"You know," Shoichi said, "when we do get the whole Boss Battle thing at the end, would it be silly to try draining the defect's flames for your own use?"
Tsuna blinked. "In theory, he might use them, so yeah. But it depends a lot on how hard he hits. And how he hits. But not [Zero Point Breakthrough], because even if that won us the battle, I'm not sure he'd splash back and be in any condition to be lectured about his myriad failings and failures and what he should do about it."
Level three, once they entered the Palace, greeted them with a large room chock full of boxes.
They were too high to get atop, so they could not get an overview of the room that way, though the map did give them an idea of what they were facing.
"Is this—" He frowned. "Is this a box-pushing puzzle!?"
They were all smooth cubes, like frosted glass. Shoichi, mad scientist in training that he was, had already pulled a marker out of inventory and was sketching on the wall, muttering to himself about how to open up a way to each of the doors in the room, preferably in the least amount of moves possible.
It was only once they started pushing that something weird happened. Tsuna laid his lands on a cube and immediately jerked away as the face changed to an image. "Uh…"
Everyone crowded around to see what the deal was.
Tsuna laid a hand on the face again and watched in disbelief as a scene played out. It was himself, his mother, and the defect, in a picture-perfect setting. The mother was looking on lovingly as the father gently played with the son, and the son looked thrilled to have his papa's attention.
There was no bouncing him off the ceiling or dropping him on the floor, no "magic water", no blackout drunkenness… Everything was just as unnaturally clean as the house above the real Palace was, clothing was pristine (Iemitsu was even dressed in something other than an orange jumpsuit), and the sheer sense of Uncanny Valley was making Tsuna's head spin.
"Is this what the defect sees when…?" Nagi's voice sounded rough.
"Is this man purposely deluding himself?" Mukuro added, utter disbelief colouring his voice. "I've seen your memories, Tsuna-kun, I know what happened. Yours were raw and real. This, however, is … some seriously messed up stuff."
"He is…" Tetsuya paused. "He's compartmentalizing? These are compartmentalized memories. Falsely perfect ones?"
Tsuna snatched his hand away and hugged himself.
"Omnivore. No more touching these."
"Yeah. No touching." He stayed quietly out of the way while everyone else took direction from Shoichi on what to push when and where. If stuff like this was in the defect's brain, he truly could not trust the man in any way, not that he had been inclined to in the first place. If everything to do with the man's family was viewed through this warped lens—were the man's Sky Flames turned inward to such a degree that his brain was a mess of hallucinations if his wife and son were involved?
The left-hand room held a mid-boss guarding a … half crest, which they handily took care of. The same was true of the right-hand room. The completed crest was fitted into a same-shaped depression on the grille blocking the top exit, which caused the barricade to split and open, allowing them passage.
It was all very Resident Evil to his mind, not that he played those games, though he had watched a playthrough online, enough to know he wanted no part of that nonsense.
The third level was just a bit strange (delusional, too-perfect, revisionist history memories aside) in that the whole thing was shifted sideways according to the map they found tacked to a hallway wall. Rather than the staircase coming down on one side of the level with the other staircase all the way to the right, it was all the way to the left. It was like the architect of this monstrosity got confused and pivoted an entire level so it was no longer under the previous one, but under-beside it, slightly overlapping.
On top of that, they would (if he was reading the new part of the map right, as there had been an update tacked to a wall in a blind corner) have to go down, then back up the far side, down again, and up the middle, to get to the staircase that led down, again. Which meant two levels at the same time, just alternating until they hit level five.
They were next confronted with … boxes. Except these boxes were the secret hidden compartments type, which had Shoichi squeeing with happiness.
Tsuna gawked at him for a moment, then smiled. Hey, at least someone was having fun.
What wasn't fun was the multitude of keys that Shoichi was finding after figuring out where the hidden compartments were and how to open them. Weird keys, like the Star Key, the Moon Key, the Club Key, and so forth. Again, very Resident Evil to his mind, and now he was wondering if the defect was into video games.
Horror video games.
He let that sink in for a moment, then shook his head and pushed the thought away. If they ended up in a Silent Hill section of the Palace, he was going to figure out a way to permanently maim the defect. (Though, he thought, Silent Hill totally had a better story.)
Hibari drifted up behind him, so he shuffled back a little, his back to Hibari's chest, and happily soaked in the feeling the connection gave him. He was definitely going to kiss him at some point. He wasn't entirely sure what came after that point, but he would worry about that later.
Meanwhile, Mukuro and Nagi kept sharing highly amused looks.
They were exhausted by the time they hit the safe room right off the stairs on level five. Tsuna slumped into a seat and checked the map, which, of course, said nothing much. "I wonder if there's another map."
That started a general search of the safe room (and Tetsuya exiting long enough to scour at least part of the hallway). The map they eventually located was on the backside of one of the console table drawers, pinned in place with a flat thumbtack.
"I feel like I'm in a bad spy movie," Ken said unhappily.
"Maybe he thinks of too many things as a game? Like, as serious as he may appear to be, there's a little boy inside him squeeing over the super secret spy schtick?"
The map, when spread out, showed that there was a level 6, if only by dint of the staircase leading down.
"I vote that we're done for the day," Chikusa said. "This has all been seriously annoying."
With that, Hibari updated their save point before they all headed out of the Palace.
Tsuna exhaled slowly, nodded, and hustled off with Tetsuya to throw dinner together. He was quite hungry, so he imagined so was everyone else. Why they kept eating in the workroom, though…
Shoichi went back to poking around in Vongola affairs once dinner was over, Mukuro at his side and reading along with whatever was found.
Tsuna decided to work on his Italian, so he got out his laptop and a set of earphones so he could hear proper pronunciation without interfering with what anyone else was doing. He was also contemplating learning Mandarin, but that could wait until he had finished the one. If nothing else, all that time spent on Italian had perversely helped him with English.
He would probably always speak both with an accent, but whatever. Better than having some translator try to mess with him by translating badly, on purpose.
'Ugh, seriously, what is with these languages that have all these extra letters and they don't actually pronounce any of them?'
Come bedtime they split again, most of them to the guest wing, he and Hibari to the other. He paused outside his door again, turned and wrapped his arms around his senpai, not even annoyed that Hibari was taller, and hummed when he felt arms wrap around him.
