Spanner's end of the table was dominated by more tech talk between him, Shoichi, and Hayato.
Meanwhile, Tsuna's free hand was pressing against the underside of the dinner table, trying to both sense the composition and slide his fingers into it, all while carrying on a conversation with Chikusa about the best sweets.
After all, he would be distracted (and possibly panicky) if he found himself kidnapped and stuffed into a container of some kind, so being able to multi-task (or at least, rapidly switch focus between several things so that it appeared to be multi-tasking) would be a plus.
He wanted to fit in more with sensing Spanner himself, but that was one too many things. There would (presumably) other opportunities. He almost shook his head, because his thoughts were preoccupied with the visitor and he was getting nowhere with the table. He was even faltering in his conversation with Chikusa.
Which, noticed, but not drawn attention to, which was kind of him.
No sense in wrenching Spanner's focus away from mad scientist stuff with his two fellow geeks, reminding him that a bunch of mafiosi were sitting at the same table, with the world's greatest hitman acting like an innocent child, sitting on a booster chair. Drinking coffee.
Riiiiight.
He was impressed by Spanner's ability to ignore all that in favor of tech talk.
It was a form of willful blindness. This, unlike his mother's original delusional state, was a fully cognizant form that recognized reality, just chose to ignore certain things in favor of other things. In his case, it was probably avoidance of the elephant lurking in the room, because acknowledging it would be like saying he was interested in knowing more, which would mean…
Yeah.
He wondered how long this holiday visit of Spanner's would be.
'It is … interesting … that he has such rapport with those two,' Kyōya pushed through, having adjusted position so their thighs touched.
'It is,' he pushed back.
'But that has nothing to do with you, is what you aren't saying.'
His mouth moved into an approximation of a smile, but it was more like one crossed with a grimace.
'What were you able to get from the ice?'
'Just vague stuff. I'll keep trying. Maybe some hint or clue or inspiration will pop up. I can try leaning on my intuition, but…'
'You'd like to figure it out using harmonization.'
As he pressed his own thigh against Kyōya's in response he pushed, 'Yeah, if I can. Whatever this is could be a very useful skill or ability, whatever you want to call it. And if it can help me figure out how to reverse the ice…'
'Important.'
Which really meant, in Kyōya's normal lack of loquaciousness, that figuring out how to reverse it meant he had a powerful tool in his arsenal. Facing a bunch of enemies? Well, ice each one to cut down on the angles of attack, and when it was all over, potentially call the Vindice—they really needed to figure that part out—and de-ice them when the mafia "police" came to haul them away.
He would ask directly, but having those eyes on them where he was a mere fifteen years old sounded just not right.
Which was worse, though? Even discounting the Vindice (not the best option, but in theory), if someone was genuinely trying to kill him or one of his family, icing them—full body, not just to pin them in place or seal off their flames—would be, could be, just as cruel or more so than killing them. Wiping out a decade of memories could be just as deadly in the end, he supposed.
It was almost a certainty when they beat a kidnapper or assassin unconscious and left them to live or die on the mountain. There were bears up there, and while they were not strict carnivores (he had looked it up), they would kill any encroaching creatures and eat them.
So those men? There was every chance that they, disoriented or hampered by the beating they had taken and/or the loss of memories, would be attacked and die. That was on him, even if he was never the one to give that order. He was complicit.
He still failed to feel too bad about it, not when those men had tried to take him hostage or kill him. The kidnappers might not be doing it for ransom. They could be of a mind to sell him off to a bad famiglia. To what end he wasn't sure. Perhaps to force him to father children in the hopes of gaining new Skies for their famiglia?
He shook his head minutely. No sense dwelling on that.
Ω
The next day was more of the same, and indeed, that week. The break between school years was rapidly dwindling as they listened to lectures, trained, had Spanner as an occasional dinner guest, and Tsuna tried to figure out Zero Point Breakthrough ice.
He was starting to get the sense of a rainbow in his head when he sussed out its composition, which did not make a lot of sense to him.
"Reborn, what is harmonization?" he heard himself ask.
Reborn looked up from his snack of anpan. "Clarify."
He sighed. "I'm getting this weird sense of a rainbow when I try to feel out this ice. I don't know what to make of it."
Reborn nodded, though he did not look particularly enlightened. "Sky Flames and Skies are said to be all encompassing, able to accept so much more than the average person, which goes along with their ability to harmonize with people in an enduring way. You might look at it as a Sky encompasses all flame types, even if they usually cannot use any but Sky directly."
"That almost sounds like Sky Flames should be white," Shoichi said. "Black is the absence of colour, whereas white is all of them at once. Or rather, the reflective qualities are what I mean…"
Reborn shrugged. "You could look at it that way."
Tsuna gazed at the ice as he took that in. All colours, all flames? So what he was really doing when he made the ice was calling on all flames? Did that mean all flames could thaw them?
But even then, what did that mean? How? Him and six others … doing what? To make the ice thaw. Or just six of them, because Tsuna was all already and did not have to be involved to reverse it?
He wondered if Reborn knew the answer, but wanted him to learn by figuring it out for himself, to make the knowledge that much more important. Or if he didn't, and was curious to see what he (or they) would come up with. It occurred to him that his experiment was probably telling or teaching Reborn way more than the old fossil would have. If Reborn was to be his ally, though, rather than the old fossil's…
Right at that moment it wasn't even a question of trusting the chibi. He was there, he was a witness, and he was learning what might be called secrets.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by Hayato saying, "By the way, I did some checking, and they passed that law in Italy."
He perked up. Kyōya likewise perked up, if in a much less visible manner.
Shoichi looked longingly toward the mansion, where he had left his bag, presumably in all kinds of a hurry to go do some research. He would have the evening, at least, to do that.
Tsuna went back to feeling out the ice, no matter how interested he was in figuring out how to finagle a valid wedding license out of Italian officials who would normally say no. A rainbow, of flames. If seven of them, one of each flame type, concentrated their wills, their resolve, onto the ice, would it melt? Or again, six, while he watched.
That evening, after dinner was over and the dishes taken care of, he "took a walk". Which, naturally, meant a restless stroll in the upper storey of the family wing and, naturally, meant Kyōya wandering in a short time later to haul him off to sit down on a far too sleep-inducing sofa.
"What if it does work?"
