Chapter 8 -

Hidden Problems.

Disclaimer : I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn in any way,shape or form.

I do,however,own my character.

I've been playing with Tsuna everytime school ends as a means of practice and some fun,but today I'll be doing something different. (Tsuna didn't mind,thankfully. I was a bit worried that he'd think I'm abandoning him as a friend. ) As in,I finally found some time to visit the school's library.

It was a rather unkempt place,and when I first came in-there was a lack on air-conditioning that I had always been used to in libraries in my past life. Actually,perhaps 'unkempt' was the understatement of the century. Not only were the books not ordered in anyway(but on second thought,the ordering the libarians did never made sense to me. But even I can see that they had no numbers-the ones ususally tagged on the spine of library books.), they were lying on the ground like a pile of garbage. The books were literally in tatters by their covers and the school itself,with its yellow,olden paint,halfway in falling off the walls just made it seem worse.

And the libarian was great at doing her job. She's sleeping on the desk for where books were checked out.

I lament the books' state and the person in charge of it. What happened to the age old adage of 'Knowledge is Power'?

Anyway,plan of action today-was to see if I can salvage a dictionary,and although stealing has never been in my interests,the book would probably be better treated in my hands. Entertaining the thought for but a few scant seconds,then throwing it in yet another corner of my mind because-low profile. People who do not seek death will not meet the reaper.

I came fully prepared to try to copy the dictionary after grabbing whatever paper I could find in the garbage bins and more colour pencils,other then for my own notes on my studies. Making the words smaller but enough to see would help in saving paper,and that should also be a priority when doing so.

Why copy the dictionary instead of trying to find a public library and using it instead? Several reasons.

One-I had no idea where it is and there is still the potential of being lost. Maybe namimori and kokuyo is small,but even with all the garbage cans I ransacked so far-I am not a local. I cannot,for the life of me,read the signs. And even with my visual memory-I'm liable to lose my way. If that happens,I risk the chance of being whisked away by some shady people once it becomes nighttime,risk whatever the orphanage might throw at me with their punishments that I never got so far and potentially draw attention to myself...or,so as to speak,be stuck never finding a shelter again.

Because as much as I hate to say it,the orphanage right now is the only reason why I have food(Fine,Limited food. ),water(A bit scarce,but mostly provided. Maybe because they don't want several cases of dehydration?) and a roof over my head(Imagine this-a kid with no blankets or anything outside the steets when its winter in japan. Needless to say,the risk of freezing to death is very much real and applicable.) This does not even yet touch the information I still remember and gleaned from the visions of Tsuna's many multiple deaths. It is not safe here,espescially at night-and I,a supposedly very easily tricked and young mute friend of such a high profile target-can be used to lure my newfound friend out. I abhored the very thought of myself being used to harm people I value. That's right...many,many,many reasons not to just for reason one.

Speaking of which. Most of my time practicing my footwork is now spent playing with Tsuna. Its a good thing,actually. I literally didn't realise that it was very possible for me to get kidnapped at night while I was training until the visions came-visions of Tsuna being...well,in multiple ways,death. A mistake I would not make again.

So I'm partly glad those visions came when it did. Perhaps I was still a nobody before I had gone and decided to associate myself with Tsuna,and that somehow led to me not being kidnapped yet. Now that I'm known as a possible friend,though...

Two-I may not know how japanese public libraries work-because I never went to japan to sightsee or anything in my past life-but really,I don't think I have the documents necessary to lend a book. How it worked in my home country was that kids needed a patron to provide both their child's birth certificate and the parent's NRIC(National Registration Identity Card.) or,as I grow older,by other documents I should have by that age. Then,we get a card that allows us to lend the libary's book. If we do not sign up for the membership card,we use a smartcard issued to the citizens instead,that is mostly used for transport-and so far,I seen neither hide nor hair of it being issued to the children,and do not see anyone using anything remotely similar to it. Hence,it would most likely be down to the membership system-and guess what? I believe the orphanage has them.

If a kid that's physically 6 and who was considered mute came up and was intelligent enough to demand or understand they need their official documents or even have them...

Let the rest speak for themselves. I have a plan concerning my documents and possible cards-I knew where they were supposed to be in,and if not,I'd find out over the years. And I've been monitoring if they moved stuff over-but not too much. Otherwise one would be suspicious as to why a kid was constantly near the administrative areas,other then the occasional gang fights beside it...obviously.

Why,of course I could just weasel over and stay in the public library to copy off or read them if it even exists,but not only is there doubt of its existence,its most definately far enough away that I have not seen it despite,again,ransacking the garbage cans all around like a crazy child,and thus,further than even the school I'm currently in and attending AND might ruin my low profile time and effort,as well as reduces risks.

Three-There's four benefits. One for the sake of better memory and two-its probably going to be in use for a long,long time. The third being that I can use it to replace my night running sessions that turned into daytime sessions that combined fun.(Hmm. I could do awareness training while focusing on the dictionary,up on a tree to keep out of the camera and guards sight. Low risk-as long as I didn't make a sound.) Last but not least,the fourth is a bonus-maybe older Tsuna won't get terrible grades on his mother language in school if he reads it with me.

