The Eighth Vongola Ring
Tsunayoshi Sawada stepped out of Namimori High School with a sigh of relief. It had been another horrible day at school as "No Good" Tsuna. His head still throbbed from where the baseball had bounced off. With Yamamoto pitching, though, he supposed he should be glad that it wasn't bleeding.
As if thinking about him had summoned him, Yamamoto caught up to him outside the school gates. "Hey Tsuna!" he said, smiling, as they walked down the street, "Sorry about the baseball. I got a little carried away."
"It's ok. It doesn't even hurt anymore," Tsuna responded, unconsciously rubbing the still-sore spot.
"Jyuudaime!" a gleeful voice rang out and Tsuna turned to see a tall boy with floppy silver hair running over to them.
"Er, hi Gokudera," Tsuna said, looking uncomfortably around and at the people who had stopped to stare at them.
"Hi boss!" Gokudera said brightly before turning to Yamamoto angrily. "Are you trying to convince the Tenth to give you the spot of right hand man behind my back?"
Yamamoto laughed. "You're always so serious about this mafia game, Gokudera," he said.
By the time they had reached Tsuna's house, the group had acquired two more members, Kyoko Sasagawa and Haru Mina. Together, they walked into Tsuna's kitchen, where Lambo and I-Pin sat, happily munching on rice balls.
"Hello everyone!" Nana Sawada, Tsuna's mother, said cheerfully. "Are any of you hungry? I made oniigiri." She presented the plate to the kids and everyone took one. When Tsuna reached for one, though, Reborn smacked his hand away.
"Tsuna has to do his math homework before he can eat," Reborn declared.
Before anyone could say or do anything more, though, there was a knock on the door. They all looked at each other in confusion. All the people they knew wouldn't knock before they came in. Nevertheless, Nana went to open the door.
Standing there was a tall, slender girl dressed in a short green miniskirt and a blue halter-top, a black leather trench coat completing the ensemble. Her long golden hair reached to her waist, with two red streaks framing her face. Her aquamarine eyes sparkled like gems in the sun. Her lips were full and soft pink, her face perfectly symmetrical, and her legs and arms were perfectly formed. She was slender and tall, but still obviously fit.
Tsuna, the only one in the room who had a clear view of the door, gaped, and then quickly shook himself. He'd learned a long time ago that unexpected visitors were rarely a good sign.
"Hello. You must be Nana Sawada. Is Tsuna Sawada at home?" the girl asked, smiling an absolutely dazzling smile.
Mrs. Sawada seemed more dazed than usual as she smiled back absently, "Oh how nice, you must be another one of Tsuna's friends from school. He's getting so popular lately! He's right through there; in the kitchen," she gestured behind her.
"Thank you," the girl said brightly, sailing past the woman and entering the kitchen. She turned immediately to address Tsuna, bowing. "Greetings, Jyuudaime. I'm honored to meet you."
Tsuna caught himself gaping again, and this time he could feel his head becoming foggy and unfocused. It took a few minutes for his head to clear, but when it did he answered her. "Sorry, but…do I know you?"
"This is Destiny Storm, the 'Deadly Rose' of the Motto family," Reborn said, walking to the edge of the kitchen table, his customary enigmatic smile firmly in place.
"What are those?!" Tsuna yelled, pointing at the ridiculously pink and sparkly goggles that the mafia baby wore.
"The Deadly Rose is in possession of the legendary Marisu power. It makes everyone who sees her act completely out of character. These goggles negate it," Reborn explained.
Tsuna, who now noticed that his head felt much clearer the longer he looked at Reborn and away from Destiny, now looked around the room. Gokudera was blushing madly and had an enraptured look on his face, though he appeared to be desperately trying to look away all the same. Yamamoto, on the other hand, had shrunk into his chair, completely dejected; Lambo was sitting quietly on the edge of the table, meekly letting Destiny pat his head; Kyoko and Haru were both glaring angrily at her from the other side of the table while I-Pin clung to her leg.
Tsuna turned quickly back to Reborn, feeling strange just from that short glance. "I think we're all going to need a pair of those goggles, Reborn," he said.
"Can't," Reborn answered simply.
