A Piano's Requiem
Ch 01 – Let the World Crumble to Our Feet
Gokudera sighed as he rested his hands on the smooth black and white keys of the well-polished grand piano at the Vongola base in Namimori. When Bianchi woke him up in this very room a week ago, he had visited this place only for the piano. It wasn't usual for him to get time to relax when the anticipated invasion of Melone Base would come. Tsuna had run off for a short while to find Lambo, and the baseball idiot followed as well. The teenage bomber even offered to help, but Tsuna nervously refused and allowed him some solace in the meantime. He was itching to play a good piano piece for his Tenth, one he vowed to follow to the very ends of the earth.
His hands touched the keys with a single step by step motion as he tested out the scales. The piano's echoes were rather hollow and very comforting for him. He tried a set of more scales, from Middle C to another octave, and then suddenly his hands stopped midway another scale. Gokudera gasped, realizing a spark danced in his head. His hands absentmindedly crawl up to the A key in the second octave, and then they began a song, a strange one, to be exact.
The way the notes had felt so familiar made the sensation of listening to himself play feel breathtaking, and Gokudera urged himself to continue playing the song, not wishing it to stop. By far, it had been the most beautiful piece of music he'd ever heard, haunting, yet fascinating. Strange enough, he didn't know how he was able to know such a mysterious tune, as if it had been in his head the whole time.
Then he remembered he had heard this before. He remembered playing this song by himself when he was only four. The child prodigy he had been, he had been congratulated by his father and stepmother, even his sister who offered cookies, which he adamantly refused. He remembered when the maids would stop in their tracks when he played this song, and craned their necks past the edge of the door to see him, concentrated in his work. He liked it, not the attention he received whenever he played this, but how notes meshed well together. He played it again and again, loving the sound, and the joy everyone around felt. Until, one day, his real mother had come on his birthday once every year.
Back then, he didn't even know she was his true mother, and he would always address her as the kind woman who knew a lot about the piano. He remembered, after a whole year of staying apart from her, he had been trying to play the song that charmed everyone in the mansion over and over to get this piece up at top-notch. He remembered playing it, and from the corner of his eye, he saw that his mother smiled, but then when he finished, she turned slightly pale at what he had done.
"Teacher?" He had asked. "Why are you so pale?"
The woman stayed still for a moment in her seat when she chuckled. Yet the grimacing haunt did not fade away from her eyes.
"It's amazing…" She began. "That you know this music piece… It's very rare, you know… only a few people know it… more likely, and those people are long gone by now… I didn't think I would hear it again…"
Gokudera's youthful eyes raised in question, and the woman then smiled.
"My great-grandfather was a pianist, just as talented as you. His most famous piece in the family was that one you played…"
The naïve boy's curiosity got the best of him.
"What does he look like?"
The woman laughed even more. "Well, he had white hair, but he's been like that at a really young age, as my mother had said. He liked to eat a lot, even though he was still rather slim and skinny after that. More enough, whenever I was around him, he was very kind, and soft-spoken… But what was strange was… his face… had a scar… a red one… it ran right down his cheek right there."
She pinched Gokudera's left cheek playfully, and the boy giggled. "He even had a star shaped scar on his forehead. And also, he wore gloves all the time, and he would never tell me why…"
Gokudera was intrigued until the woman placed a hand on his shoulder.
"If you love this song so much…" She said. "Play it for your friends when you get older, clear?"
The boy beamed. "Definitely, teacher!"
However, once the news broke out about the teacher's death, Gokudera had run away from home, and whenever he roamed the streets of Sicily, he saw a beat up piano in the corner. He stared and stared, but then he would always turn away. It reminded him too much about his mother. He couldn't possibly play it without his eyes welling.
Even till now, he had been given many opportunities to play that piece. He had longed to play the strange music piece to his beloved Tenth, and maybe baseball idiot, but that wasn't the point. Whenever he tried to play it, something held him back from doing so, and he resorted to something different.
But here he was, playing the song again ever since twelve years. He loved the sound again, and he didn't bother to stop until five minutes later. His eyes followed the still keys to a rather impressed form of his boss.
"T-tenth!" Gokudera stuttered. Tsuna's gaping mouth closed, and turned into a friendly grin.
