Okaay...this came out of absolutely nowhere. It just popped up on my mind.
IMPORTANT: This is post cannon!Future arc.
Enjoy?
"…Do I start now? Ah- Dear Tsunayoshi, Hibari and Shoichi from the past, I'm Tsunayoshi from almost ten years in the future."
.
"HIIEEE!" Tsunayoshi screamed, dropping his pen to grab at his head. He could no longer see his bedroom, nor his homework, all he could see was a tall, brown haired man that oddly, resembled him. Wait, had he just said he was Tsunayoshi!
'What's this? Looks like a recording…from the future… uh, if that even makes sense.' He thought, trying to make sense of it. Idly he wondered if the others —Hibari-san and Irie-kun — were seeing this as well.
"If you're getting this it means that you successfully accomplished your mission in the future…I think I owe you guys an apology. The fact that Byakuran managed so much weighs heavily on my shoulders and since… and I wanted to keep the weight to myself, even if that 'me´ was a fourteen year old kid and his friends.
"Forgive me…no, I'd rather you don't forgive me, but I apologize nonetheless."
'Gah! Why is future Tsuna-san apologizing! Well, he did send a bunch of fourteen year olds to save the world or something like that' A certain redhead was thinking, after this weird sort of recounting —how can something from the future be a recounting, Irie didn't know— had appeared out of absolutely nowhere, jerking him awake from his blissful sleeping. His stomach had already begun churning uncomfortably. '…and then again I helped him in that-Mou, I was already forgetting that I had been in some dangerous double agent job in the future, why did this vision had to appear! Ah! If I keep this up I won't be able to hear future Tsunayoshi! Focus! Focus!'
Some shifting sounds disturbed the atmosphere, before future-Tsunayoshi continued.
"I'm… I'm talking a few hours before I go meet with Byakuran, I-we three know it's a trap that can't be avoided. So I told Shoichi and Kyoya to lend me their help one last time. We lied to you once again. And since…since I owe you so much I've decided to tell you the real truth. Though I must warn you, it's a cruel truth."
A cruel truth? Well wasn't this interesting? Hibari Kyoya had been drinking tea, when this annoying not-illusion had suddenly dragged him from his comfortable state. He was irked at the omnivore —future Tsunayoshi — with all that babbling, he wanted to grab his tonfa, and hit him to hurry up and maybe tell him to fight him...But it looked as if it had been recorded and was just replaying itself in his head. He couldn't even tell how. Only his curiosity —and maybe his inability to shake off the vision — kept him seated and listening. Though he felt that as soon as the brunet stopped his useless rambling he'd get to hear something important.
He glanced briefly at the only other two figures inside this not-illusion. The nervous red-headed herbivore from the future and himself from the future. The herbivore had approached Tsunayoshi…
"T-Tsuna-san t-the choice-!" Shoichi whispered urgently and the other sighed sadly.
"And here, the kind Shoichi programmed a choice for you.
"Keep in mind that this truth, whether you hear it or not won't change anything. Nothing bad will happen if you don't hear this. I just have the need to let you guys choose. And once again, I'm sorry.
"If you wish to hear it —if you want to, not for anyone else— nod; if you choose not to, then shake your head."
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Tsuna pursed his lips, boring a hole into his future-self's eyes. They were dark, and Tsuna didn't want to read the emotions glaring in them. He knew he didn't have to. His future-self had assured him it wouldn't change anything! And the conflict in the future was over already… it wouldn't really…
He sighed.
Fearing he was making a mistake, Tsuna closed his eyes and slowly nodded.
.
Kyoya glared at the man —frozen on motion, as if the recording had been paused, and it most likely had been paused somehow — before changing his glare to the other two, himself included. What did they take him for? He wasn't a coward!
Stubbornly, he gave a curt nod.
.
What should he do? What should he do? If they had given him a choice…then no one would blame him if he said no, right? The red head hesitated as he glanced from the brunet in front of him to himself, a couple steps back, then to Hibari, still standing back. His redhead counterpart had a tired and slightly bitter and softly exasperated look on him. Making the boy uncomfortable and at the same time...understood.
He returned his eyes to the anxious looking brown haired man, and with his stomach churning painfully, he closed his eyes and nodded.
.
.
"Aah, but I feel as if you three will nod anyways —I sure hope you don't, even if it's a vain hope. If you're sure then here I go…
"Tomorrow morning as I've already told you I'll go meet Byakuran and —as you should know by now — I get shot down. But apparently I wasn't killed, right? Kyoya, Shoichi and I made a plan and I made them swear not to tell anything, right?
"…Shoichi had perfected a bullet to mimic the state of death and Byakuran ate the hoax…or so I told them to say. Actually, that bullet never existed…and for everything to work out this was the only feasible plan, so what were we going to do? The bullet never worked, so what about the plan?"
