#aclb

“Allegedly,” Reborn says.

“Allegedly,” he agrees, still perusing the contents of the file. “A… talking octopus? Who is this, a cousin of Oodako?” Someone snorts. “Mach 20 speed… He plans to blow up the earth too unless someone else can kill him. A lot of professionals have already tried.” He looks up at Reborn. “Did you get contacted about this?”

“I was. I didn’t take it.”

“Why not?”

He taps the file and Tsuna obligingly continues reading until the end.

When he finishes, he leans back in his chair. “The octopus wants to be a teacher before he blows up the earth.”

“Indeed.” Reborn smirks. “Sound familiar?”

Tsuna huffs. As though Reborn’s tutoring had ever been altruistic. “You didn’t take the job because you think there’s merit in his request; you just want to find out more about him—where he came from and why he’s going to destroy the earth.”

“Correct. However?”

“However,” Tsuna continues with a sigh, “we can’t let a matter like this go unchecked. Governments from all over the world will be keeping an eye on this, especially the Japanese government, since this octopus requested to be put into a specific class at a specific school—which is suspicious all on its own. At any rate, they’ll be sending in their own man as a handler and a teacher, and likely others will soon follow, either legal officers or underworld assassins.”

“An adequate analysis of the situation,” Reborn praises. Tsuna rolls his eyes. “You’ll also notice that the kids themselves will be in training to kill the octopus. We might find some hidden talent.”

“We are not recruiting from a bunch of fourteen-year-olds again.”

Reborn pouts dramatically. Such open emotion is a privilege only within this office.

“But I do agree that we should keep an eye on this,” Tsuna adds. “We’ll send in our own teacher—Basil, maybe. Or perhaps Haru.”

Chrome interjects, “Boss, Haru’s identity is too precious and her civilian work is too public. We can’t afford to risk connecting her to such a high-profile case.”

“Basilicum is busy,” Hibari says.

Tsuna frowns. True, Haru is an excellent spymaster, so they don’t like to advertise her association with them, lest anyone find out that Haru Miura the costume designer and part-time actress is a Vongola; and Hibari values Basil’s input as a senior member of the CEDEF, so they can’t afford to give him a long-term mission in another country either when there’s already so much on his plate.

“Perhaps a different option,” Reborn offers graciously, which means he was definitely looking for an opening. “We send someone undercover, who is largely anonymous but who can also afford to be revealed if it comes down to it. Someone, like Lambo.”

“What?” Tsuna exclaims at the same time as Lambo, who jumps to his feet from where he was lounging on the couch.

“Reborn, we can’t just send Lambo into an unknown situation!” Tsuna continues. “He’s not ready!”

“I don’t want to go to school!” Lambo exclaims, which gets him the stink-eye from Hibari.

“Is he or is he not a Vongola Guardian?” Reborn challenges.

“Future Guardian. Future. He’s still too young,” Tsuna insists.

“But he’s being trained for it and has been since he was five. He may not be able to do anything against a Mach 20 monster, but he can certainly take initiative in a pinch for a bunch of civilian children.”

“Did—was that a compliment?” Lambo asks.

“It’s risky,” Tsuna argues. “He wouldn’t have any supervision.”

“He’s had solo missions before, and leadership training,” Reborn counters.

“Leadership training that he hasn’t completed yet! And the solo missions didn’t bring him far from home!”

“We have many Vongola bases in Japan, and Hibari spends half of his time there. He’ll be able to stay with your parents.”

“Iemitsu’s face is too well-known in the mafia, even now. If someone were to follow Lambo home and see him…”

“Iemitsu is terrible at many things, but he does know how to hide.”

Tsuna lets his head fall into his hands for a moment. He really doesn’t want to send Lambo away, and certainly not all the way to Japan. They’ve kept his identity on the downlow for the past nine years. He’s trained, of course, and he’s participated in missions and is well-informed on the goings-on in the underworld, but that doesn’t mean Tsuna wants him completely exposed before he’s even graduated high school, much less middle school.

With a sigh, he looks up again, scanning the faces of his Guardians around the room before landing on Lambo. He’s still standing, looking uncertain and, suddenly, so much smaller than usual.

“What do you think, Lambo?” Tsuna asks softly. “You’ll be without all of us for a year, except for Hibari’s check-ins—which he will do, if you agree to this. We don’t have a lot of information either.”

“You’ll also get real experience,” Reborn adds. “Information gathering on an undercover long-term mission—it’ll be good for you, and you’ll be able to help the Family more.”

“Um,” Lambo says, eyes darting between the two of them. “Um, well, I mean—" Already, Tsuna can tell that Reborn appealing to his usefulness is working. “Er… I think… I think I can do it. Yeah, I can totally do it! I’m your Lightning Guardian Lambo-sama after all!” He puffs out his chest as his bravado kicks in. Reborn sends a smug smile Tsuna’s way.

Tsuna groans in defeat. “Fine. Lambo, this will be your mission. Please be safe. I’ll give you all the details once everything is straightened out.”