I know what you're going to say if you've been waiting for this and if you actually like this. "Finally! An update."
Yes, an update after more than a month. I've been meaning to finish this chapter but I just can't find the time to. I've been continuously overworked, sleeping in the wee hours of the morning just to finish assignments and get high scores in tests and missing much needed sleep. I still need at least eight hours of sleep.
Anyway, enough of my crap.
I just want to thank you for reading my story and to apologize for the late update. I really am. You know school. Why do we have to be the only school in Asia that starts school in June?
Thanks for sticking with me until now! I deeply appreciate your reading my story! I especially want to thank the following:
omgpink, EvilBoyzR2Cute, music fans, dJAmystery, Rya-chan X Shii-chan, Kanra-chan, Kairi0403.
Now on with the story!
Disclaimer: I do not own this awesome anime, Katekyo Hitman Reobrn!
-Line breaker still isn't working even after a month of absence.-
Howling Wind
By: Fire Princess21
Chapter 12: Training Hibari Style!
As I was floating in mid-air, there were about two things that I became sure of:
One, Hibari Kyouya was very intent on killing me.
It goes against the grain to say that I didn't expect this. What, with knowing him for a short period of time, I should have guessed that somehow, sometime later, he would finally be irritated enough to kill me. To end my life as he thought I was just another useless herbivore who took up too much space on earth. The reason wasn't all that important. He just fought and killed for the fun of it.
And we, being somewhat near friends, were not an exception.
Two, I felt somehow betrayed and agonized.
I could not justify the storm of emotions surging through me as he said those words that tore my heart and my being but I can guess that I felt betrayed because I thought he was my friend.
He saved me yesterday.
He led me here, to this base, where I was safe (or so, I thought) and let me stay at his area of the base when he allowed no one else.
He was able to make me feel a bit comfortable about all this craziness and showed me a bit of compassion yesterday.
Didn't that count for something?
And I felt agonized because I thought I meant something to him.
It was a real letdown to know that he thought I was just another stupid useless herbivore who could never earn his respect as another fellow human being.
I felt my heart break at that point, especially when I thought of him as my sometimes savior.
I gritted my teeth, my hold on my fans tightening. As the globe of needle forms exploded before me eyes, so I formed my new resolution. A resolution that shone out brightly against the dark emotions that threatened to consume me.
I wanted to become stronger to be more useful, more effective and more capable to do what I had to do.
That single resolution ignited a passion in me that was hard to extinguish, let alone discourage. I vowed at that moment to overcome my weaknesses and to show Hibari what I was really made of. That I wasn't weak like he thought I was, that I wasn't as useless as he believed I was. At that moment, I felt that I was ready for whatever combat I was about to face in this era.
No one noticed the burning look of determination I now wore in my eyes, their attention currently on Tsuna below me, wearing his new X Gloves: Version Vongola Ring.
"That is…!" Lal exclaimed.
"He's passed." Reborn said solemnly. He cast a look upward and smiled. "It looks like Sakura has found her flame too." He added.
Lal looked up at me too and was taken by surprise at the intensity of the flame emitted by my ring.
"I didn't expect this configuration to result from the trial…" Lal said in silent awe, looking from me to Tsuna.
"I was only half-confident myself." Reborn admitted. "Though in all honesty, I couldn't think of any way to let Tsuna power-up rapidly, other than the traditional way." He looked at Tsuna's new shining gloves before he looked again at my fans aflame in silver flames. "It was the same with Sakura. I couldn't assume how she would react to Hibari's training. She could have broken down completely and would have been another burden." He continued.
"Tsuna, Sakura, very impressive." Reborn said thoughtfully.
As I stared at my ring lit in silver flames, burning with an intensity I could never have mustered if not for the emotional pressure, Tsuna stared at his gloves aflame in orange, a pure flame different from the old.
Together, we both discovered something new in ourselves that we never thought we could possess.
"Wao." Hibari said as he watched the recent development with growing interest. He looked up at me and I stared back, our gazes clashing.
I was sure I wore a stoic look, bearing no emotion whatsoever as he looked up at me while Tsuna examined his newfound flame.
All of a sudden, a strange expression crossed his face for one fleeting moment before it disappeared and reverted back to his usual nonchalance.
It was only very brief and I was sure I imagined it, but it looked something akin to the soft expression he wore when he asked me why I wouldn't look at him yesterday.
I dismissed the thought and focused on Hibari.
I would show him that I was no weakling.
I softly descended to the ground and Tsuna looked up from his gloves. He observed the flame emitted by my fans but I couldn't spare the time to chat with him now.
I had Hibari to deal with.
Hibari's smirk grew when he saw the dead determination in my eyes.
"Wao." He said in an impressed tone. "You two are finally starting to resemble both you that I know. "
Slipping his hand in his pocket, he took out another purple box from his pocket and I vaguely wondered how many he had in store.
