Ciao! I don't own Hitman Reborn! 'kay?

Thanks a bunch for animelover78, Queen of Vampires, Miya-chan40, RanLei, and x3iLoveAnime for reviewing chapter 14!

I looove today~~~~! I hope all of you do too!

Let's get it started!

Chapter 15: Checkpoints.

Giotto's POV

It's been such a long time since I saw G and Knuckle battling seriously. They really show no mercy, and its three minutes already. Knuckle looked uncomfortable, but he still fights. The other pair is amazing too. They cover each other's back perfectly. What irritates G is whenever he shots something at Claire, Antonio will block it. And Knuckle will vaporize his sea flame. But Claire will absorb his sun flame, therefore, making her trees grow.

And their fighting skills aren't cheap-shots as well. Claire's rod is extremely long and hard to control, but she controls it perfectly and therefore making it hard to avoid. Antonio's reload skills are Godly, and he has multiple guns. But, Knuckle's fists are lethal weapons, and G's accuracy is on par with the archery God, Apollo.

"Uuuu~! They're irritating!" Said Claire with an angry tone.

Antonio seems to agree with her. "You think you're NOT irritating?" Said G in the same tone. "I'm extremely excited! But, tired as well." Suddenly, Antonio shot his gun to G's direction. When Knuckle's about to block it, Claire's grapevines roses and made him trip. "How dare you play dirty?" Said G irritated.

"I'm not playing dirty! Kihihihii~"

"Tidal Shot!"

His bullet splits and spills the tidal wave inside. All of us in the room struggled not to drown except for Antonio who shielded Claire with his bubbles. "Oops, I guess I didn't try enough!" He shot normal bullets to Knuckle's direction. Those Grapevines trapped him, it made him drown, and vulnerable. "Vaporize!" The sea water around him vaporized and he can breathe. "Knuckle of Maximum Break!" He jumped and breaks free from the grapevines. With his fist, he strike through and vaporized the sea water in his way.

He punches Antonio's abdomen. Antonio cough blood on the moment and his tidal waves and bubbles vaporized. "ANTONIO!" Claire shouted tending the obviously-passed-out Antonio. "Antonio, please!" Claire shakes his shoulders to get zero result. She stares to Knuckle with an obvious hatred.

"YOU! PUNIZIONE DIVINA DI ALBERI! DIVINE PUNISHMENT OF TREES!"

Her flame bursts and many tree trunks fell from the ceiling. All the rose thorns in the room roses against Knuckle. "This is over! Flame Arrow!" He shot his storm-coated arrow to Claire's direction. It disintegrates all of the plants and head straight to Claire. Before it hits her, she uses her rod to shield herself, only G's flame impact blasts her away to the wall.

"AAAAA! ANTONI-BLEAGGH!" She severely coughs blood. Her body are bruised everywhere.

She stumbles down and desperately walks to Antonio's unconscious body. "An…to…ni…o…" Knuckle stands and put on his priest robes back. "It's your loss. Now, escort us to the next checkpoint." Said G. "Yeah, Claire. Please, at least tell us where we should go." I asked her. "Uuuu~ uuu~ I haven't lost." She vomits blood again.

Demon Spade, Lampo, and Alaude didn't respond on this battle. "Here, I'll heal you." Knuckle offers his hand. Claire shook her head and brushes his hand away. "I will not receive any help from Vongola!" Knuckle pouts. After hugging Antonio's body, she stood up weakly and escorts us.

"The next checkpoint is supposed to be Antonio's. But… since he's out cold, I'll take you to the next one."

Said Claire with all of her breath. Knuckle is perked to no end since there's a person in need in front of him, and he didn't help her. We finally arrived in front of a door. "This is… the third checkpoint…" She fell on the ground, and finally passes out. A boy comes out from the room. "This is as far as she can escort you; I'm the third checkpoint's Guardian. My name is Yamamoto Ryuuren."

"Yamamoto? I'm going to take part on this one." Said Alaude in his usual coolly tone.

"Do as you please. But, I only allow two representatives in my checkpoint. My rule is Endurance. If you can survive inside the room for five minutes, I'll escort you to the next checkpoint."

