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Sawada Tsunayoshi, now boss of the Vongola Family, sat in his office and groaned. Paperwork! There were piles of paperwork everywhere in his office—on the desk, on the couch, behind the couch, under the desk, filling up the cabinets… And they all needed to get done by tomorrow, which was approximately nine hours away.
Tsuna dropped his head onto his desk with a clunk and internally resigned himself to another sleepless night. He picked up an expensive gold-lined fountain pen and dully wrote off his signature with a flourish, which had become a habit in the past months.
His hand didn’t even ache anymore—perhaps it had gone numb?
“Come in,” Tsuna called, without lifting his head from the desk.
The silver-haired right hand man opened the door and said, “You know, Tenth, it’s pretty creepy how you know even if I don’t knock! As expected of the Tenth!” Gokudera said proudly.
“You didn’t knock?” Tsuna looked startled. “I thought you did.”
“Yo, Tsuna!” Yamamoto entered the office with a folder in his hands. “It’s probably your Hyper Intuition acting up again,” he added as he dropped the folder onto the ever-increasing pile of paperwork.
Tsuna eyed the folder disdainfully and scowled at it. “Yeah, it probably is,” he said in a steady monotone. “Thanks, Yamamoto.” The baseball player exited with a cheery wave, saying something about practice, and Gokudera was all too delighted.
“Don’t come back, baseball idiot!” he yelled at Yamamoto’s back, but the tall Shigure Soen expert only laughed. “Juudaime!” Gokudera suddenly remembered.
“What is is, Gokudera?” Tsuna asked distractedly, already making his way through the paperwork, his pen scribbling away at the sheets.
“You have mail! I checked it for you in case it was a hidden trap or something, but I didn’t look at the contents! Here,” Gokudera slapped the envelope down on Tsuna’s desk and the highly respected mafia boss nearly toppled out of his seat in shock.
“O-oh, what is it?” Tsuna asked, regaining his composure. He flipped open the envelope and Gokudera watched his boss’s face rapidly go pale.
“What is it, Tenth?!” he shouted, looking panicked. “Did someone get kidnapped? What happened?”
“No, no, worse,” Tsuna massaged his temples. “Oh, no…” Gokudera snatched up the sheet of paper and scanned its contents.
Dear Sawada Tsunayoshi (the letter read),
A class reunion will be held this following Saturday, normal school hours, at the Vongola Mansion of Namimori for Class 2-C of XXXX, which its owner has kindly decided to lend to us. All students have been invited for this occasion. Please take this as an opportunity to rekindle old friendships and catch up on each other’s lives and reconnect, since it has been ten years.
Sincerely,
Nezu Dochirou.
“I can’t believe he even invited me, No-Good Tsuna!” said boss moaned in aggravation. “It was probably an accident! And he forgot who I was!”
“Juudaime! Please do not think so badly of yourself!” Gokudera looked panicked. “Anyway, you can always refuse.”
“That’s a good idea! I should just refuse!” Tsuna brightened up. “I bet he hates me, anyway…” Tsuna mourned, “I did almost cost Nezu-senpai his job, after all.”
“No, you can’t,” said a voice, and Tsuna felt shivers go down his spine. An adult Reborn mysteriously appeared in a corner of the room. Tsuna was seriously having doubts about whether it was right to break the Arcobaleno curse: adult Reborn was Satan’s human form, he was sure of it!
“Why not?” Tsuna ventured, nervous about what the demonic tutor might do.
“Read the letter again, No-Good Tsuna,” the smooth voice of his past tutor said. Tsuna picked up the letter and read its contents again.
“E-EH? The Vongola Mansion?!” Tsuna yelped. “Who rented it out to Nezu-senpai?!” He desperately wanted to track down that person and throttle them into unconsciousness, because Tsuna simply wasn’t the type to kill people because he was angry.
