Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is owned by Akira Amano. The Gamer belongs to Sangyoung Seong and Sang-a.
…
Tsuna stared. Hana stared. The delinquents stared. Then the reactions hit.
"HIE!?"
"What?!"
"EXTREME!"
"This is so cool!"
"Hn."
"Hahaha, you guys are the best!"
Tsuna groaned and buried his face in his hands. Whyyyy… He had just gotten used to everything! He finally had a handle on the dungeons, the pet system, all the weird quirks! And now this? Did this game enjoy tormenting him or something!?
"Tsunnaaa," Hana wailed under her breath. "Whyyyy?"
"I know Hana, I know," said Tsuna. Then he took a breath and shook himself. Right. Panic later. Right now he had a group of people that needed explaining to… wait.
"You guys can see this!?" he blurted out.
"Huh? Yeah," said one of the deliquents. "Why, are we not supposed to?"
"Yes, wait no, I just- argh," Tsuna waved his hands in the air. "Normally you can't see these things unless we're in a party, or you're a guardian. I- wait, can you see titles and levels and all that?"
The delinquent blinked and glanced over Tsuna's head. "Yeah, I can see them. I think I could as soon as this… announcement showed up."
"That's… oh whatever, who cares, I'll deal with it later." Tsuna took a breath and blew it out. "Right, so, what do we do?" he said frankly.
A round of shrugs. Most of the delinquents were too new to this "game" thing to really offer any serious criticism, and most of Tsuna's friends were… not the kind of people that would figure this sort of thing out. Hana, however, was deep in thought.
"Well," she started "If this is like starting a party, we'll have to name it before doing anything else, including learning more. So, lets come up with a name."
"Okay," Tsuna agreed. "So, any suggestions?"
"Namimori Disciplinary Committee."
"No. That's your group Hibari."
"The EXTREME MEN!"
"No."
"Let's call ourselves the Super Friends desu!"
"That sounds like some kind of cheesy American cartoon."
A few other people offered names like "the Awesomeness squad" and "the Cool gamer thing club" that were also dismissed as options.
Then group quieted down, having exhausted their pool of ideas for the moment. Tsuna sighed. Sure, he could just settle for one of the above ideas, but this "Family" thing sounded permanent and he didn't want to be stuck with a stupid name.
Hana looked at Tsuna. "Hey Tsuna," she asked. "You have an "heir" title."
Tsuna blinked. "Oh, right," he said. "According to the game my title is "Vongola Heir"," he mentioned to the delinquents, pointing above his head. Then he made a face. "But I still don't know what Vongola means."
"It's "clam" in Italian, I looked it up earlier. I'll try to find out more later," Hana promised. "But since we can't come up with anything that everyone can agree with, why don't we just call ourselves Vongola?"
"You know what? Sure," Tsuna said, out of patience. "Anyone have a problem with that?"
After a round of shrugs, Tsuna nodded. "Alright then, I name us Vongola."
Miniature fireworks exploded over everyone's heads.
"Congratulations! The VONGOLA family has been founded!" a sign screamed.
"Extreme!" yelled Ryohei while Haru and Kyoko cheered. Yamamoto just laughed while Hibari just seemed impassive. The delinquents seemed confused but generally happy about the way things were going.
"Yes, now let's see what that actually does," said Tsuna. "Is there like, a tab or something?" he murmured as he started trying things. "Vongola? Family? Oh, family is the key word."
"Right," a few people mentioned as they opened their version of the newly found "Family" tab. Tsuna looked his over. At the top there were a series of tabs, "Main" which he was on, "¥" "Jobs" "Bases" "Assets" (Tsuna didn't know that word) "Members" "Diplomacy" (Tsuna wasn't certain what that word meant either) "Goals" and "Misc.". The main screen had several parts.
Vongola
Money: 0 ¥
Members: 37
Jobs: None currently in progress
Reputation: Unknown
No current alerts
"Okay," Tsuna said. "I'm not sure how I feel about this."
"This is super cool!" Kyoko gushed. "We're like a superhero group now, hahi!" Haru added.
