Chapter 48: Vongola, a house protected by Deceit.
Again, I have no idea where this came from. My theme for this fight totally changed course right from the start.
Kaito laid back on the tree branch and stared up at the moon. Currently resting in the botanical gardens, Kaito was taking a little time to himself just to be alone and think. Lots of things had happened recently and he needed the time to think. As he looked up, he was still deciding whether the moon above him was real or fake. Most of the Lab was underground for security on Verde's part, yet this part of the Lab was higher up- quite a bit if the number of stairs had anything to say- so it was plausible for them to be back at ground level. But with Verde's prowess, it was entirely possible for him to create a false moon and sky.
"You're scared of him too"
Kaito lazily looks down, having registered the entrance of someone but been too in thought to take notice. It was Tsuna, standing at the bottom of the tree he was resting on. Kaito decided not to answer that question since it seemed that Tsuna still had more to say. He could hear a quiet mumble of "I hope I've gotten the right tree," before Tsuna takes in a breath and talks at a normal volume once again. "Shinichi… you're scared of him too, aren't you?"
Too. That meant that it included Tsuna as well. Kaito doubted that Verde would be scared of anyone, even if they had a gun pointed to his temple. Kaito knew that because he'd done the act himself, Card Gun pointed in the Scientist's direction, making sure that 'the good doctor' wasn't going to take advantage of Shinichi, since Verde was really the only one Shinichi could go to when he had any medical problems due to the Apo-toxin still running rampant through his system. Verde had been unfazed, whether because he saw Kaito as a lesser being, or simply because he didn't have that emotion Kaito didn't know. Nor did he have the time to ponder it since Tsuna's question was far more important.
"Heh, why would I be scared of Shinichi?" Kaito asked, throwing his voice around the room to confuse Tsuna. Indeed Tsuna did look around the room, trying to spot him in the trees but decided to continue to face the tree he was looking at before.
"B-because he's changed" stutters Tsuna. Being in a forest alone at night was bad enough (yeah it was inside Verde's lab, but you tell his brain that). Add in the full moon above and Kaito's voice trickery and it was rather scary. All that was needed for the scene to be complete was an owl or a wolf or something. "You know he's changed. It's unlike you to leave him alone for the whole day; I think you've only done that once or twice since I've met you. But I haven't seen you in the same room as him all day. You've been watching us though, I could feel it. You've been keeping an eye on him without being in his presence, and I reckon that's because you're scared of him. That's why you're out here thinking, right?"
Kaito still had to get used to what everyone else called the Vongola Hyper Intuition. He hated it personally: he of all people didn't want to be read like a book. He was proud of the fact that he was the most unreadable book in existence, or at least KID was. It put all of his hard work to shame since Tsuna could nearly always just see straight through him. When Tsuna had an objective, Kaito couldn't hide behind any of his masks. A normal Tsuna he could trick until the world ended, but this type of Tsuna… His hand twitched for his monocle.
"You must think yourself ever so brave then," remarks Kaito right back. "Spending the whole day with someone who scares you."
"Shinichi does scare me slightly, it's true, but then again, a lot of my friends scare me at times. However, I suppose calling it being scared isn't right. I'm more nervous around him maybe." Tsuna fiddles with the tree branch in front of him. "But you still haven't answered my question."
Kaito decides a change of tree is in order and carefully jumps from one to another until he's at Tsuna's left. He would still be able to see Tsuna's expression from here. "I've been keeping an eye to make sure you didn't harm him. Shinichi's been though a lot in the past week and I don't want you making it worse."
"Of course I wouldn't want to make it worse!" Tsuna shouts, shocked by Kaito's implications. "I don't know about you, but I'm starting to see you guys as family, no matter how far you try to distance yourselves away from us. I don't care whether you're the Moon or the End of the Universe, I still want you guys around, to be part of the family, so why would I want to hurt you?"
