DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN KHR.
A/n: A little warning for this chapter since I'm following the manga route for Yamamoto and you know what happened. (Just a few lines of it though, so don't worry)
Bel's eyes widen slightly under his bangs when his knife managed to graze the illusionist's cheek. What were the odds of him manage to hit the illusionist when he only flung his knife on a whim if he couldn't even do the same when he was serious.
Granted, that time, he was in a haze. So, maybe, it didn't count.
Still, it was uncharacteristic of her to be that unaware of her surroundings. Even more, the chibi remained quiet and did not start her usual series of lectures about charging him for bla bla bla bla bla.
Bel eyed the blood that trickled down her cheek. "Ushishishi, what's the matter, Mammon? Even a real baby can dodge it."
"Go gather everyone."
"Who are you to order the prince?"
"It's about bossu." She said before disappeared into a cloud of mist.
Huh, where am I?
Tsuna opened his eyes only to find himself surrounded by darkness. I thought I am supposed to be with Reborn at the baseball field. Ah, I was hit by the dying will bullet. But, Reborn didn't mention this would happen. I'm not dead, am I?
He tried to walk around.
It was a strange place. It was dark and cold and gave off a feeling that he couldn't figure out what it was at that moment, yet he felt warmth and secure at the same time.
He didn't know how long he has lingered in that place, but the next thing he knew, he was laying on a bed with his phone ringing non-stop and a certain silverette who looked like he was seconds away from blasting the phone with his dynamites. Tsuna was very sure that if it was anyone else's phone, he would have blasted it the moment it started to ring.
Tsuna reached for his phone while giving an apologetic smile to Hayato.
"Hello, Shiro." Tsuna mumbled into his phone.
"Tsu-chan!"
Tsuna winced at the sheer volume of Shiro's voice. "Shiro-"
"It's been two days! I thought you said you said you were getting better nowadays. Why did you still collapse? It's that pervert's fault, isn't it?"
"Shiro, Reborn is not a pervert. And it's not his fault either." Tsuna glanced at his phone and saw the 100 miscalls and 277 new messages under the notifications.
"I'm sorry for making you worry again."
"Geez, there you go with the brooding again, Tsu-chan. It's okay for me to worry about you. After all, we are the greatest best friend in the whole world. Stop making it sounds like you're disappointing me or something."
"Still…. You have more important stuff to worry about, like your exam."
"Well, I still remember that there was a certain someone who went all mother-henning mode on me for one whole week despite living in a different country and flunk his exam just because I have pneumonia."
"Pneumonia is a serious problem."
"As though fainting is not a big problem. Besides, who cares about exam? Those are practically just mental torture in disguise. I have more important stuff to think of. Like the welfare of my best friend. Or what comes first- chicken or egg? Or how to short-circuit my whole school without anyone noticing? Or…" The list continued to get more ridiculous until Tsuna let out a laugh.
Shiro sure knew how to cheer me up. He was glad to have Shiro as his best friend. Life was never dull when Shiro was around. Not that it would get dull now that Reborn was here to tutor him.
"Bye, Tsu-chan. You'll be the first one to see my marshmallow bombs when I finish making them."
With that, Shiro ended his call and jumped onto his bed, staring at the ceiling.
His mind went back to the information that he managed to find out about Tsuna's new tutor. It was a surprise to find out that the tutor was telling the truth when he said he was a hitman.
The self-proclaimed greatest hitman in the world. That's narcissist. Shiro snorted. But even more of a surprise, Tsuna was to be the successor to Vongola Nono. Vongola. One of the most influential famiglia in the Cosa Nostra.
He didn't know why Tsuna agreed to be the Vongola Decimo. Tsu-chan is too pure for this world. But then, he thought of his own circumstances. Perhaps, Tsu-chan didn't have much choice. F**king old men can be very demanding when it comes to stuffs related to inheritance. Just like his own father who was very insistent of him to take up the mantle of his famiglia.
That's the downside of being the only heir to a famiglia, I guess. Seriously, how many years has it been since mother left? Dad should have move on and find another woman for himself. Shiro has half a mind on just getting his father drunk and knocked up someone so that he could happily pass the inheritance to the said baby.
He didn't want to be a mafia boss. Mafia was boring. He never understands why people fight anytime and anywhere just to get the upper hand in and between the famiglia.
