DISCLAIMER: I only own the story idea, Alana, Karasu, Pocky, and Ricoardo. Nothing else.

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Warriors Don't Cry

Chapter 10: Lid Cracking – Karasu

The dark haired girl drenched her hair as she waded in the Lake of Summer Tears. Her elder sisters chattered amongst themselves and ignored her presence because she was the youngest.

She didn't mind. The full moon above her gave her enough company.

It was not long since the thread disappeared from her pinky. She held her little finger up to the moonlight but there wasn't even a shimmer of the thread.

She swam amongst the fish and enjoyed the new experience with eager eyes. There was so much that she didn't know.

Perhaps her elder sisters left her alone as a cruel joke or they simply forgot her. Whatever reason it was, the dark haired girl found herself wading alone in the lake.

The girl with dark hair swam toward the shore to retrieve her dress but stopped short when she realized that she wasn't alone. She heard heavy breathing right in front of her and it didn't sound like either of her sisters'. She slowly looked up and came face to face to see-

My dream was suddenly pulled from the ancient setting and a much more familiar and nightmarish place came into my view. Masked people poked and prodded at a body right next to mine.

That body was my own.

"K10 isn't reacting, sir." One of the masked men told a man in a white lab coat. The lower part of his face was also covered so I never really got to know that man's true appearance or name. "I think she's dead, sir."

The man seemed to sneer. "Let's see about that."

He walked toward my past's fallen form. I knew what was coming next so I stood in front of my past self defensively. He walked through me as if I was some specter and stopped in front of the body.

"Disgusting Trash!" He snarled and kicked my past's side. He grabbed my hair and slammed me against the white wall. The other children huddled in the other side of the room and looked as I was beaten.

I heard my past whimper in pain. I knew that she wasn't scared but that didn't stop the pain. She didn't care anymore. She was gone. Lifeless.

I looked away helplessly and focused on the white wall. What else could I do? Just like the last nightmare, I wouldn't be able to do anything.

White

It was such a detestable color.

I was proud to say that I didn't utter a scream as the man broke my ribs with his kicking. I wasn't sure how long it took until he stopped. There weren't any clocks in the room.

When the man was finished, I heard him speak to the masked men. "See? Still alive."

I heard the man spit at the ground. At me.

"It's all your fault you know. It's because people like you exist in this world."

I jerked back to consciousness when something landed on me. On instinct, I grabbed whatever-it-was and held it in front of my face threateningly. My fist was up, ready to clobber the intruder.

"Wahhh! Lambo doesn't want to be eaten!" The cow child squealed in fear. I relaxed and dropped the little bovine. "Oh, it's only you, Lambo."

I looked up to see a shocked Tsuna standing in front of me holding I-pin. I met the little Chinese baby a while back along with this girl named Haru. To say that I was amused when she told me that she was going to be my future sister-in-law was an understatement.

"Is Karasu okay?" The little girl piped up innocently.

I rubbed my eyes and stretched. "Sorry, bad dream." I explained shortly. Tsuna looked at me in concern. "This was the third time you had a nightmare, Karasu. Do you want to talk about it?"

"No. It's too scary to talk about." I told him, ending the conversation.

Tsuna nodded understandingly. "Okay, I'll be waiting outside for you."

I feigned a smile as he walked out but dropped it when the door closed. I buried my face into my hands and took a deep, shuddering breath. It was a while since Tsuna was hospitalized and Dino's crazy idea of an apology get together. All these other crazy things happened after that I missed mainly because I had no interest in Reborn's antics.

I think it was somewhere after New Years when the nightmares started.

"Gak! NOOOOOO! DON'T THROW MY CUPCAKE AWAY!" I heard Alana howl. Pocky, the little puppy we just adopted fell in surprise from his perch on top of Alana's chest.

"Good morning, Pocky. Mind waking Alana up for me? We need to get to school." Pocky gave me an 'are-you-kidding-me?' look before huffing. He grumpily crawled back to her and tried to nudge her awake.

