Xanxus might not have paid much attention to the Daniela-in-training (as he mentally dubbed Setsuna)...if it wasn't for the fact that less than a month after they absconded with her, the kid somehow convinced Atalanta to take her to an underground lab run by the now defunct Esterneo famiglia and set off one of the triggers Atalanta had about kids.

Specifically the fact some of the victims in the labs that were suffering through inhumane experiments were children, thus royally pissing off the Archer to the point she leveled the place.

The plus side? Daniela now had three new minions to spoil/train, and little Setsuna had picked up a Mist who bore a disturbing resemblance to the Primo/Secundo's own, right down to the weird hairstyle. The kid was obviously traumatized and would likely snap at some point if he wasn't given actual therapy by competent people, but he was loyal...for now.

From what Xanxus had been able to tell, from the limited time he spent with the homicidal little shit, so long as his minions were never threatened this "Rokudo Mukuro" would remain loyal.

That is, when he wasn't trying to one-up Jack in a game of "who can scare the living hell out of the most adults via Mist flames". So far Jack was still winning that game, but only because she had more...material...to work with besides modern horror movies.

Mukuro was still able to creep the hell out of people, mostly by appearing out of the shadows like a demon and using that creepy as fuck laugh of his.

So far Iemitsu hadn't figured out his wife and daughter were removed from Japan, or that Daniela had gotten her claws into them.

Mammon was already prepared with as many cameras as they could get their tiny hands on for the inevitable confrontation. Setsuna was almost seven and Xanxus' limited intuition told him that the fucker would be making another trip to Japan soon to keep up the lie he was a 'good husband'.

This was it. Iemitsu had gone to Japan to see his wife and 'son', unaware they were already in Italy.

He returned in less than two days, panicking about his 'family' being abducted by unknowns. Mammon had insured the neighbors wouldn't see Daniela or the others when they visited, and all they knew was that someone who looked like an obvious mafioso had come in and helped the two move out of the house. They were all too scared to find out who the strangers were, just Nana had gone willingly.

Needless to say Xanxus was thoroughly enjoying the show, as was Daniela.

Since the Vongola Halloween ball was coming up, the two were going to spring the fact that Nana and Setsuna were already in Italy living with Daniela...and that the Varia were declaring the Ninth generation and CEDEF persona non grata until Iemitsu and Timoteo were replaced by competent people who actually put the Family's best interests first.

Since it was Halloween, everyone was going to dress up for the ball. No one would actually dance at the thing, but there would still be costumes.

Setsuna was dressed up as a tiger cub and remained firmly in Atalanta's lap...she didn't bother to dress up, but allowed her Servant form to be visible since no one would notice anything.

Mordred had done the same, just with her Knight armor, while Jack was dressed up as a little bloodthirsty princess since her Servant outfit was definitely not appropriate for any sort of formal gathering.

Daniela was decked out like the Queen of Hearts, whereas Nana had been given an outfit of the Queen's maidservant.

Xanxus, mostly to humor the 'nickname' Mordred had rather lovingly given him among the mooks and Named assassins, was dressed up like a cross between a dragon and a king.

Daniela had laughed herself into hiccups for a full hour after seeing his Dragon King costume, especially since Squalo was dressed in period accurate armor for Camelot, which had Mordred doing her own doubletake.

The two were eagerly waiting for maximum impact, and as if to sense the impending chaos even the infamous Reborn had deigned to make an appearance.

That annoying little troll had made a beeline right for Daniela and was now enjoying the attention the baby Sky was giving him and Leon. Setsuna apparently found the pest fascinating.

Seeing Iemitsu talking with Nono about something with an unhappy look upon his face, Xanxus' intuition purred that if he wanted to cause maximum chaos now was the perfect time.

Reborn's eyes gleamed with anticipation, and he swiftly paid Mammon for one of the cameras they brought for private enjoyment.

Iemitsu scowled when he saw Xanxus there. It was almost a pity the fucker hadn't brought one of his usual 'dates' with him, but perhaps that small 'fortune' was pushing it. There was no telling how Nana would have reacted knowing just how little her husband thought of their marriage.

"What do you want, bastard?" snarled Iemitsu.