He also didn't know why everyone has to learn the social etiquettes when underneath all those smiles, praises and compliments; were just full of ulterior motives, jealousy, disgust or curse. To him, the mafia was full of bulls***, double-faced people, men and women likewise.
But, if Tsu-chan is to become Vongola Decimo, he can change the mafia towards the better. Shiro just have a feeling that Tsuna would. Maybe, that's what Vongola Nono is banking on. He didn't like that old man at all but he did have a very tiny bit of respect for him for his attempt to clean the Vongola from its bloody history.
Tsu-chan will need allies when the time comes. And, if I want to be his ally, I need to inherit the famiglia from my dad.
He whined.
"Urghh, but I don't really want to be a mafia boss. It's such a pain." Shiro thrashed around on his bed. "There will be lots of meetings and paperworks and I have to find my own guardians. When would I have time to build my marshmallow kingdom?" He whined again and blinked when he realized one thing. "Guardians? Ah, that's right. Tsu-chan said something like Reborn is introducing new friend to him. That means, he is finding potential guardians for Tsu-chan."
Hmmm, I wonder if Birdie-kun is one of the potential guardians chosen. Well, just in case, I better send a text to that narcissist hitman.
"Are you the one that brought me home, Hayato?"
"No. A guy did. I'm so sorry for not being by your side when this happens, Juudaime." He tried to perform a dogeza only for his head to bump against Tsuna.
Reborn appeared from above the ceiling as Tsuna tried to calm Hayato down. "Yamamoto is the one that brought you back here."
"Yamamoto-san did?"
"I asked him to. And before you start worrying, Nana didn't know about this. Shamal has constructed an illusion to replace you for these two days." Reborn said before Tsuna could ask him further.
"Oh. Thanks, Reborn." I don't think kaa-san will be fooled by that though. But, I appreciate your efforts. "Ne, Reborn, this isn't supposed to happen when the dying will bullet hit me, isn't it?"
"No. You were supposed to enter dying will mode where you temporary gain extra strength and proceed to do whatever you have regret on when you got hit by it. I guess, your body is still too weak to handle the mode and collapse as a result of the burden. So, I won't use the bullet for now. We're going to work on strengthening your body and mind first."
"No."
Reborn raised an eyebrow.
"Ah, no. Wait. I meant please use the bullet again the next time the situation calls for it."
"But, Juudaime, what if you faint again because of that?"
"Don't worry, I have a feeling it won't happen next time." And I want to know more about that strange place and feelings I experienced just now.
"Here are the notes for the past two days, Tsu-kun." Kyoko smiled and handed him a couple of books.
"Thanks again, Kyoko-chan."
"Here I thought your health has improved when you manage to attend all the classes for the past few weeks, Sawada." Hana scowled.
"Shiro said the same thing too. It was-"
Tsuna's words were cut off by someone who slammed opened the door and burst in shouting. "Yamomoto is about to jump off the roof!"
"WHATTT!"
"Are you serious?"
"Ooi, don't joke about this."
"No. I'm not. He broke his arm in one of his practices, and now, he can't get over it."
The chair hit the floor as Tsuna sprang to his feet and pushed his way towards the rooftop.
"Don't jump, Yamamoto!"
"It's dangerous to stand there, Yamamoto-san! The fence is rusty and might fall apart anytime."
"What about the upcoming baseball championship?!"
"It's just a broken arm. It'll heal soon."
"Even if it didn't, you can still ace in the competition with an arm. You're the baseball genius after all."
"Ya. That's right. So, don't jump."
Yamamoto stared at his classmates and teammates who were trying to talk him out of it with blank tired eyes. In the end, all that is matter to them is my baseball skill, huh?
"Winning the championship?" He let out a bitter laugh. "With baseball god abandoning me, there's no way I'm going to win it. You guys would be better off without me."He stared at his own broken arm and sighed.
"I'm tired. I just want to sleep now." Yamamoto closed his eyes and released his grip on the fence, letting himself being pulled down by the force of gravity, only to be snatched by someone midair.
Tsuna reached the roof and felt a chill ran down his spine when he saw Yamamoto was about to let go of his grips on the fence.
Before he could do anything, he felt something hit him and the chill was replaced by familiar warmth that coursed through his body.
