The following morning Vero woke up early enough as he said he would and proceeded to follow through with his usual morning routine. As soon as he clothed, groomed and equipped himself with his weapon of choice his stomach started to grumble.
'Right on queue. I think I have enough time to grab some breakfast on the way…' he thought after checking the time once he was done getting ready.
He then left his room in search of the dining hall and found it somewhat easily, as he remembered Hibari had pointed it out along with the other important locations he may need to know about while walking to the young Cavallone boss' room last night.
When he arrived however he found that he had even less time than he initially thought. Due to this Vero quickened his pace and scrounged around but the only thing he found that he could take and eat was some bread. Seeing as he had little choice and even less time he grabbed it and then took the elevator down to the seventh floor where he would be training with the cloud guardian.
As soon as he exited, the young Cavallone boss found himself in a huge room with high ceilings - a room perfect for training in without having to worry about obstacles getting in the way.
"You're late." A very irritated Hibari stated, making the blonde flinch in response.
The teen then glanced at the time and remarked lightly. "Only by a few seconds…"
"And if you recall I said I would bite you to death if you were even one second late." The raven haired male replied as he drew out his tonfa. "So prepare yourself, herbivore."
Vero took the hint and drew out his own tonfa, which took the cloud guardian mildly by surprise.
"Hmm…Tonfa as well?" He asked somewhat incredulously. "That is your weapon of choice?"
"Yeah, they're the weapons I'm the most comfortable with using." The young Cavallone boss explained casually, then continued with an almost apologetic smile. "Believe me, when Dino tried to teach me how to use a whip I found myself in tangles and whenever Rosetta visited she would try to teach me to use her weapon but I would come from that with bruises and a black eye on more than one occasion. That's when I found these tonfa. They're a good mid ground for me."
"Hmm," Hibari uttered, almost sounding impressed before raising his weapons, adopting his fighting stance once more. "Well then, let's see how long you can withstand my attacks, and if you're worthy of wielding those tonfa."
He then shot forward with no warning at all and attempted to strike Vero down immediately to teach him a lesson. The blonde was initially caught off guard but quickly dodged to the right. Hibari didn't hesitate in changing his direction, turning effortlessly while swinging his tonfa at him again.
Unfortunately it barely missed as Vero dodged again, stumbling backwards. The cloud guardian took this chance to now strike from the front with an uppercut, but was stopped by mere inches when Vero used a cable whip attachment from his tonfa to block it.
"So I was right. You have my old set…" the raven haired male concluded as he shot a glare at his student.
Vero let out a relieved chuckle and while smirking remarked, "Yeah, Dino's had them. He also taught me this nifty defensive maneuver."
The young Cavallone boss then withdrew and shifted back into a battle stance as his mentor straightened and continued to glare down at him.
"You've done enough dodging and guarding," he commented suspiciously. "But you haven't even attacked me once. Are you even capable of doing so?"
"If I told you that it would ruin the fun of the battle, wouldn't it?" Vero replied with a somewhat confident smile.
Hibari just narrowed his eyes at his student even more suspiciously as he stated, "That…sounds a lot like something she would say."
The blonde figured he was referring to Rosetta and replied almost nervously with, "I-Is that so?"
The raven haired male thought it was odd that the teen stuttered his response and had trouble meeting his gaze, but they were short on their allotted time. He then ducked down a little and ran forward. Surprisingly Vero ran to meet him.
Hibari made the first swing but the blonde dodged again and seemed like he was preparing for a counter. The cloud guardian noticed this and quickly attacked but was blocked this time.
He was mildly thrown off by his student's action but had to make a swift recovery as Vero was now aiming a roundhouse kick to his upper torso. The raven haired male quickly blocked it with one tonfa, then attacked with the other.
The young Cavallone boss blocked again, took a small step back, and tried to aim another powerful kick at his opponent's chest but was blocked himself. He was then pushed back and he stumbled backwards before collapsing into a sitting position from exhaustion.
"You're stronger than I had initially thought," Hibari remarked as he stood over his student. "But you're still weak. I was only using a third of my full strength and you didn't even land a single hit on me."
He then put his tonfa away and added with an unimpressed tone, "We're done for today. We spar again tomorrow. Same time." He then turned and left the room without another word.
Vero sat alone in silent contemplation as he recovered from his workout until he started to feel hungry again so he rose and left for the dining hall. As he approached he could smell that some food had been prepared, and when he entered he found Ryohei and Yamamoto having their afternoon meals.
The two guardians noticed his entrance and greeted him warmly. Vero awkwardly returned the greeting and then joined them after preparing his meal.
