Underworld
By Belletiger BT
A/n: Sorry for the lateness of this chapter. My beta writer was involved with some problems but I told her to take her time to edit this chapter. This chapter is for you, Alternative Angel! :D
Chapter 6- Second Trial
XXX
The group was in the boat on the Lethe River which connects Tartarus to Asphodel. And once again, Charon was their boatman.
Gokudera was lying down on the boat while Reborn was using his Sun flames on Gokudera's wounds. Yamamoto looked at the silver-haired boy with concern.
"How's he doing, kid?" Yamamoto asked.
"I've already healed most of his wounds," Reborn replied as he sat down tiredly. " Phew… I'm not used to using my Sun flames to heal someone."
Everyone was quiet as they took in their loss. Gokudera lost his left arm in the middle of the hell hounds' attack while Yamamoto lost the sight in his right eye.
Yamamoto was thankful for that puppy helping them in their trial with Cerberus, but he wondered why Cerberus was in the Living World and playing with Tsuna as if she was 3 ordinary dogs?
Chrome looked at Charon, who was still rowing.
"Eto… Charon-san? Could you tell us about the Asphodel Fields?" Chrome asked the boatman. "I know Tartarus is the hell and Elysian is the paradise, but we know nothing about Asphodel Fields."
Yamamoto, Enma and Reborn looked at Charon in interest, as was Gokudera. Though he had read a lot about Greek mythology, the Asphodel Fields were almost never mentioned in the stories he had read.
"What can I say about Asphodel Fields? Let's see…" he muttered, looking for the right words to describe their next destination. "You could say it's a world for the tormented souls."
They blinked as they looked at him in confusion. Tormented souls? What did he mean?
Charon explained that each world in the Underworld is a home for a type of soul. Tartarus is the world of the damned, the place where the worse kind of people goes after their death. Elysian is a world where the purest hearts and the heroes go after their deaths. Asphodel is a world where people who are neither wholly good nor completely evil go. They are souls who never found inner peace and they're usually insane and very emotionally unstable.
"Oh, and you guys should be more careful when you're in the Asphodel Fields. The tormented souls will not be your main problem."
If Charon's face wasn't hidden under the hood, they would have seen him smirking.
"What do you mean by that?" Enma asked, not liking the boatman's tone voice.
"Just be careful of what's above you."
XXX
In the Elysian Fields, Luce watched as Tsuna woke up once again with his head in her lap. He blinked several times as he felt a sense of déjà vu.
"Luce-san?" Tsuna sat up as he looked at the ex-Arcobaleno. "How long I was sleeping?" he questioned her.
"You have been sleeping for 2 days since Hades-sama brought you back from his castle," Luce answered the boy.
Tsuna's eyes widened in shock. For a whole 2 days? What happened to Gokudera and the others? Did they survive from their meeting with Cerberus?
Luce, already knowing the doubts in Tsuna's mind, assured him. "They passed the first trial. Cerberus allowed them to go to Asphodel Fields after Gokudera and Yamamoto realized how important you were to her," she explained to Tsuna.
Tsuna looked at her, confused. He was important to Cerberus? How? Cerberus was known to be a fearsome hell hound. How could he be important to her? Luce looked at him with soft eyes.
"You used to play with her when you were a child, Tsunayoshi-san."
Tsuna's eyes widened in surprise as an image of 3 black dogs playing with him came to his mind. He placed his hands on his head as more images came to his mind: a 5-year-old girl with wings smiling to him, a white pony, a beautiful lady with gorgeous emerald eyes and a black hooded man lying down on the ground in a blood-surrender to him.
Tsuna started to shiver; he didn't understand why those images were in his mind. Then, someone hugged him from behind, almost making him fall to the ground.
"OMG! You're gorgeous!"
Tsuna turned his head to look and saw a man with blondish hair, wearing a white cape and an odd marking on his forehead. He recognized the man right away.
"Vongola Quinto?" Tsuna shouted in surprise, remembering the man in his trial from the future.
"You know who I am. That makes me even happier, young one. I am Gabriel, Vongola Quinto. It's a pleasure to meet you, Vongola Decimo," Gabriel introduced himself, bowing respectfully to Tsuna.
"Er... Nice to meet you, Gabriel-san," Tsuna bowed to him as well, respectful of his predecessor. But there was something odd about Vongola Quinto. He looked at him with a shine in his eyes. In a very strangeway.
"I heard from Primo that if your friends pass all the 3 trials, you will go back to the Living World, isn't that so?" he asked.
Tsuna looked at the ground when he mentioned Primo. He still hasn't forgiven Giotto for allowing his friends to come to the Underworld and risk their lives for his sake. If something happens to them, he will never forgive Giotto.