He bit his lip. "It will be good to know. But what does that get us? I mean, can I actually use it in the conscious world, without fear of calling down the Vindice?"
"If we can reverse it."
"Yeah… I suppose, yes. It wouldn't be like killing someone. If they were that bad, and they did come, we could always unfreeze them so they could be taken away."
There was a pregnant pause before Kyōya spoke again. "And the ones who deserve death?"
Tsuna couldn't help but think of the people of Estraneo, those who had willingly, without ethics, morals, or compassion, experimented on innocent children. Yes, they rather had deserved to die. He wondered who had done it, who had done that service to the world, wiping them out.
"Then," he said, "I don't know that Zero Point Breakthrough would be the right response, other than to seal off any active flames as a safety precaution. I don't know everything, but I think some people can't be…" Not saved, that wasn't the right word. Saved sounded like the last thing he meant. Redeemed? That didn't sound right, either.
"Made to atone?"
"Closer," he said. "Not every psycho is going to say one day, 'I've done wrong. I feel guilt and remorse.' Some of them just wish they could keep doing it. It's like they're diseased, their minds, and not an illness that a skilled doctor could talk them through or medicate for. People too dangerous to let stay living. If they were frozen and kept that way, it'd be like an unending… We don't even know if Xanxus is aware in his personal ice cube, or if he's aging."
Kyōya shook his head. "He'd be dead, omnivore."
He nearly slapped himself, because Kyōya was right. If Xanxus was awake and aware, how could he possibly continue living with no food, no water, no elimination? No, he had to be in some kind of stasis. Which meant freezing those too dangerous to let live would only result in them potentially being ticking time bombs.
Unless, of course, the Vindice liked them that way, if it made it simpler for them to keep those people contained.
"If he ever does get out, he's apt to be scarred."
Kyōya's fingers tightened around his for a moment. An agreement.
"So the issue of the ice, well, we'll test it. Seven of us, in concert, trying to melt the ice around that plushie, to say we can. Or six, not including me. But Xanxus? If he gets out, I think Hayato-kun's right, he wouldn't be coming here for a meet and greet. We need to prepare in that event, figure out what attacks each of us can do. And see if we can get into Xanxus' head."
It worked, the next afternoon when they had given it a whirl.
He would say with the primary guardians and secondary, but he didn't have a full set of secondary. But when they swapped around who they could, it worked after he had re-iced the plushie. He had them try again, without him being involved in the attempt; they succeeded.
"But this means if we're facing too many," Hayato said, "we could down them like this to thin the numbers, and settle up afterward."
He nodded after a moment. "In theory."
Hayato looked affronted for a second, then nodded as well. "Assuming it doesn't do something awful to a person as a side effect."
"Last resort, then," he said. "If it came to that, yes, I'd do it. To protect all of you? Yes."
He could almost feel the bonds between them thicken, at that admission, of how far he would go on their behalf.
Ω
Another week had gone by when Spanner just reached out and touched the back of his hand (possibly to get his attention in a decidedly not-Japanese way?) and—
[Tsunayoshi and Spanner have achieved Harmonization] was followed by [Spanner is now the Secondary Lightning Guardian of Tsunayoshi].
—flashed by, which caused everyone to stop what they were doing, or saying.
"…Right," he said.
"…Looks like I'm moving here," Spanner said, blinking rather a few too many times in reaction. "I'll have to let Gran know."
"Gran?"
Spanner launched into an explanation about dead parents, living with his grandmother in Italy even though they were English, and how they were both very keen on Japan.
"I'd suggest we just take a trip to Italy to help facilitate that," Mukuro said, "but I don't know if we can swing passports that quickly. There's only half of break left, which isn't much."
"But it is a reminder that we all need them," Tetsuya said. "We are planning to visit Italy over the winter break."
"I can get Gran to pack stuff up and ship it over," Spanner said.
"So, uh, you don't seem to be flipping out over…" he said.
Spanner shrugged. "It was always a risk, living in Italy. Not sure about this Lightning thing, though. Or," he added, "messages in the air."
A look bounced around, then Tsuna said, "How about we get your things from wherever you've been staying and get you set up here. The explanation can hold off until this afternoon."
That saw everyone going on an impromptu field trip to gather up Spanner's belongings so they could be set up in an empty suite in the guest wing. Though, really, Tsuna was starting to think it might make more sense to move everyone into the family wing, so they'd be closer.
Should anything happen, they would be closer and not have to run clear across the mansion to come to his aid.
Kyōya nodded, though he seemed ever so slightly irritated by it. Which, not a surprise.
Spanner and his things were hustled off to the family wing and installed in a room there.
"Yeah, so," Tsuna said, "we should be moving all of you to this wing, so you're closer."
"But that's for this evening," Tetsuya said. "It's time to make lunch, and then training."
"Ah, so we're going to…" Nagi said.
He nodded. "Not the right day, but what does that matter? Things will get back on track come Monday." Then he wandered off with Tetsuya to make lunch.
Lunch itself was filled with more tech talk on the parts of Spanner, Shoichi, and Hayato, and with him again trying to harmonize with the table, eat, and carry on a conversation concurrently.
Afterward they all trooped off to the shrine (Spanner still engaged in tech talk) and inside Mementos.
Only then did Spanner quiet and look around in muted surprise, not only at his surroundings, but also at the costume change for everyone else. Quick-change outfits aside, one did not normally see masks fashioned from flames of varying colours.
"I'm going to have to exert myself, aren't I," Spanner muttered in dismay.
He snorted. "Yeah. C'mon, we need to go down for this test." Once there (and it was interesting that Spanner did not delay in following) he gestured at a nearby shadow. "That is what you need to face."
"…Fight it?"
"That's part of it, yes."
Spanner shrugged in direct opposition to his expression and got closer to it. He went through the usual, though in his case he gained his green-flame mask very quickly, and set about wailing the tar out of the mandrake he ended up facing.
With a literal spanner.
Mandrakes were strong against Zio, which Spanner quickly noticed. He was one of those super smart people, though, so that made sense.
"Awesome," he said. "Let's get you set up with gear, then we can see about raising your level." Back upstairs, he moved to purchase gear, and found a much "nicer" spanner for Spanner to use, gun, Holy Whisper… Shoichi was going to have to buy more grimy armor from the Dark Web, clearly.
