Chapter 19
With their Reputation proceeding them.
"Tatta" sings one childish voice
"Latta latta latta" returns a squeaky voice
"Latta"
"Tattatta latta latta"
"TATTALATTA!" they both sing.
"Oh, you two are quite cheerful this morning." Comments Luce, listening to Skull and Tsunayoshi singing as they walk down the hall.
"Happy? I'm always this happy Luce." says Skull. Luce and Tsunayoshi laugh.
"Skull's been like this since we woke up." Explains Tsunayoshi, hugging Skull's neck tighter. Skull puts the boy down on the table and went to make some coffee.
"Well Skull actually likes this Family. He's been looking after them ever since they first appeared." Explains Luce.
"First appeared? They are a new Family?" asks Tsunayoshi. Luce had made it sound as if they had just appeared out of the mist one day.
"The Family is as old as Vongola, kora." Says Colonnello, ruffling Tsunayoshi's hair as he walks past. "However all traces of them disappeared after the first generation. One day they literally arrived on the Island and staked a claim to be there. The lot living here are supposedly the tenth generation."
"Well if Skull likes then then I'm sure I will too!" smiles Tsunayoshi before starting on his breakfast.
The image carved into their gate was a odd one, looking like a very weird compass. But what was weirder was the man who opened the gate. He had bright red hair and ruby eyes. His eyes interested Tsunayoshi greatly. For a start they were red, like Xanxus's. But unlike Xanxus's these weren't scary nor cold, they were very warm eyes. However it was the pupils that interested Tsunayoshi. It was almost as if Shimon's compass was in his eyes. It was a little disturbing at first to see but the small boy quickly got used to it. It truly embodied the Family's spirit.
But then his intuition provided some more interesting information. "Um, you're with the VCubed aren't you, since you should be dead too." Not the best first line but certainly one of the most unusual. The man was slightly taken aback before smiling and kneeling down to be on Tsunayoshi's level.
"That's right. I came from the past with Giotto so that I could look after my family. My name is Cozarto Shimon, also known as Shimon Primo. It's very nice to meet you- Giotto told me about you." He holds out his hand for Tsunayoshi to shake. Tsunayoshi takes it with a huge smile.
He laughs before replying "It's nice to meet you too!"
"Well why not come in and I'll introduce you to the rest of my family." He turns and walks into the garden and towards the house. As he gets closer he shouts "Hey, Everyone. Skull and Colonnello are here to see you all" A large gaggle of children run out of the house and tackle Skull and Colonnello to the ground. Only one boy stays back.
One girl with long dark black hair stands a few steps away from Colonnello and flicks what appears to be a fan into her hand. "Be Purified Respectfully!" she shouts before attempting to attack Colonnello. The soldier just smiles and jumps out of the way of every attack, laughing the whole time. Tsunayoshi could see that the attacks were clumsy but were filled with a lot of determination.
"Nice to see you again too Adelheid, kora" he sounded as if this happened every time.
As he jumps backwards once more, there is a shout from a blond boy behind him "I'll get you this time, in the end!" and the boy makes a punch towards Colonnello's leg.
"I don't think so Koyo!" Colonnello warns jumping into the air. Since both children were attacking simultaneously, Adelheid's fan ends up whacking Koyo in the cheek whilst he ends up punching her stomach.
Tsunayoshi turns from the fighters to see who has jumped on Skull. In fact after the first hug they had gotten off of Skull and they were now sat in a circle on the floor.
"Isn't my Adel beautiful when she fights like that?" says one boy. He had brown hair under a hat. "especially when she does that!" Adelheid had just spun around quickly before kicking Colonnello, causing her skirt to fly up.
"Just wait until she's older Julie, then she'll be really beautiful" explains Skull watching the fight too. Adelheid hears this and stops her attempt to attack Colonnello. A blush lights her face as she tries to pull her skirt down. "Oi, you two, stop it" she growls embarrassed. The two males laugh.
"So Skull what will we be doing today?" asks one boy. He's got blond brown hair and is rather bulky. The boy next to him turns to look up at Skull too, but doesn't say anything. He looks older than the rest and a lot scarier with bright blond hair.
"Well Rauji," Skull says looking at the bulky child, "and Kaoru" that was the blond boy "I'm here to introduce you to someone who's really important to me." Skull goes to point at Tsunayoshi but finds he's not where Skull left him.
