Chapter 16
Through the Generations.
"That woman wants to see cute! Well I'll show her cute. This is what she gets for…" Tsunayoshi couldn't hear the rest of Luce's growling since it got quiet and rather fast. So instead he focused on trying to climb into the outfit Luce was rather forcefully putting him into. The hairbrush attacked him next, making his hair fluffier and more unruly than before, before she stuffed something onto this head. Natsu was then stuffed into his arms and he holds onto the toy for dear life, hoping that Luce will wake up soon.
His request is answered, and Luce snaps out of her tirade when the outfit is complete. "Gya~ you're even cuter than last time." Spinning him around, he takes a look in the mirror to find out what she's dressed him up in today. Apparently, cute Easter bunny was today's theme of choice, somehow made even cuter by the appearance of the Lion stuffed toy. He had wired fluffy ears on a band on his head, one perfectly upright whilst the other one was flopping down slightly. When the others saw todays outfit, they didn't even want to ask where she had found the belt with a fluffy bunny pompom tail attached to it, and fervently hoped that she had brought it rather than making it herself.
"Boys" she says with her determined leader voice. Skull and Fon, as his escorts for today, stand infront of her, ready for whatever crazy orders she has for today. "You two are to make sure that that crazy woman doesn't hurt him, and you are to make sure that he returns home, in one piece. You are not allowed to let her kidnap him nor to keep him at VCubed (V3). He is not to be let out of your sight for a second! Understand?"
Both men nod, knowing the consequences of not following her orders. Plus, they wanted Tsunayoshi here to, not at someone else's house. They quickly grabbed the bunny's hand and took him out of the house before Luce herself could detain him.
"Who are we going to see today? Is it someone fun?" he asks as he walks down the path towards the gate.
Skull laughs to himself "Yes, they are fun Tsunayoshi. A little crazy at times, but certainly fun."
Fon looks down slightly worried. "If this" and he brings his hands up to show the marks in the air " 'crazy woman' does get a little too touchy, then just use that move I taught you and she should back off. It won't hurt her, but she'll get the message." Tsunayoshi looks up at him amazed, Fon had just said to- "There is nothing wrong with self-defence" Fon adds, seeing the look in the boy's eyes. Just who in the hell were they taking him to see?
Tsunayoshi wonders where they are going as they miss the gate next to Nono's house. Instead they stop at the next one. They get to the gate and Tsunayoshi takes a look at the emblem on the outside. It was a circle, with a ring of cloud looking things on the outside. Right in the centre was the word Vongola once again, which confused Tsunayoshi. Hadn't he just been to see the Vongola? Underneath the banner that had Vongola was a flur-de-lis. Above the banner was what appeared to be a crown, with some sort of emblem through the middle of it.
Skull politely knocked on the door and a maid opens it. Seeing who it is, she opens the door wider and bows them inside. Tsunayoshi looks around at the gardens in awe. It was certainly an… interesting theme going on here. At first, it looked like a highly well maintained garden with geometric designs of flowers, borders and hedges. That is until you notice the craters in the ground, scrapes where the grass had been moved and flung about, and lots of tiny holes in the ground. Tsunayoshi recognises those holes in the ground: they are bullet holes.
All eyes turn to the house as the door is flung open and a screaming figure comes running out, soon followed by another one. They proceed to run around the garden.
"Come back here you arrogant brat!" the red head shouts, firing off a load of bullets at the other. "I'll teach you a lesson"
"Gyaa!" the green head screams "Someone save Ore-sama!" Spotting the potential shields, the green head runs over towards them and hides behind them. The red head stops when he notices just who he's hidden behind.
"Oh, it's you two." He says. He keep walking towards Fon as if he was about to give him a hug in greeting. Instead, he leans over Fon's shoulders and shoots the green haired one.
There is another scream, and the one in hiding scrabbles up and runs in a different direction, towards a man wearing strange clothes and a tall hat.
"Now Now, let's calm down. We have guests after all." He says, his Italian slightly accented.
