Chapter Thirteen: The Willpower Of A Fighting Force

The sun is setting when Tsuna first loses his footing.

"Hiiii!" Is all Tsuna can get out before a collection of empty cans collapse entirely under his weight, and he goes sliding down a mound that looked totally solid five minutes ago. He staggers, and the muscles in his chest pull painfully over his bruised ribs under the strain of his flailing.

Ryouhei, the nearest person with two arms, leaps over a discarded pile of slimy newspapers and slides over just in time to catch Tsuna by the shoulders. Tsuna's velocity knocks Ryouhei back a step, but the hands skim over (his back) to cross over his shoulders, pulling him into the hard muscles of his broad chest. Tsuna's cheek is mushed unpleasantly, and the firm edges pressing into him immediately start to ache, seeing as he has skin made of paper and muscles made of cotton candy.

"Woah there! You alright?"

"I'm fine," Tsuna grumbles. He glances up through his bangs at Ryouhei, who is…looking way too intently at him. Again. Can he not stare at him like that? Like Tsuna is the only thing in the universe in that moment, like it's imperative that he remains entirely focused on him? Why would anyone look at him like that?

The physical contact isn't light enough to make his skin crawl, because Ryouhei is far too firm in every respect, but Tsuna feels like it's too much just on principle. He peels Ryouhei's fingers off his shoulders and shuffles behind the comforting tallness of Takeshi, who snickers and makes a big show of hiding Tsuna.

"WE'RE TURNING IN FOR THE NIGHT!" Hayato's voice screams out over the beach. "I'VE BEEN ADVISED THAT A STRAY PIECE OF METAL IS GOING TO GUT SOMEONE IF WE PRESS PAST DARK!"

"Well it will," Hana calls at a more moderate decibel near the shoreline.

"Finally. We've been out here for the entire day. Over eight hours," Tsuna huffs.

"Well we took a three-hour break around lunch…" Takeshi muses.

"Yeah, but still. It must be what, eight o'clock now?" Tsuna picks his way back to the stable safety of the grass, grunting as his rapid travel pulls at his already-twinging rib. Ryouhei helps the lone female member of their team — who a helpful student named as Uenohara Suzu, who is working with them on account of her asthma — off a particularly tall pile of trash and carries her all the way onto the grass in one bull-headed charge. Tsuna would ask him to do the same for him, but all that rampaging would probably be hell on his injury, and also, touching.

"ALRIGHT EVERYONE, WE'LL BE HEADING TO THE BATHS! FOLLOW IN AN ORDERLY LINE BEHIND ME OR YOUR TEACHER!" Hayato continues to holler, walking backwards as the students slowly make their way off the garbage pile and chuck their bags into the bin.

"God, he's way too good at this for a first-year delinquent," Hana mutters darkly, rejoining them at the bank.

"He's trying his best, and his best happens to be incredible," Tsuna says. He's decided the less people he tells about the whole'dynamite-flinging mafioso with an official recommendation from someone who is at the very least friendly with the mafia' thing, the better.

Hayato leads the group with Miki hovering around him like a satellite. After about a minute, the red-haired teacher — Yamazaki — comes with his half of the students, wanders over, and slings one arm over Miki's shoulder, leaning in close. Hayato notices this, and starts kicking Yamazaki in the shins. When Yamazaki turns to speak, he yanks out two fistfuls of dynamite. Yamazaki points something out, and Hayato looks around wildly, before fumbling to put away half of his left-hand fistful and pull out a lighter, which Yamazaki instantly confiscates.

"Isn't he supposed to be a teacher?" Hana asks, squinting at the show.

Tsuna just shrugs.

They all stop in front of a cheap-looking bathhouse on the edge of town. Yamazaki is still clinging to Miki, who looks less scared and more like he wants to just rot into putrid nothingness. Tsuna can relate. Hayato climbs up on the edge of the flowerbox in front of the doors and looks out over the swarm, visibly counting under his breath. Satisfied, he folds his arms.

"BATH RULES! THIS IS THE ONLY ONE WE CAN AFFORD FOR A WEEK STRAIGHT, SO IF YOU'RE ROUGHHOUSING IN THERE, YOU'RE BASKING IN YOUR OWN STINK! IF THE BATHS HAVE THEIR OWN RULES, FOLLOW THEM! AND ACTUALLY WASH YOURSELVES. THE SCHOOL IS PAYING FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T USUALLY AFFORD THIS, SO DON'T SKIMP ON THE SHAMPOO OR WHATEVER. I WANT YOU SPARKLING."

Yamazaki leans over to whisper something in Miki's ear. Miki visibly curls away from him with an edge of frustrated discomfort. Hayato zeroes in on this, looking like he just smelled something rancid.

"YAMAZAKI WILL BE SUPERVISING," Hayato continues, still glaring at the teacher.

Yamazaki finally looks up. "Hwa?"

"MYSELF AND THE MANAGERS OF THIS VACATION WILL BE GOING TO A DIFFERENT ESTABLISHMENT, WHERE WE WILL COMMUNICATE ON HOW TO BEST MANAGE OUR VOLUNTEERING EFFORTS!"

Hayato jumps down, pries Yamazaki off his second, and shoves Miki bodily towards Ryouhei, who catches him effortlessly.

"What about the girls' side? Who's managing that end?" Yamazaki asks.

"Uh," says Hayato. He looks around urgently, and then shoves a finger at Uenohara Suzu, who was watching the whole thing with bland disinterest next to Tsuna. "She will!"

Suzu steps up and gives the rest of the group a dispassionate look. Hayato smirks triumphantly at Yamazaki.

