Hiii! This is my first fic so please don't judge. I worked hard so I hope you like it! (Just a reminder: Lambo does not exist in this fic, his position of the lightning guardian is replaced by an OC)
The first time Hibari Kyouya ever saw her was when he was just a seven year old. His parents had dragged him to China because this was the first business trip that was supposed to be longer than a month and they believed that little Kyouya couldn't take care of himself. Kyouya, himself, had just snorted at the notion, but nevertheless, he still went mostly because he was forced but a small part of him wanted to go. He had always been curious about what was in China especially because of his pseudo-uncle Fon, he had heard from his parents that he was heavily involved with the Chinese Triads, but never bothered to look to much into it. Kyouya always thought that he was at least part Chinese if not half, his raven hair and slanted, slate gray eyes were typically seen on native Chinese people, though, he supposed, that gray eyes were not normal on an Asian. During the trip Kyouya would have been in the same exact situation had he been left in Namimori, his home town. His parents left early in the morning, before Kyouya woke up, and returned late at night, long after Kyouya went to sleep. Most days, Kyouya would just stay in the small apartment that they had rented for the summer, maybe climb up on the roof every once in a while to take a nap under the warm sun, he would sit around, watch the clouds drift by, eat when he felt like it. Though one day Kyouya had enough of the boring days spent cooped up in a tiny apartment, he realized the huge contradiction to his personality, since when did he, Hibari Kyouya, spend days trapped inside a small room? And so, like the drifter he was, Kyouya decided to go out and look at the city a little.
It had been about a week and a half since him and his parents arrived and despite all of his curiosities he had never once strayed from the apartment per the orders of his parents who had told him that outside was dangerous and to never venture out of the apartment. The moment Kyouya stepped outside he realized they were right, thugs lined every wall smoking, tagging, or other miscellaneous things. Graffiti coated every square inch of the place but Kyouya noticed above every single graffiti, larger and brighter, was a golden rose. It was no doubt beautiful, the rose itself seemed to be in full bloom, at the very peak of its beauty, circling the rose's thorny stem was a bronze dragon, the head of the dragon, which was above the the flower, was in a snarl, sharp teeth were bared as if the dragon was threatening anybody to touch the rose.
Kyouya walked a few blocks away from his apartment, making note of landmarks and street names (not that it did him any good as he could not speak or read any of the Chinese characters, but he tried anyways to memorize the characters), when he chanced upon what may look as kids playing in the park but upon second glance Kyouya could easily tell that they were bullying. The victim was a small girl, possibly a few years younger than himself, she had long straight hair, dark almost black brown with subtle highlights a few shades lighter than her natural color from the sun, she seemed to have delicate features but Kyouya could not see her clearly due to all the people crowding. Her bullies ranged from seven to about seventeen, girls and boys, took turns hitting her, kicking her, and spatting what Kyouya could only assume were insults in her face. Normally, he wouldn't have stayed due to his dislike of crowding and herbivores but something told him to stay. Kyouya looked on with a disinterested expression, a few of the bullies noticed his presence but since he took no action they shrugged and went back to kicking the poor girl in the ribs. Kyouya stayed and watched till, what seemed like days but he assured himself was only a few hours, the bullies got bored and spat on her face one last time and left her lying on the gravel, tears streaming down her face. After they had all left Kyouya took the chance to really study the girl, her face, though smudged with dirt, blood, and tears, was, without a doubt, beautiful, her eyes being the most stunning the part of her. They were deep, cerulean blue lined by dark, thick lashes, they held a certain pain to them, as if she was disappointed with the world but only blamed herself, but they still held a certain innocence to them, like one day she hoped everything would be miraculously better. Taking a deep breath Kyouya pushed of the wall he had been leaning on and walked slowly towards her.
The girl didn't seem to notice him until he was right in front of her, she looked up at him but didn't make eye contact. Sighing Kyouya bent down and went to wipe the away the blood near her left eye, her blue eyes just made the blood seem redder than it should be and Kyouya didn't like it. But before he could touch her she jerked her head back and hissed "不要碰我". Kyouya blinked and then he smirked 'So she does have some some carnivore blood.' he thought and faintly wondered what she said. His train of thought was interrupted though as he heard the pain-filled exhale of the girl as she got up and started to walk away. He watched her with an amused smirk and he spoke.
"Little Carnivore? Where do you think you're going?" he said in Japanese.
She looked back with a faintly amused expression and said, in flawless Japanese, " Home, so I can treat and conceal my injuries before my uncle gets home."
Kyouya lifted an eyebrow at that, "If you have to conceal them don't get injured in the first place," he said, coldly. He watched her carefully, judging her reaction, and to his surprise he saw a bitter smile pass over her face before she put on a mask of indifference.
