What You Should Be: Tales of the Past

A month after that job...

There's visitors to the Fuyuki Residence.

'I sensed I'd have loads of visitors today...' said Tsunade as she already has tea and chilly pudding ready. 'Never thought it'd be you foreigners.' she said as Dino's gang paid her a visit.

'You know, seeing you dressed like that...its hard to imagine that bloodied girl I had the misfortune to see a week ago.' Dino commented with a sad smile.

Tsunade looked like a typical twelve years old girl.

Her hair in a very short bob with choppy layered fringes framing her face, and she wore a casual pink dress. In her house, she's barefoot of course.

'Well, blending in, is a must as those stupid bugs are looking for survivors.' said Tsunade. 'Otherwise we'd be happy wearing our tribal robes y'know. We had to burn anything that screams 'Mariudo'. We even avoid Beast Whistling but at least we can still understand our family.'

'F-family...huh?' Dino sweatdropped as there's animals in the house that should belong in a zoo. There's even a lion in the house that's fine and dandy with a couple kittens playing on its body! 'Must be rough looking after them all and how come the law hasn't called you out on this yet?'

'Ah, forgery skills in Mugenjou of course!' Tsunade beamed shamelessly that got them utterly deadpan. 'We didn't know you need a license to keep family around in a city which is stupid but we had to get some or lose our friends.' she said with a sad smile.

Dino and his men had to get a grip on what the little jaded Sky was. She was from a tribe of Beast Masters who consider animals as friends and family than as pets, source of food, medicine, hide and fur or zoo attractions. So the siblings aren't happy with needing licenses to be with 'family' which they see as idiotic and a low low view of society in utter disdain. They hate bugs though.

'Society is so troublesome and annoying but the best place to hide from the Kiryuudo. The law checks in on us every now and then to make sure they're treated well though. They say they've never seen a really friendly lion as friendly as a pussycat and very intelligent...well, Shishio's been in the family since he was a cub, rescued off a poacher that's so neglectful and rough with him niisan basically kidnapped him and he's far happier with us.' she said. 'We kidnap animals from the Black Market, rehab them then give them a choice after giving them the strength...to go back to the wild or stay with us.'

'I see...but what of your enemies?'

'I can tell if they're not the police.' Tsunade smiled though in her LoF mode. 'The smell of bugs and bloodlust is poorly hidden by them. They simply just die in my hands.'

'Oh yeah, I came to warn you about something so please take me seriously.' Dino told her firmly.

'Hmm? What about?'

Dino had to tell her he had to make a deal with the Italian Mafia Law just to be able to warn her about her safety from the Italian Mafia.

And she met one of the Vindice that freaked out the animals in the house into acting cornered.

'Hey! Calm down! Caaaalm down!' Tsunade cried as the animals began howling, yowling and roaring in both warning and utter dislike. 'What's with you guys?!'

The animals sounded 'complaining'...or that's how they put it when they made yowls at her.

'Wow, is it me or she's actually listening to the animals?'

'Its not just you...'

Tsunade turned to the Vindice.

'...I have a feeling I should not say what my family just said but could you go? My family doesn't like your unusual presence.'

'Heheh, our presence inspires fear to those who committed heinous crimes and breaking Omerta, little Sky.' said the Vindice with a threatening purr but at least its not at her, but his voice was a warning. 'Never thought one Sky can slip the radar since they're all under protection from various crimes but also under watch since Skies can commit worser crimes as well. But really, we should have that blood test.'

For some reason, warning bells rang like mad in Tsunade's head.

'On one condition...only those in this room and your group will know the results. I feel that I'll be...extremely angry when I learn the results and the info dump that follows.' Tsunade grunted curtly. 'After that, I prefer my brother and I, and our associates be left alone or anyone who goes after mine are dead by my hands I'll kill indiscriminately. I'll also kill anyone who forces themselves and their will on me and I'll get no repercussions. After all, do not do unto others what you do not want done to you. That rule is sacred.' she warned.