Instead Tsunayoshi is running towards the boy who hadn't joined the others. In his haste, he trips over a rock and rolls, coming to a stop infront of the other boy. "hehe" nervously laughs Tsunayoshi from his position laying on the floor looking up at the boy "Um, I'm Tsunayoshi, nice to meet you"
The other boy laughs quietly before taking a step forwards. Unluckily he misses the step and tumbles down the stone steps to land flat on his face next to Tsunayoshi. The two boys look at each other before laughing at how clumsy they are.
"Tsunayoshi" shouts Colonnello, having watched the spectacular fall.
"Enma" shouts Skull, also having seen the boy's decent. Both adults run over, as do most of the children.
"Haahaa, That's loser Enma for you" laughs Koyo.
"I can't believe how clumsy you are Enma." Says Julie, looking down at the boy but making no move to help him up.
"Enma can you stand?" asks Adelheid before smacking Koyo and Julie for making fun of Enma.
Tsunayoshi smiles at the exchange between the Shimon kids. But suddenly there is a strange face in his view. He's pretty sure that it's a girl, but she has sunglasses on that hide her eyes. That actually makes Tsunayoshi realise that all of the Shimon kids have red eyes. How unusual. This girl however has really short hair that is dyed into different colours and spiked. She also has a rubber ring on like those you take swimming.
"Pii Pii Pii! I'm Shitt-P but call me Shottopi-chan!" She then clicks her tongue before extending down a hand to help him up. Her nails are all painted different colours to match her hair. Tsunayoshi smiles at her and takes her hand and hauls himself into a sitting position. Skull kneels down next to him.
"Tsunayoshi are you alright? You didn't hurt yourself did you? The others would be mad with me if you did" Shull shakes slightly imagining the punishments certain others would give him. Tsunayoshi, remembering these certain others, mainly Reborn, quickly stands up. Reborn would shoot him if he remained on the floor for too long, and just because he wasn't in sight didn't mean he wasn't around.
"God you lot are a handful. First you attack our guests and then you make a spectacle of yourselves. How am I supposed to look after you all alone?" says Cozarto brushing his hair back with a hand in exasperation.
"Alone? Your parents aren't here?" Tsunayoshi innocently asks. The others all look down and away and Tsunayoshi suddenly feels rather guilty "I'm sorry" he cries waving his hands in the air to placate them.
"It's alright, you didn't know. We're all orphans. The Ninth Generation took us in and looked after us. Just before they died they brought us here" explains Enma quietly.
"Skull came and looked after us sometimes as did Vongola and Giglio Nero and a lot of the other Families." Adds in Kaoru.
"When Verde came to the past and explained what was going on, I immediately knew that I had to come here and look after them. I snuck into the experiment and got brought here too. And I'm glad I did. My Tenth Generation are adorable and very worthy successors" inputs Cozarto smiling sweetly down at them all. They all perk up at the praise.
"What's that you've got there?" asks Julie sceptically and haughtily. He leans in closer to the object Tsunayoshi has in is hands. Enma had noticed it earlier and found it cute. The rest had been too involved in greeting Skull and Colonnello to notice. Rather rudely, he snatches it out of Tsunayoshi's hands to take a better look.
"That's Natsu. " answers Tsunayoshi before holding his hands out. "Can I have him back please?"
"No. Boys don't need stuffed toys. We got rid of Enma's a long time ago." Denies Julie. Not that Enma was going to tell Julie but he had managed to hide one toy from them all.
Tsunayoshi pouts, which many of the others find adorable. "Give Natsu back please" says Tsunayoshi once more, this time more forceful.
Julie lifts his chin up and grins evilly "No" . He quickly runs off around the side of the house and into the back gardens. Tsunayoshi gapes, not believing what Julie had just done.
"I'm going to liquefy him when I get my hands on him" growls Adelheid.
"I'm sorry" mumbles Enma quietly.
"I'm getting him back!" shouts Tsunayoshi before running after the thief. They all gasp as Tsunayoshi falls over once more, but he quickly scrabbles back up and continues on his quest.
"Aren't you going to help?" asks Cozarto. The children assume that this is addressed to them and go off running after the pair. In fact the question was actually directed at the two other adults. Colonnello and Skull shake their heads.
"Nope. He's perfectly capable of getting it back himself. Lal hasn't been training him for the past year for nothing." Smiles Colonnello. Cozarto just nods before inviting the two inside for tea in a place where they could watch the children from.
