A/N: Greetings my beloved Earthlings! I hope everyone who celebrates it are having a fantastic Midsummer and don't get too drunk or wind up unintentionally pregnant (as is usual in Sweden this time of year).
My Dad is marrying my stepmother tomorrow and I'm currently trying to project a fake sense of absolute ecstasy, YAY!
Don't get me wrong, I love my stepmother, she's great and all, but there will always be that small part of me that doesn't approve of the coming union.
Anyway… I can't believe I've only got four more chapters to finish writing. More than that to actually upload but you get the idea.
We're there folks, the last seven chapters until the end.
I'm just barely processing this…
Please.
Enjoy.
Chapter 21:
Shocking relations!
Tsuna leaned limply against the wall, hours had passed since the trays had been taken away and with them gone, Tsuna couldn't help but to notice how slowly, but surely, she was entering a groggy state similar to the one she had been when Reborn had dragged her off to the cabin.
Had her food been spiked with something?
You know what, she really wouldn't hold it against them to do that.
Of course, she didn't actually know whether or not it had actually been hours since she didn't have any means of which to tell the time, she didn't even know which time of day she had woken up.
What she did know was that the woman had been forced to change the wick in the lantern once, and that sure spoke for something about the passing of time.
Tsuna just kept her gaze on the woman, watching her as she kept all of her attention on her phone.
What she was doing, Tsuna had no idea, but it was obviously starting to irritate her.
Growling, the woman raised her hand, weaving her fingers into her long strands of hair, giving it a vicious ruffle, sending her beautiful locks flying around her head before calmly settling back along the line of her spine.
Tsuna herself, sat with her knees pressed up against her chest, using them as her only form of protection within the walls. Mindlessly, Tsuna fiddles with the links of the chain, almost absentmindedly looking for a weakness within their general structure.
Suddenly, the woman growled, slamming her phone down on the table in frustration.
Face falling into her hands, she ran her fingers through her hair, once again giving them a brutal ruffling violent enough that Tsuna legitimately feared she was trying to rip her beautiful locks out by the roots.
Deciding to spare her hair, the woman in stead turned her attention to Tsuna.
For several long minutes, the two females just sat there, staring at one another as though they were the most fascinating thing they had ever seen.
Finally, it all became too much for Tsuna.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
The woman raised her eyebrow at her.
"I could ask you the same question." the retorted, blood red lips twitching into a small smirk.
Tsuna rolled her eyes at the response.
"Unlike some people, I don't have a phone to fiddle with." she threw a pointed glance towards the table. "I don't really have anything better to do."
"Toucheé." the woman chuckled, uncrossing her legs and leaning her elbows on her thighs, openly studying the girl in front of her.
Finally, she gave an exasperated sigh, shaking her head in disbelief.
"You're so tiny." she almost exclaimed.
"I got that from my Mom." Tsuna replied easily, continuing to fiddle with the links in the chain. One of them has got to be weaker than the others right?
"It's a shame about your hair." the woman suddenly said, making Tsuna look up at her again.
"What?" she asked, completely thrown off.
"You have such a beautiful color and you don't even bother to take care of it?" the woman waved her hand in the air almost frantically, sounding as though she were talking about some sacred rule that should be obeyed at all times.
And who knows, maybe it was to her.
Absendtindedly, Tsuna brought up her hand to fiddle with one of her messed up locks.
"It wouldn't look good even if I did." she stated, allowing her hand to return to it's original position.
"A trip to the salon could easily fix that." the woman advised, looking at Tsuna in great interest now, as though she couldn't believe someone like her existed.
Tsuna looked at the woman, perplexed.
"As if I would trust a stranger with my hair."
This seemed to be enough for the woman, as she returned to simply studying her again.
For a couple of minutes, the two females said absolutely nothing.
Then, the woman spoke again.
"Why don't you wear make-up?"
Just the thought of it made Tsuna's skin itch.
"I'm allergic to most cosmetics." she answered smoothly. "The curse of the Cour DiLeone, overly sensitive skin." she made a point to wave her hands in the air, saying the last part with an overly exaggerated voice.
Oh yes, there must had definitely been something in the food.
She was starting to act like a child.
Apparently ignoring the childish outburst, the woman just looked intrigued by this revelation.
Crap! She probably shouldn't have told the enemy that!
Truth serum?
Silence fell over the women once again, allowing Tsuna the time to study the woman as well.
In the yellow, flickering light of the room, she couldn't get much of the woman's features, but from her general being, her behavior, her demeanor….
