A/N: I don't own KHR or any of its characters.


I feel a mess. I didn't sleep a wink. I definitely need bandages, and Kyo's words repeat in my head again and again. It hurts.

Whenever I was injured in the past I'd think 'I want to go home' and imagine peaceful Namimori with Kyo. But now… does he even still want me here?

We've never fought like this before.

I hear the soft padding of his feet across wood floors. He approaches my door… lingers… then leaves.

I breathe a sigh of relief as I hear the front door shut behind him.

I wince as I get up - yup, time to get that taken care of. I also need a new phone… after I'd sent all the photos off to Edoardo my phone met its sad demise. Wildly inconvenient but hopefully they were already in the process of sending me a new one. Maybe this is a good forced break from missions…

I throw on loose sweats, anything easy to slip on with my wound, then walk slowly toward Tsuna's house. I obviously can't go to the hospital - Mafia shit you know - but at least having other acquaintances in the business makes it pretty easy to find some bandages or a shady doctor.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

"Oh Hatsu-chan! Good to see you."

"Hi Nana-san." I greet her politely. "Is Tsuna-kun home?"

She puts a hand up to her face, "Oh he hasn't been back all night. He must be at a sleepover with his friends." Oh, guess I'll need to resort to Doctor Shamal to patch me up… "But Kyoko and Haru stayed to look after Lambo."

"Is that Hatsu-chan?" Kyoko pokes her head out the front door.

"Ah Hatsu-chan!" Haru pokes her head out as well, carrying a napping Lambo in her arms (ugh).

"I'll make us all breakfast." Nana says with a smile. Haru grabs my arm, pulling me in. I guess I'm coming in then. "Thank you Nana-san!" Kyoko responds as they drag me upstairs.

"What are you two doing here?"

"We're babysitting! We came to bring cakes yesterday. We were worried that Tsuna-kun was missing when he wasn't here… but Nana came home and let us know he's probably sleeping over at a friend's house! So we thought we'd help take care of the kids." Probably? Or like actually? I feel like those are two very different things. "Did you need something from Tsuna-kun?"

"Ah well he usually has a lot of bandages and um - "

"Are you hurt?!" Kyoko shoots up, worried. She's so sweet to genuinely care for me, considering how little we know one another.

"Just a little bruise! I fell down the stairs yesterday rushing to catch the train."

"Well I'm great at patching people up! I help my brother after his wrestling matches all the time - you can count on me!"

"If you don't mind, I'd really appreciate it." I smile at her.

It's the most serious I've seen Kyoko as she lays out all the bandages and ointments for my injury. A stronger side than I usually see of her. She gently disinfects the wound, then wraps it with gauze.

"Try not to use this side for a few days. And definitely hold off on baseball practice!" She says firmly.

"Yes ma'am." She blushes. After my fight with Kyo her gentle nature is welcome to say the least. Calming. Kind. And even though she's exceptionally naive, I'm grateful that she doesn't press for more.

Lambo starts to toss and turn in Haru's lap. Ah, that's my cue to get the fuck out of here.

"Tsuna go BOOM." he mumbles. - EH? I sweatdrop.

"Don't worry he's been mumbling that since yesterday." Kyoko smiles. I feel like that is MORE concerning?

"What do you think it means?"

"it's just one of their games - like hide and seek!" Huh wellllll who am I to contest that? And I don't really want to be there when Lambo wakes up so I'll just back up… one step at a time… just going to slowly make my way out the door -

Lambo turns over again and a random assortment of weapons casually falls out of his giant afro. He really should use POCKETS.

"Hahaha of course that must be it! Well I'm pretty busy today, so I guess I'll see you two later -"

And then pops out a purple bazooka. The infamous 10 year later bazooka! It flies out of his hair and lands directly on Kyoko. Oh my god.

Suddenly, a cloud of purple smoke fills the room.

"Eh Kyoko-chan?" Haru says looking left and right. The purple smoke clears and Kyoko is nowhere to be seen.

Oh. Oh boy. Well it should last 5 minutes right?

Wait.

Shouldn't the older Kyoko be here?

"Kyoko-chan?" Haru places Lambo on the floor as she goes to look about the room. She opens the closet, lifts the mattress, flips through magazines… Yeah I don't even think it would be possible for her to be in most of the places Haru looks.

"M-maybe I should just be going now -"

And then Haru trips over a textbook (which she just put there in her search), flying straight into the mouth of the bazooka. Ah.

Another plume of purple smoke.

Anddddddddddddd… nothing.

No one in her place. Just me. Alone with my favorite kiddo Lambo, sigh. Is it irresponsible if I leave now? A baby alone in the room with this bazooka? And Kyoko and Haru nowhere to be seen? I walk toward the door. Fuck fuck fuck. I can't leave Kyoko and Haru in this mess. I check my watch. Okay it's been… 7 minutes. Something's definitely wrong. I turn a harsh gaze over to Lambo.

"Lambo wants candy. Give Lambo candy." Lambo looks up at me with big eyes, wide awake now.

"Lambo, what happened to your bazooka?" I glare at him.

"LAMBO WANTS CANDY! GIVE LAMBO CANDYYYYYYYYY!" He screams.

