Hey People! Long time no see!
I haven't been active at all due to being busy with school. But Now that I graduated and done with high school I will be updating a lot (hopefully)
Sorry for the long delay. I will be updating my others stories to be excited for them!
Also thank you for those who are reading/faving this story! I very much appreciate it!
-CTS TT-TT
Chapter 2: Scattered Cherry Blossoms
Everyone started at Maname as she wrote her name on the board and turned to the class with a simple smile.
"Hey! I'm Miyanaga Maname. I came from Tokyo, where I went to Shikifuumon Gakuen. Due to a few reason I'll be going here for a few months. Yoroshiku." She said in an energetic tone. Her attention went to the few students in the class including Tsuna. "Tsuu!" She called waving at him with a smile.
In an instant, all eyes were on to the said boy and Tsuna glanced away avoiding eye contact.
"Eh?! She knows Dame-Tsuna?!"
"No way!"
Tsuna deeply sighed at the unwanted attention. He glanced out the window thinking about the Conversation.
~*~ Yesterday
"I'm an AARI officer of the Argentum Noctis." Maname told him, "I'm part of an organization that investigates unexplainable phenomena's and collects artifacts and relics that cause those phenomena. The reason for me coming to Nanimori was to support the other AARI officers for-"
"Wait!" Tsuna cut her off, "I don't understand, Arga-what? Ant? (Ant in Japanese = Ari)"
"No, Argentum Noctis, it means Silver Sacred Night. It's an organization that investigates unexplainable phenomena… well occult, lost legends, and myths are the best way to describe it."
"Okay… and you investigate them?"
"No, I'm part of AARI. Argentum Noctis is mainly like a research facility. When there's something they want to investigate or their experiments go out of control or there's an unexplainable occurrence happening somewhere in the world, AARI officers are in charge to take care of them. Also we keep balance of this world to keep any normal person from finding out about the organization or any slaying or sealing jobs are our jobs."
Tsuna stared at her even more confused.
Tsuna stared at his hands trying to process what Maname told him yesterday. There were still some other things she needed to explain to him. Like how she and Reborn know each other and what was that weapon she used…? He deeply sighed, not knowing how he could deal with any more trouble. He looked up at Maname contemplating on asking but shook his head.
Maname sat at her desk, sighing mentally.
"Geez, transferring is so tiring…" she thought, "The work books are different and there's a schedule change…"
"Maname-san."
Maname turned to the one who called her. A young girl with platinum blonde hair and blue eyes approached her. Everyone around the girl back away in fear because of the katana around her waist.
"Oh, Mikasa." Maname got up from her seat, "Has everyone else already gathered?"
"Yes."
"Okay, Just wait a bit," Maname walked over to Tsuna's seat and took his hand, "Tsuu, follow me, I need you for a second," Maname told him.
"Eh- now-"
"Hey! Where are you taking the tenth now?!" Gokudera asked.
"We were going to meet a few people. Do you two want to come along?" She asked. Gokudera immediately got up from his seat.
"Of course! Where ever the tenth goes, his right hand man will follow!"
"I guess I'll follow along too," Yamamoto said.
"Then follow us," The group left the room following Mikasa. Yamamoto walked closer to her.
"Are you playing the mafia game too, Amou?" he asked her.
"Eh? Mafia game? No…" She replied with a small blush.
"Then are you playing another game?"
"Eh? Well…"
"Maa, I guess it's around there,"
They went up to roof of the school where five others were waiting. Maname stepped out to the sky open floor and walked over to the others.
"Long time no see, guys." She greeted casually with a smirk.
"Glad to see you're alive." The oldest out of the group greeted. She ruffled the girl's head and grinned, "Chibi."
"Natsume… there's no need for the rough treatment…" Maname muttered
The girl named Natsume laughed out loud, "You're attitude hasn't changed much either."
"Nee-san…" Mikasa spoke in a warning tone.
"You seem to be doing well too, Mikasa." Maname spoke changing the subject, "How's the dojo?"
"It's been fine. Thank you for your concern." Mikasa replied in a formal tone.
Maname smiled and walked over to the girl with long auburn hair and silver eyes. The girl looked back at her with a grin and they high fived each other.
"Long time no see, Asuna." Maname greeted.
"Yeah, Maname. It's been forever." The said girl replied back, "How's things in Tokyo?"
"Normal… I guess."
"U-um…" A small voice spoke. Maname turned to the girl with short white hair and gentle lavender eyes, "I-it's been a while, do you remember me?" she asked.
"Yeah, long time no see, Miyuki," Maname said patting her shoulder, "How have you been?"
"Yes!"
Maname glanced at the boy standing in the corner and just nodded at him. The boy nodded back in response.
"Have you gotten use to things around here?" Asuna asked.
"Aa, somewhat,"
"How long are you stationed here?" Mikasa asked.
"Depends on the situation back at Tokyo; at most it should be about 3-4 months." Maname told her. She glanced back at the three other guys and gestured them to come over, "I have a few people I want to introduce you guys to." She told them.
