There's a crash, and a bullet skims Tsuna's earlobe. He hisses, and blasts his flames down the hall, burning whoever shot the damn thing. The unknown man howls when the fire licks him, and Tsuna takes the opportunity to run out of his hiding space, putting up his flames as a barrier as he dives through the halls. The mafia men in his way blow their machine guns, careful not to touch the orange that surrounds the Vongola Don. They bounce off of the ring of fire harmlessly, and Tsuna surges past them without a care.
He's been holed up in this mansion for much too long. If anyone back home realized that he had snuck out to find the source of his stress in the middle of the night, he's never going to hear the end of it.
He makes an abrupt stop when Storm flames shoot out and char his shirt. Tsuna clicks his tongue. They're strong enough to break through his Hyper flames. Tsuna narrows his eyes, and prepares his Zero Point Breakthrough. He's in no shape to fight an elongated battle with a flame user of this caliber. Two days of endless assassination attempts have left him sleep-deprived, tired beyond belief, with both of his Hyper Intuition and Sky Flames half as powerful as they should be. His body would be a wreck after a fight like that.
Plus, if he doesn't get back to the Vongola Headquarters by four in the morning, Reborn is going to find out.
Tsuna crouches, preparing, and waits for the Storm to turn the corner. The steps of the man are quiet, careful. Tsuna shallows his breathing, and touches the wall. Harmonise. He pushes his flames into the wall, and the wall responds, calming him and lowering his heartbeat. Tsuna is soundless and unnoticeable as the Storm walks closer.
Tsuna pulls his gloves on tighter. Around ten steps more, and he'll turn the corner. This Storm is not one to underestimate.
There's a click before Tsuna counts the tenth step the man makes. Shit. The man's holding a gun. Hearing the weight and the way the man adjusts his steps, Tsuna expects it to be a machine gun. Well heck. Here he thought he could get away quietly.
The man turns the corner, his gun raised. His eyebrow quirks up as he sees Tsuna waiting.
"Vongol…" He starts, his brain realizing the man in front of him.
Tsuna doesn't let him process. He races forward and slams his boot into the man's wrist, twisting his back to get out of the range of the gun.
His Hyper Intuition didn't lie to him. The Storm's reflexes are the best Tsuna's seen in this mansion; the man starts firing before Tsuna hits his wrist. The bullets cause a racket, signalling all the other members to come to where Tsuna is situated. Tsuna swears.
The gun flies out of the man's hands, hitting itself against the opposite wall. The man isn't fazed; he instantly flares his Storm flames, and makes a lunge at Tsuna's wrist, trying to stop the Zero Point Breakthrough. Tsuna dodges easily. He blasts his Zero Point straight at the man.
The man yells. His red flames freeze into perfect ice, trapping him. Tsuna leaves an air bubble for the man to breathe; he has no intention of killing anyone here if unnecessary. Tsuna burns the gun before running out of the hallway. He has to get out before the other mafioso reach him.
Whatever's left of his Hyper Intuition allows him to choose the right path; he weaves through the complicated alleys all the while avoiding the enemy mafioso.
Tsuna almost reaches the door, when a bullet skims his arm. Crap. Tsuna hisses, and swings himself around, palms directly in front. He sees the family don's Cloud Guardian with a handgun. Hell. He had forgotten that their Cloud was known for his stealth.
The Cloud smirks. "Nice try, Vongola. But you're still a kid. You're too naive. You seem to think that making friends with your Vongola is a given. You think that your actions and so-called raids scared us into making alliances with you. You're nothing but an idiot. We never intended to ally with you. That was only bait to trap you here."
The Cloud begins firing his gun again. Tsuna blocks them with a wave of his flames. Shoot. The bastard's coated the bullets with his Cloud flames.
"You're too soft. You were destroyed by your own trust. You were the one who let our traitors so successfully into your family. Now you pay for that mistake."
Tsuna dodges the bullets, and fires his flames at the Cloud. The man avoids them easily, counter attacking with little effort. Tsuna huffs. This guy's good.
"Maybe it was my mistake. But you're the naive one. I knew your plans. I came here with all that in mind. Your men may have been traitors, but they weren't good ones. They didn't even come close to knowing my plans."
"Are you saying you planned this, kid? Don't fool me. Look at the state you're in. Don't expect me to believe you deliberately walked in here to get bullets in your chest."
The Cloud pulls out a whip. His preferred weapon. Tsuna doesn't need his intuition to know it's fueled by his flames. The Cloud's good at using his weapon. He's fast, and Tsuna has to use his intuition to keep himself out of the whip's range.
