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After Tsuna made sure that climbing out of the bed and the tremors had done nothing to wake up the children, he ran out of the room, stumbling out into the corridors, shutting the door softly behind him.
Another explosion broke through the silence, and without a moment's hesitation, he ran towards the direction of it, making sure that his Dying Will Pills and gloves were in his pocket. Briefly wondering where Gokudera, Yamamoto, Chrome, Mukuro, Kyoko, Haru, Ryohei and Hibari were, he prayed that they (especially Gokudera and Hibari) wouldn't strangle Spanner later.
Judging by how things never really went according to his plan, he knew that offering a pray to the Almighty was useless.
The paintings hanging from the walls and the antiques and heirlooms set on rounded stools passed by in a colorful blur—he did not have the time to appreciate their beauty. It was during times like these that he realized how much he had changed. He was pretty sure that a year ago, he would have done practically anything to stay out of trouble and death warranting situations; but, here he was, being an idiot and pretty much hurtling himself towards his own death.
He blamed Reborn for rubbing off on him.
The speakers crackled again.
"Did I mention that there are more than one Silver Moscas?"
Tsuna stumbled, eyes widening.
"Yeah, don't think I did. There are nine of them."
"Oh my God! And you are mentioning that now?!" Tsuna asked no one, glaring at the ceiling.
"Oh, yeah, I completely forgot…"
There were further crackles, and then a voice spoke, inside his head.
Tsuna tripped, falling face first in the ground, as the voice kept on speaking. He had forgotten about that. Two days after the whole fiasco with Bermuda, Spanner and Shoichi had together worked to create a speaker-hearing device, which they had planted into his ear. Brain. Somewhere. They were like the X-Headphones, just tiny and creepy; creepy because it was fucking weird to have a voice speaking to you in your head.
"It's loud!" Tsuna protested, "Spanner, I'm going to become deaf!"
There was a pause, followed by static as Tsuna slowly got up and continued running.
"Vongola?" Spanner spoke, "Is this better?"
"Yes. Thank you. What did you say about eight Moscas?"
"I know where all of them are, so I've sent one Guardian to them, except for Sasagawa-kun. He was not in his room. And Reborn-san's taking care of the other ones. I've pinpointed your location. There's one after two turns to the left, and one to the right."
Tsuna nodded, despite knowing that the blonde could not see him, "You do realize that Gokudera-kun's going to kill you, right?"
"…"
Tsuna had a feeling that the other had realized Gokudera's murderous streak just now, which explained the silence of information dawning and a boy suddenly thinking 'I'm too young to die'.
"…How's Shouichi?" Tsuna asked worriedly.
"He's… on the floor, rolling because his stomach's paining. I think he's scared about Gokudera."
"Tell him not to be. I'll stop Gokudera-kun."
Spanner heaved a satisfied sigh. Tsuna was sure that the mechanic had been holding his breath, tensed for the inevitable.
"Thank you, Vongola. I owe you one."
Tsuna hummed, and allowed the connection to break.
Another explosion, this one nearer to him, and stronger vibrations followed. Tsuna hurled himself into the room from where screams of his classmates ensued. He blinked at the site. The room was in a sad state of disarray. Bullet marks scattered along the wall, tables and drawers overturned, the bed blown to pitiable sizes. By some miracle, the heirlooms were left untouched. One wall of the room had a huge, gaping hole to it; this was, no doubt, the place from where the Silver Mosca had entered in all its life-taking, unwanted glory.
Speaking of which, The Silver Mosca looked exactly like the Green Mosca he remembered during the Representative Battles, except for the fact that it was, well, silver. And it had his classmates at machine-gun point.
Oh, yay, Tsuna cheered facetiously.
The five students who were being forced to face the murdering robot were shaking, terrified. Their breaths were coming out in short gasps, no doubt having realized that the Mosca could kill them easily. Tsuna realized that, too, so he took a nearby vase and hurled it at the silver robot. The few-million-dollar worth heirloom landed a good two feet away from its intended target, shattering. Tsuna winced at the noise, but didn't let it deter him. It deterred the Mosca from keeping the students at gun-point, though, much to Tsuna's surprise, turning towards the place where the noise had come from.
The students did not move an inch, paralyzed with fear.
"MOVE!" Tsuna yelled, "GET OUT OF HERE!"
The uncharacteristic yelling from the softest teenager in the whole of Namimori un-paralyzed them. They scrambled away from the gathered spot as soon as the machine opened fire at the recent source of noise—Tsuna. He ducked and rolled, reflex kicking in. A bullet almost nipped his ear, and Tsuna noticed, with no little amount of worry, that none of the students had had the opportunity to escape from the room. Scrambling up and diving behind the half-broken couch, Tsuna fell on a distinct body of a human.
