A few of his bones were broken. Nothing that would keep him from moving but a bother, nonetheless. After he finished biting those responsible to death, he would have to go to the hospital and get them fixed.

After.

The short amount of time it took to teach the bird Namimori Middle's school anthem was all Kyoya needed to recover. Not fully, but enough that he would be able to fight.

The dynamite that was banned from Namimori Middle broke the wall, saving him the bother of knocking it down himself.

But it was loud.

"The only guy who'd love our school's lame anthem," said the loud herbivore with the dynamite between bloody chuckles, though he grimaced when his eyes landed on Kyoya.

"Don't you look well," he muttered.

Kyoya didn't want to hear it from the one who looked like he'd been minced for hamburger meat. He was sprawled on the ground, bloodied and unable to move anything except his eyes and mouth.

And unsightly as he was, he still threw the dynamite to knock down the wall between Kyoya and those he would soon bite to death.

"I could have gotten out on my own," he replied, standing. A little pain, but nothing that would dare hinder him. "But never mind."

While they weren't Rokudo Mukuro, the two before him in Kokuyo's uniforms were still guilty. Attacking students of Namimori Middle and crowding.

Both were unforgivable by his standards, and there was only one punishment fit for them. Kyoya promptly carried it out by biting them to death. There was immense satisfaction in seeing them fall, bitten.

Not enough, however, to keep him satisfied, or his demanding pride sated. Never enough, because the day he stopped fighting was the day he died, but especially not now.

Once they were both disposed of and the medication for that ridiculous disease administered, Kyoya looked over the herbivore who wouldn't be able to move on his own. His assistance wasn't needed, but at the same time he had benefited from it.

And Hibari Kyoya did not leave debts unpaid.

Hospital after he bit Rokudo Mukuro to death, but also a long bath and time alone. His brother and Tetsu would carry out his will while he relaxed. His family and maybe the bird could visit, but unless Namimori was under further attack that was it.

Supporting the smoker's weight with his right side, because the left had less broken bones and needed to support them both, Kyoya headed up the stairs.

It wasn't hard figuring out where Rokudo Mukuro was in this abandoned building. All Kyoya had to do was follow the loud noise, and there he was, the man who would soon become what his name said he was.

The herbivore began to light the dynamite, but Kyoya had eyes for one person. He threw a tonfa, and with deadly speed and accuracy it hurtled towards the target's head.

A pity that Rokudo Mukuro noticed and knocked it aside at the last moment with his trident.

A moment later, the smoker shouted to the herbivore with the baby. "Tenth! Please take cover!"

Right into his ear. This was why he hated people.

The dynamite he threw exploded around the cringing herbivore, protecting him from the snakes surrounding him.

If he could throw dynamite like that, Kyoya reasoned, he was fine.

"Now we're even," said Kyoya, as he released the herbivore's goon and let him fall to the ground. He was tired, his bones were broken, but never had he wanted to bite someone to death as he did right now that despicable man.

He picked up the tonfa that had been knocked away – closer to him than his intended target, but that was fine. Soon it would sink into Rokudo Mukuro, over and over again.

A tonfa in each hand, and Kyoya was ready. The wounds, the exhaustion – nothing mattered.

Until today, until the battle earlier on, fighting was 'easy' for Kyoya, and victory 'obvious'. He kept the peace as the order should, but he also hungered for fights, the exhilarating chance to challenge and strengthen himself. To keep the balance between the two contradicting priorities, he took the rush from those he acknowledged were physically and mentally strong, like Tenou Haruka and Fon, and those who crowded to make up for their weaknesses and foolishly believed themselves strong in numbers. Keeping discipline while satisfying his urge to fight.

Herbivores did not understand that it wasn't weakness Kyoya despised. Weakness was inevitable. Babies – those not wearing the stones – were weak. Children were weak.

They were starting, and that was fine.

What Kyoya despised were those who did not fight to grow stronger. Those who gathered in numbers and averted their eyes to the truth of the matter, that when all those numbers were stripped away nothing except a weakling remained.