"The both of you that thrills me the same way the baby does." He turned to Reborn then.
"Baby," he said in a monotone voice, "From here on, I can do whatever I want, right?"
"Yes…" Reborn replied. "That is what I promised."
"Then," he said as he inserted his purple flames into the box. Tonfas shot out of the box and once he had them in his hands, he continued his sentence in a monotonous voice yet again.
"Let's begin."
We were suddenly hit by a strong wave of killing intent rolling off from Hibari himself.
For the most part, I sensed he was holding back a great deal of power but never imagined something like this. I tried to look like I was unaffected though it could have very well suffocated me.
"There are no rules in this fight." He said. "The only choice you have is to defeat me… or to die."
Hibari then turned to me.
"You first."
He started running towards me faster than I would have imagined. I stayed in place, and watched as he came forward.
I raised my fan that met with his tonfa the exact same moment he did.
Using the other tonfa, he tried to slam it into me from below but I flew backwards with one flick from my other fan that wasn't blocking the tonfa. Running after me, he jumped and flipped into the air oppositely above me and brought down his tonfa only to hit thin air.
I had moved faster than he expected.
Probably because I was numb with a swirling rage of emotion that I was in better control of my flame, I was able to manipulate it according to my will. It was hard, I admit, being new at this, but once I got a good feel of what I was supposed to do and how to control my flame, all I had to do was to concentrate on my goal.
Defeat Hibari Kyouya.
But that proved to be a hard task in itself.
I swung my fans at him, creating huge air waves like knives that could cut but he dodged them anyway. He charged towards me and when I did the same but when we were about to collide, he jumped up with his feet in the air, one tonfa resting on my head that he used as a momentum and slammed the other on my back as he landed.
I was sent flying towards the wall.
He was moving faster than I had been a while ago and it was hard to keep up with his movements. Before I hit the wall, I used my feet to cushion the impact and kicked off the wall towards Hibari again.
His tonfa met with my fan and my other fan pushed against his other tonfa. He smirked at me.
"Too slow." He said, and then pushed me back, breaking our contact before he raised his tonfa to strike. I blocked with one fan, and with the other, I swung it below me and I was sent flying upwards, my back to the ceiling.
I couldn't stand Hibari being too near as there was a higher chance that he'd inflict more damage.
As I was moving away from Hibari, trying to think of a way to sneak up on him, I had not realized that he already snuck up on me. It was only too late when I realized that he was behind me as I was scanning the area for his presence that he had already slammed his tonfa on my back when I was about to turn around and deflect. I was sent falling to the ground and was dragged a few meters or so leaving a dent as I did. Turning on my back, I tried to stand up but I felt my consciousness wavering.
"Sakura!" I heard Tsuna say from somewhere above me. I could see the orange flame on his forehead flicker in my blurry view and I felt myself smile faintly at him when everything went black.
-Line breaker still isn't working even after a month of absence.-
I woke up to the sound of conversation floating around me.
"She lasted shorter than I expected her to." A smooth, deep baritone voice said rather impassively with a hint of disappointment.
"She'll learn. You'll just have to pound it into her." A baby voice squeaked.
"Hn. Then I expect her to survive my training."
"She will. It will all be useless if she won't."
My eyes opened slowly and I squinted when a bright glare of light met my eyes.
"It looks like she's awake." Reborn said, as he walked towards me. Adjusting my eyes to the light, I groaned out in pain.
I felt as if I had gone through a stampede of buffalos.
Every inch of my body hurt and I was certain that bruises were starting to form all over my body. Reborn jumped on my bed and kicked me on my side with an unbelievable force no normal baby could possess. It sent flying from the bed, sprawling on the floor.
I sat up; rubbing the sore spot he'd kicked.
Jumping down from the bed to land in front of me, he spoke.
"Get your lazy butt off the bed, Sakura. You still need to train." He said. There was an order in his tone, one that I would do good not to ignore, so I stood up, wincing as I did so. He smirked.
"She's easier to convince than Tsuna." Reborn said, looking at Hibari. "I'll leave the two of you alone then." He added and left. Hibari just nodded, silently looking at me.
I gulped and held my arm behind my back, holding his steel cobalt blue eyes with my brown ones. His frown deepened when his gaze transferred to a black and blue bruise on my arm.
Slipping one hand inside his pocket, he brought out a small round container that I realized was an ointment for bruises.
"Herbivore," he said, referring to me, "come here."
I moved rather sluggishly as I obeyed, grumbling inside about why I had to subject to him, of all people.
When I moved too slowly, he walked towards me and pushed back on the bed.
"Sit." He commanded. I immediately sat down.
Unscrewing the cap, he stuck one finger inside and smeared it with the ointment. Then, he held my wrist, outstretching my arm. I winced when he did. He looked at me once before turning back to my bruised arm. With his cream-coated finger, he lightly rubbed the ointment over my bruise and did the same on my other arm. Afterwards, he wrapped my arms in bandage to avoid swelling.
