- Author's Note (1/2) -
Hello, my fellow 1896 fan! Or if you're not yet an 1896 fan, I hope you'll be converted by the end of this story! Lol, I'm kidding, but feel free to take that seriously.
Anyway, let me give a short introduction. I started writing this fanfiction about a year ago as my entry to the Favorite Pairing day of the KHR 30-Day Challenge on Tumblr. Both the series and 1896 hold a very special place in my heart, so I wanted to make something special, my very own contribution to the fandom. I originally intended to post this in December 2012, within 30 days of beginning the challenge, but real life got busy and I got stuck with the story a few times. I also didn't want to post the completed chapters before I was done with everything, because I wanted to edit the story as a whole to make sure it coherent. So it took me more than a year to finally finish, but now, here it is, ready for public consumption!
It's quite a long read. I wrote each chapter in a separate Word file, and I surprised myself by reaching 43 pages when I finally put them all together. I hope, though, that my writing is lively enough and the story is interesting enough for you to keep reading. I enjoyed daydreaming about the plot for this fanfiction, as well as putting my rusting writing skills back to good use. I hope you will also enjoy partaking of this headcanon.
I've always believed that in the 10YL alternate future, 1896 was a reality. Amano Akira did not show us what happened in the 10 years leading to the future that Tsuna and the others discovered, so I decided to let my imagination run wild and pick up the bits and pieces we know about Hibari and Chrome to weave a story about a relationship they might have had.
This is that story. Kusakabe told Tsuna that Chrome had run away 5 years prior to break Mukuro out of prison, but he never revealed the series of events that led to that. In this 5-chapter fanfiction, Hibari, Chrome, Mukuro, and Kusakabe will let you in on what the young Vongola never found out.
Read, and if you please, do review. Even a short review letting me know what you think will make me happy.
Chapter 1: A Visitor in the Night
A door quietly slid open, and the humming of cicadas rode the damp night wind through the corridors to deep within The Foundation headquarters, where the Chairman sat cross-legged on tatami-covered floor.
"Kyo-san, you have a guest." From the private garden came the voice of his subordinate, Kusakabe Tetsuya.
Hibari Kyoya, his eyes closed and his mouth set in a thin line, remained still as he listened to the muffled shuffling from beyond the wooden lattice panels of his personal quarters. It was unusual, and unwelcome, for visitors to come calling at this time of night. He wondered faintly who it could be.
"Kyo-san?" Tetsu called again.
Concern lightly coated the sound of this second call. Perhaps Tetsu had taken notice of the time and become worried that he was interrupting the Chairman's sleep.
On a normal night, that precisely would have been the case, as Hibari preferred to keep the unpopular discipline of sleeping early and waking early. At this hour on any other night, he would already be fast asleep, and woe awaited those who dared disturb him.
As it was, however, this particular night hardly passed as normal for Hibari. Only a few hours earlier, he, along with Sawada Tsunayoshi and the rest of his distasteful crowd, had been subject to an extraordinary procedure that saw their bodies reconstructed from compressed molecular matter. Irie Shoichi had finally sent the adolescent Vongola Guardians back to their own era, in the process bringing the mature counterparts back into the stream of time.
Hibari had spent several days as disassembled matter inside Irie's white circular device, but his consciousness had been on pause during the entire time skip. It had been daybreak when he was replaced by his younger self during the battle against Genkishi, and upon his return, Hibari found that he felt like it was still morning, even as he saw the sky fringed with the red-orange of sunset.
The effect it had on his body proved similar to jetlag and prevented him from sleeping at the usual hour. And so, tonight, despite the ungodly hour, it seemed that no one would have to be bitten to death just yet.
Hibari gathered his black yukata around him and finally rose, a small scowl forming on his face. On slippered feet, he silently made his way to the drawing room, where Tetsu and the mysterious guest were waiting.
The sight that met him replaced Hibari's scowl with a look of mild surprise, which in his case meant slightly widened eyes and lips parted only by a hair's breadth. The shift in his features being so small, it would have gone completely unnoticed in different company. But, as it was, the two people that stood before Hibari knew him fairly well.
Tetsu had been his deputy for over ten years now, since their days in the Disciplinary Committee of Namimori Middle School. And as for the other person...
Tetsu cleared his throat. The unease in his features revealed that he had indeed caught on to Hibari's subtle display of surprise. "Kyo-san, I will take my leave now," he said, bowing deeply and bidding his Chairman goodnight. Hibari found it sufficient to give only a curt nod in response.
The door closed behind Tetsu, the panel sliding smoothly along the grooves, and the cicadas' melody faded to a dull backdrop. Hibari's immediate world shrunk to a few square meters of sparse room and an unexpected visitor.
