Two
"Kari, you're going to be late! Kazu is probably already at Yuri's school!" Haru chided as she watched her daughter gulp down more food.
"Mo-om! I'm hungry! The school never serves any decent food!" Karina wailed.
"You could take a bento, like your bro –"
"I'm too lazy!"
"Don't cut me off, Karina. And I already made a bento for you today."
Karina scowled, and slung her backpack over her shoulder. She grabbed the bento and ran off to meet up with her brother at Yuriko's school.
Karina spotted her brother before her brother spotted her. Smiling gleefully, Karina crept up to Kazuto, who was just coming around the corner out of Yuriko's elementary. Karina closed her eyes and felt the sneaky feeling of anticipation as she hid behind the wall, preparing to scare heck out of Kazuto. Then, without warning, Karina jumped out from behind the corner and lunged at Kazuto. Her face went pale in mid-air and she twisted into a back flip, successfully stopping herself from lunging onto Kazuto – or the person who she thought was Kazuto.
"AGH!" The person yelped, falling flat on his bottom. "Ow! What are yo- Karina?"
Karina was stunned for a moment but relief washed over her when she realized that the person who witnessed her randomly lunging at people was none other than Hitobi Yoritomo, her brother's best friend. Kazuto happened to be standing right beside him. Rubbing her arm, Karina knew that while she was waiting with anticipation, her brother must have joined Yoritomo. After all, Yoritomo did join up with them to go to school sometimes.
"Oi...Karina… That was….Surprising." Kazuto said after recovering from what had happened. Her sister had just tried to jump on Yoritomo.
"Yeah, yeah," Karina muttered to her brother. Then she turned to Yoritomo. "Sorry, I thought you were Kazu."
Yoritomo, looked up and ran his fingers through his black hair. "It's alright. No biggie. I believe I can assume that you and your brother have a very decent relationship."
Karina took a deep breath. "That's a hard one."
Kazuto gave Karina a stern stare before shrugging.
"C'mon, we don't have time anymore."
At school, Karina jammed her backpack into her locker and took off to home room. Karina looked around before sitting down. Her classmates were sitting already and her teacher eyed her briefly, indicating that she had just made it in time. Then Karina noticed the empty seat beside hers, which belonged to a friends of hers. It was unnatural for her to be late.
...
Her shoes tapped lightly on the shiny, polished floor as she ran hurriedly to the front desk. Huffing, she signed herself in. Hair was flying over her face as she sprinted to her locker and stuffed her school bag in. Homeroom was almost over, which meant that she was almost half an hour late.
Finally she arrived and slowly slid open the door.
"S-sorry I'm lat-"
"Akane! What took you so long? You are not usually the late type."
It was Karina, cutting her off just like usual. Akane gave an apologetic look to their teacher and sat down beside Karina.
"Alarm clock went crazy..."
Akane replied, rubbing her brow. She was still heavy with sleep for she had just awoken ten minutes ago. Yawning, Akane replayed the events of what had happened that morning in her head.
Bangs, crashes, yelps, and a few screams had escaped from upstairs, with some barks and growls following it.
"DAD! WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME?!" Akane had yelled from upstairs, running around.
Her father had sighed and shook out the newspaper. "Akane, you have to be more responsible now!"
Felix, the large shiba inu of the Chiruma household, had gone down stairs and snuggled by his master, whimpering. Mr. Chiruma scratched his ear.
After that, Akane had crashed down the stairs, nearly breaking a prized antique vase. Her shoulder length ginger hair was unkempt, and textbooks were on the edge of falling out of her schoolbag. "I'm sorry I woke up so late. But please, dad. Sometimes alarm clocks can lag..." Akane had said and grabbed a piece of toast. She then had stepped into her school shoes while brushing her hair vigorously for a moment
When she had run outside, she had crashed into a boy.
"So sorry, but I'm kind of late for school! I'm so, so sorry!" She had started running again but was stopped with a question.
"Wait what's your name?" The white haired person had asked.
"It's Akane! I'm so sorry-again. But I really need to get to school. Like… Now." Then Akane had seriously sprinted off.
Now thinking about the bizarre events made Akane's stomach turn over. She felt guilty for bumping into him, though she really shouldn't be… It was an accident anyway. Wiping her moist hands on her skirt, Akane wondered if she hurt the person. She also wondered why he had asked for her name. She really shouldn't have given it out; anything could happen on Tsushima island.
"Yup, my alarm clock went really crazy," Akane repeated, sighing.
