Chapter 54:

To Find It Again

Tick.

Reborn and the rest of the Arcobaleno were in a helicopter currently holding on for dear life. You see, Skull was driving. He was driving as fast as the helicopter could fly to get them to Spain as quickly as possible. Skull could actually drive a helicopter pretty well and in any ordinary circumstances the ride would have been pleasant. Bermuda and Viper were tied down in the back as they slept off their exhaustion. Verde was pinned in by Luce and Fon typing away on his laptop and keeping on top of the information buzzing around. Luce and Fon were keeping Verde in place so he could use both hands to type and stay balanced at the same time. The others were doing whatever it was they did to psych themselves up for a fight.

They eventually arrive at the Nuevo Boss's Spanish Villa, which currently looks more like a war headquarters than a relaxing place to stay. Frankie's men are the only ones to be here at the moment, mainly due to them being stationed here before the whole fiasco started. Other Bosses were currently using other forms of transport to get from Mafia Row to Spain.

It had somehow been decided that this was a Mafia Row affair rather than a Mafia affair. This was of course due to the lack of access to Mafia Row for normal Mafioso. Bosses had to give special permission to their most trusted men to live or stay at Mafia Row. As such only those most trusted subordinates had ever met Tsunayoshi. No one else would understand why finding one kidnapped kid was important.

That reminded Reborn, how had these kidnappers even gotten onto Mafia Row to kidnap Tsunayoshi? None of the Famiglia here had Spanish roots. He'd have to have a nice little chat with the Gate Keepers about that. They were the ones responsible for Security on Mafia Row, hence why they lived closest to the docks.

"Come in, come in. I've got everything set up. All of the information about the three Families and their locations have been printed and put up for you to look at." Ushers Frankie as soon as the helicopter makes its spectacular landing. (This was Skull we are talking about. There was tree branches flying everywhere, mud being flung into the air and some very close near misses. His fans among the Nuevo were ecstatic.) Fon picks Viper up and carries her across his shoulder inside. He didn't want to let anyone else touch her when she was asleep in case one of the Nuevo tried to peek under her hood. Carrying her this way, instead of bridal style, gave less opportunities for her hood to fall down. Colonnello carried Bermuda since no one else wanted to and he lost the round of rock paper scissors with Reborn. The Hitman had cheated he swears!

Viper stirs as she is put down into a chair. "Hnn, where are we?" she asks, blinking against the afternoon sun. It was morning last time she had checked. She's ignored since the other Arcobaleno are concentrating on the boards of information set around the room and the speech Frankie was making about them.

"According to a couple of my contacts, these are the most likely locations for where the three Families are holding Tsunayoshi." He explains, pointing to the pictures around them. "I have also taken into account Professor Verde's information about the Spanish Lady Hibiscus. But that's as far as I can narrow the possibilities down. I don't have any more information on them." Frankie shrugs before walking away to let the Arcobaleno review the locations is peace.

Viper walks over, now feeling more energised, and takes a look at the pictures too. "It's going to be one of these four locations." She explains, pointing to the four in particular.

"Why those four, kora?" asks Colonnello, not noticing anything special in them.

Viper pulls the four pictures down and lays them on the table. "Because these four have religion related locations. This one is a graveyard, this one a cathedral, this one an abandoned church and the final one is a house next to a monument of an angel. If you remember the note they left behind, there were three relious references; Devil, Angel and Demons. So it makes sense that they are in one of these locations."

Tock.

"But how are we going to choose between these locations?" asks Fon, picking up one of the photos to take a better look at it.

All eyes turn back to Viper with raised eyebrows. "I was about to offer you know." She sighs exasperatedly. Fon places the picture back down for her. Viper nods in thanks before grabbing a tissue. She takes a good hard look at the images before her, along with the information on these locations the Nuevo Boss had provided. Since this was such an important clairvoyance, Fantasma even crawls out of her robe and waves a stick of unlit incense under her nose, trying to help in the only way he can. The smell of the incense helps her to sneeze. She opens her eyes and takes a look at the answer her thoughtography had given her.

