Hello, there! Turns out I will have to continue this story but I may take a lot longer to update as long as I don't have school requirements or any tests interfering. Thanks very much to those who read my previous chapter and to omgpink, EvilBoyzR2Cute, musicfans, Aoi Kazuya, Azulish, kimmay94, dJAmystery, , Rya-chan X Shii-chan, Kanra-chan, Azalie-Kauriu who left me a review and their response to my previous question! Thanks very much for your support! I wouldn't know how to write if you guys didn't give me your reviews! Thank you very much!
Now on with the story!
Disclaimer: I do not own this awesome anime, Katekyo Hitman Reobrn!
-The line breaker still isn't working.-
Howling Wind
By: Fire Princess21
Chapter 11: Torture Objective: Draw Out the Flame
I rubbed my eyes sleepily as I pulled on jeans and a simple shirt- something I dug out from the dark confines of the closet in my room. Coincidentally, I also found other clothes that were surprisingly my size and necessities stashed away in the bottom drawer of the closet.
It was almost as if my future-self had anticipated this.
I pushed the thought to the back of my mind as I combed through my wet hair- fresh from a bath.
I had spent the better part of yesterday hanging out with Kyoko and Haru- both who seemed happy to see me- as Kyoko had introduced me to her rather eccentric and chatty friend, seeing as we had never met. I helped with their kitchen duties and asked occasional questions about the base and the people in it, what their sentiments were and how they found life in an underground base.
I mostly found out that Giannini was the Vongola technician who had created the base, the security and was- like his title proclaimed- indeed in charge of all the technical things within the Vongola and pretty much adored Tsuna. Fuuta, who was the Prince of Ranking, also maintained things in the base plus babysitting Lambo and I-pin. He had been also in Tsuna's care ten years into the past. Bianchi, who was Gokudera-kun's older sister, kept the girls company, helped with the household chores and basically acted as a mom to Kyoko and Haru.
Aside from that, I also found out that they didn't have a clue about their real reason for being here and their current involvement with the Mafia. Although I thought I should tell them the truth, I felt that it would be better if they didn't know, as Tsuna had carefully kept the truth from them.
I sighed as I picked up my fans, slipped on my ring and pocketed the small box I got yesterday. Lal Mirch had explained to me yesterday before bed that the box contained a weapon that had been specially made for me. It required a certain amount of my silver flame to be inserted in the box for me to open it. Though I was curious, I waited until today to open my box weapon.
I left my room and proceeded to the training room that Lal showed me yesterday where she told me I would train.
I didn't bother to ask permission from Hibari to train since I had a feeling that he would know anyway. Besides, he didn't want to be disturbed, as far as I could tell.
Taking the elevator to the sixth floor, I had a sudden feeling of premonition that things today wouldn't go as smoothly as it had when Faye and Dino first trained me. Not that I expected whoever was going to train me to go easy on me, I felt that somehow, today, I would really get a feel of the reality of our current situation. I clutched my fans in each hand, anticipating muscle aches and the fear for my life pounded into me later.
The elevator opened and I entered the first door on the floor. Gokudera and Yamamoto greeted me as I entered.
"Yo, Sakura-chan! Ohayo!" Yamamoto greeted me with a bright grin. I smiled back, feeling it impossible to feel morbid and brooding in front of his cheery attitude.
"Ohayo, Yamamoto-kun! Gokudera-kun!" I greeted them both with a bow.
"Che. You better not be a burden to the Juudaime, woman. I won't let you drag him down." He said indifferently. My smile dimmed a bit but it stayed on. I could bear with his insults as long as it didn't go below the belt.
"Don't worry, Gokudera-kun. I carry my own weight fine. I'm essentially a hard-working person so you don't need to snap at me." I replied. The door slid open just then, revealing Tsuna as he walked in.
"You three!" he said in surprise, when he saw the three of us standing at full attention.
"Yo, Tsuna!" Yamamoto greeted him, smiling.
"Ohayo, Sawada-san!" I greeted him next, bowing.
"Ohayo, Juudaime!" Gokudera said last.
