In Their Story, There was a Girl
Chapter 10: Red Heart
The sound of birds chirping signaled the beginning of a new day. The rays of the morning sun reflected on Yotsuba's sleeping face, stirring her from her sleep. Yotsuba blinked several times to let her eyes adjust to the brightness before she sat up in her bed. The clock read 9:46. She smiled at the clock despite the fact that she was late for school. It had been a while since she's had a good sleep. There was no more voice and no more nightmares. She wondered why Rokudou Mukuro had stopped haunting her, but at least she knows who the voice belongs to now. She was thoroughly angry, though, at the demonic boy, for peeking into her memories. However, this anger turns into fear quickly, as she remembered the boy's strong powers.
But there is definitely something else about that boy. It was not just malice that rested inside the boy's eyes. There was something else that made her feel sad, almost sorry, for him.
No! she thought. Get a hold of yourself! That bastard invaded your privacy!
Yotsuba looked sadly at a cushion on a desk, where a bandaged fur ball slept upon. Yotsuba went over to the desk and put down a small plate of grapes and blueberries. There it was, another reason she hated Rokudou Mukuro.
"I'm sorry, Kabi," Yotsuba whispered, "and thanks for always protecting me."
Yotsuba hobbled toward the door of her apartment and, after looking at Kabi for the last time, left for school. She passed by the peaceful Namimori shopping district. She felt sick when she passed by the fruit vendor and saw a mountain of pineapples on sale. She really needed something to distract her. And speaking of the devil, a splitting pain from Yotsuba's side certainly distracted her from the pineapples. She placed a hand to her side, feeling the messy bandage job she had done for herself.
"Blast it!" she muttered. "I guess I have to pay that perverted Shamal a visit."
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Tsuna stared at the empty seat next to him that belonged to Yotsuba. She hasn't been at school for a week. Although she was a very weird girl, it's only natural for a person like Tsuna to worry about her. To his surprise, Yamamoto and Gokudera seemed worried too, especially Yamamoto. The three boys had tried to visit her at her home everyday, but she refused to see them. It confused them, but at least she sounded fine behind the closed doors. Tsuna propped his head up with his right hand and stared out the window. There were just too many things on his mind lately. Not only the strange absence of Yotsuba, but also the appearance of the little boy named Fuuta.
They've made their encounter a few days ago at school when Tsuna was fetching a soccer ball. The sandy-haired little boy was very strange, just all everyone else around him. Reborn explained that Fuuta owned a very special ability to rank people in every aspect. In fact, the little boy was so skilled at ranking that many bad mafias had been after him. All in all, this Fuuta kid seemed like a sweet and innocent kid. But the problem was that the kid had decided to stay in Tsuna's house on his own and has followed him everywhere he went. The worst part was that Tsuna couldn't reject Fuuta, just like how Fuuta ranked.
"Sawada-kun!" the teacher bellowed. It made Tsuna jump in his chair and his knees hit the bottom surface of his desk. Wincing in pain, Tsuna thought, crap! I'm in trouble!
"It seems to me that you don't care enough for my lessons!" the teacher said. "If you're so good at this, why don't you solve this question on the board?"
"…………" Tsuna gaped at the question on the board. His mind had been somewhere else this whole time that he didn't know how to solve the question at all. Gokudera signaled "5" with his hand to Tsuna, but Tsuna was too nervous to notice. "I… I don't know…"
"I thought so!" said the teacher coldly. "Go stand in the hallway!"
Tsuna stood up from his chair at the all-too-familiar phrase. Tsuna dragged his feet toward the sliding door; he could feel his classmates laugh in their heads. But all he could think about was how embarrassing it must've been in front of Kyoko-chan. His thoughts were soon interrupted when he stepped into the hallway.
"Tsuna-nii!" a high-pitched, young, sweet voice called out Tsuna's name intimately. A small boy with sand-colored hair, who wore a long scarf and green coat, stood in front of Tsuna and waved. Tsuna stepped back in surprise.
