They didn't even make it to the break before Cavallone arrived.
Tsuna knew what was up the second a large group pinged on his radar, which meant Mukuro knew, which meant Nagi knew, which meant (after a quick under-the-desk text message) everyone knew. Reborn didn't count, because he was a quasi-party to this nonsense.
Everyone gathered up at the gates to Nami Middle before heading off to the Hibari estate which, likely because Reborn had clued Cavallone in to a few things, saw the interlopers "hiding" in the trees around the practice field.
Tsuna eyed his family, strongly thinking, 'Are they seriously this inept? Or is it that they think we are, because Reborn only recently arrived?'
Mukuro and Nagi smirked as they passed that along to the non-Mists, while Kyōya did his best not to give away the game by scowling into the tree line like he clearly wanted to.
Tsuna let out a long, slow breath and brushed his hand against Kyōya's, then nodded and said, "Right, the usual. Let's get to sparring."
So they did, with Tsuna keeping a weather-eye on the interlopers (as was everyone else, presumably), though they sparred for a full hour, changing opponents every ten minutes. Then it was water (on and in), before Shoichi, Haru, and Tetsuya pulled on jumpsuits to protect their clothing, and gun selection.
And by then they had an extra gun, just so no one had to sit out during each round.
And if members of his family kept shooting just a little bit wide accidentally-on-purpose and nailing any number of trees where the interlopers were lurking, it went unremarked. And the way some of those interlopers moved when paintballs came their way (according to his sensing) was deeply amusing to him.
He sincerely hoped they had managed to nail some of those people.
Sadly, as was customary, Tsuna was knocked out of the round about half-way through. The more people who went out, the more they tended to focus on him, and the harder it was for him to avoid being hit.
'I wonder just how different this would be with plastic or rubber bullets,' he wondered. 'Those aren't supposed to kill, but I bet they easily could if they hit the wrong spot or were fired from too close. Do I even dare ask Reborn about that?'
They had done well against both assassins. His intuition warned him, loudly. Mukuro was on the job in hauling them into cover. His intuition had warned him again for the second, and they had hatched a plan in no time flat to deal with the man. Whether they lived or died on the mountain was out of his hands. On purpose, because he just couldn't bring himself to care about people who were out to take his life or liberty.
They tried, odds were they died, and it would just be the local fauna killing them.
He refused to feel bad about it.
His intuition wasn't warning him against the Cavallone (not that they had been able to verify that it was the Cavallone), so they must be at least decent people. For mafia.
Which, really, wasn't saying much? Or said a lot? Because technically Tsuna was mafia by birth, and his family members were by association. Clearly, some allowances had to be made, or he would be unmade, and end up dead in a ditch.
The game ended with Kyōya sniping Haru (she was so nimble and difficult to pin down), so they all took a break before starting the next round.
Tsuna brushed hands with Kyōya again, to get his opinion, and received back a reluctant maybe.
'Do these paintball guns even fire projectiles at the same speed as a bullet?'
Mukuro picked up the thought and passed it on to Shoichi, which he knew of because the Sun furrowed his brow slightly and shook his head.
Tsuna found it endlessly fascinating that a Mist could compress an entire conversation into a second if they wanted to. Just a casual brush of skin (or pinpoint access into someone's mind), and so many things could be discussed and decided, without ever alerting outsiders to what was occurring.
That level of Mist use? So minuscule it might as well not exist.
Round two saw Tsuna last longer. He was the sixth person taken out, but that time he retreated to the benches to rest and refresh himself. After all, they needed to get the introductions over at some point, and he sincerely doubted Kyōya would consent to a large group of strangers (with Reborn's seal of approval or not) cluttering up his property once it came time for dinner to be made.
(Though, if Kyōya had anything to say about it—and if Tsuna was honest with himself, him, too—it was Kyōya and Tsuna's property, because they were going to get married the second it was possible. And damn Japan for not letting them do so.)
'I should probably at least talk with Kyōya about that,' he thought as he sipped his water. 'He as much as said he'd marry me the second he offered me his name, but… Talking is good, even if it's all mental.'
Kyōya chose that moment to get knocked out, and came to sit next to him.
Tsuna chose to ignore the giggling and cackling coming from Nagi and Mukuro respectively.
Kyōya emptied a bottle of water over his head, then took a second one to sip from, casually placing his free hand on Tsuna's shoulder.
Tsuna ducked his head the second he felt his face heat up in a blush. Right. Okay. They were definitely getting married. Even if they had to do it illegally. But with any luck, Italy was more progressive than Japan when it came to that, and if not, well… Mist Flames were exceptionally useful for certain things, ne?
Still, it would be nice to be able to get married before that point.
And if they didn't have interlopers spying on them he would pull his laptop out of inventory and do some checking.
The round ended and he cast a look at Reborn, who was chilling off to the side. The chibi felt the weight of his gaze and returned his look, then lifted up his … chameleon?
Tsuna nearly gawked as the chameleon transformed into a huge green flag, which Reborn waved back and forth, apparently as a signal for the interlopers to come out of hiding. (But he had seen a lot of weird stuff since he was ten, almost eleven, so a shape-shifting chameleon barely made the list.)
Tsuna watched as a group of men appeared from the tree line, the leader looking just a bit sheepish if he was seeing things right.
He was—at that distance?—a bishōnen in appearance, with sunny blond hair, lightly-tanned skin, and quite tall by Japanese standards. He carried a whip, so this must be Dino of the Cavallone Famiglia. The closer he got the more sure Tsuna was that this guy was a bishōnen. He could pass for a pretty prince in one of those Disney animated films (minus the tattoos he could see peaking out, and didn't this fellow know that tattoos in Japan were yakuza territory and automatically branded a person as untrustworthy, criminal scum?) if his clothing was changed up a bit.
Dino stared at Tsuna while Tsuna stared back. Tsuna was fighting the urge to laugh in the man's face.
"He's no good!"
Tsuna's brow went up in an utterly unimpressed motion.
"You don't have the aura," Dino said seriously.
