Chapter 86
One Day It's Time To
And here it is the School Arc! It took forever to plan this, I hope that I've gotten everyone's ideas in there. So far it's around 28 chapters long this arc, but if I get more plot bunnies, or need to split chapters up, then it's going to get longer.
So I hope you all enjoy it!
And Credits: Part of what Mukuro says is based on a Guest reviewer's suggestion.
Tsunayoshi looks at all of the Arcobaleno, repeats in his head what they just said and tries to process it. However he doesn't like what he comes up with. Chocolate eyes get larger and shinier as they fill with tears before Tsunayoshi lets out a huge wail and runs out of the room.
The Arcobaleno look at each other, not having expected that reaction, wondering what they said wrong.
"Someone has actually told Tsunayoshi the meaning of that word, right?" Lal asks, eyebrow raised.
The group turn to look at Verde who was considered an expert on this. "I actually don't know if he does or not. I personally have not explained it." He explains, flicking through his observation book to check.
None of the Arcobaleno can remember a time when Tsunayoshi himself used this particular word. So maybe he didn't know what it was.
"I'll get him," Bermuda sighs, standing up from the table.
"I'll come too." Viper adds, standing too.
Bermuda nods and holds his hand out like any good nobleman to a lady. Viper rolls her eyes and grabs his hand anyway. In two seconds they are through the portal and gone from sight. They find Tsunayoshi at the gate to their house, pulling feebly at the handle, crying so much that he didn't have the energy or focus to actually open the heavy gate. When he hears their footsteps he tries once more, but still the gate doesn't open. So he runs for it instead.
Bermuda doesn't let him get very far, his chains zipping past and wrapping around the little boy, picking him up off the ground. Tsunayoshi wriggles and squirms trying to get out of the hold, even screaming at some points.
"You know, this might very well be Tsunayoshi's first tantrum." Bermuda comments as the child is held in mid-air.
"Hmm," Viper agrees, thinking of all the times as a baby Tsunayoshi had wailed and screamed, but never really like this.
Bringing the boy closer, Bermuda holds the crying child still in his arms, waiting for him to calm down. Tsunayoshi eventually does, especially now that he's caught with no chance of escape, and relaxes in Bermuda's hold.
"Tsunayoshi, tell me what's wrong. Why are you crying so?" Bermuda asks, rocking Tsunayoshi gently to help him calm down further.
Tsunayoshi says… something, but it comes out more as sad moans, angry gurgles and harsh baby talk than anything due to him almost choking on his tears. They can't make a word out.
Viper steps forwards, looking down at Tsunayoshi in concern. Fantasma crawls out of her robe and onto her arm, looking at the child ruining its sleep by making so much noise, as well as making his mistress worry. He flicks his tongue at Tsunayoshi, but the boy turns and bats the tongue away. Viper frowns slightly at this, it was unusual for Tsunayoshi to do anything to the animals like that. She reaches a hand out, gently placing a fingertip on Tsunayoshi's forehead, doing something she hadn't done in years.
She closes her eyes, and after a few seconds, she mumbles, "We're not sending you away because we hate you. We still love you Tsunayoshi. We're not bored of you, or find you annoying, we're not giving you away to someone else either."
She opens her eyes and looks down once more at the child. "That's not why you go to school Tsunayoshi."
Bermuda laughs, "You've never heard of school before? You'll still be living with us, you'll still eat breakfast with us and dinner and you can still sleep in the same bed as us. You won't be leaving us at all."
"School is somewhere you go to learn things, to become smart like Verde." Viper continues, knowing that mentioning the Arcobaleno was a good persuasion technique.
Tsunayoshi stops crying, just hiccupping every now and again, and perks up when being like Verde is mentioned.
"Nearly everyone goes to school Tsunayoshi. In most counties it's the law that you have to go. You go there and learn lots of things and it helps you to be good enough to get a job." Bermuda explains.
"Lots of people already to go school, I bet you didn't know that the Varia do, and Dino and Bianchi." Tsunayoshi's eyes widen, even those people went? And he knew for a fact that they still lived at home.
"Oh Tsunayoshi, that's what you were crying about?" Luce coos sweetly, having finally found them all, a few of the others trailing behind her. "You're not even gone all that long, just six hours or so. And you won't be alone either, most children will be going to school, like Enma and Byakuran, Shoichi, Spanner, Takeshi, Haru, Kyoko and Ryohei. You'll be with them all day and have a lot of fun with them."
"Yeah! School is really fun, kora!" Colonnello shouts, smiling at Tsunayoshi broadly in hope to cheer him up. "It's a little bit like the COMSUBIN, that's a military school of sorts. Lal is a teacher and I'm her student, but instead of being outside, you're sat down at a desk all day and don't get bombs thrown at you."
"S-So, you're really not trying to get rid of me?" Tsunayoshi asks carefully, holding tightly to Bermuda's cloak in case they tried to pull him off. He would not leave!
"Of course not, Tsunayoshi," Assures Fon.
"I'll pick you up on my motorcycle every day, how does that sound?" Skull offers.