“Well, I did, of course,” Reborn said with a smirk. “It’s about time that your former classmates learned who they were bullying in middle school. This is for your good, you know,” the hitman added, looking deceptively innocent.
“Reborn-san is right, Tenth!” Gokudera piped up. “I’d like to see their reactions, actually. How dare they bully the Tenth!” the Storm Guardian roared, dynamite in his hands.
“E-eh, Gokudera, Reborn, that was in the past,” Tsuna said, waving his hands about. “What should I do? They can’t get involved with the mafia! They’re innocents!”
“They’re not going to be involved,” Reborn said, tilting his fedora down to cover his eyes. “We’re simply catching up on everyone’s lives.”
“They won’t be involved, Tenth,” Gokudera looked positively gleeful at the thought of Tsuna’s former classmates getting a taste of their own medicine.
“No! I-I can’t…” Tsuna groaned.
Reborn opened the door. “We’re leaving for Japan tomorrow at 9,” he announced.
“Wait! I never agreed to this!” Tsuna shouted frantically.
“You’ll be fine, Tenth!” Gokudera insisted, leaving the room as well and closing the door behind him. Tsuna put his head in his hands and slumped in utter defeat. How is it that I can defeat the most powerful mafia members, he wondered, and yet be unable to handle a simple class reunion?
~^-^~
As it turned out, Kyoko, Yamamoto, Gokudera, and for some reason, Hibari and Ryohei had also received invitations. Haru ran into Tsuna’s office waving her white invitation as well, and Tsuna could just feel the dread rising inside of him to clump at his throat. Hibari, Ryohei, and Haru had probably received invitations due to Reborn messing in the affair (as usual), and if Reborn was involved, the results were never in Tsuna’s favor.
Kyoko and Haru had been informed of the mafia situation a few years back, and they had taken in surprisingly well, even though Tsuna had kept that secret from them for many years. They were now working in the Vongola CEDEF department as members, but they weren’t involved in any on-the-field action like Bianchi was.
Haru was actually very good at managing finance and she had become one of their key members in that department, while Kyoko helped out as a secretary and did everything that nobody had the time to do. She was always busy, yet managed to accomplish everything, and both the girls had high-paying jobs and were respected in the mafia as Vongola Decimo’s close friends.
Everyone piled onto the Vongola private jet the next morning with their respective suitcases and settled down in their leather seats, waiting for takeoff. After a thirteen hour flight concerning two spilled drinks, one disastrous game of Truth or Dare, and a full-out brawl between Gokudera and Ryohei (that had almost torn off the plane emergency door and gave Tsuna a stress migraine), they arrived in Namimori.
“It feels good to be home,” Tsuna said brightly. “Kaa-san! I need to visit her! See you guys!” He grabbed his suitcase and jogged away towards his old house, only to find himself accompanied with all his group members.
“She’s as much our mother as she is yours,” Yamamoto said with his trademark grin. “We need to visit her too!” Tsuna smiled at all of them gratefully.
~^-^~
Even if it was two in the morning, Nana Sawada burst into tears when she saw her son standing at the door. “Oh, look how grown up you are, Tsu-kun!” she said as she hugged him tightly. “You’ve brought your friends, too!” Nana wiped away her tears and promptly ushered them in.
“Oh, and Reborn!” She noticed the hitman standing at the back of the group. “Is that you, Reborn?” Tsuna froze. Was there any way to explain Reborn’s sudden… aging to Nana?
“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Mama,” Reborn said smoothly, and Nana looked delighted.
“You’ve grown the most!” she cooed. “I wouldn’t even recognize you if it weren’t for that fedora you always wear! Do come in, and I’ll make omelets for everyone!” Tsuna breathed a sigh of relief as everyone sat down around the table.
It’s sure nice to be home and in this familiar setting again, Tsuna thought fondly. What a nice change, for once.
~^-^~
Of course, the peace wasn’t going to last. After an hour of eating and Nana hugging everybody, Tsuna and his group left the house to fond farewells to journey down the street to the Vongola Mansion.
