In which Vincent Valentine is reborn as Xanxus' older brother and is Hikari's first real guardian/uncle figure.
She hated this. She hated the fact that man had forced a literal child to fight in her name, for something she didn't even want.
She was about to give up hope when something at the back of her mind seemed to hum in happiness. She knew this feeling.
So when Lambo came in for that silly fist bump, she acted fast. Reborn didn't expect her to suddenly snatch that damn ring off him, before tossing it behind her.
Something flew past her and entered her personal space. Closer inspection revealed a deep red cloth, long black hair and pale skin. The figure had deep crimson eyes that almost looked like spilled blood, and a golden gun that was clearly well used at his hip. He almost looked like a vampire.
"Uncle Val!" said Hikari with open relief.
'Val' reached out a clawed hand and gently ruffled her hair. He glared at Iemitsu rather strongly though.
His other hand firmly gripped the Lightning ring and he calmly walked into the arena.
"Are you the Lightning guardian?" asked the judge.
"I'm the proxy. Vongola's laws allow for one in the event of extenuating circumstances. I doubt the Alliance would be pleased that the external adviser was so eager to advocate for literal child soldiers," rumbled the figure.
The strange women stared at him for several seconds. Then one addressed Hikari.
"Is this true?"
"I have full confidence in Uncle Val's ability to act as my lightning," said Hikari immediately. Like hell was she going to send a child against a literal assassin.
'Val' lifted up the hand which held the Lightning ring. It was rather faint, but the distinct green flames danced between his fingers as he used the ring as a conduit.
That seemed to be enough to appease the judges.
"Very well. Let the Lightning battle commence."
Hikari knew her uncle was skilled...but she had never seen him go all out. He seemed to be playing with the Varia's Lightning officer. He shot out the parabolas with ridiculous ease, which enraged the man further.
"If this is the accepted standard of a Varia Officer, then Tyr should have put up a better fight against that brat with the loud mouth," drawled Val.
"Voi! What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!" demanded Squalo.
Val cast a glance and seemed to do a slight doubletake for a second.
Either way, he got back on track within a few seconds, and in a rather anti-climatic manner, kicked Levi so hard he flew out of the arena and crashed into the nearest wall.
"Winner, the proxy," said the judge.
Hikari wasted absolutely no time, and promptly tackled Val. He accepted the tackle-hug with practiced ease. He partially covered her with his red cloak, and said nothing.
"Who are you?" demanded Reborn.
"Uncle Val, option one is still off the table, but I'll plead ignorance if asked about option two. Be as creative as you want," said Hikari.
The grin on Val's face was almost terrifying.
"Are you sure?" he asked. She nodded against his chest, and covered her ears.
Val showed zero hesitation as he promptly shot Iemitsu's left leg off. It was clear from the way he was aiming he had originally gone for a much...smaller...target but missed.
Iemitsu took several seconds to realize what had happened, and began clutching his leg trying to staunch the blood flow. Dead silence pervaded the arena.
Val absconded with the girl before anyone could react to the sudden show of senseless bloodshed and violence. Reborn was fuming...mostly because it was very clear from the way the two interacted that this was NOT the first time they had met and that this Val was almost certainly Hikari's first legitimate guardian.
And unlike the rest, was fully trained and almost certainly related to the mafia in some way.
On a related note, Xanxus liked this "Val" character immensely. Anyone willing to immediately cripple that braying jackass with limited permission from their Sky was his kind of person.
In an undisclosed location
Val, or rather Vincent Valentine, let his Sky vent about all the headaches Reborn had been causing her since day one. From the thrice damned bullets to the ridiculous training regimens that made no sense, to the fact he shoved people on her expecting them to bond with her as her guardians. The worst had been the sudden arrival of Iemitsu.
By the end of it, she was emotionally exhausted and clinging to him like a vice. It took a lot of careful maneuvering to nudge her onto the bed with his cloak covering her like a blanket. She hugged it so tightly he knew he wasn't getting it back before morning at least.
He walked straight to the liquor cabinet and took a long pull of the strongest bourbon he had.
This was a damn mess. It was clear the Vongola were intending to make his Sky a puppet leader. Iemitsu's presence all but confirmed it, because otherwise why return to a family he had basically abandoned.
Hikari had held up well, but now he was wishing he had shown up sooner. She had almost no support against Reborn's antics, and had been at the brink of snapping. Having such a feral Storm around was not helping.
Hayato was 'loyal' alright...if by loyal one meant he held his Sky on such a ridiculous pillar because he was so desperate to earn validation for himself. No way was that ending well unless someone stepped in soon and corrected the brat in his behavior before it became a habit.
More worrying was that man with the feather he saw before. He couldn't be sure, but he would not be surprised if that man was his half brother. He had been aware the Ninth had taken in some kid, but had never paid any attention to it.
Right now he needed information. He knew his Sky was safe, because he had taken great pains to hide this little apartment and from the look of things, Hikari had been spending an inordinate amount of time in here recently. If Reborn hadn't tracked her down by now, then she had used what he had taught her to visit.
Hibari paused in his weapon maintenance to look up.
