Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn no matter how much I would like to.
Summary: Ten years later in the future, Yamamoto must come to terms with his past, present and future.
A.N.: I think I found my newest obsession x3. A TYL!fic (or is it a nine year and however many months fic?) set in the timeframe before the Millefore's attack. Sawada Tsuna is alive and so is Yamamoto Tsuyoshi.
Read and review, pretty please?
Requiem for a Lullaby
The swallow's wings spread over them like the rosy fingers of dawn. Men turned their faces up to the ceiling in relief. A few even opened their mouths to catch the droplets of rain as it came down to wash everything away. The blood is rinsed off of their clothes, their hair, their skin. It is like an absolution of sorts that Yamamoto cannot help but freely offer. It is softness, kindness, weakness that he has yet to grow out of. He let the briefest flicker of smile to touch his lips before ducking his head to speak into the miniature transceiver.
"What is the situation?"
The noise of static and scratchy footsteps filled the air. Frowning, he held the speaker closer to his ear. He signaled the men to start cleaning up the scene. No one may know what has happened here except for him and his men. It is his duty to the Vongola Famiglia as the guardian of rain, to 'wash' away their enemies until no traces are left.(1)
"Bzzt... Angelo Pittaluga has ...bzzt... withdrawn to the second level... the Cloud bzzzt...bzz... Guardian has gone after him."
Yamamoto lightly bit the tip of his tongue in reply.
Angelo Pittaluga, mid-thirties, one of the best marksmen of his generation. Only a week ago, Angelo had lost to Sasagawa Ryohei in a bout of 'extreme' drinking and ended up a suit poorer when he had been forced to streak down the hallways. He himself had never particularly liked the man. There was always something unsettling about the way the brunette's gaze lingered too long on him, on everything and everywhere.
"Sir? Will you be going after him?"
The Cloud Guardian Hibari Kyoya would be more than a match for the wayward sniper but this was a man who had escaped even the tenth boss' superior intuition. Yamamoto laughed at the dilemma, tapping the bamboo surface of the shinai against his shoulder.
He smiled at his second, Cecelia Acquati.
"Haha, I shouldn't."
-x-
"...Why?"
"Vongola... Nascosto(2), mafia, gangsters, Irish mob, yakuza, Yamamoto-san, are all the same... the difference is the number of zeros you offered."
"You're wrong; the difference is that the Vongola is family."
"Stop trying to reason with him foolish herbivore."
-x-
The stone fragmented into violet shards and scattered over the ground.
Hibari twisted the broken ring off with a flick of his wrist and carelessly discarded it behind him. As he was about to replace it with a C-grade ring, Angelo's bullet took it and half the skin off of the back of his hand. Wordlessly the Cloud Guardian ducked and rolled, what bullets he cannot dodge, he simply deflected with his tonfa.
The man was good. He was immediately able to grasp the chink in the impenetrable armor when Hibari had to stop to switch his ruined rings.
"Wao... not bad."
He slipped a painted finger through a D-grade ring. The surface of its stone is already fogged and cracking. He skidded against the wet concrete as another round of bullets dots the path he took. He stared irritably down at the unfortunate draw and presses it against the keyhole of his attack box.
Immediately, balls of spikes appeared in midair floating freely around the former prefect's lean form. The guns fired once more and two of the box animals moved forward to capture the sniper. At first glance, the creatures swallowed the bullets as the clouds might do to the sun. In mere moments, shrapnel sprays out of the box animals in all directions. Hibari jumped back, an arm raised to protect his face as the cloud-attribute animals lay uncurled on the floor in defeat. The remaining two shook uneasily in pain. Then Hibari saw it, the metallic glint of the ring around the brunette's neck.
The yellow dying-will flames jumped from its bearer to the black surface of his guns. A sun-attribute, it explained why his attacks had no bearings on the man. Hibari dourly pressed his lips into a thin line. From what the Rain Guardian had told him about the brunette, Angelo Pittaluga had never shown any inclination towards the rings or the boxes, preferring to rely on his arsenal of guns. But still, producing flames strong enough to defend against his attacks was an impressive feat. The mission would be more interesting than Hibari had originally thought.
Angelo concentrated his dying-will flames into the empty chamber and fires. His box animals put up an impressive wall but at most, the two would cancel each other out as opposing elements. Hibari braced himself.
"Sakamaku ame,"
The water arced over into a shield. Yamamoto kneeled with his back towards the aloof guardian, his sword parallel to his arm. "Hibari, are you alright?" and he dodged the subsequent series of blows that followed.
"Mind your own battles herbivore." Hibari spat, tossing away his ring. He drew another D grade, with a click of his tongue he placed a second over it. If Yamamoto noticed sudden expenditure, he did not comment. The younger man simply signaled the elder to duck as the water came down, drenching them as bullets flew overhead.
"Haha, we're supposed to do this one together." He swung his sword like a bat. The metal blade humed tonelessly as it slices through the air and the bullets slowed at the shockwave produced. Hibari struck them out of the air as the swallow dove and formed the beginnings of a storm beneath its tapered wings.
The rain stung his eyes but he kept them open. He had learned a long time ago not to close his eyes during the deception which would slowly sap its others of strength. His skin briefly grew numb before re-warming. The Rain Guardian's energy flowed freely between them, tranquil blue mixing with the more violent purple. His box animals revived and the Cloud Guardian merely grunted his thanks.
