Chapter 22: Brief Normality

"Grocery! Grocery! Grocery shop-ping!" Haru cheered as she marched along the stone path that sat in between rows of shops. There was a cacophony of sounds – Haru's out of tune singing, buyers bargaining and sellers shouting. To make things worse (for Tsuna's headache, at least), each shop had loud, obtrusive holographic billboards flashing right in her face. The chaos of intense colours battled each other to catch every potential customer's attention, and the discordance did nothing to help her burgeoning headache.

Bluebell walked beside Tsuna with her light blue hair, for once, neatly tied in a long ponytail. It swung from side to side as she cheerfully sauntered down the road, making sure she took a good look at what every store had to offer.

To Tsuna's right, was the (thankfully) saner, less excited I-Pin, who took on grocery shopping as a very important task.

"Are you sure it's okay to be skipping school today?" Tsuna turned to her right, trying her best to ignore the two batty women who kindly took to accompanying the pair.

"It's okay, yeah! Today is mostly self-study, and we're short on money this month," I-Pin said.

"Alright, then. I wonder, why of all times now, for the delivery system to break down," Tsuna pondered.

"Technical issues. And then somehow, there have been fewer and fewer maids at the mansion. Most of our employers don't perpetually stay there; we probably didn't need so much manpower in the first place. I guess cost-cutting would be most efficient for a place that doubles up as a holiday house and an occasional work space."

Tsuna nodded. I-Pin quickly diverted her attention to a shop which had extremely fresh and large vegetables on sale.

"There's a law, isn't there? That every employer has to hire a certain percentage of human workers instead of employing something supposedly absolutely reliable like robots. Trying to prevent massive unemployment. Hey, do you sometimes think that… those maids aren't actually human? I've seen them – they've never talked to me all the time I worked here, and they have a certain void air about them…"

"Not human? Then what, homunculi?" Tsuna chortled, "They're human alright. Whispering, giving me weird looks…but I never seem to be able to talk to them either."

Tsuna paid for the vegetables while I-Pin carefully slotted them into their shopping bag.

"Oi! Over here!" Haru chirped from a distance as she hopped up and down. She made huge waving actions with her hands, eventually knocking into the forehead of some poor lady.

"Oops, heh!"

Tsuna smiled wryly.

"I don't think I want to know her for this moment, even if she's indirectly my boss."

"Agreed."

They both tried to avoid eye contact with Haru and Bluebell, as they bumbled through the market in awe of absolutely everything they saw. They were probably the technophiles, never having done anything apart from using the latest gadgets.

Markets like these were scarce – for everything else, there were giant supermarkets owned by big companies – however, neither novelty nor commercialization could take away the uniqueness of markets. It was places like this that one could get absolutely – and not chemically-genetically-wonderfully-whatever-ly modified fresh food, but a more natural, fresher produce, in which you could guarantee there were not as many additives added to your food to make it look appetizing even after three weeks on the shelf. Typically, it could not be said that these shops did not use chemicals to grow their crops –they were bound to need it, especially for growing crops in seasons like winter. At least they abstained from using copious amounts of the stuff; still, the price of less artificially maintained food was ridiculous at times.

"Wow, look at this crystal!" Bluebell peered down at a crystallized heart that was put on display in a souvenir shop. They had since finished getting their groceries, and proceeded to a different section of the market. There were a variety of goods sold here – from clothes to ornaments to newfangled electronics.

The crystallized heart was rather elaborately carved, especially on the inside. Tsuna could see tiny baubles moving in sync with a pair of gears. A clockwork heart? Well, that was adorable. Her interest and attention towards to heart dissipated almost instantly as she spied her regularly visited bookshop from the peripheral vision of her eye. She recalled the unfortunate incident with Yamamoto, and wondered if she should chance another rare visitation. Risky, since she was with three people now. She shook her head.

"Eh?"