Kyōya's brows started to draw together, he just knew it without even having to look.
"The way you present yourself is terrible. There's no sense of anticipation."
He brushed his hand against Kyōya's, while desperately trying not to laugh or pull a face at such inanity. 'No sense of anticipation? Seriously?'
"You don't seem ambitious, either. Your disposition to be a boss is zero."
"That's hilarious coming from a man who spent the last two hours hiding in the trees spying on a bunch of teenagers like some pedophile," he said dryly. "And just a bit hypocritical for someone who was apparently tutored by Reborn just to get up to snuff."
Dino blinked at him in clear shock. He looked at Reborn, who Tsuna could sense was amused, then back at Tsuna.
"Hibari Tsunayoshi," he said by way of greeting.
Dino blinked again, then said, "Dino. …Wait, Hibari?"
He nodded.
"I… I didn't know Japan allowed for…"
His brow went back up again.
"You two are … married?"
"Not yet," he said. "But we will be." After a quick received message he added, "The sooner the better."
Dino looked like he was trying to recall something, then said, "You can marry in Italy at sixteen so long as you have parental, judicial, or other consent, but only male-female. There's been word of legislation coming that would legalize gay marriage, though. But I wouldn't expect you and your family to make the move until you finish high school."
"True, but nothing says we can't take a holiday in Italy after I turn sixteen," he replied. "A little Mist here and there… Could possibly gain dual citizenship for everyone, in addition to the marriage." He did have to wonder what "other" consent was, but as far as he was concerned, use of Mist to get a judge to sign off on consent counted as "other". It was getting citizenship which would be more of an issue, as they did not have a legal residence in that country.
They might be able to claim the Iron Fort, but he had no idea if even the ninth generation claimed that as their legal residence, or if there were cover locations in place. He glanced briefly at Reborn, then turned his attention back to Dino.
"I, uh… Well…"
He sensed Reborn frowning, which resulted in Dino going just a little pale.
"I expect the ninth would expect you to marry a woman and produce heirs," Dino blurted out.
Reborn was still frowning (and Tsuna assumed it had more to do with Dino's verbal issues than him marrying a man), but he mostly ignored that to say, "Surrogacy, and that's assuming we even choose to have children who would forevermore be chained like I've been. And even then? The defect has three other children. Hopefully one or more will be a Sky I can hand things off to once they're old enough."
Dino nodded, then frowned himself. "Uh, maybe? I mean, think about it. You're a Vongola Sky, by blood, there's no getting around that. If you step down, you'd still be involved, no matter what. The mafia doesn't let go, especially not anyone so young and able. If you step down, whoever took over as undicèsimo would have some level of power over you."
Kyōya growled.
Which, really, not a surprise. The very idea of anyone (bar Tsuna, to a degree) telling Kyōya what to do, especially someone almost a decade younger? Pfft.
He sent a message through skin contact, about investigating Vongola law, and potentially changing it during his stint as boss. Not that such would preclude the undicèsimo changing it back, but… Was that another reason why Timoteo held onto power? Not just that none of his sons were suitable as Vongola Decimo? Reborn probably wasn't in the know how the eighth (Daniela, apparently, and Timoteo's mother) fit in once she retired (or was killed). Was she a backseat driver? And/or he did not want one of his sons interfering in his retirement life or trying to boss him around?
He really didn't want to remain boss for any longer than he had to, but Dino was right. With his blood ties, the famiglia would probably always be keeping an eye on him.
(And with his face becoming known, he would probably always have people looking to kidnap or assassinate him, even after he retired, unless his duo could come up with a strong, effective disguise for him to throw people off, and even that idea was suspect because if it came out that he was married to Kyōya, well… What would people say when they saw Kyōya with some strange guy?)
Maybe doing it anyway after quietly amending any famiglia rules or law, and returning to Namimori, moving their legitimate business with them? Maybe keeping it a relatively organized crime-free territory? That would mean running the Momokyokai out of the city, but it should be doable. Or converting them to something more like the Disciplinary Committee.
He saw Kyōya glance his way in his peripheral vision.
"I'll have to investigate," was what he said. "Reborn, is there going to be some sort of puffed up ceremony where I'm announced as the heir?"
"More than likely."
He frowned again. "Where?" he asked, looking over.
Reborn shrugged. "In theory here, but given your views on mafiosi rolling into town and attracting more kidnappers and assassins, it's possible to push for something in Italy. Though, you need to keep in mind that arrival and departure both present opportunities for enemies to get at you."
He scowled and ran his hands over his face. "Lose-lose situation, basically." Maybe they should convert the Momokyokai to their rule, just so they could also keep an eye out for strangers with an eye toward kidnapping and assassination.
Kyōya glanced at him again.
"And does the ninth even know I legally changed my family name?"
"I might have forgotten to mention that detail."
He might actually grow to like Reborn if he was going to be so accommodating. Well, so long as Tsuna didn't try to run or get out of being Decimo, because that would probably trigger an avalanche of irritating behavior from the man.
"And what are the odds of a trip to Italy where Dino-san hosts us, as allies? He's not terribly older than me, so we could be considered contemporaries."
"…After you turn sixteen, or as a yearly thing until you are instated?"
He tilted his head toward Kyōya, and got back a tentative agreement. And, as neither Mukuro nor Nagi inserted any messages into his head, he assumed no one else had an issue with the idea—on their side, anyway. "Either, so long as Dino-san was agreeable."
"It'd be kind of neat, I think," Dino said, a half-smile on his face. "There's even an airport nearby. In theory you could learn more about Italy—though my famiglia is quite some distance from Vongola—and what you could expect there."
"It would help with getting my accent right," he muttered.
Dino's brow went up. "Leaning Italian, then?"
"I started the second I had any inkling that I might end up heir, just in case. It's not like knowing the language would be a detriment, and they teach English as a second language in school."
"I imagine Hayato-kun and Reborn might be able to check your accent," Mukuro tossed out. "And we three."
'And it might be a way to get Hayato more comfortable with things,' he thought. 'I'd be more worried with Reborn that he'd try to troll me.'
