Chapter 15
Gokudera stared blankly at the roulette, for it showed the name of Ayako and the Cloud Funeral Wreath, Kikyo. He had been defeated by the man because of his arrogant attitude in underestimating him once and he didn't even make a fight. What he feared was that his daughter was more like his carbon copy from the inside to the outside minus loving sweets too much and liking the spawn of Yamamoto. He didn't want his daughter to be in any danger at all, but fate has to go against him and ended up making her face a fearsome man. After all, he was only defeated because Ghost showed up in the picture and ruined everything. Gokudera looked at the phantom man beside the white haired man and glared. Because of him, they weren't able to take any further information about the powers of Kikyo.
Gokudera's feelings were the same as the tenth generation of the Vongola also. They felt his worry very well. No one wants their children to fend for themselves in the battlefield alone. Long ago, they have decided not to involve them in the mafia in any ways possible. But they had to find out later when they entered in an Italian school they were going to one day, they were attacked by the mafia in a blink of an eye. So to say, they were already known to be the offspring of the guardians of the Vongola Decimo. The children too, had known that their parents were heavily involved with the mafia, but only kept quiet until they were ready to tell them, and that attack was the day that the kids had found out about their reputations. It was a hard thing to lie to the ones you care for, that's a given in the mafia. But circumstances have to be done for their safety. They all started to train after that, and have coped up easily for some has fighting skills in their blood. In other words, they were born to inherit their parents' respective titles.
As for Ayako, she too, hated the result. She knew of this man's capabilities in the battlefield having been knowledgeable about the last war with the Millefiore. None of them even stand a chance. He was dangerous with or without his carnage box.
The Cervello women announced the next fighters without hesitation on what's at stake, "The next battle will be between Ayako Gokudera and the Cloud Funeral Wreath, Kikyo," they announced.
At that moment, all saw Byakuran and the others on their side smirk; especially the one that will fight. Without thinking things thoroughly, Gokudera shouted, "Can they change opponents?" he asked the women.
One of them shook her head, "Once the fighters are chosen, no one will be able to reject, unless they forfeit the mach," she explained.
The silver haired man gritted his teeth in irritation. But one voice was enough to make his anger turn to worry. "I'll fight," he looked at the one who said that and saw his daughter with determined eyes. "If I refuse to fight someone bigger than me, then that would be cowardice would it?" she added.
"Ayako..." Seishiro murmured.
The silver haired girl stared at her father, "Don't underestimate my abilities Dad and I'll try not to die in the fight," she promised.
"But Ayako," he tried to reason, but she cut her off.
"What's the point in bringing us here if we can't even fight for the family's survival?" she reasoned. "Were our trainings are all for nothing?"
Gokudera couldn't defeat his daughter's reasoning. They have taught them well to be prepared on their battles to come in the future. He had nothing to do anymore but to agree, "Very well..." he said as he looked down with a pissed off face. All of them noticed that he was clutching his fists tightly restraining his urge to hit someone hard. Somehow, he felt, that this will be one of his worst decisions in life if something bad were to happen to her.
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As Ayako went to the battlefield, Kikyo was already there waiting for his opponent, who is the silver haired girl. Kikyo smirked as he saw the teen, "So, my opponent is yet again, a fourteen year-old," he mused. Ayako just stared at him. He had no sign of aging at all in his looks and he still has his fit body.
The Cervello then signalled for the fight to begin.
Ayako then took out the second version of the Sistema C.A.I. and out came numerous mirrors and in her eyes are clear contact lenses that are used for hitting its targets on the spot. On her right arm lies a red and white crossbow covered in storm flames.
Kikyo smirked at the energy of the teen and was also excited to fight the girl. "Hmm...So you really want to fight me?" he said as he took out his chained blades that was attached to him. Ayako looked at the man with half adrenaline and worry. Her skull rings showed the flames of Storm, Rain, Thunder, Cloud and Mist. He then raised one of the blades and threw one towards the teen.
Ayako quickly moved one of her mirrors to defend herself. Little did she know that the chain was covered in cloud flames. It started to absorb the storm flames the mirrors were emitting along with the rain flames intact that serves as the primary flame for her shield. When the man sensed that the time was right to strike, the blade suddenly moved drilling though the shield and fast. Ayako could only grit her teeth in annoyance.
Back outside, the Vongola was watching closely as Ayako was there defenceless while being bombarded by the large blade which was drilling through her shield and at the same time, absorbing the flames in them.
Gokudera was watching in horror as if witnessing the last moments of her daughter alive. He clutched his fists as he regretted not doing anything from the start.
Ayako was in disarray at the first minute of their fight. The man was powerful. She then found a way to escape the drilling blade. She aimed her crossbow at Kikyo at a fast pace and managed to reach him. Kikyo saw this move and had no choice but to jump and dodge making his blade retreat from drilling apart one of her shields. "You're as smart as your father," he mused. Then the flames on his blades had increased in size. It became so large that the blades were barely visible.
