You'll have to forgive me for the grammar mistakes, but the beta-ed version will be uploaded later. Yes, I've a new beta: Ankou13 will be my new beta from now on. Reading the chapter first than anyone else might not be so bad.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn but if did, I would write a whole arc only with the first generation of Vongola.

Important: "Speaking in Japanese."

"Speaking in Italian." (May appear as merely flashbacks)

Thoughts

Chapter Seven: Two More Days Left

Giotto walked in circles. G could swear that any time he would dig a hole in the floor if he continued with that, but he didn't do anything to stop the daydreaming man. All guardians were present in the room, and all without exception were tense at the presence of a mere boy. However, the boy in question wasn't a mere boy at all.

In the middle of the room, sitting in a chair, and strongly tied onto it, was Enma Kozato. Supposing he wasn't mistaken, it had been hours that he was like that—tied to a chair, and with all those men looking at him as if he was a creature from another world. Enma hadn't had a chance to explain himself, mostly not when he inexplicably looked so much like Cozart Shimon, his ancestor and friend of Vongola Primo. And obviously when he tried to explain himself and ensure them he meant no harm, it had the opposite effect.

"I must've gone insane," said Giotto minutes later after so much silence. "I really need a doctor now."

And again no one said anything, because they all thought the same.

Although they were aware of the loud steps the blond man was giving, no one took their eyes off the ginger boy. The boy, who acclaimed to be Enma Kozato, and who coincidentally had a last name that seemed much like Shimon boss' first name, had decided to play dumb and not tell them how he had managed to invade the Vongola's territory when no less than hundred men heavily guarded it.

G supposed that saying he didn't know how he had gotten there was a way to refuse to tell them the truth. And maybe, he supposed again, the boy was covering for someone.

As for Giotto, if his life wasn't messed up enough in the recent days, especially after Tsunayoshi Sawada appeared, everything was getting even worse. Behind his back, G and Knuckle exchanged glances. What else should they expect? Because honestly, they no longer doubted anything else would happen. They wouldn't even doubt that a boy like Alaude would appear, or even worse, a boy like Daemon appeared. That, perhaps, would be the most insane thing they would ever see in their not-so-common lives.

Giotto kept walking in circles while muttering incoherently. The poor man must've really gone mad, which only made G even more concerned—for they both, actually. How could he possibly talk about the Gokudera boy? If Giotto hadn't gone mad yet, surely after hearing that there was a third boy who looked like one of them would be a fatal blow to him. He then decided he wouldn't talk about Gokudera, but the matter couldn't be postponed for much longer. After they returned the party he would've to tell Giotto.

The silence perpetuated in the room, expect for a few occasional sounds that Giotto's shoe sole produced on the floor, it was then that Alaude decided to speak.

"Primo, we must question him more persuasively, if you know what I mean," he said, his eyes glittering as he looked at Enma, who trembled in return. The poor boy had been afraid of hearing they would take more drastically ways of making him talk, and there it was.

Giotto then stopped wandering and stared at Alaude with a thoughtful look, as if contemplating carefully about the suggestion. It was then that Enma felt truly desperate. He didn't know how much Alaude was competent in his line of work, but if he was as much as Adelheid was, in the lack of better words, so he was really screwed. It would be better if he started talking and soon.

However, what would he say exactly? He had tried to say that he knew nothing of how he'd gotten there, but no one believed in him. That was somewhat expected; even he wouldn't believe it.

Enma vainly and slowly tried to get rid of the tight rope around him, so that no one would realise he was trying to escape, which wouldn't be a difficult thing to do if he hadn't handcuffs around his wrists as well. How could he fight, if it came to it, with tied hands? Certainly his powers wouldn't be useful now when he needed it most.

He didn't want to startle the Vongola Primo and his guardians and make them misunderstand the situation.

"Tsuna must've gone to the past," said Reborn looking at them with a deadly serious face as they rarely had seen before. His gaze settled on Enma even more that the boy wished to and returned to look at the guardians. "Whether he's alive or not, and being realistic, that stupid student of mine is dead, it's undeniable that his body has gone into the past of Vongola Primo. Shortly before he died, Tsuna muttered 'Primo'."

