Chapter 25

From all over the world.

It's time to reveal who this mysterious Family is that no one guessed. To be honest though, I wasn't expecting many people to guess this one.

Those of you who like the Purple Pairing, aka Viper and Skull, should be happy with this one. I call them that since Skull's Cloud Purple and Viper is Mist Indigo, which are both well… purple. However, as you all know, I don't do pairings in this fic, so read as deep into it as you like.

"Viiiipeeeerrrr. What's taking Skull so long?" Whines Tsunayoshi impatiently. Skull had disappeared after breakfast saying he'd be with them in a moment. That was half an hour ago.

"One moment, I'll get him." Says Viper, she didn't like to be late for appointments. It was a waste of time and money. Closing her eyes, she concentrates.

Tsunayoshi wonders what she's doing. He is answered by Skull's terrified scream, a scream that is followed by the roar of a motorbike. Skull comes careening around the corner of the house, crying his head off and screaming the whole time. He drives past Tsunayoshi and Viper and straight out of the gate.

Viper looks down at the boy, a malicious smile on her face. "There we go Tsunayoshi. We won't be late now" for Viper really really hated being late.

"Viper!" pouts Tsunayoshi "What did you do to Skull?" he demands, stamping a foot on the floor. She just answers with another smile and a wave of her fingers. Tsunayoshi sighs and runs after Skull.

After nearly tripping a few times, he catches up to Skull who has stopped outside of a new gate. Skull was panting and wiping away his tears, making himself presentable once again.

"Damn that witch." He pants, catching his breath after all of that screaming. "And she's the nice one too"

"Since we have arrived on time I won't charge you for that insult" remarks Viper, casually walking up to where they are. Skull actually wondered why Viper was here. Even though she had told Tsunayoshi she was here to translate, that wasn't actually true. Everyone on the island spoke Italian since it was the language of the Mafia. It was no different for these people. Even though they came from a different country, they still knew Italian so Tsunayoshi would have no problems communicating. It would have been hard for this Family to negotiate anything if they didn't speak Italian.

Viper knocks on the door and it is quickly opened. The man takes a look at who is there before leaning backwards to shout down the garden. "Yo, Boss. Miss Mammon and Skull from Hell and some brat" Viper and Skull practically growl, and even if he can't see either of their eyes through their hood/ helmet, he knew he was being glared at, so he quickly amends himself "er child are here." Tsunayoshi doesn't have a clue what is going on since he doesn't understand the language. All he got were the words Mammon and Skull. The guard must have said something wrong since Tsunayoshi felt them become tense and angry for a moment.

"What? Skull is here? Well then let them in!" comes a voice from behind the door. The guard opens the door wider and admits the three guests.

From across the lawn, a man stands up from where he was sat at a table with some others. The sun glints off of his gold jewellery. He is quite a large man, obviously well fed, with short hair cut into an interesting stripes. "How nice of you to join me today." He exclaims. "Would you like to sit and play a game with us?" He lifts an arm to show his full hand of cards and then gestures to the table he and others were sitting at.

Viper's eyes light up at the prospect of winning more money. And these people knew how to gamble. She could get a whole lot of money off of them. "Sure" she says normally, hiding her excitement. She walks over to the table, Skull following and takes the offered seat. Skull sits next to her and Tsunayoshi sits on Skull.

"So then boy, who are ya?" the Boss asks. Tsunayoshi stares blankly back, understanding that the man was talking to him, but having no idea what was said.

Skull laughs in embarrassment. "Sorry, he only speaks Italian." The Boss nods, slightly expecting that since the child was so young.

So changing languages he asks his question again. "So boy, who are you?"

Tsunayoshi perks up, finally being able to understand something. Smiling at the men around him he says "Hello, my name is Tsunayoshi. Nice to meet you" the men are taken aback by the intensity of the smile and soon everyone is smiling with him.

"Tsunayoshi eh. Well, I am the Boss of the Nuevo Family from America. You can call me Frankie." Says the Boss.

"Shall we start the game?" asks Viper, eager to win her money. For Tsunayoshi's sake, everyone had switched to Italian.

"A game? What game are we playing this time?" Tsunayoshi asks. He'd never played a game with cards before.

The Boss laughs. "I'm sorry boy, but you are a little too young to play this game. But how about this, ya can hold the cards for my man Skull alright" Tsunayoshi nods.

