CAUTION: Mentions of sexual abuse, violence, self-harm, suicide, animal euthanasia and other possibly heavy themes.
You taught me the courage of stars before you left. How light carries on endlessly, even after death.
Nee-san.
A week before her last, his sister asked him a question about remembering. Would it be better to remember the things that you did or that happened to you without emotional colouring, without the pain?
"What about the happy things? When you play with me?"
There would still be the pleasure from the good memories. It was only the painful ones where you'll view your memories in a detached manner. It was better than forgetting the bad- the bad things people said; the things folks regret; the things humans suffered. There will still be the remembrance and the learning, plus there will also be the benefits of forgetfulness. Maybe it will make everyone happier.
He could not think. It was still a concept he could not grasp. He was still a child then, he told himself. He did not understand yet how heavy their world will weigh.
He still couldn't understand now, nine years later. But he could grasp, as he opened his eyes, that there was only so much Hibari Kyoya could endure.
/18/
Sawada Tsuna was outside his door by the time he retired from giving Kusakabe his final requests. The purples under his eyes were heavy, panda-like, appalling. He awoke with a start before he can kick him out of the way, rubbing his eyes and then grinning toothily at him.
"What took you so late, Hibari-san?"
"None of your business," he said automatically as he unlocked the door. "Get out of my sight, herbivore."
"I actually have a request. No, I'm not ordering you or anything!" he said quickly when his eyes peered at him quite menacingly. "I was hoping if- uhm- if you can have Yamamoto-kun tag along with you."
"I trust it that you know my answer," he replied. "I would personally prefer the baby out of everyone you will suggest." He then closed the door, only to hear a shriek of pain as Tsuna stuffed his toes on it. He howled more as Hibari continued to ram the door shut.
"Do it for Tsuyoshi-san's sake," said Tsuna. "He lost his limbs due to your incompetence-"
"I find your confidence that I will not smash your head in a thousand defective pieces more irksome than amusing now. I warned him beforehand and he disobeyed. I owed him nothing."
"What about the people who died that night? His son that you killed?"
"They are dead. It's meaningless to pity the dead."
"Man, you are a tough nut to crack, aren't you?" Tsuna said heavily as he howled in pain again when his hands tried prying the door open. "He'll be an asset in the long run. He's probably the guardian with the most potential. He's a fast learner."
"He is still a herbivore in my eyes, Sawada Tsunayoshi," Hibari retorted. "I will shear off your fingers and toes if you continue to disturb me."
"If this is the price I have to pay for you to accept Yamamoto-kun then you can shear them all off!" Tsuna exclaimed, eyes closed and on the brink of tears as he continued to keep the door ajar.
Hibari stared as he then shuffled through his pockets for the hand shear. The herbivore believed he could win by not using his flames. Contemptible.
He started with the left index finger.
/18/
That was the first time she appeared. It was enough to weaken his hold and enable the herbivore to enter. He was too taken aback to respond as her hands kept prodding the hand shears he dropped.
The second time was on the bus, at the lighthouse. The third one was at that geriatric's house. She lay down beside him, her spectral fingers straddling the folds of his shirt. She was a constant presence in the store. Even in that nonsensical volleyball match, he could make her out in the far ends of the stand.
Her back was always turned.
/18/
She did not wear the same clothes he found her shrouded in death. Instead, she wore the tightly fitted skinny jeans and a pastel yellow Nirvana shirt she wore when they took off to the lighthouse, her hair the same length as his. Her hands were folded in front of her as she examined one of the fossilized herbivore wall décors in the shop.
"Morning, Hibari-san!" said Yamamoto when he entered carrying two large boxes of new equipment. "How was breakfast? The butcher's coming later to deliver us meat from the mainland. We'll be having your favourite hamburger steak tonight! Eh, you're not happy?"
Hibari scowled as he made his way to his usual corner. The herbivore and his grandfather were now having an animated conversation about their schedule for the evening, plotting to have a common time. He did not care what it was for as he tied his server apron.
He hated routines. He disliked the thought of being shackled by a world foreign to his, conformity to that group being the only acceptable route.
He only disliked the thought of meeting geriatrics and have them pinch his cheeks as the baseball herbivore and his grandfather looked on, aware of his capability to bite people to death.
"I can't cover for you forever, though," said the baseball herbivore when they closed shop one day. "The old people love you. Use that to your advantage in making sales! You can definitely do it, Hibari-san!"
Hibari huffed and turned away. He will never get used to this. Adoration instead of fear. Camaraderie instead of isolation.
Much more when the baseball herbivore began to be less of a constant presence at work and even at home. He never bothered to care for the herbivore's shenanigans in waking up early or bringing leftovers or bird feed in the meadow to feed whatever pet he befriended. After the volleyball competition, the baseball herbivore only appeared in the morning, preoccupied with crowds in the schools in the afternoon to play baseball, he believed. He did not mind since the crowd thinned in the afternoon, and it would be easier biting his grandfather to death while he took his nap on the counter.
He doesn't have anything to do anyway. It frustrated him, these kinds of invasive thoughts as he drove his way to work. He was spending too much time sparing his grandfather's life and letting his herbivore gallivant over the rolling knolls and fields.
She then began walking towards the exit, stopping just behind the front door, her rubber-band clad hands now fumbling on her back.
"So she's there now, huh?" Hibari was plentifully pissed at the herbivore's invasion of personal space, his elbows resting on his shoulder, palms cupping his head. He was about to crush his kneecaps but he skids ahead in a split-second. He began walking to that spectre's direction. "Hi! I'm Yamamoto Takeshi, Hibari-san's friend. It's nice to meet you, Hibari-san's nee-chan!"
It was in that instant that Hibari began to shake. She turned her head in his direction, face still partially hidden as she fixes her eyes on his. She touched his outstretched hand.
He laughed as he attempted to make eye-contact with air. "Y'know, your brother's such an awesome guy. You sure took your time visiting him though." He paused. "He doesn't say it, but I think he misses you."
"You-" Hibari couldn't contain himself from taking huge strides forward, his right thumb and pinkie holding the weapon he fashioned from fisherman wire partially encased at in a rubber sheath to bite the herbivore to death. He felt nothing for her. She was a nuisance, a plague, a relic he was better off without. He twirled it maniacally. He will cut off his nose and ears and-
Namimori then disappeared as he moved closer as she often does, but before he can attend to maiming the baseball herbivore, his grandfather's cane intervened and removed his makeshift weapon from his hand.
"Takeshi, I must request your leave," said the old man, suddenly appearing in their midst. The usual fake smile of his was absent. He turned to his grandson. "Do you really despise it that much when people attempt to show kindness to you?"
