Minor warning for cussing *coughcoughgokuderacough*
Chapter Five
Falling Like Flies
Flipping around, he dashed to the exit leading to outside. As an afterthought, he yelled to the boxer over his shoulder, "Stay here and get ready for trouble!"
Ryohei didn't have much difficulty getting his job done. He was with his boxing club in the 'spare gym' that was really just a large room converted for the martial arts clubs. The message had been unnecessarily loud, due to the number of speakers in the room. Regardless, the message had caused enough chaos for him to slip away undetected.
His instructions had told him to 'clear the area' before he could 'guide' his group to the meeting point. Keeping this in mind, he left his club members behind as he started going through the nearest rooms. First he checked the weights room, where an after-school class was sometimes held for extra credit. Luckily, the class had been canceled when the teachers left, so the room was abandoned. Both locker rooms where also empty when he entered; the offices in the corner already locked. For good measure, he peeked in the storage room too, but didn't expect to see anything, and nothing noteworthy he saw. Satisfied that the hallways were empty, he returned to his friends to find the situation crumbling even faster than when he had left.
A few male boxers were drifting towards a fight with another boy from the kendo club, sneers and insults being exchanged. A girl from karate had climbed the shelves where they kept supplies on-hand and was quietly watching from her vantage point. Some guys had found it a good idea to tease a girl skilled in kickboxing, and Ryohei had to wince when her heel connected with one of their stomachs. The Sun quickly intervened between the closest fight, catching a fist in both hands. A scowl was enough to send the offenders scrabbling back in line.
Nodding approval, Ryohei ducked under the ropes walls of the boxing ring. Standing tall in the center, he gave the various clubs a chance to quiet down. The noise level noticeably went down a notch, but the roar continued on without much more acknowledgement.
"Oi!" Ryohei roared, his voice easily cutting through the rest. The fighting stilled and the teens turned guilty eyes towards him, looking like children about to get scolded. He frowned back at them, a disappointed sigh passing his lips. For the sake of time lost clearing the area, he decided to skip the lecture and get them moving. Nobody wanted to question him when he directed them to the gym – they simply sulked along.
How is that relatively simple, you ask? When you're a Vongola Guardian, whenever something doesn't go wrong or explode, it's a miracle. Ryohei's luck seemed to be thinning quickly, however. The students were by every means bored, and milling around in the gym wasn't exactly appealing. He could pick out several other club leaders working up the courage to question him, and another few hanging around the doors. He needed a distraction, and he needed it to happen soon.
"Hey -" Too late, "what're we doing here?" The Sun turned to face the voice when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He smiled when he discovered that it wasn't the other activity leaders that confronted him, but one of his fellow boxers. She was a friend of his; a hard worker and plenty of enthusiasm. She was one of the first to join when he had started his 'club.' Her name was Mai – befitting of one who moved so gracefully, even in the ring. Ryohei grimaced mentally. She may be a friend, but that didn't mean she wouldn't try to drill him for answers.
"Mai!" he greeted with a smile, "What is extremely up?"
The other boxer continued to frown. "You're avoiding the question."
"Which was?" Despite himself, a twinge of nervousness could be found in his laugh.
"What are we doing here, and what's going on?"
Ryohei filtered through all the possible excuses he could give her. It wasn't as if he could deny that he knew - he was the one who led them here. Still, Mai had known him for four years; she couldn't be fooled as easily as the rest. Recalling past lessons, he kept up his cheerful front and laughed off the question. "We're extremely doing what it said to do on the intercom!"
Mai's scowl deepened, and before she could express her discontent, another student had intervened. Ryohei gave a quick apology and was gone before she could object. Mai puffed out her cheeks, took a deep breath, and made a quick decision to give chase. She wouldn't give up that easily – she couldn't call herself a fighter if she gave up after only one hit!
Saying Ryohei was hard to follow would be an understatement. Mai had lost him from the start, and was left standing in the middle of a crowd. In the back of her mind, she knew there wasn't that many students in the gym, and finding Ryohei couldn't be that hard, but she ignored it because it was very wrong. Her agitation was spiking by the second, and the first thing she would do when she found him would be to punch him. In the corner of her eye, she caught the flash of white hair. She spun around with a victorious feeling in her gut, only to be blindsided. He wasn't there.
The female boxer frowned at the empty spot. She had saw that unmistakable white hair, she knew she did! He had to be close by. . . . Taking off with renewed energy, she headed in the direction that she thought Ryohei had been going. She was rewarded by a glimpse of a bright yellow shirt and it was gone again. Focusing only on her prey, she unhesitatingly charged after her only lead. It went on and on like this for a long while, Mai getting hints of the captain's location, but never catching up and never trapping him. An abnormally loud voice; a brief look at a drawstring bag, clutched in a bandage-wrapped fist; blaring yellows flickering in the peripherals - only little things, but each one screamed 'Ryohei was here' in her face.
