A/N: Etou~ it's been awhile ne~ and I know I promised to have this updated last week but my brain was kidnapped by school exams *sob* *sob* 3 long exams on my major subjects consecutively! It was life wrecking! And it has to be right before vacation~ I'm sorry… and after that hell week I got lazy so it's just now that I've been able to update… GOMEN NASAI!
But anyway… HAPPY NEW YEAR to yah'll~
Famiglia
Chapter 11
12/31/2010
"Can you still keep up?" Dalmazio taunted.
Hibari charged up to his opponent and attacked. His movements got sloppy and less effective with his beaten-up body. Exhaustion was also adding up to the equation. And he was not at all happy about it. He felt like cold water was suddenly splashed to him to wake him up from a dream.
"Anou~ sempai… do you need any help?"
A voice rung in the cold air caught both men's attention. With a side glance, a figure with a short black hair carrying a shinai on his back came to their sight.
"Yamamoto Takeshi," Hibari muttered in distaste as he glared at the said person, "Wandering the streets in the middle of the night… are you here to disturb the peace as well?"
Yamamoto blinked and raised an eyebrow, puzzled by the other's statement. He then took in the tattered appearance of their school's head prefect. It was a lot worse than how it seemed from the distance. Dried blood loitered like a mold on the bruises and wounds all over the prefect's body. There were purple blotches at some parts that are fading to black.
His eyes narrowed to the person he assumed to be the assailant. And compared to the prefect, he's in a much better state with less bruises and purple smudges. Taking his shinai to his hand, Yamamoto drew the object in a fast motion, revealing its sharp blade.
The older male gazed at the newly arrival in stride, as if not caring of the threatening aura Yamamoto emitted.
"Hibari-sempai, you seem to be quite in a situation right now," drawing his katana in a fighting stance, implying an offer of assistance to his comrade.
"You are not stealing my prey, herbivore," Hibari hissed and stubbornly lifted his pair of tonfas. However, despite his statement there was a hint of acceptance in his tone. He can't say he wanted assistance, it would wound his pride. But in his situation right now, he can't chose to be stubborn to this subject of succor; so, despite his sentence he gave out a hint of agreement, "I'll have to bite you to death later on."
"In that condition, you still think you can defeat me Cloud Guardian?" Dalmazio positioned himself to face the two teens with his nonchalant face. He eyed the ring that shone on the swordsman's finger and started acknowledging him as an opponent.
A moment of calculation between the trio before it begun.
As if an imaginary gun was fired, the race has begun. A scream of blades and steel covered the air, a performance of a perfect battle-dance. It didn't matter if it was two against one for that one individual were as skilled as the two combined could be.
It was a fight for more than just winning. It was duel for survival and pride.
Dalmazio stepped to his side to avoid Hibari's tonfa. A shadow loomed from behind him. He turns to his side, to face Yamamoto halfway and to stop the prefect's attack with a hand but only to find himself backing off when he noticed the katana being dropped below and pushed up. It caused him a graze on his right cheek. Wiping the blood off with his fingers, he smirked to the two, "I believe I have underestimated the two of you. Perhaps I must begin to pay attention."
Hibari glared dangerously to their enemy however it didn't affect the man. Dalmazio isn't just some thug from around the alley after all. He's an experienced hitman. He used to be in rivalry in terms of skill and strength with the now famous sun arcobaleno. If he hadn't been defeated so easily by that baby five years ago, he may still have that glorious respect everyone in the mafia could give him. But he was defeated so badly that day that all that respect changed to disgust and disenchantment. Apparently, the thin line he thought as their difference was actually a huge gap.
Dalmazio firmly gripped his pair of sais, unsatisfied by the bitter memory. The ring in his middle finger flared with sun flames. The flames gracefully danced its way to the weapons' blades.
