Hello everyone!
I'm sorry for late in updating the chapters. It's really not my intention to update late but as I've mentioned before English isn't my first language so I got a bit difficulty in writing it.
Thank you for those who faves and follows, especially Belle-Kurama-style-bankai and Koneko-sempai who also left the reviews. ^^...
And...special thanks to Daylite for the help in editing sentence construction, grammars in this story. ^^
So...here it is. The first chapter after prologue.
Just for information :
Normal
Narration
'Thoughts'
"Flashback conversation"
Hope you all enjoy the story.
Disclaimer : I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or any of its characters.
Chapter One. In The Afternoon
Hundred years ago, stood a powerful, ancient kingdom named Vongola on the land that was now far from human contact. Its military strength, affluence, vast knowledge including witchcraft were the reasons behind its fame. For generations, it's had never weakened. They grew more powerful as the years progressed, never weakening.
Pale blue painted the morning sky while white cloud decorated most part of it. It was a contrasting sight compared to the shades of golden, yellow, red and brown which covered the whole land. These sceneries had almost never changed from day to day when Autumn took over the area after Summer. However today was different. It was special because today was the first day of Fête du Soleil*, a historic festival which was held for once a week in every year to commemorate the Kingdom's establishment.
Before Vongola Kingdom carved its existence in the page of history, there were seven small kingdoms then; Cielo, Tempesta, Pioggia, Nuvola, Nebbia, Sereno, Fulmine . At first, they co-existed peacefully with each other, giving respect for one another's nation as they interacted. However it changed when one of them declared war, after claiming that it was being insulted by the other 2 nations. The other four kingdoms stood neutral and tried to suggest to them to stop the war but rather than taking the suggestion, they asked for an alliance to win the war. They reasoned that this war was to protect their pride and winning was the only way that could end this war. Taking this as a logical reason, the other four kingdoms accepted the alliance soon with three different kingdoms that initiated the war first.
It marked the start of Period d'Eclipse* which means the Eclipse Period in English.
None of them wanted to succumb to each other. Also, none of them ever realized that the once small war had actually turned into a great war. Months passed by and soon it dragged to the fourth year, almost going into the fifth year. No negotiations could cease the war because before they reached into an agreement of the terms of the peace treaty, chaos had ended the conference.
It was until one day, they all grew tired of the endless battle. It became pointless. The war brought forth nothing but despair. The once fertile land had almost become a dry land with the grass losing the natural green color of it, no colorful blooming flowers, and no crops. Abandoning the land might be the only thing laid ahead of their future if they still insisted on continuing the war.
Fearing that worst future would come true, the seven kingdoms then set up another conference with the kings as representative of each country. It took them months to achieve a peace treaty which resulted to a union of these seven kingdoms or in other words, forming a single royal government.
Cielo was chosen to be the King of the new formed Kingdom which was agreed to be named as Vongola.
Peace returned to the people accompanied by happiness and hopes as soon as the war ended, just like the Sun illuminating the sky after the darkness of the night. That's why the commemoration was called the Sun Festival or Fête du Soleil*in Latin.
From early morning, citizens were seen to help royal officers in charge of decorating the city. Royal flags were hung from on the wall of tall buildings and tiny multicolored triangular-shaped flags were being lined up neatly on the ropes that ran across from one building to another. The others were preparing several things including lampions for night decorations. Meanwhile music and story teller were entertaining the rest of citizens with various interesting attractions in town square. The faint sound of melodious music drifted through the crowd.
It was a truly interesting scene filled with joy and laughter even as it was seen from afar. There, not too far from the crowd and across the city, stood an enormous castle called 'palace' standing with all its glory. Inside one of numerous rooms built inside it, sat a 10 years old boy by the window watching the festival using the binoculars.
'It would have been nice to be able to enjoy the festival.' thought the brown haired boy as he grew more interested towards the scenery he saw through his binoculars. His smile widened as seconds passes by, imagining how nice it was if he could join them to celebrate the festival. However it was just an imagination as he was prohibited to go.
Everyone outside should have thought that he could do whatever he wanted and go wherever he wanted without being restricted by anyone or even the laws of the country. However they're wrong. He was not as free as what those people thought even though he was the prince, the second prince of the country to be exact. It's not because of his parents. A certain new tutor of his was the main reason. The fact that he couldn't go celebrating the festival and had been sitting by the window of the large study room which was filled with books alone was also because of him.