A brief message from Kyōya made him amend "me" to "us". 'That would leave, what? Tetsuya, Shoichi, Nagi, and Haru? Assuming the time can be set aside for that.' He knew that Nagi could just pick up what people were saying by ghosting them, but that didn't mean she could speak those other languages, or read and write them, aside from the usual English taught in schools.
(Though he imagined she could ghost Mukuro's brain when necessary, until she got caught up and was proficient on her own.)
Then he realized it was getting close to the time when he would need to start dinner, and pushed a message over to Kyōya, who agreed. "We can host your immediate family for dinner," he said, "but I need to get started on that."
Tetsuya, Haru, and Shoichi immediately stepped away, presumably to see if their parents would care if they had dinner at the mansion, and the non-guardian members of Dino's famiglia all trooped off (to their hotel?) at Dino's nod.
The remainder of them headed inside, to the dining room, with only Tsuna heading to the kitchen. He was pleased that Tetsuya showed up almost immediately to help.
"For this many people…?" Tetsuya said.
"Sukiyaki?" he said. "If any of them don't like mushrooms, they can pick them out, I guess."
Tetsuya nodded and quit the room briefly, only to return and say, "Mushrooms are fine. And beef."
He nodded back and they got to work. Thankfully it only took about a half hour to make, and they had everything on hand. In no time at all he and Tetsuya were rolling out carts filled with bowls, which they served.
The foreigners looked a bit weirded out by the small bowls with raw eggs in them, but he paid it no mind, as Shoichi spoke up to explain why they were there. It was telling that only some of them bothered to whisk their egg and use it for dipping.
Tsuna noticed that Dino was a bit of a mess when it came to using hashi, but he and his family were much too polite to draw attention to that, and they had brought out western utensils as a just in case.
"There's a … certain something about this," Dino said after a few bites.
"Tsuna and Tetsuya are excellent cooks," Haru said.
Dino nodded. "Yes, yes, but there's…"
"Almost like there are Sky Flames in it?" Reborn said, then had another bite.
Dino brightened. "Yeah, that. This goes above and beyond the normal harmony of the ingredients."
"So, senpai, what is it like heading a famiglia?" he asked, though what he really wanted to was ask about was if he had been sent to test his family.
Dino heaved a sigh. "It's a ton of paperwork. And you need to be certain you have your structure in place, clear lines of command, with responsible people in them."
"…And how do you respond to erring minions. Er, family members?" he asked.
Dino grimaced. "It depends on the issue, right?"
When he didn't say more, Tsuna nodded and said, "That's a non-answer."
Dino glanced at Reborn, as if looking for cues.
"If you don't want to answer, then say that," he said, "but don't give me empty words. I get the impression that Reborn told you very little about us."
Dino frowned, then nodded. "Very little," he repeated. "As for erring members? The sane response is to attempt to find out why, if it's something fixable. Though, that might only be for the future, because depending on what they did, the only follow-up response might be to kill them."
So some things could be forgiven, which made a certain sense. He thought that Dino's famiglia had probably been run decently to begin with, so there might not have been much in the way of issues on that front. Vongola, however…
"And time for yourself?" he asked.
Dino grimaced again. "Yeah, some. But unlike a normal business, stuff can happen at odd times. I still manage time for myself, or just me and my guardians. Hard to stay connected if you can't make time."
Because running Vongola sounded like endless drudgery to him. Without any "me" time he might go mental. Vongola was way bigger than Cavallone (to his knowledge) so finding that time might be more of a problem, but if the structure was sound and the people on board, it would work.
Kyōya passed another message over, which had him nodding. Assuming the rules were the same and there was a local Mementos close enough to where they'd end up, there was nothing saying they couldn't go in around four in the afternoon, or ten at night, and only be "missing" for an hour or so at a time. And if they varied entry there wouldn't be an easily exploitable window, that and only sending in half on any given day. They would still be able to get their exercise, possibly deal with "requests"…
If they timed it right? They could get in naps in safe areas to counter the stretching of time which would otherwise leave them feeling horribly sleep deprived.
But that was entirely predicated on there being a Mementos entrance there. And close enough, because otherwise Mukuro and Nagi would have to figure out how to teleport themselves via Mist, and others.
That was also an issue, he knew, a potentially major one. For the Phantom Thieves phenomenon to jump from Japan to Italy would practically be screaming that Tsuna's family was behind things, depending on how talked about the original group was in Italy.
Mukuro grimaced slightly.
Clearly, something they would have to debate further, without Cavallone right there to listen in.
Shortly thereafter Cavallone headed out (to their hotel, presumably) they all repaired to the room they had begun using most recently.
"Who is to even say that Mementos is everywhere?"
"Is this a Japan-only thing, or…?"
"And do we want people to start making connections between the Phantom Thieves and us, simply because it jumped countries when we did?"
"Assuming there's a local Mementos, it's a very powerful tool. However, unless Tsuna were to track down a version of it in every city we had a target in, well. It would become rather suspicious if it were only Milan."
"On top of that, consider all those people who are Vongola underlings," Nagi said. "They're suddenly unable to do whatever it is they're paid to do because we're handling issues in the unconscious? They'd feel useless?"
"Added to that," Ken said, "what say we do handle various shitty people in the unconscious, mafia types. A boss, hypothetically speaking. His people wouldn't have had the same experience, so all they'd see is the boss going soft. Odds are, he'd barely have time to try to do anything before his own people killed him and shoved someone else into the position."
"It is true that going against the defect wasn't aimed at his mafia life specifically," he said. "It was about the lies, disrespect, and abuse. I never said anything with regard to his position in CEDEF."
"But going against mafioso that way means Tsuna has more of an opportunity to try out various things he normally never would against a person," Tetsuya said.
"So if Xanxus ever gets free and comes after us with the Varia…?"
"Kinda hard for them to do much to us if we're inside Xanxus' personal unconscious."
"Yeah," Shoichi said, "except … if they did their homework, and they had any clue, they could go after our families, assuming they were willing to go that far, to torture or kill unknowingly affiliated civilians."