They were shortly down in Taida no Michi dealing with the shadow population while those of his family who were not in the active battle party handled filling Spanner in, which included why any of this was a thing, and the Palaces they had already completed.
Spanner was into his sixties by the time they were all feeling tired, so they left and headed back to the mansion for dinner.
If nothing else, he could openly continue his experiments with harmonizing while he ate.
Ω
Spanner was brought into Tsuna's class, even though he was a year older. School in Japan was not school in Italy, so the extra year would do no harm, and make things slightly easier. It wasn't as if any of them were going anywhere until Tsuna completed high school.
They had better not be going anywhere until Tsuna had completed high school.
He was still iffy on the whole university thing, but he was thinking of checking into distance learning, if only so he had actual training in administration and business. Assuming they managed to dump the whole Vongola thing onto one of the defect's kids, he would need those things for their legitimate money maker. Whether he got a degree or not was beside the point.
No one told a person with that much money that they couldn't start a business. The nebulous they just sat back, shaking their heads, and lamenting about how it was terrible the start-up would inevitably fail. The nebulous they did not have intuition like Tsuna did, nor the money they continued to rack up.
He wanted the time to go faster, damn it, because he wanted to get married, even though that meant it would be that much closer to him having to lead a crime family.
The upside to Spanner harmonizing and joining his little family was that it was another brilliant mind to mad science with Shoichi and Hayato, which meant he now had a set of custom-made gloves to use, ones that channeled his flames. While not as useful in Mementos in that sense (though they were stronger than purchased ones), he imagined, based on training done outside, that they would greatly increase his impact.
Kyōya likewise had a new set of tonfa attuned to his Cloud and Mist Flames.
The science group had been able to come up with a custom yo-yo and tridents, but the swords and mace had to be farmed out after they somewhat grudgingly admitted none of them were cut out to be a proper blacksmith. Haru got her own set of custom-made gloves.
For both of them the fabric portions of the gloves were made of Kevlar.
Those three were looking into custom clothing, with Haru's help. At the very least, something that would protect against ballistics, but still look reasonably "normal".
Three more kidnappers had been bitten to death and left to die on the mountain (they were clearly too stupid to live if they had not been wary of Reborn being present—or maybe too ignorant to realize he would be, not that Reborn had done anything other than watch and nod approvingly). The assassin, well…
They had been headed back to the mansion for afternoon training when his intuition screamed a warning. Mukuro and Kyōya had immediately hauled him back around a corner into a stub of an alley (probably based on the direction his intuition was screaming at) to avoid being shot.
Nagi, Chikusa, and Ken melted away, presumably to angle around to find the sniper and deal with them. Spanner and Haru were ready to throw up shields at a moment's notice, but as they were all packed into that little stub, the odds of the sniper managing to change position to where they could try again before Nagi locked on…
Haru, of course, was looking up as often as out.
"She's found the sniper," Mukuro whispered. "A she, this time. …And she's down, knocked out."
"Have them…"
Kyōya pushed over a suggestion.
He nodded. "There's that abandoned shop right nearby. Have them transfer the sniper there and we'll meet them, deal with this."
Mukuro nodded and concentrated, then gestured.
Shortly thereafter they were all inside the shop, having used the back alley entrance, and the others caught up soon enough, Nagi having used her Mist to make passersby simply not notice anything interesting.
"Want a new gun, Reborn?" he asked as he eyed up the woman. "Also, recognize her?"
Reborn eyed the sniper rifle and sniffed. "Nope, I don't. And her? She must be freelance, maybe trying to make a name for herself. Gonna have to mine her mind if you want to know who was gunning for you this time, because doing this without a contract is tantamount to suicide."
Mukuro shook his head. "She doesn't even know. Went through a number of hands, presumably. She was desperate enough for funds that she didn't check too hard."
He heaved a sigh. "Right. Strip anything of value. How long will she be out?"
Nagi pursed her lips. "About six hours," she said as Haru shoved the rifle into her inventory before starting to pat the woman down.
Kyōya waggled his phone.
"Yeah. Get them ready to haul her off to the mountain."
Kyōya stepped outside to make the call.
"Wipe the last year of her memory, just in case." He concentrated, but could not sense any flames in her, nothing active, and the embers were so faint they may as well have not existed, so he didn't bother to seal her in that sense.
Nagi got busy with that as Haru continued to produce all manner of goodies from the woman's clothing to be chucked into inventory. The wallet, of necessity, though again, any cards would be destroyed and the cash (what little there might be) pocketed.
They were on their way home not much later, and the sniper was on her way to the mountain, to live or die according to the wildlife there and luck.
"If we manage to get teleportation down," Mukuro said, "we could start leaving them on some other mountain, just in case any of them live."
"You can't get away with this once you're in Italy," Reborn pointed out.
Tsuna rolled his eyes. "Yeah. It would send the wrong message for the boss to let his attackers live. Anyone stupid enough to try when we get there has to die. Well, unless the Vindice are willing to set up a warehouse to store frozen people. Not sure if people would consider that worse than death or not."
"Generally speaking, being incarcerated in Vendicare is considered a sentence worse than death," Reborn said, "even if you're only there for a set term. Most are there for life."
"I'm translating that to mean being frozen is a mercy."
Reborn shrugged. "Probably. And given that you've figured out how to reverse it, probably an accident waiting to happen if people were warehoused that way."
He huffed and nodded. "Right. Death it is, once we get there and anyone is stupid enough to attack us."
Ω
Their summer break was right around the corner when Shoichi got that look on his face again, which boded badly.
Tsuna grimaced and said, "Lay it on us."
"Ah, yeah." Shoichi pushed his glasses up to stall, then said, "I think Xanxus might have been rescued? There's a lot of chatter going on, messages flying back and forth. We might be seeing him soon? The Varia, maybe?"
"Shit," he muttered.
They were barely into their actual break when, on the way to the shrine after lunch, they (or more accurately, he) were accosted by Basil, who was speaking as if he was auditioning for a period drama.
Also, Squalo.
Shoichi had been able to get images of the top Varia members, so at least he recognized the young man with long, silver-white hair, tons of leather (which, Japan, in July? dude was just asking for heat prostration or heat stroke), and a sword. (And the less said about that sword and hand the better, because just thinking about it creeped Tsuna out. What kind of psycho cut off their own perfectly functioning hand just so they could install a prosthetic that would also slot in a sword?)
