Matsu sighed as Tsuna continued to watch television. Figuring that Tsuna needed some time to himself, he'd retreated to the surveillance room in order to keep an eye on him while also giving him the illusion of privacy. There had been a moment several minutes ago that had worried him. One where Tsuna had ran to the bathroom for some reason. After he'd come back, though, he'd said something to the television and then had went back to sitting on his couch.

"LA LA LALALA LA LA LA!" A voice suddenly started singing. Matsu glanced around at the monitors along with the guard staff in curiosity. It sounded like Pandora's voice, but why was she singing? "LA LA LALALA LA LA LA!"

"Pandora?!" Matsu yelled when the sound got louder. "What are you doing?!

"LA LA LALALA LA LA LA!"

Matsu grimaced at the volume before finally tracking the program's location down. Her image was superimposed on the video feed from Tsuna's room. Her hands were behind her back and she had an expression of both panic and frustration on her face.

"LA LA LALALA LA LA LA! LA! LA! LA! LAAAAAAAA!"

"Pandora?!"

"Sir!" One of the guards suddenly squeaked. "The feed from the Tenth's room! It's on a loop!"

"What?!" Matsu cried, spinning in place to stare at the man while Pandora finally stopped singing in the background. The sudden combination caught his attention like nothing else could. Staring up at Pandora, he knew that she was the only one that could have done such a thing. Even so, he asked for confirmation. "Pandora! Did you hack into the surveillance feeds?"

"Responding might be a breach of my orders," she replied with a triumphant grin. The grin told him what she had apparently been ordered not to say. That was enough for him. Speeding out of the surviellance room, Matsu burst into Tsuna's room at the same moment he saw Tsuna disappear down one of the many hidden passages built into it. He was moving fast, too. Too fast to be simply running.

"Pandora!" He yelled, knowing that he wasn't capable of catching up on foot. "Wake everyone up and send a unit to stop him!"

"With pleasure," she replied. Matsu grimaced at the amount of flair she put into it. The military bugle that erupted from every television, radio, intercom, and other device in the building was sure to have woken everyone. Growling at his own mistake of allowing Tsuna privacy, which hadn't seemed wrong at the time, Matsu ran over to the room's control panel and flipped the switch for Gokudera's room.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" Gokudera shouted before he could get a word out.

"Tsuna's run away!" Matsu yelled in return. "He's going out the escape hatch into section six. I'm about to follow, but you need to beat him there or else we'll lose him!"

"He's broke out of section six," Pandora interjected with a grimace. "He's airborne."

"SHIT!" Matsu and Gokudera yelled in unison.

"I'll head to the security office," Gokudera snapped. "If he's airborne, then we'll have to use the tracking devices to catch him. He was dressed. Right?"

"I caught a glimpse of that jacket that Lambo gave him for his birthday," he answered.

"Good enough," he mumbled, his voice growing distant from the intercom on his end while he ran around his room to get dressed. "Grab a team and call Tremolo for me. Tell her to get the long range helicopters ready. Meet me at the helipad in two minutes. Any longer and we'll lose him!"

"I'm on it," Matsu cried, running out of the room in the middle of the sentence.


Why would come later, Gokudera thought to himself. Right now, he had to stop his Boss from doing anything rash. He wasn't himself and it wasn't the first time that Gokudera had found himself in a position where he had to protect Tsuna from himself. It happened more often than he wanted to think about, actually, which made his job as a Right Hand so very important.

Even so, he continued to wonder one thing while the directed Tremolo in Tsuna's wake.

What the hell was Boss thinking?


Run away!

Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away!

He had to get away before they caught him! He wouldn't do cruel things like that anymore! He refused to be a Mafia Boss! He never wanted to be someone like that! He just wanted to get away to somewhere that he could forget all the stuff Reborn had put him through. Somewhere that Reborn couldn't find him. Somewhere so far that it wouldn't be possible for anyone to find him. He wanted to just go home, but he knew that doing so would just put him right back into Reborn's clutches. If that happened, he'd be forced to get his memories back. Memories of a world where he killed people and the people he loved died.

People like Kyoko.

He'd rather be alone than to have to feel that horrible ever again! Kyoko. His poor, beautiful angel. If seeing her die was why he couldn't remember the past seven years, then maybe that was a good thing! He'd rather remember her smiling. Remember her cheering him on. Remember her small praises and her cheerful giggles. Pandora had said that she was his wife, but he couldn't be happy about finding that out. Not when he'd been cheating on her with a guy. Not when he'd allowed her to be murdered.