'Hmm, we'll talk about it...' the Vindice produced a syringe that caused the animals to howl and back away, bodies pressed against the wall in utter terror.

'...do we want to know?' Dino sweatdropped. He's never seen animals so terrified of a needle they hate it more than they hate the Vindice.

Can't blame them.

'They hate going to the Vet.' Tsunade looked sheepish as the Vindice stuck the needle in her and drew blood. 'They see Veterinarians as demons in human skins and a syringe as pitchforks. But they only had to put up with it as babies...but that fear and dislike stuck till adulthood, apparently.'

'Got the blood test...we'll see you in a couple days, Tsunade Fuyuki.' and the Vindice was gone.

'OK, that's my cue to tell you need to knows that Shido is allowed to know, being your brother and all...'

Tsunade thus learned many things about the Italian Mafia and the powers they hold...and Flame Relationships between her associates.

Ginji was a Lightning-Sky.

Ban was a Cloudy-Sky.

Kazuki was a Rainy-Sky with four fractured bonds and one on the mend.

Shido was a Cloud.

Emishi was a Lightning.

Shido and Emishi have a fractured bond that's also on the mend.

Ginji harmonized with Ban whose Sky attracted and latched to him. Their bond was solid.

Kazuki latched to Ginji as did Shido and Tsunade supposed 'that guy' did too other than Shido. Emishi apparently was 'halfway done' with Ginji.

The strongest Sky was her, being a pure Sky but due to her young age, those older than her had stronger wills than she did when it came to being leader and she was fine being a subordinate thus she didn't 'bulldoze her way through' and ignorance of Dying Will Flames prevented Discords and Scorchings from happening. How was she supposed to know she was meant to lead? Then again, her word was gospel when it came to what's necessary...

And ignorance caused VOLTS to bulldoze what Mafia Italy's known and accepted for so long and hadn't known such things, were actually possible. It was an Achievement in Ignorance.

Then the Vongola Famiglia whose abilities she resembled with was why Dino wanted to warn her.

To date, she was the strongest Sky in record with very powerful Hyper Intuition as the current generation...can't even be called weak. They were 'weaker than weak' that only the power and history of the organization kept Vongola's influence afloat in Mafia Italy. But there were naggings that Vongola Nono should retire and let a younger and stronger heir succeed him if he had any as all his sons are killed and fourth one in House Arrest for the coup he pulled called 'Cradle Affair'.

This was why Dino wanted to warn her as they know full well what it means.

That it was best left unsaid.

'By the way Tsunade...why do the other VOLTS guys have fractured bonds?' Dino asked curiously. 'Kazuki told me about Mugenjou and VOLTS, the gang you all belonged to so I can understand you better.'

'Well...Kazuki originally belonged to a previous gang he led.' said Tsunade. 'The gang was called Fuuga, or Eleganza. It consisted of four other members. When Shido and I lived for two years in Mugenjou, Fuuga reigned for a couple years in Lower Town, starting when Kazuki was fourteen. But two years after that, VOLTS came to being that Kazuki disbanded Fuuga to join VOLTS. Only two came with him, Kakei Sakura and Juubei. The other two are gone. They left. They probably can't accept that Kazuki disbanded their gang and subordinated himself to someone else or there's a deeper reason...who knows? As for one on the mend...'

'Ginji-san left VOLTS three years ago.' Tsunade continued. 'Its reign was even shorter than Fuuga's. Did Kazuki tell you what happened in Mugenjou a few months ago?'

'Yeah, heard of that...'

'Before that, everyone was upset that Ginji-san left Mugenjou with Mido without telling us anything...it was seen as abandonment by everyone.' Tsunade told him. 'One by one, the older Kings left. We don't know why one disappeared, Kazuki went to investigate Mugenjou on his own again, and Shido took me for training as its impossible to train in Mugenjou. A place that messes with your head and perception by Virtual Reality. Its probably the computer equivalent of Mist Flames. And three years later, that Rebellion Incident happened...and only then did we learn why Ginji-san left us. It was to protect us from Raitei, his other personality.'

