This is an important spin-off! If you didn't read the first arc of the main story, you can't understand anything!

Hi everyone!
I'm italian and I'm translating my story in english because some not-italian people ask me to do it, so please forgive me for this poor and basic english!
I accept any advice because I really want to improve my english and I know there are many mistakes, SORRY!
Thank you for reading ~

Target 10 - Restless Spirits

The man takes a briefcase and opens it, arranging some files and two pens.

Gokudera: Juudaime, the car has arrived.

The dark-haired man is thoughtful, he keeps looking at the documents relating to the Lhumor case. The most important picture is exactly where he left it, but the man is sure that the child has seen it.
Glances at the photo of him with his wife and his daughter, at that time she was very small and young.

Gokudera: Juudaime.
Tsuna: Sorry, Gokudera-kun.

The man crosses the door of the room and turns to the opposite side of the corridor, his eyes are worried and apprehensive.

Tsuna: Has she tried to escape again?
Gokudera: As usual. It's a little stubborn girl.

The man sighs.

Tsuna: I wonder why she is so tormented. I would like to see her playing like the other children.
Gokudera: It's the blood. When it comes to helping someone, you never pull back.

Tsuna lowers his head and holds his briefcase, walking briskly toward the exit.

Gokudera: Don't you want to say goodbye to her?
Tsuna: I would like to do it... but for now it's better this way. She must understand.

He says, biting his lip.
In fact he actually wants to go to her, he almost can't be a strict father with his little daughter, he is too protective and apprehensive perhaps much more than Kyoko.
He wonders if it's such behaviour that gives bad influence on Nozomi, she could feel oppressed by him, thinking of some ways to escape and show that she isn't weak. Surely she can't stand the idea of being constantly protected.
Tsuna knows that the child wants to be a warrior prince rather than a fragile princess, but he doesn't want her to fight, he wants to be the one who protects her. At least until she is still a child.
The time will come, "that time". But he hopes that there's still a long time before that moment.
The boss perfectly knows that one day his little bird will fly away, she will become an adult and she would no longer need the loving care of her parents. It's true that he's scared of that idea.
He already started thinking to move her away from that place, maybe if she lives far away from mafia and trouble she definitely grows serene and happy.

He gets into the car, followed by his best friend.

Tsuna: I wonder if I was the one who cursed her.
Gokudera: I think it depends on your point of view. She sees it more as a gift.

Tsuna sighed, crossing his legs.

Tsuna: This is what scares me. I don't want to lose her.

For the fourth time the child tries to go beyond the main entrance. She doesn't know what exactly she's trying to do, but she is afraid that someone can find her again. This time, however, there aren't men in the hallway or cleaning ladies who glance at her.
In her third attempt to escape even one of the butlers captured her, and has dragged the girl in her room.
Although she is the daughter of the boss her words are useless, everyone are already aware of her punishment and the child is constantly dragged into her room without being able to argue.
Her mother, who is also quite angry for what she has done, imposed her to clean the room and do her homework, but she already has done all of them. Also studying is the least of her problems.

She slowly goes down the stairs to the east looking around to avoid unpleasant situations, then she turns the corner and looks at the empty hallway that leads to the courtyard.
Everything is all pretty quiet, she can hear the birds singing and the chatter of men in the distance.

"Now or never."

The child throws herself quickly down to the hallway, she's really close to the exit and she can already breathe the air of freedom.
Her sixth sense, however, starts to bother her.

"Do not go, there might be something!" it's telling her.
Why does it keep talking nonsense? The corridor is free and silent and the entrance is a few steps away, what can happen?
"Stop, look out! This silence is unnatural, it's strange that there is no one around." it echoes in her head and the child gets nervous.

"Shut up, you stupid! This is my chance!"

She exceeds the entrance to the courtyard and realizes pleasantly that there is nobody around.
She opens her arms, breathing the clean air, the scent of flowers and listening to the sound of the water of the fountain, where she and her friends was sitting that day.
Suddenly she remembers what Claudio told her: "You have a beautiful smile, Nono. I want to see it, always. "
Her heart leaps and suddenly blushes. Since when has she began to feel these strange feelings inside her?

More or less since she knows him.

The child who has saved her from her solitude, that approached her and insisted on becoming her friend.

