Kyandi: Hello, everyone.
Roksana: Someone's not feeling well today.
Kyandi: Yeah, I think I pulled a muscle in my back.
Roksana: She's been in pain sitting up all day.
Kyandi: But I powered through and got the chapter done!
Roksana: She just got it done later than usual.
Kyandi: And when I'm done here, I'm going to go lay down with a heating pad. Oh! But before that...If anyone of you are interested in seeing the drawing of an embarrassed Roksana in Hibari's shirt-
Roksana: NO!
Kyandi: -then I'm going to be drawing it soon. I'll let you all know when it's done.
Roksana: Oh, God, no!
Kyandi: Oh, God, yes. Now, everyone, enjoy and review.
Roksana: Thankfully, Kyandi-sama does not own Katekyo Hitman REBORN. If she did...this would all be canon.
Kyandi: Hehe!
Chapter 34 Separated
"That damn Ginger..."
At the moment, Roksana was inclined to agree with Lal. As the alarm sounded around them, Roksana could only click her tongue in annoyance, the girl sorely tempted to curse.
"He must have reported us already." Roksana remarked sourly.
"We must hurry!" Lal insisted.
Agreeing, they hurried on, not knowing that they were being watched through security cameras. They quickly made their way to the server they had to destroy, making quick work of it. That was one part of their mission done. Now it was just making it to the main installation.
Crouching down the hall and around the corner from the server, Yamamoto, Gokudera and Roksana peered around the corner. They watched the smoke spill into the hall from where the destroyed server now sat.
The destruction of the server was a success!" Ryohei remarked.
"Then, let's move on to destroy the main installation!" Yamamoto insisted.
"Hold it. We haven't finished talking about the Arcobaleno." Gokudera said, grabbing Yamamoto's shoulder to pull him to a stop. "Why do you know about everything?"
"It was a promise. When I completed my training, the little guy told me everything." Yamamoto replied.
"Reborn did that!?" Tsuna gasped.
"As I said...kind of fitting." Roksana remarked.
"Really? It's a surprise to me." Ryohei replied. "Even I couldn't get my master to tell me anything."
"I watched Reborn when he was training Takeshi. It's not that the two are close, but Takeshi is the painfully straight-forward, honest and loyal type. If Reborn told him not to say anything, Takeshi is the type that'll take the secret to his grave." Roksana replied, Yamamoto grinning at her like he had just received the greatest form of flattery. "Right, Takeshi?"
"Yeah. I can't talk about it right now. I can only tell all of you after this battle is over. That's the promise I made with the little guy, too." Yamamoto admitted.
"Guh...since that's what Reborn said, we have no choice..." Gokudera said, though he looked like he had just swallowed a mouthful of vinegar.
"Shall we go, then?" Yamamoto asked, the others getting to their feet.
Well, all but one.
"You guys go ahead without me." Lal spoke up.
All of them turned, looking down at Lal who still sat on the floor, back to the wall. She didn't look like she was going to be getting up anytime soon. She also looked exhausted and worn out, like she was just barley holding on to consciousness.
"Lal! Is it your condition?!" Tsuna asked, concerned.
"I'll follow later. The fight with Ginger was a little too rough." Lal told them.
"I tried to tell you that it would be." Roksana said, crouching in front of Lal.
"I really don't need your "I told you so.", Volkov." Lal told her.
"Yeah, well...you're getting it anyway. Tough love and all that jazz." Roksana retorted. "So stop acting like a tsundere already."
The glare Lal gave Roksana might have been more effective if she didn't already look half dead. Roksana merely waved it off. She wasn't going to apologize for pointing out a fact.
"Is you body...in pain?" Tsuna asked Lal.
"I'm fine. Just go already. I'm not going to be the one to slow you down-"
"No way!"
The snapped retort came from all four males of the group, making Lal's eyes widen in surprise before she glanced at Roksana who gave her a shrug.
"The boys have spoken. In this case, they're the voice of reason." Roksana told her.
"You've got to be kidding. We're taken such little things into account already! This operation is a success only if we return with everyone!" Tsuna told Lal.
"That means even a broken little tsundere like you." Roksana added.
"Stop calling me that." Lal told her.
"Yeah...as long as it's true, that's not going to happen."
