Disclaimer: I can barely own up to my mistakes, much less Reborn, sorry Amano-sensei! ;(
Chapter 10
Test of Character
Usually when it was a school day, it wasn't this early in the morning that "it" happened. But apparently, Reborn was in a strange chirpy mood today and Mikami had gotten the dreaded "go to Tsuna" call before she'd even managed to leave for school. She was really hoping that this wasn't going to become the new regular thing. Not because she cared about not being late for school, her lousy attendance was already as bad as it could get without raising the suspicion of her parents. It was honestly because she really valued her sleep. In the sense that, with the new anime season coming up, she really wasn't going to get much of it soon, as she first had to finish watching all of the summer titles that she'd been neglecting because of her recent involvement with the Mafia. Having to obey Reborn's demands about spending time with those lunatics was really messing with her schedule, taking a serious toll on her reputation as a self-respecting anime fan. People on the online forums and message boards she frequented were starting to notice her absence. Not to mention that she barely found the time to post on her blogs. And the fanfictions she was writing were already losing views for lack of updates. It was becoming a hazard.
Mikami sighed as she dragged her feet along the street towards Tsuna's house, hoping that maybe this would turn out to be one single peaceful morning of just calmly walking to school with a bunch of mafia weirdos. She couldn't afford her mornings to be ruined by the Mafia as well. Because beside sleeping, this was the only time when her mind could stay switched off and not think about stressful things like the Mafia and her deteriorating status in the fan community. At least not until reaching the school gates where the Disciplinary Committee watched over everyone like hawks, searching for the tiniest fault in the way the students wore their uniforms. Depending on whether the Committee President was present as well, a single misplaced button could spell your doom.
Mikami stopped in her tracks. Something was off. While lost in her worrisome thoughts, she hadn't noticed when she'd walked straight into an out-of-the-blue crowd of burly-looking suit-clad men. She was now completely surrounded by black suits and could only shakily hug her schoolbag close to herself, knees trembling as she meekly looked up to their foreigner faces, looking down on her with permanent scowls. This was the Mafia, she was sure of it. It was like a scene from one of her worst nightmares. They were here to finally take care of her for telling her dad about the Mafia. Reborn had called her into a trap. She was never going to live to see the new anime season. This was the end of the line for her meaningless existence.
Mikami was mere seconds from pissing herself as one of the intimidating men towered over her with his pierced eyebrow and clean-shaven bald head.
"What'chu lookin' at, kid?" he demanded in a dangerously low tone of voice.
That mere phrase made her want to scream bloody murder, but all that came out of Mikami's gaping mouth was a horrified mute squeak as she fell to her knees and trembled furiously, looking like she might pass out. The foreigners looked at each other in confusion while another one of them tried to speak to the girl again.
"You alright, miss?" It was a bespectacled man with a mustache that, although equally as intimidating, lacked the harsh characteristics that impaired her ability to talk.
"Uh..." Mikami refocused, wondering why she was still alive at this point. Maybe they didn't know it was her they were after? This was her chance to escape! "I was just... t-taking a walk?"
Mikami rose shakily to her feet and tried inching away from the group of suits, thanking her lucky stars that Asian people looked so alike to foreigners. This way, if she didn't let it slip that she was supposed to go to Tsuna's, they would have no way of knowing she was their target. It was perfect!
"Mikami?"
Crap.
Mikami's face lost all color. As she was making sure that the dangerous men were not going to follow her, she'd bumped into the last person that could make the situation better as he had even worse luck than she did.
"What are you doing?" Tsuna deadpanned at the way Mikami was walking backwards in a half-crouch, clutching her schoolbag for dear life with a ghostly pale face.
"I..." Mikami squeaked, throwing a look back at the scary mafia men in panic. She had to find a way to make it look like a coincidence as to not raise any further suspicion. "This is a completely chance encounter!" Mikami yelled out stiffly, louder than needed, and Tsuna raised a confused eyebrow, having no idea why she was being so weird and jumpy.
Mikami however burst into sweat, nervously looking back and forth from the men to Tsuna as she carefully circled the boy and continued her lame attempt of a backwards retreat, walking slowly as if a huge bomb was going to explode if someone made the slightest sudden movement. Tsuna sweatdropped, following her with dull eyes as she was about to run into someone again, only this time it was an overly annoyed Gokudera.
"Quit fooling around, ya' lame geek! And start acting like a normal person, for once!" A bomb really did explode, one in the face of Smoking Bomb Hayato, who couldn't take much more of this lousy circus act.
Mikami jumped out of her skin at the sound of the bomber's voice, straightening out her back as she finally turned all the way around and noticed more familiar faces like Haru and Yamamoto gathered in front of Tsuna's house. They were all people who had perfect knowledge of Tsuna's Mafia ties, yet still had no qualms about following him around. Had they conspired against her?! Yamamoto she never trusted, but even Haru?! She'd betrayed her only ally by falling for the charms of the future mafia boss and now she had willingly come to a gathering to get rid of Mikami, then discuss the more finer details of destroying the evidence and creating an alibi?
Now that Mikami thought about it, she never did get the chance to tell anybody that she was going to Tsuna's house. And even though there was the call register, she was pretty sure Reborn knew how to deal with the telephone company and conceal all involvement. There was no escape.
Mikami turned in mute horror to Tsuna's sweatdropping face as she whined through tear-filled eyes, "Please don't let them get me?" He was her only hope now.
"What are you talking about?! Nobody's out to get you!" Tsuna felt the need to spell it out for her because Mikami didn't seem to be getting it that the world didn't revolve around her ridiculous delusions.
"They're not?" Mikami voiced in disbelief, exasperating him to the point where he felt like giving up completely.
"She's completely useless!" Facepalming through a loud groan, Hayato deemed Mikami's retardation irreversible.
"I don't really get it, but Hatsuka sure is playing it up right from the morning." Takeshi just laughed it off joyfully.
"Haru's lost...?" Haru tried to voice out her own complete unfamiliarity with the situation, though her eyes curiously lingered on the strange crowd of suited men behind Tsuna.
More laughter sounded as they all noticed an unfamiliar blond man leaning on Tsuna's wall fence, accompanied by Reborn's small smirking form. This man however wore casual clothing and had a peculiar tattoo of barbwire running up his left arm that also depicted the silhouette of a horse in blue flames. But what really stood out was his stunning foreigner looks, making him look like some luxurious shoujo manga bad boy. It was enough to momentarily cause Mikami to forget her surroundings, until he uttered something real eye-opening, betraying his true allegiance.
"Yo, Hurricane Bomb," he casually called out to Hayato, causing Mikami to freeze as her little shoujo manga daydream crumbled to tiny little pieces. "First time meeting face-to-face, isn't it?"
"You..." Hayato eyed him, searching his features for some clue to who this guy thought he was, daring to mention his mafia alias. "Bucking Horse Dino." He narrowed his eyes upon spotting the tattoo, glaring at the man like he was seconds from challenging him to a stand-off.
That confirmed it. This pretty-boy Dino guy was another mafia weirdo. Mikami cursed her luck. It's like there was no end to them.
"G-guys!" Tsuna jumped in to diffuse the situation, as he feared what could happen if he left Gokudera to his own devices, and grabbed him by the elbow, dragging him away as the others followed. "We've gotta get going, or we'll be late for school."
It was admittedly hard to argue and Mikami tagged along, still too shaken from her encounter with the intimidating mafia men. But she still threw another glance back at the mysterious blond man, curious about what his connection with Tsuna was. Was he Vongola? Some distant mafia relative from the main house? That would explain all the suits.
"Anyway, we're off!" Tsuna called out to Reborn and Dino as their group of middle schoolers moved away from the house.
"Haru's coming along for part of the way!" Haru chirped, happily jogging along behind them, despite the fact that she was from another school. Everything to spend more time with her dreamy Tsuna-san.
"Hey," Mikami found the courage to speak up, now that she was far away from the crowd of intimidating strangers. "What's the Vongola cavalry doing here? Should I be concerned?"
The question was directed at Tsuna, who just smiled awkwardly. "They're not really Vongola. Those were just Dino-san's men. Apparently he's Reborn's former student and wanted to see how I'm doing. Though there's not much too see." He added the last part a bit gloomily as he knew there was no way to live up to Dino's expectations, since he had no intentions of ever becoming boss.
