Chapter 4 - Dying Will

It was their first night in Aincrad.

They had parted ways with Klein's friends and rented a room in one of the inns in the town of Tolbana. Tsuna had to pay for their lodgings. Having been the one to defeat the boss, he had the most of the Col reward.

They had little time for rest, however, they had to plan.

"So, let me get this straight," Kirito said, rubbing his temple. "You guys are from the Mafia."

"Yep—" Yamamoto nodded. He was standing by the doorway.

"Dragged into it, more like." Tsuna, who was still in his Hyper Dying Will Mode, had been sitting beside his bed.

"Don't be overly dramatic, No-Good Tsuna." The baby, Reborn, had his hologram projected in the middle of the room.

"Right, but you're still an heir to a mafia family." Klein looked at Tsuna, brow raised. "I guess that explains quite a bit."

"I still don't think telling them is a good idea." Tsuna looked at Reborn.

Along the way towards the town, Reborn had broken down what happened to the four. He also summarized the situation Tsuna and Yamamoto was in. He told them everything. Vongola. The mafia. The incident from the future. The Arcobaleno.

"And risk having the same situation as the girls' boycott all over again?"

Tsuna flinched. "Right."

"Of course I'm right." The baby grinned. "Now that's out of the way—"

"I'm trapped in a video game where I'm forced to talk to a baby about my newfound companions being members to the Italian mob!" Kirito's common sense is slowly losing its grasp. "How the heck do you expect us normal people to take all of this in!?"

"As well as these two did, I hoped." Reborn pointed at Tsuna and Yamamoto.

The child was being unreasonable, granted, having this sort of conversation to a toddler was already weird to begin with.

Reborn started. "These two were still a year younger when I started tutoring Tsuna. Don't go ballistic on me just because you were told the tooth fairy suddenly existed."

"And why the hell not—?"

"Why? Has anything changed?" The baby suddenly asked. "Aren't you still the same guy you found yourself in when you woke up this morning? The same guy that's trapped here with these people?"

Kirito scratched the back of his head. "Well..."

"And when I told you all that, you're still trapped. You're still going to die if you don't get out of this place. You're still going to go back to whatever life you had, only this time, you've got a few pounds of information lodged in your head."

"Damn it," Kirito sighed.

"You really shouldn't get bogged down so easily like this, dude." Klein patted his shoulder.

"Good, now back to the topic at hand." The baby looked at Tsuna. "Dial down your Hyper Mode, Tsuna."

"Yeah, I think not."

"Getting cheeky again, aren't we?"

"Not at all," Tsuna leaned forward. "You're planning on using this as training, aren't you?"

The baby actually gave a mischievous grin. "You know me so well."

"You did the same during the Representative Battle, why would you do anything less?"

Klein scooted towards Kirito, they were seated next to each other. "Dude, this Hyper Mode things is one hell of a trip. I didn't expect Tsuna to be this sassy."

He laughed dryly. "All the stuff the baby said, and that's the one that you can't let go of?"

"Hey, I'm not like you." The bandana clad man punched his arm lightly. "And it's one of the few things we can actually notice right away. You know, the flame-on-the-middle-of-his-forehead bit?"

Before Klein could say anything else, they noticed the baby spoke louder.

"The next time you guys are in battle; I won't use any rebuke bullets." Reborn declared. "I've been disappointed in you as of late, Tsuna."

"How's that any different than usual?"

"I've been disappointed at your Dying Will." Reborn pulled out a gun. "After defeating Bermuda, you still haven't managed to do it on command."

"I—"

"You can't rely on each emotional outburst to draw out Hyper Mode, No-Good Tsuna." The baby, aimed at his side. "Primo could do so even when he's calm and collected, hell, Lemitsu and Enma have been doing it for a long while. I expect my student to do the same."

He fired his gun, after a fraction of a second Tsuna reeled back. Takeshi rushed to aid his friend. When he pulled Tsuna up to his bed. The brunette sat up, then he realized he was no longer in Hyper Mode.

