In Their Story, There was a Girl

Chapter 12: Carnivore and Herbivores

The assault on one of the members of the Disciplinary Committee on the sakura-viewing day was like a spark that started the fire. Everyday after that incident, there have been many Namimori Junior High students who were assaulted. All of them had their teeth extracted. This kind of brutal assault has wrecked the peaceful atmosphere in Namimori, especially for the Namimori students. Even Sawada Nana, the optimistic and hard-working mother of Tsuna, was starting to get nervous. This morning she suggested Tsuna to take self-defense lessons in case something bad happens to him. Of course, Tsuna reacted hysterically, thinking that the assaults have nothing to do with him. Little did he know, he was the exact reason for the assaults.

Tsuna groaned loudly as he walked toward Namimori Junior High. In his hands were dozens of flyers for various fighting clubs and classes. Tsuna nagged about his mother while Reborn, walking on the walls by the sidewalk, suggested that Fuuta could make a ranking of which style of fighting most suited Tsuna. Neither of them realized that Fuuta was, strangely, not around.

"Maybe it's a good idea to join Ryohei's boxing club!" Reborn said, wearing a smile on his face despite the rising tension in Namimori.

"Don't joke around!" Tsuna exclaimed, "I'll get killed before I can defend myself!"

"You're right; you're too weak, anyway!" Reborn chirped, not realizing how hurtful that was for Tsuna. "Maybe you should go learn Aikidou from Yotsuba!"

"Eh?" Tsuna frowned. "But… Yotsuba-chan is too……"

"I'm too what?" Yotsuba popped up behind Tsuna, making him jump about five feet high. He was even more frightened when he saw the fatigued face of Yotsuba. The last time that he saw such a face from her was the day that her sleep got interrupted by Ryohei.

"Yotsuba-chan," said Tsuna nervously, "are you all right?"

"I'll manage," Yotsuba sighed. "All of these assaults happening lately is wearing me out!"

Since when did you care about these kinds of things? Tsuna wanted to ask, but decided against it. What Tsuna doesn't know is that Yotsuba hadn't been sleeping as much as she should ever since the night that she found the first victim of the assaults with Hibari. Everyday she runs around Namimori to investigate on all the cases secretly. It had been worrying her; she had a pretty good idea about who was behind all the cases. Although it would make her feel a lot better if someone told her that she was wrong, that the guilty one was not Rokudou Mukuro.

Just as Tsuna opened his mouth to say something, he stopped himself, again, by the sight of groups of prefects around the main streets of Namimori. All of them were tense and ready to beat up anyone suspicious.

"There are so many prefects!" Tsuna remarked.

"Because there have been many cases," Reborn stated, "The prefects are getting jittery, too!"

Yotsuba nodded at Reborn's statement. "The first victim had been a prefect, after all."

"This gang fight is getting a bit too serious!" Tsuna exclaimed.

"Wrong." Hibari's voice startled Tsuna and, once again, made Tsuna jump. Tsuna panicked immediately and started apologizing for no reason. Yotsuba noticed the distorted expression on Hibari's face. At the night that they discovered the first victim, Hibari didn't care at all for his own subordinate. But as more and more students from Namimori were targeted, it seems like even Hibari has become agitated.

"All of these attacks are just meaningless pranks," said Hibari with killer intent glittering in his eyes. "But of course, the damages put on Namimori will be fully returned to the originator."

Tsuna shrieked in fear. The dangerous aura emitting from Hibari's body was making Yotsuba nervous, also. In her heart, she knew that Hibari was undoubtedly strong. But if the originator was really Rokudou Mukuro as she had guessed, any side could win. And knowing Mukuro, as much as she could, he will probably play dirty.

The atmosphere lightened up suddenly with the melody of the Namimori school anthem. Both Tsuna and Yotsuba looked around to see where the music was coming from, and were both shocked to see that it was Hibari's ringtone.

HOW LAME! The two of them exclaimed in their heads. Yotsuba eyed Tsuna from the corner of her eyes, and Tsuna nodded at her. They both backed away from the older boy slowly.

"Well, we'll be on our way to school now!" Tsuna said with a forced smile, but was stopped by Hibari.

"He's your friend, right?" Hibari addressed Tsuna suddenly, startling him. "Sasagawa Ryohei. He was attacked."