Dalmazio smirked, signaling them to attack. Hibari and Yamamoto lunged themselves. The katana holder slashed for the man's neck but Dalmazio evaded it, taking a step back while swiftly tangling one of his sai's tine to the katana's blade. As the swordsman pulled back his katana, Hibari immediately acted by swinging his tonfas to the man simultaneously. As the prefect kept Dalmazio busy with his attacks, Yamamoto dropped his Shigure Kintoki and kicked it to Dalmazio's direction. Dalmazio sees this, and efficiently hooks the sais' tines to lock Hibari's tonfas and pushed the teen backwards with himself, dodging the flying katana all together. Yamamoto sped up to the man's back to catch his katana and positioned the blade forward then rushed to the occupied man. Hibari then twirled his weapon through his handle grip to get it off the sai. However, Dalmazio had purposely let Hibari's tonfas slip off so he'd be able to face Yamamoto. As the young swordsman charged to his enemy's way, the said enemy made no movement until Yamamoto reached the teen to let go of his weapon, as the other sai struck Yamamoto on the neck with its pommel. Yamamoto takes his hand back and falls back, fortunately evading the other's attack in a whim.
Swoosh
Swoosh
Swoosh
A whirling sound caught the pair's attention and sees Hibari twirling his tonfas with dangerous spikes hanging on a wire from the tonfas' end.
"Youths are becoming quite an interesting bunch nowadays… hmm… Have the world's best hitman taught you all of these?" Dalmazio smirked with an eerie glint in his eyes.
"The kid's really good, and did have taught me and the others at some point…" Yamamoto said then panted to catch the lack of oxygen in his lungs before continuing, "But he didn't taught us everything… he left us to culture what we learned from him with our own sweat and blood."
The ring beside Yamamoto's vongola ring lit up. A swallow came into view, surrounded with blue flames. Yamamoto raised his katana. His eyes sharpened. The swallow flew around them, and it begun to rain.
A glint of surprise flashes through Dalmazio's expression by a second but falls back into a solemn expression by the next.
"A box animal? Without even needing to be stored in a box… Tell me," Dalmazio eyes Yamamoto suspiciously, "Where did you get that, young Vongloa Rain Guardian?"
Ryohei clenched his fists tightly as he dodged the series of bullets heading his way. He tried to charge right to his opponent but Adrik never gave him a chance, rampaging with what seemed to be an infinite rain of ammunitions.
The orange-head smirked on his end, "Why don't you just STAY STILL so we can get this over with… huh?"
"No way TO THE EXTREME!" he roared and punched the unavoidable bullets, "EXTREME WORKOUT!"
Adrik twitched and a scowl reached his face, suddenly getting annoyed, "Stop the 'extremes' already! It's beyond irritating!"
"EXTREME is my EXTREME motto! It's EXTREMELY EXTREME! So I can't stop saying it TO THE EXTREME!" he returned as he looked out for any openings.
"PESKY BASTARD! You're even more difficult to tolerate than that retarded bitch! That psycho keeps on talking to some creepy voodoo doll every night and she always seem to be fascinated with blood that she even tries to taste every one of her victims' but AT LEAST THE BITCH AIN'T LOUD ABOUT IT!"
"I EXTREMELY didn't understand a thing you said!"
"Just don't move and I'll make you understand, numbskull!"
Ryohei leaned to his left as a bullet ran past below his ear and another scraping his arm. After all, fighting long range attacks would be difficult for fighters that excel to arm to arm combats such as himself. However, like of what his instincts are telling him, he just has to find an opening and the right timing to assail. He doesn't have to be a genius to figure that out.
Right there, Ryohei narrowed his eyes to his opponent as he concentrated on making the hit.
"Gotcha," Adrik grinned as if he was sure of his win and pointed his weapon to Ryohei.
"Maximum Canon!"
"Bremya puli dozhdem! [1]"
Gokudera chased Vin as fast he could, and judging from the direction they're pacing to, he could pretty much guess what their enemies are up to.
Stupid girl, always getting in danger, cursing under his breath, he increased his speed and overtook the blonde individual. Gokudera smirked as Vin stopped on his track and turned his attention to him. He pointed his weapon to his enemy and silence surrounded the two. The blonde seemed to be observing and calculating Gokudera's abilities, then interest piqued to the individual's sharp eyes.
"I believe you wish to stop me from getting into my destination," Vin's voice echoed into the night, "Am I correct?"
"Damn straight," he answered, confidence ringing in his tone.
"Very well…" Vin took out a box shaded in black and blue then lifted his other hand. Gokudera noticed the two rings enveloping Vin's fingers, with one lighted with rain flames. Inserting those flames to the box, a black slender shaft come out of view, "Let's finish this quickly, I never have liked long delays."
