O. M. G How the hell did three months pass already? OTL I can't say sorry enough for the lateness, but I really HAVE been busy recently. Five tests in one week and endless homework. There is ALWAYS something due just around the corner. OTL If this is start of senior years, I don't want to see next year…Anyways, again, I'm very sorry for the lateness, so here it is…please enjoy…
Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
Chapter 8
After the lunch with Giotto, the rest of the day went by quite uneventfully. Tsuna spent most of that time doing paperwork together with his brother in his office. He quickly learned that being a mafia boss wasn't like in the movies where all the boss did was drink, smoke, go to meetings for shady trades at bars, play poker and so on. In fact, 80% of the job seemed to be paperwork, the other twenty was meeting, dealing with guardians and other matters. In conclusion, it wasn't much different from what Tsuna went through every day in Namimori, just on a larger, much more hectic, scale. But that didn't mean he was any closer to liking the title mafia boss though.
On another note, Tsuna was fortunate enough to have not meet Xanxus or anyone else from Varia ever since the rounding-the-corner incident. He couldn't be happier about that, one could only take so many near-death experiences in one day without being traumatized after all. But much to his dismay, Giotto had confirmed that the Varia was still somewhere in the mansion, deciding to stay for the night for god knows why.
It was even worse when the Varia also decided to join everyone else for dinner. Needless to say, that didn't end very well. The only bright side was that both Hibari and Alaude went back to their rooms the moment they heard the decision. It started with a very awkward dinner in an extremely tense atmosphere. Then Belphegor said something to Squalo that made him snap, Fran added fuel to the fire and everything went downhill from there. It happened like dominoes falling, starting from Squalo, then G, Gokudera, Mukuro (hit by a potato thrown by Squalo that was aimed at G), Levi and finally, Xanxus. From that dinner, Tsuna witnessed first-hand as to why Giotto had so many damage bills on his plate. The brunet wisely excused himself and dragged his friends out of there the moment his right-hand man pulled out dynamites.
Leaving the chaos in the dining room, the group decided to hang out in Tsuna's room and maybe talk about the day since it was only 8 at night. Opening the door and turning on the lights, Tsuna almost shrieked when he saw two figures already in the room. It turned out to be Hibari leaning against a wall and Reborn sitting comfortably on his bed. "Chaos, Dame-Tsuna." The hitman greeted casually while Hibari remained in silence.
"Reborn, stop going into my room as you like, same to you, Hibari-san," the brunet complained with a sigh, constantly being startled was not fun. "And Reborn, I haven't seen you all day, where were you?"
"You sound like a jealous lover, missed me that much, Dame-Tsuna?"
"What? No way! Stop teasing me!" On the contrary, Tsuna would love it if his sadistic ex-tutor took a day off once in a while and cut him some slacks. "Are you going to give me a real answer or not?"
"I told you on the jet, I have some business to take care of for you lot. I went to see Talbot for your new weapons," Reborn paused and removed the red cloth beside him on the bed that Tsuna hadn't noticed before, revealing five large ores with different colors similar to Dying Will Flames. "These are what are left of the ores the Vongola rings were made from. If you lot have enough resolve, they'll invoke into the weapons that are suitable for you."
Tsuna was about to reach out for the orange ore, but stopped when he remembered something. "Hang on, why are you giving us something so important when I haven't said anything about joining the mafia for real?"
Reborn pulled his fedora downwards a bit while rolling his eyes, tempted to shoot his ex-student for still being in denial. Well, they still had plenty of time anyway. "We still don't know how long we're staying here for, so it's best to be equipped like everyone else. Not to mention you're staying with the Vongola, one of the most powerful Family around. They might have a lot of allies, but also a lot of enemies. You'll never know when you have to defend yourself." The hitman smirked when Hibari had already grabbed the purple ore while he was talking.
Tsuna glared at his ex-tutor for a bit more before resigning and picking up the orange one, the other three males did the same, taking the ores with their respective flame colors.
A moment of intense silence followed after that. It seemed like an eternity had passed when the ores finally reacted almost simultaneously. Lights of various colors shone brilliantly, almost blindingly, in the room. A few seconds later, that lights dimmed and gradually faded away, revealing the five males looking a bit confused at the new objects in their possession.
