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He landed softly, headed towards the direction of his classmates, and announced:
"We're going east. I found a little wooden house over there."
Unsurprisingly, the five did not try protesting this time; Tsuna may or may not have scared the living shit out of them two hours back. They got up mutely, giving wary glances to brunette's face, half expecting him to go after their heads for whatever reasons.
Tsuna gave a worried look at the horizon—the sun was setting, the sky painted pink and orange; it would be dark soon. He breathed out a small sigh of little relief, glad that he had found that cottage. He did not want them to spend the rest of the night in the middle of the forest; it was dark, and the chances of an enemy Famiglia attacking them was certainly high.
He led the group where he had found the cottage during his little flying trip, worry easing just a bit at the sight of it. They slid down the slope, and walked cautiously towards it, half expecting people with guns to come barreling through and pointing weapons at them.
A shout of "Extreme!" reached their ears, and Tsuna grinned at the voice and the familiar word. All restriction evaporating on the spot, Tsuna pushed open the door, eyes coming in contact with an excited Ryohei talking amiably to Colonello. The Sasagawa's eyes fell on Tsuna and a cry of "SAWADA!" bubbled from the older male's lips.
"Onii-san!" Tsuna greeted back cheerfully as he entered, the six following him in.
Falco took its perch on Colonello's head as the infant greeted him.
Tsuna looked at Colonello's group who, due to the lack of a better word, looked like shit. Their faces were pale, bodies shivering, their postures reminiscent of people who had been through Hell and back. That did not matter to Tsuna; not now, at least. He had a much more important matter at hand.
"Some people attacked us," Tsuna informed Colonello and Ryohei, away from prying eyes and ears, "And Lal's fending them off. I am leaving the students with you and onii-san so that I can go and help her."
"There's no need," Colonello said, shrugging, "There's a reason why she became the COMUSBIN Boss, kora."
Tsuna shifted, "But I can't just leave her alone like that!"
"Of course you can, Sawada. Besides, I am pretty sure that she'll get pissed off for not following her orders, kora."
"But Skull got lost and she's searching for him and his team, too, and that's not good because—"
Ryohei grabbed Tsuna by his shoulders and shook him back and forth almost desperately.
"Isn't Kyoko with Skull to the extreme?!"
"Yes she is which is why I want to go!"
"I'll extremely go with you!" Ryohei sprung up immediately, "KYOKO IS THERE TO THE EXTREME!"
Tsuna nodded enthusiastically, feeling guilty. The reason, after all, why the trip had been initiated was because of Tsuna. He looked at Colonello for further confirmation.
"We'll leave the students with you then—"
Colonello interrupted, "Nope, I am going in your place, kora. Skull is there, right? Lal will kill him."
Tsuna gave him a disbelieving look, "No, I am pretty sure that you will help in killing Skull, Colonello."
Colonello scoffed, "Of course I won't, kora. Keep Falco with you, just in case. We're leaving then."
And then they left. Just like that.
Tsuna looked at the ten students scattered around the wooden house and gave a small groan of thin veiled annoyance. For some reason, everybody's eyes were fixed on him, which pretty much coerced him to look around the house, inspect every nook and cranny, eyes instinctively searching for any possible exits. There were five rooms in the upper floor—not enough beds for people to sleep on, therefore. Each room had a much needed bathroom, something which Tsuna was genuinely thankful for.
After Tsuna's more than thorough inspection, he headed back to where the other students and Alessandro were. They were chattering among themselves; no one so much as glanced at him when he entered. Tsuna sat beside Alessandro on one of the chairs, glancing outside the window and coming to the knowledge that the sun had already set, the surrounding blanketed with thick darkness.
The animals took their usual perch on various parts of the brunette's body.
"Hey," he greeted.
"Hello, Deci—" Alessandro paused at Tsuna's discomfort before continuing, "Tsuna."
Tsuna smiled a bit, his thanks unspoken.
"Lal Mirch is one piece of work," Alessandro commented mildly.
Tsuna laughed, "Yep, that she is. She can get scary at times."
Alessandro shuddered, feeling his palms getting clammy.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed Tsuna stiffening. He gazed at the teen worriedly, but the brunette paid him no attention, staring, intently, it seemed, into thin air. Tsuna sat up from his chair immediately, the furniture clattering on the wooden floor underneath, the sudden noise silencing none.
"I'm coming in a minute," Tsuna announced hastily, softly, and then dashed up the stairs.
He did come, in less than a minute, eyes wide and urgent.
"Get out!" he yelled over the chattering and injured students, "Get out of here and run!"
People ignored him, but five familiar students stiffened at the voice.
"GET OUT!"
The raised voice made all ten eyes turn to him, but none heeded the warning. Arashi, feeling courage rushing through his veins at the presence of five more people, bit out:
"We won't listen to you, Dame-Tsuna. Give up."
