author's note: Hello everyone! And I know I don't thank people for reviewing and adding my story as favorite and all...but you should know that I love you guys and appreciate for your time...Thank you very much *bows* !
And now let's get back to the story~.
disclaimer: I don't own KHR, except for my Oc(s...but only Ami is going to be for now so...I think it's still ok to not use plural)
chapter 25:
When I woke up, I thought I was going to die. Just the thought of what I did yesterday made me want to hide in my bed forever. Oh, god. I'm sooo dead! Xanxus is going to kill...No. He is first going to burn me crisps, put me into a sauce pan...or...ask Squalo the shark to slice me up... and then eat me like a steak! ...Yup, I also found out that he is fond of steaks... but...GYAAAHHH! How does that help anything? I called the most prideful persona in the whole of Vongola 'pitiful'...I might have to write my will now... 'Get a grip, idiot.' Don't call me an idiot, useless brain! 'Why am I useless?' You could've have stopped me yesterday. 'Why? It was the truth. And he looked down at us anyways, so it was come back,'
Yeah, if you are wondering why am I sometimes talking to my brain..well, I guess I was quite a loner in the childhood, the sad truth is really sad, not that I cared much back then.
After I finished acting like a soon-to-be-dead ghost, I realized that Ryohei had come for the jog. He really doesn't give up, right? I mean, his arm is BROKE! (not that I'm the one to talk...hey, at least I'm able to use it more or less now...)
Well, we, the broken-arms classmate, end our run just before seven, so I'm able to go to the washing and carefully prepare for school and stuff. I was going to sit down on my computer for a bit longer, but decided that there wasn't much I could do, but prepare myself if Xanxus really would want to attack me out of nowhere. And suddenly, I felt like the little girl I always was, trying to hide from the antartic-like cold stare...which was as burning as a volcano(ok, I know, I use a bit weird explaining words, but please bare with me...), whenever I was invited by the Ninth to join for a some party (he did invite me once a year or so).
What I did for most of the day was try and get some school stuff in to Ryohei's thick head. Yup, you guessed it, mission impossible. So in the end I used the boxing rule methods and stuff... It's actually quite funny to see how far your imagination can go wild when explaining something in a non-relative way. And then people say that learning is only for nerds. I want to laugh at them now.
In the end of the day, I met up with Kyoko and Haru to go visit Lambo in the hospital.
There Nana-san was sitting next to the bed, sort of frustrated. I asked what it was, and she said that Iemitsu-san left with hardly any word. Ouch, well, isn't he a nice husband? Though I felt bad for knowing why exactly he had to go. He went check on what was going on in the Vongola.
Basil stayed to train with Tsuna, which I was quite grateful for. I got quite attached to the kid, he is nice and speaks in a very old manner (which I love about him the most) and other stuff which makes him a good friend for Tsu-kun(I sort of start to get the habit from Nana-san, to call my little brother by Tsu-kun. I think it's really cute.).
I looked up to see how Lambo was doind, but the kid was unconscious still (obviously), though he more stable now. Well, let him sleep for now.
And when it was time to go for the match, I went to meet up with Tsuna and the rest, to only find out that Hayato still hasn't appeared. I haven't seen the guy the whole day today, just like my little brother, I thought he was training...uhh..hope that Shamal didn't do anything weird to him...
Just a while ago, when I was walking down the street (and thank you very much my phone for helping me not to get lost..), I heard rumors about that there were some murder cases of where some killers in Namimori where...sliced up. From hearing this, I felt sick. I have seen enough blood, but death...it's too much for me to handle... I just hope this doesn't have anything to do with the Varia...though if it was knives then...it must definitely have to be Belphegor...Prince the ripper...The tummy ache came back, how will Hayato do this? I did warn him..but...
We ended up coming to the third floor of Namimori middle, a floor I know quite well, considering it has a library on it. Was this the battle ground for today?
The Varia already came, and the Belphegor was just standing there, grinning like a chesire cat. Ok, I know that it is a book/cartoon character, but he really did look like him, only human form, with his striped shirt and grin.