"I'm sure you never mean it intentionally, but you have a way of ripping emotional wounds open." Tsuna's face goes blank at this and Kaito lets a smirk fall onto his features, unseen as he is. "Or didn't you notice what you have done to the others all around you? Gokudera especially. Your Hyper Intuition is as sharp as a knife is, but far more dangerous. Sharper than any blade can be, it stabs the others right in the heart. Do you know what it's like, to have emotional barriers ripped down in seconds, to have your heart laid bare by force when you don't want it to be? You are dangerous Sawada Tsunayoshi, far more dangerous than Mukuro or Hibari."
"So you're scared in the same way I am." Tsuna confirms to himself, Kaito's attack on his Hyper Intuition proved it. "I may not have ever been on the end of my Hyper Intuition, nor on the end of Nono's, but if it's anything like what Shinichi's become then it's downright scary." Tsuna holds himself and shivers. "No man should be able to do what he does. Like when he knew it was me and not you this morning. He's done it so many times today and he's not even using his Flames.
Apparently, he can tell from my walk that I used to get bullied since I'm ready to run at any moment. He said he knows that I still fear being Dame-Tsuna infront of my family due to the way I both draw my shoulders in, yet try to stand firm and tall. He said that he could tell from the way that I stood around the others that I'm scared of losing them since that'll mean I'll be all alone and worthless again. According to the way I flinch yet raise my head whenever anyone called me Decimo, I both hate the name and love it since it's the bane of my existence yet my reason for living.
It's awe inspiring when you watch it, just like we did when he first used the technique, or when he used it against Dino's men… But to be on the receiving end of it, it's frightening. All I wanted was a little demonstration of what he had learnt so far and I asked him not to hold back since I wanted to know him better. But that's why we're scared right? Neither you nor I want that gaze to be turned towards us, scared of what he may find there."
"Did he have his ScalPen in his hand, or holding it in his pocket?" Tsuna nods. "Did he mumble something?" again another nod. "Star Recollection." Kaito mumbles to himself. Tsuna makes a questioning noise so Kaito answers. "A technique of his where he can recall anything he's seen before, especially when analysed with his Flame. He was remembering every time he had seen you and drawing conclusions from those memories. He didn't even need to open his eyes that way."
"Just watching it is frightening" admits Kaito. " We played this game in a hotel at breakfast. It was one of Shinichi's assignments but I decided to make it interesting. We guessed the occupations of people in the room whilst I made it into a magic show. I don't know whether he realised it, but he showed me all of the little hints he picked up on to find out what he needed. Now I know I can read people exceptionally well, but he was finding things that I never would have looked for before. And the more he experiences the more this ability will grow." Tsuna takes this in for a moment.
"But he's not as bad as you are" finishes Kaito. Tsuna really wishes he could see Kaito, see what expression the man had on his face-… He stops himself at that thought. The only reason he would want to see Kaito's face is so he could understand Kaito better, but he could only do that through his Hyper Intuition. Sure he could deduce lots of things from the voice, but it always worked best when he had the person in front of him… God Kaito was right! "Shinichi can only judge based upon the outside tells; twitches, bulging pockets, an unusual gait, unheard quavers in a voice. All outside tells, but you, your Intuition allows you much farther inside, and when used as a weapon it's terrifying." Tsuna had seen it, those flashes of fear, or open amazement in his friends every now and again during heartfelt talks. He'd always been able to tell when they weren't happy, or lying to him and they'd been shocked to find that out. "Don't you dare call Shinichi scary when you yourself are far worse."
"I'd agree with you, especially with your wording. You know the power words have and so are careful with your speech. I do use my Hyper Intuition as a weapon towards criminals. But I also use it to understand my family's needs and wants better. I use it as a tool to make sure everyone is happy and taken care of. It may be my job to make sure they are all well cared for, but I do it with pleasure, and would still do it without the title of Boss and Guardians looming over us. You've constantly said when I use it as a weapon, and you're scared that one day I'll turn it towards you."
