The Promise of the Sun

Sasagawa Ryohei

Disclaimer: I EXTREMELY DO NOT OWN KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN!

"Get ready for a journey to another parallel world!" Byakuran said, white wings sprouting from his back. "Oh wait, I forgot to tell you one thing, Tsunayoshi-kun."

"What is it?" Tsuna asked.

"It seems that I can't control which parallel world we're going, so I guess we'll have no idea which Guardian to search for in that world."

Gokudera yelled, "And you're only telling us now?!"

But Tsuna just smiled. "It's alright. You don't have to worry about it."

Byakuran smiled back. "It seems you know well what you're doing. Well, here we go."

Byakuran worked his power. There was a blinding light, forcing Tsuna and Gokudera to close their eyes. Soon, Tsuna felt weightless and dissolving in complete darkness, and he knew that he was travelling to another world.

It was only his second time of experiencing it but he wasn't afraid. Instead, he forced himself to heighten his senses, searching for any clue. When he had first travelled across space, he could freeze with fear. But there was this red thread that seems to coil around him, seeking him. He touched it and knew that it was Gokudera's flames calling out to him even with the Storm Guardian wiped off his memories of his boss. This warmed Tsuna to his heart and gave him courage to face the different world.

This time, it seemed different. There wasn't any thread. Instead, he felt a reviving energy pass through his body. The surroundings felt hot. Finally, that bright color overcame the darkness. Tsuna immediately knew who the Guardian was in that parallel world.

Tsuna and Byakuran stood on a sidewalk. The streets were almost empty except for the vehicles passing every once in a while. Tsuna looked at one passing Nanimori student about 14 years of age and compared their heights.

"I'm not a kid!" he exclaimed.

"Well, I'm not a white bird," Byakuran said, wiping sweat of his brow. He felt that the surroundings were oddly cold. "And you're not one big bush of brown hair good for nesting on. So, do you know who the Guardian to look for this time?"

Tsuna nodded. "Yeah, it's— HIEEEE!"

Four running children passed them, some stepping on Tsuna's toes and punching him on the stomach. Tsuna lost his balance and landed on his butt as the children hurried away.

"What a weak guy!" one of the children said.

"Yeah! He's like a girl!" said another.

"How scary…" Tsuna stood and dusted his pants as Byakuran, clearly untouched by the children, just stood watching as the children turned at a corner.

"You get bullied a lot," Byakuran commented.

"Yeah, thanks for noticing." Tsuna's shoulders slumped. He blushed as his stomach growled. "Um, can we go and have some snacks?"

Byakuran agreed and they started walking, coincidently the same way as the children went to. When the two turned on the same corner, they found the four kids and another younger boy the four were beating up.

Or maybe the younger boy was beating the older four kids. The younger boy threw punch after punch, expertly not losing his pace even with four opponents. But he was noticeably slowing down, the stress taking its toll on his young body. One wrong step and the four older kids will break his defences and have their chance of countering.

"Wait! You kids shouldn't—!" Tsuna spoke up, stepping in to break the fight.

The fight indeed stopped as the children turned to look at Tsuna.

"It's that weakling again!" one yelled. The four elder kids attacked Tsuna in unison.

"HIEEE! Please don't—oww!"

This time, it was Byakuran who decided to interfere. He smiled at the children. "Kids, you should listen to what Tsunayoshi-kun is saying." Suddenly, his smile disappeared and his stare turned into a cold ruthless one, causing the children to back away from Tsuna. "And you shouldn't hurt him."

The four older children ran away in fright. The white-haired boy helped the brunette to his feet.

"Thanks," Tsuna said. The two turned to the remaining kid who has short white hair and a confused expression on his face. His hands were still in fists but his form had somehow slackened.

"EXTREMELY confused…" the smaller boy muttered. He was more injured than Tsuna first realized: his right cheek was swelling and there was a line of blood from a corner of his mouth down his chin.