"Nobody here will," Hinata pointed out, "We might have heeded you then, but that was different."
"What do you mean?" a boy from Colonello's group asked, "You actually listened to him?"
Takahira scoffed, "We had to. This guy," he jabbed his thumb at Tsuna, "was 'ordering' us. Or trying to, at any rate."
Laughter sprung up in the children's midst, "You're kidding me! Trying to act all high and mighty, isn't he?"
Tsuna's eyebrow twitched. The insults he did not give a fuck about; their lives, on the other hand he did. His voice rang out, sharp and clear, leaving no room for arguments, anger radiating from his form with surprising ease.
"You will be getting out of here, you hear me?"
A beat of silence.
Children literally fought to exit the house, haste in their actions, unwarranted screams of fear ripping their throats.
With people crowding the front door, Tsuna preferred exiting through the window. He landed, throwing his body on the ground to prevent injuries to his feet, rolling and coming to a stop.
"Run!" Tsuna ordered once he had sprung back to his feet, allowing the students to get further from the house before following. Shit, he thought to himself, there isn't enough time!
As if to mock him, the house chose this as the perfect moment to blow up into smithereens. With the students behind him, Tsuna quickly set up condensed Soft Flames around, its form that of a half-dome, protecting all of them, including a gaping Alessandro. He vaguely felt eyes—those belonging to the students—on him, but he decided to worry about that later. The force of the explosion made him grit his teeth, feet digging into the ground below, recalcitrance not allowing him to give up.
It paid off, thankfully, and when only fire remained in place of the cottage and no pressure would send them reeling backwards, Tsuna dropped the shield. He breathed out a sigh of relief and glanced at the students behind him.
Resisting the need to give out a long drawn groan at their obvious incredulity, Tsuna decided to get one thing clear because Tsuna could be stubborn when he wanted to be, especially when their lives were on the line. Eyes turning orange, his shoulders relaxed, the stance of someone used to shit like this, someone who had survived compromising situations with a cool head.
"Everything I say, you will listen. Everything I order you to do, you will do. No questions, no arguments. Is that clear?"
Eleven heads nodded vigorously at his command, blood retracting itself from their faces.
"Good," Tsuna nodded appreciatively, eyes reverting back to brown, wide and innocent. He shook his head to remove the inevitable headache, and announced, "There is a little clearing by the river from here; I saw it while searching for the cottage. I know where it is, so follow me."
People nodded their heads again and obediently followed. They finallyreached the destination and Tsuna, during their walk, noticed how shaken Alessandro looked. It took him some time to figure out why and, when he did, Tsuna wasn't quite sure what to do about it.
If his family—or Famiglia, in Alessandro's case, Tsuna was sure—were to betray him, leave him to be burned to death, Tsuna was sure that he'd be pretty shaken up, too.
No tents could be set up since the required materials had been blown up with the cottage, but Tsuna was glad than some considerate classmate of his had had enough of an opportunity and intelligence to grab blankets—sixteen of them—on her way out.
"I'll be keeping a lookout. You guys should go to sleep."
"Yeah, right," a boy snorted from Tsuna's left, "I don't think I will feel safe with you—"
He was silenced by a sharp look from Tsuna, a squeak of "Sorry!" leaving his lips as he busied himself by huddling up with a blanket, inching as far away as was possible from Tsuna.
After making sure that everybody was lying down and would remain lying down, Tsuna sat by the river with a little huff, Oodako taking his place on Tsuna's left, snuggling close to him. Lichi and Hibird were huddled together on top of his head as Falco took her perch on Tsuna's shoulder.
"Hey," Tsuna called out to Alessandro, who was staring into the river, expression blank but hurt, "are you alright?"
Alessandro glanced at him and gave a forced smile that Tsuna easily saw through, "I'm fine, Tsuna."
Tsuna frowned subtly, replying back in Italian, "You don't seem fine, though."
The man laughed and, for some reason, scooted closer to Tsuna. If Tsuna were taller, they would have been shoulder to shoulder.
"Shock," the man said simply as a manner of reply.
Tsuna was careful not to mention what he knew, not accepting the reply but not mentioning that either. Tsuna was a great listener, not that great of a talker (which was a lie, but Tsuna was insanely modest like that). He should be angry, a part of Tsuna realized, but it was odd how he couldn't feel himself to be. He didn't know why.
Maybe it was because the alien brain of his had mysteriously informed him that Alessandro wasn't a bad guy.
"Hey Tsuna?"
"Hm?"
"When I said those things about Xanxus, you were angry, right? Didn't Xanxus try to kill you? Yet you called him 'family'."
