Chapter 22
Looking from Outside.
Um, please don't kill me. I won't be able to write anything else if you all kill me.
Okay this was weird. This was very weird. All 8 Arcobaleno were out of the house… at the same time… going to the same place… without arguing… or being forced by Luce to go. It was rare for all of them to be out at the same time, usually there was at least one person at home at any given time. The times where everyone was out was usually for a mafia conference or party. Most of the Arcobaleno hated these parties and did everything they could to get out of them. Looking after Tsunayoshi had been a good excuse. Tsunayoshi could sense eyes on him all coming from behind the protection of gates, watching to see who had incurred the wrath of the Arcobaleno, since none of them looked very happy.
Colonnello opens the gate with his own key and steps aside to let everyone else in. They are greeted by a boy who is slightly older than Tsuna, about 5 years old. He has dirty blond hair and sapphire blue eyes. He seemed to be Italian. He is currently bowed infront of them before he looks up. "Welcome back Lal-dono, Colonnello-dono." He stands up fully and looks to the rest, greeting them too. "I see thou hast brought a child with thee. May thou be kindest to introduce us?" he says looking towards Colonnello.
Colonnello beckons Tsunayoshi towards him and the boy. "Basil, this is Tsunayoshi. Tsunayoshi, this is Basil, a friend of ours" Basil bows once more, this time in Tsunayoshi's direction.
"Is it a great pleasure to be able to finally meet with thou Tsunayoshi-dono. Colonnello-dono and Lal-dono hast talked at great length about thee. All positive comments, I assure thee." He smiles as he looks up at Tsunayoshi and the small boy smiles back.
"Yeah! It's nice to meet you too Basil. Lal says nice things about you too!" Tsunayoshi was finally able to put a face to the name. Basil blushes at the praise, surprised that the harsh woman would say anything nice about him to outsiders.
Quickly moving on to hide his blush, Basil turns to everyone else "Hast all of thee arrived for the appointment with my Master? I hast been forewarned that it was only Lal-dono and Colonnello-dono that I should have been expecting." He looks between them, confusion evident on his childish face. He was also a little in awe, for the people infront of him really were magnificent.
Lal rolls her eyes and glares at the rest of her group "Sorry for the inconvenience Basil. It was just going to be us at first, however the rest of these idiots insisted in coming along. I hope that it doesn't hinder anything?" Lal was pretty sure that nothing important was happening at CEFED HQ at the moment, hence why she had scheduled the appointment when she had.
"This is of no inconvenience at all Lal-dono. As you know CEDEF is more than equipped to handle all of thee." Replies Basil.
"What's a CEDEF?" asks Tsunayoshi to Verde, not recognising the word. Verde looks down and explains
"CEDEF stands for Consulenza Esterna Della Famiglia. This is Italian for Outside Advisors for the Family. They are part of Vongola, but separate. They help make decisions without being biased due to pressure from inside the Family."
"Um- okay then" replies Tsunayoshi, vaguely getting the concept.
"Good Morning Arcobaleno." Says a woman in the doorway. Basil turns around and smiles at her. The others all nod in greeting. "My Boss is ready to see you now" she informs.
Turning to Tsunayoshi, Basil explains "This lady is Oregano and also works in this company." Tsunayoshi waves at her and she smiles back, before turning serious once more, getting back to business. Time schedules needed to be kept to even if it was the famous Arcobaleno she was dealing with.
"If you would all kindly follow me" she says bowing, before turning away and leading the way inside. Viper takes a firm grip of Tsunayoshi's hand and leads him inside.
They go up a flight of steps and Tsunayoshi looks around at all of the people working here. It was far more people than any of the other houses had working. There was people shouting down phones, printers spitting out paper and the rigorous tapping of keys everywhere he looked. Every single person seemed to be involved in something.
But as the Arcobaleno walk past, everyone stops and looks at them. Which Tsunayoshi has come to expect- everyone always stared at them. However, instead of looking awed to see them, these office workers quickly went pale and resumed their work without making eye contact. At first Tsunayoshi thought this was weird, but then he felt the aura the others were giving out. He'd become rather tolerant of their mood swings and hadn't noticed the signs as quickly as the others had. The Arcobaleno seemed apprehensive and angry. A strange combination. Who was this man they were going to see?
