Chapter 37: A day off gone wrong.
Thanks to RHK for reminding me to talk to the Varia.
"Do I really have to Reborn?" whines Tsunayoshi as the car drives them to their destination. Reborn's plan for his entrance didn't seem much like Tsuna. Plus it sounded like one that could piss the Varia off and get him killed.
"Of course, you are going to be their Boss soon, so act like one" says Reborn, giving Tsuna a smack on the head before settling back into his seat.
"Yeah, those bastards are so up themselves, we should show them who really is top dog around here" comments Gokudera, hand in a fist raised threateningly. Tsuna found it rather funny that Gokudera would say such things in Tsuna's presence, when he had blown the others up for less. "You have nothing to worry about Juudaime. I'm not going to let them lay a hand on you"
"Yeah, there's nothing to worry about Tsuna" repeats Yamamoto, smiling assuredly
"Hey you idiot, that's what I just said. If you're going to speak with that annoying voice of yours then at least say something useful!" shouts Gokudera. Tsuna wasn't sure whether he liked his position between the pair at the moment. Sure it stopped any physical fights happening in the car, but he was right in the centre of the verbal fight that was sure to come if he didn't do something. He was about to get shouted at enough where he was going, he didn't need to lose his hearing now.
So raising his hands, he places them over each of his friends' mouths and prevents the shouting/laughing match- for Yamamoto never actually shouted in return but just laughed it off. "We are not about to start an argument now, are we?" asks Tsuna, voice sugar sweet. Both men shake their heads as best as they can. "Good. Now maybe you would like to use this time to quietly think of ways to persuade the Varia"
That's right. He had just said 'persuade the Varia'. Even he knew how hopeless that sounded. The only way one got the Varia to do anything was if it sounded dangerous, life threatening or interesting. Sadly this visit was about to take most of those elements out of their lives. And taking the fun out of the Varia's lives was not a suggested action if one wanted to live a long life.
"Decimo, sir. We have arrived." Says the driver pulling up to the gateway.
"Well then Dame-Decimo, you know what to do. And if you don't Xanxus will be the last thing you need to worry about" warns Reborn, that Spartan gleam in his eyes promising a painful and unusual punishment.
"Heeii! Yes Reborn. I'll do it. C'mon guys, we should be going" screams Tsuna, pushing on Yamamoto's shoulder to get him to leave the car before Reborn could make good on the threat.
Within a blink, Yamamoto has settled into his Hitman aura, calm and collected. Opening the door and stepping out, he holds it open for Tsuna to step out of too. Gokudera exits from the other side of the car and goes to stand at Tsuna's side. Tsuna too has raised his flame and settled into 'Boss mode'.
"Let's go then" says Yamamoto, him and Gokudera taking a step forwards. Tsuna follows a few paces behind them. They walk to the gate, and with a Flame-powered kick, they force them open with a loud bang. They then walk down the 'garden' towards the main entrance of Varia Castle. It couldn't really be called a Garden considering its state. It was basically grass, rocks and mud. The scenes of past battles and training sessions could be seen everywhere. Plus, pretty flowers weren't really the Varia's style. Gravel lined the walkway between the outer gate and the entrance.
"Yamamoto stop!" shout Tsuna and Gokudera at the same time. Yamamoto does so, foot raised half in the air since he was mid step. His balance perfectly maintained on only one foot, he looks over his shoulder at them
"What?" he asks. He frowns as both men look rather serious. But neither are looking at him, but instead at where he was about to step.
"Gokudera, I trust you can handle this?" asks Tsuna. Gokudera nods and carefully moves to kneel infront of the spot. Tsuna turns to tell Yamamoto what was going on. "As per usual, the Varia have rigged their garden. You were about to step on a bomb. They must have had some unwanted visitors recently to add these in. We're going to have to be on the lookout for more of them." Yamamoto nods and places his foot back on the ground behind him. By now Gokudera had carefully removed the gravel and dirt around the area and had a screwdriver and a pair of pliers in his hands. With a look of intense concentration, he carefully diffused the bomb before placing it in his pocket.
"No use wasting it" he says in answer to the weird look the others gave him. They both shrug, trusting Gokudera to know what he was doing. They carefully continue to walk down the gravel pathway but instead just manoeuvre around the rest of the traps instead if diffusing them. Bombs weren't the only trap they encountered; trip wires were also hidden just above the gravel, releasing flying knives and even a few axes at one point.