When bitten, their true natures were revealed, and too many times Kyoya had seen that true nature to be an herbivore, by his definition. Maybe they flailed, maybe they bucked – but then they gave, and went limp.

They didn't fight back for their life and so he bit them to death.

Strength wasn't necessarily in winning. Strength was in pushing himself to the limit, to never give up on challenging the strong. To give up on constantly challenging himself was impossible, because that went against who he was, and Kyoya would break than become something he was not.

Rokudo Mukuro was strong, Kyoya would give him that. But Kyoya had a debt to repay to him in blood, and if he gave up just because he was 'strong', then he would be an herbivore.

And Hibari Kyoya was not an herbivore. Hibari Kyoya did not accept anyone as the discipline in Namimori, except himself. So long as there was even a single breath in him, that was a fact. Even if the disease that forced him to kneel had still been infecting him, Kyoya would still have dragged himself over to fight Rokudo Mukuro again.

"Are you ready?" Because Kyoya was.

"How frightening," said Rokudo Mukuro, pretentiously polite and not even trying to hide his falsities. "But please, don't get in the way of the Vongola and I. For one thing, you shouldn't even be standing. How many bones in your body have I broken?"

That was hardly anything he should be concerned about. Kyoya certainly didn't care himself how many of his bones were broken, because his priority was biting Rokudo Mukuro to death. Rokudo Mukuro should prioritize something other than Kyoya's bones, because he was about to be bitten to death.

"Are those your last words?" If so, then they were too insignificant for him to even remember them.

Rokudo Mukuro simpered. "You say such amusing things. It seems I have no choice but to take care of you first."

He rushed him, one side of his face burning with a dark fire that juxtaposed the blood-red of the eye. "This will be over in an instant!"

Pain didn't matter. His body didn't matter.

All that mattered was biting that despicable man to death, and his limbs, his weapons responded to his will.

Years of fighting, ingrained into him, moved his body. In the dark of the dirty hall of what had once been a bowling alley, Kyoya struck the trident away. Rokudo Mukuro was strong, and it meant nothing.

He hadn't landed another blow on Kyoya, despite all his injuries.

"How long does your instant last?"

In response to that Rokudo Mukuro smirked and disengaged. Kyoya didn't pursue and took the time to catch his breath.

"Don't take this one lightly, Mukuro," warned the baby. "He's growing a lot stronger than you think."

"I see. If he wasn't injured, the outcome of our duel might have gone very differently."

The overexertion he forced his body through chose at that moment to show, and fresh blood spilled from his wounds, exacerbated by the combat. Kyoya was, though he hated to admit it, at his limits.

"But injured he is," continued Rokudo Mukuro. "And this is a waste of time, so I'll make it quick."

Above his head, pink flowers bloomed like stars in the night sky, completely out of place in this deserted ruin of a building. A sight, if excluding the background and leaving only the flowering trees, that was very common in Japan. A sight he used to enjoy, for the feeling of tranquility it brought him, though it might have different implications from now.

Whether they were real or not didn't matter – they didn't influence him anymore. His injuries, however, did. Despite no longer being affected by that ridiculous disease, his body was protesting, warning him that he was truly pushed to the edge, that one faint breath could push him over. That he needed to stop.

"Come, kneel before me once again," taunted Rokudo Mukuro.

Kyoya swayed and stumbled.

Not now, he replied to his body, as he used the stumble as momentum to strike Rokudo Mukuro. Not ever, was the silent but violent reply to the man bitten. Kyoya wasn't done, not even if a storm came to try and stop him. Not until he decided he was done.

Even as he fell over the edge, even as he was falling, he needed to fight.

Kyoya couldn't see his target, couldn't hear his tonfas striking flesh, couldn't feel much in his limbs or torso anymore. All he knew was the breath in his lungs, the thudding of his heartbeat in his ears, and maybe a feeling.

A small, thin one, like thread, but a feeling.

