DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN
Two weeks had passed since Hayato was put under Shamal's teachings. Today Haru would be returning to check on his progress. From his temporary bed he could see the abundance of dynamite packages spread out his room. Since he started his training he had fully immersed himself to learn everything he could about dynamite. Shamal was good at teaching throwing techniques and helping improve his physical strength.
When it came to his ability to execute what he was told it all came down to his understanding of the mechanisms. Before throwing each stick he was fast to see the distance, know the distribution of weight and the environmental conditions to make sure it landed on target. Everything felt natural to him. And with Shamal's help he had no trouble learning everything.
Hayato opened the door to his room having his new pet run by his feet. He was surprised at how fast she ran out that he went to chase after her. She went straight to the living room.
He stopped once he saw Haru. He's never actually been separated and reunited with someone. The only recurring people in his life were his family. If he didn't see someone the next day, it would mean that they're dead. Having her return was a new feeling.
She looked down to the kitten rubbing against her leg. "You really did get a cat. Does it have a name?"
"U-Uri."
"Uri?" She chuckled and picked it up. "What an amusing name."
Uri happily purred in her arms. In the week together it healed from all its injuries. Thanks to the vet he learned everything that he needed to properly take care of it that it healed pretty quickly. It was still a bit hostile against the males in this safe house but with Haru, she seemed perfectly fine.
Haru stood up as Uri went to sit around her shoulders. She circled around him. He uncomfortably stood still as she obviously scanned him over. He only reacted when she stretched out his cheeks. He swatted her hand away. "What are you doing you stupid woman?!"
"You've gained some fat. Not only that but you're not so pale as before. Good. I see your temperament is still here though. Could be worse I suppose." She turned to the doctor who was unusually silent. "You've done well this time Shamal. I had my doubts with your first impression but as always you give the best results."
"Anything for you Haru-chan." Hayato waited for a second until he realized that Shamal wasn't making any moves on her. In fact, he seemed like he was deep in thought. Even Uri could tell that there was a switch in personality.
"Don't be like that Shamal. You're probably worrying dear Gokudera-san."
"After what we talked about it's hard to relax. Maybe a kiss will make it better!" He puckered his lips, opening his arms for her.
Uri hissed as the doctor tried to get closer to Haru. Hayato thought that maybe it was in his imagination that the doctor was tense. Seeing that he was willing to fight a kitten there wasn't much of a difference from the normal day. The two mafiosos definitely did have a chat before he came down though. That was a given.
"They say animals are good at reading people. Don't think I'll be kissing anyone that Uri doesn't want me to."
"I performed first aid on it and this is how it repays me."
"Thank you for taking care of it. I wasn't expecting to return to a new companion so I appreciate that you heeded to his request." She rubbed her cheek against the purring kitten. It was a strange sight since Uri was usually more aggressive.
"I'm not that cruel to leave a dying creature out. You should have seen Hayato all distraught when he brought it back. He would have started crying if I didn't do anything."
"Oi!" They both snickered at the boy.
Shamal stood up with his hands in his lab coat. "Since the two of you are reunited then I have finished my job here."
He showed the back of his hand at Haru. She tapped his ring with her's, making it return to the clear form. He gave the ring back to her and stood in front of Hayato. "Don't get killed too soon. It'll look bad on me."
Hayato was going to rebuttal when he placed one hand on his shoulder. He slightly leaned down to his height. Once they made eye contact he switched to his serious mafioso side. "Your target is someone crazy. Don't take him easy. It'll cost you your life."
"You know who my target is?" Not even Hayato knew a name for his target. All he knew was that they were a high up Mafia member but not a part of the Vongola. And now learning that he is a crazy person. Nothing really specific.
Shamal only looked back at Haru. She shook her head at the doctor. It was still too early to tell him. He didn't say anything knowing that she will eventually reveal everything when the time was right. He removed his hand. "Whatever happens, don't forget what I taught you."
Hayato became speechless. It filled his head. He wanted to stop him so that he could question more. Instead he just left him go. He didn't have it in him to stop the doctor from leaving.
