Chapter 3 - Hyper Mode

Few things could surprise Kazuto Kirigaya.

He had been exposed to quite a lot of things in his life; orphaned, forced to live with his foster family alongside a disapproval grandfather, to boot. But most importantly, he was an avid gamer. Through the years he had been taking the role of chosen ones, heroes, and the like. Roles that most always counts on saving someone or some world.

But after the half-hour that Tsuna and Yamamoto explained about the Dying Will Flames, the rings, and even the notes found in the Guide given by Kayaba, he almost resorted to laughing in disbelief.

Klein certainly did so.

"So, you're saying that guy on the video back there wasn't backed by CGI?" They were talking nonsense. The two wanted to believe they were pulling a prank, screwing with them in some way.

But Tsuna was looking at them with sympathy, Kazuto was very familiar with the look. It was the same look his foster parents gave him before they told him what happened to his parents.

Klein took a deep breath. "You're not kidding, aren't you?"

Takeshi shook his head. "I wish we were."

"Then show me those flames again, if you don't mind." Kazuto wanted to see it again. Just a last look before they completely take in the ridiculous story as truth.

Tsuna, like the rest of them, was sitting on the grassy plains. He turned to Yamamoto and nodded.

"Sure." The tall teen pulled his hand out. "Eh?"

But found the ring had disappeared.

"It was in my hand just a while ago." He scratched his head. He then turned to take a good look around.

"You lost it?" Klein laughed dryly. "Way to go lose your coolness factor, dude."

The teen just laughed hard in response. "I'm not this clumsy, usually anyway."

Tsuna's widened. "Now that you mentioned it, mine is gone as well."

"What?" The three looked at Tsuna.

"I could've sworn I was clutching it in my hand when we were at the town. I thought I just put it in my inventory, but—" He was swiping his inventory window.

"Just like weapons," Kazuto pieced it together. "You don't think the rings also have some form of durability in-game, is there?"

Tsuna and Yamamoto's eyes widened. As if they remembered something crucial.

"Hibari-san." Tsuna muttered. "That's right, I remember him constantly burning through low-class rings back when—"

"Hey, Kirito." Yamamoto looked their way. "Would you mind taking out your ring?"

He nodded and took out the ring from his inventory, he held it in his hand. Yamamoto then looked at it, it read 'Unidentified E-class ring.'

"Does it have something to do with the E-class part of the name?" Klein asked.

Tsuna nodded. "Usually when opening a box, you'd only need a small amount of flame."

"Not small, Tsuna." Yamamoto remembered what Lal Mirch told them. "You need a strong flame to open a box, but just enough to not break the ring you carry."

The two of them have been in battle using their Vongola Rings, and their Vongola Gear after that. No wonder they haven't been paying attention to such details, they had the luxury to ignore the ring quality.

"Then you're saying you two broke your rings from exerting too much flames in them?" Kirito looked at his ring. "Wait a minute, Inspect!"

He activated a skill. He then took another look at the item. He nodded and looked at his companions.

"The item, when looked through the inspect skill, has the threshold of 1,000 Fiamma Volts. I'll just assume that's the measurement for the flames." He looked at the three.

They were silent. But suddenly Takeshi laughed, clutching his stomach. Tsuna looked at them, but was chuckling as well.

"I'm sorry," Takeshi waved at them. "No wonder they got destroyed. I guess we were used to the gear we use, we didn't give the rings themselves much thought."

"What do you mean?" Klein had his brow raised.

"Earlier, when Yamamoto overwhelmed you with his flames." Tsuna explained. "I think he was exerting at least a hundred thousand Fiamma Volts back there."

It was a rough estimate. It was not as intense as Tsuna's first X-Burner, which reached around 250,000 fiamma volts.

"H-hundred thousand!?" How the hell were they alive then?

"And you're saying these things only have a thousand till they break!?"

Kirito started to remember the two right when they met. Oblivious.

He then slammed the guidebook he was holding to his forehead.

"Please don't accidentally kill us just because you guys forgot how strong you actually are."

The two just laughed dryly.

"But then," Klein pondered. "How the hell did you guys get this strong in the first place? I know you guys told us about the flames, types, where they're from. But, I'm no expert, you don't just have that much power if you're not deep-in-the-know and such, you know what I mean?"

The two suddenly froze.

'Something tells me they're not telling us everything.' Kirito looked at them.

Yamamoto looked at Tsuna.