Tsuna couldn't help but to feel the air of familiarity from her.
How could that be?
Finally, she couldn't keep it in anymore.
"Have we met before?"
For a moment, the woman looked startled.
"No." she answered, telling the truth as Tsuna could clearly tell. "Why do you ask?"
Tsuna tilted her head to the side, her eyes narrowing into a small frown.
"No reason..." she mumbled. "You just feel familiar to me."
The woman joined in with Tsuna in her frowning.
The black car screeched into a halt in front of the log cabin, the wheels spraying the dirt all over the place around it.
The passengers of the car didn't even wait until the car had properly come to a stop, bolting out of the vehicle and tumbling to the ground. The athlete with the baseball bat looked the tiniest tint of green, desperately trying to compose himself as the other teens picked themselves off of the ground.
The ingine of the car died, and Reborn stepped out, looking as calm as ever.
"Is this where Juudaime was taken?" Gokudera asked, looking around.
"That is correct." Reborn answered, straightening out his suit jacket as he started off towards the cabin stairs, the teenagers following after him.
Suddenly, the man stopped, making the boys violently halt so that they wouldn't crash into him.
He turned towards the boys.
"Are you sure you want to be a part of this?" he asked, narrowing his eyes on them. "This will be your last chance to pull out, and you will never get a second one again."
Growling in irritation, Gokudera stormed straight past Reborn.
"I will not leave Juudaime in the hands of Kidnappers!" he loudly declared for everyone to hear.
Yamamoto's good hand clenched around his bat, his face morphing into a surprisingly frightening serious expression.
"I owe Tsuna to much to just leave," he said, following Gokudera's example.
Hibari growled angrily, storming past the man as well, though he was quickly past the two boys before him.
"I will not be left out of this." he stated.
Yamamoto looked at the eighteen year old with a curious look.
"What is your relationship with Tsuna?" he asked.
In front of them, the prefect froze in his steps.
He never turned back towards them, but he tilted his face in their direction.
"Not one she can remember." and then he just kept on walking.
The exact same thought flashed through the remaining boy's heads.
"I have been bullied since I was five."
Yamamoto's head snapped in her direction, eyes wide. From behind Tsuna, Gokudera's tingers tightened around his arms. The crowd of students also seemed to be taken aback by this, turning towards one another in silent whispers.
"Wha-" Yamamoto started but Tsuna didn't want to hear it.
Not yet at least.
"At least, that's what my mother told me." she shrugged her shoulder, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she kept the athlete's eyes on her. "I was shoved down a flight of stairs my first week in middle school and lost three years worth of memory."
A three year memory gap. A scary prefect that proclaims he's got a relationship with Tsuna but not one she remembers…
The two boys shared a look of reluctant understanding.
Just what could that relationship have been?
For some reason, Gokudera felt like he didn't like this turn of events.
But for now, all they could do was follow the angry prefect up the steps and into the cabin, hoping that they would finally get to what they really care there for.
Entering the living room, the three teenagers were shocked to find that there were already some people in there. Walking around, setting up high-tech looking computers and other equipment that at the very least two of them had never seen before in their life.
Quickly, the three teenagers were on guard.
Hibari with his tonfa out, Gokudera with his guns, and Yamamoto with his bat raised above his head, and as he was the tallest of the three boys, it was also over their heads.
They didn't have to do anything though.
With a light chuckle, Reborn pushed himself through the week wall the boys had created, walking right into the room with no care in the world.
"When did you people get to Japan?" he asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
From within the small group, a tall man with a thick head of wavy golden blonde hair dressed in expensive clothing styled to look like some sort of preppy skater walked out, his admittedly handsome face forming a large, attractive grin.
He studied the boys behind Reborn as he walked, his eyes notably lingering on the shortest one of the bunch.
They boy in question clenched his hand around the piece of metal.
Once the man was standing right in front of Reborn, the two men suddenly started chuckling.
Smiling in familiarity, the two men clasped hands in greeting.
Reborn threw a glance over the blonde strangers shoulder.
"How's the Warden fairing?" he asked, his voice bearing a joking tone Gokudera especially, had never heard him use before.
The still working men looked up at his question, their overall demeanor relaxing considerably, and some of them even breaking out into humorous smiles.
"Absolutely horrible." one of them answered, though he laughed as he said it.
"Completely useless." another joined in, laughing along with the first one.
"A total loser." a third one chimed, trying to sound serious before he too broke out into laughter, soon followed by the laughter of the rest of the people in the room.