"I'll be taking part in this one." I stepped forward. "Only both of you will enter the room. The rest will be outside." He opens the door. Alaude and I stepped in. "Have fun… Vongolas!"

I gasped, inside the room, is the last thing on earth I wanted to see.

Yukime's POV

"Onii-sama!" I shouted. "Now, now Yuki. Aren't you supposed to greet your Oji-sama first?" I didn't listen to him and ran straight to Onii-sama's chair. He's unconscious and is bound to his chair. "You didn't listen to your Elder… I'm very displeased." The ground shook real hard. The ring on Oji-sama's middle finger bursts with the Earth Flame.

I light my brown flame and enforce the gravity around me. "In the end, you lie to me too, Oji-sama." The calmness and disappointed tone of my voice seems to surprise him. He clapped his hand. "You've become strong, Yuki. I'm proud." I blushed, no one have said that word to me. "Don't listen to him, Yukime-chan!" Ugetsu nii-sama grabbed my sleeve.

"He has abandoned you, Yuki. You state that in your letter during your journey." I cut the grapevines that bind Onii-sama with a knife made of condensed snow. He fell and I hugged him, trying to support him. His robes are torn, his face is scratched, and there're bruises on every part of his body. "Letters? What letters?" He asked weakly. "Don't talk nii-sama!" I begged him.

"What are you saying, Yuki? You said it yourself that writing 'Dear Ugetsu nii-sama' has always pained you!"

"Stop it, Oji-sama!"

"Yukime-chan, is that true?"

"Be honest, Yuki!"

"Why is he allowed to call you, Yuki? He's not even our Oji-sama!"

"Stop it!" I yelled. My tears fall, I hate this. It must be snowing outside. "It's true…" I whispered. "He's not Onii-sama's Oji-sama! But mine! He's the one who received all the letters during my journey!" I sniffed. No, I gotta stay strong! He tightens his hug. "Why didn't you send them to me?" He asked. "I did, once. But you didn't reply, I thought… you're having so much that you even forgot me."

"See? And you call yourself a brother? You're just an utter failure! She'll stay and become the Spazio Quarto!"

"No way will I let you take my sister!"

"I refuse! I'm not abandoning my post as the Vongola Snow Guardian!"

Oji-sama snaps his finger and the subordinates of Spazio Famiglia came out. "Play with her while I'm taking care of this one!" He took out a pirate sword. "Interesting…" Onii-sama took out his four irregular swords. "It seems that my Guardians forgot to confiscate your weapons. I'll be sure to scold them. And, I'll have to praise you for not trying to escape." Onii-sama laughed. "If I ran, you'll just capture me again. It's futile."

I was sure that I've taken out fifteen, but another twenty subordinate came rushing. "Onii-sama!"

"Come at me, Vongola Rain Guardian!"

And so, their battle begins.

Giotto's POV

I don't know how, but it seems that five minutes have passed. My flames are drained greatly. Alaude is exhausted as well. I just fought my… ex-important person. She has died. But she's there earlier and I have to fight her. Alaude was fighting Yukime, of course. He shouted her name in the middle of the battle earlier.

Yamamoto Ryuuren clapped his hand. "That was amusing! How is it? Fighting with the person who's shadowing your heart?" He laughed. "You!" Alaude grabbed his collar. "I'm the Guardian of Shadow by the way," a black flame bursts on his ring. "Of course I can be a shadow! Or produce a realistic shadow of anyone or anything I want!" He's behind Alaude in no time.

"I'll escort you to Carlos' checkpoint." He laughed and walked in front of us. All of us followed him unwillingly. We finally reach the door.

"This is as far as I can escort you. And this is the last checkpoint by the way, our fourth checkpoint's Guardian is absent…" He stopped for a while. "…try your best not to be in his realm. Best of luck, Vongolas!"

He left us. "Come on, let's open the door." We opened the door and stepped in. What we saw in the room is a seated boy and nightmares.

A terrible, and dreadful, nightmare.

Pheew~~~! Finished! Please review and… I'll reveal Carlos' element in the next chapter! So be patient and wait, or if you can… guess! Wohooo! I'm feeling hyper today, uuu~ I want to tell ya, but… let's hold it off. That's all

Bye-bee~!

P.S: Can you believe it? 100 reviews! Thanks all! And keep reviewing!