A sudden 'BANG!' caught her attention, and while she knew it might cost her quarry, she decided to investigate. She quickly discovered that the source of the sound had been the hallway doors hitting the wall, having been flung open by a sliver haired teen. She recognized him as one of Ryohei's closer friends – closer than her, she thought, slightly bitter – and had always pegged him as a bad-attitude trouble maker. What was his name . . . Gokudera? She noticed the way his actions seemed frantic, and judging from the way he was scanning the crowd, he was looking for someone.
The teen was gone almost as fast as he had appeared. Replacing him was a black-haired junior that she didn't know, who yelled after Gokudera. Behind him milled a horde of students, muttering in confusion, who lingered in the doorway like they were uninvited guests. She was tempted to go over and help, but someone beat her to it. None other than the one she had been searching for, Ryohei practically materialized out of the bodies, heading over to the new group.
Consequentially, he only had time to tell them they were to stay in here before Mai shoved him over. She had to give him credit, he upheld his reputation for being impossible to surprise. Even though he was knocked over, he managed to catch her other wrist mid-punch, and rolled back to his feet in record time.
He gave her an odd look, seemingly saying 'Are you sure you're not insane?' before returning to his explanation to the black-haired junior. He nodded and went to repeat the instructions to his entourage, and Ryohei finally gave her his attention. Mai glared at him for a good couple minutes before speaking.
"Well?" she prompted.
"Well . . . what?" the boxing captain returned, frowning.
"Are you going to apologize?" He blinked and offered a blank expression. "For ditching me back there! You just ran off - I wasn't done talking to you!" He opened his mouth to reply, but she cut him off. "Don't you give me an excuse! You're going to explain, and you're going to do so right now! No more interruptions!"
Ryohei swallowed hard, and stood stiffly. It was easy to miss; invisible to those who didn't know him. Even Mai almost missed the slightest bit of tension in the way he squared his shoulders. Almost. It immediately put her on edge, and her mouth went dry – Ryohei was loud, proud, and didn't back down, anything that might scare him would terrify her. The guy probably wouldn't double think about going a round with a bear – he was insane. It wasn't hard for her to figure out something seriously dangerous was going on. She could only hope that it didn't involve them.
For whatever reason, fate just didn't want her to get an answer. While Ryohei was stumbling over his words, his eyes connected with someone, and he stopped dead. Mai glanced behind her, confused and slightly agitated, and quickly back-stepped to avoid being hit in the face. The silver-haired teen from earlier roughly moved past her and all but sprinted to Ryohei. The female boxer snarled, but it had no effected.
"Oi! Where's Jyudaime?!"
Mai thought for minute that he had been talking to her, but dismissed it. Ryohei's smile faltered. "You extremely don't know?" Mai's eyes flicked between the two people, trying to follow the conversation. She didn't know who they were discussing, but she could sense the urgency in their voices. She shifted nervously. Ryohei wasn't smiling anymore – that was never a good sign.
"I extremely hoped he was with you or one of the others!"
Her attention snapped back to the conversation. She had missed part, but she pieced it together pretty well. Mai could see the panic and desperation that shone in Gokudera's eyes when he suddenly bolted past her. She glanced back, and her mouth went dry as she saw the same emotions reflected on her captain's face. He recomposed himself a second later; the only hint that there was anything the matter was the hard glint in his eyes, and the smile that ever-so-slightly resembled a grimace.
Almost as an afterthought, the departing teen yelled over his shoulder something about trouble. Ryohei raised a hand to show he heard, and swiftly turned and headed in the other direction. Mai was torn between following and not wanting to be involved. A movement in her peripherals brought her attention to the dark-haired youth from earlier. He had noticed Gokudera run off, and slipped through the doors that said teen had gone through.
Perhaps it was a bad example to judge from, but Mai hardened her resolve and dashed after the other boxer. Ryohei had been her friend for a long time, and she wasn't about to let him go off and do something stupid on his own. She doubted she would be able to stop him, but he wouldn't be able to stop her either.
Gokudera tried, in vain, to remain calm. Tsuna wasn't where they thought he was, but that didn't mean he was missing . . . right? Despite all the plans that the Vongola had made, the Storm knew they would all fail if the Tenth wasn't there to lead. He wasn't quite sure how to handle the problem, but he'd be dead before he stopped searching for his precious friend.