"Don't talk like you're going to defeat me just like that," annoyance sparked into the silverette's face as the other paid no worry to this but instead took another box and lit his other ring.
Gokudera's eyes widened in surprise as a giant silhouette appeared beside the blonde. Looking at it more closely, a figure of a snake formed from the silhouette, "What the…! Tsuchinoko! Serpente Tempesta! [2]" Sparks then surrounded the path it crawled into, "No… wait-"
"Storm serpent? I haven't heard of such a thing," Vin said, casually standing there, "And as you can see, the flames I used is lightning and not storm… so Lighting Serpent would have been more appropriate to say."
Gokudera bit his lower lip; Verde probably had this box animal based on that Serpente Tempesta… Tch. That crazy arcobaleno is really getting in my nerves.
I'll blow that Verde up when I get my hands on him. But before that…
"I'm going to beat the crap out of you so take this!"Gokudera fires his storm rockets, covering it with his sun flames. The rockets sped up to his opponent. Vin then spun his Bo with rain flames wrapped around it, and flame-empowered-water splashed out, weakening the bout.
Pissed, Gokudera fired at him once more.
"Hmph. Those rocket's acceleration have an unpredictable pace, it would have been quite dangerous to encounter it, however those rockets would eventually have to hit a certain target," Vin spun his weapon once again and stopped the assault, "That makes it easy to counter when it's used against something that could cover the whole area the rockets would proceed to… and that makes is useless."
"If you're so smart then try countering this, bastard!" Gokudera shot the cloud covered projectiles. The projectile spread out in a tree-diagram like fashion. He smirked as Vin withdrew his bo and jumped out fast to avoid the dispersion.
Vin halted in a good distance away from the advancing widespread projectile. The silverette then raised his eyebrow, seeing no logical reason as to why the individual must stop.
The illogical act was then cleared up when the lightning serpent sheltered its master and opened its mouth to consume the projectiles coming its way.
"Tch. Smartass…" he cursed as the snake swallowed his attack. He then calls out his own box animal to match his enemy's, "Uri."
"Nyar~" Gokudera fed Uri with his sun flames and it grew out of its cub form, "Rawr!"
"Oi, Uri…" he says to gain the said Leopard's attention. Uri makes a growling sound to affirm its agreement to him, "Alright, let's do this!"
Uri charged off to Vin but gets blocked by the snake. The two box animals then fought as its owners dueled at the same time.[3] Projectiles of different flames beamed across until Uri's cry of pain resounded in the air. The snake has bitten the leopard and set off a charge from its fangs beneath the leopard's skin.
"Uri!" Gokudera called out as the said box animal got thrown off to a wall, creating a crater-like dent. Uri answers him with a roar as it picked itself up and tried to shake off the shock. Goudera smirks in approval of his box animal's strength. Uri jumped off to another roof to continue its assault to the snake. Lifting its paws, Uri strikes the snake's skin. However, as it came into contact, Uri suddenly stopped moving.
"What the-"
"The lighting serpent could paralyze anything it touches making its defense impenetrable. And adding its electrocuting abilities in its fangs… both of its defense and offense are strong, making my box animal the perfect weapon."
"Perfect box animal my ass…" Gokudera snarled.
"Your box animal is already incapacitated-"
"Don't underestimate my Sistema CAI…!"
Gokudera fires another projectile-covered-flames as the lighting serpent was about to attack Uri. The box animal backed off and the projectile continued its way to Uri's direction.
"Eliminating your box animal would not help you win against me,"
"That's what you think… Uri!"
Vin raised his eyebrow as the projectile hit Uri. A cloud of dust covered the said box animal. It was silent for a while and they waited to see what has happened to the leopard.
Gokudera smirked as the dust cleared out and revealed his box animal, all fired up. Vins' eyes narrowed as he inspected the said animal, trying to detect any logical explanation to the result.
"Sun flames," Gokudera answers as if knowing what's on his opponent's mind.
A scowl reached the blonde's face, "You used the sun flames abilities to activate your box weapon's cells. But that won't be enough; the cells lost wouldn't be replaced easily."
Vin smirked.
"Don't think so lowly of me," Gokudera loaded his cannon and pointed it to Vin whom have positioned his bo for defense, "That shot wasn't just sun flames… but I don't think you'll have to know that 'cause you're going to face your end here… Flame Thunder!"