"Onii—I mean, er… I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"I'm Byakuran."

The kid stared at the teens. They looked very contrasting: the one called Byakuran has seemingly suppressed air of maliciousness around him, his stature screaming he should be followed instead of being bossed around; while the Sawada guy seemed so harmless and fragile, and his eyes were showing his honest and full emotions. Nonetheless, both of them seemed to have a friendly aura towards him.

The kid lowered his fists. "I'm Sasagawa Ryohei," he said, followed immediately by a growling stomach.

Tsuna smiled. "Why don't we have some snacks?"

Ryohei seemed to sniff the sticks of takoyaki after takoyaki that all Tsuna could do was watch him eat.

He's like Lambo… Tsuna thought.

Byakuran looked at Tsuna, a pouch of marshmallows on one hand. "I thought you were hungry."

"Well, I am," Tsuna said. He took a bite of his burger.

The three were in a park beside a lake. Some little girls were feeding ducks while some middle-aged men fished. There was a cat sleeping by Tsuna's feet.

Ryohei looked at the teens. "Thanks for the meal. I'm EXTREMELY grateful. Especially for these gloves!"

Tsuna looked at the bag containing the boxing gloves. Ryohei couldn't keep his eyes off them when they passed by a sports store while on their way on buying some snacks, so Tsuna bought it for him. Secretly, Tsuna thought, Well, it was lucky for me that I have a lot of cash in my wallet… Oniisan sure can eat a lot. And those gloves didn't come cheap too…

"Are you two from around here?" Ryohei asked.

"Er…" Tsuna didn't immediately know what to answer. He was afraid he might give the wrong information and get his parallel self into trouble. But quite suddenly, the answer to Ryohei's question came to his head—a memory slowly surfacing. "Yeah, my house is just a few blocks from here. Byakuran is staying over at our house for vacation."

"Yeah," Byakuran said with his mouth full of marshmallows. "I'm from Italy, after all."

"What about you?" Tsuna asked Ryohei.

"I—" Ryohei started saying but he was interrupted by a small voice.

"Oniichan!"

The three boys turned to the source of the new voice. Tsuna's face was lit up by a smile. Running towards them was a small girl with orange hair and bright eyes, her red skirt billowing while she ran.

How cute! Tsuna thought. Kyoko-chan's really cute!

Kyoko looked at Ryohei and reached for Ryohei's cheek which Tsuna had clumsily applied medication on, causing the boy to flinch slightly.

"Oniichan, what happened?" she asked. "Did you get into a fight again?"

Ryohei looked away. "Oh, this nothing…"

Tsuna frowned slightly. No out-of-this-world excuses? That's odd…

Tears formed at Kyoko's eyes. "Oniichan…"

"Ah~ she's about to cry…" Byakuran said. He extended his hand with the bag of mallows towards her. "Do you want some, little girl?"

"Um, who are you, niisan?"

"Oh, I forgot to introduce you," Ryohei said, gesturing. "This is Byakuran-san and Sawada-san. This is my little sister Kyoko."

"Nice to meet you~" Byakuran said.

"Uh, nice to meet you," Tsuna said, feeling awkward on introducing himself to persons he already knows all over again.

"Ah, oniisan tachi," Kyoko said, still teary eyed. ""Do you know the guys who fought my big brother?"

Byakuran notice the hearts seemingly flying out of Tsuna so he elbowed the brunette.

"What?" whispered the surprised Tsuna. "Isn't Kyoko-chan cute?"

Byakuran smiled and looked pointedly at Tsuna. "I have my eyes set on only one person, remember?"

The brunette managed a nervous laugh as he remembered Byakuran's earlier condition, while the white-haired boss turned to the small girl to reply, "Don't worry. Your oniichan can take care of himself. Right, Ryohei-kun?"

"Of course!" Suddenly, a bright flame seemed to surround the boy's body, screaming his fierce determination. "I'll be EXTREMELY strong, Kyoko!"

