Note from the Author:Hide's Weapon is now a two-way tie! :O Between the Bo staff and the Boots, it'll be interesting for me to write those into the story line ;) But you can still vote! Polls close May 31st so you should all totally vote now!
And as always, read and review :)
~8~
"For some reason my stomach suddenly hurts," Hide muttered to himself.
"That's the feeling of pride from watching your subordinates fight," said Reborn wisely.
"No, I think it's the feeling of guilt from watching your friends fight for no apparent reason," he said weakly.
At the moment, Hide's friends were currently fighting against a Box Weapon that was really angry and a Box Weapon that was really scared. The vast difference between the two personalities was one thing, but it was a little weird how they both could suddenly get along and then not. And Hide, himself, was not very comfortable with the idea of just standing around and watching his friends fight, but Reborn had said that there was only one Dying Will Bullet left and that meant he could only do something when it was really needed.
"Let's win this, right Sakuraba?" said Suzuki as he readied his bat to swing at any moment.
"Yeah!" the boxer nodded, he flexed his gloves and spikes formed on his knuckles.
"Aren't we getting cocky now?" Raphael frowned, "Poseidon, take the brown-haired human, I'll take the black-haired human."
"R-right Raphael," Poseidon trembled.
Suzuki frowned and said, "Wait a minute, I want to fight you! I want a rematch after you beat me in front of the restaurant!"
Poseidon squinted its sapphire eyes at Suzuki, it hesitated a moment before asking uncertainly, "Who are you again?"
"Suzuki, are you sure this is the same guy?" Hide asked, "Did gramps make a mistake?"
"No," he shook his head, "that's definitely Poseidon, you look a little different but you're still the same. I don't forget faces easily."
"Raphael, I think this guy wants to fight me really badly," said the blue-Box, the green-Box pointed its whip towards the other threateningly and said:
"Don't make me whip you."
"But-but-" the Box began.
"Will you shut up? This is all the humans' fault!" it yelled, tightening its grip on its whip, "The humans abandoned us! They are the worse things ever!"
"But the humans opened you," a voice piped in, they all looked at Reborn who was popping pieces of popcorn into his mouth, he swallowed his latest piece and continued, "Humans built you, made you, opened you. They put their whole hearts into getting just one of you to open. Humans put their emotions into you as well," the infant pointed at Raphael and said, "Anger," he moved his finger to Poseidon, "Fear," then he pointed past them, towards where a red-haired figure was standing, "And Insanity."
Hide's eyes widened when he saw the other Box, it stood at the end of the hall about twenty meters away from them with its arms crossed. The young boss was filled with shock and horror when he saw the Box; it almost made him fall to his knees.
"Storm Loki," Reborn stated.
Oh no…dreadful thoughts ran through Hide's head, he could feel himself trembling and he remembered the amount of power the Box, Nyx, had shown with only a swoop of one hand, this could be the worst possible situation that could happen…
"Loki!" Raphael roared angrily towards the red-Box, "You should be in the Storm Room!" Loki smiled its white smile, "How could I wait in a small, dark room when the target I'm aiming for has shown itself already."
"Hey, I already called him as my opponent!" the green-Box yelled.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Loki waved a finger in the air, "Now, now little Raphael, you already knew I wanted my vengeance on this…boy."
"Oh really!" it scoffed and waved a hand in their direction, "And what will you do about this!"
The Storm Box smiled and said, "I'll do what ever I want."
The red beads Loki had dropped out of its pocket and rolled onto the ground had gone unnoticed up until the point where they exploded.
~8~
Anna looked up when she felt the ground shake. She stayed still on the stairs for a moment and waited for some crumbs of the building to fall down.
"Something lively must be happening," she spoke, and then she continued on her way up.
~8~
Hanabi swung the door open from the stairs and saw nothing. She glanced around quickly and shut the door loudly to run up the stairs. The feelings of overwhelming worry over her beloved Twelfth were starting to get to her. And when she had heard the explosion that had occurred, her 'Gokudera-senses' tingled and made her want to run immediately to where Hide was. However, the factor of Hide's unknown location just made her frustrated.
