OpalescentGold: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
Downfall
This is how the night becomes darkness.
Shock
On some level, Tsuna is aware that Daemon Spade is shaking minutely, his eyes too wide and skin deathly pale. He can't seem to move or talk or boast, or even to cry. He holds his weapon upright in a white-knuckled grip even as his victim begins to slide off with a squelching sound that makes Tsuna's stomach lurch.
His Hyper Intuition points all of this out in the back of his mind, and maybe it is somewhat important. When he thinks about this later, he'll understand something that he didn't before, and be one step closer to resolving this entire bloody conflict.
But right now, Tsuna doesn't care. Tsuna doesn't give a damn. Tsuna would rather aim his X-Burner at Daemon Spade than analyze his emotions. Right now, Tsuna is much, much more concerned about his best friend, who just got stabbed because of him.
"Nori-chan!" Ice cold all the way down to his bones, a panic sparking somewhere deep inside of him, Tsuna lunges forward just in time to grab the unresponsive - alive, she has to be alive, she can't be dead, not her - girl before she can hit the ground.
Blood, warm and terrifying, registers on his skin immediately, and he has to choke down a sob of desperate hysteria. He can't seem to get enough air into his lungs, and the world is spinning around him, and he - he doesn't know what to do.
Dread
"Nori-chan! Nori-chan, Nori-chan, please! Wake up, come on, it's okay. It's okay, you'll be okay, just stay with me, stay with me, it's okay, please! Please don't, don't - " His frantic, thin voice climbs steadily until it breaks in the haunted silence.
(He promised to protect her, didn't he? His sister in everything-but-blood, so much blood.)
His eyes fly over her form, and oh, Kami-sama, the amount of red staining her dress is too much. Because of Reborn, Tsuna knows a little about anatomy, and the wound is too dead-center, and he can't - not so soon after Yamamoto, Tsuna just can't -
"Get the fuck away from Juudaime!" a very familiar voice bursts into his ears, more incensed than he's ever heard it, and the air hums, and there is a sudden burst of heat and flame near him.
(He's failed.)
Tsuna jerks his head up just in time to see Daemon Spade shake his head, like he's shaking off paralysis, and jump back. A Storm Arrow flies past him, and then Daemon is backing away, an ugly smirk twisting his lips but eyes wild and despairing from Tsuna's position.
"Nufufu, a fool to the end," he hisses, and his scythe is raised, grip so tight it must hurt. "She deserved to die."
There's a ringing in Tsuna's ears as Gokudera lets out a cry and rushes forward, Hibari beside him. Mukuro is pushing off the wall, an unusually dark look on his face, and Lambo is being held back by Chrome, both with tears in their eyes. Ryohei is moving towards them, more serious than ever before, but all Tsuna can think is no.
(She's protected him for so long, so why - )
No. No, no, no, Nori can't be dead, Nori can't be dead, Nori can't be dead -
"Tsuna." Reborn is suddenly right beside him, steely and unforgiving. "Breathe. You're hyperventilating."
Oh. So that's why he's trembling like he's going to break apart.
Flee
Distantly, Tsuna is aware of shouts and cries and flares of light. Barely two minutes of fighting in, there's a crash, and the sealed exits are shattered. Daemon laughs, distorted and discordant, and vanishes, leaving a dazed Katou Julie behind.
Tsuna doesn't move at all, not to avenge or to attack. Tsuna is listening to Reborn's steady instructions and trying to breathe again as he watches blankly as Ryohei, the Ninth's Sun Guardian, and Lussuria kneel by Nori, and yellow Flames light up the room.
"Will she be okay?" he whispers through the haze in his mind and a dry throat and blurry eyes.
His tutor doesn't answer. Can't answer.
Visitor
In this, Daemon Spade lied. Noriko is still alive when they get her to the hospital. The doctors spend twelve hours working on her before deeming her stable, only to spend another six when her condition falters the next day.
"She'll live," one says as he walks out to the crowd gathered outside the operation room. "It's a miracle, but she'll live."
Noriko is put into the room next to Yamamoto's, a terrible convenience. Tsuna sits at her bedside, head in his hands. The walls are too white, and he can't stand to look at them.
The door opens, and he glances up. If someone is here to hurt his best friend further, he will burn them alive. His heart may feel hollow, and his eyes may be red, but his Flame rages in his chest. He can not, will not, fail again.
An old man in tattered robes hobbles in, leaning heavily on his cane, a black cloth tied over his eyes. He finds his way to the seat next to Tsuna and settles in.
"Who are you?" Tsuna asks flatly, too tired and sad and angry at the world to be friendly or polite. He tried that with Enma, didn't he? And look how that turned out for him and his family.
The Simon are being watched by the Vongola now, very, very closely. Tsuna has not inquired after their condition.
"I am Talbot," the old man says. "And you are Vongola the Tenth. You're exactly the man the rings say you are."