Kyoya woke to the sound of the school anthem playing on his phone, with a groan he turned his head to the side avoiding the sunlight as he opened his eyes. He almost jumped back in surprise to what he saw, Ren's face, it was peaceful and serein in slumber a bit of her black hair had fallen in front of her face. Sitting up he observed her, she had turned toward him while asleep and curled up like a cat, her hands tucked lightly by her face knees toward her chest. Her clothes were shifted, the black coat she wore pulled back and the fitted white shirt had hiked up exposing a bit of pale skin, the muscles beneath toned and what he knew must have taken months of strenuous work the bare outline of her stomach muscles. Kyoya could see the silver spiked tip of her staff from under the a skewed jacket as he leaned closer and lightly brushed the lock of hair away from her face, she twitched from the contact but didn't awaken.
When his phone rang again he sighed as he answered, it was Tetsu. "What is it?" Tetsu paused, surmised by the sound in his bosses voice, it was almost as if he sounded happy or peaceful, but he wasn't sure having never heard or seen anything that could relax his boss to this state before. "Tetsu."
The sound of his name brought him back to attention, "Yes, sir. We have a problem, I was waiting for the noon patrol to come back, but when they didn't show for a long time I went in search for them ."
"And."
"And when I found them they were all unconscious and badly wounded, I had to call an ambulance for some of them the others I just took to the emergency room. But the fact still remains five of our strongest members were attacked and beaten."
"I see," Kyoya paused before continuing having heard something behind him, Ren was there but instead of resting peacefully she was restless, her face contracted in pain and fear her body pulling in on itself and her limbs twitching and moving restlessly. A small cry sounded from her lips, this was obviously the cause of her tired state as of late. "We will be there soon." Kyoya finished curtly as he knelt back down besides Ren, he placed a hand on her head and some of the tension in her body left. Without meaning to he stroked her hair soothingly like he would a felines and watched as the rest of her fell back into a restful sleep. Continuing this for a few minutes more he marveled at the way her hair felt more like fur, he smiled slightly, more and more she was reminding him of a feline.
With a little disappointment he gently shook her shoulder to awaken her, "Wake up Ren." Her silver eyes blinked sleepily up at him.
"W-what, how long have I been asleep?" She questioned sitting up and stretching the muscles still warmed by the sun.
"A few hours', go get your things something's happened and were meeting Tetsu." He replied quietly those purple grey eyes unwavering and there calmness, he watched as all at once Ren was wide awake , 'hum, good battle instinct.' He thought to himself.
"All right I'll meet you at the gate." And with that she ran off to get her things not noticing that she took his coat with her, but he did and shook his head harshly, he was getting to be soft if something like that didn't bother him, or maybe it was just the fact that it was her that was doing it. He wasn't sure and he didn't like to dwell on those soft herbivore feelings. When she met him at the gate she gave a small embarrassed laugh as she gave his coat back.
"Let's go Carnivore." Kyoya said simply as he draped his coat back over his shoulder, trying not to react to the pleasing scent of pomegranate and roses that clung to the material. Ren glanced sideways at him as they walked, it had been a while since he had called her Carnivore. After their first fight he had recognized her as a predator and not a herbivore, and after the first week of her being his secretary and a few more sparring matches she had finally gotten him to call her by name, so why the sudden reversal.
She wouldn't admit it but it hurt a little, she had thought they were growing rather close if not as friends then at least as comrades. But she wouldn't voice it, so instead she asked about the current problem. "So what is this problem that Tetsu told you about?"
"A few of our strongest members were beaten up badly and left unconscious, he brought them to the hospital as a few required aid."
"How many?"
"Five."
"Really, this must have been some opponent, no one but you me and maybe Hayato and Royhei could have taken out five members, at least not alone. Someone who has a grudge on the committee?" Ren mused out loud and only got a quiet hun as any acknowledgement that he was listening and had agreed with her.
