral were a blur. Tsuna would wake up, skip breakfast, and go to school. Afterward, he would go directly to the library to finish his homework before heading in to work at the sushi restaurant as a waiter. After hours of taking orders and occasionally conversing with tourists to explain what they could find for entertainment around the area, he would eat dinner, courtesy of the leftovers, before heading home at a quick pace to avoid being mugged. Sometimes he arrived home without a scratch but on more than one occasion, he would find himself attacked by others who tried to steal his possessions or he would be attacked by drunkards who just wanted a fight.
Tsuna soon learned that if he didn't want to end up with broken limbs or bruised body parts the next day, he needed to fight more than before. He punched, kicked, scratched, and threw objects at his assailants until he could get away from them. He never brought a weapon with him; he only wanted to stop them, not kill them or injure them in any way that would cause them permanent harm.
The social workers hadn't found him yet, or hadn't bothered to, since he was still in his apartment. His landlord didn't seem to care that his tenant was a child as long as Tsuna could pay the rent.
His social life was nonexistent; all he did outside of school and work was visit Adelina once a week. Later, even those Japanese lessons stopped because she just couldn't think of anything else to teach him.
One Saturday, Tsuna received a call from the restaurant telling him that he didn't need to come in because they were having a slow day. He agreed easily, knowing that he would still return to work on Monday. He finished his homework and read the next chapter of his textbook before putting all his work away. He stood in the middle of his bedroom, wondering what he could do.
It was still early enough that Adelina wouldn't be home and it wasn't a good time to chat with Donato.
Tsuna shrugged. He put on his jacket and left the apartment. He decided that he would wander the market. He did recall needing some things and it was probably best to do some early shopping for Adelina and Donato's birthday presents.
As he made the twenty-minute walk to the market, he was careful to avoid walking near alleys and groups of suspicious people of his neighbourhood.
Fifteen minutes after crossing a major street, he calmed down. Here, outside of his neighbourhood, he was less likely to be bothered. Children played on the sidewalks, zooming around on their electric scooters. Adults walked their dogs while holding conference calls and teens sat on benches playing on their phones while waiting for their friends or meeting up to test someone's new air-board.
Tsuna passed all of them, remembering the days when he, too, had those games before they were sold so they could pay for his grandfather's medical bill.
Five minutes later, he was on the market's property. Everywhere he walked, he had to be careful to avoid stepping on toes or running over a child. Spotting a large group, Tsuna quickly stepped in behind them, travelling in the space that their combined bulk forced open.
The tall man in a casual shirt and jeans stopped at a jewellery stall to look at his reflection in a hanging mirror. He brushed his black hair away from his forehead as he examined the rest of his face and the face of the woman who was tailing him.
She was doing a good job, the man decided. It had taken him five minutes before he felt that someone was following him. It had taken another five minutes to identify who it was. Now, he was just leading her on to see what she would do. The man was quite anxious, however. He had only spotted her after entering the market, meaning that if she decided to attack him, she would have many hostages at her disposal and collateral damage would be a definite thing. That was something he couldn't afford to have.
He swore quietly and moved on, making his way to the other end of the market to where the bookstore was located. He just hoped that the woman wasn't an assassin, for the sake of all the people within shooting range. She wouldn't be that stupid to try killing him here in broad daylight, would she?
As the man stopped next to a disposal machine to empty the wrappers in his pockets, he glanced at the woman from the corner of his eye and saw that she was texting someone. He waited another moment before walking on and noticed that he had grown three more tails. Two were men who had cool gazes directed at him and walked empty handed. The third as a woman who was smarter; she had a bag over her shoulder and took her time travelling from stall to stall.
The man groaned and wondered how things got so wrong. He tapped a button on his watch twice and spoke into the mic attached to his earbuds. "I'm being followed by four. Two men, two women. They don't look friendly."
"What?" his friend said incredulously. "You were only supposed to pick up my book while you went to deal with your own business. How the hell did you manage to get four freaking tails?"