"Roar!"
BOOM!
A loud blast filled the air.
An illusionist that's also well-honed in combat… just like Mukuro, Tsuna thought to himself as he dodged Sakura's attacks. He was observing her movements really carefully along with the surroundings. He could pretty much predict her actions now that he have calmed his mind and focused on their duel at hand.
Sakura slashed the blade of her scythe to his neck. Tsuna responded as he ducked and kneeled on the ground. He caught the scythe's shaft just below its blade. He looked straight into his opponent's mad eyes and body with needles still darted on her skin. Blood dripped on those small wounds. Tsuna could see her twinge for a second because of this but gave no other attention to this. He thought she's been through this estate often.
"Ne~ Tsu-kun! Do you love me now?" she asked and laughed. Tsuna did not respond instead he averted his sight to his right where the lava flowed. And surprisingly enough the temperature isn't as high as he thought it would.
I see… he told himself after thinking for a while. His gaze returned to Sakura's form as she stopped laughing and pushed a button on the grip. Already knowing this trick, Tsuna took back his hand and kicked his heel to the girl's chin. Sakura backed off, pissed.
"Why don't you answer me, Tsu-kun?" she continued with a disgustingly overly sweet tone with a killer's face.
Tsuna then went to her; he sighed and caught her wrist with her arm now on his back as the brunette elbowed her from behind. Sakura parried below but can't move any further as Tsuna have locked her arm to her back. He twisted her wrist so her grip would loosen to her weapon. Sakura snorted when her hand dropped the scythe.
The clang caused by the scythe seemed to have clicked something on to Sakura.
Sakura's eyes darkened in an angry manner as the lava boiled. Tsuna kicked the scythe afar as he noticed her other hand reaching for it. Then, suddenly, the ground shook as if the volcano was about to erupt. Tsuna was surprised for a minute until he heard her laugh. And soon, the surrounding lava burst upward around them. Tears begun to spill on the girl's eyes, still continuing to laugh.
I can feel it… the difference between her illusions and Mukuro's… No… the difference between herself from Mukuro, he corrected himself, she's weaker than he is… and any other illusionists we've encountered. She can't keep her illusions strong while in combat. Her concentration and skill is far from being at par with Mukuro. It's only her agility that has kept me from thinking she's really strong. It's part of the illusion… because in fact she's nothing but a novice… and really insane.
"Bossu!"
A familiar voice called out in his mind.
"Chrome?"
"I'll free you from this illusion you're in. It's quite too weak so I can handle it well," she continued relaying her words to his mind.
"Yes, I've noticed it as well," he answered.
"I know you could get out of that really easy but please let me do it for you, Bossu. I want to help. I'll take care of her so please hurry and rescue Kyoko-chan,"
He mentally nodded. Soon, the whole scenery fuzzed. Sakura noticed this as well and looked left to right in panic.
"W-What's happening?"
Sakura's irises shrank as her eye lids widened, "Who's interfering with my illusions?" Their background is fading into black and back into its original setting. Sakura closed her eyes and shook her head, "No! No! NO! STOP IT! NO!" She struggled to keep her illusions but Chrome was winning fast against it.
As the background went back to reality, Tsuna found Chrome standing out not far from them with a determined face.
"Bossu, you could go now. I can handle this," the one-eyed girl declared. He muttered a thank you to her before leaving the pair behind.
"Oi! Where do you think you're going?" Sakura screamed but was interrupted when fire surged up from the ground in front of her.
Tsuna glanced back only see Sakura facing Chrome with so much anger on her expression. Chrome sent him an assuring nod and he blasted his way back to the shrine.
Chrome gripped her trident as she continued keeping the illusion of a peaceful night to the townspeople of Namimori and guarding herself for any possible attack the girl in front of her could do.
"Kufufu… do you need any help Chrome?" Mukuro's voice crept into her mind.
"Don't worry Mukuro-sama, I can handle this myself. I'll be enough as an opponent to her so you can just rest Mukuro-sama…" she answered.
"That's my cute little Chrome… kufufu…"
She can't keep on relying onto anyone any longer, she knew as much. She has to establish her true strength to others as well so she could be counted as someone who could be relied on as well. She does not want to be some weak girl hiding and waiting till someone would come to help that can't even throw a rock at the enemy to save herself. No! She will not be a burden!