All of a sudden, Tsuna found herself alone. Haru, Bluebell and I-Pin had long integrated into a crowd of people. A mentally resounding crap ran through Tsuna's mind. Well, her panic soon faded as she figured she could just get back to the mansion on her own. I-Pin had the groceries, so instead of idling in the market, Tsuna decided that she would just make her way back immediately.

She carefully navigated herself against the wave of people moving in the opposite direction, often having to twist her body to the side and walk sideways to get across.

"Oof," she grunted, as she stumbled out of the crowd five minutes later. She wiped off a few imaginary drops of perspiration, took in a long breath and began to walk again.

"Oh, look who it is," a shrill voice rang out in the air, followed by a lower-pitched giggle. Annoyance flooded back into Tsuna's head as she recalled who the voices belonged to.

Miyoshi Haruno and Inagaki Hirame.

Perfect timing, after so many years of not having to see them.

She turned around to face the pair – the pair whom she quite clearly remembered to be her tormentors in high school. Not that the entire school already tormented her, but this pair made it a point to make her entire high school life as miserable as humanly possible. Tsuna, being Tsuna, managed to shrug off most of it – but sometimes the bullying could verge on the point of the absolutely unthinkable, and the downright perverse.

Miyoshi Haruno was slightly taller; she had long legs, a perfectly slim figure and a pretty face. It seemed, Tsuna observed, that she made it a point to immediately dye her hair blonde as soon as she graduated. Her short hair was aligned along the contour of her round face; she had somehow made her eyelashes long and thick, accentuating her doll-like eyes. As you could guess, she was every boy's dream back in high school – the stereotypical beauty.

Inagaki Hirame was slightly less appealing to the eye, though she was still, on accounts of most standards, pretty. A little stubbier, she had black shoulder length hair and narrower eyes than Miyoshi. She put on excessive amounts of make-up over her face; Tsuna had to try to keep herself from laughing. She thought that Inagaki could pass off as a clown perfectly.

What these two had in the looks department they utterly lacked in their moral standards. They were vile and malicious, and Tsuna had made it a point to keep the hell out of their way the moment she graduated. Her plan did not work out in the end, sadly.

"Ah, poor useless Tsuna. Nothing but a lowly maid!" Miyoshi scoffed. Inagaki shot her a condescending glare, and Tsuna involuntarily shrunk back.

"Well, I'm actually working for my own money," Disgusting gold-diggers, she mentally tagged on at the end of her sentence.

Both of them actually looked offended at the statement. Well, not that it was untrue. They had sought rich boyfriends back in high school, hoping that he would answer to their every whim and fancy.

Miyoshi bared her fangs – well, teeth, but she was no better than a vixen – she stepped forward, and soon the difference in height became obvious to Tsuna. Of course, a thousand inch stilettos. Once upon a time, she wondered what was so entrancing about those torture devices disguised as fashion.

With a push, Tsuna was sent flying backwards onto the concrete ground. She yelled out in pain as she felt the hard land connect with her back. By then, a small crowd had formed to look at the commotion, though it dispersed as quickly as it had formed, seeing as it was just a little scuffle.

"What did you say, bitch?" Miyoshi shrieked.

"I said, I am not an indolent, incompetent sloth," Tsuna retorted.

What the hell are you doing? Why are you just arguing back like that? Just ignore it, just take it, just make sure they don't hurt me, just make sure they don't hurt me, just make sure they... Apparently, Tsuna's instincts of self-preservation had decided to break off from her steadily growing rage.

It was then Miyoshi screamed. Tsuna plugged her ears with her two fingers, and even Inagaki did the same.

"How dare you, you insolent wrench!" Miyoshi stepped forward, and Tsuna could recognize the stance.

She was about to be slapped, and hard. She pinched her eyes shut, bracing herself for the impact.

And it came – a stinging, burning wound to the side of her face. Inagaki gasped, and then nervously giggled.

"You'll learn never to say that again!"

Tears started to form in Tsuna's eyes as the pain spread across to the entire side of her face.