Uri jumped out of Haru's arms to randomly start scratching at his face. He completely forgot his thoughts about his tutor after prying his pet off his face. Haru held back her laughs seeing the two interact. "Out of all the cats in the city, you find the one that is exactly like you."
He held the, still, scratching cat away from his body by its scruff. "She's nothing like me."
"If you say so." Haru took Uri back into her hands so that she wasn't being dangled ruthlessly by her owner. "But you should know that taking care of a pet is a lot of work. You can't be having it be so rowdy."
"Are you saying I have to get rid of her?" She hummed a bit in thought. He didn't say it out loud but really valued the existence of Uri. She was the only thing that kept him company when Shamal left for the day. It didn't make any sense on why she liked Haru so much when he was the one that cared for her. Regardless of how much he took care of her, she scratched him whenever he came too close. In the end he still couldn't abandon her.
"How about this? Pass a mini test from me and you can keep her."
"I should have known that you wouldn't let her in for free. So? What are we doing?"
Hayato looked around the clearly abandoned land Haru dragged him to. After dropping Uri and his luggage back at the original hotel he stayed at she brought him to the outskirts of the city. It was almost like gated Povero but even more empty.
Not a single person was around and he barely saw any animals. There were a few buildings that were run down. He had to be careful where he was walking as he almost tripped three times now over rowdy roots and random debris.
"Kokuyo healthy land." He read the bulletin board in front of them out loud. "What is this place?"
"This used to be a multi-use recreational center. Now that it has been closed off to the public it works as training grounds owned by the Vongola. I managed to pull a few strings to make sure that this place is empty for today." Haru didn't like the idea of being in this place but the safe house that they were at was more of a hiding spot. Shamal was able to teach him there without giving too much damage to the structure since he was only teaching the basics.
Kokuyo land was the best training spot for the two today. Not only was it far enough that people couldn't hear the explosions, a lot of the landscape was already destroyed. The land had been long abandoned that it wasn't really safe for anyone to be going around freely. Pretty much anything could and would collapse if they weren't careful.
The only downside was that the Mist guardian technically owned it and so Haru had to ask Chrome for permission before using it. A small price to pay on her pride if it meant she could test out Hayato in a new playing field.
"Today I want to see how much you improved. I'm giving you 10 minutes to go ahead anywhere you'd like. After that I'll be coming to chase you down. Your task today is to figure out what my weapon is."
He looked her over. He had no doubt that she was strong but he's never seen her actually fight. Or show any signs of having weapons on her for that fact. Besides her hair being tied up, there wasn't anything that had remained the same for her appearance that would indicate her hiding something. "Wouldn't I see it once you use it on me?"
"If that's what you think then this will be easy."
"Just find out what your weapons are? That's it?"
"Too hard for you?" There had to be some sort of catch. This was all so simple. As a Mafioso he expected her to have something normal like a gun or knife. Then again, he had dynamite. They were loud, destructive, and honestly it had a lot of limitations. Shamal's mosquitos weren't exactly common things either.
"No. I'll do it."
"Good. Like I said I'll give you 10 minutes to go anywhere you want and set up anything you want. You cannot attack me during this time but I will stay here if you want to plan around my starting point. After that time, I'll give out a sound that'll let you know that I'm on the move. Any questions?"
He was too busy scanning over the environment to respond. Haru grinned seeing how fast his eyes were moving. She was already at an advantage that he had to make the most of the scenario by knowing everything he could about the place. She took out her phone setting a timer for 10 minutes.
"Clearly you are taking this seriously so I'll give you a hint." He took his eyes off their surroundings. "You know a lot more about me than you think."
She held up her phone, closing her eyes. "Ready. Set. Go."
He was still in confusion but didn't waste a second to start running off towards the biggest building he saw. Even with her eyes closed she could hear his heavy footsteps running. It wasn't surprising that he chose to move into a closed area. With his weapons, damage was only done when one of them exploded on the target. The way to get around this is by using the environment.
He could be on the defense while attacking by using the rumble to cover himself. Right now his goal wasn't to kill her. He only had to find out what her weapons were that he didn't need to be too concerned with hurting her. It was a simple way of thinking but between the two of them it was obvious that he was the one in more danger. Taking the safe route was easier.