Sky flame began to ignite on his forehead as his shirt burst open.
"REBORN! SAVE YAMAMOTO WITH MY DYING WILL!"
He leaped off the roof after Yamamoto and grabbed him before latching onto one of the windows using Leon and crashed into classroom.
Yamamoto opened his eyes only to be greeted by the sight of a half-naked Sawada Tsunayoshi who was scowling on top of him.
"Tsu-"
PIACKK!
The sound of slapping echoed through the empty classroom.
"WHAT THE F*** DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!" Tsuna grabbed Yamamoto's collar and forced him to stand up.
"…"
"Life is not something that you can simply throw away!" He punched straight to Yamamoto's face.
"The baseball god has abandoned me. I -"
He received another punch before he could finish his sentence.
"Don't give me that bulls***! Rather than god abandoned you, it's you that is abandoning yourself."
Yamamoto ignored the blood that dribbled down his lips and looked away from Tsuna. "You don't understand."
"You think I am a psychic? You think everyone is a psychic? Of course we don't fu**ing understand if you keep everything to yourself."
"Even if I talked, someone like you won't understand."
Tsuna tightened his hold against Yamamoto's collar.
"You're different from me. You have friends staying by your side. While all I have was baseball." He gritted his teeth. If he was to admit, he was jealous of Tsuna. The brunet didn't stand out in anything due to his poor health, but he has genuine friends that care for him. He has Sasagawa Kyoko that would help him with study and Kurokawa Hana that would scared away those nasty boys. And there was also the Hibari Kyoya.
"That's it? You only have baseball? What a joke. Are you an idiot? What about your dad? You never give a thought of what he felt if you throw away your life for such stupid things?"
"I-" Yamamoto lowered down his head. He couldn't find the right words to say.
As the flames on his forehead slowly die off, Tsuna began to stagger. "Think of the feelings you felt when you first started baseball." He jabbed his finger against Yamamoto's chest.
"What prompted you to play baseball in the first place?" Tsuna muttered as the familiar dark spot were back in his vision again and his legs gave out due to the depleting strength.
Before Tsuna could hit the floor, he was caught by a pair of arms.
"Woah, never knew you have an aggressive side in you, kiddo." Shamal said before he turned to face Yamamoto. "And you, kid. I don't treat boys but you can come to my office to treat yourself."
Tsuna found himself watching a pair of kids sitting by the riverbank when the darkness cleared from his vision. Is that a younger me with a younger Yamamoto-san? Tsuna's eyes widened. Is this my lost memories?
"Hiieeee! Tsu-kun doesn't want to turn into a vampire! Bye bye. Have to run to the park now."
Vampire? Why would I turn into a vampire?
The scene morphed into a park. He saw himself running towards another boy. Unfortunately, there were fogs everywhere and he couldn't see clearly who that boy was. The scene morphed again and this time, he was back to the previous dark place.
Is it just my eyes adjusting to the darkness or this place are slightly brighter compared to last time?
"Reborn, that's your thirteenth cup of espresso."
"So, what?"
"Normal human doesn't consume that much of espresso in a day." Before Reborn could retort, Shamal continued. "Yes, I know you're not a normal human, and I did hate to tell you this, but still, your body is of an infant now. You should at least tone it down."
"How much I drink is not for you to decide."
"Drinking espresso won't solve any of your problems."
"Neither does drinking alcohol can solve your problems."
"I don't drink alcohol to solve my problems."
"Oh, ya. I forgot. You drink alcohol to invite problems."
"I guess if you're still capable of throwing cheeky remarks at me, you are still fine."
"I am fine. Just annoyed."
"By how things are not exactly going as your plans." Shamal continued.
"You too saw the tiny wisp of red flame mixed within Tsuna's sky flame. He is supposed to have pure sky flame just like Iemitsu."
"Well, sky flame encompasses all the other six flames. Maybe, that sealing cause his sky flame to be temporary unstable. You just need to give him some time for his flame to be fully stabilized. You know, like those patients who regain their consciousness from years of coma, they need time to regain their strength and return to their usual self as well."
"Stupid. That's not the real problem. You saw how Tsuna pull a one-eighty after he crashed Yamamoto into the classroom."
