AN: This is unedited. It's four a.m in the morning, I'm tired and can't sleep, and will probably regret posting this later but...
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Chapter 2 - New and Old Paths
When Tsuna was little, she used to love dancing in the rain.
She would wear her sunny-yellow raincoat, don her small boots, and run out of the house at the first sight of a drizzle, belatedly remembering to go back and grab the orange umbrella that had been a gift from her Papa.
She would stand still in the middle of the street, mouth partially open and tongue peeking out to catch a falling rain drop. The wetness would make her laugh and dance around the block, spinning her pretty umbrella over her shoulder. When it got too cold or the rain began falling too hard, her mother would coax her back inside the house, where she would be ushered into a warm bath and then receive a cup of hot chocolate.
She would then watch the rain falling outside, waterdrops insistently beating against her room's window, as if beckoning her to join them again. A feeling of peace would wash over her, settling around her body like a comforting blanket she never wanted to slid out of.
How many days did she spend leaning against a window, watching and listening as the world was filled with life-giving water, allowing herself that one moment of tranquility in the mess that was her life? Letting the rain wash away her worries, if only for an hour...
It had saved her sanity, that it had.
Of course, just because she liked the rain, didn't mean she wanted to have to thread back home on foot during a downpour.
Regardless, that was what happened, and by the time Tsuna reached her apartment's door, her hands were shaking and numb with cold as she tried to keep a firm grip on her keys.
Luckily, the door opened before she needed to try.
"What is it..." Lambo stopped abruptly to gape at her, horrified. "Tsuna-nee?! What happened to you?!"
Teeth rattling inside her mouth by the force of her trembling, Tsuna tried to explain herself.
"R-rain, no u-umbrella. I..." she closed her in pain. "T-the job, I..."
Lambo cut her off. "What are doing? Stop talking and get in, Baka-Aneki. We need to get you out of these wet clothes and put you in the shower- shit, I forgot the stupid shower's out of hot water."
"L-language," Tsuna chided the teen.
Lambo threw her a deadpanned look from over his shoulders, even as he dragged her inside, dismissing her concerns about trailing in water and mud all over the floor.
"Lambo? Who was it?" Fuuta came out of the kitchenette, abruptly stopping in his tracks at the sight of her.
Immediately, he began issuing orders,
"Lambo, gather all of our buckets and start heating the water. Put the tea kettle to boil as well. Be careful of the water on the ground when you go pick the towels from the rack. And don't forget the blankets from our room."
Lambo nodded and started to follow the instructions to the letter while Fuuta took a firm hold of her elbow, frowning at the chilliness from her skin, and begun to gently steer her towards the bathroom.
When they were inside, Fuuta helped her take off her clothes when her shaking limb proved too uncooperative. There was no shame or hesitation from either part when her brother removed her drenched shirt and helped her slip out of the ruined jeans and soaked sneakers. The three siblings had often shared baths during their younger years; at first, because they had a big bathtub and toddler Lambo liked to play with his older siblings when forced to take a bath; later, when they were forced to move away from their home to this tiny apartment, it became a way to conserve water and save on the cost of the bills.
Fuuta only left briefly to take the towel and the buckets of hot water from Lambo. After Tsuna entered the shower, he asked if she still needed help, to which she replied with a quiet 'no'. He nodded and left, saying he would only be a call away.
For the longest time, Tsuna stood in the shower stall, mechanically dumping bucket after bucket of water over her head, scrubbing herself raw with the cheap soap, before repeating the process. Rinse and repeat. It was slow. Relaxing. Easy.
It was only when she left the bathroom and was promptly bundled up on the beaten-up couch with two blankets draped over her shoulders and nursing a cup of Sencha tea on her hands, did the full realization of the day's catastrophes hit her.
She had to put the teacup on the table lest she let it fall and break all over the floor.
Break like my life will if I don't fix this somehow...
