The summer morning was strangely cold today, Hide and Adam were both out on their daily jog and Hide was, as usual, the slowest and got tired the quickest. To be fair, Hide was running with a rope around his waist that was tied to a tire where Reborn sat in while shooting at Hide's feet.
"Why does it always end in shooting!?" Hide gasped for air while running.
"Look! It's Grandhart-kun!" he heard, some girls from his school were standing at the top of the hill near the river bank and were pointing at Hide and Adam.
"Isn't that the underwear guy too?" the other girl asked.
"Who cares!" said the girl who had first spoken, she and the other girl waved at them cheerfully, "Work hard you guys!"
"Good luck with the Boxing Club, Grandhart-kun!"
"Thanks!" Adam waved, completely unfazed by the long run, "Even though I'm not even in the Boxing Club!"
"Kyaa~! He waved back!" the girls squealed and ran off in a different direction.
"Hide, maybe you should be more popular?" Reborn suggested.
"It's harder than it looks!" he yelled, but this only encouraged more shooting.
When his tutor ran out of bullets, he had ordered the two to start doing push-ups and then sit-ups. Adam did fifty push-ups and seventy five sit-ups before actually getting tired. Hide couldn't even do one of each.
"You Weak-Hide," said Reborn, "How do you expect to fight if you can't even do one push up? The Eleventh could do at least three before passing out."
That doesn't make him much better than me than! Hide screamed in his head.
"Hahah! Reborn, the Eleventh is a great man," Adam laughed, "He's strong, handsome, and smart; I heard that it was immediately decided that he would become Boss, and even then no one opposed this decision made by the Tenth!"
Wait, the Eleventh's my uncle right? Hide thought, Wasn't he the one that said I was going to be Boss?
"That's wrong Hide," said Reborn, "It was the Tenth, not the Eleventh, who decided."
"How'd you know what I was thinking?"
"I can read your mind, remember?"
"That makes no sense!" Hide pointed out, he regained his composure and then asked, "And why would Grandfather pick me? Shouldn't the Eleventh have picked someone, preferably someone that wasn't me?"
"You're forgetting Hide," the infant reminded, "The Eleventh did have sons."
"Yeah, I heard about how all three died and stuff," he said quickly, he didn't really want to remember exactly how the other heirs died, "But why didn't he choose me?
"You mean you didn't know Boss?" Adam asked slightly surprised, "That the Eleventh had four sons?"
Hide blinked and asked, "What?"
"Yeah, his fourth son died of an illness," he continued, "Then it was really weird, cause one by one all his sons started being picked off, and within a month they were all dead. I heard that the Eleventh was so distraught about it that he couldn't even function at all, so the Tenth had to take his spot and find another successor quickly."
Hide's eyes widened and he said shakily, "S-So I was just a last minute casualty in all of this?"
"Ah, no, that's not what I meant Bo-" Adam began.
"Stop it!" he yelled, he got off the ground and stood up, "Stop calling me 'Boss' alright? I thought it was weird! Everything is all that old bastard's fault, no matter how you look at it! He completely ruined my life!"
"Hide, calm down…" Reborn began cautiously.
"NO! I don't want to be calm!" Hide yelled, "What I want is my life back! My normal life with my normal friends and my normal home!"
"But you're not normal Boss," Adam began.
"No! Stop!" Hide yelled and covered his ears, his eyes widened and he said shakily, "I-I have an assignment from science class that I need to finish! And I'm gonna meet up with Morita-kun this afternoon, I better get changed and take a shower so I don't smell! Ha-ha-ha!"
The laughter was forced, a hint of fear was in Hide's trembling voice. Hide's eyes were wide and he kept shifting his gaze as if he was trying to find an escape route somewhere.
"Boss…?" said Adam worriedly.
"Well I've got to go, see you guys later!" Hide waved and quickly ran off.
"What's wrong with him?" asked the foreigner.
"He's avoiding the issue," said Reborn, "It's the same move that Tsuna tried to pull off when things finally started to get serious with him and his Family."
"Who?"
"That's not important," he shook his head and took out Leon from his jacket, the lizard was now in the shape of a hammer but quickly changed into a totem pole and in Reborn's other hand was a something long, thin, and green.
"What's up with Leon?" Adam asked.
"His tail fell off," the home tutor said grimly, "The time has come sooner than I expected…"
~8~
Hanabi walked down the streets of Namimori carrying a grocery bag over her shoulder and strolling down the concrete with a dull look on her face. She was bored as ever and as nothing was happening and nothing was probably going to continue happening through out the day she was now just walking around aimlessly. Hanabi stopped when she heard someone running down the street and brightened up when she realized it was Hide.
"Hey, Twelfth I got a good deal on some watermelon today at the super market-" she began cheerfully but Hide ran past her as if she didn't exist.
