I love you all.
Title is from a song by the band Simple Plan.
Chapter 7 – Save You
Tsuna gasped for breath. He couldn't believe what he was reading.
File: 10500
Student: Yamamato Takeshi
Date: 01 august, 2010
Yamamato has tried to take his life by jumping from the roof above classroom 3C. Earlier this week he has broken his arm in a baseball match. That may have driven him to attempt suicide.
Another student, Sawada Tezuka, has saved him by talking to him on the roof. Tezuka has received a medal from the Dean for his deed.
Lollypop: Taichou, the baseball match was filmed. I've edited out most part of the file until the point where Yamamato injures his arm. I've rendered it down so you can actually see what happened, and it wasn't an accident.
Tsuna found the edited recording of the baseball match. He opened it.
Yamamato just slammed the baseball away, clearly making a homerun, when he began running towards each base. He almost made it to the fourth and last base when midway to his destination he yelped in pain as he tripped and fell. If the recording wasn't edited, it would have just looked like Yamamato slipped on the ground, but Lollypop had slowed the recording down. Tsuna's jaw dropped when he saw it.
A small rock too fast for spectator's eyes to see flew towards the ground in front of Yamamato. Yamamato slipped on the rock, not on the ground. Seconds later Yamamato yelled in pain as he clutched at his right arm.
The rock came from the tribunes. Lollypop had edited the recording so that it zoomed into the person who had thrown it. "You bastard," Tsuna whispered.
It was Tezuka.
{Save You}
It was around midnight. Tsuna sat at the table in the kitchen. He had a glass filled with concentrated fruits, colored the same as wine. Baron had told him that his first alcoholic beverage would be with him alone, and not just yet. Until then Tsuna could do with the strong fruit drinks that made your mind go numb ever so slightly.
Tsuna drank and drank.
Footsteps echoed from his left. Fran looked sleepy in his frog pajamas. "Go to sleep senpai," he yawned and sat in the chair opposite to him.
"Says the one who is awake," Tsuna smiled sadly at him.
"You know I can't sleep if you're worried," Fran said as he took a glass from the center of the table and poured some fruit juice for himself. He gulped it down in one tug. He wiped the redness from his cheeks with the sleeve of his pajamas. Tsuna would probably need to put them in the washing machine tomorrow.
"You've read the files too Fran, it makes my skin crawl," Tsuna said as he took a sip from his juice.
"What? Why do you even care senpai? They are not your family. I am your family, just like Lulaby, Lollypop and Baron," Fran filled his glass again.
"That's not it Fran. You know me better than that. Don't ever question my loyalty to the Famiglia," Tsuna said with his 'and it won't ever change' gaze. Fran smiled at that.
"I know, just testing," Fran gulped down the next fill. "But you're right though senpai, disturbing things are happening here in Namimori," Fran looked sharply, and he rarely looked like that, "Sawada Tezuka is a threat, but he's not our threat. Let the Vongola deal with him. We'll steal the rings from them when they arrive in Japan and leave for Italy the next morning. We could probably even take Reborn if we combined our strength. They have no chance."
"Now that's where you're wrong Fran," Tsuna said frowning, "Reborn is at least twenty times stronger than the both of us combined, he might even be stronger than Baron," he paused when he saw the shocked expression of Fran, "what did you think? He's the most powerful of the I Prescelti Sette, we have a flee on sight order if we ever encounter Fon or Reborn, remember?" Fran looked like he wanted to protest, but he sighed instead.
"Well whatever, I'm gonna take a nap here seeing as you have a thing against sleeping, wake me in the morning," Fran buried his head in his arms and slept almost instantly. Tsuna smiled, only Fran could understand him completely. He wasn't planning on sleeping tonight.
How could he? Tezuka was a sociopath, his father was probably drinking himself to sleep and his mother was in the hospital undergoing God knows what psychological treatment. He would need to pay a visit to that woman in the future. But not today for more than one reason.
The most important reason was that Fran and he had to pay a visit to Kokuyo Middle School next week. He didn't need to his Hyper Intuition to realize that things could get bloody. The files that Lollypop had sent them urged them to check out Kokuyo, so they would.
But deep down inside Tsuna knew that the reason that he hadn´t rushed to the hospital when he had read the letter from his father to Timoteo, was that he hated Sawada Nana.
And it hurt and ached in his chest to know that.
{Save You}
Tsuna sat down on his chair and looked at his father scribbling down today's assignments on the chalkboard. "Are you thinking about me even now?" He wondered as his father turned and faced the class.
"We're still rusty on Shakespeare, aren't we class?" The class groaned in unison, save for a few individuals. Kyoko and Hana smiled. Fran continued his nap on his table like always. His father never said anything to Fran about it. Actually, none of the teachers did. Tsuna blamed it on the fact that the teachers were too lazy, because Gokudera could stomp out the class whenever he wanted. That happened often as of late.
