Okay, I know this is later than usual, but I actually have a semi-legitimate excuse this time. I didn't get to work on the story this weekend because I was watching the Dew Tour! For those of you who don't know (which is probably all of you), the Dew Tour is a fairly big pro skiing/snowboarding tour, and it's awesome. One of my friends got VIP passes, so I got to watch the Men's Superpipe Finals from the VIP section, and let me tell you, it was amazing! Way to go Simon Dumont, who won the event, and Josiah Wells, who won the overall thing! Who's counting down the days to the Olympics? I know I am! Vancouver 2010!
Okay, moving away from things you guys don't care about to things that only a few of you care about: review responses! 5 for this chapter, which is awesome!
YaoiFanGirl2ndnature: This update wasn't as fast as the last one, huh? Oh well. Yes, Kazuki was evil there.
dotYui: What else would you do, actually worry? ^^ Well, if you must know, I'd have to say that if you cheat well, you probably will win the game. But not in the deeper, proverbial way that you mean. You've been to Los Vegas? That's awesome! And you won. Also awesome. Jing probably will be a bit of a mix of both, but I hope to make him original in his own way. Kazuki may have cheated, but it was for a kind-of-not-really-but-it-was-totally-worth-it cause!
Fuuki Inchou Ange: Thank you. I'd actually planned that out from the beginning, when I thought Jing up, but it's great that it was still unpredictable.
zingobingo4: You have an interesting name, that's for sure. I like it. Glad you like the story, and the characters. Yume and Kurohana are very popular. Thank you!
monochromez: Yeah, those spikes don't exactly sound fun, do they? I'm happy that you like Jing! I know, it's hard coming up with OC's! I've got most of the characters I'll need for quite a while thought up, but I keep changing them around! Thanks so much! I don't mind bad language at all. I'm glad that you like Kazuki. He's fun to write. Also, I read your story, and I wasn't kidding in my review. I really do like it. You write so well!
And that's it. I'm going to warn you now, but I'm planning for this fic to be very long. I don't even know how long yet, but I figure, hey, the actual KHR has a pretty ridiculous amount of chapters too, so why can't this? Not that I'm complaining about how long the manga is, because I love it, and will be sad when it actually is over. I was just putting that in.
Our Sky
Chapter 14: For All of Their Sakes: A New Guardian
Retsu woke up the next morning feeling like he'd just been run over by a truck. His entire body ached, he had a pounding headache, and for a minute, he couldn't remember why. Then, it all came back to him. Yume, Kurohana, Tora, the fight, Jing's appearance, and the card game. Everything after that was kind of a blur. He vaguely remembered drinking something, then passing out. But why?
He tried to sit up, and almost cried out in pain when his entire body protested against the movement. His back had bandaged by Dai last night, that he knew, but the knowledge didn't stop his back from hurting. That, coupled with his headache, made his body go into open revolt, and he slumped back into the couch, unable to move.
"God dammit," the boy muttered irritably, but went silent when he heard the voices coming from the kitchen. He was lying ungracefully on the sofa, and from there, he could hear the conversation that was coming through the open door from the other room.
"I see," he heard Jing say thoughtfully. "So that's what happened. And you're sure she wasn't shot by anyone?"
"Yes, I'm positive," was the squeaky response. Retsu's eyes widened in response. Were Reborn and Jing talking about yesterday? His interest piqued, the teen relaxed, listening intently.
"Then it was those spike things in her hands," the man said, more to himself than Reborn. "But how'd they get there? The kid's pretty oblivious, but even he would have noticed spikes sticking out of his friend's hands, right?"
"Don't be too sure of that."
He realized there were talking about him, and scowled at the insult. Bastards.
Jing chuckled softly, but there was a bitter edge to the sound. "No, I'm sure he would've seen them. So what happened?"
"They must have come from the staff," Reborn mused.
"I guess. What'd the kid do to that thing anyways?" the man asked, sounding both impressed and surprised. "When I went back to take a look at the place, all I found was this burnt piece of metal." There was a clanking sound, and Retsu could only assume that he had tossed the remains of the weapon onto the kitchen table.
"Isn't it obvious?" the baby responded. "He burned it."
Jing whistled in appreciation. "The more I learn about that dying will flame of you Vongola's, the more impressed I am." His voice dropped to a low whisper, and the boy on the couch had to strain to catch his next words. "When I was looking around, I found something else." There was a rustling sound, and then the crinkling sound of a paper bag.
"Drugs?" Reborn sounded mildly surprised.
"Heroin, to be precise," his companion supplied. "A whole stash of it. There's no way it was legal." Retsu couldn't help it; he gasped out loud, alerting the two to his presence. He mentally kicked himself, seeing as his body wasn't letting him move enough to physically take the action.
"Retsu, you shouldn't eavesdrop on others conversations," his tutor scolded from his position on the arm of Retsu's couch. How he'd gotten there so fast, the boy had no idea.
"How much did you hear?" Jing asked, walking up behind Reborn.
"Right from when I finished telling you what happened," the baby answered for his student. Both males gave him surprised looks.
"How did you know that?" Retsu asked, curious despite himself. He shouldn't have asked.
"As a hitman, my hearing has been fine tuned, so that I can hear the quietest of noises," Reborn answered. "I could have heard you waking up from Italy."
"That's a lie," the teen said immediately, and received a slap to the face as punishment.
"Don't talk back to your tutor."