"What! Why not?"
Reborn held up one finger dramatically. "I only have one pair."
"There's no way to get any others? Maybe we can buy some."
"Can't."
"Why not?!"
Reborn pointed dramatically at the chameleon resting on his hat. "Leon ate them all."
Tsuna's head thumped onto the table. "I'm…not even going to ask. What's the point?"
"So, what are you doing here, Destiny?" Reborn asked.
"I've been recruited by the Vongola family," Destiny answered, her musical voice making Gokudera sigh happily and then, with great effort, smack himself.
Kyoko and Haru stood up simultaneously, still glaring. "I don't know what she's talking about, but I don't want her anywhere near me. I'm leaving," Kyoko declared, her tone unusually harsh. She stomped out of the house.
"No, wait!" Tsuna called, but Kyoko didn't even slow down.
"She shouldn't be anywhere near the babies. She's a horrible influence," Haru said. She walked around the table and snatched Lambo out from under Destiny's hand. She tried to gently pull I-Pin away, but the little girl only hung on harder and eventually Haru gave up. Destiny watched all this with pity in her eyes.
"Reborn-kun, do you want to come, too?" Haru asked.
"No, I'll stay here," Reborn answered.
"Fine. But Lambo and I are leaving."
Haru huffed angrily and stormed out of the house. Reborn turned back to Destiny and smiled enigmatically. "So, what are you doing here?" he asked.
"My family felt that you needed my special talents more than they did. They were very sad to see me leave, but of course I had to go where I was needed most," Destiny responded, her amber eyes growing large so that they almost overwhelmed her face.
"You mean you've been pawned off on the Vongola family.," Reborn replied firmly. "What happened to the Motto family?"
"They were terribly cruel to me. My parents died when I was very young and the people who adopted me beat me and raped me and wouldn't let me have a pony. The Mottos did terrible genetic experiments on me so now I'm a great fighter but I have very tragic scars. I finally ran away when I was six and lived on the streets until the Vongola family took pity on me and let me join," as she said this, her eyes filled with tears that glistened on her cheeks unnaturally, as if they were made of glitter-glue.
Yamamoto jumped up, knocking over his chair in the process, and reached up to put a hand on her shoulder, but then pulled away shyly. "Please don't cry, Destiny," he said, his normally exuberant voice soft and desperate. "You're safe now."
Suddenly, Gokudera grabbed the baseball star's arm and dragged him out of the house at a flat out run, covering his eyes as he went and shouting back over his shoulder, "Don't worry boss, I'll come back for you!"
Tsuna himself desperately wanted to follow them, but somehow couldn't seem to bring himself to actually do it. The feeling was incredibly odd.
Destiny looked curiously after the pair and then pointed over her shoulder. "Those two are a couple, right?" she asked.
"What?" Tsuna said, rubbing his eyes,."Of course not. That's ridiculous and…wrong."
"Thank you for stopping by. Enjoy your trip to Italy," Reborn said.
"Oh, I'm not going to Italy. I came here to tell you that I was given the eighth Vongola Ring! I'm a member of Tsuna's family now!" Destiny exclaimed, spreading her slender arms wide, her long, deft fingers splayed and her now emerald eyes sparkling with triumph. Her tears had vanished,
"That's great!" Tsuna exclaimed. He stood up and hugged the girl. "I'm so glad that there's another Vongola Ring out there that for some reason I don't need any other information! I'm ecstatic that you'll be joining my mafia family and I think we should date now! I don't know why I'm talking like this! I think I should go lay down!" he practically ran up the stairs to his room, tripping halfway up and then scrambling on hands and knees the rest of the way.
Reborn looked up at Destiny impassively through his ridiculous pink goggles. "I've never heard of an eighth ring. What's it called?" he asked.
"The Ring of Snow," Destiny answered, smiling brightly and showing perfectly formed, perfectly white teeth.
"Can I see it?"
The girl handed the ring over, taking it from a pocket on the inside of her trench coat. Reborn looked at it closely, turning it over in his hands several times before handing it back to her.
"It's made of cardboard," he declared.
