Chapter 4
A few weeks later…
Tsuna didn't know how Hibari-senpai did it, but within a span of two weeks he had collected enough evidence and testimonies from some of the female students to have Kesuke Mochida arrested and expelled from Namimori High School.
From what he heard, Mochida was facing a long sentence and wouldn't be getting out anytime soon along with some of the Kendo Club members who were found to have done some illegal activities. The rest of the club was innocent, but without someone to replace Mochida they faced being shut down unless one of them was willing to step up and be the new captain.
To everyone's surprise, it was Zoro who joined the club and became the captain after doing try-outs. His reasoning? He wanted to give it a try and to see if he could whip the remaining members into shape and make them take kendo seriously.
After seeing the way he used the Bokkens, the principal was fine with him being the club captain, but told the moss-haired teen not to run the members ragged. Zoro made no promises that he would go easy on them, but would be somewhat lenient. That didn't ease the principal's worries, but she decided not to press the issue and left him alone after that.
As for Yasuno Shiro, well his investigation was taking a bit longer as Hibari's contacts didn't find anything solid enough to stick onto the man, but they were able to find some criminal contacts on his phone along with information on a bar in Morino City named Paradise that was revealed in a bust to be doing illegal activities such as drug use, prostitution and running a rather suspicious porn website that was found on the dark web. Oh, and it was revealed in an interrogation that Shiro had enlisted one of the janitors, a Mr. Tanaba Gouzou to take illicit pictures of female students and teachers and have them posted on Paradise's hidden website along with sharing them with some of the male students.
The janitor was soon fired and placed in prison for being an asset in a conspiracy and distributor of illicit pornography. Shiro on the other hand was placed on unpaid leave, but there was no doubt that he would be facing some serious prison time possibly for life especially once it was found out he was planning to enslave some of the students and teachers. The principal, once hearing this, was no doubt furious and hoped that Shiro-sensei's time in prison would be a long and brutal one.
After that she held an assembly and made a speech to boost morale and confidence in the school. She also made the students who had the pictures to delete them along with destroying any physical copies or face expulsion. There were a few grumbles and protests, but under the threat of expulsion the pictures were deleted or destroyed.
All in all, it was an interesting time for the half-vampire and he even met Kyoko's older brother Ryohei who gave him one hell of a bear hug and thanked him for looking after his sister. While rather loud and energetic, Ryohei was pretty much a nice guy with a love for boxing and being rather warm to others including people like Hibari-senpai.
Apparently the two had a bit of a history together when he brought it up.
Today was the weekend, Tsuna wasn't doing much other than being on the phone and talking to Ingrid on how school was going for him and his friends.
"I see, nice to know that you're doing well and that you've made some rather interesting friends. Though it does concern me that this Shiro man was able to instantly know that you were Lord Black's grandson. At least his crimes were brought to light along with any accomplices."
"Yeah, the guy even groveled and bowed before me like some weirdo and rambled about offering up female students and teachers as tribute or whatever." Tsuna rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Is this what grandad has to deal with a lot?"
"Sometimes, all Vampires are charismatic in their own way and Lord Black is no different. As a whole, Vampires radiate power and dominance just like all other high ranking Demon species, but on a more level than usual with the only two species rivaling them would be the Dragons and the Wraiths with Nagas and Succubi/Incubi coming close. And considering Sky Attraction, it's possible that Shiro was caught up in it or maybe he was already a crooked man to begin with and saw a chance at gaining power."
"Great, so I'll have to deal with sycophants who think they have a shot in my guardian set or think they have an in with Nomad."
"Why do you think I'm the public spokeswoman of the company to begin with? There's a reason why your grandfather rarely appears in public or during corporate meetings unless he feels something important is going on and even then he leaves me to handle the affairs. You wouldn't believe the amount of humans that I've had to deal with that acted so pathetic when he was brought up or the rare few who I had to strong-arm into behaving because they knew what he really was and tried to make an issue of it."
"Wow, didn't know your job was that difficult to begin with. It sounds like you're one of the few keeping things together hehehe." Tsuna laughed a bit and heard Ingrid laugh as well.
"Hehe, yeah it may seem like that at times but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Besides, can you imagine someone like Oboro or even Fulst being the public spokesperson? Nomad would not last very long I tell you what."
That thought made Tsuna laugh quite a lot. While Oboro wasn't that bad, she did have her moments where she couldn't help but mess with someone just because she felt like it so he had a feeling that Nomad would've faced a lot of scandals and lawsuits if the violet-haired woman was left in charge. Fulst on the other hand… the thought of that fat bastard being in charge made the teen Dhampir grimace as he had a feeling that Nomad would've had a much darker reputation along with not lasting very long to begin with.
"Well anyways Tsuna, it's been nice talking to you but I gotta get back to work. We have a new hire and I need to make sure she knows her way around the office… OBORO LEAVE MISS SAKIE SATOU ALONE!"
The call ended after and Tsuna couldn't help but chuckle at what was probably going on at Nomad.
Seems like business as usual.
He soon heard his mother call him and he went to see what she wanted. Something about a flier for a Home Tutor perhaps?
