Hello everyone. As of 24/9/2013, I'm proud to say that I have finished editing the previous chapters. Whether it's adding of more content or clarifying plot details, these corrections had been made and that's why you are reading the new chapter. I'm unaware of how many of you actually re-read the edits but if you didn't, I added in the segment of Q&A just to clear things up.


Q&A SEGMENT OF REGRETS

What chapters have been edited?

I edited quite a number of chapters. If I re-edited the chapter, you will see the author's note at either the start or the end of the chapter. But for convenience sake, I edited CHAPTER 1,2,6,7 and 8. However, major plot adjustments are at CHAPTERS 6 and 8. You are strongly encouraged to read the two chapters.

I'm confused with the setting!

Since I didn't really specify, I agree that it's very messy and confusing on the settings where the events happened.

Giotto and Tsuna lived in Italy, so do Alaude and Kyoya.

Vongola and Nuvola are situated in Italy, so if there are company scenes, it's in Italy.

Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto attended school in Japan, together with Hibari Kyoya.

Giotto completed his college education in Italy.

Currently, all the events happened in Italy. Unless, it's flashbacks to Tsuna and Kyoya's high school scene, then that's in Japan.

Tsuna is pregnant?

Yeah… I know males can't get pregnant. But let's pretend that in my story, Only Sawada Tsunayoshi can get pregnant. So Gokudera can't, Giotto also cannot.

Can they get married?

For this question, let's just assume…okay?

What do you mean by "They found out?"

Technically…. The 'they' refers to only one person, which is Tsuna. Tsuna found out that Kyoya was only using him for Nuvola. Further details will be revealed subsequently, couldn't give out too much spoilers now!

How old are they anyway?

I mentioned in previous chapters that when Tsuna was 1, Giotto is 15. They have about 14 years of age gap.

For now, Tsuna is 24, Kyoya is 26 (2 years senior).

That will make Giotto 39 and Alaude is also of same age…

Oh no! That would make them all quite old, doesn't it? Let's assume again for the 3rd time that they are still young.

Who is the friend mentioned in chapter 10?

He will be the key factor to the plot. And since I said 'he', it's obviously a male. The first person to guess the person gets a sneak preview to my next chapter!

I also made other changes but didn't replace the chapters. For one, Alaude and Giotto are not high school lovers.

Please do note that up till this point in time, Giotto is still ignorant of the betrayal.

Read on then!

*Warning! 'Unbeta-ed'


Tsuna rubbed his baby bump gently as he whispered sweet nothings to his unborn children. After a healthy and delicious meal, the pregnant boy decided to spend the rest of his afternoon lazing in their private garden. He leaned back to the chair and was in a somewhat laid down position, careful not to crush his abdomen. Classical music from the thirties were playing at the background as Tsuna relaxed himself in the comfort of the soothing sun.

"Tsuna!" Giotto joined him in his relaxation, kneeling in front of him and then placing his ear near his belly.

"The babies seemed to be doing well. I can feel that they are very energetic and restless." Giotto commented.

"They sure are restless alright." Tsuna mused "They kept me awake the whole night!"

"Well, I guessed that's one of the 'bad things' about being pregnant." Giotto laughed.

"How is it going with the company? I heard that we are facing some problems with our divisions in Japan. "

"We had the situation under our control. Don't bother yourself with Vongola. I'm more worried about you than anything else." Giotto scolded lightly, while Tsuna's face turned slightly awkward.

"Gio… I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me. I'm not a kid anymore."

"Of course you weren't a kid. But in my eyes, you will always be my little Tsu-chan." Giotto said affectionately, while brushing Tsuna's brown locks.

"Nii-san…" Tsuna was chocked with tears and he was touched.

"Don't cry, you silly idiot." Giotto smiled as he dried Tsuna's tears, he himself was feeling tearful too. "Until the time when that brother-stealer Hibari Kyoya marries you, I'll be your guardian angel."

Tsuna's face fell that instant Giotto mentioned Kyoya, but he quickly put up an 'everything-is-alright' façade.

