Reborn eyed Ieyasu with open interest.
"Dare I ask how you managed to not only find a strong Rain and Cloud willing to become your Guardians, but also managed to drag your twin here without alerting the Vongola?"
"Easy. I made up a fake contest and gave my mother a chance to find out where her husband was and insured she would stumble across him, then spirited my brother away once she was on the plane. As far as anyone in that neighborhood is concerned Ieyasu is out scouting colleges to apply to now that he doesn't have to worry about his mother. Naturally he didn't say which colleges he was interested in, so no one will be able to trace where he is since he forgot his cell phone," said Hotaru.
Reborn approved of the trick. Iemitsu would be too busy protecting his wife during her 'vacation', and wouldn't think to look for his son in the interim.
"Of course the second he tries to send her home, I'm going to spread rumors that the External Adviser is worried that his security around his civilian family isn't enough, which will force him to keep her close and waste resources attempting to locate Ieyasu. With a few adjustments to his appearance and a Mist illusion or two, he'll be safe with us when I make my bid for Decima, since they won't be able to use him against me later."
Reborn hummed with approval. His Sky was both devious and intelligent. By claiming her brother now, before she made her true flame known, she had effectively taken him under her wing. And as twins, there was a high chance he would have a Sky flame as well... twin Skies were a rarity though, but when they appeared a symbiotic resonance was not impossible.
Such existences were downright terrifying, and could raise a famiglia into the upper echelons of the underworld if cultivated carefully.
Best of all she was eliminating the chance of a potential rival being brought up by the Ninth generation and her father in an attempt to remove her from the post of Decima if her brother had a Sky flame as well.
Besides, by directing her mother to her errant husband she was causing all sorts of mischief that Iemitsu couldn't repay later. His philandering ways was about to come to a sharp and sudden end.
Somehow Reborn had the feeling Lal was going to laugh her ass off when she found out what really happened.
Federico was tense. He had recently been designated as the Vongola heir and he knew damn well that there were sharks just waiting in the wings to take him out. His Guardians weren't much to speak of and his own skills were rather pitiful.
It would be far too simple to have him killed off. He was under no illusions on that front.
The only thing that gave him hope was the knowledge that there was another Sky of the Vongola bloodline waiting in the wings to declare a Ring Battle. Even if he found the appropriate flame types, he knew damn well that he wouldn't stand a chance against the other Sky's Elements.
For god's sake, she had the likes of Reborn and Fon as her Guardians! How was he supposed to compare to that?
So Federico kept his head down and waited. When she came to challenge him he would give it his best and become External Adviser without a complaint like they agreed. He had never liked Iemitsu anyway and as External Adviser his position would be secured without being forced to fight against a powerhouse capable of having two Arcobaleno in their Sky.
His father had no idea what was waiting for him. Federico merely kept an eye for good Elements that had some effect on his own Flames in the hopes of finding actual Guardians before the appointed time.
Xanxus had helpfully given him the location of the Vongola laws that specifically dealt with inheritance and the Ring Battles. Once they were declared he planned to leak them through the Alliance to firm up the girl's position when she won and make it impossible for his father to force her removal through another contest.
Unlike Daniela, who had to fight through that three times before her own claim was accepted and her position secured.
He just had to wait until the timing was right to give Xanxus the signal. He had no idea who the hidden Sky was, but his adopted brother had assured him that the girl had recently completed her Sky and that her Rain just needed a bit of refinement before he could be considered ready.
Reborn had already secured the position as her primary Right hand, as her Lightning had taken the post of the Left. However her Rain, according to Xanxus could easily be considered a contender for the Left once he trained up enough.
Federico shivered, and was openly glad he had agreed to take the External Adviser spot, rather than challenge a powerhouse to a position he was ill-equipped to handle and had never dreamed would be within his reach. She had even set a reasonable restriction on his behavior...he could sleep around as much as he wanted so long as he took responsibility for any children he sired and was able to raise CEDEF from out of the muck it had become mired in thanks to Iemitsu.
So when his father walked in with an important look on his face, he knew down to his bones that the time limit was about to become shortened exponentially.
"Federico, as my heir I would like you to become a bit more familiar with our allies. Which is why I'm giving you this assignment."