"Reborn has former students?!" Mikami dreaded the thought of the small hitman raising an entire army of mafia bosses. "So that guy was—!"
"Yeah, a mafia boss." Tsuna sighed, not really looking that much enthusiastic about such a chance encounter either.
"Oh, cool, so those guys are playing along, too?" Takeshi beamed at the thought. "Our mafia game is starting to get real popular!"
"Mafia game?" Haru questioned, seemingly out of the loop. "That's what you think it is?"
"Don't get me started," Mikami convinced her to just leave it at that as the infamous Yamamoto Logic wasn't worth it.
"He's just an idiot," Hayato supplied with a frown of his own as Yamamoto made a face, thinking that they were all just making fun of him for no reason.
"You guys are just mean," he teased with a playful pout, dragging Haru away from them so he could enthusiastically rant about what he thought were the technicalities of their little roleplay game.
That left Tsuna, Mikami and Hayato in the back to watch how Haru's face became more and more confused by the second, until she slowly realized that she'd made a mistake to try and listen to Yamamoto's friendly approach of conversation as he'd somehow nimbly jumped topic to his favorite game of baseball. That's how she knew it was already too late but she no longer had any way out so she could only nod and smile uncertainly, letting him make dubious comparisons of Tsuna's position in the Mafia to that of the team captain.
"That reminds me," Tsuna broke the awkward silence as he thought back to how strange it was that Dino and Gokudera recognized each other instantly. "Gokudera-kun, how do you know Dino-san?"
Taking a special interest in the conversation as the newly-arrived mysterious mafia boss was concerned, Mikami paid close attention to what someone from the in-crowd like Gokudera had to say, fearing what lied behind the Bucking Horse name.
"We just met actually." Hayato shrugged like it wasn't that much big of a deal. "But it's pretty well known that he saved his family from ruin for a pretty short time after inheriting."
"Dino-san did?" Tsuna was surprised that someone like Dino who claimed to have been as useless as himself somehow managed to accomplish something so grand.
"Yeah. He's famous for rebuilding the Family's financial structure after his predecessor passed away. The Cavallone Family is now the third most influential power in the alliance."
"Woah. So Dino-san's even good at management. So cool." Tsuna was completely impressed, smiling to himself that he had someone so praiseworthy rooting for him in his struggle against Reborn's outrageous teachings.
Beside him however, Mikami looked a little pale in the face.
"W-what's this talk about an alliance?" she almost couldn't dare to ask. This whole thing was starting to sound like it was larger than she initially thought.
"Tch. Like it's any of your business." Although he had so far happily indulged his precious boss, Hayato suddenly became completely disinclined to answer a single one of Mikami's own questions and she caught on, making a face at his obvious double standards.
Paying him no mind, Tsuna offered to explain with a pained look on his face, "Well, from what Dino-san told me last night, it turns out the Vongola is at the center of a whole bunch of allied families."
Going completely pale again, Mikami burst out, "The Vongola is that influential?!" She had no idea it was that serious. But didn't that mean that Tsuna was going to have to inherit all of that power?
Now that Mikami looked at Tsuna more carefully, he seemed sick to the stomach, unable to accept the fact that something like this had been dumped on his scrawny shoulders. And she didn't blame him.
"I'm not going to go through with something like that, you know!" Tsuna reminded her in response to how she'd patted his shoulder with a pitying look. "There's no way I'm becoming the boss of such an outrageous family!"
"I know, but let's face it, it's not like any of us have a choice in the matter." Mikami sighed dejectedly and they both hung their heads, knowing that none of them had the means to defy Reborn.
"Don't corrupt the tenth with your wishy-washy attitude!" Hayato bellowed, coming in between them to distance Mikami from his boss like some jealous schoolgirl and Mikami flinched away on instinct from the unnecessary volume of his voice. "He's just being humble when he says that!"
Tsuna opened his mouth to disagree but decided against it as he wouldn't be heard anyway.
"Gee, sorry, Mr. Boyfriend," looking pointedly away, Mikami muttered under her nose grumpily.
"What was that?!" Hayato growled, invading her personal space to glare at her menacingly as a warning for what might follow depending on the answer. He wasn't having any more of that "being gay" bullshit she pulled on him back during the fight with the Karate Club.
"Nothing. I meant to say "yes, Sir"," Mikami grumbled, not really feeling like having dynamite shoved in her face for breakfast when her peaceful morning had already been ruined enough.
"Thought so." Throwing her another warning look, Hayato seemed like he was satisfied with that answer and let her be.
Tsuna sighed heavily beside them, glad that their little fight ended so clean and quick this time and cursed himself for not foreseeing such a thing happening when he'd been left in their company. He knew perfectly well Mikami and Gokudera were like cats and dogs. The policeman's daughter and the mafia son, Tsuna mused with a bit of irony. It was a disaster waiting to happen. He always felt on edge when they had to be in the same place together.
"Anyway, this alliance thing aside," Mikami spoke, throwing a watchful eye to Gokudera in case he decided to get on her case again. "From the way you speak about him, Tsuna, it's sounds like you trust this Dino guy. Are you sure that's a good idea? You know, considering..." She motioned to Gokudera with her eyes to avoid saying the word Mafia since the bomber seemed to always take it as an insult.
"Well," Tsuna hummed, scratching his head, "I know this might sound naïve, but I don't really get the feeling that he's such a bad guy." Mikami was still throwing him a skeptical look so he elaborated, "I haven't forgotten who he is! He just really seems to care about his men, you know, I've seen him risk his life for them. And he's really quite popular among them, they even make light fun of him, like they're all buddies or something. All I'm saying is that he just seems like a real down-to-earth guy despite his occupation. You know, he didn't even want to become the boss when Reborn showed up, just like me. So he can't be that bad, right?"
Mikami didn't really seem to be buying it, but her face had cracked into a small smile when Tsuna mentioned Dino would go as far as to put his life on the line for the Family. It reminded her of Tsuna. He probably couldn't see it himself how all those praises he was throwing Dino's way could as well have been directed at him, because in Mikami's eyes, Tsuna matched the exact same description. And it wasn't like she didn't trust Tsuna's people-reading skills, but she was doubtful this Dino guy was half the saint Tsuna was, considering the Mafia didn't make money on friendship alone. She figured Tsuna probably felt Dino could relate for all those bad times they both experienced because of Reborn's crazy idea of tutoring and that's what made him so lenient.
"I don't like him," Hayato spoke again with a frown on his face, ruining the little moment, but Mikami had to half-heartedly agree with him.
"Why?" Tsuna was surprised, not because Gokudera rarely expressed his preferences—he obviously disliked most people—but because Dino and the Cavallone were supposed to be friends with the Vongola, from what he'd learned today, and clearly, as a professional thing, Gokudera usually expressed a kind of respect for people like Reborn who were allies to the Family.
Hayato's face turned dark as he boldly proclaimed, "Anyone older than me is an enemy."
"Isn't that, like, almost everyone?" Mikami muttered on the side with a sweatdrop.
"That's a wide range of enemies!" Tsuna staggered, remembering that he'd heard that once before. "Hey, didn't you say the same when..." Tsuna trailed off as his eyed fell on Mikami's quizzically tipped to the side head. "Nevermind." He decided against mentioning the incident with Future Mikami just when the two hot-heads had finally made some sort of peace. Tsuna didn't need that much drama back into his already tough to bear life.
"Hey, Tsuna!" Takeshi called from the front and they turned to him. "Did you do your homework?"
"What homework?!" Mikami exclaimed, wracking her brain to remember whether they even had one to begin with but she only remembered playing on her phone during class yesterday as she told herself that she'd ask Kitamura-san later. But she'd obviously forgotten about it, because she'd spent the entire afternoon watching K-On's moe anime girls, wishing she could learn to play a cool instrument and researching how much a bass guitar cost, only to be disheartened by the starting prices.
"Ah! I forgot!" Tsuna seemed to be in the same boat, only he probably just wasted his time playing videogames.
Just as Mikami was starting to feel that she and Tsuna may be the same brand of degenerate, Yamamoto laughed heartily and admitted, "Me too! Guess we can get yelled at together."