"What?" Destiny exclaimed incredulously, gripping the ring protectively as her as her eyes filled with glitter-glue tears again. "It is not! The Ninth mafia boss himself gave it to me after my parents died so tragically! I've had it since I was a child and I learned to use it while I was living on the streets in order to keep thugs and child-slavers away," the tears were streaming down her face now, dripping in large shiny drops off the end of her chin, which was not too pointy or too rounded, but just the right shape.
"You're crumpling it right now," Reborn pointed out mildly and indeed the ring that Destiny held was bending as she gripped it tighter and tighter.
"That's only because I'm super strong from the genetic experiments," Destiny insisted, her tears drying up again and her wounded look was replaced with one of incredible anger, making her normally rosy cheeks flame like a binary star system. She discretely smoothed the ring into shape and put it back in her pocket.
Reborn stared at her for a minute, and then jumped off the table, heading for the stairs. "You should leave," he said.
"I don't care what you say!" Destiny shouted, slamming her hand on the table. "Tsuna wants me in his family and I'll stand by him no matter what you say! YOU JUST HATE ME BECAUSE I'M POPULAR!" She turned and ran out of the house, tears flying off her face. I-Pin, who was still clinging to her leg, hit her head on the doorframe and fell off, dazed.
***
"What was I thinking?" Tsuna cried, lying facedown on his bed. "It's horrible that there's ANOTHER Vongola Ring! We had so much trouble because of the other ones; what if someone comes to try and take it? We'll have to fight all over again. And to make matters worse, I think I asked her to date me! What will Kyoko-chan think?"
He groaned and flopped over onto his back, looking at the morning sunlight streaming through his window. As soon as he had gotten up to his room and lain down, he had fallen asleep, only to be woken up a few minutes later by Reborn kicking him in the head. Reborn had proceeded to "help" him with his math homework, providing incentives for right answers in the form of a bomb that would count down one second every time he got a wrong answer. He'd finished the work with only one second to spare and no energy at all so he fell asleep again and was only interrupted one more time by Gokudera rushing into the room clumsily, wearing glasses covered with black magic marker, demanding to know if Destiny had left.
Now he only had another day at school with even more trouble than normal to look forward to. Not to mention, he had the worst headache in the history of headaches.
Reborn climbed up next to him and looked down seriously. The pink goggles had mysteriously vanished, probably put back in the same place that he kept all his other costumes. "The ring isn't real," he explained calmly. "Destiny is a notorious liar and the only reason she gets away with it is because of her Marisu power. Some think that she's been lying for so long that even she believes it."
"Why did she have to pick me to come to, though?" Tsuna asked.
"I've heard that she's attracted to power in all forms, and you just won the battle for the Rings. That makes you a powerful figure in the mafia world."
"So I can't get rid of her? I mean, I feel bad for her with such a sad past, but I'm already considered 'No Good' Tsuna at school and that's when I'm acting normally. Imagine how much worse it will be when I'm acting like I did yesterday."
"They probably won't notice. Everyone will be acting strangely."
"How can you say that so calmly? That's even worse!"
"There may be a way. But first I need to talk to Dino," the assassin jumped off the bed and went to the door. "By the way, if you're late for school I'll have to work you twice as hard tonight." With that, he jumped out of the window and was gone.
Tsuna glanced at the clock and then scrambled out of bed and hurried to change his clothes. Fifteen minutes later, he arrived at school, panting and rumpled, to slip into his seat just as the bell rang. The teacher gave him a disappointed look, but didn't comment.
"Alright class, today I'm pleased to announce that we have a new transfer student all the way from Italy! Her name is…" he checked the clipboard he held, then did a double take. "Destiny Storm? Is that really Italian?" he muttered, then cleared his throat and said in a more confident voice. "Destiny Storm. Come in, Destiny and write your name on the board for us."
Tsuna covered his eyes quickly as Destiny walked in, so the chalk scraping on the blackboard was his only indication that she was in the room.
"Hello!" Tsuna heard Destiny's melodic voice say. "I'm so happy to be here. My name is Destiny Storm. I was an orphan for many years and I didn't have any friends so I hope to make some here. I already know Tsuna, Kyoko, and Gokudera, but I hope to meet the rest of you as well." Several people in the class broke into spontaneous applause while others grumbled to each other angrily.
