"Welcome, everyone, to Yamakaze's very first 'Beach Games'!" Reborn still in his female costume announces through a microphone. Firecrackers exploded in the background releasing streamers and confetti onto the crowd gathered around him. It seems that Tsuna was the only one who knew that the 'lady' was actually Reborn in disguise. Nothing unusual there. "We are going to have lots and lots of challenging games for you today! As you all may know, the winner will get a chance to eat at the Yamakaze restaurant for a huge discount." Reborn says. Everyone in the crowd cheers with delight and enthusiasm, completely unaware of the dangers awaiting them. "Now before we begin, those who do not want to risk possible broken bones, decapitation, poisoning of any kind, permanent paralysis, and the such, please leave for your own safety." Reborn says nonchalantly. I knew it... Tsuna thought and sweat dropped.

The crowd went silent for a moment, and then they started murmuring to each other debating whether Reborn was just joking or was completely serious about what he just said. "Hey Mukuro, I don't think that this is a good idea." Tsuna says. Now is my chance to get some sense into him. "You're just too stiff Tunayoshi-kun." the boy laughs cooly. You're too carefree! Tsuna thought. It was useless once Mukuro set his mind on something it seems. In the end, there were only three groups left that dared to face all of Reborn's challenges. "Nice try lady, but we're not falling for your little tricks." a somewhat familiar rough voice says. "S-Saru?!" Gokudera exclaims. The high school delinquents had already recovered from their last encounter. "Hm, if that's what you want to believe." Reborn says amused.
"S-Saru, what are you guys doing here?!" Tsuna asks .
"We thought of going on a little break after being released from the hospital, but it looks like we've run into you brats again." Saru growls and cracks his knuckles.
"Pffft, what kind of name is Saru anyway?" Mukuro laughs.
"You little piece of shit!"
"Boss! We work under Sawada-sama now, you know the way it goes!" one of Saru's subordinates said while holding him back.
"I don't fuckin' care, and you dare to call that scum Sawada-sama?!" Saru shouts and jabs the poor guy in the face.
"Violence against your fellow competitors will result in an immediate disqualification." Reborn says after blowing a whistle that would have bursted everyone's ear drums. At least it made Saru calm down a bit so he would not try to murder Mukuro's face. "Whatever, I'll be sure to beat you little punks to the ground this time." the boy says and points accusingly to Tsuna's group. "Uh, boss, I don't think that we'll be fighting this time." another subordinate says.
"Whatever."

In the end, it was only Tsuna and Saru's teams that stayed behind. The rest of the teams seemed to have enough sense to quit when they had the chance.

"Now that everyone is all set, let's begin the games!" Reborn cheers. Only Mukuro, Ken, and Chikusa were the ones who actually cheered with enthusiasm.


Before beginning the games first, Reborn explained that since there were only two teams left, there would be only three games for them to compete in. Of course, this was a relief to Tsuna until Reborn said that the games would be even more challenging. Even in this world he had to put up with Reborn's nonsense.

"This first game is called 'Ultimate Beach Volleyball'! It's just like regular beach volleyball but with a little twist in it." Reborn announces, "Please send out two representatives from each team within 3 minutes!" With that, each team started to discuss who will be their players for this match. Tsuna was completely useless at sports so he was out. The only athlete on their team was Yamamoto. "So, besides Yamamoto, who else is good at beach volleyball or at least knows how to play?" Mukuro asks. He was being super serious about this whole competition, which scared Tsuna little. "Well, I guess I'll go. I've played this in video games tons of times." Ken says as he stepped forward to volunteer.
"Perfect!" Mukuro chimes.
W-What does video games have to do with beach volleyball?! Tsuna thought. He just noticed that Ken was not adding a 'byon' to the end of every sentence now too. Oh well, it was better than nothing.

"Yosh, let's go!" Ken says and marches along with Yamamoto as if he had already won the game. "Why did I have to be dragged into this?" Yamamoto complains sleepily, but he went on to the court anyway. Fortunately for them, Saru will not be playing in this match, but still his team had a lot of scary people. The two players on his team looked really well built and athletic. When Tsuna looked at them, one of them replied with a threatening look on his face and dragged his finger across his throat. Even though Tsuna was not playing now, he still felt terrified of them.
The outdoor court looked ordinary, with a net in the middle and sand as the surface to play on. There were some people who came to watch the game out of curiosity and were sitting on stands that were prepared for them. Despite the normal appearance, Tsuna had his weird feeling that there will be tons of traps set up by Reborn awaiting the four players. Even stranger, the court was surrounded by glass, like a box covering the place. Reborn who would be the referee was sitting outside the box at a table with a computer screen with multiple angles of the inside on it.