"Claudio: Hey, why are you always alone? Don't you want to play with the others? "
"Nozomi: ..."
"Claudio: Come play with me!"
"Nozomi: ..."
"Claudio: Hey, come on, speak! The cat got your tongue, perhaps? "
"Nozomi: ..."
"Claudio: ... ok, I'll keep asking you until you want to play with me."
"Nozomi: ... why do you wanna play with me?"
"Claudio: Because you're always alone ... I don't like it, it's bad to stay alone. "
"Nozomi: ... it's said "be alone".
"Claudio: Okay, who cares! So, let's play!"
"Nozomi: I can't play, I have things to do."
"Claudio: ... What? You're not doing anything ... "
"Nozomi: not here ... I mean ... I don't have time for playing, I have to grow up and become an adult. "
"Claudio: Why? There is time to grow up, now we can play! "
"Nozomi: Why do you think playing is important? Don't you think about your future?"
"Claudio: Future is so far away, why don't you have fun? Here, playing means having fun! Don't you like funny things? "
"Nozomi: ... funny things?"
"Claudio: You never done something fun?! Then come play with me! "

The Vongola was really shocked by the words of the child, despite her cold and detached answers he continued to invite her, unlike all the other children.
What's a 'funny thing'? She had never thought to have fun and it was very strange for a child.
Maybe she had fun when she was younger, perhaps when her father took her in his arms and made her fly, when her mother rubbed her nose against hers, when Arina turned the music on and danced together with the child, laughing.
Those simple acts were fun, beautiful and full of warmth.
So the child, who was only six years old, decided to follow Claudio and play with him. It was really funny, as he said.
From that moment she changed, she was more open and less cold, more lively. She was laughing because he was the one who made her laugh.
What he had done to her?
At that moment she is blushing because he made her blush, his words have penetrated into her heart, again, digging a small hole.

She winces, thrown violently away from her thoughts when a hand is placed on her shoulder.
She wasted time, maybe a couple of minutes, and this was fatal for her.
No, it isn't because of the two minutes, he was already behind her ever since she had come there.

Something like a long iron rod slips slowly down her neck and the little girl's eyes widen in terror.
The scent of metal, that feeling of terror, the disturbing presence.

It is him, the man she fears the most.

The splint of iron causes her to retreat again and she touches the wall with her back. The terrified little girl is watching the weapon, her face is slightly raised to avoid that it presses against her neck.
She looks up and meets the cold eyes that are looking insistently the child.
Those damned blue eyes, those black hair, that strange weapon that she ignores how it's called.
A cocktail of pure terror.

Hibari: So, apparently I just caught a rabbit.

She trembles, without looking away.

Hibari Kyoya is the guardian of the cloud of her father, the most powerful of the guardians as well as the most fearsome. No one ever knows what he thinks, he is a rebel and doesn't follow anyone's orders. With difficulty he comes when called by the Tenth, he often contrasts his orders, he even seems bored.
It is disturbing to know that, among the most powerful people in the Vongola, there is a man who looks like an indomitable horse, ready to kick anyone who approaches him.

He crouches, looking into her eyes and smiling mockingly. He knows that the child is afraid of him.

Hibari: I know your daddy has forbidden you to go out, right? Don't you know that you don't have to disobey?

She swallows, doesn't dare to say anything.

Hibari: Rules and punishments must be respected.

The man grabs the child by her stomach, bringing her under his arm like a sack of potatoes and the child, who's still terrified, doesn't resist, she's already hoping to die without having to suffer.
She doesn't even realize what is happening that she finds herself in her room, at the starting point. He goes away yawning, violently closing the door.

She remains a few moments to look at the handle, bewildered.

"Guardians of the cloud ... why the hell should they exist?" she thinks sobbing "They're disturbing, rebellious, they never do what you tell them."

She remembers Alaude-san and his relationship with Primo-sama, at least he was more reasonable and less frightening than Hibari-san.
Yet he acted as a guardian of the cloud.

Nozomi: I don't need them. When I'll be a boss I'll take no guardian of the cloud!

She clenches her fists violently, angry and in tears, observing around and looking for another idea to escape from that hell, when she recalls the words of Hibari.

"Rules, tsk. I don't need your stupid rules, I have a mission!"