"W-what? How did you do that?" Tsuna was back to his usual panicked self.

"I call this the siphon bullet." He pulled the magazine from his pistol and pulled out a pale looking bullet. "I've been experimenting this for a good while now, didn't expect to be able to use this so quickly."

"And what am I supposed to do without Hyper Mode!?" He knelt down, closer to the baby. "This isn't the same as the Representative Battle, Reborn! Innocent lives are at stake here!"

Reborn then turned towards his student. "Don't be an idiot, Tsuna."

"What?"

"Haven't you been told already once? Are you seriously that no-good that I need to teach you the same thing twice." He frowned.

Then it hit him. 'I've already been told this.'

Tsuna muttered under his breath. "The real Dying Will is the resolution to fight until your body is destroyed."

"That's right." Reborn nodded. "You've gotten the way you are because of it, don't start getting cocky just because you've gotten slightly stronger than when you started."

It was all true.

Tsuna stood and stepped out of the room, face scrunched up. The three didn't say anything, how could they? Not only they didn't understand what Tsuna was going through, they knew the brunette was too troubled to listen intently.

Reborn turned towards Soichi. "Cut the feed."

"Hey," Ryohei was the one who spoke up first. "Was that alright, Reborn?"

The guardians who were still in Tsuna's room listened in their entire conversation. Ryohei was leaning by the door, Hayato was sitting by the window frame, and Chrome was sitting beside where Tsuna laid.

"The tenth needed that," To their surprise, Gokudera was the one that answered. He looked surprised, not believing the things that he himself was saying. "I'm not one to question the tenth's will, but our enemies have been getting stronger."

Reborn nodded. "That last battle with Bermuda was proof of that."

Bermuda von Veckenschtein, the Arcobaleno of Vindice, was the most powerful individual his student faced thus far. Having the ruthless combat prowess that could beat Reborn's and the ability to use the flame of the night, to boot, took a toll on Tsuna. If it wasn't for Reborn shooting his last Dying Will Bullet at the time, Tsuna would've been utterly defeated without ceremony.

They knew that.

"Even though they're already in this situation." Chrome whispered to herself, caressing Tsuna's nerve gear. 'Boss...'

"Don't get bogged down over this," Reborn ordered them. "Don't forget who you're looking down on. Of all things that no good student of mine can be associated with, weak-willed is not one of them."

"You saw how he looked back there." Ryohei shook his head. "He looked beaten down by what you said."

"Is that how you all saw that?" Reborn smiled.

'Reborn is completely right.' Tsuna sighed to himself. He was walking around the town's square.

He was relying on his Hyper Dying Will Mode to fight since day one. But what got to him was Reborn's words. 'Even my father...'

Lemitsu Sawada was a man that barely made any significance in Tsuna's life. Sure he was there during the battle for the rings and the representative battle, but it was always because of the Vongola. He was never there when Tsuna needed him.

Ever since he was a child Tsuna already accepted his own inability. He was never good for anything, up until Reborn forced the world of the mafia into his life. And ever since then? He only got stronger with fighting and nothing else.

As always, Reborn was in the right.

Tsuna grumbled. "I hate it when he tells me how good my father is."

But it was true, if it was a battle to the death. Tsuna would've been killed in no time. He hated it, but the reality couldn't be more concrete. His father was a better fighter, a better boss, hell, a better man than Tsuna ever was.

'Damn it.' He had only faced this sort problem twice in his life, a situation where he had to think for himself.

Back in the future, just when he got his Vongola Gloves ver. Vongola Ring. He had been training with the future Hibari when he was faced with a problem of lacking a weapon to fight with. He had his gloves, sure, but when it comes to a lethal battle he was under equipped.

His answer to his problem came when Haru gave him advice, which gave birth to his technique, the X-Burner.

The second time he was put in the same situation was when he wanted to save Reborn.

During the representative battle Tsuna wanted to save his tutor from his own hubris. Tsuna's solution was to gather every capable fighter he knew and fought the Vindice. In both situations he relied on his friends, but this time it was different. He wasn't fighting for someone else.