He was currently running to the sports fields. If he was searching, then he might as well start with his fellow Guardians, and do his assigned job while he was at it. He knew that the Rain was mostly like to be with the brunette if neither he nor Ryohei were.
It didn't take long before he spotted a mass of white and blue uniforms crest the hill. He immediately pegged them as the baseball team. He already knew that Yamamoto wasn't among them, so he simply continued past them, ducking into the thin cover of the trees. Farther along, he slowed to a halt when he could see the baseball diamond. He frowned when he saw the Rain and two younger students were being stalled by a well-dressed man. The out-of-place suit screamed 'Mafia' in the bomber's mind.
Thinking quickly, he grabbed a nearby branch and used it to climb up the nearest tree. Their conversation was barely audible above the rustling of leaves, but it was enough to know that the situation spelled disaster. A heavy "CRACK!" revealed the location of a bulky machine, coming from a thick hand that snapped a tree limb like it was a twig. The Mosca lumbered forward, directly beneath the hidden Gokudera. He covered his mouth in a desperate attempt to quiet his breathing, and scooted a litter farther into the foliage. He waited with bated breath until the thing had passed, but he wasn't out of the clear. Yamamoto's group was being encircled, and the robot still had the chance to detect his Storm flame.
Gokudera bit his bottom lip as he thought. He could try to activate a flame, with the chance that a Mosca could notice him, but also give Yamamoto a hint he was here. He couldn't risk it. Digging into his pocket, he pulled out a cigarette and lighter with a grin. He popped it into his mouth, igniting the tip. He had to time this perfectly, so nothing seemed out of place. The third Mosca was nearing the edge of the brush, and the other two were already out. As it flattened a sizable bush, the Smoking Bomb did what he did best. With a flick of his fingers, a small fire-cracker was tumbling through the air. It bounced once, and then snapped to life, cracking and sputtering loudly. It sizzled back into a silent ember as the machine cleared the last obstacle, and took its place next to its clones.
Gokudera knew the idiot had heard it from the grin he wore. His own smile graced his lips, and he waited with a critical eye for his chance. One hand crept back into one of his numerous pockets, and slowly pulled out a small box. The Mafia man snapped his fingers, and Gokudera lit his ring. A Storm flame flickered, and opened the box weapon with a swipe of the hand. Flame Arrow roared, bellowing red fire to greet the eyes that turned to it. Gokudera gave an innocent smile to his victims; right before he shot a bomb towards the group. It hit the Mosca in the middle dead-on, and it exploded in fiery glory.
He didn't have time to check the results. His boots connected with the earth, and he took off, heading diagonally so he would intercept Yamamoto. He doubted that his attack would take down all three Moscas, but he held out hope that it would at least damage any survivors. He knew for sure that the one he hit was toast, and another was close enough it was probably gone, but knowing how durable those things were. . . .
Gokudera slowed to a walk, panting. He frowned at the glow filtering through the trees. He should have met up with that idiot by now. The math solved itself in his head for a second time – he was sure that it was right. Even giving leeway for speed differences, Yamamoto would have reached this point by now. Unless the other kids were slowing him down. He shook his head; no, even though they wouldn't be as fast as the Rain, they were baseball players and would have had to reach a speed that matched Yamamoto's minimum. Something must have happened.
He clipped a round of Sun flame-infused bullets into his gun. He didn't care for baseball-idiots, but an ally was an ally, and if there was one thing Tsuna had taught him, it was that you helped your friends when it mattered most. It didn't take long before he heard shouting. It was the young brunette from earlier; he had halted and was yelling back to someone. A few seconds later, the blonde tumbled out of the brush.
Gokudera jogged over to them. "Oi!" Their heads snapped towards him so fast he had to suppress a wince. They eyed the thing on his arm with fear, but looked hopeful at the school uniform. "Where's Yamamoto? He was with you just a minute ago."
The two boys shared a look, and scooted closer together. Their bodies were tense and ready to run again, arms hidden behind them. "Who are you?" the blonde questioned boldly, lifting his chin a little in defiance.
"Tch," Gokudera could appreciate the boy's spunk, but it wasn't really the time. "Gokudera Hayato – Yamamoto's friend. And before you start barking at me, how about a thank you for saving your asses?"
Surprise made the blonde's eyes go wide. "That was you? You set off that explosion?"
Gokudera rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, head tilted to the sky. "No shit, Sherlock. Now, before you ask any more stupid questions, could someone tell me where Yamamoto is?!"
The baseball players gulped and exchanged another glance. The blonde hesitantly stepped forward, bring up the object he'd been hiding behind his back. Gokudera made a strangled sound when he saw it. The boys showed alarm at the reaction before the elder snatch the parcel away from them.
