IX


"So, what'll it be? Do you want to take the position?" two men were talking at an office.

"Hmm… since I'm one of the potential heirs, sure"

"Good, I'm counting on you"

"What about her?"

"We've got something in mind for her. You already planned something right?"

Suddenly, a butler came inside and informed, "The preparations are completed. We now wait for your order"

"It seems you have" the golden haired man smirked eerily.

"Do as you want. Kill as many people as you want" the silver haired man ordered.

"Yes, my lord"

"It's time to turn the tide" the golden one spoke menacingly.

"Good morning, Enma"

"Good morning, Tsuna-kun. How's your vacation?"

"Well… there's an unexpected event, but we had fun"

As the young Vongola tenth and Shimon tenth were hanging out together, the teacher, Giotto had arrived. They underwent their school day peacefully and Tsuna also relieved that Reborn wasn't there with him. At the end of the school, Tsuna decided to do his homework before went home and Enma accompanied him.

"Ne, where's Gokudera-kun?" Enma asked while doing his homework. "I don't know. He didn't meet me in my house"

As they done with their homework, they finally could go home, but when Tsuna still reached for his shoes at his locker, Enma saw a person who was leaning on the school gate as if it was waiting for someone. "Tsuna-kun"

"What is it?" Tsuna finished with his shoes. "Isn't that Yuki?"

As he saw the person, he ran towards her. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "I've been with you since you left the house"

"Eh? What for?"

"It's my job as your guardian. I pledge loyalty only to you, the perfect boss for Vongola"

"But I didn't sense your presence at all. Wow, you're really amazing, Yuki" Tsuna stunned. Yuki chuckled and said "It's really nothing, but thank you"

"More importantly, come with me, Tsuna. Enma too if you want" Yuki's face turned solemn and walked away as Tsuna and Enma followed her. "Where are we going?" Enma asked. "You'll know once we get there" she said while walking.

They have walked for few minutes, but Tsuna spoke "Why don't you use teleportation?"

Yuki stopped, causing Tsuna to accidently hit his face against her back. "Ouch! Why are you stopping?" Tsuna rubbed his hurting nose. "I don't have that power to begin with"

"What do you mean? I'm kind of lost"

"It's her. My other self was created by my mother and you probably know that already from Reborn. My mother used to have that power and the power got copied to that 'Yuki'. She had every power that my mother and I have"

"To put it simple, she's stronger than me" she added. Enma heard the conversation and got lost. Seeing that, Tsuna told him everything about her, of course, he asked Yuki for her permission first and she gave it. Enma could comprehend the story well, so he could understand the circumstances. He just never knew the story would be so drastically complicated.

As they walked and walked, Yuki stopped at an empty wide road. She offered her hand and Tsuna blushed of it. He didn't even know why he was suddenly blushing, but even so, he accepted her hand and Enma grabbed Tsuna's hand, creating a chain. To their surprise, they were instantly arrived at a big old Japanese house.

"Y-Yuki. You conceal this house's existence with illusions, right?"

"What's wrong, Tsuna? What's with that face?"

"Who exactly taught you how to create illusions?"

"What's with you? You've been asking too much lately" she sighed as she smiled. "And besides, you won't believe me if I told you"

Just like that, she went inside alone while Tsuna and Enma were being greeted by Giotto who was wearing a black yukata. "What's with that yukata?" Tsuna questioned.

"I told him to wear it" an old man appeared also with a yukata. "Ninth? What are you doing here? And what is this place?"

"Slow down, Tsunayoshi-kun. Come with me" ninth walked and Tsuna followed him. "Let's leave them alone. You come with me, Enma" Yuki said to Enma and Enma gone to Yuki and Giotto.

As they walked along the hall, Enma was surprised as he saw Gokudera was lying helplessly with pale face. As he walked pass him, he asked, "What's wrong with him?"

"He met with Bianchi this morning. I found him lying on the ground this afternoon and since I was going here, I took him here" Giotto answered.

Giotto and Enma were sitting together, staring at the same tree that caught their eyes. It was a full of silence moment. To break the moment, Yuki came and gave them a green tea.

"Why is he here?" Enma referred to ninth. At first, Yuki and Giotto stared each other, indicating that she asked whether she should tell him or not and Giotto nodded, giving her the permission.

"The truth is…"

"I understand. So, Vongola HQ is being attacked by an unharmed unknown group. But for a safe house, why here?"

"Not only this place is your birth town, but Yuki's illusions is stronger here"

After he said that, silence filled the air. Tsuna was sipping his tea, but suddenly…

"Ah, now that I remember, she's in an appropriate age for marriage now"

Tsuna burst out the tea from his mouth when he heard that.