Shamal was suited to be Hayato's tutor because he was a tactical thinker, not a fighter. Sure his mosquitoes were deadly but they couldn't defend him in hand to hand combat. He only survived so long because he was smart. He knew who to fight and how to do it. Even the great Cloud guardian was once infected by one of his diseases.
Haru opened her eyes once the timer went off. She secured her phone in her pocket before shouting out, "Ready or not here I come!"
She was smiling a bunch trying to piece together how he was going to attack. It wasn't a secret that she held high expectations for him that it was exciting seeing how he could change in 2 weeks.
Hayato, on the other hand, was stressed out trying to think of a way to get her to reveal her weapons. He had to think about everything he knew about her. Close to nothing. Honestly it was a surprise that she even had weapons. He figured that she knew some self-defence and had basic knowledge of how to use weapons but to have her own unique ones? And it was something that he had zero hints to help.
He held his breath hearing footsteps coming closer to the building. He could hear the way she rubbed her shoes against the concrete. She was making it clear where she was and that she knew that he was close by. In the 10 minutes he had he didn't come any closer to figuring out anything. For now, all he could do was try to get her to mess up.
He came out from the wall he was hiding behind to throw a few of his smaller sticks. In the second that he saw her she showed no reaction. He quickly moved to another area so that she wouldn't be able to pinpoint his location.
"Testing the waters, Gokudera-san? I hope you aren't taking me easy." There was no struggle in her voice to indicate that she got hurt. Even without hitting her, in an almost closed space she would have breathed in some of the fumes. But she spoke normally.
Hayato armed himself once again. He pressed himself against the wall, trying to peer around the corner. Slowly the smoke was starting to fade out. After working with dynamite for a while he knew how to find a body hidden in the smoke. It was a two-way street using the black cloud to cover up tracks.
"You know Gokudera-san-" He took in a sharp breath at the voice close to his ear, "it isn't a smart idea to be so focused on one area."
His first instinct swung his arm backwards. He didn't see what she did but before he could make contact his left forearm suddenly stung in pain. Haru gilded backwards, dragging her feet without a sound. He refused to take his eyes off of her despite wanting to look around for evidence on how she managed to get next to him so fast. "Wh-"
She raised her arm up. He suddenly remembered when she first dropped him off with Shamal. She did the same movement that somehow pinned down the Trident mosquito. At that time, he didn't realize that it was her weapon that could be the cause of that. Even then he doesn't remember seeing anything.
He didn't know what was going to happen so he just ducked where he was standing. He lit the sticks in his hands throwing them at her feet. She jumped backwards so that she hid behind a wall. With her out of sight, he ran up a set of stairs. He needed more time to figure this out.
He looked down the arm that she hit. Was hit even the right word in this case? He rolled up his sleeve to see nothing there. He kept running aimlessly while pushing his skin around. There were no signs of injury. It didn't even hurt anymore. "What the fuck?"
This had to be some sort of poison. No, that would have left some mark. Or at least be more long lasting if it was strong enough to hurt without breaking the skin. Poison wouldn't have stuck the Trident mosquito to the wall either.
There had to be something more that he wasn't seeing about her. She was already playing it easy by showing a grand gesture and giving him time to think. He was sure that she didn't need to throw her arm like that. It was too much of an indicator that a potential enemy could see. She was too smart for that.
That was one thing he knew about her. She was smart. She hired him to do her dirty work. There was something that he could do that she couldn't. Since he started working with her she planned out a lot of what he did. From his clothes, where he lived, his tutor and down to his weapons.
What was the point of using dynamite? They were flashy and loud compared to what she just did to him. Not to mention they were way more destructive. He still wasn't sure what she did but he knew that there was no way her pain 'magic' was capable of breaking down a wall like he was. Even this training session is meant to take down that person he was supposed to kill. So while the choice could come from her wanting to kill the target easily, she also made it opposite to hers.
Her weapon was something small, easily concealed, quiet and non-deadly. That doesn't narrow his choices but it was something more.
