Declaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
Chapter 11
Bad Dreams
Dreams are a thing of complex thoughts and emotions. They show images that tend to form some kind of story. Some believe dreams have symbolic meaning or predict future events. Others see dreams as random, meaningless information. There are many way that people describe dream.
There is also something called nightmares, a dream occurring during sleep that results in feelings of strong terror, fear, distress or extreme anxiety. This can happen as a recurring theme.
Though this dream is different, pre say... This one was different but it was dark but then there was a spot light shined on me, blinding me for a moment that I had to close my eyes. Upon opening them, I blinked that the six faces of baby sized bodies in six different spot lights. There was Reborn the Sun Arcobaleno, Colonnello the Rain Arcobaleno, Fon the Storm Arcobaleno, Verde the Lightening Arcobaleno, Skull the Cloud Arcobaleno, and Mammon or Viper the Mist Arcobaleno. Though there was no Sky Arcobaleno to be seen.
I was the only one to not be an infant form, standing between Fon and Viper.
"What happen?!"
"My body changed back!"
This causes confusion amongst them who thought they are having an old dream.
"Though that doesn't explain why you are here," Reborn voiced, gaining the other Arcobaleno attention from him to me.
"Who the hell are you?!"
"You're the one from the Ring Battle..."
"Hnnn~, interesting. Why don't you become my test subject?"
"You were with that Chrome girl, kora! Why are you here?"
"I would also like to know."
"My name is Yoru... I am prison warden for the Vindice. It is very nice to meet you," I said, bowing my head to them.
"Ní hǎo," Fon greeted, bowing his head to me. "It is nice to meet you as well."
Verde pushed up his glasses, "You seem different from the Vindice members I've encountered before."
"That's correct," I muttered.
"How so, kora? I mean... why now all the bandages around you and floaty cape thingy? The other Vindice members have them, kora."
"She does have a cape. She's just not wearing it right now." Reborn corrected Colonnello, tilting his black fedora with a thick orange stripe running across the sides of the cone over his eyes.
"Really?" Skull wondered aloud, his eyes seemingly to sparkle.
"Yes, but I do have bandages on..." I showed them my arms and stomach.
Reborn frowned at this and commented, "You seem to have more than last time though."
"Hmm..." I hummed out, look to the doorway.
"It still doesn't explain why you of all people are here."
"Maybe it's because of this..." I muttered. So I really was going to show them... I took out a stones Arcobaleno Pacifier making some gasp while others seemed to be more in thought than anything else. "Someone's coming." There were footsteps coming from the door way.
"What do you mean?"
"Right now you all are having the same dream. I wonder if you enjoyed getting that little blast of the past, Arcobaleno-kun." A man with a mask with an iron hat with a checkered design partially drawn on and a metal eye-mask, as well as a slight smirk on the face. The mask also has a scar on its left cheek and a checkered pattern on its right cheek. He also carried a cane and wears a dark trench coat.
"What did 'ya say kora?!"
"That's impossible."
"You probably can't believe this but the moment you wake from this dream, you'll realize that this was all real."
"Who are you?!" Fon shouted.
"Hi, everyone, it's been a while."
Ah... So he was here as well. Checker Face...
"Mu!"
"HIM!"
"Bastard!"
"I've been looking for you!"
"I'm gonna kill you!"
"Don't look so puzzled," Checker Face said, pointing at us. I could feel my body suddenly stiffen when I tried to move. It seemed it was the same for the other Arcobaleno as well.
"It's a shame, but you're in a middle of a dream. No matter how strong you strongest infants are, you won't be able to use those abilities. I, the number one, did now come to fight you," the man with the iron hat said. "I came to ascertain you determination and then make a proposition."
This confused us, including me.
"I'll start off with a simple confirmation. That curse that changed you into Arcobaleno... Do you want to be freed from the curse of the Rainbow?!"
"Come on! Of course we do!"
"Of course."
"It's been my dream for many years!"
"Out of curiosity, yes."
"Return my body to normal!"
All the Arcobaleno voiced their agreement to wanting to dispel the Arcobaleno curse, all except Reborn. I couldn't say anything, it wasn't my place to say it about the curse but it was still mysterious as to why I was here.
Hm...
"Oh! What about Reborn-kun?" The man in the iron hat asked, the smile never leaving his face.
"I don't want to talk to a guy that I can't trust. Don't selfishly talk about the curse and say that you can clear it," Reborn stated, staring straight at Checker Face.
"The cool guy, as usual. However, I know very well that you guys hate the Rainbow Curse. Let's continue this conversation. I plan to decrease the Arcobaleno by one," he revealed, shocking everyone. "This one person will have their Rainbow Curse dispelled and be changed back to an ordinary human. Simply said: He shall be released from his current responsibility, be cleared, and be returned to his former shape and life."
"Wha..."
"What'd you say!?"
"But why so suddenly?" For asked calmly. "Please tell us the circumstances. There are too many things we don't know."
"I plan on telling you someday, but right now I can't say anything," Checker Face counted, dodging to topic. Colonello tch'ed, glaring at the latter as Verde questioned as to 'that again?' with a gleam in his eyes.
"However this is a good conversation. I want to take these feelings of gratitude from me to you. I want to make it the one that can contribute that most to the Arcobaleno that's why the one that will have their curse dispelled will be the one that can be the most thankful to me."
