{Vongola base, Japan}

"Something's been bugging me," Lal Mirch said as she sipped her drink. Her eyes darted from Tsunayoshi to Hayato before continuing. "How did you manage to survive within the forest, alone without being attacked once?" she questioned. "From what I could tell when I met you, your guard wasn't particularly, raised, and your skills weren't enough to fight off a Strau Mosca, I'm surprised they didn't notice you with your Vongola rings too."

The statement gained Reborn and Yamamoto's attention, who, were also sitting in the dining room.

"A-ah well," Tsuna stuttered under the three adult's gazes. "I- we met someone else," he admitted scratching his head bashfully.

Lal's eyes widened. "Who?" she asked, her voice going up. She hadn't felt anyone else's presence when she encountered the two kids and from the pensive frown adorning Yamamoto's face, she guessed, he too hadn't met anyone other than them in the forest.

Tsuna flinched slightly at the sudden outburst. Seeing his boss and friend in an uncomfortable situation, Gokudera decided to intervene. "It's Yucca dammit. The Varia's cloud guardian, no need to screech woman," he declared.

"No." Reborn interrupted. "Lal Mirch is right, you don't know who to trust yet," sipping his expresso he continued. "What's more, I don't remember us receiving any information about the Varia sending their Cloud to Japan. From what I heard the Varia is quite 'occupied' in Italy at the moment. They wouldn't send him without reason."

"That's not good," Takeshi muttered, his voice low.

The three visitors from the past turned to the rain guardian. Takeshi and Lal's expressions were serious, more so than when they first explained the Vongola's current situation.

"It would have been okay, had it been any other member of the Varia. But, Yucca's not in the Varia anymore," Takeshi confessed, looking up. "He joined the Gesso Famiglia and the Millefiore per extension a while ago. He received an invitation from the Gesso's boss and quitted the Vongola soon after. "

"Wh-what do you mean?" Tsuna asked incredulously, not wanting to believe what the older guardian told him.

"He defected, from the Varia, he's a traitor. Simple." Lal stated harshly.

"W-wait, No!" Tsuna exclaimed, "He helped us!"

"What did he tell you, did he give you anything for you to believe him?" Reborn asked.

"..."

"See? He's a coward, he couldn't even kill you himself and left you to die under the Strau Moscas' hands in the forest."

Tsunayoshi and Gokudera were left speechless.

"Listen up Dame-Tsuna," Reborn called out. "This is the future, people change. Yesterday's friend can be today's ennemi and vice versa."

"You probably don't know," Takeshi added, "but the Varia asked to hand him over if we encounter him and manage to capture him."

Tsunayoshi and Gokudera shivered at the insinuation.

"Otherwise he's to be killed, on the spot."

::

{Melone base, Japan}

"Irie-san" the raven head called out as he entered the room.

Turning around, the redhead greeted the newcomer. "Ah, welcome back uhm... Aster-sama?"

Koro gave a small smile before nodding in agreement.

"So, how was your walk, Aster-sama?"

Koro hummed, "Nyurufufu, It was alright," his eyes narrowed, affectionately as he remembered his small encounter with the young Decimo and his future right-hand man. "Anyway, before reporting to Ran, I wanted to know, what did you think of the flowers?"

Shoichi paused for a second, not understanding, what the older man was talking, about. "Ah! Those Byakuran-sama sent!"

Koro nodded, waiting for an answer. "Ran wanted to know what you thought of them."

"Well... I'll do my best to live up to his expectations."

Koro hummed eyes narrowed affectionately, "That's good."

::

{Millefiore main base, ???}

"You have an incoming call, Byakura-sama."

From the white couch, he was sitting on, Byakuran hummed, eating his marshmallows. Extending his free hand to his assistant Leonardo, he waited for the later to hand him the tablet.

"Who is it?" he asked as Leonardo made his way to him.

"Uhm, it seems to be from Yucca-sama, but I'm not sure," Leonardo admitted somewhat bashfully.

