crawls out of the woodwork 4 years later to drop a chapter that's technically been written for a few months. Uh, hi? So, long story short, this story a) not abandoned, b) still in progress even if my earlier grand and glorious plans of writing a massive epic are now severely truncated as I've learned epic writing is probably not for me, and c) I'm still around!
It has been a while since I last updated this, and I'm sure that my writing style has shifted somewhat, but I've done my best to more or less match previous chapters. If I've failed...I apologize.
I've no idea when the next chapter will be posted, but I will give it my best shot for it to not be four whole years (to the day lol).
Finally, Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story, and welcome to all the new people who've joined over the past...four...years. ^^; I really appreciate your support and that you're still reading this story. This chapter is for you, and wouldn't exist without your support. I hope you are all as safe, happy, and healthy as can be in these current times, and if not, that your situation improves!
Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it, and let's get on with the Flame Battles!
Hibiki is not particularly happy to play audience to teenagers trying to kill each other, but after the previous night's battle, he's not about to give this one a miss either. At least today's battle isn't an adult against a five-year-old.
At least Tsuna interfered at the end when it literally was an adult attempting to kill a child.
(To say Hibiki is displeased is like calling the Black Lake in the middle of winter a little chilly, the Ministry of Magic under Fudge a little corrupt, or Hibiki's own luck a little bad.)
Tonight's battle at the very least doesn't deal with potential electrocution to bystanders as well as the participants.
Gokudera Hayato's hype, however, was definitely an experience, especially in comparison to his opponent.
"Don't worry Jyuudaime, I'll blow him sky high! Then you won't even have to fight the asshole!"
Belphegor, on the other hand, was merely cackling with a mad Cheshire grin and fingering the knife he had out. Hibiki doubted that would last, as the two teens entered the arena.
(And who thought it was a good idea to have this in a regular school? How much money was being spent on this, and was there any compensation being given to the school district or town?)
Hibiki turned away from the bank of screens to Luna, however mad he was at her, Lambo was still alive and slated to make a full recovery especially with some magical assistance. "Thoughts on this one?"
"Hmmm, there are quite a few Wackspurts around tonight. As stormy as things might get, I think the winner is clear."
Hibiki scoffed a little at that. "If the wins were such a forgone conclusion, you'd think these battles wouldn't be necessary."
"Yes...I don't think Hermione would like them much."
"Not the competition itself. She'd say it was barbaric, having adults fight teens. Or children."
"Mm. Well there have been a few things a little sprizzlefig told me the other day..."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, apparently the nest it flew from has been disturbed by some vicious myrabellim attacks. They'd begun a number of years ago, but have recently been quite aggressive. They're not particularly seasonally aggressive creatures, you know, and although they're quite territorial, it is a bit odd that they've decided to linger and increase their attacks this much."
"That's, ah, interesting."
Hibiki got that someone, possibly with a Rain alignment of some kind, had informed her of increasing hostilities either towards or within the Vongola, but that didn't explain who. Despite the whole bit about territorial people and lingering...a Mist? Why would a Mist stick around for an exceedingly long time and target the Vongola?
Well, criminals and crime aside.
"GOKUDERA-KUN!"
Screaming from group of teens cause him to look back towards the monitors.
Yeah, Luna had called it, as much as Hibiki definitely felt parallels between his own teenaged years and the teen currently cut up and bloody in front of him, or just the entire group as a whole. At least Voldemort had never employed assassins, and was generally overly reliant on spells, which were apparently easier to dodge than knives and...wire?
"Well, that's another one I'll be patching up," Hibiki muttered to himself.
"The Storm Battle winner is Belphegor of the Varia," one of the pink-haired women said in the same flat monotone as her fellow observer and referee.
"Shishishishishi. The peasant thought he was a match, but fell to his own sort of art. Rather poetic for a peasant!"
"Shut up, trash," Xanxus said from his place with a smirk. "When's the next damn match?"