It was the last period before lunch and just as the students were packing up, a staff member came into the room and exchanged a quick word with Reita, their language teacher. She was also Akane and Karina's home room teacher. Reita looked surprised and they went out to talk for a minute.
"Settle down, class." Reita said when she came back inside. "We have a new student joining us today." Turning towards the door, she nodded. "Come on in."
Akane was surprised. Students don't usually join in the middle of a semester. She looked to Kazuto, who looked just as shocked. Akane then switched her gaze to the figure lingering at the door. Finally, the person stepped into the classroom. Akane covered her mouth as her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. It was the guy from earlier that morning. Oh fate, it just had to do that to her. Now he was obviously going to recognize her.
The white-haired boy smiled, his gold eyes darting around the classroom. "Nice to meet you all. I'm Salazar Scolle and – oh, hey, I know you! What was your name? Aka-something? Akane, was it?" He looked towards Akane.
Akane suddenly found herself the cynosure of the class, and there was an especially menacing glare Umira – the top-class student.
"U-um...Yeah..." she smiled nervously, hoping everyone would stop glaring at her. The teacher lifted her eyebrows in a surprised manner.
"Seems like you guys know each other. Well then, Chiruma. Why don't you spend lunch showing Scolle around?"
"Well, it's a pleasure to see you again, Akane-chan." Salazar said, sliding into the empty seat next to her, making other girls glare even more evilly at Akane.
"Yes, sensei." Akane sighed. She didn't feel like showing anyone around at all, but she felt like she owed him something. "Akane-san would be much preferred." She eyed Salazar and found herself staring at a pair of yellow eyes and a very unfamiliar face. Up close, Salazar looked quite different. Akane then started packing her things, too.
"Please, sensei," Umira said, standing up. "Could I show Scolle-san around along with Chiruma-san? I know this school better, and it would be good to introduce him to the members of the student council."
Reita nodded, allowing her as the class president and secretary of the student council to go with Akane and Salazar. "Yes, Kawasaki, you may go."
Akane frowned. Umira seemed… Jealous. Which was a pretty rare sight. But that didn't matter, Akane felt relieved that it wouldn't just be Salazar and her alone… that would be nerve wrecking considering the events in the morning. If only Karina was with her in language class… she would've been going with them too.
The bell suddenly rang, making everyone in the classroom jump. Umira instantly walked up to Akane.
"I know I sound acerbic right now, but," Umira started and took a deep breath as she looked seriously at Akane. "I am coming with you and you are not going to stop me. I am going to be the person that Salazar likes best."
Akane timidly nodded. "O-okay… It'd be awesome if you could tag alo-"
"TAG ALONG!? No! I'm not merely tagging along! Mind your words, please."
Umira literally bursted. Akane was taken aback. Kawasaki Umira didn't usually behave like that. She was always polite, nice, helpful, and all that good stuff. Akane wondered if she was alright. She could be having a mood swing. However, Umira noticed that she went overboard and pinched herself. She was about to apologize to Akane when she caught sight of Salazar's silver hair and inhaled sharply. She then forgot entirely about apologizing.
Salazar stepped towards the door, his school bag over his shoulder, and thankfully, interrupted their 'fight'. "Oiii. Are you guys coming or not? You're not going to leave me all alone to wander around in this school, are you?" he said, a teasing smile forming.
Before Akane and Umira could reply, a black-haired girl stood up, finished packing, and went to the door. "Excuse me," she said to Salazar, nodding as a sign of respect. She looked back to Umira and Akane and also dipped her head down. "I may be a bit rude saying this," the girl with black hair began, "but Kawasaki-san and Chiruma-san, you two are blocking the doorway, and you both are being too loud. Let's show some discipline, especially when we have a new student in class." And with that, she left. An awkward silent formed. The black haired girl was none other than Enaka, the girl who lived by etiquette and had all the riches. She could have been the class president instead of Umira, but turned down the position.
Akane led Salazar to the most important place in the school. Without that part of the school, they would probably die. Umira had said to start on the first floor to make things easier, and so they did. "Here is the washroom." Akane introduced when they got to the most important place in the school.
"Chiruma-san! How could you show our very important guest the restroom?! Out of all the places in the school!" Umira reprimanded. Akane sighed and dragged Umira away from the boy.
"Go ahead in there! Explore the toilets and see if you like them. We'll be waiting. Holler if you need anything." She addressed Salazar. Turning again to face Umira, Akane frowned. "Umira-chan, what's wrong? Did I do something? Why do I feel like we are having a cold war?"