The Koyama students file into the building, while Hayato marches Tsuna, Miki, Ryouhei, Hana, Takeshi, and…

"What is he doing here?" Hayato barks, nodding towards Shouichi, who flinches and makes an odd little 'eep' sound.

"Uhmm, he's my weapons manager, duh," Hana says with an exaggerated eyeroll.

"Yeah right, like you're going to talk about guns. All you know how to do is gossip, right?" Hayato snorts.

Hana lets out an inarticulate shrieking growl and stamps her foot impatiently. "What is your problem with me! You mad because I'm a girl? Because I'm running my mouth? What is it?"

"I don't have any patience for half-cocked women who think they can antagonize the boss!"

"I'm not antagonizing him, god! Why do you keep treating him like he's so delicate?"

"He's more valuable than you can even imagine! I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand that!"

"You wanna say that again, punk?"

"So you're finally showing your true colours? I won't let you mess with the Boss!"

The rest of the group watch with a spectator's polite separation. Tsuna messages his brow and sighs deeply. "I can't believe this…"

"Man, he's really protective! Well, at least you know he cares, right?" Takeshi laughs, elbowing Tsuna playfully. Or he would have, if he didn't have elbows made of knives and their height difference wasn't so profound; instead, he slams his bony appendage right into Tsuna's temple. Tsuna drops like a sack of potatoes.

"Woah! Sawada!" Ryouhei shouts.

"Oh— man, I'm so sorry, everyone in the team likes roughhousing, I wasn't thinking—" Takeshi quickly helps Tsuna up, one hand bracing his shoulder and one hand in Tsuna's own. Tsuna squints at the horizon. This is the exact sort of thing he had expected would happen on this trip, if he has to be honest. The fact that things haven't gotten any more miserable than being hot and sweaty in a pile of garbage and tripping once was starting to unsettle him. No point in getting irritated. He's gotten basketballs to the head that sent him reeling longer than that.

He looks down at his hand when he's back on his feet again. Takeshi's hand is way bigger than he thought. He has long, rough fingers, the callouses and slight fraying of the skin scraping slightly against Tsuna's own soft, unworked palms. Tsuna's hands are tiny in comparison, stubby fingers with stubby nails, pallid and childish.

Tsuna frowns and pulls his hand away from Takeshi under pretense of curling his fingers around the now-lukewarm ice pack lodged in his shirt.

"You fall all wrong!" Ryouhei shouts in Tsuna's ear half a second later. Tsuna shrieks and staggers back. "You're just going to hurt yourself more like that! It's extremely unsafe! You can't hold your elbows up like that when you fall, you'll break your arm! And the most important thing is to protect your head, like this!" Ryouhei holds his arms to cover either side of his head, as an example.

Tsuna regards him blankly.

Ryouhei falters, and his arms drop slowly. His mouth pinches. "…You're going to make Kyouko worry."

Tsuna nods. "…Sorry. I'll keep it in mind."

Hana and Hayato hadn't noticed the problem through the intensity of their fighting, and are nearly two blocks away at this point. Hana seems fully confident in Hayato not hurting her as long as Tsuna tells him not to, or maybe as long as Ryouhei is here, seeing as he's the one who detained Hayato last time. Takeshi makes a small wincing noise when he sees them in the distance.

"They really don't get along, huh," he says.

"Hacchan doesn't get along with anyone. I don't think Hayato is interested in getting along with anyone he hasn't personally vetted first," Tsuna muses.

"Yikes."

"Don't worry, I'll break them up if they start getting physical!" Ryouhei assures them. He takes off after the squabbling pair, leaving Tsuna, Takeshi, Shouichi, and Miki.

Tsuna calculates which person he is most willing to talk to right now, and decides on Miki, who appears too perpetually terrified to even consider breaking off a conversation he doesn't want to be in. Perfect for information-gathering purposes, and good practice for talking to normal people, which he may actually have to do if this keeps up. He swoops in next to him. "So, how's Hayato been treating you?"

"H-Huh? Oh— I, uhm…fine?" Miki strangles out.

"Hm. You don't seem to like Yamazaki much."

"Oh…uh…" Miki's expression firms out, and tilts his face away. "…Not…really."

"Why's that?"

"P-Personal reasons?"

"He seems to be clinging to you a lot."

"Uhm. Yeah, he does that."

"To just you?"

"Well…" Tsuna can't see Miki's eyes, but he's getting the impression he's glaring very hard at a distant tree. "Er. Yes."

Tsuna tries to think of what Hayato would want to know, but would be too menacing to actually get out of Miki. "Is he threatening you?"

"No. He's…he's just being…affectionate."

"In a 'call in someone with scars and a crowbar' way?"

Miki startles. "Oh! No. Just in a— in a normal way."

"That's not normal. In some schools, teachers aren't even allowed to touch students."

"Y-You can't do that in Koyama, the students are too…well…it's nothing. He's just being…friendly." Miki grimaces even as he says it.

"But you don't want him to."

Miki wraps his arms around himself, and his face pulls. Hana and Hayato round a corner with Ryouhei on their tail, meaning they probably won't notice that the rest of their group is so far behind for a few more minutes. Takeshi is watching Tsuna's interrogation speculatively, and Shouichi looks slightly horrified.

"He's…uhm…we're actually…" Miki scratches the back of his head, and his cheeks are working up into a blush. "H-He's my…I mean…"

"He's your…?"

Miki ducks his head, exhibiting the blush on his ears. "…Yamazaki-sensei is my, uh. He's family."

