Chapter 24: I Used to Sing of Smiles and Happiness

"…Reconstruct her bones…fully healed…Had to put her into an induced coma for two days."

Extracts of the conversation had flown into Tsuna's ear. However, she had only just risen to consciousness; her brain still could not process much of the information that was running from the mouths of the doctors to those fancy-people-in-suits that she probably did not know. Or maybe she could, but Tsuna was too hazy to tell who was there, what was happening and how the hell she had ended up in a foreign place.

Then she remembered the two spiteful women from her past. Mentally shuddering, she opened her eyes, only to have herself blinded again by the harsh white light that surrounded her.

"Oi, oi! She's awake!" Another unfamiliar voice piped in. It sounded a lot less grave than the rest and resounded with a cheerful bounce.

"Quiet, Dino! She's just risen."

This time, the voice sounded vaguely recognizable. Tsuna knew for sure she had met this man at least one, but she did not remember where. Forcing her eyes open, she looked around her – or at least as far as she could see from her position in bed. By her side was a buff blonde man in a black suit, standing with his back hunched and hands in his pocket.

Tsuna did know that man. She remembered him – was it from the party? She was pretty sure it was. Then again, memory was never her forte. The next person she saw was a complete stranger. The first thing she noted about him – he definitely was foreign. She could not guess much else about the man, having never set much foot outside of Japan. (However, globalization had made it impossible to pass a day without seeing another person of a different nationality, so being in Japan was probably as good as being anywhere else, Tsuna thought.) He was of above-average stature, maybe slightly shorter than Yamamoto was. He sported blonde hair, a few shades darker than the buff man who stood by her bed.

"Rise and shine, princess!" said he.

"Dino!"

Ah, so now Tsuna knew his name. "Dino" walked off to pour something – she could tell by the trickling sound of the water.

"Here, your throat must be yearning for some of this stuff," he offered, handing Tsuna a cup of warm water. It was then and there Tsuna took notice of the dry and itching feeling that ravaged her throat, so she snatched the water up eagerly and downed it in one sitting.

"Whoa, easy there," Dino said kindly, taking back the empty cup and setting it on the table.

"Thank you," Tsuna gasped. That was pretty terrible, she thought. She raised her right hand, but found absolutely no sign of damage there. Wriggling her fingers around a bit, she dropped it and sighed.

"It was in a pretty terrible shape when Kyouya brought you here, y'know. I've seen much worse, so you should really thank your lucky stars!"

Tsuna did not want to think what would have happened if Hibari did not step in. Her body might have been in mangled pieces, at best. Those grunts looked pretty awful, after all.

"Anyway, you should take a bit more of a rest, the effects of the anesthetic was pretty strong after all. There are some unwarranted side effects you might experience, but don't worry! They're just for a bit…"

Dino's voice trailed off as Tsuna started to realize as her eyelids grew heavier. Her world swirled around her.

Oh boy. Side effects, how wonderful.

"Ah, there she goes," Dino said as Tsuna's head fell back into her soft pillow.

The next time Tsuna awoke, her surroundings were completely dark – pitch black. For a moment, she felt as though she was floating in emptiness. There was no window in the room, so not even the moonlight could soothe her confused mind.

"What happened?" she whispered to herself. Well, she was awake now – and breathing and living, so nothing exceptionally bad could have happened.

"Shh," a voice came from her side. Two hands pushed her back into the bed, pinning her body down.

"Good morning, midget," came the perpetrator's voice.

Predicting that Tsuna would send out a loud yelp of sorts, his hands clasped down on her mouth, preventing her from saying anything more. He dropped a cold and heavy trinket on her chest, then moved away to be seated in a chair close to her bed.

"Mukuro-san?" Tsuna whispered.

She could have sworn she almost saw his cat-like eyes glow menacingly, though for all she knew, it was probably just her imagination again. They looked mischievous and cunning, as though he was plotting some part of a great, disastrous plan.

Or it was just her imagination. Again.

Tsuna involuntarily drew herself back into the bed, flipping her head away from Mukuro. She then raised her now repaired hand to feel the object that he had put on her.

"What's this?" she breathed softly.

"You were looking at it in the market today, were you not?" Mukuro sighed nonchalantly. "You seemed rather enthralled by it, to the point you lost your peers… "

Sure enough, Tsuna ran her fingers along the contours of the delicate trinket. It was indeed in the shape of a heart, and she could also feel the engraved patterns that she had spotted on the object earlier on.

"I can't accept this, Mukuro-san!"

"Do me a favour by accepting it," he said.

"…"

"Moreover - …"

Shifting again. This time, Tsuna was stunned as she felt another knee come into contact with hers through the blanket, hands situated on either side of her cheeks – breaths inhaled and exhaled right by her neck. Mukuro was far too close for her comfort. Tsuna quickly raised her hands and tried to push Mukuro's shoulders away. She kicked her legs hard, desperate to inch away from him. In her violent movements, the ornament fell onto the ground, and a loud sound could be heard.

She felt a pair of fingers on her nape. In an instant, she stopped moving, shivering with fear; the room became still and silent.

The room is pitch black – how does he know? The scar –

"The scar here," Mukuro said. He no longer bothered to talk gently any more. Instead, his voice sounded deeper, harsher – more urgent, as though he were craving something and it would be imperative that he had to get it.

"It's just… something I got from the accident…"

"Oh, really now? And you're going to take that story and eat it because you can continue your perfect, carefree life unwrought by troubles no pettier than - …"

"You're wrong!" Tsuna screamed in an outburst. She did not know what overcame her, but for a moment she felt intense rage, and an inability to forgive Mukuro for misunderstanding her, for thinking her life was so easy.

