First Words:

First of all, hello there and welcome to this fanfic of mine! Hopefully you'll enjoy it ^^ Disclaimer: the cover art is not mine (it's by a talented pixiv user called Ohagi, and the name's written in hiragana; do check that out if you're interested in that user's art), and I obviously don't own KHR either.

As you've seen from the title and the summary, KIM (Katekyo Illusionist Mammon!) will basically be all about Mammon becoming Tsuna's home tutor instead of Reborn, and how exactly that will destroy canon: it's as difficult as it sounds. However, I am willing to take up this challenge because I absolutely love seeing how canon would be like if certain changes were applied to it: besides, I love seeing different characters interact with each other too and I don't think Tsuna and Mammon have ever talked much in the actual series, if at all.

Even so, I have to admit that I'm really nervous: the amount of skill, creativity and headcanons (there will be many of them) required to pull this off is tremendous, so I can only hope I'll manage it. Whatever the case, this chapter (target) may not be very long, but the next ones are all really lengthy so keep that in mind; this is just the prologue. I don't think this section will be as long in the next targets, so don't be too scared of this^^' Beyond that, it's worth noting that in this story, Mammon is a dude, and this is because I honestly think he's a guy: I mean, he does have the KHR female loss rate (as in, he lost all his battles XD), but by his not-very-girly way of speaking, somewhat sexist comments ("She's just hiding how hideous her corpse looks: female illusionists do that all the time"), and the fact that he was assigned to the male category of the popularity poll, I'm gonna assume Mammon is a dude. Hopefully you're fine with this: his gender doesn't really matter anyway.

"..." = Dialogue

'...' = Quotation marks

Itallics = Thoughts, emphasis

Bold = Intensity, loud words

Bold and Itallics = Extra intensity and loudness

. . . = Pause

Enjoy!

Target 0: That Illusionist from the Varia

When Mammon had been told that Timoteo, Vongola's Ninth Boss, wanted to speak to him personally, he was admittedly surprised. The Varia was an autonomous, underground assassination squad and, as that implied, there weren't many chances for them to even visit the main Headquarters of the Vongola, possessing their own. Their contact with its members was fairly low as well: reports and mission requests would usually be sent by letter, and only members with high positions (like the Guardians or the Boss himself) were able to write those.

Due to that, Mammon couldn't help but suspect the Ninth's motivations, and he was right in doing so: of all things he could have been called for, it was for a mission, but it was no normal mission. It was considered so important that, if unsuccessful, it could bring about the end of the Vongola, and so hard that the Ninth assigned it as 'SSS-ranked', which was a non-existent ranking.

... That mission, disclosed to Mammon with a smile, was to tutor the next Vongola Boss in all areas until he'd become fit for the position.

Needless to say that such a mission was nothing he would ever want to do, so he thought of refusing it immediately. Mammon was no babysitter: he was an assassin, and the last thing he would ever expect from that job was training some boy to become a mafia boss. Not only that, but doing such a thing directly interfered with his own Boss' will, as Xanxus wanted to become Vongola's next boss: even if he was frozen at the time, Mammon was not about to betray him in such a way. Besides, there were many other strong people available for such a job... or were there?

Reborn, by far the best candidate for such a mission, was in the middle of training another mafia boss, Dino Cavallone, as he still had the crippling flaw of being unable to fight without a subordinate nearby: pulling him out of that mission could ruin the Vongola's Alliance with the Cavallone Family.

Lal Mirch was part of the CEDEF, so she (technically) didn't even belong to the Vongola: she had no obligation to accept such a mission, and since she had a high position within that organization, she was fairly busy.

The other Arcobaleno were out of the Ninth's reach, as some didn't even belong to an allied family and others did not want to be involved in those sorts of mafia affairs: none of them could or would accept tutoring a boss from a family they were neutral or hostile towards.

Beyond that, any of the Ninth's Guardians were also out of the question, being not only just as busy, but having also aged throughout the years: the Arcobaleno were the best pick for teaching the next Vongola Boss indefinitely, as they were the strongest in the world and were permanently stuck as infants.

Ultimately, the only convenient option the Ninth had at his disposal was Mammon: he was an Arcobaleno, part of the Vongola and not as occupied, as the Varia was laying (especially) low from their lack of a Boss and lack of trust from the rest of the Vongola, being only able to take occasional missions. Mammon had realized that, but it didn't mean he had an obligation to accept such a troublesome duty.

... That is, if the Ninth hadn't offered him such good payment for it.

The amount of Euros he was going to receive just for accepting the mission was more than he had expected, and Mammon of all people had never had low expectations when it came to money. Double the amount had also been promised to him if he were to complete the mission which, combined, could reach, or even overcome Mammon's collection of money: the mission was that important; tutoring some kid was that crucial.

