Disclaimer: KHR belongs to Amano Akira. Mahiro, the Hisagi family, Papa's Tasty Fritters, and Anotsu Takatori belong to sky of c-o-l-o-r-s
A/N: Chapter 9 is out! Whoo-hoo! I really ought to work on my homework instead of doing this. :(
Has been BETA-ed
Quick References
Momokyokai yakuza: Anotsu Takatori (Boss/ Aniki; has some hate against Masahiro(?) and knows Mahiro(?)), Tatsuo Ishinori (Guy who got his fingers broken by Mahiro in Ch. 6), Honda Isao (Creepy fat dude who is a lolicon), everyone else mentioned with names are not important. Most likely they will die. LOL. :D OH, But there's another SOC (Supporting original character- I made this up, okay?). Remember how I mentioned that Anotsu had a right hand man? Well, here he is!
Chapter 9
Tsuna stared with wide eyes as Hibari demolished the group of Yakuza in the vicinity. Scattered all around were broken and beaten bodies, some of them trying to escape from the fury of the prefect.
During the commotion, Tsuna and the others had been able to break free from the bonds, luckily by not by lighting it on fire. A large Yakuza had gone after Hibari with a switch blade, and when Hibari had smacked it out of his hand, it had conveniently skidded to where Tsuna and them. Gokudera, seizing this chance, had cut them out of the bonds swiftly.
The warehouse was silent now, save for the moans and groans of Hibari's victims... And an exasperated sigh.
"Incompetence is a sin, I daresay."
All eyes were on the speaker. It was another Yakuza. He was dressed just like all the others, wearing a black suit and white buttoned down collared shirt under. Unlike them however, he did not sport any visible tattoos. His dark hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail, and black rimmed glasses framed his equally dark eyes. His gaze drew from Tsuna to Hibari, and then to someone from behind him, an amused smile on his face.
"Ne, Anotsu I'll be taking care of the tonfa wielding one," he informed.
"Go ahead." From behind him, stepped Anotsu Taketori. He tapped out a cigarette from a box, stuck it between thin, sneering lips and started to rummage in his trench coat for a lighter. "I should have had you deal with this instead." He grumbled.
The herbivore male with glasses chuckled good naturedly. "Well, we are going through a recession, Aniki. It's no wonder that good workers are hard to find."
Hibari regarded the man with clear disdain. Whipping his tonfas around his body, the fifteen year old boy settled into a loose defensive stance. "I don't know who you are," Hibari said softly. "But know that if you get in my way I will bite you to death."
The man paused, smiling genially, he said, "My name is Park Yoo Joon."
Hibari sneered. "Like I care."
The air became charged with his aggression while he waited for the man to respond. Park Yoo Joon stared at the boy from over his glasses. "You've got some nice tonfas there, I daresay." Park Yoo Joon said, lazily cracking his knuckles. "Do you have some kind of Karate background?"
Hibari scowled, his grip tightened imperceptibly on the handles of his tonfas. When the man slipped into his own stance, Hibari's instincts started to tingle. Hibari had never taken any self-defense lessons. He had never bothered to, seeing how he'd spent most of his childhood and life battling opponents weaker than him. What he lacked in training, he made up for with his lightning speed reflexes and ruthlessness. He was a carnivore surrounded by herbivores, a big fish in a small pond-
"Pay attention boy." Hibari's eyes flew wide open. He narrowly parried the hammer fist to his face. A foot slammed viper quick against his abdomen, flickering up into the underside of his jaw. Hibari would have had bitten through his tongue if he hadn't brought up his tonfa in time to help dissipate the force of the blow. The boy was rocked back onto his heels, his tonfas brought protectively over his front.
"You..!" Hibari growled, ignoring the frightened exclamations from the herbivores behind him. "Those were Tae Kwon Do moves just now."
The man with the glasses smiled happily. "That's right, got a problem?" He shifted his weight and lifted his front foot out. "Normally about now I'd just snap your neck with the next kick, but despite Aniki's reservations about your violent ways, I think you'll make a useful addition to our group, I daresay."
Hibari sneered, brandishing his tonfas at his sides. "Why would someone like me want to join an herbivore's herd?"
Hibari saw the kick coming this time, and blocked appropriately. It still nearly forced him down to his knees. Hibari growled, bringing up his other tonfa to slam into the heavy leg pinning his shoulder down. But it was already gone, and his tonfa met the descending fist aimed for the back of his vulnerable neck. Hibari saw the Korean man smirk, "You know," the man said, skipping back on his heels. "That move would have had been more effective if you were using those tonfas correctly I daresay."
"It seems to me," Mahiro said politely, "that you don't quite know how to handle your own weapon."
The shutters came down over Hibari's face. He became the emotionless, ruthless tyrant again. "I am going to kill you." Hibari said softly, and then he rushed forward. He began the overwhelming flurry of attacks that had won so many of his past battles before, jabbing and slashing the blunt head of his tonfas against the guard of the sun glassed man.
But Park Yoo Joon merely laughed, using his superior reach and physical strength, to keep the murderous boy at arm's length.
"Why are you using them like that?" The man chuckled, easily parrying them with his hands. "Why are you only going for the midsection when you've got my whole body to work with? Those tonfa aren't just an extension of your knuckles you know, this ain't boxing, I daresay."
"Shut." Hibari sprang up in the air, his foot ripping through the air. His foot connected with a sickening smack alongside the man's skull. "Up." Hibari allowed himself a fierce grin as the man tottered onto his side. That was about the same time Hibari noticed the hard hand wrapped around his ankle, pinning his foot against the man's face.
Behind those glasses, Hibari saw it. A terrifying formless hunger.
Hibari was slammed down hard into the ground as the man fell onto his knees. A fist like an anvil punched him in the face. Hibari tasted blood and got his tonfas up, protecting his head. But the force of the man's one fist, slamming over and over against his tonfas threatened to break past his guard.
"Hibari-san!" Tsuna cried from the sidelines. This was bad! This was real bad! Hibari was getting overwhelmed, and he was the strongest fighter they had! "We need to do something." Tsuna told Gokudera.
Gokudera nodded decisively, already reaching into his shirt for his trusty dynamite. "Shit, they took my dynamite Juudaime!"
Yamamoto lifted up a foot long pipe. A carefree smile floated on his face while he lifted it over his head. "It's alright, I'll just do this" and the baseball player whipped it across the air towards Park Yoo Joon's head.
Tsuna saw the Korean man look up from where he was pummeling Hibari's guard with both hands. And for a split second, Tsuna felt hope that it was going to connect with his skull. A gunshot ripped the air, and the metal pipe scattered uselessly to the Korean man's side. "Ah!?' Tsuna exclaimed, his arm tensing in its sling. "What happened!?"
No, disregarding that. Now was Tsuna's chance to get that Park Yoo Joon guy off of Hibari! Tsuna was halfway across the distance, inwardly wondering why his Kansai Voice was screaming bloody murder at him.