Hibari was the first out of the limousine and he strode off to Namimori Middle without any excuse, though it was quite obvious what he was going to do. Everyone else entered the grand mansion with their suitcases in tow and the servants were absolutely delighted to see their boss again.
“Young Master Tsuna!” the maids chorused with a curtsey.
Tsuna was very embarrassed. “Please just call me Tsuna,” he said, but the servants wouldn’t have it. He’d earned their respect and their trust, and the servants were going to repay this young man for giving them jobs.
Besides, he was also the Vongola Decimo, and that title itself commanded a healthy dose of respect.
The maids showed everyone to their rooms and, once there, Tsuna promptly fell asleep in his huge bed and began to snore.
Everyone woke up after noon, since the thirteen hour flight had left them exhausted. The maids served everyone pastries for tea, and after an hour-long tea break Tsuna got to work instructing the maids on what to cover up and what to change.
“You’ve been informed of the class reunion, yes?” he addressed the maids that had been summoned to the ballroom. “Saturday is in four days, and I need all the portraits of the tenth generation or first generation to be covered up or taken down. Tell the cooks about the feast that we will hold here, please. Clean everything on the first floor!”
“Yes, Young Master Tsuna!” the maids curtseyed, and Tsuna remembered. “Please treat me and all my family members like we’re guests!” he cried. “Normal guests, please.”
“But, Young Master Tsuna…” a maid objected, and Tsuna shook his head.
“Not on that day!” he pleaded, and the maids reluctantly agreed, and dispersed to do their chores. Tsuna collapsed into a red armchair, and stayed there until Reborn threw a pillow at his face and forced him to do paperwork.
~^-^~
The day had come. Tsuna’s former classmates were going to arrive at ten in the morning, and maids would lead them to the ballroom where the reunion was going to be hosted.
“A normal suit, a normal suit…” Tsuna muttered to himself as he browsed through his rack of expensive suits. “Why don’t I have a normal suit?!” he cried out in frustration.
“Because you’re Vongola Decimo,” Reborn stated matter-of-factly from somewhere behind him, and Tsuna jerked from the shock.
“R-Reborn!” he wailed. “I’m trying to find a normal suit! Why are you in my room, anyway?!”
“Are you looking for this?” Tsuna whipped his head around to see Reborn holding a plain, normal suit in his arms.
“Yes! That! Thanks, Re…” Tsuna trailed off, only to adopt a horrified expression. “Reborn! Don’t!”
But the hitman smirked evilly and tore the suit right in front of Tsuna’s eyes.
And that was how the Vongola boss ended up in a ridiculously expensive tailor-made silk suit, sulking all the while. “Don’t feel so bad,” Reborn said consolingly. “All your guardians are wearing silk suits, too.”
“You look just like a mafia boss, Tenth!” Gokudera said proudly, and Yamamoto agreed.
“But that’s just what I don’t want!”
~^-^~
Nezu Dochirou was first to arrive at the prestigious Vongola Mansion and he admired the tasteful furniture as he was led through the halls. The only thing that was confusing to him was the black cloth covered portraits, but he shrugged and left it behind.
The maid showed him into the ballroom with a “Here we are, sir,” and a curtsey, and Nezu counted his lucky stars due to how they had managed to rent this mansion’s ballroom.
It was Vongola Quality, after all.
He sat down at a plush armchair and waited for his former students to arrive.
Meanwhile, a maid entered the room where Tsuna and his group were currently waiting. “The teacher has arrived, Young Master—sir,” she said with a curtsey.
“Remind the other servants, okay?” Tsuna said, “And thank you,” he added, smiling. “We’ll wait a bit for most of the students to arrive, and then we’ll go in.” Catching the other guardian’s questioning looks, he said, “You may enter on time, but No-Good Tsuna is expected to be late,” and said young man shrugged like it was no big deal.
Needless to say, Gokudera was furious.