"Fuuta!" Tsuna exclaimed softly. "What are you doing here?"
The young boy smiled brightly at the older boy. "I want to be always by Tsuna-nii's side!"
"You shouldn't follow me to school!" Tsuna scolded the young boy. He could not believe that Fuuta could be so persistent. Hasn't the kid learned a lesson last time from being chased by the mafia? Honestly, he does not want to have to be shot with a dying-will bullet again to save the kid.
"Why?" Fuuta pouted at Tsuna. His watery eyes attacked Tsuna's innocent heart.
"Because…" Tsuna frowned, "Because school is dangerous! The people are! You don't know what you're getting yourself into here!"
Tsuna got more and more emotional as he spoke. He didn't realize that he was speaking his own feelings instead of making excuses. Fuuta, being as young as he is, listened intently. Tsuna watched as fear started to show on Fuuta's little face and felt relieved. Maybe Fuuta will leave now.
"What's dangerous, Tsuna-kun? I'll protect you!"
Tsuna snapped his head toward the direction that the female voice came from. Yotsuba stood behind Tsuna a little slouched. You're one of the dangerous things! thought Tsuna, but he can't really say that. The girl really liked to make big entrances. Then he noticed the faint blue spots on Yotsuba's face. They were very faint but still recognizable as bruises.
"Yotsuba-chan!" exclaimed Tsuna. "What happened to you?"
"What?" asked Yotsuba. Tsuna gestured at the bruises on her face, and she understood. "Oh, these. Don't worry about them, they're just pimple bruises. I get crazy zits once in a while."
That's obviously a lie!! thought Tsuna. "Stop joking around, Yotsuba-chan! Why were you absent for the whole week?"
"Girls really do care about how they appear on the outside, you know?" Yotsuba said matter-of-factly. "Why else do you think Kyoko-chan only eats cakes once in a month?"
"Don't change the subject!" Tsuna shouted, although his face heated up from hearing Kyoko's name. Fuuta peeked out behind Tsuna. His face lit up upon seeing the black-haired girl.
"Yotsuba-nee!" Fuuta shouted happily, flinging his arms open and ran towards the older girl. Yotsuba looked surprised at first, but opened her arms for him.
"Fuuta!" said Yotsuba. "What are you going here? Don't you know how many people are after you?"
"Tsuna-nii will protect me!" Fuuta declared, not noticing Tsuna's protesting face on the side, and wrapped his arms around Yotsuba's waist. Yotsuba winced when one of Fuuta's arms made contact with the place that was wounded. Fuuta noticed the weird texture underneath the cloth of Yotsuba's uniform.
The young boy looked up at Yotsuba curiously. "Yotsuba-nee, what's under your---"
Yotsuba shoved a hand at Fuuta's mouth and silenced him. "I missed you too, Fuuta!"
Tsuna stared at the pair suspiciously, but decided against investigating further about Yotsuba's absence. The girl seemed normal enough. Well, normal as in her usual weirdness. "Yotsuba-chan, you know Fuuta?"
"Of course!" Yotsuba said with a yawn. "Fuuta is quite famous in the world of mafias."
"Is that right?" Tsuna said weakly. Why couldn't he just live like an ordinary student? "Well, why don't you go in to class? Yamamoto-kun and Gokudera-kun will be happy to see you."
"Hayato-kun? I guess he'll be happy that I didn't die by someone else's hands other than his," said Yotsuba. "I'll go in later. I need to go to the infirmary for a while. Maybe Shamal can fix these pimple marks on my face."
Tsuna felt weak. "If that's the case, will you take Fuuta along with you? I'll get in trouble if Fuuta keeps staying here…"
"Why can't you be responsible, Tsuna-kun?"
Tsuna wanted to cry. Yotsuba held back a laughter and walked along towards the infirmary, taking Fuuta's little hand in hers. Tsuna sighed in relief as both of them were out of sight. He turned back to where he was facing, only to find the teacher's face scrunched up together, looking very strained.