The spell of rain broke with an ear-splitting roar. The droplets melted away into steam as a box animal emerged bristling its luxurious mane. Angelo is smiling from a distance as the sun-attribute lion batted irately at the comet-like shape of the swallow. Yamamoto laughed, seeming to think all this a jest and rolled his ring box in his hand.
"Ah that's bad isn't it?"
If there was a worse combination than cloud and sun would have been sun and rain.(3) The swift wings trailed water down upon the larger box animal, quelling the light of its pelt to a dull brassy glow. The feline leaped and missed, landing amongst the balls of spikes as they crowded it in between themselves. The D-grade ring shattered. Hibari crouched beneath the belly of the lion, feeling the yellow flames lick through his suit as he snapped both its hind legs with his tonfa. The remaining ring cracked and he was forced to back off. Unable to take the rings off just then, he reached into his pockets and slid his thumb halfway through the first ring he was able to grab a hold of. Angelo took the opportunity and fired.
Yamamoto slid in front of the Cloud Guardian and launched a 'shinotsuku ame'. The katana clove the bullets into perfect halves. They exploded and sent white sparks crawling down the silver length of Shigure Kintoki. The Rain Guardian blinked when he saw the gun kick back and spit out empty cartilages. The second round of bullets rippled through the barrier of cloud and rain just as he reached the pinnacle of his swing. Yamamoto did not realize he has been hit until he stumbled back against the crushing force, tripping over Hibari who shot past from behind his knees and struck the rogue hitman down with his tonfa.
Yamamoto fell but strangely did not feel any pain. He saw the image of the golden lion slow to extinguish. His swallow returned to him bare and seemingly vulnerable without its fiery coat of feathers. Only a mere suggestion of a flickering fire alighted its forked tail as it tugged at the short strands of his hair. He sleepily mumbled at it to stop, laughter caught somewhere at the back of his teeth and inside his throat.
His head felt heavy but that was not anything new. He had not been able to sleep ever since he got the news that Angelo had defected to another family. He frowned, giggling at the word 'defezionante'.(4) What a strange word though Gokudera would probably slap him over the head and call him a moron if he ever voiced the sentiment out loud.
'Oof'
He had not even noticed Hibari beside him pulling him into a sitting position. His swallow clung tenaciously onto his shoulder as his torso becomes upright and perpendicular to the floor. His head rolled dizzyingly over his neck and it took him a moment to regain focus on his senior's disgruntled face. He tried to smile and ask what is wrong when with a cough, he spat out strangely warm liquid from his mouth. It was not puke as far as he could tell. He had not vomited over a mission since, never. He wheezed and saw that he blew some more of the sticky red stuff into the air. It tasted coppery, strange; he did not remember having bits of metal for breakfast. He coughed again and this time it penetrates through the layers of adrenaline pouring through his veins. He keened through a mouthful of salt. Hibari ripped his shirt open and pushed it up until he could see the muscled stomach splattered with oozing blood—his blood. Yamamoto gave a short groan and feebly tried to push the other guardian away. Hibari simply slapped at his hands and took his jacket off to sponge off the excess blood. Alarm blared piercingly at some obscure corner of his mind, Vongola's guardian of rain touched the dark-warm liquid and brought it up to his face as though mesmerized.
"Look what daddy got me mommy!"
"Don't come in here Takeshi!"
"I need a medic over here!" Hibari barked as he pressed down upon the wound to staunch its flow.
Yamamoto grabbed the Cloud Guardian's wrist with surprising strength for someone who has been shot in the stomach. Reminding himself that Yamamoto is injured with a—potentially—fatal wound, Hibari raised his head and looked at the other man in the eye.
For once the boyish grin was gone from his face. Aside from the flecks of blood lining his nostrils and the too scarlet lips, Hibari could have honestly believed that it was another mission briefing perhaps, maybe another lecture from the abnormally tall herbivore about how he should take better care of himself.
"...This is how my mother died."
He said it so earnestly that Hibari privately wondered if the words had been uttered at all. The younger man held his gaze for a moment longer as the pupils widened to lap up the dark honey of his eyes. The hand at his wrist slackened and let go entirely. The Cloud Guardian spat out a short curse and smothered the wound with his jacket. All around them has grown quiet, a man jogged up to them carrying a first aid kit. Hibari kicked at the man's head.
"Get a medic before I bite you all to death!!"
(1) My interpretation is that while the storm, the sun, and the thunder attack from the front lines, the rain acts behind the scenes eliminating enemies from the shadows and 'washing away' traces of battle when the others are finished.
(2) 'Nascosto' means 'hidden' or 'concealed' in Italian. A fictional family I made up that henceforth will no longer be mentioned. I think.
(3) I think some attributes work better together with each other than others. For example, logically the sun couldn't be paired up with rain (or any of the others except the sky) because they'd cancel each other out.
Technically 'storm' is the opposite of 'sun' but since the sun is supposed to revitalize, I figure it could be an effective counter for the sedative like effects of 'rain'.
(4) 'Defezionante' means 'defected' in Italian. I think I got the tense right but please correct me if I am wrong