The heartbeat under his ear was just as steady, soothing, and comforting as before, the arms strong and protective. It was like being home. He hummed again as a notion was pushed into his head. "Kyōya?"
He could feel his senpai's head dip in a nod.
Tsuna hugged Kyōya a little tighter for a moment, then reluctantly let go.
Ω
Level five had some odd stuff in it. One room was massive, and in it were … robots? 2.3 meter tall robots. (Shoichi checked.)
"I have a serious issue with CEDEF having these things," Mukuro said.
"Maybe Vongola?" Tetsuya said. "Though why… These seem like an awfully strange choice for such an allegedly powerful famiglia."
"Something to keep in mind," he said, "and see if we can find info on. This is so messed up. The more I see the less I like."
"If we do end up in Italy," Nagi said, "there's a lot we can change."
He nodded. "I don't get why these would be in his Palace, but… Maybe CEDEF was involved in getting blueprints or an actual robot as part of a spy thing? Japan is nuts for giant robots, but that doesn't mean it has anything to do with this country. And last I checked, Japan doesn't have robots like this."
"These things could take a person inside," Shoichi reported, after clambering down from his investigation of one.
He rolled his eyes. That was like, a staple of certain manga and anime. Giant robots, pilots, and some potentially world-ending threat. Except, these things? Not big enough to deal with kaiju, or "angels", or what have you. "Can you learn more from here, or shall we move on? Because I'm thinking that the defect may not know a lot about these things, and what he thinks he knows might be greatly misleading."
Shoichi blinked at him, then nodded. "Nah, we're good."
At the bottom of the staircase they eventually reached, having had to fight through two mid-bosses blocking parts of their advancement (all of them being level ninety-nine had made stuff like that rather easier) was a safe room, which they all took seats in so they could rest.
Tsuna ran his eyes over every part of the room, looking for another map. The place looked like a conference room, all boring with its large table, chairs, water cooler (complete with stack of paper cups), and pot plants. The blinds on the window struck him as being odd, somehow.
He got back up and flipped one of the plastic slats. The view was of some generic city and he was about to let go, but he noticed markings. He did let go and grabbed the wand instead, so he could flip the slat orientation.
Nagi jumped up to get a better look and said, "It's a map. This is … clever?"
"Two floors," Chikusa said, "and I don't see any staircases on the seventh level going down. We're almost there."
"And this floor looks weird," Ken said. "Like a series of rooms connected by short corridors."
"At least the end is in sight," Tetsuya said.
"I wonder if it's seven levels for seven flames?" Mukuro said. "If so, it's a really messed up way of showing it."
The previous floor had been more tedious than tiring. This one? Who knew. But they were close.
"I vote we keep going."
Ω
The first room was like the office they had ducked into. There was a dividing wall of glass with a door at the center. Each of them zipped into hiding places to observe. Tsuna looked at his family and whispered, "That's the old man, the one who … sealed me."
The actual conversation going on in there seemed to be the old man (Timoteo di Vongola) trying to convince Iemitsu to find a wife and have children.
That struck Tsuna as deeply hypocritical given that Shoichi had found out that none of Timoteo's four sons had married or had children, though the youngest was given a pass for being all of sixteen when he got iced.
Iemitsu seemed diffident about the idea, then suddenly got a look on his face that was dreamy and stupid and delusional. He agreed quickly after that, then bailed out the door at the back. Timoteo shook his head slowly and disappeared through a side door that vanished as soon as he went through it.
"Why do I have this feeling the defect was suddenly all over the idea of a yamato nadeshiko?" he muttered.
Kyōya snorted softly, and even Nagi looked a bit weirded out.
Through the door was the only way to go, so through they went, and almost smacked right into a mid-boss that had not been there a second ago, a mid-boss that could use flames.
"Kami-sama," he murmured after Tetsuya actually shrieked in pain at being hit with someone else's Storm Flames. The fight itself was looking like the usual slugfest against an enemy who was weak to nothing, but with the addition of flames…
When Tsuna's turn came up again he concentrated, visualized, and unleashed [Zero Point Breakthrough], doing his damnedest to target only the flames, the way Timoteo had done to him. It was an excellent opportunity in his mind to work on some things he would never dream of testing on his loved ones.
The mid-boss, Burnet, howled when he did it. Tsuna couldn't tell if that was because it hurt, or if it could tell one of its abilities had been sealed. It turned into a true slugfest after that, because Burnet didn't even carry a weapon. Kyōya was having a wonderful time wailing on it, though Ken was busy healing the heavy blows the thing was capable of.
With that out of the way (and oddly, a ring as loot that Tetsuya took a liking to), they moved through the door at the back and down the short corridor to the next room. It … was the same. Another dividing wall of glass with a door at the center, and inside another tableau that did not come to life until they had all zipped into hiding.
The conversation they heard this time was more Iemitsu talking to himself while holding a baby Tsuna. (Nagi squeed at the sheer cuteness, which resulted in Tsuna feeling his face heat up, and Kyōya smirking.) The Iemitsu construct sounded very worried, talking about how he wouldn't let his "little tuna-fish" be a part of the nastier aspects of his papa's life.
Tsuna found that odd, that even speaking to a baby the man danced around the subject, as if a child that young would ever remember.
It was also clear that Iemitsu's delusional expectations of his son was that Tsuna would be a mostly helpless, rather gullible and stupid, male version of his wife.
He scowled. His entire life mapped out in the defect's mind as an idiot, as a useless, pretty, fluffy thing to be protected? His lip drew up in a sneer of revulsion and anger. He wasn't a damn toy to be played with and then chucked in a glass box by a man too willfully blind to see the damage he wrought on the lives of other people.
The Iemitsu construct exited through the facing door after handing the baby off to a faceless minion which exited through a side door that vanished immediately.
Tsuna bit his lip to hold back on spewing out all the things he was thinking, because his family did not need to hear what they could already predict. Mukuro and Nagi were giving him steady looks, and Kyōya moved up behind him to stand shelteringly close, which helped to calm the furious thumping of his heart and blood.
He leaned back against him, ran his hands over his face, then said, "I expect we have another mid-boss to deal with."