She ran back up the stairs to where the source of the explosion might have occurred and swung open the door along the staircase.
"Twelfth?" she said with a hopeful look on her face, she met with a large gust of air and dust.
The floor she had entered was covered in a fog of dust and plaster crumbs that were floating in the air. Nevertheless, she trudged into the level of the base as she was absolutely sure that the explosion had occurred here.
"Twelfth!" she called out while coughing out the dust in the air.
"Hanabi-san?" she turned around sharply and met face to face with Suzuki, who had a baffled look on his face.
"Oh great, it's you," Hanabi rolled her eyes and clasped a hand to her face.
"Wait, Hanabi-san-!" he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the way just before a long black coil whipped through the air.
"Get your hands off me!" the bomber yelled and pulled her arm out from Suzuki's grip, "Now, what the hell was that?"
"It's those Cube-thingies that Reborn told us about," he began before Hanabi corrected him.
"You mean Box?"
"Yeah those," the raven-haired boy nodded enthusiastically, "Well, we sort of found two of them, and then this other Box came. Oh, and right now we're kinda in battle with them."
Hanabi stared at the baseball player with an 'Are you serious?' look and sighed tiredly, "Geez, I had already got done with a fight with another Box who didn't even want to fight, and now I'm getting caught up in a fight against three Boxes."
"Well, Sakuraba is here too," said Suzuki helpfully.
"Oh yeah, the giant," she said, "I'll fight, but don't expect me to look out for you or anything, my plans are to protect the Twelfth and not anyone else."
The raven-haired boy stared at her for a few seconds and smiled, "That's fine by me. Hide needs someone to look after him."
He turned away from Hanabi and swung his baseball bat. There was the sound of a satisfying thud as the bat met with something hidden in the fog of dust. A silhouette stumbled back and a trident was thrust forward at them by something else. Hanabi immediately recognized it and grabbed the stick part of the trident.
"Oh no you don't, you Poseidon-bastard, this is payback for beating me earlier!" she growled and ran into the fog.
Suzuki swung his back again to hit the silhouette more, and as he moved in closer he saw the silhouette much more clearer. It was the red-Box, Loki, and despite the repeated number of hits to the face with a metal bat, was still staring straight at Suzuki with a bright smile on its face.
"You're practically mocking me with this strength," it said and grabbed Suzuki's bat right when the boy swung it again, "I cannot even believe that Poseidon found this troublesome."
"Well, I haven't been able to get the surprise out of this bat yet," the baseball player said playfully, "Maybe if you give me a bit of time…"
Loki showed its teeth and said, "You don't even know how to go past your own limits, boy."
In one swift move, Loki let go of the bat and was grabbed Suzuki's arm, it twirled around to the back of him and Suzuki had found himself with his arm behind his back. Excruciating pain went up his arm and he yelled out.
"That's right; you're a baseball player aren't you?" Loki's voice whispered into his ear, "It would be a shame, wouldn't it? If your arm broke?"
Suzuki's eyes widened as his arm was twisted more. He screamed and remembered the bat in his other arm, which he shoved one end towards Loki but it seemed that the Box had simply avoided it.
"You won't get me with some juvenile tricks," it said, "Let me tell you something boy, there is a surprise in that bat, but you won't be able to get it unless you surpass your limits."
He tried to hit Loki again but missed. Of course Suzuki knew of a way to get rid of this grip, but that would end up dislocating his arm if he did it incorrectly. And even though his arm could always heal right up, his chances of helping the baseball team into the finals would be shot.
"How selfish," he heard Loki mock, "You care more about your baseball and your arm than your friends. You are the perfect example of a Human. They lie, cheat, and hate if it means that it will benefit them only, and what's worse about them is that they are perfect at it."
Suzuki felt himself pale and go hollow; he realized that this guy who was only worrying about his arm was not him. The arm held up behind him was his save, but also his to sacrifice.
