Dead Beat
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! © Amano Akira
Chapter one
Summary: Tsuna is staring at the Undead, Kyoko is behind him and no one is doing anything. So he does. (Adopted from wolfsrainrules)
Rate: T
May contain: Cursing, gore, angst, character death and OCs
Original Author: wolfsrainrules
Author's Note:I probably won't bring enough justice that wolfsrainrules would if she continued writing this story, but I am giving it a try because I fell in love this idea and the plot just began rolling. I hope you enjoy it as much I did writing the first chapter! Also, I am sorry for any grammar and spelling errors.
ARC I: Beginning of the END; Chapter One
Intro:
The irony of the situation wouldn't dawn on Tsunayoshi for a while.
He was 'Dame'. No good. The least liked person of the school. The person the downtrodden beat on and made fun of to feel better about themselves because they were bad off, but at least they weren't 'Dame-Tsuna.'
The 'rock bottom' for the rest of the school to compare to.
Any yet…
When the time comes, it is Tsuna who stands at the front, Tsuna who takes a stand and commands 'no more'. It is 'rock bottom' that refuses to bend, refuses to yield and becomes the wall that stands between the people and the others.
Tsuna isn't sure how it happened, what caused the outbreak, or why there was next to no warning. All he knows is that when it happens, Kyoko had been behind him and everyone else was screaming and crying and panicking.
No one had been doing anything.
Something inside him had snapped when the infected the undead: whatever the hell was left of what used to be people tried to eat them.
Tsuna had been between the undead and the only person in the entire town who had never called him no good (because as much as he loved and adored his mother, she had called him no good before) the only person besides his mother who had always had a kind smile and a word for him.
No one else had been doing anything to help- so Tsuna had.
He wouldn't find out for years about the seal that had been on him since he was five. He wouldn't find out for years that his Will that his Resolve in that moment had been strong enough to shatter it like it had never been there as his determination to live and go home to his mother, his determination to make sure Kyoko lived, his will to defy death was stronger than the resolve of the Sky that had sealed him.
His Flames had surged under that seal and burned through it from the inside until they were free.
It would be a long while before Tsuna would find out that he had learned to 'run before he walked' as it were that day, his Flames plunging him straight into what he would later learn to identify as Hyper Dying Will Mode.
All Tsuna had been aware of at the moment was that the undead were walking, everyone around him was being torn apart and eaten, the streets were lined in blood from those who hadn't been quick enough and Kyoko was behind him. All he had known in that moment was the Will to live and take Kyoko with him.
And so he had.
Flames had come into being and Tsuna had torn through everything in his way with his bare hands and the fire that coated them.
He'd taken Kyoko to his home and found his mother in the kitchen, her apron coated in red and a frying pan gripped in one hand. It had been a relief to see her there and she had rushed to greet him, babbling about the men that had come into the house who had already been dead, but trying to hurt her. She babbled about panicking and hitting them with the pan only for them to get back up until she managed to hit one in the head. She told her son how she had dragged them out of the house.
Tsuna had been calm as he rubbed her back, whispering soothingly into her ear before he had asked her to watch Kyoko for him. His mother had latched onto the normalcy.
Tsuna had gone upstairs and following his instincts had gathered what he thought he might need into bags. One for him, one for his mother and one for Kyoko. When he came back downstairs the two women had been in the kitchen while his mother tried to coax Kyoko into eating some rice balls from the fridge.
Tsuna had been the one to lead them to the school, the one that carved a path through the undead from their home to the school picking up an odd couple of things as his instincts demanded of him.
When he arrived at the school there were a few bodies lining the halls, alongside broken classrooms and blood splatters, but Tsuna has a destination in mind. He knows where he needs to go even if he isn't sure why. (Once again- he will later learn to call this the 'Vongola Intuition')
He climbs the stairways, using the bits and pieces he had picked up on his way there (mostly poles and things of that nature) to latch the doors shut behind himself. He plans absently to come back and do a better job of it, but for now, it will slow any undead down which is what he needs.
He eventually makes it to the third story of the school- the top floor not including the roof- and he finds what his instincts had been guiding him to: Hibari and a diminished Disciplinary Committee guarding the terrified remains of the student and teacher body.