"I think you did that this morning. If Shinichi hadn't found his resolve, I would have intervened" He wasn't going to let this gang of… mafia criminals hurt Shinichi more than the boy already was. These people known as the Vongola 10th generation may seem nice, but anyway you see it they are still becoming Mafioso. Sure he knew of Tsuna's true intentions, but the boy was still surrounded by the Mafia, what was there to stop him turning?
"You-you listened to that?" gasps Tsuna. He had thought that it was a private moment between them, apparently not.
"Yes, I did. I decided to leave him in your care for the day since I trusted you to look after him and you were after a bonding session. But it was a close call. Like I said, you have a way of opening up wounds, and Shinichi and family is a rather large wound. Do you know how many times he's had the words 'you're not alone' stuffed into his face?" Conan had often complained about it to KID during their midnight interludes. Those words… sounded so much like a promise. No one who had said those words had been able to keep the promise. No one except him. He alone had been the only one so far to truly be able to stay by Shinichi's side, for they were different yet the same, complimentary yet opposite.
"But how many times has someone said it to you?" asks Tsuna to the trees. He still didn't have a clue where Kaito was since he kept on throwing his voice around the botanical garden.
If Kaito didn't have a poker face on before, he certainly had one on now. "Me, I know that I am not alone. I've had lots of help. International Phantom Thief 1412 was more than one person; I had team members help me, back me up. I had constant support from 2 people very dear to me, even before Tantei-kun came into my life. Unlike Tantei-kun, I brought this onto my own shoulders by placing the mantle on them and the monocle onto my face" It was there already, physically. He always felt calmer with it on. Did it matter that this was Tsuna he was talking to, who knew the man behind the monocle, no, but he still wanted its comfort.
How many times had it been said to him? Never, since those who were close enough to be able to offer proper comfort and safety already knew that he knew. Kaito knew the importance of words, but he also knew how to hear those words that were left unspoken.
"You say that, but your support team is tiny, one person if I'm reading you correctly. But then again, your cast of players has always been smaller, hasn't it? Your lifestyle has forced you to keep your circle small, having thievery run in the Family. But you yourself are not like that. Kaito is a person who likes being around people, yet KID needs to keep them as far away as possible. Rather conflicting. That's why you're a Magician Thief. It's always you and the audience, right? Thousands of fans calling your name, police to tease, a collection of Genius Detectives chasing you, but there's always that gap. How Shinichi crossed it is truly a miracle, or you reaching out for help."
Hadn't he made it clear earlier that he doesn't being like being read like a book. The only person he allowed even close to reading him was Shinichi. How dare Tsuna just come in like this!
"We're going to cross it."
The statement rang out into the night, bouncing off the leaves of the tree to redirect themselves towards Kaito. There was no getting away from it. There was no denying the determination. Unlike Shinichi, Kaito had fought Tsuna in this Hyper Dying Will mode. He'd seen the Flames bath his fists, and he's seen the Flames burn alive in his eyes. He knew this voice, it was similar. It wasn't until he'd seen this HDW Mode for himself that Kaito realised what all of the others had meant by Boss Mode.
To be blunt, it shocked Kaito.
"That's Boss for you. I'd give up if I were you. Partner's made his choice, so are you going to respect it, or just run away?" That was Hunter, chiding him for his actions. "It's exactly like Boss said to Partner, he knows your secret, that already makes him a part of a very small circle. If he was going to do something about it, he'd have had the perfect chance, surrounded by Mafia Bosses on New Year's with you standing practically in front of him. Yet he didn't. Like you wished, he kept his mouth shut. He's got enough stress going on as it is, yet he still remembers all the details of our little charade we wish to play. He's never slipped up once."
"He's trying so hard. Let Boss in"
"This line you and Shinichi have drawn around yourselves, I'm going to cross it and erase it. I can't say I understand why that line is there, but I've had enough of it being you and us. It should be WE. You may see my Hyper Intuition as a weapon, but I see it as a gift. I am your Sky because I use it to see through the deceit you've wrapped around yourself and actually talk to the man inside that's desperate for attention and care. I'm not going to tell you that you are no longer alone for you've never been alone. But I will say that you're free here."