"Kyo-san, and Ren-san." Tetsu greeted them before leading them to see the five members that had been beaten. As he had said over the phone they were badly beaten, all had broken bones some more server than others and three out of five had mild to severe concussions. "I asked the ones that are awake what had happened, he said they had found a student that was skipping that day and were going to discipline him when someone called out to them they turned around and that's all they know the next thing they remember was waking up to me calling them."
"They didn't see who attacked them?" Ren asked surprised.
"Only a blur of green." Tetsu replied, "how should we proceed Kyo-san?"
"Carnivore." Kyoya spoke quietly, meeting his eyes she saw that he was leaving it to her to get all the facts then to report it to him. She gave a silent nod that was barely more than the slight dip of her chin before he left for his evening patrol.
"Tetsu, were is the kid that was skipping school, I need to talk to him." Ren asked as she fell into a role she had become quite familiar with ever since she had joined the committee.
"Actually, he's the sixth victim. He was also transported to the hospital and he had some of the worst injuries and has yet to regain consciousness."
"The sixth victim, he was also attacked by these people." Tetsu nodded, watching with a smile as Ren took over control, even though technically he was of a higher position than her as vice chairman, she was obviously the one more in charge. But he didn't mind, she was good at it and he would rather not have the power or responsibilities that she and Kyo-san share. He had been rather surprised that he wasn't the only one that felt like that when he had talked with the other members, all of them liked her and weren't bothered by the way she took over situations and became the leader. She was aloof and cold just like Kyo-san but unlike him she didn't confine herself to that one role, she talked to the other members and joked with them she was more real than Kyo-san but she was still untouchable like him. Everyone was content to let her be the leader and make the decisions while they just followed orders, though a few had problems with it at first for the fact that Ren was a woman.
"It doesn't make sense," Ren spoke up pulling Tetsu from his thoughts and into the intense gaze of her silver eyes. "If this was an attack against the committee, then why go after the one that was being disciplined by us, wouldn't you rather have him as an ally. So why turn on him?" She asked to no one in particular. "Tetsu, tell me all the information on those that were attacked, names, classes, there clubs, anything of inportance."
"Yes, ma'am." He replied and gave her the run down on all six wounded.
"Thanks, text me the same information if anything more happens, if I'm right then this is just the beginning."
Ren sat at her desk tapping her pen angrily, her annoyance and piercing glare making a clearly visible empty space between her and the other students, even the teacher that loved to come down on her for not listening to her lecture was leaving her alone. She was so buried in her irritation that she didn't notice when the lunch bell rang until her phone buzzed for the third time that day. Out of the corner of her eye those that were closest to her visibly jumped when she put her pen none to gently down and dug out her phone. Letting loose another sigh she added another name to her list of victims. Three days, three days this had been going on and still they had no idea what this attack on the students was about. And it's been three day's since Kyoya told her to, well basically to stop helping him so much, he had been well for a lack of a better word, cold towards her ever since they fell asleep on the roof. And she had no idea what the sudden cold shoulder was for and that only pissed her off more.
She glanced at the little black leather bound book she carried habitual, in red ink were the names, classes and clubs of close to two dozen students. None ever saw the attackers just a blur of green, and the attacks were no longer on just Disciplinary students but on normal students. It wasn't the Disciplinary Committee that was the target, it was the school but why? Who would hate the school so much that they would be attacking the strong student within it? What was so important about this school? An idea formed in her head, maybe it's not the school that's the target but a certain special people that attend it, with that thought in mind she wrote a single word with a question mark and circled it, Vongal.
"Hey!" A voice yelled in Ren's ear, with a glare she turned to the offender and found herself staring at Hayato. "I see now I have your attention so drop the glare. Its lunch are you going to eat?" She gave a 'hn' of acknowledgement and followed him up to the roof with the others.
"Ah, Ren-san, there you are we haven't eaten together in a while." Kyoko said happily.
"Ya, sorry about that, I've been busy. I actually feel sorry for Kyoya, I had no idea that so much went into running a school, I mean seriously I think the principal is only there for looks. All of his work gets pushed onto Kyoya, and god the paper work is never endless." Ren said as she thought back to all the paper she had organized, sent, written up, and filed away.
