Winner of the second round is none other than Hibari Kyouya! (Although Ryohei came pretty damn close…)
As always, reviewers? Made of win. So much win. Thank you!
In other news, I am somewhat shocked at the fact that I'm actually managing to get one of these out around once a week! Holy crap, I may actually FINISH something!
…I just jinxed it, didn't I?
Hibari Kyouya
1.
The year Chrome Dokuro accidentally catches Hibari under the mistletoe is the only time he actually goes through with the tradition rather than biting the poor victim to death with his beloved tonfa.
He spends the experience swearing to hunt down and slaughter Rokudo Mukuro for his uncanny choice in host. Even Hibari takes some issue with the thought of abusing a girl already missing one eye and half her internal organs.
(Little does he know that this kiss is one of the few things Chrome keeps secret from Mukuro, out of gratitude for Hibari's rare act of mercy.)
2.
Hibari instantly dislikes the Storm Arcobaleno Fon for wearing his face. Fon quickly proves himself worthy of this dislike by amiably insisting on treating Hibari like a disobedient (if beloved) child.
He grows to hate Fon after the Chinese martial artist challenges him to and handily beats him in a one-on-one fight.
He finally vows to track down and bite the man-turned-infant to death after looking over his family tree one rainy day and discovering he has a Chinese grandfather who vanished under suspicious circumstances.
3.
In the early years of their dysfunctional family, Hibari is annually given the award of "Most Likely to Be a Terrible Father," surpassing even Mukuro due to the Mist Guardian's steadily increasing protective streak towards his host.
(Other awards include "Most Likely to Become Tsuna's Bitch," "Most Likely to End up Possessed by Mukuro," "Most Likely to Get 'Accidentally' Shoved off a Cliff," and "Most Likely to Get Posthumously Molested by Lussuria." Needless to say, Reborn came up with most of them.)
After Fon's sudden death leaves him reluctantly raising a distraught I-Pin, he's not sure whether to be relieved or dismayed at how wrong it was.
4.
Both Hibari's parents are workaholics, and so his early years were chaotic, undisciplined ones—because while both parents valued structure in their own lives, their dedication to their work prevented them from lending any to their impatient, oft-neglected child.
Hibari spent his childhood immersed in violence, quickly learning to defend himself against anything from the bullying children on the playground to the muggers looking for an easy target as he returned home with the groceries his parents were too busy to buy. In time, he grew to enjoy the fighting, but the aimlessness of his life instilled in him a fear that he would eventually turn into one of the petty thugs he spent his time beating into a bloody pulp.
When he bludgeons, concusses, and pummels his way to the head of the Disciplinary Committee at Namimori Junior High, he realizes that he has finally found his true calling. Namimori is the first place to give him and his fighting real purpose, and in doing so becomes the only place he recognizes as a true home.
(It is Tsuna's idea to officially put Namimori under the Vongola's protection, and the moment he does Hibari finally accepts his position as the Tenth's Cloud Guardian.)
5.
Hibari rarely makes mistakes, but two of his biggest were a) overestimating his alcohol tolerance, and b) first trying the stuff in the presence of another human being.
To this day, he has no recollection of what he did after drinking that bottle of sake, but after he's through with Dino, he's pretty sure the Cavallone boss doesn't either.
6.
The first time Hibari ever loses a fight is during his first year at Namimori. The victor, a third year by the name of Setsuna, is the previous head of the Disciplinary Committee, and shrewd enough to take Hibari under his wing after the younger boy becomes obsessed with challenging him to a rematch.
Hibari manages to defeat Setsuna five days before his senpai's graduation, and in return is appointed the new head of the Disciplinary Committee. Ever since then, all time not dedicated to taking care of his beloved school has been spent in search of an opponent as worthy as his predecessor.
Part of the reason he's so eager to crush Rokudo Mukuro is that he hates having to settle.
7.