Kaito's blue eyes had narrowed at first since what Tsuna had said sounded kind of like a threat. Of course they had stuck together! They stepped into the Mafia for fucks sake. What else where they going to do. Their relationship with organised crime wasn't exactly sugar and rainbows. At any other time both would have been as far away as possible. Yet fate had drawn them together like this, so what else was there to do but take the offering Lady Luck had placed into his hands?
But what Tsuna had said was true, striking him down to the core. His life was one big lie. He had never meant it to be, but becoming KID had changed everything. He even found himself wondering some days (especially when Hakuba had been extra insistent at school) whether he was even Kaito anymore, or just KID in disguise as a High Schooler. Free. It was not a word Kaito would use to describe himself. He was bound in self-made shackles after all. Sure he was working hard to take these off, to remove the chains binding him, but to hear someone tell him he was free was preposterous.
"I'm not free." Kaito mumbles under his breath. Yet Tsuna seemed to catch it and turned in his direction. Oops, he'd forgotten to throw his voice.
"But one day you're going to be. And until the day I and my family make that a reality, I'm going to provide you with an environment where you can pretend it can be." With everything that had been going on around him, Tsuna had forgotten about the predicament these two were in. But they never had, not for one second. They were busy making public names for themselves, painting themselves as bigger and bigger targets and it was about time that Tsuna started to make good on his promise. Or at least remind them that he no longer forgot.
Lies. All of it was. He'd never be free. Kaito rubs a hand over the two shackles he bore: the Monocle and the Vongola Moon Ring. Free would be Aoko's life, free would be a life with his Father still alive. He wasn't going to be free until the day he died.
"But you love these shackles too much to remove them." Damn, now even KID was lecturing him. "If you didn't I would have been long gone and Hunter wouldn't even be out."
"Lie to the world around you Kaito, lie and deceive until that cocoon is as tight as woven steel. Make a safe home Kaito, for we'll be there patching any holes left, filling the inside with warmth and love. Create a safe home for all of us Kaito, I know you won't regret it." Tsuna's voice was soft yet strained, as if he were pleading with Kaito.
"Heh, make your mind up will you? First you tell me to drop the lies and now you're telling me to use them." Kaito stands up and changes trees once again, staying up high, warmed by the light of the moon.
"No matter how many layers you build up around yourself, even when they pile so high that even you don't know what's lies and truth, I'll be there, cutting through them all and pulling you out. You haven't grasped your position here, have you? Deceive Kaito, that's the key word in your Guardian Vow isn't it. Deceive: to lie, to fool everyone else. Not to deceive us, but those that would harm who you call family. Lying is who you have been for a very long time and I'm not going to tell you to change who you fundamentally are. So deceive Snake, Kaito. Make him think you're weak, that you've given up, that you are vulnerable, lying down in defeat, for when he strikes we'll be right there, pulling you back up and pushing you forwards for the final strike. He won't know what's hit him. None of them will for they will have been deceived."
Kaito wondered what thoughts went through Shinichi's head whilst he was on the receiving end of this magical all-seeing power Tsuna had. Was it anything like his? Thinking how much he hated this, yet having a niggling sensation in his head that he should just give in and accept Tsuna's out stretched hand. Although he reckoned that Shinichi didn't have actual voices in his head telling him to give in. Kaito knew he should be worried about these voices in his head, but to be honest he didn't really care. If he was insane then this is how he wanted to remain. Sanity was for boring people anyway.
Tsuna jumps when Kaito lands in front of him. The light glints off his monocle that is still in place. Tsuna took that as a good sign. Kaito had been tree hopping for a while now, a defensive gesture on the part of the thief, and Tsuna didn't want Kaito to have to use any defensive measures at all. "I'm going to build a house in a Zoo's Bar in the middle of the City. If you promise to smack the Animals that try to gain entrance and to stop a rain of Alcohol, then I think I might be able to keep City life from entering our house too. In fact, I think I can even make it into a Sanctuary."