When Tsunayoshi enters the garden at the back of the house, it's different to what he was expecting. The garden is split up into different types of landscape. There's everything from a miniature forest to a desert and even a swamp. He can't see Julie nor Natsu anywhere though. Tsunayoshi looks around at the stampede of feet to see that the rest of the Shimon have come to help.
The scary looking one comes forwards and Tsunayoshi feels slightly apprehensive of him. However the feeling quickly goes as Kaoru keeps on walking down the grass "Come" is all he says. Tsunayoshi turns and follows the boy, the others all coming along to.
"Maybe he's in here, in the end" shouts Koyo before diving into the mini-forest. As Tsunayoshi tries to follow, he's amazed that Koyo can move this fast through it. He himself is having trouble manoeuvring around all of the branches, even after he helped Colonnello with the soldier's own forest training. When they finally reach a clearing in the middle of the miniature forest, all there is to see is a pile of sand.
"That idiot got away, in the end." Says Koyo, shrugging his shoulders. He's only helping as something to do.
"He's over here" shouts Rauji.
Tsunayoshi runs in the direction of the shout. What he doesn't notice is that Koyo stays where he is, not bothering with the chase anymore. He agrees with Julie after all. He was just listening to Adelheid's orders since he didn't want to be purified respectfully. Just as Tsunayoshi exits the clearing, Enma stumbles in, covered in cuts and scratches from the branches. After realising Tsunayoshi has already moved on he rolls his eyes and moves on.
"Guru Giri Guru. Come on, he's getting away!" shouts Shittopi-chan. Tsunayoshi blinks. Where had she gotten the bike from? And why does this bike bounce?
He's forcefully shaken out of his surprise when she turns around and rides off into the swamp. "O-oi, wait for me!" he shouts as he runs after the girl. He nearly falls straight into the swamp, before he notices that Shittopi-chan is actually bouncing along a path of rocks that are barely visible above the surface of the swamp. Carefully he jumps from one to another, trying to catch up to the eccentric girl and, even further ahead, the thief. Half way along the journey, Tsunayoshi notices a lion shaped imprint on the mud and realises that Natsu must have been dropped in it. However instead of crying like he wants to, he just puts on a determined face and runs even faster catching up to the bike and it's rider quickly.
Just as Tsunayoshi is about to slip and fall into the swamp, Shitt P catches him and throws him onto the dry bank. "G-g-g-Gooo get him!" she shouts, sounding like a cheerleader. She wanted to help the boy as much as possible. Julie was being mean. If Tsunayoshi wanted to carry a stuffed animal with him then why shouldn't he. Personal preferences were what they were, personal. If Tsunayoshi liked it then everyone else should respect that. She was going to give him a hiding later on for being so closed minded.
Adelheid grabs the boy and pulls him up from his landing on the bank before dragging him along, muttering angrily under her breath. Tsunayoshi hoped it wasn't directed at him. Tsunayoshi realises that they were following a stream backwards, going up river. It must have been the water that fed the swamp. They quickly arrive at a pool. Adelheid lets go of Tsunayoshi to take off her boots and socks, Tsunayoshi quickly follows suit and rolls up his trousers, guessing that they would be wading through the pool. As he steps into the water he shivers: it was freezing. Adelheid doesn't seem to mind though, too bent on her plans for liquidation to notice.
Shitt P puts Enma down having carried him in her arms over her swamp. He thanks her before running to catch up with the others, falling into the stream along the way.
"Wow, Enma is worse than Tsunayoshi was before we started to train him" says Colonnello, watching the boy fall over yet again. They are currently sat on the roof since it has the best view of the children's antics. Colonnello can easily shoot any threats from up here too.
"Enma's always been like that. He's rather shy. In fact Tsunayoshi is the only other person outside of the Family and you guys that Enma has ever spoken to." Replies Cozarto, hiding his face behind his hand as Enma falls directly into the pool shoes on and all.
"Don't worry. Just leave him to Tsunayoshi" smiles Skull. Cozarto looks out of the corner of his eyes at Skull, wondering what that statement meant. "Tsunayoshi will be a very good friend and influence on him. I'm sure of it" Well, Tsunayoshi had done a very good job on all of them after all.
Back at the pool, Adelheid smacks Tsuna with her fans for complaining about the cold water one too many times- basically once in general.
"Julie Katou get back here before I purify you respectfully" She shouts.