Kyoya didn't stop biting until the sliver of certainty based on absolutely nothing faded away.

And then his body finally gave.

It was one thing to know that Hibari was a force of nature, the local cryptid, the town's tyrant – and another thing entirely to watch him fight an actual criminal with magic powers and win. With a severely injured body.

Honestly, Tsuna was probably the useless side character in the story, the extra gawking from the side as the protagonist that was Hibari clashed with the final boss that was Mukuro. The genre? Probably crime, with a heaping dose of action.

But even the extra had a role, and that role was to call the ambulance because those injuries? Had been bad to start with and the fight hadn't helped. Like, at all. Tsuna didn't want to believe it, but Hibari looked close to dying, and to be honest Gokudera wasn't looking too great, and then there was Yamamoto and Lancia still outside.

The extra was the one with common sense. It was a very good character to be. "We need to get everyone to the hospital!"

"Don't worry about it," Reborn said, calm and breezy. "The Vongola's best medical team is on their way."

The wave of gratitude and relief was like a tsunami, but it froze over completely.

"There's no need for a medical team," said a voice Tsuna didn't expect or want to hear, interrupting their plans to get out of here and fix any injuries.

Despite facing Hibari, despite the blood trailing from one corner of his mouth down his chin, Mukuro still moved and spoke. "There won't be any survivors."

Gokudera moved in front of him. "You-"

Sitting up, a gun in his hand, Mukuro laughed – and pointed the gun towards his own head.

The sight of a gun – green and originally Leon, but still a gun – wasn't new to him at this point, courtesy of Reborn, but this was different. It was the first time Tsuna had ever seen a gun pointed at the wielder's own head in real life and the sight was unfamiliar, but he knew what it meant, what it foreshadowed.

Even if the image didn't fit Rokudo Mukuro.

"Arrivederci," he said, almost kindly, and Tsuna didn't speak Italian and therefore didn't have any idea what that meant, but he had a bad feeling.

Wait, the word began to form in his mouth, but before it could even leave the confines of his lips, a loud bang, making him flinch violently, interrupted him.

Mukuro's body slumped over, nothing left in him to fight the pull of gravity and keep him upright.

". . . he really did it," said Gokudera, looking just as disturbed as Tsuna felt. The arm he had raised to cover as much of Tsuna as possible slowly dropped.

"How could he," Tsuna began, that word never to be spoken in time pushed away. "Why? Why did he do something like that?"

Rokudo Mukuro was just impossible for Tsuna to understand, even to his end, but witnessing that end hadn't been what Tsuna wanted. He wasn't sure what he wanted, other than a wish to have his life return to normal, but he knew that wasn't the outcome he had wanted.

And this couldn't be reversed, not like the special shots Reborn fired. There was no bringing back the dead.

"He probably thought he'd rather die than be captured alive," said Reborn, and he didn't sound disturbed at all. "Or – well, it's a shame we couldn't capture him alive, but there's nothing we can do about it now."

A chill crept all over Tsuna, as if Mukuro's ghost was haunting him. His stomach weighed down with the feeling that there was something terribly wrong as Bianchi stirred, regaining consciousness.

"Take it easy," recommended Reborn, and Bianchi grimaced with pain.

"You're right." She raised her head, face half-covered by her goggles, and tipped it towards her brother. "Lend me a hand?"

"Do I have to?" Gokudera grumbled, but he was already moving towards his sister. "Just for today."

The feeling grew sharper, almost painful, and Tsuna shouted. "Don't go any closer!"

Gokudera paused, and everyone looked at him. Under the pressure of their gazes, Tsuna nearly wilted. He didn't even know why he'd said that.

"What's wrong?" Bianchi asked, eyes still not quite visible through the tinted lenses.

"Um," said Tsuna, because he couldn't give an answer.

"It's alright, Tenth," said Gokudera, with a reassuring smile. "My injuries aren't that serious. I'm okay."

Tsuna wanted to say that was the reason why he called for Gokudera to stop, but –

"Sorry about this, Hayato," apologized Bianchi.