"Ohayo, minna!" Tsuna greeted all of us. He turned to look at me. "Sakura-chan, please call Tsuna instead." He said.
"Hai, Tsuna-kun!" I replied, smiling.
He turned next to Gokudera and Yamamoto. "Have your injuries healed yet?" he asked them worriedly.
"We're getting back to training starting from today." Yamamoto informed Tsuna.
"Totally!" Gokudera agreed enthusiastically. "I was starting to worry that we were getting out of touch." He added.
"Really? That's great!" Tsuna said, smiling. We turned to Reborn and Lal Mirch in front of us when we heard them speak.
"All four are present then." Lal Mirch said, her arms folded over her chest. I dropped my smile and started to get serious. My stomach twisted in nervous knots. She continued to speak, explaining our training for that day.
"As I've mentioned, you'll all be starting a new training course today." She started her face in a serious mask. "It's called the 'Individual Training Assault Program'."
"Individual training…?" Tsuna repeated to himself.
"Just like Tsuna's been receiving one-on-one training from Lal Mirch these past ten days, you'll each get your own home tutor to train you, same as during the ring battle." Reborn explained in detail. His hand lifted up to where Leon sat on his head and Leon transformed into a green gun. "For example, "he continued, as he held the gun, "I'll be training Yamamoto." He said, facing him.
Yamamoto's eyes widened in surprise as he pointed to himself. "Is- Is that all right?" he asked, smiling doubtfully. Tsuna panicked.
"Eh? Reborn's training Yamamoto?" he said in a panicked voice. Then a new voice spoke from behind us.
"I will be in charge of Hayato." Bianchi said as we turned to look at her.
"Bianchi!" Tsuna screamed as Gokudera fainted to the floor. "G-Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna said, concerned as he did.
"T-This must be a joke…" Gokudera muttered as he tried to stand up. I looked at him curiously. He looked sick as if seeing Bianchi was some sort of evil curse put on him that made him like that. I shifted my attention to Bianchi as her ring lit up with a red storm flame.
"Since we're siblings, it's unsurprising that the strongest attribute of my wave energy is also storm." She said, as we all looked at her for an explanation. "If you manage to complete your training successfully, I have something to award you." Bianchi added mysteriously. "Something from father."
Gokudera looked up at her in surprise when she mentioned 'father' but upon seeing her face, he fainted once again.
"This is not working at all!" Tsuna protested, looking at Gokudera's inert form. "We better stop this now!" he added, his concern for Gokudera's fainting spells rising. No one listened. Reborn cocked his gun and aimed it at Tsuna's forehead.
"You should devote yourself to your own training." Reborn said as he pulled the trigger. Tsuna suddenly fell back as the bullet hit his forehead bulls-eye.
"Oi! Tsuna." Yamamoto called to him in concern. I stayed quiet, silently observing the unfolding events.
I had expected him to pass out, not knowing what the bullet Reborn shot him with was, but to my surprise, an orange flame appeared on his forehead and his gloves, which he had donned upon entry to the training room, morphed into black ones with a large cross mark on top, lit up also in an orange flame. It was large and its intensity was also admirable. I looked at his flame with and awe and envy, wishing, again, that I could be as strong as he was.
Gokudera, Yamamoto and I stared with widened eyes at the strength and power Tsuna's flames emitted. I clutched my fans tighter to my sides.
It seemed that I had a lot to catch up on.
"That's incredible, Juudaime!" Gokudera said in awe and admiration after having recovered himself. "The intensity has increased even more!"
"You're like a totally different person!" Yamamoto added with the same tone of amazement. "You've improved leaps and bounds ahead of us again."
Using his flames as thrusts, Tsuna flew up into the air and landed in front of Lal Mirch.
"Shall we begin, Lal Mirch?" Tsuna said in a completely monotone voice. I stared at him in surprise, silently appraising the change in his attitude. He seemed much more… calm. His usually chocolate-colored eyes were now tinged in orange, his expression the perfect imitation of a poker face. I began to surmise that the bullet Reborn shot him must have somehow drawn out the immense power hidden within the otherwise coward and soft Sawada Tsunayoshi.
