QVR: There's a game called Mafia, and Tsuna's being called to take up the role of Boss – which is the equivalent of a King with a Queen's power (except the sliding across the board thing) in Chess. Everyone's starting to make their move, but what will Tsuna's first move be? (It's all coming back to you.)
A/N: (Sorry in advance for the long A/Ns, but please read both of them - this one and the one at the end of the chapter ...Wow I can't underline and bold at the same time what...)
Gosh, it's been a while. Does anyone read this particular fic of mine?
So I've had this for a couple of months, stopped writing for a while (life, you know? and laziness…), then it was Tsuna's b-day (it's still in progress), then Reborn finished, so…
[I feel so brain-dead right now]
Basically, after being away for so long, I had to do Reborn instead of DC.
Myriam, thank you for reviewing; I'm happy you liked it. And this is just inspired by Puella, and will be different from the series. At least from what I have planned ahead. It was because I just finished the series when I wrote Chapter One, which is why it's so similar to the first episode. And I just love 10027, but don't see it often I'm afraid. Or at least, not the way I want the relationship to be. That's why I'm thinking of placing it here.
Also, I decided that I'll continue posting here until I get deleted/get reported, at which time I'll be sure to inform you all where I'd go since I'm not to drop anything.
Well, here we go...
=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=
Chapter Five: There's No Way I'd Regret This
=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=
"There's no way to go back. A contract means you have to give up everything for a single wish."
=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=
"Are you scared?"
Tsuna nodded in confirmation, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. He didn't know what to say, and even if he knew he was positive that no words would come out anyway.
"Tsuna..." He felt his reflection reach out for him before pulling back. "Fine." The reflection sounded hurt. Tsuna felt his heart ache at the sound. He cracked his eyes open just a tad.
It seemed to be deep in thought. "There are too many risks this time and you're too fragile."
His mirrored image that looked so much like him but was his complete opposite hardened its voice and Tsuna found himself captivated by their only physical appearance, their eyes. "But...we have time, so we'll do it your way." He grabbed Tsuna and returned the gaze. "But if I see you doing something too drastic, I won't let you stop me."
=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=
Tsuna took deep breaths before cracking open his eyes to face the new day. He'd think he'd stay home from school today. An obvious choice. Today was Saturday.
Brush, brush, brush his teeth. Hmm, maybe today would be a normal day.
"Tsu-kun, look, you have visitors again!"
Or not.
"Juudaime, are you okay?" Gokudera rushed over to Tsuna's seat, making Tsuna drop his half of a spoon of rice as the self-appointed Guardian pulled him into a hug.
Tsuna was frozen, lost in memories of himself being left on the floor to die by his blurry classmates except for that one face that was clear. That face of Gokudera Hayato.
Yamamoto laughed. "You're choking him, Hayato."
Gokudera immediately widened his eyes and released Tsuna, allowing for him to breathe and cough, back in this current reality of his kitchen. "I'm…I'm so sorry, Juudaime! I was just so happy to see you safe and I just couldn't help myself!"
Tsuna recovered from his coughing fit, blinking back into reality. "I-It's okay," he breathed, making sure that he had enough oxygen in his lungs. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here?" he asked bluntly, not caring to smooth out his questions as he held his head on the table.
His head hurt.
"Are you alright, Tsuna?" Yamamoto placed his hand to the brunet's forehead and quickly retracted. He frowned, but Tsuna couldn't read his face. He heard him say, "Oh, he's good."
Gokudera narrowed his eyes at his partner, clenching his fist. "I will not accept this!" He turned to leave but Yamamoto grabbed onto his collar.
The baseball star was not pleased. "And leave Tsuna defenseless? For what? As you always tell me, don't be stupid."
"The bastard touched Juudaime!" Gokudera roared, making Tsuna wince. Too loud!
Yamamoto noticed. "Calm down; you're scaring Tsuna. Again. Just leave it for now and we can deal with him later." He turned back to Tsuna, who closed his eyes with his own hand to his forehead.
What was wrong? He didn't have any signs of a fever; Byakuran took care of that.
"Dame-Tsuna, why are you still with Byakuran? Did you already forget what I told you?"
"Tsu-kun," Nana called from the hallway, still here. "I'm going out for a bit since your friends are here."
Were these his friends? Or were they just Guardians to someone who didn't agree to be a Boss yet?
No, Tsuna didn't want to believe that. He wanted to be friends. He wanted new friends. He couldn't just stay with Byakuran forever, no matter how much the marshmallow tried to keep him in his clutches. And if they were just here because of this Guardian/Boss relationship, Tsuna could use it.
"Muh," he replied, and his mother took that as acknowledgement of his acceptance to her statement.
"I'll be back soon, Tsu-kun. Hayato-kun, Takeshi-kun, I'll leave my son to you." She was at the door at this point and whispered ominously, "Be careful." And with that, Nana was off.