The man didn't think that he needed to answer that question. He just needed his friend to know the situation. He began to whistle and stroll casually along. He bumped into a teenager who was just stepping out of a phone accessory store and caused him to drop his purchase.
"I'm sorry," the man said and helped the teen pick up the cell phone case.
"It's fine. Thanks."
There must have been some signal because just after returning the purchase to the boy, he heard the whirring of a high-tech gun being powered up.
"Get down," he shouted to the boy and pushed him back into the store while he himself hit the floor. Screams came from every direction as the laser beam hit the wall behind the man, causing a scorch mark to appear with a fizzle.
Swearing freely, the man hid himself behind a stall selling counterfeit hover-boards and brought out his stun gun. He would have preferred to use his main weapon of choice but in this thick a crowd, drawing a sword wouldn't be wise. So, he hoped that the hours of practice he had with using this particular weapon would pay off.
A few bullets whizzed by his hiding spot and he quickly returned the favour, careful to hit his targets and not the innocents.
There was more screaming as people ran behind shops and statues. The man quietly moved from the booth to the fountain. He continued to move until he was at their flank. Then he stood up and fired.
Tsuna hugged the shopping bag to his chest as he shook like a leaf against the wall of the store he was pushed into. The owner of the shop cowered beneath his desk for a second before scooting out the back door.
Great. Tsuna was alone in the store. All that accompanied him were the the bullets that occasionally tore through the inside of the shop. A blast followed.
Should he risk a look to see what was happening? He inched his way to the entrance of the store and carefully exposed his head. Before he knew what he was doing, Tsuna jumped back.
"Hiiie!"
BANG!
A stray bullet had landed just centimetres from where his shoe had been. How he moved before the bullet landed he didn't know, but he was only thankful that he had such quick reflexes from fending off muggers and would-be-killers.
A man grunted and fell a few feet away from him. Tsuna gasped and scuttled further away as a gun clattered to the floor. He shot out a leg and kicked the gun away from the body.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," one of the females wielding a gun sang out. "I'll kill this girl if you don't."
Tsuna's head shot up and he crawled forward to see what was happening. What he saw made him pale.
A young girl who looked to be ten or eleven was crying while her hair was being pulled by the woman, who pointed a gun to the girl's head. Their backs were to him but the reassurance for his own safety didn't calm him down. That girl was in danger.
Tsuna looked around wildly but didn't see the man that the woman was talking to. Slowly, a man stood from behind the fountain that he was hiding behind.
"Let the girl go."
"Not until you drop your weapon and come with us," the woman replied. She knocked the girl's head with the barrel of the gun.
The man couldn't do anything. Tsuna knew that if the man dropped his weapon and went with them, the woman would still kill the child. No matter what the man did, the kid would die and there was nothing Tsuna could do to save her.
Tsuna stared at the gun in the woman's hand. Then he turned to look at the discarded gun on the floor. Without hesitating, Tsuna reached for it and picked up the cold metal. His hand wrapped around it easily and his thumb went for the safety even though it was already off.
He raised his head to look at the woman. The gun was still in his hands. The woman raised her gun slightly as though she was starting to point it at the man but was doing it in slow motion.
At once, Tsuna stood. He raised the gun and pulled the trigger.
~EO!~
Chrome shrieked as an unexpected bullet shot through the air. "Mukuro-kun, what's happening to Boss?" When did he pick up a gun?
"Oya?"
"He's…" Chrome closed her mouth when Katsuro appeared.
"Hey, what are you all looking at?" the uninvited guest said. "That's Tsunayoshi, isn't it? He seems to be doing well in Giotto's body. Good reflexes and aim. Excellent instincts."
Yamamoto frowned at this and watched the shooting happen. He shared concerned looks with Chrome while Mukuro talked to Katsuro.
"Kufufu. Yes, Tsunayoshi is very good at his job, isn't he?"
