Chapter 5

You're better off not knowing anything

If Tsuna knew that if he poked his nose into unnecessary things, he would end up in a cart with another kid... he would savor his last days to its fullest extent... and kickstart another plan which went 'People who care about me? F*ck them. Imma die pronto.'

But NO!

He just HAD to be the one who's in control of his life.

Let's backtrack a bit and consolidate what happened.

1. Namimori decided to have a school trip coinciding with what was usually summer vacation.

2. The Yamamotos had decided to go on a family trip to catch up, on summer vacation.

3. Tsuna didn't want to impose on them and be a prick, regardless of what they told him.

4. Hibari Kyoya was finally given enough power to handle the Hibari affairs- which extended globally. So he had trips to go make connections (basically give more power to a demon lord. Why did anyone think this was a good idea again?)

5. Tsuna didn't want to go to the school trip if he was going to be ignored. There was no difference whether he went or stayed. But his mother was going to get worried, so he needed an excuse.

6. His brain thought that verifying if nonsense was possible was a good idea... because he did NOT want his life to be controlled by someone else. Clearly, this whole friends thing made him too arrogant for his good.

He originally thought that having Yamamoto for a friend would either bring back the whole 'friend' ordeal or something like Natsu back to his life.

But he had been wrong because it became clear that it was just him being DENSE and overly PARANOID.

You see, Tsuna always got into a persecutor-victim relationship because it was one relation which came easily to him, but something he had to manipulate so that he could maintain a sense of normalcy. He was used to thinking 'Poor me' and 'What did I do to deserve this?' that when this relation started changing, he had used what his delusion told him to keep the relation going.

Because, with age, people matured and end up feeling like they're above bullying and sometimes get humbled by life.

He learned to manipulate his persecutors into wanting power. It was because of two things: life gets harder and you realize that you weren't the center of your universe. It was true if you lived with people who exerted self-confidence strongly.

Namimori was a place with extraordinary people, regardless of how small it was. Tsuna understood that. He observed people because he was weak and he needed to understand people to avoid them when they got aggressive. So he knew people and their habits as a side effect.

Yamamoto was really good at sidetracking people and talking about the most irrelevant things since they did not stress people and could get them to open up to you and make them like you- because it gave the feeling that you cared.

It also was a big well of information and could give you things to keep in mind- their preferences, ideals, beliefs, fears, weaknesses... you understand the deal, right? But Yamamoto was built on good intentions, so he used the information to make people into sheep... in his case, people who believed in what he believed, like a messiah if you think extremely (and religiously) and like a politician if you think skeptically. The point was- he was charismatic.

So he did amazing things regarding Tsuna's case. The little jokes he'd cracked, the nudges and teases made Tsuna seem less like a loser, but more like a bashful kid. He remembered hearing the neighborhood ladies coo when he fell. They still giggled behind his back, but it was less nefarious than it was before.

It was a very confusing appearance making him feel like a pink elephant in a room. He simply did not fit there. Yamamoto was going full force into whatever mission he took up, and the results were scary. The boy was very active for months after their new friendship, making him more renown and more the resident celebrity of Namimori. He did it by making a name for himself in Kendo, a sport his dad encouraged from when he was a kid and something he now took very seriously.

He did not know when the transition came about, but it was a very dizzying concept that he could have been the one to push him that way, drunk on power. It was the very effect that idols had on their believers, their fans that seemed like it could affect him, and very deeply at that.

Perceptions were a scary thing.

And the only thing which grounded him and lightly neutralized the Yamamoto-effect (dubbed by Tsuna) was the influence of Hibari Kyoya. His relation with the prefect was complicated according to him, and was getting even more complex. He could explain it, but it was a strange observation and required shaky logic which pointed at a conjecture which was, sadly the most plausible one.

Anyone who really knew Hibari or anyone who could think past the observation that he was a scary person would know this- Hibari wasn't a direct person and had a twisted mind, which was a bit ironic since he sought direct confrontation and preferred simple truths and beliefs. He was a person of logic but acted so irrationally. He was a walking book of contradictions... but then again who isn't?