"Now you know I'd do anything for you Adel, but I would quite like to retain the use of my legs, so I'm afraid that's a no." shouts Julie in reply, waving to them as he jumps over the rocky hilltop. The young girl, in true 5 year old fashion, stomps her foot and crosses her arms before pouting.
As they climb out of the pool Adelheid hears a scream and a splash from behind them, turns and re-enters the ice cold pool. "God Enma" she sighs before making her way back to the flailing boy "It's only knee deep you idiot, stand up."
Tsunayoshi looks up at the hill, looking like a mountain due to his small size, and wonders just how he's going to get up there. No one had taught him how to handle this terrain yet. But this is Natsu he's saving so he grits his teeth and just goes for it. Like Reborn said, if you were going to do anything you had to give it your all. Reborn had given it a different name though- do it with your dying will. Tsunayoshi wasn't sure of he liked the sound of it and was too young to realise it meant live your life to the fullest because you never know when you are going to die. That term applied to Reborn's life better than it did to Tsunayoshi's since being killed was an everyday threat in Reborn's line of work.
Even though the rocks are cutting into his bare feet, he keeps in climbing, ignoring the pain like the others had told him too. He stops however when hands pick him up and throw him over their shoulder. It was the bulky one, Rauji. Properly shoed, he literally flew up the rocky mountain, his feet finding all the right places to step. He never tripped once, never placed his foot on a fault line and never had the rocks crumble from underneath him. Rauji was just following the orders of Adel and Cozarto and was willing to help the small boy get his lion back.
"Thank you" says Tsunayoshi patting the man on the head as he was lifted off. Rauji smiles back.
Turing to face the next landscape, Tsunayoshi found it was the desert… and that Julie was trying to bury Natsu under the sand.
"Natsu!" Tsunayoshi shouts before running closer to them.
Rauji smiles as he turns and sees Enma tumble back down the surface of rocks, getting hit on the head by a falling rock once he lands. Always one to serve Enma anyway he can, Rauji slides back down and carries the red head up the same way he did to Tsunayoshi. Enma arrives on the scene between Tsunayoshi and Julie in time to catch what happens next.
"Give Natsu back please" says Tsunayoshi once more being diplomatic like Fon had taught him. Violence was to be a last resort if talking about the problem didn't work. Julie's answer was to kick more sand over the stuffed toy and smirk at the brunet.
"Julie please" says Enma quietly, coming to stand next to the pair.
"No way Loser Enma. Stuffed animals only look good on cute girls, which he is not." Replies Julie folding his arms and raising his chin
"He did look good with the lion though" argues back Enma
"Did not"
"Did too"
"Did not"
"Did too."
Whilst Julie got louder and louder with each turn of their shouting match, Enma got quieter and quieter until he was barely audible.
"He did not!" shouts Julie finally, before stomping on the lion.
Tsunayoshi had had enough. First Natsu had been stolen, then dropped in the mud, and by the look of it in the pool too, and was not being not only buried in the sand but stepped on. Tsunayoshi wasn't going to let it continue any longer. Natsu meant a lot to him.
Closing his eyes Tsunayoshi says once more "Give him back" yet this time his voice is ice cold and sharp. It was oddly calm despite the aura coming off the boy. Tsunayoshi opens his eyes and Enma wanted to faint right there and then. He falls backwards at the power in Tsunayoshi's glare, and he wasn't even the target of it. Julie is frozen in place by it, fearing for his life. He didn't know the kid was this powerful.
Tsunayoshi was just copying what Reborn did when he was mad. It seemed to work on everyone else. In fact, it was a little bit of everyone. The piercing eyes belonged to Reborn, who could amazingly communicate a lot with only a look. The stance belonged to Verde, who got angry whenever someone (other than Tsunayoshi) interrupted or messed with one of his experiments. The aura was Viper's, honed by her time in the Varia.
Colonnello, who had jumped down from the roof to follow when Tsunayoshi had gone over the mountain and out of sight, smiles proudly at Tsunayoshi. That glare and aura alone was a good self defence mechanism. If he could scare the enemy off then he wouldn't need to fight. Cozarto is impressed too. Skull, like ever before, is scared since it reminds him so much of Reborn and the others who beat him up.
