I tried my best ;-; I didn't want to leave on a cliffhanger for so long so I winged this one up in my spare-ish time. I hope it's satisfactory~
I'm gonna be a little honest here, but I'm considering on taking a little break from the story and coming back later if you know what I mean. I've just been so out of the KHR loop recently, but I know that I always come back to it because KHR is like my childhood love. I don't want to give out half-hearted chapters that feel like a marathon to write just because I'm not feeling it.
It's still a consideration, and I'll actually decide once my finals are done but we'll see. It might change if I have more time to waste away on writing.
Timestamp:
Yuni – 3
Tsuna, Hayato - 13
Lu, Bianchi – 17
Shuan, Fed – 21
Watari – 71
- Vongola Forests, Sicily, Italy –
"What are you– Bianchi!"
Shuan conjured up several barriers to trap her in place and to counteract the storm infused bullets that fired her way.
"What are you doing?!" He hissed, "We either fight together or I fight alone. You are not playing the martyr."
Shuan rolled off to the side to dodge incoming shots and take refuge behind a tree. "Lu isn't allowed to die for us, and neither are you." He scolded.
Her eyes lowered to the grassy floor, "I know…" she murmured.
'I just wanted to make sure you got back to her…'
"She won't be happy unless we're both back to her," he urged. He hissed out a wince when a storm bullet grazed his arm, tearing through the material of his dress shirt.
"Shuan!" Bianchi yelled in concern, attracting eyes and bullet to her position. Shuan's mist barriers still held up strong and dissipated any that came by.
"Fucker," he growled, drenching the red flames in mist before it could spread.
'Talk like this, Bianchi.' Shuan commanded directly into her mind. 'I'm going to drop the barrier and I need you to drench this whole entire fucking forest in flames. They don't have Croquant Bouche anymore, they can't fight against a storm forest fire. My cloud will amplify it but I need you to light the fire.'
Her breaths were ragged with panic, 'But… but what if I can't?! I can't think, Shuan! I'm scared, I'm scared!'
'Calm down!' he hissed, 'Breathe, Bianchi. Breathe.'
Her breaths weren't getting any smoother, if anything they were just ramping up her heart rate to a dangerous level. She fell to her knees.
'Bianchi!' he scolded, but his delivery didn't snap her out of it. Thoughts had no volume, nothing to jumpstart her.
They were getting closer, Shuan could feel the blood pumping through his veins; if they got any closer he was going to die, he didn't have enough flames to keep a shield up for both of them.
Bianchi needed to breathe, she needed to snap out of it and listen.
"Bianchi!" he scowled out-loud; the bullets suddenly started to rain on his position. He had no other choice; he needed the spark to light the fire and that spark was Bianchi.
To his relief, her eyes had cleared up and she was coherent once more.
'The fire, Bianchi!' he reminded her urgently, 'just a flicker, anything. I just need a spark.'
She stared frozen at her trembling hands, 'Nothing's happening!' she sobbed, 'I'm trying, I'm trying!'
Fuck. Was it wrong that he almost wanted to cry right now?
A Vongola Mafioso ran past his position, Shuan's eyes shot wide in panic, following desperately with the soldier's movements.
Everything felt like it was in slow motion as more and more mafioso flew past his position and turned to attack.
Shuan threw himself back roughly, his mind was fixated strongly on keep the barrier up around Bianchi. He swung himself around the barrier box that kept her safe and using it to shield him from further bullet rains.
A dust storm rose from the bullets making contact with the soft dirt; Shuan breathed heavily, leaning tiredly against the barrier walls.
He laughed out bitterly between heavy breaths.
He was tired, just so tired.
Come on! He nagged his brain; we needed a way out and fast, but he was completely burnt out of flames.
'…do you think Dino's famiglia can beat down the Vongola?'
Bianchi was silent for a moment before his question rushed to her brain all at once and she blanched, 'What? No! This is the V-O-N-G-O-L-A, dimwit.'
'right. Fuck. Ok.'
He let out another irritated sigh and pushed himself to his feet, dispelling the backside of the shield and grabbing her wrist.
"Start running," he demanded, "and don't you dare come back for me."
She opened her mouth to protest, "What—"
"I'll be right behind you, okay?" that was a lie, he could barely feel his legs and he was drowning in adrenaline, "get going and hurry up."
Bianchi looked hesitant but agreed none-the-less.
"…a-alright." She agreed before bolting off with Shuan struggling to keep up, right behind her.
