Clear to cloudy
Target 25: The OTHER boss candidate
Kotsu has just blocked a laser from some kind of strange robot, using his fork. He swings the fork over his shoulder getting down into his launch position. He looks back at his classmate and friend Rinoka who's confused and scared. "Get somewhere safe. I'll handle this," He says, but before he can blast off she tugs at his sleeve.
"T-t-t-t-take this… R-R-Reborn-san… h-he g-g-g-gave it to me… b-but I don't know how to… use it…" She says but before Kotsu can grab hold of whatever it is, he suddenly grabs Rinoka shooting himself into the air avoiding the robots laser attack. Rinoka screams off the top of her lungs as they fly up.
"It's alright. I've got you. I won't let him hurt you. I really need you to trust me," He says as the robot comes flying up after the two of them with his own rocket. "Do you…?" Kotsu says and Rinoka slowly nods blushing looking at him. The robot fires another laser when suddenly. "Ren! Catch!" Kotsu lets go of Rinoka and shoots further up leading the robot to follow him.
Rinoka falls and hits a awning bouncing a bit before she falls off. Someone catches her, but it's not Ren. However he comes running looking revealed at her, seeing that she was safe and he seems to recognize the person. "Tsugemora… you got her… thank god… that was scary,"
"Who's Tsugemora…?" The young man says putting down Rinoka. He DOES look an awful lot like him, only older, taller, with black hair and with a more chilled out expression on his face than what they're used to. "Tsugemora… Tsugemora… Tsugemora… he's… Kotsukiba Niruo's thunder guardian right…?" He says holding up a ring identical to Tsugemora's ring.
"Wait… you're NOT Tsugemora!" Ren says horrified. Someone appears from behind the Tsugemora lookalike. This person is a lot older and quite physically fit, with a Mutton chops beard and short brown hair to go with it.
"Faust… I thought we made it VERY clear that messing with the other groups of guardians is strictly forbidden," He says as the boy, apparently named Faust, lets Rinoka go and she quickly runs to Ren's side. Which would normally surprise everyone quite a lot as she's never really talked to Ren, but the way he looks makes her feel safer.
"H-hey! W-what's going on here?" Ren frantically asks when suddenly Faust comes flying straight past them the older man having punched him with quite a tough attack it seems. He flies quite far.
He cracks his wrist and fingers a little. "There. Punishment has been dished out. 'What's going on' is your question? I will answer. I am Riccardo. And from the looks of that ring… YOU are Ren Niruo. The sun guardian of Kotsukiba Niruo. I… am the sun guardian of Ywan. One of the three boss candidates. And the boy fighting your boss candidate… is known as NM-5. Speaking of NM-5…" He says and looks like he's preparing to attack. Ren just shakes his head.
"T-this is crazy! Why would you destroy public property just for your game!?"
"This is no mere game young man. If you truly believed it was a game… you would be able to remain calm at this moment. This is why Ywan was very much against involving an ordinary child in this in-fight… but alas. That stupid Primo…" He says before taking out a little box. He looks up at NM-5 who comes flying down landing in front of him holding Kotsu in one hand. He's completely beaten. He tosses him aside with Ren and Rinoka running to his side to check on him.
"Enemy defeated. Objective completed," He says and glances at Riccardo. "Sun guardian located. Eliminating," He says before shooting forward. Riccardo looks like he's about to attack as well when suddenly someone steps in front of him, looking quite confused.
"Excuse me… what's going on…?" Reishiro asks holding up a hand like he's asking permission to speak. However NM-5 doesn't stop. Right before Reishiro is hit however the attack is blocked.
"Harming my students… I'll bite you to death," Ren's homeroom teacher says angrily, having blocked the attack with his tonfa coming from out of nowhere at all.
"That's enough NM-5. We need you in one piece for the ring conflict. Getting you destroyed by someone who isn't even going to be involved would be pretty bad," Someone entirely different says. Another young boy around Kotsu's age. Around 14 with middle length brown hair and a tattoo on his forehead of two angel wings. He's holding a katar.
Kotsu slowly gets up looking quite banged up but somehow he's already feeling quite a lot better than before somehow. His instincts are telling him that it's somehow connected to Ren. Odd… He looks towards the new arrival. "Hello Kotsukiba Niruo," He says with a confident smirk in his direction. Seems this boy is in charge of NM-5 as he's now stopped his attacks and folded all his weaponry away.
"W-who are you?" Kotsu asks gritting his teeth from pain after his battle with NM-5. He really got beaten up badly during that fight…
"Who am I?" The boy holds up his hand showing Kotsu a ring on it which resembles the one he got from Primo. "I am one of your opposing candidates. Zaccaria's the name,"
"What're you talking about? Primo chose me as the next boss." He tries but Zaccaria just shakes his head.
"How naïve you are. Primo may be the boss, but there're a LOT of people who disagree with him. As such… the external advisor has chosen ME as HIS candidate. Also watch your back. I'm not the only one," He says pointing to Riccardo. "That guy is NOT my guardian. He's your OTHER opponents sun guardian. Your other opponent is named is Ywan and he's not as nice as I am," He says laughing before he starts to leave. The look in his eyes remind Kotsu of someone else he's fought. Geraldino.
Ren looks horrified and looks to Zaccaria. "If THIS is how you play this game… then I won't let Kotsu play it anymore!" He yells and Zaccaria looks back at him, gritting his teeth with disgust.
