Chapter 8: Toward the enemy
Hayato was at the living room of his tiny apartment, watching a movie called Inception while taking notes. He was sitting on the floor, between the sofa and the television. However, his mind was distant.
What I felt earlier when Juudaime touched me…
"I wonder if you already have a name for that feeling." A voice said. Gokudera jumped to his feet and found a familiar girl in lace dress sitting on the sofa. Before he could do anything, she informed:
"You fell asleep while watching the movie. This is a dream of yours and I came to visit you. As you may guess, I am Catharina."
The guardian of the storm was frozen. It's her! She's the one who's after him! She tortured Juudaime! I've seen her in a dream before. Does it mean she's playing with my mind too? Damn her! I should do something, but I'm under her power, stuck in a dream! This is the worst case scenario possible!
"Don't worry, Gokudera Hayato. I simply came to alert you." She said with a small smile.
"What do you mean?"
"I know about what my coward brother is doing, but I don't think you know. By this time, he must have put the guardians and all the people in Sawada Tsunayoshi's residence under his control. He plans to make them attack me tomorrow." She informed emotionlessly. It was hard for Gokudera to buy that story.
"D-do you think you can fool me? As if Reborn-san, Juudaime, Aneki and the others would be controlled by someone! You are the only enemy here! You are trying to capture him!" Hayato yelled, deeply angry.
"Boris is capable of planting ideas in people's minds by touching them with his right hand. He's not very strong, so he can't complete control people, but his intelligence makes for it. When he plants an idea, he makes the victim think the idea came from his/her own mind. That power allows him to manipulate others without letting them notice it. Even Sawada Tsunayoshi has been deceived by him." Catharina explained, calmly.
Gokudera clenched his fists. It was strange for Reborn-san and the others to allow that man inside the house so quickly, even though Aneki was suspecting of him. If that man had touched the Tenth and confused his hyper-intuition, then it would be easier for him to get the others. And if he could assemble everyone and greet them by extending his hand, he could plant ideas in everybody. He hadn't touched me with his hand, so I'm free for now. I didn't trust him back then, could this woman be telling the truth? I can't trust her either!
"Why are you telling me all this? Are you afraid that your brother uses Juudaime and the rest of Vongola to attack you? So you want my help? It doesn't matter the situation, I would never fight Juudaime!"
"I am not afraid. I know that the surprise attack is coming tomorrow, probably at the morning, and I'll be waiting for it in Tashigi street. They cannot defeat me. Boris hasn't realized it yet, but he's going to give me Sawada Tsunayoshi."
Gokudera was going to pull the girl by the collar, but he couldn't move anymore. Catharina stood up and looked at his eyes with interest.
"I've been watching you two for a while. What you feel for each other is very beautiful; it almost reminds me of something I used to feel in my childhood. It's a fact that the Great Sky will belong to me tomorrow and after that he'll be lost for you forever. As a sign of respect for your feelings, I'm telling you all this. So you can confess your love to him before it's too late. I'm feeling generous, you know?"
Hayato didn't reply anything; he was in shock. Confess my love for Juudaime? Love? What I feel for him… is love? That can't be true, right? Tears began to form in his eyes as realization hit him. All the protectiveness… how I'm always over worrying in a way nobody does. I think about him all the time; all I want is to keep him safe and happy. Whenever he smiles, I feel breathless; if he touches me, my heart pounds so fast… I would happily do everything for him. I would die for him, live for him, kill for him. Could this be more than friendship? More than the dedication of a subordinate?
Everything was becoming dark and silent around him. Catharina vanished, saying "I'll be waiting for you to come."
I love Juudaime.
Gokudera opened his eyes and found himself laying on the floor of his apartment, in front of the TV. Without thinking, he looked at his fist watch.
"07:45!" He yelled. Desperate, he rushed to Tashigi street.
Hours before that, Boris talked to Tsuna and Reborn privately at the kitchen.
"We should act tomorrow, it's too dangerous to let Catharina run free." Boris recommended, nervously.
"It's way too early for that. We should investigate more first." Reborn replied. Even though a voice in his mind, that he thought it was his own intuition, told him to trust Boris, he couldn't help but find the man suspicious somehow.
"We should contact Gokudera-kun." Tsuna said, grabbing his phone. Boris stopped the Tenth by holding his hand gently with his right one.
"It's not necessary to contact him, do you understand me, Vongola Tenth?" Boris assured, hiding his nervousness.
"Why not?" Reborn questioned, seriously. Boris began to sweat.
"When will the other guardians arrive?" The man tried to change the subject.
"I didn't call them. I'm not going to put anyone else in contact with you for now." Reborn answered, coldly.
"What do you mean? We must organize an attack right now!" Boris almost shouted, trying to grab the arcobaleno. However, Reborn pointed a gun at the man before he could touch him.
"I noticed you have this habit of touching everybody you meet with your right hand. Why do you do that?" Reborn inquired.
This arcobaleno… could it be that my ability is losing its effectiveness? I was only able to touch him once, so it's expected. What do I do? I've come this far, I can't be defeated now!
"Reborn," Tsuna spoke, "if we're not going to have a reunion, could we go to sleep? I'm tired."
The arcobaleno looked at his student in surprise. Tsuna wants to sleep now? I thought he was too afraid of doing so.