He gave him a lot of homework to be completed as a condition-for being permitted to celebrate the festival. However by the time he finished his homework, his tutor was still having his meeting with the King that was not to be disturbed so he couldn't get the permission. He growled in frustration as two hours had nearly passed since the last time he went to search for his tutor with help from some servants. "How long do I have to wait, stupid Reborn?" he muttered as soft sigh escaped his lips.
"You'll get punished if he heard that, Tsuna."
The brunette, whose name was Tsuna, looked a little surprised upon hearing a sudden greeting voice came from behind. He immediately hid his binoculars and found a 13 years old blond male was walking towards him. "Giotto-nii, you scared me!" Tsuna exclaimed, and pouted at his older brother who looked nearly like him with the same defying gravity hair except their eyes and hair color. Giotto, the older male had orange eyes and blond hair whilst Tsuna had big doe brown eyes and hair.
Giotto chuckled lightly at his little brother's cute response. "Do I really scare you or it's because of something else?" Giotto teased him, ruffling his brother's hair and sat beside him by the window. He rested his hands on the window frame and used his right fist to support his chin. He glanced outside the window, enjoying the peaceful sight of forest, city and garden surrounding the palace under the pale blue sky before realizing that he was ignored. His little brother was now being occupied, once again, with his binoculars. It made Giotto frown a bit. Never did the cute little brunette ignore him.
"What are you looking at?" Giotto asked, snatching away the binoculars from his brother. There must be something far more interesting than him that stole Tsuna's attention for him.
"Give it back, Giotto-nii!" Tsuna tried to snatch it back from Giotto but his older brother's grip was too strong than his.
"Please, Giotto-nii." Tsuna whined as he punched Giotto on his shoulder and tried to pinch his older brother's cheek. Those attempts successfully got Giotto a bit distracted but that didn't make the older male loosen his grips at the binoculars. Giotto just smiled, ignoring Tsuna's attempts and quietly observing the outside surrounding. Tsuna sighed in defeat before sitting back next to his brother, staring at the royal garden below.
"The story-teller must have already finished telling his story."
"What?"
"The story-teller near the town square. Currently, he is telling about a child being trapped in a house of an evil witch." Tsuna complained, "And you snatched the binoculars away right when he was about to tell how the child managed to escape."
Giotto lowered his binoculars and threw a confused look at Tsuna. His confusion wasn't because of he found his little brother could understand the whole story that was presented kilometers away. He knew Tsuna was using a magic spell called Magica sonus et vox*, a spell of sound and voice to have listen better to the story. For people from Vongola Kingdom, having a magic skill was common for they were born with it. Each newly born child would have at least a magical ability. In other words, everyone in Vongola Kingdom was practically a wizard.
Giotto didn't understand why the brunette chose to enjoy the story-telling using binoculars and magic instead of going directly to the place. No one and no laws could forbid the brunette from celebrating the festival. Nobody would find it wrong even if a prince wanted to listen to story-telling at the town hall during festival. Plus, the brunette didn't really needed permission to do everything he wanted as long as it didn't go against the rule of royals and common law.
"Why don't you just go watching it directly? It's quite uncomfortable to observe far away things using binoculars. Your upper arm will easily get tired." Giotto said with concern in his voice.
Tsuna rolled his eyes at Giotto's question and sighed heavily, "As if I can, Giotto-nii."
Giotto nodded slightly as he watched his little brother in silence. He finally understood. There might be no laws forbid Tsuna for going to the festival. Not even his parents or him as big brother but a certain raven haired man would. He was the only man in the royal palace who dares to treat both crown princes as if they were some common students. He would punish them hard or threaten them if they didn't obey him as their tutor. Sometimes it even involved violence like hitting, punching or kicking.
"Let me guess. Our dear tutor being unreasonable again?"
"Well, yes and no." Tsuna said with annoyed tone, "He didn't restrict me from going to festival. I only need to finish all the tasks he gave me this morning. Perfectly, of course. Then I'll get my permission."
"So, what's the problem? You haven't finished it?"
