Hello, dearest readers! I'm back with a new chapter! Yay!
I'm so sorry! I haven't updated in so long! I'm such a failure T-T. This chapter just didn't want to be written. MAJOR WRITER'S BLOCK!
I just realised that I didn't put in a disclaimer for the last few chapters, so here it goes!
Disclaimer: The lone cloud does not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! She only wishes.
Enjoy! R&R please!
Tsuna's morning had started off rather badly. She had gotten up early so that she could shower before school, but Bianchi was already in there. She tried to go in the upstairs bathroom, but Lambo was in there, humming to himself and reading a book, if the rustling of pages was anything to go by. She went downstairs to make breakfast, but when she put her eggs and her roll down on the table, Reborn snatched them up and practically poured them into his mouth.
So, here she was. Walking down the street, stomach growling. She dragged her feet along the asphalt. Last night, she had barely gotten any sleep. Lambo had kept her up with complaints of being uncomfortable. Around two o' clock, she just gave up and let him sleep with her. She woke up with candy stuck to her pajamas, but hey, at least she finally got to go to sleep.
Anyways, as she was walking down the street, she came across a food stand. There was a man sitting behind it. He wore heavy, purple robes that completely covered his body and the lower part of his face. He was also wearing huge, round sunglasses that completely covered his eyes, and his bangs that feel over his sunglasses and the matching purple hat covered his head. She could see a thin, jet-black braid on his back, reaching down to his waist. Sitting on the stool in front of him was a little boy, wearing similar red robes (though not as thick), also with a braid, abiet a lot shorter, that stuck up from the top of his head.
She completely ignored the strange feeling that she got from these people. She figured that it was just her stomach acting weird. She heard the two converse a bit in Chinese and the robed man handed the little boy a folder.
The man saw her there and tilted his head questioningly. She shyly pointed to the buns that he was steaming. "Um, if it isn't too much trouble, can I have one of those?" She dug in her pockets. "I'm sure I have some Yen somewhere..."
He shook his head and held one out to her, wrapped in a fresh white napkin. "For free?" she asked. He nodded, and she smiled. She had a feeling that he smiled back. "Thank you, mister! Have a nice day!"
Meanwhile, a man in a suit and a yellow-rimmed fedora sat on top of a nearby roof, staring down at the scene below him. He gingerly rubbed the yellow pacifier hanging from a black ribbon around his neck. It was glowing, casting shadows on the street. "Why are you here, old friend?" He seemed to be talking to himself. He shrugged. "Oh well. I'll stay out of your business as long as you stay out of mine." He leaped to the next roof, heading back to a small, yellow house at the end of the street.
This was just not her day. Seriously, how did she get herself into this situation?
Oh yeah, that's right. She was a dumbass and taunted that god-forsaken rat dog with her amazing breakfast. Then, a bigger dog just had to come along and try to kill her. She ended up dropping the delicious bun on the ground. Go figure. Now, it was advancing on her, snapping it's teeth at her menacingly.
If she ever, somehow, had enough power to kill all the dogs on the planet, she would in a heartbeat. Those things were scary as hell.
Anyways, she was just seconds away from certain death. She closed her eyes and braced herself, trying (and failing) to keep calm. Then, her savior, her oh so wonderful savior, jumped in front of the dog. She recognised him as the kid from earlier. She was about to yell at the kid to get out of the way (yeah, she hated dogs, but she valued the life of a child a bit more, thank you very much), but he shouted something that she didn't quite hear and thrust out his fist. The dog, at least twice her size, was blown back by the sheer force of whatever the hell that kid had just done.
She looked at the little boy incredulously. How could a kid Lambo's age do something like that. She gasped internally. Was he an... alien?! No, that was stupid. Who believed in aliens anyways?
The boy turned around and bowed to her. He looked up, and his eyes suddenly narrowed in a slightly scary way as he looked her over. She decided to take this chance to leave. "Uh, thank you for your help. I, uh... well, bye!" And with that, she was off.
Once she was gone, the boy took out the folder that his master had given him. "Target found."
Gokudera was slightly worried. The Tenth had shown up today looking slightly nervous and upset. If the Tenth was nervous, something big must have happened. He decided to walk her to and from school every day, just as a precaution. What kind of right hand man would he be if the Tenth got attacked on the way to school?
He opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, but the baseball idiot beat him to it. "What's wrong, Tsuna?"
She scratched her head. "I... I don't really know? It's just... something really weird happened to me on my was to school."
He beat him to it this time. "What happened, Tenth?"
She thought about it for a moment. "Well, I was on my was to school, and I hadn't had any breakfast, so I stopped by a food stand to get something to eat. It was quite good actually, just a bit too much garlic for my tastes, but that's not the point. Anyways, after I got my bun, I started to walk to school and I was attacked- no Gokudera-kun, put away the dynamite- by a dog." She shuddered. "Hate those things. Anyways, the dog attacked me, but a kid jumped in the way."