Tsuna stares on in shock for a moment, wondering what on earth Kaito is gibbering on about. It takes another glint of the monocle to remind him that he is technically talking to KID too, the man who loved riddles. After thinking it through a few times, checking that he's gotten the correct meaning he looks back at Kaito.
"A house in a bar, in a zoo, in a city, what a nice place for Vongola Decimo to live in" He needed to make sure. Tsuna needed to know whether he had gotten the correct meaning of Sanctuary. Shinichi had known, so did Kaito?
"Sorry, I won't allow Vongola Decimo in. I'd have to kill him first." Kaito smiles a KID like smile, and Tsuna really hopes that it wasn't a threat. He knew Shinichi's views on killing, but he had no clue what Kaito's were. He didn't know whether the thief would kill to protect what he saw as his. Tsuna sure as hell hoped that Kaito was being metaphorical still.
So covering up the hidden worry, Tsuna pouts. "Geez, you two have been reading my diary!"
Kaito clicks and a small blue book is revealed from a cloud of smoke. "Oh, you mean this one? Let's have a look shall we? Hmm… " Dear Diary, I think I've been hit on the head once too many times, for today a baby arrived at my doorstep and told me it was here to train me to be a Mafia Boss. At first I thought it was a joke. But now I think it's a joke that some bullies have set up. Why? Because there were bullets involved. I didn't think my worthlessness had affected someone in a gang, but it's entirely possible that I tripped over a gang member or something and this is their weird revenge. Either that or I'm hallucinating. Either way this baby freaks me out. I really hope it doesn't stay. I could never like this baby. Ever."
"Oi! Give that back. I never meant it literally! Ah, what if Reborn sees it?" Shouts Tsuna, running over to grab the book out of Kaito's teasing hands.
"Oh I wouldn't worry about that. He already has, see how he corrected your spelling on Hallucinating?" Kaito grins and even shows Tsuna the correction, done in a Leon-green ink pen. Tsuna freezes and goes numb. Laughing at the shock of the poor boy, Kaito places the book in frozen hands and walks off.
"You know I'd never turn it on you, right?"
Kaito stops walking, retraces his steps back around a new corner. "Shouldn't you be in bed resting? Or like drinking something Verde gave you to ease the stress on your eyes?"
"I respect you too much to use it on you. There's only ever one question I'd ever use it on you for."
"What would that be?" Kaito wanted to ask, but he really didn't want to know.
"Do you keep me around because of my connection to Pandora? It is the only reason you haven't dropped me like a toy you've gotten bored with?" Is the question Shinichi wanted answered. But he didn't want the answer to that question. Even if it was a lie, he wanted to hope that their relationship, even if it started out as one of using and being used, had grown and become something more, something solid. He wanted to hope that they had actually become friends due to who they were rather than what use one could be to the other. A detective was good at finding criminals after all, and a thief was good at infiltrating places and finding hidden information. He hoped that their relationship was built upon a foundation of removed masks and shared experiences, of mutual respect of each other's skills. All of this had been brought up by Tsuna's questions of us and them and what side of the line Shinichi was on.
So no matter how much he wanted to turn his Flame up high, to open his eyes and look at the man before him, he didn't. Instead he released a yawn before holding out his hand. "C'mon, I want to go to sleep"
Kaito knew that Shinichi could make his own way back, but instead of questioning it, he grabbed the hand, placed a bounce in his step and lead the way.
This place was so confusing!
First they come at her with lies, then crying children, then a bazooka, then some joke about time traveling, then a plane trip in a private jet. After that she was escorted by men in Black suits that just screamed Mafia Killers. Once she arrived she was greeted by smiling faces and seemingly innocent Young Adults, who she had met at the Christmas party. But walk down the halls and suddenly the place was alive with Mafioso like ants. They sit her in a fresh and sparkling lab with two smiling boys covered in oil stains and grease, again far too innocent looking to be involved in this kind of thing.
