Chapter 9 -

Jerks of unlimited proportions.

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

I do,however,own my character.

Boredom. Endless boredom. Except for schoolwork,and physical work,and the occasional play with Tsuna,there was nothing else. No phone,no computer,no internet to stimulate my endlessly wandering mind. No chess,or go,or reversi,or anything without requiring resources,or just my own mind to rememeber which stone was where,which chess piece was on which board area,or answers to what I wanted to know. Endless memorisation with the japanese language,and everything else.

It was so frustrating that my communication skills were not going as well as I liked(In my head anyways)-knowing the meaning but not the word. It make me want to stomp and thrash the room I was in,which was starting to feel like a cage that confined me everyday from being free,unfettered as the wind-to do things I once was able to in-

Shaking my head,I reviewed the visions I've seen so far. Each and every one of them as clear as mirrors would be,each scene in my head replaying for me as I wished,a TV with a controller I could control. Many of the kids in the orphanage so far had actually died to random weapons. Like swords,guns,and other unrecognisable weapons. Some lived a good and plentiful life,and they were mostly the useless ones. So its safe to say that if I followed their footsteps,the same future would await me.

The only scenes that had me in it was Tsuna's-and it was a very short list,that even the amount of times he became a psychopath was longer than it. Yeah,a psychopathic Tsuna. It was scary to behold.

I mean,look at the kid right now. Brown hair,brown eyes,and the cutest face you would ever see in your life. And that you know him to be this little ball of energy,who's shy at times but jumps around holding your hand and asking things like the curious kid he is. Then imagine this kid slicing through someone's throat with a bloodied knife,eyes shadowed behind his bangs in the darkened sunlight and smiling whilst muttering about the vital spots of his own species and just how vulnerable they were.

Thankfully it needed more triggers than just bullying and neglect. Not to shortchange their harmfulness but really,even the most sane of people would not have made it out mentally unscathed from what Tsuna suffered in that world. Its to the point where what mukuro went through seemed tame in comparison.

If it was a fanfic,it would have been hilarious to see mukuro in the face of tsuna's psychopathicness. Last I checked,mukuro in that world had slinked back into the shadows,terrified of the brunet and vowing to not bother with that particular mafia don. Espescially when he'd had done what he went through on the assassin.

I listed down triggers like I would do for flags in otome games in my mind. Death flags,romance flags,so on and so forth,categorising into the things I needed to change for the world to survive-like that one world where the anime actually went. I was no manipulator,but Tsuna is a friend nevertheless and saving the world? It should be considered as a big bonus.

He's gonna do all the saving though. Not me,never me. Phew. I don't think I can handle the burden of the world like spiderman,superman,and whatever. No,just leave it to the pros.

Heading off to school,I slung my rugsack bagpack thing with my precious materials and dodged the fights in the hallways of the shithole,mindful to evade any grabbing hands that seeked to use me as a shield. I was not in the mood for bully number one to push me around even the slightest bit today. Not after my latest nightmare.

Every month,kids would sit down at the table,awaiting the letters they had from their pen pals. It would be a rather serene sight,if it wasen't for the terrible olden architecture spoiling the image.

I,myself,was sat on my own allocated seat. And hell,even if I sucked at realising what I'm feeling,I knew anxiety when I feel it. It was the tremble of my hands that gave it away-I never trembled.

The teacher passed out the letters to the kids-I stared at them. The kids tore them off the moment they received their letters,eyes already trying to read the english written. Finally,mine arrived at my table-a myraid of stamps that I didn't know how to read (Why didn't I ever learn about them when I had time in my previous life? It would be so useful now!),and I carefully removed the letter from the envelope-making sure not to tear it. The paper could be used later,and I would like to keep those stamps.

There were lots of fruit stickers pasted around,looking rather cute. Well,as cute as fruit stickers can be,anyway.

Dear Akira,

Hi! It is nice to meet you! My name is Kabane,and I am 7 years old. I can be your friend! How old are you,Akira? What do you look like? I have brown hair and black eyes,and I am a he. What do you like to eat? I'll tell you what I like if you tell me your favorite! My uncle gave me your letter,and he is a funny guy. He likes to 'ruffle'? my hair,which always makes it rather messy,and I like to trick him into thinking I would cry-he has the most funniest fac-

My letter was gone.

"Ohhh. Look guys!" My personal bully says,holding the paper. Sure,he was useful for shit but this can get annoying. Like now. I wanted to read that mail damn it.

Standing on my tiptoes,I tried to grab it out of his hands. Inwardly,this felt very cliche and very dramatic. It was such a pity that I couldn't say the even more cliche line of 'Give it back' since I'm pretending to be mute.

Bully one was also known as Sato Yaginuma,as I had seen from the class's namelist. Sato was his surname,because the orphanage we were from was known as 'Sato Orphanage'. In japan,orphaned children are given their surnames from the founded place's town name,the facility's name,or the finder's surname. At least,that was what I read from an abandoned book about law in the school's library by coincidence. This also means my 'name' should be Sato Akira. But I knew my name is actually 'Yoru Akira',if that weird panelish thing in the beginnings of this life was any indication.

He had black hair and eyes,and a face so repulsive that one would puke if they saw him. I'm biased,sue me.