"Let me be wrong, let me be wrong," the bomber whispered, panic lacing his words. The soft, light green fabric was dirty, and one corner was slightly singed. It was long, narrow, sack-like case, with a button on the top that held the flap closed. He flipped it open with shaky hands. The fabric slid to the ground and left him with a wooden katana. The kendo sword was unscratched, the pale wood reflecting the red glow of the flames. Gokudera's mouth went dry. Frantic, he scooped the case from the dirt and tore open the two pockets on the sides. Both empty.
Gokudera stared at the sword in his hands. He slowly moved to cover his eyes with one, the other arm folding across his chest. The two boys looked at him in a mixture of horror and fear, waiting for something to happen. They jumped a little when the silver-haired teen finally spoke.
"That . . ." he all but whispered, "IDIOT!"
They inched back from the waves of rage that their senior was radiating. It was true that they didn't know what was in the case when it had been given to them, and they didn't understand its importance, but it would take a moron to not understand that it was not good.
"You," The baseball players jumped at being addressed so suddenly. "What're your names?"
"I'm Jonah," the blonde replied, "and he's Nagista. We are Takeshi's teammates. He gave me that," he gestured to the kendo sword, "and told me run."
Gokudera tapped his foot lightly, never uncovering his eyes. He took a deep breath, and sighed. He paced back and forth, indecision in each step. The boys watched quietly, or curiously in Jonah's case, and let the student walk – it would be unwise to stop him. They slightly recognized the name, but it had been a gamble that they were still hoping paid off.
The bomber let the hand slid off his face at last, eyeing the freshman and sophomore. "Okay, you'll come with me for now. I'll take you back to the meeting point – where you should have been from the beginning." He turned and motioned for the teens to follow.
The two reluctantly obeyed, moving closer together as they walked. "Jonah, do you think we can trust him? Maybe we should make a run for it."
Jonah could hear the fear compiling in his fellow's whisper. He stayed silent for a few seconds, before replying in an equally quiet voice, "I don't think so. I'm not sure if he's on our side, but he has that thing on his arm that's probably a weapon. If he set off that explosion, then you think we seem like a challenge? It's loaded from what I can tell, and I doubt we'll out run anything he can fire. Maybe we'll get some answers if follow along. Until we figure out what happened to Takeshi, and where he is, we can't do anything risky."
"Strategizing?" Gokudera chuckled suddenly. The captives were struck with terror; he was several feet ahead and they were whispering, how had he heard? He glanced over his shoulder to smirk at them. "What, you thought I couldn't hear? You're going to have to be farther away than that if you don't want me to know what you are saying. It doesn't really matter though; I'm not going to do anything to do anything to you. I have bigger problems than you two."
"Like what?" Jonah asked in a spurt of confidence, jogging forward so he walked directly behind him. "Those things back there? What were they?"
Gokudera frowned. He crossed his arms behind his head, showing off his still burning weapon, and focused on the path ahead of him. "None of your business; anyone teach you to not get involved in other peoples' problems?"
"But it's our problem too!" Jonah cut in front of him, blocking the path. His face was set with determination. "Those guys attacked us back there, and Takeshi is missing. I'll be dead before you stop me from helping the friend who saved me."
Gokudera stared in slight apprehension at the sophomore. He then snorted and forcibly shoved past him, knocking him the ground in the process. "Stay out of it, kid. You're better off staying with the other students in the gym."
The blonde would not be silenced so easily, jumping back up stubbornly. He kept pace, which subtlety was increasing the more agitated the elder became, and fixed Gokudera with a glare. "Kid? Don't treat me like I'm some lost child! You're only one year older than me! You're still a kid yourself! And you won't stop me from finding Takeshi!"
The Storm stopped, and fixed Jonah with cold emerald eyes. "You think that he would want you to get killed looking for him?" he asked rhetorically. Jonah held his gaze for a little longer before gritting his teeth and looking to the ground. Gokudera nodded, and started walking again – they were nearing the school. "For the record, I'm not a kid," he added in a quitter tone.
Jonah regained a bit of light in his eyes. His curiosity was building again. Before he could bother Gokudera some more, another beat him to it.
"Gokudera!"
Said teen jumped and pointed Flame Arrow in the face of the speaker. A black-haired head was peeking out of the near-by brush. He squeaked at the skull in his face, ducking back into the shelter. The foliage rustled a bit, some curses mumbled, and out stepped the raven-haired, tall boy, with startlingly blue eyes. He grinned and laughed nervously, doing a little wave. "H-Hey buddy. You, ah, want to point that somewhere else?"
