Author's Note: Introducing the baby versions of some of our lovable canon characters. Not everyone will be introduced in this stage of the story, but meetings are implied so there's more left to the imagination (and more plot holes to crawl through in future chapters).


Ch 02. Before the Now

Somewhere along the lines, Nana Sawada got it in her head that her lovely neighbor Taguchi-san used to work with her husband. The origin of that misunderstanding must've stemmed from the first few months of Tsunayoshi Sawada's birth, when her enthusiastic husband busily made sure she was settled into their new town with some proper friends if anything were to go wrong.

"The Taguchis are good people, Nana," he promised her, the night before he has to leave for work again. "I'm sure you'll be in good hands if you are unfamiliar with the town. You and Miwa-san can be wife-friends." He laughed, and Nana laughed too.

Iemitsu is working hard climbing the corporate ladder of his foreign oil trade company, or was it some sort of construction company? Nana keeps getting them mixed up, but that's not important, not really. She knows that Iemitsu's jobs has all sorts of secrets, and she'd imagine that since oil is such a valuable asset oversea, it's only a matter-of-course that Iemitsu can't tell outsiders much about his super important work. But she trusts Iemitsu, and if Iemitsu trusts the Taguchis, then she will too.

While she doesn't want to be rude Nana really can't imagine Taguchi-san as a construction worker just from looking at his build. Maybe he worked the finance office or something, that would suit him for sure.


The twins' earliest memory involving Tsuna had not been any earlier than when Tsuna turned three, though their families' family album proved they have been meeting ever since their mothers joined the local Baking Mama Club that is hosted at the community center's kitchen every second Saturday of the month.

One distressingly embarrassing picture that's forever hidden deep inside Mitsu's secret folder of 'Things to Never See the Light' had the three of them, still infants, dressed up like bread rolls and pastries during one of their mothers' fundraising bake sales.

At the age of four, Hideaki and Mitsuhide were well known amongst the community shopping district. Twins were not common in a town as small as Namimori, and the endearing sight of small twins in matching outfits running the 'daily errand' of delivering Katamori's lunch easily won over the townspeople. Aki was known to be the bright, active child that will literally get herself into everywhere -and everything- she can given the chance. Mitsu was the polite, sweet boy that followed his sister all the way. The two are virtually never seen without the other.

Sometimes, one Tsu-kun could be seen trailing behind the twins whenever his mother needed to go somewhere and saddled her son with the Taguchi for safekeeping, but most of the times, the mothers would be present if the children are caught outdoor. Namimori is safe, but cars still existed.


The twins' normal daily lives drastically changed one early spring when they were five. It marked the first major incident that rippled the tentative friendship between young children form based on frequent meetings. The twins didn't hang out with Tsuna nearly as much after that spring. To this day, Aki distinctly remembers how it started.

The three of them had been on another one of their grand daily adventures, as children tended to. Fueled by only their child-like imagination and way too many books that Miwa would read to them for story time, Aki-chan the totally awesome superhero had been on one of her usual journeys to defeat one of the three demon lords in the area. She was backed by her trusty hero companions Mitsu the cool shadow ninja, and Tsu-kun the robot cop. There was nothing that could stop them, nothing.

It was a tale of epic proportions, and epic side-tracking. By the time they actually got to the dreaded castle of the Great Drooling Demons, Kamori-jii's house, the sky was starting to glow orange.

Determined to not end their day on a cliffhanger, Aki had valiantly declared her brilliant tactic.

Divide and Conquer.

It's a cool phrase she learned from her mother's most recent bedtime reading, and it's her favorite phrase right now. Last week, it had been clutch-time special sale.