Tsuna makes a small noise of recognition. "So he's embarrassing you with his obvious family bias."

"Sort of. We just d-don't get on, with the rest of the family. Me and my m-mom, I mean, we don't. But he keeps…" Miki looks away. "He's the one who told me not to go to school to begin with, but…He's never, uhm, respected my boundaries, well, ever? And I think he's t-trying to g-g-get my mom to go home through me. I think s-something must have happened, to make him change h-his mind."

"Ah. I can see why you're mad." If someone did that with Tsuna and his mom, he'd definitely call in some guy with scars and a crowbar. A very, very heavy crowbar. Or maybe a sledgehammer. He doesn't know how to call in someone like that, but he's pretty sure that one housewife from two houses down — Sugiura-san — does.

"I-It's okay! He's not threatening me, o-or coercing, he's just bothering, a-a-a-a-and," Miki takes a deep breath, "The world isn't, it's not scary. The president p-promised me he wouldn't let anyone bother me, so…"

"Hayato's a good guy."

Miki gives Tsuna a small, agreeable smile.

They round the corner, and all four of them are forced to bear witness to the squabble's logical conclusion; Ryouhei detaining a dynamite-laden Hayato, and pushing Hana away with his leg to keep her from kicking him.

"How unladylike, Hacchan," Tsuna says loudly.

Hana flushes and abruptly straightens, looking pointedly away from Tsuna. Hayato snarls at her, and then his entire personality flips when he grins roguishly at Tsuna. Tsuna cannot believe he can pull off roguish grinning. How is he attracting such obsessive and socially intrusive people, who also happen to be stupidly good-looking? He should have hit his limit with Kyouko, but now he's got a cluster of them. Unfair.

"Boss! This is the place! It's bound to rejuvenate you and help with your healing and physical therapy!" Hayato says, not unlike an infomercial.

He gestures (from over Ryouhei's arm lock) to the building they're standing in front of; not a bathhouse, but a hot spring. It's not very expensive-looking, like the one Tsuna can see settled in the beginning rolls of the mountain in the distance, but it definitely looks better than the large but very ramshackle public bath the rest of the students went into. The windows are painted with detailed illustrations Tsuna is used to seeing in old ukiyo-e, and a sliding door, in stark contrast with the western doors around it. It certainly does look refreshing, and very traditional.

"Haha, wow! This place looks awesome! Did you pick this out before you came?" Takeshi looks around in cheerful awe.

"Yeah, it was on short notice, but I knew this place was perfect the moment I saw it," Hayato says, rubbing his nose in self-conscious pride. It's a little ridiculous, with Ryouhei's arms settled under his armpits. "Normally I'd say I'd only get the best for the Boss, but since that Kyouko girl wanted to keep everyone around him, I had to improvise."

"Not bad. Thanks." Tsuna nods.

Hayato grins and yanks himself out of Ryouhei's grip. He barges into the building, and the rest of them follow.

The inside is significantly more polished, and impeccably tidy. Hayato is already at the counter, paying for the visit. They're not staying the night, so it's affordable. The clerk keeps looking at them, though, eyes cold and speculative.

Finally, she speaks. "You the kids cleaning up the beach?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," says Hayato.

"Then you better not stick your neck out too much. It's not safe, nowadays. You see the streets?" She nods towards the door.

Tsuna has. They're empty. Not odd at seven in the morning or eight at night, but during their three hour break at midday…

"You're playing with fire, coming here."

"Trust me, lady. If I know anything, it's how to play with fire," Hayato snorts. He gestures to the rest of them. "Come on."

Shouichi lags a bit, and Tsuna turns to him. He's been pretty quiet for a while now.

"You coming?"

"Uhm…sure. Sorry. But…" Shouichi shuffles forward, glancing back at the clerk and clutching his stomach tightly. "…Are you sure we're going to be okay? I mean, getting warned off like that…and someone must have put that trash there, right? Someone with a lot of i-influence, and probably even enough money to hire someone to…to…to take us out or something!"

Tsuna's mouth quirks. "You're probably not used to the Underworld, huh."

"What?! Of course not!"

"Well, most everyone else here is." Tsuna turns to follow Hayato again. "These guys…they're violent without limit. If the enemy holds back even a little bit, everyone would just raze them to the ground."

"Isn't that scary?"

"That's why you sound like you're not used to the Underworld." Tsuna tilts his head back to look at Shouichi. "Isn't it obviously going to be the safest surrounded by the most dangerous people in the room?"

It really isn't.

Maybe Shouichi is biased; the most dangerous situations he's had to deal with is Miura-san, who was the only adult willing to take his blog seriously and yet ended up being a surprise criminal (and…gun teacher? Apparently?), and Umi, who is locked up somewhere in Europe, and as far as he knows, any dangerous things that happen in her life are discussed with her infinitely more competent European contacts.

Is her life even all that dangerous? Maybe she's just in an abusive household with rich parents and sent the rings off to spite them. She doesn't like talking about it, and always changes the subject when Shouichi asks. Penpals are hard to get an answer out of.

Shouichi himself is best just as a friend, a passing fancy for people with lives more exciting than his. He's a boring guy. He knows he is.

These people are not boring.

The worst of them is probably Sawada Tsuna-something, the guy they're all gravitating around, like planets around a sun. He doesn't have much of a presence though; he's more like a black hole, only just barely dense enough to keep the solar system sustained, but still a clear absence. No one else seems to notice it, and if they do, Shouichi thinks it might actually be relaxing to them. Understandable, because every single one of them is keyed up beyond all belief.

