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Title: Ayakashi
Summary: Tsuna is half-youkai, but that's not going to stop him from becoming Vongola Decimo. But the road to inheritance is fraught with difficulty, including the hunter-assassins challenging him for the right.
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Chapter 47 The third one
Tsuna had slept like the dead that night, emotionally exhausted. Nonetheless, Reborn was merciless as ever about kicking him out of bed the next morning, which was naturally a school day.
He was stumbling past the gates and tripping into home room, with only seconds to spare, by the time he remembered what had taken place the night before, at the same building. He only had time to notice Kyoko's uneasy gaze before the teacher walked in, and then it was stand, bow, sit and end of term exams that Tsuna wouldn't have been ready for on a good day.
By lunch, rumors were flying — something had Hibari absolutely furious. He had completely ditched school to stalk around Namimori Middle. Nami-chuu students, well versed in Hibari's special ways, had tried checking all over campus for graffiti or any other sign of someone infringing on his territory, but they hadn't been able to find anything.
Of course not. They were only checking with their five senses. Tsuna could feel what had Hibari so on edge — the unmistakable "scent" of blood and the disturbed patterns of energy that spoke of a foreign intrusion, like a very large stone dropped into a pond, one that had already begun to release its poison taint into the waters.
"So do you have any idea what that last question on the history test was about?" Yamamoto asked as they settled on the roof with their lunches. He looked rather unconcerned, but then he was always good at that. The way he kept his sword within reach, even while eating, gave him away.
"No," Tsuna half moaned, putting a wealth of feeling into that single word.
"You baseball idiot! Of course Juudaime doesn't have to worry about something so insignificant!" Gokudera yelled, instantly on the defensive regarding his boss. "…Even if it is the end of term exam…"
"That's right," Reborn agreed, to everyone's surprise. He was usually the first to insist that schoolwork was still important. "I'll make sure to drill everything you miss into your skulls later. For now, you're going to do nothing but train, in the most spartan way possible. We're going to make this month count. Hmm, it's probably for the best that this falls on summer vacation, otherwise you'd be skipping classes…"
"Yes, Reborn-san!" Gokudera sounded off, snapping to attention. Without conscious thought, he reached up to grasp at the ring hanging from a chain around his neck. He wouldn't disgrace his boss, he swore to himself, no matter who or what his opponent might be.
Chewing thoughtfully on the ends of his chopsticks, Tsuna pointed out, "But there's still only three of us. What are we going to do?"
Reborn smirked, his cute chubby lips curling in a very unsettling expression. "Don't worry about that," he said. "In this case, the enemy of our enemy is our friend, and the Varia are very good at making enemies. They've already made someone very angry with their presence."
When he finally understood what Reborn was hinting at, Tsuna almost dropped his chopsticks. "Hibari?" he hissed. "You're going to make Hibari fight?"
"We're not going to make him," Reborn said piously. "We will simply provide him with the opportunity to do so. He'll want to fight, there's no doubt of that. If he isn't furious enough with the Varia yet, he will be by the end of the month."
Though he wasn't sure he liked the grim certainty in Reborn's tone, Tsuna had to agree with him. "But I don't think Hibari will want to train with us," Tsuna said instead, his brow furrowing in concern.
"Given what I've seen of him, he doesn't need to," Reborn judged. "It's amazing, actually. His combat ability is very impressive, especially if he's never even left this town. The only opponents I wouldn't be certain he could defeat are Squalo and Xanxus, and he won't be fighting either of them."
Tsuna started to nod, relieved, when he realized that meant he would need to surpass someone above even Hibari's level — and so would Yamamoto.
Reborn continued, unconcerned, "With him on board, we'll just need to make sure we win every match, and since the Varia always fight until their opponent is dead, we'd be aiming for that anyway."
There was a certain kind of logic to his reasoning, but somehow it didn't seem quite right…
"Sounds good," Yamamoto said with a grin. "I'm gonna tell Dad to hold nothing back on me!"
"I'll give it everything I've got! No, more than that!" Gokudera agreed earnestly.
