"Tsu-kun?"
Tsuna didn't turn his head from where he gazed at the large board covering the majority of his office wall. In front of him, pictures and mug shots of various men and women were tacked to the black surface. Documents, newspaper clippings, maps, tickets and receipts, letters, addresses, sticky notes and random excerpts from overheard conversations were also stuck to the board; all of them were linked to each other by a multitude of red string. Tsuna was gnawing absently on his thumbnail as he traced a hand along one string, attempting to discover the meaning of one connection to another. The back of his head was tilted up, staring at the highest, uppermost parts of the board and he was inching closer and closer to the step ladder that he had used to reach the places above his standing height.
Kyoko sighed from her position and entered Tsuna's office, softly closing the door behind her. Tsuna didn't seem to notice her appearance and continued gazing around the room, following one piece of string after another. It wasn't until Kyoko took up the end of her own thread and trailed her hand down to meet her husbands that he paused and looked up at her with a frown of concentration wrinkling his brow and a slight glaze to his eyes which informed Kyoko that he was off in his own world again. When Kyoko smiled however, the haze cleared immediately and Tsuna straightened from his slightly hunched posture. His lips curved upwards in response to her presence and he finally managed to reply, "Kyoko-chan! When did you come in?"
"Just then," she replied, turning to the board that had Tsuna so fascinated, "Big Bro wanted me to tell you that he's going to be cutting his holiday short since he accidentally unearthed an underground human trafficking network in Paris and plans to take care of it personally…"
Tsuna frowned at that information, obviously displeased at the idea of one of his guardians going toe to toe with an entire Family in a foreign country, but he could hardly deny that he had begun to miss the man's positive energy around the mansion. Maybe returning home sooner wouldn't be that bad.
"I told him not to interfere and to wait for you to send a team in to handle it, but you know what Big Bro is like when he gets all pumped up," Kyoko raised a fist in the air and did a very bad 'extreeeme' impression which made Tsuna burst out in laughter, his worry instantly forgotten.
"You should be careful, Kyoko-chan," Tsuna warned, "Next thing you know, you'll start eating as much as him and leaving your used socks all over our room. Personally, I don't think the chefs would be able to handle two monstrous appetites…"
Kyoko laughed at the idea and then paused when her eyes settled on the picture of a beautiful woman. Even though the photo looked like it had been taken hastily from the window of an apartment as the woman was exiting a car and was probably displaying nothing more than a suspect or potential threat, Kyoko still felt a hint of jealousy – why was such an attractive woman's picture tacked onto Tsuna's wall?
"Who's this?" Kyoko asked curiously. Tsuna glanced over from where he had let his mind wander down the strings and gave the picture a brief glance before returning to the large depiction of a Family tree.
"That's Celia Mirellia D'Ortona, better known as Lianoise the Sixth."
"She's a boss?" Kyoko asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise.
"Yes, and a rather violent one at that," Tsuna murmured, lost in concentration as he placed the Family tree back on a pile of paper and rose to inspect a meeting record scrawled messily in Gokudera's handwriting, "She took the position by force after staging a Coup d'état with her brother Raniero. After Raniero had settled into the position of Fifth and appointed Celia as his Consigliere, she created a branch office to Lianoise's company in secret. It began expanding rapidly and when she felt it had gained enough momentum, Celia tricked her brother into double crossing Resuttana the Eighteenth which lead to Lianoise Corp.'s eventual collapse. When Raniero came crawling on his knees back to Celia, she bought out her brothers company, liquidated his assets and seized control of the Family. Now, Raniero is little more than a second rate hitman whose pretty lucky to have survived after coming so close to destroying his entire Family," Tsuna paused for a moment then glanced up with a slight smile, "All things considered, his parents probably could have chosen a better name for him…"
"What do you mean?" She asked curiously, her mind still processing all the information she had been supplied. The amount of knowledge and seemingly trivial facts that Tsuna had managed to store in his memory never ceased to amaze her.
"The Italian meaning of Raniero is literally 'wise warrior'…" Tsuna explained with a smirk, "Definitely not what I would label him nowadays. Even a new recruit could have seen through Ciela's plan."
Kyoko simply shook her head in shock at his words. She knew that most Mafia women were near-heartless when it came to seizing power but to murder her boss and trick her own brother into poverty…
"Who's her partner?" She asked, noticing the almost imperceptible bulge in Celia's stomach.
"Hmm? Partner? Her Consigliere is a man ca-"
"No," Kyoko interrupted, "I mean her lover. Are they married?"
