Eight

Akane swung around and jabbed the dummy harshly. However, the dummy barely moved. Punching with even more force this time, the dummy finally rocked a little. Sweat lined Akane's hairline and she took short breaths. Her throat was burning and she felt exhausted, but Reborn had told her that she could only rest if she was able to make the dummy's shoulders touch the ground. Since Reborn was assessing how long it'd take for each candidate to be able to do as Reborn demanded, Akane tried extra hard. However, so far, Akane was only able to make the dummy fall 45 degrees at most. She had been trying for an hour already, and was clearly running out of energy. Her flame faded after the punch and she fell to the ground in exhaustion.

"It's no use… I can't do this…" Akane moaned, lying on the cold ground and panting. Reborn jumped down and kicked her face, sending her flying into the dummy.

Karina sighed and shook her head. "You're supposed to do it like this, idiot," Forcefully pulling Akane's right arm forwards, Karina used Akane's hand to hit the dummy's soft, brown chin. It fell backwards, its feet not being able to stick to the ground magnetically, and caught on fire. The wood colored dummy crumpled to the ground suddenly, it's legs in an awkward position.

"E-eh!? I-it's on fire! Quick, someone get water!" Akane squealed. Karina facepalmed.

"That's what you're trying to do. It's made of a special material that can catch on fire from our rings. The flame disables the magnets inside the dummy's feet. Now try punching it, just as I have told you." As Karina pointed out her mistakes and relentlessly made her do punching sequences repeatedly, Akane smiled to herself. Karina had come back.

Just after they got back to the dorms, Akane had confronted her friend, who was lying on the ground, apparently "meditating", as Kari had claimed. After Akane told Karina all about her thoughts and woes and such, there was a long, awkward pause.

"Sorry...?" Akane had said softly, breaking the silence. Kari merely grunted, then had picked out what her boss was doing wrong with her kicking sequences, and led her downstairs for more training. Typical Karina, never apologizing head-on unless for more trivial matters, instead changing the topic and fixing your mistakes as an official apology. Though it was obvious she would hold a grudge over the fact that Akane had been chosen as the leader instead of her, it would disappear over time, as all grudges she held did.

"Now!" Karina snapped and from the other side, she pushed the dummy towards her. Akane flinched, she was distracted by her thoughts, so she didn't think at all when she reacted to the flaming, flailing dummy that was flying towards her. Akane didn't even know what she did. What she remembered doing was bring her arm up, forearm across her face and the other arm followed when her forearm touched the dummy. Her other arm came into contact with something - all the flames in her face was making it too hard for her to see anything- and the next thing she knew was that the dummy was suddenly gone, along with the heat. When she heard a loud 'bam', Akane shuddered. Whatever happened had caused the dummy had flown all the way across the gray floor and made a dent in the wall opposite side of her.

"OW!" Akane suddenly yelped. She just noticed the gnash that was on her forearm and she cradled her arm. "W-what did that dummy do!?"

Reborn narrowed his eyes. "She didn't even need a dying will bullet…" He muttered to himself, putting Leon back onto his hat. He was just about to help Akane out a little by giving her a shot, but it didn't seem like she needed it. Reborn sat down, deep in thought. Akane might not know it, but the dummy was lit on her sky flames. It would have normally scorched a person's arm completely if they came into contact with it, due to the components of the dummy… However, Akane's arm only had a scratch. Reborn lifted a corner of his mouth, impressed. Of course, Akane didn't yet seem as good a candidate as Tsuna was when he was younger, but this was clearly beyond a normal candidate's power.

"Great job, Akane." Reborn said with a tip of his hat. He then glanced at her friend. "Karina, no helping. This is training specifically for the Sky flame holders. Send in Rei - and go fix the wounds on you two."

Karina stood there, cradling her hand for a moment before nodding with a sigh. Yoritomo, and Umira- who were both cheering on the benches- came over to the two and beamed. Umira skipped and punched the air. "You did it!"

"Finally." Yoritomo added. Though there was a hint of annoyance, he clasped a hand onto Akane's shoulder. "I guess when we return at eight, we will be able to train altogether."