"Tomorrow night the Rain Battle will be hosted at Namimori Junior High School. The same rules apply as for other nights — those who do not arrive on time will be immediately disqualified and forfeit their half of the Vongola Rings."
"Right. Shark-trash, don't embarrass us," Xanxus said, getting up from his seat and lazily stalking out the door, followed by his entourage.
"VOIIIIII! I'll eviscerate that baseball brat! They can find his remains at the bottom of the school when I'm finished with him!"
Tsuna, predictably, shrieked, "HIEEEEEEEEEEE -!"
Only to be cut off by Reborn. "Screaming isn't benefiting of a Mafia Boss, Dame-Tsuna."
"Don't worry, Tsuna!" Yamamoto-kun jumps in, "My dad's been training me for this! I've totally got the next battle!"
Hibiki shakes his head slightly and goes to grab the injured teenager, still stuck in a now exploded classroom, feeling like somehow this entire battle thing has become a kind of performance art.
Hmm, that's a thought.
~IiI~
One extra teenager tucked in a spare bed Hibiki quickly transfigured, covered in a plethora of monitoring charms, bandages, and blankets later, Hibiki was ready for bed. He also had a great appreciation for what all the teachers at Hogwarts, especially Madam Pomfrey, felt after learning of all of his own adventures.
Teenagers, somehow, had way too much energy, skill, and idiocy. It was a perfect storm, no pun intended, in human existence.
Still, there were other potions to check on for Chrome, and general typing up and safety checks to go through before bed would be in his immediate future.
"Why did I get myself into this?" He muttered to the table he was scrubbing. At least the dishes had been done, but the table had been sacrificed to Ken's enthusiasm with his homework/make up work. Or rather, lack thereof.
"Because you care," whispered the voice behind him.
"Yeah," Hibiki sighed. Continuing his scrubbing, he asked, "Do you have news, Sōon?"
"I do," Sōon replied. He settled to lounge against the counter, checking the dishes' cleanliness. "A little confirmation of what your friend said, and further evidence of what your Informant will be bringing to you tomorrow."
"She's your friend, too, you know."
Sōon chuckled, in contrast to Hibiki's exasperated eye-roll.
"And she would know it, wouldn't she?" Sōon mused.
"It's Luna."
"Of all of them, of course she'd know. Well," Sōon shrugged, "anyways, your new information is on your desk, and the Informant will be by later tomorrow — ah, today — with his details."
"Thanks for stopping by and snooping," Hibiki replies, "I'll check it before bed."
"Of course you will," Sōon says quietly, amusement and exasperation mingling in his voice, before he melts back into shadows. He gives Hibiki a jaunty wave from the floor where their feet connect, and heads out the door.
More work, Hibiki thinks with another sigh, but at least this kind of work will help him figure out just what is so off about the battles.
~IiI~
Sōon, the bastard, left a massive file containing a single sheet of paper without anything written on it.
After applying a number of charms to unravel the various secrecy spells, Hibiki is left holding a piece of paper with a sloppily written "blood" on it, parts of the red in still fresh to continue the blood-like dripping effect.
Soōn really needs to talk to more people. Hibiki really isn't sure where he gets his innate sense of drama from either.
~IiI~
The next morning dawns bright and early with Ken shouting at Chikusa about stealing the orange juice.
"What in — this is about juice?" Hibiki asks, incredulous, when he arrives in the kitchen, having sprinted from his room the moment he heard yelling and the crashes of teens impacting furniture.
What faces him is Ken wielding a carving knife and a large fork chasing Chikusa around the kitchen, while Chrome is torn between continuing her own breakfast and trying to stop the boys.
At least there's no blood, yet, and all the jam is still firmly in jars on the table. The dent in the wall, however, indicates that more constructive magic will need to be applied at a later date.
At this rate, Hibiki's house was going to rival Hogwarts in magic-gained sentience soon.
Everyone, of course, froze when Hibiki appeared in the doorway.
