"The Salome famiglia seems to be bent on making enemies with us. It seems that they feel that allying with our enemies will make hem invincible."
"Hnn omnivore, give me permission to annihilate them."
"Mmm yea ok."
"… Juudaime? Annihilate them just like that?"
"Yeah…."
"Gyhahaha Tsuna-nii, Lambo wants the new model flying car."
"Mmhmm ok."
"Kufufu Tsunayoshi, I'm going to bend Kyoya-chan over the desk right now." "Ahh ok."
"…."
Tsuna let out a sigh. He really wondered how Reborn was doing.
Aren't you in the middle of a guardian meeting? Concentrate!
Mmm yes, but how is the mission?
It's fine! Now focus.
"Juudaime?"
"Ahh yes! I mean… Yes?"
Tsuna focused his attention back on his guardians sitting around the table, with different facial expressions ranging from horrified to disgusted. All directed at him.
"Uhhh what? What did I miss?"
Disturbingly, it was Mukuro who informed him with a sigh. "Tsunayoshi, you have been spacing out for the past few minutes, did you even hear a single word of our reports?"
"Uhmm yes?" Skeptical looks and narrowed eyes.
"Ok maybe not." Tsuna smiled sheepishly.
"Tsuna, maybe we should push back the meeting? You have been really distracted lately." Yamamoto peered at Tsuna with unveiled concern.
"No no, it's alright, we will continue. I'm so sorry, everyone."
Besides, you will kill me if I stopped the meeting halfway through right?
Hmm, but of course.
—-line break—-
Tch.
Reborn? Is something happening?
Nothing. Don't worry about it, Tsuna.
Are you guys in danger? Tell me!
It's fine it's fine. We met with some trouble but it's all cleared now.
…
Really. But this Dragone famiglia is really something. There seems to be something they are hiding. Something that wasn't mentioned in your files.
Tch. That's to be expected. Our connections could only dig that deep. There are still many shady things and experiments they are hiding from the world.
Yeah, look Tsuna, don't get too mad but…. We just uncovered a whole dungeon of kids, Tsuna. All of them children around the age of 10. There were about 20 of them, all starving and bleeding. It seems they were just a batch of their experiments.
Reborn…
Yes?
Slay the Dragone. Every. Single. One.
Yes, Decimo.
Stay safe.
I will.
—–line break—–
It had been during a meeting when it happened. Tsuna had been having many meetings these couple of days due to the end of year summaries and meetings such as these were long and tedious. Usually, there would be Reborn around to keep him company, but the hitman being on a mission, had left Tsuna all alone to deal with it. And he couldn't even talk to Reborn. There were occasional and snippets of Reborn thoughts that flowed through, enough to tell Tsuna he was currently busy with something. Tsuna had been satisfied enough simply listening to those bits, knowing the rough progression of the mission and all.
But all of a sudden, it just stopped. It felt as if something had been switched off, broken inside his mind. And suddenly everything turned eerily quiet.
Reborn?
No response. With each call, Tsuna became more and more frantic. Why wasn't Reborn answering him? And it was too quiet. Way too quiet. In normal circumstances, parts of Reborn's thoughts would reach him and this directed for him to hear would always be loud and clear as if the hitman were standing right next to him. Sure, when Reborn was sleeping, the sounds wouldn't reach Tsuna unless he was dreaming. But it was never this quiet.
Almost as if he was alone again.
—-line break—
Dino glanced at his surrogate younger brother, seeing the expression on his face getting more and more anxious by the second.
"Tsuna. You alright?"
No response. If the brunet had heard him he didn't show it.
"Tsuna." Dino tried again, this time louder.
All the other bosses around the table were started to notice the Vongola Decimo's weird behaviour. Discussions around the room halted to a stop.
Suddenly, Tsuna stood up from his chair, unveiled panic obvious on his face.
"I… I need to go. I'm really sorry, there has been an emergency." Dino tried to reach out to Tsuna, to catch his gaze and ask him what happened. Across the table, he could see Enma trying to do the same. But Tsuna's eyes were wild and unseeing, the fear in them so overwhelming Dino found himself fearful as well. The other bosses saw it as well, and since Tsuna was rather well liked by many of the older bosses, they nodded their permission for him to leave. After a hasty thanks thrown in their direction, Tsuna swept out of the room to where his guardians were waiting for the meeting to end.
—–line break—–
"I wonder what they are discussing about? These meetings always take so long." Yamamoto drawled, leaning against one of the walls with his hand resting lightly on his katana, eyes constantly alert.
"Tch, I'm just annoyed that they don't let us accompany juudaime in." Gokudera lamented, leaning on the wall opposite to Yamamoto's.
"Haha, but the other bosses also don't have their subordinates with them."
Gokudera was about to retort that juudaime was much more important than one of those bosses inside, when said person swept out of the meeting room like a hurricane heading for their direction.
"Tsuna! The meeting ended?"
No. From the very moment he stepped out of the room, Tsuna had been carrying this heavy air of tension around him, shoulders tense and eyebrows set into a firm line of worry.
"Is something wrong, Juudaime?"
For the first time since coming out of the room, Tsuna noticed his guardians but not quite seeing any of them. Both were looking at him with concern having realised that something was wrong. Yamamoto's grip on his katana tightened while Gokudera already had his box weapon open and resting on his arm, both high strung and hyper aware of their surroundings.
"We need to get back. Now. I need to know where Reborn and Collonello is. Has anyone made contact with them?"
"Tsuna, calm down, tell us what's wrong."
Tsuna glanced up at his Yamamoto, finally focusing on the rain guardian.
"I…During the meeting… You know how I can hear Reborn in my head due to the new abilities we got right?"
At the affirmative nods, Tsuna continued.
"I… He seemed to have lost contact with me halfway through the meeting just now. I don't know what's happened. It's like he just disappeared from my mind completely. It's not even like when he goes to sleep or anything. He's just… Gone."
Gokudera caught on at this point, his expression changing into one of horror. "Juudaime… Are you implying that Reborb-san may be.."
"I don't know." Tsuna wailed, completely relying on his rain guardian to remain standing.
"Tsuna don't worry yourself too much yet. We need to head back to the mansion, see what we can find out. Maybe he is just unconscious? Something must have happened, but it might not be as bad as it seems. Besides Collonello is with him isn't he? They are both strong."
"Yeah Juudaime, we mustn't jump to conclusions. It's Reborn-san after all. He will be fine!"
Tsuna nodded absently, not really registering the comforting words that his guardians were saying as they sped back to the Vongola mansion.
Because Reborn, no matter how dire the situation will definitely answer Tsuna. At the very least, he would have warned Tsuna before hand. Whatever happened must have caught Reborn surprised.
And Reborn was never caught off guard.
He can't lose Reborn.
But it seems as if he might be too late now.
—–
Fufufu part 2 of don't stop. Hope you enjoyed the story. As usual, leave a review or any suggestions you have!