Chapter 10

You never know what you had until you lost it. Part 1

Even though people feared Hibari as the ultimate tyrant of Namimori, the title whispered by the residents of the town, most of the actual action was taken by the coordinator of his direct orders, Kusakabe Tetsuya. The ex-delinquent was in charge of the town when the demon went out for meeting the collaborators of the Hibari family (more like their slaves since it made some sense that the family of a tyrant would be tyrants) and that was during the Namimori vacation.

Kusakabe looked over the reports from the committee members that were on rounds and the faculty attendance reports to check if the numbers matched up. His eyes fell on the names of those who didn't go on the trip.

'Irie Shoichi, Yamamoto-san and Tsuna-san only, huh? The Yamamoto family went on a trip and Irie Shoichi was witnessed at the Namimori super-mart...

I remember Tsuna-san being invited to come along to their family trip...

So he's probably there.'

There was something niggling his mind but he shrugged it off.

'Tsuna-san should have changed since he has Kyo-san and Yamamoto-san with him now...

Also, the security in town is carefully guarded and nothing suspicious can be carried out.'

The teen frowned, chastising himself for being paranoid.

'I guess his first impression hasn't rubbed off me.'

He turned to his desk and typed out a summary of the state of the town to email the prefect and when his fingers typed out Tsuna's status his eyes lingered on the screen for seconds longer before he looked over the email and hit send.

The town was pretty peaceful and rounds ended smoother than it normally did and it made Kusakabe feel confident that his worries were merely paranoia.

'If the town's this peaceful, Tsuna-san shouldn't be here.

Since for better or worse, he's a trouble magnet. Maybe that's why Kyo-san is fond of him.'

Since it was the vacations, Hibari had entrusted him with the task of finding people to upgrade the means for better security.

And the DC committee found it in the form of a young redhead Irie Shoichi and enlisted him to help them since the lad was good at robotics. His background was checked and a report was sent to the prefect who only glared at it, but Kusakabe didn't let it discourage him since the other pretty much glared at anything and everything.

In the end, the DC-committee vice head took it as approval and made a request to make hibird bots for surveillance to which the redhead was surprisingly gung-ho about.

Kusakabe made hot tea in the DC club room while waiting for the inventor to arrive and was a bit startled to see a drowsy Irie holding a box as he clamored into the table babbling pleasantries.

Suspicion flashed into his brain as he remembered Hibari's glare as he was a bit startled to see someone so willing to help the committee's cause.

"The Hibird bots are still at its prototypes and this is just to give a preview on things it could do so that the committee members can change the design based on their needs."

Temporarily distracted by the lifelike similarity of the bot to the real deal, he forgot his trail of thought and leaned closer to pay attention.

The day ended with a teen awed at the prowess of technology and in fact, the teen was so awed he allowed the other to conduct several test runs around the town to gather data for a manual on what they could and couldn't do.

The week rolled over to the weekends and the Elvis-wannabe as Yamamoto playfully quipped started a video call with the prefect to discuss issues. Hibari's sharp eyes ran over the teen and he straightened up by fractions as he waited for the prefect to begin his questions.

"There were more hibirds than usual in the security footage for the week."

Hibari had personally trained the birds surprising the committee. They hadn't known he was soft for small animals and it was bizarre how he could identify each of them with the other.

"Irie Shoichi had made them for surveillance."

He could see Hibari frown and he hurried to justify the action.

"We took a complete background check-"

"But you still let him make them without sending the footage he took when testing them?"

"The bots didn't have a memory-capturing feature when he was explaining it to me..." he trailed off when he saw the surprised expression the other had when he asked the question.

"...Kyo-san, was there something in the background check we left out?" he asked partly hurt that the prefect didn't trust their check. The other just quirked his eyebrow as he returned the question with another question.

"I had doubts after reading the report you sent."

"It didn't seem like anything unusual. We even took a personal interview with the Irie's parents to make sure we got a trustworthy person."

"..."

After that, the only responses Hibari made with the summation of the events were clipped and it worried the ex-delinquent, but he remained silent keeping in mind to make another background check when the call ended.

Hibari looked at his computer contemplating the information given to him. It was clear as day that Kusakabe thought he felt doubt towards the redhead, that the other elaborated in detail whatever Irie did. The demon prefect glared at the profile given to him as he weighed the prospect of telling his speculations to his assistant. But if it was one thing he hated, it was misleading people with incomplete or false information.

A video was sent with the committee members interviewing the redhead's parents.