"A-Are you sure, jii-san? Hibari-san might, you know-"
"You still have the eighth form to master. I want you to do so this afternoon."
"Uh… ok. Uhm, sorry, Hibari-san. Later!" By that, the door tinkles.
His grandfather then turns to him. Hibari waited for his tongue lash. Instead, he turns away and resumes his place at the counter.
Apparently, this herbivore wanted him to make the first move. Fair enough.
"You are training him the Eight Forms?"
"Aren't you curious?" the old man chuckled as he began counting the bills. "That was an interesting weapon you intend to use. Quite nasty and crude, but crafty. Who taught you that?"
She was beside his grandfather now, peering at the dusty waterless aquarium behind him.
"She did when we first met."
"Intriguing," he smiled. "Saito and Akari rarely mentioned her to me in our correspondence."
"Why should they?" he responded curtly.
"I wonder how you kept Namimori together with that attitude of yours," he chuckled. He turned at her direction and then shifted his eyes back to his. His gaze was softer. "Come into my quarters tonight. I'll show you something."
/18/
The baseball herbivore was deep in training in the front yard when they returned. He gave a quick salute and sang out that dinner was ready. He flashed a thumbs up at Hibari too before resuming his stance.
"Takeshi's working hard," the herbivore said, attempting to engage him in small talk. He said nothing as he followed his grandfather to his bedroom. He froze when he saw the small shrine and the wall of photographs beside it.
"I took that picture," he supplied his opinion as Hibari found his way to one almost half-buried image. "You nearly skidded off the cliffside and Nami managed to catch you in time." He could not bear looking away. It felt alien, uncomfortable, and yet still irrepressible. His hands instinctively yanked it from its taped resting place. He was opening up a new box he often thought was empty somewhere inside of him. He looked at his sister's expression, breezily larger than life and yet achingly human and then at his. Oh, he could only say to himself as he touched his sister's faded face. He imagined that firmed elasticity in his hands. No human being had attempted to touch him like she had. No human being let him touch them without any reservations for fear like she did. Oh, he repeated to himself as he now looked at his child self. It reminded him so much of their picture Nami kept in that box. The one she couldn't bear to give even to the likes of their uncle.
A frown formed on his face, refusing to leave.
"I recall this moment differently," he said as he remembered something else. "Forgot I knew how to make an expression like this."
/18/
He was starting to forget her. Maybe that was why her back was often turned. He could even barely recall what she looked like in brief flashes.
He woke up with beads of sweat lacing his face and soaking his shirt. A moth with the tips the image of a snake's head fluttered beside him. He let it fly up at the ceiling as it rested its wings, the patterns staring back at him in the gloaming. He dreamt of her apparition finally looking at him, only for a blank canvass of a face to stare at him back, emitting indistinct guttural sounds as she reached his hand out to him, making him backtrack and seeing darkness again.
The sound of Yamamoto tiptoeing inside did not jolt his attention enough for the herbivore to notice him. He let down his katana and proceeded to check his forehead, flinching as he did in case the man landed a blow on him. Hibari did not protest. This was humiliating. Without his tonfas or any weapons to protect himself with, he was reduced to this.
"Almost thought I'd be working alone tomorrow. Bad dream huh?" he said as he then proceeded to take a bath towel and fresh clothing on the other end of the room. "You've been like this since we arrived. I have some pills just in case," he pointed at the drawer separating their beds. "I'll get some water-"
"Why did you do attempt to delude yourself earlier?" he said without thinking. "You cannot see her."
"Yeah but I know what she looked like. She was really pretty… ehehe, actually I did something bad. I saw a picture of her and you in jii-san's place."
He stood up immediately. He did not want to listen to the herbivore's opinion. He must have snapped that picture and sent it to his fellow herbivores. He stared at the uneasy herbivore, who was now fidgeting with his spare set of pyjamas and his phone.
"U-Uhm, I won't pretend she's there if you wish," he said, not meeting his eyes as he began to rapidly press the keys on his phone.
"Do whatever you want," he said finally, just as his sister appeared again near the door. His eyes perked at his words and he began to adjust accordingly to her direction.
"You know, Hibari-san snores," he whispered in air again, missing her by several inches. But she covered her face as if to suppress a snort.
Hibari threw the heaviest hardcover tome he scrummaged from the house, making sure its sharp edges would hit his head. A whimper was enough for him to sink once more at the covers.
/18/
"Why did you name me Kyoya?" he asked, three years later in his bath made of wood as Nami washed his back with a showerhead.
"Uh… let's see. Hmm… because of how we met? It was evening, and you look so much like me."
"That's lame," his five-year-old self complained.
Her peals of laughter reminded him of a donkey's bray, and she did not care one bit. "Yeah, that's lame."
He looked at the scars on her thighs and touched it. She just smiled back. "I don't hate it though."
"Even when it's lame?" she said, now tickling his armpits, to his protests. He notices cuts in her forearms too. He attempted to push them away but ended up falling on top of her.
"Even when it's lame," he repeated before finally laughing at the mercy of his sensitive armpits and the soles of his feet.
/18/
"Hibari-san, can I ask you a question?"
"If you ask another, I will bite you to death," was his outright reply three feet away. His sister was beside the herbivore, her face hidden once more by his massive height.
"Eh, so that's a no then? Crap!" he avoided in time when Hibari's scuba tank landed with a resounding clang where he was originally. "And that," he said on his phone, "Is why you have to be direct with your questions when it comes to Hibari-san, 18lover. Oh, and don't say bad words!" He pressed it again and ducked in time before Hibari swung the tank against his head again. "That was close!" He laughed. "Oops," he said again as he avoided another swing. "If Hibari-san does hit me, I wouldn't be able to enjoy our day off."
Hibari grunted in annoyance as he grabbed the metal bars surrounding the cockpit. Their boat was speeding up. He jumped as the tank skidded down. He quietly agreed, however, with Yamamoto. He'd rather be on this trip than mingling with herbivores. One baseball herbivore was enough of an earful.
It lasted twenty more minutes of clinging to the boat when they finally reached Sanninudai, a point near the southern coast of the island where an underwater Neolithic stairwell. The old man happily asked Yamamoto to help him lower their landing deck. Hibari was not happy to know that the old man would not be coming with them and cancelled his plan of having his grandfather drown by 'accident'. He told the herbivore he was not coming.
"Eh?" moaned Yamamoto who was already submerged on the edge of the deck. Beside him, Namimori was dangling her feet on the waters, hands on her back as Yamamoto ignorantly waved his hands at him. "I'm still a beginner at this. I might die."
"Good," Hibari said, but not before the old man shook his head and eyed him beadily.
"You should go help your friend."
"I don't have friends."
"You sound like your father."
