Chapter 17: The Worst Realization at the Worst Time

I don't know how many times I have to reiterate this, but this is a terrible idea, through and through.

It wasn't just because I was sparring against Hibari Kyoya, the Demon Prefect of Namimori, but also because I was sparring Hibari Kyoya with assassination under my skill of expertise.

The first thing I learned from my dad was the style of assassination - and let me tell you, it's not a good match against Hibari. The aim of assassination is to calculate the quickest way to kill someone. What good is assassination going to be when I'm against someone I have no intention of killing? What good is assassination when I'm against someone who had no intention of a quick battle?

Hibari attacked me the second I arrived at his residence. There was not a moment where I could distance myself from him, and not one where I could even explain my lateness. Every word I intended to speak was interrupted by a strike from his tonfas.

He made me drop his food! I mean, it's a good thing because it had probably gotten cold from my stop at home, but it was a waste of food! Food that I had every intention of eating a few hours prior! Food that I had saved because I thought he would at least-!

"Shit!" I dodged a strike to my head, and I screamed, "Tuono e Lampo!" to dash away from him. It allowed me to catch my breath for a second, but he was quickly on me, and eventually the only exchange between us was the clash of metal.

Any thoughts I had were quickly interrupted by Hibari's attacks. That realization alone would've caused a blow to my head, but I was able to block it in time with a focused slash attack, Fulmine di Fiamma, to catch him in a stalemate.

He stared at the crackling lightning around my knife with amusement, and then his eyes focused on me. "Wow."

Judging by his amusement and how my vision was now painted with a red tint, I realized my Sanguigno eyes were finally out for the world to see. My eyes were weird like that, never activating when I wanted them to, only activating whenever they wanted to.

I found myself smiling before saying, "Rombo e Bagliore." My knife glowed green, and Hibari jumped away from me before he was hit with the lightning I summoned around me.

His eyes narrowed, and he held up his tonfas. "So you've become stronger." Out of his tonfas released chains with spikes, and his smirk was back. "You've finally revealed your fangs, carnivore."

I slashed the air with Tuono Lontano, an attack that released multiple strikes of lightning towards him.

He dodged them all with quick feet, and his spikes moved towards me, to which I dodged.

I still believe this spar is a terrible idea. Hibari has more stamina than me, so I'm bound to lose anytime soon. But if there's one thing I hate more than anything, it's pain. And damned I'll be if I don't at least try to prolong my inevitable defeat.

"Ughhh… I feel like shit..."

"My win," he said smugly.

Unsurprisingly, I lost. However, I lasted a lot longer than I thought I would. We sparred for an hour before my stamina depleted completely, and though I would've liked to push myself further, the moment my body crumbled was game over for me. Having lost my adrenaline during the hour-long spar, I felt countless bruises all over my body and aching pains I knew would be a pain in the ass to deal with in the morning.

Hibari was obviously in better condition, but it wasn't like I didn't do any damage on him. He had scorch marks on his clothes from the lightning strikes I managed to land and various bleeding cuts on his body from my knife slashes.

Ah, right.

I blinked. "Hibari."

He turned to me.

"I've got something for you. Hold on a second."

He just frowned at me. I fished through my bag for a certain item, and when I found it I opened it and walked towards Hibari. His eyes narrowed warily at me, and I simply wheezed out a laugh. "Don't worry, I won't attack you. Trust me for a bit." His form loosened a little, and that's when I placed a Band-Aid over the cut on his cheek. His eyebrows knitted together, and I held out the Band-Aid box to him. "Here's the rest of the box for the rest of your cuts. You're gonna pass out from blood loss, use them."

He stared at it before his mouth contorted into a frown. "…It's unnecessary."

I pouted, moving to pull the box away. "Figured you wouldn't want them. I'll just-"

He took the box from my grip, his frown still prominent. "No... I'll keep it."

I blinked. "Are you sure?"

He nodded, averting his eyes.

I smiled, happy that he accepted my peace offering of sorts. "Well, thanks for not killing me! Since that's done, I'll be goi-!"

Slip!

My legs lost strength in the moment I took my next step, and I started to fall towards the ground until Hibari caught me in his arms. My eyes widened up at him in shock, but I quickly snapped out of my trance with a shy smile. "Thanks Hibari, I almost-!"