Tsuna sighed. He just hoped it would be enough.
~.~.~
Chapter 48 The third two
When Chrome Dokuro approached Sawada Tsunayoshi at the end of the last day of school and, fidgeting in embarrassment, asked to speak with him privately, the entire class 2-A had stared in shock and not a little disbelief. There was only one thing this could be, in their minds.
A love confession!
To Sawada? To Dame-Tsuna, the school loser?
Unbelievable. Inconceivable.
Clearly, this called for everyone to follow them and spy on the happy future (?) couple.
However, Gokudera quickly put an end to that notion. Even as he muttered complaints about Chrome's sheer nerve and unsuitability as his boss's woman, he refused to let anyone interrupt Tsuna's private business. Yamamoto, understanding a little better that a confession would make any boy's heart flutter, even unrequited, joined him in dissuading their classmates from their curiosity.
Normally, Tsuna's thoughts would have followed the same path as the other students', leaving him blushing and stuttering, but this had not been a normal day or a normal week, and Tsuna's mind was running along entirely different tracks.
So his first thought was that Chrome had sensed the supernatural disturbance in town and wanted to ask him about it.
"So what did you want to talk about, Chrome?" Tsuna asked, once they were alone behind the school. He smiled kindly at her. "You can ask me anything, really. I promise I'll hear you out."
After all, approaching the subject of the hidden world could be very difficult the first time.
"Kufufufu," Chrome chuckled, except that it wasn't Chrome after all, "that's very kind of you, Sawada Tsunayoshi. Thank you for taking such good care of my Chrome, and for your helpful advice back then. It's been working quite well for me."
"…Rokudo Mukuro," Tsuna realized, almost immediately. Their encounter was still quite vivid in his mind. If anything, he should have noticed it sooner, but Mukuro had truly been making an effort to hide his presence. "What do you want?"
Chrome — Mukuro — smiled. "I want many things," he said. "From you? The same as before." His smile widened as he watched Tsuna tense. "I want the protection granted by Vongola. Relax, I have no intention of taking over your body anymore. Instead, I want a ring — the Mist Ring, to be precise."
Tsuna frowned, trying to make sense of what Mukuro was saying. "You want to become a Guardian?"
Mukuro's eyes narrowed, his smile taking on a sharp edge. It looked especially disturbing on Chrome's sweet, gentle face. "Just the idea of being part of the mafia makes me sick," he said, "but Vongola's Guardians hold great power, second only to the boss himself. Enough to even negotiate a pardon from the Vindice in some cases."
Of course. Hadn't Mukuro said that he would do anything to survive?
But Tsuna's brow furrowed in something that looked entirely too much like concern. "If I give you the ring, you'll be targeted by the Varia," he said. "If you want to remain hidden, you can't use your full power, and against them… you'll get hurt. Chrome will get hurt."
"Chrome has agreed to this," Mukuro said, his expression tightening. "And you don't need to concern yourself. I won't lose. Even if I were to do so… I know there's no one in this town who comes even close to being worthy of the position. So you lose nothing by giving me a chance to fight. And if I win, then that's one less friend you'll have to risk."
For several long moments, Tsuna was silent, his thoughts racing as he considered Mukuro's offer.
There were many things Mukuro wasn't saying, of course. Once he had the ring, tangible proof of his position as Mist Guardian, it would be quite difficult to take it back, especially since his participation in the Ring Battle would be tantamount to a formal declaration of his acceptance.
There was still a chance that Tsuna could turn on him afterwards, try to banish him, but it would be a risky move, which would make Vongola's tenth generation look weak.
No, Tsuna would be stuck with Mukuro as a Guardian for a good while. And while a Guardian was less important than the boss, letting one of them be dragged off by the Vindice wouldn't look good either…
The question was, did Tsuna want to let someone like that into his famiglia? He knew from Reborn's briefing that Mukuro was strong. His own victory was little more than a circumstantial fluke. While Mukuro couldn't afford to actually turn on Tsuna, he wouldn't hold any real loyalty toward him. Not exactly Guardian material.