Federico took one look at the mission and felt a shiver of apprehension in his Intuition. It was barely a flicker, but he knew damn well it was giving him the loudest warning he was likely to get in his life.
An idea occurred to him, one that made the shiver dissipate.
His father merely handed him a mission...he said nothing against hiring outside contractors, especially those previously associated with the famiglia in good standing.
And didn't his grandmother speak highly of her Cloud who was known as the Black Cat? A woman who was quickly starting to take the title of the greatest hit woman?
Plan formed, Federico nodded and agreed, while discreetly making an inquiry to see if the Black Cat would humor his request for one assignment. If he paid out of his own pocket then his father didn't need to know he had hired the former Cloud Guardian who had humiliated him so much on Nonna's orders.
Hotaru POV
"I just got an interesting request," she said grinning.
"Oh?" said Reborn.
"Federico Vongola called and asked if I would be willing to act as his temporary Cloud for an assignment. Apparently his father gave him a mission that's giving him a bad vibe and he's willing to pay out of pocket for a bit of discretion."
Reborn couldn't help the snort of amusement. Federico had absolutely no idea who his rival and replacement was, which was for good reason. If he had known he had just hired the true Vongola Decima he might have choked in shock.
He couldn't wait for the chaos to start.
For the most part it seemed a simple mission, though Federico spent most of the time spoiling Hotaru's cat Dani.
The fickle feline rarely let just anyone scratch her chin, but she tolerated Federico enough to allow him that right.
It was as they were returning to the agreed point where they would part ways that it happened.
The car jolted, and it was clear they were being attacked.
"Stay close to me and keep your head down," she hissed at him. "I don't want to hunt down another decent External Adviser because you got in over your head."
Federico stared at her, before he remembered the odd comment his grandmother made regarding her relationship with her "Cloud" and realization dawned on him.
Daniela had always referred to Black Cat as her "apprentice", not Guardian. And she had given the woman far more respect and attention than a Sky simply teaching her Guardian how to use her Flames for the first time.
Daniela had no Cloud Flames... it was rather hard to teach about a flame type you didn't have. However teaching a young Sky who managed to hide behind a Cloud secondary was another matter altogether.
And it fit within his grandmother's personality to play such a trick on his father. She would think it hilarious to raise a proper successor after Enrico died, especially when it almost literally fell right into her lap!
And didn't Xanxus say that the true Decima he planned to back came from the Primo's bloodline?
Xanxus wasn't the only one to stumble across Timoteo's journals. He had a rather strange habit of leaving them in places where they could be found by the wrong people, which was why Federico knew about Iemitsu having twin children, a boy and a girl, with the eldest being a female.
Now that he was looking for it, he could see the resemblance.
Federico couldn't believe he was being protected by the future Vongola Decima, but he kept his silence. If he survived this then at least he could claim he got to see her capability first hand before she revealed her identity to the underworld.
And Black Cat didn't disappoint. She was as lethally effective as Reborn with the bearing of Daniela in her younger years. It was as if the Ottava and the Primo had some sort of bizarre love child to create their heir.
Suddenly he felt himself yanked to the side as he avoided a rather nasty attack that would have left him bones. Whoever had thrown that had wanted to make damn sure he was dead!
Black Cat killed his attacker, before driving them to the agreed point.
Federico was shaking heavily, and just wanted to get back to the main house and try not to freak out at the close call he had.
However it was the look in his father's eyes that made him fear for his life and sanity.
Timoteo was a good don, but that didn't always equate to being a good father. And right now he was looking at his youngest and only living blood son with some disgust for showing such weakness. It was even worse when he revealed he had found out through Federico's own Guardians that he had hired Black Cat of all people, who Federico knew that his father did not like at all.
Federico could only fall back against the overbearing feel of his father's Sky.
His own Guardians had sold him out?
The need to get this farce over with was becoming even more important than ever, if he couldn't trust the people he had supposedly harmonized with.
Come to think of it, how had the enemy known the route they were taking? Black Cat had insisted on picking one at the last minute and had changed direction repeatedly, to throw off any potential problems and they had still found them.
Federico looked at his phone.
He needed to make a stop to the Varia to get answers.
In the Varia castle...
Xanxus wasn't the only one who was furious...so was Federico.
Not only had one of his "guardians" betrayed him, but they were actively trying to sabotage the Vongola within.