"What's this?" Squalo said. "Outsiders parading around."
Tsuna rolled his eyes because Squalo was posing like he expected to be on the cover of the next greatest romance novel. That and, well, they lived in Namimori.
"I'll slice up any trash who gets in the way!"
Basil looked embarrassed. "Apologies, Sawada-dono. I have been followed." The boy had Flames of Dying Will on his forehead. Rain Flames, to be specific. "I have just met thee, yet I have already dragged thee into such a dangerous situation. Let us find a safe place! I would like to tell thee something!" Basil said passionately, then tried to drag him off.
Tried being the key word. Kyōya put paid to that notion by smacking the boy's hand away with a tonfa.
"Let's quit this game of tag!" Squalo shouted, then lunged forward.
It was a good thing he had taught himself Italian, or he would never be able to understand what Squalo was saying. Tsuna simply backed away, curious to see how this boy presumably trained by the defect would handle things, as opposed to what they had seen in the defect's Palace. His family backed off with him.
"It's too bad we don't have snacks," Spanner muttered. "Lollipops just don't work for this situation."
"Just die!" Squalo shouted, then attacked.
Basil countered with that weird triangle weapon that Tsuna had yet to figure out.
"Yeah, this is totally a popcorn situation," Haru murmured.
'Who thinks weapons like that things up?' he wondered.
"Voi, you piece of trash. You plan to spill it all now?"
"I refuse!"
"He seems to be playing the part of chivalrous young knight," Nagi said quietly. "Er, very confused samurai?"
"Then this will be your grave," Squalo said gravely.
"We seriously need to start carrying popcorn around if this sorta shit's gonna happen," Ken said, nodding at Haru.
Reborn coughed as Basil was sent flying over into some bushes head first. Only his legs stuck out, and they were waving around wildly.
Tsuna interpreted that to mean, "Maybe you should do something here," but elected to misinterpret that as, "He isn't doing so well", especially given that Basil found his feet again, his sandy blond hair adored with bits of shrubbery, and rushed to attack again.
Squalo did spare them a look, even noticed Reborn, but ignored them when it became clear they were just going to observe.
He did press closer to Kyōya, though, because he wanted to have some idea what was running through his senpai's head. Between a perfect stranger (one involved with the defect, no less) attempting to touch his omnivore and an interloper causing chaos in his territory, irritated was not the word.
Tsuna started sending out a mist of his flames to check for witnesses. In the event they had to step in to save the Rain's life, it would be simpler if Mukuro and Nagi did not have to erase the memories of people unfortunate enough to wander into the scene.
Basil may have been trained (and he was not a slouch outside), but he was not a real match for Squalo. His defense was fine, but he was wearing down fast.
Then the calvary arrived in the form of Dino Cavallone and his men. Dino spared a look for them, blinked at their relaxed postures, then focused on Squalo. "Isn't it embarrassing to be so rough on a kid?" he asked.
Squalo eased off Basil and risked a look over his shoulder. "Bucking Horse…?"
"If you don't stop this distasteful game of yours, then I'll be your opponent."
'Huh. He actually looks quite intimidating,' he pushed over to Kyōya. 'It's kind of amazing.'
Kyōya hn'd quietly.
Squalo eyed Dino, then eyed Tsuna, then went back to eyeing Dino. "Voi, Bucking Horse! I have no problem with killing you right here, but if I fight people from allied families, the higher-ups will be nagging me. For today I'll…"
There was a pregnant pause, then Squalo quickly turned back to Basil, slashed with his sword, then ducked down to grab a box that had fallen free. "I'll go, but I'm taking this with me!" Squalo cackled and dashed away.
"No! The Vongola rings!" Basil cried, then face-planted.
Tsuna blinked, then nudged the kid with one foot. "Huh… Ciao, Dino-san!"
Dino smiled sunnily. "Ciao, Tsuna. We should get him to a room."
'So much for training today,' he thought, then nodded.
Ω
"A room" ended up being a room in an abandoned clinic that had mysteriously been fixed up and equipped.
"How's he doing, Romario?" Dino asked.
"His life's not in danger. Looks like he was trained decently. His wounds are not severe."
"So, uh…?" he said leadingly while eyeing the kid. He could not very well admit that he had encountered a cognitive representation of the kid before, not to Cavallone, anyway.
Dino blinked, then nodded. "Oh, right. That's Basilicum, or Basil. He's sort of but not really part of Vongola. Rather like Squalo, just not the same way. But he's on your side."
"Uh huh," he said, wondering if Dino remembered his issues with non-answers. But he was willing to let it slide, because he already knew where the two were connected. "So Vongola rings…? That apparently were taken by the dude in leather?"
"More accurately," Reborn said, "the Vongola half-rings. You could call them a treasure of the Vongola Famiglia."
"Or you could call them the start of…?"
Reborn nodded.
"Lovely."
Dino shook off his confusion at the exchange and produced a similar box, which he opened to reveal seven half-rings. "A certain someone … asked me … to give you this," he said, snapping the box shut and offering it up.
Tsuna heaved a sigh and took it. "So Basil-san here was a decoy. I just can't be surprised. And we have how long, do you think?"
"Squalo will return to Italy. They may not notice right way," Reborn said. "But they might. So as little as a few days, as much as two weeks."
"So it depends on how long they take being smug over getting both halves and think to, uh, snap them together and learn they don't work right. And…?"
Reborn nodded. "Battles for each ring, but we can discuss that in detail at the house."
"And I am willing to help train you guys," Dino said.
He coughed. How that was supposed to work…? Dino used a whip. Did any of the Varia use a whip? "Uh, sure," he said, preferring to err on the side of politeness. Except, they were going to have to try to get into Xanxus' Palace (assuming he had one), every afternoon. Fuck? "What about him? I mean, who'll be looking after him?"
Dino shifted position. "Some of my men. I have a few Suns along, so they can keep an eye on him."
"Right. Guess it's back to the house, then." As they started off toward the mansion he was grumbling in his head, but brightened up when—
"For this afternoon it'll be just us," Reborn said. "Vongola stuff, you understand."
Dino nodded agreeably. "Just shoot me a message." He and his bunch went off, thankfully.
At the house they piled into the workroom and grabbed cushions. Tsuna pulled the box out and tossed it on the table. "I want to go on record as saying, 'This sucks'."
