As medical science progressed, so too did the possibilities. Case in point, it had become increasingly possible to have children without having to sleep with anyone. Originally the technology and knowledge was hit or miss, but a scant handful of decades after the curse, and it was now common practice for those who had issues getting pregnant the traditional way.
It opened up options that would have remained out of reach of the Arcobaleno due to their curse. Not only had their bodies shrunk to that of a child, but their reproductive abilities had been more or less whitewashed.
Shortly after receiving news that his younger sister would be having her first child with her husband, thus securing the alliance between the Chinese Triads and the Japanese Yakuza clans, Fon's mind turned to his own predicament.
He had always thought he would pass on his bloodline to a woman his clan had selected to secure an alliance or if he was extraordinary lucky, fall in love.
Instead the curse took all that away, leaving him the unspoken black sheep of the family, regardless of his abilities or skills. It was no small thing to say that Fon hated Checkerface and by extension Luce, for taking that opportunity away from him.
So when Verde brought the subject up of using in-vitro fertilization...which meant he wouldn't have to subject himself to the interest of some pervert just to carry on his bloodline...Fon showed open interest in the idea.
There was just one problem...it was hard to get the necessary 'material' to see if the option was even viable.
Which was why Fon was a little disconcerted about why he woke up shortly after agreeing to act as one of Verde's test subjects for the procedure...and feeling a numbing sensation in his lower regions.
He looked at the scientist incredulous.
"Did you drug me?" he asked.
"It was the only sure way to secure the necessary material. I've already done this to Skull and there was no ill side effects from this method."
"Then why am I having trouble sitting?"
"The anesthetic will wear off in a few hours. Besides, if you knew exactly how I planned to acquire the seed you might have backed out at the last second," said Verde with a sniff.
Fon went to use the restroom, and found a small puncture in a place where there shouldn't be. He glared at Verde when he left the room.
"You stuck a needle in me?"
"Specifically in the area of your balls," agreed Verde. "Again, I tested this out on Skull earlier and he recovered in a day or two. Besides, I used a much smaller needle compared to the one I used on him."
Fon looked miffed, but the damage was done.
The vial containing the material sat on Verde's desk, clearly labeled.
"I wonder how Reborn and the others will take it."
"Colonello and Reborn have already declined to test the procedure at this time. As for Viper, they were asexual to begin with and their job isn't exactly conductive for child-rearing," said Verde promptly. Fon noticed a third vial with Verde's own name on it.
"How are you going to test the...material?"
"I'm not. I have no experience on how to use the correct equipment and I doubt any of us want to go through the extraction process twice," said Verde. "Fortunately there is a small clinic in London that has already agreed to do some 'off-the-books' testing in exchange for better funding. Considering the other services they offer, they've been having trouble keeping clients due to idiots protesting."
The 'other services' being abortion. To be fair, they only offered it in the period before the infant has an actual heart beat, since by that time the child would have formed into a mostly human shape. If the mother still wanted to be rid of the child, they would heavily recommend their 'in-house' adoption using slightly less than legal loopholes.
Which was part of the reason why Verde knew of them...they often helped prostitutes who had slipped up and gotten pregnant to 'sell' their children overseas to foreign couples who wanted children. It was a shady business and a legal grey area because the clinic made very, very sure that the mothers signed away all legal rights to the child and made it clear that they were giving the children away to a hopefully better future...the clinic made very sure to do thorough background checks first.
Verde had the samples at the clinic by Monday, leaving a curious Fon to wait out the results.
By Friday, they had the results...there was just one tiny problem.
"What in blazes is this?" demanded Verde irate.
"What's wrong?" asked Fon.
"What's wrong is that the blood type on this file is wrong. You're an A negative, whereas this sample is clearly AB positive," said Verde flatly.
He skimmed the paperwork, before swearing again.
"I take it something went wrong?" asked Fon.
Verde started making some calls...despite hearing only half the actual conversation, what Fon did catch quickly became rather worrying.
His usual serene smile was put through quite the test, particularly once he started to understand the gravity of the situation.
"The samples were mixed up?" said Fon.
"According to the on-site doctor, one of the new hires got the label wrong for the testing. Your sample went to a couple attempting to get pregnant for the first time...there was something wrong with the man's seed according to this test, which explains their trouble with conception... and his sample was taken for the test I ordered."
Now Fon was well and truly alarmed. He had mostly humored Verde to see if it was even viable to use that method in order to have an heir to pass his knowledge to. He hadn't actually planned on his seed getting a woman pregnant.
Needless to say Fon stuck around, mostly out of concern that something had happened due to the accidental switch.
The second they found out that the sample had taken and the woman was now pregnant (Verde may or may not have blackmailed/bribed for the name of the couple who were subject to the mix-up) Fon started looking into who they were.
And come up with nothing. Or on the surface it looked like nothing.
It didn't take much for Fon to line up some very...specific... markers (mostly thanks to the wife, or it would have taken much longer to figure out) to realize there was a strong chance the woman was a natural born magical with enough power to attend the so-called "prestigious school" in Scotland. Her husband had such limited information available to him that it made Fon suspect he was a member of the "pure blood" class.
A group of people who had developed a rather worrying tendency of inbreeding with their cousins to keep the line 'pure', thinking it would help their magics. However the available gene pool had been shrinking to alarming levels, especially in the past decade or so.
It would certainly explain why the man had issues getting his wife pregnant. Inbreeding had all sorts of hidden dangers...like lower fertility rates.
Nine months later...
Lily might have been exhausted from giving birth to their daughter, but James was clear headed despite the pain killer potion he took for his poor abused hand.
Which was why he took the words of the odd 'toddler' (any magic user could feel the curse around that pacifier) with a grain of salt.