"Tsuna-nee? What happened?" Lambo prodded gently.
The words stuck in her throat, Tsuna lowered her head, too ashamed to look at her youngster brother.
"Lambo," Fuuta called. "Why don't you go back to our room and work on that math homework you were complaining about earlier? Didn't you say you had a test coming up soon?"
Lambo opened his mouth to protest, green eyes blazing with indignation before he glanced at Tsuna's defeated posture and he swallowed back any words. Biting his mouth hard, he stomped away, saying nothing.
Only when they heard the sound of a door slamming shut, did Fuuta speak.
"Will you tell me what happened now?"
Tsuna looked at him, at the dark brown eyes silently begging her to tell them what was wrong so that they could help, and like the weak, pathetic girl she was, she let the words spill out of her mouth like a dam bursting open.
"I lost the job. I'm sorry, I didn't want to, I'm so sorry. There were dogs and running and the bike got destroyed and I know those are stupid excuses, I know that, and I'm so sorry, otouto. It's all my fault, everything. Wataru-san was right, I'm bad luck, not worth the trouble. Anyone would be better off without me, I'm no good at all-"
"Shut your mouth."
Tsuna shut it so quickly there was an audible 'click'. She stared at her little brother with wide eyes. Never before had she seen Fuuta looking so... so furious.
Furious at me? she wondered. He should. I screwed up. Again.
Who would want such a disappointment like her as a big sister? Who would want to even share the same breathing space?
It didn't matter if today was an accident; if it had nothing to do with her at all. Bad things always seemed to happen around Tsuna, like a curse. That was just fact. She tripped over nothing, often dragging someone down with her, resulting sometimes in severe injuries. She was stupid and slow and useless, no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Had barely graduated from elementary school, and was already failing as a first year in middle school long before she finally dropped out. When they weren't taunting her, everyone avoided Nanashima Tsuna like the plague.
Hell, if Tsuna could get away from herself, she would.
Apparently, Fuuta had finally realized what everyone already knew: Tsuna was no good at all, and he would take Lambo and leave and never look back, and Tsuna would spend the rest of her worthless little life alone and oh, Kami-sama, she can't breathe-
Fuuta leaned forward from his chair, eyes burning with intent. "If I ever hear you say those things about yourself again, I will leave this house and go punch every worthless soul who ever put you down in the face. I will also vandalize their homes and get myself arrested by the Yakuza. When they finally let me out, I go do everything all over again. You will only ever see me during visitation hours, through the bars of my minuscule cell that I will have to share with thieves and other delinquents."
Silence.
"... I'm sorry?" Tsuna squeaked.
Her brother nodded solemnly. "Just don't do it again."
"Okay..." she wrapped the blankets tighter around her shoulders. "But that doesn't change the fact I'm currently still unemployed."
"That's easy enough to fix. I'm nineteen, I can get a job."
Tsuna looked at him with horror. "But what about college?! You can't get a job, you have to concentrate on your studies, your degree-!"
"Onee-san," Fuuta said decisively. "All of my teachers tell me I'm ahead of my classmates in every subject. Missing a few hour of study won't result in me flunking it." His eyes softened as he looked at her. "You're not the only one who has to make the sacrifices, you know. We are a family. Trust us to help you when you need it."
But Tsuna was already shaking her head furiously. "I'm the older one," she told him stubbornly. "I'm responsible for your and Lambo's well-being. Your education is paramount and I won't let you jeopardize it because of me."
I have to take care of you. I promised Mama. You're the only ones I have left...
"Tsuna-nee-"
"No, Fuuta. That's my final decision. I will work something out," she always does. "Maybe I can go back to washing dishes at that pizza restaurant. There's gotta be something. I just have to find it. Whatever it is, I will do it."
The young man scowled. "Are you going to spend the rest of your life washing dishes and mopping floors?" he gave her a sad expression. "You were meant for so much more than this, Onee-san..."