Were they tying the carrot and stick treatment? Making her feel safe before reminding her of where she really was? This atmosphere was nothing like her lab at the Black Organisation's headquarters. They were nothing more than children running this place! Sure they were around her age, but still, she would have thought they'd never even seen a gun before. But then she'd catch the tail of a conversation between these teens about a mission, punishments for crimes, protection fees and all of the other Mafia shit that happened. Haibara wasn't stupid, but it was clear things ran differently here than any other Mafia Family or organised crime unit. Were they here for fun or something?
She couldn't complain about the laboratory though. It had everything she would have needed and more. From the way everything was wrapped it was clear it had just been sterilised. By how stiff the buttons and knobs were, it was clear all of this was brand new, just for her. And it was clear that everything was indeed for her since the counters were suited to her height and step ladders around the place allowed access to shelves and cupboards. All the pieces of machinery and equipment were within her reach. No one else would need the counter tops to be under a metre high.
They must really want their Boss back.
She was interested in meeting this Boss for real, without the cover stories. They had made a mistake in bringing her to their headquarters. If they hadn't then her suspicions about what these children were doing would have remains as suspicions. But instead it was clear to her that they were in the Mafia. People spoke about it freely down the hallways! If the police could get one spy into this place they'd be busted in an instant.
Had KID brought Shinichi into this? The thief had already corrupted Shinichi, making Conan stay out late after heists for talks, with no handcuffs in sight. So maybe the thief had dragged him into this too. That was one of the few plausible reasons for Shinichi being here in the Mafia. She eyed everyone with suspicion, wondering how many people knew exactly who she was. How many people walked into her Lab and saw Shiho, or saw Sherry, rather than seeing Haibara?
"Haha, there's nothing to be worried about, chibi." laughs the tall boy before her, the one who had picked her up, Yamamoto Takeshi. "We've kept Shinichi's secret, we're not going to tell yours to anyone either. I keep telling you we're the good guys"
Yes they had kept telling her that, yet it sounded so preposterous that she had immediately filed it as a lie. A group of late teens attempting to change the Mafia? Bullshit. She may look like a child but she was not and wasn't going to swallow any story that sounded like a fairy-tale. The next thing she'd know there would be Princes involved. Their Princess was already stuck in the tower with their Boss missing like this.
This though, this chemical before her was certainly an interesting one. She had never seen it before. It was a puzzle waiting to be unlocked, taunting her. And due to the incompetent fools she'd been left with, she was having to do all of the work. It seemed that this 'Vongola' as they called themselves, didn't deal with biology nor chemistry unless it was related to sleep gasses, street drugs or what bone had just been broken. Which she supposed should have been a relief. It meant that there was one less Criminal gang out there creating something harmful using science just like she had done previously.
But at the moment, it actually left her running around her lab, keeping an eye on lots of little reactions in drugs. The only people she had had contact with were those she had already met at the Christmas Party. It seemed that orders had been given for her to be left alone, for which she was grateful. This Yamamoto guy had a remarkably steady hand with no shaking what so ever. So she set him to work dropping set amounts of chemicals into different vials using a pipette. This other one, one with a foul attitude that grated on her nerves, a Gokudera Hayato, she had set to taking notes down for her. He was to write down whatever she said, repeat things back if she needed it, and record all of the results. He had been the only one able to spell the chemical names correctly, and even begin to understand what she was saying and why she wanted certain things done. Any questions Yamamoto or the others had wanted to ask her were quickly stopped with a "Just shut up and let her get on." from this man. They seemed to look to him for leadership. But it seemed to her that they didn't follow him because he scared them, quite the opposite in fact.
"We're stopping." she announces suddenly and everyone looks up at her in surprise.
"Now see here wench!" shouts Gokudera, hands lifting from the keyboard before he steps threateningly towards her. "You said that you'd find out what this was so we'd finally have a lead to finding Juudaime. You can't just suddenly up and decide to quit on us!"
