Chapter 19: And so it begins.
To Codenumber6: Yeah, another follower has appeared. I'm happy that you love my story. Loads of people don't want Hattori to be an enemy. But you will all have to wait to see what my devious mind has come up with. *Bwahaha's in an OTT way like Dino did, lol*
The drive back 'home' was very quiet, and Kaito let Shinichi be for now. He understood that Shinichi needed time to think things through. Hattori was one of the few people his actual age Conan could talk to, and he expected that they were quite close, even if they didn't address each other with first names. He imagined that it would be like Aoko finding out he was KID and hating him for it. In both circumstances, real or imaginary, it went against what the other stood for.
Kaito shakes his head, removing that thought completely. They drive through Nanimori and towards the Mansion. Taking a look at Shinichi out of the corner of his eye, he can see a mask being built up, layers of emotions hiding the pain underneath.
Driving up to the gates, Kaito hits the intercom.
But before the security guard can say anything, Kaito chimes "Honey, I'm home"
The guard on the other end of the line stutters. "Ah-, Moon Capo, welcome Home" and hurries to press the button to open the gate. Kaito doesn't miss the bunching of Shinichi's fists at the title. He drives to the Garage and parks the car with all of the others. They both get out and walk over to the door leading into the house. Hand on the handle, Shinichi takes in a deep breath, forces a smile on his face, and opens the door.
"Kai, don't worry about me. I'm fine now" assures Shinichi, walking down the hallways. "Eventually Hattori and I would have had to part ways anyway. I knew that the mafia would come between us, just not like this."
"Oh? You guys are back soon." Comments Ryohei as they meet. Ryohei takes a look over them before putting a determined face on. "Shinichi, train with me to the EXTREME!" He shouts. Shinichi blinks at the volume, and then at the words. But before he can decline, Ryohei has placed an arm around Shinichi's shoulders and walked him towards the elevator. A few moments later, Kaito hears loud chatter as the others leave the dining hall.
"Hmm, the Sun shielding the Stars from view?" supposes KID
"Oh, shut up. You're way too into the whole symbolism thing" counters Kaito.
"But I'm all about symbolism, what do you think my riddles are made from? A Phantom Thief itself is rather symbolic. And anyway, who was the one who went crazy over being the Moon Guardian, eh, Magician under the Moonlight?
Mentally Kaito turns away from KID, nose in the air-
Whilst physically turning to face those coming out from Dinner. "Oh woe is me. Is there nothing you could feed a poor urchin like me?" He cries, hand to his forehead, looking forlorn.
"Gyupa! You're back. If I had known, I would have stolen some of Ahodera's" says Lambo ducking under Gokudera's swing to latch onto Kaito's waist. He turns, sticks his tongue out at Gokudera before turning and dragging Kaito away. "Kaito, Kaito, come play a game with me. I'm gonna beat you this time."
"Oh really?" asks Kaito teasingly " Well how are you going to play it, if I have it" and with a flourish of his hand "Here?" he presents the Video game cartridge. Lambo's eyes grow huge with surprise and he shouts out in delight.
"How did you know I was going to play that one?" he asks, full of curiosity.
Kaito stands up tall, looking down at Lambo in mock superiority. "Now, Now, a magician never reveals his secrets" and he smiles.
"Yeah, Lambo, you should know that Magicians never tell you how they do their tricks." Adds in Fuuta.
"There is one trick I can show you" Kaito says grinning as if he's about to share the biggest secret in the world.
"Ooh, what is it? Come on, teeeeell meee" Lambo cries in uncontained excitement.
"This is how we in 'the business' disappear" Kaito winks at the older audience, willing them to play along. Kaito starts walking backwards, Lambo, Fuuta and I-pin following. In a stage whisper, he reveals his hidden trick. "You take one of these" and holds out a capsule "smash it against the ground", handing it to Lambo, the child does. "And Run!" he shouts. All four run around the corner giggling.
"Oh my god" cries Tsuna. "I wonder where they went. There's no way they could have disappeared that fast."
"That Lambo's a tricky one" comments Yamamoto, using the same tone Tsuna is, playing along with the joke too. "I never knew he was this good at magic"
"Nah, I bet it was all I-pin" disagrees Gokudera, loudly. The smile on his face shows he's just winding Lambo up.