Once at the main doors, Gokudera and Yamamoto kick these in too. This was all part of Reborn's plan, a way to show that Tsuna was higher than them and could do what the hell he wanted. Plus it would earn more respect from the Varia then a nice little knock on the door would. Like he suspected the loud entrances had drawn Varia Subordinates to the entranceway, all armed to the teeth and dangerous. Tsuna wondered whether Reborn had stayed in the car on purpose or not, just to avoid the senseless fight that was sure to happen here. Or maybe he just didn't want to see Mammon.
"Hey stand down retards, or can't you see who's standing before your pathetic asses?" shouts Gokudera, standing between Tsuna and the mob
"Maybe you're forgetting just where you are? We don't exactly care about things like that here" answers one man. Shouts and leers of agreement resound around the entranceway.
"Che, I thought Varia members had more sense than to fight a hopeless battle." Growls Gokudera back, fingers itching to stuff some dynamite down that man's throat for disrespecting Juudaime like that.
"Why you cocky bastard" shouts a different man as he pulls out his gun and aims it at Gokudera. But before the man can pull the trigger, a knife flies across his chest, drawing a line of red in its wake, and embeds itself into the man's outstretched arm. The man hisses in pain, but doesn't scream since Varia members are tougher than that.
"Ushishishi~ The Bomb-Boy is the Prince's Pet. The Prince didn't give you permission to play with him. Do you want Royal Punishment?" Belphegor walks in from a side corridor spinning a knife on his fingers.
"Well we weren't just going to stand here and let them walk in like they owned the place now were we?" argues the man, holding his wounded arm.
"All of them are higher ranking than you peasants. You don't have the right to play with them. Now leave before The Prince finds some new paint to use for his next masterpiece." The mob collectively blanch and run in a very un-Varia like fashion as quickly as possible out of the door. It seemed like this was a threat that had actually been carried out before rather than just an idle one. Tsuna didn't think he wanted to see the last picture Belphegor had painted then.
"Ushishishi~, we are popular with the Lord's Knight's aren't we?" smirks Belphegor, sauntering over to them.
"Really? Who else has been here?" Tsuna asks, not caring about the weird nicknames. Lord and Knights were better than trash and scum after all.
"Your Criminal came over and was talking to MY Mammon without the Prince's permission. He came for the Froggie. When the Froggie insulted the Prince, The Prince chucked him over the wall and Froggie left."
Hm, so Mukuro came and took Flan with him then. Well in the future Flan did know where the Vendicare was. "I'm afraid I don't know when Flan will be coming back. Anyway, I need to speak with Xanxus, and whoever else is here. There have been some changes to the way things are being done around here. I don't know whether Xanxus told you or not."
Belphegor grins and steps over towards Tsuna. Gokudera and Yamamoto bristle as the deranged prince walks past them and keeps on going until he's a step away from Tsuna. "Ushishishi~ Boss told us about your Detective running off to be with the Vindice." Tsuna can feel Belphegor's eyes narrow as he flicks a knife into his hands and holds it flat under Tsuna's chin. "But the Lord never told us that he'd found a new toy with new flames. We thought he was a boring detective, but he's more interesting than that."
Tsuna was glad he'd raised his flames before he came in or else he's be quaking with fear right now. Belphegor was the least 'stable' of Xanxus's crew and one wrong word could cause the man to attack. But at the moment, he was fine and just stared at Belphegor. "Well, call everyone together and you might find out more. Of course if you aren't interested, I could just walk away right now" offers Tsuna, knowing that Bel was interested.
"Ushishi~ The Lord is staying whether he likes it or not. Come hither and the Prince will send for the rest." Belphegor turns on his heels, knife stashed away and walks down the corridor, a bounce in his step.
"Grr, that Knife-Bastard, threatening Juudaime like that." Growls Gokudera, following Tsuna down the corridor.
"haha, Bel wasn't threatening Tsuna. Wasn't that a normal conversation with any of the Varia members? And anyway, Tsuna could defend himself if Belphegor did attack." Consoles Yamamoto with a smile on his face.
"Oh yeah?" says Gokudera disbelievingly. He waves a hand in the direction of Yamamoto's sword hand "If Juudaime can defend himself then why are your knuckles turning white?" Yamamoto looks down and realises he'd been holding his sword far too tightly. Laughing care-freely like usual, Yamamoto slings the sword over his shoulder and doesn't bother to answer Gokudera's question.