Miura-san's student, Kurokawa…first name unknown (he's heard it a few times, but hadn't retained it yet), is the most normal of the lot, but she's a razor edge slicing into everyone around her, extracting their juices like a vampire bat. The only one she doesn't seem to be drinking up is the loudest, Gokudera, who she mostly just hates. There's nothing much of Sawada to drink up, though.

Gokudera Hayate (?) seems to be some form of criminal in a position of immense authority in his school, even more than your average student council president. He's also an authority in Sawada's life, and is always being an overbearing doting older brother at any given moment. The guy is just burning with glorious purpose, and since Sawada contributes nothing to existence, he's free to rampage. Literally, Shouichi doesn't even have to read too much into it, Gokudera is making these excessive decisions and actions on behalf of Sawada, splashing around in the water and roaring, while Sawada just kind of blinks at him and goes back to sinking down until only his nose is over the surface. He's spacing out a lot, actually.

The least scary one is Yamamoto Takeshi, the only one Shouichi knows the name of because they went to the same elementary school and their school's baseball coach absolutely lost his shit when Yamamoto suddenly and without warning decided that no, actually, all those times I said baseball was just a hobby was a fake thing I made up, I love baseball, I eat baseballs every day for breakfast, let's go to nationals, because I love baseball. And then they went to nationals. Yamamoto seemed to do that a lot, like the time he learned he was popular with girls and went out with two in sequence like it was incredibly important that he went out on dates. Shouichi had almost forgotten about him, since he never meshed with popular people and they went to different middle schools.

Yamamoto is, much like Kurokawa, really observant. Not in a 'give me your information' vampire bat sort of way, like how she's currently drilling the blond one for information, but more like he just…sees a lot. Shouichi has gotten the weirdest impression that Yamamoto knows everything there is to know about him, which Shouichi finds uncomfortable, because he's hardly spoken to anyone except Kurokawa and Sasagawa, and mostly out of earshot.

Sasagawa Something-Or-Other is just…really excessive, basically all of the time. Like Gokudera, maybe, but less angry. He has the most positive energy out of all of them, and effectively works as the group's collective older brother, peace-keeping and fretting over the weaker members (Miki and Sawada). He boxes, Sasagawa told him, and he really wants to know if Miura-san can make a boxing dummy for their club. Shouichi is too afraid to ask. Mostly because she would probably oblige.

Sasagawa doesn't seem to be calmed by Sawada, actually. He's just really amped up as a rule. It's kind of intimidating.

The last one, 'Miki', is scary.

Not the person, just…him, being around, almost in exact inverse to the way Sawada is scary. A supernova instead of a black hole. Looking at him burns. Or being looked at by him. Shouichi can't tell; Miki's eyes keep dancing around so often. Miki has anxiety too, but less of the haunting dread kind that plagues Shouichi, and more of the jumpy, mistrustful terror kind that usually comes with agoraphobia and helicopter parents.

Miki is more blatantly soothed by Sawada's presence; he sits near him, and slides closer every now and then whenever he can't cling to Gokudera (because Gokudera has gotten up to scream over the divider at Kurokawa, who is in the women's section right now). He doesn't really acknowledge him, though. Maybe Shouichi is reading too much into it.

…God these people are terrifying.

Shouichi is too nervous and sick with aforementioned dread to strike up a conversation, and Kurokawa isn't around, so he's stuck half-submerged, watching the group carefully. He's gotten better at reading people; when Umi sent him the rings, she told him she was doing it to keep them away from her family, and Shouichi thought that was a cool secret agent sort of thing, so he got really into learning how to watch people. Usually in libraries, where people are less likely to catch him and call him a freak.

He rubs his thumb over Umi's necklace. He had fantasies about saving her in a time of desperation, but now that he's around actual dangerous weirdos, ones that are only middle-schoolers, he's having doubts. All in all, she'll probably send someone to pick the rings up again once she's out of her abusive household, and then they'll just move on to phone calls. Shouchi's spy fantasy was so dumb. He can't believe he's been so stupid and childish until now.

"Will you kids quiet down?" Someone shouts. Shouichi looks up, and immediately dunks himself to eye level when he sees a man covered in tattoos. Yakuza?!

"Why don't you quiet down, asshole! I'm relegating!"

"Relegating your duties because you can't handle any of them!" Kurokawa hollers.

"SHUT UP!"

"I don't appreciate you being noisy during my relaxation time, y'hear?" The man snarls.

Miki lifts himself up and turns to look at the man. "…You're right. We're very noisy. It's very annoying."

"Right! So if you get it, then—"

"It must be annoying to deal with us. You should come back later."

The man opens his mouth. Closes it.

Then he turns on his heel and leaves.

Miki puts his hands over his eyes and sinks down below the water, and Shouichi wishes he could find some way to avoid these terrifying people. Or at least some way to stick around Kurokawa and no one else.

It would be nice if he could remember her first name.

Sasagawa Kyouko arrives at the school around 7:30, and the first thing Tetsuya does is give her a transparent riot shield.

"As much as I appreciate you helping us with this, the truth of the matter is, you'll be a burden if you can't protect yourself," Tetsuya tells her.

Thankfully, she takes it with uncanny seriousness and nods firmly at him. "I understand."

"Excellent." Tetsuya turns to the school. "We'll be going in through the windows. We'll have to break them, so expect an early fight. Bulletproof vests only keep the bullet from going in; the power of the impact is still going to bruise, possibly break bones. If you're not ready for pain, fall back. Remember, the goal is to confiscate the weapons; you don't have to fight them. Detaining is ideal."

