Prologue
"Hello?" a voice called out.
The speaker grinned as his voice echoed in the empty, dark warehouse. His boots created hard thuds in the cold air and he ran a hand through his wet brown hair. Thunder rumbled in the distance; the ground slightly shook from the sudden tremor.
The young man bent over and ruffled his hair. Drops of water flicked onto the dirty ground. "You know, I come in peace and all." He looked up, suddenly pensive. "Well, maybe, sort of. Not exactly. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm just another damaged individual passing by."
He faked a sniffle. "I'm lonely, pal. Hey, come on out and I'll probably give you something good. Do you like magic tricks?"
The brunet took out a box of cards from his pocket and opened it. He started to shuffle the deck swiftly. The swish of the cards rebounded in the building. "I'm pretty good. Come on. I won't charge you."
He saw a flicker to his right but continued to shuffle his cards. "Pick a card. Any card."
Silence.
The sound of the rain was faded in the background, but the brunet could easily perceive the sounds all around him. His lips twitched upward into a faint smile. His brother taught him well.
"Do you know what the different cards are?" he said loudly, leaning on his right leg. "Hearts, spades, that sort of stuff?"
He suddenly stopped and clasped his hands together in a prayer-like manner, the cards sandwiched between his palms. He created an illusion of wind picking up around him for effect and sent the strong currents throughout the building. Doors slammed open, waving back and forth at the hinges, and windows shattered; the rain was louder, emphasized by the raging wind. A scream came from his left and he sprinted.
Morphing his hand into a sharp spear-like blade, Tsuna grinned almost maniacally when he found his victim who cowered in the corner, surrounded by glass.
"No, please!" his victim cried, scrambling away. "S – "
He let out a bloodcurdling shriek as the brunet pierced his weapon through the man's small body. Blood splattered the walls and streamed down the brunet's arm. The man hung limply from his hand and he tossed him away.
The brunet watched indifferently as the man's corpse sprawled on the ground. He slashed his weapon in the air and blood stained the ground. His weapon morphed back into a hand as he walked over to the man's body.
There was a bit of static coming from the man's jacket and the brunet dug within the bloody fabric. He found a walkie-talkie and smiled, amused.
"Oi, Tachibana," a voice said from the other line. "Oi! What the hell happened?"
"Sorry," Tsuna said, disguising his voice with an illusion. "Your partner doesn't seem well. I think he's, I don't know, dead."
He laughed and smashed the device with his foot. He searched the dead man's body again and found his cell phone. After shifting through it, the brunet crushed it with his hand and left, never coming back again.
The next morning, the brunet watched another brunet from afar, a smaller, more fragile boy than he. The smaller boy held his book bag against his chest and kept his eyes to the ground. It was the first time they ever met eyes, but it was certainly not the last.
The smaller boy – well, technically he was the older man in a way – widened his eyes in shock and blinked, as if he thought that he was dreaming.
The older brunet grinned and gave a mock salute before he vanished.
"Oi, Dame-Tsuna, move!" a boy said, shoving the still brunet to the ground.
Suddenly, Tsuna, instead of landing on the ground, was still standing. In fact, his bully was the one who was on the floor, sputtering in shock. He shook his head as if in a daze and his friends helped him up. They walked away, ignoring him, as if Tsuna didn't exist.
No matter how much he thought about it, his relief was overpowered by a sense of dread and hopelessness. He looked around to see that none of the students bothered to look at him, as if he really didn't exist. It bother relieved and frightened him.
Suddenly, a hand was placed on his tense shoulder and he flinched.
Someone leaned down to his ear and whispered, "I'm here."
And for the first time, Tsuna smiled.
A/N Oh, god… I'm sorry for creating so many stories! I should really get back to the others. This one is for my friend who pestered me all day to make this one (I still love you!).
Yeah… This one will be a bit different from the other stories. Much more different. To avoid confusion, yes, the older brunet is Tsuna from another dimension and the younger one is the present/canon Tsuna who will be slightly tweaked to fit the tone of the story, haha, as always. Though from now, the older Tsuna will be referred to as Tsunayoshi and the present one will be referred to as Tsuna.
Pairings are still undecided but I might just make it none, as I want to focus more on the family and friendship aspect.
"The Shadow's Weeping" is a bit on hold for now since my beta is currently in a family emergency and I want to give you guys the best quality I can produce. ^^
Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you can.
See you in the next chapter.