"It was not! Lambo-sama did it!" shouts Lambo. The three boys turn around in shock. For Lambo is now behind them, when they were sure they ran forwards. There was no way Lambo could have gotten behind them without passing them in the corridor. Seeing the real looks of shock on their faces, Lambo proudly puts his hands on his hips and puffs out his chest "Guhaha! Lambo-sama is the best." And runs past them to join the others.
"It's good that the children have found someone to play with, and I think Kaito likes mothering them too. It keeps him busy. I was starting to get worried about them, especially Lambo" comments Tsuna once the children could no longer be heard.
"Hm? You were worried about them Tsuna?" asks Yamamoto, as they start to walk down the hallway.
"Well, yeah, I was." Replies Tsuna, following them to the living room. "He was missing Mama, even though he acted like he wasn't. This is the longest they have been without her." The other two nod. At first the children were okay without her, then they went through a period where they were really naughty and attention seeking- making Tsuna pay attention to them instead of Nana. Recently, they had gone quiet, or at least quieter than normal. But now with Kaito here, they seemed to be back to their normal selves. For now. Tsuna was sure that they would miss Mama again soon. Kaito had even performed on I-pin's birthday (November 25th, 2 days before Dino's simulation), which the whole family loved to see. None of them had ever seen Kaito perform an actual show before, and it was very different from the tricks that KID had used. I-pin herself had been dragged 'on stage' to help Kaito, as had Shinichi (reluctantly and with his flame off) for some of the more dangerous stunts.
Nana was currently on a round the world trip with Iemitsu. The Ninth had given the CEDEF leader some time off, especially now that Basil was old enough to handle most of the work himself. Iemitsu hadn't been with Nana for longer than a week or so since Tsuna was born, and it was time that they finally reconnected and spent some quality time together. Before Kaito and Shinichi arrived, she had already been gone 3 months, since they spent a couple of weeks in each country they visited. Now, a month later, it seemed as if the children were too occupied with Kaito to feel lonely without her. In fact, Tsuna had never seen the children get ready for school so quickly unless Nana and Bianchi were there.
The boys walk into the living room and sit on the sofas placed around the room.
"Oh, I thought that Onii-san would be in here" comments Tsuna, noticing that the boxer is nowhere in sight.
"Yeah, he did leave before us, stupid Shibafu." Grumbles Gokudera.
They shrug the disappearance off- Ryohei got easily side tracked by training sometimes- and start to set up the video game. None of them had any work to do tonight, and with the girls not here, they were free to do what they wanted.
Haru, Kyoko and Hana were often seen around the Mansion, and all three were welcome at any time. Sometimes it was to see the boys, sometimes to see Mama, or even sometimes to see the children- Hana made sure to miss those visits. Every now and again, they even met Chrome here when they were having a girly day out. Since all three were at University (unlike our lot), they came and went when they could, often staying overnight and for breakfast, or for lunch. All three didn't know about the underground base, although Tsuna wasn't sure how much Kyoko and Haru suspected. However all three did know that most of them worked for the V.F. Company. Hana was the only one of the three who didn't know she was friends with a load of Mafioso, and saw Haru's proclamations that "Haru is going to be a Mafioso's wife" as part of the girls eccentricity, and blamed it on too many Mafia manga and romance novels.
The sounds of the racing game soon fill the room, and the boys relax from the stressful week. Not only did they have the training simulation with Dino, but also the bombing scare with the Black wolves yesterday. Add in the rest of last month, and they all deserved a break. They hoped that December wasn't going to be as busy.
Eventually Kaito came back, slightly huffing from an apparent game of Pile on the Magician with the children.
"Ne, Kaito?" says Tsuna, looking at the magician as if he's about to explode. The magician hums whilst watching the game. "You're smoking"
Kaito looks at him, slightly concerned, and raises a hand to his mouth, nope, definitely not a cigarette, he'd never even tried one before. Looking back at Tsuna, he can see that Tsuna's eyes are focused on his feet. Looking down, there is indeed smoke leaking out gently from his trouser leg. Kaito sighs and walks towards a window.