Akane smiled. "Yup!" She wiped her forehead with a cloth and put on her beanie with one hand, walking towards the metallic door that led them out into the hallways- which will lead them back to their dorms. "Let's go and get some rest now! I feel like I'm going to puke." Even though her arm burned intensely, Akane had no intentions of going anywhere but back to the dorms.

…..

"Wait, where's the key?" Akane asked, digging around her bag. "I don't think I have it." The three girls had just arrived before their dorm door. Akane gritted her teeth. The gnash on her forearm was more painful than she expected. She would have expected it to dull down by now, since it had been ten minutes already. "Do any of you happen to have the keys?" Akane asked, shifting.

"Not in my pockets." Umira shrugged. However, she didn't just stand there. Taking two steps forwards, Umira jumped into the air and prepared for a flip. Both Akane and Karina knew what Umira was about to do in that instant.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Karina and Akane said in sync, both reaching out one arm to pull Umira back as she flipped back and kicked out a foot. Umira's kick almost landed successfully, but the two other girls held her in the air, by her armpits. Akane started breathing again, and only then did she realize that she hadn't been breathing the whole time, starting when Umira shrugged. Akane probably had suspected something was going to happen subconsciously, and became nervous. Taking in gulps of air, Akane lowered her half of Umira down.

"You don't just try and kick open a door like that!" Karina yelled. However, Umira's progress was incredible, especially for such a clumsy person. She could already do a backflip - then again - it was about the only thing she could do without tripping.

"I could tell you were about to do it anyway," Umira said, taking it lightly. "There's also no other way, is there?" Umira said, slipping her other arm out of Karina's grip. Just at that moment, the door opened.

"... You guys were loud." Miyoru said with a yawn. They had forgotten that Miyoru was all along inside the room, sleeping.

"Miyoru-san! Sorry about that…" Akane said, taking off her shoes. "But thanks." The albino stepped slightly aside to let the three go into the room.

"Shower, I'm taking a shower!" Umira said abruptly. She then grinned at Miyoru with appreciation and sped past Akane into the room and flung her shoes aside.

"What was that grin about...?" Miyoru asked, baffled.

"Probably for you, saving her energy by opening the door. Let me tell you, she was about to destroy that door." Karina shrugged, shutting the heavy wooden door behind her. Akane noticed a wince as Karina accidentally used the hand that touched the sky flame to pull on the bronze door knob.

"How about we go to the nurse after all?" Karina suggested. Akane, despite being tired, agreed for the sake of her forearm.

"You wouldn't mind being here with Umira, would you?" Akane asked Miyoru. Miyoru nodded briefly before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, though grimaced when Umira's singing rang out through their room.

…..

"I had them configured when we were at the weapon shop," Umira said, eyes sparkling as she took the pair of flat, metal chopsticks out of their case. Umira, Miyoru, Hibiki, Yoritomo and Ryuuji were sitting in the common room where all teams could go and chat or hang out. "At first, I thought they were fine just the way they were, but then I saw all those simple-looking weapons with surprisingly high technology in them. So, I made them extendable and able to conduct electricity better – seeing that my flame type is lightning."

"Hmm, interesting." Yoritomo said, paying more attention than usual. He crossed his legs nonchalantly and squinted against the bright yellow light. "Hibiki, what did you get?"

The beige leather couch squeaked as the silent teen reached into the pockets of his formal black jacket, revealing two black, stretchy gloves. Yoritomo raised an eyebrow and stared. The pair of gloves didn't even seem threatening.

"Silk… gloves…?" Yoritomo muttered disapprovingly, just soft enough so that he wouldn't hear. "Well, what can they do?" Hibiki paused for a moment, looking offended.

"Ah, don't underestimate weapons, tsunderederedere-Yori!" Ryuuji laughed, clapping a hand on Yoritomo. A sweatdrop appeared on Yori's head,

"It's fine." Hibiki said, lighting up his ring. "I can show him." He then turned to Yoritomo. "Hold your judgements, for I will surely beat you to pulp with these if I will it." Yoritomo pursed his lips, Hibiki resembles Hibari quite a bit. Yoritomo knew Hibiki was not joking. He had seen the brutality of the head of the student council, and would rather not participate in a one on one with Hibiki.