Throughout the process, he was gentle in handling me, as if he had already done it a thousand times. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask but I didn't. I was still angry at him for insulting me a while ago though I confess it helped me draw out my flame.
Maybe that was why he had been hard on me.
I brushed away the thought. He was a sadistic guy. He couldn't have had any ulterior motives nor could he have been thinking of how much his word was going to cut me. I pursed my lips throughout the treatment, looking at the white wall.
When he finished, he cleaned off his fingers and pocketed the ointment before turning to leave.
"Thanks." I told him stiffly, his back to me.
He didn't bother to reply or turn around as he left.
-Line breaker still isn't working even after a month of absence.-
"Sakura must be angry at you." Rebron commented as soon as he Hibari stepped out of the room. Hibari's face remained impassive.
"I imagine so."
"It doesn't matter. But aren't you going to tell her anything about her future self?"
"No. She'll only be distracted."
"She'll want to know. She might leave if she finds out."
"I'll deal with it then." Hibari said in a tone that broke no arguments. Reborn looked at him.
"Your problem then, I guess." He said as he left.
Staring at the door where Sakura was resting, his expression became soft, his usually stern lips in a frown and he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to alleviate the pain.
The way with which she looked at him was nothing short of burning hatred.
And he knew that she would never see her smile at him again.
-Line breaker still isn't working even after a month of absence.-
The rest of the week was exactly like hell.
Everyday, we would train and rest only at night and during meal times. Tsuna could go to the training room at eight in the morning but I had to go there at freaking five! Just because Hibari said that I was dumber and weaker than Tsuna, he made more time for training me than he did with Tusna.
Though he had it rougher than I did, the endless round of sparring with devil-incarnate Hibari Kyouya drained all my energy, leaving me bruised and sweating after every practice. Kyoko and Haru voiced out their concern once when I had no energy left to even pick up my chopsticks. And every time Hibari was training Tsuna, Lal would train with me. I found out that she was a much more merciless teacher than Hibari who sometimes let me rest for five minutes.
All in all, I was ready to give up, crawl into a hole and die.
When I showed the slightest bit of complaint, Hibari would always say in an impassive and bored tone, "Hn, herbivore, you're weaker than I thought."
Then the training would resume.
I plopped down on the chair in my room, after one hard training session as Lal had just finished with me and Hibari was still training with Tsuna.
I would have to wait until they finished getting my own slice of torture.
As such, I began to browse through the various file folders stacked neatly on my desk, my curiosity piqued ever since the first day I got here.
Most of the folders contained completed missions from previous times and paperwork in what I recognized as my neat handwriting. When I opened the desk drawer, I saw a blue notebook that looked non-professional and I took it out. As I did, a picture fell out. Picking it up, I saw that it was a portrait of my grandmother. My eyebrows furrowed.
Now why would I keep a picture of her in a notebook? I wondered. I turned it back and read the inscription behind the picture.
Assuming that the picture was mine, it was a habit of mine to write inscriptions behind pictures that I collected. I would write the date, the place, dedication and reason why the picture was taken. I suppose I wanted to preserve memories that way.
When I read the inscription though, I had to read it twice, just to make sure I wasn't wrong. My hand shook and my mind turned blank. Silent tears started to flow down my cheeks and the picture fell from my hand.
"No. No, this isn't true…" I murmured to myself, trying to convince myself that whatever was written on the picture was a joke. A cruel joke.
But I couldn't mistake my own handwriting.
Picking up the picture again, my face became dead-set and determined. I stuffed it inside my pocket and picked up my fans before I left my room.
There was only one way to confirm if what was written on the picture was true.
I would have to confront Hibari Kyouya.
...
Written on the back of the picture was this:
"Forever shall I carry my heart's scars, the death of my grandmother, and swear on my grave to avenge her.
Millefiore, you shall pay dearly for the crime that you have done."
-Line breaker still isn't working even after a month of absence.-
Thank you so very much for reading this chapter! I'm really sorry for the very late update. I still have to warn you that my next update may be slower and that I won't be able to update again during the last two weeks of July and the first weeks of August. It's the schedule of our quarterly examination and I need to prepare for it. I hope you understand. I'll try to squeeze in a chapter before the date though. Unlucky thirteen. Oh joy.
So the last part wasn't all that good. This thing has been waiting in my computer for more than a month now and I only just finished it. I ran out of creative juice when I did this. I am terribly sorry for such a crappy chapter.
School has renewed my point of view and I guess shed off a part of my imagination, delaying any possible updates. I apologize for all those who have been waiting for this- if you have been waiting that is.
Anyway, feel free to comment, flame, criticize and say what you have to say. It's only a push of a button away!