"That was amazing, Gokudera-kun…" Tsuna sat down beside him on the piano chair. Gokudera felt even happier by the minute.
"Say… I think that song is familiar." Tsuna stated, and Gokudera looked shocked.
"Really?"
Tsuna nodded cheerily. "I had it in a dream once, and I saw a strange boy in a high white tower, playing a white piano, the same exact song… He had white hair, a red scar on his face, and he wore a black overcoat… crazy, huh."
"N-no! Tenth! It's okay!" Gokudera smiled exasperatedly. "I had that dream, too! You know…"
"I see..." Tsuna smiled, and then he looked at the piano again. "Gokudera-kun?"
"Hn?"
"I have a question…"
"Fire away, Tenth! I'm always ready!"
"Ano… That dream… that boy… somehow once I remember… he looked just like you… scratch out the white hair and suit though…"
"Really?" Gokudera continued to act. Tsuna nodded.
"Hey, it's dinner now," Gokudera helped Tsuna up. "The crazy woman will be angry if we don't come."
"Ne, Haru will be fine…" Tsuna smiled, and they left. Meanwhile, Bianchi and Reborn were peering through a trapdoor. Reborn sighed, and Bianchi looked worriedly.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, Bianchi… It's just… It's been two centuries since that happened, huh… He had lived that long… I wonder if you're proud of your grandchildren, Allen Walker…"
An eerie laughter echoed amongst the dark walls of what once was the Black Order just a few hours ago, and the sound of this unnatural phenomenon was enough to make one's bones shake in an instant. Drips of red blood pounded the floor in a light drizzle of red, and the floors were scattered with a million corpses.
"I've done it!" A voice shouted cacophonously. "I've stopped his words!"
Here stood Adam, his once pristine white overcoat splattered in red, the tears of fabric marring his once better appearance. His top hat, decorated with bones and skulls at the rim, was set aside, never to be used again after someone had knocked it off his very head. The Earl's face was widespread with a massive grin, one of the greatest satisfaction he could ever receive.
The man was standing over a body of a dead one, blue hair splayed, and his white clothing torn to shreds. His glasses were broken and bent and sat atop the rim of his nose, and his bloody beret was lobbing off the side of his head. This was the commander of the Black Order's defense when he came, and the Earl was all the more happy to kill him off first. It was a beautiful sight, killing the man at the top, and then picking off the others at the bottom, one by one.
How should he remember it? Adam recalled encountering that girl with the dark red boots, completely distraught at the sight of her deceased brother. In a fit of rage, she attempted to match him in battle, but it wasn't long before her own legs were taken from her, and then her arms, and then her head. Adam did wish this girl knew better than to fight against him, otherwise, she would have been spared.
Now that he had eliminated all of the Black Order, he was to search for the final target: Allen Walker.
Meanwhile, amidst the aftermath of bloodshed, a different young girl stood, her ruffled dress not yet tarnished by the sanguine sea, a pumpkin adorned umbrella keeping her above the ground. She decided to finally here, striped stockings touching the small splotch of clean tiles. Her eyes were completely dead, as she began to immerse her toes on the wet floor.
"Earl…" she muttered. "Was this the right thing to do?"
Adam turned round, and gave her a crooked smile.
"Of course, dear Road," he said. "Do you not respect my wishes to be rid of our pests?"
"B-But…" Road stuttered. "But whatever became of our game…?"
"Game?" The Earl chuckled. "What game? What could you be thinking about?"
Road paused before speaking once more. "You've forgotten, haven't you? That our brothers and sisters perished before you came here to kill the Exorcists."
"Of course I remember that," Adam sighed. "They were a pain, to just oppose me."
The Noah of Dreams shook visibly, before flinging her face to the eldest. "What are you speaking now! Aren't you supposed to be working together with us? How dare you speak ill of the family!"
Adam stopped, before turning back to her, eyes bloodshot. An eerie wind blew past their faces, and Road couldn't resist just trembling, full of consternation.
"You…" Adam mumbled. "You oppose me… too…?"
Road gave a gasp of shock, and then settled down, eyes closed. This entire war was supposed to be a game for all of them, but it didn't get their desired end, all because the eldest became the monster that they tried so hard to avoid. She decided, though. She cannot follow such a monster.