- The Watari House, San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily, Italy –
Verde deployed about two dozens of escape devices to Shuan's tracker location; he knew that the cloud kid wasn't one to utilise his provided technology for fun and games, it was serious.
Bianchi and Shuan had chosen to attend to the Vongola boy's safety due to the impending assassinations and something must have happened if they sent the boy back by himself.
Verde just hoped that 24 devices were enough and that at least 2 would get through to them because that was all the devices he had prepared at the moment. He sent all he could.
The arcobaleno was severely irritated for the fact that they had tinkered with their original escape watches for offensive purposes. So much that they had somehow disabled the initial purpose of the accessory to an offensive side. It was also his own fault for not checking on them before they left, he was distracted and not paying proper attention.
Ding!
Watari and the kids were back but Verde's eyes were glued on the screen, just watching the status' of the machines.
All 24 were getting close to the Vongola grounds, they just needed to get past the forest guards.
Come on, come on…
Verde groaned, now he was feeling regret? He shouldn't have let those brats go into Vongola territory in the first place. He should have just locked them up in the basement.
Dread began to drain into his skin as he watched the numbers flash.
12.
Half of the drones were gone, and they hadn't even gotten within 5km of the gate.
How did that Vongola kid get out? Did they have a tracker on him and were told not to shoot?
This was the worst freaking time for the other Vongola aligned arcobaleno to be out of the fucking country.
Verde heard the door to his office open and heard the light footsteps that belonged to Watari, enter.
"Watari," he greeted.
The old man grunted a reply, "What's the status of the other two?"
He wasted no time getting straight to the point.
Verde watched as several drones were shut down one after the other.
5.
He gritted his teeth, "I would be happy to get even one of them back at this rate."
Watari tsked and breathed in sharply. He and death were long friends, he wasn't a stranger to death taking his friends and family away but he never wanted this to happen. None of them did; especially when those two had barely started their lives.
Click, click, click.
2.
"…I would recommend getting Luculia to the infirmary." He suggested.
Watari wordlessly turned on his heel and acted.
Fed smiled weakly as they entered the base.
Watari had split off from the group to go to Verde's office and Fon had joined them the moment they arrived.
The glow of their, being Fon's and Luculia's pacifiers, was a beautiful sight to behold.
"Hello," the storm greeted him.
Fed nodded stiffly in reply, "Hello."
Yuni grinned at the familiar face and squealed, "Fon!", reaching out for Fon causing Lu to let her gently on the floor so she could have better access to the baby-sized man.
It had been a little while since she had started talking but she rarely said anything other than names for whatever reason. They knew she could, but she chose not to; they reckoned she was just a quiet kid.
When she crouched down to do so, a shock of pain flashed through her chest and she gasped, clutching her hands into herself.
"…Ma?" Yuni said worriedly, reaching out for her and patting anywhere that she could reach.
Fon approached her with furrowed brows, "What happened?" he asked.
Lu shook her head roughly as if it would shake any of the fuzziness in her brain.
"No…" she replied, "I'm fine."
Fon wasn't convinced but chose not to pursue.
Watari entered the room barely a moment after, his steps purposely heavy to announce his entrance.
He strode directly up to Lu and scooped the girl into his arms with Yuni whining in protest as she got further out of the child's reach. Lu didn't fight the movement.
1.
"Watari, Luculia," Verde called out through the intercom.
"Yes?" Watari replied, "What is it?"
Verde sighed aggravatedly, "Hurry up and get Luculia placed in the infirmary."
Watari's expression turned grim.
"Has it come to that?"
The words that came next rang loudly in both Lu and Fed's ears. They both went rigid and Lu's breathing got worryingly short, her heart rate skyrocketing.
"One of those two are going to die today. Bianchi or Shuan; only time will tell which one survives. Only one escape drone got through."
Lu wanted to cry. Those were her best friends.
- Vongola Forests, San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily, Italy –
Bianchi slowed her pace to let Shuan catch up, "Hey, Shuan—"
Shuan frowned, "Keep running," he scolded, "Run and talk if you need."
The weak remainder of his mist barrier that he spread over a distance was delaying them decently, but he wasn't about to wait around for them to catch up.
She started up her pace once more.
"Continue." He prompted. He would have suggested for them to talk telepathically but he didn't have the flames to spare.
"Your bracelet, it has flames in it doesn't it?" she asked.
"Yes," he replied, "Everything but mist flames at the moment because I drained literally all of it."