That was about the same time Tsuna heard an ominously familiar metallic click. Tsuna looked up, to see that a scarred Yakuza had his gun trained on him. Less than ten feet separated them, and Tsuna knew that there was only a slight chance that he might miss.
U R so stpid I'm usng text spe4 undrstnd Ts2na. Kansai-Voice hissed. Of crse one of these goons had a gun! They're Yakuza! They traffic weapons for a living!
Screaming at me will not change the situation... Tsuna thought grimly while feeling his bladder threaten to burst. The Yakuza stared him down, his eyes cold and unfeeling. He held the gun comfortably in his one hand; the other was currently holding a lighter to a fresh cigarette. He cheeks hollowed as he inhaled the smoke. He seemed all too used to holding a gun for Tsuna's comfort. "You aren't the brightest bulb in the light box are you?" He finally said huskily.
Mahiro advanced across the distance she'd put between them. "You are so fucking stupid Tsuna." She said softly.
Tsuna's eyebrows dropped into a frown. "I-I don't have to be smart t-t-t-to save m-m-m-my f-f-friend-d-d." Tsuna chattered uncontrollably, his skin crawling with fear.
The scary Yakuza smiled. Tsuna bit back his 'hiiie' and also concentrated on keeping his pee inside him. It was a perfectly nice, polite smile that wouldn't look out of place on his school's principle's face. But, the Yakuza's face hadthat creepy scar.
"Oh ho, but those are some pretty words from a wet-behind-the-ear brat like you." He said with a sharp gleam in his eyes.
There was a scuffle and then a low grunt before Park Yoo Joon came stumbling into Tsuna's view. "He's not my friend." Tsuna saw a flash of black out the corner of his eye.
Tsuna jerked, but kept his eyes on the gun. "Hi-Hibari-san!" Tsuna couldn't help feeling a little hurt. Sure, Hibari liked to beat him up every chance he got, but Tsuna had hoped that it was more than just that…
Kansai Voice coughed a little in the back of Tsuna's head. You're sounding a little gay there, my man.
OH SHUT UP!
"Let's finish this, you herbivore." Hibari growled to the unfazed Korean yakuza.
"Are you sure boy? I might break you, I daresay."
"Hibari-san, no! You're already badly hurt!" Tsuna protested, the side of his mouth drooping a little into a grimace because Kansai Voice was singing the Japanese version of Queen's Don't Stop Me Now.
Hibari did not even spare him a glance. "Shut up herbivore."
Tsuna's right eyelid twitched. I hope you choke on your own blood, you fucking orally fixated bastard. Tsuna thought darkly.
Oh, yeah! Go pussy-me! Kansai Voice hesitated and then he crooned, I wanna make a supersonic man out of you~
"Shut. Up." Tsuna growled, smacking himself on the head.
"What'd you say herbivore?" Hibari hissed, shooting him a venomous glare. Tsuna nearly bit his tongue in half trying to stammer out an apology while the Kansai Voice groaned in his head.
Oh for Christ's sake Tsuna. You're a boss, stop stammerin' like a girl who's just had her skirt flipped up in front of her idol.
"I said, shut. Up." To his horror, his mouth opened of its accord and the Kansai voice drawled out. "If you weren't my friend before, I'm makin' you one of mine now Hibari Kyoya."
Mahiro felt her back hairs raise. "Huh," she said to herself. "I feel like something interesting has just happened to Tsuna, but I don't know what."
Dino sweat dropped. "You think he's getting raped?" Dino asked with horror.
"No," Mahiro ground her teeth thoughtfully, wishing for some chocolate right now. "Not rape..."
Dino hammered on the separating glass screen. "Hurry and step on it Romario!"
Hibari Kyoya had never been so... damn it he needed a thesaurus. Perturbed? Confused? Enraged? Yes, that was it; he was enraged with the herbivore's audacity.
"Herbivore," Hibari wiped away the twin trails of blood streaming from his nostrils. "After I take care of that herbivore, I will personally see to it that I bite you to death."
"That's if you can, ne?" The herbivore's face twitched into an unseemly grin.
"Good god, you two aren't going to start sucking each other's cocks are you?" The yakuza scum with a gun pointed at the herbivore drawled. Hibari growled, feeling his arms throbbing, his sides aching, but the realization that there were soon to be more herbivores to bite to death made him feel better.
"You shut up too." Hibari glared at him. Hibari ignored the sniggering coming over from the herbivore's side. W-was that herbivore singing?
Anotsu just took a long inhale of his cigarette, and blew it in Hibari's direction. "Why don't you come over here and make me kid?" He chuckled.
Park Yoo Joon waved lazily. "That would be unfair, I daresay. In fact, I thought that this tonfa poser was to be my opponent."
Anotsu scratched the bridge of his nose exasperatedly. Really, but Park Yoo Joon could be a real pain whenever he felt that someone was disrespecting martial arts. The Korean gangster had been a rising mixed martial artist until fate had fucked him over, and he'd been set onto the path of the Yakuza where he quickly proved himself as a smart and capable subordinate.
The only problems that Yoo Joon ever caused was when he came across some karate-kid wannabes, kungfu masters wannabes, any sort of free styling pseudo tough guys like Hibari Kyoya. That was when Park Yoo Joon showed his intolerant side, and crushed them out of existence.
Personally, Anotsu felt as if this path suited that violent warmonger a whole lot better than those tame exhibition bouts beneath bright lights.
"Fine, fine." Anotsu returned his attention back to the would-be successor of Mafia royalty. The boy still had that strangely rash expression on his face, his girlish looks alight with a feral grin. But he seemed to notice a change in Anotsu's regard, because he sobered completely beneath Anotsu's attention. Anotsu watched him carefully, "Go ahead and kill him." Anotsu added just to see what the brat would do.
"Don't die~ Hibari-san." Tsuna/Kansai Voice sang annoyingly.
Oh my god! You've taken over my body! Give it back! Give it BACK!
Hibari scowled. "Don't tell me what to do herbivore." Muscles in his neck popped and cracked while he rolled his head on his neck. Hibari began to bounce on the balls of his feet, keeping his tonfas tucked in nice and tight along his sides.
"Juudaime! You're so awesome!" Gokudera cheered from the sidelines.
"All right Tsuna!" Yamamoto laughed. "Maa, this mafia game sure is interesting huh?"
"Yeaaahh!" Gokudera shouted, punching the air.
"Ahahaha!" Yamamoto guffawed.
Anotsu's scar twitched. "You know what? Change of plans."
Park Yoo Joon recognized the signal and round house kicked Hibari into the the wall. Anotsu strode forward and grabbed Tsuna by the hair and threw him into his friend's arms. "Ow! What the fuck?" Tsuna/Kansai howled. Gokudera reached for the dynamite that weren't there anymore, and Yamamoto continued to 'ahaha'. That is, before the twenty yakuza emerged from the shadows with guns pointed straight at them.