"Yes…" She said quietly. "I oppose you."
"I'll see to it, then," The Earl held out his hand, and the pumpkin umbrella came forth, bouncing lightly on the puddle of blood he had created from the blood of a resilient scientist. Adam took the umbrella by the handle, and out came a sword, a massive gray plated sword with lighter outlines of a cross. He let it fall to his side, and faced his new opponent, eyes cold, unforgiving. Road gave a small gulp, her feet ready to just falter, but she closed her eyes painfully, allowing herself to be run through just this instance…
Tsuna sighed as he brushed away the brown locks in front of his forehead, all in the middle of summer class. It had grown half an inch during his time in the future. Speaking of which, Byakuran sure was a hassle to deal with, but it ended up just fine, didn't it? Everyone who had been taken to the future returned safe and sound, no major injuries. Now, today was just another day in school, and he had no idea what the teacher was saying. To be exact, he was busy thinking about something else, like this strange premonition of something bad. Strange, he thought. This was the first time he felt like this in just one month after going into the future…
"Tsuna," Yamamoto's voice cut through his thoughts. "Isn't it weird the teacher is looking at us the whole time?"
"Hye?" Tsuna jumped out of his seat when he came to. He banged his head on the leg of another desk, causing him to topple over and crash. Gokudera's head shot round and saw his boss on the floor.
"Tenth! You okay!"
Tsuna wearily got up. "I'm fine."
He could hear snickers echoing around the classroom. "Still no-good sometimes, isn't he?"
Tsuna smiled apologetically as he disregarded any offers while returning to his seat. Gokudera blinked for a few moments before sitting back in his own desk in defeat. The two boys returned to their work, trying to even catch up with the teacher if necessary. The girls behind him were chattering again, weaving more ill things to say to the class's butt monkey, as usual, but Tsuna had learned to just zone them out separately when time passed.
He had nothing to do at the moment. For some reason, Kyoko wasn't in class today, so he didn't have her to oogle at. His mind began wandering into this, just about why she wasn't here… Perhaps she had a cold? It was rare for Namimori's idol to get sick, from what he knew about her, and she wasn't part of any sports teams, so she wouldn't be at a tournament at a nearby school. And Kyoko was no slacker either… always prompt with her homework. Tsuna slumped in his seat, confused with the odd things happening today.
The Vongola Tenth sighed as the teacher droned on, still staring at him. It was definitely scaring him. Then Tsuna noticed something even stranger. All about him, the world seemed to darken slightly when he had half his Dying Will Power activated. His eyes widened at the sight as only he, his family, and the teacher seemed to be the only ones in this strange darkness. Gokudera also seemed to have the same problems as well, just paling at the strange feeling welling in him. Yamamoto's smile faded, color draining from his face quite rapidly.
"Tsuna…" the Rain Guardian muttered, and pointed faintly at the teacher, who seemed to be present.
The darkness continued, and then the strangest thing happened. A purple glowing light seemed to shine from the teacher's body, and the light rose from it, and Tsuna was even more alarmed. It was a deformed skeleton, chained to the teacher's body, and it was whimpering, letting a faint wail of pain as it attempted to move, clanking chains together. Gokudera tensed at the sight, not sure of whether the sight was real or not. Even worse, he felt like he was betraying himself, like he should be going up there and freeing that poor being of its misery, but he just couldn't move.
"What… what is this?" Tsuna muttered to Gokudera. Then the classroom faded back in with the other students, and Tsuna, thinking that he was only seeing an illusion, went back to taking notes. His hyper intuition was urging him that something was up with that teacher, and he needed to know soon. Lunch came shortly, and they were ready to leave when they saw the teacher still standing in the same place he had been, just staring down at them.
Other students, being courteous, came to approach the teacher, faces rather concerned for their teacher's sake.
"Um, Mr. Dochairo," one of them tried to offer a hand. "Do you need any help with anything?"
The teacher paused, before replaying in a deep voice, one that just didn't fit him.
"NO."
His tone was rather unwelcoming, firm, just enough to send chills running down Tsuna's bones. A faint feeling of dread began to crawl all over the young boss, and he was completely frozen as the gruesome show had just begun.