"I don't understand any of this, but it's extremely cool!" said Ryohei, a couple of the delinquents hesitantly nodding along. Yamamoto just laughed and gave Tsuna a thumbs up.
Hana and Hibari were just reading along the tabs.
Hana hummed softly. "Tsuna, are you looking at the tabs?" she asked.
"Not yet," he admitted.
"Because this looks like a management system for a major organization," she continued. "Financials, record keeping, membership, diplomacy? These are the kinds of things you'd think about if you wanted to run a business."
"Really? I don't know some of these words," Tsuna said.
"Yes," Hana answered. "Also? Check out the membership tab."
"Okay." Tsuna did as she asked.
The membership tab was a list of all the members, each within their own little box. There was a headshot of the person, their name, their level, their title, and how healthy they were. At the top there was a button labeled "Sort", a button labeled "Display", a button labeled "Show Only" and a bar with a magnifying glass on the left side.
"So I can check up on my friends and see how they're doing health wise?" Tsuna asked.
Hana snorted. "Yes, but I meant look at your box." She very helpfully pointed it out with a slight smirk.
Tsuna looked. Right next to his name there was a small crown and the word "Boss". It took a moment to sink in.
Tsuna turned to Hana in horror. "No," he said.
The smirk widened. "Yes," she said.
"No," Tsuna continued denying. "No, heck no, I refuse to be the BOSS!"
"Haha, why not? You seem like a boss to me," said Takeshi cheerfully over Tsuna's shoulder.
"Yes! You are an EXTREME MAN, so you'll be an EXTREME BOSS!" Ryohei roared cheerfully.
"Hahi! Like Phoenixman and the Legion of Good!" said Haru. Kyoko nodded. "We can be like Friendship Girl and Captain Kitty!" she added, gesturing to herself and Haru.
"You aren't making me the boss of these lunatic monkeys," Hana said.
Tsuna looked at her and flailed. "But- but-," he looked around and noticed Hibari. "-but what about Hibari? Isn't he the boss of most of you?"
Hibari turned away. "Hn," he grunted dismissively.
"Yeah, no," said Hana.
"Looks like you're in charge now Boss," one of the delinquents, Akagi Yasuharu, said.
Tsuna turned to him with an expression he hoped showed just how done he was with everything. "Please don't call me that," he asked.
Yasuharu smiled back, then turned to look at the floated box listing all the members. "Anyways this is pretty cool Boss," he said.
"You weren't even gonna pretend for a moment that you wouldn't, were you," Tsuna murmured in defeat.
"Hey, you aren't the only one with a title!" said Kyoko. "Onii-chan has one too! He's the 'Sun Guardian'!"
"I EXTREMELY AM! AND HIBARI IS THE EXTREME CLOUD GUARDIAN!" Ryohei yelled.
"Really? How'd you get that position?" Takeshi asked curiously.
"We EXTREMELY Swore Vengeance on Tsuna's EXTREMELY UNEXTREME Dad!"
"Wait, why did you swear vengeance on Tsuna's dad?" Kyoko asked confused. Tsuna winced. He realized that he never explained that to Kyoko and everyone he befriended after about that. Tsuna supposed he just didn't like thinking about it. It always made his chest feel heavy.
"HE EXTREMELY SEALED HIS OWN SON-Ack!" Ryohei was interrupted by Hibari's tonfa. How strange, it felt like Tsuna had been hit by Hibari's tonfa as well.
"HEY, that was UNEXTREME!" Ryohei yelled.
Hibari glared at Ryohei. "Herbivore. Don't talk about that," he said as he waved a tonfa in Tsuna's direction.
Ryohei blinked in Tsuna's direction and then blanched. "Tsuna!" he yelled. "I'm EXTREMELY SORRY! DON'T CRY BABY BRO!"
"Huh?" Tsuna asked. "What do you mean cry…ing…" Tsuna felt his eyes prickle. Oh no. Please don't let him start crying in front of all these people. He desperately rubbed his eyes.