On Tsuna's middle finger now was a strange ring with a chain connecting to another ring. Gokudera had a belt, Yamamoto a necklace, Hibari a bracelet and Mukuro earrings. All of the equipment bore an X with the words 'Vongola Famiglia'.
"R-Reborn, what happened?" Tsuna asked and looked up from examining the ring. "I-I thought you said you were giving us weapons."
Reborn shrugged, flicking his fedora upwards, there was a smirk of satisfaction on his lips at the fact that they did have the resolve to invoke the gears. "Talbot mentioned something about them taking the forms that will suit you the most, those are Vongola Gears that double as your Box Weapons as well as power up your weapons when you're in offensive mode. But don't use it now, I wouldn't put it past any of you to destroy this room," the hitman stepped away from the bed and began walking towards the door. "Well, my job's done here, goodnight. And your training with the guardians start tomorrow."
Confusion was still evident on Tsuna's face at that. "Huh? What training?" But Reborn was already gone, the door closing behind him almost soundlessly. The brunet glared at the door, cursing the older male and his vague explanations. He was wondering what to do next when he heard Gokudera snickering before laughing aloud. Tsuna turned around to face his right-hand man (who was still laughing while pointing at Mukuro) with a raised eyebrow.
"Those...earrings really do…suit you the most!" Gokudera managed to say to Mukuro between laughs. "They're even more girly than the baseball idiot's necklace and Hibari's bracelet! " Of course, the belt buckle shaped as a leopard suited Gokudera's taste perfectly fine.
Needless to say, Mukuro was not happy with the comment (and he was not going to admit he actually didn't mind the earrings) and neither was Hibari at the insult. And so, Tsuna couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu as he saw the fight broke out in his room. He was stuck with trying to stop the three from killing each other and ultimately destroy the room in the process. "G-guys! I-if you're gonna fight, at least do it outside!"
One epic fight, two broken windows, three smashed flower pots, four cracks in the wall and ten minutes later, Tsuna managed to get all of the four to stop making a scene and leave him to clean up in peace.
The rest of that night was thankfully monotonous and soon, breakfast rolled around. Said breakfast was held in the garden outside under the excuse that it was a very nice day, too nice to be spent eating indoors. The main reason was, of course, that the main dining room was under reconstruction and Giotto wasn't going to let the spare rooms suffer the same fate.
Sitting at the seat to the right of Giotto, G gave each member of the Varia at the other side of the table a death glare that clearly translated to 'why the hell are you still here'. Predictably, Xanxus, sitting in his own throne-like chair with Levi fanning at the back, ignored him completely while waiting for the steak he'd ordered Squalo to get.
The entire meal was just as awkward as last night's despite Yamamoto, Knuckle, Lussuria and any other happy-go-lucky person's attempt to brighten up the mood. Some of the said attempts even served to make certain people become even more irritated. Most people ate their breakfast while being on edge and constantly looking both ways for any sign of flying foods. The Varia was the first to finish and left together to god knows where.
As soon as they had set their knives and forks down, Tsuna and his friends were told by Reborn to head back to their rooms and change to something more appropriate for training. Tsuna still wasn't sure what type of "training" his ex-tutor meant, but it definitely was going to be Spartan. Ten minutes or so later, Tsuna was standing outside of his room wearing a plain white t-shirt with blue track pants and orange sport shoes, hoping that these would be suitable. He would've liked to go to this training with his friends, but Reborn had directed them to different areas. Yes, he gave them full instructions on how to get there, but still won't say what the trainings were about. With a sigh, Tsuna started making his way towards the so-called training room.
Said training room was not an easy place to find. He'd had to walk to the far back of the mansion where another small building was located, and the building turned out to only have a staircase leading down to an elevator. The elevator then went down underground pass twelve levels before finally stopping with a 'ding' at the appointed training room. And when Tsuna had arrived at last, he definitely wasn't expecting being about to be burnt alive by a huge blast of Dying Will Flames.
He instinctively shrieked and dropped to the ground, praying to the gods that the blast would miss…seconds passed after he'd shut his eyes and he still didn't feel any pain or anything else whatsoever. But there was impact, he could hear it. Was death supposed be painless? Curiosity getting the better of him, Tsuna gingerly looked up while still crouching on the floor to take a peek with one eye. And then he gaped. The bright blast of flame had disappeared and he couldn't see anything ahead as a black cloak and its owner was covering his vision.
