Disclaimer: Don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn and never will.
Warnings: (Tell me if I missed anything)
First (actual) Multi-chap fic, no guarantees (why did I pick ZA!AU again?)
FAIL attempt at being serious (no, seriously. NOT to be taken too seriously)
Slight OOCness (OK maybe a lot of OOCness)
Author claims creative license (most of the time)
More complete AU than Canon-Divergence (or maybe just full out AU. Sigh.)
Creative Flame Usage
There will be no main pairing (but author is a fan of hint pairings)
Author is not a fan of horror nor zombie media (but has watched 1 since starting this fic. George Romero zombie fans beware, not that type of zombie)
Tsuna gathers his Guardians and his Family (yes, I know the zombies aren't really the point)
Slow updates (once a month?)
BAMF!Tsuna, BAMF!A lot of characters (because author is a big softie)
No character bashing (like seriously, not even Iemitsu)
Mild descriptive horror(?) (I'm not really sure on how it ranks on the horror scale, but I hope no one is too squeamish)
Lots of OCs (like, A LOT. Truckloads of 'em)
There are scenes where logic is suspended (or just assume Logic Is Thrown Out The Window)
Slight gore, some blood, some vomit, some violence (typical stuff. What? It does say Zombie!AU in the summary)
More warnings would be added as author stumbles along.
Beta'd by the awesome bluelitanies
(Words in bold are from the original prompt by wolfsrainrules)
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.
Just as the calm that had enveloped him from the start of this mess started to fade away, a sudden ringing pierced through the content daze.
Dodge!
Snapping back into full alertness, Tsuna tilted his body backwards, tonfa barely grazing his bangs. For a moment he wanted to look back at his mother and Kyoko to check on them, but the high-strung feeling of determination (of desperation) to do so did not appear, and the whisper in his head reassured him. Safe, safe, safe. Mama and Kyoko are safe now, there is no need to kill, there is no screaming in his head of fatal consequences, of failing means dying means Mama and Kyoko will die.
His instincts were telling him to move , but there was no underlying tinge of deadliness, as when he had faced the dead that walk outside. Not lethal. Fight, but there is no need to kill. Tsuna can do that. He can dodge the blows, and fight back to subdue, and only subdue his opponent.
Tsuna took barely a second to adjust, slipping into the fast-paced yet calm and sure movements of kicks and punches. He dodged a blow to the side of his head and pushed away with a kick that was blocked by another tonfa, almost twirling away from the dark figure.
He glimpsed steel gray eyes narrowing, and moved before his opponent could launch another attack. Charging in and ducking under yet another lightning-fast swipe, Tsuna absently thought that it was nice, to listen to what that voice in his mind was telling him to do, without thinking of anything else. In his subconscious Tsuna is aware that something was off , and he shouldn't be able to fight like this, it's not normal, but Tsuna ignored that part of his brain. It was the same part that wanted to scream and cower into a ball when he was facing down those non-living, those undead , the part that wanted to run away, the part of him that always said give up it's no use I am bad at this, dame, and will always be at 'rock bottom'.
Tsuna very much didn't feel like listening to that part of his brain right now.
The slight distraction in his head cost Tsuna several glancing blows he barely blocked, and there, that muscle twitch, blow to the left, grab and pull - but he was too slow, or fatigue had finally caught up to him (when had the flames on his hands gone out?), and the blow struck true. Tsuna felt the blow reverberating through his entire frame, something had cracked, at the very least. He realized he was getting sluggish, and his eyesight had darkened and blurred at the edges. The calm was slowly slipping away, and dimly he thought that his surroundings were too quiet.
Tired, rest, the voice told him, but he wasn't going down without at least-
jumping over the sweep of legs, he rolled behind his opponent, turning his body slightly to the side to avoid the brunt of another head strike, he ducked in low, and sprung himself forward with an elbow cocked.
Crack!
Then there was darkness.
When he comes to, 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.'
Looking out the windows, Tsuna realized that it must have been hours and hours, as the sun was already more than halfway across the sky. He was lying on several pushed together tables, a rolled up piece of soft clothing underneath his head acting as a makeshift pillow. The clock hanging in front of the classroom proved that it was already the time school usually ends.
He sat up, or very much tried to. One move, and every single muscle seemed to scream in protest, his whole body seemingly set on fire. Biting his tongue on instinct, Tsuna held back an agonized groan. The excruciating pain subsided after a few moments, retreating from his limbs, the searing burn receding from the tips of his fingers and toes, flowing through his veins into his core, pulsing softly as a small heartbeat. Warmth, for a second, then it was gone the next.
"Sawada! Are you EXTREMELY alright?" Ryohei hovered at his elbow, yelling right into his ear.
Despite the headache-aggravating volume, Tsuna could see the true worry for his well-being in the older boy's eyes. "Ha-Hai, I'm okay, Sasagawa-senpai."
Pushing himself up, Tsuna cradled his sore ribs, resisting the urge to rub his poor ear. The few seconds of extreme pain since he had tried to sit up seemed to be a trick of his mind. Now, twinges of pain and discomfort covered nearly everywhere on his limbs and torso, and Tsuna made the conscious decision to not look under his shirt for a while to avoid seeing the colorful palette he had become.
The windows were all closed tight, curtains pushed aside to let in sunlight. With the classroom lit with bright rays of the afternoon sun, it felt like he had suddenly awoken from a dream made of unsettling, hazy images that made no sense whatsoever, a dream that made him feel damp with cold sweat; into the golden glow of a long-ago memory that felt mundane but warm. It was like thinking that you are drowning in endless cold waters, choking and gasping for breath, but the next instant you find yourself waking up lazily from a nap on your desk while the teacher drones on at the front of the classroom about mathematics.
