Kokuyo Arc

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

This could not be happening. Onii-san can't be in the hospital! He's… he's… Onii-san! But he was and there was no changing it. The worst part of this is that Reborn told him that he had been given a direct order from the Ninth to capture the escaped convict Mokuro Rokudo who happens to be the reason why there were all these attacks against Namimori-Middle.

He desperately wished Mia was here but he hadn't seen her since yesterday after she suddenly left school. He hadn't seen her today either and he was starting to get really worried. It wasn't like her to skip school.

For a moment, there was a ray of hope when word got out Hibari had went to meet the perpetrators but that was quickly shot down when Kusakabe had been rolled in, his face a bloody mess.

Word was he was attacked in front of the hospital. The blood along made him sick to his stomach. He wasn't bothered by the blood but he didn't like seeing people he was familiar with got hurt, especially people like Kusakabe-san that helped him and Mia out.

Speaking of Mia, where was she?

He rubbed eyes, trying to soothe the headache that had been building there since yesterday.

Something was telling him that things were about to go bad to worse and it did. Leon's tail fell off and Reborn told him he could only shoot him once.

As if that wasn't enough, Reborn had given him a copy of the Fuuta's ranking prowess list and on the number three spot, after Kusakabe was Gokudera. He ran out of the hospital immediately to find his friend. He got into a little snag along the way but he managed to find Gokudera. Thankfully, he seemed alright… until he had gotten a load of needles embedded into his chest after he shoved Tsuna away to save him.

"Gokudera-kun!" Angry, he looked at the injured attacker. He was heavily injured from his fight with Gokudera but he was still standing.

The guy swayed on the spot, practically bleeding on his feet and Tsuna hesitated to attack him. He staggered towards them and Tsuna made his decision to fight. He didn't like fighting in particular but his opponent made it clear he would not stop. He jumped to the side as a ribbon of needles were flung towards him. He kept on dodging the needles that were being shot out of the guy's yoyos like bullets.

"I'll be taking you back with me, Vongola Decimo."

Reborn shot at him plenty enough, these things were nothing. However, they were troublesome. Noticing the apparent lack of trouble, his opponent decided to change tactics and attack Gokudera instead. Luckily, Yamamoto came to save the day by slicing the yoyos in half. Tsuna stared at the bat that turned sword.

"Um…"

"The kid gave it to me," Yamamoto explained. Oh, well he'll worry about the complications of giving Yamamoto a transforming bat later – they had better things to worry about.

"Yamamoto Takeshi." They turned towards the injured opponent. "You're Ken's target. It'll be a pain to deal with you." He started to limp away. Tsuna was going to call out on him but then a bunch of people suddenly started running towards them.

"Oy! What are you boys think you're doing?"

"Yamamoto, come help me out!" He hefted Gokudera on one side while Yamamoto was at the other after sheathing his bat. Then they booked it as fast as they could. They originally planned for Gokudera to be brought to the hospital until Reborn found them and told them to bring him instead to the infirmary at school where Shamal waited for them. Tsuna thought the creep didn't treat men.

"He owes me a favor," Reborn told him. Well that answered it.

Tsuna looked back on his injured friend. His hands balled into fists. How could they hurt all these people just to get at him? The worst thing about this is that he couldn't do anything. Why? Why did it have to be him? Yamamoto placed a hand on his shoulder and Tsuna looked up on his friend.

"Ne Tsuna, where's Mia-chan?" he asked.

Now that Yamamoto brought it up, he felt his concern come back in full force. His brow deeply furrowed into a frown, his jaw clenching. "I don't know. I haven't seen her since yesterday." He felt uneasy. Maybe she just got a cold right?

"Mia is not the only person who's missing." All of them turned towards the new person who had just come in. Bianchi came carrying of what seemed to be a get-well cake of death for her brother. "How is he?" She stopped at the end of the bed, looking at Gokudera worriedly. The two of them took a step away from her because her cooking was emitting an acidic fume.

Reborn jumped on the bedside table. "He'll be alright." He told Bianchi.

She sighed in relief.

"Bianchi!" Shamal suddenly exclaimed, coming out between the curtains to give her a kiss. Bianchi reciprocated by smashing her get-well cake at his face. She left him on the cold floor with him clutching his face. Both boys took another step away.