Enough was enough. Federico was damn tired of playing his father's political games and he needed a clean slate to work with. Finding out his Guardian bonds were all fake had been the final straw, and if he had to trick his father into making him a full heir to spark a Ring Battle with Black Cat, then so be it.
He had long made his peace with the arrangement and he had no intention of letting this disgusting farce continue any longer.
The underworld was positively buzzing with the news. Federico was about to undertake the inheritance ceremony and become the official heir of the Vongola, and would later take the place of his father in a few short years.
After the death of the original heir, and later the middle son, this was rather big news.
Federico wasn't nearly as strong as his brothers, and everyone knew it. If he became Decimo then it was only a matter of time before the Vongola exposed a dangerous weakness. It didn't help that Federico had yet to collect all his Elements for his rather weak Sky, and there was even rumor of a rift between him and his Guardians.
Even so, the Alliance gathered in the special hall designed for the inheritance ceremony three months after the near death incident Federico had been in.
There was a special buzz going around those inside, all eagerly awaiting the show that was soon to begin.
Above in the rafters, Hotaru was awaiting for the prearranged signal to shake things up, with the others waiting in the wings.
As Timoteo prepared to hand over the official Vongola heir rings to his son (Federico had been using a spare ring set as he hadn't been officially declared heir at that point) the lights went out.
When the turned back on, Black Cat was standing on the other side of the stage behind Federico with the Sky half-ring...and it was ablaze with her Flames. All of them, showcasing she wasn't just a Cloud after all.
Timoteo looked furious.
"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded, beyond angry.
"Consider this a little overdue payback from the Primo's line. I'm reclaiming the seat Ricardo stole from Giotto and taking back my inheritance," she announced loudly. Her smirk was positively vicious as she then added "Your External Adviser should have kept a better eye on his kids, especially when you two decided to seal his daughter's Sky after she went Active. Did you really think I would forget what you did to me?"
Dead silence was the only way to describe the hall.
First Black Cat interrupted the ceremony, then she displayed a rather impressive amount of Sky Flames, rather than Cloud, and now she was boldly declaring herself a descendant of the Primo... while insinuating that the External Adviser and the Ninth Vongola don had conspired together to seal a young female Sky as a child, which any idiot knew was a bad idea because it could cause irreparable harm to their Flames.
Timoteo was clearly beyond furious and if possible would have killed Black Cat on the spot.
"What proof do you have of your claims to be of the Primo's bloodline?"
Hotaru's smirk was even more vicious at that.
"Daniela Vongola, when she removed the seal, immediately did a blood test to find out which famiglia I belonged to, as only another Sky could have placed that seal. She wanted to know why she felt your flames on mine, and discovered my heritage. We only pretended that I was her Cloud so that you fools wouldn't get the 'bright' idea to try and marry me off out of some perceived claim on me in order to do damage control," said Hotaru coldly.
Envelopes fell from the ceiling, throw down by Reborn and the others, with the papers inside being certified copies of the original.
One by one the Alliance dons all looked at Hotaru with disbelief and anticipation. They all recognized the company and the special seal that was applied to certified copies. The fact it was addressed to Daniela only made the claim even more authentic...there was also the fact that Black Cat had kept the Flames on the ring going, which was only possible if she had a blood connection to the family.
The Vongola Rings were notorious for rejecting those who didn't have the right bloodline attached.
Then Hotaru dealt the final blow and started the next part of the plan.
She reached under her shirt to reveal... Daniela's Sky Ring, which any of the older generation would recognize on sight. A ring that should have been in the Vongola vaults along with her Guardian rings.
Setting that ablaze had Timoteo's face turn to blind fury.
"I'm declaring my intent to reclaim my birth right and challenge your heir to a Ring Battle, as per Vongola's laws set by Giotto and Ricardo before Giotto's retirement."
There was a silent buzz in the hall, as Black Cat's announcement sunk in.
The Vongola succession was now thrown up in the air, as once a Ring Battle was declared among heirs the Vongola were duty-bound by their own laws to enact it.
The fact that the next morning a full copy of the rules and laws regarding Ring Battles were "leaked" by Xanxus only infuriated Timoteo further, as it meant he couldn't suddenly spring another heir to try and usurp Black Cat if she won.