Alana didn't react.

Pocky licked her face and the only reaction he got was her batting him away.

He even tried barking into her ear loudly.

Alana snored in reply, making me shake my head. She must be tired after staying up extra late because of a certain prefect's request. Alana became pretty infamous around Nanimori Middle after she became a Junior Member of the Disciplinary Committee.

Seeing that she wasn't going to wake up any time soon, Pocky inched toward Alana's sweet stash. Before he was even a foot close to it, he was grabbed by the scruff by a not-so-happy Alana. "Stay away from the sweet stash, dude. That wasn't cool."

I sweatdropped. That was one smart and brave puppy.

Looking a bit more awake, Alana hopped out of bed and glanced at the clock and paled. "Why didn't you tell me we're three minutes late? Oh, Hibari's going to kill me now if I'm not there!" She screeched in alarm. "That's it! I'm skipping breakfast! Let's go, Pocky!"

She threw her clothes on and zipped down the stairs. The puppy obediently followed her while dolefully looking at his food bowl.

I, on the other hand, took my time and grabbed a piece of toast before walking out of my house. "I'm off to school, Mom!"

"Okay, do well!"

I shoved the toast into my mouth and blinked in surprise when I saw that Tsuna wasn't there. "Huh?"

"Juudaime's sister! Good morning!"

I dropped my toast.

It wasn't that hard to guess who said that.

"Gokudera-kun! What are you doing here? I thought Tsuna was going to walk with me to school!" I looked around. "Speaking of Tsuna, where is my brother?"

A dark look passed over the grey-haired boy's face. "That Chipmunk took him away by force," Brightening up a little he said, "So, he told me to walk you to school instead!"

Is it a bad thing that I'm feeling happy about this arrangement?

It was apparent that I held interest in the silver-haired bomber. I wasn't one to deny the obvious but I was awkward about it, even afraid. But I was willing to have a try with him, if his feelings were mutual.

But that was the thing. I had absolutely no idea whether or not he liked me. Yes, he's nice to me and all but it might be because I was Tsuna's sister.

I grinned and took his arm. "Well then, let's go! We don't want to disappoint my brother now, do we?"

I walked in a nice place with the bomber and enjoyed the peacefulness. It was nice, aside from the cold weather and the snow littering the ground. I wrinkled my nose.

White

I hated that color.

Snow

I hated it too. It's just so cold.

I stopped walking suddenly when a face flashed across my vision. My stomach clenched with pain and guilt. It was my fault. My fault.

"Juudaime's sister, is there anything wrong?" Gokudera asked slowly stopping with me. He put a hand on my shoulder. The warmth of his hand jerked me from my inner turmoil. It was then when I realized that I stopped walking. "Oh…I'm sorry Gokudera-kun. I guess I'm still a little tired." I apologized in embarrassment.

Gokudera smiled kindly at me. "Take your time. I don't care about being late to school anyways."

I mentally wondered if he would be reacting differently if I wasn't Tsuna's sister. Probably. He'd be scowling at me and call me by my last name or some ridiculous nickname. "You shouldn't be zoning out, baka!" I imagined him saying.

Decimo's sister

Juudaime's sister

Couldn't I be called anything other then 'Tsuna's sister"?

"Juudaime's sister," I mused aloud as we both started to walk again, "It seems that everyone except Alana and Takeshi forgets that I have my own name." I sighed.

Here was the other thing why I'm so reluctant with pursuing these…feelings. I haven't heard Gokudera call me by my name ever.

Gokudera gave me a panicked look. "No! I'll-I'll try calling you by your name too! And there's also Juudaime who calls you by your name!"

"Really?" I gave him a hopeful look. Gokudera's lips trembled as he attempted to stutter out my name but all that came out was a bird-like squawk.

I blinked.

Gokudera scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment, looking everywhere but me.

