`Silver Snow
Chapter Six
Acceptance of the Snow
The Future – Ten Years Later
All gazes were directed at Tsuna, because they knew that the decision of the Boss mattered more than anything else. "I…" He paused for a while, seemingly deep in thought. Then he looked up at Miyuki, observing her, maybe with his hyper intuition. She didn't know – she just hoped he wouldn't notice the subtle shivering of her lips and her tightly clenched hands. "I vote to accept you, Miyuki Estella De Luca-san. Welcome to the Vongola."
The room remained completely silent then, but Sawada Tsunayoshi's words were echoing in her head, loudly and clearly.
I vote to accept you, Miyuki Estella De Luca-san.
Acceptance.
Welcome to the Vongola.
Family.
Tears streamed down her face, trailing the side of her jaw as a loud cry escaped her lips, breaking the still silence. But this wasn't a cry of agony, it wasn't a cry of betrayal – it was a cry of victory. Everything she had dreamed of having was right there in front of her. Everything.
"Miyuki. Stop crying and face your new family confidently and proudly." Hibari's straightforward, but gentle word of advice seemed to nudge her, towards her new future with the Vongola.
Sawada Tsunayoshi – her new Boss, reached his hand out towards her, a warm, inviting smile worn on his face. Miyuki took his hand with her trembling fingers and pulled herself up, her good arm then wrapping around the boy. "Thank you, Tsuna." Her Boss, originally shocked, loosened his stiff hands and patted her back reassuringly and announced to everyone in the room once again, "Miyuki-san, we welcome you into the Vongola family."
Claps drifted across the room: Yamamoto was wearing a silly grin on his face, Lal Mirch was gazing at her with a trusting expression, Gokudera looked frustrated (and constipated, as usual), but remained silent, Reborn shot her a cautious look… and at the corner of her eye, Hibari was still leaning against the door, but his reassuring and comforting eyes were on her – almost tenderly, but a tint of hardness concealed that fact. Miyuki knew – she didn't know why, but she knew. And she knew that Hibari Kyoya had been consistently helping her, subtly, quietly, pretending as if he didn't care less.
Arigatou, Hibari.
Miyuki stood in the middle of the training room, taking in a deep breath and readying herself. All the people that were present in the Vongola base were standing at the sidelines, they would be intently watching her, silently assessing her abilities and skills.
"That doesn't mean you can enter the Vongola family without showing us what you are capable of doing in combat." Reborn's solemn tone had broken the gradually lifting mood in the room – well, at least for Miyuki.
But she looked at him straight in the eyes, carried a confident and trusting expression.
"I will show you what I can do."
She briefly glanced around the room. Targets had been randomly placed all over the walls of the room – roughly about 200 of them.
"You have 1 minute to hit all of them, and at least in the 2nd ring of the target. After all, for someone who's going to be in the Vongola, such a simple task wouldn't be a problem, would it?" Reborn's tone carried a hint of sarcasm and mocking.
Completely unfazed, Miyuki nodded sternly and readied herself for the battle. She mentally corrected him, however, because she wasn't "going to be in the Vongola", she was already "in the Vongola."
"Freeze." She completely skipped the command "Tsubasa" – which meant she intended to hit all 200 odd of the targets exactly in the middle under 1 minute, while staying on one, single spot. Not that big a feat, actually, it was a far cry from moving things. And by moving things she meant the enemy, who would be doing more than moving – they would be disappearing, reappearing, attacking and never stopping. Which all the more motivated her to settle this quickly. Dancing, sparkling silvery blue and white flame enveloped her sleek metal bow, tightly clutched in her hands as an ice arrow appeared in the other.
"That's impossible. She's probably too weak to even fight against a chicken." Gokudera snorted, once again annoyingly in his constipated voice.
But it was then that Miyuki began to fire – and once she started, she wouldn't – couldn't stop until she had hit all of the targets down. The ice arrows moved so quickly in all directions possible it looked as if snow was falling down – only that the "snow" was going up instead of down. Each arrow squarely hit the target in the middle, as if it had been as easy as counting from one to three. Enforced by her snow flames, the arrows sliced right through each targets, and almost half through the wall. It wasn't only dexterity and agility she was aiming for – she was also aiming for strength, just enough strength to pierce through an enemy and confirm his/her swift death. Her eyes were simply darted throughout the room, spotting each target effortlessly and hitting it within half a millisecond, sometimes even too fast for a regular human eye to catch. Not that the Vongola was "regular" though, they were far from that – they were Mafia. She was intimidating when she was determined on something – and this time, it was to prove herself worthy of becoming the Snow Guardian of Vongola. The corners of her lips turned upwards as she released the arrow which hit the last remaining target, which she deliberately released faster, quicker and stronger. It completely went through the wall – that was good for her, but bad for Giannini. He would just have to patch it up again.