Roksana reached out, with a sarcastic smile on her face, and gave Lal's knee a par. Rising to her feet, Roksana turned to look as gates along the main hallway begun to close.
"They've started to close the gates along the main route. One of the simulation patterns had predicted this move from the enemy, but..." Ryohei glanced over at Lal. "In such a situation, we're suppose to head for the next point while Lal Mirch stays behind as a decoy."
"That's not going to work anymore." Roksana remarked.
"Ahh...well...leave that to me." Tsuna spoke up, making everyone look at him. "A-according to the plan, the decoy needs to have mobility...So, I think I'm the best choice for the job."
"That's true, but if that's your only reasoning, then I can just as easily fill the spot." Roksana told him. "Not to mention, it would be a lesser blow to our fighting power if we were to lose me verses y-"
"NO!"
Tsuna's sudden, frantic yell, cut Roksana off and had her staring wide eye in surprise at him. She was so shocked, all she could do was stare at him. Realizing what he had done and that, now, all of his friends were staring at him, Tsuna turned sheepish.
"What was that about, Boss?" Gokudera asked, but Tsuna stared at the ground, refusing to answer.
"I think I know." All eyes turned to the now serious look on Roksana's face. "Hibari told you, didn't he? How my future self really died?"
Tsuna's head snapped up, the look on his face telling her everything she needed to know. And, judging from the looks on Ryohei and Lal's faces, they had already known the truth.
"H-how..."
"Ryoka told me." Roksana answered.
"Told you what? What the hell is going on!?" Gokudera asked.
Roksana didn't take her eyes off Tsuna's face.
"Apparently, my future self wasn't killed during the Vongola hunt that took place right before we arrived." Roksana told them.
"I really don't think-"
"Be quiet, Ryohei." Roksana told the man, the man shutting his mouth out of surprise.
"If that wasn't how you died, then...how?" Yamamoto asked.
"In this era, my future self...has been dead for nine years. I died the day Ryoka was born." Roksana replied.
"You died in childbirth?" Gokudera asked, shocked.
He really couldn't see something like that being what killed Roksana. Roksana, though, was still watching Tsuna, who turned his eyes to the ground, stare at it as his hands twisted into fists at his side.
"No, I didn't. Did I, Tsuna?" Tsuna peered up at Roksana, the girl's eyes fixed intently on him. "Hibari told you what happened, all of what happened, didn't he? He wouldn't tell me, wouldn't explain to me what happened that day when it was me who died, yet, he told you, didn't he? Well? Say something, Tsuna!"
She wasn't happy, he could hear it in her voice, see it in the look in her eyes. It annoyed her, angered her that Hibari wouldn't tell her how she had died, but had told someone else. Even though Hibari had told him not to say anything, even though he had a feeling she wasn't going to take it well, Tsuna only had one thing he could say, one question he had to ask.
"Roksana...who's Nicoli?"
The reaction was almost instant, too fast for Roksana to try to cover it. The girl pulled back so quick, it was almost like the mere name caused her to flinch in reaction. She even took a step back from Tsuna, shock written all over her face.
Shock...and weariness.
"How...how do you know that name?" Roksana demanded, her tone going hard.
It was Tsuna's turn to flinch. He had never heard that tone in her voice before. While he had heard her angered and annoyed, her tone had never been as icy towards him as it was in that moment.
"H-Hibari said that was the name of the man who's been sending the assassins after you. Wh-who is he?" Tsuna asked.
Tsuna watched as Roksana's mouth twisted, her hands curling at her sides. Something in the look in her eyes made his feel like there was a big story behind that, and she wasn't willing to share.
"Tsuna," Just the way she said his name, had them all freezing on the spot, Roksana fixing her eyes on each of them in turn. "All of you...I'm only going to say this once...forget you ever heard that name."
"Roksana-!"
"No. Drop it. Now." Roksana said, cutting off Tsuna. "We have bigger problems to worry about here and I don't need others nosing into my business. I'm handling it."
"Bullshit! Whoever he is, he has you killed!" Gokudera snapped at her.
"I'll deal with that when the time comes. For now, we have other, bigger problems to deal with. Ones that concern far more lives than just my own." Roksana told him. "I don't need to be coddled."