"I am not that degenerate-"
That was enough to make him submerge himself in the water as well, but a couple of feet away from Yamamoto.
"Uhm Hibari-san I might not keep up…"
Ten minutes later and Yamamoto nearly sunk in the bottom of the ruins if not for an incensed Hibari propping him up to a serene old man and a turned Namimori.
"How was it?" grinned his grandfather toothily.
"Why bring us here?" he said as he threw the herbivore's body with the 10-kilogram tank to his grandfather's feet. He hastily began removing the equipment and partly unzipping his wetsuit to perform CPR.
"Wanted you young ones to take a break. Takeshi's been wanting to visit this place since he saw it on Gugeru? That was how he pronounced it," he said with a hacking cough just as Yamamoto began to cough back water as well and sink back into unconsciousness, breathing deeply now. "You did agree to go instead of staying at home."
"You spoil him too much," he flatly remarked. The old man merely raised his hand in his direction. Hibari pushed it away and scrambled on the deck himself, removing his tank and keeping it a barrier between him and the baseball herbivore.
"Aren't you a little jealous?" he teased and avoided Hibari's slamming of his goggled-cover fist to his jaw. "You've become slower, Kyoya. Takeshi thinks highly of you. I'm sorely disappointed."
Hibari bit the inside of his cheek until he could taste that warm, metal liquid starting to seep. He then looked away when she appeared to touch his shoulder and sat down and got his legs wet again.
"Are you angry for becoming a herbivore too?" said his grandfather just as they were slowly being pulled up. Hibari doesn't look up. "You always saw yourself as a protector. Your self-pride was your strength while it lasted, but it doesn't matter now. Takeshi might have already surpassed you. He has the most potential to be the successor of our dance. He might be even better than his father."
"I find that hard to believe," he drawled but felt a tightening in his chest while he yanked out his fins. That was what Sawada Tsunayoshi said as well. He had to prove to his doubts that they were wrong. He often had. It pissed him off.
"Try tonight," said his grandfather just as the baseball herbivore opened his eyes.
/18/
"Ah, sorry for being so slow!" he said, scratching his head as they sat near the deck, caps in full show. Hibari merely folded his arms. "But ain't it cool though? The old man reckons those ruins predate the Egyptian pyramids! They're more than ten thousand years old!"
"It doesn't interest me," said Hibari. He did not like the think of the baseball herbivore being stronger than him. The more his voice grated on him, the more he wanted to utterly bite him to death.
"Figured you'd say that," he retorted, scratching his head again.
"This never-ending obsession with immortality even aeons ago," he snapped. "It merely shows how people fear to be forgotten. To trump death even in memory through these nondescript monoliths." Namimori then appeared behind the baseball herbivore with her back still turned, irking him further. "I find it easier to be forgotten. You do not need to be obsessive about your actions, deconstructing and reconstructing every minuscule detail. You can live in any way you want to live."
Yamamoto stared for a minute before chortling. "It just shows we're humans and not gods." He then grinned earnestly. "I still won't forget you though. I already uploaded all the stolen shots and recordings of yours on the cloud. They may fetch a hefty price one day…"
"I will bite you to death when I receive my fangs back-"
"Uhm, they're your tonfas right?" He then started to laugh much louder. "I'm sorry, Hibari-san. It's really weird seeing this side of you. So deep… ah," he then hesitated. Nami leaned her head against his shoulder, face still hidden as ever. "Does Hibari-san really welcome death that much?"
"We all will go there one day," he shrugged. "Why must we fear it?"
"Hmm," Yamamoto noted thoughtfully. "I don't think it's what everyone fears the most though," his eyes darted about before he fixes them to his direction again. "I guess what people fear the most, even by people like you is regret." His sister's head remained planted on his shoulder. "It might be the reason you're seeing her right now aren't you?" His smile was fainter but felt like a sledgehammer as he drove the point home. "You know, I read on google that people like you don't feel emotions. You don't know what fear or sadness is. I don't think that's true now. Maybe that's what Nami-san saw. You have feelings too."
She then disappeared. He turned away. "I don't give a damn about what you think."
The herbivore merely chuckled. "I know you'd say that too."
/18/
"Why don't you hate me?" he asked one day, in that cliff in Agarizaki.
Nami just smiled. "Guess I saw something in you."
Kyoya tried to think and then doesn't think at all.
/18/
Ken left Hibari's tonfas in his bed along with a note telling them to eat dinner without him that night. That was enough permission for Hibari after supper to challenge Yamamoto to a fight.
He took awhile to respond. "Eh, I might die Hibari-san," he laughed nervously.
"I will not kill you. You have my word." He did not say he might end up a cripple or have chronic injury, however.
"I-I don't know Hibari-san I-"
"Do you know why Hitomi married your father, Yamamoto Takeshi? She was deeply enamoured with my father- they were childhood friends- but traditions, traditions. She slept with my father aplenty though even after marrying Tsuyoshi. My mother despised him when she found out. Who knows, maybe that is why your father hated mine. Maybe you're not your father's child too."
An earsplitting silence pervaded the room. Hibari smiled as the herbivore began to tremble vehemently.
"Is that true, Hibari-san?" he said, every syllable echoing repressed rage. How easy it was to push herbivores' buttons.
"Come," was word enough for them to take their battle outside. His smile curled however as he unsheathed his katana and murmured Cambio Forma. Something was off about the herbivore. He could sense it, how his fangs would not sink into something delectable.
By then, she appeared again, tugging his shirt. He yanked her hand away and did not wait for her to disappear as he raised his tonfas. Oh, how he missed his teeth. Oh, how he missed this thrill.
His senses remained tingling, however. Something truly did not feel right.
The herbivore charged, his left katana disappearing in a flurry of blue flames but he should have known of course, how far longer and better he knew the art of dual wielding.
It took less than five seconds to point the bladed end of his tonfa towards the herbivore's throat.
"One more time," the herbivore murmured and it made him despise himself for agreeing. The herbivore performed another form this time, coming in close in just two steps. He needed to only thrust his tonfa up to hit him squarely in the jaw, sending him to his knees. "One more-"
Hibari kicked him away. The old man lied. This was why they had been taking three days to master the original eight forms. So this was his solution? His intervention? Was it really necessary for him to give a damn?
No matter. He turned away. "You've become weak." He could not mask the bitter disappointment in his voice. He could feel the herbivore flinching.
"I'm sorry," his voice was smaller, stripped of the cheery confidence he often showcased. "It frustrates me too."
"If you continue with this charade of yours, you will die when you face her." He had no time for this. He had to leave and kill the old man now. He truly wasted his time there, letting this herbivore sway him in his cutesy barks with no bite to back it all.