~^-^~
Nezu watched as the students began to trickle in, most of them coming up to say hello to their former teacher. He greeted each one of them politely and sat upright like a proper teacher, watching the ex-students like a hawk.
The former students had assembled into their school cliques and groups, and were talking animatedly amongst themselves, each person dressed in semi-formal but expensive attire.
Then Mochida swaggered in, wearing a high-class business suit and with an air of arrogance around him. Nezu’s lip curled in distaste. Mochida walked over to a group of young adults and joined their conversation.
“I own a company already and hold stocks in many major companies around the world!” Mochida boasted, and the other students cowered slightly at his brash attitude.
“I hold a few stocks, too,” a young man volunteered, and Mochida sneered. “What do you do for a job?” he spat, and the young man turned slightly pale. “I-I work as a lawyer.”
“Marvelous profession, isn’t it?” Mochida grinned, exposing a row of pearly whites. “Very well.” And he walked away.
The group seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and they continued their conversation, though shakily.
Nezu stood up and coughed, gaining the attention of the young adults in the room. “My ex-students,” he smiled at them, “I hope you remember me, your previous teacher in middle school.” There was polite clapping. “Please take your seats at the tables, in this magnificent room that the Vongola Enterprises have so kindly rented to us.”
“I own stocks in the Vongola Enterprises!” Mochida whispered loudly.
“Thank you for that bit of information, Mochida,” Nezu said, irritated, “But please refrain from talking until I’m finished.” Mochida simply smirked.
“Hey, aren’t some people missing?” A young lady said.
“Oh, yeah! Do you remember Yamamoto Takeshi?”
“The baseball prodigy!”
“Ooh, I had the biggest crush on him for a while!”
“He’s probably gone far in life! Is he working as a professional baseball player?”
“He beat quite a few records this year, but he’s retired… what a shame.”
“Oh, and that hottie he always hung around with! What’s his name? Silver haired!”
“Gokudera, wasn’t it?”
“Beautiful green eyes, that one.”
“Wasn’t there a third person? No-Good Tsuna!”
“Haha! He failed at everything, remember? I bet he doesn’t have a job!”
“He’s probably sweeping the streets somewhere!”
There was lots of laughter as the ex-class of 2-C engaged in a discussion, guessing what Tsuna worked as. The suggestions got steadily worse and worse and Gokudera, who was standing outside the closed double doors, was trembling in anger.
“Gokudera, don’t break down the doors! That’d be more paperwork, and it’s a waste of your strength anyways,” Tsuna said as he struggled to restrain the enraged Storm Guardian.
“I’m having a hard time stopping myself from charging in there as well,” Yamamoto agreed.
“Herbivores.”
“Thanks, but it’s okay! I’m used to it, anyways. Should we go in?” Tsuna offered. Kyoko and Haru pushed open the doors and conversation inside abruptly died down.
“Hello, everybody,” Kyoko smiled sweetly and after a moment of silence, every classmate burst out talking.
“Kyoko-chan! Is that you? My, you’ve gotten so pretty!”
“Kyoko!”
Kyoko waved and introduced Haru, both of them smiling. “I work as a professional model nowadays,” Kyoko confessed. “I’m in a few magazines, actually.”
“A few?” a fellow female classmate burst out. “You’re in all the major magazines! I’m so jealous!” Kyoko blushed slightly as the classmates continued to interrogate her and Haru.
Of course, both of them had been instructed by Tsuna to not reveal their positions in the Vongola Family to the class.
Suddenly, someone called, “Is that Yamamoto Takeshi?” Everyone glanced behind the two females and their jaws momentarily dropped, both in awe and in fear.
“Oh my god! It’s Yamamoto and Gokudera!” an excited voice squealed, and that cued everyone else’s delayed reactions. They were all a bit subdued, though, because standing at the left was the one and only carnivore: Hibari Kyouya.
