Dull… agonizingly, completely, and utterly dull.
That's what the life of Dante Affilato has been for the past twenty five years. A life filled with utter and complete mundanity.
You'd have thought that moving to Italy, the home of the mafia and more specifically Vongola would have been more exciting… but no, it simply wasn't.
Due to being a civilian, and especially one without any especially powerful Flames? Dante was for the most part kept out of the Mafia world.
Sure, there was that one time he was kidnapped by the Lupo Famiglia when he was seventeen, due to his father's connections… which was where Dante discovered that Flames even existed, but eventually they got their ransom money, and just ditched him on the side of some random road.
The fuckers had taken his wallet, so he was forced to walk all the way back home in the middle of the night… which took nearly two hours. Thank the lord he didn't run into any more trouble. After all, despite the presence of the Vongola Famiglia, the streets still weren't all that safe at night.
To make things worse, after that… Dante wasn't even able to find much more information on these… Dying Will Flames of the Mafia, other than what they were called, and the Elements.
He was only able to find that much out, due to finding an old book at a thrift store talking about them…
From what he was able to discover, there were seven Elements in total.
The Red Flames of the Storm, which had the property of Disintegration, The Blue Flames of the Rain, which granted its users Tranquility… whatever that meant, The Yellow Flames of the Sun, which had the main characteristic of Activation, The Green Flames of Lightning which granted the ability of Hardening, The Indigo Flames of Mist which allowed their users to Construct anything to their hearts desire, The Purple Flames of Cloud which granted Propagation, and The Orange Flames of Sky, which could Harmonize with all under its sky.
Honestly, Dante didn't really know what most of that meant… sure, Disintegration was fairly obvious, and he could somewhat guess as to what Hardening and Construction were able to do. But… Tranquility? Activation? Propagation? Fucking Harmonization?
What the hell did any of those things do? Honestly, that question had kept him up quite a bit over the years.
Of course, he tried to figure out what they would be capable of doing… but no matter what, his theories just felt wrong.
There was obviously something that he was missing. But he couldn't just walk up to some random mafioso and ask, after all… that's liable to just end with a bullet in his brains if he was lucky.
Other than this obsession with the Dying Will Flames, though? Dante's life was completely and utterly dull.
He was the son of a rather wealthy businessman, who founded the Affilato Company which sold blades of various types. From kitchen knives and survivalist blades, to various types of swords and other such bladed weapons.
You'd think that such a business wouldn't be all that profitable… but, Dante's father, Antonio Affilato had some connections from his youth that allowed the business to thrive, likely due to mafia connections.
And with his father having such connections… you'd logically think that Dante had them as well, right?
Well, that was completely and utterly wrong. See, Dante's father honestly didn't really like him… believing that he was a disappointment to the Affilato Bloodline, and if his mother had survived his birth? Dante would have been sent off to some relatives in order for his father to make a proper heir.
But alas, Antonio Affilato was quite in love with his wife, and wouldn't dare disrespect her even beyond the grave by remarrying or having an illegitimate child. So, Dante would have to do… despite seeing him as an utter disappointment.
Honestly, Dante didn't even know what he'd done wrong when he was a kid, for his father to dislike him so much… he tried to be a good son, learning as much as he could about the business.
But it just wasn't enough for his father… no matter what he did, Dante just wasn't good enough.
So eventually, Dante decided fuck him and started acting out. Stealing from stores, doing underage drinking, and even getting a small posse together and starting a small street gang… and getting into small turf wars.
The only reason why he wasn't arrested for this stupid shit, was because his father constantly bailed him out, not wanting Dante to be imprisoned as that would… 'stain the family's reputation, and that could cause investors to pull out of the company'.
And wasn't that just the ultimate stab to the heart? Knowing that his father only bailed him out… not because of love or anything like that, but because it would affect his profits and reputation.
It was at that moment that Dante went from wanting his father's love… or at least his attention, to just ignoring the man wholesale.
And not even two months after that, he got fucking kidnapped, and discovered the world of the Mafia and Dying Will Flames… which were so much more fascinating than anything he'd ever seen before.
It's been eight years since he first discovered the Dying Will Flames… and yet, he still had no idea what over half of them were capable of. And whether or not there were other types that simply weren't mentioned.
Because there was one little snippet in that journal he gained that completely fucked his worldview.
A simple sentence that he'd glanced over several times, was all that it took to take all of his theories… and throw them into the trash.
'The Flames of the Sky and others'... and others.
And fucking OTHERS!
This entire time, he'd been hyperfocusing on the Flames of the Sky, and didn't even begin to think of the implications of those two words… those two words that essentially shattered his entire worldview all over again.
After all, if there were more types of Flames… then anything could be on the table. He barely knew what half of them did, and now there were possibly dozens or fucking hundreds of new Flame types to look out for.
"God fucking damn it!" Dante hissed, as he clutched his skull in his chair. Entire years of theorizing just… wasted like that.
Because of course there had to be more Flame Types…
"This is going to take me so long to figure out" Dante groaned as he looked at what he currently had written on his computer.
[Dying Will Flames:
Sky Flames: Harmonization. (?)
Storm Flames: Disintegration. (Disintegrates stuff, possibly on a conceptual level? Needs more information)
Lightning Flames: Hardening. (Hardens either the user or anything they're wielding? Needs more information)
Mist Flames: Construction. (Creates things, somehow. Needs more information)
Sun Flames: Activation. (?)
Cloud Flames: Propagation. (?)