"Sawada-kun, stop making so much loud noises or I'll give you detention!"
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Yotsuba and Fuuta walked hand in hand toward the infirmary. Yotsuba continued to scold Fuuta for running around on his own on the way to the infirmary. Fuuta smiled at Yotsuba sheepishly and didn't retort. Although Yotsuba had only met Fuuta a few times before while still in Italy, they have become close really quickly. Yotsuba had always been softer toward kids, except for Reborn since he barely counts as a kid.
"Yotsuba-nee, what's under your shirt?" Fuuta asked his question earlier.
"It's nothing for you to worry about, Fuuta." Yotsuba smiled at him like an older sister.
Fuuta didn't push it any further. They arrived in front of the infirmary very soon, and Yotsuba pushed Fuuta to the side of the door.
"Stay there," warned Yotsuba, "it's a bit dangerous here."
Fuuta watched curiously as Yotsuba opened the door. A white personage jumped out from inside and knocked Yotsuba on the floor, yelling "I missed you!" Fuuta was horrified when he recognized the top-ranked most perverted doctor in all of the mafias, Dr. Shamal, was on top of Yotsuba. He hurried over to Yotsuba and tried to tow Shamal off her. Before he could pull Shamal off, though, Yotsuba had already lifted her hand and slapped Shamal across the face.
Shamal stumbled to the side. "Ow, Yocchan! That's not how you treat someone you haven't seen for a long time!"
"You're right. I should've kicked you instead." said Yotsuba, standing up and holding her side. "You useless doctor. You made me stretch my wound and now it's bleeding again…"
Shamal's eyes shifted toward Yotsuba's side, where blood slowly spread wider on her white uniform. Fuuta gasped at the sight in front of him. Yotsuba sent Fuuta a reassuring look, but Fuuta couldn't tear his eyes from the widening red spot on her shirt.
"How did you get that?" asked Shamal. His expression suddenly turned serious and he was searching into Yotsuba's eyes. Yotsuba looked away.
"It's a long story," said Yotsuba, "just hurry up and treat me already. Or I might just die from losing blood."
Shamal rolled his eyes. The girl needs to stop joking around, especially when her life is in danger! "Come on in."
Yotsuba followed behind Shamal into infirmary, and Fuuta entered soon after. Yotsuba sat on the white bed next to Shamal's desk, where Shamal was digging through the drawers for alcohols and bandages. Fuuta climbed onto the bed next to Yotsuba.
"Take off your shirt," Shamal said, pouring alcohol out on a clean cloth for cleaning her wounds.
"There's a kid here, Shamal."
"…………" Shamal narrowed his eyes at her. "Are you going to take this seriously or not?"
"I am. You're just too serious. And you're not even the one that's hurt!" Yotsuba shrugged and started to take off her shirt. "I just want you to treat it because of the poor job I do at bandaging. This is really nothing."
Like hell it's nothing, thought Shamal, how do you get little holes all on your side besides being attacked… cactus? And there's a wound on her shoulder, too! Shamal sighed and cleaned Yotsuba's wounds. The alcohol stung and Yotsuba hissed whenever the cloth made contact with her skin. Shamal examined the holes closely and made sure that they weren't infected. Smoothly, he snapped open a pill capsule that contained his trident mosquitoes. The mosquito flew onto Yotsuba's arm and injected something into her.
"That should help the wounds heal faster. You're lucky that there wasn't any poison on this weapon," said Shamal, starting to bandage her side. "I think it's about time you tell me what happened."
Yotsuba yawned. "I really can't, Shamal, we've got an important test today!"
"Since when did you care about those tests?"
"Since I started to get double-digits on them," said Yotsuba as she hopped off the bed after Shamal had finished bandaging. "Never thought I had it in me, did ya?"