"Tsuna," Hana asked in a very slow and calm way that sounded like someone was going to die soon. "Did your father hurt you?"
"I-I-I mean, like, he didn't h-hit me or anything… like that…" he mumbled.
"But did whatever he did hurt you?" she asked.
"yes," he murmured in a small voice.
Hana took a deep breath. "Alright!" she said in a voice of forced cheerfulness. "Swearing vengeance sounds like an excellent idea to me right now. Who's with me?"
"Hahi! Of course! Tsuna's dad is officially Vongola's archenemy!" Haru cried.
"-BEEP- yeah! Vengeance!" another guy said.
"You guys… you're ridiculous," Tsuna mumbled as the cry spread, but he felt himself smiling regardless.
"Group hug!" Takeshi said as Tsuna felt Takeshi's long arms wrap around him.
"EXTREME GROUP HUG!" Ryohei cried as he nearly bowled Tsuna over.
"Eh, why the -BEEP- not?" a delinquent said as he joined in.
The group hug was nice… even if Tsuna felt kinda squished.
..
"Alright," Hana said after everyone had separated themselves. "Disregarding this new system, which I WILL be going over later, lets talk about what went wrong yesterday."
Some of the delinquents cringed.
"Now, first off, we were not prepared AT ALL." Hana eyed Hibari, who looked away grumpily. "We have no experience fighting together in large groups like that, and frankly you guys," she waved at the delinquents, "were way too under leveled. As such, we are not going back there until everyone is at least level 10 and we've done some practice group fighting, alright?"
"Alright," most of the delinquents mumbled grumpily back, but Tsuna thought that most of them seemed secretly relieved.
"Secondly, we had no idea what a raid is. I did some research going last night, and most raids involve going up against a very strong boss monster. We got stopped at the mob monsters. That means that wherever those tunnels end up, there is likely a single, very strong boss that makes everything we've done before look easy. We need to be prepared for that." She got a round of nervous glances.
"Finally, we had, and still have, no real idea of what that particular raid would involve. According to my research, raids often take a lot of planning, including creating counters to bosses special skills. We'll probably need to go a few times before we're able to get a win. Also, in regards to the tunnels, we need to understand more about how the tunnels work to be able to navigate through them or deal with them. Before we were trapped in by forces that hit us from behind. We'll need to either block them or cave them in somehow." Hana looked up from her notes. "Any questions?"
There was a round of head shaking. "Great," Hana declared. "Start your warm ups. If you don't have your preferred weapon go and grab it. We'll have some light exercising and then spars so we can see what we're working with here." She waved a hand in dismissal. "Tsuna?"
Tsuna came over. He quirked an eyebrow at her. "You sure you aren't the boss?" he asked.
Hana paused. "Ah, that was a bit bossy of me," she scrunched up her nose. "Sorry. In my defense though, everyone was being monkeys and we do need to see how people fight so we can decide what we need to do."
Tsuna smiled. "Its fine. I'm glad you're here. I have no idea what I would do otherwise," he said.
Hana nodded. "Right. Anyways I was thinking that we could essentially do what we were going to do yesterday, splitting people up into groups so and then having each group do a dungeon."
Tsuna nodded. "I think it would be best if we don't have like, a group of all people who are- what did you call it? Long range?- Because then wouldn't it be harder to fight? We've been doing well in dungeons because we have a mix of people. So while Ryohei, Takeshi, and Hibari take the monsters head on, Kyoko and Haru can keep them away, and you and I can take them out from a distance while they're preoccupied with the others."
Hana shot him a wry glance. "You say that like you aren't always right up next in front next to the others." She sighed. "Yeah, that makes sense. We should still have some practice in groups of only people of the same combat type, for the raid. Maybe… we could have like two types of groups? And then would belong to one of each of the two groups. Like divisions and squads! So a person would belong to, say the mid-range division, and then also a squad of mixed range types."
Tsuna smiled. "That sounds great!" he said. "Let's do that. But first let's see if anyone needs help." He gestured at the group of delinquents.
..