"Here" his instincts- his intuition- purrs. "Here is where we can rest. The girls will be safe- we will be safe."
The warm feeling that had fueled him pulls back, the Flames on his firsts that no one had mentioned (Tsuna will later find out that only those who can use the Flames or are aware of their own Flames and can feel them even if they can't use them are capable of actually seeing the Flames themselves) disappearing and he sways sharply.
O~O~O~O~O~O~
When he comes too, there's a silver-white haired boy leaning over him with his fists clenched. He recognizes Kyoko's older brother. "Thank you for saving Kyoko and bringing her to me!" the boy screams in Tsuna's face and even though his head hurts and his body feels like it may have been beaten into putty by Hibari, Tsuna smiles at the boy and tells him 'you're welcome.'
O~O~O~O~O~O~
Tsuna isn't aware of the impression he made on the group of students in the school on his way to them. Most of the students had been watching out the windows as the boy they had called 'no good' carved his way through the undead with his bare hands.
The hallways of the school itself had been mostly empty with a few stragglers thanks to Hibari, but outside the school? That had been a whole other story. Hundreds if not thousands of bodies had stood in his way, all of them drawn to the living bodies like flies to honey, and Tsuna had flitted between the chaos of the undead like he was born to fight them, keeping the two noncombatants with him alive and safe as the undead fell to his hands.
The boy they had thought to be a loser, a push over, someone who would always be the 'rock bottom' a boy they classified as no good had just carved his way into the school with a path of chaos and blood and made it look easy.
O~O~O~O~O~O~
Hibari had seen the Herbivore fight his way to the herd he and his Committee had been shielding. He had watched as one of the weakest Herbivores he had ever seen had fought like a Carnivore. There had been no hesitation, every strike he had made had been lethal to the undead, and despite the numbers between him and them as well as the women he was protecting, he had refused to waver.
It was faint, but Hibari couldn't help the small whisper that escaped him.
"Wao"
O~O~O~O~O~O~
Tsuna wasn't a leader as far as he was concerned. He was just someone who could do something and so had when everyone else was too scared or horrified to do it themselves. As far as he was concerned he never had been. Had never been someone anyone had thought was worth following.
The undead outbreak had changed that. Everyone else had been too terrified to take the mantle, and his remaining classmates- gathered and kept safe by Hibari and his Committee- had witnessed the barehanded crusade into the school when he arrived. It meant they looked his way in their terror because they had seen that Tsuna could fight the undead and win. (And he wasn't as terrifying as Hibari)
Tsuna had never considered himself to be a leader, and would tell anyone that thought to ask that he wasn't one. He was just a protector. A boy who had the ability to do something and so had.
If anyone asked the classmates that had dismissed Tsuna so easily, who had held their foothold in the school for the last six months by his side...who had fought, slept, plotted and planned at his side, who had been sure that 'this was it' this was the moment they were going to be eaten, they were going to die only to open their eyes and see Tsuna's back between them and the undead…
If anyone asked the children Tsuna had gone out personally to collect and bring back to the school…the children who had been so hungry, so cold, and so, so scared with no one to turn to or no idea what do before warm brown eyes had found them and extended a warm callused hand out to them and offered safety…
If anyone asked the adults that Tsuna had gone after beside classmates, the parents of those who had been caught in their homes or in the grocery stores, those that had been caught at work and prayed with everything that they were that their child was still alive…the parents who would later look into the orange-tinted brown eyes of the boy who had protected their children, and them followed them out of their safe-zone to find them and bring them back for their children…
If anyone were to ask them who they considered to be the 'leader' of those who called the school their safe-zone…each of them would answer "Tsuna" with a warm grin and sure eyes.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~ O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
Chapter One:
Tsuna stared at the blue sky while he tried to regain his breath. Wincing slightly as he held tightly onto his side, wondering how badly the bruise will become after another beating from his tormentors.
The October wind felt nice against his skin.
"So much for escaping them," He muttered to himself, shifting slightly, trying to figure out if he should go home now or just lay there a couple more minutes. The sun was still out and it was probably a couple more hours before sunset.
It just hurt to move at the moment, however, he didn't want to worry his mother once more again for coming home late and then there was Hibari, the elder teen would soon be prowling around the park and bite anyone to death if they were seen crowding or lingering around late at night.