Yotsuba grabbed Fuuta's hand and led him out of the infirmary. Shamal sighed again at the retrieving back of the careless girl. Looks like the girl is involved in something big. And bad. Maybe he should tell the Ninth about it. Then again, he might be killed before the Ninth's plane even arrives. Maybe he'll tell Dino. Although Dino is quite useless when it comes to talking to Yotsuba, but at least Dino can get something out of her, hopefully.
Shamal flipped open his cell phone and dialed.
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It was lunch time and, to Tsuna's disappointment, Yotsuba had taken Fuuta along to the rooftop to join them for lunch. Gokudera and Yamamoto were both surprised to see Yotsuba come to school. Yamamoto was, of course, the happiest one there to see Yotsuba. Gokudera might've been happy, too, but he always overreacts so no one can understand him.
"Stupid woman! What have you been doing for the whole week?!" snapped Gokudera, instead of peacefully greeting her like Yamamoto.
"I was busy trying not to be busy," Yotsuba yawned. "in fact, I was so busy that I couldn't have a good meal throughout the whole week!"
"……………" Gokudera wanted to say something, but he seemed to be at a loss of words. Yamamoto, on the other hand, was overjoyed by the fact that Yotsuba was healthy and in a good mood. He could always tell when Yotsuba was in a good mood or not.
"Yotsuba-chan," Yamamoto scooted towards Yotsuba with his lunchbox in hand, "If you'd like, you can have some of my lunch!"
"Takeshi-kun! You are a gentleman!" exclaimed Yotsuba while grabbing a sushi from the box. Yamamoto smiled at the girl chomping the sushi away. He had been worried about her for the whole week. He had been feeling guilty throughout the time of her absence, since he didn't walk her home that night. He probably wouldn't forgive himself if she wasn't here, lively and healthy, right now.
Well, as lively as Yotsuba can get. After devouring Yamamoto's lunchbox, Yotsuba yawned and lied down on the floor with her arms and legs stretched out.
"Oi!" Gokudera grunted, "don't just eat up someone else lunch and start sleeping!"
Yamamoto laughed and patted Gokudera on the back, saying that it's no big deal. Gokudera swapped Yamamoto's hand away and continued to scold the resting girl. Gokudera got angrier and angrier as Yotsuba ignored all that he's saying and just stared at the sky. Tsuna had to hold back Gokudera from lighting his bombs.
"Shh! Be quiet, you guys!" Yotsuba said suddenly, and all the attention was on her. "Look at the clouds…"
All of them looked up into the sky. White, fluffy clouds floated by with the soft wind slowly. The boys shifted their gaze toward the girl again. The expression on her face made her seem like she is concentrating hard on studying the clouds. As Tsuna stared at her, he took notice of the bruises on her face once again. Something felt terribly wrong.
"If you lie down like this… and imagine that you're the one moving instead of the clouds…" Yotsuba said as slowly as the clouds' pace, "doesn't it feel like… you're on a floating castle?"
I wonder… how much longer will I be able to see a peaceful sky like this…?
"So peaceful… so peacefu—AHHHHHH!!!!" Yotsuba shrieked as an oversized pineapple appeared in front of her eyes. She jumped from her sleeping position and braced herself. It's so big! Why is it so big?!
"Ciaossu!" Reborn's squeaky voice sounded from the pineapple. The pineapple turned around and Reborn's face was showing through an opening in the pineapple costume. All of them on the rooftop, except Yamamoto, toppled over upon seeing this.
"Reborn!!" Tsuna shouted exasperatedly. "What are you doing here?!"
"Why are you in a pineapple suit?!" Yotsuba shouted along with Tsuna. Yamamoto and Gokudera were surprised; it's the first time that they've seen her lose her cool.
"None of that is important!" Reborn said. His black-bean eyes flickered with light. "What's important is why are you wearing your sweater vest, Yotsuba?"
"Huh?" All the boys turned their heads toward Yotsuba. Despite the warm weather, she was wearing the sweater vest that came with the winter uniform.
Yotsuba raised an eyebrow. "Why not? Maybe I'm cold!"
"Is that so?" said Reborn. "Then why does Fuuta look so uneasy?"
