Chapter 15: Ranking, A-Class, and a New Member?

Tsuna couldn't focus on the school work that was in-front of him. What made it impossible was what his Kaa-san and Lal-san had said to him, or more of what they didn't, yesterday.

Flashback

"K-Kaa-san, L-Lal-san," Tsuna stumbled out, "W-why are you smiling like that?"

Their smiles grew and Tsuna swore that that room became ten degrees colder. "Like what Tsu~~kun?" That was moment Tsuna knew he would better off as an akuma.

He turned his attention to Lal, "Lal-san, please tell me.." Lal kept a smirk, turned to Nana and whispered something. In response, Nana shook her head and kept on smiling towards Tsuna.

Flashback end

Tsuna shivered at thought of what those smiles could be hiding, torture, murder, embarrassing pictures of when one of his babysitters thought he was a girl. He shivered, that last one would be the death of him. When the bell rang for gym, he was kinda glad. Sure he would suck and cause his team to lose but he gets time to think about all of this...maybe that wasn't such a good thing...

Tsuna was kinda worried about his brother. He went to get the ball, but that was over five minutes ago. Deciding that it would be better to check to make sure he was alright, he left to find his brother. As he got close to the back of the school, he heard a kid's voice say, "-,757 out of 86,820 mafioso."

Tsuna turn the corner to see Sora, Gokudera, Yamamoto, Reborn, and a kid he has never seen before. He gulped and asked, "What is this about mafioso?"

Surprising everyone, except Rebron who grew a smirk, they turned around hastily. Sora looked uncomfortable and Gokudera looked torn between what to do. Tsuna marked that down as suspicious and looked over to Yamamoto who was laughing.

"What's wrong guys?" Yamamoto asked between laughs, "Listen Tsuna it's like this,"

Sora's ears perked up and screamed, "Yamamoto STOP!"

Hearing this Gokudera grabbed, firecrackers? Tsuna couldn't tell before Yamamoto yanked his shoulder and continued, "We're playing a mafia game! I guess that Sora's just a-little embarrassed to admit it in-front of his Nii-chan."

Tsuna looked around and saw Sora's face red and Gokudera grumbling under his breath. He noticed that he didn't have the firecrackers anymore, where did he grab them in the first place?

Before another headache could a-rise, he grabbed the ball, and excused himself.

When Tsuna left, Reborn glared at Yamamoto. The pre-I mean, Yamamoto, chuckled nervously, "Di-did I do something wrong baby?"

Reborn sighed, "No, Sora," Hearing his actual name, Sora straighten and look at Reborn with surprise, "we're taking Fuuta home with us after school. So be prepared."

After taking saying that, he walked into his secret hideout that was inside a tree. He sat on his leather couch and wonder what Fuuta coming here could mean. He would certainly make a great ally later, but what does the eerie feeling that he feels in his gut mean. Something bad is going to happen, he can tell with leon's tail showing the first signs of falling off.

Tsuna had made the routine trip to, 'Redemption's Cake Shop' with his imagination running wild. What if they forced him into 80 hours of training with Lal, what if they made him fight off akuma on his own and without spirits, what if they found some un-burnt pictures of the babysitting accident!?

With those thoughts in mind, he made a dash that would make an Olympic sprinter jealous. Reaching the store in record time. When he entered, he put his stuff in the employee's locker room and rushed to the inner floor. Once he got out of the elevator, he made another dash to their team's room. When he entered, he saw Nana drinking a small cup of coffee.

"Oi Tsu~kun," Nana asked sang out, "why are you sweating so much?"

Tsuna gulped, ignoring her question, he asked, "What are you and Lal planning Kaa-san?"

At this, Nana's smile grew dangerous and dark as she replied, "Don't you think that's a rude way to ask your boss something Tsu~kun?" Tsuna gulped, it was the first time he saw his Kaa-san so dangerous to anything besides an akuma.

"Tsuna," Nana continued seriously, "within our team, you're currently the weakest member. Lal and I decided that you need more one-on-one combat practice against higher level enemies." Tsuna remembered his latest fight with Lal and he couldn't argue. "However, since you would most likely tire out before too long, we're going to send Vean with you."