Anyway, his basic principle and core foundation were very solid and gave him a firm conviction, making him very intimidating. These were things he knew about the other from when they were really small kids. But he didn't ever try thinking it from another perspective, because he had been obsessed with the status quo.

Hibari was a silent person but demanded what he wanted. He got anything and everything he wanted. So, Tsuna's ideals were rearranged as Hibari demanded it. It was a realization which struck him when he became Yamamoto's friend.

It also made him frustrated at being orchestrated to fit a puzzle, a puppet on a string. The only fact he could use to comfort himself was that Yamamoto was also in the same position as he was... albeit a little bit unexpected, but a fitting piece to set everything into place.

The cogs in his head turned a little while after he cried his soul onto Yamamoto. The other made it his new routine to stick to him like glue and talk about anything and everything, asking all sorts of questions to keep him into the conversation and thus made him feel relevant by paying extra attention to whatever he said. He had felt like basking in as so much attention that he could compare to how roasted a cocoa bean would feel like when it roasted under the sun (irrelevant note: the reason for the strange analogy was that the author likes chocolate)

It was because he did a lot of strange, disturbing things when he had felt distraught... but no one caught him. If his classmates or teachers could ignore him out of fear, why did the committee keep quiet? He could have sworn with how nervous he looked, Kusakabe, the direct superior under Hibari, could have pulled him aside for drug possession or consumption. And they had met each other a lot during that time.

The turning wheels also told him that he had not paid too much attention though, since, apparently they, as in Yamamoto and he, had a closer relationship than he thought they did, for a month or two- since the other could pick up on his thoughts and made a kind of appointment with Kusakabe.

It seemed that they went way back to maybe, the time of the supplementary and that he was just too preoccupied with the entire manipulation business to know that he was in fact friends with the lad, when he remembered distinctly thinking that the other was up to no good when he hollered out to him or offered invitations and casual conversation topics.

Yamamoto had an impeccable timing to show him new tricks he picked up in Kendo, which he showed with a dummy at the club- holding the sword backward and spinning it forward to create a kind of shield. He called it 'Shinotsuku... ame?'

And when they were coming back, they saw Kusakabe, seemingly at the end of his rounds... another well-timed coincidence...

He called out to him, his nefarious mind unable to stop its curiosity.

"Kusakabe-san, if you just have a minute to spare."

The teen always looked so confused when he put on a polite front. Honestly, it was just that one time. Why couldn't people drop it?!

He turned to the brunette and said.

"Sure, follow me" and lead them straight to the dc clubroom, as if they had something important to say. Why did they get this VIP treatment anyway...? In a way, since Natsu's death, it was like his life turned itself on its head... sometimes making him feel that it was he who died instead. Was his view on reality distorted?

The teen made tea from the other room (the other clubs had no chance in getting the room for their usage. They were against Hibari after all) and poured the contents of the kettle into the table and sitting in the sofa opposite to theirs.

Tsuna feeling nervous from the atmosphere of the room, commented nervously.

"I thought Hibari-san would get a Japanese style tea room." and chuckled awkwardly.

Kusakabe's eyes widened into saucers and before Tsuna could take back his statement, realizing the mistake he made.

A tiny yellow bird chirped.

"Hibari. Hibari. Japanese tea room." and chirped it over and over again flying towards the window, presumedly to the prefect himself.

The yellow bird, coined Hibird by Tsuna (it was an accident he could swear!)

The reason why that bird was reporting his suggestion, goes back to the time when he was being suffocated with silence.

His situation was getting worse when every place his absent-mindedness brought him to a location Hibari napped in. What was worse, was that he could slightly understand that it was his relation with Hibari that was bringing up unrest and this only deepened the misunderstanding that they were on close terms.

But he had a knack in showing up exactly where Hibari went like some kind of weird mechanism got triggered accidentally, and people started associating him being there with Hibari being there. Once, Hibari was awake and staring at him very intensely and he could sympathize with those POOR SOULS. The pressure got to him and he said the very first thing which came to his mind when he saw a yellow bird (which looked like the yellow bird which sometimes showed up with his delusion) on Hibari's finger, a sight relatively common (the prefect had an affinity with small creatures, surprisingly) and said.