"We'll go in from different places into the demons' courtyard-" She meant they'll go into the garden through the different gates, "- and we'll defeat the Great Drooling Demons with Mitsu's special- special-"

"-poisoned bait," Mitsu finished, nodding extremely seriously. He's a very cool shadow ninja, nothing about him isn't serious and cool. "Special ninja recipe," he promised, holding the perfectly normal and poison-free doggy treats that their father had given him this morning, knowing that they're going to go visit Kamori-jii's dogs again for their little games. The dogs are very friendly as long as they're fed, and they weren't known to bite, not even grabby children.

Tsuna didn't really want to separate, but he is an invincible robot cop right now and he understands that the mission is very important. He's got to tough it out and defeat the demon lord with his friends, so he didn't complain.

The children shared one last serious look between each other, before nodding in synch like they do in action movies and dispersing for their mission.

Then of course, with all the attention-span of any average young child, Aki immediately got side-tracked again by something more interesting.


"I still can't believe you two left me like that," Tsuna complains, for possibly the 50th time since he has heard this story so many times before.

"Sorry, Tsuna," Mitsu replied, soft smile and polite sincerity as usual, the same time Aki rolled her eyes and just laughed. "No one asked you to go be a klutz, Tsuna."


Instead of meeting Tsuna in Kamori-jii's garden, Aki spotted someone more interesting than Rui or the ten or so other dogs that lived on the Kamori compound.

She spotted her father, walking tensely with another man she doesn't recognize, down the nearby alley.

So Aki followed her father.


Mitsu had entered the Kamori compound from the front door, because even though he's a totally secretive shadow ninja, he was also hungry. Kamori-jii always had cookies and snacks waiting for them whenever they visited. Plus, in their little adventure, Kamori-jii was like the wise old man that helps the heroes with food and special items and stuff. Mitsu wasn't flaking, he was being efficient.

That's Mitsu's favorite word.

It was when he was just about to greet Kamori-jii (because mom always lectured them about the advantages of good manners), who was rising from his seat on the front porch, when everything happened all at once:

He heard Aki scream just beyond the garden wall, in the small alley between the two blocks where the Kamori compound borders.

Mitsu bolted as fast as his little legs could carry him. Kamori-jii ran with him out of the house, accidentally leaving the back garden gates open for the dogs to run out as well to investigate.

They found his father and Aki just behind the house.

His father, holding onto a terrified Aki, with a man who was slumped in an odd position on the ground.

Disregarding the oddity of the situation, Mitsu flung his small body at his scared twin's. Aki needed him then, and they held onto each other like coiled steel.

Kamori-jii looked at his father steadily, and his father made a face Mitsu has never seen before. It was a hard sort of face, like their father's face was made of stone instead of skin and flesh, hard and strong just like the hands he clasped around his and Aki's shoulders. His father was not shaking, but Mitsu and Aki were.

"Would you call Hibari-sama for us, Kamori-san?"


In the other side of the house, a young Tsuna had accidentally stepped on Rui's tail in a panic. The dogs were swarming the small human for treats but Tsuna didn't have any. Mitsu was supposed to give the treats!

With a few angry dogs hot on his tail, Tsuna ran all the way home screaming about Great Drooling Demons.

Tsuna never did quite get over his fear of dogs in the years proceeding.


The twins were quite shaken from the events of that one faithful day, and five-years-old had been almost too young for them to understand their parents' work in Namimori.

The operative word here is 'almost'.

Miwa had seen her father dispose of an unwanted company at about that same age, maybe younger, and unlike Katamori, she was unwilling to let her children be ignorant. She may tell them mystical, fantastical bedtime stories, but some realities should not be misconceived as fiction. That's something Miwa stands firmly for. She will teach them, and she will convince Katamori to as well.

"Ignorance isn't the same as safe, Katamori," she breathed fiercely, under the dimply lit kitchen lights after the children fell to fitful sleep, and that had been that.


The twins were brought to the Hibari estate later in the week, after a whole week of staying holed up in the house and refusing to leave without at least one parent with them. It was fortunate that they have yet to start elementary school, but that sort of attitude was not going to fly with Miwa.