Tsunayoshi just laughs at the family around him, sensing the bond they all have. He'd had a close up view of the red head's shot, and just like Reborn, he'd shot to barely miss, not actually harm. He tenses though, when he feels two fighting auras. And he's not the only one to feel it. Fon sighs, as if expecting it, before turning to Skull
"Skull, hold the little one." Skull proceeds to do so as Fon takes a few steps away. Tsunayoshi blinks in surprise as suddenly there is someone next to Fon, and Fon is holding a pair of handcuffs in his grip.
"Good morning to you too." Fon smiles. The other man just smirks, before preparing for the next attack.
"You should not extremely fight here, or I shall have to pray for our Guests' safety." Comes a very loud voice from the door way. Tsunayoshi turns from looking at the platinum blond to the door where there is a priest standing, hands raised to the heavens. Knowing that the priest will stop the fight, Skull puts Tsunayoshi back down, straightening out his clothes afterwards. As the priest runs over to stop the fight between the Fon and this other man, Tsunayoshi still feels the other mysterious aura. After concentrating for a moment, he realises that's it directly infront of him about 2 metres away.
But there is no one there.
"Um, who's there?" he asks, for he knows that there is someone there.
"Tch, what are you talking about brat, there's no one there" growls the red head, looking at Tsunayoshi strangely. Tsunayoshi shakes his head, telling the man he's wrong.
Tsunayoshi blinks once more as suddenly there is a flash of orange and a man stands before them, hand on the air as if grabbing something. "Show yourself to our guests please" despite the please, the cool and confident tone left no room for argument. Tsunayoshi realises that the man must be an illusionist, like Viper is. The man who has just appeared has short dark blue hair and is wincing from the other man's tight grip on his ear.
But Tsunayoshi can't draw his eyes away from the other man. The one who, just moment's ago, had flames coming out of his forehead. He feels really strange as something in his body recognises this man and it feels as if his blood is reaching out for the man infront of him. He gets another one of those 'feelings' he's been having so often and immediately kneels infront of the blond. He doesn't know why, but he feels like he has to.
The chaos around him stops as everyone watches the bunny kneel before the blond. Said man gives the boy an analytical stare before smiling, ruffling the bunny's hair and picking the boy up.
"There is no need to bow before me little one." He says. "My name is Giotto, what's yours?" Tsunayoshi senses that he can trust this man, but still looks to Fon and Skull for permission. They both nod and smile at him, showing it's alright.
"My name is Tsunayoshi! It's nice to meet you!"
"It's nice to meet you too. How about we go in for morning tea and I'll introduce you to everyone." Giotto asks, smiling down at the boy. The bunny nods and cheers.
Everyone follows the pair into the house, through some corridors and into a dining hall. The table is already laid out since they were expecting the guests. Tsunayoshi has to wonder about the contents of the table though, even as he giggles at it. At one end, where there was a huge throne like chair, is lots and lots of cake and sweets. As they move further down the table the food gets more savoury.
Primo sits in the largest chair like Tsunayoshi suspected, with Fon and Skull sitting on his left. The teen with green hair was sitting near the sweets, practically drooling at the display before him. Everyone else finds seats too and starts to dig into the food.
"Okay, so he's Lampo, that one is Asari, he's Knuckles, and that's my best friend G. The silent one is Alaude and the final one is Daemon." Giotto points to each one in turn.
As Tsunayoshi sits on Giotto's lap, he watches all of the others have fun and talk with each other and guesses that they must have been around each other for a long time. There was this sense of familiarity just like at home. But looking at them all, something flashes through his head, but he's hesitant to ask the question. Giotto, of course, sense this, and asks the little bunny what was wrong. Tsunayoshi holds Natsu up as if the lion could save him in case the man got mad at him. "Don't worry, I know about your gift. I won't mind if the question is a little weird."
Slightly reassured by this, Tsunayoshi whispers "Shouldn't you all be dead?" Only the Arcobaleno and Giotto hear this since they were the only ones paying attention to the bunny. The Arcobaleno wonder how Tsunayoshi knows this though. They hadn't told Tsunayoshi about the First Generation of Vongola, nor about VCubed. As a result he shouldn't know that they should be dead.