The fact that their leader was not around made me sort of more relaxed, though my spine was still stiff. Actually, I really wonder how I was able to stay calm the whole time yesterday...must have been that I wasn't concentrating hard enough on reality again or something...
The clock was ticking, and yet, Hayato still hasn't come. That's a first-timer, is he not going to show up? Or maybe he just wants to arrive in fashion. Who knows, he is a cool gangster wannabe after all.
Everyone was getting nervous, I could tell by the atmosphere getting a bit thicker and harder to breath in. And yes, I was sure it wasn't because of the lack of oxygen. I CAN tell the difference.
"When that clock points to 11 o'clock, Gokudera Hayato will be disqualified, and Belphegor will win by default." The Cervello announced that. Well, it's not that it didn't make sense, right? Now, where the are you Hayato?
And so, I ended up chanting in my head 'he will be here. he will be here.' the whole time, until a bomb was heard explode and exploding the school closk at the same time. Told you he will try to come in fashion.
And right in front of us came a smoking a cigarette Hayato with a cool dark blue blouse, which opened up his bandaged body (now why was it bandaged?) and a necklace with the half-ring on it. He also wore a cool looking belt which had a whole lot of dynamited of different sizes stuck to it. And yeah, you sort of should get the picture. "Sorry for the long wait, juudaime." He said in a cool voice, "Gokudera Hayato has arrived." Dum-dum-duumm~~...Ok, seriously? I think my eye twitched and I sighed, this guy reads too many action-hero books.
The Cervello accepted him for the battle, saying that he came before the deadline. Everyone then came around saying that they were scared that Hayato would come late. And then he made an apologetically happy face and said, "Sorry, I'm late juudaime! It took sometime to prepare." My vein popped on my forehead and I took him by the collar, so that I me and him would be facing each other, "this is no fashion show. If you really wanted to show off, you have the wrong address." I might have sounded pissed by his superhero arrival-thingy, but what was annoying me the most..was the darn cigarette.
"What's your problem?" He exclaimed with a frown, but then saw that I was staring at the cigarette and stopped frowning. He just turned away and changed the position of the burning stick to the other side of his mouth, "Thi-this is none of your business." I sighed, that phrase was seriously getting old. "How many times do I have to say it? It is..." I paused, tuning me voice down to almost whisper, "But..if you win, I'll forgive for now." And let go of his collar. He looked somehow surprised, but I just looked him straight into the eye, "Though be careful, got it?"
Hayato smirked, "Do I have a choice?" I smiled back, "No, you don't."
I looked at Tsuna, who was looking at Varia's genius. "Tsuna, Hayato is also pretty smart, you should have some confidence." I patted my little brother's head. I said with such confidence, that anyone would think that I knew Hayato was going to win. But that conclusion would be wrong, I was running around in circles mentally being worried about our gangster wannabe.
The Cervello told us that they got a substitute, because of the injury that the other woman got. Well, if not for a few, really mini differences, it was practically a mission impossible to distinguish also told us, as I suspected, sadly, the whole third floor would be the battle field, including the classrooms and everything with it. Yeesh, Kyoya better never hear about this.
"However.." They continued explaining the rules, when a blow of super strong wind came from some classroom, "..In various places, we have installed the hurricane turbines." One of the Cervello brought out one of the big wind making machines. By just analyzing it from where I was standing, I could tell that there were four 'openings' as the Cervello called it (they were explaining it to the rest, but I wasn't bothered to listen to them). So I guess from all of them you would get random 'hurricanes' without any real direction.
Well, there definitely is going to be a storm around this floor now. I frowned, this is not going to be easy...
And if you thought that would be all, you're wrong. The battle has time-limit of 15 minuted, and if neither get the ring, then both would explode in an explosion that the Cervello have set up.
15 minutes...this is going to be intense...
After everyone got nerves about the death-match, a not really expected figure came about. And no, luckily it wasn't Xanxus. No, actually it was worse..Shamal. "Hrm? What was that sound of a window shattering?" (oh, yeah, the previous 'hurricane' did break a window...forgot to mention...I'm sort of out of earth now...)
"Is anyone hurt?" He said while grabbing on to the Cervello's breasts(?)...SERIOUSLY? I'm going to break that guy into smithers...not that I can...but hey! Let me exclaim!