Tsunayoshi smiles and laughs weakly. "Okay then… I'll go, but only because everyone is coming with me."
"Um, about that Tsunayoshi," Starts Luce, looking into the air instead of him. "Mukuro, Ken, Chrome and Chikusa haven't been told yet. Chrome is too young to go, but the other three are old enough."
Tsunayoshi gapes at her, wondering why they hadn't mentioned this sooner. "But-but-but! They HAVE to come, I promised them that I wouldn't leave them alone! And they'd get to make lots of new friends there, right?" Luce nods. "I'll do it, I'll make them come with me. Even if that means tying them up and dragging them!" He announces enthusiastically. Luce frowns slightly, wondering which of her fellow Arcobaleno he got that from. At least guns or sleeping gas hadn't been involved…(she ignored the conversation going on between Bermuda, Colonnello and Tsunayoshi about the many ways of taking someone somewhere they don't want to be. She'd have to make sure that the armoury door was locked.)
Before she knows it, Tsunayoshi's gotten down from Bermuda and run off… with the chains still wrapped around his waist, tugging on them and pulling Bermuda with him.
"Come on Bermuda! Hurry up!" Tsunayoshi whines. Bermuda would unwrap the chains but Tsunayoshi has such a tight hold on them that he couldn't. The other Arcobaleno kindly wait until Bermuda is out of sight before laughing at the Vindice Boss.
Tsunayoshi bursts into The Shed, still pulling Bermuda with him, before running into the living room where the occupants usually were.
"Oya oya, my dear Tsunayoshi, it appears that you have been crying." Mukuro comments, an eyebrow elegantly raised.
"Why did you cry?" Chrome asks, crawling to the end of the sofa to get a better look at Tsunayoshi.
"Ha! I bet it was Bermuda, byon. That's why you brought him here in chains! I'll sort him out for ya Tsunayoshi!" Ken claims loudly, stalking towards Bermuda with a gleam in his eyes.
"Of course it wouldn't be Bermuda you fur brained idiot!" Hayato shouts, bashing Ken on the head. "Tell me who it was Tsunayoshi-sama and I'll make them regret it!" In a flash there are several dynamites in Hayato's hands, all sparking, just like Hayato's anger.
"How many times do I have to tell you? No dynamites in the house." Lancia says sternly, reaching forwards at the same time Tsunayoshi does to put them out.
Tsunayoshi smiles as he hands the dynamite back to Hayato, "It's nothing to worry about Hayato, I just got the wrong idea about what a school was, that's all."
"Oh, I can tell you that Tsunayoshi-sama!" Hayato beams before pulling out his miniature whiteboard, putting on his glasses, tying up his hair and getting out a red marker. "School is a building, that looks like this-" He starts drawing on the whiteboard.
Tsunayoshi giggles, before walking over to where Mukuro, Ken and Chikusa were, letting Hayato talk to himself in the background.
"You're coming with me, you know." Tsunayoshi says, smiling sweetly.
"Oya? That's the first I've heard of this." Mukuro comments, looking down at Tsunayoshi from his seat on the sofa.
"Yeah, why do we need to go to school, byon? The Estraneo already taught us what we need to know to be hitmen." Ken adds, before he jumps back on the sofa and curls up on a pillow next to Mukuro.
"How troublesome," Chikusa sighs, looking up from where he had been flicking his yoyo. This school place meant going somewhere different every day and getting up early, and it was such a pain.
"But you learn lots of cool things there!" Tsunayoshi protests, looking at Lancia for back up.
"But Lancia and Verde already teach us, so why would we need to go somewhere else? All the children there will merely be stupid and a waste of my time," Mukuro retorts, a smile on his face. The outside world was just miserable and pathetic anyway, there was no need to leave here, not just yet anyway.
And almost as if Tsunayoshi had read Mukuro's mind, he next says, "But you meet lots of new people there and make friends with them and do lots of stuff together," Or at least you were supposed to, according to the others.
Mukuro thought for a moment, he had actually overheard Lancia and Hayato talking about this school, since Bianchi had come over with some papers for them to fill out. It seemed to him that a lot of Mafiosi's children went to this school, it was one of many such mafia schools, but this one was special since Boss's children went. Befriending the children of Bosses would be very fundamental; get to know them, manipulate them, control them and eventually, get them to destroy the Mafia. Kufufufu it was perfect!
"Fine then, dear Tsunayoshi, we shall go." Mukuro says, a wicked gleam in his eyes, a smirk on his face.
"Mukuro…?" Tsunayoshi says slowly, recognising that face. He had learn that this particular face was often followed by a rather gruesome illusion or by him doing something naughty, often to Hayato.
"But I don't wanna go," Ken whines.
"You are coming." Mukuro orders, he certainly wasn't going by himself, not to a place like that. "You shall find it fun, I promise, kufufufu. It's not going to be boring."
Ken and Chikusa seem to catch Mukuro's drift, the promise of fun and not being boring was alluring, it did get dreary here at times when Tsunayoshi wasn't around.
"Aren't you forgetting someone?"