Tsuna looked uncertain, "Kaa-san, why are you sending Vean with me? He isn't that strong, is he?"

Nana chuckled, "I guess you haven't seen him in an actual fight before have you?" After a quick shake of his head, Nana went on, "He doesn't just copy appearances, he copies their body, mind and abilities. If he wasn't an ally, he would truly be a difficult foe."

With that que, Vean came running into the room crying about how a baby stole his candy. (I know, ironic and lame) Tsuna ignored Vean and asked, "If that's the case, where am I suppose to be going to?"

Nana's smile went back to her devious smile and answered, "Secret~, but Tsuna, you'll be facing a B level akuma so don't underestimate them."

Tsuna blinked, 'B level? They have grading scales now?' At his confusion, Nana blinked, "Oh, right, I haven't told you." and then explained, "You see Tsuna, akuma are split into three groups, A,B,and C. A level akuma are the rarest and most dangerous. As we know of, there are only seven type of them. B and C level are more common and are the ones that we have been fighting with up til now. C focuses on Strength and B focuses on intelligence and numbers. Just, be careful."

The, 'secret' place was the rival cake shop, at the opposite side of the street. His job was to walk around and start handing out cake samples to potential customers. Luckily, he only had one box...today.

With Vean and his spirits, which he had called before they got there, were bickering around the entire time, Tsuna was lucky if he got one sample taken without looking deranged. After giving away all of the samples in the box, Tsuna saw a giant shadow of a bird and then his contacts flashed, "Forcefully Entering Spirit Combat Area!"

After looking around, Tsuna saw that three ghosts were trapped inside and a crow shaped akuma was hovering over. Not wasting any time, Watanabe spoke up, "Tsuna let me take control." Tsuna was about to refuse when he saw something in watanabe's eyes, complete hatred.

Giving a slight nod, Itou, Satou, and Watanabe started the ritual. The crow akuma took this time and dive towards the group of ghost. Tsuna and Watanabe finished synchronizing, and saw the akuma attack with incredible speed. Surprised, Tsuna grabbed Itou and Satou who were still combining and rushed towards the group to protect them.

Fearing that he wasn't going to make it in time, Tsuna chanted, "Slice to protect," and swung the still glowing weapon right above the spirits heads, making a thin half-circle barrier over the group. The crow smashed into the barrier and breaking it, but also caused itself to stop.

When Tsuna was close enough, he continued the chant, "slice to destroy!" Making slicing motions, the glowing weapon split, forming back into Itou and Satou. The two smashed the akuma into the ground and kept pressuring the akuma.

Itou, who was on a wing, yelled, "Watanabe you fool! You know if you use a weapon in the middle of transforming that the spirits can't merge! You're going to have to destroy it without one while we're holding it down!"

Tsuna nodded, and held up an empty fingers pointing upwards. He was transferring all of his power into his hand and mumbled, "Redemption's Swordsmanship: Palm Strike!" Appearing a foot away from the akuma. Said akuma screamed and suddenly exploded.

Tsuna turned to the group of ghosts and bowed respectfully as he said, "Please pass on to the next world. Me and my companions will watch over this area, so please rest in peace."

With sad smiles, the ghosts gave a sincere nod, and vanished like the cat spirit did when his mother first showed him the job. When they were gone, Watanabe separated from Tsuna's body.

Watanabe turned back to Tsuna and asked, "You-you probably want to know why I was in such a hurry huh?"

Tsuna shook his head and answered, "When a spirit takes over my body, I can see any memory that they remember. I just want to know one thing, were they your family?"

Watanabe remained silent and turned away. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Watanabe spoke up, "Let's just say that they were the cause of my, 'Sinful desires". Tsuna looked down, trying to fight back tears that were threatening to fall.

When Tsuna fully calmed down, he walked towards an ally and left the SCA. (and was caught by...What? wrong chapter? Oh, sorry.) He left the ally and started to head towards Redemption's Cake Store. However, fate, or was it destiny, decided that Mochida needed more screen time and made him bump into Tsuna.