Hayato stopped running seeing that the hallway split into two. Would it even matter which way he went? She probably already knew the building's structure that he wouldn't be able to hide. "Oi woman!"
"I have a name you know." He nearly jumped at how close her voice sounded. It was like she was right in front of him.
He ignored her complaint. "Why did you pick your weapons? Why not a gun or something?"
"Sounds like you're trying to stall but I'll bite. Since I was recruited I have been in the Cloud branch. My boss is a very showy person with his strength so between the other second command and I, are meant to handle the details he couldn't be bothered with. Guns draw too much attention." From that answer he knew that he was on the right track to figuring this puzzle out.
"It does serve one other helpful purpose if I can add on."
"And what's that?"
He waited a second before he lost the feeling in his right calf. He staggered to hold the wall. Haru laughed at him from wherever she was. He looked around his leg seeing nothing that could have hurt him. He had to shake his leg in order to get the feeling back.
"I'm going easy on you Gokudera-san. If you keep trying to find time I may get bored and start attacking in more painful ways. So please don't take too much time thinking." He clicked his tongue in frustration.
He was just playing in her hands this way. He couldn't tell where she was, how she could see him nor how she could attack him without leaving a mark. Her attacks were painful though. A short pain that temporarily shocked the area hit. Before he could even guess what her weapons were he had to figure out how she was doing everything.
Putting weight back onto his leg he tried to ignore the slight soreness. He was a sitting duck here. But where could he run so that she couldn't see him? She sounded close yet since the start she hadn't made a single sound. She was meant to be quiet.
Wait but she did make a sound. When they arrived on set, she always lifted her feet. Even with all the rubble and uneven footing, she walked over it like nothing. The only time that she dragged her feet was when they started his test. It was because of that that he gave away his position to start attacking. Was she taking him easy that time? Or did she actually bait him into moving? She was, also, hitting him without actually hitting him, was it possible that she really is closer to him than he thinks?
"Alright. Let's try this." He lit exactly three sticks of dynamite. He threw one down each hallway making sure that he could see every single one of them explode.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw something move strangely. That was all he needed to send a handful more in that direction. Sure enough, Haru appeared out of nowhere to dodge his attack. With her cover blown she didn't falter.
"Aww and here I thought you would let me play around a bit more." He looked down to see her holding a small brown box in her hand.
"A hologram?"
"Correct. It is constantly taking photos around the user and covers them. It's still a working progress as it doesn't take videos so when things are constantly moving in the background, it creates a weird image." She took a slight glance back at all the smoke filling the hallway. If the machine had taken a still image of it, Hayato would have easily seen through it that she came out of hiding to skip that.
With the knowledge of the hologram he was starting to piece it all together. That first Haru that came into the building really was meant to bait him out. By stepping loudly, she was sure that he would react and give away his position. So when he wasn't looking she quietly snuck up on him from behind.
Same with just now. His ears didn't fail him in telling him that she was in front of him. It was his eyes that were being deceived. And with all the confusion for what her weapon could be it made it even harder for him to think that she could have something else to help her. If she hadn't spoken there really would have been no way that he could have guessed where she was.
"But that's not your weapon."
"Oooo you really are a smart cookie. Though this is useful I'm only testing this for an allied family. With the way I work I don't really need a cover like this. Just thought it would be nice to teach you another lesson with this trial. Your instincts are stronger than you think. Learn to trust them. Not everything is what you think it is."
"Including you?" The more that dug himself to think about her there really was something nagging at him about her. She could have easily attacked him without him knowing but she let him know where she was. Of course she was only training him for her own benefit. But she was still training him to decrease the chances of him dying out there. Not to mention she was paying for his mom's bills and letting him keep Uri if he did everything correctly.
"I don't know about that. Has your opinion of me changed after getting to know me better?" She put the hologram box in one of her jacket's inside pockets.
Before he could even respond in a crude way, the same pain in his leg shocked him again. This time he completely fell to the ground. He sat up holding his one leg. He tried to think of anything she did funny when his forearm started hurting again. He bit down on his tongue to suppress a scream.
"Something the matter?" He looked up her grinning.
