"No! No, it wasn't me!" shouted out the brunette, his blood soaked hands grasping at the air as he was led away by the Vindice guards.
But his please fell on deaf ears; Hayato was lost in his own little world of betrayal and lost friendship.
The rain felt so cold on his skin, each tiny droplet feeling like a needle piercing into his skin.
"The sky! Look at the sky!" he was shouting. "It's raining! Rain! Everyone! Look!"
Gasping, Hayato jerked up in his bed, shaking all over.
The silverette looked wildly around before remembering that he was in his bedroom in the Vongola HQ.
Taking deep breaths, he tried to calm his racing heart, feeling a deep-seated bitterness well up inside him.
Even now, after five years had passed, he was still having dreams of that night.
Dreams of the man that had betrayed him.
The man that he had once looked up to; the man he had loved like his own brother.
After that incident, it had been so hard for Hayato to continue. After all, everything he'd come to believe in had been torn apart in front of his very eyes.
That event had caused him to become even more mistrustful than he had been before, and if he could have, he would have left the mafia without a second look back.
But he couldn't.
He'd sworn to protect his Family no matter what, and going against that now would make him no better than the man he detested oh so much.
...but no.
He didn't hate him.
He couldn't hate him.
No matter how much he tried, no matter how many times he told himself he did, he couldn't bring himself to hate Tsunayoshi Sawada, the man that had saved his life, the man that had given him everything.
Suddenly, Hayato was snapped out of his thoughts by the ringing of his cell, and he picked it up, wondering what anyone would want to tell him at five in the freaking morning.
"What do you want?"
"Get down to the interrogation room, herbivore. Right. Now."
And without so much as another word, the line cut off.
Spewing out a string of colourful vocabulary, Hayato threw on whatever clean clothes he could find before heading out to the "interrogation room" (read: torture chamber).
Rokudo Mukuro had a predatory grin on his face as he stared down at the man that was completely apprehended in the chair in front of him.
Distantly, he heard the door open and close behind him four more times and finally, all the others were there as well.
Finally, he could begin his session.
"It appears," he started out in a quiet voice, "that we have got quite the catch this time..."
"Cut the crap and tell us who you've captured this time, pineapple-head," said Hayato crossly. "It's still five and I need to get back to sleep."
Mukuro, though annoyed that he'd been interrupted, replied to the silverette's question in a pleasant voice, saying, "This man we've got here is none other than the notorious Aberto Agostino."
And immediately, everyone's attention was on the ragged-looking man tied to the chair in front of them. Of course, they'd all heard of him.
Aberto Agostino; despite having only made his debut in the world of the mafia four years prior, was already very famous as an illusionist.
Some were even beginning to compare him to the Varia's Marmon and the Vongola's Rokudo Mukuro.
On the surface, he seemed to be nothing more than your exceptional hitman for hire, but the Vongola knew better; Mukuro knew better.
Here was the man that was behind the recent attacks on the already-crumbling Vongola. Here was the mastermind of it all.
Walking forward, Mukuro reached out a hand and wrenched the man's chin upwards so he had to look at them.
Despite what one would expect, Agostino didn't look terrified or angry or desperate... instead, he had an unpleasant smirk on his face.
"I'd always wondered when I would come face to face with Mukuro Rokudo himself," he said.
Mukuro merely let go of his chin to walk around him, the other guardians moving forward.
"You've caused our family quite a bit of trouble, signor Agostino."
The man smirked, saying, "As expected of the mist guardian of the Vongola. You were able to trace it all back to me despite my efforts."
"You don't seem to be afraid," mused Mukuro, his voice calm.
"Oh, I'm absolutely terrified," replied the captive, his expression anything but. "I've known for a while, though, that I would be caught in the end. Nothing less to be expected of the Vongola, the strongest mafia family in Italy. Though I have to wonder why you felt the need to have the other guardians here. Afraid your captive will escape?"
Mukuro sneered at this. "Hardly," he replied, "but your little games have had them running all over the world, and I just thought they'd appreciate seeing you...interrogated."
Agostino just smirked in reply, saying, "Unfortunately, it seems like you won't be able to go through with whatever slow, painful, death you have planned out for me."
"And why might that be?" asked the illusionist, his voice casually curious.
"Because there's still one of my games you haven't quite escaped from yet. And once you do, I do beleive you won't have enough presence of mind to not kill me on the spot."
Mukuro's eyes narrowed in suspician, and the other guardians leaned in a little to see what he would say.
"You see," he began, his expression one of psychotic anticipation, "approximately one year before I made myself known in the world of the mafia, I decided to do a little test, to see if I had what it took and frankly, I'm surprised it went along so well."
"Get on with it," growled Hayato, whose stomach was churning for reasons unknown. He had an odd premonition that these next few minutes would not be pleasant.
Agostino turned his psychotic grin on the bomber, saying, "This will probably be hardest for signor right-hand, though. I wouldn't be surprised if he were to be the one to kill me when heard about it."
"About what?" asked Takeshi in a kind of morbid curiousity.
Without taking his eyes off of Hayato, Agostino said in a deceptively serene voice, "I'd heard before that signor illusionist once wanted to possess the Decimo candidate. Did he ever get around to doing it?"
For a quick second, the man's eyes flicked over to Mukuro's disgusted expression, then back to Hayato, a smirk on his face. "I see he hasn't. Well, I can tell you, it's exactly what one would expect of a weakling like him."
And now, the room was deathly silent.
There was blood roaring in Hayato's ears as his mind raced to try and comprehend what Agostino was saying and finding one far-fetched solution that made the silverette almost want to throw up.
"It was so disgustingly pure," continued Agostino. "Everything he did, he did with his family and friends in mind. I almost felt sick, you know? I felt sure when I saw his mind that my plan would never work. I was convinced that no one would believe that he had murdered his father, that everyone would know that he had been possessed. Turns out I was wrong though. I must be a better actor than I thought, huh?"
Almost before Agostino had finished talking Hayato's thoughts were racing, wondering where everything could have gone wrong. And, unbidden, snippets of conversation from that day came to the forefront of the silverette's mind.
"Out of everyone in the mafia...Vongola Decimo candidate, Tsunayoshi Sawada."
"...It's raining! Rain! Everyone! Look!"
Hayato felt his stomach clench, tears forcing their way out of his eyes and flowing down his face as his mind finally made sense of those seemingly insignificant words.
Fuuta's rankings were always one hundred precent accurate, except...
...for when it rained.
SkyGem: Voila! I hope you guys liked this chapter, ne? And I'm curious, who actually noticed that in the last chapter? About the rain? Leave me a review, all of you, and let me know! Anyways, that's if for now, since I gotta go to sleep! Ciao!