"Bianchi, what do you mean 'somebody else is missing'?" Reborn queried her.

"Fuuta is also gone," Bianchi announced gravely.

"This is bad," Reborn said. "Both of them have disappeared especially at a time like this."

Tsuna paled at what his tutor was implying at. "You don't think they're…" he didn't let himself finish, just the thought of letting Mia in that situation again skyrocketed his worry. What was worse was that Fuuta was part of it as well.

"Maybe," Reborn said quietly. "We shouldn't jump into conclusions." Tsuna swallowed heavily. He looked back at Gokudera. He was lying down on the bed, unconscious with an oxygen mask strapped on his face. The needles had been taken out – they were deep, he saw. Gokudera taken that hit for him and it hurt to be the cause of his friend's pain. He should have fought against that guy earlier, he thought to himself furiously.

"There's nothing to do about it now." Reborn's voice cut through his thoughts. He looked up at his tutor.

Reborn had his onyx eyes watching him. "Tsuna, I have to show you something." He took out a small brown envelope from inside his hat.

Tsuna took it and cautiously opened it. Inside were photos. Mug shots, Tsuna realized and one of them had the image of a very familiar face.

"It's him!" He pointed at the one with glasses. "That's the guy who fought with Gokudera-kun!" The black board he was holding said his name was Chikusa Kakimoto. Suddenly Bianchi and Yamamoto were at either side of him, looking over his shoulder to peer at the pictures he was holding.

"I'll make sure I'll blind him permanently," Bianchi promised.

"Hahaha! You'll have to get in line first." Yamamoto told her. His tone had a steel edge in it that had Tsuna staring at him at surprise. Bianchi studied the baseball star.

"Whoever gets first then," she said after a while.

"Deal."

Tsuna could not believe that they were talking about this right now. Reborn took his attention away by telling him Dino's report at the additional criminals that have seemingly joined Mukuro who was the scarred man at the central of one of the pictures. He looked through them, his expression becoming more anxious. Placing the pictures back in the envelope, he gave it back to Reborn who put it in his hat. Tsuna thought it was best for his sanity to not question how that worked.

"I… Reborn, can you come with me back home? I wanna get changed."

The hitman wordlessly jumped on to his shoulder. He made way to the door.

"Tsuna? Why do you want to get changed?" Yamamoto asked him. He stopped and looked back at his friend. He honestly had no idea. On one hand he wanted nothing to do with this but on the other, he could not just let them get away from hurting Gokudera and possibly kidnapping Mia and Fuuta. After Mia's first kidnapping, he promised to himself that he wasn't going to sit back anymore, not when he could do something about it.

So, in reply to Yamamoto's question, he said with all the conviction of a frightened soldier in his first assignment:

"To get back at Mukuro."

"Tsu-kun? Are you going out to play? You're wearing your favorite clothes." His mother stopped at the door in his room.

"Yeah, something like that," Tsuna replied absentmindedly.

Nana Sawada chuckled. "Tell Mia-chan hi for me!" She then went off and Tsuna felt a pang of worry at the mention of his best friend. He slowly lowered his shirt.

"Yeah…"

"Tsuna." Reborn was standing on top of his TV. He held out a single red bullet, the Dying Will bullet, he recognized. "Just a reminder – I can only shoot you once with this. I'll leave it to you to decide when." Tsuna didn't know what to say and just jerked his head into a nod.

Of course, no pressure at all.

"Yo Tsuna! I brought us some sushi and juice!" Yamamoto showed up, carrying two plastic bags.

Does he think this is a field trip or something? Tsuna sweat dropped but smiled gratefully at his friend.

Bianchi pushed Yamamoto away. "Are you trying to compete with me Yamamoto Takeshi?" She dangerously said while holding a traditional bento. Contained in it was her poison cooking. Yamamoto tried to edge away from her.

"Uh… why don't we just bring them together?" he suggested carefully.

Tsuna couldn't laugh in case Bianchi fed her cooking to him but he smiled. He turned to look at the window where he saw a head of silver hair poking conspicuously through the gate. Happiness and relief swelled in him. Smile widening, Tsuna was out of his room and through the front door in moments.

"Gokudera-kun!" He happily exclaimed.

The silver-haired bomber jumped but greeted him. "Tenth!"