The man then began to flinch and twitch violently, his mouth gargling with foam before hunching over as if he had rabies. Students who were just next to him were giving blood-curdling screams and shoving each other for the door. Tsuna, Gokudera, and Yamamoto stayed still, frozen in fear as to what was happening to the teacher.
The man grunted in pain as he writhe on the floor now, his eyes pulsing in and out, and then immediately, once the man was on his back, the clothes on his back appear to be ripping rapidly, burning away when a strange monster appeared in his place.
"Wha…?" Gokudera was appalled at the creature he saw before him. The monster… was as horrible as Ghost, or maybe Ghost, Kikyo, and Zakuro combined. A white mask appeared on the monster's forehead, complete with a black star and a wicked grin. Its gossamer cobweb wings coming out of its back spread out fully, taking up the widespan of the room. The scaly red skin reached to its neck, its arms green with slime and other things unimaginable. Under its forehead was a pair or beady black eyes, full of bloodlust – the beginning of a nightmare.
The monster raised a sharpened nail threateningly at the Vongola family members.
"I have come to kill you, exorcists," It declared. "For rats like you to be running under noses for so long, we will crush you, just like how we crushed the Exorcists!"
"Allen… Walker…?" Tsuna muttered in wonder. Who were these exorcists the monster was referring to…?
A blaze of red flames shot past his ear, and hit the demon, who shielded it with his armored wrists. Tsuna turned back to see that it was his self-proclaimed right hand man who had taken action first, a arm-bound gun strapped to his wrist, and several sticks of dynamite in his hands.
"Bastard," Gokudera growled. "Get lost!"
A little spotted cat meowed as soon as it pounced into the bomber's arm, merging with the cannon of red flames. The result was a large longbow, flaming red entirely, with a red ball of fire as the arrows.
Yamamoto hastily drew his sword of bamboo, which turned into a genuine katana at the swish of the swordsman's hands. Tsuna dug into his pockets for his gloves and dying will pills, and the two of them joined Gokudera for a battle.
"Putting up a fight, aren't we?" the strange monster teased. "You will see your punishment."
The screams returned back to Gokudera as his attention went to the students frantically jamming the classroom to get out. The girls were shrieking, going as far as to trample each other if they had to, and the guys were still holding onto what was left of their chivalry, allowing the young women to knock each other out before attempting to go through the doors themselves.
In retaliation, the demon scowled, and extended his arms towards the group of students, and the screams suddenly stopped, followed by fountains of red. Gokudera watched in complete horror as he saw his classmates being set like skewered meat at a barbecue. He turned to see Tsuna looking absolutely horrified, and Yamamoto freezing at just the wrong time. They were both visibly shaken, not sure how to approach a monster that had no qualms of killing uninvolved people.
A sudden burst of rage came upon him, and he stepped forward instinctively, the limbs of his bow bursting into red flames as he pulled back the string. He was not going to forgive… he was supposed to… he wanted to protect… he did not want any involvements… what were all these thoughts zooming about in his own head, when they were not his own? The red fire was building up steadily as he carefully aimed at the demon before him.
The teen bomber shouted without any hesitation, releasing the string at once. "Tornado Flame Arrow!"
The demon only laughed, thinking that the arrow wouldn't even pierce his armor. However, he didn't expect this fireball to be effective enough to rip right through upon contact. The purple armor cracked, fracturing throughout the entire body of the monster. The monster began to scream incoherent as its body ripped itself apart, melting in the red flames
"I will get you for this!" It yelled, but before it could say more, its head disintegrated, leaving a small puddle of purple liquid doused in red flames. Gokudera was panting from that sudden rush of adrenaline, and he turned around to see that Tsuna was still frozen.
"Tenth!" He shouted as he came to his boss's aid. He complete disregarded the baseball idiot, who was still just as quiet as Tsuna was, but immediately jolted at the very instant Gokudera came rushing to Tsuna. The Rain Guardian shook his head, trying to get rid of a nonexistent headache, when he turned his attention to Tsuna, who was much more strangely silent than his Guardians.
"Tenth," Gokudera said gently. "Are you all right?"
