OMG this was long.
It took me forever to revise it and I feel like I still need to proofread it.
to reader fuchsteufelswild: OMG you are sooo amazing thank you for your feedback I needed it so much T_T I'm super glad you enjoy this fic!
Please review ya'll!
The Namimori Summer Festival commenced in the middle of August and lasted for a week. It was a family-friendly event: there were game booths, various concerts of local bands, food trucks, entertaining exhibitions, interactive contests, a carnival, and a spectacular firework show at the last day to conclude the week-long festival.
In the past years, everyone would wear yukatas as part of the tradition. However, since the month was a hot one, attendees resorted to dressing up lightly. The scorching weather did not prevent the participants from showcasing their summer fashion senses. For instance, Ayano's outfit consisted of a sky-blue floral romper with laced-up sandals and an ivory sunhat. Whereas Mina wore high-waisted denim shorts that accentuated her long legs and paired it with a white crop-top and white Adidas shoes.
The two had just surrendered from their failed attempts of beating a game booth that offered a huge panda stuffed animal as a grand prize, after realizing that the booth might have been rigged. Ayano wanted to win the grand prize so she could give it to an orphan kid in Vesta House whom she remembered was very fond of pandas. The two girls felt very stupid when they realized too late that the amount of money they wasted on that game booth could have been used to purchase the same stuffed animal at the mall.
After settling under the shade of a tree to take a break, the two girls chatted about their summer. Mina mentioned how they have been practicing rigorously as their overall dynamics have weakened due to their star player sitting out for the rest of the season for a torn knee ligament. As a result, she expressed her concern that the second-seed Namimori girls' volleyball team might lose their title soon.
Ayano, on the other hand, spent most of her summer in the Vesta house, telling Fujioka Tara about her school life as a historian of the student council and the secretary of another committee. The Nicolaou girl didn't reveal to Tara the information about GM; she didn't feel the need to involve another person in such a dangerous game, nor did she think it was appropriate to tell Tara that she used her last name as a pseudo name. Ayano perceived her numerous lies as unforgivable. After all, it was not in her character to deceive. Mina simply patted her shoulder, offering her best friend as much comfort and support as she needed in the pursuit of her missing mother.
Their peaceful conversation was interrupted by an approaching familiar crew of boys.
"Gokudera, I don't think you're supposed to threaten the owner if you couldn't win his booth," expressed the tall male who revealed to be Yamamoto.
"You idiot, you couldn't tell? It's obvious that their gig is rigged, which means we've been scammed! Our money was basically stolen!" yelled back by the exasperated Gokudera.
"Gokudera-kun, it's okay, we can just try the other booths," Tsuna calmly reassured.
"But Juudaime, you said you wanted the huge panda? I will do everything even if it means destroying that damn booth!" he suddenly flashed his dynamites out, making the Vongola boss to panic.
"No, no! No need to resort to destruction Gokudera-kun!"
While Tsuna was busy calming down his enraged storm guardian, Yamamoto spotted the familiar girls which prompted him to wave at them.
"Todou-san! Ayano-san! It's been a while," cheered the baseball player.
"Good day Yamamoto-kun, and his other irrelevant friends," Mina rolled her eyes.
"Ah! Good afternoon," greeted Tsuna, not hearing her mean comment just now.
"Tsk. Great, it's the senior rep," snarled the silver-haired boy.
"You guys are lively, as usual. What have you guys been up to?" the polite Nicolaou girl slightly bowed to the cheerful group.
"Well, we just came from a whack-a-mole booth. Tsuna wanted to win the big panda bear, but it seemed like the place was rigged, according to Gokudera," shrugged the baseball player.
"We actually just came from there too! Too bad we realized that too late," sighed the long-haired girl.
"Tsuna-kun probably wanted to give the stuff toy to the girl he likes," nonchalantly blurted the red-headed boy, whom Ayano remembered as Kozato Enma. His statement made Tsuna evidently blush.
"Hello Kozato-san, it has been a while. Did someone bully you again?" Ayano genuinely voiced out her concern due to a noticeable amount of wounds and bandages plastered all over the red-haired boy.
"No, I've been practicing sparring with Tsuna-kun."
"Sparring?"
"Yes, he's training to be a strong Vongola bo—" the redhead was interrupted by the shriek of his best friend.