"Yeah, that's true," he answered in a cool tone, something Luce do not miss it.
"Good," Gabriel nodded to himself as he crossed his arms. "Vongola needs more beautiful bosses."
Tsuna looked completely confused as he and Luce sweat-dropped at his declaration.
Gabriel started to rant about how most of the Vongola bosses were very ugly but, sadly, were the only ones capable of leading the family because of their good sense of leadership and bloodline.
"I was so happy that Fabio, Vongola Settimo, had a beautiful girl like Daniela, but her son, Timoteo… When he was young, he was very charming, but now that he's old, he's become so…"
Gabriel was interrupted when a foot smashed into his face. Tsuna's eyes widened in shock when he noticed it was Vongola Ottavo, Daniela, that kicked Vongola Quinto, sending him several hundred meters away from them.
"Don't ever listen to this idiot, Decimo," Daniela muttered darkly as she cleaned her shoe with a rag. "Gabriel was known to be the vainest boss the Vongola ever had."
"I can see that," Tsuna said quietly, not knowing what to say. One thing he understood was to never anger Daniela. Especially concerning her son.
"So, do you want come to the spring field with me? I heard your friends have already arrived at Asphodel Fields."
Tsuna gasped as he almost forgot his friends were in the Asphodel Fields. As he, Daniela, and Luce made their way to the spring field to watch his friends, Tsuna looked at Daniela worriedly.
"Er… Ottavo-san?" Daniela looked at him. "Do you know what they will face at Asphodel Fields? The first trial was Cerberus. Will they face another dangerous monster? I don't want my friends to face Medusa or a chimera."
Daniela understood Tsuna's worries. She knew about his friends trial against Cerberus, and they didn't pass it unharmed. She could tell Tsuna was going to freak out when he saw the states of his Guardians of the Storm and Rain.
"Asphodel Fields is not as dangerous as Tartarus. It's the home of the tormented souls that never found peace in their hearts," Daniela explained to Tsuna. "Asphodel Fields is also the home of the harpies, whom I believe they will face in their next trial."
"Harpies?" Tsuna questioned in wonder. If he was not mistaken, harpies were half human and half bird. He didn't know very much about harpies, only that the ones that Kujaku Mai from the Yu-Gi-Oh manga used in her deck.
"Wait!" Luce exclaimed, horrified. " Aren't harpies known to be very horny and kidnap men to their nest, forcing them to have sex with them?"
Tsuna's eyes widened in alarm.
"HIIEEE! WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
XXX
Gokudera blinked confusedly as he looked around. Yamamoto asked what was wrong, only for Gokudera to answer that he thought he'd just heard Tsuna's voice. Reborn told him that he must be imagining things, thanks to the loss of his arm.
As soon as they arrived at Asphodel yesterday, they'd gotten themselves lost because the fields were so misty. Even with the help of their box animals, it was too difficult to find their way to Elysian.
"I wonder what Charon meant when he warned us to be careful of what's above us," Enma mused, still confused by Charon's words.
"Could it be birds?" Yamamoto suggested.
"Who knows?" Gokudera said. "There are many flying creatures in Greek mythology. Charon didn't give us any more hints on what to expect."
"I just hope it's not as troublesome as Cerberus was," Reborn commented.
He then fell silent when he remembered what Gokudera and Yamamoto had told them after Cerberus had allowed them to pass. From the boys' explanation, Tsuna used to know Cerberus when he was a child. He now recalled how Iemitsu used to show his son's drawings to everyone in CEDEF and shout about how creative his son was. He remembers one of the pictures was a three-headed dog. Was it a connection to Cerberus?
Suddenly they heard a strange noise.
"What was that?" Chrome squeaked as she looked around.
"I dunno,"Gokudera gritted his teeth. "Damned mist! I can't see anything around here!"
The group was alert as they focused their hearing. They could hear wings flapping, making them wonder what kind of creature they were facing. Suddenly, Yamamoto yelped as he felt big talons catch his arms and lift him into the air.
"Yamamoto!" Everyone cried out.
Then, Gokudera felt talons grabbing his shoulder as he too was lifted in the air. The same goes to Reborn and Enma.
"Everyone!" Chrome shouted as she tried to follow whatever had captured her friends.
Enma tried to set himself free from the talons, but the creature was too strong. He activated his Earth flames and used his gravity abilities to take them down. Unfortunately, they fell to the ground too fast.
"Ouch… I need to control my flames better," Enma muttered in pain before he felt something very soft. He blinked confused as he looked down.