It was his own resolution that's failed him.

Tsuna walked to some of the stalls in the town. He talked to one of the NPC merchants, there he found a section of the store where a bunch of rings were in display. It was E and D class unidentified rings.

He bought five rings with the spare money he had, all of them were D-class rings. There was no point buying E-class ones, he would burn through them without noticing.

"Now that I think about it, back in school when I get into situations like this I just pick up by bag and go home." He mused.

He walked outside the town, his walk was leading him on a forest towards the outskirts of the floor Labyrinth.

He laughed dryly. "I was kind if irresponsible, wasn't I?"

Tsuna knew the problem at hand wasn't as hard as he made it out to be. He already went into Hyper Mode more times than he can count, and though people always mentioned Tsuna was like a different person in that state, he himself didn't feel any different.

It wasn't a different person taking over, Tsuna was still himself.

If Tsuna was to explain what it was like, him going into Hyper Mode is like dipping in a deep pool. Every time he sinks deeper in that pool his thoughts would suddenly be clearer. He'd stop over thinking things and make decisions for himself, something he could never do normally.

He equipped one of his unidentified rings. Tsuna lifted his hand and summoned his soft sky flames. It danced around the ring, his pure orange flames.

Even in this state he could do at least this much.

'I don't know how much fiamma volts this ring in particular can take, I don't have Kirito-san's inspect ability.' He clenched his fist, a soft ring echoed and his soft flames were engulfed by a darker orange flame. 'But at least it can handle me using hard flames.'

"What is this place? It kinda looks like a dungeon." He mused at where he ended up from his wandering. "Lambo and the others would enjoy this game if it wasn't one big deathtrap."

Tsuna found himself by the road towards the giant monolith which was the 1st floor labyrinth, but he didn't know that. Before he could arrive at the doorway, however, he noticed a monster in battle by the area.

"Hob Kobold?" Tsuna read its name out loud. "Is that the guardian of this place?"

It was a large green-skinned humanoid with a large axe in its back. It was walking, paying attention to the player it was fighting. Its lightning flames dancing around its back.

It looked like a non-robotic Moska to the brunette.

Tsuna swallowed. 'I came out here to figure out how to get into Hyper Mode, but should I push my luck with that thing? That player looked like they're in trouble...'

Like hell he was, Tsuna wanted to get stronger, not die like an idiot by charging headfirst into an enemy when he's under equipped. He sighed and sat beside the road.

But then it dawned on him, was this player in the same boat? But unlike Tsuna, this player charged in without hesitation.

Doing something as if it was the last thing you are going to do before dying, such is the principle of Dying Will. Tsuna had to be reminded of the simplest of things again. The brunette's eyes became resolute.

Tsuna steeled himself.

Kirito was worried, a couple of hours had passed and Tsuna hasn't returned.

Klein was on the same boat. They knew kid was upset over what his tutor said, but it was still dangerous to roam around during the night. Especially if you're an under leveled novice.

"Is that how you all saw that?" Takeshi, however, was relaxed as ever.

"What?"

"Tsuna looked frustrated back there, Yamamoto." Klein chastised the kid.

He nodded, his face warped into a knowing smile. "Tsuna had been in the same situation before, trust me."

The two blinked in response.

"And each time he came back stronger than ever," He looked at the door. "You saw that face and say he was upset. I know, though, that Tsuna scrunches up his face like that when he's thinking for himself."

Klein and Kirito looked at each other. Is that how it was?

"It's times like these, that Tsuna is scary."

The Vongola Rain guardian hadn't realized, but he had a nostalgic expression the entire time he was talking about his boss— no, his friend.

Asuna Yuuki was in a fight of her life.

It had been a solid day since Kayaba announced the situation they were in. Since then she was in quite the sorry state. She had been grinding nonstop around the forest area of Tolbana. She had already gotten over leveled than most monsters in the area, which lead to her overconfidence.

'It doesn't matter, anyhow.'