"Superior carnivore," he greeted.
"Shrike," he replied in return.
The greeting over with, the two settled down.
"The small bird has been in all sorts of trouble recently," Hibari said finally.
Vincent had come to an understanding with the brat years ago. He would play with Hibari every time he was in town, and in return Hibari would protect the 'little bird' while he was gone. It was an agreement they could both accept, as Vincent had no interest in his territory and Hibari could respect the fact that a superior carnivore wanted to protect a small animal.
Vincent listened to the report, and his frown only grew. Reborn really had been up to no small amount of mischief, and it was no wonder Hikari looked so frayed. And now that the Varia were here, she was beyond exhausted trying to keep it together.
At least Iemitsu was contained. Having his leg blown off would slow him down considerably, even if he did get healing. Vincent had made sure of that.
Now he had to deal with the Varia's presence, and preferably winning the Ring Battles...if only to put an end to this farce.
Hibari was equally displeased learning the location of the battles, as he had been unaware that someone had been modifying his school without his knowledge while Dino distracted him.
That would not do, and Vincent was all too happy to deal with anyone attempting to keep him away so that Hibari could express his extreme displeasure.
The silence was almost overbearing during the Storm battle. It had nothing to do with the fact Hayato would be facing the unhinged Storm officer, and everything to do with the mysterious figure who had acted as a proxy during the last battle.
He had arrived rather quietly, with Hikari by his side looking more relaxed than any of them had seen her.
Reborn was frowning, clearly irritated beyond reason.
Once Hayato was in the arena, Reborn finally spoke to 'Val'.
"What is option one and two?"
"Option one, I straight up kill Iemitsu," said Val. "Option two was permanent maiming. She never let me go with my first choice because her mother would be upset, but after the stunt he tried to pull she was finally okay with option two. I was trying to neuter him, but it's a rather small target for the caliber I tend to use."
Reborn snorted in spite of himself.
Hayato lost by a bare margin, but before he could become depressed a less than pleased Hibari showed up.
Val spoke up with the tone of long familiarity.
"Shrike, from my understanding the pink haired ones are the people responsible for the damage done to the building."
Hibari had a vicious and bloodthirsty smirk on his face.
"Really now," he said, almost purring with intent.
He stalked off, clearly intent on having words with the women.
Reborn made a point to cut off 'Val' before he disappeared with his student again.
"Who are you, really? And why has Hikari's first guardian been away so long?"
Val smirked at him.
"Figures the Ninth's favorite pet hit man would notice," he said with a drawl. "As for why I haven't been here, it's because I've been busy."
"Busy," repeated Reborn.
"I've been working for a long time to insure any potential threats to my Sky have been neutralized before they came to her doorstep. There's no point in retiring now when her Flames will drag her in once she's older. I visited as often as I could to not draw attention to her, and to keep the bond strong."
Vincent was not like the rest of Hikari's guardians. He was already a fully blooded mafioso, and if Reborn was suspicions were correct, former Varia himself.
That made him the most competent out of the entire group in terms of skill and knowledge by a large margin.
Hikari made it clear she fully intended to stay with Vincent until this was over with, regardless of what Reborn said about the matter.
Xanxus stared down Mammon with open annoyance.
"Miser trash. The one who acted as the proxy for the Lightning battle. Who is he?"
Before Mammon could say anything, one of the older mooks...a Cloud...spoke up.
"His name is, or rather was, Chaos."
Everyone turned to look at him.
"Mook, explain."
"The guy in red is one of us. He used to be the Cloud officer before he retired about a month before Tyr stepped down."
"Voi. If he was our Cloud, then how the fuck did Ottabio get the post?"
"Asshole was always a brown noser. He had a lot of clout with the others, and got it purely by sucking up to Tyr. That and the fact he was the most senior Cloud," he explained.
"...You're telling me I got stuck with that shitty traitor because the competent one left before I became Boss?" snarled Xanxus.
"That fits with the information I found," said Mammon. "All signs indicated he was former Varia, but I had no conclusive proof who he was before."
"Shishishi...he was certainly quick enough to shoot that fake king's leg off," said Belphegor.
"Not surprising. Chaos couldn't stand the bastard, and it was only because it wasn't worth the paperwork that he never maimed the guy before," said the mook with a snort.
"Why do you call him Chaos?" asked Squalo.
"If you spent any time with him on the field, you'd understand why he got assigned that as his name. Either way, the kid definitely has one hell of a powerhouse backing her."
Xanxus mused on this new information. During the Storm battle, he had gotten a better look at the features of 'Chaos'.
One thing he didn't talk about much was the fact he had an older brother, one that had been taken away by the cops when he was barely five. His ma had never seen her oldest again, but she sometimes spoke of "Vincent" during the times she was sober and feeling nostalgic.
This Chaos had a lot of familiar features...ones Xanxus saw often, usually while looking in the mirror. Black hair was common enough, but one thing he distinctly remembered was his mother telling him that he had the same red eyes as her oldest son.
Crimson eyes that were almost the exact same shade and nearly the same shape as the man in the video of the Storm battle.