The other ten members of the Committee all nod.

"Oh! By the way!" Sasagawa takes the shield, plants it in the ground, and starts digging into her overstuffed backpack. She pulls out a small box. "I packed bentou boxes for everyone!"

Tetsuya lets out an exasperated sigh at the roar of over-excited teenage boys, and steps aside to let them at her. They have to wait until it's completely dark, and while the sun has already set, the sky is still light enough that their silhouettes would be excessively obvious. It won't take longer than half an hour, but it he can keep the boys from being tense…

Tetsuya stands vigil over their temporary holding place, staring down the school. From what he can guess, Udo is behind this. Apparently, discipline wasn't enough to stop him. The problem is, though, that even if he's circulating weapons, he's going to need a supplier; he's obviously not involved in the existing weapons trade going on, or else he'd circulate the weapons right back into his possession. Which means someone entirely unrelated to all the parties Tetsuya is currently tracking is the one behind this.

"U-Uhm…Kusakabe-san?"

Tetsuya looks down to see Sasagawa looking up innocently through her lashes, holding a bentou box. He's completely immune to the look, of course; at this point, he can't be swayed by anything that isn't a young boy with unfortunate predilections towards violence and spreading misfortune upon the populace like a plague in mortal form.

"It's alright. I already had dinner," he assures her.

"Oh…okay. Tell me if you get hungry, though, okay? You look like you're going to pull another late-nighter," she says.

More like all-nighter. He doesn't think he'll be able to sleep as long as Kyouya's father is still in Japan. He doubts Kyouya will either. He still gives her a polite smile.

"VICE-CHAIRMAN!" Spikes over the comm line, and Tetsuya flinches and curses under the breath at the sudden sound of Komori Keitarou's voice.

He presses the button on the radio around his wrist. "What is it?"

"We're not the first people to hit the school,"Komori breathes.

"Shit— Sasagawa, I want you on lookout with Sumita," Tetsuya barks, nodding towards the boy. He has a crush on her, so he should be putting more effort into protecting her. On his end, he waves his men in and barges in through the front door, plan be damned. Komori drops down from his position in the window to join them, and gestures upstairs.

They go in diamond formation up the stairs, flashlights skimming over the near-black halls lit only by the steadily dying blue of the evening sky, and Komori gestures to the art room. Tetsuya gestures for the rest to be quiet and stay put, and opens the door.

He's not surprised by what he sees.

Squares cut into the floor against dust, surrounded by footprints; someone moved a series of boxes. Likely their weapons stash. The room is bare and colourless, except for the massive circular emblem of a 6-point maple leaf set over a mountain with a rising sun, all painted in thick red lines.

"They got busted by the Akiyama-kai," Tetsuya mutters. He turns to the rest, and turns on his transmission to tell the two waiting at the bottom. "Alright, that's a wrap. The family's being good to us. We're heading home."

A few sighs of relief. A few complaints. Personally, Tetsuya isn't sure which he should be feeling; relief that there's no problem to deal with, or tension that he doesn't have an outlet anymore. Maybe he should be glad he's not putting the untrained civilian girl in unnecessary danger. Kyouya would have a fit. Barring punishments, which can heal, a Namimori student coming to harm is unacceptable.

They head back down, and Sumita rushes to meet them, red-faced and sweating bullets. Sasagawa is frowning.

They split apart naturally, calling out farewells to each other and thanking Sasagawa for her bentou, but Sasagawa herself doggedly follows Tetsuya with a laser-like intensity. She certainly resembles her brother, in some respects.

"It's time to go home. Won't your parents be worried?"

"My curfew is at ten," she says mulishly, matching his long strides with a harried pace.

"I don't need your assistance right now."

"Sure you do!" She bounds past him and starts marching backwards. "You need help with something, right?"

"Nothing you can help me with," Tetsuya growls.

"I don't believe you!" Sasagawa jumps back a bit to avoid being overtaken by Tetsuya's speed. "Or at least, I think what you think is wrong."

"How do you know what I think?"

"I think what you think is really obvious! So…" She stumbles when she can't keep up anymore, but then just darts back up to try to walk side-by-side again. "If there's anything you need help with—"

"I don't. Need. Help." Tetsuya grits.

"…Well…" She stares intently at him; Tetsuya can see her in his peripheral vision. Her legs are moving quickly yet gracefully, the result of internalizing more about poise than battle efficiency. Her expression is wide and open, and her tone is focused, needling, begging.

Nothing Tetsuya knows how to deal with.

"…Well…I do!"

He looks down at her.

"Come again."

"I need help!" She turns to look at the street ahead of her and works her jaw. "…Onii-san…and Tsuna too…they have something motivating them. They're focused. They have objectives. But I'm just living life as it comes. I don't have any idea what I'm going to do with my future."

"You haven't even finished your first semester of middle school yet. You don't have to."

"That doesn't matter! What's important is…" Sasagawa strides forward with pure determination, and looks at him with eyes that seem to glow. "Can you help me become stronger?"

Kyouya's shape seems to echo through Namimori, pushed and pulled and torn apart under the earth, where Tetsuya can't reach him, and all he's ever wanted to do was guide him so he wouldn't have to be in this position in the first place. He was without guide himself when he was younger, so he knows how powerful knowing what you're doing can make you.

And now he's powerless.

And now Kyouya can't be reached.

And now all that's left for him is waiting and waiting and three more.

He needs an outlet.

"…How do you mean?"

"So this is the one getting all the weapons?"

