Oh man, I'm officially sick of fight scenes now and over emotional stuff! I'm going back to doing humor and short stories like with the first few chapters! And then maybe when I'm all tired of the gags, I'll go back and start the next arc.
So lots of stuff happens, blah, blah, blah, I hope you guys like it, I know its going kind of crazy but hopefully this chapter will clear a lot of stuff up.
Review or email me if any of you guys are confused about anything that has happened in this arc.
~8~
Yuuko couldn't really remember a whole lot; she barely had any memories from when she was alive. Giannini helped with that, he installed special software that gave her some memories from when she was alive. But she could never tell if these were really her memories or not, she'd been a little bit doubtful whether the installed memories were real. Giannini had told her they were, they came from security cameras, he explained.
Yuuko believed him, but those 'memories' didn't seem to suffice for her, 'what about my family?' she would ask, did she have a mother or a father? Or did she have brothers or sisters? Old friends? Giannini told her not to worry about that stuff, but she always thought about it.
Now real memories were different from the installed memories Giannini gave her, all of her real memories had been when she was a computer. Her first real memory was suddenly seeing a blonde-haired man, who she instantly knew was named Daniel Grandhart, and a worried looking man with messy brown hair, who she knew as Sawada Tsunayoshi and she knew that he was especially important.
"Where am I?" she asked, she felt…odd. Like she was spread out all over the place and she also felt strangely hollow.
"Tsukamoto-san?" she instantly knew that was her name, "Tsukamoto-san, how do you feel?"
"I feel…strange," Yuuko answered she tried looking at her hands but found that she couldn't move at all, but for some reason she could see the room she was in from all sorts of different angles.
"Don't be alarmed, Tsukamoto-san," the man named Daniel said hurriedly, "You had a, um, bad accident…"
And so he explained it, he explained everything. The car bomb. The plans. Everything. Yuuko asked question after question, and he seemed to have the answer to everything. Once he was done with explaining, she was quiet for a little while, slightly scared but also slightly flattered that someone would care that much for her.
She didn't like this memory that much, it was a bad and slightly awkward memory. Yuuko remembered afterwards spending a few months trying to get used to it, and she spent the next year having tons of software and repairs done on her. This also wasn't a happy time, but she felt happy just spending time with Tsuna, that was her Boss, and all of his Guardians, they would tell her of times when she was alive and cheered her up just by having them around.
But as the months went on, she soon noticed that less and less people were coming to the underground base. And very soon nobody came at all except for the scientist who had helped to keep her alive. But all things come to an end, and one day he came into the control room with a very sad look on his face.
"Tsukamoto-san," Daniel began sadly, "The Vongola HQ has been moved to Italy, I have already installed a copy of your software into the computer database there. Don't worry, I'll be putting you in sleep mode until we decide to move the base back here again."
"When will that be?" she had asked.
"Um," he had an uncertain and hesitant look on his face when he said this, "Not very long."
It was very long. Yuuko remembered this well, she was put into 'sleep mode' which may as well have been the same as turning her off. She felt lonely and empty for a long time, she couldn't move at all and she was stuck in the same place for nearly 35 years. No one was there to wake her up, or keep her company, or entertain her through those droll 35 years.
Then one day a sudden magnetic rush ran through her, she woke up and it was like being turned on all over again…except this time she had her memories. And when she 'woke up' she felt strangely angry and sad and scared and lonely. Ideas and thoughts all rushed in to her head, or at least where she thought her head was, and it was horrible.
A robotic arm, one of her robotic arms, came out of the wall and moved around like a serpent for something, anything. It touched upon a safe. A large safe that was probably two feet thick with steel. She knew what it was, it was forbidden to open the vault but she opened it anyways. Yuuko also knew how to ignite the Sky flame with her robotic arms, an arm reached out and grabbed a seemingly random Box, it was bright orange and had a small hole on it.