"No," he found himself speaking, "Maybe I'll lie, and cheat, and hate. But I won't do it for my own benefit; I'll do it for my friends."
He swung his body around, causing Loki to go with him, and his arm was now free. Suzuki took his newly freed arm and grabbed with both hands on the bat as he swung it. Steam came off the bat and revealed a katana sword with a blue and silver hilt. Suzuki looked at the new sword in his hands with shock.
"A-A sword?" his sweat dropped, "Is this supposed to be the surprise?"
"Oh, that is a surprise!" said Loki with almost pure glee.
"Wow, toys these days sure are realistic…" Suzuki spoke as he examined the sword.
"Well since you have your weapon out, I'll just take mine out also," the Storm Box grinned and took out a handful of red beads. It threw the beads towards him and the beads exploded.
"Hahahah!" a shrill laughter was let out, "Aw man, this sure does bring back memories! Not that I have any real ones that is! Hahahah!"
Is this guy insane? Suzuki asked himself as he dodged the beads. An idea which was also extremely risky occurred in his head, he shifted his sword into a baseball stance.
"Kahahahah! I swear your just here to make me laugh!" Loki cracked up and hefted more beads in its hands, "Let me guess, you're thinking of slicing these beads in half with that sword like a baseball with a bat? That's clever, I'll give you that, but that's rather risky considering you don't know if they'll explode or not on impact!"
"I know," Suzuki nodded, his grip tightened on the sword's hilt, "I'd rather try than do nothing."
"Then let's do an experiment shall we?" Loki grinned and threw its beads at the boy.
He stared down the red beads and swung his sword right at the beads.
~8~
At least one floor below the fight, Morpheus walked down the halls with its hands in its pockets. It smiled peacefully and looked up when it noticed another fellow Box wandering around the hall.
"Oh? Amaterasu, what are you so happy about?" Morpheus asked.
Amaterasu brightened when she saw the other Box and said, "Morpheus, I just helped Human! And that Human thought I was Human also!"
"Really?" it nodded and said, "Well you don't really look like any of the other God Boxes, so that must be why. Can you tell me what this Human looked like?"
"It was a girl, I think," Amaterasu explained eagerly, "And she had short blonde hair, like mine only real hair! And she had blue eyes, like Poseidon! And, and she had red liquid stuff on her skin."
Morpheus nodded as Amaterasu described the girl and patiently waited for her to end before saying, "That sounds exactly like the girl we had in the prison."
"Oh no," Amaterasu immediately saddened and said, "I gave her directions out of here…I…I was only trying to help…and I was so lonely too…"
"It is alright," Morpheus nodded and patted Amaterasu on the head, "I will not tell the master. After all, I did leave you alone for a long time and you cannot help that you were lonely."
"Really?" she asked with a hopeful look.
"Yes," it nodded and looked up, "But it's alright, I have stopped being angry at that child. It is painful enough when a grown man has turned himself into young girl; it damages both the man's pride and health. Plus, what can that person do now? We are almost complete with our plans; all that is left is a few more hours of preparation."
Amaterasu nodded and asked after a few minutes of hesitation, "Hey Morpheus, you remember what happened before, right? Before we started having a consciousness?"
Morpheus gave the other Box a surprised look and said, "What's with this? You don't normally ask these sorts of things."
"I've just been feeling a lot lonelier recently;" she said quickly, "I wonder if that's in response to our master's feelings."
The other Box rubbed its chin and said wisely, "Yes, that could possibly be it…anyways, what do you wish to know, Amaterasu?"
"I want to know what my other master was like," she said eagerly, "I already know what our current master is like, but I want to know what the person who first opened my Box was like."
"Hmm, I see," Morpheus nodded and said, "Well, shall I tell you a little story about your old owner?"
Amaterasu nodded eagerly and awaited the story.
"It was…" it hesitated for a moment before continuing, "a long time ago…"
~8~
Forty years ago…
"Yo Sawada-I mean Boss!" a young man with silver-grey hair waved to Tsuna upon entering the training room of the Underground Base.