Kouyou Naoki stands over the beaten body of the boy that had been captured. Large, tall, bleached hair. Developed early for someone his age. Would make a good foot soldier, he thinks. But then again, wouldn't that just be thinking like his dear honourable father? As an heir, he supposes he ought to be putting something fresh into the Akiyama-kai. Maybe more kindness. Maybe more cruelty.

"Took a while for him to break," says Miura Fuyumi. Freelancer. Naoki wrinkles his nose. He hates working with free hires. No honour amongst thieves. "Surprised me, really."

"Torture is a terribly ineffective way to extract information."

"Oh no, the torture was just to tell him he's been a bad boy~" She stretches out languidly across the floor, playing with a lock of dark hair. "I got the info on his operation the old-fashioned way."

"And what way would that be?"

"Not telling~"

No honour amongst thieves, he repeats in his head. "Of course. You've confiscated all the weapons and tagged those in possession?"

"Sure did! At this hour, your family should be done combing Namimori. It's all done."

"I see. You'll be paid handsomely."

"Nice!" She leaps to her feet and dusts herself off. "Have fun doing whatever with this one. I've got a more interesting situation to focus on."

Naoki quirks a brow. "I cannot possibly imagine what it could be."

"Nyorohoho~ I wonder why you think you have any right to know?"

What a terrible annoyance.

The freelancer heads off to get her payment, and Naoki leans down to tilt the boy's head up to inspect him closely. Threads of crimson hair fall past his eyes, and the boy's glassy gaze is drawn to them. An uncommon colour in these parts. Most people's hair tends to just settle around ginger. It's a fairly quick way to spot a Kouyou, in this part of Japan. Naoki knows Udo is intimately familiar with it.

"Poor soul, so beaten, so far fallen," he mutters under his breath. "Pulled in by our ebb and flow."

The boy's breathing is laboured, the dancing of his eyes confused.

"Don't worry. You've proven yourself so honourable, so just. We have a place for you yet."

It's a confused blur, especially in the darkness, half-asleep and unsure of what's going on; first Tsuna is aware of the hard form under his arms, his torso, pressed flush all against him, and he thinks 'I'm spooning Takeshi', and his response to this fact is sent spinning into a disorienting oblivion as he sees the bobbing lights outside, and hears yelling, arguing, screams, and he finally realizes that was what woke him up to begin with.

Tsuna gently sits up, careful not to put any pulling weight on his torso. He tries to concentrate more on what's happening outside. Rustling, urges for everyone to get out, barked insults. Laughter. The screaming is coming from the students.

"Attack," Tsuna breathes. He turns over and shakes Takeshi urgently. "Hey! Wake up!"

His tent rustles. Tsuna gasps and crawls away from the entrance, kicking Takeshi on his way back. Takeshi groans and pulls himself to his knees.

"What…?"

"We're under attack!" Tsuna whispers. The sound of chaos is getting louder.

Takeshi's shadow just sits there. "By who?"

The entrance unzips, spilling golden light inside, and behind Takeshi is a man holding a wooden baseball bat, surrounded by men holding flashlights.

They sneer. "By us."

Takeshi makes to jump back, but he forgets his injured arm and falls over without the support. The man grabs him by the ankle and pulls; Tsuna reaches out and attempts to pull him back, but that requires upper body strain, and he falters almost instantly at the sudden explosion of pain in his torso. He swallows back a scream, and Takeshi is yanked out of his reach, but Takeshi makes good use of his good arm by sliding it into his bags and pulling out…

His baseball bat.

Takeshi spins it to hold it like a knife primed to stab and jabs down at his captor. The end of the bat connects with his eye, and he releases Takeshi with a howl. Takeshi doesn't stop there, though; he rolls to his feet, holds the bat properly, and knocks another man down with an upwards swing. Tsuna quickly digs into their bags for something to help with; he breaths a sigh of relief at the sight of his knuckledusters.

"What the hell is this kid?" One of the surviving men barks.

Takeshi shows him with a heavy swing that cracks against his jaw.

"Don't over-exert yourself," Tsuna mutters, slipping his own weapon onto his fingers and looking around at their new battlefield. The defeat hadn't been noticed yet, and it's no surprise why.

Countless adults are yanking students out of their tents and dragging them to the road. The whole area is lit with torches and flashlights, and they're all wielding weapons. There are kids crying, kids yelling at their assailants, kids trying to run and getting caught, and under the streetlamps, kids being threatened with guns—

"Now this is bad," Takeshi grunts, drawing himself up to full height. "…Sorry, but I don't think I can hold back."

"I don't think I can fight at all," Tsuna replies, staring at his knuckledusters. It's the same reason he had gone to the hospital in the first place, and now…now he's injured on top of that.

"Don't worry! You don't have to. Just try to keep everyone calm. You've got a pretty commanding aura, you know?" Takeshi grins.

Tsuna flushes, and takes off.

There are barely forty students, and way more adults around here, so it's no easy feat actually preparing an escape, but trying is the only thing that will convince everyone to keep going. If they see everyone else buckling, they'll buckle too. So Tsuna dances around the small encampment and finds the easiest possible target; right near the trees, someone trying to pull out a taller kid by the wrist.

Tsuna ignores the ache and sharp twisting pain in order to run towards them, and without hesitation, before the man is even aware Tsuna is there, he slides in on damp grass, pulls his fist back, and slams the metal rings directly into the man's crotch.

It's a cheap shot, but it works; he's down.

"Get out of here!" Tsuna shouts, and the boy goes running into the woods right next to them.