Turmeric was the name of it, and matched the appearance of the man in the tableau on the first level. It had Sun Flames, apparently, which meant it could heal itself very well of the damage they were piling on it. Tsuna used [Zero Point Breakthrough] again, to freeze the thing's flames, which caused it to start using a handgun.
Bullets hurt like anything when they hit. And judging by the contemplative look on Kyōya's face, something he was planning something for.
Turmeric was taken out eventually, leaving behind a ring that Ken took a liking to.
Down the corridor led them to tableau three, this time of Iemitsu ranting about "that illegitimate bastard", and who Tsuna could only presume was Xanxus. Iemitsu seemed to be furious over the "boy" not being the perfect embodiment of Vongola, for not being fawningly grateful to Timoteo for taking him in off the streets, for not showing how he was indebted to the old man for accepting him despite his vulgar beginnings.
Nagi's expression went from blank to disgusted, which was saying something considering her usually placid demeanor.
After the construct cleared out they entered, to deal with a mid-boss named Oregano, female in appearance, who held a sword in one hand, and clearly had Lightning Flames if the crackle of electricity along the length of metal meant anything.
Tsuna mixed things up a little by first using [Zero Point Breakthrough] to seal off its flames, then using it a second time in an effort to nail its feet in place with "ice" crystals. He did not do it right, however, because the crystals were fragile and it broke free of them easily.
'Well, something to work on, then, because we may be seeing more flame active enemies inside Palaces along the way.'
There were three more rooms, plus the boss, so he had more opportunities. Continuing to try it every round meant he would not be contributing to taking the mid-boss down, so he did not bother for a second try.
It left behind a ring, which no one was drawn to, so Tsuna chucked it into his inventory.
Beyond the door, on the left side of the corridor, was a door into a safe room. Everyone sat down to relax for a bit. He caught the eyes of each of his family members in turn, silently asking a question. Each of them nodded. They would be making it to the boss arena, then.
The next tableau was another conversation between Timoteo and Iemitsu, about Xanxus and why he had been iced. Timoteo passed it off as the boy trying to stage a coup, which Iemitsu put down to the boy's ungratefulness and boorish upbringing on the streets, though the specific phrase he used was, "dragged up rather than brought up".
"I am keeping in mind that the defect is delusional," he said once the two figures left the scene. "I'm not willing to take this at face value."
"So we give Xanxus-san the benefit of the doubt," Mukuro said. "Because what was just said here isn't necessarily what actually happened in that conversation."
"If we meet him for some reason and he proves troublesome…" Ken trailed off.
"Then we'll see if he has a Palace," Chikusa finished.
"Assuming it wasn't really a coup," Nagi said, "and he was there for some other reason… If that reason was never addressed—which, how could it be with him iced—then I could see him being … angry, still."
"Possibly irrational."
That having been decided, the went through the door to deal with the next mid-boss, that one in boy form and which didn't look any older than Tsuna, with sandy hair, Rain Flames, and a strange weapon like a wide, obtuse triangle with a cut-out on one of the shorter sides to allow for a firm grip.
"Why is someone so young a part of CEDEF?" he questioned as he used [Zero Point Breakthrough] to seal off its flames. "And at least I know—in here, anyway—that my efforts to seal off access to flames is working, even if I don't have the first clue how to reverse it."
"At least in here it doesn't matter if you can't," Tetsuya said.
Which, ambiguous, but he knew what Tetsuya meant. He tried again to use [Zero Point Breakthrough] to ice down the construct's feet, this Basil. That time it worked, which meant the thing was frozen in place and could not jump forward to attack, or dodge properly. It also meant it was quite a bit easier to defeat given healer duty wasn't exactly a requirement.
(It would still have been if it repelled Physical.)
Basil left behind a ring which Chikusa took for his own.
Two more battles to go before reaching the boss arena and laying eyes on an insubstantial and indistinguishable treasure.
The next tableau was odd, in his opinion. Timoteo was naming Iemitsu as the new head of CEDEF, and the defect was puffed up with pride. Tsuna just couldn't decide if this was the old man shunting the defect to the side, or placing him there because he believed it was a wise choice, out of respect or something. If the latter, he had to believe that in some ways Timoteo was just as delusional as the defect.
"What are these rings?" Chikusa asked, examining the one he had collected. "Do you think since they come from flame users that they channel them?"
Shoichi brightened up. "Maybe? If I can figure out what they're made of, if they really do, then it would advance my work on weapons for us by a lot." Then he drooped slightly. "But I can't see melting one down. Maybe a scraping? I wouldn't want to do anything that would negate their effectiveness."
"Maybe from the inside of the ring?" he said. "That at least wouldn't show when worn. Or a bit from each of them? Maybe an interior channel?"
Shoichi nodded, though it was still up to those with rings to also agree.
The next mid-boss, labeled with Chervil for a name, had Mist Flames. Tsuna knew those could be highly dangerous and immediately froze out that ability. The construct used twin daggers for weapons, and seemed to be aiming more for death of a thousand cuts over heavy hitting damage.
It left behind a ring which Mukuro took.
Tsuna lamented that Shoichi and Nagi would not have rings, but if Shoichi could figure out what they were made of and how to make new ones, that wouldn't matter in the long run. Well, assuming they were useful and not just decorative.
The final tableau ('It better be the final one, because I'm sick of this place,' he thought.) was a dinner setting. Timoteo and Iemitsu were there, of course, but also a bunch of others. Six of them looked to be Timoteo's guardians if how they acted was any measure. The final four, however, seemed to be his sons. The eldest, Enrico, the second son, Massimo, the next, Federico, and the youngest, Xanxus.
It was blatantly obvious that far too many people at the table disliked Xanxus, and Xanxus himself was a foul-mouthed little shit. Enrico seemed far too confident, his face almost harsh in composition. Massimo was stocky, the harshness of his features softened by the extra weight. Federico was somewhere in between, and seemed the most boyish of the group.
Xanxus didn't look much like any of them, except for the hair colour. His eyes were red, which was just strange. He looked more like a gang member than a son of Vongola. But … maybe he did because he refused to pretend he hadn't come from the streets?
A closer look showed that Timoteo shared the same features as the first three sons, but much of the harshness was disguised by his mustache and the effects of aging.