"Geez, Onii-san, you really don't have to call me Boss," Tsuna sighed in response.
"Well if I don't, that Octopus-head will yell at me, and most likely that poor assistant of yours," he said and pointed to Yuuko who was frantically scribbling things onto the electronic planner in her hand.
"H-Hold on, Boss, you have an appointment with a, um, Professor who says that he's made a new Box Weapon," she said nervously as she read off the planner.
"There's been a lot of those recently though," said Tsuna passively, "scientists seem to think that they can just put what ever they want into a Box and call it a Box Weapon."
"But sir, this one is Daniel Grandhart, you told me to make an appointment with him myself!" she said.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," he said.
Ryohei whistled and said, "You're meeting with that guy, Sawada? He's practically a genius for inventing the God Boxes."
"And he's young too, which is exactly why I want to meet with him," Tsuna sighed and asked his assistant, "So where exactly is this appointment happening?"
"Um, I actually scheduled it here, since he insisted that he show you a demo of a Box he made," said Yuuko, she rushed over to the entrance of the training room and said, "I'll be right back with him sir!"
Before Tsuna could say anything, the girl had left and leaving the Tenth Boss of Vongola with his Sun Guardian.
"That assistant of yours sure is motivated about these things," said Ryohei with an impressed look on his face.
"That's only because she gets yelled at by Gokudera-kun a lot," Tsuna said miserably.
"Even so, you have to admit," said the boxer wisely, "that she is pretty sharp for a twenty-year old. If she had been assigned to the Science Division, she would have been working directly under Verde."
"Boss," the door of the training room opened, Yuuko stuck her head out of the door and said, "Daniel Grandhart is here to see you."
Tsuna nodded and permitted entrance, "Let him in."
"Right," she nodded back and ushered a man that was even younger than Tsuna.
This man wore a lab coat and glasses over clear blue eyes. He had wavy blonde hair that was just past his ears and you looked at him in a certain light, he could have been called handsome but his blue eyes darted left to right constantly and he looked extremely nervous like he was holding a bomb under that lab coat of his.
"Mr. Grandhart I presume?" Tsuna gave him a kind smile.
"Y-Yes," Daniel nodded nervously.
"I have heard about your work with those new Boxes you have been making," the Boss continued in his kind voice, it freaked Daniel out a little bit mainly because instinct told that if your boss started talking to you in a super nice voice then that means you're in trouble.
"I-Is that so?" he said weakly, I'm only 18, please just let me go! he whimpered to himself.
"I am interested on how you came up with this idea," Tsuna continued, "Not even Geppetto* was able to come up with that."
"Y-You are talking about the God Boxes c-correct?" Daniel trembled, Tsuna nodded, "Well…I don't really know how it all happened but, um, I was just in my lab one day and there was a Box on my desk. As a student of Mr. Verde, he assigns us to dissemble and reassemble Box Weapons as an exercise, and sometimes we, the other students that is, will try to give the Boxes a sort of upgrade at the same time. And, well, I was just doing my exercises, as usual, when this idea just entered my head…'what if I did it like this?' I thought…and that was how the God Boxes came around."
Tsuna listened to the whole story patiently and with a solid look on his face. Once it was finished, he nodded as if he sincerely understood the other's situation and asked the man:
"How old are you, Daniel?"
"What? Um, 18?" he gave his Boss a curious look.
"That is young," Tsuna said morbidly and then asked in a different tone, "And how did you start working for the Vongola, Daniel?"
"W-Well, it's a long story, but my family sort of favored my sister, Alyssa, more than me," he said nervously, "And then I didn't really like how things were going on at home, so I decided to just become a scientist and then Mr. Verde found me."
"Oh yes, you were once apart of the main branch for the Grandhart Family," Tsuna remembered thoughtfully and then shook his head, "It's a shame that they didn't give you a higher position within that Family, but then again I guess it is lucky for us that we have you."
"Its not particularly something I want to delve into, sir," Daniel sighed.
