Haze

Chapter 7

~ Sudden Complications ~

The raven haired boy emotionlessly stared out of the window. It was relatively quiet, except for the muted sound of the car engine.

The two students did not speak, each sitting as far away from each other as possible, causing a stifled atmosphere that even the driver in front did not dare to make a sound.

How did it become like this?

Naomi sighed inwardly.

It all started this morning when she was summoned to the office.

It was probably Yuni's instigation, for apparently the Vongola Boss wanted to meet with her. Due to the request, the school would allow her to go out of the island due to special circumstances.

Everything was still fine until the principal called out the name that she would never expect to come out from his mouth.

The door opened. A person walked into the room, dressed differently from the usual, in plain black shirt and jeans.

"Sorry for making you stand outside for so long." The principal smiled apologetically to the person.

The principal turned back to Naomi even though the person didn't respond back, as if he was used to it. "He will be accompanying you throughout the trip. He has already been briefed about the contents, and will perform his role to bring you there safely and back here. I don't need to introduce him, do I?" The principal glanced at Naomi's face, seemingly known about their contention beforehand.

"Don't worry." He patted Naomi's shoulder, seeing her apprehension. "He won't do anything against you during this trip."

So did that meant he would cause her trouble during the school term? Naomi sighed, feeling a headache coming.

After changing into regular clothes, they set off in a particularly flashy black car that was provided by the school, and landed in this awkward situation.

The car speed was relatively fast, but the airport was still a distance away.

Pulling out her smartphone and looking at the time, it was still early in the morning. Speaking of which, she did not have the chance to eat anything before setting off.

Turning to her so-called bodyguard, she asked in kind. "Hibari, have you eaten breakfast?

Upon entering the airport, Naomi entered a nearby café without consideration. Hibari reluctantly entered.

She ordered a cheesecake that was particularly soft, the taste melting in her mouth. Eating quickly due to the hunger, Naomi sipped on her hot green tea while relaxing and looked outside of the café.

The airport was busy as usual. Many of the travellers were like them, waiting for their turn to board, most of them wearing business suits and formal clothing. Lesser people were of their age, though there was still a few dressed in the latest fashionable outfits.

One was waving at his friend that was probably at the left-most corner that Naomi couldn't see, wearing a cap with a headphone around his neck, passing by in front of the store.

Hibari felt a vibration in his pocket. Taking out the smartphone, when he saw the sender, he frowned. What did he want?

Once he saw the contents, he instantly regretted clicking it.

「ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ Don't just sit there! What did I send you on this mission for? 」

"…"

Naomi saw Hibari's fingers suddenly gripped his smartphone tightly, his expression totally blank. Slipping his smartphone back into his pocket, Hibari immediately stood up, startling her who was sitting on the same table.

"Give me two minutes. Restroom." He said, already walking towards the entrance of the café.

Naomi watched as Hibari walked away.

Should she give chase?

She sighed, finishing remaining green tea in one shot.

Outside the restroom, several anguished moans reached her ears. Searching for the origin, she discovered a desolated corridor right next to the restroom.

The 'boy' who passed by the store earlier was there, leaning against the wall, clutching his stomach in agony. Next to him was another person she hasn't seen, but his attire was just like the other. Naomi assumed he was the other person whom the boy was waving at.

He was already beaten, lying on the floor with many cuts and injuries, looking rather pale.

Hibari was wielding his tonfa from god-knows-where.

Naomi hurried to the collapsed person, checking his condition. She sighed in relief. Though he was bleeding pretty badly, it was mostly non-vital injuries.

So Hibari actually knew when to go easy on his opponents.

After she healed their flesh wounds and wrapped up the injured person, Hibari was already finished with the other person who collapsed on the ground in the same fashion.

She went on to heal the other person.

… What was she doing, cleaning up his mess?

Having treated the two, she was able to look at them closely. Not only were the two not of their age, they were actually a few years older than them. So they were disguising.

She felt a bit of pity for them. Seeing their injuries, Hibari probably beat them up without any mercy.

Hibari didn't seem surprised that she arrived. Actually, he didn't even show any reaction when she started treating them.

He bent down and grabbed the guy's headphone, throwing it on the floor. With one foot, he threaded on the headphone continuously… and continuously until they were in pieces.