With a deep breath, Tsuna sat up and allowed the aching to slowly ease away. Biting his bottom lip, he muffles a cry.
'Why,' Tsuna asked himself as he stared down at his clothes now filled with dirt. 'Why am I so useless? Why am I so clumsy, so stupid, so… so dame?'
He knew that he wasn't the brightest person or very athletic, but that didn't mean he tried. Yet he is stuck as Dame-Tsuna. The lowest of the low. The person no one wanted to be. The person they all ganged up on so they could feel better for themselves, a reminder of how weak and useless he is and they aren't.
"Sawada-kun?" A familiar voice snapped him out of his misery and looked towards the one and the only person that was kind to him. The one person that never spoke ill towards him, reminded him that he was a dame or looked at him with disgust in her eyes.
"K-Kyoko-chan!" he squealed, sitting up slightly straighter, trying to brush the dirt off him even if his efforts didn't rid of all the dirt that clung to his clothes. "W-what are you doing here?" He asked, trying to keep the pain away from his voice. He didn't want her to worry about him, about his bruises and the aching pain he has on his side.
He just wanted to see her smile, reminded him that everything was okay.
"I'm looking for my brother… he promised to be home by now, but he hasn't shown up," The female stated, coming closer to the brunet. "But, what are you doing here?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.
Tsuna laughed nervously, "I-I was hanging out... yeah, um, your b-brother, what was he doing? If y-you don't mind if I ask,"
"Oh! onii-san usually works out or is out practicing boxing," Kyoko said, carefully crouching down next to Tsuna. The brunet nodded his head, fighting the blush from rising his face.
"Oh… d-do you want help searching for him?" He asked.
The orange haired girl clapped her hands together and stared at him with those warm golden eyes of hers. "Are you sure? I would love the help,"
Tsuna nodded his head a weak smile etched his lips, "Y-yeah, I-I don't mind helping Kyoko-chan," he replied.
"Thank you!" She thanked him, but Tsuna shook his head, "You don't need to thank me," He whispered, as he began getting up from the ground and giving her a hand.
Because he should be thanking her for pulling him out thoughts, for brightening his day and always giving him kindness when the rest of the town just told him he would never be anything, but useless.
Kyoko just stared at him confused as she accepted his hand, wondering what the brunet had just whispered to himself.
"Let's find your brother, okay?"
"Alright," Kyoko agreed, her smiling becoming, even more, brighter, Tsuna just smiled and walked beside the female.
Namimori wasn't as big as Tokyo, but it was big enough for foreigners or outsiders to get lost without a map or if they had visited with a local.
The city was livelier in the afternoons, were children ran amuck as their parents followed not far behind them. School students hung around the shopping district, looking out the windows and chattered among themselves. Vendors yelling out deals, calling out people to come and buy from their shops.
It was a small town, but it was alive and it was theirs.
Tsuna looked around, observing his surroundings. He tried to avoid the busy afternoons of Namimori when he got out of school. It was where most of his tormentors usually all located themselves.
"I don't see him anywhere," His attention went back to the female next to him. She was looking around the busy streets of Namimori, worried filled those eyes.
"D-don't worry Kyoko-chan!" He almost screamed, stumbling with his words as he tried to reassure her. "W-we'll find him! Don't worry."
Kyoko nodded her head, the reassurance lifted some worry, but not enough and Tsuna didn't know what to do besides walk with the female, looking around trying to shake away the fear that was slowly crawling in the back of his mind, the worry that slowly etched itself onto him.
The sound of sirens brought both pre-teens out of their minds. Watching as the ambulance drives through the street, maneuvering itself around the cars and busy streets.
It should have been a warning.
A sign that something was going to happen because having an ambulance drive through the streets with fast speed meant something happens.
Especially when few more followed behind.
"C-come on Kyoko-chan, let's head towards the school. Y-your brother might be there," Tsuna stated, moving around the curious crowds.
The orange haired girl followed behind him, her eyes curiously taking in the crowds, wondering if everything was alright, but her priority was finding her brother.
"Yeah," She agreed softly, trying to keep up with the brunet who walked in a fast pace, almost ready to run.