To his horror, he heard footsteps coming toward him and he remembered that there was an empty desk next to his. Oh no, I'm already bad at school. I'll be even worse if I can't see anything! What am I going to do? He thought desperately.
Suddenly, there was a great deal of noise, a few exclamations, a crash and a finally a heavy thump. Tsuna, not thinking, uncovered his eyes and looked over. Gokudera was sitting in the empty seat that Destiny had been moving towards, his lip bleeding slightly and some sort of strange headgear strapped to his face. His eyes were covered by two pieces of thick black glass.
"Jyuudaime, are you alright?" he asked, addressing Tsuna's desk.
"Um, yeah. What happened?" Tsuna asked.
"You…you took my seat," Destiny sniffled behind Tsuna, who only got a glimpse of her finger pointed accusingly at Gokudera. "We're on the same family, we should get along. You should love me. Why are you so mean?"
"Yes, Gokudera, you should be politer to the new…the new…student! Student, that's it," the teacher said, walking up. "and take that…thingy off your head."
Gokudera turned and sat back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. "No," he said.
"Then you can just go down to the…the…what is it called? That place with the person who tells me to do stuff…oh whatever, just stay where you are. Destiny, sit where Gokudera was and let's start learnin'."
"Yes, sir," Destiny replied, her voice resigned and meek, though it still sounded like bells. She must have walked away then, because the teacher went back to the front of the room and started his lesson, with a lot of stuttering and pauses, which got worse when he faced the class.
Tsuna tuned him out and instead turned to Gokudera. "Thanks for doing that, Gokudera, but…what happened exactly? And why are you bleeding?"
The silver-haired boy turned a knob on the side of his headgear and the black pieces of glass lifted away from his eyes so he could look over at Tsuna. "I tried to get into the seat before that girl did, but I couldn't see and I tripped and hit my face on the desk," he looked distraught. "I'm sorry I was so clumsy, boss, but Reborn told me to keep her away from you and it's hard to do anything when I can't see. Her power's tough to beat, but I can do it for sure. And I can do it better than that baseball nut."
Tsuna sighed. Gokudera was so strange and embarrassing, but at least he didn't feel completely wrong in his presence. "How is Yamamoto?" he asked.
Gokudera shrugged, causing various metal pieces on his headgear to clink together. "He's fine. Once he was out of the house he snapped out of it and I told him to go home," he said.
"Good. I hope he doesn't run into Destiny again today. Could you do me a favor, though, and keep Kyoko-chan away from her? I think I can manage the rest of the day."
Gokudera looked as if he wanted to refuse, but nodded instead. "I'll do it, boss," he said.
The rest of the day went pretty much the same way. Each successive teacher became dumb and incoherent the second they saw Destiny, but no further incidents occurred to disrupt the day. When the class was dismissed, Tsuna rushed out of the door as quickly as he could while Gokudera moved one of the black glass pieces over his eye and went to look for Kyoko. Tsuna ran outside to wait anxiously within the gate for his friends.
To his dismay, Kyoya Hibari, the violent leader of the disciplinary committee, spotted him first.
He walked over and stood in front of Tsuna, looking down at him sternly. "Where is the baby?" he asked.
"Um, I-I don't really know," Tsuna stuttered, stepping back and wishing that Reborn was there.
"I heard that a new student was causing trouble in her classes today. Where is she?"
"I-I-I don't know that either," Tsuna said, cringing.
"I will wait here until she arrives, then. If she doesn't show, I'll bite you to death instead."
They stood in silence for a few minutes, watching students streaming out of the school. Tsuna wanted very badly to run away, but wanted to make sure the others were okay more.
Unfortunately, Destiny appeared before any of Tsuna's friends. He wasn't looking for her in the mass of students, though, so he wasn't prepared when she appeared beside him.
"Why are you avoiding me, Tenth? I looked all over the school for you and Gokudera and Yamamoto, but I couldn't find any of you," she said. "I thought you liked me."
Tsuna felt himself smile reassuringly against his will and reach for her hand, but thankfully, Hibari pushed him out of the way to glare at Destiny.
