Title: Hell Mode
Summary: Tsuna gets stuck in an otome game except he's a genre savvy hardcore gamer. Reborn is sceptical Tsuna will last the week.
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Tsuna is sixteen years old, sitting on the floor of his bedroom in front of his low coffee table, still in his pyjamas since his breakfast was interrupted by some strange cross between the 'mentor' and 'game guide' tropes in the form of a hitman baby wearing a fancy black suit and cute little fedora.
Tsuna has now been in a time freeze for twenty minutes as he plays the tutorial because unlike mashing the keyboard, apparently this Dying Will Flame thing is a lot more complicated when you have to use your real body.
"Never mind," Reborn tsks, sitting cross-legged on the table in front of Tsuna, and probably annoyed at still having to help pull up menus when apparently it's meant to be easy.
"Wait, I think I felt it that time," Tsuna insists, fingers pressed against his temples, squinting off into the distance.
"No, you felt your last two brain cells die off," Reborn retorts, wide black eyes adorable but disdainful. "I'll do the Flames manually on my end, you'll pick it up as the game goes. Or you'll die trying I guess."
Tsuna sighs and flops forward, fluffy brown hair bouncing, resting his cheek on folded forearms and frowning at Reborn. "You never told me about check points."
"Leon comes in later, he's my animal companion," Reborn explains. "If you somehow die before he's introduced then you restart here."
"Shouldn't I get the animal companion?" Tsuna wonders. "Or are you my animal companion?"
Reborn raises an eyebrow at Tsuna. "I thought you said you were a gamer."
"Don't you mock me, that is a serious title and I wear it with pride," Tsuna complains jokingly. "I suppose you've never seen a proper one before considering this is an otome game," he scoffs.
"Oh, you think this is going to be easy for you?" Reborn hums in amusement but the way his cute smirk curls up it sound rather sadistic.
Tsuna sits up with a dismissive wave. "What, five capture targets to romance? I can't pay to win since I'm broke but are you really trying to tell me grinding dates for affection points is going to be difficult?"
"Wow," Reborn deadpans. "I literally just saw everything I explained about Mafia Flames fall out of your ears when you moved your head too fast."
"Yeah, I fight a couple bad guys with gang magic, what's the big deal?" Tsuna pauses. "Right? Reborn, right? Why are you making that face?"
"You know what?" Reborn muses holding up his hands. "You keep believing you can speedrun this, so I can laugh when it finally hits you and you have a panic attack."
Tsuna's eyes light up. "Can you speedrun this?"
"Would you like the short answer, or the one that caters to your obsessive need to replay every game in the hardest difficulty?"
"The second one please," Tsuna says obediently.
"To win the game you need to max out affection with a capture target and then pick the right choices to seal the deal, which varies depending on target. All very basic stuff." Reborn starts pulling up slightly opaque black screens, bordered in sparkly gold, and navigates to the capture targets tab who are currently black silhouettes and information boxes filled with [?].
"However," Reborn continues, and start scrolling with a small hand. "If you have the affection points with at least one capture target but dodge the subsequent confessions, the game will then move onto the next arc. Unless you romance a target properly, the story will keep unfolding." Reborn hits the end of the tab, where there's text in a small font saying [Unlockable with next arc].
"That's a lot of capture targets," Tsuna observes. There are six black silhouettes for the first arc and judging by the way Reborn is talking there's quite a few arcs in total.
"People can be added as capture targets too," Reborn warns. "If you want to date Background Character C, the game will adjust. Once they're added, there's no taking them off and you have to watch out for if their affection dips too far into the negatives, just like with the main capture targets."
"And if gets too low, what's considered a bad end? I lose the Vongola or whatever?" Tsuna asks.
"They'll try to kill you," Reborn says, shutting off the screens. "It's almost like you don't understand the word 'Mafia'."
"Wait, like actually try to kill me?" Tsuna blurts out. "No, but then I'll respawn and they'll still have low affection so how do I fix that if I saved only an hour before? Can I pick what checkpoints I want?"
"You revive at your last save," Reborn says carelessly with a shrug. "Work fast. Of course, a bad ending doesn't automatically mean game over because this is also a fighting game so you can just beat them up and their affection will zero out if you win."