Gokudera shrugged like he was trying to hide his embarrassment and extended a hand to his sister. "Here, give me your hand."

She did give him her hand, but not like he expected. A silver blur shot towards Gokudera's face, and only after he scrambled back did Tsuna see the trident head. When Reborn tapped her lightly on her forehead, she swayed – only to turn the weapon on him.

Reborn dodged with a nimble jump when Bianchi tried to stab him, landing lightly away from her.

"Is that – mind control?" Gokudera asked, still on the ground where he had fallen.

"Something different. It looks like she's been possessed by something – strong."

"A curse, then?"

Tsuna wanted to protest that such things didn't exist, but the sharp feeling was getting stronger. It was familiar, uncomfortably so, and he knew it because it felt like – like –

Like seeing the figure sitting in the dark, like when Futa had been controlled and not in control of his own mind, like when the ground had torn up and burned but actually hadn't because it was all just his illusion–

The words slipped out from his mouth before he could think about it. "Rokudo . . . Mukuro . . .?"

Bianchi – or rather, Bianchi's body – chuckled. "And so, we meet again."

Tsuna almost got whiplash from how fast he turned his head towards Mukuro's body. It was still there, lifeless and still, still – dead.

"How?!"

"I've still unfinished business," said Bianchi's body, now on her feet, still gripping the head of the trident. "And so, I returned from the depths of hell."

He was so close to wetting his pants.

"Tenth! Leave this to me!" Gokudera scrambled up to a standing position.

Tsuna didn't want Gokudera to have to fight his sister – that was terrible, and something Mukuro would probably enjoy making Gokudera do, just like how he controlled Futa to attack them.

Gokudera was – smarter – in that he didn't attack. Not physically. With large hand signs, he shouted out a spell to an exorcism. "Rin! Byou! Tou! Sha!"

Despite his panic, Tsuna gawked.

What was even weirder was that it actually had an effect. Grasping at her throat and moaning painfully, Bianchi's body swayed.

"Kai!" Gokudera continued barking out. "Jin! Retsu!"

Bianchi's body shuddered. With a metallic clatter, the trident head bounced away from her as she lost her grip on the weapon and fell, knees buckling under her own weight.

"Bianchi?" Tsuna called cautiously. When she didn't answer, he went forwards a little more. "Bianchi?"

There was no reply. Something rustled behind him, and Tsuna turned. Gokudera was behind him, holding the trident head that Bianchi had dropped.

"Shall I do it?" he offered.

"Gokudera-ku-" Tsuna began, when everything inside him screamed for him to move. "Mukuro!"

He scrambled just out of the way as Gokudera stabbed where he'd been a split second ago. Ungracefully, he fell butt-first on the ground, next to Reborn but the shock of the pain was nothing, compared to how Gokudera was looking at him.

Except it wasn't Gokudera looking at him, not with that gentle but creepy, chilling smile that was so wrong on his face.

"Remarkable," said 'Gokudera' in an uncharacteristically lilting way. The same way Mukuro had spoken. "This is a first. No human has ever been able to sense my possession with just a look. You truly are fascinating."

'Gokudera' said he was fascinating not like he was a fascinating person, but more fascinating like a frog he couldn't wait to dissect completely.

But how? Mukuro was dead, so – a ghost?

"He pretended to commit suicide by shooting himself with that bullet," Reborn said solemnly. "The forbidden Possession Bullet. Where did you get it from?"

Whatever that was, it sounded ominous.

Through Gokudera, Mukuro chuckled. "So, you've noticed. Yes, this possession is due to that Special Bullet."

"Special Bullet? Like the Dying Will Bullet and the Lament Bullet?" There were more of those weird things? But Mukuro wasn't stripping down to his underwear and doing weird things, and in a less serious situation Tsuna would have complained.

