Chapter Fifteen

"Hey, everyone. This bloke is Rafael Piazza. He's gonna join us for the fight tomorrow!" II went out of the dark hallway holding the left wrist of Tsuna. "The oldest of us all, I, approved his application of being part of us. Rafael's got some pretty deep misunderstandings with the Vongola so we can definitely treat him as one of us. His element is rain and the reaction of the flame is extremely strong, about the same level as us. He can also wield our family flame, the cloud flame, very nicely. I guess he's gonna be a good chap, right, Rafael?"

"Sure, sir." Tsuna nodded. Thanks to Rokudo's mist ring, he now looked like a man in his late twenties with short golden hair. He didn't look like he got any Japanese blood line in him at all. In fact, he looked just like a guy born here locally in Europe. Swinging his right hand over his own face, Tsuna showed the eight underbosses his rain attribute ring given by Dino Cavallone four years ago for self protection. Under the reflections of the flickering candle lights, the ring's shine was obvious in the small dark room. The underbosses' eyes narrowed as they noticed the class of this ring: Class A or possibly higher.

"Yoho~Class A Rain attribute ring!" IV said as a mysterious smile appeared on his face. "That dumb attribute that can kill the cloud attribute in seconds if the holder has enough power and the ring must bear all the power without shattering. You can be a great practise mate, Rafael-chan."

"I agree." III nodded. "Well, first of all, background questionnaire: how old are you, Rafael Piazza? You look quite young."

"Oh, III-san." Tsuna replied politely, "Yes, I am quite young indeed. I am only 27 years old."

"Younger than me!" the youngest of the eight underbosses, VIII, exclaimed happily while scratching his head nervously. "Hey, Rafael, I am VIII, and I am two years older than you!"

"Nice to meet you, VIII-san." Tsuna bowed slightly at the youngest present. "Please forgive my rudeness, but in my perspective, you look quite similar to I-san. Do you guys have any blood relationships?" Tsuna asked with alert, try not to piss off anybody present. It was very important right now to get to know these underbosses so no embarrassment can be caused later by misunderstandings.

"Oh, you mean by... my onii-san?" A playful smile appeared on VIII's face. "Yeah, he's my brother. But the age gap between us is huge. My onii-san's twenty-two years older than me. Actually, he's the first child in my family while I am the last one, so that explains it."

"Does that mean all the rest of you are between the age of twenty nine and fifty-one?" Tsuna asked while doing math calculations inside his head.

"You got that right." V said as he put his hood back on his head. "Do you know about the fight for tomorrow? The fight which we are going to invade Vongola? I guess I already told you that."

"Yes, I have heard of it." Tsuna nodded. "VIII's brother told me about it indeed. But all he said was that I will join you guys. What is it about exactly? Just a normal casual attack on the Vongola family? Like a weekly routine?"

"Weekly routine?" III retorted, "I would like that to happen, attacking some kind of a new family every week. That's gonna be so much more fun than holding back while fighting with these comrades."

"Good point," IV nodded in agreement. "We had been planning this attack for months, or even years. As evidence of the Vongola growing stronger started to accumulate, we felt obliged to attack the Vongola family as soon as possible. It was just told to me by I that Boss went undercover into the Vongola family around two weeks ago and we received the informations of joining him tomorrow, for the better good of our family."

"Thus meaning we shall fully equip ourselves and brace for some big impact with the Vongola family." II nodded.

"Why do you guys all dislike Vongola so much? I hate it because it ruined my family," Tsuna lied for the sake of knowing the truth, "Do you guys have similar backgrounds as I do? Or else?"

"You don't understand." II shook his head slowly, "It's not the Vongola family that we 'hate'. It's something or somebody else. Well, not really 'hate', that's too strong. Maybe just doubt or dislike."

"Ha?" Tsuna said in astonishment, "Something? Or somebody from the Vongola family?"

"Yes, Rafael Piazzai-san." VIII said slowly as he fidget with his cloud attribute ring. "Not the Vongola family, the family's alright, at least for now. And it's been alright for the past 170 something years."

"Huh?" Tsuna said quietly. "170 something years?" But VIII just smiled a little and continued his sentence.

"The thing that we hate, and the thing that we shall seek with our lives is..."

As V finished the sentence, Tsuna's eyes widened in surprise. It was full astonishment. "What the..."