"Actually I've finished it. But because he was still in a meeting with the king for two hours straight, I can't tell him. Damn that stupid Reborn! How long does he intends to sit in the damn conference room?!" Tsuna yelled, letting out all his frustration.
Giotto raised his eyebrows, surprised that Tsuna who was usually shy dare to curse at Reborn, their devilish tutor. The brunette was certainly depressed enough till he dares to pull such dangerous act.
"Maybe the discussion is far more serious than before," explained Giotto, patting Tsuna's back gently as he tried to soothe him, "Why don't you just go then? I'll tell it to him for you."
Tsuna just stared at Giotto in silence as if he just heard something weird, making the older male felt both uncomfortable and confused.
"Why? Did I just say something weird?"
"No...I mean yes! Going without him giving permission was the same as suicide! Remember the last time we sneaked out from study room to go to the garden?"
"He threw Mille Sternatae Alica* to us without warning." Giotto replied. A sense of dread could be heard in his reply.
How could he forget that day. Two years ago, on the fifth day after Reborn, the kingdom counselor had been introduced by both their father, the king, as their new tutor to replace their former tutor. It was the first day he learnt to not make Reborn pissed off and it was also the day that converted him to a good disciple. It was never pleasant when it came to the price they must pay whenever they went against Reborn's set up rules even if it was just the lightest violation.
He's a strict with icy cold heart man and scary as evil. That's how his subordinates described Reborn. Some of them even said he was the reincarnation of devil itself. They - especially Giotto should have listened to the rumor about the kingdom counselor that was spreading around the palace. Being a bit too confident, Giotto ignored the rumor without taking further consideration, inviting Tsuna out for a little walk. He thought Reborn wouldn't be as harsh as he was towards his subordinates when he was facing both of the royal descendants. After all, their statuses were higher than their tutor who was only a counselor. None of their tutor dares to restrict or question them. They would just let them do as they pleased including skipping their lesson. It's not like there would be a huge problem though.
With that thought in mind, Giotto decided to cheer Tsuna up a bit by taking him to the garden as they usually did that afternoon. The little brunette was feeling a little tired from sitting behind the desks for hours, writing essays in latin after his math, social and politics lesson. Tsuna, as a good student, being more polite than his mischievous older brother, refused Giotto's offer at first. He tried to remind ...or warn Giotto, to be exact about the rumor that was spreading. The blond male assured him that everything would be fine, their tutor wouldn't be angry and Tsuna was being paranoid over this. The brunette then agreed and they went to the royal garden, thinking they would continue doing their homework after coming back from resting.
It was a complete peaceful day with a bright weather and blue painted the sky, a perfect day to go outside and lay on the soft green grass, enjoying the gentle caress of wind breeze. Everything seemed so peaceful, so right until Reborn showed up out of no where with a devilish smirk graced upon his lips, ending their little peaceful afternoon with the spell of thousand bullets. They ran like hell with countless bullets chased after them while Reborn just stood there, eyeing and following their every single movement. About three hours later, he finally cast another spell to stop those bullets from keep chasing them.
"Sneaking out from study room without your tutor's permission is a sign of disrespect and I will not tolerate it. Now, you both don't think I've done with you, right?"
Those words were still fresh in his mind and it echoed almost every time he planned to sneak out from Reborn's teaching session. It was not the only one thing he couldn't forget. It was something that was needless to say what happened after his brief speech. He multiplied their already assigned tasks including their training-a complete turn of events in which a peaceful day turned into a hell day.
Giotto shook his head. Remembering that day gave him an awful feeling.
"Fine. I understand. But are you really going to wait here all day long and missed the first day of the Sun Festival?" asked Giotto, looking at Tsuna who was now sighed for the umpteenth time.
"Hell no! If by an hour he still hasn't come out from the conference room, I'll go without his consent! Like hell I want to miss the important first day of Sun Festival." replied the brunette after considering it for a while.
Giotto smiled at his little brother's determined reply and ruffled Tsuna's hair. He was about to reply when suddenly he heard footsteps echoing through the room along with the soft and low baritone voice, "Need me to remind you about disrespect, dame disciples?"