"A challenge?" Yoritomo said, lifting an eyebrow. He felt the need to defend himself. Hibiki was just jumping to conclusions.

"Yes, it just happens that I have enough time to spend with people who think that they are so great and could just judge without even experience." Hibiki said, eyes narrowed.

Being a proud lad, Yoritomo could not take more offences. "Really? Well, I didn't ask you to join the team – you were the one who just showed up." He stood up, taking on the glare coming from Hibiki. The auras coming from both of them were strong and filled with pride and stubbornness. Umira chuckled nervously, unsure what to do. Miyoru sat there, looking uninterested but clearly nervous as well. Umira was just about to say something but a voice beat her to it.

"Let them do this. People will bond with arguments. As long as they can mend their friendship later on, it'd be even more strong." Umira turned around and Miyoru glanced back. Reborn was sitting on the top of the couch, sipping tea. A corner of his mouth was curled. Umira opened her mouth, but then shut it again.

"A-alright… I guess."

At this point, both boys had stood up, and leaning towards each other in a calm but forceful argument. Yoritomo was clearly trying hard to keep calm and Hibiki was not backing down.

"Oh yeah? I bet my blades can surely beat those ugly gloves." Yoritomo said, lighting his ring as well.

"Wow, they really can get competitive, no?" Umira whispered, deliberately leaning in to talk to Miyoru for the first time. Miyoru nodded.

"Oy, Yori and Hibi!" Reborn suddenly said. "Take your fight outside, or to the training rooms!" Hibiki scowled at his sudden nickname and Yoritomo failed to keep in a chuckle. Yoritomo was used to his 'Yori' nickname already, but Hibiki surely did not appreciate his. However, both of them stepped out of the door, with the rest of them following.

"How can they already light their rings with such ease?" Reborn muttered to himself, before smirking again. "However, that is to be expected of the 11th generation candidates."

…..

Kari pursed her lips, looking at the bruised Yori and ruffled Hibiki. "What. In the world happened? Yori?"

Yoritomo looked away, but with his head high, his ego and pride never falling. Karina raised an eyebrow, and eyed the council president. "Hibiki?" Akane braced herself, seeing that Kari was getting ready to shout when no one replied.

The council president returned Kari's stern gaze, but shifted slightly. Before Kari could act, Umira stepped in front of her. She straightened her back, raised her hand to her head in a salute, and stood with her feet together.

"Report, Lieutenant! Yoritomo and Osaku-san fought today!"

Karina's eye twitched. "...Lieutenant?"

Umira relaxed from her position. "Well, you're technically second-in-command to Akane, so she's Captain, you're Lieuten -"

"ALRIGHT! THAT'S ENOUGH!" Kari yelled. Akane, who was next to her, winced and covered her ears."So, what happened?"

"They fought, because they were insulting each others' weapons."

Kari sighed, rubbing her temple. "I leave you two alone for an hour, just to treat my wounds, and you start fighting?"

"It's only the first time we fought," Yori muttered, running a hand through his dark hair. However, he noticed that Kari's hand was almost completely healed. Any signs of the burn before had nearly disappeared.

The brunette opened her mouth to revoke him, but caught eye of the clock and let out an inhuman shriek.

"Oh no! I still need to introduce you and Ryuuji to my dad! I told him I would do it tonight!" Karina yelped suddenly, grabbing Miyoru's shoulders. The albino girl shifted uncomfortably and twisted out of Karina's grip, all the while trying to be polite. She really did not appreciate people so rashly grabbing her, nor did she like hugs of any kind. Miyoru didn't know why, but it was as if that was instinct.

"Right. Of course." Miyoru said, successfully shrugging off Karina. They were changing out of their training suits and Miyoru was unpacking her things on her green mattress in the girl's dorm. Miyoru inwardly smiled. Despite all the extra fuss, Miyoru really like the group of people that 'adopted' her and Ryuuji. The girls – especially Umira – all seemed so nice. What's more is that they never asked twice about her abnormal hair and eye colors, nor teased her about it.