“You’re so noisy.” Hibari drew out his tonfas, which was his natural reaction to everything. “I’ll bite you to death.”
Everyone was silent for a bit. “Yamamoto, what happened to your chin?” one of his past friends called out, and he chuckled slightly and answered, “I was in an accident. It’s nothing much.”
The fan-girls in the three young men’s fan-clubs (of course they had fan-clubs, what with them being insanely attractive and all) were overjoyed and the boxes of tissue on every table were being used up in a surprising speed.
“KYOKO!” a voice bellowed. “Where are you to the extreme?!”
“Big brother!” Kyoko waved at him, and when Ryohei stepped forward everyone had to admit that he’d definitely gotten better looking through the years.
“Calm down, Sasagawa,” Hana said with a roll of her eyes. “You’re going to make me and everyone else deaf.
“Hana!” Ryohei roared, his voice softer by just a bit, “How are you to the extreme?!”
“I’m fine,” the sophiscated woman said, sighing. “Of course I am.”
“How is the baby to the extreme?!”
“It’s fine, too.”
The classmates’ reactions were hilarious, but overwhelmingly loud. “I should have invested in three pairs of earplugs,” Gokudera grumbled.
“It’s so nice of you to think of me, too, Hayato!” Yamamoto laughed, and said bomber scowled.
“They’re not for you, baseball idiot! Two are for me and one is for the Tenth!” The two continued to bicker (read: have a lover’s spat) about not much in particular.
“Hey, where’s the guy you two like to hang around with?” a voice questioned.
“Yeah, where’s No-Good Tsuna?” Mochida snickered. “Is he too busy sweeping the streets somewhere?”
“Don’t disrespect the Tenth!” Gokudera growled, readying his dynamite.
“Gokudera!” a firm voice called from the doorway. “Dynamite away, please. Damage equals paperwork, remember?” This voice was soothing to hear and all the adults turned to look at the doorway.
All the young men who had just entered had been wearing expensive suits that Mochida had been seething with jealousy about. How dare they be better than him?! But this man standing in the grand doorway seemed to be wearing a suit that was even more high-class than the four men, and Mochida’s (small) brain was having trouble processing that fact.
This brown-haired man with the soft, enchanting doe eyes looked harmless, and, dressed impeccably in his tailor-made suit, looked very easy to intimidate. But that was if you saw him from afar. Up close, he radiated strength and power, and you would realize that this was not a man you should cross.
He seemed to be in control of everything. Yet when he talked, his voice was soft and unassuming, but you would feel compelled to obey.
To Mochida, this man screamed danger. Because Mochida survived by intimidating people, and this man was one who could see through you and understand everything about you in just once glance.
Mochida decided to take the intimidating approach. “Who are you?” he asked rudely.
The man blinked and tilted his head. A few young women in the back cooed softly, already captured by his innocence. But Mochida could see it in his eyes—this man knew things that young twenty-somethings should not know about, or have experienced. He was wise, far wiser than Mochida himself, and this made him uneasy.
“Do you not remember me?” the man said in that voice that was too low to be a woman’s but too high to be a man’s—somewhere it in the middle, and yet it was beautiful to hear.
“No, why would I?” Mochida answered.
“I’m Sawada Tsunayoshi. No-Good Tsuna.”
And the room promptly erupted into chaos.
~^-^~
“No-Good Tsuna? No way!”
“You’re too good looking to be Tsuna.”
“What are you saying about the Tenth?!” Gokudera produced his dynamite and Yamamoto restrained him by his elbows.
“Calm down, Hayato! Tsuna can handle it!”
“No-Good Tsuna? No way!” Mochida sneered. “What do you work as?”
“I work in the Vongola Enterprises,” Tsuna said timidly, and Gokudera was surprised that he admitted this fact.
“As what? Their plumber?” Mochida threw back his head and laughed.