Lal Mirch's reponse surprised both him and me.
"I'm no longer training you." She said bluntly, without a hint of hesitation. Tsuna's eyes slightly widened. She continued to speak.
"You have not attained the level I expected of you at all," she said, her voice blunt and serious, "I've realized that you will not be able to improve as much as I'd hoped for in such a short time."
"But, this really is all I have." Tsuna objected.
"You're power is far greater than this!" Lal said. Just then, I turned my head to my left where a rolling purple ball suddenly came, flying out of nowhere. I jumped away to avoid in time and it headed straight for Tsuna. I tried to warn him.
"Tsuna! Watch out." I yelled. Looking at where I had shouted, he saw the rolling purple ball flying at him and he used his gloves to fly up in the air onto the wall to avoid collision. The ball suddenly flew up as Tsuna did. Stretching his arms from his sides in front of him, the flames on Tsuna's hands grew bigger in an attempt to stop it from crushing him. A loud explosion occurred and a sudden spectrum of light blinded me. I raised my arm to cover my eyes. When I opened them, I saw that the rolling purple ball was actually a spiked ball.
Tsuna, with his arms outstretched, his palms open, generating flames to push away the spiked ball, widened his eyes in surprise the same time I whipped my head around at the sound of heels clicking against the concrete floor- supposedly where the attack came from.
"Hibari…" I murmured in surprise, my eyes widening in both surprise and recognition.
"If you don't pay attention, you will die." Hibari said simply, as he watched Tsuna struggle with the spiked ball from above.
"It's you!" Tsuna said in surprise.
"I'm going to pry open all of your abilities." Hibari said in a monotone voice.
"Hibari-san! What are you trying to do? You'll kill him." I yelled at Hibari. He didn't even turn his head as so much to acknowledge me or my outburst. I watched as Tsuna struggled with the spiked ball.
"Exactly as the baby said," Hibari told him as he observed Tsuna's futile struggles, "This level of power is a far cry from your future self." Tsuna forced more of his dying will flame to come out. A trickled of sweat rolled down to my chin, my hands trembling as I watched.
Everyone watched, frozen and horrified as Tsuna fought against it. Then, all of a sudden, the purpled cloud-like substance that surrounded him and the ball began to freeze, turning into ice as he said, "Dying Will Zero Point Breakthrough: First Edition!"
Yamamoto and Gokudera cheered.
"It's that move!" Yamamoto said with relief and confidence.
"Way to go, Juudaime!" Gokudera said, his eyes shining with admiration.
I shook my head. I had a bad feeling about this.
"No!" Lal shouted in objection, "It's not over yet!" Tsuna looked at his side as the purple cloud-like substance started to spread over him, faster than before. It had almost enveloped him.
"Tsuna! Get out of there! You're going to be eaten up and locked if that turns into a ball." I yelled at him in vain.
"The clouds are multiplying!" Lal said in alarm. His other hand tried to freeze the purple cloud-like substance at his sides but it was multiplying too fast for him to catch up.
"Tsuna!" I yelled as he was completely enveloped by the purple clouds. "No…" I muttered in vain as the ball fell to the floor with a loud thud. We all looked at the huge, purple, spiked ball with identical faces of horror save for Reborn and Hibari. Hibari's ring shattered on his finger at the same time.
"T-Tsuna!"
"Juudaime!"
Yamamoto and Gokudera spoke in alarm simultaneously. I looked down at the floor, clenching my teeth in anger.
"It's the globe of needles form." Hibari said casually, "It's an airtight sphere molded with cloud flames, making it completely impervious. It's impossible for him to break through the sphere with either physical strength or his flames." He added. Walking towards the globe of needles, he put one hand against it and spoke.
"It's airtight so the oxygen within the sphere is limited." Hibari said, speaking to Tsuna. Then he added in the inevitable.
"If you don't get out quickly, you'll die."
I paled at his words.
Gokudera was the first to speak.
"Are you insane?" he told him, his tone and face livid, "You think you can just show up ten days later and try to kill Juudaime? Let him out now!" he ordered.