On the tissue is a shining number 3.

"The abandoned church." She tells the others.

Luce nods and walks down the other end of the room to make a few phone calls. Some of the Bosses arriving were good information gatherers and should be able to find more information on this location for her. There were 'gentle' reminders that no one was to approach the location in case they startled the kidnappers into harming Tsunayoshi.

Within half an hour, information is being supplied back to them via Verde's laptop. Lal is sat next to him, keeping track of information coming in through communicators and mobile phones, as well as tracking the locations of these people. Luce is communicating between themselves and other Bosses who aren't currently at the villa. Fon is keeping everyone topped up with drinks whilst making the odd comments about what Reborn, Lal and Colonnello were discussing. Skull too was on drinks detail, but he was only serving two people. Sadly those two people were Reborn and Colonnello, which meant insane requests and constant kicks of 'encouragement'. But after being their lackey for so long, Skull actually knew how to make an espresso to Reborn's exacting standards. Reborn was never going to admit that Skull could now make them better then Luce could. Nor was Colonnello ever going to admit that Skull could create fruit smoothies that tasted better than Lal's either. Because they would never hear the end of Skull's gloating if they did let these compliments slip.

Apart from taking their frustrations out on Skull, Reborn and Colonnello were talking strategy and tactics. Verde had hacked into the local council's database to find the records of this abandoned church that included maps and floor plans. There was always the chance that renovations had been done, but this was the best they had currently.

"Someone needs to block off those escape route here and here." Lal reckons, circling the places in a bright blue marker. Colonnello nods.

"We're going to have to ban explosives and heavy artillery," Reborn comments, giving the bazooka-lover a sharp look. "Most of their headquarters will be underground, and I suspect Tsunayoshi will be there too. Considering how old the structure is, we don't want to risk it collapsing." Colonnello nods in agreement before shouting that order over to Luce to relay to the other Bosses.

"You can tell them yourself, Colonnello." Luce smiles, finally lowering her phone from her ear. "Everyone will be here in 10 minutes for the final briefing." Colonnello nods and goes back to Reborn to discuss some more. "Viper~ come and draw pretty pictures with me." Luce sings, grabbing the cloak before Viper can run off and dragging her over to the boys. Pretty pictures actually means battle diagrams.

"Che, I leave you alone for one hour and you're already beaten up some more." The not-stranger says, startling Tsunayoshi. The flick of a lighter brings a minuscule amount of light to the otherwise pitch black room.

"They wanted some information about the Arcobaleno. I didn't tell them anything. The lady came in and stopped them before they could really hurt me." Tsunayoshi sniffs. "I'm sure that you're gone for longer than an hour. I'm hungry again. Why did you leave me?"

"My time here is limited due to-" Tsunayoshi didn't understand a word of what came out of the adult's mouth next. It sounded like stuff Verde would say. He wondered whether the person that the not-stranger looked like would act like this too when he grew up.

"Verde would be proud of you." Tsunayoshi giggles. The man stops talking and stares blankly at the boy.

"He is. I'm one of the few people he bothers talking to." The man replies. "Ah, I'm not supposed to be telling you these things. I forget that you're not him. Only being able to hear his voice coming from you makes me forget. But anyway, what have these *insert a naughty word here* done to you?"

Tsunayoshi reaches forwards and slaps whatever part of the man is closest to him- his knee he thinks. "No naughty words. What is it with adults and naughty words?" Tsunayoshi scolds.

The light source suddenly gets close to the ground and Tsunayoshi hears a noise like something hitting the floor. "Ah, please forgive me. You should never hear words like that. Sky is going to kill me if you end up copying me."

"Who's Sky?" Tsunayoshi asks.

"I can't tell you that. But he's someone I admire greatly. You mentioned that you were hungry again, right? I brought some sushi that an idiot friend of mine made. He thinks I'm feeding it to Ur- um, my pet cat."

"Why did you tell him that?" asks Tsunayoshi before taking a bite of what the man showed him. Those feelings that he had every now and again told him he could trust this man explicitly so Tsunayoshi wasn't worried about poisoned food. In fact that feeling told him that this not-stranger would be the last person to poison food due to a very bad experience with it.