He refused to accept it. He refused to accept this life. This couldn't have been a life that he'd chosen. This couldn't have been a life that he agreed to. He would make himself a new life. One that he could be happy with. One that didn't make him a murderer and a betrayer. One where he helped people instead of hurt them. That was the kind of person he was. Not a criminal! The most criminal thing he'd ever done was a little bit of apathy or a little bit of simply not caring about people other than himself. He wouldn't not care anymore, he swore. Not caring and ignoring other people's problem in favor of his own was probably how he'd turned into such a monster. No more. He wouldn't do things like that anymore!

He wasn't a bad person! He would be a good person!

Going purely by intuition, Tsuna continued to fly westward while ignoring the nagging feeling that he should go back. It didn't take him long to begin to feel tired purely from the amount of effort that it took to keep himself aloft while carrying luggage. He was used to continuously using his Flame, though. Up until yesterday, he'd done it regularly while training with Basil in preparation-- No, he corrected himself. Seven years ago, he did it regularly in his training once he'd gotten past a certain point. He had no clue what Reborn's goals had been for that training, being unable to remember the sessions that followed Varia's attack on Lambo. Not that it mattered anymore. All that mattered was that he still felt a large store of power inside himself. He planned to keep running until that wellspring ran dry, too. It was his only hope for escaping the Mafia that were probably chasing him by now.

Figuring that they probably had tracking devices on him since Reborn had always been able to find him in the past, no matter what exit he took to run away from confrontation, Tsuna decided to not avoid the storm brewing. He hoped that the cloud cover would stop whatever form that they were using to transmit if it was something attached to him.

He thought that he was over the ocean instead of just the sea. It was hard to tell, though. His speed was much faster than he remembered. It was hard to control, too. That was okay, though. He was going in a straight-line anyway. As long as he kept moving at this rate, he'd probably reach an island or somewhere that he could rest at. But he refused to even look for one until he knew that he was out of range for anyone to follow him.

He started to wonder if hiding under the storm had been such a good idea. It was much bigger than he'd initially thought. The water below him was churning violently and the rumble of thunder overhead began to herald the lightening that started to crash down. Forcing himself to move even faster, he tried to focus himself on getting out of the storm before something bad happened.

The tingle of static on the back of his neck was the only warning he had.


"Oh god," Gokudera gasped when the tracking signal on his hand-held readout went out. Slapping it a few times, he tried to think what could have happened. They were only twenty miles behind him. "Pandora," he called into his headset over the loud beat of the helicopter. "What happened?"

"We lost his signal," she replied in worry. "Weather reports show a large storm over his last known position. It's possible that the electricity in the air shorted out--"

"Are you saying that he was struck by lightening?!" Gokudera yelled.

"I don't know!" She cried in return. "The devices on him only give me his location! I wasn't receiving any other data like I was getting out of his room sensors!"

"Boss!" Tremolo called from the seat beside him. Gokudera looked over at her in order to see her pointing out the window with a worried expression on her face. When he saw the reason, he couldn't help but pale himself. The storm was huge and Tremolo slowed in order to hover a good mile out of the breaking front. Dark clouds covered the entire horizon, closing in on them at a rapid pace while lightening and thunder crashed down below it alongside a pelting rain. "I can't fly through that!" She yelled. "I can try, but there's too much wind and lightening! Look at the waves it's creating! We'd get tossed into the ocean if I got too close!"

"Go back!" Gokudera spat. "Head for the boats! They shouldn't be too far behind! You can drop me off before retreating!"

"Roger!"


"Hurry!" Yamamoto yelled as Gokudera jumped onto the boat without waiting for the helicopter to even attempt to land. While the retrofitted boat had a landing pad for helicopters, they all knew that it would be useless for her to bother landing. Not when they were about to head into a storm that was easily the size of Greece. The moment he got off, the helicopter circled in place and retreated back toward the mainland. She'd make it but probably only by the skin of her teeth. It had been bound to happen soon anyway, Gokudera grumbled to himself. Tremolo's helicopters could only go so far with the amount of fuel they carried on board. That had been why Yamamoto had been following with the boats in the first place.

"We lost his signal," Yamamoto cried out in worry.

"Just keep heading in that direction!" Gokudera shouted back. "Pandora says he might have been hit by lightening, so we've got to hurry! There's no islands around here for him to go to ground! If he was knocked into the water..." Gokudera bit his lip, not wanting to finish that sentence. "Just go!"


Everyone stared blankly at the raging waters while searching frantically for a body among the scattered belongings. The search area was quickly being spread over an increasingly large area that the fleet of rescue ships were trying to cover without being overwhelmed by the storm. This was the place, though. They knew it without a shadow of a doubt. It had to be the right place since Tsuna's clothes were drifting among the churning waters.