Enma looked back at Vongola Primo, aka Giotto, while he remembered of the last meeting he had with Reborn and Tsuna's guardians. It was unlikely that Tsuna was still alive because he saw him give his last breath. He had come too late.

He still had hopes like everyone else, of course, that could have happened something unbelievable and Tsuna had somehow been saved at the last possible moment. However, they couldn't be bound by something so uncertain as a wishful thought. Deep down though, Enma knew it was impossible that kind of miracle could happen. Tsuna was dead, and he would never be able to forgive himself for that.

The Shimon boy looked at the floor as he felt nauseated. He still remembered how Tsuna's left arm was, where probably one of the bullets hit, and how sickly bloodied it was and how it was lying at an impossible angle. The brown-honey eyes that many times before welcomed him when he most needed now were sickeningly hollow and with no light in them; his already pale skin was with an even more ghostly colour, which made Enma think that any sudden movement when moving Tsuna could break him. What good would it do creating false hopes when they all had seen the same thing he had?

Tsuna was dead and that emptiness in his chest would never disappear.

"Talk," G ordered, getting so close to him that Enma could smell the tobacco coming from his breath. "I want names. C'mon, tell me which family you come from. Don't try to play the smarty with me. I know you're no ordinary kid."

"G, you're scaring him!" Primo intervened, placing a hand on the redhead guardian's shoulder.

"Damn, Giotto!" G was irritated and rudely took Giotto's hand off his shoulder. "Don't you see he's dangerous? It's because of this carefree attitude of yours that I might end up dying of concerns someday, or worse, you will end up being killed by one of these someday!"

Asari stepped forward not showing any concern on his face. He walked slowly to Enma's direction, ignoring the deadly glare that G threw at him.

"I think we're all very tense," he said stopping in front of the boy who resembled Cozart Shimon. Asari smiled calmly at Enma and looked at Giotto, who was staring at him with a questioning look. "How about we take a cup of tea? It'd be lovely."

Tsuna was restless. He got up from bed and walked toward the door, taking extreme care to open it so that it wouldn't make any loud sound. He couldn't stay in that room for any longer or he would go mad. The boy was not stupid; he knew he didn't have any right to demand anything, but he wanted to know why there were screams and why suddenly the mansion seemed so vivid. His curiosity knew no bounds.

As he opened the door, Tsuna was careful enough to look at both sides of the corridor to see if there was someone walking by. Fortunately, the corridor was clear. He put one foot to the outside, still taking extreme care to not make any noise, and quickly left the room closing the door behind him. Tsuna let out a relieved sigh and chose one of the ways to go on.

"It would be better if you didn't wander," Asari warned. "You're still very weak."

Tsuna mentally apologised for his behaviour and kept going. His feet immediately stopped when he heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming from a corridor perpendicular to what he was, and he automatically wondered what was that fuss about. Tsuna quickly tried to hide himself behind the red curtain and hear what they said.

"…the boss must be really confused…" one said.

"And who wouldn't be?" retorted another one. "I can't blame him, anyway. Finding a guy with the same face as one of your friends is not something that anyone would take good, it's no wonder that the boss was static!"

"It's true…" a third person said.

"Do you think they've already taken some providences? I mean, Cozart Shimon must be informed of this!" asked the first person. Unfortunately, Tsuna couldn't hear the answer to the question.

Tsuna's eyes widened and he suddenly felt as if the room's temperature had decreased. Stunned, he went out from behind the curtain and continued through the way he was going before. A thousand thoughts went passing through his mind at the moment. Had he heard right? There was someone with a similar appearance to one of Primo's friends? And none other than Cozart Shimon, the Shimon's first boss…he couldn't believe it. Then again, he wasn't stupid. He knew what two plus two was.

Frowning, Tsuna quickened his pace and started running. He had no time to lose; if his Hyper Intuition was correct, and he expected it to be, then Enma had been transported to the past as well.

Enma...please be all right!

"I'm sick of waiting!" G punched the wall and walked with long strides towards Enma. The redhaired man's face was redder than his hair such was his anger. "This is going nowhere!"

