A/N: I don't want to make it a habit to bring in new people, but I couldn't resist. Also ty for the funny reviews, they're /o/
Moonpuzzle - I'm innocent, I swear /:A:/
It was nearing April fools, and Hibari was on the warpath. Before his enrolment in the school, the holiday had been a big deal, an excuse of students to execute their revenge, release frustration and payback annoying teachers. It was practically a Namimori tradition to prank others.
Tsuna had told Hibari this, being well versed in the tradition despite having died before April came to pass. People had tended to prank him regardless of the time of year, and he had heard of all the legendary pranks that had happened, so the small brunet was a valuable source in explaining just to what lengths students would go to in their pranks.
The holiday was on Friday, and it was currently a Monday, so students would only be starting with small-scale, harmless pranks. Nothing that would disrupt the order too much.
However, regardless of their level of disruptiveness, Hibari abhorred pranks, and he would not allow such behaviour take place at his school. He would bite and herbivore to death if they even thought the word 'prank'.
So of course, he was patrolling twice the amount, intent on catching out any student unlucky enough to be caught in the act. The punishment for pranking would be twice as painful as usual.
They had covered most of the corridors that morning, Hibari catching out several people to bite to death, and Tsuna pointing out something every so often, to bring Hibari's attention to. Once they were done, the prefect resolved to check inside the classrooms, remembering his previous lesson that he was quite unaware of when on within them.
The first two were fine, the students suitably cowed by Hibari's unshakable dedication in crushing the playful holiday to do anything. It was the third classroom in which it happened.
Hibari slammed open the door, glancing around for anything that appeared to be unsavoury. He could see students' faces visibly pale at his arrival, and it was only when they started looking upwards that he thought to look up, his eyes widening at the presence of a bucket. A bucket that had already started falling.
The prefect didn't have time to react, but before he could even brace himself, Tsuna was there, having floated up to deflect the bucket away from him. It fell a few metres away from the prefect, accidentally splattering a few misfortunate students instead with the bright green goo within it.
Nobody paid attention to the bucket.
Tsuna floated back down, and turned to Hibari with a smile.
"That was close, eh, Hibari?"
The prefect didn't respond, and Tsuna frowned. What was wrong? All he had done was deflect the bucket.
While they were in front of an entire class.
Oh crap, oh crap. Nobody else could see him. To everyone else, it would appear as if the bucket had simply been deflected by some invisible force field.
The brunet would have paled, if blood still ran through his body.
"Damn."
– x –
They hadn't even left before student started talking.
"Did you see that?"
"It just moved, all by itself!"
"Do you think Hibari did it?"
"If anyone could do it, it's Hibari."
"That guy isn't even human, of course he did."
"Guys, Hibari isn't human."
"He has powers."
"What do you think he is?
"I don't know, but Hibari isn't human!"
The ghost and the prefect looked at each other, and grimaced. Unknown to them, a silver haired transfer student had also seen the entire thing, and was watching Hibari with wide, sparkling eyes.
"It's an UMA."
– x –
Hibari grit his teeth. Besides him Tsuna was panicking, looking between the prefect and the newest addition to their party.
They were being stalked. And quite obviously at that.
Silver hair flashed as the newest addition to their school hurried after them. If Hibari wasn't so looking forwards to taking his nap in a moment, Tsuna was sure he'd be upon the new student like a vengeful bird of prey, intent on putting him in the hospital for months for crowding around them.
As it was, the transfer student – Gokudera Hayato, as his papers said – was persistent. After the bucket incident, more than once student had been fascinated by the prefect, and although most students were reasonably still very much afraid of the boy, some had instead made attempts in catching Hibari off guard again so he would use his 'demonic powers'. They set up more pranks, and threw stuff at him, but they had no luck. It was a once in a lifetime occurrence that Hibari was caught off guard. They stopped, eventually, after they kept on being beaten up and a couple were given broken bones.
Gokudera Hayato had not given up. The silver haired boy had stalked them almost daily, always managing to slip away when confronted, and if cornered, with the use of mini explosives – which had only made Hibari even madder. Needless to say, the prefect was tense. He had spent far too many days in a constant state of absolute rage and he needed this nap.
If it were only stalking, the prefect wouldn't be this tense. He could have treated the other boy like some stray puppy, like another Tsuna he didn't need to acknowledge or talk to. But no, the student didn't only follow them, he made observations.
"Subject appears to spend the majority of its time alone. Have yet to determine its gender, so must refer to it as it." The student paused. "Appears to be a human male, but is most likely a disguise to prevent being outed as an UMA."
Tsuna sweatdropped as he listened to the mumblings of the transfer student. The lines on Hibari's back only became tenser.
Thankfully, they were approaching the committee room, and there Hibari could lock himself in, draw the curtains and have the nap he so desperately needed. Tsuna resolved to stay outside and guard.
"Subject seems to be approaching its lair. Have yet to gain access."
Hibari walked faster.
"Subject appears to have extraordinary senses. May have spotted me and retreated to its abode."