Viper turns and explains to Tsunayoshi. "We are about to do something called gambling. It's a little like betting only you are betting on yourself instead. Nuevo are the holders of the Largest Gambling Ring in the world. They control all of Las Vegas as well as all of the casinos in their home town of New York. They own most of the casinos and gambling businesses in-between the two places too. However by law you have to be an adult to gamble since money changes hands. The exact age changes depending on what country you are in."

She didn't mention that there were no laws here on Mafia Row, so he could technically play. But she didn't want to have to spend the time she could be making money, teaching him. Plus, she needed him for something else anyway.

Now betting Tsunayoshi understood. Viper did it all the time and seemed to get a lot of money from it. And since the Arcobaleno's had lots of arguments and competitions, there were a lot of contests to bet on.

Frankie shuffles the cards and deals them out. Tsunayoshi did as he was told and held the cards up for Skull to see. Since he couldn't play this game he stayed quiet. He didn't even know the rules.

As the game starts, Tsunayoshi notices that people say things, place cards down, move them around and pick up new ones. But suddenly, something shocking (in Tsunayoshi's opinion) happened. The man across from him lied. Tsunayoshi didn't think that was fair. He was just about to say something when Viper placed a hand on his knee and leaned in close

"It's fine. People are supposed to lie in this game. It's how you win" And in Tsunayoshi's opinion, this was a stupid game then. Viper sits up and eyes the man Tsunayoshi keeps glaring at. Under her hood she grins.

Turns out she wins that round.

"Excuse me" she says to one subordinate "Do you mind if we swap seats, the sun's getting in my eyes." She says, sugary sweet. Being a gentleman the man swaps seats with her. He didn't dare say that surely with her hood like that there was no way the sun was in her eyes. She was an Arcobaleno after all. Now she was directly sitting opposite Tsunayoshi.

And could see his expression and eyes a lot better.

It would seem natural to look up and look at the boy. Internally, she laughs in victory. She would be able to tell who was bluffing since Tsunayoshi would tell her. Being so young, he wasn't good at hiding his emotions. As the game went on, her plan worked perfectly. Tsunayoshi stared and pouted at people every time they lied. He wasn't able to hide his disgust with the action. She lost games every now and again, to make it seem as if she wasn't rigging the game. Plus, she could only tell if people were lying or not. She could only infer what type of hand they had from what they said and, since it was a lie, turning it backwards.

The funny thing was, Tsunayoshi kept grabbing Skull's trouser leg too whenever someone lied, but it seemed to her as if Skull hadn't noticed. It took him a very long time to cotton on. Once he did, he slowly began to reclaim the money he had lost.

But by the end of it, Viper had won more money than she ever had before. All because of Tsunayoshi. She could hug the boy to death right then and there she was so grateful.

The Boss, fearing he was about to lose his whole gambling fund, decides to stop the game. Viper doesn't mind, she's already won more than she imagined she would.

The perfect distraction comes in the form of a running crowd of Mafiosi. "Yo, Boss. Is it true? Is Skull from Hell here?" they shout excitedly.

Frankie laughs loudly. "He is my boys. And he promised a show for us last time he came here."

Skull jumps up, bouncing on his feet in excitement. "Yeah I did. I brought my bike and everything."

Skull can hear one subordinate whisper "Go on, say it. Say it" so he obliges.

"Bwahaha. Bow down mere mortals. The Immortal Skull has come back from Hell to give you all the show of your lives. It's so good it's a Sin to watch it!" The Mafiosi around them cheer loudly, followed by raucous applause, whistles and shouts for more. And he hadn't even done anything yet. The men rush forwards and pick Skull up, carrying him to where they have prepared a performance area. Now it might seem strange having such an area in your house, but these are houses belonging to Mafia Bosses. They are huge! Just think about all of the different landscapes in the Shimon house. There is plenty of room to create a stage for Skull. And if the tyre tracks are any sign, he performs here a lot.

Tsunayoshi watches in amazement and with wide eyes. He'd never seen people so happy to see Skull before. He'd never seen Skull this happy before. For the first time in a very long time, Skull looked happier than normal. As the men set Skull down he started to run around the arena checking that the stage equipment was safe and in working order. He might be more resilient than most but that didn't mean he'd go looking for broken bones. During this time the rest of the Nuevo men all finds seats in the stands.