"…I see."
Shuan didn't like how she was talking, he wanted to dive into her head and see what reckless things she was thinking of but he was physically unable to do so. He needed to focus all he had left into that barrier.
After her last stunt, he was seriously concerned with what she was considering—
Bang!
A sharp pain shot up his leg and he tumbled down into the grass, slamming into a nearby tree with a groan. His eyes welled up, "Fuck." He hissed in pain.
Bianchi's eyes went wide as she slid into a stop, barely dragging him behind a tree before the next bullet came past.
"I thought they were still really far away!" she whispered harshly.
Shuan groaned, "I thought so too but apparently fucking not."
Several more gunshots were heard all around them.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Bianchi's head snapped towards the sound, immediately assuming it was some sort of grenade. But it wasn't.
They were cards, very familiar cards and they were barely alive. They were grazed but still functional. It was an escape device like the one before, maybe they could actually get out—
She paled several shades as realisation flushed over her.
There was only one.
Her eyes darted to Shuan who was curled up into a ball behind the tree, clutching at the bullet wound in his leg in agony.
If she just left him— No!
She shook those thought out of her head. She couldn't just leave him, he would most definitely die.
If either of them had a chance of surviving on foot, it would be her.
The cards between her fingers trembled with her hands.
It was so close, she wanted to whimper. She could just go and Shuan wouldn't have thought twice about it. If he knew that this device was here, he would have insisted on it.
But she didn't want that. She didn't want to imagine life without him there. The group would have a gaping hole in it; her heart would have an empty gap pierced through it too.
Movement was seen from the corner of her eye and she immediately slipped the cards into her pocket and sprang into action, diving to the side and launching a large poison pie of some sort at the man's face.
After a few squelching moments, he was gone, and the air was silent. She didn't have much time.
She was going to do it.
Bianchi rushed up to Shuan and he watched her cautiously through pained eyes.
"What are you doing?" he croaked out.
She just smiled, "Saving your ass." She slipped the cards back out of her pocket and Shuan stared at them in a mix of horror and relief; mostly the former.
"No, no, no, no, no—" he borderline sobbed up, backing away from her. "Bianchi, you can't. You have to take them yourself."
She shook her head and his heart dropped to his stomach, "You can't be serious… If you stay, you'll die!"
Bianchi clenched her teeth, lit her palm full of vibrant red flames and channelled it into the cards, causing it to morph itself into the escape drone it was meant to be.
Tears stung at her eyes.
As she dragged a struggling Shuan onto the top surface of the drone.
"Bianchi, please." He begged through a sob, "Don't do this, please. Take it yourself, take it yourself."
She silently smiled, a tear falling from one eye as she pulled him into her arms.
"Thank you." She said, "Thank you for everything."
Bianchi slipped the bracelet off his wrist and activated the drone.
Shuan couldn't do anything against her, his body was so weak and vulnerable from both the bullet wound, blood loss and flame drainage. All he could do was lie there and relish in the few moments of comfort he had.
He didn't know if the drone would actually get him out. He didn't know whether Fed actually survived.
He didn't want to think that Bianchi wouldn't make it back.
He heard commotion approaching rapidly and the engines of the drone rearing up.
He knew that he just had to accept it. If he tried to get off the machine, both of them would die and he didn't have the strength to force her on.
"Try to live?" he begged. "Try everything, you can do it. I believe you can do it, you're so strong."
Bianchi pulled away, smiled and patted his hair. He never wanted her fingers to leave.
"I'll try." She promised.
Gunshots and screams were all he heard as he flew away.
- Watari House, San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily, Italy –
Lia's body was convulsing violently, and Fed felt helpless.
He didn't know how to help her, or how bad she was feeling. He had never created bonds with others, he had never had guardians and he couldn't even relate.
She skin was getting cold and foam was bubbling from her mouth.
Yuni was hysterical at this point, she was crying her heart and soul out for Lia's pain. Fed knew that Yuni hated seeing Lia sad, let alone dying.
Verde was in the room watching over her vitals and making sure she was still alive.
He reported that the single drone, how it hurt him to think about it, had been deployed in return. The person that returned would likely be heavily injured and with the state of their physical forms, Watari needed to be at least one of the people that went to retrieve the person.
Due to that fact, Verde didn't have the privilege to sit by his computer and monitor who was coming back, if any, and how they were. He was required to stay present in the infirmary to watch over their sky.