Ayako moved her mirrors and aimed her crossbow again at the older one "Let's see if you can take this!" she dared, "Artemis Shot!" she shouted as a large amount of storm flame shaped into an arrow was fired towards Kikyo. The man then spun both his blades to diffuse the attack. It was working quite well until he noticed a smirk on her face. As he saw that, the storm flames quickly split into numerous arrows and found their way to scratch the man.
He then retreated to the ground to recuperate. Ayako also went down as she navigated to the ground.
"You amaze me child," he smirked, "But I don't think that the injury of your shoulders that you got from the Namimori explosion the other day will help you defeat me,"
Ayako stuttered in surprise as she wondered how he found out about that.
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Ayako was inside the auditorium making a last round on playing her piece that she was supposed to play that afternoon. Seishiro was there watching her. She has been having Seishiro as her moral support and in every recital she has, Seishiro was there watching in admiration from the audiences, that's why she's always with the raven boy.
Seishiro looked at his watch and was surprised at the time. "Ayako, come on, we'll miss the opening event," he informed.
The silverette then closed the piano and stood up. "Alright, Dad and the others will be waiting for us there," she agreed as the two went down the stage. But as they did, Ayako and Seishiro's trained ears heard some ticking sound near them.
"Do you hear that?" Ayako asked as if expecting something.
"Yeah, and it's not sounding pretty good either," he replied.
The silver haired girl's eyes widened as she heard the ticking sounding faster and faster. It was only then that they looked up to see numerous bombs above them ready to explode in mere seconds. The two looked at each other as if telling that they must hurry if they want to survive, but as they got to the auditorium's door and saw more bombs above it and the bombs quickly exploded.
Falling debris came after that, and when Seishiro saw Ayako running out with him, he also noticed the ceiling above her was collapsing. When it finally did, Seishiro, with his great reflexes took Ayako away from the falling debris. When he looked at her, the girl was already unconscious with a scratch on her head that was the answer for her unconsciousness. He never noticed the
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After they were sent to the nearest hospital in Namimori, Shamal took a look at Ayako when she noticed something wrong from the way that she was moving her shoulders when she played the piano just the next day.
Shamal looked at her x-ray result and frowned at what he had discovered. "It would seem Ayako, that the accident that happened yesterday was the cause of your shoulders to decrease its limits," he explained.
"What? But we will be fighting the Millefiore and I have to at least fight there!" she reasoned.
Shamal sighed at the stubbornness of the girl that he knew to be the daughter of his former student. "You're just like your father; very hot-headed... let me finish first. You can still fight, but it will take a toll on the unhealed damage of your shoulders. In other words, you can't survive a long fight without getting hurt, let alone, you can die in the battlefield once the opponent discovers your weak point," he explained.
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Ayako gritted her teeth in annoyance after remembering what the man said.
White Lotus on the other hand, bent her head down and looked upset, if not, guilty. "So it was that incident..."
Seishiro and the rest looked at her in worry. She has just gotten from the hospital and refused to be imprisoned in the hospital environment for it smelled like sick people, as she described it. Even he had persuaded her not to go back to Italy and just stay in Namimori where she can be taken care of. Even Shamal has told her of the dangers I might cause her; that including, the inability to play the piano. But as the daughter of Hayato Gokudera as she is, she still chose to be reckless.
Kikyo chuckled at the girl as he took out his box weapon. As he opened it, there revealed numerous Velociraptors and started to attack her all at once. Ayako then gathered all of her shields to defend herself from the attack, but they bombarded her with great strength as she was loosing her footing.
"D-Dammit..." she muttered. She then resorted in spreading out her destructive storm flames and it leaked to all of the defences of the mirrors and incinerated each of the dinosaurs. When she knew that all of them were gone, she then moved her shield and aimed once again, but she wasn't able to as another group was there. She formed her flame crossbow into a scythe and slashed everything that went to her.
"What is she doing?" Red Rose asked to no one in particular.
"She's trying to paralyse her shoulders," Anemone said in worry.
Seishiro then shouted, "Ayako! At this rate if you keep going, your shoulders will take in too much pressure!" he shouted.
"What is this all about Seishiro?" Gokudera asked.
Seishiro was filled with worry, the same as the silverette's father, "Back at the accident, when the explosion happened, Ayako was hit on the shoulders by rubble before she passed out." He confessed. "I saved her from the remaining ceiling rubble that might come to her, I thought she was fine, but when Shamal-san checked her, he told Ayako right away that she cannot use her shoulders in a long time battle," he explained.
Chrome stared in realization, "Which means..."