More time might be needed to fully copy the dictionary itself,and if I'm lucky,I might stumble across an english-japanese dictionary and the japanese dictionary(Really,japanese were famed for their english pronounciations-you can never be too sure.),and I would be able to try to cross reference those two. There is still the paper issue,but it would be worth it.

For the sake of my low profile cover in view of the possible dangers that I might possibly have,I tried to find the jisho-the japanese word for dictionary,and hoped it wouldn't take too long and wake the libarian. The less she knows,the better. Its not like they would check the camera footage without reason,I hope,but a kid seemingly exploring wouldn't bring too much attention. I wouldn't be copying under a camera's direct sight,anyway,since that would be stupid.

It took some days in several weeks plus a few more to finish my self-assigned task,with Tsuna managing to wrangle me into a promise to visit his house for the less 'playdates' where I disguised the training as games we both had fun in,whilst I tried to copy the dictionary-but I managed it.

I pet myself on the back mentally for a job well thought and done,because I can't treat myself to the desserts on the shop I always seen on the way back to the orphanage. Well,at least I can spend some time with Tsuna over the dictionary other than just games now. Oh,wait,he's a kid-how do I make the learning fun for him?

Cards? I vaguely remember a fanfic that taught some anime canon character that wasen't really academically inclined via that. That would take even more paper,though. I need to thank all the kids that had lost their colour pencils-I don't believe I'd ever finish using those that I salvaged.

I guess I'll have to look through and vet it first before implementing it then. What a shame.

Morning. Daylight shined through the windows as I sat on my desk. But what was staring back at me was paper along with an envelope provided by the school.

What a ridiculous thought. But it was reality,so I stared at the letter filled with various cartoon animals. Dogs,cats,birds...it spread out on the white sheet of paper,on the desk in front of me in its kid like charm. How long had it been since I've seen this type of paper? Kindergarden?

A few minutes ago,the teacher of the class-a teacher whoose name I did not bother to remember-had announced that our class had a programme. Something about an exchange of letters with kids from another country,with the use of the english we were taught recently. Hence the current situation now.

Usually the class was rowdy,a terror among actual teachers that did not include my school's teachers,but today seemed to be the exception. Everyone was writing at their desk,grins instead of scrowls,bouncing instead of punching. It was weird.

Even a pencil was provided this time.

A pencil.

I gave up on trying to figure out the motives of the school. Penning a simple letter,with kid level scawls written in the english that was expected,and placed it in the envelope. Its the first time I ever wrote one,since most of my other life was more about emails and electronical devices. I never received a letter,much less sent one.

I took out the letter,crossed out the words,and wrote another paragraph.

I mean,maybe I'll make a friend that I won't have to leave someday,unlike Tsuna. I knew I had to leave him one day,for the both of our sakes. Even if it hurts.

It would be nice to just have one more friend.

Maybe it was a bit overboard of me,but I spent the rest of that session trying to write a kid level letter that would not freak out the kid that receives it,would not alert to anyone that I am more intelligent than I seem,and somehow still convey my feelings of goodwill-of if the kid wanted to be friends.

Damn,its hard to write botched english when you're already educated in it. They won't look into a kid's letter,will they?

Interlude 2 : ? POV

"I know you've been lonely,so I got someone to send you a letter. It's by an exchange program." His uncle says,handing him an envelope and smiling at him from over the desk he had,full of papers with scribbles on them.

The envelope was plain,it's front filled with funny looking stamps that he could not decipher,but it was his and just for him! Someone wanted to talk to him! He opened the envelope in a rush and read the letter. It had cute animals on it,though the cats and owls caught his eyes first.

Hi! Me name is Akira. I am to write a letteru to a pen pal in somewhere that you! I liku to read! What you? Can we ba friends? I dan't knew what to say,so I writed this first! Oh! I am a she! Sorru for bad engliah because I just start learn!

A friend,

Akira.

He tries to read again,since the words made him all confused. His new friend had probably tried her best to write the paragraph in english,a language she was just starting to learn,so he decides to write back while keeping in mind that his friend apparently could not speak or write english very well yet. Swinging his legs back and forth whilst on a nearby chair,he grabs a pen before writing on a blank paper he took from his uncle's desk.

Dear Akira,

Hi! It is nice to meet you. My name-

"Oh. Writing back already?"

He turns around,pouting when he sees his uncle looking from behind him at the letter he was writing out.

"I want to write on my own,uncle!"

"Sure,sure. I just wanted to give you the rundown on what you can write and what you can't."

He groans,placing his head on his arms. He wishes his uncle wasen't so overprotective-but it was for his own good. So he stays where he was and listens as his uncle starts lecturing him.

His mind drifted off,trying to sketch a mental picture of the far off friend that had sent him the letter. What kind of hair colour would she have? Her style of hair? What about the clothes she wore? Or the colour of her eyes?

He could see the crossed out words,which all consisted of several starts of 'Hi' and 'How are you' in slightly skewed english. Its a telltale sign of how hard she had tried to write to him-it made him very,very happy. His first friend!

Even if its not in person.

He lets his lips slide downwards.

"Huh? Hey,don't-"

Then he laughs,because he managed to trick his uncle into thinking he was about to cry.

"Oh,you mischeivious brat." A palm lands on his head and messes up his hair. "Now,where was I?"

Maybe Akira would like some funny stories about his uncle?