"Stay out of things that don't involve you", she said in an equally cold tone, " and who are you anyways? I was told never to talk to strangers 'cause they might murder me."
"My name is Hibari Kyouya," he said.
At that, the girl smirked, " I didn't ask for your name, I asked who you are." And with that she walked away briskly, leaving Kyouya staring at her back thinking this trip wasn't going to as bad as he originally thought.
The next day, Kyouya saw her again, being bullied by weakling herbivores, again, but this time he paid more attention. He watched as she dodged just ever so slightly to avoid direct hits, as she moved so the herbivores expended more energy so that they would tire earlier and leave her alone, as the defiance in her eyes never backed down. The only attack she didn't avoid was when someone pushed her down and stomped on her ankle, Kyouya had no doubt that if it wasn't broken it was at least badly fractured. When they were done, Kyouya guessed it was around three o' clock, he walked up to her and set a first-aid kit down in front of her. She looked up and breathed what almost seemed like a sigh of relief, she took the kit and murmured " 謝謝". And, absent minded, began to wrap her injured ankle, Kyouya just stood there and watched as she expertly treated her various bruises, cuts, and whatnot. After a moment of silence that seemed to last forever, she tilted her head up at him,looked him right in the eye, and said, in soft Japanese, "Thank you, Hibari Kyouya".
"Hn."
"Haha, I really mean it," she said with a small, genuine smile, "I'm sorry for snapping at you yesterday."
Kyouya looked at her curiously and frowned, "Hn," he replied, 'This was different from the way she was acting yesterday,' he thought.
After a moment of hesitation, the girl opened her mouth to say something then her mouth snapped shut and she looked like she was in the middle of an internal argument when she sat straight up her, bright blue eyes narrowed. Kyouya immediately noticed this and started to search for a presence. The girl scrambled up and began to push Kyouya into a nearby bush, but he resisted at once, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. That was when he sensed them, about four hostile presences, all heading towards them, he wondered what to do for a brief second when the girl stopped pushing. He turned towards her only to see a blank expression, cool, blue eyes devoid of any emotions. Kyouya quickly did the same clearing his face and putting on a disinterested facade and taking one small step backwards. When the four finally arrived, the girl turned to stare at them and the group immediately walked straight towards her, not taking any importance of Kyouya's presence, and started to speak Chinese with a sarcastic, mocking twist to which the girl just replied with a blank stare. The group only got more annoyed when she didn't seem to have anything to say, so the person, who Kyouya only assumed to be the leader of the four, in front snarled something in Chinese reached out to push her to the ground. But before that happened Kyouya stepped in, grabbing the other boys wrist and in one smooth motion snapped it with a loud crack. The rest of the group and the girl stared in shocked silence as the leader, a big nine year old boy, writhed on the floor in pain screaming in Chinese till the other three took action. The smallest of the boys lunged at Kyouya, but he was ready with a clean sweep of his foot the smaller boy fell and Kyouya kicked him making him fly and hit a nearby tree, rendering him unconscious. The next two attacked together one in front of Kyouya and one behind, he grabbed the one in front of him by the collar and smashed his face onto his knee making blood spurt out of his nose and all over his pants. Kyouya grunted in annoyance, how was he going to explain that to his parents he didn't know and chose not to think about it as he jammed his elbow into the attacker behind him, effectively hitting his temple and knocking him out. The girl just looked on with wide, panicked eyes, her cerulean blue looking a bit darker as panic set in. Kyouya sighed with irritation and turned back to the girl, surprised to see accusation in her eyes.
"What did you do?" she whispered, obviously distraught.
Kyouya only stared back, "I'm not sure what you mean, I only eliminated herbivores that where being annoying... I bit them to death."
"No...no..no no no. This cannot be happening to me right now", she whispered to herself before pointing at Kyouya, "You! You need to help me, we need to hide them before my uncle or cousin comes."
Kyouya lifted an eyebrow, "Why do I need to do that? I don't owe you anything," he said calmly.
"Please... I'm begging you.. my uncle will kill me if he sees this and I can't even imagine what my cousin would do to me..."
"...hn... only if you tell me what they said to you in Chinese."
The girl rolled her eyes and said, "Fine, fine I'll answer anything tomorrow if you decide to show up again. Just toss the bodies into the woods somewhere and leave them there. See you tomorrow, Hibari Kyouya!" as she ran in the same direction the walked yesterday. Kyouya noticed the slight limp as ran off and thought of the ankle fracture, he grunted in irritation and began to move the bodies.