No, Tsuna thinks to herself, finally picking up the Sencha tea from the table and slowly starting to sip from it. You're wrong, Fuuta.
This is exactly what I deserve.
Two days later, there was an unwelcome knock on their door.
Tsuna, still jobless and already aware of who she would find behind the door, took a deep, steadying breath and opened it.
"Good morning, Osamu-san..."
Osamu-san was a low-ranking member of Namimori's Yakuza, the Momokyokai, as the black tattoos covering most of the bared skin she could see attested to. Not only that, he was also one of the members who took care of collecting the rent from the all the tenants in the block. Every month, Tsuna lived in fear of his shadow darkening her doorstep.
"Nanashima," he greeted curtly. "You know why I'm here."
Swallowing, Tsuna nodded, telling the yakuza to wait for just a moment, and went back to Fuuta and Lambo's shared bedroom. Underneath Lambo's bed, she fished out a stuffed lion.
It was an old but well-loved toy. She vaguely recalls a towering giant of a man gifting her with it on her third birthday, obligingly imitating 'roars' for her when she begged to play with him.
She had named the lion Natsu. It had been her favorite toy. A faithful companion that had kept her safe from the monsters under the bed and remained by her side during the long, lonely days when no child wanted to play with her at the playground.
And now it had become the secret place to stash the emergency money.
Pitilessly, she took a scissor from the room's work desk and carefully snipped at the stitches holding the stuffed toy together. When the head was separated from the rest of the body, bills of yen came pouring down. She collected each one, careful to make sure she hadn't missed any, then returned to the living room where Osamu-san was still waiting patiently.
She handed him the cash. "Here it is."
He began to count the money, paused, and then started again while she nervously watched on. When he stopped for the second time, Tsuna knew there was something wrong.
She was right.
"I'm sorry, Nanashima, but this only covers half of the rent, and I'm being generous there."
"What?" she croaked, hand tightening on the doorknob. "No, it can't be. I guarded that money specifically because it was the exact amount of rent. Are you sure you counted it right?"
He gave her an affronted look. "Of course I did. I wasn't the one to flunk school, you know?" Osamu sneered.
Too used to the insults by now, Tsuna plowed ahead. "But I counted just yesterday..."
"Didn't anyone tell you? We raised the rent."
"You raised the rent?!"
"You didn't receive the announcement from your landlord?" Osamu asked. "He's been warning everyone for a whole week."
No. She hadn't received any announcement. That might be because her landlord hated her and hadn't seen as necessary to warn her about the fucking rent going up.
"He must have forgotten," she finally managed to spit out.
Osamu shrugged, totally unconcerned. "Well, now you know. So, where's the rest?"
Tsuna grounded her teeth. "There's no more. I still haven't received my check." Better not to tell him she had lost her job.
The man sighed as if Tsuna had just made his life a million times more difficult just by existing. "And when will you receive it?"
"Uh... In a week?"
A week? A week?! Why the hell did she say that?! Where would she find a job and get paid in a week when there was no one hiring?!
Tsuna despaired over her own idiocy.
"Alright. I can come back in a week. But no longer than that. If you don't have the money 'till then, Nanashima, you and your brats can pack your bags and leave."
Tsuna nodded, feeling her stomach drop as she watched Osamu walk away with all the money she had left in this life.
When she closed the door, she let her back fall against the wood, letting it slow her descent as she slid all the way to the ground. The urge to hide her face and bawl like a baby was almost too much.
What was she going to do? What could she do? A yakuza had just left her apartment with the rest of her money and an ultimatum. If she failed to deliver the rest in a week's time, she and her brothers would be sleeping under a bridge in the near future.
At the image of her little brothers begging on the streets crossed her mind, a sob burst out of her mouth before she muffled it. She couldn't break down now. Fuuta might already have left for his morning classes, but Lambo was still inside the apartment, taking a shower before heading to school. Later she could take a few minutes to cry. Later. Now though, she had to splatter a smile on her face carry on, pretending nothing was wrong and her family wasn't about to be evicted from their only home.
