The next day, Chi found herself trying to calm an achy stomach.
Their teacher, Nezu-sensei was walking around passing back their science tests. It's normal for students to be worried about their test scores, but this is different.
There's a reason why the students call Tsuna, 'No-good' and Chi, 'useless'.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi," announced Nezu-sensei, stopping next to Tsuna's desk, "Let's suppose that there is a student who consistently scores in the 20s and pulls the class average down…"
"E-excuse me?" Tsuna asked quietly.
He adjusted his glasses before continuing, "As one with an elite academic background, I would conjecture that this student is nothing more than a burden to a society that puts a great emphasis on education."
"Is there any reason for such trash to exist?" he asked snidely. The other students began laughing.
"I saw it!"
"Ha! A 26!"
"Guess he's still a loser!"
Chi, who was sitting behind Tsuna, saw the boy sink into his seat. She gulped sliently when their teacher came up to her desk.
"Mifune Chi."
She flinched.
"Let's suppose that there is a student who once scored in the 80s then quickly fell to the low 50s…" he said, "I would say that this rapid decline in grades would be the result of this student spending too much time around those of low intelligence and should reconsider her taste in friends…"
Feeling a rush of adrenaline and anger, Chi immediately stood up, a thin ring of ice blue appearing in her irises and slammed her hands on top of her desk.
"I will not stop being friends with Tsuna just because my grades are low!" she shouted, her throat beginning to feel raw.
"Chi…" she heard Tsuna murmur quietly.
Feeling all eyes upon her, Chi felt her body go cold along with the familiar urge to break down in tears and vomit then and there. She didn't regret saying what she said, never would she feel that way. But in that moment, she couldn't help but sit back down in her seat and wrap her arms around her waist, bend over her desk, and let her hair hide her face as the ring in her eyes slowly disappeared.
Still feeling the numerous gazes from the class, Chi's shoulders began to shake and tears had begun to overflow.
"Hey she's crying!" a student exclaimed crudely. Many of the students had broke out in mocking snickers and sneers.
"Hahaha! Did you see? She got a 48!"
"Serves her right!"
"Guess being a bookworm doesn't always mean you're smart!"
"She's such a freak!"
"What a weirdo!"
Tsuna clenched his hand into a fist, wanting to get up and drag both him and his best friend out of the room, but then amidst the jeers, the classroom door slammed open. Tsuna and Chi turned their heads to look and saw Gokudera standing in the hallway.
"Gokudera-kun…?" Tsuna murmured, Chi wiped her eyes with a tissue hidden in her skirt pocket.
"Hey!" Nezu-sensei shouted, "You're tardy!"
Gokudera glared back, "What?" he growled.
"Urk!" he flinched, "…J-just sit down…"
The students began to murmur to each other while the silver-haired teen walked towards Tsuna's desk.
"Whoa, he scared Nezu-sensei…"
"Didn't you hear? Gokudera beat up those third-years yesterday all by himself!"
"Good morning Boss!" Gokudera yelled.
'Eh!?' Tsuna and Chi thought.
The murmuring became louder.
"What the…?"
"Are they friends?"
"No way, No-good Tsuna probably just latched onto the new guy."
"Man, what a scaredy-cat…"
Tsuna began to protest, "N-no, i-it-it's not like that!"
Nezu-sensei then sighed, pushing his glasses, ""Let us again suppose, that there is a student who's always tardy and this student is without a doubt, friends with a student with terrible test scores and a student who fell out of her teachers' good graces…"
'The librarian and nurse still like me…' thought Chi, sniffling.
"…Why?" their teacher continued, "Because, as they say, birds of a feather flock together, of course."
"Tch!" Gokudera scoffed, "Listen up old man," he grabbed Nezu-sensei by the collar with his still bandaged arm, and picked him up, "No one gets away with insulting Sawada Tsunayoshi, the tenth boss of the Vongola!"
Tsuna clutched at his hair, while behind him, Chi was beginning to feel left out.
'No problem, I didn't have any pride to defend, nope,' she thought.
"I-I said, 'S-suppose'! It was only a thought exercise!" shouted their teacher nervously. Gokudera looked back in Tsuna's direction, grinning.
"Hey Boss! You want me to finish this guy off?"
Chi could tell Tsuna was groaning loudly in his head. She rubbed his shoulder to help calm him down.
The three were quickly taken to the principal's office where Nezu-sensei was ranting and raving.
"P-Principal! I demand that these three be expelled immediately!" he shouted.
"Nezu-sensei, please calm down," the principal said.
"I will not calm down until these-these criminals get what they deserve!" Nezu-sensei's face was turning a darker red.
"Now, now," the principal said, "I think you're being a bit hasty here…"
"So you want to give them a second chance?" Nezu-sensei smirked, "Then why don't we have them dig up the time capsule from 15 years ago?"
"Eh? The time capsule?"
"Yes," he said, "As I recall, we hired a company to dig it up, if we just have these three find it, if they can't, then we can expel them immediately."