She inserted the flame in it and the Box opened, and a person came out, Yuuko decided it was a woman. And the woman was crying because she was so lonely. Yuuko felt sympathy for the Box, because it also had not been 'woken up' for a long time. And then an idea sprung into her head.
"Of course you're lonely," Yuuko tried to comfort the God Box, "Nobody has opened you in such a long time. But you won't be lonely for long, I'll open more Boxes and then you'll have friends and people that you can trust. People that will stay with you no matter what happens, forever and ever."
And now she was in front of this boy, who looked strangely like her Boss, except she knew he wasn't her Boss because he was slightly different. He was shorter for one thing. Yuuko now knew that they were related since they shared the same family name.
"You…aren't the man I'm looking for, but…" she began slowly, "Maybe I can make you tell me where he is."
"What?" the boy's orange eyes widened as Yuuko disappeared and then reappeared behind him; she swung an arm around his neck and bent backwards. This sent the boy flying backwards on his head.
"It's fair right?" she said while still holding onto him, "You're a Sky flame user and so am I, it won't be like fighting Morpheus."
"My head…" Hide moaned while rubbing his head.
"Keep your eye on the goal, kid," he heard her say and before he knew it, Hide was sent flying in the air and as he fell back to the ground Yuuko punched him in the stomach making him fly into the air again. She punched him again and this process repeated over and over again. The Boots ignited themselves and Hide flew out of the way from another punch and towards the other side of the room. He held his bruised side closely and looked at Yuuko with fear.
"You can fly, huh?" she said distantly, "You remind me of that man, that man called Sawada Tsunayoshi."
"You mean grandfather?" Hide questioned.
"Grandfather?" Yuuko questioned and then smiled to herself, "It must have been a long time."
"What are you planning on doing?" asked Reborn from the other side of the room, Leon was perched on his hand as if ready to turn into a gun or any other weapon at any second.
"Me? I don't know, probably get rid of that man who put me to 'sleep' and then kill the man that ordered him to put me to 'sleep. But first," she looked at Hide, "I might kill you guys because I have a feeling that you will only cause me trouble if I just leave you like this."
Hide looked back at his friends, the blanket that had been covering them had disappeared when Morpheus went back in its Box. So they were now just lying there, unconscious and unmoving.
He looked back at Yuuko and said with determination, "I won't let you do that, Tsukamoto."
"I have a lot of anger pinned up inside me right now, kid," she said calmly, "It would not be wise to act like your grandfather."
"If you're going to kill my friends then I'll stop you," Hide knelt down to his orange flamed Boots, "Even if I'm dying, I'll protect my friends with these hands and with my Boots I'll stomp out anything that threatens them."
"That's some tag-line you got there, kid," she said before disappearing and then reappearing at Suzuki's side, she picked the boy up by his hair, "I think I'll start with this one."
"No!" the Boots ignited and Hide made them thrust himself towards the woman, he took a hold of her arm so he could grab it away from Suzuki.
Yuuko smiled at this and said, "Bad move, kid."
Hide's quickly withdrew his hand and looked down at it, his hand was covered in a thin layer of ice. Except it wasn't ice, Hide realized, ice was cold but this was warm. He dismissed this observation because it was useless to thing about and he could still move his hand slightly, but he decided to avoid trying to touch Yuuko.
"It's called 'Zero Point Breakthrough' its something I learned a while back from a certain man I once knew," said Yuuko, she switched hands and was now holding Suzuki by his neck, Hide's eyes widened when her grip tightened and she said outlandishly, "But, I wonder what'll happen if I freeze his neck, will he stop breathing? Or will his blood stop circulating? Maybe both."
"Stop!" he yelled, "Stop! If you want to hurt someone, then let it be me! Just leave them alone!"
Yuuko eyed him for a little while and smirked, "I hate that."
The boy's mouth was hanging open, "What…?"
"I hate that," she stated again, "That attitude, you'll give your life to save your friend, yes? And then what? If you die how long will they remember you? And if you live, they will leave you eventually, everyone leaves. Trust me, kid."