Kirito noticed this a lot. The teen seemingly looked reliable to him, confident even. But every time a big decision was to be made, whether as little like where to go or as major like about the secret they're hiding, he always turns to Tsuna for the final word.

Tsuna was looking past them, it was a look he wasn't expecting the teen to have. He read about it on the internet, it was called the thousand yard stare. It was the look veteran soldiers gave when they remembered their time on the battlefield.

Tsuna, looked at Klein and Kirito. "We only told you guys about the flames to help you understand how terrible and dangerous it is."

"But-"

"I'm sorry."

"We are also trapped here, Tsuna." Klein looked at the teen. "I don't know what sort of life you guys have beyond this game, it honestly sounds dangerous."

He took out his ring from his inventory and wore it.

"We are in the same boat now. You need us, we know about the ins and outs of videogames more than you. But you know more about these more then we'll ever hope."

Kirito looked at the man, he looked reliable. He wasn't looking at Klein, this was the man outside his in-game avatar, an adult.

"If we are able to live trough this, we'll need each other." He clenched his fist. "You don't have to tell us anything about you, it's your secret to keep."

Then a soft orange flame burned through his ring. "But let us join you, we owe you this much."

Kirito was wide eyed. It was the first flame he saw that didn't come from Tsuna or Takeshi. Klein actually did it!

Klein was hesitant to look at the two, sure, he produced a flame. But compared to what Takeshi displayed earlier, it was like looking at a matchstick fire. But when he looked, the two were smiling ear to ear.

Tsuna, especially, was looking at him expectantly.

"You've got one hell of a flame, Klein!" Yamamoto flung his arm across his shoulders.

"Hey! Watch it—" He reeled back. "This should be nothing new to you two, why the surprised looks?"

"Apparently orange flames are classified as sky flames, Klein." Kirito was looking at the guide. "They have the characteristic of Harmony, and is one of the rarest flames among them."

Yamamoto pointed at himself. "I'm a rain flame user, myself."

"It was only for an instant, but I remember yours, Tsuna." Kirito looked at the brunette.

He laughed dryly. "Yeah, I'm also a sky flame user."

"Sweet, I'll be relying on you to teach me a bunch of stuff, dude."

"Eh?" Tsuna waved his hands in protest. "I don't know anything about teaching."

"That's true, usually we turn to Gokudera-kun when talking about studying."

"Who's that?"

"A friend of ours, he's a storm flame user." Tsuna supplied. "He's great at teaching people, but sometimes he's kind of intense."

"He's very intense about everything." Takeshi laughed.

The two looked at them, Kirito and Klein both don't talk about the real world. Likely a subconscious effect when playing a lot of MMOs. You don't normally talk about stuff people won't understand in-game.

Especially now that they're in this game, trapped. It gets hard to talk about the peaceful outside world. Klein honestly wanted to get out as fast as possible, he had a job, a life.

Kazuto wasn't as eager, it wasn't as different than his usually days of gaming entire days away. Sure, school gets in his way a few times but ultimately he spends his time more in-game than the outside. Looking at the two talking about the outside world like they could go out at any time; to Klein it was reassuring, but to him it was an unfamiliar sight.

Not that it bothered him, he had his own problems to take care of.

"Give it a try, Kirito." Klein look at him.

"Huh?"

Yamamoto nodded. "You should give it a try. Let's see what sort of flame you got."

Kirito blinked. He already tried back when Yamamoto was overwhelming them with his flames.

"Let's see." He still had his ring in his hand. He equipped it and clenched his fist, but it was still like back then.

"Nothing." He admitted.

"The woman that taught us how to summon our flames told us it take usually takes someone longer to summon their flames."

"You sure this isn't some anime thing where-you-need-to-be-chosen-to-bear-this-power and stuff?" Klein asked.

"Nope." Tsuna shook his head. "All things alive have a form of life-force or wave energy, as she put it, it takes a strong resolve to summon the flames."

'Resolution.' Kirito pondered. 'Klein was had his resolve put in his sleeves since they met. The same goes for those two.'

He sighed and unequipped his ring.

"I'll just try this again later."

Tsuna nodded. "Take your time, I was also the last of our friends to be able to summon their flame."

Kirito smiled at that. "Thanks."

Klein pondered. "Now what do we do? Usually to get stronger in MMOs, you grind the hell out of your character."

"Before that, how do we get new rings?" Kirito looked at the ring less duo. "You guys won't be able to do much without your flames."

"We can summon flames without rings just fine. Here, give me your weapon." He asked Klein.