"Dame-Tsuna!"
Tsuna blinked at Takahira.
"Hello." Tsuna greeted quietly.
"What are you doing here?!" Takahira hissed.
"Um, hiding…?"
"Well, find a different place! I don't want you to fuck anything up and have that—that thing come running after me!" This was ordered by a glaring Arashi.
"But—!"
"Will you three shut up?!" a girl hissed angrily, "Don't make any sound!"
"Staying silent will not help us in anyway, Hinata!" Arashi protested wildly, his voice a low whisper, "Dame-Tsuna being here with us is the same as screaming, goddammit!"
"He won't do anything; stop speaking!" she whispered furiously.
"Tell him to hide somewhere else! You know how he is! He'll trip over air and scream and then then we are done for!"
Hinata paused, "Oh, I hadn't… thought of that. Shit."
Tsuna was used to Reborn insulting him by pretending they were not in the same room. It was a coincidence how his classmates were also very good at doing that. It didn't matter, though—he had a more important task at hand. He half-stood up, poking his head from behind the back rest of the couch. The Silver Mosca was still there, like a prowling predator, searching.
Tsuna supposed that the reason why the Mosca had not come after him yet, despite definitely having seen Tsuna diving behind the couch, was because of some malfunctioned part Tsuna was glad the machine was currently suffering from.
His arm was yanked down. A yelp would have escaped him if it weren't for Arashi slapping a rough hand over his mouth.
"Mpffff!"
"Don't look up, are you crazy?!" Hinata hissed, looking peeved and nervous as she glanced at the ceiling, "Look, you need to get out of here before you—"
"Tsuna-san…?"
Tsuna stiffened. He knew that voice.
I-Pin.
Hinata was still talking to him, but Tsuna did not bother looking. Dread pooling in his stomach, he jerked up, eyes wide as he looked up from the couch. Surely enough, I-Pin was there, and her tentative voice calling out for him had garnered the Mosca's attention.
"Oh my God, I-Pin!"
His arm was pulled down again, and the three were looking at him, annoyed.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Arashi hissed out, "Are you trying to get us killed?!"
"I-Pin…" Tsuna breathed out, "Oh my God, I-Pin's there!"
"Who?" Takahira questioned, eyebrows wrinkled.
"I need to save her." Tsuna ignored his question, standing up, heart thudding wildly in his chest.
Arashi and Takahira tried pulling him down again, speaking rapidly to him, ordering him to stay the fuck down or you're going to get all of us killed!, but Tsuna did not hear any of that. A mastered assassin I-Pin may be, she was still a kid, and even he doubted that I-Pin could take care of a Silver Mosca. He needed to save her. He had to save her.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Arashi's voice rose, grabbing his wrist, gripping it firmly, "I don't care if she's there—I don't want to die! Besides, what the hell can you do?! You're useless, how the fuck will you save her?!"
"Sorry to break it to you, but I don't want to die here with you!" Hinata cried, furious.
Tsuna said nothing. He could see the Mosca raising its arm, aiming it towards I-Pin—
Tsuna glanced briefly at the hand on his wrist, then at Arashi, Takahira and Hinata, all of whom were probably badmouthing him or something—he didn't care.
Arashi froze at the gaze the brunette pinned him with, voice, like Hinata's and Takahira's, trailing off uncertainly.
"Leave me." The boy ordered, his voice low, and, God knows why, Arashi did.
Arashi could have sworn that the other's eyes had turned orange. He blamed the sunlight. But then, suddenly Tsuna disappeared, and immediately a short thump followed. The three peaked over from the couch. The machine had its head ripped off from its mechanic shoulders, blue electricity sparkling out from the body. The head and body were on the ground, innocuous.
Tsuna was cradling I-Pin in his arms, reassuring himself that his surrogate sibling was well and alive. I-Pin, good at catching things fast, was hugging him back, appreciative of Tsuna.
It was then that he felt five pairs of eyes on him.
He turned, glanced at five pale, incredulous faces. Gaping at him.
Tsuna laughed awkwardly and, for the first time in his life, wished for Reborn's presence so that the hitman could shoot him through the head. But since Reborn was not there and there was no gun in his vicinity, he did the only thing he could do: he ran.
Dropping off I-Pin in his room, he explained to her that he'd be back in an hour and that she should sleep, before speeding out of his room. He learned from Spanner that Yamamoto was currently fighting off three Moscas, so he dashed towards his friend's location. Once he got there, he paused, face failing to not show exasperation. And worry.