"Long story short," Reborn said after Tetsuya wandered in with a tea tray. "A battle for each ring, randomly chosen order, except Sky, which is last. Whoever wins four battles first, wins them all."
"And judges?"
"Some group called the Cervello. Expect the visible ones to look almost exactly alike."
"So we have as many as six days for Xanxus' Palace, assuming he has one," Hayato said, "plus however many days from their arrival to the first battle."
"And even if he does and we find the treasure, defeat his cognitive self… It won't stop the ring battles," Chikusa said.
"Right," he said softly. "We may not have to steal the treasure, depending on what we find, just defeat his cognitive self. I imagine—I speculate," he corrected himself, "that just doing so will make an impression. On a tangent, how did Basil manage to have visible flames like that? We aren't aware of how other people are trained when it comes to flames."
Reborn set his cup down and said, "Vongola developed a pill. I don't have the details because it's considered a famiglia secret. Two of those and the user is pushed into that state. Not sure how long it lasts, or any side effects, or deleterious effects of repeated usage. It's rather like my Dying Will Bullets in that I refuse to explain how they're made, except my method only provokes that state for five minutes at best."
"Which you've never had to use because we all already know how to use ours, and I'm not sealed."
Reborn nodded. "Yes."
A frown bounced around the room before Tsuna said, "What do we know about the elite members of the Varia? Weapons, tactics?"
"Also, maybe we should have cameras on the airport?" Shoichi said. "We need to know as soon as possible when they arrive in force. Though that assumes they'd fly in to the one here, unlike what the defect did."
"So we can see if Xanxus has a Palace."
Shoichi tapped away at his laptop. "Squalo is Rain, swordsman, but we saw that with our own eyes. Levi is Lightning, uses parabolic umbrellas."
Everyone but Reborn blinked in confusion.
"Belphegor is Storm, and uses knives, for direct use or thrown. Special note on him is that if you manage to draw blood, he berserks. Lussuria is Sun, Muay Thai. Mammon, technically Viper from what I could find, is the Mist Arcobaleno, no weapon. Cloud is odd in that there is no Cloud Officer. Apparently the one they had was recently killed, so I have no idea how that will go."
"Lussuria has a metal plate over his left knee he uses to block and cause damage with," Reborn said, looking at Ken.
Which meant avoiding it (unless Ken could shatter the thing) and aiming for the right knee, should Ken choose that joint as a target.
"He also always wears sunglasses for … some reason," Reborn added.
Tsuna frowned. Sun dazzle? And Ken had heightened senses due to the experiments on him.
Ken himself was grimacing. "But I can use my flames to dull down, so there's that. But maybe we should all be carryin' a pair, just in case."
"Levi has piercings," Haru said, having slipped around to look at Shoichi's laptop screen. "That's dangerous. Any notes on what they're made of? Can they be used against him?"
Reborn shrugged.
"If they're gold," Spanner said, "you could electrify them. Gold, copper, silver. Titanium is no good."
"And no matter what, if Haru could hook onto those things and rip them out," she said, "that's something. Haru has something new to start practicing immediately. Also, he's a man. That holds its own danger, assuming Haru can get close enough, and still get away."
He squirmed at the idea of anyone nailing him there, but he didn't fault Haru for the idea, not one bit. There was every chance these fights might be to the death on the other side, so why not use every and any advantage? Haru was a gymnast, and she used fist weapons, so… A glance at Kyōya showed his intended had a bloodthirsty grin on his face.
"Someone you cannot kill, either on purpose or accidentally, is Mammon," Reborn said.
"Because they're an Arcobaleno," Mukuro said, "and because no one knows why you're Arcobaleno or why it's important."
Reborn nodded. "Yep."
Mukuro's mouth twisted into something that wasn't quite a sneer.
"I could channel my own flames to you, ni-san," Nagi said. "You'd be stronger than normal. Our blood connection should simplify and hide what I'd be doing."
"In theory, an Arcobaleno would be very confident," Tetsuya said.
"And in the absence of anything stating we can't do what my dear sister is suggesting…" Mukuro trailed off. "The alternative is that Nagi fronts that battle and I channel my flames into her."
"Which raises a possible diversion," Hayato said. "Do we even need make it plain who Tsuna's primary guardians are? We could do something like play a fixed game of jan-ken prior to each battle, and the 'winner' is the one to participate."
Tsuna smiled; it was a devious suggestion. "I like it. Kyōya?"
Kyōya nodded after a moment.
"No one would ever believe anyone other than Kyōya is our Cloud, though, and it's not like I have a secondary," he said. "Nor Rain, so Chikusa. But the others? Yeah."
"One thing I could do is drain Belphegor-san's health," Tetsuya said. "The weaker he is… I need to practice that attack outside, and what it targets for disintegration. As I am not about to practice against any of you, I will unfortunately not be certain of the results until that battle."
"Should we ask a certain person to come?" he asked, eyeing Kyōya, who immediately scowled and shook his head. "Okay."
The rest of the afternoon was taken up in discussion of tactics, plus brainstorming keywords for Xanxus.
Ω
They had a whole five days of training with the idea of the ring battles in mind (Dino and his guardians helped with sparring, which was useful simply because they were entirely new opponents with differing tactics) before an incident happened.
They were escorting people home (Haru, Shoichi, and Tetsuya) when a leather-clad thug dropped off the top of a building to confront them.
"Oh, fuck," he muttered.
"This is 01. Target located. Attacking," the thug said, then launched himself at Haru.
Her brow went up right before the thug was subjected to a brutal beatdown by Spanner and Hayato.
A second leather-clad thug jumped off a building. "This is 02," the thug said. "Target located. I am attacking."
He was wailed on by Shoichi and Chikusa.
Then a third, and a fourth who stayed atop a building to observe. The third was knocked silly by Tsuna and Kyōya.
Fourth stood up from his crouch, armed with a back harness filled with his parabolic umbrellas—
'Seriously, who uses umbrellas as weapons?' he wondered. 'It's bad enough Chikusa uses yo-yos.'
—and said, "So, you guys did that. My opponent who wields the ring of Lighting is…" Levi switched his gaze between Haru and Spanner. "I'll just take you both out. And if any of you trash interfere, I'll eliminate you all," he said, reaching back for two of the handles.
"Hold it, Levi!" a voice called out.
