In Their Story, There was a Girl
Chapter 31: Selfishness
----------
One. Two. Three………Nine. Ten. Eleven. Yotsuba counted the wounds on her body as she changed her old bandage into new ones. Eleven wounds, mostly scratches, and a deep one on the arm. Whether or not Xanxus cared about her like Squalo said, she doesn't know, but she just knows that eleven times is just too cruel! Although, back in the days that she trained with him, he never went easy on her. She couldn't believe it, but she actually felt glad that Xanxus wasn't treating her too differently.
"Oh, gosh, why is Bel so damn skinny?" Yotsuba murmured as she pulled up a pair of Bel's black pants that hugged her thighs. "It's okay, Yotsuba, it's only because you have hips… it's okay…"
After pulling over a striped shirt of Bel's that was quite long for her, she opened the door. She stepped out and was greeted by an empty hallway in the hotel. She'd just realized that she had no idea where she was. A sound of footsteps approached her and she looked to her left.
It was Malvolia. The blue-haired woman held a little mirror and was putting on lipstick as she walked. When she looked up and saw Yotsuba, she stopped in her track.
"……Ugh, gross…" Malvolia muttered while making a disgusted face. She walked off quickly into a room not far from Squalo's.
You're the one that's gross, Yotsuba thought. When Malvolia walked past Yotsuba, all she could smell was alcohol, smoke, and especially blood. Malvolia was probably the one member of Varia that Yotsuba's scared of the most. The woman goes on killing sprees even when there are no missions. And according to Squalo, she's never satisfied until a limb is dislocated from each person's body. Yotsuba wondered what made Malvolia this way in the past, but since Malvolia treated her so badly, she's stopped caring… she thinks.
She walked in the direction that Malvolia came from, and soon found some elevators. Pressing the button with the upside-down triangle, she began to get a little suspicious. If they took the effort to kidnap her, why was no one keeping an eye on her? However, she knew that answer very well.
----------
Yotsuba arrived at the hotel's lobby and sat on a red sofa near the entrance. She looked at the big clock on the wall behind the check-ins. It read 12:10. Great timing, she thought. She waited a little more until Squalo, who she was expecting, came in through the front door with a paper bag in his hand. The silver-haired man looked at Yotsuba in surprise.
"Oh, it's you," said Squalo, "How did you know you're gonna find me here?"
"Niisama," Yotsuba replied, "always demanded vodka around this time of day. I figured that one of you guys would be put on the job, and Bel must be preparing for the battle tonight."
"You remember well. Your damn brother is really troublesome." Squalo complained as he waved around the bottle in his hand.
"Well, go give that to Niisama before he harms you!"
"Come with me," said Squalo, pulling Yotsuba with him with his empty hand, "you're not escaping."
"Squalo, do you know how it feels to be chained up?"
The man stared down at the girl beside him. It has been a while since he'd heard one of Yotsuba's daily weird questions. "No. I'll just cut up those chains if they try to chain me up."
Yotsuba laughed half-heartedly. But you can't cut emotions, can you?
----------
Even with the fresh air of the night caressing her face, Yotsuba could not whip up and smile. The time for the Battle of Storm has come quickly. The Varia members were traveling from roof to roof with an incredible speed, while Yotsuba rode on Squalo's back. The battle is between Bel and Gokudera. In all honesty, Yotsuba didn't want to come to see the battle at all. She knew that she would be heartbroken to see Gokudera's angry face at her, and she couldn't imagine what Tsuna and the others would think of her.
They arrived at Namimori Junior High, and Tsuna's team has just arrived also—all except Gokudera. Tsuna and the others seemed to be worried that Gokudera hasn't shown up yet, while Bel was snickering. Then, Tsuna finally noticed Yotsuba as she was let down by Squalo.
"Yotsuba-chan!" he shouted.
Yotsuba hesitated to look at Tsuna, not knowing whether to smile or frown. Tsuna took a step toward Yotsuba, but Squalo put his sword in front of her, stopping Tsuna from approaching more. Seeing that he could not do anything else, Tsuna stayed in his place and just shouted.
"Yotsuba-chan! I heard about you and Gokudera-kun from Reborn!"
Yotsuba remained silent and appeared indifferent, but in her heart she was anxious.
"Don't worry, Yotsuba-chan!" Tsuna said. "Gokudera-kun may be a little stubborn, but I believe you! You were there to save Lambo, after all!"