Most of the talk was (ostensibly) normal dinner chatter, but Tsuna could hear the edge in Iemitsu's voice, his disdain for Xanxus.
"It's kind of a stupid way to look at it," he said, "but if the defect dislikes him that much, I have to wonder if he's not such a bad guy in the end, and is just so hacked off about being judged for something out of his control."
"Possibly. We may even find out."
The final mid-boss was the chibi, named Lal Mirch by the interface. It had both Cloud and Mist Flames, but Tsuna was on the job. It also had a shotgun which could fire flame shells, but once its flames were sealed, it was normal ammunition. Or perhaps it had simply been adding flames to that ammunition.
He used [Zero Point Breakthrough] a second time, because it was a chibi and had excellent dodging skills. Because it was a chibi his attempt froze it from the waist down, nearly capturing one of its arms. Like Fon it had a pacifier, but that one was grey with writhing black inside. The construct had scarring all over the right side of the face.
On defeat another ring was dropped, which Kyōya claimed.
And then it was another safe room at the bottom of a set of stairs. Their "save point" was updated, and then they were able to view the final room. It looked like a private, luxury office, the place where the big boss did his work when he wasn't out in the field. It was far larger than any office needed to be, and the décor was a wasteful expression of wealth.
Tsuna's gaze shifted to the built-in bookcases behind the desk. At the very center, in line with where Shadow Iemitsu's head would be, was the gaseous sphere of white surrounded with an oil slick aura.
Everyone exchanged looks, nodded, and Kyōya sent them back to the closest safe room to the outside.
He wanted pizza, for some insane reason. He settled for going with Tetsuya to the kitchen to make curry rice.
Once they were done eating it was Chikusa who said, "I never once doubted anything you said, Tsuna-kun, but seeing stuff like that… It's… I don't even know where to start."
Ken nodded. "So how are we goin' to do this? The calling cards."
"We don't know how … sensitive he is to Mist Flames," Tetsuya said.
"But if he's out of that house," Nagi said, "a walk around town with his wife, or dinner out…?"
"We could try planting a suggestion in his wife's mind. Get her to prompt an afternoon out? He's leaving the evening of the ninth, and flying out on the tenth."
"So in theory we could sneak in to plant the cards. All this—well, actually," Shoichi said. "Hold on. What are the odds one of us can forge his wife's handwriting?"
Tsuna furrowed his brow. "Like put cards in an envelope, but have a message from her on the outside, a sort of 'do not open until' thing?"
"We need to test something first," Nagi said. "Such as we put something in an envelope, send off some of us to a separate location, check the time, and open it, to see if Tsuna-kun can tell when."
"Tomorrow, then. We have tomorrow and Thursday to work that out," Mukuro said. "How about we go pick a movie to watch, something that isn't all this?"
Guardians of the Galaxy was amusing, and a good distraction, so when Tsuna headed upstairs to his room he was in a good mood. He still latched onto Kyōya in a hug that was returned. "I'm going to miss this," he said, voice a little muffled by the position of his head. Not just the hugs, but sleeping in the same house, not having to be alone every night, nowhere near his little family. Nagi had it as bad as he did, worse even, so he couldn't exactly complain.
"Your feelings are your own."
He nodded. Just because someone might feel worse, it did not mean he felt less. He soaked up a little more comfort and warmth, then pulled back enough that he could look up into Kyōya's face and see his eyes. The grey was a velvety charcoal, but being so close he could see hints of purple around the pupils, which was neat.
"Good night, Kyōya."
"Good night, omnivore."
Ω
The trio was sent out after breakfast with a fake calling cards stuffed into envelopes, six of them. Mukuro was keeping in mental contact with Nagi. They were still going to keep track of the time, on their end when the envelope was opened, and on Tsuna's end the moment he sensed anything.
The rest went about a somewhat normal morning, and Tsuna kept pushing [Intuition], consciously rather than the reflex use it had mostly become. At 9.50 he said, "One?"
That continued at intervals, for 10.03, 10.22, 10.27, 10.34, and 10.49. The trio returned in time for lunch, and times were compared during the meal.
"So," Shoichi said, "you were mostly on point? Off by a minute or so, but that's more than good enough. It's more a question now of whether the defect will adhere to a written request from her to wait until he's in the air."
Ω
He didn't.
Tsuna's head shot up several hours after dinner. "He opened it early."
"Aw, shit," Ken muttered. "We go in now?"
"When would we even exit?" Chikusa said.
Tsuna frowned. "I imagine we'd lose an entire day, but that'd be worth it, wouldn't it?"
"Then it's a good thing I'm still 'staying at a friend's house'," Shoichi said.
"And that we still have several days before term starts," Nagi said.
Tetsuya frowned as well. "I suggest once we've defeated him, our lecture to him involves stressing that he not turn around to come back to Namimori."
Mukuro's gaze flitted around past all of them. "Vote?"
They were inside less than half an hour later, peering into the boss arena. That time Shadow Iemitsu was there, and the second he saw them in the doorway he stood up from his chair behind the desk and walked around to stand in front of it.
«"What's my little tuna-fish doing here? Papa will have to punish you."»
Tsuna went red in combined embarrassment and anger. As they stepped into the room, however, Tetsuya slipped. A look down at the floor revealed that its glossiness was more than just an overindulgence in expensive materials, it was literally a trap for the unwary.
Tetsuya, once he got his balance, responded by using his Storm Flames to rough up the slick surface, so they could all properly maintain their footing.
Tsuna's first move was again [Zero Point Breakthrough], which was used to nail Shadow Iemitsu's feet together. The construct had a nasty-looking pickaxe in his hand. Even if the ice failed to stick Iemitsu to the floor, it would prevent him from movement aside from bunny hopping.
The construct responded with Sky Flames, aimed at Kyōya, who went stock still for a second, then smirked and shook his head. "No sell. Omnivore, he attempted to subvert my bond with you."
Tsuna growled. That the defect would attempt to steal his family from him!? He lost his head for a moment, rushed forward in an obvious attempt to punch, then switched up tactics the second he got close enough and nailed the bastard in the wedding tackle before jumping back.
What he should have done was seal the construct's flames.