They knew she wasn't going to hear another word on the subject, not at the moment. If they wanted to finsih their mission, then they didn't have any choice but to question her about it later. Tsuna was the one that made the call to move on.
Just for now.
"I'll be the decoy. I'll meet up with you guys later. Gokudera-kun, look after Lal, please." Tsuna said.
The others were forced to agree, in order to avoid more arguments.
"I've input the route into this hand held screen. Just follow the directions." Ryohei said, handing the device to Tsuna. "Go as far as you can...the flume on B10 is the best place to stop the enemy."
"I understand. I'm off then!" Tsuna said, turning. His eyes, though, went to Roksana, who was looking off to the side, avoiding eye contact. "Roksana, please...be careful."
Roksana's eyes moved to him, her expression and the look in her eyes saying all he needed to know.
"I'll do what I have to, Tsuna."
Tsuna wasn't sure what kind of promise that was, but it was one he had to take for the moment. Turning, he took off, leaving his friends behind him to turn to Roksana. Roksana, refusing to let the conversation return to previous top, moved past the boys.
"We should get going." she told them.
"Roksana..."
All of them turned to look at Roksana, the girl heaving a sigh as her head hung, almost like she was tired. Running her hand through her bangs, pushing them back from her face, she straightened her back once more, but didn't turn to look at them.
"Guys, I'm serious. Right now, this is nothing for you worry about. I have made it nearly seven years dealing with this. For now, just focus on the task at hand." she told them, turning to give them a strained smile. "Don't make me hurt you."
All three males put their hands up in the air. They were all aware of just how badly she could hurt them and that she would if they continued to push the subject. They would just have to pull it out of her later. With that in mind, Ryohei turned to Lal, finding that the woman had lost conscious somewhere during the conversation. With help from Gokudera and Yamamoto, they loaded Lal up on Ryohei's back and continued on their way.
They hadn't been walking for long, picking their way through narrow walk ways, when, suddenly, Roksana let out a sharp "Ah!" and plastered her hands over her ears.
"Roksana? Something wrong?" Yamamoto asked, looking back at her.
"I just got a sharp noise over the wireless." she said.
"You heard it too?" Gokudera asked. "It kind of sounded like Reborn's voice to me."
"Yeah, same here, but it was also kind of sharp and high pitch to me." Roksana replied.
"You mean that noise from the wireless?" Yamamoto asked.
He and Ryohei had faintly heard something, but not as acutely as Roksana and Gokudera had.
"Yeah, but there's no mistake, that was definitely Reborn's voice." Roksana said, readjusting the wireless in her ear.
"You two sure have good ears! Way to go, Roksana, Octopus head! With the surveillance system destroyed, we should have no interference with external communications now! That must be it!" Ryohei said. "Well, what did he say?"
"It was mostly just noise to me. Roksana?" Gokudera asked.
"It was too scrambled. I only caught a few words here and there. "No good Tsuna" and "doesn't use head". Just bits like that." Roksana replied.
"We're in Basement 12, right? Giannini said we may be too deep underground for the signal to reach us." Yamamoto told her.
"Hrm...what did he want though?" Ryohei asked.
"Judging from what I could catch, it sounded like he was trying to contact Tsuna." Roksana pointed out.
Just hearing that, Gokudera automatically assumed the worse. Roksana jumped out of the way as Yamamoto and Ryohei jumped Gokudera from behind, all three crashing to the ground, Ryohei taking Lal with him, in order to keep Gokudera from running off to find Tsuna.
"Maybe something's happened to the Boss!" Gokudera yelled, Roksana tilting her head to the side to watch the dog pile of her friends.
"Calm down! Can't you just calm down!" Ryohei replied.
"We don't know anything yet!" Yamamoto added.
"You didn't have to jump on top of me!" Gokudera said. "Roksana! Help me! Get these jackasses off me!"
Roksana thought about it for a moment, watching as Gokudera tried to drag himself out from under the two larger males. Then a low humming noise left her before she let out a, "Oops!" and fell forward on top of the pile. Gokudera let out a strangled noise as her weight was added to the mass already on his back.
"You did that on purpose!" Gokudera snapped out.
"I tripped, I swear." Roksana replied.