"W-W-What are you saying out of the blue like that?" he blushed madly as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Why are you blushing?" ninth puzzled. "I-I mean, she's still young"

"Because she's still young that she's in an appropriate age. She comes from a distinguished family and plus, she's a vampire. Someone at her status normally got married in around her age. I believe it's for her family's future generation to carry on Chronos. But knowing her, she wouldn't want to marry anyone because she'd prefer to do her job as your guardian"

"The thought of being with someone she loved for the rest of her life scare her, I'm guessing" Tsuna added. "Oh, so you know her well now" ninth surprised in delight. "I'm talking about Giotto-san too. And also… she probably doesn't want her future son to bear the Chronos blood"

Suddenly, Yuki came by with Giotto who already changed his clothing and said "Ninth, it's time. I'll be going now". Ninth nodded and said "Be careful"

As ninth said so, they was about to leave the house, but Tsuna stopped her by asking "Where are you going?"

"We're going to help the survivors in Italy and annihilate the attackers" she replied. "But…"

"Giotto and I are the only ones who can touch them. This is what we have to do, this is our job as a Mafioso"

"But still, I…"

"Don't worry. I'll protect her anytime" Giotto reassured. "Then, please be careful" Tsuna's eyes shown worries. Seeing that, Yuki reached to her pocket and gave him her pocket watch. "This is the proof that I will come back to you, to the one and only Sawada Tsunayoshi. And I won't kill anyone, for I'm no longer that kind of girl" she placed the watch on his hand and closed his hand as she held his hands. Tsuna accepted the watch and finally let them go.

"Tenth, I'm sorry I couldn't go with you to school" Gokudera leaned to the pillar as he held his stomach. "It's alright, Gokudera-kun. I've heard it all"

"More importantly, ninth, have you already known about her?" Tsuna stared at him and ninth nodded.

...

"Do you really want him to be here?" ninth and Yuki settled themselves at the safe house on the night. "Is that bad?" he asked.

"No… ninth, did Reborn tell you? About me"

"No"

"I see"

"Giotto did"

"Giotto?"

"You may not be 'Yuki', but Giotto still cares about you. Don't take it too stubbornly, Athena. He's always open his heart for you and only you"

"No, I'm not 'Athena' anymore. 'Athena' is no longer exist. I now live my life as 'Yuki'"

"Then do you live for her sake only?"

"That's what I settled upon at first, but… lately, I've beginning to realize I just want to live like the way I want. I'm no longer the girl who loves to kill. Now, I just kill what I have to kill. I can't be the perfect 'Yuki' you all wanted, but I'll try my best to be one"

"Yuki… you…"

"Though I know no one can replace one's existence. The more the person is precious to us, the more impossible it is to replace them. But you can trust their lives on me, ninth. Because… I'm not planning to hurt them, not anymore. I'll protect them… with my life"

As the dependable reinforcement arrived, the two immediately saw the sight of Varia troops were laying on ground, in addition to Xanxus, Squalo, and the rest. Giotto approached one of the troops while Yuki approached Xanxus. "This one's dead. What about him?" he asked.

"He's alive, but his pulse is weak. Unfortunately, we can't send anyone as of this moment. We need to settle this quickly" she kneeled as she checked his pulse.

"What kind of people could do this much damage without being harmed?" Giotto looked around.

"I don't know, but I can think of only one. I just hope I'm wrong"

"Then, I'm going to look around to make sure if the enemy still around" as Giotto was going to look around, Yuki said "Don't bother"

"They're here. They're just waiting for the chance to strike us. They won't attack us yet. Let's go inside. There may be some casualties there" she resumed.

Yuki and Giotto went inside the Vongola HQ. At first they found no person laying on ground, but the place was too quiet. Because of that, they had to be alert all the time. But when they went to the upper floor, blood started to scatter all over the place. As Giotto was staring at the wall, Yuki headed to ninth's office. But what was inside that room, widened her eyes in shock and her eyes were quivering.

"Hm? What's in there?" Giotto peeked inside and put a horrified face as he saw the corpses, it was as if they were being sucked to death.

Yuki who was examining as she kneeled in front of the corpse voiced, "They're…"

"What's wrong… Yuki?"

"I've had enough about them" her voice were trembling in anger and Giotto felt the anger she let out, the stabbing aura she emitted.

Her eyes were furrowed of the uncontrollable rage. Slowly, a blue mist appeared surrounding her and a figure appeared, like a ghost. Not just one figure, but 9 figures were seen behind her and they all wore a cloak. Giotto saw the eyes on her, it was full of rage yet she hid it with a calm face and a furrowed eyes. Along with the figures behind her, she walked passed Giotto.

