Squalo watched the interaction between his boss/partner and the little spitfire Xanxus had taken a liking to. After the rather boring little dance party which wasn't really livened up with the hard booze they had slipped in the punch (which was more tradition than anything, but Xanxus wouldn't suffer the weak shit most academy students could afford) he had noticed a definite change in the way the two interacted.
It took him a few days to register what the change was, but when he did his eyes widened a bit.
Xanxus was treating the girl like she was a younger sibling of sorts, rather than someone who had merely caught his interest as a potential sparring partner.
Considering his personality and behavior, he didn't really take to just anyone and very few were able to handle his bark.
Squalo looked at Fon, who lazily relaxed on a wall in his slightly smaller dragon form.
"What's the deal with the spitfire?"
"She has the Sky attribute and very little in the way of family. Odds are she's behind the reason why your boss is treating her more like a sibling than a mere sparring partner."
Squalo stared at her.
That...explained a little bit, but not all Sky attributes got along. Hell, he could think of one off the top of his head that the boss would happily gut if given a chance to with how much the man pissed them all off. One that didn't have a single familiar or demon partner, and was only tolerated because of his family heritage.
Only his wife and possibly the kid everyone knew he had, but was never seen, would miss him.
On second thought he should probably limit the number of grieving parties to just the wife. From what he heard the ass never even bothered to stick around to help raise the kid, so it was unlikely they even knew who their father was.
"Voi. What's her surname?"
"I have no idea," said Fon cheerfully. "All I know is that she got in on a Vongola scholarship and that she attracted Reborn's attention to the point he insured she had Natsu to help with the Oversurge since apparently whatever summoner is in her bloodline never took notice of the condition. Actually, she's about due for another one if what she said was true."
"Voi, the kid has Oversurge?" said Squalo, looking at her with renewed interest. Only the really old and establish bloodlines suffered that, and even then it only happened when the kid in question was guaranteed to be very powerful later in life if they survived it.
He knew Xanxus suffered from it until he was adopted and they assigned a scrawny cub that was later identified to be a rare hybrid of Sky to act as his therapy demon. Bester had been with him since he was nine and it showed.
"Yes, well according to Reborn he got very annoyed when no one did anything about it and finally insured Honoka came into contact with Natsu in time to deal with a particularly nasty Oversurge that would have left her bedridden for months."
Squalo looked at Honoka with interest. Time to do some digging, if only to ease the boss' mind about whether or not it was "okay" to treat the girl like family in the first place. You never knew when you would be told to chase after someone you liked for going off the rails. Or simply because of politics.
You can imagine the look on his face when he managed to uncover what Honoka's surname was and the main reason she had gotten the Vongola scholarship over one of the others.
"Voi. Boss, you're never going to believe this..." said Squalo as they sat down to eat dinner and drink.
"What?"
"You know that spitfire you've taken under wing?" asked Squalo, torn between grinning and incredulous.
Xanxus looked at him hard, taking a drink of his bourbon.
"She's Iemitsu's kid."
The spit take was both hilarious and slightly unexpected.
"You're shitting me. There's no way someone like Honoka could possibly be related to that imbecile," said Xanxus in disbelief.
Squalo handed over a copy of the files he stole, and replaced once he made doubles. Xanxus' eyebrows shot up in shock as he read the notation on her file when it came to bloodline and potential 'gifts' that might need to be trained later. There, in blank ink was the name "Iemitsu Sawada" as well as a notation that the girl's entire school fees were to be paid directly from the Vongola account with no exceptions.
Which meant she hadn't gotten the scholarship at all, but the school had likely been informed by Sawada to make it sound like she had to keep the ruse he had made.
Though why he even bothered was a bit of a mystery, since most of the enemies the Vongola had that might target Giotto's line specifically were long since dead, and the few that were after the Vongola wouldn't bother with a Jewel summoner who wasn't even in the line of succession.
Summoning wasn't exactly an illegal occupation to have, and while Iemitsu's group ran Vongola intelligence it wasn't like he had made any enemies that were after him or his bloodline.
The guy was married to his job, sure, but there was no real reason to hide which family she was from unless he simply didn't want to deal with his wife and kid getting in the way of his job.