"Oh, um, good morning," Chrome says, mostly to her plate.
"Good morning," Chikusa greets with his usual equanimity.
"Good morning," Ken mumbles, slinking back to his seat and ditching the utensils he was attempting assault with in the sink.
"Right." Hibiki blinks. "Good morning."
The rest of breakfast is eaten in silence, and dish washing goes relatively smoothly. Chikusa takes over Chrome's usual self-assigned duty of drying, while Ken finishes off the last of his homework under the flickering gazes of Mukuro and Chrome.
Hibiki makes a quick trip upstairs to change clothes and check in on his patient — he really should tell the kids he's up here.
"Alright, so. A few things. Tonight's battle is Rain, which leaves Mist and Cloud as potentials for the next battle. Also, Gokudera Hayato is currently upstairs in a medically induced coma. Please don't disturb or otherwise interfere with him. He'll likely be gone as soon as he's mobile, given his personality.
"Since the Mist battle is very soon, I'd recommend staying home today and until it's your turn to fight, Chrome, but that's only my suggestion. In the meantime, we probably shouldn't cover anything too crazy, but we can definitely think up different strategies."
"We'll help," Ken cuts in, and Chikusa nods, not even grimacing at agreeing with his fellow teen.
"T-Thank you," Chrome stutters, fingers twisting and blushing at the offer of help.
"Excellent, the more thoughts we can get, the better options you'll end up with!
"So," Hibiki says, grabbing a mixed pile of paper from a shelf, "let's get started!"
"Mist is Construction..." Chrome muses quietly, "But I usually rely on Illusions, and Mukuro-sama does Real Illusions..."
"Can you teleport?" Chikusa asks quietly.
"What?"
"Teleport. Deconstruct or otherwise move yourself instantaneously to appear somewhere else."
"That'd be a good skill for attacking and dodging, as well as potentially getting away in the long run," Hibiki adds, noting the idea down.
"I think...I would like to try," Chrome says, but there's a glint in her eye that says Mukuro agrees wholeheartedly.
They mostly go back to their own lists of ideas after that, but trade possible explanations and executions of various tricks over the table.
Hibiki eventually gets up to put the kettle on for tea, and passes out tea cups or other drinks as requested.
Eventually, just before lunch, Hibiki says, "Alright, we don't have a whole lot of time for you to learn new things, Chrome, so let's compile our lists and you can pick your favorites after lunch. Then we'll try working on your top choice if it's simple enough for you to get it mostly down as an ace in the hole you don't have to rely on Mukuro-kun for during your battle.
"We'll continue working on the increased realism and believability of your own illusions too, still, but it's always good to have something in your back pocket — as long as that isn't a literal thing in your back pocket. That's not always so good to have."
Ken promptly asks, "Why the hell not?"
Hibiki looks at him. "I once knew a man who liked to shout 'Constant Vigilance!' at the top of his lungs. He was incredible in a fight, taught me a lot. Apparently," Hibiki pauses here, to look at the other two teens in his kitchen, "he knew someone who blew off their own buttocks with their weapon, because they'd kept it in their back pocket."
Predictably the teens burst into laughter, even Chrome.
"We never did manage to find out if it wasn't his own buttocks he'd blown off at some point," Hibiki finished ponderously, causing even greater fits of laughter.
Unfortunately, the mood doesn't last past lunch, with the doorbell ringing.
Pausing, Hibiki goes to answer the door. Soōn has mentioned he'd be reciting more information that day...
"Hello?"
No one appears, and neither the wards nor Hibiki sense anyone around, hostile or otherwise...but there is an envelope. Rather dense, and with it looking more like someone had printed out one of Hermione's old essays from 6th year than anything else, Hibiki is quite sure of the deliverer.
Whoever said Gryffindors are dramatic clearly was paying absolutely zero attention to the Slytherins. Which is probably how they liked it, although how that impression lasted Draco Malfoy, Hibiki will never know.