But where was Tsuna...? Had he just dropped his bag? Was he even in the waters? Maybe--

Everyone on board grabbed onto something as another wave burst across the tossing deck. Gokudera found his grip ripped away from the railing he'd been holding onto and his body tossed to the deck. Yamamoto immediately reached down to aid him, but stopped for the same reason Gokudera did. Reaching out, he snatched up the item that had landed on the deck with the last wave while Gokudera continued to stare in a combination of shock and denial. Yamamoto continued to stare, as well, while the two of them completely forgot their surroundings.

"No..." Gokudera finally moaned. Refusing to accept such a sign, Gokudera rushed to the edge of the railing. He had every intent to jump overboard and search the depths personally for his Boss if that's what it took. He wouldn't give up. Not because of something like that! He began to dive overboard, but multiple sets of hands reached out to grab him and yank him back onto the shifting deck. He fought with tooth and nail, not allowing himself the luxury of stopping despite the people restraining him for his own sake. He knew he was panicked. He knew that he was irrate.

He didn't give a damn. His Boss needed him!

"Sorry, Gokudera," he heard a moment before something hit his temple and darkness overwhelmed his vision, only to be replaced by dreams of a lightening-scorched glove and blood.


"Yamamoto, I--"

"Don't talk to me," he snapped, sharply tugging his arm out of Matsu's grip. Then, he paused at the expression of guilt and tearful heartache that passed across his lover's face. "We'll talk later," he amended.

"I understand," Matsu mumbled with a nod. "I'll be in our room. Tell Gokudera--" Shaking his head, Matsu realized that there was nothing that he could say. The boats had been searching non-stop for three days and all they'd found was more of Tsuna's clothes. Hope had already begun to diminish. Especially after several of the divers had to deal with sharks. After the storm had cleared, the true problem had shown itself. Considering how far some of Tsuna's belongings had drifted, there was a ten mile span that he could be in. Even with every boat searching, it was more than possible that a carnivorous sea creature had already done the unforgivable and swam away.

Gokudera hadn't been freed from his bindings until several hours after the storm had cleared. It had taken that long to get him to promise not to attempt to jump overboard anymore. Even with his promise, though, he'd still jumped over every time they found another trace of him.

There was absolutely nothing Matsu could say to Gokudera. There were few things that he could even say to Yamamoto. As it was, Yamamoto and Pandora were the only two people willing to even look at him. They'd all known that Tsuna wasn't himself. Even though no one would have done anything different in his place since Tsuna really had needed some time alone to settle his thoughts, he was the one to blame for having actually done it. He was to blame for allowing Tsuna to run away before his mind could be fixed. He was to blame for... for...

"We'll talk later," Yamamoto repeated much more softly than he had before, understanding that no one could punish Matsu worse than he was already doing so to himself. Matsu nodded quietly and retreated back to his room before his tears could break free.


Squalo was getting sick of this bullshit. When the fuck had Xanxus turned into such a crybaby pansy? How many times was that brat going to turn his Boss into a gutless piece of shit? He'd been drinking non-stop for almost a week now. Normally, such a thing wasn't unexpected, but it was sickening to watch when Xanxus didn't even have the balls to throw anything.

Normally, Xanxus would have been drinking straight from the bottle by now. Instead, he was still quietly refilling his glass without even acknowledging anyone's presence. Bel had even snuck up on him twice without being smacked in warning. He'd even managed to tap him on the back with a knife. The shock of making it so close without getting a reaction had scared Bel more than an attack would have. The quiet and polite response instead of a rage-filled yell had sent him running out of the room entirely.

For everyone else, Xanxus was currently one fucking scary Mafioso. Not to Squalo, though. Squalo saw what everyone else didn't. He couldn't help but see since Squalo was one of the few that had been permitted to see his Boss' other Flame. Xanxus wasn't scary. He was fucking depressed. What everyone took to be a rage so deep as to move him to silence was actually a suicidal state of depression. From what he'd managed to drag out of him, the Tenth Boss had finally woke the fuck up. The problem was that he'd woken up without any memory of what he and Xanxus meant to each other.

It was a damn good thing in Squalo's opinion. Maybe his Boss could get his real fire back. He could get back that Wrath that had made him into a man worthy of being followed. He could--

"X-Xan...xus..." A voice gasped from the door. Xanxus jumped to his feet while Squalo merely turned his head from where he'd been watching his Boss drink. He raised an eyebrow at the appearance of the Tenth's Right Hand. He looked like he'd been dragged through all Nine Hells by his ankles and had come out on the other side with a broken spirit. Only one thing could have made him look so horrible.