Katsuro quickly dismissed what he thought of Tsuna and looked at Mukuro warily. "Sure. I guess I should be going now."
Chrome blinked owlishly at him when he started to stutter and back away from them. "Katsuro…?"
"Kufufufufufu…"
Yamamoto laughed and asked, "Did you do something, Mukuro?"
"I might have," Mukuro said and his right eye turned into the kanji character for one.
Yamamoto shivered and chuckled nervously. "Right, I get it."
"Boss isn't acting right," Chrome said softly. It wasn't normal for a thirteen year old boy to suddenly have perfect aim when he had never held a gun before. She should know. There was never a time when she had seen him hold one, let alone learn to aim with it. At least, not in this lifetime.
However, when he was Vongola Decimo, there were countless opportunities for him to train with one as well as to use it in life-threatening situations. In the files and certain reviews of their missions, she had read about Tsuna taking aim and firing at enemies in a blink of an eye. They would always hit their mark: places of the body that would not kill them, a fact that Reborn must have been greatly annoyed with, since it gave the enemies the opportunity to come back for him.
Yes, there was something wrong with "Giotto".
~EO!~
The bullet hit the woman's arm and tore through her to lodge into a brick wall. A moment of silence followed the shot as the woman slowly released her grip on the girl and fell forward. The girl's mother screamed and ran for her child.
The man ran through the fountain and quickly stunned the assassin and her remaining two companions. The man didn't stop there. He ran to the shocked boy and jerked the gun out of his hands. He took the boy's left hand and ran down a side street.
"Damn, kid! Do you know how dangerous that was?" He cast a glance behind him, noticed his wet footprints, and used a bit of his rain flames to evaporate the water.
"Who were they?" the boy demanded when he shook the shock out of his system. He started to run next to the man rather than be dragged by the hand.
"They're a Mafia gang called Puniamo. Are you going to tell me who you are and where you learned to shoot like that?" Despite what he said of that being a dangerous situation, the kid handled himself with professional efficiency. Where did the kid learn to shoot so well, especially when he was dressed so poorly?
He had noted the torn dark green jacket and the faded jeans that were littered with holes at the bottom, most likely from being stepped on by a shoe or dragged across the ground. The badly cut short brown hair matched the brown eyes.
The man pulled the boy into a dark alley. Once they were deep in the shadows, he took out a handkerchief to wipe down the gun before storing the gun into the box weapon at his back. He made sure the boy couldn't see what he was doing.
"O-Oh…um…well…Giotto. I mean, my name's Giotto. And I didn't know that I could shoot a gun until I did!"
"That doesn't make any sense," the man said. They might have seen his face, he thought with concern. The kid's probably going to find himself chased by those people. Speaking of which, I need to figure out who they were.
"What about your family?" the man asked.
Giotto looked at him with a suspicious frown.
The man laughed and shook his head. "I'm not going to do anything evil, kid."
"Just to let you know, I might not have any living relatives, but I do have people who will miss me," Giotto warned.
"Okay, I get it," the man said and raised his hands in surrender. Poor kid doesn't have a family.
"So? Why did you ask?"
"You have a lot of potential, Giotto. I'm not going to lie to you. We could use people who show as much raw talent as you do. If you're ever interested in honing your talents—not only in shooting, but in self-defence, call me at this number." He gave the boy a plain white card that had only a phone number printed on it. "Besides, you've been seen shooting that gun like a seasoned fighter. The police might want to dig you up! We'll protect you. I promise."
Giotto gave him a panicked look. The man's eyes narrowed. Was this boy actually hiding from the cops?
"O-Okay. Thanks...a-and who are you?"
The man's narrow-eyed look vanished, replaced by a grin and bright eyes. "Vongola's Rain Guardian at your service, kid."
A/N:
And the Vongola appears! Well, at least one of them. But look forward to more of them! I hope you all had a great year and that this one will be even better. Happy 2016!
Updated 2016-01-01st
-LLM