"I think you're really amazing Ren, to be able to work so close to him and even have the nerve to call him by his first name." Tsuna commented with a shudder at the thought of what Kyoya would do to him if he tried to talk to him like Ren did.
"Really, he's not so bad as everybody thinks, you just haft to read his face and know what he's thinking that's all." Ren took a bite from a sandwich not noticing all the surprised and sweat roped looks the other were giving her. Then she glared at her sandwich as the problem of Kyoya's recent cold shoulder came to the for front of her mind.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Hayato asked noticing the look.
"Ya you're glaring at that sandwich like it just kicked your puppy or something." Yamamoto pointed out, speaking for the first time.
"It's the problem I've been working on lately with all the injured students, it's just not making sense." Ren said thinking fast hoping that the truth would cover up her lie, apparently it fooled everybody or at least almost everybody.
"Che, liar." Hayato said so low only she could hear it, though the remark had surprised her ever since she had started calling him by his first name they had grown very close and she could honestly say that he was her best friend.
"Oh, right I've heard about that, what do you know?" Hana asked.
"Not much-hang on." Ren said as her phone beeped with an incoming call, she frowned at the screen, it was Tetsu. Why would he be calling her directly? She answered and listened to what he said and she felt her face go cold and indifferent. The others all saw the change to her serious face even though it wasn't all that different to her normal one, but they noticed that her eyes went cold and unfeeling like the first time they had met. "Alright we will be there soon."
Ren hung up her phone packed away her food and stood, then in an emotionless voice said, "That was Tetsu, he just told me that him and Kyoya just found Ryohei-san in the same condition as the others, I'm heading to the hospital now if you want to come."
There was a collective gasp as everyone took in this grave news, then a shaky, "Nei-san, Nei-san is in the hospital." Ren nodded an affirmative to Kyoko, it didn't take anyone more than two minutes to abandon their food and follower her to the hospital. When they got there they found Ryohei in very bed condition and Kyoko immediately ran to her brothers side crying. Ren stayed out in the hall after everybody ran into see him having already seen what she needed to see. She took out her black book and wrote down her friends name class and club this time putting a check next to it.
"So you're thinking that someone who has a grudge against the Vongal is attacking the students?" Reborn asked from her shoulder that he seemed to just appear on.
"Yes, it's the only thing that makes sense to me, if it was just the Committee members that were being attacked then I would think is was someone with a grudge against us. But when other started getting attacked it became clear that they were looking for someone in particular but they just didn't know who. But I'm still not positive there's just too many possibility's." Reborn looked at her suddenly when he felt like a cold wind had just swept past him, Ren's expression hadn't changed but her eyes said it all. "But… if they are aiming for Tsuna and his family then I will drag them threw the nine hells face down."
Reborn feeling the chill of her words smiled his knowing smile, yes, this was indeed what was missing from Tsuna's family, that need to make anybody who threatens the family pay. It was true that the others had it as well, but they were all too close to Tsuna and wouldn't do anything he hadn't approved of, unlike someone from a more independent position.
"The doctor said he should be ok and will wake up at any time, so there's nothing to serious to worry about." Ren said entering the room for the first time.
"Nothing to worry about!" Hayato said with anger grabbing the front of her shirt. "Of course there's something to worry about, one of the tenth's men just got attacked and he wasn't the weakest of us. How can you say that without caring." Ren didn't react, only pried his fingers away before turning to leave, at the door she stopped and looked back at everyone over her shoulder.
"Hayato be careful, you to Yamamoto, there targets are strong people, which means that no doubt your on their list as well." She said in that same cold and calm voice she spoke normally in, before leaving to do some more research.
Che, stupid woman." Hayato spat out angrily as Tsuna began to freak out. Annoyed that his student and his family were losing it in the face of a crises Reborn harshly kicked Tsuna landing on his back with a resounding 'crack'.
"Stupid Tsuna calm down, you're not the only one worried look around the hospital is full of people." Tsuna looked shocked when he realized that almost the entire floor was filled with students from his school. Rubbing his head ashamed at his little outburst he sat up and crossed his legs.