"What's wrong? Everything is fine between you and Kyoya?" Giotto asked when he caught Tsuna's slip. Giotto was referring to the time at the hospital. Though after the event in the hospital, Tsuna had claimed that they had a little fight, Giotto wasn't that sure about it. Giotto was almost sure that something more than 'a little fight' had happened, and the slip just now had proven the suspicions.

Under Giotto's piercing gaze, Tsuna was rendered speechless. Giving an excuse or denial wouldn't work anymore, now that Giotto had already suspect something wrong. But Tsuna couldn't simply give up the whole truth. That would hurt Giotto! Unknowing what to say, Tsuna stayed silent.

"It's alright if you don't want to tell me." Giotto didn't want to push any further and stress his little brother out. "But please remember that if you need someone to talk, you can always come to me. I will always be here for you."

"Gio-nii... Thank you." The two brothers embraced tightly.

Tsuna was grateful that Giotto didn't probe further. If not, he might snapped and reveal the whole truth. He knew that his big brother was very in love with Alaude, and he wouln't want to ruin their relationship. When his parents passed on, Giotto had given up a lot to raise Tsuna and trained to become a suitable leader of Vongola. He was forced to bear heavy responsibilities at a young age and despite smiling all the time, Tsuna could tell that his brother was a very lonely man. Thus, he was more than supportive when Alaude approached Giotto and they got together. His beloved brother had done so much for him, it's now his time to return the favor.

This time, Tsuna will protect his brother with his own hands.


One Hibari Alaude was diligently doing his paperwork when his office door was knocked on lightly. Alaude gave the command to enter and his secretary glided in with smooth, graceful movements and bowed respectfully.

"Hibari-Sama, your brother is here to see you."

"Let him in." He replied without sparing a second glance to the other. By not sparing a second glance, Alaude had purposefully avoided the lustful and 'promising' looks in the secretary's eyes. Feeling offended that her advances were not reciprocated, she retreated the room almost angrily.

Within moments, the other Hibari waltzed in the office, shoulders not slumped, back straight but not at all stiff and carried the usual cold, unapproachable expression. Hibari Kyoya was not a frequent visitor of the Nuvola Co., since the business operations were much handled by Alaude. Alaude was the CEO of Nuvola afterall. Though Kyoya was also one of the named heirs to the company, but once Alaude took up the position of CEO, Kyoya resolved to never interfere with the running of the company. Unless absolutely needed, he would prefer to wash his hands off Nuvola.

Of course there would be a reason behind this, a very simple one indeed. The Hibari brothers were both carnivores. And they were very much protective over their territory. A carnivore would never allowed another to rule the land together. Only one of them could succeed the company and by birth rights, Alaude was the rightful heir. So the older brother inherited the throne and the younger brother 'lost', end of story.

Kyoya sat himself on the couch and waited for Alaude to get his whatever work done with. His secretary entered again, bringing in tea for Kyoya and coffee for Alaude. When the secretary set down Kyoya's tea, she might have or not shown cleavage. It was tempting…if Kyoya was a perverted old man desperate for anything with a vagina or young hormonal boy teenager who was just introduced to the wonders of the female population or a really bored male looking for a quick easy fuck. However, Kyoya was neither of those.

And so, like the older Hibari, Kyoya simply ignored the lady. After getting rejected the second time that day, the secretary forced a strained smile and left, eyes twitching and mentally cursing at the two brothers. Those subtle acts didn't went unnoticed by Kyoya who only looked at the woman with amusement.

"Have you ever considered changing your secretary?" Were Kyoya's first words to his brother from the moment he entered the office.

"Hnn?" For a second, Alaude was thrown off guard by the unexpected question. "Not at the moment." He paused. Though the elder was sure at his brother's reason for question. "Why?"

"I can't stand the way she acts around guests." The younger Hibari replied "Too flirty. As if she had never seen a man before."