Just like today, except that Gokudera, Yamamato and Tezuka didn't show up at all. "Probably Reborn torturing them," Tsuna thought solemnly. For a person looking like a three year old in a mafia suit, Reborn was scary beyond words. Tsuna would feel sorry for his brother, but his brother deserved it. Bangs of hair covered his eyes as he remembered Tezuka's awful deeds. There was a whole arsenal of things that his brother had done, and breaking Yamamato's arm wasn't even the worst. "How could you do that to someone's father? You really are a monster, aren't you Tezuka? I'll be glad when I leave, let the Vongola solve their own problems," his thoughts were broken when his father waved in front of his eyes.
"Earth to Abel," his father never called him Tsuna or Tsunayoshi, "I asked you a question, do you want to get sent out of classroom?" His father asked jokingly.
Tsuna feigned being sorry, "sorry sensei, I was thinking of my home back in Italy," his father never could see through his lies, too blinded by the image of his dead son, "so what's the question?" Kyoko stopped herself from laughing, Hana shook her head, and Fran, Fran just continued sleeping.
His father repeated the question as he had a finger pointed in a book that he held in his hands, "when Brutus killed his brother in the tournament in Nottingham Palace, what did Brutus's father do to punish his son? And explain the moral of the poem as well Abel."
Tsuna paused, he remembered this poem very well; it was one of the lesser known poems of Shakespeare. He looked at his father and concluded that his father wasn't testing his true identity. Tsuna could see through most people's eyes after all.
He scraped his throat, and then said, "his father gave Brutus a prize, guards to protect him and a big castle where he and his wife could live until the end of his live, his children's lives and their children's lives," Tsuna paused, "what Brutus's father didn't know was that it was his other son, Geron, who died in the tournament, because the tournament was one where each contestant needed to be masked with a helmet that symbolized an animal. Geron was disguised as a lion when he faced Brutus. Brutus knew that it was Geron that he was facing, but still killed his own brother," maybe Tsuna put too much emotion in his explanation, because Kyoko, Hana, Fran and the rest of the class including his father were listening carefully to him, the classroom being dead silent.
"Later when his father found out about Brutus's treacherous deed, he took his own life by jumping from the highest tower in his son's new castle, forever cursing it. It is said that his spirit still wanders Brutus's castle, searching for his lost son Geron for eternity."
His father was silent, waiting for Tsuna to explain the poem, "the poem tells a sad tale about family and love. You would think that a father would know both his sons enough to feel in his heart when one of them breathes his last breath. But Brutus's father didn't," Tsuna looked his own father dead in the eye, "the moral of the story is that you can never know if someone truly loves you, that is, until it is far too late," the bell rang, but most students ignored it as they were fastened to their seats looking at Tsuna and their English teacher.
"You'll definitely get an A like you always do Abel, well done," his father said as he turned, "class dismissed, get out of here guys," his father smiled a fake smile.
{Save You}
"Tsuna-san!" A girl's voice shouted from behind him.
"Hi Kyoko-san," Tsuna said surprised as he looked at the panting girl. She had probably run from her last class to the hall where Fran and Tsuna were discussing Kokuyo Middle School.
"So what happened to," she stood, "what happened to Brutus in the end?" Kyoko blushed while she asked this.
"Yeah, you can't just let us hanging like that, especially not when it's about a poem by Shakespeare." Hana calmly walked next to Kyoko.
"Senpai doesn't have to answer if he doesn't want to," Fran said protectively as he stepped in between Tsuna and the girls. Kyoko and Hana both laughed warmly. The girls adored Fran. Fran was very smart, because he skipped a few classes to get in the same class as they. Hana appreciated Fran's intellect, even though he never really showed it, and Kyoko thought that Fran was cute for staying almost glued to Tsuna most of the times.
"I'll answer the question Fran, common, Hana-san and Kyoko-san are our friends," Tsuna smiled.
"What happened to Brutus you ask?" Tsuna stepped to a nearby window and looked outside. It was raining hard. Tsuna turned his head and smiled sadly at the three, "he lived happily ever after."
{Save You}
The next day, during math class, Tezuka, Gokudera and Yamamato were back. Fran noticed all were bruised. Gokudera had a bandage around his right arm, Yamamato had one around his forehead and Tezuka had both his hands bandaged. "Senpai," Fran said as he yawned, "don't they look happy."
"Something must have happened," Tsuna replied, "something tells me it might have to do with Kokuyo and all the recent hospitalized students," news had grown that students were being attacked when they were on the road to home, or dragged into alleys and beaten when they were out with friends in Namimori shopping district. The data from Lollypop described a recent outbreak of prisoners from the Vindice Prison. Tsuna prayed that none of the prisoners were in Namimori. The Vindice were ruthless, and anyone getting in their way were done for.