Tsuna sighs. This is going to take longer than he expected. He really didn't want to go overboard and cause a scene, but he's got to make sure no one remembers he came tonight.
The Cloud's fast, but not as fast as Tsuna's Cloud. This guy doesn't hold a candle to Kyoya.
Tsuna flashes an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Mr. Cloud. I do hope you survive."
The Cloud is confused at the words, and before he understands them, he's engulfed in orange flames.
"X-Burner."
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Tsuna spends little time punching the living daylights out of the executives. He spends even less time threatening them with who knows how many bullets and flame-propelled fists to shut up and stay quiet about this night. He doesn't want his Guardians - or anyone who's affiliated with him, for that matter - to find out that he's been at death's door these past two months.
He glares at the executives, shivering in pure fear as they try to stay sane.
"You will not speak of this to anyone, you hear me? And if you dare touch a Vongola member or anyone who's any bit affiliated with Vongola, your heads will be gone before you know it."
The executives nod frantically, all of them sitting in their own piss in terror. Anything to get Tsuna away from them.
Tsuna raises an eyebrow, but sighs in acceptance. If they come back to kill him again, he'll just have to deal with it.
A voice from behind chuckles in amusement.
"Tsunayoshi, you sure are becoming more and more like a hitman every time I see you. So much work just to silence them."
Tsuna clicks his tongue. He had called for them, but he's in no mood (nor has any energy left) to deal with him right now.
"Bermuda. I called you only to take them away. Mind you, this is also to keep you silent as well. One word about this to anyone and you'll feel my wrath."
Bermuda only laughs. "Of course. Our jobs are twenty times easier with you on cleanup every night."
"I'm only getting rid of the pests that keep trying to kill me and make my life a living hell."
The Vindice leader merely shrugs, moving to take custody of the fainted executives.
"However, Vongola Don, you do realize that you can't keep this a secret any longer, right? Just looking at you and I already know the assassinations have been chipping away at your flames. Sometime your beloved Guardians will find out, or even Reborn, and they won't be happy about all of this."
Tsuna scoffs. "That's why this is a secret. Besides, this is my problem. They don't need to bloody their hands over assassinations that aren't even dangerous."
"I'm quite sure you're the only one who says tasteless poison in your coffee everyday isn't dangerous. Well, it's not my problem. I'm more than happy you're taking care of the trash in society. By the way, what does today make? The fifth day you've snuck out?"
Tsuna rubs his eyes.
"The fifteenth."
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The next morning, Tsuna feels like shit. He's exhausted too many flames, and can hardly maintain his Hyper Intuition at all. Thank god, the following attempts at his life are pathetic and stupid, so he manages. He's tired, but keeps his composure; perfect posture and attitude as he works. If not, he's sure Hayato and Reborn will nag him.
Plus, he gets the feeling that Reborn is already suspicious.
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Xanxus is feeling restless. Uncomfortably so. He blames it on the scum littered beneath his feet, having passed out after Xanxus punched them in the guts.
He, the Varia, and the horse-boss were in England, after hearing that one of the Vongola traitors had escaped the CEDEF's prison (he swears that he's going to crack each of those idiots' heads once he gets back) and rendezvoused with their allies in the country.
As per Tsuna's orders, he wasn't to kill anyone, but Xanxus' guns were tingling and he's feeling jumpy.
It also doesn't help that his flames don't feel quite right. They were still powerful, formidable beyond anyone's standard of "monstrous", but they didn't sit well with him. It felt like they were losing life, as strange as it sounded.
"Boss. Boss… Boss?"
"What is it, trash!? Can't you see I'm busy!?"
Levi flinches at his tone, but speaks without fear. "I was just reporting that Mammon found the other traitors. Seems they're about to board the plane to America this afternoon. Cavallone is getting his men ready to depart once we've cleaned up here."
However important that information was, it passes through Xanxus' ears. At this point, his feral instincts were kicking in, and they quite literally made his hair stand on end.
Something's wrong. He can feel it in his bones. Or, at the very least, something is going to be very wrong.
His eyes widen a fraction when he thinks of one, tiny possibility why his flames felt whack.
And he clicks his tongue when his intuition (not on par with Tsuna's… but good enough, good enough) instinctively tells him that possibility might just become reality.
"I'm going back to Italy."
His Lightning Guardian raises a confused eyebrow.
"...Boss?"
Xanxus just yells at him. He doesn't have time to explain.
"You didn't hear me? I'm going back to Italy. You finish this."