He hears a girly shriek, and he circles the tent just in time to see a guy trying to pull Hana out by her hair. He moves to help her, but in the end, doesn't need to; she grabs something with her toes, tosses it in the air, and catches it in her palm while the guy holding her is looking away. When he looks back down at her, she aims and fires. It's pepper spray.

Hana goes back into the tent and pulls out her two tenants out, yelling at them over her victim's screaming. Tsuna feels indirectly threatened by her.

Something cold wraps around his ankle.

Tsuna tries to run away, but it's too late; the man he had given a silver nutshot has a vice-like grip, and is somehow managing to get to his feet, albeit on shaky legs.

"You…little…shit…"

"Hhh…" He can't yell properly. He's too hesitant to try, with the punishing his chest has given him for even the simplest of tasks. He tries punching the man again, but he just catches Tsuna's fist.

"You wanna fuck with me, kiddo?"

Tsuna makes a wheezing noise and tries to pull himself away again, his panic spiking. Everything is confusion and noise and he can't plan through the dizzying cloud of sensation beyond get me away, even as the man pulls out a knife—

A wooden paddle is driven into the man's neck, and the grip on Tsuna's ankle goes slack.

Tsuna slowly looks up to see the teacher, Yamazaki, looking at him with pale brown eyes that seem to shine gold in the flickering light. Tsuna takes a step back, uncertain in the face of the intensity the teacher is regarding him with, and the dangerous way he's swinging the paddle.

"Don't worry," Yamazaki says, soft and all-too-intimate, "we take care of our own, y'know?"

"I…I'm not a Koyama student," Tsuna whispers hoarsely.

Yamazaki just gives him an unsettling fox-grin and dances back out into the battlefield.

"Tsuna!"

Tsuna spins around to see Hana splitting off from her group; the girl with the hair in her eyes is running into the woods, and Suzu is running out into the battlefield wielding a baton.

"What the hell is going on!" She continues when she gets close enough to truly rail into him.

"I'm…I'm not sure." Tsuna looks around in a panic, trying to pull his thoughts together enough to make rational observations. "I…I think…they're trying to chase us out. They're putting kids on the road. I think they're going to burn the tents…once everyone's out of the area."

"Ooohh my god." Hana takes a deep breath and swallows down obvious tears.

"You can run too, you know."

"No, it's…I mean, if everyone escapes, they'll still burn our things, right? And no one looks hurt." She turns to follow Takeshi carving a path through to the other side of the encampment. "Yet."

"I should help—" Tsuna starts, but it seems everyone is awake now.

"WHAT D'YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Comes a rough bellow, and Ryouhei punches a man past three rows of tents.

Hayato emerges casually, dynamite stuck between his fingers, and he stops next to Tsuna and Hana. "Since we're on offense, I want you to protect the Boss," he nods.

"How are you on offense?" Hana frowns.

Hayato holds up a finger.

Eight people explode one after the other, engulfed in a light dusting of flame that erupts and goes out all at once, just enough to incapacitate.

"What the hell," Hana shrieks.

"Too dangerous to toss them. Anyway. If the boss is hurt? It's your head," Hayato points urgently at Hana, and then he leaps into the fray too.

Hana and Tsuna carefully pick across the area, avoiding the concentration collecting around their four hard-hitters — Takeshi, Ryouhei, Hayato, and Yamazaki — and pointing students in the direction of the woods. Tsuna feels his skin crawling with the possibility that they could be grabbed at any time, and they'd be helpless against anyone who isn't literally made of paper, but the fights seem to be drawing a lot of fire. Hana is the one who is on the verge of bawling, but she still looks a lot more emotionally stable than Tsuna feels.

"What about the kids on the street?" Hana whispers.

"I…I don't know…" Tsuna gasps back. He feels light-headed.

"Okay, calm down. Listen, hide in the garbage. I have an idea."

Tsuna swallows and nods. He can see what might be Miki running into the woods too, and wonders why Hana wouldn't tell him to follow. Does she know these men are going to go after them?

"They aren't going to hurt us," Hana says, and he doesn't know if she's talking to him or herself.

Hana swings by her tent again, ducking to avoid being seen by the men still fighting with the boys, and pulls out her second bag. She thought she wouldn't need this, but…Well, even if this is just scare tactics, everyone is bound to be less traumatized if this night ends in anything but fear and misery. She takes a deep breath and sprints into the woods.

There are about five students lingering within the first five metre stretch. She shakes her head at them and makes a sharp turn, back towards the street, but distant enough that no one can grab her right away if she's spotted. If they see her, she'll go right back in those woods. She's pretty sure if she told a bunch of terrified delinquents to beat on one guy, they'd go full force.

When she explodes out of the brush, there's no one to stop her. She turns to watch the ones guarding the students under the orange glow of the street lamps, but they're not looking her way, more focused on the fights and watching their prisoners. Hana chokes back a sob at the first wave of relief, but refuses to relax. She hits the buildings on the other side of the street, and catches her hand on one of the noticeable traits she had picked up about the building; a fire escape.

Not close enough, though. She goes up the street and runs across again, and there's even more fire escapes around these parts. She doesn't know what it is about Miyazawa businesses and ladders, but holy hell is it ever convenient.

Hana climbs up to the safety of the rooftop, and some of her anxiety and terror releases. Her hands don't shake as much. She swallows, takes a moment to collect herself, and sets off at a running leap to the edge of the building. She stumbles, and her bare feet scrape painfully against the rough brick of the side of the next building, but she still makes it. Hana throws her bag over and pulls herself up onto the perfect vantage point.