"48 seconds… Sasuga Miyu-chan desu ne. You're as good as your ten-year later self was." Yamamoto flashed a wide, teeth-showing smile at her.
"That's far from the end, Miyuki Estella De Luca. Gokudera?"
"Hai?" The silver-haired boy answered immediately, and slightly too eagerly.
"Fight her."
"Eeh? Reborn? They don't have to do this. I don't want to see my Guardians fight."
"Shut up, Dametsuna. This is simply a test to see how strong Miyuki Estella De Luca is." If not, the traitor would be better off dead. Miyuki swore she could hear those unspoken words.
"I'm ready as ever." Gokudera wore a smug grin on his face, his voice arrogant and confident.
"Tsubasa." As soon as the word escaped from her lips, she disappeared and reappeared behind the boy. "Sistema C.A.I." Shields shaped like targets surrounded him and blocked an arrow which would've otherwise hit the most vulnerable area in his spinal cord. "That kind of cheap trick wouldn't work on me, you scum."
She rolled her eyes as she fired another ten ice-blue arrows, which were counted with his flaming red bullets. "You talk too much. Fight."
"Flame arrow!" Miyuki dodged it easily, and corrected him, "it looks more than a bullet than an arrow. This is an arrow." An arrow flashed past his face and grazed it slightly. A trail of warm blood trickled down his face. He narrowed his eyes at her and manipulated his shields to defend himself at most of his vital points while he fired. Only he forgot that he left his back completely open, again.
"Blizzard." Her flames danced brighter and grew larger, until she released a huge, burning arrow that hit the ceiling once again, causing blocks of cement to come crashing down. "Is that all you've got?" He scoffed.
"Blizzards don't only destroy infrastructure, you know. They take away lives too." The arrow that had went through the ceiling changed its course, breaking into countless thin, sharp and deadly pieces of snow-flamed ice, charging towards him. The Blizzard arrow breaks into exactly one thousand, eight hundred and ninety dangerous shards of flame-enveloped ice which would attack the enemy from all directions, leaving them with no escape.
"X-burner." Tsuna's deep voice seemed to echo throughout the room.
"That's enough. Reborn, do not ever put two of my guardians against each other ever again." The dust and rubble slowly cleared, as the Tsuna in Hyper-will Dying Mode came into sight. Well the ceiling was completely another thing – there was a huge crater which left the ceiling mostly non-existent. And considering how easy it was for their base to be spotted now, there was no time to be wasted – they were exposed.
"Giannini, go take care of the matter at once."
"Yes boss." The round-shaped man scurried off quickly.
The Snow Guardian, the one who stands unmoved even in the strongest of hailstorms, protecting the family and freezing enemies in deadly fear.
That was her role now. It was sealed in that very letter, in that tiny font beneath those words that changed her life. Forget your pain, find a new family.
She caught a glimpse of Hibari silently leaving the room, with probably no one other than her noticing his absence.
Reborn cleared his throat loudly. "Well, Miyuki Estella De Luca, I hereby acknowledge you as a member of the Vongola family – but don't mistake it for accepting you. You're still far from that."
But all Miyuki did was to turn her back to face him and softly whisper, "I'll prove you wrong, Reborn-san."
"Hibari-san?" Miyuki knocked on his door gently. She was greeted by a seemingly expressionless face once again, but his eyes seemed to search hers for any remnants of depression. She knew. "Thank you." She smiled and took his hand into both of her soft, petite hands, her fingers quietly tracing a scar.
Hibari glanced at her, but neither made a move to withdraw his hand nor indicate any signs of being uncomfortable. Then Miyuki continued, "for everything that you've done. For your constant support and reassurance, even if it's in the most subtle and indirect way possible, for your chidings, even though they might sound harsh. But most of all… thank you for finding me, and accepting me as me. That's more than I can ever ask for, and I know you know that." Without another word, she let his hand drop to his sides as she left the room.
"Miyuki." He called out behind her. "I would be willing to do everything all over again, if it was for you." His voice carrying so much emotion, so much sadness and longing that Miyuki almost wondered if this was the Hibari Kyoya she knew. But she didn't question it – there had to be a soft side under that cold, stoic mask of his. And she found it.
"Hibari." She sighed as she turned back once again, her hands connecting with his once again. "So tell me, will you? Tell me, what we once were. Tell me how we met, how we came to know each other, how you learned every small little thing about me. Tell me… how we fell in love." She knew now – they had been lovers, she could tell from the tingle of her thumping heart when he spoke, from the way he looked at her so endearingly, so different from the way he looked at others.
He looked at her then, his eyes gazing into the very depths of her soul, and let out a long, loose sigh. "Miyu." His hands tightened around hers. "You have no idea about how you're driving me crazy just simply because of your presence."
A moment of silence. She looked intently at him.