Kansai voice said, Oh shit, and suddenly Tsuna was in control again. "Hiiieee!"
Hibari kicked him. "Shut. Up. Herbivore."
"Th-they've got guns pointed at us!" Tsuna shrieked. Look at what you've done, stupid! Tsuna shrieked inwardly while cowering. We're going to get gunned down in some seedy abandoned warehouse because you couldn't keep your mouth shut!
Oh please, Kansai Voice said unsteadily, this ain't my entire fault. You started this the moment you decided to just go along with that crazy hit man baby's plan. You wanted to be a Mafia boss? Well gettin' gunned down in a seedy warehouse in the prime of your life is a textbook Mafia death.
Tsunapaled as he noticed brave, brave Gokudera moving in front of him. Yamamoto was not far behind, his easy going smile strained around the edges. No! This wasn't supposed to happen! All I wanted were friends. Tsunathought wildly.
He grabbed onto Gokudera and Yamamoto's sleeves, choking back a frightened sob when they shook him off and shoved him firmly behind them. Tsuna fell back, his hand clenching tight at his side. That's all I ever wanted, Tsuna felt his tears burning twin trails down his pale cheeks. I didn't care how crazy it got with Reborn and his training. As long as I have my friends, I...!
Tsuna moved forward again, and a tonfa narrowly missed breaking his nose. "Stupid herbivore," Hibari shoved him back, his shoulder slammed painfully into Tsuna's. "You're useless without that baby and his bullets, so just stay back and maybe you'll survive this."
The effeminate, brown haired boy shook his head frantically, snot beginning to drip down onto his upper lip. "No. I can't be the only one to survive this! Y-you guys! You're all kids too! Why are you protecting me?"
Tsuna's girlish face had never looked less masculine, while he choked back his sobs, and tugged at his friend's sleeves like a child. And despite facing certain death, the Vongola sky guardians still had time to feel exasperated with their hapless leader.
Gokudera gave him an impatient look, "Juudaime? Does that mean anything to you? You're going to be the tenth successor of the Vongola family and we," He eyed Hibari suspiciously. "We're your loyal subordinates! We're supposed to protect you!"
Yamamoto chimed in with a laugh. "Yeah Tsuna, besides, we're your friends. Friends should protect each other, don't you think?"
Everyone turned their attention to the stone faced Hibari. Hibari wiped away the blood still trickling down the corner of his split lip. "You herbivores don't seriously expect me to make a speech do you?" He spat irritably. Damn it, how had a simple day of biting herbivores to death turned into this?
Tsuna was sobbing openly now. "I-I'm so sorry guys. I'm so sorry." His hands fisted in his agony. Once again, he'd failed his friends. He'd failed them from the beginning, since he'd allowed them to be drawn into this, this,
Clusterfuck? Kansai Voice supplied helpfully. Furbar situation? Mr. ShittyshitMcShitShit's pool?
You made that last one up, Tsuna chuckled tearfully.
Not true, Kansai Voice argued. Mahiro used it to describe one fight with the neighborhood street toughs remember?
I remember how just like these guys she refused to leave me behind. Tsuna rubbed his tears away with the back of his hand. He remembered how proud he'd been. He'd been six years old with less than three months of Mahiro's scrappy street fighting tactics under his belt, and his confidence in himself was higher than it had ever been. So Tsuna had decided that it was time he took on his own tormentors. One at a time of course, but then Tsuna had forgotten the fundamental reason why bullies stay on top for so long.
They don't play fair.
In the playground where they'd all humiliated Tsuna at one time or another, twenty of Tsuna's most hardcore tormentors gathered. They were carrying baseball bats and cameras to immortalize his final subjugation; Tsuna didn't know what would of had happened if Mahiro hadn't secretly tagged along that day.
"Tsuna. As long as you just keep your eyes on my back, everything'll be okay. I hope that soon though, you'll be able to stand by me instead of behind me. We're friends right? So we should always face things head on together, side by side instead of one of us cowering behind the other."
Mahiro looked over her shoulder, hand reaching out towards him, grin on her face.
Tsuna closed his eyes, the panicked fear on his face disappearing. Yeah, you're right Mahiro, friends don't cower behind each other. I'm... Sorry too. He slipped his arm out of its sling, balled his fists, and stepped out from behind the wall his friends made with their bodies. His arm was still healing; Tsuna could barely keep it in a fist without pain shooting up his left arm. But this pain was still nothing to how Mahiro had looked at him in the parking lot. He never wanted her to look at him like that ever again.
"Scared Tsuna?" A chubby boy laughed while tugging Tsuna out from behind him.
Yeah, I'm scared. Tsuna stepped forward, and then stepped again. He moved slowly, so that Yamamoto and the others wouldn't notice him right away. Distancing himself from his friends because now was his time to use his own strength. But that just means my brain is working right.
The health of your brain is highly debatable. Kansai Voice muttered.
Shut. Up.
"Hey you!" Tsuna called nervously. He locked eyes with the scarred yakuza behind the group of burly, scary looking men. "You! Where's your boss!? I want to challenge him! If I win, he lets my men go free!"
Shit, what are you doing? Kansai voice squawked. WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING!?
"Juudaime! What are you doing!?" Gokudera hissed, trying to snag Tsuna's shirt and drag him back behind them.
"Tsuna!" Yamamoto snapped, for once his easy smile was gone. His face which had been dubbed one of the best looking in Nami-Middle was streaked with sweat and fear. "Tsuna, stop!"
Hibari barreled out from the corner, a ferocious sneer twisting his face. "Herbivore, get back in line before I bite you to death!"
The trio of determined boys converged on Tsuna, dragging him back into their fold. Tsuna fought free, his light brown eyes, always dreamy or frightened, for once alit with a flame that did not spark from a bullet. "Let me go! Hey Anotsu! That's your name right?" Tsuna shouted at the top of his lungs, struggling wildly. "Anotsu! This is between your boss and me! Keep my men outta this!"
Anotsu, the scarred man looked amused. He crossed his arms, and ordered his gun men to stand down. "Brat," Anotsu chuckled, breathing out a solid stream of smoke. "You must be out of your mind to challenge me."
Tsuna registered this new information before the fire flared in him again. This time, he forced himself not to shout. He shrugged free of Hibari, Gokudera, and Yamamoto. He had eyes only for the man who held his friends' fate in his hands. Tsuna swallowed his shrieking nerves, steadied his hands into fist, and gritted his teeth. The fourteen year old Mafia boss might not look much like one, but at least he was no longer screeching like a girl.
I've got to stay cool, Tsuna told himself with an inward flinch. I can't show weakness. I've got to think. I can't just do as I always do and react.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, I am Tsunayoshi Sawada." Tsuna said pleasantly.