"I-" he was cut off by a loud yawn, and a groan of pain.
"My head hurts like hell!" Jun cried. Kazuki, who had also just woken up, nodded, then rubbed his temples to emphasize it.
"It does?" Jing asked innocently. The black haired teen shot him a death glare, but made no attempt to move from his spot on the floor.
"This is your fault, isn't it?" he barked.
"Whatever do you mean by that?"
"You spiked our drinks, didn't you?!"
"Spiked is such an uncultured word..."
"That's not a denial."
"It wasn't supposed to be," Jing smiled. "I admit, I did put a small bit of sake in your drinks last night. I didn't think you would all faint like that though. Lightweights." The last word had a mocking hint to it.
"In case you hadn't noticed, we're minors," Jun gave an exasperated sigh. "If I didn't feel like shit right now, I'd come over there and bash your face in."
"Yes, because that worked oh so well last night," the man said disdainfully, recalling how the boy had chased him around for close to half an hour and never once landed a hit.
"I could've beat you," the teen muttered sulkily.
"I suppose it may have been possible if I was blind, deaf, tied down, and unable to use my legs."
"I hate you."
"I know." The uncomfortable silence that filled the room was broken by the sound of rustling blankets. Their attention immediately turned to where Yume slept on the floor. The girl was waking up, and looked no better, if not worse, than the rest of them. She looked around sleepily, silver eyes scanning the room warily. They landed on Retsu, and widened with shock.
"Retsu-chan?!" she exclaimed, trying to sit up. The pressure on her hands proved to be to much, and she fell back down, cradling her hands to her chest.
"You are Yume, right?" the boy asked. She stiffened, then turned to face him, the familiar cloudy cast of her eyes not quite masking her nervousness.
"Yes..." she trailed off, staring at the floor.
"I believe you owe us an explanation," Reborn chimed in. Yume gave him a pained look, but his face remained as emotionless as ever. "What does the soul replace bullet mean to you?"
She was silent, and for a moment, it seemed as though she wasn't going to answer. "You really want to know?" she finally whispered, looking up, not at Reborn, as would be expected, but at Retsu. He didn't know what else to do, so he nodded. Yume sighed, running a hand through her messy hair. "Alright. Here goes nothing
"Reborn-chan's guess was kind of right," she admitted. "I assume you all saw those spikes in my hands? Well, those were coated in a residue with similar effects. With the soul replace bullet, the maker can essentially manufacture a soul of sorts, put it in someone's body with a specific task, and the new soul will take over and carry out the task. It's that simple." She paused, and, when no one said anything, continued.
"The original owner of the body is given no say or choice in the matter. As Retsu knows, in my case, I was even kicked out of my own body. I don't know if that would happen to anyone else, or if I'm just a special case."
"I kind of don't get it," Kazuki said when she paused yet again.
"Me neither," Retsu agreed.
"Think of it as an advanced type of hypnosis, only you have no control, and the thing that does has a mind of it's own," Yume explained. The two boys nodded, so she moved on.
"That staff was given to me by my father, who..." she stopped, searching for words. A pained look flashed across her face, but it was quickly gone. "Who disappeared last year. He was a maker of those bullets, so I guess I was a guinea pig of sorts." Her voice was bitter as she finished, but it appeared as though she was done.
"Is that all you know?" Reborn asked.
"Yes," she answered, refusing to look at any of them. "For the rest, you'd have to ask the girl who took over yesterday."
"Tora," Retsu said quickly.
"Yes, Tora," she nodded without looking up. "She seemed to know something. More than me, anyways. That wasn't the first time she's shown up. I would have random periods where I would just blank out, usually in the middle of a fight. But I've never been aware of what happened, like I was yesterday. I don't know what happened then, but whatever it was, it's never happened before."
"Interesting," Jing raised his eyebrows, and Retsu could practically see the gears in his head turning at this new information.
"I'm sorry I've caused you so much trouble, everyone," Yume said quietly. "As soon as I'm better, I'll leave-"
"What?!" the white haired boy yelled. She shrank back, obviously shocked. "Why?"
"I don't want any of you to get wrapped up in any of this," she replied.
"That's not a reason to leave, idiot," Restu said flatly. The girl finally looked up, and in her eyes swirled a thousand emotions, ranging from sorrow to hope to shock. "Stay here. You're not getting us into any more trouble than Reborn is."
"That's it!" Kazuki exclaimed. Five pairs of eyes turned to the excited teenager. "You should join Retsu's family!" he grinned. "It'll be more fun with you in it!"
"F-family?"
"Wait a second. Hold on," their friend cut in. "I don't have a family! And what's with you randomly inviting people? You can't just-"
"I'd love to!" Yume said, practically bubbling over with happiness. Her eyes were shining, and she was smiling joyfully.
"I wholly approve," Reborn said, smirking. Jing smiled and clapped. Jun just shrugged.
Why am I surrounded by such weird people? Retsu thought helplessly. Then, he looked at Yume, and some of his resolve melted. After what she'd been through, she deserved a little happiness. And if that meant playing along with this crazy situation for just a little longer...
Then maybe, just maybe, he'd find a way to live through this. For all of their sakes.
And thus, Yume joins the family. And you know what that means. *drum roll* Question time! The question is the same as the last two times:
What is Yume the guardian of?
Those who guess right will receive cookies! (Not really, but, hey, you can hope.) ^^