Tsuna glanced up to see a collection of Varia Elite. He picked out Lussuria, Belphegor, Mammon, and— "Is that one of those robot things?" he muttered quietly.
"Don't hunt them all on your own," Lussuria said.
"It looks like there are other wielders of rings here, as well," Mammon said.
"Voi!" Squalo appeared, looking psychotic. "How dare you trick me, trash! Which one of you holds the ring of Rain!?"
Tsuna blinked. "Is he honestly incapable of telling?" he said loudly enough for it to carry. "And they're supposed to be elite?"
"I will fuck you up, trash!" Squalo called down. "Three seconds!"
And then Xanxus appeared. He was scarred, his face. There was probably more scarring, but he couldn't tell at that distance. He had what looked like the raccoon tail, feathers, and beads dangling from his hair, like in the photo Shoichi had manged to get.
One hand came up, half clenched. "Sawada Tsunayoshi," Xanxus growled. "Die."
"I'm getting the feeling we're supposed to be intimidated by this," he said, again loudly enough for it to carry.
"Hold it, Xanxus, that's enough," said a new voice. The owner of said voice popped up atop the next building over.
It was a voice Tsuna remembered quite well, and it made his stomach turn over with sick dismay. "Dear kami," he whispered. "The fuck?"
"From here on, I'll take charge of things," the defect said. Accompanying him were Basil and … Turmeric?
"Iemitsu," Xanxus growled.
"What are you doing here!?" Squalo demanded.
"Xanxus, is one of your minions planning to raise a sword against me, the External Advisor?"
"Don't stick your nose in now," Squalo said scathingly. "You're the one who can do nothing but run."
"What!?" Basil said, bringing his weapon to bear.
The defect latched a hand onto the boy's shoulder quickly and held him back. "Not running. Waiting for an answer from the ninth. I questioned the way you people have been doing things lately, so I sent messages to the ninth with significant questions. And this," he said, holding up two scrolls, "his reply, has just arrived."
"Why scrolls?" Nagi whispered. "Who outside an Asian country even uses them?"
Basil was given both scrolls, and the boy darted over to shove one at Xanxus, then brought the other to Tsuna. "Sawada-dono, these are direct orders from the ninth."
He accepted it and untied the binding, then unrolled it, the same as Xanxus. At the very top was a blaze of Sky Flames, which he presumed was a way of ensuring the validity of said orders.
"That's the ninths stamp of Dying Will Flames," Mammon said. "There's no mistake. It's a real order."
He rolled his eyes and set to reading, Kyōya and Mukuro edged in on either side to read with him.
Until now, I thought that the one worthy to become heir was Iemitsu's son, Sawada Tsunayoshi, and so I directed my efforts toward that. However, lately, because I am nearing the end of my life, my intuition has become sharp, and I've decided to select an heir who's more worthy. My son, Xanxus, is the one worthy to be the true tenth. But there will be people who aren't satisfied with this change. Currently, Iemitsu refused to give Xanxus both sets of half-rings. However, I don't intend to have a useless battle between my own family members. So let us start the traditional Vongola battle to satisfy everyone. Those who wield the same type of ring will fight in a one-on-one battle.
A glance at Reborn showed that the chibi looked almost confused. In addition, his own intuition was practically pointing at a mental dictionary's entry for "suspicious". And on top of that, a robot? Possibly standing in for the missing Cloud? Riiiight.
Tsuna rolled up the scroll and shoved it in his pocket, then walked away after a pointed look at Reborn.
Ω
Once dinner was over and they were gathered in the work room, the laptops came out again so they could conference. Reborn had caught up with them fairly quickly after speaking with the defect.
"I propose that we do some tinkering," he said and wrote. "Meaning, make it so that the parents of Haru, Tetsuya, and Shoichi don't get upset over them staying at a friend's house for the duration."
Haru chimed in immediately with a, "Yes, please."
Tetsuya wrote, "My parents won't need it. I'll just tell them I plan to stay with Hibari for a while."
"Mine might need it," Shoichi wrote, "but I can tell them I'll be staying with Hayato and Spanner, both of whom love to science with me, so any tinkering should be minor at best."
He glanced around the room and saw no objections, so he said and typed in, "Okay. Then we will be having Mukuro and Nagi handle any tinkering. We can do that tonight, or first thing in the morning. We'd just have to get there in time to manage Haru's parents and Shoichi's family."
"Mine should be all right for the morning," Shoichi wrote. "We're in a high-rise, and it would be kind of obvious if those guys came after me. I'm more worried about Haru in a normal house."
"What do you think, Haru," Chikusa typed in.
Reborn had decided to perch on Tsuna's shoulder to read his screen.
"Ah, Haru admits to being just a bit nervous out here, so far away," she wrote. "If you can get here tonight, Haru will start packing for a stay."
Mukuro and Nagi both nodded.
"Okay," he typed. "An escort will be along shortly to you."
Of necessity, Mukuro and Nagi would be going along. Ken and Chikusa volunteered. Those four slipped out to head toward Haru's home.
"I already have plenty in my room at the Hibari residence," Tetsuya wrote into chat, "so I will meet you at Haru's home."
"You know," he typed in, "we have the funding to keep everyone's rooms here stocked up on clothing. Perhaps we should? Then it could always be a quick swap. It'd be school uniforms as an issue."
"So long as the group is willing to spring for them, it's not," Shoichi typed. "But I don't imagine we'd often be staying at the house during school times. A couple of uniforms shouldn't be too much. I'm going to start packing for tomorrow, but I'll be paying attention."
"Okay, Shoichi," he typed. "We can get into deeper details about these upcoming battles tomorrow, after everyone is assembled. I would have tossed out the very silly proposition that we just chuck our set of half-rings at Xanxus and be done with it, but I know that the defect would have raised holy hell, and it would just give Xanxus the excuse to wipe us all out sooner, rather than having his people attempt it during the ring battles."
"Assuming they're going for the kill," Hayato typed, "though I wouldn't doubt it."
"These battles are scheduled to take place in the evenings, late," Reborn said (and which Tsuna dutifully typed in). "We're to assemble at the school for each at eleven, to be shown where and told which it will be. The first is the day after tomorrow, in the evening."
"That flame on the scroll," he typed, "can you even verify it as being the ninth's? Do you know what his flames feel like?"