"Maa, maa," said Asari trying to calm their spirits. They were trying in a calm and civilized way to get Enma tell them as to how he had succeeded in entering with the greatest ease in Vongola's territory, but they hadn't been successful so far. The Asian man knew G was about to explode if no action was taken, and Alaude didn't look one bit better either. The man should be trembling in expectation to interrogate the poor lad. Asari wouldn't want to be in Giotto's shoes now. "I'm sure Enma-kun would appreciate it if we were more friendly."

That caused a vein on G's forehead to comically pop up.

"More friendly, you say?" he asked in a dangerously low and slow tone. "How the hell could we be more friendly than we are already, huh?"

"Rushing will not get us anywhere," said Knuckle quietly. The brunette man knew very well how rushing things only made things worse. "We cannot force the boy to say something he does not want."

"I've to agree with Knuckle," said Giotto nodding fervently.

The blond man had been thinking over and over again, and he really didn't want to force the boy into something unpleasant. If he agreed with Alaude and let Enma for him to deal with, he should only be doing something he'd rather avoid. He wanted to be a good boss, not a fearsome one.

G sent a withering look in his direction, "And it's because of you that we haven't get an answer from him until now!"

"My fault?" Giotto pointed at himself, his face with a puzzled expression. "And how is that my fault?"

"And you still ask me?" G was exasperated. Sometimes Giotto could be so stupid, and it hadn't changed even now. "If you weren't so trustful we wouldn't be in this situation, with that other suspect boy being treated as a guest! And now you want to do the same with this one?"

Upon hearing that, something clicked inside of Enma's mind. They surely couldn't be talking about…

"E-Excuse me…" he said shyly. "What do you mean by 'another suspect boy'?"

G clicked his tongue and looked at the ginger boy with a cold stare, "It's got nothing to do with you."

A long and lazy sigh was heard throughout the room and everyone looked towards where the sound had come from. Lampo was lying on one of the chairs and seemed extremely bored.

"Can't you just finish with it?" he asked as got up. "Doesn't matter; I think I'm gonna take a walk around."

Lampo raised one of his arms and slowly waved at them when he opened the door.

"Lampo!" Giotto called out, but it was too late, Lampo had already closed the door behind himself.

"Don't you see?" said G after a few seconds of silence. "That's what I'm talking about! You're too soft!"

"I see no harm in it," interrupted Asari. "Primo is acting accordingly the way he thinks is right, and I agree with his methods."

"Here you go again!" said the red-haired man in a bored tone. "Don't you feel scared for him? You can't be serious!"

"Scared of what?" asked the Asian man innocently.

At the moment, G thought he would lose himself. Sometimes, he really wondered if that aloof man would properly protect Giotto when he needed the most. Sensing it was about to interfere, Knuckle placed a hand on G's shoulder and sent the man a meaningful glare. G understood what that simple act meant and he restrained himself of losing what little patience he still had. That wasn't the right moment to revert to his old self, he told himself.

"I agree with Asari," commented the priest man. "We've to have more faith in Giotto."

While his guardians discussed about his person as if he were not there, Giotto immersed in his inner world while looking at Enma. Looking from afar, Enma was a pretty ordinary kid. A little too skinny, but still an ordinary kid. The fact that he had almost the same face as Cozart was disturbing, and for a moment he thought he saw in those red eyes a different glow—as if Enma Kozato knew him. It might sound crazy, but Giotto would never be mistaken in that. He had seen that same look in another boy, and that even he couldn't deny, the other boy also was as suspect as Enma.

Somehow or another, it was like Enma Kozato was just like Tsunayoshi Sawada. Both had appeared in town suspiciously and no one had seen them. However, in Enma's case, how was he able to infiltrate into Vongola's territory? An ordinary boy, for as much hectic as one would be, wouldn't be able to do that. That is, not when there were hundreds of guards monitoring the mansion's surroundings.

Giotto had to admit, Enma Kozato wasn't an ordinary boy really.

"Oh, no," said G interrupting his thoughts. "I know that look, Primo. What're you thinking?"

"Something's wrong, Primo?" asked Knuckle.

Giotto was starting to believe that maybe Enma Kozato had some connection with Tsuna. For him, there were not such things as coincidences and there were many to just ignore.

"Perhaps…" he pondered, bringing a hand to his chin while examining all the possibilities carefully. "Perhaps Alaude's right."