She had practically given up. She knew nothing about this game and knew not a single individual inside. In the outside world she had her life ahead of her, well, at first anyway.

'But it didn't matter now.'

She wasn't trying to win the game.

Hell, she knew she wouldn't last the labyrinth. She wanted to curl up in a room somewhere in the Town of Beginnings until her real life body keels over. She wanted nothing to do with that man's game.

'But that guy—'

The one that stood up to Kayaba in the center of town earlier. Most of the players she tried talking to didn't know anything about the young man. But if there's one thing they did know, was the individual sparked something to the players.

Asuna herself felt hopeless, understandably so.

They were trapped in some twisted game where the only way to win was to beat it. And Kayaba relayed to them an insane story of flames and rings. Most of the players, she noticed back then, hadn't even grasped the situation. They only knew if they died in-game, they were going to get killed for real.

That was more than enough for them to panic.

"People just died!" She saw him, flaring a torrent of orange flames in defiance to Kayaba.

He was a young man around her age, she couldn't see what he looked like from the flames that enveloped everyone. The people in his vicinity was forced back by some unseen force, the ones from the back row felt the pressure as well.

"But—" Kayaba's robed figure looked so little compared to the young man's pressure.

"But nothing!" His voice was firm.

His flames became more intense, it even reached from where Asuna was.

Yet none of them were burned by the flame. It was an enthralling experience, to say the least. Some of the children players who didn't understand the situation were looking at the flames dancing past them, others even tried to catch it.

'These flames are kind.'

Asuna had to shake her head in confusion. 'What was I saying?'

But one thing she did understand, like the young man, she wasn't going to let that monster do as he pleased.

Kayaba's words still haunted them.

Some of the players had been shaken, but the young man's flames left a more lasting impression than anything he did. Asuna would still feel the warmth behind those flames, warmth for all of them, not just for himself.

Asuna tried to find the young man, to no avail. But that didn't stop her. Assuming his strength, he should be at the boss room right now. Fighting for their sake. She wasn't going to let that slide for even a minute. She was going to help him, in any way she can.

Just thinking of it made her flush.

But her thoughts were short lived when the Hob Kobold slammed its lightning flame coated axe towards her. She clutched her storm flame coated rapier and parried the attack.

It was a nifty ability, her storm flames. It had the ability to disintegrate her enemies' weapon durability at a rapid rate. Coupled with her relentless rapier sword skills, it was a deadly combination.

But the Hob Kobold was taking a toll on her. It had who knows exactly how much health, she had been fighting it for a couple of minutes and it still had more than half. But hers was dwindling fast.

Keeping her storm ring lit was taxing as well. Just keeping it lit this long had her exhausted quite quickly.

'If I am going to die, I might as well die fighting.' She decided the moment she stepped out of the Town of Beginnings. 'I will get as strong as that person.'

She activated a sword skill, the game's system responded and she charged towards the boss, her storm flames coating her weapon. But the boss had coated itself with lightning flames, then shrugged her attack off.

Then her worst fears were realized, her ring broke.

"Wha—" She panicked. Her body unconsciously took a step back, where the Hob Kobold was waiting and punched her down.

She grunted from the force of the attack, then looked up to the Boss who had his axe drawn up.

'Am I going to die?' Her eyes were wide.

But before the axe swung down, the Hob Kobold was kicked by the side. It wasn't any of the sword skills she knew, but it sent the Kobold reeling. Asuna looked at the player that helped her. It was a teen around her age, he had no weapons and was wearing the default starting gear.

For a moment, Asuna thought it would be the young man from before who helped her. But she looked at the player. He had his eyes locked to the boss. His body language wasn't instilling confidence; he was shaking all over.

"What are you doing!?" She yelled at the idiotic player. "You're under equipped, stand back!"

Author's Note:

Start of a new year (and decade), I thought it'd be nice to post this update. Just a heads up though, rozielrie, about what you said about kayaba. He won't go down without a fight, and I'm not just talking about in-game.