"I know. I just don't know how- What is happening to me? Ehehe…" even his laugh is like a whimper now, retreating instead of entreating. "I have to try harder, don't I? Be better. Fighting…"
A failure.
"You may fool yourself, but you can't fool me, Yamamoto Takeshi." He turned his back on him to walk back to the house. "You are broken. Learn to accept that."
/18/
His grandfather was not surprised to see him seething. The other elders walked beside him. Behind them was a pyre filled with screaming herbivores.
"You got us again, young one," the old man said, dusting off his coat. He could smell blood from them. He sheathed and hid his weapon within the folds of his sleeve. "And to what do I owe this pleasure?"
Hibari raised his tonfa, ignoring her apparition again as she appeared near the pyre, barely translucent under the blaze. "Tell your fellow geriatrics to leave. If they don't I will eradicate them too."
"What do you think of Takeshi-kun?" he said, making him release the spikes from his tonfas, now bigger and deadlier than he was used to.
"It was a joke in poor taste, grandfather," he said the last word as if chewing gravel. "He doesn't even deserve to be bitten. Now die, you old fuck. I have enough of dawdling into your machinations."
The elders suddenly grouped themselves behind him, slowly revealing their weapons. Ken raised his hand to prevent them from continuing further.
His mouth was a blank straight line. "Are you satisfied now in seeing him break?"
It took Hibari several seconds to answer. By then, Ken continued, "He won't be of use to you if no one puts a stop to it."
"If he cannot rise above it, then it proves how much he deserves to die a shameful death." That was it. Yes, how many times had Hibari overcome adversity alone no matter how much the world shat on him and yet this herbivore could not move forward with such simple bonds? He was just weak. There was truly nothing in there. He deluded himself again.
His grandfather's eyes were colder now, almost like slits. "Was that what you thought of your father's death? Your uncle's? Your sister's? Shameful?"
He could not believe he'd give such a spineless reply. "Yes."
The old man closed his eyes. He inhaled and exhaled heavily. "Then that proves what kind of death you deserve Kyoya." His mouth twisted between expressions, unsure. "And that saddens me more."
/18/
Yamamoto was not in the house when the Hibaris returned. Nami was in his bed though, hands splayed out as her face was flattened on top of the pillow. He knew this wasn't real because her hands and neck did not bear any scars. He ignored her and took off his shirt before going to bed.
He hated it when someone else was right. He hated it more when he knew that both he and someone else were right.
These people were a nuisance. Another defence mechanism, maybe. That voice in his head that chose the easier way, blaming others for his pitfalls. He was really becoming like his family. He growled and away from the herbivore's bed, only to see her in front of him, her back still facing him. How long was he truly going to haunt her?
Hey, Kyoya, do you know about the man named Sisyphus?
He closed his eyes. He did not want her to come any closer. It rung in his ears.
"I have forgotten," he said to no one.
Of course you won't. His work is fatalistic as heck.
His mouth grinned by instinct. His sister never liked swearing. That was a Hibari oath he broke sometimes.
So once upon a time, there's this man named Sisyphus. He did a grave sin to the gods. I forgot what he did, something about the providing spring water in his town without the gods' permission or something. So when he died, his punishment in the underworld was to carry a rock up a hill and then roll it down. He'll carry it up, up again and roll it down, down again. For all eternity!
He opened his mouth to exclaim something but then decided to say something else. "Why are you telling me this?"
Is there a point in wiping out your family? Of making that friend of yours suffer? What is the point of taking revenge for me or jii-san? We're already dead.
"Your conclusion is dripping with hubris. I'm only doing this for my own satisfaction. I don't care about you or uncle."
You're a terrible liar, Kyoya. I still remember that day gramps took our picture. You may have forgotten a ton of things, but I'm sure you've never forgotten that. We made a promise.
"Promises break. You said before you were used to that."
You sure know how to talk back, you arrogant little shite. Fine, whatever. Suit yourself. You're a Hibari. You're stubborn as heck.
"Did that stubbornness kill you?"
It did if you're really that curious. I set a bad example for my little brother. If you make the same mistakes I had, I won't ever forgive you.
"Liar."
You really like shooting down your sister, don't you? Such a naughty child… hmm, you're the same age as I was, huh? Time sure flies so fast.
"You did not answer my earlier question."
And no room for sentimentality, ah? Hmph. You truly do emulate Sisyphus. If you let nostalgia consume you, the rock wins. Good job, Kyoya.
"You're the one who taught me to never look back."
Ahaha, did I? A pat on the back on my end then!
"Don't go yet."
What's with the sudden change?
"It's been awhile since I heard your voice."
I thought there was no more room for sentimentality you little brat.
"Please."
That doesn't sound like you. But thank you. I'm glad you're still fighting and growing as you move forward. You make your nee-san proud.
Liquid fell on his cheeks. He was sure it wasn't from her.
/18/
He was sleeping on the porch, his Kintoki being his other support when Hibari went outside. He noticed a yellow canary sleeping on his shoulder as well. So.
He was a liar too, really…
All of them were the same. He kicked the katana to rock the herbivore awake. The bird immediately opens its eyes and twittered frantically once it saw Hibari's face. He smirked. That must be enough an alarm clock already.
"H-Hibari-san! I'm sorry!" he said, looking at the bird and then at Hibari's expression before also exploding and running around the lawn, the bird following him. "I can explain I-"
"You disobeyed my orders. You did not want to kill the bird. I know and I don't care," Hibari cut to the chase, releasing his tonfas. Yamamoto then raised his katana like a ward in front of him. "Herbivores disobey orders they don't want to follow. It's in their nature. I've seen it countless times."
"S-So, what are you going to do to me?" Yamamoto said, covering the bird with his palm and trying to calm down its shrill twitter.
"I want to ask you whether you despise me or not, Yamamoto Takeshi for what I've said last night."
"What?" Yamamoto loosened his grip and dropped his katana.
"It's a binary question. Do you, or do you not?"
"What the heck, did you hear that Tsuna? Gokudera? Reborn-san? I think Hibari's trying to apo-"
Yamamoto's reflexes were faster if his phone was on the line. Good. That would make things easier. He yanked back his chain just as the herbivore hid his phone on one of his hoodie's pockets. "Sorry, Hibari-san! It's rare to hear you ask questions like that… see…"
"Your. Answer."
"Uhm, well no, I don't despise you as much last night. See, I talked to Gokudera and I recorded his reply. Just a sec, Hibari-san." By then he pressed play.
"I detested you, detested how perfect you were. Living in your perfect bubble, believing that things would fall into place. Fucking hated that world view. I wanted to crack your perfect façade. I wanted to believe that you weren't all that, that you weren't as well-adjusted as people perceive you to be. I wanted that bubble of yours to burst and then gloat over you, to prove that I'm fucking better, that you can't handle it like I can. I even practised my final laugh."