Only one thing.

"What happened?" Xanxus asked, running forward to grab Gokudera by his throat. "What the fuck happened?!"

"W-We can't find him," Gokudera cried with tears breaking free in order to run down his face unheeded. "He ran away and t-there was a...a storm and... and..." Falling out of Xanxus' suddenly slack grip, he held out something for Xanxus to see for himself. Xanxus' eyes widened at it and he snatched it for himself after only a glance.

It was a glove. The sight of it made even Squalo jump to his feet. It looked like it had been ripped off of someone's hand after a battle. It was both tattered and melted, two things he'd never imagined for that particular glove. Especially when the glove was undeniably one of Vongola the Tenth's.

"Where's the Tenth?" Squalo asked, unable to believe the insinuation that Gokudera was making. It was one thing to think badly of the brat and wish him dead, but it was another to be faced with something like this.

"We can't find him," Gokudera repeated with another sob. "We've been looking for almost a week now and we still can't find him. We were right behind him and he flew into a storm. He was trying to run away and he flew into a damn storm!"

"What about his tracking devices?" Xanxus asked while openly wavering on his feet over the shock that he'd been missing that long without anyone informing him.

"All of them were destroyed," he answered around his tears. "Pandora thinks that he was hit by lightening and then..." Trying to control himself, Gokudera put his fists over his eyes and sucked back his tears. He managed for a mere moment. Long enough to finish passing the news to the one person that everyone else was too scared to tell. "We were right behind him! We went as fast as we could, but--"

"Where's Tsuna?" Xanxus asked quietly, his eyes still locked on the glove in his hand.

"We lost him," Gokudera finished before pressing his head to the floor in misery and covering it with his arms. "The ocean... The ocean swallowed him and w-we l-lost--" Gokudera's words were choked off in shock at the sound that filled the room. It was a sound that Squalo hadn't heard in months. It was a sound that hadn't had that particular tone to it in years.

It was a sound heralding the return of a powerful force into the world.

"So that's how pathetic he really was," Xanxus barked once his cruel laughter fell to a stop. Gokudera flinched as the Tenth's glove was tossed down at him with a complete lack of care. "God, it feels fucking good to have him gone. Let me know when the funeral is planned. I'll have Levi pay his respects and all that proper bullshit for the Varia."

"Xanxus!" Gokudera yelled angrily at the insulting tone that the man was taking. "What--"

"Shut up!" Xanxus roared in a flare of rage. "Someone get this fucking piece of trash out of here!"

"OOOOIIII!" Squalo yelled with a wide grin. Walking forward, his eyes lit on Gokudera with open plans to get revenge for every instant that the Tenth had been... Well, he couldn't say he'd been bad as far as Bosses went, but there were a few assignments that had been insulting. "You heard him! Get the fuck out!"

"What--?" Gokudera asked in shock, getting to his feet without seeming to understand the situation. Xanxus made it very clear to him when he grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air.

"Your Boss is fucking dead," he growled in warning. "There isn't shit protecting you anymore. The Varia follows my lead, you fucking piss-ant. If you don't want me to find my own shit to keep me busy then you better start finding things for me to do. I don't like fucking downtime. Got it? We're born killers. That means we need stuff to kill or else we might just bite the hand that feeds us. Is that simple enough for scum like you to understand?"

"You traitor!" Gokudera gasped around Xanxus' tight grip. "Boss lov--" Gokudera found his word cut off as Xanxus' grip tightened even harder. It felt as if his throat was being crushed in his hand, making him fight the restraint automatically. He continued to fight while the lack of air began to make his chest burn. He stared into the rage-filled gleam of Xanxus' eyes, slowly coming to realize that the man was once more trying to be the bastard that he'd been before Tsuna had entered his life. There was no reason for him to be different anymore. No reason for him to hold onto the human element that Tsuna had uncovered.

No reason to care about anyone but himself.

"I'll find something for you to do," Gokudera gasped when Xanxus let up slightly in order to allow him a breathe. He grimaced at the force Xanxus used to set him down and the shove that propelled him toward the door with Squalo on his heels. Then he stopped and stood his ground, needing to know at least one thing before he left. Giving a warning glare to the swordsman while rubbing his throat, he asked the only question he cared about anymore. "Will you honor the Tenth's request?"

Squalo looked at Xanxus in askance when silence filled the room rather than another roar. He was looking down at his feet for some reason with his fists clenched at his sides. Pissed didn't even come close to describing his rage in that moment. Although, considering how he'd just manhandled the Tenth's Right Hand, the lack of release was surprising.