Tsuna wasn't even able to finish his breakfast. He pushed it away, appetite gone anyway.
"Juudaime, please don't let us stop you from finishing your breakfast. You need your nutrients," Gokudera said as Tsuna stared at his plate forlornly.
"Mm," Tsuna said, dazedly picking back up his fork to finish. Even if Nana left, the love that she put in her food was still there. At least, Tsuna wanted to call it love.
The Guardians watched their Boss eat in silence, not wanting to disturb him. Tsuna didn't mind; he didn't want to have the pointless idle chatter that he had during meals with his mother, less with others.
"So, Tsuna, what do you usually do on Saturdays?" Yamamoto asked after Tsuna had finished. Gokudera placed the dirty dishes in the sink while Tsuna was guided into the living room by Yamamoto.
"Well," Tsuna replied softly as he took a seat on his sofa. "Usually Byakuran-san comes over at about..." He looked at the clock to spot the time to be 9:45. "Ten or so, and he takes me somewhere. It changes every week, and I don't know where we're going until we get there."
"Tsuna, why do you spend all your time with Millefiore-san?" Yamamoto asked, and Tsuna thought about before answering.
"I... actually don't remember when I started spending time with Byakuran-san, or how we actually met. But for as long as I could remember, Byakuran-san was there."
And he couldn't let go of such a precious friend, even if he was a liar.
"So I'm going to have to ask you both to leave," he said, getting up. "Byakuran-san's going to get mad at me if he catches me hanging out with you."
"Juu-Juudaime!" Gokudera gasped. "Please..."
"Gokudera-kun's right, Sawada-san. Why don't we change up your schedule?"
Eh? Tsuna turned to his front door to see Kozato Enma with that infant on his shoulders, who quickly jumped off and hopped onto Tsuna's.
"Dame-Tsuna, you need to get your head in the game," Reborn said, tapping his head. "If you weren't so sickly I'd kick you."
"Hie!" Tsuna jerked away, but it didn't shake the infant from his head. "Please don't!"
"Hm." Reborn pulled on the brunet's spiky hair. "Emna, lead the way. Let's show him what it's like."
Emna looked shell-shocked. Tsuna in this interval of silence tried to shake Reborn out of his hair a few more times, but it was in vain. "You must have nice hair," Yamamoto laughed, getting close to him to stroke it. "It's quite fluffy."
Tsuna broke into a red flush and Gokudera grabbed the baseball nut. "Idiot, what do you think you're doing? Who gave you the right to touch the Juudaime?"
Yamamoto just laughed it off. Tsuna kept staring at the clock, seeing it about to strike ten and one of Byakuran's things was punctuality. "P-please, can you all just go?" he begged, not wanting to lose his first friend. Everyone turned to him for a few moments of silence and Emna decided to speak up at this time.
"Fine, Reborn." He took a glance at Tsuna before addressing the infant once more. "We can go take Dino on I suppose. He should be at the park right now. And he'll probably be more stable after seeing him. But I don't have any Guardians."
Reborn shrugged him off. "I'm sure that Dame-Tsuna will lend you his own. Won't you, Dame-Tsuna?" Tsuna blinked. Eh?
"Su-sure," he found himself replying. Anything to get them to leave. "Take them, Kozato-san, I don't mind. I think I'll just stay here though..." He ignored the scandalous looks on his self-appointed Guardians' faces and moved his hand to remove Reborn at this point, but at getting so close the infant grabbed one of his fingers and squeezed it so tight that Tsuna was sure that he broke it.
"Dame-Tsuna," Reborn said, "this whole venture would be pointless if you were not to come along."
"Don't worry about Millefoire-san," Enma said as he placed his hand over Reborn's and the infant's grip loosened somewhat. "He's currently occupied with a few others at the moment."
"And Maman gave those two her blessings." Reborn pointed at the Guardians behind him, who stood up at attention. "You've got nothing to lose except your curiosity."
Soon enough Tsuna found himself being dragged along to the outside of his house just as the clock chimed ten.
And too late a thought chimed into his head:
"But didn't curiosity kill the cat?"
=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=
"So, Tsuna, do you have a wish yet?"
Eh? Of all the things he was expecting…yeah, he probably should have expected this question.
"Do you?" Enma asked again.
Uh… "No?"
"Well you better think of one soon," interrupted Reborn as he looked down from Tsuna's fluff of hair. "The sooner you think of one, the better it would be for all of us."
"R-right," Tsuna replied, taking a quick glance back behind him. Yamamoto and Gokudera were at a safe distance where Enma and he couldn't be overheard, but they were close enough and keeping watch as if someone was going to jump the pair from the shadows. "Why are they…?"