Levi doesn't argue, after seeing his leader's face contort into a dark scowl, and his face pale.
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Reborn can't take much more of this. He had let Tsuna hide his secrets, since he figured the kid had grown more than strong enough to deal with his own problems and deserved at least a little bit of privacy, but this has dragged on far too long.
It's been months since he saw Tsuna frantically cleaning his coffee mug in the sink. Weeks since Tsuna's been waking up and eating breakfast with strangely strained flames. Days since his Hyper Intuition had been weakened to the point that even the Vongola workers were starting to notice.
And it's gone to the point that it's become dangerous. Reborn's not an idiot, he has a good idea why his student's intuition is strained, but he had hoped that Tsuna would come and tell them himself. He had hoped that, despite his student's stubborn nature, he would truly learn to trust them with his life and his burdens.
Seems he's hoped for far too much.
Which brings him here, in front of Tsuna's office door, pounding his fist on the ornate wooden surface like his life depended on it.
"..."
Reborn clicks his tongue at the silence.
"Dame-Tsuna, I am going to bash the door if you don't open up right now."
There's another short silence that follows, then a sigh, and a tired voice.
"...Come in, Reborn."
The tutor slams the door open, making sure his irritation is clearly plastered on his face.
"Tsuna. This is it. I'm not going to let you run away any longer. You are to tell me, and Hayato, just what exactly is making you so tired."
His student, whose eye bags are already larger than ever, meets his gaze calmly. The orange flare in them still shines, and Reborn instinctively wants to step back, but he refuses to be tricked.
"I'm not running away from anything. You're mistaken. If that's all, then could you please leave me to do my paperwork?"
Reborn growls. "No, Tsuna. You are running away. The paperwork can go to shit, for all I care. You've exhausted your flames, but I can't damn see any reason why they would be. And I know that your Hyper Intuition is almost non-existent at this point. Don't try to fool me. You didn't even notice when you dropped your keys this morning."
The brunet merely shrugs. "It's just insomnia, Reborn. I told you that already."
This brat.
He slams his hands on the desk, making sure that the stacks of papers fly every which way when he does. He leans into his student's face, lowering his voice in growing frustration.
"Tsuna. Listen to me. I know very well people have been trying to kill you the past months. And also that you've been cleaning them up by yourself. I figured that you could handle this alone, that you would know your own limits and learn to get help when you need it. But clearly, that isn't the case. You've become weak, Tsuna. Any regular person could kill you now, with the way you've completely drained your flames. So you need to spill it, and now."
His student remains unfazed.
"I told you. This has nothing to do with that. I can take care of myself. And the assassinations have stopped. Like you said, I've already cleaned up."
Reborn loathes this one thing about Tsuna. The fact that he's simply too stubborn to notice just how much danger he's in.
"So, if you would kindly leave me to my paperwork, Reborn."
The hitman straightens his back, glaring down at his student with condescending eyes.
"No. I told you, you are going to spill it now. Even if I have to make you."
Tsuna's eyebrow twitches. He doesn't have enough flames to fight with Reborn right now. Especially when he can barely go into Hyper-Dying Will Mode, let alone dodge his teacher's attacks.
"...Fine. I'll go and take a break. Okay?"
Reborn scowls at him more. "No you don't. I'm having you talk. Now."
Tsuna glares at him again. "I told you, Reborn. I. Am. Taking. A. Break. And that's final. You can question me later. I'm going out for a drive. For the record, Reborn, I'm not the teenage kid you could just pull around in circles. This time, you're bending to my terms."
He doesn't look back when he slams his office door behind him.
Reborn just growls. His student is going to feel hell when he comes back. He pulls out his phone, and dials for Spanner.
"Spanner. I'm using that camouflage no-sound car you made. Get it ready. And tell Hayato for me when he gets back that I'm going to pound the shit out of his stupid boss."
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The one thing he's glad about is that Tsuna actually does go for a drive. It's a black anti-flames, anti-missiles, bulletproof sedan that Giannini had made in bulk for all of the Vongola executives.
Reborn's not happy with his student, but he's the tiniest bit glad that he was at least smart enough to choose this car.
Just as he told Spanner, Reborn drives the new camouflage car behind his student. Tsuna doesn't seem to notice, to his chagrin. If his Hyper Intuition were any bit useful, Reborn would have been noticed right away.
The fact that Tsuna continues leisure cruising shows just how much he's overused his abilities.
Reborn swears under his breath. He's going to murder his student for letting his powers to get this bad.