He seemed to be particularly angry while doing so.

Though Naomi had noticed several cars following them from school and the surveillance long ago, she left it alone after determining it was not hostile. It was probably a safety measure from the school, so these two were most probably the other 'bodyguards'.

"…That fella…" The green haired teacher sighed at his smartphone which currently showed a black screen. "Again… the camera was destroyed."

"You knew that would happen." The principal looked up at him wordlessly, shaking his head, pitying Hibari. "I sometimes wonder if you do this on purpose. Just to infuriate him."

"It doesn't matter." Maxim's lips curled up. "I still have many other cameras."

At that time, Naomi realized a few gazes were on them. Hibari noticed too, for he stopped threading the poor smashed-up headphone.

"Causing such a commotion in the airport?" A dirty blonde man with sunglasses suddenly stepped into the corridor together with two of his subordinates. He gave a glance at the two lying on the floor, smiling twistedly. "Quite well done. Though…" He kicked the man lying on the floor brutally on the side. A crack sound came from within.

Naomi looked at the man who was coughing out blood. One or two of his ribs probably were broken. It was so sudden that she didn't have time to react.

"You should be more brutal." He crackled. "They're just the school dogs. Even if one or two dies, it doesn't matter."

Removing his glasses and revealing his bloodshot eyes under them, he locked his eerie gaze onto Hibari. "What matters, are those that can fight. I was instructed by our boss-"

A wind swept passed by Naomi, or rather it was actually Hibari.

"You talk too much." He said coldly, swinging his tonfas at the man who swerved his body to the side, avoiding them.

"Hahaha, hahahaha!" The man laughed, the veins in his eyes scarily bulging out. "Great words. I like your guts, boy! Don't attack, guys. Let me handle it." He said to his two subordinates behind him. In an instant, a butterfly knife was in his hands, which slashed around in the air dangerously, aiming towards Hibari.

However, Hibari did not even flinch and expertly evaded all of them, occasionally using his tonfas to block the attack.

The fact that he couldn't lay a hand on Hibari astonished the man, but it was only for a brief second. The man had enough experience to determine that his capability was way below Hibari's.

His subordinates that were stationed behind him panicked, seeing their boss losing to Hibari. They seemed to deliberate whether to attack even though the boss said not to.

The man's face contorted further when several flesh wounds appeared, unable to handle to pressure from Hibari.

"Boss!" The subordinates cried out.

Their cries together with the sounds of fighting attracted the attention of nearby people who raised their heads up and looked towards their direction. However they couldn't see anything.

"Clang!" A shrill sound resounded. Hibari had knocked the butterfly knife into one corner, and pressed one tonfa against the man's throat, causing him to be unable to move. His infuriated face showed a mix of fear and embarrassment from having lost to someone younger to him.

At that moment, the subordinates couldn't take it any longer and started to move, wanting to attack Hibari.

"Don't forget about me."

A pair of guns was pointing at the subordinates at point-blank range.

Cold sweat ran down their back. When did she get behind them?

"Luckily, I brought my suppressor with me." The voice behind they said, and that was the last thing they heard before they were knocked out.

When Naomi turned back, Hibari was also done with the man.

"What do we do about them?"

Hibari seemed to have considered that, for he eyed her one look. "He will take care of it. Disperse your haze."

Though she wanted to ask who he was, she swallowed her question and followed his instruction, dispersing the haze particles that blocked the view of the corridor. It was then she realized a group of people of different ages had gathered in front of them.

Inside even had aunties, adolescents, business adults, and even air stewardess. At one look, one might think they might be ordinary citizens, but their eyes held a certain edge to them.

They created an outer circle which blocked the public view while the others got to work. In a matter of seconds, they gagged the attackers, tied up their hands and brought them away, at the same time taking care of the two that were beaten up by Hibari.

When they dispersed, however, one of them stayed back and approached Hibari.

"Hibari, Maxim wishes to speak to you." He said courteously, holding up the phone to him.

"No."

Having not expected to be rejected instantly, his face revealed a surprised expression. After repeated rejections that showed Hibari was adamant in not accepting the phone, he talked back into the phone a bit anxiously.

"He says if you don't speak with him, he will tell Naomi over here…" He hesitantly conveyed the other party's words.