"But he's my friend now!" Hide argued, "That's all that matters, here and now. And I've been friends with him since we were kids! I won't let anything bad happen to him!"
"Really?" she rolled her eyes skeptically, "Then what about him?" she pointed at Morita, "And her?" her finger moved to Anna, "And her?" she pointed at Hanabi, "I used to be like that, I used to love my 'friends' and I always thought they would be with me forever, but I found out that they didn't treat me as a 'friend' they treated me like a piece of junk. And let me tell you, kid, nothing ever lasts. Even this base doesn't last, it's rotting to the ground and will soon become just another piece of junk."
"They're all my friends," he persisted with a pleading look on his face, "I'll protect them, just…please…don't hurt them."
"Oh your strong feelings have swayed my heart and you have forever convinced me that friends really do stay forever!" she exclaimed dramatically, she raised her arm and dropped Suzuki unceremoniously to the ground; she then lowered her arms and said, "Just kidding."
Yuuko disappeared in a flash and reappeared once more in front of him. She held her hands behind her back and kicked Hide in the side before he could react. He fell to the ground and Yuuko bent down and picked the boy up by his hair until his feet were only a few inches from the ground.
"I gave my life to protect someone important to me," she spoke, "It was my Boss's son, your father, I think. He was such a cute boy, I saved his life in exchange for mine. But what happens? Large piece of shrapnel, right into my heart, could have cut that little boy's head off."
"Stop this, Tsukamoto," said Reborn from the other side of the room, "You're better than this, I know it."
"Oh? Look who it is, it's Reborn-sama," she said cheerfully, but the way she said 'sama' was as if it was poison and she continued to say it that way, "Let me guess, you're tutoring this boy now, aren't you? Home Tutor Hitman Reborn-sama. You're wrong though, Great Tutor, people change, things change."
"People do change," the infant replied wisely, "But inside they are essentially always the same."
"Really now?" Yuuko asked, "That might be true, I mean it is for you isn't it?" she looked at Hide who was cringing with pain, "Have you told him yet? About you're 'condition'? Does he know what you are, Arcobaleno-sama?"
"That's not the point, Tsukamoto," Reborn said grimly, "Let go of Hide, I know that deep down inside you really don't want to hurt him."
"I don't, do I?" she asked skeptically, she threw the boy up in the air and kicked him in the gut as if he was a soccer ball, "Then what's this?"
Hide collapsed onto the ground and tried to get up; his Boots helped him fly out of the way from Yuuko. He lightly landed on his feet over by where the computer was. He clutched at his sides and gritted his teeth.
"I'm not the same anymore, Reborn-sama," she said as she walked over to the boy, "I'm not even human anymore," she looked around and noticed Hide trying to get up, "Oh? Where do you think you're going?"
"Over here," he said and flew up to the ceiling and busted the sprinkler above them open. Water started gushing out from the sprinkler head and the droplets of water rained on the computer causing sparks to fly everywhere.
"Clever, but it's too late for that," Yuuko shrugged as water started drizzling on her, "This body doesn't run on electricity and it doesn't rely anymore upon the computer either."
Hide snatched something off the ground while flying through the air. And after lightly tapping the wall, he bounced off it and went straight for Yuuko. She noticed the tazer in his hand and moved aside to avoid it.
"Is that really your plan?" she asked skeptically, "You're going to take advantage of the fact that I'm drenched and electrocute me with a couple tiny volts of electricity?"
"Not just tiny volts of electricity," he said and flew at her again, this time successfully hitting her, "50,000 volts of electricity."
"Eh?" she questioned right before the tazer met with her skin. Yuuko's whole body was suddenly lit up like a light bulb when she was electrocuted; it was mesmerizing how brightly she lit up.
She wasn't screaming though, which was weird but Hide soon remembered that God Boxes couldn't feel pain and this woman had taken over the body of a God Box. It was sort of spooky to watch, as this person was lit up, electricity crackling all over her body, and an almost dead expression on her face. Though, Hide couldn't help but notice, she stood dead still as well, just looking into her eyes Hide could tell that she was surprised.