As they round the corner, it became apparent that Belphegor didn't need to 'call for' the rest of the Varia members. Mammon and Lussuria were waiting in the corridor, next to an open set of double doors. Tsuna guessed that they had felt the strong Flame Presence of the three of them. It wasn't like they were trying to hide their flames, and no one else had a Flame Presence as strong as the 10th Generation did accept Byakuran and his Funeral Wreaths. But there was no reason for Byakuran to ever come to Varia Castle.
"Mammon!" sings Belphegor before skipping over and plucking the Arcobaleno from the air. Said baby grumbles but makes no major effort to be released.
"Mou~ Come on guys. You don't want to keep Boss waiting now" claims Lussuria, batting a gloved hand at them.
"Che, more like you shouldn't be wasting Juudaime's time with pathetic weaklings" shouts Gokudera back. Lussuria keeps on walking and waves a hand behind him indicating he doesn't really care.
Inside the room is a long table with two chairs, one at either end. The one at the far end was already occupied- Xanxus sat with the windows behind him. Levi stood to the side, dutifully filling up Xanxus's wine glass. The rest of the Varia sauntered in that direction too, all standing or leaning against the wall behind their Boss. Tsuna sits down in the other chair, swivels to the side and throws his feet over one of the arm rests. Whilst it was a relaxed position, it also showed that Tsuna didn't see them as a threat. Of course he was wary of them, and from this position, one quick flame boost would send him backwards and up, where he could quickly push off the ceiling or the walls and jet towards the attacker, punching them quite nicely in the face before they could turn around and retaliate. Xanxus's position was a similar affair. Sitting with his back to the windows showed he didn't care about any assassination shots snipers might take, since his enemies could see him, but he couldn't see them. The light from the windows cast him in shadow, making it harder for people inside the room to read him, but cast light on their faces to make their every move as clear as day. As usual, his feet were on the table, showing he was the ruler of his house and because it was generally comfortable.
Yamamoto and Gokudera took their usual positions next to Tsuna, on either side and back slightly. It might seem to make more sense to follow the protection in numbers rule when dealing with someone as dangerous as the Varia, but Tsuna's other options would only make the situation worse. Hibari would of course want to fight, and wouldn't do something as silly as be a body guard for Tsuna. Ryohei would piss the Varia off with his loudness and a fight was sure to follow. Lambo would agitate the Varia with either his obnoxiousness or his crying. Chrome was spending the day looking after Lambo. And whilst Gokudera's temper might be fuel for the fire, Tsuna couldn't leave the house without his Right Hand Man by his side. Not that the title mattered- right hand man or not, Gokudera wasn't going to let Juudaime go anywhere without him unless there was a legitimate reason not to (or if he was ordered by Reborn). Shinichi and Kaito might have been good choices to bring with him- if Kaito behaved himself- but of course, neither were here at the moment.
"Talk Brat." Demands Xanxus.
"Very well Xanxus, I'll get straight to the point." Says Tsuna. "I'm here to talk about the contract I made with the Vindice a week ago." The Varia stiffen slightly at the word Vendice- even they couldn't take one of the Mafia Jailers on.
"That contract was between you, Bermuda and your detective who decided to run off with them. We weren't involved in it." Xanxus says gruffly.
"VROOOIII!" shouts Squalo in confused protect. "What on earth are you going on about? What contract? All you told us was that the Brat had a Detective with weird flames that has the guts to willingly walk away with the Vindice. You didn't mention a contract"
"Of course I didn't dipshit, since it doesn't concern us" shouts Xanxus back whilst throwing his wine glass at Squalo. Levi sighs and walks to a cabinet in the corner of the room to get his Boss a new glass.
"But I think it does. The contract stated that no one was to be killed any more" interrupts Tsuna. The other Varia members look at Tsuna as if he's gone mad. Slowly the anger in the room builds. Like Tsuna thought, they were acting like children who had had their favourite toy taken from them.
"Mou~, I'm sorry, hunny but I don't think I heard that correctly" says Lussuria, slowly and calmly whilst he inserts a pinkie into his ear to clean it out. "Did you just say no more killing?" Internally Tsuna gulps. He had forgotten that dead was part of this man's aesthetics- the men he liked were cold, dead and unmoving, beaten to a bloody pulp.