"But what about Ren, she acted like she didn't care that Sasawagha-Sempi got hurt." He voiced and heard an annoyed 'che' from Gokudera.
"hum.. You're all idiots. Did you think she didn't feel anything? Well think about it this way," Reborn said as he opened up Ren's black leather book that had fallen out when Gokudera had grabbed her. "This is the entire list of people that have been attacked and of the first victim one still is in a coma, so considering that and the others injury's Ryohei got off easy."
"Then why didn't she say anything?" Hayato asked as he picked up the black book and looked over the page written in English with red ink.
"Because she was the only level headed one in the group, so when you came down on her she let you knowing what you were feeling and letting herself be the convenient target. She's staying clear headed so that she can find who did this and make them pay." Reborn explained, he watched his words sink in and saw the flash of regret flash threw Gokudera's eyes at how he treated her.
"Che stupid woman."
After most of the night searching and coming up empty handed, Ren made her way back to the hospital the next day to check on Royhei. She wondered if there had been any more incidents threw out the night, she hadn't received a text or call from Tetsu which was strange. She yawned as she made her way to the assigned room, when a small crowed attracted her attention, it was Tsuna and the others. A feeling of foreboding overcame her as she spotted familiar Elvis looking hair, pushing her way through the crowd she found Tetsu laying down on a stretcher with eyes closed as and covered in wounds.
"Tetsu. What happened?" She asked with that same calm uncaring demeanor that she wore yesterday even though inside she was raging with anger, first her mafia family and now her subordinates. Whoever was responsible for these attacks was testing her restraint.
Tetsu groaned as he opened one eye as the other was swollen shut, "It was some Kyokue students, they were green uniforms. Kyo-san already knows and had gone to track them down." It was a short explanation that took as little of his strength he had but he knew she would understand. He trusted her, even with her calm and apparently uncaring demeanor he could see the flames of war behind those stoic silver eyes.
"I see, get some rest, we'll leave this to Kyoya… for now." Ren said before moving off to check on Royhei, she found him still asleep with Kyoko a sleep on the side of his bed. She shivered with cold, she was still in the uniform she wore yesterday which means she never left the hospital last night. Slipping off her Hunter green coat she draped it over Kyoko's shoulders, placing her disciplinary arm band on her charcoal colored shirt. Adjusting her weapon holder over her black skinny jeans she went to hunt down a doctor to get the update on both Tetsu and Royhei. It took her till past lunch to track down a barley competent nurse to get the right doctor and by that time she was severely annoyed, that foreboding feeling she had had never gone away. When Tsuna, Reborn and Hayato found her she was giving another incompetent nurse a rather harsh dressing down curtsey of her overly sharp tongue.
"Ren, are you ok?" Tsuna asked and flinched with a girly 'Hiee' when she turned her harsh gaze onto him.
"I'm fine, just trying to finally get a real update on their conditions."
"Do you think he can handle it, Hibari-san I mean, these people are really strong." Hayato asked.
"Of course he can, he's not an opponent to take down easily." That seemed to relieve them of some of their fears, so she told them of the rest of what she knew and that seemed to lessen even more of their worries.
"Hey, Tsuna why don't you go check on Royhei and Kyoko." Reborn said and jumped from Tsuna's shoulder to the counter that Ren was standing next to, Tsuna seemed confused with the sudden suggestion but followed the order anyways with Hayato following behind him. "So it seems your theory was right, I received a letter from the ninth saying to defeat these guys and rescue there hostage."
"Hostage?" Ren asked there had been no indication of a hostage.
"Ya, these guys seemed to be stronger than we thought. How sure are you that Kyoya will be okay?"
"Of cour-" right in the middle of her denial a sharp pain snapped in her mind and she staggered dizzy for a moment placing a hand on the wall to balance herself. "Kyoya..." She whispered, she didn't know how or why but that bad feeling had grown worse and she just knew something was about to happen. Almost tunnel minded she ran from the hospital toward were Tetsu had said he was heading, leaving Reborn with both his answers to his questions one he asked and one he didn't.