She said that, but Yamamoto and Ryohei could feel her laughing silently on their backs. The bit of fun done, Roksana climbed off their backs, helping Ryohei up since he still had a hold of Lal. Yamamoto got back to his feet too, Gokudera clicking his tongue in annoyance.
"There's no need to worry about Sawada! You saw him during the fight with Dendro, right!" Ryohei told Gokudera as Roksana readjusted Lal on his back.
"That's right. Besides, we'll probably hear from someone again." Yamamoto added.
"You're both optimistic idiots!" Gokudera snapped.
"Better than letting pessimism eat us from the inside out." Roksana told him, as she bent to help Gokudera to his feet.
Gokudera couldn't do anything by agree. Roksana got him back to his feet, dusting off his clothes once he was standing. Gokudera turned his attention to the unconscious Lal.
"How is she? How's Lal Mirch?" Gokudera asked.
"There's been no change. She's still unconscious." Ryohei replied.
"We better hurry." Gokudera insisted.
"I agree. Ryohei, how much further do we have to go?" Roksana asked, turning to Ryohei.
Shifting his grip on Lal. Ryohei pulled out the hand held and checked it.
"Hrm...We're taking a shortcut so...probably another twenty minutes to reach that white, round-shaped machine." Ryohei replied as they moved on.
As they moved on, the ducts they were travelling through, got more narrow, the four of them having to pick their way through. As easy as it was for Roksana, as the smallest of the group, it was a little more difficult for Ryohei, who was not only the biggest, but had Lal Mirch as well.
"Whew. These ducts are really narrow." Ryohei remarked after they passed through a particularly narrow part, coming out in a hall.
"Sorry for making you take Lal." Roksana told him, Ryohei waving it off.
"Next, we have to cut across the exhibition hall. That'll be wider." Yamamoto said.
"Yeah, but wider doesn't always mean safer." Roksana told him.
Ryohei raised a finger to his lips then, silently telling them to hush. All of them went on alert, creeping down the hall, Yamamoto and Gokudera in front. As they neared a doorway, Yamamoto drew his sword before darting into the open, ready for anything on the other side.
They weren't prepared to watch one Millefiore member take out another.
The man being attacked, went down in front of them in a bloody mess. Across the room, sitting on a carpet hovering by the use of flames, sat a big bellied man with a turban on his head.
"I've been waiting for you." he said upon seeing them. " We request thy flesh and blood."
"H-his carpet is floating!" Yamamoto exclaimed.
"Who cares?! Why is one of the Millefiore guys killed here!" Gokudera demanded.
"He's the onikuma user, Nigella Beabunkul." Ryohei told them as he crouched down next to the dead man. "He fights with a bear box weapon, and I heard he's quite a tough guy."
Roksana wasn't really all that concerned with that. Something, hidden behind panel hanging in the room, had caught her attention and she reached out to tug on the shoulder of Ryohei's shoulder.
"There's something else here, guys." she told them, making them all look up as something feel from behind the panels.
"Is that a bear's claw from this guy's box weapon?" Roksana asked.
She was starting to get a feeling that she wasn't going to like what came out from behind those panels, and she didn't have to wait long to find out. Crushing the stone panels around it, out from behind them came a monster of a snake, Storm flames running the length of it's body. The moment she saw the snake, Roksana turned on her heel and tried to leave the way she came.
"Hey! Where are you going?!" Ryohei asked, grabbing her around the way.
"I'm nope-ing out of this, right here and right now. I hate snakes!" Roksana retorted.
"It's a box weapon." Ryohei told her.
"That makes it even worse!" Roksana insisted. "It's a snake, a giant snake!"
Roksana was not the world's biggest fan of snake. She didn't mind them when it was just a little garden snake, or a something like that, but big, obviously dangerous snakes like this one was way out of her comfort zone. She wanted nothing to do with it, but Ryohei kept her in place.
"Hoho. That's right. Meet Serpente Tempesta. From the look of satisfaction on his face, he must have enjoyed the taste of Nigella's monster bear." the man, Baishana, said from atop his floating carpet.
"Im-impossible...that thing ate Nigella's box weapon!" Ryohei exclaimed.
"That is so. My box, the Serpente Tempesta, is the newest creation of the box-maker, Koenig. It has the ability to grow by feeding on other box weapons. And it's fighting power will also grow accordingly." Baishana told them.