"Dame-Tsuna! What are you doing here?" Was Mochida's unusually calm question.

Tsuna started sweating when he remembered what he worked for, "I was giving away samples for my company. I was about to head back."

Mochida looked down with a dark look as he muttered a, "Sorry," that Tsuna had to strain to hear.

Not sure if he heard him correctly, Tsuan ask, "Mochida-senpai, could you repeat that?"

Mochida was quiet for a bit before saying, "I said, 'Sorry'. To you, your brother, Kyoko, and anyone else I hurt. I was going through a dark time."

Tsuna gave a comfortable smile while replying, "Don't worry about it, I'll forgive you, but you'll have to tell the others yourself if you want to be forgiven by them."

Mochida gave his own smile before remarking, "Thanks Tsuna, you just gained some points in my book." Tsuna blushed slightly and look down to cover his blushing, but when he did, he saw a small boy with sad eyes, and blue hair clinging to Mochida's pant leg.

A depressing thought crossed his mind, but before he could ask Mochida about it, His contacts flashed, "AKUMA ARE IN THE AREA, AKUMA ARE IN THE AREA, AKUMA AR-." It then flashed, "Forcefully Entering Spirit Combat Area!"

With the circle and neon blue buildings, Tsuna knew he was no longer in Kansas. Unfortunately, Toto was Mochida, who freaked out with the sudden change in environment and the sudden appearance of four new figures.

He was so surprised that he fell. When he looked up, he saw the boy that was grabbing onto his pant leg, and stuttered, "J-Jiro!?" Before he could say anymore, he saw a freakish bird (an akuma) with a skull for head, moving like a cannon for the spirit. Moving instinctively, he grabbed the spirits shoulder and rolled so that he was covering the spirit.

The akuma hit Mochida completely on the back, earning a scream of pain from the victim. The akuma then flew to two other akuma with a variety amount of skin on their skulls. It began to laugh, "Hahaha. Look at that stupid human protecting a spirit. BAKA! Hurry, let's strike at once and finish the baka at once."

Before the other akuma could agree, they heard, "Redemption's whip style: Redeeming Slash!" hitting one of the akuma, earning a scream of pain and explosion from said akuma.

The remaining akuma turned to what find what attack their fellow akuma, only to see a young boy with a whip made of needles. One akuma screamed, "Punk! Do you think you'll get away with that!?" and charged at him. Not having a lot of time to think, Tsuna made a shield with the whip and filled it with spirit energy.

As the other akuma rushed to fight Tsuna, the other snickered, "Thanks for taking care of the annoying Redeemer. Now I can have the spirit and human to myself!" The akuma flew higher and before reaching the top of the SCA. It then straighten itself and dived directly for Mochida.

See the akuma about to strike, Mochida gave the spirit a desperate smile, "Don't worry, this time your Nii-chan will protect you. So don't worry Jiro."

Jiro shook his head, "Move Nii-chan, this will kill you! I should know!" Mochida's eyes widen at the statement before a bridge of stone covered them and a loud thud could be heard.

"What the Hell!?" The akuma roared, "What just happened?"

The rocks formed back into Vean, who pointed to the akuma announcing, "I'm the great and powerful Veanakular Metho III! I won't allow you to eat this pour soul."

The akuma laughed, "Hehehe. An akuma helping a spirit? Yeah right! Just get lost before I get rid of you as well squirt."

Vean's vein popped, and grumbled out, "So your making fun of me huh?" Vean stretched out his arms, which slowly started to take the shape of long back wings, his body slowly started to follow suit making it look identical to the akuma in-front of him.

The akuma scoffed, "So you look like me, that doesn't mean that you're as strong as me!" It then charged towards Vean at full speed. Vean flapped his wings and closed his talons into pyramid shape. When the akuma was close enough, he kicked his leg out, destroying the akuma.

When it fully disappeared, Vean went back to it's regular pig outfit and fell asleep. Mochida and Jiro had stood up during the fight and looked surprised, not really expecting what just happened to transpire.