"Guh," she muttered softly. Her eyes were still shut, and she cupped her cheek, hoping that it would relieve a bit of pain and also hide her tears. That would only serve to satisfy them even more.

Miyoshi smiled. There was a sort of maniacal glint in her eyes. She grabbed Tsuna by the wrist and tugged her up onto her feet.

"Our meeting today was no coincidence," she breathed into Tsuna's ear.

What did she mean?

Inagaki went to her other side and took her other hand, although a little less roughly. Maybe Inagaki sympathized with her pitiful state.

Miyoshi lead the way out of the market and into a more secluded alleyway. It was disturbingly dark, even though it was noon and the sun was still high. She found herself tossed into melting black snow. Her captor sinisterly glared down on her with an intimidating smirk.

"Ujisuke! Ryuuji! We got the target," she called out.

Two buff musclemen approached from the shadows.

"This one right?" she scoffed. She walked up to the side of where Tsuna's arm lay.

"Before you take her," Miyoshi said.

She raised her leg and brought it down upon Tsuna's right hand, stiletto, heel and all. Tsuna howled as she heard a sickening crunch, and pain immediately travelled from her palm to her arm. She could feel warm blood leaking out. She gave a few ragged coughs, nausea rising to her head.

"This'll teach you," Miyoshi sneered, "take her, boys."

Just as the two burly men approached the whimpering, limp figure on the ground, a shadow leaped from the top of the walls. Cold, steel tonfas met the heads of the two men, bringing them to a quick demise.

There, Hibari stood, majestic as a lion in his battle stance. He spared a glance towards Tsuna, and then back at the women.

"Hah! You think you can beat us with such old weapons?" Inagaki's eyes widened. She was desperate – she knew the intensity of the bloodlust of the man, and she could see by the quick deaths of her companions.

Miyoshi had stealthily drawn a gun. She had put all her faith in the gun – of course, her bullets could rip through anythi-

"Aagh!" a contorted scream emerged from her mouth. Barbed wires shot out from the ends of Hibari's tonfas and tightened themselves around Miyoshi's wrists. He gave a final tug and the sharp ends dug into her flesh, fresh blood spilling out. The wires then detached themselves as Miyoshi fell to the ground.

"Roll."

Inagaki had tried to run out from the alley, but Roll began to grow in size, blocking her only path of escape. The pricks on its back slowly morphed into sharp metal lances, capable of impaling anyone who found themselves in an unfortunate position. As Roll grew, he seemingly multiplied; more hedgehogs emerged from the tips of some of the lances, and grew in size as well, until they formed a massive, deadly wall.

Tsuna then realized- they were not pets.

They were weapons.

Hibari did the same to Inagaki – the painful binding – and left the two women writhing in pain on the ground, unable to move their hands. Their wrists were tightly bound at the back. The last thing that Tsuna saw before passing out was the shadow of Hibari approaching her.

"Yes, Byakuran-sama," Bluebell spoke into the tiny device attached to her ear. It was a phone – but no one could tell that one had it, or was speaking into it, as it as small enough to be installed right above the lobe of the ear.

"I've done it. Tampered with the m

ansion's delivery systems…lured the girl out," she spoke softly into her device. She twirled her hair and leaned to the side.

"And results?" Byakuran purred from the other side.

"I lost my communications with the people I hired. Most likely dead, I presume. But don't worry, my lord. They won't get away so easily,"

"That's my Bluebell," Byakuran half-laughed.

"I have a question, Byakuran-sama."

"What is it?"

"I do not doubt your actions, but why do you call upon Mukuro to capture the girl, but ask me to do the same, and by force?"

"Ah, young Bluebell. You have much to learn. We always have to have a plan B. If we can't seize the girl by force, then we'll seize her by the heart. Well then Bluebell, keep up the good work."

"Yes, Byakuran-sama."

The line on the other end cut off, leaving empty silence in its place. Bluebell got off her sofa.

"I'll definitely get you, and make Byakuran-sama happy."

A/N: Congratulations to a certain someone who finished her exams.