"You okay?" Giotto asked calmly while flicking his coat back and holding out a hand to help the brunet up, there was concern and a bit of guilt in his voice.
Tsuna could only nod and took the hand blankly, letting himself be pulled up to standing position while still in a daze. Of course he was surprised that his brother had saved him, but that wasn't the most shocking. The first thing to have amazed him was Giotto's change of appearance. A brilliant Dying Will Flame with Sky attribute burned brightly on the blonde's forehead and the two gloved hands were also covered in the same flame. Giotto's eyes were orange, almost the same shade as the core of the flames, and they were just as mesmerizing and beautiful as the usual sky blue ones.
"Tsunayoshi?" Giotto called again with growing concern when his brother still hadn't said anything.
Tsuna jumped and quickly snapped out of his stupor, blushing a bit when he realized he'd been caught staring at the blonde. "I-I'm okay…um…w-what's happening in here?"
"Xanxus." It was a very short answer, but it explained pretty much everything.
A gunshot was heard right on cue. Giotto took a big step to the side and pulled Tsuna with him, another blast destroyed the spot they'd been standing on a split second later, leaving behind a large crater with smoke still rising. The Decimo turned to glare at Xanxus, who returned the gesture with twice the ferocity.
Xanxus, who had clearly ran out of patience, barely acknowledged Tsuna's presence and pointed both guns at the two, already channeling his flame into them. Knowing that Tsuna was obviously in danger as long as they were standing together, Giotto propelled himself off the ground using the flames on his gloves and started flying around the room at very high speed, Tsuna could barely follow his movements. Xanxus continued shooting at Giotto creating even more craters in the walls.
"Took you long enough, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn said from the side, startling the brunet. "Xanxus decided to drop by and they started fighting while waiting for you." He explained when Tsuna was just about to voice the question.
"How long had they been fighting for?"
"Not long after you left the table."
"Oh…" That explained the damage to the room and Tsuna understood why the training rooms were located quite a distance from the mansion and was underground. "Shouldn't we stop them?" Tsuna asked and yelped as yet another of Xanxus's shots narrowly missed his head.
"Why? You want to be Giotto's replacement? If so, be my guest."
"What?! No!" Tsuna shuddered at the thought of being at the other end of those guns' barrels, he wouldn't last even a minute.
"Then shut up and watch, maybe you'll learn something."
Since he didn't have any other option, none that wouldn't end with him ending up dead or in the emergency room anyway, Tsuna retreated to the side with Reborn to wait until Giotto and Xanxus end the fight by themselves. Sometime later, Tsuna was left awestruck as he watched the Decimo's maneuvers, which were much more graceful than Xanxus's. The well-aimed kicks and punches and the way the blonde managed to predict the opponent's attacks and evade them at the right moments were just amazing. And Tsuna couldn't help but wonder how Giotto can move so effortlessly while still dressed in the entire business suit, cloak included. Though the cloak did prove to be useful as Giotto was actually occasionally using it to shield himself from Xanxus's shots.
Beside Tsuna, Reborn was also observing the fight, with a smirk hidden underneath his fedora. It's been years since he'd last seen Giotto in action, and there was obviously a vast improvement. The blonde could now keep up with Xanxus easily, and it was clear that he was actually holding back somewhat. There had been plenty of chances for him to use other powerful techniques, but Giotto had chosen to use only close-range combat since this was only a spar and he didn't have a reason to seriously go all-out against Xanxus, though the latter was certainly still out for his blood. Seeing how far his ex-student had come, Reborn couldn't help but feel a sense of pride. All that was left was Tsuna and…his other useless ex-student. Right, almost forgot about that guy. The hitman made a silent note to ask Giotto about how Dino was doing. Now, back to the matter at hand…
Reborn looked down to his watch to check the time. The two had been fighting for a good hour and a half. It seemed like a good time to interrupt, and the room didn't look like it was going to last much longer. Reaching up to the top of his fedora, Reborn let Leon crawled into his palm and transformed into his gun. Strong Sun flame was shot at Giotto and Xanxus, who both separated to different ends of the room to evade the attack, letting it create another crater in the wall. The room shook dangerously in protest, threatening to crumble down at any moment.