He remembered each line they spoke after watching it for 4-5 times.

"Our Shoichi finally started thinking about the future seriously. He stopped practicing on instruments. We would have supported him, but he didn't have any talent in music... We were worried, but it turned out fine. It seemed like one day, he finally realized the truth and started doing something that would be great for future prospects."

It was not only the sudden change from liking music to robotics that piqued his interest, but it was also how his tastes shifted towards white clothes. He didn't believe that people could change easily, but then some people did and he didn't have anything concrete to tie Irie as a plausible enemy of Namimori.

But, it was like his worries didn't stop there. The next day, Kusakabe left messages that the testimony of Nana Sawada didn't match with the situation of Namimori.

He sat irritated, as the video call started and the other rushed to explain everything.

"We reached the Namimori household as one of the bots crashed there during a failed test run. Then as she passed the bot to us, she commented 'You committee members would have the 2 months as busy as ever, especially since the yearly trip got canceled this year.'

Sawada Tsunayoshi wasn't found in Namimori and we haven't got the contact number of the Yamamotos to call them during the vacation..."

Hibari had assumed they checked with them before giving the report to him, but to think that it was all based on assumptions...

He gritted his teeth, fury seeping through his body and ignored the frantic stream of apologies from his assistant as he hung up the call to give a message to Yamamoto, being in touch as a result of their mutual friendship to Sawada Tsunayoshi. He got an immediate reply from the jock and as expected, it wasn't any good.

His mood was slipping into darker territories since he knew of the shenanigans the brunette got into for 'fun'. Seeing that Yamamoto's following messages turned more and more frantic, He the situation into simple terms.

"Tsunayoshi lied about going to the trip to his mom and lied to you about staying at home so that the ends at his side are tied, seeing that his mom would never believe that her family is falling apart and you would tell me that he's holing up at his place since we've both seen him do that enough to not be suspicious."

The reply was instant-

"Not again!"

He didn't need to be told the obvious and he knew he had to find the brunette and pronto. The brunette's actions often lead to the more chaotic aspects of his town being revealed.

Thankfully, he finished with his work there for the moment and could return to the town. He'd need to be there to sort the train-wreck that was Sawada Tsunayoshi.

So he reached Namimori in a few days while being given reports that ended the search of the brunette in failure.

His frustration was in the peaks when he entered the town and was promptly surprised by Yamamoto's appearance. Noticing his expression, the other elaborated,

"Well, you weren't replying to my messages and I got worried" He grinned and reached to his pocket and showed a picture and it seemed like the chairman couldn't catch a breath.

"I asked a friend who asked the uncle of another friend. Well, this uncle owns a pub and he takes pictures of people who sit at a place for a long time without doing much... You know, act suspiciously.

I was surprised that Tsuna was in a place like that. He even disguised for that. Our place also had sake for the customers. If he wanted to try out the stuff, he could have asked us, ahaha."

Despite his light tone, he knew that there was something else. They both knew, from past experiences. When the brunette did sneaky, it was for the more interesting, more darker things.

Yamamoto thought that Hibari would be investigating the bar with the DC committees but then he noticed the intense stare he gave him like he was being expected to do something.

'Well what do you know... Never thought there'll be a day when Hibari-san would want me to help out. I guess it's 'cos I'm the one in contact with the witness.'

He moved in the direction of the pub and words flew from his mind from the excitement, the surprising reveal brought him.

"Ahaha, I never thought that Hibari-san and I would be walking together like this on an investigation. Then, if you're Sherlock, can I be Watson?"

The prefect didn't reply and spent the time observing his surroundings, not that the jock minded.

'He's as serious about Namimori... I guess it's more because it involves Tsuna in this case. It'd be better if we find him soon. I got a bad feeling about this...

Then we could go back to those days of having lunch in the school roof and having fun...' his smile stilled for a moment as worry crept into his mind.

Pushing aside any bad scenarios he flung the bar door open and laughed away the glare the prefect sent him for his callousness.

The pub owner seemed to be unfazed by his flashy entrance, being used to his demeanor but his face turned pale when he saw the baseball lover's, ahem, friend. The friend who raised his tonfa as warning against any forms of protest.

Hibari spoke for the first time since their walk there,

"Where is he?"

The owner wasn't a fool. He knew about the lad who had gotten the favor of the demon of Namimori, and his body stiffened in panic as his eyes darted to the only friendly person in the room. Yamamoto showed a sympathetic smile towards the man as he spoke out,

"Maa, maa, Hibari-san. You're scaring him"

It didn't change how Hibari changed his stance towards the other, but Yamamoto continued since it'd bring the scared man's attention towards him as a friendly ally.