"Yes. A bullet that allows someone to possess another person's body and control it with his will." Reborn didn't take his eyes off Gokudera's body. "It was discovered by the Estraneo Family, and to use it one needs an affinity with the bullet. But it was declared forbidden in the mafia world because of how inhumane it was. The manufacturing process should have been destroyed."

That was a lot worse than ripping off all his clothes. That, at least, harmed only his sense of sanity and pride.

"Inhumane," hummed Mukuro in Gokudera's voice. "I suppose you could say that, though I would argue that it's actually exactly what humans would do. The bullet's effects cannot be compared to mind control. It's not mere control, but instead outright and complete possession – from the top of his head to the tip of his toes, every last part of his body is under my power. To put it simply, this body-"

He raised Gokudera's hand and stabbed the nail of his thumb into his neck, hard enough to draw blood. "Is mine."

"Stop it!" Tsuna shouted, horrified at the lack of change in his expression. Despite the blood dripping down his neck, he was still smiling like there was nothing wrong, in a way that was just wrong for Gokudera's face.

Right now, Tsuna would have given anything to just see Gokudera scowl and rage like he did, instead of that sickly-sweet smile.

"That bullet was what let you control a man like Lancia," guessed Reborn. "But why do you have them?"

"Let's just say that they belong to me," he said vaguely. "But enough of that. It's time for you to be possessed, Vongola Decimo."

Tsuna started. "M-me?!"

Reborn was calm, but grimly so. "So, possessing Tsuna was your real objective."

"It's not an objective, but a means," corrected Mukuro. "Once I have the body of the Vongola Decimo, my vengeance can begin."

"Wha-" His body? The first thing that he thought of was 'Dame-Tsuna', and he truly wanted to tell someone all about it. He didn't want to be controlled, and more importantly, anyone who thought that he might be of some use in vengeance was sorely mistaken. What was he going to be useful in doing, frustrating the enemy to death with clumsiness?

"Watch out for his weapon," Reborn warned. "If you're cut by the trident's points, you'll be possessed. That's the condition."

'Don't be stabbed' was easier said than done. By a lot.

"You know quite a bit," said Mukuro with Gokudera's voice, throwing the trident head. Tsuna ducked, covering his head.

"That's exactly right," said Bianchi's voice behind, and Tsuna remembered that she had been possessed before Gokudera. "For example, if I do this . . ."

Bianchi's body knelt and cut Hibari's face. "What I call a 'contract' has been made."

That was the most one-sided, misleading contract ever. Bianchi's body fell next to Hibari's, and then, to his ever-growing horror, Hibari's body rose up.

A harsh blow to his cheek knocked him off his feet, and for a moment all Tsuna saw were stars. The thump of a falling body a split second after his own fall broke through the pain.

"Oya," said Hibari's voice. "This body isn't of much use. To think he fought me on the Asura Path like this – what a frightening man, this Hibari Kyoya."

He released Hibari promptly, but Bianchi and Gokudera were both still under his control. Bloodied and injured, but still mobile, their bodies drew closer to him, one eye burning red.

"Both of them at the same time?" He should have been grateful that Hibari wasn't included, really, but he couldn't find gratitude in him just now.

"There's more," warned Reborn, bearing very bad news. "Those two, as well."

In the doorway stood the two hitmen from before, the ones that attacked Gokudera and Yamamoto separately.

That chilling, unnatural feeling that told Tsuna whether Mukuro was 'there' or not was coming from them. It was coming from four different directions, equally strong. "He's in four people?!"

He had to fight four people on his own?!

"I've never heard of simultaneously possessing four people before," said Reborn, because that was, of course, the biggest problem and not the four people being controlled to attack Tsuna.

"That's not all," said 'Gokudera', and an armload of dynamite flew threw the air. Tsuna covered his head, but the scorching heat washed over the skin of his arms, and the sound of multiple explosions nearly deafened him. His screams were nearly drowned out to the point where only the strain of his throat confirmed that he had really screamed.

The dynamite shower finished, and Tsuna inhaled, not caring if the air was filled with the smell of explosives. He had relaxed too soon, though – beneath him, the ground bubbled with heat, and pillars of fire began to erupt.