Inside he was trembling. Inside the weak little boy that a woman named Nana Sawada, and a man named Iemitsu had raised, yet ignored, something was unfurling. Something sharp and hot and lethal. It was the last remnant of the courageous six year old who'd stepped out from behind Mahiro's shadow and fought beside her so long ago.
A new voice bloomed inside of his head, and it said, these are my friends, my men, this title is my birthright. Tsuna raised his chin, determination lining his young girlish features. I'm not going to run away anymore.
"Now then, about my men..." Tsuna adjusted his tie with his one good hand. His large brown eyes light with suppressed emotion. "I'm sure we can come to an agreement don't you think?"
Tsuna tried for a smile. Anotsu, the Aniki of the Momokyokai sneered right back at him with that cigarette in his mouth.
Five blocks away from where Tsuna and company were being menaced with guns, the car carrying Dino and Mahiro broke down. Dino sat very, very still while the fourteen year old girl kicked the door open with such violence that the hinges popped off. "Ma-Mahiro," Dino stuttered, smiling weakly.
The twenty two year old man couldn't help his instinctive flinch when she turned back to him. "What. The. Hell." She said evenly, "Is going on?"
Dino hammered on the separating screen between the passenger seats and the front seats. "Ro-Romario! What's going on?"
"It seems that one of the spark plugs have burnt out." Romario observed from the driver's seat.
"How the heck can you tell that from there!?" Dino squawked.
"Ah, well... I might of had forgotten to replace it earlier this week." Romario adjusted his glasses guiltily. He smoothed the steering wheel with his gloved hands, "And now I'll have to find a new replacement door as well." He glared at the fuming girl reproachfully.
Mahiro's eyes flashed dangerously, and both men reached instinctively for their weapons. "We. Don't. Have. Time. For. This." She gritted out. Mahiro's calluses stretched tight over her knuckles as she crossed her arms.
Dino tried to retain his cool while avoiding meeting her crazed eyes. "Ah, well. I'm sure that Reborn is there already to keep a lid on everything." He said lamely.
A harsh chuckle escaped from Anotsu, he really had to admire the balls on this kid. He hadn't really thought the kid to have any what with how he was shrieking and cowering earlier. But now, standing calm and tall, and begging him for his men's lives, Anotsu thought that it was a real shame that he had to be born a threat.
It was a real shame he was going to have to kill him.
Though, he didn't see why he shouldn't provide his men with a warm up for the Hisagi girl. His subordinate, Park Yoo Joon caught his attention. He was thinking exactly what Anotsu was thinking, only with a lot more bloodshed.
Well, Anotsu sighed, why not?
"Listen brat," Anotsu flicked the cigarette out the corner of his mouth. It landed wetly on the concrete floor where Anotsu crushed it into a fine smudge. "I really hate your guts."
Tsuna looked blankly at him. Now that there really was something at stake, the boy was no longer acting like a temperamental fool.
Anotsu... approved. There was nothing like imminent death to bring out a person's true potential. Again he thought about what a waste this boy had had for a life. Anotsu probably could make this boy into something great if he had the time or inclination. Which he didn't, big surprise that.
"Not because it's personal or anything," Anotsu continued pulling out another cigarette from his front pocket. "But just because you were born a competitor. If anything, the real person I've got a bone to pick with is your fucking Gaijin ancestor who, for whatever the fuck reason, decided the pussy in his country wasn't fresh enough, and had to come and fuck some pox ridden whore here."
"Ah, well I'm glad that it's not personal." Tsunayoshi said smoothly. He didn't even bat an eyelash that Anotsu had insulted his ancestors. Anotsu hid a smile behind his cigarette. And now for the lulz, he thought to himself.
"So about my men," Tsuna prodded while his heart jumped in his throat like toad on crack.
Anotsu nodded seriously. "Yes, I'll let em' go on one condition."
Tsuna fought to keep the hope from his voice, but he was pretty sure he failed when he choked out, "Name it."
"Would you say that those are your best men?" Anotsu watched the boy. He knew that the boy knew that they weren't. His best 'man' was probably rushing helter skelter across town to save his ass right now.
Tsunayoshi met Anotsu's steely gaze with eyes of twin flames. "They aren't, but they're what I've got right now. And I'll do my duty as their boss to protect all of them to my last breath."
The gray haired boy sobbed silently into his shirt sleeve, his face showing so much love and pride in his boss, it made Anotsu feel almost sorry for what he was about to do.
"Well, if you wish to free your men," Anotsu continued matter-of-factly, "Then you don't need to defeat me, you need to defeat my best men." He made a sharp signal, and three of his toughest, brutal-est, vicious men stepped from the shadows. Including Park Yoo Joon, who readjusted his black rimmed glasses with a polite smile.
Tsuna's brown eyes were like flames, and around his cast and undamaged arm, Anotsu could just see the flickering of sparks. Well, well.
Anotsu waited to see how the brat would answer, all the while thinking about what the boy had betrayed in his lack of discipline. So the rumors about the Vongola's powers were true after all, He mused. And if that's true, then the rumors about that Hit man baby with the special bullets being the only thing capable of triggering his true powers must be true as well.
Anotsu rocked back on his heels, his hand bringing back up his gun. "And another thing Tsunayoshi-kun, I expect that this will be a fair fight with no special baby hit-man bullet interference, or I'll have my men turn yours into Swiss cheese, capisce?"
The brat paled, but he nodded. His men were not nearly as silent. The gray haired boy, obviously the most outspoken of them all, was screeching his disapproval. The dark haired boy, Yamamoto something, was quietly but fervently explaining to Tsunayoshi what a bad idea this all was (he'll definitely lose this part of the Mafia game!), and Hibari Kyoya was silently threatening Tsunayoshi with his tonfas.
Yet one of the most virulent was the quietest of them all. The one hidden in the ceiling. Anotsu watched as the innocuously plain smoke bombs dropped down from the ceiling. Almost immediately the room was shrouded in smoke, but Anotsu had prepared for this eventuality. (Anotsu didn't care how supposedly adept a Hit man Reborn was, a baby hit man was still a baby with undeveloped muscles. He'd probably won most of his fights with subterfuge and guerrilla tactics. Well, it just so happened that the Yakuza excelled in subterfuge and guerrilla tactics).
"Infrared goggles on!" Anotsu shouted, slapping his own on. He picked out the scurrying characters immediately thanks to the boot legged Italian government equipment. Anotsu grinned, bet that burns your britches eh, Gaijin? He thought hotly.
"If you move one more step you little fool, I will have my men open fire." Anotsu said lazily as his men's laser scopes pierced the smoke. The four teenage figures froze, and as for the hit man toddler... Anotsu ripped the sniper rifle out of his men's hands, and trained the red dot a foot down from the outline of a spiky bush of hair. Anotsu was just in time too, he could just feel the kiss of steel against his neck.
Anotsu grinned, if you could call it that. It really was no more than the primal baring of teeth an alpha male uses to warn another off his fucking territory. "I've got you." He said softly, triumphantly.