After a series of convulsions, Lia's body went worryingly still, but her vitals were fine, her flame levels were fine. She was alive.
They all knew the reality and fact due to Luculia's physical reaction. Someone had died and someone was coming back, still with the potential of dying themselves.
Fed felt destroyed; he felt like he had destroyed. This whole situation was all his fault and he knew that the arcobaleno that faced him knew it too, yet their feelings of pity and perhaps to a polite degree; they weren't willing to speak on it.
Yuni's crying suddenly grew louder. Or, perhaps his brain had suddenly chosen to adjust to hearing to past his feelings.
"Comfort the kid, Federico." Verde demanded, clicking some buttons to adjust. "We can't have her being so hysterical in the room."
The Vongola heir scooped Yuni into his arms but that only made it worse; Verde flinched at the volume.
Her cries only served to get louder and louder the further she got away from Lu.
"Maaamaaaaaa!" Yuni cried, "Give Mama back!" her cries melted into agonising screams.
Verde just stared at her, "Did she just talk? Like actually talk?"
Fed didn't reply as he also stared at the child in silent bewilderment.
"Mamaa!"
Verde tsked, "Put her back."
Yuni was instantly quelled.
"Mama…?" Yuni sobbed out, her flames trickling out of her star and towards Lu's as she crawled up her body.
The three around her watched her silently as Yuni subconsciously used her flames to fill the cracked holes in Lu's flame core.
"Maaamaa!" she called out again, in hopes of getting a reaction but nothing happened.
Yuni crawled up to Lu's chest and gently dropped her head against it like how Lu would always cuddle her to sleep. Yuni listened to the sounds of her heartbeat in sync with the monitoring machine.
"Mamaa…" she whispered out once more.
Fed reached over and stroked Yuni's hair back to comfort her, but the silent tears and sobs that racked her body never ceased.
Fon secured himself upon Watari's shoulder as the old man bolted out of the house with a tablet in hand.
"Who is it?" Fon asked grimly, he would need to know eventually. The reaction that Luculia had could have been from either of them because she was so close to both.
Watari punched several points on the screen and pulled up a map with a pulsing red dot that showed the position of the drone.
"I don't know" he replied, "For all I know at this point, both of them could be dead and that's an empty drone. We can't tell until it arrives."
Watari weaved through the streets, flicking back and forth between buildings and alleys.
Stefano 1, spotted him on his way to that café.
"Oh, hey guys—" Watari just ran right past.
Stefano huffed dramatically, "Rude much." He said, but he knew that Watari was nothing less than a perfect gentleman unless under tension.
Stefano decided to tag along and trail after them to see if he could help in any way.
Father Nicolas was already outside of the church when the drone landed. His presence caused curious passer-by tourist to refrain from taking pictures in case they contracted some sort of insult or threat upon his person. They knew that insulting him would therefore insult several others alongside him and it would only prove to make them suffer. Locals had the decency not to do so already.
The pastor immediately began to tend to the familiar boy's wound as he landed.
Watari, Fon and Stefano arrived barely a few seconds later to the scene and the uncharacteristic choked sigh of relief that erupted from the back of his throat was audible but not mentioned by the other two.
The fact that Bianchi wasn't coming back was like a slap to the face, she wasn't his ward, but he had known the girl for a solid amount of years and had watched her grow.
She was 17. She hadn't even had the chance to hit adulthood.
He quickly made his way over to Shuan. The bullet was still in his calf and they needed to take it out before he could heal anything.
But that would likely involve a lot of screaming and they were currently outside a church and in public.
"Remove the bullet," Father Nicolas advised, "No-one will spare a glance."
Watari hesitated but agreed; this was his long term friend that had never failed him before, he must've had some sort of plan up his sleeves.
Watari opened his box of tools and begun the extraction.
Stefano jogged up to them and stumbled back in surprise, "Oh shit, kid. You look like shit."
Shuan grinned through his pain, "Oh thanks, Stephano—FUCK"
His agonised and pained screams were painful to hear but the extraction was fast and Watari's sun flames went to work to repair the injured wound.
"If any of you were by yourself," he started, packing everything up as Father Nicolas kindly wrapped Shuan's leg up for comfort purposes, "I would recommend never taking the bullet out because you'll bleed out without a sun."
Stefano laughed nervously, "I'll, uh… keep that in mind?"
"That would be very smart," Fon agreed, "please do that."
Stefano sweatdropped, "Right, okay…"
With thanks to Father Nicolas for his aid, and for his mysterious coverage, the rest of them headed home with Shuan lugged over Watari's back and Fon on Stefano's shoulder.
