…Cold…
…Dark…
…Silence…
As I sat in a room, my body wrapped in a multitude of ice cold metal chains and paper talismans that flicker as I shivered, a shroud of black surrounds me; my mind starts to wander to those memories of long ago… the memories of her…
I remember seeing her for the first time, her spiky hair, nervous chocolate brown eyes, and short stature.
I was getting beat up like usual when out of nowhere she came flying in and tried to stop the people from beating me up; however it was useless for they kept at beating her up along with me.
Once the beating was over she came to help me, our hands brushed together and my Nenekirimaru emitted a luminous glow; surprise written all over our faces I stood up and ran.
I admit I was surprised I was expecting the Tenth Vongola boss to be someone with a more confident, arrogant air, but this girl was the exact opposite, she was just like me.
After that incident the brunette kept making advances to become my friend, but I resisted a bit thinking that she was only acting this way to manipulate me to get what she wanted.
But as I spent more time with him I realized that this girl, Sawada Tsuneko, was nothing like the typical Mafia boss; she was kind and pure, a person not suited to become a Mafia boss.
It was from there that my feelings of contempt and hate started to soften and turn into a more warm and fuzzy feeling, and before I knew it I had developed a crush on her.
When I realized my own feelings, my cheeks turned into the same color as my own blood. I just couldn't believe that I, the 3rd boss of the Nura clan, fell for our most hated rival, the Tenth Vongola boss and she was one of those self righteous vigilantes who killed my sister in law, Yomi, which just worsened the situation.
I felt ashamed and embarrassed; however, I eventually reasoned out that she wasn't like those Mafia bosses I despise.
With that thought in my mind I started to pursue her, although it was very subtle as I became extremely embarrassed as I thought of more direct ways to approach her.
I recall those times as one of those rare happy moments in my life. His smiles and blushes were like sunshine to my beak life.
After several weeks, I was at her house one day and I don't know what possessed me at that moment, but as she was smiling and talking to me I leaned in and kissed her on the lips. It was just a short brushing of our lips, but it caused us both to glow red like a tomato.
I proceeded to run away afterwards, but Tsuneko grabbed my arm, with her head down she mumbled incoherent words and looked up at me with determined eyes.
After that everything was a blur all I remember was me pulling her down, wrapping her arms around my neck, and pulling her in for a kiss. The kiss was burned into my memory, it was passionate and all other words associated with it.
After a few minutes our need for air became too great and we broke apart. We both didn't say a word to each other afterwards; we just sat in separate corners of the room staring at the wall.
Eventually she fell asleep it was then that I grabbed a piece of paper scribbled down a not asking Tsuneko to meet me at the abandoned school building to help me with something. I then silently left to go wait for her.
The next day I sat at the abandoned school and waited for her arrival. I was sure she would show up because I thought of her as a caring person and I also waited for her to show up so I could tell him how I felt about her and hopefully that she felt the same way.
And so I sat and waited…
1 hour…
3 hours…
5 hours…
Finally I heard footsteps coming my way, thinking it was Tsuneko my face instantly turned red and a tiny smile started to form on my lips I was going to forgive her for making me wait so long because as long as she showed up everything would be ok.
However, my smile shattered as I saw it was Tsurara, tagging along Yomi's daughter, Minori and not Tsuneko that was coming towards me. She sat next to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. She frowned and shook her head; she told me she saw Tsuneko at school that day without a care in the world happily chatting with her friends and went home after school.
I balled my fists; I couldn't believe it how could Tsuneko, the girl who I thought had a kind heart just ignore my plea for help like that. Tears started to fall and I buried my face in my arms and stayed like that for a while, trying to wash away my feelings of regret and love.
After that I started the war between the Nura clan and the Vongola Family, Demons versus Humans, seeing Tsuneko's hurt expression angered me and yet saddened me at the same time, but I quickly shook off that feeling and stayed firm; I was determined to see this through the end and extinguish my feelings for her once and for all.
As we fought my family members started to disappear one by one while her allies, starting with Konoha Shinobis to the Straw Hat Pirates, all joined in the battle one by one, and my hate and vengeance started to boil over, but the love that I felt for the Vongola Decimo never completely went away.