It is more or less noon, and the girl goes to the window, sobbing. She notices the back yard and the walls that surround the mansion as if it is a castle full of riches.
She opens the window and stretches, looking down and then to the sides of the glass.
There is still a possibility.
She has read so many books that now the Vongola library has no more secrets for her. She remembers well many of them, something incredible for any other child of her age, which prefers to use that time in fun games and not in boring lectures.
Yet those books can help her: she looks at the bed and then praises her intelligence, she also has memorized The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Fortunately the closet is full of sheets, she assembles and binds them, following the idea that Tom and Hack have had in the book.
Although she is on the third floor she succeeded to go down quickly, to avoid that her weight unties the sheets that she's using as a rope. She is able to touch the ground, and without wasting time, she goes beyond the walls of the courtyard, directly in the adjacent forest.
The little girl has a nasty feeling of being seen by someone but, fortunately, they couldn't catch her in time, she's already vanished among the trees.

Arina is still in front of the gate of a closed shop, leaning with her back while her eyes are towards the sky, slightly tired and swollen.
The envelope with the desserts is dropped to the ground and it is located next to her feet, it is also quite dented and the desserts are definitely gone bad due to the hot.
In her right hand she continues to tighten her cell phone as if it is the most precious thing in the world, even if at that time it seems pretty useless and she has resisted the urge to throw it violently to the ground, in anger.

She takes it to the ear again, she has lost count of how many times she has tried to call him, but every time an unnerving voice invites the girl to try again later because the number is unreachable.

She lowers her arm and slips to the floor, keeping her knees in front of her and observing the street in the silence of the early afternoon, the silence broken only by a few cars passing by.
Although she is sitting on a sidewalk, under a balcony and in front of a shop, she doesn't want to move.
She just wants to stay there, curled up with her thoughts.

"Where are you? Why don't you answer me? Are you really ... gone?" some furious thoughts are swirling inside her.
A tear falls on her face, terrified at the thought of losing the boy she loves.
"No. You can't ... You can't leave me ... ".

She knows that the best thing to do would be to go to the hospital and check if he's there, and yet she doesn't want to do it.
She prefers to stay there like a fool, trying to contact him by mobile phone despite she knows that if he is injured he can't answer.
Looking for him seems so easy to do, going to the reception and asking for a certain Alessandro Demerito, and then know about his health.
The receptionist may tell her "He's fine, just a little injured" or may tell her "It's in the operating room."
But what if she tells her that he is in a coma? And what if he was already dead?
No, she can't go there. Her mental sanity doesn't want to let her go.

She is confused, disoriented, demoralized and restless.
She is fifteen years old now, although she still feels like an immature child. She must be strong and be a good example for the little girl.
How can she do it if she can't even take care of herself?
She needs to grow, to mature. She still has a long road ahead and she doesn't want to disappoint Decimo and the trust he put in her. She must do it for her brother and for her future.

Alessandro also will be next to her in her future?

She trembles.
Her thoughts are anything but positive, that bad feeling keeps wandering around in her mind and the head starts to hurt because of the tears.
The visibility starts to drop, some enigmatic clouds are now in the sky and the heat has lowered dramatically.
She is tired, desperate, unsure of what to do. Closes her eyes, resting her head on her knees and sobbing again, her head full with her emotions that are taking over her.
Then she slowly slips into a dark abyss.

It starts to rain.
Perhaps three hours are passed since the child was walking in the deep forest.
She looks around, confused, trying to recover the position of the sun, but it is impossible as it is hidden by clouds.
She is soaked and disoriented, unable to retrieve the way to the city and she got lost in that forest, which spreads for miles and miles on the hills surrounding the mansion.

The little girl stops, looking in front of her.
Trees, leaves, soil, some small animal that escapes, the rain falling down from the sky but, fortunately, there seems no lightning nor is there enough wind to make it impossible to go on.
She can walk, despite the heaviness of wet clothes and some sniffles.
And what if she has a fever?
She walks again and again in a random direction, she doesn't know if she is advancing or if she's coming back.

Nozomi: It can't be... this can't be really possible ...

She raised her eyes again, but the sky is still gray and the rain doesn't seem to cease.

Nozomi: It was always hot until today ... this morning the sun was shining as if we were in mid-August and now it's raining so much that the sun is gone ...

She looks toward the sky, she's forced to close her eyes because the raindrops are falling on her face. Without the sun to be her guide she may not know which direction she has to take. She hasn't even thought to take a compass with her.
If only those damned clouds go away, it's always their fault. The child begins almost to hate them.
The clouds and their guardians.

She sighs, thinking now she is lost in nothing, and no one knows where she is. After all, her father and others think that she is still in her room, far away from the rain.

She leans against the trunk of a tree.
There are no protections from the rain, only trees and ground.

Nozomi: no ... there is no limit to my misfortune ...

She puts her hands before her face and begins to cry.