"Owner-san, we've been searching for a friend of ours. It's the teen in the photo you've captured. Do you know where he'd have gone or who he had gone with?" he said as he purposefully darted his eyes to the prefect.

The man followed his eyes and felt the subconscious threat from the possibility of angering the chairman of Namimori and spoke the information Yamamoto knew that he had, since the fame of Sawada Tsunayoshi (well it was anybody who garnered Hibari protection) was widespread.

Since there was no reason to take photos of suspicious people in the bar... but there were people who wanted to sabotage his only friend...

Adding to the fact that Hibari-san wanted his location...

It was killing two birds with one hand, even if it was mean spirited.

"H-he had gone out with a small green haired boy. I-I-I couldn't get a good shot of him. I-if I did, I would have definitely shown it to you, I swear!" he whimpered, but the prefect wasn't having any of that.

"Give me all the photos you've taken on that night" his glare was a clear message that he didn't buy that the picture taking wasn't taken nefariously.

'Geez... Hibari-san is too honest. These kind of things are better hidden' It was the kind of trick he used to gain favors or string people along his rides.

When they finished asking the people around the bar and the people who were there at the night of the incident, Yamamoto piped up.

"Hibari-san. Can I also come along to help search?" he bowed a little to emphasize the request, his face schooling into a more sincere expression as his more calculating side appeared. Hibari stared intensely at his slightly sharper gaze, the only thing which gave out his harmless facade.

'I figured that Hibari-san would notice the important details.'

"Hn."

They reached the Hibari mansion, a place that the prefect dragged Tsuna, followed by the baseball-lover who tagged along usually, for getting the brunette to implement one of the many blurted ideas (when the lad couldn't contain his sarcasm) that the demon fancied.

(Woe is Namimori)

It was a bit lonelier since the guy who played glue in their relationship was missing.

When Yamamoto entered Hibari's room, he reached the main point of conversation.

"So Hibari-san, do you know what kind of kid followed Tsuna?"

Kusakabe entered the room with tea just then.

"Kyo-san, I brought tea since I heard you returned-" and looked surprised at their new guest.

"Yamamoto-san? What brings you here? If you're here... Then Tsunayoshi-san-!" his face brightened up instantly, only to sober by the abrupt sentence the prefect said,

"He's still missing."

the other continued, hoping to clear up the situation.

"We found a lead. Tsuna was at a bar and met a kid. The people there saw them both catch up on something and then they both left. The people around the town saw the two move somewhere..."

the 'Elvis-wannabe' realized the hidden meaning in there and spoke, upset;

"So Tsuna-san tricked the kid, but he must have known who he was, but it wasn't the same for the other..."

The three of them practically knew Tsuna's social life (or the lack of it) so there was no chance the two were previous acquaintances. So it only meant that Tsuna played off the acquaintance-bit to get the information he needed. But it also meant that the boy was dangerous. Since it was either Tsuna looking for danger or the other way around, unfortunately.

"But the problem is... who is he? And who is he associated with?"

Hibari looked like he had a lead for finding the kid, but he didn't comment. So the two waited until the other made a move, which he did when the Hibari parents arrived home.

The chairman directly broached the topic,

"Who is this kid?"

His father looked at the kid wearing cow patterned clothes and having an Afro, and recognition flashed in his eyes. Yamamoto thought that he would skirt around the topic, but he simply said,

"That's Bovino Lambo, from the Bovino Famiglia."

It was so simply and blandly stated like it was a mundane topic that the jock had to run the statement twice in his head to truly comprehend the weight behind it.

'Famiglia? Wait... isn't that the Italian mafia?!' his eyes wildly darted towards a shocked Kusakabe and then to a furious prefect. The shocked confusion he had on his face at the thought of such a presence being accepted in the town Hibari protected was addressed by the venomous response Hibari Kyoya spat out,

"Why do you allow them to roam here?"

His father replied, bored since he expected the question.

"It's because their target and our target ended up being the same. Those guys keep the other Mafia out of here in their gang wars, so they fight our battles and we don't have to use our forces and we can use them for other things. It's mutually beneficial. One of their heads have people they want to protect here too, even though those people are ignorant to these."

"Is it worth the price of getting the people of Namimori kidnapped?!"

That got his attention and he looked at them seriously.