G and Knuckle looked at him as if he had gone mad, because it was the first time that their boss agreed so fast on letting Alaude take control. Usually, they would argue for hours before Giotto reluctantly agreed with letting Alaude use his own methods. And when Giotto agreed, it was because it was their last resource. Asari didn't expect this sudden action either; he only frowned and didn't say anything. However, Daemon that was silent the whole time was the one who spoke first.

"Hm, it seems that this time we're thinking as one," he noted, giving his characteristic chuckle. "Nonetheless, may I ask why there was this change of opinion and so fast, as it seems, Primo?"

Giotto shrugged, "Intuition."

Daemon widened his eyes and chuckled higher this time. Primo never failed to surprise him, and perhaps that was why he admired so much the other man.

"I see…" he said, nodding to himself. "As expected, you're such an interesting man, Primo. Very well…"

Daemon walked toward the door, looking for one last time at Giotto before leaving the room laughing.

"As it's already decided on how we'll handle things, then I'll take my leave now. If you need anything," he added looking at Enma, who trembled at his gaze. Looking at Daemon only brought him bad memories that he was sure it would take a lifetime to forget, if he ever forget that is. "You know how to call me."

A fine mist suddenly appeared in the room and in the next instant Daemon was no longer there.

"He never stops disappearing like that," said Knuckle shaking his head.

"I think it's kind of cool," said Asari simple-mindlessly.

"And I think it's creepy," G corrected almost automatically. No matter how many times he saw Daemon disappearing like that, with that mist surrounding the mysterious man as if it was always there to begin with, he'd always find it strange.

"So," Alaude's voice echoed through the room way higher than normal, sending chills through G, Asari, Giotto, Knuckle and Enma's backs. "I can proceed from here with my own methods, I presume?"

Alaude directed his gaze to Enma as he spoke the last sentence. His cold and observant eyes seemed to look through Enma, as if searching for his darkest secrets. Enma came to think that he was being sucked into that pair of ice-blue eyes, such was the intensity of their glare contest. It was then that the other man finally broke the contact between them.

The boy then looked at the Vongola's boss. He, too, stared at him, but unlike how Alaude did, Primo started at him with a gentle and concerned expression. He didn't want to cause any harm on him and Enma could see that.

"Go ahead," said Giotto fearfully. He only hoped that he was doing the right thing. "You may do as you please, but please, don't traumatise him too much. This is the only thing I ask of you, Alaude."

A shadow of a smirk appeared at the corners of the other blond man's mouth and at the moment Giotto had his doubts whether he should've entrusted such task to Alaude. Once with permission to do as he pleases, Alaude wouldn't be able to control himself with a "law breaker" in his hands—he would give nightmares to the poor person if possible and act like a devil until he obtained satisfactory answers, he was that kind of person, and obviously, we would do all that without dirtying his hands in the process.

"Don't worry, I will not traumatise him too much."

Giotto then realised he had just left an innocent life fall into the claws of an unstoppable beast.

"Talk," Alaude ordered him with a dangerous tone.

Enma had been taken to a special room where he supposed to be the room where Alaude should make interrogations more persuasively. He was sitting in a chained chair, heavily chained on the wrists and ankles, in a way it would be impossible for him to get out. Alaude had placed a table in front of him, where from there he could see his Shimon ring resting right on the middle of it. The ring seemed to be glaring back at him, as if daring him to take it and use against the other man in order to get out of danger. His fingers twitched in anticipation, but there was nothing he could do in that way. The room he was in was disturbingly devoid of furniture, there was a stack of papers neatly lined here and there, but nothing else that could drawn your attention.

He was really nervous. He didn't know how to act in such situation, after all, he had never travelled through time. What was he supposed to speak or not speak and how would he act like? They were vital questions. In general, he knew he shouldn't mention he was from the future; it would only cause a great mess if he did. He had to act as if he were from their time, at least to gain their trust. It was imperative that he knew how to act as such.

Enma looked to his left, where in one corner of the room was an equally red-haired person, but this person's red hair was lighter, almost as if it was pink. Enma knew they called him "G" and if his memory didn't fail him, G was the right-hand man of Vongola Primo. And this same G person stared at him with fierce eyes, clearing seeing him as a threat.