Tsuna had just finished making herself presentable when Lambo appeared, wearing the Namimori High School uniform, curly hair still drying from his quick shower.
"I thought I heard someone at the door? Who was it?" He studied her with critical eyes, his usually lazy look replaced with a sharp one. She could see that his hold on the strap of his backpack had already tightened as if he was bracing himself for the worse.
She waved his questions away. "Don't worry about it, Lambo. They knocked on the wrong door. I sent them on their way."
The teen looked doubtful, but his grip relaxed as he accepted his big sister's words at face value. His trust in her made Tsuna feel like the scum of the earth.
"Well then, I'm off. Don't expect me for dinner, I'm going to spend the night at Fuji's to work on that science project. Bye, Tsuna-nee!" Lambo gave her a lazy wave on his way out, which she returned with a smile.
"Bye..."
When the door closed behind Lambo, Tsuna finally allowed herself to cry, hanging to the kitchen counter as sobs wracked her body.
It took a while before she calmed down. After washing her face in the sink and drinking a glass of water to replenish herself, she felt a little more human, capable of rational thought instead of constantly dissolving into hysterics.
She sat down on the couch, contemplating her situation.
Now with a clearer head, Tsuna could see that, while quite dire indeed, her predicament was not as hopeless as she had first assumed. There was still one avenue she had not given serious consideration yet.
She was giving it now.
On her right hand, a folded slip of paper with a string of numbers coupled with a name. On her left, the cracked black screen of her outdated cell phone reflected her pale face back at her. In her mind, the decision to make a call she never thought she would have to. Hesitantly, she punched in the numbers and waited for someone to answer.
One ring. Two rings. Three. Four-
"Moshi moshi?"
Tsuna swallowed the dry lump in her throat.
"Hi. It's Tsuna. Nanashima Tsuna, I mean. I just wanted to tell you that I've been thinking about your proposal and I..." The girl took a deep breath. "I decided to accept it."
She ignored the anxiety and fear growing inside her. And she certainly ignored the voice at the back of her head, whispering that she had made the right choice.
It didn't matter if it was right or wrong. She had made the only possible choice. Now she would have to live with it.
(She promised Mama she would take care of them. She promised her.
... Tsuna would never break a promise to Mama.)
"You know, though I've been waiting for years, I never thought you would actually call me."
The two women sat in seiza on the tatami floors in one of the medium-sized room found in the house, a low table with two cups and a tea kettle between them. Tsuna nervously alternated watching the clearly expensive tea set and her hostess.
Miura Haru was a lovely woman, even when she wasn't trying to be. At the moment wearing a simple dark blue short-sleeved blouse with a white shirt underneath and black pants covering her slim legs instead of her usual rich and gorgeous kimonos, she still looked more beautiful than most people Tsuna knew, her face bare of any cosmetics, the short, pixie dark hair missing wigs and lacking any pins or decorations. But there was something in the way she walked, the confident sway of her hips, the secretive edge of her smile, her sharp brown eyes looking at you as if she knew your darkest secrets, that earned her another adjective in Tsuna's wary mind.
Dangerous.
Tsuna often wondered if that was requisite to anyone who lived life as a geisha.
"It has been three years, Nanashima-san. You must know you are a bit late to undergo the training." Haru pointed out gently, blowing on her tea cup before taking a sip.
She made even that look like the most graceful of gestures.
Suddenly feeling self-conscious, Tsuna put her own cup down on the table between them. "I will be honest with you, Miura-san. I am desperate. No one will hire me, I can't get loans from the bank, and have no friends whom I could borrow money from. My family and I are about to be kicked from our home because we can't pay the rent." She looked down at her lap, fists clenched. Then she rose up, stepped away from the table and bowed until her forehead touched the floor.