His family? They laughed, at his reaction, and at the way the construct reacted to the attack.
Tsuna had to admit that watching the construct howl in pain and damn near impale himself with his own weapon was … satisfying. He used his next opportunity to seal the idiot's flames. Of course, that was when attacks started bouncing off the construct.
Shoichi sighed and started looking around with more discernment. "Another gimmick? So… Try smashing the things on his desk, like that framed photograph. Or…?" He looked up, then said, "Why are there so many spotlights?"
"Turn 'em on?" Ken suggested. "Shine a light on his delusions?"
Tetsuya took out the desk photograph, and Shadow Iemitsu grunted as if he had been punched in the gut. His HP dropped as well.
'So not completely dissimilar to Watanabe for that,' he thought. 'And I'm not complaining.'
It was the spotlights that truly counted, though, which saw the inactive members using each other to get high enough to turn them on. Each time Shadow Iemitsu reacted and his HP dropped. The shadow self was vulnerable again once those were on and aimed, but things switched up when two minions joined the battle.
Tsuna blinked. "Right."
Oregano and Turmeric being there meant a lot more going on. Iemitsu couldn't move, but those two could.
"Do you guys mind if I try a few things out?" he asked. "We already know we can take these two."
"…No, with the obvious proviso," Mukuro said.
Tsuna nodded, concentrated, visualized, then attempted what he figured would be called [Sky Shield]. He wanted to see if he could get the idea working to buffer them against attacks and drain FP for his own reserves. He had no clue how that would work outside, but… Once he unleashed it a brilliant orange shield like an elongated dome went up, covering all of them.
"Huh… Let's just hope it does what I'm trying to accomplish," he said as Oregano jumped forward to wail on Ken with her sword.
Ken sort of dodged? Either way, it dropped the damage by half. The same happened when Turmeric tried to shoot Mukuro. The bullet only winged him. Which, good but not good, because he could not tell if the other aspect would work.
Tsuna took a page from Shadow Iemitsu and attempted to use his own Sky Flames to subvert Turmeric and get it to attack his side. It turned and tried to shoot Iemitsu point blank, which gained Tsuna another attack, [Sky Subvert].
He felt an influx of flames when the next time Oregano attacked it used Lightning Flames. The attack itself was drained into Tsuna's reserves, so he counted the shield a success, though he still had no idea how it would work on the outside. That having been determined, his next turn he nailed Oregano with [Zero Point Breakthrough] to lock it in place.
"We're good. Wail the tar out of them."
As soon as Oregano fell and dissolved into nothingness it was replaced with Basil.
"AOE attacks?" Shoichi suggested.
Turmeric went down next, to be replaced by Burnet. Basil was replaced by Chervil, and Burnet with Lal Mirch. Once it was finally just Iemitsu, with no signs of any other minions, they focused exclusively on beating the shadow self down. Kyōya used [Psy Break] just so the defect had a weakness, which meant four of them, Tsuna, Kyōya, Mukuro, and Nagi, could rain Psy attacks down on the man, doing far more damage than normal.
He wondered if that also had anything to do with the man being susceptible in a twisted way to begin with, despite his shadow self not starting with any weaknesses, just like other bosses.
Iemitsu splashed out and back to his original form, at which point Tsuna went off on him, a long rant chock full of demands and orders, about Iemitsu's failings, and what exactly he was going to do just as soon as he made it back to Italy.
The shadow self zipped upward in a sparkle of white—
'Why are they white, anyway?' he thought. 'It's not like any of them are pure.'
—leaving behind a ring that Tsuna took for himself. Ken dashed over to the treasure, grabbed it, then booked it back to the last safe room along with the others. Kyōya teleported them back to the first, they exited, turned right, right again, dashed down the long hallway, up the spiral staircase, out of the bathroom—
'Why did it have to be so convoluted!?' he wondered.
—down the stairs, and out the front door. A moment later they were back in the workroom.
Ken plunked the treasure down, an ornate wooden box.
Tsuna reached out to open it, paused, then pulled the lid open. Inside were two porcelain dolls, one for himself, and one for his mother. "I have no words," he muttered.
"Good news?" Shoichi said. "It's midnight."
"…How about we have a snack before bed," Tetsuya suggested. "I, for one, am hungry after all those battles." A low agreeable murmur went around, so Tetsuya headed out.
Tsuna took a seat next to Kyōya's usual place at the window, letting out a soft sigh when his senpai sat down next to him.
No one said anything aside from murmurs of thanks when Tetsuya came back with snacks. Tsuna headed upstairs at Kyōya's side, wrapped his arms around his senpai (it was nice that Kyōya was taller than him), and basked in the warmth, the sound of his heartbeat, and the feel of his arms around him.
Yup, he was going to work up the courage to kiss him at some point. On the cheek. But not until after the fallout at the very least. When he pulled back to say good night, Kyōya was giving him another one of those fondly amused looks.
He wondered, as he lay down for sleep, if Kyōya was perfectly content to let Tsuna set the pace. It certainly seemed that way. And Kyōya definitely did not seem adverse to any of it. He could ghost Tsuna's brain! He probably knew more than Tsuna did. He snorted softly and settled in, closing his eyes.
Ω
Second term started, so it was back to the usual. Tsuna missed spending his nights at the Hibari mansion. School itself was fine, and most people would think twice before so much as looking at him funny, not only because his friends were right there, but because they all wore Disciplinary Committee armbands.
Tsuna thought it was both hilarious and downright weird at times how people now gave him wary looks and often just got out of their way when they walked the halls. He would never regret having slipped away in Tokyo, nor having challenged Kyōya. He found his family. He might be missing one, or perhaps several, but he had found his family as a result.
It was a week before news came in. A large manila envelope arrived for his mother. When he arrived home that night so he could help cook dinner he saw it, laying on the living room table as he took off his shoes. He froze for a moment, because he had no idea what state his mother would be in, and how he would react.
Tsuna scurried upstairs to wash up and sent a text to Mukuro so he could let the others know, then returned downstairs and into the kitchen. His mother was standing there, facing the sink, her hands gripping the edge so hard her knuckles were white.
"Kaa-san?" he said quietly.
