Trader In The World Of Pirates!!!

"What!? How is this possible!!?"

  XANXUS stared at the massive Onix that had intercepted his attacks, his expression twisting in disbelief, and his eyes flickered with uncertainty.

  After all...

  the flames from his full-power attack were hot enough to melt steel plates with ease.

  Even concrete walls reinforced with steel could be incinerated in an instant.

  But now...

  seeing the unscathed Onix, XANXUS couldn't accept that this was reality.

  How could such a powerful creature exist in this world!?

  As a native of the Mafia world, XANXUS had no understanding of Onix's abilities.

  If only he knew a little about Pokémon, maybe he wouldn't look so baffled.

  Being a rock-type, Onix has a natural resistance to fire-based attacks.

  Plus, it's over level 30 and just used a combination of Harden and Protect moves...

  It wasn't hard for it to withstand a fire attack with barely level 30 strength.

  But unfortunately...

  XANXUS, ignorant of all this, had no time to understand.

  Meanwhile, Hibari's fury surged within him, transforming into a powerful force that strengthened his body.

  Having been tricked once by XANXUS, Hibari advanced, his speed now terrifyingly faster than before, almost as if he was teleporting.

  "What an unpleasant fight..."

  "You're still no match for me or that guy!"

  Boom!!!

  The Tonfa, imbued with the force of his dying will flame, swung down with great might, slamming into XANXUS's head.

  In an instant, XANXUS's vision blurred, and cold liquid trickled down his forehead.

  But in the next moment, his body could no longer sustain consciousness, and he crashed to the ground with a resounding thud.

  With XANXUS's defeat, the raging flames within Hibari slowly extinguished.

  He raised his leg and kicked XANXUS's body over.

  Then, as if handling trash, he yanked the half-empty ring off XANXUS's finger.

  Without hesitation, Hibari tossed the ring towards Tsuna with an expressionless face.

  "Here, take it."

  Hibari said this calmly, though a glimmer of something flashed in his eyes:

  "Now, our agreement is fulfilled."

  "Yes." 

  Tsuna nodded, placing the Vongola ring onto his hand, completing the set.

  In the next moment, flames erupted from the ring, burning like a sacred fire that would never be extinguished.

  "Thank you, Hibari."

  Though the power surging from the ring was immense, Tsuna remained calm and composed, expressing his gratitude in an even tone.

  With XANXUS's downfall, the tumultuous battle for the rings finally came to an end.

  The result was clear...

  The entire Varia squad was defeated, scattered, or gravely injured.

  Even their elite assassins, shaken by the fight, would be out of commission for a long time.

  The Varia's central base, a once-proud landmark on the battlefield, was completely destroyed by Hayato on a whim.

  Rebuilding the Varia base on these ruins would be nearly impossible.

  And with that battle, Tsuna and his six guardians became legends!

  Tsuna had officially become the Tenth Boss of the Vongola Family!

  There was, however, a minor incident during the battle.

  The hidden Ninth Vongola Boss, concealed inside the Mosca robot by Varia, was discovered by Tsuna's extraordinary intuition.

  Luckily, Takeshi's attack had hit the control system directly, sparing Mosca from further damage.

  As a result, when the Ninth Boss was rescued, he was still in sound mental condition.

  As for the ring battle itself, whether it was part of a scheme by the Ninth and Cervello or if XANXUS had manipulated events... 

  None of it mattered anymore to Tsuna, who was now on his way back home with his friends.

  What did being the Vongola Tenth mean to him?

  Tsuna had never cared for such a title from the beginning.

  He simply...

  didn't want dangerous people like Varia, who would do anything to achieve their goals, to disrupt his peaceful life.

  That was all.

——

After returning to Japan, Tsuna and the others quickly resumed their ordinary, peaceful lives.

  But little did they know...

  from that day on, their names had become infamous throughout the Mafia world!

  The Varia Organization, the elite assassination squad of the Vongola family, feared by all in the Mafia underworld...

  had been utterly crushed by their own people.

  The Mafia world was thrown into chaos.