"They know when to give the Bosses their space," Enma answered, eyes also glancing from side to side just slightly enough that Tsuna barely caught it. "And we're in his territory now."
"…Whose?" Tsuna dared to ask.
"Let me tell you something, Tsuna." Enma suddenly stood still, causing for everyone else to halt in their motion. Tsuna watched Enma crack for just a split second a wicked smirk before he placed his finger over his ring, over the orange stone it held.
"Including yourself and my own, there are currently four Bosses who are situated in Namimori. You may know them; you may not. Unless you yourself know the other's identity, their name cannot be spoken."
"But I never -"
"When you took those two as your Guardians, you basically declared yourself that you were taking up the claim to the throne," Reborn suddenly said, looking up to the sky. "And, Enma, you already revealed his name. Don't make up lies."
Enma took a step back and held his hands up to his chest in defense. "Hey, that's what you told me. I suppose then Tsuna already met Dino then?"
Reborn just hopped off of Tsuna's head as a voice replied to Enma,
"Met him? We're brothers, he and I."
In a flash, Yamamoto and Gokudera were in front of Tsuna and Enma, arms at a protective stance as they reached for their weapons. Gokudera tossed a few pieces of dynamite into the air and dust was scattered, making it hard for Tsuna to breathe. He began coughing loudly and stumbled to the ground to escape the smoke, causing for the two Guardians in front of the two Bosses to look back in concern. This would be their fatal mistake; a crack of a whip was heard the two fell to the ground, and Enma took a step forward and hovered his own arm in front of Tsuna as the dust cleared, revealing a blond dressed in a green jacket and white jeans across from them.
Enma grit his teeth. "Dino."
"My, my." Dino sounded amused as he retracted his whip back to his hand. "Kozato Enma? And here I thought that you were dead."
"One tends to think of many things if they don't double check to make sure that their target is still breathing," Enma replied dryly, rubbing his hands together.
Tsuna knew that he should be watching Enma, that something important was to happen involving the red head, but he found his attention brought to the infant who was currently kicking his other classmates on the floor. "Oh, how disappointing," he heard the infant say. "Either they are weaker than they claim, or Dino had just gotten stronger and obtained more Pawns."
"Reborn?" Dino peered out, his hand raised over his eyes to act as a vizier. "Is that you?"
The baby kicked the bodies before looking up. Reborn didn't reply to the other man's questions, turning to Tsuna instead. "Tsuna, would you like to check if your Guardians are still alive?"
Tsuna felt his mouth go dry. "S-still…alive?"
"Dame-Tsuna, they have been cast aside by the opponent."
Tsuna dropped to the ground and grabbed Gokudera's wrist to check for a pulse as well as Yamamoto's neck. They could not…are not…
Dino gasped over-dramatically. "You wound me, Reborn. Of course I wouldn't kill my little brother's Guardians!" He paused, before shrugging. "Alright, maybe I would. But just because they weren't worthy of protecting him."
"Dino," Enma suddenly said, gripping his gloved hand into a fist. "if Tsuna's your little brother, what would make me? We were all chosen the same way - " He took a quick glance at Reborn who was carefully watching Tsuna - "by the same Acrobaleno. Your logic makes no sense."
Dino just shrugged Enma's statement off, not bothering him in the slightest. "What makes no sense to me is why you're still alive. You should have died." He then refocused his attention to the brunet who was still checking for a pulse. "Tsuna! Why did you leave me? Why did you run? Didn't I swear to protect you? You know that I always keep my promises!"
Tsuna gave a big sigh of relief as he retracted his hands, feeling pulses in both of his classmates' neck/wrist. He then picked himself up from the ground, taking a good look at the one who declared himself Tsuna's brother, eyes flickering if only for a moment to a twinge of orange on the blond's finger. "…Have we met?"
The entire field was cast in a few moments of silence before Dino tightened his hand on his black leather whip. "Kozato, what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything," Enma replied, hand bursting into flames. Tsuna staggered from the intensity of the heat – something about it made him lose his footing, for only a second, before he regained it. "You only have yourself to blame." Enma brought it in front of his face and looked to the trees, watching for something.
Dino just started at Tsuna, and Tsuna could tell he was waiting for something - anything - that would have Tsuna recognize him. But Tsuna didn't recognize this person; he was not a familiar face to the brunet. Tsuna just shook his head. "Dino…san, I don't believe we have met beforehand."
It was silent for a few moments, moments of suspenseful silence, before there was a crack of a whip. "You're going to have to pay for this, Kozato. I cannot believe that Tsuna forgot about me."
"It's your fault," Reborn cut off randomly. Everyone conscious looked to him to find the infant pre-occupied with a small yellow bird feather. "Byakuran got a hold of him."