The gun pressed harder against the back of his neck. "No, I've got you." The squeaky, cold voice said to him. "Let go of Tsuna and his subordinates, or I'll kill you and all your men."
The man laughed, long and hard. "Aa-a, you probably will do that anyway if that useless boy over there survives getting his brains splattered across the wall." Anotsu paused as if to consider the dramatic interplay between the gradients of red and gray wiggly bits. "If he survives that is..."
"Put. The. Gun. Down." The baby growled, Anotsu hadn't thought two year olds were capable of growling. People didn't leave their kids around Yakuza after all, so Anotsu wouldn't know.
"Nope, I don't think I will." His lips curled back farther away from his teeth like a Doberman dog confronted with his favorite chewing toy; human flesh. "In fact, I think I'll just end this headache of a day, and just kill you all, nice and tidy."
"Aw, screw it!" Mahiro shouted. "Just call over one of the other cars and I'll ride with them!"
"We can't do that Mahiro!" Dino protested, "It's too dangerous for you to go it alone!"
Mahiro's fist whipped out faster than Dino's whip, and hooked in the front of his patterned t-shirt. She pulled him down to her level, so close she could smell him. "Look at me, Dino." Mahiro ignored the gun Romario held against her side. She stared deep into those warm chocolaty depths and smiled like whenever she dragged Tsuna into fights that alone, he wouldn't be able to win. "Trust me when I say that I can handle myself."
Man, she really wanted some chocolate. The faster she got this over with, the sooner she could go and restock her chocolates. "I'm going first," she said, not waiting to hear Dino's and Romario's reply. She dashed off, her braids a flurry behind her.
"Come on, Romario. We can't let Mahiro go off alone. We've also got to get to Tsuna and the others!" Dino motioned for his men to follow after him.
"Dino, you can't just go rushing in. We'll send some men after her and the others while we wait for back up." Romario explained. They couldn't have their boss burst into a room filled with enemies. As Dino's right hand man, it was his job to make sure that the area has been secured before Dino arrived.
Dino could be... clumsy at times.
Reborn had never imagined that things would get this hairy so quickly. He'd left Tsuna alone for less than two hours. Two. Hours. What sort of luck did Reborn possess that he'd get ordered to guard someone this incompetent?
"I will kill you." Reborn promised, "And I will do it slowly."
"As you like."
Damn.
Reborn could probably kill the new Momokyokai leader before he pulled the trigger, but... The real problems were his Yakuza subordinates with their own guns trained on Tsuna and his friends. Reborn hadn't found the time to research this man beneath him; he had no idea how much loyalty he inspired in his subordinates.
If Reborn gambled Tsuna's life on this man's death, there was a very real chance that the now leaderless Yakuza would gun down Tsuna and the three boys who would become in time, his elite. He was in a pickle; this sort of situation had never been a problem even when he'd been training Dino. Reborn looked up across the distance, a thoughtful look crossing his face.
Then again, Reborn could always use the Dying Will bullet on Tsuna.
"Wait!" Tsuna cried out.
When the small cylindrical objects fell from the ceiling, Tsuna immediately knew that in typical Reborn fashion either 1) They were saved, and the combined ineptitude of the Momokyokai Yakuza and shrouding smoke would allow them to escape. Or 2) His appearance meant that things were about to get a whole lot worse and the Dying Will Bullet was about to punch into his skull.
"Juudaime! This is our chance!" Gokudera rasped. In the midst of the smoke and confusion, the gray haired boy tugged Tsuna up onto his feet, and along with the other two boys, raced towards where they thought the exit was.
Tsuna's brain continued to churn out possible scenarios, both positive and negative, involving Reborn. This was about the same time Tsuna saw the red dot on Hibari's black jacket.
Laser scopes! Kansai Voice hissed, but Tsuna was already tackling him to the ground. A strange, elusive, calm had him dodging the tonfa end to his face, and hanging on tight when the fifteen year old boy twisted like a snake beneath him. "What the hell are you doing Herbivore!?" Hibari snarled.
"Saving your life, stay. Down." Tsuna grunted when Hibari's fist clipped him on the side of the head. "Oww." He whined.
"Juudaime!" Gokudera exclaimed. His hands hooked underneath Tsuna's arm, half pulling, half dragging his boss off the older boy. "Now is not the time to be disciplining that guy! We've got to get out of here!"
Tsuna winced as he caught another elbow to the head. "Ow. Ow. Ow." He ended up pinned to the back with a tonfa wedged against his throat. "H-Hibari-san..."
The older boy removed the tonfa from Tsuna's throat with a grunt, and then turned back towards Anotsu and Reborn. Hibari had a sour feeling in his gut. The herbivore scum was just too calm, even with a gun pointed to the back of his head. The proud, would-be cloud guardian would never admit it, but he began to get a feeling that he was a little out of depth with this man.
There was something about the look in his eyes, in the way how he held himself. Hibari might profess to bite people to death, but his beatings always stopped short of the death part. This herbivore staring them down from the wrong side of Reborn's gun, was simultaneously promising death to them, while courting his own demise by Reborn's hands.
Hibari felt the herbivore stiffen beside him. Hibari turned, and saw that there was a red dot flitting right between his eyes.
Tsuna gulped, he could see it, sort of. It was a flash of red just out the corner of his eyes. Speaking of being able to see, the smoke was beginning to clear, and through it, Tsuna could see who had him in his sights.
It was Anotsu, the Aniki of the Momokyokai. And right behind him was... Reborn! Who was pointing Leon in his direction now, obviously deciding to use the Dying Will Bullet.
But if he were to do that, Tsuna thought with horror. Anotsu will think I breaking my word, and he'll gun down Yamamoto and them! I can't let him do it!
"WAIT!" Tsuna shouted, waving his hand over his head. "WAIT Reborn!"
Reborn closed his finger on the trigger, but then he paused. He was having doubts about Tsuna and the Dying Will bullet. He'd heard what Anotsu had promised, and Reborn knew them for the blatant lies they were, but Tsuna could not possibly defeat full grown men without the help of the bullet.
And Anotsu knew that as well.
Reborn's finger tightened, and then slacked off. He couldn't do it, Reborn couldn't shoot the bullet. Reborn, as a man of the Vongola, could not in good conscience, risk the future of his family like this. It was one thing to save the life of a boy puppet that'd shown tiny little signs of greatness, and another, to kill the beginnings of a man.
Reborn knew that that would be what the use of the Dying Will bullets accounted to. One day, Tsuna would grow up as a man who depended on outside influences to stoke his flames, instead of igniting them on his own strength. Tsuna, as the core of the Vongola would make them all weak, and all because Reborn had decided to save the boy when he could have had the man he would have become.
But it would be so much simpler to do it, to use the bullet which Reborn had absolute faith in, instead of entrusting everything to a little boy.