The fact that the Ninth was so desperate to get Mammon to accept the mission he exploited his love for money only meant that he truly had no one better to take the job. Mammon was aware that he was being taken advantage of, and he still had the repercussions of accepting to tutor a candidate for the position his Boss wanted to take in mind, but money was money, so his answer was obvious:

"... I'll take it."

. . .

Even if he was swayed by money, Mammon did not simply accept the mission of tutoring the apparent next boss of the Vongola without any thought. "Voooi, did I just hear that wrong or did you just tell me you accepted to tutor some random fucking trash to become the next Vongola Boss?!"

With that in mind, Mammon had returned to the Varia's Headquarters to report the mission to Squalo, who had been appointed as a temporary leader. "I couldn't just refuse a paid job offered by the Ninth himself," Mammon defended, "Besides, this could be a chance for us."

"Huh? A chance, you say?!" However, Squalo wasn't convinced: in his point of view, Mammon was practically declaring himself a traitor, which required a whole lot of courage. If he weren't such an important and long-standing member of the Varia, Squalo would have slashed him where he stood, but he decided to have some faith in Mammon.

After all, Mammon was no idiot: he wouldn't simply rush to his death for no reason; he definitely had some plan in mind. "Exactly. Think about it: if I'm in charge of the growth of the Boss' rival candidate, can't I make it impossible for him to get in our way? By 'tutoring' him well and, when you release the Boss and devise a plan to overthrow the Ninth, killing him afterwards, I can accomplish that. If, by desperation, the Ninth ends up taking the Arcobaleno Reborn out of his current mission, it'll only be troublesome on our end," Mammon explained, "It's better to prevent wasting our time killing weaklings than waiting for them to get in over their heads and try to counter us: basically, no resistance is better than pointless resistance."

It was a fairly convincing argument, Squalo reasoned, but it was not enough. "Vooi, won't you make us look even more suspicious by failing to train him properly?! If they think you're half-assing it, they'll obviously replace you!" Squalo pointed his sword at Mammon as if it were his finger, scowling at him.

Mammon was unfazed; in fact, he was smirking. "And you think I can't make it so they don't notice? Who do you think I am, Squalo?" Squalo kept the same scowl while simply staring at Mammon, as if to see if there was anything else he could say back to him.

. . .

Squalo grinned. "Heh, I guess you have a point there." He lowered his sword. "Then fine: to avoid any future trash that could try to get in our way, I'll give you permission to tutor the Ninth's candidate for the position of Tenth Vongola Boss! You better fucking succeed this one, you hear me?! You'll also have to send me the same letters that you're gonna send to the Ninth of your 'progress'; don't you dare forget a single one of 'em!"

"Hmph, of course," Mammon answered as his body started fading into black mist; despite that, his voice could still be heard. "I'll be leaving today, so tell the others about my absence for me." His voice echoed in the room, and it seemed to grow quieter as the mist disappeared through the door. "Goodbye..."

Finding himself alone in the meeting room, Squalo's expression turned serious. "Just what exactly is that old man planning...?"

. . .

Meanwhile, in the Ninth's office, one of his Guardians asked him, "Are you sure about this? Even if he is technically a member of the Vongola, that Arcobaleno is from the Varia; who knows what he could be planning. In addition, because of him, more than half of our funds will be gone."

Timoteo simply smiled, still sitting on his chair. "I know," he answered, "Although there were certainly better choices for the job, I've ultimately decided on him: that is indeed quite the gamble but if it's for the good of the Vongola, I'm more than willing to go through with it."

"Besides," he added, "when he grows up and becomes the Boss, surely he'll be able to recover all that I've spent on his tutor, no?"

... The Guardians only stared at his Boss blankly, observing how his seemingly innocent smile had widened after uttering those words.

Author's Notes:

And so, everything falls into place for this story to start! As you already noticed, this story will be about Mammon becoming Tsuna's home tutor instead of Reborn, and what changes that would bring to Tsuna's life: it's a what if of sorts that I would certainly like to execute well.

In terms of tone, it won't be too serious, just like KHR: at least, I'd like the mood to be one of the only things similar to canon… maybe; Mammon isn't as silly as Reborn, after all. To be honest, I love Mammon, but he's really hard to write: I hope I'll be able to portray him well in this story because there'd be no point to it if he weren't in-character.

Seriously though, I'm not even sure as to why he collects money: because 'life repeats eternally'...? What do you mean with that, are you saying that you collect money because life's on a loop? So, I guess he thinks money doesn't reset as if his loop of a life worked like a new game plus? I guess so, since that would make sense... kind of: I mean, if he could keep the money he'd collect, he'd be filthy rich by his tenth loop or something.

... Or maybe it's actually in the logic of, "Get rich enough to enjoy the current loop of my life to the fullest?" Argh, I don't get this guy! But don't worry, I'll study him hard so as to wrap my brain around his weird logic, or at least try! For this story to succeed, I must comprehend the character that is Mammon to the fullest!

Wish me luck? And, well, hopefully you'll look forward to the next target ^^