"Alright," Hana called out. People didn't hear her. She repeated herself again, louder. "Ugh, I'm gonna have to get a whistle, aren't I?" she muttered under her breath.
Tsuna caught Ryohei's eye and waved him over. "Hey, can you get everyone's attention?" he asked.
Ryohei beamed at Tsuna. "Of Course! HEY EVERYONE! TSUNA EXTREMELY HAS SOMETHING TO SAY!"
"Well, more Hana then me," Tsuna corrected. "Hana?"
"Right. Does everyone remember what type of fighter group they were in?" she asked.
After a round of nods she continued. "Those are going to be your division. We're going to split up into squads now, which will dungeon-fairing groups of five to six people, again headed by Tsuna, me, and the other experienced people. This time we'd like a mix of fighter types within each group. We'll let you decide what group you want to be in. After that we will take each group to a separate dungeon we have already conquered and have experience with. Is that clear?"
"Yes." "Yeah." "Got it," Tsuna heard.
"Great, pick your groups," Hana said, and it all dissolved into chaos.
Hibari got the strongest people there, of course, and Ryohei attracted a number of strong fighters as well. But Tsuna was surprised to find that people actually seemed to be fighting to get into the group that he headed.
Maybe it was because he was the one that was called the boss…?
One of the boys Tsuna remembered as one of the people he had treated yesterday, Saito Issei, gave Tsuna a bright smile and a thumbs up. "Please take good care of me boss!" like he hadn't just punched a guy to get into Tsuna's group.
Tsuna looked at him, then glanced at the guy that lost the fight as he went to join Yamamoto's group instead. He contemplated trying to figure that out, but decided that he did not want to know. It was fine. Everything was fine. They'd just go do a dungeon.
Tsuna ended up taking his little group to the spider dungeon, as the only one of the group who regularly fought with fire (because like heck he was trusting Kyoko and Haru with Molotov cocktails and the others preferred their weapon of choice). It was obvious that the delinquents were a bit nervous still, seeing as how the only experience that they had previously was the disastrous raid, but they calmed down a bit after the fight started out the way Tsuna explained it would.
Once the boss was defeated, however, Tsuna was a bit surprised.
"Hey Boss?" Saito asked. Of all the delinquents, he seemed to warm up to Tsuna the quickest and like Tsuna the most.
"Yes Saito-san?" Tsuna replied.
"You said this is where you got Kuro, right?"
"I did." Tsuna had mentioned it when explaining the dungeon, using Kuro as an example of what kind of enemies the delinquents could expect to see.
"Then, ah, would it be possible for me to get a spider pet too?"
At Tsuna's surprised look, he explained. "Look, I'll admit Kuro freaked me out a bit when I first saw him, but fighting alongside him made me realize he's kinda cool. And also, all of you guys, it feels like you all have these pets and this connection, and like? I kinda want in." Saito smiled sheepishly.
"O-oh." Tsuna blinked, then frowned. "Are you sure? A pet is a big responsibility, and it would be bad for you to get one just to fit in and then abandon it." Miss Kobayashi had gone on a few rants about people getting pets just because they looked good and then abandoning them when they realized how much work they took.
"Aw geez, you sound like my mom," Saito complained.
"Sorry…" Tsuna felt a bit embarrassed.
"Nah, it's cool, I get it. I'd be pissed if I had a dog, and then found out someone adopted a dog to be like me and then abandoned it. Still," he rocked back on his heels and looked at some of the frayed webs hanging from the ceiling. "I feel like I'm stepping on the path of something new, something better than before. And I don't understand everything that going on but I like it, and this seems like the next step I need to take." He turned and grinned at Tsuna. "Besides, if I do a *beep* move like that you have full permission to kick my teeth in."
Tsuna wasn't quite certain how to take that, but despite his rough edges Saito seemed sincere in his desire.
"…Alright, but you will be taking proper care of it," he decided.
"Alright!" Saito cheered.
"In that case, can I?" "I as well!" Apparently Saito wasn't the only one who wanted a pet spider.
