Thank you for still reading. I hope it's not getting boring. Not mine, as always.

April 23

I felt him stirring rather early that morning. I saw him holding the bed railings and pulling himself up. I scrambled to help him.

He swung at me with his left arm. I blocked with my own left arm.

"Mind your own business."

"I am employed to be of assistance to you, SIR."

"I do not need your assistance!" Yet he panted and gasped as he said this.

"Your stubbornness might kill you, Hibari-san!"

"What is it to you if it does?"

"Tsuna-nii will be sad. Kusakabe-san will be sad." I would be sad, too, but I did not see the point in telling him.

"Hm." He scowled and turned his head away.

"Please, Hibari-san."

He refused to look at me.

I withdrew my arm. He placed his hand back over the railing. I placed my hand on his back --have I mentioned how wonderful that back felt? Sinewy and tight-- as he pulled himself up to sitting again. I placed no pressure, no weight, just guided him as he moved up. The movement became smoother, until he finally stopped to catch his breath, seated in bed.

"Shall I place the pillows?"

"No."

I let him breathe in and out as I got a glass of water. He still did not look at me as I placed the glass on the table, as he took up the glass and finished the water in one long drink.

Then I remembered. Tomorrow was now here. This was the day he told Tsuna-nii would be his last at the hospital. He needed to prove it to Tsuna-nii, that he could be well enough to be sent home.

"Hibari-san, you're not being forced to..."

"I will not be useless."

"But you can't be useful at your current condition..."

"I am not..."

"I know that, Hibari-san. But it is not a weakness to admit that you are not at your full strength. You will better serve the cause once you are better able to face the enemy."

He sighed long and deeply.

But now that he was seated, he did not seem to be uncomfortable. He did not groan in pain or breathe heavily. I told him so.

The straight line of his lips angled ever so slightly at the edges.

"Just tell me, and I will prop up the pillows. Breakfast?"

"Yes."

"You really will be able to go home after today, I think."

"Hm." The slight angle at the edges of his lips stayed.

Breakfast, as with all the meals, was silent, as he sipped the tea I set out for him, and he slowly finished the meal given to him. I was perfectly satisfied watching him make those graceful movements. Everything he seemed to do had a grace to it. The way he held up the soup bowl in one smooth gesture. The way the chopsticks rose in the air to meet his mouth in one fluid motion. They were beautiful. So was he.

"I-pin."

I almost dropped my teacup. "Y-y-yes?"

"Prop up the bed." He was done with breakfast.

"Oh. Alright." I walked up to the foot of the bed and pressed the button.

He leaned back onto the bed with relief. He turned his head to face me, still pale but with more color to his cheeks.

"Xie xie."

"Na li de hua." I smiled.

Oh, master, he looks so much like himself, I could explode again.

…………………………………

Tsuna-nii must have done some contacting. Doctors and nurses came in and out of the room, checking on Hibari-san and his wounds. All of them tried to talk him out of leaving the hospital, but he could not be dissuaded. They were apprehensive, but not fearful, and they all agreed to sign the necessary papers.

Since there were people in and out, I was on the alert the whole day. But the hospital staff were more afraid of him than he was of them. The general jitteriness of all the staff remained unchanged throughout the day.

Hibari-san remained seated in bed the whole morning to the early afternoon. He did not complain, and he did not seem to be in much pain, but as the day wore on he began to look tired. But he refused any help.

Until the little yellow bird flew through the window, flapping its wings desperately, chirping madly. It kept chirping and chirping as it perched on his shoulder.

He scowled. His eyes narrowed. "Tonfa."

"WHAT!"

"Now." He began reaching for them himself.

"But!" I opened the drawer and got them out. They were heavier than I expected, solid steel.

With one quick movement he took them from me and armed.

I had no idea what was going on, but his battle chi could not be ignored. Neither could the terrible chi just past the window. I placed myself in front of his bed in my own battle stance.

"Get behind."

"No! You're...you're..."

"You fight bare-handed. Get behind."

He scooted to the edge of the bed, and stood. He thrust out his left arm and covered me with it, the tonfa facing the window.

"Hibari-san!"

"Get behind."

Suddenly a series of shots pinged and tinged as they hit the tonfa. Ting-ting-ping-ting-ping. He pulled us both down to the floor as more shots hit the bed, the railings, the window.

I tried to stand up and throw a gyoza bomb out, but he pulled me down again. More shots were fired. A short pause, then many more.

"Tell Sawada not to come," he ordered as the shots rang out. "Kusakabe should be here shortly. We leave tonight."

I nodded and took out my phone, dialing the emergency number. "Hayato-nii, we were attacked. Tsuna-nii, he shouldn't come." I ended the call. More shots rang out. We stayed crouched on the floor.

Finally, they ended.

I sighed with relief as Hibird continued to chirp, and the chirping was the only sound we heard. For safety's sake we remained on the floor, in case they were waiting for us.