"Um, that's not it, Onii… R-Ryohei-k-kun…" Tsuna said. "Your way of saying it is…"

"What?" Ryohei asked. He turned to Kyoko. "There's EXTREMELY nothing to worry about! You don't have to cry, Kyoko"

But the little girl's worried look wasn't gone from her face.

Tsuna lay down on his bed, feeling refreshed from his bath. It was night already but he kept on thinking about Ryohei and Kyoko. He sighed before suddenly sitting up.

"What the heck are you guys doing in my room?" he yelled.

Reborn sipped his coffee, sitting on Tsuna's desk. "So how did your day with Tsuna go, Byakuran?"

"Hmm, the marshmallows I ate in the park were good. Oh, and I also gave some children a pretty good scare with my stare," Byakuran replied, drinking his milk. "And to decide who's going with Tsuna around the town tomorrow…"

"You guys are ignoring me…" Tsuna complained helplessly as Byakuran handed him the glass of milk and popped his knuckles. Reborn set down his cup of coffee and smirked. The guy and the baby formed fists with their right hands…

"Go look away, Tsunayoshi-kun," Byakuran reminded.

"You guys shouldn't—" Tsuna started saying but Reborn kicked him on the face, forcing him to 'look away'.

"Ready?" Reborn asked Byakuran, resuming his position with ease.

"Yeah," Byakuran replied, his purple eyes serious.

Together they yelled, "ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS!"

Byakuran said, "Choose, Tsunayoshi-kun."

"W or L?" Reborn asked.

There was a pause before Tsuna muttered. "L."

"I'm the loser!" Byakuran said while Reborn sounded a low tone of disapproval. "I'll be the one with Tsunayoshi-kun tomorrow!"

"Uh, you guys are having fun of your own," Tsuna handed the glass of milk back to Byakuran and lay down again. A memory surfaced in his head: Reborn and Byakuran had done the same thing last night, in which Byakuran had his first win.

It's odd to remember a memory not my own, Tsuna thought. He looked at Byakuran at the corner of his eye. I wonder what he feels. He travelled more parallel worlds than I did. It's only my second time to travel, but I'm already uncomfortable with all the alien thoughts in my head.

Byakuran felt Tsuna's gaze on him. "Is there something wrong, Tsunayoshi-kun?"

"Oh, nothing." The brunette smiled brightly. "I'm just happy that it's Byakuran who's going with me tomorrow." And not Reborn! came an afterthought.

Byakuran gave Tsuna a tackle-hug, almost suffocating the smaller boy considering he was lying in his bed. "That's sweet of you Tsunayoshi-kun!"

Tsuna tried to push Byakuran away. "Can't…breathe…"

Suddenly, Reborn pulled Byakuran away from Tsuna. Dragging the Gesso family boss, the hitman opened the bedroom door and threw the guy out.

"Time to sleep!" the tutor said, slamming the door at Byakuran's face.

Tsuna blinked, sitting up to look at the closed door and Reborn's back. Another memory made it to his head, making his eyes go wide with realization and his heart to throb faster. The memory was about Reborn confessing to…

No way… Tsuna didn't know it but he was blushing. He was sweating and the hairs on his arms were standing on their ends. Reborn…in this world… he likes—?!

Outside, Byakuran lingered by the door for a while. And then he headed to his room.

Tsuna couldn't sleep a wink, the bags under his eyes noticeable as Byakuran walked with him the next morning. It was still early and the streets were still empty.

"Did you remember something about Reborn, Tsunayoshi-kun?" Byakuran asked. "Something about the one he likes?"

"Do you know about it, Byakuran?"

"Of course~" Byakuran replied. "There are many parallel worlds in which men come after you including this one. I think the names of the other guys are—"

"Stop, stop, stop!" Tsuna yelled. "It's giving me the creeps!"