The boy felt his palms sweating as he watched by two pairs of hungry eyes. His throat was dry and his feet, despite being chained by the ankle to the chair making it harder to move, were moving interruptedly. He decided, in the end, that he should make up a story. It's not like they would know that he was lying.

After telling his story, Alaude slightly narrowed his ice-blue eyes and muttered something under his breath.

"So you have no recollections about the incident whatsoever?" he asked.

Enma felt intimidated by the look that man gave him. He could've sworn that those cold eyes could see more than what it seemed to, and Enma truly feared that his thoughts could be read.

"Yes," he lied.

However, it was not entirely a lie. He really didn't remember how he could've travelled back in time, since not long ago he was in Japan. Somehow, he knew it had something to do with Tsuna, but how this and that were connected he had no idea.

Enma quickly looked away when he heard footsteps hurrying to his direction and was startled when suddenly a pair of strong hands grabbed him by the collar and shook him.

"Quit bitching, will you? I know you're lying!" G shook him even more and would've shaken him much more until he obtained a satisfactory answer if it was not for Alaude interrupting him.

G looked at Alaude in a maniac way as if he was about to kill someone at any minute. At that moment, Enma only wanted to leave the room before the worst happened and G and Alaude hurried to their necks. He didn't want to be in the crossfire if it came to happen.

"Cool down your head and if you can't, then don't come back," said Alaude with an expression even more threatening than that of G. "I also need some time to rest, then it'll be a good idea to take a break."

Enma felt like he had lost a few years of his life when he saw the two men leaving the room. He was finally alone.

Now, he thought, looking at the door. What do I do? These chains…they won't let go of me so easily…

Enma tried again to loose the chains, but he was not successful. He was strongly chained to the chair; only someone else could get rid of it for him. However, it's not like someone would magically appear before him and free him from there, it would be foolish of him to believe in that. With some luck, perhaps, Tsuna would still be alive before that could happen.

How surprised would he get if he knew Tsuna was really alive and was currently heading to where he was.

Tsuna had finally managed to get downstairs unnoticed, but he knew he had to be faster if he didn't want anyone noticing he was missing from his room. There were still two more floors before he could get to the dungeons, where luckily, he had heard one of the guards say that the attacker who looked a lot like Cozart Shimon was being held in.

Tsuna couldn't be sure that the attacker could be Enma, but he was sure there were not many people around with a pair of red eyes as unique as that of Enma and Cozart Shimon's. It didn't cost anything and try.

Meanwhile, in a small hotel room in the town centre, was a silver-haired boy. He stormed out of bed and threw a sharp look out of the window. It was evening, he realised. The city outside gradually began to get dark and only a few lights, seeing as electric light was still little used at the time for being a new invention yet, illuminated certain points of the steep streets. It was at twilight, when light and darkness vying space, that activities like running away from a hotel room without anyone noticing would be the perfect time to do so.

Gokudera gave a small smile as approached the window. He even let out a curse and a moan in pain when he put one of his feet out of the window, seeing as his hurt foot didn't stand much pressure too soon. He didn't care though. The pain he felt in his foot was small if compared to the pain he was feeling in his chest.

The yellowish buildings of long green windows, which each one of them had approximately five stories, and this number varied in some of them, were glued together as if space were something precious in the city and they fought for it. He could easily jump from one window to another and no one would notice it. Looking down, Gokudera swallowed. It would be a terrible fall if he were to slip in the time to jump. Maybe he would break just a few bones, that is, if he survived a fall of more than thirty feet. He shook his head in an attempt to erase such thoughts and inhaled deeply the air. He gritted his teeth and stared at the window he'd be jumping at. It was now or never.

Gokudera jumped.

Back at the mansion, Giotto was sitting restless in a chair in the conference room. Every time he had to think of something really serious he would go there. His private office, where he spent much of his time signing papers that he often wondered why he should sign, wasn't one of the most comfortable places to think. The smell of books and papers was like a drug that wouldn't let him think, on the contrary, it made him not think. His room was very large and it didn't have anything that reminded of himself, thus not a comfortable place either. Even the tearoom, a place he loved to spend his time and look at a small part of his garden while drinking a tasty tea, wasn't the ideal place to think. However, the conference room was an exception. There, he never felt completely alone.