There was a pause. "Ehehe, sorry, I'll look for the next recording uhm…"
"I lived in a bubble too, once. Finding out that the piano teacher was my mother was the biggest turning point of my life. I chose to leave that bubble, chose to trust no one but myself, chose to despise myself because I couldn't find a place to belong until I met you guys.
"I couldn't detest you for long. I couldn't believe what a selfish douchebag I was, to hate you for living a privileged life you were lucky not to choose. But then seeing you happy, living a life I never got to live made me happy too. I didn't want that to change. I couldn't stand the thought of seeing you break.
"But when I saw your mother I was fucking afraid. I was really happy that your dad was alive, but then when I saw you like that after, when you couldn't even look at me, I never felt this much disgust since… I found out I was a bastard. I grew sick of it, seeing that despicable wish of mine coming true and having you unravel like that before my eyes. I could barely even look at you when you apologized to me. I never thought that things would end like this. I used to think how convenient it was for you to leave. I'm really sorry, baseball freak."
"Wow, that's the first time I heard you say a lot of stuff, Gokudera!" Yamamoto froze as he listened to his own voice. "You really do care about me, don't you? I care about you too! About Tsuna, about Hibari-san, about everyone. That's why I have to go and be Hibari-san's pillar, to make sure he comes back to our side. That's a promise."
Hibari was nonplussed for several seconds. He did not know how to react. "It's fake," he said flatly.
"Wait, Gokudera actually said that! We just had to repeat it all from scratch so I can record it. I think my response gave it away…" Yamamoto scratched his head again and began to laugh.
"Your reply is too long…" Hibari trailed off. He was letting this herbivore waste his time again. He needed that phone to prevent him from falling into further shenanigans.
"Eh, so what are you implying Hibari-san?" Yamamoto opened his mouth to a big 'o' again. Hibird chirped dolefully as it glanced at its old master.
"Draw your sword. I'll tear you down and force you to stitch yourself back together. I'll give that sword of yours extra weight."
"You should just say you'll train me, Hibari-san!" he laughed again yet obeyed his command. "Thanks. I'm in your care, Hibari-sama." He said the last line with much conviction, it ticked his teacher off.
"Are you recording everything again, herbivore?"
When Yamamoto nodded, Hibari lunged.
/18/
"Kyoya-kun! Takeshi-kun!" said one of the old ladies, holding up a bowl of sliced watermelon during their short break. Yamamoto and the bird were more than happy to get the first pieces. Hibari nodded at the herbivore as he noted the time they were wasting and how he needed to eat only two more pieces in ten seconds, sending the baseball herbivore in a frenzy of seed bullets and stained clothing.
"Who made you agree to train him?" said the old herbivore.
"None of your business," said Hibari.
"An interesting turn of developments, that is."
"Do not make anymore references to that franchise. She made me watch the movies enough times to get sick of that green puppet."
"Kakaka! You aren't as stuck up as you portray yourself to be," boomed his grandfather. "So Nami liked movies, didn't she?"
"She snuck in an old TV in my room. She made me watch a lot of things that were popular when she was a child."
"Mm. Like a typical girl her age…" he grabbed a teacup and poured himself a small amount.
Hibari could not stop himself from rebutting. "When your wretched son still existed in my memory, he asked me to hold his penis for him. Nami did too. Maybe Yuu and Kei did too. Maybe my wretched father did as well."
Yamamoto was still not finished with his first watermelon.
"My sister never complained. She hated sounding weak while she was with me. But I saw it whenever she came to bathe me at night without our parents' permission. It made her easy prey to other types of pain. I learned not to break no matter how many times my enemies wounded me because I know of many other ways to inflict pain. Our family is a natural."
The baseball herbivore was nearly halfway with his second and paused to take a selfie with the bird.
"Why don't you tell Takeshi?"
"He is not involved," said Hibari calmly, drinking the tea from his glass. "It is up to him to make his own judgment. I dislike spoonfeeding man-children."
"He's wiser than he lets on," the old man noted. "Reminds me so much of Tsuyoshi."
"You cannot displace your guilt through that herbivore. You were given a choice to free your children from the expectations you imposed. You chose not to. It is that simple."
The man swirled his glass, still bemused. "No matter how much I'd want to answer to the sins I've done, it won't change a thing. The people who have the right to condemn me are dead. I stayed on this island to wait for my chance to atone and here you are now, the child of the son I've hurt the most."
"I will kill you. This is my oath in the name of Namimori. To my sister and our town."
The herbivore finished his watermelon. Hibari stood up.
/18/
"Do you believe in trauma, Yamamoto Takeshi?" he said as they walked through town, the herbivore a few steps behind him.
"Uh, yeah. I think that's what Gokudera said about me too."
"I will tell you something about trauma, herbivore," said Hibari as they paused a few yards from a tree. Yamamoto froze when he found out why. "It stays with you." There was a baby bird that fell from its nest. They were outside the home of one of their volleyball team mates.
"Ah, Hibari-san-" Yamamoto said, pointing at the bird.
"Get a paper bag or something in the trash we can carry this animal with," he said without missing a beat. The garbage collecting truck won't be there until mid-afternoon. Yamamoto frantically only found a plastic bag and gave it to him. Hibari tenderly carried the small bird with it.
"Its neck's broken. If we don't hurry then-"
"Yes," Hibari said. "This will be a better lesson for you than our pointless battling in my grandfather's yard." With that said he pressed both ends of the plastic bag together and began smothering the bird with his hands.
"H-Hibari-san-!" The herbivore screamed, almost as loud as the ferocious screeching of the tiny bird. It pulsed and reared up against his hands. It did not want to go down without a fight. But of course. That was the beauty of it. Death will always, always elicit fear. Life will always cling to that possibility of hope, no matter how slim.
It was foolish and absurd and acceptable and real.
"My sister once told me about a man named Sisyphus, a man doomed to push a rock up a hill, roll it down, and push it up again for all eternity. There is no glory in it. His whole being is exerted in accomplishing nothing. Humanity is doomed to live that way as well, living in this kind of absurdity and death will come and save us all." The struggling from underneath his palms was feebler now. He pressed on it harder. "We try to find an escape to it. Humans tend to choose either killing themselves or clinging to a possible higher plane of existence. There is another option."
"W-What does that have to do with killing a baby bird, Hibari-san? What does that have to do with justifying what a h-horrible man you are?"
The struggling had stopped. He carried the plastic bag and passed by Yamamoto, whose gaze was still fixated on the ground, biting back his tears.
"If you can't accept that life will continue not giving a shit about you then your rock will forever win, Yamamoto Takeshi. Ask better questions. And answer every single one."