'Not even Kazuki understood the nature of Raitei...he says so himself.' Dino frowned.

'He wouldn't. He asked you to ask me if I knew or felt anything?'

'Yup.'

'Yare yare...this is what I get for having superhuman guts.' Tsunade shook her head in bemusement. 'Raitei is an entity. Entity more than 'alter ego'.' she began. 'Raitei was born from Ginji-san's suffering and the combined hatred of Lower Town's citizens no thanks to the Belt Line. It is Pure Fighting Instinct seeking to destroy what causes him pain, grief, anguish and sorrow. In a world like Mugenjou, Raitei was more dominant than Ginji-san at the time. But while scary to enemies, Raitei was also kind and gentle to those he feels he has to, and must protect and care for. Because he is also Ginji-san who doesn't have a single bad bone in his personality so Raitei was the coldhearted necessity who will do what Ginji-san couldn't bring himself to do. His heart was that pure and spotless.'

'The thing is, Ginji is god-class powerful and immortal in solely Mugenjou. That also leads to ahem, power incontinence.' Tsunade explained. 'Places would get wrecked without warning that Raitei often goes far away to let loose...then he met Mido who fought and defeated him...and quickly deduced what's going on, and took Ginji with him. Raitei willingly followed Mido and let Ginji-san on the driver's seat and left without telling us anything thus. When we learned the truth months ago...we forgave Ginji-san.' she said softly with a gentle smile. 'It was not abandonment as we all believed. It was to protect us from himself. Ginji-san then cemented Makubex as Leader of Lower Town since Makubex did a good job even though it caused him pain too. Makubex was a good leader but didn't need a Raitei who will willingly dirty his hands for him. Makubex stained his hands himself. He learned what Ginji-san had to do for VOLTS.'

'I see...' Dino loked thoughtful. 'Due to your young age you accepted a subordinate position but Tsunade, a Sky must lead. You cannot stay a subordinate forever, its just not done. Had you been a Sky-Secondary, that would be understandable like Ginji, Ban and Kazuki but you're a pure Sky. For now because you're young its OK but there will come a time for your time to be Leader. It will be in your instinct. Heck, I didn't want to be boss, but I became one because I was needed and everyone wanted me to lead them, not wanting anyone else as their leader so I did my best. I had to be a boss. Get the gist?'

'I get it, I just don't want it.' Tsunade deadpanned. 'I'll see what the future brings me but for now, I'm content with my life here.'

'Heh, you're saying that now...what does your gut tell you?'

'...that you're right and my time will come very soon.' said Tsunade with a gripe. 'I'm a Mariudo Woman. Age of Independence is at age 13. I'll probably get my leader instincts by then.' she chuckled. 'But who will follow me, the Lord of Flames?' she snorted. 'Hey, its a title given to me, I didn't choose that, OK?' she added wryly. 'If anyone's stronger than me they can have it for all I care.'

'Er, the thing is, you're the strongest Sky on record so you got the right to that title.' Dino pointed out. 'Your Fiamma Purita in our measurement...is in the six digits nearing a million.' he stated grimly, holding up a small device that read 999.990. 'Fiamma Voltaggio can go beyond millions to ten millions in term of power but in Purita, nobody's reached close to a million.' he said. 'Not even the Sky Arcobaleno reached 900.000. She was 799.411.'

'...well...shit...' Tsunade groaned. 'I had to be the weird one.'

'That's why be careful.' said Dino. 'If anyone outside us knows...they'll do all means to have you despite the Vindice breathing on their backs or you might end up the next Sky Arcobaleno as being the Sky Arcobaleno means your lifespan is very short, so reel it in. Shido and Madoka will be used against you to force you though I'm sure you'll burn them to death anyway. Its pretty legal as its seen as 'self-defense' but that can get very grating. Find your guardians and complete your Flame Family.' he said. 'I'll try to have someone go your way but its up to that one to choose you. Guardians choose their Skies. Its simply despicable for Skies and Guardians to force themselves on the other. That is why we have Attraction and Courting. Its like a normal relationship that starts as friends but the addition was for your flames to attract and reach out...and then wisely back out because in this world, there are those meant and not meant for each other.'