Byakuran perked up at the name, his mood visibly improving before narrowing his eyes in displeasure. "Give it to me," he demanded, setting his marshmallow bag aside.

Placing the tablet in front of him, the, tattoed male clicked on the green button, successfully accepting the call.

Appearing on the high definition screen was a raven-haired man. His feature somewhat similar to Byakuran if you excluded the tattoo and spiky hair. The two pairs of purple eyes stared at each other for less than a second before the older man gave a small bow. Byakuran's smile dropped for a second to show an expression of disgust and displeasure before going back to its usual fakeness.

Under Byakuran's sharp gaze, the raven head didn't cower. Looking straight into the other's eyes (much to the latter's displeasure), Koro began his report.

"Reporting. Your hunch was right, Ran." Byakuran's hand twitched at the name, but he didn't say anything, only listened. "The Vongola are... definitely, moving. Irie-san probably hasn't called yet, but I believe the younger Decimo and his guardians have come to our time," he stated, earning a small smile.

"Really..." Byakuran trailed off. "What made you think so?" he inquired his eyes narrowing dangerously.

"I saw them."

The white head looked at him unimpressed, "And? What did you do?"

"Nothing," Koro declared before Byakuran could answer him, he continued. "I- we believed, Ran-chan would have liked it better this way." Koro finished, his voice gaining a somewhat childish tone in the middle of his speech before going back to "normal."

Byakuran smiled brightly, "Whoa! Yucca-nii-chan knows me so well!" he beamed happily before looking coldly at the man calling him, "Guess, you taking him away wasn't completely useless."

Koro didn't answer, his expression not faltering once, he continued his report. "I asked Irie-san, about the flowers."

Interested in his old "friend's" reaction, Byakuran hummed, urging the raven head to go on.

"I quote: "I'll do my best to live up to his expectations"."

Byakuran narrowed his eyes in reminiscence, an unknown light flashing through them as he hummed, satisfied with the answer.

"Really..." he trailed off, his thoughts unknown to all who looked or listened to him at the moment. "Anyway, should I transfer you to the Japanese base?" he inquired his voice full of mischief.

Koro stared at him for a few seconds, concealing his surprise at the younger male's sudden concern, he passed a hand through his raven locks.

"Well, I- we wouldn't want to impose on Irie-san." Koro muttered, "I think our presence makes him uncomfortable." he confessed.

Byakuran hummed, a mysterious smile adorning his face. "Of course it does," he muttered. Hearing the younger's remark, Koro didn't know whether to feel offended or not. Was he, really this intimidating or was there more to the situation than it seemed?

Nonetheless, Koro decided to ignore the phrase. Mentally shaking his head in dismissal, he resumed."Consequently, I think it would be better for us to go back soon," he admitted. "Worst-case scenario, we'll come back later."

The younger male didn't answer, turning in his assistant's direction, he gave out orders to prepare their return.

Once done, Byakuran turned to face Koro, who had remained on his spot, once more. "Then are you perhaps interested in the Italian base's situation?" he inquired with a mischievous grin.

Koro on the other side of the screen imperceptibly perked up, his eyes flashing violet within his already purples irises. But Byakuran was sharp. At the faint glow's sight, he couldn't help but widen his smile.

"Of course you're interested," he mused, purple eyes narrowed in pleasure.

::

In his room, Koro patiently wrote down a letter. Making use of his calligraphy skills, beautiful cursive letters drawn from the darkest ink appeared on the immaculate paper.

Immersed in his writing, Koro had fully locked himself in his room, only opening it once to ask the men to bring him his dinner.

As he reached the end of his letter, he neatly folded the paper in two before slipping it into an envelope and sealing it with a wax seal. The seal had been custom made for his usage only, a year before he joined the Gesso Famiglia. It showed a cloud lying on top of a cross with some clam on each end of it. The seal was, located on a simple black steel ring which Koro kept as a necklace with a silver chain.