"I see." Alaude chuckled inwardly. The description fitted his secretary to a 'T'. "I couldn't really stand her most of the time. But unfortunately, despite her inappropriate actions, she's really good with her job. Also, she makes good coffee… and tea" Alaude added on, knowing how strongly Kyoya feels about tea.

"I am unsure about her secretarial skills. But I acknowledge her skills in making tea." Kyoya said albeit rather reluctantly. This is Italy after all, and where most people weren't familiar with drinking tea as a beverage. Thus, it is almost impossible to find people who specialized in making traditional tea.

Both brothers stayed in silence as they enjoyed their beverage and recollect their thoughts.

"I never expect to see you here." Alaude spoke while sipping on his lukewarm coffee.

"Ahh. But I would never dream of stepping foot into the company if not for –" Kyoya hesitated "Tsuna."

Alaude had a complex expression upon hearing those words from his brother. "Indeed. We do have a lot to talk about."

"What are your plans now?"

"As expected, Tsuna totally hates me." Came the blunt reply.

"It's not Tsunayoshi's character to hate someone. He's too kind for that." Alaude rejected the statement immediately.

"I totally screwed up this time. I'm certain he will never forgive me."

"Not you." The French blond interrupted. "It was me." Alaude crossed his legs with a grim expression.

Flashback to 5 years ago

"Would anyone care to explain why our sales for the third quarter dropped by 80%." Alaude asked coolly, but that wasn't a question but rather, a statement, which was directed to the other occupants in the conference room; namely, the managers and heads of the respective organization departments.

The said people lowered their heads cleverly but barely managed to avoid their CEO's cold and steady gaze. The conference room was dead with silence as the management stole furtive glances at one another and also at Alaude. Seeing that no one was going to reply, Alaude slammed the table in anger, effectively startling the others. He scanned the sea of terrified faces and resisted the urge to burst out and fire the whole lot of those useless bums.

Finally, the head of marketing spoke, after being nudged repeatedly by the other heads beside her. "S-Sir…" She stammered. "A-After the sales of our products, we did a market research and obtained some information that may account for our poor performance."

Alaude raised an eyebrow but didn't stop the woman. The woman then showed the consolidated results of the market research on the projected screen. The management took a few minutes to glance through the data and the marketing manager spoke "From the results, we derived that the main reasons as to our poor sales were the lack of advertising and unsatisfied product quality."

When the two reasons were stated, the respective managers stood up almost immediately, eager to clarify themselves. "Sir! We did our best at promoting our products. However, due to the fact that we have many production lines, the funds and budget at hand were not enough to be distributed equally to every production line. Hence, we allocated much of our funds to the more pricy and more sold products. This caused the other not-so-popular products to be largely neglected. And we believe is the reason for…decline in sales." The Advertising manager ended hesitantly.

"What about the unsatisfactory in quality of our products?"

"Sir, actually... we changed the materials for our products." One spoke softly, but clear enough for all to hear. "We altered and used cheaper materials with a slightly poorer quality rather than using our usual ones which were more expensive and of course better in quality."

"Explain."

The speaker cleared his throat and then further explained his statement. "We all know that due to the financial crisis in the world's economy last year had affected our business to a great extent. That implication on our sales was severe and thus we had to make do with a tighter budget this year. And the only way to manage would be to source for cheaper suppliers. However, with cheaper costs means poorer quality."

At that, Alaude settled into deep thought. He had only gained control over Nuvola just the beginning of the year. There was still a lot of issues that he was unclear and not known of. This was the first time he had heard of the financial problems in the company and he was thrown into a difficult situation. If this goes on, Nuvola would certainly go into bankruptcy.

"Alaude-sama, we have a problem." The skylark's train of thought were abruptly halted when Hyuuga Junpei , Alaude's right hand man barged into the conference room. Annoyed at being disturbed when he was in the middle of his thinking process, Alaude gave a cold glare at the intruder, but dismissed his rude behavior. Surely, if it was someone else, Alaude would have killed the person with infinite death glares, but Hyuuga had been with him for quite some time and that 'rude behavior' would be overlooked for now.