"You are causing trouble in my school," Hibari said, taking out his tonfas. "I'll bite you to death before I let you come ba…" he slowly stopped, shaking his head and looking confused. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Me?" Destiny said innocently. "I'm not doing anything. I'd like to be your friend, though. We're in the same family now so we should get along. I'm sorry if I caused you any trouble," she giggled. "It seems to follow me around."
As she talked, Hibari's gaze lost its intensity, softened, and became slightly vacant. Before he knew it, he had put his tonfas away. "There is most definitely something you are doing to me and if you don't stop it, I'll kill you right now," he said.
Destiny looked stung for a moment, but then smiled. "It's alright. I understand that you must be hurting on the inside. I am too. We can relate about that," she stepped toward him, but Hibari took a giant step back, turned and glared at Tsuna instead.
"This is because of you somehow, so you're going to keep that girl away from me. Understand? Until she's gone, I'm leaving town." he said.
Tsuna nodded quickly and Hibari walked away, a bit more quickly than normal.
"He'll warm up to me, sir, don't worry," Destiny laid a hand on Tsuna's shoulder. "All that matters is that you believe in me. Everyone else will come around."
"Uhhhh," Tsuna restrained himself from blurting something he knew he'd regret and pulled away, shielding his eyes with hi hand. "I don't think it's a good idea for you to be here, Destiny-san. Maybe you should just leave before something bad ha…"
"Get away from the Tenth!!" Gokudera's voice rang through the almost empty courtyard as he ran toward them, the glasses on his headgear flipped down. Tsuna jumped backwards as Gokudera bore down on them.
Destiny stepped back calmly, taking a small bottle of white powder out from her coat and pouring some of it into her hand. Gokudera, who couldn't see that he had passed the girl, kept going until Tsuna shouted at him to stop. He flipped up one of the glass pieces and looked back. The second he turned toward her, Destiny blew the white powder she had into his face. Gokudera's eyes rolled back in his head and he fell over.
"Gokudera!" Tsuna yelled at the same time that someone else yelled "Octopus-head!"
Tsuna looked behind him and saw Ryohei Sasagawa running toward them. "Oy! What are you doing?" Ryohei yelled, coming to a stop a few feet from them.
Destiny turned to the newcomer, huge, glittering tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry. He was attacking me. I hate violence! I didn't want to hurt him!" she cried.
"What did you do to him?" Tsuna asked.
"Nothing! He's just asleep, that's all. He'll wake up in a few hours. Please don't be mad at me," Destiny said, gripping the front of Tsuna's shirt.
"It's ok, Destiny," Tsuna said automatically, patting her on the back reassuringly. "Gokudera isn't that important anyway. Let's go home and my mom will make you some nabe to cheer you up."
The girl looked up at him, smiling gratefully as Tsuna fought against the fog surrounding his mind. This only lasted for a minute, however, because in the next moment, he was pushed aside by Ryohei, who fell to one knee in front of Destiny.
He took her hand, gazing adoringly up at her. "Princess, I love you to the extreme! Please never leave my side!"
Tsuna sat up from where he fell and watched incredulously as Ryohei proceeded to profess his undying love for Destiny. As much as it pained him, Tsuna decided to leave him in favor of taking care of Gokudera.
He had to drag the unconscious boy away by his wrists and was halfway down the street before Gokudera groaned and stirred.
"Huh?" Gokudera said. "What happened?"
Tsuna dropped the boy's wrists with a sigh of relief. "Gokudera! I'm glad you're ok. Ryohei is still with Destiny, so we should go back and get him."
The silver-haired boy rested his arms on his thighs and sighed heavily, " I have to make sure you're safe. Lawn-head can take care of himself."
Tsuna had a sudden thought. "Hey, where's Kyoko?" he asked.
"I sent her home through the hole in the fence at the back of the school. I've used it a bunch of times to skip class. I would have been out front sooner, but she didn't understand why she had to go that way," he looked back at Tsuna, then his gaze shifted so he was looking over Tsuna's shoulder and his gaze became horrified.
He suddenly leapt up and grabbed Tsuna's arm, dragging him down the street at a run. Tsuna managed to look over his shoulder only to see Destiny, in front of a huge crowd of people chasing them.