Reborn closed his eyes, blotting out everything except for the look he'd seen on Tsuna's face. It had been a look of determination. It was the beginnings of a true leader, of someone who would no longer be content with the scraps of the world; someone, uncontrollable. But then Reborn thought to himself, which would benefit the Vongola family more?
A puppet or a man?
Tsuna's worry and fear was palpable even across the distance. Reborn gazed upon the weak, dirty little boy he'd been sent to guard and tutor. His form was girlish, his features feminine, his temperament weak and reclining. Or at least that had been what Reborn had thought before Mahiro Hisagi had returned, and began to change him, little by little.
The memory of her enraged words stung him,
Mahiro waved towards Reborn. "And you, you're supposed to be teaching Sawada over here how to become a capable Mafia boss. Instead, you're teaching him how to rely on drugs and outside influences! You're about as useless as Sawada is. And I never thought I'd meet someone as useless as him other than his mother."
Leon warmed beneath his hand, and Reborn turned the muzzle back to Anotsu's neck. Reborn, the man, the loyal servant to the Vongola, smiled. He had been somewhat useless recently, hadn't he? He'd been angry because he thought the girl had been trying to usurp his position as Tsuna's mentor, but he himself had not been imparting anything of value to Tsuna anyway.
Reborn nodded to Tsuna, and thought to himself,
I will trust in you, Tsuna. I will trust the person that Mahiro has awakened inside of you.
Anotsu smiled, his scar tugging at the corner of his cheek gruesomely. The baby hit man had made a decision, and it seemed that he had chosen to let the would-be-heir test himself.
How wonderful, the guard dog was throwing his lamb to the wolves.
Anotsu was still holding the sniper rifle trained on Tsuna's forehead. "So, d'you want to give it a try Tsunayoshi-kun?" he said, his eyes meeting briefly with Yoo Joon's, before landing on Tsuna and his little group. "I really do just want to go on ahead and kill you all, but I feel like it would be better to do it when you're all here. We're still missing a person aren't we?"
Tsuna swallowed nervously, but his voice remained clear and steady. "You said, that if I defeated all three of your best men, you'd let my men go right?"
"Right, I said that. But come on, do you seriously think you'll beat them all without the use of your special bullet?" Anotsu smirked at the look on Tsuna's face. "Exactly, it's so impossible that if you actually do do it, I'll let you all go, on my word of honor."
Tsuna nodded determinedly. "I'll do it. But when I win, please leave Namimori."
Anotsu shrugged. "Sure, if you win." He gestured for his men to step forward. "You'll be fighting against One. After him is Two, and then Yoo Joon here."
The Korean man waved.
Tsuna swallowed the lump that formed in his throat. The first two men were enormous and he almost choked when he asked his next question. "One, Two? What's their real names?"
"You don't need to know. They're not important, so One and Two do just fine."
The men known as One and Two, both stood tall and intimidating at six feet four and three hundred pounds of pure muscle. The colorful long sleeved button ups they wore were strained over their barrel chests. They both were missing pinkies.
Must not of had followed directions too well, these guys. Kansai Voice muttered.
Well, Tsuna thought brightly. At least he hadn't ordered them to not kill me.
"Oh, try not kill him," Anotsu added. "I want to make an example out of him."
One grunted while Two rolled his neck muscles. Yoo Joon smiled.
Tsuna wanted to just shrink back and run away. Come on, he was DAME! But he stopped himself. His knees were shaking and his teeth were chattering, but he forced himself to stand strong. As One lumbered towards him, he fought the urge to beg for his life and run. Run, run, run! His fight or flight instincts were kicking in and fleeing seemed to be the prominent instinct.
He forced his hands into fists, trying to calm his breathing. He had to try, no, win against these men. He had to protect his friends because there was no one else to. Mahiro was coming. She was going to come and rescue him like she always did, but this time; he wanted to show her that he wasn't completely useless. Show her that he was not the No Good Tsuna, that everyone called him. That the hopes she had had in him were not false.
"Tuna face, was it?" One grumbled, bloodshot eyes staring him down.
"It's Tsuna. Sawada, Tsuna," Tsuna replied weakly. He put up his fists. "En garde?"
One squinted down at him. "Eh? What'd you call me?"
Tsuna hesitated. "Erm, it means..." He squeaked as the yakuza charged at him.
The fist was like a bear claw, sweeping out of nowhere. Tsuna didn't bother blocking that one. He ducked, and decided to emulate what Hibari did when he fought, go for the body. The fist tangled in the back of his shirt, and Tsuna had a moment of sheer horror before a knee slammed up into his abdomen. Black spots swum in his vision, his knees went watery, vomit was halfway up his throat, and then Tsuna puked. All. Over. The. Front. Of. The. Yakuza.
Well, that's one way to get an opponent off me, Tsuna thought to himself when a fist as big as his face sent him spinning onto the ground.
"Juudaime!" Gokudera screamed, his face going milk white beneath his tan. Yamamoto had to restrain the enraged teen.
"Tsuna!" Yamamoto exclaimed, his handsome face a mask of worried bewilderment. This didn't look fun anymore. Either Tsuna was the best actor ever with a very promising career in live action stunts, or he was getting the stuffing pummeled out of him! But... Tsuna was doing this for them so he and Gokudera couldn't just interfere right? Or was this just part of the role playing game?
Hibari said nothing. His pale, sickly expression said it all. In his role as guardian of Namimori, as the head of the delinquents, and chairman of the disciplinary council, he'd seen blood. But of course he had, you didn't get the title as strongest without breaking a few skin layers, but this... Herbivore was being suicidal! Like a Lemming who jumps off a cliff for no other reason than to see if it could!
"Herbivore!" Hibari's soft voice cut through the jeers and Gokudera's histrionics. The fifteen year old boy jerked his shoulders in acknowledgement. Or at least Hibari assumed it to be acknowledgement and not continuing involuntary dry-heaves. "Say the word, and I'll end your pathetic display."
Tsuna didn't get up fast enough, and so One kicked him again, sending a torrent of foul smelling half-digested puke pooling onto the concrete floor.
"Well, it looks like your student is making one hell of a splash with my man, infant." Anotsu drawled.
Reborn said nothing, he just kept Leon transformed in his hand. His beady black eyes were as cold as shiny river rocks. "When this is over," The 'infant' said, with a man's rage on his face. "I will need a rain slicker to keep your blood off my suit."
"Promises, promises."
Ahhh, those bastards. Bantering so casually over my brutal beat down. Tsuna kept his teeth clenched as punch after punch landed their blow. Pain had become a constant. He was doing his best to duck and weave, but his knees felt like noodles.
Your best isn't good enough. You will always be Dame-Tsuna. Give up.
What the fuck!? That ain't me! Shit, I thought I killed you. Tsuna, you pussy, don't liste...!
His nose gave way with a wet crunch. Tsuna spun on his heel, gagging on a mixture of his blood and drool. He fell onto his hands and knees, his stomach rebelled at the blood, but there was very little left to throw up. A hard foot swung into his side, proving him wrong. He did, in fact, still have enough in his stomach to throw up.