Umira looked at Akane innocently. "No, you didn't do anything. Am I doing something?" Suddenly, she facepalmed herself. "OH! I see what you mean. It's just that, you see –" she hesitated. "Don't say this to anyone but – I fangirl over silver haired guys. They remind me so much of a character in this certain comic book series!" Umira looked sorry. "I hear that I can be very mean when silver haired guys are around… Am I doing it again? I'm so sorry if I am, Akane-chan. But I just. Never. Notice. It." Umira then looked up at Akane. "If I return to that state again, just say chopsticks." Akane looked confused.
"Chopstick? What for?" Akane asked.
"It drags me back to reality. You see, when I read comics, I get so ebullient I can't even help myself cease to read them. However, there's this thing that my dad performs. Sometimes I would bring my comic books to the dining table and my dad would use chopsticks to slap my arm. It does hurt a little but it's actually really advantageous. Now, all my dad needs to say is 'chopsticks' before I drop the book and conceal my arms while unlatching the book. After that, I instanl return to phenomenon. It's now a knack." Umira said, without stopping between the long words for breath. Akane wondered – again, as she always did – how Umira remembered all those words. She was a straight-A student, but using such big words normally seemed like hard work to Akane. Umira didn't even seem to notice that she was using words that were hard to understand. She just casually brushed her wispy purple hair away from her red glasses and nodded towards Akane, with a look knowing look.
"I know it sounds abstract but really, it works. One time, my after even successfully made me fall back into reality while I was reading the penultimate chapter of the comic! THE PENULTIMATE CHAPTER! Seriously!" Umira had literally screamed the last few words. Then she looked at Akane, who shook her head, dumbfounded.
...
People were screaming, fighting and helplessly fleeing. A group of people dressed in black were effortlessly fighting.
Tsuna looked at the war outside. He instantly took off and landed a surprise attack on two of them that were fighting side by side. Tsuna had flown right in between them and kicked both of them twice and upper-cutted one of them, sending the person off. The person that was left recovered from the stun and aimed for a grabbed the person's incoming weak fist and twisted the arm and was just about to kick the person when from the corner of his eye, he noticed a silent wave of a hand. The person instantly jumped away and high into the sky, skillfully grabbing onto the edge of a roof, despite his now-probably-sprained arm and vanished. When Tsuna looked around, the others had gone too.
A man with jet-black hair walked up to him, smiling. "You must be Sawada Tsunayoshi, the 10th Vongola Boss, husband of Miuka Haru, father of Sawada Kazuto, Sawada Karina, and Sawada Yuriko. A pleasure to meet you."
Tsuna stiffened as he heard all this information. It wasn't abnormal for a mafia to know all this, but to state the information just like that… it could be considered a threat or a bribe. Tsuna instantly took his X-Burner stance. "Who are you, and what do you want?"
The man chuckled. "Oh, I don't want too much, really. All I need is power."
"Who are you?"
"I'm terribly sorry. We haven't met properly yet, have we? My name is – you really don't need to know. And again, as I have said, I need power. If I am correct, your family has been looking through files of young adolescents and have been deciding to recruit certain ones. What I am worried about, is that your family is taking candidates from what we have chosen. I really hate to see young people waver between choosing families to join. Of course, being me, I'd like all of them to join my family. So please, for the time being, stop recruiting members. Or trouble will come upon you all." The man was gleeful.
"In that case, I'm afraid you'll have to leave, sir. If you know about the Vongola, you should know our reputation too. What's stopping me from going right ahead and kicking you home instead of all this nice talk? You hurt a guardian of mine." Tsuna scoffed, glaring at the ill-meaning man. What a nuisance. "Are you part of a new family?"
"I'm not part of a new family, Sawada Tsunayoshi. I am the new family. I control them. I am the boss of that new family. And that family has already killed hundreds of your men. They were such hopeless people. All I wanted to do was to talk with you." he gestured behind him to the corpses in a careless way. "Are you sure you don't want to surrender? I am trying to show some compassion and mercy here."
"Those people you killed. I'm showing enough generosity already. If you leave in the count of five, I will not touch a hair on your body for now. But if you do not, I will not hesitate to kill you." Tsuna's voice turned stonily cold and his eyes narrowed, meaning it.