Hearing Tsuna's words, Yotsuba felt a little guilty. She forced a smile to show that she was okay, and Tsuna seemed to be relieved. Maybe being naive is better than being sophisticated.
Finally, at the last moment, Gokudera arrived just in time to still be qualified for the battle. He was all geared up for the battle, and he smiled confidently at Tsuna. However, when he looked over to the enemy's side to see Bel, he also saw Yotsuba looking at him nervously. She seemed even more nervous when she noticed his gaze. The clothes she was wearing were Bel's; that must've added Gokudera's suspicion. Yotsuba wanted to explain, but she realized that she really had nothing to explain.
I… wasn't forced to wear these, so what is there to explain?
----------
The violent battle was announced at the third floor of the school building. Powerful turbines were set up in various places on the floor, so that makes the battle even riskier. The real danger was that if the winner wasn't decided by the time limit, the both of them would die. Tsuna and the others were worried, juxtaposed to Bel, who was getting excited over this "interesting match".
"Nonetheless, let's do the group cheer before we start!" Ryohei exclaimed.
Yotsuba, now standing on the Varia's side, watched Tsuna's group do their usual cheer. She cannot help but admit that she felt hurt seeing the group circle without her. For the first couple of times, she felt so embarrassed doing something so childish. But now, she longs to be a part of that circle, too. The feeling of Ryohei's strong arms on hers seems to be a burning memory right now.
"GOKUDERA!! FIGHT-OH!!"
Gokudera and Bel walked to the middle, facing each other. Gokudera was glaring at Bel, while Bel's grin could not stretch any wider.
"Shishishi, don't be so nervous!" Bel snickered as he patted on Gokudera's shoulder. "Take a load of your shoulders!"
The battle began, and Gokudera did not notice what Bel had done when he put his hand on Gokudera's shoulder. Even with the strong currents put forth by the turbines, Bel was still able to attack Gokudera with his knives. This was shocking to everyone, and the winner was obviously Bel during the first half of the battle. Not until thirty minutes into the battle did Gokudera realized Bel's trick with the thin wires. But even with the realization, Gokudera wasn't able to counterattack at all.
"Continuously in the heart of attacks, the storm of the raging waves that never rests. I can do it, but…" Bel snickered, "you can't!"
Knives danced in the air as if they had lives. No matter where Gokudera ran to, even when the knives missed him, blood still spewed out from new wounds every time. Yotsuba winced each time a new wound was added to Gokudera's body. It was just like her situation last night with Xanxus; she felt like she could feel those wounds again while watching this battle.
Finally, Gokudera was able to notice the small pin stuck to his shoulder, connecting to thin wires. Quickly disposing the wires, Gokudera barely dodged the final attack. And with his Rocket Bomb technique mastered, Gokudera finally counterattacked. With what seemed like a direct blow, Bel still came out of the smoke looking fine, excluding all the blood dripping down his face.
"The blood…" Bel muttered madly, "the royal blood is flowing out!"
Bel seems to have become mad and began laughing hysterically. Yotsuba has never seen this side of Bel, so she became quite worried about the battle. The battle reached its climax in the library, where Bel had Gokudera surrounded with razor-sharp wires. However, Gokudera was able to see through Bel's plan and disconnect all the wires with his bomb ahead of time. Then, Gokudera gave his final blow.
It was clear. The winner was Gokudera. Yotsuba was relieved to see that both Gokudera and Bel's lives were not in danger. However, everyone was shocked to see Bel's hand shot up toward Gokudera's neck and grabbed the half of the Vongola Ring. As a last struggle, Bel could not bear to lose. The two of them rolled around and began to fight with their bare hands.
"Hayato!" Shamal shouted from the other side. "Give up the ring and come back alive!"
"No!!" Gokudera shouted back. "Someone who returns empty-handed… isn't worthy of the name of Juudaime's right-hand man!"
"Gokudera!!"
"Octopus-head! Come back here!"
Yotsuba watched the barbaric fight warily. She could not stay calm anymore. "Stop it, Bel! Gokudera! You're both gonna die! There's no point of this battle if both of you died!"
Obviously, Bel was not sane enough to hear Yotsuba's words.
"Even if I die, I won't five up!" Gokudera shouted back at her. "You're not the only who can sacrifice themselves for Juudaime! That kind of thing… I can do it too!"
