Chapter 37
Mafia Row Map
I don't know whether I can do this or not (If I can't then let me know and I'll remove this chapter), but since I don't have a deviant art account, I can't give you an actual map, so I'll do one here. Please bear in mind that my map was originally an Excel document, so it made much more sense there.
The Mafia Row Committee would like to remind you that this information is strictly under the Omerta. Any leaks to civilians will be dealt with severely by either the Gatekeepers, the Vindice or the Arcobaleno.
You have been warned.
Today is a rather quiet day in the Arcobaleno house. No arguments, no fights, no loud explosions or illusion induced screams. Nothing. Was Luce angry at them? No. Was Reborn in a bad mood? No. Had Verde tested a new gas to temporarily render the voice chords useless? No. Had Viper been out with the Varia for over a week and hibernating the day away? No.
The reason the Arcobaleno were being quieter than mice?
Tsunayoshi.
The little guy had been busy since after breakfast. Natsu was sat next to him on the kitchen table, keeping guard over the little boy. Crayons were strewn about the place, paper balled up and placed in a neat pile on the floor and humming could be heard. With his tongue sticking out slightly, a sign of immense concentration, Tsunayoshi was busy doing… something. The Arcobaleno had never seen Tsunayoshi concentrate this much on something before now, so they left him to it. Of course trips to the kitchen for an 'innocent' glass of water, or a coffee, or a snack had increased exponentially, but Tsunayoshi was oblivious to it all, concentrating as hard as he was.
The Arcobaleno weren't worried. The world could be ending and they wouldn't be worried, but they were interested in what had taken the boy's attention. A few hours later, not long before lunch, an almighty shout of "I'm finished!" comes from Tsunayoshi. The Arcobaleno, attentive to any sound the boy had made today, immediately rush to the kitchen to see what the boy had finished doing. Tsunayoshi himself grabs the piece of paper before him as well as Natsu before running out of the kitchen, down the hallway, into the basement and Verde's domain.
Hearing the elephant worthy stampede down the stairs, Verde carefully puts down the pipette he was holding, turns the Bunsen Burner off and turns in his spinning chair to see what all the fuss was about. Barely did he notice the way his feet had pushed him backwards, away from the counter and the chemical experiment. He was too busy catching the child that had thrown itself into his lap. Tsunayoshi proceeds to wave a piece of colourful paper in his face and start some incoherent babbling.
"Tsunayoshi, calm." Verde asserts in his usual cold voice. Tsunayoshi immediately stops, blinks at him before turning red and ducking his head, knowing he's gotten excited again. But, but, he just had to show this to Verde! Tsunayoshi wiggles around in Verde's lap, now facing the same way the scientist was so Verde could look over his shoulder at the piece of paper Tsunayoshi had been labouring on.
"The Map! I finished the map!" claims Tsunayoshi proudly, pulling on the edges of the paper, causing it to make a snapping sound and consequently drawing attention to it. The other Arcobaleno, currently hiding on the stairs, look at each other, silently questioning why Tsunayoshi had spent all morning drawing a map.
Verde could over look the fact that the map was not to scale, or even had a scale, and that pretty pictures decorated the spaces where the houses were supposed to be. Examples included what Verde assumed to be a stick of dynamite over the Gokudera Household, a rough version of Shimon's compass, and the mask of the Geigue. He over looked it all and just focused on the important things, like whether he had gotten the houses in the correct places or not. Amazingly Tsunayoshi had.
The map went something roughly like this:
Mafia Row
Trainee's quarters/ COMSUBIN Training grounds
|Yamamoto Sushi|
|Haru's Tailors|
|Ryohei's Gym|
Vongola 9th. Varia. Vcubed. Shimon. ====================== Fuuta. CEDEF. Tomaso. Triads. Estraneo.
Arcobaleno===================================================================================-Vendicare
Giglio Nero. Guesso. Chiavarone. Bovino.===================== Gokudera. Cervello. Nuevo. Geigue. Carcassa.
|Hibari Gakekeepers|
|Docks|
Considering he'd only shown Tsunayoshi what a map was yesterday, since he had wanted to know where Reborn had gone on assignment, Verde was impressed with how well the boy had copied one. Smiling at the child, he gives him a pat on the head before prompting the boy to get off his lap- that chemical was fizzing and he didn't want Tsunayoshi to get burnt by it. "Why not go show Luce? I'm sure she'd love to put it on the fridge." Tsunayoshi smiles brightly, proud with the silent praise from Verde before jumping off and running over to Luce.
Upstairs the Arcobaleno crowd around to look over the map.
"An excellent imitation Tsunayoshi." Compliments Bermuda, tipping his hat up to get a better look at it.
"Not bad, brat" comments Lal, a hand to her chin in thought. "Pictures are often better for army maps since they are looked at quickly. The mind recognises the picture quicker than the words. This could be useful on assignments."
"Wow, Lal approves, kora! You know it's good then Tsunayoshi." shouts Colonnello, picking the boy up in one arm. Tsunayoshi giggles in glee before holding onto Colonnello's shoulder for support.
"I could never make something this good." cries Skull, currently in possession of the map. Yes, Skull was envious of the drawing skills of a child. That was the reason he had a promoter and his own marketing team instead of doing it all himself.
"That was a very productive use of your time Tsunayoshi." Comments Fon before taking a sip of his tea. Time was precious and using it productively was a key skill in life.
"Hn. Not bad." Was all Reborn had to say, but Tsunayoshi knew it meant just as much as all the other comments he had gotten so far.
"Verde's right!" sings Luce, gently snatching the piece out of Skull's hands "This needs to take pride of place on the fridge." She rummages around in the drawers looking for a magnet. With a squeak, Cosmo comes over and hands her two. Thanking her pet, Luce walks over to the fridge and pins the map in place.
When Viper comes down from her sleep at lunch time, her face is practically pushed into the picture in some of the other's excitement over it.
Tsunayoshi goes to bed that night feeling proud of himself.
It was the middle of the night and all was dark. In the Arcobaleno's study there was an ominous robotic noise. A bright green band of light travelled across the room, illuminating a face hidden by a black hood. A few moments later, an evil witch's cackle accompanied the noise of a computer's mouse clicking. The residence didn't notice it, more than used to her cackles in the middle of the night. The Sin of Greed goes to bed a happy witch, knowing that her plan to sell copies of this artwork could make her millions.
In the morning, Luce wonders whether she truly had left the scanner on last night.
As you can see Mafia Row is kind of cross shaped, with Mafia Row being the horizontal road and Mafia Row Central being the |vertical axis|. The road would run straight down hence the dashes. Some of these placements are on purpose, like Estraneo and Carcassa being right next to the Vendicare to remind them to be good little Mafioso. Similarly the Varia are in between the first and ninth generation of Vongola since who else would want to live near them? Shimon are next to the first generation because they are linked through Giotto and Cozart. Byakuran's house is right next to Yuni's just because of the Canon really. And then you have the more common/influential houses near the Arcobaleno on one side of the street and everyone else on the other side. To be honest this is because of how I ordered everything when writing the chapters. All the popular people are down that end, lol.
So it's a nice tiny cosy island filled with the Mafia's worst and greatest.
Warning: This map is subject to change depending on whether I add in any more Families or important people. However I don't think that's going to change a lot. But it's just to give you a basic idea of how I see the place.
Hope you like it.
Phantom Hitman 1412
First Published: 18 September 2012