"What do you want?"Xanxus growled, turning towards Reborn, obviously not happy with the interruption.
"Just thought that's enough for the day, we're already behind schedule. And if you shoot one more time, there's a good chance we'll all be buried alive." Reborn explained calmly, unfazed by the glare aimed at him and the entire situation.
Xanxus didn't seem convinced, or seemed to care about the threat, but eventually clicked his tongue in annoyance and returned the guns to their holsters with a scowl. "This isn't over, trash." He muttered to Giotto before stomping towards the entrance of the room.
Tsuna flinched and took a big step out of the way when a dark glare was directed as him as the man walked pass. He had a feeling that the look meant he was also going to be involved in the next fight, whenever that might be. Shaking off the depressing feeling that was developing, Tsuna turned his attention to Giotto worriedly. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," Giotto answered and noticed Tsuna eyeing a few burns, bruises and some charred spots on the expensive suit. He smiled gently as the Dying Will Flames died down, the fiery orange eyes returning to sky blue. "These are nothing, really. I've been through worse with Xanxus." As for the minor injuries, he could get Knuckle to heal them.
Tsuna turned to look around the practically destroyed room in disbelief. This is nothing?! The Decimo followed his gaze and sighed. "G's going to kill me, if the paperwork doesn't do the job first anyway."
"Considering that he's paired up with Gokudera, he's not going to be in any position to complain." Reborn commented, walking casually towards the two.
"And why is that?"
"They use Storm flames. They're both hotheads. Gokudera has dynamites. Need any more reasons?"
"No, that's plenty." And so he had more paperwork, joy.
"Now, as I just said before, we have a schedule to get back to."
"We had a schedule?" Tsuna joined in. "Oh right, the training…" He paled instantly at the realization. Reborn wasn't seriously going to make him fight Xanxus…right?
Giotto chuckled at the look of pure horror on his brother's face, already correctly guessing what the other was thinking of. "Don't worry, we're not asking you to do the impossible, that would just be suicidal. You'll be training with me," a simple training session with his brother without a Spartan tutor and his insane methods or a scary mafioso out for his blood, that idea couldn't be more reassuring and Tsuna felt relief washed over him. "Let's move to another room first, just to be safe."
A short walk through some corridors led the three to an unoccupied training room that was about the same size as the other one and was still spotlessly clean. After examining the room, Tsuna turned to Giotto and Reborn, wondering what would come next. The blonde understood the look and began speaking, "Well, I guess first I have to explain a few things. I'm sure you would've noticed before when I was fighting Xanxus that there was Dying Will Flame on my forehead and my eyes were orange. That is the Hyper Dying Will Mode, something that is unique to those with Vongola blood, same with Hyper Intuition. Now, usually we would start with Dying Will Mode first before Hyper, but in case you haven't realized, Reborn had been training you physically for the past few years to be strong enough to handle Hyper Mode so we'll give it a shot. We'll go slow, but I'm sure you'll figure things out very quickly since you also have Hyper Intuition and the best way to learn these things is through experience."
By this time, Tsuna was still quite unsure of what to do, but decided to go with the flow, he could ask questions later. And then, something occurred to him. "Wait, what about this?" He pointed to the Vongola Gear on his finger.
"Is that the Vongola Gear Reborn was talking about? Interesting form. But for now, we'll focus on getting you used to the Hyper Mode and the basics, we'll get to Box Weapons later. By the way, what sort of weapon do you use?"
"These," Before Tsuna could answer, Reborn interrupted as if he had been waiting for them to get to that topic and threw something over to Tsuna. The brunet raised an eyebrow when he saw that what he'd caught was a pair of white mittens with the number '27' on it. He frowned and looked towards the hitman. "No, it is not a joke, Dame-Tsuna. They're made by Leon specifically for you and can withstand Dying Will Flame, just wear them."
The younger male just sighed, muttered a 'fine' under his breath and put on the mittens despite how weird it felt to do so. After what he'd learned about the mafia, mittens made by a shape-shifting chameleon that were useful in battle really weren't that surprising. "Then, how exactly do I get into Hyper Mode?"