Finally, it was finally my turn to fight her as we exchanged blows she kept looking at me with a sad, confused expression. I didn't understand it at all, it was her fault that started all this; her expression just fueled my rage.
I underestimated her; however, as her hits became stronger, faster, and more precise. Eventually I fell, covered in cuts, bruises, and blood I laid there and cried out of frustration; I cried because I couldn't avenge Tsurara, my father, Rihan, Yomi, and cursed Tsuneko for ignoring my letter and not coming to meet me that day.
I saw her confused expression, through my blurry eyes and I heard her murmur "Letter?" My eyes widened in disgust and hate, how could she forget that letter, the letter that could have prevented all this from happening.
I opened my mouth to shout, but the Yasha-Karasus arrived and declared Sawada Tsuneko as the winner and showed us my father and Vongola Primo's memories.
As the memories flashed through my mind I realized that the real reason my father died was not because Vongola Primo had tricked him, in fact, Vongola Primo truly cared for the Nura clan like family, Rihan died because of his own personal feud he had with Yamamoto Gozaemon.
I was still in shock at this new revelation when new memories ran through my mind, memories of Yomi. I saw that Yomi was nothing like what she had proven herself to be, in fact, she was nothing but a genocidal maniac that is bent on eradicating humans, using how humanity has been abusing mother nature as a pathetic excuse, all she wanted was to have humanity suffer for her sick, evil and insane reasons! Simply because a group of scientists no better or possibly much worse than she was, altered her body into that of a god without her consent.
My adopted sister Hagoromo Kitsune, her children, even myself were nothing but tools for her own purposes! Pawns who served their purpose, Orochimaru for example, who given her the sword of Kusanagi, was swiftly dealt with the harshest way possible as soon as Orochimaru reached his end of the bargain, since he planned to betray her anyway. My mouth hung open as the shocking truth was revealed.
Still numb from the discovery the last set of memories flashed through my mind, it was the memories of when I had left that letter for Tsuneko. Tsuneko had never seen the letter, for it was accidentally shoved into the trash bin as the kids were playing around.
Hot salty tears blurred my vision, all this pain and suffering all because of what? Just a bunch of misunderstandings! I looked at Tsuneko and saw she was looking at me and crying as well.
She ran over and cradled my broken body in her arms, apologizing over and over again. I just smiled shakily and pulled her into a soft, fleeting kiss and whispered "I love you" before Tsuneko could even respond chains started to wrap around my body and dragged me towards Avici Naraka.
The last thing I saw was Tsuneko with a horrified expression running towards me in vain and yelling, the only thing I heard was "FEW… YEARS…SAVE…YOU…" I smiled believing every word she said.
After that I was placed in this cave with chains and talismans strapped to my body, only fed once a day, and I never saw the light ever since that day…
It was then as those memories ran through my mind, in that dark, cold cell that anxiety and grief washed over me. I realized that too much time had passed and that Tsuneko had never come to rescue me from this place… she didn't keep her promise…
I started to lose my grip on reality laughing hysterically for days on end which then turned into wailing and moaning.
I cried and cried and cried. I don't know how much time passed…
Days…?
Weeks…?
Months…?
Years…?
Eventually I stopped crying… a lot of time passed after that… I don't really recall what happened or what I did.
After so much time passed light flooded into my room for the first time in ages, but I just sat there with a blank expression.
I saw a familiar head of brown hair through my clouded eyes, and saw the talismans burn up suddenly and the cold, oppressing chains around my body start to disappear.
I saw the brunette move her mouth, she was probably talking to me, but I couldn't hear anything.
I saw her hold me close and yet I couldn't feel anything.
She even pressed her lips against mine and yet I still couldn't feel anything; I didn't even flinch or respond.
She embraced me again and buried her face into my shoulders, but I didn't do anything I just blankly stared into space because…
…My mind…
…My feelings…
…My heart…
…and everything that defined who "Rikuo Nura" was…
…Had already faded away into nothing…