He withdrew the tazer and took a few steps back cautiously, and Yuuko was no longer looked like a brilliant light bulb. But every now and then a sparks would crackle along her clothing.
"M-My body," she said with the same dead expression, "I-I can't move…"
Hide relaxed a little at this but tensed back up when the woman started to move shakily. It looked like she was having difficulty with each step as she jerked her feet and arms.
"No…" she said in disbelief, her dead expression became one of horror and she continued, "No, no, no! I-I need to move, I don't want to stop! If I stop, I'll be right where I started!"
"It's time to stop Tsukamoto," said Hide, he stretched out a helpful hand to her and said, "We can both go and leave this place."
Yuuko stared at it for a few seconds before turning her gaze to Hide's face and glaring at it, "I don't need that! I need to move! I'll do this on my own and then I'll leave this place alone after I'm done killing you!"
"Well, you don't need to be alone either," Hide pointed out, "And you also don't need to kill anyone, so take my hand and I'll help you."
She stared at the hand again, but she jerkily raised a arm and slapped it away. Then Yuuko tried to hit him but failed as her punch was weak and her fist was shaking uncontrollably.
Hide caught the fist lightly and, to Yuuko's delight, shards of ice started forming on his hand and began crawling up his arm.
"Stop it, Tsukamoto," he said, the ice stopped without Yuuko telling it to, "You're done for."
No…" she said in fear, "No! What's happening? Why isn't this body listening to me!"
"Because it's not yours," Hide explained and then Yuuko fell to the ground she struggled when trying to get up.
Her arms and legs weren't listening to her and were shaking and jerking around controllably, and her sense of balance was so off she couldn't even get up. She stared at her body in horror and screamed.
"No!" she got to her knees and screamed, Hide flinched at the horrid sound as the sprinkler sprinkled harshly like heavy raindrops, "I don't want to be alone anymore! NOOOOOO!"
No wonder she hates me…Hide thought sadly, It was my grandfather that left her in this place. She was abandoned here, left to rot and crumble with the rest of this base…
"You can't save her anymore, Hide," said a voice, he turned around and saw Reborn standing behind him with a hollow look on his face and water dripping from his fedora hat, "We can't take her with us, she'll only be confiscated and shut down by the Vendicare, which is the equivalent to the Mafia world's police.
"You-you won't leave me!" Tsukamoto growled, she shakily got to her feet and glared at Hide angrily, "I'd rather die painfully than be alone!"
~8~
"Not very long." Those were the last words she heard before being left alone to 'sleep'. It was like a small hole opened in her heart and then slowly got bigger as the years went on until it was nothing but a hollow gap. Yuuko knew she didn't have an actual heart, but she sometimes thought she could hear it very faintly every now and then. Thump-a…thump-a…thump-a…
She couldn't hear it anymore after she was put to 'sleep'.
~8~
"DIE! Sawada Hideyoshi!" she screamed and flew her fist towards him.
Hide dodged her fruitless attempts to attack him and grabbed her fist in the air.
"Please. Stop," he asked with a pleading look on his face.
"NO!" she screamed and threw her other fist but her arm suddenly became lifeless and fell to her side, this angered her further upon looking at his orange eyes, "You…don't give me that look! Those eyes are the worst!"
~8~
Yuuko couldn't remember much from when she was alive, but she did remember a few things. Like a beautiful orange flame that could cut through any type of darkness. And she could remember the coolest and prettiest eyes that almost seemed to glow the same color orange. She remembered the sad and distant look those eyes gave when ever the owner was in a fight, as if the eyes were filled with regret and sorrow.
~8~
"You ruined my life!" she screamed.
"Then what do you want!" Hide asked as he dodged more attacks.
"I want-" she began and the stopped, Hide was cautious as to whether or not her body decided to stop but her mouth was still moving as if she was saying speechless words.
"What?" Hide questioned as she fell on top of him, the sprinkler above started to lighten on its downpour of rain until it completely stopped.