Disregarding the aching bruises, Tsuna could almost believe himself if he imagined for a moment that it was a normal day and nothing was wrong. Except for his monster of a headache. Ow.
Well, that, and the uncomfortable feeling of stillness in the air. The kind of stillness that made you stop, and think; that made you want to be cautious; that signaled the single split second before a predator pounces on it prey, or right before lightning strike and deafening thunder on an otherwise sunny sky. It was plain wrong and dangerous. And it was persistent, faint but present throughout his surroundings. It was like a whisper at the back of your mind that you can't get rid of. Careful be careful careful. Thinking about it made his head hurt even more, too.
But...those people (no, not people anymore). Their faces. Their bodies. What they wanted to do to him. To Kyoko and Mama. He remembers. Every moment of it, every scene; all of them played crystal clear in his mind's eye; if he wanted to, he could picture the sight - milky unfocused eyes, lolling heads, pale discolored hands, gnarled fingers, reaching ripping tearing, lips pulled back, gums shrunken and teeth bared; the expression of pure, despairing desire to feed -, the sound - animalistic groans of hunger, for flesh, for blood; of the chomping, masticating, wet slurpy sounds he heard coming from around corners he avoided -, and the smell - rank, slightly salty, subtly hidden in the eye-watering putrid smell of feces; not yet of death, but still he studiously avoided breathing through his mouth.
Tsuna looked down at his hands. The pounding in his head eased a little when he stopped thinking about- before. What these hands did, what he did...
Those people aren't people anymore, he remembered thinking. There is no need to hold back. You are not hurting anyone.
He shuddered, immediately pushing that thought down. He didn't- it was, it was- he-no. No no no , stop thinking. Headache, remember? The sharp twinge in his temples reminded Tsuna too late to stop thinking. Ouch. Stupid me.
"Wh-where is Kyoko-chan? And my mother? Are they alright?" Looking around, there was only Kyoko's brother, and a group of other students at the front of the room. They were all standing around something, some of them wearing the signature black gakuran and sporting the pompadour hairstyle.
"Sawada-san and Kyoko is in the next classroom!" Ryohei pumped a fist in the air. "The Hibari and his EXTREME club members are taking back EXTREME control of the school!"
Hibari...Oh, that guy. The chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, Hibari Kyoya. The one who upholds and enforces the rules with swift judgement and his (in) famously bloodthirsty tendencies in his iron-fist rule over Namimori Middle. The Namimori Middle that is in the middle of an apparent invasion . Tsuna winced.
From what he had seen and heard of the infamous Head Prefect; pitted against animated, cannibalistic corpses that feel no pain, and are dead set to gnaw a hole out of you… The reanimated dead should be the ones to run and hide.
Rubbing the side of his head, Tsuna willed the throbbing fuzz in his head to go away. Careful slowly be careful. Belatedly, Tsuna recognized the fact that he was just a little too calm, and he should be freaking out and terrified, but he just... isn't.
There is a feeling of- of fullness, in him, a feeling that is simultaneously old and new, expanding fast and slow in his chest, like seeing an old friend you haven't met in years and noting all the differences, but knowing that they are the same people underneath. It felt like coming home, a sense of belonging. Tsuna hadn't felt so...so comfortable in his own skin since...forever, probably. He can't remember.
Can't really think, actually. It felt like someone is trying to stab his brain with a screwdriver.
"I am glad you're awake, Sawada Tsunayoshi."
Tsuna started out of his inconsequential musings. The speaker was a boy standing behind Ryohei who had split from the group of Disciplinary Members, though compared to all the other members his pompadour was ridiculously large. He was holding a notebook in his hand, and despite any misgivings Tsuna had towards some people with distinctly delinquent-like looks, the older boy gave off an air of calm professionalism.
"Er...excuse me, but y-you are..?" he was a little nervous and disoriented, but mostly it was the unrelenting pounding at his temples that was shattering his concentration.
Plus, something kept niggling at him. Careful slowly careful be careful .
"Kusakabe Tetsuya, Vice President of the Namimori Disciplinary Committee." He paused slightly before continuing, "Kaicho wants to speak with you, as soon as possible."
Kaicho? As in the Head of the Disciplinary Committee? The Hibari Kyoya, Demon of Namimori?! That definitely pierced through the mounting pain in his head, and the feeling of squirming unease subsided a little to make way for the sudden shock.
"Hieeeee?! Wha-why does he want to speak with me?"
The screwdriver was replaced with a knife, and the stabbing pain worsened. Tsuna honestly felt a little faint.
His panic must've been written clear as day on his face, as Kusakabe calmly reassured him that "All would be explained later, if you would follow me?" He made an inviting gesture with a hand and waited for him to get off the tables.
Why me? he wanted to wail. Thinking back, there was the time after he reached school and this floor that was a little fuzzy. How did he climb onto these tables again? Did he forget something? Something important...
"Kaicho just wants to talk to you, Sawada-san. Don't worry, he won't suddenly fight you again."
Fight...with Hibari Kyoya? Me?!
The stabbing knife was entirely forgone for a sledgehammer over the head as, unbidden, an image of the tonfa-wielding prefect spitting out a glob of blood invaded his mind.
"You were EXTREME, Sawada! You EXTREMELY broke Hibari's jaw!" Ryohei helpfully provided with a cheer.
"Hieeeeeeeee!"
He knew he forgot something important.
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.