"If possible," Mukuro said through Joshima Ken. "I would rather capture you unharmed."

"It would be better," Kakimoto Chikusa's voice continued. "If you just surrendered."

So that he could be possessed? Another pillar of fire erupted just behind him, nearly singing his hair, and Tsuna screamed.

"You never learn, do you?" said Reborn, jacket lost. He jumped to dodge a volley of Poison Cooking flying his way. "This is an illusion."

"Worry more about yourself, Arcobaleno!" taunted 'Gokudera', and a flurry of dynamite flew towards Reborn while he was midair.

Where he wouldn't be able to dodge.

"Reborn!"

Multiple booms and the explosions hid Reborn from his sight, and Tsuna's heart dropped. No.

"That can't be all, Arcobaleno," lilted 'Bianchi', and Joshima Ken's body stabbed the black blur that flew out from the smoke with the trident head.

Gokudera, Bianchi, Joshima Ken and Kakimoto Chikusa attacking him were all bad enough. But if Reborn attacked him, too?

The black blur hung on the points of the trident, and it was only Reborn's fedora. Another blur shot towards Ken, snatching the fedora away, and Reborn landed neatly on the ground, dusting off his hat like its cleanliness was his only concern.

"It's been a while since I've experienced a real fight," he said, putting the hat back on his head once he was satisfied enough with its state.

Tsuna sighed with relief, and Reborn crushed it with the usual lack of mercy. "I'm not going to help you, so you better hurry up and do something."

"Are you crazy?!" he screeched. "What else am I supposed to do right now?!"

This was the worst situation. He couldn't even go into Dying Will Mode, because they didn't have any more bullets. Gokudera and Bianchi were under Mukuro's control, Hibari was unconscious, and there were essentially four people who were hitmen after him, and Reborn wanted Tsuna to do something?

Both he and Mukuro had an almost perverted amount of belief in Tsuna, belief that was overestimating his potential.

"If you're my student, then you can surpass yourself," Reborn said, dodging a volley of needles. His voice was nearly drowned out by the dynamite that came Tsuna's way.

The way Reborn was able to make it all about himself, even now, was almost commendable, and definitely not helpful. "That's the lamest excuse ever!"

"I'm serious," Reborn said, and where he'd been standing before he jumped, a Poison Cooking in the shape of a cake was crushed against the floorboards, where it began to eat away the material. "Dino was also able to do just that, when he was in a desperate situation as well. When he overcame both the danger and himself, that's when he became the Bucking Horse Dino."

Became the – "That makes no sense! And Dino-san and I are completely-"

Different, he was about to say.

"Look up."

Dynamite fell like rain from the sky, but no umbrella could protect him. Tsuna flew, thrown by the force of explosives, and skidded for what felt like the hundredth time today against the ground. He was really getting tired of falling to save himself from certain death.

"Let's finish this," said 'Chikusa', but on his way, his body fell over, as if his legs couldn't support himself any longer.

"Wha-"

Ken's body picked up the trident head.

"What? This happens sometimes," Mukuro spoke through the blonde, like he was complaining of a mild inconvenience. "I might control them, but if something physically can't be done, then that's beyond my power."

He couldn't control Hibari. Or rather, he didn't, because his body was impossible to move even when possessed.

Not because of his possession being the problem – because Hibari was too injured.

Kakimoto Chikusa was stained in blood. Even now, his hand, his entire body trembled like it was seized by immense pain.

"You're forcing them to move, even if they shouldn't." Technically, someone with an injury – something like a sprained ankle, maybe, or a broken bone – could move. Maybe fight. The pain would probably keep them from doing it for long, though, and make it a Very Bad Idea.

But if someone's body physically couldn't be moved, because the bones were too broken, or something, then –

"It seems Chikusa can still move," said 'Chikusa', slowly pushing up his body on his arms, even as the tremors grew worse.

"His injuries . . .!" Tsuna protested reflexively.