"And then I have to get started on the math homework or the teacher will scold me in front of the class again…" he was mumbling.
"Twelfth?" Hanabi questioned and started to head off to the direction he was going.
She went five paces before feeling the killing intent on her back; she kept on walking until she was reached the playground in Namimori Park. It was completely empty, being that the elementary school was out on a field trip for the whole week. Hanabi stopped as soon as she reached the swing set and turned around cautiously with a few cards in her hand.
And then she said in a quiet, low tone, "Who's there?"
~8~
The boxers of Namimori Middle were in top condition today, or at least in Morita's opinion, even though competitions wouldn't start until the winter it was still important to train for it. The boxers ran through the streets of Namimori City in an almost bunched up group. People would move out of the way for the athletes, mainly because they were afraid of being trampled by them on their morning jog.
"C-Captain, can we please stop…" a boxer said tiredly, "We've been running for two straight hours..."
"Well fine, let's head back to the school," Morita said and then quickly added, "But we're running back!"
The teammates all groaned in half-approval and half-weariness. They started running back to Namimori in their tightly compacted group with Morita leading the group. As they left, something came out of one of the stores and watched them leave before quietly following.
~8~
Suzuki walked out of Takesushi and sat down on the hovercycle's platform, he leaned over to open the cooler that was tied onto the hovercycle, took out a soda, and waited. He took a sip and decided to lament on how hot it was today.
"It'll probably get hotter tomorrow no thanks to these sun spots," he said thoughtfully, "Maybe we should start selling shaved ice?"
Suzuki looked down each side of the street, he saw no one, he gulped the last of the soda and crushed it in his hand before going back in the restaurant.
"See anyone?" the owner of Takesushi asked.
"Nah," Suzuki shrugged and sat down at the bar, "Just this summer air..."
Yamamoto scratched his head from behind the sushi bar before sighing. Kids these days weren't even that good at bringing in business, Yamamoto could remember when this restaurant had been bustling. There were parties being hosted here all the time in the evenings and it was extraordinarily crowded at lunch, him and all his friends would either hang out here most of the time just to eat. Of course there had been the odd time that Suzuki would bring in a crowd of girls that followed him from school, but they were all on 'diets' even though each and every girl in that crowd were sticks. Once Suzuki had even brought in the baseball team after they won a game, Yamamoto knew the coach from highschool so it was pretty fun.
"I'm gonna go back outside now," the boy said before heading out.
Yamamoto sighed as he watched the boy go, no one was going to come. At least not for a while...
~8~
Hide slammed the door behind him and ran up to his room ignoring the singing from his mother in the kitchen, he shut his bedroom door and locked the door before collapsing onto his bed. He fixed his eyes to the white ceiling and stared at it silently while trying to empty his mind. The thoughts of becoming a Mafia Boss were gone, he had told himself, he had no homework or school tomorrow so that was good...and he was going hang out with Morita in a few hours, heck, maybe he could Suzuki to come with also.
"I should take a shower," he stated but stayed in his bed.
An hour passed before he finally got up and walked towards the door, his hand hesitated at the wall-pad but Hide rested his hand on it anyways. The door opened and no one was there, Hide looked around, turned back to get a change of clothes, and snuck off to the bathroom. After he was done with his shower, he tip-toed his way downstairs and found no one in the living room nor in the kitchen. He searched all over the house and found that no one was in the house which was strange since Hide did not remember if his mother had said she was going out to do errands today.
Hide walked around the house cautiously incase this was some sort of trap set up by Reborn, he shrugged when he guessed that no one was actually around so he sat down on the couch and reached for the remote. He turned on the TV and the news came on, the woman on the news was warning and cautioning every body about the sun spots that had been recently occurring The phone started to ring at that moment, Hide looked over to the white sphere that was ringing and pressed something on to make a phone come out. He picked it up and pressed a button on the sphere to stop the ringing.
"Hello?" he asked.
"Hide-kun?" it was Hide's mother, her voice sounded strangely worried, "Oh my, Hide-kun, I'm at the hospital..."
"You're where!?" Hide stood up immediately, his eyes widened with fear.
"Hide-kun, it turns out that Hanabi-chan, that girl that comes over a lot, well her parents are out of town and..."
"What? What's wrong with Gokudera-san mom?" Hide asked with caution.
"Well...they-they found her in the park, she was badly injured but she's okay now...they say she'll be alright so you don't have to worry Hide-kun. It looks like she was attacked or something-what? What is-Is that the-Oh my..." the mother's voice was drowned out by the incoming sounds of sirens and yelling.
"M-Mom? Are you still there?" Hide dared to ask.