"AHH! We were roller-skating and racing at a place called…uhh… Vongola… yes. We're both clumsy, so we ended up crashing to each other...uh, multiple times. We didn't really spar," sweated the spiky-haired boy.
The girls looked at each other, both detecting the lie in his explanation. However, his life wasn't their business, so they went along with his statement and shrugged, making Tsuna sigh in relief.
Moments later, three kids approached the group. One of them was bald with a single braid on the center of her head, the other in a cow-like costume, and the last one wearing a suit and a fedora hat. The long-haired girl immediately recognized the third kid.
"Oh, you are Tsuna-san's cousin, Reborn, right?"
"Ah, Hibari's secretary. Good afternoon," greeted Reborn.
"Indeed, I am. I do have a name. You remember, right?"
"Of course I do, Ayano-chan. So how's your relationship with Hibari then?"
"Relationship? You're a funny one, Reborn," she chuckled.
"See? Even the kid knows, Yano-chan," winked Mina. The volleyball player stood from her spot and brushed off the dirt on her shorts. "I'm going to the restroom and then buy some more teriyaki chicken after that. I'll be back."
When the tall girl disappeared from Ayano's sight, a loud explosion was heard nearby, so close that the long-haired girl felt a small shock wave. Shortly afterwards, one of the kids let out a high-pitched cry. She turned around to see Gokudera arguing with the kid in the cow costume.
"You idiot! When I ask to see if your Vongola gear is still intact, don't give me a grenade!" Gokudera pinched the kid's cheeks so hard. The sight of him hurting a kid made the long-haired girl furious.
"Bakadera you're the idiot one! It hurts! Let me go!" cried Lambo.
Tsuna's shriek contributed to the noise that was ascending in volume.
"HIEE! Lambo, don't throw a live grenade here! You could have seriously hurt someone!"
Live grenade? Ayano was alarmed. The commotion was so confusing that she started feeling a shooting pain on the side of her head. It must be migraine, she mentally groaned. She blamed her sudden migraine from the shock wave of whatever exploded ten seconds ago.
"Baka Tsuna! Go away, go away!" Lambo continuously cried.
The high-pitch cry—in addition to the noisy, lively background of the festival—exacerbated Ayano's headache. It was stressing her out that she had enough. She walked toward Gokudera and slapped his hands away to protect the child.
"What are you doing, Gokudera-san? You're hurting a kid!" accused the caring girl while hugging Lambo.
To add to the messy situation, the commotion attracted a certain attendee—or more like a person patrolling the town—who appeared at such the worst time of the day.
"All of you are disrupting the peace here. Prepare to get bitten to death."
The boys reacted in synchrony. All Tsuna could let out was a loud squeal. Gokudera screamed "bring it on!". The baseball athlete nervously laughed at their impending doom, and likewise, Enma slowly backed away. Then there was Reborn, who quietly sipped his drink while sitting on a nearby bench as he watched the situation unfold before his eyes.
Ayano's ears started ringing. Her migraine was oddly getting worse, and on top of that she just had to hear a familiar cold voice. She turned around and to her surprise, it was indeed him.
"Hibari-san?"
Hibari and Ayano exchanged glances. He detected confusion and annoyance in her eyes. In addition to the chaos in front of him, the scenery of his secretary crowding with the people he hated heightened his irritation.
Suddenly, the still crying Lambo frantically searched for something in his big fluffy head. Tsuna, quickly realizing what was about to happen, attempted to warn the girl who was comforting the kid.
He was a second too late.
"Ayano-san! Get away from him!"
"Huh?" she turned to him. As soon as she returned her attention to the kid, she caught a glimpse of a purple, canon-looking like, big object.
The next thing she saw was darkness.
A heavy smoke screen polluted the spot where the Nicolaou girl was last seen. Upon clearance, a slightly taller, matured-looking woman was on the ground, confusion written all over her face. She scratched her head and blinked three times at the group of young boys in front of her before blurting her first words out.
"Ah! Little Vongolas!" gasped the woman from the future while cupping both her cheeks in a perplexing manner. She stood up and straightened her long skirt that snuggly hugged her thighs and hips.
"Ayano from ten years in the future," Reborn approached the woman and offered a handshake. "How's the future going?"
"Reborn-san! It's been awhile, the future is great!" older Ayano enthusiastically shook his hands. "So the past me got hit by Lambo's bazooka, how cool is that!"
"You just said Vongola a while ago," murmured Tsuna anxiously. "Does that mean that you know…about the mafia?"