Some of the students in the class gasped as someone entered the room. It was one of the Disciplinary Committee members, and not just anyone, it was the second in command, Kusakabe Tetsuya.
The tall student with a regent hairstyle walked further into the class, entirely ignoring the old math teacher, who like always, had his nose buried deep in a book. Tetsuya stopped in front of Tsuna's table.
Fran looked up to Tetsuya, ready to jump in. Tsuna didn't need it, but he felt happy to be friends with someone as protective as Fran, even though it was annoying sometimes.
"Abel Tsunayoshi?" Tetsuya asked as he frowned.
Tsuna looked back, "that would be me," he answered.
"Your presence is requested by the captain of the Namimori Disciplinary Committee, follow me," Tetsuya didn't leave Tsuna any room to argue or answer. Almost all the students in the class, including his brother Tezuka, were looking at Tsuna as if he was being sentenced to death, Tezuka being the only one happy about it as he smiled.
"I'm coming too Kusa-chan," Fran said. Tetsuya turned but didn't say anything. A silent moment passed, but Tetsuya nodded in the end.
The three of them walked the halls of Namimori Middle School in silence. There wasn't any hostility in Tetsuya's voice when he asked for Tsuna's presence, but then again, he doubted that Tetsuya would reveal the reason behind Tsuna's invitation to meet with Hibari.
Five minutes later Tetsuya knocked on the door of the disciplinary Committee's room before opening it, and entering with Tsuna and Fran. Ten faces with similar hairstyles as Tetsuya all turned to the two newcomers. The one at the farthest end of the room, behind the wooden desk, eyed Tsuna without emotion.
"Out," Hibari ordered, everyone except Tetsuya, Tsuna and Fran left the room. Hibari stood and moved towards the three newcomers.
"Are you going to bite us to death Hi-chan?" Fran asked with a puzzled look. Tsuna was surprised that Hibari hadn't attacked Fran yet, but the prefect seemed to restrain himself as he ignored Fran.
Hibari eyed Tsuna and said, "I want you to join the Disciplinary Committee."
"Huh?" Tsuna asked surprised. He thought that the prefect wanted to finish their previous fight. "Why?"
Hibari seemed to have a hard time speaking, like he didn't enjoy it at all, "I despise having debts, Abel," Hibari raised a tonfa that he conjured up out of nowhere, "join, or I'll bite you to death."
"So he feels like he owes me a debt for saving his life back then," Tsuna thought amazed that the usual strict prefect felt that way.
Fran eyed Tsuna from the corner of his eyes. The both of them couldn't join any movement or group, Baron would go nuts.
Tsuna didn't want to fight Hibari again, there had to be something he could do to not insult Hibari by declining the offer and not getting bitten to death at the same time. Suddenly he knew what, "how about I'll accept your offer, but not right now, I have things that I need to do first," Tsuna eyed the prefect with a serious look, to show that he meant it.
Tsuna didn't expect the prefect to accept his terms, but when Hibari nodded, Tsuna sighed in relief. "If I'm joining, Fran is joining too, otherwise no deal," Tsuna said firmly. Hibari nodded again, albeit with strain.
"The herbivore may join as well," Hibari said.
"But Hibari-san, Fran is only ten an-"
"Silence vice-captain."
And finally Tsuna got it. To Hibari it was a big deal for owing any kind of debt, be it being a debt of fitfully biting someone to death, or returning a favor for someone that saved his life. Hibari would make a great mafia member, Tsuna thought.
"But I'll never let you Hibari-san, the mafia world is a dangerous place, and especially for people like you and I," Tsuna thought as he and Fran left the Disciplinary Committee's headquarters.
{Save You}
"So can I help with anything?" Shoichi asked Fran and Tsuna as they packed supplies for their new mission.
Tsuna closed his bag, put it over his shoulder and walked to Shoichi. He put his hands on the redhead's shoulders and smiled, "what? And get you hurt? You're our precious technician here in Namimori, losing you is like losing half our fire power, besides," Tsuna said as he and Fran walked towards the apartment's door, "I would probably lose it if you got hurt."
"He means it Sho-chan," Fran said as he followed Tsuna out the door, "take care of the apartment and don't worry too much, we got this under control," he said lazily as Shoichi waved goodbye to them.
"You do realize that Tezuka and his friends will be at Kokuyo too, right senpai?"
"I know Fran, but that's exactly why we need to stop Rokudo Mukuro," Tsuna said as he and Fran walked into the forest that had a secret path from Namimori straight to Kokuyo, "if that brother of mine," Tsuna shuddered, "gets killed, the rings won't arrive in Namimori," but that wasn't the real reason that Tsuna began speeding up towards their destination.
Something crept up into his mind, something that told him that he needed to get to Kokuyo as soon as possible.