"I'm going to kill her," she mutters under her breath, dangerously close to a sob. "It's her fault I'm doing this…I'm going to kill her…I'm going to die and come back from the grave and kill her for teaching me to be this dumb…"

She tears open the zipper of the bag, and starts assembling the non-lethal sniper rifle.

Miki organizes twenty-one students in the forest with urgent whispered instructions, driving on pure altruistic intent, because all his instincts know right now is that behind every tree could be a huge man with a weapon ready to yank them out onto the street, possibly to be shot.

Irie Shouichi seems to be more in-control of his terror, at least. He's gripping his stomach, but he's whispering rapidfire mobilization plans next to Miki, a warm and welcome presence in the President's absence. Miki would fall apart without that kind of assistance.

They set everyone up in a wall, with instructions to attack anyone who tries to go for them. There shouldn't be more than two or three at once, more than enough for twenty students to overpower, but he doesn't want anyone to get accidentally murdered. The students are as scared as he is. He knows terrified violence can get…bad.

Miki sits behind the wall with Shouichi curled up in a ball and leaning against a tree, trying and failing to think of self-calming exercises. The outside world is clearly not safe. Eventually, he's just reduced to reassuring himself that the President can take care of it. He took over the school in one day. He fights high-schoolers. He pushes teachers around. He'll take care of it.

"What the hell is going on?" A kid near him asks. Many are asking much the same. Miki desperately wants to have the answer to that question, but he doesn't know anything except informed guesses.

"Scare tactics," Irie says out loud, startling Miki. His voice is weak and creaking, but loud in comparison to everyone else's whispering. "They're trying to get the kids out of the tents so they can burn them without hurting anybody. They want us out. Didn't you notice there were no citizens out on the streets today? No one helping with the cleanup?"

"They're keeping people away," another nods. "Should we go back?"

"They might attack us if we cause too much trouble," Irie croaks.

"Then we…then we stay," Miki says softly.

Shouichi nods. Many of the students square their shoulders. They've already gotten used to hostile environments; Koyama affects you quickly. Even quicker if you didn't come from a great home.

A shadow starts in towards them. Tall. Broad. Adult. Miki's breath catches in his throat.

One of the boys pulls out a switchblade. How grim.

"Is this everyone?" The shadow calls out, and Miki lets his breath out all at once when he realizes it's just their teacher.

"Yamazaki-sensei!" Many of their wall cry, and some almost leap up to meet him.

"Now, now, darlings, don't fret. No one's been hurt so far, beyond some manhandling." Uncle Kunihiro comes in closer, only vaguely lit by the lamps in the distant street. Miki would never have thought he'd feel this happy to see him.

"What do we do?"

"Are we going home?"

"Don't be silly! This is just some low-level yakuza group who are overstepping their boundaries. All we gotta do is teach them a lesson!" Kunihiro tosses a flashlight at the wall, and Miki scrambles to catch it. It drops out of his hands instantly; it's his weighted flashlight, the baton one that the President had given to him. He nearly beans the boy in front of him with his fumble.

"If it's yakuza, we should—"

"Stay put. They're not supposed to be attacking us in the first place. I'm going to go remind them of that." Kunihiro sounds…uncharacteristically serious. Miki's never heard him like that. It's always lazy tones, sardonic laughter, cheerful wildness…

Kunihiro takes off his bomber jacket, fluffs it out a bit, and inverts it. Miki flicks on the flashlight, and an intense beam cuts straight through the forest. He winces and aims it horizontal to the camp. In the new light, he can see the inner part of the jacket is blood red, the saturation just barely off from the crimson of Kunihiro's hair.

He pulls it on, and turns to face the camp again. Miki swallows at the sight of a large circular emblem of a 6-pointed maple leaf over a mountain and a rising sun.

"Don't worry, kiddo. Have a little faith in your family, okay?"

Miki's uncle pushes his hair back, combing out all the twigs and leaves, and marches forward again.

A short while after hiding, Tsuna hears strange, muted pop pop pops, like gunfire but somehow dampened, and the sound of fighting decreases with each one. He risks a peek over the gutted washing machine he's tucked himself behind; the kids on the street are gone, and the people guarding them are all laying on the ground. Even as he watches, several more shots go off, and at least three people let out shouts of pain and crumple, nursing wounds.

Is somebody sniping them?

The ones fighting don't seem to care; Suzu, easily the weakest out of everyone remaining, is jumping on injured fighters and bashing them over the head. Hayato is getting a little more wild with his explosives, having them detonate just above their heads. Takeshi has, at some point, lost his baseball bat, and switched it out for a sheathed sword; Tsuna can see him try to shake the sheath off every few seconds. Ryouhei is laying waste to the rest.

And then, finally, Yamazaki walks casually past the tents, with his hair pushed back, wearing a different jacket. His voice carries so well even Tsuna can hear it, at this distance.

"THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, YOU FUCKIN' PEONS!" He roars, stepping between the fighters. He turns to look at Hayato, with his back to the enemy. "GOIN' AFTER KIDS, SHOULD I HAVE EXPECTED BETTER?"

The adults all talk to each other, a weird, distant murmur that Tsuna isn't sure is actually speech.

"Get the HELL away from my kids," Yamazaki speaks firmly more than yells, but it has twice the effect. They jolt, and fall over themselves in their attempt to flee.

Just like that, it's over.

"Well, time for cleanup!" Yamazaki says cheerfully, as if he didn't just scare off an entire yakuza raid into fleeing just by shouting really loud. He pats Ryouhei on the back. "You're ready to help, right, kiddo?"

Tsuna feels like he just missed something very, very important, just now, but he feels too relieved to care.