"No! Thank you, Reborn!" Tsuna glared at both his and his brother's tutor who dressed in all black, "Besides, it's not like I go against any of your rules! I've already finished doing twenty pages of math, essay about Vongola Secondo in five languages you assigned me to do!"
"But I still haven't checked it. So, going directly would be considerably the same as disrespect towards your tutor, dame Tsuna." He said with both arms crossed in front his chest.
"What!? That's unfair! What if you actually spent the whole day in the conference room and it's would already be at night when you finally finished it? It's the same as missing the first day of Sun Festival! "
Reborn just smirked and ignored Tsuna completely to check his disciple's completed homework. He took the essay written in latin and read it quickly. There were a lot of mistakes, mostly at grammar, the same mistakes he found at another essay written in another different language. Then he glance at about a small pile of papers consist of math answers.
It would surely cost him a lot of time to check all these home works. He didn't have much time for it. He must prepare to receive the royal guests whose arrival had just been announced by the king at the end of the meeting. He only had half an hour to prepare everything. Plus, he didn't want the brunette to meet them. It supposed to be a secret for Tsuna until the time came. It was a secret plan which all the seven counselors had argued for over two hours in the conference hall with the king and finally agreed at the end of the meeting.
"Reborn, don't ignore me!" Tsuna yelled in annoyance. He threw dagger glares towards Reborn.
Meanwhile, Giotto just stood there in silence, watching them with both amusement and confusion. He was amused by Tsuna who now dared to voice his annoyance towards Reborn rather than keep silence and be a good obedient kid. On the other hand, he knew there was something bothering Reborn. The way the raven haired male looked and acted wasn't like the usual him. Giotto wasn't sure but his instinct said it might be related to the matter discussed in the meeting before.
'Was it that serious this time?' He thought, eyeing Reborn, not really care if Reborn realize or not being observed by him.
"As I guess. You've done a lot of mistakes, dame-Tsuna." Said Reborn, turning around and face the now pissed off looking little brunette.
"What?! You haven't even checked it fully yet! How could you-" His words were cut off.
"Questioning my ability, dame-Tsuna? Now, considering you've a lot of mistakes in your homework, talked back to your tutor, and had even planned to sneak out without permission...I want to reward you."
"What are you talking about?" Tsuna asked carefully, without tearing off his gaze at Reborn.
"Well...at first, I thought to not giving you your permission to go to festival but on the second thought, I'll let you go. However, you must complete three full pages essay about your experience on the first day of Sun Festival."
Tsuna eyes widened. "Why should I?"
"Accept it or refuse it, then stay in study room re-doing the essays and another round of math." He said, leaning on his one arm at the desk. He was almost running out of time but that didn't mean he could act differently, especially when he found so many mistakes in his younger disciple's works. He sighed inwardly even though he maintained a still cool and collected him at the outside.
"Fine," He replied in a huff, "I accept it."
Writing his experience in celebrating the Sun Festival was obviously a better choice rather than being trapped inside the boring study room for the whole day and could only enjoy watching the festival from the castle, which was far away. Besides it was Reborn. Expecting him to give his permission without any further conditions or homework was useless.
Reborn's smirk widened. "I see. You may go, then." Finally, he gave Tsuna his permission.
Tsuna sighed inwardly and walked quickly towards the door, not wanting to show any further sign of annoyance he felt towards his tutor for being such a jerk, scared that it would change his tutor's final decision about his permission. When he was about to say goodbye to Giotto, his tutor added, "Just for your information, your highness. Two guards will escort you during your walk in the festival and your curfew would still be 6 in the evening. Have a nice day."
Tsuna nodded briefly and bid his goodbye to his elder brother. "See you later, Giotto-nii. Make sure to join me after you're done with your music lesson."
Giotto, in return, just waved his hand and smiled at his younger brother. Once he made sure the door was closed tightly and Tsuna was far enough from the study room, he shifted his gaze, eyeing Reborn with a questioning look. "So, what is it?"
"Just giving your little brother his permission."
"Don't play dumb, Reborn. You know I'm asking your reason for giving him permission without sparring time to check his works first. It has something to do with the matter discussed in the meeting, right?"
Silence filled the air as both of them just stood there, exchanging look.