Hibari looked at him with a smirk.
"The weak will be killed, that's a given." He replied, again, in a casual tone. "To begin with, even if I have a reason to kill Sawada Tsunayoshi, there is no reason why I should let him live."
Reborn then spoke, intervening.
"Then we should begin our training too." He said. Gokudera looked at him, his eyes worried and frantic.
"W-Wait a minute, Reborn-san!" He protested, "If we don't stop this, the boss will…"
"Hibari is serious." Yamamoto said nervously.
"I know he is. That's why it must be Hibari." Reborn said in a matter-of-factly tone. He went on to explain. "Every generation, the boss must overcome the Vongola trial. The trial cannot be compromised so a genuine threat is necessary." He said.
We all looked at Reborn with nervous apprehension. Bianchi then approached Gokudera and took him by the shoulders.
"Ok," she told him, "we should get started too." Just as I expected, Gokudera fainted again and Bianchi sighed.
"What do I do with this child…" she said.
"G-Gokudera-kun!" Yamamoto said in surprised concern when he saw him faint. Reborn started to walk towards the door.
"Yamamoto, I'm going to change first. Meet me in basement ten." Reborn instructed as he left.
"Matte! Reborn-san. Who am I going to train with?" I asked him before he left.
"Hibari's going to train you. He's making an exception for both you and Tsuna as he knows you best." Reborn said before the door slid close behind him. Bianchi carried off the unconscious Gokudera and Yamamoto followed Reborn with an inconspicuous good luck to me. I sighed and faced the purple ball that held Tsuna prison.
Hibari looked at his pocket watch expectantly.
The only ones that were left in the room were Hibari, Kusakabe Tetsuya behind him, the ball that contained Tsuna and Lal Mirch.
Hibari yawned, Hibird tweeting from its perch on his finger.
I gulped when Hibari suddenly looked at me. I took an unconscious step back.
"It's time for your training now." He said with a deadly tone as he slipped on another ring. I raised my fans in a defensive position. His ring lit in a purple flame and he inserted it in one of his purple box weapons. A pair of tonfas covered in purple flames shot out.
"Now," he said as he walked towards me in a leisurely pace, "show me your resolution."
-The line breaker still isn't working.-
Hibari's POV
Hibari slammed his tonfa against Sakura and he watched her fly until she hit the concrete wall. She dropped to her knees but struggled to stand up. Wincing from the unexpected impact, she raised her fans, her arms at her, and started to run towards him again.
Pathetic, he thought, as he watched her charge. He raised his tonfas, ready to deflect her attack but before they met, she jumped high into the air and waved her fans once, generating a gust of wind that would have taken a normal person out.
Too bad he wasn't normal.
He merely raised his purple-flame coated tonfas to dissipate the tornado and once he had accomplished that, jumped up while she was still airborne and kneed her stomach.
She coughed but was too slow to retaliate.
He swung his tonfa and hit her square on her back and she fell with a large impact on the ground, face-first.
He wanted her to stand up, to tell her to stand up, but he could not.
Such feelings of love and concern weren't needed on the battlefield. It wasn't worth his time to waste over those feelings. Though he admitted to himself that he should have thought of a gentler way to teach her, that if he could have just told her what she needed to know, then he wouldn't have to go through this with her.
But only weak herbivores learned that way and from experience with her future self, expending her kindness would only weaken her resolve.
And he had no use for the weak.
Besides, he couldn't be around her all the time to ensure her safety. That was the essential part in making her go through this. To make her trust herself and resolve more, to make her stronger for herself and those she so badly wanted to protect. The 'reason for her existence', as her future self called her resolve.
He looked at her distastefully.
She was a far cry, a pathetic excuse, from the woman he had grown to love and treasure.
She rolled over weakly on her back and he saw her glance up at the globe of needles that still held Sawada Tsunayoshi. He paused for a bit as Kusakabe spoke.
"The oxygen is nearly out." Kusakabe reported. "Both his mental and physical states are reaching critical levels."
Finally, Lal spoke.
"This will not achieve anything! He's just going to die in vain." She protested. "Cease this training at once."
