Hibari Kyouya meets Sawada Tsunayoshi when he is eight. The other boy is playing in a sand box in a crowded playground when a couple boys come up to him and start teasing him.

Kyouya has climbed on top of the monkey bars, trying to escape the crowd of children he isn't allowed to bite. He hasn't yet intimidated the teachers into letting him skip recess, and tends to sulk up on the highest thing he can climb instead. He spends his time surveying the other children form up high, and teaching them not to bother him.

He doesn't yet have the need to police the herbivores in his territory, but that will come when he is gifted his first pair of tonfa.

Still, from his vantage point of the tallest structure in the playground he watches as Sawada cringes further and further into himself. The other boy is timid, weak willed and already a target for bullies. There's been taunt's before and Kyouya is sure there will be taunts again.

But then one of the boys steps on the castle Sawada had spent the past ten minutes building, and history is made.

The boy goes under a messy punch, and it doesn't matter that Sawada is surrounded, because he has a fist full of sand and isn't afraid to bite.

Kyouya stand on the bars and jumps down into the fray. It's the start of a beautiful friendship.


Kusakabe Tetsuya meets Sawada Tsunayoshi when the Hibaris' come home with a bloody Kyouya and a small shadow. It's the first time there's been another child in the house besides Kyouya and him, and he's immediately curious.

His family has been in the employ of the Hibari family for generations, and when Kyouya finally grows up enough to take the mantel of family head Tetsuya's the one that's going to have to make sure he doesn't get arrested for murder. Which is a legitimate worry, so saying he's surprised to see Kyouya spending time willingly with someone his own age is an understatement.

The boy is tiny, with a head of feathery brown hair. He looks a little like a blow-dried poodle.

He also has bloody fists and a crazed look in his eye.

Tetsuya sighs and resigns himself to looking after another wild animal.

(He's only 9 years old, but he already understands duty.)


Kurokawa Hana doesn't meet Sawada Tsunayoshi so much as meet the chaos he leaves behind. She's waiting for her mother at the gates of her after school daycare when a bunch of older boys run past.

They look like the sort of people her mom would call punks, so she shuffles further into the relatively safety of the courtyard. There's a great crash, and she can't see what made it but she can here a group of voices yelling out in pain.

Curiosity swamps her and she tiptoes forward to pear out and sees a pile of limbs.

The boys have all tripped over what looks like a bicycle with a wagon attached. There's a boy her age sitting on it with a beat up helmet and a medical mask.

He flashes her a smile and then peddles away.

From the other side of the street a dark figure stalks closer and she shrinks back. Not enough to escape the image of the newcomer beating up the gang with what looks like metal police batons, but far enough that when her mom eventually shows up she can fake ignorance as to the blood stains on the sidewalk.


Shoichi Irie doesn't meet Sawada Tsunayoshi and thanks god every day that statement stays true.

Instead they email each other a few times a week and he gets random boxes in the mail he's never sure are going to blow up in his face.

It's very stressful being Tsuna's friend, but on the other hand he does get requests for a bunch of really cool projects, so it balances out somewhat.

They first start talking on a gaming thread online, something about the use of soundwaves in weapons. When Shoichi brings up a few technical contradictions in the supposed weapons design, instead of getting annoyed at him, or not believing Shoichi, Tsuna asks how he would make the gun if he was the one designing it. He doesn't even become uninterested hours latter when Shoichi is just finished hypothesising about the right conductive metal.

He somehow ends up joining a vigilante gang and spends a large chunk of his time designing weapons, but that's mostly something he can ignore. It gives him some amount of social credibility anyways, since he doesn't even have to worry about the police knocking on his door at his fumbling attempts at hacking. Turns out the Hibaris' own the police department. And the lawers office. And the law courts.

Which explains a lot.

Of course, he doesn't end up just designing weapons. The group needs surveillance, information, and a place to gather when they do big raids.

Oh, and money.

Which is where the hacking comes in.

And it's because of the hacking that the Vongola secret comes out. Sawada Iemitsu might be a competent Mafioso, but he's a little dumb when it comes to his family's finances. It takes a little digging but there's not much you can hide from Shoichi when he's determined and fuelled by all nighters and sugar.

Tsuna pretty much takes this all in stride. The mafia isn't all that different from what he's already doing with Hibrari's soon to be named Discipline Committee after all.

Hibari on the other hand. Well, he doesn't share very well.

It's not long after that that they start planning for real.


Tsuna sits in the Hibaris' traditional sitting room and tries not to fidget. There's a stack of papers on the table that he got from Shoichi and it takes all he cannot to re-read them again.

"Mafia." Tetsuya says, very calmly. The same way he says to Hibari "Yakuza" or "Fourteen assault charges". He's a little proud to finally be the one to warrant that tone of voice.

Since Hibari seems to be content growling and prowling around the room but not stopping to actually talk about the ridiculous situation, Tsuna gives into temptation and shuffles through the papers again.

"The Vongola Family to be precise. Supposedly one of the stronger ones." He flips a few pages before he finds what he's looking for. "Information is sparse, but there's a lot of chatter if you know where to look for it. Mostly smaller families suddenly disappearing, or talk of alliances."

"Mafia gossip." Tetsuya's voice doesn't change at all, and Tsuna cringes a little.

"Uh, yeah." He mumbles into his notes.

"And you're related to the boss." Still level, still perfectly calm. The back of Tsuna's neck pricks.

"Uh, yep. A couple times removed or so. Ugh, I guess that explains how my idiot father could get such a high paying job."

Tetsuya nods.

"He's got to be pretty strong though, to get that high up." Tsuna continues nervously. "Not to mention he's supposedly a department head or something, so there's got to be a whole bunch of uh. I guess they're called lieutenants? So a whole bunch of strong people."

There's a sudden stillness as they all look at each other, and then Hibari very deliberately takes out his tonfa's.

"Wait! Hibari!" Tsuna yells, as he has to dodge the strike. "Let's talk this out first! I don't even have my gloves!"