Tsuna stopped in front of him and wondered why his friend was crouched behind the wall. Right, Bianchi. He realized.

"Gokudera-kun, are you feeling alright?" he asked. "You were pretty injured earlier." He frowned worriedly. Gokudera stood up and proudly thumped his chest.

"Nothing can stop me Tenth! Come hell and high water I'll always be there when you need me!"

Tsuna was touched that Gokudera felt that way. He suddenly had the urge to hug him – that was Mia's doing right there – and he stopped himself from being affectionate just in time to steady Gokudera, who slightly swayed on his feet.

"Are you really sure you're alright?"

"Uh… as long as Sis covers her face I'll be fine," Gokudera weakly said.

"Don't worry, I'll convince her to wear something."

Just for kicks, he had Bianchi wear a squirrel costume – it was the only thing lying around the house. This little deed had him in better spirits as Reborn led them to where Mukuro was hiding out. At that point, Bianchi had switched to goggles. She didn't seem to have noticed that Tsuna had pranked her. Reborn didn't say anything about it – Tsuna thought he approved of it.

They stopped in from of a tall gate. Tsuna looked around, finding the place familiar when it hit him.

"Ah! This is the Kokuyo Land!" He exclaimed.

"You know this place?" Reborn asked from his spot at Yamamoto's shoulder.

Tsuna nodded. "Yeah, mom and dad brought me here when I was really young. There was a shopping mall, karaoke station and even a Flora and Fauna."

"Since you know this place best, we'll leave you to guide the way," Reborn told him.

He nodded slowly.

Gokudera examined the chained lock. "This thing has rusted shut. They came in through another way."

Bianchi gently pushed him away – Tsuna was the only one who noticed this – and took out a plate of her poison cooking. "We'll be coming in the front door," she announced and slathered her cooking on the lock. It melted the lock like acid would eat metal.

Tsuna couldn't help the image his head conjured for him. If someone unfortunate ate her cooking… he shuddered violently.

Yamamoto had fallen into the Fauna and Flora after being attacked by something that looked similarly to a dog. Apparently, the exhibit had been buried under all this dirt and Yamamoto was trapped in it.

"Are you still alive Baseball nut?" Gokudera called down. It was dark but Yamamoto waved at them, seemingly unhurt. Something struck Tsuna like a deep cord. It rang in his head like a soft warning.

"Move!" He yelled, surprising his friends. Yamamoto, bless him, did as he was told and dodged. A humanoid figure lunged at him from the dark. Yamamoto took out his sword and held it at the ready.

"Whew, thanks for the call Tsuna!"

"You're welcome," Tsuna murmured, perplexed at himself. It struck again and Tsuna wasn't able to help himself from ordering Yamamoto.

"Left! Right! Duck!" He couldn't make out the shape that was flitting around the dome but what his eyes can't follow, his mind obviously did. Yamamoto wiped the sweat off his face, grinning. Gokudera and Bianchi were staring at him. Tsuna didn't look at them; he was intensely focused at the fight below.

"Yamamoto!" he yelled but it was too late. His friend had to fend his attacker with his sword. It broke and Yamamoto was thrown at the other side, smashing against the metallic frame of the exhibit. They felt the vibrations of his impact through the ground. Gokudera pulled out a stick of dynamite.

"No Gokudera-kun! You might bring down the whole thing on Yamamoto." Gokudera regretfully hid his dynamite. Tsuna knew it was hard too, to watch their friend fight while they helplessly watched.

Yamamoto had gotten up, groaning. "Man, I guess it's okay to be serious when playing the Mafia game right?" His expression turned serious. "I'll finish you off as quickly as I can."

A shiver ran up Tsuna's spine. For a moment, Yamamoto looked like a… a…

"Hitman." Reborn finished for him. Tsuna swallowed. Yamamoto had always been a cheerful guy but there were times that his friend was… off. He didn't notice it but Tsuna did. Actually, he seemed to have noticed a lot of things lately.

"Big words for an idiot." A blonde boy walked into the light. He wore a Kokuyo Middle uniform and he held about three different sets of teeth. Jen Koshima, his mind told him. "That chick yesterday was smarter – at least she knew she was losing."

Tsuna's stopped breathing.