"That's assuming any of them, should they come, would think of us as anything but idiot schoolchildren who'd be simple to defeat. The defect was one thing. He wasn't expecting an attack of any kind, not here."
Hayato nodded. "But if the Varia showed up, it wouldn't be for a meet and greet."
"Well, I don't think we can fit in Palaces for all of them in so short a time, and that's even assuming they're all twisted enough to have them," Mukuro said. "We would have to get through every single one in a day, use the evenings to defeat the bosses, and for all of them, schedule them to have their big revelation on the same day, or such as at the start of any battles—and that's assuming we had enough lead time."
"But we could try to enter one for Xanxus," he said, "to see what's really going on in his head, if he has one, and if there's a point in trying to steal his treasure. And while I think we're getting off track, because this started as a discussion of Mementos in Italy, something like the Varia would probably happen way sooner, if it happens, so…"
"It might actually have been a real coup d'état," Chikusa said, "which would mean he's dangerous to us, and possibly twisted with envy, or perhaps pride. Maybe wrath. If he has one, I'd say aim not for making him a 'good' person so much as accept that he's not in the running. Well, I guess I just don't get why he couldn't inherit if it came to that. And unless we can get eyes on wherever they stashed him, assuming the old man made an ice cube out of him, we won't be able to figure out—using him as an example—how to reverse Zero Point Breakthrough."
"Also," he said, "I have to wonder what his key words would be if he came here."
Everyone looked stumped at that.
"Technically," Reborn said, "Namimori is considered Vongola territory, simply by virtue of Giotto moving here when he stepped down."
"So he could be thinking of himself as part of but separate from Vongola, and by, what, annexing this territory…?"
"Sure, but presumably they'd be in a hotel suite," Haru said. "And we've always targeted people for their, er, place of power, so to speak."
"That could either be the suite, or whatever battlefield we'd be fighting on. Or at a stretch, the actual location of the Varia. I mean, in Italy, not temporarily here."
"So we brainstorm keywords for all three instances."
"And all else failing, should they come, we have to fight them directly."
"If they did make an ice cube out of him, I doubt the rank and file would be guarding him," Shoichi said. "And the ninth's guardians presumably have better things to do with their time. So cameras? I'll have to do some more digging. Won't do any good if it's CCTV and motion sensors."
"Moving on," Kyōya said.
He nodded. "Cavallone."
"One of us will always be with you," Mukuro said, and by that he clearly meant ghosting his brain as a security measure.
If Cavallone tried some kind of test, having his Mists ghosting his brain would immediately clue them into anything that should happen to Tsuna.
And, as it turned out, that happened the very next day on the way to school. An expensive car roared up, the door was thrown open and Tsuna yanked inside (and as his intuition was in no way bothered, he had not attempted to find cover), the door slammed shut, and the car driven off at speed.
Which, Namimori? Not a good way to drive.
The glimpse he got of Mukuro's face before the door had shut said everything, and as the car was moving again, so Tsuna just sat back, aiming a bland look at Dino.
"How do you think they'll react?"
Tsuna snorted. "Mukuro knows it was you, which means they all know it was you."
Dino rolled his eyes. "So they're not going to react thinking you're in danger."
He shook his head.
By the time the car drove around the block and returned to where he had been snatched, and Tsuna had exited the car with a sigh, Kyōya was looking mighty annoyed at having his omnivore "kidnapped", but not quite to the point of wanting to bite to death every Cavallone mafiosi involved.
"Omnivore."
He nodded. "We'll be late if we don't get going. Bye, Dino-san~!" he said teasingly, then booked it with his family.
It was during lunch that Mukuro said, "I don't think those guys have a clue that we ghost your brain. The second I saw Dino through your eyes, well. That and your complete lack of alarm."
"And after the car pulled away?"
Ken snorted. "Reborn tried rather apathetically to pin your 'kidnapping' on the Momokyokai," he said, glancing at the chibi, "but it wasn't very convincing."
"With any luck," Chikusa said quietly, "we can still go to Tokyo over break and run some experiments. Doing it so close to home would be disquieting. No guarantee we would stumble over actives, though."
"A potential problem is that any pings from our end could easily alert those who are active," Hayato said.
"I could try doing it the other way," he replied, "but Mukuro and Nagi ought to be able to tell from a person's thoughts if they are, unless they never think about them. I mean, I certainly don't consciously think about them constantly."
"We can take the trip and see what we stumble over," Mukuro said. "If it's a wash, then oh well, but it's worth trying."
He nodded.
Dino's group stopped by for dinner (they were polite enough to call first, though it left them little time to make enough to feed so many extras), and Tsuna took that as an opportunity to grill him on his daily routine, trying to get a better feel for what he'd end up doing as Vongola Decimo.
It all sounded immensely boring, but not very dangerous, so that was something of a bonus.
Maybe… Maybe, if they could figure out how to reliably disguise themselves from other flame users, they could leave Vongola behind should one of the defect's kids be a Sky, and not be hounded to remain mafia?
If that could happen, it would be best to hold off on purchasing a property to stage their proposed civilian business out of. It depended on so many factors they simply wouldn't be aware of until after he was boss of a family he wanted nothing to do with. He hated that fact, he hated it like poison. There were too many things on hold, due to their ages, upcoming circumstances…
And even if Italy passed that law to allow same-sex unions, they would have to wait a year before they could take a trip to get married. But they would. He would allow nothing to stop him, and Kyōya was in complete agreement.
Most of the Cavallone visit was a cautious exploration between the two groups, centered on Dino and Tsuna, as Reborn recognized the futility of trying to get the two to clash even in a friendly way. And besides, that sort of thing messed with their training and school work.
Ω
Tokyo was big. There were so many wards, so much territory. They concentrated on two areas for their tests, staring with Shinjuku. Mukuro and Nagi made all of them seem uninteresting to outsiders, so as to avoid being targeted for anything underhanded. Kyōya was most likely assisting in that, though he was supervising outings.