It felt wrong to let Saito be the only one, so Tsuna just told the others to make sure to take care of their new pets and let them go for it. Saito and two of his buddies got jumping spiders, while one of the other delinquents got weaver spiders. The last one didn't want a spider but given the cautious yet envious looks he was giving the others, that was likely to change soon. Tsuna just gave them some tips from his experiences with Kuro and resolved to keep an eye on them.
After that, the whole group met to go over the dungeon experiences (there were only minor issues thank goodness), and then everyone went home.
..
Later that day, Tsuna was testing out the new voice chat options while working on his homework. A part of the membership tab was the ability to give Vongola members certain positions. Although he couldn't make anyone a type of guardian, he could make them sub-bosses and then create a "leader-only" voice chat.
Tsuna used that ability to talk with his friends. Well, most of them. Takeshi had baseball practice and had bowed out, and while Hibari was technically on the line, he had a greyed-out speaker symbol with a line through it that Hana said meant he was on mute.
"Anyways, aside from those few, most of our new members seem to be dealing with things well, and I believe that with some extra time the others will fall in line," Hana finished her report.
"That's good," said Tsuna. "I know it was a huge shock to most of them."
"I Extremely don't get it, but I Extremely trust you," said Ryohei.
"Moronic monkey," Hana growled. "I mean a lot of new members were shocked by what happened and they are having trouble dealing with it. Most are but some aren't! Get that through your thick head!"
"It EXTREMELY shouldn't matter!" Ryohei said surprisingly. "You never know what kind of punch your Extreme opponent will take! If they can't Extremely deal, they need to extremely learn how!"
"Yes! Justice never waits!" said Haru.
"It is part of being a hero to always be prepared no matter what happens," Kyoko added.
"…how the heck did a monkey like you manage to say something insightful?" Hana muttered. Then she said normally, "Well, they're getting a crash course in that now, no thanks to you Tsuna."
"Hie!? Me? What did I do?" Tsuna said.
"Didn't you see how those four you got pets were showing them off? I bet by the next time that dungeon opens everyone is going to want a spider pet."
Tsuna groaned. "If they do, they'd better take good care of them."
Hana laughed. "We'll introduce everyone to Miss Kobayashi. She'll set everyone straight."
"We can rope the others into helping out with her store," Kyoko added.
"Right! That reminds me," Haru said. "I remember reading that spider silk is supposedly really strong. I bet if we knit something with it, we can use it as armor!"
"That would be awesome!" said Tsuna. So far they had been using sports equipment when they needed armor, but it was both pricey and not very good. "Ah, but Kuro is a jumping spider, not a weaver…"
"You can have some of mine," Hana said. "I'm too busy with everything else to spend much time knitting."
"Thanks Hana," Tsuna said. Then he yawned. "Its getting late, and I need to focus on my homework. See you guys tomorrow."
"See you!" "Have an EXTREME night!"
..
As Tsuna was lying in bed at night, he couldn't help but think over the events of the past few days. Aside from when he first gained gamer powers, his life had never changed so much.
For once in his life, he had an actual group of people that were looking up to him. Granted, they were all kinda scary, but it was still nice. And once you got to know them, they weren't that bad, really.
Strangely, it felt as if it all fit together. Like it was meant to happen.
Tsuna's eyes shot open. Wait… if this was meant to happen, did that mean that the game was prophetic!? Like, it knew that Tsuna would make a "Family" and call it Vongola!?
Scary…
Needless to say, Tsuna didn't sleep as well as he had hoped.
..
The next day, Tsuna had trouble keeping his eyes open, nearly nodding off in class. He caught Hana and Kyoko giving him worried looks, but he couldn't exactly talk to them during class. They could however, talk during lunch, which was when he was cornered by Hana and Kyoko.
"Alright monkey," Hana said, putting her lunch down on Tsuna's desk. "You're clearly being bothered by something. Talk."
"It's not good to keep everything to yourself," Kyoko added.