Mammon pouts slightly since assassination jobs usually paid quite well. Any jobs involving killing were always charged at a higher rate. However it wasn't the end of the world. An illusionist of her calibre could easily move more directly into the information trade. She already had quite a large foot in the information business, it wouldn't hurt to take a bigger step in. Belphegor too frowned. Killing was rather fun- he'd always found it so ever since he killed his brother (or supposed to have killed. If the future trip was any indication, his damn brother was still alive somewhere out there and he even had a butler! Well, not that it mattered, he had Mammon and she was miles better than a mere butler.)- however it wasn't essential to his fun, but usually went hand in hand. He didn't have to kill to get his victims to scream beautiful arias nor to paint the walls such a wonderful crimson. It was usually that he went a bit too far and they ended up dead. Dead corpses weren't all that interesting since they could no longer shout out in undisguised fear at his mere presence nor could they bow before him anymore.
Levi didn't like the sound of that contract either. Electricity, specifically lightening, was known for killing its victims. Plus he was merciless, he killed all of his victims whether they be a man, woman or child. If this contract did affect them, then he was going to have the added bother of watching his strength. How troublesome. He might have to leave a few of his parabolas at home from now on. Squalo was not a happy shark either. What was the point in a fight if your life wasn't on the line? Plus there were certain rules in a proper swords match. You gave it your all to show proper respect to your opponent. With Squalo, this lead to very short matches, since giving it his all usually resulted in a quick death. Plus in sword fights, you fought to the bitter end to retain one's pride.
"Che. How pathetic you all are; needing to end your opponent's life just to feel good about yourselves. Are you afraid that if you don't kill them then they'll come back and defeat you? Is that it?" admonishes Gokudera, giving them all a look of disgust.
"Yeah, Squalo you know that right. If you kill everyone then you aren't going to get any people who are going to train to beat you for revenge. Isn't that why you train, to try and beat me one day?" asks Yamamoto confidently. That sentence was half true though. Squalo still beat him quite often, especially when it came to pure sword matches with no flames involved. If it came to hand to hand combat, Yamamoto lost even more often.
"Vrooii! Watch your mouth runt." Shouts Squalo, waving his sword around in the air.
"Bwahahaha" laughs Xanxus deeply, interrupting Squalo's shouting tirade. "I think you are forgetting something Brat. And the rest of my idiotic minions" Tsuna nearly burst out laughing at the minions comment, but stops when cold red eyes burn into his. "Brat, look outside and tell me what is written on our flag."
Tsuna scoffs a boss-like scoff "I'm not moving just to look at a flag Xanxus."
Xanxus seems to like his answer and instead turns his eyes to Levi. The moustached man's eyes light up like a Christmas tree when his boss looks at him. Tsuna wondered if this was how Gokudera looked at him sometimes. "Show him the flag" Xanxus orders.
"Yes Boss" shouts Levi and reaches into his jacket. The three don't believe it when a full sized, delicately folded flag comes out of the jacket. With a flick, the Flag is unfolded. Levi faces his Boss, presenting the unfurled flag.
"Read what it says" demands Xanxus.
Levi nods and doesn't even need to look at the flag to know what it says. However for Tsuna's benefit, he does point the flag in his direction "It says "Squadra killer autonoma di Vongola IX". "
Tsuna knew that was Italian for "Autonomous Assassination Team of Vongola IX."
"Yeah, and what of it?" asks Gokudera, not seeing the point.
Xanxus growls and points a hand at a specific part of the flag. "Can't you trashes read? We don't belong to you. I only follow what orders the Old Man gives me, if I want to take them. I don't accept ANY missions from you. The contract was that YOU Brat, were not allowed to order anyone to kill. As far as I can see, the Old Man can still kill whoever he deems fit."
Gokudera thinks about this for a moment before crossing his arms "I'm afraid he's right there Juudaime. However, it would apply to them if they ever became your subordinates. I believe we Guardians and most likely the Vongola at the Japanese branch are deemed your subordinates. However the Varia are still Nono's." He looks up from Juudaime and look down the table at Xanxus. "But you'd better start thinking about it. When Juudaime does become the official Boss of Vongola things are going to change. And Killing is right at the top of that list. You are too comfortable where you are to bother forming an independent Family all of your own. And even then Juudaime would still have to deal with you. With Juudaime's succession the Mafia is going to change- you had better be prepared for the ride."
When pairs of Varia eyes look his way at Gokudera's bold statement, Tsuna just confidently smirks back, showing he was serious, and Gokudera wasn't just all hype.