Byakuran pouted. "Oh, is that how you think about that honest feeling? And to think my condition for you is—"

"This and that are different!" Tsuna insisted. I'm going to fulfill that condition for my friends… while this— "Reborn's feelings are…"

Byakuran looked at Tsuna seriously, all the trace of playfulness gone. "Those feelings of Reborn are real—in this parallel world, that is. Meaning, it's still a reality between the Tsunayoshi-kun and Reborn of this world. Whatever's going to happen isn't a dream or our imagination."

"I know…" Tsuna let his determination show through his eyes. "And oniisan… I still have to save him and guide him back to our world."

"Yeah, just leave the thinking about Reborn's feelings to the Tsunayoshi-kun of this world," Byakuran said, smiling again. "After all, the Tsunayoshi-kun of this world has a lot of time to think because you guys sleep in the same room~"

"Ah, please stop teasing me," Tsuna said. A noise caught his attention. "Wait, aren't they…?"

From a distance, four children were running towards their direction. They were the same children who fought with Ryohei the day before, picking playfully on each other but stopped when they got nearer to Tsuna and Byakuran.

They noticed Tsuna. "Oh, it's that weakling again."

"Yeah, he's the one friends with that brat getting bullied by that dangerous badge guy!"

"Friends with that…? Oh you mean oniisan… R-Ryohei-kun?" Tsuna thought for a moment. "And getting bullied—what do you mean?"

A child stuck his tongue out at Tsuna. "No tellin' yah, weakling!"

Before Tsuna could finish thinking 'Oh, Osaka-ben', a malicious aura flared just behind him. Byakuran's smile wasn't bright at all.

"Didn't I just tell you brats? You should listen to Tsunayoshi-kun…" he told the already shivering children. "Now, tell us. Where is this kid being bullied by that badge guy you mentioned?"

Ryohei showed the challenged letter to the guy he saw in the abandoned park behind the school.

"Are you the one who sent me this?" he asked.

The guy didn't speak. He was about Tsuna's size. His dark hair almost covered his forehead and a black jacket was slung carelessly over his shoulders. Ryohei crumpled the letter and threw it towards the other guy's direction.

"EXTREMELY tell me! Where did you take my little sister? I brought these gloves you asked for!" He took out the gloves Tsuna bought for him the day before.

But the guy ignored him and ran towards an abandoned-looking building nearby. Ryohei chased him.

"Wait!" he yelled but he had lost sight of the guy. He realized that he had entered the building himself.

It was cold and dark inside. He was in a wide room with several boarded windows. There were shelves all over the place, like in some kind of store. Debris littered the floor and there were some animal bones too. A staircase at the corner led to the second floor. Ryohei climbed this in hope of finding the man who took his sister. But when reached the second floor, he stopped in surprise.

"What EXTREMELY happened here?" he asked as he found men lying all over the place. They were all unconscious and badly injured. But a fight was still going on in the middle of the room. Several men were attacking a guy with a tonfa on each hand.

"Hey, EXTREMELY snobbish guy!" Ryohei called on the guy with the tonfas.

Still, the guy ignored him. He was busily fighting men way older than him and single-handedly defeated them. As the last of the men fell, the tonfa-wielding guy turned towards the corner of the room. A shaking older fat man hulked there, gripping painfully on the shoulders of a certain tied-up little girl.

"D-Don't come any c-closer!" the fat man yelled, showing the little girl he held in front of him for the tonfa guy to see. "Or else I-I'll throw her o-out of the w-window!"

"I don't care," the guy said, raising his tonfas in preparation to attack.

"Wait! Don't do it to the EXTREME!" Ryohei yelled, stopping both of the men from their tracks. "Kyoko!"

"Oniichan!"

The fat man grinned. He grabbed Kyoko by the collar and held her suspended out of the window with its glass broken.

"Think c-carefully before attacking!" the fat man said, gaining some confidence. He looked at Ryohei with irritation. "Y-You're that brat who bought my b-beloved gloves!"