The three teens lowered their weapons, looking around in complete confusion.
"Shut the fuck up you bastards!" the blonde screamed at them, but everyone could tell that he wasn't being serious, and it just caused the men to laugh even harder.
A hand on his shoulder made the blonde turn back towards Reborn.
"You sure got here quickly." said man proclaimed. "I only called you about an hour ago."
"I was already on my way." he stated bringing up his hand and snapping his fingers.
Immediately, everything fell completely silent.
One of the men dropped everything he was carrying, which thankfully didn't look too delicately, and snatched a rather thick folder up from the cushioned and pelt covered log couch propped up under the largest window in the room.
With no time spared, the man handed the folder to the blond.
The blonde in turn, then handed the folder to Reborn.
Taking it, Reborn immediately propped it open in his hands, carefully making sure that not one single paper would fall out from it.
"I'll do anything for my little sister." the blonde declared, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
That seemed to be the last straw for Hibair.
Eyes narrowed to steel gray slits, he marched up to the two men, almost prying himself in between the two men and proceeded to stare up at the blonde in unveiled anger.
This scene could have looked particularly funny as the blonde was almost two heads taller than Hibari, towering over him when he tilted his head downward to look him in the eye.
"Just who are you?" the prefect demanded, his tonfa having long since mysteriously vanished.
The man had the nerve to chuckle, eyes running over Hibari's stature.
"Name's Dino Cavallone." he answered, cocking his head in Reborn's direction as the man himself wandered off, eyes submerged in the folder, furiously turning the pages. "I'm Reborn's previous student. Which make Tsuna my little sister through tutelage." his eyes drifted up towards the ceiling. "I've never actually met her, but I would like to."
Hibari let out a low growl, looking as though he was ready to attack the man head on.
From back at the door, Gokudera and Yamamoto watched the scene with mixed feelings.
They didn't trust Dino, that was a given, but he was already helping them along the way to save their friend and classmate, so they couldn't exactly say anything against him.
Once again, they wondered about the nature of the relationship Hibari had had with Tsuna. What kind of feelings did he harbor for her to make her act like that in front of the man that just declared that she was practically his sister?
Not knowing what else they could do, they shared a look, knowing they would probably find out at a later date.
Right now, they had other things to worry about.
Going through the folder, Reborn made his way to the kitchen table.
Slamming it shut, he allowed it to flop down on one end of the tabletop before walking over to the other hand, putting his hand on the wood as he looked out over the other members of the male gender that had seemingly forgotten everything about why they were there.
"Gather round." he called out, snapping the boys out of what they were doing.
Quickly, they followed his order, Dino taking his place where Reborn had discarded the folder.
"Dino." Reborn spoke up, making said blonde look up at him. "Tell us what you've found."
Dino nodded once, picking up the folder.
"We are dealing with a small group of hire-able Roamers." two pairs of eyebrows rose in confusion at the strange wording. "Professional dirty workers hired whenever someone wants something done but cannot afford to do it themselves for multiple reasons." Dino looked extremely appalled at his own words. "The hired muscle for the cowards of the world."
"Get on with it." Reborn ordered.
Dino jumped at the sound of his voice, but he quickly collected himself.
"My clan have been following them for some time now, wanting to catch them in the act in order to take them down for good." a small smirk played on his lips. "And now we finally have the opportunity." he popped open the file in his hands, riffling through the papers.
The teenagers shared a glance.
It was strange to be a part of something so serious a military esque.
"They call themselves, "the riptide association" and currently consist of five main members." Dino continued, removing one of the pictures from the folder and throwing it onto the table.
"Bone breaker." he said, giving the alias to the man in the picture.
It was a surprisingly short man, but visibly strong in his wrestlers built. His hair was shaved bald, sported a rather large and obviously repeatedly broken nose, and he had a spike piercing in his lower lip. The entirety of the right side of his head was decorated by a large brightly colored Chinese dragon, making his button-sized eyes look even smaller in comparison.
In the picture, he wore a bright orange hoodie, blue jeans and red sleakers, appearing as though he was just taking a jog out during the night.
"Known for next to pulverizing the bones of his victims whilst they are still in their bodies, and alive." Dino explained. No one noticed how Yamamoto's face whitened slightly at the description, but he violently shoved it back down.
Now was not the time to be frightened.
Dino picked a second picture from the folder, throwing it on top of the first one.
"The worm."
This time the picture was of a very tall, lanky young man with bright yellow hair carefully styled into a buzz cut, square glasses rested on his nose and a small cross dangled from his right ear. He had rather large, bright blue eyes and skin so pale it was almost white.