Yamamoto was running. And laughing.
"Aw, look at them! They're so cute!" Yamamoto exclaimed, nimbly jumping over a mini rocket which promptly exploded and destroyed a wall, cement flying everywhere.
There were seven students—excluding Yamamoto and Tsuna—who were in the room, all of whom were huddled in a corner, distributing their attention between the Mosca and the baseball fanatic, wondering which one to find more terrifying.
Yamamoto, Tsuna thought with a despondent sigh, definitely Yamamoto.
"Hey, Tsuna!" Yamamoto greeted him with a laugh, unconsciously throwing a chalk towards the killing machine. Said killing machine immediately exploded and Yamamoto waved at him, a pink duster in his hand.
"Be—behind you!" Tsuna warned.
"Hm?" Yamamoto turned, slightly bewildered. Tsuna observed with fascination as Yamamoto swiftly sliced the Mosca, which had snuck up on him, with the pink duster, into three, clean pieces.
Tsuna looked at the last Mosca. It looked terrified, which was funny since it was a machine.
"So… you don't need my help?"
"Eh? With what?" Yamamoto looked genuinely bewildered. Tsuna had a feeling that Yamaoto had destroyed the two Moscas unconsciously, which should have been terrifying, but Tsuna simply found it hilarious.
He came across Gokudera next.
Gokudera was attacking his Moscas, peeved, and Tsuna suspectedthat the other was venting. His suspicion turned out to be true when he heard the bomber screamed the following, each word proceeding with a dynamite being shoved into the poor Moscas (yes, the Mosca looked nothing but poor currently), pale fingers digging, causing indentions, on the silver surfaces:
"That," shove, "stupid," shove, "baseball-freak," shove, "and," shove, "turf-top," shove, "taking," shove, "away," shove, "my," shove, "cigarettes…!" Then: "DIE, METALLIC BITCHES!"
The 'metallic bitches' did, indeed, die. Screams of the six students who had had the misfortune to see Gokudera Hayato murdering a non-living thing ensued, and Tsuna made a mental note to never mention to Gokudera that he had been the one to request 'baseball-freak' and 'turf-top' to hide the bomber's cigarettes.
Tsuna landed up in a garden next. If it weren't for the destruction of the koi pond, the complete annihilation of tiger lilies, roses and various species of plants and trees, followed by parts of three different Moscas lying about haphazardly, harmless and pathetic, the garden would have been very pretty. What the Moscas were doing in the garden, Tsuna did not know, but he had an inkling of a feeling the Hibari had chased the machines here, which would have normally been a ridiculous thought, but since Hibari was Hibari, it seemed perfectly possible.
There were ten or so students lying about (still clad in their pajamas, like the other students Tsuna had so far come across—it was five thirty in the morning, after all), tonfa marks all over their bodies.
"Ugh…" somebody moaned, "I am so sorry, Hibari… sama… for be-being… a herbivore… just don't bite me to death!"
Again, what the students were doing in the garden, Tsuna did not know and decided that he did not want to know.
Entering the room his intuition had told him to enter, Tsuna saw students with their backs against the wall, crouched and curled into a protective ball, rocking back and forth, muttering rapidly under their breaths.
"…Mukuro? Chrome?"
The room was dark, cold and scary. One of the students suddenly stood up and screamed, writhing and crying in pain.
"NOOOOOOO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?! STAY AWAY!"
"Oh my God, Chrome, Mukuro!" Tsuna exclaimed, "What are you doing to them?!"
Chrome looked at Tsuna sheepishly, "Um, they commented about Mukuro's hair and he, um…" she gesticulated helplessly at the pale, shaking, terrified students.
Kishihara—one of Tsuna's bullies, who had locked him in the school's bathroom till the next morning in his first year as a Middle School student—screamed, back arching in pain, eyes wide and unseeing.
"Where is he?" Tsuna demanded.
She pointed in Mukuro's direction.
"KUFUFUFUFUFU!" His Mist Guardian cackled madly, the Mosca that had intercepted him convulsing and writhing. How illusions could affect a machine was a bit worrisome, so Tsuna was worried.
"Mukuro!"
Surprisingly, Mukuro stopped cackling and paused, glanced at Tsuna.
"My, my, to what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Stop with the illusions! They are students!"
Mukuro raised an eyebrow, "So? That little detail does not bother me at all."
"They did not do anyth—"
"They said I resemble a pineapple!" Mukuro informed savagely.
"This is not the time to be sensitive about your hair!"
"I am not being sensitive about my—"
"Um, Mukuro-sama…?" Chrome interrupted quietly, "You are being sensitive about your hair…"
"Chrome!" Mukuro exclaimed, hurt.