The next day he went to the park only to find nobody there, Kyouya frowned and expanded his senses, trying to find the girl, he felt something faint behind a bush and walked towards it. What greeted him was something so unexpected even Kyouya felt shocked, the girl lay on the floor in a fetal position with various burns all over her body ranging from third to fifth degree, blood surrounded her head seeping into her long hair, coming out her mouth, her eyes were squeezed shut and small crystalline tears fell from them, her usually delicate features were twisted into a painful grimace. She clutched her heart as she started to convulse into violent seizures and her mouth opened into a bloodcurdling scream, her eyes flew open but she couldn't seem to focus on anything when her seizures stopped she turned to look at Kyouya. "Hibari... Kyouya...?" she croaked , struggling with each word, "So...rry... I'll...be fine...in... a ...minute.."
Kyouya only stared as little shudders wracked the tiny girl in front of him, "What happened to you?" he demanded.
"Uncle... hobby... cousin... curfew..." she murmured before slipping into unconsciousness.
Kyouya silently watched the girl before him. He didn't notice how small she was before, the top of her head probably only reaching his shoulder. He observed her and recalled how a couple of days ago he had called her a little carnivore, but Kyouya realized how wrong he was, 'If anything this girl is prey' he thought and frowned. His thinking was quickly interrupted though when the girl stirred and woke up. One of her blue eyes cracked open and looked at him, she quickly sat up, stretched, popping all of her joints, and sighed.
"What are you doing here? How did you find me?" was her first question, which was quickly followed by, "Oh.. that's right, the deal. Ask away Hibari Kyouya, the only thing I wont tell is my name."
Kyouya opened his mouth to argue then closed it and shrugged, " Then my first question is who are you and your family?"
The girl merely looked at him with inquisitive eyes, "Getting straight to the point, huh? My uncle is the head of the 龙玫 triad, which in Japanese roughly translates to dragon rose, and my cousin, his son, is the heir. You've seen those golden roses painted on the walls right? That's our mark and nobody dares paint over it, we are the the strongest triad in this part of China. As for me, my dad was originally the head but he died along with my mom on a mission a couple years back, so my uncle took me in."
Kyouya paused to soak in the information before asking the next question, "Why were you in the state you were in and how did you recover so fast?"
"My uncle has a... peculiar hobby. He likes... poison. Well, more specifically, he likes to poison other people so he experiments on other people, mostly me. So I'm quite used to poisons and the effects usually only last about two hours or so before I'm back to normal. And the burns come from my cousin, yesterday I was late for my curfew so I was punished and he usually puts me in an electric chair."
If Kyouya had been anybody but himself, he had no doubt, that they would have fainted by now, but all he did was stare into her eyes with a blank expression and readied himself for the next question, "Why are you being bullied if your family is so prominent?"
She stared back into his slate grey eyes and said, "They don't know that I'm a part of the triad and I am supposed to keep it a secret to protect them. They just beat me because of my eyes."
"Hn." Kyouya got up, careful to keep his expression blank, and left leaving the girl sitting with her back propped up against a tree, a puddle of dark blood slowly soaking into the ground.
Kyouya and the girl, who he often referred to as Prey, spent the summer together often talking about their families or sometimes not talking at all and just sat and took naps or the like. Kyouya often beat up and sent the girl's bullies away, when doing the former the girl always took the time to hide the bodies, and when Kyouya asked about it she just shrugged. He never asked again, he often found her suffering from the effects of some poison which she always explained after she had recovered. The one thing that Kyouya noticed about the girl was that she was fast. Like extremely fast, and her reflexes may have even been better than his own, he was absolutely certain that she had at least some training, he could always tell by the way she moved, she walked as if she was always on guard and flinched at the tiniest things, showing her reaction time. Another thing that he noticed was that she had good musical sense, her voice, even when she was normally talking, had a certain musical lilt to it and Kyouya was sure she had a beautiful singing voice. So the week before he left he went out and bought a pair of lavender headphones and gave it to her, she had smiled and accepted it graciously, the next day she appeared with a CD and something wrapped in soft silk and tied with a purple ribbon. She gave strict instructions to not open the silk wrapped package until he got back to Japan and to bury it at the bottom of his suitcase so it didn't get caught by security. Although he wondered what it was he followed the instructions to the T and packed away the package along with the CD with the promise in his mind to listen to it later. The day before he left she stared at him with sadness shining in her bright blue eyes and she whispered into his ear, "Kyouya, when you get back to your home town in Japan I want you to remember me. Never let anyone like me appear like me in your town, a victim of circumstance, someone who never stood up for themselves. Protect Kyouya, just like how you did with me, use what I gave you for it will always protect you. Promise me that no matter what you will protect what is dear to you". He closed his eyes, words echoing in his mind as he felt warm droplets fall onto the nape of his neck.