Giotto though, laughs, not offended by the question at all. "Yes, we are dead" he says bluntly. Tsunayoshi stares at him with wide eyes. This man was definitely alive. "We're from the past actually. Did anyone tell you how V3 came to be about?" the child shakes his head, still trying to get over thoughts of time travel. "Well, I was actually the founder and first Boss of the Vongola Family. However, when I created the group, it was as a vigilante family, there to protect our town from criminals. Vongola didn't become like it is today until after I passed on the title of Boss." That would explain the word Vongola on the gate then. "When you met Nono did you see the ring he was wearing?" Tsunayoshi nods "Well, that's a special ring that actually has some of my spirit in it. Don't worry about that too much though. However, through the ring, I saw how much my Vongola had changed. It had become one of the people I was trying to fight against. Even though Nono wanted to, he couldn't change it. He had tried, and Vongola is a lot less violent than it used to be, but it still wasn't working. I really wanted to do something to help. And after talking, we found a solution. So your friend Verde, my friend Talbot, and the Bovino Family worked together with the Vongola Guardians to bring us here to the future. We've created the group V3. It stands for Vongola Version Vigilante. We do a lot of peace work, like trying to stop mafia wars, stop fights between rival families, and protect who we can from criminals and the effects of the Underworld. Nono does what he can from the Underworld and I do what I can from the normal world. Hopefully we can meet somewhere in the middle."
Tsunayoshi take a little while to process all of that, but decides to take it at face value. Giotto had come from the past to make the future better.
"B-B-but, Tsunayoshi" stammers Skull "How did you know they should have been dead?"
"Well, Nono did confirm that Tsunayoshi has the Vongola Hyper Intuition, so that must have told him." Says Fon, remembering the conversation they had had with Reborn and Viper once the boy had fallen asleep.
Giotto frowns and shakes his head. "No, that's not possible. The Vongola hyper intuition doesn't appear this strong until one wears the Vongola sky ring or half ring, and one needs to have good control of their flame too. Tsunayoshi's done neither."
"So what's the cause then? He's had it ever since we first had him." Both Arcobaleno are rather worried about their one and only child, and can't help but wonder what's happened to him to cause this ability.
Giotto's frown deepens as Tsunayoshi looks up at him with deep brown eyes. He understood that they were talking about him, but there were too many big words for him to understand. "I really don't know, but I can't help but feel like I've caused it somehow"
They have no time to elaborate on that though, since the dining room doors bang open and a woman runs in and over to Giotto.
"Why didn't you tell me he had arrived? I've been waiting forever to see the adorable child I've been hearing about." Finally spotting her target she squeals and picks him up from Giotto's lap. "When Luce said you were cute I didn't think she was telling the truth." Tsunayoshi looks at this woman, who reminds him greatly of Luce, and smiles at her. "Oh look at this" she coos, before grabbing a napkin from the table and wiping Tsunayoshi's face with it. He has icing all over his face from the cake he was eating. "I am so envious, she gets to look at this face all day." She hugs the boy to her chest, before spinning on her heels and running out the door. "Me and the cutie are going to play alright!"
"Nufufu, Elena, what about me?" asks Daemon, looking up from his glass of wine.
Elena turns around for a moment. "You're handsome. He's cute. There's a difference. A woman needs both in her life." She says before disappearing.
"Haha, I bet you regret bringing her with you from the past now, don't you Daemon" scoffs G, waving and pointing a breadstick.
Skull and Fon both quickly stand up, sweat running down their brows. Giotto looks at them and laughs "Don't worry about her, you know she won't hurt him."
"We know. It's Luce we're worried about. Her orders were to not let him out of our sight and I'm more afraid of the consequences than what Elena would do to Tsunayoshi." Says Skull before running out of the room and after his charge. Fon politely bows to the Vongola Family before following Skull out.
Meanwhile Tsunayoshi has ended up with the 'crazy woman' who he now knows is called Elena, and they are currently sat on her bed whilst she fiddles with the little bunny ears he has on. "Oh, I know what you need. Wait right here. I'll be back soon" she says excitedly, before running out of the room and down the corridor.
