Heeey look who's finally updating again! This person.
No excuses for such lamentable behavior yes, but I'm kinda not really sorry. I have a life too. Much as I think I dont. (I don't).
I got new games, read new manga, got sidetracked. Very.
Where is Kimiko you ask? Who knows? I dont.
By and by, we've been thinking of rewriting most of this story. You know, change it up, modify it, make it fit more to our style now than from before. (Cuz lets face it. We suck at writing) So after we finish maybe, we'll rewrite it.
Stay tuned for a sequel! Maybe. Possibly? Optionally?
To those of you who feel that this seems really familiar. Yes. Yes it is. We pretty much copied the dialogue for some of it. Probably some more of that in later chapters. Whew. Tiring work.
Anyways! Thank you for staying with us and reading this! Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 19: Last Minute Cram Session
~In Aoyuki's Room~
To anyone who wasn't aware of what was going on, taking a quick glance around the room probably would have frightened them. Mountains of folded pieces of paper, envelopes, and boxes covered the floor, barely leaving any walking space. At the desk, Aoyuki was furiously scribbling on pieces of paper with a quill ink pen. "And done!" Aoyuki exclaimed happily, finishing off the paper with his magnificent signature. "Now all that's left is to shove em' all in. Heheh. Too bad I won't be able to see their reaction." The floor clean of paper clutter, Aoyuki picked up the remaining box, and headed for the meeting room.
~In the Meeting Room~
"How is it?" Reborn asked Giannini.
"It seems like an image data…" Giannini continued pressing random buttons, "I can decipher it soon."
"But then…..if we say assassination squad." Gokudera dreaded.
Tsuna gulped, "All I can think of is them."
"Yuki? Ain't TYL Kimimi in Italy also?" Sakurako remembered.
"KK? Yeah that's where she was last time I talked with her. Well, either there or flying somewhere else. Probably to get to Mu no who. Hahah, puns." Aoyuki recalled.
"Why do I get the feeling that she's with the Varia?" Sakurako deadpanned hoping that it wasn't true.
"Oh, I think we did it! The code seems to be the Vongola's. And the digital signature matches too." Giannini moved to play the message.
"Yuki….do you have anything to block Squalo's yell?" Sakurako turned to her friend for help while covering her ears.
"Got some earplugs. They aren't the best, but it'll block some of it at least." Aoyuki passed the set to Sakurako.
"Thanks." Sakurako placed the earplugs as well as covering her ears in the process.
"I'll play it." Too bad Giannini didn't expect what was happening next.
"HEEEEEEEEEEEY! ARE YOU GUYS ALL STILL ALIVE, YOU LITTLE SHITS?!" Squalo's voice echoed off the walls.
"How in the world does he do that?!" Sakurako screeched as the base shook.
"LISTEN UP! DON'T YOU DARE MOVE FROM WHERE YOU ARE, EVEN IF YOU FIND A NEW SIGNAL FROM THE RINGS!"
"If you stay there, you'll get an easy-to-understand order, so just be good kids until then." Belphegor mocked us, appearing behind Squalo's head.
"Ah! They hung up!"
"They haven't changed a bit!" Yamamoto felt somewhat nostalgic seeing Squalo and Bel.
"So scary… What would be an easy-to-understand order...?" Tsuna managed to stammer out.
"It seems that they were talking about him. The one that came back from Italy." Giannini noted.
Everyone turned to look at the person who entered. "Sasagawa Ryohei….has arrived!" A older version of Ryohei carrying an unconscious Chrome in his arms.
"At least Kimimi isn't here to see him. Otherwise she'll be pissed off, right?" Sakurako sighed being glad her dear friend is not here to see the sun guardian.
"That's certainly true. He hasn't really changed a bit. Just taller, stronger, and louder." Aoyuki grinned.
~After the Meeting~
"Hey Kurakura, could you give this to me in a minute?" Aoyuki asked, holding out the tied box. "I believe that I won't be seeing you like this again."