"You know, you could train those birds to gather information stealthily." and HIBARI looked at him with a look that roughly translated

'You gave me something I can use to protect my beloved town and made me use my available resources more productively' and smiled at him. It was so different from his bloodthirsty grin, it was a SHARK-EATING grin and he did not know what was better and the prefect jumped from his perch and went to seemingly plot the plan in detail.

And Tsuna chose to forget the entire incident and remove its very existence and its implications from his mind.

Unfortunately, everything he did just have to rub its face right into him! Kusakabe came to him in a relatively chip mood and patted him in front of a crowd of people, who looked mildly horrified with presumptions.

"Thanks Tsuna-san, you're going to reduce our surveillance time so we can actively prosecute people faster."

And then they gave him a look like he was a spawn of Satan and it was a look he so easily recognized, seeing it when they looked at Hibari, or when his delusion looked at his mentor, Reborn.

He had never thought a day would come when he was considered a Hibari equivalent.

Kusakabe looked like he would face-palm, but then smiled a stiff smile at him and asked him something else instead.

"You said that you wanted to ask me something?"

"Actually, this might be something strange, but did you and Hibari try something with my situation" he asked, thinking that he'd excuse himself the moment the other asked him to elaborate on it.

The right hand of Hibari looked apologetically at him and said,

"So you picked up on it. I've expected nothing else from you. I just hoped that it would be later... I wasn't finished preparing myself"

He straightened up and looked at them-

"When Kyo-san came back to the DC office without his gakuran, I went to the places he patrolled before to check for why on earth would he return without it. The coat was one of his symbols of pride after all" Looking at the other two nod, he continued, getting to the main point.

"It seemed that Kyo-san understood the question I wanted to ask him when I looked at the coat placed on the grave, rather intentionally and he ordered me to clean the alleys, remove the barrel and do the other things I'm sure you've heard of.

I mentioned that the people would realize the fact that Hibari considered you an important friend if we did that immediately."

At that point, Tsuna looked in disbelief at the other. Kusakabe smiled wryly.

"You can't deny the fact that Kyo-san and you were involved a little too deep, especially with that case. Kyo-san doesn't tell people things regarding relationships. Maybe he considers them too obvious to tell people explicitly. But what you did made the case complicated enough to pique his interest... especially with the way you manipulated other people to do parts of the case, especially with the track record you've set." he looked meaningfully at the brunette who combed his hands through his hair in mild irritation.

Yamamoto piped up at that point.

"Hey, I willingly participated in that one."

"You can't deny that it was because of his rather spectacular second impression that led to that."

then Yamamoto looked disapprovingly but mostly hurt at Tsuna.

"I can't deny that. But Tsuna, quit it with that hobby. I'd do anything for you, but helping your friend out with suicide is a really hard pill to swallow." to which the brunette smiled a bit sheepishly, unwilling to give any promises.

Yamamoto sighed and redirected the conversation.

"So what did Hibari do in the end anyway? How did get to that messy situation if you opposed to that frankly stupid plan."

It was Kusakabe's turn to look sheepish and turned towards Tsuna.

"Kyo-san said that, that was the reason why he was suggesting it. It was a plan that started in his mind when he saw the dead body of that cat.

He said it was the first time you looked affected with that cycle you've weaved around yourself. He used to grumble a lot with the previous lots that you've manipulated into being your bullies. He used to mutter about stupid herbivores getting power crazy from looking at how easily you'd become a gopher, paying a lot of attention to them centering your world around them. He hated how you'd show blatant fear and relief with every action they made. They fed their egos and made Namimori unhealthy, he'd claim.

But I think Kyo-san was just upset that he couldn't help you.

That night he looked like he reached an epiphany and he told me that the DC committee was to not lay a hand on you and give you no warnings. It was shocking. He told them to look the other way and told me to see it through that no one disobeyed. But the guys at the committee knew from where he came from, so I didn't have a lot of trouble at all."

"But why?"

"Because you were in a destructive relationship and you were addicted to that. Kyo-san saw that the only way out was from that small gap of weakness in that cycle you'd created; When your cat died, you'd looked devastated, like you'd never want to experience that again. You were learning positively from pain. And Kyo-san wanted to reinforce that, so he orchestrated that mess.