"What happened?"

"We have circumstantial evidence that the child might have abducted Sawada Tsunayoshi." he said as he threw the photos on the table looking disgusted at the prospect of willingly submitting to the scum who do such atrocities.

But that changed into confusion as his father let out a shocked "Impossible". His mother peaked at the photos as she looked at them with similar confusion as she elaborated.

"But Sawada Tsunayoshi is Sawada Iemitsu's kid. He's one of the heads of Vongola, the famiglia the Bovino head candidate was supposed to meet."

The jock felt like some of the truths he considered obvious was threatening to drown him in the confusions that piled up, his expression completely unguarded for once.

'Tsuna as Mafia? There was a plan for a meeting with the Mafia members?'

"But the Sawadas shouldn't know about the father's employment. Dear, were there any rumors or documents leaked?" she continued as if his world wasn't turned upside-down.

"I've ensured that it was top secret."

Yamamoto couldn't let his mind process things properly from that point. The day passed in a blur and with the sheer ridiculousness that his normal life became, he let his imagination and desperation run wild. So he brought up a crazy idea when the three were alone.

"...How bout we check out the Namimori forest?"

Kusakabe looked at him like he had lost his head.

"It's not charted and it has high magnetic fields because of its soils' high iron content. We'd definitely get lost. Besides, no one goes there. We ensure that."

"Just like how we have Mafia lingering in this town? Rendezvousing with other famiglias? Next thing you know, my father's an ex-assassin hiding in this town and there'll be an all-powerful old man at an antique store!

For all the security the DC committee boasts off, you guys can't even notice something as big two Mafia groups meeting in a town as small as ours."

It brought out a competitive streak in Hibari as his eyes gleamed as he spoke,

"Is that a challenge I hear, herbivore?"

It could be that his sanity was on a much-needed vacation, but he stood up and loomed in a threatening fashion and rose to the taunt,

"I'm definitely going to win that game, Hibari-san."

They spiritedly left the room leaving a lamenting Kusakabe as the distraught man hid his rising headache as he began plotting countermeasures when things head south.

But the two talented youth refused his precautionary measures, waging their pride and skills as they audaciously dubbed him as a coddling mother. At this point, Kusakabe was too irritated to reason with them, having spent the half day collecting ropes and blow horns, dog whistles with a trained pack for tracking. He even bothered on getting fireworks and neon paint, only for them all to rendered useless.

"Maa maa, Kusakabe-san, don't worry so much. We'll get there somehow. Something will work out."

"But Yamamoto-san, we don't even know if there's something in the first place!"

"Ahahaha"

"Kyo-san, Yamamoto-san would end up getting lost. There's no need to follow such foolishness."

"..."

"Kyo-san? Please don't tell me you're serious?! Kyo-san?!"

It was dusk, with the sun fading away and Yamamoto moved wherever his eyes stuck towards. It was something that helped him, in his life. He would always know that something was right, but he couldn't explain why or put his reasoning in words.

So he gave up on thinking about it and instead followed his trusted intuition and then when he pushed against a curtain of leaves, he saw a new street with their inhabitants glaring or leering at him and his mind instantly started sending distress signals.

"This is a pretty shady place"

"Hn."

He turned towards the prefect, surprised at the other's sudden appearance.

"This is a clearing in the forest." the prefect said looking at the direction of the sun. It seemed to be in the direction opposite to where the first saw the sun. The jock remembered the times he saw the sunset on his way from school when he took the forest detour, which had been frequent enough to let him memorize its position. The two positions seemed to directly opposite to each other, hinting that they were at a position close to Namimori, but facing the opposite side.

Hibari seemed to be kicking up dirt, so the jock peered curiously to see what the other was up to when he said.

"The DC committee was assigned to build in a 5-inch marble tile mark under the soil which strictly marked the end of the forest."

'Yeesh! Talk about meticulous! Who knows how many km round the boundary should be...'

"Oh, so then... we're definitely somewhere in the forest huh?"

The prefect didn't deem his reply with an answer but focused on scouting the area instead. Shrugging, the jock asked milder bystander questions regarding recent events.

"Hibari-san, these guys have seen two kids get chased by yakuza."

That was when Hibari's patience seemingly snapped. Mildly peeved, the other inferred the reason for the irritation.

'I guess Namimori having yakuza was the last straw. I better not stay too close to him. The only one who stays nearby when he's at that mode is Tsuna...' he moved in the direction the two kids supposedly ran to avoid getting depressed by his own thoughts.