Hayato was also supervising, if only because he was used to organized crime and had an idea of what to look for. Tsuna's intuition would help in alerting their family to anything headed their way that wasn't deterred by the "cloak" they were under.
Tsuna, in addition to continuing to spam his intuition, was trying to sense outward without making like a radar station, looking for flame actives.
Mukuro and Nagi were finding plenty of scum, but not flame active scum, which rather defeated the purpose of being in Tokyo.
"I'm only getting bare embers, if that," he said. He didn't have to mention that he wasn't using his ping system, because they could feel it when he did that. The all-encompassing mist of Sky was far more subtle.
"Maybe our countrymen don't normally go for that," Shoichi murmured.
"Finding plenty of filth," Mukuro said, "but not…"
Nagi nodded in agreement with her brother. "This probably isn't going to work out the way we hoped for."
"Maybe try once a day?" Chikusa suggested. "Calling it a failure now is premature. It might just be a bad day for this. We also have to check Kabukicho."
Ω
Tsuna was annoyed that their Tokyo trip was essentially a wash, but they did get in practice, so it wasn't a total loss. He was better at passively sensing at a distance, and Mukuro and Nagi got plenty of experience skimming the minds of everyone in the vicinity. Better to focus on the positive.
Sadly, returning to Namimori meant the home stretch of the school year, and for most of them, exams in order to test into high school. But Tsuna felt good with regard to the exams. He rather wondered if Kyōya would just hang around the school for Tsuna's final year, patrolling and keeping an eye on things.
Kyōya nodded.
Right. So his—could he call Kyōya his fiancé?—significant other?—intended?—which, what? So Kyōya would patrol (along with Tetsuya, presumably) in order to be a line of defense during school hours. He wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't already taken over a room at the high school as their office.
Kyōya nodded again.
He ducked his head briefly as he smiled. He absolutely adored Kyōya, which was hilarious given that he was originally terrified of him, even as he welcomed those times help was given against bullies.
The exams themselves were a bit boring and still rather stressful, but he felt confident once they were over that he had done decently, if not well. It was simply a matter of waiting for the results, his acceptance into the high school Kyōya was already enrolled in, and finishing out his final year of middle school.
Reborn was still enjoying his vacation of a job, and wasn't actively causing any trouble, chaos, or anything else that would cause Kyōya to bite something to death (other than the usual), which, really, was just super in Tsuna's opinion.
Also, his grades in maths had never been better.
Ω
"Do you have any idea when the fossil plans to hold the 'I have an heir' ceremony?" he asked.
Reborn shrugged. "Not a clue," he said blithely. "Hopefully not until next year, though. It would be embarrassing to introduce a fifteen year old as heir. Sixteen is much better."
"Preferably older," he muttered.
It was … weird, still, that Reborn slept in his room, in a hammock attached kitty-corner, but also ever so slightly comforting that there was someone else there, literally in the room, in the event that something awful happened.
Granted, he would prefer that someone else to be Kyōya, but he couldn't have everything. Or at least, not that, not just yet.
(Would Reborn still want to sleep in the room if he was married and sharing a bed with his husband? He certainly hoped not, and did not expect Kyōya to tolerate that even for a second.)
The good news was that he was accepted (as were Mukuro, Chikusa, Ken, and Hayato—and there was every possibility that Mukuro made certain of it) into the same high school as Kyōya and Tetsuya.
The bad news was that Reborn was still giving them all mafia lessons. Some of it was mind-numbingly boring and the kind of minutiae that made him long to bash his head against the nearest wall for a change of pace, but he accepted and acknowledged he would need to know this stuff, if only to know best how to get around most of it, manipulate people or direct others to do so, or do something horrible like cause massive destruction.
Preferably to evil people. Or maybe assholes like the defect, except that might harm people who didn't actually deserve to be ripped to shreds. Then again, if they worked with or for the defect, what did that say about them as people? Was the boy they had seen in the defect's Palace a representation of a real person (because the chibi most likely was), and if so, had the kid been brainwashed?
"Reborn," he said slowly. "Is there a young man who works with the defect? Sandy blond hair, blue eyes, goes by Basil?"
Reborn blinked at him, then nodded. "Yes. Basilicum, commonly called Basil."
He frowned. "He didn't look any older than I am. That's sick? Was the kid even born into it, or was he just snatched off the street during one of the defect's delusions and forced into it?"
Reborn shrugged. "I try not to think about Bakamitsu and what idiocy he's created. As you are aware, I was training Dino for quite some time and therefore didn't have to deal with Bakamitsu. Aside from the occasional quiet job for the ninth… Where he obtained the child and why—I have no idea."
Tsuna rolled his eyes. Maybe he could steal the kid?
Mukuro's brow went up.
'As a secondary Rain,' he thought, 'presuming whatever nonsense the defect instilled in his head can be washed out.'
Mukuro frowned slightly, and Tsuna got the sense that he thought the brainwashing might run too deep. He could be right. Who knew what the defect had done to that poor kid, or how early he'd gotten to him.
"Right, okay. And for this ceremony, do you have any idea of the protocol?"
Reborn looked contemplative, then shook his head. "Afraid not. I can speculate, however, that you will all be dressed to the nines, though it is possible that only your primary guardians will be introduced as such, if they're introduced at all. I would expect a number of representatives to be there, from various allied famiglie, as well as people from the other side hoping to score a kill on you. So from the moment it's announced, we will all need to be on high alert for kidnapping and assassination attempts. As for the ceremony itself, expect anything. If there was a ceremony for Enrico or any of the others, I was not involved, so I have no real frame of reference."
Which, okay. Well, not okay, but that was the best he would get from Reborn. For all that he held a certain position with Vongola, was not Vongola, which meant a number of things were concealed from him. It was also unlikely the chibi had gone digging, if only because he had no particular need to know, and/or did not want to risk tipping his hand on any curiosity and worsening his position (never mind having the truly poor luck to screw up so badly that he had the Alliance after his hide for espionage).
"To the nines meaning Armani or the like."
Reborn nodded.