We didn't expect Yamamoto-san to try to talk to you, we expected the opposite, seeing that you'd left the same impact on him, just like you've done on us.

But now that I've got new information, I see that it would not have worked.

Kyo-san is hard on the people he likes and he doesn't allow them to fall back into a worse fate if they look at any kind of sign of hope. So you must forgive him for those bad memories." he looked a bit pleadingly at the brunette making him feel shocked that he had people who wanted to keep a bond with HIM of all people.

and he nodded dumbly, feeling overwhelmed at the new information.

Coming back to a few weeks ago.

Since he was basically left to his own devices, after lying to his mother that he'd also gone to the school trip. Left to his own devices, as in he was stealthily snooping around Namimori, having applied a lot of gel to strip his hair back so that he wouldn't be recognized in one go (at least), wearing dummy glasses as an extra layer to hide himself.

He walked around in a beige white t-shirt and plain gray slacks so that he basically merged with the colors of most of the buildings in Namimori as he searched around the abandoned or empty buildings in Namimori.

If that delusion was right, which would be the surprise of the century seeing how tight, the jurisdiction of Namimori was... then it would open the possibility that Tsuna could indeed be the successor of a Mafia family, because it meant that parallel worlds could be possible and the nature of such worlds was convergent and hinted at a singularity.

It was a strong argument of such open-ended topics that Tsuna was determined to put a stop to.

After days of skulking around, his mind was getting unwinded and he felt like his fears were unfounded.

But then his eyes wandered towards a spark near the sides of a simple building. It was from a tiny gold plate with a tag of a supposed store, a bar... his mind supplied, remembering the drunken ramblings of his delusion.

But a drinking bar in Namimori? That was strange... alcohol in this squeaky clean town? Maybe the adults needed a drink to get away from the stress of daily life (something Hibari would scoff at)

But Tsuna was too much of a midget to pass off as an adult. So he needed at least the clothes to pass off as a small adult, cursed by his bad luck that his growth spurt did not hit him. (He was not predicting his future!)

He could manage it, the clothes made the man after all.

There was something else he needed to consider. The license of an adult- a driving license, say.

But it wasn't too much of a big deal. He wasn't above using someone else's weakness anyway. He could use the Hibari's famous uniformity against them. They were obsessed with order, which was something he could use to make the plan work.

You see... the Hibaris loved order so much that they had implemented it such that the license cards were of a specific design if they were to be used in Namimori. It was obsessive, but it meant that the school id card was a type of license card, if you'd look at it from a different angle. It meant that if Tsuna confidently showed a glimpse of his card hiding the detail mentioning his school, he could pass off as a small adult who was used to having people mistaken him for a child all the time.

So he wore a small jacket, he borrowed from his parent's wardrobe after sneaking in from the tree and entered the bar, through its heavy doors ordering for a gin, remembering his dad's conversations when he sat drunk on the sofa and swept his eyes around the place.

It was dark, with the lights from the bar lighting up the place making it look rather cool.

There were lamps near the tables where a few customers chatted filling the place with the occasional laughter. It was cozy and quiet with very few people filling up the place.

The heavy doors that guarded the place which seemed like a hideout from the outside world made him paranoid in thinking that maybe the Mafia had connections here. The drink which was placed next to him seemed like it was going to spike him and the threat of Hibari persecuting him for consuming alcohol despite being a minor stopped him from even bringing it close to his mouth.

He took the drink after paying it in cash, the money coming from paying it from his supposed 'school trip' not wanting a trace of his activities from something like a card (he'd have to get it from his mother. It would make him feel like a thief and he was feeling guilty enough doing this) He thought absentmindedly.

'Bars are so damn expensive. But it's not like I can ask the bartender for water, despite it guaranteed to be the cheapest. I don't want another person being influenced by my 'charms' as Yamamoto puts it' He could almost imagine the looks of disdain if he'd ask that. His eyes swept over a certain figure of similar stature and he did something worthy of his moniker.

"Lambo?" he blurted out, connecting the figure to the one that showed up with his delusion.

Dame-Tsuna indeed.