As Oregano opens the door to the Boss's office, all Tsunayoshi sees is a blond muscular man with a smile on his face.
"Ahh, Lal, you're here. It's nice to see you again. I'll have a mission for you next week." He says standing up from the desk. He knew better than to greet her in any physical way such as a pat on the shoulder or even a handshake if he would like to retain the use of said hand for the rest of the week. "And the rest of you too. Hmm, I'll have to get some more chairs. Oregano, could you sort that out please?" She nods and goes to fetch some more chairs for them.
After a few minutes everyone is sat down and ready to talk. Tsunayoshi is sat on Viper's lap, which the man raises an eyebrow too.
"Oh, what a cute little boy you have there" says the man smiling at him "Almost as cute as my Na-" and he cuts himself off, looking away for a second. Tsunayoshi senses the sadness the man has and feels bad that he's the cause. But the man quickly recovers and is smiling once more. It seems to Tsunayoshi that the smile is always on his face, but it looks a little forced. "My name is Iemitsu Sawada. It's nice to meet the famed Arcobaleno Baby. Even we couldn't get any information on you" He rubs the back of his neck at that. He must be embarrassed that he couldn't. But it was the Arcobaleno he was dealing with, he hardly had any information on them. "So, little boy, what's your name" and he looks up at the others "I'm allowed to know that much right" and smiles as if sharing a joke.
"His name is Tsunayoshi" says Reborn, smirking as usual.
Iemitsu's eyes widen. He looks at the boy and gives him a through looking over. This boy looks so much like his beloved Nana. He has the same eyes, the same hair colour and even the same small delicate face that she had. He takes a look at them to see if they are joking. By carefully reading what he can see (which isn't much, they are good at hiding their emotions in general), he puts it together.
"T-Tsuna…yoshi?" he stutters quietly.
Tsunayoshi looks over the man and has a faint sense of recognition. There's a sense of hatred but also the tiniest bit of love and respect in there. These feelings he got really confused him at times.
"The age is right, the hair, the eyes" the man mumbles under his breath. He finally looks at Luce "Is he… my Tsunayoshi?"
Huh?... His!
Tsunayoshi cuddles closer to Viper, feeling her grip on him tighten too. He didn't have a clue who this man was and he certainly wasn't going anywhere with him. He 'belonged' to the Arcobaleno, he never wanted to leave them.
"According to our research, yes, he is." Luce quietly confirms, wanting to look away but knows she can't. But none of the Arcobaleno are ready for the expression that crosses the man's face.
For it's one of anger.
The man clenches his fists and his face turns red. He turns once more towards Tsunayoshi and goes to take a punch at the boy. But before he can move too far, Tsunayoshi and Viper have disappeared, 4 hand guns are trained on him, one syringe filled with a blue liquid is resting against his neck and his arms are being pinned to his sides from behind.
Outside the door Viper holds Tsunayoshi tightly against her chest, taking a deep breath to calm herself. Fantasma moves from his crushed position, out of the robe and nuzzles against her cheek hoping to calm his mistress down. Spotting Basil at the other end of the office she strides down there and stands next to him. Removing the illusion, she suddenly appears next to the boy, who jumps.
"Ahh, Mammon-dono, thou hast surprised me. Is there some way in which I can help thee?" Basil attempts to regain his composure, slowing his breathing from the scare. Tsunayoshi is thrust into his arms.
"Look after him and do not let him near the office. You must also keep him away from your Boss at all costs. In this case, my orders override any he may give you concerning Tsunayoshi. Do you understand?" She orders, looking sternly down at him. Even if Basil can't see her eyes he can certainly feel the glare and gulps. He's only 5 after all. He nods silently.
As she walks back towards the office, he can faintly hear his Master shouting before the door is quickly shut. Basil didn't think he'd ever heard his master shout in anger like that before. "What happened in there Tsunayoshi-dono?"
