A Home Tutor

16:20, 23 August 2017

"Curse this! He went over there!"

The Estraneo Famiglia never thought this would happen, even over their arduous, arduous years of constant trial and failure in their scientific research. They were so close-- so, so close to completing their experiment.

So, so close to succeeding.

A large explosion destroyed the west wing, and a wave of children poured out, escaping, escaping-- escaping like lost souls set free from their hell.

This gave the Mafioso more work on their hands. Some captured the escapees, some panicked and some yelled orders to each other; while the rest were focused on locating the intruder that vanished in that moment's distraction.

A cloaked figure simpered from his comfortable seat on the roof. He was dressed completely in black, aside from a white clay mask that covered the large of his face. His mask exposed one of his orange eyes-- sharp and solid, standing out in the darkness of the night.

The intruder was an abnormally young one-- young, so young, he probably wasn't even a teenager. He was short enough to pass as a preschooler, but in fact, he was a child that had just entered grade school.

He stood up, heading over to the other edge of the roof. He spotted a window, and slipped in.

His small figure made it easy.

----

He found himself viewing a morbid scene of carnage.

Deep, dark crimson caked the whole room, and the lucid stench of iron filled the room. Gore was splattered all over the place, terribly messy and disgusting pieces of flesh were splashed out of corpses--

Urgh, he thought. How messy.

But who would have done this...?

The intruder spotted another boy, around his age. That other boy stood in the midst of the bloodbath-- undeniably the cause of it all.

The boy held a trident in his hands, and his eyes were-- Mismatched.

That eye didn't feel normal, not at all.

But the intruder knew more than to show signs of fear now.

The blue-haired boy turned to the intruder, and gave him a wickedly innocent smile. "Oh, I thought it was noisy out there. Are you perhaps an intruder?" he questions in an amused tone, as if a taunt, but the intruder did not take the bait.

The intruder nodded, but gave no word of response.

Impulsively, the blue-haired boy threw the trident he was holding. He threw it straight forward, as if it was a javelin, aiming it right at the intruder.

The intruder, taken by surprise, ducked aside just barely enough to avoid being impaled in the chest. However, it sliced deeply through his left forearm, leaving a gash that burned and bled horribly. The torn flesh made him hiss and he reached for the cabinets right by him.

He found a clean cloth and pressed it on the wound.

The blue-haired boy smirked widely, terribly amused now. "You're pretty experienced."

The intruder nodded in mutual recognition, and so their eyes met again. They eyed each other for a long, long moment--

The intruder leaps back out the window.

-----------------------------------

------

7 years later

It was 3 AM.

27 cursed to himself as he checked his phone. It was already terribly late. He definitely wasn't expecting that job to cause this much overtime.

He hopped from one roof to the tree, and to the next roof, then to the ground. He was nearing his house now.

He climbed up the tree next to his house.

A family of birds nested there. He carefully laid the birds on the underside of the mask-- and hid the mask in the nest, camouflaging it with more leaves and twigs.

He then ducked towards his room window, lifting the unlocked windowsill and sliding in, closing it back down as quietly as he could.

He breathed out a sigh of exhaustion.

Shaking his hood off his head, his brown tufts of hair made itself known again. He sighed. Unzipping his black hoodie and taking it all off, he remained in a tank top and sweats. Prying off his gloves, he stepped towards the closet.

He reached into the back of the cupboard, where a secret compartment was hid behind piles of old clothes. Picking out a thumbdrive, he hid his clothes inside.

Catching the deep, dark scar on his left forearm, his lips curved upwards in a smile. It was a nostalgic scar that made him wonder about his old friend. It made him remember those days where he did nothing but mess around recklessly--

(He cringed as he remembered how the wound had to be manually sewn up later on.)

But seven years had already gone by, so he shouldn't be feeling melancholic now.

He stuck the pendrive into his laptop, and switched it on.

This teen, known more widely as 27, was a freelancer. He was a money-loving brat that did everything if he was paid, but at the very least, he was good at his job.

Typing away indecipherable technical jargon into his computer, he scrutinized the speedy information he was struggling to read up on.

It seems like the Nono is retiring soon, he thought to himself. The Decimo selection will begin soon, then.

[ Bronco: Long time, 27! ]

27 was surprised at the suddenly message that popped up. He smiled at the casual treatment, and started replying.

[ 27: Hey there. Please don't talk to me, I'm working. ]

[ Bronco: Ehhhh? Well, anyway anyway- You're in Vongola's base this time, I guess. You know about Nono's retirement?]

[ 27: Yep. Who's going to be next? Xanxus? ]

[ Bronco: Probably. But I've also heard rumours of another candidate. ]

[ 27: And that would be...? ]

[ Bronco: That's for you to find out! ^^ ]

[ 27: Dammit. ]

[ Bronco: And so, I have a mission for you. ]

[ 27: Sure. ]

[ Bronco: Think you could drop by Namimori, Japan? Reborn's heading there to tutor the heir. I need you to give him a letter. I'll give ya a billion yen. ]

{ 27: Sure, I'm right around the corner at the moment. ]

[ Bronco: I've placed the letter at the second branch of the seventh tree from the left, as usual; >v<. The money's sent to your bank account, of course. ]

[ 27: Deal. ^^ Thanks for your patronage. ]

-----------------------------------

27 had dozed off on his desk at some point before daylight.

In the middle of the night, he had run to collect the envelope, and once he'd gotten back, he didn't have enough energy or willpower to do anything else and conked out.

The door blasted open angrily, and a loud screech followed.

"DAME-TSUNA!" the male yelled in an impossibly loud voice, "Wake the hell up! Where the FUCK's my breakfast?!?"

27's identical twin was similar to him in everything but personality. Sawada Kakeru had blue eyes, but 27 had brown eyes.

At the sight of his twin, 27 inwardly cursed.

"You loser!" Kakeru banged the door again," Don't make me repeat myself! Why the hell is breakfast not ready??"

Tsuna could only stare back, as he had no words to reply with.

"You're absolutely useless!" Kakeru left the spiteful words, and slammed the door close.

Tsuna stood up and got ready for school. Then he went downstairs and made his lunch, as well as taking some bread for breakfast as he was getting late.

His twin had been grumbling nonstop as he bit on his bread..

Suddenly the doorbell rang.

"Dame-Tsuna, go get it."

Tsuna did as told, though he was washing the dishes.

Silently he thought to himself, why did Nana have to be out today of all days?

But his thoughts were stopped at the killing intent leaking out from the door.

He gulped as he reached for the doorknob. "Hurry up, Dame-Tsuna!"

He opened the door to find an infant staring back at him. "Ciaosuu!"

[Wait, isn't this Reborn?] Tsuna thought to himself.

"A baby? What's a baby doing here? Shoo!"

Reborn adjusted his fedora and scowled.

"I'm Reborn. A home tutor."