Gokudera stared in confusion, never lowering his weapon. He ran his eyes over every detail skeptically; he didn't trust this not to be an illusion made by Mist flame. He took a step forward, until the open-mouthed skull was pointed right at the soft flesh under the chin. The teen stammered, but didn't dare move. Gokudera narrowed his eyes, and with no hesitation, stomped on his foot.
"OW!" he howled, hoping on foot, clutching the other in his hands.
Gokudera stepped back and watched with a satisfied smirk. "He's real," he declared.
"Of course I'm real! What the hell, Gokudera?! Were you trying to break my toes?"
The bomber snorted and crossed him arms. "If I had wanted to break your toes, they would be broken." He glanced back at his charges and started to walk again, grabbing the new arrival's arm and dragging him with them. "More importantly, what the hell are you doing here, Josh? I left you in the gym."
"I noticed," Josh smiled wryly, "Thanks for telling me what was going on, by the way. Really appreciate it. A senior told me to stay in the gym, and then I saw you leave, so I followed and, oh my Josh, dude, what is on your arm?"
Gokudera pinched his nose again, squeezing his eyes shut. "Josh, when you are told to stay in the gym, you're supposed to stay in the fucking gym!"
Josh was unbothered by the swearing, opting instead to grab hold of his "friend's" arm and inspecting the device on it. "Dude, this is awesome! Did you make this? Is that real fire? Hot! Yeah, okay it is. Judging from the design, it's a type of gun, or crossbow, right? I didn't know you could shoot! This thing is bad ass; really, you have to tell me how you got it. The fire power has got to be huge, but how's the distance? What type of bullets do you even put it? Oh, wait, are these machine gun bullets? That's a little odd; I wouldn't have thought it would be a type of machine gun. Hmm, but wait, with this kind of magazine, the entrance would need to be pretty wide – I bet you can adapt it to have a different bullet size!" Josh tugged a few times on the bullets to test it, and then adeptly detached the clip. He fiddled with the skull a bit more, and then got it to turn, and the mouth to widen. "Oh, score! Why didn't you tell me it is made to have different bullets? You don't even have to do much, that's really efficient! Hey, what's this thing's name? Or does it not have one? I guess you're not really the kind of guy who goes around naming things, right?"
Gokudera forced a stop, breathing deeply in an attempt to calm down and not blow Josh's face off. Despite his best intentions, violence really did seem necessary with this child. Moving the arm in his grasp, the Storm brought his appendage back, and then threw it forward again, right into Josh's nose. Said teen fell back, clutching his face, and swearing colorfully. Jonah was wide eyed and stared at the injured student like he was unsure if he was his idol, or worst nightmare. Nagista on the other hand, look positively dazed, one eye twitching.
"You're worse than Uri!" Gokudera groaned, making sure Josh stood again before turning away. "I didn't think it possible, I really didn't!"
"Who's Uri?" Jonah and Josh asked in unison. Gokudera's fingers twitched, like they itched for dynamite, and his brain was fried beyond repair. He stiffly refused to acknowledge the question. Josh winked at his new friend before returning to the inspection of the object of his awe. Gokudera glared daggers at him, but the other ignored him and continued to turn his arm every which way to see different angles.
Much to the science nerd's surprise, Gokudera snapped his fingers and the weapon responded with a burst a red flame. Josh jumped back to avoid them, fear corrupting his features when he realized his friend would be burned. The weapon was consumed in the fire, its features blurring into solid red, before disappearing when the fire burned out. Gokudera's arm was left bare, like there had never been anything there.
All three students gaped, jaws dropping. "How . . .? What just -? What?"
The Storm rolled his eyes and continued his journey down the road. "Flame Arrow."
"What?"
"Flame Arrow," he said again. "Its name, that is. It's called Flame Arrow."
Gokudera refused to respond to any amount of prodding after that. Aside from the occasional snarl or snap, he ignored them until they left the strip of woods, and stood in the light of day again. At that point, he stopped and turned to face the people in front of him, who gazed back curiously. In a quick inventory check, the Storm found he had been left with: one Rain flame-activated katana, minus the owner; two baseball players who had been attack by Moscas, one of which determined to interfere with his plans; a fairly smart science club member, that asked way to many questions for his own good; Flame Arrow; a temperamental cat; two MIA friends, while enemies swarmed the grounds; and no idea where to go or what to do. Fucking great. At this rate, he feared they were falling like flies, one by one.
And now we have some insight into who is where and what not. Side note: Tsuna, Gokudera, and Yamamoto are Juniors, Hibari and Ryohei are Seniors.