Which really begged the question of why he got married in the first place, if he cared so little for them. Unless it was to shut Grandma Daniela up about continuing the line as insurance, and not wanting the social stigma of being a bastard on the kid. That might explain it to some extent.
Xanxus continued reading, and his eyebrow raised up a bit.
"The dumbass actually damaged Natsu when he was removing his wife from her home?"
"Apparently Reborn knew who had removed Nana, but had been unaware of the fact the 'gift' he had given the kid had been damaged and was pissed enough to kick the guy's ass before telling Lal," said Squalo snorting. "Fon's hinted that there's a high chance she'll summon Reborn personally as her demon partner, but there's no telling what that fickle jackal will do."
Xanxus stared at the file, before he began to laugh. Squalo waited for his partner to elaborate why and wasn't disappointed.
"What are the odds the spitfire would even recognize her genetic donor?"
"Slim to none. As far as I can tell, he's never made any significant contact with her. If he had, it was likely she would assume he was just another customer of the inn her mother owned and would have dismissed him accordingly."
Xanxus' grin was vicious. Iemitsu was a jackass that he hated, and this would be a rather hilarious way to piss him off in a way he couldn't retaliate for. After all, it was his own fault if his own child wanted nothing to do with him.
"How about we tell her stories of that idiot's incompetence unvarnished and let her find reports that haven't been doctored so she forms a bad opinion of him on her own, and then watch the fireworks when the moron tries to make contact with her after she gets a demon partner?"
Squalo was grinning evilly. The best thing was that they could honestly claim they were giving her a good idea of what not to do as a summoner!
Honoka scanned the list of those moving up into their second year. It was more of a formality, but you never really knew...
So it was with some surprise to see her name at the very top of the list, as she had started from roughly the middle.
"Congrats, Jewel girl. Looks like you made honor roll this go around," said another female summoner by the name of Hana. She was one of those who had opted to go into the trade mostly for the companionship. Only summoners were allowed to have demon familiars without a special permit, which took far too much hassle to actually get. It was easier to go into the summoning trade and earn a degree than deal with that.
Hana was actually one of the few females she could tolerate in her year. However they rarely interacted because A) they were different classes, and B) she couldn't stand children.
Honoka spotted Hana's name five places below where her own was.
"Want to grab a bite to eat?" asked Honoka.
"Will your little cow be there?"
"He's off playing with I-Pin," said Honoka.
"I'd love one," grinned Hana.
Honoka had such a fun time actually being around another girl that she could actually stand that she almost forgot what the date was.
If she hadn't, her body was more than happy to remind her.
She hated dealing with an Oversurge, but at least she wouldn't miss any classes.
Fortunately with so many familiars tying up her magic, including a baby, the pain of feeling like her skin was too small wasn't nearly as bad.
She could not wait until she was allowed to summon a partner, if only so she wouldn't have to deal with this again.
Lambo looked at her with wide eyes and open concern, as did I-Pin. Hayato just looked tired and unhappy, while Natsu had been sleeping in Honoka's soul realm and likely already getting to work.
"What's wrong with her?" asked Takeshi.
"It's something humans and sometimes demons get. She has too much energy, but it's causing her so much pain that she can't simply run it off," said Hayato patiently.
Lambo looked upset at hearing that.
I-Pin tugged at Hayato's pant leg and asked something in demontongue.
"She'll be fine. Familiars can eat up the excess and it should stop by next year when she summons a partner to regulate her magic," said Hayato, gently patting her head.
"So...what do we do?" asked Takeshi with concern.
"You do nothing. Fon showed me how to go into her soul realm last time, and I just need to take Lambo with me to 'eat' the excess energy. He'll be hyper as hell for a bit, but it'll relieve the worst of the strain from holding in too much magic," said Hayato flatly.
"Actually you could probably take I-Pin with you. Honoka is close enough to her that she likely won't register the girl as a threat even if she is bonded to Kyouya at the moment," said Fon, in his smaller human form.
Hayato nodded and switched to his much bigger demon form. He easily laid down on the pallet Fon had placed on the floor allowing Honoka to happily cuddle against him. Lambo and I-Pin didn't even hesitate for a second in joining him, making it one big 'puppy pile' as it were.
Takeshi stared for a moment, watching as the glow of demonic energy slowly seep into her skin. By all appearances they were sleeping...until Honoka's body started to glow from an internal source and started to slowly move towards the three next to her.