The group turned to them.
"Oh, Sawada and his friends," Asuna commented.
"I figured you know them, but I wanted you guys to meet." She told them, "Tsuna is my cousin, and he's the Tenth boss of Vongola."
"Geh- I told you I have no intention!"
"And Tsuu, these people here are members of AARI stationed here," She told him ignoring him, "Mikasa, Asuna, Miyuki and Hikaru are in your class so you should know them pretty well. Natsume is a third year."
"Eh?!" This is it? You guys are only in middle school…" Tsuna exclaimed.
"Says the one who's a mafia boss," Maname told him.
"I'm not-" He sighed, "Aren't there any adults who work too?"
"Aa, Mikasa's brother and Miyuki's sister is part of AARI but they're both out of the country at the moment." She explained. She smiled, "Now any questions?" she asked the boys finishing the quick introduction.
Tsuna seemed a lot more clam that before and asked, "Then explain what was going on yesterday? What was creature?"
"Well, as I explained yesterday, one of AARI's jobs is to slay and contain. That creature yesterday was Behemoth, an earth demon."
"Then that-" Before he could finish his question, the bell rang signaling the end of the break. The group started heading back to the door.
"Oh, time to go." Asuna said.
"Eh? I still-" Tsuna tried to talk.
"Let's hurry, I don't want to deal with Natsume-san's boyfriend." Hikaru commented cutting Tsuna off.
"Oi, I told you he's not." Natsume retorted heading back.
"Well, we should head back before he catches us."
"Um…"
Mikasa and Miyuki were left behind. Mikasa turned to the boys and sighed, "I'm sorry, we'll continue this talk another time." She said, then bowed and ran off with Miyuki.
~*~ Afterschool
After cleaning up, Tsuna took his bag and went to go home with his friends.
"Good work, Tenth!" Gokudera exclaimed as they finished putting away the cleaning supplies
"Let's go home, Tsuna!" Yamamoto said with his usual smile.
"Yeah- su-"
"Wait up for a sec!" a voice called out. The boys turned to Natsume who stood there with a grin, "Sawada Tsunayoshi-kun, do you have time?" she asked.
"EH- ah- hai… Senpai…" Natsume's grin grew and she put an arm around his shoulder.
"Okay, then come with me."
"EH?!"
"Oi! Wait, Woman! We're heading-" Ignoring Gokudera's words, Natsume took a small marble size ball and threw it to the ground. The hallways immediately filled with smoke and clouded to vision of Gokudera and Yamamoto.
"Sorry, I just need to talk to him!" They heard Natsume yelled.
"Ah-! Tenth!"
The smoke then cleared to show Tsuna and Natsume gone. Gokudera's mouth dropped in shock.
"Dammit! I let Tenth get kidnapped right in front of me!" he yelled.
On the floor near the disciplinary office, Natsume dragged Tsuna to a projection room. After pushing him in, she closed the door and sighed.
"Okay, we should be fine now." She commented to herself.
"Kirigiri-senpai, why did you bring me here?" Tsuna asked.
"You have some questions right? I'm here to answer them in place of Maname." She said taking out a remote, "Normally, Maname would do this part since she has a higher rank than me, but she asked me in her place, so bear with me."
"Eh? Wouldn't we get in trouble with Hibari-san?" he asked.
Natsume laughed at Tsuna's question and shook her head, "Don't worry," She assured, "I have good ties with Kyouya and I'm sure he's fine with this as long as we don't damage anything," she told him.
"K-Kyouya?" he questioned in his mind.
Natsume pressed a button letting a screen come up from the floor.
"Well, I did secretly add a few functions to this school personally for a few reason." She added.
"EHHHHHH?!"
"Finé, system on," She called. The screen turned on and a voice spoke.
"Hello, Natsume-san. What is it do you need?" A female voice spoke.
"Can open some files for me?"
"Roger. Which files do you wish to open?"
"AARI history and Mission and data files of 'The King'." She told her.
"Yes," Immediately, the screen was covered with countless images and files. All containing Maname and some other people. "Mission and Data files of The King, in total, one thousand three hundred and twenty one. AARI history, over 1.2 billion."
"EH?! That much?"
"Calm down, most of them are videos and destroyed property records." She told him. Dragging her finger across the screen, she pulled down a few files to the front. "So what do you want to know first?" She asked.
"Even if you ask me so suddenly… I'm not sure."
"Then let's start from the beginning," She said tapping on the first file. From the file, many images, symbols and written reports appeared. "As Maname told you before, we all work for the Organization AARI, which is a branch of the research facility, Argentum Noctis." She explained, "AARI was created by an researcher, Giosuẻ Callisto, in the late 17th century Italy. Now it has many branches including Japan. We also have a lot alliances from many clans and mafia families."
"Mafia!?"
"Why are you surprised?" She asked as she expanded a map showing all the points where the branches and main base were located. "The Vongola family is one of them."
"Eh? Seriously?"