Sakurako gave Aoyuki an incredulous look while taking the box into her hands,"Wait. What? What do you mean?"
"I mean that it's time for me to wish you guys good luck, not that you really need it anyways." Aoyuki glanced at the clock and chuckled, "Well then. Good luck. Don't think too hard about your choices. Bye!" With a small wave, he disappeared with a small poof of pink smoke.
"Yuki!" Sakurako gasped, unfortunately inhaling some of the smoke, "Cough!"
"Oh friggin *cough* hell. I'm gonna kick that blasted Kimimi when I see her. Argh! This blasted smoke is everywhere!" The Aoyuki from their time appeared out of the smoke, waving his hand in front of his face in an attempt to clear the smoke. "Whoa. Uh.. hi guys. Long time no see? Heheh...heh...ehh..." Aoyuki trailed off, scratching the back of his neck nervously. "Uh… where are we? What's happening?" Aoyuki glanced at Sakurako knowingly and smiled.
"Ehhh! Now Kaji-san's here!" Tsuna cried out holding his head in panic.
"You!" Gokudera glared at the person who recently arrived.
"Kaji!" Ryohei spoke.
"Oh! Yuki! You're here?" Yamamoto gave Aoyuki his blue ribbon smile.
Oh crap. Don't smile at me like that! I'll turn red or something… "Oh, sure. I finally find you guys after a few weeks and the first thing I hear from you is 'Oh no. He's here'. Great. Thanks. But yeah. Kimimi shot the damn rocket at me when I wasn't looking. I don't even know where she got it from." Aoyuki muttered.
"Ahaha, so that's it," Yamamoto nodded.
Turning to face Sakurako, Aoyuki placed his arms over the chair, "Anyways Sakura, you were gone the longest right? So you should know the most. Wanna fill me in?"
"Yeah I'll explain that when we get to the training room, and by the way your TYL self wanted me to give this to you," Sakura handed Yuki the box.
"Huh. What's this?" Aoyuki asked, untying the string around the box, only to be pushed back by an explosion of papers from the box. "What the frick!"
"Hie!" Tsuna yelped.
"Tenth!" Gokudera tried to cover Tsuna from the hit, but was unfortunately swept away by a wave of papers.
"Ahaha~!" Yamamoto laughed even though the papers covered him also.
"Extreme!" Ryohei somewhat avoided the mountain, however the papers piled up to his knees.
"Yuki, I'll never understand your TYL self at all!" Sakura yelled while popping out of the mess of papers.
"I don't either!" After the papers had flown out, what was left were a small corded bag and a single blue envelope addressed to the younger Kaji Aoyuki.
"Hey little me. Well, you know most of the story as is already, but be careful still. Byakuran's just as dangerous as you thought he was, and even more dangerous now. Take care of yourself, and don't give up. Don't despair, because there is hope with your friends. Our friends. Hahah. Most of the notes in the box (that are probably all over the room covering people and things now ;D) are instructions and guides on how to make and operate things in the weaponry closet and a few from my room. (You really should memorize some of the blueprints. The things they make, work amazing miracles.) You really need to learn how to control your powers, there should be another note somewhere that describes it in more detail. Well… you and Kura both. Use this time to practice in secret, yeah? The time'll come when you need to reveal them, but that's not now or soon in the future. (It's actually pretty friggin distant,) but you'll know when it is when it happens. Until then, have fun in this world! Everything changes, and there's pretty much nothing we can do to stop it. In the bag, are our box animals. A white wolf and a crane. Love em' just as much as I do, and they'll help you along your way. I think you know which one supplements which side of your powers. ;) By the way, there's a button on the underside of the box. If you press it, all the papers go back in the box neatly. It'll help when you actually want to read the stuff. Also! Tell Kura not to worry too much about her husband, the Little Flamer. He turns out pretty decent looking in the future, and while still stupid, thankfully not as much. Heheh. Good luck and all that shit. Your Future Self "
So what's it say?" Sakurako swam through the pile of paper to Aoyuki.