"Yuki. What's that… behind you?"

"I summoned them. They're my ancestor, all former head of Chronos" she replied with the same eyes she stared at him, which made Giotto stunned yet felt that it was a fearsome power she had.

"Let's go, Giotto" she turned back to front.

"Where?"

"We're going to hunt some vampires"

As they got out, Yuki told Giotto to take care of the southern gate while she on the northern part. However, Giotto reluctantly went to his place. He knew something bad would happen in her current state, but he also knew it was no use talking to her. As Giotto left the northern part, a group of vampires jumped from the trees and assaulted her, without knowing who they were up against.

"Go"

With one word only, her summons began to move and started to attack them.

"Feed on their pitiful souls and kill as much as you like" she, too, began to draw her sword.

"No vampires will survive"

"Eh? The enemies are vampires?" Tsuna looked dumbfounded.

"That's correct. That's why I sent Yuki and Giotto there" ninth responded.

"Why Giotto-san? He's human"

"He's been gifted with a special talent. A talent that allows him to hurt or kill vampires"

"That means he has a potential of becoming a hunter" Reborn added.

"But wouldn't it be bad if she knew her enemies are like her?"

"That's also why I didn't tell them about it. I don't like to send her there, hurting her own people, but she persisted on it without knowing the truth. I was mesmerized by her eyes, she didn't want to leave them while my men are hanging their lives. I couldn't say no. I'm at fault, Tsunayoshi-kun"

"It's okay, it's not really anyone's fault. But, what'll happen if she finds out?"

"…"

"Ninth?"

On the southern side of the castle, enemies were waiting for him. However, he began to realize his enemies when one of them attacked him. Giotto was surprised, but since Yuki told him before, he didn't surprise that much, and also, he assumed only vampire could cause that much of damage. Giotto charged and assaulted his enemies. Most of them were frozen, but none was killed. Giotto wasn't that kind of man. It was a long and hard struggle and Giotto managed to hold on until the enemies retreated.

Then, he decided to check on Yuki. He had a bad feeling about her since the moment he saw her blazing eyes. Unfortunately, his feeling went right. Much to his surprise, Yuki was grabbing the enemy's face with her summoned ancestors behind her. And also, a pile of dead vampires were surrounding her.

"Oi, stop what you're doing!" he ran towards her, trying to stop her, but her ancestors walled her from him.

"She's the true bearer of Chronos, the vicious 11th" the first Chronos head spoke.

"What you see is what she is. You can't avert your eyes from the truth. This is what it means to be a Chronos" he continued.

Yuki lifted the man and said with murderous eyes "Who sent you?"

The man couldn't say anything, even if he wanted to. He was badly injured, he couldn't speak. Thus, she cracked his skull as she gripped it tightly. "I have no use of you if you can't talk"

"Snap out of it, Yuki!" Giotto shouted.

Yuki turned her face to him and said "What do you know?"

"I know you're not that kind of girl anymore. You promised that you'd stop it"

"All I've been doing is driving out the information out of them. I just killed what's useless to me"

"You… You said that as if their lives are meaningless"

"Vampires who have lost in their world and become a doll to their own selves are meaningless. Like this guy" she tightened the grip.

"AAH! Please… Stop…"

"Oh, so you can talk"

"Please…"

"Such feast for the ear to hear such words. Your life is worthless than I thought. I shall end it for you slowly and painfully, like what you did to these humans" she smirked and stabbed him. Her smirk on her lips gone as she stabbed him ferociously.

"Remember what you said to ninth! You made that resolve yourself!" he shouted. But Yuki didn't care. She kept doing it and the man screamed continuously. His eyes were quivering at the very moment he saw her doing that and her eyes that full of rage. His hands that he clenched were also trembling.

"You're not 'Athena' anymore!"

Yuki suddenly twitched as she heard that and snapped of it. She let go of the man and widened her eyes in horror as she saw her tainted hands. She promised herself she'd never kill anyone, if it wasn't necessary.

She instantly dropped herself and her summons disappeared along with her rage. Giotto approached her and consoled her, but his words didn't reach her.

"I… killed them, my own race"

"Yuki, stop blaming yourself for everything you've done"

"No, it's all me. I should've known, the more I throw away my existence as 'Athena', the more it come back to me. I'll always be 'Athena' no matter what. I can't escape from what I truly am"

"You can" he stated and she looked at him as he said that in surprise.

"You have strong resolve to convert your strength to protect and you already did. You just have to make a firm pillar on that resolve and all will be fine" he placed his hand on her head and comforted her. Her eyes went on quavering and glazed a she put her sad face.

"I'm sorry"