In the picture, he was wearing a deep purple button-up shirt and black slacks, sitting in a cafe with a laptop folded out in front of him, looking very concentrated on what he was doing.
"Skilled hacker and sniper."
Another picture landed on the table.
"Firestarter."
A man just a bit taller than the average with a thick head of straight red hair, latte colored skin speckled with freckles all over the place, he had this maniacal look on his face.
In the picture, he was standing outside of a library, posing against the statue outside of it dressed in a bright green T-shirt, Bermuda shorts and converse sneakers, he looked the perfect picture of a cocky psychopath.
"Revered pyrotechnical arsonist to those who like things like that, with an equally explosive temperament according to the survivors."
This did not sit well with the teens.
Another picture.
"The Cournal."
A medium tall intimidating man sporting large rippling muscles and a serious expression. His skin was tanned and his long dark blonde hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, the bangs brushing over deep brown eyes.
In the picture, he was standing on what appeared to be a bridge, staring out over a troupe of training soldiers all dressed in military pants and black tank-tops. The man himself, was wearing black sweatpants and a light blue tank-top, but two distinctive military badges hung from his neck.
"Ex army official, expert marksman and martial artist. Known for being able to extract information from anyone."
The last picture joined the others.
"And the Poisoned Scorpion."
Suddenly, Gokudera's eyes widened in absolute horror.
With the speed of a striking snake, the delinquent snatched up one of the pictures from the table, holding it up in the air in front of him as he stared at it in disbelief.
It was the picture of a young woman in her early twenties, her thick head of long wavy haired died puce, her bright olive green eyes outlines with thick dark make-up and full lips colored a deep purple in the picture.
She was siting at a table in a bar, her legs crossed showing off her high heeled black stiletto pumps, dressed in a tight-fitting black sleeveless dress that barely reached an inch below her thigh by the looks of it, leaving her long, slender legs for the whole world to see. She had a martini glass in hand, smirking seductively at whomever had taken the picture.
Gokudera's hands suddenly started shaking something terrible.
The other men had locked their eyes on him the second he had snatched the picture from the table.
"What's wrong?" Reborn asked, frowning at the delinquents reaction.
Gokudera just kept trembling, the disbelief clear in his eyes.
"It can't be her..." he whispered in an almost broken manner.
Tsuna was legitimately fighting to stay awake.
Her food had most definately been spiked with something, and it was slowly, but surely, zapping her strength.
Why would they bother spiking her food?
Were they taking precautions because they had no idea what she was capable of?
In that case, maybe they were just a bit smarter than they looked.
The woman had gone back to fiddling with her phone, now with a much more relaxed demeanor to her, leaning against the concrete wall with her legs crossed in front of her.
At the one point, she had taken to twirl her hair around her index finger, eyes firmly locked onto the screen in her hands.
Tsuna's eyes fell on her fingers, long and bony, but graceful.
She moved her eyes up to her face, taking in her features as they were lit up by the screen on her phone.
Sharp yet gentle cheekbones brought distinct diamond shape to what would have been an inverted triangle, her full lips curving into a sensual cupid's bow, her eyes naturally slanted over artistically arched eyebrows, and of all things, a lightly upturned nose.
Wait…
The woman… she was reminding her of someone.
Not just in some of her features, but also in a few of the habits Tsuna had seen her display during the hours the two had been stuck in the same room.
But it couldn't be… it had to be some sort of freak coincidence.
But what if it wasn't?
Chains jiggling, Tsuna brushed her hair behind her ear, squared her shoulders and took a deep breath, preparing herself for the question she was about to ask.
"Do you know one Gokudera Hayato?" Tsuna asked, whatever drug running through her system making it impossible for her to hold back the thought.
The woman stiffened at her words, her head snapping in her direction.
Suddenly, she saw standing, staring down at Tsuna with a very guarded expression.
"How do you know that name!" she demanded, her breathing heavy as she stared at the girl chained up against the wall.
Tsuna could practically feel the guarded fear radiating off of the woman's being.
Tsuna shifted slightly where she were sitting.
"He's my best friend." she answered calmly, her face portraying the honesty in her words.
"You're lying!" the woman screamed, pointing an accusing finger at her. "Hayato doesn't have any friends!" she was obviously very convinced of this fact if the narrowing of her eyes were anything to go by.
Tsuna pinned the woman with a look.