"Ugh." Mikami dreaded the day that she ended up being grouped with the likes of Yamamoto. A guy who was mean to someone as sweet as Yuuchan would never deserve her friendship.
Now that she thought about it, if she wasn't so absorbed in speeding through One Piece back before summer started and actually read something to pass her exams, she would have never had to attend supplementary lessons, which in turn meant that she would never get the idea to join up with Tsuna and Yamamoto for the homework and she'd never get to go to Tsuna's place and get swindled into the Mafia. So that actually meant that her anime obsession might have been the initial reason that not only her life was ruined, but she was also forced to see Yamamoto's asshole mug every day, being reminded of how he ruined her dear elementary school friend Sayuri. It was a dangerous and absurd line of thought that Mikami forced herself to abandon to preserve her sanity as anime was also the only thing keeping her sane through all of this mayhem and she couldn't afford to let go of it.
The sound of a well-oiled engine interrupted the middle schoolers' little loser moment and they turned to the view of a sleek bright red Ferrari down the street which looked absolutely out of place in such a painfully middle-class neighborhood. However, a more impending matter than what the hell was such a ridiculously expensive car like that doing here was that the Ferrari was speeding right towards them and they had to make way.
Brakes sounded as the car briefly slowed down as it passed and a stretch of rope shot out from one of the windows, winding tightly around Tsuna's torso like a snake.
"Eh?! No way—!" Tsuna cried as the car drove off along with him flying behind it, to the complete shock of everyone else.
"What just happened?!" Mikami was completely dumbfounded as she couldn't put her head around the fact that a Ferrari just randomly kidnapped her classmate in the light of day. "Was that for real?"
Seemingly going out of her initial shock, Haru screamed her lungs out, deafening Mikami's ears as she cringed away. It was real alright.
"Tenth/Tsuna!" Taking the initiative, the boys immediately bolted in the direction of the car.
"Wait." They stopped in their tracks, turning to the small form of a completely composed Reborn. "Those guys are from the yakuza who control this area."
"You mean—!" Mikami's eyes bulged as she remembered her dad complaining about his work over dinner. "The Momokyo Organization!"
It suddenly donned upon her what the implications of someone like Tsuna getting kidnapped actually really meant. He was the future boss. They somehow found out about his real identity. This was about money extortion. It was a gang war!
"But those guys are dangerous! What if they do something to him?! What are we going to do?!" Mikami was freaking out, feeling irritated that Reborn was managing to remain this calm. Wasn't he the least bit worried?! "Reborn!" she urged him.
"Reborn-san!" Hayato also called out to him, impatient about all this unnecessary idleness. It was obvious enough, they just had to go get the tenth back and kick those Momokyo guys' asses!
"Ah! Yes!" Haru suddenly regained her common sense as she started rummaging through her schoolbag. "The police! My phone!" She put the bag on the ground and started taking out its contents in her haste to find what she was looking for, looking like she was tearing up from the frustration of not being able to.
"You're right!" Mikami cursed herself for not thinking about this earlier. "I'll just call my dad, no need to go through the emergency call center!" She reassured Haru as she fished out her own cell and immediately dialed.
"Tch. Like the Chief and his dogs are actually going to be any use. I don't see these Momokyo bastards locked behind bars. Can't you see your stupid system is not working!" Not a big fan of the police and the way Mikami was blatantly parading with her family ties, Hayato argued bitterly, causing her to frown at him as she patiently waited for the tone. "Gah! This is a family matter! We should just take care of it ourselves! There's no time!"
"You guys can't beat them," Reborn insisted, "Leave this to Dino and his men."
Mikami started furiously shaking her hands no as she talked with her father to the side, trying to get them to understand that it was a bad idea to bring their little mafia friends into this mess where her dad and his men would be involved.
"Like hell I'd leave it to them!" Hayato was adamant in his resolve as he couldn't wait to get his hands on the bastards who dared to touch his boss.
"There you have it." Takeshi seemed to agree with Gokudera's thinking. "You guys take care of the rest!" he called out to Mikami and Haru as he and Gokudera ran off after the kidnappers.
Mikami sighed as she closed her phone, feeling calmer after speaking to her father. "Can't those guys just wait? Dad said his team was heading out right away."
"Well, by the time your dad and the police manage to reach them, there's a high chance Tsuna might already be a goner," Reborn mentioned.
"What do you mean, "a goner"?! Don't they need him for ransom?!" Mikami was starting to feel anxious again, and just when her dad had assured her everything was going to be fine.
"Not now that the police are involved," Reborn stated as a matter of fact. "When they hear the sirens, the hostage is going to become too much of a liability. If the police are there Tsuna's never going to contact the Vongola for fear that they might find out who he is. He's going to keep his mouth shut tight. And you know what that means." He put his small fingers to his brow, pretending to shoot his head.
"Oh, no!" Haru slumped to her knees, regretful of ever mentioning that they should call the police.
"Then why didn't you say that earlier!" Mikami blew up at Reborn, angry that he was still being this calm. "Now we've just made things worse!"
Reborn just shrugged in reply, with that infuriating little smirk of his.
"Argh! It's like you don't even care what happens to him!" She ruffled her hair in frustration before yelling out, "I can't just sit around waiting for Tsuna to get killed!"
Leaving a teary-eyed Haru with the accursed tutor, Mikami bolted after Yamamoto and Gokudera, hoping that they managed to reach Tsuna in time.
- xxx -
She was supposed to be at school right now. Instead, Mikami was sneaking around some shady building, trying to save a classmate from getting killed by the most dangerous gang in town, rumored to be well-versed in martial arts. It wasn't like she ever believed to be a match for the yakuza, in all honesty Mikami just hoped that Yamamoto and Gokudera were strong enough to hold their ground so she could just go in, grab Tsuna and get out. It sounded like a sound plan to her. Simple was best, she told herself as she navigated the halls, hiding behind boxes and crates strewn along the walls.
Her heart thrummed against her chest as her eyes flew in all directions, fearing that someone might catch her. But why were the halls empty? She hadn't seen anyone while going up the stairs to the second floor. Wasn't this the Momokyo hideout? Weren't there supposed to be guards watching the place?
"What the hell?" Mikami whispered to herself, feeling like she was in the wrong place. But it couldn't be, as this was the same place her dad had told her numerous times to stay away from when he got mad about how the town administration never gave him the authority to issue a search warrant and conduct a raid, just because the place was private property and he didn't have enough evidence to make a valid accusation.
This time however, the joke was on them, as now the Momokyo Group had a hostage and her dad and the police had a perfect reason to conduct their long-sought search of the building. Mikami smirked, thinking how at least one good thing would come out of this mess.
A yell sounded from the end of the hall and Mikami jumped out of her hiding spot and ran that way, certain that she could hear fighting on the other side of the farthest door. Before she reached it, a certain object caught her attention, a Namimori Middle schoolbag lying on the floor, another confirmation that she hadn't mistaken the place. Tsuna and the others were probably just on the other side of that door, giving those Momokyo guys some hell.
A hand grabbed Mikami by the elbow, causing her to yelp as some unknown man pulled her roughly to himself. She was found! This was bad!
"Well, well, well, what do we have here," he smugly said one of the most overused lines in filmmaking history as he grabbed her face to look her over with a leering face. "If it isn't a lost little schoolgirl." Mikami couldn't decide which of the two actions was more cringeworthy as she desperately struggled against the man's surprisingly firm grip. He was one of them! A yakuza!
"Let go of me!" she breathed out in-between trying to distance herself and claw at his hands but the man just spun her around abruptly to restrain her arms behind her back. She could feel him breathing in her hair. "No! Get the hell away from me!" She yelled as goosebumps travelled all over her skin and her entire body screamed for her to get away.
"You know, I've always had a thing for schoolgirls," the creepy man whispered in her ear as she could feel his other hand make contact with the surface of her thigh right below the hem of her skirt.
Mikami's breath hitched as all blood drained from her face and she suddenly realized just how reckless she had been to dare enter the building completely by herself. She could feel her eyes watering as she knew there was no escape. This guy was a crazy pervert. It was the worst-case scenario.
"Even ones with flat chests, they're the best."
A large vein grew on Mikami's forehead and a shadow fell over her eyes. Inhaling a large breath, she let out a high-pitched scream that probably shook the entire building and the creepy guy had to pull his hand away from her skirt to protect his hearing.