Which, naturally, just made him stubbornly want to go traditional, as a way to thumb his nose at the Italians who would probably expect him and his family to "go native".
"Well, I am thinking that the second I end up installed as boss, I will have the power to turf the defect out on his ass. Just not sure how viable that would be as an option."
"Getting rid of him is preferred," Tetsuya said, "because he's proven to be delusional. It's what to do with him after removing him from the position that's the issue."
Tsuna nodded. "And even then, we have proof he's delusional, just not necessarily in a form others could see, but we don't know how or if that's affected his work in CEDEF, or if his subordinates are covering for him."
"That means we gotta go over CEDEF with a fine-toothed comb," Ken said.
"And preferably refuse to deal with him directly," Chikusa added. "The chibi might be a better option, Lal Mirch, though her continued employment there makes me question her."
"Lal is strict, firm, mostly by-the-book," Reborn said. "She used to be military."
Tsuna eyed him for a moment. "Then either she's used to questionable COs, she's mental with regard to him, or honestly believes he does a good job as head of CEDEF. Either way, if we can get him ousted, we'd need a replacement, and if that replacement came as a promotion from within, it'd have to be someone who did not run everything past Sawada 'Forcibly Retired' Iemitsu, or even anything. Doesn't have to be a Sky, because anyone who paid attention remembers that the original head of CEDEF, Alaudi, was a Cloud."
Reborn gave absolutely no indication in any visible way as to a response.
"If he was taken out as head of CEDEF," Tetsuya said, "he'd realistically need to have his flames frozen, and suffer an unfortunate accident. He couldn't be an agent out on jobs, because we can't trust anything he perceives or says. And even something like icing him the way Xanxus probably is won't be good enough, not if someone figures out how to free Xanxus. The only other realistic option aside from freezing his flames and wiping a good part of his memories—not to mention making it impossible for him to father more children—would be to bypass him entirely when it comes to reports from that group."
"Which would mean figuring out who can be trusted there," Shoichi said, "which we're already planning, and just burning anything he personally sends."
Mukuro shook his head. "You're forgetting something. The head of CEDEF is second in command of Vongola outside of peace."
Tsuna heaved a sigh. "Shit," he muttered. "And I have to wonder if he has a say if there were contending candidates."
Reborn made a vague movement that indicated a maybe. "You 'dealt' with him, so … you went inside his personal unconscious?"
Tsuna paused long enough in answering that Mukuro did it for him.
"Yes, we did. I've seen Tsuna's actual memories of times when the defect was here previously, as well as what was inside the man's head. He's completely delusional. His version of events is a sanitized faery tale to the point where I'm genuinely surprised there weren't birds and baby deer and rabbits cluttering up the scenes. He also believes that Tsuna is gullible, stupid, and helpless, as well as adores his father."
"We were all sickened by what we saw," Chikusa added.
"I have seen and experienced any number of truly awful things," Mukuro said, "and I was horrified by the level of self-delusion employed by a man who is essentially abusive to his first-born son."
Reborn nodded slowly, but declined to offer any suggestions.
Tsuna wasn't exactly surprised by that. Reborn was likely taking what they said with a grain of salt, predicated on caution, or possibly the idea that teenagers were prone to hyperbole and one had to automatically tone down any reactions from them to get something closer to reality. Or, if he did agree with them, wasn't willing to outright state that, due to his position.
And as much as it upset him (and made him feel guiltily hypocritical) to have authorized tinkering with his mother's mind, he rather thought he would not feel so bad should the same be done to the defect's. A man that delusional… Even if he was fired or demoted, his delusions might see him completely ignore that. He was a danger.
And straight up killing him? Eeeeeeee.
That wasn't counting the consequences for the mistress-turned-wife and the three children. He let out another sigh and set it on a mental back burner, to let it simmer in his subconscious.
Ω
The school year ended (Tsuna was grateful, though slightly worried about starting high school) and break was upon them. That just meant Reborn took the opportunity to declare all mornings as mafia lesson times, with the afternoons as their usual activities, barring Sundays, which were completely free.
With the extra time, not having to use evenings to do homework, Mukuro and Nagi went full bore on the anchored illusions project, and Shoichi used what he'd learned crafting flame-channeling rings to push his weaponry ideas, using the same alloys.
Kyōya had arranged for forging equipment to be delivered and installed in a newly-constructed outbuilding.
"Fantastic!" Shoichi said once it was complete, then promptly hustled everyone off for a look. "When I made the rings it was with the idea that channeling enough flame through one would attune it."
Nagi nodded. "My ring became more and more … compliant … with use."
"Same. However, what I'd like to try for weapons is to have the owner present while it's being crafted, using that time to channel their flames through the metal. I'm hoping that doing so will create an already attuned weapon, possibly one that would only work for the owner." Shoichi paused, his brow crinkling. "Not too sure on that part."
"The simplest weapons we have would be my and Haru's gloves or Kyōya's tonfa," he said.
Shoichi nodded. "Yours is more the metal plating. A lot of stuff can just be poured into molds. A sword would have to be forged. Well, if you wanted it to be of any real use. That'd be me and Ken. Hayato-kun's weapon, though…"
Everyone turned to look at Hayato.
"For the swords and bow we might need to farm the job out, specifying the metal, and for those? Use would have to attune them. Hayato-kun is trickier, because—well, you have so many flames. Maybe the arrows instead? Those I could make, though I have to wonder if you can just make arrows out of flame, like Lightening Flames to harden, and whichever other for whatever effect you're after."
"If I can make a functioning lockpick or knife out of my flames, I don't see why Hayato-kun can't make arrows," he said.
Hayato frowned, but nodded. "What I use inside seems to have an endless supply of arrows, but I could study those, maybe. Or just buy some outside ones to study, then try to replicate them. And it would solve the issue of running out while outside, because the only other option I can think of is using Cloud Flames to propagate more as I need them."
"Next time we go in I'm going to purchase an extra set of the gloves you use, Tsuna, and the tonfa," Shoichi said, "so I can see how they're constructed. Work from that."