And what about Chrome? Given her aura, it was unlikely Mukuro was possessing her against her will, but did she really understand what he was getting them into? If they lost, it would be a Chrome who paid the price, not just Mukuro.
"Sawada-san," came a tentative voice — and suddenly it was Chrome speaking to Tsuna again, instead of Mukuro. "Please give us this chance. You don't have to worry about us. We're just using you, after all."
"That doesn't mean I want you to get hurt," Tsuna objected. But in the next moment, he sighed. Looking at her earnest expression, remembering Mukuro's desperation, he couldn't just deny them either. It was probably their only hope of improving their situation.
Finally, tentatively, he nodded.
Reborn would have his head for this, but it looked like he had a Mist Guardian.
~.~.~
Chapter 49 Hot blood, cold blood
Reborn, accompanied by Basil, had dragged Tsuna away for training almost immediately after his talk with Mukuro. In fact, Tsuna had barely had time to slip Chrome the Mist Ring before his tutor barged in on them. Reborn's eyes had narrowed, but to Tsuna's relief, he had only made some disparaging remark about flirting and proceeded to herd Tsuna away with the liberal use of his pistol.
Reborn and Basil had, in fact, been finalizing certain arrangements with Shamal. After several well placed threats, he had agreed to train Gokudera for the duration of the month. Also, Reborn had wanted to check a few things with him regarding Tsuna's condition.
The truth was, Reborn hadn't been certain about the wisdom of applying his preferred training tactics to Tsuna. Given their time limit, shooting Tsuna repeatedly with Dying Will bullets would have been the most expedient method… But considering Tsuna's youkai blood and his irregular reactions to using his Dying Will Flames, even Reborn couldn't be sure of the outcome.
At best, the time Tsuna spent in his other form would increase after every bullet, necessitating a slower approach… At worst, Tsuna's Flames could become unbalanced, the way they had a year before, but this time he wouldn't get off with just a fever.
It was Basil who presented a compromise. The pills he himself used were less potent than the bullets, but they were intended for situations much like Tsuna's — when the user couldn't enter Dying Will Mode of their own will, but had the experience and skill to turn what would have otherwise been a shorter, weaker transformation into the true, full Dying Will Mode, clothes and all.
When Reborn thought about it, controlling his Flames was the natural next step for Tsuna. With luck, it would allow him to even rein in and stabilize his internal energy enough not to suffer from the same illness again.
"Oh, I see," Tsuna said, nodding along as Reborn and Basil explained this to him. "I always got sick because my Flames got too strong when my other blood got too weak. So if I can control my Flames, that won't be a problem anymore."
While he'd had the chance, Reborn had pressed Iemitsu for details about Tsuna's childhood and any idiosyncrasies involving his son. It had taken almost the full extent of his self control to get through Iemitsu's flailing and cooing, but the results had been enlightening.
If Tsuna was like this with his Flames sealed by Nono, what would he be like once the seal fully dissolved? What would he have been like, going through life with the full power of his birthright? ….Would he have survived this long? Or would his power, immature and uncontrolled, have burned him from the inside out?
In any case, Tsuna certainly had potential. The issue was bringing it out.
Reborn decided it would be better not to mention the other option he had considered. Some might have called it barbaric, but it was a tried and true method.
Throwing Tsuna off a cliff, that is.
He was almost certain that Tsuna would have awakened his Flames in desperation, in time to save himself from an unfortunate end. However, Basil had looked horrified when Reborn suggested it, mostly joking, really, and when the idiot Iemitsu's student thinks you're suggesting something insane, it's time to reconsider.
Blissfully unaware of the terrible fate he had just barely escaped, Tsuna thoughtfully placed a hand on his chest. "Come to think of it, I've been feeling pretty good lately," he muttered to himself, "even on summer solstice…" It was a relief, from a worry he hadn't even realized he'd been under. Tsuna smiled. "Then I won't hold back. I'll train with my Dying Will."
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