"I did, didn't I?" Tsuna gave a short laugh, "But it's true, y'know? There have been so many people after my head, that I have almost lost count. But," he continued, twirling a grass blade in between his fingers, "everybody needs a family. I was pretty lonely before I met Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto, so I know how important friends and family are. It's just," he smiled softly at Alessandro, "when nobody's there for you, your family sticks with you till the end. Family is everything." Tsuna paused and reddened, realizing how cheesy that probably sounded, "Um, that was maybe a bit pretentious, but that's how I feel, so…"
Tsuna paused and looked at a contemplative Alessandro, "What about you? Don't you have a family?"
Alessandro blinked and shook his head, "No, I don't. I thought I did, but…" he sighed, getting up, "Good night, Decimo."
"Good night."
As Alessandro left to sleep and Tsuna continued to look at the river with animals cuddled close to him, ten people thought the same thing simultaneously.
Dame-Tsuna knows Italian?
It started with a small rustle, but it woke Tsuna up immediately.
Little whines and small bark like noises followed, and Tsuna's hands hurried to the mittens.
"Get up! Everyone, get up!" his voice was a mere whisper, but, somehow, it woke everyone up, eyes red and lids partially closed with sleep. Tsuna's eyes swept over everything, taking in the students' bleary and irritated gazes briefly. A bush to Arashi's right rustled again, and Tsuna reflexively sent a streak of Flames towards it.
"Oh my God, how the hell did that happen?!" Arashi and a few others shrieked, rushing away from the burning bush.
Tsuna could have answered that, but didn't. The burning bush whined, and something which was pink and fluffy and adorable and… burning spilled out.
Tsuna blinked as the creature danced on its feet and then rolled about in a morbidly cute manner. The fire disappeared, and what was left was the… animal. Creature. Thing.
But it was adorable, anyway.
"Dame-Tsuna, how could you?!" Hanabi said in horror, scooting towards the little creature, "I never expected you to be so cruel!"
She raised her hand towards the pink thing's head. The pink thing tilted its head to one side, staring inquisitively at the extended limb, and Tsuna could feel his whole body freezing.
"No! Shit, don't touch it!"
Takahira guffawed, "Don't tell me you're scared of such a cute thing? My God, I knew you are terrified of Chihuahuas, Dame-Tsuna, but this is too much!"
"Of course I am not scared!" Tsuna said truthfully, "But you guys should be! Listen, they travel in packs okay? And they are dangerous—"
He was cut off by a shriek from Hanabi. The animal—named kweler— had started transforming, teeth growing longer and sharper, ready to snap necks. Its muscles grew, becoming stronger, bones growing in length till it easily reached an average fifteen-year-old's waist. Eyes turning a viscous red, it snarled and Tsuna looked at a pale and shaking Takahira meaningfully.
"See what I mean?"
Takahira did not nod. Nobody did, in fact, not even Hanabi who had darted away from the animal towards the group of students, eyes wide.
Tsuna looked at the ten or so prowling Kwelers—nine of them had appeared out of God-knew-where— in exasperation. Really, he had enough of them in the Death Mountain in Namimori.
"Fire," he explained, perfectly calm, "They are terrified of fire."
"How do we get that?" Kaneda asked in a soft voice, shifting closer to the circle of students.
"Well, I can arrange that," Tsuna explained, "I can distract them, too. And while I will be doing that, run, okay?"
"Di-Distract?" a shaky voice spoke up, "Ho-How—"
"I have my methods," Tsuna shrugged, "Alessandro, take them and Oodako with yourself. When I tell you to run, run."
He did not wait for nods of confirmation, calmly taking ten steps forward till he was waist to eye with one kweler, a distance of about three feet in between them.
"Close your eyes," Tsuna instructed.
"Huh?" Eleven voices questioned.
"Close your eyes."
"What the hell, why should we—"
"Just close your eyes," Tsuna repeated, his voice commanding.
Eleven eyes closed abruptly, and Tsuna allowed a ball of Sky Flames to form in his right palm, making it grow brighter and brighter till it illuminated the whole forest, a mini-sun among their midst. The kwelers whined, and Tsuna, taking the pain and the distraction as an opportunity, kicked two Kwelers fluidly, allowing his ball of Flame to dim considerably. The kwelers, sensitive to noise and feel, turned to him with closed eyes.
"RUN!"
Arashi ran as of his life depended on it (which it did, as sad as it was), following Alessandro, the students following close behind him. On a normal day, he would have questioned the bright light that had almost blinded him, but today definitely wasn't normal.
He didn't know how long he had been running, but when he glanced back to glance at where Tsuna was on his own, possibly fending off kwelers or being eaten by them, he saw something small, orange-ish and yellow-ish and looking vaguely like a tiny lion darting up from the trees. Howls of pain followed, and Arashi knew that they did not belong to Tsuna.