'Riiight...'

Her phone rang. Its Ban. 'You called, Mido?' she asked as she put her phone on Loudspeaker.

/Yo, Tsunade! Wanna join us on this job?/

'What job?'

/A bunch of runaway kids who ran away from home and never returned. But what was in common is that they all attended the same Elite Cram School that's the most prestigious in Japan and they all played the same Card Game promoted by the school, saying its to further develop intelligence. The card game is called Divine Design. I don't like this occult shit but something strange is going on./

'Strange?'

/Yeah. One of the parents showed us the cards. Weird shit. We were gonna have you tag along and is monkey-boy available?/

'Mido, Shido can't come along.'

/Ah? Why?/

'He's gonna try to persuade Madoka-nee to take eye surgery and he's the one paying. We don't know if Madoka-nee will go for it or not. For all my intuition, the human heart can't be predicted y'know.'

/Haha, that's true...with you being the Gambling Lord earning billions for her eyes is too easy. Madoka's too young to access her inheritance right now afterall being on a stipend from the bank. So you gonna come or not?/

'I'm in since I'm bored but there's one guy I want to invite. I wanna bring Dino along!'

'/E-EHHH?/' Ban and Dino gawked as his men gaped at her.

'I want him to taste our world since I like him a lot.' Tsunade chirped. 'Don't worry about paying him, he's way waaaaaaaaaay richer than us! Hell, he's richer than Japan's government, I can tell you that much! You guys don't mind, right?' Tsunade asked Dino's group.

'Well, I suppose I can come since I did all my backlog jobs that piled up since I poured a lot of time and effort on Liu Mengyan as my graduation exam as a boss from my tutor...' said Dino sheepishly. 'I'm up for adventure.'

/You're probably the only dude we know who thinks adventure is vacation!/ Ban snorted. /Welcome aboard! We'll wait for you in Honky-Tonk!/

xxx

Honky-Tonk, a quaint cafe...

As Tsunade checked, its a small cafe with a sleeping space. Monthly Rent: 300.000 yen.

It sells cigarettes, alcohol, coffee and some food.

'Tsunade-chan, Dino-san!' Ginji greeted jovially.

'By the way Mido, you didn't invite me because our targets are my age group, right?' Tsunade asked him with a twitch.

'That, and you'd understand them better so the easier to convince them to go home.' said Ban. 'You're a fellow genius to boot you'd be a shoo-in at Cupid's Tower, the most prestigious Cram School in Japan.'

'Oh shush!'

'They got my side since I'm a normal, unpressured student to understand the situation they need to get yours, Tsunade-chan.' said Natsumi. 'I got a good balance of school and freedom since my grades are really good but I'm no genius, we need to understand the feelings of a genius.'

'Sou da na...well, as everyone and their ancestor knows, its tough to live in Japan. Due to that, there is pressure on kids by parents to do well in school as you cannot function in Japan without full mastery of kanji, and high accolades in Elementary, Junior High and High School in order to get a place in University. And out of 100, only 10 percent gets to reach university and less than 1 percent get the chance to enter prestigious universities. The more prestigious the university, the sweeter your job is upon graduation and the better your financial stats come adulthood. In the end, money rules lives.'

'Ain't that the truth.' Paul chuckled.

'Underperforming students get nagged to kingdom come to the point of abuse, and excelling students get pressured by parents who keep wanting more and more to the point they do crazy means to keep their kids cracking books and virtually, no freedom to even breathe. By that, I mean, have fun.' Tsunade continued. 'Stress builds up like an inflating balloon till it goes 'pop'.' she snapped her fingers at the word 'pop'. 'The parents who came to you probably didn't tell you the whole truth as they pushed kids to the brink they ran away, fed up with it all. Their actions caused that and now they want their kids back.' she said wryly. 'I hear its even worse in China in school pressure.'