"Ah, you should be able to just do it naturally after some time, but for now, I guess you will need Dying Will Pills. But, unfortunately, we don't have any here at the moment so…" Blue eyes turned to Reborn and Tsuna followed the gaze, suddenly having a feeling that something bad was going to happen.
"I'm going to enjoy this." Reborn said smugly, tilting his fedora back with the barrel of his gun, a gun that was already loaded with its safety off. Then, the gun was aimed at the brunet and a shot was heard.
Tsuna barely had the time to register the fact that Reborn had actually pulled the trigger and shot him when the bullet hit him square on the forehead. He fell backwards from the shock, but was caught by Giotto before he could land on the hard ground and possibly gain a concussion. Strangely enough, he expected to feel some pain before death, but nothing came. Instead, a few seconds later, Tsuna felt an odd sense of calmness enveloped him and actually regained consciousness. Muttering a 'thanks' to his brother, the brunet pushed himself back onto his feet.
It was then that he noticed the material around his hands didn't feel like soft wool anymore. Instead, Tsuna realized that the mittens were now red gloves that were much sturdier and had the same design on the back as the Vongola Ring Ver Vongola Gear. Remembering what Giotto said about the changes in appearance when he was in Hyper Mode, Tsuna reached up to his forehead out of curiosity. Sure enough, the gloved hand was enveloped in Dying Will Flame while he didn't feel any heat at all. Instead of freaking out like he normally would, the brunet calmly examined the flame and gloves once more before looking at Reborn and Giotto in question.
"Congratulations, you managed to get into Hyper Mode. That was a type of Dying Will bullet, by the way," Reborn said smugly, blowing smoke from the gun barrel, ignoring the glare sent by his student. "And it looks like the gloves are working perfectly, you should be able to fight with them just fine. Well, I've done my part." The hitman shrugged and walked to stand on the sideline, signaling Giotto to take over.
The blonde nodded and moved to stand in front of Tsuna, giving his brother an encouraging smile. Even though he knew Reborn wasn't using a real bullet, he was still relieved that Tsuna wasn't hurt and that there wasn't any problem. After all, being shot with a Dying Will bullet without any regret can lead to death. Looking at Tsuna in Hyper Mode, Giotto must admit, he looked good. The honey-colored eyes were now narrower and in a shade of brilliant orange. There was an air of confidence and strength around him, making Tsuna seemed like a completely different person. It was hard to choose which version was more preferable, the normal Tsuna or this, but Giotto pushed that thought to the back of his head before he got carried away – this was a training session.
"Okay, let's not waste anymore time. Fortunately, you also use gloves like me, that'll make things much easier. For now, I'll teach you how to control those gloves and your flames. Once you've got the basics down, we'll practice sparring."
Tsuna nodded silently, waiting patiently for the next instruction or explanation.
Sometime later, after hours spent in the training room, Tsuna was walking back to his room. Once in a while, he would flinch and grimace a bit and looked down to all the bruises on his arms; no doubt there were plenty on his legs and torso as well. He was completely exhausted, using Dying Will Flame was much more tiring than he'd expected, and crashing into walls multiple times while flying at high speed didn't help either. But on the bright side, according to Giotto, he was improving and learning very quickly, Hyper Intuition probably played a big part in that.
At the thought of his brother, Tsuna couldn't help but smile. Despite him being in a whole lot of pain right now, the training was actually somewhat fun and he wouldn't mind doing it again. Giotto was very helpful, encouraging and a great teacher overall. If only Reborn was like him…the brunet shuddered at the thought, rejecting it immediately, Reborn acting like that was just plain scary.
As he passed by a window, Tsuna spotted Yamamoto in the garden below with Giotto's Rain Guardian, Asari Ugetsu. Judging by the swords on the ground beside them, the two seemed to be taking a break. The brunet wasn't the least bit surprised to see Yamamoto chatting animatedly and laughing with Asari, it was only natural for people like them to get along so easily. Just as Tsuna wondered how his other friends were doing while reaching for the doorknob to his room, there was a small explosion in the library's direction. The brunet sighed and entered his room, he had a strong feeling that had something to do with Gokudera, it always did.