"Stupid Tsuna, it means that she became a member of the family in the future," reborn smirked which made the silver-haired boy roll his eyes.
"That's awesome! I bet you made a fantastic addition to the Vongola!" happily commented Yamamoto.
"How perceptive of you Reborn-san. But did I really join the mafia? Who knows…" She put her index finger on the corner of her mouth and smiled to express ambiguity. "Nevertheless, I can't believe that I would be back in the past. This is all very nostalgic."
She scanned her surrounding, amazed at how she vividly remembered this memorable festival. She attended it with Mina, and she remembered how they tried to win a giant teddy bear but couldn't. She also remembered her interaction with these young mafia members. However, what she didn't recall was getting hit by the ten-year bazooka, which made her become aware of possibly creating a parallel universe.
Suddenly, she saw from the corner of her eyes a person that made her widen her eyes and point her finger eagerly.
"Oh my god. It's a small, cutie Kyoya!"
The skylark was not pleased by the informality he received. Although, to be fair, he didn't know if his future self allowed her to behave that way, so he simply dismissed the rudeness of the future girl only for this time.
"I only got five minutes, so I'm going to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity," clapped the older female. She approached the cloud guardian, which made the rest of the boys hold their breath. She halted right in front of him at such a distance trespassing his personal space.
The two exchanged glances: his steel, narrow, dominating eyes against her soft, cloudy gray, persisting eyes.
"What do you want, woman?" He broke the silence.
The future Ayano simply grinned, but he detected a miniscule hint of wickedness behind the radiance of her smile. The next thing that occurred was the most daunting and dangerous act that sent gasps and shivers to the spectators within the premises.
SLAP!
Such an action made the time metaphorically froze, while the sound of her hand making a contact with his cheek traveled freely throughout the area. The action froze the crew and even the usually calm Reborn.
What the hell.
The cloud guardian couldn't believe what just happened. He just got slapped by the future Ayano, and he didn't see it coming. For what reason? He couldn't think straight for several seconds as his right cheek throbbed. The sting he felt indicated that the female did not hold her strength at all.
The audacity of this herbivore.
Everything came into existence again as the clock resumed ticking. The skylark wiped the blood spot on the corner of his mouth due to accidentally biting lips from the impact. The older female, on the other hand, started taking off her stiletto shoes and smirked.
"Catch me if you can," she mocked as she started running away.
The very pissed Hibari glared at the running female before he started chasing her.
"Don't ever think you can get away from me, herbivore."
The rest of the crew looked at each other, and no one was sure if they should try to rescue the future Ayano from getting bitten to death.
"She'll be fine," claimed Reborn as he quickly disappeared out of nowhere, possibly following the female fugitive.
The skylark was confident that the woman could not have gotten that far away. It hasn't even been a minute, he wondered. He was now at an isolated area just outside the festive and nearby a forest.
He then heard a rustle above a huge tree. There he found the woman sitting on the branch, happily humming along the chirps of the birds around.
"Sorry about that, Kyoya. I was mad at your future self today." She looked up at the clouds, reminiscing at the past.
"And taking it out on me solves your problem? It seems that you've grown immaturely, Nicolaou Ayano," he glared at her. She stared down at him, challenging his gaze firmly.
"You're right. I should have not done that," she conceded. "But you know, it was my only way to get your undivided attention."
"It's apparent that you've acquired the ability to be my opponent. Get down here and fight me. Or should I have to cut the tree to force you?"
"Oh honey, let's not do illegal logging. Mother earth is watching you," she playfully winked, which made the skylark cringe and possibly intensified his irritation.
"Don't call me that. It's disgusting."
She simply chuckled. "Okay, I'll get down, but I won't fight, let's avoid resorting to violence please."
When she finally landed on the ground, Hibari noticed something fierce about the older female, compared to her submissive, present self. Her appearance probably contributed to her strong presence: she was wearing a long, black pencil skirt with a gray, long-sleeve, tucked-in, blouse that had black polka-dots pattern. The black high heels and dark raspberry lipstick asserted such an undeniable allure. Her long hair was as jet black as ever, although the only noticeable difference was that she had no fringes.
"Stop staring, boy. It's creeping me out," teased Ayano.
"I'm going to bite you to death."
"Kinky."