"It's fine," Mukuro answered. "I can't feel any pain at all, so it doesn't matter."

The pain Mukuro felt was the least of his concerns, although it did explain why Mukuro could be so careless about how much pain the bodies he controlled were.

"But he's your friend! That's your friend's body!"

One red eye, different from Chikusa's, glinted with the odd numbered iris, but both lacked any true emotion, and certainly not worry for Chikusa. "That's incorrect. Since I have possessed him, this body is mine – to break, or even kill."

Mukuro said that people were like toys to him. But this was one of his friends – or, well, since it was obvious that he wasn't friends in the sense that Tsuna used the word, someone who worked for him. Regardless, they were on the same side, and –

"That's not right." It really, really wasn't. It was cruel, it was terrible, it was wrong.

"Worrying about others is really the least of your priorities," said 'Bianchi'. "You're next, remember."

"As interesting a boy as you are," 'Gokudera' spoke next, and despite the different voices it was one person speaking, and the words smooth like flowing water. "You really aren't cut out to join the mafia."

Tsuna wasn't interested in joining the mafia. His bigger concern than defending his preferences, however, was the amount of blood leaving Gokudera and Bianchi's bodies. Too much blood loss killed people, but he didn't know how much that would be.

He just knew that there was too much blood for him to be even remotely comfortable with doing nothing.

"Stop, please!" he begged. "They'll die, if you keep doing this!"

Gokudera's body chuckled. "That's right. You were ready to stab yourself for the sake of your girlfriend during the fight with Birds, weren't you? Let's go with that, and have your naivety be what lets me possess you."

He didn't mean –

Mukuro didn't let him misunderstand even if he wanted to.

"Cooperate," he said through four different voices. "Make a contract, or watch your friends die of their injuries."

Tsuna's initial response was rejection. "No – no way . . ."

"Wavering, are we? You truly aren't suited to be the Vongola Decimo – or, really, for this world. Come, surrender your body to me."

He said it like it was a kindness, a favor he was doing Tsuna. And he had the power here, the choice.

Tsuna, Tsuna had nothing. Except maybe –

Desperate, he tuned to the last hope he had. "Reborn! What should we do?!"

His tutor was no help. "I'm not going to do anything."

When he wailed in protest, Reborn kicked him. "Don't give me that pathetic squeal!"

Pathetic, sure, but what was he supposed to be? Brave? How? Gokudera and Bianchi were going to die if they didn't get medical help, and Mukuro wanted his body so he could use it like he did Lancia, and cause damage. What, exactly, was he supposed to do in this situation? Mukuro was strong enough to fight Hibari.

"But what can I do . . .?"

A small hand grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him down roughly, so that he was at eye level with Reborn.

"Whatever you want," said Reborn. "You're the Decimo – and not anyone else. Whatever your true feelings are, venting them is the correct answer."

His true feelings?

"What do you want to do, Tsuna?" Reborn asked. "What are your true feelings?"

His true feelings? Try as he might, at the end of the day Tsuna was – and he knew this all too well – a simple, normal, no-good teenage boy.

He wanted things to not be like this. For his friends to be able to smile, and have fun, and not be in danger or injured. For them to not have to be attacked with acid, bone-crushing iron balls, needles, fangs or tridents. For Mukuro to stop treating them like toys, things that could easily be used and broken like they weren't living, breathing people with their own thoughts and minds.

He wanted it to stop, but for that to happen –

Tsuna knew what had to be done. He tried to talk, tried to run. Both had failed, and even if he could run, what about Futa? Gokudera? Bianchi? Yamamoto? Hibari? Lancia?

He needed to stop Rokudo Mukuro, because that was the only option left to him. And there was only one way he would be able to stop him.

"I want," Tsuna said, and he hadn't ever wanted a thing more than he did now. "To defeat Mukuro."

"Oya," commented 'Ken'. "How unexpected. But let's hear more about this in leisure after I possess you, and you bury your friends with your own hands."