"Absolutely nothing." He gritted his teeth as he forced himself to stand back up. To no avail he completely lost feeling that he couldn't put any weight on it. He leaned up against the wall on his one leg but with this he wouldn't be able to run away.
"I wouldn't do that Gokudera-san. You might make it worse." Same as before he couldn't see if she did anything. Now that she wasn't hiding behind the hologram she made it even harder for him to notice any strange movements. Though she was telling him not to push anything, he also couldn't trust her words.
Since he couldn't really run away from her with his leg acting weird, the only thing he could do was force her to move back. At least if he had distance he could try to see if there was something he was missing.
Hayato threw his dynamite at her, making her jump back a little. Only a little. The short distance that she created was still in range of getting hurt. While he was confused on why she wasn't moving away each stick exploded seconds too early.
He had to take a second to replay that in his head again. He has been working with these same versions of dynamite throughout his training. He knew the time it took for each type to go off. These one exploded too early.
Haru didn't give him time to think as she started running through the smoke. Shamal had told him that she was good at combat so he couldn't let her get too close. He threw more dynamite at her. This time making sure that he counted the time it took for them to explode.
She could see on his face that he knew something was wrong. It was fun to watch her little worker piece everything together. Of course he did need a bit of help for him to figure it out. She could have dodged it but instead she snapped her fingers causing them to explode early again.
Hayato didn't miss it this time. For a second he thought that she tampered with his weapons before giving them to Shamal. He passed that option off as it didn't seem like she was that petty to do that. What he did see was that right before they exploded, the sticks had moved ever so slightly in the opposite direction. Like something had pushed it away from the target.
Hayato raised his arms as a cross over his chest as Haru threw a punch. She quickly moved so that she would grab his shoulder instead. She was a lot faster than he was. The shoulder she was touching became heavy that he felt like he was being pulled down. Luckily she did it on the side that didn't have the injured leg that he was able to balance himself. Unluckily this was a professional that he was dealing with.
She took advantage of the weight she added on him to catch him off guard and took one stick of dynamite off his belt. His eyes widened seeing how fast she lit it. She winked at him before dropping it by his feet.
The heaviness of his shoulder disappeared when she moved back giving him no time to adjust his balance as the present she left went off. He was able to shift his weight slightly to pull back any direct burns or hits.
He looked down seeing the damage to the floor. Meanwhile his opponent was left unharmed. He put a hand on his shoulder that she touched. It didn't feel like she put anything on him. In fact, it felt even lighter than it did before she touched it. Her weapon was both painful and helpful?
He threw a fistful of dynamite down at the same spot she made. He did try aiming them closer to her feet but with the already short distance between them he did have to jump back to avoid getting hurt too badly.
The amount that he threw was enough to cause that part of the floor to give out. He could still make out her figure through the smoke. She could easily make the jump but there was a potential danger being in the air with his type of weapons. Sure she had some sort of projectile weapon as well but neither of them could probably see each other.
Precise. Her weapons were opposite of his. Hayato could throw aimlessly at her and cover a larger range, she had to be precise with what she was doing. He looked down at leg. Though it was his entire leg hurting he remembered that it started at one point.
Haru wouldn't let a small hole stop her. Rather than jumping above the hole, she jumped down into it. At the last second she grabbed the other side of the hole, pulling herself up. She was practically in a handstand position when Hayato tried to attack her again with a smaller stick. She pushed herself to flip and land behind him.
He flicked the dynamite behind him. With it being a smaller version there was less time for either of them to evade it. Still she pulled on the back of his collar so that he would fall flat onto his back, just as she jumped back so that they both didn't get hurt.
He quickly pushed himself back up. On his one good leg he stood with the other foot only slightly touching the floor. She snapped making him jump back before anything would hit him. However, there was a miscalculation as his heel rolled over a random stone causing him to lose balance. He stepped back onto his other leg having that pain shocked him again. Another step back that missed the floor.
Suddenly he wasn't looking at her anymore but at the ceiling getting further and further away. Piecing together what happened he closed his eyes and braced his body for impact. He felt the air moving fast around him when a pair of arms tightly wrapped around his head. There was a shift in body weight that caused him to feel like he changed to fall face forward.