Tsuna wasn't the most athletic, but he has practice from trying to escape the bullies that followed him even if he stumbled here and there.
Making their way to the familiar paths towards the school, everything seemed to go back to normal. Peaceful. Quiet.
The chattering between people return and everything is fine.
Even if it's slow in turning back to what it was a few minutes before the ambulance passed by. The loud music playing around the shopping center seemed to slowly drift around the air.
Tsuna couldn't help but tense up.
"Sawada-kun?" Kyoko asked, looking at the brunet beside her. The lanky boy was tensed up as he looked around. He looked uncomfortable, waiting for something that he wasn't sure was to come.
"Y-yeah Kyoko-chan," He asked, his eyes shifting around them.
"Are you okay?" She asked, wondering if something was wrong with her classmate.
Tsuna looked at Kyoko, she could tell the boy was worried. Tsuna opens his mouth to tell her he was fine. Everything was fine when a loud shot rang throughout the air.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
The world seemed to stop for that moment.
Guns were prohibited in Japan. They were an illegal item and anyone carrying such weapon was bitten to death by non-other than Hibari.
"W-we should get going," Tsuna said, shuffling backward as he grabbed Kyoko's wrist and pulled her away from the crowds. "P-probably shouldn't be here, j-just in case something bad happens." He manages to say. Trying to swallow his jumbled nerves, trying not to quiver in fear.
Not in front of Kyoko who looked ready to burst out into tears as she continued to stare in the direction where the shots rang out. Fear starting to show her face, if it wasn't for Tsuna slowly pulling her away, she would be paralyzed with fear amongst the crowd.
It was slow. Trying to move around the frozen crowd. Kyoko jumped and let out a small sob when three more shots rang through the air.
People were confused, scared and curious as they stood still. Looking at each other and towards the directions, the shot continued to be shot at.
As Tsuna pulled them into a small alleyway, he could hear a scream pierced the cool air and it broke the stilled moment.
Kyoko and Tsuna watched people slowly backed away, horror dawning onto their faces.
Another scream broke the air with another shot ringing.
People started stumbling backward, pushing themselves against each other. Cries breaking before they turned into screams.
The two pre-teens looked as hell broke loose. Children crying, adults pushing each other away from their path. People getting walked on.
Blood sprayed like rain as it hit the white cement. Bodies falling on top of bodies.
Low animalistic growls were muffled against screams and cries from the people running away.
Tsuna couldn't tear his attention away from the scene. His mind couldn't wrap the situation in front of him. Blood.
Blood everywhere.
The panicking man pushed away the stumbling being that kept coming towards him, the person, the thing, just kept going. Blood dripping down its face, covering his body.
He jumped when the man screamed as the thing snapped its jaws onto the man's shoulder. Blood sprayed as it tore the skin.
The man fell onto the floor, the thing fell down with him, its jaw continuing to chew onto the man's shoulder. More beings fell onto top of the man, tearing its stomach open, pulling out its intestines.
Tsuna was frozen in his spot as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. His brown eyes wide open, he couldn't form any thought as he watched the man get torn open and eaten alive.
Kyoko muffled screamed managed to wake him up from the shock. Tearing away from the scene he grabbed the girl's wrist and began running down the alley.
Twisting and turning.
Stumbling, catching his steps before he ran into a wall.
Shaking and trying to catch their breath, Tsuna stared at the dead-end with dawning horror, Kyoko was silently crying behind him.
Letting go of the wrist, Tsuna bends down to catch his breath, his stomach churned painfully as he remembered the scene.
Blood everywhere.
The man screaming for help as he stared at Tsuna straight in the eyes, trying to reach out towards him, but those…things just continued to fall on top of him as they tore the man apart with their bare fingers.
"S-Sawada-kun!" Kyoko's screams brought him out of his daze, straightening up, he looked at her before glancing behind them.
They were there. Stumbling towards them at a slow pace.
Pulling Kyoko behind him, letting the wall touch her back as he stood in front of her and those things.
Those things blocking their only exit.
Four things stumbling against each other as they slowly made their way towards them and the images kept popping in front of him. The man being eaten.
They were going to eaten.
They were going to die.
