Clear to cloudy
Target 46: A problem of numbers
Kotsu slowly wakes up in the morning. It's almost the second to last day of the field trip to Tokyo… As yesterday Primo is laying on the floor on his little mat. From what he remembers the last two days are given to them to just fool around since it's not everyday people from Namimori get to go to Tokyo. So that means he has no group building with everyone. He suddenly jumps up and quickly gets dressed before blasting out the door. "She's fine Kotsu… Geraldino's taken her to our finest doctor…" Primo says getting up, knowing that Kotsu's worried about Rinoka. "And Reishiro's also doing okay… a good night's sleep next to Ren made all his injuries go away."
Kotsu lets out a relieved sigh. "Oh thank god… I'm glad…" He says smiling before properly getting ready with brushing his teeth and making sure his hair is set right. "But I'm still gonna go check up on them…" He adds heading out with Primo following shortly.
Rinoka is still sleeping soundly and as Kotsu opens the door he's met with quite a dangerous sight. Geraldino's eye in the small crack in the door he's opened holding it closed. "Master's sleeping… go away," He simply says before trying to close the door.
"H-hey… Is she okay?"
Geraldino just closes the door. "If she wasn't she wouldn't be here…" is the final comment he gets before the door shuts.
"I… I'm sorry…" He just says hoping she'd understand and sure enough Rinoka moves around a little giving a slight smile in the room.
"God dammit… all this sentimental crap…" Geraldino says sitting on his chair again looking at the bed.
Afterwards it's onto Reishiro and right as Kotsu's about to open the door to their room, knowing Ren's likely out for his morning run, the door opens. "Ah! Mini-Ren…" Reishiro says and Kotsu blinks a few times.
"A-are you feeling alright…?"
"Why would I be feeling bad?" He says tilting his head.
"because of yesterday!"
"Ah! Sokaaa… yeah… I'm feeling good… I like my dad…" He says giving a weak smile seeming to only remember his father being present yesterday.
"N-no argh… whatever!" he says not bothering with the boy. It's most important that he's alright. As he begins to walk away he notes the zombie-like boy walking behind him. "Why're you following me…?" Kotsu asks a little confused and Reishiro just shrugs.
"I dunno… Ren's not here… and you're mini-Ren…" He just says not really understanding himself. Suddenly out from left flank Tsugemora comes charging at full speed.
"NII-SAAAAAN! There's an assassin!" He yells jumping at Reishiro who suddenly stops right before making Tsugemora fly right past him and crashes into a sofa in the lobby.
"T-Tsugemora…? That's Reishiro…" Kotsu says pointing and Tsugemora jumps up.
"Got it Nii-san! Reishiro is a guardian so he's safe!" He says saluting happily before joining the little group. "So um… What're we doing today Nii-san!? We have the whole day to ourselves! And I'm SUPER prepared for my battle tonight!" He says feeling pumped for the fight. "And if we win BOTH fights tonight then Nii-san wins without a fight! Unless that Zaccaria bastard wins his match with Ywan…" He says gritting his teeth.
Kotsu gulps. "Y-yeah… but I don't even know who the last two of Ywan's guardians are… or if we even stand a chance… and… I don't even know my OWN rain guardian… I hope he's strong…" Kotsu says with Reborn appearing out of nowhere sitting on the sofa.
"The last two of Ywan's guardians are Riccardo and Galileo… Riccardo was the man you met at the station. He's the head of physical training in the vongola family… in other words, save for Neo-good-primo's guardians, he's the physically strongest man in the vongola family. And Galileo… he's the head trainer for flame control… so the same deal… but with flame control… in other words… no matter which one Tsugemora is paired up with he's going to have difficulty winning…" He explains and Tsugemora stomps his foot.
"That's irrelevant! I'll beat either of them! For Nii-san!" He proudly declares.
"About that…" they hear a voice from behind them seeing Primo come walking with Yamamoto and Gokudera. "Your… rain guardian… I DID mention that there was a slight problem…" He says scratching his cheek and Reborn slowly stands to listen. "I uhh… haven't assignment a rain guardian to you…" He says chuckling nervously and Reborn opens one eye and tips his hat back.
"You really ARE useless aren't you? So the best you can hope for is a score of 3-3-3? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard…" He says tipping his hat back down.
"I had a little talk with the Cervello but they never told me the final verdict… if I'm still able to hand out the position… I'm certain Yamamoto would not mind taking it… but I feel he would intrude on your group…" He says with Yamamoto nodding slowly.
"If that's what Tsuna wants then I'd be happy to give you guys a hand as senior guardian of your little group," He says laughing happily.