Tsunayoshi, being the inquisitive boy he is, decides to take a look around the room. He climbs off the bed and over to the dresser, clambering up onto the seat. On the dresser there's lots of little bottles and a lot of different colours. It kind of looks like the paint Colonnello uses. Looking to the left, he finds a big puffy pink thing. So he picks it up and gives it a shake. Powder falls all around him making him sneeze. He remembers where he's seen one of these before- Luce's room. She put it against her face. So holding the fluff in both hands, he lightly slams it against his face, keeping his eyes shut against the dust. He does so a few more times until he sneezes once more. Not liking the fact that he keeps on sneezing, he throws the puffy thing over his shoulder, and move on to the other different coloured 'paint'.
When Skull and Fon finally find him, Tsuna is a bright rainbow of colours. Once he sees them he beckons them over, before waving the purple eye-shadow in the air. "Look, I could hide in a flower bed now. Colonnello would be pleased, as would Lal!" He pulls on Skull's hand until the man kneels down too, and sets to work on him too. Skull tries to stop him, but Tsunayoshi is determined to go on.
Shade by shade, Tsunayoshi paints Skull every shade of purple he can find. "Ahh, I've run out." He pouts.
That's when Elena walks back in, a bunch of flowers in her hand. It was her intention to add to the Easter theme and pin one of the flowers to his jacket. Seeing the mess the boy's made, she laughs. "Silly, you're not supposed to put it all over like that. What were you trying to do?" she digs around in a drawer for some make-up wipes, handing a couple to Skull before starting on the boy. Instead he bats her hands away. "No, it's for Lal. This is so I can hide in the flower garden and surprise her!" Elena can't say no to that determined look in his eyes.
"Alright then. The others wanted to know if you wanted to play in the garden with them." Elena informs as she starts to tidy up the mess he'd made.
Tsunayoshi gives a whoop of agreement before running out the door and somehow managing to find the back door to the garden. When he gets there, he finds that G is shouting at Lampo once more, the little lord looking rather scared with tears in his eyes. He runs over and stands infront of Lampo, hands on his hips. "Stop shouting at him" he shouts. G initially stops due to the colour of Tsunayoshi's face, but then remembers what Lampo had done this time.
"Tch, brat, get out of the way, I need to shoot some sense into him" growls G, using his gun to motion moving aside. Tsunayoshi stands there, glaring at G, until the man has enough and goes to lean over Tsunayoshi. However, the bunny reaches his hand up, stands on tip toes to reach, and pushes G's arm. The man's hand goes numb and he drops the gun. "W-what did you do?"
"I taught him that for self-defence. I didn't expect him to use it to save someone though." Says Fon as they catch up.
Tsunayoshi turns to Lampo and sees the huge bump the teen already has. Leaning over, he rubs the bump trying to make it feel better "Are you alright now?" he asks Lampo, tilting his head and smiling.
Lampo gulps back the tears and nods, before raising his eyebrows at Tsunayoshi's appearance. "Um, what about you? What's the make-up for?"
Tsunayoshi beams and claps, jumping at the same time. "Oh, so I can do this." They are in the perfect place, with flowers on three sides. Going to one end, he gets on his knees and crawls into the flower bed. The others track his progress, but only because they can see the moving fluffy bunny tail through the flowers. When the bunny tail stops moving, they keep their eyes there, assuming Tsunayoshi has stopped moving. Yet moments later, Alaude throws his handcuffs behind him.
"Heeii!" comes the squeak. "Ow, ow. Let me go" he whines, standing up, one hand caught in the cuffs. The rest of the family look from his position to the bunny tail.
"That was extreme!" shouts Knuckles, punching the air.
"Haa, haa, but your tail came off." Laughs Asari going over to pick it up.
"WHAT?" comes the scream and everyone turns to find Elena almost in tears. She runs over, snatches the tail from Asari, before kneeling infront of the boy. After glaring at Alaude, he removes the handcuff. She swings the little boy around so she can try and figure out how to re-attach the tail.
"Nuh-uh" Tsunayoshi says shaking his head. Instead he runs off. He doesn't really want her to put the tail back in place. He'd rather that Luce does.
"Oy, get him!" Elena shouts.
Tsunayoshi spins, skipping backwards and sticks his tongue out "Haahaa, Can't catch me!" and goes to hide behind a tree.
