Clear to cloudy
Target 11: The ice wolves
As soon as Kotsu opens the door to Tsugemora's room in the hospital the worry he previously had on his face disappears faster than candy put in front of Cotton, when she's moody. This is due to seeing a ton of doctors around Tsugemora trying to hold him down to give him some morphine to help the pain, but he isn't having it and is struggling immensely squirming to stop them.
"Get away from me! It doesn't hurt! I already told you! I can't feel pain! STOP!" He yells and keeps struggling.
"Tsugemora! Stop it!" Kotsu yells and Tsugemora recognizes his voice among all the loud doctors and instantly stops struggling. The doctors all look at him.
"And who might you be young man?"
"I'm his… friend," he explains pausing right before he's about to say boss, since that'd be weird in the normal world. Tsugemora gets the morphine injected on Kotsu's 'orders'. However, it doesn't seem to affect him at all. Reborn and Ren come into the room.
"Are you alright Tsugemora?" Kotsu asks and Tsugemora nods.
"They gave me some stitches and said I shouldn't make too many big movements before I recover completely. But… I couldn't stop those guys… a-and they took Fumie-san… I'm sorry…" He says tugging at the blanket in shame of failing the one thing he was hired to do. Protect. Kotsu just smiles trying to look reassuring, but it's quite hard for him as he's never had a friend in the hospital before.
"H-hey now… it's alright Tsugemora. Do you know where they went?" He nods slowly and takes out a piece of paper.
"When I woke up this was on my desk…" He says. It's a folded map of the city and there's a big x engraved on it with the text. 'We know she isn't neo vongola secondo. If you want to see her alive, bring the real one here.' Kotsu gets a bit angry reading literal ransom note.
"We have to go get her back!" he says and gets up to walk, but Reborn gets in his way.
"Reborn! Go away! I'm going to go get Fumie-san back!"
Reborn nods. "I know that. But not without them," He says looking behind him and Tsugemora gets out of bed already having healed that much.
"Let's go Nii-san!" He yells and Ren smiles.
"Sure. I'll tag along. This could be fun," He says, still clearly thinking there's no actual danger involved, but even so Kotsu can't help but smile.
"Thanks, Ren," they walk out and as they walk towards the place specified on the map they suddenly see someone walking towards them. The big sand-brown jacket instantly gives away that it's Murphy.
As he attempts his cool entrance he suddenly trips and falls over his own untied shoelace and faceplants. He gets up and laughs. "There goes my entrance I guess,"
Reborn sighs. "Sadly he's the only assistance I could get on short notice," with that… Murphy joins their little group with Kotsu sort of disappointed. The one time he wanted someone super strong and crazy to join them it's 'just' Murphy.
-NII-
After a relatively short walk they reach a hole in a large brick wall with train tracks running through it.
"Is this really the place?" Kotsu asks and Tsugemora nods.
"Yeah… I know this city in and out and this is definitely the place on the map…"
The small group walk inside and come to an abandoned subway station. As soon as they enter Reborn looks to the side and makes everyone jump back avoiding a whole bunch of needles.
"Oh come on! You didn't even have two seconds to react!" the person yells standing off to the side and he walks out into the open for everyone to see. He's the boy who took out Tsugemora back when Geraldino showed himself.
"You!?" Tsugemora yells and the boy bows.
"Oh… you're already up I see. Then I guess we need an introduction. I'm Veleno," he says and smiles from under his hoodie. They can all see some brown hair and green eyes showing underneath the hood.
"Where's Fumie!?" Kotsu yells and Veleno points to a tunnel leading further back.
"Somewhere down there I suppose," He says and grins. Kotsu feels utterly powerless. 'This guy took out Tsugemora… I can't beat someone like that,' he thinks and Tsugemora stands forward.
"I want a rematch! I will make Nii-san proud!" He yells determined as ever and Veleno takes his hands out of his hoodie's pockets and is holding a bunch of thin poison-tipped needles in between his fingers.
"Sure thing. Maybe I can actually kill you this time around!" He says and Tsugemora takes out a wire since he always makes sure to carry a spare. Veleno suddenly throws all his needles towards the rest of them and Tsugemora is about to get in front to protect them when suddenly Reborn steps in front of easily deflects every single one of the large needles with his arms.
"H-how'd you do that?" Reborn smirks fixing his suit mostly to show off.
"This suit is world-proof. A gunshot wouldn't leave a mark," He says and Tsugemora lets out a sigh of relief.
"How dare you attack Nii-san and Reborn-san!?" He yells suddenly changing from relieved to angry and charges at Veleno who jumps back and tosses a couple of more needles. Tsugemora moves to the side dodging one and hitting the second with his wire. He gets in close and tries hitting Veleno with his wire using it as a whip, but misses as Veleno ducks under and stabs Tsugemora in the side with a needle. He then kicks Tsugemora back making him tumble a bit. Tsugemora gets up and pulls the needle out and suddenly feels a bit strange.
"Confused? Well, all of my needles are poisoned. I heard about you… you can't feel pain right? Well not feeling pain doesn't mean the poison won't disable your muscles," Tsugemora pants a little, but runs forward again.
Kotsu looks at Reborn to see if he plans on anything. "Can't you help him Reborn!? Then it'll be over in an instant!" But much to Kotsu's dismay Reborn just shakes his head.
"If Tsugemora can't beat an opponent of this level by himself then he has no place being your bodyguard," He says loudly making sure Tsugemora hears him. The young boy gets a bit angry from hearing this and runs forward again. Veleno smirks and tosses a ton of needles forward. There's no way Tsugemora could dodge them all. However, instead of dodging any of them he just puts his hands in front of his head getting hit by nearly all of them and before Veleno can even getting out of the way, having thought that Tsugemora would've dodged when he tosses them, Tsugemora swings his wire around Veleno's neck and tosses him over his shoulder and smashes him into the ground and hits him in the head hard knocking him out in an instant. Tsugemora takes a few steps back and Kotsu runs over to congratulate him on his win, when Tsugemora falls over from the poison completely disabling his muscles.
"A…am I worthy of being your bodyguard now?" He asks as Kotsu catches him and starts removing the needles from his arms and chest.
"You were awesome Tsugemora. Just… don't die…" he says and Ren comes over also helping with the needles.
"I can carry him if he can't move," He says and Ren takes him over his shoulder. They look towards the tunnel they're going to go to.
"I hope no one else has to get hurt," Kotsu says looking into the deep tunnels.
-NII-
In a large opening that looks like an abandoned subway station somewhere within the tunnels Kotsu's group have just entered, Geraldino is standing around looking at a tied-up and really scared Fumie. She has a piece of cloth in her mouth to prevent her from speaking and potentially call out.
"So they're here and they already got Veleno? But… he took down Tsugemora so that's a definite plus. I hope at least one of them makes it here. Maybe even… Reborn-senpai…" He says sounding a bit excited at the mention of the hitman's name.