The drive is relatively quiet, and they arrive back at the mansion without a fault. There weren't any assassinations, yet…
Something doesn't feel right. It was too quiet, considering Tsuna had been continuously attacked…
The answer hits, and Reborn slaps the steering wheel, effectively honking the car's horn in full blast.
"Shit!"
He bursts out of his car, yelling at his student. He watches in fear as the black sedan's car door clicks, slowly being pushed open.
"Tsuna! Don't…"
He doesn't get to finish. A sudden blast of wind pushes him several feet backwards, and the sound with it nearly bursts his eardrums.
He forces himself upwards, and he looks at the sight in front of him in horror.
Tsuna's car has erupted into flames.
"TSUNA!"
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Hayato doesn't need to hear the blast to feel that something's terribly wrong. He staggers, clutching his heart and lungs in pain. Cold sweat runs down his face, and his head suddenly feels as though it is being squeezed to its limits.
Spanner, running to see the results of Reborn's drive with his car, immediately tries to catch him.
"Are you okay…?"
The Storm doesn't listen, screaming when he catches both his breath and voice.
"Tenth… TENTH!"
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Chrome and Mukuro are on an espionage trip for Lal Mirch when they feel the exact pain Hayato feels, which drives them both into a state of shock. Mukuro, for a split second, loses hold of his illusions, and Chrome's stomach flattens as the organs slowly disappear.
"Mukuro-sama…"
The Mist immediately reforms the organs, but both are panting and dripping in sweat.
Mukuro grits his teeth.
"Nagi… we're going back to headquarters."
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Ryohei is in the middle of having lunch with Hana and Kyoko, when he feels a twinge in his heart. A sudden chill, enough to make all of his organs to the tips of his fingers like ice. Then, his bones feel as though being scraped, his lungs tightening under the weight of his ribcage.
It's a staggering pain that makes him drop his coffee.
Hana and Kyoko rush forward in surprise, quickly asking him if he's okay and diving to wipe the coffee from his hands and shirt.
Ryohei, on the other hand, is unable to move.
This feeling isn't something he's ever felt before, but somehow, he knew.
"...Sawada?"
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Takeshi and Kyoya are in a meeting together discussing the details of a nearby yakuza group when they are both attacked by the same chill and sharp pain in their chests. It's powerful enough to make both Guardians choke and their entire bodies shake.
Takeshi recovers first, stretching his fingers and rubbing his chest to rid it of the dull, lingering pain.
"Kyoya…"
The Cloud Guardian's face is a myriad of fear, shock, and absolute horror. Neither say a word to each other, but they know what the other is thinking.
Tsuna…
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"Hey, knock it off kid! You know that you can't just up and run back to Italy! What the heck is wrong with you!?"
Kensuke hisses, holding the thrashing child in his arms. Lambo is in tears, crying and screaming for him to let go.
"TSUNA-NII! TSUNA-NII!"
It's loud enough to send other workers running, along with Sawada Nana, who looks at the scene in fear.
Lambo, as much as he was annoying, rarely ever cries like this. Whining yes, maybe even a few muffled sniffles when he stubs his toe or scrapes his knee, but never downright wailing. The little boy is screeching his beloved brother's name, yelling as he clutches his chest in agony.
Fuuta, who had returned home, pales the moment he sees his little brother a mess of tears and snot. He immediately pulls out his ranking book, which he hasn't used in months.
And asks for the top list of mafia Dons in critical danger.
The first name is Tsunayoshi Sawada.
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Reborn hoists himself to his feet, running straight at the wreckage. The car is still burning, a mix of oil, metal, and - shit - burning flesh.
He's swearing at himself for being so goddamn stupid, stupid, stupid; how could he have not realized earlier, why did he let Tsuna go, and oh my god there he is.
He immediately drops to his knees, immediately putting out the fire burning on Tsuna's body with his Sun Flames, dragging him to safety. He envelops his students' body with the yellow flare, using his flames' characteristics to slowly heal the wounds he can see.
His student is a pile of burning flesh and charred clothing. Reborn checks his pulse, touching his fingers to his neck.
It feels like the world stops when he doesn't feel it.
"No, no… no…. NOOOO!"
Reborn's wrists are shaking at this point, but he bites his lip and forces them to calm. He checks for the pulse again.
Nothing.
And again.
Nothing.
And again. And again.
Until finally, he feels a slight movement. The blood pushes against Reborn's fingers, and his breath hitches.
Tsuna's alive.
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*A/N: I apologize for my writer's block again. I also apologize if there's issues with Reborn's first aid. I'm terrible at it and don't know how it works. Regardless, thank you once again for reading till the end.