"If that's really how you feel… then you're a horrible guardian," He says before flinging his white cape as they leave. Faust joins them much to their surprise as Riccardo really seemed to hit him with maximum force but he doesn't even look slightly injured. Ren's homeroom teacher looks to Riccardo angrily.
"Leave this instant. And if something like this happens again… I won't care about whatever's going on over in Italy… I'll find Ywan and I'll bite him to death," He says and Riccardo nods slowly before he also leaves.
"But watch yourselves during this week… Zaccaria's guardians aren't going to follow the rules like us," are his final words.
Kotsu falls to his knees looking horrified at the ground. He was helpless. NM-5 isn't even his opposing candidate, but he wiped the floor with him easily. Why did he even do that? Why would Zaccaria attack them? And most importantly… why the HELL was Kotsu even attempting to become the boss? He's met one of his opponents. And just looking at him… he would've lost in a second. And Riccardo… he looked insanely powerful too… and he ALSO wasn't the candidate. How could he possibly hope to defeat these people? Maybe he should just give up…
-NII-
The police arrive on scene after a few minutes, and Ren tells them what happened. No one believes him of course since the story involves a robot that fought his little brother in the air around the station. His homeroom teacher brings them all back to the resort, where Tsugemora is also already feeling perfectly fine much like Kotsu. However the latter is much less enthusiastic about the whole situation. "Next time I see that NM-5 guy I'll kick his ass for real! He just caught me by surprise!" Tsugemora yells as they exit the subway.
However Ren grabs his shoulders in an almost parental way. "No Tsugemora! This game is DANGEROUS! I won't let you play it anymore!" He says and Tsugemora smacks his hands away.
"Shut your mouth Ren! I KNEW you weren't worthy of being the amazing Nii-san's sun guardian!" He says before they both see Kotsu walking between them.
"It's alright Tsugemora. I've given up on this whole boss thing. I thought it'd be easy with my hyper dying will mode… but I didn't stand a chance. I got beaten and I got beaten BADLY… I'll focus on school…" He says but even Ren can tell that he's really sad and annoyed with himself.
"No one said it'd be easy Klutsu," Reborn says leaning against the entrance.
"Yeah… but no one said it'd be hard either. Can you tell Primo that I'm sorry…?"
Reborn tips his hat down over his eyes going away from him, annoyed. He really wants to just beat him to his senses, but now's not the time for violence. "Yeah. I could do that…"
"Thanks…" Kotsu says going to his room to relax quietly to himself.
Reborn thinks for a moment. "I guess both his opponents don't feel like playing by the rules. What are you thinking Zaccaria? They're just children at this point…" He says to himself before deciding that everyone needs a bodyguard of some sort.
He quickly finds Ren, Rinoka, Fumie and Tsugemora. "You four. What happened at that station… you cannot tell anyone," He says and Ren gets a little upset.
"No way mister Reborn! What happened down there was DANGEROUS! They weren't playing by the rules like Geraldino was! They tried to hurt my little brother!" He yells.
"Quiet Ren. And do as he says. He has more experience than you could ever hope to acquire. Isn't that right infant?" Someone says from behind them all. It's his homeroom teacher.
"That's right Hibari. I'd like to also be his bodyguard for the week if that's alright with you,"
"Sure," Hibari simply says looking at Ren with a strict gaze. Ren looks utterly confused as to what the two are talking about.
"Um… sorry what're you two talking about…?"
"You're coming with me," Hibari simply says walking and Ren doesn't really think he has a choice other than to follow him.
Tsugemora looks angrily after the clueless child. "Why does REN get to go with HIM!? Who's going to train ME!? Whoever it is he'd BETTER be AS amazing as Hibari-san!" He says angrily before he feels a cold gaze hit him from being sending chills down his spine.
"I can assure you that he is maggot…" Geraldino says from right behind him.
Tsugemora gets really scared, thinking that Geraldino will be his trainer however Reborn just clears his throat. "the two of us will be starting your training tomorrow," He says to the young boy who's eyes turn from Geraldino to him filled with an entire galaxy of stars.
"I will be trained by THE Reborn-san!? THAT'S AMAZING!"
"Dismissed Tsugemora. Go rest," He orders and Tsugemora does honors before running off to his own room. "Geraldino. I have an important job for you. I want you to stay with the girls and protect them in case Zaccaria decides to attack again,"
Geraldino looks quite disappointed and annoyed. "Whaaaaaat…? How dull Reborn-senpai," he simply states however he can't NOT do what Reborn tells him too.
Rinoka looks quite frightened at Geraldino while Fumie just smirks almost victoriously. "Ha! Now you're PROTECTING me you… jerk!" She says before hugging Rinoka whom she happens to have gotten a bit closer with ever since Rinoka met Kotsu. "And you hear that Rinoka-chan?! We're going to be sharing a room!"
Rinoka doesn't say anything as she's too shy, but she's quite happy to at least have someone as outgoing and strict as Fumie to keep Geraldino in check.
Reborn walks outside and looks at the sky. "Hm… So that's how you want to play things Zaccaria? An interesting choice… this training might get rough for some of them… but let's see if we can't make it through it… they might be kids Zaccaria. But their potential is WAY higher than anyone elses…" He says with a smirk.