"Bwahaha, so you were serious when you said you were going to destroy Vongola." After Xanxus finishes laughing, his eyes narrow "I'd like to see you try Brat" In a weird way Xanxus was protective of Vongola since he saw it as his. It might not be his in name, but it was going to be and still could be if he could ever bother to kill Tsuna. He just would get new rings made up- ones that would accept him.
"Stick around and watch then Xanxus. I'm serious about changing it." Invites Tsuna, voice confident and cool. He looks down at his watch. "Well then, I think we had better be going. If that's the way you interpreted the contract, then who am I to stop you? I'm sure the Vendice will give you a warning if they don't like what you are doing." Tsuna gets up from the chair and leaves the room without even a goodbye.
The Varia sit there contemplating the meeting and all the new information they had been told. In the quiet of the room, laughter breaks out
"Ushishishi~ Hey, Boss. Mind telling the Prince the exact words of the Contract?" Belphegor asks, a winning smile on his face.
"You expect me to remember?" Xanxus asks. Belphegor nods and waits for an answer. Xanxus huffs and repeats what had happened. " Bermuda- the Vindice Arcobaleno and Boss of the Vendicare, said: So I shall make a deal with you. You shall swear to fulfil out that Resolve and I shall take in any prisoners that you may give to me. If you break that promise and tell any of your subordinates to Kill, you shall face the Punishment of the Vindice, and Kudo Shinichi will come and be under my protection. Kudo Shinichi is the Detective with the weird new flames. And by Resolve, he meant what the Brat had said earlier: I will not kill with my Dying Will."
"Vroii, we never did ask those brats about that weird new flame either." Grumbles Squalo.
"Ushisishi~ there are quite a few loopholes in that phrasing. Firstly, is a continuation of what you were saying Boss" The Varia turn to face their confessed Genius. "It states that the Lord must tell his subordinates to kill, however, surely if he tells us not to kill but we do so anyway, he's not in the wrong. We get a little punishment for disobeying orders and continue on as normal. So we can continue to kill at our own choosing, as long as we send the boring ones to the Vendicare we'll be fine" The rest of the Varia's eyes light up as the possibility is revealed.
"You said few loopholes, what's the other one?" asks Mammon.
Belphegor lifts her up so they can face one another. "The Lord said Kill with his Dying Will. So he might be fine if he kills without using his Flames. But I'm not too sure on that one. Plus he's not his own subordinate so he can't tell himself not to kill."
"Ha, that ain't ever going to happen" laughs Xanxus. "He would rather attempt to disable me with a measly knife than kill someone who had harmed his own men. You noticed the sword scums' injury didn't you?"
"Yeah, he was favouring his left side, most likely a wound to the waist and to the thigh" analyses Squalo since he knew the movement of the Rain Swordsman best.
"Yeah, well he was injured when some scum decided to betray Vongola during a negotiation. Lots of men were hurt and the Rain trash arrived home unconscious. But despite the injury and the betrayal, the Brat still couldn't find it in himself to kill." Xanxus looks disgusted as he repeats the circumstances.
"But there's still time to watch him break." Comments Levi, refilling the wine glass "If he thinks he can change the Mafia, he'd better change his mind. He's going to drive himself mad trying to do that"
The rest of the Varia can't help but agree.
Today was quite a special day for Tsuna. Well not special as such, but it held importance, especially now he was in Italy and not Japan, away from his extended family. It was a shame that he had had to deal with the Varia this morning, although it was a miracle that things had gone so smoothly. Xanxus must have been thinking about the Contract to have come to a favourable (to Xanxus at least) decision so quickly. And Tsuna thought, that maybe, just maybe, he had earned some Respect from Xanxus. It wasn't everyday someone had the audacity to summon the Vindice. It wasn't everyday someone decided to make a contract with them, knowing the dire consequences of breaking it. Nor had Tsuna been all that scared of them; the only scream he had made was due to Xanxus himself. During the meeting Xanxus hadn't threatened him, pointed an X-Gun at him, nor thrown the wine glass at him. So maybe there was a chance for a working relationship between them after all. Or at least a tolerable one.
But Xanxus wasn't what he wanted to be thinking about right now. What he actually wanted to think about were two special girls: Haru and Kyoko. For today was Self Appreciation Day. Also known as Cake Day.