Then turned their heads to the left to see Tsuna walking over looking exhausted, and his spirits beside him. When he was close enough, he asked, "Are you guys alright?" With quick nods from the brothers, Tsuna faced Jiro and continued, "You can leave now or," he looked over to Mochida, "do you want to hear that from your Nii-chan?"

Mochida blinked, "Wha, what do you mean Dame-Tsuna!? Go, go where!? I just found my brother, why would I tell him to go!?"

Tsuna stood eye to eye, well close enough anyway, and replied gently, "Because," he stopped in fear of being in his shoes one day, "he's a ghost, and you know that. He will be hunted Mochida, by those things you just saw. If you let him go, he'll go to the next world, free from those things."

Mochida took a step back, glupped, and asked something that Tsuna never thought about, "And what if it's not? What if I'm just sending him to a Hell of being hunted forever!"

Tsuna stood there, unsure how to answer or what the answer was anyway. After a short silence, Satou took a stepped forward saying, "That's not how it is." This caused both both parties to look at him in surprise. "After dying, a person's spirit will be checked and will either be sent to the next world, or Hell. If the spirit has a regret strong enough, it will stay go back to Earth in a form that can't touch anything and vise-versa."

Tsuna calmed down, but Mochida look down trying to block the tears that were threatening to fall down his face. His body trembled as he started letting out, "I still don't want to let him go, he's my only brother."

This time Watanabe stepped forward and glared down at Mochida. He spotted Mochida's shinai and asked, "Do you really not want him to leave you?" Not really able to speak, Mochida nodded his head, Watanabe then turned to Jiro and asked, "What about you?" Also shaking his head, Watanabe sighed, "I have a way for you stay with your brother then."

The brothers, and Tsuna looked at Watanabe in shook. Mochida asking, "Re-really? What do I have to do? Please, tell me!"

Watanabe let a sigh out before demanding, "First you," pointing to Mochida, "grab ahold of sword with both of your hands." Not wasting any time Mochida held up his shinai, "Now you," pointing to Jiro, "possess the sword." With a awkward movements, Jiro possessed the wooden sword. "Now you two will have to let your souls interact, but this is the hardest part."

Mochida face showed confusion, "How are we suppose to do that?"

Watanabe smirked, "You can't force your spirits to merge. They will interact with you as long as you hold that sword, but you can't reject his soul. Let it become apart of you, and the spirit can't be afraid of possessing you or the thing will become meaningless."

Mochida took one deep breath and relaxed his muscles. His face went from a relaxed to one that looked like he stepped on something squishy. Then his shinai gave a brilliant shine and turned into an elongated katana that shine brilliantly.

Watanabe smile stretched from ear to ear as he yelled, "Now, welcome to Redemption!"

"Wait, WHAT!?"

A familiar dark silhouette was in a dim light room that screamed, 'DUNGEON'. The silhouette snapped it's fingers, making a purple portal appear pushing a large beast that was covered in a rocky coral like substance, claws, tail, wings, crazed eyes, and teeth that were pointed.

The beast saw the silhouette and pounced towards him. The silhouette gave it small glare making it stop completely. The silhouette smirked as he whispered, "So you're what the A-class akuma from the Behemonth clan looks like. Perfect," the silhouette walked closer to akuma, got close to where it's ear would have been and continued, "Go to the human world and dispose of those annoying Redeemers please."

The akuma was barely able to muster out, "Y-yes Master Lucifer." Before it disappeared.

Thank you for the reviews Akayuki Sawada, RenaScarlet, Ruka Lolica, BlackAndWhiteRoseWolf, SanadaTenchi

First off I would like to say that I got a new Beta Reader. YEA ME! \(^_^)/ We have up to Questions and Answers done check them out and let me know what you think. Especially, 'The Truth?' since that one took forever! (;A;)

Next chapter will show the terror of a level A akuma, and if you have a comment, suggestion, or flame on how Mochida may join the fray, please let me know in a review!

This chapter was Beta Read by my new Beta Reader too. So if you notice that my writing sudden became better this chapter, it's mostly her work.