"It's about a buncha stuff. I'll tell you about it later." Aoyuki quickly folded up the letter, spotted the button on the box and pressed it. All of the papers that had flooded the room were quickly vacuumed back into the box. "Whoa. That was cool."
"That was quick," Sakurako scanned the room to see that there was no paper within sight, "So we're heading to the training room ?"
"That's correct. All of you need to prepare for the raid in five days. We'll continue the training as we started, and the two of you can train with each other." Reborn stated, jumping onto Yamamoto's shoulder.
Sakurako grinned, "Alright, let's go Yuki!"
With a small sigh followed by a chuckle, Aoyuki shrugged and extended his arm in front of him as a mock bow, "No choice I guess. Lead the way."
~On a Training Floor~
"Hey, are you sure we'll be fine training on our own? I'm still not exactly a master with my wind powers yet." Aoyuki asked, looking at one of the many papers left for him.
"Well your TYL self did help me start on my training," Sakurako pointed out, "Anyway have you seen your box weapons yet? Your TYL self hardly used it during training."
"Well… The letter did say it was a wolf and a crane, so I guess I'll see now." Aoyuki removed the wind ring from the chain on his neck, and placed it on his left middle finger, as opposed to his rain ring on his right middle finger. "I wonder which one goes with which… Come on out!" But that was slightly obvious as one was white with dark streaks, and the other was almost ocean blue. What appeared was a wolf, the icy blue eyes seemed to chill the atmosphere while it was covered in a snow-like pelt with a silver streak down its back, and a spotless white crane that immediately spread its wings for a quick flight around the room, spreading what seemed to feel like a light sprinkle.
"Wow! Your box weapons made the atmosphere in this room cold!" Sakurako shivered.
"Whoa. I think I'll name the wolf Tora, and the crane Lyn. They really are amazing, just like my older self said they would be." Aoyuki murmured, petting Tora. "You'll both help me won't you? Heheh. Thank you!" Turning his attention then to Sakurako, he asked, "Hey, so then what are your box animals?"
"Just a moment...Mana! Lop!" Sakurako opened her box weapons revealing the hyperactive white dove sitting on her shoulder along with a chubby brownish-white bunny sitting beside her, "Aren't they just adorkable?"
"Hahah. Adorkable? Really, Sakura? Are you becoming a dork now?" Aoyuki dramatically pressed the back of his hand to his forehead, "Oh heavens above! Help me fix this poor love-struck girl… Or not really. Tuna's kinda a dork as well. Speaking of tunas, my older self told me to tell you that he's fine. As in decent looking. As in your husband, wink wink, nudge nudge, cough cough. And that he becomes far less stupid and annoying." Aoyuki recalled, gently stroking Lyn's crest.
Sakurako shrugged,"Well we are in the manga world, and hey I resent that! If I ever see your TYL self again I'll thank him for stating those words."
Aoyuki stood up and brushed himself off and turned to face Sakurako, "Well then, shall we start practicing? You need to practice with whatever the hell you need practicing with, and I need to practice my wind powers and using them in tandem with my little helpers. Right guys?" At that, Tora and Lyn let out a small cry that seemed to agree with him.
"Yup," Sakurako picked up Lop allowing the furry creature to change into a crossbow as the dove chirped happily, "Ready?"
"Yeah. Uh, don't expect much for a while though. I'm not used to using the wind as a lift instead of a weapon. Although the notes do give a kind of detailed explanation. Like this one. It says to think of my wind as a platform or a wall and use that for lifting or pushing things. Like myself."
"Then until you get the hang of using your powers, I'm going to practice on these targets," Sakurako aimed the crossbow at archery targets from the left side of the training room.