Tsuna blinked before moving his lips slowly, "What… what was that thing?"
Yamamoto frowned as he then turned his attention to the rest of the classroom. The walls were completely ruined, and the windows were all broken. Desks and chairs were all upturned, and he bent over to just put one back in place when he noticed the small trail of blood. A wrenching feeling twisted the swordsman's stomach as he began walking to the front of the classroom, and his fists clenched at the sight of what the demon had left.
Gokudera looked at Yamamoto, who was still quiet about all this, and led Tenth behind him.
"Oi," He called to his comrade. "Baseball idiot, let's get out of here."
Yamamoto waited for a bit too long to answer the bomber's questions, and he turned around, face completely solemn, then he cover it up.
"This isn't real, is it?" he flashed a very hasty grin. "This is… a game, right?"
An irritating creak of his teeth grinding was enough to make Gokudera wince at the sight of the Rain Guardian. Sometimes he just hated the guy. If he was going to be scared, then he should be scared, not smile and grin stupidly at everyone else. Reluctantly, the bomber stalked to the fallen students and checked for their pulses. It was a stupid thing to do when he could tell that they were already beyond help with their bodies punctured like this, but it was for safety. He heard the small anticipation from both his boss and that idiot, but he looked at them, shaking his head in denial.
"No, baseball idiot," Gokudera scowled. "They're dead, so let's get out of here and find a different place to be other than here-"
Before the Storm Guardian could finish, he saw a blur of brown rush right past him. He whipped his head to the door and saw that Tsuna had already reached the door.
"I've got to find everyone first," he said in a low tone. "Let's go, Gokudera, Yamamoto."
"Tenth…" Gokudera said quietly to his boss as he got up and walked forward, his shoes splashing in the red puddles. Yamamoto's grin twitched as he walked past the bodies, eyes meticulously searching through both directions of the halls. He then turned round and saw that the other two were far ahead of him, and he began running to them with the sword clattering on his back as he took each stride, not wanting to be left behind.
For some reason, Tsuna couldn't see why there wasn't a single person running in these halls, screaming in panic. The place looked completely destroyed (and bloody, if he wanted to be any more descriptive), but it must have been only ten minutes since that teacher turned into a demon and killed the class. The incumbent young Vongola boss was walking ever so faster now, his walk slowly turning into a run. Gokudera, who was following closely behind him, shouted in surprise as Tsuna began shooting off into the entire length of the hallway, hurdling over anything in his path. The right-hand man had to admit, his boss could really sprint if he tried.
Meanwhile, Tsuna was frantically finding the exit to the school, his mind set on trying to find anyone he knew. There was Ryohei, Hibari (he dared himself to), Chrome, Reborn, and his mother, and Kyoko, especially Kyoko. He was beginning to feel even more tense about what could have possibly happened to the girl. Unlike Ryohei, Hibari, Reborn, and Chrome, Kyoko wouldn't be able to fend for herself.
"Tenth!" Gokudera shouted, and Tsuna turned around, seeing his right hand man panting. Yamamoto was right behind, already caught up, but he seemed tired, too. Tsuna could feel his own lungs feeling heavy from having run so hard. How far did he run?
"We need to get out of here," Tsuna said shortly, as he began walking in the hall again, feet crunching in piles of dust.
"Tsuna…" Yamamoto watched Tsuna's pained expression as the boy whipped his head back and forth to observe more of the destroyed school. Of course, it would be shocking to them. The school was destroyed this quickly? Where was everyone? Were there any more of those demons around?
Gokudera's shout surprised him as he saw Tsuna falling over, and the right hand man ran forward to assist the boy. Yamamoto followed, and found Tsuna had tripped over a body. It was an unnamed female student, a second year, if Yamamoto looked at the uniform. She was face-down in a pool of blood, unmoving. That explained the large hole in her back.