  Soon, a rumor began to spread among the major Mafia families:

  The new Vongola Boss resented the Ninth's prolonged rule. As a hidden prince of the underworld for seventeen years, he had finally risen up, leading his men in a rebellion against Vongola's headquarters.

  In the end, the Vongola family overcame the new successor, but only at the cost of destroying Varia, the Ninth's feared assassination force, and leaving the Ninth Vongola gravely injured. 

  With this victory, the new successor took his place as the Tenth Boss.

  As soon as this rumor surfaced, it was immediately accepted as fact by the major Mafia families.

  After all, no one could believe that the Ninth would sacrifice his own power and annihilate the terrifying Varia on purpose.

At the same time...

  All the mafiosi shared a common understanding in their hearts:

  The Tenth Generation Boss of the Vongola family would be a ruthless and powerful individual!

  In particular, certain families hostile to Vongola suddenly began feeling uneasy.

  Some smaller families, unable to handle the mental pressure, even announced their disbandment outright.

  It was an outrageous development.

  Although the Vongola family quickly came forward to refute the rumors and reveal the truth, no one believed them.

  Varia, a unit directly under the Ninth Boss, rebelled?

  Who didn't know that the boss of Varia is the Ninth's own son?

  He rebelled? 

  Was that even necessary!?

  This only made the major mafia families more wary of the Vongola family's heirs.

  Look! Just look!

  Under the pressure of the new Tenth, the Vongola family is blatantly lying!

  It seems the truth about that battle might be far more terrifying than the rumors suggest!

  Otherwise, why would the Vongola family, still led by the Ninth, feel the need to fabricate stories about their next heir?

  Suddenly, the underworld was in turmoil, and paranoia spread like wildfire.

  Major mafia families began recalling their forces scattered across the country, preparing to deal with the new head of the Vongola family.

  Some families even started to surrender to Vongola, hoping to secure peace for the next few decades.

  Tsuna could have never imagined that...

  while he was still undecided about becoming part of the mafia...

  the outside world was already crafting legends about him!

——

Tokyo.

Namimori Middle School.

  "Yes! I actually scored 25 points!!!"

  As the school bell rang, Tsuna carefully pulled out the math test paper he had been too embarrassed to look at earlier because his crush, Kyoko was nearby.

  The moment his eyes landed on the bright red score, Tsuna shouted excitedly.

  "25 points! That's a whole 4 points higher than my last test!"

  "Looks like studying isn't as hard as I thought!"

  It had been half a month since the ring battle.

  Tsuna and his friends quickly forgot about everything that had happened in Italy and returned to their daily routines.

  Go to school, come home, eat, sleep.

  If there was any difference between them and other students...

  it was that Tsuna, Takeshi, Hayato, and the others had to rush to the training center every night to endure three hours of grueling practice.

  Fortunately, aside from Lambo, they had all more or less mastered the basics of "Shaving."

  Although they still struggled to use it in battle, it was surprisingly handy for everyday travel.

  On this particular day...

  Tsuna, who was still thrilled about his "high score," quickly ate dinner at home and rushed to the training center in the forest at the edge of the city, with a noisy Lambo on his back.

  The training regimen was the same as always—Tsuna, with his guardians, and their Pokémon...

  participated in live combat training against Ace and his Charizard.

  By now, Ace and Charizard had regained some of their strength.

  What surprised Ace was...

  the suppression of their powers in this world didn't weaken them; instead, it seemed to strengthen them.

  Even though Tsuna and the others used siege tactics against Ace and Charizard, with a dozen fighters going up against two...

  after nearly ten days of training, they were still easily defeated, left utterly exhausted, and thrown one by one back into Tsuna's yard by Charizard.

  By now, Tsuna had grown used to it.

  No matter how intense the training was...

  nothing thrilled him more than today's 25-point test score.

  However...

  even while thinking about his grades, Tsuna couldn't help but notice something seemed off about Ace today.

  During their battles, Ace appeared distracted, and had even narrowly avoided getting hit several times.

——

After the training session ended...

  Though exhausted, Tsuna, concerned about Ace, couldn't help but ask:

  "Ace-sensei, is something on your mind?"