"I know I am much older than the other girls, but please. You are my last chance. My family's last chance. If nothing else, let me work as one of your maids or a servant or, or... Anything, anything at all, I will do it. But please... Don't turn me away."
With her eyes turned to the floor and clenched shut, Tsuna missed the compassionate look that flickered through Haru's eyes before it disappeared. She missed the way the woman rested her cup on the table and moved to kneel directly in front of Tsuna. It was only the soft touch of Haru's hand on her hair that made her look up.
"One of the first lessons you need to learn: we don't prostate ourselves so easily. We may bend, like the green reed in the wind, but even that is a choice. Times are not like they were decades ago for geisha. Above all, you must remember that: we, women of the arts, always have a choice."
"You mean... you will..." Tsuna chokes, relief flooding her as she leaned into the hands cupping her face.
Haru grins at her. It's not the small, polite smile she wears among customers or visitors. It is unrestrainedly happy, bright and real. She looks younger that way, more like a childish girl than the feminine lady she was moments ago.
"The okiya will cover all of your debts, and in return, you will become my maiko, working and learning under me as your Onee-san," a serious look entered her eyes. "It won't be easy. You will have to learn in months what usually takes years. And you are beginning late, much too late, many would say. But I know you will not disappoint me."
For a moment, Tsuna swore Haru's eyes flashed green, like a lightning strike; there and gone in a second.
"By the time I am done with you, no one will ever call you Dame-Tsuna again."
Two Months Later
"How's the job going, kora?"
A man in a black suit watched the city lights atop the veranda of a luxurious hotel in Tokyo as he puffed out smoke from the cigarette in his mouth and held a top-of-line cell phone to his ear.
"I just arrived in Tokyo yesterday night, Collonello. It will take some more time to scout out the area."
Reborn suspected that it would take quite a bit of time in truth. After being summoned by Federico, the would-be-Vongola-Decimo, and got called in for the favor he owned the Famiglia, Reborn had had to rush through all his other contracted hits while making preparations for the journey to a notoriously isolated country, which took a whole month (he knew he shouldn't have taken up his colleagues' invitation to a holiday) by itself.
He had already been in Japan's soil for almost three weeks now, carefully combing first through Hokkaido, and then making his way down. Before that, there was the week he wasted just to get a fake passport and an I.D that would hold up against Japan's legendary inspection. As of now, his name was Ren Amoretto (last time he let Shamal choose his fake name), a quarter-Japanese from his mother's side, who was also a math teacher from a prestigious university trying to reconnect with his recently-deceased madre by learning more about the country she hailed from.
(That was also the last time Reborn ever allowed Shamal to come up with a fake background for him.)
Not for the first time, he cursed the Japanese's almost unhealthy wariness of foreigns.
As if all that wasn't enough, this job just might be the worst one of his career. The only concrete clue he had on his target was an old, years outdated photo, and a name.
Tsunayoshi.
That name fucking haunted him. For the past month he went to sleep with Tsunayoshi in his mind and woke with it on his lips. And Collonello, the bastard, seemed to know that if he was already calling to poke fun at the other Arcobaleno.
"Any idea how you're going to find your target, kora?" the Rain sounded unbearably smug.
If Reborn were a lesser man, he would have growled; as it was, he merely took another long drag off the cig.
"I'm going to spend the next two days in the city. Then I'm going futher south. There's a town off to the side, called Namimori. I don't expect to find much, but I've heard that there's where Satoko Sawada was buried. Maybe I can find the house Iemitsu grew up in." If nothing else, it would be interesting learning about the ex-Head of CEDEF's past.
"Satoko Sawada? The wife of Hidetada Sawada?"
"The very same." Reborn nodded though he knew Collonello couldn't see it. Iemitsu's father had been famous as one of the most powerful Skies in the world at the time, and his death (read: murder) had been mourned by all of Japan and, especially, by his Sun Guardian and wife, Satoko, who committed suicide shortly after, leaving behind a young, adolescent son to survive on his own.