“Actually,” someone interrupted him, “You’re very far off.” Everyone shivered as a man wearing a fedora slipped into the room. “Tsunayoshi speaks the truth—he does work in the Vongola Enterprises,” said the suave voice, and Gokudera shouted, “Reborn-san!”
The man with the curled sideburns nodded and there was hushed whispering among the former students. “Reborn? Isn’t he a hitman or something? Sounds familiar…”
“You are Mochida.” Reborn addressed the slightly fearful man standing in the middle of the room.
“Y-Yes.” So this was what it felt like to be the mouse instead of the snake.
“I will have you know that Tsuna is a lot more important than a plumber.”
“Reborn!” Tsuna said, slightly panicked. It was never good if Reborn entered the scene.
“What do you work as then?” Mochida chose not to talk to the scary man standing in front of Tsuna, and instead he called to the young man standing in the archway.
“I work in the Vongola Enterprises.”
“I know that! Are you slow?! You’ve already told me that!”
“I know.” Tsuna was getting slightly uncomfortable, because if this continued, he would be forced to admit he was the boss. He shouldn’t have said he worked in the Vongola Enterprises! Tsuna regretted it already.
“What are you then, the repair man?” This triggered some laughter and Mochida smirked.
“He’s not the repair man,” and this was a new voice coming from behind Tsuna.
“Who’s that?” Mochida shouted rudely (again).
A redhead in a dark grey business suit emerged and Mochida suddenly realized that he’d made a grave mistake. “Irie Shouichi!” he gasped. “Irie-sama!”
“Irie? Isn’t he the… the CEO OF VONGOLA ENTERPRISES?” There was a collective shout of surprise and awe.
“Indeed I am,” said redhead nodded. “I can assure you that Tsuna-kun is not a repair man.”
“You-you know Irie-sama?” Mochida stared at Tsuna, and he felt a creeping sense of foreboding as something began to register in his mind.
“Tsuna-kun, Spanner and I would like you to try out one of our new inventions,” Irie nodded at Tsuna and said man smiled happily.
“I would love to, Shouichi!”
Tsuna was on first name terms with the CEO?! Mochida couldn’t believe it. This must be one sick joke.
“I assure you it isn’t,” the man in the fedora announced, and Mochida jerked in shock.
“D-Did you just read my mind?!” he spluttered, and Reborn only smirked.
Nezu Dochirou leaned against the armchair to clear the black spots that were crowding in front of his eyes. This was No-Good Tsuna? Nobody had expected him to get that far in life, what with him failing every subject and all.
Mochida was sufficiently subdued at the appearance of Irie in the ballroom. He was a lot quieter and polite, though he still sent scathing looks at Tsuna and his group every now and then.
Tsuna made up his mind to ask Shouichi to investigate Mochida a bit more, because the Vongola didn’t need anyone who was polite and a suck-up to rich people but rude to poor ones. Tsuna disliked Mochida’s attitude and how he liked to boast.
“Ahem, let’s have a class discussion about our current lives,” Nezu interrupted nervously, and everyone complied even though they were no longer students. “Who do you want to hear about?” the teacher asked.
“Yamamoto! Why did you quit baseball?” a man called.
“Oh, haha, I had more urgent matters to attend to,” Yamamoto said, shrugging, “And baseball moved to my second priority. I still teach young kids now and then, and play in small games, but I’m not part of any major leagues.”
The young man was pretty disappointed. “Who knows how many records you might have broken if you continued playing professionally?”
“I must admit that I regret not being able to play sometimes,” Yamamoto grinned, “But I don’t regret my choice one bit.”
“I want to hear about No-Good Tsuna!” someone shouted, and the majority voiced their agreement.
Tsuna looked at Reborn, slightly worried about what he should say, only to find a gun discreetly pointed at him. It was quite obvious that the hitman wasn’t going to help him.
“Oh, I… uh, I graduated from Tokyo University with a medical and business degree,” he said timidly, and everyone was shocked into silence.
“Both of them?” Mochida groaned softly.
“Yes.”