She said it again, then her black hair became a straw yellow color and her eyes went from onyx to a musty brown before they closed, and soon the body was swept up like dust in a vacuum as it was sucked into a small orange cube that was lying somewhere on the ground. The flame on Hide's forehead extinguished itself and his Boots changed back into normal white cowboy boots.
"What…?" Hide looked utterly confused as he tried to figure what just happened.
There was groan and he turned around to see his friends slowly getting up and yawning. They were all rubbing their heads as if they had a horrible migraine and seemed to be caught a little off balance when they stood up. Water dripped off their clothes and hair, which being cold and wet at the same time probably didn't help.
"Ugh, my head…" Hanabi groaned as she clutched her head tightly.
"Wow…what happened? Why are we wet?" said Suzuki as he blinked a few times and glanced around the room, "Hide!"
He ran over to his friend and asked worriedly, "Hide, are you alright?"
"Huh? Yeah, I'm-" Hide was interrupted when a shock wave of pain from every part of his body hit him suddenly, "Ow, ow, ow, ow! Why does it feel like I have a giant cramp all over my body!"
"The Rebuke Bullet can put a lot of stress on your body, it's no wonder if one of the after-effects are cramps," Reborn stated, "Your grandfather passed out the first time it happened to him."
"That's probably better than right now!" the boy yelled in pain.
"Twelfth are you alright!" Hanabi ran over to her beloved Boss and started shaking him for no reason.
"That's not helping Gokudera-san!" he yelped as he was shaken violently.
"Hey, scary girl, I think shaking him isn't helping," Morita said cautiously.
"I agree!" Hide yelped.
Hanabi let go of her Boss, much to Hide's relief, and Morita asked, "What happened to this place? It looks like something exploded in here."
It did look like something had exploded, the hole in the wall where Hide had made when he was thrown into there was still gaping widely, and there were dents and burnt marks all over the place. Hide's clothes were a bit torn and scorched with burn marks, not to mention drenched with water, and the ice on his hand was still there and didn't look like it was going to go away.
"Gak!" Hide took no time in noticing this though since the cramps suddenly became so bad that he was instantly KO'd when Hanabi let go of him.
~8~
A week later…
A week soon passed, Hide came back to the underground base again. Reborn had told him that there were some things he wanted that were still down here and told Hide to call one of his friends to help.
He walked down to the control room cautiously, in case he fell in another hole, and upon entering his room he unconsciously grabbed his arm cast. He had broken an arm in the fight apparently, he also gained a black eye but that was near healing and was barely noticeable now. He remembered his mother having a fuss when he arrived at the hospital, but his gramps had been there to talk her down and tell her that he gained the broken arm from an accident at the restaurant. She wasn't really happy with this and almost didn't even believe it, but Hide's prayers must have reached something up there because she did believe it, plus this lie was much better than the truth.
Hide walked forwards into the control room and looked around. It was in the same condition as the week before. He finally spotted what Reborn wanted and from inside here and put it in the cardboard box that he was carrying along with a few other things.
As he filled the box up, he glanced down when he heard some glass crack under his feet. A fallen picture frame was under his shoe, it probably fell during the fight, Hide concluded. He glanced around the room again until his eyes fell on the large computer before him and the long keyboard that was underneath it.
When he heard someone walk in Hide decided to ask, "Was she ever real Reborn?"
"No, she was not real, she was never real," Reborn lied, nonetheless Hide decided to believe him, "Hide, the Tsukamoto is a type of computer that is widely used within the Mafia, especially the Vongola. There are Tsukamoto phones, computers, screens, and other electronics, this whole place is a Tsukamoto Computer. Run by and watched over by one of the first Tsukamoto Computers built over thirty-five years ago.
"You have heard of the recent sunspots right? Those probably sent out a magnetic current into this long forgotten place and short-circuited some stuff, making the whole system think it was a person from the beginning. The Computer chose that image because it was an extremely normal and plain face."