  "Huh?"

  Ace, who had been lost in thought, snapped back to reality and smiled slightly with a half-grin.

  "Am I that obvious? You actually noticed?"

  "Well... not exactly..."

  Tsuna pondered for a moment and then added:

  "It's just that Ace-sensei seemed so distracted that you accidentally hit Hibari-senpai too hard, making him cough up blood."

  "Uh...haha...that's true..."

  Ace rubbed his cheek in embarrassment, and after some thought, he said:

  "You probably already know my identity..."

  "I'm an advance scout from the Transdimensional Chamber of Commerce."

  "And today, my direct boss, Sir Leo, the Dimensional Merchant of the Transdimensional Chamber of Commerce, has officially arrived in this world."

  "What!!!?"

  Despite being drained from the training, Tsuna jumped up in shock.

  "You mean..."

  "The man who can destroy worlds has come to our world!?"

  Tsuna immediately began scanning the area, looking around frantically.

  "Is he watching us right now?!"

  "No, no."

  Ace chuckled.

  "You little guys wouldn't even catch his attention."

  "As far as I know, Sir Leo is currently at the Vongola headquarters, talking with the Ninth Boss to discuss a cooperation deal."

  "Cooperation? What kind of cooperation?"

  Tsuna was taken aback and immediately grew curious.

  Their conversation quickly attracted the attention of the other guardians.

  Even though they had known Ace was from another world for some time...

  after spending so much time together, that detail had almost become irrelevant.

  But with the arrival of Leo, they were reminded once again of Ace's otherworldly origins...

  and now, all of them were listening intently, eager to learn more about this new secret.

Ace didn't mind at all; in fact, he sympathized with everyone's curiosity.

  After all, that's how he felt when he first arrived in this world.

  Without much hesitation, he began sharing some key highlights of Leo's actions in the pirate world with Tsuna and the others.

  From easily delivering a crushing blow to Akainu, the Navy's strongest combat power, to hosting a Pokémon League, opening a Pokémon battle zone, and changing the entire structure of the pirate world...

  Each of these seemingly casual anecdotes landed like a tidal wave on Tsuna and his guardians, leaving them utterly stunned.

  It was only at this moment...

  that they fully grasped what it truly meant to have the power to change the world with just a wave of the hand!

  Compared to the legendary Leo, who Ace described so casually, Ace himself—who was merely training them to become stronger—suddenly seemed far less impressive.

  After all, no matter how hard they trained, could they ever hope to reach the level of reshaping the world?

  Was this the vast difference between a king and his pawns?

——

Night.

  Perhaps it was Tsuna's distracted gaze that gave him away.

  Ace unceremoniously kicked him off Charizard.

  Dragging his tired body, Tsuna slowly made his way back to his bedroom.

  However...

  the moment he stepped inside, he sensed that something was wrong.

  "Reborn?"

  "Reborn!?"

  Staring at the empty room, Tsuna was taken aback.

  Logically, this should be Reborn's usual time for nighttime tutoring.

  Normally, Reborn would be teaching Tsuna about math, physics, or chemistry at this hour.

  Especially today, Tsuna was actually looking forward to it, given his 4-point improvement on the test.

  But after searching around, Tsuna confirmed that Reborn wasn't home tonight.

  Approaching the desk where Reborn usually conducted their lessons, Tsuna noticed a letter left behind.

  [I'm taking a day off to deal with something.]

  [—To the good-for-nothing Tsuna.]

  "What short notice."

  Tsuna muttered with a hint of disdain before weakly complaining.

  But his attention quickly shifted to the window, where the full moon shone brightly in the night sky.

  Needless to say, Tsuna could already guess...

  Reborn's outing was probably related to the dimensional merchant.

  But who knows...

  if Reborn would cause trouble when he returned.

  With a sigh, Tsuna muttered to himself.

  "I hope everything stays peaceful."

  With a wish he didn't quite believe, Tsuna took a shower and changed into his pajamas.

  Exhausted from training, he soon drifted off to sleep.