Dame-Hide
A note from the author ahead of time: 'Dame' is pronounced 'Daa-meh' like 'Dame-Tsuna', hence the whole subject of this chapter.
~8~
"Dame?" the word came out of Hide's mouth questionably one morning before class.
"Yes, Dame," Suzuki nodded conversationally as he sat face to face with the other boy, "Apparently a long time ago at our school, there was this really hopeless kid called Dame, he was super bad at sports, school, even his social life. Nobody really remembers his real name anymore and they just call him 'Dame', but he's still a legend on this campus."
"Why? There are lots of kids like that who aren't good at anything," he pointed out.
"Well," the baseball player began with a cheerful smile, " one day, Dame changed drastically at everything he did, and while he still made the same old stupid mistakes he became much more reliable and was even looked up to by most of the student body. Now Dame's practically a legend at school, he's almost fairy tale!"
Hide paused for a second in thought, of course he had heard the numerous rumors of the legendary no-good student 'Dame', but it was quite rare for Suzuki to suddenly start these sorts of conversations with him. "Why are you telling me all this?"
His friend's cheerful smile disappeared and was replaced by a sheepish grin that admitted, "I'm just warning you, alright?"
"Warning me of what?" he asked but the school bell rang right after asking that and everyone had to go to their seats.
"As everyone knows," began the assistant teacher, Kurokawa, as he entered the class, he announced at the podium "The culture festival is coming up along with your rise into the next grade. I believe Tanaka-san, your class representative, will talk more about that."
"Thank you, sensei," Megumi chirped politely as she walked to the front of the room with a thick black binder in her hands, she opened the binder on the podium and asked, "Alright, does anyone have any suggestions for the culture festival?"
"A play!" someone shouted.
"Alright then," she said cheerfully, "What kind of play?"
"We should do one about the legendary stupid student!" someone else suggested loudly.
"The Dame-student right?" the red head asked before receiving confirmation.
"W-Wait a second…" Hide muttered to himself, "This whole process is going way too easily for any normal culture festival class meeting…"
"Who wants to play Dame then?" Megumi finally asked.
"I vote Hide-san!"
"Sawada-kun!"
"Me too!"
"Hide-kun it is then," she nodded while writing his name down.
W-What! Hide's jaw almost hit the ground.
"Sorry, Hide," Suzuki whispered from in front of him, "I heard that the whole class was conspiring against you since the beginning, so it couldn't really be helped…"
"Why did they choose me to be Dame?" he whispered back.
"Uh, how do I put this…" the other boy began slightly nervously, "Well…er, it's just that you're the perfect fit for the role is all…"
What is that supposed to mean!
~8~
"And that's how I got the role of 'Dame' in our class's play…" Hide explained to his tutor while walking home from school.
"Is that so," Reborn said in an unimpressed tone while reading the script for the play.
"Can you at least try to sound surprised?" the boy asked in vain before giving up and sighing in defeat, "Oh well, we're only doing one of the rumors about Dame that have been circulating around the school."
"There is more than one rumor?" asked Reborn while he still read the script.
"Yeah," Hide nodded and added, "there's one about him challenging his crush's brother, who was captain of the boxing club, there's another where he defeated the me most fearsome man in Namimori from beating up his friends, and there's also this time when he defeated a powerful dojo-buster* all by himself. The one we're doing is when he defeated the captain of the kendo team for the sake of winning over the girl he liked."
"When is the culture festival?"
"Next week."
An evil glint appeared in Reborn's eyes as he asked, "Then we better get started memorizing these lines then, huh?"
~8~
The next day…
"Wow, Hide-kun! You really worked hard memorizing the lines for the play, haven't you?" Megumi said in amazement.
"Yeah, I want this play to go great," Hide nodded while grimly thinking, Actually, I stayed up all night with Reborn because he threatened to poke needles in my eyes if I didn't memorize the lines by today…
"As I thought, you're perfect for the role of Dame!" his crush said cheerfully.
"You wouldn't have had to been apart of that whole conspiracy, would you…?" he asked suspiciously.
"Wow, Hanabi-chan looks really cool in a guy role, doesn't she?" she quickly said.
"I guess," he sighed, You were apart of it, weren't you?
"Twelfth!" Hanabi quickly came over to where Megumi and Hide were standing and said, "Twelfth! Can you believe that their making me do a guy's part in this stupid play?"
"It's not stupid, Hanabi-chan," Megumi argued, "And I think you look good in guy clothes! Plus, the role your playing is Dame's best friend, I thought you would be pleased with that role."
"Maybe if it was a girl's role, and I don't understand why I have to be in costume for rehearsal!" she yelled angrily in the Namimori Middle boy's uniform.
"I heard that all the girls think you look very handsome in it," the red-head said delightfully
"Relax, scary girl," said Morita as he walked up to the group, "At least you're not playing the evil captain of the kendo club."