I snorted, surprising the bomber. Then, I giggled. And after that, I chuckled. It was like some sort of domino effect because I ended up laughing. I laughed until tears fell from my eyes. I had no doubt that my cheeks were as red as a tomato.

It was a while before I calmed down. When I saw the look on Gokudera's face, I thought I was going to burst into another round of laughter. "Sorry, sorry!" I chuckled. "It's just that I haven't laughed this much ever since Alana's attempt in cooking!" I sighed. "Ah, that was a good laugh."

I could feel his questioning gaze on me so I explained.

"Things happened and let's just say I'm pleasantly surprised that I still have to ability to laugh."

I smiled happily at the bomber. "Grazie, Gokudera-kun. You made my day a lot better."

I wasn't sure what the expression that crossed his eyes was when he looked at me, but I like to think that it might be something that resembled genuine adoration.

Strangely, that sweet expression turned into a mix of surprise, panic, and horror. I felt oddly light and I think I toppled over into his arms, not sure. My eyes felt so heavy and he was so warm.

Then I realized that I was tired.

Really tired

I was yanked back into the white room. I looked down at my past's body and blinked in surprise. This scene wasn't one of my unpleasant memories. Actually, I think it was something that I almost forgot.

A Hispanic boy, my fellow experiment, crawled from the corner and to my beaten up body right after the beating before was finished.

The cuts on my body were already disappearing, a courtesy from my abuser. All us experiments were given the 'gift' of quick healing. Unfortunately, that meant beating us up daily wouldn't make a difference in the amount of sick experiments they did on us.

Me, being the youngest in my age group, was picked on the most for my weakness.

"Hey, Crow-girl." He rasped in English with an accent. Like everyone else, he called me by the nickname that I was dubbed after I told them the meaning of my name. My eyes brightened in acknowledgement but I didn't dare speak. My throat was too dry anyways. "Man, they did a number on you this time, eh? That's mean of them."

The boy and I became friends as we did to the others. It was a 'fight and live together' type of situation. I guess one way to make strong bonds is through being experimented on by insane scientists.

Though I always wondered why he, out of all of them, would always help me up and move me away from the bloody ground so I would heal properly.

He lifted me up and struggled a little because of the lack of strength. The food and water that those scientists offered us were little to almost nothing. I dimly wondered what happened to Alana and the other two. We were all separated because of our age and size difference.

"Ricardo Fernandez," I croaked weakly to catch his attention. I think that was his name. "Thank you."

Ricardo grinned at me. "No problem, Crow-girl."

"No problem."

Waking up never felt so terrible.

I blinked the light away from my eyes. When my eyes stopped stinging, I slowly analyzed my setting. I recognized the room as the Nurse's Office. I used to visit here often during the days when I was awkward in sports.

"Juuhime! Are you okay? Does your head hurt?" Gokudera wasted no time on pelting me with questions as he fussed over me. If my head wasn't pounding so much from all the noise, I would've appreciated his fussing and worrying. And what was it with the 'Juuhime'?

"Stop it, you're acting like a mother."

Unfortunately, my head was pounding.

I heard someone snort from the background. "This is why you'll never get a girlfriend."

A very familiar face peeked into my view. Gokudera's face became dark and annoyed but I didn't really care about that at the moment. I smirked at the doctor in front of me and tipped my head forward in a polite manner. "Shamal."

"My, my, so polite Karasu-chan. To think you used to be the young girl who always ran to 'Uncle Shamal' when she got scratches after training." Shamal regarded me in cocky yet proud manner. "You've grown."

"I had no choice." I told him curtly while shifting my body.

"Wait, you know him, Juuhime?" I turned my attention to a confused Gokudera. Cute.

I nodded. "Yeah, he knew two of my teachers. You know, the ones you never met yet." I turned to Shamal. "Which reminds me, do you know where she is?" I was talking about the teacher who disappeared not long before I left.

Something akin to guilt flashed across his eyes. I pretended not to see it but I kept that image ingrained in my mind. He knows…but he won't tell. Shaping my face into one of disappointment I said. "Ah…I see."