So after a few crisp phone calls with the town's strongest protector, the twins were bundled up into the family car in matching sea otter hoodies. Their mother probably could've bothered to make her twins look less 'weak', but she didn't want to.

A short drive into the edge of town, and the twins found themselves in front of a traditional Japanese home that reminded them of some of their mother's stories. They naturally forgot that they were supposed to be extremely cautious in the outside world and reverted instantly back to their adventurous selves.

"Look mom! It's a castle!" Aki shouted, already pointing at anything and everything.
"Mom, where do we put our shoes?" Mitsu inquired, holding onto his shoes already even though all they did was cross the threshold into the estate's entrance.

They weren't even indoor yet.

"Children," Miwa warned. There was no hint of anything on her face. Her smile is beatific and serene as always, but the children knew instantly to shush themselves. Aki unnecessarily covered Mitsu's mouth as well since both of his little hands were holding onto dirty shoes.

Pleased with the immediate, trained response, Miwa continued. "We are here to visit our Mayor, Aki-chan, Mitsu-kun," she explained patiently, in her storytelling voice. "Now I understand you two were quite surprised to see daddy at work-"

The children fidgeted.

"- and your daddy and I have brought you here so you can understand how Namimori works better." There was a pause, and Miwa amended. "How we work."

Tentatively, Mitsu nodded, and removed Aki's hand from his mouth first before doing the same to the hand she had cupped over her own mouth. "Okay, mom," he agreed, and Aki nodded in mirror motion of her twin. The children don't really understand yet, but the recognized the voice. That was their mother's working voice. That voice meant they were to always keep their eyes open and ears attentive, but look as cute as they can while mother did her thing.

Maybe now they'll finally know what exactly is the thing that mom and dad whisper about in the evening, when they thought Aki and Mitsu are napping or drawing on their own.


Midwinter eyes narrowed slightly from where their owner was hiding. No, not hiding. Observing. Grey eyes squinted in a scowl as the young boy removed himself slowly from his observation point in the bushes and made sure he has not a single piece of leaf on his person. That would make him look ridiculous. Predators don't look ridiculous.

Predators also don't hide. He wasn't hiding. He is a Hibari, and there are unknown visitors in his father's territory.

Because even though he was so young, Kyoya wasn't naive enough to believe that the territory of Namimori was anything but his father's. He also wasn't so foolish to think that he was strong enough to challenge his father for the position of apex predator here. Not yet, not for a long shot, but his mother did always teach him to be patient.

His father, he taught him to observe and classify any unknowns by their level of threat.

And the mother of the cubs- she is not an ordinary herbivore.

Kyoya must investigate, he will confront the woman and make her reveal her claws, even though on some level he understood that it might not be the best approach to challenge a mother (herbivore or carnivore, mothers in the animal kingdom will always be a category of their own).

Aki had noticed the boy-thing stalking out of the bushes like he belonged in the greens before Mitsu did, but soon both twins were blatantly staring as the black haired boy walked towards their mother. There are plenty of kids around in Namimori to play with, and Aki had always been pretty good at reading other children's intentions. And this boy wasn't not a friendly boy.

He was not friendly… towards mom.

She narrowed her own eyes, and the hardening look spawned from newly planted insecurity about the world and a desperate need to protect her own transferred immediately into the eyes of her brother, and as one, the twins took a step towards the boy (in front of Miwa) with tense unease.

"Taguchi."

The tension snapped apart as all movement stopped involuntarily on the front porch. Katamori stepped around the bend of the entrance gates, pocketing his car keys, just as an imposing man with hair as dark as the night stepped out from the front entrance of the house.

And it was as though everything the children were feeling had been wiped away. Overshadowed by the simple intensity of the stranger -the important Mayor-man that mom wanted them to meet- as he stepped out of the house. The movement had been so minimal. Just the sliding open of the door and the barest flash of bared hands before they retreated into the sleeves of his haori coat. Surely the flimsy wood and paper of the front door couldn't have masked the man's dangerous aura so entirely. Surely.