The boy did not look surprised. He instead made him surprised by yanking him down to the seat adjacent to his with surprising strength despite looking younger than he did. But then again, he was a pushover.

The boy who looked like he went to elementary grade and seemed younger to him by 2 years or so, showed him a lazy grin and said,

"So you're the guy that was sent to pick me up? They sure make them younger and younger in this industry."

'Speak for yourself!'

What did he mean by industry?!

"So what are you doing with that drink? It ain't spiked and you seem too straight-laced to drink it. I'm not going to drink it. Stranger danger and all."

He'd gotta play along.

"Leave it. I wanted to see if you were going to show up. I got intel, but I wasn't sure if the information was true" the kid seemed to be into a shady industry if he was here in the first place. Despite seeming casual, he seemed not to trust him. So his reply seemed appropriate

"Ooh, a cautious one. The Bovino famiglia keeps its word. You didn't have to doubt us."

Famiglia? Was he dealing with the mafia...? his body shivered in involuntary fear. He was in dangerous territory. If he didn't have relation with the mafia before, he would have now if he pursued this deeper.

The only reason why he associated that word with the underworld was because his dad had a strange fetish for those kinds of movies, apparently convinced that it was pure comedy gold.

It was also because one time, he was researching on drug overdose and ended up finding terms of the drug trade and the yakuza and the mafia being involved. He had dug deep into the issue, eventually scraping the possibility as it was bound to get Hibari's attention if he tried to get it from somewhere other than Namimori and getting them from inside Namimori was plain impossible. There was a Chinese tunic wearing man who wore sunglasses, his face mostly covered and he was suspicious enough to look like he dealt drugs, but Hibari loathed him and if you'd interact with him, the prefect would most likely have an excuse to prey on you.

"So let's go. What's first on your agenda? I want you to help me and in turn, I'll help you. Is that a deal?" his curiosity was overtaking his conversations, the knowledge his delusion provided him fueling it.

The Bovino looked at his gin. He trashed it in a nearby plant, wincing internally at the guilt of feeding alcohol to a living being and berating himself for reacting so pathetically.

"I need to be sober to start planning. We don't have the time to mess around."

The boy smiled at him.

"They sent a good one. You understand that the issue has to be dealt swiftly."

He shuddered again.

'I hope it doesn't deal with dead bodies.' and for the first time in his life, he wished Hibari was around to help him coincidentally.

'This might not even have anything with the Mafia and he might get off easily with a misunderstanding that would teach him not to assume things and be so judgemental.'

When they reached outside, he noticed that the boy liked to stay at the corners of the road, so he mimicked him and led him to a corner, he knew was actually open, since the fence showing the dead end was basically broken, when he had rammed against it when his 'friend' pushed him. He had dislocated his shoulder, but now the price for that was an escape route if things got sour.

"How about a deal? If you help me out, I'll give full cooperation with what you want."

He knew he was playing with fire. The boy was younger than him, but if he had experience with the underworld and showed up here, he might have a connection to this 'yakuza' at Namimori. If he didn't, they could search with some experience. If he was an ordinary citizen, he could just play along and say that he was intimidating him so that the child wouldn't visit shady places like that-

ever again.

More than that, there was a thrill that he could get shot to be silenced, if his impudence got on the wrong side of this kid, after all... a gunshot was the fastest way to die and had a success rate of 99%.

His body would get hidden and most probably, Hibari would find it. His mom would cry at the injustice of society's underworld and live on the right side of law forever. Her useless child would die, and he'd have no more troubles and his pain in the ass life would finally be over.

It was a win-win situation.

The child looked like he expected this and replied.

"So? What do you want?"

"Information. Where's the Momokyokai yakuza?"

The boy relaxed slightly and said,

"In the end, it's for our request? Man, you guys are workaholics. It's like all the gossip regarding the Japanese were true. We wouldn't even judge you for not getting that information. The Hibari's are good at protecting Namimori to a certain extent after all."

He motioned him to come along. Tsuna could have stumbled from the lightheadedness he got by the confirmation that there was Yakuza in NAMIMORI. Unfortunately, he could not afford to show how surprised he was from the reaction- his morbid mind would not allow him to.