The man gave him his sword. Yamamoto gripped the weapon, it was a standard looking arming-sword with a cross guard. The blade was double edged, it was a different beast than the rain guardian's Shigure Kintoki.

Yamamoto turned the blade, focused his wave energy. The sword actually caught fire, in a blue flame coated with simmering particles gliding around the flame like rippling water.

"See?"

Kirito and Klein were wide eyed yet again.

"That's awesome."

"You guys can do that? That's nifty."

"Yep, though I can only do that when I'm using a weapon. Without a ring, the stuff you can do is very limited."

Tsuna scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, this is a problem. I don't have that much experience in using swords."

"Hey, it's not like any of us are real swordsmen." Klein patted his shoulder. "Right?"

Kirito and Yamamoto looked away.

"Seriously?"

"I learned Kendo when I was a kid." Kirito admitted, his eyes were still darting away.

"For real!?" Yamamoto flung his arms around Kirito's shoulders. "I had my old man teach me some kendo too! We should have a match some time, I bet Jiro and Kojiro would have a blast!"

Tsuna started sweating bullets. 'You're going to use them while sparring!?"

"Who're they?"

"Jiro's a cute shiba inu and Kojiro's a very quick swallow." He was practically glowing while talking about his pets.

"I haven't trained kendo in a while," Kirito politely declined.

"Don't worry, I'm no slouch at sword fighting." Takeshi smirked. "I'm sure with me as your opponent your skills will be sharpened in no time."

"Wait—"

Kirito was about to say something but was cut off by Klein. "So all that's left is you and me, eh Tsuna? Non-combatants in this deathtrap."

The brunette then looked away.

"Oh c'mon! Didn't you say you weren't a swordsman!?" The redhead was exasperated.

"He isn't." Yamamoto chuckled. "But with his gloves equipped, I don't think even I would be able to beat Tsuna at fighting."

"Seriously." Was he pulling their leg again? Kirito looked at Tsuna, who was laughing sheepishly at them.

"You're a boxer?"

"Nope, that's more on Ryohei's alley." Yamamoto waved. "Tsuna fights with his entire body, not just his fists. But his weapons are his gloves."

"That sounds like a brawl, rather than a fight." Kirito mused.

"Yeah, something like that." Tsuna then realized. "Speaking of gloves, I can't go into Hyper Mode without my pills."

Yamamoto went wide eyed. "That's right!"

"Reborn always forced me to train going Hyper Mode without them, but I've never done it on command."

"Unless, the baby shoots you with his bullets from outside?"

"Yeah, but if that's the case wouldn't he already start doing it by now?"

"That's true. Oh yeah, you did go into hyper mode back at the town."

"Yeah, I tend to do that nowadays. But it's a different situation when preparing for combat, I can't just hype myself into hyper mode anytime I want. Well, not yet anyway."

"But you're gonna be alright without your gloves, right? You did beat Bermuda that way."

"No, I was in Hyper Mode back then, or something a step up to it. I hate to admit it, but I'm useless at fighting without it."

The two went into their own little world. The situation must've been dire, considering they failed to remember that Kirito and Klein were able to listen in quite well. Not that it mattered, they had no clue what the heck the two were talking about.

'Hyper mode? Pills?' Klein was getting worried.

'A baby shooting?' Kirito very much doubted that was all there is to it. But it didn't sound good.

They both turned to Kirito and Klein. Tsuna looked helpless.

"Looks like we're back to two fighters." Takeshi announced. "Tsuna can't fight without some outside help."

"It's alright, dude." Klein patted the brunette's shoulder. "You guys helped us plenty with you guys teaching us flames and such."

"There are also Sword-skills in the game." Kirito pitched in.

Tsuna didn't hear what Kirito said, he was too preoccupied by the danger he sensed in the area they were in. Yamamoto was second to pick the feeling up.

"There are people in danger." Tsuna already stood up.

The two who weren't able to pick up the danger were left clueless, but they followed him. They were led into a familiar area, the same area where Tsuna and Yamamoto fought the area boss.

And there were four other people on the area, fighting the boss!

They weren't equipped with the standard equipment, in fact, they were wearing gear from the next town. On paper, it was almost five-times the stats of the beginner's equipment. Kirito was able to observe all of it just by glancing at them.

But why did it looked like they were losing?

Then they saw the area boss. The same raging swine they encountered a couple of hours prior. The sun was low, almost sunset, and it made the boss look even more intimidating. But what made them worry was when one of the players attacked it, their weapon bounced.