Ω
They were headed to the café they favored for some tea when both Shoichi and Hayato did a double-take. Tsuna followed their gaze and his own alighted on a blond young man with what looked to be green eyes.
"What's up?" he murmured.
Kyōya was eyeing the blond with narrowed eyes (very possibly assessing him as a threat), and Mukuro and Nagi were eyeing him intently.
"That's … Spanner?" Shoichi murmured, casting an inquiring look at Hayato.
"Yeah. He's a mechanic," Hayato said. "Really smart. I met him once, mostly know him from online."
"Same, except for the meeting him in person part," Shoichi said. "What's he doing here?"
Spanner in turn noticed Hayato, and lazily ambled their way. "Gokudera," he said.
"Yeah, hi," Hayato said. "How is it you're in Japan?"
Spanner shrugged. "You know how I feel about the country. Is it a shock I'd visit?"
"To Namimori?" he muttered. "Of all places? Not really favored by tourists."
Spanner shrugged again. "It wasn't that hard to track down where Gokudera had gone off to, and I was already aware of someone else in this city. Why not Namimori? Besides, not a tourist trap means not bombarded by chintzy, overpriced 'souvenirs' and poor-quality, overpriced dining options."
A brush against his hand told him that Spanner seemed to be a Lightning. Which, either providence or coincidence. Either option wasn't bad, if only because Spanner was already known to two of his friends, and they seemed more surprised than upset at a random visit.
"Well," he said, "we were just headed to get some tea. Would you like to join us?"
The second they were seated and had tea to drink, Spanner was off on a technical discussion that pulled Shoichi and Hayato into it.
All of it went right over Tsuna's head, so he turned his attention to trying to get a feel for the guy. Nagi and Mukuro were "casually" focused on Spanner, so he knew they were doing the same, albeit in a different way. Five minutes in and those three were deep into discussion about robotic helpers, and everyone was aware that Spanner was hoping to create a helper that would craft his lollipops for him, to save him time. He insisted that sugar was vital to effectively keep the brain efficient.
"I'm thinking a built-in microwave, too."
Hayato and Shoichi jumped on the idea.
Tsuna discreetly rolled his eyes and shifted his hand against Kyōya's. His fiancé was irritated by the interloper, but also recognized an opportunity.
'Just because he's known to those two and they have things to talk about doesn't mean he'll care one whit about me,' he thought through the connection. 'I'm assessing him even so. Also, that's a huge jump, a change of country, for someone our age.'
Kyōya nodded slightly as he sipped his tea.
'He seems very laid back physically, not the sort who would do well with our … exercise routine. I'd expect him to create a robot to do the fighting parts. But maybe I'm being too judgmental on too little information.'
A glance to the side showed that Reborn had inserted himself at the table, so the chibi must have sensed something going on.
'Much as I despise crowding,' Kyōya sent back, for once verbose, 'filling out your guardians is not a bad aim. At least then I have some surety of their worth, those who crowd around you.'
'Unlike the faceless masses who all think the old man is a good leader?' he thought. 'And you get to boss them around in training, so you and I know exactly what they're capable of on that front. I do wonder how long he's here for, because we have a full schedule, with only evenings as free time.'
It was then that Spanner noticed Reborn and did a slow blink. Tsuna couldn't tell if it was because an apparent toddler was sitting at the table, dressed in an expensive suit, drinking tea, or…
"Ah," Spanner said with a quick glance at Hayato. "That explains some things."
Reborn smiled innocently. He even sipped some tea without evidence of really wishing it were coffee in his cup.
Tsuna was dithering over whether to ignore, deflect, or play stupid when Spanner looked straight at him, opened his mouth, then shut it again.
"I see," Spanner finally said, his gaze flicking to Reborn, then back to Tsuna, then returned to his conversation with Hayato and Shoichi as if nothing had happened.
His Mists both narrowed their eyes slightly at that, and a short time later a message was inserted into his head after a foot found his under the table to simplify the connection.
'The second he spotted Reborn his mind opened up on several things,' Mukuro reported. 'He's well aware of the mafia, though more the Cosa Nostra in Sicily, but has no personal experience with any mafia famiglie. I can't tell if he's aware of flames, though. Reborn is famous, but he's not known for his flames as much as his exceptional skill with guns.'
'So if we all just pretend it's not there, it won't come up, presumably,' he thought.
Kyōya scoffed quietly.
'It's not usually that easy, I know,' he thought, 'but at least this guy won't presumably be leading assassins and kidnappers our way. Plenty of people are aware of the mafia, or yakuza, but not involved. They just wouldn't be aware of the supernatural aspects of it.'
'He doesn't seem bothered by it so much as indifferent,' Mukuro reported.
He nodded slightly and sipped his tea, then continued to try to feel the kid out. Though he had to wonder what harmonization was anyway. The interface boldly proclaimed when it happened, but… What did that even mean, aside from him trusting that person with his heart and safety? Were they on similar wavelengths, was there some sort of weird soul mesh going on?
He had become so accustomed to the interface informing him of various things that he had not stopped to truly explore what some of it meant. He trusted the members of his little family without question, but that had more to do with experience. Interface messages telling him they had harmonized just helped that along, or possibly made him more open to trust.
Though, Kyōya was always an exception, simply because he had helped him multiple times in the past, when Tsuna was still being bullied, even if the reason for that help had more to do with keeping order amongst the herbivores than any grand desire to help Tsuna personally. Kyōya had been consistent, and in that sense, reliable and trustworthy.
And of course, the only person Kyōya had ever deigned worth his time, Tetsuya, was just as reliable, consistent, and trustworthy.
Harmony of…? Mind? Purpose?
Why was he suddenly realizing that the table supporting their tea and one of his hands was made of aluminum?
Kyōya actually went so far as to directly look at him, rather than just glance over. 'You can sense the composition of the table?'
He nodded hesitantly.
'We will test this, on other things,' Kyōya pushed through.
Ω
Spanner came over that evening to continue his tech talk with Shoichi and Hayato.
