Cloud AU's

x BSD: familiar faces, pt 2

They were still left reeling over the recent info dump they'd gleaned from their (now very suspicious) Cloud.

First off, he lived in Yokohama. Secondly, his mentor somehow knew Mori Ougai, the sole Port Mafia Boss.

From the scarcely known information they -and the rest of the criminal underbelly - had, the Port Mafia is the only criminal organisation situated in the city, although there had been records of others wanting and having failed to establish themselves. The best they'd gotten were a guild from America and a terrorist group.
It's also one of the very few Famiglias that are operating under their governments legal consensus despite their less than pleasant activities.
Not much is known of their members, barely some bits and rumors about how long it's existed and titles of executives - all of said to have killed millions. To cross them is to vanish without a trace of ever having existed.

Add to that Yokohama itself, an autonomous state of Japan.
It is hard to even enter the city -both legal and illegal- because of its strange political climate.
It has its own agriculture and export facilities, government, security and de-facto military.

'De-facto' because its primary function is an extension of the police force while posing as a civilian detective agency. They also serve to monitor the Port Mafia. (Could Skull's mentor be part of them?)

Alas, while they were left wondering over Skull's suddenly more mysterious background than what they had assumed (stupidstulidstupid!!), they didn't pay enough attention to another member of their group who was behaving oddly.

Luce announced their last mission, a field outing to celebrate their time together, meant to happen in a week.

They all seemed very happy about that, mostly because they didn't have to drop their schedule or could return to their usual business. Let it be said that amongst all of them, Skull seemed the most excited about the upcoming days, resembling his bike's engine -- going way over the top.
He was rambling about getting gifts for his return to his mentor and friends, having to introduce Oodako (the pet octupus) he'd 'adopted' after one of their missions.

("The beauty was just wasting away in that lone aquarium, what do you expect me to do --just leave her as is in misery and captivity??!")

Fon had been the only one mildly entertained with it, the rest was mumbling and complaining about the general Cloud mentality apparently not being a recessive gene; he could've told them that weeks ago when Skull was very whiny and very agitated about them making him leave his bike behind once (and never again) on a mission.

So yeah, their contract deadline was trying the end of its long lifespan and they were losing time to investigate Skull while said youth was busy trying to pack, inform his close contacts of his return and trying to teach his pet some tricks -- why would it need to know how to make a phone call??!

(No, Verde was not despairing. He's not. He's above that.)

Then, on the day of their last mission, as Skull had gotten up early to pack some snacks and drinks in a picnic basket, they'd set off in two cars, which had taken some time coordinating who sat with who.

Skull and Verde couldn't be too close to each other as they were polar social opposites. Verde needed his quiet and Skull's profession was quite literally to be a living distraction.
Add to it that Colonello whined when he and Lal weren't in the same car, while Lal rather wanted it that way and Fon-- Fon would be fine anywhere with anyone for the most part, same as Luce and Reborn so long as there hadn't been a prior incident involving them.

So the seating arrangement was this: The first car was occupied by Luce in the front passenger seat to give directions, Reborn as the driver along with Skull and Lal in the back.
The second car was occupied with Colonello as the driver, Fon as front passenger along with Verde and Viper in the back doing their own relatively quiet activities.