The team that would be serving first is Saru's team, which was decided by a coin toss. Mean while, Tsuna and the others were cheering on from the side. "Good luck Ken and Yamamoto-kun!" Mukuro cheers, complete with pom poms and Chikusa holding up a sign. They are way too serious about this. Tsuna thought. When he glanced at Hibari, he could see that his boyfriend was also excited about the game. Wait, boyfriend?
"Welcome everybody to 'Ultimate Beach Volleyball!" Reborn announces through a microphone. Everybody in the crowd and Mukuro (whilst waving his pom poms) cheered in response. "Today as you know, are playing beach volleyball, but with a twist! Over on this side we have Yamamoto and Ken." Reborn announces and gestures towards the left side of the court, earning lots of cheers and a few squeals from overly excited girls. "And on this side is Akihito and Kei!" the baby continued. The cheers they got equaled the amount that Yamamoto and Ken received.
"Okay! Now that we got to know our competitors, let's start!" Reborn says and blows a whistle shortly after.

The one that must of been Akihito proceeds the throw the ball up into the air and serves it to the other side of the court. Ken was successfully able to receive it and bumped it to the other side of the court. The game went on like this for ten minutes straight with not a single interruption. Maybe I was just over thinking things, nothing unusual has happened yet. Tsuna says to himself. But he still had the feeling that something horrible was going to happen any second.
So far, the game was pretty even as well as the scores which were now 6-5 with Saru's team in the lead.

"Is it only me, or is the court getting dustier?" Chrome says. Tsuna assumed that she was just seeing things, but it did seem that it was getting harder to see what was going on inside the glass box. "Yosh, now our competitors face the first obstacle, the sandstorm!" Reborn announces with joy clear in his voice. In just a few more seconds the box was already completely yellow with sand blowing everywhere inside of it. "This is ridiculous! How are they supposed to see with all the sand everywhere?" Hibari exclaims.
"It's all right, if it's Yamamoto and Ken, then they'll be able to pull through." Gokudera says, "They do have great instincts after all."
Gokudera's right, maybe there's a chance of us winning. Tsuna thought as he tried his hardest to see what was going on inside the court.


"Oi, what the hell is with this sudden sandstorm?!" Ken exclaims as he closed his eyes to prevent the grains of sand from getting into his eyes. "I don't know, but I did not sign up for any of this nonsense." Yamamoto responds. How the heck are we supposed to play like this? the boy thought to himself as he tried his best to locate where the ball was coming from. From the left. he decided. Yamamoto then dove to his left, and to his surprise, the ball made contact with his arms. "Hey Yamamoto, did you hit the ball just now?" Ken shouts over the sound of the wind.
"Well yeah, I just followed my instincts." Yamamoto responds, "Hey, to your right."
Ken did as he was told immediately and went to his right to receive a ball. "How the hell are you doing this?" the baffled boy asks.
"I told you, just follow your instincts."
"Well all right then."

The two of them went on like this for a minute, receiving balls here and there on instinct. This went on until Ken was able to set the ball, allowing Yamamoto to spike it to the other side. Once the ball seemed to make contact with something, a buzzer sounded off and the sandstorm gradually started to die down. "It looks like Yamamoto and Ken were able to score a point against the other team!" Reborn says. A cheer of amazement erupted from the crowd and Mukuro looked like he was very happy about that point that they scored. "It's not over yet, we still have ten more points to go." Yamamoto says. Now the boy was getting serious about the game.

The game went on like this with ridiculous obstacles to clear from the net suddenly increasing in height, a flash bang which almost blinded all four players, and to the whole court tilting in various angles making it harder to play the match properly.
"How those two are playing really confuses me." Tsuna says as he watched the players compete in awe. "Yeah, I have to admit that I do like watching stuff like this." Hibari laughs.
"Oh, you like to watch sports, Hibari-san?"
"I like to watch people go through really tough challenges like this actually."
W-What kind of things do you watch? Tsuna thought and sweat dropped. The score was already at 14-14 so things are getting pretty intense. Both teams looked really exhausted from having to go through all of Reborn's little shenanigans. It looked like there will not be any more obstacles to face anytime soon though, it was nearing the end of the match after all, right? But then, it is Reborn, so who knows?