Shoichi was the first to understand. Dread pooling inside, about to throw up. The bullet had been his. He had developed it. He remembered those memories of his future-self working on it…Perfecting it...
Tears gathered in the corner of his eyes.
Had he failed?
"You most probably have guessed by now… I won't ask for your understanding, you're far too young and far too… but the plan couldn't fail, I won't let it fail. And if for the plan to work I need to be dead…then, well we just have one option."
'Well,' Tsuna mused, too stunned to have a proper nervous breakdown. 'I kinda get him-me. If it was for my friends… I'm always saying I'd do anything for them, so this is just a little more than what I'd think possible but I…'
He was content that he said he hadn't asked for understanding. Tsuna damn well didn't. Or didn't want to.
He sighed. He already had had to acknowledge his death once. Now he had to accept it all over again? Why had they gone to the future for if he was dying anyway!?
'For my family' Was his own reply.
Well, at least he sounded determined.
"I-I'm s-so so-rry." Shoichi's feeble voice cut in again. But it wasn't really clear who he was apologizing to. Then, the gruff and bitter voice of an older Hibari Kyoya stated:
"Both of you, stop it. Don't drag this longer than needed… and Kyoya, I'll say this once: Crying is not for weaklings, it's the reason they cry what makes them herbivores or carnivores. Don't… don't go making stupid assumptions…"
Kyoya grinded his teeth together. What was that supposed to mean!? He wasn't about to…cry.
Goddamit he wasn't going to! He was pissed that the brown-haired man had lied to them, that he had fallen into his messed up plans again.
Stupid herbivore. Stupid recording. Stupid white haired bastard. Stupid hollow feeling in his chest.
He paused. Was the present brunet hearing this?
He grimaced. Stupid stubborn omnivore.
"Thank you Kyoya, the same goes for all of you, got it? Whether past or future…Ah, I should finish this soon…
"So I died —or will die I guess— my body was introduced into the spectacular machine of Sho-chan and the rest is more or less how you lived it.
"But don't worry about it, less about me. If you're hearing this then that means that this situation won't ever happen and you, Tsuna, will not die in ten years' time. You hearing this won't change anything, as —in your timeline— it never happens. This is just to clear my conscience and I apologize once again for …"
A sigh.
"I'm so sorry. And please live long happy lives. Good bye."
A noise, like a chair scraping the floor, signaled that the man had stood up. Future Shoichi hurried to the front, blocking everything as he prepared to turn the recording off. Then they could hear a muffled: "Now, I have to prepare something for my guardi-" before it was cut off and their vision of a memory of a future that'll never happen disappeared, leaving three tears-stained teens behind.
"…Let's not tell anyone, alright? Think of it as a bad memory and…yeah. Hibari-san don't make threats by phone! Hiee! I'm so sorry! Ah-Shoichi-er-Irie-kun please don't worry. Beside they all said…yeah, I guess I do believe in them…Hibari-san don't call him that! You yourself cried, am I right? HIEEEE! No, it was nothing, please don't kill me-!" Tsuna had gotten his cellphone out as soon as he had calmed down a little and started a three way conversation with his murderous prefect and a shy not-stranger (Tsuna had decided to invite over sometime).
"Tsuna-san, but, are you alright?" The redhead's voice suddenly cut through.
"…" Hibari had also quieted down —not that he had been very loud to begin with.
"Well," Tsuna started as he glanced outside his window. It was a clear, peaceful day in Namimori. "I am a bit mad at the stunt they pulled but…it's not like that's going to happen. Our future changed. We changed it. We have to enjoy the life we have as it is, since nothing is carved on stone and things change continuously… Ahaha or something like that…Uh, but we'd better forget about it already, anyone up for some ice-cream?"
"Omnivore."
"Y-yes?"
"…"
"Hibari-san?"
"H-he's making me nervous…"
"Yeah, me too, Hibari-san? Hibari-san? Ah, forget it, he won't answer, how about you Sho-Irie-kun, want some ice cream?"
"Shoichi's fine. Yeah, let's go get some."
"…"
"H-Hibari-san, say something!"
"Tea-flavor."
"Hi-wait, what?"
.
The End
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So, what do you think? I'm sorry for killing Tsuna from another dimension! D:
A little explanation: This fic is a bit of a what if. In cannon, they manage to change the future, their future. And so happened in here. But what if, the bullet that was used to submit Tsuna to a dead-like state had never been perfected and no one but the three in the fic knew about it?
Though the moment they returned from the future, effectively changing their future, the 'future-where-Tsuna-is-killed' became not a part of their timeline but of a timeline where something went wrong and the boys don't manage to win in the future.
Long story short: I killed future Tsuna. But the tuna fish of the present won't be killed in a similar way.
I hope you liked.
Please leave a review to know your thoughts!