"Tsuna…" Sakura muttered weakly. Hibari frowned at her, irritated. He decided to ignore her for the moment, the sight of her so pitiful undeniably sending a painful throb to his heart and faced Lal.
"It was you, wasn't it?" he asked her rhetorically. "You instructed Sawada Tsunayoshi to fight with his ring on his finger. That was the right thing to do. But whether or not he can become the Sawada Tsunayoshi you hope for… He has to be tested under extreme conditions." He glanced at the globe of needles before he spoke again.
"There hasn't been one so young to face the trial in the Vongola history though." He amended. Lal turned her attention to Reborn who had just reappeared, her eyes silent with her own questions.
Hibari looked at Sakura again who was struggling to stand up; one knee bent while to the other was kneeling. She had her ring in front of her, a small flickering flame visible on her ring.
She hasn't found her resolve yet. Hibari realized as the small flame flickered unsteadily. He sighed mentally.
I'll have to push her over the edge. He thought as he approached her. She might not forgive me for this but I have no choice. He put his emotions in check. He couldn't be soft with her now.
She looked up at him when he was near enough. Her eyes brimmed with tears of pain and hate.
Hate for him for being so merciless.
For having her endure such pain and misery and subjecting her into this torture.
In his heart, he knew that he was also hurting himself but he had to this.
For her sake as well as the others, he would hurt her purposefully to draw out her true potential.
Grabbing the collar of her shirt, he lifted her up, one tonfa coated in purple flames near her head, ready to strike.
"You are useless. You lean onto others for support. As independent as you think you are, you are the weakest of them all." He said in a mockingly disgusted tone. "How can you say that you swear to protect the people whom you love when you cannot protect even yourself? This ends here, Hitako Sakura. You are only a liability to all."
At his words, her eyes that had been brimming with the tears she fought to hold back now flowed ceaselessly down her cheeks, soaking a part of the sleeve of his suit.
His cruel words had done their job, hitting home to her weakest spot.
"I don't want to be a burden." She murmured through her tears. "I don't want to depend on anyone. I want to be able to help them. Not the other way around."
"Too late." He said as he swung his tonfa to meet her head.
The globe of needles form cracked open in a blinding light the same moment she disappeared from his clutch.
His tonfa swung at empty air.
"What happened?" Lal asked in alarm. "What's going on?"
Reborn simply looked on forlornly.
"Kyo-san! What is this?" Kusakabe asked, part of his arm raised to cover his face from the light.
"The globe of needles form has been broken." Hibari replied, again, in a monotone voice.
The globe of needles form shattered right before their eyes and with Hibari's attention riveted to it, they didn't see the silver glowing flame, larger than before, above the ensuing chaos.
Only Reborn did.
He looked up at the flame, its wielder flying indistinctly on thin air. He smirked and looked back at the scene before him.
Looking at the collapsed globe of needles form, Sawada Tsunayoshi emerged as the smoke cleared. His gloves were aglow in an iridescent light. The seal of the Vongola was now visibly present on his gloves.
"X-Gloves. Version Vongola Ring." Tsuna muttered his hand beside his face.
Hibari looked up after seeing that Tsuna had somehow survived the Vongola trial and smirked to see Sakura, her fans at her side, glowing with a distinct silver flame. Her face was a mask of utter seriousness, dried tears still present on her cheeks.
"Hmm…" Hibari hummed to himself. Looking from Tsuna to Sakura, he smirked to himself.
Maybe training them both at the same time won't be a complete waste of his time.
-The line breaker still isn't working.-
That's that. I'll try to come up with three or two more chapters before the slow updates start. As if this isn't slow enough. Anyway, thanks for reading this! I really hope to see your reviews, criticisms and whatever you have to say. Please tell me if it's getting too OOC. I really appreciate your reviews. I even accept anonymous reviews. Just please leave one. Flame me if you feel like it.
My classes start on June 9 so I'll try to update as much as possible because as soon as classes start, I'm afraid I won't be able to focus writing here as much. I'm truly sorry.
Thank you for your time, patience and continued support!