His scowl resurfaced. "Chrome Dokuro."
The name felt nasty and foreign in his mouth after half a decade's unuse. Hibari fixed his glare on the small woman, whose cheeks pinked upon being acknowledged.
"Hibari-san..." She mumbled.
Today was the first time Hibari had seen Chrome in five years. Earlier in the afternoon, she had materialized beside him in front of Irie's white circular device when it released their compressed molecules. They had caught each other's gaze then, but he merely huffed and looked away.
Hibari had then proceeded to stalk out of Irie's makeshift laboratory, his pace increasing when his ears caught happy chatter about plans to hold a party in honor of the Vongola triumph. Chrome had stayed behind and made no attempt to follow him, though he could feel her eye on his back up until he had walked far away enough to be out of her line of vision.
Sasagawa Ryohei had come over to The Foundation's base a few hours afterwards to cajole Hibari into celebrating 'to the extreme' with the rest of the Vongola herd, but Hibari coolly declined and sent Tetsu to attend by himself.
Chrome, Hibari realized, must have come across Tetsu at the party and somehow convinced him to take her to The Foundation. On her own, she had no way of knowing the passcodes and other necessary information that would allow her entry into the headquarters.
She had probably even gone to the party for the sole purpose of securing information on his whereabouts, Hibari mused. After all, he did not recall her to be so friendly with the Vongola, for while she respected Sawada Tsunayoshi as her Boss, she still considered herself many times more as one of Rokudo Mukuro's.
Hibari felt a slight tic of annoyance as an image of Mukuro's smug face flitted through his mind.
"What did you come here for?" He questioned Chrome, his tone its customary icy.
Chrome wrung her hands. Given her current behavior and the fact that she had not grown much in ten years, Hibari thought she looked hardly different from the adolescent Chrome with whom he had infiltrated Melone Base, although that young one was still somewhat a herbivore.
"Hibari-san," the woman finally began, her voice soft, shy, and chiming like tiny bells. "The Sky child... did she give you visions, too?"
Hibari gave a small nod. After Irie released him from his long confinement inside the time machine, Hibari found that he had 'memories' that belonged not to him, but to the adolescent version of himself who had taken his place through the use of the Ten-Year Bazooka. This phenomenon, which Hibari found completely unnecessary and even bothersome, had been given as a last 'gift' by the Sky Arcobaleno to allow the older Vongola full knowledge of what had transpired in their absence.
"I saw in my young self's memories…" Chrome said. "You saved my life, Hibari-san, thank you."
The image of a bloodied, dying young Chrome flashed before Hibari's eyes. It gave him a slight feeling of disquiet to remember how close to death the girl had been, but in front of the adult Chrome, he only deigned to let out a small insolent huff in dismissal of her gratitude.
"I only let that herbivore know of your own technique. I don't need your thanks."
"Still, Hibari-san," she insisted gently. "On her own, it would have taken her years to gain the courage to even just try… so, thank you. That makes it twice now that you've helped me with this."
Her cheeks looked rosier than ever, her purple eye sparkled, and her mouth curved into a timid smile. Overall, Chrome looked very pretty and pleased, if slightly embarrassed, and Hibari found that the fact annoyed him greatly.
"That is unnecessary. Stop wasting my time." He turned on his heel. "If that is all…"
"No, wait please!" Chrome cried out, the pink in her cheeks deepening into scarlet when Hibari turned his head back to fix her a cool gaze.
"I mean, Hibari-san," she stammered under the pressure of his pokerface. "Th- There is more... I... Umm... That is..."
"Talk properly, or leave." He ordered in a tone clear with the intention that he would bite her to death if she annoyed him further. "And stop the ridiculous blushing," he added as an annoyed afterthought.
"I'm sorry…" The woman whispered, visibly shrinking back at his attitude. Hibari quelled the spasm of guilt threatening to rise within him by reminding himself that this woman was a traitor, a fiend, Rokudo Mukuro's shadow, and deserved no excess kindness. 'Especially from me,' he thought scathingly.
However, as she worried her lower lip while her one eye grew wide with something akin to fear, Hibari could not avoid thinking that Chrome resembled a small and shy animal. An innocent animal. The expression on her face rather reminded Hibari of the one his own Cloud Hedgehog wore when intimidated.
He felt another flash of annoyance sweep over him at the thought. He pressed impatiently. "Well?"
"It's Mukuro-sama," Chrome finally offerred, only to pause when Hibari's face darkened at the mention of the name. Hibari felt his palms itch for the comfort of his tonfa, but nodded for Chrome to continue.