"Lambo, do you want to die? Tell me what happened to your bazooka." I glare even harder. The problem with kids, especially dumb ones, is that they have no sense of danger. No honed skill to detect when their lives are really in danger. And I swear Lambo is getting real close to critical danger here.

"GYAHAHAHA LAMBO WANT CANDY!" He runs in wild circles, bazooka in hand.

At the very least I have to keep this bazooka away from Lambo, until I figure out what's going on.

But just as I walk over to grab it from Lambo, Nana walks in with a tray of breakfast foods.

"Breakfast is ready~" Lambo, running over to greet her, throws the bazooka straight at her. "Oops."

"Shit." I flash in front of her, blocking her from the bazooka. Instead, it envelops me.

And we're down the rabbit hole. Vibrant colors surround me in 360. They seem to practically envelop me, yet I can't feel or touch them. I feel gravity pulling me down through infinity. So time travel basically feels like an amusement park ride, exhilarating, slightly nauseating, with various loops. It even sounds like an amusement park. I hear a rapid succession of voices, overlapping. Nothing really discernible, yet constant chatter. I see a bright white light quickly approaching - we must be coming to the end.

As I come too, liquid gushes into my throat. I try to cough it out, only to have more and more fill my lungs. My eyes and throat burn.

It's dark, and though I've been trained to excel on night missions, even I need a moment to adjust to the change in lighting compared to the brightness of the time vortex I just spun out of. As my vision comes back, I take stock of my surroundings. I'm in a tube surrounded by some sort of fluid, thick glass on all sides.

Don't freak out, I remind myself. Anyone can hold their breath for a minute.

Surrounding me are hundreds of other glass tanks filled with different specimens. None of the others are human from what I can see, but all of them are dead. DON'T FREAK OUT, I remind myself again as my heart beat swells at what that means for myself. No windows, a lot of pipes, likely underground. I tap at the glass. 2 inches thick, so I'll need something besides my bare fists to break it open at this distance. I pull out the dagger strapped to my inner thigh, then push myself up against the back wall. With as much momentum as I can garner I stab at the glass. It SHATTERS, sending the liquid and myself sprawling to the floor.

I stick my fingers down my throat, immediately forcing myself to puke up the substance. Can't be too careful. Though now that I'm out of it, it's obvious what the liquid is. Formaldehyde - easy to tell by the smell. I'd never TASTED it before, and truly wish I'd never have to. Cool cool cool cool cool. So not only am I likely DEAD in 10 years, but my body is being preserved in a basement, next to a whole bunch of other specimens, in what seems to be a laboratory. Great :'). Love it here already (man, fuck the future).

I've been in a lot of near-death experiences in my life, but never an ACTUAL DEATH experience. At least I get to check that off the list!

I push myself off the ground, wincing again at the wound I just got patched up. Fuck, what a time to be injured.

If only I had a map for the compounds, but I'll need to just rely on intuition. It's a dire situation to say the least, but nothing good comes from losing cool. I hop into the vents and start shimmying myself through, looking for an exit.

Kyoko and Haru must have been transported to where their future self is. Hopefully since they're civilians it will just be at their homes in a normal, safe situation. Still, I'll need to find them to make sure they're okay and then get us back to our time. And if Lambo mentioned Tsuna going BOOM, Tsuna probably got brought here as well. How many of us are here? If I haven't seen Reborn either, he's likely here too. But WHY? This can't just be coincidence, it feels too contrived.

I look between the left and right vents, deciding on the right.

Would Kyo notice I'm missing? Ah stupid stupid stupid, this isn't important now. I don't need him. I can and I will get myself out of this situation. I nod my head with renewed vigor.

This is nothing. Nothing compared to losing dad. Nothing compared to starting over. Nothing compared to leaving Kyo. "This is just another mission."


It's quiet.

The quiet that came before Hatsu. That came before Tsuna and his herbivores. I revel in silence, but today it feels off.

I mean I'd expected her to avoid me all day.

I wanted to.. I don't know - not apologize (don't be ridiculous) - but at least TALK to her this morning. See her… make sure her wounds weren't too deep.

"Fuck." I can't help but say aloud as I remember the blood seeping from her wound. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." I slam my fist into the desk, breaking it in two. I hear a few disciplinary members gasp quietly in shock from my outburst.

What kind of mission could have put her in that state?

Why did she still need to even take missions? I could take care of her. I could provide whatever she wanted. But of course her words echo in my mind 'You were born with power and position.'

I grit my teeth.

She's so obviously taken advantage of by her 'family'. I don't know how she could even use the word to describe them. They act like she's disposable. Act as if what's MINE can be sacrificed to further their status. Her own guardians barely acknowledge her save for the money she brings in.

She's worth more than the Vecchio in its entirety. I should burn them all to the ground.

But I know what she's like…

So stubborn. She feels the need to take everything on by herself. Unable to accept any help when it comes to her 'family' situation.

"I'm leaving." I mutter to Kusakabe.

I let her go for too long. I'll find her this time.


A/N: I split the chapter I was writing in half, so I'll probably update soon! I do change some random things in the future arc.