Under him was a girl with tanned skin, yellow eyes, and long purple hair tied in a ponytail. The only odd really odd thing was that she had wings and talons.
"You know, we can make love here and now." She gave a very seductive smile to Enma as she winked.
Enma's face went as red as his hair while he got off of her, a little freaked out. He pointed his finger at the bird-girl.
"Wh-wha-what ha…WHO ARE YOU... BETTER YET, WHAT ARE YOU?"
"I am a harpy, silly." The girl winked. "My name Liza. And you," she put her arms around Enma's neck, looking at him with hungry eyes. "You're my mate."
Enma blushed as he slowly removed her winged arms from around him and stepped back. He wanted to get away from the crazy harpy.
"Er… Liza… that's your name, right? Well, you see… hahaha," Enma was totally embarrassed "I'm a human and you're a harpy. We're totally different races. It wouldn't work out."
"It doesn't need to work out, sweety. I just want have sex with you," she stated as she smiled at him.
"Er… Excuse me?" What was this crazy harpy talking about?
"You see, sweety, harpies are only females. For us to have children, we must mate with male humans," the harpy explained to Enma, who became horrified. "Since most of the souls here have a depression problem, it's very rare for us find the right guy to fulfill our needs. And," she looked at Enma with hungry eyes, "I love your red hair. I bet our daughter will be pretty with red hair."
'Ok, that's it! I'm getting out of here now!' thought Enma in a panic.
Before Enma could even begin to run, a lasso caught him. He looked around in panic as the harpy dragging him towards her. The harpy smiled.
"Don't worry, sweety, I'll be good to you. Ku fu fu fu."
"No! Someone help me!" Enma cried out.
Suddenly, the harpy hissed as she looked around her. Enma was confused; what happened to the harpy? It was almost like she felt the presence of a predator (he knew this kind of reaction thanks to a documentary about birds he watched). Then, a black hooded figure came out from the mist.
"Who the heck are you?" the harpy hissed at the new person.
"I came because I was lured by a familiar presence," the hooded figure paused as he looked at the harpy and Enma. "But I know neither of the faces here."
"Who the hell are you?" the harpy hissed once more. "You can't be a tormented soul! Not with that killing intent covering your aura!"
The harpy rushed to attack the hooded figure with her talons, but, to her shock, she was pushed back by an invisible force as her claws were cut.
"What the… What the heck did you just do?" She shouted furiously as she summoned a sword and started to attack the stranger.
But, to her shock and increasing frustration, her blade was stopped by something invisible every time she attacked.
Enma was surprised as well. What the heck was going on?
Chrome finally arrived on the scene. She quickly untied Enma as she watched the harpy attack the mysterious person.
"I admit, you have more strength than most of the harpies I've faced. I imagine you must have trained a lot to reach such strength–to take more men, I suppose," the black hooded figure remarked, his deep and emotionless voice sending chills down Chrome and Enma's spines. "But all of that means nothing before my power."
Then, a strange force attacked the harpy. It attacked her several times with a monstrous speed that not even her eagle eyes could follow. The harpy bled form the many cuts her body suffered as she collapsed to the ground.
Chrome and Enma didn't see anything. How could that cloaked figure defeated a harpy so easily? They started as the mysterious figure removed his hood to reveal his face. It was a white man, around his early twenties, that had a dark blue hair and cerulean eyes. He looked coldly at Chrome and Enma.
"You're from the surface, aren't you?"
XXX
Reborn groaned as he started to wake up. He wondered what happened. The last thing he remembered was being lifted in the air by some giant, bird-like creature. He froze when he noticed his hands were different. His eyes widened in amazement as he realized that his Arcobaleno form was gone. He had his original form back!
"What the…"
Then, he noticed that he was trapped inside of a small cage hanging from a roof. And not just him; he saw Gokudera and Yamamoto also trapped in cages, and unconscious as well. He also noticed that Leon was gone.
"Reborn? Is that you?"
Reborn looked to his right and gasped in shock. He never thought he would see him again, especially in a place like this.
"Enrico?"
To be continued.
Well, that was chapter 6. What do you think about it? I bet none of you saw Tsuna meeting Quinto and Ottavo Vongola at Elysian! And you must be asking who's Enrico? To the ones who've forgotten, Enrico is one of Timoteo's deceased sons. He was the most qualified person and the leading candidate to inherit the title of Vongola Decimo before he was killed in a gunfight. Since Amano-sensei simply forgot about Timoteo's sons, I decided to add one of them and maybe add how he really did die . Don't forget to leave your review. Your reviews make me work harder for the story.
I wanna thanks to Alternative Angel for beta-editing the chapter. You rule girl!