The VG on his finger hidden by the mist seemed to become tighter on his hand.

"Ha, ha, ha..." Reborn and Bernardino were each supporting themselves with a piece of furniture in the 'bombed' room. Thanks to their other attribute rings, the outside did not feel a lot of shakes. Great that the guardians are out trying to figure something out about Tsunayoshi-san's whereabouts right now, so they won't notice the issue over here. Reborn thought as he panted rapidly, staring deathly at Bernardino who was also extremely tired. Their powers were nearly equal, so it was still a perfect stalemate.

"You still wanna fight?" Bernardino stared back at Reborn. Blood was thudding inside his head. "I am quite tired right now actually, Reborn-chan."

"Tired indeed." Reborn said as he said slowly, "I am too. It's a good time if we stop now and figure everything out tomorrow."

"Yeah, I quite for now, no more until tomorrow, I promise, no more!" Bernardino stood up holding his two hands up, as he exited the room slowly, he turned back at Reborn with a mysterious look on his face. "But I have a really important issue that is bothering me right now. I think you might know the answer for it, Reborn-chan."

"Spit it out." Reborn said as he took a sip of water from the water basin.

"The Vongola ring Nakamura Kai was wearing is a fake." Bernardino said as he took off the sky attribute ring off his finger and put it on a table gently. "Even the fake is extremely similar to the real one and also exceeds the quality of a Class A ring, there's a major difference on the flame waves. I can sense it thanks to my former experience with the Vongola Nono. He showed me the ring about twenty years ago when I was still quite young and idiotic. Why does Nakamura, the Vongola Decimo, has a fake ring?"

"Hah?" Reborn was clearly surprised too, "Kai had a freaking fake ring?"

"You don't know about it either? Interesting. Nakamura got no memory of changing the ring, either. When I first put it on, it felt normal. But after two hours, it changed all of a sudden. Strange huh." Bernardino smiled a little. "Anyways, that might interfere with our mission. I thought you know about it so I kept the plan going. Seems like you don't know the whereabout of the true Vongola ring either. Too bad. I guess I might drop the fight tomorrow then."

"So you are still for..." Reborn didn't finish the sentence, he left it hanging.

"Yeah, of course. I thought you know that! Especially after that incident." Bernardino gave him a small wink as he went outside the room and disappearing right into the air. "Despite that incident, we are still allies, remember? The fight tomorrow will be suspended then, since the ring is a fake." Bernardino's voice was still echoing in the air as his body disappeared.

A short sigh came out of Reborn's mouth as he staggered to the nearest chair, checking his wounds. "Oh mine, how stupid of me to forget about that incident." He murmured to himself in disgust, "How dumb! Since when am I becoming dame-Kai's like?"

"After all, it's the first battle that dame-Kai killed somebody on his own will."

Bernardino went inside his small house inside the forest surrounding the Vongola HQ. He suspected that the Vongola already learned the existence of this small house from either tools, but neither the guardians nor Reborn discussed this issue meaning they approved of it silently. Maybe they want to repay the debt. Bernardino Vassallo thought in silence as he pushed open the cracked wooden door. Nobody had been in this house for two weeks, it was filled with the smell of wild forest. But too bad, unless we get the thing, we will never stop hunting you down, even if it means breaking our 167-year long ally history.

As he fell face down onto his soft bed, he heard a sound from his bluetooth earphone.

"Boss, are you there?" The voice of his top underboss, I. "How's the plan going."

"Ah, I..." Bernardino sighed slowly. "I think we have a great problem. The sky attribute ring was a fake."

There was silence. Then an astonished voice. "Fake? Nakamura Kai was wearing a fake ring?"

"Yeah, I-chan." Bernardino whispered, "And he himself nor his home tutor knew about it. Apparently the ring was still the original ring until around two weeks ago, until three hours after I got it from Nakamura."

"But why didn't you inform me about it." The voice sounded a little anxious mixed with agryness. "I could have changed the plan."

"Sorry, I-chan, but I thought Reborn changed it on purpose so I was going to get it out of him. But seems like he was not notified about it either."

A short sigh came from his earphones. "Then what should we do now, Boss, shall we tell the underbosses...?"

"Go ahead, but tell them don't drop the hope."

"One day, we will find it."

Then there was click, and everything was silent again. Bernardino sighed again. Taking one last look outside his window, he passed out on his bed out of tiredness.