"Give it to me." Hibari snatched away the phone before the man could complete the sentence.

"You should just answer the phone honestly, instead of making me do this every time…" The annoying voice transmitted over. "The man will be captured will be brought over to our side and will be interrogated, seeing how fast they caught up to you."

"You suspect…?" Hibari furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yeah, the information leaked out too fast. And since this already happened before the flight, I afraid that maybe this trip may be already jeopardized. If it were a normal trip, the school would've postponed it, but since it's the Vongola's summons..." Maxim clucked his tongue irritably. "The enemy might have anticipated this. The best I can do for you now is to book another flight with dummies as a distraction. For the rest, you handle it your own."

"Hn."

"And another matter. The other party is a professional who covers their tracks perfectly. So far over here, we cannot find any signs of where the leak came from. And from the way that man attacked you, his famiglia is way too sloppy to be the perpetrator. I believe they're the baits, third parties who were added to serve as a distraction in order to cover up their real goal."

"I'll keep that in mind."

This whole trip became a whole lot messier. How troublesome. Hibari cursed his blasted house head for forcing him to choose this as his mission and involving him in this. His mood abruptly turned towards a bad direction.

When hearing his house head went on to babble about how he shouldn't beat up his own side, Hibari ruthlessly cut off the call.

"Again…" Maxim looked at the ended call display on the phone bitterly. "Can't he say bye nicely?!"

Hearing this, the principal just laughed.

…

"Gokudera, do you know where's Naomi? She's not in class the whole day today." Tsuna asked concernedly, worried. Naomi wasn't the type to skip class without reason.

Gokudera shrugged, "I don't know. If you don't know, I wouldn't know about it either."

So Gokudera didn't know anything…

"Any ideas why she's not here?"

"There's a lot of reasons I can think of…" Gokudera started to list the things he could come up off the top of his head. "Flu, fever, hospitalized from serious injuries, menstrual pain…"

"Stop, stop Gokudera!" Tsuna covered his ears, his face red. How did it lead to that direction?

But they were probably not it… or else Naomi would've contacted them. Gokudera was so absorbed in thinking that he missed out on Tsuna's innocent reaction.

"Ah!" He clapped his hands together. "Maybe an ultra-super-secretive mission? Or an emergency-out-of-the-blue mission! That would explain why she never contacted us!"

"Huh?" Tsuna deadpanned. "There's such a thing?"

Gokudera nodded his head, explaining. "Seeing Naomi's performance previously, with her capabilities, maybe the principal assigned her to a mission. It's highly possible. But to confirm whether I'm right, we should ask her brother."

"Who's calling for me?"

A voice suddenly originated from behind them.

Tsuna jumped up in surprise. Turning behind, he saw Dino, whom they were talking about a second ago.

How did he appear out of a sudden!

Dino casually laughed as he saw Tsuna's expression.

"I was just about to find you guys to tell you about Naomi's absence today." He explained kindly. "I heard your conversation halfway through."

"So, am I right?" Gokudera asked eagerly, hoping to confirm his suspicions.

"Half correct, I would say… It is indeed both secretive and emergency, but not a mission." His lips curled up slightly. "What do you think?"

Gokudera immediately started deducing from the given hints. "If it's not a mission, don't tell me… A summon? Secretive and emergency…" He frowned. "It must be someone who is of a high position, most likely from a renowned famiglia. It's being kept a secret, and only told to her today in order not to let outsiders take advantage of this information. That would explain why she didn't contact us. The school wants to minimize the leak of information."

"Correct." Dino nodded satisfactorily.

"But is it alright if you tell all this to me?" Gokudera raised up a point he was concerned with. "Just from this information, I can do an elimination of the important figures and at least have an idea of who summoned her. Are you not scared that I misuse this information and tell others?"

"I bet my sis wants to let you know anyway. She includes you in the circle of those whom she trusts." Dino just shrugged. But at that moment his gaze suddenly turned serious, the light brown eyes piercing into silver ones. "Though, that is ultimately her opinion. Mine… let's just say if you take action, I'll know." He smiled as he spoke those threatening words.

Tsuna shivered. Goosebumps started appearing on his skin, and the air suddenly appeared to become much colder.

He had this thought. The last thing he would do was to offend Dino.