Satisfied, Koro leaned into his seat. His hand gently rubbed the cloud Mare Ring on his left hand's finger before taking another similar looking ring from his coat. This time, instead of a purple gem, a beautiful orange one was, embedded onto the ring.

Staring intently at the two rings, Koro's mind drifted to the yellow embedded ring Irie Shoichi wore on their meeting. How he pitied the poor young adult.

It was evident he was trying his best to hide something from Byakuran when he thought about it. But Ran was just too far ahead of him, while Irie thought Byakuran trusted him, he didn't. 

Otherwise, why did he give him a false ring and not the real deal which now belonged to Daisy?

Well, he was one to talk, both of his rings weren't the real deal. Although Koro supposed that the fact Ran gave him a ring almost identical to him was a higher honor than to receive a genuine Mare Ring.

Then again, if Ran planned on getting rid of him or play him, he wouldn't have exposed the superchery to him on his arrival. It was just too unproductive, inefficient.

With a sigh, Koro took a small box off of the chain around his belt, on the opposite side of his ceramic mask.

In the blink of an eye, a beautiful deep purple flame lit up on top of his ring.

::

{???, Italy}

On his seat, Xanxus rested peacefully. Bester his box weapon lying behind him in a quiet nap.

Tap, tap, tap

Sounds of footsteps coming closer to his room rezoned within the unusually calm corridor. Taking a deep breath, the member stole his nerve and knocked on the door carefully. Unmistakably, scared of his Boss' reaction when someone disrupted his naps, or meal, or reflexion, or drinks, or life in general.

Crash

Yeah, the Boss, definitely wasn't in a good mood now that someone woke him up. "U-uhm Boss, you received a letter," the member hesitantly informed.

Another crash was heard probably another glass crashing against the door. Gulping, the attendant continued, "It's from that person."

No crashing sound came after a few seconds of silent a deep 'come in' was heard.

Sighing in mild relief, the attendant opened the door cautiously, as if afraid of possibly receiving a wine glass in the face.

"There you go, Xanxus-sama," he whispered as he extended his hand which held the white envelope. His body in a 90° bow as he waited for Xanxus to take the letter.

"Leave, trash," Xanxus grunted as he ripped the envelope open. The red wax seal going into pieces in the process.

Not needing to be told twice, the attendant gave another deep bow before excusing himself and going out of the room. Meeting Leviathan on his way out, he bowed deeply once again before hurrying outside. He didn't want to meet other leading members of the Varia. Sure he admired them, but one alone was already intimidating. Having all of them in the same room was just too much pressure for him to bear.

"Is everything alright Boss?" Levi inquired when he came in at the sight of the two broken glasses. Expertly making his way to the shelf, he poured his boss another glass of red wine.

At the question, Xanxus merely grunted his face resting on his left hand as his right one held the letter.

Leviathan didn't ask any more question as he set the glass wine on his Boss' right, on the table. Remaining by his Boss' side, he let himself observe him and catch a few glimpses of the letter he was holding.

The small smirk dancing on Xanxus' lips didn't go unnoticed by him who hurriedly tried to understand why he was suddenly smiling. Although he couldn't help the small frown when he realized who the one responsible for his Boss' smile, was. Refraining himself from grunting, his thoughts were interrupted by Xanxus' loud laughter.

"Trash, come here!" he called out.

On cue, Belphegor, Lussuria, Fran, and Squalo appeared at the door.

Xanxus extended his right hand which held the letter. "Read it, trash," he ordered, his eyes gazing in Bel's direction who complied.

Reading the letter, Bel's grin, slowly fell. Didn't I kill him already? 

Xanxus' laugh, grew louder.

So, Yucca/Koro's situation is now established. He officially is the Cloud and Sky Mare Rings beholder... well the fake one.

Also, the future arc will be made up of a few bonuses chapters which will be about what happened a bit before the future arc began. Example: How did Yucca/Koro come to join the Gesso Famiglia (this is actually what the next chapter will be about I think.)

Thanks for reading, until next time^^