"I heard a rumor your wife and kid got kidnapped, and I'm here to offer my condolences," said Xanxus smoothly. Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

Enrico, Massimo and Federico all stood up, apparently sensing something about to happen and discreetly distancing themselves from their father and Iemitsu.

Meanwhile any don with a lick of sense pretended to distance themselves while really spreading out so others could enjoy the coming show and still be within proper hearing range.

Mammon was already renting cameras to various dons or their wives at a decidedly marked up price, so the odds of the Vongola keeping this particular bomb under wraps were zero. After all, they were planning to vanish once the first wave of shock hit and sell the video to the Alliance for a very hefty profit that would help the Varia tide over the initial blow of losing the main house's official support.

Daniela would continue to fund it as discreetly as she could, but that would only last until the old man found out or worse, she croaked.

"Bullshit. What are you really after you bastard?" snarled Iemitsu.

Xanxus' smile was not for the faint of heart and it sent alarm bells down the spines of everyone who saw it...much less had Hyper Intuition.

"Why jackass, I thought it was obvious. I was going to tell you exactly where your little family is," sneered Xanxus.

Dead silence.

"Xanxus, explain," said Timoteo. This wasn't the 'kindly' grandfather he tried to portray himself as, but the Ninth Vongola Don.

Xanxus looked just a little bit too gleeful as Daniela came into view...with Setsuna in Atalanta's arms and Nana walking right beside her.

"Imagine my surprise when I went to deal with my mother's inheritance that I find a baby Sky suffering through neglect and outright hostility. One that has your surname," purred Xanxus.

Iemitsu sputtered when Nana's eyes brightened at the sight of him, and even outed him as her husband. Setsuna, on the other hand, held Atalanta a bit closer because she wanted nothing to do with Iemitsu...at all. And everyone could tell just by looking at her.

"Really Timmy, I know I raised you better... putting a generic flame seal on an active Sky, especially a five year old who just went active? It's a miracle we got to her as quickly as we did...she was sending all the Elements in that town into borderline Discord because of her Sky Attraction and the fact everyone could sense what she was and yet couldn't bond with a distressed Sky," said Daniela, her voice full of absolute disapproval. "Never mind the damage it was doing to her flames."

Iemitsu went pale with fury.

"I don't want my daughter in the mafia!" he shouted, furious.

"Newsflash asshole, you lost that chance the day she went active. All you did was put her through nearly two years of torture with a seal that is used to banish people from the famiglia instead of doing your fucking homework," snapped Xanxus. "If you had bothered to actually visit your wife and daughter after the sealing, you would have seen the damage it was doing to the kid and brought her into the family properly rather than letting her suffer under outright bullying and harassment from everyone around her...including the adults."

"Perhaps we should take this into a more...private...setting," said Timoteo. Clearly he was attempting to do damage control.

"Fuck no. Consider this my official warning that until further notice, the Varia will not answer to any...exclusive...summons from the Ninth generation until a new Don or Donna is in place. You clearly don't have the famiglia's best interest in heart if you think it's perfectly acceptable to seal a five year old with something used to banish people, much less a baby Sky who's only crime was going active in front of her dumbass father."

Timoteo's eyes flared orange, however briefly.

"Xanxus, be reasonable. Surely you don't intend to let your petty disagreements with me get to your head."

Xanxus glared at him, eyes full of fury.

"That's a load of crap, coming from you asshole. After all, you didn't even have the balls to tell me I was adopted and that you only took me in because I looked like the Secundo and had his flames. I know for a fact you never saw my Ma before she contacted the Vongola to claim I was your son," snapped Xanxus. "And I bet any half-assed DNA test would prove it too."

The silence in the room was so thick that you could literally hear a pin drop. The political ramifications alone that the Ninth had named a child he knew beforehand wasn't even his own blood an heir and even claimed the boy to be his illegitimate son... Enrico, Massimo and Federico were already making plans to distance themselves as much as possible from the Ninth generation, because if he lied about Xanxus then what other lies was he hiding.

And sealing a baby Sky just for going active?

Clearly the Ninth should have stepped down a long time ago if he was pulling something like this.