But before I could do anything, the women knock him with their elbows, making his fly a few meters away from them. Ouch, they aren't that weak I guess.
Admiring the work of the Cervello ladies made me absent minded again, so I missed the fact of WHY exactly Shamal came here...though probably he DOES want to see his student's battle, no matter how weird he shows it.
We made the ring, or what Ryohei calls the usual, after Tsuna persuaded Hayato that he doesn't want to lose anyone and we should act as group. In the end, I slapped Hayato on the back to get a move on.
After that the Cervello ladies kicked us to the bleachers, behind the school building, saying that there will be the TVs from which we would be able to watch the battles.
When we got there, the pink haired told announced, "Then let the ring of the storm battle, Belphegor vs Gokudera Hayato..." the other one continued, "begin!"
As that was announced, we saw Hayato throwing several bombs at his opponent, through the small TVs that were hanging in front of us.
These mini-TVs were so useful to see on what was going on...sheesh~. Couldn't they get anything better?
Anyways...Belphegor already got his knives out and pointing them at Hayato, who decides to throw a triple-bomb (and for the first-time ever, he actually manages to do it properly...)
But the Varia opponent just stands there, not even bothering to dodge. And just as I thought, he knew that the wind was coming.I wouldn't expect anything less from that genius. Everyone was shocked though, so I just stood there, biting on my nails. This is going to be tough on Hayato.
And as things got worse, more 'hurricanes' came. Yeah, that's just great. Now Hayato is stuck.
"The random wind!" Tsuna exclaimed with a worry, "he can't use his bombs like this!" "That applies to both side." Reborn told him calmly, sitting on Takeshi's shoulder. I looked at the screen, "No, I don't believe so..." I said almost in a whisper, frowning.
And as those words escaped my lips, a couple of light, silver designed knives came to Hayato's side to cut him, but the gangster wannabe out of automatic self-defense jumped to the side, which just happened to be a window to a random class.
"Damn it! How did he do it? Was it just a fluke?" He exclaimed, falling painfully to the floor. "A prince doesn't need to rely on flukes." Belphegor came into the same classroom, "It's just as simple as this. - Read the air-current of the strong wind in advance..." He took another knife and placed it gently into the wind, "And quietly let the wind guide your knife towards the target." The chesire cat's grin back on him...well, not that it actually left from his face to begin with...but still...
The knife that he just put, was running through the air, as if it was guided by something...Of course! I was wondering where the wires would come in? But now I see... well, well, well, guess it's not as simple as you make it, prince. It's deadly simple, really. Though when did he have time to put them on Hayato?
Now...the only problem with this is...how do I get that info through to Hayato? I hope he will realize...I did tell him about the wires, will he remember?
After the knife hit a perfect hit on Hayato's left cheek. Everyone looked shocked and surprised, I just stayed there, staring at the screen and biting more of my nails. Ok, I know it's a bad habit, but I can't do anything when the atmosphere is this intense.
My head was getting dizzy again, I couldn't concentrate on listening to what Hayato or Belohegor were shouting/saying.
The only thing that I DID hear was Shamal saying, "What the hell are you doing there? Stop standing like an idiot, Hayato." What he said was pretty rude and out of place, because Hayato was not really standing there looking pretty, now was he? I looked with a glare at the perverted doctor. I can't even call him a doctor really..
Well the battle continued with Hayato trying to dodge the knives and Bel pretending to be awesome and smart. Well, it's not like he was far from it, his way of fighting is pretty smart. Anyways, the gangster was getting stabbed to the point of bleeding. A lot of blood was coming out of him. Now I felt like we were actually lucky that there was a time-limit (well, to some extend any way). If there would be anymore time, Hayato would loose too much blood, and it's not that easy to transmit blood.
But then, Hayato stopped moving, I think he was trying to think. Yes! That's it. Come on Hayato! The wires! He touched you before the battle, right? It's the only way.
Belphegor got a fan-size amount of knives and threw them straight, although Hayato wasn't even in front of him, saying that he will make Hayato into a cactus. I don't like cactus as a plant, to my taste it's too spiky and unfriendly, so making Hayato one wouldn't be very nice.