When he returned to Japan he opened the silk wrapping carefully and found himself staring at a brand new, shining pair of tonfa. He smirked and admired them, holding them relishing in the fact it was a perfect fit, albeit a little big but that was fine as he would grow into them. He listened to the CD and realized he was right, she was a beautiful singer, her voice soft and melodious as it flowed through the speakers and danced through his ears. He looked out the window at Namimori as he remembered the promise he had given the girl, somehow regretting he didn't ask her name. He sighed and pushed the thought to the back of his mind, he grabbed his new tonfa and walked out into the city realizing how much he had missed home. He closed his eyes and tilted his head towards the sky feeling the warm sun wash over his features. Promise in mind, Kyouya changed Namimori he set out rules and acted on them when they were broken, almost single-handed he reduced crime and disturbances, he created the Disciplinary Committee gaining the respect of many, and he never forgot. He never forgot of the girl with blazing cerulean blue eyes, he never forgot of the suffering she went through, and he never forgot of the promise that he made, but while he never forgot he never quite remembered.
7 Years Later
Tsuna's eyes snapped open and he twisted to the side, falling off the bed, a ten ton mallet laid where his head just was. At the other end of the hammer a five year old kid, who was immaculately dressed in a suit and a fedora with an orange band around it, held the handle with smirk on his face. "Not bad, No-Good Tsuna," the kid said, " At least today you were able to dodge even if it did end up with you on the floor."
"Reborn! What was that for?" Tsuna whined with a pout on his lips.
The kid, Reborn, just shrugged, " A mafia boss must be alert at all times," he said, his mallet morphing into a gun and cocking back the hammer.
"I don't really know how many times I have to tell you this. I'm not a mafia boss. And would you give me a break, I already defeated Rokudo Mukuro like you asked so can't I sleep in a few more minutes?" replied Tsuna, not seeming to care about the gun in Reborn's hand.
"No-Good" BANG "Tsuna" BANG "you" BANG " have" BANG "school," Reborn said firing with ever word and frowning when he ran out of bullets. Tsuna just dodged the bullets with enviable ease.
"All right I get it," Tsuna retorted, "no need to put a whole bunch of holes in my wall. Jeez, who do think fixes it? Get out, at least, while I change."
Reborn left the room with a satisfied smile and made his way downstairs, but the smile quickly turned into a frown, he had heard from Nonno that the half Vongola rings were on their way to Japan and he had no candidate for the Lightning Guardian yet. None of Tsuna's classmates were suitable and he knew of no one else who wielded the Lightning class flames. He let out a sigh and quickly lifted his mouth into a smile while he greeted Mamma and the rest of the people who sat around the table, chatting. Tsuna quickly ran down the stairs and after realizing the time stuffed a piece of toast in his mouth, kissed his mom goodbye on the cheek, and ran out the door.
He sprinted down the road never stopping until he saw his school, Namimori Middle, and gave a half wave to Hibari as he glared at Tsuna for being almost late. Tsuna slipped in his seat right as the bell rang, giving smiles to his friends, Takeshi and Hayato. The door slammed open as Nezu, the teacher, walked in and grumbled something about brats and annoying. He raised his voice and said "Listen brats, today we have a transfer student." He let that soak in as the students chattered excitedly. Tsuna looked at his friends and lifted an eyebrow asking the unspoken question, 'Did Reborn send somebody again?'. Hayato narrowed his sea-green eyes and stared intently at the front of the classroom waiting for the new kid to come in, Takeshi just grinned and shrugged helplessly but still looked at the front with slightly hardened eyes.
Nezu cleared his throat signaling silence, "Come in, transfer kid."
The door once again slid open and everyone watched with curiosity as the new kid stepped in. When the girl stepped in, everybody, girls and boys, felt the heat rise up their faces as they blushed just at the sight of her. Even Tsuna, who was the least interested in physical appearance in the class, had to admit that the girl was simply beautiful. She had shiny, soft dark brown hair that cascaded down her back and subtle sun streaks that added a layer of depth to her hair, the locks of hair that framed her face were cut shorter ending just past her chin, her delicate, oriental features were accented and her dark hair made her eyes even brighter. Her wide, cerulean blue eyes were almost startling and were fringed with thick, dark lashes. Tsuna was sure on anyone else the bright blue would have looked weird or downright frightening. For an oriental face to have blue eyes as bright and beautiful as that was simply unnatural, but the girl seemed fit in with odd features and nobody complained. Her eyes seemed to have a mischievous glint to them, as if she loved to tease and laugh. Around her neck was a pair of old, beaten up lavender headphones, the wire traveled down and disappeared into her skirt pocket. Instead of wearing the normal blazer uniform, she wore a pastel yellow sweater with the emblem over her right breast and a blue plaid skirt with knee high socks. She bowed and introduced herself with a soft almost melodious voice.
"Hello everyone, my name is Shinokuni Yui."