This is a story about hope.
Now, there is always the question: "What is hope?" Back then, I thought that hope was just a figment of the imagination, something people hold onto when they have nothing left. I guess I was right, to a certain extent. Hope is something people hold onto when they have nothing left, but it's far from any figment of the imagination. Which brings us back to our first sentence:
This is a story about hope. Or more specifically, this is a story about how I found my hope- which, unexpectedly, came in the form of six boys.
To start things off, I guess I should introduce myself. I am Sawada Tsunahime. Funny name, I know but originally, my parents thought I was going to be a boy so they decided to name me Tsunayoshi. After I was born and they realised I was actually a girl, they changed it to Tsunahime. I'm 15 years old and my birthday's October 14th. I am known more commonly as Dame-Tsuna because I am "No Good" at everything I do. Oh, and one last thing about me, I don't believe in hope.
Looking back on it, it all started on the first day of the Summer Holidays. I had just finished the first term of my 3rd year in Nami-chuu and I was ecstatic to get out of the hellhole. In case you hadn't noticed, I don't like school. It is full of bullies and annoying-not to mention FAKE teachers- like Nezu-sensei who have nothing better to do than pick on me. Little did I know however, that I'd never see Nami-chuu ever again.
Things started off normally that day. Well, except for this dreaded feeling from the pit of my stomach- now that I think about it, I really should've listened to it, it would've saved me a lot of pain and heartache down the road. That day, I walked home alone like I always do and like always, I had to run away from that dog from hell. Like always, I arrived home panting and with a few scratches and bite marks and like always, I shouted out a "Tadaima!" to my mother. However, unlike all the other times, the one who answered my call wasn't my mother, but my father.
You see, my father works as a construction worker that travels around the world so we don't see him around a lot. In total, I have around 20 days worth of memories with him in them and the large majority of those memories is of him a) sleeping; b) eating; c) being lovey-dovey with mum; or d) –my personal favourite- fishing in nothing but underwear. Yeah, great memories, I know. Besides all those great memories, there's also the fact that I don't exactly trust the man. I mean, at first I found it suspicious that a CONSTRUCTION WORKER would travel around the world for work but no one really wants to doubt their parents when they're young and besides, I generally like giving people the benefit of the doubt so I decided to believe him. However, when we received a postcard from him last year of the South Pole with penguins, I snapped. I really don't like not being able to trust my own father but that was truly the way I felt. I don't know, something about that postcard just seemed to scream "SUSPICIOUS" with the igloo and all but that might just have been me. After all, mum found nothing suspicious about it but then again, when does she?
Anyway, as I was saying, my father answered my call and gave me a giant bear hug gushing over "How cute my Tsu-chan is," and telling me "How Tsu-chan is growing up to look just like my adorable Nana." Now that I think about it, I should've realised right then and there that something was up. After all, that man brings nothing but a cyclone of trouble every time he walks through that goddamned door before leaving me to clean up the mess he leaves behind. Really, how naïve I was to think that he was only there to visit. I had realised long ago that every time that man comes home, he has a reason. I guess I just didn't want think that this time, that reason would be ME.
"Haha, hi dad." I said once I got out of that death-grip of a hug. I swear, despite acting like a complete child 99% of the time, he is STRONG. "Where is mum?"
"Oh, my dear Nana went out to shop saying she was going to cook a feast for us tonight saying something along the lines of 'Kyaa! Why didn't you tell me you were coming?! I would've bought more food earlier!' Yeah, that sounds about right." Dad replied while wearing that ridiculously big and childish smile. I sweat dropped. "So he turned up unexpectedly again" I thought. Suddenly, the door slammed open and mum walked in holding a ton of bags.
"I'm home darling, Tsu-chan~" she sang.
"Sweetheart~ you're home!" dad replied hugging her much like he did to me but with love hearts floating around them. I sighed and made my way up the stairs.
"I'm going to take a shower." I told them, not like they were listening anyway. After I finished showering, I headed down to the dining room- only to trip down the stairs: again. I swear, gravity has it out for me- what did I every do to it?! Well, putting that matter aside, I made it to the dining room (relatively) unharmed and began eating while listening to my father gushing on and on about "How delicious my beloved Nana's cooking is." But then he brought up the topic that would change my life forever.
"Hey, Tsu-chan, why don't we go on a trip into the mountains- just you and me. You know, for some father-daughter bonding time!" Iemitsu exclaimed suddenly.
I sighed. His idea of bonding usually ended with ME getting hurt 99.99% of the time but looking into his eyes, I knew I'd already lost the fight so I did the only thing I could do- I closed my eyes, sucked it up and replied, "Okay."
"Aww, I wish I could join you but since it's a father-daughter trip…" mum trailed off.
"It's only for one day." I assured her, "You'll see us soon. Right dad?"
"Right." He replied and I could swear I saw him cringe but just brushed it aside. After all, it couldn't be that important, right? Ah, how naïve I was.
"Really?" Nana asked.
I smiled a little at that. "Promise."
It was a promise that would soon be broken.
The next day dad and I set out at 3 am (dad's idea) and by 11:00 we were well into the mountain range. There really was nothing out here, just vast expanses of land from all directions and to be honest, I was getting bored of looking at brown. Then, I saw a clearing.