The small boy shakes his head before allowing Basil to let him go. "I don't know. One moment he's all happy, then he learns my name and suddenly he's all quiet and then he gets angry and then suddenly Viper's carried me off. I don't have a clue." Admits Tsunayoshi.
"Hmm, well then, shall we go and find some form of entertainment Tsunayoshi-dono? It is possible that they may take a very long time in their talks." Tsunayoshi nods and Basil takes the boy to his room so they can play some games.
Viper smirks as she re-enters the room for no one has moved at all. Iemitsu is in the middle of the room breathing in deeply. Reborn is pointing Leon at him; Luce, Colonnello and Lal also have guns pointed at Iemitsu. Verde has a syringe filled with some sort of poison on the man's neck, close to puncturing the skin. Fon is behind Iemitsu, pinning the man's hands down. Skull is still standing infront of her seat, since he was going to physically deflect the blow with his body. One of the bravest things she's seen the stunt man do. Her closing the door seems to be the signal for everyone to move. Reborn clicks his tongue and Leon returns to his original form first of all. The others soon follow suit, with Fon being the last.
"Get that child out of my building now. I never want to see him again!" Iemitsu growls deeply and slowly, obviously trying to control himself. The Arcobaleno share looks since they were expecting the total opposite. They were sure that they'd have to fight him to keep Tsunayoshi with them. All of them assumed that Iemitsu would want the child with him to fawn over, like he used to with Nana. But this was the total opposite.
"What has Tsunayoshi done to you?" demands Skull, standing up once more. "He hasn't done anything to deserve being punched like that!" It seems that even the wimpy stunt man could grow a backbone.
"What has he done? What has he done! He got my wife killed that's what!" The leader of CEDEF shouts, slamming a palm on the desk. But it seems that all of the energy goes out of him for he slumps in his chair and puts his hands over his face before he starts to cry. "He got my beautiful Nana killed."
"So that's why you never looked for him. You assumed that he had died with Nana. And if he had been taken by her killers, you didn't care" confirms Fon. Iemitsu nods.
"Nana was my whole world. She was so beautiful and kind and had the best cooking in the world. She was the sole light in this Mafia world I had. And I wanted to protect her from that so much. I was kind of sad when we had a child since I knew it would take up some of our time together. But she looked so happy when she had it that I couldn't object. Sure I was jealous of it. He was the cause of the argument we had too. I can never forgive him for getting Nana killed."
"Che, I know that isn't true. I was there when it happened. I put bullets into the men who did that. I know for a fact that it wasn't Tsunayoshi's fault." Replies Reborn, deceptively cool as always.
"Hmm, according to my information sources" and Viper had a very reliable information network- Information was a very good source of money. Her psychic abilities helped too " Her death is actually your fault if we are going to play the blame game"
Without sparing any sympathy for the crying man infront of her, she told everyone in the room what actually happened that night.
That raining night over 4 years ago, Nana and Iemitsu had had an argument. She had listened to conversations she wasn't supposed to and had found out that her husband was in the Mafia, and practically was a Boss in his own right. She didn't want that kind of life, especially now with a child. Nor did she like the fact that her husband had lied to her for this long. So she had confronted him about it. They had fought for hours about their lifestyle and how the child was going to be protected, but Iemitsu couldn't come up with anything to appease his angry wife.
So, grabbing Tsunayoshi, she had run out of the house with the intention to go and stay at a friend's house. She turned down an alleyway and heard some men talking about a drug deal. She immediately turned around with the intention of escaping since she was sure that she hadn't been noticed.
However at that point, Tsunayoshi cried out, not liking the fact he was getting wet.
Nana froze, hoping to high heaven that she hadn't been found out. But her luck had run out. The men sniggered and walked down the street and started to hassle her. She held the baby close to her chest hoping they wouldn't notice him. Tsunayoshi had gone silent. When one of the men started to sexually harass her, she bluntly refused the offer and tried to run past him. However she was quickly grabbed and chucked to the floor. She tried to kick her captors to escape but nothing worked. In the reflected light of streetlamps she saw the glint of a gun. Holding Tsunayoshi as tightly as she could, a rumble of thunder was the last thing she ever heard.