"Daemon, Please~" Elena begs. Daemon sighs, before turning and walking towards the trees. The things he does for this woman…
When Daemon gets behind the tree, he can't find the kid, instead hearing a rustle from above. The man materialises his scythe and cuts a few of the branches away.
"Heeii" Tsunayoshi screams, sticking his head out of the foliage.
"Tsunayoshi, jump down" shouts Skull, holding his hands out. Trusting Skull completely, Tsunayoshi crawls to the edge of the branch, but slips, Skull catching him anyway. He jumps out of Skull's arms in time to avoid a swipe of the scythe and runs across the laws. "Hee, try again" he giggles
"I'll do it to the extreme!" shouts Knuckles, running towards the boy.
"Looks like fun, I'll join in too" smiles Asari.
Tsunayoshi manages to dodge their grabs, using his small size to his advantage. At one point, he clambers onto Knuckle's back. The priest continues to run around, pretending he can't find the boy anywhere. After tiring of the 'horsie ride' he jumps off.
He keeps on dodging any grabs for him until a voice makes him freeze.
"Tsunayoshi!"
Elena uses the chance to grab the boy and pick him up. "Tsunayoshi, stay here with me~" she pleads, hugging him tightly. As much as he likes the rest of the family, this woman is a little too touchy. He just wants to go back home. He manages to wriggle out of her arms and jump onto the lawn, running over to the owner of the voice. As Elena makes another grab, a bullet stops her. Everyone but Giotto reacts, drawing weapons out.
Tsunayoshi stops and glares up at a tree. "Colonnello, that wasn't very nice!" he pouts.
"Tsunayoshi!" shouts the owner of the voice again, coming closer. When they finally do reach him they gasp at the state he is in. "You've got mud on your knees, make-up all over your face and your tail has fallen off. Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" It was Luce, and she wasn't very happy.
"But I did it for Lal! I want to show her my new hiding place. I want her to be proud of me!" he says, tears in his eyes. He was only trying to make her smile at him.
"Speaking of, she'll be here soon take a look, so why not hide. We'll see who does better alright?" shouts Colonnello from his hiding place in the tree.
"Yay. I'm gonna beat you Colonnello!" Tsunayoshi shouts, running for the flowers once more.
The First Generation watch this with a smile on their faces, still not too sure what to make of it all. They had never seen the Arcobaleno act like this before. And to be honest, it was nice to see them act more like normal people. They put their weapons away, now knowing who had fired the shot.
A minute later they see Lal walking down the garden path, holding two knives in her hands.
"For heaven's sake Colonnello, a five year old who had decided to finger paint on themselves could have done a better job than you!" Lal shouts, army voice harsh. Bringing her arm back she lets one of the knives fly into the bed of flowers. Colonnello catches the knife aimed for his head.
"Damn it Lal. You nearly had my eye out, kora. I'd never be able to watch your eyes sparkle with fire when you shout at me anymore." He flirts as he stands back up. He was going to throw the knife back to her, but she'd just use it as ammo again.
"You idiotic student. If you have time to flirt with me then you have time to do a better job." She shouts back, a tiny blush on her cheeks.
Tsunayoshi giggles at the usual exchange, before clamping his hands over his mouth.
"And You! You should know better than to laugh when you are in hiding. You gave yourself away" she shouts, directing it at Tsunayoshi. Just like he expected, a knife came flying his way too. The members of VCubed gasp, all moving to stop the knife, but are too far away. They can't believe that she'd throw a knife at him. Giotto notices that none of the Arcobaleno present, not even Luce, are worried.
Tsunayoshi however, catches the knife. Standing back up, he brushes off the dirt from his knees. "Geeze Lal. Would you stop throwing these at me? If you blinded me then I wouldn't be able to see you smile. And I love your smile."
"I'm training you to handle that brat. At least you did better than my stupid student here" Lal says, ignoring the comment about her smile.
"Come on Tsunayoshi. It's time to go home." Says Luce, holding out a hand for him to take.