There was a pregnant pause, then she released her hold and turned around. Her face was drawn and her skin paler than normal. "Tsu-kun," she said, her voice steady. "Any ideas for dinner tonight?"
"Yaki udon?" He said the first thing that popped into his head.
She nodded, her eyes glassy and not really seeing him. "That sounds lovely. Let's get started, shall we?"
He nodded back, trying to pretend everything was normal. Actually making it took about a half hour, and his mother slowly dropped back closer to her usual self, but he strongly suspected that was for his benefit. Dinner itself was eaten silently, and after an equally quiet washing up, he retreated upstairs, feeling like every surface had just become scattered with eggshells or landmines.
Mukuro was waiting for him in his bedroom, which made him blink, but he softly closed the door and moved closer. "She's…"
Mukuro nodded. "I saw. And I'll fill the others in, those of us at the mansion. Shoichi and Tetsuya have been notified."
"I knew it would come to this, but…" He shook his head and hummed. "Probably not good to say too much here," he said, glancing over his shoulder at the door. He had not heard her come up, but he had never once considered how easily sound transmitted between floors. "Tomorrow after school."
Mukuro stepped closer and gave him a brief hug. "If you need one of us tonight, call."
"Okay. I'm glad you were here."
That got him a pet to his fluffy hair, then Mukuro was out the window.
Ω
"She looked wrecked," he said. They had foregone normal training that afternoon because of circumstances. "I mean, you were probably ghosting my brain, so you saw," he said to Mukuro, who nodded. "I realize, I don't even know what she does all day. If she volunteers or … anything other than cleaning and shopping for meals." He flailed impotently. "I don't know enough!"
"Okay," Tetsuya said briskly. "Let's brainstorm."
"Um…" Nagi frowned. "Get her outside the house every so often? For dinner?"
"Offhand mention of a volunteer position in town?"
"I haven't had sushi in quite some time," he said slowly. "I'm pretty sure she likes that."
He could not afford to go wibbly over this. It was a done deal, and now he had to manage the outcome. All he wanted for his mother was someone to see her and actually be there for her, like the defect never had.
"Well, there is TakeSushi," Ken said. "The old guy makes some tasty stuff."
He pursed his lips. He had not eaten there himself, but if Ken liked it, why not?
Shoichi looked up from his laptop with a frown. "I'm not finding much in the way of volunteer positions yet. I'll keep looking."
His mother used to be a waitress. That was all he knew of her past. He did not know her parents, his grandparents. He knew nothing of his paternal grandparents. It had never struck him as particularly odd in the past. He could excuse himself a lot, simply for his age, but that did not make it easier. For that matter, he could not say he knew what he wanted, when he became an adult. He had spent several years preparing in the event he ended up in Italy, heading a family he could barely envision. But beyond that? What would make him happy, aside from his family, should that never come to pass?
Ω
His mother asked the usual question. He did not give the usual answer. "I kind of having a craving for sushi," he said. "One of my friends mentioned TakeSushi, and I realized I've never been there. Maybe that?"
She nodded absently.
The walk there was silent and, when they entered, he was immediately charmed by how calming the place seemed. He wanted to say the man making the sushi was older, and he was, but he couldn't be any older than his mother, could he? The man had a son, that baseball fanatic, in his year. Not in the same classroom.
Tsuna did notice that his mother seemed a bit more alive, and hoped it was because she was out of the house and around other people. "It's really nice here," he said quietly. "I feel … calm."
She nodded, but more deliberately, as if she felt it, too. "You're right, Tsu-kun. This is a nice place."
While they ate he talked about school, his friends (though never with much detail, more about feelings), and, "It struck me earlier that I don't know yet what kind of job I want to take once I'm older. The only thing that comes to mind is a job in human resources."
His mother blinked at him in confusion. "Hm?"
It was literally the only thing that had come to mind, right then, spuriously. And even that related back to a potential career as a mafia don. "I've gotten better with people? But I don't want to deal with a lot of people. So not customer service. But a position where I could help ensure employees were taken care of, that sounds like a possibility. I don't think I'd want to make things, and anyway, most things are made in factories, by machines. Only precious things tend to be made by hand, and being precious, well… Maybe I can find some volunteer opportunities around town. I don't really know."
On the way home he said, "I think I'll get sushi from TakeSushi from now on. The atmosphere was peaceful and relaxing, almost meditative. I'm glad I took a chance on it."
"I liked it."
He gave his mother a soft smile and nodded. He let her enter the house first, pausing to look back to smile at Kyōya, Tetsuya, and Ken, who had been shadowing them the entire way, then entered as well.
That started a tradition of coaxing his mother to eat out once a week, to get her amongst people. That changed to twice a week, and one of those times was always TakeSushi. Tsuna saw evidence of the son every so often, Takeshi, if he recalled correctly. The boy did seem obsessed, but maybe that would see him land a place on a professional baseball team.
He did get the sense that the boy might be a Rain, just like his father, but beyond that he wasn't interested. Takeshi was a normal teenager, with normal interests, and didn't seem the least bit interested in him, which was something like a glaring neon sign, both ways, to avoid him as much as possible.
Kyōya nodded when he mentioned that during training, but it was Nagi who said, "There's nothing drawing either of you to the other. It's best to just leave him to what he loves."
"It does seem that the atmosphere of TakeSushi is good for your mother," Mukuro said. "It seems to be helping her to calmly think things through."
He felt slightly better on hearing that.
It was on his way home, accompanied by Kyōya and Mukuro, that he was targeted again. At the same time his intuition started screaming (rather than giving him the creepy crawlies), Mukuro grabbed him and Kyōya and yanked them into cover around the corner of a nearby building.
"What the hell…?" he whispered as a bullet slammed into the wall they were sheltering behind.
"Disguising us," Mukuro whispered back.
The next second Tsuna realized he was now a girl, much shorter, and with two "parents". Mukuro took on the role of "mother", probably because Kyōya would have bitten him to death otherwise. Mukuro then made them vanish from sight long enough to get them onto another street entirely so they could have a leisurely walk as a little family unit.
Tsuna chattered away about snails and how weird they were as his indulgent "parents" listened, and they eventually ended up climbing over the back wall surrounding his house, scaling the wall, and in through his window.
"I'm staying here to keep a mental eye out," Mukuro said quietly.