"Juudaime. Will you be fine here? I have a few errands to run first but I'll be back as quickly as possible, I swear" worries Gokudera, looking over Juudaime as if Tsuna was a small child and he a worried mother.
Tsuna smiles and gestures to the table. "I have everything I need Gokudera. There's no need for me to move from this spot. So go ahead and don't worry about me" Gokudera looks around to see if any suspicious people are in sight. None are. So finally he relents and bows to Juudaime.
"I'll be back soon Juudaime. If you ever need anything, please call for me" Tsuna waves Gokudera off and sits back down once his friend is out of sight.
Sitting down to his slice of chocolate cake and a Vanilla latte, he looks around the square he was in. Whilst Cake Day had started out as a tradition each girl had had separately, once they become friends, they shared the day together. Now, after Tsuna had started to do more and more paperwork, the girls had included him too. They decided that if the other's weren't going to pull Tsuna out of the office then they would- quite literally to. So Self Appreciation Day became a day when the girls celebrated how well they'd done over the past month and a day for Tsuna to relax and recharge. It had been a tradition going on for more than a year now. Tsuna smiles forlornly at his slice of cake. This would be the first time he had done this without the girls with him. However we wanted to do it to remember the girls. With the Mafia slowly taking over his life, he didn't want to forget about them. He never wanted to push them to the side. Unlike in the future, they weren't cooking for the boys, nor played any other important role in their daily lives. It would be easy to put other tasks before the girls and stop seeing them altogether.
Just as he is swallowing his first bite, his phone goes off. But no matter how much he wishes to ignore the call, he knows that he must answer it. Digging around in a pocket, since Shoichi and Spanner have his headphones, he looks to find it's Shoichi calling him. This wasn't unusual. If it was anyone other than one of his guardians then all calls went through Shoichi. Sometimes the calls were from other Bosses or subordinates and in most of those cases, Shoichi tried to direct them to someone else to deal with since Tsuna was always busy. Tsuna was glad for the help since it meant he could concentrate more with less interruptions.
"Hello Shoichi" says Tsuna, no hint of his anger at being disturbed in sight.
"Heya Tsuna, I have Haru and Kyoko on the line for you. Something about Self Appreciation Day. You want me to put them through?" Shoichi obviously had no clue what this tradition was, being shut up in his lab like he was. Tsuna could almost laugh at the coincidence.
"Yes please Shoichi." Says Tsuna warmly. There is a beep, then a few more beeps before the line goes slightly crackly. "Hello Haru, Kyoko."
"Hello Tsuna!" shout the two girls, although the sound isn't very clear. "We wanted to check up on you."
Tsuna does laugh at this and the girls are glad to hear it. "I'm doing fine girls. I'm even sat in town with a slice of-"
"~Chocolate cake and a Vanilla Latte~ Desu~" sing the girls before bursting into a giggling fit. It wasn't Tsuna's fault that this was his favourite! "Haru has a Passion fruit Cheesecake *crkkk* a blackcurrant meringue" The girls had the phone on speaker so they could both hear him, and he could hear both at once. "how is everything down in Italy?" asks Kyoko.
"Fine I suppose." Replies Tsuna.
There are two sighs from the other end of the phone line.
"Tsuna, we are *crackle* girls now and *fshhh* handle it" Tsuna frowns at the bad connection. Shoichi had been crystal clear, but Tsuna supposed it was because of the long distance between them.
"Girls, wait a moment. You're breaking up. I'll try to find some better reception." Tsuna announces as he stands up and walks around the square. However the static still persisted even though he could hear odd snippets of conversation between the girls. He starts to walk towards an alleyway that leads into a larger Square. Maybe the tall buildings around him were interfering. "What were you saying?" he asks once more.
"I said that we are big girls now Tsuna and you should tell us the truth. We can handle it. I'm fed up of the lies" Kyoko was sounding rather serious about this. Haru spoke next. "If your lives in the Mafia are anything like the movies are, then we know that things are going to be dangerous. We want to help desu~. We're a part of this too, or didn't anyone tell you that the Vongola Mansion has been attacked twice since you've been gone?"
Tsuna nearly drops the phone. No! No one had told him that. "What do you mean? I haven't heard about that! Are you alright, were there any injured, anyone dead?" says Tsuna in a flurry.
"Calm down desu~" says Haru. Kyoko takes over "No, no one was harmed since the staff took care of them pretty quickly. Me and Haru, as well as I-pin and Bianchi are all fine too. But we wanted to do something. But everyone refused us until we got your permission."