They reached a scorched place and when the two perceptive teens saw a burnt piece, things took a bad turn in their thought process. The air around Hibari turned chokingly tense, while any traces of a smile vanished from Yamamoto. The two had spent enough time staring at the pictures of incidence to tell who the piece of cloth belonged to.

The prefect brought out luminol from his blazer. Apparently, the prospect of a challenge wasn't enough to distract him from the ultimate goal. He sprayed it around the area of the cloth and saw faint glowing, making him glower darkly.

"What does the glowing mean?"

"Bloodstains around the time he went missing, judging by its faint glowing. But it was a large amount since the glowing is on a wide area"

Yamamoto kneeled to inspect the area closely and after sometime, found bullets scattered around. His heart felt like it was shattering. It was like it was his mother all over again...

He couldn't trust himself to speak. Then it was Hibari who put the final nail in the coffin.

"I found corpse remains that more or less match his frame amongst several."

It was uttered without the purpose Hibari usually carried himself with. It was emotionless.

Even though Yamamoto felt like an entire century passed from when he was sitting there, Hibari didn't seem to mind, as he blankly took the sight of his surroundings.

Then there was distant chatter heard and the two saw some burly, scarred men carrying guns and gunny bags around. It was as if the air had chilled to freezing points and Yamamoto shivered, as he felt something other than numbness. It then shifted it something cooler, sharper and crueler as he felt himself reaching out for the blade concealed as a shinai.

Eyes glared at them, as taunts and safety handles were unlocked with a click. Scary adults surrounded them as the two of them moved forward. Hibari bolted towards them, brandishing both tonfas with the chains he refused to use but was fascinated enough to attach when he first heard about it. It had thorns to rip flesh after latching onto skin and it brought out the screams he felt, was in dire need in this situation, especially seeing that he was hardly appropriate for the task. The tears they shed in pain as he broached deeper into dangerous territory as gunshots sang in the background, felt more appropriate.

There was a person with a fancy suit babbling some weak words, that he couldn't spare the time to listen, for all the irritating words and inappropriate smiles aimed at him which could chill his blood from imagining the situations the speaker spoke... or the twinkling his eyes adopted with another possibility and the anticipation for another day, another meet with a person who wouldn't shy away from his company... and suddenly it was ephemeral and now nothing but memories and a dream for a future that could have been...

The red that painted the room didn't affect him as deeply as the glow, the trusted liquid he had carried for different investigations ended up making his stomach clench. Or perhaps, was it from exhaustion?

On the other side of the one-sided battlefield where regardless of the outcome, there was no winner or loser, was a teen who lived with a mask. Funny enough, there was a deep bond with the person who would have been lying in a proper grave maybe alongside his if he had made that decision that day. That day he went to the deep end with someone else but got a person who wouldn't judge him, someone who tied threaded bonds around his fingers to others that ran deeper than blood. It tied him to people who he could understand and be understood in return. It brought him to place where he could be a part of, created a place where he could belong without worrying about how his eccentricities could scare those people away... Especially since their own brand of strangeness was equal to his, or sometimes, even stranger.

It brought him the burden of guilt. Regret that he didn't insist. Regret that he didn't maintain contact. Regret that he couldn't say goodbye.

He mechanically brought the gunny bags from the storage, his mind stubbornly insisting that without visual proof, it can't possibly be true. They must have been mistaken. Somewhere in these, there must be that cheeky teen that gave them the fright of their lives and was able to single-handedly make them bald due to stress.

Then they would laugh in the next morning after they spent the entire day chiding him to take precaution or at least bring them next time. Then maybe next time, they'd get burned and gunned to death together...

As it turned out, there were people in the gunny bag, but not the ones they would be glad to see. Yamamoto looked at their disturbed faces as they lay down on the ground unconscious, breathing softly and thought.

'If it was only him that had to go through all that, but these guys get to sleep peacefully like this... I wonder why did they get the right to live? What did he need to get that right? Was it something which we could have given him?'

When he felt another person behind him, he turned to look at the teen, as he stood in his entire glory and title well deserving of the demon of Namimori, fully soaked in blood, but calmer and quieter than before. The demon spoke,

"They were trafficking humans out of Namimori." he said it like it was something someone said to him. It was most likely the confessions from the souls in the scene of the bloodbath

He looked into the midnight sky shrouding them in the darkness he felt at the moment.

'I wonder if it is possible to go back in time to redo things. I'd love to do that so that I can spend a second longer with...'