Before the Bridge Arc

"Sorry Shamal," Tsuna said with a soft smile.

Shamal scowled as he wrapped a bandage around Tsuna's arm, glowering harder at the deep scratches. When had Sawada Tsunayoshi had become an exception to Shamal's No Males rule?

Probably, after the third time Hayato had dragged Tsuna into the nurse office and forced Shamal to treat the small brunet. After the first time Shamal caught even more injuries that Tsuna had and hadn't come to see him about them. After that one day where Tsuna come in soaked to the bone and sprain ankle that he hobbled on before Reborn caught wind and healed Tsuna's ankle himself.

(And wasn't that a doozy? Reborn, willingly, healing. If that wasn't a sign, Shamal didn't know what was.)

"Are you going to tell me who hurt you this time?" Shamal asked, already knowing the answer.

"Is there a point?" Tsuna asked quietly. "Nothing can be done about it."

And wasn't the frustrating part? Shamal wasn't one for the legal system, but any reports about bullying on 'Dame-Tsuna' fell to deaf ears. Shamal was an assassin. If he really wanted to, he could simply… get rid of the problem. Except he couldn't even do that as currently the number of people who actively went out of their way to hurt Tsunayoshi was over 90% of the school population.

There weren't enough places in Namimori to hide that many bodies.

(Perhaps poison? All Shamal needed was to get Tsuna and his friends to not come to school day -something Reborn would probably help with- and the cafeteria could have… a tragic mixup.)

When did Shamal even begin to care?

"Take better care of yourself," he ordered sharply.

Tsuna just smile at him. "Okay."

Empty promises! Shamal already knew he would be seeing Tsunayoshi sooner than later. He grit his teeth and acknowledged that there was nothing he could. This strange town that hurt this small brunet in every way possible and Tsunayoshi just… accepted it all with a smile.

Goddamn Namimori.

What was with this town?!


Shamal… was one of the characters I manage to introduce into the storyline… and then forgot about him. To be fair, there are so many characters in KHR and trying to give them all a small slice of spotlight is why my chapters turn out so long. This was one of the few scenes I wanted to write with him.