Rooftop of Namimori Middle School- Lunchtime
Kyoko had never seen that expression on his face before. It was somewhere between acceptance, sadness, surprise, adoration, and anger. Mostly anger.
Without another word, Tsuna turned to leave, as if there was someone he had to track down and beat up (which there probably was), but was stopped by Kyoko's forceful hand. Before she could open her mouth to speak though, something caught her eye and immediately changed her mind. Retracting her hands, she spoke her next words in an awkward tone.
"Oh…Hibari-kun. What brings you here?"
Hearing Kyoko's words, Tsuna immediately turned to face the Head of the Namimori Disciplinary Committee. Tsuna smiled nervously; uncharacteristic, considering the fact that Hibari was his guardian and not the other way around.
"Umm…Hibari-san, we're not crowding here or anything, so we'll just be leaving now…"
Baring his tonfas out in the open, Hibari made a swift swipe towards Tsuna's direction. Leaping back gingerly, Tsuna shuddered at the obvious killing intent emanating from the black-haired prefect—he would've definitely broken a rib if he hadn't dodged.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi, I will bite you to death."
Even though Hibari was definitely the most bloodthirsty out of Tsuna's guardians, to think that he would attack Tsuna and Kyoko unprovoked…Tsuna's instincts told him that something was wrong. His trail of thought however, was interrupted when Hibari began to rush at him, seeking to get close enough to begin his onslaught of slashes, stabs and punts.
But the tonfa was stopped, right as it was about to connect a blow to Tsuna's midsection. Placing herself between Hibari and Tsuna, Kyoko had been able to pause the match by gripping the upper half of Hibari's tonfa and holding it off. Her hand locked itself tightly on the hard steel, refusing to allow it to move an inch from its current position.
"Hibari-kun, please stop this. There's no reason for you to fight Tsu-kun right now, so why are you still doing this?"
Contrary to the interrogative nature of her words, her tone was soft and gentle, almost as if she was comforting a young child.
It's too bad though, because this appeared to just add to Hibari's irritation. Not even bothering with his locked hand, Hibari twisted his body before lashing out with a vicious left hook.
Sensing Hibari's intent a moment before it happened, Kyoko released her hold on the tonfa and quickly attempted to side-stepped out of the way. Already expecting this however, Hibari reached in to elbow her with his now free hand. Based on her current direction of movement and momentum, there was no way that Kyoko could dodge the hit—the best she could do was to block it with her Vongola Ring.
Steel clashed against steel with a huge clang. Retracting his hands, Hibari gazed at his now half-melted tonfas. Lips curling in distaste, Hibari spoke with a venom-laced voice.
"You herbivores just love intruding on business that's not yours, don't you?"
The wind blowing against the werelight emanating from his forehead, Tsuna raised his gloved hands in a protective gesture as he cemented his position in front of Kyoko. He had a good sense of timing too; a few more seconds and Hibari's strike might've caused some pretty permanent damage to her amateur body.
"I can't be fooled by an illusionist that I've already seen through once before, Mammon."
The figure before Tsuna showed no sign of surprise at the conviction in Tsuna's uncharacteristically deep voice. Bit by bit, it became harder to focus on the contours of "Hibari's" body and features—almost like an old photo losing its touch.
Eventually, the mist surrounding the figure dissipated, revealing the lithe frame of Varia's Prince the Ripper.
"Ushishishi, your illusions aren't up to snuff as usual, Mammon."
The air behind the blonde rippled for a few seconds, finally taking the shape of a hooded baby with a violet pacifier. A yellow snake floated above his head, forming a perfect halo with its own tail in its mouth.
His mouth scrunched into an upside-down "v", the baby sighed heavily. Choosing to ignore his partner's words, Mammon sighed heavily at how complex this situation was turning out to be. Their orders had been clear: eliminate Vongola Tenth and leave no evidence behind.
Expecting it to be a slight challenge, Mammon had devised a plan that seemed fool-proof at the time. By disguising Bel as Hibari Kyoya, Tsuna would be more hesitant in their fight and be an easier kill. They could then frame Tsuna's Cloud Guardian as his murderer—killing two birds with one stone.
The assassination had gone wrong from the very beginning. Varia had pulled a few strings so that Tsuna's other guardians would be away that day, so it was pretty reasonable to assume that their target would be alone. The fact that Sasagawa Kyoko was with him made it that much harder to fabricate the rest of their "evidence".
And then there was the Vongola Hyper Intuition that allowed Tsuna to see through their deception; Xanxus will not be pleased.
On his side, Tsuna couldn't be more surprised to find out that his opponents were members of the Vongola Family's independent elite assassination squad. While Xanxus's dislike for him was obvious, Tsuna never imagined that they would have to fight against each other so soon, and for seemingly no reason. His instincts told him that something else was up.
He had to question their motives, but now was not the time or place. After all, the Varia was notorious for using every means necessary to complete their missions, and that included taking hostages. There was no way that Tsuna would let Kyoko get involved with all this Mafia business—especially not after her earlier revelations. In other words, he had to act fast.
Easier said than done, considering his opponents. Even though his Hyper Intuition had bailed him out earlier, Tsuna could still sense the illusionary space around the school. His own eyes could no longer be trusted—his battle against Torikabuto taught him that. To escape from a situation like this, he had only one alternative.
"Operation X."