"It's Mukuro-sama," she repeated cautiously. "He has been released from Vendicare."
"I already know that," Hibari declared with contempt. "I am Chairman of The Foundation; I know everything that happens almost as soon as they happen. Is that all you came here to tell me?"
Chrome stared at the floor guiltily, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, making it plain as day that she was still holding back on something.
Hibari regarded her with narrowed calculating eyes. "I'll ask you again. What did you come here for? I trust it's not just to make small talk."
In the garden outside, the fountain's bamboo pole clanged loudly against stone. Hibari glared as Chrome squirmed with discomfort, her gaze fixed on her slippered toes.
"I know you know that he is free," she mumbled, "but I wonder… I wonder if you realize what that means for me… for us." The last two words she whispered almost inaudibly as she at last let her eye meet his.
Tense silence fell over them. The cicadas outside reached a crescendo in their song. The rhythmic tapping of the fountain seemed sharper; the trickling water tinkled more merrily than usual.
Hibari suddenly did not know what to say. A strangely clear memory of his last conversation with Chrome before she disappeared five years ago replayed itself in his mind. She was referring to that particular exchange, he gathered, but even so, Hibari did not know what to say.
So he lied, "I don't know what you're talking about."
Chrome looked crestfallen at his words, and Hibari convinced himself that he did not care, even though he distinctly felt another bout of slight unease form in his stomach.
"Oh, you don't remember," she murmured sadly. She had that look on again, the one that reminded Hibari of a small, shy, and this time, dejected animal.
Chrome sank down to her knees to the tatami-covered floor. For a moment, Hibari stood petrified, deliberating his options. He could throw her out, pretend this never happened, and go on as he had been living for the past five years.
Or he could bear this confrontation a little longer and find out how Chrome planned to proceed. 'Not that I care,' Hibari reminded himself, but years of dealing with the baby and the Bucking Bronco had taught him that the practice of patience brought on rewarding things, like a satisfying fight.
It was not a fight he wanted out of Chrome though. 'Or rather, there is nothing I want from this woman,' he corrected himself.
And yet, Hibari felt compelled to sit this through. He settled himself down across her, a safe few meters away, with his legs crossed underneath him. He watched as she absently dug her small fists against the indigo cloth of her skirt.
"Hibari-san," she called to him quietly, her gaze elsewhere. "Do you know what I had been doing for the past five years?"
"I know enough," was all he said, his tone not betraying a shred of emotion.
"I was mostly in France, with Ken and Chikusa and a woman called M.M.." Chrome recounted. "Mukuro-sama needed my help in training a pupil. He said that Fran would be of use to him someday."
Hibari offered no response. It was no new information. What she was currently sharing had long been filed in the Foundation's database as confidential information that even Tetsu was only partially privy to.
"Mukuro-sama was right." Chrome continued. "Fran fooled the Vindice with his illusions, something I was not able to do. Something Mukuro-sama had warned me I would not be able to do, when he learned five years ago that I planned to break him out."
Chrome lifted her hands from her skirt, leaving creases, and brought her arms around herself in embrace. "Mukuro-sama was right, as always."
Hibari's jaw tightened dangerously. It did not please him to hear about Rokudo Mukuro's apparent omniscience, nor did he particularly like the reverence evident in Chrome's voice. 'Don't mention that bastard in this room,' he wanted to snap at her, almost in morose reenactment of lost times, but she beat him to speaking first.
"He will not need me now." Chrome's voice cut through the heavy air. It cracked with grief, but Hibari thought he also heard something else, something that sounded minutely like hope. She spoke in barely a whisper, but the sober resolve in her tone reverberated across the charged silence between herself and Hibari.
Chrome bowed her head, and let her now long purple hair fall forward to hide her face in its shadow, but not quickly enough for him to miss the tears that formed in her single eye. "Mukuro-sama finally has his own body back and an apprentice more talented than I am. So now…"
Raising her head, she looked Hibari solemnly in the eye. "So now you can have me all to yourself, just like you said you wanted."
- Author's Note (2/2) -
Only Half Mine is set in the same timeline as the Future Arc. It jumps from the present, which is 10YL, to 5YL. 10YL is right after Byakuran is defeated, on the night that the Vongola kids are sent home to their timeline and the Vongola adults are brought out of Irie Shoichi's time machine. 5YL is 5 years before the present, when the Kokuyo Gang attempted to break Rokudo Mukuro out of prison.
I tried my best to make the distinction in the setting clear without putting headlines per segment, but if anything is confusing, please let me know so I can find a way to fix it. Now, on to the next chapter! Don't forget to review! :)