Chrome twirled the trident in her hand as Sakura launched with the scythe she picked up along the way to her. Sakura swung her weapon to Chrome's stomach but Chrome anticipated this and locked the scythe in between her trident's blade and pinned it to the ground.
Frustration etched into Sakura's face as she tried to take the scythe back.
"Sumimasen… but I have to defeat you for Bossu," Chrome said as an owl settled to her shoulder. Fear formed into Sakura's eyes as she looked at the owl's right eye.
"Ahhh!"
Gokudera hissed as he lit a cigarette on his mouth while looking at his beaten up opponent, relieved he was able to assure the family's safety even though he wouldn't admit loudly that the others are also part of the family he and his Boss both cares for, "And to think I got so worked up with this arrogant bastard."
He smirked as Uri went to him, "Good work… here."Gokudera lit up three of his rings and offered it to leopard.
It wasn't just sun flames, you dolt, he observed Vin, I mixed cloud flames as well so the cells would propagate faster, then I added rain flames to control the cell being generated. It's as simple as 1+1… hmph." Gokudera blew out the smoke as he too Uri back to his ring.
The silhouette turned to his right when he heard running steps on that direction. Suspicion flared in his mind as he went into his stance in case it's an enemy. He glared as the individual turned on the corner.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Gokudera groaned at Seiji, hardly disappointed and pleased by the appearance of the said individual.
"What the hell do you care? You can't tell me what to do. I want to get revenge for Nii-sama and you can't stop me!" the other replied. The two glared to each other. Gokudera was worked up for no particular reason he just doesn't want to lose to the other's glared.
Someone coughed. They both turned their sight to Vin.
"You still wanna fight?" Gokudera spat his cigarette and held his cannon, ready to fire if the blonde would make any shady movement.
"No, I accept defeat," Vin simply answered.
He put down his cannon and acknowledged the declaration, seeing that the man could not do as much as to move.
"Oi!" Gokudera called onto Seiji, remembering the said person's presence, "If you want revenge then do it for all I care. But I bet you don't even know who to get revenge with."
Seiji frozed.
"Tch. Moron," the silverette continued, not minding the twitch on Seiji's right eye, instead he went to Vin and kicked the injured's side, "Oi! You know what happened to Takeda Hojo?"
The blonde gave him a blank face and his eyebrow raised up in question with his uninterested expression despite asking it himself but did not comment instead he nodded, receiving a painful wave from his body.
"You killed the guy?" Gokduera continued his interrogation and crouched down.
"Hmph… No," the blonde answered.
"Then, who-" Seiji begun but was interrupted as the blonde continued.
"He's a former ally well at least he was until Sakura killed him and took his weapon, the scythe, since Ace didn't gave her any,"
"Ally…?"
Gokudera raised an eyebrow to Seiji's gloomy figure. Dread and confusion was written all over his classmate. He was sure the guy was asking himself so many questions, all with 'why' etched. Since Seiji mentioned that his brother was living peacefully, he must be shocked. The thought of having a brother who become a victim, suddenly being replaced by a killer's face gave a blank stature to Seiji.
Sucks to be him, the Italian bomber thought as he let his classmate think for himself. He leaned on the wall nearby and lit another cigar. He glanced at Seiji's shocked which irritated him nonetheless making him cringe and speak up, "Move on! The guy's dead already. That's quite common in this world; if you're weak you die. Just be thankful that it ain't you."
"HOW DARE YOU-" anger encrypted on Seiji's voice but he simply blocked it with his calm voice.
"I've been through worse. And besides I'm not the one who killed your brother so don't lash your frustration on me, asshole," Gokudera stated while looking at the sky. An orange blare flew off in the sky, and he smirked, "That was Juudaime…" He tilted his head a bit to point it to Seiji, "Juudaime was fighting that bitch a while ago and seeing him going back to the shrine means that that lunatic's done for... which also means you fucking owe Juudaime for finishing the bitch for you so stop bitching."
"KYOKO!"
Tsuna followed the voice that interrupted the eerie air as he flew in the sky. He smiled as a familiar white-haired boxer was making his way to the top of the stairs leading to the shrine caught his sight. He smiled softly, feeling relieved to know that his sun guardian was safe.