Somehow, I had the gut-feeling that the bomber figured it out. When the knives got to their destination, piercing through the body, it fell out of the window, making us see that it was just a model of a human-body. Yeesh~, Hayato should learn to respect school property~. I grinned with a bingo grin. He figured it out, seems like he really isn't an idiot either.
Then the bomber came out and took the human model by the thin wires, almost like invisible strings. They looked pretty sharp too.
Hayato started explaining how Belphegor attached the wires before the battle, when he patted him on a shoulder. "Yeesh~, Hayato. Took you long enough." I said calmly, still smirking. Everyone stopped to look at me (on our side, the Varia were standing by themselves). "What?" I replied them with a confused face, "I did tell him yesterday, didn't I?" I said, with a hint of slight sarcasm in my voice.
Then a Hayato took out his dynamites...huh? But...they aren't going to... "To make it so that bombs that can't hit their target hit; the one that gave up on flirting to spend time training him..." Shamal started speaking. Again with the nonsense... "Is someone who was once also called a genius...that would be me." My eyes opened in surprise. Could this be the new technique that they were training for so hard? It has to be it...
The bomber threw his dynamites, they flew first normally(a.k.a. randomness), but then...when they almost reached the wind, the dynamites somehow started to fly straight forwardly through the 'hurricane', hitting the target.
..."Wow" That's all I could say then. I felt so happy that Hayato had gone over my expectations. This...this...I looked at Shamal, even he has his moments then. I giggled.
Well, anyways he seemed to shine in glory, so there was no need for me to say anything. He explained that the technique was called 'rocket bomb' (awesome naming skills..really.) and it worked by using the firing of stored propellant gunpowder to change the original trajectory twice...or something of the sort...
Everyone was excited and amazed at Hayato, the kid has grown a little, I 'humph'-ed, crossing my hands. Though what will that Belphegors next move be?
I never was too fond of chess, but nevertheless, I wasn't too bad at it. Seeing through opponents next move is what is the point of the game...with geniuses (especially assassins), you have to do it always, or else you might be in a pretty bad situation.
I frowned again, trying to see through the smoke on the screen. Was that Prince the Ripper still ok? He couldn't have possibly escape the explosion, but...still.
When the smoke cleared, we saw the opponent, covered in blood, going crazy. He was saying stuff like, "The blood of the royal clan was flowing" and stuff...Ookk, he really does have mental problems.
Actually, right now, I'm starting to believe that 'varia quality' doesn't exactly mean 'super strong', but 'super crazy' instead. And Belphegor's performance right now was proving that my conclusion is pretty much correct.
Hayato tried to throw more rocket bombs at him, but Belphegor just ran for it, deflecting some of the dynamites, he ran just forward towards our bomber. Is this...the true Prince the Ripper's form? He was still grinning like a cheshire cat and throwing some of his knives at Hayato, who supposedly dodged them but got hurt anyway.
The wires! He really does use them as a weapon too!
Before I knew it, our bomber threw a mini-dynamite to put some distant between himself and Belphegor. Then ran into the library. NOOO! Not the library! Well, luckily there is still the Namimori library somewhere in the center...but still...burning precious books down...I want to cry.
Somehow both of them ended throwing stuff and at quite a fast speed that I wasn't bothered to pay too much attention to, I was more thinking about the darn 5 minutes that Hayato had, before the whole third floor would explode.
When I finally looked up at the monitor again, I saw that Hayato stood frozen. Wait, no. didn't think of it...oh, dear. I had to hold myself not to roll my eyes.
Shamal seemed to be also surprised that the opponent was using both knives and wires. I just looked at him with a 'did you seriously only now figure?'-look. I really will have to have a talk with Hayato about this. One of the things would be 'to LISTEN to other people' and the other 'to USE your BRAIN'(although he was doing that, but still...)!
I don't know, but these annoyed feelings were coming out of me. I really felt like punching something, I wonder why?
"You..." Hayato started speaking. But the ground now continued for him, it was burning in gunpowder fuse..interesting...and the shelves that held the wires which didn't let Hayato move. Now he was free to move without being cut by razor-sharp wires (as Marmon from the Varia mentioned).