It was at that point that Reborn rounded the corner and found her dead body and her killers. And as we all know, Reborn made sure their deaths were slow and painful.
"So if anyone is to blame it is you, like I said." Finishes Viper, giving the man a venomous look. As were all of the others. He dared to blame Tsunayoshi for something that was his fault. Maybe if he was honest with Nana from the start they wouldn't have had the argument to begin with. Maybe she wouldn't have had the child and he'd feel no resentment towards Tsunayoshi for taking his Nana away from him.
"Well it looks like we shall get out wish, kora" says Colonnello, smiling at the rest. "Tsunayoshi can stay as ours."
"That's right. We weren't going to hand him over to you in the first place, but if you don't want him, then that makes it easier." Adds in Verde.
Luce stands up and pulls a piece of paper out of her purse. "We'll never talk of this again. If anyone asks, Tsunayoshi isn't yours by blood. We shall make sure that you two never come into contact. We shan't tell him who you are either. Just sign this to give us legal guardianship of him and we'll be out of your office. No hard feelings. Lal can even still work here if she wants and we won't hold it against her." This was her Mafia Boss side talking. Iemitsu scrabbles for a pen and hurriedly signs the contract. He didn't want to even be related to the person who had killed the only woman he had ever loved. Luce smiles a sharp smile. "Nice doing business with you. Now, if you'll excuse us, we are going home with our son." And without looking back she leaves. The rest follow her out without even a word.
Tsunayoshi had been having a very fun time with Basil. They had played board games and video games, eaten cookies and laughed a lot. He was kind of sad when the rest arrived since he wanted to continue playing with Basil, funny accent and all. However, he did leave the Dolphin Plushie with Basil as a sign of their friendship. The boy was ecstatic with it and lost the ability to talk any modern words at all. They left the boy spluttering old fashioned words as he blushed a bright shade of red. All Tsunayoshi could make out was that Basil had decided to name the Dolphin Alfin.
Tsunayoshi didn't see the blond man as they left. From his position holding onto Skull and Fon's hands, he asks the question that had been bothering him all day "What did he mean by My Tsunayoshi?"
Tsunayoshi almost missed the tensing of the two people he was holding onto. "He got you confused with someone else. Someone who is dead. So I'd stay away from him Tsunayoshi" says Skull, smiling down at the boy.
"Oh, okay then. I will" he agrees. They had never told him to stay away from anyone before, so he'd make sure to follow their advice this time since it must be really important. He just hoped that it meant he could still see Basil.
"Hey guys, do you think I should dress Tsunayoshi up tomorrow? I could dress him up in pink and black. Oh! And give him a pink wig too" jokes Luce, bouncing the boy in her lap.
"Haha, Luce if you did that and he got lost, we'd never be able to find him again!" laughs Skull, the picture too clear in his head.
"Yes, that is a strange tendency of that group. I wonder where the practice came from?" asks Fon.
"I don't know. It's certainly a strange uniform choice though" muses Luce. "Anyway, it's time for your bath Tsunayoshi"
Like I said, please don't kill me! Iemitsu always seems more interested in Nana than Tsuna to me and this was the first idea that came into my head. Sorry for those who wanted the Arcobaleno to physically fight for Tsuna. Hopefully that answers any questions you all had. Aren't the Arcobaleno sweet though, fighting for the right to keep Tsuna.
It's hard to do Basil's accent since whenever I put –eth onto the end of an action it looks weird. Whenever I say it in my head it makes sense and sounds fine, but it never looks good on paper, like arriveth.
I'm not sure when the next two chapters will be up. It's my 18 birthday on the 14th so my Family are taking me away for the weekend. That means that both Friday's and Monday's chapters might not be written. If I do get them done then I'll put them up, but this is just to give you a head's up.
Can you guess who is next?
Phantom Hitman 1412
First published 08 May 2012.