"Damn those rascals, they must have squashed the capsule when they jumped on me" he explains. Clicking his fingers, the broken capsule arrives in his hand. Kaito and KID inspect it, and see that one of the seams has come loose allowing the oxygen to react with the powder inside. Since these were only for Kaito, they weren't as sturdy as the ones KID used, and it seemed as if 3 children were all it could tolerate. Opening the window, he lets the smoke dissipate before disposing of the capsule.
"Can I join in?" Kaito asks, walking back to the group.
"Well you could" starts Tsuna, "but we don't have enough controllers. Someone" and Tsuna gives a mock glare to Gokudera, who is sat on the floor by his feet "Broke it when they slammed it against the floor. They didn't like their losing streak." Both Tsuna and Yamamoto laugh whilst Gokudera grumbles to the floor.
"Oh, well that's not a problem, give one here" says Kaito mildly. Yamamoto passes his controller to Kaito, eyes watching carefully. And with a screwdriver that's appeared from nowhere, Kaito opens the casing and takes a look inside. Nodding to himself, he fixes the controller and passes it back.
"What are you going to do, Kaito?" asks Tsuna. All three eyes watch intently, waiting for the trick. Smiling at his captive audience, Kaito holds his hands out before him, palms facing each other.
"Abracadabra!" and he claps. After the clap, there is suddenly a game controller in his hands. It looks just like the original, but instead of the creator's logo, there was the Crescent moon and Clam symbol again. The others blink in shock, staring at the controller as if an alien is sitting in Kaito's hands. Shaking his head, Kaito reaches over and plucks Tsuna's controller from unresponsive hands and restarts the game, setting it up to include himself this time. Placing the controller back in Tsuna's hands, Kaito pats Tsuna's cheek and turns to face the TV screen.
"3,2,1,GO!"
As Kaito pulls away from the starting line, the others find their brains again and shout at Kaito for cheating, whilst trying to catch up. Needless to say, Kaito won that race.
Many races later, with Kaito 'losing a few on purpose' , Shinichi walks in, hair still damp from a shower. "So this is where you were."
"Did you have fun Shinichi?" asks Kaito, eyes still on the game before him.
"It was certainly what I needed" replies Shinichi, standing behind Kaito with his arms leaning on the back of the chair. Kaito smiles, eyes still forwards, and scoots over a little. He pats the opposite armrest, still performing a drift around a corner at the same time. Shinichi just sits on the offered armrest, watching the game before him.
"Damn it Kaito!" growls Gokudera. "How is it that you can take your hands off the controller and still win? Are you sure you haven't rigged that controller up when you made it" seems like Kaito had just won that race too.
Kaito grins and chucks the controller to Gokudera, who has to drop his own to catch it. Kaito easily catches the projectile Gokudera throws back a little harder than necessary. Gokudera take a good look at the symbol on the controller. Instead of the Clam shell facing upwards like he expected, it actually faced into the moon, the curve of the shell following the curve of the crescent. The flat bottom of the shell was a vertical line, centred between the points of the crescent.
Tsuna sighs at the pair before starting the next race.
Kaito wins again.
"See, it's not the controller" states Kaito, cat got the cream smile on his face. He hands the controller in his hands to Shinichi. "Even Shin-chan can beat you" he claims. Not that he's ever seen Shinichi play a video game before. Shinichi rolls his eyes, knowing he would be dragged into this sooner or later. With a flick of his wrist, he dismisses Kaito from the chair and sits in the vacant seat. Kaito takes Shinichi's position on the arm rest, lounging like a cat in the sun.
Shinichi wins too.
Laughing at the reactions of the others, he rubs the back of his head and says "Sorry, but the Shounen Tantei loved this game. I had a lot of practice as Conan. But what's this about Kaito and a controller?" Gokudera hands the offending item over to Shinichi for inspection. Shinichi takes it, looks it over and stiffens slightly.
"So it was you" he whispers contemplative. He'd seem this symbol on items around the house. He turns and half smiles at Kaito. "How long have you had this done?"
"Since Friday" Kaito claims.
"Wow, you came up with this quickly. Quite similar to the one I designed actually. They'll be perfect for our needs." Kaito nods, eyes dark and serious too. Shinichi takes a piece of paper out of his pocket and hands it to Kaito. Kaito unfolds it to reveal an image. A black Star with a white Clam sat in the centre. "For those intended will recognise and fear it and for those who are ignorant, well, they won't even notice it."