Reborn shook his head. "He's never used them around me, and he keeps them close."
"So it's possible this all really is a set-up. One would think the old fossil would have warned the very person he sent to tutor his choice of successor. Unless, that is, he has a very sick sense of humor. Because if I was out of the running, he should have recalled you, Reborn. And not one word of warning about Xanxus suddenly being free. Those tests we did, I didn't need to be a part of the unfreezing, so what's to say this lot didn't finally figure out where their boss was being held and rescued him, only to lead to this once he was informed there was a contender."
"Are you…?" Hayato said, then typed as an afterthought. "Are you suggesting that maybe his people finally tracked down where he was, freed him and, as importantly, then … captured the fossil?"
"Then who the hell would be playing that role?" Spanner said. "Because I don't imagine you can fake a flame seal like this, so it would mean Xanxus must have done—assuming any of this is right—prior to the Varia coming here."
"The handwriting on the scrolls is block print," Tsuna pointed out.
"To disguise it. Anyone could have written those scrolls."
"Which makes me think of that robot again. The ones in the defect's Palace could hold a person." A quick check with his mist showed that the others were still at Haru's home.
Kyōya nodded slowly, his expression an irritated grimace at the idea he would need to be careful should he go up against that robot.
Unfortunately, they had not gotten a good enough look at the thing during the confrontation. "Which means," he typed, "that when we do hit the first battle, we need a better look at that robot, try to see what it might be capable of. I've no doubt Kyōya can reduce it to ruin, but if there's someone riding in it, someone like the fossil, it'd be best to incapacitate it."
"And that's with dealing with Xanxus' Palace every afternoon," Shoichi typed.
"Assuming he has one," Hayato added.
Another check showed that the group was now headed back, which was comforting. He wasn't entirely happy about Shoichi being on his own for the night, but his Sun Secondary had a point about his location and the inherent risks to interlopers.
"I did finish that sonic weapon recently," Shoichi typed. "One of us could use it in a battle. And it doesn't hurt that all of us are much stronger, more agile, than would be possible normally. We should try to get through Xanxus' Palace as quickly as possible."
"Which means Tetsuya and I need to make up bentos to take with us," he typed. "And suffer through napping in safe rooms if necessary?"
Reborn frowned.
"No," he said (and typed), "I have no idea if you'll come in with us, Reborn, but I can hold on to you while we're trying?"
"Right."
It wasn't long before the others piled into the room, signifying that everyone was safely in the mansion bar Shoichi.
Ω
A group went out to collect Shoichi in the morning (the same group) and escort him back, and their morning was spent on making up a multitude of bentos, then having lunch, and then plugging keywords into the interface.
Reborn was securely sat on Tsuna's lap, and he had one arm around the chibi (no matter how much it annoyed Reborn). They eventually got a hit (when a rather desperate Haru had begun spitting out random words) and heard—
"Beginning navigation."
"Oh, good, Reborn came with us," he said, then looked around. "This looks like a slum."
Reborn wriggled free and hopped onto his shoulder. "It does."
Kyōya grunted.
"Right, let's look for a door that works," he said, then set off.
"I feel like there might not be as many sparklies here," Ken complained, ranging out ahead along the narrow alley they appeared to be in.
A short time later they came to the end, passing numerous doors with broken or jammed locks (Tsuna shook his fist at what he perceived as a Silent Hill reference) and offshoots.
"What the hell…?" Mukuro said.
Before them was a grand plaza ringed with stately buildings, the very picture of wealth. At the center was a stage or platform with a throne atop it. Except, the plaza was barred to them by a paling, only visible by looking at it from an angle rather than head on.
Shoichi huffed. "Looks like we found our goal?"
"Which means we need to backtrack and figure out the maze of slum alleys," Chikusa said.
"Yeah, okay," Haru said, "but Haru can't see the treasure!"
"Good point," he muttered, and set to looking.
Tetsuya pointed a good ten minutes later. "That light over there, on the building opposite and left one."
He squinted. Every one of the buildings he could see had a light fixture just above the door, a suspended cage thing with flickering flames within. Electric flames, he presumed, using wires to simulate it. But one of them was a gaseous white sphere instead of warm amber, surrounded by the usual oil slick rainbow haze.
"Got it," he muttered. "Whether we actually steal it is another matter."
"The fact that he even has a Palace…"
"So we figure out what his deal is," Ken said, "and decide if he needs a beat-down and lecture, or that plus theft of his twisted desires."
He sighed and turned around. "Let's go back to the start and, facing this plaza, take the first left offshoot, as per our normal modus operandi."
The first real (for a given value of real) door they found opened into a safe room, which he took for a blessing. His family immediately started looking for a map of some kind, tossing the room with alarming efficiency.
He was surprised the room looked as nice as it did, being in a slum. But what would he know? He had always lived in a normal enough house, and Namimori's "slums" were not exactly slum-like, more "gently depressed".
Nagi eventually found a map tacked to the underside of a table, and spread it out over the top. "Oh," she said flatly.
"Oh" was right. The slums were a veritable maze, winding around the center plaza. "Another maze?" he said with dangerous intensity. "Another maze?"
Kyōya immediately pulled him into a hug, soothing his suddenly frazzled nerves. Reborn was dislodged onto the table, a disgruntled look on his baby face.
Aside from the map there was nothing of interest in the safe room, not even a water cooler and paper cups. Which, rude. So they exited back out and continued down the alley.
The next building with a functioning door looked like an apartment building. There was a lamp visible in one of the windows, with a shade of red glass that Hayato pointed out. Which, naturally, meant nothing to him.
Hayato looked oddly embarrassed. "It could be coincidence. Or it could be a subtle sign that a prostitute lives there. Or the whole building. And since this is Xanxus' Palace…"
Tsuna had a sudden vision of a maid café or host club that was a lot more than it seemed. The handle of the exterior door had faded and worn red paint on it. Huh…
There was a long pause before anyone did anything, then Ken opened the door a crack and peered inside. "Don't see nothing," he said, then glanced back, then opened it fully and entered.
Inside was a slightly grungy hallway. A staircase leading up was to the right, hugging that wall, and doors on the left, two of them. Both of those were locked. That lamp had been on the second floor, so with nowhere else to go, they headed up.
Tsuna was a little weirded out that they had seen no shadows thus far.