He looked right back ahead of him as he tried to compress the growing worry he has to the others. But he learned through all he've been through that all he could do was to focus at the enemy at hand and trust that everyone else would be fine. He hardened his expression with resolve.
He took away all other thoughts as he landed in front of the haiden and glared at the man, who caused so much commotion, back at those eyes filled with bloodlust. The cold night breeze passing through had only made the atmosphere more intensified.
"OHH! SAWADA! You're EXTREMELY here!" The boxer's voice resounded through the air and broke the silence between the two. But even so, the tensed-up atmosphere only increased with his arrival.
Ryohei looked around then between the two, a bit confused of the situation but with Tsuna's expression, he mustered as much as a conclusion that he shouldn't move until he was told so.
"Onii-chan," Tsuna called, finally speaking after a while that had seemed like forever, without looking at his conversant, "Please go get Kyoko and make sure she'll be safe."
"I was about to do just that even if you don't tell me…! EXTREME!"
Ryohei jogged passed Tsuna and Ace as he went into the haiden.
Tsuna prepared himself to attack, just in case Ace would prevent the boxer from going for his sister. However, the said man made no move nor gave no interest into assuming his hostage instead he only got up from sitting in the stairs and closed in the distance between them so they'd be only a few meters away from each other.
"I believe you came here for my head," Ace smirked but with coldness streaming on his tome.
"And I believe you won't be giving that up so easily to me," Tsuna answered back with the same tenacity lingering in his voice.
"Of course," the black haired man said, "So… shall we begin?"
Three figures barely stood in front of one another. Each was panting harder than they normally do. They've fought with all their strength in order to have the satisfaction of completing their desired outcome.
Yamamoto fell to his knees as exhaustion covered his every limb. The cold air wasn't helping at all to ease his tired figure, mixing with the sweat covering his body it gave him a numbing chill lulling him to unconsciousness. He leaned over his katana while fighting the drowsiness he's feeling.
"Back off, Yamamoto Takeshi... I can't allow you to interfere with my fight any longer," Hibari held off his body in a stance in front of the said person, "I will be the one to give the final blow… so back off."
Yamamoto would have protested with his sempai's statement but he knows he couldn't move even if he'd want to. Also, he knew this is Hibari's way of telling him to sit down and rest and let him finish the job.
He released his breath through his mouth and let himself sit on the ground completely, spreading out his lower body in a relaxed position, then grinned, "Hai hai sempai… ganbatte![4]"
He held his weapon, that has now turned back into a shinai, tight as he watched the conclusion of their fight. He could see the other two lock each gazes with one another, analyzing each's movement and waiting till on of them makes a move. Their breaths sounding in a rhythmical pattern… their bodies tensing up for the final assault, holding their remaining energy and pride til their last breath.
"Hmph. So, it has come to this,"
Yamamoto didn't need to turn his sight to know who the speaker beside him is. He kept quiet and gave no comment to the baby hitman's statement. Reborn at the same time didn't expect a reply from him, knowing that the climax is breaking to the end.
They both watched as the prefect and his opponent charged at each other at the same time. As the two reached one another's attack, they both halted. It was hard to know who've actually won as none of them moved. Though Dalmazio seemed to be in quite an advantage as he had one sai hooked a tonfa however, a moment later Dalmazio's grip loosened and his sais fell from his hands… the echoing clang it made became the victor's announcement.
"I though as much," Reborn smirked and petted his partner with is petite hands. It was only because he wanted to see himself how it would end why he was here. After he heard Dalmazio's name he was surprised for he hadn't seen or heard of the man for ages but he wasn't that worried for he knows the family he had helped build for his student was strong and has surpassed so many in this time even with someone with such as an experience as his former rival.
"Kid…" Hibari started, satisfaction ringing from it, without looking back at the addressed person, "Are you here to fight me?"
"Maybe some other time, I'm tired," the bay replied even though it was not really him who was drained.
Hibari followed a nod.
"Chairman," Kusakabe reported, appearing right beside his leader out of the blue.
"Clean this up," Hibari ordered and slowly walked away from the scene as if nothing happened even with his battered figure.
"Yes, Chairman!" was Kusakabe's immediate response.