Everyone turned toward Fuuta and noticed that the boy hadn't spoken a word since he was brought up to the rooftop. Fuuta stared at his feet and his brows furrowed together. He looked as if he was having a stomach ache. Tsuna looked back at Yotsuba, whose face was gaining a bit of red. Something was not right.
"Fuuta… Yotsuba… what's going on?" asked Tsuna seriously.
Yotsuba remained silent, but Fuuta couldn't hold it in anymore. "SOMEONE IS TRYING TO KILL YOTSUBA-NEE!"
"WHAT?!" the boys exclaimed. They looked at Yotsuba as if she was dying on a hospital bed. Yotsuba sighed; Fuuta was still too young to keep something like that a secret.
Finding no other excuses, Yotsuba lifted the sweater vest. The deep red of the bloodstain made a big contrast against the white uniform. The color shook the minds of the boys. Something did happen during that week. Yamamoto took on a stern expression. He couldn't take his eyes off the red spot on Yotsuba's uniform. It hurt him. With a reason that he could not figure out.
Yotsuba laughed. "Why are you guys looking at me like I'm about to die? For your information, no one tried to kill me! Shamal even said there's no poison in the weapon!"
"That's not the point!" Tsuna said, "The point is that you were being targeted! Why didn't you say anything, Yotsuba-chan? Why didn't you tell us that you were being targeted?"
"It's not serious!" said Yotsuba after a pause. "It's natural that things like this will happen since we're involved with the mafia!"
"Just because it's mafia," Tsuna said, "doesn't mean that we can ignore that wound! Yotsuba-chan, we see you as a friend. As a friend, will you just tell us what happened?"
Silence. Yotsuba stared into the eyes of the future Vongola Decimo.
Ma… it seems like Vongola saved me again…
The end-of-lunch school bell broke the silence among the teenagers. None of them made a move for a while, until Yotsuba turned her heels and walked towards the door. "Don't worry about it, Tsuna-kun…" said Yotsuba as she stepped through the door and advanced down the stairs. The boys watched her go in silence.
"Yotsuba-chan…" Tsuna murmured. "She left without explaining anything…"
"Well, she's still as stubborn as a little child," Reborn said.
"That can't be helped," said Fuuta, flipping out his ranking book. "Yotsuba-nee is ranked number one among all of the mafias in the area of 'running away'!"
WHAT AN EMBARASSING KIND OF TALENT!! Tsuna exclaimed in his head.
Gokudera kept his gaze at the door in which Yotsuba disappeared into. And perhaps the number one stubborn, too, he thought.
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Everything was a serene blend of orange and red in front of Yotsuba's eyes when she opened them. As usual, she had fallen asleep in class and school has ended. No was no one in the classroom. She lifted her heavy head and stared at the clock. 4:30. Oh, how nice of her classmates to not wake her up! She grabbed her things and started out towards the hallway. When she reached the stairs she heard something. Something melodic. Unconsciously, she approached the tune and made out that it was a piano.
Yotsuba stopped in front of the music room and listened to the piece quietly. It was a sweet and soothing melody. Suddenly the piano music stopped; Yotsuba snapped out of her trance. It made her jump when the door to the music room slid open quickly, and Gokudera stood in front of her. Yotsuba's mouth was slightly open, while Gokudera stared down into her eyes.
They stayed that way for a while; neither of them said a word.
"How did you know I was standing here?" asked Yotsuba. Her voice sounded louder than usual due to the previous silence, which made her feel a bit awkward.
"You breathe too loudly," Gokudera said, turning back into the music room.
Yotsuba stared at Gokudera's back in astonishment. For the first time, she couldn't think of a rebuttal against him. Seeing that he left the door open for her, she walked into the music room and closed the door slowly. As soon as the door clicked closed, Gokudera's music started, again, behind her. Yotsuba turned around to look at Gokudera play. The calmness in him made her think that he wasn't Gokudera at all.