"We'll continue this conversation tomorrow, then. Let's go upstairs, Dame Tsuna." Reborn stated. He left the kitchen along with the Tenth, but Boris could notice that the boy had sent him an enigmatic look. Alone in the kitchen, he wouldn't stop over thinking.
I'm not strong enough to carry this plan on. I can't possibly control too many people at the same time! At any moment, even Sawada Tsunayoshi will break free of my ability. It's a disaster! What should I do? Catharina may know about my plans already. She might kill me soon. What do I do? What can I possibly do?
"You're worried about her, aren't you?" Suddenly a voice brought Boris back to reality. He looked at the kitchen's entrance and found the Decimo standing there, still in his normal clothes (not pajamas). "It's not just because you're afraid of her power, you are worried about your sister, right?"
"Catharina is a demon! You should know it!" Boris replied, countering his despair. "Where is the arcobaleno now?"
"Reborn sleeps quickly. I came back here because I couldn't stop thinking. I need to talk to you, Boris-san." Tsuna spoke seriously.
"What is it?"
"Reborn is right, isn't he? You've put us under some sort of power."
The Russian man looked down, answering after a while:
"It's pointless to deny it. I was trying to use you to defeat my sister. But I'm just not strong enough! Come on, kill me. It's better than dying by Catharina's hands, anyway."
Surprisingly, Tsuna just sat in a chair at the other side of the table and looked to the young man across from him.
"I won't kill you or let anyone do so. However, I won't forgive you if you ever play with the people who are important to me again." Tsuna said with authority, acting a lot different from his usual self. Boris wondered if the reason for that change was because the boy cared too much about his family.
"Then, what are you going to do to me?"
"First of all, I want to know more about you two. You've said that your sister killed your father, how did that happen?"
Boris froze. Talking about that incident was really hard for him. With a hesitant voice, he began to narrate:
"We were a happy family, as long as I recall. Mom, Dad, Catharina and I were happy. Mom was tired all the time; we thought that she had a serious disease or something. When our powers began to manifest, she told us about our family, but she made us promise that we wouldn't use the power for evil purposes. However, she seemed always so sad whenever she said that. Her physical healthy was getting worse and worse, so Dad went out to look for a doctor one day. Catharina went with him; we were eight years old by that time. Mom was sleeping when they left; when she woke up and didn't find them, she became desperate."
"Why?" Tsuna asked, starting to feel bad for Boris.
"She told me that she was about to die and that her power would disappear… and then, she told me the truth about Dad." Boris's voice cracked a little. "When she was younger, she fell in love with him, but he didn't care about her. So she decided that he would be hers independently of his will. She forced him to love her, using her power. She had been doing that for more than eight years, without ever taking breaks. It was because of that… that she was dying. She begged to me to look for them, she was afraid of what Dad could do to Catharina once he recovered his consciousness. Mom's final words were 'protect your sister.'"
"What happened after that?" Tsuna questioned, tense. Boris wiped some tears that were forming in his eyes and continued:
"I looked for them, leaving Mom's body alone in our home. After 20 minutes I found Catharina sitting on the road next to a precipice. She had bruises and was bleeding… she was crying and looking to the precipice. I looked at its bottom and found Dad down there, dead. Catharina said that he had tried to kill her because she was a witch. She said that Dad was going to kill all of us… and then she did something that she couldn't explain properly… she made him want to jump into the precipice."
Tsuna felt his heart ache.
"It wasn't her fault, she was just defending herself." The Tenth said, not sure about what he should think of that act.
"Catharina changed after that. She told me that we couldn't trust anyone. She barely talked to me anymore. Her power grew exponentially and she was able to control many people at the same time… she eventually took control of our city, but it wasn't enough. I thought that all she wanted was power, and then I suggested that we would only be truly powerful if we could control the Mafia. She agreed, but also said that I shouldn't think of the two of us as equals… she called me 'weak' and 'disposable.' It was when I began to fear for my life. It took years, but she put the Russian Mafia under her control and kept growing stronger. One day, recently, she told me that she wanted to control Vongola, the strongest Mafia family. I could only agree… I was too afraid of her. We came to Japan because she knew that the Decimo was here… she became obsessed with you and the rest of the story you know."
Tsuna stayed silent for several minutes before speaking again.
"I'll go meet her."
Boris looked at the other with incredulity.
"What are you talking about? You can't fight her alone!"
"I'm not going to fight her; I'll just talk to her. If she's so interested in me, she'll hear me. Maybe I can do something to help her."
"Help her? Don't you understand the situation? She's too dangerous and too powerful!"
"She's your sister!" Tsuna protested, looking seriously at Boris. "Can you honestly say that you want her to get hurt?"
Boris didn't know what to say. He began to tremble and wanted to cry. Catharina… if there was a way to change her back to what she used to be…
"How can you be willing to do that, Vongola Tenth? After what both of us did… how can you still want to help us?"
Tsuna thought for a moment before replying.
"I simply can't let things like this. It's a situation different from everything that I've faced so far. I don't think it can be solved by battle. I feel that I must talk to her, and I must do it alone."
He feels? Is it the so-called hyper-intuition? Boris wondered. Tsuna stood up and said:
"Please, show me the way, you don't need to confront her with me. If something happens, please, call Reborn."