"Let's talk about different things. Like why you weren't getting enough sleep." Shamal smoothly changed the subject. I sighed and subtly gestured over to where Gokudera was. Comprehension dawned over Shamal's face before he turned and pushed Gokudera out of the office. "Out. I need you to retrieve warm, wet towels for her."

Before Gokudera could protest, Shamal slammed the door into his face before turning to me. "So, the nightmares again."

I curled my fingers into my brown hair and let out a light sigh. "They're not nightmares, Shamal. Nightmares are just figments of the imagination. What I see every night…they're not my imagination no matter how much I want them to be." I bit my lip before telling Shamal about everything…everything that happened during my nightmare. He listened quietly, not even betraying an emotion as I spilled my guts to him.

No pity, you have no idea how relieving that felt to have someone listen while you talk, saying nothing and judging nothing.

After I finished, I sat back and let out a huge sigh of relief. "I feel a little better."

"A little? Seems like you had a lot of baggage to carry, kid. And it never crossed your mind that you could've spilled it all out to your brother on the first day instead of keeping it all in?" Shamal tried to joke but stopped when I glared at him. "Actually, that thought did cross my mind before I realized that he was going under a lot of stress of being the Tenth Generation Boss, thank you very much."

Shamal shook his head, "I take back about you growing up. You're still too soft. You don't' have a greedy bone in your body, do you?"

"I don't think so. But hey, you're the doctor." I replied while shrugging. Shamal roared with laughter at my unintentional joke. "Correct, that's correct Karasu. I always knew that there was a reason why you were my favorite. Say, she never told me about these unique abilities that you had in detail. Mind explaining?"

She as in my disappeared sensei

I began by quoting a very important lesson that was engraved into my brain since day one. I tried my best parroting what Sensei told me on our very first day in training. "Sensei once told us, 'if you think that this power is some sort of blessing or gift, I'll tell you this: You'll find out that this is not and will never be a good thing to be burdened with.

"This will always be the 'gift' that you can never return to the giver for the giver gave it to you to one day kill you."

"This is our curse."

Shamal sat in front of me a little flabbergasted with the vast amount of information that he was just given. "I…I have no idea what to say after hearing all of that."

"Wait until it all sinks in?" I suggested.

Shamal shook his head. "Yeah. I'll get back to you on that after it 'sinks in'." He walked over to me and turned my body so my back was facing him. "What are you doing, Shamal?"

"Checking the back of your neck. Does it still infect easily?"

I pulled my hair up and at that moment, the door swung open. "Juuhime, I'm sorry for taking so long! Did that pervert do anything-?

I dropped my hair to cover the disgusting mark back up but it was too late. He had seen it. I avoided his questioning eyes and clenched my skirt roughly. Shamal laughed nervously. "Well, it doesn't seem infected anymore! But you have a small fever so you should get back home after your check-up. Oi, be useful and hand me those towels." He aimed the rudely asked request to Gokudera.

I knew that Gokudera was going to ask me about it later. The look in his eyes was apparent enough.

I bit my lip as Shamal dabbed my forehead with the warm towel.

I could only feel Gokudera's eyes on the K-10 mark burned into the back of my neck.

Shamal sent me home early. As I predicted, Gokudera volunteered to walk me home just in case I collapsed again.

The walk was silent and awkward. I waited patiently for the bomber to ask the questions that I knew he would ask.

"Does it hurt?" Gokudera finally spoke but his question surprised me. I had expected him to ask how I got the burn or where I had received it.

"Not now," I admitted, "Though it aches sometimes."

"Does Juudaime know about it?" Gokudera asked softly. I shamefully shook my head. "No…I never got the chance to tell him. He's experiencing enough stress already. I'm just waiting for the right time."

Gokudera nodded understandingly. "I understand. I'll keep your secret, Juuhime."