Get off the ground, I just gotta... Tsuna thought to himself amongst the savage cheers and Gokudera's enraged yells. A vicious kick re-broke his already broken arm. Tsuna screamed incoherently. Scrambling on hand and knee's from the assault, Tsuna felt that voice grow stronger.
Give up. Stay down. He'll stop hurting you if you just stay down. You should never of had tried to be brave and save your friends like this. Forget them. They're useless anyway. You're the only one who really matters. You can find new friends. Let them die and run. Run. RUN.
No, Tsuna! Don't listen...! Don't listen to it! Kansai Voice seemed to grow weaker. You listened to it before and look what happened! You became a bitch and errand boy for over seven years!"
It hurts. Tsuna thought. A thin sticky trail of drool dribbled from between his swollen and bloody lips. One grabbed him. Wrapped his thick, callused, fingers into Tsuna's hair, and lifted him up onto his feet. Through swollen eyelids, Tsuna could just make out the look on One's flat face. Disappointment.
Tsuna grabbed weakly at One's hand, but his grip was like iron. It hurts.
"Ah, kid. You're so weak." One grumbled. He shook Tsuna hard, like a terrier with a rat in his maw. Tsuna's hand, the uninjured and functioning one, fell to his side.
You are weak. The frighteningly familiar voice continued to hiss. Be a good boy, and maybe he'll leave you alone. Just play dead, and maybe he'll get bored and go after that annoying Gokudera instead, okay?
Tsuna closed his eyes, and let himself grow limp. Ah, this voice... It sounded like his mo-
Don't listen! Look at your hands Tsuna! LOOK AT YOUR HANDS!
"What about my hands..?" Tsuna slurred through a mouthful of swollen and bleeding gums.
One paused, "What?"
Oh for christ's sake Tsuna! REMEMBER!
Tsuna frowned, remember what?
This!
Tsuna felt a trickle of something hot run down his face. The boys moved further back, "Eww, he's bleeding." Power ranger sneakers said with disgust.
Tsuna swiped his face with his grubby hands and whimpered at the smear of red. And noticed how his hands, even after being used to protect himself, were the cleanest part of him. Tsuna stared down at them as if he'd never truly seen them before, and felt shame. They were the only part of him without bruises because he'd never ever fought back. Not even when bruised and bleeding like now. His hands were pale, limp, and pathetic just like the rest of the person they were attached to. Dame-Tsuna they called him at school. No good, can't even protect himself from getting hurt. Tsuna felt tears make twin tracks down his face.
"What about yer hands, brat? One's broken, and you can't even make a fist with the other." One scoffed, shaking Tsuna again.
A fist?
"Do you still know that you're supposed to keep your thumb outside of your fist?" Mahiro asked.
Of course he did.
Then what are you waiting for? A fucking cookie?
Tsuna didn't need to look at his hand to see that his fingers, slender, skinny and girlish were curling into his palm, and the thumb, most importantly, remained on the outside.
Remember!
"Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Hurting poor Ono-san's boy like that?" Nana scolded, her pretty brown eyes filled with tears and disappointment. She regarded her bruised and bloodied seven year old and shook her head sadly... "He's going to need stitches over his eyebrow! They're even transferring him because they don't want their baby boy in the same school as you! I thought you were a good boy!"
Remember, Tsuna!
There he was, seven years old, his mother squashing the last of his pride in himself. Tsuna sniffed back his tears, large brown eyes emptying of everything. No consciousness to feel shame, no heart to break, no self to abandon. Seven year old Tsuna closed his eyes, shutting out his mother's voice.
He closed his eyes.
Ah, I remember now. Tsuna's eyes flew open here and now, and the flames that smoldered in their brown depths could not be called pretty by any stretch of the imagination. A heavy, sickening heat began to waft from Tsuna's body, and One yelped when his hand in Tsuna's hair began to burn.
He dropped Tsuna, and the boy landed lightly on his feet. Calmly, Tsuna examined the back of his hands, even the one attached to the broken arm. They were smooth. Completely smooth.
No marks to show pride, nothing to feel pain, nothing.
I am not nothing.
Tsuna began to shake.
"What the fuck!?" One yelled. Rage twisted his face into something even uglier than his original face.
"Aa-a, I'm weak." Tsuna said so quietly, no one but himself could of had heard. "But I'll be damned if I'm gonna be the only one bleeding this time."
One lumbered forward, murder in his eyes and evil in his heart. He'd decided in his tiny little brain, that he was going to kill this little firebug twerp. Just, twist, snap, and crack. Bye, bye neck.
And then a tiny little fist slammed so hard into his belly that One doubled over and went to his knees. One turned a purple color. His cheeks bulged. He puked. All over Tsuna's unsteady feet.
Ono finished puking, and then with a deep roar he surged to his feet, yanking up the brown haired boy like a rag doll.
"And~ cut," a voice cut in, crisp and clear, directing the audience's attention to the small figure in front of the warehouse doors that had been flung open during the time that Tsuna was getting punched. Everyone had been so engrossed, even Reborn, that no one had noticed the girl enter the room. Every one of the people in the room had their eyes on the girl who was stupid enough to interfere.
"It's you, you stupid woman!" Gokudera yelled, breaking the silence. "Why the hell did you fucking come here?!"
The girl ignored the angry boy, her dark eyes trained on the man handling her friend. She sauntered slowly and confidently into the Yakuza's den. "Oi," She chuckled, rubbing an eyebrow with a finger. "Drop the boy and tell me one thing. You haven't raped him have you?"
One glared at her, not bothering at all to let go of Tsuna. "The fuck is you? Don't fucking butt in, little girl. Just sit back and watch as I kill this little bitch."
Mahiro paused, her polite smile fading. "Ne, ne. I asked you a question mister, and I'm not in a happy mood. I haven't had any chocolate for at least five hours. I've been running my ass all over town, threatening full grown men who ought to know better than to play street games, and I think that idiot boss of mine is going to dock my pay no matter what he says...! So ANSWER the FUCKING question, FUCKTARD!" She finished with a vicious snarl.
Tsuna blanched, and the merciful boy started to wriggle out of One's viselike hold. He'd seen it. He'd seen her hands shaking from chocolate withdrawal at her sides. Oh, yes, it had been seven years, but you don't forget seeing a ten car pileup. You don't forget an earthquake. And you sure as hell don't forget seeing Mahiro Hisagi coming off a chocolate high.
"I said fuck o-"
Mahiro was a blur as she rushed at the man, her foot landing in his face. One dropped Tsuna at the impact but didn't falter. He cracked his neck, eyes on the girl who was several feet shorter than him.
"You-" He began to sneer belligerently. There was a sound, like two hacky sacks slammed against concrete.