"Silver hair cut at about mid-neck, olive green eyes, pale skin, structures over a swimmers body." she said calmly, watching as the woman's eyes slowly started to widen. "Aristocratic upbringing but ran away for a reason he's refused to tell me, moving to Japan a few months ago for another reason he won't tell me." she looked to the side in mild irritation before she looked back at the woman. "Hot tempered and socially suspicious, a bit self-destructive yet chivalrous, a raised gentleman, and very intelligent."
The woman was openly staring at Tsuna now, horror etched into her beautiful features.
She stumbled backwards, her hips almost crashing into the edge of the table. Her hands slammed down on the tabletop, looking as though that was the only thing keeping her upright.
Trembling, she put her one hand over her mouth.
Deciding to be just the bit gentler, Tsuna lowered her voice a little bit.
"How do you know Gokudera-kun?"
Slowly, the woman looked at Tsuna again.
"He's my brother."
Tsuna could feel her eyes widening.
"My younger half-brother."
The four males in the room stared openly at Gokudera, all sporting a different reaction.
Reborn was intrigued, slowly rubbing his chin in thought.
Dino was bewildered, his eyes moving between the men standing around the table, trying to gain some form of reassurance that he hadn't just heard what he'd heard.
Hibari looked absolutely murderous, his fingers twitching for the tonfa he had collapsed and stuffed up his sleeves.
Yamamoto stood as frozen, eyes open wide in shock as his bat clattered loudly to the floor.
"Y-you're related to Tsuna's kidnapper?" the athlete asked, finally managing to snap the other members of the male gender out of whatever trances they had been put under.
Gokudera grumbled loudly, his fingers tightening around the photograph, crumbling it in the corners.
"It's not exactly something I'm proud off." he growled, looking at the athlete from over the photograph of the twenty-something woman. "I haven't even seen her for the past five years." he couldn't help but to look at the picture again, taking in every detail of his sister.
Reborn pinned Gokudera with an emotionless stare.
"What would your sisters motivations be for committing kidnapping?" all eyes turned towards him at his calm words. "Does she normally do things like this?"
A long sigh escaped Gokudera's lips.
"While I haven't seen her in a long time, I haven't been able to escape the news about her." he growled, shaking his head violently.
Bringing up his hand, he violently ruffled his head.
Finally, he looked up at the other men.
"My sister has always been a bit… loose." he started, letting out a long breath. "And both her and I, have always wanted to become Initiates." two pairs of eyebrows furred together in confusion, whilst the other two got more pondering expressions. Gokudera sighed again, this time in irritation. "She has always been a bit more obsessive about it though, wanting to do anything in order to get into a Clan, didn't matter which one, she just wanted to be apart of it all."
Letting the picture fall back onto the table, Gokudera brazed his arms on top of it.
"From what I heard, she even tried to sleep her way there once, but when she didn't get her way, she poisoned the man." he glanced down at the picture. "She's not called "Poisoned scorpion" for nothing you know." he growled loudly. "She will do anything to get her way."
He looked up, glancing at each and every man around the table, giving them a serious but guilty expression.
"My family have been Flares for generation." he sighed heavily. "My sister was the first to become a Roamer."
"What in the world are you talking about?" Hibari asked, his patience finally beginning to run out.
Dino just chuckled at his reaction.
Hibari shot him a furious glare, but the man just kept on chuckling.
"We don't have the time to explain." Reborn stated, putting his hands on top of the table as he looked over the pictures with much greater interest than before. "The situation is bad enough as it is."
Forcefully calming themselves down, the other males followed Reborn's example.
"We're dealing with greedy Roamers." he stated, picking up the pictures and looking through them in greater detail.
He may be good at reading physical capabilities through pictures, but one can only do so much without knowing the general personality of a person, that can really tip the scale in a battle if you can't read your opponents character.
It was at this moment that he realized just how much easier it would have been had Tsuna been with them.
He groaned at the thought.
"Greedy Roamers are impulsive and unpredictable in what they are willing to do in order to become an Initiate." slowly, realization began to dawn on the teenager's faces.
Reborn gave them a firm nod.
"Tsuna's life may very well be in danger."
A/N: In honor of my own, darling half-sister Molly, I felt like I had to make clear that even if you are only half-way related, you can still see similarities in one another.
I hope you like the chapter. I want to have the last four finished before I continue uploading chapters on a regular basis, so that can be this Tuesday or Friday, or even the Tuesday that follows the next one, I can't be sure.
Anyway. Please tell me what you think, whatever you may think. Your opinions keep me motivated to keep writing you know!
Until next time.
Love.
Me.