"Uh… do you have light things I can… oh wait. Nevermind. I have a shitton of papers." Aoyuki then lit his wind flames and started to lift the papers and move them around the room. "Well. This isn't that difficult. For now." As Aoyuki practiced, Sakurako continued firing off sky flames at the first target alternating with her star flames. "Hey Sakura, do you mind if I practiced with your boxes? Not your animals, just the boxes. I'm gonna try lifting heavier things." Aoyuki didn't look away from the papers already floating, and only added a few more to the bunch.
"Sure." Sakurako placed her weapon down as she took one box at a time to place beside Yuki. Lop returned to normal sleeping peacefully on the ground.
"You know, a lot of these notes are really interesting. I mean, they talk more about our powers in detail, and there's stuff about future inventions and upgrades we give to our normal weapons and its all really fascinating." Grinning, Aoyuki proceeded to lift the small boxes, but the papers began to shake. "Oh shit oh shith oshitshithsit duck!" His hands went up to protect him as the papers fanned out and launched themselves outwards towards the walls like bullets.
"Wha...oh no." Sakurako deadpanned. The two people in the room along with their animals stop, drop, and dodged.
"Well… Heheh I guess I need more practice? It might have been the weight or the multitasking. But that's not all that likely since I could pick up more than one page…" Aoyuki moved to remove the paper projectiles from the walls, and deposited them back in the box. "You wanna spar instead?"
"Probably." Sakurako took in Lop, aiming a crossbow at Yuki, "I've been wondering how my aim was."
Seeing Sakurako's stance Aoyuki grabbed his bamboo quarterstaff and slid into position "Ready. Tora! Wind armor!" With a roar from the snow wolf, Aoyuki's body was covered in a layer of rapidly moving wind. "Lyn, rain cover!" The crane took off, and a light drizzle started to spread across the room, melting away Aoyuki's form from Sakurako's sight.
Taking deep breaths, she focused her eyes directly from Aoyuki's spot. Sakurako thus took the chance to listen carefully to her surroundings. A creak was heard, yet it was not Aoyuki or was it? "Agh!" Stumbling, Sakurako nearly landed onto the floor however she was lucky to somewhat regain her standing.
"Heheh. Don't be falling down now, we only just started." Aoyuki's voice seemed to float around the room. Taunting, almost, but not quite.
Sakurako puffed her cheeks in anger as she seemingly tried to shoot the arrow upon the direction of his voice.
"Well, you tried so hard, but missed by more than a mile. Although, I guess invisibility does make it hard to have a fair fight." Aoyuki slowly reappeared, several feet above Sakurako's head. Smiling, he waved at her before floating across the room. "Are you ready?"
"Ready than ever!" Sakurako spoke while aiming her crossbow yet again toward Aoyuki, "Lop!" Hopping onto the crossbow, Lop stared at Aoyuki bearing a blank face. Well do rabbits or bunnies ever make an expression? It seems we'll never know. Pulling the trigger, another arrow was shot, only this time a little bit faster. The crossbow bolt struck the wall with a thud, passing through a cloud that looked similar to Aoyuki, before collecting itself again to reform himself.
"That was very close. I'm scared now. Please don't hurt me." Playfully bowing towards Sakurako with his hands pressed together over his head, Aoyuki continued, "Spare me, oh great one that wields the mighty doom striker. For this body doth not belong nailed to the wall. But rather, dancing with his loved one heheh."
"Nope." Sakurako smirked. Lop opened her, which seemed to be a yawn, but turned out to be adding sky flames to the arrow. Firing away the sky flame covered arrow hurled toward Aoyuki.
"Oh boy." Air cartwheeling over the incoming projectile, Aoyuki pushed off the wall with his staff and backstroked through the air. "Speaking of loved ones, my future self told me to tell you not to worry about future Tsuna. I did say that he looked nicer, but apparently, he's kept his kindheartedness and something about not worrying when you actually do the do and confess to him."
Lowering her weapon down, Sakurako's eyes soften, "I see. I guess I do owe your future self something the next time I see him."