It was only after his death that Reborn realized just how secretive Iemitsu had truly been in order to thrive all those years. For such a loud, boisterous man, who always bragged about his beloved wife, the Sky never once described her or where she lived; hell, few people knew she even existed, much less her name. For all Reborn knew, she might not even have lived in Japan, but Federico seemed certain that was the case and if Reborn trusted anything from the young mafioso, it was his Intuition.
Still... who would ever have thought? Iemitsu actually reproduced. A son. A child of Vongola blood that just might try to become the most powerful man in the world, as the Boss who rules all bosses.
"Well, at least you will get to have some fun in there. Have you met any Japanese beauties yet, kora?"
Reborn rolled his eyes. "I'm here on business, idiota. Not pleasure. I don't have time to play with the locals."
"Ah, come on, Reborn!" The other man whined. "I've heard that there are some places called the pleasure districts! You can't tell me you don't want to go there!"
He snorted. "Why the sudden interest? Isn't Lau enough for you?"
From the other side of the call, Collonello let out an offended noise. "No one can match my Lau!" the military blond nearly shouted. "But just because I can't touch doesn't mean I can't look, kora. And as your best friend, it is your sacred duty to allow me to live vicariously through you."
"You're not my best friend," Reborn contested. "In fact, I would barely call us acquaintances."
Dryly, Collonello said "If it's not me, then it's Skull."
"What are you talking about Collonello? You know you're my best friend," was his instant reply.
They shared a laugh, until a new voice sounded from Collonello's side, and they had to close the call.
Left alone with his thoughts again, Reborm breathed in the cool air of Tokyo's night life, coming to the unpleasant realization he would have to take his fedora off for Iemitsu when they met in the afterlife. To be able to hide a possible heir for so long and to such lengths that even he didn't know where to look...
Nevertheless, Reborn was the Greatest Hitman in the World. He had never known failure before. He wouldn't start now.
Forgive me Iemitsu, the hitman tilted his hat down to cover his eyes at the same time he snuffed out the cigarette in his palm. A quick burst of Sun Flames, and the burn was gone. Around his neck, a yellow pacifier glowed faintly, before returning to its dormant state.
It's nothing personal. Just business.
"Kyo-sama, I've already finished all the preparations. We may leave whenever you're ready."
Inside a grand bedroom in one of the Hibari states scattered through Japan, the Imperial Prince Kyouya Hibari opened his eyes from the couch he had been taking a nap on.
"Thank you Tetsu," he said softly, grey eyes still hazy from sleep. "We leave tomorrow. Warn Sasagawa."
His trusted right hand, Kusakabe Tetsuya, nodded once, then left the room, being careful to close the door softly behind him.
Alone in his room, Kyouya stretched his body, languidly rising from the couch like a large jungle cat and making his way to the double glass doors leading to a veranda off to the side with an exquisite view of the gardens. The cold night air of Kyoto threatened to steal the breath from his lungs, and the fact he wore only a loose black pants, leaving his chest and feet bare, didn't help. He shook it off though, instead letting his gaze wander towards a specific direction.
A few kilometers that way, and Kyouya would finally see his personal territory again, the place he and more than three generations of Hibaris were born and raised for most of their childhood. Finally, after ten years of absence, the carnivore would return to reclaim to his rightful throne.
No matter the circumstances behind his return, it would be good to be in Namimori again.
He let a blood-thirsty smirk curl at the edges of his mouth.
It would be even better to bite some herbivores to death.
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AN: Oh my god. Oh my GOD. I just turned Tsuna into a geisha. I made Hibari into an Imperial Prince of Japan. Oh My God... It's official, I've finally lost my mind. What am I even doing?!
Also, Haru might appear a little (a lot) out of character, but there's a reason for it that will be explained next chapter.
Review?