Damn,kazuto has totally lucked out with the ladies in sword art online. Why does he have such a magnetic personality compared to this kid here? Now I wished bully one didn't have the hair and eye colour of Kirigaya-san.

"Nuh-uh!" He laughs,and already he had people following his actions of laughing at a disabled kid. Now,that's the makings of a popular kid bully if I had ever seen one.

"Yeah! You don't need a pen pal!" Another kid,who I remembered was named Kabane,said. What a jerk.

Sato Kabane. He had the same hair and eye colour as Yaginuma,who was next to him holding my paper. How weird,one 'kabane' being my friend and the other being a bully. I should just keep ignoring this kid,so that I don't have any bad memories associated with my new friend's name.

What do I do now? I didn't want to leave that letter in their hands. If I just grabbed it and ran away though,where could I even run to? I would be labeled as 'missing' by the authorities if I ran out of the classroom or the school.

I didn't need to think too much about it because Yaginuma just crushed and threw the paper into the trash after they got bored of watching me trying to get to it. How to stop bullies 101 : Ignore them/Don't make the reactions they want out of you. They sure got bored quick...

"Stupid mouth zipper." He mutters under his breath. What a cheerful kid.

I eyed them as they left for their seats,now chattering animatedly with other classmates,seeming to shun me and advising everyone else to do so. Not caring for their antics,having had people that had done worse to me,I left for my poor letter lamenting that it could have stains on it now. Gee,now how was I going to face that friend if they ever asked me if I still had their first letter?

Rummaging in the bin,and flipping all the papers inside for the words I wanted to finish reading,it really did suck that I had to do these sort of actions to get materials to improve myself because it smells. As always,the dustbin had loads of dust,although it wasen't as bad as that one bin that had a massive colony at the bottom of it,full of ants and small,unknown insects. Shuddering at the memory of bugs crawling up my body,I snatched up my letter and dusted myself off.

faces when I do that. I have s Can w Would yo I'll share with you my treats and secrets if you become my best friend! Ok! Send letter soon! That what best friends do,right? :Smiley Face:

Your friend,(Hopefully best friend.)

Kabane.

Smoothing out the letter and placing it in my bag(which had and will always be slung around myself.),I took the free letter materials the teacher was giving out in a corner of the classroom to write my next letter. Free materials...sweet! Let's see if I can sneak out more paper and pencils.

Mini short 1 : Akira's Life

Fingers around it. My heart in gloved fingers,pumping in front of me. Pumping. Pumping. I hear as much as I see it move. Laughter ringing in my ears,crazed laughter. Can't breathe. Nothing to breathe. The cloaked person holds my heart in its hands. It beats. Stomp. It splatters,the remains in contrast to the floor,now dyed in red,red,red. So much red.

I wake up.

I breathe,covering my mouth with my hands and curled up on the bed.

It's not real. It's never real. That was a dream. A future.

Oh god,Tsuna. How lucky were you in the anime? The manga? One future among so many horrible things. How did you survive?

I shiver. It felt so realistic. The crushing pain of my skin being crushed aside to make way for ice,cold hands. Unfeelingly reaching for my energetic,jumping heart. The slow removal,organs having been,almost gently removed aside. Then a sudden tear,and my scream. Their laugh,it was all so...eerie. The agonising fade away to numbness as I stared,letting my heart be stomped on,helpless-nothing like my quick death under the law of nature.

It was cruel torture. One that...well,could happen to Tsuna. It was nothing like how the brats at the orphanage could die one day. Most of them had a death by general oldness or simple accidents,rare was a weapon based death. Tsuna's,however,was so next level,it freaked me out.

So many futures,all gone. Young or old,he died so many times.

He's not just someone who could save the world,he's also my only outside world non hostile constant with the exception of my pen pal now. And he's going to die,die,die in so many instances if this isn't canon. What if this isn't canon? What if Byakuran Gesso actually manages to kill him? If Squalo found out that the rings were fake before heading to italy? If mukuro made him decide to commit suicide? Or if this world didn't follow the manga or anime as 'Akira Amano' had written?

Shit. Shit. No,panicking. I'm panicking. Need to calm down. Its too late to back out of the involvement. I'm in too deep,but if I didn't then it might very well spin away anyway. I can only make things happen as similar as possible.

Breathe in...and out. That's it. It's not the end of the world. Tsuna's at home,I'm in a shitty but safe place. Breathe. What's going to happen to him isn't going to happen to me. Breathe. I'm not a high profile mafia heir target. Breathe. I can avert his fate if I don't panic. So focus,damnit. In..and out.

Ok. Ok.

I console myself for what seemed to be a long time. The complete darkness in the shithole's room didn't help matters,however,as it reminds me of the darkness where I had been in for so long. I kept imagining hands coming for my throat,wanting to crush me,or instruments of torture and repeats of "speak!" when I didn't even have what they want. Fear had overruled anger,then. Trapped with no way out,like an animal trying to free itself from a dreadful animal trap.

Imagining that happening to a child no older than 8,I was terrified out of my mind. I had wanted to run at first sight,until I saw that it was Tsuna. But it was not like I could have moved anyway,what with 'feeling what the person I'm seeing the future of feels' bullshit my cursed powers have. That day where it hit me like a ton of bricks-the opening of pandora's box when Tsuna had left with a "See you soon!" the day I met him after he was bullied.

I settle down for sleep. But sleep didn't come.

21/1/19