"A box can eat things?" Yamamoto asked.
"It's not unheard of. Octopus Head's kittykins was eating too." Ryohei replied before noticing the look on Gokudera's face. "What's the matter, Octopus Head?"
"Wh-what do you mean what's the matter!? Haven't you two realized?! Look at it's form! That thing is not just a giant snake! Its one of the top eight living things I hope to encounter in my life! It's a mystical beast that can only be found in Japan! The Tsuchinoko!" Gokudera exclaimed.
"Ah, yeah. A real Tsuchinoko was discovered three years ago though." Ryohei told him.
"Are you serious!?"
That bit of information put a damper on Gokudera's day, but Roksana didn't care.
"I don't care if its a box weapon, a Tsuchinoko, or just the world's fattest snake. A snake is a snake is a snake, and I hate snakes!" Roksana told them. "I even hate things made from snakeskin!"
And here, her friends had never thought to find something that Roksana disliked so fiercely that wasn't an enemy to them and their friends.
"I get it that you don't like snakes, but we got to deal with this in order to get to our goal." Ryohei told her.
While she really didn't want to face a snake literally big enough to swallow her whole without having to unhinge it's jaw, Roksana knew he was right. She turned, making a face as she looked up at the snake.
"I really hate this." Roksana muttered.
She could already see the expression on Hibari's face if he knew how much she hated snakes.
"I understand your reasons for it, but why consume a comrades's box?" Yamamoto asked when they were sure Roksana wouldn't try to leave the room.
"Dissension within, maybe?" Gokudera added.
"Fuahahaha! Comrade? What an absurd idea!" Baishana sneered. "We of the White Spell do not consider the Black Spell on equal standing. We are the light, the chosen ones, that shall seize the future. They are obsolete relics of the decaying past! In our world order, the inferior exist only to be exploited by the elite. And the same applies to you Vongola, antiquated and stale."
"Fuck you!" Gokudera snapped.
"What he said." Roksana added, pointing at Gokudera in agreement with his choice of words.
Even Yamamoto looked like he was in agreement with his friend's choice of words. Ryohei, though, turned away from them, walking over to a wall to place Lal on the ground, leaning her against the wall.
"There appears to be some bickering within the Millefiore too. But, whatever the reason may be, to consume someone who's fought beside you is absolutely unforgivable." Ryohei said.
"Hey! You want to fight!? Let me handle this!" Gokudera insisted.
"Sorry, Octopus Head. You're too late."
Ryohei turned, showing that he had already opened his box weapon. In a flash, whatever it was, slammed into the head of the large snake. Roksana let out a cheer unlike any she had released before as the snake crashed backwards.
"Take that you slithery bastard!" Roksana cheered.
Yamamoto and Gokudera looked at each other from behind Roksana, Yamamoto smiling sheepishly as he chuckled.
"She really doesn't like snakes." Gokudera remarked lowly as they turned back as Ryohei's box weapon landed before them, Ryohei walking out to join it.
"That's senpai's...
"Animal type box weapon." Gokudera said, finishing Yamamoto's sentence.
"That's right. He has lived up to my path to become a worthy box weapon of honor. His name is incomparable to the extreme! Kangaryuu!"
The box weapon before them, was a battle scarred, beat up kangaroo with the bright yellow flame of the Sun flame on the tip of its tail.
"I knew it! It's a kangaroo! Very cool!" Yamamoto remarked.
"The naming is more normal than I expected." Gokudera added.
"Even I thought he would come up with something stranger for his box weapon." Roksana agreed.
That aside, they found out, very quickly, the destructive power of the Storm flame with it's degeneration characteristic. Just coming in contact with it, was bad news. That being said, Ryohei had tricks of his own. Taking a few of his box weapon's bandages, Ryohei started wrapping his fists. Once secure, he loosened his tie and threw his suit jacket at Roksana, who caught it easily. As she caught it, a pair of boxing gloves, bearing the symbol of the Vongola family's Sun Guardian were released from Kangaryuu's pouch.
Putting those on, declaring the fight on, to Roksana...Ryohei looked just like himself from the past.