"Subtle," Hibiki opts to tell the air instead, sweeping the envelope up, and returning to the house.
"Someone's dropped me off some information I need to go through, so I'm leaving the decision making and idea presenting to you three. I'll be upstairs in the study after I check on our unfortunate guest."
None of the three teens look particularly happy with his statement — Ken and Chikusa are looking resentful at being kept out of the loop, and Chrome's wilting in response to their irritation.
Hibiki raises an eyebrow, channeling his best Minerva McGonagall. "There's going to be a lot of useless stuff to filter through — I was planning on discussing with you whatever my acquaintance had found as soon as I was finished sorting through the information and compiling and cross referencing it with what I already have. If you'd rather I didn't — ."
"Nope! I wanna hear it!"
"Then there's no need for all of us to be sorting through useless fluff if you three and can be preparing yourselves and Mukuro-kun for the upcoming battle, and I'll debrief you at dinner at the latest."
"How do we know you're not gonna lie to us?" Ken asks suspiciously.
"Have I lied to you so far?"
"No..."
"Do you think I have a reason to lie about this?"
"You're not really Vongola...so I guess not..."
"Would you feel better if I sorted stuff down here? You won't be able to read any of it, since some of it compromises people's identities or includes secrets that aren't mine to share, but you could see some of what I was doing."
"Yes, please," Chrome cuts in quietly.
Hibiki smiles. "Alright, give me a bit to check on Gokudera-kun, and then I'll bring what all else I've got down."
"Thank you..." Chrome says to the floor.
~IiI~
Hibiki puts up some general concealment charms — none of the really heavy duty ones, knowing Zabini the message is encrypted, too, and those kinds of concealment charms create invisible pocket dimensions — and settles down at the coffee table. Then he opens the envelope, spilling a (familiar) colorful variety of photos and miscellaneous cards across the wooden surface.
Of course. Lest Hibiki forget that the Informant is an arsehole, the majority of the photos are stills of candid shots from Hogwarts, mixed with old Daily Prophet articles from the same time, mixed with some select later photos from more recent articles.
There are various photos that he must have bought off Colin Creevy. The photos are of Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the Gryffindor Common Room, apparently after an adventure or two, given the bandages and generally ragged air around them...one looks like from their second year, another from fourth (which is concerning), and a few from fifth of all years...those are interspersed with other pictures of Harry sleeping in the Hospital Wing, and a few of the Great Hall during a Feast, with Dumbledore featuring in quite a few.
The cards are, in their basic form, really easy to match. They're based on Flame color of the Varia, but Hibiki has to dab a bit of blood on them, and then breath on them like a scrying mirror (which is, admittedly, something he actually did learn in Divination), in order to get the full amount of information they have. Hibiki leans over the various cards and photos, breathing on the information cards as the origami snake that had also spilled out rears to address him in parseltongue.
SsS
Potter,
Things aren't adding up on this end — my contact in the Varia has been slow to get back to me on what's exactly happening in Italy, but other whispers coming out of there are pointing to a gag-order and a fair bit of chaos, of the not-so-fun variety. Par for the course with you involved.
Vongola is scrambling, CEDEF is too, the Varia is keeping their heads down and simmering in rage — it's all very fifth year. Not sure who Umbridge is, but lots of things are being tied back to the so-called "Cradle Affair," where Nono sent Xanxus to exile...or something, for attacking the Iron Fort. People are saying it was an attempted coup, but only idiots wouldn't try to find out why.
Zabini
SsS
Hibiki doesn't groan. He refuses to. Sōon's very helpful information ties everything together, but Merlin.
Why, in the past few weeks, does everything all come down to potions.
(Snape is absolutely laughing at him from beyond the grave, he knows it.)
And that's a wrap for this chapter!
Please leave a review! Anyone have any guesses as to who Soōn is yet (although I realize there are very few new clues)? Any guesses as to what Hibiki is possibly plotting?
~Fins~