Mammon...made enough money that even their greedy, miser brain was happy in the following weeks after that ball.

Lal, being the sensible person she was...took one look at Iemitsu's near incoherence about the fact Xanxus had more or less relocated his wife and daughter to Italy with no one the wiser and put them in Daniela's care...and handed in her resignation.

She could see a sinking ship for what it was, and she wanted no part in Iemitsu's denial of reality. She had spent far too much time cleaning up after his shit to begin with. She needed a fresh start.

The month long "reprieve" to settle the differences between the Varia and the Vongola main family...and Xanxus made sure to spread the exact terms of what clause he was using to cut ties with the Ninth until a new don was put in place, along with the specific conditions required to legally pull it off... was both the longest and shorted month of his life.

The Ninth really didn't like the idea of the Varia no longer answering to his demands...which meant Xanxus would rather gleefully cut the old man out when it came to the so-called monthly reports which was really the Ninth generation trying to put him in his "place" and remind him that he was the unwanted upstart they had to put up with.

The demands that he come to the Iron Fort to explain his actions were "polite" (read: condescending) at first. As if they were treating the Varia boss like an errant child they had to chide back into behaving.

That ended the second week of the 'ceasefire', two weeks before the Varia officially opened themselves up to the wider Alliance for a slightly higher acceptance rate than normal. They weren't striking out completely, but they were making it pretty damn clear they were tired of the Ninth's shit and by extension the coming implosion of CEDEF under Iemitsu.

Timoteo apparently started to realize Xanxus might be entirely serious about his intentions, and started to up the harassment.

Xanxus felt absolutely zero issues with setting Jack and Mukuro (on loan from Setsuna for "training") on any moles from CEDEF trying to "prove" the Varia Boss was attempting to seize the throne himself.

They weren't allowed to kill the moles, but anyone stupid enough to attempt infiltrating the Varia found themselves on the wrong end of a homicidal pair of Mists. Mukuro took entirely too much glee with driving those fools insane, with Jack pouting and putting the fear of god into the women that managed to make it past.

(To say that the two Mists fit in entirely too well in the Varia was understating a lot. Jack accepted her new Name of Hel with pride...even if Xanxus had to explain the reference to the Norse Goddess. Mukuro, the creepy brat that he was, had been entirely too pleased with being called Nogitsune because he was bonded to a Japanese Sky.)

When there was only one week left, Xanxus had enough of Timoteo's harassment and did something that both amused and shocked the mafia as a whole.

He filed a restraining order against him, which was more along the lines of "if you get within such and such distance of me I am going to end you, so leave me the fuck alone"...compared to what a restraining order normally was.

Then again, those things relied on the cops to actually do their job and insure the one the order was against didn't come back.

Considering Xanxus was in the mafia, that meant relying on the Vindice and it would be a cold day in hell before the Mafia enforcers bothered with anything as trivial as an in-house dispute so long as Omerta was kept.

Though he could be forgiven for openly choking on his coffee when a bewildered Mammon informed him that the annoying pest of a hit man known as Reborn somehow harmonized with the little fluffy kitten that was already turning into the next coming of Daniela.

Any doubts in his course of action died upon having that particular rumor confirmed...the girl would have wasted her potential as a Sky if that seal had remained on any longer than it had, if she was capable of pulling that trolling asshole under her influence when she hadn't even hit puberty yet.

Ironically, that news also solidified Xanxus' position of removing the Varia from Vongola control, because if she was capable of harmonizing with the Strongest Sun to have ever existed (according to popular opinion) then why on earth was the Ninth Vongola don so eager to clip her wings on the whim of her idiot father who didn't even bother to check in on her situation once the seal was actually applied?

The fact that it was becoming increasingly possible that little Setsuna might end up the next Vongola Donna if her growth continued as it had been since entering Daniela's care and having the seal removed was somewhat disconcerting for Iemitsu. His particular star had been dropping like a stone both for the eventual implosion of CEDEF under his management and the fact he had been so quick to try and cripple his daughter's much stronger flames.

(Popular opinion was that Iemitsu had felt threatened by the girl, hence why he had been so quick to seal her rather than train her.)