"Meeting adjourned." With that, the other managers left the conference room and left Alaude and Hyuuga alone.

"What's so important for you to barge in to the meeting like that?" Alaude asked as he relaxed himself more comfortably in the arm chair.

Hyuuga however, carried a complex and unreadable expression on his face. His usual cheery and flamboyant attitude was replaced by something more serious and worrisome.

"What happened." Alaude stated, his expression returned to his usual 'coldness'.

"Take a look at this." Hyuuga passed a file to Alaude who scanned through the contents thoroughly, his eyes becoming colder and more dangerous by the moment.

Without any warning, he flung the file across the room. 'Thud!' The file crashed to the wall and dropped to the ground.

"Bullshit!" The skylark cursed as he slammed his fists on to the table once more.

"Alaude-san!" Hyuuga called out to his furious boss as he picked up the discarded file from the ground.

Hibari Alaude was furious and beyond words. On the documents that his right-hand showed him, were stated the bank transfers transactions between the company funds and the previous CEO and management of Nuvola. That's why the company funds were running low. It was not because of decline sales and profits, but corruption within the management! In all the years that the previous generation of management had served Nuvola, millions and billions of money had been pocketed for their personal use!

However, no matter how much he desired to kill those shameless bastards, he couldn't do so. At least not when the company is facing the crisis that might lead them to bankruptcy. He will deal with those foolish pests later, Hibari Alaude swore on that.

After he dismissed the loyal left-hand, Hibari Alaude sat in the room alone, his eyes looking even colder than before. Cracking his brains, he tried to think of ideas and plans that will turn the situation around. But even his intelligence and excellent business tactics served to be useless now, as he wasn't able to come up with any feasible solutions.

If only he could somehow obtain huge amount of capital or get a billion-dollar investment contract deal. That will then save the company from going bankrupt. However, the question now is how and where to get that?

Alaude couldn't think of anyone 'dumb' enough who want to invest or sign a contract with Nuvola. After their financial statements had been released, their stock prices had plunged to an all-time low. Banks wouldn't approve their loan application and potential investors will never think of putting their money with Nuvola.

The proud skylark resisted the urge to pull his hair out and drown his cup of coffee.

Unless….

He shot up.

Like a frantic man, he quickly punched in letters on his keyboard and with a click of 'enter', the search results came up. He scanned through the contents and slowly, a smirk-liked smile spread his face.

Gotcha.

The solution to Nuvola's crisis lies in his hands now. And he already had an idea on how he will carry the idea out. It would require meticulous planning, time and a lot of luck for it to succeed. But if it did, it will be more than enough to save Nuvola and transformed it to one of the top corporations in the world.

The consequences may be deadly, if he didn't play his cards right. But he wouldn't care much. If doing so can save Nuvola, he will go all lengths to get what he want. Nothing, and no one will be able to stop him.

"Even if I would have to sacrifice you…Sawada Giotto."

Merciless and almost insane eyes glued to the screen which displayed a picture of a smiling blond with cerulean eyes.

On the fateful day, the wheels of fate started turning.

The lives of four individuals were intentionally interlocked.

Starting the game of cruelty, hurt and pain.

A game where there will be no winners,

But broken, lost, regretful souls.


That was really long, wasn't it? I tried my best to give you this chapter. I'm still stuck with my studies and stuff.

I would like to thank all those who reviewed, favourited and followed the previous chapter. I really appreciate it! Though i was on hiatus for so long, it's really encouraging to see people still interested and waiting for this. Thanks everyone! ^^

Please do leave a review so I know what you guys think about this story. I'm so lost and depressed right now!

Till next time!~

PS: I have no idea when I will be updating 'The beginning and ending of the tri-ni-sette war'. But I will try my best.

PPS: If you want to get a sneak preview of my next chapter. All you have to do is to guess who the mysterious friend I mentioned in CHAPTER 10 is. First Come First Serve Basis, PM or review your answer! HINT: It's a guy!