Then the gangster wannabe used the rest of the wires to help him reach his opponent, as in he enclosed the dynamites to the wires, to let them just slide down to their target.
When that exploded, everyone thought that Belphegor was done for, even the Varia admitted he wouldn't be able to survive that blow. He is kind of pitiful now.
Hayato thought that he officially won the battle, but the Cervello told him that he needs to get the ring from his opponent first. And so, with his open injuries, he went to pick up the ring from Belphegor.
When the gangster wannabe took the ring from his opponent, none of us expected for Belphegor to come to his senses and able to grab Hayato so fiercely. "The winner will be me!" He exclaimed. He sounded like a zombie coming back from the dead. What's he doing? Is he trying to kill himself? There is a boundary, you know? Just looking at him made my stomach feel bad.
The feeling of needing to go and look at the injuries...oh, god...no, he is an enemy! I can't! I can't! I grabbed onto my stomach and fell on my knees, trying to get away from the sickening feeling. Hayato will come back soon, and this will be over! 'Hurry up, Hayato!' I thought, practically wanting to say it out loud, but couldn't, because my stomach was getting sick. The amount of blood on both of the fighters faces...I can't just stand and watch! 'You have to.' I know.
I couldn't watch any longer. I closed my ears and eyes. Just chanting for Hayato to come back now. I'm seriously weak.
The rest were shouting for the bomber to come back and that it would be stupid to die here. Ah...that's right, it's about now that it's going to explode. I looked up at the screen. Hayato was still fighting over the ring with Belphegor. "Even if I die here, I won't withdraw!" He exclaimed. I looked up. Was he serious? Was he seriously serious?
But, before I could get on my feet and start lecturing him about his idiocy, Tsuna started before me, "Stop joking around! Have you thought what you're fighting for?" Tsuna put up a serious frown (It still looked cute...but I'll keep that to myself). "It's so that we can all have snowball fights together again! Watch fireworks together!" I stared blankly at my little brother, blinking. "That's why we fight! That's why we become stronger!" I looked at the screen to see Hayato's reaction..His eyes were feeling sort guilty, "So that we can laugh together! If you die all that will no longer have any meaning, will it?" The bomber's eyes widened. As much as I understood, he never really had friends before, so it was probably hard to understand that others care for you.
Why stomach lightened up, just before the huge explosion happened. My eyes seemed to get dizzy, and I saw Tsuna falling to his knees too, "How could this happen..?" He was mumbling, "Why..Gokudera-kun?" I wanted to hug my little brother to comfort him, before I noticed a steadily walking figure.
Tears fell out of me, when I started running to catch the big idiot. I was just in time before he crushed to the floor. Everyone was running after me.
"I'm sorry...juudaime...the ring..was taken...I wanted to see the fireworks again, so I've come back..." He had very hard time to speak, Hayato was practically pushing himself. "Oy, don't talk idiot!" I spilled out, trying to gently put him against the wall, to start taking care of his wounds. Tsuna was also crying with happiness that the idiot didn't die. I sighed, "Drama queen." I ruffled the bomber's hair.
"Voooiii! What a laughable ending!" The Varia came to us, and the loud shark spoke up, "With this, your lives are finally guttering like candles in the wind!" He was quite happy I guess, but can he turn it down? My ears hurt, and I mean, even compared to Ryohei he would considered loud. And that's some loudness level!
I just stared at them speechlessly, like everyone else.
"Besides, your holders of the ring of mist and cloud still haven't appeared." The baby Marmon spoke now, "If your contender doesn't turn up, we'll win by default and everything will be over." No...it's more like, we don't want them around for now...
I'm pretty pissed at the school being destroyed every night, but Kyoya...I don't even want to think about it.
"So, I'll announce tomorrows match.." One of the Cervello spoke up, "Tomorrows match will be...the battle between the Guardians of the Rain." The sharky...will Takeshi be alright...?
Squalo Superbi...this is going to be tough one too...
"I'm sorry for the interruption...but Levi-taichou!" It seemed like one of the underlings of Varia..what was he doing here? He announced that the Levi-unit was being picked off one by one by some stranger...Huh? Who would that be?