You could imagine his shock and dismay learning the cursed Chinese gentleman was telling the truth.
His daughter...wasn't his.
James sat down hard.
"How did this happen?"
"One of the lab specialists got our samples mixed up. My friend who sent them in noticed right away something was wrong because the blood types didn't match. I would have contacted you sooner, but I was unsure if you would be willing to believe a letter from a complete stranger considering the civil war your community is in...that and your wards prevented me from locating you," said Fon calmly.
James conceded his point. He likely would have tossed the letter out of hand considering the circumstances.
"Oh gods, how am I going to explain this to Lily?"
"Tell her the truth. That the other person involved in this rather unusual 'accident' tracked you down to make sure that the child would be wanted regardless of the origin. I assure you, if neither of you wish to have anything to do with the child because of the fact that she is not of your bloodline, it would be of no trouble for me to take them away and keep the scandal from blowing up in your face. I'm aware how much stock your culture puts in bloodlines," said Fon bluntly.
If the husband didn't want to raise another man's child, regardless of the fact his wife hadn't actually cheated on him, then Fon had no issues with taking the child away and raising them himself.
Or to be more specific, he would introduce the child to his younger sister and hide the child away while teaching them on the sly since he didn't want to deal with the Triads attempting to use them as leverage. They deserved to grow up without that over their head.
"I'm not giving up my daughter just because of a clerical error," snapped James. "We do have options for accidents like this, though usually it's a case of 'the favored daughter got knocked up by the wrong person and we want to cover it up immediately' type of deal."
James might be the head of the Potter family, but his mother was a Black. Blood magic was their bread and butter, and it used to be a fashion to adopt skilled or brilliant muggleborns into pure blood families (or deliberately marry them in) before the whole 'pure' nonsense took hold.
Fon was concerned. It had been three days since the agreed check-in had passed and still he had no word from either Lily, James or Sirius.
On the fourth day, he went directly to England's magical bank to ask questions.
Considering they were in the middle of a civil war, the Potters had agreed a scheduled check-in with specific words or phrases to be used at random (and never in the same order) was an acceptable compromise. If they failed to make it or send Sirius to do it for them, then Fon would know something had happened and would come looking for Persephone.
(He thought that was a terrible name to inflict on a child, but they had named her before he had a chance to explain to the couple what happened.)
What he heard made him very unhappy.
The Potters were dead, Sirius was falsely imprisoned, and according to the inept Sky Latent Albus Dumbledore, the child was 'safe' with her family.
A check with Andromeda proved she did not have the girl, and any other family would have been crowing by this point considering some idiot had labeled his daughter the "girl-who-lived".
Fon paid the goblins to draw up official adoption papers for both the magical and mundane worlds. Mostly as a formality, as the Lily had given him the most recent copy of their will after they had Persephone stating in no uncertain terms that if the people listed on the document were unable or unwilling to take their child in, then the "Arcobaleno known as Fon" was to have complete custody over their child.
It was a good thing he was a squib, otherwise this would have been much more difficult.
Once he went down the list and found that none of those charged with taking care of Persephone had her (Andromeda was more than willing to check for him), there was only one option left, as Dumbledore was adamant that the 'savior' was with "family".
Fon had never had the displeasure of meeting Petunia Dursley, who happened to be Lily's older sister. And he rather wished he could have remained happily ignorant of the woman's existence.
All he knew was that the woman was entirely too happy to hand over her niece and sign the papers to a complete stranger.
Apparently, the old fool had left his daughter on her doorstep like a bottle of milk without even bothering to ask Petunia or her husband if they even wanted to raise the child. The horse-faced shrew was rather relieved someone else was willing to remove the 'freakishness' from her perfectly normal home.
If Fon didn't know the Vindice would have been on his ass in a heartbeat, he would have strangled the woman. She literally took his daughter out of the broom cupboard and it was clear that only the barest minimum of care had been provided.
As it was, he was beyond happy to leave that depressing suburban hell and never look back. The goblins verified the blood relation and made his custody of his child absolute.
Several hours later, in Japan...
Mei Ying Hibari took one look at her niece and squealed, before promptly claiming her from her brother.
"Who's this little cutie?"
"Your niece. Do you recall the 'accident' I mentioned in our last visit?"
"The one with the clerical error and you somehow getting a woman pregnant? I take it this is the little one?" said Mei Ying.
"I was hoping you would be willing to take her in," said Fon. "I'm only five years away from completing my contract with the Triads, but until then she is vulnerable and I refuse to let them use her as leverage over me. No child deserves to have that."
Mei Ying took one look at the girl's jade green eyes and raven locks...and fell in love.
"I'm sure Kyouya wouldn't mind a little sister."
Fon's relief was obvious. Particularly when his rather grumpy nephew showed an actual interest in his new little sister after the girl managed to make the bird plushies that he favored float in the air. It was fairly clear that his daughter had at least inherited the magical blood in the family.
(Though to the shock of both the siblings, it only took a few hours for Kyouya to start displaying signs of magic, likely so he wouldn't be outdone by his new imouto.)
Since there was no way Fon was going to make his daughter suffer through a name like Persephone, especially since he was discreetly hiding her with his sister, they changed the girl's name to "Sakura" instead.
The newly named Hibari Sakura giggled happily as she played with her new big brother. Fon was rather pleased when he caught the distinct protective gaze in Kyouya's eyes. Or at least a rather possessive one.
(Years later Fon almost pitied anyone stupid enough to attempt dating his daughter. Forget having to deal with the fear of a 'killer baby' after their ass...it took balls of steel to get past Kyouya who was beyond protective of his slightly younger sibling and made sure everyone knew it.)