All of a sudden, a maid ran in holding a phone and curtseyed to Tsuna before urgently whispering something to him as the former classmates watched with interest. “Oh? Okay,” Tsuna said, frowning. “I see… well, contact Dino. He might be able to help.”
With those words, all the guardians moved over to Tsuna and they had a quiet conversation. It was quite clear that Tsuna was the one giving out the orders, and everyone was even more confused when Hibari nodded and said, “I’ll leave the rest to you, omnivore,” and slipped out of the room.
Omnivore?
“Why is everyone listening to you?” Mochida sneered.
“Because…” Tsuna struggled to come up with an answer that wouldn’t give away his position, but Gokudera answered for him.
“He’s our boss, of course!” Gokudera snarled.
“Your boss…? Hibari’s boss?!” Mochida (and everyone else) shouted. “I can’t believe it,” Mochida mumbled angrily. “Hibari has a boss? And that boss is the former No-Good Tsuna?”
Yamamoto heard him and frowned. “Ten years is a long time, you know,” he said cheerfully, smiling, but something warned Mochida that if he dared to insult Tsuna one more time, he would come to a very bloody and painful end.
“We have more than a hundred ways to kill you, you know,” Reborn said with an unfathomable expression. Mochida shuddered.
Kyoko, who had been on the phone since the maid ran in, looked up and said, “Tsu-kun, the Varia are already at the scene. We should leave it to them for now.” Everyone could guess who Kyoko was talking to, judging from the fact that she held the phone a few inches away from her ear and it wasn’t even on speaker.
“Tell them not to make too big a mess, okay?” Tsuna ordered.
“Yes, boss,” Kyoko said cheerfully, and everyone gaped (again). Tsuna was Kyoko’s boss as well? When had this happened? The fact that Hibari called him omnivore already marked Tsuna as very dangerous. Now that they found out about Tsuna being pretty much everyone’s boss—who was he really?
“This is not possible,” Mochida muttered to himself in a desolate (but not cobwebby) corner (this was the Vongola mansion after all. Cobwebs don’t and won’t exist, ever). “This must be a nightmare. I’m going to wake up, aren’t I? No-Good Tsuna isn’t successful in the real world,” he tried to convince himself.
“I heard that,” said the world’s greatest hitman, who had suddenly appeared next to a pale-faced Mochida. Mochida gave a high-pitched, very unmanly yelp and shrank further into his corner.
“That can’t be No-Good Tsuna!” yelled one of Tsuna’s former bullies, laughing with his group. “It must be some kind of replacement since No-Good Tsuna was too ashamed to show up himself!”
“They’re in denial,” Reborn shook his head in mock sadness. “How idiotic.”
The bullies continued to hurl insult after insult at Tsuna and the Vongola boss just shrugged. “I’m fine,” he assured his furious guardians, “Really.”
“You should all calm down,” Reborn smirked. “Wait for the great reveal to come.”
“Did you plan something, Reborn?” Tsuna asked, suddenly worried. “It isn’t going to hurt them, is it?”
“The Tenth is so nice!” Gokudera groaned. “These bastards have been bullying you for the past ten years and you’re concerned for their safety?!”
“I don’t want everyone to treat me nicely because I’m rich and powerful,” Tsuna explained. “Also, I now know who not to hire and who to give a job to, from their attitudes to other weaker people,” he added with a devious grin on his face. “Mochida will probably lose his stocks now. The Vongola doesn’t need people like him in the business.”
“Yes!” Gokudera crowed. “Take that, Mochida!”
Reborn coughed loudly, holding up his gun and all the bullies quieted down at the threat of a bullet in their face. But Mochida hadn’t had enough. “I bet that’s a fake gun!” he yelled. “How old are you, five? And you’re still carrying a plastic gun around!”
Okay.
That was it for Reborn, and even Tsuna couldn’t stop him. “A plastic gun?” Reborn said in a low voice, in that tone that promised death and gore and boiled eyeballs. “I assure you that this gun in entirely real.”
