Chapter 10: What Hurts The Most

Hurts. It hurt so much. Too much, he wanted to cry. Stop, stop, he wanted to scream. Someone, anyone, he wanted to whimper. Okaa-san, Giotto-san, Raven-san, Ama-san, Tsuyo-san, Kyou-kun, Take-kun... Kami, he needed someone to save him!

Struggling with all his might would just cause him more pain. He didn't want to feel the intense pain again. His honey-brown eyes watered in despair and in fear as he watched the two big scary men, who proceeded to come near him.

'Please...no more,' there was no word to describe it and there was no voice to make a person understand. Those teary eyes were more than enough. 'Please just stop!'

One of the men—the one who slightly gave of a calming feeling—looked away from the boy almost in shame while the other merely dragged the small boy harshly, causing tears to drop. The first man immediately frowned at the action.

"Hey, don't you think you're being too rough?" he mumbled to his partner quietly but for some reason, the mute child could hear it loud and clear. He could even hear the harsh reply of the other as well that made him cringe in more fearfully than before.

"Don't go soft on me now! Remember who his father is! Remember what our boss taught us! No mercy! Especially to Vongola scams!"

"I remember," the first man answered darkly and his eyes stopped looking to the child in fear that he would feel the intense guilt again. "Let's just get this over with."

There was no time to escape. There was no time to get away. Large arms tightened their grip on the frail and the soft whispers of fake comfort made the room more sinister than anyone could hope for. Because those hands...those filthy hands were already...!

"Don't worry, Vongola scum. We're not going to kill you yet... You're still our bait after all."

—and it was like a snap.

"AHHHHHHH!"

'...please save me! I'm scared. Okaa-san...okaa-san! It hurts!'

The voice, which he thought he never had, screamed in agony but no sound escaped his mouth. Never in his life had he felt this pain. These people were not the bullies who taunted and hurt him. No, they were worse than them. They're stronger and bigger. They inflicted more painful blows that he didn't know what to think.

'Am I going to be like those people in the news? Am I going to be a star in heaven as well? I'm scared. It hurts...please hurry, Okaa-san! Save me!'

The sound of his pain was muted by his disability to speak yet for the two kidnappers, it was the loudest, a loud mute. A soundless cry echoed to their blocked heart and they flinched. It's ironic that what it was.

The boy's usually bright eyes turned dull and grim. He was losing his sight and his body was in an intense fire. He felt himself sway uneasily before darkness completely consumed him. He couldn't help wonder with all the pain where his father was.

He wondered why it felt even more painful when he realized that his mother was wrong, that the stories she had told him were false. His father wouldn't be there to save him when he was in danger. His father wouldn't be his hero like in the stories.

'Otou-san...where are you?'


Nana was a considerate and loving mother. She didn't want any harm to befall to her precious child. She was also an understanding wife. Even when it had looked her husband had left cowardly, she understood without hearing the words that it was for their own good.

But even she had a limit.

"What is she talking about, Iemitsu?"

Iemitsu, not dear or honey. No, she couldn't act like she didn't hear anything. She couldn't ignore that Amaya had shouted. She was a mother and wife—damn it! She had the right to find out what was going on.

Pain and regret filled through those eyes that she once loved the most but she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment. She was sick of being withheld with information that she had the right to know.

If her husband was hurting with her words, then she was hurting with his secrets.

"Tell me...after all these years—" she bit her lip to stop herself from further stuttering and crying. She didn't want to waste her tears from something like this. She knew painfully that her son was suffering worse than her. This was nothing compared to Tsuna's pain—she imagined how other people make a big deal over kidnapping and she never fully understood the panic until now.

"—were our relationship that thoughtless for you? That you never once trusted me with this? That you were just playing with me?"

Oh Kami, she hated doubting the man she loved the most but she couldn't stop the doubt anymore. She was not stupid or naive as people had known. She also had her moments when she noticed things that she didn't actually like to know.

This was her breaking point.

"I wanted to protect you and our son. I just had to keep it a secret. I couldn't involve you two."

She felt something break inside of her. Protect, that was what her son wanted as well—something she wanted to fulfill, too. She lowered her head silently and gripped onto her hands. Her tears painfully fell from her shadowed face.

Nana was a wife and a mother. She didn't want to be protected. She wanted to protect this small family that she had.

"No more, Iemitsu. Stop...," it was foreign for her to talk like this to the blond but a part of her knew that it was bound to happen. They couldn't stay as happy family forever. "Please tell me everything. I need to know. I'm a parent as well! I have to know. This is my son as well! I have to protect him! I'm involved in this!"


"I'm involved."

Words, he never thought to hear, echoed like broken record. Ringing awfully from both his ears, Iemitsu didn't want to hear them. No, he didn't want this to happen. They weren't supposed to get involved in mafia. He had sacrifice so much so that they couldn't suffer the same fate as him.

They weren't train—heck, they weren't suitable in the lifestyle of a Mafioso.

He opened his mouth to disagree, to stop the madness before it started, but his words died out at the sight of his determined wife. Absolute resolve filled into the narrowed eyes of a petite woman. He thought that his breath stopped for a second.

Since when had Nana showed such fire?

It was like watching a stranger rather than his beloved. Somehow, a part of him wasn't that all surprised but the larger part wanted to cry out.

'All those years...Kami, I had missed so much...not just to Tsuna's childhood but also Nana's growth.'

He shook them away with difficulty. These kind of thoughts, he had no need of them. Even if it hurt, he had to save his son first. In the first place, he deserved them for leaving. However, in the end, he could never regret his decisions. He could only live with them.

"Once you're really involved—" his voice cracked in the middle but no one showed pity or dismay at the weakness. Tsuyoshi, especially, knew how hard it was for Iemitsu to say it. "—you can't get out easily. You'll know everything, bad and good. You'll be even more involved in mafia. Are you sure about this, Nana?"

'Please say no. Please back out,' his hardened eyes pleaded but he saw no hesitation from the other.

"Yes. Tell me."


Amaya stared at her usually naive friend and wondered where was the kind woman, who never liked the talk of hurting anyone. She looked hard for the tiny bits of her old friend but it was replaced by a fearsome lioness that would do anything to protect her cub.

But then, she understood as well as Raven that this was the inevitable. There was no sane mother, who would watch in the sidelines when her child was in danger.

She held onto her husband's hand. It was her fault that this had happened. If only she hadn't been too caught by her anger then Nana wouldn't have found out that Iemitsu's in a mafia.

"It wasn't your fault," Tsuyoshi tightened his hold on her and her eyes met his sharp eyes. "It was bound to happen in the future... Better now than when something else happens."

She didn't know if she should take his words seriously. Her pained eyes watched the Sawada couple argue. "If I said the same thing, what would you do, Tsuyoshi?" she thought aloud, trying to distract herself.

The black-haired man didn't answer right away but his dark eyes said them all.

"I left mafia for a reason."

The Yamamoto woman frowned bemusedly. It wasn't an answer and she didn't like her husband's tone.

Before she could say anything, Raven commented blankly, "You can't run away forever."

Amaya was going to say something before a thought came to her.

'Why is Raven not surprised at all of this? It was like she knew it from the start but she's not a part of mafia...'

Heavy rain dropped harshly from that day. Nothing was ever the same. Many secrets still were hidden from plain sight. Closer or farther, only time could tell where these people would lead.


Jade: Ugh, I hate this kind of chapters...So yeah, it took me like months to get this done and I'm sorry. It's just much easier to write "So Long Sentiment" at that time. Also, I had a writer's block. Sorry, this is a little like a filler but I wanted to write this before all the action.