One turned a strange, pale color as Mahiro retracted her foot from his family jewels. She aimed another kick at his head, this time towards the temple. She grabbed a hold of his collar as he fell, her hand reaching into his waistband to pull out his pocket knife.
"Wow, this is a pretty nice blade, I say. I wonder how well it cuts." Mahiro whistled in awe, drawing the blade close to One's face and then to his throat. The cold, hard blade pressed up against his throat, drawing blood.
Suddenly, the guns that had been aimed at Tsuna and the others were now aimed at Mahiro. Again, she whistled. She pushed One back, before kicking him hard in the gut. The action caused a trigger happy yakuza to shoot, the bullet grazing Mahiro's arm. She threw the knife at him, and it landed in his shoulder. He screamed, and Mahiro laughed.
"M-Mahi-" Tsuna said weakly, before he was cut off.
"Hisagi Mahiro. It's been a long time. You sure have grown." Mahiro stopped, and focused on the scarred man with Reborn behind him, Leon pointed at his head.
"Let me guess, you're the idiot behind all this."
Anotsu let a smile grace his features. Here she was, she was the last missing person. Now he had all of those little brats here. He could just kill them all and then there would be no one else to threaten his rule but...
Those eyes and that confident smirk on her face. So much like that woman.
"You could say that." He motioned for the yakuza to set down their weapons. They complied, but hesitantly, wary eyes on the girl before them. "So, how would you like to take your boss's place? You've already beaten up One, so how about taking on Two?"
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Mahiro asked bluntly.
She had a weird sense of deja vu. Guns pointing everywhere, a knife slicing into people, and loud and chilling laughter.
"If you defeat three of my best men, I'll let you all go and leave you alone," Anotsu explained coolly. "I swear on my word."
"If you kill that woman, I'll let you all go free. I won't bother the kid at all. My word."
Anego laughed. "Your word? Who gives a damn about your word? Once I get the job done, you'll come after me. We scum don't have any values to swear by, you should know this well." A feral grin stretched across her pale face, the fluorescent lighting causing her eyes to shine with a wild light. "But that's exactly why we can kill each other so easily."
"Who gives a flying cat-fuck about your word? Once you've had your fun, you'll shoot us all, don't deny it," Mahiro heard herself saying. "I'm not dumb enough to actually think that you'll let us all go." She saw how Tsuna shrank a little. "You planned this little get together to get rid of us, so it would all be for nothing if you let us go in the end, wouldn't it?"
Anotsu laughed and shook his head. "Aha. You're exactly like that woman. So cynical and cautious. I really hate your guts."
"Aa. So I've been told many times. It's nothing new," Mahiro replied.
"How about it, eh? If you defeat Two and Yoo Joon here, I'll let you all go. I swear on this scar that that damn woman gave me." He ran his fingers down the side of his face where the scar was, gingerly thinking about the woman who had given him it and the mocking laughter that had come with it. He hated her so much.
Mahiro mulled it over, everything finally clicking in place. It'd been a while since she'd thought about Anego. That scar on his face, Mahiro faintly remembered Anego inflicting it upon him three years back. "Sure."
"Alright, then. You know, I told your boss that it wasn't anything personal, but for you? It's personal."
"Oh cry me a river." She pointed a finger at Tsuna and his group. "You seriously think I'm like those idiots over there who'd follow a weak ass little shrimp like this one here? No one bosses Hisagi Mahiro around. No one. Except my mom and dad, of course. But other than that, no one. I don't like following orders."
"Again, just like that woman."
"Again. Cry me a fucking river. Hurry up and bring out your best men, Taka-tan," she called out, using the nickname that Anego always called him.
Taka-tan. Anotsu's hard face creased into a humorless smile. "I haven't been called by that name in over three years." He said. "I don't really know how I feel about it coming out of your mouth."
Mahiro shrugged. She was the very picture of a bored teenage girl as she played with her braids. "Look at all the fucks I give." She said innocently.
Anotsu stopped smiling and gestured to Two standing by. "Kill her if you can." He ordered.
It was her turn to smile.
Here she was again, grinding the broken pieces of her promise with her mother into the ground. Heat, like the best brandy wound itself through her veins, making her short of breath and jerky. This was what she lived for. To fight and to be fought. To strike to bleed and to be bled, this was... Tsuna's bloody face flashed over her eyes, and Mahiro's smile disappeared, because this was not about her. It was all about Tsuna, her idiotic, inept, brave best friend.
Mahiro watched the large man approach, saw the violence that permeated each and every sense of him. She noted the breadth and strength in his thick forearms and biceps. A bull like this could snap her waist with no effort at all. The man that Tsuna had driven to his knees was about this size.
Man... She thought while the behemoth approached. Her hands clenched at her sides, and then she slowly relaxed them. She moved into a karate stance as familiar as breath in her lungs, Renoji Dachi*. Mahiro thought, Man... I'm so proud of him.
Reference:
*Renoji Daichi: Feet are at the shoulder width. The foot in the front is fully frontal (toes facing forward), the rear foot is turned 90 degrees out, and is positioned in such a way that if the front foot is brought back, its heel will touch the heel of the rear foot. Thus the foot print is shaped like the character レ (or letter L). The weight is kept 70% on the rear foot. (From Wikipedia)
Here's what it looks like:
www .shitoryu skills/ stances/ images/ renojis. jpg
eng. tekkenpedia wiki/ images/ 3/ 34/ Asuka_Kazama_-_ Alone_-_ Tekken_6. jpg
Just take out the spaces.
A/N: So I went back to watch the anime, right at the beginning of the future arc, and I realized how competent this Tsuna is to the Canon one. I was like WHOA! I have to seriously bring down Tsuna's badassery. He's so much stronger in this fic than he is in the Canon, it's sad. I guess I have to start breaking him down to his former shame. This Tsuna with the Kansai Voice, compared to Canon Tsuna is... OVER 9000!
I apologize for any OOC-ness, I'm sure there were some (a lot), but... eh, nothing else to say. Gokudera really does seem to be the type to cry on Tsuna's shoulder. LOL. I actually liked Gokudera in the beginning when he was rude and mean to Tsuna but after the whole dynamite and subordinate thing, I was just like... URF.
Are you wondering about why there's a Korean guy in the Japanese Yakuza? It's not actually that rare. Most yakuza organizations have Korean-Japanese people in it since they fit the whole outsider thing. Yakuzas are the outsiders of the Japanese society.
I really like Kim bap. It's like sushi, but with LAMBO! I meant, BEEF! :D
Thanks:I know I don't do this at all, but I'm just really happy how I've hit 41 reviews! REALLY! It's an amazing achievement for me, so thank you xxOMGgalxx, Sharkdude5, Soul Vrazy, Discoabc, and Akira45 for your reviews! They mean a lot to me, especially long ones where you tell me what exactly you liked about the chapter. It really inspires me to work hard on the next chapter! Thank you very much!
Please review and tell me what you thought about this chapter! Should I level down Tsuna and Kansai Voice?
