Gokudera now carried both cell phones on his person at all times, and the phone Phoenix had given him intrigued him. He never needed to charge it and it always worked, he had almost called Phoenix multiple times because of that question alone but he was still unsure if she was an ally or not. Gokudera sat in class staring at the small black flip phone, thinking about how it worked.
"Solar power? Could that be it? I don't see any solar panels. Maybe it's nuclear powered...but it doesn't seem big enough. What type of people does Phoenix have under her?"
"Um...Gokudera-kun."
Gokudera looks up to find Tsuna standing in front him with a worried look on his face.
"Juudaime. What is it?"
"Are you alright? You've seems...distracted lately."
"I'm fine Juudaime! Don't worry about me, it's nothing."
Tsuna takes in the small cell phone clasped in Gokudera's hand and frowns.
"Gokudera-kun, if something's happened you can tell me."
Gokudera puts a smile on his face.
"Don't worry about it Juudaime, it's nothing. Just a personal thing."
Gokudera slips the phone into his pocket and stand, keeping his hand on it.
"Should I tell Juudaime? The threat is against him to so he should know, right? But I don't know if Phoenix is trustworthy yet." Gokudera looks at Yamamoto. "Should I tell the other guardians? They may be able to help protect Juudaime but can they keep their mouths shut, that lawn idiot won't be able to but maybe the baseball idiot...he can be serious when it calls for it. No, that could put him in danger; I'll keep this to myself for now. No need to put the others in the line of fire."
Gokudera was beginning to think that Phoenix was never going to call back; it had been a week and still that woman hadn't called. By now Gokudera had already looked up everything he could about the O-Loughlin's, he knew that they were a fairly new family and that they were only on their third boss. The founder was in the IRA but ran to America to hide from the authorities; the current boss was his grandson. The crimes that they committed were laced with brutal gory deaths. They were situated in Chicago and rarely let anyone outside Irish heritage in.
"I'm finding out more about Phoenix then about her Famiglia..." Gokudera says as he leans away from his laptop, and it was true. "She's from Chicago Illinois, she's able to stomach a lot of violence, and she's most likely Irish."
Gokudera bends his head back, wishing that Phoenix would just call him so they could talk. Gokudera had found himself thinking about the girl more often lately, and it was starting to annoy him, why should he care about what happens to this girl who had threatened his boss.
"Because she reminds you of yourself Hayato."
A small voice in the back of his mind says and Gokudera tells it to shut up. Gokudera stretches his arms above his head, closing his eyes as he does it.
"Ping!"
Gokudera's eyes snap open as his computer alerts him to a message, confused. He had signed out of Skype when he had gotten on.
"Ping! ...Ping! ...Ping!"
Gokudera quickly opened the window to find four messages waiting for him.
"This is Phoenix."
"Sorry I hacked your computer."
"Couldn't call."
"Give me a minute and I can talk."
Gokudera hesitantly brings his fingers to the keys and begins to type.
"Sure."
The silver-haired teen waits at his computer for a few second before a fifth message pops up.
"Don't fight the hack."
Before Gokudera can respond his computer begins opening windows by itself, he quickly starts to fight back but then Phoenix's message hits him. She didn't want him to fight back, it could be a trap but then again...she had risked everything to help the Vongola, or at least it seemed that way.
"Fuck."
Gokudera sits back and waits until Phoenix finishes whatever work she was doing. After about five minutes there's a ping.
"Sorry about that, you're not on a secure connection and I'm kinda hiding out."
"Are you alright?"
"Are you worried about me?"
"No!"
"Cause it sounds like you are."
"I'm not!"
Phoenix sends a laughing emoticon and Gokudera growls.
"How old are you? Ten?"
"Older then you but younger than Reborn."
"What that's supposed to mean?"
"That I'm not just going to give out my age to the first person who asks."
"Fine. What do you want?"
"To tell you that I'm going to try and talk some sense into Reaper. I've known him for years and if anyone can get to him it's me."
"And if you can't?"
"If I can't...well then at least I will have bought you some time. Reaper isn't human so you cannot, I repeat cannot, fight him. I don't care who you have on your team, you will lose and he will kill you. I'll try to hold him but I can't promise you more than a day or two. Get in contact with the Vongola and tell them what's going on, that's the best thing you can do right now."
Gokudera stares at the message; he realized that Phoenix is suggesting that she let herself die to give them time to get away.
"We can defeat Reaper Phoenix, I know it. There's nothing the Vongola can't do. But to do it we need to know more about Reaper. How exactly is he "not human?" What are his powers, his weapons, his MO? And Phoenix...Thanks for trying to hold him back. But don't do it if it costs you your life. Juudaime wouldn't like it; just...do what you can and we'll take care of the rest. You've been a good ally. And I'm grateful for that."
"Reaper isn't human because he can't feel pain. This is why I say you can't win, you'll stop after a certain amount of injuries...and he won't." Gokudera looks at the message in shock. Phoenix was worried about him. "He is a close range fighter and tends to favor knives...or bolt cutters if he has you tied down. Don't worry about me, I won't die. Lose a limb or two sure, but die? Never! I'm not called 'The Phoenix' for nothing you know."
Gokudera smirks, this girl was interesting. She certainly was better than any other girl he had met.
"You better not fucking die! You're the one who warned us, so you gotta live to see the end of that asshole. And don't worry, we're the Vongola. We can find a way, for sure. I've fought humans who supposedly couldn't be defeated and one of our guardians fought against someone who couldn't die. But we defeated them. And I'm sure as hell we can do it again. Especially since we're a lot more powerful now. Just...don't die okay? Juudaime would be upset if you did."
Gokudera waits for a long time for Phoenix's answer and is on the point of sending her another message when he sees her typing.
"Gotta go. Contact you when I can."
And she was gone, Gokudera stares at the few messages they had sent each other and sighs.
"She never stays long enough for me to ask any questions..."