"Hm," the principal replied hesitantly, "…I don't see why not…"
The three were then released and were now walking down the hall. Chi's mind was filled with a whirlwind of worries.
'Bullying, I can handle that. Beatings, I can handle that. Hospital visits because of said beatings, I can handle that too. But, expulsion?' Chi bit her lip, 'Mom is worried enough about my social anxiety and how dad's doing, I can't give her another thing to worry over…'
She pressed her arms against her stomach and pushed down the urge to throw up.
Next to her, Tsuna was voicing his thoughts.
"I can't believe this," Tsuna moaned, "I don't want to be expelled! I won't be able to see Kyoko-chan anymore!"
"Tsuna," said Chi, "If you don't want to be expelled, then all we have to do is look for the 15-year-old time capsule, right?"
"Yeah, I guess," Tsuna relented, "But with our luck, I doubt we'll be able to find it…"
"Giving up so easily just because of a time capsule? Guess you're still a loser," said a familiar voice.
"Hm? Who said that?" Chi looked around for the source.
"Reborn…?" Tsuna whipped his head around and both their gazes landed on the emergency fire cabinet in the hallway. A small latch opened and they were able to see inside.
"EH?" They shouted.
"Y-you shrank!" Tsuna yelled, "What happened to you?"
A tongue shot out of the tiny Reborn and hit Tsuna in the eye.
"GYAAAAH!"
"Ah! Tsuna, are you okay?"
"Seems you've met Leon," The tiny Reborn clone changed into a small chameleon and jumped onto the brim of Reborn's fedora, who had opened the larger compartment of the cabinet, "He's a shape-shifting chameleon, he also keeps a low profile, so I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't notice him earlier."
"I noticed him!" Tsuna argued.
"A-A shape-shifting chameleon…huh," Chi looked at the small lizard who stared back with his big reptile-like eyes, "Um…h-hello, Leon-san…"
He blinked, his large yellow eyes meeting Chi's, and stuck his tongue out, licking her cheek.
"Eeeeeep!" she fell back in surprise.
"Oh, looks like you have an admirer," teased Reborn.
"Hey Boss."
"That voice…" Tsuna said hesitantly.
"In here," It was Gokudera, who was pushing himself out of the same cabinet.
"Wh-what were you doing in there!" Tsuna shouted.
The green-eyed bomber moved aside to reveal a rather comfy-looking miniature room, "Reborn-san was teaching me all the basics of assassination!" he replied cheerfully.
"Wasn't it uncomfortable in there?" Chi asked.
"BOSS!" Gokudera bowed, his head repeatedly hitting the floor, "I'm terribly sorry! I should have known how much you didn't want to get expelled!"
'Ignored again,' thought Chi.
"We must find that time capsule!" Gokudera continued, "And I have an idea, just leave it to me!"
Tsuna and Chi gave each other a nervous look.
"We'll just blow up the school ground with these!" he whipped out a large bundle of dynamite and dropped it in Tsuna's hands, "I'll meet you outside Boss!" And he left.
"Wait! Th-this is a really bad idea!" Tsuna shouted.
Chi took half of the sticks out of his hand, "I don't know Tsuna, as crazy as it sounds, it might work…"
"Don't tell me you're taking his side!" cried Tsuna.
Chi was quick to reply, "I-I'm just saying that maybe…we'll be able to find the capsule faster this way, you and I both know that neither of us have the upper body strength to use a shovel…"
Before he could speak, the two heard faint voices coming from the teacher's lounge a few doors down.
"That was cruel of you Nezu-san," a teacher said, sounding amused, "Making those students find a capsule we never buried."
"Don't blame me!" Nezu-sensei laughed, "It's the principal's fault that he couldn't remember that fifteen years ago we didn't bury one!"
"Those students will be expelled no matter how hard they try!" Nezu-sensei laughed again, "Though I'll probably reconsider…if they split the grounds in half in desperation."
"That's not fair!" Tsuna shouted.
BOOM!
"Huh?" The two ran towards the window to see what was going on, but their vision was obstructed by clouds of smoke.
"He-he's actually doing it!" Tsuna cried.
"I hope he's not getting hurt…he didn't seem very happy when I bandaged him the other day," Chi murmured.
"Aaaaagh!" Tsuna fell to his knees, "This is it, we'll get kicked out for sure!"
Chi kneeled down to try and comfort him, but then felt a weight on her head and heard the click of a gun.
"Gokudera doesn't think so," he said, pointing a green pistol at Tsuna's forehead, "There must be a way to avoid expulsion, don't you think?" And he pressed the trigger.
"RAAAAAGH! REBORN!" Tsuna shouted, "DIG UP THE CAMPUS WITH MY DYING WILL!" Then he ran off, dragging Chi along.
Again, unknown to Chi, her eyes had begun to glow an icy blue. Reborn took note and kept in mind to make a call later.