"Chick?" Yamamoto frowned. "Is Mia here?" he demanded.

"Not gonna tell byon." Ken taunted them. He took off his teeth and his features returned to normal. He put on another set and his arms and body grew. His facial features also changed to something animalistic, resembling a gorilla.

"Kong channel!" He charged towards Yamamoto. He jumped to the side.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed.

"What the hell?" Gokudera stared at Ken. "He turned into a monkey!"

"A gorilla to be accurate," Bianchi calmly corrected.

Ken switched teeth again and his hair turned white. "Wolf channel!"

Yamamoto was forced to stay in the middle because it was too dark to see. Ken kept lunging at him from all sides, using the dark to conceal himself. His friend continued to dodge without any way to fight back. Tsuna couldn't take it anymore and his hands fisted into balls. Yamamoto was trying not to get hurt and he understood why. There was an upcoming baseball game soon and if Yamamoto were to get hurt, he wouldn't be able to play.

"I wish I could do something!" Tsuna dug his fingers in the dirt.

"Consider your wish granted." Reborn kicked him and he fell, arms flailing into the Flora and Fauna. He fell hard and landed on his side. He slowly got up.

"Heh, this one looks like he's weaker. I'll go take care of you first byon!" Ken switched once more. "Cheetah channel!"

There were shouts from above and Tsuna barely had enough time to react as he was knocked off his feet and on to the ground. He kept his attacker from biting into his throat by holding his shoulders away. A rock suddenly struck the side of Ken Joshima's head and he fell off of Tsuna. Tsuna quickly stood up, breathing heavily and turned to where the rock came from. Yamamoto stood to the side, tossing another one casually in his hand.

"This is between you and me. Leave Tsuna out of this." Yamamoto held out the rock. "So let's play ball."

"You wanna play?" Ken growled. The side of his head was bleeding. "You'll be dead first!" He shot like a missile towards Yamamoto. Tsuna was frozen still at his spot, watching as Yamamoto futilely threw the rock. Ken dodged it and lunged.

Yamamoto took the attack by holding his arm out. Ken sank his fangs into his arm.

"Yamamoto!" Tsuna screamed.

"Gotcha." Yamamoto held his broken sword and clobbered the other side of Ken's head hard with the hilt. His opponent fell, defeated. Both sides of his were now bleeding. Tsuna pitied him. He hoped that the blonde boy didn't get a concussion but…

"Whoops, I forgot to interrogate him." Yamamoto laughed. "We'll just ask someone else right Tsuna?"

Tsuna approached his friend, frowning worriedly at the bleeding arm. "Are you okay Yamamoto? There's still the baseball game."

Yamamoto smile softened. "Baseball is important but to me, friends matter the most." He flexed his arm experimentally. "I can still play with this so don't worry!"

Tsuna disapproved at his friend's optimism. He seriously almost got his arm bitten off and what happens then when that happens? "I'll stop worrying once we get you treated."

They were going to stop for lunch when the food exploded.

Tsuna cried for the wasted food. RIP Yamamoto's sushi.

They took cover behind the stone tables. Gokudera listened intensely then pulled out dynamite. "There!" he shouted and threw it at the direction where the gift shop was. The bombs exploded, covering the whole area with smoke, dust and debris. When the smoke and dust cleared, a redheaded girl met them wearing the same uniform, holding a clarinet.

"A girl?" Tsuna wondered. "Her name is M.M. right Reborn?" He turned to find the little devil sleeping. "Now is not the time to be taking a nap!"

"Back off you three, this one is mine." Bianchi hopped over the table. "I'll show you how to interrogate using the power of love!"

"What?" Tsuna gawked at her. That was the most ironic thing he had heard about love ever.

"Love?" M.M. said incredulously. She laughed like it was the dumbest thing she heard. Bianchi didn't like that and threw a poisoned crab at her. M.M. quickly retaliated and brought up the clarinet to her mouth. She played a note and the crab exploded in midair, similarly like everything else did.

"Wha-?" Tsuna couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"It's like how a microwave releases waves to heat up molecules," Bianchi explained. "Her clarinet emits a sound wave that creates vibrations that heat up molecules and cause them to explode."

"That's one crazy weapon," Yamamoto commented.

"Lame more like it," Gokudera corrected.