Some things about the way Ryohei fought, had changed. He had picked up Lussuria's footwork and now fought using the activation characteristic of his Sun flame to heal himself faster than the degeneration characteristic of the Storm flame could harm him. To try to combat that, Baishana released eight stag beetle box weapons. With all eight attacking him in concert, it looked like Ryohei couldn't fight back, but with added assistance from Kangaryuu and a pair of boots that allowed him to fly, he soon revealed that just grazing the beetles was enough to cause them to self-destruct.
Finally being forced to realize that he was out of his league with Ryohei, Baishana contacted his superior, requesting back up. Too bad that backup would never reach them before Ryohei crushed Baishana under his own box weapon. Roksana let out a loud cheer as the snake was defeated. She was so happy that the snake was done and gone, that she actually threw herself at Ryohei to hug him. Ryohei was only stunned for a short moment before she released him and he insisted that they needed to keep moving.
Yamamoto took Lal this time, the four of them hurrying through the halls. They didn't get far, though, before the whole building started shaking. Roksana went stumbling to the side, into a hall leading off from the hall they were currently in. Roksana didn't even have the chance to ask what was going on before the floors started to shift. The part of the hall where Yamamoto stood, with Lal on his back, and the section of hall Roksana was in, both shifted down.
The sudden jerk sent Roksana falling on her butt, Gokudera and Ryohei scrambling to try to grab her and Yamamoto before they could be separated. While Gokudera reached for Yamamoto, Ryohei rushed to grab Roksana, but he was too slow. By the time he reached the edge, looking down on Roksana, the gape closed, Roksana's wide eyes the last thing he saw before she was gone. On the other end, Gokudera was forced to pull back before he lost his arm.
Before they knew it, Roksana, Yamamoto and Lal were gone.
Looking at each other, Gokudera and Ryohei were forced to agree on one thing...
This wasn't good.
On Roksana's end, she scrambled back to her feet as the room continued to shake. Then, it came to a stop. Roksana looked around, the whole area around her sealed off, wondering how she was going to get out of there, when the floor fell out from under her. Roksana fell into the void, screaming "Motherfucker!".
She wasn't sure how far she fell, but it went dark for moment, no lights lighting her way down. The a flash of light blinded before before she landed on something over stuffed and soft. She bounced for a second before coming to a rest.
"Well...that was a crappy surprise." Roksana remarked to herself, opening her eyes too look up a brightly lit ceiling over her head, the hatch she had just fallen through, closing. "I'm starting to hate this place more and more."
The clearing of a throat, had Roksana's head falling back, the girl finding herself laying on a couch in what looked like a bar, a pool table having been knocked over and beer bottles scattered across the floor. Staring back at her was the two members of Gamma's squad that had attacked Tsuna and the others when Yamamoto had been sent over from the past, Tazaru and Nosaru, and three other guys, all dressed in the uniform of the Black Spell.
And things got worse.
Roksana muttered to herself, rolling and shifting herself until she was sitting up on the couch, looking around at the men tensed and ready to attack. This was going to get ugly, without a doubt. Heaving a sigh, Roksana decided to just lay it all out there.
"Alright boys, I'm going to get this out of the of the way. I have had a really long night, am not in a good mood, have just come face to face with a monster size snake, and I hate snakes, and just fell only God knows how far in the dark!" Roksana said, getting to her feet and tug her clothes back into place, her eyes getting icier with each words she spoke. "I'm really not the person you want to mess with right now. So, I'm going to be just nice enough to give you two choices. Either you get the hell out of my way, or I show you what it means when people say "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". Now...what will it be?"
She obviously must not have looked like much to the men, for Tazaru gave the men the order to attack. Roksana released another sigh.
Well...she had been looking for a warm-up.
END
Kyandi: They really should have taken the chance.
Roksana: Well, that was their poor judgment.
Kyandi: Yep, and now they're going to regret it.
Roksana: That's want people get for not listening.
Kyandi: Maybe next time they will.
Roksana: If there's a next time. But did you have to tell them about my hatred of snakes?
Kyandi: Hey, it makes you more human.
Roksana: I'm not amused.
Kyandi: Oh well. Alright, I really want to get a heating pad on my back, so, everyone, enjoy and review.
Roksana: We'll be back tomorrow.
Kyandi: Bye-bye!