"Oh? How do I look in the future? Decent? I hope I'm not wrecked too badly." Aoyuki touched down and resumed petting Tora.
"Quite swell. In fact you annoy Giannini the most."
"Ahahah. Perfect. Excellent. Now my plans will have the most effect. Now, if only I could figure out how I did it. I could use it even earlier, heheheh…" He continued chuckling darkly to himself, tapping his fingertips together.
Sweat dropping, Sakurako wondered about what Aoyuki was talking about only to shake away the feeling as she raised her crossbow again,"I think we should resume training, right?"
"Nah. Let's just skip it. It's no fun when you're the target. Especially for pointy weapons. Like guns. Or crossbows. Projectiles mainly. Oh! And slashy stabby things. Those are painful too." Trailing off quietly, Aoyuki just dropped his staff, and fell onto the floor.
"It's preferably called firearms for a reason." Sakurako pretended to make a gun formation with her free hand.
"I don't care what they're called. Do you see me caring? Nah. As you can see, I don't like in-fighting. It's no fun. I just wanna rampage against some poor sap of the enemy. Heheh. I'd probably get a kick out of that." Waving his hand at Sakurako from the floor, Aoyuki showed no intent to rise from his floordom.
Sighing she reminded Aoyuki, "Remember we're going into the invasion along with the others."
"Yeah…But...Ughh. No. I don't wanna. I'm tired. I feel alright with my skills, mediocre as they are." Aoyuki flopped around on the floor in protest, still refusing to battle.
"Fine, but don't complain to me on the communicator if we do end up fighting."
"But, but but. We know all the enemies. There's that ginger boy that looks kinda like a girl and sadistic whippy afro lady and her entourage and some carpet snake man and some really big buff guy that Tsuna smokes and Gamma and that mutherfriggin! Genkishi-asshole that Yama fights." Aoyuki counted off on his fingers, numbering the enemies that he remembered.
"What about us? Our well being here in this world may have changed not only on our side, but possibly the enemies' side also," Sakurako point out.
Propping himself up onto his elbows, Aoyuki stopped his rolling to look at Sakurako, "You really think Byaka has enough free time to create enemies personalized to us? I do think that he does have some sort of life besides eating marshmellows. And sugar. But how bout I bet you, let's say, a date, that he won't." "...You do know that I don't like bets." "Yeah, but what's to lose? If I win, you can go on a nice little date with your little Tuna-swoona. If I lose, you can make fun of me on my date with Yama. It's really a fifty-fifty chance. So, heads or tails?"
Placing a hand against her temple, Sakurako relented, "Tails."
Pushing himself off the ground, Aoyuki landed crouching and sprung back up. "Heheh. Oh, no using your tarot cards man. No cheatsie-doodles. None. We're gonna do this fair and square and see what fate chooses the coin to land on. Aaaaaaaaaand speaking of fate, why do you think fate decided to put us here? In this world? When technically, it should be impossible to transverse the borders between worlds."
"..." Sakurako didn't respond. In fact the thought never entered her mind until Aoyuki mentioned it, neither did his TYL self spoke of it. Except for the his current self, "I never gave much thought upon this until now."
"Me neither. But still, it's been nagging at me from the back of my head. Maybe it's possible that this is a world possibility that Byakuran had already seen and defeated? Even then, what chance do we have to make sure the story continues to its end? We've probably already changed things considerably if you think about the butterfly effect, which is the same as Byakuran…" Aoyuki trailed off, staring at the ground in thought.
"Why are we referencing to Persona 3?"
"Hahahah. I guess we are. Speaking of Persona 3!, I started playing it. Although… I prefer Persona 4 to 3. Yosuke is sooooooo adorable. I just really wanna hug him!" Squeezing his sides as if in a hug, Aoyuki flopped back down to the ground and resumed his rolling.