The room on the other side of the door had temporarily become silent before a stampede of feet ran over and the door flew right out of his hinges, revealing the raised feet of Yamamoto and Gokudera who'd kicked it to the ground all while dragging a couple of badly beaten yakuza by their shirt collars. The pure fury on their faces morphed however into looks of confusion as what they saw was vastly different from what they had expected.
Mikami was panting heavily, looking pissed as she towered over the whimpering form of some random sleazy guy who was lying on the ground twitching in a ridiculous position. Electric static sounded buzzing in the air and they noticed a very real police-issued flashlight taser in the girl's hand, something which they had no idea how she managed to persuade her father into giving to an underage kid like her as it looked like it was supposed to be restricted for civilian use.
"This is for daring to touch me, you perverted lolicon!" Mikami snarled at the guy as she mercilessly stomp-kicked him between the legs, making him howl in pain and roll over while clutching his crotch.
Hayato and Takeshi winced instinctively, recognizing that move, and they muttered out at the same time with fearful voices, "Nutcracker Blitz Attack..."
"Huh?!" Mikami whipped her head around to accidently glare at them. When she recognized her classmates, Mikami's frown disappeared and her face flared red, realizing they had witnessed how she'd completely lost her temper. "T-this yakuza scum just took me by surprise and I-I couldn't help myself..." she fumbled to explain.
Hayato and Takeshi just exchanged reluctant gazes as the guy hanging from Hayato's grip, who apparently hadn't lost consciousness yet, opened his mouth to interject, "Actually, we don't know that guy. He's probably just some random groper who somehow sneaked into the building."
Looking him over with disdain for daring to speak, Hayato casually smashed the yakuza's head into the door frame, knocking him out. Behind them in the room, Mikami saw an entire crowd of half-dead fully-grown yakuza men sprawled over the overturned furniture, the product of just a couple of middle schoolers' rampage. She on the other hand, had just managed to get herself jumped by some a random groper and humiliated herself, ending up not being of any kind of help at all. She felt completely useless.
"What the hell are you doing here, ya' lame geek? Aren't you supposed to be back with Reborn, waiting for Daddy to come save the day or something?" Hayato scoffed at her as he crossed his arms.
Mikami made a face. She knew he was right, but there was no need for that kind of attitude. "Well I don't see you doing it! Where's Tsuna?"
"These guys aren't saying anything." Takeshi shook the yakuza he was holding, who was already foaming at the mouth, eyes balled up, so he let go of him, letting him drop lamely to the ground.
"Maybe they're keeping him on the upper floor." Mikami turned back to the staircase and was about to lead the way when Gokudera's voice stopped her.
"And where do you think you're going?!" He was looking at her sternly, arms still crossed.
"What do you mean?! I'm going to find Tsuna! C'mon!" Mikami insisted, irritated that he was stalling. Wasn't he concerned about his precious boss?
"No. We're going to find the tenth. You're going to get out of here," Hayato emphasized his words, adamant in his decision.
"Excuse me?!" Mikami couldn't believe Gokudera actually thought he could hand out orders to her. She knew he perceived her as someone annoying to have around that would only just get in the way but now that Tsuna's life was on the line, it was no place for such an argument. "Oh, please. We don't have time for this! We need to hurry before it's too late!"
"Too late? Is something happening?" Takeshi questioned her strange phrasing. They were just supposed to get Tsuna back, no one was going to die or anything, right?
"Ugh! Your brain is what's happening!" Mikami yelled out in frustration, too worked up to bother explaining that the situation had gotten worse because Reborn hadn't stopped her from calling her dad. She had unwittingly signed Tsuna's death by doing that and Gokudera had been right in saying that they should have taken care of the kidnapping themselves, but there was no way in hell she was admitting it out loud.
"Well, that was unnecessary." Takeshi felt like he was treated entirely unjustly as he hadn't said anything wrong and she didn't have to take it out on him just because Gokudera was picking on her. Women.
"Uh, what are you guys arguing about?"
They all turned to see Tsuna standing by the stairwell with Dino in tow, looking like nothing happened, clothes intact and everything.
"Wha—?! Tsuna—! But you—?! And the yakuza—!" Mikami was entirely perplexed as to how he'd showed up like he wasn't ever kidnapped at all. Had Dino and his men gotten to him before they did? She just knew that they were stalling too much here because of Gokudera's stupid man ego.
"Tenth! You're alright!" Hayato beamed, eyes sparkling as he whizzed past her, making her spin around in place, and practically trampled the potential sex offender that was still sprawled over the ground, just to get to his beloved boss' side.
"You look like you're completely fine!" Takeshi was genuinely glad that Tsuna had showed up unharmed, not even questioning how it was possible.
"Y-yeah," Tsuna voiced awkwardly, looking over the carnage that had ensued. He definitely wasn't excited about having to explain to them that they'd just beat up a bunch of gangsters for no reason at all, because the whole kidnapping act was just a simple test of loyalty Reborn came up with so Dino could see exactly how reliable Tsuna's subordinates were.
"These guys sure are something," Dino said, impressed by the boys' work regardless, and Tsuna bashfully agreed. "Oh! Even Mikami-chan is okay! Not bad!"
Mikami grimaced at the way Dino was patronizing her. She wasn't giving this guy the satisfaction of falling into his obvious charms, even if Tsuna already seemed to trust him. An outwardly nice guy or not, Dino had actually become a mafia boss despite his claims that it wasn't his initial choice. But to Mikami, it didn't really matter if he felt like he was pressured into it or not, because now he seemed like he wholeheartedly ran the entire "family" business he oh-so-detested. And when a person dabbled in gambling, extortion, loan sharking, protection racketeering and even murder, there wasn't much more that could be said about the goodness of his character. Even if he wasn't the one doing the deed himself, there really had to be something rotten about him to just sit by and let it happen, acting like there was nothing wrong about it.
How many people had Dino ordered to be killed as he now smiled so innocently to an oblivious kid like Tsuna who was probably walking the same path as him? Mikami felt sick just thinking about it. Tsuna was being forced to become the same as this guy. A two-faced scumbag. How the hell was there any pride in that?!
"What've you done, you stinkin' brats?!" a voice bellowed at them.
The heavy artillery had arrived in the form of a group of heavyset men, led by an angry thug with a scar through his mouth, wearing a jacket on bare shoulders that clearly spelled out he was the boss of this place. The Momokyo boss!
"Seems they've been lookin' down on us," the large gorilla behind him rasped as his permanent scowl scanned the room.
Mikami and Tsuna gaped in mute horror, screaming in their heads. They were absolutely no match for these guys.
"These bastards just keep showing up..." Hayato grumbled as he and Takeshi automatically moved to protect Tsuna.
"Wait. These guys are different from the ones you just beat up. You can't handle them yet." Dino walked out in front, to Gokudera's complete annoyance. To him it just sounded like the guy was needlessly showing off. "It's all my fault," Dino said woefully as he pulled out a luxurious gold-plated credit card.
Mikami's mouth almost completely fell off. She'd only seen those in movies! The Cavallone must have been completely loaded! That kind of dirty money surely came from illicit activities!
"About the medical and repair bills, this will pay for that," Dino told the entirely unimpressed yakuza men. "So why don't we call it even?"
"Huh? Don't mess with us." His albeit tempting offer was immediately denied by the smug Momokyo boss. "We're taking the money alright, but you guys aren't going anywhere."
"A breakdown in negotiations? Well then, we'll just have to force our way out of here!" Dino pulled out something which looked like a whip and swung it wildly at the thugs. "Here I go!"
"Oof!" Something leathery slapped Mikami hard against the side of the face as she fell over, disorientated.
"What are you doing, you bastard!"
"Ow..."
Looking around for what could have happened as she seethed in pain, nursing her pulsating cheek, Mikami noticed that somehow Dino had managed to also hit Yamamoto, Gokudera and even himself, completely missing any of the yakuza, which demanded a certain level of idiocy that was previously unthinkable to her. Was it possible that this 20-something pretty-boy mafia boss was really actually an even bigger loser than Tsuna? That would explain why Tsuna believed him to be such a nice guy. Nobody could hope to run an entire bloodthirsty Mafia with these horrendous reflexes. It was ridiculous!