After a very refreshing and much-needed shower, Tsuna managed a quick nap before his friends came to his room for a visit again. They were all covered in some sort of injuries, such as bruises, small cuts here and there, etc. Hibari had by far the most injuries, but he looked perfectly satisfied, no doubt from being able to have a good fight. They began discussing on the training session, eager to find out what each other had done.
Apparently, Gokudera and G had worked together and invented a very complicated and useful system of Box Weapons, but it was not complete yet so the silveret didn't reveal much else. Yamamoto had help from Asari to improve his sword skills and already had some ideas for some new techniques. Daemon and Mukuro worked on making even more powerful illusions, the latter had offered to demonstrate, which Tsuna humbly rejected. Lastly, Hibari and Alaude just sparred the entire time. The fight would've gone on still until the victor was determined, but Giotto and Reborn had stopped them because it was getting too late and of course, the damage they were causing.
A few minutes later, Knuckle stopped by the room and offered to heal them, which was greatly appreciated. Tsuna watched in awe as the injuries healed at an amazing speed, everyone had completely recovered in a matter of minutes. He made a note to have the Sun Guardian or Reborn teach Ryohei how to do that, it would definitely be a useful skill to have, especially in their profession. After that, they all went to dinner together. Surprisingly, it was very peaceful, probably because almost everyone needed a good meal after the entire day of training. The Varia had left as spontaneously as when they had decided to visit, much to many people's relief and joy. When the pleasantly uneventful dinner was over, everyone went their own ways, either returning to their rooms, offices or just remained in the dining room to chat.
...
Later that same night, in a private study room, a man was leaning against the fireplace of the room as he read some papers that were in hand. The room was dimly lit with the fire as the only light source. After a few more minutes of reading with seemingly little interest, the man threw the papers into the fireplace. "So they're already here, how troublesome," he said calmly aloud, more to himself than to the subordinates standing silently by the doors. "To think the Arcobaleno Reborn would help bringing them over here, what a traitor to the mafia. Whatever, none of them will get in my way." The man concluded and walked out of the room, disappearing into one of the numerous unlit hallways while the papers containing information on Sawada Tsunayoshi and company continued to burn to ashes, leaving no proof that they were even there.
A/N: And that is chapter 8! It's a little longer than the last chapters...I think. XD I hope it was okay...
Review Replies: (I should just start using PM's to reply quicker...)
PrideViola: Thanks for reading! Yes, meeting Xanxus and spilling hot drinks on him is a death sentence. XD
Final Syai Lunar Generation: Aww, thanks! You should definitely read the first chapter, it's not too long and basically about the case they're working on. :) Hahaha, Tsuna is always adorable and Giotto and Hibari are hot~ XD The plot just developed a bit in this chapter! Yay! XD
Animebaka14: Thanks for reading! Yes, I'm still alive, barely, but still. XD
BrokenBlackCat: Thank you for reading! Yep, we all know Hibari has a secret soft side. XD ...*coughs* Hahaha, I do tend to write 1827... XD
WaiiKitsune: Thanks for the review and reading! Hibari can be sweet when he wants to~ XD And now you know where Reborn went. :D Tsuna is always oblivious, but I love him for it. XD Hahaha, all of my friends on here would know I'm already cracky. XD
Miraki-chan: Why does people keep saying they love and hate me at the same time?! Haha, it's okay. XD Aww, thanks for the awesome comments! Wow, don't stay up late too often! This is incredibly late, but it is chapter 8, thank you for reading, I hope you're still following. :) And yes, 1827 is totally canon!
Polar Pig: Thanks for the review! Yeah, I'm not very good at summaries...I hope I can put in a lot of action and stuff into the story...*cough* random 1827 scenes. XD Favoritism...XD
Charm13insomnia: Thanks for reading, I'm glad you're liking the story! We'll see, we'll see...XD I prefer long chapters than short ones as well. I always try to make the chapters around 4 to 5k, but sometimes it ends up about 3.5 OTL
Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing, it always makes me so happy to read the reviews. :) Again, I'm really sorry for how late this is... I'll try my best this time to update faster, but hard to say when midyear exams are two weeks or so away...crap. On another note, a belated happy birthday to Hibari! If anyone is interested, I did post a birthday fic on May 5, though it is angst and stuff...
That's it, thanks for reading and see you guys next time!