And like answering my question the guy made his presence clear by saying, "What are you doing here, in my school?" Oh craps...
"By unlawfully breaking into the school, and moreover, vandalizing the premises." You know...I really think he should become a general of some sort...Ahaha...We're dead. "By reason of joint responsibility, everyone here will be bitten to death." I did warn...myself...
"Kyoya...well, don't you look well?" I asked, half-sarcastically. When he looked at me, he reacted a bit and then his killing glare was send at me...What did I do?
Levi (the low-life...seriously, get a brain, you just don't attack people at random...) attacked the prefect, who just side-stepped him, and he fell on the floor. My, oh, my...Dino really over did himself now...Not that I care much. I wonder how the blond is doing?
Squalo got all excited then and wanted to attack too, but the Cervello stopped him, saying that they will be disqualified if that happens. The shark stopped, but Kyoya..well, he was just being Kyoya... Takeshi went in front of him to try and calm down the carnivore from running off to hunt. How brave.. Though the prefect was about to attack Takeshi, but the baseball-lover made a quick pace of turning himself and ending up behind Kyoya, while holding one of the tonfas, so it wouldn't attack him.
I smiled gently, he improved by a lot too in these 6 days..."The long-hair is my opponent, so please be patient a little while longer." He told Kyoya.
Not that persuaded the carnivore anyhow, actually, it got him into worse mood.
That was until Reborn made an appearance, "Ciaossu." he greeted Kyoya with his weird combination of italian and japanese. The devil baby then told the prefect that if he waits patiently for a while, he might get to have a greater chance. A chance to fight with Rokudo Mukuro in the new future.
The carnivores attitude change completely, "Hn...is that so?" He turned to the Cervello, "All of the damages to the school building must be restored." That's like saying twice the same thing, funny how it sounded differently though... "Yes. We, the Cervello, will be in charge of that." The pink haired ladies replied simply and plainly.
"But..oya, Kyoya, do you really think that I would allow it if it wouldn't be?" I asked, sort of irritated that he said the same thing as I did yesterday. The prefect turned my way, stared for a while and then gave a 'hn'- sound with an annoyed look...uhh...what was he doing? I had no idea.
Then the carnivore charged at me, and hit my...hair...pin? What?
And just as he did that, my hair fell down from my previous hairstyle. I had it up, like a pineapple...and then he goes...and destroys my pin..what his problem? Rokudo Mukuro is the hair-style thief, not me!I can't help it if it reminds him of that...thief...
I looked up at him with a strong glare that said 'Why the did you do that?' and he returned it with his own, and it said 'Don't put your hair up like that.' Why not?
I sighed, "And it was quite expensive too..." I mumbled, picking up the broken pieces of the pin.
As I did that, Kyoya left, without even saying a goodbye or anything...un-sosial person...seriously.
Once I picked up all of the pieces, I quickly went to Hayato again, to see how his wounds were doing. The Varia also left, but in a more flashy way.
Everyone was starting to think about Kyoya joining and fighting, while I looked at my bloody patient.
Shamal also left, saying that he doesn't treat men. Well, been there, done that, I guess. But what I didn't expect was to hear the blond speaking. "Uh...Dino?" I turned around, and while I did that, Romario came by my side, to help me with the wounds. I nodded a 'thank you' and we continued.
Dino told us about him travelling with Kyoya around to different battle grounds, and that it was to keep the prefect away from seeing that the school was getting damaged. Well, I guessed that much. Rolling my eyes, I asked if there was any other point to it. And the blond replied that now Kyoya got experience in fighting in different battle fields.
For the rest of the conversation, I fell out, wondering if there was any GOOD reason for him to have come today.
After we finished stopping the blood, we took Hayato to the hospital, to get the material. His wounds weren't deep, they were mostly cuts, it was just that there were a lot of them which made it sort of dangerous.
When I got home, it was over two o'clock in the morning. After bathing and tucking myself into bed, I wondered, how was that Belphegor doing?
Yay~, ready with a new chapter. I know Ami is totally absent minded and thinks more than listens to others, but you know, I can't her be perfect, right?
I hope the story is still in you interest ^^, please review~, I would love to know what you think.