“Playing make-believe now?” Mochida sneered, and everyone froze as the guardians waited for the gunshot that was sure to come.
Surprisingly, no gunshot was heard, and Mochida grew more and more gleeful. “It’s fake! I knew it! I—”
“If I were you, I’d be careful with what I say,” Reborn’s face was covered in shadow as the temperature in the ballroom seemed to drop by a few degrees. “You might get kicked out of the mansion if you aren’t polite.”
Oh. So this was what Reborn was planning: the big reveal. “Reborn!” Tsuna hissed. “It’s a danger to them if they know about the mafia! Some families might try to use them as bait!”
“I’m sure no one wants to kidnap a piece of trash such as him,” Reborn snorted. “He’s worthless, anyway.”
“What are you talking about?” Mochida replied, though he was faintly aware that he may or may not have crossed a line into a very dangerous world. “The owner isn’t here!”
“I promise you, he is,” Reborn said, “And I never lie.”
“Reborn!” Tsuna looked faintly scandalized. “That’s a lie right there!”
“Pfft, they don’t need to know that,” Reborn waved the gun around calmly, like it was the most natural thing in the world. Tsuna just groaned. “Mochida Kensuke, owner of several kendo dojos and holder of six stocks in major companies,” Reborn listed, “Single, and a regular customer to a pub in Namimori every Friday.”
“How-how do you know that?” Mochida looked creeped out. “Are you a stalker? I knew I was important enough for people to want to stalk me!” he said arrogantly, and Tsuna facepalmed.
“I simply have good sources,” Reborn said with an unnerving grin.
“Well, you’re wrong!” Mochida snickered. “I have seven stocks in major companies!”
“No, you have six,” Reborn smirked. “Your Vongola stocks have been canceled by the Vongola Decimo.”
“W-What?” Mochida burst out in outrage.
“He just decided that he didn’t need anyone like you in his company,” Reborn looked delighted and Gokudera snickered.
“You’re trying to fool me!” Mochida accused. “I won’t fall for petty tricks like that!” he announced, thinking that he was incredibly smart to figure it out.
“I’m telling the truth,” Reborn snapped, “And you’d better believe it,” he warned, and Mochida found himself with the cold metal of a (real) gun pressed to his neck. “One shot, and you’re dead,” Reborn said, sounding entirely too gleeful for someone advertising death.
Mochida gulped.
Someone’s phone rang, and Kyoko said, “Oh! That’s my phone!” She answered it and her expression turned grim in seconds, which was startling to many old classmates who were used to seeing her smiling face.
“Tsu-kun, the situation had worsened,” she said quietly as she hurried over. “Levi is already down, and Belphegor is severely wounded in his right arm. A quarter of Varia troops are either dead or unaccounted for. At his rate, they might need our backup in Italy. Hibari-san is already an hour away from the battle scene, though, and he might turn the tables.”
Tsuna was suddenly in boss mode, and all his guardians, recognizing that mode, gathered around. “We’re leaving for Italy,” Tsuna said in an authorative tone.
“Yes, boss,” they all chorused, and everyone left except for Tsuna and Reborn.
“Who-who are you?” Mochida asked, suddenly afraid.
“I’m very sorry that we have to leave early. This mansion will be for your use until 10 tonight, but please stay clear of the fourth floor, as that is for the decimo and his family only,” Tsuna smiled at all of them and briskly strode out of the room.
“You wanted to know who Tsuna really is, didn’t you?” Reborn smirked at all of them. “I’ll give you a clue. He owns this mansion.” With that final statement, Reborn seemed to melt into the shadows and disappear.
“H-He owns this mansion?” Mochida rapidly began to turn a deathly shade of white. “T-That means…”
“TSUNA IS VONGOLA DECIMO?!” all the horrorstruck bullies screamed, before collapsing in a boneless, unconscious pile.