She was in front of them, hair still as short and hands still as embellished with loom and rubber bands as ever. Hibari turned at Yamamoto, who shuffled beside him reluctantly.
"Come. We will bury it."
/18/
They returned to its burial spot (Yamamoto fashioned a small rock and a bed of wild dandelions) in Agarizaki to watch the sunrise. Hibird remained fastened on Yamamoto's shoulder, twittering maniacally as the sky turned a soft shade of lavender and salmon.
"What is the third option? What is another way to escape this absurdity?"
"There is no escaping this existence aside from death," Hibari said. "It's similar to trauma. It will mess you up until the day you catch your last breath."
"So what? I just have to live? No other shortcuts? No other cushioning after the fact? I have to take it all head-on, even though I know I can't ever fight fate?"
"That's where I disagree with that kind of thinking," Hibari said, as some parts of the sun began to rise. Namimori was once more in front of him, hands on her knees, wind whipping back her cropped hair as she stared onward. "I go on living because I want to choose how I'd die."
"Even if you will rip the lives of other people in doing so?"
Hibari nodded.
"I expected that much from you," Yamamoto chuckled benignly. "I honestly don't want to die yet. I still have some stuff I want to do after this."
"You will live. As long as you have something to hold onto."
"This is really weird to hear you talk this much Hibari-san! Uhm, is Nami-san there? Hi nee-chan!" he said, waving furiously. She waved back.
Hibari stared daggers at Yamamoto. "Eh, what's wrong?"
He looked at her again. He saw a quick flash of her wide smile there as she turned once more at the rising sun.
"She would always look at you. It annoys me. Whenever she appears, she never turns in my direction."
Yamamoto covered his hand as he guffawed. "That's because you don't call her. You can't let others make the first move forever. I mean, if I didn't help Tsuna that time, I wouldn't have met you all. Even nee-chan!"
/18/
That was the last time she appeared.
It had been two days since then, and they had resided near Mt. Urabe battling with the ex-Hibari patriarch nearly nonstop.
"Catch, young one," he said on the first day, tossing something to Hibari to which he avoided. "Still as uncooperative as ever, I see…"
The item glinted and it made Hibari fixate his anger to the man three feet beside him, who just shrugged and laughed hesitatingly.
"You will be dealt with, later," said Hibari Kyoya as he kicked the Cloud Bracelet aside. "I don't need to depend on the Vongola again."
"You and your stubborn pride… a Hibari through and through," his grandfather sighed, shaking his head. "I'll be blunt, Kyoya. Use it and partner up with Takeshi-kun, or you will lose your life."
"The first and last time I partnered with anyone was with a pineapple-head illusionist. I will not repeat that with this Shiba Inu herbivore."
The old man squinted at Yamamoto, who nodded in assent and released his rain flames onto Hibari, forcing the bracelet onto his left arm whether he liked it or not. He scowled and tried to pry it off to no avail.
"I used the old man's handmade superglue and my Rain Flames to lock it. Roll won't let you go too whether you like it or not!"
"You ally yourself with him?" Hibari grunted as he continued to bash through it with his tonfa.
"Eh, just until we finish the last part of our training. And for that, I need your help!" Yamamoto pointed his finger guns at him. "I need your assistance in incapacitating the old man, and then he said he can do whatever we want with him."
"I cannot kill him?" This was enough for the flames in his bangle to roar menacingly. Yamamoto immediately dashed back three more feet away.
"If you do not follow our demands, Kyoya, I will reveal your whereabouts publicly to the underground. They'd be more than happy to annihilate you and Dounan along with it."
"The old man also said that if he died, the other elders will know and contact them anyway, so there is no escape."
"Do you think that would be enough to stop me once I get away from your prison, Yamamoto Takeshi?" he snarled.
"What say you, old man?"
He shrugged. "We have to try, don't we? He's underestimating this humble self. Time to teach my grandchild a lesson. You've been an ungrateful little brat the moment you stepped foot in Dounan." Seven different coloured flames then began encircling his cane. He pushed it on the ground to produce a Claymore swathed in multicoloured flames. "First form. How do you like it, Takeshi?"
"Still as awesome as ever, old man shishou." Yamamoto readied his two katanas, eyes now sharp and alert.
"Before we begin, I must warn you Kyoya that Yuuya and Kei are far stronger than me. You weren't considered a candidate to succeed your father. That is why you only know how to control two flames at most, while they can control any flame within Mafia jurisdiction. It will take more than a decade of training, and we only have two days. I don't have any of that ridiculous power up mumbo jumbo like those from the shows Takeshi lent me. That carrot-haired guy with the colossal sword whose title is about detergent or something was a good one, Takeshi!"
"The show starts to suck when the guy who betrayed Soul Society got defeated!" said Yamamoto.
"Oh dear, I'm two episodes past that one," the old man laughed.
"We are wasting time with your pointless babbling," Hibari scowled.
"This humble self will just provide you with a taster of our family's strength," smiled the old man.
"And I will be supporting you, Hibari-san since I've fought with the old man a couple of times."
"I will bite you all to death," he hissed. This was ludicrous, but he needed to be patient and kill the old man first and then the baseball herbivore. With that, the rain flames surrounding Hibari disappeared.
And that was not until the old man unleashed the real power of the seven flames of the sky.
Yamamoto Takeshi nodded at him encouragingly. He whispered the magic words and swathes of purple began enveloping him then. It had been too long.
/18/
"He looks cute, doesn't he?" cooed a girl with bangs longer than the tail of her bluish-black hair.
He looked at his younger self, wearing a mini white polo shirt and navy chinos along with small mustard yellow loafers that matched his elementary school hat.
"He doesn't look six though…" a familiar voice trailed off. His hand was fully covered by her own. He looked up. She was easily two heads taller than the other girl. She was also wearing a different uniform compared to the other girl, a gakuran draping her shoulders, black pants instead of the long navy skirt the other girl wore. "I still think he should have worn the stormtrooper shirt and white pants."
"Your Star Wars otaku persona is showing-"
"Shut up, SMAP weeb…"
Her hair was longer as well, despite the high ponytail it reached past her waist.
"Something wrong, Kyoya?" she said in puzzlement as he continued to ogle. "Nervous about your first day? You'll make lots of friends in no time as long as you shut up about killing everyone, kay?"
"You're giving him bad thoughts again…"
"He might forget, Saya-chi. I'd want him to enjoy his first day. It's his wish to go to school."
"When will I be able to wear those?" he asked, pointing at her gakuran.
"I don't think they'll fit you. I'm taller than Kei-niisan," she pressed a forefinger to her lower lip. "But ok. When you finish elementary school and go to Nami-chuu, you can borrow any clothing I have!"