He didn't feel the impact, instead rolling over a few times once reaching the ground. A few rocks jabbing at his sides until he came to a full stop. Below him he felt a slight vibration as the arms released him. Still with pain throughout his whole body he pushed himself up.
Slowly he opened his eyes, coming face to face with Haru underneath him.
For the moment neither of them said a word. They just stared right into each other's eyes. The two were breathing heavily from the adrenaline of the fall. Their faces both smudged with a mix of dirt and smoke. Neither of them moved away. Neither of them said anything. Maybe one of them hit their head.
Eventually Hayato pulled back. He looked up at the gaping hole above them. If Haru hadn't acted fast he would have gotten seriously injured. It was obvious that took most of the blow even without letting it show on her face.
"Fuck me." She whispered under her breath.
"You saved me?"
"I didn't do anything special. I just didn't need you to get a concussion." That being said she sat up letting out a groan in pain.
Hayato saw her stretching her shoulders with a pissed off look. Falling onto a broken concrete from that high of a height wasn't easy even for her. It didn't seem like she suffered anything serious. She rolled in a way that it wasn't a direct impact. He recognized that fact knowing that he would have landed head first.
"Thank you." He mumbled.
"Whatever." She stood up, brushing the dust off of her. "Should we conclude for today? I'm fine with continuing but I won't blame you if you're a bit spooked. It's not like you're any closer to figuring out my weapons anyways."
"No. I know what they are." She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Entertain me then."
He sat up so that even with her standing he didn't feel the difference in power. "Needles. Extremely thin needles that you hide throughout your body that your enemy can't see. With irregular hand movements it doesn't even look like you're throwing anything. So when I made sudden movements my muscles tighten to either make the pain worse or push the needle out before I could see it. Am I right?"
She smirked. "I knew my choice in picking you was right."
Haru flicked her wrist and crouched down in front of him. She held her fingers close to his face. His eyes could barely focus on the thin needle. It was like looking at a straight strand of white hair. Maybe even thinner.
When he was fighting her she moved so quickly that there was no way to see each individual one being thrown. Not even leaving behind so much as a mark besides a dot that could be brushed off as skin texture. If she got close enough, applied enough force, or aimed at a specific spot she could create dangerous damage.
"Acupuncture and sewing needles. Fascinating isn't it? That a tiny thing like this can hurt so much if you aim nice enough. Tell me how did you figure it out?"
"When you blocked my dynamite I could see something push it away from you. But dynamite doesn't break from contact. It explodes when the powder is lit. To make it explode before the fuse reached it meant you broke it from the outside. If you threw something blunt it wouldn't do anything. You punctured it."
She leaned back, putting pressure on his leg. At first it hurt that he almost shouted at her only to have it slowly fade away. "Told you walking on it made it worse."
The first time he attacked her she held onto enough needles that he basically slammed his forearm into a pin cushion. Later, hidden behind a hologram, she hit him in the calf but as soon as he fell the needle wasn't in deep enough that it popped out. When she put the hologram box away she had thrown the needles at the same points as before to only make the pain from earlier hurt more.
The reason why he couldn't walk was due to her needles tightening his leg muscles causing pain that he wasn't used to. Her putting pressure on his leg right now was essentially massaging it to relax. By him standing and running around he was only making it worse for himself. She used her target's own bodies against them.
"One thing I couldn't figure out was why. Why make this a trial when we could have fought as a training session?"
"You need to look at things in the bigger picture. What did I say you gain if you pass this trial?"
"Uri?"
"There you go! While it is easy to fight you for the sake of getting you experience, it is also not the best of your efforts. Fighting for someone or something you love is what makes you stronger." Haru stood up offering him a hand.
"Then what about you? What are you fighting for?" She smiled. The first genuine smile that he's seen from her. He didn't even think she could look so calm.
"My boss, Vongola Decimo."
There was more than meets the eyes with her. Little snippets in what she did and said showed that she had a completely other side to her that she doesn't want to acknowledge. Or didn't even think about herself.
Not everything is as it seems. Hayato learned that today.