It made him wonder what the fuck Tsuna was doing there, especially when that region suddenly and mysteriously caught fire.
Tsuna arrived, emerging from a thicket of bushes, uninjured. He joined them and continued running.
"We need to get out of here fast. I have injured a few, but they are fast healers. And stubborn. Like, mind-bogglingly stubborn. They've never lost their prey, and possibly never will. We need to get to safety."
"P-prey…?" a soft voice inquired, panting with exhaustion.
Tsuna glanced at the student and nodded. She gulped, and so did several others.
"There's a reason why this mountain means Death Mountain, you know," Tsuna explained.
Arashi hadn't known that. If he had, he wouldn't have come to this Hell hole in the first place.
"Watch out—!"
Arashi felt something sticky draping over him. There were squeaks of disgust and then cries of fear; when Arashi tried to move his head to see why, he realized that he couldn't move his head. A slow paralysis was painlessly spreading through his entire being as he heard several hissing noises.
More screams followed the sibilance, and Arashi finally understood why, failing to open his mouth and scream in terror.
A spider. Five feet long. Crawling along a spider web towards them—towards him.
The screams started dying, and as Arashi strained his eyes, he realized that everyone, with the exception of Tsuna, was stuck to the spider web, spider silk cocooning every part of their bodies with the exception of their faces. The spider was near now, ready to sink its fangs—or something—into his face, suck out the blood, leave him shriveled and anemic and dead and—
Tsuna took in the space between him and the gigantic creature, and Arashi was surprised how it stopped.
"Don't you dare touch him," Tsuna's voice cold and horrifying, and Arashi could feel his heart's rate increase.
It was because of fear, he knew, but not because of fear of the spider.
He was terrified of Tsuna, who looked powerful now, strength easily rolling from his frame, an orange glow—like a second skin, aura—sending a thrum of energy and pressure all around the forest, and Arashi suddenly found himself chokingon it; he couldn't breathe.
And underlying all the fear, he felt an odd sense of acceptance.
The spider, terrified and wishing that it had never come across Tsuna, scurried away.
Tsuna breathed out a sigh of relief and glanced briefly at Arashi, eyes reverting back to brown. He touched the spider web lightly, orange flames coming to life. It started eating the fine silk, the method surprisingly graceful as Tsuna began explaining:
"The silk's mildly poisonous. It paralyzes you. Don't ask me why that spider did not cover the others' head; I have no idea."
Arashi watched with fascination as the fire ate away the cocoon around the other students' body, not harming them in any manner or form like one would have expected flames to, fizzling out of existence once the task was completed.
"Can you guys stand up?" Tsuna asked after fifteen minutes, and heads nodded in confirmation, bodies slowly and shakily picking themselves up, "Good. We need to get out of here right now—"
He did not complete the sentence, throwing himself in front of Alessandro, pushing the Italian back. A kweler, jumping from a bush, sank its teeth into Tsuna's shoulders.
"Fuck," Tsuna cursed.
Screams erupted from the standing students.
"Calm down," Tsuna ordered, "Get out of here, okay? I'll handle this one. The rest are nowhere nearby—I must have not hurt this one properly." Even while trying to pry the creature from his frame, Tsuna continued speaking calmly, blood now easily flowing from the wound, "Take Lichi, Hibird, Oodako and Falco with you, Alessandro."
The kweler growled, feet now clawing Tsuna's chest, scraping the skin with ease.
"RUN!" Tsuna commanded, and it was immediately followed.
He had lost too much blood.
"Reborn's gonna kill me if he finds me like this," Tsuna thought humorlessly, using his right palm to find the under belly of the kweler.
Apparently understanding what Tsuna was intending to do, the kweler leaped away before Tsuna sent a burst of Sky Flames. It landed on the ground, growling.
Tsuna grimaced, clutching his shoulder in mild exasperation. He could easily escape this situation, he knew, but kwelers were a tough bunch. Extremely fast healers, only death prevented them from running after their prey over and over again. If Tsuna wanted to get out, he knew that he had to kill the creature.
Problem was, Tsuna didn't want to kill it.
So what if he was too soft hearted for his own good? Screw him.
"Garh, I so blame Reborn for this!"
He felt woozy. Everything looked blurry.
And then a burst of Rain Flames came out of nowhere, pinning the kweler easily and Tsuna, startled, looked up. A form landed half a foot from the kweler, sending another burst of Rain Flames towards the creature. The kweler, easily realizing that it would be impossible to fight and win against this particular opponent, turned around and ran away with its tail tucked in between its legs.
The unknown form swiveled to see him and a happy smile broke Tsuna's lips, mind connecting the stranger's identity. He said:
"Basil!"
And fainted.
What do you think? The end's nearing, and I hope you guys liked this chapter.
Please leave a review on your way out!