"A kid?"
"Yeah, he looked about Lambo's age. So, this kid... did something to the dog. I really don't know what. It was like some sort of supernatural power."
Gokudera looked up, eyes serious. "What? What did he do?"
She thrust out her hands awkwardly. "Something like this? Then the dog completely lost control of its body and flew backwards!"
Yamamoto laughed. "That's really cool! I wish I could do something like that!"
Gokudera scowled and raised a fist at him. "Whoo asked for your opinion, baseball freak?" He turned to the Tenth. "Are you sure you saw it correctly? Are you absolutely positive that that is what happened?"
She nodded. "Yeah! It was actually kind of cool..."
He thought for a moment. Supernatural powers... lost control of its body... hmm... He stood up suddenly. "Well, I'm off, Tenth! I'll go see if I can find something!" He started to walk off.
"But Gokudera-kun! Class is about to start!"
He grinned at her. "The Tenth's problems are more important than class! And I already know most of that stuff anyways!" He turned to walk out of the door, bumping into the teacher on the way out. "G-Gokudera! Where are you going?"
He waved him off. "None of your business, old man."
The teacher turned a briliant shade of red. "Gokudera Hayato! You get back here now, before I call your parents!"
He snorted, mumbling softly. "Good luck."
Reborn was amused. Very much so. It was always so amusing to see his almost worthless student struggle with simple things, like take down a five-year old who was using garlic to control her brain. Hm. He just realized how strange that sounded. Whatever. He lived in a world where animals turned into guns, thirteen year old girls stripped when they were shot, and explosions barely hurt the average person.
Oh well. He had gotten used to it.
Anyways, his stupid little charge was currently spazzing out, her limbs flailing in random directions, face in an expression of utter confusion and surprise. He decided to end it, and he sent a bullet flying in her general direction.
It hit its intended target, and the rooftop was engulfed in a terrible odor. He saw Dame-Tsuna fall to the ground, pinching her nose. "Ugh! What is that?! It reeks!"
He jumped down, setting Leon back on his hat. No need to strain the poor, overworked shapeshifter. "It's the secret to I-Pin's technique. She's an assassin that specializes in Kempo. Her special attack uses the garlic stench from her Gyoza buns to paralyze the enemy. It penetrates their brains, making them go limp, giving the illusion of controlling the body."
She looked confused still. "So the controlling thingy was just garlic?" She sighed. "That's kinda lame, but sorta cool at the same time."
Reborn sent a sideways glance at I-Pin, who was blushing and sweating uncontrollably. "Oh, look. You've triggered the Pinzu Super Time Bomb."
"What?"
"The Pinzu Super Time Bomb, also known as the Maijong Mega Bomb. You see, I-Pin is a very bashful person, and when he reaches maximum embarrassment, he lets out all of the built up gases in his body at once, causing a huge explosions. Oh, and the numbers on his forehead count down, a time bomb. When there is just one symbol on her forehead, then she explodes."
Tsuna was gaping at him. "How big is the explosion?"
He shrugged. "Big enough to level an entire city block."
"WHAT?!"
Kyoko chose that exact moment to walk through the open doorway. "Hello, Tsuna-chan! I've been looking everywhere for you!" She smiled, looking from between her and I-Pin. "Oh, you're that kid that helped me with my money this morning." She turned to Tsuna. "I was going to the supermarket to buy something when I dropped my money all over the floor. This kind little kid helped me clean it up!" She cocked her head. "He made the strangest little face though, sort of like he was scowling. Oh-" I-Pin jumped onto her leg, gripping it tightly. "Are you okay?"
Well, this just got interesting. "I-Pin clings to people for reassurance during the countdown."
Her face deadpanned. "You've got to be kidding me."
She leaped forward, grabbing I-Pin and prying him off of Kyoko's leg. He latched onto her instead, grabbing her wrists with tiny hands. She panicked for a moment before forcing herself to think. If I-Pin was in the air, the explosion couldn't harm them, right? So she just needed to get him into the air and they'd all be fine. There was a tiny pinging sound and Tsuna looked at I-Pin curiously.
Eight.
"Hello, Tenth!" Gokudera strode onto the roof, hands in his pockets, smiling happily. Great! Gokudera could throw farther than her! "Gokudera-kun, throw this baby!" He blinked as the small child flew toward him. He caught it and barely even glancing to it, he threw it back. "Okay!"
Seven.
She screamed in frustration. "No, not to me!" She bounced I-Pin from hand to hand, watching as the marks on his forehead tciked down.
Six, five.