Tsuna took that time to see if he could sense the composition of other things while still keeping one mental eye on the newcomer. The table in the room was made of sugi, for example. When it came time to make dinner, he became aware that parts of the kitchen were sawara.
He was definitely going to have to discuss this with Kyōya, and then probably his little family.
During dinner it was more tech talk from the trio, but at least they never got so into it that table manners fell by the wayside.
'I could tell which kind of wood was used in various things in the kitchen,' he passed on to Kyōya.
'This is interesting, but I wonder at its usefulness.'
That made him ponder the situation all over again. What was the point?
'Try additional things for now, to see how far it extends,' Kyōya advised.
He continued to feel things out during dinner, as the tech talk continued to go over his head, and it was only after Spanner had departed that it was spoken of out loud.
"So you can sense the composition of things?" Mukuro asked, only proving he had been ghosting Tsuna's brain.
"Yeah. Not sure what to make of it, or how it could be useful."
Shoichi frowned. "If you were presented with something you simply didn't recognize, you might not be able to. We could test that."
He shrugged, not seeing a reason not to.
"Why have that ability if it's pointless?" Hayato said. "I mean, like, if you know what something's made of, you have more options?"
"What, like if you're—shit, I dunno—trapped in a box?" Ken said.
"…That'd be one thing. If you knew what it was made of you'd have a better idea of how to break out of it?"
Hopefully he would never end up in a box, but he got Hayato's point. Of course, that was the moment he realized, given that he had been feeling the table beneath his fingers despite already knowing what it was made of, that his fingers had slightly sunken into the wood. Which startled him. Badly.
When he whipped his hand back there was nothing amiss with the surface (aside from smudged fingerprints).
"What … was that?" Chikusa said, his eyes flicking between Tsuna's hand and the place it had rested.
He shook his head in confusion, the brushed his fingers over the spot. It was firm and smooth, like always.
"You were thinking about feeling things out," Nagi said helpfully. "In a roundabout way."
Huh… He had been, kind of. He concentrated on the table again, felt it beneath his fingers, vaguely aware that Reborn was paying particular attention to him. The more he concentrated, the more he could sense what kind of wood it was. Hinoki, Japanese Cypress, was known for its ability to destroy or inhibit bacteria, fungi, and viruses, without needing chemical sprays. It also prevented mold, and it smelled good.
His fingers were sinking into it again. It didn't hurt. It did feel odd.
He could sense that everyone was paying attention and no one seemed to dare to even whisper.
But, because he did not want to end up in a situation where someone had to carefully carve the table away from his fingers if he got stuck, he concentrated about extracting himself, and shortly thereafter lifted his hand.
At which point Shoichi and Hayato burst into a surprisingly muted cacophony of babble about the potential applications of this new skill.
Tsuna shared a look with Kyōya, one brimming with silent communication. Just to be safe he shifted his leg over to make contact and pushed the thought that he damn well better not wake up to find himself inside a container of some kind.
Kyōya just stared at him, but shifted his gaze when Mukuro cackled.
Tsuna looked over to see that Nagi was inaudibly giggling, so clearly, both of them had ghosted it out of his brain that he was perfectly willing to use the defect's tactics with Sky Flames to make anyone who did that to him just a bit loopy.
Kyōya's gaze snapped back to him, his eyes narrowed, so Tsuna pushed another thought. 'This isn't like sparring the PTSD out of me, it's about not scaring me half to death, and/or me passing out due to hyperventilating due to sheer panic. And possibly suffocating.'
Kyōya relaxed and nodded.
"Perhaps easily destroyed materials?" Mukuro said. "We get something like cardboard or what have you, just a sheet of it, so you can practice and see how far this goes. If what you're doing is what I think it is, then yes, you could conceivably … erm…"
"Harmonize through anything?" Nagi said.
That made sense, though he the idea of getting cardboard literally stuck inside his fingers scared him, because he didn't see how he was creating holes in the material that healed when he retreated. The wood of the table looked unblemished, there was no evidence of his shallow passage, that any of it had compressed to allow his movement, then shifted back into place.
So what was he doing, really?
"Maybe…" Shoichi exchanged a look with Hayato. "Maybe what's happening is, uh… This sounds really kind of insane, but… You're sliding your molecules between other molecules? Nothing is truly solid, after all, no matter how solid something feels."
His blank look prompted a lecture from Shoichi, which helped with his visualization, at least. He would simply have to test feeling out more things, and gently experiment with harmonizing through those things.
"Haru doesn't mean to change the subject, but she will. Haru was wondering if Tsuna could use Zero Point Breakthrough on a simple object, to encase it in ice, and then try to figure out thawing that?"
"And no one would get irrevocably frozen," Nagi said.
So that's what he tried the next afternoon, after another morning of lectures on mafia stuff. Someone produced a ratty old plushie, and Tsuna encased it in the ice of Zero Point Breakthrough. Then he tried to feel or sense its composition the way he had been with that table or various woods in the mansion.
He didn't get much beyond vague feelings over the course of the afternoon, and broke off when Shoichi's phone rang where it sat on one of the benches.
Shoichi ducked away from his training to answer it, speaking too low to be understood, but then he turned back toward the field and said, "Would it be doable for Spanner-san to visit?"
A quick scan of the field showed no one looked against the idea, so he nodded at Shoichi. "Are we including him for dinner?"
Another low-voiced conversation occurred, then Shoichi nodded. "If that's all right."
He shrugged. "Sure." They could easily manage an extra person. It still seemed awfully coincidental that a Lightning just wandered into their territory when Tsuna was sorta on the lookout for a Secondary Lightning Guardian, and the boy had previous ties with two of his existing guardians.
The ice-encased plushie was shoved into a cupboard in the workroom to get it out of sight. He could put it in his inventory, he supposed… Anything in there was basically in stasis, but he had no idea what kind of effect that may have on something that already was a type of stasis. Or what effect it might have on his inventory.
That in and of itself was downright weird, but it was so incredibly useful that he did not want to chance messing it up somehow.
He and Tetsuya headed off to the kitchen to get started on dinner.