"Glad to know violence is the answer," Tsuna mutters, leaning back against the side of his bed and stretching his legs out under the table. "How negative is too negative?"
"Depends on the character," Reborn explains. "For example, Kyouya always starts in the negatives but no matter how low you go, he won't kill you because you're a herbivore and that's a waste of his time. Xanxus will start the death plotting at positive 20%. The opposite is true too, in that Hayato can be over maxed past positive 100%."
"Herbi – wait, herbivore? Hibari is a capture target?!" Tsuna shrieks in horror.
"He's not nearly the worst you'll encounter," Reborn says in amusement. "Wait until you unlock Hyper Dying Will Mode Tsuna."
"I can romance myself?" Tsuna pauses a moment. "You've only mentioned boy names."
"The Mafia is mostly made up of men. There are female capture targets but not many."
Tsuna shrugs it off. "My gaming prowess is not restricted to gender."
"I hate when you talk."
"Get in line," Tsuna retorts because he's been slinging 'your mum' jokes in chat since his absentee father dropped off a PlayStation when Tsuna was eight. "What's the plot?"
"That would spoil the game," Reborn tsks with a wag of his tiny finger.
"Okay, well which capture target is the most interesting?" Tsuna tries again.
"Is fighting to the death not enough for you?" Reborn asks dryly.
"It's dating and a basic fighting game with extra fire thrown in, I really don't think it's going to keep my attention for long," Tsuna admits, not arrogantly just genuinely explaining himself. "I speedrun Cuphead for fun, you're going to have to give me something more."
"You can do whatever you want," Reborn points out. "Some arcs are restrictive but you can take over Vongola early, plant spies in the police force, take over the world."
"I'm not so into the political genre," Tsuna hums. "And I don't know, if I'm not getting notifications from it, I don't think I'd care enough. I need instant gratification."
Reborn rolls his eyes.
"So there must be a harem ending, right?" Tsuna guesses.
"You can romance any number or mix of people at once, you just have to juggle their affection," Reborn allows.
"Can I romance the evil guy who tries to take over the world in the end? Any hidden characters?"
"Yes and yes," Reborn answers, uncaring.
"Is there an ending when I'm still single? Kind of like a 'I don't need no man' empowerment route?"
"You'd have to max all your stats and finally pass a maths test so good luck on that, Dame-Tsuna."
"Ugh, don't talk about IRL when I'm playing," Tsuna grumbles. "Come on, any you'd recommend? You'll have to follow me around the whole time, don't tell me you want some vanilla route, let's go after the weirdoes-"
"I'm not involved past guiding you on the basics," Reborn cuts in. "I can't interfere past that – which also includes in fights. You're on your own."
Tsuna leans forward, crossing his legs again and propping his elbows on the table. "Wait, are you a capture target?"
Reborn pauses and raises an eyebrow. "I'm a baby."
"But if you weren't a possible target, why didn't they make you a talking animal companion trope?" Tsuna points out. "You've got a curse or something on you, don't you? I can only unlock your route after I've fixed it and you turn back into an adult I'm guessing."
Reborn says nothing, pursing his lips.
"Wait, are you the super secret hidden character?" Tsuna says in delight. He laughs, eyes narrowing. "Oh, Reborn, you and I are going to get to know each other very well."
"I'm saying this for your sake; don't even bother," Reborn deadpans.
"Excuse me? What's the point of playing a game on normal mode like some loser?" Tsuna scoffs. "Can you even say no when I drag you out on dates?" Tsuna gasps as he realises. "You have to stay with me anyway, so I can grind your route even faster than anyone else!"
Reborn's expression is perfectly even but his eyes look like an abyss. "To unlock me as a character, you need to have every single capture target's affection above a certain level, and play to the end of the game, before fixing the Easter egg Trinisette curse. Then even if you do get my affection levels up, you have to face off against the other Arcobaleno, who are my six exes, in order to prove yourself."
"Who are they, probably Mafia Dons?" Tsuna guesses excitedly. "Do I need to fight their goons with Vongola and then have a duel at the end?"