'No', Tsuna mentally screeched. 'You're just really obvious!'
The prefect slammed the door behind him.
– x –
The sky was clear, the breeze was crisp and the sun was shining. It was, in essence, he perfect day to spend some time on the roof.
"Subject appears to favour high altitudes." A voice muttered from seemingly nowhere. One didn't have to look hard however, to see a silver haired teen crouching in the shadow of one of the rooftop corners, clutching onto a recorder. "Perhaps it was originally an airborne creature."
Hibari was tired. It seemed impossible that such a feat had occurred, but it was true. Despite the inhuman strength and stamina of the prefect, there was only so many fights he could get into – on top of running the school as he practically did – before he needed a break.
Of course he wasn't giving up. Hibari never gave up. He simply needed a certain amount of time away from humans each week, it was essential to his being. Hibari went weird if he was forced to crowd with people for too long, and nobody really wanted to see it.
"I will now attempt a closer observation."
'Could you get more obvious?' A certain brunet ghost thought, watching the teenager advance forwards as if he were in a minefield with apprehension.
Given that Hibari's human quota was dangerously full, he was out cold – his mind needing somewhere to retreat to, before it was overwhelmed by the sheer presence of all the herbivores.
"Hibari," Tsuna hissed, watching the transfer student get closer. "Hibari!"
The prefect shuffled around a little, but didn't wake up. He was exhausted, having to deal with the mess that was April fools, on top of being stalked by regular students, on top of being stalked by the persistent cockroach that was Gokudera Hayato. The sheer paperwork from the transfer student's bombs alone had him losing an extra hour sleep each night.
Tsuna panicked, knowing with absolute certainty that if Gokudera managed to get to close enough to the prefect, all hell would break loose.
Sadly, he still couldn't interact with living, breathing creatures. Actually, trees and plants were okay, and some animals could sense him, but Gokudera wasn't a tree, and no matter how much like a dog with a bone he acted, he wasn't an animal either.
The ghost rushed forwards, grasping the hem of Gokudera's shirt and started tugging at it.
"Oh! The subject's powers have been activated by proximity. They appear to be active while its defenceless – possibly a naturally developed mechanism for its species." Gokudera gushed into the recorder, his hypothetical dog tail wagging in excitement.
Tsuna kept trying to pull the student away, but he had been pitifully weak when alive, and it hadn't gotten any better when he was dead. Somehow it seems that the living had precedence, so his moving things only really worked when there was no living interference.
"I will attempt to get closer and document the change."
Gokudera brought out an old style camera, and Tsuna really started to panic.
"Hibari, wake up!"
But Gokudera had gotten too close. Even when Tsuna grabbed his recorder and flung it against the wall, the student wasn't to be stopped, and he arrived at Hibari's resting spot, camera reasdy, just as the prefect was waking up.
Hibari grunted a little, opening his eyes after a deep, satisfying nap. His instincts had been set off, and the prefect was awoken by them to find the danger. He blinked sleep from his eyes and looked up.
A flash went off.
– x –
Once he was fully operational again, Hibari was notably more wary of his surroundings. The transfer student was horrible at stalking people, but after so long of being hounded, the prefect wasn't going to take any chances.
He will find that herbivore and bite him to death.
Oddly enough, Gokudera wasn't seen for the entirety of the morning. Maybe he was skipping, but in the whole month he'd been at Namimori, the student hadn't missed a day – besides the week he spent at the hospital after the last stunt he pulled. Although Hibari despised truancy and those who broke rules, he felt that the student could have at least taken the day off when the prefect wasn't back at full capacity and actually needed the break.
After having finally hospitalised the other boy, Hibari could get the rest he needed. He knew the transfer student had been discharged the day before, and so he knew there was a very real possibility of running into each other. Only that time, Hibari was well rested, and fully prepared to become a murderer, if it meant that Gokudera was gone.
Alas, no student at all. No silver hair, or observations, or really, really bad stalking. Nothing. The prefect was starting to get paranoid.
He approached his office carefully, with a wariness that was unusual for him. It was really the only place Gokudera could hide for a while if he was at school. The prefect came up to the door, and slammed it open unceremoniously, one tonfa already out and prepared to bite.
There was nobody there.
The prefect relaxed, putting away his tonfa and starting to walk towards his desk. It seemed as if the student really was just skipping school. As he got closer, a flash of colour caught him eye, and Hibari was immediately drawn to it. He never had anything colourful on his desk.
Upon closer inspection, it was a magazine – with some weird title, 'UMA monthly' (was that English?) – with a written note stuck on top. Hibari picked it up.
'I have decided to go back to Italy, but my stay in Japan has been very fruitful. I thank you for letting me observe you in your natural habitat, and I have shared my findings with the world.
- Gokudera Hayato.'
What on earth...?
Hibari glanced down at the magazine and froze. On the cover was his picture, the digital Hibari seeming as if he'd just woken up. Above it, the title 'strange and rare, Japanese UMA' lay scrawled across the page.
"I'm going to kill him."