It was there, in the conference room, that he and his guardians spent a lot of their time in most cases. It was there that they discussed in private famiglia affairs and how to solve them, and it was in there, though his guardians weren't with him at the time, that Giotto felt less lonely.

The long mahogany table contained the memory of each one of the meetings they've had in the last years and the wood, though it was a little worn now, was smooth to his touch. Giotto couldn't find a better place to think.

He laid his head on the table and let out a soft sigh. There were many times that Giotto wondered if perhaps he thought too much on others rather than himself, but he never refused to help anyone. It was so normal to him, helping people, that it was just like breathing. And maybe that was why he always faced every single night severe headaches. This time, nothing bothered him more than the mysterious two boys and how they came here.

First, Tsunayoshi Sawada, who slightly resembled himself in appearance, had appeared mysteriously in town without anyone seeing him and had saved Lampo's life. The boy had fighting experience, Giotto could tell, otherwise he couldn't have defeated four mafia men. The boy despite not seeming like a threat to anyone, there was something about him that Giotto couldn't put his finger on. His Intuition seemed to "like" him and he liked him too, but he still couldn't help but feel curious about his back-story.

Second, Enma Kozato, another boy that had also mysteriously appeared in town without anyone noticing, and more, he managed to break into the mansion's territory disarmed without anyone detecting him. Giotto didn't know many people capable of such a prodigy. And if that weren't enough, Enma looked like a younger copy of his friend Cozart Shimon. Unless Cozart was hiding something from him, like a younger brother or even possibly a distant cousin practically identical to him, then he was completely lost on the matter. How should he handle this kind of situation? He hadn't be told that he would've to face situations like this when he created a vigilant group. Then again, he would never guess that the Vongola would grow so big.

Third, Giotto prayed that there wouldn't be a third case like those two.

Feeling too worried, Giotto got up from his seat as fast as a bullet and directed a long glare at the conference room's door. Doing nothing was just making his condition worse. Maybe he should pay someone a visit. Deciding it was exactly what he should do, his hand went to the knob's direction and turned it.

I feel like Tsunayoshi and I need to have a talk.

Tsuna, however, was already far away from his room at the time. At any moment he could get to the dungeons, everything was going perfectly fine until now, and perhaps that was the reason as to why he was so suspicious. Usually, at a time like this that he would be caught red-handed. It's not like he was expecting someone to catch him, that would be ridiculous, but he knew very well that not always things go the way we plan. The only thing he could do was get full alert at his surroundings and sharp his ears at any different sound; that wasn't so difficult to do since his Intuition had been alerting him that something could happen.

He set foot on the last step of the stairs and stared at the dark corridor in front of him. The only source of illumination were small chandeliers hanging on the walls—each separated from the other by a large distance, which didn't make much proper enlightenment to the already scary and cold place. Decided that there was no turning back now that he had come so far, Tsuna headed to the very first and only door in there. The exciting sensation was giving him goosebumps—it was like there were butterflies flying uncontrollably inside of his stomach right then.

The brunette's hand touched slightly on the metallic and cold knob and for a moment it twitched. Actually, his hands and possibly his entire body were shaking. He didn't know if it was from excitement or fear from doing something he shouldn't do, but there was one thing he was sure about—whoever was on the other side of that door, it was someone like himself and also shared similarities with both famiglies first bosses. The boy then took a deep breath, regaining courage, and turned the knob to the side, revealing the room and the person who was inside.

His mouth failed to cop with what was going through his mind at the moment and his body—if it wasn't unsteady enough—seemed that would collapse any moment onto the ground. He often would erroneously act stupidly in such situation, even more when he was in such joy, but even in this he failed. Instead, with unsteady feet and watering eyes, the boy headed in the other person's direction who was also as much surprised as he was. Just as he was about to produce any sound with his mouth, his trained ears caught notice of the sound of footsteps entering the same room.

"What are you doing here?"

A/N: There's no much action in this chapter, but I'm pretty satisfied with the final result. I thought it'd turn out a shitty chapter but I'm glad it didn't. Less than a month to go until my birthday, I think it was the reason as to why I was so fired up as I wrote the last paragraphs of this chapter.

Well, I'm glad that people are enjoying more and more this story and I just hope that I'll live up to your expectations. I'll love to read what you think of this chapter, please review and until next chapter.