Reborn wasn't surprised at the question; he had expected it judging by the way Giotto looked at him before Tsuna left the room. He was silent because he hadn't planned to tell him about it first for the plan still needed further discussion and still far from agreement. Perhaps...not too far but at least not that close to agreement for this was a new issue occurred due to a change in situation related to the previous agreement.
"It's about the engagement along with its latest issue. For that, the king and queen had already set up a new plan but it still needs to be discussed with the other parties." He replied honestly, earning a brief nod from Giotto. Reborn didn't cover the truth because Giotto was not an outsider in this matter. He was the one involved in the previous engagement. It's because he, by any chance, had already found out about it including the current situation which forced the previous engagement to break off.
"A new plan...," Giotto murmured, "Or should I say a secret plan for Tsuna. That's why you gave him permission even though you're not satisfied with his results. To whom my brother will be engaged with?"
"The sibling who belonged to your previous fiancé."
Giotto's eyes widening upon hearing Reborn's reply. He didn't dislike it. Just the engagement itself was a bit odd.
"So, father and mother still insist on following grandpa Timoteo's will? But that's a-"
"Half violation against the old tradition. I along other six counselors know it. However, it's done to honor the former king's will."
No matter where it was seen from, there's always a way for this engagement to be called as violation against the old tradition because a violation, whether half or whole violation, was still a violation. Giotto didn't get it. How the ninth could be so careless? How could he make such promise when he didn't even know whether there would be a female or male royal descendants as both Giotto and Tsuna hadn't even been born while he made that vow with the father of his previous fiancé.
"Tsuna...," Giotto's voice trailed away, "He will be quite surprise when he finds out about his fiancé." He muttered.
"Perhaps." A brief reply was what became Reborn's response. He sighed inwardly, imagining how the young brunette would react when he found out about this. It was, probably a lot worse than Giotto's reaction. But came to think of it again, why wouldn't he surprise if he found out that he was engaged with a man?
A soft knock on the door broke the silence filling the room, "Come in." Reborn said briefly.
The door cracked upon, revealing a humbly dressed young girl who worked as a maid in the royal palace. "I'm sorry for the interruption, Your Highness and Lord Reborn. The royal guests have already arrived."
"Are all the preparations done?"
"Yes, Lord Reborn."
"You may go, then."
The young girl, then, bowed respectively towards Giotto and Reborn before excusing herself from the room.
"They're here already, then. Can I also join the conversation?"
"Thank you for your concern, Your Highness, but I believe the king would want Your Highness to attend the music lesson. I'm sure you don't want to disappoint your younger brother for not being able to perform well in his birthday party."
Giotto felt a sudden heavy burden on his shoulders, making him shrink inwardly. "I believe it's still a plan of yours that you're going to suggest to father, Reborn." He said, glaring at Reborn.
Reborn just smirked, not giving any replies, ignoring Giotto, as he walked across the room. "Shall we, Prince Giotto di Cielo?" asked Reborn politely while opening the door, gesturing Giotto to walk out first from the room.
Giotto said nothing in return but kept glaring at Reborn while he passed him. When Reborn was about to close the door, he stopped his steps and muttered softly, "Just tell me whatever the conversation is. See you, Reborn." He said, continuing his walk towards the music hall.
"I'll consider it, dame-Giotto."
And with that, both of them continued their own walk towards two different places in the palace. Reborn headed towards the main royal garden where the royal guests who was the family of Tsuna's soon-to-be fiancé were chatting along with the King and Queen. This was certainly going to be a long conversation.
After the union, other six former kingdoms became six noble families. Each of them was in charged with six different positions in royal palace. As the years passed by, the mutual relationship slowly turned into a strong friendship. Never did betrayal cross their mind even once. They protected each other in their own unique way.
Cielo being the understanding and protector, accepting everyone despite their differences and giving everyone influences like a sky.
Tempesta being a never rest furious storm that was continuously at the heart of the attack.
Pioggia being a blessed shower; settles conflict and washes everything away.
Nuvola being the aloof drifting cloud; protects the kingdom from independent standpoint and whom nothing could ever bind.
Nebbia being the creator, which creates something from nothing, and nothing from something; bewilders the enemy, rendering the true form intangible, with visions of deceit.
Sereno being the bright sun shining upon an area and destroyer of misfortune who attacks with their own body.