As Tsuna got up, he could see the classrooms were now in worse condition, the walls torn down entirely, and the ceiling was missing in patches, where an unusual gray sky loomed over them. The entire floor was littered with bodies, much to the boss's disgust. He covered his mouth subtly to hold back any chance of vomiting over the sight and smell of corpses. He looked back at Yamamoto and Gokudera, who were both wearing worried faces. He wanted to ask one of them to tell him to just suck it up and keep doing his job, but that was what only Reborn would do. For once, Tsuna wished his Spartan tutor would come and just constantly kick him and nag at him to get out of this school building as soon as possible. The brown haired boy averted his eyes from the body while Gokudera ushered him further to the stairs to the lower floors.
As soon as they reached the first floor, Tsuna took a better look at the rest of the neighborhood out of the window, and he looked even ready to just collapse and go to sleep, thinking this was a dream. Gokudera and Yamamoto had the same mixed reactions upon seeing the rest of Namimori more clearly from a shattered window.
The sky was now blood red, black clouds whizzing by. However, it wasn't the sky that was strange. It was the entire city. Everything was seeming in ashes or still burning, as if a large dragon swooped down and breathed flames upon all of Namimori. The school hadn't been on fire yet, strangely, but the broken hall way was crumbling loudly.
"T-Tenth…" Gokudera whispered. Tsuna didn't even hear him, but he was just as frozen as the others. He just wasn't used to this at all. Even though he had seen every atrocity the Vongola Family had committed in its lifetime, he had only seen it in short spurts of visions, not something that was before his eyes, embers flashing in his face.
Tsuna continued to stay still, taking in everything he saw, until Yamamoto finally said something, prompting him to turn around slowly to look at his Guardians.
"Goku… dera…?"
For once, Yamamoto actually looked terrified, his eyes were wide open as the silver haired boy beside him was still glaring at him, but Tsuna shrieked in horror. His friend's arms were completely missing, and only a small pile of fine dust was littered on the floor. His uniform remained, only hanging limply by his sides, but the boy didn't seem to even notice his lack of limbs.
"Gr…" Gokudera grumbled, turning away. "Why do my arms feel numb-"
He must have tried to scratch his head, but now he realized that he no arms at all, he froze entirely, consternation filling his eyes. His gaze then trailed to his feet, where he gasped in horror. They were beginning to disappear into thin air, every single part of his body. He tried to walk, but he couldn't move. The rest of his body was still being eaten away, disappearing by chunks. He whipped his head wildly to Tsuna, eyes pleading for help, and both his friends gather about him.
Tsuna and Yamamoto were watching unblinkingly, eyes completely wide, and the color draining from their faces. The Storm guardian's body was just falling apart, bit by bit, and they were too scared to even move. Gokudera grit his teeth as he began feeling a searing pain in his entire body as disintegration reached his shoulders. Tsuna flinched at the sound of his friend's screams.
"Tenth!" He shouted. "H-Help! Help me-"
But his head was all that was left, his cheeks already flaking away into tiny specks of gray sand. Tsuna and Yamamoto began sprinting at their friend, not wanting to endure his agonized face, but before they could move, Gokudera's head completely faded, and the bomber's clothes dropped to the floor, no longer having an owner.
Tsuna reached forward where his Storm Guardian had once been, and his hand wafted through thin air, and he stumbled into Yamamoto, who stopped him from falling forward. Tsuna stuttered incoherently, and he backed away from Yamamoto, who gave him a doubtful face. Tears began springing out of his eyes in streams as he slowly began to realize that Gokudera was no longer there.
"Go-Gokudera!"
Tsuna couldn't say anything after that when a very bad headache made him fall to his knees, clutching his head. He could hear Yamamoto shouting and yelling in pain as well, and the boss struggled to look up and open his eyes. His Rain Guardian was curled up on the ground, hands wrapped around the sides of his face. The swordsman let out a small whimper form the pain, and Tsuna lurched forward from a new pulse of pain. The Vongola Boss was now in the same position as the Rain Guardian, screaming, and sobbing. The world was spinning very fast, and Tsuna was losing his sense of gravity. He kept screaming and screaming for the pain in his head to just go away, but he was left unanswered as his mind finally failed him and went completely blank.
"Tsuna? Tsuna! Wake up, Tsuna!"
