Chapter Text
Xanxus's first impulse was to ignore the fact that Iemitsu Sawada was his father.
Because, for the most part, it didn't change anything. He was still furious with Timoteo. He still couldn't follow Timoteo's sons. One was dead, the second's flames were too weak, and third was an asshole. He still thought Iemitsu was a moron who would destroy Vongola out of sheer lazy stupidity.
As far as Xanxus was concerned, only three things had change. First, he now knew that the Sky Ring wouldn't reject him as Decimo purely based on his lack of blood relationship to Giotto. Second, that he had – technically – a step-mother he had never met. Thirdly, he now had a younger half-brother that he had also never met.
It was the younger brother that making him hesitate to ignore what he had learned. His Intuition didn't twitch at the idea of a coup or rejecting Sawada as anything other than a sperm donor. But it tingled at ignoring the existence of his step-mother and howled at the idea of ignoring his half-brother. He wasn't sure why.
Maybe he was just curious? He had never really had a brother. One could argue that Timoteo's sons, despite the adoption being unofficial and actually his distant cousins, were his brothers. Xanxus was willing to concede that point in the case of Enrico and Federico who had always treated him like he was their brother. He wasn't as close to either as they were to each other but he was thirteen and ten years younger than them. Massimo was only five years older than Xanxus but he never treated him as a brother. Massimo had always had as little to do with the “little bastard” as he could get away with. Which was a lot and often. Not that Xanxus was complaining about this. He didn't want to spend any more time than necessary in the presence of that arrogant prick either. But it was another area of Massimo's behavior and attitude that Timoteo turned a blind eye toward. If they had a fight, it was always, somehow, the fault of Xanxus.
But Tuna-fish (which better not be the brat's real name) was his actual, no bullshit brother. A younger brother, something that Xanxus could definitely say that he never had before under any circumstances. Maybe he should at least do some research, maybe at least lay eyes on the brat before rejecting him as family?
His Intuition liked that plan. And not being in the habit of ignoring his Intuition, Xanxus stalked out of his office. He had a Mist to find. And then appointment at the range for a therapeutic session of blowing shit up.
***
Step One in the plan was simply research.
Xanxus could hardly just fly over to Japan, pick a random city, and start asking everyone if they knew a brat named Tuna-fish with a braying jackass for a father. Japan wasn't that large of a country geographically speaking but it's population size was nothing to sneeze at. That method would take forever to accomplish his goal, if it ever did. And that method would very quickly capture the attention of Timoteo and Sawada. Which he didn't want. Neither of the older men but especially Sawada (who had never liked Xanxus very much) would be pleased by his sudden interest in Sawada's civilian wife and kid. The fact that he had never shown any interest in them before now would be a red flag even Sawada wasn't stupid enough to ignore.
If they found out, they would want to know why. And Xanxus had no intention of letting them know the why anytime soon. See how they liked being kept in the dark about something important that directly involved them.
So this research needed to be done discreetly.
Step Two would be scouting out the situation. Mostly to assess what the security situation was. Some of the security protocols would turn during research but Xanxus was an experienced enough assassin to know that people don't always write down their entire security arrangement and left it where anyone with the right know-how could find it. And those security measures that aren't written down anywhere can be the most dangerous. Especially to the unwary.
And again this task would require discretion to avoid the attentions of meddling old men.
Step Three was arranging for himself and at least one Guardian, possibly two, to travel wherever in Japan the brat lived. Which also needed to be done discreetly and with his own money to avoid attention. No problem money-wise. Xanxus might be young but he was still Varia Fucking Quality. His services did not come cheap.
Neither did Mammon's. As their Sky, Xanxus got a discount on said services but they still weren't cheap any measure of means. But he wanted the best and he wanted someone he could trust. Mammon fit that bill on both accounts.
Now he just needed to wait and see what the Mist uncovered.
TO BE CONTINUED. . . .