Kotsu looks to have hope drain from his eyes. "B-but… 'my little group' doesn't really matter when we're talking about the Vongola family!" Primo pats him on the head nodding towards the entrance where Ren comes through along with Fumie and Marco, the latter having Cotton in his arms.
"Of course it does. It's YOUR friends that're supposed to be your guardians not mine. Besides he doesn't really fit in does he?" He says and Yamamoto nods. "It seems your group already HAS a kindhearted person on it anyway," He says pointing to Ren who seems to notice the gesture.
"Good morning mister Primo. What're you all talking about over here?" He asks approaching while Tsugemora seems to almost naturally fall into conversation with Marco as Cotton jumps from the young boy's arms onto the even younger boy's hair where she's always laid before Marco showed up.
"The fact that I don't have a rain guardian…" Kotsu says letting out a depressed sigh realizing the only way to win the ring conflict now is to have a one on one on one match with both of his opponents.
Fumie tilts her head. "I… don't really get it… but it sounds like a pretty bad thing… am I right Ren-senpai?"
Ren thinks a little before giving a shining smile as always. "I guess so. But I'm sure you'll make it just fine lil' bro! You've got enough spirit to stare them right in the face and tell them you'll beat them! If that isn't number one material I don't know what is!" He says and Kotsu chuckles a little.
"I-I guess so… thanks Ren…" He says and Reishiro looks around the group a little.
"We're missing someone…" he just says and everyone looks a little confused, however all becomes clear when the door to Rinoka's room opens up and she comes out looking fine and the giant hulk Geraldino following behind her. She stops seeing the entire group of ten staring at her. Her face slowly fills from the bottom with red almost like she's filling up and proverbial smoke shoots from her ears and she runs back in her room right past Geraldino.
"O-Oi master!" he says pulling her back out before she can slam the door. "Geez. You can't stay in all day," he says before noticing everyone staring and he leans his head back a little. "The hell're you kids starin' at?" he says and all of them who're under 20 avert their gazes except Reishiro who soon follows suit after noticing that everyone's also looking elsewhere wondering what's happening that he needs to look at. Rinoka seems to become a little less embarrassed as she slowly tips up to Primo who stands quite a bit taller and she shyly bows, with an ashamed and almost pained look on her face. "I-I'm sorry mister! Y-y-you picked me… a-and I w-wasn't useful at all… I-I'm sorry…" However unlike she expects Primo just puts a comforting hand on her head.
"No worries Rinoka-chan. You did your best and I'm proud of you. To be honest I wasn't even expecting you to show up. But you did," He says and Rinoka looks up looking quite visibly upset.
"B-b-b-but…" she starts, Primo silencing her with a finger on her mouth.
"No buts Rinoka-chan," He points to the little group. "I think you should spend a little time with your friends today. Most of you guys ARE guardians for a certain someone after all," He says with a little knowing wink causing the young girl to flush over again wanting to cover her face with the notepad she doesn't have.
"O-O-okay…" She says slowly tipping over to Kotsu, trying to keep her distance out of shyness. But Fumie quickly heads up and gives her a big hug to welcome her. Fumie was always the only person whom she easily became comfortable around.
"Welcome back Rinoka-chan! Ren-senpai told me all about your game yesterday! It sounds like you were really brave and cool!" She says and Rinoka blushes a little thinking of how embarrassing her loss was. She had to get saved by Geraldino after all…
Gokudera taps his foot a little. "She doesn't seem very comfortable in that group… can't blame her. Those kids are kinda crazy…"
Primo lets out a little laugh. "You're one to talk Gokudera-kun. I remember OUR school days weren't exactly normal either,"
"In that case I'll go… make sure they're treating her properly and stuff…" Geraldino says stepping to the group as well. "Well… what's the hold up? You guys only have so long until you're gonna get your asses handed to you by whoever you'll end up fighting," He says giving a condescending smirk.
"Y-yeah… b-but… I'm not scared really… even if I'm down one guardian," Kotsu says smiling happily which honestly pissed Geraldino off.
"Right… whatever. So what's the plan Second?" He asks crossing his arms and Kotsu looks around at every single person in the group is waiting for him to tell them today's plan.
"Well um… is there… anything you guys want to do?" He asks as they all begin their march towards the station with lots of ideas being thrown around by Fumie, Tsugemora, Cotton and Ren while Rinoka and Reishiro just stick in the background Geraldino not caring either way.
Primo gently smiles at them. "I can't wait to see you grow up into a fine man Kotsu…" He says before being smacked in the head by Reborn.
"Stop talking about him like you're his father,"
Primo gives a little chuckle. "Well he's never had a good father… so I kind of want to pick up the mantle… I never had a very nice father either…" He just says smiling after Kotsu which he feels is a nice place to end the scene however Reborn gives him another smack in the head.