The first floor had another staircase, rising up above the ground floor one, and another two doors. One of those was unlocked, so they entered to see a careworn apartment, not much better than a studio. No one was present, no shadows, so after a short exploration they backed out again and headed upstairs.
"Why does Haru feel like we have to whisper?" Haru whispered.
The first door was locked, but the second one, which had more worn and faded red paint, was unlocked. Visible through the opened door were two shadows, one male, one female. They were—
Tsuna blushed at what he was seeing.
—occupied. Kyōya's warmth at his back was comforting as he took in what the two were doing. He blinked when the two shadows just faded out, their transaction incomplete.
Ken pushed in at that point and began to look around. "Yo, look."
Everyone else piled in and started looking, though Chikusa maintained a watchful air at the door to the hallway.
Ken pointed at grainy photograph, so Tsuna took a closer look. It appeared to be a child Xanxus? He had a hard look to him. Next to it was a slim stack of books, for children.
"So his mother…?" Nagi said quietly.
'So his mother was a whore?' he thought. Was Xanxus the result of Timoteo spending time with a prostitute? Why would the leader of a famiglia that size be spending time in a tiny flat to accidentally beget an unwanted heir? And he later came back only to find he had one? Something didn't sit right about that with him.
Beside him Kyōya nodded.
A quick scout of what remained revealed nothing of particular interest, and they were shortly back outside on the street.
"I think it's suspicious, too," Mukuro said. "How exactly would a man like that find himself in a warren, to avail himself of that, under those circumstances, and then come back? Wouldn't a boss just bring someone in briefly?"
"And he would have his men with him," Chikusa said. "That's by no means subtle. This doesn't make a lot of sense."
"And of course, we have no way of knowing how true to life any of this place is," Tetsuya said, "whether this is supposed to represent an area near his base of power, because why would he go trawling in someone else's territory?"
Kyōya jerked his chin, so they headed off down the street again, checking each building as they went by for an unlocked door. The next, another apartment building, had an open room on the ground floor. Opening it, though, revealed an anteroom much like the ones in the defect's palace.
They all zipped into cover so they could watch the tableau on the other side of the glass wall.
Xanxus was there, as a child, and a woman who looked vaguely like him. They were arguing. Or rather, Xanxus was arguing. The woman just looked tired, a fading bruise spread across one cheek.
"Why do you let them hit you!?" Xanxus demanded.
"Because sometimes that's what they want," she said tiredly.
He got the distinct impression that Xanxus didn't care (or know to care) that his mother was a prostitute. It was what it sometimes entailed that he objected to.
"It makes them feel like a man for some reason, to hit a woman," she further said.
That only made Xanxus angrier. The child stomped off. The woman sighed and lit a cigarette, drifting out through a different door.
Through the door was a mid-boss, but given their levels it amounted to a minor battle.
"Bets on whether Xanxus learned to disdain women because of this, because he thought his mother to be weak?" Shoichi said. "Or would he go the other way and be contemptuous of men?"
"Or both," Spanner said.
"He does call everyone trash," Reborn piped up.
"Which makes me wonder how he ever managed to get guardians, if that's what they really are," he said before exiting.
"Well, if he inherited some of them when he took over," Hayato said. "I didn't exactly spend time figuring out how the Varia worked. I mean, I didn't qualify. I don't speak enough languages."
"I guess that would make sense for a group that does hits in more than just Italy," Shoichi said.
He suddenly wondered if he should be attempting to learn more languages. Three was more than normal for the average Japanese person, but if he was to be a mafia don…? Maybe French?
"This Palace is creeping me out," he said as they checked out the other floors. "We've seen a mere two shadows, and those didn't even stick around to fight."
"Haru wonders if the shadows in other minds meant those people were way more defensive."
"And if this guy isn't so much lying to himself as…?"
Haru nodded.
"More angry at people in general, and mostly at the old fossil," Nagi said.
"Which could account for him being 'twisted' enough to have a Palace," Chikusa said, "while still not being delusional and/or bottom-feeding scum like the others."
"People do refer to him as a Wrath," Reborn offered. "But that has more to do with him being a Sky with Storm Flames."
"Huh…"
The next tableau featured Xanxus being harassed by three men, and also featured Xanxus calling them "trash" after he showed off what a vicious little carnivore he was by trashing all of them when they attempted to rough him up after mocking his circumstances.
"I'm definitely getting the feeling that the scene we saw in the defect's mind wasn't too far off the mark in terms of presentation," he said.
"You mean how he looked like a street rat while sitting in opulence?"
"And how he gave no apologies for that?"
He nodded. "Xanxus almost looked like he was enjoying making them uncomfortable by unapologetically being what he was. That no amount of wealth could alter his background. And given how ridiculous they all seemed in comparison, I can't blame him. I just have to filter for the defect's general delusions."
"But given that the defect despises Xanxus, that part of the scene was probably accurate," Tetsuya said.
Reborn looked a skosh frustrated at their talk, probably because he had no way to see what they had seen.
Tsuna looked around at the narrow street they were in, then eyed Mukuro, who immediately cottoned on to what he wanted and adopted a look of concentration. A moment later the scene was projected onto a nearby wall for Reborn (and his guardians since then) to see.
Reborn's brow went up, and he nodded once it was done. "I see what you mean."
"We need to see if we can do that outside," Nagi said, looking thoughtful.
"Now I'm really curious about the first Palace you went into," Hayato said.
Tsuna winced and Shoichi clutched his stomach. A look around showed that no one who'd been there looked particularly adverse to showing some of it, so he said, "Maybe the actual boss battle? It's not pretty, though. Those of us who were there can keep watch in case shadows suddenly appear."
Mukuro nodded and projected from the point that they stepped up onto the sound stage, all the way through to Kyōya telling him to call home because he'd be spending the night.
Reborn, of course, looked completely unaffected. Haru looked a little sick, as did Nagi. Hayato and Spanner looked blank, but their eyes were telling.
"She was both physically abusing him," Mukuro said, "and sexually. She confessed not long after, was arrested, and the husband and son sold the house and left town."
"Maybe … since we're doing this, show the battle with the defect?" he said. "It doesn't say a lot about him personally, but… And the other two were boring in comparison."
Again, no one objected, so Mukuro projected that one, starting from the leaving the safe room closest to the boss arena, and ending with the reveal of what the "treasure" was.