"Yes," Kyouya replied, "He is trying to wear out her shoulders so that she can be weakened," he continued.
"No..." Gokudera muttered.
It wasn't long before Ayako had felt the pain in her right shoulder where her crossbow was. Ayako took out her storm ring and lit it and shoved it in the hole where a ray of storm flames appeared and showed a cheetah, "Nami, Speed Slice!" she ordered as the cheetah obliged and started to run around the velociraptors and in a split second, shred them into pieces.
She didn't notice that there were also ones underground. She didn't have time to use her mirrors to defend herself for it came out so fast that it scratched her entire body. She only managed to come out if it weren't for the storm cheetah at her beck and call. There she was holding tightly on her box animal as she kept on hitting them with her arrows. She then had an idea in mind and lit her mist skull ring. She shoved it into one of her boxes and brought out a large fog.
Even the others couldn't see the things that were happening inside the field. As Kikyo looked at the fog, he felt some blades cutting to him and suddenly received small but painful cuts. He then used his blades and spun them to clear away the fog. When they were cleared away, he saw Ayako down with his velociraptors escaping them while she was also hitting rather randomly. Then he wondered how on earth did she manage to scratch him when she was there fighting off his box weapon.
Then he realized that the cheetah was gone. Something was undeniably wrong. He then sensed a presence behind him somewhere. After a few moments, he finally found it and aimed his blades at the far corner of the arena, and there he saw one of her mirrors protecting her. Her face was covered in dirt, her clothes were scratched badly by the velociraptors and Nami was there protecting her. Nami quickly moved away from the attack along with its mistress and ran around. Kikyo then commanded his box weapons to get the girl that was being helped by the fast animal.
Ayako sensed that the man was also attacking her with his blades, and she took care of it by shooting some storm rays covered in rain flames, but it couldn't hold much until Kikyo summoned his weapon back in its box. The man then looked at the tattered girl. "So this is your handicap little girl?"
Ayako then targeted the man, but as she did that, she winced in pain for the pressure on her shoulder had become too much.
"Shoot her shoulder had reached its limit!" Narumi said in worry.
"Ayako!" Gokudera shouted. There was nothing she could do.
Ayako couldn't handle the pain anymore, let alone the exhaustion her body has faced. There was nothing more but one shot left. "I...will...survive this battle...alive..." she declared as she targeted Kikyo and released a high amount of flames.
Kikyo had done the same as before. He spun his blades swiftly and defended himself from the powerful shot of the girl. "I'm rather surprised by your abilities little girl..." he mused. "But I think your body has reached its limit," as he said that, there was a large smoke that went out as the shot subsided. When the fog had faded on one side, there they saw Kikyo with a few scratches.
Tsuna gasped in surprise, "Where's Ayako-chan?" he wondered.
His question was answered as she saw Ayako lying on the ground with Nami and the rest of the Sistema C.A.I. gone. She has lost consciousness.
Byakuran smiled brightly, "We win~" he mused.
Then the Cervello had called their attention, "At the second battle, the winner is the Millefiore!" one of them announced.
Kikyo came back to their side and received a nod of delight from Byakuran as he went to him, "Well done, Kikyo," he praised.
"Thank you, Byakuran-sama," he said as he proceeded to the healers.
When the barrier had faded, Gokudera was the first to get to her. He went to her side as he placed her to the stretcher so Ryohei and Narumi could tend her wounds. As the silverette was in the middle of healing, she opened her eyes and the first person she saw was her father.
"Ayako, thank goodness you're alright," he said in relief.
Ayako smiled, "I fulfilled my promise Dad," she said, "I came out alive,"
"I don't get it..." Freesia said, "I thought her promise was to win the match," he wondered.
"You don't have to win to know that you could survive a fight..." Red Spider Lily stated.
"Surviving is making sure that you make it out alive, either you win or lose," Amaryllis continued.
"She really is a reckless girl at most," Gino complimented.
"That's just the way she is," Gilbert said smiling.
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After a few minutes, the Cervello women had come back down along with the Vongola and the Millefiore boss.
"How was the little storm girl Tsunayoshi-kun?" the white haired man asked.
"Her body is in bad condition no thanks to Kikyo," he answered.
As the two shoved their rings once again on the roulette, it showed the names of the next battlers.
"The next ones to battle will be Agent Moondancer of the Millefiore, and Agent Blue Moon of the Vongola," they declared.
White Lotus could only stare at her foster mother. She is yet to fight with the woman that became an adversary to her foster father.
'This will be a good fight...'
That's the end of this chapter. I'm sorry if it has to be...well...not good enough. But don't worry; I made a resolution that I will finish this fic first before finishing the next one. I can't update a fic after another at the same time anymore, because that will give me sore eyes from being on the computer for hours, and I still have to study. So expect that I will update this until this is over before I update another fic.
Review!