"This play is so messed up, nobody even remembers these peoples' names," Hanabi pointed out critically, "Other than Dame, we all just have titles like 'Dame's best friend' or 'captain of the kendo club'."
"Well, most of this is just based off of old school rumors, of course the names are going to be lost," Megumi shrugged.
"That's easy for you to say, you're 'Dame's crush'," she said sourly.
"Why don't we just use our surnames?" suggested Morita, "Its not like anyone's going to notice, and I think it sounds awkward to say lines like 'The prize for this contest will be Dame's crush!'"
"Hm, well we could do that…"
"Oh yeah, and I've been wondering how you guys got scripts about a school rumor," said Hide, "It must've been hard for whoever wrote this since there are so many different versions out of the rumor out there."
"Adam-kun volunteered to write the script," Megumi explained, "And he gave me copies of the script the exact same day."
"So this is Adam's script?" he questioned and looked back at the script in his hands, For some reason this script just got a weird ominous aura surrounding it!
"Anna-chan also said that she would be in charge of the entire set and our costumes can just be our uniforms or from the kendo club," she continued, "So, except for those two, the whole class has a chance to play a role in the play, which means we can use every single person mentioned in the stories of Dame."
"That's great," Hide murmured reluctantly while thinking, Why is it that I have a feeling something awful and really weird will happen in the middle of the play…?
~8~
"Hey, Adam," Hide whispered to the foreigner as he watched, with a bored look on his face, the rehearsal that was going on at the front of the class.
"Yeah, Boss?" he replied back before asking, "Wait, shouldn't you be up there, Boss? It's one of the scenes you're in after all."
"I already have my lines memorized and I'm not speaking in that scene," he explained and then asked, "But something's been bothering me…"
"What is it?"
"Did you get this script from Reborn? It seems like something he would do just to make fun of me."
"Of course not, Boss!" Adam said with slight offense, "I wrote this script myself after hearing about what a 'culture festival' was!"
"What do you think it is?"
"A time where the students in the school can do really cool things like haunted houses, cafes, and plays!" he said with a dreamy look in his eyes, "American schools don't have those kinds of things, and when Anna and I heard about that we both became really excited and wanted to participate in it."
"S-Sorry," Hide quickly apologized and thought happily, Wow, it looks like this is something they're both serious about…"But where did you get the idea of doing the Dame rumors?"
"Oh that? That was Mr. Reborn's suggestion," Adam quickly answered.
"I knew he was behind this!" he groaned, "He didn't make anymore suggestions, did he?"
"No, he just made the suggestion of using one of the Dame rumors," the foreigner said cheerfully.
One of their classmates interrupted the two and said, "Grandhart-kun, your sister wants you."
"Okay, excuse me, Boss," he waved to Hide and started heading to the back of the class where his sister was.
"I guess those two are actually serious about this whole thing," Hide said thoughtfully, "That's pretty surprising."
"Sawada, we need you for this next scene!" someone called.
"Alright," he said reluctantly and came over to the group of students that were standing idly by, "What do I need to do?"
"We need you to wear this," one of the classmates said as he picked up a hanger from the pile of clothes they were crowding around.
Hide paled when he saw the outfit and quickly shook his head, "No! There's no way in hell that I'm going to wear that!"
"C'mon, Sawada, it's in the script!" the girl who stood next to him said in a critical tone, "Grandhart-kun and Grandhart-chan worked the most on this play!"
"Just do it, Sawada!"
"Yeah, but this is going too far!" he said defensively, "I mean, would you guys wear something this embarrassing!"
"No," they all said in unison, "but you're also the only that has to wear it and the only one that can pull it off."
"Why!"
"Because you're the perfect fit!"
~8~
Quite a lot of arguing and a pleading from Megumi later, Hide grudgingly came back in the classroom in embarrassment. He was wearing light blue boxers with yellow smiling faces on them.
"I knew Hide-kun was a perfect fit for the Dame-role!" Megumi said cheerfully when she saw him, "After all, Dame was a nudist like Hide-kun, right?"
You think I'm a nudist! he thought in horror but then slow realization crept up upon him, he began with fear quaking his voice, "N-Now that you mention it…There are a lot of parts in here where I'm only in my underwear."
"That's why we all thought that you were the perfect fit!" she said with the exact same cheeriness.
That's the only reason I'm Dame! Hide gaped.
"Lookin' good, Sawada," someone snickered.
"Shut up! Quit making fun of the Twelfth!" Hanabi jumped in to save Hide, which happened to make things even worse, "Even if he has a pathetic body-type!"
This caused the class to laugh even more and Gokudera to yell even louder.
"Th-that's enough, Gokudera-san…" the boy muttered embarrassedly.
"So cool!" someone, whom Hide mentally thanked over and over again, shouted from the other end of the room, "Sakuraba-san just came back from trying on his costume!"