Before I slipped again, Hibari steadied me again, and swept me up into his arms.

"H-H-Hibari! I appreciate the help but you can put me down-!"

"You can't walk."

I averted my eyes, feeling my face burning up quickly. "You're right, but I can just rest for a few minutes and then try walking again-!"

"I don't like to owe any favors."

"But I still owe you for so many things-!"

"Quiet, or I'll bite you to death."

He began to move, probably taking me to my house, and I bit my lip, staring up at him with my heart beating rapidly.

It's… it's times like this that make me misunderstand your intentions, you know, especially since I-

Wait.

No. There's no way that I like him, right?

I mean yes, he makes my heart pound but that's because he's always-!

Okay, but it's not like I'm always thinking about-!

Seriously, it's not like I would care if he acted like this to someone else-!

Oh no.

I'm in love with the socially-retarded, bloodthirsty, hot Demon Prefect of Namimori.

"Hibari, I-"

"Okay, what exactly is going on here?"

My eyes widened at the sight of my dad, who looked confused beyond a doubt, but he quickly analyzed the situation and gestured to Hibari to place me onto the sofa. My vision was restricted to the ceiling, so I wasn't sure if Hibari had left or stayed, but I went with the assumption that he left given that my dad began to talk to me.

"Nami... what happened between you two?"

I averted my eyes. I didn't blame my dad for asking. If I saw my daughter coming home in a guy's arms, I'd ask the same thing.

He simply sighed and handed me an ice pack. "I'll call Tsuyoshi you finished your delivery." He eyed my dirty uniform. "And will return the uniform in stark condition. Before that, I'm going to go talk to the Kyoya boy at our front door."

My eyes widened. "He's still at our-?!" I choked on my saliva and started coughing erratically, only to see my dad already at the door, talking to Hibari Kyoya.

My dad had given me an ice pack for my sore muscles, but I was using it for my face at this point.

Me... like Hibari?

Me?

I shook my head. Maybe I let all the teasing get to my head! Yeah, yeah. There was no way I liked that bastard who only thought about fighting, and Namimori, and the safety of the school, and occasionally revealed different sides to him like when he called me by my name and when he smiled at small animals and at me, he smiled at me-!

I groaned. ...Yeah, I can't even talk myself out of it.

Fuuuuuuck.

"Language!" my dad yelled from the doorway.

I'm fucked.

"Language, Izanami Sanguigno!"

Bonus:

"So," Luca Sanguigno started, "What is your relation to my daughter, exactly?"

Luca was surprised to see his daughter come home in the arms of another boy, the boy he had sparred with prior to this encounter, but he assumed he had no right to pry into her matters as the father who was absent for most of her life, so he hadn't asked her. Asking him, though, was a different story.

Hibari simply answered with, "She's a subordinate."

Luca blinked, the answer not making any sense, but he had no time to question when he heard his daughter groan, "Fuuuuuuck."

"Language!" he yelled from the doorway.

"I'm fucked," she said again.

"Language, Izanami Sanguigno!" Shaking his head, Luca turned to Hibari again, who simply looked amused at the exchange between the two. Narrowing his eyes, Luca addressed the boy once more, "What do you think about Nami?"

Hibari averted his eyes, thinking for a bit. Finally, he smiled, replying, "She's strong."

Luca raised an eyebrow, noting this as a different reaction to what he said previously, and finally asked the question that would hopefully clear up confusion: "What will you do if you can't see her anymore?"

Almost immediately, Hibari's eyes narrowed and he glowered at the taller man. "That won't happen."

Needless to say, Luca was quite satisfied with his answer.

um, finally!

it took 17 chapters for this to happen LOL whoops I should've mentioned that this would be a slow-burn. okay, but then again, this is Hibari we're talking about, so was it really necessary?

sorry if it seemed so out of place, but I feel like it was just so... Nami for her to realize something so important in such a random moment.

also, regarding her moves, there'll eventually be a time where I reveal all the names of the moves, and after they've all been revealed I'll make like a "spreadsheet" describing each move in more detail, though I'll be honest, they're literally just exactly copied from the Breath of Thunder from Demon Slayer.

also, sorry for my crappy writing. I'm terrible at writing action scenes, did you notice? LOL whoops sorrynotsorry-

hope you enjoyed this chappie,

ally