And she knew for one, that those were emotions that she had never harbored before. Those emotions were not hers. They weren't hers. They weren't hers. They weren't –

"I-I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean to, I mean, I don't know what ha-happened - …"

A large thud could be heard by the door, followed by sounds of cracking.

"Someone's listening to us," Mukuro said. He drew away nimbly, and retreated to god-knows-where. Tsuna could not tell in the absolute darkness of the room, and Mukuro left no sounds of footsteps.

A flash of bright lights greeted her, assaulting her eyes that had yet to adjust to the new atmosphere. At the doorway stood Dino, a tinge of worry on his face.

"Oi, are you alright? Tsuna-san?"

"Tsuna? Tsu – "

He felt himself being flung backwards, next to the door that had just slid shut. Hitting the ground, he slipped across the smooth flooring, ending up in a lump by the wall. In his blurry vision, he saw a pair of legs walk up and tap a few buttons on the door, locking it tight.

"Who are you?" Dino questioned, his head (and behind) still throbbing from the impact.

"Tsuna," she replied.

There was something different about her – her brown eyes had grown brighter. Maybe they were even golden. They burned with sort of ferocity that he had never seen before.

"This…" Dino stood up, pulling out his weapon of choice – a simple black whip. He could not hurt Tsuna – or whatever had possessed Tsuna, but he could restrain her.

"Don't try," 'Tsuna' said as she jumped up, attempting to pounce on Dino. Dino flung his whip in her direction, but alas, Tsuna was too fast. She grabbed the whip and tugged it, her strength pulling Dino forward.

In the end, the pair landed on the ground, Tsuna seated right on top of Dino, being the one to restrain him instead.

"Who are you?"

"The abandoned," Tsuna said, placing her palm right below his throat.

"You are the perpetrator," she said in a conclusive tone, "I will have to eliminate you."

"Perpetrator? Wait – I heard shouting and a loud bang – "

'Tsuna' inched her face forward, to the extent that her nose almost touched Dino's. Her eyes narrowed as she looked into his, as though she was trying to make a certain kind of judgment about him.

"So? Who are you?"

"Natsusa."

"What have you done to Tsuna? Tell me exactly, who are you?" Dino urgently whispered to her through clenched teeth. He broke his hands free, intending to get a grasp on Natsusa's shoulders. He was no match for her – she quickly raised her own, taking his hands in hers. She possessed amazing strength, and Dino had found out the hard way when she pushed his hands down with ease, knocking his elbows against the hard floor.

"You could say I'm a self-defense mechanism," she said, her tone mocking and haughty, "probably more effective than your security. That Mukuro disabled all cameras within vicinity, and it's taking quite a bit of time for them to realize, no?"

"H-hey, I never got any data about - …"

"And what right have you to question my existence, Mr Dino?" her voice teetered with hints of anger now, and her ferocious golden eyes bore right into his own.

"Guh…" Dino struggled to break free of her grip, which continually tightened.

"It's because of you people. You are all the same! Trying to be Prometheus eh?" Natsusa's fringe covered her eyes as her body shook.

"You bastards. You bastards - you all took away my two lives! You took away meaning, every single time, clearing and resetting! Let me tell you this – I am no computer. I am no tool. I hope your greed consumes you; I hope it burns you – and your souls, if you have any left – I hope they all melt. I hope you suffer an eternity of shame! "

"What the fuck - …."

"You took away my two lives. Do not deny me my third," she finally ended. Her body ceased to shake, and Natsusa lifted her head. Through her fringe, Dino could see the eerie glint that she shot his way.

"Well then, Mr Dino. May I sing you a final song?"

Hibari walked along the dimly lit corridors, with absolutely no aim in particular.

She was supposed to be dead.

Traditionally, dead people stayed dead – who the hell was Tsuna? Some devil sent from hell to torment him, quite possibly. Maybe to remind him of his guilt, his faults – the day she died. He had not even seen that – only her ashes, pitifully packed into little grey shelves because, oh, the world was running out of space – cemeteries had to be cleared to make way for developments.

"Shit," he muttered to himself. That day he swore he would detach himself from the world, but so far, he was not too successful at it. He blamed himself for his weaknesses, easily getting angry, easily frustrated – even when he smiled, he meant is sarcastically. Not even powerful challenges could quell his excitement for blood – a hobby that he had picked up in attempts to detach himself anyway.

Subconsciously, Hibari found his way to the entrance of Tsuna's ward. Just great, even his mind, in a state of confusion and frenzy, could lead him to a perfect spot. That was when he heard a loud clacking sound of something falling to the ground.

"…Scar…"

He heard it – the bastard's voice. Was Rokudo Mukuro not satisfied until he hounded anyone that he liked, to the point that he drove others to insanity? Hibari leaned against the wall of the narrow corridor, eavesdropping on the conversation, even though he did not want to admit that he was doing such a thing.

It was when Hibari heard Tsuna's quivering voice that he acted up – she sounded so alike to that person of the past. A few of his hairs stood on its ends, and he drew a tonfa quickly. He did not want to directly interfere with Mukuro for now – he did not want to admit that he was protecting her.

"Damn it!" he whispered, driving the tonfa into the wall. It created a loud enough sound – someone would come soon, probably Dino or that other Sawada. Quickly, Hibari retreated as soon as he heard frantic footsteps echo through the narrow pathway.

Damn it.

A/N: Sigh.

I'm falling deeper into plot(holes). Probably.