What he wanted was to defeat Rokudo Mukuro. Why?

"I don't want to lose to such a terrible person," he mumbled.

He didn't need the mafia, or vengeance, or things about freaky bullets that let people possess others completely. He just wanted –

What? What did he want?

"I want to beat him!"

A bright green light exploded and filled the air, almost blinding him. His sight too used to the dark, it took a while for him to get used to the light and find its source. In Reborn's hands, the green blob-like ball that was Leon was glowing like a star. The glowing green cocoon shot up towards the sky, and hundreds of threads glowing with light shot out from it, connecting Leon to the rest of the room by the ceiling, the wall, the floor. Everywhere.

"Vongola," snarled 'Ken', batting at the threads that had hit him. They didn't look like they had done any damage. "What did you do?!"

"I didn't do anything!"

"He's finally emerged," said Reborn, a smile curving his mouth. "It's just like back when Dino became the Bucking Bronco."

The threads of light, though many, were only a mild deterrent. Already Ken's body, with the trident head in his grip, was cutting through them. "I see. Then, this is your doing?" '

"No, it's Leon's. He's a rather special chameleon and enters a cocoon when my students face a trial."

"Is this a joke?!" Tsuna pointed to the fake green sun, finally finding the words to speak. "What the heck is that?! And what does that have anything to do with Dino-san and – whatever?!"

As if his pointing had done something, the Leon-orb began to puff up like a balloon.

"He's about to disgorge something for you," said Reborn. "For Dino, it was the whip and Enzio."

It still didn't make sense, and raised more questions than it answered, but a part of Tsuna was relieved at that news. Anything like Enzio – a killer turtle that grew to monstrous size and rampaged angrily without control – might really be helpful in this situation, and wow, what had his life become, that something like Enzio was actually going to be helpful.

But Ken was faster.

The trident ripped through the glowing cocoon, and like a popped balloon the fragments of Leon fell to the ground with a sickening splat.

"Leon!" For all that Reborn's chameleon could turn into different things, there was a difference between changing shape and being ripped in two.

That reality-defying, wonderfully weird reptile, though, wasn't going to let that finish him. The green pieces pooled together, until it was one.

"He's fine," said Reborn, who probably knew best about the health and well-being of his own pet. "But look up, Tsuna."

And from the ceiling above fell the weapons Leon had made for him.

Tsuna caught them. He didn't know how to use weapons, and the whip was definitely out of options, but right now anything would be welcome.

In his hands, as if to mock those very thoughts, sat a pair of woolen gloves.

AN: Hibari Kyoya is hard-to-write chuuni no.2 and hats off to Amano for creating such a character and making him (and Mukuro) so popular.

Also because I keep forgetting to say this, Kokuyo Arc has very little Hotaru until Kokuyo 7 (she says, at Kokuyo 5). I had it on my Tumblr and in responses to reviews but never actually had it in the AN, which in retrospect was pretty stupid of me. The Varia arc has more of Hotaru-POV, and then the TYL Arc…

The next 'gift fic' for Petrichor readers because we're near 200 comments on AO3 (and 135 on FFN) is going to be Chrome/Hotaru and uploaded on 02-01-2020 because it's Petrichor 1-year anniversary.

No voting like Saturnine because I really want to write the Chrome/Hotaru and it was the runner up? It's not 'Saturnine but Chrome/Dione is the love interest' so you don't have to worry about that (unless that was what you wanted to see, in which case, sorry to disappoint).

As a consolation (?) that's actually me being lazy, anyone have any historical events they want to see mentioned or alluded to? Preferably non-European, 200 CE-1500 CE (not limited to but is preferable) events. You can even throw in suggestions if you'd like. Natural disasters. Wars. Notable historical figures. Inventions. Rise or falls of cities / kingdoms / civilizations. Give me ideas. I am desperately in need of them, especially from the American Continents, Australia, the Middle East… actually just give me what you have. Represent, people! Show me your pride!

+ﾟ*｡:ﾟ+

Sweet Dreams~