Hide was quiet for a little while before mumbling, "She looked so real though...and so sad…"
"She was a very advanced computer," Reborn said before leaving the room.
He was left alone in the room, he kicked the ground and sighed, "Why do I get the feeling that this was all done for nothing then? That is was all just some bad circuitry or some bad story."
"They don't fight for nothing, Hide-sama," a voice resonated inside Hide's head, he glanced around and saw the faint, ghostly image of a black-haired girl in a pure white dress, "They fight because they want to protect you, just like you fight because you want to protect them."
"W-what…?" Hide rubbed his eyes and blinked, the girl was gone.
"What are you staring at?" Reborn asked at the door.
He looked around the room again and said warily, "Nothing, I'm just tired."
"Then let's get out of here!" Morita called and left the room.
The blonde nodded and headed out of the room, but he hesitated at the door for a moment as if he had forgotten something and swept his caramel eyes around the control room. Hide smiled a little at the room before leaving. The main lights turned off as soon as he closed the door, the humming of the large computer stopped and all that was left in the room was a recollection of old memories and a broken picture frame that was lying on the ground.
~8~
If you had been in that room at that moment, then you probably would have turned on a flashlight or something because it was dark in there. And if you had examined the picture frame that was lying on the ground, then you would have seen a collection of people in the photo, and the names of those people etched into the bottom of the frame starting from left to right. Sasagawa Ryohei, Gokudera Hayato, Yamamoto Takeshi, Sawada Tsunayoshi, Chrome Dokuro, Rokudo Mukuro, Hibari Kyoya, and Tsukamoto Yuuko. And if you had looked at the large computer, then you probably would have noticed in bold capital letters at the bottom right edge: TSUKAMOTO V1.
And if you had been there, then maybe you could have heard the whispers of long ago memories that were filled with laughter and yelling and general happiness. If you had been there, then maybe you could have seen the ghostly image of a dark-haired woman in a pure white dress staring up at the computer. And if she had seen you, she would smile at you and say:
"Don't worry about it kid, I'll move on," she would clasp her hands together and say quietly with a peaceful look on her face, "I think I realize now that I won't be alone anymore, as long as I get to watch over those that are around me I won't be alone."
Then the woman would smile at you and wave at you before walking towards the computer, where she would slowly fade into it. And then the room would finally have the feeling of pure lifelessness that it seemed to be trying to achieve and the feeling of something that was accomplished. Then you would leave the room and look back, just to check if the apparition would show up, but it didn't. Then the door would close behind you, and the base would be abandoned again. The memories that were formed in that base, like nocturnal animals, would hide in the darkness.
If you had been there of course.
~8~
Wow…finally got this arc done, YEESSS! I'm a little proud of myself for getting this far into the story, and I would like to thank all my readers for helping me along as well. Your wonderful reviews and critiques helped me along through stressful times and brightened my day each time I saw a new one. I hope you guys liked this arc and will continue to read Skywards
I would like to clarify some stuff though, just because I'm nit-picky:
-Yuuko was real; Reborn lied to Hide so that he would not feel guilty afterwards for beating a person up, 'cause Hide's such a wimp that way. And for those of you that couldn't tell, that was the ghost of Yuuko in the last part of the chapter ;)
-Tsuna and co. did not actually appear in this arc, they only made appearances in flashbacks and the such like
-The God Boxes were all poorly well-presented symbols of Yuuko's feelings: Frustration (Nyx), Cowardice (Morpheus), Curiosity (Poseidon before being fixed), Fear (Poseidon after being fixed), Anger (Raphael), Insanity (Loki), and Loneliness (Amaterasu)
-And also, I have realized that people did not know which Box belonged to who so in order of appearance: Loki - Gokudera, Raphael - Lambo, Nyx - Hibari, Poseidon - Yamamoto, Morpheus – Mukuro/Chrome, Amaterasu – Tsuna. No Sun God Box for Ryohei though, I dunno maybe I'll make mention of it later on in the story, but that's for another day's chapter.