Gokudera ducked down an alley, took two quick jumps and got to the top of the fence at the end of it. He paused and reached down to Tsuna, who grabbed his hand and let Gokudera pull him up and over the fence. They continued to run.
Soon, however, they heard Destiny's voice behind them shouting their names. The crowd behind her shouted Destiny's name in response.
"We can't…keep running…forever," Tsuna gasped, running out of breath as they entered the forest outside of the town.
"Yeah, you're right. I'm looking for somewhere we can fight," Gokudera responded, slowing and looking around.
"Fight?" Tsuna asked, shocked. "No no no, I don't want to fight, and I want to fight this girl even less. Besides, I didn't even bring my gloves with me, and Reborn's not here with the Dying Will Bullets."
"Don't worry. I'll fight." Gokudera led Tsuna deeper into the forest when they heard Destiny's voice growing closer until a high cliff stopped them. "This works," Gokudera decided. "Stay behind me, boss."
Destiny, still followed by the crowd, came through the trees and stopped. "Tenth! Why are you and Goku-kun running from me?" she asked.
"Hey! Don't call me that!" Gokudera shouted, putting the glasses over his eyes again and lighting a cigarette.
Tsuna kept his eyes firmly on the ground, only glancing up occasionally. "Destiny, please leave. I don't think you being here is a good idea."
"But…Tenth! I thought you believed in me! I thought I would finally be part of a family who loved me!" Destiny cried, her eyes filling with tears yet again.
"A real family member doesn't try to change their family," Tsuna insisted. "Look at what you're doing to everyone!"
Destiny turned around to face the adoring crowd behind her. Tsuna could make out Yamamoto, Ryohei, Fuuta, Basil, and Colonello in the crowd. She shrugged and turned back to Tsuna, "What's wrong? People like me. Is that why you hate me, Tenth? Because I'm loved?" her voice turned hard and angry. "You're just like everyone else! You're a MEANIE-HEAD!" she took out three bottles of white powder in each hand and walked forward.
Gokudera must have been glancing over his glasses ever few seconds, because he took out the bombs from his belt and lit them, tossing them toward Destiny. Tsuna noticed that he aimed at the middle of the distance between them rather than for the girl herself.
"You can't beat me! I'm super strong and super fast! Throw as many bombs as you want and I'll never be beaten! I have the Snow Ring!" Destiny screamed, taking a few more steps forward.
Gokudera continued to toss bombs with increasing frequency, keeping the girl at bay. "Don't hurt her, Gokudera! We just have to wait for Reborn to get back to help us, so just hold her off until then," Tsuna said, raising his voice to be heard over the explosions.
"I can do it, boss," Gokudera replied, lighting even more cigarettes and throwing more bombs. The crowd of people pressed around them, staying clear of the explosions and yelling for Destiny to be careful.
Over all the noise and vibrations from the bombs, no one noticed, however, that the cliff behind them was shaking violently, or that small pebbles, shook loose by the bombs, were rolling down toward them. Then, without warning, rocks fell and everyone died.
Later, Reborn came looking for Tsuna, and when he couldn't fine him anywhere in the now empty town of Namimori, he followed his tracks into the forest and to the huge pile of boulders, where blood was still leaking out onto the leaf-covered floor.
Destiny sat on the topmost boulder, looking sad and yet still incredibly beautiful. "I'm sorry, Reborn-san. I told them that they couldn't win against me," she said forlornly to the mafia baby, who had already put on his pink goggles.
"Regardless, the Tenth's death will be avenged," Reborn said, the brim of his hat covering his eyes. As quick as lightning, he pulled out a shotgun and shot Destiny square in her forehead. She was dead before she had even hit the ground. "I'll have to talk to the Ninth about the inefficiency of assassination requests…and now I have to use the Vongola Time Machine. Again," he muttered angrily, turning away and walking back to Namimori.
A/N: Yes, I know there's no Vongola Time Machine, but this whole thing is so improbable and I love all these characters so much that I made a compromise between what I thought was a fitting end and the ending I wanted. I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or any of its characters, though in my mind, I Gokudera, Dino, and Fuuta are mine.