"Not your Star Wars clothes please…"
"Ahaha, I won't part with those quite easily!"
So this was what she looked like before his mother cut her hair. She was beautiful, eyes bigger and more alive than a normal Hibari's, a loose smile always playful on the edges of her mouth, a restrained yet commanding gait…
Saya talked to the school teacher and began giving a list of things to consider when taking him in. He tagged at his sister's sleeve. She lowered herself to him like a knight in one of those films she had him watch.
"Thank you, nee-san. For granting my wish," he said, tugging on her sleeve again. She merely laughed and ruffled his hair.
"It's your turn now to grant my wish when you make friends, okay?" she said warmly, pulling him closer to her shoulder. "Smile more, okay? Not just for my and your sake this time. Now go out there and knock them out of the park, you cute little brat!"
Nami and Saya waved at him as he his teacher held his hand inside. He'll grant her wish. He would learn how to be happy. He would make her happy.
Three months later and he was whisked into Child Support Services for stabbing their teacher with a pencil thirteen times and breaking the arms of three classmates. He wouldn't be allowed by his father to attend school again.
"Told you it would fail," Kei snorted at her as his father locked him in that accursed room again. Nami could only raise a fist at his direction.
That was only the first of many.
/18/
Saya's lifeless body stared at him emptily in that room he resided in. They skinned her face while she was still alive. He was forced to watch. Nami too.
She shuddered when their father touched her shoulder. She could barely look at Kyoya as her father uttered, "You made your choice. Now take him away." His two wet nurses began to subdue him. He bit and pulled and scratched until they bound and gagged him. She could only shake as she looked at him one more time, her eyes swimming in terrified tears, mouth saying the same 'sorry' over and over.
That was the last time he saw her alive.
/18/
The baseball herbivore caught him before he could fall on his knees. His swallows continued their tirade against the old man, who sliced through them all with ease.
"I won't let you face your battles without my assistance, Hibari-san," he said, letting him stand up by himself. He brandishes his katana in front of him, his flames burning much brighter than that tuna herbivore's. "You don't have to fight them alone anymore."
Hibari grinned. Nami was also in front of him. So that was why she always was in front of him as well. He could not understand why she and that baseball herbivore would risk their lives for people who may betray them one day. He whispered Cambio Forma again as he also walked slowly beside the herbivore.
"I'm a herbivore too, aren't I?" he said as the Rolls in his feet began to multiply.
"No. You're a living, breathing, feeling human being, Hibari-san. You're the same as any of us."
With those words, they charged.
18
An Atlas Moth was perched on his grandmother's grave stone and fluttered when they came closer. He pushed his grandfather's wheelchair and made sure to land on as many stones and pebbles as possible for him to cry out in pain from his injuries. Yamamoto carried the basketful of red camellias, lavender and sagisas.
"You will join her tomorrow morning," said Hibari curtly.
"You don't have to say those words in front of his wife!" Yamamoto exclaimed. "Still as callous as ever, geez…"
The old man's laugh was weaker this time.
"Hey, dad's sensei!" Yamamoto saluted the grave stone. "It's a shame I couldn't get to meet you. You might have kicked my other sensei'sass!"
He must be talking about that shark. He kicked the herbivore on his bandaged side because he was hogging too much space.
"I'll be joining you soon, Hotarubi," he said, bowing his head to her.
Hibari did not need to say anything. He despised her as much as he despised the rest of them.
18
Their last day on the island was as busy as any other day. They had to watch over the shop until before five, watch their final sunset in Dounan, and then return to the recreational complex where a massive feast was waiting for them as a parting gift from the island residents. He couldn't refuse in case the herbivore attempted to talk to his spectral sister again that night.
"It was a good two weeks!" said the herbivore, triggering his berserk button again. It should have felt a longer stay, but it flew by so fast. He began snapping pictures of the setting sun again.
"My sister told me that a long time ago during a time of conquest, pregnant women were pushed off this cliff to avoid an increase in population. You can still hear the baby herbivores moaning at night with their mothers."
"Sh-Sh- H-Hibari-san! Is that true?"
Hibari smirked deviously. "Who knows?"
This was the same place as that picture where he had his last conversation with his sister. She did not look like the girl he would be seeing several days later, broken and already dying. This girl was holding a small philosophy book, her gaze as sharp as they were forlorn while they looked up at the grey sky.
18
"Say, Kyoya," she said quietly. "Would it be better to remember the things that you did or that happened to you without emotional colouring, without the pain?
"What about the happy things?" his eight-year-old self asked. "When you play with me?"
"There would still be the pleasure from the good memories. It's only the painful ones you'll view in a detached manner. Maybe that's better than forgetting the bad- the bad things people said; the things folks regret; the things humans suffered. There will still be the remembrance and the learning, plus there will also be the benefits of forgetfulness. Maybe it will make everyone happier."
"I think that's scary, nee-san."
There was that familiar braying again when she guffawed. "You're right. It's such an irrational proposition. It will probably change the memory by removing the emotions and pathos it's associated with."
It was the first time he saw her hesitate.
"Maybe some memories in their essence are painful because we experienced it, not simply because they were real."
"I don't understand nee-san. You like complicating things!"
"Eh, let's watch Star Wars again when we go home then with Saya-chi!"
"I want to watch Die Hard."
"What about Ikiru?"
"Die Hard, Die Hard!"
"You're starting to rebel against your nee-san huh? You little brat-" she proceeded to tickle him until she began to lose interest, lying on the grass instead. He found this itchy and merely sat beside her.
"What's wrong, nee-san?" he prodded, playing with her shorter hair.
"Do you remember when we first met Kyoya?" she said, closing her eyes. "I saw you on patrol. You were only four. You attempted to kill me."
"Bite you to death!"
"Okay, bite me to death," she said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "I was outside beside the mail box in the wee hours of the morning waiting for my uncle to reply to my letters. He replied the first two years until I was seven but then he stopped altogether afterwards, no matter how many times I wrote. I began to resent him after, being the weak-ass little girl I was." She paused. Kyoya lay his head on her stomach. He could feel how thinner she was then. "I found out two days ago that dad… that fucker intercepted every single letter when I was seven onwards. He also grabbed hold of jii-san's replies to me. I was ok you know…" her voice hardened. "When he had me suck his cock and do all the shit he'd been doing with you and nee-san and nii-san even when Saya-chi said that was messed up, I did not give a shit. But when I saw those letters in his room… I can't take it anymore. I have enough with our tradition, with our rules of not having any friends… the way Yuu-nee and Kei-nii are as brainwashed and crazy as the rest of them… I should have left with Fon-jiisan. Fuck this family. Fuck it all," she said, just as Hibari began wiping her tears with his sleeve. She then began to shake as she tried to stop her sobs. "Do you know what my real wish is, Kyoya? I want to kill them. I want everyone dead. I want that house burned. I want every single fucking one of us dead."