"Hibari-sama," their father greeted back, resting a gentle hand at the back of his wife's back as he guided his little family forwards to the house. "Thank you for taking your time today," he added, and left the 'for my children' unsaid. He did not need to make it seem like Kazuo Hibari has a soft spot for children.

Miwa is never wrong though.

"You may enter," Kazuo allowed, his voice a flatline mixture of firm order and apathy. As the group of visitors started to enter the house, Kazuo paused and turned to address his son. "Kyoya, you too. Follow," he ordered, in no lesser words, to basically herd the entire group all together into a tasteful guest room shortly upon entering the estate.

The interior of the house was just as traditional as the exterior, and despite their usual tendency of running around to explore any new place, the twins stay faithfully by their parents' sides. They were also glaring at the unfriendly boy now identified as 'Kyoya'.

If anything, it just seems to have made the boy even more unfriendly.

It took only small work before everyone were seated comfortably around the guest room, lined neatly with the exact number of floor cushions for the number of people that entered. Kazuo gestured for his son to sit with the children, just a little closer to the center of the room than the parents, before bringing over something that looked like a cloth map.

He laid the map of Namimori on the tatami floor. It was exactly the size of two mats.

"I," he began, straightening slightly from where he's kneeling formally on his seat, shoulders back and head held high in a way that made the Taguchi twins sit straighter unconsciously as well. "I am Kazuo Hibari. I am the Mayor of Namimori," he self-introduced, before inclining his head just a fraction towards his son, who is sitting stiffly in his own seat cushion at the other end of the map, refusing to look curious or confused about the whole situation. "This is my son, Kyoya."

Still, the children know their manner, and they bowed discerningly at each other. Mitu's sea otter hood flopped off.

"This is Namimori," he then moved on, gesturing at the outline of the town on the map.
"Namimori is an old town, and it has been protected by us Hibaris for a very long time." The speech is practiced, like Kazuo must've given it a hundred times before. Either Kyoya had heard this many, many times in the past, or Kazuo is more concerned about talking to young children than he lets on. Only Miwa noticed this. "However, there are many bad people in the world. Vile, useless scums that only seeks to feed off the life force of society. Weak herbivores that tries to usurp the balance of the kingdom and take more than they deserve, more than they can handle."

Kyoya nodded, inconspicuously to himself. He has indeed heard this speech before, and he strongly agrees with his father. Useless herbivores that cower. Useless herbivores that try to crowd and act stronger than they are worth. They need order and discipline, something that is his family's job.

What Kyoya didn't understand was why was his father explaining the basics to the herbivores? Or rather, if he remembered the proper terms for the creatures that the hoodies were supposed to represent, the pups?

Kazuo returned Kyoya's miniscule nod with one of his own.

"The Hibari clan serves many positions in Japan, but in Namimori, we are the law enforcers. Order must be maintained in order for peace and prosperity to grow. Herbivores will die out without the protection and guidance of us carnivores, and with the herbivores gone, the ecosystem of Namimori will collapse." He nodded again, but much more visibly this time, as the twins listened with rapt -albeit still slightly confused- attention.

"What does this have to do with father and mother?" Mitsu asked, quietly, surprising his parents slightly by speaking first. Usually Aki would be bursting with questions, but the young child's brows were furrowed with thoughts.

Aki whispered, even quieter, "was the man from before a bad man?"

Katamori rested a hand on his daughter's shoulder, before giving Mitsu a nod. "What your mother and I are about to tell you must remain a secret," he said, with almost unprecedented seriousness. He has always left the more serious talks to his wife, but Miwa was right (she always is), and the children cannot remain ignorant. "Our family is kind of like the Hibari's. We've had special jobs for a long time. The Hibaris protect Namimori." He paused, waiting for the twins to nod to show that they're still with him. "Us Taguchi, we deal with information."