Like a switch was pressed, the aura goes and Tsunayoshi turns back into the cute and cuddly boy he is. Tilting his head to one side, he holds out his hands for one final time "Give Natsu back, ne?" Julie scrabbles to get the lion out of the sand, brushed off, re-fluffed up and into Tsunayoshi's hands as quickly as possible. "Thank you!" Tsunayoshi beams, cuddling the lion close.
Cozarto laughs out loud drawing the attention of the others who had also arrived. "You're just like Giotto. He could switch between happy and angry in an instant if something was being threatened. Now that you have Natsu back, how about we go and have some snacks?"
Tsunayoshi looks down the hill, over the pool and the swamp and the forest and the grass and sighs. "But it's such a long and hard way back. I barely made it here in the first place." He whines. He really didn't want to do the trip again.
Cozarto and the rest of the Shimon laugh. "You don't have to, we can just take the walkway back" explains Cozarto. Tsunayoshi's jaw drops and his eyes widen in shock. There was an easy way to get here? Why hadn't anyone told him! Enma takes his wrist and guides him away, strangely enough in the opposite direction to the house. Past the desert area is one last landscape. It's purely bare earth, no plants no rocks or anything else in sight. Just a brown circle at the end of the garden. On the outside of the circle was something that represented all of the others, like a tree, a small section of sand, a small pool of water and so on. He somehow knew this was Enma's.
They walk over and towards the back right corner of the house's wall. There Tsunayoshi sees a walkway, with arches of roses covering it from the sun and rain. The walkway takes them back to the back entrance of the house. No climbing, swimming or jumping involved.
When Tsunayoshi noticed Enma looking at Natsu every so often, Tsunayoshi holds him out in the red head's direction. "Do you want to hold him?" he asks. Enma nods silently before taking the lion and petting it.
"Now this is interesting" remarked the man in the trees. Tsunayoshi had just hugged Enma in good bye and the boy had hugged back. "Since both Primos are here, there won't be any confusion. Any bad blood between the two Families would have been sorted out by the men in question themselves. I'm glad. Vongola never did like fighting Shimon."
"What are you talking about?" asks Byakuran. He went to find this man whenever he felt the disturbance that signalled his arrival. This man was interesting.
"There was a fight between Shimon and Vongola a very long time ago. One of Primo's guardians didn't like the Shimon and got rid of them. Yet not all of them were killed in the betrayal. The Guardian stayed alive, swapping bodies and making sure that Vongola stayed a very strong Family. Due to the betrayal Shimon hated Vongola and were shunned by the rest of the Mafia world. They became so small that no one had heard of them. There must have been some reason for them to come forth now." The man mumbled that last part to himself as if figuring out a puzzle. "Anyway, when Shimon did come forth, I expect there was a fight between them and Vongola; it would have been sorted out by both Primos by the look of it. It seems to me that no one hates them around here."
"But why's that a good thing?" asks the child.
"Because strong bonds between everyone will be needed" says the man, serious for once.
"I wish I could have seen that" remarks Verde after hearing about Natsu's kidnapping adventure. He was talking about Tsunayoshi's scary aura. None of them believed that the innocent boy infront of them was capable of something that scary. Accept the three Arcobaleno who were there, watching the scene. That's right, Reborn was stalking Tsunayoshi once more, in the 'name' of the boy's safety.
"We're going out tomorrow Tsunayoshi" says Fon turning to the boy who was sat in Luce's lap "Reborn's coming too, to see a certain lady"
"Ohh~" sings Tsunayoshi "Does Reborn like this lady?" he asks, ignoring the glare Reborn is giving him; A feat few can manage.
"She's the one obsessed with me" he growls before leaving the table.
I re-read the first half of the Shimon arc last night just to reference everything, so hopefully it should be alright. 'In the end' is Koyo's version of Ryohei's extreme, and to be purified respectfully is the same as being bitten to death. Similarly, liquidation is the same as discipline. And I hope you are all okay with me calling them Shimon rather than Simon. It just sounds better to me. And for those who don't know Shimon means Reputation, hence the name of the chapter.
Wasn't the latest chapter awesome? Chrome was amazing in it. I wanted to cry by the end of it, she's so strong emotionally. It was just so sweet.
And make sure to check out chapter 2 of the Fight Between Leon and Reborn, where I explain how I think Leon got his powers and arrived in Reborn's hands. And it's not a 'sunny' image, Estraneo aren't the nicest of people after all.
Join me, Tsunayoshi, Reborn and Fon next time!
Phantom Hitman 1412
First published 29 April 2012