Green lighting crackled each time one of the players swiped their weapons at the boss. There was no two ways about it, it was using Dying Will Flames!

"What the hell—" Kirito narrowed his eyes. That thing wasn't using flames when they first encountered it, hell it didn't even do the same attacks when it was in the beta.

"Sasaki!?" They heard Klein shout at the players, he was already on the open field.

"Wha—" One of the players saw Klein. "Ryou? Get away from here! This things somehow got stronger!"

Before they could take another step. The boss charged up, it covered its entire body with the green lighting and charged towards the players.

"Son of a—"

"Wha—"

Two of the players fighting were thrown aside! Kirito didn't know what to do, he was collected, but didn't have a plan of any sort. He was under leveled, had the basic gear and no flames to boot. Typically when this happens players just let themselves be killed to not waste any recovery items then try again better prepared.

Now they didn't have that luxury. Kirito knew these players also realized that.

The boss then started charging again. But before it could reach them, Tsuna suddenly jumped from above the swine!

He was thrown across the field. His body rag dolled into one of the boulders.

"Tsuna!" Klein screamed.

Yamamoto was already an arm's length from the bull. He swiped his sword upwards, a torrent of rain flames flowed, coating the area around them.

"Get out of here!" He told the players.

Wasting no time, the players ran towards Klein.

"Ryou!" They knew Klein, that much was clear. The five stood back, looking back at the two players that fought the boss in their stead.

Kirito stepped closer to them. "Don't even think about stepping in there."

Klein flinched. "We can't just leave this to them, man!"

"Yeah, and what're we going to do? It's a miracle Tsuna hadn't died from that move he pulled." He looked at the brunette, who stood up and started walking towards the boss. "Those guys know what they are doing. Once their health goes the red and they still can't escape, we step in and bail them out."

Tsuna's health bar was already at a quarter left, but he was standing in front of the boss. They were only a couple of dozen meters apart. Yamamoto was busy chipping away its health, Klein's sword actually penetrating the boss' skin.

"The sword isn't going to last long, Tsuna." Yamamoto hollered. "You go ahead first, I'll retreat soon as you do."

"Don't worry, Yamamoto." They heard Tsuna speak in a reassuring tone.

Kirito looked at Tsuna, the brunette had the dying will flame on his forehead.

"You." Tsuna addressed the area boss. "Give me your best shot."

The animal somehow understood him, it stopped swinging its tusks at Yamamoto and turned towards the young man. It charged up its flames, a loud crackling sound filled the area. But then bright orange flames flared around Tsuna.

With the sunset behind him, it looked like he was the source of the whole level's light.

The boss threw itself towards the young man, its flames shrugging Tsuna's sky flames. He didn't move, they were already a few meters apart. The boss was only getting faster but still Tsuna wasn't budging.

Then it happened, the boss' legs gave away. It broke, which left the others slack jawed. But upon further inspection, its whole body turned rigid.

It was petrified.

After a moment, the boss disappeared in a pile of polygons.

Tsuna walked towards them. He looked like a different person, he was looking more reliable. His eyes were shimmering amber, and he was standing tall as opposed to his usual slacked posture.

"You guys alright?" He looked at the players.

"Yeah, thanks a bunch, dude. If it weren't for you two, we'd be toast." The one named Sasaki bowed to Tsuna. He in turn smiled at them, it was the kind of smile that made them feel safe.

"That guy—" One of the players whispered to another. "That's the guy that slammed Kayaba on the center of town."

It wasn't a quiet whisper, the others heard and went wide eyed upon realizing. Tsuna nodded at them. "Don't worry, we'll make him pay."

Kirito and Klein wasn't used to this Tsuna at all, he was way too different to his usual self. Takeshi, meanwhile, was grinning from ear to ear.

"So you were able to go into Hyper Mode, after all."

Tsuna looked at Takeshi. "I wasn't. Somebody shot me with the Rebuke Bullet."

He raised his brow. "From outside?"

Tsuna nodded. "The rebuke bullet made me hear their rebukes, even from the outside. Gokudera-kun gathered the guardians."

"That's great!"

"Also." Tsuna sighed. "I know you can hear me, Reborn."

To the other three's surprise. A hologram popped up on Tsuna's shoulder.

"Getting cheeky, are we?"

It was a baby in a tuxedo.

Author's Note:

I decided to add honorifics. It feels weird not putting them for some reason (probably just me). But I will keep the nicknames (baseball freak, lawn-head etc.) as is, rather than using something like Dame Tsuna instead of No-good Tsuna.