"Che, you're just like him, asking awkward questions." The man starts rummaging around in his pockets for something. "No one knows that I'm here. AH! There they are. I brought you some painkillers. I've been in a similar situation before so I know what they might do to you. These will dull the pain."

"Thank you." Tsunayoshi says. He feels the man's hand against his before something small is dropped into it, followed by a bottle of water.

"That water is something that a healer friend of mine came up with, there's some things in there that will keep you healthy." The man explains. Tsunayoshi gets the distinct feeling that the man is embarrassed. He can hear this quiver in the man's voice. It's similar to the way Lal speaks when she's doing something nice for once.

"Why are you doing so much for me?" Tsunayoshi asks, head tilted to one side.

This makes the man gasp and babble incoherently for a few moments as if caught surprised. "Oh St. Mary, you ask a lot of damn questions. It's because I- because I c-c-care," A beeping sound drowns out the stutters. "Ah, time's up. I gotta go." The man says in a relieved rush. "You had better stay alive. There's a limit to how far I can watch you suffer like this. If those B*****ds go too far, I'm getting you out of here, damn my orders."

Before Tsunayoshi could reprimand for the use of that naughty word again, there was one final beep and the not-stranger was gone.

You're on.

Skull drives as if the Reaper were on his tail. Admittedly there wasn't much traffic around at this late hour, but there is still enough that swerving is required. Pushing the car as fast as it would go, he just hopes that they can reach Tsunayoshi before something bad happens. He'd never forgive himself if they arrived too late.

"The True Arcobaleno? Who do they think they are? They can't even compete with the greatness that is the awesome Immortal Skull-sama from Hell that even the Reaper bows down too."

The Arcobaleno ignore Skull's ranting since it seemed to make him drive even faster. They hold on to any available handles and grips as Skull does a hand-break turn so that they could get around a tight corner without losing too much momentum. But before they know it, they've arrived with the abandoned church just in sight.

They get out of the car, trying their best not to wobble from dizziness, and stare at the location where their son was being held captive.

"Those fakers shall regret the day they decided to go up against the Arcobaleno, kora." Colonnello growls, cracking his fists.

"Let's just hope that they live up to the title they were trying to claim," Lal replies, scanning the horizon for signs of movement. "We've been needing a good challenge,"

Before Colonnello can agree with that statement, someone else does. "I could arrange a match against the Vindice if you so wish."

"Finally awake? Took long enough." Scoffs Reborn, glaring sideward at the patch of black that was blending in with the night.

"It's not my fault that my Flames require a different power source than your own." Bermuda defends. After waking he had gone back to the Vendicare for another agitating session to revive his Flames. It was easy enough since he so dearly wanted Revenge on those who were foolish enough to not only kidnap one of the few people he cared about, but who also dared to even wish to become an Arcobaleno. That name was not something he liked to see thrown around.

"We should not be bickering like housewives," Fon chides, rolling his shoulders to loosen them.

"I agree. Everyone, let's go get our son back!" Luce says in a rarely heard dark determined voice.

The Clock.

As the clock strikes midnight a scream pierces through the deep tones of the bell.

A very familiar scream.

I've got a question for you all: On a scale of 1 to 10 how detailed do you want the following fight and torture scenes to be? 1 is just a passing mention and 10 is like, horror movie full on gory stuff. I know this is meant to be a cute fic, but your comments have shown your sadistic sides.

And any guesses on who the 'Man in the Cell' is? I keep coming up with them don't I? First the man in the trees and now the man in the cell. There were three clues to who he is not, and at least 12 clues to who he is. If anyone can name those 12 then I'd be very impressed and may even dedicate an omake to them. I kept him ambiguous last chapter on purpose, so don't worry if you were one of the people who assumed it was Tsuna. But if you all remember last chapter, Tsuna isn't allowed to come and is currently working.

See you all next time!

Phantom Hitman 1412

First Published: 18 November 2012