Fulmine being the lightning rod, drawing damage to self and away from others.
The ace among seven of them was Nuvola whose strength surpassed others. Each generation of Nuvola was guaranteed to be born with intelligent, strength and great talent in magic. However...
Somewhere far from the palace, at a luxurious mansion...
"Today you're going to practice magic together with Alaude, your older brother. That way, he can help you whenever there's difficulty for you to perform a spell. Get it, Kyoya?"
The said raven haired boy glared annoyingly at the 30 year old man sitting at the large wooden table across him. Anger as well as disappointment begin to boil inside his heart.
"No." was what his answer and that's final.
Ignoring whatever his father's words to make him stay, he stormed out from the room and headed directly towards his room at the second floor. When he was about to reach his room's door, he heard another set of soft steps right behind, following behind his steps. It must be Alaude, he thought as he slammed his door shut before standing by the window, ready to jump down.
"Where are you going, Kyoya?" asked Alaude, the light blond male, when he guessed his younger brother's intention, stepping into the bed room.
"Mind your own business, herbivore." and after the brief answer, he jumped and landed smoothly on the grass in brief seconds and directly headed to the front gate.
What he needed right now was some time alone, far from his family. He wanted to forget this dissatisfaction in his heart caused by them.
He wasn't angry because his father asked him to practice magic. He didn't dislike magic or hate it either. In fact, he always admired magic for it being miraculous and beautiful. He still remembered it when he was small; he kept sneaking in his father's training room, watching him and his elder brother practicing. That time, he hoped that he would quickly bloom into a great wizard like his ancestors and parents. There must be some ways for him to master all the magic skills despite the fact of not possessing any magic ability when he was born. However, as years passed by, he was slowly convinced by proofs that he didn't have any talents in magic. No matter how hard he tried...no matter how good the teacher his family hired...he still couldn't perform a simple magic.
No. He didn't completely fail in performing simple magic. He could but it needed a lot of effort to do it.
It's a whole different situation from his elder brother, Alaude who could perform it effortlessly. It's like there's no any magic that was too difficult for him to learn. If he couldn't do it by today, then three days later, he could perform it although it still couldn't be classified into expert or flawless but it had already been definitely much better than before. For that talent, every people around him had always complimented him, called him a genius while at the same time, they would compared him with Kyoya, whether it was on purpose or not.
That was when he first learnt what envy meant. He envied his own elder brother for his talent in magic, something that he was lacking in. When he found out that there was no way for him to beat his elder brother, to proof that he also had the great talent in magic, he started hating Alaude.
So, basically, practicing magic together with Alaude under the same tutor could be counted as the same as comparing him to his elder brother. Accepting it would mean that he admitted losing to his elder brother. That's why he always ran away when it came to practicing magic.
He sighed, kicking the small rock under his feet. He didn't get it-why there was no one in his family that could see his true talent? Even though his talent was totally different from what his family had been expected but he had possessed talent in martial arts as well as to be able to communicate with animals. It was not a bad thing. Why couldn't they be proud of him like they are towards Alaude?
'Was it wrong to be different?' He thought while looking at the far end of the small stream which flowed through under the small bridge he was standing at now, enjoying the serene atmosphere.
Suddenly, a loud growl slapped him awake from the daydream. It must have been emitting from his stomach for he only ate a bit during lunch. Luckily for him, he walked to the bridge rather than going directly to his favorite secret hiding place-a big tree right in the middle of forest-by taking shortcut. He loved to spend most of his time up on that tree. It was far nearer for him to the market so he could buy food to eat as soon as he reached the place.
With that sudden decision made up, he then threw one last glance towards the stream before leaving the bridge and walked straight to the market.
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-To be continued-
*Translations :
Fête du Soleil = Sun Festival
Period d'Eclipse = Eclipse Period
Magica sonus et vox = Magic of Sound and Voice
Mille Sternatae Alica = Thousand Bullets Spell
I'm using 'google translate' for the latin word so please, forgive me if there's any mistakes with the latin words.
So? How is the story? ^^...Please, let me know what your opinion by leaving the review. Also any suggestions and critiques will be welcomed.
See you all in the next chapter. ^^...Have a nice day.
-Whiteberry-