Tsuna frowned at them, which just made Hana raise an eyebrow and Kyoko giggle. Then he sighed and leaned back. "It's just… the Vongola heir thing. Did the game know I'd make a group called Vongola, and that's why that's my title?"
Hana frowned and looked outside, clearly considering it. Kyoko gasped. "Like a prophecy?" she said. "That would be so cool!"
"No it would not!" Tsuna said.
Kyoko looked at him, surprised.
Tsuna gestured at the air, trying to come up with a way to explain how he felt. "Well, its—like if its true the game thing told the future, like, that means there weren't any reasons why it happened? Like none of my choices mattered because it was going to happen anyways. Does that make sense?"
Hana nodded. "You want to have some say in your life and how it turns out. If the game tells the future, then it means that it was fate for you to create the Vongola, so it doesn't matter why you choose to do so because it was fated, so it feels like your reasons were cheapened. It also means that regardless of your choices, certain things are going to happen in your future because of fate, so there is no point making decisions because they ultimately won't affect anything."
Tsuna nodded. "Thanks Hana. I wasn't certain how to explain it."
"No problem. Besides, I don't think that's what the heir title meant at all. After all, if you were destined to create the Vongola, I think your title would be Vongola Founder. 'Heir' implies that you are inheriting something. So stop freaking out and being a monkey."
Tsuna breathed out a sigh of relief at that. He had been stressing about since he'd thought of it.
"I did do some research on Vongola," Hana continued. "Like I said before, Vongola means "clam" in Italian. And there is a company in Italy by the name of Vongola, but it's a bit strange."
"Strange? How?" Tsuna asked.
"Well, everything shows it being an old, well-established and funded company. But for such a large group, it hardly has the kind of online presence you think it would. Normally companies have websites advertising themselves and trying their best to get their name out there, and you've got customers talking about their products and how the company was when they were dealing with them. Vongola… doesn't quite have that."
At Tsuna's look she elaborated. "Like, they have a website, okay? But it's bare-bones minimum and poorly designed. And customers do talk about them, but in a sort of wink-wink nudge-nudge way? It's almost like it's taboo to talk openly about them."
Tsuna frowned. "That's strange. You said it was based in Italy right?"
Hana nodded.
"My father… he's blonde. A foreigner. Do you think it has something to do with him?"
Hana frowned. "Maybe. It would definitely make sense, but we don't have any hard evidence."
"Ooo, maybe it's some kind of evil cult," Kyoko said. "And as heir it's Tsuna's job as heir to turn it to the path of righteousness."
Tsuna opened his mouth to tell her she was being ridiculous, but then paused. Compared to the Yokai, magic, and other things that had happened, that was actually plausible.
"Let's hope not, I'm having enough trouble with our current group," he said.
Kyoko smiled brightly at him. "Don't worry, I believe in you," she said solemnly.
Tsuna groaned.
..
After school, when Tsuna met up with the others to practice, they found a different problem awaiting them.
"Hey, Hana?" Tsuna asked.
"Yes Tsuna?" she replied.
"I don't think this clearing is gonna work anymore…"
The scene before them was one of pandemonium. Boys bumped into each other, people were accidentally hitting each other with weapons, and Hibari was up in a tree looking displeased at the world. The last one made Tsuna nervous. He had gotten somewhat used to Hibari, and Hibari was certainly better at dealing with other people being around him, but this was clearly testing his patience.
Before, when there was just the seven of them, the clearly was perfect. But it was way too small for nearly forty people.
"Right," Hana said. "But where else can we go? This spot was perfect because it was out of the way. If we show up in the regular parts of the park we're going to freak everyone out with all of these delinquent monkeys."
"Not to mention the weird game things…" Tsuna knew quite a few people at school were scared of spiders due to Kuro, and it wasn't much of a stretch to assume that lots of other people were as well.
"Hahi, we could have a secret base ~desu!" Haru said from behind them as Tsuna yelped and turned to face her.
"A… secret base?" Tsuna asked, feeling like he was going to regret asking.