The said boy's eyes snapped open, and he jumped into a sitting position, his bottom landing on something soft. He tried to register what he had been doing before waking up. He looked about his surroundings, and then sighed in relief that it was just his room. But he couldn't help but feel unsafe about his own room. How did he get here? Wasn't he at school? School…
Tsuna then froze in complete movements, remembered what he had just seen. He remembered it all… the teacher turning into a demon, the school in ruins, Namimori in flames, and Gokudera disappearing right before his eyes… All that, and he was sure it was very real. He looked at his clothes. He was in his school uniform, no doubt, but he was more alarmed by the strange amount of ashes that were still stuck to the wool. So was what he saw real, then…?
The boy wanted to think more about it, but two pairs of eyes stared back at him in concern. Tsuna's vision was still trying to adjust to the bright lights before he recognized the familiar faces of Kyoko and Haru.
"Tsuna's awake!" Haru squealed, and Tsuna found himself tangled in a mess of arms all trying to hug him. He welcomed the gesture of care from these girls, but for some reason, he didn't like how they felt against him. Their bodies weren't as warm as they should be, and the arms wrapped around him were somehow stiff in movement.
"Haru… Kyoko…" Tsuna tried to say. "Can't… breathe…"
"Oh, sorry, Tsuna!" the two girls squeaked as they pulled away, still giggling. Tsuna massaged his shoulder, and looked at his clock. It was 1:00PM. The Vongola Tenth frowned. That was weird. It really did look like he had fainted at school and taken home. After all, lunch started at 12:00PM, and it was a Thursday. Even more so, the lights were on, and the curtains were closed. The clock said it was afternoon, but the room looked like it was night.
"Tsuna?" Kyoko gave him an inquisitive look, but Tsuna ignored it as he got up and went for the curtains. Perhaps if he could pull them open, and just look at Namimori, safe and sound, then he'd convince himself that what he remembered about Thurdays' lunch hour was not real.
Before he could even get to the middle of his bedroom, a pair of arms grabbed his, and he looked behind, seeing Kyoko and Haru's faces. The strange feeling of insecurity washed over him again as he just stared back at them in surprise. They were still smiling naturally, as if the world was perfectly normal. Was he the one being disillusioned?
"Come on, Tsuna," Haru laughed. "Let's go downstairs. Your mom said she's making a snack for us."
"R-really?" the boy stuttered. "O-okay… but… how about you two leave me alone for a moment… I need some time to catch a breath…"
"Of course not!" Kyoko said immediately, and began pulling him to the door of his bedroom. "We're all going downstairs, and we don't want you stay up there by yourself!"
"Yeah!" Haru agreed. "Let's go, Tsuna!"
"R-right…" the young boss laughed nervously as the two girls dragged him downstairs. He bit his lip unconsciously to stop himself from hissing about the iron grip Kyoko had on his hand. It seemed like she didn't want to let him go. Now, as much as he wanted Kyoko to act like this to him, he couldn't help but feel… like he couldn't trust Kyoko. Perhaps this wasn't Kyoko because Kyoko couldn't act like this. She wouldn't be so assertive, or forceful… What was going on?
"Mrs. Sawada!" Haru shouted. "Tsuna's awake!"
"Is that so?" Tsuna could hear his mom chuckling. He strode into the kitchen, and saw her standing beside the stove, cooking something that was steaming and had a nice smell. Ipin was helping with something small like sorting vegetables or fruits. Bianchi was busy making her own supposed concoction of poisoned food, but Tsuna saw it best not to observe such a thing. All this normalcy, and he was bewildered.
What really surprised him the most was Yamamoto, sitting at the dinner table. Not only that, the boy seemed quite pale for some reason, and he was just poking precariously at the food he was given. From what Tsuna could tell, the swordsman didn't touch a single thing on that plate. His sword, Shigure Kintoki, was strapped on his back rather than set aside at the front door with the schoolbags, and the sword seemed slightly open, as if he needed to unsheathe it at any moment.
"H-hey, Yamamoto," Tsuna said nervously, wishing that his Rain Guardian wouldn't act so weird.
The boy stiffened slightly, and eyed Tsuna for a few seconds before wearing that infamous grin.
"Oh, you're awake, Tsuna!" He continued to smile. Tsuna nodded before taking a seat right next to him, and Yamamoto started to really wolf down his food like he usually did. He was done within seconds, and once he gave the empty dish and fork to Nana, he bowed respectfully.