A rather annoyed aura fills the room, stopping Hayato from his speech and the boys from their planning. Hayato gulps, turning around slowly for this aura was never a good sign.
Just like the boys, Chrome had been brought up in the Estraneo, which meant at times she could have quite a temper, and she knew how to use her power too. Over the past few months she had learnt how to talk properly, so she couldn't be ignored now either. Estraneo morals meant getting anything you wanted by force, to not be ignored, and to smack anyone who ignored or annoyed you.
"I'm going too, aren't I?" She asks, a stern set to her lips and face, mist circling around her hand in preparation for summoning her trident.
Forgetting the Estraneo, the women of the Arcobaleno were quite strong willed too, and certainly not to be ignored on threat of The Bag, a slap barrage or an empty bank account. Chrome certainly had some role models.
"C-Chrome," Hayato starts, putting his hands up, placating. "The thing is…" she looks sharply at him, those words were never good. "You can't." Hayato quickly says, getting it over and done with before running to hide behind the whiteboard.
Chrome looks pleadingly at Lancia, eyes wide, "I-I can't?" She asks, confused.
"For this particular school you can't until you're six. You could go to a different school, but then you wouldn't be able to go with them next year." Lancia explains. It wasn't exactly true, she could transfer in, but this was the easier explanation. She wasn't really ready to enter school yet anyway, there were still some issues left by the Estraneo to sort out.
She looks down and sniffs, before grabbing her owl plushie and hugging it tightly, willing herself not to cry. "But I want to go with my brothers too," She mumbles sadly. The scene practically broke the hearts of the other four boys.
Tsunayoshi walks over and jumps onto the sofa next to her before giving her a one armed hug. "Don't worry Chrome, we won't be gone for long and next year you can come with us! I'll come and tell you about my day every day, how does that sound?" He offers, voice bright and cheery.
"Yeah, the actual classes are boring anyway," Scoffs Hayato, curling a lip in distain.
"They are?" Ken whines again, this place was sounding worse and worse. Chikusa grabs the pillow next to him and smothers Ken's face with it.
"You could get extra lessons from Mammon now that she's not looking after me all day," Tsunayoshi whispers to her secretly, "You can become stronger and then protect them when you go next year." Chrome looks at him, then at her brothers, before nodding gently. "Good girl," He smiles before patting her hair.
"You're coming too, right Hayato?" Tsunayoshi asks, turning to look at the silveret.
"Of course Tsunayoshi-sama! I will be by your side the whole time!" Hayato shouts, bouncing over and standing before Tsunayoshi with puppy ears and tail.
"No leaving?" Tsunayoshi asks, eyebrow raised sternly. They hadn't let Hayato anywhere near the docks since the time they had found him trying to swim back to Italy.
"I would never Tsunayoshi-sama. I have no reason to leave anymore, otherwise I wouldn't be with you." He replies earnestly, respect shining in his eyes.
"Good," Tsunayoshi says happily, smiling cutely. "Then I don't have to ask Luce for her puppy collar."
Hayato looks shocked. "Collar?" he mumbles in confusion. What did a collar have to do with him?
The others in the room laugh, knowing about Hayato's puppy-like habits around Tsunayoshi, unlike the boy himself.
"Tsunayoshi, are you finished here? Luce says she need you for clothes fittings," Bermuda explains, poking his head back into the room.
"Yeah, I'm done. See you later guys," Tsunayoshi says before waving at the others, getting down from the sofa and walking to Bermuda's side and out of the front door.
Bermuda can't resist leaning back so they can see him and say, "Don't worry, Luce will come and do your's soon too. No running now, I can catch you too easily."
Hayato, Mukuro, Ken and Chikusa stiffen, all pretending to not let that faze them. They had been subjected to Luce in a clothing frenzy before now, not long after getting out of the Estraneo. She was scary when she was like that, tugging them every which way. How Tsunayoshi willingly let the crazy woman do that to him and like it they'd never know. They actually considered trying to run from Bermuda.
"Good luck," Chrome whispers quietly, slipping off the sofa and exiting the room. Lancia too, tries to hide his laughter, before going upstairs with Chrome, giving the boys the freedom to make an attempt at escape if they so wished- it wasn't like they were going to get far.
"I-if Tsunayoshi-sama can, then I can too." Hayato announces shakily, pretending to be strong. He quickly runs upstairs too, taking off as many dynamites as possible; He'd learnt that Luce's pulling and tugging when changing clothes hurt more with the dynamites on since they got caught in the fabric. At least this was a fitting for a uniform and not some sort of silly cosplay. He can hear the panic downstairs.
"Quick Chikusa the crazy woman is coming, we need to hide!"
"Under the sofa maybe? Or do we have a cellar?"
"If we hide in the bathroom and lock the door we'd be fine right?"
"Which do you think she'd be more scared of, a lion or a rhino?"
Hayato sniggers to himself when he hears Ken's yelp from being smacked, no doubt by Mukuro.
He had survived Bianchi's cooking. Nothing could be worse than that…
Right?
I look forwards to seeing you all next chapter!
Phantom Hitman 1412
First Published 10 March 2013