'Heee...we gotta get fed up cranky genius kids back to demanding parents now, this is one TV Drama that's going to suck...' Ban grunted as he began smoking. 'Its the parents who should change otherwise the twerps will keep running away. Let's start at the school and see what its like there.'

'Lemme see the cards.' Tsunade asked Ban who shuffled the cards and gave her the deck.

She pulled out several cards.

King of the Evil Eye, The Lightning Lord, Sacred Flames of Heaven, Odin's Steed, Witch of Perfume and Master of Strings.

'Ban-chan...didn't we pull out Evil Eye and Lightning Lord earlier?' Ginji croaked out audibly.

'Yeah, I can see Ban and Ginji in those two cards.' said Paul. 'Flames of Heaven is obviously Tsunade. Witch of Perfume would be Himiko and Master of Strings is Kazuki but Odin's Steed?' he remarked, baffled.

'Ahaha, they call me Bucking Horse in Italy...I was clumsy and Cavallone in italian means 'horse'...' said Dino awkwardly.

'How'd someone like you become the boss of an anti-crime agency?!' Ban sputtered out. But still, this bothered him.

A lot.

xxx

'These cards are pretty freaky huh?' Dino commented as opposed to Ban and Ginji's Subaru 360, he drives a rented car, a black Toyota Mark-X. Its a full-sized 5-seater car that costs 27000 yen per day plus 20500 if there's an additional day overdue as Dino chose to rent by day, not by hours. He took occasional glances at the cards Tsunade has.

'No kidding, I pulled out those cards in random parts and I end up getting cards related to us all.' Tsunade frowned. 'I can tell Ban's hiding something too...the way he looked at them, I thought he'd set it on fire. He really, really hates these cards already.'

'Heee...cards have a long history since middle ages.' said Dino. 'When I think of 'cards', its greeting cards, birthday cards, business cards, gambling cards, credit cards, debit cards, license cards, IDs, tarot cards, and isn't the Yu-Gi-Oh Card game in vogue now in this country's students?'

'I wouldn't know what Yu-Gi-Oh is as I never went to school, I care more for Playstation.' Tsunade snorted. 'I also have a card game in my Playstation, Monster Rancher Battle Card. Middle Ages huh...cards back then are occult stuff and said occult is used by scammers to cheat dumb people off their cash...and there's rarely few legit fortune tellers who actually have the ability to predict one's fate and future. Heck, superstitious people let these results rule their lives to the point of stupid such as divorcing based on a card reading, and Onmyouji of Ancient Japan are the go-to by Emperors, Daimyos and Shoguns just to know if their time in that seat of power will be good or bad.' she said. 'And as a gambler, cards can also determine your financial luck. Win big or be flat broke.'

'Yikes...' Dino chuckled as Ban's car stopped outside the school and they parked behind him as well. 'We're here.' he turned the car off and they got out.

They entered the school gates, coming to an electronically-locked door.

'Ah, an electronic lock.' Ban mused. 'Ginji, can you open it?'

'No problemo!' Ginji charged up a nice handful and then injected it into the lock but...it was a tad too much he ended up roasting his companions.

'That's a bit much...' Dino coughed up black smoke. All of them were comically charred head to shoulder.

'S-sorry, I've been off recently...'

'Dumbass...' Ban grumbled as the roasted trio took out a white cloth and cleaned themselves up.

Inside...

It was eerie and empty.

'This is spooky...I won't come here even on Kimodameshi.' Tsunade shuddered as its spacious and empty. 'Its empty!'

'They cleared out for some reason.' Ban agreed. 'It looks like a quick rush job in the middle of the night and stuff.'

They walked further but sensed two presences.

'Guys...' Ginji froze.

'Two of them.' Ban frowned as they all dodged assaults of fire and an unseen force.

Tsunade pulled Dino away from something shimmering that Ginji got into.

'What's that shimmering thing, drugs?!' Dino freaked out as Ban looked their way.

'Aw jeez...'

The culprits came up.

It was Himiko and Kazuki.

'Hey, who's that blonde?'