Both twins frowned in mild confusion, only having heard the word in entirely different circumstances before. "Like the circular flyers," Aki mumbled, mostly to Mitsu.

However, Kyoya's eyes widened slightly as he looked back to his father. The realization dawned upon that his father wanted him here for a lesson. His father isn't here to just teach the herbivorous pups. He's also here to teach Kyoya on how to become Namimori's protector by showing him the metaphorical ropes.

"Yes, but not just information about our block. We deal with information on everything and everyone," Miwa supplied, pinching Mitsu's scrunched nose fondly. "And people come to us to know things about other people and other things. We don't just tell anyone all the information, of course. They have to give us a good price in return. Sometimes it's more information we don't know, sometimes it's money. But because your father is so good at his job, sometimes bad people want to force him to tell them everything."

"Like the bad man," Mitsu clarified, looking to Katamori with a need for that confirmation. Katamori nodded.

"Like that man. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes I have to get rid of them or they would hurt you two and your mother."

The silence stretched for a moment afterwards as the twins stared hard at the map in front of their knees and occasionally at each other, before Aki pointed at Kazuo with one chubby finger. "What about the Mayor? Why is he here if you could'a just told us all this at home?" she asked, unaware of the level of critical thinking she just displayed, and also unaware of the slight disapproval in Kazuo's narrowed eyes. He does not appreciate being pointed at, by a small child or not.

Miwa lowered Aki's hand for her before she would get in trouble, but the child mistook the gesture as a silencing act of her totally justified question, and puffed out her cheeks.

"I think father and mother brought us here because Hibari-sama works with them," Mitsu answered, turning to his sister with his dark, thoughtful eyes. "I mean, if Hibari-sama punishes the bad guys like Batman does-"

Katamori had to stifle a chortle before he got himself killed.

"-then dad and mom are like the super cool Batcave computers with all the maps and numbers and things!" Aki finished, with way more excitement than her younger brother.

Suddenly, the look she viewed her parents with were even more awe-filled than before. Her parents are secret superheroes! That's all of Aki's dreams rolled into one, but better. "Does this mean we get to do it too when we're bigger? Can we be two Robins?" she begged, clearing watching too much of the American cartoons that Miwa's mother sends the kids.

Miwa smiled quietly to herself, before also pinching her daughter on the nose. "We will give you two lessons, but you don't have to make the decision until you're older, okay?"

"Your lives are still long," Katamori added. He doesn't say 'you're still young', because his daughter had just recently saw him murder a man in cold blood. Age has nothing to do with experience. They would know.

At that moment, Aki wondered what other secrets her parents weren't telling her and Mitsu yet. There is something she still doesn't understand in their eyes. Something sad, something sweet. She got up from her seat cushion abruptly, and tugged Mitsu along so they can engage in a family hug.

Kyoya sighed audibly. He did not sign up for this herbivorous nonsense. He thought his father was here to teach him about his future role as Namimori's guardian. So the herbivores are informants. His father probably showed him this to let him know that they're not meant to be prey. He got it.

"So now what?" Kyoya bit out, refusing to acknowledge the almost indulgent look the mother not-herbivore gave him.

Kazuo smiled a smile that was too much steel.

"Now it's time for you cubs to grow some fangs."


Mitsu looked over to his sister. His young mind is only barely keeping up with the unexpected turns of events, and yet, looking into Aki's bright hickory eyes, the younger twin couldn't help but feel that they're getting signed-up for something a lot more dangerous than they fully realized.

Aki saw fear in every part of her little brother, and with the determination of being the big sister and all, held Mitsu's hand while the adults talked with each other over schedules and something called 'training regime'.

Kyoya observed the twins with renewed interest.
It's not often that his father would put time into other useless herbivores. This family, the Taguchi, must serve some purpose in Namimori's greater good. Since he is to become Namimori's protector one day as well, he will make sure these two young herbivores grow up to meet his standards.

Nevermind that he's only a year older, of course.