The man suddenly stepped towards the side, as Hibari charged past with his tonfas. "I would also advise you to control your so called 'Guardians'," The man commented lightly, straightening his jacket. "It's not mannerly to charge at people without warning. Etiquette, Sawada, is quite important. Even if you are a mafia boss."
"One." Tsuna muttered, anger boiling inside of him as he turned to face the other way. Hibari spat on the ground before standing up. However, he knew the tradition very well. Hibari contained his blood lust and walked to Tsuna, facing the man but making no move, nor sound. He was just there to make sure the man would not do something stupid to Tsuna while he was facing the other way.
"So, do we have an agreement?" The man pressed.
"Two." Tsuna said, knowing that it was against the mafia rules to just start fights when they were making no attempt to hurt him or at least not making any more attempts to hurt any of his family members. He had to give him five seconds to take revenge.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi, are you sure about this? You are making a great mistake that will cause you your life." The man still did not leave.
"Three." Tsuna's voice grew louder. "I will find you, and make you pay for this."
"Oh, you will regret this, Sawada. You must understand, it is all for the better. When our family gets what we want, you can go right on ahead and recruit members again." The man was as stubborn and as clueless as a rock. He had no idea what Tsuna could do to him… But neither did Tsuna know what the man could do to him.
"Four!" Tsuna shouted, wanting to punch the man in the face badly.
"Well then, let me leave with a warning. If you recruit any members in the next six years, my family will not leave you alone. We will be your nightmares."
"Five!" Tsuna hollered and he spun around. His gloves were blazing with flames and aimed for a punch. Hibari beat him to it and managed to whack the air close to the man. Though he had dodged the blow, Hibari noticed a wound had opened on the man's face before he vanished. Then the man was gone, just like that.
...
Gokudera tried yet again to ignite his flame for the lock. Tsuna had locked him inside. Gokudera yearned to know what was happening while he was helplessly wasting time. Gokudera knew that Tsuna knew that he was going to go out and help, which was probably the reason why Tsuna had locked him inside. To delay him. Gokudera now winced as he tried for the hundredth time to ignite the flame, but somehow, the ring would not spit out a single waver. Pounding the door with his good arm, Gokudera then tried kicking it open.
"I'm such a failure...Unable to protect Ju-daimei…" Gokudera muttered to himself.
"Oy, Gokudera. Stop being such a let down. Tsuna's out there with Hibari and your flame circuit inside your ring arm is damaged. Your flame circulation needs to be reconnected. Right now, all you can do is try and make that deep wound heal quick- and stop it from bleeding so much. I'm afraid that you are to grow unconscious in around five minutes if this continues."
Gokudera jumped, but recognized the voice as Reborn's. "That's very helpful. But do I look like I care?" Gokudera's voice dripped with sarcasm.
"You won't be able to do anything if you don't stop the bleeding first. That's all I got for you." Reborn then disappeared through the windpipe. Gokudera scowled and threw a bomb at the door. Unfortunately, it did not budge. Gokudera knew Reborn was telling the truth. Even ten minutes after from when he got cut severely by one of the people that dressed in black – one that was using an axe - Gokudera still could feel the incessant trickle of the warm, sticky blood rolling down his arm. He was starting to feel a little light headed. He really should take Reborn's advice. Altering his attention to his wound, Gokudera hastily took off his work blouse, revealing a short sleeved shirt. He then grabbed a bottle of water-stored in cupboards-and cursed silently as he dumped water over his wound. Gokudera tore both sleeves of his work blouse and wrapped one sleeve around his gnash. It took more energy than Gokudera thought would have taken to perform these actions. Just as Gokudera threw the emptied bottle across the room, Tsuna entered. He instantly walked over to Gokudera, tensing up as he saw the puddle of watery blood on the floor.
Gokudera straightened up. "Sorry about the mess, ju-daimei-" Gokudera looked at Tsuna, who was back to his normal self again and apologized.
"Gokudera-kun, I thought you would've gotten out already... How come you're still trapped in here? And never mind the mess, why didn't you go to the health care? I thought you finally took my advice for once!" Tsuna said before Gokudera could say another sentence.
"Sorry, Ju-daimei... I tried to get out and help but my flame wouldn't ignite for some reasons..." Gokudera started. He felt the loss of blood heavy upon him. Gokudera couldn't help himself anymore and stumbled against the wall his head pounding. Steadying himself, he saw Tsuna rush up to help him.