The girl turned towards them and snobbishly flipped her hair to the said. "Idiots like you won't understand how amazing my clarinet is." She turned back to Bianchi and smirked. "I'll show you that money is better than love! Once I'm done with you I'm going to get a date with Mukuro-chan and he'll buy me everything that I want!"

"Hmph. How pathetic. Don't you know little girl – love wins everything!" Bianchi said.

Tsuna was seriously missing Mia's comments right now. All this talk of love and money was starting to become very tiring to watch. Luckily, Bianchi seemed to think the same way and brought out a very stomach churning attack that had all three of them clutching their mid sections unconsciously.

"Poison cooking! Large scale buffet!" She then charged at M.M.

M.M. played her clarinet but the sound never reached her. Holding her cooking in front of her, Bianchi used it to block the sound waves then threw it at M.M. The other girl dodged and Bianchi tried to finish it with a poisonous shortcake. It would have hit her, if M.M hadn't revealed to be a close range fighter. Her clarinet changed into a nun chuck, hitting Bianchi square in the jaw.

Yamamto made a move to step in but Gokudera stopped him by grabbing into his arm.

"She touched it." Gokudera's face paled a bit.

"Huh?" Yamamoto looked back at the fight.

Bianchi slowly got up just as M.M readied to finish her but she didn't get the chance to… because her clarinet dissolved, covered with gross purple stuff that Tsuna could identify as poison but how? Gokudera answered that with great pain.

"My sister can turn anything she can touch into Poison cooking… it's called Thousand Poisonous Flowers."

M.M. was on the ground, a line of poison dripping from the corner of her mouth. She convulsed then went still. Tsuna hoped she wasn't dead.

"Oh," Bianchi realized. "I didn't get a chance to interrogate her."

"Um… next time then?" Yamamoto suggested a bit fearfully.

Bianchi nodded then ran towards Reborn to make sure his nap wasn't disturbed.

Their next opponent was a creepy old man who wore a middle school uniform. Birds, Tsuna remembered his name. He had two or three strange yellow puff balls on his head that were birds. Weird, they looked more like flying tennis balls. As if Bird wasn't creepy enough, he was a perverted sadist. He cackled at their expression when he showed a live video feed from his birds.

In two screens were Haru and in the other were Kyoko-chan and her friend Hana. Skulking behind them were… were those even human?

He'd seen the pictures but he didn't believe at first. They had no hair, their skin was pastel white and their eyes were sunken holes.

"Haru! Kyoko-chan!" Tsuna watched as these things crept closer to them.

"These two are loyal to me. They're called the Bloody Twins and while they were under lockdown, they had high criminal credibility, so high that they were never let out of solitary confinement!" He laughed at their expressions.

If Tsuna thinks that scared him… well it did.

Gokudera rushed up to ball his fist into Bird's uniform. "Damn you perverted freak! I'll blow your brains out!"

"You'd might want to let go of me or else your pretty friends will become minced meat." On cue, the twins released a set of long nails and demonstrated how it could cut through metal. They stared at it, horrified. Gokudera grudgingly let go and went to stand right back beside Tsuna's side.

"They're under my orders so Vongola, if you listen to me I'll make sure not to have these lovelies hurt."

That's a lie! Tsuna thought but he still listened. There had to be something… anything he could do.

"I want you to beat the Vongola Tenth."

There were protests from both of his friends but Tsuna wouldn't hear of it. Beaten up? That's fine. He had years of experience with that.

"It's alright you guys." He opened his arms wide. "I don't mind!"

"But Tsuna…"

"Tenth, we just can't…"

"The two of you are so weak." Bianchi threw a sharp uppercut underneath Tsuna's jaw. He went flying of course and landed hard a few ways back. Gokudera started arguing with his sister but she ignored him. "He's lucky that's all he got from me."

Tsuna was honestly grateful, despite his jaw aching. Bird did not look pleased. "I suppose I should have given a more specific task." He lifted the cane he was holding and smashed it hard on the ground. The wood shattered to reveal a blade with electrical currents running up and down on it. He threw it and it landed in front of them with a heavy clang.

"Vongola Tenth, stab yourself with that."