"Yes," he growled quietly. "I'll train the brat. Later. For now, just get the fuck out."

Gokudera nodded, accepting what Squalo was only barely beginning to notice. Xanxus was trembling. He rage and his show of power was just bluster. It was simply an attempt to cover the pain that he didn't want seen. It was bluster that he was woefully out of practice in using and therefore was only something that he could keep up for a short burst. He was trying to rely on walls that were so full of cracks and holes that it was taking everything he had not to break down. The only way he had to patch those cracks and those holes now, though, was his rage.

And his rage was slowly losing to his sorrow.

"I said get the fuck out," he snarled. Gokudera nodded once more and actually left, his stumbling path and haggard expression being the only two things to show his own misery.

"Heeey! Boss!" Squalo exclaimed in effort to break the dark mood that had fallen. "Here's your chance! We can--" Breaking off his sentence, Squalo found himself in the same death-grip that he'd just watched in usage on the Storm Guardian. Clawing at the hand around his throat, he stared with wide eyes at Xanxus' still bowed head.

"Don't even think about finishing that fucking sentence," he growled in warning. "If you ever think about laying a hand on the Eleventh, I'll rip your head off and shove it so far up your ass that you'll see daylight. Understand?"

"Y--" Squalo choked while fighting for air.

"Good," he praised quietly. "Now that we've got that out of the way, I've got another little understanding that we're going to come to."

"What's. That?" He gasped. Pausing in his attempts to fight Xanxus' grip, he realized that it had slackened. It had slackened due to the way Xanxus' arm was trembling. "Boss...?"

"I'm not a monster," he replied, dropping Squalo entirely. Squalo laid where he fell and stared up to find that tears had been running down Xanxus' face without being noticed. He--! He was crying! Xanxus didn't even seem to register Squalo's slack-jawed reaction to the sight. He merely turned in place and headed toward one of the connecting bedrooms. Reaching the door, he paused long enough to shoot Squalo a look of askance that only got a silent gape in return. Then, with a shrug, he went inside and shut the door behind him.

Still sitting on the floor where he'd landed, only one thought went through Squalo's mind.

What. The. Fuck?


"Are we heading back, sir?" One of the deckhands asked curiously. "If we don't go soon then we'll miss the funeral."

"Jump on one of the other boats if you want to go," Ryohei replied quietly from where he was sitting next to the boat's navigation system with his gun in hand. "I'm staying right here."

"But sir--"

"We still haven't found him," he growled, pinning the man in place with a glare. "Pass the word along. I'm not leaving this ship until I find his body or I've found whatever fucking ate him. Got it?"

"Got it, sir," the man confirmed with a small flinch. "I'll tell the others."

Ryohei nodded in satisfaction while knowing deep inside that he never wanted to actually find Tsuna's body. As long as someone was still searching and coming up empty-handed, there could still be hope. He would be that hope. He wouldn't let go. Not when that small flicker of hope was the only thing he had left.


"Ryohei didn't come," Lambo commented sadly. "Neither did Matsu."

"I'm here in Matsu's place," Yamamoto said quietly with his head bowed. "He didn't think that his presence would be wanted, so he said that he'd come later to pay his respects. Ryohei's still out looking like he's been for the past three weeks."

"Uncle Gokudera," a voice said quietly. Every head turned automatically to the eight year old boy that had become Boss overnight.

"What is it, E-Eleventh?" Gokudera asked with his voice only breaking slightly on the title.

"Why do I keep getting deja vu?" He asked curiously. "It feels like I've already done this before."

"That's--" Gokudera shook his head, unable to respond to the question that everyone present knew the answer to.

"It's because we just had K-Kyoko's funeral a few months ago, Hotaru," Haru answered in his place, pulling her tear-filled face off of Hibari's already soaked shoulder. Hibari didn't even seem to notice the woman that had begun crying on him, his eyes still locked on the casket before them. Every face nearby flinched and bowed their heads in unison at the reminder of how much they'd lost in the past few months. Hotaru nodded without a single tear in his eye while his mother once more began weeping into her handkerchief and then onto Hibari again.

It was worrisome that Hotaru couldn't seem to find it in himself to cry for his father. Several people had attempted to prod the boy into a release of some sort, but the crybaby didn't seem to be a crybaby anymore. No one could tell if hearing about his father's death had snapped something in him or if Reborn's training on one so young had done it first. Either way, no one had a choice anymore. Like it or not, Hotaru had been named heir before Tsuna's death. He'd agreed readily to the role, as well, once the situation had been carefully explained to him. He'd shown the most fortitude of everyone since the announcement...

...but the ring on his finger seemed so very large for such a very small hand.