Having received information from Yuni after the whole Byakuran affair, both Mammon and Bel knew what Tsuna was planning to do, but neither was worried. They had seen the technique enough to identify its major weakness: time. To put it simply, balancing the hard and soft flames in Tsuna's gloves takes time, and within that timeframe, Tsuna was vulnerable. Raising the knives in both of his hands, Bel prepared to finish the fight—in less than a second, a flick of his wrist will send Tsuna's head rolling.
Before either could react however, Tsuna's gloves shone with an overwhelming brilliance, temporarily blinding them. From within the halo of lights, Tsuna's voice rang out.
"X-Burner!"
Even as he expelled the sky flames from his gloves, Tsuna felt the recoil from the blast push him back, threatening to overwhelm the soft support flames from his other hand. That was the plan of course. Knowing that Bel and Mammon would see an opening during the initial phase of the X-Burner, he had skipped the balancing aspect of the attack to conserve time.
Of course, this had the unfortunate side-effect of sending him flying like tumbleweeds in the wind. However, he was not entirely without control; he had seen to that with his soft flames. As he involuntarily jetted backwards, Tsuna quickly manoeuvred himself and reached out with a gloved hand to latch onto Kyoko's wrist, essentially dragging her with him.
He didn't know or care about what happened to Bel and Mammon in the blast. All he wanted was to get her to safety.
Skies Above Namimori
As soon as he got the opportunity, Tsuna shifted Kyoko's position so that she was no longer dangling by her arm. Carrying her bridal style now, Tsuna glanced down at the scenery below him, looking for a suitable and inconspicuous place to land.
"Tsu-kun, I think that's a good place…"
Kyoko's voice was hoarse, almost as if she had her breathe taken away by Tsuna's earlier manoeuvre (which is basically what happened).
Tsuna followed Kyoko's finger to a back alley about 700 meters north of the school. It seemed to be abandoned, so he promptly flew over.
He scanned the area as he landed on the ground; there doesn't seem to be any sign of the Varia members in the area. That was the one good thing about being blasted away by his own X Burner—he covered a large stretch of distance very quickly.
Letting go of Kyoko's legs, Tsuna gently set her down onto the ground. Then, he asked in a concerned voice, "Kyoko-chan, are you alright?"
The orange-haired girl couldn't help but smile at his words. Seeing the confusion on Tsuna's face, Kyoko quickly stopped and answered his question.
"I'm fine Tsu-kun. And you?"
Sighing gratefully at her response, Tsuna turned his back to her, and prepared to fly off again. A firm hand stopped him though, and Kyoko once again spoke out.
"Are you going back?"
Nodding his head, Tsuna added, "I have to know why the Varia's attacking us all of a sudden. It's my responsibility to stop them before they start hurting the people I care about."
As if she was satisfied with his reply, Kyoko released her hold on Tsuna's wrists.
Watching as he disappeared into a dot in the sky, Kyoko sighed good-naturedly. Almost as if she there was someone she wanted to talk to, Kyoko began to speak in a quiet voice.
"You know, I used to think that Tsu-kun became a completely different person when he swallowed those pills. Not just me, Haru-chan thought so too. His voice gets so deep and his words become so cool...but I was so scared of that Tsu-kun. When he was like that, he…he seemed so alien, so unlike his usual hopeless self."
Turning her body so that she faced the inside of the back alley, Kyoko resumed talking while facing the garbage cans.
"But I was wrong. He still is that same warm Tsu-kun. I'm glad I realized that today, Reborn-kun."
Saying that, she crouched down so that she was at face-level with one of the cans. Sure enough, the can sprouted Reborn's trademark sideburns.
"Ciaossu Kyoko. I'm surprised that you caught me even when I'm wearing my 'Garbage Land' disguise. Keep this up, and I may just have to re-evaluate my opinion of you."
Mouth curved into a wide smirk, Reborn leapt out of his costume and stood proudly in front of Kyoko, dressed once again in his fedora and suit. His curiosity piqued, the baby immediately asked, "You're not going after him?"
Standing back up to her full height, Kyoko once again turned to gaze out at the all-encompassing sky. A slight smile adorned her face as she replied.
"I trust Tsu-kun."
Seemingly unsatisfied with her answer, Reborn immediately followed up with another question.
"Because he's your boss?"
"Because I understand him."
Neither spoke after this, the uncomfortable silence stretching out for what felt like hours. Eventually, Reborn tugged at Kyoko's sleeves and passed her a slip of paper.
"Take that to Tsuna's homeroom teacher. It's a note excusing him for the afternoon."
Surprised, Kyoko stared at the signature at the bottom of the sheet of paper.
Sawada Nana.
So Reborn is also a great signature faker!
As she thought this however, a thought immediately hit Kyoko: Reborn obviously needed a hard surface to fake a signature so well. The ground and walls here all had grooves and dents—there was no way that Reborn signed this sheet on the spot.
This means that he already had the note prepared beforehand.
With that in mind, Kyoko asked suspiciously, "How did you know that Tsu-kun would need an excuse slip?"
She's good. Is this the so-called 'woman's six sense'?
His smirk even wider than it was before, Reborn's tone was even and passive.
"That's for you to find out."
A/N: Really, really, really sorry for not updating this over the past week and a half. I'm really busy irl and a lot of glitches had to be sorted out involving the site.
Sadly, I'll probably remain very busy, but you can expect an update every week =D
I would also like to thank Leona for her help in beta-ing this chapter of AEBS. Yay!
Finally, the story is beginning to get action-packed so stay tuned!
(Real) finally, review review review! It is not only a great way for me to learn about your idea's/critiques, it also really motivates me to keep writing this story. So if you enjoyed it, please take the time to help me serve up an even better chapter next time around!