With one terrified look, Tsuna darted toward the hospital's direction. Yotsuba lagged behind, worrying that Hibari would act on instinct and go straight into Mukuro's trap. Reborn's calling pulled her back to reality, and she ran on. When they arrived at the hospital, Ryohei was already all bandaged up from head to toe. He even had an oxygen mask. Tsuna went berserk at the sight of all the bandages.

"How are your injuries?" Reborn asked calmly.

"Six broken bones, seven cracked, and," Ryohei answered casually with a smile, "look! I lost five of my teeth!"

Ryohei opened up his mouth proudly to show that five of his teeth in the front are missing. Tsuna screamed again at Ryohei's casual mood. Yotsuba, on the other hand, had a grim face on ever since she entered the hospital.

"Five…" Yotsuba muttered as she stared into space. Her hand lightly placed over her lips as she thought.

Reborn lifted his head to look at Yotsuba. "You noticed something, too?"

Yotsuba returned the look and nodded. Meanwhile, Tsuna continued to ask Ryohei about his wellbeing.

"That guy… although he appeared careless, he was probably a strong fighter!" Ryohei said.

"Eh?" Tsuna cried. "You saw the attacker?"

Yotsuba's head snapped toward Ryohei. Rushing toward the bed, she grabbed Ryohei by the shoulder.

"You saw him?" Yotsuba pressed, "Sasagawa-senpai, please tell me how he looks like! Tell me every detail!"

Ryohei grimaced at the sudden weight on his shoulders, but Yotsuba's pleading eyes distracted him. He put on a rare, serious face and said, "Yup. He even knew my name! He wore the Kokuyou Junior High uniform, and he had blond hair. He had a strange scar across bridge of his nose and he put a lot of hairpins in his hair."

Each little detail from Ryohei's mouth confirmed Yotsuba's suspicion, to her dismay. Reborn watched as Yotsuba's face became paler and paler by the second. He was sure that the both of them were on the same page, maybe she was even ahead of him, by the way the she has gotten silent. Even when Kyoko hastily broke into the room to see her brother, Yotsuba was still in deep thought.

"Yotsuba," Reborn said, "What are you thinking about?"

Yotsuba's head snapped towards Reborn. She knelt down next to the baby hitman and whispered, "I think I know the enemy's plan. If I'm not mistaken, the next victim should be Kusakabe-senpai."

"What else do you know," Reborn smirked, "about the enemy?"

Yotsuba stared at Reborn for a while. "Rokudou Mukuro. I don't know much about him, but I'm sure Dino has gone back to research about the guy. Contact Dino and please don't get Tsuna involved until The Ninth has made a decision."

"Hmph." Reborn's smirk fell and led Tsuna out of the room. Yotsuba followed them, giving Kyoko a sympathetic look before exiting the room.

Once out of the room, Tsuna exploded. He grabbed the hair from the back of his head and shouted, "why is this happening?!" The fact that the hospital was filled with Nami students didn't' help. A classmate from the same class came running at them and told them that Mochida from the Kendo club had also been attacked. Not only that, several other Nami students, prefects or not prefects, were attacked since last night.

"They're targeting Nami students indiscriminately!" the boy said worriedly, making Tsuna even more frightened.

"Doesn't that mean that I could be next?!" Tsuna cried. "What should we do?!"

"Those self-defense classes don't sound too bad now, do they?" Reborn said casually.

The boy from Tsuna's class noticed a big man coming from behind and, immediately, thrust Tsuna's head down with his hand, bowing his own head also. "It's the vice-chairman, Kusakabe-san!"

Kusakabe walked down the hall with another prefect next to him. He didn't look a bit worried, being as fierce as he is. "Has anyone seen any sign of Iinchou?"

"No," the prefect next to him replied. "He's probably gone chasing the enemy. It's really only a matter of time before the culprits are totally annihilated.

As the two prefects walked along, Tsuna and the other boy got up happily. Thinking that Hibari will completely fix everything, the two boys started to celebrate like fan girls. On the other hand, Yotsuba's face became dead blue. With a turn at the heel, Yotsuba darted out the hospital.

"Yotsuba-chan?" Tsuna turned around and yelled after her. "Where are you going?"

"I'll be back!" Yotsuba yelled back.

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Yotsuba was both relieved and horrified to see Hibari at the border in between Namimori and Kokuyou. As expected, Hibari had found the culprit of the assaults, and was ready to destroy the enemy completely. Yotsuba was glad that she found him before it was too late. Taking in a big breath, Yotsuba gave a last dash toward the black personage.

"Kyouya!" She strained a cry, panting hard from the running.