Yotsuba was taken back by Gokudera's exclamation. "Gokudera-kun…"
"That's enough!"
The angry voice of Tsuna stopped Gokudera's struggling. "Aren't we fighting so that everyone can laugh together again!? If you die, then there's no point of any of this! We still have to save Yotsuba-chan, don't we?!"
Tsuna's words seemed to have some effect on Gokudera. But at the same time, the last wind turbine has exploded, and it seemed that both of them had no chance in living. However, they were all relieved to see that the both of them have made it out of the explosion alive.
Gokudera stumbled to Tsuna's side and finally collapsed. "Sorry, Juudaime. The ring was lost… I came back because I wanted to see the fireworks again…"
"Thank goodness, Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna smiled with tears in his eyes. "I'm really glad!"
As Tsuna and the others celebrated Gokudera's coming out alive, Yotsuba also jogged toward Bel, who was collapsed on the floor, still laughing about the ring. Yotsuba propped the prince's head up with her arms, and soon the prince lost consciousness. Letting out a relieved sigh, Yotsuba pulled his arm over her shoulder and lifted him up. Bel's weight made Yotsuba stumble backwards, but someone was behind her so that she did not fall over.
"Give that bratty prince to me," Squalo said. "You can't carry him."
"Thanks," Yotsuba handed Squalo the prince's arm. She stood in place as Squalo dragged Bel away, looking back at Tsuna and the others, and back to Bel's blood stained on her hands.
When she looked back up again, she saw Gokudera's gaze locking with her own. One look and she knew. Gokudera hasn't completely forgiven her yet, but at least he accepted her as a part of their group again. At that moment all of her stress and agony for the past three days has finally been broken, and tears started to pour down from her eyes. Gokudera was clearly surprised, and looked away quickly.
"Hm?" Levi noticed Yotsuba's silent tears. "Boss, she's crying."
Xanxus stared at Yotsuba crying quietly. It seems like he has no intention of talking to the girl.
"Ooooiii! Brat, what are you crying about?!" Squalo dropped Bel on the floor and approached Yotsuba. Just as he was going to put his hand on her shoulder, a subordinate of Levi's crashed through the hallway in front of everyone. Everyone was shocked by the sudden crash-in, but they were more surprised by the person that walked out of the darkness. Tsuna was the first to shriek.
"Hibari-san!!"
Yotsuba looked up with her blurry eyes to see the Disciplinary Committee Chairman whom she hasn't seen in so long. Even after all this time, she could still tell from his expression that he was extremely angry. In other words, he's pissed off, more than ever.
"What do you think you're doing at my school?" Hibari asked coldly, addressing everyone. "I'll bite you all to death!"
"Even us?!" Tsuna panicked, looking around in circles.
Hibari ignored Tsuna's nervous outbursts, and observed his preys in the hall. His eyes scanned the area and landed on a crying Yotsuba. He stared at her for a while and his eyes lingered on Yotsuba's red, swollen eyes. it made her remember the day that Hibari last found her crying, how he beat her up for crying. And then, Hibari's gaze traveled to Squalo, who was grabbing Yotsuba's shoulder. The two males glared at each other.
"Taking my prey… I'm going to bite you to death!"
"Ha?!" Squalo raised an eyebrow, glaring at the skylark icily. "Brat, let me tell you something. She's mine."
It was Hibari's turn to raise his eyebrow. "What are you talking about? She is my committee member. No one touches her except for me."
My committee member…
"Kyouya…" Yotsuba muttered. "Sorry… please let me be selfish for this last time…"
Hibari stared into Yotsuba's dark eyes. "Herbivore…"
With that, Hibari walked away, leaving the repairs of the school to the Cervello. All the ruckus came to an end, and Yotsuba looked over to Tsuna, who smiled at her understandingly. Tears seemed to well up in Yotsuba's eyes again. Only a person like Tsuna could understand her situation and accept her, and she was grateful for it. Sitting on the shoulder of Gola Mosca, she left with the Varia back to the hotel.
Please forgive me, everyone. Forgive my selfishness… for using the kidnap as an excuse to be with the Varia for as long as I could. But I promise… I will fight against the Varia with all I've got when my time comes. So now, please let me be selfish for this last time, and be with them for a while…
----------
TBC.
----------
A/N: Sorry for such a late update! I was so tired from the orientation, and I had work every other day afterwards, so I was really tired. Anyway, I'm having some sort of writer's block. I hope it goes away soon.