Viper, Verde, and Colonello protest, but the man with the iron hat interrupts once more, saying that the one chosen will be the strongest Arcobaleno should be the one to have his curse dispelled.
The Arcobaleno express their confusion and surprise, but the man states the only rule for the battle between them would be that they each had to choose a representative to fight for them. "That can be anything in the universe: people, animal, ghosts, and so on. I don't care if it's with the power of science or an enterprise. You have become Arcobaleno and obtained connections, wisdom, and materials, so acknowledge your substitute. How's this? Don't you think it's more interesting?"
How could it be more interesting? All you saying to get someone to fight for them or with them... however way they choose to do so didn't matter. But where does that leave me in this equation?
However, Reborn calmly denies it, saying that he was untrustworthy, the other Arcobaleno agree to this. Angered, Checker Face prepares to leave telling them that they were free to believe him or not, but if they ran away from this, the Rainbow Curse wouldn't dispel as long as they lived.
However, all the Arcobaleno reconsider, desperate, agree to the battle, except Reborn. Because of the unanimous agreement, Reborn then reluctantly agrees.
"With this, everyone's participating, right? The beginning will be in one week. I'll make the place the land you all have a connection with: Japan. I'll you the details later," Checker Face explain. His smile was back; more bigger than it was last time.
Skull then frantically asks the man with the iron hat how he was going to find someone to fight for him, saying that he was unpopular and no one would fight for him, but the man with the iron hat reveals with a smirk that he prepared "emergency options".
With that, Checker Face was about to take his leave.
"Wait!" Reborn called after him. Checker Face stopped and turned to look at Reborn.
"Yes?"
"What about her?" He asked, nudging his head to me. "She's not part of the curse yet she's still here and heard all of this."
"Well..." Checker Face trailed off, giving me a once more as he smirked. "Yoru-chan is currently somewhere in Japan and if you can find her you can use her, well in simple terms, as a weapon or anything you like for her to do. Like an extra prize for whoever catches her first. I've told her all this so she could be prepared for when she could run~."
That bastard! How could he do this to me! I was a human not an item to give away as they pleased. God dammit! I growled out, "You bastard!"
I watched the Arcobaleno looked at Checker Face then at me.
"That's interesting; I would love to test some of my experiments on her. I will find you first." Verde pushed his glasses up, a smirk appearing on his face.
"No you will not, kora. I'll be the first one to find her." Colonnello shook his fist, a grin on his lips.
"Muu... It seems I'll have to use money to find her. Such a waste." Mammon crossed her arms but glanced over at me.
"Please wait for me where you are currently waiting, Yoru-san, I will see you there." Fon bowed his head, a pleasant smile but his eyes said otherwise.
"If it must come to that, I will find you," Reborn muttered, tilting his black fedora over his eyes once more. Though I could hear that smirk in his voice...
Skull frantically pleaded for me to join him and all that... He was annoying... So annoying.
"It's best if everyone does his best to quickly find a representative and Yoru-chan over there. We'll meet again." With that, Checker Face disappeared with a snap and my eyes shot open. I was suddenly standing in the spot light to sitting in the dark and the quite room of Namimori Shrine. The room is dark, familiar, reassuring, though it would take some time for it to calm the nerves.
You see... I ran away again after they took me back and now it's even more chaotic then before...
Namimori Shrine was located in the middle of Namimori. The shrine has the typical appearance of one. It is painted in red in color on the exterior. Its roof is greyish-yellow in color.
The Sea knows no bounds.
I gave a sigh, rubbing my hand though my sliver hair. Moonlight peaked through the cracks in the door, stretching on the wooden floor. I stood up, opening the door with creaking sound and stepped outside; the cool evening air nipping my skin as the moonlight gave light to the world for me to see. I looked around; the shrine had some trees and shrubs surrounding it in the area.
I made a small opening by contracting the lips and gave out a whistling sound in a rythmetic style using their tongue to make the noise. "Phweet!"
I held out my arm as the sound of flapping came moments later and a caw. A blank crow landed on my bandaged arm.
"Kuro, are you ready to play a game of cat and mouse?"
"Caw!"
"Ah, but this time it seems like we're the mouse and there's a whole bunch of cats coming after me. We need to hide again. So, help me out?"
The Clam passes down its form from Generation to Generation.
"Caw!" Kuro flew off of my arm and up into the night sky. I gave a small smirk; then pulled my black trench coat, closer to my body but still left it open. I couldn't bring the cloak with me this time and had to change out of that white shirt and pants. I switched them out for black boot-cut pants and a tight, gray-colored sleeveless shirt though my arms where bandaged all the way up past my elbows along with them wrapped around my feet that donned with no shoes. Around my waist hanged a chain belt that held two box weapons I still had from the time I went to the future. One was a Cloud Flame box and the other was a pitch black colored box. On my left hand ring finger was a simple ring with a small onyx on it. And last but not least, a stoned pacifier hanged by a chain that wrapped around my neck.
My sliver hair was still the same, flicking in the wind as I walked away from Namimori Shrine. I stopped at the top of the stair way, watching Kuro fly off until he disappeared into the moon.
"Let the chase begin," I said, taking a step forward and suddenly vanished from sight.
"The Rainbow appears from time to time before fading away."
Glossary:
Ní hǎo- Hello in Chinese
I really enjoyed writing this chapter, hopefully you do as well. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and PLEASE REVIEW, I'd like to hear what you have to say.