Rain Flames: Tranquility. (?) (What the actual fuck does Tranquility have to do!?)]
And that's all he had, after eight years of searching. He had essentially nothing to show for it, due to several reasons…
Firstly, there was the fact that it'd be practically suicide to just go up and ask a Mafioso about Flames. He'd be more liable to get a bullet to the head than the answers he wants.
Secondly, he can't ask his father… the old fucker probably wouldn't tell him shit anyway.
Thirdly, there's literally nothing on the internet about the Dying Will Flames. It's like the mafia monitor that shit and make sure it's all scrubbed… who'd have thought!?
And finally… he didn't have an abundance of time to work on this 'project' of his, as he was still the heir to a fairly large business.
That meant he'd have to go to various meetings in his father's place, or go to parties to schmooze with the various other elite and wealthy people of Italy, in hopes of gaining more connections to help accelerate the growth of the company.
It was completely mind numbing and utterly boring shit… but he did a decent job at it, having been trained in what to do from a young age. So at least he didn't 'disappoint' his dear old dad in another way.
But of course, the old fuck was never pleased and would criticize literally everything he did or said in those meetings. Fucking asshole.
Eventually though, Dante was back in the moment and looked at the clock and saw that it was getting pretty late, so he quickly saved his 'progress' (he hadn't written a single word in over a week), turned his computer off and headed off to bed.
But the moment he closed his eyes? He saw a surprising sight…
There was a white-haired man lounging in a white and blue sofa, playing on a Gameboy… but most shockingly, were the various women lounging around him, wearing skimpy harem outfits.
He seemed to be intently focused on whatever he was playing. But after a few minutes of continuous tapping, he eventually stopped and looked at Dante.
"Oh, hey Dante. What the fuck are you doing here?" The man asked, his eyes glowing an ominously bright blue, "Ah… wait we haven't met yet, have we? Well. You can call me Shiro"
"...Uh, hi Shiro" Dante said somewhat confused. Was this just some sort of weird mania-induced dream?
"Ha! Like you could possibly dream up me, man" The man, Shiro said with a grin as he laid the sofa on the thigh of one of the girls, "Was just doing a Nuzlocke… and fucking Clay of all people just wiped my party. Fucking Clay"
Upon uttering those words, the entire world around him started to distort due to what must have been this… strange being's rage.
But as soon as it started, it suddenly stopped as Shiro looked at Dante for a moment before his grin slowly but surely faded away.
"Anyway… uh, here. Take this" With that, the world around Shiro distorted again, and there was this strange… ethereal glowing blue orb within the palm of his hand. It was utterly enrapturing to look at.
And, while he was looking at the orb… Dante was too distracted to notice that Shiro had begun throwing it towards him, and failed to catch it. Causing the orb to land straight onto the floor and cracks to form.
"Ah shit… meh, fuck it. Just grab it, it'll probably be fine" Shiro said with a shrug and a lazy wave, as he picked the gameboy off of the woman's thigh, and went back to his game.
"Uh… what do I do with this?" Dante asked, as he reached down and grabbed it…
"Whatever you want, now Fuck off" With those last two words, Dante suddenly awoke in his bed, with a strange and splitting migraine.
It was as if someone had jammed a fucking needle through his eye socket and directly into his brain!
"Gah! What the fuck!" Dante whispered as he clutched his head in pain, before seeing something form in front of him… a series of text that he slowly read through
[Welcome, Dante Affilato to The Guild of Gamers!]
[Installing Abilities]
[Inventory Unlocked!]
[Observation Analysis Unlocked]
[Dying Will Flames Unlocked]
[SAFSAEDAS]
[4T$*#$ #(9JDFS]
[ #$& #(*uche]
Eventually, the text became unintelligible… before suddenly vanishing before his eyes, as if it never existed to begin with.
Leaving Dante with just the five actually legible sentences.
…What the hell was the Guild of Gamers?
"Wait… what is [Analysis]?" Dante asked, as he was looking around and suddenly saw another wave of text in front of him.
[Dante Affilato.]
[Age: 25.]
[The Heir of the Affilato Famiglia, Dante is a disappointment having been born lacking the ability to use any of the Dying Will Flames of The Sky.]
[Dying Will Flames: Snow Flames of Motion.]
[Abilities: Inventory, Analysis.]
[Inventory: A near infinite space within Dante's very soul, allowing him to store anything he wishes]
[Analysis: The ability to analyze anything Dante wishes, giving a basic description of the object/person analyzed]
It seemed to be something that detailed himself, and reading through it, he grew somewhat surprised.
He was the heir to a Famiglia?... okay, honestly now that he thought about it? He could kind of see how the Affilato Company could be counted as a Famiglia. Especially with his father's business practices.
But he wasn't born with the ability to use any of the Dying Will Flames of The Sky, and… that was why he was considered such a disappointment to his father?
And what the hell were Snow Flames?
_
Alright, so welcome to Guild of Gamers: The Mafioso, with our protagonist Dante Affilato.
This is a crossover between Katekyo Hitman Reborn and the Yakuza series, purely because I thought that it would be fun to do that… but if you guys have any ideas for extra settings that could fit here? I'm fully willing to hear you out.
If you don't know Katekyo Hitman Reborn and are curious about the power system, here's a link to the wiki page on Dying Will Flames.
Anyway, this was the first chapter, so, as Reborn is known to say… Cissaou!
Thank you The Dark Wolf Shiro for allowing me to make this, and thank you Shinigami over on QQ for beta'ing the chapter.