Gokudera smiled as if nothing was threatening him. "It was just a question, a matter of what if."

"…" Tsuna deadpanned. Did Gokudera have guts of steel?

Dino went back to his normal, kind expression. "Alright. That's all I have to tell you, so don't worry about Naomi."

Staring at his retreating back figure, it was hard for Tsuna to imagine that Dino had reacted that way earlier. The protectiveness of his sister was well-hidden within Dino. Tsuna bet that Naomi didn't know this aspect of her brother.

"Come on, Tsuna. Let's go. Want to go back dorm and play cards?" Gokudera interrupted his thoughts, throwing his arms around his neck.

… Gokudera was not normal either, his expression barely changing even after being threatened.

"Let's go then."

…

"So... can you at least tell me what's going on?" Naomi asked this question for the fifth time. Even she was getting tired of it. She knew something was happening after the attack, and definitely after that suspicious call.

The other end of the caller was Maxim… if she remembered correctly was cloud's House head. Every House head was in charge of their student's missions, and the house head contacting Hibari definitely meant that something happened.

"…" Hibari remained as a rock on the couch reading the newspaper.

He was definitely ignoring her! Definitely!

That was why she had resorted to asking that group of 'bodyguards', but they all told her "confidential information".

Both sides were ineffective…

Why wouldn't they tell her?! She had a part to play in this! Her rights!

Hibari rolled his eyes. Unable to take it any longer, he put the newspaper down. "There's nothing substantial as of now. So just play your part of sitting quietly and getting there." He said irritably, before going back to reading the newspaper again.

So did that meant that they haven't found the reason why the information was leaked? And… she didn't miss the rebuke he just gave.

If he answered her nicely she wouldn't be doing this!

Naomi sighed, leaning back onto the comfortable couch and waited for departure. There still some time left.

She felt a bit drowsy. The cool temperature of the air-conditioner and the chatter in the background had a soothing effect. Slowly, she drifted off to sleep…

"Naomi?"

A small voice was calling her name. She recognized that voice.

"Is that you, Yuni?" She hasn't appeared in her dreams for a long while.

"Yes."

Naomi gradually felt more awake. The murky sensation disappeared, replacing with pitch darkness.

"Where are you?" From the darkness, she wasn't able to make out anything.

"You're not in a deep state of sleep… so this is the best I can do. You can only hear my voice." Yuni explained. "I came to tell you there's someone interfering with your trip, and it's someone important. He will find you and the person with you. Once you see him, correspond with him. Tell him about me, everything. He will understand…"

Her voice drifted off, and she could feel a tap on her shoulder, and quite impatient, too.

Eventually it stopped, and was replaced with a low, threatening voice. "Wake up, or I'll bite you to death."

That threatening speech was like a splash of cold water, waking her up.

"Get up." He ordered, once seeing she was awake. Naomi then realised it was time for departure. Looking around her, most of the travellers were already going into the gate, leaving the two of them in their seats.

She hastily followed Hibari without any complaints.

Once settled in her seat, she recalled Yuni's words and tried to understand it.

Someone important…? Who? To her, or to the future Vongola family? If so, there are many candidates. And why did Yuni not mention his name? Telling him everything? Was that really safe? Why would he understand?

Ahh, she couldn't comprehend it at all!

Naomi shook her head, ruffling her hair in frustration.

"If you want to be mad, go to the toilet." Where you can do it alone. She clearly heard those hidden words.

"I'm fine." She forcefully smiled at the emotionless guy next to her.

He didn't seem convinced from her act. "... Weird." He said, and went back to reading. Instead of the newspapers, it was the magazines in the aeroplane this time.

You're the weird one instead!

…

….

…..

There was once a world.

A world where he had really good friends, whom he considered as family. He couldn't remember their names, their faces or their voices. But he remembered he had a good life.

It was just like a passing dream.

Their laughter repeatedly echoed within his ears.

…

"Did they think that they would be able to trick me?" The girl tilted her cap upwards, a thin smirk on her face as she watched the two going into the gate. "Naomi Cavallone, such a perfect host… Let's go."

The two of them followed behind her wordlessly, obeying her very orders.

"Yes, Mukuro."

Blood…

He desired their blood for his revenge. Anything else doesn't matter.

The ruthless and cold violet eye stared at the aeroplane.