Tsuna struggled to ask the question on how did they manage to hide from Hibari in the first place. The route the boy traveled lead to less traveled areas in the town.

Namimori, although small... had a really complex road system, so it was hard to cover everything. There were gray undeveloped areas which the DC committee never patrolled, because it was pointless since any noticeable offenses were in other locations and it would make Namimori less safe than it looked like. It was also because the forest that surrounded Namimori shadowed these areas. It was easy to get lost in them and the area had a magnetic disturbance that made the compass turn mad and all four sides from a point in the shrouded area looked the same, making it a maze. People weren't allowed there and Hibari made sure people didn't try going there.

When the smaller boy traveled through a particularly shady area where people who looked like they hadn't shaved for days glared their bloodshot eyes which looked like they hadn't slept a wink at him, he felt like shrinking. There was a nauseating smell mixed in the air, a small part of it smelled like how his room did when he cut.

The rest smelled like urine and sweat. It seemed like the more fortunate of them could live in a cupboard.

The Bovino's voice cut his thoughts.

"You know, you didn't have to try to save your pride. The Italian mafia are pro at hiding things. I mean Iemitsu's son lives here."

His heart stopped beating then, he whispered forcing his sluggish feet onwards to keep up with the boy who seemed to be casually ripping his life apart.

"Sawada Iemitsu?" 'My dad?'

The other swiveled and turned around to roll his eyes as if he'd said something dumb and it seemed like everything was going to be all right.

"Overly careful idiots. Yeah, Sawada Iemitsu, CEDEF head, the young lion and the most powerful aide to the Vongola famiglia. Happy now?"

And he stopped, he wanted a breath, but his lungs were having difficulty taking in anything like it was mimicking his brain. His eyes widened like saucers as the other narrowed his eyes on him.

"Hey. What's going on-" and his brain told him only one thing.

RUN.

And he dashed forward and away from the curly haired kid with a fetish for cow patterned clothes. He didn't know where he was going and what was he going to do from here now that he had messed up bad and let the mafia know that a civilian(?) got important information and good lord he had his student ID and his mom was going to get into trouble because he was a dumb f*ck.

'Dame-Tsuna! Stupid Dame-Tsuna!' his mind cursed as tears formed in his eyes as fear took over and he threw his ID card at a flame nearby keeping a homeless man warm, feeding its flames earning a shout of thank you his direction giving away his location. He cursed under his breath as he leaped over a fence falling down clumsily but using his palms to force him back on the run, hating the fact that his clumsiness was coming back to bite him on the ass hard...

Images of Yamamoto's smiling face and Hibari's small satisfied smile filled his mind as his panic made him tumble around and smash into all kinds of obstacles. One of those obstacles set a chain reaction which set of a fire which seemed to grow bigger and bigger making him jump and roll onto it, fearing a wildfire that could harm the homeless people, his mind working on instinct. It instantly melted his jacket, and an uncomfortable feeling made it's way to his back and he moved away.

His face came face to face with the sole remainder of the flame and he panicked, his body jerking away in self-preservation.

His mind replayed its argument that if someone would catch him, they'd try to extract information by identifying who he was and endanger the people dear to him. So his irrational mind took a flammable piece and fed that fire, its reflection flickering across his pupils.

He took a dirty cloth which smelled horrible and rolled it into a ball and stuffed it in his mouth, tearing up from the intense smell and horrible taste. He then forced his trembling fingers right into the flame hoping that it'd burn enough of his skin to remove his fingerprints.

His body immediately wanted to jerk back and run and his jaw clenched up around the clock and his screams were muffled as he bit strong enough to draw blood. His teeth hurt and stung and saliva pooled and soaked the cloth and he hated the taste and he felt like he was being silenced, his mind rebelling against the lack of freedom.

His fingers were itching and it felt like the time his classmate inserted needles in his hand. But he felt like only this time those needles were going in deeper and deeper and everything felt so hot and his body's instant reaction was to pull back immediately. His arms felt painful from forcing it to stay still and his hands were stinging painfully. It was like inserting nails into an open wound, like the pink of a clot wound were removed and it was shoved into the red blood and being circled around by a sadistic person.