Tsuna stared at the rather small and baby-like man called Reborn who proclaimed himself to be his home tutor. Hell, even his mother and guardians stared at him with a single thought through their heads.
"What the fuck/Who the hell is this man?"
"Ciaossu." The false baby greeted in Italian which set off alarm bells in everyone's' heads. "As I just said, my name is Reborn and I will be Tsuna's Home Tutor for a while. Hope we can get along." He smiled rather sweetly.
Nana wasn't buying it though. "Really? For a Home Tutor you arrived here rather fast even though I answered that flier hours ago." She crossed her arms and glared at the small man, eyes glowing rather red.
Reborn was a little surprised at that, but didn't show it. "Well I was sent here to teach on someone's orders." He said cheekily, but added in. "And no it wasn't your fool of a husband Iemitsu, he does not have the authority to order me around."
"Let me guess, it was that old bastard who told me to call him grandfather?" Tsuna growled and grabbed a surprised Reborn by his head before he could react. "Let me tell you something you little shit! That bastard along with my so-called father are the reasons why most of my childhood was shitty until my real grandfather came by and took me in and reversed the damage that was caused!"
He then let the short man drop, but to his surprise Reborn did a backflip and landed perfectly. "So if you think you can come on in here and make a mess of things then you're sadly mistaken." His eyes flashed a burning amber that dared the miniature hitman to even try something and they reminded him of Daniela's before her passing.
Looking around at the assorted guardians who's eyes seem to glow with their respective flames, (though he could tell that some of them were mixed flame types which while uncommon, were also quite rare along with feeling something was otherworldly about them) he sighed knowing that Nono screwed up big time and had a lot of explaining to do.
"Look, I get it. You don't trust me especially since I was sent by Nono and that's fine. Considering he's been making mistakes over the years it hasn't earned him much favors amongst the Alliance and the outside families. However, try to understand that he's willing to rectify whatever mistakes he's made the best he can do along with seeking forgiveness for being so foolish." He said in an effort to placate the group and earn some brownie points.
While the group didn't buy it, they were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and save judgment for later.
Later that night, Reborn made a call to Nono and switched to Italian just in case as he had no idea what languages Tsuna or anyone else in the house knew and spoke.
"Nono, I've arrived and I believe you need to have a long talk with that idiot Iemitsu. Did the man know that his wife and son were vampires or at least part vampire? Really? Well whatever the case may be, CEDEF's file on Tsuna is outdated and grossly inaccurate. I suggest you have someone inspect it for incompetence."
The miniature hitman wasn't amused by Nono's failed attempts to forgive Iemitsu's mistakes and decided to be blunt.
"Nono, you're gravely mistaken. Tsuna pretty much hates his father and to an extent you all because the blonde fool convinced you to seal away his flames at such a young age EVEN though he had done no wrong. Hell, the boy said his actual grandfather came by when he was young and possibly took care of the seal placed on him along with training him. If I'm led to believe and I hope I'm wrong about this, but if Tsuna's grandfather happens to be HIM of all Vampires then safe to say you and Iemistsu screwed up big time! Never mind the fact that Tsuna has most of his guardians who I suspect some of them to not be human."
After that was dead silence and the Sun Arcobaleno sighed heavily. Fuck he was getting old for this shit. If this discovery didn't set a fire to Nono's ass to finally look into CEDEF and see what the hell was going on with them then nothing would. And considering the Vongola used CEDEF for information when going on missions, having inaccurate data or missing pieces could get their men killed or start a war by mistake.
Never mind encountering demons, either by accident or otherwise. Although there were some rumors and stories on how Demons were the ones that taught the early Famiglias in Italy to use Dying Will Flames, there wasn't much concrete proof considering the Mafia was strictly Catholic even though it was mostly lip service.
He didn't like assignments going bad from the start, but maybe this one could be salvaged somehow. He was rather curious at what Tsuna could do and what HE taught the teen to begin with.
If it came down to it, he could convince Colonello to teach the kid a few tricks.
A few days later…
There was a sort of tentative peace between Tsuna and Reborn. While the half-vampire didn't go out of his way to be nice to the small hitman, he wasn't mean to him either and was just indifferent to him most of the time. However, they did find some common ground between them such as they both didn't like getting screwed over by others for bullshit reasons along with reading particular subjects.
That and messing with others especially if they deserved it or for shits and giggles.
When they weren't reading books or doing some training with his flames, Tsuna would ask Reborn about the Arcobaleno, the Mafia or just Flame Types in general. Nothing too personal or involving secrets; but some simple questions like how many members are there, what are they like and how experienced they are with their respective flame.
While Reborn was a little cagey about telling his personal life or about the Arcobaleno Curse in general, he was more than happy to tell Tsuna about the other Arcobaleno especially the many times that Colonello tried to woo Lal Mirch only to fail and get his ass whooped by her or when he smacked Skull around especially if he was being mouthy. He didn't talk much about Fon, but apparently the two are on good terms and sometimes gave suggestions to each other when it was needed.