"Ugh, and it's eight o'clock now too... We're supposed to go training now... Whatever, this won't last but a minute."

As the group walked down to the lobby of the hotel, Karina prepped the two on how to act. "Remember, act formal, almost like Hibiki! Don't say any unnecessary things, and..."

"We get it, Karina. You've been saying the same things since we left the room," Ryuuji groaned.

"Yeah, well, you'd better remember it. We're at the lobby now," Kari shot back as she stepped onto a marble floor. Spotting her father, she ran towards him, footsteps echoing in the near-empty room.

"Da – Tenth, these are the two remaining members, and they apologize for coming late," Karina said, shooting Miyoru and Ryuuji a look. They instantly went into rather stiff bows.

Tsuna raised an eyebrow. "Again, they could have said so themselves, you know. What are your names?"

"I'm Ibuki Ryuuji, and this is Choira Miyoru," the orange-haired boy piped up quickly, speaking for the both of them. Tsuna nodded slowly.

"Why come so late? You were all supposed to arrive on Friday, and it's Sunday night now. One has to learn to be on time if you want to join the Vongola."

Ryuuji's eyes flickered back towards where Karina was standing, begging for her to help them come up with an excuse. It was obvious that he had no experience in lying. "We... um... were late because... stuff... happened..."

"We were going home," Miyoru muttered under her breath. She twisted a lock of white hair around her finger, unable to come up with a believable reason. Karina mentally facepalmed. She had completely forgot about preparing an excuse, and lucky her, she got two teammates who couldn't come up with one to save their lives.

Tsuna turned to his daughter, sighing. Judging from their expressions, and Karina's agitated one, he could tell what was happening. "You didn't actually have a team ready, did you?"

"... Nope," Kari confessed guiltily, though her eyes were filled with determination. "I told you some of them couldn't make it here, since I heard no reply from my invitation. I also told you more boys were coming. Here, isn't Hibiki a boy? And Ryuuji too? And Yoritomo – you didn't see him last time. He was in the other room. I have a full team now, so I should be eligible for competing.

"If I may interject, sir, you never said the date when we had to get all the members together by, did you?" Umira interrupted, in an almost innocent way. However, her tone suggested that she was in an argument or debate with him, and that she was winning.

The Tenth Vongola boss silenced Umira with a glance and stared down into Karina's dark brown eyes.

"Watch yourself carefully, Karina. This will be the last time something as disorganized as this happens, understood? And keep in mind that this incident will affect my decision."

"Yessir!" Umira said at once, seeing Karina's hesitation with Tsuna's last sentence.

"Now... Ms. Choira and Mr. Ibuki, please step forward and try on these rings."

Akane watched as the two went up to Tsuna, and out of the corner of her eye, saw Karina looking like she was about to rip her hair out. It was obvious that she desperately hoped that they would fill the remaining rings. There were no more teams to switch members with, and nobody was coming.

"Ibuki Ryuuji for Sun, and Choira Miyoru for Mist," Tsuna called out.

Kari let out a large sigh of relief. "We all have different ring types! We don't need any substitute or anything! We can go... We can enter in the tournament!"

"Competition," Umira corrected.

"Whatever!" Kari hugged Miyoru and Ryuuji, leaving them breathless and confused as to what exactly was happening. "Now I - we - have a chance to prove ourselves with an official full team!"

…..

"Stop arguing like babies. We have a serious matter at hand," Reborn interrupted as two arcobaleno bickered. They had bantered for quite some time now, and he had not been able to introduce the topic he needed to get to.

"Eh? But we are babies, aren't we?"

Reborn looked towards the orange-haired arcobaleno, wearing a pikachu suit. Her short hair was tucked neatly underneath its hood, and her brown eyes glimmered with playfulness, just as if she were a real infant.

Lulu, the new rain arcobaleno.

She and the sky arcobaleno had come suddenly, without any warning whatsoever. Though it was usually tradition to get an all new set of arcobaleno together, that didn't happen. Too lazy to replace all of us, I suppose, Reborn had thought.