Tsuna stilled his hands and glanced up at Kyoko with confusion all over his face, "Lover?" he asked, "Celia is a confirmed bachelorette with a string of lovers left all over Europe. Mind you that trail's begun to dwindle somewhat. The last time she left a man alone in a hotel room was almost three and a half months ago."
"Three and a half?" Kyoko repeated disbelievingly, turning her eyes back to the picture. Sure enough, there was a slight bump in her stomach that Kyoko would recognize anywhere. When she had first seen Bianchi sporting the proud stomach of an expecting mother, Kyoko's mind had subconsciously etched the memory into her brain, "Are you sure? She doesn't look like she's more than a few weeks along…"
That really got Tsuna's attention. He stood abruptly and almost tumbled backwards over an inconveniently placed cardboard box. He steadied himself by grabbing hold of the wall and pulling himself over to where Kyoko was watching with wide eyes.
"Few weeks along in what?" He asked frantically, already half-expecting the answer.
"Her pregnancy…?" Kyoko explained, beginning to fear for her husband's sanity. Surely he had noticed that Celia was pregnant? It had only taken her two glances to suspect and then confirm it.
"She's…she…" Tsuna mumbled, staring over Kyoko's shoulder at the photo, eyes narrowed at the woman's stomach, "Pregnant…but she…"
Kyoko watched him, suddenly feeling a slight sense of unease steal over her. Why was Tsuna reacting so…strangely? Surely it wasn't that intriguing? She couldn't help but feel a hint of suspicion. He seemed to know everything about her; the rise to power, her personality, her family and Family life, her…sexual partners. Kyoko paled suddenly when a kind of realization hit her. She opened her mouth to ask Tsuna the damning question when she was suddenly cut off by a sudden whoop.
"Of COURSE!" Tsuna yelped, turning on his heel and bolting to the other side of the wall. He did a small jump in order to reach the ball of red string hanging from a nail in the wall and then as quickly as he had gone, bolted back to her side. He practically skidded to a stop in front of Celia's picture and looped one end of the string around the thumb tack holding it in place. Kyoko watching with wide, confused eyes and he dashed back into the middle of the wall, grabbing the step ladder as he went. Tsuna climbed the steps, never once taking his eyes off of his target and then looped the string around another thumb tack. He continued to mutter inaudibly under his breath as he jumped fearlessly off the third step and darted back to the far left hand side of the wall.
Kyoko watched as Tsuna continued his fervent exertions until finally, he came to an abrupt halt back where he had began, when Kyoko had first walked in.
"Oh god, it makes so much more sense now! If Celia was seeing – but she couldn't have – so Pietro helped out with the – then when she's found out they'll – Kyoko, you are the most beautiful, intelligent woman I've ever met!" He exclaimed suddenly, turning around with his eyes shining with unexpected excitement.
At his words and actions, Kyoko couldn't help the smile that slid onto her face. Sometime during his frantic running, she had realized that no, her husband had not been having an affair with a fellow Mafia Boss and was terrified that he had accidentally impregnated her – instead, she was certain that he had just managed to solve a rather large puzzle that had been pulling at his concentration for a few weeks now.
Tsuna took two long strides over to where Kyoko stood and pulled her into an enthusiastic hug. She squeaked when he lifted her feet off the ground and twirled her around in a small circle, laughing in delight all the while. When he set her feet back down on the ground, Kyoko took the chance to pull his head down and steal a breathy kiss. Tsuna smiled into it and he closed his eyes briefly, allowing her to entangle her fingers into the hair at the base of his neck. He gently tightened his arms around her waist and couldn't help but break off to grin at her widely again.
At the sudden lapse, Kyoko took the chance to ask curiously, "What did you figure out?"
Tsuna grinned as his arms fell away from her and he pulled her by the hand over to the beginning of the red thread. It was connected to a piece of paper with barely legible Italian handwriting on it, but Tsuna explained instead of Kyoko trying and failing to make out the unfamiliar language.
"This is a message to Don Tripannie from Vincenzio Vippia, a freelance hitman who until recently was considered retired. Normally he'd have no reason to contact someone like Don Tripannie, but I managed to connect him to a recent string of unidentified murders since he forgot the most important thing – all hitmen have a style than can be recognized. Usually. At first there didn't seem to be any pattern but if we follow the strings from all the victims, we notice that they're all related by one obscure link – Pietro Armarov. He's the acting CEO of Liangeoise Inc. which is the branch of Lianoise Corp. that Celia started. All of the victims had contact with him in the last six months and either work for him or have made some kind of transaction with him. Don Tripannie was originally a supporter of Lianoise Corp., so when things turned sour with Raniero and Celia, he pulled back his hand and turned on Celia.