"Hahahaha! What the heck was that!" The thuggish men laughed at that poor attempt of an attack. "Don't underestimate us!"
"Uh, no way?! S-save me!"
Through her searing pain, Mikami held up her head to witness Tsuna being cornered into a wall by the Momokyo boss. Without thinking, she desperately tried reaching for the man's pant leg, only for her hand to get stomped by some thug, making her wince as her eyes watered.
She had failed. Not only was she no use in helping Yamamoto and Gokudera, but now she couldn't even try to keep Tsuna out of danger. It was like it didn't even matter if she did something or not, because she wasn't even good for anything anyway. In Gokudera's terms, she was really just only "getting in the way" and she hated that.
There was the sound of something being pierced and Tsuna yelping before a body fell to the ground.
Mikami cursed. If only they'd gotten out of there sooner, this wouldn't have happened.
"Reborn!"
Clothes were torn as Tsuna bellowed, sounding more pumped than ever and Mikami peaked to see the brilliant embodiment of pure determination that was the boxer-clad Dying Will Tsuna.
"I'll defeat them with my dying will!" he proclaimed, fists growing abnormally large until they resembled huge mallets.
"Wh-what's with his hands?!" Even the Momokyo boss was surprised as he'd seen nothing like that before.
"It's Reborn's doing!" Mikami exclaimed. The hitman must have been somewhere close, looking over them.
Attacking the yakuza with a series of enhanced punches, Tsuna started taking them out one by one.
"Not bad, Tsuna!" Dino commended, rising from the ground.
"B-bastard!" Three thugs jumped Tsuna at the same time, trying to overwhelm him with numbers.
"Tenth!" Just when it seemed like Tsuna was in a pinch, Hayato's foot flew right into one of the gangsters' faces, knocking him out.
"Tsuna!" Takeshi also jumped to his rescue, smashing an elbow into another man's nape, causing him to gag and slump over.
"Not on our watch!" Mikami viciously jabbed her taser into the last man's shoulder blade, holding it there even as his whole body painfully contorted backwards.
"You okay, tenth?" Hayato asked as he stood in a defensive position behind Tsuna.
"We've got your back!" Takeshi declared as he and Mikami joined Hayato, creating a small back-to-back circle.
"Somehow," Mikami added reluctantly as she didn't really know how long they could keep this up.
"Yeah!" Dying Will Tsuna grunted with a nod, not a trace of doubt in his voice.
"Guess there's no peaceful way out of this, just as Dino-san said," Mikami scrunched up her face at how many more thugs they had to handle, stubbornly ignoring the small smile Dino threw her at that tiny showcase of recognition.
"We can't let them show us up, isn't that right, boss?"
All heads turned to a group of men in suits gathered at the door and Mikami's eye slightly twitched as she recognized them as Dino's men that she'd mistaken for contract killers. Though now that she thought about it, there was probably no real reason to send an entire group of hitmen after a lone middle school girl. She'd been so full of herself to think that Reborn alone wasn't enough to deal with her when he already had her wound around his little baby finger. Her being here again, in the middle of a fight that was out of her league with a non-lethal weapon that she'd swindled her family into allowing her to wield, was enough of an indication to how far the rabbit hole she'd gone because of yet another one of the hellish tutor's schemes.
"You guys..." Dino breathed in relief, feeling strangely more confident now that his men had arrived.
"What are you doing, slacking off by yourself?" The man with the mustache made fun of him for not joining the fight and Dino pouted.
"Shut up!" he grumbled, standing up as he got his whip ready. "Alright! Let's go wild!"
- xxx -
Dodging between punches and wildly swinging her taser into every piece of yakuza meat that entered her vision, Mikami had somehow survived until the end of the fight with only just several bruises and a lightly twisted arm. Everyone had abruptly stopped when the sounds of sirens reached their ears and Dino's men miraculously managed to escape the building before the police stormed in. For some reason, no one dared to question the random helicopter of Cavallone men that fled the scene and Mikami was once again reminded what level of oblivious idiocy was required to become a policeman.
"For helping the town of Namimori become a better place by maintaining the peace," the Police Chief was choking up in the middle of his speech as he'd gathered his daughter and her three classmates in front of the Momokyo building that was being cut-off with a yellow police line. Incriminating evidence of the yakuza group's illicit activities had finally been seized and the thugs were being escorted into police cars so they could be driven off and placed safely behind bars. It was a joyous day for Chief Inspector Hatsukaichi Tadashi. "The Namimori Police Department is proud to present these honorary tokens of appreciation to some of the youngest heroes in our community!"
Blue and red lights flashed over them while the four middle schoolers were surrounded by a number TV cameras aimed at their faces as news reporters excitedly announced how students from Namimori Middle bravely escaped a hostage situation on their own at a prominent criminal group's hideout, giving the police the initiative to enter the building and find vital evidence that helped solve numerous of unsolved cases that finally connected rumors of illegal activity to the well-known Momokyo Organization, long suspected of being yakuza.
Struggling with his inner desire to bite his hand, Hayato glared at the policeman that was tentatively placing a fake toy medal around his neck, exactly like the ones they gave out to kids to boost their confidence that they did some useless good in the world. He then moved his furious gaze towards Mikami as to say that it was all her fault but she actively avoided turning his direction, too busy staring into space with an empty expression, struggling to believe that something ridiculous like this was actually happening. Tsuna was in a similar state next to her, the guilt that this had actually been the Mafia's doing, their Mafia's doing, overwhelming him so much that it clearly showed on his face how much he mortifyingly considered himself unworthy of such attention.
"Thanks!" Takeshi said cheerfully when given his own toy medal, being the only one out of their group to enjoy this with childish excitement.
"Yeah, sure, give Namimori's worst threat the key to the city why don't cha," Mikami murmured as she hid her face from her father and the cameras, cursing the moment she thought calling her dad was a good idea as she never believed he'd even take the time to inform the media.
This was a ridiculous act of showing off the police's superiority, so her dad could send a message to the public that they were actually getting some work done. But she secretly knew this entire thing was a farce. This impromptu ceremony was a complete humiliation to her. As she knew her blissfully oblivious father had just awarded a bunch of kid mafiosos for getting into a meaningless fight with another faction. And she knew that because, in his moment of guilt, Tsuna had whispered to her that he hadn't been kidnapped at all. That this had just been a little test Reborn made up so Dino could be convinced that Tsuna's newly-appointed family was to be trusted. A little game that just went a little bit too far. And now they even received fake medals to remember it by. Just perfect.
"I'm so proud of you, sweetie! I'm not even mad you missed school!" her dad leaned over to say to her with tears in his eyes and her mouth gaped incredulously, deeming him ignorantly stupid beyond redemption.
- xxx -
"Hahaha, I'm convinced now!" Dino told them as they sat gathered around the small coffee table in Tsuna's room. "I can rest easy by leaving Tsuna in your care!"
Reborn's little test had been rather outrageous, but at least now Dino was sure Tsuna's subordinates were people who cared about him.
"N-no need to go as far as saying it like that..." Flustered, Tsuna held up his hands. He only considered them to be his friends after all and all this attention was unnecessary.
"That goes without saying," Hayato insisted, confident in his skills as he considered himself the tenth's most capable subordinate. "Protecting the tenth is my job as right-hand man."
"Whew, it's really a good thing you're safe though," Takeshi sighed, feeling lucky for them to have survived this entire ordeal.
"Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto..." Tsuna felt a little bit touched by how concerned they had been for his well-being.
"I'll never be able to face my dad anymore..." Mikami just mumbled from the corner of the room with her back turned to them as she was still moping over her unjustly earned medal. "I can't believe he gave us medals. We're the Mafia. This is insane."
"M-mikami..." Tsuna had tried talking her out of her little self-pity party several times by now, but it had so far had no effect.
"Get a hold of yourself and act like it, you loser wimp! You're a stain on the Family! Look what you made your useless father do!" Hayato aggressively tore off his fake medal and threw it at her as it lamely bounced off her gloomy back. "It's humiliating!"
"I know!" Mikami whined, animated tears streaming down her face. "I never wanted this!"
Dino quietly threw a look to the girl as she whimpered and he stood up.
"Guess I'll be leaving then," he said, deciding his work here was done.
"Huh? Already?" Tsuna was surprised that his visit had ended up being so short.