"Well Lal has an army but no, generally we're all solo, and considered the Mafia's Seven Strongest," Reborn explains with a frown. "Which means a whole lot of respawns in your future if you really want to waste that much time."
"Nothing you're saying is putting me off," Tsuna admits happily. "Hell mode difficulty here I come."
"There will be cutscenes," Reborn stresses.
"Fade to black sex?" Tsuna wonders.
"This game is PG13, get your mind out of the gutter!" Reborn tsks. "You haven't even met any of the possible targets. You have a childhood crush capture target."
"Kyoko?" Tsuna realises and then narrows his eyes. "Reborn, come on, you think I'm going to get distracted from the game by some girl? I'm a professional."
"You stream to barely a hundred people."
"Still technically making money, which means it's a profession and I'm thus a professional," Tsuna replies quickly.
"You know most people would try and end this is as soon as possible to get back to their normal lives where they don't have to fight to the death."
"I'm bullied constantly and my parents don't care about me, what part of escapism don't you understand?"
There's a pause.
"That came out a little too truthful," Tsuna laughs with a nervous edge.
"Don't think you'll get me on pity, I'm a hitman and I kill people," Reborn warns. "…come on, I'm restarting time again, let's go meet your capture targets."
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Other story lines within this one:
1. "Hibari – wait, I'm sorry! There was only two dialogue options! Hibari – Hibari, please!"
2. Tsuna pants, holding up a hand. "Wait, I'm still not getting these controls. Mukuro, one second, I never passed the tutorial, let me just-"
3. "Xanxus' game profile literally says illegitimate heir," Tsuna mutters to Reborn sitting on his shoulder. "How will he use the rings if it's by blood - ooooh this whole thing is artificially contrived conflict to pad the run time and get me more hot boys to romance."
4. "What the hell kind of character archetype is Byakuran?" Tsuna asks in confusion. "I already have yandere Mukuro, Lambo is a toddler oresama, Xanxus is overbearing president but he's got a grudge. Is Byakuran just OP psycho? But I already have so many OP psychos."
"You are in the Mafia," Reborn points out.
5. Tsuna turns to Reborn, a shit-eating grin on his face. "Guess who broke the Easter egg curse huh?!"
A newly grown adult Reborn sighs as an affection meter appears above his head now that he's been unlocked.
6. After the eighth time Colonnello -the weakest Arcobaleno- beats the shit out of Tsuna, Tsuna weakly holds up hand from where he's crumpled on the ground. "We can share," he tries. "We can share Reborn, there's no need for this violence."
7. The cutscene -started after Tsuna trips over his stupid backpack- leaves them flat on the bed, Tsuna having just barely caught himself over Reborn on his hands and knees.
"Why didn't you dodge that?" Tsuna asks in confusion.
"It's a cutscene, it won't let me," Reborn grits out, grabbing Tsuna by the face and shoving him onto the ground.
8. Tsuna turns away, the kiss landing softly on his cheek, the twelfth confession from Reborn that Tsuna has dodged. "Could try the new BBQ place," Tsuna says, sitting on the floor against the side of his bed and one of Reborn's long legs, still scrolling on his phone like nothing happened.
Reborn pulls himself away, sitting up on the bed, eyes dark even with the morning sunlight streaming into Tsuna's bedroom. "Why won't you end it? You've already won, why are you still making me do this?"
"It's a bit far though if we're walking
"Tsuna!" Reborn snarls. "Why are you still playing?"
Tsuna holds his phone but he isn't focusing on the screen. "When it ends, where do you go?"
"I don't vanish off the face of the earth, if that's what you're asking."
"But are you allowed to stay with me?" Tsuna asks, finally turning to look at Reborn. "Would you even want to?"
Reborn says nothing and Tsuna glances back down at his phone.
"Find me in Italy," Reborn murmurs quietly. "I'm not wasting my time in little suburbia but if you find me…I wouldn't mind."
Tsuna's head whips around, eyes wide. Reborn leans down again and Tsuna hesitates but closes the gap. Their first kiss is interrupted by the game cheering, announcing Tsuna cleared it successfully on Hell Mode. Tsuna sits in an empty room and wonders if Reborn lied to him.