He nodded. "Right. I need to go help make dinner." As he left the room, really not wanting to be away from his family, he saw Kyōya and texting someone.
Tsuna kept a lid on his emotions all through making dinner, eating dinner, and washing up afterward, but by the time he entered his room again he was steaming. What the hell had the defect done this time that he was being targeted by assassins rather than kidnappers!? Or was it just that this one had learned from what happened to those others and simply went for the kill?
Nagi patted him on the shoulder, which made him shake off his anger and sigh.
"This is … not good," he said blandly, then turned his thoughts to more productive things. "Is there a way to, I dunno, set up some kind of illusion around a location that would drive hostiles away, possibly propagated for strength? An alarm system might help against normal stuff, like thieves, but… Or mess up the aim of a sniper?"
"We need to find that sniper and deal with them," Kyōya said, looking at the two Mists.
Mukuro and Nagi exchanged a look, then she slipped off out the window.
"Chikusa and Ken are out there," Mukuro said. "She won't be alone."
It was right about then that he devoutly wished that stuff like fūinjutsu from his Naruto manga was a thing, because then he could learn it and cover the house with seals. And the Hibari mansion.
Mukuro said, "That would be neat. I don't know if it's possible to anchor an illusion, but that doesn't mean we won't try."
Tsuna was also never more grateful for his intuition, and Mukuro's habit of ghosting people. He might not have known what it had been trying to tell him, but from now on, if it screamed at him, he would assume someone was trying to kill him and immediately seek cover so he could have a chance to assess the situation.
He was still lost in his thoughts of the proper courses of action to take in certain situations when Nagi slipped back in through the window. "Taken care of."
Tsuna wasn't sure he wanted to know, but he asked anyway, because shying away from the truth was the path an idiot took. "Details?"
"I tracked him down by his thoughts and intent," she said. "Chikusa-kun and Ken-kun held him steady while I wiped out about ten years of his memories, and then compelled him to return to Italy."
He exhaled in relief and nodded. Still brutal, but at least none of them had needed to kill. "You guys are amazing. I hope this was just a one-off, but I won't…"
"He was working alone, from what I could see in his head. No one knew what he was going to try, that he was aware of. He certainly told no one."
"There needs to be a Mist for every escort," Kyōya said.
He went to sleep that night troubled. Part of him again wished he could just live at the Hibari mansion, because it would be safer; most of his family was there. Mukuro was stretched out on a spare futon, so at least he was not alone. Even if his mother noticed, she would think little of it, unlike if Nagi had stayed.
But him even being able to move meant that his mother had to have a new life, and unless that happened naturally, well, it wouldn't likely happen. He was perfectly willing to toss out the odd comment in the hopes of pointing her at a certain something, but straight-up Mist manipulation was on the back burner for tactics.
Ω
They were having sushi at TakeSushi again when his mother said, "I've started volunteering at the hospital."
"What kind?" he asked, and looked up to see a determined expression on her face.
"Delivering gifts and talking to patients. I've never been hospitalized for any length of time before, so I never realized how lonely people in there can be. They just want someone to talk to."
"Huh… I never thought about that, either," he said. He was fourteen, turning fifteen that year, and prior to finding his family had never much considered the thoughts or woes of others. Even now, he did not much concern himself beyond his family. It was a kind of tunnel vision. On the other hand, it had to be a small minority of children who had to worry about the mafia, kidnapping attempts, and now assassinations.
Ω
His second year of middle school came to an end with no more attempts at kidnapping or assassination. Thankfully. His mother was spending a lot more of her time out of the house if her chatter during dinner meant anything, and she was far more lively. Also more … aware? More grounded in reality?
He could only pray that continued. A part of him still wanted to hate her, and it disgusted him to an extent, that urge, but he wasn't going to lie to himself and pretend he didn't feel it. The best he could do was to manage it, and use it to drive his efforts to get his mother into a better situation. And none of that would mean anything if she wasn't willing to help herself.
The fifteenth was the first day of break, and it was spent at the Hibari mansion.
Mukuro and Nagi spent the morning working on trying to anchor illusions. Shoichi was still messing with the scrapings from inside the rings they had won in the defect's Palace.
Tsuna was busy reading manga, looking for more ideas. (And for entertainment.) It was their mutually agreed upon day off, so they were all doing whatever they wanted. It was quiet and comfortable and warm with the feeling of their bonds.
He would love to stay at the mansion again for a week, but considering the last time he had bunked off had resulted in his mother getting a fat envelope a week later, telling her of the plot twist that she was now single (and yet still taken care of financially) right after what was presumably a week of mushy, lovey-dovey nonsense that probably included sex… Well, he just did not want to give her a reason to remember.
Huh… He almost looked at Kyōya, but kept his eyes firmly on the page, all while praying no one was ghosting his brain at the moment.
Ω
They were on their way to the shrine the next day when his intuition pushed his attention to his left; someone was in danger. He bolted and found a girl around his age being menaced by what were either common toughs or possibly yakuza (and if so, he might need to look into the Momokyokai). He lunged at the closest one and cold-cocked him, while Ken, Kyōya, Tetsuya, and Chikusa nailed the others.
While the others were carefully noting the faces of the girl's aggressors, Tsuna turned to her. "Are you all right? Did they hurt you in any way?"
She stared at him with wide eyes and shook her head.
'Well, that told me nothing,' he thought unhappily. She didn't appear hurt, there was no blood, but for all he knew she could have bruises forming in places covered by her clothing. "Do you need the hospital?"
She shook her head again.
"Okay. Do you want an escort to wherever you were headed? Home, your friends, something?"
The girl once again shook her head, but that time she actually spoke. "No, it's fine. Thank you."
"If you're sure," he replied, then turned back to his friends.
Mukuro and Nagi both nodded, so he knew they had the information they needed to drop a request onto the site, and that the girl was actually all right. With that he backtracked so they could continue on to the shrine.
It was only once they were inside Mementos that Nagi said, "She followed us, but we diverted her off with an illusion so she wouldn't figure out our destination."
"Huh…"
"We know those faces, so we wrote up requests for them on the way," Tetsuya said. "Just need to get them aware that they've been targeted."