"Gloves?"

"Y-Yeah! I want them for several m-months but how can I go spend m-money so c-carelessly when my b-business and o-organization is going b-bankrupt?!" The fat man was heaving. Kyoko's weight was dragging his arm down even though she was just a little thing.

The fat man pointed at Ryohei. "And when I l-learned a brat bought my precious g-gloves, I set this t-trap to take my treasure from you!"

"What a ridiculous display of herbivorous act," the dark-haired guy muttered, continuing his attack. He hit the fat man, who let go of Kyoko. Ryohei ran and jumped out of the window to reach his little sister, his left brow caught to one of the shard of the window glass.

They were falling. Ryohei caught Kyoko into a hug. Holding her closely to himself, he closed his eyes and waited for the ground…

…which never came. Gentle hands caught him and his sister. Warmth enveloped them—that familiar heat of fire that has no intention of burning whatever it touches.

Ryohei and Kyoko opened their eyes and saw the orange flames of the Sky.

"I'm sorry I brought you trouble," Tsuna said, landing gently on the ground. Ryohei looked up at his face, seeing those light-colored eyes. They were somehow different but very familiar and still showed Tsuna's real feelings.

Tsuna set the children on the ground as a body fell from the second-story window, making the three of them look up. They saw that black jacket, those glinting tonfas and that red-and-yellow armband of a disciplinarian.

The flames on Tsuna's forehead disappeared.

"H-Hibari-san?!" Tsuna exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Herbivore," Hibari called. "I'm catching that ridiculous-looking man who irritates me with his herbivorous stuttering."

"Oh…" Tsuna said. And then he tilted his head to one side, thinking, Hibari-san already knows me… Oh, of course! We're classmates in this parallel world. But is that really it…?

Suddenly, Ryohei punched Tsuna.

"Oniichan!" Kyoko exclaimed.

"If you didn't buy those EXTREME gloves…" Ryohei said. "Kyoko wouldn't have been… wouldn't have been…!"

Ryohei was about to swing his fist towards Tsuna when Kyoko embraced her older brother by the stomach. Tear streamed down the cheeks of the little girl.

"Oniichan," she cried. "Stop fighting, please…"

Ryohei was caught in a moment of confusion as his fist stopped just inches from Tsuna. Tsuna cupped this fist with his own hands and smiled.

"To fight or not fight—you'll be torn between those two choices as you walk your path to the future," Tsuna said. "When you don't know what to do, follow your heart. Those gloves, use them to follow your dream. I'm sure you're going to be an extreme boxer in the future, Oniisan."

Ryohei stared at the brunette's smiling face. At that moment, he decided.

Tsuna let go of Ryohei's hand after placing something on it. "Accept them and wear them with pride, Sun Guardian." And then, Tsuna blushed. "Um… t-that's what I think."

But Ryohei grinned. "To the EXTREME." He turned to Kyoko and stared directly at her eyes.

"I will not fight again," Ryohei said. "But when the time comes when I should, I will become stronger so I will not make you worry and cry again, Kyoko. That's a promise."

Kyoko's face brightened with a smile. "Oniichan…"

Ryohei wore the Vongola Sun Ring and the Kangaroo Ring Tsuna handed him a while ago. Looking at it, he remembered.

"SAWADA!" he yelled. "I EXTREMELY don't understand what's going on but I'll trust you!"

Byakuran came, sweating from his run. He smiled as his power worked for the three of them to go back to their original world.

Author's Notes:

The chapter is surprisingly long compared to the next one. I thought long and hard for Ryohei's parallel world story so I hope you enjoyed it! :)

Thanks for reading and liking it! I'm surprised you readers are not confused with the grammar of this story.

"I EXTREMELY don't understand what's going on but I'll trust you!" ... Well, Ryohei, no one really understand the situation except for three persons. (Yeah, this note is a clue to the next chapters. Hahaha!)