"Even me? Even you, nee-san?"
"Yeah," she said, covering her face with her arm. "Even me and you."
Hibari looked at the dark blue ocean.
"Do you hate me now, Kyoya?" she said in a faraway voice.
He looked at her scars. He stared at her mouth which were missing a few teeth.
"Yeah, I hate you. But I hate you the least."
She let her arms envelop him. "Can you make a promise to me, Kyoya?"
He squeezed her fingers.
"If I fail as jii-san had, can you finish the job for our sake? If our town does get destroyed… If you can't find a reason not to do it, will you?"
Hibari could smell the familiar peach perfume on her neck. "Okay."
"Okay," she repeated. "Stay by my side until the end, Kyoya."
18
Nami appeared near the stone marker.
"Nee-san," Hibari called out. She did not turn. "Nee-san," he repeated, louder this time.
"Hibari-san?" The herbivore's voice seemed to melt away with everyone else as he broke into a run, extending his arms to pull back her shirt and make her look at him. He wanted to see her expression. He wanted to see that smile of hers. He-
"Hibari-san!"
The spell broke and he could see Hibird frantically flapping its wings, in its beak his photograph with her sister.
He couldn't feel anything underneath his feet. He looked down and saw waves lazily splashing against the jagged rocks hundreds of feet away.
He could feel his arm in pain as it carried his entire body. He looked up and saw the herbivore's eyes, heard his laborious breathing and felt his glimmering strength as he began pulling him up. The bird stayed on his shoulder when the herbivore pulled the rest of him back at the cliffside. Yamamoto could only extend the rest of his body back at the grass as he panted heavily.
"That wasn't my sister," he murmured finally as he looked at his photograph, at both their smiles before finally letting go. "That was my rock." He did not even look back as the bird began to chirp in earnest.
Yamamoto then began to laugh. "So the rock didn't win in the end?"
That's what she was. She was like that struggling baby bird. She was that feeling that swelled inside of him that refused to die, and yet was barely clinging on.
"Fuck it. Fuck our trauma," he said before sinking back on the grass as well.
"Just fuck it, huh?" the herbivore snickered. "You know what I feared the most? I feared losing a reason to live when I thought dad was a goner and that you were too. I thought that the reason I came with you was because I wanted to save my mom. But you know… the more days that passed, the more I'm starting to accept that I was lying to myself and my dad was right. Maybe all of this would amount to nothing. I might die over nothing. That thought jolted back to me when you told me how broken I was. Guess you were right."
Hibari was listening. He did not understand why, but he was listening.
"Maybe it's too late to save my mother, but it's not too late to save you."
A foreign expression suddenly appeared on Hibari's face. It felt warmer than he imagined it to be.
"Your speech is too long," he snorted.
With shortness of breath, you explained the infinite. How rare and beautiful it is that we exist.
-Sleeping at Last, Saturn
A Prelude
"I remember those clothes well," said Ken serenely as Hibari and Yamamoto came at Agarizaki to also see their final sunrise. Horses roamed across the field and ignored them.
Hibari nodded at his acknowledgement. "Nee-san said these were what uncle wore in that war a long time ago. I deem it appropriate."
His grandfather tossed his cane at their direction. As usual, Hibari moved aside.
"You little rascal…" his grandfather popped a vein in his left temple. "That's a prized heirloom in the family. That is my parting gift."
"No thank you," Hibari grinned maliciously. "These tonfas are enough remembrance. You have my gratitude, grandfather."
"Let's get this over with then," the old man said as he fell to his knees and lowered his head.
Yamamoto turned his back.
"You will be slaying more of our kind, Takeshi. Have a good look at it firsthand. That will be my final request."
"Fulfill his request," Hibari thundered. Yamamoto hid his phone and his hands as he bit his lip to stop his tears. "Now," he then said as he unsheathed the longest blade from his tonfa. He said nothing else as he lowered his blade towards the man's neck at full strength.
However.
It only took two seconds for seven multicoloured flames to swathe their field of view. The old man disappeared from his position to come into view again in front of them, back turned, claymore on hand. His bandaged arm was bleeding.
"Takeshi," said the old man. "I leave Kyoya to you."
Hibari could not register his emotions properly when Yamamoto grabbed his waist, recited the usual magic words, and then prepared himself to run and jump into the oceanic abyss.
But he did see it. The man who postponed his execution. The man who will end up killing his prey.
Hibari Kei was smiling quite smugly as he began releasing seven flames from his blade. Despite the adrenaline and pandemonium, he heard every word that came out his wretched mouth.
"I'm here to end you."
It was a flurry of colour and gravity then as Yamamoto used the ocean at his disposal, slowing their descent as they landed on a boat that was prepared beforehand. He then made a thumbs up to the cockpit's direction. The boat began to move.
"You knew about this?" Hibari said angrily.
"We got a tip from the old folk that he arrived at dawn," he said quickly. "We'll be changing boats from the main island to confuse them. We didn't want to tell you. You'd throw a fit."
A wide spectrum of colours continued to sputter at the cliffside. It was like a sea of rainbows at daybreak. Hibari attempted to jump overboard, only to be surrounded by Yamamoto's rain flames.
"This was his last request. You said I have to fulfil it," Yamamoto said, eyes still fixed at the fight, despite it slowly becoming a speck on the horizon. "Let me do something right for once." By then, he began to cover his face.
Hibari did not move even when his flames disappeared and the herbivore retreated inside the boat to mourn.
"Nee-san," he said to no one in particular. "I wish I learned how to grieve."
Kyoya= night + mirror, according to Tumblr lmao. Can't find any other references that say otherwise sorry about that.
The quote 'Death will come and save us all' is from one of Ourliazo's titles. Ah, I just love how she titles her fics!
FUCKING FINALLY I CAN MAKE THIS GOOD SONG MY CHAPTER HEADERS. The moment I heard this back in April, I knew that this was definitely something I'd pin to this story. Densest chapter I've ever written. I've been rewriting this chapter even in the original 18 fic I posted, so it pays that I finally have the guts of posting a chapter as demanding as this. Makes you proud when you do something you thought was impossible, right?
Anywayz, back to Tsuna and rest of their POV's next chapter. The Hibari-Yamamoto narrative was more a thought exercise than a rollercoaster from the earlier chapters, so we'd be retreading that path until the end! I overestimated my ability to juggle RL and this fic (plus my mental health) so I'll be finishing this fic soon (I'm still not sure when though, but we're on the verge of wrapping up). Thanks for keeping up!