However, he didn't say much about the Sky Arcobaleno in general and his eyes seemed to darken a bit so Tsuna assumed that one person was a touchy subject so he dropped it. Viper seemed to be the most mysterious and Reborn admitted that he wasn't sure if they were still alive or not since he hasn't seen them in a long time.
The less could be said about Verde (Tsuna perked up at the name of Doctor Sabato's foster father and wondered if being an Arcobaleno was the reason why the Demon Doctor hadn't seen him in a while). When talking about the Green Arcobaleno, Reborn didn't really like him much and admitted that the scientist was hard to trust at times due to being so obsessed with his research to the point he would use others as test subjects. However, he also admitted that Verde could be reasonable to a point especially if someone helped him out with something and wasn't interested in stealing his work.
Tsuna had a feeling he could convince Verde to visit if he met him and informed the scientist of the Master-Servant Project that Sabato mentioned long ago. That or tell him of Demonization and how it could probably break the curse on him or weaken it enough that he wouldn't be stuck looking like an infant.
Tsuna was in class talking to Kyoko and Shizuka about Reborn when the new transfer student was introduced. He didn't really think much of Hayato Gokudera until the guy was glaring at him for some reason and the half-vampire glared right back.
Whoever the guy was, he was just begging for trouble. Didn't really help the fact he smelled of gunpowder, explosives, cigarettes and oddly enough poison for some reason.
When gym class came around, he realized why the guy felt off and smelled like trouble.
Seriously, a bomber?
Glaring at Reborn who was trying to look innocent, but had a devious smirk on his face. "So just as a reminder, I have to whoop this guy's ass to make him take me seriously otherwise he'll be the new Vongola Heir?" He pointed at Gokudera and hissed which made the silver haired teen take a step back and give Tsuna a wary look.
"Hehehe, that's right Tsuna." Reborn chuckled a little.
Signing, Tsuna summoned a large pair of sharp looking sickles and pointed one of them near Gokudera's neck. "If you value your life I'd suggest you stand down. I call bullshit on this." He told the silver teen who sweated at seeing the weapon so close to his neck.
"What?"
"You heard me bub. While I may not fully understand what goes on in the mafia, I do understand that when it comes to legitimate heirs they tend to look into the bloodlines first. If you really were a candidate for the family, wouldn't they just skip over a 'civilian' candidate and go straight to someone that was already involved with them? Tsuna deadpanned before putting some pressure on his sickle causing Gokudera's neck to bleed a little bit. "So I ask again, stand down. I can and will kill you if you don't and believe when I say this, I killed things that were more of a challenge than someone like you."
"A-a-alright, I-i-i s-surrender!" Gokudera stuttered out and Tsuna let him go, causing the silver teen to bow down. "I was just bluffing, it was just a test! I don't even want to be the boss anyway! I just want to be the right hand that's all!" He sniffled and Reborn was laughing his ass off at seeing his state.
"Congratulations Tsuna! You've established your dominance over him. Hayato Gokudera is now officially your bitch!" He said cheerfully which made Tsuna give him a deadpan look.
"Really Reborn, really?" He questioned the little troll who just smiled at him.
"Look at this Tsuna, at least you now have a Storm." He pointed out and the Dhampir snorted at him and looked over to Gokudera who was now professing his undying loyalty towards him.
"Already have one, Ingrid's at work so she isn't here often unless something serious is happening." He looked over to Gokudera who looked depressed at hearing that. "Oh don't give me that look. It doesn't say anything that I only need one member each for a guardian set. If you're that dead set on being my right hand then you will need to get your shit together and take your life seriously! I will not have someone who's reckless and thinks so little of their life be one of my guardians!"
Suddenly, Tsuna's eyes lit up to bright orange as he became more passionate. "If you desire to be my right hand so badly then prove it! Prove it to me that you'll value your life to the fullest and take care of yourself! Prove it to me that you would be loyal even by following me into hell and becoming a demon. Prove it to me that you can stand on your own and show anyone who has mistreated or looked down on you that you made it to the top!" He then held out his hand to Gokudera as he stared at him. "So then, do we have a deal?"
No words were spoken as Gokudera looked at Tsuna as if he found a new god to worship. Taking his hand, he swore profusely that he would live life to the fullest all the while crying a bit.
The rest of Tsuna's Guardians who saw what happened were deeply moved as those in the group who were once human felt a shred of humanity still exist in their beating demonic hearts.
"T-that's…" Zoro sniffled as he tried to stop crying. "T-that's something that Captain Luffy would've said…"
The Kamado twins cried as well, the speech reminding them of a long dead demon slayer named Rengoku.
Even Takeshi Yamamoto, who was passing by to see what the commotion was all about, was moved by it and wanted to be a part of whatever that Tsuna and his friends were doing.
Reborn didn't know what to make of the scene before him. On one hand, the speech inspired him to continue on living even after all that happened, especially considering what happened after Luce's betrayal when he and the others took the curse. On the other hand, it felt like a literal "Deal with the Devil" due to how powerful Sky Charisma could be and he didn't want to be caught up in it and have any possible hopes crushed.
Either way, his perception of Tsuna went up a bit and he vowed to see it through that the teen became the Decimo of the Vongola. Even if he had to deal with HIM of all vampires.