She was about to pass out from the stress when Yamamoto stepped onto the roof. "Hey, Tsuna!"
Four.
Of course! Yamamoto was on the baseball team! He could throw I-Pin really far!
Three.
"Yamamoto, catch!"
Two.
There was a hard glint in his light brown eyes, a sort of determination that she had seen only when he played baseball. He shouted as he caught the child like a ball and hurled it back at her. She barely had enough time to duck before the red-robed figure flew over her head. He kept on going, ferther and farther away from the school.
One.
There was a deafening boom, and a huge, red ball of flames erupted from the small body. It lasted about twelve seconds before the deadly inferno fizzled out, the sky seeming clearer than before.
Yamamoto laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Oops, I thought he was a baseball!"
Tsuna didn't know what to be concerned about the most. The kid that had just exploded, Yamamoto, who had just thrown an exploding kid without knowing that he was actually going to explode, that no one seemed to really care that Yamamoto had just thrown a baby, or that no one in the entire city had even glanced out of the window at the explosions, like there wasn't a giant inferno of infinite death hanging over the city like a huge sun.
Honestly, Namimori Japan was the weirdest place on the earth.
As it turns out, everything was just a huge misunderstanding. I-Pin was super nearsighted, and Tsuna looked absolutely nothing like her target. So, in the end, everything was just fucking dandy, like a five year old didn't just try to kill her with garlic mind control.
Anyways, she, being the idiot she was, invited I-Pin for dinner, along with Gokudera and Yamamoto. She supposed that she had a weakness for kids. Lambo fought with I-Pin, calling each other names, and eventually, I-Pin got so embarrassed that the time bomb activated. Lambo hit I-Pin with the ten-year bazooka, and ten years later I-Pin arrived.
It was then revealed that I-Pin was a she, and she was a delivery girl for a local ramen shop in the future, to save up for college. She had quit Kempo, and her master sealed up the time bomb with a key word, so that she didn't lose control and explode while she was studying.
As she left, Lambo confronted her, and she recognized him as the "Broccoli Monster", which just so happened to be the key word that her master had used to seal her ability.
There was a tremendous explosion, and Tsuna had to clean up the lawn. I-Pin decided to stay at her house (How could she say no? And plus, she sort of owed her for thinking that she was a boy for the entire time that they knew each other), and that night, when the house was quiet and calm, and her two new siblings were curled up against her, sleeping soundly, she thought that her life was absolutely perfect just the way it was.
A man in blue flannel pajamas sat on the couch, rubbing the yellow pacifier around his neck uneasily. Something big was coming, he just knew it. It had started with the unexpected arrival of all these mafioso.
He sighed, pulling out a phone form his pocket. He quickly typed in the number. It was time to call an old friend.
It took about five rings for him to answer. "Reborn? What's going on? Isn't it like, midnight over there?"
"Yes, but I need a favor. Come to Japan immediately."
There was a pause. "I can't right now, Reborn. Maybe in a few days? I'm really busy-"
"It's about the Vongola Principessa."
Another pause. "That's what you've been doing over there all of this time?"
"Yes."
"How did you even find her? She's been missing for eight years! Everyone in the alliance thinks that she's dead!"
"That's a story for another time. How fast can you get here?"
"If it's for my little sister, I can be there tomorrow."
He smirked. Even after all this time, he was ridiculously easy to manipulate. "Good. Bronco Dino." He hung up the phone before the other man could leaned back and stared at the ceiling. Sometimes it was a bit annoying to sleep with your eyes open all the time, but it was necessary if you were a hitman like him. He couldn't afford to slack off, ever.
He stood up ant started walking to his room. On the way, he cracked open Tsuna's door, gazing at the three figures on the bed. He smiled softly. She hadn't slept this good in years. Maybe those annoying children were good for something.
And maybe, he thought lying down on his soft mattress, she was good for something too.
Oh my gosh. This was ridiculously hard to write, I swear. The plot bunnies attacked my brain, and I wrote down almost all of my ideas for all the chapters after the daily life ark. It was so frustrating to have to rewind so much.
Anyways, I'm going to be mixing up the order in which people are introduced. Dino is going next, of course, but Fuuta will still be last (Yes, I write his name with two u's, deal with it. I'm probably going to write Fran as Flan as well), because I just feel like it. After I introduce all the characters, I'll probably just have a few daily life chapters (basically just a fancy word for fillers XD) before I jump into the Kokuyo Ark.
Thanks to CuteDork (I'm so sorry, I LIED to you! I don't know how you could ever forgive me T-T) and pinkus-pyon for reviewing. R&R please! I wnat to know what you think!
P.S. I'm probably going to put most of my author's notes at the bottom now. I don't like to write a lot before the story, ya know?
Thanks for reading! See you again next time!"