Finally, he fell back and he sobbed as he clung on his burning hand as he rolled around in agony as his mind berated him to get on with it. So he grabbed on to his bag whimpering as his sensitive red skin with protruding peels grabbed onto the leather texture of the strap which made an impact on all the extrusions and the underlying muscles which were still spilling blood, soaking the strap. Then as if on fire (oh the irony) he threw it into his bonfire and extinguished it with the only thing his brain supplied, his hands and immediately regretted it. His knee-jerk reaction was to kick it to the ground and stamp all over it with his thankfully, sturdy boots which were made out of heat insulators and stopped it. His eyes then proceeded to thank him for the further pain by bawling on him until his face turned red around his eyes.

'Great sign to show weak enemy! Easy interrogation target' So he tried another tactic, slap himself hard enough to show that he was red everywhere, from overexertion. It was a cringe-worthy solution seeing that he had to use those hands of his to do it.

So he puffed up and hit his face and his hands hurt than his face did, but he repeated it ignoring how his hands singed and blood rubbed on his face opening up wounds the fire ironically sealed because it literally melted the remaining skin over it. It felt unbearable with how his hands cracked open like as if he was purely meat and he thought he couldn't look at beef the same way ever again without envisioning how his hands felt like. It was like it was being sliced open with the juices spilling out and the feelings of layers being penetrated through as the knife cut through it. It felt like there was something solid being hurt when he brought his hands to his face.

And he felt nauseous to think that that could have been his bone. Never had he felt so close to Natsu or so close to feeling that he was more likely destined to see nothing at all and remember nothing at all with no heaven or hell waiting for him with him forgetting all that he knows now, only to reunite with world and having no knowledge that he did become a part of an ecosystem.

His mind started working then and it supplied him with a memory that the delusion said when he had first argued that no Namimori would have yakuza. 'He' looked irritated at being laughed at for stating the fact and had shown him what the building looked like.

And the one he was under was the exact replica of the one he had seen.

And it felt like a bucket of cold water was spilled at him and felt his sweat cling at him as the only reminder that it was in fact, hot fire that had been his company was the stinging feeling on his bloody hands which felt more like he had put hooks through his skin and into his flesh and that he had been pulling it and making his nervous system pull along the hook till his brain and traveling inside his foreskin.

His paralyzed body jerked as he heard a source of noise as he saw the Bovino kid coming towards him and his mind still frozen with fear and his heart turning absolutely cold at the fact that this kid, younger than him with sparkling eyes and all his shocking reveals would end up like him dead and murdered brutally.

And he remembered the Yakuza had a hobby of cutting the thumbs of betrayers which they would associate with the poor kid, just because Dame-Tsuna was too curious for his own good. It was obvious that the Bovino had a relation with the Yakuza or they wouldn't know the exact directions to their hideout. But the Yakuza wouldn't believe that the representative of the Bovino would get tricked by the dumbest kid in Namimori, and they would know the rumors since their hideout was here. So he screamed out.

"Why are you here?! Do you want to get killed?!"

His eyes were wide in panic while he held his hands in an awkward pose like a T-rex.

But the smart little boy put two and two together looking at his ragged appearance, the gel holding his hair evaporated in the flame or removed by friction and let his guard down as he moved closer, eyebrows put together in light worry.

"We're doomed either way. Take a look around Tsuna-nii"

and he finally took in his surroundings as the environmental noise faded and his hands stinging at him being reduced a minor disturbance as he saw that men in arms surrounded them and he sobbed broken hearted.

He was so damn hopeless that he couldn't do anything else but kill people around him because of the sh*t he did.

He was pulled up to face the situation by the hair as someone inspected them closely like some kind of goods, he felt the other kid sitting nonchalantly behind him. They sickened him to no end. Why would I want to be a part of these guys he thought blinking away tears of frustration.

The grunt looked at his boss as he said.

"Boss. It's Sawada Tsunayoshi. He has that spiky hair and fits the over description."

He didn't understand how did they identify him so easily when he tried so hard not to give anything away.

The kid behind him knew the answer as he whispered to him.