He had only managed to gather up four arcobaleno, including himself, to discuss Verde's invention. And Fon, though usually on task, seemed to be paying much more attention towards Lulu. Was it because he admired her optimistic view? Or was it out of pity, with her having to be under the curse when she was just getting started with her life as an independent adult? Either way, he had playfully bickered with her, and kept them from discussing the matters that concerned the Vongola.

"A new flame type has been created, obviously by Verde," he began, "and the Vongola are being threatened by another famiglia. We have to get wielders of that flame immediately."

"You're famiglia is the one Hiyashi is threatening; not mine. Why should I care?" Lulu mused, head in her hands.

"I suppose you wouldn't want my help anymore with those 'not for newbie arcobaleno' problems?"

"Well..."

"If they are already threatening such a big family, they wouldn't have troubles taking out smaller ones with ease. What if we were able to defend ourselves? Wouldn't the family go on to try and gain power from the next closest family? And what if we weren't able to? Wouldn't they still go to the next target? You know what this means, Lulu. If they do attack us, they'd attack you next."

Lulu almost toppled out of her seat at the news, startled. "But our family isn't ready for an attack! There's been a shortage of members recently, since many left to join a new family, call Hiyashi!" Her eyes widened as she came to realization.

Reborn's eyes narrowed. "Hiyashi… Of course." Reborn then looked up. "Yes, they went to join the enemy, you dunce."

"B-b-but -" Lulu stammered, barely able to speak. It was clear that the situation had caught her off guard.

"It's most likely that they've begun to invade into Korea too. Don't let your guard down, Lulu."

Lulu slumped in her seat, looking dejected and worried. Her eyebrows creased, and it looked as though she was about to cry.

"Also, Verde got something from Checker Face in exchange for his invention."

"Being freed from the curse? That was what he was studying before, wasn't it?" Fon said, sipping on a cup of tea.

"The very opposite. He made Checker Face promise that he wouldn't be relieved from his position, and would only be taken of his pacifier when he can't use his flames anymore."

"Why?" A simple question asked by the simple-minded Lulu. No one replied her, as it clearly was a rhetorical question.

Why? Because the crazed-scientist had probably discovered something about being an arcobaleno that was much more powerful than living a normal human being.

Another person spoke up, much taller than the rest of the arcobaleno, in a light and airy voice. "Also… Checker face came to me yesterday, and gave me this." They held up a white pacifier, much like one that would be corrupted. But it was not.

"The Snow Pacifier…?" Lulu asked in a doubting tone, though eyes widening.

"Yes."

"Does that mean...?"

"As Reborn mentioned, we will have to find a Snow Guardian for the 11th Generation, as well as other new tri-ni-sette ring wielders. We need to train them to grasp a hold on the powers of this flame."

...

Karina watched as four boys and four girls were led out of the hotel-dorms, some of them looking furious, some of them crying. Their faces were red, from anger, sorrow, or embarrassment, she was not sure. They walked silently out into the rain, a few not even bothering to hide under the umbrellas provided by agents in black. Apparently, they had been unable to fully light up their rings during training.

"And this is what happens when you're not qualified for the rings, just like your fool of a father," someone breathed into her ear, in a deep tone. Karina's elbow shot back instinctively, but hit nothing. She spun around, surprised, only to see the man at the front desk tidying up some papers.

"W-what…?!"

Regi: Yo, people. So, I was reading the previous chapters the other day, and noticed some mistakes/inconsistency in plot. If you spot any of those, please tell us and we'll fix it right away! And take a notebook out, everyone, because there will be a lot more new characters in the next chapters!

Ail: Regi, more description! MORE DESCRIPTION! They're gonna die if we introduce more characters with so little description, dialog queen!

Regi: Ailuuuuu I'm tryinggggggg! But dialogue is so much easier to write, Miss Description. BTW it's weird how you spell it 'dialog' and I add an 'ue' at the end… and they're both correct… *waves hands around* ENGLISH

Lekky-chan: Hey! I write dialog too! Oh… well, I do suppose most people spell it as 'dialogue'. Wait, did you change my name again…?