"Noo~ you can't take him home. He's going to stay here!" shouts Elena, making another grab for him. Luce gives a glare that is as cold as ice and even slightly scares Alaude and Daemon. She picks the boy up and protectively holds him to her chest.
"Yes, he should stay here" adds in Lampo, wanting his only saviour to stay behind. Someone needed to protect him from G's wrath.
"Now now, Lampo, he can't stay here, he needs to go home. But he can certainly visit again" calms Asari, patting Lampo on the shoulder.
"It would be a sin to keep him here against his will" adds in Knuckle.
"Hmm, it's too noisy when he's here" adds in Alaude, even though he was fascinated by the child. His escaping abilities, combined with the catching of the knife earlier, along with his young age made the little bunny quite interesting.
"You had best come and see Elena again or I'll give you a nightmare" threatens Daemon, a dangerous gleam in his eyes.
"Oy Melon head, don't threaten children!" shouts G, smacking the illusionist on the head. The two of course get into an argument, a gun and a scythe reappearing in seconds.
Giotto sighs at them before walking over and handing the forgotten tail over to Luce. He then ruffles Tsunayoshi's hair before handing Natsu back to him. "You had left him behind to eat all of the cake" Giotto informs.
He walks them all back to the gate, leaving his Guardians to sort the feud out.
"Thank you for having us over" chirps Tsunayoshi as the gate opens, hugging Natsu tighter to his chest.
"It was a pleasure. Make sure to come over again, especially if you need to talk about that gift you have. I've got it too you see" Tsunayoshi nods. All 5 Arcobaleno walk out of the gate.
Tsunayoshi takes a look to the left and down the rest of Mafia Row before looking to his right back towards home. His eyes are once more drawn to the left. Something is still missing... and it's over there.
Just as the gates are about to close, Giotto makes one more comment. "Tsunayoshi don't worry. You'll find what's missing soon. Just remember to be brave, and to be like the Sky- accepting everything." And the gates bang shut.
"Tsunayoshi are you coming?" calls Fon from where the others are, further down the street. He nods and runs to catch up to them, only looking backwards down the street once.
"So did you like meeting the result of my work?" asks Verde after dinner.
Tsunayoshi thinks back to meeting Giotto and his Guardians. Yet two picture overlap in his head. One is definitely those who he met today, yet he's sure that he's met other people who are just like them. Shaking the feeling off, he begins to tell the others about his day.
"Oy, brat. You need to be in top shape tomorrow, alright" barks Lal as she leaves to go upstairs
"Why would I need to do that?" Tsunayoshi asks "Are we going for a run? Or to train some more of your students?"
"No Tsunayoshi. We're going to meet some people who aren't afraid to attack you, even if we are there."
"I'd come and kick their backside into next year but I have a mission" says Reborn.
"Oh." Says Tsunayoshi, thoughtful. "Well, they can't be as bad as you, so I'll be fine" he smiles before ducking under the table to dodge the shot Reborn takes at him, laughing all the while.
Hmm, a lot of insinuations in this chapter, but all will be revealed. I promise. Of course, it's all because Giotto was in this chapter. And it's a bit longer than usual too, but that's because I wanted to include the Guardians and some fun more. Otherwise it would have been more about how they arrived in this time than actually playing with them.
If you are wondering what the symbol on their gate looks like, type Vongola Symbol into google images and you'll find it. It's the one that appears under the blue dome on Tsuna's gloves and is also engraved into the latest version of the Vongola rings, so if anyone has one of those then you can see it.
And I think you can guess who we are going to see next time!
Wasn't the last manga chapter interesting! I can't wait to learn more about the Vindiche, I need it for some of my stories. Maybe they are zombies and are being kept alive through the pacifiers they had on and Bermuda's power? That's just my guess though.
BWT I'll be starting a different Reborn story soon. It won't take precedence over this one, and it'll be updated irregularly, because I already have this and Thief. I've just had the idea buzzing all this week. However, it's main character is the person you least expect it to be. I bet none of you can guess. And as far as I know, the story is unique too- at least I sure hope so. So keep a look out for it alright!
And I want to thank you all for reviewing so much. It really makes me happy.
Lots of love and cookies
Phantom Hitman 1412
First Published 20 April 2012