Tsuna's intuition doesn't like the sound of that and flares up in warning. Or at least he thinks that's the cause. "And that is?" he asks wearily. These two were known for being impulsive.
"We want to learn how to" starts Haru.
However Tsuna doesn't hear the end of the sentence as there is a flash of green and a spray of some smoke in the air.
All the way in Japan, two girls are sitting over the remnants of their dessert when there is a thud over the phone line. It sounded like the phone had been dropped on the floor.
"Tsuna?" asks Haru "Hello, Tsuna? Everything alright?"
She receives no answer. A few moments later, the call cuts off and the girls are left with the worrying and inhuman sound of the dial tone.
"I wonder what happened. You don't think he's mad with us for asking that do you?" Kyoko asks Haru.
"I don't think so, desu~ Tsuna would have shouted at us instead, telling us how silly we are to even ask that. It's not like him to just hang up like that."
"Should we try again? Maybe the signal cut out?" suggests Kyoko. Haru nods and redials Tsuna's number.
"Hey Haru, Kyoko, did you forget to tell Tsuna something?" asks Shoichi as he answers the call.
"No, I think we were cut off. There was a thud before the call ended, like Tsuna had dropped his phone." Kyoko explains. Shoichi makes a considering noise, before trying to connect the call for them.
After a few minutes, he goes back to the girls. "That's strange, I can't connect through to him. Let me try Gokudera instead. He'd know what's going on." After pressing a few buttons, he hears the phone ring.
"Yeah? What's up?" asks Gokudera, the noise of the crowd behind him.
"Hey Gokudera. Are you with Tsuna at the moment?" asks Shoichi, his voice showing his confusion.
Gokudera makes a questioning noise before replying "Not at the moment, no. I am running errands around town whilst he's in a café. Why, something wrong?" A slight hint of worry creeps into his voice at the end.
"Well Haru and Kyoko were talking to him before the phone was dropped on Tsuna's end and the call ended. We wondered if you knew what was going on." Dropping the phone did sound like something Tsuna would do since he was still slightly clumsy. However he'd always pick the phone back up and apologise quickly.
"Give me a moment, I'm just a street away" says Gokudera, turning around and walking back the way he had come. The line goes quiet as Shoichi explains what's happening to the girls. If Gokudera listened, he could hear what the girls were saying too. He enters the square and notices that Juudaime isn't in sight. Thinking that maybe he went inside for another drink, Gokudera walks over to Juudaime's table, only to find a full mug of coffee and a mostly untouched cake. Gokudera looks around and still can't see Juudaime. "Fuck" he hisses.
"Language Gokudera" chides Kyoko.
"What was that for?" asks Haru, worried about the use of that word. It didn't bode well.
"Shut up! Give me a second, maybe he went for a walk." Says Gokudera before walking down the only other exit of the Square. As he re-enters into the sunlight, he looks around the larger plaza and still can't find any sign of Tsuna. Growling, he runs over to a set of steps behind a building and climbs to the roof to get a better vantage point. He even checks the sky in case Juudaime had gone flying, but there was nothing except bright blue sky. Gokudera vaguely notices Thunder clouds on the horizon. He quickly puts the others on hold and dials Tsuna's phone. It goes straight to answer machine, not even one ring.
So instead he tries Yamamoto's phone. He starts shouting as soon as the man picks up "Oi, Yakyuu-baka have you seen Juudaime around town?"
"Huh? No I haven't. Gokudera, what's" starts Yamamoto, but Gokudera quickly ends the call.
He dials another number "Hey, Kusakabe. You and Hibari are patrolling today right? Have either of you seen Juudaime within the past 20 minutes?" The answer is another no from them.
Getting more and more worried with every negative answer, he futilely hopes that Juudaime has gone home. "Shoichi, he hasn't come back home yet?" he asks. It was possible to fly home in that time frame. Shoichi checks the security cameras but comes back with another no.
"Then there are only two possibilities left. He's most likely gone off to be alone for a while. Hopefully he should come back home later on."
"Or?" asks Haru and Kyoko at the same time.
Gokudera hesitates before saying "Or it means that Juudaime's…"
Bwahaha, cliff hanger. Although it's obvious what's happened to Tsuna. Guesses are welcome.
I'll see you guys next time, okay?
Phantom Hitman 1412
First Published 13 June 2012