Seeing Skull about to get on the Motorcycle, Tsunayoshi runs over to him. "Good Luck Skull! I can't wait to watch you perform. It's going to be amazing I know it" Skull beams and squashes the boy with a hug.

"Thank you Tsunayoshi. I'll make you proud. I promise." He puts the dazed boy down and gives his head a pat. He waits for Tsunayoshi to be seated a safe distance away before waving at him and setting the bike in motion.

Tsunayoshi has seen Skull practice some of his tricks before, but he'd never seen an actual performance. It stared small, allowing Skull to get used to the track once again. But then Skull revved the engine and goes flying. Literally. Both wheels leave the ground and Skull spins the bike around, doing a full loop, before landing back on both wheels on the other side of the jump. Again and again Skull jumps high into the sky but the tricks get harder and more daring each time. His hands leave the handlebars at some points, and at others, the handle bars are all that's connecting him as his feet hang in mid-air.

Tsunayoshi finally knew what Skull meant by 'going flying'. But even from this distance, Tsunayoshi could tell Skull was having the time of his life. It didn't matter that Skull was risking life and limb in doing these stunts. For the first time, Skull looked alive. Tsunayoshi wished he could see Skull's expression under the helmet, for he knew that Skull would be wearing the biggest smile Tsunayoshi had even seen, and he really wanted to witness it so he could remember it. He had seen Skull crying far too often. It would be nice to have a memory of Skull fully enjoying himself. Skull was in his element here, not even Reborn or Colonnello bested him. It was his and his alone.

"He's pretty good isn't he?" Tsunayoshi looks up at Viper, who still has her eyes on the stuntman before her. "I can kind of respect him for this. It's rather brave to do something like this: Risking one's life like that. It's different to the way the majority of us risk out lives. We are fighting then, but he does this for pure enjoyment and for the adrenaline rush. It's different"

Tsunayoshi couldn't comment on that really since he wasn't a trained killer like the rest of them (That was debateable though since the rest are training him anyway). But he agreed that he greatly respected Skull for what he was doing. The rest of the crowd was thoroughly enjoying it too by the sound of it. Everyone was sad to see the show end.

However Tsunayoshi got his wish when Skull stopped his bike infront of him and took off his helmet. Skull was literally sparkling with happiness. And the smile was beautiful.

"Bwahahaha! It seems that the Reaper still hates me!" he announces. And as weird as that sounded, it meant that everything was alright. The crowd went crazy at that and shouted out compliments for the Stuntman's performance. Skull takes it all in his obnoxious way, yet it was humbler than before. He wasn't gloating over a win, he was accepting praise for his hard earned skills and he thanked every person for their compliments. As they die out, he holds a hand out to Tsunayoshi. "Come on" he says. Tsunayoshi jumps up and chucks himself off the stand, trusting Skull to catch him. The Stuntman does, and he turns to wave to the crowd. "We'll be going now. I hope you all enjoyed the show." With Tsunayoshi sat infront of him, pinned in place by Skull's body, Skull set's off at high speed, drifting around corners and sending dust everywhere.

Viper says her goodbyes too and sets off at a more sedate pace.

Tsunayoshi and Skull are still buzzing when dinner is served. With the little boy on her lap, Viper is proudly counting her money, patting the boy on the head after every 10 thousand she counts out. Luce's not sure what she thinks about Tsunayoshi being used as a gambling tool. Verde is interested and wishes to make a study of it. Reborn smirks, thinking of using the boy for that purpose too.

"Colonnello, Reborn, you had better take good care of Tsunayoshi tomorrow" orders Luce, sternly looking at the two men.

"They might be great assassins, but they aren't getting past us. Plus Tsunayoshi can defend himself." Comments Reborn half-heartedly, focusing more on his coffee.

"Not against them he can't. And before you say anything, no I am not giving him a weapon Reborn." Claims Luce, slamming her hands on the table.

"So just suit him up like you did for the other dangerous ones, kora" comments Colonnello.

"I've already thought of that. I've made sure that he'll be warm since their house is made of ice and I've even used fur to match in with their outfits. He'll be safe and warm at the same time." She raises her chin, defying Reborn to say something about her choice in fashion. He doesn't though.

Tsunayoshi was far more busy wondering what a house made from ice was like and who on earth would want one.

Join me next time for a Family that even Gokudera is scared of- another hint there.

Phantom Hitman 1412

First Published 23 May 2012