"I need to go to the restroom, so I'll be right back."
Tsuna watched his Rain Guardian zoom past him, just enough for him to see the distinct worry in his eyes. The young boss frowned before returning his attention to Kyoko and Haru, who were both seated. Nana had already set bowls for everyone, and they were filled with some sort of soup. It looked like chicken noodle soup, but Tsuna didn't want to start eating just yet. His conscience screamed that something was off, but his mind thought otherwise.
"So, Kyoko," Haru smiled to her friend. "How has your brother been doing?"
"Oh, me?" Kyoko returned the question. "He's been well. I think he's been exercising normally. He's been quite happy about boxing, too. He's going to prepare for a boxing tournament in a month."
"Really?" Haru was taken aback, but went back to giggling. "That sounds like a lot of work!"
Tsuna watched the two girls babble about boxing tournaments, and gave a weak smile. He stared back at his soup, and sighed. Perhaps he was just being paranoid… everything was normal. He was just worrying too much, and what he thought he saw was just a bad dream.
By now, Nana had joined in on Kyoko and Haru's conversation when she stared at the clock and frowned.
"Hm…" she said. "It seems that Yamamoto has been to the restroom for quite a while now."
"Oh," Tsuna said flatly before standing up. "I guess I'll go check in on him, then."
"Oh, that's good," Nana smiled as she lifted her mug of coffee. "Make sure he's all right."
The young boss bounded off into the hallway out of everyone's view, and he went to the nearest restroom. Yamamoto should have gone here.
He continued walking towards it, but just as he came to the door, the hinges creaked open, and Tsuna felt something grab his tie and yank him into the bathroom. The boy only had a split second to gasp before being tossed into the bathtub, his stomach hitting the edge. Tsuna groaned from the pain as he heard the door shut quietly behind him. A pair of more gentle hands pulled him up and allowed him to sit with his back against the side of the bath, and Tsuna was staring back at a feverish Yamamoto.
"S-sorry about that…" he said briskly, and Tsuna shook his head to say that it was nothing to be sorry for. Tsuna could see beads of sweat rolling down his friend's cheek, and he seemed rather panicky.
"Y-Yamamoto?" he asked as his stomach was still throbbing. "Are you… alright?"
"M-me?" the baseball fanatic stuttered, which was clearly not normal. Sighing in defeat, Yamamoto let his hands fall to his sides, and his head was bowed.
"I-I'm not okay, Tsuna…" he said. "Something's not… right about this place."
"W-what do you mean, Yamamoto," Tsuna raised an eyebrow. Yamamoto pointed at the curtains that covered the bathroom window, right atop the bathtub. Tsuna blinked at it, and then remembered something. Why were those curtains there?
Yamamoto then climbed into the bathtub and pulled away the curtains for Tsuna to see. All the boy could do was gasp.
"N-no way…" he muttered, and Yamamoto shook his head, understanding his shock.
It was just as he last remembered. The sky was a blood red tint, specked with black clouds. The absolute opposite of his own sky. It was perfect truth… perfect evidence… that what he had remembered about the school…
"G-Gokudera," Yamamoto said. "H-He really is gone. I even tried calling him, but his phone seems to be nonexistent."
A/N: Yes, totally redoing this entire story, because the other had too many plot holes and isn't going anywhere. So, basically I retooled a majority of the story we've seen so far, but with a better plot than just sending them back in time like last time with no reason beforehand. If however, you want to see the old plot again, I'm posting the original bits on my backup account on Fanfiction Archive, along with other retired and eternally incomplete stories
The plot for this new story is 75% finished (I got the basics, it's just details and other things in between the main things). As for time setting, I'd like to say that this takes place right after the Future Arc in KHR, but before the Shimon Arc, and as for DGM… it's after Allen escapes from the Order and leaves poor Lenalee alone at the Order (sniffle). Well, anyways…
Why, yes, I've been busying myself trying to just finish some other stories that are almost complete, so I am terribly sorry for keeping this poor story on hold for too long. I also apologize for holding up fullmetal exorcist, too (frankly, I admit that there's actually barely anything in store there, and I'm still in the process of just figuring that entire rest of the plot).