"Being a boss keeps me pretty busy, after all," Dino excused himself as he exited the room.
"Dino-san!" Tsuna went after him and they both got out of earshot as they went out in the corridor.
Watching the door intently through her pout, since she couldn't decipher the mumbling that they were hearing from the corridor, Mikami turned to Yamamoto and Gokudera, figuring it was a good time to speak up.
"Hey, I don't know what you guys think, but even after what's happened, I'm not so sure Dino-san can be trusted," she told them, even though she had her suspicion that the two of them could care less about her opinion. "What he did was not okay, allowing us to believe that Tsuna was in trouble, just to test our reactions. Even if Reborn's the one who came up with it..." She threw a careful look at the infant, not sure how he might take it. "N-no offence!"
"None taken," Reborn just shrugged, entirely nonplussed even about someone talking about his former student like that. He was simply curious over how Mikami was strangely opening up to Yamamoto and Gokudera about an issue she was concerned about, almost as if she was seeking their support on the matter, treating them as equals.
"Dino-san seemed pretty alright with playing along with it, but I don't think this is something to make fun of, just for his own amusement." Mikami tightened her fists over her lap as she stared at the ground before she looked up at the two boys with determination. "Would you ever agree to play off something like that?! What if we got hurt?! What if Tsuna really does get kidnapped someday?! It wouldn't be funny then!"
Hayato and Takeshi just looked at each other in thought as Reborn smirked behind them about how Mikami was starting to develop some interesting line of thinking. She was starting to become oddly protective of Tsuna as a whole. He had gotten under her skin.
"There's no way that's happening," Hayato snorted, making her feel like she was embarrassing herself by worrying for no reason. "Anyway, I've already said that I don't really care about that guy. But he's pretty harmless. He's just an idiot who keeps talking big so I'd rather not pay any attention to him."
"Haha, that's cruel, Gokudera," Takeshi laughed beside him, but it seemed like he shared the sentiment that there was nothing to fret about.
Feeling misunderstood, Mikami just turned back to sulking at the wall, mumbling to herself about how she didn't expect thugs like them to get her anyway, and she stood like that, drawing moody circles on the floor, until they heard a huge racket coming from the corridor.
"What was that?!" she gasped, millions of possibilities of how Dino could have murdered Tsuna in an act of treason towards their Family Alliance rushing through her mind.
"Well, don't just stand there!" Hayato yelled at her, starting to believe that there might be some reason behind her worries.
Fearing the worst, Mikami and the others pushed against each other as they bolted out of the room, meeting Lambo and I-Pin in the corridor, curiously looking down from the top of the stairs at something. It was the harmlessly sprawled out over each other forms of Tsuna lying over Dino at the bottom of the stairs as they had somehow both managed to trip over their own feet and tumble all the way down to the first floor, one after another.
"Want to stay another night?" Tsuna was conversing with him as if they weren't lamely lying on the floor, obviously used to always being in awkward situations.
"Well, Maman's food is too good to resist after all," Dino sheepishly accepted the offer, looking embarrassed himself.
"What are you guys doing?" Mikami sweatdropped, as it all completely seemed like a scene from a typical Boy's Love light novel. She just stood there, wondering how she'd ever thought that such a doofus as Dino could ever be a threat. He barely even looked like a mafia boss as she looked at his pathetic form from the top of the stairs. The fact that he was even alive at this point in his life was probably a miracle.
"T-tenth, are you okay?" Hayato asked beside her, peering down as if checking whether his precious boss had gotten a concussion. Looking at him, Mikami figured she'd probably temporarily been infected with the "Tenth" disease as she had probably been acting as unnecessarily overprotective as Gokudera was just now.
"That's some really good smell," Takeshi said as his nimble nose picked up something cooking. "Is it alright if we join in too, Tsuna?"
"Don't just invite yourself to dinner at someone else's house!" Mikami acted completely appalled by his manners, but her stomach betrayed her as it let out a loud noise of protest and she flushed bright red, going completely mute.
"Ah, 2D Girl's hungry..."
"She sure is, even though she just said that..."
"Must be embarrassing..."
Lambo and I-Pin discussed with hands beside their mouths, pretending to whisper like a couple of gossiping housewives, although they said it completely aloud for everyone to hear, causing Mikami to become petrified with humiliation.
"Idiot," Hayato concluded as he shook his head.
Feeling thoroughly mortified, Mikami covered her face and crouched to hide herself as she squeaked, "Shut up!" making Takeshi laugh heartily.
Tsuna smiled awkwardly at that, a little bit glad that the others were now able to make friendly light fun of the girl, even if she didn't seem to take it like that.
"Well, we probably won't be eating for a while," Reborn voiced and they all turned to him in confusion.
"Huh? Why?" Tsuna dared to ask and the sound of something banging was his answer. "Wh-what?!" He screeched when he noticed the bathroom door threatening to burst and only one thing came to mind.
Next thing they knew, everyone had been forced to evict the house in panic as a large baby-dinosaur-sized turtle was roaring at them from inside.
"Woah, there goes the door frame," Takeshi noted on the large bite-hole that was starting to appear as the monster chewed off pieces of wood and plaster from the wall to try and get himself loose and escape the house.
"What the hell is that, Tsuna?!" Mikami demanded to know as they hid further behind the house's wall fence for cover from the plaster fragments the turtle spewed angrily at them while Lambo cried their ears off for getting hit on his way out.
"T-that's Enzo. He's mine..." Dino reluctantly admitted, looking away guiltily.
"Yours?! Is he supposed to be a summon animal?!" Mikami yelled at him, completely forgetting that he's a mafia boss she's supposed to be afraid of.
"Those don't exist, you stupid geek!" Hayato chided her as he pulled out a small notebook out of a back pocket and sifted through it with trained ease, brushing his chin in thought. "He's obviously a relative of Nessie."
"Nessie?" Mikami looked at him incredulously. "You mean the Loch Ness Monster?!" Mikami couldn't wrap her head around the notion that Gokudera believed such absurd stories, so she figured he was being sarcastic, insulting her intelligence. "Are you making fun of me?!"
"Guys!" Tsuna cried as he'd somehow managed to get his uniform jacket caught in the turtle's mouth and was now being dragged back into the house against his will.
"Tsuna/Tenth!" They all jumped to his rescue.
- xxx -
After the crisis was somehow averted with the help of several hairdryers and Dino slapping them across the faces while trying to hold down Enzo with his whip, they finally managed to have a semi-peaceful dinner. Only, Lambo got on their nerves with his constant whining, Mikami got into a heated argument with Gokudera for not eating Tsuna's mom's sacred broccoli and Yamamoto got yelled at by the two for trying to help them to get along. Even though he wasn't even using chopsticks this time, since he was a foreigner, Dino still made a mess somehow by managing to catapult a bunch of rice at several people whenever he left his fork in his plate and even almost killed Lambo when he accidentally dropped his knife and it rebounded from his foot. Reborn stole bits from Tsuna and Mikami's food each and every time they got distracted and I-Pin's countdown almost got activated when Mikami tried to be nice and thoughtlessly complimented her for helping Tsuna's mom prepare dinner.
When she was done eating, Mikami thanked Tsuna's humble mother and hurried to excused herself before everyone else. It was getting late and she had to go home, even if she dreaded seeing her misguided father's stupidly proud face, that would once again remind her of how disappointingly empty-headed the police was. She'd almost spent the entire day with Tsuna and the others after all, which was a first, and she felt dead tired from all the commotion.
Oddly enough, Dino insisted on seeing her off at the door and after she and Tsuna exchanged confused looks during which Tsuna looked awfully concerned, she reluctantly agreed, despite all better judgement. Also, Tsuna's mother was gushing about what a gentleman Dino was being and it was admittedly hard to ruin the mood after the woman had put so much hard work into such a delicious meal. Dino obviously had something to say to her, because he walked out of the house along with her and closed the door behind him. Mikami wondered if he'd somehow managed to overhear what she'd said about him in Tsuna's room before he fell down the stairs.
Now that she thought about it, if there was ever such a thing as superstition, her ill thoughts could have sent off bad vibes that might have caused him to tumble over his own feet and into the stairwell. Was it possible that he was mad about that too?