She lifts a delicate eyebrow. "Who said anything about quitting? I said stopping as in to pause or take a break, or don't you understand that much? Oh, but I can carry on if you wish and your friend over there can keep letting his eyes droop. Eventually he'll fall asleep on the spot and pour the wrong amount of liquid into the wrong vial and then I'll lose all of my cultures and you'll lose your only connection to this Juudaime of yours." She smiles sweetly throughout her speech, voice light if slightly snide. "Of course I can continue working and read the numbers wrong or miss the fizzing of the chemicals I have going and label the chemical makeup of this tranquiliser wrong. It's all fine because I'll just keep on working and getting things wrong and your Juudaime will get farther and farther out of your reach. But that's okay because when we do find his corpse, you can tell him that we didn't even stop for a moment to sleep off the jetlag. Won't he be so proud of you then?" Still smiling sweetly like the little girl she seems to be, she pats Gokudera's arm from where the man has frozen up before spinning around on dainty feet and walking out of the laboratory. "Mind telling me where I'll be sleeping, somewhere as close to the lab as possible please." She may be their prisoner, but she still held all of the cards, so she was going to get what she damn well pleased. They had nothing to counter with.
She's rather pleased when they actually drag her back through the laboratory to a room roughly on the middle of the left wall. This door was all that separated her living quarters from her lab, which was something she liked. Not only could she hear if something went wrong with one of the experiments, but she had the chemistry lab close by to defend herself with. Nearly everything in that room could be used as a weapon.
As she laid in bed, her thoughts ran over this chemical compound. There was something weird about it. A substance she had never seen before. She was still trying to figure out what it was. But as sleep pulled at her eyes- one of the limitations of this body, not that she minded- she made one last check that her emergency backpack was under the bed and that her gun was under the pillow.
She wasn't taking any chances.
"Tsunayoshi, I need to borrow the Vongola Sky Lion for a while, is that possible?" asks Verde. This had been earlier in the day, not too long after breakfast and his talk with Shinichi.
"Hmm, Natsu? Well sure." Wow, this was an improvement, Verde had actually asked for something. Tsuna ignored the fact that Natsu needed permission from Tsuna to come out, and that without the Lion randomly roaming the lab, Verde had no chance to capture the lion. So he'd had to have asked. Nope, Tsuna was ignoring all of that and putting a point down on his mental list of accomplishments.
Rubbing a finger over the ring on his finger, Tsuna smiles tenderly down at it before feeding Flames to the lion. Finally freed and with enough energy to materialise, Natsu lets out a small yawn and stretches. "Natsu, do you feel okay with going with Verde and helping him with his research. If you don't then tell me, okay?" The lion nods. Of course he was fine with it, he was a reflection of Tsuna's heart after all.
"Finally making the box weapons then Verde?" asks Tsuna as the lion goes over to rub its cheek against Verde's hip.
"Yes I am. I've decided to deviate from the norm that Innocenti had created." Verde turns around and Tsuna notices that Verde's got his Mad Scientist look on. There was that kid-in-a-candy-store tone to his voice too. Tsuna chuckles and softly shakes his head. Never having been academically minded he never got how Verde could be like this over science of all things, but if that's what made Verde tick then who was he to deny the Arcobaleno? "In effect, I'm making my own strain of Box Weapons. I'm using his work as a base and improving and changing the design to suit my own whims. I'm sure that the result is to be exceptional. After all I have something that Innocenti never even knew about."
Tsuna didn't get what Verde was talking about. Of course Verde had things Innocenti didn't have otherwise it wouldn't have been classed as over technology then but not now. However he had a feeling that this wasn't what Verde was on about. Oh well, he'd just have to wait and see what the Mad Professor created. In the meantime, he had to go to the kitchens and find a snack for him and Shinichi.
Who knew an emotional heart spillage could be so draining?
I spent all of Monday deciding on what Box weapons to give the pair and I need a little longer to finalise attacks and naming them and such.
Still not sure how I feel about Kaito and Tsuna's fight. It started off as Tsuna wanting to know why Shinichi and Kaito were so close and telling them off for not opening up to the rest of them. But as you can see, I lost that train of thought from the start. But, meh, apparently I was in the mood for some drama…
See you all next week!
Phantom Hitman 1412
First Published 12 September 2012