"What's going on?"
"They're eating the excess magic in her. This is going to take a while...and it seems I-Pin has been accepted into her soul realm despite not being bonded to her," explained Fon.
"Is there anything I can do?"
"Not particularly, though if you like you can give Xanxus and Squalo a head's up that she won't be available for a week. Fortunately this happened right after exams, so she won't be missing anything. And unlike last timeshe'll be able to rest properly."
"What happened last time?"
"A rather foolish teacher in charge of the newest batch of students didn't believe Kyouya when he reported she was suffering from an Oversurge and we were forced to relocate her temporarily into the infirmary, which exasperated her condition. Though not as much as the fact she foolishly summoned her first familiar despite the fact Hayato had just gotten finished removing the excess for the first day of her condition."
Takeshi, in an effort to feel useful, tracked down the two older summoners to explain what was going on.
"Voi. How bad is it?" asked Squalo.
"According to Fon it takes at least a week for her to get over it," said Takeshi.
"A...week?" said Squalo in disbelief.
"Is that a bad thing?"
"The lesser cases are usually a few days tops. A week means she has a lot of pent up power in her if she's laid up that bad. How many demons she have on her?"
"There's Lambo, Hayato and Natsu, and Fon said she let I-Pin in, so four."
"And she's not comatose from that?"
Takeshi shrugged.
"Fuck...four familiars and having it last a week... worst Boss ever suffered was five and that was with Bester eating most of it," said Squalo.
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Let me put it this way. A few days is pretty standard for most Oversurge cases. A week is pretty borderline when it comes to bad. If it lasts over a month then it's life threatening. If she has four demons she might be a little more mobile than most by morning, at least for a bit."
"Two of them are babies."
"Then odds are they're going to grow up a bit when it's over. Demons handle Oversurge differently...once they're over the worst of it they can use the excess magic to increase their power levels until it stabilizes. Considering her attribute the bonds she has with them are definitely going to get an upgrade."
By morning Honoka was a little mobile, but in no condition to cook or do anything, really. Takeshi wasn't as good as his dad, but he could at least make the basic stuff.
"How are you feeling?"
"Exhausted. I'll be so glad when I summon a demon partner next year," she yawned.
"Why?"
"Partners consume a lot more magic than familiars, and having one means that they can regulate this so I'm not stuck in bed for a week."
Takeshi smiled, but his heart wasn't in it.
"What's the difference between a partner and a familiar anyway? Since I took the exorcist class I never really bothered to find out."
Honoka slipped into what Hayato liked to call "lecture mode"...usually reserved for chewing out some poor bastard who wasn't taking care of their demons correctly when it came to grooming.
"Imagine that a summoner has one hundred 'units' of magic. A decent familiar, if the bond is properly maintained, can use up to ten or twenty units of the magic per familiar. A high quality one can take up to thirty or thirty-five. A partner however... even a low ranking one can take up to forty-five to fifty units, which is why summoners can easily maintain multiple familiars but unless they are a certain power level are not recommended to have more than one partner."
"What's the real difference between the two? Because it's really weird Hayato is a familiar and not a partner with how strong he is."
"Behavior and personality, mostly. A familiar is naturally submissive and is more inclined to take orders from others. They can lead, but for the most part they would rather be followers. Partners however are less inclined to be subservient to anyone, much less humans. A partner can reach an even higher degree of power than a familiar...like Fon for instance. Someone who rules one of the plains would never consent to being the 'submissive' one of the two. Hayato, as strong as he is, would never feel comfortable being the 'dominate' one of the two," explained Honoka.
She looked at him with an impish gaze.
"Of course in your case I'm guessing you're more interested in a different sort of 'dominance' over him."
Takeshi blushed, but didn't deny that fact.
"You noticed?"
"It's hard not to notice the fact you're often staring at his ass. You're in luck though...he's not really interested in girls, since he doesn't like the idea of bringing a pup into the world only to suffer the same discrimination he did...and I've seen him staring at your ass too," she commented.
Takeshi perked up at that.
Honoka grinned at him.
"And once he's done helping to rid the excess magic I have pent up, he's going to have a lot of energy he'll need working off."
Seeing Takeshi blush was hilarious. Seeing Hayato sputter when he walked in and heard that comment, more so.