It had been a long, long time since Stefano took a step into Watari's house.
Verde stood that the elevator entrance that led into the house as they arrived, and his eyes immediately fixated onto the blond-haired boy that Watari was carrying.
"Shuan, huh…" he said before walking off in the direction of the clinic.
"Lu is fine, she's alive but unconscious. Her flames are dulling, though. At this point, she has about a fifth of her original capacity, and that excludes the arcobaleno effect on her flames."
Stephano was about to ask when Verde sharply cut him off.
"I did the calculations. I'm an arcobaleno, I know how to calculate it."
"…right." Stefano trailed off. These people were insane, but then again, so was he.
- Namimori, Japan –
Note: Everything here is in Japanese so I'm not gonna bother italicizing it.
Reborn received a phone call that he had hoped he would never have to receive for another 20 years at least.
One of those kids was dead, and it was the one he had the most contact with aside from Luculia herself.
Bianchi was dead.
Fon had been the one to ring him up as the rest of them were dealing with the medical side of the situation. Both Shuan and Luculia were out cold and healing from the event and they were still trying to find a way to keep both themselves and Federico safe without resorting to banishment.
They weren't that heartless— Actually, they would have easily exiled him if it wasn't for the fact that Bianchi had essentially and partially died for the boy. They weren't heartless enough to waste away her memory.
The worst part about the call was that Fon asked him to tell Gokudera.
Whilst Reborn knew how to deal with it and could deal with delivering bad news, didn't mean he necessarily wanted to nor liked to do it.
But he had the respect for the late mafiosa to do this at the very least.
"Oi, Dame-Tsuna!" he yelled out, kicking the boy out of his bed.
"HIIIIEEE!" Tsuna screamed, falling to the floor. "Reborn! What was that for—" he cut himself off at the sight of Reborn's grim expression. It wasn't normal and something felt off.
He glanced at the clock.
8:28 am.
He was late, HE WAS LATe.
He scrambled to his feet, he needed to get ready—
"Sit down, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn commanded, "You're skipping class today for your subordinate. Gokudera is coming over so I can talk to him and you're going to be there for him like a good boss."
Tsuna's shoulder sagged, "…okay." He agreed easily. Hayato was one of his closest friends that taught him through everything and anything he struggled with since he was little. He even got dragged into this mafia business willingly.
If there was anything Tsuna could do to repay him in the slightest, he would do it.
Hayato arrived not too long after, at approximately 8:45, dressed in casual and comfortable clothes.
Nana had been informed by Reborn that Tsuna was taking a mental health day under his instruction and that it was important for his health. Nana took to the reason easily and called Tsuna in sick.
Hayato was immediately directed from the empty kitchen to Tsuna's bedroom, where Kyoya had decided to drop in and was standing, leaning against the wall with a grim frown.
"What's going on, Reborn-san?" He asked, sitting himself down near the table.
Reborn pursed his lips together.
"There really is no way lighter to put this," he said.
Hayato felt the incoming dread; he wasn't going to like this in the least.
"I'm sorry for your loss, Gokudera, but Bianchi was killed by the Vongola."
idk maaan ;-;
To KooraX:
I'm sorry for the wait (and for the lack of Lu scenes), just some of these events centralise on other characters so we can't hang around Lu for them D:
Will there be romance? Yes and no? Romance was never the main point, it was more about the family/friends concept but romance will always inevitably linger around.
Speaking of Dino, he'll be coming in soon to join Tsuna since Canon has essentially started. (I believe Japanese kids start middle school at 13?)
Who are Lu's guardians right now? Fon, Storm. Watari, Sun. Verde, Lightning. Shuan, Cloud. I'm half sure I didn't forget anyone.
Thank you so much for your review! And I'm glad you like it, I don't actually think my writing nor plot has been really any good so that's rather flattering xD
To VividReader365:
First of all, thank you so much for your PM and review, it was honestly very heartwarming to read. It only made it better that you were half asleep :^)
I'm super happy that you've liked the story so far, I'm glad that you found that characterisation good (because I've just been rolling with it, honestly) hahaha.
Thank you a bunch for your support, both in the writing realm and in the student death realm ^^! Feel free to ask questions anytime, whether through review or PM, I'll find a way and a time to get back to you~
To kelsey-kianna:
Aww! Thank you for the review and I hope this chapter is somewhat okay? hahaha.