In the face of his friend's lives in danger, he made a choice. He slowly walked towards the blade and picked it up with shaking hands. He looked back at the visuals being projected at the moment. The twins were poised to strike at the ready. Their fingers just behind the girl's napes. Steeling himself, Tsuna breathed hard as he readied to stab himself on the leg with it. He ignored the others protests and was focused solely at stabbing himself.

Wow, that shouldn't be right. A lot of things shouldn't be right, he thought to himself.

Closing his eyes, he brought the blade down.

"Kyaaaa!"

Tsuna stopped just in time before the tip came close enough to graze his skin. He quickly looked up and saw that Shamal had appeared where Kyoko-chan was. He couldn't believe it! Shamal ushered the two girls away to deal with one of the twins where he gave one of them a disease. The Bloody Twin exploded in blood and guts and Tsuna turned away, unable to look.

"Remember! I still have another!"

True but then TYL I-Pin appeared with TYL Lambo and Tsuna will forever admire I-pin for her martial arts. She took down the other twin like a pro, kicking ass and just looking like a total badass.

"Looks like his instinct was spot-on."

"I'm glad I did as I was told."

Tsuna suddenly remembered Reborn calling I-pin over before they left and a surge of gratitude for the hitman coursed through him. He was never honestly happier to have Reborn around like he did now. Gokudera, Yamamoto and Bianchi cracked their knuckles menacingly.

Bird backed up into a wall. "No wait! Wait! I can help you!" he pleaded.

Gokudera brushed it aside and yanked him to his feet. "And what could scum like you possibly do for us?"

"I know where your friend is!" Bird made a gesture. Another bird flew down and projected another new image, this one chilling Tsuna down to the bone.

"M-Mia?"

It was dark but there was enough light to show her. Her hair curtained one side of her face, her arms hanging and she was sitting, leaning against the wall like a lifeless doll with a few scratches here and there. She looked mostly unharmed but her blue eyes were empty and she was staring listlessly into nothing. She practically looked dead.

Bird looked like he wasn't expecting that either.

"She's still alive I swear she is!" he swore to them frantically.

"You swear?" Gokudera growled. "On what?"

"On my life!" Bird cried.

"If that's true then here." Bianchi went ahead and shoved a plate of poison cooking into his mouth. Bird started gagging, his eyes bulging. "If she is alive I'll come back to administer the antidote in two hours but if not…"

Birds choked and Gokudera let go of him coldly. The man jerked around before going still with froth coming out of his mouth. He twitched now and then to show he was still alive but they didn't care. Tsuna was still staring dumbly at the visual, unable to process what he was seeing.

"M-Mia?" he called out weakly. She just couldn't be dead, she couldn't - He was too distraught to believe what Bird said. Reborn decided to punch him across the face.

"Get a hold of yourself Dame-Tsuna," Reborn told him. "We'll find her."

"But what if she's…" Tsuna couldn't bear to think about it.

"She's not."

"But how can you know?" Tsuna exploded. "Look at her!" he gestured at the image. "She's… she's…" his voice broke.

"Trust your intuition Tsuna." Reborn knowingly gazed at him. "You know she's still alive."

Maybe it was the desperation of wanting to believe it but Tsuna looked into himself and found that yes... he just knew she was but it did little to comfort him. Why did she look that way if she was still alive? What did they do to her?

Gokudera cautiously came up to him. "Tenth, let's move on so that we can find Mia-sama and Fuuta."

Right. Yeah. He'll think about it later. He nodded and ran a hand down his face. He let out a shuddering breath. When he finds Mukuro… Tsuna shook his head to clear it. The image disappeared as the bird flew away but it didn't leave his memory.

"That girl will be the death of me," he muttered loudly. All around him, his friends smiled wryly. "Alright, let's go."

When Tsuna encountered Mukuro Rokudo he used the final bullet to beat him.

It was a cruel joke that the universe played at him when Tsuna realized he wasn't the real one. The hate that exploded inside him was blazing. He hated whoever Mukuro was. Hated how his friends got hurt, how Lancia got tricked to kill his own Family and how practically screwed up everything was. Sitting beside Lancia with the ring he had given him clutched at his right hand, Tsuna vowed to beat Mukuro. He didn't care that he had used the last Dying Will Bullet. He will fight Mukuro.

It wasn't over yet but Tsuna was determined to end this and come out of it winning.

Thanks for reading!