"Meh, Yosuke is kind of cute...but he's just not on my radar," Sakurako placed a hand against her cheek, "It's Shinjiro-senpai all the way for me on Persona 3."
"Oh? Not on your radar just as Tsuna is on your radar? Ehhh? I mean yeah sure, Shinjiro's nice and all, but doesn't he die? Spoilers oops." Aoyuki shushed himself with his hand, glancing up innocently-like at Sakurako, before giggling again.
"I DID NOT MEAN THAT! I meant by the video games! Video games and animes/mangas are completely separaaaaaate! I DIDN'T HEAR THOSE WORDS! LALALA!" Sakurako ran around the training room in a frenzy covering her ears.
"Hahahahah! You can't fool me puny mortal! I am the angel that glides upon the winds! I am the almighty Arcangel and shall smite you down with my mighty stick!... Pthff. Hahahahah! Stick. Oh man…" Aoyuki couldn't stop his giggles over his own dirty pun. Sticks. Or rods. Technically its a rod. Made of wood. Pffth.
"Well I am the almighty holder of Tarots!" Sakurako smirked, "Holder of the death arcana! Now Alice use Die for me!"
"Sorry girlie. But those who align themselves with the holy side block darkness! Hahahah! You cannot convince me to fall to darkness! I shall reign supreme!" Posing in the typical conqueror pose, Aoyuki slammed his staff end to the floor and used his wind powers to animate his hair.
The girl still smirked, "Helel! Morning Star!"
Le Gasp. "Well then. Maybe a Panta Rhei should knock you down a peg or two little miss Yukari. Maybe towards your Minato? AKA Tsuna?" Aoyuki grinned, sending a ball of tightly compressed wind her way.
"Bleh! I am not Junpei! Yukari blocks wind attacks...I don't have any...nevermind," Sakurako summoned, "Orpheus Telos! Primal Force!"
"?...! Tora wind armor!" Even with wind armor, Sakurako's piercing attack penetrated through his defence, inflicting damage onto Aoyuki. "Ugghhh!"
Her ultimate fool persona sent out a severe pierce attack!
"Damn man. That really hurts. Remind me to never make you angry for any reason. I don't wanna face that again. I almost felt my life fade away!" Aoyuki lifted his shirt to check for damages before calling Lyn over to calm his pain.
"See this why you need to understand how awesome Persona 3 is," Sakurako spoke triumphantly,"By the way...Messiah, Salvation."
"Buuu. Just cause you finished it and I didn't. And thanks. Really useful not having to go explain things to the others. I didn't even know you had salvation on you. Its a really freaking great skill. Do you have Victory Cry to go along with that?" Tentatively poking the flesh of his chest before deeming it to be okay and no longer hurting, Aoyuki replaced his shirt before standing up and grinning at Sakurako.
"It's Messiah, but if you want Victory Cry on Messiah you need Orpheus Telos to remake Messiah into having the skill," Sakurako soon remembered, "But you it only works for the protagonist, not the rest of the team."
"L.O.L. Sucks man. We should probably get back to real training or studying now. Who knows who might bust in through the door and be like 'Hieee!', oh wait. Only Tsuna." Aoyuki scoffed at the door, before sitting down with his notes. "Tora! Come back and return into your box." Aoyuki extinguished his wind flames and watched as a white blur speed back towards the open box in his hand, before hooking his ring back around his neck, and then had a milk tea can appear in his hands.
Sakurako reached for her tarot cards, "Yeah, all this talk about persona made me want to review these." At the same time Sakurako placed her blue headphone clips on, the music on her phone was playing the Persona Music Live Band's version of Mass Destruction.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand that's it folks!
Voila chapter 19 after half a year?-ish. Somewhere around there. Not alll that sorry for Persona refs.
Summer's soon approaching, meaning more free time! Or at least supposedly.
Soooo maybe more chapters?
Kimiko's gone off and died somewhere maybe. She may or may not be missed all that much. (jk she'll be missed)
Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for your patience for the next chapter!