Hibari was now full-on mad. He charged at her, but she didn't move an inch. Instead, she successfully impeded his tonfas, which surprised the young boy.
"Listen here brat. I came from the future. I would know how to at least stop that basic attack of yours." She pushed him back.
Brat? Basic attack? He definitely felt offended. He once more brandished his tonfas but halted his movement upon seeing a gun being pointed at him.
He'd admit, he was impressed. He didn't even see where she pulled the gun from.
"Wao. You do have the potential to be a worthy opponent," he smirked.
The 28-year-old female lowered her gun down and quickly disassembled it in front of him to prove that she was not a threat. "See? I don't want to fight. And I don't have enough time. Please hear me out."
"No."
Stubborn as usual, she thought.
"Let me tell you something. I'm happy in the future and my feelings are genuine. However, sometimes, the past still haunts me," she mumbled, displaying such contradicting expressions: heartbroken yet satisfied, while playing with—what Hibari assumed—her wedding ring.
"The concept sounds ludicrous to the skeptics, but you believe in it, right? Parallel worlds. There are multiple versions of the future branching out from the present. And influencing the outcome of your future—I don't care if you think I'm being greedy—is absolutely going to create another future, hopefully different from mine."
Her statements were cryptic enough that kept the skylark intrigued. Ayano continued.
"Now, to the point I'm trying to make. Kyoya, you can have multiple prides with equal importance. It doesn't just have to be about the safety of your beloved town. You'll develop another pride. Don't discard it, because it's very much real."
"Woman, you are not making any sense to me."
"I can't reveal more. I don't want to upset my universe, you know. Just live your life, make the decisions you think are the best. But please hear this one last thing out. One day will come where all you'll have to do is to stay."
"And what if I don't adhere to your incoherent instruction. You can't educate me about how I want my future to come out." Not forgetting the incident four minutes ago, he charged at her once more, to which she successfully dodged again.
"Damn it, Kyoya. I'm just trying to help you! Fine, I'll tell you something. Your future self denies it, but he's living his life with one regret. Do you want to end up like him?"
"That won't happen to me. Is that really all you are worried about? Don't underestimate me, I'm much stronger than you think, herbivore."
The older female displayed a bored and disappointed look, exhaling as a sign of defeat. "Fine, then. Enjoy losing her again."
Before he parted his lips to respond, smokes suddenly surrounded the future woman. When the smoke cleared out, the present girl appeared, who looked like she was shielding herself from something. She peeked behind her arms, and realized that she was back in Namimori.
"What… in the world just happened?" The present Ayano looked around, her voice slightly quivered.
Hibari relaxed his stance. He wasn't going to punish the present girl for what her future self did to him. Reborn, who had been secretly watching the interaction between the present cloud guardian and the future girl, finally revealed himself.
"You're finally back to your senses, Ayano-chan. you might have eaten something weird that resulted to hallucinations," Reborn claimed, making Hibari raise his eyebrow before receiving the look of "just-go-with-it" from the toddler.
"Uhh. No that can't be. I was just in a big, fancy room, talking to this one older male adult."
The infant approached the confused girl and handed her a water bottle. "No, you were frantically running around and screaming nonsensical stuff. Hibari had to chase you down because you were causing a scene."
She didn't remember eating anything bad, but she did recall having a terrible migraine while comforting the kid in the cow costume. She scanned her surroundings once more, and she was at a different area away from the festival, which corresponded with Reborn's assertion that she "frantically ran around". Did my migraine possibly give me hallucinations?
What's worse, apparently, Hibari had to pursue her. If what Reborn said was true, Ayano could probably implode from the embarrassing ruckus she created. As her gaze met his, the skylark noticed how she was starting to believe Reborn's lie. He smirked, thinking how he could use her "embarrassment" to get back at her future self.
"I didn't think you're capable of humiliating yourself. Next time, watch what you put in your mouth or you'll lose your sanity." His statement sent an offending and terrifying gasp on the female, while he walked away feeling accomplished at fooling the gullible girl.
On his way home, he couldn't help but replay in his head the conversation he had with the older woman.
"Enjoy losing her again."
He wondered what the future Ayano's last statement pertained to.
We'll see what the present Ayano experienced in the future in the next chapter.
Haha and yes, the future seems to be different from what we all expected. but as TYL Ayano said, her action could give birth to another future where this story is actually going to head.
Pleaseeeee review! What are your thoughts about TYL Ayano's vague statements?