Hane's room was brutally banged open. She was immediately awaken. Alarmed, she grasped the dagger under her pillow—she hadn't done that for at least seven years.
Apparently she was not fully awake yet. With eyes half-opened, lips pursed and wrinkled pyjamas, her smooth white hair was a little messy. Anyone who saw her would feel sympathetic towards her tired little face, but Hibari Kyoya was not just anyone.
"Get dressed, herbivore." Hibari turned on the light. Hane squinted at reflex, and took a glimpse of the clock—exactly half past five.
"Good night." She dropped back to the bed, covering her head with the sheets and obviously forgot everything Hibari had said yesterday. Who was he kidding? She was still having jet lag.
"Get up now, right now, immediately. Or do you want me to bite you to death?" Hibari dragged her from the bed.
"You sadistic devil." Hane was never one of the meek, vulnerable girls that sweetly said yes to everything, and she could get cranky when people annoyed her especially when people rarely did since the Ninth generation guardians had her back. More importantly, her temper got worse due to deprived sleep, so she wasn't in the rational mood to decide whether she would want to resist Hibari Kyoya like she usually did. She seized the dagger and swung it towards Hibari. He tilted his head and avoided her attack without effort. Then he clutched her collar and flung her onto the ground, propping his tonfas against her throat. He glanced at her with annoyance.
"Fight me, and if you win, I'll let you skip school today. Or else go wash up now."
"I hate you." Hane gritted her teeth like an angry cat, and unwillingly headed towards the bathroom. As she had just woken up, her fighting ability had dropped to around 30% the original. There was no way she could have won.
In fact, there was no way she could have won even it she was at her best condition. She used to slack a lot in trainings.
For the first time in her life, she put on the uniform. It was not too bad, actually. She had never worn this kind of clothing before as she was home-schooled. Though drowsy, she was just a teensy little bit excited about finally meeting normal people. She only got to hang out with mafia kids. The Vongola ones were always scared of her, and hanging out with kids from other family often led to fighting or spying on each other.
After breakfast, Hibari took her to school. (The disciplinary committee, who had been awaiting their chairman at the school gate, almost thought it was a delusion that Hibari Kyoya was accompanied by a girl.) He took her to the teacher's lounge and ordered her to stay there until it was class time, and she willingly followed his orders. As soon as Hibari left her sight, she immediately fell asleep on the sofa, resting her legs on the table that later when her new class teacher woke her, she received quite a few glares from the teachers passing by.
"This is the new transfer student from Italy, Shirotatsu Hane. Minna-san, please take good care of her." The class teacher of 1-A introduced the yawning girl with a smile. The classmates were slightly amazed by her white hair and purple eyes, but did not make a big deal out of it since they had already seen rare hair colour from Gokudera Hayato. The class teacher asked her to sit beside Yamamoto Takeshi, and she sort of floated towards the seat soullessly. Apparently she was still in a half-asleep mode.
"Hi there! I'm Yamamoto Takeshi. Nice to meet you." Yamamoto greeted her with his usual bright smile.
Hane remembered Reborn's comment on this boy—optimistic, insensitive(since he didn't really get what's going on). Compared to Gokudera Hayato, he was not like a mafia member at all.
But then she thought, she probably shouldn't judge Yamamoto since Sawada Tsunayoshi was a bigger non-mafia-like person. She doubted if any assassin would threaten him. She guessed most of them would never identify him as Vongola's boss.
"Shirotatsu Hane. Nice to meet you too." She smiled back.
"You're from Italy as well? We already have a transfer student from Italy this semester." He pointed at Gokudera. "You see the silver haired guy? That's Gokudera Hayato."
"Well, actually, I know Gokudera. We were both sent here by Reborn." Hane confessed. She had met Gokudera before. They were not particularly fond of each other but at least they were on good terms.
"You know that infant who lives with Tsuna?" Yamamoto was surprised.
"Yeah…I'm kind of a member of Vongola too." Hane whispered.
"Oh! I see you're also playing that mafia game," replied Yamamoto happily.
"…...Right." Hane finally got to know what "insensitive" meant.
They both sounded out the math class. Hane found it too simple, and Yamamoto only had baseball in his head. Luckily, the teacher's attention was mostly captured by the bombs sticking out of Gokudera's pocket. Plus Hane was good at sleeping with her eyes open, and she would occasionally move the textbook to cover Yamamoto's tranced face.
After her first class, Yamamoto was offering her a school tour, but Gokudera and Tsuna interrupted. They were obviously curious about another Italian student coming to Namimori-well, Tsuna was mostly scared.
"Hello Gokudera. Haven't seen you for so long." Hane waved at the delinquent.
"I didn't think you'd be here, Shirotatsu." Gokudera answered.
"Reborn made me come." She stated, and turned to look at Tsuna, who was even shorter than she was. "And you must be Sawada Tsunayoshi, the future 10th generation boss."
"Hiiieee! No I'm not!" Tsuna shook his hands vigorously in denial. "I'm not involved in any mafia sort of thing…Uhhh, Shirotatsu-san, you know Gokudera-kun?"
"You're just like how Reborn described." Hane giggled. A boss that did not want to be a boss. She wondered how Vongola would turn out under his leadership. "I've seen Gokudera a couple of times in family parties. By the way, you can call me Hane. Reborn wanted me to be trained here, and at the mean time see how you and your guardians are doing."
"AHhhh! Well of course you are related to Vongola…" Tsuna smiled wearily, slouching his shoulders.
"Training? Who's your mentor?" Yamamoto placed his arm on her shoulder and put a little weight on her. "And you know about the Varia?"
"…Yes, I know them." She ended the topic with a short sentence. "Reborn hasn't told me who my mentor is yet."
"You're mentor is Dino." Reborn abruptly appeared from the wall. Tsuna was startled and backed off. Reborn hopped towards Hane and continued. "Same as Hibari."
"Isn't it bad enough that I live in the same house with him and go to the same school with him? Now you're making see him even in trainings?" Hane frowned and objected. "Can't I have Colonello as my mentor?"
"It's been decided." Reborn answered with a smile. And Hane ceased to say anything else, only secretly imagining a scene where she beat Reborn so hard that he admitted defeat.
"Hmmm…horned-herbivore, you got a problem with that?"
"Hi…Hibari-san?!" Tsuna looked like he was about to faint. Hibari glared at him for a second and said to Hane, "Follow me." Then he left the classroom.
"I swear I would steal his prefect armband someday." Hane grimaced at his back, but still waved goodbye and Tsuna and his guardians and caught up with Hibari.