Tsuna shrugged and said, "Very well, on other news, I have heard from my assistant that you have a God Box you wanted to show me?"
"Ah! Oh yes!" the man suddenly remembered the thing in his lab coat, he fumbled for it and took out a small orange box with a hole in it, "This is a Sky Box, sir, I have others made, but they seem to use up a lot of power and I thought 'Who else could open this than the Boss of Vongola himself?'"
Yuuko watched with anticipation at what Tsuna's reaction would be to this, but the man just sighed his tired sigh and took the Box from him. The Vongola Ring on his finger was lit with a beautiful orange flame that Yuuko admired greatly. The Ring was fitted into the God Box and the Box released a large amount of light.
"What…" Ryohei's mouth hung open and he said shakily, "I have seen God Boxes before, but this one…this one is…"
"It's real," said Tsuna grimly.
A large flaming figure stood before them, as the flames dissipated around it the features of the Box became more prevalent. It had long orange hair and glowing orange eyes, it also had ghostly pale skin as if it was made out of marble. An orange flame rested on its forehead and on its hands. There was a lost look in its eyes and it was standing extremely still, almost like a statue.
"I don't like it," Tsuna said almost immediately.
"Y-You don't?" Daniel gulped, "Why not?"
"They're too realistic, and they look exactly like real people," he said, "If those get out to the public, there will be too much of an out roar and that's when we'll be in big trouble. I'm sorry Mr. Daniel, but I'm going to have to ask you to halt your operations on the God Boxes."
The scientist looked taken aback by this but quickly recovered by nodding quietly, "I understand if you don't like the God Boxes, Boss. I was also a little afraid of them at first."
"I'm not afraid," Tsuna spoke; he quickly corrected himself after a moment of reflection and said, "No, I am afraid. I'm afraid of the potential these things could have if they were released into the public. Anyone powerful enough to open one of these is dangerous."
Daniel marveled at the Boss for a few seconds and said understandingly, "Then I will stop, it disappoints me that these Boxes will never come to their full use. But I don't want these to go to anyone but the Vongola."
"Then you understand, thank goodness," Tsuna said with relief, he looked over to his assistant and nodded towards her, "Yuuko, please escort Mr. Grandhart out of here please."
"Yessir," she nodded and looked over to the scientist, "Grandhart-san, please follow me."
"Right," he said and quickly followed her out.
"Wow, Sawada you must extremely like the Vongola," Ryohei whistled impressively.
"No, I hate the Vongola, and anything involved in the Mafia," Sawada Tsunayoshi said flatly, "It's the people in the Vongola that I don't hate. Onii-san, you understand right? The Vongola is the only way I can protect all my loved ones."
"I know, but you have some extreme dedication, Sawada," Sasagawa Ryohei grinned to himself.
~8~
"…And that's the end," Morpheus finished.
Amaterasu's brow furrowed as she reflected on this and said, "But, I'm a Sun Box. That didn't really tell me anything about my old master."
"I know," the other Box nodded, "but this story was just more interesting! Don't you think?"
"That doesn't really help me Morpheus," she sighed, "Next time could you tell me a story that involves my master more?"
"Hmm, okay then," it nodded and then said brightly, "Oh yeah, maybe if you go down to the library you'll find some stuff about your old owner."
"That's right!" she brightened and started to run off to the library but stopped hesitantly, she turned back to Morpheus sheepishly and said, "C-Could you come with me, Morpheus?"
The Box then sighed and said, "You sure are clingy, Amaterasu. C'mon." then they went off to the library. The base shook as they walked because of the fight going on above.
~8~
Haaah, this chapter has got to be my longest chapter so far. I'm getting dangerously close to the climax now. If you all want to talk to me about this chapter, or past chapters, visitJust Another Forum! I'm also writing a Birthday-fic for Lambo, and I'm looking for people to help me write it! So go onto my forum and visit the topic headed as 'Birthday Fiction Project!' Lambo's birthday is on the 28th and hastily approaching…
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Amano Akira