"As we near the end of this match, I am happy to announce that there is one more challenge to face!" Reborn says, "Will our competitors survive? We will see in just a few short moments." the baby smirks amusingly. He had something interesting in store for the poor players which might put their lives on the line if they do not know what to do in the situation they will be put in. As Yamamoto, Ken, Akihito, and Kei kept on playing, their movement speed started to gradually slow down.
"Don't you think it's getting harder to move around?" Yamamoto asks as he bumped the volleyball to the other side of the court.
"Yeah, it feels like the sand is getting more how do you describe it, sticky? Or viscous." Ken managed to quickly say between breaths. The boy noticed that his opponents had become shorter for some reason. He then looked down at his feet and saw that he was sinking as well, making his eyes widen in shock. "Oi, the ground just suddenly turned into quicksand!" Ken shouts at Yamamoto. The boy gave a questioning look but decided to take a quick glance at his feet to find that he was slowly sinking into the sand. What are we going to do? We have to keep moving or else we're going to lose this stupid game. Yamamoto thought, frustrated for the first time in a long time. "You can't panic or make too much movement or else we're going to sink!" Ken says. He had played enough video games to know what to do in situations like these, "It won't kill us though, we'll only sink up to our waist." he said to resassure Yamamoto just in case. Yamamoto nodded in reply as he passed the volleyball to Ken.

As time went on, the audience started to notice that the four players looked like the ground underneath their feet was swallowing them up. "This is insane, are those special effects or something?" one of them said. "Well if they are, these guys are doing a good job at it." another one said. It was real actually quite real in fact. Though nobody in the right mind would believe that there would be quicksand on a beach volleyball court. All of the players were struggling to just get to the ball in time so that they would not risk the last point that will cost them the game. But as they did that, their bodies began to sink deeper and deeper into the viscous substance.

This is getting out of hand, they're gonna die if this keeps going on! Tsuna thought. He looked to the others and could see that they were also getting agitated as well. "Do you think they'll be okay?" Chrome asks Mukuro who responded with an all too carefree smile. "Don't worry, all we have to do is believe in them!" he says as if what is currently happening right in front of their eyes did not exist. Mukuro then proceeded to continue cheering the duo on with his megaphone that he got from out of nowhere yet again.


"Oi Kei, we have to wrap this up fast, you heard what the kid said just now." Akihito who was one of the representatives from Saru's team says to his teammate. "I know, but moving in this fucking quicksand is harder than you think." Kei responded as he bumped the volleyball to the other side. The quicksand was already up below their waist so it was difficult to move around the court especially when they were constantly sinking deeper by the second. "Kei, you're going to have to use that skill of yours." Akihito says. Kei nods in agreement, it was their only chance at winning this match.

Meanwhile, Ken and Yamamoto were also having a hard time keeping up with the game. Even though they moved slower, they had not sunk as far as Akihito and Kei's team. All right, at this rate, the game is in our favor. Ken thought. But suddenly, Kei was able to spike the volleyball over the net, making the ball look like only a mere blur to the eyes. "Shit, Yamamoto!" Ken shouted. Yamamoto got the message and tried with all his might to get to the ball as fast as he can. To his surprise, Yamamoto was able to get to the ball in time and sent it over to the opposite side. "No way!" Kei exclaims. It seemed that no one had been able to return that spike from what Kei had experienced. Well, that is until just now.
Akihito and Kei panicked and glanced around frantically to predict where the ball would land. Akihito moved backwards slowly, keeping his eye on the ball. "Hey don't hit it!" his partner said. Akihito's eyes widened, but he decided to trust his friend on this one. So, the high school student gave up on the ball and let it fly over his head, earning a gasp of shock from the audience.

"He's completely ignoring the game. They're winning, Hibari-san!" Tsuna squeals in excitement. But the look on Hibari's face showed that he was quite doubtful about that statement. "H-Hibari-san?" Then, Reborn blew on his whistle, the shrill noise rang on the speakers almost damaging everybody's eardrums. "The ball had landed outside the court's boundaries, which means that Saru's team wins this first game." Reborn says. A slow motion playback of the last few moments appear on a giant screen for the audience to see. Tsuna's eyes widen in shock, No way.


A/N : I'm sorry if this chapter was too boring to read! I just finished my exams this week so it's still quite stressful for me lol. Thank you guys so much for keeping up with this story even though my updates have been very irregular lately *virtual hug* And don't worry, this is only the first game to Tsuna and the gang still have plenty more games to win in the future :D

As always, please leave a review on this chapter and stay tuned for the next update!

Usamimi out!