"I guess it's just the three of us taking it nice and easy." Yamamoto commented aloud casually after some time had passed.
"Is it usually like this?" Vero asked curiously.
"Yeah, we're usually really busy so all of us dine here at different times." The rain guardian replied. "Though if Tsuna and Gokudera are bogged down with paperwork they usually eat in their offices or not at all, and Hibari always goes off on his own like usual." - his voice then took a more curious tone as he continued - "How did your first day with him go by the way?"
"Well he was using only a third of his strength so I'm the one who ended up beaten and exhausted in the end." The young Cavallone boss stated in response, sounding a bit disheartened. "I mean, I was able to hold my own pretty well when evading and blocking his attacks but I couldn't land any hits on him. I've got my work cut out for me after all…"
As he finished the blonde gazed down upon his plate, already feeling exhausted for the upcoming training sessions. He didn't have long to wallow in it though as Ryohei suddenly snapped him out of it by forcefully patting him on the back as a form of encouragement.
"Don't let it worry you! Not everyone succeeds on the first try!" He exclaimed with an encouraging and positive tone in his voice. "You just need to train more and gain that experience!"
"And you're not in it alone either. We're all here to help you out." Yamamoto added. "By the way I know you just trained with Hibari this morning but I have some free time this afternoon. Want to get a head start on training with me?"
Knowing that the rain guardian's expertise in swordsmanship was the reason he came to Japan, and would give him the experience he needed when eventually facing Nero, Vero eagerly agreed. And so, after finishing their meals Yamamoto led Vero to the elevator which took them to the tenth floor.
As they walked out the young Cavallone boss' jaw automatically dropped, for he found himself standing in a Japanese style building complete with wooden floors that had sections of it covered with tatami mats, and sliding paper doors.
He quickly realized that his mouth had been hanging open and shook himself out of it just in time to see the rain guardian duck into one of the rooms ahead. He quickly followed the older man into that room and saw that some straw dummy targets had been prepared prior to their arrival.
To start Yamamoto established that he couldn't promise Vero would be able to perfectly defend himself against Nero, considering he didn't use the Shigure Soen Ryu style like him. The young Cavallone boss understood this, as any training with a swordsman would give him the insight he needed.
The two of them started with the basics, then immediately moved on to sparring. Thankfully his experience with fighting Hibari helped a little, but there was still the added threat of being sliced. Yamamoto did use the back of his blade to fight in that case, yet still fought with intense seriousness.
And so Vero was worked nearly to the bone for the next few days, fighting Hibari in the mornings, then Yamamoto in the afternoons. He tried his best but his growth seemed to be going slower than he wanted it to. That all changed however on what he was told was his last day with the cloud guardian as his mentor…
Vero had fought his best fight, taking on Hibari's challenge at trying to land a single hit on him but he had failed countless times and was now on his last legs. As he collapsed he gazed up towards the cloud guardian, seeing that he looked like he was getting bored of their battle.
"I'm getting tired of this." He said, yawning as he turned away.
He then started to leave, but Vero used the cable whip attachment of his tonfa to latch onto one of his ankles.
Just as Hibari stopped to shoot a glare at him he uttered slowly, "I'm…not done…yet."
The raven haired male easily kicked himself free of the cable and then fully faced his student.
"You're barely standing and you're having difficulty staying conscious," he stated while looking down on his student. "You have failed my challenge, therefore our time here is over. It doesn't matter whether you've shown growth or not."
He meant to really leave, but seeing a certain look in Vero's eyes made him take pause.
'I see them…the flames of resolve are burning brightly within this boy, just as you've said…Rosetta Mezzanotte.' He thought before making his decision.
"Very well. I will allow you to have one final chance," Hibari explained aloud before shifting into his stance once more. "But if you do not land a hit on me you fail and you'll never receive any more mentoring from me."
"Agreed." Vero responded with no hesitation as soon as the cloud guardian had finished.
With that the two ran at each other on last time, Vero attacking with renewed and increased vigor. Hibari readied himself for it and within seconds the battle was over, with Vero knocked out cold on the ground and his mentor standing over him, victorious.
"You should've known you were too weak to pull this off and yet you accepted anyway. How foolish." He said seriously just as he felt something dripping down his cheek. He wiped it off, discovering that it was blood and smirked for the young man had subverted his expectations.
"Hmph. You may have foolishly accepted the bet, but managed to pass…barely. Maybe fighting with you won't be so boring after all."
He then scribbled a quick note on some paper and left it with the young Cavallone boss before heading to his part of the base for some well needed rest.