Yamamoto grinned wider as the rest of their school's disciplinary committee begun piling up and fixing everything. A few from the Momokyokai headquarters' slowly went out from their hiding place and observed the battlefield from a moment ago. It was almost like they were statues with their stunned expressions. Yamamoto shook his head then turned his attention to Reborn.
"Hey, kid… How's Tsuna?" he asked.
Reborn tugged the brim of his fedora closer to his eyes, overshadowing half of his face.
"That student of mine…"
Somewhere near the shrine, a brunette stood with eyes and forehead flaring in an orange hue looking down at a beaten up figure. Slowly and calmly the blaze the brunette had diminished from sight.
"…has become stronger than he was,"
"I see," Yamamoto let himself lay on the cold pavement with his grin going even wider.
"Juudaime…" Gokudera said as he went to his boss's side, carelessly letting go of Vin's body from his hand behind, and looked straight at the unconscious enemy, "Reborn-san was right. I asked that guy over there and I have confirmed it." He pointed Vin with his eyes with his last sentence.
"Ah," the soon-to-be-tenth agreed, "It's weaker than the ones we had."
"It seemed that their box weapons were from the black market. Those were indeed Verde's rejected experiments… I've concluded as much when I saw the Lightning serpent. He must've sold these to the black market to escalate his funds for more research... Do you think he's planning something big?"
"I hope not… but following that man's mindset, it's probably something dangerous,"
"What's the plan, Juudaime?"
"Let's just ignore him for now, we still have no idea what to expect from him… and besides, I need to fix something first before taking action to anything else…"
"Hai!"
"O-Onii-chan…?" Kyoko muttered softly as she opened her eyes.
Ryohei smiled brightly at the sight of his now conscious sister. He has been watching and waiting for her to wake up. Tears begun to spurt out of his eyes as he ranted about how he was relieved she was alright. Kyoko smiled at him and tried to comfort him by saying her apologize for making him feel that way.
Kyoko sat up and looked around, examining her surroundings and trying to figure out what really happened. She went up and walked out of the haiden. Then, in the corner of her eyes, she could see figures standing at the back. She immediately recognized the brunette and the silver-haired Italian.
"Sasagawa-chan!" Seiji called her with relief. There's happiness in his tone but his eyes had sadness painted on. She couldn't stop but wonder what really happened.
She took back her attention to the pair at the back and focused on the brunette's expression. She couldn't see his face much because of the darkness but what she could see most evidently was that grim thin line on his mouth.
Tsuna noticed her gaze and turned to her. She immediately stopped, he breathing becoming ragged and her heart thumping so loud. He blinked at her then smiled sadly. He turned away from her and left.
Tsuna... kun… was her only thought as he watched the brunette's retrieving back. She felt as if he was leaving her. She held onto her chest tightly with that thought. Tsuna-kun… are you really going to-
Her bangs covered her face, Why am I sad when I think that he's going to part with me…?
A/N: *wipes off sweat* that… was harder to write than what I originally thought. Anyway, give me your feedback guys…!
Thank you for using you time for reading my work~
[1] Bremya puli dozhdem- Onus bullet rain
[2] This was already mentioned in the series in the future arc, I can't rmember which chapter exactly and I'm getting lazy into searching for it... anyway, the storm serpent/ serpente tempesta has been stated as a relatively new box weapon created by box-maker koenig.
[3] I'm sorry, but I dunno how to describe the scene anymore nor elaborate the battle into details
Chapter 10
Luvtuna27- don't worry this won't be going into that… I'm not into that pairing much. Oh, and thank you by the way for loving my work.
Clippit- thank you~ I work hard on the battle scenes and thank you for appreciating the character I thought of myself~ and with the chapter read, I'm sure you already know who that person is now…
SH01- thank you~ encouragements always pumps me up!
ChibiOtaku13- aww~ you flatter me so much… you're such a kind person. Thank you!
Myu Kuran- ahaha… yay! I got you creeped out… well not in a bad way anyway. I just meant that I have successfully affected my readers with how I want them to…
HaruKatsuki- thank you for the greeting even though its already been months after I've said thank you to that…. And thank you for reading~
Chapter 11 (A/N)
BlueRoseAngel061897- thank you for waiting and I hope you enjoyed reading this~
Hajimeru Rinko- I'm glad it piqued you interest, it was much appreciated.