They were going to die alive while those things tear their bodies apart with their hands, their blood splattering the dirty alley and their screams would be drowned out by the loud moans and growls that came from them.
And no one was going to help them. No one was around to help.
"S-Sawada-kun," Kyoko cried, clutching Tsuna's shirt from the behind.
Kyoko's cries brought Tsuna back from his panicking.
He wasn't alone. He couldn't let Kyoko die. He couldn't die without doing something! Not without seeing his mom first. Not without making sure Kyoko gets to a safe zone.
He needed to live. Needed to fight.
'I don't want to regret dying without doing anything!' Tsuna screamed in his mind, as he tried to stop quivering in fear as he stared as those things edged closer to them.
"I don't want to die without doing anything first!"
Something in him snapped into place. The feeling of something missing blossom inside of him, spreading all over his body.
He could sense Kyoko standing behind him, her warmth reminded him of the early sun that broke the winter's cold mist. Defrosting the snow and allowing spring to slowly blossom.
He needed that warmth to remind alive. He couldn't let Kyoko die here. He wanted to live. She needed to live.
The need to live broke the fear.
And with a loud yell, he pushed himself away from Kyoko and charged towards the first undead being and punched him in the face. Being careful not get scratched or bitten.
Orange flames exploded from his fist, bashing the first undead head onto the dirty floor with a loud crunch, twisting around and grabbing the next undead being and pulled onto the floor and twisted its head, hearing a snap from the neck and moved on towards the two undead left.
Tsuna wasn't sure what he was doing, but he followed his instincts. The instincts that told him to smash their heads until they cracked.
Huffing, he stood there for a moment, staring at the undead not rise again, before turning around and grabbing Kyoko and pulled her towards him.
"We have to go," Tsuna stated, staring at Kyoko, the sobbing girl nodded her head. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her as Tsuna maneuver themselves around the dirty alley and out towards the fallen city.
His eyes observed the scene in front of him before he marched forward. Searching for the familiar path that leads to his house. Dodging the undead if they could.
His heart skipped a beat when he saw the front door wide open.
Something in him screamed to go inside. The fear of his mom laying on the floor with her stomach tore open made him want to cry. To scream.
The squeezing of his hand brought him back from his wandering thoughts. Rushing inside, he stared at the floor, blood being dragged inside.
Muffled cries snapped his attention towards the kitchen. Letting go of Kyoko's hand, he quickly ran towards the kitchen. There his mother stood with frying pan in her hands. Shaking with tears flowing down her face as the horror. Her white apron splattered with blood.
Tsuna must have made a noise of relief because his mom looked up from the bloodied floor and stared at him with confusion before rushing towards him. The pan dropped onto the floor as she held onto him tightly.
His arms wrapped around her small body.
"Tsu-kun!" She cried out, holding him tightly. "Oh you're okay, you're alright!" She sobbed.
"I'm here mom," He whispered, trying to comfort her. Her warmth pressed against him. The familiar warmth he knows since he was small, the warmth he grew up, that comforted him was still alive. Still breathing.
She was alright.
"Oh these men came out of nowhere Tsu-kun, they were trying to grab me and I got scared. I ran into the kitchen and grabbed the pan and warned them to go away, but they didn't listen!" In hysterics, his mother babbled, explaining to him how the undead tried to attack her, but she hit them with her frying pan because she got scared and she didn't want them near her.
"I couldn't leave them here! Not inside here, so I had to drag them outside and blood was everywhere and then it got all over me while I dragged them outside!"
"It's okay mom," He said softly, "You're okay now, just breath. I am here now," He explained, rubbing her back. His mother nodded her head, wipes the tears away from her face.
"Mom, this is Kyoko-chan, stay here with her while I go grab something, okay?" He asked his mother. Nana nodded her head, smiling softly at her son.
"I got it Tsu-kun, you go do what you need to do," She ushered him, turning to look at Kyoko who was staring at his mother with wide eyes. "Come now Kyoko-chan," She said softly, motioning for the orange haired girl to come closer towards her.
Tsuna bolted up the stairs into the small closet and took out three backpacks that laid on the bottom.
Pulling out the two sleeping bags, he rushed to the bathroom and pulled out the first aid kit and stuffing it into one of the bags. Pulled his mother's small bag she kept in the bathroom and stuffed it as well inside the bag.
