"Yo, Hane-chan! You got taller!" Hibari and Hane reached a vacant classroom—well not exactly vacant as Dino was there crossing his legs, sitting on the teacher's bench. He cheerfully greeted Hane and scruffled her shimmering white hair with a warm smile. "But from what I've heard from Reborn, you don't seem happy having me as your mentor, do you?"
"Dino-nii!" Hane rushed into his open arms. "I'm glad that you're my mentor. What I DON'T like is that I have to train with the bad-tempered guy." Added with a frightful glare towards Hibari.
"Oh I see now you're voicing your distress out. Think you're safe with bucking-horse at your side?" Hibari sneered.
Hane ignored him and sighed. She lowered her head, with struggles in her light-purple eyes. "I don't get why I have to join the training given that I'm not one of the guardians. I…I don't want to fight them."
After that incident, she thought she would never ever see them again. She made herself forget about the short but great times she had with them, and went on with life. She had new family. The 9th generation guardians all took great care of her, and treated her like their beloved student, or even child. Yet now, she would have to face them again. She didn't know what they were like now. She didn't know if they still remembered her as their family. And worst of all, she would have to stand on the opposite side of them.
"You have to get stronger, no matter if you're joining the ring battles or not." Dino gently stroked her head. "I hope Iemitsu could bring us some good news."
"I don't think that's possible, given that Nono is probably in their hands. The battles are bound to happen." Hanes shook her head. Since Reborn brought such news, she had been preparing herself for that. Though she still wasn't ready.
"Well then you could try to prevent damage as much as possible." Dino took her hand. "Alright, I think Kyoya's gonna kill us."
Hibari chuckled and brought the conversation back to what he knew of. "What's your weapon, horned-herbivore?"
"I don't have a regular one." She temporarily put her distress aside and pondered. Then she noticed the whip hung at Dino's waist. "Dino-nii, you're great at using a whip, right? How about you teach me that?"
"Really?!" Dino threw his arms around Hane enthusiastically and rubbed his face over hers. "Its awesome! Kyoya never let me teach anything. He just wants to fight me."
"Since you speak of that." Hibari grinned, and slashed his tonfas against Dino's cheek swiftly. Dino barely dodged it before letting out a wail and tripped onto the floor. That was when Hane realized that his subordinates were not around at all.
"Hibari-san, you can't fight him now! He's a wimp without his subordinates." She stood between Dino and Hibari and stopped the latter from murdering his own mentor.
"…Thanks, Hane-chan." Dino staggered in distress as she pushed him out of the classroom. He wasn't sure if he should be thankful of Hane's protectiveness or feel frustrated by her honest choice of words.
"Mmmm…Hibari-san, did you get me here just to see Dino-nii?"
Hibari was slightly disappointed that he could not fight Dino Chiavarone. Yet he decided not to bite him for death for just this once as he should probably put preventing the to some extent could-be-destructive girl from disrupting the school as priority. He reached for the little booklet in his pocket and tossed it to Hane.
"Memorize it."
The puzzled girl opened the booklet, "Do not damage anything in school area. Do not bring students from other school to Namimori Junior High. Do not disobey the Disciplinary Committee…These are not school rules! These are rules designed to meet your needs!"
"That's right. Are you disagreeing?" There came the tonfas.
"…No." Though what she wanted to say was "trash".
"Good. I don't like clawed herbivores. Horned ones will do." He patted her head in a seemingly good mood. "Go home on your own today. I've got things to do after school."
Then Hane stretched and went back to class. Tsuna apprehensively asked if she was hurt by the ruthless chairman of the disciplinary committee, and she assured him that everything was fine. Tsuna then looked at her with admiration because anyone who survived from Hibari Kyoya deserved to be respected.
Though Hane succumbed to Hibari's threat, that did not mean that she liked it. It's just that after all these years, she had learned that the standard of pride could be adjusted when in life-menacing situations. She cursed Hibari in her mind over and over again until the English teacher's voice interrupted it.
"How could you daydream on your first day of school, Shirotatsu?" She tapped Hane's desk with a marker and dragged her back to reality. "Answer this question."
"Tsk." Gokudera scorned with his legs placed on the table. The teacher was definitely not brave enough to punish Gokudera. That's why she chose Hane, who looked tender and harmless, to pick on.
"English is my second language. Is it because you're too old that you forgot that I'm from Europe?" Hane pointed out the answer easily and started to pour her discontent on the poor teacher. Gokudera laughed hard and kept saying words like dementia, elderly, ancient etc.
"Old…?!" The teacher was totally pissed off, but that could not scare the mafia-raised girl one bit.
"Gokudera-kun, do you think her hearing is so degenerated that she couldn't hear what I just said, or its because her memory doesn't last that long that she's already forgotten what I said?" The teacher was the perfect target for her to release her distress. There were two people in this world that she would try to hold back her anger: Reborn and Hibari Kyoya. It's best not to talk back at Reborn since its practically suicide to challenge a person so much stronger than she was. As for the latter, it's mostly because she would suffer a lot seeing him home everyday.
"Both are possible, but she could also be simply refusing to acknowledge the fact that time is flying rapidly away for her."
"Gasp. Does that mean we would have a new English teacher soon? I hope it's a younger, prettier lady."
Boom. And the teacher was defeated.
And don't expect Hane to feel guilty about it. It's not the first time she irritated someone so much that he passed out and was sent to the hospital.
"Gokudera-kun, do you know anything about Hane-chan?" After class, Tsuna muttered to Gokudera at the corner. "Like…was she raised in the mafia just like you were?
"Juudaime! I'm so glad that you're asking for my help!" Gokudera's eyes glowed with zeal. "I will tell you everything I know about her. I can even stalk her and report every second of her actions to you!"
"Hiieeee! There's no need to do so, Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna quickly turned down his offer. "I'm just a bit surprised that she's here. You know, she's neither a guardian nor an enemy."
"Well, I met her in a ball for Vongola's allies. I heard she lived with Nono's guardians." Gokudera rubbed his chin and tried to recall what people said in the party. "Most of the guests in the ball have seen her before. She must have been there a few times. My guess is that she's one of the guardians' daughter or relatives."
"If you want to know about her, why not invite her over, Dame-Tsuna."
"Re-Reborn?!" Tsuna was once again startled when an upside-down baby's face with sideburns appeared before his eyes. He protested, "Stop eavesdropping over people and bump out of nowhere!"
"It's important for a boss to know his allies and subordinates well." Reborn hopped onto the ground. He arrived at Hane's seat, talked to her for a minute, then Tsuna saw the girl walking towards him with an exhausted look.
"Hello Tsuna-kun. *Ojamashimas." Having listened to Reborn's "advice slash threat", Hane followed Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto and Reborn towards Tsuna's home.
"So, Hane-chan, you are a member of Vongola?" Tsuna brought up the topic cautiously.
"Mmmm…kind of." Hane answered with hesitation. She practically grew up in Vongola. For nine years she was very well taken care of by Vongola, but she had never been on any mission. Not to say she was in fact a lineal descendant of another family.
They kept on chatting, and Hane quite enjoyed that non-mafia-like atmosphere around them. After a short walk, they arrived at the Sawada residence.
