I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

a/n: So here we progress onwards to Hibari's meeting with Dino. I hope you can all enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thankfully, I've been updating on time, too. So enough chit-chat, I'll let you dig into this chapter. Thanks in advance for any reviews; I love them very much!

A week had passed since Dino's first meeting with Kyouya Hibari. Hibari had been able to recover at an amazing rate. However, still far from being able to be dismissed from hospital, he was usually sleeping, dormant, and when he did wake up, things were mostly a blur to him.

"Hmm…yep…that's fine…" Dino was doing a daily check-up on his patient. "…that's normal, too...and this too…" He took notes on his clipboard, so he would be able to monitor Hibari's progress easily later on by looking at the days he'd recorded previously.

"Hey, you." Dino felt a hand tug at his coat.

"Hm?" He looked down past his clipboard. Much to his surprise, Hibari had woken up and was speaking to him. "Ah, you're awake. Did you need something?"

Dino had forgotten about their last encounter. "No. Are you the one?"

"Huh? Am I the what?" Dino was confused. He hadn't a clue what the young man was talking about.

"Don't play dumb with me." Hibari shot Dino what seemed to be a menacing glare.

"I'm sorry, I really don't know what you're talking about." Puzzled, the older man crouched down so his head was level with his patient's, hoping that if he paid more attention to Hibari then maybe he would explain what he was talking about to him.

An annoyed look on his face, he elaborated. "Are you the doctor that put me here?"

"If you mean the doctor who operated on you, then yes, that's me." Dino's mood became somewhat sombre after saying what he did. After all, this would probably be another patient of the same, commenting on Dino as if he were a special sort of creature to be exalted.

"Why did you save me?"

"What do you mean? I'm doctor, you were in critical condition, no one else could have saved your life, but of course I wanted to. It's my job."

"Oh, I see." Hibari smirked for a split second. After the smirk, however, he put a straight dead serious expression on his face. He paused and stared at Dino. "Go to hell."

"Huh?" Dino was taken aback. "What was that for?"

"Who and what do you think you are? A Holy Saint? Don't make me laugh. I'd rather die than be saved by the likes of a blinded fool like you."

Dino was captivated by Hibari's words. How long had he waited for those words to come to him? That he wasn't a Saint? He increasingly became more interested in Hibari, a desire to want to know what more he had to say.

Dino forced a smile. "So I get called a Saint, doesn't mean I am one. Who am I, you ask? I'm just your regular doc. No, I'm just another living being."

"Don't misunderstand me. You and I are the same. We're human. I don't know what's gotten into your head; perhaps it's the fact that that title of yours has overwhelmed you and you've lost sight of who you really are, and what you really want."

"Interesting. Now where are you getting at with those words of yours?" He remained calm. It seemed the raven haired boy knew what he was talking about. Dino was eager to hear his reasoning for talking to him in such a manner he'd never experienced before.

"Are you really that stupid? I don't believe it. You know what I'm talking about, don't you?" Hibari kept the stern look on his face, making sure Dino was taking him seriously.

"Perhaps. But maybe I'd understand what you're talking about even better if you explained to me."

Hibari paused for a minute. He wondered if talking to Dino was even worth his time. He decided to continue, however, since maybe he'd be able to have some fun from it, and he'd already stuck his head into the situation. Hibari changed his tone of voice, hoping to try and intimidate the doctor.

"So then, why do you accept being called a Saint when you know you aren't one? Why do you insist on 'saving' people's lives? For gratitude? To protect your title? Just because you're a doctor don't think you can pull the strings on someone's life and control them."

"It's not like I ask them to call me a Saint. Even if I do tell them to stop they're not going to listen to me. People have their own rights to say what they want. And it's inhumane to let someone die; if they're not dead yet, I try my best to save their life."

"So you expect you'll be able to save everyone comes to you? You expect that if you go help someone they'll wake up enlightened by your presence?" Hibari felt irritated. There was something this man was making sure not to tell him.

Dino softened his voice. "I have no choice, letting anyone die is inhumane. I try, but I'm not expecting anything. I counsel people too, you know. I don't expect them to thank me. I don't want them to thank me. I don't expect I'm going to be able to help them at all. No one gets 'helped' by me. I can give advice, but whether they act upon it or not is their choice."

"You don't make sense. You don't expect anything yet you accept everything they call you. Stop making excuses in my face. If you don't want anything you can always choose to not accept it. Yet you talk as if there is no choice not to accept it. You're just not making it available to yourself. People like you make me sick."

Being interrogated so forcefully by Hibari, Dino panicked. Retaliating against Hibari's words while concealing the secrets within himself became increasingly harder. He was at a loss for words.

"What's this?" Hibari sneered. "Did I hurt your feelings? Or does the truth just hurt too much?"

"You're wrong."

"Oh? How so? I also hear you're able to cure anyone from any disease or bring anyone on the brink of death back to life."

"Eh, where did you hear that?" Dino was taken by surprise. Hadn't Hibari been sleeping for the past week?

"How do I know, you ask? Just because it looks like I'm sleeping it doesn't mean I can't hear what all your herbivores are saying around me."

"I guess I better be careful of where I talk to my subordinates next time…"

"Don't try to divert my attention from the topic." Hibari looked straight into Dino's eyes. "So, there must be some reason you're able to cure these incurable diseases. I'm surprised people have been ignorant enough to not pick up on it. You must've done something to get where you are."

"No, like I said before, I'm just your regular doctor." He swallowed. "There's nothing different about me."

"Don't lie to me. Right now, your lies are as transparent as if you were a ghost. What are you trying to hide?"

"I'm…I'm not hiding anything." Dino sweated.

"Do you really think you can convince me with a half-assed answer like that? Then think again. What have you done? Commit murder?"

Dino's eyes widened. "N-no…! I haven't done anything like that! Don't make such a presumptuous assumption…"

The blonde haired man felt as if his sanity was slowly going to slip away from him. A murderer. That is what he deemed himself as. He wished that people would not give him titles without knowing that was what he declared himself as, though at the same time, he was reluctant to openly raise this title on himself. Even so, having someone he barely knew consider the option that he was one was more painful than he thought. Nevertheless, he grew more interested in Hibari than ever.

"Hm, did I get it right? It's time for you to start admitting things, don't you think so?"

A deep and dark silence emerged. Dino hung his head down, his face and expression covered by his hair. There was nowhere to run to now. No more lying, no more protecting himself. Hibari was intelligent, and because Dino was aware of that, he decided it'd be time to stop beating around the bush and explain the truth. Regardless of if he told Hibari the truth or not, he was already walking on thin ice with every word that came out of his mouth. The boy was certainly capable of forcing the truth out of him either way.

Dino lifted his head up slightly, his eyes filled with sorrow as he grinned sarcastically to himself.

"You're right. I am a murderer. The hundreds of people who died in the past that were written off as incurable…I killed them all."