His hands found their way around her waist, pressing her gently against his chest as he buried his face in her long black hair. He felt her hands too, slowly winding around his waist, locking them in an intimate embrace. They just stood there, contempt, his hands absent-mindedly tracing patterns on her back.
"I love the way you roll your eyes every single time I give you a one-syllable reply. I love the way you smile at me when we're together. I love the way you used to whisper sweet nothings into my ear. I love the way you grimace when you see button mushrooms on the table. I love the way you lean yourself against me and talk to me when you're upset… Miyu, I love you."
"But that's precisely why I can't tell you. I can't answer your questions, I can't erase your doubt, I can't let you know the whole truth. And I won't ask for your forgiveness because—"
"I do. I forgive you. I know you have your reasons for not telling me everything, and I understand. Because now, just having you by my side is enough. Just knowing that you love me, that you think of me, that you care about me, that's enough. Hibari, I don't understand myself, I don't understand this feeling, this pull of my heart that I can't explain, but I know, and I believe, that we will always be there for each other. And that is one thing that will never change. " Tears began to inexplicably flood her eyes once again. She was such a fool, falling in love with this man she had only known for a week, but felt as if they had been soul mates for years. Falling so hopelessly into this love even though she knew that they had to be separated one day. But she couldn't help it, couldn't resist it. She loved him. She loved him with all her heart.
And so the distant cloud and the icy snow fell in love.
"I've called all of you here for an important meeting because there has been some updates on the malfunction of the ten-year bazooka." Reborn announced once they were all gathered in the meeting room.
He continued, "Giannini has managed to obtain information about why you were able to remain in the future for such a long time. It seems that the time exchange of the bazooka has been changed. Previously, the bazooka was in the "equivalent exchange" mode, which technically means that the time spent in the future will be equivalent to the time passed in the past. For example, since the ten-year bazooka only warps someone into the future for 5 minutes in the present, only 5 minutes can be spent in the future."
He paused to take a breath. "However, the time exchange that you experienced during this journey, had been somehow changed to the "unbalanced exchange mode", which means that the time spent in the future is either more or less than the time passed in the past. And in this case, 5 minutes passed in the past is directly proportionate to 5 days passed in the future."
Miyuki froze. Didn't that mean that they only had less than 24 hours left to spend in the future? Didn't that mean that they had to return to the life filled with danger?
She was really a fool. She had indulged herself in the moment's joy of getting the things she had been hoping for for such a long time, of being accepted in the family, of finding someone who had really loved her for simply being herself.
Because didn't that mean that she had to let go of this relationship?
-End of Chapter Six
Chapter Six.1 – Omake
Advertising Goes Haywire
(NOTE: You should note that these things didn't really happen during the story. It's just for my own amusement – and probably yours too.)
"Blizzard." Her flames danced brighter and grew larger, until she released a huge, burning arrow that hit the ceiling once again, causing blocks of cement to come crashing down. "Is that all you've got?" He scoffed.
"Blizzards don't only destroy infrastructure, you know…"
"They act as reusable air conditioners too! Wide range of temperature included! Lowest at -100 degrees celcius and highest at 10 degrees celcius. Come and get some cooling and refreshing Blizzards at $10 per round now! While stocks available!"
Definitions:
Sasuga (-) desu ne: As expected of (someone)
Author's Note.
Hello everyone! :D
Okay now that I'm back, firstly I want to thank all the reviewers who took the time to give me some comments, 'cause they really cheered me up! I love you guys (': Secondly, I wanna thank my awesome twinnie Xuerong for giving me lots of ideas and inspiration, and also for proofreading all my chapters! I love you too!
Next is on to explaining my long absence. As written on my profile, it's due to the examination period and also like a mountain of projects and homework. I'm really sorry for the long break T_T I had to resist the temptation to update this fanfiction and do my projects 'cause I wanna put my studies as the priority! thank you for bearing with me (:
The story traffic right now: 2,040 hits, 11 favourites and 20 alerts. 20 reviews so far, which means I got 8 reviews for my last chapter! That really makes me very happy as an author, you know :D. I would like to say once again that I will be super super super duper motivated if each one of you took a few minutes to leave a review for me. Reviews = feedback = love&motivation! (:
Okay, and on this chapter, it's slightly shorter than the previous chapters, forgive me, but I think it had a lot of content. I finally got into the romance, and I hope you guys don't think it's too rushed. (: I enjoyed writing the romance very much. Also, I think I screwed up the fighting scenes 'cause I'm really bad at writing them, so if you have any feedback or ideas on how I can improve please state it in a nice way in your review okay! ^^
Also, I've edited the prologue a little to make it a little more professional, and I'll be adding in like translations for the Japanese words/phrases I use for each chapter!
Yeah I guess that's all, please remember to read & reviewbecause if you don't read you can't review and if you don't review I'll be sad! D: (and lose the motivation to write.)
(Next chapter will probably be coming in around 2 weeks time :D)