"Call Kusakabe. Code 156. Tell him to meet us at the door with a wheelchair. He should not go in."

I did as he said.

He began to creep through the floor. The steel tonfa clanged as he dragged them with him. I followed after him, bombs at the ready, constantly looking behind us.

The progress was halting. He panted with each movement. I was about to run up and open the door but he growled, "Stay down."

We reached the door on our arms and legs. I pulled him to sit and lean on the wall. There were no bloodstains, thankfully. He gasped for air. Still, he placed an arm in front of me, tonfa side out.

"Tell Kusakabe," he took two deep breaths, "For now, he's in charge."

The tonfa clanged as his full weight dropped on me.

………………………………..

I breathed in and out, in and out, trying to calm myself. Hibari-san was just asleep, deeply asleep, exhausted from the effort he just made. It was not worse than that. He was not unconscious, no, no. He had not fainted. Just went to sleep, yes?

The door opened slightly, and I looked up at Kusakabe-san. "Hey, little lady. Shall we go?"

The tonfa were on the floor. Hibari-san had dropped them. I picked them up. "Go where?"

"Home." He took up Hibari-san in his large arms, quickly placing him in the wheelchair he brought along. He draped a large fisherman's cap over Hibari-san's head, which hid his closed eyes. "Follow me, my brave young lady."

"But...but...my tea set..."

Kusakabe-san pushed the wheelchair forward at a brisk pace. "Someone will get it later." I jogged to match up to his speed. The tonfa were rather heavy, too.

He sped to a cargo elevator, and we rode it down to the parking lot. Kusakabe-san tried to look calm, and so did I, but my hands were sweating. I bit my lips to keep my teeth from chattering. Our cargo always threatened to slide off the wheelchair. Kusakabe just kept a firm grip on the clothes as he tapped his fingers, waiting for the elevator doors to open.

The elevator opened at the second basement level. Kusakabe-san walked even faster, the wheelchair ahead of it. I ran to keep up.

He stopped at a car I had seen before at the shrine, quickly opening the front passenger door. "Sorry, chairman," he said as he lifted Hibari-san off the wheelchair onto the passenger seat.

Kusakabe-san packed the wheelchair in the trunk and opened the back passenger door. "Come on, little lady."

He got in himself, started the car, and quickly headed for the exit.

In all this time, Hibari-san did not move, did not say anything, just kept breathing. No, no, no, nothing was wrong with him, nothing, nothing.

"Did you get a look at who shot at you?" Kusakabe-san asked, but I said no.

"Hibird just came chirping...HIBIRD! What about Hibird?"

"He'll find his way home, don't worry about it, he always does." He looked sadly at Hibari-san for a moment. "The chairman trained him well, after all."

I sighed with relief, then looked again at Hibari-san and sighed. I didn't get to protect him at all. He protected me.

"He's fine, I've seen him like this before, I-pin-chan. Overworked himself again, that's all." He chuckled. "I know he's quite grumpy, but he never leaves anything undone, and he never leaves his people behind. Of course he whacks at them later, but that's part of who he is. Must be sad that I'm so used to it, don't you think?"

I shook my head. "Not at all, Kusakabe-san."

It was like that with me, too. I knew people did not like Hibari-san. But all I could feel was the strong heart inside him. No matter what anyone else thought, I knew he was a good man.

We took a back road to the shrine. Kusakabe-san parked the car in the trees. He slung him on a shoulder and walked in the darkness with sure footing. I had been to the shrine many times, but I was not familiar with the secret entrances the independent research group used, so I followed Kusakabe-san closely.

But we did not go through a secret entrance at all, just went through the back door, where the shrine was a house, Hibari-san's house. All the doors were sliding wooden panels, without locks.

Kusakabe-san made his way past the receiving area into the bedroom. As he switched the electric lights on I saw a plain, undecorated room with drab cabinets to one side and a solitary table leaned on a wall.

I made my way to the futon cabinet, and pulled out the futon. Soon Hibari-san was on it, still pale, with tumbled hair, still sleeping more soundly than I wanted.

"Please, Kusakabe-san, could I stay here?" I asked.

Kusakabe-san thought for a while. "He might hit you, on instinct, if he finds out."

"I can block on instinct, too," I smiled at him.

"Suit yourself, little lady," Kusakabe-san shrugged. "Don't say I didn't warn you. Wait here, I'll go get you a futon."

I bowed to the tatami mat. "Thank you very much."

Kusakabe-san left me in the bedroom with him.

He breathed slowly and peacefully. Just asleep, just asleep, I kept telling myself.

I felt under the blanket for his hand. I held it in both of mine.

I was not sure why I did it. It just felt wonderful to hold it. Knowing he was with me. That he did all that, with this hand, for me.

Xie-xie is "Thank you," while Na li de hua is "You're welcome". I just got it off a phrasebook, and I don't have a shred of Chinese blood in me, so forgive my inconsistencies.