"Thank you, Chrome," Tsuna said, genuinely grateful, "Now Mukuro, about the illusions…"
Mukuro glared at Tsuna and Chrome (who was smiling) and then snorted, "Fine."
The screams from the students came to an abrupt halt, their bodies relaxing. With another glare, Mukuro went back to mentally dissecting the Mosca, and Tsuna let him do that.
He did not know how he landed up in the parking lot, but he did. The parking lot had tanks in them, which was not as surprising as it should have been. There were other cars, too, ones which Tsuna knew he would never ever be able to buy in his entire life.
None of that mattered, since Ryohei was there.
"HEY SAWADA! THESE ROBOTS ARE EXTREMELY COOL!"
Sasagawa Ryohei was saying the above whilst being attacked by ninety-three mini rockets, all meant to obliterate the other. With quick footings, he somehow managed to dodge ninety two of them, the ninety third of which touched his body and immediately exploded.
"ONII-SAN!"
Ryohei emerged as if he had just not been surrounded by flames, looking, for all intents and purposes, like a male who was probably a bit mentally unstable.
"Sawada?" Ryohei asked, oblivious to the fact that he could have (if he were normal, that is) been burned to death, "You called me?"
Tsuna was just about to fall on his knees in relief, but Ryohei jerked him away from the path of an oncoming mini-missile.
"OI, YOU ALRIGHT SAWADA?"
Tsuna winced at the booming voice near his ear, "Um, yeah, I'm fine… are you alright, onii-san?"
Ryohei looked confused, "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
Tsuna did not try explaining. The Mosca charged towards them, and Ryohei dragged himself and Tsuna away from its path. They ducked behind a Maybach Exelero.
"You wait here, Sawada, I'll destroy it right away!"
Tsuna stopped him with a question, "What were you doing here in the first place, onii-san?"
"OH, AN EXTREME MORNING JOG!"
"…In the parking lot? At five in the morning?"
"YES! YOU SHOULD JOIN ME SOMETIMES TO SAWADA! BUT FIRST! I NEED TO EXTREMELY DESTROY THE MOSCA!"
Tsuna watched as Ryohei concentrated enough Sun Flames into his fist. The boxer punched the air, Sun Flames pushing forth from his fist, melting the Mosca till it resembled anything but a Mosca. Ryohei returned his attention to Tsuna and grinned. It was a very sheepish grin, and Tsuna's hand twitched. Huh. Odd. Slowly, deliberately, he got up and looked at the destruction. A groan of distress left his throat.
"LET'S GO FOR AN EXTREME JOG, SAWADA!"
During breakfast, Tsuna had somehow managed to evade Hinata's, Takahira's and Arashi's suspicion filled gaze, laughing it off by claiming that ripping the head off of a murderous, armed, agile and outright dangerous machine was nothing but a fluke(actually, it would have been kind of nice if that were the case). Nobody believed him since he pretty much sucked at lying (much to Reborn's exasperation).
Reborn, on the other hand, currently looked thoroughly amused, much to Tsuna's consternation. The hitman had what looked like a very long strip of paper in his tiny hand. Tsuna's alien of a brain cheerfully told him what it was, and Tsuna urged it to shut the hell up.
"So," Reborn said, now reading out from the paper, "the damages by Gokudera, Yamamoto, Mukuro and Hibari. Plus the mental therapy sessions fifteen of your classmates have to go through, courtesy of Chrome and Mukuro. Not to mention that Hibari destroyed the koi pond and the Vongola's garden. Gokudera blew up half of the medical wing. Ryohei created crater-sized holes—believe me, I am not exaggerating—in twenty one walls and destroyed five tanks. Yamamoto cut down two Lamborghini Venonas. And you," here Reborn paused and gave Tsuna a speculative look, "well, considering what they have done, yours is less. Really less."
Tsuna was pretty sure that Reborn was disappointed. Tsuna decided that he did not want to know why.
"Only two million for the vase you broke."
Tsuna nearly fainted. The key word being 'nearly'.
"As their Boss," Reborn continued, ignoring how Tsuna had spontaneously started hyperventilating, "you are responsible for the damages they have caused." Reborn waved the paper, and said cheerfully, "In total, thirty hundred million dollars, excluding the cost of the destroyed Silver Moscas."
Tsuna's hyperventilation increased ten folds.
"You won't ever be able to repay back to the Vongola if you don't become the Neo Vongola Primo, Dame-Tsuna."
This time Tsuna did faint. Reborn was blackmailing him now.
Great. Just… great.
MORE SUSPICION!
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