"You will?" I was once again surprised. I thought he would've gone to Tsuna to tell him by now. The silver haired bomber was defying every possibility that I thought out. "Aren't you going to ask me how this happened?" I asked, gesturing to the back of my neck.

"I want to," Gokudera admitted, "but I'm willing to wait forever until you're ready to speak without being uncomfortable. If you want to tell me, I'll listen. If you don't, then I won't say anything about it."

I wanted to kiss him. I really, really wanted to kiss him.

"Juuhime?"

I hugged him instead. "Grazie, grazie, grazie." I murmured my thanks into his shoulder. Gokudera held me and supported me. He also murmured his vows and promises of his undying loyalty to my brother and me into my ear and promised once again that he would always be there for me. I felt happy that no one was here to interrupt this moment.

I wanted to kiss him.

But…

Now wasn't the right time. I really liked him, but now wasn't the right time. I needed to wait until I knew him better. I needed to wait until the hole that Takeshi unintentionally left in my heart is completely closed up and healed.

Until then,

I'll hope that my silver-haired bomber would wait as he promised.

The dark haired girl stared at the bewildered face of the oxen right in front of her. It stared and chewed on a clump of grass. To her dismay, her robes were right under the oxen's hoof.

That piece of clothing took weeks to make! And it was her favorite!

"Stupid Cow! So this was where you went! You'll pay for worrying my Boss!"

Fate

The dark haired girl was frozen in shock as a mortal came into her view. His scowling facial features amused her and made her forget about her current predicament. Back in Heaven, the males always wore masks of politeness and cheerfulness. This was a nice change.

The mortal man stopped from his angry ranting when he caught sight of the dark haired girl. His gaze was immediately dragged into her eyes and his cheeks began to burn. When he saw her lack of clothing, he looked away quickly.

The dark haired girl did her best to cover herself with her hands and waded deeper into the water. She did all of this without breaking her gaze from the interesting man.

Something about him made her stomach feel funny.

"Oi, what do you want?" The man asked as gruffly as he could.

The unseen red string became taut.

"U-Um, your Ox is stepping o-on my robes!" The girl managed to stutter while looking away in embarrassment.

Fate

"Oh…" The man blushed in embarrassment and whacked the cow's butt harshly. "Move your ass, you dumb cow! This is your fault that this lady is in this situation!"

The mortal man carefully shook the dirt from the robes as best as he could and held the clothing out to the dark haired maiden. He shut his eyes tightly while doing this. "Here."

The maiden waded out of the water and took the clothes from the man gratefully and quickly changed into them. "T-Thank you, sir. You can open your eyes now."

After he opened his eyes, she smiled gratefully. "If it weren't for you, I might have remained in the lake all night! Thank you!"

Blushing furiously, the mortal looked away again. "So…what is a woman doing, shamefully swimming in the Lake of Tears? Do you want other men to see you unclothed?" He asked gruffly.

"My sisters told me that I could bathe here. This is my first time away from home, you see. But they left me all alone!" The maiden pouted angrily. "Now I have no idea how to get back home!"

The mortal pondered over something for a moment before tentatively asking, "If you don't mind, I can take you to my Boss. He knows everything so he could help you get back home."

"I appreciate your help, sir!" The dark haired girl told him. He frowned slightly at how she called him 'sir'. "It's Niu Lang."

"Pardon?"

"My name is Niu Lang." He repeated.

The maiden blinked and mouthed the new name over and over again to get familiar with it. "You have me your name. Then I must return the favor. My sisters and father call me Zhi Nu."

"Zhi Nu." Niu Lang murmured to himself. "That sounds like a pretty fancy name, Zhi Nu."

"I wouldn't know, Niu Lang. You are the very first person outside of my family to ever learn of my name."

Hopefully, you all like this chapter. This was made from very hard work. Trying to make up for the not-so-good chapter before.

If there's any confusion, let me know!

Next chapter: Futa comes into the picture. (Excited squeal) I just love that little ranking boy.

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