The whole class swerved their attention to the boxer, now dressed in the kendo club's uniforms.
"That's so cool, I've never actually seen the kendo uniforms before!" someone said in awe.
"It took a while to find one since the school kinda disbanded the club a while back," Morita admitted, "But they were in a closet at the gym."
"It surprisingly fits you, Morita-kun," Hide noted.
"Hide, why are you in your underwear?" he asked.
"I'd rather not talk about it…"
Anna then interrupted them and said, with a wig in hand, "Boxer-guy, you have to wear this wig too."
"Why?"
"Because in one scene, you get your hair pulled out by Boss."
Morita did a second-take on that and grabbed the script out of someone's hands, "I do!"
"Do you even know your part, Morita-kun…?" Hide sighed.
"Of course I do!" he said while examining the script, "I'm the evil senpai that challenges Dame to a fight!"
"What are your lines for scene 1?" Anna asked.
"Uh…" Morita blanked.
"They're 'You bastard! You've gotta be kidding me if she would ever go out with you! Pervert!', learn that," she recited and then gave him another script.
"Well, since we're on that scene already, why don't we get started with rehearsal?" Megumi quickly said to gain the attention of the class.
"Alright!" everyone said excitedly.
~8~
The days went by quickly, a bit too quickly much to Hide's chagrin, and soon the day of the culture festival was upon them.
"We've worked hard, so let's do our best!" Megumi said cheerfully to the rest of the class.
"Yeah!" they all cheered.
"Twelfth, you're going to do great-no, you'll be the best in the whole play!" Hanabi said excitedly.
"Er, thanks Gokudera-san," Hide muttered embarrassedly.
"What about us?" Morita laughed.
"Cheer us on too, Gokudera!" Suzuki interrupted happily.
"You and the giant-freak can go to hell!" she hissed at them.
"I'm sure you'll all do great," said Megumi, who came out of no where.
"I'm sure Hide will do horrible," said Reborn, who came out of no where.
"Reborn!" Hide groaned.
"Guys, the whole room is filled up with people," Anna called to them, "Let's get started."
"Alright!" they said in unison and went to get in their places, Hide stayed behind for a second to talk with Reborn.
"Reborn, you aren't going to do anything weird, are you?" he asked suspiciously and then pleaded, "Please don't! This week has been weird enough already!"
"Weird?" Reborn raised one of his infantile eyebrows, "Look around, stupid-Hide. Hasn't this whole week been pretty normal?"
"Eh?" Hide's eyes widened.
"You're a normal student participating in a culture festival with his friends and classmates," his tutor pointed out, "Has the Vongola Family been mentioned at all this week? Or the Mafia?"
He paused and slowly said, "No…"
"Then wouldn't you say that you've had a pretty normal week?"
"Um…" Hide stared into Reborn's beady eyes and stammered, "I-I-"
"Hide!" he spun around and saw Morita calling to him, "Get on stage, you have the first line!"
"Alright!" he nodded and then turned back to Reborn only to find that the infant had disappeared. "Reborn…?" he muttered before running onstage to shout the first line, "Tanaka! Go out with me!"
"Eeeek! Dame!" Megumi's voice could be heard screaming.
The play went on and then it ended, and with its end came the beginning of the new school year and the true beginning of Hide's life being turned upside-down.
~8~
Meanwhile in the ritzy hotel room that was featured in the last chapter…
"You bastard…" Delia coughed as she fell to her knees while clutching her side, "Why would you betray the Vongola so suddenly!"
"I'm not betraying the Vongola," a figure hiding in the shadows said, he had a sword in hand that was dripping blood on the floor of the ritzy hotel room, "On the contrary, it is you that's betraying the Vongola."
"What are you talking about? I haven't done anything against the Varia or the Vongola!" she argued before covering her mouth in an effort to keep the blood from spilling out of her mouth.
The figure smiled and said, "You poor foolish woman, you really have no clue do you?"
"What?"
"Come on out," the figure laughed as the door just behind Delia opened widely, she struggled to turn to the newcomer but had ease when widening her eyes and dropping her mouth.
"You're supposed to be dead."
~8~
* A dojo-buster is someone who goes around and defeats different dojos, most of the time its to challenge the other dojo or gain prestige from it. The rumor is based off of chapter 40 of Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
**Dame means 'No Good', ahem, ahem…
~8~
O_O SUSPENSE!
And so begins the next arc! Thanks to all the readers for reading this far and keeping up with my dumb updating schedule! You humble me with your kindness lol
The next chapter will be the beginning of the arc as well as the first day of Hide's life as a second-year middle school student! It's been about a year since this has all started and I am quite pleased with how it all turned out. Chapter 50 is coming up as well and I wish to do something special for it…what that is, you'll find out on Chapter 50 :)