Usually,we wouldn't get involved with this kind of thing, but it wasn't until Anturi of Vongola and Kustoff of the Russian Mafia got in contact that we started looking into it. We tapped Anturi's phone lines to find out who this Kustoff guy was since we don't have any contacts in the Russian Mafia – no reliable ones anyway – and we hit a complete dead end," Tsuna explained, pulling Kyoko along the red thread to yet another mug shot of a burly, angry looking Russian with a large burn of his cheek. She had listened with something akin to fascination. The politics of the underworld somehow always managed to thrill her.
"Well, we nearly hit a dead end," Tsuna continued, "but when Gokudera was in Sicily, he picked up a rouge transmission meant for a guy named Michele. It was in Russian and that was pretty much the only reason he kept record. It mentioned something about the Tripannie Family and that was enough to spark out interest. When we looked into it, we found out that Kustoff was a high-ranking hitmen in one of Russia's right-wing Families that had been backing Don Tripannie financially for about a year and a half. With the help of Kustoff's Family, Tripannie the twelfth had been planning to build up a second, legit business with Anturi set to be the acting head. Only two days before their big unveiling plan, Celia resigned and pulled all of the hitmen loyal to her out of the Family and disappeared completely."
Kyoko nodded along, not willing to admit that she had lost track of everything Tsuna had just said and had let her mind start wandering back when he starting throwing around names so easily.
"Okay…but how does Celia's pregnancy fit into this?" She asked eventually.
"Oh! Well, we knew how the Trippanie Family was planning their rise, but we didn't know the motive. Since Celia is pregnant, that changes everything. See, the only person that she could have, um, been in a relationship with without us finding out about it would be her right hand – Michele. It turns out that he was in Sicily on an assignment when Gokudera was there, and that's the only reason we knew of his involvement. Kustoff's message must have been a threat to Michele, telling him that the Russians knew about him and Celia. It also explains why Vippia was targeting those who had contacted Pietro – Don Trippanie was trying to scare off any prospective business partners and send a warning to Celia, the real head of the company, that Trippanie wouldn't let anymore large deals be made with Liangeois Inc. It was his way of threatening their entire Family without any of the actual hitmen knowing about it; kind of an underhanded way to go about it, but effective nonetheless. Celia must have caught on and left the second she had the chance. Michele was found decapitated two days ago which only confirms my suspicions that Celia doesn't want anyone else knowing about her pregnancy until she's already aborted it."
Kyoko looked at Tsuna with wide eyes as he gazed around the board with a dark expression.
"Why did you figure all of this out?" Kyoko asked curiously, "Is it going to affect Vongola?"
Tsuna considered for a moment before nodded slightly, "Yes, I believe it will. I can't overlook Arturo's intended betrayal, even if it didn't go through. Also, Celia contacted me the other day requested a meeting under friendly conditions."
Kyoko's eyes shot wide at this small tidbit of information that Tsuna forgot to mention earlier, "Friendly conditions?" She repeated, not liking the obviously bitter note in her voice. Tsuna seemed to catch on that she wasn't happy about his small moment of omission.
"Don't worry, Kyoko-chan," He assured her as he pulled her into a hug, "My reply didn't please her very much. I may have let slip that I have a loving wife who I appreciate more than the idea of a flimsy alliance with a dying Family."
Kyoko made a contented noise against his shoulder and giggled when she felt his breath mess up her combed fringe. She pulled back with her nose wrinkling in sudden puzzlement again.
"Wait a minute, Tsu-kun," she started, "If you're not going to see this woman, why did you go to so much trouble to find the whole story?"
Tsuna smiled and pecked a kiss on Kyok's nose before replying, "This way, when I see Don Trappie next week, I'll have enough material to blackmail him into signing over the entire multi-million…even billion Dollar Company, and its income, to Vongola."
Kyoko stared at Tsuna in shock for a moment, understanding dawning on her slowly as Tsuna broke out in to an even wider grin.
"Say, Kyoko-chan…where do you want our new holiday resort to be based?"
A/N Again, my love for the idea of Tsuna actually knowing what he's doing surfaces. This was also inspired from Jasper's prompt 'Strings' so for any nit-pickers who argue that technically it's not a blackboard but a cork board that uses thumb tacks, ignore the chapter title and pretend it says String instead. Mafia Politics is possibly one of the most interesting things to write. It's like normal politics, but on steroids and everyone has guns.