"Of course, because the first generation Vongola help create AARI." She explained. "Maa, going on," she opened a new file containing statistics and images.
"Um, Senpai." Tsuna called out.
"What is it?" She asked still going through the files.
"Why are you doing this job?" he asked. Natsume glanced back at him saying nothing for a moment, 'Ah- if you don't want to talk about it, it's fine-"
"No, I don't mind," Natsume thought about it, "Well, I guess it was a family thing," She replied, "My parents did this job and after they died I decided to do it to take care of my family," she said.
"Eh-"
"The pay is really good too," She added with a laugh. Tsuna stared at her strangely as she laughed, "What brought up that question?" she asked him.
"Well, it's strange to me. Everyone is still in middle school and they're putting themselves in danger," he explained.
"Oh, well, that's true." She stated thinking, "We all have our reason. Why not ask Maname for her reason?"
"Eh? Would she tell me?"
"Yeah, I'm sure she would." Natsume smiled and turned to the screen, "Okay-" Suddenly the door opened with Hibari glaring at the two.
"What are you two doing here?" he hissed. Natsume grinned at him.
"Ah, Kyouya! You got here faster than planned." She stated. "Oh, you should head home, Tsunayoshi-kun. Kyouya's in a bad mood now," Hibari glared at the girl and raised his tonfas.
"Natsume… ka-"
"Kamikorosu, right?" Natsume finished for him, "Geez, can't you think of a cooler catchphrase-" Natsume ducked in time to dodge his tonfa.
"Hii~!" Tsuna explained as Hibari attacked again. Natsume looked back at the frozen Tsuna and sighed. Grabbing him by the collar and opened the window, "Wait- what are you-?!"
"Sorry!" She yelled as she threw him out the window of the third floor.
"Hiiiiii~!" He yelled, "Someone help-" His cries halted as he fell in to the pool.
Walking home, soaked to the bone, Tsuna let out a deep sigh.
"Geez, why me…" he muttered on his way home. He looked at his soaked bag and sighed even deeper.
"Stay away,"
Tsuna heard a soft whisper and looked around.
"What was that?"
"Don't come any closer…"
He turned and saw small pink petals gliding through the air. "Sakura? But they're way past their bloom…" His eyes followed the path they came from and landed on a crosswalk where a young girl stood holding a branch with cherry blossoms in full bloom. One by one, she plucked the delicate petal from the thin branch and blew it in to the air giving it a strange glow. Tsuna stared at her in awe, as she brushed some of her hair behind her ear. "Who is she?" he thought.
Noticing the presence of Tsuna, the girl glanced at him with a cold stare. Then turned away leaving the cross bridge, leaving behind a few petals to be blown off the bridge.
"Liar," a voice whispered.
Tsuna finally got home and was greeted by the usual rowdiness of the kids.
"Okaeri, Tsuna-nii!"
"Tsuna! Play with Lambo-san!"
"Tsuna-san, welcome home," I-pin and Lambo jumped on him.
"Tadaima guys, h-hey, calm down," He said.
"Why are you wet, Tsuna-nii?" Fuuta asked.
"A lot of things happened…" he told him, to change the topic he quickly asked, "Where's Maname-chan?"
"She's in the living room," he told Tsuna.
"Thanks," After getting changed, he walked to the living room where Maname sat on the ground with a laptop open on the low table. Her head supported by her arm as she typed with one arm.
"Okaeri na sai, Tsuu," Maname greeted not looking back at him.
"Tadaima, Maname-chan."
"How was the meeting with Natsume?" she asked.
"We didn't get through a lot because Hibari-san came in suddenly and I got thrown out the window,"
"Heh~" Maname commented in an uninterested tone. After a few seconds, she turned to him in full attention, "You were thrown out the window?"
"Y-yeah… Kirigiri-senpai threw me out and I landed in the pool…"
Maname sighed, "Kyouya came in didn't he?" she questioned face palming.
"I just told you…" he reminded.
"Eh- Really? Sorry…" Maname closed her laptop and turned to him. "Must have been rough," she told him.
"Don't remind me…"
"How much did Natsume manage to tell you?" she asked changing subjects.
"Eh? Well, she talked about the organization… that's it…"
"Sou…" Maname sighed, "She didn't get that far…"
"Why didn't you explain it yourself?" Tsuna asked, "I went through a lot today!"
"Hm… too troublesome." She bluntly stated now reading a magazine.
"HA?!"
"Natsume knows more about the organization that I do and she's older," Maname pointed out.
"But she said you're a higher rank than her."
There was a moment of silence before Maname let out, "Che-"
"Hey!" As Tsuna complained, Maname turned to him and noticed the petal stuck to his hair.
"Hey," she said cutting him off.
"What?"
"You have something on your bangs," she told him. Tsuna reached up taking the small pink petal.
"Oh, the sakura," Tsuna remembered the girl, "There was a girl with a branch full of them, she was spreading them around." He told her.
"Oh, so you saw Hikari."
"Hikari?"
"Yeah, maa, she's 'Hikaru' at school."