As humiliating as Hibari found his defeat at the hands of Mukuro, the biggest blow to his ego happens several years later when he somehow loses to Tsuna of all people in a casual fight. He spends weeks wondering how the fight could have gone so horribly wrong before reluctantly coming to the conclusion that the newly appointed Tenth may have finally become someone worth paying attention to.
Having reached this conclusion, he then proceeds to do just that, and discovers that Tsuna managed to develop into a truly worthy opponent while he wasn't looking. He further surprises himself by realizing this isn't as nearly big a shock as he expected it to be. Life in the Vongola family instantly becomes a great deal less irritating.
(Tsuna, on the other hand, vows never to spar with anyone new ever again, in fear of gaining yet another lunatic eager for a rematch.)
8.
Hibari had little to no interest in ever owning a pet prior to Hibird. Maintaining order at his school was a big enough responsibility, and he was already thoroughly disillusioned about the idea of taking care of another living being after years of neglect from his parents. Short of the other members of his Disciplinary Committee (whom aside from Kusakabe he views at best as necessary, and at worst as unfortunately necessary), he had no desire for civil interaction with any life form whatsoever.
Hibird, he discovers during his short stay in Kokuyo Health Land, is a viciously intelligent little creature that not only takes an instant liking to him but consciously learns the Namimori school anthem for the sole purpose of impressing him. Despite its cute, fuzzy, harmless appearance, Hibird not only has a sharp mind uncharacteristic of a creature its size, but a sadistic streak instilled in it by its previous owner, Birds. While in years to come Hibari picks up a number of birds of the same breed as Hibird in order to set up a spy network, none of them quite ever match up to the original.
(His hedgehog may have the occasional nervous breakdown when it fears it hasn't pleased him, but he recognizes its fighting capabilities instantly and soon begins to contemplate the merits of keeping a small collection of cute, vicious animals at his disposal.)
9.
During elementary school, Kusakabe Tetsuya was the leader of a gang of delinquents and one of Hibari's most frequent victims. Kusakabe declares himself indebted to Hibari after the other boy inadvertently saves his underlings from an actual gang when said gang makes the mistake of mocking him as he was on his way home, but it takes Tetsuya until middle school to prove his worth.
He does so after Hibari becomes the head of the Disciplinary Committee, revealing that not only have his years as a gang leader given him a sense of how to handle taking charge of others, but also that his organizational skills are beyond compare. Hibari may be the one with the fierce dedication to his job and the sheer brutality to back it up, but Kusakabe is the one who takes care of things behind the scenes. In return, Hibari allows Kusakabe's ex-delinquent comrades to join the committee as well.
Hibari knows that Kusakabe's devotion is nothing less than genuine, and because of this his right hand man is the only person he ever acknowledges as being remotely close to a friend.
(This may or may not change after his involvement with the Vongola family, although the only thing he'll ever say about his relationship with his fellow Guardians is that it's either suitably complicated or non-existent, and he refuses to say anything at all about Dino Cavallone until the man stops walking into walls the moment his subordinates are out of sight.)
10.
Hibari is the only Guardian Tsuna trusts with the full details of his time travel plot with Irie Shouichi. Hibari assumes this is due to both his ruthless efficiency and the fact that of all the Guardians he is the only one without some sort of attachment to his pathetic boss, and therefore the least likely to fall apart after his "death."
And so, when Tsuna is finally brought down by that special bullet, Hibari can't understand why he nearly jeopardizes the mission by showing up suspiciously early on the scene to watch the Vongola Decimo take his final breaths.
As Tsuna slips into his pseudo-death state, Hibari feels something an awful lot like grief settle in his stomach, and for the first time wonders if he may have invested just a little too much emotion into this screwed up family of theirs.
For some reason, Hibari was a lot easier than Yamamoto. Go figure.
It's been suggested that I focus on the Guardians first for the sake of coherency, which is actually a really good idea (thanks, ThreeWayDart!), so I believe I shall. Which Guardian next, boys and girls?
Please note that Mukuro and Chrome count as separate people. But yeah, they're both Guardians.
As always, constructive criticism is a beautiful thing.
Until…hopefully some time next week!