Although knowing that talking when someone's playing the piano is rude, Yotsuba couldn't help herself. "I didn't know that you played the piano…"
"Ever since I was little," Gokudera replied, his fingers never stopped moving.
"Too bad it'd sound better if the pianist wasn't so ferocious-looking."
Gokudera smirked. "You should learn to be more honest."
Yotsuba raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"If you're happy, you should show it," Gokudera said as he stopped playing. "You were happy about what Juudaime said during lunch today, weren't you?"
Yotsuba didn't say a thing. She sat down next to Gokudera as he made space on the piano bench.
"I can really care less about you," said Gokudera, looking up at the ceiling. "but if Juudaime is being so good to you, you should be good back. I'll kill you if you make Juudaime worry."
Yotsuba stared at him. Gradually, the corners of her lips curled upwards. "Hayato-kun… if you care about me, you can just say so!"
Gokudera's head snapped toward Yotsuba at light-speed. "What are you talking about, stupid woman?! I care about Juudaime, not you!"
Yotsuba watched a color of roses appear on Gokudera's cheeks. How un-cool was that? The most dishonest person just scolded her as being dishonest. She shrugged.
It almost made Gokudera jump out of his seat when Yotsuba held his hands with hers. Her cold hands sent electricity up to the tip of his hair, and he was about to yell at her when she softy moved his hands onto the piano again. I'm not blushing! I'm not blushing! Gokudera told himself. Although he did feel a bit discontent when Yotsuba's hands were removed.
"Play again, will you?"
Yotsuba's voice never sounded so sweet in his ears. She looked at him expectantly, and he realized that he can't tear his eyes away from her. His mind told his hands to start playing the piano, but his body seemed to have a mind of its own. Without thinking, he inched toward her. Yotsuba seemed to notice Gokudera's strange behavior, and she felt her face growing warm. It became hard to breathe in the room.
"Gokudera-kun……" Yotsuba murmured as she leaned back a little.
"YOTSUBA-CHAN!"
The two teens shot apart at the energetic voice. Yamamoto stood at the entrance, with his baseball equipments in hand and his big bright smile on. There was no baseball practice today, but he still went to the fields to hit some balls. He had to release something from his mind. He couldn't stop feeling guilty about Yotsuba for the whole day, and he didn't enjoy having that feeling. He pondered about it while he played baseball. He came to the conclusion that he might have forgotten how weak and fragile girls are, especially Yotsuba, and just let her walk home alone that night. How careless of him!
Yamamoto felt a lot more relieved after hitting all that baseball and thinking. After all, Yamamoto was taught to learn from mistakes.
"Let's go home together, Yotsuba-chan!" Yamamoto said happily. "In fact, let's go home together everyday from now on!"
Yotsuba stared at Yamamoto with wide eyes incredulously. But she smiled, nonetheless.
"Yeah, let's go together!"
"Oi, baseball idiot! Don't treat me like I'm invisible!"
"Ah! Gokudera, you're here too?"
"You----!!"
The three of them walked side by side under the red sky. As peacefully as they can get.
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TBC.
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A/N: Woot! An update! Well, I've got some things to discuss here!
First, I've just counted the number of chapters to go before the battle with Kokuyou begins, and the result is that… there is just too much! I think everyone will get bored if I really wrote around ten chapters of "no-tension" chapters until Mukuro comes out again. So I've decided that I'm going to move some of the events in the manga that's BEFORE the Kokuyou battle to AFTER it. Which I think it's better since there aren't many things in between the Kokuyou battle and the Ring battles, anyway.
Second, I'm still deciding whether or not I should write about Naito Longchamp. I mean, does anyone even want him to be included? If no one really cares about him, then I can just skip those couple of chapters and get to the dramatic parts faster.
Third, I uploaded a sketch of Yotsuba that I've done. If anyone's interested, you can find it on my profile. She looks kind of mad, but what I was trying to do was to make her look sleepy, which I failed.
ANYPOO! That was a long A/N. Lastly, PLEASE REVIEW!!