Neverland

by nagashinokuro

家庭教師ヒットマンリボーン C 天野明


sawada tsunayoshi

When Tsuna was little, he wanted to be a giant robot.

He thought it would be so amazing—to be able to transform whenever he wanted, to fly in the sky, to have flamethrowers for arms…the possibilities were so vast and endless and amazing. He wouldn't have to be Dame-Tsuna, who got the lowest test scores in class. He wouldn't have to be little Tsu-kun, whose mother worked late at night and whose father was never home. He wouldn't have to be Sawada, who had no friends.

He would be super smart. He would hold up his mother with his own two hands. He would save and help people, and they would be his friends.

It really crushed him, the day when his mother gently told him that humans would always be human and a transformation like that—turning something warm and soft into something cold and steel—was impossible. That his dreams of flight and his dreams of change were impossible.

That he would always be Dame-Tsuna and Tsu-kun and Sawada, and never competent, never useful, never a friend.

But now, Tsuna muses as he dodges another blow from Hibari, he's no longer Dame-Tsuna, or Tsu-kun, or Sawada. Instead, he's—

"Sawada Tsunayoshi." A tonfa clips him on the right shoulder and he winces. "Your mind is not on the fight."

"Ah," Tsuna says, taking a deep breath to settle his thoughts and light up his flames again. "You're right. Sorry about that, Hibari. It won't happen again."

The gray eyes narrow before his Cloud Guardian finally says, "What was on your mind?"

A brief pause. And then so simply, so effortlessly—he doesn't need rocket boosters or an engine or any kind of fuel except his own willpower—Tsuna leaps into the sky. Without any prompting, Hibari jumps, summoning Roll to give himself some leverage in their new battlefield. Tsuna laughs gently.

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all."

Well, he isn't actually made of steel. He isn't exactly gigantic. He doesn't really have flamethrowers for arms, either.

But that's okay. Sometimes—when one knows how to look—being human is fine, too.