Reborn took another sip from his cup before he continued. "Dying will bullet is supposed to allow a person to possess temporary great strength and invulnerability if he has regret when he was shot by it. Not turning a soft-spoken person into an aggressive person that spews vulgar words."
"Oh, right. I was surprised when Tsuna shouts the F words to that kid. When did he even learnt-" Shamal face-palmed. "I knew I should have clean Hayato's mouth with holy water."
Reborn rolled his eyes in response. "That's just show how bad your parenting skills are."
"At least, I'm better than you. I still remember last time Dino-"
The bullet that whizzed pass his left ear effectively shut the doctor'
"Back to our points earlier, like you said, the sky flame encompasses all the other six flames. If that small amount of storm flame is the cause of Tsuna's personality shift, imagined what happened if other flames manifest the next time I shot the bullet at him."
"…"
"And let just say it is just all due to the bullet effect, it still wouldn't do good to let this situation occurs again. He might scared off the potential guardians that I found for him." And he really didn't want to find out what hyper dying will bullet will do to Tsuna if this continued. Not to mentioned, if Nana heard about this, she might thought that I am a bad influence to Tsuna and decided to stop hire me as Tsuna's tutor. It will be hard to train Tsuna if that happened.
Reborn sighed. It's rare for things to stray out from his plans because he has tons of contingency plans for every single situation that he could conjure up. He even set up a net and has Shamal acted a standby to catch Yamamoto just in case Tsuna couldn't save Yamamoto in time. But, Tsuna just have to break up all his plans.
To think I would have to ask other people than Shamal for help this early for Tsuna's training. Reborn gulped down another cup of espresso. My pride…..
As though he heard his thought, the doctor snickered. "Just a few days ago, you were complaining about how he is too compassionate and everything. Now, you have to think how to tame him." He stepped sideways to dodge the shot fired at him. "Hey, don't ruin my workplace!"
Shamal then mentally went through his own head trying to figure out the person that Reborn trust to call for help in this situation. Only one person came up. "Oh, you're going to call for his help?"
"He's the most suitable person to help in Tsuna's case since he has the best control of his own emotions. Besides, look." Reborn showed the messages that were displayed on his phone to Shamal.
-You cause Tsu-chan to collapse, didn't u (╬ Ò ‸ Ó)
-I wish I can drown u in my marshmallow sea, but Tsu-chan would be sad if u die (´;︵;`)
-So, I forgive u if u do something (。•̀ᴗ-)✧
-Think u can hook Tsu-chan up with birdie-kun? ⋋( ◕ ∧ ◕ )⋌
-Birdie-kun is lonely (◞‸◟;)
-Oh, but be careful. Birdie-kun bites (⸌ ⸍)
"Woah, who's that?" It's the first time he saw someone sent such childish texts to Reborn.
"Tsuna's best friend."
"What's this has anything to do with him?"
"I can't simply drag this 'birdie-kun' to our world without telling him."
The realization dawn on Shamal in just a mere second.
"You mean this birdie-kun is that demon prefect of Namimori-chuu?!" He has a run in with him when he hit on the female teachers in Namimori-chuu earlier and the experience wasn't exactly pleasant.
Reborn raised an eyebrow at the alarmed Shamal.
"The he** with that! He was a menace even though he is only fifteen years old. Imagine when he turns adult with access to flame and stuffs. It wouldn't have been a problem if that boy did not uphold discipline and peace to a whole new level. Mafia is far from those. Oh my god, the mafia world is going to crash and burn." Shamal continued to rant before realization hit him all of a sudden. "This… this is the type of chaos you love." He groaned.
"Hmmm."
"You know what, you should take this chance and train together with Tsuna to curb your chaos tendency. Kill two birds with one stone."
"You people doesn't know how to appreciate the beauty of chaos."
"See! This is why I don't drink espresso. It screws up people's brain."
A/n: Shamal has mist flame, so he more or less is capable of using illusions but it's not his area of expertise. He can fool normal civilians with it but not people with flames.
Hopefully, I can cover the daily arc within 3 to 4 chapters.
Also, happy belated birthday to Xanxus, Tsuna and Reborn and anyone else that was born in October.
And an early Happy Halloween from me. *Give out candies and snacks of all types and flavour to you guys* °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖° Except strawberry flavours because they are all mine :)