"No need to be so nervous. I don't bite, only Enzo does," Dino laughed nervously at his own silly joke, trying to get her to loosen up a little as he sat down on Tsuna's doorstep and urged her to follow.
Mikami hesitantly obliged, but she made sure to remain a safe amount of space away from him, just in case.
"F-fair enough." Dino seemed to respect that choice as he figured his stature was probably intimidating to a kid like her. He wasn't used to speaking to middle school girls alone as it hadn't been necessary until this very moment and he suddenly felt very conscious of how awkward the situation was. "You're probably wondering why I'm singling you out like this, going out of my way to talk to you in private."
"I-I have some idea," Mikami stuttered and she looked away, remembering all those times she badmouthed him the entire day and she hoped the consequences wouldn't be dire.
"Oh, good!" Dino beamed, oddly relieved that the conversation could now go over smoothly. "Then you already know about your future position in the Family!"
"M-my what-now?!" Mikami snapped her head back towards him, feeling like she'd missed something. Surely, he was only joking, right?
"Truthfully, I was a bit skeptical when I heard it at first from Reborn yesterday," Dino continued rambling, not really realizing that Mikami had no idea what he was talking about, "And don't take this the wrong way, but you were the one I was most unsure about in Tsuna's family. You know, because of your father. So I was confused as to why would Reborn choose someone like you for such a task."
Mikami listened to him with an open mouth, speechless to be given such a huge revelation that Reborn's "plans" for her were bigger than expected. She knew that her father's standing was a vital source of influence in the law enforcement that was sure to come in handy were they to get in some sort of trouble with the police, but she'd never gone as far as to think that there could be something else involved. She was a useless fumbling mess after all and the only reason she was in the Mafia in the first place was to guarantee that her mouth was kept shut and her dad was kept in check should a problem like that arise.
"But after I got to watch you guys today, you ended up being the one who completely overturned my expectations," Dino told her happily and she almost choked from disbelief.
"Me?!" Mikami pointed to herself, not really sure if Dino thought he was talking to the right person anymore. He could have easily mistaken her for Gokudera because of some unforeseen brain damage, for all she knew. Because she and expectations never really got along, not ever since her academically perfect brother completely overshadowed her in the eyes of their parents. It was impossible to compete with someone attending the top university in the country after all.
"Yeah, I'm even starting to have great hopes for you!" Dino looked pretty excited at the prospect but Mikami was honestly terrified of all the pressure.
"P-please don't..." she tried fixing this as she didn't want random mafia bosses rooting for her to become something she'd never even dream of. It was probably something mafia-related anyway that she'd absolutely detest. She was beginning to feel a bit of the anxiety Tsuna probably felt on a daily basis when Reborn kept insisting he train for boss.
"That's why, there's one more thing I need to hear." Dino smiled, completely oblivious to how uncomfortable he was making her feel. "Why are you in Tsuna's family?"
Mikami stared at him blankly for a moment as the answer was obvious. "Because Reborn forced me into it?"
"Pfft," Dino sounded before he outright laughed. "That's not what I meant!"
"Then what did you mean?" Mikami crossed her hands impatiently, not really amused by his misleading behavior.
"You know what," he insisted with a knowing smile on his face. "Why did you stay?"
"I-I don't follow..." Mikami was starting to get confused. "Because otherwise Reborn's going to kill me?"
Dino burst into laughter again and at this point Mikami was starting to get really annoyed. It was like he was just making fun of her.
"Look," Mikami almost snapped at him, "I don't know what you expect me to say but I don't trust you. Or Reborn. He's probably the one who made you try to talk to me, say all those confusing things and ask me all those useless questions so he could test me again, didn't he? He probably just wants to check if I'll exhibit some sort of disloyal behavior but he can rest assured that I don't really believe I have a chance at fighting and I've completely given up on thinking I can get out of the Mafia alive. So you can stop beating around the bush already, because I've gone completely disgustingly servile."
Her little speech only made Dino laugh more so she just rolled her eyes and looked away with a displeased frown on her face, waiting for him to get it out of his system.
"Mikami-chan," Dino began after calming down a bit, though still a bit of amusement lingered in his eyes. "This isn't about Reborn, or the Mafia. What I'm trying to make you realize is your resolve."
"M-my resolve?" Mikami voiced as if the concept was entirely foreign to her, although she knew what it basically meant.
"Yes." Dino nodded. "Why, despite all the odds, all the setbacks and all that pressure you feel, do you still find the will to continue, to get up and fight. And don't tell me it's because of Reborn, because I'm sure that at those precise moments, he and the Mafia are the last thing that crosses your mind."
Mikami would be lying if she didn't admit that this hadn't taken her aback. It was true that Reborn and the Mafia were the ultimate evils that dominated her thoughts whenever she felt trapped, but there were moments when these things, although being the main instigators of each and every mess, they weren't what made her stand her ground. Even back before she was manipulated into joining, the thing that made her jump into a dangerous situation for people like Yamamoto and Haru who were almost strangers to her, it had been her sense of righteousness, her reckless need to protect the innocent. And now that she owed Tsuna for saving her several times over and Reborn had somehow instilled into her a strange sense of belonging to this misfit group of underage criminals, Mikami was unwittingly placing her life in harm's way for even more people than she'd ever believed possible for a coward such as herself.
But it wasn't like she considered them friends like Kitamura-san and the Morisaka twins and even they weren't as close to her as Hikaru or Sayuri. Tsuna was within a walking distance of being called a friend but this was something unthinkable for assholes like Yamamoto and Gokudera. Yet she'd still fight alongside them and risk her life, even though a simple conversation was a torture to participate in. It was because they were fighting for the same cause. It was because of Tsuna. Their guide. Their savior. But they didn't follow him just because he was the boss. It was the other way around and she just realized that. Tsuna might have never wished for it, but he'd become worthy of that title the moment they started counting on him. They believed in him, fought to protect him and what he stood for. Because, in all regards, Tsuna was righteousness in its human form. But not because he instilled it, it was because all he believed in and all he acted upon represented just that. And it was with greater sincerity than either of them could hope to achieve.
That's why they'd put their hopes with him. Tsuna had rescued each of them from their inner demons just at that decisive moment when they'd given up and unknowingly he'd ultimately won their trust. It was simple really. And he didn't even do it on purpose. That was the most beautiful part. It was done completely out of the goodness of his heart. A pure heart that they'd fight with every waking breath to protect.
In Mikami's terms, he was the ultimate precious cinnamon roll, must protect.
"You're starting to get it, aren't you," Dino voiced, pulling her out of her thoughts and she realized she'd been staring at her bare knees for far too long.
"Yeah." She shook herself out of her daze and looked straight at Dino, all traces of her mistrust of him pushed back for a feeling of sobering clarity. "It's Tsuna, isn't it?"
Dino smiled at her, a warm and heartfelt one. "You understand now."
"I do but..." Mikami's look became pained as she looked away and held her breath, deliberating whether it was okay to dump all her worries on someone like him, some complete stranger that happened to be another mafia boss. But then she thought back to the bare meaning of the word and looked at Dino again as he regarded her with a questioning gaze, waiting for her to speak patiently.
Didn't "boss" suggest that he had his own people who depended on him for the same reasons she, Yamamoto and Gokudera followed Tsuna. Was this what Tsuna meant when he tried to explain that Dino was similar to him, that his subordinates felt free to address them as they wished, yet still respected him enough to insist on calling him "boss". It most probably wasn't the same for all mafia Families, but this Dino guy didn't really actually feel like a criminal, almost like he'd somehow preserved some of his innocence, some of that good that initially won his subordinates' undying loyalty. He almost felt like Tsuna. And maybe this was Mikami going by intuition alone and she was being reckless regarding a possible murderer, but these things didn't even cross her mind as she started blabbering all her petty little troubles that he'd probably care less about.
She told him about today with the yakuza and the groper, about how horrible it had been, how useless she had felt, about how this was how she felt all the time, that she'd never be of use to Tsuna, that she wasn't strong enough, and about how much she was struggling to change it and failing. She told him about how she had to lie to her family, about how hard it was protecting them, keeping silent, about what lengths she had to go through to get a single taser to feel at least a little bit safer. She even told him about how none of her friends took her seriously, about how hard it was to feel like belonging, that she didn't even know she cared so much, that she thought she was just supposed to be some no-life otaku but she'd obviously been wrong about that too.