"Hai ~desu! Its in all the superhero stories. Whenever the hero needs some gadget, or to figure out his enemies plans, he always goes to his secret base! Like the Fortress of Justice or the Catcave!"
Gah. Of course, more superhero stuff. Unfortunately, this suggestion might actually be useful in this situation.
Tsuna felt like tearing his hair out. He didn't want to encourage Haru and Kyoko's delusions!
"That… might work," Hana said cautiously, clearly on the same wavelength as Tsuna in regards to trying to not get their friends killed doing stupid things. "We'd need a lot of open space however, for everyone to practice."
She looked over at Tsuna. "Hey Tsuna, could you open the Family menu again?"
"Huh? Sure I guess." He did so.
Hana gazed at the top of the box where all of the tabs were. "Open the one labeled "Properties"," she said as she pointed it out.
"Can't you do this on your own?" Tsuna asked as he did so.
"Yes, but as boss you have special privileges, so you might have options I don't," she said as she examined the tab.
It had a map like Tsuna's map tab, but instead of having all the symbols, it was instead entirely grey with some buildings having a red line around them.
"Tap one of the red lined buildings," Hana instructed.
Tsuna did so. "Apartment complex!" It declared. Underneath that it said "Residential zone" in green, then in red "400,000,000 Yen! You do not have enough money to buy this propery!"
Tsuna chocked on his own spit. "Hiiieee!? I can buy an apartment building?" he asked in shock.
"Well, not right now, considering our finances," Hana said. She smirked at Tsuna when he turned back to give her a look. "More importantly, is it just apartment buildings? Because I'm pretty sure not all of these are apartment buildings and I know a few buildings that would be useful as bases."
"Hahi! We could have secret bases all over town!" Haru added.
"Lets just get one for now and then see how it goes," Hana denied. "Besides, bases are pricey."
Tsuna held his head in his hands. "Haannaaa," he wailed softly. "I'm ten. Ten-year-olds don't own secret bases. What is my life?"
"Most ten-year-olds also don't have pet spiders that are practically big enough to ride, or regularly go out to fight monsters."
"Hahi, yep! We're badasses," Haru said.
Tsuna looked at them and heaved a sigh so deep it felt like it came from his bones.
"Alright then. What should we be looking for? I know we need space, but what else."
"Bathrooms, definitely," Hana said. "Some indoor space would be nice too when it gets cold out."
"A supercomputer!" Haru added. "A place to make and store gadgets!"
"We can see about adding a supercomputer later. But an armory and craft station would be a good idea," Hana said.
Tsuna frowned. "I'm not certain about those things, but if we're looking for open space with a toilet, maybe we can get a warehouse? I think they have toilets. I mean, where else are the people working there supposed to go?"
Hana nodded. "It won't take much to add special spaces inside the warehouse for whatever we need," she said. "Lets take a look at what warehouses are available, and then check them out in person before we buy."
"We're probably gonna need to raise money too," Tsuna added. "Buildings are expensive."
"Well, it's a good thing we got all these monkeys that just joined," Hana said.
…it would be a good way to get them out around town, and away from Hibari. Tsuna nodded, and then called everyone over.
..
Everyone took the idea of getting a secret base well. Ryohei shouted about how extreme it would be, and Kyoko shared Haru's excitement over becoming even more like superheroes. Hibari just told them to make sure it had good napping spots. Several of the delinquents offered up their normal hang-out spots, and then were shocked when "getting a secret base" meant actually buying a building. Tsuna enjoyed that someone else was realizing that this was weird, and wondered how long it would take until this was normal for them too.
After a period of checking out all the potential warehouses they could purchase (as well as a few non-warehouse buildings with potential), Tsuna, Hana, and the others settled on a still in decent shape abandoned warehouse with toilets, a small break room with a kitchen, a changing room, and an office that Hibari promptly claimed.
From there, it was a matter of raising the funds. The warehouse was 10,000,000 yen to buy, which was more money then Tsuna had ever seen before. However, unlike before, he now had a whole group of nearly forty people helping him out. In between the dungeons, odd jobs, and random quests, they managed it in only 4 months! …it helped that they already had some money saved up, and Hibari kept swinging by with absurd amounts of cash. Tsuna suspected he was stealing from criminal groups, considering that these trips corresponded with Hibari suddenly jumping a few levels. Well, as long as it was only that.