"Wha-Oh, yes-yes...Hide-kun, do you know anyone on the Boxing Team?" Hide dropped the telephone causing the speaker-phone to activate, a hole opened up within the sphere and the mother's worried face was now projected on some invisible screen in the air of the living room, the background behind the mother was a large, white room with paramedics and doctors and policemen running around the place with floating capsules that held the incoming emergency patients. Hide could have sworn that he saw that familiar brown-haired team captain in one of the capsules.
Hide ran out of the living room, the mother was left on the screen looking around the room worriedly.
"Hide-kun? Hideyoshi! It's dangerous, do not go outside! I just asked a police man and he said-" the electricity was then cut through out the neighborhood, had Hide stayed in the house longer he would have been trapped within it and probably would have died.
~8~
"Tch, missed him by this much," a whip cracked like lightening on the rooftop of a nearby house.
"You could have been slightly quicker," small red beads were thrown up in the air before being caught in the same hand that threw them up, "Could have been a good game of 'Hide and Seek'."
"That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard of."
"Is it now? Maybe we should just settle this once and for all then...?"
"Now, now..." metallic nails with a purple glint to them clutched two throats, "We have been granted voices, the least we can do for that person is kill him."
Three pairs of cold, dead eyes stared at the young boy that ran down the streets with a worried expression. The metallic nails let go of the throats and the arms connected to the nails folded, "Sawada Tsunayoshi..."
~8~
Hide stumbled as he ran through the empty streets with his sandals on, he stopped for a moment to catch his breath and thought that everything seemed so surreal now. The running, the push-ups, the shower, and the hospital. It was as if everything was just a dream, but it was all too real to just be a dream now. It seemed that the entire Boxing Team had been beaten up from the image that Hide saw on the phone's visual screen.
"This can't be..." he muttered to himself, "I-I...I was going to see Morita-kun in like, two hours! And we were probably gonna go see a movie with Suzuki if he was free, then maybe Gokudera-san would find me and invite herself into our group, who knows maybe we could see Megumi-chan as well, heh, heh!"
"Don't be ridiculous Hide," Hide turned around and saw Reborn, he would have asked where the baby had come from but Hide then realized that Reborn could have been around all this time since he had stopped on a bridge.
"Reborn...wh-where's Adam...?" the boy asked.
"Adam can take care of himself," said Reborn coldly, "What's more important is that I have tell you something."
"But Gokudera-san, and Morita-kun, and-and the hospital! I-I ha-" Hide began, Reborn quickly jumped up and kicked the back of his head.
"Things happen all the time," the infant stated, "It won't change if you are there to witness it. What matters is what is happening now," Reborn paused in case Hide decided to say something and continued, "Now, exactly why do you think Morita and Hanabi were attacked?"
"I don't know! They both have nothing in common except...for..." Hide voice trailed off, "What about Suzuki? And Adam? And mom, and gramps, and Megumi-chan, and that weird stalker-girl, are they all alright?"
"Adam went to check on Suzuki and your grandfather," said Reborn, "Your mother and Megumi are at the hospital, which is a too public place to attack someone, and Katsura is out of town with her family."
Hide sighed with relief and quickly looked around with caution before whispering, "Reborn, what am I going to do? I can't fight against assassins!"
Reborn thought about this and said, "It would have been better if we had gotten to train Morita and Suzuki for combat, and it also would have been nice if Anna was here as well."
This is horrible, how in the world did this turn into the worst possible situation? Hide thought miserably.
~8~
Adam ran up to Takesushi and saw Suzuki waiting outside the restaurant peacefully, he was completely uninjured and didn't seem to hear what had happened to the Boxing Team yet.
"Suzuki!" Adam called out, the boy looked up and brightened when he saw the other.
"Hey, Adam right? Are you hungry?" Suzuki asked eagerly.
Adam thought about how hungry he actually was before shaking his head and said, "Never mind that, didn't you hear what happened to Smoking Bomb?"
"You mean Hanabi?" Suzuki asked, he realized that everyone playing the 'Mafia game' had a nickname except for him, he was going to have to make one up now, "Why? What happened?"
"She was sent to the hospital," Suzuki dropped his soda and gave Adam a wide-eyed look, "It looks like someone from a, uh, rival team got to her and Sakuraba Morita."
The boy relaxed when he heard the familiar words, "A rival team, huh? So we're playing against other teams now?"
"Yup, that's right," Adam nodded and said, "We need to get to the hospital though in order to meet up with everyone. Why don't I go inside and ask Hide's gramps if he wants to join in also, the more the merrier right?"
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Suzuki agreed cheerfully, "We won't be having any customers any time soon, so why not?"
"I wouldn't exactly say that so soon," said a voice, two black army boots stopped in front of the boys.
~8~
Didn't I tell you it was exciting? Eh? EH? Well, just here to say that I won't be updating for about a week, not because of my computer but just because I have decided to devote the rest of the week to study, study, STUDY!
On a side-note: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! does not belong to me, it belongs to Amano Akira