Delight Basquez is a quiet man, with a soft voice and an open, inviting face. He's good at talking to people and getting into their secrets with a smile. In one lifetime he would have made a very good therapist.
In this one he's a competent con artist who freelance's for the mafia. He's got a good reputation for being discreet and for knowing his place: at the bottom of the food chain.
As long as the money keeps coming he doesn't really care what power plays are happening higher up.
Servius Vultuo on the other hand is a tank of a man with a loud voice and a loud personality. He uses his storm flames to disintegrate things with a pair of special knuckle busters, and what he lacks in precision he makes up in pure punching power. He has a scar running from his hairline right down to his chin, just missing his eye, and when he uses his flames it lights up red and demonic.
They are stationed together in a small Japanese town to patch up the information network that's let a prized Vongola asset escape. Basquez is tasked with investigation while Vultuo runs interference. It's a job they have done before, and despite their lack of any sort of goodwill towards each other, they never fail a job.
Until now.
58 hours after Reborn leaves Nanimori Vultuo and Basquez are found 24 miles out of Namimori city, cuffed to their standard issue car and arguing. They apparently have very little memory of who attacked them, but refuse to step back into the town for fear of more retribution.
When someone question's the neighbours of the small apartment they were based out of, every single one of them professed ignorance. It was a quiet night according to most.
The overturned furniture and blood splatters paint a very different story.
Basquez has a bloody nose and a broken leg while Vultuo is very silently crying while nursing his broken ribs. Neither men will look the other in the eye.
The damage seems minor, but when backup picks them up and a medic finally looks them over it turns out the injuries are resistant to sun flames. The medic very reluctantly patches them up the old fashion way and then cautions them not to aggravate their injuries too much when they get reprimanded by their supervisor.
Three hours later they are sent back to the medic for treatment of a couple of bullet wounds. Those heal just fine with sun flames.
The next day Cecilia Herrdive and Nanaki Tsukabaki arrive into town.
Basquez just sends them a salute when he passes by, hobbling on one leg.
The Namimori Vender Association is made up of restaurant owners, providers, organisers and event planers working together to support local business.
They mostly spend a lot of their time sitting around drinking and gossiping.
It's the perfect front for a secret meeting.
Tsuyoshi Yamamoto and his son enter the drinking parlour and say hello to a few businesses they know. The Udon cart down the street waves back and yells out a playful insult. Tsuyoshi responds in the same, and soon there's some good-natured heckling going on.
Takeshi laughs and leaves his father to it, instead going to say hello to the hostess. She smiles at him, points to a backroom and winks.
He silently pads over and slowly lets the smile drop. His eyes are cold and dark.
The backroom is unlocked, but there's a disquieting click when he turns the knob. He pauses until it clicks again and then walks in.
Sawada Tsunayoshi smiles at him.
Reborn calls the Ninth on the fourth day. He's kept him apprised of course, but for the most part was confident he could wrap the whole affair up before it truly became a problem.
Reborn doesn't fail. He's the greatest hitman in the world. Failure isn't even an option for him.
He isn't used to asking for help.
When the Ninth hears that he's having trouble over the norm in finding his errant student, that it appears almost like the boy is a ghost, he chuckles for a second before realising Reborn is being serious.
There's silence on the phone before finally a tired voice responds.
"I can give you more men, but at this point it might be better to call it in." The boss says.
Reborn frowns.
"Do you trust them for a job like this?" He makes sure to keep the disbelieving tone out of his voice, but some amount of sarcasm comes through anyways. The Ninth laughs.
"I've made my mistakes in trusting the Varia before, but they are Vongola. And Vongola will listen."
When the Varia hear that the last legitimate heir to the Vongola throne is missing they laugh, and laugh and laugh.
Then they go to wake up their boss.
There's a photo in the Sawada's residence attic that shows a smiling woman caught in the hold of a large blond man. In the corner is written:
To my dearest Nana
You're loving husband
In the background there's a swaying cherry tree, and at the base of the tree the blurry silhouette of a woman in a white dress.
There's a smudge where her face should be.
Nana opens her door to a killer and invites them in. It's the third this week and her tea selection is becoming rather pitiful, but she doesn't complain. She smiles and makes small talk as the man fidgets with his pockets.
"And your son? Where is he?" He asks, interrupting her in the middle of her sentence.
Her smile doesn't tighten and her eyes never clear of the fog covering them.
"Oh, he's right where he needs to be." She says cheerfully.
The sound of the gunshot is loud in the ensuing silence.
The truth is something like this:
Sawada Tsunayoshi grew up weak. He was awkward and clung to his mother's dresses and was constantly teased by his father for not being manly enough.
The truth is something like this:
Sawada Tsunayoshi grew up smart. He saw the way the world would crush him under its heel and refused. He learnt violence and trickery and the sweet rush of a successful con.
The truth is something like this:
Sometimes you don't need to be great to do great things.
The truth is this:
When Nana was left gasping alone in her own blood and filth on the birthing bed, when her dotting husband sends her a postcard and wilted roses for their anniversary, when she doesn't sleep for a month because her baby has colic and all the nannies she hires end up quitting after phone calls with her husband, the only one who would help her is herself.
She looks at her son and sees none of her husband in him. Instead she sees her grandmother's soft hair, her father's wide eyes, her mother's determination.
She sees her own loneliness.
The next week she enrols him in a day program against his own pleas.
A week after that he meets Hibari Kyouya and history is made.
A mother's desire means seeing her children prosper. And she will make her children prosper. No matter the blood or the tears.
The truth is this:
Iemitsu made a mistake in marrying Nana. He thought her sweet, simple. A pretty flower, something that would never wilt. Flighty and airy. He saw himself as her one constant.
He forgot that the most colourful creatures are also the most poisonous.