"And it can't be traced back to our normal personas either" comments Kaito
"Guys, what are you going on about? What are those pictures for?" asks Tsuna, head tilted to the side.
Both turn to Tsuna, looking scary with only half of their faces lit up by the TV screen.
"To remain anonymous in the future" they reply.
Tsuna pales. "Y-you've planned that far ahead?" he stutters, leaning back as far away from them as possible.
"Of course we have." Answers KID. "A thief always plans ahead. That way as few mistakes as possible are made,"
" And everything goes smoothly." Finishes Shinichi seamlessly.
"But I don't wa-" counters Tsuna
Shinichi fiercely interrupts. "But we know you will. Whilst the future is not set in stone, there are certain things that will be. We cannot wait around for you to pluck up the courage and accept it. We've sacrificed too much already"
Kaito continues where Shinichi left off, one hand on Shinichi's shoulder. "We have lives of loved ones on the line here."
"Like Ran" "Like Aoko" "Like Haibara" "Like My Mother" "Like the Hakase" "Like Hakuba" "Like Hattori"
"Every day we waste, the Organisations take one step closer to killing them off, just like they did to my father. You have all of the time in the world to squander, until that man dies; we do not have that luxury. Everyone you want to protect is here, in your grasp, protected by those around you. When the time comes, we want the transition to be as smooth and short as possible. And that means creating symbols like these."
"Or did you think he'd gotten bored of the KID Doodle?" finishes Shinichi.
With Shinichi and Kaito now as guardians they had seen more of the others than they ever had done before. Seems like the Guardians were too busy to spend time with lower subordinates. If they hadn't been guardians themselves then they suspected that apart from receiving orders from the others, they never would have seen them at all. It's most likely possible they would have been stuck here at the Japanese branch. Their problems with their respective organisations would have been pushed further and further back. But now, as guardians, their problem would be heard and sorted out. They would make sure of it.
"Che, don't talk to Juudaime like that" growls Gokudera, sitting protectively infront of Tsuna.
"Yeah, calm down guys. I'm not quite sure what you are on about, but I'm sure that you can all sort it out." Sooths Yamamoto.
Shinichi stands, stretches and yawns- tired from his EXTREME training session with Ryohei. "There's nothing to worry about. We just were making sure that Tsuna could see the current situation clearly, that's all."
It seems that Shinichi was rather prophetic.
The feeling wakes Tsuna up better than any alarm clock could. It just suddenly arrived. He didn't feel its approach, but it was certainly there now. Tsuna jumps out of bed and runs to the source of the presence: his office. When he arrives, Reborn is sat on his desk, looking both smug and worried- quite unusual for the Hitman.
A few moments later the Guardians arrive- even Hibari, Mukuro and Chrome, who for once, were all staying the night. They too notice Reborn's unusual behaviour and expression before looking at their distraught Sky.
"Juudaime, what's wrong?" asks Gokudera, stepping towards the desk. Tsuna doesn't respond, and keeps his head on crossed forearms on the table. He just gestures to the item before him.
It's a letter, with a bright Orange Sky Flame on the top. That flame was the source of the presence, and from it's strength, it definitely belonged to the Ninth.
Shinichi and Kaito take a look at the letter before walking out and going back to bed.
The letter was quite simple. The Sky flame adorned the top, with the Vongola seal slightly below it. Right at the bottom was IX- the roman numerals for 9. This letter had only two words on it, in a bold fancy script.
It's time.
Quite a short chapter this time. I wanted to settle where some of the lesser characters were before we got serious.
A request for any artists out there. Could you draw what you think these symbols look like? I want to know if I've described them correctly. I have the images saved as a word document, but don't have anywhere to host the image. I want to compare yours to mine, see if it's the same, and then let the other readers look at it. Whilst not terribly important, it would help if we were all on the same page with what these symbols look like. Alternatively, I could send you the word document, and the artist could draw it for me and host it.
Awesome Reborn chapter this week too!
I hope to see you all next time, where the Introduction Arc winds to a close.
Phantom Hitman 1412
First Published 22 Feb. 12