She was turning out to be weak and needy and that weakness had taken her off-guard and was eating at her being. There were so many changes she had no control over, she had no idea what was happening and how she was supposed to live and she entirely blamed herself about it. Even now, when she was illogically seeking guidance from a complete stranger that was actually a criminal boss.
"Sorry for calling you a criminal," Mikami mumbled through watery eyes and puffy cheeks, trying very hard not to completely break down in front of said criminal. "But I just don't feel like I'm anywhere near as worthy to actually be in Tsuna's family, even though I do want to be able to help him. But I just can't. No matter how hard I try. I'm not cut out for this. I'm just useless."
Feeling highly uncomfortable that a teenaged girl had just unloaded so much in front of him, Dino scratched the back of his neck, wracking his brain over what was the best thing he could say to make her feel better.
"Aren't you pushing yourself a little bit too hard?" he finally asked her with a thoughtful face. "I know thigs might seem a little too overwhelming to you now and I know it's not easy, but you don't really have to strive to always know what to do or be someone outrageously strong, I don't think it suits you. Why don't you try to rely on the others a little bit more and see what happens? You really shouldn't have to keep all of that inside you for so long. Isn't that what the Family is for?" He smiled reassuringly at her, doing his best to sound entirely convincing, although he could only offer her his point of view and how he could have handled things.
Mikami however just made a face and said bitterly, "No way."
"Ugh..." Dino sweatropped, struggling to keep his smile in place.
This girl obviously didn't understand the concept and values lying behind being in a Family. This was obviously the source of all her misguided misery. She was obviously just stubbornly avoiding any chance to get along with the rest of the Family, even though she sometimes needed their support, but would never admit it. Why were teenage girls dishonest like this? Dino hung his head.
"But hey, look, if none of your friends can relate, isn't it a good idea to try to talk to someone in the Family about these things?" he tried one more time but she just kept scrunching up her face. "Like, why not Tsuna! I'm sure he'd be happy to listen!"
"Psh. As if," Mikami grumbled like a complete brat and Dino was almost starting to get annoyed with her when she added, "Not when he's always followed around by Reborn."
"Ah, I can see how that might not have been the best idea then." Dino took it all back, knowing best how hard it was to open up in front of such an intimidating figure. "Then why not Yamamoto and Gokudera?"
"That's even worse!" Mikami revolted. "Have you not seen how we absolutely don't get along?! It's completely out of the question! Those two are the worst!" She grumpily crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks, turning away.
"Hmm..." Dino was running out of ideas. This girl was too picky. "But why do you have to fight so much though? Can't you all just get past your differences and focus on the fact that you all care about Tsuna? Wouldn't it be better that way?"
"Hah. Try saying that to Gokudera," Mikami snorted. "There's no way either of us could ever become friends," she said with honest certainty, although Dino managed to pick up a bit of repressed loneliness in that statement. Could it be? That there was some chance Mikami secretly wished they could get along, but was too proud to say so?
Dino smirked to himself. "I don't know about that. Why don't you just try being a little more nicer and see what happens?"
"And why should I? They're horrible! And they'd only make fun of me..." Mikami mumbled, thinking of all the times Gokudera mocked her and Yamamoto made things worse for her. They could care less about her or how she felt.
"You know," Dino began as he looked up at the night sky. "Sometimes change has to start from within. And the way for people to understand each other is for someone to take that risk and extend a helping hand. Then maybe, you might find out you weren't so different to begin with." He turned back to Mikami to flash her a smile. "Maybe, then you'd be able to find your place in the Family."
Remaining silent, Mikami just pursed her lips and looked up the same way Dino had beforehand, wondering what made him think that there was ever a chance she'd ever even be able to fit in this strange group of cruel mafia boys. The stars blinked in the pattern of her unsure heart as she knew that it was reckless to try to get close to these people. They were to become future criminals, it was inevitable that they'd be forced to spend even more time together and grow to rely on each other, but that didn't really mean that they'd genuinely get along.
Mikami hated this. Not only would she be a despicable outlaw, but she'd be forced to associate with other mindless zombies that would only care about their assignment. There was nothing human in that. But at least with Tsuna, there was loyalty and a reliable leader who was sure to take care of you. Maybe there was some truth that the Mafia wasn't like other criminal organizations. Being brought up with a strong sense of justice, Mikami had a pretty low opinion of all forms of criminals, but at least the Mafia was a hierarchy built upon values and Mikami had to give it some credit that despite having views that were a bit twisted, it was nice to know that you could rely on a Family.
That was it. Family. Not necessarily people with a blood relation. But still people who would go beyond lengths for each other. Honorable in name, perilous in nature, this was another one of the faces of the Mafia that Mikami admittedly respected. But for her to become a true part of one was another matter altogether. Yes, she was already part of Tsuna's family, but honestly, she would never be trusted, not now, not in many years to come.
It all came down to her heritage. A cop's daughter didn't belong in this kind of world. And no matter what plans Reborn had for her, Mikami would never be truly accepted. She was a liability. A burden. She couldn't fend for herself as the others did. She barely survived the yakuza, the karate club, her trip to the future and Hibari. It was all just a fluke. A stroke of luck. And surely, nobody had the time to take care of someone like her.
In all honesty, she had no place in Tsuna's family. And she was just starting to realize that this fact left her with a painful sense of longing. An irrational wistful longing to belong.
- Omake -
Mikami: *comes back home reluctantly*
Tadashi: And here's my little hero! Daddy is so proud you're following in his footsteps!
Mikami: Dad, please, don't...
Tadashi: *gasps* What if you became a policewoman?! *eyes sparkle* That would make me so happy!
Mikami: *gloomily mutters to herself* It's already too late for that...
Tadashi: And you have such nice friends too! Why didn't you tell me?! They seem to be a real good influence! Fills me with hope for today's youth!
Mikami: Ugh. *cries animatedly at the irony* That couldn't be far from the truth...
- A/N -
A guest asked me about Mikami's dying will flame and whether she'll have one, but considering Amano mentioned even Kyoko and Haru's types, it's safe to assume that everyone has a Wave Energy with the potential ability to produce a flame but not everyone utilizes it. I think it was explained in the Future Arc? It was the wave of life-force that flows through the body, the strength and number of which is determined at birth and shares similarity between family members. Like Kyoko and Ryohei are both Sun and they even share some personality traits that hint that flame attribute. After all, the Dying Will resonates with one's emotions, so it's natural for a certain attribute to be the mimic of a person's character. In that respect, I think I'm dropping enough hints on Mikami's attribute as it is, her entire family's even, though I'm not sure people are looking in the right direction when they lump carefully calculative Mists like Chrome, Mukuro and Hibari with someone so reckless and illogical as Mikami. :D Don't worry though, it'll become obvious soon enough. But I'm not saying anything about battle techniques. *throws sideway glance to carefully systemized notes on the matter* Nope.
Actually, when I think about it, the comment proposition about being a Mist and creating overpowered anime characters and attacks to fight for her was awesome! Why didn't I think of that?! Oh well, too late now. ;(
Btw, it's okay if some of you don't get the references, I'm just a stupidly huge dweeb and should probably tone it down because it's already getting old.
On the matter of why nobody still believes her about the mafia, Reborn doesn't even need to lift a finger to force people to disregard her, since everyone already knows she's just some weird kid with a wild imagination. Please don't hate Reborn, he's only thinking about the Family's well-being! ;( Everything else he does is just for kicks, I admit he's a little bit of a bully, but that's just because he has to deal with a bunch of annoying kids all day. He has to stoop to their level, which I guess makes him a good Vongola agent?
Also, I don't think that people being oblivious to the whole mafia thing is that much of a story flaw of the canon, considering how weird these kids are. It's a good gag in my opinion. That's why I'm exploiting the hell out of it after all. xD
Please don't hate Hibari as well! Just because I don't see him as that great, doesn't mean he's still not an awesomely thought-out character. Remember, everyone in KHR is insane exactly because it started off as a gag manga and I think that's exactly why it's brilliant!
Thank you for all the wonderful reviews last time! I got a lot of good insight to better my writing! You guys are the best! 3
I would also appreciate any further input you have to offer as this is the greatest help for me to see how the story is received!
Lots of love!