"We're here!" Dad exclaimed with what seemed like a strained voice but I just brushed it aside.
"Mm! So, what are we doing first?" I asked with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.
"We're going to fish in our underwear!" He exclaimed, sparkles in his eyes with a truly happy voice this time.
Ah, some things never change.
We spent the next couple of hours fishing, cooking the fish and then eating it. I think this was probably the happiest I've ever been with my dad and it made me feel like a little kid again. After we'd packed up our utensils, we decided to take a bush walk. We went extremely deep into the forest and now that I think about it, he looked really tense and nervous but at the time, I was to happy to realise or care. It was then that a bunch of scary looking men came out of the shadows and surrounded us. I grabbed onto dad's arm but he shook me off.
"Dad…?" My voice was wavering.
He looked at me with solemn eyes. "I'm sorry."
Then everything turned black.
Thump
Un- tsu- ats- nats- tsuna- Tsuna!
Thump
Huh? Wh-who's calling out my name?
Thump
Images flashed across my mind. A silver-haired boy playing a piano- a child with mismatched eyes crying in a cage- a white-haired kid with bandages around his hands standing in front of a pretty girl while getting beaten-up by teenagers- a boy with a baseball bat crying in front of a grave- a cow-like child crying out for his mommy and a raven-haired boy standing stoically while a woman with an uncanny resemblance to him threw a vase in his direction while screaming "Monster!" over and over again.
Thump
Save them. Be the sky that embraces all and take them away from their darkness- before it's too late.
Thump
More images flooded my head, emotions collided together splitting my head in half.
Silent tears, fake smiles, anger, defiance, betrayal.
"No! Stop it! STOP IT!"
Thump
"Haa, haa, haa." I looked around.
"Where am I?"
The head splitting pain had subsided into a dull throb. I tried to even out my breathing while I collected my thoughts- then it hit me: I was abandoned.
"Why? Why did he abandon me? Do they not want me anymore? No! It couldn't be true… could it? I am useless Dame-Tsuna after all. Are they happier without me? Is it just better if I just went ahead and died?"
It was then that I recalled the children in my dream. No. I couldn't die yet; I still had to free them from that suffocating darkness. I couldn't die, not yet.
I wouldn't die.
I got up unsteadily and took a good look at my surroundings. It would seem that I was still in the forest. When I took my hand of my throbbing head, I saw blood but there wasn't too much and there was nothing to treat it with anyway so I decided to just leave it alone for now. I checked my pockets but found there was nothing in them. All that was left for me to do was to keep on walking ahead and hoping that I would get lucky and would stumble across some other people.
Unfortunately, I'm never lucky.
I had been walking around for seven hours. I was tired, hungry, dehydrated and night was falling fast. It was getting cold as well so I decided to start a fire. I just stared at the glowing light in the middle of all the darkness, somewhat comforted by its warmth. The last thing I saw before losing consciousness was that flickering light.
It had already been two weeks since I had been abandoned in the forest. As things stood, I knew that I was going to die soon. I wouldn't actually mind dying all that much really. I was Dame-Tsuna, the loner, the loser, the easy target for bullies. If I really thought about it, I honestly couldn't think of one single reason against dying. But those boys, they had looked so sad. It looked as if they had tried so hard to stay strong until they eventually cracked. Even now I could see those frail yet childish faces void of any emotion but pain. Was it really alright to say those types of things just for being bullied and abandoned? Was it okay to die in a way such as this when they had suffered so much more?
It was then that for the first time in my life, I thought: I want to live.
Just until I saved those boys- then I could die in peace but until then, I was definitely going to live. So, albeit a little wobbly, I managed to successfully stand up and continued walking but it was only a little more than half an hour later that I collapsed again. Panting under the harsh sun, I tried to get up again but none of my muscles would respond. I felt tears start to prickle my eyes. I hadn't even found those boys yet and I'm already going to die? I need to save them. They can't- they can't keep on suffering alone. Those eyes that seemed to be so distant. More than anything, at that moment, I wanted to reach out to them and tell them it was okay.
It was at this moment that I saw six figures reaching out to me- their faces blocked by the glaring sun behind them. I managed a weak smile before everything went black one again.
Haha. First fanfic- don't hate too badly, 'kay? The reason this chapter is kind of jumpy and not so in-depth is that I really just wanted to get the background out of the way so I can start the real story line. Well, I think it's pretty obvious who the six guys are so it isn't really a cliffhanger or anything but I figured this would be a good place to stop. Tell me what you think and how I could improve my writing all you like- and feel free to point out any mistakes. I'll be taking votes for desired pairings via reviews but I'm just going to put it out there now that this story is NOT going to be R27. I don't have anything against it, in fact, I am a fan but this is going to be more Parental!(Well as parental as Reborn can get)Reborn so it's just not going to work. Thank you for even bothering to read this and I hope to update soon since I practically got this all planned in my head but procrastinate a lot. I actually started writing this 4 months ago but couldn't be bothered until I just decided to finish the chapter on a whim a couple hours ago. Really, thanks for reading!~