'Don't get sick, don't get sick, don't get sick,' she chanted in her head.
He ran all the way to the courtyard and literally dropped her. He slid along the ground as Leon jumped on his arm and transformed into a pair of rods bent in the shape of an 'L'.
"There you are Boss!" Gokudera shouted amongst the explosions.
"If there's a weak spot in the ground, I'll find it!" Tsuna screamed.
"Re-cough-Reborn-san," Chi choked on the smoke, "What did Leon-san just-cough- do?"
"He can transform into anything he's familiar with," Reborn explained, "as long as it's roughly his size though."
The rods in Tsuna's hands were quivering, "I FOUND IT!" He brought his arm up, attempting to punch into the ground. Chi heard a few clicks from Reborn who was still sitting on top of her head. He shot four bullets into Tsuna's body, three along his arm, one in his spine.
"EH?" Chi flinched, "B-Being shot in the spine, w-won't that…"
"It'll be fine," Reborn reassured her, "Don't worry."
"I'll help too, Boss!" Gokudera shouted, throwing more dynamite throughout the area.
"Aren't you going to use those, Mifune?" Reborn nodded his head towards the bombs currently resting in the girl's lap.
"Ah…" Chi began to sweat, "I-I don't know what to light them up with…"
"Just throw them, it'll be fine." So she tossed the bundle, at the same time, Gokudera had just thrown another handful, and when they all set off, the ground had begun to shake. Chi looked up and saw some of the students look outside and start shouting.
"Tsuna!" she shouted, waving away the dust that was kicked up in the explosion, "Gokudera-san! Where are you!"
Chi could hear Tsuna call out before Nezu-sensei had rushed out of the building.
"Gokudera! Sawada! Mifune!" he shouted, "You delinquents will pay!"
The three turned around and saw Nezu-sensei run out of the building. Gokudera stalked up to him, holding a handful of papers in one hand and an old capsule in the other. He held them up to the teacher who gawked.
"Wh-what is thi-?" he was cut off.
"The time capsule from fifteen years ago didn't turn up," Gokudera explained, "but the one from forty years ago did!" he held a dark look on his face, "An elite academic, huh? Then how come your low test scores are from a crappy school like ours?"
All Nezu-sensei could do was stumble over his words.
Nezu-sensei was fired and was ordered to clean out his desk by the end of the day.
The three were back in the principal's office. He apologized and let them off.
They left the office and headed back to class while Tsuna and Chi both let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew!" Tsuna breathed, "We didn't get expelled!"
"Now my mom won't have to worry…" sighed Chi.
"Come on, Boss, were you really that worried?" Gokudera asked, "I would've given my life to make sure nothing bad would happen to you."
"G-Gokudera-kun…" Tsuna stared.
"Good job, Tsuna," Reborn congratulated, standing on Chi's shoulder, "You've found a trustworthy soldier."
"Huh?" he flushed a bit in anger, "I don't need soldiers, Reborn! If this 'mafia' stuff gets any bigger, Kyoko-chan will stay further away!"
Chi rubbed his shoulder, "I'm sure it'll be fine Tsuna."
Tsuna groaned lowly in response.
"Oh yeah!" Gokudera dug into his pockets and took out some folded papers, "The tests here are pretty easy, huh?" The tests he held out all had hundreds.
"Y-you're kidding…" Tsuna stuttered, staring at the glaring red numbers. Chi laughed weakly before feeling the day's events catch up to her causing her to get dizzy and quickly black out.
A while later after the last bell of the day rang, Chi had woken up in the nurse's office.
'Ah, let's see…' Chi thought, 'It's after school…Tsuna could be by the classroom or maybe in the library…'
She got up and collected her things. After thanking the nurse, Chi left the office and was on her way to the library. Turning into an empty hallway, Chi felt a sharp, cold shiver run down her spine. Chi's breathing had become heavy and every breath was difficult to take in and painful to let out.
'Not today, not today, please not today…!' she prayed mentally. She tried moving her legs, but they stubbornly stayed in place.
"Thought we'd find you here, Freak."
She heard footsteps come up from behind her. She judged from the footsteps that there were about three people.
"We've noticed how friendly you've been getting with Gokudera-kun," one girl hissed.
Another girl grabbed Chi's shoulder and threw her against the wall. Chi's head banged on it as she slid to the floor, her body still not moving the way she wanted it to.
"Don't think that you'll get away with it so easily, Freak."
Chi felt her breaths becoming harder and harder to take in.
'Please, please, just leave me alone…' she begged, her voice refusing to leave her throat.
Chi chanced a peek and saw a fist flying towards her. Everything else had become a blur of kicks and scratches and the next thing she knew she was thrown into a broom closet, her head feeling curiously lighter.
Dazed yellow eyes widened. Chi tried pushing herself up and saw the girls closing the door. She was shaking. She knew this room. This particular closet didn't have a working light. It wasn't very used either and only locked from the outside. So when the door closed, something inside her…
…snapped.