"That Reborn! I told him to come and help you!" Tsuna muttered as he walked with one of Gokudera's good arm across his shoulder. They soon arrived at the health room. Luckily, Ipin was inside, carefully mixing up another tube of antibiotics. Tsuna looked at Ipin with a warm smile. Ten years ago, she was still a noodle delivering girl. However, once Ipin got to University, she chose to become a doctor and took it as her major. Now she was working for the Vongola and sometimes she gets called to a hospital.
"Ah! Tsuna-nii!" Ipin looked up, sounding delighted. If Ipin knew about the fight that had just taken place, she didn't show a sign of it. Her gaze swivelled to Gokudera's arm. "Gokudera-nii, you're hurt! Come sit down!" Ipin talked in a high voice but a calm one. Gokudera thanked Tsuna briefly before sitting down at a bed.
"Hold out your arm." Ipin instructed and Gokudra didn't object. Tsuna noticed that he looked pale and tired. Thinking about the mess on the floor, Tsuna grimaced. He must have lost a decent amount of blood.
Ipin took off the blouse gently. Tsuna shivered when he saw the wound. The bleeding seemed to have stopped but around the gnash, the skin was purple and swollen. Ipin squeezed Gokudera's arm gently and blood oozed out again. Ipin humphed and grabbed a bottle and a cotton swab. Skillfully, she poured the liquid in the bottle onto the swab, which swelled in size. Ipin dabbed the wound with the swab without hesitation and Tsuna could see the folds on Gokudera's forehead crease. Tsuna held his breath. Gokudera didn't make even a yelp of noise. He simply shifted his weight and leaned on the bed post heavily.
"He'll be okay." Ipin addressed Tsuna. Tsuna looked up instantly. "Okay... It's okay, I'll stay for a bit..." Tsuna felt that it was partly his fault that Gokudera was like this. He had to stay a little longer at least. Ipin merely nodded and twirled off to a shelf.
"I'm really fine, Ju-daimei. You still have lots of work to do." Gokudera spoke through gritted teeth. Already though, the swelling had gone down quote a bit.
"Nah, I'll stay." Tsuna said and Gokudera had that watery puppy face again.
"J-Ju-daimei! I'm so sorry! I couldn't be by your side when I needed you but you are by my side even when I do not need it! This just reminds me how bad a right handed man I am!"
"U-uh... It's really fine!" Tsuna said, smiling uneasily. Ipin then returned with a piece of cloth and on one side it was yellow. She then held still Gokudera's arm while she wrapped the cloth around, yellow face down. That's when the door busted open and in came Hibari.
Ipin jerked up, causing the cloth to tighten and Gokudera to swear.
"Twenty-one men died." He said simply whole giving Gokudera a look that was cold and meaningless. "Toughen up, Hayato." Was all he said before leaving. Tsuna sighed. Hibari has probably cleaned up the corpses. He felt bad for his agents and frustration came upon him. This new family... He shook his head. No use thinking about it now.
Ipin pinned the cloth with a paperclip and grabbed a piece of blanket for Gokudera.
"You might want to rest for a while." Ipin suggested. Gokudera looked relieved as he climbed into the covers without a second thought. He instantly fell asleep.
...
"I don't know… we shouldn't stop, but if it endangers the people in our family…" Tsuna said, sighing, his head in his hands.
Reborn jumped up and kicked him across the face. "Of course you don't give up, no-good-Tsuna. Think of how loyal those people who died out there were; they would rather risk their lives than go to the other family. Now go search for the new candidates before that family steals them all." He said matter-of-factly.
Tsuna groaned but knew Reborn was right. He shouldn't waver like that. If the other family came again, Tsuna would definitely fight them. There really wasn't anything to worry about... Right? Tsuna shook his head. They weren't backing down because of some stupid new family. Of course not. If they wanted to make them back down, they'd have to try harder. The best way to get revenge was to do the exact opposite of what they had warned them against doing – they'd have to choose the 11th generation now. Though it was still quite early, Tsuna had the perfect plan to get candidates. He couldn't help but smile at his genius. The people that came today were definitely going to hate this.
-—END OF CHAPTER TWO—-
Regi: Merp. This chapter was mainly Philek's (or whatever you want to be called) writing. SO APPLAUSE FOR HER. The next chapter should be (hopefully) uploaded by next Friday… hopefully…
Ailurophilek: Don't go around giving me random nicknames. Anyways, hope you guys are liking it so far… I know that the fight wasn't really amusing but… it's gonna get intense somewhen soon. Oops, spoilers. But-oh-well.