"Were those guys new?" he asked. "Because it's been pretty damn quiet of late with bullying. Everyone knows what'll happen to them if they get caught pulling that kind of behavior."
Ken shook his head. "Nah. They probably thought that with things so quiet, they could get some in and never be noticed. Clearly, they lack brains. The absence of other bullies means they can become the top dogs or somethin'."
"They must lack brains if they fail to notice the Disciplinary Committee," Chikusa said. "But we can't be everywhere at once, even if non-command strength is fairly high."
"We will deal with them," he said, "once we can. Let's get to training."
The upshot of the encounter was that the girl, who turned out to be Miura Haru, a fellow student of Nagi's at Midori Middle School, kept trying to follow them. Tsuna decided if she was that persistent he should at least figure out if there was some kind of connection, as there had ended up being with Shoichi. The question was how.
As if reading his mind (she was) Nagi said, "Her dream is to be Japan's best costume designer."
That stumped him. Because if there was a potential connection, how would that even work? If they were so lucky as to not get dragged into the mess that was Vongola, it was a distinct possibility. Miura could chase that dream with the backing of Tsuna's family, just as Shoichi could chase his. Tsuna still wasn't sure what he wanted, but he could learn to head a company, so long as he had the help of his family.
Because, much as he adored Kyōya, no one with sense would put him in charge of a company. Most of the workers would be bitten to death in no time flat. He didn't even feel guilty having thought that, not when Kyōya snorted in amusement and nodded.
"So we, uh, stage a conversation where we discuss updates to the core outer gear, knowing she's listening, and then…" He trailed off.
"She barges in with suggestions," Chikusa said, "letting you get a good feel for her? If she doesn't resonate, then it's no real loss."
"Except for the part where we might have a stalker," Ken said.
Mukuro and Nagi both smiled. "Not if we don't want one."
"Figure it out," Kyōya said, then prowled off after another shadow.
That was the subject of the next morning's discussion, as well as one other item. Kyōya shot a look at Tetsuya who nodded and said, "We have new training to do outside. Paintball."
"Is this because of that sniper?" he asked.
Kyōya nodded.
"We'll start with normal paintball, to see just how good we can get at sensing incoming attacks and avoiding them, and tactics. The equipment came in, so we can start. Given that a sniper attacked Tsuna-kun, once we have the regular training down, we can take turns at using the sniper version of a paintball gun."
Tsuna nodded. He might have an advantage due to his intuition, but if they could all learn to sense people around them… Flame actives would be easier to sense, in theory, but also in theory, everyone had the capability, just some a lot more deeply buried than others. Being hyper-aware sounded frightening, but if his intuition played into that, he should only be alerted to actual threats while still knowing there were people around, even if he couldn't see them.
'It would be like being a sensor type in Naruto,' he thought. 'Something to try to make reflex, like using [Intuition], getting used to it, and just making it a part of my normal. If we could all manage at least that much, it would be so much harder for people to take us unawares.'
Lunch was had, then they headed out to the practice field for their spars. Mukuro and Nagi (and Kyōya to an extent) had begun using illusions on everyone to try to trip them up, and get them used to sensing that use, so it could (hopefully) no longer be used against them. Tsuna already had experience with that, due to Kyōya trying to grind away his panic response. The side effect of him being able to sense that it was illusion was a major bonus.
They were already used to shooting inside, so hopefully the paintball guns would not be a massive adjustment. All the gear made him think they were secretly black ops. It was the goggles that were a pain, because he felt like his field of vision just got knocked back to uncomfortable levels.
"But," he said, "that will just encourage us to learn to sense other people by their flames. I have to wonder, though, if those Hades Harps I stumbled over would prevent any of us from being subverted by outside Mists, or even what that shadow self tried to pull. If they'd work outside."
"Our weapons are the same," Shoichi said, "mostly. Hades Harps protect against Brainwash, but maybe outside…"
"I think we should all be learning how to negate an outside Mist on our own," Mukuro said.
Tsuna shook his head. "Not disputing that. I want us all to be able to do that. But what if we ended up against an older, more experienced Mist? You're … special, Mukuro, we get that, but the rest of us?"
Mukuro nodded. "Touché. And I can only extend myself so far at this point."
"So let's practice with these things against the wall to start," he said. "Outside is not inside, after all, and these aren't handguns."
Ω
They were having tea outside at a café and discussing the idea of updated command uniforms when Miura barged her way in by sitting down and joining the discussion like she had every right to be there. Tsuna mostly stayed quiet, just listening, and with more than just his ears. Miura was a Lightning, he was sure of it.
He was starting to figure she had been blindsided by those thugs and how many there were, because right then she was brash, opinionated, and confident. Granted, they were talking costumes (of a sort), but he had trouble seeing this girl just lay down for someone.
This was … a test, of sorts. Would she just skip off after the updates were decided? Or would she stick around? How would the others react? Because he knew Mukuro and Nagi would at least lightly ghost the girl's brain, looking for problems. She was a Lightning, which was convenient, but that was no excuse. He also thought she might be a bit Cloudy.
That she liked to refer to herself in the third person was somewhat odd, but could Tsuna really think any of them weren't just a bit off? Most people their age were all dramatic and drowning in things like one-upping the perceived competition, and trying to gain the attention of whoever their latest crush was.
He saw it in school all the time, girls with their heads bowed toward each other, whispering and giggling, boys trying to strut or look cool. Replace them with certain kinds of birds and it wouldn't be all that different.
Miura gave a decisive nod, got up, and dashed off.
"Opinions?"
"Tentatively agreeable," Nagi said. "I know her from school, she's in my class. She's smart. She's certainly more confident than I started out as, though she doesn't exactly have friends."
His brow went up.
"Did any of us exactly have friends?" she elaborated.
Well, there was that. He most certainly had not, but how much of that was the seal and the way it warped him? Even now, though, he was perfectly content with his little family, and didn't go looking outside of it. Except for that little issue of not having a Lightning, anyway.
Maybe it was the outliers?
"We'll see if she sticks around," Ken said. "I ain't got a problem with her."
"Neither do I," Chikusa said, "but one meeting with her is not enough to base a decision on."
Tetsuya shrugged. "I don't dislike her, but neither can I say I do like her."
"We'll see how it goes."