"It's because the brass of the groups that have a bond with Vongola have a knowledge of those who are potential candidates of the Vongola. You're one, even if yer dead last there in the list. The Momokyokai have a role and are a trading partner with the Vongola. The Bovino is a source for the newest technology and supply weapons to the mafia, so we're close with them too.

But I'm replaceable, so my famiglia wouldn't care."

If I died wouldn't my dad know then? Why would they try something with me?!

And the boy continued as if he was psychic.

"Well, you brought your own demise.

Who told you to go to a bar. They could just say that a bad adult spiked your drink and murdered you over money. And no one would know otherwise... because you were known in the reports to be a coward and weren't supposed to be curious enough to try to find a truth or two.

You'd be documented as a kid who felt too strung up by the pressures of bullying and tried to visit a bar after going corrupt and rebellious.

Your dad would want to take a detailed investigation, given how famous you've become with the brass with how much Iemitsu gushes on and on about you.

But he can't otherwise Vongola would get rid of him. Hibari Kyoya had been planning the trip in detail. With the connections he'd forge, the Hibari clan will finally rise from one of the threats to the Vongola to the main threat to the famiglia. That guy's a genius after all."

The situation was a bit ironic with how Hibari always intended the best for Namimori and Tsuna but ended potentially ruining the brunette's chances for the truth behind the incident to unravel for justice to be served.

Bovino looked sadly at him;

"They're wrong, but I can't change the report, 'cos we're going to die"

'How was that kid right?! He was a damn coward! This was all to find a way to reassure him! If he had let life run its course, he'd die in his 30-40s, but he HAD to mess this up SO bad that he got a kid involved. That kid would have a longer life if he hadn't MET him! Why was he such a f*ck up?! Now his mom is going to be so disappointed to have such an idiot for a son.'

His shoulders tensed in frustration as tears threatened to spill any moment.

The grunt continued his assessment-

"The kid next to him is Bovino Lambo. The Bovino famiglia wanted to see if our operations were indeed transparent and we gave proper profits" they sniggered at how ridiculous the idea was, when the situation was obvious.

"Not like a brat could change anything. Boss, they're young and the slum's children have been packed away. Should we send them to the red light district? There's no end to perverts there. We could make a pretty penny."

Tsuna could feel his shoulder shivering, but he could also feel the slight shiver from the little boy who acted braver than he ever did. Feeling guilty from dragging the other into the situation, he grasped the boy's hand and gave it a slight squeeze of reassurance, wincing in pain at the recoil.

The other's shaking stopped and he hoped it wasn't from being creeped out from damaged hands.

The boss looked in the other's direction and dismissed the idea easily with another which brought chills to his bones

"He's a boss candidate of Vongola right? If we gave him to Estraneo telling that we recommended him to sponsor their programs then we'd be handsomely rewarded. If they refuse then they'd be used for the experiments. It's an Eco-friendly solution Hahahaha."

So Tsuna was changed from the rags his clothes became wincing in pain when the sleeves passed through his hands and bit his lips until blood dripped to stop howling in pain when they made his wear gloves to hide the wounds.

Lambo was also changed and they were both tied into a box to ship them to Italy. Namimori did not check the contents of boxes in ships, just passed them through metal detectors for weapons so it was the best way of human trafficking.

It came back to the beginning of the chapter.

Tsuna looked at Lambo in absolute despair with the constant stinging of his hand with blood seeping through the glove making him very uncomfortable.

Lambo snorted at his displeasure.

"If you weren't prepared for the consequences of burning your fingerprints you shouldn't have done it. Baka-Tsuna-nii."

"Drop it, Bovino-san."

"Then drop the formality. I'm younger than you."

"...Then Lambo. Happy? Then drop the burning hands."

"Your such a softie, Tsuna-nii." the childish smile Lambo gave made him look his age for once and Tsuna looked at the future with despair, wondering what his delusion would tell him.

Back at his room,

The mirror fell with no apparent force and shattered. It was like an ominous foreboding.

Preview

The slums had people who looted, maimed and ate people like him for breakfast... but he'd much rather sleep there than sleep at the guest quarters at the facility which was a living embodiment of a torture chamber.

The screams there haunted him.