Finally the day arrived. Everyone gathered in front of the building. Money was passed over until Tsuna was holding a bulging suitcase. Then Tsuna shoved the case of money into the family account, moved to the properties tab, and hit "Buy" on the screen.
"Are you sure you want to buy "XXX Warehouse (Abandoned)"?" it asked.
Tsuna hit "Yes".
"Congratulations!" a box seemed to scream at them as there was a popping sound and confetti rained down on them. "You have bought your first Property! Designate as [Main Office]?" Everyone cheered.
After a moment's pause, Tsuna hit "Yes". Why not?
"Alright everyone!" He yelled. "Lets move in!"
"WE EXTREMELY NEED A BOXING RING!" Ryohei roared.
"For Justice!" Kyoko and Haru cheered as they ran in, Yamamoto laughing as he ran beside them.
Hibari had disappeared, probably to claim the couch in the main office before anyone else.
Hana stepped up beside Tsuna as they walked in, slower then anyone else. "I'll have to work so hard to stop them from making a mess of things," she complained, but she was smiling too widely to put too much heat into it.
"You don't sound like it," Tsuna said as he raised an eyebrow at her.
Hana shoved his shoulder. "Oh, like you aren't smiling too you sap," she said. "Where's the guy complaining about ten-year-olds owning buildings?"
"Everyone is so happy, its hard to be unhappy like this," Tsuna said. "Besides, the past few months made it very clear how badly we needed a bigger space like this." That was an understatement. The clearing was too small, the park too public, and while the school building worked for a while, Ryohei broke a door and they were politely asked to find somewhere else. A place they now had.
Something crashed from inside the building. It sounded expensive.
Tsuna and Hana shot each other a dismayed glance and then sped up heading inside.
..
Getting their new base in order took a lot of patience, negotiating, and finding ways to tell Ryohei, Kyoko, Haru, and Hibari no.
Luckily, between the fundraising, the moving in process, and all the training they all managed in between, finally they felt ready.
It was time to do the raid again.
…
AN: I know I said this chapter would be in two parts but its beginning to look like it will be three parts instead. Sorry not sorry? It was this or wait probably another year for me to get the full thing out. Also it just felt like a good place to stop.
So, first time making a system like this completely from scratch. I took cues from various management and sim games. Let me know how you think it will work; I could probably switch things around later. Also, since Hana is really the only one in the story with any kind of sense for managing things, she kinda stole the show. Plus I felt like I was using Kyoko and Haru a bit too much like a single comedic entity, so I tried to give them some individual love, but it wasn't really a lot.
I don't know if my depiction of a warehouse is accurate, the only warehouse I've ever been in is a food bank, so let me know if I got anything wrong. The prices are based on a quick bit of research, so they aren't super accurate. And also, normally the process for buying a building are more complicated, but this one was easy because a) it was their first building b) they're 10-16 years old c)it's an abandoned warehouse, not like, an active apartment building where people are living and paying rent. Also, I don't know if you could raise that much money in only four months, but Gokudera was able to live off of a job at a convenience store so I'm using author status to handwave it.
Aside from that, I'm thinking about cross-posting this story on AO3. Any thoughts?
Also a few people have commented that this feels rushed to them. The thing is, this is supposed to be a prologue. Yeah. Things happened.
Anyways, if it feels like things are underdeveloped, that's probably on purpose so I have things to talk about when Reborn comes.
Lastly, Good News! I've graduated! Bad News! I've graduated now. During Covid, and record level unemployment in my country.
I was lucky enough to get a job (yay for focusing on health in school, it feels like its one of the few sectors that's hiring.) So I'm doing okay, but its definitely a huge shift. Hopefully I'll have more energy to write now that I can get on my computer without feeling guilty about not studying.
Hope everyone is safe and healthy!