"Byakuran…" Lately that name has been spoken with such malice, with such hatred, Tsuna was slightly starting to become concerned. Did they also believe that Tsuna should share the same opinion of his best friend - his only friend because apparently Irie-kun was murdered…by the newest student whom his mother thought was his boyfriend no less…
The sound of distant laughter caused for him to shake his head; he did not want to think of that thank you - that opinion of hatred and despise?
The calling of his name was enough to completely pull Tsuna from his thoughts, but it was not a very comforting sentence. It was Enma who said it, assumingly to be directed at Dino.
"Enough to kill Tsuna?"
It was quiet again, but this one was much shorter than the one prior as Tsuna coughed, choking on what he had just heard. "K-Kill me?"
That seemed to bring Dino for an answer, quickly replying, "Of course I couldn't kill you, Tsuna! It's impossible to kill you!"
Tsuna knew what was the key word in that sentence. "But if you could…would you?"
The moment of hesitation was all Tsuna needed to know, no matter how short it lasted.
"Have you sensed it, Dino?" Enma said as Dino was just about to answer back to Tsuna, but Tsuna had already got his answer. The red head continued, "Don't you feel more…vulnerable?"
Eyes darted around the various trees surrounding the three - five including the two still unconscious on the ground - and Dino gasped. "What? Impossible! There were at least twenty!" The eyes were caught onto the yellow feather in Reborn's hand. "Kyoya."
No, Hibari-san wasn't here. The thought popped into Tsuna's head. Hibari wouldn't just leave so abruptly – this was not his style. The yellow feather however. That was evidence that Hibird was here. And Hibird was always with Hibari…
"Tsuna, did you miss it?"
Tsuna suddenly got a nagging feeling at the back of his head, and turned towards the trees – eyes wandering around for something but coming up short. He then turned to Reborn for an answer.
Eh?
Reborn rolled his eyes. "Of course you didn't. Dame-Tsuna."
"It's alright, Reborn. I got it."
Tsuna jumped; he didn't see Enma suddenly appear beside him, clutching something – bloody – close to his chest. Did he ever even leave his side? The red head was out of breath, looking a bit stressed as he tried to calm his breaths. "That was easier than I thought it would be. Much easier. As always, Sawada-san, you always manage to tip everything to your favor." Tsuna frowned, not understanding what he meant, but he continued, "One down, at least two more to go."
And Reborn was hanging up his phone, which then shifted into that green chameleon. "Make that one, Xanxus left for Italy and is no longer qualified."
At this news, the red head frowned. "He's giving up his claim so easily?" Enma asked, his breaths now even and steady. He took a quick peek at Tsuna, and seeing that the brunet was paying close attention to his and Reborn's conversation, swiftly looked back to the infant, who was deep in thought.
He got it. "He thinks he's cutting out the middle man."
"But…" Enma was still confused, which in turn confused Tsuna because he usually knew what was going on. "isn't this the final stage?"
The edges of Reborn's lips twitched. "Not that he knows that." He hid his eyes underneath his fedora, but Tsuna could still see the smirk that was clearly in them. "Well, that makes things more convenient."
Enma shrugged, as if it wasn't really his problem. "I suppose. Do you want it?"
Reborn just hopped on Tsuna's right shoulder, causing for the brunet to wince. "Give it to Tsuna."
Emna hesitated, and for a split second, Tsuna thought he saw a glimpse of glee mixed with something – malice – in his eyes. "Uhh, okay. Here, Sawada-san." He slowly removed his hand from his chest, and brought it towards to the brunet, fingers still closed around the object he planned to give him. Tsuna held out his palm, not knowing what to expect.
He noticed that Gokudera and Yamamoto were beginning to stir from the ground when something hot and…charred? fell into the palm of his hand, and he brought his attention back to Enma and to the item he was given.
He stared at it for only a moment before letting out a shrill scream, twitched his hand so the burnt-to-the-bone finger fell out of his palm, and he fell to the ground, passed out from the shock of touching a piece of human flesh from someone he could only assume was burned to death.
The last conscious thought that was in Tsuna's head was: Doesn't Enma wield fire?
On the cobblestone, the finger lay, and the ring holding a dull orange ring was removed and pocketed by an infant wearing a tuxedo.
=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=
A/N: I can't write fight scenes, and I'm sorry if anyone's squeamish.
-removes giant weight off chest- Finally finished. Hope this was worth such a long wait.
I really don't want to re-read this, so I hope everything's fine. I've read this so many times when I planned to finish it and didn't, and just finished it up now, months after. Since I haven't written in a while, this chapter's shorter than my usual ones. Hope that's okay.
Lemme know if you want to continue reading this or not, please. Helps me sort out my priorities on what to work on.
Also, anyone have a particular pairing for Tsuna? It was originally supposed to be 6927, but I'm curious is all.
And – sincerely and truly – thanks for reading!