Anything that looked useful in case of an injury or sickness.
Leaving the bathroom, he went into his room, pulled out some clean clothes, some underwear anything that could be useful for him and stuffed it into the backpack before running towards his mother's room and doing the same thing.
He stopped when he notices the folded picture neatly placed on top of the drawer. Without a thought, he grabbed the photo and placed it neatly inside the bag and continued outside and looked for anything else before he moved back downstairs.
His mother was with Kyoko in the kitchen, coaxing the younger girl into eating something even if it was a rice ball.
"I have everything we need, let's go." He said, placing the bags on top of the table and looked around, trying to make sure everything was there. The feeling inside him coaxed him, guiding him to what he needed and what wasn't.
"Where are we going to go Tsu-kun?" His mother asked him, grabbing one of the bags from the table.
"The only place that can be safe," Tsuna answered, unsure where that was but he knew there was a place that was safe. That can protect them.
As Tsuna guided them towards wherever his instincts screamed for him to follow, he picked up anything that he felt was needed. That his instincts reassured him was needed, even if it wasn't needed at the moment.
As the path he took them had become much clearer to where they would be heading, the path towards it wasn't a pretty one. Dodging the undead, ignoring the bloody body parts that no longer were attached to their person.
The arrival of the school reminded him of a haunted horror house, except the horror, was outside and the hunting where the undead that was trying to eat them.
"Come on, let's go," He mutter towards his mother and Kyoko.
Stepping around the broken glass, ignoring the dead bodies that lined up the walls that lead into the classroom, blood splattered against the white walls, but he continues on.
Ignoring the familiar faces that laid dead, he pushes towards the destination his instincts screamed for him to go. The place where he knows he needs to go, but he wasn't sure why.
Why there? From out of all the places, why did it have to be there?
But he pushed onwards. Climbed the stairs, using the pieces he had gathered and latched the doors together.
Eventually making it on the third floor. Leading him to the one and the only person that can protect them. That can protect everyone with all he can.
Hibari and the Disciplinary Committee.
Just take a look at Hibari and what was left of his committee, guarding what was left of the student and teacher body.
"Here," something inside him acknowledge the place, something inside him settled, "Here was safe, where is it is safe. Where they will be safe. Where we will be safe." It purred in content.
The instincts that kept him moving approved.
The warmth that had spread throughout his body, that kept him moving, slowly disappeared, but it was still there, waiting to be brought out when needed.
He caught Hibari's eyes before he began swaying and everything went black.
When he comes too, he first notices someone near him. The familiar white-haired teen was leaning over him with his fist clenched.
'Kyoko-chan's brother,' is his first thoughts as he blinks away the drowsiness, 'He's okay, he's here.'
"Thank you for saving Kyoko and bringing her to me!" The boy yelled in Tsuna's face. Even though his head was pounding and felt like mush and everything feels like Hibari went on a rampage on his body.
Tsuna smiles towards the elder teen, "You're welcome."
What started like a normal day in October, with Tsuna running away from his bullies, to having been able to talk to Kyoko and tried helping her find her brother. With all the events that happen, Tsuna could still remember that man.
Remember his pleads for help as he stretched his hand towards him. He could remember the look that Kyoko looked at him as she clutched his back while they faced the undead. Where they were so close to dying.
But something in him wanted to live and he wanted to protect Kyoko, his mother. The very few people he cared for and wanted them safe. Something in him burst into flames and made him feel alive. His will to survive and protect kept him moving.
As he watched the night sky outside the rooftop, taking a deep breath, he kept chanting to himself.
'I need to live. I need to protect them. I need to survive.'
In his twelve years of living, Tsuna felt himself finally complete. The missing part of him was now alive inside him. That part that had made him not care as he lived his life being useless.
And it only took the world to end for him to do something.
"Happy birthday to me," He whispered to himself as he watched the stragglers move around the school campus. The night deathly silent as the moon shined down on them.
Happy thirteen birthday to himself indeed.
Author's Note: Whelp, there it is, please leave your thought and let me know what you think! And if you have any question, I would most be happy answer them and if there are confusion, I can try clearing it up. Thanks for reading, see you in the next update.