The head prefect stopped in his track. He turned to look at Yotsuba impatiently, annoyed that she had stopped him from ridding all the pranksters.

"Kyouya… don't go! It's dangerous!" Yotsuba huffed, her voice full of pleading.

Hibari raised an eyebrow at her, as if she was taunting him with the word "dangerous". Yotsuba's iron eyes glittered in front of him. They showed something that no one has ever shown him before, compassion. But compassion wasn't something that he needed. Not him, a carnivore.

"Punishment has to be brought upon those who defy me." Hibari said coldly. He turned his back to her and was ready to move on again.

After taking only one step, Yotsuba stopped him again. Her small, trembling hand grasped his strong one. Hibari's gaze traveled from her hand to her face. Her head was lowered so that her bangs covered her fearful eyes. How naïve, he thought, her body's quiver gave her away.

"Kyouya…" she said through a whisper, "he's not what you think…"

Hibari did not budge, but just stared at her silently. Thinking that Hibari had decided not to go, Yotsuba slowly raised her head. However, the first thing she saw was the head of Hibari's tonfa, and then all she saw was the blue sky. Hibari struck her and she was sent five feet away from him.

Yotsuba sat up and held on to her throbbing forehead, sending Hibari a glare. Just as she was about to speak, Hibari stopped her.

"Because herbivores are weak, they group," said Hibari as he looked down at her. "When one wanders off alone, that one gets bitten."

With that said, Hibari turned again, this time entering into Kokuyou for real. Yotsuba gaped after Hibari's retrieving back, unable to register what he'd just said. Suddenly, it clicked in her head.

"Fuuta's ranking…" she muttered, "if Sasagawa-senpai is fifth, and Gokudera-kun is third…"

Yotsuba jumped up in a bolt and dialed Gokudera's number. She grunted as the answering machine from Gokudera's side told her that his phone was off. Letting out a breath, she took off running again.

Please be safe…

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Finding Gokudera was a lot faster than Yotsuba thought. He was walking around aimlessly at the entrance of the shopping district. Seeing that there was no sign of fighting on him, Yotsuba sighed in relief and ran towards him.

"Che," Gokudera looked at the coins in his palm. "Only sixty-five yen…"

"Gokudera-kun!!"

Gokudera looked up to see Yotsuba running up to him. Immediately he began to ask her the whereabouts of Tsuna, not giving her a chance to catch her breath.

"Oi, woman! Where were you and Juudaime today?"

"The hospital," said Yotsuba, "but that's not important! You're in trouble, Gokudera-kun!"

Gokudera raised an eyebrow at Yotsuba, clearly not hearing the latter part of her answer. "The hospital?! What happened to Juudaime?! I must go see him!"

Yotsuba rolled her eyes. "You… ah, never mind! At least I found you!"

Gokudera sent her a glare and turned around, about to walk in the direction of the hospital. Yotsuba followed behind after taking a breath, but the two of them were stopped by a young boy. The boy wore a white beanie and glasses, his body hunched over as he stuck his hands into his uniform pockets. In a monotonous voice, the boy said, "Namimori Junior High, Class 2-A, seat number 8… Gokudera Hayato."

Gokudera raised his head to look at the unwelcomed company. Yotsuba gasped in recognition of the boy's identity. The boy that had damaged her body ruthlessly was standing again before her, this time his target being Gokudera.

"Chikusa…" Yotsuba muttered, recalling the name from Mukuro's lips. Gokudera noticed the uneasy atmosphere rising in the air as Yotsuba's body tensed up beside him. But he didn't have the luxury to know what's going on as the boy spoke again.

"Let's get this over with." The glasses on the boy gave a murderous glint. "I don't like to sweat…"

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TBC.

A/N: man, I'm so sorry that this chapter is so short! Even though it took me so long to update, this chapter was harder than I expected. In the end, it turned to be almost just a retelling of the events in the manga with Yotsuba in it. I sincerely apologize!

[IMPORTANT] Another thing is that many of you have asked me to decide whoever to pair with Yotsuba, or to make a poll. After making a rough outline of the whole story, I've decided that I'm going to pair Yotsuba with Mukuro. It might not seem appropriate yet, but I'm sure it will later on. So, instead of making a poll of the main male character, I'm making a poll of the character that's going to be the other side of the love triangle! Which means that eventually he will be rejected by Yotsuba, but in most of the plot Yotsuba will kind of love him since Mukuro doesn't have a lot of appearance at all in the manga. I'm going to be making the poll soon, so look out!